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

"On June 23, 2004, the author, Robin Shirewood, disappeared without a trace. Furious due to the sudden void in her life, everyone's favorite author tracking, shotgun wielding, and slightly insane Ramaon, roamed the southern United States in search of the missing writer.

This document, and the author who's hand was attached to it, were eventually found in the mountains of Northern Georgia USA.

As it turns out, he had been incapacitated in a bizarre Dungeons and Dragons related accident."

Robin: So...much...Anti-DM aggression.
Ramaon: (Sigh)...why must the talented always be so strange? (Pries floppy disk from death-grip) Robin: Hold me… Ramaon: (Bonks Robin on the head)

We now return you to.
The Return to Tristram.

The Crystal Arch, Seventh Plain of the High Heavens:
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"WE CAN NOT ABANDON THEM! They are more important than that!" Tyrael shouted out, his virtuous and commanding voice ringing within the great, shining Crystal Citadel, surrounded by the awesome beauty obtainable only in this most holy of heavenly places.

For ageless millennia, warriors of the heavens had followed every order of that powerful voice. They had sacrificed themselves, martyred themselves, shared victory and defeat under the ring of that same conviction. But now, Tyrael was not in command. For the three heavenly beings seated before him, basking in their place of honor beneath the mighty Crystal Arch were the greatest and purest of the Seraphim. Their names forgotten long ago, lost to the passing of time, even in this hallowed place, they were known only as 'The Crystal Council'. The three, two male and one female, arch-angels had held their positions since the beginning of known time.
Since the start of the Great Conflict itself.

"It is truly..." One began, stopping for a moment while another of The Council picked up his sentence. They always spoke as one, with each of them taking on apart of the other's words.

"...A pity. However..."

"...The mortal realm is..."

"...Now a liability we can not protect."

Despite the word of the council, Tyrael, who had led armies against the legions of chaos for centuries beyond count, did not back down.

"The Demon Lord, Diablo, is loosed upon the Mortal world." Tyrael said, repeating his before statement. "He will ravage the lands of men until they are barren. The powers of Hell shall not halt until they have found whatever they have sought for so long!"

"The Demon Lord's..."

"...power has been broken. He..."

"...Is not the threat he once was."

"Greater enemies stir. Now..."

"..,The fires of War..."

"...Have run out in Hell."

"Azmodan and Belial have..."

"...Ceased their fighting at last."

"The Peace of The Heavens..."

"...Is over. We must now look..."

"...To our own gates and watchtowers."

"Does the council not find it unusual?" Tyrael tried to plead. "That the civil war in Hell would end the moment that Diablo has escaped from his prison? There is something more to all of this, and we must look beyond our own gates and realms to find the truth!"

"Diablo escaped, Tyrael..."

"...Because your mortal not hold to their oaths. Now..."

"...You wish to intervene..."

"...Yet again to aid those of the Mortal World."

"You wish to finish the feud..."

"...Between yourself and the Demon Lord."

"You should have chosen..."

"...Better guardians for..."

"...the Soul Stones."

"Human's do not live forever! They can not hold to a task indefinitely, especially not when such a task seems finished! Neither man or angel could have foreseen the events leading up to the release of Terror."

"We can spare no more..."

"...Warriors to aid the human race. If..."

"...They are to survive the coming war,..."

"...They must do so on their own."

"NO! DAMMIT ALL! DON'T YOU SEE!" Tyrael shouted, forgetting that he was addressing three of the only Arch-Angels in existence that were his superiors. "Something of monumental importance is going to happen! And it will take place in the Moral Realm! Diablo is up to something! And he has either regained the loyalty of Azmodan and Belial, or he has destroyed them! WE MUST STOP TERROR NOW!"

" You forget..."

"...Your place, Tyrael. Humans..."

"...Are a mere novelty. They were..."

"...Never meant to last in the Great War."

"The Great Conflict between..."

"...The Heavens and the Hells..."

"...Shall last forevermore."

"Sanctuary is but a...

"...Passing dream."

"Mankind is but a..."

"...Distraction from our duties."

"Your fascination with the humans..."

"...Must end immediately, Commander Tyrael."

"You are now ordered..."

"...To the Pandemonium Fortress. There..."

"...You will command the first response armies..."

"...When Azmodan and Belial attack."

Tyrael shook his hooded head. Human philosophers had a word for this sinless flaw of the Council's... What was it?

'Arrogance' He believed... Or 'Decadence.
Still, he saw little that he could do. Even as commander of all of Heaven's armies, Tyrael had no power to counteract the word of The Crystal Council.

There were, however, a few things that he had learned while in the company of men.

"As you wish, my lords." Tyrael bowed humbly. "I do, however, have one, small, request to ask of you."
----------------------------------------
:::Tristram:::

The relative silence of the dark, grassy plains outside the former township was shattered by the loud crackling of lighting. Moments later, out of nothingness, formed a large, blood-red ring of standing water.

A savage battle-cry filled the air suddenly, as out of the pool of water burst the muscular form of Tozam The Barbarian. Teeth bared and ready for battle, the large warrior held each of his enchanted swords. Stopping for a moment, Tozam looked around to see a nearly empty field around him, with the only sign of life being a fat looking cow laying on it's side some hundred feet away.

"Huh?" Tozam dropped his arms to his side and brought one hand up to scratch his head. "Where're all the..."

He was unable to finish his train of thought, because at that exact moment a handsome, skilled, and armored paladin came rushing though the open portal and slammed hard into Tozam's broad and well-formed back. The barbarian did not budge from his spot, but the unfortunate paladin was thrown back and landed heavily on his backside, his head only an inch from the portal.

"Aye!" Preen cried out as he ht the ground! "What are you doing standing there, Tozam?! Where are the armies of evil that we came to defeat?!"

The paladin only had a moment to recollect himself and look about before being kicked by an incoming necromancer.

"Oh!" Cathim jumped, having not expected to find the paladin in that position already. "Strange, paladin." Cathim shook his head.
"For all your skill, you have yet to master the laws of physics. For instants, when struck by a bolt of lightning, most people die. You completely ignored that little fact. And usually, an enemy is supposed to be around to knock you on your arse before you actually end up ON your arse."

Durom and Raid came though a few moments later, with Durom looking as grim and indifferent as ever and Raid heaving her bow right into battle position.

"Uhhh," Raid swerved from side to side, bringing her notched arrow around in any direction that she was facing. "Not that I'm complaining, but where are all the hellish monsters carrying gold?" She asked just as Durom helped Preen to his feet and Kassyera stepped though the portal.

"Well," Kassyera looked around as well, surprised as everyone else that there were no enemies in sight. "This place is charming."

Tozam looked about and took several cautious steps forward, looking with most interest to the fat cow lying on it's side. The others also made themselves ready, holding weapons at ready while casting paranoid glances across the landscape. Looking up to the sky curiously just as Natalie stepped though the portal, Durom asked:

"Why is it so dark here? It was mid-day when we passed though the portal on the Stony Field."

Looking up and taking in the situation, Natalie was disturbed by her own conclusion.

"It's still mid-day... The evil in the air has blotted out most of the sun's light."

"And you became an expert on the effects of monsters on the environment... When?" Kassyera asked cynically.

"Go chew on a quill rat, assassin!"

"Strange..." Tozam's voice came from a distance, "Hey, guys! Come take a look at this!" The barbarian gestured over to his party members from his kneeling position next to the cow.

Curious as to what the barbarian had found, the group rushed over without question and leaned over him.

"Is it dead?" Preen asked, only glancing at the steer before looking back around to make sure that there were no monsters sneaking up on them.

"That's just it..." Tozam said with an air of mystery. "It looks like it's breathing, but the damage to the beast's throat and body are far too extensive for it to still be alive."

It was about this time that Elric finally came though the portal. Being the only one who did not believe that the portal would be swarmed by demons, Elric walked though easily and looked around with a lazy interest and took a sniff of the air.

'Something burns to the south...' He thought, interpreting the heavy, wood smoking and figuring the direction of the wind. Quickly taking stock of his surroundings, Elric found that he recognized the place.

Tristram was less than an hour south of here on foot.

"Hey guys!" The half-demon called out looking to where the others had congregated before he realized that something had caught their attention. "What'd you find?"

"Not sure, Elric." Tozam answered back, reaching out one of his blades to prod the still moving creature gently. "Why don't you come take a..."

POP!

With a sickening burst, the entire body of the steer exploded outward, smothering most of the surrounding warriors in blood and large hunks of meat and bone.

"Never mind..." Tozam said, shaking his head and pondering what had just happened.

"Okay... That was one of the grossest things to have ever happened to me." Raid told them all, standing up and using a free hand to wring small bits of blood and meat out of her ponytail.

"Oh... I think I'm gonna be sick..." Natalie backed off quickly.

At first, the others thought that the sorceress's reaction was to the unexplained explosion of meat and gore. However, as each of them quickly realized, the bits of blood were the least of their worries. Writhing and squirming in the now exposed body cavity of the poor beast were small, maggot-like worms with only one distinct feature.
A row of tiny razor sharp fangs.

With raw flesh so readily available, the small monsters ignored the surrounding humans and gnawed thought muscle, fat, and organs with equal glee.

"What the hell are these 'Things'!?" Kassyera managed to say quickly, taking a few steps back. She had dealt with the most depraved of warlocks in the past, but these disgusting, vile worms were outside of her experience.

Without warning, the animal's corpse combusted, bursting into intense, bright red flames. And, though none of the human warriors or warrioresses knew the twisted, bizarre language that they heard, they were all sure that they could hear distant shouting and screams of pain from within the blaze.

"Natalie! Damn it all, I know they were disgusting, but was that really...?" Cathim started, having been far more curious about the maggot than disgusted by them.

"I didn't do that." Natalie told the others calmly.

"I did." Elric walked up, watching the burning cow. "Those were hell-born pain worms, guys, and if I were you, I would make sure that none of them got on you when the cow burst."

