Confusion. Rage. Hunger.

Wraiths felt very few emotions beyond the negatives. The Undead Ghosts were little more than echoes of their past lives. Shadows of what had been. Swirling above the city, they loom on high, waiting to harvest the souls of the dying. Hundreds of them blend in with the darkened sky, wailing in perpetual torment. It’s a discordant melody and, once it falls upon the ears of the Dray’Mel citizens, it strikes fear into their hearts.

And yet, a distant call rings out, a subtle noise that ebbs and wanes before piercing into the pack of Undead. Without any hesitation, a lone Wraith swoops down and is pulled away from the rest. The simple-minded creature fails to notice that the others don’t react, leaving it to plunge down into Dray’Mel alone. It quickly makes its way to the source of the call, phasing through stone and brick, before bursting into a large open room.

The single-minded Undead naturally failed to notice the arcane glyphs surrounding the walls, nor did it notice the humans funneling their Mana into the strange objects littered amongst the room. No, the only thing it had eyes for was the massive Core calling out to it.

If it could see the Core, it would see a bastardized version of a human heart. Its veins and ventricles were made from rare ores, the likes of which most miners only dreamed of discovering when chipping deep into the land. Instead of blood, it was magical energy that pumped through the hollowed tunnels. And, like the human organ it had been built to resemble, it pumped this power through at a rhythm that was slowly beginning to build to a crescendo.

Following its base instincts, the Wraith blindly lurched forward, flowing into the Core, feeling its essence bleed outwards, merging with the Core in a way that it couldn’t comprehend. It never questioned its actions, working on a naturalistic urge that, if it spoke, it wouldn’t be able to explain.

As it intertwined with the Core, its fearsome loathing and hunger meet unending patience and acceptance. Mingling with one another, the Core began to crackle with Mana before the runes along the wall lit up and rendered the Core inert. What little remained of the Wraith was lost to wander in unending fog, the dim-witted creature unable to come to terms with its murky fate.

After an unknowable amount of time, however, the Wraith felt a jolt of Mana course through it like lightning, jolting it awake. Straining against the Core, the once-Wraith slowly realized it could feel its body, a solid, corporeal body, for the first time in as long as it could remember. Shifting its arms felt like an exceptional effort as the creature blindly reached out, desperate to move, to flee, to live once more. Its sense of touch, lost upon becoming Undead, returned to it as it clenched its fingers around something… solid.

Squeezing with all its might, the Undead ghost felt a new bodily sense ringing out, the coarse sensation of rubble crushing beneath its palms. Its vision slowly returned, but its eyesight had changed… almost as though it had suddenly grown dim and faded as if it was seeing the world through a filter of grey wool.

Casting its vision carefully back and forth, the Wraith-turned-corporeal immediately notes rows and rows of rock-like constructs, standing in single file and staring into nothing. The only Golem of note, however, lies before the Undead, its rocky body torn asunder by the Corporeal Wraith's new hands.

Looking down at its own body, the reborn Wraith realizes the same worn stone that of the surrounding Golem’s bodies constitutes its newfound flesh as well. Opening its mouth to scream, no sound escapes, its vocal cords unbudging even as it pours all its focus into crying out.

The Wraith staggered to the side as feelings of rage and impotence began to overwhelm it. Pressing into another Golem, the Corporeal Wraith acted on instinct as it lashed out around itself, blows raining down on the silent constructs surrounding it. Each blow bursts the lifeless Golems asunder, tiny shrapnel flying around the room, causing a cascade of violence and destruction.

Standing amidst the rubble of its now-deceased foes, the Wraith-Golem finally regained its temper. Each thought it managed to push forward seemed to be more difficult than the last, the Undead beast barely able to control itself. Thankfully, a cursory look around the rather large room it was currently stuck in, revealed a door to potential freedom. Slow lumbering steps brought it closer, but right as the sentient Golem reached the door, it was suddenly wrenched open by a small Human screaming bloody murder as it stepped into the room.

Both the rather sharply dressed man and the hulking behemoth of stone stood momentarily frozen as they locked eyes. But as the man staggered backwards in startled fear, the Wraith-Golem moved on instinct, charging forward towards this new threat.

Lunging to the side, the terrified man barely bodily tossed himself out the way, just in time to watch as the Golem smashed its way past him and through the wall behind him, the warehouse around him shuddering...

Freed from its apparent imprisonment and understandably disoriented, the Sentient Golem stood in a pile of rubble as it stared around itself. An overwhelming sight greeted it, bright lights and crowded buildings looked over it. Much more attention-grabbing, however, were the dozens of confused and surprised pedestrians who simply locked eyes with the rampaging Golem for a long moment.

As with all things, the moment passed, and with bloodcurdling screams of fear, the citizens began sprinting for cover, most simply dropping whatever they’d been holding, quite rightly valuing their lives more than their meager possessions.

It didn’t take more than a few minutes for the street to clear, leaving the Golem alone as it tried to understand its new surroundings. Lumbering forward, its roaming eyes sweep past an ornate fountain and a few boutiques before landing on the front of the building it has just escaped. Lined up nicely on the windowsill stood two Golems, their vacant expressions a mirror to its own.

