Steve woke up to find himself in a large cavern without any recollection of how he got there. "Great, I'm lost". Ransacking his traveling bag, he found he had no food or water either. He then noticed a crimson stain on the right sleeve of his tunic. Worse, that stain seems to be growing at an alarming rate.

He immediately took out his hunting knife and fashioned a crude bandage for his wound. "Excellent. I'm lost without food and water, I'm injured and I don't remember a single damn thing. Well, at least I'm still alive and I remember my name." Steve began giggling nervously to himself. "Yup, my name is er... erm.. Eve. Wait, that's a woman's name!"

As he continued his musings ("Was it Keith, Miff, Leaf?!") he heard a thunderous shout nearby. Seconds later, he saw a group of strange looking creatures swarming into the cavern. They were small in stature and have a red-tinged complexion. Of course, Steve was in no position to appreciate such fine details. The only details that registered fully in his mind is that (1) These creatures had sharp-looking objects (2) They were advancing towards him in a decidedly hostile manner.

Some detached irrational part of his mind was wondering that maybe these creatures came in peace and wanted to make friends with him. "You that one that kill all, you think you fool me in Tristram. You no give magic banner, you kill uglies, now you die!" one of the uglier critters declared.

Steve had no idea what the critter was talking about but the last two words don't seem appealing. "Hah! You will die just like your uglies friends back in hisham! Die fool!!" Apparently, his bluff worked. The lead critter and his friends took a step back. Some of the misguided fools actually fled from him. Steve pretended to draw a non-existent sword from his non- existent scabbard and found his hands on a hard object on his belt.

Not wanting to waste his opportunity, he threw the hard object in the general direction of the creatures. The creatures believing him to be a powerful being, cowered in fear. He laughed haughtily and took off like a little girl (and that's an insult to little girls everywhere).

Unbeknownst to him, that hard object was a potion of fury. The creatures are demons. By default, demons are always angry. Being cheated and fooled makes them even more furious. Well, the potion ... I believe you got the idea. With inhuman cries the demons pursued their not so elusive quarry. Within seconds, they managed to narrow the distance to mere yards. In his haste, he somehow managed to miss the large stone like structure in front of him and so ran headlong into it. Upon impact, time slowed down and he found his vision shifting towards the cavern ceiling. Moments later, his consciousness wisely decided to abandon him.

Fortunately for him, the structure that he ran into was actually a shrine. Inscribed onto its surface: "A circle of death". Upon contact, this mysterious shrine had somehow been activated and had released massive amounts of substances that were poisonous to demons but safe for humans. No one knows the exact purpose or mechanism directing these shrines but it has been agreed by almost all that they probably date back to the era of the Horadrim. It was also widely accepted that the poison emitted will prove fatal to any lesser demon.

The demons caught in the mist of poison certainly had a first hand experience of that fact now. Most died within 5 seconds of contacting the poison. The demon Snotspill, the one that had earlier threatened Steve was spared as he had ran slower than the others and so was not in the radius of the mist. This was not because he had less stamina or speed. He had grown wary of this nameless man whom he had first encountered at Tristram. Not that he had any formidable skills like a sorcerer or a warrior. The man simply refused to die and stay dead. Strangely, none of the demons noticed that Steve was in fact lying just several yards from where they were.

Any kind of thinking was too strenuous for Snotspill and so he bellowed to his "subordinates" that are still alive. "We see, we kill, he no leave with life next time. Now, we eat, we strong, we attacccks, we kill. Rakanishu!!". Having said that, the group of demons proceeded to munch on their fallen comrades. "Hmm... food taste funny...Hmm.." One of the more intellectual demons conjectured before falling face down on top of his 'meal'. And so it came to pass that all the demons except Snotspill died from food poisoning that day. On the verge of dying, Snotspill crawled his way out of the cavern into the wilderness to report the past events to Rakanishu, his leader.

Meanwhile ....

Steve woke up to find himself in a large cavern without any recollection of how he got there. "I'm lost". Groping around in his traveling bag, he found he had no food or water either. He then noticed a crimson stain on the right sleeve of his tunic. Worse, that stain seems to be growing at an alarming rate. (His wounds had reopened and the previous bandage lost somewhere)

He immediately took out his hunting knife and fashioned a crude bandage for his wound. "Terrific. I'm lost without food and water, I'm injured and I don't remember a single damn thing. Well, at least I'm still alive and I know who I am ...I think .." Steve suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of dejavu that was lost when a group of war-like women approached him. Steve desperately searched for anything that he can use in case these people are out to kill him. His memory is surprisingly clear about the number of times people and demons tried to kill him. (An angel did threaten to kill him once but that was probably made up by his delusional mind)

All that he found was an old amulet lying around in the dirt. As he was holding the amulet up in the air to inspect it, one of the women shouted, "Halt mighty wizard, we come in peace. We respectfully invite you to our encampment so that we may reward you properly for your valiant deeds. There is no need for you to use your powers against us."

Steve had no idea what they were blabbering about. He looked around to get some clues as to the intents of these women. He did not particularly trust women. Especially those that are not trying to kill him. It's simply outside his experience, not that he remembered much of them.

He was about to ask them some inane questions to stall them when he noticed the suspiciously inert forms about him. One or two of them looked human. Noticing his gaze, one of the roguish women said, "There's nothing you could have done for them. At least you avenged their deaths by killing their tormentors. There is another matter, these foul nameless demons have been terrorizing the countryside and you are the first person to have emerged victorious against so many of them, at the same time cleansing this Den Of Evil. In our customs, this grants you the right to name them."

Scrutinizing the bodies of the demons, he saw that many of them are actually exist in pairs, one on top of the other. "Seems like they either fall on top of each other and died or they died out of exhaustion in some bizarre mating rituals... Either way..." Steve thought to himself in amusement.

"Let's call them fallen ones..."

Hi there, this is my first time writing anything, I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. If anyone wish for me to continue the story... Any other comments welcomed. Like I said, this is my first time, so give me a break by not flaming. Constructive criticisms welcomed.

Norman