Although I had joined the Old Camp Shadows, a curtain of sadness came over me that Y'Berion, the leader of the Brotherhood Camp, had been struck down by a vision we had all hoped would lead to freedom. Cor Angar had directed me to aid Baal Lukor's group and to take the shrill, catlike and somewhat reluctant Talas as my guide. Reasoning that he would only leave me at the bridge's entrance in cowardice, I secretly went alone. So, here I am, staring down the face of a towering skull with the shadows of three large orcs approaching with speed.

I looked down at my sword. The setting sun glinted off the blade as I raised it to meet the monstrous approaching foe. The first swing came from my left, and easily parried. Two of the Orks stood along the sideline, watching my moves and snickering. Their laughter sounded like that of an overgrown molerat. Only one Ork engaged me in combat, which wasn't a very smart move played by the Orks, as they soon saw their friend's head roll off his shoulders as my blade cut through his neck...

...its head slowly rolled down a hill and then tumbled off a cliff into the raging river nearby. The other Orcs looked shocked but stayed in the battle. I blocked one Orcs mighty axe from cutting into my side, with my sword, well pulling out a rune with my other hand. The rune was red and had a fireball symbol on it. I felt its energy flowing into my hand. Fire began to build up around my hand. I stretched my arm out towards the other Orc and sent the ball of heat into its chest. It burnt right through the creature’s armor. The massive Orc, ran in panic to the edge of the cliff and jumped off into the river...

The last Ork looked back from it's ignited companion back to me, it's eyes full of fear as I lifted my sword to it's neck. It screeched and dropped its axe, running past myself and to the edge of the cliff, jumping off into the same river. I sheathed my sword and looked away from the sight, toward the huge Ork skull that marked the entrance to the Ork Cemetery. I ran up to the sacred grounds, but to no avail, the gates were closed. I needed to find some way to open them...

In the dark corner, almost out of sight, was the recognizable spoked wheel of a winch, just barely visible in the remaining light. I turned it and immediately the gate roared open. Into the darkness of the skull-beast's gullet I went.

I sat momentarily in the darkness, as my eyes adjusted, recognizing the musty odor of Hell Mushrooms nearby. Slowly, the uneven reflections of light on the rock wall became visible. I tread a few feet with care toward the source of light and stopped. There was movement ahead. It was an orc scout and it hadn't yet seen me.

My hand strayed to the hilt of my sword. The icy cold steel was welcoming to my bruised hands, and I slowly unsheathed my sword. I was lucky enough to have been taught by Scatty, one of the best sword masters in the Colony, who had instructed me also, in stealthy combat. I sneaked up to the Ork and raised my weapon. I took a slow breath and swung. An Ork head plopped to the ground as shouts from within the deep caverns arose. Thinking I had been spotted, I ducked behind a broken coffin and hid there momentarily. But to my amazement, I heard the scream...a human scream. I leapt to my feet and saw the opening of a wide chamber ahead. I also saw scattered Templar bodies. Realization crept slowly into my brain: it was an ambush...

Lukor and his Templars were fending off a wild horde of orc scouts and orc hunters. Preoccupied, neither party noticed my timely arrival. I charged and stabbed an orc scout right though the back of its chest. It fell to its knees with a wailing howl, before its lungs, punctured and emptied of air, stayed eternally silent. Withdrawing my sword, I spun to ready myself for an aft attack. It never came. The orcs lay slain but not before they had taken out every last one of Lukor's Templars.

Taking a breath of pure relief, I sheathed my sword and approached the fallen Baal. I laid a hand against his heart, searching for the pump of life. The Baal's hand whipped up and swatted me away.
"I'm alright..." He coughed, clutching his broken sword and hilt.
"Are you okay?" I asked, standing up to survey the damage.
The Baal didn't answer. Only a moan of pure frustration came from his jaws. "My men...all...dead! How could we have foreseen this? How could the Sleeper allow such a heinous act be played by the Orks???" Lukor knelt over one of his fallen Templars. "I'm so sorry..."
I touched the Baal's shoulder, easing him up. "There's no time for that now. We have freedom to find and catch."
Lukor eyed me suspiciously, and I felt a shiver run up my spine. "As well as a demon to catch."

