Sacred: Underworld 2.24 UK/AU

Sacred: Underworld continues to tell the story of the kingdom of Ancaria, which is now facing a dreadful threat coming from its very depths. After Shaddar's demise, the player is drawn into the depths and faces a completely new, bizarre, bright and vast underworld. After many adventures above and below the world's surface, the hero will finally stand before the Portal of Hell, in an intense and dramatic climax of an extraordinary story.

In his fortress of Shaddar-Nur, the necromancer Shaddar, a pariah of the Band of Mages from Mystdale Castle, plans his triumphant return to the world of Ancaria: To strengthen his magic powers, he summons a Sakkara Demon, whose power he will absorb himself. These Sakkara Demons rule over those damned to rot in hell, the undead. Not since the Era of the Gods have any of these creatures set foot in Ancaria, not since the Seraphim army drove them back to their dimension during the Wars of the Gods. However, Shaddar's experiment fails. The Sakkara Demon escapes and turns on his summoner

In the south of the Kingdom, the village of Bellevue is beset by robbers and slave traders sent by the Sakkara Sect to find suitable victims for their unholy magic rituals. At the same time, the Kingdom is infiltrated by Goblins, forerunners of the Orcs of Khorad-Nur. Under the command of Sergeant Treville, a loyal veteran of Prince Valor, the heroes first fight in the lands bordering the Orcish wastelands against attacks by the Goblins and the Orcs, who are leaving their desert in hordes and venturing ever deeper into the Kingdom of the dying King Aarnum.

In order to repel the enemy troops at Wyvern Pass, Prince Valor dispatches the heroes to ask Baron DeMordrey, the King's power-hungry Field Marshal, for reinforcements. However, DeMordrey orders his notorious Sharuka Guards to kill the heroes and sends the Orcs to massacre the Prince's troops at Wyvern Pass.

Returning to the battlefield after narrowly escaping the assassination attempt by the Sharuka Guards, the heroes find the fatally wounded Treville, who tells them that Prince Valor managed to escape to his mistress, Vilya, Baroness of Mascarell.

By the time the heroes reach the Barony of Mascarell, Baron DeMordrey has taken control of Ancaria following the death of Aarnum and his troops have occupied large areas of the country.

The heroes manage to rescue Baroness Vilya, who leads them to Tyr-Fasul, a long-forgotten forest stronghold in the Land of the Elves. The Prince, who is now believed to be dead, and his few remaining followers take refuge here.

Acting on the orders of the court sorceress Shareefa, one of the Prince's confidantes, the heroes discover in Khorad-Nur, the fortified desert town of the Orcs, what is driving the Orcs from their homeland: The Sakkara Demon has raised hordes of the undead from their graves and they have now turned this swath of land into an anteroom of hell.

Meanwhile, the Prince, who has secretly returned to his capital Braverock Castle, which is occupied by DeMordrey, is planning a rebellion against the usurper. While the Kingdom splits into regions plagued by rebellion, DeMordrey's oppression, Dark Elf opportunists, sectarians and villages overrun by the undead, the heroes and Shareefa repair to the fortified monastery of the Seraphim, a thousand-year-old bastion against the barbaric Ice Giants. There, they study the ancient scriptures of the Wars of the Gods, which describe how the Seraphim once defeated the Sakkara Demon.

Five elements must be found and the heroes now search the length and breadth of the entire Kingdom and beyond for them. In the deepest recesses of Shaddar-Nur, which has been ravaged by the Demon, they finally uncover Shaddar's records describing the summoning of Demons as well as the fifth element of space...

However, in order to combine these elements into a weapon to be used against the Demons, they must reach the ancestral forge, located deep beneath the royal palace. Together with Prince Valor and the last of his followers, the heroes recapture the capital and kill the unlawful Regent DeMordrey and Prince Valor takes his dead father's crown.

With the help of Shareefa, the heroes combine the five elements to create the Heart of Ancaria. This metaphysical soul of the world forms a nexus that can rob the Demon of its power. The heroes end up fighting the Sakkara Demon that was summoned up by Shareefa. However, the defeat of this creature sets events in motion that will change the face of Ancaria...

What's New in This Release:

� Recurring Bugs in "Chain Lightning" fixed. � Lag issues through frequent use of "Tentacle" spell fixed. � If you dismount from a horse directly near a cave, go into the cave and return, not only did the horse become irreversibly invisible but the player also, at least while riding. Fixed. � If a mage binds a mounted character by way of a magic spell the horse won't move anymore, even if the spell has ended. Fixed.. � Weapons of Shadow Guards were wrongfully displayed between their legs. Fixed. � Skill value overflow for some characters. Fixed. � LAN / Open Net start button not always functional. Fixed. � Horse riding no longer counts as inactivity in Multiplayer games. � Fixed a bug in [i]Pigeon Pottpercy[/i] subquest: Three pirates did not always appear or were not applicable to quest. � Fixed LAN / Open Net bug in Ancaria [i]The Forge of the Elders[/i] mainquest. Occasionally not possible to summon the demon because Shareefa disappeared. � Some possible causes for ingame freezes were fixed.[/list]