The life of the unknown hero

Hello everyone ! Today i wanted to share the life and the death of Kaeron the magus, who sacrificed everything he had to save the people he loved so much.


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Hello here ! The story I’m about to tell takes place in a homebrew campaign made on pathfinder. It actually was the first campaign I really invested myself in and i don’t regret it one bit.

Also, just so you know, I’m French so don’t resent me too much if it’s badly written

The premise of the story was quite simple : Our party of adventurers, composed of Gideon the old thiefling mage, Fyren the mighty goliath paladin, Firenhni the beautiful elf ranger, Sin the typical lonewolf samsarran assassin and me Kaeron, the human magus (a mixup between a sorcerer and a warrior) were chosen by the gods. Our mission was pretty straitforward : stop the resurection of an old god : End, defeated eons ago by the other gods.

Because of that each of us had the ability to converse with gods to ask them advices and to use an homebrew power made by the DM that would allow us to use the power of a god temporarely, which is why each of us had to have faith in at least a god (so we could use the power of that said god).

However Kaeron was different. Kaeron was a simple human, yet due to him being abandonned in the forest, he was raised by monsters. He realised quickly that he himself that he wasn’t a monster but it didn’t matter to him. He was fine with that. He was fine with being bullied by the other kid because he was human, his family loved him and that is all that mattered. however he was getting angrier and every time it would get worse. While growing up he became friend with a strange human girl that would oftenly come to visit the forest. When they would meet they would play, eat, sleep and study together. It was great. He loved that girl. He also loved his foster family, but she was different. When she was with him he wasn’t able to stay in control of his emotions, each and every side of him was visible, he never felt bored, sad and he was not angry anymore, he liked that.

” Aww don’t be sad ! If you’re sad just think of me and smile ! Ok ? ” she used to say.

And with that years passed and the young boy was now close to become a real man.

One day he decided to tell her the truth, that he loved her. It was reciprocal. But it wasn’t that easy. She was not a simple girl, she was the crown princess of the kingdom they were in and people would never accept their love. He wasn’t even a commoner after all, just a savage. As such kaeron did not accept that, he would take her hand no matter what. He needed to be recognised ? Very well he would become a hero then, that way none would be able to oppose themselves to their love, even the gods.

“Fine ! People won’t accept us as we are ? Then i’m gonna raise up to the top so no one will laught at me again ! And then I will ask you again in marriage! ” Kaeron decared

“That a promise then ? ” she then asked

 He took his hands and with the sweetest smile he could do answered “Even after death and into nothingness, I shall not forget you ,Ophelia. “.

“Are you sure ? ” the DM asked. Because of that choice, I would indeed have to fight without the powerup the DM made up to help us because he intended to make the fights hard (which explain the set up). “I am” i simply replied.

And so like that he met his compagnon fighting alongside them for over three years in the campaign and nearly two IRL. Each day was a bliss as he was fightings with people he could proudly call friends. It was hard without a god protection but he tried his best. During his adventure he would learn what he could from them. Magic and litterature from the mage, gods lore and blacksmithing from the paladin, archery and social interaction from the archer and stealth and deception from the assassin. At the beggining and at the end of the day he would watch the sun goes up and down in a myriad of colors, it reminded him the girl. Everyone in the party liked him and he liked them too (he secretly though of them as his second family but never said it because Sin and Gideon would get to shy about it). Everything was great.

But every moment come to an end and Kaeron’s perfect life’s end came quicker than expected.

Indeed after two years of patience our group would finally fight the BBEG. The way thing should have gone should have been simple, with the help of the army of a unified coalition we should have been easily be able to go past the demonic army, enter the castle were the ritual was taking place and kill the follower’s of END so that he doesn’t come back. But that night, thing didn’t go well. We were rolling failure after failure and while eventualy making or way to the highest tower of that huge castle we arrived to the last door. 

“Gideon roll an arcana check.” said the DM as to remind us that he was the only one who could try now, all of us having previously failed.

” 7 plus 5… That makes 12 ” Gideon said. He had failed.

During all of our campaign, we would have all be lucky enough to make a lot of really good roll, but not today. The way to the top of the tower had left us in a bad shape, everyone was nearly out of what they could use and everyone had already used their divine power-up previoulsy on the tower.

In front of us was now a huge 5 meter tall magickly sealed door and behind us in the stairs was a hundred of END’s knights that we had gone through earlier. The ice on the cake was the enormous bang behind the door followed by an atrocious laughter indicating that END was back.

