Torgas McGreggor

                             THE HISTORY OF TORGAS McGREGGOR

    My life is like a book.  It has a beginning, a middle, and eventually even an end.  

Also like a book, each chapter builds the suspense to an unknown climax.

    Since one can't just jump into the middle of a book, one has to start at the 

beginning. So must I do so with the telling of my life, as it stands so far.

                                     CHAPTER 1: 
                                       BIRTH

    I was born to Rob and Edna Camdell, two peasants from the small village of Eternal 

Winds. My father was an expert woodworker and my mother was a weaver and the village mid-wife. Even though we were poor, they made me feel very rich.

    When I was old enough, I started spending most of my time playing with the other 

children in the village. Even with me doing this, i never lost my connection with my parents. My birthdays were always full of fun and love. I felt like this was the perfect life to have. The only problem is that a perfect life only exist in fairy tails, and my life is nothing like a fairy tail.

                                    CHAPTER 2: 
                                 FIRST TASTE OF DEATH

    The morning of my 10Th. birthday began quite dark, now I know this to be a bad omen.

About noon, my father had me go into the woods and gather different coloured berries for my mother to use as dye for her yarn. This task should not have taken me more then a couple hours, but since I was still young I goofed off more then worked and it took me most of the afternoon.

    When I had finally finished, I started back toward my home.  The trip back was slowed 

by the weight of the bucket of berries. As I neared my village, I could see smoke rising over the trees and heard the sound of fighting.

    I dropped my bucket of berries and ran as fast as I could toward my home.  As I ran, 

I hoped that it was just my imagination playing a trick on me. It turned out though to be the nightmare that it looked like.

    Eternal Winds was completely destroyed.  The homes were on fire and the villagers laid 

on the ground dead or dying. All around me was the horrible scent of burnt wood and blood.

    I continued to run, hoping beyond hope that my parents were somehow safe and waiting 

for me with open arms. But like I said, this is not a fairy tale this is real life.

    In front of my home laid the headless body of my mother.  Also there were people in 

black clothes and black mask. They had my father on his knees with a sword to his neck. The sight made me shake and want to vomit.

    One of the masked men wanted to know where I was.  My father denied having a son, and 

in a arrogant tone questioned the masked man's parentage. This enraged the masked man to the point that he sliced my fathers head off. As his head rolled it came to rest at my feet, where I screamed and turned to run. I did not get to far because something struck me from behind and I passed out.

                                    CHAPTER 3: 
                                    A NEW LIFE

    When I came to, I found myself in a dark cave lying on it's cold hard floor.  As I 

started to stand up, I was suddenly thrown back to the ground. Looking around, I discovered that I was chained, by my neck, to the cave floor. So I did the only thing I could do, I started pulling and tugging at the chain trying to free myself. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get free. I sank to the ground and began to cry.

    At the entrance to the cave a figure appeared and walked over to where I was chained. 

It turned out he was the assassin who had killed my father. He looked down at me and told me that he did not know who I was, but if I wanted to live I would have to obey his every word.

    I felt like I had nothing to live for, so I agreed to do as he said.  I also decided not 

to let him know who I was since it seemed that they had been looking for me for some reason. This was the start of my life as an assassin.

    For the next four years of my life, I killed and stole to survive.  The whole time I was 

doing this, I knew that it was wrong. My life as an assassin contradicted everything my parents had taught me.

                                   CHAPTER 4:
                                    FREEDOM
    Little did I know that my freedom would be coming soon, and I would go through another 

transformation. My freedom came when I was fourteen years old. The assassins were captured by a warrior named Lemac McGreggor. It turned out that he and my father had been fighters in his early days. Lemac had been looking for me since the destruction of my village.

    He offered to teach me to be a brave warrior like himself.  To protect me from those who 

had taken me, he decided to claim me as his own son. To honor this, I took the name Torgas McGreggor. I asked him if he knew why the assassins had wanted me. Unfortunately he had no idea.

                                   CHAPTER 5: 
                                  A BETTER LIFE
    While I lived with Lemac, I learned a great many things.  He taught me how to fight with 

swords and shields like he did. When we aided some elves, they taught me the finer points of archery. We were also awarded gifts for helping them. I learned brute strength from an Orcish Drunken Master who Lemac and myself had to make leave a inn after he drank all the ale that the village had in storage. The inn keeper gave us lifetime room and board so if, as he told us, Grunk the Drunk returned. His daughter came to my room that night and thanked me in her own special way. The next morning, she left me her necklace to remember her by.

    The adventures we undertook helped me to better my skills and strength.  We did it all, 

from saving young maidens from dragons, ridding villages of annoying imps, to rescuing the son of a powerful minotaur. His son was being held by nomads and was being used like a sideshow attraction. When his son was returned to him, he gave Lemac and myself a symbol that would let other minotaurs know that we could be trusted. But through all this, I still wanted nothing more then to find those who had the assassins destroy my home and kill my parents.

    I remembered that while I was with the assassins, there had been whispered rumors about 

someone called "the master" not being happy with the fact that they could not find "the boy". All I wanted was to find this "master", ask him why he wanted me, and to show him the pain that he had caused me.

