Running from the undead, only to die of starvation and the cold in the mountains isn’t your idea of survival. You’re sticking to familiar terrain. You travel further away from civilization and ultimately deeper into a large forest. You’re not exactly sure of where you’re at, but you know you’ve left the Zalan borders. You’re probably in the unclaimed area north of the Retlad province. You never patrolled that far when you were stationed there, so you’re unsure of what to expect. You’ll certainly have to be alert though.

A few weeks pass and you’ve got the hang of it. A few close calls with an Eberaw Hunter, but you’ve managed to make somewhat of a home for yourself. You mainly sleep in the trees. You get water from springs and small streams and as for food, well you always were good at hunting.

You pass the time playing your mandolin and just basically keeping watch. As the days pass by though, you get the impression that someone is watching YOU.

It’s not any undead though. You haven’t seen any in weeks. You haven’t come across any living creatures of higher intelligence either, but then again that doesn’t mean they aren’t around…

“Hello stranger. Do you like our forest?” you hear a small voice say.

You look around, but see nothing. You guess who ever it is, is invisible, and you nearly go for your weapon.

“Please, no need for that. You are among friends here, musical one.” The voice says and then you see your unseen host appears before you. She’s very small and probably only comes up to ankle. You’ve heard of fairies before, but you’ve never seen one.

“Are you a fairy?” you ask.
“We go by many different names. Technically I am a pixie, but if you prefer, fairy will do. We heard you playing over the weeks and I thought it was about time we told you our appreciation for it. We didn’t know you big people had gifts for it. You are human are you not?”
“Yes, and thanks.”
“So, what brings you out here? Are you a ranger perhaps? You seem to have skills about you that are useful in this environment.”
“No, not a ranger. Just trying to escape death like everyone else I suppose.”
“Hmm, you realize as beautiful as this forest is, it’s not without its dangers. Death is here as well, but I’m sure you know that.”
“Yes, but its at least reasonable. There aren’t zombies and wraiths terrorizing the place…well at least not yet…”
“What are you talking about stranger?” the pixie asks quizzically, you look a little surprised yourself.

“The Great Lich Lord of course. He’s destroying everything, and I dunno how he’s going to be stopped. I don’t think he can.”

Your words immediately make the pixie’s cheerful demeanor change immediately.

“…he’s returned?! But he was killed centuries ago! My clan has told the stories for generations!”
“Well, he’s back, or someone like him…you really didn’t know? I mean this war with him has been going on for years now. Ten to be precise. Don’t you leave this forest?”
“You must understand stranger, we have everything we want here. There is no need to leave. We also live in illusions, what you see now, is not necessarily what is. We remain hidden in our illusions so nobody may ever harm us and we can live our lives in relative isolation. It is only on rare occasions that we reveal ourselves.”
“But I’ve heard stories about your kind being elsewhere or even in cities.” You say.
“Well we are not the only fairy folk you know! Perhaps the others you heard of were sprites, or brownies or even a different clan of pixies. I can only speak for my clan and as far as I know we are the only fairy folk that live in this particular forest. There are other denizens of course, but thanks to our illusions we stay safely hidden. Even the occasional human or goblinoid that has wandered in here has not disturbed us. Quite frankly, you’d be the first person in centuries that we’ve revealed ourselves to.”
“There aren’t any elves in this forest?” you ask, sort of figuring that some might have retreated or made a home here, forests being their natural homes and all. Your question is met with slight annoyance.

“Most certainly not! This place has been elf free for millennia and hopefully stays that way! I’ll speak no more of this elven nonsense!”

You don’t press the issue, but up until now you figured fairy folk and elves were all friends, guess not. The pixie changes the subject since she wants to know more about this Great Lich Lord business and says her name is Qweet. Qweet tells you that she will return with the rest of her clan, as she will not reveal their home of course. In a somewhat playful yet firm tone she also warns you not to try to follow her, though as good of a tracker you are you doubt if you could anyway since she turns invisible again.

While you wait, you still can’t believe she and the rest of her clan don’t know anything about what’s going on; you almost envy them for living in blissful ignorance for the last ten years. You also feel like you’ve ruined things for them.

Eventually more pixies return and you tell them what’s been going on. They are saddened, but maintain a confident demeanor. They are certain that they will survive this plague due to their illusions. They explain that if need be they can hide the entire forest, which with the new grim information you gave them they are very inclined to do. They still have to discuss it.

In the meantime they say they hope you’ll stick around for awhile as they still enjoy your playing and you aren’t destroying the forest. You’re just glad you’ve met some friendly people that aren’t trying to kill you. It’s a nice change and after what you’ve been through recently, you welcome it.

One year passes…

Your time in the pixie forest has been relatively safe. Other than the occasional aggressive forest beasts, you haven’t had to do much combat. It’s been a relief. You’ve enjoyed the company of the pixies as well.

However, your natural curiosity has gotten the better of you on occasion and you have made a few trips outside of the forest.

You travel as far as the Retlad province and the first obscure village you stumble across is completely decimated, with undead roaming around. The scary part about it is this is very recent looking, which means they’re starting to head your way.

It’ll start with the occasional zombie or skeleton wandering in. Then more will come. How long before an army arrives? Again due to your information, Qweet and the rest of her clan have made the final decision to hide their forest entirely. They tell you that they would like you to stay. You would even be allowed to see their true home. The only stipulation is that you would not be able to leave. The illusion wouldn’t just hide the forest, but it would create a barrier preventing entry or exit. You can’t imagine how it would look to those on the outside of the forest.

Appealing to be sure, but as much as you like the company of the pixies, you don’t think it will be safe to dwell in their forest for too much longer, illusions or not. The Gnomes back in the Garwold Confederacy had some excellent illusionists as well, and it didn’t help them.
> You leave
The pixies have almost made you forget about what’s really going on in the rest of the world…but you still know it’s going on. Perhaps it’s easier for them, as they have not had to experience the tragedies you’ve faced, but you know the destruction that’s eventually going to come. You don’t see any hope in their plan and if you stayed, and you still would never be able to completely relax. You could possibly be trapped as well.

However, you have no wish to bring more despair to these people. Let them live in illusions for as long as they can,

You wish you could.

It is with great regret that you tell them that you cannot stay. They attempt to convince you to do otherwise, but you’ve already made up your mind. Finally they accept your decision, but insist on repaying you for all your musical entertainment. They give you a small magical amulet. They tell you it can make you invisible for short periods of time.

You thank them and assure them that it will most definitely come in handy.

You leave the forest and head further away from the undead plague.

Nine years pass…

Twenty years of surviving this living hell.

Living in a cave in the mountains isn’t as easy as it was in the Pixie forest, but it’s probably a lot safer as far as undead are concerned. The biggest threats you’ve had to face are a few Cragmaws and Mountain Trolls. Once you ran into a couple of dwarves, so you assume that there may be an underground settlement somewhere in the area. You attempted to speak, but they just shot at you with their crossbows and told you to go away, saying that humans were the cause of the problem going on right now.

Your use your amulet when you can as it seems that the living have been just as willing to kill you as the undead. Then again, that’s nothing new.

Every now and then you travel and scout around the area taking in the untainted countryside. You figure you should do it now before it’s claimed eventually. The living exist here, which means death can only eventually follow. You just wonder how long it will take.

Sometimes you walk along the shore that’s nearby. You look out past the vast blue and begin to wonder if there are any other places out there. You briefly entertain the idea of building a boat. You know that the globe was thoroughly charted centuries ago and that this is the only continent, but still you wonder if something wasn’t missed. Of course you’re probably just holding on to the false hope that you could theoretically go someplace else where death wasn’t everywhere.

But there isn’t such a place.

Lately something very odd has been happening and you have no idea what it is. You could swear that the landscape has been subtlety altering itself from time to time. Not permanently, but it seems to look “wavy” or “warped” briefly.

You initially chalk it up to your prolonged isolation and seeing things because of it, however you soon find out that it’s more than just your mind playing tricks on you.

One day after you’ve done some hunting and bringing your catch back to your cave, you start noticing a severe slow down in your actions.

“What the fuck…” you say to yourself, except it comes out a lot slower. You don’t experience for long, but the worst is yet to come.

A portal opens up in the sky and you immediately feel ill. You see a creature that you’ve never seen before and it’s huge but it feels incredibly unnatural and it definitely isn’t of this world. The dead animal that you’re carrying suddenly melts into a black goo like substance. You jump back and nearly fall off the side of the mountain, which now feels like jelly under your feet rather than sturdy rock.

You don’t know what’s going here and you don’t want to know. All you know is reality is starting to be seriously warped and you’re ready to puke.

The tentacled creature doesn’t seem to notice you, it’s just surveying and floating in the air as the area around and beneath it changes. That still doesn’t mean it won’t attack eventually when it does notice you.

You immediately attempt to use your amulet, but nothing is happening. The creature or something else is nullifying your magic item.

Right now you’re caught out in the open, your cave is close, but you’re still not sure if you can get there in time and even if you do, would you be any safer? The other alternative is to make you way back down the mountain and try to escape that way. The problem with that plan is that everything is very wobbly right now and you’re not feeling very steady.
> You run to your cave
The creature is too big to fit in the cave if it tries to attack and you need to hide as soon as possible.