I pulled one of the healing herbs from my pack and told him to chew on it; they'd stop the bleeding from the slashes across his arms and chest, along with easing the pain. "I'm going to scout out the connecting caverns, and make sure there's no other nasty surprises lying in wait." Lukor grunted his approval and sat down, leaning against the rough stone wall. Picking my way over the ork corpses, I ascended the few steps into a fairly well lit tunnel. Coming around the corner, it opened into a room that, if not ruined, would have been fit for the Great Hall of a noble Lord...or an Ore Baron.
A massive Ork warrior was standing in the center of the room, facing away from me. I could hear his breathing from a fair distance away, along with the soft padding of a few Ork scouts, who were concentrated in a far corner of the room. As quietly as possible, I pulled my hunting bow from my back and notched an arrow. Orks prefer their thick skin to clunky armor, for the most part, and I hoped to sink an arrow in-between his ribs. It wouldn't kill the brute, but might injure him enough to give me a decisive advantage. I held my breath and pulled back the string, and something crashed into me from behind, knocking me flat on my face and sending the arrow far wide of the intended target.
Baal Lukor, breathless, said "Orks...in the other...tunnel...coming." My missed shot hadn't escaped notice, as I heard the rattle of a large ork sword being drawn. The warrior, sword held over his head, yelled a resoundingly loud battle cry, and charged towards me. Lukor drew his sword as I scrambled for another arrow...

Far outside the tunnel a figure sat. He quieted his breathing as he listened to the fights inside the cave, he got up and moved without a sound, silent as a ghost, invisible like a shadow. Hearing the sound of humans inside, he set an arrow to his assassins bow, he drew the string taut, and ran silently inside.

The caves were now teaming with Orks. They stomped across the stone floor, grunting angrily as they attacked us, one by one.
I drove my sword through one of the hulking Orcs rusted, gray armor. My feeling of victory quickly vanished as the remaining Orcs began to laugh. Another came towards me, but Baal Lukor came to help, slashing the Orcs body into a heap bloody body parts. The battle was looking good until I noticed a small black figure, in the shadows. It looked like a human. I felt relieved to see another human in the caves. I felt we would surely win with one more sword at our side. But unexpectedly, the dark figure pointed its bow at me...

The person's bow was already taut, with an arrow notched, and he was taking his time aiming. But, I couldn't move; I stood halcyon, aghast. I was scared and confused at the same time. I was completely effusive about his mysterious presence that I was distracted from the fight for some time, but just as he allayed his weapon, ready to fire, an orc bumped into me in full speed. The blow forced the air from my lungs, and while I was still trying to get up, the orc nicked my left arm. I managed to swing my sword upon his legs, from my half-kneel position, got up, and stabbed the monster through its head, as it was squirming. I turned hastily to seek for the dark figure, but the shaft he was previously located, now stood empty; and the arrow has obviously missed me... Weird...
Not knowing what to think yet, I joined Lukor in the fight once again. The orcs were tough to kill and there were many of them. I looked at the Baal in an inquiring manner for a second. He was not sure what is to be done as well, it could be discerned on his face. We were successfully resisting the orc attack as for now, but there were so many of them upcoming, and none of the two of us felt like he could carry on for so much more...

The Orcs regrouped and looked stronger then ever, but to my, and the Baals, and even the Orcs surprise, the dark figure that had stood silent for some time began to attack the Orcs. In seconds every Orc lay dead on the stone floor, an arrow in their necks. The figure walked towards us then. Quickly, I reached out my arm and sent a ball of electricity at the shadow. The electricity hit into it, sending bolts of blue lightning through its body. It fell to the floor. When it fell another shadow flew out of its body. The shadow was in the shape of a strange skeleton like face with six horns on its head. The shadow flew into Baal Lukors head. The Baal suddenly looked at me, his face grim. He put his arm up towards my face. An orange flame appeared around his hand...

It seemed like it took hours for the ball to crackle and pop into life, but I know it was only seconds. Not thinking of consequences, I sent my sword to meet this new foes chest. A small gasp of breath, a rustle, and the shadow flew from the body of my comrade into the shadows of the cave. Baal Lukor stared at me in astonishment. "Wha...what’s going on?" he spoke softly, in he voice of a dying man. "That shadow, it seems to have possessed you but...how? Why?" I threw my sword to the ground and held him, slowly lowering him to the ground. "How could this happen? The Sleeper gave us a sign. This should be the way to freedom." Lukor began to cough on his own blood, the blood that I made flow. "Keep searching, there has to be something here. There HAS to be!" his coughing becoming more violent, I awoke from my daze and began bandaging his deadly wound but to no avail. In the darkness and recluse of that ancient cave, the Brotherhood of the Sleeper lost yet another hope. things were not looking good for my friends in the swamp camp.

