RedLady: We are back. Sorry it took so long. I'm so disappointed. Why do not many people leave reviews? I thought this was an excellent story. Are we bad? Does it not appeal to the public eye? I don't understand. (Yes I am complaining. He, He.) So um, review if you are reading this. If you don't like it then please tell us how we could make it better.
Chapter 5: Snakes and Pranks
Effie and Fury walked in silence into the temple. It was dark and nothing stirred. They walked deeper and deeper into the cave.
"I wonder why we haven't run into anything creepy and slimy?" Effie whispered. Fury put his finger to his lips, but something had already discovered their presence.
"Whats ares yousa doing here in oursa templesses . . . " a voice spoke whispered harshly from the darkness.
"We've come to kill you!" Effie yelled. "If you are the ravenous Claw Vipers that is."
An angry raspy growl was heard from the darkness and suddenly millions of pairs of eyes lit up in the darkness. The eyes gave off an eerie yellowish glow and both Effie and Fury gulped nervously as the eyes let them see the vast amounts of the snake like monsters.
There were so many surrounding them and they all gave off hisses making it impossible to think strait.
"It's been nice knowing you . . ." Fury said wearily. "You didn't have to tell them we were here to kill them." He added.
"We're not dead yet. And why lie about killing them. It was probably obvious anyway."
Effie and Fury stood back-to-back getting ready for the attack. Effie pulled out two strange metal devices and concentrated on her foes. Fury pulled out his trusty throwing spears and started yelling some strange words in his own language over and over.
"Hey I don't know what that means, but it makes me feel stronger." Effie said.
"It is an ancient war cry we use to encourage our troops." Fury explained.
"You'll have to give me a history lesson later. Right now we've got snakes to eliminate." And with that Effie threw a make shift lightning trap into the crowd of Claw Vipers and mind blasted them. The Claw Vipers returned the attack. Fury threw his spears with precise aim at any snake that came near him and continued to call out different war cries which either damaged the enemy in some way or made Fury and Effie feel stronger. Effie kicked, sliced, and mind blasted at any Snake she could.
Finally the vipers pulled back leaving them in darkness. And they were left to rest for a second. The only light came from around them, as Effie and Fury's magic somehow lit the area. Still they could not see where the Claw Vipers had gone. Fury and Effie took advantage of their rest by catching their breath and taking sips of their health and mana potions.
Suddenly hissed were heard all around them again. And the Claw Vipers formed a circle around them. The two heroes glared at the over sized snakes viciously. They waited for the next attack. Effie focusing her mind and Fury was going over war cries in his head.
But the claw vipers did not attack. They merely stood there and chanted and hissed some incomprehensible language. Effie and Fury looked around warily.
"Come and fight us, ya stupid snakes!" Effie yelled.
"I don't think it is a good idea to taunt them." Fury said with clenched teeth.
"Why? You do it." Effie said simply.
"But I'm a professional." Fury said smiling and began to taunt them.
The Claw Viper's attacked at once and then pulled back just as quickly. Effie and Fury only managed to kill two and the bodies were pulled out of the ring that the Claw Viper's had formed.
"What are they doing?" Effie asked as once again the snakes began to chant and hiss.
"I don't know."
Then they suddenly stopped and everything was silent. They stood there with their eyes glowing and Effie could only hear her heart beating and Fury's heavy breathing.
Then the biggest snake Effie had ever seen, took shape behind the Claw Vipers in front of her. She trembled with fear. She hated snakes. Especially big gigantic ones like the one forming in front of her now.
"Um, Fury." Effie said her voice trembling while pulling at Fury's arm.
"What?" Fury said annoyed.
"Fury!" Effie said in a high-pitched squeak as the huge snake began to slither its way towards them.
Fury not wanting to turn his back on the snakes in front of him simply said. "What do you want?"
"Sa . . . Sa . . . Snake . . ." She said trembling.
"Yes, I know. There are many snakes. Why are you all the sudden so worried?"
But Fury was interrupted by the most horrifying and biggest hiss he had ever heard in his life. He couldn't help but turn around and saw the biggest snake he had ever seen in his entire life leaning over them.
The Claw Vipers crept back into the shadows leaving this new huge snake to fight the two warriors. Yet still they hissed and chanted from the shadows making the two feel very weary as they glanced at the snake now towering over them.
The towering snake seemed to be laughing at them, if snakes could. It turned a fierce red color and quickly lashed out at them. Effie who seemed dazed just stood there in fear. Fury pushed her out of the way just in time as the snake tried to sink its fangs into her head.
He fell on the floor on top of her. She seemed dazed.
"Earth to Effie!" He yelled at her. "It would be nice to receive some help here!" Fury said as he ran to a corner holding Effie in his arms.
Effie seemed to wake up then, but still looked nervously at the huge snake. "What is that?" She muttered fearfully as they dodged another bite.
"Special monster . . ." Was all Fury could say as he leaped upon the snake and jabbed a spear into its skin.
The snake hissed in pain and shot venom at Fury. He was instantly covered in a green slime. "Use your traps!" Fury yelled as he stumbled to the floor shocked by the poison.
Effie threw every trap she knew of at the snake till she had no more mana left to do so. Still the snake slithered quickly over to her and brought its tail down crashing her to the floor. She swiped her weapon with all her strength at the repulsive snake and it pulled away in pain.
Fury was up again and threw all his spears at the monster. Effie threw some of the daggers she was holding in her backpack at it and it fell looking like a pincushion. Before it fell, it managed to spit venom out at the first person it saw, and the first person it saw was unfortunately Effie. She was instantly covered in the green slimy-gook and felt the life getting sucked out of her. She took a health potion, but still the pain did not go away.
The remaining Claw Vipers, mad that their leader had been destroyed decided to attack at that time. Fury and Effie used their remaining strength to fend off the claw vipers. Somehow they managed to kill the ones that attacked and the others fled in fear.
They came to a room where the sunlight penetrated. Smaller snakes fled from this room when they perceived the heroes.
"Smash the alter." Effie said pointing to an altar in the middle of the room. Fury walked over to it and letting all his frustration out brought his fists swiftly down upon the alter breaking it in two.
