Chapter 1
~Seztarám's Depression~
At last, we arrived at the Rouge Encampment. As we walked amongst the few women that remained, the pain and sorrow that filled their hearts, hit us instantly. The encampment was home to a tribe of physically fit women, although it seemed, not many of them had survived the recent demon onslaughts. That is why my companion and I had come. To take on the task to protect the little good in this overly corrupted world.
As I walked into the camp, the locals seemed rather pleased to see me. When Seztarám entered the camp they didn't seem as surprised, and when he accidentally tripped over one of the chickens and collided with the large bull which was now chasing him recklessly around the camp, they lost complete interest in his arrival all together. Still, the locals continued to look at me in awe. This wasn't an unusual experience for me, as being a Paladin; I was quite respected amongst most communities. This would be because Paladins were warriors of the Lord, where as Barbarians, such as Seztarám, were renowned for brutal, murderous behaviour. This was a false allegation however. Barbarians would only ever act in this way if faced with demons, undead or another evil creature or person.
Seztarám had been my partner for many years. Our friendship began, when he had, like usual, over-challenged himself, and tried to slaughter a pack of wild Goatmen. Oh how he detested Goatmen. So much in fact, that ever since this day, if you would so much as mention a species of Goatman, he would either slap you across the face, punch you, or if you were well acquainted maybe he'd throw you off a cliff. Personally I would prefer the punch (those slaps sting like hell and... well, who wants to be thrown off a cliff?!). Luckily (...perhaps) I happened to be Seztarám's best friend, so I could get away with taunts like this (he tried punching me once, but stopped when I rammed a fulminating potion down his throat). The Goatmen cornered him, but I managed to hear his roars for help and warded them away with an arsenal of choking gas potions.
There were two men in this encampment. One of which sold useful items, such as armour and weaponry, but there was something about the man that seemed somewhat dubious. The only other man that dwelled on the encampment was a traveller named Warriv.
"Well met, noble Paladin it's been a while since I've seen any of your kind in the west." He turned to Seztarám. "But, I'm not surprised to see your kind here. Many adventurers have travelled this way since the recent troubles began. I only thought it a matter of time before a barbarian would arrive. No doubt you've heard about the tragedy that befell the town of Tristram."
"We have indeed heard about Tristram." I replied. "Not that we understand it. What exactly is going on?"
"I'm not sure. Some say that Diablo, the Lord of Terror, walks the world again."
"Diablo?" I replied, not sure whether I had heard him correctly.
"Well, I don't know whether I can believe that, but a dark wanderer did travel this route a few weeks ago."
"A dark wanderer? Which way was he headed?"
"He was headed east to the mountain pass guarded by the rouge monastery. Maybe it's nothing, but evil seems to have travelled in his wake."
"Oh no, it's something all right..." I turned to look at Seztarám, but he had gone. He was now talking to Charsi, the rather attractive female Blacksmith, and making an utter fool of himself. Ignoring this, I turned back to Warriv.
"Actually it would seem that way," He continued. "You see, shortly after the wanderer went through, the monastery gates to the pass were closed and strange creatures began ravaging the countryside."
"Strange creatures? Do you mean demons?"
"Maybe so, either way, until it's safer outside the camp and the gates are re-opened, I'll remain here with my caravan."
"It looks like Seztarám and I have a long journey ahead of us."
"Well maybe I could help with that. You see I hope to leave for Lut Gholein before the shadow that fell over Tristram consumes us all. If you're still alive then, I'll take you along."
"I'm sure I will be." After a brief laugh, Warriv advised me to speak to Akara, the leading lady of the camp. After Seztarám had finally finished talking to Charsi, we finally visited Akara. At first we struggled to find Akara, but it seemed that an old lady, wearing a vibrant purple dress, wasn't really too hard to find.
Akara told us of an ever-growing tribe of demons, which were multiplying in a cave in Blood Moor, the nearby wasteland. She was afraid that the demons may try to attack the encampment, so she asked Seztarám and I to do the best we can to stop them.
I took us a while to find the cave. Seztarám was determined to find and kill every single little demon that was apparent in the moor. Once again, the thought of battling caused Seztarám to fill up with unnatural insane excitement, which to be quite honest, I found rather annoying. However, over the years I had learnt to withstand the barbarian's continuous mental torture. After Seztarám had finally finished running back and forth, waving his arms in the air like a madman, we continued to the perilous cave, to face our first, real challenge.