You make a run for it, gagging and stumbling the whole time. Eventually you do get to the cave. You don’t think the creature even saw you.

You continue to fumble around in the dark cave that you call home. You can still hear weird noises coming from outside and you’re desperate to drown them out as you feel like its doing something to your mind. In fact, you’re feeling a little deranged.

“WHAT?! WHAT?! UNDEAD WEREN’T ENOUGH?! NOW THIS?! HAHAHAHA! YOU CAN’T KILL ME! I’LL SURVIVE! I SURVIVE EVERYTHING! Who am I here? Who goes there?”

You look around the cave and start seeing the rocky walls transform into writhing masses of worms. You grab your sword and start hacking away, only to fall to the ground half laughing and half crying.

“You don’t understand…I’ve lost it all…(sob) why? WHERE ARE THE GODS? WHY HAVEN’T YOU STOPPED THIS?! DAMN YOU FUCKING ALL! Ha ha ha ha!”

You look into the small fire that lights your cave and see it change into a blue color. You begin to think you see faces in it.

“Randi? Is that you? I’m sorry…I could still save…”

You burn your hand badly when you shove it into the flames in some misguided attempt to save your sister who is not there. It’s at this point; you realize you’re losing your mind. You didn’t survive this long just to lose that. You start trying to block out the sounds, but it’s relentless.

And that’s when you see your mandolin on the floor nearby. Music. It always takes you to another place. A better place. You can’t play it right now with your burned hand, but your music is always with you. In your mind.

You begin to focus on one particular song in your head. You close your eyes think of yourself playing. The tune is nearly drowned out by the noise, but eventually the music gets louder and the creature’s noise is getting quieter, until finally that’s all you can hear.

You have no idea how long you do this for, but eventually you open your eyes again, and everything is normal. The walls are rock, the fire is red. Your hand still hurts, but it will heal.

You stay in the cave for days, unsure of what to make of all this. Ultimately you leave to explore cautiously, and everything outside seems normal as well. There is no sign that the creature was ever around. You don’t know if it moved on, disappeared, or what.

Did you go temporarily insane? Did all of this really happen? You do know you burned your hand, so you’re pretty sure it did on some level. In any event, you never want to encounter anything like that ever again. Death almost seems preferable than complete madness.

You’re still shaken up by the experience for months to come but eventually you get over it. Just like you have with every other hardship you’ve faced.

Twenty years pass…

Forty years have passed and you feel death closer than ever. Old age has been taking its toll and while you’re somewhat fit for your age you can’t stop the ravages of time.

Still, it’s not just that. It’s the world in general. The place has slowly become a dead world, quite literally from what you’ve seen during your travels.

Eventually you abandoned your cave in the mountain when the dead began to congregate in the area. The dwarven settlement was probably attacked. You don’t know, you didn’t stick around. You continued to stay on the move.

After a few years of wandering, you noticed dead trees. Not unusual in the lands of the Great Lich Lord, but you were sticking to places at least on the outskirts of his domain. But it didn’t seem to matter. His influence was obviously extending. The magic in your amulet no longer works, and you briefly thought of the pixies. You know they didn’t survive.

Soon grass was no longer growing. Hunting was becoming scarce. Animals were dying out. It almost reminded you of when the farm was going through a rough patch, but this time there would be no recovery. You walked along another shoreline and saw fish and other sea creatures washed up dead in massive quantities.

You’ve had to fight undead monsters at almost every turn, always having to stay one step ahead before you’re overwhelmed.

Even the air itself feels like it’s harder to breathe no matter where you go.

Right now you’re very far north, where nothing ever existed save ice and snow. You’re living in yet another cave, but you’re pretty sure this one is going to be your tomb. You haven’t eaten in days, as you haven’t spotted a living creature in days. You haven’t seen another intelligent living creature in years.

It’s very cold, and all you want to do is sleep now. You think you might have one or two more days left tops.

However, you’re not allowed to leave just yet…

While you’re drifting in and out of consciousness in your weakened state, you suddenly see a dark hooded figure by the fire. You know who it is.

“So…you’ve come for me personally? I didn’t think I was important enough.” you ask.
“You aren’t really. Let’s just say that I have a lot of free time and with less and less living now, I take a more personal approach whenever I can. Besides, given how remote this place is, I doubt if any of my necromancers could’ve found you anyway. That is if I hadn’t killed them all.”

The Great Lich Lord’s voice doesn’t sound anything like you thought it might. It’s actually not very scary at all. Almost calm.

“Heh. I killed a necromancer once…” you say.
“You have my thanks then, one less treacherous fool that I didn’t have to deal with.”
“You didn’t really need to come all this way you know, I think I was dying before you got here.”

At this point the Great Lich Lord begins walking around your cave looking at your meager possessions. He immediately notices your very worn mandolin and picks it up.

“Please feel free to take it. I won’t be needing it anymore.” You say.
“Not sure what I’d do with it. I’m not musically inclined at all. I’m pretty much only good at killing things as you can tell.”
“Yeah, you’re great at that.”
“My mistress Catalina likes music though; perhaps she might find it interesting. This looks very old, where did you get it?”
“Oh in a town that the demons destroyed when they lost their leader Velzix.”
“Hah. Demons. I think everyone was glad when I got rid of those assholes.” The Great Lich Lord remarks.
“That thing probably saved my life when I found it. Some weird ass vampire called Warnov wanted me to play for him. Said you were after him or something…”
“Yes. Vampires weren’t my favorite people. Arrogant creatures. Well they’re dead now. Excuse me, but did you say Warnov?”
“That was his name. Yes.”

The Great Lich Lord is silent for a moment and then speaks again.

“I know who you are. I can’t believe it’s you, but I know who you are. I remember before I tracked down and killed old Warnov, he stated that he was glad he heard you play before he died. He also said that if I ever encountered you that I should insist that you play for me before I killed you. Something about your playing being beautiful or something. You also served in the Zalan Empire army. Weren’t you supposed to be a hero or something?”

You laugh weakly.

“Mostly or something.” You reply.
“Hm. I wonder if you ever met…” the Great Lich Lord then pauses for a moment. “…nevermind. It’s the past and that no longer matters. So can you still play this thing?”
“Well of course, but…”
“Good. We’re leaving this place then, got a job for you.”
Before you can speak another word, you feel yourself teleported.
> One last song...
You find yourself in a very ornate yet definitely dark chamber. All manner of symbols related to death exist here. You could only be in the Great Lich Lord’s tower in Nuro. You never thought you’d ever be here. The last time you were anywhere near Nuro was forty years ago and things were much different.

“Welcome to Aftermath, my musical guest. As I said, I’m not much for music, but Catalina is and I’m sure she would love to hear you play. She…” The Great Lich Lord pauses again. “She hasn’t been feeling well lately and I think this would help out. Just take seat in that chair over there. Here’s your mandolin.”

This almost surreal. You didn’t expect your last moments on this world to be like this. Lacking any other ideas you slowly go over to sit on the chair, while the Great Lich Lord goes to get his mistress Catalina. They better hurry up because you feel like you’ve done more than knocking on death’s door; you’re quite literally in his home. The proximity of being so close to the Great Lich Lord is speeding up your death.

The Great Lich Lord soon arrives with Catalina and you look upon her. She’s very beautiful. You had heard stories about her before decades ago when you were still serving in the army. She looks young, though she has to be much older. However, you can tell she’s not exactly moving very fast and taking her time. It’s apparent that despite her skill in necromancy that she’s suffering from the effects of the Great Lich Lord’s death aura. She must be powerful indeed to be able to withstand his proximity everyday. She must also love him very much to do it.

You briefly think of how someone could ever love such a being, or how such a being is even capable of love. But given how you see them interact, there it is.

This also starts to make you angry. Why are they allowed such a thing? They’re the bad guys here. You never did anything wrong and you lost everyone you ever loved or cared about. You begin to tear up, but it’s in frustration rather than sadness. All the past pain and suffering that you’ve ever experienced has come back to hurt you one last time.

“Okay, start playing.” The Great Lich Lord says.
“No.” you remark.
“What?”
“You heard me. No.”
“I don’t think you’re in any position to defy me.”
“Oh I think I’m in every position. What the hell are you going to do to me? I’m fuckin’ dead already! You’ve already taken everything away from me! My friends and acquaintances died because of you! I lost my home because of you! My family and loved ones died because of you! I had to kill my own mother because she became one of your undead minions! My siblings, all fuckin’ dead! All I have left is my music! And now you want me to give that away to you too? NO! I’ll DIE with it!”

After this outburst the Great Lich Lord replies in kind.

“Insolent mortal! Do you forget who I am? You think dying will save you? Think again! I will kill you and raise you as a fucking zombie and MAKE you play for us in a pink dress if it so amuses me! Now play and perhaps that won’t be your fate!”

The Great Lich Lord’s voice now sounds more menacing. More like what you thought, but you don’t care, you’ve got nothing to lose at this juncture. It is at this point Catalina steps in.

