Year 55

You wake up with yet another permanent ache in your body. Getting old really sucks and it probably doesn’t help that you’ve spent decades fighting all your life. Who knows how many broken bones, deep cuts, head blows and other bodily trauma you’ve had. However, you’re probably more fit than most people your age and your magic ability is certainly a great equalizer.

You go over some of the newest contract requests and one catches your eye due to it suffering from multiple misspellings and the murdering of language in general. When you see that it’s from Flog you’re a little impressed that he was able to write as well as he did.

From what you can make out in the horribly written letter, he wants to meet with some of your people because he’s got a major problem on his hands and he hopes that seeing as he once helped you fight the Empire, you’d help him out in return.

You shake your head at that remark considering that as you recall you basically spared his life in exchange for his support. He doesn’t go into specifics about who he wants killed, but he goes on to say that he’s acquired a lot of wealth in his “conquest” of Rask. A bit of stretching the truth since while its true he owns the biggest stretch on territory there, the area is far from conquered.

Amusingly he wants you to meet him at Blood Tooth, which is apparently what he renamed Evergloom after he moved in years after you left. He states he’ll go into more specifics then, mainly because he doesn’t want the letter possibly falling into the wrong hands and also because all this writing makes his brain hurt. He also mentions that while it isn’t necessary, he’d prefer to meet with you personally since he’s confident in your abilities to get the job done.

You can’t help but smile a little at that last statement.

“You’re not going are you?” Talia asks.
"Why not? I’ve been running the shadows for this long and I haven’t even taken a contract myself. Seems a bit hypocritical don’t you think?”
“You’re the Shadow Master, you don’t need to concern yourself with such things.”
“Maybe, but I’ve always believed that a leader really should lead by example and I’ve done that for the most part.”
“What about that incident with the dark elves?”
“Eh, I actually didn’t even plan that and it really doesn’t count. I just think I need to go on this one.”
“You just want to prove that you aren’t getting old. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you been mentioning it lately.”
“Yeah…well maybe. But still…hey why don’t you come with me?”
“Me?”
“Well why not? Flog’s always liked you and it’ll probably make the meeting go over better. Besides, you should be keeping your abilities up as well.”
“Excuse me, but I continue to spar with the Blades every day.”
“And so do I, but it isn’t enough unless their real danger involved. Come on, you mean to say you don’t miss the old days just a little bit?”
“Not particularly, but I see that this is important to you, so I shall accompany you, but aren’t you concerned about this being a trap?”
“Not really, no. While Flog has always been a little more cunning than the average orc and an opportunistic fool, he’s never been suicidal. I’m pretty sure he knows if he tried to ambush me, it wouldn’t end well for him. Even if he managed to succeed, he also knows that the full force of the shadows would hunt him down personally and with as many enemies as he probably has I doubt if he needs to add more. Besides if it is an ambush, that’ll just make things more interesting and Dendrin’s always looking out for us anyway.”

Your flip remark about Dendrin gets a nod in agreement by Talia who doesn’t take it as a flip remark, but rather that you’re being genuine. “Well I suppose there is that and as the chosen of Dendrin you’d be even better protected, but who is going to be running things while we’re gone?”
“I don’t think we’re going to be gone for that long, but Cyrus can do it. Not like he goes on many missions anymore either.”

This is true. Ever since the incident with the dark elves, Cyrus and Dravin started becoming more withdrawn. Granted Dravin was never an extrovert, but with Cyrus it’s a little sad. It’s like you completely crushed his spirit that day. He lost his unofficial position as leader of the Blades due to the permanent limp you gave him and resigned himself to keeping up on internal security. Sometimes you feel a little bad about it, but you believe that in the long run it was a good thing. Cyrus, even though he’d pledged himself to you still harbored a bit of willfulness that was starting to come back. If allowed to flourish longer, he may have become more of a problem and would have had to been killed.

Though perhaps his current fate is worse than death.

When you approach Cyrus about the situation with Flog, he’s surprised that you’re going, let alone putting him in charge of the temple until you get back. He of course agrees and wishes you luck. Given how Flog was never his favorite person, you wonder why he didn’t at least express the same concerns about meeting with him like Talia did, and then it occurs to you that perhaps he’s hoping you do get killed.

In any event, you’re not going to worry about it. You instead hand pick some of the best Blades to come with you to Blood Tooth and set off on your journey as soon as possible.

The journey to Rask is fairly uneventful. While you mostly keep to the off beaten trails, you know most in Quala are wise enough to not attack a group of shadows even if they did see you. The “stable” leader of northern Quala, First Mage Galen has practically bent over backwards to stay on your good side. You sort of wonder if that is who Flog wants you to assassinate considering all the back and forth attempts at conquest into each other’s realms by the pair of them. If it is, then he better have a hell of a lot of money.

When you reach the Rask it mostly looks very much how it did when you left it. Much of it untouched wilderness though the occasional battlefield markings are apparent. Some are even fairly recent.

“Hey Flog didn’t say anything about safe passage did he in his letter?” Talia asks.
“No, but I don’t think he’d be able to enforce it very well anyway. You know how tribal orcs are, even under a strong leader they tend towards chaotic acts.”
“Well as you said, I suppose that’ll make things more interesting. Actually a battle would probably warm me up right about now. I think I got too used to the heat, though I wasn’t exactly fond of the freezing cold back in the old days either.”
“Really? I kind of preferred it, but we’re going to be making camp soon, we can warm up a little then.”

Later that night at your campsite you take first watch. You can’t really rest anyway since your body aches a bit. As the night goes on, you remember back to the time when you doing this as a regular thing, seems like a lifetime ago.

As you lose yourself in the past a bit you suddenly hear a noise. Like howling, but it isn’t from any sort of wolf that you’ve ever heard. Doesn’t even sound like a natural one and it sounds pretty close by.

“Everyone get up!” you shout with your weapon drawn.

As everyone starts to get up ready for battle, more of those howls can be heard. They’re nearly painful at this point and several of you are clutching at least one of your ears.

“What the hell is that?” Talia shouts.
“Not sure, but we’re about to find out.” You say as all of you form a back-to-back circle for defense.

Several glowing red eyes appear in the dark forest around you, when your assailants finally show themselves, they are in the form of orcs, but more feral and savage looking (even for orcs).

“You think Flog set this up?” Talia asks you while eyeing her closest possible attacker.
“Let’s worry about it afterwards.” You say and the orcs attack.

You’ve had to fight a few unruly orcs in the past and though its been awhile, you know their tactics wouldn’t have switched up that much. They almost lope at you and circle around you like an animal would, in fact animalistic is the best way to describe them since at this range you can see they aren’t even wearing much clothing beyond a loin cloth and a few grisly trophies in the form of bloody body parts. Their hands resemble claws and some of them aren’t even attacking with weapons at all and are just using their nails, which are unnaturally long for orcs.

You cross swords with one of them and even while speeding yourself up, it’s still nearly matching you blow for blow. Its face is close enough for you to get the good look and it’s contorted looking with an extra wide mouth filled with teeth. Whatever the hell this thing is, it isn’t any kind of orc you’ve ever seen or encountered. You muster up all your strength and land a powerful strike against the orc’s head nearly severing the top part of it completely. It attempts to still attack you, flailing its arms wildly and still making that horrible howling sound.

Then you hear a whispery voice in your mind. At first you think its Dendrin, but then you’re not asleep and you don’t feel the same numbness, but rather the exact opposite. A sharp pain in your head.

“The battle is lost mortal. You cannot kill us. You must submit to us, it is the only way to save yourself.”

You look around to see Talia and most of the other shadows still fighting, but you also see a couple of them clutching their heads and falling to the ground in pain. These definitely aren’t orcs you’re fighting considering they’re using some sort of psychic attack.

You could either try to finish off the rest of the orcs to stop the attacks or cast a shield over the minds of you and your shadows, though its very difficult to concentrate right now.
> You finish them off
You’re having a hard enough time concentrating as it is, you aren’t going to waste time trying to cast a spell. Besides you got by just fine without magic in the past and if you kill them all quick enough the danger will be over.

