Disclaimer : Obviously not mine, but the ten year love/hate affair with the game is.
Rating : The game is rated MA, so the fic will have to follow with a M for violence and graphic gore. You may wish to take that into consideration with this chapter, with a heavy emphasis on the gore.
Author's Note : Um, it should have been a really short chapter, but since I always stopped, if I had to, at the Inner Cloister's way point when playing the game, that's where this chapter ends. The thing about Charsi's quest is, I hate it. It's useless, if you think about it. She imbues a item for you, be it a weapon or a piece of armor, into a yellow rare item but you always find a better one later on, like in Lut Gholein or when you slay Andariel. Or even if you hold onto that option until later, you don't find anything good, hopefully low quality, cracked, or damaged, to imbue until Act IV or V, then it's usually just good for selling for petty cash compared to what you have equipped then. Lastly, I always thought it was a little cruel to make your Rogue Hireling walk through the Jail levels with you. So, Kyoko was spared having to see it.
Act I – The Sightless Eye
Quest V – Tools of the Trade
CLAPPING the returned Amazon on the back at dawn's break the next morning, the Barbarian sat down next to her with a broad grin. "We've cleared out the rest of the marshes, so now the little lassies say we only have the Tamoe Highlands left to traverse afore we reach the Monastery itself, if you and the tiny pale man are done wandering off into dank dungeons to chase after children story monsters."
She mocked scowled at him, punching his shoulder as he served himself some of the fruit laced oatmeal the Rogues had made to break their fast with. "What else have the Rogues requested of us?" She purposely ignored the thin reference to what she and the Necromancer had done yesterday as she took another bite of her food.
"Charsi asked that we retrieve her Horadric Malus from her old workshop while making our way through the Monastery after the Dark Wanderer." He nodded his tattooed head over to where the Sorceress, the Paladin, the Rogue Archer Kyoko, and the Rogue Commander Kashya were having a discussion by the low wall that separated Akara's temporary home from the rest of the camp. "Tis what they do, figuring out our path. As it seems that the Monastery was built like a maze, to confuse and delay those that would wish the sisters ill."
"Let me guess, the feature that served them so well in the past against foes now hinders our way forward to assist them in reclaiming their home?" Shaking her head, the blond warrior spooned up her last bit of apple chunks. "Ironic."
"Seem so." A bleary eyed Druid strolled over to the two, plopping himself down next to his brother in spirit. "I take it we leave when the other three are done?" His pack of wolves laid down next to him, while the tree spirit floated around and the living vine stirred up the ground nearby.
"That we are."
(ooo000ooo)
By mid morning the seven of them had returned to the Black Marsh, using the portal the Sorceress had set up near the path to the Tamoe Highlands last evening. She had to go last, as the portal was spelled so as the one who summoned it traversed through back to the original location, it would close.
Once all of them were through and ready, the Paladin and Barbarian led the way forward to the pass in the barrier wall that lead to the Highlands, followed by the Druid and the Amazon with the Sorceress, Necromancer, and Archer bringing up the rear.
They were met by three packs of Carvers and three Shamans within the pass, but those were easily dispatched compared to the foes they had faced before.
The only event of note from the skirmish was that when the small demons cried out Rakanishu's name to embolden each other, the Barbarian laughed at them cruelly and shouted back. "I ripped off his bloody head! Now who will save you!"
After that battle was done and once through to the Highlands proper, they split into two groups to cover more ground. The holy knight, the wild mage, the spell caster, and Kyoko going one way, and the wild warrior, the blond warrior, and the priest of the dead going another. They had agreed to meet back up at the Monastery's entrance after they had cleared the lands of the monsters that could be found within the Highlands.
With his group covering ground rapidly, the Necromancer was alarmed to note that there were more walking dead present so close to the Rogue's old home, and several that seemed to retain what magics they had in life. That likely meant that there would be even more within the man made labyrinth, possibly because one of the demons there was calling them from their proper rest. For now, though, the skeleton mages they met were weak. One or two blows from the warriors he was traveling with as well as the Jagged Dirk he acquired from the bowels of the Forgotten Tower was enough to cause them to crumble into bone fragments, but he gained an idea from watching the dead mages march.