“I don’t think that will be necessary dear. You just let me handle this. You go in the next room and cool off or something.”

The Great Lich Lord agrees to this and hugs Catalina, before walking off. Catalina now walks towards you.

“You’ll have to forgive my beloved’s outburst. He goes a little over the top when it comes to me. Especially now. So much has happened. He’s changed so much and continues to change even now. He doesn’t express it, but I think it’s always gotten to him.”
“I don’t have to forgive shit. Am I supposed to feel sympathy? He’s caused all this…and you too! How can you stand by him? You’re still alive! You could probably kill him and stop this before the entire world is dead!”
“Oh I doubt if I could, even if I so desired, which I don’t. My feelings for him and the reasons…well the heart wants, what the heart wants. I sometimes worry about what he will do after I’m gone though. He’s in great denial. He knows I cannot fight off his overwhelming aura forever. I suppose in some ways, bringing you here to play for me was some vain hope of making me feel better. And it will, in its own way…”

You still can’t believe that she’s trying to make them out to be the victims.

“Look I don’t care about what the hell you two death freaks want, I know what the hell I’ve gone through and it’s all your fault. Fuck the both of you. You haven’t had to deal with the pain I’ve gone through.”
“Perhaps not. But do you think you are the only one on this world who’s suffered? What makes your life and those close to you so special? Nothing. You and everyone else whoever lived on this dying world are equal. You, your family, even me. The only person who isn’t equal, is in the next room. We’ve all lost those close to us at some point. Yes, even my beloved and he’ll lose another when I’m gone. We’ll all be long dead and he’ll probably still be on this world by himself with nothing to do. And that, I’m convinced will be the greatest suffering of all. Life without end? No thank you. When my time comes, I will embrace it.”

You’re very surprised to hear a necromancer say that.

“My beloved cannot help what he is. For whatever reason, he was gifted with the art of death. He’s become it. It’s his nature. You can’t be angry with a force of nature. It has to simply be.”

You want to argue, you want to fight, you want to bring up every moral debate you can think of, but to be quite honest you can’t. Part of it is it wouldn’t make any difference. Part of it is you’re tired of fighting, you can’t do it anymore and you don’t have strength at this point. The other part is that in a way what she’s said makes some sense and is correct.

It also makes you think about your “nature”. It was to play music. You never got to live the life you wanted, but during your lifetime, music always seeped in somehow. It always found a way.

Catalina continues to speak.

“Now you certainly don’t have to play. That’s your choice. I will make sure that my beloved does not turn you into dress wearing zombie though. It would be a shame though. You are not completely unfamiliar to me. I do have some knowledge of who you are and I have heard stories of your playing. I would like to hear it played while you still had the passion and energy behind it. The living spark that can only invoke such things.”
“…I’ll play…” you say with a heavy breath that took some effort for you.
“You will?”
“Yes…what did you want to hear?”

Catalina smiles.

“I don’t know, whatever you like I suppose. Just as long as it has a nice soothing melody.”
“Okay then.”
“Hold on, I must get my beloved before you start. I must ask though, what changed your mind to play?”
“Nothing. It’s my nature.”

Catalina soon returns with the Great Lich Lord and they both sit in their respective thrones. Catalina tells you to play, which you do so.

You watch the pair of them look at each other as you play. You would appear that Catalina is pleased with her “gift”. You don’t know about the Great Lich Lord, since you can’t see his face, but you assume that if she’s happy, then he’s happy.

You see them hold hands and look at each other as you enter the second verse of the song. At this point you begin to close your eyes and just let the music and instinct guide your fingers. You can feel your life slip away, but it doesn’t matter. You’ve been taken to a different place. A better place.

You smile and wave to your family. You can see them all so clearly. All of them are there. You’re getting closer. They’re ready to accept you with open arms.

Last verse. Not much energy left, but you’re nearly there. You won’t have to worry about anything anymore. Heart slowing down. You’re with them now. Everything will be so good again. Your music has saved you one last time.

One last note.
One last breath.
You’re home.

“Well, he certainly looked happier than he did earlier.”
“Yes, yes he did. Set his body on fire dear.”
“You don’t want him around to play for you later?”
“No, I don’t think that performance could ever be replicated.”


The pixies have almost made you forget about what’s really going on in the rest of the world…but you still know it’s going on. Perhaps it’s easier for them, as they have not had to experience the tragedies you’ve faced, but you know the destruction that’s eventually going to come. You don’t see any hope in their plan and if you stayed, and you still would never be able to completely relax. You could possibly be trapped as well.

However, you have no wish to bring more despair to these people. Let them live in illusions for as long as they can,

You wish you could.

It is with great regret that you tell them that you cannot stay. They attempt to convince you to do otherwise, but you’ve already made up your mind. Finally they accept your decision, but insist on repaying you for all your musical entertainment. They give you a small magical amulet. They tell you it can make you invisible for short periods of time.

You thank them and assure them that it will most definitely come in handy.

You leave the forest and head further away from the undead plague.

Nine years pass…

Twenty years of surviving this living hell.

Living in a cave in the mountains isn’t as easy as it was in the Pixie forest, but it’s probably a lot safer as far as undead are concerned. The biggest threats you’ve had to face are a few Cragmaws and Mountain Trolls. Once you ran into a couple of dwarves, so you assume that there may be an underground settlement somewhere in the area. You attempted to speak, but they just shot at you with their crossbows and told you to go away, saying that humans were the cause of the problem going on right now.

Your use your amulet when you can as it seems that the living have been just as willing to kill you as the undead. Then again, that’s nothing new.

Every now and then you travel and scout around the area taking in the untainted countryside. You figure you should do it now before it’s claimed eventually. The living exist here, which means death can only eventually follow. You just wonder how long it will take.

Sometimes you walk along the shore that’s nearby. You look out past the vast blue and begin to wonder if there are any other places out there. You briefly entertain the idea of building a boat. You know that the globe was thoroughly charted centuries ago and that this is the only continent, but still you wonder if something wasn’t missed. Of course you’re probably just holding on to the false hope that you could theoretically go someplace else where death wasn’t everywhere.

But there isn’t such a place.

Lately something very odd has been happening and you have no idea what it is. You could swear that the landscape has been subtlety altering itself from time to time. Not permanently, but it seems to look “wavy” or “warped” briefly.

You initially chalk it up to your prolonged isolation and seeing things because of it, however you soon find out that it’s more than just your mind playing tricks on you.

One day after you’ve done some hunting and bringing your catch back to your cave, you start noticing a severe slow down in your actions.

“What the fuck…” you say to yourself, except it comes out a lot slower. You don’t experience for long, but the worst is yet to come.

A portal opens up in the sky and you immediately feel ill. You see a creature that you’ve never seen before and it’s huge but it feels incredibly unnatural and it definitely isn’t of this world. The dead animal that you’re carrying suddenly melts into a black goo like substance. You jump back and nearly fall off the side of the mountain, which now feels like jelly under your feet rather than sturdy rock.

You don’t know what’s going here and you don’t want to know. All you know is reality is starting to be seriously warped and you’re ready to puke.

The tentacled creature doesn’t seem to notice you, it’s just surveying and floating in the air as the area around and beneath it changes. That still doesn’t mean it won’t attack eventually when it does notice you.

You immediately attempt to use your amulet, but nothing is happening. The creature or something else is nullifying your magic item.

Right now you’re caught out in the open, your cave is close, but you’re still not sure if you can get there in time and even if you do, would you be any safer? The other alternative is to make you way back down the mountain and try to escape that way. The problem with that plan is that everything is very wobbly right now and you’re not feeling very steady.
> You run back down the mountain
You’re having difficulty concentrating, but you decide that it would be better to distance yourself from the creature rather than trapping yourself in a cave.

You attempt to head down the mountain, but you really are feel very sick and dizzy, in fact you’re beginning to feel worse. The ground underneath you doesn’t even feel like jelly now, you’re actually sinking into it like quicksand!

“What the fu…” you say before a sudden powerful wave of nausea that hits you causes you to vomit immediately.

You try to stop the sinking, but it’s futile and soon you’ve sank all the way it. Oddly you can still breathe; but the terrain has turned to worms and maggots. You can feel them crawling all over you, in your ears and every other orifice of your body.

You begin to laugh insanely (while the maggots crawl all in it) since your mind has become severely warped at this point and madness has overtaken you as you sink further through the maggot mountain.

You’re unsure of how long this goes on for since you’ve lost your mind, but whatever was going on eventually stops and everything returns to normal. Unfortunately that doesn’t really help you since you’re still in the mountain which has returned to solid rock where you are now completely embedded in. You die instantly, putting an end to your madness.


Really, it’s the only thing that makes any kind of sense anymore. This war is lost there’s not even any doubt about it. Hope is fleeting and if this is truly it, then it’s going to be with the ones you did this for in the first place.

Your small groups of soldiers wonder where you’re going and you flat out tell them, in fact you tell them more than that.

“I’m going home, and I suggest if any of you have any family you go to them as well. This is it folks, there’s no happy ending here. It’s been a pleasure serving with all of you.”