"They just make altars the way they used too, huh?" Fury said half-amused looking at the broken altar.
A secret compartment was revealed and inside some sort of necklace dropped out. Fury picked it up and examined the tarnished necklace with a charm of a snake-like figure at the end.
"We came all the way for this?" Fury asked and clenched it in his hand. Then he heard a snap and looked in astonishment at the necklace.
"Umm, Effie?" Fury said. Effie looked over at him wearily with a headache.
"Yes?" She grumbled.
"I think I broke the Claw Viper Amulet." He said sheepishly.
"What!" Effie yelled, but suddenly fainted from the snake's poison.
She awoke with Fara and Fury leaning over her. She looked around confused. She was on the ground in the town square.
"How did I get here?" Effie said confused. "You had been poisoned." Fara said simply. "But I am happy to serve you." Fara reassured smiling down at her.
"Yeah. You had me worried there for a second." Fury added.
"Even Fury here almost fainted as well." Fara announced. "He brought you here as well as the Claw Viper Amulet which seemed to be a little mishandled." Fara said with a smile on her face and handed the amulet to Effie.
"I didn't almost faint. And I didn't know they made necklaces so brittle." He said sheepishly and helped Effie up. Then Effie looked angrily at Fury and hit him on the shoulder.
"Ow!" He complained. "What was that for?"
"You broke the amulet. How could you?"
"I got it fixed." Fury argued softly.
Just then they saw a familiar figure disappear into a portal on the far side of the town square.
"Was that who I think it was?" Effie asked suspiciously.
"I don't know. Was it?" Fury said not knowing what else to say.
"I wonder what that dimwitted Necromancer is up too." She said and walked to her room.
"At least the sun is restored." Fury said noticing the bright orb of the sky. He followed quickly behind Effie.
Too bad they both didn't know that in Effie's room a surprise was awaiting them.
~*~
Fury was walking Effie to her room. When he opened the door a bucket of water fell on him. When he tried to move out of the way, he realized his foot was glued to the floor. Then holes opened up in the wall and started shooting Effie with water. Then Effie tripped on an uneven floorboard and rats started skittering out. Then the rats opened their mouths and started squirting out water.
Effie and Fury were getting really angry. Then Effie said, "Fury can you take off your shirt?"
Fury looked at her in surprise not expecting that particular request to come out of her mouth.
"But why?" He asked confused.
"Just give it to me; you'll find out." She answered.
So Fury took off his shirt and Effie started furiously wiping up the floor and killing all the rats. After she was done, the room somehow looked like nothing had ever happened; yet Fury's shirt looked about a hundred years old.
"How did you do that?" Fury asked amazed.
Effie looked on proudly. "All it needed was a woman's touch."
"What am I supposed to do with my shirt now?" Fury asked eying his shirt wearily.
Effie answered, "Throw it into the sewers. I'm gonna go to bed and think of a plan against the '$@&*%+!' Necromancer."
In the middle of the night Effie woke up to find that her bed had collapsed. She started making some special traps with water inside them. She made a special type of katar that had a retractable blade that couldn't kill anything. Then she went back to her collapsed bed. It was then that she found out her sheets had shrunk.
She angrily tried to ignore the discomfort of the bed (thanks to the Necromancer's pranks) and relished the plan of revenge she had in mind for the Necromancer.
The Necromancer came back to town with a bunch of treasure, sorted out all the good stuff, and laid the rest next to Fury and Effie's stash. When he got into the sewers to go to bed, he saw a really strange shirt that looked like Fury's. He went to Fara to repair it and put it under his armor.
"I would also like a loin cloth and a lion helmet." He said to Fara.
Fara explained, "We do not sell loin cloths, but here is some scissors and you can make one for yourself." Then she gave him a lion helmet.
He then looked down at his map and realized that it showed the directions to some sort of tomb. 'I'll get lots of riches now.' He thought to himself greedily.
He then went to Deckard Cain and gave him a new staff since his was old and knobby.
"Oh thank you, Necromancer. And did you know that map you are carrying is the map to the Horadric Cube?" Deckard Cain said.
"What's that?"
"It's what connects the Horadric Scepter and the Claw Viper Amulet together." Cain explained in a somewhat annoyed voice.
Before setting out for the tomb, Adrian asked Deckard Cain to tell Fury and Effie about the Horadric Cube.
Adrian then put on the Barbarian helmet and went into the ancient tomb where the Horadric Cube was located.
~*~
Fury and Effie walked into the cave wondering what they would find.
"Do you think this the right place that old guy told us about?" Effie asked.
"His name is Deckard Cain. And yes I do believe this is the correct tomb. You didn't see any other tombs did you?" Fury said sarcastically.
"No. Just a bunch of dead bodies." Effie commented.
"Probably Adrian." Fury speculated. "You have to give him credit, he does seem to be a good fighter."
"Perhaps . . ." Effie agreed. "Yet he is a horrible prankster. I actually have a plan to get back at him."
Just then Fury stopped suddenly. Effie looked at him strangely.
"What's wrong?" She said and realized he was staring at something inside the tomb.
She looked to see that bodies lay everywhere around the tomb. Barbaric markings were scrawled on the wall and totem poles were set up around the tomb.
"A Barbarian has been here." Fury said in disbelief.
He ran to the back of the tomb where he heard the war cries of his homeland.
"Fury, wait!" Effie yelled, but Fury quickly leaped toward the back of the tomb. Effie sighed and used her burst of speed in order to keep up with him.
When Fury came to the end of the tomb, he was surprised to see what looked like a Barbarian fighting off some mummies. He looked on in disbelief as this Barbarian used skills he had not been able to learn yet. He looked on in awe as the stranger cried out the strongest war cries and quickly dodged out of harms way faster than the eye could see. Suddenly the Barbarian performed a move he had never seen before. He called upon the power of Whirlwind and quickly dazed all the enemies with ease. Then with quick agility he performed some sort of fierce spinning attack leaving all the monsters dead in an instant.
