Adept Quest

by lilepdude

Part 1 starts with a girl and her master accidentally realeasing the fourth prime evil, the outcast. Part 2 focuses on a new hero, who finds the truth about Slater. Part 3 takes place ten thousand years later. To read it, find The Cleansing.

2. Act II

Act II

Slater walks back to the encampment, facing little resistance compared to when she had been going towards the monastery. Once she gets there, she gets aboard the next caravan heading East to Lut Gohlein. She's greeted by a woman named Atma the second she gets off. "Slater, I have heard stories of your victory over Andariel, I need your help." "OK, what's the problem?" "There's a beast in the sewers, he is attempting to free Baal from his seal, you must destroy him." "Who's Baal?" "So strong and yet so little knowledge, he is the middle brother of the three prime evils." "The evils, my quest is to destroy them." "Well, you've defeated one already." Atma walks away slowly. Slater finds the druid not long after. "Druid, we must go to the sewers." "What for?" "There's a monster in there attempting to free Baal." "Baal? Let's go." The two of them head into the sewers. After hours of almost non-stop fighting and descending two more floors, they find a large monster with a skull over its face and a sickle for a hand. "Here we go Slater, let's kick some butt!" The druid rushes at Radament and makes a sharp turn left when he reaches him; Radament soon realizes that the druid was only a distraction when a large ball of lightning hits him in the stomach. "Good team work druid." Radament falls to his knees, holding his stomach. The druid runs up to him and cuts off his head. "Heh, simple." "GOOD JOB SORCERESS." "Huh? You again?" "YES, IT'S ME, BAAL. RADAMENT WAS THE ONE BEING PREVENTING MY FREEDOM, AHAHAHA!" "Preventing? What do you mean? Atma said that he was attempting to free you!" "I HAD POSSESSED THAT WOMAN, EVEN SEALED I HAVE ENOUGH POWER FOR SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS THAT, AND YOU ACTUALLY TRUSTED A COMPLETE STRANGER, FOOLISH." The area is entirely silent. "Slater? What's the problem?" "Baal, we unsealed him, he is too clever for us." "Hmmm, we must be sure this is the truth, he was sealed in the tomb of Tal Rasha, it won't be easy to get there." "It doesn't matter, I must know." The two of them begin to travel through the desert less than an hour later. The journey is silent until they reach a big hole in the ground. "This is it Slater." "…and this is what?" "This is a sand maggot lair, not just any lair though. This one has an artifact at the bottom of it that we require if we have any hope of reaching Tal Rasha's Tomb." "Ok then Druid, let's go." The two of them go into the hole and are almost immediately surrounded by large bugs that squirt a strange green slime from their mouths. "Careful Slater, they won't hesitate to eat us." "What'll we do Druid?" Slater attempts to back away." The druid smirks. "Don't worry Slater, we'll squish them like the bugs they are." The druid rips the maggots apart quickly with his claws. "See? Just as I said." Slater smiles. "Ok Druid, lead the way." The two make their way to the lowest floor of the maggot lair. There, they find a maggot at least ten times the size of the others. "Druid? What's this?" The druid makes a strange face at the creature. "This Slater, is the hard part. This is the queen of the maggots here. I'll take care of her alone, do you see that chest over there to her left side?" Slater looks to the left. "Yes?" "There's a shaft of a staff in there, that's what we're looking for, run over there and get it." The druid rushes the maggot, slicing as fast as he can manage. The queen summons maggots from throughout the lair to her aid. The druid holds them off as best he can, but concentrates on the queen. She's quickly beginning to gush blood and finally appears to be bursting. "Oh no…Slater! Run! The queen is filled with acid and ready to explode!" At the end of the sentence, the queen explodes and green goo fills the room. All of the nearby maggots are killed. The druid just barely manages to grab a low hanging root and avoids the acid. "Slater? Where are you?" The druid turns around and sees Slater standing on the shaft of the staff. She had jammed it into the wall and pulled herself up. "Nice job Slater. One second, I'll get us out." The druid appears to be concentrating pretty hard. Within a few seconds, the two of them are at the entrance to the lair. "Well, Druid, that's certainly a useful skill." The druid laughs slightly. "Thanks Slater." The druid stares off for a second before talking. "Well, to continue our journey, we must go through Lile's old home village." Slater looks at the Druid strangely. "Old village? Do you think that's where she is?" The druid stares at the ground. "No…that village has been destroyed for a long time. Years ago, the village was attacked by a wolf, not just any wolf though, he was bigger than most humans and smarter than near all of them. He burnt the village to the ground and killed everyone within it. Everyone but Lile… She fought the wolf for hours, neither of them were making much progress against the other. However, a woman who had somehow survived the wolf's attack was crawling on the ground and gave out a loud scream. This was all the wolf needed, Lile turned around towards the scream and a couple seconds later was knocked onto the ground by the wolf. It went downhill from there for Lile, she was on the ground, nearly unconscious less than a minute after that. Then, the wolf turned her head to look at the crawling woman, then slowly walked over to the woman and ripped her apart slowly, being careful not to let her die until the end. Lile began to cry before going