Diablo II: The Epic Behind the Game
Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo II, I, or anything else that blizzard created. In fact, some of my dialog comes directly from the game, for accuracy purposes only. The Characters however are of my own design, directly from my chars on Battle.net
Just saw Shrek 2 starring the voices of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, and Antonio Bandaris and I must say:
Puss In Boots Rocks!
The only way they could have made the movie better is if Puss and Donkey had gotten a chance to beat the crap out of Hans Christian Anderson (The guy who took Grimm's twisted, meaningful stories and turned them into the modern day 'G' rated fairy tales)
Okay time to get it on.
Rogue Encampment:
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"What's taking him so long?" Raid asked, lounging back against a barrel while she started to count her arrows again. "We've been waiting here for forever."
The dark night was cool and dark, but the torches and fires kept the six adventurers warm and in sight of the still uninteresting and uneventful Way Stone.
"Raid, it's only been a couple of hours." Natalie told the bored Amazon, hardly looking up from her spell book to repeat herself for the trillionth time. "These sort of things take time."
"He shouldn't have gone alone." Preen said, breaking his hour of silent reflection. "The poor lad has likely been either killed or taken prisoner by savage monsters. He simply does not have the training or experience to go out on the Blood Moor alone."
"Have some faith, paladin." Cathim said, laying back and taking this down time for some relaxation. "Or is that heresy to have faith in anything other than the faith?"
"I am merely saying..."
"And I'm saying: don't worry about Elric." Cathim yawned turning to the side, ready to get some sleep. "He's more than able to take care of himself."
Tozam and their newfound companion, however had little problem passing the time and were becoming fast friends.
"Come on, just a few more questions."
"Okay, fine."
"Have you tamed and trained... A polar bear?"
"Yes."
"A tiger?"
"Uh-huh."
"A wolverine?"
"Yep."
"Uhhh, a carrion vine?"
"That's not an animal, you know."
"So you haven't?"
"well, yes I have, but you don't really train plants." Durom answered, "Most of them are willful beings and you have to earn their trust."
"Riiigghhhtt."
"So, Tozam, who exactly is this person that you guys are waiting for?" Durom asked.
"Oh, Elric? He's great. Funny, smart, and a fine warrior to boot." Tozam told the druid, "He's about ye high and black..." Tozam brought his hand down to his waist.
"TOZAM!!" Natalie was torn away from her studying.
"What?"
"I'm sorry, is Elric a dog?" Durom asked, his curiosity peaked by Natalie's outburst.
"You're not far off." A new voice sounded as the red-haired Battle-Eagle walked into the light.
"Kashya?" Cathim opened his eyes and turned, regarding the rogue with disdain. "To what do we owe the displeasure?"
"I heard that you six appeared out of nowhere in the middle of my camp a couple of hours ago, so I thought I should come and welcome you back."
"No, Battle-Eagle, there is no more threat to your 'outhouse' than there was three hours ago." Natalie said flatly, correctly guessing Kashya's real motives. "This stone was placed here by the Horadrim centuries ago as a way to transport troops directly here."
"So, what's to keep a legion of monsters from opening a portal and surpassing our entire defense?"
"Kashya," Natalie shook her head, "I opened the portal that brought us back here, but that doesn't mean I know how to work it. All I did was open a scroll. The only person who seems to have any clue as to what this thing does is Elric."
"So, what's to keep a legion of monsters from surpassing our entire defense?" Kashya repeated herself.
"Battle-Eagle, no one else even knows that this thing is here. Believe me, there is no danger to your encampment."
"That's something else that I needed to talk to you all about." Kashya looked from side to side as though she suspected the entire camp was eavesdropping. "Have you had any word from the half-breed?"
"Half-breed?" Preen's brow went up.
"So...Elric 'is' a dog?" Durom was confused by this whole thing.
"Battle-Eagle, could we continue this discussion in private?" Natalie asked. Natalie knew that the others would find out about all of this sooner or later, but she felt it would be best to wait until the last possible moment seeing as how they would need all of the help they could get if and when they got to Tristram.
"Of course." Kashya answered, understanding only the sorceresses personal feelings and relationship with the creature. They stepped to the edge of the firelight together, a worried look on Natalie's face.
"We haven't seen or heard from him since before we left two days ago." Natalie told her, "All he said was that he had something personal to take care of."
"Then I regret what I must inform you." Kashya said, suddenly far more somber.
"It is very likely that Elric Tasslewind is dead."
If Natalie had been at all distracted when the Battle-Eagle first arrived, she surly wasn't now.
"What do you mean?"
Kashya took a breath before going on, surprised to find herself feeling a bit sad at being the one who had to tell the sorceress the news.
