Here is part 2 of my Diablo series, which takes place in the beginning of the second Act (of the game). Anyway, on with the fic!
"The Puppetmaster"
Part III
By Alpha Draconis
Adrian quickly wiped the sweat from his forehead as he blocked the sword blow from the burning dead. Adrian's Spiked Shield cut through the weak decayed bone of the one skeleton, and the Adrian ran to aid his Necromage and Golem who weren't holding out too well.
Adrian and his two soldiers went down into the sewers to avenge the loss of Atma's son and husband (and too vanquish evil), but Adrian insisted that Sheila, the Saber Cat whose life he saved to stay in the Inn, to alert less attention and to not hurt herself. Unfortunately, Adrian had forgot to stock up on mana potions and could not summon any more minions to help him. When they stepped down to the second level of the sewer, Radament had planned a trap, and thirty or so Burning Dead, and of course the Sand Raiders had ambushed the small group, now they were struggling to escape.
Golem and the Necromage were backed up against a wall and five Sand Raiders closed in eyes and swords gleaming. The Necromage shot out a fiery blast incinerating several of the Raiders, while Golem pummelled forward, insanely crushing the foes. Adrian's enchanted spiked torn through bone and flesh as he nimbly dodged fire arrows of the archers, but upon seeing the platoon of Skeletal Mages advancing, made a quick decision.
"Golem! Mage! Retreat! Run towards the stairs! NOW!" Adrian yelled as he blocked several arrows with his shield. Golem put down the Sand Raider Corpse and jogged towards the stairs, while the Necromage ran at full speed occasionally turning around to fire bolts of fire aiding his master.
Adrian turned and ran, but the Raiders were gaining fast, and that haggis he had for lunch wasn't sitting right, so using his remaining mana, his summoned up the one thing that could give him a head start. Bones erupted from the ground and intertwined forming a perfectly impassable, and sharp bone wall. Adrian ran to the stair with the cursing of the raiders far back in the bowels of the sewer.
Adrian, sweating and bleeding opened the door to his inn room, trailed by a crumbling Golem, and a worn out Skeletal Mage. The trio collapsed in the room. Sheila who was quietly cat napping had just awoken and noticed this.
"What the heel happened to you? You look like you gone to hell and back!" She yelled in shock.
"Nah, we just went to the sewers." Adrian said before drifting into unconsciousness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The trail of caravans creaked onwards through the deserts of Aranoch. Now that the Rogue pass was open, many of the merchants from the west were traveling back towards the Lut Gholein. There was one special guest in one of the caravans, one of the Courageous Five! It was the Barbarian, known only as The Hammer. He was a large brute, with considerably strong armour, reinforced by a layer of chain mail under it. He was Clad in his Heavy Gloves of the Fox, and his Chain Boots tainted red with the blood of his fallen enemies. He chose to wear no helmet, but his skin was as strong as leather, making a natural helmet.
He used two Maces, one of Shock, and one of Flame, or the Heavenly Striker and Hell's Flame as he calls them. He always carries a large War Hammer passed down from generation to generation in his family lineage. The Hammer was said to have been imbued by the Legendary Malus that belongs to the Rogues, but that was unverified.
Nevertheless, The Hammer used the weapon flawlessly. But now fighting was not what he had in mind. In fact he was sleeping like a baby on the roof of the caravan until...