                                    CHAPTER 6:
                                 A LOSS OF CONTROL

    When I awoke on my 20Th. year of life, I noticed that the morning had an eerie darkness 

to it. It was not unlike the morning of my parents death, so I was on edge and my guard was up. Lemac and myself had been asked to escort an aging king to a peace treaty signing. We also were accompanied by an elven archer, a bardic record keeper, and the kings dwarven captain of the guards. It was thought that this would be enough protection for the king, how wrong we were.

    Our trip took us through a narrow pass with cliffs on both sides of it.  Lemac had me go 

ahead and scope out the area ahead for any trouble. As I left, little did I know that this would be the last time I would see any of these people alive again.

    As I scouted ahead, I heard what I thought was thunder and decided to head back to suggest 

that we take shelter from the coming storm. On my way back my stomach began to tighten and my pulse began to race. I did not understand until I returned to my "father" and the rest of the travelers. It was not thunder that I heard, it was giant boulders that had been dropped to block off the path that we were on.

    When I climbed over one of the boulders, what I saw made me flash back to my youth.  Before 

me was death and destruction. This time I was ready for it.

    A wizard was standing at the top of one of the boulders and giving orders to assassins who 

were storming over the boulder that he was standing on. The archer took out four of these killers before the wizard killed him with a bolt of red flame, that came from his extended fingers. The bard must have fallen in the first wave, before I had returned. As the dwarf charged toward the wizard, he fell to a ghostly hand that touched him on the shoulder. At the same instance, a assassin threw a dagger and it struck the king in his heart.

    Lemac and myself fought valiantly and took out many of the assassins.  As we fought, I began 

to recognize this band of assassins as some of the ones that I had been forced to live with. This made me fight with more fierceness.

    Suddenly, the wizard jumped from his boulder and landed on the ground in front of Lemac.  

Without warning, the wizard pointed at Lemac and said " YOU ARE LOST!". My "father" dropped his sword and began to walk around aimlessly. He turned and walked directly into an assassins blade.

    I looked at the wizard and rage began to take over my whole being.  As I moved toward him, 

he pointed at me and said "YOU ARE LOST!". I stopped and suddenly began laughing at him. Why I laughed I don't know, I just looked at him and laughed. I swung my sword with more might then I had ever done so before. My sword ripped through the air and tore across the wizard's face. As he screamed, I saw his right eye fall to the ground.

    When I looked back at the wizard, he threw something at the ground and disappeared in a cloud 

of black smoke. Looking around I saw one of the assassins trying to escape. I ran over to him and grabbed him by the throat. When I questioned him, all he told me was that the "master" was still looking for the child that had vanished from Eternal Winds. When I tried to pressure him for more info, he attempted to stab me with his dagger. So I took his dagger from him and jammed it into the top of his head so that it entered the top and exited the bottom of his skull.

                                        CHAPTER 7: 
                                      THE BARBARIAN WAY

    As I looked around, the only thought I had was revenge.  I wanted to kill those resposible,  

The one eyed wizard and the "master" of the assassins.

    Suddenly I sank to the ground and threw up.  I had seen death before, but for a while I felt 

like I enjoyed the brute strength and brutallity that I felt. It seemed to protect me from the wizard's ability to make a person act lost.

    When I came to my sences, I noticed that the wizard's eye seemed to have a slight glow to it.  

For some reason I picked it up and turned it around in my fingers. The eye began to glow with a red light. When I aimed it toward the spot where the wizard had been standing, the eye glowed even brighter. It dawned on me that this eye could possibly guide me to the wizard and, since he was with the assassins, the "master".

    I placed the eye into my pouch and gathered up as many weapons as I could carry.  They could 

come in handy after all. I also collected the items that Lemac had from our adventures.

    It was time for me to find out about this fealing that I liked.  I decided to track down the 

dwarven barbarians that Lemac had told me he did not like fighting with because of their rage. It didn't take me long to find them. When I did, they were in a battle with a band of goblin raiders. Once again I let the rage build and take over my being. When the dust settled, we were the victors.

    After the battle, I decided to stay with the dwarves and learn how to control this rage.  

It turned out that controlling the rage ment using it with no regret. I soon came to enjoy and even crave the feelings that my rage gave me. The more I became enraged, the stronger I seemed to get. In time I decided that I was strong enough to take on any who wanted a part of me.

    When I left the dwarves, they gave me a metal club to, as they said, "get my point across".  

What I had not noticed was that five years had passed since the death of Lemac and my hunt for the one-eyed wizard and the "master". It was time to start my hunt, not as Torgas McGreggor the warrior but as TORGAS McGREGGOR THE BARBARIAN.

                                      CHAPTER 8: 
                                       THE VOW

    The hunt is all I think of now.  I care not for fame or glory any longer.  I do still help 

those who need to be saved, but all the while I still search for the one-eyed wizard. Thanks to his missing eye that I use like a becon to his whereabouts.

    When I enter a new land, I make it known that If anyone knows if the wizard is nearby, the 

had better tell me or else. By finding the wizard, I will find the "master" and the reason that he thought me so special.

    So if you side with darkness and evil fear my battle cry:
    TORGAS IS COMING FOR YOU !