"What..." Natalie looked back to the flame, still hearing an ever so faint scream. Neither she, or any of the others had ever heard of a hell-born pain worm.

Cathim looked up to the half-demon with indignation.
"Elric! Part of being a magic user involves studying anything that we come across! You can't just burn something because it's disgusting"

"Uhhh, Catty... Those things bore into your skin, make a drive to vital organs, wrack your body with unworldly pain, and then multiply until you are ready to explode and spread them around other creatures nearby. That's about as much as you would probably want to know."

Eyes went wide at this news and a druid, an assassin, an Amazon, a paladin, a sorceress and a barbarian all started to frantically check themselves over, trying as hard as they could to find any of the small white worms on their armor and clothing.

"Oh...well..." Cathim lost his indignation and nodded at the half-demon with appreciation. "Thank you. I believe that will suffice my curiosity."

"A kamikaze cow?" Raid shook her head, hoping that she had removed any intruding worms from her hair. "What the hell else do these things have here?"

Elric looked over to the Amazon, a blank gaze over his eyes.
"If this is enough to turn your stomach, then I'd advise you to start walking home. Pain worms are the least of our troubles here."

The other party members looked to the youth that spoke, amazed by the sudden solemn tone in his voice. Aside from that was the complete change in his eyes, which no longer shined with their normal green luster.

Cathim realized it, if no one else did. He was serious. For the first time since the necromancer had met the half-demon, Elric was completely serious about this battle.

"He's right." Natalie stood up, absently brushing away the blood that covered the front of her green outfit and trying not to think about how long it would take her to get clean. "Let's start a search pattern. Everyone out in teams of two in each direction until we find the township. The portal couldn't have put us too far away from Tristram."

"It didn't." Elric said with certainty, not wanting to waste time. "We move south. Try to be quite." With that, Elric started jogging of into the south.

"What...?" Preen was not sure if he was more shocked by Elric's confidence or by the fact that Natalie, Cathim, and Tozam had no problem getting up and moving behind the boy. "Hold on! What makes you so sure about that?!"

"He has a nose for these kind of things." Kassyera told him, moving up to follow the half-demon as well.

"But... Wait! We have to have a plan for battle!" Preen called after them, his own feeling for silence taking a back seat to his feeling of indignation. "We need an attack strategy!"

"Fight or flee, Preen of Kurast." Durom said stoically, getting up as well to follow the others. "All strategies are mere variations of these two. And I for one have no intention of fleeing."

"But..." Preen grunted, hating the fact that the group did not seem to take the subtleties of battle in any seriousness whatsoever. "Raid, you are a trained soldier. Surely you understand the need for battle strategies?"

"Yes. I do, Preen." Raid answered, pulling her hair-tie off and letting her long blond hair hang loose behind her. "I also know that no plan, no matter how well thought out, survives initial impact. And, to top it all off, there are few usable strategies for two people. So, I think I'll stay with the group." The Amazon shouldered her bow and started her own jog down after the others.

"BUT...! RAID!!!" Preen shouted after her in vain. The paladin was now left alone next to the still burning animal carcass and the broiled pain worms.

'This 'Elric' is an obvious hot-head.' Preen thought, watching the others as they moved quickly southward. 'He is knowledgeable and has some skill for magic, but far too eager for battle, limited in experience at best, and has absolutely no respect for his superiors.'

Preen let out a cleansing breath before he also started sprinting after the others.
'A true paladin of the Zakarum does not follow...' He heard his father's oft repeated words ring thought his head.

"He only leads..." Preen finished out loud. -----------------------------------

"This place was attacked months ago, wasn't it?" Tozam asked, trying to keep his voice down as he scrunched down behind the half-gone stone wall that once marked the outermost boarder of Tristram.

"Yeah." Raid answered, looking around and hoping that they wouldn't be seen. "So?"

"Why is it still on fire?" The barbarian asked.

The group had found the found their way to the former township with ease, and now lie in wait as Elric, Natalie, Kassyera, and Preen "Discussed" various battle options.

The area that had been spoken of in rumor and fear for months was now little more than a smoldering ruin. Even from this distance, the stench of burning flesh pierced even the normally blunt noses of the full blooded humans. And the strangest of the occurrences was the fact that, even though the attack had been over for months and every human inhabitant had apparently perished, the fires still burned the ashy wood of the structures.

"Deckard Cain is being kept in the center of town." Elric said, drawing out a map in the crumbled, ruined black dirt. "Here's the blacksmith shop... or the remains of it, and here is what used to be the Inn of The Rising Sun."

"If they are keeping guard on him, the best idea would be to strike into the center of town quickly and get out as soon as possible." Kassyera said, looking at the many entrances in the crude map and thinking of all the possible places for an ambush.

"No, We should secure the entire area." Preen argued, "These are stupid beast of chaos and destruction. They will not post sentries. They will wait for an alarm and attack en masse."

Elric thought for a minute while Natalie still looked over the map. "You're probably right about the alarm and attack, Preen. But don't underestimate how smart they can be."

"Am I the only one wondering how you know this town so well?" Natalie asked, suspicious as to how Elric could possibly have this sort of information.

"I spent a little time here. Not that it matters." Elric said curtly. "Don't forget that this is a rescue mission. Quickly in and quickly out would be the best idea. With any luck, the demons that attacked this place lost interest long ago and it'll be all but deserted."

"I find it hard to believe that those monsters would leave a prisoner alive in a place like that." Preen shook his head, raising up ever so slightly to peer over the tumble-down half wall and take a glimpse of the wrecked township. "Then again, I also find it hard to believe that these beast would bother taking prisoners. What guarantee do we have that Deckard Cain is alive at all?"

"None whatsoever." Natalie told the paladin. "But, if we have any hope of beating Andariel, then we have to believe that he is."

"So, in other words, we may have just wasted the last three days trying to find someone that could already be dead?"

"Well," Kassyera popped her neck, and looked down at the crude map again. "We better do something soon. We're sitting ducks here and I have no intention of being put on a menu for a bunch of stupid demons... No offence." She added offhandedly.

"None taken." Elric answered back without thinking before he made his call and got everyone's attention. "Okay. Here's what we do. Break up into teams of two. Try to attract as little attention as possible." Elric started pairing them up.

"Tozam and Durom, you guys head straight in from the North entrance and take out any guards or sentries demons you might find. Kass and Raid, go around and do the same on the south side. You should find cover in a tree grove and be able to pick off anything that tries to get into the city by the south side. The west wall of the city is against a river, so we shouldn't have to worry about it. But there is something...Cathim, take wonder boy over there and head up to the north-west, outside the town. Natalie: You're with me."

"What?" Cathim was confused by this. "But... There's nothing north-west except a graveyard and a pile of rubble."

"Trust me." Elric told the necromancer solemnly. "If the creature's that did all this are still in the area, they will come out of the North-west. Keep out of the graveyard and make for the portal if things get too hot."

"And where will you be?" Kassyera asked.

"Natalie and I will take the East entrance." Elric said. "Does everybody know what their supposed to do?"

This warranted a pause.

"Uhhhhhh...."

"No, not really."

"Maybe we should go over it again."

"Oh... for the love of!" Elric had to control himself to keep from lashing out. "Just kill anything that gets in your way and get the hell out if things get really bad. Once we get out, head back for the portal.

"I can do that." Tozam said happily.

"Okay, guys." Natalie said, looking around at the unlikely crew. In all of her life, she never would have predicted that she might be trusting her life to such a strange group. "We only have one shot at this. If we find Deckard Cain alive somebody who knows magic needs to send up a sign and waste no time getting him back to the portal. Everyone understand?"

"What do we do if he's already dead?" Cathim asked grimly, still wondering if there might be an empty pit in the graveyard to kick Preen into.

"He's alive." Elric said confidently. "I know it."

"Then what are we waiting for." Tozam got up from the uncomfortable crouching position and stretched out, towering over the others. "Lets do this. I wanna fight!"

The rest of the party agreed, each wishing the others best of luck before they too stood and splintered off into each of their designated groups.

As Preen and Cathim started away from Elric and Natalie, heading to the ominous debris in the North West, Elric's keen ears caught some of the paladin's words.

"Why would Elric be offended?"
---------------------------------

"That didn't take long." Raid whispered to the assassin as each of them slinked from shadow to shadow, silent as death itself.

Less than thirty minutes had passed since they had broken off from the others and already they had found proof that this place was, indeed, Tristram. An archaic ritual seemed to be in place, as dozens of small, red skinned Fallen Ones danced around a burning bit of refuge. Behind the circling tribe, a single, tall shaman sat, chin in hand, in a throne carved out of a tree stump.

The only other thing that the two women warriors could make out was a small, motionless figure off to the side.

"You don't think that might be Cain, do you?" Raid asked quietly before Kassyera hushed her with a finger.

The sound of the creatures dancing and singing was a pain to the ear, like hearing dozens of ungraceful cows skidding on fine marble. Still, thinking that perhaps the assassin was more skilled in stealth, Raid kept quiet and resisted the urge to start firing into the easy to hit group of dancing fallen. Curiosity also consumed the Amazon as she watched Kassyera pull a small, cylindrical metal piece from her belt.
----------------------------------

"This is very strange." Durom paused for the umpteenth time, kneeling down and pulling up a bit of dirt. This time bringing some up to his face and sniffing it.

Tozam, who had found a strange bond of fellowship with his druidic cousin, was now beginning to question the Druid's sanity.

"Okay... what the hell is so strange. It's dirt! You know... that grimy stuff that everywhere whenever there's no water, mountain's, or sand. I swear, If we have to stop for another, 'that's strange, let me sniff the ground', moment, I am leaving your arse behind! I have been hunting for a good bit of my life, and I'll tell you that we are not going to find any distinct tracks in this slough."

Durom stood up, once more taking his great spear in his hand. "It is not tracks which I seek, Cousin Tozam..." The druid answered cryptically, "But answers locked within the earth."

"Rigghttt... Any chance the 'Earth' can tell me when I'll have to get married?"