"Elric accepted a sort of quest from me before he left the encampment two days past." Kashya explained the situation as she had explained it to Elric almost two days before, and also told her about the reaction that the half-demon had when he had heard that he could get his claws on the person directly responsible for his friend, Alisa's, murder.
"I didn't think that he would be stupid enough to go off on his own. Blood Raven must have hundreds of undead at her disposal by now. And, when she's ready, she will march on the encampment. I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave again until the threat has been dealt with."
"Look, Kashya." Natalie shook her head, somewhat tired by this whole affair. "Don't you think that you're putting Elric in his grave just a little early?"
"I can't take the chance that either he's failed or joined with the enemy..."
"And what makes you think he'll do that?" Natalie was more than a little offended by this automatic assumption that Elric would betray them.
"Oh, come on, sorceress. You're obviously a smart girl. Surely you know that it must pass though his mind constantly. He's always been a part of 'that' world, and, in the end, that heritage will overcome any fragile bond that you think he's formed in your company. He is evil by nature, and no amount of kindness or denial will ever change that."
Before Natalie could put words to her outrage at this preposterous claim, the attention of both women, the adventuring band, and the rest of the encampment was stolen away in wonder. The dark, dank night parted suddenly as a brilliant-white beam of light suddenly tore though the otherwise light-less, new-moon sky.
And on the wind, several of the more sensitive among them could hear a faint echo of angelic music.
"Wha..." The Battle-Eagle was shocked, only half a thought away from calling all of the remaining rogues to arm. "What sort of magic is this..."
Natalie simply looked on in wonder, along with a druid, a necromancer, an Amazon, and a barbarian, trying in vain to recognize this strange phenomena.
But not one of them managed to identify this sign.
It was the paladin who bolted upright and immediately knew it's name.
"Why...Bless the saints." Preen said loudly for all to hear, looking up at the tower of light with tears forming in his eyes. "It is an 'unfettering'."
"A what?" Tozam and Durom asked together. Durom had experience with many of the different magics of nature, but he had never even dreamed of anything like this before.
"A great evil has been defeated this night by a holy warrior." Preen explained, not turning his gaze from the light. "In an act of purity and mercy, the warrior has requested that the evil be freed or 'unfettered' from the bonds of hell and learn the eternal splendor of the heavens. It is most rare, for the angels only answer the call from the purest of intentions and the strongest of wills."
Natalie smiled as she absorbed this news. Watching the pillar of light for a moment longer before it began to fade into non-existence, allowing the darkness of the night to fall on the lands of Kanduras again.
"So, Battle-Eagle," She gave the rogue a side-ways glance. "I do believe that 'the half-breed' has not only saved your outhouse, but he's also saved your enemy from an eternity of pain and torment." Natalie closed her eyes and shook her head.
"It's just too bad that he's so evil by nature that he can never reach 'our kind's' level of spirituality and compassion."
Natalie left the Battle-Eagle staring up into the starless sky, contemplating what she had thought she knew so well about the workings of the world.
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From atop the battlements of her conquered monastery, another watched the sky in the south-east burst into light and angelic tones.
But Andariel, unlike the rogues, was neither pleased or impressed.
She had come up here, away from the comfort of her throne, to witness first hand the half-demon's defeat.
But this was all wrong!
Blood Raven had been the most powerful mortal that Andariel herself had ever personally come across. By comparison to the full-blooded spawn of Hell, half-demons were a joke! Even before her enhancements, Blood Raven should have smashed that creature like a bug!
This entire game stopped being an amusement almost immediately. Something was far from out of place here.
Now, not only had the half-breed proved to her that he had power enough to oppose her, but it had brought to light something else by 'unfettering' Blood Raven.
The half-breed had some connection to the angels of the High Heavens. A simple fact that made The Maiden of Anguish shiver in disgust.
"Cragg-Snot!" Andariel shouted out, calling for her next in command.
"Mi mistress beckons, Me obey." Cragg-Snot, a particularly cruel member of the 'Misshapen', answered immediately, completely unaware that the tower of light meant anything of interest.
"Call back all nearby troop movements and summon all in the area that champion our cause to fall back to the Monastery."
"But...My Mistress..." Cragg-Snot tried to make himself heard. "The monastery is impenetrable. No hu-mans dare come dis far."
Not wasting time to reprimand her new second in command, Andariel simply reached down and ripped the fell beast's head off.
"PUKE-RAG!" Andariel called for her back-up next in command. The fallen shaman, Puke-rag appeared a moment later, bowing before his mistress and sniveling in his own, pathetic manner.
"We are under orders from the master to hold this mountain pass by any and all means necessary. Failure to do so will result sharing that one's fate..." She lifted up Cragg-Snot's head to show the fallen Shaman before taking a hungry bite out of it. "...and so much worse. Understand?!"
