To Kill a Beast

By: Lord of Minas Tirith

Ch 1: Entering the Encampment

"Alexander? We're almost there."

I opened my eyes, and looked out the front of our wagon, grateful that I had chosen to sit in the front of our solitary wagon. I could see the walls of the Rogue's small encampment. I knew how they felt, having been forced from my home, as necromancy receives enmity where I used to live.

After I had been exiled from my home, I happened to see a group of warriors traveling in the company of skeletons. I decided to follow them. Eventually, I found myself in the city of Necropolis.

When I became seventeen, I managed to become an apprentice in the tutorage of a blacksmith. In my spare time, I studied the teachings of Rathma, until I could summon and maintain a skeletal warrior.

Soon after this, I left the city, and traveled west to the Rogue Citadel. It was there that I met and befriended not only the High Priestess Akara, but also the warrior who would later defeat Diablo beneath Tristram. I was unfortunate enough to have been present when that particular atrocity occurred. I had only returned because Akara had requested that I do so.

We entered the encampment, and someone came up to me, giving an idiotic spiel, telling me about the monsters in the wilderness, and the Rogues exile, both of which I already knew of, the former being painfully obvious. I discovered that his name was Warriv; I made a promise to myself that I would avoid him whenever possible. As soon as he was done jabbering, I sought out Akara, easy to identify in her purple hood and cape.

I slowed when I reached her tent, as I heard raised voices within.

"High Priestess, you cannot be serious. How can you ask an outsider, him of all, to…to help us! Do you not trust your own brethren?"

"Kaysha, our people have faced evil before. But not this much evil. We must ask for help, from this man. He has seen, and helped to defeat, Diablo himself! He is the only person alive who can save our monastery, by defeating Andarial. If you cannot allow this…"

At this point a woman, whom I can only assume is Kaysha, hit the side of the tent as she exited. She stopped when she saw me standing there.

"Go back to the hellhole from whence you were spawned" she spat, and then she continued on her way. I watched her leave, and then entered the tent. Akara looked up from her makeshift desk, and smiled.

"Alexander, thank you for coming. There are not enough warriors to help us in these dire times. I am sorry to say that I must ask you to leave, although I know you have just arrived. Before we can successfully mount an attack on Andarial's forces in the Monastery, we must find Deckard Cain. He is"

"I know who Cain is," I cut in, snapping at Akara, though I knew that it was not her fault for what happened in Tristram, "the last surviving Horadrim…" I paused, and then added, "We met in Tristram."

"Of course." She murmured.

"I will leave in the morning." As I exited the tent, I saw Kaysha approaching.

"We do not need nor want your kind here," she said, curtly. I sensed that Kaysha was not the type to get angry, "Prove to me that you should stay here," she spat, the contempt in her voice all too obvious.

"How?"

"Kill Blood Raven. Do not speak to me until you bring me the medallion she wears." Kaysha then turned on her heel and left.

"Kaysha! Where is she now?" I called after the retreating silhouette.

"Follow the path until you find the graveyard." She called back, quickly disappearing into the darkness of the night. I turned and set up my tent by Charsi the blacksmith's own tent, retiring for the night.

The next morning, I woke up and left the encampment. As we left, I felt apprehensive, though not afraid. The instant I had left the encampment, the Rogues slammed the gate shut behind me, making me feel on edge.

I followed the well-worn path for most of the day. As the darkness began to approach, it made it that much harder to see. I sheathed my sword, and drew my crossbow, readying a bolt in the niche.

Unexpectedly, I heard a noise, turned and fired. When the bolt found its mark, I could hear a high pitched squeal. I could only assume that it was dead. Approaching wearily, I stooped, and saw that I had killed a quill rat, a relatively harmless creature. Returning to my original route, I followed the dusty trail beneath my feet, until I came to a sort of gateway. Two walls of stone stretched into the distance, and had turned sharply, creating a choke-point in the wilderness.

Cautiously, I entered the man-made channel, and emerged unscathed on the other side, despite my worries. I took a few tentative steps, and stopped, startled because I felt stone beneath my feet. I backed away, and jumped when two small basins on opposite corners of the stone burst into blue flame.

"What the --?" I muttered, and stepped forward, curious at this new development. As I kneeled on the stone, I remembered seeing something like this in the encampment. As soon as I thought this, I felt weightless, almost as if I was underwater. I looked up, intending to continue on my search for Blood Raven, but instead found myself looking at Akara.

"How –," she stammered, "How did you get here?"

Bewildered, I told her, "I saw this in the wilderness, and the two basins on either end burst into blue flame. I kneeled down, and looked up to see you," She wasn't the only one who was confused.

"The waypoints were created by the Horadrim, placed around the world. They were intended for use to keep up with their task of banishing the Three. But I thought only they could use the waypoints," she said, gaining confidence with each word, "I wonder why we haven't been able to use them before?"

Thinking aloud, I murmured, "Maybe you haven't been able to use them because the waypoints were inactive for so long. It could be that you must first re-activate the waypoints before they can be used again."

