Diablo fan-fiction
This is piece of Diablo fan-fiction I wrote about 7 years ago. Thought I'd share it with you folks. It was written before Diablo 3 rewrote much of the backstory, but I'm kinda happy to see they went in the same direction with Adria that I thought they would.
After many nights without sleep and wandering trough the darkness haunted by nightmares it will all be finally over. Soon I will put this cursed town behind me, and never have to lay eyes on it again. I came here searching for answers and I found more than I had ever dreamed, wanted or ever dared to know. But soon it will not matter, it will be over.
For a long time now, all my attempts to sleep were interrupted by a dream, a nightmare of a burning sight within the earth. I did not know what it was, but it frightened me greatly. After some time I could not even close my eyes without seeing it, it was breaking my will, turning me into something less than a man. I sought help from a traveling witch that passed trough the village, she gave me a potion, she said it would put me into a deep sleep, but that's not what I wanted.
“Have no fear.”, she said. “It is your fear that feeds it, look upon it and never let it frighten you.”
I did as she asked me. I drank the potion and for the first time in days I slept. No dream, no nightmare, I remember nothing about what what happened after drinking the strange liquid the witch had made. When I awoke I was no longer in my bed, I was no longer in my village, I was on the road carrying a walking stick, and a bag over my shoulder. The path was leading me north, I don't know why or where, but at the end I would find my answers. I walked for days resting only for a few moments, and when I tried to sleep the vision returned, but now it was different. The flame was now taking shape, I could see it clearly as it cast a light in the shape of a cross over a graveyard. Was this the place where I would find what I seek, my cure? I had no way of knowing and not much of a choice either. Eventually I reached the edge of a town, a desolate and depressing place and the few people I could see were going as far away from it as possible.
“What is this place?”, I asked a passerby.
“Tristram, the cursed seat of power of the mad king Leoric.”, he answered. “If you value your life and your sanity, you'd best keep away from it.”, he continued and went on.
I would have turned back and heeded his words, but the name, Tristram, I had heard it before. The visions, they whispered it to me, but the images terrified me so that I was deaf to the words. Now I remember them:
“Come.”, they say. “Come to Tristram, come to me.”
I remember not the voice, there was no voice, only these words now burnt into my mind.
The outskirts of Tristram were a dark and disturbing place, not even the light graced it with it's presence, the clouds above were so thick that I could swear it was night, but I know I could only be mid day. All around me were abandoned homes, some of them burned, others broken to pieces. Corpses lay rotting inside them, or were hanging from trees. This was all the doing of the mad king, such unspeakable acts of cruelty, and this from the man whom I had heard of to be fair and just years ago. “What would drive him to do this?”, I said out loud.
“His son went missing, his archbishop too, and heaven knows what else happened to him.”, a man said as he approached. He was fairly tall, bald, with a beard and had arms that looked like they were made for moving mountains. He said his name was Griswold, the local blacksmith, the last one in Tristram. He was returning from a meeting with a buyers from outside of town, apparently they were afraid to come in, so he dealt with their caravan well beyond the horrors of Tristram. We walked together to what was left of the once noble town, a few houses were still standing and had light coming from withing, a tavern was next to Griswold's shop, in the middle of town was a well with and old man next to it and beyond it all, in the distance I could see a grand church, dark and lifeless.
I still wasn't sure why I was here, what called me all the way from my little village at the edge of the Twin Seas. Griswold introduced me to a man named Ogden, he owned The Rising Sun Tavern. They invited me in for a drink and we talked for hours about the town. It seemed the king was killed not long ago by one of his knights, a brave an just man named Lachdanan. The madness had ended and people were trying to rebuild what was left of their lives, only a few weeks ago did Ogden buy the tavern from the previous owner who had left Tristram. We were joined by a cheerful man named Farnham and his friends, he talked about how things will get better soon and drank to everyones good fortune. The barmaid didn't seem so enthusiastic, she said that her grandmother was having terrible nightmares recently, but all the others told her that after what had happened in the past few years, everyone in town has nightmares. She asked Ogden if she could leave early today, he allowed her to do so, and she went out along with another woman about her own age and a small child that she called Little Wirt.
After we talked about the town and it's people, my new friends were curious as to who I was and why I was here. It would seem a shame to spoil their good time with my strange tale, so I told them I was just passing trough town on my way the monastery of the Sisters of the Sightless Eye, I had always wanted to visit it.
“Then you'd best be careful around those rogues, they can kill you with more than just an arrow if you know what I'm saying.” Farnham said laughing.
It was getting late so I asked Ogden if he had any spare rooms, he did indeed and showed me to it. He said that the previous occupant left in a hurry, he was a magician , he also seemed to have forgotten something, under one of the corners of the bed was a strange looking cap, Ogden took it in case he returned for it. I payed him for the room, it was good that during my trance state I had the mind to take money with me. I lay down on the bed and hoped to get some sleep, but I couldn't. No visions this time, no words, nothing, but still I could not sleep. I stayed in the room all night looking around, out the window I could see the church, and for some reason, I could swear that something was inside it now. It could have been just my imagination and the fact that I have not slept in days, but something was moving inside and then, a red glow appeared. It wasn't very strong, but out of the church's window it cast a shape on the ground, a red cross, and by coincidence it was in the town graveyard. This is what I had seen in my vision, this is what called me here. Maybe in there I could find some answers.
