The fallen...

You feel soooooo weak, barely able to lift your head off the filth covered cage floor. You heart suddenly racing, as you saw that they hadn't even bothered to close the door after the last time. Now was your chance to escape these foul monsters, it is all you can do to climb to your feet. Body trembling as you slowly hobble out of the metal cage, thankfully the ancient decaying room is empty. Glancing over at the bed, shivering as you recall the things done to you there. Your pale skin is covered in bruises from the bites, neck, arms, inner thigh's and places that you had rather not think about. Slowly you stagger and stumbled along on bare feet, out of the room you had been held in for days. Beyond you froze in fear for a moment, seeing the stone sarcophagus's thankfully they were all closed. Meaning that outside of this ruin castle the sun still hung in the sky, the sun... gods you missed seeing the sun so much.

Things were not supposed to be like this... you were a Paladin favored by the goddess of justice.

What happened? Why did you find yourself in this nightmare state?

Memories of the past arise in your exhausted mind... as your wasted body struggles to keep moving.

Goddess of justice, law and nomocracy - Fardenna, also known as Stern Mistress of Justice. One of the few ancient goddesses whose religious cult still openly exists in the cities of the Sacred Kingdom of Orlania. Representatives of the royal authorities and the priests of the Church of the Equally Great Brothers-Deities allow a few monasteries of fardenian monks and several military knightly orders of fardenian paladins to exist on the territory of the kingdom. There have always been few adherents of the cult of the goddess Fardenna due to the increased demands of her religious dogmas... However, local feudal rulers often used the services of fardenian monks and paladins to ensure law and order in remote troubled territories.

You were the youngest son in the family of a landless knight, who still serves in the troops of the local feudal ruler - the Duke of Teinlund (owner of vast lands in the north of the kingdom of Orlania and the fortress city of the same name). Your elderly father Brenwin Dreis is probably now spending his time drilling new recruits in the remote garrison of some border fort... What are your four brothers doing?

John (the eldest of the brothers) long ago married the daughter of a local small merchant and already has three children... He lives in the city of Teinlund and is engaged in trade... He realized that the formal noble status of the son of a poor landless knight means little if there is no money...

Jerry and Miklos continue to live in their father's dilapidated house, which is located on the outskirts of the town of Teinlund. They work in the city guard and they help your mother somehow support the family budget...

Devin was a rather wild guy who loved drinking and stupid jokes... You last saw him two or three years ago... He said that he was tired of working for pennies as one of the security guards of the local merchant guild building. He said that he was going to find a group of mercenaries and go with them somewhere where there was a chance to earn a lot of money... He probably did what he wanted...

What awaited you after you came of age?

You have been an inquisitive guy since your youth. You loved listening to the stories of travelers in the tavern about distant lands and historical events of the distant past. Out of curiosity, you walked through the most remote areas of the city of Teinlund... Because of this, you sometimes found yourself in risky situations...

But, thanks to your father, you (like all your brothers) had basic self-defense skills and you knew how to fight... One day you wandered into a secluded building of a small monastery, which was located on the outskirts of one of the city blocks. You looked with interest at the bizarre architecture, patterned stained glass windows and bas-reliefs on the walls... You began to talk with one of the monks, who turned out to be a very charismatic and educated person. Your acquaintance continued, you began to regularly go to this monastery... As a result, by the time you came of age, you felt a strong desire to dedicate your life to serving Stern Mistress of Justice. However, your ardor and energy turned you away from the opportunity to become a monk... You decided to become a knight-paladin of the Order of Implacable Justice (this is a military-religious organization of Fardenian paladins). Your acquaintances at the monastery allowed you to fulfill your intention... You left your parental home. You traveled for two years through the territories of the Sacred Kingdom of Orlania... You carried out orders from the leadership of the Order of Implacable Justice...

You, young human male Marcus Dreis, son of a landless knight, have fulfilled your intention. You have become a paladin. You have taken all the necessary sacred oaths...

You swore an oath to protect law and order and the achievements of civilization, to crush savages and monsters who bring only chaos, pain and into the world... You swore to be faithful and vigilant... You swore to steadfastly resist the temptations of lie and mercilessly suppress vices... Your own vices and the vices of all persons, that you will meet along the way...

However, a week ago you met a group of mercenaries in one of the taverns in the orlanian city of Onteria. You listened with curiosity to their stories about profitable orders, battles and exciting journeys. You had very little money, so when these mercenaries offered you to take part in the execution of one profitable order, you agreed.