You quickly kill the orc that Talia is fighting and just in time too since she is visibly exhausted from the battle.

“Are you all right?”
“Yeah…I just…my head…”
“Stay out of the way and just keep fighting it, this’ll be over soon.” You say and Talia staggers over to a nearby tree out of the way of the major fighting.

You dispatch another orc and then another and then another, but the voices seem to be growing more numerous and more powerful.

“You cannot win! Cease your struggle! You are…”
“SHUT UP!” you yell out as you run your sword through the neck of another orc.

You barely avoid another attack, but not from an orc, but rather from one of your own shadows. When you see his face up close it has that same unnaturally wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. Its at that point you realize what you’re dealing with, wendigos. You briefly read about them in Kane’s journal after you took Fort Destiny. They’re evil spirits that constantly crave flesh and possess bodies of the living, which explains why the voices have been getting stronger as you’ve been depriving them of bodies. Now they’ve hopped into the bodies of your shadows.

You go on the defensive and put up a good fight despite being outnumbered and assaulted physically and mentally, but it all comes to an end when you suddenly feel a strong force hit your back and then through your body and out your chest. You look down to see a clawed hand drenched in blood and what looks to be part of your heart.

The claw is pulled back out and you fall to the snow dead. Talia gobbles up your heart before joining the rest of the shadows devouring your body.


Theo might mean well, but you’re a firm believer that simple plans often work best and since you’ve got the last word, you’re sticking with your original plan.

“It’s a good idea Theo, but I believe it may stir up more attention towards us, if we start attempting to convert people outside Delerg. It may even cause certain warlords to unite against us if they believe us to be threatening enough. Better that we keep our presence to a minimum and especially not try to contact any of them directly. What I want you to do instead is to just keep an eye on Anu and Sam since they’re close by, but since they seem to be content on bashing each other in the head just send some Blades to perform sabotage on both sides just to keep them mired down.”
“As you wish Shadow Master.” Theo remarks.
“The western Quala warlords seem pretty occupied as well so we don’t need to deal with them either. General Ackerson though I want assassinated. I know he’s attempting to expand into Rask, but the man is the biggest threat as far as powers in Quala and I don’t want him to improve that position in the future. Cyrus, since you’re really eager about doing this, I’m going to leave it up to you who to send, but I imagine you’ll want to oversee things personally.”
“It will be done Shadow Master, and thank you.”
“I believe that’s about it, we can go over more details one on one later.”

After the meeting Talia speaks to you directly.

“You sure you want to leave it to Cyrus? I would’ve thought you would’ve wanted to handle something so important yourself.”
“I’m confident that Cyrus can do the job efficiently. If nothing else he’s enthusiastic for things like this. I thought about going too, but I’m slowly begining to realize I’ll be needing to delegate and remaining at this temple more. Besides I’m sure there will be other opportunities to go kill someone. Never seems to be a shortage in fact.”
“Well that’s true.”
“I’m thinking I’ll spend more time looking after the security within the Delerg province. I mean yes we have potential enemies outside the province, but it doesn’t hurt to keep alert in our homestead.”
“I suppose not, but we’re pretty well liked here.”
“Perhaps, but if I’ve learned anything, its that enemies can exist anywhere of you look hard enough.”

Over the next few days your initial plans go off quite well. General Ackerson is assassinated successfully and there wasn’t even any indication there was shadow involvement. As of now his group is fighting amongst itself and no longer united. Captain Anu and Sam Jowin have each been suffering set backs and of course blaming each other for them.

You then relent a bit to let the chaos do its work in Quala until it looks like the place is going to stabilize once again and that’s when you send in shadows to create strife again. It becomes routine just like any of the prayer sessions for Dendrin.

Of course as good as the shadows are, you can’t go undetected forever and eventually someone catches on to what’s really been going happening…

“There’s a huddled mass of people outside the temple, Shadow Master. We’re keeping them out obviously, but their speaker really wants to see you.” Brother Gannon says to you.
“Who are these people?”
“Mostly peasants I believe, but they aren’t from Delerg, they’re from Quala. Under Sam’s dominion I think. They say they want our help.”
“Our help? What’s bringing this on and what makes them think we’re going to help a bunch of unbelievers?” Cyrus asks. In fact you all are wondering what this is all about.

“Well I guess the best way to find out is to ask them. Send in their speaker and keep the rest outside. If anything looks suspicious kill them all.” You say.

Brother Gannon nods and waves in the Qualans’ speaker. While you expect a grubby peasant with dirty clothing to come shuffling in, you instead get a young man dressed in leather armor. Despite his warrior garb he’s nervous. He’s trying his best to be brave, but you sense the fear in him.

“Well? Out with it, you traveled a long way just to waste our time.” Talia remarks.
“Yes, my apologies, um Shadowlord is it?”
“Shadow Master actually, but let’s just get on with why you saw fit to lead a bunch of peasants here and why you think we can even help you.” you say.
“Oh yes that. My name is Flynn and we all live in the Quala Freelands, which as you know is run by Sam Jowin. I myself am a soldier of relatively low rank…and uh…look there’s no easy way of saying this so I guess I’ll get right to it. We want you to kill Sam.”

You have to admit this wasn’t exactly the sort of help you thought they were going to ask for. You and the rest of your council look at each other before you speak again.

“And why do you think we would do that?”
“Because you routinely sabotage our side and Captain Anu’s? Because you were most likely involved in the assassination of General Ackerson? It wasn’t apparent at first, but…”
“Now stop right there for a moment Flynn, and think very carefully on your next words.”
“I…I’m sorry Shadow Master, but I do not know any other way to put this.”
“Very well then, let me help you. Even if we were involved in such activities and that’s not an admission, what still makes you think that we would be willing to assassinate your beloved leader?”
“He’s NOT a beloved leader! Sam is no better than the tyrannical Emperor that ruled over us before! I will admit during his freedom fighter days he was an inspiration, but now? He’s just another petty warlord that doesn’t give a shit about anything other than his own power!”
“That’s a pretty bold statement. I knew Sam during the Empire War years and even fought along side him a couple times. He was always a fair man from what I knew of him and cared for those under his command.” Theo remarks.
“Yeah, well he’s changed drastically since then, the things he’s done... the things I’ve had to do in his service…I do not even wish to think about let alone discuss. So do you need payment? We weren’t sure what we’d need to get your help. We have scraped together valuables and gold for you. I don’t know if its enough, I mean I think we could scrape a bit more, but…here’s what we got.”

At this point Flynn reaches for a small pouch on his side and extends his hand towards all of you with it. Cyrus snatches it from him and reveals a few gold coins and a couple of gems of low quality. Probably a paltry amount, but then you don’t really know what the going rate is for assassination is these days never having done it for money before.

“And you think we’re mere thugs for hire?” Cyrus asks throwing the pouch back at Flynn who barely catches it.

“No! I mean well…we uh…are also prepared to give you a virgin girl in exchange for your help if you aren’t motivated by profit.”
“A virgin girl?” Yvette asks.
“Yeah, for your sacrifices to Dendrin. Isn’t that what you guys do?”

At this point Cyrus gets so pissed at Flynn he punches him in the face. Theo isn’t too happy with him either and begins calling Flynn names. You on the other hand, chuckle to yourself thinking that human sacrifice might actually break up the monotony around the temple sometimes. And while you’re not seriously considering such a thing, you are seeing an opportunity here to change things up a bit.

“Alright Cyrus that will do for now. This man obviously came to us for help and kicking the hell out of this poor bastard isn’t going to help matters.”
“But he insulted Dendrin! And he insults the shadows by coming to us like we’re some lowly criminals!”
“No this man came to us looking for skilled assassins who can get the job done right. And that’s what we are, aren’t we? I mean that’s partly how we won the war against the Empire isn’t it? If there are already rumors going around by ignorant peasants that we killed General Ackerson and have been involved in sabotage in Quala then our cover has already been blown at this point. We may as well embrace it.”
“What are you saying?” Talia asks.