As soon as Seztarám set his eyes on a demon, he was in the midst of a battle like a cat with its tail on fire.
"Sacremorn, Look at me!" He was now repeatedly screaming with his rough, croaky voice. "Look at me Sacremorn!"
It didn't take long for a gang of corrupt rouge to plant twenty or more arrows in his backside, leaving poor Seztarám screaming in pain. Once again, I was left to do all of the work, as after running around in circles desperately trying to remove the arrows from his anus, Seztarám had now fainted in the corner. After a good ten minutes of endless mayhem, I had finally slaughtered all the demons in sight and had managed to drag Seztarám's large rear out of the cave.
Just as I was about to pull a couple of minor healing potions out of my belt, I felt an immense pain flow through the back of my skull, before blacking out and falling to the floor.
*
When I awoke, I could hear an unusual banging sound to my left. For some reason, Seztarám was determined to severely damage an old tree.with his forehead.
"Seztarám, what are you doing?" Seztarám quickly turned and was now standing with his arms behind his back as if he had done something tragically wrong.
"I'm sorry Mr. Sacremorn sir. I... er... I don't know what came over me! I always let you down. I... I... waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh" He continued with head butting the tree. Just as I was about to say something to the (obviously depressed) barbarian, I felt something tap on my shoulder. Due to force of habit, I stood up, turned around, while simultaneously whipping out my short sword. Unexpectedly, I found myself staring at a rather beautiful young woman. She had long, blonde hair that trailed halfway down her back, and beautiful, striking blue eyes. She was very slender and didn't look right standing in the middle of blood moor, holding a longbow.
"I'm sorry if a startled you sir" She said hastily, with a very feminine, girlie voice.
"Who are you?!" I replied in shock
"I am Elenor, a rouge archer. You were being attacked by gargantuan beasts, sir." I looked around. Sure enough, we were surrounded by at least ten, huge, hairy corpses.
"One struck you from behind sir. Lucky I found you in time sir. Loads of them there were, loads. Most of them fled. I suppose they panicked when I slaughtered these ones. They wont have seen me, you see. Not from where I was standing. They are practically blind, gargantuan you know, one of the inferior subspecies of Wendigos. They may return though sir. You better get moving."
"Er, yeah... um." I would never have suspected that such a small person could talk so much. "I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you very much. You wouldn't happen to know why my, incredibly large friend, would be assaulting that tree with his skull, would you?"
"Well sir. When the gargantuan beasts had attacked you, he awoke. He tried his best to help you, he really did. But his "charge at the enormous scary beast that's twice my size and might eat me" technique, didn't seem to do him much good."
"Ah. I see. Then you came along and killed them without much effort, right?"
"Something along those lines, sir, yes."
"ahh. Well Elenor. I must thank you for you generosity. Goodbye." I then turned toward the huge barbarian with the now severely bruised skull. "Seztarám, Come on you big woman."
"Goodbye sir. I hope we meet again!" I could barely hear Elenor over my portly friend's, drawling wails. And so we proceeded back into the cave.
*
Strangely, Seztarám wasn't his usual over-enthusiastic self. In fact he was worse than before, now he did nothing. We walked through the dark tunnels, being endlessly attacked by gangs of Fallen, irritating little red demons, with tiny clubs, or blunt swords, but Seztarám tended to stand around whilst I struggled to stay alive. I managed to kill around five fallen demons, but strangely they seemed to be able to resurrect themselves from the dead.
"Seztarám, a little help?" A gang of fallen now surrounded me, and were beating me with their little blunt swords. "Seztarám!? A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!?" I was now half dead on the floor. "SEZTARÁM!?!"
"No, I... er. I think I'll stay here." From what I could see of him, he was standing with his arms behind his back again. "I always's mess up, you'll probably do better without me."
"OW, ARE YOU CRAZY!?!?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. If I was going to stay alive, I was going to have to think fast. I focused my energies and began to use my Holy Fire attack. In a burst of flame the Fallen flew in all directions. Slowly I staggered to my feet.
"Seztarám. Would you please explain to me why you thought it was necessary to stand and WATCH me fight for my life?" Seztarám looked as if he was about to cry. "Please do something."