You then convinced yourself that your participation in this event would not only be profitable for you personally, but also useful from the point of view of observing religious Fardenian dogmas... After all, the customer paid for your group to clear the old ruins of some fortress from animals and marauders , which were located in a forest area near the border of the kingdom of Orlania with the kingdom of Morthem. Also, your group had to find some kind of ancient figurine that could be located in the ruins of this fortress... The customer was a wealthy merchant who had a reputation as a collector of ancient works of art...

Your journey with the mercenaries should have been simple and profitable...

But everything didn’t go as expected...

The horror that you and a group of mercenaries faced in these ruins of an old fortress was unimaginable and deadly...

You resisted with all your might... Your sword smashed the bodies of these disgusting monsters... yet the damage you done seemed to not hurt them at all. You covered yourself with a shield from the blows of sharp claws... You diverted aggressive attention to yourself and you tried to cover your companions so that they had time to regroup and retreat...

But everything was in vain... the strength and power of the monsters was just to much.

As you had no power against these foul undead creatures, no one in your party had been powerful enough to take them on. They had captured you and put you in cages, slowly draining the blood from your bodies. As you stumbled past the pit, you glance over the edge seeing the naked broken desiccated corpses of your allies. Shamefully you feel hot urine running down your leg, a weak sob escapes you as slowly you walk on towards the surface. The climb is almost more than you can manage, but finally you are on the lower floor of the castle. Just a little farther... and you will be outside... you can make it.. you will make it. And then a swirling cloud of smoke appears in front of you, as you watch in terror the smoke solidifies into a tall dark figure. You see his horrible ugly face leering at you, amused... aroused... but above all hungry. “No... no no no please...” You beg weakly, suddenly realizing that this had all just been a cruel game being played on you. You really had no chance to escape, you trembling in fear as he strolls right up to you, his mind taking control of your body forcing you to offer yourself... he takes you offer... darkness consumes you.

You feel soooooo weak, barely able to lift your head off the pillow as he enjoys you. Body pouncing back and forth under his icy cold body, his organ stiff as iron inside of you in the most shameful way. The taste in your mouth bitter, coppery and salty... somewhere in all of this your mouth suckles. Wait what... what have you done? Slowly be begin to feel stronger, by the time he has finished taking his pleasure from your body you walk easily back into your cage. His mind... his will utterly in control of you, a tiny part of you still wanting to escape. Even as you willingly close the door locking yourself into the cage, you are never going to escape him you know. You slump to the cold stone floor, like a puppet who's string have just been cut. Sobbing weakly as you realize that you were soon going to be joining your friends in the pit as just another bloodless corpse.

Light awakens you sometime later, as two men stand outside of your cage.

Judging by their appearance, these human men look like ordinary local commoners, who were hunting game in the forest and who accidentally came across the ruins of this ancient fortress...

You listen to the debate if you are even alive, until you beg for help making them both jump slightly. Quickly on of them unlocks your cage, yanking the door open as they both rush inside. It is a foolish mistake, as the door slams shut behind them distracting them for a moment. Rising up behind the smaller of the two, you bury your fangs inside his neck gulping down just enough blood to knock him out. Before then attacking the larger of the pair, inside the cramped cage he can not fight you effectively. You drink him dry before stopping, standing over the pair you lift the smaller one back up finishing him off. Letting out a sigh of pleasure, feeling more powerful than you ever have in your life. Pushing the cage door open you stroll out into the crypt chamber only to find that the vampire who apparently remained on guard and who until recently plunged his fangs into your flesh is now clearly dead... He is finally dead... You see a charred, stinking mass of bones and ash... More recently this disgusting mass of ash was the body of a vampire... A ray of sunlight,which shines from a hole in the ceiling, falls on the ashes... Probably there was a collapse and a piece of stone fell to the side, allowing access to a ray of sunlight deep into this dark crypt...

You fearfully look at this ray of sunlight... You understand that it is better for you not to approach this ray... After all, you are now... You are in a somewhat “abnormal” state...

However, you are already glad that the vampire guard died and that you can now escape from this gloomy crypt...

At least you now have some chance to escape... After all, the rest of the vampires are not destroyed... They only sleep in sarcophagi...

Fear begins to creep into your consciousness again...

But you are trying to regain your composure and begin to actively act for your own salvation.

You are your own master now... licking your lip's you hunt around for some clothing.