“I’m saying that we should take this man up on his offer. However, our payment will be that he owes us a favor. In fact ALL of those that are with him today will owe us a favor. Be sure to get all their names before they leave here. It may be big, it may be small, it may never come at all, but when we call it in, they better deliver…are we agreed to this Flynn?” you say extending your hand to help him up.

He’s unsure at first, but eventually he takes it and gets up. Sam must really be some sort of bastard if Flynn is agreeing to this arrangement.

“I…I accept your terms Shadow Master.”
“Good, it’ll be taken care of as soon as possible.”
“Thank you! Thank you!” he says and starts to bow a lot while he steps backwards towards the door.
“Excuse me, but where do you think you’re going?”
“I was taking my leave Shadow Master.”
“Not with that pouch of valuables you aren’t. They were a gift to us were they not?”
“Oh…yes…of course. Here you go. My apologies Shadow Master.” Flynn says and tosses the bag to you.
“Good. NOW you may go.”

After Flynn leaves the temple you remind some of the Blades to get all their names down. Meanwhile your council is a little confused by your latest decision

“Are you serious about this?” Theo asks.
“Of course I am, if I wasn’t I wouldn’t have made the offer.” You answer.
“But we’re helping unbelievers!” Cyrus says.
“So? We helped them during the Empire War too, what makes now so different? I’ll tell you what makes it different, we’re actually going to be profiting from it for a change. Look if we’re going to stay safe, and I mean truly safe from external threats we need to get back on to the world stage. Staying isolated in this swamp is only going to work for so long and eventually someone is going to come here with an army and attempt to overwhelm us. Last time I checked our numbers are still low.”
“Okay, but weren’t we ensuring our safety by destabilizing Quala?” Theo asks.
“We were, but as I said our presence has obviously become known now. It’s nobody’s fault, it was bound to happen eventually, but that means we’ve got two options. Either we stop completely and risk Quala being united under one person who decides they want to emulate the Empire which means war in the far future. Or we continue doing what we’re doing and risk pissing everyone off to such a degree that they stop fighting each other and unite against us, which means war in the near future. Neither of those sound attractive so I’m choosing the third option.”
“Which is?” Yvette asks.
“We offer our services to the highest bidder. We become the go to organization for assassination. We spread so much fear and terror that nobody will ever want to attack us, they will instead wish to curry our favor in exchange for our help. And Cyrus I already see you’re about to protest and I don’t know why because you’re the first one who usually wants to go practice your killing skills on someone. I’d think you of all people would be happy with this arrangement.”
“You may be right.” Cyrus says.
“But what about Dendrin?” Yvette asks.
“Yes! What about the integrity of this order?” Theo adds
“Dendrin is the god of shadows. Why else would he give us such powers if not to use them in such a manner? But if it will calm everyone down I will certainly consult him on this matter. At this time though I have made my decision on what is best for the shadows.”

None of them may see it now, but you really are taking steps to ensure the survival of the shadows. The shadows were feared during their lackey days under the Empire and during the rebellion the Empire itself learned to fear the shadows.

Now? The fear still exists, but not to the extent that it needs to be. Not to the extent that it SHOULD be. You’re going to get that fear back and that reputation is what going to keep you all alive and thrive.

Surely Dendrin would certainly approve of that. In fact you know that sadistic bastard would.
> You adapt or die (Year 49)
Theo and Yvette are brought before you restrained by two Blades each. They are heavily beaten, but still display a look of defiance on their faces. The rest of the shadows look on in anticipation of what you intend to do. Indeed some may still be in the dark about what exactly is going on.

“Here they are Shadow Master, brought to you alive as you wanted.”

You approach the both of them, starting with Theo first.

“What’s wrong? Have you grown so drunk with power that you’ve become too lazy to do your own dirty work anymore?” Theo asks.
“What’s wrong? Have you grown so cowardly that you had to conspire with other shadows rather than attempt to sink the blade in my back yourself? If I was as lazy as you claimed, I wouldn’t have been keeping track of your increasing insubordinate activity and your attempts of poisoning the minds of other shadows. Doesn’t matter though, you were useful in that regard by saving me the trouble of determining for certain those that can’t adapt with the times.”
“Adapt with the times? Is that what all this is called? I call it turning away from Dendrin’s will! How can any of you follow this…mad man masquerading as a Shadow Master? We’ve become nothing more than assassins for hire and selling out our very beliefs for petty profit and corrupt favors!”
“And what would YOU have us do? Continue to remain isolated in our dreary temple going through the motions of prayers all day and night until we die? The old shadows did that and look what happened, they…WE were practically enslaved by the Empire! WE were their lackies and servants for centuries! And now that we’ve finally cast off those shackles you want us to be put in a position again where that could happen again? I say never again.”

Theo naturally isn’t convinced, but his fate was sealed a long time ago anyway. Yvette decides it’s her turn to speak out.

“You keep saying WE as if you’re actually as shadow, but you aren’t! You’re a corruption! An abomination! You’re something the Empire grew in a lab! ALL of your kind are! You treat this order like your own private caste system, with all the Eternals at the top and us pure humans at the bottom! The Empire may be dead, but from where I’m standing its legacy still lives on to continue its tyranny over us in the form of YOU!”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. Any human or Eternal can perform the same duties, I show no preferences. You and Theo were on my council. Trusted and well respected advisors that I thought were loyal. Dravin is on the council and he is human as well.” You say
“Yeah, because he’s Cyrus’ bitch…” Theo mutters. This causes Cyrus to lunge at Theo so quickly that you barely manage to keep him from killing him right there.

“Let us kill this traitor and be done with it!” Cyrus shouts.
“Yeah, let’s get on with it, why draw it out, we all know what’s going to happen.” Theo replies.
“Yes we do, but that’s not nearly as important as the journey itself.” You say.
“What journey?”
“This one. The one we’re on right now. Let me ask you this so that I may show a glaring flaw in your reasoning. IF I was as bad as you claim and I’ve turned the shadows from the will of Dendrin why was I not stopped? Why was I even picked to be Shadow Master? Why weren’t you able to succeed with your plan to kill me?”

Theo is silent. He has no good answer, though you get the impression he wants to give you his own thoughts on the matter, but you interrupt before he can.

“I’ll tell you why. Because what I’m doing here, the direction I’ve taken the shadow IS Dendrin’s will! He WANTED someone like me in charge, because face it; I’ve been a major reason why this fucking order even continues to exist! I have on more than one occasion made the hard decisions that have ensured the survival of the shadows! I fought against the very Empire, which as your wife says created me in a lab somewhere. My loyalty to the shadows and to Dendrin has ALWAYS been there if it hadn’t he wouldn’t have chosen me. You dare stand there and judge me after I’ve either directly or indirectly saved everyone here at one time or another? Nobody can judge me except Dendrin, I think you forgot that lesson.”

At last you’ve pushed the buttons that cause Theo to utter the words in front of everyone that you were waiting for.

“Then maybe Dendrin doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing! And maybe I’ve wasted my life following a so-called deity that doesn’t give a shit whether we live or die! Fuck you and fuck Dendrin!” Theo snarls and you give a hidden smile while the rest of the shadows either jeer at him in disgust or show a less verbal way of disapproval such as shaking their heads.

“Well there you have it brothers and sisters, an unrepentant verbal admission of disloyalty, I think we can all see who has really turned from Dendrin’s will here.” You say.

You say nothing else and focus on Theo’s mind as he stares at you with burning hatred. You begin to perform the same spell that Master Ebon did on Brother Shade when he tried to kill him. Theo dies in very much the same way, with his ears and nose bleeding first, followed by gasps. He never screams though. Eventually his brain explodes inside his head and he slumps down dead.

You then turn to Yvette, she looks thoroughly beaten at this point and doesn’t even look at you. You were going to ask if she wishes to say anything else, but it would be pointless and besides you’ve gotten what you wanted out of this. You focus on her mind and within a few agonizing moments it’s all over for her.

Afterwards you give a small speech about how this is a reminder of how traitors like Theo will always be brought to justice because Dendrin sees all and knows all. You also reassure them all of how good things have been going for the shadows since you’ve engaged in the current activities you’ve been doing and how loyalty to Dendrin will ultimately be rewarded in the afterlife.

