"Go get the rooms Roldan, I'll help Gerald." You say.
"Okay." Roldan agrees and leaves.

You and Gerald help the Captain Gruz up who is mumbling things the whole time.

"Fucking idiots. It was perfect…who I am kidding? It was futile to begin with."
"Just settle down sir." Gerald says trying to calm him down.
"Or what? You'll kill me too? Hey I'm not tryin' ta put the moves on ya, you got your arm around me!"

Gerald gets quiet really fast and even you start looking around.

"Oh what? You think I didn't hear about that incident? Ha ha ha! Relax, ya did the right thing, fuckin' degenerate deserved it…" Gruz laughs.

You're just about to get to the door and that's when you hear yelling and an explosion coming from the outside followed by screams. The force of it is enough to cause you all to fall back a bit.

"Shit!" you blurt out and leave Gerald to tend to the captain.

You look around and see a couple of damaged buildings, more than a few dead bodies in pieces. Your heart sinks though when you see Roldan lying on the ground in front of the damaged inn.

When you rush over to him, his insides are clearly visible and one of his legs is gone. He struggles to breathe as he looks up at you. You can't do anything for him.

"Fuck. Damnit…" you quietly say and kneel down towards his bloody body.
"…tell Brenda that I love her."
"I will."
"That's good…that's good…hey if we're all…all siblings like Kane said…that…that doesn't make Brenda…my sister…does it?" Roldan asks with a small smile.
"Heh, I don't think so, and even if it did so what? You found happiness with her." You smile back.
"Yeah…you're right. You… usually were." he says and then drifts away.

This time you do feel sadness at the loss of one of your own. Especially when you had just gotten to know him again. Gerald dashes over to you and even captain Gruz has sobered up a bit from this incident and is now interrogating the nearest hysterical citizen.

"Who the fuck did this?! Answer me woman!" he demands and slaps her a few times, but she just pathetically cries and begs him to stop.
"Captain! Stop it! It's obvious she doesn't know anything!" Gerald shouts.
"Maybe not, but someone here does." You say. "Alright, listen up! I am an Eternal and the man laying dead next to me was also an Eternal! My wrath for his death shall be the likes you've never known and you don't want to know. One of you saw something, so someone better start talking or else this little town you call home is going to get a whole lot bloodier."

Nobody says anything for a while and there's just dead silence, but eventually a little girl comes out from behind a barrel and speaks up.

"I saw something Mr. Eternal."
"Good, glad to see this town isn't completely infested with cowards. You're coming with me." You say and take the girl to a room at the inn and proceed to question her.

The girl is still a little nervous at first, but soon opens up quite a bit. She mentions that she was walking home from the general store and she saw Roldan leaving the tavern. He was almost to the inn when she saw these two figures shimming like they were almost invisible. She then says what happened next was very quick. The figures ran up to Roldan and then these two men appeared in gray cloaks. They both stabbed him several times before he could defend himself.

Despite his wounds, he managed to stab one through the neck and grabbed the other when he tried to escape. She said at this point she had been hiding behind the barrel, but saw that the man in gray produced a gas sphere plant from his cloak and he yelled something she couldn't understand. A blackish field started to emanate from the man, Roldan then fell to the ground and then the large explosion occurred killing several people that didn't have the sense that the little girl did to get the hell out of there as soon as possible.

"So much for the shadows not being here." Gerald remarks.
"Shit, I fucked up. I should've known that they might've realized that we we're coming." Captain Gruz says.
"Doesn't matter anyway. It's obvious they're prepared for a last stand sort of fight, if they're willing to blow themselves up. No sense in depriving them of that, though I'm hoping they don't start favoring blowing themselves up. It's going to make fighting them more dangerous than it should be." You say.
"Mmm, I know what you mean. Serving on the Felkan frontlines I had to experience several of their own explosive type weapons first hand, but from what I've heard those gas plant spheres aren't common and grow rarely even in this area. Even then, they aren't explosive on their own. The shadow probably used some sort of magic to make it explode like that. Is that right little girl?" Gerald asks to confirm, to which she nods.

"Alright enough talk, we all need to get some rest before wiping the bastards out tomorrow." Captain Gruz says and lies down on his bed.

At this point you send the little girl away and tell her she's served the Empire well and leave with Gerald.

"Do you really think Gruz should be coming with us tomorrow? I mean with his leg and his age and all." Gerald asks.
"If he wants to go on one last mission then I'm not going to deprive him of that. Don't worry, he'll keep up. I get the impression this is sort of personal to him."
"Personal to him? I imagine it's personal to you a lot more."
"True, but I'm trying to not let it."

Of course that's pretty hard to do when you have to put Roldan in a casket and sent back to Brenda. Gerald writes the letter to her. You can only imagine what her reaction is going to be about this news. This makes you wonder about the whole scenario that they were in love and got married. You know you briefly spoke to Roldan about this back at the tavern, but a lot of it still baffles you. How did it first come about? What was it like? Who initiated it? Was the attraction always there, even back when you were all in training? Could something like that ever happen to you?

You think about the time you were with Captain Krozer and that's the closest equivalent you have, but you know that wasn't anything like love. You did respect her though and you're pretty sure the feeling was mutual. Perhaps that's how it started, but Brenda and Roldan were just in contact with each long enough to develop it further.

Eventually you dismiss all these meaningless thoughts and rest up to prepare for your mission tomorrow.

The next morning, you Gerald and Gruz set off on your journey. The trip through the swamps isn't an easy one; it actually makes you long for the days of stomping through ice and snow. The whole time you're traveling you're constantly alert and feel like at anytime you could be attacked, which turns out to be true with the oversized insects and other minor hostile swamp animals dwelling here, but they aren't the enemies you're expecting.

"So how many Empire troops are we going to have as back up?" Gerald asks Gruz during the trip.
"Empire? I'm lucky I managed to get them to accept my request to go on this mission! They didn't send me anyone, not that they'd be much help anyway. Most Empire soldiers would stick out like a sore thumb and get themselves killed before they even reached the place. No, I'm relying on the ones that found these ruins to begin with. Dark elven mercs. If anyone can hide out better than the shadows, it'll be them." Gruz replies.

Dark elves. You hated having to work with them back in your early years on the Rask frontier, but you can't deny their effectiveness.

"Shh! Do you hear that?" you ask.
"Probably another Sul Monkey. Those things are all over the place. Just glad it's not mating season for them, otherwise we might be in big trouble. Hey, aren't you humans related to them in some way?" Gruz asks.

Gerald is about to reply, and then you hear a whizzing sound followed by a "thunk" sound. You then see Gerald with a large crossbow bolt directly in the center of his head. A single trickle of blood comes from the wound and drips off his nose.

"I…been hit…" Gerald says and his eyes roll back as he falls into the soft mushy ground.

"Shit!" Gruz shouts and ducks down into the mud.

You hide behind a tree

From the trajectory of the bolt, the assassin is in front and probably was trying to hit you instead of Gerald. You immediately run for the nearest tree as several more bolts whiz past you.

When you reach the tree two Shadow Guards jump down from it and attempt to stab you. You kick one in the groin as hard as you can, while deflecting the blow of the other with your sword. You dodge another attack by falling to the ground and chopping the shadow at one of his legs, nearly hacking it off. When he falls in agony you finish him off with your sword.

The one staggering around with damaged man part, finally recovers, but attempts to disappear again. You throw your dagger at him as he begins to turn invisible, impaling him in the stomach. Meanwhile it appears that Captain Gruz is taking care of the one who was shooting bolts at you.

"Bastard!" he says with his boot on the shadow and chopping the shadow's head in two with his axe. Blood and brains splatter everywhere.

You move around and scan the area cautiously and try to see if there's any more shadows lurking about, but if there were they would've either attack you by now or run off. When you're confident that none are left you walk over to Gerald who is dead already.

"FUCK!" you shout while kicking a nearby piece of clumped up mud. You don't feel sadness this time so much as you feel frustration. All those years he was performing commando raids in Felkan territory and he gets killed like this? Not even in close combat! Somehow it doesn't seem right. Just like how Roldan died. You search Gerald's body and find the letter he was planning on sending Brenda about Roldan, it seems you will have to do it now. Perhaps even alter it.

Captain Gruz walks over to you, he has a few bolts in him, but he doesn't seem particularly bothered by them.

"Feh, I've had way worse than this." He says as he pulls them out. "Y'know we're on our own now."
"What do you mean?" you ask.
"I'm saying these bolts, they ain't Shadow Guard, these are dark elven quality. That fucker over there with his head cleaved in two had one of those fancy repeating dark elven crossbows too. And while I know dark elves to be treacherous bitches that'll switch sides to whoever's paying the most, they would NEVER allow anyone to use their equipment. My guess is those mercs that were going to meet us are all dead, well either that or they ran off."
"Good, I want to kill the rest of these shadows anyway." You say and proceed on to the ruins.

Your next step of your journey confirms Gruz's theory. You and he see signs of battle on your way to the ruins. Several of the bodies are dark elven, but an equal amount are Shadow Guard.

"Looks like they were ambushed. Heh, pretty hard to do with dark elves. Still, it also looks like the dark elves gave the shadows a hell of a fight. Looks like those are the ruins up ahead. I'm guessing there probably aren't too many left, this should be over pretty quick."

You and Gruz dispense with caution and boldly march into the ruins. You both look around as the crumbling statues of old forgotten gods loom over you. Eventually you find who you're looking for in the remains of a temple that's covered in vines and partially sinking into the swamp

A single Shadow Guard stands over the bodies of several others of his kind. Near the bodies are empty flasks.

"I'll be with you soon my brothers and sisters. And especially you Draven." Cyrus says looking at the bodies and ignoring you completely.
"Aw, how sweet. Glad you decided not to pussy out like the rest of your buddies by poisoning yourself and are at least are willing to face your death like a man." Gruz replies.
"Yes, well it still remains to be seen Gruz. Though speaking of being a man, I'm impressed that you actually showed up here. I thought that you would've continued to hide and try to keep your involvement of these events a secret as you have for all these years."

This statement from Cyrus causes you to pause and look at Gruz. He looks guilty of something for a moment and then gives a toothy smile.

"I wasn't hiding Cyrus. I was waiting. Waiting until the day when I could finally track you down. It wasn't my fuck up that got us into this mess. We could've been strong enough together to make a break from the Empire if you hadn't decided to backstab us at Fort Destiny to save your own skin. Hah! See how well that turned out. Look at you now."

Even as jaded as you have become about the Empire, you are somewhat surprised about Captain Gruz…but in retrospect, somebody had to have some sort of input on having all those orcs transferred to Fort Defiance. Despite this revelation you're too numb to excessively care. All you know is over the past few days you've seen two of your fellow Eternals die ignobly while doing their duty for the Empire. Something these traitors have obviously disregarded a long time ago.

"Well, what's it gonna be lad? You killin' me or the shadow first?" Gruz asks.
"I think I'll stick with the original plan. We'll kill the shadow together, then you and me are going to settle up." You say calmly.
"That's the spirit boy!" Gruz laughs and steps towards Cyrus.

Cyrus makes no more small talk or last minute threats. He focuses purely on combat. You expect him to use his Shadow Guard tricks like poison or invisibility, but he doesn't.

He easily dodges Gruz's powerful yet clumsy attacks and lands a few well placed strikes on him, but Gruz shrugs them off like you've seen him do the whole time you've been fighting along side him. You can only imagine what an unstoppable juggernaut he must've been back in his younger days.

As for you, you match Cyrus in sword skill. Whatever he learned from the Shadow Guard won't help him in a face-to-face battle with you. All it takes is for you to take advantage of his divided concentration and you land a mortal blow, slicing his side clean open.

Cyrus falls and deflects your attempt to split his head open, but he drops his sword from the force of your blow in the process. Weaponless, tired and bleeding out from a deep hole in his side, Cyrus accepts defeat.

"Do it. Eternal slave of the Empire." He says coldly and then you fulfill his request by decapitating him.

You quickly turn to face Gruz, who already has his axe ready.

"Alright Eternal, let's finish this."

You and Gruz clash weapons. As you battle, you're reminded of the times when you were still a child and how he taught you to fight.
CLANG!
How he told you to keep a calm head in battle.
TING!
How he told you to serve the Empire.
SHING!
How he had confidence in your skills.
CLANK!
How he saw you as a leader.
CLANK!
How he told you not to die for the Emperor…but to make the other dumb bastard die so that you could continue serving the Emperor

SWIPE! SLICE! SLISH! SLISH! SLASH!