You then ride home as quickly as possible.

The farm is scattered with undead. They attack and in some cases eat the livestock, while attempting to get into your house. Dead Zalan soldiers can be seen, except they aren’t properly dead like they should be. The farmhouse is being attacked and you can see your sister firing her pistol at the zombies from one of the broken windows. You trample a couple of the zombies with your horse and kill couple more with your bow, but eventually you dismount and chop up the remaining ones near the farm house, since you want to save your arrows for anything potentially more dangerous.

“Quick get inside through this window, the door is barricaded.” your sister Randi shouts when she sees you.
“No! It’s a death trap to stay now! This place is lost! You all have to come with me!” you shout back, keeping an eye on the advancing zombies.
“Can’t Mom’s hurt pretty bad. Got stabbed by one those corpses. We can’t move her. Help’s gotta come soon…”
“NO, it won’t Randi! The capitol of Zalan is being attacked as we speak! I came home to get your guys! This is the fucking end! We’ve lost! We just gotta…”

You’re interrupted when you have to cut down an advancing zombie. Your sister fires a shot at another one. Suddenly a scream from the house is heard, followed by another. That has to be Calwin, and Makana. Randi rushes from the window and you cut down another zombie before bashing the door down with relative ease.

More screaming is heard along with growling this time. You look around and run down the hallway where Randi is standing motionless. She’s dropped her pistol.

You push her aside and see your other sister Makana dead on the floor and then a quick scan to the left and you see your mother eating Calwin.

She’s one of those things…

You act where Randi failed and give a killing blow to the thing that was once your mother.

“I’m sorry.” You whisper and her blood splashes across your face.

Now you’re ready to get the hell out of the house, but Randi is still standing there motionless.

“COME ON! WE GOTTA GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!” you shout.
“Yeah...okay…” Randi says and begins to move like she’s in slow motion and picks up her flintlock.

You run past Randi in the hallway who’s still moving slowly.

“Randi get your ass mov…”

You hear a gunshot behind you. Followed by the slumping of a lifeless body. You don’t even turn around, you don’t want to see.

When you get outside, surprisingly the undead haven’t become unmanageable yet, and you cut down another couple with relative ease. Your horse unfortunately has run off, you’re on foot from here.

You don’t even know where to go. Where is it going to be safe? Nowhere, but you lack any other ideas, so you just head for unclaimed wilderness.

After about a day of running, hiding and maneuvering, you’re in a relatively safe location and that’s when you finally allow yourself to grieve for the loss of your family. You weep.

You’ve lost everything now. Everything you did was basically for them, and now they’re all gone. You don’t know if you can even continue. What would be the point? The world seems to be doomed anyway.

But then after you think about it, you decide that if death is taking over the world, you’re not going to make it easy. Death has already taken everything away from you except your life, and you’re going to hold on to that as long as possible. You’re going to live for your family and all the others that can’t any longer.

You’re going to survive, because ultimately that’s what you’ve always done. You’ve cheated death more than once already and you’ll continue to do it. Death itself is going to have to hunt you down if it wants your life.

After reaching this conclusion, you try to think of where you should go next. Going to any type of centers of civilization is out of the question now. You’d only have to move again, them being targets now.

So it’s the life of wanderer now. The question is where would be best? The forests aren’t exactly safe, but you’re more familiar with surviving in them. The mountains might be a little safer, but living in them is going to be a lot harsher.
> You head to the mountains
Better to get accustomed to them now, since you figure you might have to live in them in the future anyway.

You head further north and traverse the harsh terrain. As far as undead are concerned you’re in no danger, however the mountain trolls and cragmaws living there are just as dangerous. You eventually find a suitable cave to live in. To keep yourself entertained you play your music in between your survival.

It’s a rough life, but you persevere for a few years. Unfortunately the day comes when a particularly large mountain troll tribe decides to finally get organized enough to eliminate you from being a nuisance.

You awaken one night to see several large figures enter your cave. You spring to action immediately, which causes the trolls to laugh. This buys you time to kill at least one of them, but only one. You’re outnumbered, trapped and there’s nowhere to hide.

The trolls savagely butcher you and even smash your mandolin over your head before you head to permanent unconsciousness.

The only good thing is that trolls do such a thorough job of eating your body that not even your bones are left to be reanimated when the Great Lich Lord’s influence reaches the area.


You know that this is most likely a losing battle, but some hope might be gained, if you can somehow draw out the knights and specters and get them by themselves. As powerful as they are, they’re very hard to control even by necromancers and get easily agitated by living creatures.

You can’t do it alone though. You take your best archers and a couple of your best wizards and mention your plan. You don’t ask for volunteers, you just assign. You’re in charge and you have to make the hard decisions, even if it might mean you’ll die. They don’t look enthused, but you aren’t either.

You tell everyone else to hold their ground while you and your small platoon ride towards the horde.

“Ready those blessed silvers men, and you robe wearers melt those dead tin cans!”

You get close enough and you unleash as many blessed silver arrows as you can at the Blood Specters. You kill a few. The wizards don’t do quite as well with the knights. However, both attacks are enough.

You see the Specters and Knights making whatever unearthly noises they do and begin to advance towards you far ahead of the slower yet steady moving horde. It apparent that the necromancer controlling them is attempting to bring them back under control, because they begin to squirm back and forth which gives you some more time to kill a few more during their confusion. Eventually the necromancer must give up total control because they stop squirming and advance upon you once again.

You ride back as quickly as possible with the Specters and Knights in full pursuit. You didn’t expect those Specters to be so fast. A few of them manage to catch up to some of your men with grisly results. You yourself almost get smacked upside the head by a Death Knight mace. When you get back in range the rest of your awaiting army deals with your pursuers. More blessed arrows fly into the Blood Specters before they can do anymore harm, and eventually the Death Knights are brought down as well.

There is no time for a reprieve though, as the main horde is now almost upon you. You order a regrouping as best you can, and face the enemy, telling if possible for someone to aim for the necromancer in all of this rotting mess.

Bones and limbs from both sides are broken and hacked off. A zombie skull is smashed, splashing maggots, blood and brains all over you and you’re not even thinking about it. You just have a tune in your head to take yourself away from the massacre. Somehow in all of the chaos, you single out the necromancer leading this army, he stands a far piece away from the main fighting, but he’s arrogant enough to be close enough for you to hit him with an arrow.

And you have to hit him now. You see a Grand Alliance soldier who just took a fatal blow to the chest begin to rise…

Not many arrows left and not much time, you just load up and shoot, hoping you hit the bastard.

Your shot is straight and true. It strikes the necromancer in the stomach, causing him to fall back, which in turn causes the undead horde to momentarily stop their vicious attacks, giving your side a chance to turn the tide a bit.

Then you shoot another arrow when you see the necromancer attempt to get back up, which turns the tide completely in your favor. Zombies and skeletons fall. Ghouls flee at the loss of leadership and any remaining undead are quickly dispatched. You don’t take chances though. You walk up to the corpse of the necromancer and shoot your last arrow directly into his head and stab him a few times.

You then start laughing.

“If this was the Great Lich Lord, I’d be a real hero right now!”

You quickly sober up from this macabre outburst when you hear shouting from some of your men and you look up.

It’s another horde. Just as big. You look behind you and see that your own numbers are completely insufficient. The Garwold citizens are either mostly dead or demoralized at this point.

Even when you win…you lose.

Having no real options, you sound a retreat to fall back to the Zalan border and suggest that the Garwold citizens do likewise as there is nothing more for them here.

The Garwold Confederacy is now just one more loss for the living. The Zalan Empire won’t be far behind.

Three years pass…

Ten years since the Nuro incident and The Grand Alliance is nearly just consisting of the Zalan Empire now, which in turn has had to adapt a siege mentality. There is no “going on the offensive” anymore. You’re purely on defense.

Your brother Mallack died two years ago. Transferred to a location with more fighting due to lack of manpower. Like it matters. Didn’t even get to say goodbye. You can only hope he didn’t become one of those things…but you know he probably did.

You’ve been urging your family to run where it’s safer, but of course they won’t budge. The undead have been penetrating deeper into Zalan territory, you know it’s only a matter of time before the Great Lich Lord decides to stop toying with you and makes his full scale attack.

Sure enough it happens. Town after town is taken; you’re pushed back further and further, and you know there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

An order is given to everyone to fallback to the capital and help defend it from an upcoming attack, but at this point you’re just wondering if the rest of your family is still alive.
> You letters to home (Last letter...)
Dear Mom,

We’re falling back again. No surprise there. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, but not for any of reasons you’d know, so I’ll tell you.

Normally this would be something I would’ve told Mallack, but since he’s dead, I feel like I should tell you. I really miss Mallack.

I was in contact with a woman by the name of Helena. She was a traveling merchant who I met years ago during my tour in Retlad. We had a relationship of sorts I suppose. We met whenever she was in the area I was stationed in. Dunno why I never told you about her, I guess I just felt weird about telling you. Silly now that I think about it.