"Do not mock the sciences of the Druid's College." Durom warned before explaining. "I can tell from the soil that any animal's native to this world have long since fled, driven away as if by a great hoard of evil. I have no allies among the beast in this place."

"This place was ransacked by monsters and you're looking to adopt another murder of crows or a wolf?" Tozam looked from side to side as they approached the ruins of the cities northern-most buildings.

"More than that," Durom continued, looking about as well. "This land has been desecrated. Hell-Born evil thrives on such ground, making it stronger and slowly corrupting those mortals who remain in constant contact with it."

"Wait! Are you saying that all the demons around here get a power boost just because they're standing on this dirt?!"

"Yes." Durom answered. "Your colleague, Elric, should be most pleased."

"Well, yeah. I guess he would be... WHA..." The reality of the Druid's words smacked Tozam in the face. "How did you know...?"

"Know?" Durom shook his head, surprised that Tozam had really believed him to be so naive. "I had suspected since you spoke of him as if he were an animal. But I did not understand the full truth until I heard your skinny friend Cathim and Natalie speaking about him last night. It really made me question all of your goals."

"Well... Elric can be kinda... strange... sometimes. But, really, he is a great guy."

"His adopted sister certainly thinks highly of him. Which was the only reason why I did not attack him on sight."

"Good thing too." Tozam tried to joke around, not noticing the massive figure watching them from the shadows. "Cause he would have torn your carrot-topped head off."

"Still," Durom went on, "I would never guess by looking at him or speaking with him that he was a..."
-----------------------------

"HALF-WHAT!!!!" Preen couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You heard me, pally. I don't need to repeat myself do I?" Cathim kept walking, feeling a strong pull from the spirit world as he came closer to the rubble heap in the center of the Graveyard.

"We have been following a MONSTER'S advice on how not to be killed by other monsters! Are you people MAD!?"

"You know, I asked myself that same question when I first met him. Didn't trust him for a moment. Of course, when I met him, he was a long, black lizard-like creature with enormous claws and a bladed tail; spitting acid all over the ground."

"If that 'thing' is half-demon, then what's the other half?" Preen asked, disgusted, though he already guessed the answer.

"Chipmunk." Cathim answered coldly, drawing an estranged jump from the nauseated looking Paladin.

"Gullible lot, aren't you. No... One of his parents were human. But according to Natalie, he never knew them."

"And what does the sorceress know of this... this... 'Unholy Abomination'?" Preen asked.

"That 'sorceress' would be the 'Unholy Abomination's' adopted sister." The necromancer said, his voice lacking anything close to emotion. The magic emanating from this place was strong. Powerful beyond anything that the Priest of Rathma had ever felt before. Talking... even to the stupid paladin, helped to calm his nerves.

" 'Sister'?! What treachery is this?! What kind of mad fool would invite such evil into their home? If we were in Kurast...!"

"They would have been put to death for consorting with the dark forces." Cathim went ahead.

"DAMN RIGHT!" Preen exploded for a moment, rocking his head back to the point that his helmet slipped forward on his head.

"And you people wonder why the Kingdom of Westmarch and every other society outside of the Travencal call your crusade against evil 'The Inquision of Blood'."

"The forces of Darkness are NOT to be tampered with! And they are certainly not to be taken into a family's house LIKE A BLOODY STRAY DOG!"

"And I'm sure that you would have been the first to march a five year old Natalie and her father and mother up to the guillotine."

"I WOULD HAV...." Preen lost more than a bit of his wind. "I... I would...."

"Not so easy when you think of the fact that she was just a kid when they let him in."

"Her parents should have known better!"

"Preen..." Cathim decided to take this next step delicately. "It is in the Code of the Paladin to help those in need, correct?"

"Yes." Preen answered without hesitation.

"And, if you found an orphaned child, hungry and shivering in the cold, what would you do?"

"I don't know..." Preen started, "I'm a soldier, so I can't very well take the child in. I would perhaps try to find a generous home for him to stay for a few nights."

"If that's the case..." Cathim stopped, now standing only a few feet from the rubble, tombstones all around. "Then a lowly peasant family overwhelmed the great and unbreakable Code of The Zakarum. Some protectors of Light."

Preen was about to retaliate, but then stopped.

He would have more time later to correct the horrifically short-sighted necromancer's views.

"What is this place, anyways?" Preen asked, changing the subject.

"I'm not sure..." Cathim looked about, trying to make sense of the area. "The pull of the spirits in this area is immense. There so much pain here... so much anger in the sleeping dead. My first thought would be that this place was a church by the arrangement of the graves. But..." Cathim stopped, suddenly realizing that there was something very, very wrong.

"This place is unholy..." Preen said, feeling a chill in the air.

"That is the understatement of a lifetime." Cathim told the paladin, realizing what he was feeling. "The spirits are restless. They crave battle." Suddenly, the necromancer turned about, his eyes wide.

"They know we're here." He whispered fearfully.

Before another word could be said, Preen felt an icy cold grip on his ankle.
--------------------------------

-FLASH-
A lone figure walked past the eastern entrance to Tristram, his head covered by a deep, hooded holocaust cloak.
The townspeople, terrified by the recent events surrounding the towering monastery and the disappearance of both The Black King Leoric and his son, the kindly Prince Albrecht.

Fear shook the local people to their knees, persuading them to invite even the most horrific sort of mercenary into their town in hopes that they might do battle with the evil.

"Well, what haves we here?" One of the scarred, ale-reeking mercenaries, reinforced by several followers, approached the young newcomer.

'A man barely any better than the monsters that he has come to fight.' Elric had thought. But all he could say, in a restrained voice was:

"Out of my way."

"We don't need any mores here ta try and take on apiece of the glory, boy. This aren't a place for a farm-hand with a pig-sticker to come to prove something." The horrible scar running down this man's face added an annoying twitch to his cheeks as he talked. To Elric, he had seemed the kind that thought highly of his skill. Not to say that his ego was unfounded, but it was without doubt, out of hand.
"You can go on back to yer dirt-eating family and leave the dreams of battle to the real warriors."

Later, Elric would realize that he acted rashly. But, at this time, his family was the last thing that he would hear insulted.

Before the mercenary could react, Elric shot out a hand and grabbed hold of the man's arm, crushing every bone in the scarred mercenary's forearm.

The others stood back for a second in shock before they realized that their leader was shouting out in pain. But as that shock subsided, they attempted to attack, coming at Elric from all sides with bare hands.
With his superior strength, even in human form, Elric managed to repel them all in a matter of moments, sending them sulking back on the road without ever letting go of their leader's crushed arm.

"AGGGGHHHH!!! HEY! LET ME GO!" The man squirmed for a moment before catching a glimpse of the shining red eyes of his tormenter.

"Wha... what the hell are you...?"

Later, Elric would recall playing different scenarios though his mind. Ripping the guy's head off was the first and foremost, with others being as mild as simply taking an arm and gnawing on it for the next few days. Thankfully, reason won out in the end and Elric simply threw the injured warrior back to the side of the road.

"Stay out of my way."

-FLASH-

Elric shook his head, trying to focus on the task at hand as he and Natalie sneaked though the familiar East Entrance and down the main road.

"How do you know this place so well?" Natalie asked again for the third time since she and Elric had broken away from the rest of the group.

"I told you: I spent a little time here." The young half-demon said quickly, moving as quietly as he could while staying close to the buildings that lined the town's main street.

"When?" Natalie asked sarcastically. "I know that father never let you leave home before he died, and there would have only been one time that you could have come here after that."

Elric sighed, wishing that his sorceress sister would stop worrying about these little details and focus on not attracting any attention.

"I'm not a simpleton, Little brother." She said, moving up beside him.

"Natalie. I never accused you of that."

"You were here during the battles against Diablo, weren't you?"

Elric stayed silent, trying instead listening to the faint voices that he heard coming from the center of town.

"Why come here after Atisar?"

"I had my reasons, Nat." Elric whispered, ducking off to the side and motioning for his sister to do the same. "Leave it at that."

"Why did you..."

Elric shushed her, reaching out, pulling the sorceress closer to him and slipping a hand over her mouth. Natalie struggled for a moment before she realized that Elric was trying to do. Staying still for a moment, she too heard the grainy, malevolent voices.

Feeling that she had gotten the point, Elric let go.

"What are they?" Natalie whispered, readying her spells and pulling her staff in front of her.

"An old friend..." Elric hissed slightly.
-----------------------------------------

"Ohhhh boysss..." Raid cooed, stepping out from behind a small grove of trees. Swinging her legs up, deliberately and seductively with each step.

This got the Fallen around the fire to stop dancing around and stare in awe at the beautiful, blond human in red leather armor that had fallen into their midst. The most surprised among them, it seemed, was the tall, stave wielding shaman, who stood up from his crudely designed wood throne.

"I'm looking for the ugly one..." Raid shrugged and shook her head idiotically, "Oh, what am I saying... You're all ugly."

"Prayers are been answered!" The shaman waved his arms dramatically, posing as though he had expected this unbelievably fortunate gift. "The wo-man flesh be your's!"

That was all of the encouragement that the fallen warriors needed before they started rushing forward, consumed by the only lust in their minds that was more important that the need for battle.

"Oh..." Raid said slowly and flatly, as though she did not have any problem that a small hoard of horned fallen were coming at her. "...What ever shall I do?"

Thought the shaman could not hear her, he did wonder for a moment why the stupid human was not running. His answer came a few moments later as almost his entire tribe stopped at once, started convulsing wildly, and jet-black hair from every one of them shot up and stood on end.

"Oh, Athulua, Forgive me, but I do love this 'technology'." Raid smiled, seeing how well the assassin's plan had worked and pulling her bow from her shoulder, notching and aiming faster than most men could follow. Allowing here intuition to have free reign, she let the arrow fly.

The shaman, who was now preparing a fireball spell, heard a twang behind him and was confused when he turned around and found an arrow embedded n the wooden throne directly behind him. Hs confusion was only enhanced by the sudden wetness that dribbled down his horned forehead. Finally, the realization was made:

"Me be shot..." The shaman fell over, dead before it hit the ground.