The Paladin was disgusted to see the same thing, and as his group got closer to the stone fortress to the north he became grimmer. He stopped responding or reacting to any of the banter being tossed around by the other three he was traveling with. The Druid shrugged it off, the Archer ignored any deviation in his personality, but the Sorceress watched him worriedly.
Stopping briefly to clear out a Pit of a cave, the Barbarian's group met up as agreed with the Paladin's before the tall wooden doors that lead into the Monastery Gate, and the Outer Cloister behind it. The pale mage was frowning thoughtfully at the remains of some Returned Mages while the others reassessed their equipment, working through how the demons that summoned the dead ones had kept hold of the magics they had possessed while alive.
With most of the others occupied, and his own weapons set, he reached out with his magic and tried to raise a Skeleton Mage. One of the Returned Mages rose again, bones magically healing from the fractures and cracks that had caused it to fall in the first place, but the calcium bleached to white under his magic. He inspected this new skeleton, suspicious because it did not grab for a weapon immediately like his other undead had done when raised. Catching sight of the lightning that flickered and collected around the new bone mage's hands, he smirked at his work and turned back just as the holy knight and the blond warrior were pushing the great doors apart.
A pack of Dark Stalkers, the elite Rogue warriors corrupted by whatever demons were in residence in the Rogues' old home, rushed at them while two of their fighters were distracted by the main gates. The Archer and Necromancer brought down a few each, and the Sorceress' spells felled another few, but three of them evaded the missiles and spells only to come to grasp with the Barbarian and the Druid.
The wild warrior beheaded one with a swing of his ax, the wild mage ripped the throat out of another with his claws, and the summoned wolves leapt over everyone in their way and bore down on the last until they had torn her apart.
"Well," the female mage kicked the head of the Barbarian's kill away from her and out of the way, "that was quite the welcoming committee."
Kyoko lowered her bow, looking mournfully at her fallen sisters, slain on the ground. "They were to be the best of us... but they are the ones who fell first. It was the Dark Stalkers themselves that drove us out of the Monastery. They started going mad, killing a few of their own at first in violent fits of anger, and turning on the younger sisters before long." The Rogue shook her head, and then checked the number of arrows she had left simply for something to do. "Akara said there might not be any way to save them, as their pact with Evil has taken hold of their souls, so I do not feel bad about any revenge I might gain by killing them all."
Tilting his wolfish head curiously, the Druid stared after the Rogue for a moment. "That... is depressing." He blinked at the dead on the ground, then looked back at the other five. "We were killing the same Rogues we are helping... dose this confuse any of you?"
"No. The corrupted deserve to be slain." Drawing his saber again, the holy knight passed the wild mage, following after the Archer. "There is nothing in Sanctuary that can save a damned soul, once a demon has hold of it."
The Sorceress sighed, shifting her long staff to her other hand and patting the lycan on the shoulder. "Akara said killing the demoness that took over the Catacombs might save them, but not to risk ourselves in the attempt to save who we can. They have chosen their fate, so spare no pity for the corrupted Rogues."
(ooo000ooo)
They fought a number of twisted creatures getting to the Barracks proper, Black Rogues, Yeti, and the tan skinned Devilkins and their shamans, but once inside the living quarters of the Rogue Sisterhood, the cramped quarters limited the range of the Archer and the Necromancer's throwing knives.
Luckily, the Amazon's and Kyoko's Inner Sight skills painted every monsters' skin with a soft glow, illuminating the dark corners the tan demons ran to when something was slain before them, and the Bone Archers that stood farther back in the gloomy interior and shot at the seven of them. They used the narrow halls and rooms to their own advantage, ducking into a previously cleared space to get to another door to attack ranged foes from closer quarters.