In the morning I asked around about the church, not long ago it was a cathedral of Zakarum and before that no one can seem to remember, it was here long before anyone was born. Not even the village storyteller, a very old and wise man, seems to remember how long ago it was built. This was the place from where Leoric ruled, this is where he and his people lived after they came to Tristram, this is the place from which he ordered the murder of so many people, and this was were he died cursing everyone around him. I decided not to rush into it, but to wait until I could be sure it was safe. Griswold said he used to go there all the time delivering armor and weapons for the knights, Leoric rewarded him greatly and praised his craftsmanship, but things changed and there was no more praise, only orders given with a threatening tone. Some said there were catacombs beneath the church leading to an old system of caves, but none had ventured there, no one remembered the way down, and now they really didn't care or were to afraid. I would have to sum up the courage to go down there myself, but I decided to wait for a while longer. Later that day I was stopped by the barmaid, she was asking me if I had seen the little boy from yesterday. He had disappeared sometime last night, his mother was worried to death looking for him and crying her eyes out. I could give her no help, but I promised I would let her know if I see him. I got to meet the local healer, a man named Pepin, I asked him if he had any cures for not being able to sleep.
“A good meal and a warm bed would be my wager, I can heal the sick, mend bones and treat wounds, but I can't make people fall asleep. But I may have something to help you, a concoction of herbs I use to calm my patients.”, said Pepin.
“No, thank you, but no. I tried something like that once, but it didn't work out well.”, I said.
As I walked trough town, it seemed that little boy was not the only one missing, other people were asking about their children. Some say it had something to do with the light that was in the church the other night, but hey were to afraid to go in. Others told about dark riders around the countryside, no one knew for sure.
It was getting close to sunset again, at least I thought it was, I could barely tell what time it was in the gloom anymore. The town was in a permanent twilight, everywhere I went people had lights burning no matter the time of day, they were used to it by now, but it confused me very much. Griswold was going to the tavern and asked me to join him again, but as we were going he stopped looking towards the church. A man was running from it, Griswold looked as if he'd seen a ghost.
“Lazarus?”, he muttered.
He called everyone around to greet this Lazarus.
“People, hear me.”, Lazarus cried.
A crowd of people formed around him, all of them were whispering and asking him where had he been.
“People, hear me. The prince is in danger, your children are in danger.”, he said. At that point Little Wirt's mother burst into tears. Everyone asked where the children were and who took them.
“Demons.”, he cried. “Demons and vile creatures have taken over the church, they have taken your children, they have our prince captive, they even held me captive. I escaped, but the children are still there.”, Lazarus continued.
The crowd was dead silent, Wirt's mother had fainted. After a few moments the people were talking about running as far away from Tristram as possible, but Lazarus tried to persuade them otherwise.
“Hear me people, you mustn't let the demons have the children, you must take them back. There's only a handful of them, I can't fight them alone, come with me, let us drive these creatures back to hell and take back our children.”, he cried.
I looked around and saw the people agreeing with him, they offered to go down into the depths of the church with him. Griswold and Farnham were among those people. But not all of them were so eager to go into the unknown, Pepin tried to talk the people out of it, but they wouldn't listen, and the storyteller was speechless, he just stood there and watched in awe. Lazarus had rallied the men into a frenzy, they were prepared to fight against anyone to get their children back. I wasn't paying to much attention to him in the commotion, something else caught my eye. On the other side of the river, on a tiny stretch of land where the stream forked, a wagon had appeared. I did not notice it earlier that day. A woman came out of the wagon, I had seen her before, the witch that sold me the potion days ago. She looked at me, trough the crowd I would have thought I would go unnoticed, but she looked directly at me. At that moment something just didn't feel right, I wanted to go away from here to anywhere else, but looking into here eyes I could hear a voice:
“You can not change what the stars have written ages ago.”
After that, I felt my will leaving me, all I could do was listen to Lazarus as he convinced the people into joining him. They gathered swords and axes from Griswold's shop, they took pitchforks, hammers, sickles and anything they could get their hands on. We all followed Lazarus into the church.
He led us trough a secret passage down into dungeon, he said the demons were just below us, we would get them by surprise and crush them before they knew what hit them. Spirits were high, but no one seemed to be paying attention to anything else except Lazarus. And then, as we were getting close the entrance to the lower level, behind a corner, Lazarus had disappeared. There was confusion among the men, but they heard his voice coming from down below and went in after him. He lied, there were not a handful of demons, they were dozens of them, hundreds even, they were expecting us to come, it was all a trap, and the children were the bait. Lazarus was nowhere to be seen, he had betrayed us all.
The men fought the demons as best they could, the short blue creatures were no match for the likes of Griswold, he hacked at them and they fell one by one, but soon more and more came, they drove him deeper into the labyrinth, last I saw of him he had collapsed to on knee, one of the creatures had managed to brake his leg. I don't know what happened to him after that. Farnham was crying and screaming as a big demon armed with a huge cleaver was hacking his friends, he fought all he could, but he his spirit broke, he ran away into the darkness. The rest of us were at the mercy of the vile beings, they slashed, they bit, they chopped and cut. I could hear from the depths a demonic laughter, I could see in my mind the burning sight glowing brightly, taking the shape of a terrifying figure. A great horned demon with a gem in it's forehead, it reveled in the slaughter, it fed him, it made him stronger. Eventually, the creatures got to me, a few blows were all it took. I was soon lying on my back in a pool of blood, mine and that of the men who were bleeding with me.
I know now what called me here, the demon, fate, death. I know why I was called here, to die at the hand of these beasts, to feed his growing power. I wonder what would have happened if I had stayed at home, if I had never come here, but there is no point to that. I really did not have a choice, this was my destiny. Who am I in the eyes of the universe if not a worthless insect, a twig meant to feed a raging fire, a sacrifice to a creature so old that it has seen the face of time.
I can see the large demon coming near me now, it has put aside it's cleaver. It's picking me up and taking me with it. I don't know what will happen, but it will be over soon.