As you go back to your own duties, you can’t help but think about Theo’s few last words and how you briefly wanted to agree with him, if only to see the amusing confusion on the shadows faces.


Year 46

Took long enough, and sometimes it never seemed like it was going to happen, but you’ve finally restored Dendrin’s temple. Restoring it wasn’t easy either, especially not one as big and in such disrepair like Dendrin’s. The surprising thing is you’ve not only restored it in appearance, but in use as well.

The one of the first difficult things was getting the stone. Delerg isn’t exactly flush with rock quarries. The second difficult thing was getting help to restore it in the first place. The shadows might be great warriors and have more knowledge than the average peasant, but nobody in your ranks is a laborer or into masonry. Obviously outside help was necessary.

Fortunately since the fall of the Empire, Delerg had once again become a quiet place with no “leader.” Most of the inhabitants were content to go about their simple lives like they once did before the Empire. When you arrived in Sinkhole, to ask around for workers to try to restore the temple, some couldn’t volunteer fast enough to help.

This need to help you, was a combination of a few things. The most important one being that Delerg was always shadow friendly. The Empire may have ruled it for a while, but the respect that its people had for the shadows was always greater. The shadows after all were once the main protectors of the area before the Empire.

Combining this with the fact that the shadows were the main ones who helped influence so much rebellion and caused the destruction of the Empire, it was only natural that you were as warmly embraced like you were. Good thing too, because you certainly didn’t have the coin to pay the workers in the first place!

As the temple was slowly being restored, more people started flocking to your aid. Some of these were old rebels that the shadows lost contact with when you started consolidating your forces in Rask. They remember you though and offer help in any way their skills allow.

While you were always a little surprised by how much free help you were always willing to get, what surprised you more is how little you really needed to do to get it. These people had no one telling them what to do or how to live anymore, and yet a lot of them seemed to be in a big hurry for that to change by becoming Dendrin worshippers! You understand gratitude, but to willingly surrender a portion of your earnings and time to serve an invisible being that you had no proof existed, while some guy claiming to be his “representative” tell you how you should live seemed like a step backwards for them at least. For you though, it was all beneficial as eventually some of these devoted souls wanted to become full-fledged shadows. Naturally you accepted them into your ranks provided they could pass through the testing.

Right now things have been better for you than they have ever been. You’ve got a nice restored temple, a fair sized congregation, the ranks of the shadows are slowly starting to grow again and most importantly you haven’t had to deal with any problems with the new eternals (Now known as the Shadow Blades) ever since they all went through the ritual. Dendrin was true to his word on that, just like you were true to yours by restoring his temple.

Still, even after directly helping you, you still can’t bring yourself to “worship” Dendrin. Not really. Part of you feels like it was the least he could’ve done after all the stuff in the past he’s put you through. Another of part of you feels as if you’ve “repaid the debt” by restoring the temple.

He’s probably granted you more power as you’ve noticed your magical abilities becoming superior to everyone else’s and it taking much less effort, but again you still feel no sense of “awe” in Dendrin that would cause you to willingly worship him as a god.

To you, he’s a very powerful being that is a whimsical ally at best. You’ve come to realize that he is probably deserving of your respect in regard to his power and you always keep that in mind when up keeping the charade of his religion. Perhaps it is enough, or at least it’ll have to be since you don’t see yourself changing your mind on the matter anytime soon, especially when you’ve been trying to figure out what your next big course of action should be.

The problem with a lack of conflict is that you find yourself very bored. Even in Rask, the monotony was broken up with the occasional giant or ogre attack. Here in Delerg there are no such great dangers surprisingly enough. Most dangerous swamp beasts prefer to stick to their own stomping grounds which all seem to be away from your part of the swamp and Sul-monkeys aren’t a threat so much as they’re an occasional annoyance when large groups of them decide to use the temple roof as a mating area! The last time you had any true conflict was when General Ackerson’s men ambushed you and part of you hasn’t forgotten that incident. From what you know, he’s still in power and sometimes you’d like to change that just on principle.

Quala is still an area in a power struggle between competing warlords, but so far there have been no attempt by any of them to expand into Delerg, probably because there isn’t much here in the first place save for swamp. Not to mention there are most likely trickles of news coming in about the return of the shadows to Delerg. Most of the warlords being ex-Empire probably would like to get some sort of revenge, but know that their losses would be considerable if they even attempted such a thing, so you are left alone.

Talia and Cyrus seem to be content with how things are now, why can’t you be? Funny that you were concerned about the new eternals being restless and getting themselves into trouble, while here you are considering starting a fight because your bored with peace! The only real reason you can think of is petty revenge on General Ackerson and that’s not a very good one even if you could easily tell everyone that Dendrin told you all to go kill him.

In your moment of introspection, you take another look at what you’ve accomplished. You went from being a lone unbeliever practically trapped in an organization that was determined to overthrow an enemy several times larger than itself to the victorious leader of said organization, which is now thriving under your watch.

You probably could defeat Ackerson, but at what cost? Last you heard he has thousands of men at his command still and that includes a few battle mages. The shadows may be growing slowly, but that’s just it, slowly. You don’t have anywhere near the numbers to start raising armies. Sure, you have the entire support of probably all of Delerg, but that doesn’t mean much in the scheme of things if most of the people aren’t warriors. You kill Ackerson and take his territory then what? You hold it? How long can that last with the numbers you’d have left? You doubt if the people of Quala would be as supportive, if anything they probably blame the shadows for the miserable warring state they live in now. This doesn’t even factor in the OTHER warlords in the area. They may all decide to gang up on you and if you’re in any sort of weakened condition they may even press their attack into Delerg itself.

No, the risk doesn’t seem worth it compared to the petty gain. The shadows have never been about conquest and they probably shouldn’t start now. However, that doesn’t mean you should stay idle. Peace is fine, but perhaps there is a way of initiating conflict without actually doing it.

It occurs to you that the warlords of Quala won’t always be fighting. Eventually one of them is going to win or manage to unite the area in some way. When that happens then Delerg might be in potential danger, so it would be in your best interest to make sure that doesn’t happen. Keep Quala weak and disorganized while keeping Delerg the opposite.

You start sending in shadows into Quala to get a good idea of what the situation is there, but not to actually do anything yet. Theo is mostly in charge of this due to his previous experience of working extensively in the region during the Empire war. Eventually after a couple months you have all the information you really need and ready to put the second part of your plan into action, which is to keep the region destabilized. This is going to include sabotage, misdirection, more spying, and assassinations, all those things that play on the strengths of the shadows.

“I like it. So when do we start assassinating people?” Cyrus remarks causing Draven to chuckle.
“Well, we probably should decide who needs it first. Some of the leaders sound so incompetent that it might be better if we left them in charge.” Talia adds.
“Shouldn’t we have some sort of plan before doing this?” Yvette asks.
“We do have a plan, I just explained it.” You say not understanding why she would ask such a question.
“I…think what my wife means is should we not have a greater plan other than sewing chaos. I do not presume to disagree with your reasons Shadow Master, but I do believe that causing discord for the sake of doing it might seem a bit…well…short term.” Theo says.
“So you believe that we should actually take territory? I explained why I believe that would be a problem.”
“No, no, I agree that we shouldn’t be marching armies into Quala, I guess what I mean is perhaps this would also be a good time to launch an aggressive campaign of converting unbelievers. You know send our better speakers to some of the smaller villages that are unhappy with life under the warlords and telling them how Dendrin can release them from such misery. Given enough time, we would have so many converted that we wouldn’t have to worry about raising an army or Quala ever being a threat because most of the population would all be believers in Dendrin.”

An interesting suggestion from Theo and one you weren’t really expecting from him. He also mentions he could get back in contact with some of the old rebels he knows are still living in Quala to help more directly as well.
> You council and Blades (New Shadow Structure)
Since the new eternals all went through “proper” shadow indoctrination, they’ve all been a lot calmer. Still killers of course, but at least now you haven’t seen any signs of them acting unstable.