Fury stepped forward to meet this new companion from his homeland. He extended his hand and the stranger looked at him curiously. "Well done, Barbarian." Fury said getting ready to shake the strangers hand. But there was something very familiar about this person. The stranger smiled mockingly at him and he stepped back surprised.
"Do I know you?" Fury asked. Perhaps it was one of the people in his land he had met somewhere.
"You don't recognize me, Fury?" The stranger said in an oddly familiar voice and took off his helmet so Fury could see him better.
Effie stepped out from behind Fury with her eye's narrowed.
"Adrian." She said darkly. Fury stepped back again surprised. This person couldn't be Adrian. He knew Barbarian skills. Only those who lived in his homeland could possibly know these skills. Yet when he looked at the person in the face he saw that it was indeed Adrian.
"How is it that you know Barbarian moves?" He asked suspiciously. "I don't even know some of those moves!" Fury said grabbing the Necromancer by the shoulder's roughly. Perhaps this Necromancer knew some darker magic than he had given him credit for. He lifted Adrian off the ground demanding an answer.
"Relax Fury!" Adrian said nervously. "I'm wearing boots that gives me all the Barbarian skills." Fury stared at Adrian for a second and knew he was telling the truth. He looked down at the boots and realized that the boots did look like they were a Barbarian style.
He let Adrian drop and Effie stepped up to Adrian challengingly. "You might be posing as a Barbarian, but I still need to get back at you for all those pranks you played on us!" She took out some traps and got ready to throw them at Adrian.
Adrian looked at her in fear. She looked like a demon from hell and like she was really gonna kill him. He backed up into the wall. Fury just stared at him with a blank expression on his face.
"Wait." Adrian pleaded as Effie's hand pulled back ready for the throw. "I'm too young to die!" He yelled as the traps flew into the air toward him. He held his hand in front of him and felt the traps land above him and he was instantly covered in . . . water.
He looked up surprised, but soaked. Effie and Fury were looking at him laughing hysterically. Effie went up to Adrian still laughing hard and patted him roughly on the back.
"You should have seen your face!" She said in between laughs.
Adrian looked at them and realized he had been tricked. Fury said, "That should teach you to play tricks on us!" He said seriously.
"No more pranks OK?" Effie asked holding out her hand for a handshake. He was about to say how amateur Effie's little prank was, but decided against it. No matter what, he would always be the master of pranks.
He shook his head smiling. "All right." He said trying to sound humble. "You got me there."
"Here." Effie said shoving a katar into his hand. He looked at it shocked.
"What's this for?" Adrian asked confused.
"I don't know." She said and ruffled his hair playfully.
He blushed and realized a girl had never touched him before.
"Look!" Fury said pointing to a treasure chest on the side of the room. Effie ran over to it pulling out a bundle of different shaped keys.
"Allow me." She said and began to pick at the lock. "I'm the master of picking locks." She said proudly.
"Is that an assassin skill?" Adrian asked. Effie looked over at him surprised.
"How did you know I was an assassin?" She said.
"Come on. It's obvious. Only assassin's use these types of weapons." Adrian said holding up the katar she had given him.
She looked over at Fury wondering what he would think of this news. He looked over at her calmly.
"I figured just as much." He said non-chalantly.
She turned back to her pick locking, wondering what her order would think if they knew her identity had been found out. Then she heard the satisfying click as the lock opened.
"Ready to see what's inside?" She asked getting ready to open the chest.
"Open it! Open it!" Adrian yelled excitably.
She opened it quickly and immediately all these items and stuff flew up into the air landing all over the floor.
"How did all this stuff fit in there?" Fury asked scratching his head.
"Who cares!" Adrian yelled and immediately started grabbing anything he could find off the floor.
They all began to grab what they could from the ground and fighting over a couple of items. Fury found an interesting Amulet and shoved it into his pack to be identified later.
Soon the ground was bare and Adrian and Effie were fighting over the last thing: a breastplate.
"You already have some armor!" Effie said pulling at the breastplate.
"You probably won't even be able to wear it because you're so weak!" Adrian answered challengingly.
"I'm not weak!" Effie said and too prove it she pulled at it even harder. "Besides I already gave you that katar! The least you can do is give this to me."
"But it might have special powers." Adrian complained pulling it just as hard.
"Will you two stop fighting?" Fury said in an agitated voice.
"But she's trying to steal my armor!" Adrian complained.
Fury walked angrily over to them and leaned over Adrian with a stern face.
"I think she deserves the armor more than you." He said and seemed to grow a couple inches.
Even though Adrian had Barbarian skills, he was still no match for the real thing and the Barbarian intimidated him as he seemed to grow more muscular with anger.
Adrian let go of the armor and Effie fell backwards.
"Of!" Effie said as she landed on her rump.
She stood up and brushed herself off proudly. She stuffed the armor in her backpack and stood there triumphantly.
"Hmp!" She said daintily and began to walk back to the camp.
"Um, Effie?" Fury yelled after her.
She turned around curiously.
"Don't you think it would be faster to take a portal to the city?"
"Yeah, remember what happened last time?" Adrian said teasingly.
Effie gave Adrian the look of death and pulled out a scroll. She opened the portal and smiled sweetly at Fury.
"I'll be waiting for you on the other side." She said innocently then looked darkly at Adrian.
When she had gone through Adrian said, "I have a feeling she doesn't like me."
"I don't blame her." Fury answered.
"You don't like me either?" Adrian asked whiningly.
"I didn't say that." Fury answered.
"Somebody around here has to like me." Adrian complained. "I know there has to be somebody out there for me." He continued dreamily.
Fury who had no idea what Adrian was blabbering about, stepped up to the portal.
"Coming?" He asked Adrian.
"Out of all the people in the world, there is bound to be one lady who will keep a lonely Necromancer company." Adrian continued, not paying attention to Fury.
Fury sighed and stepped through the portal leaving the Necromancer to his thoughts.
After a while Adrian realized that Fury had left and he began singing, "I'm all alone!"
