Greetings everyone!
First off, I've got two chapters up at once (it took a while, 'cos I'm actually starting to take the storyline part seriously, and it took me a while to figure out why everyone would be gunning for bad guys). It's a little more serious, but that's just to set up the storyline. Anyway, it's here finally!
Okay, another character is introduced (Sarah), but again, while Blizzard owns the character class, I own this actual character. And stuff.
'Cos I wrote her.
----------
Niklaus and Ulfgar were busy amidst their research. It had been two days and they were preparing for the long and arduous journey into middle Westmarch.
In all honesty, it shouldn't have been long and arduous, but considering they would have to travel on foot and not in the relative comfort of a caravan, it was going to be somewhat lengthy.
Hence, they plunged themselves in almost manic research, trying to find the way, if it existed, to determine how exactly a simple traveller went about making a hero, the famed meal that had now earned it's way into the heart of Paladin and northman alike.
Over the course of their research, they had determined the best ingredients, and were now working on creating a potential list of substitutes, albeit inferior.
Niklaus found he actually had a better grasp of the mechanics of the perfect hero. The life of a Paladin at Zakarum's Crag meant that one had to scrape together a decent meal from what was not necessarily the best of environs for cultivating the necessary herbs and spices the livened up an ordinarily boring meal.
Hence, while Niklaus himself may have brought fame for his monastery in the Competitions, his monastery brought Zakarum fame for producing the best culinary wizards along the Southern Mountains.
As an interesting side note on the history of Zakarum during the Conversion period, it was not so much the legendary fighting prowess that won over the Western lands so much as the annual Zakarum cook-offs that were often cause for celebration. Many courts promised large donations to the Church of Zakarum to host these events.
Therefore Niklaus, while he may not have been the best chef, found himself far above Ulfgar's culinary abilities.
In fact, there had been some fear on the part of the tavern owner that Niklaus' ability would surpass his own and he would open a tavern that would bankrupt the Night's Stable (the tavern of the nervous proprietor).
However, Niklaus maintained a few of his oaths as a Paladin, and strangely enough, monks of Zakarum's Crag were oathed to not cheat someone else out of their trade.
Finally, after ensuring a successful recipe, Ulfgar and Niklaus made ready to depart for the Rogue monastery.
They made fantastic time, it seemed, having only travelled approximately thirty minutes before encountering their first Rogue.
That she was running on foot, hotly pursued by several...somethings...was somewhat odd, though, especially since the Sisters were ruthless archers and it was rare that anything ever got close enough to force one into retreat.
However, considering that there were about twenty of the shortest things Niklaus had ever seen, and were eating ground so quickly that the rogue likely didn't have enough time to draw her bow, it was small wonder.
Ulfgar and Niklaus drew their weapons, and Sasha ignited the Aura of Lightning. Through Niklaus, Sasha *reached* and grasped the weapon, and electricity arced down the blade once more as she extended her awareness towards the rushing horde.
While fighting with Ulfgar, Sasha had found she could sense her foes, and having ignited this Aura, she could strike them without harm to her comrades.
The attackers shortly found this out as the sharp electrostatic shock shorted their grey matter.
Favoring a less savory approach, Niklaus made use of the lightning arcing through Silence to step in and cleave the tiny men that confronted them.
The Rogue dashed past, heedless to her saviors.
Meanwhile, Ulfgar held his massive axe against his leg as he flung a virtual hailstorm of knives into the mass. After the little demons came too close, he took up his great axe and swung low, cleaving the little demons four at a time.
Niklaus spun, dispatching another three, but missed the fourth that was sneaking up on his back.
An arrow caught that one, and it found itself airborne for several feet, before expiring messily, it's face caved in from the sheer impact of the arrow.
After ensuring all the demons were dead, Niklaus and Ulfgar turned to regard the archer behind them. She had already knocked another arrow, but held it loosely, point down. She regarded the two men cooly.
On the left, a swordsman in light plate with a crackling sword, the green and white marking him as a Paladin. However, she allowed herself to admire the play of his shoulders, and the red hair pulled back in a simple ponytail.
She was still alive, after all.
As for the axe-man...gods was he huge! All eight feet of him! And that axe!
The larger man in question smirked as the Rogue's eyes widened to take him in.
"So what brings you here?" the smaller man asked.
---------
They had returned to the village and set up back at the same tavern they had occupied less than a few hours earlier.