Raid waited a moment, enjoying the show as the last of the Fallen warrior's that had come for her fell to the ground, overcome by a fried nervous system.

"Well," Kassyera appeared seemingly out of nowhere, smiling as she nimbly tread though the Fallen One's corpses. Looking on the ground until she found the small metal tube that she was looking for. "That went better than planned."

"What is that thing any way's, Kassy?"

"Lightning Web." The assassin said shortly, reaching down though the gap in the web's energy and disarming the trap. "Very useful against crowds like that."

"Okay. Enough chat. Do you think these guys got anything good on them?" Raid asked quickly, wondering weather or not it would be worth the trouble to dig though the stinking pile of bodies for treasure.

"Don't you have a mission to be attending to?" Kassyera asked earnestly, nodding her head over to the figure that they had seen before.

"Eh? Oh... Right." Raid seemed almost disappointed as she got up and sulked over to the body.

It was smaller than she had thought before. And, turning it over, Raid realized that it could not possibly be the 'Town Elder' Cain.

"Oh my lords..." Kass stood over the Amazon as the trained warrioress turned the boy over. "He's a baby."

"A badly mutilated baby." Raid said, a strange mixture of sadness and stern uncaring in her voice.

The kid couldn't have possibly been older than nine or so when he died, but both women made a safe bet that he had suffered for far more than those nine years were worth. Already missing a leg (obviously some time before his death) the youth was likely quite dashing and roguish before the monsters had proceeded to torture him.

"Sad... Very sad." Raid said, shifting thought the boy's coat.

"Raid! What are you doing?! Have you no respect for the dead."

"Respect?" Raid pulled out several fat purses filled with coins, "At the moment, I have a lot of respect. This kid must've had at least five hundred gold pieces on him."

Kass shook her head indignantly, wondering how she could have possibly gotten mixed up with these people. Looking away as the Amazon continued to loot the poor child with a gleeful vigor, the assassin noticed a small wooden peg on the ground. Upon picking it up, she realized that it was a wooden leg.
Nodding her head in a quick prayer, Kass tucked the leg into her pack, more as a memento than anything else.
--------------------------------------

"Come with us..." The wraith-like, multitude of voices rang out above all other sounds as the restless dead clawed their way out from under the soft, defiled earth. "We will take you to oblivion..."

A bolt of holy light blasted yet another of the hundreds of rising dead.

"'Go to the northwest!' A wonderful suggestion from your brilliant leader! Too bad he was looking to get us killed!" Preen shouted as he and the necromancer stood back to back, each trying their best to keep the tide of undead at bay.

"Blaming Elric isn't going to do anything about it right now! Besides, he said to stay out of the graveyard, if it makes you feel any better before you die: BLAME ME! " Cathim said blankly, having trouble concentrating on his dismissal spells. "We can't let them surround us. If they do, we die."

"I get the picture, 'death priest'." Preen snapped, feeling drained as he lobbed another of his 'Holy Bolts' and positive energy into the growing crowd. "Any suggestions on how to do that would be greatly appreciated."

"I'm used to summoning the undead, not repelling them. At the moment, I'm hoping you have a bloody miracle hidden away in that armor of yours."

"I do not perform miracles..." Preen said, suddenly realizing what he must do and lowering the tip of his blade to the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to ask for one…"

The paladin paid no more heed to the necromancer, instead focusing his thoughts and ideals into a single truth.
As a paladin, he relied on his faith, now more than ever.

"By the might of Ghrab Thaar..." Preen said lifting his chin and speaking to the heavens as the hoard of undead closed in upon them. "I call for the aid of the divine hammer!"

"Any time now would be good!" Cathim said, casting one last unsummoning before he felt the last of his mana drain away to nothingness. Now, unless he was allowed time to grab for one of his mana potions, he had no defense.

"HAIL AKARAT!!!" Preen called out in a vibrant, powerful voice as light suddenly exploded right above his head. Thought he would later wonder weather he was hallucinating or had seen a divine vision, Cathim could swear at that moment that he saw a hammer made from pure light swing out of the first burst. Spiraling around the paladin and over the heads of the undead. Many were either stunned or destroyed in less than an instant.

"Okaayyyy..." Cathim looked around for a moment, wondering what force could possibly have knocked back so many undead zombies and skeletons at the same time.

After half a second of wondering, he realized that he didn't care at the moment.

"RUN!!!" Cathim shouted, grabbing the paladin's arm and making for the thinnest grouping of the stunned undead.

"The power of the light has come to our aid..." Preen said in an almost trance-like voice as the necromancer pulled him along as quickly as he could run. "...We have nothing to fear."

"Except a hoard of pissed off undead warriors who I would like to get away from as quickly as possible!" Cathim said, dragging the paladin out of the graveyard and back the way they came. "We have to get back to the portal!"

"Those are the words of a coward." Preen said, becoming more and more aware of the situation with each passing step.

"Think of it as a tactical retreat from certain and pointless death then!" Cathim snapped, letting go of the paladin and letting him run on his own.

Preen looked back to the graveyard, seeing now that those who had only been stunned had quickly overcome the shock and were now chasing after them.

"I can live with that..." Preen said, running after the necromancer.
----------------------------

Durom and Tozam ducked quickly ducked behind the half-tumbled wall of the Inn of the Rising Sun when they heard the three gravely voices coming from the center of the town.
Keeping quiet and readying their weapons, the two large men listened closely, attempting to place the voices at certain locations.

The language was unlike any that either the barbarian or the druid had ever heard before. However, the speaking voices were more than distinct enough to lend clues as to their position and stature.

'Two big ones, one standing and one sitting on the right and a little beastie off to the left slightly.' Tozam thought, making eye contact with Durom and nodding, with both confirming what the other had heard.

"Blitz?" Durom asked softly, leaning over to the barbarian.

"Blitz." Tozam confirmed, already feeling the heat of impending battle flowing though his veins.

"On three?"

"On three."

"One..."

"Two..."

"Dieee...humansss..."

"No Durom. Three comes next." Tozam uttered an instant before realizing the horrible truth.

Turning around, the two saw a small squad of black-furred goat men and a large, bleeding, disheveled human figure standing off to the side.

They had been ambushed.

"Oh, Hell..." Durom tightened his grip on his great spear. "Mayhaps today is a good day to die."
-------------------------------------

The world of men was cold.
Far too cold for his liking.

Sneering in discontent, the smith continued on, taking yet another boring step on this land that mortals hand named 'Stony Field'.

He, "The Smith", who had apprenticed to the great Hephistus himself, now found himself isolated in this putrid, human country-side.

Why had the mistress ordered HIM, the strongest of all her warriors, out on such a medial task.
How he longed to stand before the Hell-Forge once more. How he yearned to bring down the mighty hammer of his true master, Hephistus, and forge another weapon of darkness or lust.

Finally, after far too long a journey, the smith saw what he had been sent to find.
A circle of stones with a blood red portal in the center.

"Damned stones..." The Smith sneered again in his powerful, rocky voice, holding up his looted, human-made hammer as he looked down on this place. "You shall keep me from my forge NO LONGER!!"

Sensing no danger from this place, The Smith rushed in and brought his malice down upon the closest stone, shattering it to bits.

It certainly was not the mighty hammer of the Hell-Forge. But, for a mortal made piece of junk, it was efficient enough.

Now The Smith took joy as he continued on his meaningless task of crushing the standing stones.

After all, once he was done, he would go back to his nice... warm forge. He had only just completed a blade made from hardened female thigh bones before he had been commanded to come here. So The Smith bashed away at the stones, wondering what his next project would be.
--------------------------------------------

"THERE'S THE PORTAL!!" Cathim shouted out, severely winded with only pure will (and the desire to get away from the tireless hoard of skeletons) keeping his legs moving.

Preen was not unused to such conditioning and was tempted several times to out pace the shoddy necromancer and leave him to the vial creatures that he sought to control.

But, instead, he settled on gloating at the out of breath magic user as they came into sight of the blood red portal that would allow them to leave.

"SO! RAISING THE DEAD IS NOT AN ACT OF EVIL IS IT? WELL, IT SURE AS HELL LOOKS EVIL RIGHT NOW!"

"NOT NOW, PALADIN!"Cathim huffed, "WAIT TILL WE STOP!!"

The two raced as though the very Hells were at their heels (which they really were) and quickly came up on the portal.

Just in time to see it fizzle and pop out of existence.

"That...is not good..." Cathim said obviously, grounding to a halt and coming to stand right where the portal had been a few moments ago.

"That damnable creature wanted us dead..." Preen said, slowing but not stopping. "We must stand and fight! Valiant till the end!"

"I prefer not to fight an impossible battle alone." Cathim huffed for half a second before dashing off southward.

"Wha... HEY! YOU HAVE TO BEAR WITNESS TO MY LAST STAND!!" Preen called out behind the necromancer before running after him towards the township of Tristram.
---------------------------

"Ohhh... what this be, then. " Gharbad perked up slightly from his lethargy, his interest peaking for the first time in weeks.

The sounds of battle, human shouting, and death cries of several of his 'Lesser' goat-men brethren flowed like music over the ruined and still burning remains of the pathetic human city.

"Travelers mayhaps..." Gharbad though wickedly, fully confident that he might actually be able to have a little fun with this unexpected development. "...See shall we... Yes we shall. Hope they be many... many for all to enjoy."

"Me lord..." The lackey 'fallen' creature that had been given to Gharbad as a gift to celebrate his prowess piped up, moving slightly closer to it's master and pointing to the gibbet swaying above their heads. " 'Ou wants me guard prisoner."

"Nowhere will go the son of the Binder." Gharbad snickered sinisterly, turning his eyes to the northern street of town, towards the source of the battle. "Hue-mans come here, dare they...Punished they shall be. If be you 'sooo' worried that frail old 'hue-man' will escape, then stay here and guard him you must!"

"But master..."