How he told you that failure wasn't an option.

Gruz finally succumbs to his multiple wounds and falls to one knee leaning on his axe in an effort not to completely collapse.

"Damn…shit…." Gruz gasps as he breathes heavily and feels his strength completely leaving him.
"Why?" you ask him.
"Why? Heh heh." Chuckles a bit while at the same time coughing up some blood. "After all you've experienced in your service of the Empire, you have to ask me why? My people had already been tamed and conquered decades ago and I bought into the same bullshit you did when I was a little green snot that didn't know any better. I worked my way up the ranks and did pretty good for myself, but for what? To be a lap dog that begged for a treat every time I did something right and get slapped down because I was rising too much above my so called station? I was still holding on to an idea that was long gone or never existed to begin with. It wasn't until shortly after your training was complete that I started to seriously change my mind. The Felkan war and the conspiracy that the Shadow Guard came up with just made it easier… I think I'm gonna just lay down for a while." Gruz says as he loses his last battle with staying conscious.

You step towards him with your sword ready to strike, but instead you just watch him slowly drift off and hear his last words.

"I lived a lot longer than I should have. This is a good death for an orc. I've seen your new replacements Eternal. They're monsters. They'll finish off what's left of this decaying husk of an Empire, not save it. Good riddance. Heh, don't worry though; you'll probably survive the coming shit storm. You'll outlive everyone." He says and then finally dies.

With the way things have been going lately, Gruz may be correct. It doesn't necessarily make you feel any better though.
Year 35

Another rebellion put down. You wipe your sword of blood and shake your head as you look around at the chaos. This is the Quala province, the very heartland of the Empire. You shouldn't have to be trying to maintain order here only a few miles away from the capital itself.

"Ha ha ha! Come on bitch, give it up! I'm an Eternal, you oughta be flattered that I'm even wasting my time on your normal ass!" private Felding says as he attempts to rape a nearby girl.

You briskly walk over to Felding and pull him off her. You know damn well that the rest of his kind are probably doing stuff like this all over the place, but this one is in your direct sight and under your command.

"What the hell, captain? If you wanted first dibs you could've just said so! Ah look, now she's getting away!"
"We're here to maintain order private, not create more chaos."
"Oh yeah? Coulda fooled me by destroying the entire town like this."
"Regrettable, but during battle only victory matters."
"Exactly! We won! So now it's time to have our fun with these disobedient peasants. Y'know instill fear in them so they won't do it again."
"You're not instilling fear though, you're just satisfying your own desires."
"Hey, who says we aren't supposed to have fun while doing it?"

It's like talking to a brick wall. You've had these "New Eternals" under your command for a few months now and they are some of the most undisciplined troops you've ever had. You can try to encourage them, you can try to reason with them, you can punish them, and none of it has a real effect. The only constant is that they know of your reputation and know that you're also an Eternal, which makes them just fearful of you enough that they don't attempt to directly challenge your authority like they have with so many of their other commanders.

If it were up to you, you would've had them all killed for treason as soon as they murdered their first CO, but for whatever reason the Empire wants them active. You're guessing because the Empire's desperate. So they were ultimately transferred to you and unfortunately you're not allowed to kill them either…well unless they try to kill you first.

You swear this must be what it's like to be a svelk.

They are like children, malicious hateful little children. It's not even their suspect loyalty that baffles you; it's their complete lack of discipline. Even Kane and Cyrus who opposed you had discipline. Hell, Edgar who was arguably the most emotional and hotheaded of the group was a hundred times more disciplined than any of these new "Eternals." You remember back to your own training and there were a few of your fellows that didn't learn proper discipline either. They never made it past Mistress and the few that did, didn't survive Gruz. Whoever was in charge of their training did a horrible job and should've been executed for incompetence along with the rest of these vicious monsters. That old orc was right, they will destroy what's left of the Empire, but you doubt if they'll survive long after its downfall.

You think back to all the real Eternals. You, Edgar and Brenda are the only ones left, as Warrick killed in the final days of the Felkan War. At least you assume that's what happened, his body was never found and you know he would've rather died than let himself be captured to rot in a P.O.W. Camp. Either way it's truly a loss you never ever got to talk with him again.

From what you know Edgar is still stationed in the Arat province, probably trying to keep his own "eternals" in line to keep the peace there. As for poor Brenda you know she has her command in the Nalin province and probably still quietly grieving for Roldan.

After all you've been through, it's come to this and you're wondering what the hell you're still fighting for. The Emperor? You haven't cared about that unknown ruler for years. For all you know he's some feeble minded inbred idiot figure head that his advisors keep locked away while they bumble around ruling things probably about as well as he would.

The Empire? Perhaps at one time, but as it has lost territory, respect and apparently all resemblance of sanity over the years you've lost all faith that it can ever regain any sort of glory it might have had, if it ever had it to begin with. You've tried your best to stem back the tide of chaos, but you're only one man even if you are an Eternal.

While you ponder your potential future, private Felding interrupts you.

"Hey, cap? You're in a bit of a daze there. So if you're done I'm going to go now."
"Hold on, I have one more thing to tell you."
"(Sigh) What?" Felding says with an exasperated tone.
"You're not a fucking Eternal. None of you little shits are." You say and run Felding through and pull up on the sword unleashing his blood and guts onto the ground. Felding makes a high pitched scream and slumps on top of his entrails after you remove the sword.

"Shit! The cap just killed Felding!" another so called eternal shouts while he and his buddy have just come back from looting some farmer's home. The pair of them look like they want to run, but you make it easy on them.

"Go ahead and run or stay. I don't care anymore. I'm leaving. I will tell you this though, if the Empire sends any of you unruly scum after me, know that I shall take great pleasure in not just killing you, but in drawing it out for as long as possible. Remember this."

And with that last warning, you leave your service to the Empire.

The question now is, where will you go? What will you do? This all feels so wrong when you think about it. You've killed so many for abandoning, opposing, or attempting to betray the Empire and here you are doing the same thing. Was it all for nothing? Was it worth it?

You don't know. You always believed at the time you were right and that you were doing the right thing. Maybe you were, maybe you weren't. You just know that you can't serve something you don't believe in anymore. Especially when everyone else around you doesn't either.

Speaking of not knowing, you don't know how to do anything except kill people. While you're certain that you'd be able to hire your skills out somewhere, the idea of being a mercenary is a little distasteful for you. You'd rather not push the svelk comparison that far.

You could swear loyalty to another government you suppose. Perhaps the Felkan Kingdom? You're not sure they'd want you, what with all their high tech weapons and your own government once fighting against them.

The only other alternative for you is to carve out your own territory and rule it as your own. While it's true you do have leadership qualities, you know nothing of actually running a government. You honestly wouldn't know where to begin.

You become a mercenary

You have no desire to serve another government that's likely to be just as corrupt and useless as the one you served. You don't really feel like carving out your own territory either, what could you gain, the petty power thrill of being another tyrant with delusions of grandeur? You've seen that story play out several times and it hasn't gotten the people who pursued it anywhere.

Maybe the svelk had it right. Ultimately serve nobody, but yourself. After all you've pretty much had to do that most of the time since the Empire rarely ever saw fit to help you out in any meaningful manner. The question is where can you find work as a mercenary without needing to work for any sort of government. You then remember, Rask.

The Rask territory completely broke off from the Empire and declared itself independent years ago. No attempt has been made to retake it either, as far as you know Fort Destiny was just completely abandoned. The towns there have banded together as a loose alliance for protection and trade, but nothing more than that. Despite this, they still have need for warriors and such to defend against the many monsters that lurk in the wilderness.

Sounds like a perfect place for you to earn a living and you're already are quite familiar with the area. You find a nearby horse and set off for the north. Along the way you see the landscape of the Empire, which at one time was orderly and even idyllic is now burning and in tatters. Despite the chaos you don't need to do any battle, not even when passing groups of angry peasants who are taking every opportunity to get revenge on their oppressive government and its agents in all forms. You can only assume your reputation is enough to scare them off or they don't even recognize you. If it's the latter then it only confirms your belief that you weren't making that much of a difference in the Empire anyway.

When you eventually make it to the Rask borders the cold chill and snow are almost welcoming to you. As bad as it was here at times, this harsh place is probably the closest you can call home now, you only hope you can still make one here without too much problem.

A few miles in and you see Fort Destiny in the distance, it looks about the same. You wonder what it's being used for now, but you see several young men standing around outside, they look like guards. You approach and are stopped.

"Halt, this is Kenneth's Rest. If you're here to trade then you may enter, but don't cause any trouble or you'll find yourself in more than you bargained for!" a young guard says. He's wearing a patchwork Empire uniform, all of them are. You wonder if these were young recruits that just stayed when the Empire abandoned the place. If so then there are probably others as well, in fact the name Kenneth sounds familiar, but you can't place it. In any case you could do with a small break so you decide to stop here, you also figure this would be as good a place as any to start looking for work.

You tell the young man that you are not here to cause trouble, but to look for work. The young guard tells you that you might want to look for Kenneth as he usually needs various jobs done. He says he's usually found at the inn that being where he keeps his office.

You enter the fort and see that it has changed quite a bit with various traders selling and buying with each other in the courtyard. It still seems to have most of its defensive siege weapons, though they look like they're in disrepair. You notice there are still guards patrolling the top walkways, though significantly less than when this place was still a military installation. It is at this time an older guard patrolling in the crowds sees you.

"Hey! I know you! It's the Bane of Rask!" he shouts.

With this call, everyone else now turns to you. Some of the other older guards with long memories begin to realize it's you as well and move in to advance with their halberds. The younger guards who never served under you do likewise, but from their own hesitation its apparent that stories about you have been told. One of the guards whispers to another who runs off.

You take all this in stride; you figure that they believe you're here to punish them all for desertion or treason. Amusing, since at one time that would've been true, but you're actually here for the same reason.

"Alright you just get off that horse slowly. We don't want any trouble, we're just trying to make a new life for ourselves."
"I understand that, but if I have to get off my horse for any reason, I promise you it won't be in your best interest that I do so. I'm not here to cause trouble anyway. I just want to talk to Kenneth, I heard he's the one who has several jobs that need done."
"Sounds like a trick to me." One of the younger guards says.
"I assure you as any of the men that have served under me here can attest to, I do not trick. How about I just wait here for Kenneth and the rest of you go about your business… or continue to hold your weapons pointed at my direction if you believe it will make you any safer. That's fine too."

You wait a few minutes still on your horse, hoping you don't need to turn this place into a bloodbath, and then Kenneth finally appears. That's when you suddenly remember the name.

"Lieutenant Verant! I knew the name Kenneth sounded familiar. Just forgot it was your first name, never having called you by it on a regular basis and all." You remark. Kenneth looks like he's about to collapse from fear.

"Oh shit. Now look sir, we can explain all this. I mean…we thought…uh…"

You hold up your hand for him to stop before he has a heart attack.

"Verant…Kenneth. There is nothing you can say that could possibly prevent you and everyone here executed for treason to the Empire. Fortunately for you, I am no longer in the service of the Empire."
"You…you're not?"
"No. I am shall we say a free agent and looking for a way to put my combat skills to use."
"I…don't know what to say."
"How about saying that you have some work for me?"

And so your career as a mercenary begins…
Chapter 3A1: Bane of Rask


Year 45

"Bastard!" you say landing a killing blow on the last auravrax.

You do a double check of the cave just to make sure you've got all the beasts. It's times like this you're reminded of your kobold hunting days. Of course auravraxes are a lot furrier and stupider. Doesn't make them any less dangerous though considering they're basically balls of hair with lots of teeth and a vicious streak a mile wide. You wonder how it was you never encountered them before when you were posted up here. You can only assume that the larger creatures like ogres and wendigos kept them in check. Thanks to your depletion of such creatures other predators managed to gain better dominance. Nature is wonderful at balancing things out that way.

After making a check you pile up the bodies and start skinning. You figure between the payment for this job and the sale you'll make on the pelts you'll have enough money for at least of week's worth of wine, women and song.

"Nah, to hell with the song. More women." You chuckle to yourself.

Thoughts about such "common" pleasures would've never entered your head decades ago. Makes you realize how much you're changed since then, but it's a good change you think. For the first time, you've actually been enjoying life rather than just going through the motions of it like a golem. Life is so much simpler and easier when you don't have anyone to answer to; especially when that "someone" doesn't even know what the fuck they're doing half of the time. Life of course still has its bad moments, but compared to your time serving the Empire, it's like a non-stop party.