"And what were those things again?"
"I don't know, but the dark man who besieged the Monastery called them rat men. I wasn't really sure if that was a derogatory term or not."
"I see. And this dark man slew Andariel?"
"Him and two others. I don't know their names, but there were three of them: a knight of the Zakarum's Hand, a necromancer, and a Druid."
Ulfgar bristled everytime the Rogue mentioned the druid, but kept didn't say anything. He would query his friend later.
In all honesty, Niklaus was in shock. Andariel was a Lesser Evil, one of four that served the triumvirate of Mephisto, Baal, and Diablo. She had opposed the Three in Hell's Civil War, and the Lesser Evils had finally succeeded in expelling the Three into Sanctuary.
This rogue-Sarah-had accompanied the three heroes as a mercenary for the Sisterhood but they shortly dispatched her to seek the aid of the High Council.
"But the council is in Kurast, and the quickest route is through the Pass by the monastery."
"Yes, but the High council had sent it's emissaries to Philios to attempt to convert the Amazonian people."
"Every year, and are repelled forcefully every year," Niklaus added, familiar now.
"That aside, the emissaries always take stop at the port of Kalladen before heading towards Philios. I had hoped to intercept them there.
"I met them all right. The bastards set their archers against me, and then those damn rat men. I gave them the slip for a while, but they finally tracked me down as I ran into this village. That's when you found me."
Niklaus' brow furrowed. Without a word, he left Ulfgar and Sarah and stalked into the evening.
-----------
"Nik, what the hell is going on?"
Sasha received a furious silence. Whereas one time she might have cajoled Niklaus gently into explaining his state, she had no time or patience right now.
"Goddammit Nik, don't give me this crap! I will not spend the rest of your life getting carted around hill and dale just because you have a bug up your ass. So what the hell is wrong?"
"I put that council in charge of Zakarum!" Niklaus exploded all at once.
"...Huh?" Sasha cleverly rebutted.
"The High Council whose emissaries sent demons after another human was put in power by myself and my father to supplant the last High Council."
"Why supplant the High Council?"
"The last one instituted the Crusade against the Three that was more bloodbath than struggle against Evil. They created the new "Hand of Zakarum" out of the Paladin order and sent them on an inquisition. That Council decreed that any who would not convert to Zakarum was in league with the Three, and was to be put to death.
"A few of us took offense to that, and felt that the Council had forgotten its purpose: to safeguard the Light on Sanctuary.
"We staged a coup, and it was a bloody one. In the end we did instate a new High Council, but my father and I felt that to turn on our own Council was still heresy, and thus we went into exile at Zakarum's Crag. We hoped the monastery would provide us sanctuary from the violence we caused."
"...And the million coin question would be: so?"
"The new council has employed those creatures as servants, it seems. Despite our best efforts, corruption has worked its way back into the High Council. The same damn Council I instituted!" Niklaus slammed his fist into a nearby wall. The wall, rather unassumingly, didn't buckle, and thus Niklaus found himself with a sore hand.
While Niklaus massaged his hand, Sasha replied.
"Y'know, whenever you hit something, I feel it too, and while you may have a high pain tolerance, I kinda don't."
Niklaus mumbled an curt apology as Sasha went on.
"Hells, small wonder, considering what they've got locked up in there. It's only the damn Lord of Hatred himself, and he's probably been working his mojo on every council that has guarded him."
Niklaus knew the High Council had long been charged with preventing Mephisto from escaping his Soulstone, but it felt as if Mephisto had played them all for fools.
The thought peeved Niklaus slightly.
Actually, he shook just a bit uncontrollably. Sasha wondered if she should light an Aura, but didn't know which one.
Suddenly, Niklaus sprang forward and punched the same wall again, but this time created a series of cracks and fissures ending in a noticeable crater in the wall.
Niklaus' hand came out the worse for it, however, and Sasha bit her lip to keep from crying out as she hastily ignited a healing Aura.
"Goddammit Nik! Cut that crap out!" Sasha reprimanded him. "You think you're the only one to not be pissed off right now?
"Lemme tell you something: when the Three were cast out of Hell, most of their supporters went with them, including me. We waged the Sin War with maybe a quarter of Hell's strength behind us, and I'll be more damned if we didn't do a good job of it.
"But y'know what? It doesn't mean shit right now, with Andariel dead at the Rogue Monastery."