Once again, the Fallen were rising from the dead. Quickly, I prayed to the lord and asked him to regenerate my health. A blue aura surrounded myself and Seztarám and I could feel my health slowly recovering. I charged into battle, slaying more and more Fallen, and again Seztarám just stood there looking helpless.
"How am I... how are WE going to defeat these guys if they keeps on coming back to life?" I asked rhetorically.
"Er, Mr Sacremorn sir."
"WHAT!?" I replied angrily.
"Er, what about the big one? With the flag? Maybe he is doing it." Sure enough, there was a slightly larger Fallen, with a big red flag hiding amongst the others.
"A SHAMAN, of course!" I tried desperately, to reach the Fallen Shaman, but the others were blocking my path. "I can't move! They're... they're surrounding me!"
"SACREMORN NO!" Just as I was about to lose my last ounce of strength, Seztarám came running onto the battlefield (if you ask me, he left it just a little too late!). The Fallen Shaman was now firing large fireballs at me, which were rapidly depleting my health. Seztarám frantically tried to clamber towards the Shaman, but there was just too many. "Get out of my way! Get OUT of my way! Get out of my WAAAYYYYYYY!!!"
The sound of the roar was deafening. The Fallen began to scramble in all directions. As the shaman was carrying the large flag, he was a lot slower than the other Fallen and was left behind as the others fled. It desperately tried to stop Seztarám with large fireballs, but to no avail. Seztarám charged towards the Fallen Shaman and with a swing of his mighty club, ended its life. Once again I clambered to my feet.
"You did it Seztarám. You actually did it!" I was completely astounded.
"I'm sorry Mr Sacremorn sir, I just didn't know what to do."
"Don't worry about it Seztarám, what matters is, you pulled through." Now lets rid this cave of those blasted Fallen."
Now we knew about the Shaman, defeating the rest of the Fallen was easy. There were a few other demon species, even a few undead minions, but these weren't too much of a problem. After ridding the cave of the evil that lurked within, a light began to fall from the heavens and shone brightly throughout the cave. After a short celebration, a little victory dance and a brief rest, we returned to the encampment.
~Seztarám's Depression~
At last, we arrived at the Rouge Encampment. As we walked amongst the few women that remained, the pain and sorrow that filled their hearts, hit us instantly. The encampment was home to a tribe of physically fit women, although it seemed, not many of them had survived the recent demon onslaughts. That is why my companion and I had come. To take on the task to protect the little good in this overly corrupted world.
As I walked into the camp, the locals seemed rather pleased to see me. When Seztarám entered the camp they didn't seem as surprised, and when he accidentally tripped over one of the chickens and collided with the large bull which was now chasing him recklessly around the camp, they lost complete interest in his arrival all together. Still, the locals continued to look at me in awe. This wasn't an unusual experience for me, as being a Paladin; I was quite respected amongst most communities. This would be because Paladins were warriors of the Lord, where as Barbarians, such as Seztarám, were renowned for brutal, murderous behaviour. This was a false allegation however. Barbarians would only ever act in this way if faced with demons, undead or another evil creature or person.
Seztarám had been my partner for many years. Our friendship began, when he had, like usual, over-challenged himself, and tried to slaughter a pack of wild Goatmen. Oh how he detested Goatmen. So much in fact, that ever since this day, if you would so much as mention a species of Goatman, he would either slap you across the face, punch you, or if you were well acquainted maybe he'd throw you off a cliff. Personally I would prefer the punch (those slaps sting like hell and... well, who wants to be thrown off a cliff?!). Luckily (...perhaps) I happened to be Seztarám's best friend, so I could get away with taunts like this (he tried punching me once, but stopped when I rammed a fulminating potion down his throat). The Goatmen cornered him, but I managed to hear his roars for help and warded them away with an arsenal of choking gas potions.
There were two men in this encampment. One of which sold useful items, such as armour and weaponry, but there was something about the man that seemed somewhat dubious. The only other man that dwelled on the encampment was a traveller named Warriv.
"Well met, noble Paladin it's been a while since I've seen any of your kind in the west." He turned to Seztarám. "But, I'm not surprised to see your kind here. Many adventurers have travelled this way since the recent troubles began. I only thought it a matter of time before a barbarian would arrive. No doubt you've heard about the tragedy that befell the town of Tristram."
