Chapter 1: The Awakening

Ugh, my head hurts. Where am I? I cannot move. My body feels almost identical to Riga mortis. I open my eyes; there is a vile stench in the air filling my nostrils. The smell makes me gag but I hold back the vomit. Around me I can hear people screaming. "I was dead and that's where I belong!" I hear someone yell beside me, "Rise young undead, this is the gift of the Banshee Queen!"

"If this is the gift of the banshee then I shall return the favor!" the young undead says.

I see a silvery outline soaring above me, "Who are you?" I ask.

With a cold dark voice but faint to my ears I hear, "I am Agatha young undead, you are still in your beginning stages of wake, and you must learn the ways of the forsaken."

"Where am I?"

"You are in Death knell young undead; you will be raised here for the time being until you are ready to meet with the Banshee Queen."

"What…are you?" I say.

"I am a Valk'yr Alem, I am a servant of the Banshee Queen" She says.

"Why can I not move Agatha? Have you made me your slave or worse, what do you want with me?"

"You are no slave, Alem. You are free to follow whichever path you choose from here." Agatha says. "Right now, I need you to speak with Undertaker Mordo Alem; he has needed your assistance with something down in the crypts. If I remember right, it was something to do with helping a guy with his jaw. After that, he will direct you forwards to the Banshee Queen."

I try to get up but this stiffness has made me sore. I can feel my muscles become less rigid as I stretch and move about this plagued place.

"Agatha" I say. "Where might this Undertaker Mordo guy be?"

"He is down the path straight ahead. You will see him standing on the corner with a previously raised undead. The undead will have a shield and sword equipped dressed in rags and old clothing. Undertaker Mordo will be holding a faintly lit lantern in a purplish robe; he has no hair and his jaw hangs quite low. Behind him will be a dark, gray tombstone with rubble falling off it."

I look away to see if I can spot this "Undertaker Mordo" and immediately notice something isn't right. I look around me in fear as I see more of these beasts are being raised. All around me one by one other undead are lying on the ground being lifted up by the Valk'yr. The Valk'yr fires what looks like a white ray into their chest then arranges them back on the ground.

This is the most vile thing I have ever seen! Who in their right mind would raise former dead to work for them? Is this the work of this so called "Banshee Queen?" I ponder to myself.

The sky is dark, with a hint of blue and orange on the horizon. Trees grow with leaves flourishing in color and size. The pathway is a rough mixture of small stones and dirt. Grass patches between the roads and fences seem to make up this place. The fences look very old, rusted, falling over but still used as what seems to be a guard to ward off the spirits of the crypt.

I see a person ahead of me with an undead friend by his side holding a sword and shield.

"Hey, that looks like the undead Agatha was telling me about," I think to myself.

"Alem, over here." I hear someone in front of me say.

"What do you want with me?" I say

"I am Undertaker Mordo, Alem. I am in need of your assistance."

"What is your task, sir? I am here to help."

"I need you to venture down into the shadow grave with Darnell and obtain the Thick Embalming Fluid and the Corpse-Stitching Twine from my old table."

"Okay. This can't be that hard. Pick something up and return to Mordo? "Seems too easy." "Before you go, Alem. I have some other information for you."

"And what might that be, sir?"

"You have an Imp, His name is Quzlop. You need him for the journey. Agatha told me to tell you to think about him and he will be by your side when you are in dire need of help."

Ok? I think to myself as I head down the road with Darnell. This undead Darnell is quite different than any others I have seen. He is carrying a sword and a shield. This seems very odd to me.

We walk up to the entrance of the Shadow Grave as Darnell stops in his tracks. I look at him to see his face. He looks like he just saw the Headless Horseman fly out of the crypt. "What is wrong, Darnell?"

"Th-th-this is the Shadow Grave my friend. This is where they take the Forsaken who did not wake and died. They dump their bones here and leave them to rot. Some say the spirits of these Forsaken remain and haunt this place."

I cringe as he tells me the spirits remain here. I now understand why Darnell does not want to venture into the Shadow Grave.

Darnell starts to move forward so I follow closely behind. Darnell starts walking faster as we get to the steps then abruptly stops.

"Y-Yo-You ready Alem?" Darnell says.

"Yes, I am ready, Darnell".

We start forward down the stairs. The light fades away and torches light the halls of the crypt. At the bottom of the stairs I see bones and old clothes. I wonder if these are the bones of the ones who did not wake. I grab a torch off of the wall to take a closer look at the bones. I bring the torch down to the bones and shuffle through them.

"What are you doing, Alem?!" Darnell says aloud

"N-N-Nothing Darnell! Sorry, it won't happen again."

I put the torch back into its rightful place and continued down the stairs into the room. The room is moist, dimly lit, with a cold stone floor and tools on the walls.

I see Darnell walking over to a shelf with books and such.

"Now where could those supplies be?" Says Darnell. "No, not over here. Hey, give me a hand, Alem! I can't seem to find the supplies that Mordo needed."