Anyway, she was in the city of Edat a few months ago when it was utterly destroyed. I suggested that she should just stay in the Retlad province since the fighting wasn’t as bad there, but she said there was a big deal to be made in Edat, so she went. Reports say there were no survivors. Of course reports have been wrong before and I have used some of my connections to find out for certain but considering the carnage that occurred I hold little hope.

I’ll miss her. I can only hope that like Mallack, she wasn’t turned into one of those things.

The word “hero” gets thrown around far too much and I should know first hand, but I’ll use it here: Where are the “heroes” to stop this? Shouldn’t some party of adventurers been able to slip through the Great Lich Lord’s defenses and chop his head off by now? Wasn’t that how the first one was stopped? Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go? Where are the gods? Why aren’t the good ones doing something to stop the utter destruction of their worshippers?! Hell, the evil ones would even suffice at this point! I mean just to know that SOMETHING is looking out for us in some fashion!

If they haven’t abandoned this world, they better do something quick, because I feel like we’re in the last hours here. Actually I think we’re on borrowed time.

We’re getting a report that we might have to fall back to the heart of the empire soon. At this point I’m not sure if I’m even going to do it. I know I’ve been duty bound this long with only a few falters along the way, but now? In the face of extinction? What’s the point?

Sure there may be nowhere to run from death, but perhaps I can evade him for as long as possible.

But I haven’t forgotten about all of you. I’d never do that. Even if I have to drag you all out of that infernal farmhouse kicking and screaming.

Leave a light on for me, I may be coming home.

I love you all.

Your son


You can’t take it anymore.

“I’M NOT A FUCKING HERO! OKAY!? I NEVER WAS AND I NEVER WANTED TO BE! (sob)… I just wanted to go home…(sob)”

You weep for a few minutes before the captain speaks again.

“Alright then what happened? Tell me the entire truth and maybe you’ll avoid the executioner’s axe.”

At this point you have little choice. You’re too distraught to say anything else. You give a relatively condensed version of what happened. At Nuro and what happened recently. Your encounter with Warnov seems to surprise her quite a bit. You also go on to explain that it was high ranking Zalan officers that insisted on this hero nonsense. She believes you, like she knows something of it.

“(sigh) Yeah there’s a statue of my dad in the Zalan capitol…but I know better…”

You don’t question anymore about this quiet outburst from her since you’re still too worried about what’s going to happen to you.

“So why did you come back? You probably could’ve gotten away with it.”
“The same reason why I joined. My family. I guess I just needed a reminder of that first hand. And if there’s any hope of changing the tide of this war with the undead then I need to stand by my decision of joining the Zalan Army and making the world safer for them.”

Once again the captain seems to soften. She almost looks like she’s going to tear up as well, but she turns away.

“My family…I…” are all she says before taking a deep breath and turning back towards you, with a serious mindset again.

“Alright, I shall trust your word for now sergeant, but I will be watching you VERY carefully! Consider yourself lucky for evading death once again, perhaps you do have knack for avoiding it. Let us hope that luck rubs off on the rest of us in the upcoming battle. I’m putting you in charge of the Retlad archery platoon. They’ll probably like you. Dismissed.”

Before you leave she says one last thing.

“And sergeant, don’t listen to what that bizarre vampire said. We’re not going to become extinct. We’re going to win and survive a long time. Besides you still have to play that song for me.”

As you leave you feel a sigh of relief that you won’t be dying just yet, but given that you’re heading into battle soon with the undead, you’re wondering if you just didn’t postpone the inevitable.

Two years pass…

Seven years since the Nuro Incident changed the world into this living hell.

Your time served in the Grand Alliance has not really changed much. The Grand Alliance and the Zalan Empire are basically one of the same now thanks to the complete embrace of a totalitarian system. Might makes right. Nations like the Azi Republic protested, but there was little that they could, after all Zalan has been practically defending the world by itself for the past few years. You get the impression that if this war is won; the Zalan Empire is going to throw its hat in to be a one world government.

Amazing how power and conspiracy is plotted even when it probably won’t happen. “Probably won’t” because your superiors and political leaders are a lot more “optimistic” about winning than you are, but then they haven’t had to face the horrors you’ve faced.

And horrors are a completely accurate word. You’ve gotten over your fear of the undead, but it doesn’t make it any easier. You’re starting to lose ground. Everyday the living lose someone, the Great Lich Lord gains. It’s a question of numbers and quite frankly your side doesn’t have them.

You sort of wish your old captain was here. She was a very good leader and inspirational, but then again that’s why she was made a general and sent elsewhere. She asked you to play that song before she left though. Somehow it seemed to make her sadder afterwards.

“Captain, undead are on the move, they won’t be long now.” One of your messengers says.
“Yes, I can sense it. Here. You head back to my home. You know where it is by now, and give this message to my family. If you get back here and see undead, well get the fuck out and run back to Zalan territory.”

Being a captain hasn’t really turned you into a copy of the captains you served in the past, but then again you didn’t even think you’d ever be promoted to one. Your reign as one has been a little unorthodox as you’ve applied more guerilla tactics than traditional ones, but given your assignment and your background it makes a hell of a lot more sense.

You’re currently stationed on what remains of the Garwold Confederacy. It was a relatively peaceful nation made up mostly of Halflings and Gnomes, with lush green fields and flowers. Now it’s just slowly becoming another massive graveyard and example of genocide.

You’ve gotten to know quite a few of them and you’re always amazed of how they can keep their sense of humor in the face of utter destruction. One of them actually gives you an answer.

“To keep from crying.”

Indeed. You’ve been playing quite a bit when you’re not battling the undead. (The Garwold citizens enjoy your playing a lot) It’s gotten to the point where you don’t just play anymore to keep your mind off of things, it’s like it transports you to a different world. A better world.

If only.

You often wonder how your brother Mallack is doing. He’s been stationed in a relatively safer location back in Zalan territory. You’re guessing that it lowers the odds of having your mom lose both of her sons at the same time. Like it makes it any better if she lost them within any length on time of each other. You wonder if the war is going to go on long enough that by the time Calwin grows up he’ll be drafted as well.

If he even gets the chance to grow up.

You can’t think about it now. A massive undead horde is coming and there’s no where left to hide. There will be open battle and you need to stay focused.

You go through the whole order thing, and making sure your strategy is sound. You wish you had more wizards, but they seem to be in shorter supply these days. It’s almost like they’re being targeted deliberately sometimes…actually you don’t think it, you KNOW that they are.

You see the undead horde approach. You look through some new fangled dwarven invention called an eye piece and see something makes your job a hell of a lot worse.

You don’t just see the usual undead. You see fully armored Death Knights. Harder to kill than even a zombie giant. You see Blood Specters. Dark crimson spirits that can cause their victims to bleed from every orifice with their shrieks. Both of those are at the head of this horde, and this isn’t even counting that you’re severely outnumbered by just the regular zombies, skeletons, ghosts and the like.
> You stand your ground
You need to have a fully cohesive unit you think.

“Ready those blessed silvers men, and you robe wearers melt those dead tin cans!” you order.

Arrows fly towards the Blood Specters first seeing as they’re your greatest threat, the wizards unleash magic attack on the Death Knights. Your side manages to eliminate most of them before the horde reaches you.

Unfortunately this isn’t enough. While your side fights valiantly, you’re outnumbered as usual and don’t really have the raw power to at least fight them off properly. Indeed that’s been the whole problem with the Garwold defense. Gnomes and Halflings have never been the best fighters in a straight up battle.

Doesn’t take long before your dead are rising to join the enemy. You attempt to target the enemy necromancer, but you can’t get a clear shot, and it won’t help with the second dead army that is now heading over the hill now.

You sound a retreat, but you won’t be joining few survivors left as a Death Knight smashes you in the side of the head with a swing of his fail. You fall to the ground dazed and bloody. As you attempt to get up, your mind begins to fill music. A little tune to take you away from this place…

You look up just in time to see a blurry outline of the Death Knight who finishes the job and crushes your skull completely.


Now you have to figure out a plan that’s going to prevent you from getting executed. You figure your brother’s plan isn’t exactly a bad one. Your record is good enough that you’d probably be believed. You think up a lie explaining that you were captured by a particularly sadistic vampire who was planning on draining you slowly to keep you as ongoing food. He took you to a cave in the hills where you barely killed him and escaped with your life. You would’ve made your way back sooner, but there were large groups of marauding orc raiders and demons escaping the ruins of the former Tulan kingdom that caused you to be extra cautious and forced you to hide for a few days.

Yep, that sounds good. You head out with the plan of meeting up with Captain Eckard’s company which is surely at the Tulan Kingdom now.

Eventually you reach the same town you were at when you made your decision to try to leave. You find it occupied right now, it’s not your company, so you’re about to press on, but someone on patrol sees you.

“HALT! Where are you supposed to be soldier?!”
“Oh…uh…” you say getting caught off guard. You mentally curse yourself for not being more aware.
“Speak up! Wow, you look a little worse for wear…what company are you with?”
“I was with Captain Eckard…but…”

“Captain Eckard’s company? Holy shit! We thought they all got killed! The undead reached the Tulan capital first and ambushed them! But why am I telling you? You were there! You must’ve just barely escaped! Don’t worry; you can avenge your friends, we’re gathering strength to attack soon!”

