"Well, that's concerning. Demon sorcerers might be a thing. Demons coming to Elsewhere like you might happen as well."

"Well, that'd be a fucking treat. Maybe I could take it alive, then I could teach you guys witchcraft."

"How does that work? Witchcraft that is."

(Henry tenses a bit.)

"You harness demonic energy and bend it to your whim, short answer. Relevantly, you have to start by channeling energy from an actual demon before you can start using the demonic energy within your own soul."

He pauses.

"...Although, if you guys don't have demons... you might not have demonic energy within your souls. Which would be a problem when trying to learn witchcraft."

"I figured if we had demonic energy someone would've figured that out by now."

"Shouldn't you leave questions about witchcraft for later? Stick to the order."

"It's still information-gathering, but we can move on to undead."

"Undead. They're what happens when too much death energy accumulates in one place, and the main reason why graveyards shouldn't exist. Human remains, or sometimes animal remains if everything's sufficiently fucked, return to a grotesque parody of life, intent on slaughtering anything that lives. They can also be deliberately raised by a necromancer, witch, or other mage, in which case they're under that mage's direct control until they die. They don't think; there have been cases of 'intelligent' undead, but they're actually just human souls bound torturously to this plane by demonic magic, and should not be counted."

"We have graveyards, but I never heard the dead raising spontaneously like that," Felix comments, "I have no idea if Elsewhere would catch them, but I make a note." He does.

"Are they more or less dangerous than demons?"

Ari turns his hand from side to side. "Depends on what kind. Overall there are fewer really powerful kinds of undead than demons, though. And they don't have anything like the Prime Evils behind them."

"Do they have weakness?"

"Holy power. I can't personally channel it, doesn't mix well with witchcraft, but angels can, and paladins, and some of the better priests. It heals humans and burns the undead. Failing that, you can hit them with a stick until they stop moving."

There is a pause where the four consider the religious, spiritual and philosophical implications of that answer. "Okay... Any faith works or just the Council of Zakarum belonged to?" Felix recovers the fastest.

"I mean, holy power doesn't come from the religion, that's not what I'm saying. It's like witchcraft - you channel the angelic energy from your soul. The reason Zakarumites can channel that energy effectively is because Zakarum as a religion is built around it, not the other way around. Not that they'd agree with me, of course. But the historical record backs me up."

"Aw. I was so hopeful that we would be able to use our near-priesthood status to repeal the hordes of darkness."

"Aw. Don't worry, hitting them with sticks still works fine."

Thomas grins. "Great! I have been low-key wishing for an excuse to create a badass magical hammer."

"Now that is an innovation we are way ahead of you on. Magical weapons are super easy to make, and Uncle Deckard and I can make some really nice ones with Horadric runecrafting if you want something better."

Well, it's Thomas' turn to hug Ari. He then give Ari a comically noisy kiss.

Eee.

"Anything else you wanted to ask about?"

"I think that's good for this round if you are tired. I might want to brainstorm questions and test in a more organized manner," Felix says tapping his pencil to the notebook.

"I'm not tired per se, but I do kind of want to learn some more magic."

"Fair enough. And far more exciting. I will update Fernando then."