Author's note: I originally had intended to include this chapter within the previous one, so that both became the part 1 of the prologue, I wanted the first part to be in the witcher's world, and the second one in the warcraft world, however I ended with a very long chapter that I had to split it in two, so now I had to turn the warcraft background chapter in the first chapter, I will have to cut most of the background that I wanted to use to explained what was going on in the warcraft world before the witcher arrive. Otherwise it will be too long; (wel;l it will still be, too long)because also, I have to write the tie-in.
Disclaimer: I don't own the witcher or warcraft. Each belong to their respective authors
Prologue - part 2
An unexpected way to end an assignment
His name was Geralt of Rivia, he was a witcher; a professional monster slayer for hire.
Currently; the witcher was travelling towards the Dragon Mountains foothills, in the Region of Narok, in the most northeastern part of the northern kingdoms; he had receive word in the city of Rakverelin about vampires in a surprisingly great numbers terrorizing the villages that linger at the mountains shadow; believing to take residence in some ancient ruins of a long lost civilization buried deep within the mountains. There he took the assignment from the local governors to deal with the situation.
Geralt wasn't much surprised about the location, vampires tend to inhabit ruins and abandoned settlements, sometimes even caves and grottos, what did really surprise him was the unprecedented quantity of vampires in a single place, it was a surprise because vampires tend to live in small packs, that barely reach the dozen, even vampires lairs and nests tend to uphold just a few dozens of vampires.
The rumors talk about hundreds upon hundreds of vampires that fill the mountains at night taking innocents into their underground lair, another surprise is that many different kind of vampires where in the same places, lesser vampires like the Ekimma, the Fleder and The Garkain, hanging around higher ones like Bruxas, that all that many species manage to reside in one place without complication, make Geralt wonder about if this were the work of a powerful vampire, extending some form of control upon the lesser ones. But what really bothers him was why vampires should suddenly reunite in such a great numbers? Especially nowadays that their species were almost at the brink of extinction, such action make them, easy to spot and attack, ensuring his race demise.
Despite this unanswered questions; the witcher show no doubts about undertaking this assignment and promptly made the proper arrangements for his travel.
The witcher wasn't travelling alone, a guide, a simple hunter was offered to him, to take him to the entrance were it was believe that the vampires had taken residence.
They had leave early in the morning, to reach the entrance by day, impeding the vampires to either flee or outnumber him in the open plains.
They finally reached the cave entrance after climbing for several miles until reaching the snowy part of the slopes, the cave laid safely and undisturbed between the mountain slopes.
"Well… here we are Ser; this is the place from where those foul beasts take the poor fellas, who had the dire luck of being catch by those fiends" Said the guide, a bearded fifty old aged man with a tattered travel hat, dressed in some old clothes for hiking, that were now barely something more than rags.
"Best for you not to linger too much inside that place ser, I wouldn't want to find myself in such a confine space when those fiends wakeup looking for their nightly bites…. yer' would have to excuse if I don't stay waiting for yer' return at the entrance" said the man with a nervous smile.
"Don't worry old chaps, I know how to care of myself, and if worst come to past I have some nasty surprises waiting for those bloodsuckers" said the witcher without taking his gaze away from the cave entrance.
He then grab a vial from one if his shoulder straps with his left hand, a yellow oiled liquid, with a slightly green glow, was seen from inside the vial, Vampire Oil, a special brew that was noxious to vampires, the witcher used his other hand to unsheathed his silver sword, the sword shine beautiful under the mountain sun; the witcher promptly open the vial with his mouth, and coated the silver sword with its oily contents. He received a curious look by his guide who was watching the entire process.
The witcher paid him no heed, and turned the empty vial and cork back to one of his pockets; He then grabbed another vial; a clear blue liquid was seen from its interior, Black Blood; an effective countermeasure against those who wanted to make a snack out of him, he opened and drink all of the vial contents, suffering for a brief moments of the effects that the potion had over his body while this accepted the beverage.
