-Authors' Note: After much discussion, and a bit of debate between us co-authors, we finally agreed that we would change the category of the story as well as the main place where our protagonist lives. We also removed our previous authors' note chapter so readers get straight into the prologue. PLEASE BE ADVISED: SOME SCENES IN THIS STORY WILL GET GRAPHIC IN NATURE, READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.-
With the fall of the Glorious Empire and the death of the overlord,
the netherworld tower was destroyed in a massive, cataclysmic explosion.
This tore a hole in the very fabric of reality.
The minion hives were scattered across several planes of existence.
The brown minion hive came to rest in a foreign land called Skyrim.
As Gnarl, oldest and wisest of the minions, looked around and surveyed this alien land,
he was filled with a great sense of longing.
Somewhere in this new land, he would need to find one worthy of being the new overlord.
He knew this task would not be easy, and the fact that he knew nothing of this realm
certainly didn't help to make this task any easier. But he didn't need help,
for he is a minion of evil. And evil always finds a way.
He knew his first step would be to find a suitable location for a new dark tower,
the center of any respectable dark domain.
Slowly and silently, he was surrounded by several small brown creatures.
"There you are, you useless sacks of puss." he rasped.
The minions awaited his orders, though he was not the overlord.
They knew from experience that Gnarl would find their new overlord.
"Where is the hive?" he asked.
"That way" one of the minions responded.
This was of course unhelpful as the minion in question failed to specify which way exactly.
As he started walking, in what seemed like a good direction to start, he could be heard
mumbling something about, "so much for having useful minions come forward."
The minions' entrance to this new land had scorched and destroyed
a small clearing in the surrounding woods.
"Fine way to make an entrance, if I do say so myself." Gnarl mused to himself.
Little did he realize, the very hive he was looking for, was downhill, near a small river.
He heard the sounds of a couple of humans talking just on the other side of this hill.
That is a good place to learn a bit about this hideous land, he figured.
The minions crept ever closer to the hunting lodge, they would later learn was called Pinewatch.
Silently, and amid the cover of the woods, gnarl ordered the other minions to hold back.
They did not know anything about these humans, they could be hostile, or could be reasonable.
He ordered a handful of the minions, led by Moldy and Giblet to sneak into position.
As the minions snuck up on the cabin undetected, Gnarl made a show of entering the clearing.
The human hunters, upon seeing the little black minion, were at first startled, then curious.
They wasted no time in drawing their swords and saying something about a "midget daedra".
Whatever that was..
Gnarl stopped just inside the clearing of the cabin, as the hunters approached.
The fools had no idea that this little demon wasn't alone, or that he was simply acting as bait.
They had no time to act as the brown minions Moldy and Giblet attacked.
Moldy jumped from around the corner, and with a powerful swing of his club,
he easily smashed the leg of one hunter.
As bone was broken, and muscle torn, the hunter was sent falling helplessly to the rocky ground.
His sword was taken by the minion as he scrambled in vain to get away.
Giblet, at the same time, swung his hammer across the backs of the other hunter's knees,
knocking his legs out from beneath him.
The human had barely enough time to scream, before Giblet's hammer crashed through his skull.
With a laugh only a minion was capable of, Giblet raised his now bloody hammer.
"Well, you seem to be enjoying yourself," Gnarl said to Giblet as he approached.
"Yes, fun fun, Giblet smash," the minion responded.
"Well smashing and killing are fun indeed, but we won't be getting any answers out of him now."
Gnarl said as he pointed to the lifeless carcass of the human hunter.
"That what him for" Giblet replied, pointing to the other human, trying to avoid Gnarl's wrath.
"Good point," Gnarl rasped, turning away from Giblet to the now terrified human trying to escape.
"What.. What are you demons?" the hunter cried.
"I am Gnarl, minion master, and devoted servant of darkness," the minion says eerily as he slowly
approaches the fallen hunter, "and I will be asking the questions around here."
"My companions and I are not from this land, and we seem to have gotten lost."
"Perhaps you can tell me where we are.." the minion inquired.
"Pinewatch, in Falkreath, and the only companions I have heard of are in Jorrvaskr, in Whiterun."
"And which way might that be?" Gnarl pressed.
"That way, follow the road along the river until you pass Riverwood, then cross at the bridge."
"And then.." Gnarl was now standing right in front of him, close enough to smell Gnarl's breath.
"Once across the bridge, follow the road through the mountain pass, into the valley."
"Go on.." Gnarl was finding this to get tiresome, but he needed the information.