Besides you, Cyrus and Talia, they are probably still the best warriors you have though, so you decided to still keep them a bit separate from the rest of the “rank and file” by naming them the Shadow Blades. They seem to like the designation. There are a few “normal” shadows in the Blades as well since anyone can be one if they’re skilled enough. While the Eternals still tend to see Talia as their “mother” Cyrus and Draven are the ones who mostly send them out on patrols or missions nowadays. Talia’s learned to let go of her “children” a bit.

The other main reason for the creation of the Blades is due to the fact that a lot of the shadows have families now or are attempting to start on such. Seeing as you don’t do a lot of warring nowadays, you figure it would be all right to relax the need for everyone to be on constant alert all the time. All shadows are still required to upkeep their martial and magic skills though.

The other change you decided on was to create a council of sorts. As Shadow Master your word goes (Or Dendrin’s “Word” as they all sometimes believe) but you’ve been trying to become more inclusive in some of the decision making mainly because some of the more menial tasks or administrative duties are a bore to you and it helps if you don’t have to do it all by yourself. (Bad enough you’ve got to keep up on all the shadow lore, fortunately you let Talia handle some of that)

So far the Shadow Council is made up of you, Talia, Cyrus, Draven, Yvette and Theo. Three Eternals, three humans and one of those pairings is one of each. You believe it’s pretty equal all things considered.


You never thought you’d ever be doing this willingly…

“Dendrin, if you’re still watching me, we need to have a talk and you probably know what it is about already. So have your giggles if you must about all this, but I’m asking you for your help and I mean real help, not cryptic answers or hollow words. And if you don’t listen to me, then I suppose I’ll figure it out myself as usual.”

About ten minutes later after your “prayer” you drift off to sleep and find yourself in a place you haven’t been in a long time.

“Been a long time Eternal. While I’m glad to see it is you who initiated the dialogue for a change, I am a little hurt though that you’ve only called on me because you need help. But I suppose any progress with a cynical soul like you is better than nothing. Why its almost like you’re taking a leap of faith…”

Great he’s going to milk this for all its worth.

“Anyway enough of that, what can I do for you exactly today?”
“Well I figure you being all knowing and all, you’re already familiar with the dilemma, so I was hoping that…in your benevolent wisdom, you’d see fit to help me.”

A loud chortle echos throughout your mind.

“All knowing and benevolent wisdom is it? A word of advice Eternal, don’t attempt to grovel, it doesn’t suit you. Though I do appreciate the attempt as it shows there is hope for you after all, which I always believed would be the case. The answer is yes, I will help you.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes. What? Is there more you required from me?”
“No, but…well what are you going to do exactly?”
“Get rid of your problems of course.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. You’re not being specific, I mean for all I know your version of getting rid of my problems means killing me.”
“My dear Eternal have you gained faith in me only to lose it so quickly? (Sigh) I suppose this is a bit too much for you. Very well I shall explain MY end of the bargain. When you reach Delerg, I want you to go to my temple and in a very hidden location on one of the walls near a pillar you will find a button. Press it and you shall recover most of the lost shadow history in an area below the temple. One of the books includes the ritual to open up the portal to my realm. Send your remaining Eternals into it and I shall do the rest.”
“That…that’s almost exactly what Talia had hoped for when she suggested this journey.”
“Yes, I know. That’s because she’s a believer. So if you’re still wondering what my price is, it’s just gaining more loyal followers that will no longer cause potential strife within the order… and the assurance on your part that you will be doing your best to restoring my temple to its former glory.”
“Of course…wait you said remaining Eternals. What did you mean?”
“Oh you’ll find out soon.”

Suddenly you are pulled out your state of numbness and into the real world.

“Get up! We’re being attacked!” Talia yells and picks you up by the arm. A bright light is illuminating the nighttime sky along with several fire arrows. You roll under a wagon to avoid immediate danger.

It would appear General Ackerson’s men have discovered you and have attacked in force. They’re being smart about it too, attacking at night with archers and unfortunately also a couple of battle mages who are making the darkness disappear with their spells.

“How the hell did they sneak up on us? I had scouts around the perimeter to avoid this sort of thing!” you mutter to yourself. Doesn’t matter now you suppose, what you have to do is get the hell out of here as fast as possible. You don’t like running, but you’ll end up losing more people if you stick around and fight. Besides, there are probably more troops behind the archers or at least on their way.

“Everyone, grab what you can, head for those hills, speed up and cloak!” you shout. Talia and Cyrus both repeat this order so everyone can hear it. You sort of figured you’d end up dropping most of baggage, but probably not exactly like this!

The soldiers are still shooting at you of course, but they’re doing it blind. Some of the mages get a few people though by blindly throwing fireballs in the general direction. Of course not every shadow has listened to you, some of them decided to run in the direction of the soldiers instead. These are some of the eternals of course. As you get closer and closer to the hills, the arrows and fireballs have seemed to have stopped altogether, it seems as if some of the eternals have managed to tie up the troops by engaging in close combat with some of them.

The next few days also involve some fighting with more soldiers in the hills, but since it’s mostly swordsmen you’re got more of an advantage on your side and you lose no more people. Eventually the attacks stop altogether. You’ve either gotten far enough away, or General Ackerson has decided it’s not worth losing any more men over.

You take a head count to see who is still alive and you now understand what Dendrin meant by the “remaining eternals” as most of the ones who did die were eternals. (Specifically the same ones Talia gave you the names of) Talia also asks you if you consulted Dendrin’s advice on what is to be done about what was discussed before.

“I believe our recent attack has solved some of it, and Dendrin told me that when we reach the temple, he will solve the rest. He also said that you were right all along, we were meant to take this journey. I think we had to suffer a few losses before the shadow order can truly move forward.” You tell Talia, she seems relieved that you or her aren’t in trouble with Dendrin.

When the hills begin to flatten and ground starts to become soft, you know that you’ve reached the Delerg border. Brother Theo takes the lead from here and compared to your journey through Quala its downright uneventful other than annoying groups of Sul-monkeys that throw things from the low trees every once in awhile.

Eventually you arrive at the temple and everyone is filled with a great joy. You figure you should make some sort of uplifting speech about triumph and such, so you do. Then you tell everyone to start exploring the temple and get settled in where they can, you’ll worry about fixing the place up later.

The inside of the temple is in surprisingly good condition. You waste no time in seeking out the stone “button” that will open up a secret place in the temple. Eventually you find it (which you doubt you would’ve been able to do if Dendrin hadn’t told you) and descend down.

What you find is better than you could’ve hoped for when you first arrived and that’s living quarters for what you presume would be for the old shadow high priests or whatever. It isn’t fancy, but it’s fairly clean. You imagine that this place hasn’t been accessed in centuries. The walls are very solidly made so it doesn’t even look like signs of any natural intrusion have occurred either. Just as Dendrin said, there is a fully stocked library which no doubt contain most of the shadow’s history and wisdom, and more importantly the ritual that you can use on the eternals. Talia, immediately starts looking through the books while you and Cyrus explore the rest of the place.

There is one “room” that sticks out which isn’t man made and that’s a small natural cavern, which seems to be an underground garden of some sort with a shallow stream of fresh water flowing through it. Blue glowing fungus lights up the place and there are no exits other than the small openings the water is flowing through. Cyrus takes some purple berries off one of the bushes and pops them in his mouth and remarks how good they taste.

“Looks like we won’t have to worry about clean water immediately, even our food can be supplemented here. Dendrin provides as usual.” He says.
“Indeed and while I know we all serve Dendrin, rank also has its privileges. I’ll be sleeping down here in one of those bedrooms with Talia.” You remark.
“Heh, well there are three of them from what I’ve seen, surely the Shadow Master doesn’t need ALL of them.” Cyrus replies.
“Well I might’ve needed them to store belongings, but since we dropped most of them, I suppose I don’t have any problem with you and Draven taking one of the rooms. How is Draven anyway, if it wasn’t for you, I’d probably forget he’s even with us.”
“Oh he’s fine. He’s always been a bit more on the quiet side as you know.”
“Mm, well since I’m in a generous mood, I guess Brother Theo and Sister Yvette can take the third room. The pair of them have helped the shadows in more ways than I can count. Besides I know they got something going on with each other, have no idea why they haven’t bonded properly yet though.”
“Maybe they don’t want to be tied down to one person?”
“If that was the case, I wouldn’t see them together almost all the time. I swear since we first kicked the Empire out of Rask, those two have been practically joined at the hip.”

