The Dark Heroes, pt. I

The Ghastly Gambler

Few would believe that this marauding villain, this foul assassin fish-eyed and ever grinning his mirthless grin was ever more than the wretch he is today. Yet Valen Ystraine once had been a mercenary captain of some repute indeed.
He was one of the many glory-seekers that came to Ersidria in the wake of the Fugue, and one of the few who survived the Blackgate slaughter...
Proud of his victories, he accepted the honor of becoming a Mist Warden. But bound by an oath he did not fairly consider, he soon became hopelessly addicted to the ‘ice shade’ - Ersidrian most ruinous drug.
Along came the drink and the cards. Too proud ever to lose, he ruined his reputation by cheating, which inevitably set him on an ever darker path... so he found other masters to serve, ones that did not mind doing business with a murderer.

So he survives, though despising himself, and only vanity drives him on, for to take his life would be to lose... So on he goes to ever more reckless escapades, hoping to meet his match one day and fail to cheat death at last.

<><><><><> 

The Undertaker

Who can tell what came over good old Rendolf?


He used to be a well-respected member of the Ravenwood community, providing the much-needed services of an undertaker to all towns close enough to Mapleshire cemetery and even the baron of Greyrock himself, for not all of the Bastion’s prisoners could simply be thrown into the sea of burned - some were once nobles...
But when the Fugue came, trouble came to the Mapleshire and its famous war-cemetery. Bandits and worse multiplied like flies, then the whole village of Mapleshire was put to the sword, or worse...
Dark rumors spread, and soon there were those who accused old Rendolf of leading a gang of grave-robbers and highwaymen, for the sole reason of selfish gain. Those who knew Rendolf better were appalled by these ghastly stories, but what else could explain that his house near the old crypts alone remained untouched by the murderous scum?
Some reasoned that Rendolf must have become one of the many victims of the mysterious Eidolon powers. For indeed, his worst side became his only side, that nasty temperament and a brooding look that kept children away from him, and that lingering hate for all things still failing to seek his services... And as much as he now hates his fellow man, he hates the undead more. Perhaps he sees them as dishonest dodgy clients, who knows?