"ARGUE DO YOU WITH ME, GRUB!?" Gharbad turned and snapped at the lowly fallen, who cringed at the sound of the goat-man's voice. "Me, who did battle with Black Death! ME, who survived the battle under the monastery!"

"No...no master..." The fallen cringed at the mention of the fell creature that had defeated their lord in the labyrinth beneath the human city. "Master is great and wise power. He not killed by Black Death... He is mighty."

"That you remember." Gharbad smirked. "Go you now and tell fools not to kill, no. To me bring hue-mans."

"Aye master..." The fallen said shortly before Gharbad kicked the thing with a hoof, pushing it to get on with the task.

So distracted was Gharbad, the Master of Tristram, that he did not notice either the human or the half-breed demon hiding just out of sight.
---------------------------------

"What language is that?" Natalie asked, "What were they saying Elric?" She turned back to her brother, jumping slightly when she realized that he was in the process of ripping though his false skin and reverting to his demonic form.

"It's High Demonica." Elric answered, shaking his claws free from the confining human fingers. "That goat-man is their leader. He sent the fallen to tell the other goat-men not to kill the two humans that their fighting to the north of town.

"Ewww, is it always so bloody when you do... wait! Two humans? Durom and Tozam?!" Natalie looked back to the center of town.

"Don't worry. Gharbad wants them alive. We'll get them out." Elric completed his transformation, quivering a little when he went to all fours.

"Elric?" Natalie noticed the cloth bandage which still held tight around his torso and back. "What's wrong? What happened for you to get that?"

"Nothing, I'm alright..." Eric shook his head, trying to get the sore tenderness to go away. "I'll be okay. Right now we have more important things to worry about."

"Right..." Natalie looked up to the gibbet that swayed over the heap of rubble and hole that was once the town's well. Inside, Natalie could just make out the curled figure within. "I can't tell from this angle. Can you tell if he's still alive?"

"No. This entire village is rank with charred flesh and monster smells. I couldn't pick a orange out of an apple barrel right now."

"Then there's only one thing to do." Natalie readied herself, taking her staff in hand, and was about to charge towards the single goat-man before Elric's claw caught her shoulder roughly.

"Not yet!"

"Ow!" Natalie pushed the claw away, surprised how, even by accident, they had managed to easily pierce her flesh. "But... We should strike now before others arrive."

"And without Gharbad to hold them back, what keeps the other demons from killing Tozam and the druid before they raise the alarm?" Elric asked, "We don't attack. Not yet... Not until we have the greatest advantage. Wait for the opportune moment."

"Wait for the opportune moment?" Natalie shook her head. "And just when will that be?"

"You know it when you see it."
---------------------------------------------------------

"We fought valiantly. Slew three times our number of enemies and would have slain a dozen more had it not been for this abomination." Tozam grunted, struggling against the iron tight grip of the dark haired man that held both he and Durom up the back of the neck.

The man was large for a southerner, likely able to trace the blood of the Barbarian Tribes somewhere in his family's past. But he was no longer truly a man. The grotesque twisting of his face and blank, cold eyes that stood within the sockets were those of the undead. Yet he retained strength that he was very likely able to conjure in life, along with an obvious dose of otherworldly enhancement.

"Aye..." Durom smirked though the blood that dribbled over his lips, oblivious to the piercing pain left by a lucky strike from a now dead goat-man. "Had I the same choice as before, knowing that this would be my end. I would have found it a strange honor to fight alongside you, cousin."

The strange procession: two captive humans, the four remaining of the ten goat-men that had attacked them, the cursed, undead man, and the strange little fallen creature that seemed to summon them all continued their march until finally coming to the center of the town.

"Ahhh, these be they?" A particular, scarred goat-man stood alone next to a fire in the ruin of the town, it's horrendous lips curled back in a menacing grin.
"Hue-mans come far alone... yes, they do... Many leagues to nearest stronghold it is, hmmm..."

"Go to Hell, foul beast!" Tozam shouted out defiantly before the large abomination that held his neck tightened it's grip.

"Clever, Tozam..." Durom said blankly, ready to face his death with pride.
"I am certain that he doesn't hear that one every time he takes a prisoner."

"Hue-mans shut scream-making holes!" The scarred one lashed out, striking Tozam with the back of his ridged, bony hand and nearly breaking his jaw.

"I...I barely felt it..." Tozam grinned proudly, prompting another back-handed strike from the leader of these beast.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why am I not being hit?" Durom asked, trying to understand the appeal that Tozam presented as a prisoner as opposed to himself.

"This one more fun for torment." The goat-man explained.

"Oh...Oh yeah..." The barbarian popped his jaw back into its place and shook off the pain. "I...I've had lady friends that left bigger bruises than that...That the best you got...?"

The scarred goat-man answered him with a sadistic smile before reaching down and pulling a long, white-hot poker from the small bonfire next to him.

"No, Hue-man... It was not..."
----------------------------------------

"One thing I gotta say for Gharbad..." Elric tilted his head to the side as he watched the display. "...He is doing much better as a monster this time around."

"Elric..." Natalie watched in horror as Gharbad brandished the poker in front of Tozam, her knuckles turning white from gripping her staff so hard.

"Really, last time I saw this guy, he was begging for his life and offered to make me an amulet if I would let him live. Piece of junk, it was a rip-off really."

"It's going to kill Tozam!" Natalie very nearly lost all control there, still amazed by her brother's seeming indifference to the fact that Tozam was likely about to be horrendously tortured at worse or quickly killed at best.
"We have to do something!"

"Wait for it, Nat." Elric said coolly, still unmoved by the scene playing out in front of him.

"What's wrong with you!?" Natalie looked in horror to the center of the town. "what in the Hells are you waiting for?!"

"I have no idea..." Elric's eyes opened wider in shock.
He was watching this event pass right in front of his eyes...

And he was enjoying it?

"Okay, lets go!" Elric tightened up the muscles in his legs, pulling back and ready to pounce into the center of the fray.

"Pain is yurs, taste it you will..." Gharbad sneered in Tozam's face, holding the smoking metal point between them. "Duriel be yur lord now... Make introductions shall I."

Just as Elric readied his customary battle-roar, something slightly different caught his attention.

The faint, fast moving whistling of a single arrow cutting thought the still air.

'Maybe we can wait for a few moments longer...' Elric thought as he watched Natalie pull herself over the half wall. ----------------------------------

"Ugh..." Gharbad was more than a little surprised when he felt the familiar sensation of pain in his shoulder, forcing him to drop the white hot poker to the ground.

"Most unpleasant..." Gharbad whined slightly, looking down to the arrowhead protruding from his shoulder.

The next few moments seemed little more than a vague blur as everything seemed to happen at once.
From behind the self proclaimed master of Tristram came a sudden hail of arrows, piercing the flesh and bone of more than a few of the gathered monsters. Most notably being the shaft now protruding from the head of the cursed human which, while not fatal, forced him to release it's grip on Tozam and Durom to remove the inconvenience. At almost the same moment, bolts of fire leapt from the side, catching those who had not been struck by the hail of arrows by surprise. Now, with every one of the goat men and the single fallen minion either dead, injured, or burned, the great master of Tristram made his authority known.

"Uhhhh....ME YE MUST PROTECT!" Gharbad ordered the injured goat men and the cursed human as he turned about, seeing the amazon archer for the first time as she quickly fitted yet another arrow to the notch and let it fly. To his credit, Gharbad took the shot solidly and stood for a moment without as much as a flinch. Of course, he then sank to the ground n a quivering mass, but that was beside the point.

With the two warriors now freed from their bond, they too entered, bare handed, into the melee. Trashing and pounding two of the surviving goat men senseless.

"HELL YEAH!" Tozam shouted above the din and death cries of their enemies as a steady stream of arrows continued to flow into the small combat. In only a few moments, all of their enemies had fallen. All...Save one.

Grunting and moaning n the wordless anguish that belonged to all undead, the cursed human swung around, completely unaware of the three arrows protruding from his head and chest.

"Urrrggguurraaa..." The former blacksmith of Tristram bellowed unable to put together any sort of remark as he charged forward again following his orders to destroy any who were not his masters.

"STAY DOWN DAMMT!" Raid called into the fray n frustration loosing another volley n the attempt to slay the dead man.

The cursed Griswold ether did not understand her or did not care, because he did not even slow as he reached forward n an attempt to break Tozam's neck.

A new blast of cy cold air, however, managed to slow t slightly, enough at least to allow Durom and Tozam a moment to get out of reach and start searching the corpses of their former captors.

Enraged as he could be (and beginning to resemble a frozen pin cushion) the cursed Griswold turned about and ambled toward Natalie.

"Gawds!!" Raid fired again and again,, growing more and more frustrated with each ignored arrow as the thing came closer to Natalie. "Die already!"

"Help!" A weakened, raspy voice called down. "Get me out of here!"

Taking a moment from her stream of constant arrows, Raid looked up to see an elder man in the cage. A chiseled look of wisdom and pain on his face with the gauntness of a skeleton apparent though his dull, faded blue robes.

"Deckard Cain…" Raid was rocked by the discovery in the gibbet for a moment and forgot about the battle only a good sixty feet from her. " HOLD ON! I'LL GET YOU DOWN!" She said, quickly shouldering her bow and rushing to the base of the gibbet, looking to detach the locking mechanism.

After all… how hard could it be?

While she worked, the cursed man that was once Griswold the Blacksmith closed on the sorceress.

"Uhhh…" Natalie stammered slightly as she continued to pump out bolt of fire and ice against the incoming adversary (With very little effect). "Little help here…"

"BE WITH YOU IN A MINUTE!" Tozam called out, still rummaging though the corpses of the fallen goat men. "Damn it all! I know one of these guys has our weapons, but which one?"

"How should I know... They all look alike to me." Durom searched another body a few feet away. "How many places could they be hiding swords and a great spear?