"Yesss, yesss, mi Mistress..."
"Then do exactly as I say without question and without comment." Andariel continued to instruct her subordinate in exactly what he was to do to insure the hold of the Monastery.
But, still, in the back of her mind, she tried to understand what this was.
'What', exactly, was she dealing with?
--------------------------------
FLASH
Elric opened his eyes and immediately recognized the surrounding structures and buildings. The warm, spring sun shone brilliantly on the blacksmith, the town well, Pepin's Medicine House, and The Inn of the Rising Sun.
He was back in Tristram.
People milled past him, paying little heed to the black-scaled half-demon. Every now and again, somebody would stop for just a moment to say good day, but other than that, it was as if he wasn't even there.
FLASH
Elric looked around at the trail which led out of Tristram, and was shocked when he realized that four figures were standing there. He could not see them, for the setting-sun was in his eyes, but he could hear chatting for a moment before two of them embraced.
"Where will you go?" A tall, gangly man wearing brightly colored robes asked the leftmost of the four.
"I don't know." The other figure answered, his voice young and full of life "But I'll be sure to slaughter any demons and monsters I find on the way. And where shall you go once you tire of ale and feast's? Where shall your journeys take you, Master Vizjerei?"'
Elric did not need to hear the Vizjerei's reply. But as it was said, he mouthed the familiar words silently.
"Home, my friend. To Lut Golein, the Jewel of the desert. I plan to continue my studies there."
"And I..." The woman started.
"Vajiha...Kalin...Alisa..." Elric stared in awe as he heard the familiar conversation from a different perspective. How could he be watching the breaking of their company? Nobody had even known that Elric was leaving except his friends.
"...watch over you, Always, dear Elric." The rogue put a loving hand on the leftmost figures...on HIS...shoulder.
"ALISA!" Elric couldn't control himself. "DON'T GO! PLEASE! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! THAT'S THE WRONG PATH!! FOR THE LOVE OF THE HEAVENS! DON'T GO!!!" He wanted to lunge forward...to tackle Alisa and tie her up so that she couldn't go back to the Monastery. So that she couldn't go and be seduced by the dark powers of Andariel and the Hells. Yet, as much as he willed himself to do so, he did not move. He stayed there, watching as he (The other, five month younger, Elric) turned to the largest of the four figures.
Kalin the warrior.
"And where shall you go, my friend?" He asked the warrior of Khanduras.
With a blank meaningless stare, and a voice which stung like fire, he answered.
"To the east, I must go to the east."
FLASH
FIRE!!! Flames danced all over the place, threatening the very life of Tristram
Elric looked around in a panic, trying not to be swept away by the horrified crowds of people.
The blacksmith shop... The Inn of the Rising Sun... they were all ablaze.
Harshly, Elric reached out to grab one of the passing villagers.
"YOU! WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?" Elric tried to grab hold of the peasant with his claws, but, much to his surprise, phased right though the man's clothing and flesh. Undaunted, as though not even realizing what had happened, the man ran past, screaming in horror.
Then, he was cut down, as were many others, by a hail of black-shafted, crude arrows.
Looking over his shoulder, trying to make sense of this pointless execution, Elric saw the source of this massacre.
The goat-men of the Blood Clan, he realized. Personal Servants of Diablo himself.
And then Elric knew:
He was seeing the slaughter of Tristram.
Anger welled up inside of him. He could not, He WOULD not, let this happen! Not if he could help it! So, sounding a primal roar, announcing his dark heritage to the world, Elric charged forward, dead on into a volley of arrows.
Once again to his surprised, the arrows phased right though his tail and head as he ran forth whipping his tail out to slice the first monster he saw in half.
He felt the impact...but not in his tail.
His arm jarred, as though he had struck the creature with a weapon, and the monstrous goat-man's head shot to the side... the wrong side...right into the blow that Elric had though his tail had struck.
It fell to the ground dead, an enormous bruise showing on the left side of it's head, though Elric had struck on the right with a bladed tail. The way that it laid, it seemed as though the creature had been smashed in the head with a long staff that had broken the goat-man's neck and collapsed it's skull.
"What the hell..." Elric didn't understand.
FLASH
Horrors were aplenty as Elric found himself in pain. A great brutish monster held his neck tightly, threatening to crush his windpipe. No matter how Elric struggled, the thing did not relent. Whatever hellish strength had been infused into this abomination was more than enough to hold onto the powerful, writhing, half-demon.
Then, Elric went limp as he looked up into the face of the one holding him in place.
"Griswold...???" Elric choked out. The face was bloody and distorted, but it was unmistakably the blacksmith of Tristram.
"Well well well, what do ya have there , Griz?" A dark, horrid voice grated on Elric's nerves before the twisted, cursed blacksmith dropped him harshly to the ground.
