Atma was most thankful for my help, and told me that the merchants were
ready to show their gratitude by offering their wares and services at lower
rates. This was always a good thing in my opinion. Then, she said something
that caught my attention. Jehryn, the sultan and lord of Lut Gholein wanted
to see me. I thought it was something like a large reward of gold and
passage east via ship, but I was disappointed.
He said to me," I have heard of your many deeds of your skill and bravery, druid. I feel that I can trust you with something I have been. hesitant to speak of. My advisor, Drognan, and I have concluded that the dark wanderer that passed through here was Diablo himself!"
I half-yelled," Diablo! Are you sure? Do you know where he was going?"
"He said something about looking for the tomb of Tal Rasha. Alas, though. I cannot tell you where the tomb is. No one even knows if it actually exists"
"Damn it. It looks like he escaped me again. Now I'm even further behind"
"You seem very anxious to find the lord of terror. May I ask why?"
"Sorry Jehryn. I can't tell you exactly why. What I can tell you though is that he has taken someone very precious to me. I'll see you later" I turned around, and walked back to the tavern. I had time to have a few drinks, and get some more information, as I wasn't going anywhere until I knew more about this tomb of Tal Rasha.
For about half an hour, I asked different people about the tomb, but, each time, it was the same answer of ignorance. I was beginning to give up hope. The bar was closing, so I decided to retire to the desert rain. Elzix had graciously offered me a free room for as long as I needed it for slaying Radament.
A week passed, and nothing had changed. I was growing bored, and rather restless. Of course I knew that Diablo and his brothers were mocking me from a distance. I could feel the evil slowly closing in on Lut Gholein, and I was powerless to stop it. Yeah, you'd be pretty frustrated too.
A few days later, I found something in my personal stash. It was the scroll that had given me a huge welt between my eyes. The one that was written in nothing but gibberish. So, I took it to Cain, and asked him to decipher it.
He said that it the horodric scroll that explained the imprisoning of Baal, the lord of destruction, within the soul of a mag, Tal Rasha. And that his tomb could be found in a portal from a mystical place called the arcane sanctuary. At last, a way to get back on Diablo's trail. However, he could probably be on his way to Tal Rasha's tomb so I needed to get moving. Cain told me to find someone named Drognan, who, as he said, had an idea where the arcane sanctuary.
He told me that Lut Gholein's palace occupied the site of an ancient Vizjerei fortress. The Vizjerei were members of the horodrim that specialized in elemental magic. Anyway, two of their mages, Horazon and Bartuc practiced demonic magicks. However, they had different views on how best to utilize demons. Horazon thought that you could only use the full potential of a demon by chaining it and bending it to your will while Bartuc wanted the demons as allies. In my opinion, they were both pretty fucked up.
Bartuc died not long after the binding of Baal within Tal Rasha while Horazon went into self-imposed exile, and, here comes the good part, built a sanctuary that warped the very fabric of reality so that he could use demons as slaves and never fear the inevitable wrath of hell. Pretty sneaky, eh? Drognan went on to say that the sanctuary could be under the palace, and that Jehryn had had a fair few troubles with exceedingly large quantities of demons swarming up to the surface. When he told me this, I was wondering why Lut Gholein's population had not been notified of such danger.
I thanked Drognan and went to Jehryn to see if I could gain entry to the palace.
I said," Jehryn, Drognan told me what was going on here, and I very much doubt that your guards will be able to hold off those things for much longer. Let me inside here, and I'll rip em a new one for no charge"
"Rip them new ones? What in the world are you talking about? Well, your deal is hard to turn down, and I have heard that you defeated Andariel.. All right, you may enter, but be very careful druid. My men have said that it is easy to get surrounded"
"You shouldn't worry about me. But if what I think is down is down there, we could be in real trouble," I said, walking to the stairwell leading into the harem, and later, into the palace cellar where Jehryn was having demon problems.
"Which is?"
"Horazon's arcane sanctuary"
He said to me," I have heard of your many deeds of your skill and bravery, druid. I feel that I can trust you with something I have been. hesitant to speak of. My advisor, Drognan, and I have concluded that the dark wanderer that passed through here was Diablo himself!"
I half-yelled," Diablo! Are you sure? Do you know where he was going?"
"He said something about looking for the tomb of Tal Rasha. Alas, though. I cannot tell you where the tomb is. No one even knows if it actually exists"
"Damn it. It looks like he escaped me again. Now I'm even further behind"
"You seem very anxious to find the lord of terror. May I ask why?"
"Sorry Jehryn. I can't tell you exactly why. What I can tell you though is that he has taken someone very precious to me. I'll see you later" I turned around, and walked back to the tavern. I had time to have a few drinks, and get some more information, as I wasn't going anywhere until I knew more about this tomb of Tal Rasha.
For about half an hour, I asked different people about the tomb, but, each time, it was the same answer of ignorance. I was beginning to give up hope. The bar was closing, so I decided to retire to the desert rain. Elzix had graciously offered me a free room for as long as I needed it for slaying Radament.
A week passed, and nothing had changed. I was growing bored, and rather restless. Of course I knew that Diablo and his brothers were mocking me from a distance. I could feel the evil slowly closing in on Lut Gholein, and I was powerless to stop it. Yeah, you'd be pretty frustrated too.
A few days later, I found something in my personal stash. It was the scroll that had given me a huge welt between my eyes. The one that was written in nothing but gibberish. So, I took it to Cain, and asked him to decipher it.
He said that it the horodric scroll that explained the imprisoning of Baal, the lord of destruction, within the soul of a mag, Tal Rasha. And that his tomb could be found in a portal from a mystical place called the arcane sanctuary. At last, a way to get back on Diablo's trail. However, he could probably be on his way to Tal Rasha's tomb so I needed to get moving. Cain told me to find someone named Drognan, who, as he said, had an idea where the arcane sanctuary.
He told me that Lut Gholein's palace occupied the site of an ancient Vizjerei fortress. The Vizjerei were members of the horodrim that specialized in elemental magic. Anyway, two of their mages, Horazon and Bartuc practiced demonic magicks. However, they had different views on how best to utilize demons. Horazon thought that you could only use the full potential of a demon by chaining it and bending it to your will while Bartuc wanted the demons as allies. In my opinion, they were both pretty fucked up.
Bartuc died not long after the binding of Baal within Tal Rasha while Horazon went into self-imposed exile, and, here comes the good part, built a sanctuary that warped the very fabric of reality so that he could use demons as slaves and never fear the inevitable wrath of hell. Pretty sneaky, eh? Drognan went on to say that the sanctuary could be under the palace, and that Jehryn had had a fair few troubles with exceedingly large quantities of demons swarming up to the surface. When he told me this, I was wondering why Lut Gholein's population had not been notified of such danger.
I thanked Drognan and went to Jehryn to see if I could gain entry to the palace.
I said," Jehryn, Drognan told me what was going on here, and I very much doubt that your guards will be able to hold off those things for much longer. Let me inside here, and I'll rip em a new one for no charge"
"Rip them new ones? What in the world are you talking about? Well, your deal is hard to turn down, and I have heard that you defeated Andariel.. All right, you may enter, but be very careful druid. My men have said that it is easy to get surrounded"
"You shouldn't worry about me. But if what I think is down is down there, we could be in real trouble," I said, walking to the stairwell leading into the harem, and later, into the palace cellar where Jehryn was having demon problems.
"Which is?"
"Horazon's arcane sanctuary"