~*~
Adrian walked into the town portal, met up with Fury and Effie with Deckard Cain who was trying to identify everything. They all started yelling all these questions at Deckard Cain and he stopped them saying, "Fury is the one who freed me at Tristram. And his reward is for me to identify everything for free. But you two have to pay two hundred gold pieces each."
So Fury calmly gave Deckard Cain his items while Adrian calmly took out two hundred gold pieces. Meanwhile Effie was searching frantically for any amount of money. As Fury and Adrian were getting their items identified she walked to her stash to see the mess Adrian had left there. She thought, "No wonder he has good armor. He takes all the good stuff and leaves the rags to us." She took the "junk" over to Fara and sold it all and got . . . 201 gold pieces. When she got to Deckard Cain he was looking at the magical inscriptions and the shapes and sizes and designs. He took out a book, the size of the computer you are looking at right now, and he started reading it intently.
"Hmm." He finally announced. "This amulet gives all the Necromancer skills." And he handed it back to Fury. Adrian looked in horror as Fury started summoning skeletons and golems and casting curses. Then Adrian jumped up into the air yelling different war cries and doing exotic fighting techniques. Fury turned green with envy. Then Adrian and Fury started yelling and fighting each other and all Effie and Deckard Cain could see was a huge dust cloud.
Effie walked over to Deckard Cain with her stuff and gave him 200 gold pieces to pay for identification of her stuff. As Deckard Cain was identifying her items he suddenly came to a shiny golden cube. He picked up his book and dropped it over the cube. Effie protested, "You're gonna squash it!"
Then after a big flash of light the book was suddenly inside the cube. Effie looked at this miniature book in disbelief. Then she stuck her hand in the cube shrinking in the process. Deckard Cain said, "Just as I thought, it is the lost Horadric cube! Put the Horadric Scepter and the Horadric headpiece in the Horadric cube. You'll be happy to know there are other Alchemic uses as well. He then dropped a sapphire, a ring, and a thawing potion into the cube. It was transfused into a ring with a sapphire in it.
"Here take this ring. This cube has arranged it so that this ring will make you resistance to cold." Cain said.
Just then the king of Lut Gholein came hopping up to them.
"There you are, I have heard much of your heroic efforts." He said. Then he explained to them how his palace was invaded by demons and the harem girls were dead.
"Ah! I paid a hundred dollars to see the harem girls dance at the bar tonight. I want a refund!" Adrian complained loudly.
Jereyn said angrily, "You'll find plenty of gold on their dead bodies."
Then Adrian said with a sniff, "I shall give them a proper funeral."
Fury said, "I guess you want us to clear the palace of these demons, right?"
Jereyn replied, "Uh, yes."
So Fury, Effie and Adrian walked into the palace ready for another adventure, right after Effie put their stash inside the cube.
"Now this is our stash!" She said.
When they got inside it was dark and damp. As they got deeper into the palace they heard a low muffled growl. Then a really big and fat monster came walking through the door. It was holding a really strong weapon. Adrian held Effie and Fury back saying, "I'm gonna beat this monster with the katar you gave me." And he started showing off his special moves both Necromancer and Barbarian. But every time he stabbed the monster it just made a small grunting noise and continued to walk toward them. Fury and Effie started laughing uncontrollably.
Fury and Effie kicked the demon and it fell apart.
Adrian said, "Whoa! How are you so strong and why are you laughing?"
Fury said, "For one, that katar Effie gave you was fake. And second, that demon I killed was a golem I tried with my new Necromancer amulet."
Adrian's face turned deep red and clutched his hand around the fake katar until it crushed in his hands. He ran deep into the palace.
Effie muttered, "Sheesh. He can play pranks on us but we can't play pranks on him?"
Suddenly they heard a scream and ran toward it to see Adrian chained to the wall with a lot of demons poking at him with sharp sticks.
~*~
"Nice prank Adrian!" Effie said crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"What! This is not a prank!" Adrian said panicked.
Fury and Effie simply stomped on the creatures and Adrian answered sheepishly, "Wow. You are strong."
"We know." Fury said and Effie smiled that Fury had included her.
"How did you get trapped by these little creatures anyway?" Fury said making fun of Adrian.
"It was a trap." Adrian answered disgruntled.
"Sure." Effie teased.
"You OK?" She asked seeing Adrian's contorted face of anger.
"I just got poked with little sticks. How would you feel?" He answered sharply. Effie backed up wearily.
"Just asking." She muttered.
"Are you two coming?" Fury yelled back from ahead.
"Looks like we are a little team again." Effie chirped.
But Adrian was looking a pile of dead bodies.
"Man, I'd hate to be the janitor of this palace? I wonder if any of those girls survived?"
"How could they?" Fury asked. "I saw plenty of dead Rogues back west. And you saw the dead bodies in the desert."
"Yeah. But these girls were defenseless." Adrian spoke up with a vengeance. "I'll get whoever did this."
"I bet it was that guy claiming to be a friend to Drognan." Fury speculated.
"Who's that?" Effie said. Adrian simply sighed and kept walking down to the basement of the palace.
"I'd never guess I'd get to see the wine cellars of the palace." Adrian said with excitement.
"I wonder why we haven't ran into any real monsters?" Effie said with her weapon drawn.
"Look." Fury said suddenly.
There on the floor were bodies, not of humans but of an assortment of monsters.
"Did the guards kill these?" Effie wondered.
"No." Adrian speculated. "These are fresh kills." Adrian said dipping his finger into the demon blood.
"Some one else has been here." Fury said glancing suspiciously around.
"Wonder who it could be?" Adrian said.
"But how could they get in here?" Effie wondered. Jereyn's guards have always guarded the palace, day and night."
The two men shrugged. "We just have to be on the lookout for anybody." Fury muttered.
"If they are still alive." Adrian pointed out.
Then they came to a room with a portal in the middle.
"Wonder where it leads . . ." Effie whispered.
They stepped through not hesitating.
Adrian looked around amazed.
"The Arcane Sanctuary!" He said with excitement in his voice. "I've always wondered about this place!"
They wondered who or what would await them in this new strange environment.