Strangely, Elric found his strength drained and could not move to either attack or defend himself when a scarred goat-man leaned down and into his vision.
"Gharbed The Weak?!" Elric recognized the scarred goat-man as the quivering beast that he had left, sobbing and defeated in a pile of sliced and bloody corpses on the twelfth floor of the Monastery. Elric had felt a uncharacteristic jolt of mercy when he had last dealt with this one, leaving it alive, but not expecting the wounded monster to make it far in the demon-eat-demon world beneath the Monastery of Tristram.
Gharbed, however, didn't seem to hear him.
"Ahhh, Master will be most pleased. Yes he will." Gharbed the Weak giggled and nodded at Elric. "At last, the hells have the descendant of the great Horadric Binder. Foolish hu-man dares to believe he had beaten the master. You will pay now for the arrogance of your ancestors, Binder of the Three!"
"What the hells are you talking about!?" Elric was confused. He didn't even know who his ancestors were on either side of his family. How could he possibly pay for their sins.
"Put man in cage!" Gharbed ordered, "We be merciful...yes...like the Black Death is merciful. We not torture you...we not kill you, binder. We let nature take it's course...yes...let it be hungry, let it starve!"
Without warning, Elric felt himself being heaved up and thrown backward.
"Agghhhhhh!!!" Elric flew though the air for a moment before slamming against hard cold, Iron bars and falling to a harshly uncomfortable barred floor. Dazed, Elric had to shake his head clear before he realized that he was being heaved into the air. Vainly, Elric hopped forward and pulled on the bars, hoping that he might, somehow find the strength to force them loose or pull them apart. Such strength, however, was not his.
"LET ME OUT OF HERE." Elric thrashed against the bars wildly, hoping to get the attention of the monsters below. But, it seemed that he was no longer an amusement to them. Daring a peek out the bars, from his higher angle, Elric could now see the macabre scene below him in horrific detail. He could see the gold suave, peg legged boy, Wirt, being beaten bloody and tortured by fallen demons with his own wooden leg. Near to the tortured boy; Gillian, the beautiful barmaid of the Inn of The Rising Sun, along with the darkly attractive witch, Ardria, were being ravaged side by side by monster after monster, with lines forming in front of each. Down the way, Farnham, a local drunkard was being force-fed gallon after gallon of Liquor and ale, only being allowed momentary pauses for breaths. If the alcohol didn't kill him soon, Farnham would likely burst from drinking too much.
Elric shut his eyes, trying still to pull down the bars of the cage. He had to save them! He simply had to!!
No mortals deserved such demonic treatment!
"Ay, YOU!" Elric was thrown to the floor of the cage as the entire structure holding it aloft rocked. "Stop yer squirming' and enjoy the show!" A high, contorted, gaggled laugh was followed by a sudden spear ramming up in between the bars of the horrible gibbet's floor. Elric dodged the spear, then another and then another before tripping down on a bar and landing (quite painfully) on his tail. In a sickening motion, the entire world around him swung back and forth as the position of the gibbet was changed, putting it directly over the town well.
This was a strange emotion to him, something that Elric had not felt in a long time.
Despair...Helplessness.
Despite growing doubt, Elric looked around, trying to find some way to escape. Some way to combat this evil.
Then, Elric looked down into the still, glassy surface of the town's well, the only thing in Tristram that had not been put to the torch.
There, Elric saw not his own mirrored refection. He did not see his sender snout or his back-curving horns. Nor did he see his brilliant green eyes.
Instead, he saw a fragile, gray haired old wisp of a man dressed in gray robes looking back at him, crying as Elric could not.
'Elder Cain...' Elric thought as the entire world faded around him. He was seeing the world though the sage's eyes... and that meant....
FLASH
'Deckard Cain is alive...'
And then there was darkness.
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Elric moaned, feeling too sore to raise his head. Even his eye-lids seemed to be plated with the heaviest of leads. At that moment, he just wanted to lie there on his belly, resting until he felt fully recovered. Nevertheless, knowing that he would never recover without aid, his eyes opened, squinting in the bright morning sunlight.
Ignoring his still twitching muscles and stiff joints, he managed to push his upper body off the ground, causing a thin, tattered blanket to side down off of his back.
"What the..." Elric moaned, twisting around painfully to see the cloth still covering his tail and lower body.
A blanket? He didn't bring a blanket. Where did it come from?
Even more curious, as he quickly realized, was that there was something cutting off his flexibility. Checking himself over, Elric saw a white bandage wrapped around his chest and, tugging at it slightly, felt a much larger cloth tightly held across his shoulders.
He had been wounded? And somebody had tended to him.