Before Cyrus can agree with your observation Talia steps in and interrupts.

“I found it! I found the book! We can perform the ritual!” she exclaims.
“Already? That was quick. Okay, well you study it and we’ll get to it as soon as possible.”
“But you are Shadow Master my love, only YOU can do it properly.” Talia says and thrusts the book upon you.
“Oh…well I suppose my magical abilities have come a long way from what they used to be. Very well then, I shall study this tome and we can give the new eternals a proper induction into the shadows like we all were right?”

Talia and Cyrus both nod at your remark.

You excuse yourself and retire to your bedroom to begin a long night of studying.
> You old Tomes (The Ritual of Ascension)
While studying the book that contains the initiation ritual in the library, Talia comes over to see how you’re doing.

“Still at it? I didn’t realize the ritual was that complex.” She says.
“It isn’t actually. From what I can tell it just requires a lot of focus and belief. I’m fairly certain I can handle that. I actually got sidetracked by some of these other tomes here.” You answer and point out a bunch of other books nearby.

“Heh, sort of funny to see you like this. I remember a time when you weren’t the most eager to perform any sort of magic mainly because you weren’t very good at it.”
“Trust me, it’s still not my favorite area, but I feel I have been growing in power and gotten better. So I figured I should learn some of the other major rituals and such.”

Talia nods as she looks through the books. Eventually she picks up a heavy black one and begins glancing through it.

“The ritual of ascension? What’s that?”
“Good question. I actually wasted quite a bit of time reading through that one, before starting on reading the stuff I was supposed to be reading about. Basically I don’t know what it does exactly. In fact some of it is in a language I don’t even recognize.”
“Yeah, I see that.”
“The rest of the wording I have read is almost deliberately cryptic. Terribly annoying and not very helpful. You’d think whoever wrote it down, would’ve made it a lot clearer. Well anyway, I’ll study it in length some other time. Right now I’m just going to go over the initiation ritual once more and then get some sleep.”
“Very well. I’ll see you then.” Talia says and kisses you before leaving.

After she leaves, you take another glance though the book containing the ritual of ascension. Still not understanding it any better, you toss it aside and return to more immediate studies.


While you aren’t convinced that going to Delerg is necessarily the best idea, maybe you do need a change of scenery. With the population being unhelpful and the troubles with Flog, it might very well be best to leave before this gets worse. Besides, while it isn’t common knowledge that you made a deal with Flog to enslave the northern most towns in exchange for his help, there have always been “rumors” amongst some of the Raskians and eventually those rumors are going to become an even bigger problem.

Part of you feels like you’re “running away” from conflict and that somewhat bothers you. However, you spent your life running away from the Empire and striking at the right time to strengthen your own position while weakening their own. Why shouldn’t you employ a similar outlook on life in general? Retreat from an unfavorable position to hopefully a better one, it couldn’t hurt at this point.

The next day you call all the shadows to gather in the main hall and announce that you’ve conversed with Dendrin and that he’s told you that the shadows need to go back to reclaim the shadow homeland in Delerg and that your future is there not in Rask. Many of the human shadows seem to be enthusiastic about this idea. The Eternal shadows less so, but that might be for several reasons. In any event, you tell everyone that all of you will be packing up everything and moving on as soon as possible. Since it is looking a snowstorm is coming you’ll have plenty of time to prepare and you’ll leave Evergloom when it subsides. You also ask some of the older shadows if they know where the original temple is exactly located in Delerg. Brother Theo says that he knows and that he remembers visiting it once back in his youth when he was escorting some rebels to the shadow safe houses in Delerg.

“Despite it being in ruins and covered in overgrowth, I still felt it to be a place of power. Not power in the traditional sense, but more like a feeling. A feeling that the cause of the Shadows was the correct one and that by trusting in Dendrin, we would eventually return to the temple of our forefathers one day. It looks like that day has finally come and I couldn’t be happier.” Brother Theo says.
“Well brother, we aren’t there yet. We’ve still got to get there. The Empire might be gone, but who knows what might’ve taken its place. The journey still might be dangerous.” You reply.
“I know Shadow Master, but Dendrin guided us successfully through the Empire War. I know he will guide us to our home just as easily.”
“Yes, I suppose he will.”

A month passes before you can actually get going due to the snowstorm. Everyone’s glad to leave too being stuck in the fort for so long. You wish you hadn’t had to eat up a lot of your food supply though, but you figure you’ll worry about food along the way either by hunting for it or trading for it when possible.

As you and the shadows begin your exodus from Evergloom, you look back at the old Empire fort that was your home for so long. You wonder how long it’ll be before someone else takes residence there. If you had to guess, Flog will probably figure out it isn’t occupied anymore, take it over and start using it as a staging ground to assault the southern towns of Rask. You’ll bet the Raskians will wish you were still around when that eventually happens.

The journey through Rask is slow going. You can’t just speed yourselves up considering all the equipment and belongings you’ve got packed on wagons, carts and horses. Still, you aren’t in any danger as you pass through Raskian towns. While it alarms the people to see so many shadows nobody dares attack you. You find trade easy, as they are eager to help see you on your way. You didn’t really think you’d have trouble traveling through Rask though, it’s after Rask that you’re more concerned about.

From what news has reached you, ever since the Empire fell the Quala province has fragmented into several bickering warlords, each fighting for control of what’s left. In some ways the people of the land are in a worse situation than when the Empire existed, but that isn’t something you can really dwell on now. Your goal is to get through the land and you’re sure to run into someone’s territory as you travel through and they’ll no doubt be hostile about it. Not much can be done except hope for the best because much like speeding yourselves up isn’t an option, neither is cloaking yourselves. Well you could, but those horses and wagons are still going to be visible.

“How are we going to play this?” Talia asks as you stand at the Rask border.
“I know our information structure started falling into disuse when we drove the Empire from Rask, but does anyone have any information on what the exact situation is in Quala?” you ask.
“Last I heard, an ex-Empire general declared himself the local warlord of the northern most portion of Quala. A General Ackerson I believe.” Cyrus remarks.
“Never heard of him.”
“I don’t think most did, even before the rebellion he wasn’t a very prominent general and the Empire tended to have more than a few useless high ranking officers that never did much. I only knew about him due to all the years working in the shadow cells and keeping abreast of all the Empire military commanders. He got his rank mostly due to family connections and was never put in charge of anything important. I don’t even think he was even in charge of anything during the rebellion days, at least not that know of when I was still situated in Quala. Still, I assume he must have some skill in combat and have some charisma if he’s made himself a warlord now. Well that or very rich which might be more of the case.” Brother Theo adds.
“Okay, any other information on warlords in the area?” you ask.

Nobody knows anything else other than he seems to be the top one. Funny how the most obscure people can rise to power when the opportunity presents itself. Stepping off the road, you could probably just trespass through General Ackerson’s territory to reach Delerg and you’d only have him to deal with him if need be, of course it’s going to be even slower going due to all your baggage. The terrain that way is known to be somewhat hilly and if gets too rough, you might even have to leave some of your stuff behind. Rough terrain aside, there’s also the open fields you’d have to cross too. Not much cover if a large patrol of archers happened upon you.

Of course sticking to the road will be quicker and unobtrusive to your baggage carts, but you’d still have to trespass through Ackerson’s territory and assuming you got through that, you’d probably have to go through some other warlord’s territory as well before you reached Delerg. On top of all this, you have no idea how you’ll be treated by any towns you pass through.
> You travel on road
You’ve got a lot of baggage to travel with and the longer you can do it on road, the quicker you’ll get to your destination. Whatever tolls or other harassment that any wannabe emperors have in store can be dealt with. Certainly can’t be worse than what you’ve already faced.