The Empire, now just another government resigned to the trash heap of history. All of its years of power and whatever glory it claimed it had completely gone. And of course much like Mother Nature, the smaller predators get to take their chance in the sun now that the big one is extinct. One of those smaller predators being one your old fellow Eternals, Edgar.

You don't know all the details, but from the rumors you've heard he's declared himself a general and is calling the territory in his control, The Eternal Dominion. He apparently managed to get some of those chaotic eternal wannabes in some semblance of order to help him as well. When you first heard about this you could only shake your head in disappointment. Not even so much for what he's doing, but more with how he's doing it. It's almost like he's going down the same path that Kane did, but with even less planning and followers that are probably more duplicitous than Shadow Guards. You'd think that he would've learned something from that mess.

Still, it's his life and you have yours. You stop reminiscing about the past and concentrate on skinning the auravraxes. When you're finished you cook up one of them to eat and then get some sleep. The next day you set off to Keplavisk with your furs.

When you get to Keplavisk, the usual people acknowledge you. Some are friendly, some aren't, and others with longer memories hate your guts for your action when you were trying to maintain order here a long time ago. Just one of the things you have to put up with, after all you still have your reputation of being…

"Bane of Rask! Bane of Rask! Hey wait up!" Ulivik yells.
"(Sigh) Boy, I told you to stop calling me by that ridiculous name. In fact I told you to stop following me period!"
"Sorry, Mr. Bane. Hey are those auravrax furs? Did you kill all of them? I bet you just went in and totally destroyed them without fear!" Ulivik says while making sword whooshing sounds.

You roll your eyes at the teenager's over enthusiasm and resign yourself to him following you while you head to the town hall. For whatever reason he sees you as some sort of brave "hero" though you wish he wouldn't. You can't get too mad at him though, not his fault he's a dark elf brought up by humans. There's got to be a lot of confusion going on there.

You mostly ignore Ulivik's incessant questioning until you get to the town hall where upon his guard run him off with racial slurs and threats. You enter the building and see the mayor. Mayor Stundle is sitting his fat ass at his desk doing nothing of any importance as usual.

"Ah Mr. Bane, I can see by the numerous pelts you're carrying that you've taken care of the problem, I knew you would. That's why you're the best merc in the Confederation. Your payment is on the desk there."
"Good, and my name isn't Bane you know. I keep telling people that."
"Indeed it may not be, but that's what everyone knows you as. Can't fight fame or maybe in your case infamy. Heh heh."
"Yeah, anyway I showed you the proof, I've got some furs to sell."
"Got a special job for you if you want."
"Maybe later, I'm going to enjoy myself."
"Okay, but I can't promise you it'll be available when you get back."

As you leave Mayor Stundle's office, Flog is just entering with several ogre scalps. He displays his obvious dislike of you as usual. As thorough as you were when you destroyed Fort Defiance, Flog survived because he did the smart thing of running away and hiding as soon as he saw your army approaching.

"Outta da way Bane, Flog has to see fat mayor!"
"He's all yours." You remark not really wanting to deal with his attitude today, of course in typical orc fashion, Flog feels the need to press the issue. He sees the auravrax furs and makes his move.
"Gruh. You kill little furry things. Flog kill big ogres! More proof that Flog better merc than you!"
"Sure Flog, whatever." You say dismissively which of course annoys Flog even more.
"Flog gonna kill you one day Bane!" he shouts as you walk away.
"Sure Flog, whenever you're ready." You say almost yawning. Another time and place you would've killed him for speaking to you in such a manner, but over the years you've mellowed with age. Besides he's been threatening to kill you for the last eight years. The first few times you took him seriously. Now it's just boring. If he really ever wants to try he knows where to find you, not like you're hiding.

After selling your furs you make you take your money to the closest tavern where you proceed to make good on your claim of relaxing. After a couple days of carousing you're lying in bed with a couple of serving wenches and you decide that you should probably get back to work. No point in waiting around until all your coin is gone, you've had your fun now its time to get back to what you're really good at, killing stuff. You tell the girls in your room to leave and get prepared to go find some more work.

You've barely stepped out of the inn and Ulivik has already found you and nearly gets himself stabbed for sneaking up on you.

"Hey Mr. Bane, it's just me!" he says with a worried tone.
"Boy, didn't I tell you to never sneak up on me like that? I could've killed you and I doubt if anyone would've blamed me for it!" you shout
"Sorry, Mr. Bane. Hey are you going on another mission?"
"What do you think?"
"I think you are! But Mayor Stundle already gave out all of the jobs, you'll probably have to go to another town."
"And how do you know this?"
"Because I tried to sign up, but I got thrown out of the town hall and called names."
"Sounds about right, but how did you get in there in the first place?"
"I snuck in. I think I'm getting really good at it!"
"Hmm, sounds like your svelk heritage is finally paying off." You say.
"Svelk?" Ulivik asks as if you've spoken a made up word.
"Svelk, you know it's the proper name for you dark elves, you mean you've never heard the term?"
"No, I've been called a dark elf before, but I mostly get called a lot of other names."
"Well life's tough kid, now you go run along…"
"Hey why don't I come with you on your next mission!?"

And there it is. You knew the day was coming where he'd start asking you to bring him with you.

"Yeah, no. I work alone."
"Aw come on! I need the experience! I try to sign up for even the easy jobs and I get thrown out! I've even tried going door to door asking if there are any monsters they need killing and they usually just say, yeah the one standing front of me! Then they slam the door in my face! It's not fair!"
"Why do you want to be a merc anyway? I mean I know you've got a family that takes care of you. They must, if they were willing to take on the ostracizing that would come in raising a dark elf baby."
"They do and I know they love me, but working as a hide tanner is boring! I want to be a mercenary and live a life of adventure! I mean I've heard stories of how my race is composed of nothing but mercenaries! Just think, a long proud line of brave ancestors that lived a glorious life of excitement! I should be as noble as them!"

You almost laugh when hearing how Ulivik has spoken of his race. He truly is out of touch as there is absolutely nothing glorious, proud or noble about them. Even brave is debatable most of the time.

"Ulivik, if you really want to be a merc, why not just go to Kenneth's Rest? He doesn't give a shit who he hires. Hell, he hires dark elves on a regular basis."
"I would, but uh, I'm not allowed to leave the town…but I know if you were with me, my parents would let me go! So can I please come with you?!"

This scenario is just so bizarre; you hardly believe that it's happening, a dark elf practically begging you to teach him to be a mercenary. The crazy thing about all this is you're actually considering it. You must finally be suffering from some of the blows you've taken to the head in the past. It's the only explanation.

You take Ulivik with you

You decide to humor the boy and agree. Chances are, he's not going to get permission from his parents anyway and when that happens he'll be less likely to bother you again. If he does get permission, well it's not that far to Kenneth's Rest and you were going there anyway. Plus you'll have given him the chance he wants and again he'll be less likely to bother you.

"Alright Ulivik, you go ask your parents, but I'm taking you to Kenneth's Rest and no further. And when we get there, you're on your own, don't think that you're going to be tagging along with me anywhere else."
"Okay! That's great! I'll be right be back…uh could you come with me, so they know I'm telling the truth?"
"Oh fer…fine."

You follow Ulivik back to his parent's store which smells heavily of leather. The pair of them are working on some sort of the hide when you both walk in.

"Mom! Dad! Mr. Bane said he'd take me to Kenneth's Rest and teach me to be a mercenary! So can I go now?"
"Hey wait I never said I'd teach…" you start to say before Ulivik's dad interjects his own comments.
"Oh is that right? And how do you know that? How do you know he won't just rob and kill you along some lonely road?"
"Or worse!" his mother says.
"Hey wait a minute now…"
"But this isn't fair! You said if I could find somebody to teach me, that you'd allow me to go!" Ulivik whines.
"Yeah, well we didn't think you'd actually be successful, let alone get a cold hearted killer like Bane here to agree. Which makes me wonder why he did…"
"Trust me, at this point I'm wondering the same thing." You reply.
"Ulivik, why can't you just be interested in the family business? It's a more honorable profession than being a mercenary. It's honest work."
"Yeah and the workin' man is a sucker! Look at where we live!"
"Hey! We get by just fine, and this business has put food in your belly, clothes on your back and a roof over your head! So don't you dare bad mouth this proud family tradition!"
"Yeah, well I'm not really your son anyway! And you're not my real parents! I hate this place and every here hates me!" Ulivik screams and leaves slamming the door.

You're left in an awkward situation with his parents.

"Okay, so I guess that settles that, I'll just be going now…" you say.
"No, you get back here you sonofabitch." Ulivik's dad says.
"Excuse me?"
"I called you a sonofabitch, now if you want to kill me for that you can do it after hearing what I've got to say first."
"Heh, okay. It's been a weird sort of day today anyway, I'll play." You say with a smile.
"Yeah, well I ain't playing. Look, I know all about you, and you probably don't know me at all but I remember your ruthless reputation when you were still in service of the Empire. There was a family that lived down the block from me and my wife. We we're friends and they even had a couple of children. Children that we would sometimes love to entertain because we couldn't have any of our own. But this family wasn't happy with the Empire's rules so they along with several others protested…"

You stop the tanner right there.

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you're going to say, I had them all killed for treason and had their heads put on pikes. Well I was trying to maintain order and I did what I had to do to get the job done. I'm sure this story pales in comparison to others have screamed at me in the past and you don't even need to make your point about hating me, because I'm used to it anyway. Besides you don't want your son going to Kenneth's Rest and I'm certainly not going to drag him along. If anything I'd wish he'd stop looking up to me as some sort of hero and following me around. I was hoping by doing this for him I'd finally be rid of him. So if you don't mind, I'll be going now and I'll also be disappointing you again, by not killing you before I leave."

You turn to leave and that's when you get another unusual request.

"If you take him to Kenneth's Rest, will you also look after him?" Ulivik's mother asks.
"What?!"
"If you want money to do so, we can pay. Just can you look after him for a while at least?"
"Okay…now I'm confused. I thought not only did you not want him to go, but that I was also a ruthless bastard that would probably rob and kill him along a lonely road?"
"Yeah, we don't want him to go, and yeah you are a ruthless bastard…but I also know you actually do have some sort of code of honor. You might've left the Empire behind, but the regimented way of thinking you have is still there. You wouldn't bother killing my boy unless you felt he was a direct danger to you, and I think we both know that isn't the case." Ulivik's dad says.
"Well that's the truth."
"The other thing is…we're not going to be able to stop him. He's been getting more and more restless about this, and he's going to want to pursue this career path whether we want him to or not. At this point he's just going to run away from home and who knows what trouble he'll get into. (sigh) Maybe it's just his nature, bein' a dark elf and all, but for good or ill, me and my wife have taken on the responsibility of raising him. And part of that is making sure he has the survival skills that he'll need to make it in this world. We can't teach him that, but you could. Look, like my wife said, we can pay you a good sum just for you teach him the basics, or whatever else is involved, if you need more, I dunno we'll try to figure out something."

You're speechless for a moment. Just when you think you've seen the worst in people, something like this happens and surprises you.

"I'm not sure what you expect me to do. I mean this job isn't something I can teach like from a book. Most of what he's going to have to learn is going to be from direct experience. I mean I suppose I could teach him some combat skills, but the rest is going to mainly be up to him."
"Well do what you can, and take this in the meantime."

Uliviki's mother hands you a small bag. When you look inside, it's nothing but gold coins. This has to be some of their savings, possibly all of their savings. They must really trust you, if they've given you this much.

"I'll do my best. You have my word as an Eternal." You say and pocket the bag of coins. With those last words you exit the tanner's store intending to find Ulivik. Fortunately you know he isn't far.

"Ulivik, I know you're around the corner. Stop sulking, or pouting or whatever teenage angst you're doing and let's go."

Ulivik slowly comes out from behind the corner.

"You're taking me with you?"
"Yeah, I scared your parents into letting you come with me. Now grab whatever gear you want to take and let's go before all the good jobs are taken."

Ulivik is completely giddy at this turn of events and runs back into the store to get his stuff. You on the other hand are wondering how the hell you got yourself into this. Then you feel the bag of coins again and remember.

On your journey to Kenneth's Rest, you explain to Ulivik some of the things he should know such as haggling for better prices on jobs and the art of intimidation. You also teach him a few combat moves. He's a rookie to be sure, but his agility allows him from getting hurt too badly.

When you get to Kenneth's Rest, the place is as busy as always. Ulivik is more than a little distracted by the surroundings, and you have to keep reminding him to stay alert.

