Antiheroes

An evil has risen in the land, one that, if not dealt with, threatens to start a war which would include the gods themselves. To counter it, the realm must call on its greatest heroes, its most courageous adventurers. Unfortunately, those great heroes, those brave adventurers, are all busy - being dead mostly. So it is left to Dannen Ateran, known in his youth as the Bloody Butcher, but more recently as the passed-out drunk at the table in the corner, to lead his companions against an army of the dead.

Hero checklist for a long and happy life - Dannen Ateran had never gone so far as to write the list out, but he knew it by heart. He ought to, as he had been telling it to himself for years, and he - fool that he was - had been ignoring it for just as long. So it was that he found himself standing beside Fedder, Mariana, and Tesler, watching as an undead dragon soared toward them.

Dannen Ateran spent the week following his battle with the necromancer and his undead army doing exactly what he enjoyed most—nothing. Certainly nothing heroic. At least nothing more heroic than lying in Claire's bed and reveling in the feeling of having no one try to kill him. At least, that was, until Perandius summoned him to the land of the gods once more with a mission to rescue a shepherd boy foretold of in prophecy.

The worst thing about a man being led to his execution—aside from the whole impending death bit—was that he immediately tried to figure out what choice had brought him there. Which Dannen thought was ridiculous. The one possible comfort a man could have, when faced with his own death, was that things simply could not get any worse. The problem, of course, was that things could always get worse.