Since there was little room to fight they had to split up some, the warriors taking a side or middle and the mages stationing themselves in doorways to keep the demons and undead from ambushing them the same way.
They also met some more of the goat-men, black furred creatures from the Death Clan who wielded double handed axes and blended into the shadows well farther inside the maze like interior.
By noon, or what felt like noon to them in the dim, clammy halls they were now in, the seven of them had gotten most of the way through the Barracks, and had located the stairs down to the first level of the Jail, but not Charsi's enchanted smithing hammer or her old forge. They took a break for a short while in one of the sleeping rooms, ignoring the blood splattered on the walls in gruesome patterns and the occasional severed limb on the floor.
Kyoko looked rather pale in what torchlight there was, gripping the shaft of her bow in a white knuckled death grip as she sat on what had once been the cot that belonged to a long dead friend of hers before the Rogues had been forced from the Monastery. The state of the Barracks had come to be an unpleasant surprise to her, the blood staining the floors and splashed up on the barrels and crates that they had once used to store foodstuffs and goods while caravans were inspected painted a violent picture of what had happened after the bulk of the Rouges had fled their ancestral home.
Across from her, the Druid was rather miserably trying to keep from sneezing, the scent of decomposing flesh and old blood mixed with the heavy, musky smell of demons trapped in cold and musty stone halls something he did not wish to scent with a cleared snout. Even the torches, which were strips of hemp cloth soaked in animal fat on stout wooden shafts, stung his sensitive nose. There were also a few other things in the stench he was trying to ignore, not that it was working all too well, and he supposed the farther down they went trying to ignore it would be a moot point.
The three warriors were less bothered by the stench wafting in the Monastery, either used to the stomach turning scents, masters of ignoring it, or unable to smell it as keenly as the wild mage could.
Unbothered by the smell as well, the Necromancer poured over a few tomes with the Sorceress, who was looking a bit green herself by the light of one of the torches in the room.
Regardless if they were outwardly bothered or not, they collectively decided not to try and eat while they rested.
When the Rogue Archer was no longer breathing like she was going to faint, the holy knight got to his booted feet and drew his sword again. "Where have we not gone by now? If I remember right, the far north leads to the Jail, and we have already cleared out everything to the east. What was left in the west side of this place?"
As the others rose up as well, the female mage frowned thoughtfully as she tucked the tome in her hand into her pack. "I believe there was one last door on the west side, one that we didn't go through as you and the Amazon had spotted the stairwell down and was calling for Kyoko's confirmation."
(ooo000ooo)
The last closed door on the west side of the Barracks led to Charsi's old smithy. Unfortunately, it wasn't as abandoned as the Rogues' Blacksmith had left it. The minotaur like creature that had taken up the barbarian woman's place roared at the Paladin, charging the knight with a massive hammer in one meaty fist.
"I WILL MAKE WEAPONS FROM YOUR BONES!"
The dark skinned warrior swore, dodging out of the way of the first crushing blow and trying to move away from the doorway so the other fighters could get through and distract the rampaging monster intent on crushing him with it's massive one handed blows with a hammer. Darting through with the Druid's wolves at her heels, the Amazon threw her last few javelins at the back of the beast's horned head.
It roared again, twisting around to see what had attacked it. The blond warrior spun herself, getting out of the way for the Druid and Barbarian to come through now that it was focused on chasing her. As the rest of the companions spilled into the forge, they spread out to keep the monster disorientated by attacking in turn. The Smith mostly focused on killing the summoned minions that closed in on him, but the Skeleton mage, the two spell casters, and the Rogue Archer were able to slowly chip away at it as the warriors took turns hacking.
Bellowing, with blood pouring out of it's snout, the monster crashed to the ground as it's guts spilled out of it's lacerated body, still trying desperately to kill the humans ripping it slowly apart.
