You’ve served in this army well and always done your job regardless of the shitty situations you’ve been in. You might not like a lot of it, but you’ve never complained. Lately you’ve been on edge about a possible all out assault of some big ass demon army that’s going to attack any day now, and playing is one of the few pleasures you have to put your mind at ease.

Perhaps it’s a combination of this and a combination of this unwanted and unnecessary scolding that causes you to speak out of turn.

“With all due respect ma’am, I am fully prepared to battle at a moment’s notice and so are those under my direct command. But even soldiers need to rest, if only for a minute.”

The woman looks very surprised you didn’t comply with her demand to see your superior officer.

“…you DARE speak out of turn like that to me? I’ll see you sent to the Nuro Front for that sort of insubordination! Then we’d see just how battle ready you are! How would you like that?”
“I wouldn’t like it at all. I barely survived the first time.” You say trying not to express any fear.
“…What? What are you talking about? First time?”

Now you’re a little surprised she doesn’t know who you are considering how some of the high ups exaggerated about how you managed to survive. You explain yourself briefly and she doesn’t quite believe you at first, a couple of your troops hiding nearby at least back up your claims before slinking off.

“That was YOU? What the hell are you doing here? You should be leading from the front not languishing in some fort that barely sees battle!”
“Doesn’t see battle? We suffered a small demon raid last week! We see plenty of battle!”
“What I mean is, somebody of your obvious combat and survival skills should be assigned on the front lines where you can do more good. Normally I don’t question Zalan command, but this is really an oversight on their part.”
“Well maybe they know better than the both of us, besides this assignment isn’t a walk in the fairy fields. I think we’ll be suffering a grand scale attack any day now.”
“Doubt it. Velzix has been having a hard time keeping his unruly mob together. If it wasn’t for a lot of the sycophantic Tulan citizens, he’d probably be confined to pure defense, though something will have to be done soon, reports say he’s attempting to gate in more demons everyday. Not to mention that supposedly civilized demons from other nations are starting to display their true colors and flock to his banner. Like I always said the only good demon is a dead one!”

This causes you to smile a bit and she very faintly smiles back when she sees that you feel the same way. This smile disappears quickly though as she continues her rant.

“I wish I wasn’t assigned to the Tulan Border though. I’d rather be taking Nuro back. THAT’S the more dangerous threat. The demons will kill themselves with their own chaotic and violent natures, but the undead…they’ve almost taken over the world before just because of one bastard that lead them. I never thought I’d see a serious threat like this in my lifetime, especially not…”

The female captain at this point stops. She even looks away from you as if whatever she was going to say was just too much even for her. She seems to be a lot more battle hardened than you and probably ten times braver. You can’t imagine what horror she experienced that would be worse than your own, but you don’t find out since she changes the subject.

“…Bah! Maybe you’re right; a soldier does need to keep their mind occupied on other things every now and then. We aren’t undead after all. So what’s with the lute? You also a bard or something?” she laughs.
“No, I think those dreams are long gone, but my playing seems to boost spirits around here a little, which can only be a good thing in this situation.”
“Hm. My mother was elven and she used to sing this song to me and my…brother when we were very young. It was very smooth and calming. Beautiful melody.”
“Yeah, most elven music is like that. When I was assigned in Retlad I learned a few elven songs from a few of the citizens there, you wouldn’t happen to know the song would you?”

She tells you the name of the song and you know it immediately. One of the first new songs you learned while stationed in Retlad actually. This seems cause her to momentarily revert to a less stand offish behavior. You’re about to play it for her, but then a messenger comes running up handing her a note. She reads it and she’s all business again.

“Alright men! We’re moving out!” she shouts and leaves without saying another word to you. You didn’t even learn her name.

Perhaps it’s just as well; you’ll most likely never meet again due to one of you dying on the battlefield. You go back to doing what you were doing.

Two years pass…

Three years since the Nuro Incident and this struggle still continues.

You’re still stationed Fort Virtue and you’ve repelled more demon attacks than you would care to count. Velzix has finally gotten his shit together completely. A unified demonic front is in full swing here and its taking its toll. Once again your skills have come in very handy in defense. You are certainly known as a demon slayer, but you still don’t feel like a hero of any kind. You’re just trying to do your job and survive. You save lives when you can, but you know ultimately it’s a futile task as death seems to be everywhere nowadays.

As bad as it is on the demon front, its nothing compared to what’ve you’ve heard on the undead front. The Necromancer has finally broken out from Nuro, and successfully attacked the Kingdom of Brot. Several undead giants demolished the area. You’ve never even seen a living giant and they sound intimidating. You can’t even imagine an undead one. The power to raise one, let alone several is sort of scary. The Grand Alliance army didn’t get there in time to stop him and as usual they were repelled when they arrived.

You worry about the Grand Alliance failing to stop the undead horde. You hope it doesn’t get any closer to the Zalan Empire where your family might be in danger.

Sometimes you worry so much that you can’t sleep, not that you do much of that nowadays anyway. Normally you play to keep your mind at ease, but tonight you go to the archery range to keep yourself focused.

For a long time you’re by yourself, but suddenly you feel a creeping suspicion someone is watching you…

You turn around with your bow and see a pale man. He holds up his hands.

“Hey now! Don’t shoot! Sorry for creeping around like that. Professional habit.” He says.
“What? Who are you?” you demand.
“Warnov. Zalan Intelligence.”
“You’re a spy?”
“Well I suppose you could put it that way. I was here to give some info to your Captain Eckard, and I also wanted to take a look around the fort. Didn’t think anyone would be on the range though. Nice shooting, I know who you are and heard about your marksmanship with a bow. You’re certainly doing your part with the demons around here.”

Despite the fact that you’re talking to a spy, you feel the need to vent your feelings.

“Yeah, well I hope the Grand Alliance starts doing its part. I mean what the fuck are they doing? Weren’t they created to put a stop to all this shit? I mean am I supposed to worry every day if that undead horde is going to get closer to the Zalan Empire where it can threaten my family?”

Warnov doesn’t look offended by your words, if anything he looks intrigued.

“Well, I can understand why you’re venting. Trust me I sympathize. But as part of intel, I can tell you its not that easy…there were a lot of surprises that weren’t accounted for. We’re doing our best to rectify this situation by gathering as much info as possible. In fact, you could help us…”
“Excuse me? How?”

Warnov looks around and gets closer before speaking.

“Look, as I said, I know all about you and your skills, why you joined, all of it. I know you don’t much care for some of the propaganda made about some of your exploits. But it’s important to realize that deeds like yours must be blown up a little to give common people hope that ultimately good will win the day. You may not consider yourself a hero of any kind, but your actions aren’t without some of those qualities. You obviously care very much about your family, and I’ve heard how you try to keep the people under your command alive. Sound like heroic qualities to me. Perhaps they’re on a smaller scale, but they’re there. I’m betting that there’s a BIGGER hero in there somewhere, just itching to get out. You think the Grand Alliance isn’t doing a good job? Perhaps we can arrange something for you to be transferred into it, or maybe you’d like to take an even more direct approach.”
“What do you mean?”

Warnov suddenly backs away.

“Before we go any further. I need to know are you willing to take up the mantle of being a hero. Because if you aren’t, then we have nothing more to discuss. I shall require an answer now.”
> You accept the offer
You have to admit, the idea has crossed your mind a bit. A small part of you does wonder about embracing the whole hero image and deliberately doing grand deeds that go beyond the call of your duty. You suppose that you’d at least really feel like one if you did that.

“Okay Mr. Warnov. I’ll do it.” You exclaim.
“You sure?”
“Not really, but if I’m already in the shit, I might as well go all the way with it. What do I do next?”

Warnov looks around again to see if anyone is about before answering.

“Well just take a deep breath, relax and uh… brace yourself!”
“Huh?”

Before you can react Warnov moves faster than you’ve ever seen anything move. In fact you don’t really see him move at all before he’s biting your neck! He puts his other hand over your mouth so you can’t yell out and easily knocks your hand away from feebly attempting to draw a weapon.

You fall into unconsciousness as your blood is drained from you at a rapid rate. Death soon follows…

A few minutes later you wake up outside the fort.

“Ah you’re up. Sorry about surprising you like that, but I had to work quickly. Someone else could’ve popped up and that would’ve gotten complicated…”

You quickly check your neck which is completely healed now, but you know what’s just occurred! You feel a cold numbness throughout your body and you freak out.

“I’M DEAD! I’M FUCKIN DEAD! And you’re a vampire!”
“Shhhh! Keep your voice down! Yeah, you figured it out. Nice detective work, now let’s get down to this hero business. Though we should really get to Rostov’s and talk about all this.”
“I’m…I’m dead! I’m one of you! I don’t want to be an undead thrall for the Necromancer Lord!”
“What? No, no, no, we’re not… look I’ll explain later, let’s just…”

You pull away from Warnov when he tries to help you up. You feel your reflexes are much quicker. This temporary curiousity in your new found abilities allows Warnov to calm you down.

“WAIT! Just stop! (Sigh) Okay look I’ll try to give you the condensed version right now. We vampires aren’t on the side of the Necromancer Lord. If anything he’s fucking things up for us. We like to keep a balanced order as it were. The last time we sided with some megalomaniacal necromancer it nearly resulted in our extinction. Never again. In fact we’ve been manipulating shit for centuries just to make sure something like this didn’t happen. Somebody really fucked up in the observation department on this one!”

Warnov goes on to explain that his superior, Lord Rostov will be able to explain better and in more detail, but that you have to come with him now.
> You go with Warnov
While this is all a lot to take in, you manage to calm down.

“Okay. Okay. I’m calm, but…man this is a lot of shit.” You reply.
“Heh, well you did say you might as well go with it! Don’t worry; it’ll all be second nature soon. Okay let’s go see Lord Rostov.”

Warnov pulls out a black cube and teleports you to what seems to be the inside of a castle.