His veins where then clearly visible through all the exposed parts of his body; his face mostly, the veins of his face and neck where starting to making themselves more and more visible through the witcher's skin, like trying to burst out from his body, turning into a deep black as the void between stars, his golden cat-like eyes turning as black as his veins, the witcher made no gesture during this process; showing no discomfort about the changes occurring in his body, always keeping a calm posture while having his head tilted upwards, but it was just a brief moment, just as quickly the effects show themselves, as quickly disappeared, the witcher's body settling down and relaxing.
The witcher then, return his gaze upon the cave entrance, with a determination in his face, and without uttering a word, he venture himself inside the looming darkness of the cave, silver sword in hand; disappearing in the blackness, never giving not even a single look back; Leaving the speechless guide alone to deal with the long trek back to civilization.
Geralt, descended through the cave tunnel for about half an hour, the tunnel had a slight diagonal turn, that descended deep into the bowels mountain ; he travel through this way warily with sword in hand, always in the lookout for any sort of creature that linger in the darkness.
His journey was uneventful, until he reached a large underground cavern, here he found a trail of what he was looking for.
: Sniff: Sniff:
The highly improved sense of smell of the witcher, detected a very well known scent.
Blood….trough some dim rays of daylight that where filtered through some cracks in the rock, the witcher manage to see what was left of some poor fellas, the mutilated rests of what once was human bodies laid spread across the stone floor, broken, tattered, and rip apart, by fang and claw, making a dreary visage of guts and gore.
A drop of blood was then seen by Gerald falling in front of him; the witcher turned his attention upwards and discover the creatures responsible for such massacre.- Fleders ; a disgusting bat-like creature, A foul combination between man and bat. Having the muscular complexion of a strong man, with small wings sprouting from their forearms reaching into his sides, with a head of a giant bad, and big circular red eyes (this one had it closed); and long stretched ears, that were directed slightly unto the back of his head, long stretched fingers, ending in sharps claws, his body pigmentation was of a slight brown, this vermin was unpleasant to the eyes.
The witcher found that the falling blood came from this particular fleder, a very obvious realization, one might add, the creature was hanging head down from the roof with his nose eyes and forehead, coated in the dried blood that fell from his mouth flooded with the blood of his victims.
Taking a moment to survey his surroundings the witcher realized that the entire majority of the cave walls and roof where overcrowded with fleders, not only fleders but also Garkains, these creatures where of the same type as the fleders, except uglier, if such a thing was even possible.
They had the same physical traits as the fleders, muscular body, long arms and claws, small wings under his arms, but his face is different, his mouth is bigger and wider than the one of the fleder, giving a horrible vicious look, because when open the mouth could stretch very far, managing to double the size of his head when fully opened, his fangs where more prominent than the ones of his cousin making them easier to spot. He did not had long ears rather some nasty pulsating protuberances in the back of his head, and his skin had a nauseating yellow-greenish color in his arms and legs, probably caused by moist and fungus, or even the dried blood of his victims. The rest of his body had a stone gray color. His nose and mouth had a bluish color.
The witcher realize that the roof was not separate by a great deal from the ground, so he could reach the vermins with a well performed jump, he decided to do it quickly and quietly, by using his flexibility and finesse; Lucky for him that the creatures were taking their daily nap.
The witcher assumed a jumping stance, gather momentum for a few moments and jump towards the sleeping creatures, he made quickly slashes in wide arcs with his sword, and manage to decapitate the fleder that he first spotted, but also manage to decapitate, other two fleders and a Garkain, their heads falling like melons to the ground making a muffled and dull sound, the bodies still attached to the roofs, to quickly and precisely the witcher was, that the creatures never realize that they were dead.
The witcher landed gracefully like a cat, without making noise, and turns his attention backwards to behold his handiwork.
"mmmpphh" the witcher muttered with a half smile, he then prepared to repeat the process with the rest of the vampires left.
He was quiet, precise and fast; he quickly reduced the number of vampires from several dozens to just a handful, in matter of minutes.
But when he was about to perform one last jump to end with the bats lives, he suddenly heard a scream behind him.
"SCREEEEEEEEACHHHHHHH"
The witcher turned around to face this attacker, and immediately set his gaze upon him.