You don’t believe this…

The guard begins speaking to you excitedly and asking you how you escaped. You just continue to say you don’t know, it all became a blur when the ambush occurred and how you attempted to fight, but it was just too much. The guard sympathizes and tells you that you can explain more to his captain. You notice he isn’t wearing Zalan armor, he’s wearing Azi Republic armor. You can only assume that perhaps this is a Grand Alliance company.

Your ideas come true when you do indeed notice several kinds of troop types, though the Zalan Empire soldiers seem to be leading, as the captain is wearing the armor. Your heart sinks when you recognize her and she recognizes you. It was years ago, but you both remember.

“…what are you doing here?” the female captain asks. “Last I heard you were in Captain Eckard’s company. A company that was reported to be wiped out completely. Have you managed to avoid death once again? You are the lucky one aren’t you?”

Suddenly surrounding soldiers start to recognize you more closely. The Zalan ones especially.

“Holy shit it’s him! You fuckin’ survived not one but TWO overwhelming undead hordes! We gotta take him captain, he’s obviously good luck!” the guard says a little misguidedly.
“Good luck? If you haven’t noticed, only HE seems to be getting out alive on these things! I’d say he’s bad luck!” someone else says.
“Nonsense! I heard how he’s killed countless demons with his bow! We could use someone like that in our next attack.” another says.
“Isn’t he the guy that plays the lute really well?”

A few people start arguing until the female captain speaks again.

“ENOUGH! I’ll handle this. You in my office now, I’ll speak with you in private. And for the rest of you, get ready to move out. We’re attacking tomorrow.”

She turns away and enters a building; you slowly follow, while everyone else disperses.

When you enter the wrecked “office” she closes the door and tells you to sit down, but she doesn’t. Instead she stares at you hard at you and draws her sword.

“Okay Mr. Survivor. Convince me.”
“Convince you of what?”
“Convince me that you aren’t some fucking undead spy!”
“WHAT?! How? I mean…”
“Easy! In the two encounters you had with the undead on any major scale, you’ve been the only one to survive. Once, maybe. But twice? Mighty suspicious…”
“But I mean…I’m not undead! Look I even walk around in the daylight, I’m not even pale!”
“I didn’t say you were undead, I said you were a spy. There are few of those misguided traitors that think their necromancer overlords will be kind to them, by killing them last. Madness.”
“But I’m not a spy! I killed…” you begin to stutter under pressure.
”Yeah, yeah, you killed demons. Big deal. The undead and demons weren’t friends either. What better way to be a spy than to make yourself a hero?”
“But I’m not…”
“You’re not what?”
“I’m not…”
“What? More lies? Spit out the truth spy!” she demands pointing her sword at your throat.
> You attempt to lie
Quickly remembering the lie you thought up on the way, you sputter it out with some stress.

“I…I was captured by a vampire! A really fucking sadistic one! He killed my scouting party and took me to say he was going to drain me slowly for fun! He took me to some cave in the hills and it was only by luck that I managed to kill him and escape! I would’ve made my way back sooner, but their were large groups of marauding orc raiders and demons escaping the ruins of the former Tulan Kingdom, so I was extra cautious and…”

At this point the Captain bashes you in the head with the hilt of her sword. You fall off the chair and onto the floor.

“LIAR! You expect me to believe this horse shit? I’ve had patrols going all through this area and there aren’t any orcs in the damn area. They all fled further north long ago and the remaining demons mostly ran to the west! Not to mention the closest hills have no caves! You obviously think so low of me that you thought you could fool me OR you’re just a complete idiot as well as a coward! Either way you haven’t convinced me, and you’re fit only for execution! You’re a deserter at best and a spy at worst!”

“No…wait…” are your last words before the Captain severs your head from your body.


Last time you were wounded and had the misfortune of running into demons. Well you aren’t wounded this time and you’re pretty sure you won’t be running into too many more demons. You’ll be able to pull it off this time. You can’t do this army shit anymore, as much as you want to help your family out, you’ve got to live your own life regardless of what the future holds. You aren’t even worried about committing an executionable offense.

You easily sneak away as you hear your men call out your name looking for you. You’re glad you didn’t leave too much back at the fort, except your lute, but you’ve got your newly acquired mandolin to make up for it. Eventually you’re away from civilization altogether.

While you’re out in the wilderness you think about your family again, and you have to at least let them know you’re still alive. Maybe you can still do something about them, after all it doesn’t sound like the Zalan Empire is becoming a great place to live anymore. Perhaps you could convince them to move?

It takes a week of sneaking around and keeping out of sight, but eventually you make it back home. Zalan looks a lot different; hell home looks a lot different. There was a small wooded area near your farm, but most of the trees have been cut down now. You also remember fewer patrols. Your house looks in better condition however. You guess at least your family seems a lot safer, but for how long?

You knock on the door in the middle of the night and your sister Randi answers, Not too surprising as she always was a night owl when she was little. At least she used to be little. The passing of the years and she’s now a teenager and grown quite a bit. You’ve been away so long.

What does surprise you is the flintlock pistol that she’s currently pointing at you!

“Whoa! Hold on! It’s me, your brother!” you say.
“…it is? It is you!” she exclaims and puts down the gun before hugging you.
“What the hell are you doing with a pistol?”
“The money you sent us allowed to buy new things you know and a traveling merchant was selling this for cheap!”
“No I mean, what are YOU doing with one? You’ll blow your damn head off with that thing! Those things are unstable.” You scold.
“What are you doing home? Are you on leave?”
“Uh…that’s a long story. Wake up the rest of the family; I have to talk to you all.”

Randi complies while you step inside the house and take in its new look. Eventually your Mom enters, followed by your brother Mallack and finally your youngest brother Calwin and sister Makana.

You all sit down at the dining room table. (You realize you haven’t done that with your family in years) and you tell them everything. You get a lot of worried reactions. More for you than the other world impending doom stuff though. At least you know that they care.

“You gotta get back to the army right now! Say you got captured by something and it took you awhile to escape!” Mallack exclaims.
“While I’m sure that MAY work, I just don’t want to do it…I can’t take this anymore. The whole time I’ve been in the damn army, my music has kept me sane. I’ve noticed it have an effect on others as well. Never thought it would. I mean I have talent and…”
“…you feel like you’ve wasted your life?” your mother replies.

You pause for a moment. You almost want to say yes, but you can’t even if you wanted to. You haven’t wasted it, its just you’ve never really had the chance to do what you’ve ever wanted to do.

“No…I guess I haven’t… it’s just…”

Your mother takes your hand and speaks to you.

“I know. It’s not fair. It’s not right. Life isn’t fair and it’s starting to get a whole lot less fair. I know I’ve mentioned it in letters to you, but the Zalan Empire WILL be taking the farm…and it’s looking like Mallack’s going to be drafted if things are going the way they seem to be.”
“But…see that’s what I’m saying! We could all move! I mean of course I have to go into hiding, maybe Mallack could come with me. And the rest of you could use what money you have left and move to Retlad! It’s a nice place. It’s away from most of the fighting, and there aren’t anymore Quillars there!”

Your mother shakes her head.

“You must be behind in the news, because Retlad is finally going to become part of the Zalan Empire soon, so going there to live wouldn’t make any difference. The Empire can take this farm, but in spirit this will ALWAYS be ours. The Empire has said they will allow us to continue working it and living on the land and even if they didn’t they’d have have to drag us all out and stick our heads on pikes before we’d leave. Your father and his father build this farm up to what it is. Our family is going to be here until the end.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of…what about you Mallack? You’re probably going to be drafted. You aren’t worried about that?”
“Sure I am. But what am I going to do, run? Where? From what you described you practically think the whole world is doomed anyway! I might as well take some of the undead bastards out before I go. I was getting bored of the farm anyway. Let Randi take over! Ha ha!”

Your mother addresses you again.

“Son, you know our family. We’ve always done the right thing, even if it doesn’t coincide with what we want…I think you know what you have to do.”

And so you do. So you do.

You spend one night with your family and make the most of it. You all laugh and joke, trying to put all the problems of the world out of your mind and of course before you leave you play a song for them.

Eventually you hug them all goodbye and take your leave. More than a few tears are shed on both sides.
> You go into hiding
As much as you still want to help out your family, you have to live your own life while there is still time. They’ll still get money from your supposed death and they know you’re still alive. You figure this will be the last time you see them though, as you can’t risk contacting them anymore.

The first order of business is to change your identity as much as you can. And head to a place where you can play for an audience, but the probability of someone ratting you out is low if you’re recognized.

You head to the Garwold Confederacy. It’s a relatively peaceful nation made up mostly of Halflings and Gnomes, with lush green fields and flowers. They’ve surprisingly managed to stay out of most of the fighting; only volunteering a few of their militia and illusionists to the Grand Alliance. They’re also known to appreciate the simpler things in life.

Eventually you make a place for yourself there in one of the small villages. You make a living playing at the local tavern there. Most of the patrons know that you have some sort of past that you’re trying to hide from. Some of them and the owner know that you’re that Zalan “hero” that they’ve heard about. But just like you thought, they don’t bring it up or say anything about it and just enjoy your music.