Breathing hard, the blond warrior stomped over to the remains of her javelins and scowled at the broken hafts of wood, dropping the broken table leg she had used in lieu of her preferred weapon. "Perfect. I need to return to the Rogues, to replace my weaponry. I vote we call it a day, and return in the morning."
"Very well. Once we find this Horadric Malus of Charsi's." The Paladin sheathed his saber and looked around the forge.
The Sorceress was the one to check the tool rack next to the anvil and found the hammer while the rest searched the room. "I hope the sisters appreciate this thing. Back to the Encampment then?"
Charsi was thrilled to have the Horadric Malus back in her possession, and got to work repairing the armor and weapons the seven of them had immediately. She promised to imbue whatever item they wanted, when they wanted to, before they left her corner of the camp.
As they gathered around the fire pit once again in the early afternoon to see to their minor chores and to finally eat for the second time that day, Deckard Cain walked over to them. "Good evening, my friends. The magical effects imbued by the Malus are impossible to predict, but are always to the good."
"Well met Cain. Come to join us for an early supper?" Asked the tired Druid, thankful that he couldn't smell the stench of the Monastery any more even if woodsmoke did sting a bit.
"Thank you, my wild friend, but no. I have some information to impart to you all." The old man smiled softly as his words gained him the unwavering attention of all the heroes before him. "It is certain that we face the demon queen, Andariel, who has corrupted the Rogue Sisterhood and defiled their ancestral Monastery. This does not bode well for us, my friends. Ancient Horadric texts record that Andariel and the other Lesser Evils once overthrew the three Prime Evils – Diablo, Mephisto and Baal – banishing them from Hell to our world. Here, they caused mankind untold anguish and suffering before they were finally bound within the Soulstones. Andariel's presence here could mean that the forces of Hell are once again aligned behind Diablo and his Brothers. If this is true, then I fear for us all. You must kill her before the Monastery becomes a permanent outpost of Hell and the way east lost forever." He hobbled forward, taking a seat next to the Paladin on one of the logs situated around the fire pit. "Diablo is heading east for some foul purpose. And the only passage east is through the Monastery Gate. Obviously, Diablo summoned Andariel to block any pursuit. For her part, Andariel hopes to win Diablo's favor... the lesser demons are always vying for positions of power within the unholy hierarchy!"
The Sorceress frowned, looking down at her blood stained heavy boots as she thought. "Andariel... the Maiden of Anguish?" She looked up at the Horadrim Sage in horror. "One of the Lesser Evils? She is the one that stands in our way? I thought she had corrupted the Rogues and left them to guard the gate east."
He shook his balding head at her. "The last of the survivors of the Rogues that had escaped from their fallen Monastery claimed to have seen her enter the defiled Cathedral, where those that had lived there over the centuries were entombed. She has most likely gone to raise the dead there as more soldiers to pit against you and the others. Her defeat would allow you to continue the pursuit. Ancient lore has it that while Andariel was spawned in the Burning Hells, she is not fond of fire."
"That is not the only lore on the Demon Queen." The female mage rubbed her hands together, an outward sign of her nervousness. "Poison is a favored weapon of hers. A slow death from the inside out."
"She is not the only one who favors poison here, Sorceress. Calm thyself." Kicking out his legs, the Necromancer tilted his head to see where Akara was. "The High Priestess has potions of antidote, which protects the imbiber for a small period of time from any venom. We will need to stock up on them before we face her in whatever lair she has constructed for herself."
Steeling her nerves, the elemental spell caster calmed as her mind went back to a briefly mentioned spell in her training, and she tried to remember everything mentioned about it by her mentor. "There is a fire spell I know of, one that sets the surrounding ablaze when cast."
"There, my lady. No reason to panic." Patting her on the hand, and ignoring the fact she slapped his hand away, the Paladin looked over to the others who had remained silent while the exchange had gone on. "Can the rest of you think of anything to add?"
The Amazon raised a hand mockingly, sparing a brief glance to ensure the Sorceress would not become further upset. "I know how to fire exploding arrows, I just need a bow."