I look around and see the table that Undertaker Mordo was talking about, or at least it fits the description. There is a torch above the table but seems to be flickering out. I slowly walk over to the table with worry in my mind. Wait! Of course, I can't believe I had forgotten! Undertaker Mordo said that if I was in need of help, I could call upon my Imp!

I clear my head and think of my Imp's name Quzlop. I hear a scurry at my feet and a bump against my leg. I look down. I almost jumped across the room; my Imp Quzlop was standing right there looking up at me rubbing against my leg. Looking at me he screeches then begins to stand and wait for orders. This Imp is not the cutest thing I have seen thus far, oh no, this thing had a faint green glow to it with devilish horns; his eyes were yellow, with ears bigger than a goblin! It was a scary site to see that this thing or Imp as they call it is to be working by my side.

I start my walking forward again but with the help of my Imp this time! I feel a lot safer for some reason with Quzlop by my side. I look down at him and smile then look back to the table to find the tools that Mordo was talking about. There is a dagger stuck through a hand in the middle of the table with a butcher knife through what looks like an abomination of some sort.

There is a strange glowing green liquid and a spindle of twine. The green liquids jar is labeled "Thick Embalming Fluid" next to it is the spindle labeled "Corpse-Stitching Twine." I pick up the supplies and walk over to Darnell

"Darnell I found them! We can get out of here now."

"Good job, Alem!"

"Do you know what he might need these for, Darnell?"

"Well, I did see someone up there without a jaw, something about how it kept falling off. I wonder if he will be fixing him up." Me and Darnell start our way back up the stairs. When we exit the crypt we can see Mordo running towards us.

"Exactly what I need, you'll be a great asset to the forsaken, Alem," Mordo says. "You know, word has it you were quite the warlock in your previous life, Alem. Perhaps I should assign you to a more exciting task, he says. These Valk'yr raise hundreds of corpses every day. As you can see, Agatha raised you just a few moments ago. Not all are as lucky as you however, Alem. Some maintain their free will, but live in constant fear and confusion. Others however"….Mordo sighs as he takes in a breath. "Others lose their minds completely, Shambling about aimlessly. They often turn to violence and must be destroyed. This is your task, Alem. Destroy them! Our former brothers and sisters as they might be, have turned vile, and must be stopped! Mordo tells me.

"Where might I find the risen dead I need to kill, Mordo?"

"You shall find them up ahead; we have tried to maintain them in an old town that lay down this path. Go there now, and you shall see."

"Looks like I'm in for a trip," I think to myself.

I see a musky torn apart town that lay just ahead of me. The town's houses and fences are falling over; with no walls to support them. The path is almost sand it seems with fine grass edges. There are no surrounding trees that I can see. Houses have roofs falling in, doors that looked to be caved in.

I hear something off to my right; I take a look to see one of those monstrosities headed towards me. This thing is hideous, the creature is slumped over almost like a ghoul, brown skin with some skin missing at the joints and neck, black streak of hair growing down its back from the top of his head makes it seem like it used to be some kind of animal that was plagued with an unforgiving disease.

As the undead rushes towards me I feel my hands become engulfed with death as I look deeply into the soul of this creature. I can now feel the powers I once had. The unholy radiance of my hands provokes my hands up and my mind deep. I feel my hands start to turn black and glow dark blue. A bolt of dark shadowy infusion strikes the undead. With a screech of agony, the mortal falls to his knees. In his last breath you can hear him say. "I'm free." I feel the adrenaline pumping now as I remember when I was once a very powerful Warlock. I turn to my left to only see more of the monstrosities running at me. I call upon my Imp to help me.

"Quzlop! Quzlop I am in need of your help now!" I think to myself

I hear a screech at my feet and a brush against my leg. I now look back to the three zombies headed towards me. I look at my Imp in fear but he is staring the zombies down. I see my Imp start to cast a fiery spell, so I return to focus to cast my shadow bolt.

The army of dead falls to the ground one by one as me and my Imp cast endlessly. Striking the risen dead, the bolts of chaos destroy them, knocking them back. One of the zombies broke free of the pack and charged at Quzlop, knocking him over. "Quzlop!" I scream. I look angrily at the mindless undead and focus on his soul. I quench my hands as my anger resides into a more focused state. I lift my hands up to launch another bolt at this zombie but that is not what happened. When I lifted up my hands they became engulfed in flames. The flames got hotter the angrier I became. I watch as a streak of fire burst out of my hand and onto the chest of the undead. The zombie screeches in pain as the fire burns through his chest and falls over into a pile of bones. I look at my Imp and notice he is up and ready to fight again. The last remaining zombie looked frightened but determined. Quzlop started Jumped around throwing fireballs at him, knocking him back with each hit. I was drained, I could not cast anymore. I thought I was going to die, I felt starved, tired, I felt like I had used all of my energy to kill that zombie. Quzlop finally killed the remaining zombie with little help from me but upon the death of that last zombie I feel different, I feel much stronger, wiser, and I feel…Powerful