"HURRY IT UP!!!" Natalie yelled out, feeling her mana stores draining away as she cast a last moment frozen armor and took up her staff n melee position. She didn't feel that she had any sort of chance against this resilient monstrosity, but there was little else that she could do as t bore down on her. The cursed man brought down a heavy arm, smashing against the upraised staff and easily shattering the dense wood.
"Agguuhh!" The force shocked Natalie greatly, forcing her backwards more than two steps before she fell on her butt. Without hesitation, the cursed Griswold moved n on his immobilized prey.

"Hold on, handsome!" The familiar, sultry voice of the assassin rang out from behind the man as she faded out from behind her cloak of shadows.
"I don't think she's ready for that after one date." She said softly, almost cooing as she drove her three-bladed claw though Griswold's back, causing a strange gurgle from him and a turning motion as he readied himself to turn about and face the newest threat and push her roughly to the ground, forcing her to release and leave her claw weapon imbedded in his back.

"Ow!" Kassyera was slightly stunned by this turn in events. To her fullest knowledge, most thing tended to either drop dead or writhe in pain when stabbed like that.

Thankfully, before the creature could fully recover from her attack, Kassyera heard an primal, almost animal howl of joy.

"FOUND THEM!!!" The barbarian lovingly pulled his two weapons from one of the corpses. "Hi babies… Daddy missed you… Did you miss Daddy?"

"Tozam… Not the time." Durom reminded him, tugging his great spear out of the death grip of the foul beast-man that dared believe he could wield the Dreth'leth.

"Right!" Tozam looked up to the druid with an insane twinkle in his eyes. "TIME FOR BLOODBATH!!!!!" Tozam shouted out, howling with the maniacal laughter of a mad man before charging from his position, leaping straight over Kassyera, and landing blade first into the large south-man.

"KASSY!" Kassyera heard the unoriginal mutilation of her name. "OVER HERE! QUICK!"

"Raid?" The assassin pulled herself away from the spectacle of the two battling giants to find the Amazon kneeling at the base of a gibbet. "What are you doing?"

"You know about this mechanical stuff. Get him down!"

"And quickly, if you don't mind!"

"Who the hell…" Kassyera looked up to see the old man in the gibbet.

"Deckard Cain, Son of…" He started.

"INTRODUCTION LATER!" Raid shouted in frustration, seeing how Tozam was tiring in his pace. "GET HIM DOWN NOW!"

Blow for parry, a bare handed blow for a badly timed and badly placed left hook. The two large men fought. One with all of the passion of his northern heritage. And the other with the fearless, ignorance of pain of all undead.
Despite the wounds to each of them and the vast quantities of blood being lost by the cursed one, they were evenly matched, fighting each other to a climatic stalemate.

Loving every moment of this new battle-high that he was in, Tozam looked up into the emotionless face of his opponent as his weapons pushed against man's bleeding arms in the deadlock.

"You… Are… really…ugly…" The barbarian gritted though his teeth. "You're also… really stupid."

"Urraagguuggg…"

"Don't believe me?" Tozam grinned, "Try doing this…. Count to three."

"Urg?"

"One!" Durom, who had moved around to the cursed man's unprotected backside, took his liberty to plunge the head of his Dreth'leth into Griswold's hips, cleanly cutting though flesh and bone alike, to nearly chop him straight in half. So perfect and neat was the druid's strike that he managed to pull the blade straight out, leaving only a thin strip of flesh at each side to keep the two halves connected.

Griswold pulled out of the deadlock , flailing his arms wildly to keep his torso from falling off of his lower half.

"TWO!" Tozam moved quickly, skillfully bringing each of his blades down at perfect angles and slicing each of the overgrown zombie's arms off at the shoulder. Before they so much as hit the ground, the barbarian pulled back and then kicked viciously forward, tipping the cloven, unarmed creature off of it's legs and send the torso and head back onto the ground.

"ICE BLAST!" Natalie, who had pulled back, drink a mana potion, and managed to recompose herself cast the mightiest Ice based spell that she knew at the head of the fallen undead warrior, freezing it solid and finally putting an end to the forsaken monster.

"I was just getting to like that staff you brute!" The sorceress said shortly, walking up to the still twitching body and giving it a swift kick in her frustration .

Winded and dripping with sweat from his exertion, Tozam looked up at the sorceress in mock disappointment. "Three… Why didn't you just say three… A perfectly good story to tell future listeners around a campfire. A great punch line to go with the story, and what do you say? Ice Blast?!"

"A fitting end no less." Durom looked around, seeing that this battle was over for them.

"Still, it would have been nice if I could one day tell the grand kids "One: He lost his legs. Two: he lost his arms. And Three…"

An arrow rushed between the barbarian and sorceress, impaling the frozen head of the once again dead man. A moment later, following the sudden silence, the entire head exploded in a rain of icy shards.

"Three! You got your story now, warrior." Raid said impatiently, shouldering her bow again. "Now, are you going to argue about pointless details or are you going to help us free the only hope we have?"

"CAIN!?" Natalie rushed past the barbarian, "Deckard Cain? Are you alright?"

"Get me out of this infernal thing and I'll be much better." The sage said grumpily. "Food and water would also be very nice, Zann Esu."

Smiling, still amazed that they had found the great sage of Tristram alive, Natalie nodded. "Right! Sure thing!" The turned to the others. "Get whatever water and food you can spare out. Viz-Jaq'taar: Get him down."

"I am trying sorceress…" Kassyera spoke through her teeth, her nimble and delicate hands pulling and plucking at the inside of the gibbet's mechanisms. "They have this damned thing booby-trapped, if Raid had pulled on the wrong cable before she got frustrated, she would have dropped this cage right down the well."

"And judging from this view…" Raid looked down into the deep, darkness of the well. "It would not have been a pleasant fall."

"The well now serves as a portal straight into an upper crust of Hell, but without the so-called 'Master of Tristram' to summon them, there's no threat. " Cain said, watching the five people milling below him. "You have no idea how good it feels to see fellow humans again."

"I can get him down, but it'll take a few minutes." Kass said, going over all of the dimensions of the mechanism in her mind.

"Well… We should be alright. The southern entrance into the town is cleared, so we have at least one way out." Raid said, looking about at the carnage that had been done in the last few minutes. "It's good to know that we can handle these kind of…" She then noticed something amiss.

"Wait… Where's the scarred goat?" Raid asked, looking over the ground.

Surprised, Natalie, Tozam, and Durom looked around the scattering of corpses for the strange talking, sadistic leader of the goat-men.

He was nowhere to be found.

"Hold on…" Natalie looked back to the half-wall that she had hidden behind before, realizing something else that was amiss.

"Elric… Elric?!"

He was nowhere to be found.

"Little brother… You will be the death of me." Natalie sighed.
--------------------------------------------------

"Mortals… Meddlers…" Gharbad, the defeated Master of Tristram limped slightly with a muffled cry of agony as he pulled the damned arrow from his chest. Had he been a mortal, the simple flying stick would have slain him, having struck right where the heart was on a human. Fortunately, the great Gharbad did not have such limitations.

"In their victory, they cheer… They believe they win. These mortals,.. What pitiful fools." Gharbad composed himself, moving northward.

It had not been easy to use his dark powers to summon his own cloak of shadows and shield himself from the eyes of the humans. But now that he had escaped across the western river, he knew that he would have his vengeance. The mortals may have driven him away from the Hell-Portal under the Binder's gibbet, but they would not stand against the deadlier force from beneath he graveyard of the Fallen Citadel. Even though the Cursed King Leoric had been defeated under the catacombs of the Monastery, the memory of his presence still rallied the vengeful spirits of those who had died there in ages past and more recently before the Great Master fell.

"Dead they shall be…" Gharbad coughed slightly, bile and blood filling his mouth. " Make them dead, shall I."

Without warning, Gharbad's philosophical frame of mind was broken as a single small stone belted him in the back of the head.

"GAGG! DARE WHO DOES!?" Gharbad turned about.

"Hello, Gharbad." A young man, dressed in black and at least a few short years younger than those who had attacked him before, stood in front of a lone, dying tree, tossing a few small stones up and down in his hand. "It's been a while."

"RRAAGGHHH!!" Infuriated and sensing an easy victim, Gharbad rushed forward, ready to rend the foolhardy mortal's flesh.

Shaking his head, the young man easily sidestepped the scarred goat-man, letting him plow directly into the tree and fall unceremoniously to the ground.

"Careful, trees can be very dangerous things, Gharbad. But, you know all about that after all. Kinda like those walls that you used to run into in the labyrinths."

"HU-MAN DIE!" Gharbad lunged upward, bellowing as only the goat-men of Hell could as his clawed hand sought out the pathetic man's throat.

This course of action proved very stupid as the young man reached up faster than Gharbad could react, took hold of his wrist, and proceeded to crush the bone, forcing the goat-man down on his furry, hindquarters.

"GHHHAAAAAA-aaaaaa" The goat-man, former General of Hell and Former Master of Tristram cried out in pain.

"How did it used to go? Gharbad The Weak: Weak body, Strong luck. Maker of Artifacts."

Gharbad looked up to the human, pain replaced by a perplexed shine. No mortal knew these things. He was wise enough to understand that his name, Gharbad The Weak: Lowest of Diablo's Generals, The Lord of Terror's 'Luck Charm', was little more than a footnote in the musty tombs of even the wisest sages.

"Who…You…Be…" Gharbad pulled against the iron tight grip.

"I'm sure you remember, Gharbad." He said flatly. "I'm sure that you remember what I said back in the lower levels of the catacombs."

"Seen you…I have never…" Gharbad tried to put more strength and less fear in his voice, but failed miserably at the attempt.

"Really?" The boy smiled slyly. Then, most surprising thus far, spoke in the harsh, dark language of the Lords of Hell: High Demonica. "You do not recall begging for your life in the catacombs? You do not remember the pendent that you offered me in exchange for your life?"

Listening to the harsh, hissing of his words and staring into the intense, impossibly bright green eyes, Gharbad understood.