"What are you talking about?"
"Andariel won't just crawl out of Hell to tour the countryside. She was summoned there, likely due to whatever had those skeletons marching north. I'm betting two wenches at once that it was this Dark Wanderer everyone's staining their pants over.
"If Andariel was kicking back snacking on archers-in Sanctuary, mind-it means that the Three were never really kicked out, that they staged the whole thing."
Sasha's voice turned cold. "And I followed the Three into exile and waged the Sin War with the best of them. And now it seems that the whole civil war was staged from the start."
If possible, the tone of Sasha's voice turned even colder, and the telltale wisps of the Aura of Frost passed over their surroundings, causing ice to form in the warm weather. "Those bastards played me for a fool," she began, plunging the surroundings even further into winter about the possessed Paladin, "Those bastards used me, but were I the one in control, I wouldn't have wasted my time and energy knocking a hole in the wall."
Niklaus realized that her own betrayal ran as deep as his, and from of the same source.
He also realized the depth to which her demonic heritage ran. In a moment, he beheld the image of a demon in it's full fury, her wings unfurled and energy crackling around her fingertips as her sheer gaze crippled everything she cast it on.
The cold, calculating gaze of an enraged Siren beheld her surroundings, and finally settled to regard on Niklaus himself.
Earlier in their relationship, Niklaus might have had a pang of fear (well, concern, as Paladin are trained never to fear of course) but now he welcomed the gaze and embraced his inner demon with equal fury.
For a while the two regarded each other, fire and ice.
Tangentially, the Northmen believe that the world was created when fire and ice met and created the foundations of matter. At this moment, something indeed sprang out of a similar merger.
Whereas before, they had still maintained a distance, they were now united under a cold, implacable purpose. With perfect understanding of the other, Sasha ignited a healing Aura to heal Niklaus' hurt hand.
As the soothing Aura worked upon Niklaus' hand and head, he felt someone creep up behind him. Spinning, he found himself face-to-face with the Rogue he had helped rescue earlier.
"I remember you. Or, at least your reputation," she stated simply.
"I get that a lot," he replied, a new light in his eyes.
"If I'm intruding, I can leave," the Rogue returned, still speaking with her implacably cool voice, "I'd like to make an offer, but it looks like you have a lot on your mind."
"Yeah, we both do," Sasha interjected darkly. It was true, Niklaus thought, Hell really doesn't have anything on a woman scorned.
"Couldn't imagine why, though," the Rogue went on, "what with the exalted Council you helped to install just releasing its little-literally-band of psycho cutthroats on an emissary asking for help, I'd say you do have a lot to ponder."
Niklaus looked up sharply at her words. Rub it in, he thought sharply.
Dammit, it's not like he had enough on his mind.
"Wow," Sasha interjected again as she warmed herself up, "you are famous. Now why didn't you tell me I was roaming with a celebrity? My sisters will think I'm some kind of groupie! Oh, the disgrace!" she feigned shocked humiliation, finding humor to bring her out of her dark state.
"Those demons are usually a lot smarter than that, you realize," Sarah was saying, "usually they try to lure you into a trap, and then swarm you. I think it was different back there because they were too caught up in the chase. Usually you need something to throw at them to bring them down in sufficient numbers.
"Now I've got my bow, and your friend has enough knives to make a full set of plate, but where do you stand?"
"And why would I need to take precautions against those demons?"
"Well, Council Slayer, it seems that your services are required again, and since I've heard those demons comprise a large part of the new Council's defenses, you'll need a way to bring them down.
"As an interesting aside, I trained the core of the Rangers, and I'm sure I can work with someone as prestigious as you."
Niklaus' eyes widened at this. The Rangers were a special order of Paladin, trained in the use of bows. They were legendary, largely because they received their training from the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye, who typically shunned men.
Niklaus now recognized the archer before him. She had been a premier teacher, having produced several of the most lethal archers Zakarum had ever employed, many of which had sided with the coup.
"Well!" Ulfgar boomed, joining the impending party outside out of nowhere, "it seems that we have a long mission ahead of us. Shall we off to battle and slay a few sacred cows?"
"Sounds fun Nik," Sasha said with even more cruel glee. "And you're right about a woman scorned."
"If we head south to Kalladen, I can get you a helluva bow," Sarah said to Niklaus, "won't even charge you that much."
Cruel grins snaked their way across the warriors' features.