Slowly, bits and pieces of the previous night started coming back to his mind. He remembered fending off zombies...being hit in the back with an arrow tipped with alchemical silver. Blood Raven...
Elric looked around the Rogue Burial Grounds, seeing the many scattered, decayed bodies of the former zombies. A quaint reminder of what had befallen the night before.
He had killed Alisa...Blood Raven... whatever and whoever she had become. And, in the throes of hatred and pain, he had done it without hesitation...without mercy.
Of that he was thankful, for he didn't know if he could have done so with a clear mind.
With that done, with the Commander of Hell defeated and cut loose from the bonds of her former masters, there was only one creature left.
Taking in a breath, Elric looked down and found, at his claws, a freshly killed rabbit, a vial of mana potion, and a flask filled with the red, thick healing potion.
"Viz-Jaq'taar?" Elric looked around again, taking a sniff at the air. The stench of death surrounding him was thick and unrelenting, making the fresh scent of the living all the more noticeable and pleasant. "I know that you're there somewhere. Kassyera...wasn't it." Elric looked around, trying to find the assassin whilst tugging at the restricting bandages. "Thanks, but I really don't like rabbit."
"You know..."
"WAARRKK!!!!" Elric yelped, nearly jumping out of his scales, which was suddenly shot to a familiar stark white color. Turning back around, he saw the assassin resting on the ground in plain. He had just looked there, and all around, only a moment before and saw nothing.
"...If you keep pulling on it, that bandage will come loose before the wound is healed." Kassyera finished, a smile on her face.
"Where did...how...what...???" Elric remained stunned for a moment longer, then calmed himself, changed his color back to black, and chuckled weakly. "And I thought that I was a stealthy one. Well, I guess the legends of armies of assassins suddenly appearing right in the bed chambers of dark wizards might have some truth to them after all."
"Not the part about them all appearing bear of armor or clothes I'm afraid." Kassyera laughed along with the half-demon.
"My thanks to you as well, Elric Tasslewind. That is twice that you have saved my life now. Though, I must say, there are many legends and tales concerning the Viz-Jaq'taar Order, though few outside of the mage clans know them. But I have never heard of a half-demon before."
Elric smiled as warmly as his elongated face would allow before reaching over to pick up the healing potion. He remembered that he had another job to do.
"Well, I would love to stay here and talk myths and legends among the headstones, Kassyera. Tea, cakes, the whole sha-bang. I really would. But I have to get out of here and find a ring of stones as soon as possible."
At this, Kassyera grew serious and withdrew slightly.
"The Cairn Stones?"
This got the half-demon's attention.
"Yeah...How did you know that?"
"Because..." Kassyera looked at this unique creature before her, taking wonder in his green eyes. "...That's why I'm here. I was sent to find the Cairn Stones and await the coming of a man named Cain."
Elric cocked his head to the side.
This was far too convenient for his liking.
But he was tired, sore, and really had no desire to spend days searching countryside that this young woman may have already scoured to find the same ring of standing stones. Time was against them and Deckard Cain would not last forever. So, what the hell did he have to lose.
"Okay, Kass." He said, "Here's the deal. I tell you who Cain is, what's going on with me and you tell me where you heard that name and who told you to find the Cairn Stones."
-----------------
"It's been at over twelve hours since we got back, Natalie. We can't wait here for forever."
"So, what do you propose?" Natalie asked the brash, overconfident paladin. "That we leave out at noon, spend two days just getting there and then start out for the Stony Fields ourselves, which would take even longer?"
"Well of course it doesn't sound like a good idea when you put it like that." Preen sighed, rubbing his eyes and shifting the shield on his back. "But we can't just keep sitting here waiting for a magic portal to open up."
"Yes we can, Preen." Natalie said forcefully, "And we will for as long as necessary." Then, softly, noting the paladin's blood-shot eyes. "Preen, when was the last time you slept?"
"What?" Preen had to look up, having trouble focusing on the sorceress.
"I asked: 'When did you last sleep?" The sorceress realized what it had been about the paladin that had made him so impatient for the last few hours. "You were taking almost constant watches when we were resting in the fields and the forest on the way to the Tree of Inifuss. So, when did you last sleep?"
"Don't worry over me, sorceress." Preen snapped, turning back to move and join with the others, who were taking a nap while he and Natalie were supposed to be watching for the magical gate. "I am not a child here."
"When?" Natalie's voice took on a sense of command again, as if ordering the paladin to answer her.
"Not long ago," Preen sighed, stopping long enough to rub his eyes again. "Only about three, maybe four days ago."
"You haven't slept since a day before we even met!?" Natalie couldn't believe this. "Forget being effective in battle, how the heck are you still standing?"
"It's nothing, Natalie, really." Preen said, "All it takes is a bit of faith and a touch of Zakarum aura-magic."