"Towards the north end of the valley, you will find the city of Whiterun, and within its walls,
the hall of the companions, they call it Jorrvaskr."
"And how long will this trip take?" Gnarl asked as the hunter backed himself to the cliff edge.
"About 2 days if you stop to rest." the hunter offered.
"Evil never rests.." Gnarl rasped as he reached out his clawed talon, and pushed the hunter over
the edge of the cliff, falling to the ground, and his messy death upon the rocks below.
"Yes, very fun indeed.." Gnarl mused as he turned towards the other minions, who were laughing.
"Come maggots, we must be going, we won't find our new overlord just sitting around in the woods."
As Gnarl looked to the path by the river, he saw, finally, the brown minion hive.
"Ah, there it is, take it to the pine watch, Moldy, you and a few of the others are to guard it."
"Yes Gnarl" Moldy sighed with reluctant defeat and disappointment.
"Giblet, you and the rest will come with me.." Gnarl ordered.
As Gnarl and Giblet led a small group of browns in search of this Jorrvaskr, in the town of
Running White, Gnarl looked again at the scorched clearing that was the scene of their
entrance to this world. "As good a spot as any I suppose." the minion master said.
Once they found these "companions", they would return and start the building of the new tower.
Maybe they could find a good place to gather materials, and information along the way.
A few hours later, they came upon a small human village, "so, if that human was correct, this
should be the town of Woody River.. Or something like that."
The sign outside the village entrance said Riverwood.
"Close enough," the minion mused, he had little worry about exactly what the pitiful humans
called their small villages, they would all be called peasants and worshipers soon enough.
He just needed to find the new overlord, and establish the new tower.
Cautiously the minions entered the town.
Just inside, he saw a woman carrying her small child to what looked like a lumber mill.
"Good place for lumber, might have to remember that." he mused.
After all, why do the labor when there are others to do it for you.
A nearby older lady saw the minions looking around standing near the village entrance.
Her scream alerted the other townsfolk nearby to the presence of the minions.
Women and children ran into whatever buildings were closest to them, while the men grabbed
tools and crude weapons, swords, pickaxes, and pitchforks mostly.
The minions just readied their own weapons for defense.
The minions were quickly encircled by the gathered men.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" one of the men asked.
"Lower your weapons you morons" Gnarl ordered from behind the other minions.
All minions but Giblet and Gubbin lowered their weapons slowly.
Gubbin felt the back of Gnarl's talon strike the side of his head to get his attention.
Meanwhile gnarl's other talon reached out and grabbed Giblet by the ear, pulling it down.
With a small thud, Giblet fell from the sudden pulling on his ear.
As Gubbin looked over to the source of the noise, he saw Gnarl rear back his talon again.
"Don't hurt me" Gubbin cried as he cringed from Gnarl's anger.
"I said lower your weapons." Gnarl rasped.
As Gnarl stepped over the fallen form of Giblet, who was now rubbing his ear, he looked to
the human who had asked for information.
"Greetings, I am Gnarl, and my companions and I are merely passing through on our way
to Running White." the minion said in his most pleasant and cheerful sounding voice.
"Running White, oh you must mean Whiterun, I take it you and your friends here are not from
Skyrim." the man (Hod) said, lowering his guard ever so slightly.
"What is Skyrim, I thought the sky was infinite, have you ever been to the rim of the sky?"
Gnarl asked puzzled.
"Well, that proves it," Hod said with a slight chuckle, "you are clearly not from Tamriel."
"First the rim of the sky, now a Tamriel, please make up your mind" Gnarl was beginning to grow
displeased with this human's apparent attempt at confusing the minions.
Hod lowered his guard a bit more, "forgive me please, Tamriel is the continent in which we are,
and Skyrim is a nation within that continent." Hod said, "So where are you from if you don't mind my asking."
"Our home befell a great cataclysm, and when we awoke we were here, at a place called Pinewatch."
Upon hearing the story of how the minions came to be in Riverwood, the townsfolk lowered their guard.
"So, you've fallen on hard times eh, we are no strangers to hard time ourselves." Hod said.
"So what will you do now?" Hod asked.
"The humans said we should seek companions in the place called Jorrvaskr, in.. Whiterun, you said."
"Once we have some more companions, we will start to build a new tower." Gnarl said.
"Going to rebuild eh, my wife owns that lumber mill, come see me if you have need of lumber." Hod said.
"Much appreciated, we surely will." Gnarl rasped.