“Alright, YOU stay right here in the foyer! Don’t go wandering around, I’m serious! You’re not quite in the fold yet, I have to go straighten this out and explain all this to Lord Rostov. I’ll be back to come get you later. Everything will be explained in full detail soon.”

Not wishing to piss off anyone and being completely out of your element you stay put. The foyer has enough to keep you occupied though, you begin examining many of the paintings and statues to pass the time.

Soon, Warnov returns with a very regal looking vampire. You can only assume that this is Lord Rostov.

“Welcome, I’m sure you have ask many questions for me as I have for you, so we’ll just get right to it. We’ll walk and talk on the way to the throne room. Don’t worry about anyone listening. There are no secrets here.” Lord Rostov says.
“Okay…I…”
“BUT! Remember to address me as Lord Rostov if you are going to address me by name.” Lord Rostov adds with authority.

You take notice and obey, though Lord Rostov has such a commanding presence that you would be hard pressed not to obey him.

Your questions are typical for someone brought into the fold. Rostov goes on about how his kind have been manipulating the mortal world for centuries just like Warnov said before. Several of the known governments have at least one vamp keeping an eye on things. Apparently many high ranking political types in your own Zalan Empire are vampires! The Grand Alliance is even a tool of the vampires.

While Lord Rostov goes on about this fascinating history lesson, you look at some of his “court” as you walk through his castle. Some of them are more “mortal looking” than others. Some look down right hideous. You always thought vampires were supposed to be ultra attractive, but you can see that isn’t necessarily the case. When you get to his throne room Lord Rostov stops and turns to you.

“So I hear you want to be a real hero eh? Well this is the place where they’re made.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why do you think most heroes are always storming dungeons and doing impossible things? They don’t get those abilities without some help. The supernatural skill comes into play and dungeons aren’t exactly beacons of light!” Lord Rostov laughs.

“Y…you mean ALL the heroes in the world are vampires?!”
“Hah! I wish that was the case. No, there are many regular mortal heroes that do their part I suppose, but if you want the really legendary ones that have done impossible deeds, well chances are there was a vampire involved. Sadly we haven’t been too much more successful than the mortals in the heroics department lately.”
“What’s been going on exactly?”
“That little annoying necromancer lord, or whatever he thinks he is, has been proving to be a lot cleverer than what was previously believed. His armies have been growing in strength and I’m sure you know about the undead giant business and crushing the Brot Kingdom. What isn’t commonly known is how he accomplished it. He had help from one of our kind. A loathsome outcast known as the Ghoul King. (Sigh) Should’ve killed him long ago really, but…bah, it’s a long story. We’ll deal with him when the time comes. What’s more alarming is that we’ve sent assassins…or heroes to kill the necromancer lord and his bitch and he’s somehow managed to kill all of them. I mean I can somewhat understand them being killed by that brutish demon tyrant Velzix, but a fucking necromancer? He’s a fucking mortal! And from what we know of him, he wasn’t even that good of a wizard to begin with!”

Suddenly Lord Rostov flies into a rage, yelling and punches a hole into the solid brick wall. Many of his court, as well as you and Warnov back away. He then stops and composes himself.

“My apologies to you all. It’s been a trying time with upstart mortals and traitors and other annoyances. And to you, the newest member of our fold.”
“Uh, no need to apologize to me Lord Rostov. It’s your home after all” You say which causes him to smile.
“Carefully chosen words. Not overly sycophantic, yet still displaying the right subservient mindset. You should fit in very well here.”
“But I meant it…”
“Ha ha! And honest too! You’re more interesting than how Warnov described you. I have heard that you were one of those minor mortal heroes I was talking about earlier, but more interesting to me, is apparently you have talent in the musical field?”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Well, play something for me! All of us!”
“What did you want to hear?”
“Surprise me, if you’re able!”

Lord Rostov sits on his throne while his court whispers among themselves and then go quiet waiting for you to play. You pull out your lute and try to think of a song that they might like. You think of an old song that once was very popular among the aristocracy. Seems like a perfect crowd…

You begin to concentrate on the music and nothing but the music. You play as if your life was in danger, which you’re somewhat certain that it isn’t, but it doesn’t hurt to play your best right now.

Your new supernatural reflexes certainly come in handy as you’re able to hit notes and play faster than you normally would’ve been able to as a mortal.

When you’re finished you look around the room which is still silence until Lord Rostov gets off his throne and begins clapping. Everyone else follows suit.

“That was magnificent! I heard the original bard who performed that piece three hundred years ago and even he couldn’t have done a better job! Warnov, this man is too valuable to make into a hero!”
“Lord Rostov?”
“While this man may have combat skills as you described, he is obviously a musician! Such talent such not be wasted in battle! Beautiful playing!”
“While I agree he is a good musician Lord Rostov, I think we should consider the matter of the necromancer…”
“(Sigh) Warnov, I was feeling good until you mentioned that mortal again! Nevertheless you are right. But still, this shall be HIS choosing. Not ours.”

Lord Rostov turns to you.

“The decision shall be yours broodling. You may if you wish under go extensive training to prepare yourself for an encounter with that little necromancer lord. If you succeed, your name will be known, and you will become a legend. However, I can sense that such things are probably not your nature. Music is. I can see that you would be content to just play your music for an appreciative crowd. You could do that here. You could also learn songs that I have possession of, but sadly unable to play with the same spirit that you obviously have.”
“What about my family? And my job and all that?”
“Ah, your mortal life. I’m sure Warnov will already be taking steps to explain that you have been transferred from your current assignment. Considering he’s part of intelligence, nobody will ask too many questions, even if they bothered to. As for your family, they will be taken care of as you will still officially be part of the Zalan army. If you wish you may stay in contact with them through letters. Possibly arrangements can be made for you to visit them. During the night of course. But under NO circumstances will you tell them about any of this. Doing so would ruin my generous offer and be extremely bad for you. I don’t think we need to dwell on such depressing things because I know you’re smarter than that right?”
“Yes Lord Rostov.”
“Good, now what is it that you would like to do?”
> You be a hero
While the offer of playing for what could possibly be eternity is tempting, part of you has been affected by world events and the war going on. You have come to realize that the Necromancer (and the demons) need to be stopped. If you can take an active role in that, then you’ll know for sure that your family will be safe in the near future. You did do all this for your family after all, and while your path has definitely undergone a change, you’re still going to put them first.

Besides, you’re a vampire now, you’re sure that you’ll have tons of time to play later if all goes well. You’re definitely nervous about this decision, but you’re going to make it.

“Lord Rostov, I wish to begin your advanced combat training.” You say.
“Very well, though I almost hoped that you wouldn’t. Your playing was just divine and you won’t be able to play again for a long time during your extensive training time. Possibly never if you fail…but let us hope that you do not fail! It would be a loss for all of us. Warnov escourt him to the lower dungeons.”
“Yes, Lord Rostov.”

Warnov takes you into the lower dungeons of the castle just as Lord Rostov commanded. Warnov tells you that this isn’t going to be easy and that you better condition your mind to almost a pure instinctive level because you could very well die in training!

Finally you reach a large barren room with a pair of large doors on the far end.

“This is it. Just keep an eye on the large door over there and well, brace yourself!”

You half expect to get bitten again after hearing those words, but instead Warnov quickly steps out of the room and locks the door leaving you alone. The large doors on the other side of the room start to open.

And you just realized that you don’t have a weapon…

A year passes…

You survive your rigorous training. You have fought all manner of dangerous beasts with and without weapons. (And feasting on their blood for survival) You have undergone pain you didn’t think possible even in your new undead state. You’re definitely a better killing machine than you were.

You were allowed to write letters to your family which were overlooked first by Lord Rostov of course to make sure you weren’t saying something you shouldn’t. You barely know what to tell them except keeping your lies to a minimum about your supposed new job with Zalan intelligence. You have dedicated and conditioned yourself to combat so much that you don’t even think about music. You briefly wonder if you’ve “lost” something, but you then dismiss such things as you must focus on battle.

During this time you have been informed that the Necromancer Lord as well as Velzix have grown in power. Lord Rostov says though that he believes the demons will pose no serious threat if a concentrated effort can be made on them by the mortals. However, for that to happen, the Necromancer Lord must die and that’s where you come in and what you’ve been training for.

However, you won’t be going in by yourself. A band of “heroes” will be necessary for a job like this. You are told you will meet the others in a small abandoned village bordering on the Necromancer’s Domain.

Another vampire takes you there with the aid of a black teleportation cube. This is a one way trip. You’re not coming back unless you win. That and the fact that the black cubes can’t possibly be allowed to fall into enemy hands.

There you meet the others. They look unimpressed with you, but you’re a little surprised to see one of them. She’s very well known…a “hero”.

“You’re Deliah the Deathdealer! You fought at the battle of Azark and you also retrieved the Celestial Sword! You’re a hero! I didn’t know you were…”
“Didn’t they tell you all this shit when you started training? Sheesh, we gotta get paired up with some broodling…” a brutish vampire interrupts.
“Quiet Gorax! I’m sure he was, but meeting a legend is a lot different from basking in their glory in person.” Deliah replies.
“Gorax!? Gorax the Mighty? You were a barbarian king that held back the orc hordes over a hundred years ago!” you say in amazement.
“Huh, fat lot good that did me. I can’t take any credit for of my deeds today and barely anyone remembers my past deeds except some useless tribal shamen that now cower from the undead hordes in the Drozz Plains. Feh! Back in my day such men would not allow mere ghouls run them off their lands! I don’t know why Rostov won’t allow me to go in, seek out, and just chop off that retched Ghoul King’s head! He’s partially to blame for this mess!”
“Oh you know Rostov, he has his reasons. Besides, if we take out the Necromancer lord, the Ghoul King will probably be our next assignment.” Another vampire says in a bored tone. This one looks like he was once a Halfling. It almost makes you laugh to think of a vampire Halfling, but there he is. You don’t know who he is or was, but given the other two, he was probably important at one time.

