The MOWE Chronicles: Chapter 1
The Search for Timmoria: Part 1
The Following is a journal entry from Nerjin, a low-ranking fighter hailing from the Human Realms. He has finally been reunited with MyOwnWorstEnemy, his dead fiancé, after ten long years. Having been granted the opportunity to be with her again he has gladly devoted himself to Mortis’ cause. He views the undead goddess not as one of death, but of love.Day 1:
I’ll admit, I did not pay all that much attention during the briefing. Indeed MyOwnWorstEnemy confided in me that the Death Knight who gave the speech was under her command. I found that highly interesting at first. In my haste I assumed that my love was a great commander of the undead hordes. It turns out that this is not the case. “His name is Cannon Fodder for a reason. He is more of a decoy than anything else. The only reason he is with us is that Mortis can spare no one else.”
Thankfully my love is a lot more attentive than I. It would appear that we are supposed to do a few things while in this region. The first is to recruit undead. How do we do this?
Goblins, foul creatures. I took a bit of a beating but… thanks to my love I was able to make it out alive. Though… Would it be so bad to die? Mayhaps I would be reincarnated as my love has been. Unfortunately I’m not ready to shuffle off this mortal coil just yet.
So yeah… Lots of murder. Thankfully a majority of those around us are villains and scoundrels. Thieves and riotous peasants who are out to gain more than they deserve.
The second thing we are to do, though not officially sanctioned, is increase my loves connection with this world. It would appear that each spirit and undead enters this world as merely more than substantial thought. According to what my love has gathered the more souls she feeds to Mortis the more powerful she will become.
Sounds a little odd No, it doesn’t. My love is before my very eyes. If Mortis can resurrect her spirit surely she can make my love’s spirit more tangible. Perhaps she will eventually regain her body? I do not know.
The third, and most important, thing that we are here to do is to find a library. I found this last bit odd but apparently Mortis is seeking a demon who will allow her to bring her own love back to life. It is guarded by imperials. Unfortunate, but not altogether surprising. I doubt they’ll allow me into the library as this region is well known for its… lackluster social manners. While it doesn’t sit right on my soul to kill my countrymen I find that I must. Mortis has brought back my love. The least I can do is try to bring back hers.
Day 4:
Four days of killing goblins and exploring the new land. How boring. Thankfully my love has been with me every step [float?] of the way. We have spent every waking moment together and I am led to believe she speaks to me even in my sleep as my dreams are filled with her. The only thing that could make this better is if I were able to hold her hand. Kiss her cheek. Stroke her hair. But alas…
Day 4 [Several Hours Later]
Hm, rogues and peasantry trying to get more than they deserve?
Unfortunately so… My love has expressed some concern about the matter but I assure her that we can handle them. I managed to convince her by recounting the time we defeated a devil all by ourselves. Granted she was a Cleric back then. I’m not sure how her Banshee’s Song stacks up but… Well we need to increase her powers to accomplish our goals. Plus, if we don’t kill these rabble-rousers they might harm some hard working souls. Off to battle!
The Following is a journal entry from MyOwnWorstEnemy, fiancé of Nerjin. A powerful Cleric during her lifetime she was killed by marauding demons. In a ritual she has refused to elaborate on she has returned to life as a Banshee. She once again is travelling the realm with Nerjin in an effort to repay her debt to Mortis. While she doesn’t trust the goddess of death her debt and the presence of her love keeps her from complaining too openly.Day 4:
How did we go so wrong? The band of criminals took defensive positions around their leader. I can only affect one at a time so if they had all rushed us Nerjin would have…
The two peasants tried their best as their leader looked on bemused. He didn’t even lift a finger to help them. Their clumsy farm implements were no match for my beloved’s marvelously crafted sword. For every lucky drop of blood they drew from him, he killed two of them. I felt like my fears were alleviated but…
The flash of the Rogue’s flying dagger only caught my eye a second before it struck Nerjin in the chest. A second flew my way and nearly pierced me as well…
My love, dying, called out to me. “Run MOWE! I’ll hold them off! Mortis will bring me back! I’m sure of it!”
Little did he know… I don’t want this torment for him. I’ve seen what happens to those who follow this dark path. Mindless shuffling zombies. But… He begged me as he struggled to fight off the Rogue whose movements were both graceful and powerful as he slashed and stabbed my love.
“Please! I can’t lose you again! I can be resurrected! We don’t know if you can!”
The last thing I saw before I managed to escape was Nerjin hitting the ground. Bleeding.
Day 6:
I found an elixir… It is claimed to be able to return the dead to life as they were. Unlike Mortis’ unholy magics this elixir is claimed to be from the Highfather himself. What choice do I have but to believe? I will find you my beloved.[/font]
The Following is a journal entry from Nerjin, a dead man who walks the earth once more. Day 7:
The first thing I saw was her face. I smiled despite the pain. “I must be in heaven to see your face again. Praise the Highfather.”
She simply smiled as she sat down a goblet by my side “Do not scare me like that love. I waited ten years to be with you. I did not wait ten years to be with a corpse.”
I simply laughed “I didn’t wait ten years to leave you with one. Do not worry… I’m not dead yet. Only… Mostly dead.”
Her laugh was melodic as always.
Day 7 [Later]:
Vengeance. It’s all my love talks about. Apparently Cannon Fodder had done some scouting. Our old friend has made some new ones it appears. Oddly enough he hasn’t moved very far.