“Okay we’re taking the roads brothers and sisters. Remember that we are potentially entering hostile territory, so keep alert and be prepared.” You tell everyone before continuing on the journey.

Half a day passes without incident; of course it doesn’t stay that way when several people patrolling the road up ahead and immediately head your way. They aren’t dressed in proper Empire armor, but the way they swagger with self-importance; you’re guessing they’re probably some sort of militia recruits under the command of this General Ackerson.

Several of the Eternals are itching for a fight and while you don’t doubt you’d win, you’d rather try to get through without doing it. Last thing you need is to fight a running battle through the Quala province.

“Shadow scum! This area belongs to General Ackerson, don’t you know your kind aren’t wanted here? It was your kind that caused this once great nation to fall, but fortunately we have people like the general to pick up the pieces to make it stronger than ever.” The leader of the soldiers says.
“Uh huh, we’re just passing through and have no desire to start a fight.” You reply, but of course this idiot doesn’t have a sense of self-preservation.
“Oh no? What’s all this then? A baggage train of supplies to support your war effort? I don’t believe you shadow! Why should any of us trust you after the great betrayal?”
“Because if we wanted to destroy you we would’ve done it already, empire dog!” one of the Eternals snaps.

This isn’t going well and several of the soldiers begin to ready their weapons.

“As I said, we are merely passing through and have no desire to start a war. We already have our freedom, we don’t care if you’re trying to rebuild the Empire or something else to take its place. We just want to be left in peace. However if you really wish to pursue this course of action, let me remind you that you are currently outmatched and outnumbered. We whittled away the Empire with forces smaller than what you see here. It would not take more than ten of us to destroy whatever government you’re trying to re-establish now. Are you such fools that you would willingly throw your lives away so easily? You say to the soldiers.

The leader realizes that he’ll have to swallow his overflowing pride and capitulate to your accurate assessment of the situation.

“…very well…let the shadows pass.” He meekly remarks and he and his men step aside.

You and the shadows pass through, but you know that’s just he beginning of what you’ll probably have to face. Cyrus mentions that perhaps they should be killed so they don’t warn anyone, but really whether they do or not isn’t going to make much of a difference. You’re a big enough target that anyone can see you if they just open their eyes.

You soon pass through a town in the process of being rebuilt, your reception there isn’t much better. The citizens all give you an evil eye and the soldiers stand ready to attack at anytime. Nobody does anything, but the second town you pass through makes up for that…

“BOOOOOOO! Go home shadow shit!”
“Zealots! Sheep! Go suck your god’s cock!”
“Get out of our town you fucking fanatics!”

These citizens are obviously very upset about the shadows. So much so that not only do they call you names, they also start throwing rotten fruit at some of you. This is too much for the eternals who are were barely holding their homicidal urges in check to begin with.

Before you can react, several eternals respond to the rotten fruit by shooting bolts at the peasants. Naturally none of them miss either. The town’s militia steps in and before you know it, you’ve killed half of the town and the rest of the citizens are running for their lives. The eternals aren’t contents with letting anyone live though, so they make that extra effort to chase most of them down. They seem to get a sadistic pleasure out of it and you have to rein them in.

Naturally you’re pretty mad, but mostly at yourself for trying to cross Quala by road in the first place. You can see now this was a really bad idea, but now you’ll just have to make the best of it.

The next day one of your people says they’ve scouted ahead and that a large army is heading your way. Worse, more troops are heading from other directions as well. Cyrus advises that you all should dump all non-essentials, cloak, and make a speed run towards the wilderness. Yvette point out that several of the shadow children or even babies in some cases don’t have such abilities and their parents aren’t likely to leave them. Theo says he knows of an old hide out and you could lay low there for a while and it is defensible. Talia is strangely silent on the whole matter, in fact she’s been silent during most of the trip, like she’s preoccupied with something else. You can’t imagine what given the shit you’re waist deep in right now, you’ll have to ask her about it later.

Eventually you take Theo’s advice since running isn’t a real option right now and you need a good defensible place. You do take Cyrus’ advice though and have everyone dump all non-essential equipment.

The trip to the old hideout is uneventful, unfortunately Theo forgot to take into consideration that some of his old hideouts might’ve actually been discovered since the last time he used them. This one in particular has been turned into a battle mage enclave. You didn’t even know Ackerson had any under his command, but he does and they took great measures in protecting their private base with magical security. They were alerted as soon as you entered the area and took steps to ambush you.

The fight with the battle mages takes a heavy toll. Along with many shadows, you also lose Yvette as well as Dravin. Cyrus launched himself into a rage cutting down several of the mages before being heavily wounded. He’s still alive and being carried on a stretcher, but you doubt if he’ll make it, if you ever get to the temple. Which at this point is looking less likely since you’re now effectively stuck inside the hideout and surrounded by General Ackerson’s troops.

Many of the shadows are praying to Dendrin which you encourage if only to keep their morale up, but of course you’re holding no such faith. The only ones seemingly having a good time are the new eternals who are enjoying the carnage way too much. You don’t care though given the circumstances as they’re about the only worthwhile fighters you’ve got left.

While the shadows are used to fighting near impossible odds, not all of those were victories and this will unfortunately be one of those times.

You think up the only possible plan that might work and that’s if you take all the eternals and try to distract the majority of the army while some of the other shadows get away. When you explain your plan, everyone is content to listen and obey since there really isn’t a choice in the matter.

“Theo, I want you to lead the escape since you still know the area best. Talia, you’re going to be in charge and possibly the new…”
“I’m staying.” Talia says cutting you off.
“Talia, I don’t know if I’m coming back from this battle.”
“Exactly. Why would I leave you now of all times? Besides, you’re taking my…children with you. If we are to die today, then I would do it as a family.” Talia says and grabs your hand.

You look down at her hand and then her face. You can see that there will be no changing her mind.

“Very well, then Theo, you will be the new Shadow Master. Good luck and I hope you understand Dendrin better than I did.”

Theo thanks you for the honor and prepares everyone to get ready to move. You, Talia and the rest of the eternals prepare for the attack. It’s funny; you realize that the shadows will no longer be split anymore between human and eternal. Assuming they make it, the surviving shadows will all be human. Perhaps it’s better this way, eternals were not meant to be holy men and worshipping fickle gods. They were meant to die in battle. That was what you were originally bred for after all.

“You two, carry Cyrus into battle. He’s one of us and he’ll die like one of us.” You say to two of the new eternals. Cyrus, while struggling to maintain consciousness manages a weak smile in your direction.

“You ready my love?” Talia asks.
“I was born for this.” You answer.

And with that you, Talia, Cyrus and the last of the eternals go forth and face your destiny.

Your names are forgotten, but the surviving solders of that battle always remembered the day they didn’t win a battle against shadows, but instead remember the day that they almost lost a battle against eternals.


Year 35

Finally after years of set backs, Rask is at last free of the Empire and the other provinces are sure to follow. Kane is dead and most of the last Empire fanatics in Rask are dead. The Empire can’t send any more troops because it’s barely holding on to what it has. It’s the beginning of the end for it, but for the shadows it’s just the beginning.

For the past couple years during the mopping up process, the shadows have slowly been withdrawing from other parts of the Empire and heading to Rask. This consolidation of forces is something that Cyrus has been wanting for years, but of course you never felt it was the right time. Now with the Empire on the decline you can agree that it is something that can be done.

Fort Defiance has become the new shadow home and has officially been renamed as Evergloom, not the most original name, but everyone seems to like it.

Ironically Evergloom is about one of the only major beacons of “light” in Rask nowadays. The sheer destruction that Kane caused to most of the towns in Rask before he died has left little in the way of civilization. The rebuilding process is in swing, but it’ll be awhile before it gets back to the way it was, perhaps it’ll never be the same again and nature will reclaim the land.

It hardly matters though; the shadows have their own rebuilding process to go through, one of which is how leadership is going to be settled once and for all. As it stands, you still haven’t officially taken full control of the shadows yet and it’s still more or less run by a “council” of sorts made up of you, Talia and Cyrus. Cyrus has been somewhat less antagonistic towards you since the Empire was driven from Rask, but that might be because he’s running out of supporters. Your decisions and victories have earned the respect of most shadows and they see you as leader.