“So are you ready to go broodling? Or are you going to stand there with a dumb look on your face?” Delilah asks.
“Uh sure, let’s go!”

The trip into the Necromancer’s Domain is surprisingly quick and uneventful. You attempt to make conversation as you can’t help now but be curious about your companions, but all of them are less than talkative and forthcoming. Deliah eventually takes you aside harshly.

“Look broodling, we’ve got a job to do. A fucking dangerous one at that! We all need to be in focus and not concentrating on anything else! So keep your damn questions to yourself and if you happen to survive this encounter THEN perhaps you may get a little more information from us and our fascinating history. Until then, stay in the fucking dark!”

The rest of the trip is silent.

At last you reach the city of Nuro and easily scale its walls and onto the battlements while remaining undetected the whole time. This is a lot different from what it was when you arrived here as a mortal. That memory still gives you a bit of pause. You remember how scared you were back then.

“Hurry up broodling! These walking corpses might not be able to detect us, but the Necromancer will soon! We need to get the advantage as soon as possible! Gorax, Wally you go through the front of the main tower. I’m sure you two can handle that. While whatever guards rush to defend their master, me and the broodling will scale the tower and go in through one of the top windows.

“You sure about that Delilah? Would you rather I go with you than some broodling?” Wally asks.
“Yeah, but if I leave him with Gorax he’ll probably get killed in the fighting and be useless. At least if he’s with me, he can serve as an extra body for the Necromancer Lord to draw his attention to.”
“HEY! I’m right here y’know!” you exclaim indignantly which causes Deliah to smack you in the face hard. You didn’t even see it coming.
“Shut the fuck up! You’ll draw attention! Look if we pull this off just maybe you’ll come out of this alive. I need you to take care of the Necromancer’s bitch anyway. She’s probably up there with him. Now let’s do this!”

The plan is set into action. Gorax and Wally make their presence known immediately jumping off the battlements and into the courtyard while yelling at the top of their lungs.

“Intruder! Protect the master!” you hear a scratchy voice yell in the distance, while you and Delilah sneak around, jumping onto the rooftops and attempting to avoid the main fighting force. A few flying shadows try to stop you, but they’re easily dispatched with your bow and silver arrows. Delilah looks glad that you aren’t entirely useless and you and her proceed to scale the walls.

“I can’t believe this place isn’t more protected.” You say while climbing.
“Heh, he’s got his troops all spread out and mostly on his borders, plus he’s grown more arrogant and confident. That will be his undoing.” She replies quickly.

“Funny I was about to say the same for you bloodsuckers.” A voice says causing the both of you to look up.

A raven haired female leans over the nearby window above Delilah and blast her directly in the face burning it off with a beam of light. You certainly weren’t expecting a necromancer to cast any sort of spell like that! You then see Delilah fall…and get impaled through the chest by a weathervane. A fucking weathervane. Unbelievable.

You attempt to scale the wall to the nearest window under you and just barely get out of the way of the lady necromancer’s next spell.

You have no idea where you are in the tower, but you can hear fighting going on outside and a couple of hearty roars which you can only guess is Gorax.

A quick scan would indicate that you’re in some sort of library. You cautiously proceed and decide that finding stairs that lead up would be the way to go. You just hope you’re ready to take him on and his mistress.

As you make your way through, you fight all manner of undead sentries: Wraiths, ghosts, skeletal warriors, etc. During one of your moments of hiding a couple of wight guards run by talking in a hoarse tone.

“The big one and little one are dead! We must find the last one! Quick Quick!”
“Yes Yes! The master must be protected!”

You come to the very real feeling of having been in the position before…all alone, surrounded by hostile undead, and in Nuro…

Your resolve breaks a little and you wish that you weren’t here. You want to go home.

Eventually you push yourself forward, but somehow fear has crept back into your own dead heart. To your credit you do reach the top of the tower, but the Necromancer’s mistress once again surprises you. A ray of light sears your face off and destroys your vision. You fall to the cold stone floor in extreme pain and can only make out blurry images.

You see a blurred black hooded figure approach. You can’t see his face, but this could only be who you think it is. You attempt to reach for your sword.

“More assassins? I swear something is going to have to be done about these bloodsuckers. The Ghoul King’s kin are really starting to get on my nerves. These ones weren’t even a challenge. What are you doing bloodsucker? Don’t you know that’s futile?”

The Necromancer Lord unleashes a ball of flame that engulfs your body, putting an end to your undead existence.


While this is all a lot to take in, you manage to calm down.

“Okay. Okay. I’m calm, but…man this is a lot of shit.” You reply.
“Heh, well you did say you might as well go with it! Don’t worry; it’ll all be second nature soon. Okay let’s go see Lord Rostov.”

Warnov pulls out a black cube and teleports you to what seems to be the inside of a castle.

“Alright, YOU stay right here in the foyer! Don’t go wandering around, I’m serious! You’re not quite in the fold yet, I have to go straighten this out and explain all this to Lord Rostov. I’ll be back to come get you later. Everything will be explained in full detail soon.”

Not wishing to piss off anyone and being completely out of your element you stay put. The foyer has enough to keep you occupied though, you begin examining many of the paintings and statues to pass the time.

Soon, Warnov returns with a very regal looking vampire. You can only assume that this is Lord Rostov.

“Welcome, I’m sure you have ask many questions for me as I have for you, so we’ll just get right to it. We’ll walk and talk on the way to the throne room. Don’t worry about anyone listening. There are no secrets here.” Lord Rostov says.
“Okay…I…”
“BUT! Remember to address me as Lord Rostov if you are going to address me by name.” Lord Rostov adds with authority.

You take notice and obey, though Lord Rostov has such a commanding presence that you would be hard pressed not to obey him.

Your questions are typical for someone brought into the fold. Rostov goes on about how his kind have been manipulating the mortal world for centuries just like Warnov said before. Several of the known governments have at least one vamp keeping an eye on things. Apparently many high ranking political types in your own Zalan Empire are vampires! The Grand Alliance is even a tool of the vampires.

While Lord Rostov goes on about this fascinating history lesson, you look at some of his “court” as you walk through his castle. Some of them are more “mortal looking” than others. Some look down right hideous. You always thought vampires were supposed to be ultra attractive, but you can see that isn’t necessarily the case. When you get to his throne room Lord Rostov stops and turns to you.

“So I hear you want to be a real hero eh? Well this is the place where they’re made.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why do you think most heroes are always storming dungeons and doing impossible things? They don’t get those abilities without some help. The supernatural skill comes into play and dungeons aren’t exactly beacons of light!” Lord Rostov laughs.

“Y…you mean ALL the heroes in the world are vampires?!”
“Hah! I wish that was the case. No, there are many regular mortal heroes that do their part I suppose, but if you want the really legendary ones that have done impossible deeds, well chances are there was a vampire involved. Sadly we haven’t been too much more successful than the mortals in the heroics department lately.”
“What’s been going on exactly?”
“That little annoying necromancer lord, or whatever he thinks he is, has been proving to be a lot cleverer than what was previously believed. His armies have been growing in strength and I’m sure you know about the undead giant business and crushing the Brot Kingdom. What isn’t commonly known is how he accomplished it. He had help from one of our kind. A loathsome outcast known as the Ghoul King. (Sigh) Should’ve killed him long ago really, but…bah, it’s a long story. We’ll deal with him when the time comes. What’s more alarming is that we’ve sent assassins…or heroes to kill the necromancer lord and his bitch and he’s somehow managed to kill all of them. I mean I can somewhat understand them being killed by that brutish demon tyrant Velzix, but a fucking necromancer? He’s a fucking mortal! And from what we know of him, he wasn’t even that good of a wizard to begin with!”

Suddenly Lord Rostov flies into a rage, yelling and punches a hole into the solid brick wall. Many of his court, as well as you and Warnov back away. He then stops and composes himself.

“My apologies to you all. It’s been a trying time with upstart mortals and traitors and other annoyances. And to you, the newest member of our fold.”
“Uh, no need to apologize to me Lord Rostov. It’s your home after all” You say which causes him to smile.
“Carefully chosen words. Not overly sycophantic, yet still displaying the right subservient mindset. You should fit in very well here.”
“But I meant it…”
“Ha ha! And honest too! You’re more interesting than how Warnov described you. I have heard that you were one of those minor mortal heroes I was talking about earlier, but more interesting to me, is apparently you have talent in the musical field?”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Well, play something for me! All of us!”
“What did you want to hear?”
“Surprise me, if you’re able!”

Lord Rostov sits on his throne while his court whispers among themselves and then go quiet waiting for you to play. You pull out your lute and try to think of a song that they might like. You think of an old song that once was very popular among the aristocracy. Seems like a perfect crowd…

You begin to concentrate on the music and nothing but the music. You play as if your life was in danger, which you’re somewhat certain that it isn’t, but it doesn’t hurt to play your best right now.

Your new supernatural reflexes certainly come in handy as you’re able to hit notes and play faster than you normally would’ve been able to as a mortal.

When you’re finished you look around the room which is still silence until Lord Rostov gets off his throne and begins clapping. Everyone else follows suit.

“That was magnificent! I heard the original bard who performed that piece three hundred years ago and even he couldn’t have done a better job! Warnov, this man is too valuable to make into a hero!”
“Lord Rostov?”
“While this man may have combat skills as you described, he is obviously a musician! Such talent such not be wasted in battle! Beautiful playing!”
“While I agree he is a good musician Lord Rostov, I think we should consider the matter of the necromancer…”
“(Sigh) Warnov, I was feeling good until you mentioned that mortal again! Nevertheless you are right. But still, this shall be HIS choosing. Not ours.”

Lord Rostov turns to you.

