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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two years pass…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You don't have a choice though except for what role you can serve. Thanks to your skills and rank. You can either lead troops as normal, or be part of a scouting party.

You choose to scout

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Beautiful…"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Beautiful…such talent…such a waste…"

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

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

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

You've pondered it several times before, and you've even attempted it once, but deserting is looking very desirable again. In this day and age, who's going to know if were killed or not?

You stay and inform your squad of the situation

If the information that the vampire said was true, you think it might be better to inform your superiors of it so that something can be done now. It won't do any good to run off with this vital info and let them find out when it's too late and your "freedom" won't mean anything as death takes over the world.

You meet up with the rest of your men who are calling out your name. They ask if you're okay and you reply you are, but you need to inform the captain of the new info you learned.

When you return, you tell Captain Eckard exactly what happened, but instead of stopping to assess this new info or taking it immediately to his superior, he dismisses it! He said the vampire was probably just fucking around with you.

"That vampire was probably toying with you like a cat would a mouse. He probably has your scent now, so he'll hunt and attack you later. The stories he's told you are probably just to keep your mind occupied with nonsense as well as to give us misinformation. Hell, he's fucking undead! He's probably WORKING with the Lich Lord!"
"But…but it was an agent of the Zalan Empire. Agent Warnov. He…"
"NO! He LOOKED like Warnov. Vampire can change their form you know! And even if it was the real Warnov, he's undead now and working for the enemy!"
"Well if that's the case shouldn't we still inform head quarters immediately? He probably had lots of vital information that…"
"Look, the only thing we need to do is take the territory of the former Tulan Kingdom before the undead do! THAT'S our primary concern! So I'll have no more discussion about it sergeant! Get ready to march tomorrow! We're heading for the former capitol!"

You leave Eckard's tent and shake your head at his stupidity, but there's not much you can do about it now. You do decide that you're going to inform another high ranking officer when you can though.

Soon the company is on the move to its destination. It gets more dangerous the closer you get though. You're getting ambushed by demon bands of them all the time. Not enough to destroy you of course, but certainly enough to whittle your numbers down. Captain Eckard gives you more troops to supply your losses, but by the time you get to the capitol, the whole company has lost at least a third of its original strength.

Things don't get any better at the capital. Most of the citizens there have been so corrupted or beat down by the demons at this point that they've either sold their own souls to Hell or gone completely mad. You're attacked by them and a few of the demon hold outs.

By the time you subdue and hold the territory, you're down to half of the company's original strength.

Then after a few days the undead arrive.

Captain Eckard's rather inept handling of things don't get any better. Instead of shoring up the defenses of the capital's gates and walls and waiting for reinforcements which were going to arrive soon, he orders an open attack on the battlefield!

You are very reluctant to do this, but again you don't have any choice now. You fight and barely survive long enough to fallback when Captain Eckard calls for a retreat after finally realizing he's hopelessly outmatched. Unfortunately he's just provided more troops for the undead army, as the necromancers in charge raise the recent dead. They also start raising the dead citizens IN the city which haven't been cleared out!

It's an ignoble death as you're eventually surrounded, overwhelmed and cut down by zombies and skeletons. You join their ranks soon afterwards.