"We have indeed heard about Tristram." I replied. "Not that we understand it. What exactly is going on?"
"I'm not sure. Some say that Diablo, the Lord of Terror, walks the world again."
"Diablo?" I replied, not sure whether I had heard him correctly.
"Well, I don't know whether I can believe that, but a dark wanderer did travel this route a few weeks ago."
"A dark wanderer? Which way was he headed?"
"He was headed east to the mountain pass guarded by the rouge monastery. Maybe it's nothing, but evil seems to have travelled in his wake."
"Oh no, it's something all right..." I turned to look at Seztarám, but he had gone. He was now talking to Charsi, the rather attractive female Blacksmith, and making an utter fool of himself. Ignoring this, I turned back to Warriv.
"Actually it would seem that way," He continued. "You see, shortly after the wanderer went through, the monastery gates to the pass were closed and strange creatures began ravaging the countryside."
"Strange creatures? Do you mean demons?"
"Maybe so, either way, until it's safer outside the camp and the gates are re-opened, I'll remain here with my caravan."
"It looks like Seztarám and I have a long journey ahead of us."
"Well maybe I could help with that. You see I hope to leave for Lut Gholein before the shadow that fell over Tristram consumes us all. If you're still alive then, I'll take you along."
"I'm sure I will be." After a brief laugh, Warriv advised me to speak to Akara, the leading lady of the camp. After Seztarám had finally finished talking to Charsi, we finally visited Akara. At first we struggled to find Akara, but it seemed that an old lady, wearing a vibrant purple dress, wasn't really too hard to find.
Akara told us of an ever-growing tribe of demons, which were multiplying in a cave in Blood Moor, the nearby wasteland. She was afraid that the demons may try to attack the encampment, so she asked Seztarám and I to do the best we can to stop them.
I took us a while to find the cave. Seztarám was determined to find and kill every single little demon that was apparent in the moor. Once again, the thought of battling caused Seztarám to fill up with unnatural insane excitement, which to be quite honest, I found rather annoying. However, over the years I had learnt to withstand the barbarian's continuous mental torture. After Seztarám had finally finished running back and forth, waving his arms in the air like a madman, we continued to the perilous cave, to face our first, real challenge.
As soon as Seztarám set his eyes on a demon, he was in the midst of a battle like a cat with its tail on fire.
"Sacremorn, Look at me!" He was now repeatedly screaming with his rough, croaky voice. "Look at me Sacremorn!"
It didn't take long for a gang of corrupt rouge to plant twenty or more arrows in his backside, leaving poor Seztarám screaming in pain. Once again, I was left to do all of the work, as after running around in circles desperately trying to remove the arrows from his anus, Seztarám had now fainted in the corner. After a good ten minutes of endless mayhem, I had finally slaughtered all the demons in sight and had managed to drag Seztarám's large rear out of the cave.
Just as I was about to pull a couple of minor healing potions out of my belt, I felt an immense pain flow through the back of my skull, before blacking out and falling to the floor.
*
When I awoke, I could hear an unusual banging sound to my left. For some reason, Seztarám was determined to severely damage an old tree.with his forehead.
"Seztarám, what are you doing?" Seztarám quickly turned and was now standing with his arms behind his back as if he had done something tragically wrong.
"I'm sorry Mr. Sacremorn sir. I... er... I don't know what came over me! I always let you down. I... I... waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh" He continued with head butting the tree. Just as I was about to say something to the (obviously depressed) barbarian, I felt something tap on my shoulder. Due to force of habit, I stood up, turned around, while simultaneously whipping out my short sword. Unexpectedly, I found myself staring at a rather beautiful young woman. She had long, blonde hair that trailed halfway down her back, and beautiful, striking blue eyes. She was very slender and didn't look right standing in the middle of blood moor, holding a longbow.
"I'm sorry if a startled you sir" She said hastily, with a very feminine, girlie voice.
"Who are you?!" I replied in shock
"I am Elenor, a rouge archer. You were being attacked by gargantuan beasts, sir." I looked around. Sure enough, we were surrounded by at least ten, huge, hairy corpses.