"I have a few elemental spells, I just can't cast them in my werewolf form." the Druid stroked a hand under his jaw. "Two of them are fire based."
"I do not panic." The spell caster spat, greatly annoyed. "But I also to do not believe you understand what it is we face. A demon of Andariel's caliber is nothing like the minor, twisted demons we have already seen and defeated."
"We will not face her this day, I think." Getting up to her feet with the aid of the new spear she had gotten from the blacksmith, the Amazon checked the pot of stew bubbling over the fire. "You can terrify us with legends about this spider tonight, for I believe we will not see her until tomorrow. But for now, our meal is done."
After they had eaten and started rearming themselves to return to the Monastery, the Druid pulled the Paladin aside. "We should not take the Rogue with us through the Jail. From what I scented while we were in the Barracks earlier, it will not be easy for any of them to see what the demons have done to those they had left behind."
"Other than the decaying bodies and old blood?"
"More like disembowelment, and a few other things I do not wish to consider." Smacking his wolf head helm against his thigh, the wild mage checked to see where Kyoko had gotten to. He spotted her with the Sorceress, discussing something about the bow the mage had given up to her. "The stairs to the Jail reeked of it, and that is not a smell one can confuse with another."
Nodding in agreement after a moment of thought, the holy knight squared his shoulders and left the lycan to inform the woman that they were leaving the Archer behind.
(ooo000ooo)
The Sorceress was not too pleased with her companions, up until they passed through the first room within the Jail. She had been of the opinion that, despite the smell, Kyoko should have the right to assist in reclaiming the Rogues' home. The view of the first of many tables that had been used to torture the Rogues left behind nearly made her sick, and she could not help but wonder if the Druid, who had scented it all from a level away, was fairing any better.
To her disgust, the table in the far back was still occupied, showing the six of them how exactly they had been used to gut the poor women shackled to it.
It was the first horror among many, for that was not the only scene of pain and despair they came across in the three floors of the Jail. Beheadings seemed to have been common, as well as stringing up a Rogue by the arms and letting the smaller demons eat away at what they could reach. Midway into the second level, one of the tables still had a black clad woman sitting in her chair, impaled by a length of wood to her spot.
They wasted no time in hurrying through the Jail, pitted against undead mages of both fire and lightning as well as skeleton archers, dark skinned Dark ones and dark furred Death Clan demons, a few spirits, the occasional Gargoyle Trap, and a pack of Tainted demons lead by an ice enchanted champion. All lit by the still burning torches or the Amazon's Inner Sight skill, and trying to ignore the fate of the forsaken Rouges. Thankfully, there were few bodies left intact, most remains were left as little more than puddles of dried blood and discarded bone, but there were more than enough to draw solid conclusion about what the women had faced as the Monastery was abandoned in the wake of the Dark Wanderer's passage through to the deserts lands of Aranoch.
It took the rest of the day and most of the night to get through the bloody prison, but they reached the light at the end of that tunnel by the beginning of the next day's false dawn. The five spirit wolves of the Druid's chased down a pack of Dark Ones once they had reached the outer halls of the Inner Cloister, surprising a Bone Mage who had wandered out near the stacked barrels at the end of the hall.
The Paladin opened one set of doors that lead into the small stretch of cobblestone encased grass, which held a way point at it's center. "Right where Kashya said it would be."
"We might just sleep until next morn, at this rate." Rubbing at her lacerated side, the Sorceress scanned the courtyard as she limped in. "Didn't the Rogue also say one of her better scouts was to be here watching it?"
"She will watch no more," The Necromancer, who had stepped into the strip of uncovered ground, spotted the body of the Rogue in question slain, "for the dead no longer see."
With a tired sigh, the female mage stepped up to the stone platform. "Well, I think the Rogues deserve a warning of what they will find, not that I anticipate with any joy the task of informing them."
As the rest of them gathered around to return to the Encampment, the holy knight shook his head. "I will do so, but once we awaken."