~*~
Pay attention to the little foreshadowing there at the end of this chapter. To answer somebody's question, yes there will be one more addition to this bandwagon of unlikely heroes. But you will just have to wait and see. I can't tell . . .
Chapter 5: Snakes and Pranks
Effie and Fury walked in silence into the temple. It was dark and nothing stirred. They walked deeper and deeper into the cave.
"I wonder why we haven't run into anything creepy and slimy?" Effie whispered. Fury put his finger to his lips, but something had already discovered their presence.
"Whats ares yousa doing here in oursa templesses . . . " a voice spoke whispered harshly from the darkness.
"We've come to kill you!" Effie yelled. "If you are the ravenous Claw Vipers that is."
An angry raspy growl was heard from the darkness and suddenly millions of pairs of eyes lit up in the darkness. The eyes gave off an eerie yellowish glow and both Effie and Fury gulped nervously as the eyes let them see the vast amounts of the snake like monsters.
There were so many surrounding them and they all gave off hisses making it impossible to think strait.
"It's been nice knowing you . . ." Fury said wearily. "You didn't have to tell them we were here to kill them." He added.
"We're not dead yet. And why lie about killing them. It was probably obvious anyway."
Effie and Fury stood back-to-back getting ready for the attack. Effie pulled out two strange metal devices and concentrated on her foes. Fury pulled out his trusty throwing spears and started yelling some strange words in his own language over and over.
"Hey I don't know what that means, but it makes me feel stronger." Effie said.
"It is an ancient war cry we use to encourage our troops." Fury explained.
"You'll have to give me a history lesson later. Right now we've got snakes to eliminate." And with that Effie threw a make shift lightning trap into the crowd of Claw Vipers and mind blasted them. The Claw Vipers returned the attack. Fury threw his spears with precise aim at any snake that came near him and continued to call out different war cries which either damaged the enemy in some way or made Fury and Effie feel stronger. Effie kicked, sliced, and mind blasted at any Snake she could.
Finally the vipers pulled back leaving them in darkness. And they were left to rest for a second. The only light came from around them, as Effie and Fury's magic somehow lit the area. Still they could not see where the Claw Vipers had gone. Fury and Effie took advantage of their rest by catching their breath and taking sips of their health and mana potions.
Suddenly hissed were heard all around them again. And the Claw Vipers formed a circle around them. The two heroes glared at the over sized snakes viciously. They waited for the next attack. Effie focusing her mind and Fury was going over war cries in his head.
But the claw vipers did not attack. They merely stood there and chanted and hissed some incomprehensible language. Effie and Fury looked around warily.
"Come and fight us, ya stupid snakes!" Effie yelled.
"I don't think it is a good idea to taunt them." Fury said with clenched teeth.
"Why? You do it." Effie said simply.
"But I'm a professional." Fury said smiling and began to taunt them.
The Claw Viper's attacked at once and then pulled back just as quickly. Effie and Fury only managed to kill two and the bodies were pulled out of the ring that the Claw Viper's had formed.
"What are they doing?" Effie asked as once again the snakes began to chant and hiss.
"I don't know."
Then they suddenly stopped and everything was silent. They stood there with their eyes glowing and Effie could only hear her heart beating and Fury's heavy breathing.
Then the biggest snake Effie had ever seen, took shape behind the Claw Vipers in front of her. She trembled with fear. She hated snakes. Especially big gigantic ones like the one forming in front of her now.
"Um, Fury." Effie said her voice trembling while pulling at Fury's arm.
"What?" Fury said annoyed.
"Fury!" Effie said in a high-pitched squeak as the huge snake began to slither its way towards them.
Fury not wanting to turn his back on the snakes in front of him simply said. "What do you want?"
"Sa . . . Sa . . . Snake . . ." She said trembling.
"Yes, I know. There are many snakes. Why are you all the sudden so worried?"
But Fury was interrupted by the most horrifying and biggest hiss he had ever heard in his life. He couldn't help but turn around and saw the biggest snake he had ever seen in his entire life leaning over them.
The Claw Vipers crept back into the shadows leaving this new huge snake to fight the two warriors. Yet still they hissed and chanted from the shadows making the two feel very weary as they glanced at the snake now towering over them.
The towering snake seemed to be laughing at them, if snakes could. It turned a fierce red color and quickly lashed out at them. Effie who seemed dazed just stood there in fear. Fury pushed her out of the way just in time as the snake tried to sink its fangs into her head.
He fell on the floor on top of her. She seemed dazed.
"Earth to Effie!" He yelled at her. "It would be nice to receive some help here!" Fury said as he ran to a corner holding Effie in his arms.
Effie seemed to wake up then, but still looked nervously at the huge snake. "What is that?" She muttered fearfully as they dodged another bite.
"Special monster . . ." Was all Fury could say as he leaped upon the snake and jabbed a spear into its skin.
The snake hissed in pain and shot venom at Fury. He was instantly covered in a green slime. "Use your traps!" Fury yelled as he stumbled to the floor shocked by the poison.
Effie threw every trap she knew of at the snake till she had no more mana left to do so. Still the snake slithered quickly over to her and brought its tail down crashing her to the floor. She swiped her weapon with all her strength at the repulsive snake and it pulled away in pain.
Fury was up again and threw all his spears at the monster. Effie threw some of the daggers she was holding in her backpack at it and it fell looking like a pincushion. Before it fell, it managed to spit venom out at the first person it saw, and the first person it saw was unfortunately Effie. She was instantly covered in the green slimy-gook and felt the life getting sucked out of her. She took a health potion, but still the pain did not go away.
The remaining Claw Vipers, mad that their leader had been destroyed decided to attack at that time. Fury and Effie used their remaining strength to fend off the claw vipers. Somehow they managed to kill the ones that attacked and the others fled in fear.
They came to a room where the sunlight penetrated. Smaller snakes fled from this room when they perceived the heroes.
"Smash the alter." Effie said pointing to an altar in the middle of the room. Fury walked over to it and letting all his frustration out brought his fists swiftly down upon the alter breaking it in two.
"They just make altars the way they used too, huh?" Fury said half-amused looking at the broken altar.