unconscious entirely. We're not sure why, but the wolf decided to leave Lile there, and scouts from the monastery who had heard of the attack on the village found her close to dead two days later. They brought her to the monastery and that's where we met. Well, I guess I got caught up in my story, I'm sorry. Let's continue. There's a temple further ahead, the Claw Viper Temple. In there is the head of that staff we got back in the lair." Slater looks depressed from hearing the story. "Ok Druid, let's go." The two of them continue on through the destroyed buildings and past many charred skeletons. They go through a small passage between two mountains and find the entrance to the temple. They go down the stairs and find snake-men turned the other way. The druid laughs slightly. "Easy kills." The druid kills the two snake-men and moves on with Slater. There aren't any more monsters in the temple. The two of them reach some more stairs leading down and start to descend them. "Why were there only the two snake-men?" The druid seems to not want to answer the question. "Uh-I'm not sure." The two of them reach the bottom of the stairs. In the center of this new room is an altar that gives off a white aura. The druid runs over and smashes it into the ground. A small amulet looking object that had been on the altar slides across the floor. "Druid, what was that about?" The druid glances at Slater. "It was tainted, it's not important. What is important is that we rest here for the night. From here we will need to go to Tal Rasha's tomb and find out way to Baal's Chamber, it won't be easy." Slater agrees, and the two lie down on the floor. Later that night, Slater wakes to the sound of Baal's voice. "SLATER! THE DRUID IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE." Slater jumps up. "Why the heck should I believe you?" "WHY SHOULDN'T YOU? THAT DRUID HAS CUASED YOU NOTHING BUT PAIN SINCE YOU MET! YOU'VE DIED MORE THAN ONCE SINCE YOU WERE SEPERATED FROM LILE." Slater glances at the druid. "Forget it Baal! I may have been in danger because of him more than on one occasion since only yesterday, but he got me out of it every time!" Baal laughs loudly and the room is suddenly silent." Slater looks again at the druid and feels a sudden hatred come over her, she can't hold herself back. She sends waves of fireballs at him. Somehow sensing the attack in his sleep, he jumps out of the way just in time. "Slater! What are you doing?" "You're against me Druid! On the side of evil!" Slater continues sending balls of fire at the druid who also continues to dodge them. The druid inches towards Slater and jumps on top of her. "Get off me Druid!" The druid pulls the head of the staff from Slater's pocket and puts it in the path of a stray fireball and jams it onto the top of the shaft, it solidifies there, making the staff whole again. Slater is continuing to struggle to get free from the druid and sending fireballs everywhere, even though her arms are still being held on the ground towards a wall. The druid smirks. "Well Slater, it's been nice working with you, it's too bad you'll need to stay here and die from either hunger or thirst if the heat doesn't get to you first. Slater screams in rage at the druid. "GET OFF!" The druid laughs loudly, takes the staff and disappears in a fiery blaze. "I can't believe the druid would betray me like that!" Slater stays lying on the ground and looks at her wrists, they're a dark purple and she can barely move her hands. She attempts to stand but falls back to the ground; her legs had been burnt during the druid's exit. Slater's eyes begin to water from the pain. She pulls herself to her feet with the help of the wall and leans back against it for support. She looks around and sees that the altar the druid had destroyed had been covering a hole in the ground. She limps over to it and falls in. She lands on a steep slope and begins falling. After nearly two minutes of fast sliding, she flies out of the passage into a small room and lands on her back. She lies there and thinks of just giving up. She sighs and blacks out. "SLATER!" Slater wakes up, her entire body aching. "Huh? Who's there?" "Slater! It's me, Lile!" Slater doesn't want to get her hopes up, but turns towards the voice as quickly as she can manage without sitting up. "Lile…How'd you get here?" It had been Lile talking, she was locked up in a cell. "Those fallen we were fighting, when they got news of us killing them off, they began releasing the fourth prime evil, the Outcast. They finished the required ritual just as we finished them off and the Outcast carried me off here." "The…Outcast? A prime evil? Wait, if he's a prime evil, how did something as weak as a group of fallen manage to capture him?" Lile looks away from Slater. "Um, I'm not sure, but that's not important. What is important is that he's been released. I don't know much about him other than he masquerades as a student of mine, a druid from a monastery I was raised in when I was young." "A…druid? No…" Lile looks concerned. "What's the matter Slater?" Slater looks up at Lile. "Oh, er, nothing." Lile raises an eyebrow at her and continues talking. "Well, we're in the lower levels of the Lut Gohlein palace. We can't go upstairs, if the guards find that we're in the castle without permission, they'll try to kill us. We should avoid that. So, we should try to find another way out. Our best chance, I'd guess is to go down." "Ok Lile, let's go." Lile examines Slater for a moment. "Um…maybe we should wait a little bit, you look hurt. Can you even stand?" Slater had forgotten she was still lying on the ground. She makes an attempt to pull herself up from the floor, but can barely bend her back. "I, uh, can't get up." Lile looks