It was over… or so we thought. But not Kaeron. Me as Kaeron did not give up, there had to be something i could do to save us all.

And then Kaeron started to think about what the gods had said long ago, when we first made contact with them.The reason why we could only pick one god as well as the fact that it was temporary was because to much of a godly power in a mortal shell would cause damage to the host that even the gods didn’t know about nor would be able to do anything about. But, it wasn’t impossible to do it.

Speaking to the DM in private, I started to bargain with the gods using for the first time the ability to contact them.

“Are you really sure ? ” DM asked, ” I’m gonna make it real hard for you to succeed to hold that much of a power and let alone surviving.”

“Never in my life i’ve ever been so sure” I simply replied.

And so Kaeron stood up again. But this time was different, he was overflowing with power, so much that we could already see his body starting to crumbly under the sheer presure of the said power. He then opened the door as if it was nothing but a simple wooden door.

” Don’t worry, I got this, know, it’s my turn to save you all. Please take care of the knights, END is mine. “

And then started the longest minutes in my entire life as i was alone (mostly due to the fact that the rest of the party fought a different battle). Indeed Kaeron was now fighting END, alone. He would fight again and again giving each hit back following him in every plane he would try to go. But it was not enough.

” Suddenly your body stop. you fell your vision blurry as you start coughing up blood intensly. “

” Then I sacrifice my ability to smell. ” I then replied. Yes there it was, the price to pay to weild the power of several gods at the same time. With each fail on a really difficult saving throw, i would die if i did not sacrifice a part of my soul to stabilise the power. And like i said, this night, all of us did awfully bad rolls, me included.

The fight resumed and what was an our to the group became years for me because of all of the planes travelling. The fight was intense, everyone of the two opponents had the strengh to erase cities and each time Kaeron would sacrifice something. At firstit was thing he would be able to manage, some skills and feats even some stats points but after a while, he could not sacrifice more he needed it for defeating the old god… so he started to sacrifice memories. The things he liked and disliked, his memories of the warm ray of the sunset, some memories of his childhoods. And then the memories of himself and those of his former compagnons. Eventualy he was just an empty husk only good to fight the person in front of him. He wasn’t even sure why he had to do it anymore. He couldn’t remember, but he had to do it.

Unfortunately, when the rest of the group finished dealing with the horde of relentless knights it was already over.

” When you walk into that room you watch in awe as the luxurious room you could see earlier is now half destroyed. Lightning and fire are still crackling in the air. The room only have a faint smell of rotten and the feeling of dreadfullness is starting to leave as you see, in the end of the room, under the light of dawn to figures, one is standing there, not moving at all a sword holded in both hand, planted inside the chest of the one you were chosen to kill, END.” DM told to the rest of the group.

” Kaeron you scared me the-” Tried to say the paladin.

” No. You do not know who this person is” then interrupted.

” What do you mean it’s not him ? What is he just older so we can’t recognise him ? who else could it be but Kaeron ? It’s you right ? ” Even my friend playing the wizard started to get angry because we didn’t told them anything yet.

The DM then calmly said ” You don’t understand, you don’t know any Kaeron “

The elf starting to realise then asked ” Excuse me, who are you ? Did you save us ? “

But Kaeron wasn’t answering he, in fact wasn’t listening nor hearing anything. He was just, with the blurry vision he still had feeling the tingling sensation of the sun set on his skin. He did not remember what it was called but it was not unpleasant. it reminded him of someone. It was blurry but he could somewhat remember her, what was her name again ? Ah yes…

” Even after death and into nothingness… I shall not forget you… Ophelia… ” He said has his last words. It was the only thing he couldn’t bear to sacrifice.

The body of Kaeron starting to dissapear and my party starting to slowly understand what happened, the DM told me :

” With what’s left you feel as if afar in a forest you are somewhat familiar with a beautiful woman is mouning over your death as if she knows what is happening. “

Tears started to roll down my cheeks. I looked over the table and saw that no one could hold their tears, even the DM when we told them what happend. Then i said one final thing.

” Kaeron’s eyes start to swell with tears, his lips curls to form a bittersweet smile but somewhat comforting and confident and think  : don’t be sad…If you’re sad just think of me and smile…Ok ? And dissapears into nothingness “.

And thus ended the life of the hero know one will ever know.

Without funeral, word or salvation.

Thus ended the life of Kaeron


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