A secret compartment was revealed and inside some sort of necklace dropped out. Fury picked it up and examined the tarnished necklace with a charm of a snake-like figure at the end.
"We came all the way for this?" Fury asked and clenched it in his hand. Then he heard a snap and looked in astonishment at the necklace.
"Umm, Effie?" Fury said. Effie looked over at him wearily with a headache.
"Yes?" She grumbled.
"I think I broke the Claw Viper Amulet." He said sheepishly.
"What!" Effie yelled, but suddenly fainted from the snake's poison.
She awoke with Fara and Fury leaning over her. She looked around confused. She was on the ground in the town square.
"How did I get here?" Effie said confused. "You had been poisoned." Fara said simply. "But I am happy to serve you." Fara reassured smiling down at her.
"Yeah. You had me worried there for a second." Fury added.
"Even Fury here almost fainted as well." Fara announced. "He brought you here as well as the Claw Viper Amulet which seemed to be a little mishandled." Fara said with a smile on her face and handed the amulet to Effie.
"I didn't almost faint. And I didn't know they made necklaces so brittle." He said sheepishly and helped Effie up. Then Effie looked angrily at Fury and hit him on the shoulder.
"Ow!" He complained. "What was that for?"
"You broke the amulet. How could you?"
"I got it fixed." Fury argued softly.
Just then they saw a familiar figure disappear into a portal on the far side of the town square.
"Was that who I think it was?" Effie asked suspiciously.
"I don't know. Was it?" Fury said not knowing what else to say.
"I wonder what that dimwitted Necromancer is up too." She said and walked to her room.
"At least the sun is restored." Fury said noticing the bright orb of the sky. He followed quickly behind Effie.
Too bad they both didn't know that in Effie's room a surprise was awaiting them.
~*~
Fury was walking Effie to her room. When he opened the door a bucket of water fell on him. When he tried to move out of the way, he realized his foot was glued to the floor. Then holes opened up in the wall and started shooting Effie with water. Then Effie tripped on an uneven floorboard and rats started skittering out. Then the rats opened their mouths and started squirting out water.
Effie and Fury were getting really angry. Then Effie said, "Fury can you take off your shirt?"
Fury looked at her in surprise not expecting that particular request to come out of her mouth.
"But why?" He asked confused.
"Just give it to me; you'll find out." She answered.
So Fury took off his shirt and Effie started furiously wiping up the floor and killing all the rats. After she was done, the room somehow looked like nothing had ever happened; yet Fury's shirt looked about a hundred years old.
"How did you do that?" Fury asked amazed.
Effie looked on proudly. "All it needed was a woman's touch."
"What am I supposed to do with my shirt now?" Fury asked eying his shirt wearily.
Effie answered, "Throw it into the sewers. I'm gonna go to bed and think of a plan against the '$@&*%+!' Necromancer."
In the middle of the night Effie woke up to find that her bed had collapsed. She started making some special traps with water inside them. She made a special type of katar that had a retractable blade that couldn't kill anything. Then she went back to her collapsed bed. It was then that she found out her sheets had shrunk.
She angrily tried to ignore the discomfort of the bed (thanks to the Necromancer's pranks) and relished the plan of revenge she had in mind for the Necromancer.
The Necromancer came back to town with a bunch of treasure, sorted out all the good stuff, and laid the rest next to Fury and Effie's stash. When he got into the sewers to go to bed, he saw a really strange shirt that looked like Fury's. He went to Fara to repair it and put it under his armor.
"I would also like a loin cloth and a lion helmet." He said to Fara.
Fara explained, "We do not sell loin cloths, but here is some scissors and you can make one for yourself." Then she gave him a lion helmet.
He then looked down at his map and realized that it showed the directions to some sort of tomb. 'I'll get lots of riches now.' He thought to himself greedily.
He then went to Deckard Cain and gave him a new staff since his was old and knobby.
"Oh thank you, Necromancer. And did you know that map you are carrying is the map to the Horadric Cube?" Deckard Cain said.
"What's that?"
"It's what connects the Horadric Scepter and the Claw Viper Amulet together." Cain explained in a somewhat annoyed voice.
Before setting out for the tomb, Adrian asked Deckard Cain to tell Fury and Effie about the Horadric Cube.
Adrian then put on the Barbarian helmet and went into the ancient tomb where the Horadric Cube was located.
~*~
Fury and Effie walked into the cave wondering what they would find.
"Do you think this the right place that old guy told us about?" Effie asked.
"His name is Deckard Cain. And yes I do believe this is the correct tomb. You didn't see any other tombs did you?" Fury said sarcastically.
"No. Just a bunch of dead bodies." Effie commented.
"Probably Adrian." Fury speculated. "You have to give him credit, he does seem to be a good fighter."
"Perhaps . . ." Effie agreed. "Yet he is a horrible prankster. I actually have a plan to get back at him."
Just then Fury stopped suddenly. Effie looked at him strangely.
"What's wrong?" She said and realized he was staring at something inside the tomb.
She looked to see that bodies lay everywhere around the tomb. Barbaric markings were scrawled on the wall and totem poles were set up around the tomb.
"A Barbarian has been here." Fury said in disbelief.
He ran to the back of the tomb where he heard the war cries of his homeland.
"Fury, wait!" Effie yelled, but Fury quickly leaped toward the back of the tomb. Effie sighed and used her burst of speed in order to keep up with him.
When Fury came to the end of the tomb, he was surprised to see what looked like a Barbarian fighting off some mummies. He looked on in disbelief as this Barbarian used skills he had not been able to learn yet. He looked on in awe as the stranger cried out the strongest war cries and quickly dodged out of harms way faster than the eye could see. Suddenly the Barbarian performed a move he had never seen before. He called upon the power of Whirlwind and quickly dazed all the enemies with ease. Then with quick agility he performed some sort of fierce spinning attack leaving all the monsters dead in an instant.
Fury stepped forward to meet this new companion from his homeland. He extended his hand and the stranger looked at him curiously. "Well done, Barbarian." Fury said getting ready to shake the strangers hand. But there was something very familiar about this person. The stranger smiled mockingly at him and he stepped back surprised.