"Hey stop staring at the harlots and pay attention! Just because fighting isn't supposed to be allowed here, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. In fact people around here love to start trouble. Don't stare at anyone in the eye for too long and make sure you don't bump into anybody. You could either get into a fight, or someone might even try to pick your pocket."
"Okay. Here isn't the job board that way?"
"Job board? Hah. I never use those things. I go straight to the source. Trust me, if you want to get a job that pays well; get to know and make contact with the owners or government officials. Fortunately Kenneth used to work for me at one time, so it was quite easy for me to make contact with him. And when we find him, just keep your mouth shut, and let me do all the talking."

Eventually you find Kennth, he's as jumpy as ever whenever you first see him.

"Sir! I didn't expect you to be down this way so soon? What can I do for you today?"
"Kenneth, will you relax? It's been what, like ten years now? I'm not your superior officer anymore; you don't have to keep calling me sir and getting all nervous and shit."
"I know sir, just old habits you know? Who's this with you?"
"This here is Ulivik, and he's going to be my apprentice for a while."
"Apprentice? Seriously? Never pegged you as the teaching type."
"Right, Kenneth, like all those years of training soldiers in this very fort count for nothing at all."
"No, that's not what I mean…I just oh I dunno. It's just odd I guess. He's a svelk, how come he's not with his own people?"
"That's a long and unusual story, and one I don't have time to go into. Besides we're not here to satisfy your curiosity, we're here for jobs, but seeing as this is Ulivik's first time and all, can we get something maybe a little less…lethal?"
"Hmm, usually that sort of stuff is on the boards, but I think I got something. Oh! There's a nest of auravraxes a few miles from here."
"Ugh, more of those furry things? I just wiped out a nest of them a week ago!"
"Well that's all I got that's on the easy side. I mean I've got some other jobs too, but you said this was more for training your apprentice than anything else."
"I can take on a harder task Mr. Bane. I mean I have to learn from experience right?" Ulivik pipes up forgetting that he was supposed to keep his mouth shut.

Still, he might have a point.

You take on the easy job

Ulivik might think he's ready, but he's definitely not. Killing auravraxes might be easy for you, but they'll be more than enough for him to handle. Anything harder and he may very well be killed in the blink of an eye. Normally this would just be on the job training, but you were sort of paid to look after him for a while at least.

"Give us the auravrax nest job." You say. Ulivik looks a little disappointed, but he doesn't speak out of turn again. Kenneth proceeds to tell you exactly where the creatures have been spotted in large quantities and the pair of you are on your way.

Along the way, you tell Ulivik how he should approach fighting these things and how not to take them lightly as they can easily take an arm off or any other limb if you aren't careful. He seems to understand the risk.

As you get closer to their nest, you begin to encounter the furry fiends. Ulivik slightly freezes up when they spot you and attack. You have to snap him out of it and take up the fighting slack.

"Come on kid, move in and attack! This is the moment of truth!" you shout. Fortunately, this motivates him to do just that. Of course after the fight, he's got a very different view of things now. He's out of breath, his heart is racing and he's probably feeling a mix of excitement and fear, or perhaps just fear in his case.

"So, is it everything you expected it to be?" you ask.
"I…yeah, I mean no. I mean…(pant) that was intense."
"Yeah, well it's about to get even more intense, we've still got a whole bunch more to kill."

The auravrax nest is another typical hole in the ground filled with them. Standard stuff for you, but its Ulivik's true test. If he can make it through alive and in one piece, he might just have what it takes after all. You let him do most of the fighting, only intervening when it really looks like he's going to get himself eaten or when you're directly attacked. After he thinks he's killed them all, you point out that he should double check the entire dwelling just in case.

"What? But we got 'em all! I mean if any were still alive they would've attacked by now."
"Not necessarily. A few of the smarter ones will actually find some place to hide and attack when you think you're safe and let your guard down. Trust me, you better double check. It might be boring, but this is part of the job and you will do it if you want to stay alive. And while you're at it bring the bodies of the dead ones back here for skinning. You always need proof and the furs usually fetch a good price. It's a good way to earn extra money. Off your go, and if I hear any more whining from your apprenticeship is at an end and you truly will be on your own."

Ulivik certainly doesn't want that, so he obeys what you tell him to do. You can sort of tell his "hero worship" is already starting to wane a bit though, but that's good. It'll keep him grounded and show him that this isn't some glorious profession that he thinks it is. You figure after about a week of this and he'll probably be ready to go back to wanting to take up his dad's business or at least considering it.

Eventually after all the double checking, skinning and some sleep you head back to Kenneth's Rest.

"I know I asked you this earlier, but it bears repeating. Is it everything you thought it would be?"
"Some of it I suppose, I dunno it's weird. Part of me almost wants to go back to take up my dad's business." He says, causing you to smile to yourself at being correct.
"Well if you want to get out, the best time to do it is when you're ahead. If you're going to stick with it though, I'm going to warn you, my combat training is only going to get tougher."
"Tougher? But you saw me handle myself."
"I saw you nearly get your head bitten off several times if I hadn't been there to help. And if you think if I'm being mean, you have no idea what being mean really is. MY first training instructor was a sadistic svelk bitch and out of all the people I've ever met, she still ranks number one."
"So is this why you agreed to train me? Some sort of revenge then?" Ulivik asks.
"Ha ha ha! Is that what you think? If I was going to hold grudges for something like that, I'd be bringing genocide to the svelk race. No, if anything she helped me survive and that's what I'm trying to do for you, assuming you even want to pursue this path. I'd say you'd better decide what your priorities are between now and by the time we get our payment from Kenneth."

Ulivik is silent for the rest of the way, makes for a nice change. Still, you are wondering if he's going to let his steadily decreasing opinion of you change his mind about being a merc. Eventually you get back to Kenneth's Rest which is busy as usual, you also run into another face you haven't seen in a while, though you weren't really missing it in the first place.

"Well if it isn't the infamous Bane of Rask, heard you were around." Eldolith remarks with her small group of svelk milling about behind her.
"Eldolith, I notice your little band of cutthroats is getting smaller and smaller. Keep this up and you'll soon have no more warm bodies to hide behind and actually have to do the fighting yourself."
"And I've heard you acquired yourself a new one. What's wrong, human aging finally catching up with you at last Eternal? Is this him? A svelk? Hmmm he is very young, is he your pleasure boy?"

Before you can reply, Ulivik steps up and speaks.

"I am a mercenary, like you and the rest of our kind!"

This of course causes laughter among Edolith and her men.

"You? You're no mercenary, let alone one of our kind following around a human like some harlot in heat. No, what you are is a poor mockery of what a svelk should be. Now be gone, your mere presence offends me." Edolith says and turns her back on you both. Ulivik nearly takes the bait, but you intervene and hold him back from getting himself killed. Eldolith and the rest of her group laugh and head to the inn.

"Easy, there. Words nothing more. I'm sure you've heard worse when you were still working as a tanner."
"Perhaps, but this is different! I'm a mercenary now, not some weakling tanner!"
"To most you're still a snot nosed kid that doesn't know shit and that would be a correct assessment, especially to a svelk. Now I'm sure harsh words from one of your own kind has filled you with a bruised ego, anger and disappointment, but if you try to challenge her, she'd cut you down before you even knew what was happening, as would any of her men."
"We could take them together!"
"We? No, I might be able to take them. You on the other hand would get in my way and get yourself killed. Besides I am here to train you to become a mercenary, not be your personal avenger. Part of this training is learning when to pick your battles. Now I suggest you ignore her words for now, and let us get our payment from Kenneth. Money tends to cheer most up."

Ulivik obeys and follows, then he asks an amusing question.

"Is she the svelk bitch you spoke of that trained you?"
"Ha ha, no not her. Eldolith pales in comparison. No, she's just another arrogant svelk merc that likes to do a lot of posturing. She's actually really insecure about her leadership position. Always has been, even when she was hired by the Empire decades ago, but those are stories for another time."

You and Ulivik soon meet up with Kenneth who gives you your payment. This does cheer up Ulivik a little and soon he's forgotten Eldolith's insults. Predictably he spends most of his coin on some strumpet looking for an easy mark, she still gives him a good time though.

The next day, Ulivik's training continues as it does for at least a year after which time you figure he's ready to go out on his own. He's still a little reckless for his own good, but you can sense he really does want to be independent. His hero worship of you is gone and he may even dislike you now, but the respect is still there as it always has been.

Part of you feels glad that the "job" is over with, but another part of you feels a sense of loss. As strange as it may seem, you started not minding Ulivik's company. It's been a long time since you've lead anybody into battle or otherwise. Ulivik may have only been one svelk trainee, but it still brought back memories of the "old days". The old days, back when you had more of a purpose.

In some ways training Ulivik gave you a higher purpose than just killing for coin again. You also think back to Eldolith's words about human aging. Sure they're meaningless now, but how long can you truly keep up a mercenary life? You are definitely in better shape than most humans your age and barring violence you still probably have several years left, but the future is something you are starting to ponder about. Despite being an Eternal, you ARE still human, and from your own experience, being an Eternal does not make one immortal. Growing "old" is something you never considered, at one time you always figured you'd just die in battle one day. That day may still come, but even you have to admit that the prospect of dying in battle no longer holds the same "appeal" as it once did when you were in the service of the Empire.

At one time you also wondered what other skills you had besides killing. Now you see that you haven't given yourself as much credit as you should have. You have decades of combat experience behind you, experience that you could easily pass on to others if they were willing to pay for the knowledge.

You begin to entertain the idea that maybe you should open up some sort of combat training school. The more you think about it, the more the idea appeals to you. You're going to have to remain a mercenary for quite awhile still as you attempt to gain the coin to get such a place started, and probably still go on jobs even a little afterwards, but you feel like you have a true purpose again.

And so you set off with your new goal in mind…
Year 55

After another hard day of training various citizens of Rask, you lie in your bed thinking about how much has changed over the years. Never did you think that you'd be running a real business, though to be honest if it wasn't for legitimate paranoia on the part of the Rask Alliance, you'd probably be spending all of your time still as a merc, as it stands you're practically responsible for training the closest thing to an army that Rask has, though it's probably more of an organized militia.

It'll be the first line of defense if the Eternal Dominion starts to look to this way for expansion. When the ED started re-conquering the old territory of the Empire it was only natural that the towns and villages of Rask started getting worried. They didn't break away from the Empire only to replace it with something similar or worse. It was just their luck (and yours) that you wanted to become a professional combat instructor. Soon people from all over Rask were coming to see you. You hardly ever have to do any sort of mercenary work anymore and the mayor of Keplavisk is overjoyed by the fact that you set up shop in his town.

As for the Eternal Dominion threat, you aren't sure what to think. There has been no formal declaration of war or even a diplomatic visit to Rask yet, but that doesn't mean there won't be, Rask has lots of resources after all. Still, the ED has its hands full still trying to keep everyone in line from the top to the bottom while attempting to gain more holdings. Mass orc migration to Rask are becoming common, even the svelk are more welcome in Rask again. Partly due to the possible need for more mercs if war comes to pass and partly due to dark elves being disliked by the ED, which apparently frowns upon mercenaries (and probably the attitudes of the dark elves in general).

You have to hand it to "General" Edgar though, you didn't think he'd be able to get those chaotic brats calling themselves "eternals" organized, though it sounds like they're still as sadistic as ever and if the rumors are true, another generation of Eternals are being trained as well. You can't even imagine what they're going to be like. If war is coming like everyone thinks it is, you know immediately that you're probably going to be nominated and begged by the various mayors and council members to be some sort of commander. You aren't sure if you'd accept the position though you probably will mainly because you don't want to be bothered moving anymore and you'll be damned if you'll live under the rule of some half assed Eternals.

Part of you wonders what the hell is going through Edgar's mind. He seemed more level headed the last time you saw him, like the incident with Kane forced him to mature, but you guess his aspirations for personal glory were just too great to keep suppressed for long. You also wonder about Brenda, she's the only other old Eternal that was left, and you have no idea if she's even still alive or serving with Edgar. You get your answer and then some in a few days.

Another hard day of training various citizens of Rask and you're ready to close up shop and then two figures wearing hoods enter. You have flashbacks to fighting the Shadow Guard and you draw your sword.

"Hold on! It's me! Warrick! See?" a familiar voice says and reveals himself from under the hood. The face is much older than you remember and sporting an eye patch, and the hair is now nearly gone. But considering you thought Warrick to be dead, you aren't completely convinced until the second cloaked figure reveals herself and speaks.