I laid the Baal in one of the orcish burial chambers and shut the gate to it. I returned to the room where the battle took place to see what I could find out about the orcs presence and what that strange shadowed figure was. I came back into the chamber and checked the orcs for weapons, scrolls, potions, anything I could find that would help solve this riddle. I checked every orc in the chamber twice over but found nothing. An idea then came into my head. Where was the shadowed figure? I searched the cave and even moved the orc corpses into a pile and still could not find the body of whatever it was that I killed. wait...did I kill it? I found the area where I had sent the lightning ball to and found a faint blood trail. I followed it until I found what I was looking for. A man was leaning up against the wall, clutching his abdomen in obvious pain. I approached him carefully, and with suspicion. He had picked up his bow and strung it on his back, but he wasn’t facing me so he didn't know I was there yet. "Who are you? what are you doing here?" I shouted at him. He turned and screamed in fright. "Get away! It wasn't my fault!" the figure stumbled and fell to the ground weeping. "I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to know what’s going on. why did you come here?" I approached him and picked him up off the ground. he was a Rogue, I could tell by his heavy rogues armor. he had a Nimrod Bow on his back and a Stone Crusher at his side. "That thing! That...shadow, Where did it go?" he asked me, almost hysterically. "I don’t know, it just disappeared when I hit you with that spell." I told him the story about the battle and how he had saved the Baal and me. "I don’t believe it. I've never been that good with a bow." he said in disbelief. "You still haven't told me why you are here." I questioned him intently...

The Rogue started to cry, “I don’t know why I'm here. I remember coming here but I couldn’t stop myself. I went here and than you shot the lighting bolt at me.”
I rose and thought for a moment, I looked at his sword, it was covered with blood... I saw arrows in the orcs bodies... I knew it was him who did it... the shadow possessed him... but what was this shadow? And why was he here? I looked at the Rogue, “what is your name?” I asked, but he Rogue just couldn’t stop crying. He cried like a little girl. The shadow must have had great influence on him. ”Its over.” I said to him in a calm voice, “ The shadow is gone. Please stop crying, I still need to know what is the meaning of all this.”

"I...I don’t even know what the hell that thing is!" the Rogue sobbed. We walked over into some torchlight and the Rogue almost jumped out of his skin. "Oh, no! Your a...a...a Guard! Please don’t turn me in I..." I cut him off in mid-sentence. "That’s enough! I'm not going to turn you in. I just want to find out what I need to find out for the Brotherhood. Will you help me search the rest of these caves?" The Rogue calmed down a great deal, but I knew what he was going to say before he said it. "I’m not really in the condition to do much of anything." He said clutching his magic wound. "Here, take these." I said handing him some healing herbs. "Now, lets go." We wound our way through the caves but found only dust and cobwebs. We made our way back to the entrance. We turned the last bend in the tunnel and had to shade our eyes against the sun. "Well, thank you for your help. What is your name anyway." I asked the Rogue as we left the tunnel system. "My name is Sharky. I wonder why all of those orcs were in the caves if there was nothing there." he responded. "Well, perhaps I’ll see you later, if my adventures ever take me to your camp." We exchanged goodbyes and I watched him walk off. I wondered to myself if I should report seeing a Rogue. Nah, I’ll let him go. I still had the nagging feeling about the caves. Even though we searched them through-and-through I still think we missed something. I started to walk away until I heard a rumbling in the cave. I looked back and saw two red glowing eyes staring at me from the mouth of the cave. My limbs suddenly locked up and I fell to the ground. the world went black...

My head hurt, very badly. I found myself in a chamber along with some long dead companions. By the looks of the items lying around them it seemed that they had died a somewhat violent death. I noticed a torn piece of parchment on the ground. on the other side of the room was the other half. The parchment was fresh...