It was an Ekimma , a more bestial version of the fleder, he shared some similarities with his cousins, except his body had a little more muscle, and it was covered in a disgusting pelt, his facial features were more bat-like, with a prominent filthy nose, he was more bat than man, his wing were bigger and stronger, the only thing that was the same as his other kin, was the legs.
The Ekimma lunged toward the witcher trying to take a bite on him; the witcher easily dodged the attack by taking a light jump backwards, he quickly launch a powerful thrust upfront, piercing the Ekimma chest with his sword, the witcher twirl his sword inside the creature chest, and pulled out away from the vampire.
The Ekima stood rigid for just a few seconds and fell up front dead; the witcher heard some stirring noises behind, he turned around to face the new threat; the Ekima screams had disturbed the rest of the other lesser vampires in the room.
2 fleders and 1 Garkain, where twirling, agitating their wings in the rooftop, making grunt noises, they took notice of the witcher presence, setting their eyes upon him and jumped towards his direction.
The witcher without losing a second, jumped too toward the direction of his assailants, thanks to his astonishing acrobatic abilities, the witcher manage to pass between without a scratch in midair, and cut their heads while he was near them, the creatures where long dead before their bodies touched the ground, heavily plummeted upon the stone floor, their heads rolling several feet's away.
The witcher landed gracefully, composed himself and took a brief moment to meditate in his current situation.
He was surprised by the lack of victims; yes there were mutilated corpses in the floor, but there were just a handful, not enough for the several dozen of vampires that he had just kill, which in reality explain why the corpses where in such condition, he could imagine all those vampire fighting trying to get a bite out of the few victims that were laid here.
"….mmmph….. Strange" the witcher said.
"There should be more victims" thought Geralt; this few victims where not be enough to fully quench the thirst of so many vampires. He then recalled to have seemed something similar in the past. Yes, he recalled, in some doghouses, of certain lords, the dogs where just fed with a few scraps of food to survive, but not enough to fully satisfied their hunger, it turn the dogs into vicious dangerous creatures, with mean that they would tear apart any unfortunate fool that tried to break-in the lord house without invitation.
If such was the case in his current situation then that will mean that this lesser vampires where nothing but guard dogs for someone more powerful; the witcher decided to keep going, whoever was behind this, he will not found it standing around alone in the dark; he reached the far side of the underground chamber an enter through the tunnel there, resuming his journey into the deepness of the mountains.
He continued walking for another half an hour until reaching another chamber like the one before, he decided to go stealthy this time no need to alert any creature playing sentry, he crouched inside the tunnel end, patiently waiting for any movement, everything was quiet for a few minutes, until some shadows start to move beyond some filtered sunlight rays, another Ekima.
The witcher having spotted the sentry cautiously started to stalk the Ekima, the creature was distracted munching some bloodied limbs, he quietly took position behind the Ekima without being seeing or heard, the Ekima unaware of its presence.
The witcher raised his sword, and pierced the Ekima skull with it; it was a precise, quick movement, he had managed to terminate the Ekima's life without disturbing the rest of his kin.
He then set his efforts in dealing with the rest of the vampires that where sleeping in the ceiling of this room without interruptions, taking the same steps as in the last chamber to clear the rooftops. After dealing with all the bloodsuckers he resumed his journey by exiting through the other side of the chamber.
He continued to going down through the tunnel for a couple of minutes until he reached a bifurcation; the witcher stops his tracks to ponder in his options; he walked and stopped before the path of the right setting his gaze upon its darkness.
: Sniff: : Sniff:
The witcher used his smell sense, to try to detect any scent, which might help him to take a choice.
"…mmph…..nothing." said Geralt.
He turned his attention to the other path and repeated the smelling process.
: Sniff: : Sniff:
"………..eh" the witcher detected the scent of blood, and decide to go through the left path, for here is where his quarry had gone through.
After travelling for another couple of minutes he managed to reach a third chamber, but unlike the previous ones, this one is very spacious, he could not reach the ceiling by mere jumping.
He would have to deal with the creatures the old-fashion way. It will prove to be a challenging endeavor; for there were at least fifty of those creatures resting in the ceiling.