"SPEAR CATS! GET THE CARAVANS MOVING!' The leader of the merchants hollered to the rest of the caravan troupe. Hammer lazily opened his eyes and saw twelve or so Spear Cats running from behind a sand dune, down towards the caravans with a murderous glint in their eyes. One particularly large Cat had a large whip and barked out orders to her minions. The Hammer lazily reached into his pack, pulled out Hell's flame and tossed it at the head cat. The mace crushed into the feline head with a burst of fire instantly killing her and shocking the other cats. The cats all turned and bared their teeth at the Barbarian who now stood atop the caravan, the sun glinting off of him, with a menacing smile and the large war hammer loosely held in his left hand. The Spear cats charged at once, while the Hammer dove from atop the Caravan and rushed to meet his foes. Time seemed to slow down incredibly as the Hammer ran upwards on the sand dune and swung his War Hammer sending a Spear Cat flying, as he continued to run and swung the hammer back in the opposite direction impaling a Spear cat and sending her flying alongside her sister cat. The barbarian was swarmed when three cats lunged on him but were flung off like rag dolls when he yelled out his terrifying war cry. Now the only cat left lay forty feet in front of him. She smirked, readied her javelin, and charged forward. The barbarian ran forward and powerfully threw his hammer at the cat that ducked and dodged his attack, yet both combatants kept charging each other in this deadly game of chicken. When it looked like the hammer would fall to the ground, it arched back like a boomerang, sailing inches past the cat's head, landing in the waiting palms of the barbarian who swung it mightier.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!" He yelled as he swung the hammer upon the cat unmercifully. She stood no chance. The barbarian retrieved his mace and several hundred gold from the corpse and walked back to the now cheering merchants, chanting his name.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alone atop a large stone pillar unnoticed by the barbarian or the merchants, stood lone one Huntress. She looked like a normal feline, except she looked like an Egyptian priestess (minding that she is a black cat/human. In her right hand she held a Green sceptre shaped to that of a emerald green cobra, with a perfect skull it its mouth, and a ruby on its back; a true marvel of the forge. In her free hand, she loosely held an oil potion. The feline priestess had watched the entire battle and studied the barbarian, memorizing every weakness, calculating his thought patterns. She looked down upon the merchants who were praising the warrior.
"Fools," She said, "They will be dead within several days." She gazed down upon them again. "The Necromancer has complicated my plans, but hopefully everything will fall into place." She smiled at her own plan. "What a surprise it will be for the rest of the Courageous Five to come to Lut Gholein to find their comrades dead. Eradicating these fools will be easier than expected. I can believe that whore Andariel fell victim to these... nothings." She thought back to the Saber Cats, and sneered. "Those fools couldn't even kill one rebel Saber Cat without screwing everything up. Still... these two warriors may pose some threat. Radament will not be able to stand up to them... for a while anyway." The caravans were moving on. "I must make my moves carefully, all could still be lost." She ended watching the caravans travel out of sight.
Adrian awoke in his bed, with his wounds treated and bandaged. He looked around to find his minions waiting for him at the foot of his bed, well the Necromage was, his Golem as sleeping like a uh, rock. Adrian stood up from his bed, still groggy from the battle with the undead. He walked over to his Necromage and tried to get the story of what had happened.
"Uh, would you mind telling me what happened?" Adrian asked his fire Necromage. The Necromage replied in a harsh voice.
"The feline used your remaining healing potions to heal your wounds."
"Is that so..." Adrian thought walking into the main room of the inn room and spoke to Shelia, who was trying to repair a whip of hers.
"My mage told me you did..." Adrian
"So." She quickly replied, while still repairing the whip.
"So you saved my life... and thank you." He finished. Shelia turned away trying hard not to blush. No one had ever thanked her for anything. Ever since she was a kitten, all she knew of was treachery, deception, and evil. But this warrior seemed... different. She was told Necromancers were treacherous evil sorcerers only looking out for number one, but nearly everything she had learned had turned out to be lies. When she hunted humans with her pack, the warriors they faced were fearless, and cold hearted, but Adrian seemed somehow different.
"Uh, Shelia?" Adrian asked.
"Yes?" She replied.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" He timidly asked. Sheila seemed intrigued.
"Okay."
"Why were the other Sabre Cats going to kill you?"
Sheila closed her eyes remembering her past and spoke.
"My pack had taken out several caravans and we were killing off any survivors. I entered one caravan, and there lay a deceased human female. She must have banged her head or something, but she protected he infant in her arms. That day changed my life. Seeing that human child, and what we had ultimately done to its mother, made me realise that the humans weren't the monsters, but we were."
Adrian was shocked, interested and confused, but still listened on. "When my pack's leader ordered me to kill the child I refused, and they saw me as a heretic. I was imprisoned for several days, and then they dragged me into the desert. That's when you rescued me." He ended looking away from him REALLY trying not to blush. Before either could speak, there cam e pounding on the room's door.
"Quick! Hide!" Adrian yelled as quietly as possible. He went to the door as Sheila dove under the bed. Adrian opened the door to find his friend Warriv.
"Warriv?"
"Good news my friend, the second group of caravans have arrived! And with them your barbarian friend!" Warriv cheerfully informed.