“The decision shall be yours broodling. You may if you wish under go extensive training to prepare yourself for an encounter with that little necromancer lord. If you succeed, your name will be known, and you will become a legend. However, I can sense that such things are probably not your nature. Music is. I can see that you would be content to just play your music for an appreciative crowd. You could do that here. You could also learn songs that I have possession of, but sadly unable to play with the same spirit that you obviously have.”
“What about my family? And my job and all that?”
“Ah, your mortal life. I’m sure Warnov will already be taking steps to explain that you have been transferred from your current assignment. Considering he’s part of intelligence, nobody will ask too many questions, even if they bothered to. As for your family, they will be taken care of as you will still officially be part of the Zalan army. If you wish you may stay in contact with them through letters. Possibly arrangements can be made for you to visit them. During the night of course. But under NO circumstances will you tell them about any of this. Doing so would ruin my generous offer and be extremely bad for you. I don’t think we need to dwell on such depressing things because I know you’re smarter than that right?”
“Yes Lord Rostov.”
“Good, now what is it that you would like to do?”
> You be a musician
This is all you’ve ever wanted. Just play music. You’ll be able to do it now for all eternity if possible. You’d be a fool to turn down such a chance.

“Lord Rostov, I wish to play music.”

Lord Rostov smiles at your response.

“Ah yes, I was hoping you’d chose the way of the artiste rather than the warrior. Your talents will be better served here. In the meantime you will be shown to your new room. Ladies, I think you two should escort our new bard. Don’t have too much fun, you’ve got a performance tomorrow!”

You are escorted by a couple of female vampires to your room. They say their names are Glasya and Natasha. They seem to make a fuss over you on your way there which you don’t find completely unwelcome, but you’re still getting used to the whole idea that you’re a vampire just like one of them now, despite also being excited over getting to play music on a steady basis with no hindrances.

The two vampiresses get even friendlier with you when you get to the room. Natasha begins to take a more aggressive stance and kisses you as the pair of you get on the bed. As the two of you are undressing, Natasha who is on top of you nods to Glasya who leaves the room.

Ten minutes later as you’re fully engaged in physical pleasure, Glasya enters the room again with what looks to be a captive human girl. She doesn’t look very old either. Probably a teenager. Her mouth is gagged so she can’t scream out properly.

“Wha…what’s all this?”
“Shhhh, your passage to true vampirehood…” the Natasha says continuing to grind into you.

The human girl is dragged over to the bed with fear and tears in her eyes the whole time. Glasya draws out a blade and holds it to her throat.

“Would you like me to cut now or would you prefer I prolong the fear? Perhaps remove her gag first so that you may hear her screams? Or maybe you’d even like to sink your teeth into her yourself?” Glasya asks and licks the side of the young girl’s face.
“What? Shit! No wait!” you say stopping Natasha, and sitting up. “I thought we were just having some fun here! Not killing young girls!”
“Why do the two need to be mutually exclusive? Broodling, you have been favored by Lord Rostov, I suggest you count yourself lucky and get with the program…besides you’re one of us now, you will need to feed on blood to survive.” Glasya says with a frown.

You look at the girl and you shake you head briefly realizing what else it means to be a vampire.

“Alright, alright, I got it. But can’t I like feed on animals first and uh work my way up or something?”
“Squeamish broodling! You will take the blood of this girl or Lord Rostov will hear of this weakness! While he may be impressed with your music abilities, he will not tolerate weaklings!” Glasya continues to scold.
“Besides, why do you care whether this…mortal lives or dies now? You do not know her and you are now superior to her in everyway. It’s your right…” Natasha says while kissing on your body.”

You don’t really have any choice in the matter. You almost curse yourself for getting yourself into this situation. You stay silent for awhile and then speak.

“Very well. Slit her throat, but do it quickly.” You say.
“(Sigh) Very well.” Glasya replies disappointedly.

The young girl’s throat is slashed and blood sprays over you and Natasha who greedily opens her mouth to catch it. Glaysa tosses the girl’s dying body onto your chest and begins to undress as well to join you and Natasha in this blood feast.

The night is definitely long, memorable and decadent. A little piece of you has “died” namely the vestiges of morality.

A few months pass and you don’t even hesitate anymore. You enjoy the blood as well as your playing for Lord Rostov’s court.

A year passes and you’ve become completely oblivious to the worsening of the “outside world”. (Which you don’t even think about since you’re so rapped up in your own pleasures) Each day the Necromancer Lord and Velzix get stronger and you stopped worrying about your family’s future. You don’t even write to them anymore. You’ve become so corrupted in such a short amount of time its actually amazing.

Another year passes and you’re basically a hedonist. This is what Lord Rostov’s “secret fortress” is all about for the most part. Sure there’s discussion on what should be done about the outside problems, but pleasures of the flesh and blood are mainly the orders of the night. You don’t even realize it, but you ARE literally a “leech” now. All vampires have ever done is leech off of the mortal world. Sure there are the “active ones” but there are far more hedonists. Ironic that the ones who choose to be professional killers, assassins or “heroes” tend to still retain more of their mortalhood.

Lord Rostov eventually mentions in passing that he’s finally come up with a perfect plan to kill the Necromancer Lord. He’s managed to come to some sort of deal with that old outcast The Ghoul King to betray him sometime in the near future. The goal is to lure the Necromancer Lord to the fortress itself and kill him directly.

Again you could really care less, and you’ve become little more than just another hedonist in Lord Rostov’s court. Lord Rostov has it all figured out, you don’t need to worry. You’re safe in this little “world.”

A few months pass and the plan swings into action. One night while you’re playing for the court as usual a loud noise is heard in the foyer and the sounds of shouting and crashing is heard. Lord Rostov takes a few of his concubines and tell everyone else to stay put, though everyone is a little curious. Even you.

You go back to playing a little bit and things are starting to return to their “original state” since everyone figures Lord Rostov has the matter well in hand.

Soon another noise is heard which sounds like the shrieking and screaming of multiple people.

“AAAAAARRRGH!”
“LORD ROSTOV! NO!”
“GET HIM!”
“KILL THE NECROMANCER!”

Everyone for once goes into a battle mode to rush to Lord Rostov’s aid. A deformed and ugly creature runs into you, while you’re trying to wrap your mind around this chaos.

“Get outta my way broodling! He’s gonna kill us all! I’ve fucked up…heh, but at least the rest of you fuckers are going to die!” he growls at you while desperately looking for a place to hide.

You don’t know what to do, but suddenly you feel a presence overcome you. Like someone is controlling your mind. This isn’t even like Lord Rostov, its even more powerful and its growing stronger…

You continue to hear the screams of vampires as you can’t help but approach the way to the slaughter. You see vampires killing each other in the hallway! How is this possible? But you know why, it’s HIM…

The Necromancer…or whatever he is now has managed to enforce his will even over vampires. You see him in the distance. He’s not even dirtying his hands killing all of you himself. You can feel his loathing for your kind and then you’re completely pulled into his domination.

“And now little blood leech you shall join your brethren…” you hear him whisper in your mind.

Another vampire suddenly punches you in the back of the head. You attempt to get up, but then feel a foot to the face followed by a sword going through your back. At this point you feel a something you haven’t felt in a long time, fear.

Then your head is ripped off in the ensuing bloodbath. Later after total victory has been achieved, the Great Lich Lord burns your body along with the rest of the truly dead vampires.


You have to admit, the idea has crossed your mind a bit. A small part of you does wonder about embracing the whole hero image and deliberately doing grand deeds that go beyond the call of your duty. You suppose that you’d at least really feel like one if you did that.

“Okay Mr. Warnov. I’ll do it.” You exclaim.
“You sure?”
“Not really, but if I’m already in the shit, I might as well go all the way with it. What do I do next?”

Warnov looks around again to see if anyone is about before answering.

“Well just take a deep breath, relax and uh… brace yourself!”
“Huh?”

Before you can react Warnov moves faster than you’ve ever seen anything move. In fact you don’t really see him move at all before he’s biting your neck! He puts his other hand over your mouth so you can’t yell out and easily knocks your hand away from feebly attempting to draw a weapon.

You fall into unconsciousness as your blood is drained from you at a rapid rate. Death soon follows…

A few minutes later you wake up outside the fort.

“Ah you’re up. Sorry about surprising you like that, but I had to work quickly. Someone else could’ve popped up and that would’ve gotten complicated…”

You quickly check your neck which is completely healed now, but you know what’s just occurred! You feel a cold numbness throughout your body and you freak out.

“I’M DEAD! I’M FUCKIN DEAD! And you’re a vampire!”
“Shhhh! Keep your voice down! Yeah, you figured it out. Nice detective work, now let’s get down to this hero business. Though we should really get to Rostov’s and talk about all this.”
“I’m…I’m dead! I’m one of you! I don’t want to be an undead thrall for the Necromancer Lord!”
“What? No, no, no, we’re not… look I’ll explain later, let’s just…”

You pull away from Warnov when he tries to help you up. You feel your reflexes are much quicker. This temporary curiousity in your new found abilities allows Warnov to calm you down.

“WAIT! Just stop! (Sigh) Okay look I’ll try to give you the condensed version right now. We vampires aren’t on the side of the Necromancer Lord. If anything he’s fucking things up for us. We like to keep a balanced order as it were. The last time we sided with some megalomaniacal necromancer it nearly resulted in our extinction. Never again. In fact we’ve been manipulating shit for centuries just to make sure something like this didn’t happen. Somebody really fucked up in the observation department on this one!”

Warnov goes on to explain that his superior, Lord Rostov will be able to explain better and in more detail, but that you have to come with him now.
> You try to escape
All of this is too much for you to handle. You know you’re dead, but you still feel afraid. You don’t know what to make of any of the shit Warnov just said and you don’t care, all you want to do is run away from all of this.

You take off running in a random direction with a confused stated of mind, not really knowing what is going to come next. You’re so overwhelmed by confusion and fear that you don’t even notice how much faster you’re actually moving.