"That must be it!" Akara exclaimed, "Please, if you find another waypoint, activate it, for both our welfare."

"Should I?" I questioned, "what if the demons infesting this land figured out how to use them?"

"That's not possible. HoradricScrolls told of an instance when Mephisto, Lord of Hatred, attempted to use the waypoints, and was almost destroyed. If one of the monstrosities tried to use the waypoints, they would surely be destroyed," she exclaimed, truly excited at the prospect of bypassing Andarial's minions, and entering her lair in the fourth level of the Rogue Catacombs.

After she uttered that, she turned and scurried back into her tent. I turned around, and returned to the encampment's waypoint. In my mind, I pictured the area around the first waypoint. Again, I felt the strange sensation of weightlessness. When I reopened my eyes, I was standing in the middle of the plain, the stone choke-point visible in the growing darkness.

Immediately, I sat down, and pulled out some parchment and a charcoal pencil. I jotted down a heading, thinking that I should keep a log of where these things were. Unfortunately, the area I was in had no name that I knew of.

"Cold Plains," I said aloud. That would be a good name for the area I was seeing around me, considering the heartless disposition of the land around me. I added it to my list, stood up, and returned to the path.

Presently, I came upon a fork, and sadly, there was no sign.

"Great. Where do I go now?" I muttered to myself. I took a guess and went right. Uneventfully, I came upon another strange stone gateway. Reluctantly, I passed through it.

When I came out on the other side, I viewed a wrought iron gateway. On the heading there was an unusual series of symbols. I figured Akara would know what they said. I resolved to ask her later. Warily, I passed under the arch. As soon as I was through, I heard a chilling voice, one that sent shivers down my back.

"Join my army of the dead."

As soon as the sentence was uttered, every grave around me exploded with arms and legs clawing to escape their earthy tomb. I looked past the erupting carnage, and saw a vile creature. Its clothes were tattered, flesh was hanging off its putrid limbs, and there were two white horns made of bone, sticking out of the back of its skull.

Blood Raven.

Quickly, I dodged her arrow, which was enchanted with fire, and ducked behind the nearest grave. I soon realized my mistake when I felt the rotting flesh of the corpse below me capture my limbs in a weak, but stubborn, bear hug.

As I struggled with the zombie, I heard a feral growling above me. I looked up and saw a wolf standing above me, teeth bared, ready to attack.

"This just keeps getting better and better," I mumbled aloud. I yelled when the beast leapt forward, but stopped when I discovered that it was attacking the zombie, not me.

When the undead was in several pieces, the wolf backed off, and ran off. I stood up, and saw two other wolves, along with the one that I had met, tearing apart the undead, with five ravens pecking at Blood Raven herself.

Off to the side, I saw a man in deep concentration, his orange hair clumping in the sweat of his efforts. His stance was unusual, his right leg in front of his left, knees bent, his hands thrust forward. From his hands came a stream of blue, freezing air. While momentarily startled, and also curious where this man came, I did not forget that I still had to kill Blood Raven.

This time, I did not hesitate when the undead came up; I swung my sword, and mercilessly decapitated my opponent. I continued my way over to where Blood Raven stood, firing arrows into the fray. I shot a few teeth, which were taken from the legendary dragon Alextresta, my namesake, to get her attention, and to lessen the hardship on my new companion's efforts. She turned and saw me, and fired a few arrows in my direction. I caught them on my shield; but as it was wooden, it began to burn. I dropped it, and began to run towards the unholy demon. As I drew near, I saw the last remnants of the noble soul Blood Raven had once been.

This caused me to hesitate, and almost immediately, the cold ruthlessness returned to her eyes, and she dropped her bow, drew a dagger, and stabbed my side once with the poisoned blade before I thrust my sword downwards with both hands on the hilt. I let go of the sword, and Blood Raven fell backwards, the hilt protruding from her head, like a third grotesque horn.

I pulled the dagger out of my side, wincing. I then went around to my sword, grabbed the hilt, and braced the head against my foot as I pulled my weapon free with a sickening squelch.

With my weapon no longer protruding from her head, Blood Raven's body disintegrated. I walked over to where the medallion was, and picked it up. It was a simple silver circle, with an equal-armed cross through it. The cross was the symbol of the Rogues, the vertical arm representing an undrawn bow, the horizontal, an arrow.

I placed the amulet in my knapsack, and fell forward onto a grave stone.

Errata: The "legendary dragon" mentioned in the fight with Blood Raven is named Alextresta for my personal reasons. The name is meant to provide a source for Alexander's own name.

Also, I must first apologize to anyone who might discover the ancient ruins of this story, for not updating. There are a number of reasons that it took as long as it did. First, I lost the manuscript that I had written out longhand. Second, I lost my computer; it was hit with a virus, and I lost everything. Third, I had no access to a computer to which I could copy and paste from I wish to tell you that I am currently working on a new chapter now, and hope to have it up by the 25th of March.