There are also the new eternal shadows that have been coming along in their training very well and the well-known fact that you’ve spoken directly to Dendrin, though you haven’t lately, not for a long time in fact. Doesn’t stop the fact that you say you have though when you want to get things done. Part of you feels like the biggest hypocrite in the world for it, but then the other part of you feels like your ends have justified the means at this point so why care about it? You’ve kept the shadows together with lies, but really the whole organization has been kept together through lies for centuries, you’re not really doing anything different.

Perhaps though it isn’t so much the lying that gets to you, but rather the idea of being a shadow when you’ve never really “felt” like one. You stayed motivated by fighting the Empire because that was something you could get behind, but now what are you supposed to do? Revere Dendrin and worship him? Not something you’re really interested in doing full time especially considering your knowledge of him.

Of course then there’s always Talia, who is practically the only reason at this point why you’d want to stay leader for the shadows, well that and the budding desire to be in charge thanks to your Eternal heritage. There’s also the fact that given how much effort you went through to hold the shadows together it would almost seem a waste to toss it all away.

Yes, a decision is going to have to be made soon, but not today. You fall asleep later that night and after all this time you finally get some “divine” advice.

“It’s been awhile.” You say.
“Don’t tell me you actually missed me.” Dendrin remarks.
“Hardly, though I was wondering if you’d lost interest at last.”
“In you? Not at all, I’ve just been quietly observing. I’ve found that you seem to work best with minimal influence. Keep doing what you’re doing and I’m unlikely to ever lose interest in you.”
“Keep doing what I’m doing eh? So you want me to officially take full leadership of the shadows.”
“I didn’t say that. Not then and not now. Do what you want. I told you that before. If you’re asking me what I think, yes I would prefer you to take up as leader and quite honestly I’m surprised you haven’t done it already.”
“I was planning to, but now that the Empire is on its way out, I’m not sure if I want to be bothered.”
“Nonsense, you’re an Eternal. Aren’t you lot sort of born to lead?”
“I suppose, but I can’t see myself spending the rest of my life living a priestly existence in our new monastery where all I do is tell people to kiss your ass all night and day, let alone do it myself.”

This remark causes a booming laugh echo throughout your mind.

“So don’t do that.” Dendrin remarks.
“Well wouldn’t I sort of have to?”
“You haven’t for this long, why would you start now?”
“I mean I know I’d be faking it, but I still see it as a dreary existence.”
“And like I said, don’t do that. You’re the leader, what you say goes. If you want to abandon the old shadow ways there isn’t anything keeping you from doing it. I don’t usually point out the obvious, but what you have right now is potentially very powerful. You have in your hands is the ability to guide a religion, an ideology. You shouldn’t waste that. Take advantage before someone else does.”
“I’m not blind, I see that, but I question where do you come in? Surely if I some how lessened the shadows’ reliance on prayer, they’d also lose their abilities.”
“Not entirely unless you made them stop worshipping me altogether.”
“But I don’t worship you, I mean not really and I still have my powers.”
“Well that’s because you’re special, but if you did have a little more faith in me, your powers would increase too. You could be as strong as your old Master Ebon for example. That’s just how it works and you have take the good with the bad, but I’m sure you knew that already.”
“So it would seem.” You answer.

Shortly after this exchange you wake up.

“Something wrong?” Talia asks when she sees you waking up so suddenly.
“Huh? Oh, nothing. Dendrin just spoke to me again.”
“He did? What were his divine words this time?”
“Oh…uh he said that now is the right time to officially become the Shadow Master.
“That’s wonderful! Though I thought he would’ve told you a lot sooner…no matter though as I’m sure he had his reasons.”

Good old trusting Talia. You love her, but you’ll never understand how naïve she can be when it comes to this. As you start to get ready to call a shadow gathering there’s a knock on your room door.

“Who’s there?” you ask.
“It’s me brother. Brother Gannon. Brother Cyrus wants to see you immediately in the meeting room. He says it’s extremely important.”
“What’s it about?”
“I dunno, he just said it’s really important and he needs to see you immediately.”
“Okay then, thank you brother.” You reply.

As you continue to get dressed, Talia speaks to you again.

“What do you think he wants?”
“With Cyrus, who knows?”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“What for? You might as well get all the shadows together while I’m talking to Cyrus.”
“But…I don’t know…I’m just a little concerned.”
“Aren’t you always telling me I should try to get along with Cyrus? Besides, he’s actually been tolerable lately. Maybe with the Empire gone, he’s lightened up a bit.”
“Maybe…well if you think it’ll be okay, I’ll go round up the brothers and sisters.”

As you and Talia part company you make your way to the meeting room. On your way it occurs to you that Cyrus may very be planning to kill you rather than talk. You aren’t sensing anyone cloaked yet, but then maybe they’ll all be in the room with him.

If this is an ambush, the only one he’s going to be able to count on to help him is probably Draven. Cyrus just doesn’t have the clout he once did in fact you believe if he tried, he wouldn’t be accepted as leader anyway. Of course you don’t have any intention of getting killed if this is what he’s planning.

You open up the door and see Cyrus standing near the table by himself. You can’t sense anyone else; maybe he wants this to be a one on one matter.

“There you are, I wasn’t sure you were coming. I want to speak to you on something very important and this has to be settled right now.”

No doubt he’s talking about the leadership position. You know he still desperately wants it and he’s just going through the motions of being civilized about it right now. You aren’t waiting around…

Before Cyrus even knows what’s going on, you fire your armbow at him. He reacts in time to move, but not before a bolt goes into his arm.

“Agh! What the fuck are you doing?!” he says clutching his arm and backing away from you.
“I’m settling this right now, we both know what this is all about. You’re going to kill me because you want to be in charge and that’s not happening.”

You rush forward to attack and Cyrus once again dodges and backs away from you. He hasn’t even drawn his weapon yet.
“What? No! Look! I just called you in to talk! I was going to tell you that I’ve come to the realization that you’re the worthy one to lead the shadows! I know it’s taken me a long time, but I see that you’re the chosen one of Dendrin.”
“Bullshit, you’ve desired to be shadow master since Master Ebon died.”
“And probably even a little bit before, but I see that I was wrong to think such things even if I never spoke them out loud. Perhaps Dendrin punished me for it by never speaking to me. He speaks to you and your actions have lead us to finally be free of the Empire. Why should I keep questioning your ability? It’s obvious that you have a greater destiny and I realize that I should just graciously step aside. Who am I to question the will of Dendrin? I yield to you shadow master.”

Cyrus seems pretty sincere in his words and despite everything he has always been a dedicated disciple of Dendrin for good or ill. If he really believes that Dendrin has a plan for you, he wouldn’t stand in the way of it.

Now that you really think about it, he’s never really done anything that would indicate that he was ever actively trying to kill you. It’s possible you’ve just been paranoid about this whole thing.
> You kill Cyrus anyway
Your paranoia is justified. Cyrus might even believe his own words right now, but he still wants to be shadow master and he’ll kill you to do it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but he’ll try it when you least expect it. He’s probably just biding his time; you aren’t fooled by this act. Cyrus may claim to be a dedicated shadow, but he’s an Eternal first and he’ll always have that desire to lead within him.

“I’m glad you yielded to me Cyrus, because there’s no point in putting off the inevitable!” you shout and lunge forward to attack.

Cyrus doesn’t move fast enough to dodge your attack and your sword sinks deep into his abdomen. However he also manages to unleash two smaller daggers he had hidden and swings both arms around you to plunge them into your back. The pair of you fall to the floor with each others weapons lodged in vital organs.

“Why brother? I was going to join you…” he gasps.
“No… you weren’t. You just…stabbed me…”
“You attacked…now we’re both done for and along with us, the shadows…” Cyrus says and starts to fall unconscious.

You attempt to grab at Cyrus’ daggers in your back, but your own lifeforce starts to fade as well.

“Talia still lives…she’ll fix everything…she’ll lead…” you mumble and then join Cyrus in death.