The witcher quickly spotted the sentry, this time it was just a normal fleder, he wasted no time, and ran towards is direction attacking with a vertical strike with his sword, he hit home in the fleder left shoulder and sunder the sword down to his right groin. The fleder screamed as he died, waking the rest of his companions.
There was a tumultuous cacophony of uproars, consequence of the witcher's actions, the vampires quickly took notice of him and lunged themselves against the witcher.
Geralt, kept his temperament in check, not despairing against the incoming menace, he simply made a upward attack in a wide horizontal arc, to end the life of the fleder that fell upon him, decapitate him with just one move, he immediately jump forward and delivered a series of wide attacks against his attackers, severing heads or cleaving chests in the process.
He had managed to fight his way amidst the tides of fangs and claws that threatened to tear and break him apart. Blocking, parrying, dodging and rebuking any incoming attack, he managed to seemingly keep at bay his attackers despite being seriously outnumbered, it's was his experience as a veteran witcher what kept Geralt alive. Launching attacks, feints and Counterattacks when opportunities show themselves, he successfully, cripple, mangle, cut and maimed any creature that was foolish enough to getting to close to him.
He was doing it well, the number of vampires where diminish rapidly, but he himself was not unscratched, he had receive some cuts and slashes, through all his body, luckily his leather armor and chainmail sustained the damage well, those attacks that had manage to tear his flesh, were already healing.
But he need it to make distance from his attackers, he could not keep going with this pace, or else he would be finish.
Finally the inevitable happened; he could no longer safeguard himself against the immense tide of enemies; one Garkain manage to go through his defenses plummeting him to the ground and biting him in the shoulder, others follow suit and he find himself getting bitten in several parts of his body and limbs.
But the witcher did not despair, pretty soon after getting knock down, his attackers release him from theirs grasps, those beasts who bite him where starting to move erratically, jerking uncontrollably. They made screams of dead, vomiting dark blackened blood trough their mouths, finally plummeting to the ground, twitching a little before any of their movements stopped completely.
The black blood was doing his work, poisoning and killing any bloodsucking fiends, who dare to feed from him.
The remaining vampires roared furiously realizing that they could not sustained themselves from Geralt, and lunge against him with murderous intent. If they could not feed from him, then at least they would have some entertainment from mutilating his corpse.
The witcher was amused, he relaxed a little now that all that was left of his enemies was barely a couple dozen, he effortlessly dodge their attacks making short work out of them; after a few more minutes of vicious combat he finally had dealt with all his assaulters, shoveling his silver sword in the face of the last one.
The witcher pullout his sword and cleansed it with his gloves from the grim of battle. Taking a moment to collect himself; the witcher pull out a vial of a crimson red liquid. - White Raffard's Decoction- A brew that will help him to heal more quickly his wounds and restore the blood lost at the hands of the vampires; Geralt drink from its contents and took a sigh to relax himself.
Knowing that there was no time to lose he lifted his sword and continued through the chamber towards another tunnel.
He kept walking for another trek until reaching into a great vault filled with stalactites and stalagmites, and paths that go through the underground valley of stones; here Geralt realized that he must have discovered a massive underground complex of interconnected tunnels.
The witcher saw some ruins at the far end of the underground vault, he could see that it was a ruff construction made of stone, probably a temple of sorts for the look of it, he was certain that it was there where he would found the responsible of this suddenly vampire uprising.
He would have to descend into the valley of stalagmites, and travel through them to reach the ruins. The witcher quickly set his efforts into reaching the temple, walking cautiously through the spiked rocks, it was an uneventful trek, except when he sometimes find one of the lesser vampires looming about, he quietly dispatched those nuisances until finally reaching the broken stairs to the temple.
The place had seen better days, one could only imagine how would have look during his full glory, it would appeared that the temple collapse and sunken upon itself, rock and dirt cover much of its surface, probably because of the occasional landslide that the temple had to endure during the passing of ages.
The witcher climbed through the broken stone stairs until reaching the top of the temple entrance, there he found images carved in its wall, probably some story about whatever gods where worship by those that built this place. , there were some statues too but were too much decayed and old to even had an idea of whatever it is what they once represented.