sadly at Slater and walks over to her. "Alright Slater, one second." Lile bends over Slater and a white light comes from her hands. Slater slowly feels the pain leaving her body and can soon move again. "Ok Slater, just don't strain yourself and you'll heal just fine, you'll just have a few bruises." Slater looks at her wrists, which are still purple and that at Lile. "Alright Lile, I'm ready to go." Slater stand up and the two sorceresses start heading deeper into the palace. After a couple of floors, they come upon a red portal. "Should we go through Lile?" Lile stares at the portal for a moment. "Well, it looks like it may be a way out, I'll go in first to see if it's safe, wait a minute or two before following." Lile is through the portal before Slater can give her opinion on the plan. Roughly two minutes later, without a sign of Lile, Slater enters the portal. Lile is sitting on some steps to the side of her. "Yup, nothing dangerous near the portal, and we're definitely out of the castle." Slater walks over to the side of the small path and looks off of it. She gets a dizzy feeling. "Yeah, and a lack of floor." Outside of the path is what seems like a bottomless hole. The two move along the path with nothing putting up much of a challenge for Lile. The path seems to go on forever but they eventually reach the end. There's a long set of stairs leading upwards. They reach the top of them and find one thing in the entire room. There's a tome on a pedestal. Lile walks over to the tome and begins to read it. A red portal opens to the left. "Slater, according to this tome, this portal will take us to Tal Rasha's tomb, it's far from Lut Gohlein, pretty far into the desert. However, it seems to be the only way to go." Slater thinks back for a second. "Tal Rasha's tomb…? Hey! I was on my way there before I ended up in your chamber." Lile looks strangely at Slater. "Alone? Why?" Slater looks at the ground, attempting to make something up quickly but isn't able to. "Um, I heard that Baal had been released and I was on my way to stop him." Lile gives Slater another weird look. "How do you know about Baal? And how do you expect to get into his chamber without the Horadric staff?" Slater gives a confused look, but then remembers the staff the Outcast had taken from her. "Oh, um, that. That's already been taken care of. That's, um, that's how Baal was released, a demon assembled it and used it to get to Baal." Lile sighs. "Well then, if that's true, it's up to us to stop Baal before he can get too far." Lile walks into the portal and Slater hesitantly follows her. The two find themselves in a room with one wall blown up. In the center is an orifice with the Horadric staff inside of it. "I guess you were right Slater. Come on, Baal's chamber should be right through this hole in the wall. The sorceresses begin to descend the stairs that the wall had been hiding. Lile glances over at Slater. "At the bottom of these steps is a creature called Duriel. He's here to protect Baal's seal and doesn't discriminate against good and evil. Anyone who wishes to reach Baal's chamber will need to deal with him first." Slater makes a nervous face and hesitantly continues down the stairs. A minute or two later, they reach the bottom of the steps. "What happened here?" Lile gives a look of shock and slowly looks around the room. Blood is splattered along the wall, there's even more dripping from the ceiling. "Lile, did Duriel do this?" Lile stays silent for a moment before answering. "No…" She points to a corner of the room at a pile of bones and ripped flesh. "That is." Slater stares at the pile for a moment in shock. "Then- then what happened?" "I'm not sure. However, I think if we continue we may find out." Slater thinks for a moment. "Well, I suppose that'd be best." The two move on into Baal's chamber. Unfortunately, Baal isn't there. Instead, an angel stands in his place. Lile walks up to him, looks at him harshly and yells "Where is Baal, angel?" The angel looks down at Lile. "Baal, he was freed from his seal not much longer than a day ago, I did what I could but before I could seal him back up, the Outcast appeared and distracted me. He chained me here after Baal escaped and finally, he left as well." Lile looks terrified. "Baal is free! This is horrible! If the Evils reunite… I don't even want to think of what might happen!" Lile prevents herself from attacking the angel. "Slater, we must go now, to Kurast, and prevent the Prime Evils from reuniting. We can take a boat from Lut Gohlein. The angel looks up at Lile. "I can create a portal for you to Lut Gohlein, I'm sorry for failure, but this can hopefully help to make up for my failure." Lile sighs. "Very well angel. Thank you." The angel creates a portal and the two sorceresses enter it, leaving the angel chained in Baal's chamber. "Ok Slater, we'll stay here for the night, there's an inn near the dock we can stay at." Slater agrees and the two of them rent out a room for the night. The next morning, Slater awakes to find Lile is gone. Not only that but, all of Lile's things are gone as well. Slater walks over to Lile's bed and finds a note. It reads "Slater, I've gone on to Kurast without you. I can't allow you to fight with beings as strong as the evils. Please Slater, don't follow me." The note is signed by Lile. "Why Lile? I don't want to be separated again…" Although Slater doesn't want to disobey Lile, she goes to the only person left in Lut Gohlein who's still crazy enough to try to sail to Kurast. The trip was mainly trouble free. However, there was one area with blood-red water and objects floating around along the surface of the water. Slater thought she saw a staff floating by at this time, but she blinked and it was gone.