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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Beautiful…"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Beautiful…such talent…such a waste…"

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

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

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

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

You letters to home (Moving out from Virtue...)

Dear Mom,

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, the Captain's starting to call everyone.

Give my love to the rest of the family.

Your son