Gideon Duskrun

## Ghostland Arc

It was almost night and although it was hard to tell, with how heavy the fog around this area was, the full moon shined brightly at The Ghostlands, the area plagued by the undead. Where once were cities and oasis, today there was only destruction and death, where once was trade and business, today lies only ruin. In midst of all this was Gideon Duskrun, a Mage Hunter in service of the Servants of the Sacred Hymn, an organization built to seek the mysterious Singer or Prisoner as he is called by some, sworn to protect the world from evil. The man, pressed against the wall of some old and ruinous building, took a deep breath to ready himself, readying the heavy shield in his left hand and mumbling a short prayer, that he finished with the words: "Let the Hymn be done." Breaking out into a sprint, countless Undead noticed his presence, surrounding him from all sides, as regret began to fill his thoughts.
All of this began weeks ago when word spread that one of the accursed towers had appeared within the Ghostlands: the Tower of Death. It's location several miles away from the border, that the Undead not dared to cross, made it difficult to reach for the average party of adventurers, and as such a larger operation had been brought into life, while the Undead hordes of the Tower fought against the natural Undead of the Ghostlands, but for how long could this stalemate persist? Uncertain of this, people looked for a more permanent solution to the problem of this Tower, to prevent its horde from overtaking the Ghostlands and spilling out of it. A permanent seal was to be placed on the tower itself, while wards against the Undead were to clear a path. Of course, being the large logistical horror that this plan was, it was integral to first gather enough supplies to actually be able to make the attack. People decided to contribute in various ways, and for Gideon, this meant doing what he did best: hunting mages. Necromancers desired the power of the Tower for themselves, while intelligent Undead within the Ghostlands would also be a problem during the raid. Having received information on both Necromancers planning to aid the Tower, and sightings of Intelligent Undead within the Ghostlands outer districts, Gideon took it upon himself to take them down. One by one, the list grew shorter with every day that he spent hunting them until only the Undead Sorcerer N'Ga'sh was left.

Arrows impact into the shield, that Gideon luckily had reinforced just prior to his venture into this part of what he called Undead Hell, and even though they did not hurt him the impact alone was enough to slow him down and gave the slower Undead time to catch up to him. The Mage Hunter knew, that his prey was around this area, pulling the strings behind a shield of skeletons and zombies with the goal to tire the white-haired man until he no longer could defend himself. A likely fate for most, including Gideon, if it were not for his persistence. The first soldiers closed the distance to him and were sliced in half by silver waves, originating from what appeared to be some kind of sword made of energy. More shared this fate but to no avail: for every skeleton that fell, two more filled the ranks, for every zombie that was slaughtered, another one was already on its way. His shield slammed into one of the many foes surrounding him, he desperately needed to breach their ranks, making way for his attacks against the spellcaster. He tried to concentrate his powers for a moment until the blade began to take on a darker color, almost as if the pure energy, it was made out of, began to get mixed with some sort of shadow. Swift Strikes of his blade took down several skeletons and zombies at once, and finally, he was getting closer to his goal, although this task was much more straining than before. A final push and the sorcerer that he had sought was only mere feet away from him, weaving his terrible magic into something, that was supposed to make Gideon suffer. Fighting Undead was not his specialty, but mages? From very early on, Gideon was trained to protect himself against their terrible sorcery and to unravel the threads of magic, that they wove. Something like this was no problem for the Mage Hunter, and as soon as the spell began to take effect, it already collapsed, as the white-haired man destroyed the matrix. "Let the Hymn be done." Energy poured out of Gideon's blade, sought its way towards the Spellcaster, and impacted.

The brightly shining sun was kissing Babel with its light, as Gideon traversed the city streets toward the seat of government, his hands grasped a big pouch. As he arrived it appeared that he was expected and he was quickly brought to where he needed to be. The pouch hit the wooden surface of a table, and the sound of coins could be heard. "The Servants of the Sacred Hymn will be at your side when the attack on the Tower begins. Take this as a sign of our support." The Mage Hunters voice filled with pride, before leaving the building to continue his work. He could rest when the Tower was sealed, but until then there was so much work to do.