A year passes and you’re happy. Nobody from the Zalan Empire comes looking for you, as it’s assumed you’re dead and everyone’s too busy fighting the undead for the most part. When the Grand Alliance armies pass through, you keep a low profile though. You even meet a pretty Halfling girl to be with.

The next year isn’t so pretty however. The Great Lich Lord’s armies have been defeating the Grand Alliance’s attempts to stop them and now those armies finally turn their attention to the Garwold Confederacy.

Within a month half of Garwold has been turned into a graveyard. The Grand Alliance as well as the Garwold militia have been doing their best, but it’s not going to be enough. You help defend the little village that you’ve made your home in and you can’t afford to keep a low profile anymore despite the Grand Alliance presence (Which is now mainly made up of Zalan Empire troops) but it hardly matters at this point. Survival of the living is

You make plans to leave, and to try to convince your girlfriend and your other new friends that you’ve made here to leave as well. You know they’re all very home bound, but tomorrow you’re going to really try.

Unfortunately a group of Blood Specters attacks the village that night. You awaken to hear blood curling screams ring throughout the village. You look out the window and see the vile red ghosts stalking the streets.

You’ve become too attached to these people to not help; you immediately grab your weapons and prepare for battle.

You head to your girlfriend’s home first, but sadly she’s already been killed and completely drained of blood. You don’t have time to morn as you’re immediately attacked by the Blood Specter that was still lingering in the house. You manage to kill it with a couple silver arrows, but its dying shrieks alert others to your area.

You slay a couple more of them as you try to look for the necromancer who has to be in the area to even control these creatures, but you can’t keep your eye on all the incorporeal creatures and you suddenly feel a slight pain in your back which reaches forward into your heart as one of them thrusts its hand into you to drain your blood.

You collapse soon after, only to rise later to join the ranks of the ever growing undead armies.


If you’ve learned one thing, numbers doesn’t necessarily imply safety. With all the years of patrolling you’ve done along with your previous actions in Retlad so long ago, you actually feel more comfortable in smaller groups at this point. Your one and only rank and file battle didn’t go well.

Your choice isn’t surprising, if anything more people feel comfortable with you scouting ahead.

As you journey further into former Tulan territory, you don’t encounter too much resistance. A few demons and crazed followers here and there, but nothing you can’t take care of. It also occurs to you how “planted” you’ve been for the past five years. While it’s true you did leave the fort a lot, you never ventured far from it. This is first time you’ve actually traveled. Ironic, since one of the reasons why you joined the army was the possibility of traveling to interesting places.

However, it seems like you only visit these interesting places after they’re already destroyed. You’re basically seeing the aftermath of the demon occupation. It sort of reminds you of what you’d seen back in Retlad when the Quillars were killing folks except the landscape is in even worse condition. The demons weren’t content on just corrupting their mortal slaves; they were attempting to turn the entire land into their infernal realm. You can only imagine what sort of hell was going on while they were actually here.

You get to a small town that’s completely wrecked and seemingly deserted. Its night time and normally you’d go back and wait until morning to scout it, but Captain Eckard is insistent on getting to the former Tulan capital as quick as possible. You split up into small groups to scout the town quicker and tell everyone that if they come across anything more then they can handle, to run and alert everyone else.

You go building to building not really encountering much of anything. Not even survivors. Lots of half eaten dead bodies in various states of torment though. You expect when Velzix was killed the whole realm descended into anarchy pretty quickly and the demons reverted back to their chaotic natures causing as much mayhem as possible without too much repercussion.

You enter a shop with two of your other team members. You hear a creaking sound, which doesn’t sound good. One of your team members goes a little further in, and it gets louder.

“Step back! The floors is…” you utter and then a large portion of the floor collapses underneath him. You attempt to grab his hand, but fail and the rest of the floor collapses underneath you as well.

You don’t fall too far, but you definitely feel it. You recover as quick as you can and hear your other subordinate who managed to avoid falling through the floor.

“Sarge! Are you alright?” Private Ramusen shouts.
“Yeah, yeah private. I’m just a little bruised.”
“What about Gannon? Is he alright?”

You take your tinder box and make a small light. You look around and see that you must be in the basement of some sort of music shop from all the instruments you see. You didn’t even notice when you first entered the place, it just looked like any other ransacked shop.

Upon further inspection you see a body lying on the floor. It’s Private Gannon and he’s dead. He didn’t land in the “good way” you did and broke his neck.

“He’s dead.” You call up to Ramusen.
“Shit! He’s fuckin’ dead?”
“Yeah private, I just said he was! Now let me get the hell out of here…fuck! The damn stairs are completely destroyed. I can’t climb up, or even attempt a jump. Ramusen, throw down a rope and make sure you really secure it!”

While you wait for Ramusen to complete this task, you take a look at some of the instruments. Lots of flutes and other wind instruments that don’t interest you. You grab an old looking mandolin. It’s definitely human design, but it seems very ornate though, must’ve been a specialty piece that wasn’t for sale.

You pluck at the strings and despite the dirt, grime, and neglect of the instrument; it still manages to produce a fairly pleasing tone. You play for a good five minutes before you realize that Ramusen hasn’t thrown down the rope yet.

“Private?” is all you utter, when you hear the slumping of a lifeless body, followed by a low voice.

“Beautiful…”

You grab your bow, when you see a dark figure loom above you. You fire, but miss due to the figure dodging quicker than anything you’ve ever encountered before. It doesn’t help that this same figure has jumped down the hole beside you before you can blink.

You’re standing right before the figure now. He has a pale, but familiar face, though the blood around the mouth is new and not encouraging. He knocks the bow out of your hand, but does nothing else to you. You wouldn’t be quick enough to draw your sword given what you’ve seen. In fact right now, all you’re feeling is fear.

“Almost hit me…you would’ve made a good addition. Maybe you could’ve even…no. Nobody can. This world is lost now and soon my kind won’t even be around to guide your kind to combat the inevitable anymore…” Warnov says.
“What…what are you talking about?” you ask unsure what’s going to happen next. Warnov looks as if he could tell you more than you’d ever want to know about lots of things, but instead he just shakes his head.

“Nevermind human. Telling you the whole story would not help you anyway. Perhaps it’s best you hadn’t joined us, seeing as I have been marked now. It won’t be long before the rest of my kind are hunted down. He’s really quite pissed at us, and worse, he can sense us you see…(sigh) I can only imagine what he did to poor Count Rostov…”
“Who’s pissed?”
“Who do you think human? The Necro…I mean the Great Lich Lord of course. Oh yes. He’s back…and this one isn’t going to lose like the last one did so long ago.”

You’re not following all of Warnov’s cryptic speak, but if the last bit he’s said is true, he’s scared the hell out of you more than he has with his actions. Warnov grabs your shoulder and looks into your eyes.

“I do not envy your fate human…the extinction of your species will soon follow my own. My advice to you? Live human! Live while you can, for eventually this whole world will be dead and under his complete control.”

Sensing that he’s brought enough doom and gloom to you, he relents and steps back.

“Play me a song human.” He says catching you off guard.
“…what did you want to hear?” you ask shakily.
“I don’t know…anything. Play what you were playing before.”

You slowly pick up the dropped mandolin and begin playing the song that you were playing before and you play as if your life depended on it, though you get the impression that Warnov has no intention on killing you.

He sits quietly listening in the darkness, after finishing the song; he leaps back up through the hole.

“Beautiful…such talent…such a waste…”

A rope is thrown down and the sounds of feet running off are then heard. You wait a minute and then climb up the rope, taking the mandolin with you. You see private Ramusen lying nearby with his throat ripped out and thoroughly drained of blood.

You’re also just in time to hear other members of your group coming to your position when you exit the shop.

What the hell are you supposed to tell them? Death to the world, reborn lich lords…you start thinking, what’s the point of all this? Maybe Warnov was right, maybe you should LIVE while there’s still time. Granted his information is spotty, but you can’t help but thinking he’s probably more informed on the situation than most people.

You’ve pondered it several times before, and you’ve even attempted it once, but deserting is looking very desirable again. In this day and age, who’s going to know if were killed or not?
> You letters to home (Moving out from Virtue...)
Dear Mom,

This will be a quick letter, we’re moving out and I can’t say I’m thrilled with it.

Last time I wrote, I was talking about how bad the recent demon attacks were, well I’m sure you already heard about the demon lord Velzix being killed. I suppose this is a good thing, since its one less enemy to worry about, but I’m being sent to retake the lands previously owned by him and reports say the Necromancer is as well.

I still haven’t gotten completely over what happened at Nuro. I need to be strong though since I’m probably going to be doing a lot of combat with the undead in the future.

Oddly I’m not even worried about myself so much right now; I’m more concerned about you guys. I know the Zalan Empire has been creating a lot of rules lately. Talks of seizing private property and drafts cause me to worry about you all. Never thought that on the eve of possibly facing undead hordes again, it’s our own government that I have concerns about.

Argh! This is something I’d rather discuss with you in person, of course if I ever got a chance to visit every once in awhile!