"Do I know you?" Fury asked. Perhaps it was one of the people in his land he had met somewhere.
"You don't recognize me, Fury?" The stranger said in an oddly familiar voice and took off his helmet so Fury could see him better.
Effie stepped out from behind Fury with her eye's narrowed.
"Adrian." She said darkly. Fury stepped back again surprised. This person couldn't be Adrian. He knew Barbarian skills. Only those who lived in his homeland could possibly know these skills. Yet when he looked at the person in the face he saw that it was indeed Adrian.
"How is it that you know Barbarian moves?" He asked suspiciously. "I don't even know some of those moves!" Fury said grabbing the Necromancer by the shoulder's roughly. Perhaps this Necromancer knew some darker magic than he had given him credit for. He lifted Adrian off the ground demanding an answer.
"Relax Fury!" Adrian said nervously. "I'm wearing boots that gives me all the Barbarian skills." Fury stared at Adrian for a second and knew he was telling the truth. He looked down at the boots and realized that the boots did look like they were a Barbarian style.
He let Adrian drop and Effie stepped up to Adrian challengingly. "You might be posing as a Barbarian, but I still need to get back at you for all those pranks you played on us!" She took out some traps and got ready to throw them at Adrian.
Adrian looked at her in fear. She looked like a demon from hell and like she was really gonna kill him. He backed up into the wall. Fury just stared at him with a blank expression on his face.
"Wait." Adrian pleaded as Effie's hand pulled back ready for the throw. "I'm too young to die!" He yelled as the traps flew into the air toward him. He held his hand in front of him and felt the traps land above him and he was instantly covered in . . . water.
He looked up surprised, but soaked. Effie and Fury were looking at him laughing hysterically. Effie went up to Adrian still laughing hard and patted him roughly on the back.
"You should have seen your face!" She said in between laughs.
Adrian looked at them and realized he had been tricked. Fury said, "That should teach you to play tricks on us!" He said seriously.
"No more pranks OK?" Effie asked holding out her hand for a handshake. He was about to say how amateur Effie's little prank was, but decided against it. No matter what, he would always be the master of pranks.
He shook his head smiling. "All right." He said trying to sound humble. "You got me there."
"Here." Effie said shoving a katar into his hand. He looked at it shocked.
"What's this for?" Adrian asked confused.
"I don't know." She said and ruffled his hair playfully.
He blushed and realized a girl had never touched him before.
"Look!" Fury said pointing to a treasure chest on the side of the room. Effie ran over to it pulling out a bundle of different shaped keys.
"Allow me." She said and began to pick at the lock. "I'm the master of picking locks." She said proudly.
"Is that an assassin skill?" Adrian asked. Effie looked over at him surprised.
"How did you know I was an assassin?" She said.
"Come on. It's obvious. Only assassin's use these types of weapons." Adrian said holding up the katar she had given him.
She looked over at Fury wondering what he would think of this news. He looked over at her calmly.
"I figured just as much." He said non-chalantly.
She turned back to her pick locking, wondering what her order would think if they knew her identity had been found out. Then she heard the satisfying click as the lock opened.
"Ready to see what's inside?" She asked getting ready to open the chest.
"Open it! Open it!" Adrian yelled excitably.
She opened it quickly and immediately all these items and stuff flew up into the air landing all over the floor.
"How did all this stuff fit in there?" Fury asked scratching his head.
"Who cares!" Adrian yelled and immediately started grabbing anything he could find off the floor.
They all began to grab what they could from the ground and fighting over a couple of items. Fury found an interesting Amulet and shoved it into his pack to be identified later.
Soon the ground was bare and Adrian and Effie were fighting over the last thing: a breastplate.
"You already have some armor!" Effie said pulling at the breastplate.
"You probably won't even be able to wear it because you're so weak!" Adrian answered challengingly.
"I'm not weak!" Effie said and too prove it she pulled at it even harder. "Besides I already gave you that katar! The least you can do is give this to me."
"But it might have special powers." Adrian complained pulling it just as hard.
"Will you two stop fighting?" Fury said in an agitated voice.
"But she's trying to steal my armor!" Adrian complained.
Fury walked angrily over to them and leaned over Adrian with a stern face.
"I think she deserves the armor more than you." He said and seemed to grow a couple inches.
Even though Adrian had Barbarian skills, he was still no match for the real thing and the Barbarian intimidated him as he seemed to grow more muscular with anger.
Adrian let go of the armor and Effie fell backwards.
"Of!" Effie said as she landed on her rump.
She stood up and brushed herself off proudly. She stuffed the armor in her backpack and stood there triumphantly.
"Hmp!" She said daintily and began to walk back to the camp.
"Um, Effie?" Fury yelled after her.
She turned around curiously.
"Don't you think it would be faster to take a portal to the city?"
"Yeah, remember what happened last time?" Adrian said teasingly.
Effie gave Adrian the look of death and pulled out a scroll. She opened the portal and smiled sweetly at Fury.
"I'll be waiting for you on the other side." She said innocently then looked darkly at Adrian.
When she had gone through Adrian said, "I have a feeling she doesn't like me."
"I don't blame her." Fury answered.
"You don't like me either?" Adrian asked whiningly.
"I didn't say that." Fury answered.
"Somebody around here has to like me." Adrian complained. "I know there has to be somebody out there for me." He continued dreamily.
Fury who had no idea what Adrian was blabbering about, stepped up to the portal.
"Coming?" He asked Adrian.
"Out of all the people in the world, there is bound to be one lady who will keep a lonely Necromancer company." Adrian continued, not paying attention to Fury.
Fury sighed and stepped through the portal leaving the Necromancer to his thoughts.
After a while Adrian realized that Fury had left and he began singing, "I'm all alone!"
~*~
Adrian walked into the town portal, met up with Fury and Effie with Deckard Cain who was trying to identify everything. They all started yelling all these questions at Deckard Cain and he stopped them saying, "Fury is the one who freed me at Tristram. And his reward is for me to identify everything for free. But you two have to pay two hundred gold pieces each."