"ALL RIGHT!" Adrian yelled running past Warriv, and jumping down the inn stairs with his two minions desperately trying to catch up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hammer stepped out of the caravan and onto the sandy ground of Lut Gholein. With the wind blowing in his face and the sun high in the sky, it was a beautiful day. Wait a second who was that running towards him? Adrian? My god, it is Adrian!
"ADRIAN!" The fierce barbarian bellowed.
"Hey Ardy!" The Necromancer replied as he ran up to his friend.
"Uh, would you mind not calling me by my name while were in public?"
"Okay... Ardy."
"Seriously, if you say my name one more time, I'll take this war hammer and jam it up your ass!"
"Still the same old barbarian, anyway I've rented a room at the local inn, are you?"
"Sure see you there later."
"Bye, and watch out for the Itches!"
"I HATE bugs." Ardy, err... The Hammer muttered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hammer paid the room fee and collected his room key from Elzix.
"Here's you room, number 4 on the second floor your right across the Necromancer, and the woman."
"Good, that's- WHAT?! Adrian has a woman with him?"
"Well sure, he came here carrying her in both his arms. I haven't seen her yet but I hear them talking every now and then."
"He-He, that dog. I wonder who it is?" He said walking up the stairs towards his room. He paused and looked at Adrian's room. He heard two people talking quietly. He thought for a minute and decided to see who it was.
"Hey Adrian, my room's right across from yours and-" He froze when he saw that the 'woman' was actually a Sabre Cat.
"I can explain!" The Necromancer yelled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's not what you think!" Adrian began.
"Oh so you're saying you didn't take a Sabre Cat, one of our enemies into this populated city, and keeping her a secret?"
Adrian had no reply.
"Well?" the barbarian pushed.
"Hey leave him out of this!" Shelia defended.
"Yeah at least hear me out." Adrian retorted.
"Fine."
"She was exiled from her pack for not killing a human child, she would've died if I hadn't have rescued her from the other Sabre Cats and treated her wounds. If everyone in town knew of her, she'd be one dead kitty."
The barbarian sighed at his friend's kind and trusting nature.
"You're taking an awfully big risk here Adrian."
"From where I'm standing, it's no risk."
TO BE CONTINUED
Next Time- Death of Radament? Where's the Horadric Cube? And what of this Feline Sorcerer? To Be Answered in Part IV!!!!
"The Puppetmaster"
Part III
By Alpha Draconis
Adrian quickly wiped the sweat from his forehead as he blocked the sword blow from the burning dead. Adrian's Spiked Shield cut through the weak decayed bone of the one skeleton, and the Adrian ran to aid his Necromage and Golem who weren't holding out too well.
Adrian and his two soldiers went down into the sewers to avenge the loss of Atma's son and husband (and too vanquish evil), but Adrian insisted that Sheila, the Saber Cat whose life he saved to stay in the Inn, to alert less attention and to not hurt herself. Unfortunately, Adrian had forgot to stock up on mana potions and could not summon any more minions to help him. When they stepped down to the second level of the sewer, Radament had planned a trap, and thirty or so Burning Dead, and of course the Sand Raiders had ambushed the small group, now they were struggling to escape.
Golem and the Necromage were backed up against a wall and five Sand Raiders closed in eyes and swords gleaming. The Necromage shot out a fiery blast incinerating several of the Raiders, while Golem pummelled forward, insanely crushing the foes. Adrian's enchanted spiked torn through bone and flesh as he nimbly dodged fire arrows of the archers, but upon seeing the platoon of Skeletal Mages advancing, made a quick decision.
"Golem! Mage! Retreat! Run towards the stairs! NOW!" Adrian yelled as he blocked several arrows with his shield. Golem put down the Sand Raider Corpse and jogged towards the stairs, while the Necromage ran at full speed occasionally turning around to fire bolts of fire aiding his master.
Adrian turned and ran, but the Raiders were gaining fast, and that haggis he had for lunch wasn't sitting right, so using his remaining mana, his summoned up the one thing that could give him a head start. Bones erupted from the ground and intertwined forming a perfectly impassable, and sharp bone wall. Adrian ran to the stair with the cursing of the raiders far back in the bowels of the sewer.
Adrian, sweating and bleeding opened the door to his inn room, trailed by a crumbling Golem, and a worn out Skeletal Mage. The trio collapsed in the room. Sheila who was quietly cat napping had just awoken and noticed this.
"What the heel happened to you? You look like you gone to hell and back!" She yelled in shock.