The witcher entered the temple and started to wander inside its corridors, were more images were carve in its walls, there were also some writing too in some parts, it would appear to be written in an early form of Elder Speech or old tongue as it is also known, he could not understand well some parts an others were missing or destroyed, but from what he could see this where some form of account about how the world came to be.
It mention something about powerful god-like metallic beings whose function was to shape worlds, the carvings mention something about them arriving to this one and helping in its modeling, it tell about their titanic endeavor of giving shape to the world for several centuries, helping and safeguarding the first beings that walked during the creation.
The carvings then tell about how this primordial beings where charged by the gods to watch over the land. For this the gods built for them a sacred place where powerful magic energies where held, to helped them in their endeavor and also to maintain the stability of the world. Then the carvings tell about the gods leaving, to continue with their mission of world shapers.
The history then tell of a ethereal dimension filled of immeasurable magics that connected the worlds, and how the primordial beings where interested in this dimension and the idea of travel to other worlds, it tell of the creation of a powerful magical crystal, created by using a great deal of the energies left behind by the gods for the nourishment of the world; the crystal was use to access this place, but then the primordial found something unexpected, the they had access was one were chaotic energies and terrible demons dwell, the demons slaughter many of the primordial who where force to shut down the gateway opened by the crystal before the demons were able to gain access to the world, leaving many of the primordials brethren behind at mercy of the demons.
It seemed that the shutting of the gateway was not a pleasant one, because in their haste to closing the gateway, lots of powerful energies where released causing the earth to open and swallow the temple and the crystal within it. The temple was abandoned to be forever forgotten beneath the earth, and what was left of the primordials carved this images and writings as warnings to whoever managed to found the temple, to not mess with the crystal energies.
Gerald was captivated by this story, he could certainly think about many scholars, who will be willing to spend a great deal for an opportunity to study such carvings, but he quickly disposed that sentiment, and started to ponder, if such powerful magical artifact does indeed exist, then that might explain about the unusually high concentration of vampires in one place, but that also give him a sense of worry, if this crystal is in the hand of the vampires, then they would certainly be up to no good.
The witcher decided that he had wasted enough time and hurried quickly into the entrails of the temple; after walking for a few minutes he found what was supposedly be the temple main atrium; there he found his quarry.
A female vampire in human disguise, dressed in a crimson silk dress, with beautiful yellow embroideries upon its surface, her face was a fine, delicate one, with deep blue eyes and a mouth that possessed some juicy crimson lips, her hair was of lustrous charcoal color she irradiated an air of confidence, and by the way she carried herself; The witcher guessed that she had some knowledge in the magical arts, she was probably a sorceress before she had turned into a vampire.
She was standing in front of an old broken stone altar, tinkering with some sort of artifact that irradiated an immense quantity of light. He could not see very well from his position what the artifact was; but the witcher suspected what it was.
He could not get closer without being spotted; the whole length of the atrium main floor was filled, with a mass of vampires, all of them were female in appearance, each one had attractive faces and a gorgeous naked figure that shimmered in the light that filtered from above and from the gleaming artifact, their ample busts exposed for everyone to see; Long silky hair of midnight color.
One could believe that the witcher was in some type of erotic fantasy, if it wasn't for the fact that all of them had a crimson liquid falling into their chests and body, from their mouths were long, sharp fangs like needles could be seen.
No doubt they were vampires too, all of them, serving as bodyguards for the one tinkering with the glowing artifact.
"Bruxas" The witcher muttered.
Bruxas; female vampires that can seduce and bend any man to their wills; the witcher knew well, not to fall for their charms, and he also had to be cautious about their agility and speed, for this vampiresses, where known also for their inhuman feats.
The seemingly leader of the bruxas, turn herself to address to his sister, revealing the artifact, that she had in her hands, the witcher took a glimpse of it and manage to recognize it.
It was a glowing crystal of the size of an open palm, of a beautiful yet unknown craftsmanship; the witcher realize, that it was indeed the same crystal that was shown in the temple's walls inscriptions.
"Soon my sisters, we will be able to leave these wretched intolerant lands against our kind, for others more pleasant, and look for brand-new hunting grounds, were we could enjoy ourselves without the interruption and hate of the lesser beings that inhabit this decaying world" said the vampiress to her midst.