First off, I've got two chapters up at once (it took a while, 'cos I'm actually starting to take the storyline part seriously, and it took me a while to figure out why everyone would be gunning for bad guys). It's a little more serious, but that's just to set up the storyline. Anyway, it's here finally!
Okay, another character is introduced (Sarah), but again, while Blizzard owns the character class, I own this actual character. And stuff.
'Cos I wrote her.
----------
Niklaus and Ulfgar were busy amidst their research. It had been two days and they were preparing for the long and arduous journey into middle Westmarch.
In all honesty, it shouldn't have been long and arduous, but considering they would have to travel on foot and not in the relative comfort of a caravan, it was going to be somewhat lengthy.
Hence, they plunged themselves in almost manic research, trying to find the way, if it existed, to determine how exactly a simple traveller went about making a hero, the famed meal that had now earned it's way into the heart of Paladin and northman alike.
Over the course of their research, they had determined the best ingredients, and were now working on creating a potential list of substitutes, albeit inferior.
Niklaus found he actually had a better grasp of the mechanics of the perfect hero. The life of a Paladin at Zakarum's Crag meant that one had to scrape together a decent meal from what was not necessarily the best of environs for cultivating the necessary herbs and spices the livened up an ordinarily boring meal.
Hence, while Niklaus himself may have brought fame for his monastery in the Competitions, his monastery brought Zakarum fame for producing the best culinary wizards along the Southern Mountains.
As an interesting side note on the history of Zakarum during the Conversion period, it was not so much the legendary fighting prowess that won over the Western lands so much as the annual Zakarum cook-offs that were often cause for celebration. Many courts promised large donations to the Church of Zakarum to host these events.
Therefore Niklaus, while he may not have been the best chef, found himself far above Ulfgar's culinary abilities.
In fact, there had been some fear on the part of the tavern owner that Niklaus' ability would surpass his own and he would open a tavern that would bankrupt the Night's Stable (the tavern of the nervous proprietor).
However, Niklaus maintained a few of his oaths as a Paladin, and strangely enough, monks of Zakarum's Crag were oathed to not cheat someone else out of their trade.
Finally, after ensuring a successful recipe, Ulfgar and Niklaus made ready to depart for the Rogue monastery.
They made fantastic time, it seemed, having only travelled approximately thirty minutes before encountering their first Rogue.
That she was running on foot, hotly pursued by several...somethings...was somewhat odd, though, especially since the Sisters were ruthless archers and it was rare that anything ever got close enough to force one into retreat.
However, considering that there were about twenty of the shortest things Niklaus had ever seen, and were eating ground so quickly that the rogue likely didn't have enough time to draw her bow, it was small wonder.
Ulfgar and Niklaus drew their weapons, and Sasha ignited the Aura of Lightning. Through Niklaus, Sasha *reached* and grasped the weapon, and electricity arced down the blade once more as she extended her awareness towards the rushing horde.
While fighting with Ulfgar, Sasha had found she could sense her foes, and having ignited this Aura, she could strike them without harm to her comrades.
The attackers shortly found this out as the sharp electrostatic shock shorted their grey matter.
Favoring a less savory approach, Niklaus made use of the lightning arcing through Silence to step in and cleave the tiny men that confronted them.
The Rogue dashed past, heedless to her saviors.
Meanwhile, Ulfgar held his massive axe against his leg as he flung a virtual hailstorm of knives into the mass. After the little demons came too close, he took up his great axe and swung low, cleaving the little demons four at a time.
Niklaus spun, dispatching another three, but missed the fourth that was sneaking up on his back.
An arrow caught that one, and it found itself airborne for several feet, before expiring messily, it's face caved in from the sheer impact of the arrow.
After ensuring all the demons were dead, Niklaus and Ulfgar turned to regard the archer behind them. She had already knocked another arrow, but held it loosely, point down. She regarded the two men cooly.
On the left, a swordsman in light plate with a crackling sword, the green and white marking him as a Paladin. However, she allowed herself to admire the play of his shoulders, and the red hair pulled back in a simple ponytail.
She was still alive, after all.
As for the axe-man...gods was he huge! All eight feet of him! And that axe!
The larger man in question smirked as the Rogue's eyes widened to take him in.
"So what brings you here?" the smaller man asked.
---------
They had returned to the village and set up back at the same tavern they had occupied less than a few hours earlier.