"Nah, we just went to the sewers." Adrian said before drifting into unconsciousness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The trail of caravans creaked onwards through the deserts of Aranoch. Now that the Rogue pass was open, many of the merchants from the west were traveling back towards the Lut Gholein. There was one special guest in one of the caravans, one of the Courageous Five! It was the Barbarian, known only as The Hammer. He was a large brute, with considerably strong armour, reinforced by a layer of chain mail under it. He was Clad in his Heavy Gloves of the Fox, and his Chain Boots tainted red with the blood of his fallen enemies. He chose to wear no helmet, but his skin was as strong as leather, making a natural helmet.
He used two Maces, one of Shock, and one of Flame, or the Heavenly Striker and Hell's Flame as he calls them. He always carries a large War Hammer passed down from generation to generation in his family lineage. The Hammer was said to have been imbued by the Legendary Malus that belongs to the Rogues, but that was unverified.
Nevertheless, The Hammer used the weapon flawlessly. But now fighting was not what he had in mind. In fact he was sleeping like a baby on the roof of the caravan until...
"SPEAR CATS! GET THE CARAVANS MOVING!' The leader of the merchants hollered to the rest of the caravan troupe. Hammer lazily opened his eyes and saw twelve or so Spear Cats running from behind a sand dune, down towards the caravans with a murderous glint in their eyes. One particularly large Cat had a large whip and barked out orders to her minions. The Hammer lazily reached into his pack, pulled out Hell's flame and tossed it at the head cat. The mace crushed into the feline head with a burst of fire instantly killing her and shocking the other cats. The cats all turned and bared their teeth at the Barbarian who now stood atop the caravan, the sun glinting off of him, with a menacing smile and the large war hammer loosely held in his left hand. The Spear cats charged at once, while the Hammer dove from atop the Caravan and rushed to meet his foes. Time seemed to slow down incredibly as the Hammer ran upwards on the sand dune and swung his War Hammer sending a Spear Cat flying, as he continued to run and swung the hammer back in the opposite direction impaling a Spear cat and sending her flying alongside her sister cat. The barbarian was swarmed when three cats lunged on him but were flung off like rag dolls when he yelled out his terrifying war cry. Now the only cat left lay forty feet in front of him. She smirked, readied her javelin, and charged forward. The barbarian ran forward and powerfully threw his hammer at the cat that ducked and dodged his attack, yet both combatants kept charging each other in this deadly game of chicken. When it looked like the hammer would fall to the ground, it arched back like a boomerang, sailing inches past the cat's head, landing in the waiting palms of the barbarian who swung it mightier.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!" He yelled as he swung the hammer upon the cat unmercifully. She stood no chance. The barbarian retrieved his mace and several hundred gold from the corpse and walked back to the now cheering merchants, chanting his name.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alone atop a large stone pillar unnoticed by the barbarian or the merchants, stood lone one Huntress. She looked like a normal feline, except she looked like an Egyptian priestess (minding that she is a black cat/human. In her right hand she held a Green sceptre shaped to that of a emerald green cobra, with a perfect skull it its mouth, and a ruby on its back; a true marvel of the forge. In her free hand, she loosely held an oil potion. The feline priestess had watched the entire battle and studied the barbarian, memorizing every weakness, calculating his thought patterns. She looked down upon the merchants who were praising the warrior.
"Fools," She said, "They will be dead within several days." She gazed down upon them again. "The Necromancer has complicated my plans, but hopefully everything will fall into place." She smiled at her own plan. "What a surprise it will be for the rest of the Courageous Five to come to Lut Gholein to find their comrades dead. Eradicating these fools will be easier than expected. I can believe that whore Andariel fell victim to these... nothings." She thought back to the Saber Cats, and sneered. "Those fools couldn't even kill one rebel Saber Cat without screwing everything up. Still... these two warriors may pose some threat. Radament will not be able to stand up to them... for a while anyway." The caravans were moving on. "I must make my moves carefully, all could still be lost." She ended watching the caravans travel out of sight.
Adrian awoke in his bed, with his wounds treated and bandaged. He looked around to find his minions waiting for him at the foot of his bed, well the Necromage was, his Golem as sleeping like a uh, rock. Adrian stood up from his bed, still groggy from the battle with the undead. He walked over to his Necromage and tried to get the story of what had happened.