"'Vigor', right pally?" Cathim's voice sounded from the ground before he sat up straight and stiffly. "Impressive, but unless there is something that you're not telling us, you need to sleep if you're going to be any good to us. And no amount of magic can change that."
"Cathim! Have you been eavesdropping!?" Preen was obviously not in the mood for the necromancer.
"Of course I have. I haven't anything better to do except try and figure out the tune that Little Bugga is snoring to. Besides, in order for it to be eavesdropping, you have to be discussing something secret, and you're state of mind is everybody's business."
"Listen here, necromancer." Preen's voice had a bit more venom than usual in it this time. "Just because you can snooze away eight or nine hours of sleep doesn't mean that I can. I must keep a constant vigil over my companions, friends and otherwise. It is the duty of any knight of the Zakarum to exercise to bring themselves above the limitations of mortality. To fight against every enemy, be it a monster, hunger, or our own temptations. This ridiculous, mortal need to sleep is just another of the many things that man can overcome with time, strict discipline, and..."
Cathim was tired of listening to the paladin and decided to try and put a stop to the droning.
"Moortar nocturn" He said shortly, flicking the wand in his off hand slightly and focusing a bit of his mana into the paladin's general direction.
"...And.... andddddd...." Preen rocked back and forth for a moment before finally buckling under his own weight and dropping like a heavily armored stone to the ground.
Natalie was impressed.
"What spell was that?"
" 'Weaken', a Necromancer curse that is supposed to fatigue an enemy. I figured that since he was already a tired enemy, all it would take was a little push to send him beyond the point of fatigue and get him counting sheep."
"Hmmm, do you think that it's uncomfortable to sleep in all that armor, not to mention the shield on his back?"
"Probably, but even if we asked him to take it off, he wouldn't have. Besides, for a curse to really work, a person shouldn't know that it's coming. And unless you feel the need to strip his armor off..."
"Okay, Catty, Okay." Natalie held up her hands in surrender. "But will you at least help me move him over onto a mat so that he can be more comfortable?"
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" Cathim threw off the blanket over his legs and got up to help the sorceress move the paladin.
It took a while to get Preen closer to the Way Stone, as his weight was at least doubled by the armor and weapons. Natalie even went so far as to take the shield off of his back and remove the weapons holsters around his belt.
"Bum-ba-da-da-da-da-da dum...dum-dum-dum." Cathim started strumming out a beat.
"Oh, shut up." Natalie told him, giving the necromancer a playful jab in the ribs.
"Hey, Ow... Watch those, their still tender from when Tozam knocked my skeletal system into my flesh." He called out in mock pain. Then, his expression becoming more serious, he turned and gestured to the Amazon and the druid that were sleeping around the Way Stone.
"We have to let them know sometime, Natalie." He said in frankness, taking his seat next to her. "Before it's too late."
"About what?" Natalie asked in sincere curiosity.
"About your brother."
"Oh, come on, Cathim. Raid's met Elric and she's taken to him well enough. And Durom might as well be part of Tozam's family the way they talk and carry on, so what do we have to worry about?"
"Natalie, I know this may be hard for you to understand..." Cathim whispered, so as not to wake anybody up. "...But Elric is part demon. And unlike you, me, and Tozam, these people, including the high priestess and the Battle-Eagle did not have the privilege of meeting him in his true form or being saved by him. They won't understand the difference between him and any of the monsters that we fight."
"But that's just it, Cathim." Natalie brought around a counter-point. "Elric 'IS' different. Yes, he's got a dark side. He's got teeth, he's got claws, and he does that whole...acid-spitting...thing. But there is something that everyone else fails to see."
"And what is that?" Cathim asked sourly.
"That he's not just half-demon, Cathim." She said slowly. "He's half-human too. And that's the side of him that the world should judge. That's what matters."
"In a perfect world, Natalie. In a perfect world, certainly, that's true." Cathim's grim, pale face tempered his words with the greatest of sincerity. "But, not even heaven is a perfect world. Do you understand?"
Tired as she was, Natalie conceded the point, ending all conversation then and there. So, the two magic users sat back and kept watch over the Way Stone and their late-sleeping companions as they enjoyed the warmth of the morning.
What they failed to notice, however, was that, in the horrible wake of Tozam's snoring, the Amazon and the druid were completely still and breathing quietly.
---------------------
"You were at Tristram when the monastery fell?" Kassyera asked in shock. After listening to the half-demons story over the last two hours, she was down right speechless. She had heard stories of the defeat of Diablo, The Lord of Terror, but she had never imagined that she would meet one of the heroes responsible for it. "You were among the three who defeated the Demon Lord?"