"I told you wearing these things was a bad idea. He probably thought we were Shadow Guards!" she says. Her face is also much older and the hair is completely gray, but you definitely know this one is Brenda. Between the pair of them it truly makes you realize how much time has passed since you saw them.
"And I told you, we need to keep a low profile, this situation is dangerous to the both of us." Warrick says.

"Warrick back from the dead and Brenda, I was just recently thinking about what had become of you."
"We need to talk to you about Edgar." Warrick says cutting right to the point.
"Yeah I thought so…okay let me lock up and we can talk about this in my quarters."

The first thing you find out is that Warrick is now working for the Felkan Kingdom. He says it's a long story, but it has its roots in his becoming disillusioned with the Empire much like you did. Warrick also goes on to say that's one of the reasons why he's here. Edgar definitely has plans to attack it in the future and the crown hopes to avoid another long and troublesome war by recruiting allies this time. He mentions real Felkan diplomats will probably be arriving in Rask soon to speak with the leaders of the towns, but he was sent to specifically reach out to you, because whether you knew it or not, your reputation here carries weight.

As for Brenda, her position is much more dangerous. She is currently serving the Eternal Dominion, (another long story) but is trying to encourage an underground dissident movement. Not really difficult considering how oppressive Edgar's regime is. It is the hope of the Felkan Kingdom that the ED will wear itself out on keeping down riots and other potential conquests like Rask before it turns its eyes on the Felkan Kingdom.

You tell Warrick that he's probably wasted a trip as the paranoid mentality of the Raskians are already preparing for war with the ED and will have no problem allying with the Felkan Kingdom and that you'll no doubt be called upon to command the people you've been training. Warrick seems relived to hear that, and you and he begin to do a little catching up. Brenda participates as well, though the whole time she seems a little preoccupied. Eventually as the night goes on, Warrick says he must be getting back to report to his superiors. Brenda says that she is not ready to leave as she wishes to speak to you about Roldan and his last days with you. Warrick understands, but warns her that she should not be away for too long so as to arouse suspicion. He would hate to have her sacrifices should lead to her death.

"Sacrifices…as if he would know about such things. When the Empire needed him the most what did he do? He ran to the fucking enemy. Now his new masters give him commands and the running lapdog thinks he's free, but he's still a slave." She remarks with distain, before continuing.

"Edgar may be an egomaniac with delusions of grandeur like he always was, but he at least tried to keep the Empire together, even if it is in a different form now. He believes in something better, even if he's not exactly intelligent enough to carry out that idea. And you, you're worst of them all. You just dropped out altogether and dedicating yourself to nothing, but coin like a fucking svelk. What the hell happened to you? You used be our leader."
"I'm not exactly sure what your point is, but if this all pent up anger at me due to Roldan dying I…"
"Don't you dare fucking mention him! I heard enough of hollow apologies in that damn letter you wrote to me."
"They were Eternals as we all are. Dying in combat is always a possibility for us, I know their deaths weren't the most glorious, but at the time they died doing something they believed in. I can hardly help that the institution that they believed in, crumbled soon afterwards. I tried like hell to maintain my own belief in the Empire despite having it time after time again tested. Eventually I saw the light when I had to command a bunch of those new eternals while attempting to put down mass riots near the capital. Was leaving the right decision? I don't know, but it was for ME. The fact is ALL of our lives were nothing but duty and dedication to a corrupt government that deserved none of it. Kane knew that, Gruz knew that, and as much as I still hate them to this day, the Shadow Guard knew that. When the Empire was in its death throes it affected us all differently. I can't help the fact that you decided to stay loyal and it didn't work out resulting in you eventually having to capitulate to Edgar later on. At least you and Roldan had an experience that none of us will ever have. You have at least that to cherish."

Brenda is silent for a moment as she takes in your statement. She looks at a ring on her finger, which is obviously still her wedding ring to Roldan. She smiles and then speaks.

"You're right I suppose. You usually were when we all served under you. Even you couldn't have prevented the Empire from falling, the damage was done long before we came into existence. I guess I just never got over Roldan's death and had nobody except you to blame since you were the only one still alive. The funny thing is I didn't start blaming you until I found out you left the Empire. You were always our leader, and it seemed unthinkable that you would leave willingly. You know I think none of us really saw anyone else as their leader except you. It's probably why Kane wanted you to join him, it's no doubt why Warrick insisted on reaching out to you and it's why Edgar sent me…"
"Excuse me?"
"One of the things you were wrong about and Warrick too. I am not helping him though he still thinks I am. There is no underground resistance, or at least none that matters. Warrick and his Felkan masters think they can undermine the Eternal Dominion, but they are quite wrong. When Edgar first came to me and explained his cause and ideas I realized it was a just and worthy one. I joined in an effort to help with some of the details that Edgar himself is not nearly as skilled at, still he has proven himself to be more charismatic than he once was, at least to the other eternals and that's who is mainly important. He wants to create a nation where we Eternals are in control, as it should've been."
"…so why would he want me for, wouldn't he consider me an enemy like Warrick?"
"No, not like Warrick. While your abandonment did sadden Edgar, he always figured you had a good reason. He never questioned it. And now that you've told me your views I see he was right. It's really quite odd to see how high of regard he holds you. I guess your time with him during Kane's attempted secession really impacted him."

"Brenda, this is a lot to take in, what exactly are you expecting from me then?"
"As Warrick said, your reputation carries weight here and you have the ear of several of the mayors here. Perhaps you could explain to them that even with training that resistance will be useless and that the ED will just slaughter everyone. Better that they should surrender now and have a benevolent overseer such as…you running things."
"And you really think Raskians are going to go for that idea?"
"What does it matter? They are going to be conquered eventually anyway. I merely suggest other options to Edgar's plan, which was to convince you to just come with me where you could take command of a battalion to conquer Rask seeing as you know the place the best."
"Heh, sounds like him. So what was the plan if I refuse altogether? Killing me I suppose?"
"Didn't come up though I even asked him about it, but as I said Edgar really believes that you'll help us. Perhaps in some way he didn't want to think about the alternative. I'm guessing that you are considering the alternative?"
"Don't see why I shouldn't, do you?"
"You would have a true purpose again. Serving an idea greater than yourself."
"I have a true purpose now. I'm training others to fight against those that would take their lives. The Raskians don't want to be ruled over and quite frankly neither do I, let alone by Edgar."
"No! You would be different! You, like myself would be given an equal place in the decision making process! Even the other Eternal don't get that."
"Yeah, that's the other thing, I'm loathed to live in a land that considers those new…things, eternals."
"They are much different now, true they still have their sadistic streak, but only towards the non-eternals and who cares about them?"
"I'm sure the non-eternals do, and while they may very well be inferior, enough of them can topple any government. We saw it happen, and it'll happen to you too if you aren't careful."
"So are you saying you won't join us?"

You get the impression that if you say no, she's going to attack you and you'll have to defend yourself. Killing Brenda is something you do not want to do, but lying and saying yes is duplicity you'd rather not engage in.

You say no

You didn't lie to Kane when he wanted you to join him and you aren't going to lie to Brenda, but you are going to try to reason with her.

"Brenda, I didn't join Kane all those years ago, because his path wasn't mine and I'm not joining you and Edgar for the same reasons. However I would hope that we don't end up like me and him did."
"What you think I'm going to try to kill you? No, I doubt if I could by myself. I fear I probably haven't kept up my combat skills as honed as you have. To be quite honest, I wasn't sure what I was going to do, if you rejected the offer. I guess I'll give Edgar the bad news, but I know he's not going to take it well and he'll definitely attack this place with his army and I doubt if you'll be spared for old times sake."
"Then you're going to have to convince him not to. Look, this place is not going to bend to his will. The paranoia and the idea of freedom is stronger here than it has ever been. If you attack Rask, be prepared to suffer considerable losses as I personally will make sure of it. This is my home now. I'm not leaving and I'm not serving another empire either. Even if you win, you will not easily recover from the losses let alone be able to fight the Felkan Kingdom, in fact they will most likely take advantage of the chaos. Now you've been in contact with Warrick long enough to know that the Felkan Kingdom is counting on you being disorganized and weak from attacking Rask. If you want to play it smart? Attack them instead and don't worry about Rask."
"What's stopping Rask from attacking us if they ally with the Felkan Kingdom?"
"They won't trust me. The Felkan Kingdom can send all the diplomats they want, but the Raskians are ultimately not going to stick their necks out for them."
"And you think Edgar will go for this idea?"
"You know what? He'll go for it, because if he TRULY respects me, he'll fucking listen to my advice which has never steered him wrong, not to mention I saved his damn life more than once. I'm telling you to tell him, that he needs to consolidate his forces, get his house in order, maybe retake a few other areas of the old Empire and THEN attack the Felkan Kingdom if he absolutely needs to. Rask is just death zone, it didn't do the Empire any good and they only held on to it for as long as they did because I was here. I say that not as a boast, but as truth. Does Edgar have anyone like me in his army? I doubt it. The hostile inhabitants here didn't call me the Bane of Rask for nothing. A name, which I'm still called, even by those I'm helping. If he sets an army in these lands, I'll make sure they'll start calling me the Bane of Edgar."

Brenda smiles a bit again at your last remark.

"You always did have a way with words. I missed that sometimes. Okay, well I guess I'll go then, to deliver your message."
"Brenda y'know there is another option. You could stay here, or go somewhere else. You don't need to follow Edgar. You're fully capable of doing something else with your life."
"Trust me, it's tempting. I even thought about joining Warrick when he first approached me, but it's not for me. Warrick's path to me is one of a traitor, even if I do understand it and your path is one of freedom…something I guess I just can't comprehend. I still need the structure and hierarchy. I dunno, maybe I just need to be with other likeminded Eternals. None of them are Roldan, but I don't feel as lonely."

And there it is at last. The real reason why Brenda is following Edgar, you knew it couldn't be because she blindly believed in his cause. You can't imagine what is going on in her head and there will be no talking her out of her choice, but you're glad you won't have to fight her and hopefully her message to Edgar will get through to him as well. You bid farewell to Brenda, probably for the last time. You go to bed that night, but you don't really sleep, you just wonder what events the coming months will hold.

Months pass and just as Warrick said, diplomats from the Felkan Kingdom visit Rask. As you thought, they get a lot of promises of an alliance and some trade deals, but that's about it. The general consensus of the Raskians is that they won't be committing any troops unless war comes directly to their doorsteps. Great, now you just hope that Edgar follows your advice…

Year 58

Edgar took your advice, or at least you guess he did. He never attacked Rask. Never even sent anyone, he did however send thousands across the Felkan borders a couple years ago. The war is still going on and you hear it's even more brutal than the one with the Empire. Edgar has adapted with the times unlike the Empire and is implementing stolen technology from the Felkans. You can only imagine how Warrick is faring and while it is unfortunate, you stopped being their "leader" decades ago and their motives, goals and dreams are their own concerns not yours.

And your only concern lately is getting old. Every day you notice new pains in your joints and muscles. You're slower than you once were and not quite as strong anymore. You wonder how your fellow Eternals feel about getting old, though perhaps due to still being engaged in warfare, maybe they don't dwell on it as much. Brenda and Warrick will probably expect to die in battle, as for Edgar, the fool probably believes he'll live forever.

You don't have as many students anymore, as many of the other towns have taken to creating their own combat schools, mostly run by those you taught. Mercenary work is even harder to come by nowadays; thanks to you each town actually has competent militias that can clean out hostiles without much mercenary aid anymore. Indeed they need something to do considering Edgar never attacked Rask.

Even the ogre tribes in the far north have settled down. Last you heard, Flog "retired" at one of their primitive villages, a forced wedding to an ogre bride for killing her husband to be. Bet he wishes he'd died with his fellows at Fort Defiance now! Eldolith ended up taking her remaining men to work for the Felkan Kingdom, one of the last mercenary squads to stay in Rask.

Ulivik said his goodbyes to his family and you even before the mercenary work dried up. Said he was bored of it and wanted to see more of the world and become an "adventurer." You think his parents were even less pleased to hear that than when he wanted to be a merc, and you've never quite understood the appeal of the wandering life of an adventurer either, but you wished him the best. When he left, he thanked you one more time for taking the time to teach him when nobody else would.

You were always glad he got over his resentment of you due to your harsh training. And while it is true you did initially train him for coin and swore an oath to his parents to look after him during that time, it is because of those actions that you discovered a little more about yourself and focused yourself in the direction to open up your combat school.