"One struck you from behind sir. Lucky I found you in time sir. Loads of them there were, loads. Most of them fled. I suppose they panicked when I slaughtered these ones. They wont have seen me, you see. Not from where I was standing. They are practically blind, gargantuan you know, one of the inferior subspecies of Wendigos. They may return though sir. You better get moving."
"Er, yeah... um." I would never have suspected that such a small person could talk so much. "I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you very much. You wouldn't happen to know why my, incredibly large friend, would be assaulting that tree with his skull, would you?"
"Well sir. When the gargantuan beasts had attacked you, he awoke. He tried his best to help you, he really did. But his "charge at the enormous scary beast that's twice my size and might eat me" technique, didn't seem to do him much good."
"Ah. I see. Then you came along and killed them without much effort, right?"
"Something along those lines, sir, yes."
"ahh. Well Elenor. I must thank you for you generosity. Goodbye." I then turned toward the huge barbarian with the now severely bruised skull. "Seztarám, Come on you big woman."
"Goodbye sir. I hope we meet again!" I could barely hear Elenor over my portly friend's, drawling wails. And so we proceeded back into the cave.
*
Strangely, Seztarám wasn't his usual over-enthusiastic self. In fact he was worse than before, now he did nothing. We walked through the dark tunnels, being endlessly attacked by gangs of Fallen, irritating little red demons, with tiny clubs, or blunt swords, but Seztarám tended to stand around whilst I struggled to stay alive. I managed to kill around five fallen demons, but strangely they seemed to be able to resurrect themselves from the dead.
"Seztarám, a little help?" A gang of fallen now surrounded me, and were beating me with their little blunt swords. "Seztarám!? A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!?" I was now half dead on the floor. "SEZTARÁM!?!"
"No, I... er. I think I'll stay here." From what I could see of him, he was standing with his arms behind his back again. "I always's mess up, you'll probably do better without me."
"OW, ARE YOU CRAZY!?!?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. If I was going to stay alive, I was going to have to think fast. I focused my energies and began to use my Holy Fire attack. In a burst of flame the Fallen flew in all directions. Slowly I staggered to my feet.
"Seztarám. Would you please explain to me why you thought it was necessary to stand and WATCH me fight for my life?" Seztarám looked as if he was about to cry. "Please do something."
Once again, the Fallen were rising from the dead. Quickly, I prayed to the lord and asked him to regenerate my health. A blue aura surrounded myself and Seztarám and I could feel my health slowly recovering. I charged into battle, slaying more and more Fallen, and again Seztarám just stood there looking helpless.
"How am I... how are WE going to defeat these guys if they keeps on coming back to life?" I asked rhetorically.
"Er, Mr Sacremorn sir."
"WHAT!?" I replied angrily.
"Er, what about the big one? With the flag? Maybe he is doing it." Sure enough, there was a slightly larger Fallen, with a big red flag hiding amongst the others.
"A SHAMAN, of course!" I tried desperately, to reach the Fallen Shaman, but the others were blocking my path. "I can't move! They're... they're surrounding me!"
"SACREMORN NO!" Just as I was about to lose my last ounce of strength, Seztarám came running onto the battlefield (if you ask me, he left it just a little too late!). The Fallen Shaman was now firing large fireballs at me, which were rapidly depleting my health. Seztarám frantically tried to clamber towards the Shaman, but there was just too many. "Get out of my way! Get OUT of my way! Get out of my WAAAYYYYYYY!!!"
The sound of the roar was deafening. The Fallen began to scramble in all directions. As the shaman was carrying the large flag, he was a lot slower than the other Fallen and was left behind as the others fled. It desperately tried to stop Seztarám with large fireballs, but to no avail. Seztarám charged towards the Fallen Shaman and with a swing of his mighty club, ended its life. Once again I clambered to my feet.
"You did it Seztarám. You actually did it!" I was completely astounded.
"I'm sorry Mr Sacremorn sir, I just didn't know what to do."
"Don't worry about it Seztarám, what matters is, you pulled through." Now lets rid this cave of those blasted Fallen."
Now we knew about the Shaman, defeating the rest of the Fallen was easy. There were a few other demon species, even a few undead minions, but these weren't too much of a problem. After ridding the cave of the evil that lurked within, a light began to fall from the heavens and shone brightly throughout the cave. After a short celebration, a little victory dance and a brief rest, we returned to the encampment.