I collected the pieces and compared them to spell scrolls that I had in my possession. I noticed a certain similarity between this scroll and a teleport scroll that I had. I figured that the magic was the same so I held the orcish parchment in my hands and chanted the memorized words from the other scroll and...nothing happened. I walked out of the chamber and made my way around the corner. Something moved in the shadows. I ran in the direction of the movement and found nothing there. I looked across the room and saw the two floating red eyes again. They paid no attention to me this time, but it passed through a section of wall that looked somewhat...artificial. I walked over to the wall and had an idea. Seconds later I found myself in a room that I had yet to see. I turned a winch that I found and a section of wall seemed to melt into the ground.....

I looked down at the floor on the other side of the "melting" wall. I saw my footprints in the dust! "It teleported me straight through the wall," I thought to myself. Observing my surroundings I realized that I was in some sort of a catacombs section of the caverns. The corridor branched off in several directions, so I decided to explore the far left room. turning the corner was a bad idea. I viewed what seemed to be an ancient battle scene. Human and orc skeletons alike strewn the floor along with remnants of armor and rusted old weapons. Apparently the Orcs had won this little battle scene, since I saw no orcish weapons and fewer orcish skeletons than that of the humans. I turned around and headed down a different tunnel and found myself in a similar room. I looked down and my heart skipped a beat. The bones on the floor were not nearly as old the in the other room. That’s when I noticed their armor. All of the human skeletons were dressed in Old Camp colors! Examining the area a little more I saw something else, fresh orcish footprints. it looked as if someone was dragged kicking and screaming out of this room a short while ago. Running out of the tunnel I heard something behind me. The strange shadow with the glowing eyes was standing in the middle of the battle scene. Suddenly the corpses jumped to life, and seemed to be regaining their former complexions. Guards and Shadows filled the room. I even saw a few Royal Guards standing there. What happened next almost scared the life out of my own body. The few orc skeletons that littered the floor also jumped to life! Some new ones appeared as well. Apparently when the battle had ended the surviving orcs had dragged out their high-ranking comrades. Once everyone was present, the shadow began to take shape. A new Royal Guard appeared and the battle began. The humans were dropping like flies! For every orc killed, three or four humans fell to the floor. But something was wrong, the combatants were not all there. they were phantoms, some almost fully real, others almost totally transparent. I strode into the middle of the battle, but none of them seemed to notice. I guessed that their spirits were doomed to reenact this battle for eternity. I watched the gruesome battle, which lasted only minutes. One human soldier remained, it was the Royal Guard that was the strange shadow moments before. Two of the orcs grabbed his arms and he dropped his weapon, a powerful looking sword. They dragged him kicking and screaming out of the chamber and into the one I had yet to explore. In the middle of the new chamber was a perfectly square stone, almost a table. Another orc came into the room, passing right through me and raising the hairs on the back of my neck. The new orc was carrying the human’s sword. The human soldier was placed on the stone and his limbs held tight. He closed his eyes and lied still. With a jerk he freed one of his arms and pulled a rune out of his pocket. "A warrior mage!" I thought as the soldier quickly chanted the words to a spell. A red wave went through the room, but nothing else happened. He threw his rune and shouted at the orcs, "Now you will never rest! Our souls are doomed to perform this battle for etern..." his speech was ended when his own sword was thrust through his stomach.

Suddenly, everything stopped, and the orcs, the dead man, and the dead soldiers were gone. On the stone was a skeleton with a powerful looking sword protruding through where its stomach once was. That’s when I noticed a faint light coming from the corner of the room. under a thick layer of dust was the Warrior Mages rune. It began to grow very bright, filling the room with a red glow. Then, my dark friend appeared. on the ground where he was hovering was some writing. I leaned over and I suddenly understood the whole thing. The writing in the dust said, "DESTROY IT". I picked up the slightly warm rune and brought it over to stone. I pulled the sword out of its resting place and bashed the rune into splinters with the pommel. I looked back to where the shadow had been and the writing was on the ground. The writing had been changed however. It now read "THANK YOU". I took the sword and left the caverns, not bothering to search the remains for valuables. I thought it better to let them have their rest, it had been a long time. Carrying the new sword on my back in a makeshift baldric, I continued to walk toward the Sect Camp. At the bridge I noticed that Talas had left, probably afraid that the Rogue was going to rob him. As the sun set, I reached the Sect Camp and wondered to myself what I should tell Cor Angar upon my return. It had been a long battle, but I was finally back.

The End