Of course your actions have now changed Rask to an extent that you may have very well put yourself out of a job, but you aren't worried. You still get students from Keplavisk, so you'll probably always have a bit of business. Even if you don't, you've been doing some saving over the years.

You can only prepare yourself now, for whatever changes might come in the future.
Year 65

You get a knock on the door to which causes you to wonder who would be bothering you at this time of night. You're more than a little annoyed since you were sleeping.

"Go away, I ain't getting up." you say from your chair trying to go back to sleep.
"Open the fuck up, you useless old man!" you hear from outside and it's enough to motivate you to answer it and punch out the fool who said it. When you open it however, an unexpected visitor meets you.

"Ulivik?"
"Yeah, it's me! Well, aren't you going to invite me in?" he laughs.
"Yeah sure." You say and the both of you head to your quarters to sit and talk. You still shaking the cobwebs after being awaken from your slumber.

"Were you asleep?"
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Nothing! Just sort of surprised, I mean I know it's night, but its still pretty early."
"Eh, it's been kind of a lazy day today, felt like sleeping for most of it."
"You didn't teach a class today?"
"Class? School's been officially closed for about two years now. I mean I get few people that seek me out looking to increase their skills every once in awhile, but nowadays everyone goes to that new military academy they opened up here."
"Oh, I was wondering what that big new building looming near the edge of town was, so they didn't offer you a job there?"
"Eh, they did, but I didn't want it. People who I originally trained run it and most of them I didn't even like when I was teaching them, so I'd rather not have to follow whatever silly guidelines they've come up with for that place. Anyway, I sometimes get paid to give speeches on tactics and strategies there. I get by. So where have you been and what brings you back?"

Ulivik mentions he mainly returned to when he heard his father had died and that he's probably going to be around for a while to look after his mother. He then excitedly goes on about his various adventures of exploring ruins, caves and finding treasures and lost trinkets. Not enough to get rich, but he's not in it for that. You enjoy hearing about it all, it's not like you really go anywhere or do as much anymore. And as the years go on, you are finding yourself with less and less to do. You sort of thought your school and teaching would occupy your time and that if you got bored of that you could always break it up with a little mercenary work. But both of those options are pretty much closed off to you at this point, at least in Rask. The place is less wild and more peaceful now than it ever was under the Empire.

You could move you suppose, but it's not such a bad life maybe you should just settle in and enjoy your elderly years in relative peace…

"..and so then I got my head split open and my entrails eaten by the clawbeast and died. Hey! Are you still with me?" Ulivik asks.
"Huh? Yeah you got your entrails eaten and died." You answer.
"Well glad to see you're still listening." Ulivik laughs.
"Sorry, just a little preoccupied. Anyway, go on."

Ulivik knows something's up with you, and he's got a pretty good idea what it is.

"Hey, have you ever thought about leaving Rask and joining your old buddies in the Eternal Dominion?" he asks.
"Wha…oh I don't think that's for me. Besides I only have two there, dunno if one of them is even still alive and I never really was exactly friends with Edgar. Speaking of which did you have much trouble traveling through the ED? I heard they aren't too fond of svelk there ever since most of your people have been hiring themselves out to the Felkans."
Well as you once pointed out, we're not really liked anywhere we go, but I never really kept to the populated areas while in the ED so I didn't have too many problems. However, I did find that dropping your name helped me a few times. You're sort of known there."
"Huh. Dunno, why I would be, not like I was ever part of the place. Guess Edgar really did look up to me. Unexpected."
"Didn't he offer you a job too one time?"
"Yeah. Don't think it's still available though. Like I said, my time serving big governments is over with. I wasted more than thirty years of my life doing it. Not going to waste the remaining years I have left even if it's a high position of power. Besides, I'm still not sure that I wouldn't have to kill Edgar if I ever got into an argument with him over something."
"Surely it would be more interesting than sleeping all day."
"Hah, probably. I dunno, I just feel like Edgar's Eternal Dominion is just mimicking a lot of the old Empire. Sure it's doing well now, but ultimately it's going to fall just like the Empire did, so what's the point?"
"Hmm, well you could offer your services to the Felkan Kingdom, I think they could use the help."
"Yeah, no. I'm not into lost causes. Did that before too and saw the results. The Felkan Kingdom could've won the war if they didn't fight so defensively. There were many times early in the war where they should've pressed an attack and took territory. Their fate is probably sealed at this point. Only a matter of time, assuming the ED keeps with it's policy of total conquest, and doesn't fuck it up. Anyway don't get me started on how I nearly got dragged into serving on both sides of that conflict."

"Okay, but how about another proposal?"
"I'll bite. What is it?"
"Well, as you know I'm going to be here awhile looking after my mother, but I need something to do. Rask still has areas of it that are largely unexplored. I sort wondered if you'd like to come with me on an adventure in this very area."
"Oh? And where would this place be? Most of the places you're speaking of involve mountains, and as bored as I am, I'm not about to go dragging my ass up a fucking mountain."
"Ha ha, nah not the mountains, though it still might involve a little bit of climbing."
"Okay, so where?"
"The Wendigo Hills."

Now there's name that's spoken of in only whispers nowadays in Rask. Everyone knows about it and doesn't speak about it, let alone go near it, from humans to ogres and even the few giants still left. Ever since you wiped them out forty five years ago, there have been little problems from those evil spirits. Years later after you first left Rask you heard the various villages got their holy men together to perform some sort of ritual to make sure none of the spirits managed to ever escape from those cursed hills ever again. Of course every once in a blue moon some unfortunate idiot…usually an adventurer gets himself possessed and no expense is spared in hunting down the creature and destroying it.

Now it looks like Ulivik is intent on being that new unfortunate idiot.

"Have you lost your fucking mind, because if you haven't, then you will if you go there and that's if you're lucky. I went to that blasted place once, I had a company of soldiers with me and I was in my prime. I barely got out of that place alive and you know what happened to the few soldiers that survived with me? Four of them ultimately committed suicide from their nightmares and the other two got discharged and thrown in the asylum for just going batshit insane. No, I'm not going and if you got any sense, you won't either. That place does shit your mind. The spirits there are pure evil, and they are not to be trifled with."
"No, I have a remedy for that! Look at these!" Ulivik says and produces two amulets with a faint blue glow.

"Let me guess, these things are magical and they're supposed to protect us from getting possessed."
"Correct! Even when I was little, I heard there was supposed to be great treasure in those hills. Nobody has ever had the skill to go in there and claim it, but I want to be the first because I truly feel like I'm ready now. You're the about the one who has traveled the most in those hills and survived. You would be a great help and we can even share whatever we find! Come on, it'll be like old times!"

"Old" being the key word here. While you were wondering if you were becoming more complacent in your old age, you aren't sure if going to the Wendigo Hills is something you want to do just to prove "you still got it."

You help Ulivik

Ulivik may be an accomplished warrior now, but out of all the tales he's told you about his adventures; he still hasn't faced anything like the wendigos and he's going to get himself killed or worse if he goes into this with just the hope of some magic bauble around his neck. As much as you're loathed to go through this again, you decide to help Ulivik.

"Alright I'll go, but as soon as I think we're in a shitload of danger that we can't handle, you better listen to me, because this isn't going to be the fun adventure you think it's going to be. Understand?"
"Sure, but I really don't think it's going to be as bad as all that."
"No, it'll probably be worse. Now if you don't mind I'm going to get some sleep and get my mind focused on this fool's task."
"Fool's task? You're coming with me."
"Yeah, which says more about my own foolishness than yours, because you don't know any better. I know we got these magic amulets or whatever, but these… things are going to try to get inside your head and if they succeed, it's all over. If that happens to you, I won't hesitate to put a sword through your head, and I expect you to do the same."
"Ha ha you'd kill me so easily?" Ulivik laughs, but you're in no mood.
"Hello, I don't believe we've met…by the gods have you remembered nothing of the stories of my past? Of course I'd fucking do it so easily! I've killed innocent men and their entire families just because they disagreed with how the Empire was doing things, hell I even killed one of my Eternal brothers because of it. Wouldn't be anything to kill someone who was turned into a mindless beast even if…"

You stop yourself right there.

"Even if what?" Ulivik asks.
"Even if…he's too stupid to see this is a really bad idea! Anyway, I'm ranting and I'm tired. I'm going to bed, you can let yourself out. And don't say that I don't have to go, because I'm already committed now. I gave you my word as an Eternal."

Ulivik knows when you say something like that, you're being serious, so he just nods and tells you he'll be by tomorrow morning before leaving. As for you, you head off to bed with a myriad of thoughts going on in your head.

"Can't believe I nearly said he was like a son to me. What the fuck am I thinkin' about? Better get your head in the game old man, because wendigos are going to thrive on that. They live on weakness." You mumble before drifting off to sleep.

The next morning you and Ulivik set off for the infamous Wendigo Hills. Along the way, you go on about your own major conflicts with them, even when they were originally just thought to be people infected with lycanthropy like the rest of the old barbarian tribes around Rask. Ulivik listens to you in fascination like he did when he was much younger as you've never spoken of your experience with the wendigos before to him except in passing. It's good to know he's still listening.

"So after that battle, no wendigo has ever left those hills?" Ulivik asks.
"Eh, we had a couple that still managed to snag bodies and kill a few people before being brought down and exorcised by some of the local hedge wizards we recruited later, but that was mainly due to people idiotically still going into the hills in the first place. Sort of like what we're doing." You say.
"But if they're spirits can't they just float about possessing people?"
"You'd think so, but for whatever reason they can't leave these the hills in pure spirit form, they need a body. That's why when they're killed they immediately try to hop into a new one or else they get pulled back to the hills. Dunno why, and I don't think anyone's bothered to learn the history either. Everyone's just glad they were deprived of nearly all of their bodies by a certain Eternal decades ago."
"Ha ha, but what about animals? Couldn't they just possess animals and leave the hills that way?"
"Always wondered that myself, but again if they could I'd imagine they'd still be a major threat. Besides, when I traversed those hills I didn't see a single animal, not one, of course I assumed that they probably ate them all. The wendigo are basically consumption and hunger in its purest form. They aren't big thinkers in the scheme of things and it's fortunate that they never organized past their barbarian tribal hosts."
"Sounds like it, but if they are all spirits as you say, then we shouldn't experience any physical combat at all and with these amulets and our steel trap minds we should be fine! We might even find some sort of ancient lore about how the wendigos came to be tied to those hills!"
"Well you're as optimistic as ever. I suppose that's good, it'll keep your mind better prepared when the wendigos try to oppressively crush your free will. Y'know, now that I think about it, I think that's what partially saved me. My mind was so dedicated to the Empire back in those days, the wendigos were trying to crush something that wasn't really my own to begin with."
"And now?"
"Now? I got my impenetrable cynicism to protect me, which I'll definitely put more stock in than this ridiculous magical amulet that'll undoubtedly fail to do anything."
"Looks like you're off to a good start with your cynicism."

The after a couple days of travel, you eventually make it to the base of the Wendigo Hills. The markings and warning signs line stretch up, down and all the way around as far as you know. No real physical barriers of course, but even those dumb ass ogres that can't read know better than to pass the line. Of course they usually knew better to begin with, which proves that they're smarter in that respect. You take a deep breath and step past the markings and make your way up the forested hills.

It's at this point your amulet starts to glow a brighter blue, Ulivik claims "that's how you know that it's working!" Great. Still, you don't hear any sinister whispers yet, but there is still that dead silence you remember. As if nothing living is here.

Ulivik, mentions that he found a crude and well worn map of some of the Rask area during his trip through Eternal Dominion lands and wants to explore some ruins that are clearly marked on it. You mention you haven't been here in a long time, but you don't remember ever seeing any, so you can't be as of much help as he might've thought. Ulivik says he doesn't care though, he's just glad to have you along.

"That map is probably old Empire. Like really old Empire, and much might've changed since then. It could also be inaccurate to begin with."
"Yeah, that's true, but we might as well find out. It's the journey, not necessarily the destination that's important! That's what adventuring is all about."
"Funny, I always thought it was the misguided hope of finding lots of loot and the avoidance of a real job." You reply.
"That's just a bonus." Ulivik comments and you allow yourself to chuckle. Never thought you'd do that while in this cursed place.

After a half hour or so of walking, you start to get an uneasy feeling of being watched. You mention this to Ulivik and he says he's getting that impression too. You ask him if he's hearing anything, but he says he isn't except the snow crunching under foot. Neither are you, maybe the amulets are working, but it's obvious the presence of the wendigos is near.

Another hour of travel and you and Ulivik see something you didn't expect.