"And what were those things again?"
"I don't know, but the dark man who besieged the Monastery called them rat men. I wasn't really sure if that was a derogatory term or not."
"I see. And this dark man slew Andariel?"
"Him and two others. I don't know their names, but there were three of them: a knight of the Zakarum's Hand, a necromancer, and a Druid."
Ulfgar bristled everytime the Rogue mentioned the druid, but kept didn't say anything. He would query his friend later.
In all honesty, Niklaus was in shock. Andariel was a Lesser Evil, one of four that served the triumvirate of Mephisto, Baal, and Diablo. She had opposed the Three in Hell's Civil War, and the Lesser Evils had finally succeeded in expelling the Three into Sanctuary.
This rogue-Sarah-had accompanied the three heroes as a mercenary for the Sisterhood but they shortly dispatched her to seek the aid of the High Council.
"But the council is in Kurast, and the quickest route is through the Pass by the monastery."
"Yes, but the High council had sent it's emissaries to Philios to attempt to convert the Amazonian people."
"Every year, and are repelled forcefully every year," Niklaus added, familiar now.
"That aside, the emissaries always take stop at the port of Kalladen before heading towards Philios. I had hoped to intercept them there.
"I met them all right. The bastards set their archers against me, and then those damn rat men. I gave them the slip for a while, but they finally tracked me down as I ran into this village. That's when you found me."
Niklaus' brow furrowed. Without a word, he left Ulfgar and Sarah and stalked into the evening.
-----------
"Nik, what the hell is going on?"
Sasha received a furious silence. Whereas one time she might have cajoled Niklaus gently into explaining his state, she had no time or patience right now.
"Goddammit Nik, don't give me this crap! I will not spend the rest of your life getting carted around hill and dale just because you have a bug up your ass. So what the hell is wrong?"
"I put that council in charge of Zakarum!" Niklaus exploded all at once.
"...Huh?" Sasha cleverly rebutted.
"The High Council whose emissaries sent demons after another human was put in power by myself and my father to supplant the last High Council."
"Why supplant the High Council?"
"The last one instituted the Crusade against the Three that was more bloodbath than struggle against Evil. They created the new "Hand of Zakarum" out of the Paladin order and sent them on an inquisition. That Council decreed that any who would not convert to Zakarum was in league with the Three, and was to be put to death.
"A few of us took offense to that, and felt that the Council had forgotten its purpose: to safeguard the Light on Sanctuary.
"We staged a coup, and it was a bloody one. In the end we did instate a new High Council, but my father and I felt that to turn on our own Council was still heresy, and thus we went into exile at Zakarum's Crag. We hoped the monastery would provide us sanctuary from the violence we caused."
"...And the million coin question would be: so?"
"The new council has employed those creatures as servants, it seems. Despite our best efforts, corruption has worked its way back into the High Council. The same damn Council I instituted!" Niklaus slammed his fist into a nearby wall. The wall, rather unassumingly, didn't buckle, and thus Niklaus found himself with a sore hand.
While Niklaus massaged his hand, Sasha replied.
"Y'know, whenever you hit something, I feel it too, and while you may have a high pain tolerance, I kinda don't."
Niklaus mumbled an curt apology as Sasha went on.
"Hells, small wonder, considering what they've got locked up in there. It's only the damn Lord of Hatred himself, and he's probably been working his mojo on every council that has guarded him."
Niklaus knew the High Council had long been charged with preventing Mephisto from escaping his Soulstone, but it felt as if Mephisto had played them all for fools.
The thought peeved Niklaus slightly.
Actually, he shook just a bit uncontrollably. Sasha wondered if she should light an Aura, but didn't know which one.
Suddenly, Niklaus sprang forward and punched the same wall again, but this time created a series of cracks and fissures ending in a noticeable crater in the wall.
Niklaus' hand came out the worse for it, however, and Sasha bit her lip to keep from crying out as she hastily ignited a healing Aura.
"Goddammit Nik! Cut that crap out!" Sasha reprimanded him. "You think you're the only one to not be pissed off right now?
"Lemme tell you something: when the Three were cast out of Hell, most of their supporters went with them, including me. We waged the Sin War with maybe a quarter of Hell's strength behind us, and I'll be more damned if we didn't do a good job of it.
"But y'know what? It doesn't mean shit right now, with Andariel dead at the Rogue Monastery."