"Uh, would you mind telling me what happened?" Adrian asked his fire Necromage. The Necromage replied in a harsh voice.
"The feline used your remaining healing potions to heal your wounds."
"Is that so..." Adrian thought walking into the main room of the inn room and spoke to Shelia, who was trying to repair a whip of hers.
"My mage told me you did..." Adrian
"So." She quickly replied, while still repairing the whip.
"So you saved my life... and thank you." He finished. Shelia turned away trying hard not to blush. No one had ever thanked her for anything. Ever since she was a kitten, all she knew of was treachery, deception, and evil. But this warrior seemed... different. She was told Necromancers were treacherous evil sorcerers only looking out for number one, but nearly everything she had learned had turned out to be lies. When she hunted humans with her pack, the warriors they faced were fearless, and cold hearted, but Adrian seemed somehow different.
"Uh, Shelia?" Adrian asked.
"Yes?" She replied.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" He timidly asked. Sheila seemed intrigued.
"Okay."
"Why were the other Sabre Cats going to kill you?"
Sheila closed her eyes remembering her past and spoke.
"My pack had taken out several caravans and we were killing off any survivors. I entered one caravan, and there lay a deceased human female. She must have banged her head or something, but she protected he infant in her arms. That day changed my life. Seeing that human child, and what we had ultimately done to its mother, made me realise that the humans weren't the monsters, but we were."
Adrian was shocked, interested and confused, but still listened on. "When my pack's leader ordered me to kill the child I refused, and they saw me as a heretic. I was imprisoned for several days, and then they dragged me into the desert. That's when you rescued me." He ended looking away from him REALLY trying not to blush. Before either could speak, there cam e pounding on the room's door.
"Quick! Hide!" Adrian yelled as quietly as possible. He went to the door as Sheila dove under the bed. Adrian opened the door to find his friend Warriv.
"Warriv?"
"Good news my friend, the second group of caravans have arrived! And with them your barbarian friend!" Warriv cheerfully informed.
"ALL RIGHT!" Adrian yelled running past Warriv, and jumping down the inn stairs with his two minions desperately trying to catch up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hammer stepped out of the caravan and onto the sandy ground of Lut Gholein. With the wind blowing in his face and the sun high in the sky, it was a beautiful day. Wait a second who was that running towards him? Adrian? My god, it is Adrian!
"ADRIAN!" The fierce barbarian bellowed.
"Hey Ardy!" The Necromancer replied as he ran up to his friend.
"Uh, would you mind not calling me by my name while were in public?"
"Okay... Ardy."
"Seriously, if you say my name one more time, I'll take this war hammer and jam it up your ass!"
"Still the same old barbarian, anyway I've rented a room at the local inn, are you?"
"Sure see you there later."
"Bye, and watch out for the Itches!"
"I HATE bugs." Ardy, err... The Hammer muttered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hammer paid the room fee and collected his room key from Elzix.
"Here's you room, number 4 on the second floor your right across the Necromancer, and the woman."
"Good, that's- WHAT?! Adrian has a woman with him?"
"Well sure, he came here carrying her in both his arms. I haven't seen her yet but I hear them talking every now and then."
"He-He, that dog. I wonder who it is?" He said walking up the stairs towards his room. He paused and looked at Adrian's room. He heard two people talking quietly. He thought for a minute and decided to see who it was.
"Hey Adrian, my room's right across from yours and-" He froze when he saw that the 'woman' was actually a Sabre Cat.
"I can explain!" The Necromancer yelled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's not what you think!" Adrian began.
"Oh so you're saying you didn't take a Sabre Cat, one of our enemies into this populated city, and keeping her a secret?"
Adrian had no reply.
"Well?" the barbarian pushed.
"Hey leave him out of this!" Shelia defended.
"Yeah at least hear me out." Adrian retorted.
"Fine."
"She was exiled from her pack for not killing a human child, she would've died if I hadn't have rescued her from the other Sabre Cats and treated her wounds. If everyone in town knew of her, she'd be one dead kitty."
The barbarian sighed at his friend's kind and trusting nature.
"You're taking an awfully big risk here Adrian."
"From where I'm standing, it's no risk."
TO BE CONTINUED
Next Time- Death of Radament? Where's the Horadric Cube? And what of this Feline Sorcerer? To Be Answered in Part IV!!!!