You aren’t paying attention to too much of anything until you feel Warnov tackle you to the ground.

Warnov quickly snaps your neck so you can’t move and looks a little mournful as he crouches near you.

“I’m sorry human. I should’ve known better. Not everyone is meant for the gift. It is with great regret that I must now kill you. Such a loss…for both races.”

Warnov pulls out a silver blade and jams it into your heart before cutting your head off and putting an end to your short undead life.


You’ve served in this army well and always done your job regardless of the shitty situations you’ve been in. You might not like a lot of it, but you’ve never complained. Lately you’ve been on edge about a possible all out assault of some big ass demon army that’s going to attack any day now, and playing is one of the few pleasures you have to put your mind at ease.

Perhaps it’s a combination of this and a combination of this unwanted and unnecessary scolding that causes you to speak out of turn.

“With all due respect ma’am, I am fully prepared to battle at a moment’s notice and so are those under my direct command. But even soldiers need to rest, if only for a minute.”

The woman looks very surprised you didn’t comply with her demand to see your superior officer.

“…you DARE speak out of turn like that to me? I’ll see you sent to the Nuro Front for that sort of insubordination! Then we’d see just how battle ready you are! How would you like that?”
“I wouldn’t like it at all. I barely survived the first time.” You say trying not to express any fear.
“…What? What are you talking about? First time?”

Now you’re a little surprised she doesn’t know who you are considering how some of the high ups exaggerated about how you managed to survive. You explain yourself briefly and she doesn’t quite believe you at first, a couple of your troops hiding nearby at least back up your claims before slinking off.

“That was YOU? What the hell are you doing here? You should be leading from the front not languishing in some fort that barely sees battle!”
“Doesn’t see battle? We suffered a small demon raid last week! We see plenty of battle!”
“What I mean is, somebody of your obvious combat and survival skills should be assigned on the front lines where you can do more good. Normally I don’t question Zalan command, but this is really an oversight on their part.”
“Well maybe they know better than the both of us, besides this assignment isn’t a walk in the fairy fields. I think we’ll be suffering a grand scale attack any day now.”
“Doubt it. Velzix has been having a hard time keeping his unruly mob together. If it wasn’t for a lot of the sycophantic Tulan citizens, he’d probably be confined to pure defense, though something will have to be done soon, reports say he’s attempting to gate in more demons everyday. Not to mention that supposedly civilized demons from other nations are starting to display their true colors and flock to his banner. Like I always said the only good demon is a dead one!”

This causes you to smile a bit and she very faintly smiles back when she sees that you feel the same way. This smile disappears quickly though as she continues her rant.

“I wish I wasn’t assigned to the Tulan Border though. I’d rather be taking Nuro back. THAT’S the more dangerous threat. The demons will kill themselves with their own chaotic and violent natures, but the undead…they’ve almost taken over the world before just because of one bastard that lead them. I never thought I’d see a serious threat like this in my lifetime, especially not…”

The female captain at this point stops. She even looks away from you as if whatever she was going to say was just too much even for her. She seems to be a lot more battle hardened than you and probably ten times braver. You can’t imagine what horror she experienced that would be worse than your own, but you don’t find out since she changes the subject.

“…Bah! Maybe you’re right; a soldier does need to keep their mind occupied on other things every now and then. We aren’t undead after all. So what’s with the lute? You also a bard or something?” she laughs.
“No, I think those dreams are long gone, but my playing seems to boost spirits around here a little, which can only be a good thing in this situation.”
“Hm. My mother was elven and she used to sing this song to me and my…brother when we were very young. It was very smooth and calming. Beautiful melody.”
“Yeah, most elven music is like that. When I was assigned in Retlad I learned a few elven songs from a few of the citizens there, you wouldn’t happen to know the song would you?”

She tells you the name of the song and you know it immediately. One of the first new songs you learned while stationed in Retlad actually. This seems cause her to momentarily revert to a less stand offish behavior. You’re about to play it for her, but then a messenger comes running up handing her a note. She reads it and she’s all business again.

“Alright men! We’re moving out!” she shouts and leaves without saying another word to you. You didn’t even learn her name.

Perhaps it’s just as well; you’ll most likely never meet again due to one of you dying on the battlefield. You go back to doing what you were doing.

Two years pass…

Three years since the Nuro Incident and this struggle still continues.

You’re still stationed Fort Virtue and you’ve repelled more demon attacks than you would care to count. Velzix has finally gotten his shit together completely. A unified demonic front is in full swing here and its taking its toll. Once again your skills have come in very handy in defense. You are certainly known as a demon slayer, but you still don’t feel like a hero of any kind. You’re just trying to do your job and survive. You save lives when you can, but you know ultimately it’s a futile task as death seems to be everywhere nowadays.

As bad as it is on the demon front, its nothing compared to what’ve you’ve heard on the undead front. The Necromancer has finally broken out from Nuro, and successfully attacked the Kingdom of Brot. Several undead giants demolished the area. You’ve never even seen a living giant and they sound intimidating. You can’t even imagine an undead one. The power to raise one, let alone several is sort of scary. The Grand Alliance army didn’t get there in time to stop him and as usual they were repelled when they arrived.

You worry about the Grand Alliance failing to stop the undead horde. You hope it doesn’t get any closer to the Zalan Empire where your family might be in danger.

Sometimes you worry so much that you can’t sleep, not that you do much of that nowadays anyway. Normally you play to keep your mind at ease, but tonight you go to the archery range to keep yourself focused.

For a long time you’re by yourself, but suddenly you feel a creeping suspicion someone is watching you…

You turn around with your bow and see a pale man. He holds up his hands.

“Hey now! Don’t shoot! Sorry for creeping around like that. Professional habit.” He says.
“What? Who are you?” you demand.
“Warnov. Zalan Intelligence.”
“You’re a spy?”
“Well I suppose you could put it that way. I was here to give some info to your Captain Eckard, and I also wanted to take a look around the fort. Didn’t think anyone would be on the range though. Nice shooting, I know who you are and heard about your marksmanship with a bow. You’re certainly doing your part with the demons around here.”

Despite the fact that you’re talking to a spy, you feel the need to vent your feelings.

“Yeah, well I hope the Grand Alliance starts doing its part. I mean what the fuck are they doing? Weren’t they created to put a stop to all this shit? I mean am I supposed to worry every day if that undead horde is going to get closer to the Zalan Empire where it can threaten my family?”

Warnov doesn’t look offended by your words, if anything he looks intrigued.

“Well, I can understand why you’re venting. Trust me I sympathize. But as part of intel, I can tell you its not that easy…there were a lot of surprises that weren’t accounted for. We’re doing our best to rectify this situation by gathering as much info as possible. In fact, you could help us…”
“Excuse me? How?”

Warnov looks around and gets closer before speaking.

“Look, as I said, I know all about you and your skills, why you joined, all of it. I know you don’t much care for some of the propaganda made about some of your exploits. But it’s important to realize that deeds like yours must be blown up a little to give common people hope that ultimately good will win the day. You may not consider yourself a hero of any kind, but your actions aren’t without some of those qualities. You obviously care very much about your family, and I’ve heard how you try to keep the people under your command alive. Sound like heroic qualities to me. Perhaps they’re on a smaller scale, but they’re there. I’m betting that there’s a BIGGER hero in there somewhere, just itching to get out. You think the Grand Alliance isn’t doing a good job? Perhaps we can arrange something for you to be transferred into it, or maybe you’d like to take an even more direct approach.”
“What do you mean?”

Warnov suddenly backs away.

“Before we go any further. I need to know are you willing to take up the mantle of being a hero. Because if you aren’t, then we have nothing more to discuss. I shall require an answer now.”
> You letters to home (War continues...)
Dear Mom,

Just another letter from me, letting you know I’m still alive. Though I’m sure with my newest title of “Demon Slayer” you probably knew I was.

More exaggerations of course. I do my job to be sure, but there are plenty of other men and women my age or even younger that doing just as much as I am and they don’t seem to get any credit. Of course many of them have also been killed. I’ve always tried to keep everyone alive under my command, but I know it’s a futile endeavor.

The fighting has been getting worse up here, the demons I think have finally gotten more organized. Though what alarms me more is hearing that the Necromancer Lord has finally broken out of Nuro and taken over the Brot Kingdom. I thought the Grand Alliance was supposed to stop this sort of thing.

I’m tired of all this. I feel like playing right now, sorry for the short letter.

Give my love to the rest of the family

Your son


Demons are a lot faster than the undead and you’re wounded, no way are you going to be able to outrun them. You turn around and draw your bow, trying to ignore your pain which is overriding any fear you have at this point. Your weakened state is causing you to have a hard time aiming.

“Uh oh, better be careful, looks like this one is going to put up a fight. I’d say by his uniform that he’s a soldier.”
“Hur hur. Good. Hey human, better stop wobbling if you’re going to aim that thing properly.”

You miss the demon completely.

“Hah! You want me to walk slower human?”
”You sure you should be playing with him like that? Don’t you remember what happened earlier today?”
“Shut up! I told ya, that bitch musta had some magical powers because…OW!”

You hit the demon in the chest, but it doesn’t seem much damage. He pulls out the arrow and now begins to quicken his pace. The other demon starts to walk towards you as well.

“See, I told you to pay attention.”
“Bah! If this is the extent of what his little pig sticker can do, I’m not concerned. Hey human, don’t you know they’re doing great things with gunpower these days? RAAAAGH!”

The big demon suddenly charges you, and you let your arrow fly. Right in the eye.

“Perfect.” You whisper.

The demon bellows, but it doesn’t slow him down. You narrowly dodge his charge. You roll on the ground and shoot two more arrows in his back. He turns around snarling and bellowing for your blood. More arrows fly into the creature, but at last the demon has reached you and smacks you to the ground. Your bow flies from your hand, and while crawling on the ground you try to draw your sword, but a crushing blow hits you on the back. This might’ve caused a lot more damage, but miraculously the lute that’s still in your pack “softens” the blow. The crunching of wood signifies that it’s broken though.