"Do you see that? That's a rabbit! I thought you said nothing was living here?" Ulivik says.
"When I came through I didn't see a living creature, so I just assumed there wasn't. I guess there is though." You reply.
"Maybe the wendigo aren't here anymore and everyone has been scared of this place for decades for no reason."
"I wouldn't go that far. Something is definitely here and just because we're seeing rabbits doesn't mean it's safe. It just means animals must not be suitable hosts for them."
"Well…hey that rabbit it's hopping towards us. Hmm, a little larger than average and hopping towards people is rather unusual behavior for a ra…"

Before Ulivik can finish, his leg is leaped upon and viciously attacked by the rabbit. After some hollering from the surprise, you grab the little furry beast and break its neck. You toss its lifeless body in the snow while Ulivik examines the bite marks in his pants

"Fuck, that thing chewed through my pant leg and broke the skin! You never mentioned killer rabbits on your travel to here."
"That's because I didn't encounter any, and I doubt if that was really a rabbit anymore. It would seem that animals CAN be hosts after all, they just need a human one or something similar to leave the hills. Anyway, we should really get out here, there are more coming."
"What? So? I'm sure we can handle a few overgrown possessed rabbits." Ulivik says still preoccupied with his very minor wound.
"A few, sure, but how about hundreds of them?" you say and draw his attention to literally that number popping up all around you.

The glaring red eyes of hundreds of possessed bunnies are upon you and their herbivore buck teeth have now been replaced with the toothy fangs of a carnivore hungry for flesh. And they look like they haven't tasted a bi-ped in a long time…

You fight your way back home

You slash out at the nearest rabbits and shout at Ulivik that you need to get the hell out of here.

"What?! We can't run from rabbits! We've both fought worse than this!" Ulivik shouts chopping down a few more of them.
"First of all they aren't just rabbits, they're rabbits with wendigos in them. Second of all rabbits are notorious for breeding at an alarming rate. Chances are there are even more bunny bodies for the wendigos to take control of even if we manage to kill all of the ones here. Running from rabbits might not exactly be the bravest thing, but constantly being assaulted by a horde while going deeper into enemy territory and trying to find something that might not even be there anymore is just stupid." You say hacking at more of them and shaking off the ones jumping on you.
"…agh! Oh all right!" Ulivik shouts and the pair of you manage to cut a path through the rabbit mass and make a break for it."

You and Ulivik run chopping up rabbits along the way as the "little" nippers are hopping after you and occasionally leaping on you and get a few bites in. This might all be very comical if your life wasn't in mortal danger.

"SHIT!" Ulivik shouts when a group of rabbits catch up and pile on one of his ankles, biting and clawing at it. He falls down face first into the snow and you immediately get rid of the rabbits around Ulivik who is doing likewise.

"Get off! Get off!" he shouts killing them.

While you're kneeling down trying to help, one of the rabbits jumps on your back and with his teeth takes the amulet chain and leaps off with it.

"What the…get that little furry bastard!" you shout when you feel it lifted from around your neck, but it's too late the rabbit has run off with it and the rest of the horde is coming.

"Come on we gotta get outta here!" Ulivik says and the pair of you resume your escape. Unfortunately you're starting to hear the whispers again. The multitude of them, though one in particular stands out.

"Welcome back Bane of Rask, we've been waiting for you…I'VE been waiting for you." A voice in your head says.
"Shit, it's starting, they're getting inside my head!" you say stomping on another rabbit.
"Just ignore it like you did last time!" Ulivik exclaims.
"Easy for you to say! Argh dammit! My fucking head!"
"You've gotten old Bane…you should just give up and let me take over, you'll be able to lifetimes…" the voice says.
"Shut up."
"Why do you resist, you're too weak now. Just submit and this will all go easier…"

Between the spiritual assaults on your mind and Ulivik's chewed up ankle the pair of you aren't exactly running the fastest anymore. You have to stop many times to fight your way through, but it may be true that luck favors the fool and the pair of you have been mighty foolish for doing this in the first place, and eventually you see the end in sight.

"There! The markers! If we get past those we'll be fine!"

Ulivik speaks too soon however as it is at this point several hundred white rabbits who were blending in with the snow open their eyes and reveal the glowing red pin points of evil within them. They sit between you and the closest escape and a larger gray rabbit comes bounding out of a nearby hole in the ground. It's nearly the size of a bear. You fought a gray wendigo before; you would guess this is the same one. Their leader and the main one that's been taunting you the whole time.

"Give up Bane! Your time on this earth is over!"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"Become meat then! I'll just use your svelk friend since you seem to care for him so much!"

You hadn't heard it yet even with the assault on your head, but all of the rabbits in unison make that awful howling noise that you tried so hard to forget about. Even Ulivik with his magical protection winces at the noise. The battle is then joined as they run at you. You feel bites and slashes of several little claws and teeth breaking your skin. In a way the physical pain helps since its counter acting the mental attack still going on in your head.

The wendigo leader clumsily leaps towards you even stepping on his own smaller brethren. You roll away and give him a couple chops to his head, succeeding in lopping off part of his ear. This only serves to anger him further and he does a short rush into you, knocking you down. Other rabbits immediately take advantage of the situation and hop on top you and start to bite. You're busily trying to get them off of you and then the leader smacks you in the head with his oversized claws. You fall into the snow again, this time in a daze.

"You call yourself an Eternal…such arrogance of an incredibly short lived race. WE have more right to be known as eternals and I will make you suffer for your hubris!" you hear the voice say and then several long fangs sink into the lower part of your leg as the leader attempts to eat you alive. Now you aren't exactly sure at this point due to the extreme physical pain, but you believe the wendigo leader has most likely bitten straight through your leg and if it hasn't been completely severed yet, it's only hanging on by broken bone and torn skin.

You yell out and muster all your remaining strength, sit up and bring your sword down onto the wendigo leader's head. Blood spurts everywhere as you twist it into his skull and your own leg is still chewed on in the death throes of the wendigo's host. Ulivik, who was being overwhelmed by the rest of the rabbits, finally manages to get to you and runs his own sword into the side of the gray wendigo several times causing it to finally release its fangs from your mangled leg. You quickly remove it from the wendigo's mouth and see a good portion of your leg completely destroyed and bleeding profusely. Despite this fact, you're determined that you are NOT going to die today. You didn't get this far just to be eaten by some possessed fucking rabbits. Ulivik helps you up and you hop as fast as you can towards the markers leaving a trail of gore in your wake. When you fall, you crawl as fast as you can instead. Ulivik tries to carry you, but you tell him to just keep the rest of the rabbits off of the pair of you.

Exhausted and severely injured you manage to make it past the safety barrier, causing the attack to completely cease and you no longer hear the whispers in your head any longer. The rabbits all stare at you from afar. You're only about ten feet away and you can feel their hatred all the way from here. Ulivik drags you further away from the wendigo area until you tell him to stop.

"Hey! Stop it, I'm not a fucking rag doll!" you shout. "I need to do something about this leg and fast, I'm beginning to feel really dizzy over here. Make a fire and quickly!"

One quick look and you know there's no way it can be saved. It's only hanging on as it is. You make the decision and chop through the remaining bone and muscle that was still connecting it to the rest of your body. This part doesn't hurt as it's mostly already disconnected from any nerves anyway. The following part of applying your heated sword to stop the bleeding hurts like hell though.

Dizzy and weakened from this whole ordeal, you see that you've stopped the bleeding and fall unconscious mumbling "Don't leave my leg here."

A couple days later you finally wake up, though you almost weren't expecting to.

"Ah, you're up, good. Your new leg is finished; I had the wood carver make one for you after I dragged your body back to town. The people here were shocked to see you laid out in such a manner. They thought you were dead at first."
"Ugh, I sort of wish I was…I'm hardly the supreme warrior I once was, if I'm getting my leg chewed off by oversized rabbits. I'm just not quite ashamed enough to kill myself over it, my will to survive is just too strong I guess."
"It's my fault anyway, I should've went into that area myself…"
"Oh no. Don't start doing that. Blaming yourself for what MIGHT have happened is a losing battle. Trust me, I've had that same battle. I'm an adult I make my own decisions and I chose to go with you, besides if I hadn't have come you would've had all those little killer wendigo bunnies all over your ass instead and knowing you, you would've still insisted on heading to those ruins and gotten yourself killed in the process."
"Ha ha, maybe so."
"(Sigh) fucking rabbits...you know they must've been cannibalizing themselves in those forms for years. Well the wendigos might not have killed me, but I'm sure my reputation is. Ah fuck it, if I get a few snickers from the locals for losing my leg to a damned rabbit, it's not the worst thing in the world."
"Yeah, about that…I sort of lied. I told everyone you saved my life from a ten-foot wendigo that had taken host in an ogre turning it into a complete abomination with rows of teeth and that it was planning to organize a way for the rest of its fellows to leave the barrier."
"What?!"
"I know you don't like to lie, but I just thought it sounded a lot more impressive. I mean you know the situation was really dangerous and I know the situation was really dangerous, but everyone else would just think…rabbits? And then laugh like you said."
"First of all, I'm not actually opposed to lying, I just don't do it when I respect the person enough not to do it to them. Anyway, I guess you were just concerned about my reputation. I won't argue the point and it's done now, besides it's not like anyone's going to confirm it by going up there. Hopefully I just don't get anymore snot nosed kids following me around town begging me to train them because those days are long over." You laugh.

You and Ulivik both talk for a few more hours before he eventually leaves to go see his mother. You take the opportunity to inspect your new wooden leg and try it on. It's going to take some time getting used to, but most major changes do and you've survived those.
Year 75

As the years creep up on you and despite missing part of your leg, you still feel don't feel in any ill health. It's mostly just aches and pains from your more physical years catching up with you. After the leg incident though, you took that permanent position at the Keplavisk military academy as a strategy instructor, though nowadays it's looking like it'll become the Rask military academy. Rask is in the process of becoming a "real nation" rather than just a collection of allied towns. You don't really know all the politics of it, but the main guiding force was justified Raskian paranoia again. Ever since the Eternal Dominion's war with the Felkan Kingdom grinded to a halt, the ED has been making overtures to Rask to join them in the veiled form of threats rather than any sort of diplomatic alliance agreements.

While starting a war on two fronts is always a bad idea you're guessing Edgar needs the resources that Rask has to make his final push to conquer the Felkans once and for all. You're also guessing he's intent on ignoring your advice of not attacking Rask too, you're just surprised he held out this long. You're not really worried about it if it comes to war. The Raskians may not have the unnaturally bred "eternals" like the ED does, but they're trained well enough to make the cost very high if they are in invaded. You should know, you trained most of them.

You hear a knock on your door and you slowly make your way over.

"Mail for you Mr. Bane." A delivery girl says to you when you open up the door. You toss a gold coin to her and take your letter.

At first you figure it's from Ulivik, no doubt telling you about whatever grand adventure he's on this time. The last time he was here, he was for his mother's funeral. He kept his composure for the most part, but it still wasn't a good time for him. He didn't say it in so many words, but he did say that you were the only family he had left. You didn't follow up, but the pair you said your goodbyes both of you knowing that you had that bond similar to that of a father and son.

But this letter isn't from Ulivik, it's mysteriously labeled as from "a friend." Considering you've never really had any, you're baffled to as who it could be. When you open it you see that it's from Edgar, several pages in fact. You sit down to read all of it.

The beginning of it hopes that the letter has found you as he wants you to take in all of what he has to tell you. He begins by stating that he's dying. He mentions his health is deteriorating by the day and he doesn't know how much longer he has left. His "successors" are likely to start a war with Rask soon after his death, it's only due to their respect that they don't. The same way his respect for you caused him not to.

The majority of the letter explains that he wants you to understand why he did what he did and how he wished that you had joined him. He says the incident with Kane never left him and how if he'd only been there to listen to him and help him more, none of that might've happened. Perhaps even the Empire would've survived. (You doubt that though, it would've just taken longer) When the Empire was in its last days he saw how chaotic the new eternals were and realized they needed guidance and a purpose much like Kane did. He always thought that you'd do it, but you left leaving him as the only person willing to. He says it was very difficult and while they ultimately they fell in line, but without the purpose of conquest they wouldn't stay that way for long. So he began forging a new empire as it were, with the eternals as the leaders as it always should've been. The newer generations of eternals were better disciplined, as he made sure their training went very much the same way yours did. Still, they are much more arrogant that he ever was. They believe it is their destiny to rule the world and he believes that he's set something in motion that even he is no longer in control of.