The same tactics did not meet with the same result. Despite one of his thugs being much more talented than the last batch this time things were in our favor. Righteous fury and caution defeated him.
The peasant, poor sod, attempted to flee after my first parry. My sword through his throat stopped any hope of this.
The mam-at-arms was… no challenge really. MyOwnWorstEnemy wove her enchantments and the man was still as I hacked him to pieces. Well, mostly still. His dodging seemed uninterrupted by the spells.
The Rogue… He provided less of a challenge. Perhaps seeing the man he had stabbed to death up and walking around was more than enough to unnerve him. Perhaps it was the fact that MyOwnWorstEnemy seemed particularly vengeful in targeting him. Perhaps it was the sword through his spine when he attempted to flee. Whatever it was he certainly did not provide much of a challenge.
His dying words were, and I quote verbatim, “The Red Hand will find you…”
The Red Hand… I welcome them to try.
I found a page from Cannon Fodder’s personal Journal. I have transcribed it here with additional comments. I hope MOWE’s assurances that there are more powerful undead commanders is true. If not we may never find Mortis’ lover revived.Day 10:
I haft fond shopp man! He say no undead. I disagree. He say he no sell. I say he sell! He say he no sell! I angry. I tell him he sell to me for extra price or I kill him. He say-
So I pay him extra for boots. Give to TheOthersWorstEnemy. [[He did indeed drop off the boots the next day. I’m not sure if my love even has feet. She seems to float everywhere… Never-the-less she says the enchanted boots will allow us to travel through forests more quickly once she has learned how to access their enchantment.]]
So that’s kinda odd… Anyways back to my own journaling.Day 11:
The boots Cannon Fodder gave us have proven invaluable. Well… They look nice at any rate. Nevertheless, we’ve rooted out several nearby bandit camps. Mortis’ army grows daily!
Thankfully, and unfortunately, these thugs are much stronger than the one who proved my almost death. This has been sharpening my skills extremely quickly and MOWE has been growing stronger as well. Nothing too obvious but a gradual growth is the way it needs to be.
MOWE begs me to include her thoughts that we should be cautious. She’s convinced me to stop by the shop the Boots of Forest Walking came from and purchase another couple of life-potions. She’s being paranoid, of course, but I find I can’t stand the sight of her worrying. I bought as many as we could afford.
Day 14:
An orc encampment to the west beckons us. Well… Cannon Fodder beckons us to go there and kill the orc’s small army. *Shrug* I don’t really care either way. I’ll go wherever I’m needed, just so long as MOWE is with me.
Day 16:
Bah… Orcs, not much better than goblins. Certainly stronger, but their tendency to group together with their smaller cousins [Interesting fact: Orcs and Goblins are very closely related. I consider myself somewhat of an expert in Goblin Lore.] This leads to fights like this:
Inconceivably easy. The small ones swarm the front line fighter. Maybe toss a few harmless arrows at the back row [MOWE easily dodged most of them]. Once the goblins are dead the Orc steps forward and begins to fight. Easy enough to dodge and my love can use her magic to hold him in place for an easy kill.
Then again we have been feeling a little tired as of late. We made a hasty retreat shortly thereafter. Better safe than sorry after all.
Day 17:
Some high ranking undead visited myself and MOWE today.
Uh… Thanks? We’re doing our best considering that you guys won’t allow us more troops. Though I suppose that’s the point of this slaughtering mission. For a moment we dared hope he would assist us. But when MyOwnWorstEnemy asked the wraith simply stated “No. I am needed elsewhere.”
Odd that such a vital task would be left to a lowly banshee and a traitorous fighter. No offense to my love but she is obviously not made for this sort of
life task. I can see it in her eyes. She thinks we should simply leave well enough alone. But… I figure Mortis is powerful enough to bring MyOwnWorstEnemy back from the dead. What would stop Mortis from simply evaporating [?] her if she becomes displeased.
Day 19:
No! No no no no no no no!
Scrawled beside the picture, obviously much later, is the word: Assassins.
No no no no no no no!
Scrawled beside the picture, obviously much later, is the phrase: They dodged too much!
No… No… No… No… No… No… No…
Scrawled beside the picture, obviously much later, is the sentence: An enchanted spear?
Day 20:
Praise Mortis! As I was
crying myself to sleep grieving last night I heard my love’s voice.
“Wait til the morrow.”
So wait I did… And this morning!
I asked her “How did you come back? I saw you die?”
She simply smiled “I’ve died before. Why should this time inconvenience me at all?”
We spent hours together simply discussing what to do from here out. She had a pretty good plan.
“Kill the Orc. He is the chieftan of this band of goblins right?”
I couldn’t say one way or the other but knowing what I did of goblins it seems a decent guess.
“So if he dies they disband. Plus, odds are, he’s the one who ordered those assassins. Let’s go avenge my second death!”
But then something strange happened. My love disappeared for a brief moment. Her already insubstantial image fading entirely. Before I had much chance to panic she was back, a little more opaque than before.
I asked her what happened and she replied thusly: “Mortis summoned me. She has become pleased with the amount of souls we have granted her. In exchange she has been granted a fragment of the Orc’s soul. Though it was not much my love did learn some rather… interesting things.
It has been a long day however. I think I shall stop my chronicling here. Good-night journal. I hope to write in you more tomorrow.
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Topic: Disciples II - The MOWE Chronicles, A tale of Love Undying [Part 4] (Read 6170 times)