"Okay," Elric shook his head, looking away from the expansive field that they were exploring and back to the assassin. "First off, there were not three of us, there were four of us. It just seems that that idiot storyteller, Marius, pleasantly forgot about me being there. After all, demons aren't supposed to be heroes or live 'happily ever after'." He suddenly saddened. "Like Alisa should have."
"Blood Raven...She was one of your companions there. That's where you knew her from."
"Yeah." Elric nodded, melancholy
Seeing the half-demon turn back to the field, obviously still in pain over the former rogue's death, Kassyera decided to change the subject.
"Well, in any case, I should very much like to meet your newer friends, though I must admit that I would probably be a bit uncomfortable around the necromancer and the paladin."
"Okay, I understand a shadowy, mysterious assassin being uneasy around some holier-than-thou Zakarum dog, but what's wrong with Cathim?"
"Well, you know that the Viz-Jaq'taar was founded to keep the mage clans from becoming corrupt and decadent, right?"
"Aye."
"Well, we, my order that is, have often had to stage dangerous infiltrations and assassinations of corrupted wizard leaders. Now, unruly wizards, hateful sorcerers; those I can handle. But the Priesthood of Rathma have never been put under investigation by the Viz-Jaq'taar."
"You're kidding."
"No, I'm not." She answered. "Necromancers are such cold-hearted pragmatists that they've achieved what the Zakarum have preached for centuries. They are almost completely above corruption and temptation. They don't fear death, they don't suffer the living and can't really be intimidated. And they scare the hell out of me."
"Well, if that's the case, then Cathim's not too bad as Necromancers go." Elric turned back and gave her another of his warm, demon smiles before stopping and sitting back on his haunches for a moment.
The simple walking had been a good idea. He had managed to work out most of the stiffness and soreness that had been plaguing him that morning. But the one thing that had been bothering him more than anything was the stupid cloth bandage that was restricting his movement, slowing him down, and really, really chafing his scales.
After pulling at the cursed bandage for a moment, Elric felt Kassyera stop behind him and kneel down.
"It'll never heal if you don't stop fiddling with it." She said, sounding like an over protective mother hen while she shifted the bandage up on his back, tightening the hold on his chest.
"You don't get it..." Elric said softly, reaching up a claw and drawing it down the deep scar that now cut between his eyes and down the center of his snout. "It won't ever completely heal, Period!"
"What?" Kass asked, pulling the bandage up slightly and allowing herself to get her first look at the wound in hours. "Oh my gods..."
The area around the arrow wound had swollen and the flesh beneath the black scales seemed to be oozing a clear puss and looked infected.
Quite disgusting.
"What happened?" She asked, pushing the bandage back down, trying to dry up the puss with a little pressure.
"WARRKKK!" Elric cried out. "Don't do that!" He pulled away slightly.
"Sorry." Kassyera got back up to her feet as Elric heaved himself back on all fours. "But what...what...?"
"The tip of the arrow that Blood Raven used was made of alchemical silver." Elric said as though that would explain everything, then thinking the subject closed, he started to move again, scanning the plains again.
"Silver? I've never heard of silver being used for weaponry."
"That's because you fight wizards, not demons. And it's 'Alchemical' Silver." Elric corrected, realizing that he would have to explain. "It's also called 'Demon's Bane'. The purest of silver from the high heavens refined beyond human skill. Absolutely deadly to demons with no ill effects to uncorrupted humans."
"Yourself included, I'm guessing."
"To a lesser degree, yes." Elric told her. "Think of it as a horrific allergic reaction. In small doses, it acts like a paralysis drug. but could very quickly become fatal due to prolonged exposure, say: Longer than three minutes. Infections are not uncommon and even the best healing potions don't help with the scars."
"Dear lords...potent stuff."
"Demon's Bane is an angelic weapon. Very rare beyond the Gates of Heaven." Elric told her. "Unfortunately, I've been seeing more lately that I would ever care to see for the rest of my life."
After that, the two traveled in silence for about a quarter of an hour before Elric finally asked:
"So, what's the deal with you?"
"Well, it seems fairly stupid now." Kassyera said, "Considering what it seems to have lead me to."
"Oh, come on. What happened?"
"Well," Kassyera was hesitant. If anyone had told her that she would be having a conversation with a demon forty-two hours ago, she would have never believed it.
Amazing how quickly things could change in just a few short hours.
"It started shortly after I had completed a mission outside the Vizjerei capital of Viz-Jun, a particularly nasty warlock tried to open a demon-gate to our world in exchange for eternal life. After the damn wizard finally died, I started the journey back to the Home of the Viz-Jaq'taar. The first night that I made camp, I had this strange dream."
'Oh-boy...' Elric thought to himself, 'Every time I get into dreams, something weird usually follows.'