"Ah Edgar, always getting yourself in over your head." You say to yourself.

The rest of the letter mentions that you two are the last of the old Eternals. Warrick died in Battle of Yaquan when the ED successfully took the city from the Felkans eleven years ago. He says that while he still considered him a traitor to side with former enemies like that, he took no pleasure in his death and heard he died well.

Brenda died four years ago, but she apparently had become increasingly withdrawn years before that, to the point where she no longer even participated in the major decisions concerning the ED. She was found dead by her own hand with a note stating that she wished to be burned and her ashes scattered near Fort Glory like she did with her husband Roldan. This wish was of course granted.

Edgar's last portion of the message also states that he has a last request as well, he wants you to come to the Eternal Dominion as he would like to see you again. He knows that you've had your differences and you weren't ever friends, but right now, you're the closest thing he's got. He's already made the arrangements to let you through and will have an escort waiting for you on the Rask/ED borders for the next few days. He also has placed a separate message with his seal on it, so that they may identify you.

The message ends there.

You take a trip to the Eternal Dominion

If Edgar wants to see you, then why not? If he had anything sinister planned for you like having his escort kill you when you arrive. Besides you're old and you didn't worry about dying in combat when you were twenty, you're not going to start worrying about it now.

You pack a few things for your trip and get your horse ready since you know Rask carriages don't travel through ED territory anymore. It's hard getting on damn a horse ever since losing part of your leg, but you're not about to walk the way there!

When you reach the border the next day, you see a group of soldiers camped out in the distance beyond it. You see an ED Flag flying so you assume that's the escort Edgar told you about. When you approach several of the soldiers point muskets at you…heh you sometimes forget of how technology has marched on.

They immediately ask for identification and you state your name and hand them the message with Edgar's seal on it. The leader, who is a blonde woman with fair features reads through it and greets you.

"Greetings sir. My apologies on the initial caution, but we had to be sure. I am Sergeant Kalah, and I am to escort you to Prime Eternal Edgar. I am told he will be most pleased to see you, though I must admit I was also curious about you myself. Many are, as the Prime Eternal has mentioned you several times in high regard."
"Heh, yeah I've heard about that before. Never get used to it though. Well let's get on our way then."

Sergeant Kalah is very talkative on your trip, and goes on about great the ED is, and how it provides for all. She sounds very much like you did a long time ago. You're a little curious about something so you interrupt her propaganda speak.

"Tell me sergeant, you and your men are all on the youngish side, what generation of eternal are you exactly?"
"Me sir? I am fourth! We all are, we are newest eternals to serve directly in combat and I'm proud to say that we are so far the first to have natural night vision!"
"You can see in the dark eh? That must come in pretty handy. Wish I'd had that back in the day."
"Oh yes, the glorious Eternal Dominion was able to fight those treacherous svelk mercenaries that the cowardly Felkans employ on equal footing when we were deployed!"
"Hmm, any other natural abilities?"
"The fourth generation also regenerates better than the third even though they were the first to have such abilities. Under the right circumstances we can potentially regenerate a lost limb."
"Now THAT is something I definitely would've liked to had!" you say knocking on your wooden leg. "Still, with all these advantages I'm sort of surprised you haven't utterly crushed the Felkans yet."
"I believe we would, even with our resource shortages. Most of us do! We have the Felkans on the run, I do not understand why we have not pressed forward with our attacks, I long to be in combat again…but it is not my place to question the Prime Eternal's decisions, I'm sure he has a good reason…"

Wow, that line sounds familiar.

"Well all I can say is, sometimes the political aspects of a nation are more complicated than the wars." You reply

Sergeant Kalah doesn't argue, but just says that you may have more wisdom about such things. Kalah and you continue to speak with each other about various subjects and she's courteous the entire time, in fact she's downright friendly. You definitely weren't expecting that and it's sort of a nice change of pace. While traveling through a town, a couple of pathetic peasants are being beaten in the streets by another soldier, though his uniform seems to be a different color even though it has the same markings.

"You there! Why are you beating these peasants! What crime have they committed?" she demands.
"Ma'am! These peasants were caught stealing food."
"Well you shouldn't be beating them just for that…you should be chopping their hands off!" Kalah says, followed by pleas and screams of the peasants.
"…yes ma'am…alright get over here you lousy thieving scum, let's make this quick!" the soldier says drawing his sword and striking out at the screaming peasant. However, in his enthusiasm to follow orders he ends up hacking off the peasant's entire arm.

More screaming arises from the female peasant who rushes to what is probably are dying husband. Sergeant Kalah rolls her eyes.

"I swear never let a human do an Eternal's job…men shoot all three of them."
"No wait!" the soldier says before several musket balls hit his body. The two peasants are also killed instantly.

The onlookers of this event duck and hide, but the sergeant makes her point known.

"Listen up! This town is now on watch! If I hear of anymore thievery or other crimes, I'll be back to burn down this whole town! And for those of you in charge of keeping the law around here, I better see more competence displayed in the future than I saw today or I'll have you drawn and quartered! You are ALL servants of the Eternals! We are your masters, we know better than you and you will OBEY."

And there it is, the ruthless arrogance. It would appear than Kalah's friendliness extends only to other Eternals. Can't say you're surprised though. You all move on and eventually you reach the capital and the palace where Edgar resides. Funny how this is the first time you've ever been to the palace after all those years serving the Empire.

"This is where we part company, but I must say I hope we meet again in the future, it was an honor to meet you."
"And it was a pleasure to meet you too…" you say and then you decide to give her a big fat thrill. "…and if I may say if we have more eternals as pretty and commanding as you, we will no doubt rule for thousands of years to come."
"…I…oh…well thank you sir!" she stutters and smiles before riding off.

New guards accompany you into the palace and through it. You've never been in here before, so you do a little sight seeing as you walk. Eventually you reach the royal bedroom. An older woman is sitting on a chair outside sobbing. She looks regal. Did Edgar get married? You've never heard of their being any sort of "queen" of the ED you always assumed he was just ruling alone. Another older muscular man with a stern expression is standing nearby pacing. When you arrive, he frowns even more.

"Oh so you decided to come after all. A pity." He says.
"Well, I certainly can say your military is politer than the royalty around here."
"That is probably because they believe all the stories Prime Eternal Edgar says about you. Such is the foolishness of youth."
"And who the hell are you exactly?"
"Hmm, not surprised a deserter like you doesn't remember me. My name is Rissok and I served under you during the Empire riots. I saw you kill my friend in cold blood. A true eternal who served with honor!"

"Oooooh now I remember. You and your other buddy were looting houses while Felding was attempting to rape a woman. Yeah, real honor there." You say and Rissok gets in your face.
"Don't mock me! You are only here because the Prime allows it! If it were up to me, I would have you labeled as a traitor and have you killed!"
"Well nothing is stopping you. You got the guards here, Edgar's too sick to prevent it and I've only got one leg, so I'd say it's a fair fight." You remark.
"Stop it! Stop it please! My Edgar is dying! Can't we have one moment without murder and killing?" the woman sobs.

At this point Rissok storms off without another word, the guards stick around and tell you that you may enter at any time. Before you do, you have to ask the woman who she is because you get the impression she isn't an eternal. You just sense it.

"My apologies, I didn't know that Edgar was even married. What title do you go by, queen? Emperess?"
"(sniff) No, I'm none of those things. I'm just Eva. Sometime Lady Eva if we're being formal, but I am not married to Edgar nor am I common knowledge to a majority of the public, I am merely his companion of sorts. He could not marry me, for concern of marrying a non-eternal might weaken his position of leadership. I understood this from the beginning though and do not blame him for it. Eternals have more wisdom on these matters."

You're pretty sure that isn't necessarily true, but you understand Edgar's rationale and Eva seems to genuinely be in love with him. You ask her if she wants to come in with you, but she says she has already said her goodbyes and that he wants to see you alone when you arrive. Having no other questions, you enter the bedroom.

When you see Edgar, he's lying in his bed and looking completely unwell. He's pale and his face has a gaunt looking appearance. You can't even believe this is the same man you fought along side at Fort Defiance.

"Edgar? "
"(wheeze) ah…you came…I knew you would. (cough cough) You're also looking much better than I am…minus a leg I see. How did that happen?"
"Long story…but you! How the hell did you get this sick?! Other than physical pains racking my body, I've never been actually sick. I didn't think we could!"
"Well…after you've suffered five or six assassination attempts all laced with various poisons, it tends to fuck up your body a lot quicker…anyway there isn't much time left I doubt if I'll make it through the night (cough cough) you've read my letter I take it?"
"Yes."
"Well then you know that when my death comes, anarchy will ensue."
"Don't you have a successor? What about Eva?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, but we can't have children. We Eternals seem to be sterile or barren. I've had people try to look into this problem, but they haven't come up with anything yet. It would seem what makes us superior, takes away our ability to reproduce. Maybe it's nature balancing itself out, so that we don't take over the world like so many of our younger eternals seem to want to do."
"Hmm, I have to admit, I always wondered why all those strumpets I slept with during my merc days never came back with little bundles demanding support." You reply. "Anyway (cough cough) I've drawn up official forms for the person I think could be a successor…"

You already know where Edgar is going with this.

"Oh no…don't say that's why you dragged me out here…Edgar they aren't going to listen to me! I haven't even been living in the ED since it's formation!"
"That doesn't matter! You're still an Eternal! One of the first and probably the best of us! (wheeze cough) They'll listen more likely than you believe, why do you think I always spoke so highly of you? The younger ones will most likely follow without question, your major opposition will probably be the second generation…but there aren't too many of them left, you could easily purge them all if you had to."

Sheesh, you haven't even agreed to anything and Edgar's already suggesting mass purges. It's like you never left the Empire.

"Please…I tried to build something here…(cough) I tried to do what you might've done if only you'd taken the reins of power, but I can't go on any longer. The only person who can guide the Eternal Dominion into something worthier is you. I'm asking you not just as former comrade in arms…but as a (cough cough) a fellow Eternal…"

Edgar's trying to guilt you into this mess, but it's just not going to work. This plan of his is doomed to fail and you know it. Every high ranking Eternal is probably going to be vying for power and that idiot Rissok will probably the worst of the lot before Edgar's body is even cold. Still, this is his dying request. You could always accept his proposal just to appease him on his deathbed.

You lie and tell him you'll accept the position

This is his last request, what could it hurt to reassure him on his deathbed? It's not like he's going to know after he dies.

"Okay, Edgar. I'll take it, but I'm still skeptical that I'll do as good a job as you." You say to Edgar who manages to smile.
"Thank you, but as I have said, you will find that you will have more support than you think. Now then, let us talk, I wish to know what you've been up to. So many years have passed and my own time is short."

You oblige Edgar and try to tell him as much as you can about what you've been doing since you first left the Empire. He seems to enjoy your tales while interjecting a few of his own, but he mostly just listens as the hours pass his life tether to this world begins to slip away. Finally he has stopped listening completely and died. You sit in silence for a moment to say goodbye to your former comrade in arms…no, a brother.

You are about to leave and that's when Rissok comes barging in with a couple of guards and Eva.

"Is he dead yet?" Rissok asks.
"Yes, and show some fucking respect." You say.
"Respect? I have been serving the Prime with distinction for years! What have you done, except turn your back on the eternal name! You're no better than that traitor Warrick! Worse, you think to come here to steal the throne, well not on my watch!"

At this point Rissok pulls out a flintlock pistol and points it at you.

"Steal the throne? Hah! I wouldn't want to run this asylum even if I was begged to, which I was."
"I knew it! I knew the Prime wanted to see you for such a reason!"
"Yeah, and I said I wasn't interested, so you can just calm the hell down…"
"Rissok stop it! Is your lust for power so overwhelming that you can't even contain yourself even in the presence of my dead loved one's body?" Eva shouts tearfully.

"Shaddup, ya human harlot!" Rissok says and smacks Eva in the face with the flintlock, dropping her to the floor. You take this opportunity to rush at Rissok, but unfortunately you aren't as fast as you used to be. Rissok manages to step backward just in time to shoot you in the chest. You fall to the ground mortally wounded.

"And so ends the first generation. You had your time in the sun, now it is time for the seconds to take over where you failed. Guard, finish this relic off."
"Nah, we're not following you either." A guard says and raises his own musket to Rissok and blows his head off. Rissok's body collapses on to the floor next to you, blood, skull and brains leaking all over the place.

Staring at Rissok's headless body, you chuckle in between your dying gasps before finally passing from this world.