The Death Gate Cycle: A Septavirate Tale

[Cius]

The Death Gate Cycle: A Septavirate Tale

Chapter 1: Beginnings

Haplo crouched in the bushes at the edge of the trees looking out over the open area leading to the next gate. He could see the creatures of the labyrinth lying in wait for him, intent on stopping him. The labyrinth, his people's prison, always had a plentiful supply of enemies. They could not see him yet, but as soon as he broke cover they would. His lean rune covered body was tired, his magic spent from the long battles. He had used up all of his rune enhanced weapons and was left with a crude club and a buckler. There was no safe area to rest so he knew he had to move soon or die. Coiling himself he sprang forwards hoping to take his enemies by surprise. For about two seconds no challenge was raised but then the Wolven crouching on the plain spotted him and they moved to attack him their howls calling for reinforcements. He flew at them striking them down as fast as he could with his crude weapon. There where too many of them. A sword bit deep into his left arm and another sliced over his ribs. There where only 2 left standing of the 7 that attacked him but he was weakening fast due to the loss of blood. The two remaining wolven split up to attack from either side. If he engaged one he would leave himself open to the other. His hatred for them built to a point where he could no longer stand it. Born in the labyrinth, he had seen it and its creatures murder his parents and thousands of he people. With strength born of rage he charged the one to his right crushing its skull with a single blow. The other one lunged and he saw the blade slicing towards his heart rune and there was nothing he could do about it. Suddenly a vicious growl erupted from his left and a large dog came flying out of nowhere taking the wolven from its blind side. As the two went down the wolven stabbed at the new attacker and a pain filled yelp rang out. Using the last of his strength Haplo swung his club down hitting the wolven at the base of his neck snapping its spine. With his rage, energy and strength spent he collapsed. A warm lethargic glow seemed to spread slowly through his body, wiping away the pain. He was too tired to heal himself. He had fought so long. It would be so easy to just slip away into peaceful oblivion. A wet tongue swiped his hand. He looked over and saw the dog, wounded, looking intently at him. It could not stand it was so badly wounded but it had crawled over. He angrily told it to get lost. Misunderstanding the dog wagged its tail set its eyes on the tree line and gamely tried to stand to go get help. Haplo sighed. Stupid dog. He painfully rolled over and took the dog's head between his hands. He closed the circle of his being and let the healing magic of his people flow through the animal and back into him. The wounds slowly closed. He would need a healing sleep to completely recover but for now he was ok. He stood and faced the gate again. The dog now also better rubbed against his side and gave a happy bark that seemed to say, "let's go!" There where after all still many gates to pass.

Class   Title     Name       Build        Lvl  Location   Best Finds
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Druid   -       Haplo       Windy+dog    10  NL-A1-WP2  
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More background: Haplo is a Patryn. In the past there where two races who could use rune magic. The Sartan and the patryn's. A war erupted between the two and the Sartan in their desperation to win sundered the world into 4 worlds to defeat their enemies. In the cataclysm that ensued they cast their ancient enemies into the labyrinth, a correction house. Over time things did not go well with the new worlds they had created and the sartan vanished. The jail keeper sartan where some of the first to disappear. Bereft of its keepers the labyrinth slowly changed, becoming deadly. Terrible creatures started roaming it killing each other and the patryns. The patryns became harder, stronger, survivors. With the sartan gone the mensch (Humans, dwarves and elves) on the 4 new worlds lived, fought, and traded among themselves without the ruling race that they viewed as demi-Gods. The patryns where forgotten in their prison. Some of them where runners. Lone individuals like Haplo who tried to get through as many gates as possible in an attempt to reach the final gate. Others where squatters, who roamed in small bands and passed gates when they could. On Chelstrea, world of water, an evil, born of the hatred between Sartan and Patryn was born and started to direct chaos, growing strong of fear, hatred and death. The Evil born was in the form of great demonic creatures.

