Undertaker

## Father

**Father**, also known later on in the story as **The Undertaker**, is Warren's single living parent during the events of the campaign's main story. A good-hearted, law-abiding man, Father is the first character the player controls in the game, seeking to rescue Warren's mother from ruthless bandits. During the course of the story, Father is tricked and cursed by the Devil, who seeks to manipulate Warren to his favor, which eventually leads to Father leaving his son in order to protect him.

Settling in a small town, where the curse continues to cause misfortune and death to all around him, Father becomes an undertaker, but decides to pursue a cure, whether natural or supernatural, to his unholy affliction. After all options fail, Father decides to take his own life, but after Demons attack the town, he finds new purpose in his life by undoing the influence the forces of Hell have on Earth and cleanse it from evil, inderectly acting as the Death's champion.

## Events of Hard West

### *Hard Times*

Father is introduced in the main campaign's first mission. As described by Death, Warren's family decided to travel through the Oregon Trail, but as many others, they were subjected to the West's brutal conditions and soon found themselves with difficulties. Additionally, while Father is a good hunter and marksman, he could not find any animals to provide for his family as they progressed along the trail, although their scarcity was seen as extremely odd, as if something was deliberately keeping them away from Warren's family. As supplies began to dwindle, Father hoped to sell his hunting gear to assist the family, but the town they found themselves in was overrun by a group of Satanic cultists, possibly under the command of the Masked Man, and all three family members were imprisoned. Warren's mother was taken away from Father and Warren by the bandits, who hoped to sell the two to white slavers, but Father managed to break free from his restraints and pursue after the kidnappers. After a brief firefight, Father emerged victorious, but proved unable to save Warren's mother, who had been decapitated by the bandits and had her head put in a box. One of the cultists, mortally wounded by Father, but still alive, told him they had killed her in order to fulfill a ritual that would make the Devil grant them riches in Hell. Both financially and emotionally devastated, Father and Warren decided to remain in the region, living in an old railroad building which the two converted into a farm.

Ten years after the tragic events, Father and Warren, barely surviving due to their farm, decide to return to the Oregon Trail as Warren's mother would have wanted, but require supplies in order to do so. Coincidently, gold is discovered in the region, and the two decide to engage in gold prespecting in order to finance their journey. After acquiring a gold mining license from the Masked Man's thugs, the two begin to have some success in the gold business. During that time, Father and Warren become acquainted with Florence's family, neighbors not interested in gold prospecting, and eventually Warren and Florence find themselves in love. As they continue to mine more gold, news spread of their success, and in order to ensure their protection, Father decides to request protection from the region's crime boss, the loan shark El Eshcuro, much at Warren's begrudging approval. The crime lord agrees to help if the family starts to pay taxes to him on every gold they obtained, giving Father and Warren weapons and sending his henchman Cheech to help defend the homestead. After successfully stopping the bandits, Warren sets out to check on Florence's family as Father stays behind, possibly building a secret tunnel to the farm, should the player choose to do so. During that time, a strange, well-dressed man appears and speaks to Father, who at the time had grown impatient with the gold mining process, and sells to him an amulet designed to grant them luck. Meanwhile, Warren returns with Florence, whose family had been brutally murdered by the invading criminals, and she begins to live with them.

The amulet purchased by Father, much to his surprise, does grant them luck, and in the following weeks, the family starts making a good profit out of the gold mining. However, as time went by, the increrasing amount of gold the had obtained had allowed El Eshcuro to grow more powerful, to the point where he was taxing almost 50% of Warren's family gold business. Florence, hoping to appeal to the crime lord's kindness, attempted to barter with him, but was imprisoned. Warren, Father and possibly a miner that they had hired, Pate Douglas, proceeded to the town where the criminal held Florence, rescued her and killed El Eshcuro, Cheech and other guards before escaping. After defeating the crime lord, Father is caught with an unexpected event: his amulet spontaneously cracks and crumbles in his hands, leaving him cursed with constant bad luck. Initially, the group decides to look for ways to undo the curse, such as throwing a coin down a well, speaking to a fortune teller and seeking an exorcism by Father Gervais in the nearby church. It is during this time that the group can return to the crime lord's town, which, in his abscense, had descended into chaos, to finish off the criminals roaming the streets. Eventually, as the means to rid Father of the curse all prove ineffective, he decides to leave farm on his own, hoping to avoid bringing more misery into their lives with his presence. He leaves a letter behind to Warren, stating that he is sorry for what had happened to Warren's mother, and saying that he loves his son.