Lifting its thick stone hands, the once-Wraith felt its own sturdy rock-hard face as it confirmed its suspicions. The same granite scowl was chiseled onto its own countenance, the rocky hide making up the Golem’s body a mirror to its own. The sole difference seemed to be that the other Golems remained inert, staring blankly off into the horizon. Taking a tentative step towards them, the self-aware newborn Golem felt an urge to question its stony brothers… but was distracted by a sudden blossom of pain erupting from its back.

Twisting towards its unseen foe, the ten feet tall Golem turned to find an equally large Skeletal Guard bringing its massive sword to bear against him. Adorned in blackened plate armor emblazoned with fiery glyphs, the flesh-stripped skull of the Skeleton remained focused on its target as it brought its Greatsword to bear. It’s unnerving empty eye sockets glowed with intent, and the hulking metal blade came crashing down against the Golem’s form, scraping a deep wound into the Golem’s chest.

Stumbling backward from the pain, the Golem-Wraith took one long look at its new adversary... and promptly fled blindly. Off-balance and blindsided by another blow that carved deep into its side, the Golem tripped on the stone lip of the rather fancy fountain. Landing directly on its front with a mighty splash, it felt the marble fountain floor give way as it burst downwards in a shower of rubble and water to the open sewer below.

Disoriented as it was, the Golem struggled to right itself, causing more and more damage to its new environment. Finally lurching to its feet, it barely noted the damp hallways and assorted pipework running through the walls. No, it simply chose to stumble forward, the water pressure from above nudging him in a random direction that was as good as any. With each trembling step the Golem took, it began to get a feel for its new ungainly body, each step becoming more coordinated than the last.

Before long the Golem was sprinting down winding paths, barely noticing the occasional sewer denizen, most simply being run over by the massive boulder of a Golem, and the occasional unlucky creature being run -through- instead. After what felt like a safe amount of time, the Golem found itself staggering to a halt as it entered a larger cavern, the dank smell of fetid water finally registering itself to it.

Rusty pipes protruded from the walls in a variety of shapes and sizes, each discharging thick black goop that pooled into a foul river of sorts. Taking a moment to recuperate itself, the Golem was surprised to realize it wasn’t alone in the cavern. Frozen in its spot in the midst of the foul water, what appeared to be a rather small humanoid stared up at it in shock.

In fact, the small green creature locked eyes with the Golem, both of them fearing the other, one for good reason. From the looks of it, the green humanoid had been caught in the act of rolling in the sewage water, black tar dripping from its scrawny frame. Careful not to make any sudden movements, the green beast slowly began to back away as it realized the Golem appeared to be frozen in fear.

Though this new threat was barely able to reach its knees, the Golem had thus far felt attacked by each other creature it had seen. After all, its inert brothers were clearly asking for a beating. Still, as the diminutive green beast retreated a safe distance away, the Golem began to relax, leaning its firm stone back against the wall to the sound of scraping rocks.

Safely reaching an exit to the cavern, the green beast ducked around the corner. Still, it was only a few minutes later that the Goblin poked its head back into the cavern, a curious look twisting its facial muscles. Slowly inching back into the room, the Goblin once more began to play in the black waters, as if daring the Golem to attack with its very presence.

Watching with interest, the Golem felt an urge to test the water as well. Why was this black sludge worth this green foe’s attention? Reaching down with its thick fingers, it scooped the sludge up and watched as it dribbled downwards, reabsorbing into the waste around its craggy feet.

It wasn't long before the Golem began to happily throw the goop around, splashing the dark liquid everywhere. While the foul smell increased, it felt it was well worth the price as it began truly tossing the goop everywhere, dragging its arms through the mud and causing large waves of fetid water to splash against the cavern walls. It was only after a few minutes of excitement that it realized the green beast had begun to do the same and even going so far as to toss the goop at the Golem himself.

Fear forgotten in favor of this new exciting sense of adventure, the Golem had no intention of being outdone. Scooping heaps of heavy sludge towards the green beast, the Golem quickly tossed enough goop to completely coat the goblin in multiple layers of filth. Still, the beast seemed amused, and before the Golem realized it, the creature was beside him, grinning happily as it played in the muck, tossing it against the Golem’s sneering face.

Torn between the sudden flash of fear that demanded the Golem flee from the tiny creature and the urge to continue playing with the first thing it had found that didn’t seem afraid or angry of it, the Golem chose to continue playing with the sludge and in turn, the green beast.

Sadly it wasn’t long after that decision that the Golem and the Goblin heard a racket of noise coming down the tunnels. Its head peeking up, the Goblin was quick to prepare to flee, before pausing. Tapping on the Golem’s arm, the beast began speaking in a foreign language before beginning to head deeper into the sewers.

It was aware of some of the words… run… quick…it knew those from before. The Goblin was making another noise, over and over again. It sounded like…a name? Ornn?

Ornn.

Stopping a few steps away, the drenched Goblin turned to Ornn and beckoned it onwards. Heeding the approaching racket, Ornn did the only sensible thing. Following the one thing that hadn’t shown him any aggression, the Golem happily chased after the yellowish-green Goblin into the heart of the sewers, its heavy footsteps resounding through the tight corridors.