“What the fuck, that’s a weird noise…what is this? HA HA HA! Hey! You gotta be shittin’ me! A fuckin’ lute? Check this out! He’s carrying a fuckin’ lute! What’s a fucking soldier doin’ with a lute?” the big demon shouts to his acquaintance while he holds up your broken instrument.
“Don’t talk you idiot! LOOK OUT!” his acquaintance shouts, just as you recover long enough to shove your sword straight into the demon’s groin. You push the sword upward in an attempt to do more damage and you succeed. Blood is flying everywhere and the demon howls in pain from the grievous wound. You pull your sword out and then proceed to repeatedly stab the demon until it falls backwards on the ground, dead.

You’re exhausted; you used all your remaining strength killing the thing. Unfortunately the other demon grabs you by the scruff like a helpless kitten and lifts you up off the ground a few inches. He knocks your sword out of your hand and looks at his fallen comrade.
“Hmm, can’t say I didn’t warn him. Oh well, more meat for me. This may hurt a lot…”

Fully expecting the death that you’ve managed to avoid for so long, you once again evade it when a gunshot rings out and part of the demon’s head splatters in your face. You’re dropped immediately. The demon’s body is still standing though.

“Shoot the bastard again!” you hear a gruff voice shout and this time the next shot hits chest and the demon falls.

You lay motionless on the ground, looking up in the sky when your saviors come up to you. It’s a group of dwarves armed with gun powder weapons.

“By the gods, get doc out here! We need to fix this man up! Hey lad, you’ll be alright, don’t worry…are you a Zalan soldier?” one of the dwarves asks you.
“…yeah…Nuro…lost…all dead…” is all you utter before fall into unconsciousness.

A few days pass before you’re somewhat back to a coherent state. You find yourself in a military outpost and at this point you don’t care. You’re just happy to be alive.

It would seem that during your escape from Nuro, you ran in the direction of the Tulan Kingdom, the dwarven scouts that found you were from a small neutral kingdom trying its best to stay out of the dispute between Tulan and Zalan, but the new threat of demons running all over the nearby countryside caused them to increase patrols. They fixed you up, but dropped you off at the closest Zalan Fort. The Zalan fort that you’re in right now is called Virtue and it’s on the Tulan border. It seems relatively calm though. Not at all what you thought it would be.

When one of the healers comes in to check on you, you begin to ask questions which she tries to answer to get you up to speed.

The Tulan Kingdom is currently under attack from the demons now. They’ve been assaulting the place and even gaining help from some of the evil populace there. The demon citizens there have reverted back to their “bad behavior” and thrown their lot in with the invaders as well. That doesn’t surprise you. The Tulan Kingdom pulled back some of their military from the borders so the fighting hasn’t been as bad and Zalan’s made a little more progress during this time, but the military minds are being cautious not to over extend. There is extreme concern over the recent demon invasion, not to mention the incident at Nuro. Word has already spread about the unsuccessful siege there.

The healer also tells you that a few Zalan “high ups” are eager to speak to you soon, as they want to know what exactly happened at Nuro. You’re somewhat of an important survivor since as far as anyone knows; you were the only one to successfully escape that killing zone. There’s also talk of a “Grand Alliance” being created to counter these new threats.

While the healer talks you end up drifting back to sleep wishing you could just escape it all.

One year passes…

You’re still at Fort Virtue and it doesn’t look like you’ll be leaving the army anytime soon.

You couldn’t have been more wrong on your belief that you’d get executed for cowardice. You got promoted to sergeant instead, which in light of the current situation, is nearly the same thing.

Your promotion came after several Zalan officers spoke to you about Nuro. You even got a medal.

Stories and rumors creep around about how against all odds you survived an undead onslaught and fought off a bunch of demons as well. Your past “reputation” from your time in Retlad is exaggerated as well. It doesn’t help that the citizens there remember you and are all willing to add to the exaggeration.

All of these stories have been woven together in such an elaborate way to make you seem like some kind of hero most likely for propaganda purposes. And you know you’re not hero. In fact you try to explain you aren’t a hero to people, but they think you’re just being modest, eventually you give up.

Your assignment at Virtue hasn’t been uneventful. There’s fighting, but now it’s mainly demon commanded enemies rather than Tulan ones. Some demon lord called Velzix killed the royalty there, completely conquered the area and made it his realm. The border war continues under new management except now it’s more than just a border that the enemy is looking to take. Your superior, Captain Eckard reminds you of Valhlat except with a different name. You suppose there is a certain “cookie cutter” that occurs within the Zalan army that causes people to act the same. You’ve briefly wondered if you ever make that rank, you’ll act the same way. You then usually laugh at the very fact that you ever would.

Fort Virtue hasn’t suffered a really bad attack yet, and it’s mostly skirmishes, but it’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop. You routinely go on patrols and give orders which you didn’t think you’d be good at, but you think back to how you used to order your brothers and sisters around and perhaps you always had a bit a leadership skill, you just didn’t want it.

You thought that you’d be able to at least visit your family, but of course due to recent events, you’re ordered to stay put. Your family at least is getting more money from your pay increase. They even send a new lute for you after you told them of the unfortunate event that resulted in the destruction of your last one. This gives you a little pleasure in a relatively joyless assignment.

All in all, you still prefer it compared to being in the unsuccessful assaults on Nuro. The Grand Alliance that was formed hasn’t been too successful as every one has been a slaughter from what you’ve heard. You already went through that once. You don’t relish the idea of going through it again.

One day while you’re spending your free time practicing a new song, some new soldiers come into the fort. They look like they’ve just seen a vicious battle and are here to restock. One of them sees you and gives you a disapproving look. It’s a woman with striking good looks, but definitely carrying an air of leadership about her. Her rank signifies her as a captain…yep same cookie cutter, just a little prettier.

“You there! What are you doing playing an instrument? Shouldn’t you be on watch or doing something more constructive with your time soldier? And you’re a sergeant? You should know better!”
“I’m not on watch duty right now and…”

The woman doesn’t even let you finish your explanation. Other soldiers that were sitting in your area are now slowly creeping out of the fray. Even her own soldiers are creeping away. They probably know all too well of how she acts.

“So? You think evil is going to wait around for you to be ready for battle? Where is your superior officer? I can’t believe they would allow such a relaxed attitude around here considering the importance of this fort! If you were serving under me, I’d have you flogged for your lack of discipline!”
> You letters to home (Escape from Nuro)
Dear Mom,

I dunno if they informed you, but I AM still alive! I don’t know how long you may have been worrying, but I’m sure you already heard about the failed siege at Nuro. It was horrible.

I’ve spoken little about it as I’ve been attempting to recuperate in Fort Virtue. I really don’t want to, but I know I have to. Some of the high ranking people in the Zalan military apparently want to talk to me directly about it too. Apparently I was the only survivor. I still can’t believe it. I mean is it possible the god of luck rolled the dice and I was spared that day?

It’s the only possible explanation. I mean the dead were all around me and I somehow escaped. My troubles didn’t even end there, since I might’ve died of blood loss or marauding demons had I not been found by a Dwarven patrol.

I’ve never seen so much death in my life even during my assignment in Retlad and I wish I didn’t have to again, but I know I will. I just wish I could get my mind on the awful things I saw that day. Normally I’d play my music, but I don’t even have my lute anymore to do that. I miss it.

I can’t believe I’m even obsessing about a stupid instrument when I should really be thankful that I’m still alive! Nobody else is. Captain Valhlat, Wessel, all of them. All those people in my company are dead or worse, probably raised as zombies by now.

I dread what the future holds. Will I be sent back?

I wish I had my lute.

Give my love to the rest of the family

Your son


Despite your fears, you’ve always had a sense of duty and responsibility, something that probably won’t ever completely go away due to how you grew up. You’re not running away, you did join to help provide for your family after all.

Before your company packs up and leaves Retlad, you write a quick letter to your family and hand it off to a messenger. Many of the Retlad citizens aren’t too pleased to see you leave, but they don’t really have any say in the matter, just like you don’t. There isn’t much talking on the trip, though, everyone is pretty silent. Wessel however is doing enough for everyone.

“I can’t believe something like this happened! Nuro was a beacon of enlightenment and well prepared for situations like this! I…can’t believe this didn’t occur without some sort of demonic influence. I’ll bet that Mr. Demar had something to do with this! I remember taking his class and he was always a creepy bastard. Before I could graduate I had to take his conjuration 101 class and he didn’t like me because I had made several logical arguments to as why that branch of magic should be outlawed altogether. And it’s obvious by what happened recently that I was right! Nevertheless I did all the required work in the class and I still got a B! Way to fuck up my perfect record! I get the same grade as some bumbling idiot who summoned up a Nurk Beast that he lost control over and bit off someone’s hand! Where is the fucking justice?”

Once again, Wessel has turned the topic to focus on himself. Happily Captain Vahlat tells him to shut the fuck up.

You’ll be near Nuro soon and your company makes camp for the night. While all of you are on edge from what will come tomorrow, someone finally says something.

“Hey farmboy, play us a song on that thing.”
“…what did you want to hear?” you ask, not expecting to be called to play under these circumstances. In fact it just occurred to you that you’ve never played for anyone in your company! You assume that they all knew that you did, but they just were never interested enough to stick around and listen to you before.

“I dunno, play whatever it was you used to play for the Retlad citizens…it seemed to make them happy.”

You pull out your lute and take a deep breath and start playing. At first you’re just concentrating on the strings and making sure you don’t mess anything up, but when you look up, you can see that everyone in the camp is listening intently to your music, even Wessel. Tensions seem to have decreased. It’s like a wave of calmness has struck the camp. You never believed your playing could have that much of an effect on people. Eventually the song ends and the Captain tells everyone who isn’t on watch to get some sleep. He then takes you aside.