"Darbash Narcoal…"

"That's right, Gharbad." Elric said switching to common for a moment. "And I also know you remember what I said would happen if our paths ever crossed again…"

"Frrraneee…" Gharbad managed to sputter out past the sudden lump in his throat. " Mercy…"

"That worked last time, Gharbad…" Elric said, his forked tongue flicking out from between his teeth. "This time… There will be no mercy for you."
----------------------------------------------------

"Elric?" Deckard Cain looked down at the young Zann Esu Sorceress from the cage that had held him for longer than he cared to remember. "Elric Tasslewind? You know him? He's here?"

"You know my brother?" Natalie looked up to the elder man again.

The others continued to keep watch as Kassyera worked to get the wheel mechanism unlocked, each turning at this or that noise, worried that a hoard of monsters might come barreling into the ruins of the town at any moment.

"Brother?" Cain seemed both amused and confused by this little tidbit of information at the same time. Turning his head slightly to the side, and looking down, he shrugged. "My eyes may be failing me, but you do strike a bearing resemblance to the half-demon."

"I thought so too…" Tozam looked up, having expected a snooty, pampered wizard rather than the old man with the sense of humor.

"Okay… So you and the necromancer are not crazy." Raid said lightly, nervously looking about the east entrance. "Elric really 'IS' half-monster."

"You knew?!" Natalie turned in shock to the amazon. "And you know!?" She turned back up to the sage. "Is there anybody here who 'DOESN'T know my brother is half-demon?"

"Preen probably doesn't." Durom shook his head. "The boy wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit him in the face."

"Anyone else in these lands? Anyone at all?"

"No… If Kashya knows… then probably so does every trader and rogue in the area." Durom deduced.

"Dear lords…" Kassyera wiped beads of sweat from her forehead as she continued on her attempt to unlock and discover the secrets of this device. "Whoever designed your cage was skilled beyond anything that I have ever seen before."

"He was…" Cain said sadly, "What's left of him is laying over there with the head shattered."

"Oh…" Raid looked up, "Sorry about that… it's just that…."

"It's alright Amazon." Cain swallowed hard, leaning against the bars of the cage. "He died weeks ago."

"Just another moment and I'll have you down, Master Cain." Kassyera said. "In the meantime, we should try to find that scarred goat-man. There's no telling what he could bring down on us if he gets away."

"I wouldn't worry about him." A familiar voice rang from amidst the ruins of The Inn of the Rising Sun. As Elric walked out from the half burned doorway. "He'll find it very, very difficult to do anything anymore."

"ELRIC!" Natalie ran up to the half-demon and threw her arms around him. "Stop disappearing like that!"

"WAARRKKK!!!!" Elric couldn't keep in the pain as his sister hugged him tightly. "Pain-pain-pain-pain-pain-pain… NAT! LETTGO!"

"Oh… Sorry, I forgot." Natalie let go of him, backing away slowly when she noticed that the red-tint had returned to his eyes.

"Funny… It's like no monster can touch you…" Kassyera said, tightly wrapping two tiny cables together in hopes of activating the wench without setting off any of the sixteen traps that she had found on the gibbet. "Now all you have to do is watch out for your friends, they seem to be doing all the damage."

"Kass… don't make me regret bringing you along for this…"

"I GOT IT!" Kassyera shouted out triumphantly, reaching up and turning one of the two wenches. First the horizontal one to bring the cage over solid ground, then the vertical to bring it down, out of the air.

"Good." Cain said, rushing as fast as his bones would allow him toward the door. "Now, two things… First: Someone let me have some water please. And second: You have to unlock the door."

"Ha, after that…" Kassyera got up, "Opening a little lock will be a slice of pie. No lock has been created that an assassin can not pick."

"Good." Elric said bluntly, struggling against the bandage that still held to his back. "Now we just have to send up a signal so that Cathim and the Paladin know we've found…."

"I don't think that will be necessary." Durom observed.

"Why not?" Natalie asked while Kassyera began her work on the lock.

"Their coming this way right now." The druid said, looking out over the hills to the north of them. "And they seem to be in a bit of a hurry."

"What?" Curious by this strange occurrence, Elric followed Durom's line of sight and was very much amazed by the fact that Preen and Cathim were running side by side. Even from their distance, Elric and the others could tell that both men seemed on the verge of exhaustion. "What in Nine Hells are they…"

None of them… Not even Elric, who had seen the horrors beneath this damned place… were unaffected by the sight that overtook them now. Each one stunned into silence and wide-eyed as they watched an unfathomable multitude of the undead charged over the hill. Skeletons, zombies, and wraiths of all imaginable kinds covered every inch of the ground as they swarmed about, barely thirty feet behind the fleeing priests of death and the light.
The silence lasted for only a few moments before someone thought it necessary to state the obvious.

"We are going to die…" Raid said, holding her notched bow ready as though it would offer any sort of protection against their coming doom.

"Any thoughts Elric?" Tozam also watched helplessly. He and Durom both were already exhausted from their five minute old conflict with the goat-men and might be able for another such battle. 'But against such overwhelming numbers…' Tozam thought, 'even if we were all of the North, there would be no chance.'

"I have one…" Natalie said, pushing past her brother and the druid. "I hope that Cat and Preen are resourceful enough to make it though…"
------------------------------------------

"Keep breathing… That's the way… Breath…" Cathim reminded himself, all but blinded by sweat as he pulled yet another of the many stamina potions he kept at his belt for emergencies. If this didn't qualify, he honestly didn't know what did.

"THERE'S THE TOWN!" Preen shouted in triumph, making it sound as if they might find sanctuary. "THE OTHER'S WILL BE THERE!"

"OR DEAD!" Cathim shot back, forcing his failing body to keep his legs pumping as he quickly chugged yet another stamina potion and threw the empty vial behind him, feeling an immediate surge of energy.

"IF THEY ARE DEAD…" Preen shouted over his own labored breath. Despite his powerful aura of 'Vigor', Preen had none of the energy giving potions that the necromancer keep in easy reach and was feeling every step draining him of his strength. " ...THEN WHO IS RAISING THAT WALL OF FLAME!!??"

"Natalie…" Cathim kept running, despite the stitch that had developed in his side, and tried to focus his energies now on a defense of his own. The Fire Wall would likely keep the undead at bay, if only for a while, however, he knew that he would need his own protection to get himself though.

Preen was already deep in prayer, running his devotion deep in his silent words of piety and strength.

Feeling that the paladin relied far too much on faith, Cathim instead placed his life in something far more…corporeal, summoning around him a spirits and strength of the bone.

Five feet from the flame, each champion of his own faith abandoned their lives to their respective magics, diving though the fires and hoping to come out the other side uncooked.

"I…I can't hold it for long…" Natalie strained under the force of keeping the living flame alive, dropping to her knees as Cathim and Preen came running out of the two five-foot thick walls of fire.

"Thin yours out…." Elric was also feeling the strain of holding his own wall of flames in place. He was by no means as skilled at manipulating fire as his sister… but an extra line of less intense flames was still a better deterrent than air. "We have to hold it…"

Both Preen and Cathim, slightly singed, but otherwise no worse for the wear, fell in exhaustion into the arms of Tozam and Raid.

"I gotcha buddy…" Tozam said, easily heaving the necromancer upright. "Don't worry, you're safe."

"Preen, if you don't get your face out of my breast, you'll be dead before the un-dead breach the center of this city." Raid blushed slightly in indignation, still holding the paladin up under his arms.

Durom, who had moved over to the eastern road, looked down the roadway, saying what must have certainly occurred to the others.
"Even if the north way is blocked, they will come in from the east and south, it's only a matter of time!"

"Kassyera…" Elric gritted though his teeth, hissing slightly as he did so. "Work… Fassstterr.."

"Patience is a virtue…" Kass replied in a sing-song voice, hoping to let out some tension.

She failed miserably.

"NOT RIGHT NOW IT ISN'T!" Tozam scorned, still trying to help Cathim regain himself.

"We have to hold them off until Kass gets Cain out!" Natalie shouted, gritting her teeth as she felt her mana draining. She was nearly spent, and if she dropped the spell even for a moment to get at one of the mana potions in her pouch, the fire would disperse. And she very much doubted that it would be a great feat for the undead to march though Elric's thinner, less powerful flames.

Nodding in understanding, Durom turned about. "I'll hold the east opening." The Druid said shortly, knowing that, in their current deadlock, nobody would question him.

"Raid! Elric called out, summoning all of his magical reserves and feeling almost empty as he held his medial flames in place. "Watch the south… When Cain is free, you, Tozam, and Kass go that way and try to go around the skeletons! Get him to the portal!"

"No…" Cathim, forced himself to speak despite his complete lack of breath. "It's gone… The portal vanished…."

"We've been betrayed…" Preen, catching his breath, had managed to get completely to his feet with Raid's help. "That… That Monster… He set us all up."

"PLACE BLAME LATER, DOG!" Elric's eyes shot to bright red, a rush of anger giving a much needed boost of energy.

"THIS WAS ALL YOUR DOING, DEMONSPAWN!" Preen shouted in his own, self-justified fury. "YOU LED US TO THIS HELL-HOLE! WHAT WAS THE PROMISED PRICE FOR A WARRIOR OF LIGHT? A CHANCE TO BE ANDARIEL'S LAPDOG…" Raid had heard enough and dropped the paladin to the ground in a heap while Tozam helped the necromancer down his last stamina potion.

"Raid… what…"

"SHUT UP PREEN! THINGS ARE BAD ENOUGH WITHOUT YOUR RIGHTIOUS EGO GETTING INVOLVED!" Raid shouted in frustration, leaving the paladin to recuperate on his own in order to help Durom.

With help from Tozam, Cathim managed to get up to his feet, and limped as fast as he could to stand behind the brother and sister holding the barrier against the numerous undead.

"WATCH THE EAST OPENING!" Deckard Cain shouted out, pointing though the bars of his cage toward Durom, who seemed to be sleeping on his feet.