"It was...rather vague. I was on a dirt road with a crowd of people all heading in one direction. I was about to start following them when a man in a ragged gray cloak came pushing against the crowd. He said that everyone was going the wrong way. That 'Death lay on the simplest path, the dangerous road was the only way.' So, I asked the traveler: 'Where was the dangerous road?'. And he said...oh, what was it...:
'Upon the Stony Fields, beyond the Pass of Rogues, there is a great place, home of magic stones.
Hold there to find the sage, Who waits for you in vain, Find the path at last, With the man named Cain.'
After that, I had a horrible vision. There was smoke...and fire..." Kass held on a second as she recalled it, "And...so much blood...innocent blood. When I woke up, I felt like I have been instructed to go as quickly as possible. So, I made way instead for Kurast, bartered passage to Kingsport, and traveled by land until I came here some time ago. Every now and then, I would have another dream similar to the first, only...the message would change. At one point, it warned me that death awaited in Tristram, then about three nights ago there was a message that I did not understand until I met you..."
"Find the horned stone and from that place, one with the body of an enemy and the soul of a friend shall befall you most unexpectedly?" Elric said quickly, repeating what Kassyera had said at their first meeting.
"What...how did??"
"I have perfect memory. I remember almost everything that I've seen, heard, and read since the day I was hatched. And I remember it all with excruciating detail." Elric grimaced, "Some things...I remember too well."
Taking advantage of another silence, Kassyera looked around the plains once again, her skilled, sharp eyes taking stock of the terrain.
Then, she saw it.
"I can see them!" She said quickly, pointing off to the east. Surely enough, as Elric looked, he saw five small pillar-like shapes on the horizon.
"Well, alright." Elric said, taking comfort in the fact that they had located the portal. Smiling, he turned to the assassin. "Check this, Kass. I think that you'll enjoy this little bit of magic. Don't be panicking or anything, okay."
Drawing a nod from Kassyera, Elric closed his eyes and started drawing on his inherent magical abilities.
---------------------
"...And then the barbarian says to the southerner: 'Your wife?? I thought that was your brother!'"
Cathim, Durom, and Preen sat in mute silence while Tozam had to restrain himself from laughing at his own punch line.
"It...(snort) it was his....(chuckle) his...wife..." Then, realizing that the joke hadn't gone over so well, looked at the three men opposite him.
"Come on guys, what's wrong? That joke is hilarious."
"I'm sorry, Tozam. But I've heard that one a hundred times." Durom laughed weakly.
"I don't get it." Preen said shaking his head.
"Well...ummm, what about you, Catty?" Tozam asked the necromancer, who was looking over a vial of mana potion, inspecting for hair-line cracks. "Did you not get it either."
"Oh, no. I got it alright." Cathim said dryly. "I just didn't find it funny."
"Ugh...tough crowd."
Just at that moment, a sudden spark of blue fire appeared over the Way Stone, spending a moment suspended in air, and then igniting with full fury and then solidifying into the familiar pool of pure blue water. Natalie and Raid were though immediately, having everything ready that they needed for the moment the portal arrived.
Tozam, Cathim, and the other guys, however, were not so lucky.
"Well, it's about time, Elric." Cathim said, quickly rushing to grab his things like the others and moving to jump though the portal.
"I'm just glad that he put the stupid portal up before Tozam started another joke." Preen added, standing right in front of the mystical gateway.
"NOW THOSE JOKES WERE..."
"Sorry, can't hear you!" Preen told the barbarian, hopping though the pool only moments before the druid.
"Oh, don't worry, Tozam." Cathim said to the agitated barbarian. "Maybe we can find a Blood Hawk nest to push him into when nobody is looking."
With that, Cathim plunged into the standing pool.
Tozam, his spirits lifted by this morbid thought, smiled and stepped thought the portal.
Only seconds later, it vanished, leaving no trace of the six adventurers or their magical means of escape.
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Okay, I know it's a cliffhanger of sorts. Don't worry because I have a really good one coming up next week.
Revamped: June 20th, 8:15pm for spelling and proof reading purposes.
Next Week: The Return to Tristram Finally, the unlikely heroes travel to the place where it all began: The demon infested sess-pool of Tristram. Secrets shall be uncovered. Lies shall be told. And the fate of a great sage hangs in the balance. Finally, the entire team, both old and new members, come together for one serious butt-whupping.
Oh well, enough about that.
Let's see. I have decided to close this week with a poem to show just how much I want you guys to R&R.
(Robin has to dodge tomatoes)
OKAY! I GET IT! No poetry. Sheesh, try to inject a little badly written culture.
Well, You guys have read it all before, So I don't have to tell you how important your reviews are to me. Remember, I check them every couple of hours and I absolutely love getting new ones.
Well, that's a wrap.
Until next time, this is Robin Shirewood...Signing off.