“Heard your playing…damn shame that you’re here. You really should be doing that instead.” Valhlat remarks.
“I know.”
“Hm. I know you joined mainly to help support your family.”
“Yeah, I just hope I get to see them again.”
“Bah, don’t start talking like that. I’ve seen you with a bow, you pluck that thing even better than that lute. You’ve been in battle before and survived, I see you doing it again.”
“I sure hope so, its just I dunno…the undead…I’ve heard stories.”
“Yeah, everyone’s heard the stories, but stories tend to be exaggerated. Now I dunno about what happened centuries ago, since I wasn’t there, but I HAVE fought the undead before. One of my first assignments was taking care of some minor undead incursion in a little village. Some asshole stumbled upon an ancient scroll and started reading the goddamn words on it out loud. They look a lot worse than they actually are. Most of the time they’re incredibly slow, and easily dispatched. Its mainly a psychological advantage from all the stories people have told about them that cause this quaking fear in most folks.”
“Well I suppose, but what about the necromancers?”
“Feh, they’re wizards and just like all the rest their arrogance is their undoing. Most of these so-called necromancers are half-assed ones that get killed by their own undead troops. Anyway, get to sleep; you want to be fully alert for tomorrow’s battle. It still won’t be a walk in the park, but it’s not going to be a death sentence.”

You take the Captain’s words into consideration, but in the back of your mind before you go to sleep, you’re thinking “But they can’t be that half-assed, they successfully took over Nuro…”

The next day arrives and you finish your trip to Nuro and that’s when you see the city for the first time. You always wanted to visit it after hearing about it from Wessel, but even from this distance it doesn’t look like anything he described.

“By the gods…what…” Wessel slowly whispers.

The stench of death is thick in the air. You see thousands of bodies outside the city gates and they aren’t lying down either. They aren’t advancing either though. There just standing there like…well zombies.

Your company isn’t the only one here though, there are a few others awaiting orders. You see one from the Brot Kingdom and another from the Azi Republic. Thankfully there’s another Zalan one as well to boost your numbers.

The respective captains acknowledge each other’s presence, a short meeting is made and then the inevitable comes. The attack.

At first things seem to go well. All ranged troops are ordered to fire upon the enemy who are still just standing there. Arrows pierce zombie brains, gunshots destroy skeleton bones, spells blast at walls and it seems very easy.

Then from the battlements of Nuro a few figures begin casting a few offensive spells of their own. It’s at this point a charge is made towards the city.

“When you get in range aim for the fucking wizards! Don’t fear these rotting meat sacks! We’re the fucking Zalan army! We don’t lose!” Captain Valhlat shouts.

Fine words, but they do little to uplift your impending sense of doom. It doesn’t help that the sky goes completely dark while you’re marching towards a bunch of undead and at the same time hoping you don’t get hit by a wizard’s spell. In the distance you briefly see a cleric from the Azi Republic riding a horse by himself. He appears to be calling upon some sort of holy might from whatever god he worships since a blue protective sphere appears around him. The next moment he’s hit by a black ray that goes straight through the sphere and his life is gone. Not even his god could protect him.

As you get closer, you see that the undead soldiers still haven’t moved, but there are significantly less of them as they continue to fall from ranged attacks. However, now other undead pop up on the walls of Nuro holding bows of their own.

“SHIELDS!” Captain Valhlat shouts.

More of your side falls and now you’re so close you can smell the death in the air. The undead troops are now finally moving to do battle with your side. You attempt to target the robed figures on the battlements, but of course it’s very difficult in all this chaos and your fear.

You mostly only get the undead archers. Wessel is a little more successful is downing an enemy wizard.

“Ha ha! Don’t you realize I graduated top of my class?!” you hear him shout.

The gates of Nuro are being broken down and despite the horror you’ve already seen, this battle still seems hopeful.

Then a black cloaked hooded figure sudden appears on the battlements. You see him merely raise his arms briefly and that’s when you get the very real feeling that hope is lost.

Ghostly spirits come through the walls of Nuro making worse shrieks than when you fought the Quillars. At least they were living creatures. These drain lives at but a touch and there isn’t enough magic to fight the incorporeal creatures properly. You see the Brot Kingdom’s company break and run, but unfortunately for them and you, your possible retreat has been blocked. All the soldiers on your side that fell have now suddenly been raised, the undead soldiers that were killed have been raised as well. You’re fighting in the front, from behind and in some cases from within. It’s chaos.

“Shit, I’m going to die today…” you whisper to yourself.

Captain Valhlat is knee deep in the dead, but this figure who’s apparently changed the tide of battle hasn’t escaped his attention. He points to the figure and barks orders at the top of his lungs.

“KILL HIM! SHOOT THE FUCKER! DO IT! NOW!”
> You letters to home (Assault on Nuro)
Dear Mom,

I’m writing this just before we head off to Nuro. I’m sort of scared. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it. I also know I’ve been in danger several times before, but I have a bad feeling about this mission.

I remember those old stories Dad told about the Dead War that occurred centuries ago. Those used to scare the hell out of me. I was usually thankful when you told him to stop telling me and Mallack about it.

Still he always said that he told those stories so that we could better appreciate the relatively “safe” time we live in now even if it isn’t perfect. I’d hate to think that he was wrong about that, because I certainly wouldn’t want to live during the years of the Great Lich Lord’s reign of terror.

I’ve been told that this “outbreak” is still small enough to be contained and eliminated, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.

Nuro is a place of strong magic! If they couldn’t handle this problem, how are we going to be able to? What manner of undead are going to face us? What of the evil wizards that caused this in the first place? As far as my company goes, the only really powerful one we have is Wessel. I hope they aren’t just sending us, or that we’ll at least have much more magical back up by the time we arrive there.

I’ve been trying to not worry about this, but this doesn’t feel right. In my heart it doesn’t feel right. I just hope and pray to all the gods that I survive this.

Give my love to the rest of the family.

Your son


Just because he’s acting reckless doesn’t mean you’re going to, you’re going to play upon your strengths and keep as far away as you can.

You ride your horse around the outskirts of the village, readying your bow the whole time. When you can, you fire at the Quillar attackers. As quick as they are, they aren’t really paying attention to you and you manage to get in some good shots. A couple of head shots even.

At first they don’t realize where the all the arrows are coming from, since Wessel is giving them a hard enough time with the chain lightning. You’re sort of glad you decided to stay on the outskirts. Wessel is having such a “good time” blasting the Quillars, he’s probably causing a lot more collateral damage in the process.

Eventually the Quillars start to retreat. This is when you get into a little more trouble as you happen to be right in the direction of where they’re running! They still look scary and they get even moreso as they get closer. The worst has to be their shrieks. It’s unpleasant to hear to say the least.

You ride out of the way, but your horse isn’t fast enough and is peppered by quills. You catch a few in the leg yourself and you’re thrown from the horse as it reels in pain, before collapsing.

Feeling the pain you scramble for cover behind a nearby rock. Fortunately the quills don’t penetrate that. Most of them are content on just running away, but one straggler decides to try to get one more kill before leaving. That kill of course happens to be you.

The Quillar makes its high pitch shriek as it runs towards the rock. You don’t have time to ready your bow before its high jumped over the rock and on the other side of you. You quickly draw your weapon and swing it blindly as you turn around. Luckily your blade catches the side of its head, killing it. At last you collapse from the pain in your leg.

While you’re pulling out quills, Wessel and another Zalan soldier come to meet you. Wessel doesn’t look any worse for wear, but the soldier looks very tired and obviously has wounds of his own.

“There you are, lying down on the job I see.” Wessel mocks.
“Are you alright?” the other soldier asks.
“Yeah…Agh. I’ve gotten bitten in the leg by a Kobold before. Feels nearly the same except these quills go in a lot deeper.”
“Glad you guys came when you did. We were just doing a routine patrol when these quill bastards came out of nowhere! They’re getting bolder and attacking in greater number, we need more reinforcements.”
“Yeah, well good luck with that. The Tulan border is the primary concern. Besides I’m here now, I predict that this infestation will be over soon now.” Wessel boasts.

“Any…way. My name’s Tylir. I’d introduce you to the rest of my squad, but they’re all dead now. Even though it was the heat of battle, I couldn’t help notice how well you picked off several of those Quillars with one shot. That was pretty impressive.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey! What about me? I’m the one who noticed you getting attacked in the first place! I’m also the one who saved your ass!” Wessel interrupts again, he’s starting to get annoying at this point, but Tylir doesn’t seem bothered by him.

“Everyone did their part. Okay, since I’m here I’ll take you to see Captain Vhalat, I’m sure that’s who you were sent to report to, oh and wizard while your skills may be appreciated here, I’d advise you to cut down on the boasting. Captain Vhalat isn’t fond of it, and to be quite honest the other two wizards we had here were more experienced and they still got killed.”
“Hmm, well perhaps they lacked the natural skill that I of course possess.”

At this point you and Tylir just roll your eyes and get moving.

You travel through a couple of other villages and it’s pretty depressing. You see stacks of bodies being buried in mass graves while most of other Retlad citizens look thoroughly defeated. A few look in your direction, but don’t look too much, it’s like they don’t really expect you to succeed. Not exactly inspiring.

Soon you arrive in the town of Glaf. It would appear that the Zalan contingency sent here is staying in one of the bigger Retlad towns rather than the capitol. Ryan also says that the Quillar infestation is worse around here too, so the captain suspects that whatever lair they’re crawling out of is nearby and can hopefully located and cleansed.

The town itself resembles a small Zalan fort rather than a proper Retlad town, as a sturdy wall has been erected around it. The people seem to look a little more hopeful though. Tylir goes on to say that he thinks that the Retlad citizens are actually starting to prefer Zalan presence especially since their on government has been pretty ineffectual about the whole invasion. The Retlad army has only focused on defending the capitol. The Retlad royals appear to find their lives more important than anyone else’s.