Okay, the Captain’s starting to call everyone.

Give my love to the rest of the family.

Your son


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.

However, more often than not real heroes don’t live long. You’re wondering what exactly this Mr. Warnov has in mind for you and given his demeanor, his appearance and just your own feelings of uncertainty about him, you decline. You know your limitations even if others don’t see them. So, no you won’t be hunting down some artifact of unlimited power and then single handedly taking out a Demon Lord or Necromancer Lord in their own throne room.

“No, I don’t think so Mr. Warnov. As I’ve often said, I’m no hero. I’m just doing my job and providing for my family.”

Mr. Warnov looks disappointed and sighs, but accepts your decision.

“Very well. This is a shame though. Despite your humble birth you seem to have lots of potential. You could’ve made an excellent addition to our…organization. I’ve also heard your lute playing wasn’t bad either, we don’t have any musically talented types anymore…oh well.”

Mr. Warnov leaves rather quickly after his last statement. Something about him seemed very odd and you’re sort of glad you didn’t take his offer. You go back to your target practice for awhile when you suddenly hear an alarm cry out loudly through the fort about a small demon army being sighted over the hill.

“Well back to work…” you say and prepare for battle once again.

Two years pass…

It’s been five years since the Nuro Incident and things have gotten worse.

Both the Necromancer Lord and Velzix have made progress. Too much. The Grand Alliance hasn’t been able to do anything except fight them to a stalemate. All three sides are looking to gain an advantage and somehow you don’t think it’ll be yours.

The Zalan Empire has become increasingly totalitarian. It’s been increasing its influence over how the Grand Alliance should be run and its strategies. Some of Zalan’s officers have been transferred to become more prominent in leading and commanding the bulk of the Grand Alliance army. You’re not sure if this isn’t a bad idea. Bullying or not, one final voice in matters would probably help the Grand Alliance at this point. There’s been some grumbling by other nations though.

However it’s also begun several repressive internal measures to keep itself safe. Your mom has mentioned in letters back to you of seeing routine patrols now near the farm. Talks of seizing private property for the good of the Empire are being discussed. You don’t really like the sound of that, but it’s not really like you can do anything about it. You can only take solace in the fact that being part of the Zalan army will at least result in your family not becoming homeless. They would probably still be able to live and work on the farm…it just wouldn’t be your family’s anymore. There’s also talk of a draft. You don’t like the sound of that either. Your brother Mallack would certainly be conscripted now. You can’t imagine him dealing with the things you’ve had to face. You hope it doesn’t come to that.

Your position at Virtue is looking worse and worse each day. Parts of the fort are severely damaged, you’re short on man power and you don’t even have any decent wizards or healers. You’ve attempted to talk to Captain Eckard about withdrawing and falling back to a safer position, but he won’t hear of it. This fort is NOT to be abandoned.

The only good thing is that there’s apparently been a small contingent of mercenaries severely messing up things for Velzix in his own territory. They must be incredibly brave or completely mad for Zalan gold to perform such a task. You can’t help but think that maybe YOU would be there right along side them, if you’d joined up with that mercenary company years ago. A sobering thought.

Time to go on patrol again. You gather up some soldiers and get ready. You look at all of them and wonder which ones won’t be coming back this time. You look at yourself and wonder if you will. A few years ago, everyone coming back alive was at least a possibility, but now it’s not even certain.

You go out and change up your routine path again. Always have to be different, can’t become predictable.

A couple of imps attack. Nothing to worry about. Easily dispatched. You know you’ll encounter worse before the day is over though.

A group of Tulan “citizens” led by their demon overseer attacks you next. Made up of hapless slaves and misguided idiots who think serving the demons is going to pan out in the long run.

Finally you come across something a little more unusual. A small group of dwarves fighting off a large demon ambush. They look ragged, wounded and in dire need of help. So you help them.

You unleash five arrows into the head of an Eviscerator before two of your number are fried by a hellfire blast from a Flame Child. The fighting doesn’t get any cleaner from there. You see another one of your members getting shredded, before a path is cleared for the dwarves to follow you back to the fort. One of their own chooses to stay behind to give the rest a chance to escape. As all of you run, a large explosion is heard followed by several yelps, howls and screams. The dwarf has blown himself up with whatever explosives the dwarves are fond of making.

Finally you get back to the fort where it’s relatively safe, and all you’re thinking about is how you’ll have to do this all over again tomorrow. You retire to your private room where you play your lute and hope you aren’t disturbed by another attack on the fort. Happily, that doesn’t happen, but you are disturbed by one of the dwarves you rescued earlier instead. He’s come to thank you.

“Hey lad, I just want to say thanks to your actions at least a few of us survived from our clan. Such as it is now. Something about you looks very familiar. Normally you humans all look the same but…ah hah! You’re that lad who I saved near that farm five years ago! Looks like you returned the favor! Stagir’s the name.”

You didn’t realize it either, but then with all the fighting and the chaos you’d barely survived during that particular day, you weren’t really paying attention to faces. You were just glad someone came along when they did.

“Yeah…small world I guess. So what happened to your clan?”
“Wiped out lad.” Stagir says mournfully. “At least when you humans were fighting each other you didn’t mess with us, but getting caught between the undead and demons…well it’s a bit different.”
“The undead are that far now?” you ask.
“Aye. They and the demons have been involved in skirmishes here and there. Got no problem with evil fighting evil, but it was just our bad luck that my clan was caught in the middle. The demons are evil incarnate to be sure, but the undead…I dunno. Something worse about them. In the final days, I had to kill clan members who I once called friends and family because of the fucking necromancers raising them from the dead. Some stayed behind to fight since they refused to run. They’d rather die than run from their home. Normally I’d agree, but after seeing that this was a losing battle, some of us decided that it would be better to run. After all we would just be raised again to be used as puppets of the necromancers when we die. Not even free will to choose, or the threat of a demon’s whip. You just become one of them. Can’t let that happen to me. Never.”

You know something of it, having had to do a little of that five years ago at Nuro, but actually killing undead parodies of family members would be pretty horrific.

Stagir attempts to lighten the mood a bit by asking you about what you were playing before he interrupted. When you tell him, he tiches and says something about how elven songs are nothing compared to dwarven ones. You never really thought of dwarves having a musical interest before, but Stagir boasts about how they have quite an extensive musical history.

He takes the lute from you and shows you a couple of dwarven songs, breaking strings in the process. His insistent singing accompanying the songs isn’t exactly pleasant either. He complains about the human made strings not being strong enough to play the songs properly, but thanks you again for saving his life before leaving.

Every now and then you play these songs for your new dwarven allies who have taken it upon themselves to strengthen and rebuild the fort the “proper dwarf way”. They seem to appreciate it. You’re a little more careful with the strings and don’t indulge in the singing though. (But unfortunately for the rest of the fort, the dwarves do)

A few months pass and the demon attacks seem to decrease. The strengthened fort certainly helps, but something else is going on. Eventually you’re seeing less and less of them. Eventually some ragged refugees come to the fort and after a bit of babbling and thanking the gods, a few of them explain.

There are a couple of conflicting stories, but it would seem Velzix is dead! He was killed by something or someone. Consensus seems to be that the mercenary leader died in battle with him though. Without Velzix’s leadership the demons are fighting amongst themselves and the realm is in complete disarray. The Grand Alliance is taking steps to retake the land immediately before the Necromancer Lord gets it. The Zalan Empire in particular is closer though, so naturally YOUR nation is going to get that land first!

While things may be looking up somewhat, they aren’t necessarily looking up for you. Captain Eckard has orders to begin an attack immediately. You aren’t looking forward to it mainly because you’ll probably encounter an undead army in the process.

You don’t have a choice though except for what role you can serve. Thanks to your skills and rank. You can either lead troops as normal, or be part of a scouting party.
> You letters to home (She's still alive!)
Hey Mallack!

This letter is directly for you again. Glad you’ve been keeping these between us.

Anyway, I know it seemed silly to worry about a girl I just had a brief encounter with years ago for one night. But when I heard about the Brot Kingdom being destroyed by the Necromancer, I did wonder about Helena.

Well, I found out she’s still alive! She stopped off in Fort Virtue not too long ago! She wasn’t in Brot when all that shit went down. She was trading in the Azi Republic at the time.

When she arrived in Fort Virtue to trade, I recognized her and she seemed pleased to see me. She mentioned that she was pleased to see a familiar face for once and we spent a lot of time together for as long as she stayed. (And yes, we did THAT several times too.)

I wish things were different, or at least not the way they are right now. I definitely would want to pursue a more permanent relationship with her because we get along really well, but alas that’s not to be. At least not at this time.

She told me she was heading to the Retlad Kingdom next; I hope she stays there because there’s less fighting going on. Definitely no more Quillars there anymore. I dunno, I know it’s minor and doesn’t really make sense, but this little bit of info sort of put me in a better mood. I guess I’ll be writing Mom a more upbeat letter as well soon.

Okay, well I hope everything’s going good with you too. Keep watching out for the Kobolds and keep ‘em out of that chicken coop!

Your brother