Shra's gets Cursed (Book of Shra)

For decades the lich Shra, along with other liches of various races, had served thier master Lich King Karkos. Shra's power grew and was close to mastering control over the undead. He formed friendships with those he helped make into liches, espically the halfling Mr. Vinetoe. They were always sent on quests together due to Shra's half-orc strengh and Vinetoe's small stature and skill in dismalting traps or even setting them up.

Then King Karkos sent them on a bizarre quest: To take out a rival cult. It had been growing in numbers but they didn't seem to bother with the King Karkos until they found and killed one of his people who was on a quest for him. King Karkos wanted revenge and wanted to make loud statement. So he sent his top students to deal with the threat. Shra and Vinetoe first went to recruit Laraganus as she might of found some information about the cult and could show them where they are.

After an informative visit it took a bit of time to find the cult but Shra and Vinetoe found them in a cave near the border bewteen the White Valleys and the Yellow Meadows. They saw that there were undead on watch near the entrance. With thier powers they were able to take control of the undead and infiltrated the cult hideout. As they made their way through the cave they found several sections one held scrolls and books on necromancy and how the undead work, another seemed to be a storage area (where they found cult cloaks and took them as disguises), while another had an alter covered in blood, bones, and flesh. After investagating these rooms and hiding from the cultists and their undead they found thier way into a huge open area with people chanting. It seemed as if they were performing a ritual or having a meeting. Shra and Vinetoe crept around and tried to keep thier distannce. They couldn't hear what was being said but they obeserved from afar behind. Then the chanting stoppped and their leader started to speak.

"My fellow followers, recently we have found a memeber of King Karkos's and we killed him and offered him as a sacerfice to our divine leader. With it we have been blessed with the knowledge of where King Karkos's hideout is and we will soon attack it and offer his head as a trophy to our divine leader. However we need more undead and more members if we are to succeed. With that being said I need volunteers to help make more undead, I need some to hire adventurers. The rest need to contiune training and getting stronger. We need as many strong memebers for if we fail our divine leader will curse not just us but the whole world." said the cult leader as he finished his followers cheered and then gathered into groups based on the assignments. Shra and Vinetoe then began to leave the area fearing they were going to be spotted. They began to weave thier way back until they were stopped by some cultists when they asked "Where are you two going? Which assignment were you given?" Shra and Vinetoe turned around. "We are going to train for the attack." answered Vinetoe. "You must be new memebers, the training area is not that way it's the other way." said the cultist as he pointed to a differnt hallway. "Thank you." said Vinetoe as he and Shra walked down the hallway. As they made their way down Shra began to feel like something was off, he felt like the two of them were walking right into a trap. Until they found a wide room with a low ceiling.

In the room was the cult leader who was praying to a statue of what Shra assumed to be the 'divine leader'. "Your spies aren't you? I could sense the magic from the both you. If I'm not mistaken it's necromancey of some kind. Please take off my people's robes and reveal yourselves." said the cult leader. Shra and Vinetoe dropped the robes on the ground and cult leader was surprised to see 2 liches in front of him. "Were you sent to kill me?" asked the cult leader. "Ha, like you're powerful enough to fight just to fight one." said Vinetoe. "Are you sure about that?" said the cult leader as the walls and ceiling disappeared and the trio were in a very lit arena surrounded by cultists a lot more than Shra and Vinetoe thought. "Now let's see if my people are strong enough to fight not one lich but two." said the cult leader. All of sudden undead and cultists descended on the two liches. The liches took control of several undead and used to them to fight the cultitsts as they retreated. Shra used a couple of spells to cause a couple of cave ins to slow down the army. They eventually fought thier way out and ran into the woods still being chased by undead and cultists.

After running for miles for hours they reached a halfling village. The villagers were terrfied by the sight of two liches running. They began to scream, run, hide, some adventuers thier ground. Thier leader was a Paladin and asked "What is happening? Why are you here." he asked. "This is an internal White Valleys matter. However if you wish to rid two threats I suggest we team up for now." responded Vinetoe. "Fine, we'll help only if you promise to help these villagers in thier time of need." said the Paladin. "Deal." said Vinetoe. "How many enemies do you except to come charging through those woods?" asked the Paladin. "About 4 villages worth of undead and cultists. However some of them maybe illusions. So try to rely on your magic senses to detect the real from the fake." said Shra. "What about those who can't sense any magic?" asked the Paladin. "Look for anything that looks off and pay attention to lack of shadows." answered Shra. Then eveyone began to holdout and make plans for the force of undead coming thier way. After some time the cult army came from the woods and started to attack the village. Shra and Vinetoe tried again to take control as much undead as possible and them against the cultists. The adventurers fought with all thier might but were quickly overwhelmed. The defenders kept being pushed back then Shra caught sight of the cult leader and started to charge him with some undead. The cult leader raised his hand and soon Shra found himself floating in a black void by himself. He couldn't sense any magic, any life, nothing could be sensed except for a fractured glass window where he saw a person wiping the window he was wearing clothes that were not familiar and in a lit room but it wasn't from candles it was from glowing rods "Hello? Can anyone hear me?" asked Shra. "I can, just know you are in safe hands. Soon your curse will be partically broken and you will be free once more." he said as he smiled as friendly smile.