Eventually you’re brought before Captain Vahlat himself. He looks up from the map he’s inspecting and addresses you and Wessel.

“Ah, I see the Empire has seen fit to send me reinforcements…wow, twice as many as I thought I’d get. Private Tylir where’s the rest of your squad?”
“Um…dead sir.”
“Of course. (sigh) So what’s your problem private? Why is your leg wrapped up?” Vahlat asks you.
“Got into a fight with the Quillars sir.” You answer.
“Oh?”

Tylir at this point interrupts and tells of what happened. Wessel looks like he wants to expand upon his deeds, but Vahlat’s appearance is a little imposing and he was already warned once, so he keeps his mouth shut. Vahlat soon addresses you again.

“Well it would seem you two have already proven yourselves useful. A lot more useful that what passes for the Retlad army, but of course that isn’t hard. Wizard, I certainly hope you don’t intend to use this place as a chance to show off all the skills you learned in your fancy Nuro college. One of your predecessors did that as well, and as you can see he’s no longer here. As for you, I hope that you can do a better job of keeping out of the way of the quills next time. Most don’t get a second chance. Alright that’s all for now. Our group is being housed for free at the Inn down the street. Free food as well, but don’t go overboard, its being rationed. You want more food or anything else you’ll have to pay like everyone else. I suggest though that you don’t do any heavy carousing. This is a high alert situation and we could be going to battle at anytime. Dismissed.”

You, Wessel and Tylir all leave at this point. Tylir goes on to show you where the Inn is and a couple of other places, but after today you just want to rest and retire to your room early. You rest your leg and begin practicing your lute. This puts you in better spirits.

6 months pass…

The Quillar invasion has nearly been eradicated. Most of the major lairs have been located and cleansed and you certainly contributed greatly to this effort. Besides your combat abilities, your tracking skills definitely came in handy a lot.

You’ve become somewhat recognized among Retlad citizens due to your actions and the lives you’ve saved. The word “hero” has been used a few times though you definitely don’t think of yourself as one. In your free time you spoke with the citizens, a lot more than your fellow soldiers though. A few of them even convinced you to play for them when they noticed your lute. It took a little prodding, but eventually you gave in fully expecting to get booed, but to your surprise, you got applauded instead. Your playing didn’t just boost your spirits it seemed. Whenever you could you played a little bit for people in what little free time you had. Never did you think that you’d be playing for any kind of audience, let alone an appreciative one.

It definitely hasn’t been all sunshine though; you’ve seen a lot of people die. More than you ever wanted to actually. You’d made friends with Tylir shortly after your first meeting and he died only a couple months later. You’ll be glad when every one of these Quillar creatures are all dead though, all they’ve done is cause misery.

You’ve got them on the run now though. You’re preparing for an attack on another one of their lairs, when Captain Vahlat calls everyone to see him, he doesn’t look enthusiastic about whatever it is he has to tell you.

“All right I’ll be brief. As much as I hate leaving a mission unfinished, we’re getting pulled out of here effective immediately. Major news is that Nuro has undergone a fucking disaster that needs to be put down like yesterday! All governments friendly to the City State of Nuro that can spare the manpower are to send help. We would be one of those. I hope the Retlad army is just competent enough to finish up what we started in their own country.”

Wessel immediately pipes up upon hearing about this revelation.

“What happened in Nuro? What’s going on?!”
“What’s going on? From what I’ve been told a whole bunch of your kind raised a shitload of undead and unleashed a bunch of hostile demons on the place! The entire city was overrun. Reports are already stating that small packs of demons are running around the nearby countryside. Most likely in the direction of the Tulan Kingdom. Not sure what that means with our border war with them, but I only see it getting bloodier around there. In any case, our job is to head to Nuro, before the undead start following suit. I hope you’re all ready for this, because this is going to be a lot different that fighting Quillars.”

You look around and see a lot of fear wash over faces and rightly so. Necromancers have a bad history on your world. When you were little you still remember hearing the tales of the Great Lich Lord that existed centuries before you were even born. He almost took over the world. Those stories gave you nightmares as a kid. The possibility of having to face something remotely similar even on much smaller scale doesn’t make you feel too well.
> You letters to home (Retlad assignment)
Dear Mom,

This assignment is almost coming to a close I believe. We’ve got the Quillars on the run and wiped out most of their lairs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’d rather be fighting Kobolds!

Lately I’ve been able to play a lot more thanks to our severe lowering of the Quillar population. The people here are pretty nice, they seem to always want me to play for them. Didn’t think I’d actually ever play for a proper audience!

I’m happy to do it though, it sort of keeps my mind off of the nastier things I’ve seen. I know I told you about how my friend Tylir died, a few months ago, but it still seems a little unreal. I mean other than Dad, I’ve never known anyone who I knew personally dying. And certainly not as violently as he did. I’ve seen a lot more violence in general though.

However, I guess I should’ve expected stuff like this to happen. I mean I am in the army! Sometimes the people call us heroes and stuff for killing the Quillars. Some guys like that annoying Wessel get a thrill out of it, but I dunno. I don’t really feel like one. I just want to do my job and survive. And play if possible.

Well I guess that’s it for now, give my love to the rest of the family.

Your son


You’ve never even heard of Quillars before, but they still sound less dangerous than the Tulan Border, that place is only going to get worse, you know it.

“I’ll take the Retlad assignment sir.”
“Hm. Smart. Here’s your first month’s pay, I suggest you live it up here in Zal, for the couple of days you have off before you leave.”

You take the small bag and look inside. This will certainly help your family. You take a few coins for yourself and then ask if arrangements can be made to have your payment sent to your family from now on. He tells you yes, but asks that surely that you will still want some of it. You agree to just taking 10% of it. You don’t need much.

“Sheesh, living bare minimum huh? Don’t you want to eat anything other than military rations every once in awhile?” Kosser questions again.
“Nah. If I need extra food, I’ll just hunt.”
“You know even the booze and brothel girls in Retlad aren’t THAT cheap. You sure you don’t want more?”
“Nope. I’ll be fine. My family needs that money more than I do.”
“Alright then, family man.”

You exit the barracks and wander the city a bit. You find it very interesting. You sort of wish you could stay longer to take in more sights. However one thing catches your eye. A small store and in the window is a lute. Looks almost like the one you had before it was taken away from you in basic training. You haven’t gotten a chance to play in six months and you’d really like to…

Hey you’re a soldier now, you’ve proven yourself. You figure you can take one personal belonging with you to Retlad as long as you keep them packed properly. You enter the store and with the little money you have you buy the lute. You spend the most of the day and the next practicing it. You didn’t forget as much as you thought. You also finish up writing a letter to your family and give it to a Zalan messenger carrier.

Finally the third day arrives for you to move out. A couple of officers arrive to take most of your other fellow cadets. Mostly to the Tulan border, however, it would appear you have a different escort. A young man in loose robe approaches you. He looks like a wizard, but you wonder for how long since he seems about your age.

“Hey, are you the one going to the Retlad Kingdom?” he asks
“Yeah, who are you?”
“I’m Wessel. And don’t you dare get cute and call me weasel, or I’ll have to blast you with a lightning bolt.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.” You say which causes Wessel to start laughing.
“Geez, I was just fucking with you. Don’t be so serious! So you ready to go?”
“Yeah I guess, are you my superior officer?”
“Huh? Oh no. Look I got our horses waiting outside; we can do all this getting to know you stuff on the way.”

You and Wessel get on the horses and ride towards your destination. It would appear that you’re the only one from your group to be going, but of course you were the only expert marksman.

Wessel begins to tell you more about why he’s with you. In fact he doesn’t really let you do much talking at all. He says he’s a native citizen of the Zalan Empire, but he just graduated from the esteemed magic university in the city state of Nuro. Wessel goes on to and says that when he heard they needed a few wizard over in Retlad, he decided to volunteer to test his skills and get paid while doing it. He explains that the pair of you will be following the orders of a Captain Vhalat.

Everyone knows about Nuro. It’s very famous, and you always wondered what kind of magical wonders existed there, so you’re eager to hear more and he’s all too happy to tell you. Despite Wessel’s primary focus on himself, it sounds like a place you’d want to visit one day.

Eventually you arrive at the border and so far the Retlad Kingdom doesn’t look very well kept. The road begins to show evidence of disrepair and the sign posts are broken. You begin to keep your eye out for a possible attack at any second.

“Look! Over there! It’s a village and it’s under attack! Come on!” Wessel yells and rides towards the village in the distance. You try to tell him to wait, but he’s already well on his way, so you ride after him.

You’ve never seen a Quillar before, but the closer you get to the village, you start seeing humanoid creatures covered in sharp spikes running around at a fast speed which could only be them. They are indeed fearsome looking. You also see a lot of the people running from them, and even a few people dressed in protective gear similar to yours…not that its doing them much good.

“Alright you prickly bastards here’s something for ya!” Wessle shouts riding into the village with one hand raised in the air for a lightning blast attack. He shows no fear. You have no idea if all wizards are like this, but he’s either got to be brave, stupid or just suicidal. Of course he could be all three. Up until now you always thought wizards were supposed to be meek types that didn’t charge into battle and preferred to kill from afar. You guess you were wrong.
> You letters to home (First assignment)
Dear Mom,

Well I got my first assignment. I’m heading to the Retlad Kingdom. Unlike most of my fellow cadets I was given the choice to go there instead of the Tulan Border. Thank the gods for my excellent bow skills.

Still it’s not going to be an easy assignment, but I’m probably not as worried about it as I might normally be since I finally got paid and managed to buy myself another lute! I’ve been practicing it again to help me keep my mind off things. I made arrangements for most of my pay to be sent to you. You should be receiving it at the end of each month, I hope it’ll help.

Anyway, tomorrow is the big day, so I better get some early sleep tonight. I have no idea what to expect.

Give my love to the rest of the family.

Your son