"What are you talking about?"
"Andariel won't just crawl out of Hell to tour the countryside. She was summoned there, likely due to whatever had those skeletons marching north. I'm betting two wenches at once that it was this Dark Wanderer everyone's staining their pants over.
"If Andariel was kicking back snacking on archers-in Sanctuary, mind-it means that the Three were never really kicked out, that they staged the whole thing."
Sasha's voice turned cold. "And I followed the Three into exile and waged the Sin War with the best of them. And now it seems that the whole civil war was staged from the start."
If possible, the tone of Sasha's voice turned even colder, and the telltale wisps of the Aura of Frost passed over their surroundings, causing ice to form in the warm weather. "Those bastards played me for a fool," she began, plunging the surroundings even further into winter about the possessed Paladin, "Those bastards used me, but were I the one in control, I wouldn't have wasted my time and energy knocking a hole in the wall."
Niklaus realized that her own betrayal ran as deep as his, and from of the same source.
He also realized the depth to which her demonic heritage ran. In a moment, he beheld the image of a demon in it's full fury, her wings unfurled and energy crackling around her fingertips as her sheer gaze crippled everything she cast it on.
The cold, calculating gaze of an enraged Siren beheld her surroundings, and finally settled to regard on Niklaus himself.
Earlier in their relationship, Niklaus might have had a pang of fear (well, concern, as Paladin are trained never to fear of course) but now he welcomed the gaze and embraced his inner demon with equal fury.
For a while the two regarded each other, fire and ice.
Tangentially, the Northmen believe that the world was created when fire and ice met and created the foundations of matter. At this moment, something indeed sprang out of a similar merger.
Whereas before, they had still maintained a distance, they were now united under a cold, implacable purpose. With perfect understanding of the other, Sasha ignited a healing Aura to heal Niklaus' hurt hand.
As the soothing Aura worked upon Niklaus' hand and head, he felt someone creep up behind him. Spinning, he found himself face-to-face with the Rogue he had helped rescue earlier.
"I remember you. Or, at least your reputation," she stated simply.
"I get that a lot," he replied, a new light in his eyes.
"If I'm intruding, I can leave," the Rogue returned, still speaking with her implacably cool voice, "I'd like to make an offer, but it looks like you have a lot on your mind."
"Yeah, we both do," Sasha interjected darkly. It was true, Niklaus thought, Hell really doesn't have anything on a woman scorned.
"Couldn't imagine why, though," the Rogue went on, "what with the exalted Council you helped to install just releasing its little-literally-band of psycho cutthroats on an emissary asking for help, I'd say you do have a lot to ponder."
Niklaus looked up sharply at her words. Rub it in, he thought sharply.
Dammit, it's not like he had enough on his mind.
"Wow," Sasha interjected again as she warmed herself up, "you are famous. Now why didn't you tell me I was roaming with a celebrity? My sisters will think I'm some kind of groupie! Oh, the disgrace!" she feigned shocked humiliation, finding humor to bring her out of her dark state.
"Those demons are usually a lot smarter than that, you realize," Sarah was saying, "usually they try to lure you into a trap, and then swarm you. I think it was different back there because they were too caught up in the chase. Usually you need something to throw at them to bring them down in sufficient numbers.
"Now I've got my bow, and your friend has enough knives to make a full set of plate, but where do you stand?"
"And why would I need to take precautions against those demons?"
"Well, Council Slayer, it seems that your services are required again, and since I've heard those demons comprise a large part of the new Council's defenses, you'll need a way to bring them down.
"As an interesting aside, I trained the core of the Rangers, and I'm sure I can work with someone as prestigious as you."
Niklaus' eyes widened at this. The Rangers were a special order of Paladin, trained in the use of bows. They were legendary, largely because they received their training from the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye, who typically shunned men.
Niklaus now recognized the archer before him. She had been a premier teacher, having produced several of the most lethal archers Zakarum had ever employed, many of which had sided with the coup.
"Well!" Ulfgar boomed, joining the impending party outside out of nowhere, "it seems that we have a long mission ahead of us. Shall we off to battle and slay a few sacred cows?"
"Sounds fun Nik," Sasha said with even more cruel glee. "And you're right about a woman scorned."
"If we head south to Kalladen, I can get you a helluva bow," Sarah said to Niklaus, "won't even charge you that much."
Cruel grins snaked their way across the warriors' features.