The witcher was surprised, he now understand why there where so many vampires in one place, this was no normal gathering, it was an exodus, the vampires where trying to use the crystal to open a gate to a new world.
The witcher ponder in the implications of such a thing; he could let the vampires leave with that assuring the wellbeing of his world, but that would leave other worlds to fell prey to the vampiresses thirst.
Deciding that he could not allow other worlds to suffers for this one own problems; the witcher assume a passive stance, and started to focus, charging magical energy in his left hand, he then run at full speed towards the gathering of Bruxas.
He then released the accumulated magical energies in his hand; Igni; a burst of fire was released upfront from the witcher's hand, incinerating those who were in the impact, it then expanded itself into a heat wave, knocking down any bruxa that were in the wave pass.
The bruxas where startled they did not expected to be attacked in the heart of their own lair.
"So the cattle have sent an agent to disturb our journey" the main vampiress, acknowledged Geralt "wait…what the….? " The vampiress started to quickly inspect the witcher looks. "A witcher by the looks of it; Sisters quickly, kill this interloper so I can finish the ritual, he must not be allowed to interfere with the journey". At this statement all the bruxas charged towards the witcher position.
The witcher parried and dodged the incoming attacks, but he could not waste time dealing with the bruxas, he released quickly another heat weave, not so powerful as the last one but enough to knockdown the enemies in front of him, he then jumped over their position.
"It's too late now witcher, the gateway it's almost open, and me and my sisters will finally be rid off from your bothersome kind" stated the main vampiress with a triumphant look.
The witcher pull out one of his throwing knifes in midair and tossed it in the vampiress direction, the knife hit the crystal in full and knocked it out from, the vampiress hands.
The crystal hit the ground, and a pulsating energy started to accumulate within it, the crystal released a blinding light that covered all the corners of the temple atrium.
It took a while for the light to dissipate and when it did it, the crystal was nowhere to be seen.
"……..No, Noooooooo, it can't be; this was supposed to be the salvation of our race" scream the vampiress, falling in her knees.
"….mmmph… such a pity, I could have obtain a nice bit of coin for selling that trinket" said the witcher with a smug expression.
"You, it's all your fault, because of you we are now condemned to extinction; we shall rip your flesh, break your bones and suck the marrow out of them" spat the vampiress, with rage in her face.
"ohh, too bad and just when I was to say that we should spend some time to know each other better and become friends" stated the witcher sarcastically.
"AAAAAAARGHH; I've had enough of you, sisters make him pay dearly"
The witcher raised his sword and prepared himself for the battle ahead, but before the very enraged bruxas managed to get any closer to him, another flash of light appeared where the crystal had been; a strange tear of light appeared from the flash and started to suck anything within its vicinity.
It started to attract the bruxas and the witcher within; The witcher tried to avoid get sucked by holding himself from a nearby pillar; despise his best efforts to hold; the witcher eventually could no longer maintain his hold an was sucked inside the tear.
The last thing he saw was being surrounded by light from all sides, and then everything turned into darkness and cold…….. And the scent of snow.
Nevertheless he had managed to save the villages that surrounded the Dragon Mountains, the villagers will tell tales, about the brave warrior who had to sacrifice his own life to end the vampire menace, eventually in time the story become legend and slowly started to be forgotten.
But the witcher had not perished, he had managed to survive the tear and found himself in a strange land full of marvels and perils.
But that's another story, for another time.
Note: pheww, finally I ended the prologue I think I overdid it a little, I get carried away with the writing hope it doesn't bother any of you, ohhh where does the witcher will end up arriving?. that's for me to know and for you to find out, it is a surprise after all; the witcher will give quite the impression to the people of azeroth, and what about the Bruxas did they survived the tear too?;… well yes they are undead, it's not like it will be harmful for their health the travel between worlds, woe for the denizens of azeroth to be exposed against a deadly new enemy. It's not like they had their own problems or something like that, right?
Here's a little quiz for all of ya, the idea and history of the crystal came from 3 different sources; can you discover each one of them? (don't know why i bother, one is so obvious).