"Durom…?" Raid started questioningly, raising her bow and noting the small, but growing numbers of undead that seemed to have figured out that they could come around the sides of several buildings and come to the town center. "Whatever you're doing… you better start doing it."

Much to her surprise, while Elric and Natalie were fighting to stay conscious and the necromancer seemed to be starting a spell of his own, Raid heard the druid… singing.
The language was unknown to her, but the melody was surprisingly soft, almost soothing in nature.

And it's effect became apparent almost immediately as the short song was finished. For the moment that the final note was sung and the druid became quiet again, the very earth seemed to move before him, breaking away and opening up into an infinite chasm, growing foot by foot until it finally stopped. Now, a simple scar in the ground, a quickly made gorge, stood between them and obliteration.

Unfortunately, Durom collapsed the moment his work was finished, leaving the Amazon to pull him away from the edge of his chasm and back to safety.

Muttering the last variants of his own incantation, Cathim held off on the final casting for a moment, attempting to gauge just how badly drained the sorceress and half-demon truly were. Realizing from a glance that either or both of them could fall victim to exhaustion at any moment, the necromancer slipped his will once more into the great beyond and called out to all spirits that would hear.

"Rise at bidding….rise to fall… Guard from ruin….Bones and Walls!" Cathim chanted out, directing all willing spirits to come to his aid, solidifying and manifesting themselves as stone hard bones, locked together and as intricately laced as the finest quilt, rising more than twenty feet over the companion's heads and dwarfing the ten foot high walls of flame.

Relieved, Elric and Natalie dropped their will on retaining the firewalls almost immediately, collapsing into each other and allowing the undead ten more feet worth of ground before running bone-made structure.

"That… is truly a wonder, Catty…" Tozam smiled in appreciation as he supported the tired necromancer. "Will that hold them?"

This wall, however, did not bite or snap at the flesh or bones of the undead, and thus they set upon it with all of their fury, pounding at it in a loud, random lust for destruction.

"No." Cathim replied flatly, leaning heavily on Tozam and now feeling as exhausted as Elric and Natalie, or even more so.

"DAMMIT ALL!" Kassyera's shout came from the side, drawing the barbarian's attention and letting him set the necromancer down to rest on the ground.

"What's wrong?" Tozam asked the assassin, jogging up to see what was taking so long.

"I've been trying to tell her…" Deckard Cain pushed up against the door to the gibbet, still in surprisingly good health for a man who had spent almost two months in that cage. "This lock was crafted by Griswold and infused with a fair amount of magic. She won't be able to pick it in time."

"I've never met my match…" Kassyera assured them, ignoring Tozam's unbelieving eyes.

"Oh, for the love of the gods…" The barbarian pushed the dark haired woman aside, sending her sprawling over the ground.

"Wha… HEY!" Kassyera protested. "NOW I'LL HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN!"

"NO TIME!" Tozam shouted above the growing din of the frenzied undead pounding on the Bone-Wall. Then, taking hold of two of the bars, he pulled, heaving against them with all of his might.

"He's right…" Cain said, doubt apparent in his voice. "All of your spell casters have all but exhausted themselves by using their mightiest spells to ward off the undead. Once they come around to the south road, there will be no one to stop them."

"AANNNDDDD…." Tozam grunted, straining his muscles to the point of no-returned as every vein and cord in his tight, trained body became apparent. Finally, with the sound of twisting metal and one final grunt, the mighty barbarian wrested the hinges straight off the door and pulled the entire door: Frame, bars, and all, clean off of the gibbet.
"We don't have time to waste being neat…" The warrior panted, now feeling out of breath from his own physical exertions.

"Good…" Cain said, standing up straight for moment before nearly falling over with Kassyera breaking his fall. "…Now help me. I'm old, I'm hungry, and I haven't been out of that damn cage for weeks."

"Well, glad to have set you free, old man…" Raid said, pulling Durom's unconscious body back towards them. "Now what…"

Almost as if on cue, a single skeletal arm broke though Cathim's bone wall and, at the same time, Kassyera could see fast moving, cunning skeletons coming in from the southern entrance into Tristram.

"My vote still says we are going to die." Preen, who had finally recovered by this time, managed to get himself to his feet, pulling his long holstered scepter from it's place. "Now at least, I have more plausible witnesses to my final stand."

"Get the others…" Cain said weakly, reaching into the arm of his dull, faded blue robe. "I have only just gotten free from that infernal cage. And I, for one, don't plan to die until after I've had something to eat."

Seeing nothing better to do than to listen to the old (and supposedly wise) man, Tozam sprinted back to the bone wall, heaving Elric and Cathim up on his shoulders without a problem. Elric, he realized, seem to be bleeding both from the mouth and though a wound that he has somehow gotten on his back.

"PREEN!" Tozam called back, realizing that even he couldn't carry all three magic users at once. "Come get Natalie!"

"I shall die with honor." Preen uttered to himself, deaf to those around him and ready to charge into the growing legion coming from the south with all of the zeal a mortal could muster. "For the light and glory of the Zakarum."

"PREEN!" Raid leapt to her feet, leaving Durom long enough to reach over, wrest the scepter from the overly righteous paladin's grip, and conk him over the head with it.

"Agh!" The defender of the word looked over to the fiery, scolding face of his Amazonian companion.

"YOU GET HER! OR I KILL YOU MYSELF! NO HONOR! NO GLORY!!! GOT IT!"

"An innocent life is in danger!" Kassyera thought of another way to get though to the thick headed paladin. "Will you stand by and do nothing?" This seemed motivation enough. For Preen rushed forward, past the returning barbarian, and scooped up the unconscious sorceress, fleeing with her in his arms at almost the exact moment that the necromancer's wall of bones shattered with a dreaded 'Crack'. Now, with no more obstacles in their way, the hoard of undead pressed though the northern entrance to the center of Tristram, ready and eager for blood.

"Stay close now…" Cain whispered quietly as, from the sleeve of his cloak, the sage produced a single scroll tied with a red thread. "Where did you come from? What Stronghold?"

"The Rouge Encampment, on the Blood Moor. I hope that's what I think it is…" Raid's eyes opened hopefully as she pulled the still groggy druid up so that she could carry him better.

"Open now… to safety take us…." The Elder Cain chanted, pulling the thread from the scroll, rolling it open, and tossing it on the ground in one fluid motion.

"TOWN PORTAL!" The old man shouted with all that was left of his strength before falling completely onto Kassyera, depending on her almost entirely now for support.

At his words, the scroll burst into blue flames, which expanded outward until forming the now familiar blue pool of standing water.

"GO! NOW!" Tozam shouted out, staying in the back of the group and facing the incoming hoard of undead as his companions threw themselves quickly though the unexpected portal. Kassyera supporting Deckard Cain first, followed by Raid limping along with the limp form of Durom.

Preen followed next, cradling Natalie in his arms like a groom carrying his bride. "Leave the monster, Friend Tozam!" Preen called out before stepping though the portal, " It has already tried to kill us all once! It will not hesitate to do so again!"

In the split second between the time that Preen stepped though the portal and Tozam followed after him with the undead only inches away from striking range, the barbarian considered the paladin's proposal.

'Had' Elric truly brought them to this place to die?
He 'had' sent Cathim and the Paladin whom he despised to the cemetery where they had been found by this army of death.
It 'had' been Elric's plan to split up as they did, allowing himself and Durom to be capture and nearly tortured had it not been for the rescue preformed by Raid and Natalie.
Where had Elric been then, when he had needed the half-demon's strength the most?
All of his life, Tozam had been raised on stories and legends of the wily demons who seduced man-kind and played such treacherous tricks. He had been taught from birth that such beings from outside the realm of men were not to be trusted.

In one arm, Tozam held Cathim: A user of dark magic. One whose faith was constantly challenged by those around him because they believed him to be a practitioner of the evil arts. Yet, as different as they were, they had traveled far together all the way from his great home city of Harrogath, evolving a strange, impractical bond.

In the other arm, Tozam held Elric. A half-demon. In essence, everything that his people of the Northland had been preparing to battle for centuries.
In this time of monsters and evils… could such a creature 'BE' a friend to humanity?

In that split second, Tozam of Harrogath made his decision.

Tightening his grip around each of them, He dashed though the portal with one thought racing though his mind as he narrowly avoided the icy claws of the undead.

"What have we got to lose but our lives…?"

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Post: Two months overdue.

Robin: (Wakes up in a hospital bed) Uhhhhh…. What happened…. (Looks around at all the angry faces) Huh… What? My fans… What happened?
(Fans close in with needles, guns, and various other weapons) Guys? GUYS!? AAAAGHGGGGGHHHHH!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!! PPAAAAIIINNN!!!!! AAAAAAAGGGGGUUUHHHH!!!! THAT DOESN'T GO THERE!!!! AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
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On a serious note: THIS FIC IS NOT DEAD!
Sorry about the delay everybody, things…. Got a little out of hand around here. I would go into detail, but I want to post this A.S.A.P and I get the feeling that you wouldn't forgive me even if I did explain. On an up-note, I have also uploaded the first couple of chapters for my new X-Men: Evolution Fan-Fic which will officially go online at the moment that I have finished uploading this chapter on
On a sadder note, My D&D fic has been pulled due to a fine-print rules violation. Sorry for those of you who were interested in it. But a warning to me not to post anymore 'Script-formatted' fics.

Being back into the swing of things, expect updates weekly again, aiming for publishing on Thursday nights/ Friday mornings with the X-Men Fic being updated randomly until the flow gets going.

Now… Back to my severe beating.
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AAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! GGGGHHHAAAAAHHHAAAAAA!!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!! NO MORE CLOWNZ!!!! AAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

More R&R… more R&R!!!! (Foams at mouth) You will write a review… I Command you!!!!!! (Thinks for a moment…) hold on… I don't have mental powers…. Oh well, every little bit helps. You will write a review… I Command you!!!!!!

Signing off (and hopefully never this tardy again) :- Robin

P.S: Solarious... I have a restraining order for both you, and your clownz... Challenge me at your own risk ;p