So Fury calmly gave Deckard Cain his items while Adrian calmly took out two hundred gold pieces. Meanwhile Effie was searching frantically for any amount of money. As Fury and Adrian were getting their items identified she walked to her stash to see the mess Adrian had left there. She thought, "No wonder he has good armor. He takes all the good stuff and leaves the rags to us." She took the "junk" over to Fara and sold it all and got . . . 201 gold pieces. When she got to Deckard Cain he was looking at the magical inscriptions and the shapes and sizes and designs. He took out a book, the size of the computer you are looking at right now, and he started reading it intently.
"Hmm." He finally announced. "This amulet gives all the Necromancer skills." And he handed it back to Fury. Adrian looked in horror as Fury started summoning skeletons and golems and casting curses. Then Adrian jumped up into the air yelling different war cries and doing exotic fighting techniques. Fury turned green with envy. Then Adrian and Fury started yelling and fighting each other and all Effie and Deckard Cain could see was a huge dust cloud.
Effie walked over to Deckard Cain with her stuff and gave him 200 gold pieces to pay for identification of her stuff. As Deckard Cain was identifying her items he suddenly came to a shiny golden cube. He picked up his book and dropped it over the cube. Effie protested, "You're gonna squash it!"
Then after a big flash of light the book was suddenly inside the cube. Effie looked at this miniature book in disbelief. Then she stuck her hand in the cube shrinking in the process. Deckard Cain said, "Just as I thought, it is the lost Horadric cube! Put the Horadric Scepter and the Horadric headpiece in the Horadric cube. You'll be happy to know there are other Alchemic uses as well. He then dropped a sapphire, a ring, and a thawing potion into the cube. It was transfused into a ring with a sapphire in it.
"Here take this ring. This cube has arranged it so that this ring will make you resistance to cold." Cain said.
Just then the king of Lut Gholein came hopping up to them.
"There you are, I have heard much of your heroic efforts." He said. Then he explained to them how his palace was invaded by demons and the harem girls were dead.
"Ah! I paid a hundred dollars to see the harem girls dance at the bar tonight. I want a refund!" Adrian complained loudly.
Jereyn said angrily, "You'll find plenty of gold on their dead bodies."
Then Adrian said with a sniff, "I shall give them a proper funeral."
Fury said, "I guess you want us to clear the palace of these demons, right?"
Jereyn replied, "Uh, yes."
So Fury, Effie and Adrian walked into the palace ready for another adventure, right after Effie put their stash inside the cube.
"Now this is our stash!" She said.
When they got inside it was dark and damp. As they got deeper into the palace they heard a low muffled growl. Then a really big and fat monster came walking through the door. It was holding a really strong weapon. Adrian held Effie and Fury back saying, "I'm gonna beat this monster with the katar you gave me." And he started showing off his special moves both Necromancer and Barbarian. But every time he stabbed the monster it just made a small grunting noise and continued to walk toward them. Fury and Effie started laughing uncontrollably.
Fury and Effie kicked the demon and it fell apart.
Adrian said, "Whoa! How are you so strong and why are you laughing?"
Fury said, "For one, that katar Effie gave you was fake. And second, that demon I killed was a golem I tried with my new Necromancer amulet."
Adrian's face turned deep red and clutched his hand around the fake katar until it crushed in his hands. He ran deep into the palace.
Effie muttered, "Sheesh. He can play pranks on us but we can't play pranks on him?"
Suddenly they heard a scream and ran toward it to see Adrian chained to the wall with a lot of demons poking at him with sharp sticks.
~*~
"Nice prank Adrian!" Effie said crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"What! This is not a prank!" Adrian said panicked.
Fury and Effie simply stomped on the creatures and Adrian answered sheepishly, "Wow. You are strong."
"We know." Fury said and Effie smiled that Fury had included her.
"How did you get trapped by these little creatures anyway?" Fury said making fun of Adrian.
"It was a trap." Adrian answered disgruntled.
"Sure." Effie teased.
"You OK?" She asked seeing Adrian's contorted face of anger.
"I just got poked with little sticks. How would you feel?" He answered sharply. Effie backed up wearily.
"Just asking." She muttered.
"Are you two coming?" Fury yelled back from ahead.
"Looks like we are a little team again." Effie chirped.
But Adrian was looking a pile of dead bodies.
"Man, I'd hate to be the janitor of this palace? I wonder if any of those girls survived?"
"How could they?" Fury asked. "I saw plenty of dead Rogues back west. And you saw the dead bodies in the desert."
"Yeah. But these girls were defenseless." Adrian spoke up with a vengeance. "I'll get whoever did this."
"I bet it was that guy claiming to be a friend to Drognan." Fury speculated.
"Who's that?" Effie said. Adrian simply sighed and kept walking down to the basement of the palace.
"I'd never guess I'd get to see the wine cellars of the palace." Adrian said with excitement.
"I wonder why we haven't ran into any real monsters?" Effie said with her weapon drawn.
"Look." Fury said suddenly.
There on the floor were bodies, not of humans but of an assortment of monsters.
"Did the guards kill these?" Effie wondered.
"No." Adrian speculated. "These are fresh kills." Adrian said dipping his finger into the demon blood.
"Some one else has been here." Fury said glancing suspiciously around.
"Wonder who it could be?" Adrian said.
"But how could they get in here?" Effie wondered. Jereyn's guards have always guarded the palace, day and night."
The two men shrugged. "We just have to be on the lookout for anybody." Fury muttered.
"If they are still alive." Adrian pointed out.
Then they came to a room with a portal in the middle.
"Wonder where it leads . . ." Effie whispered.
They stepped through not hesitating.
Adrian looked around amazed.
"The Arcane Sanctuary!" He said with excitement in his voice. "I've always wondered about this place!"
They wondered who or what would await them in this new strange environment.
~*~
Pay attention to the little foreshadowing there at the end of this chapter. To answer somebody's question, yes there will be one more addition to this bandwagon of unlikely heroes. But you will just have to wait and see. I can't tell . . .