For the purposes of my story:
The one directing a part of the labyrinth was called Andarial!

 

[Cius]

After the last gate Haplo found himself in a strange land that he had never seen before. It was once apparently a land of peace but has now been over-run by evil. The creatures here are not labyrinth creatures though. There where weak red monsters all called fallen all over and quill throwing beasts and zombie like apparitions that looked scary but are slow and weak. He found a squatter camp of woman who were thrown out of a nearby monastery. What a monastery is Haplo could not tell but it sounded like the only way forward was to defeat this andarial creature who's forces where blocking the route to the next gate. He traded some of the useful equipment he had found on the creatures for a soft useless type of metal called gold that had value for these people for some strange reason. The dog only seemed interested in the sausages in a mage ladies tent. It got its but singed with a fire spell but seemed happy with the trade and is munching on the sausages over by the fire near a traveller named Wariv, and is eying a crazy chicken as his next meal. Wariv passes through what sounds like a gate on the way to the east, but won't travel until the route is clear. These people seem like mensch. Humans to be precise as they are certainly not Sartan. They have basic magic skills casting cold, fire, and lightning attacks on their arrows. A patryn child could do better.

After finding out about a nearby "den of evil" Haplo cleared it for a reward from Akara. In return she taught him the skill of summoning a raven companion that occasionally blinds nearby monsters. This proved useful. With more gold Haplo also traded in his club and broken shield for better equipment. A strong sceptre was purchased that had runes of enhanced damage inscribed on them. This helped him kill a lot faster. The dog seemed happier as well as he didn't have to do as much of the work. After killing a nasty woman named blood raven in his search for the monastery some lady with a high opinion of herself insisted that one of her rouges accompany him. She was pretty pathetic so Haplo eventually bought her some decent leather armour, a helmet, and a socketed long bow in which he put a chipped topaz he found earlier. He inscribed runes of lightning on it to match the colour and the stones own properties and now the mensch archer is at least doing decent damage using a patryn enhanced weapon. Once he finds two more decent gems he will add to the bows power.

Akara tells us that there is a wise man called Cain held nearby. He knows much and might be able to tell us more of the gates ahead so Haplo, dog, a raven, and the mensch archer set off to free him. The chicken seems to have vanished and the dog looks happy with itself.

 

[Butzull]

Nice one Cius! I look forward to reading this and watching your progress.

I'd better find and unpack the books myself...I have the first 6 in hardback, but for whatever reason didn't/couldn't get the 7th, so I never read the final trilogy (once they have been through the first 4 elemental worlds/books, for those who don't know it).

Good luck!

Butz. :dunce:

P.S. That table looks kinda familiar! :wink2:

 

[Cius]

You must finish it! Book 7 is brilliant. None of the books are heavy going so the whole series should not take that long to finish. Oh, and thanks for the table. I did not know how to do them so I copied one from your sept thread.

Class   Title     Name       Build        Lvl  Location   Best Finds
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Druid   -       Haplo       Windy+dog    15  NL-A1-Cloister  The Gnasher
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The Rescue of Cain
A mind numbing droning sound was drilling needles into Haplo's ears. For the thousandth time Haplo considered smashing his mace into Decard Cain's mouth. Did the old man never stop yakking? He was like an old woman with a million and one stories all of which need to be told repeatedly in one night. The only useful thing about him is that he can help identify the magical items I find in this new place Haplo thought. Haplo grunted non-commitedly to a comment of Decard Cain’s that seemed to require a response and turned the small hand axe he had found today over in his hand. This weapon was different to the others. Most of the magical items he had found and traded for so far had been enhanced with mensch magic. This one was different. It seemed to be a sartan blade. The Sartan runes where clear to see. Decard Cain had recognised the weapon from a book he had once read and said it was called the gnasher. It was fairly light and by the looks of things would do less damage than my sceptre but Cain says that it deals magical blows that crush an enemies life from it. Wounds left by it also are occasionally magically inflicted to bleed more, leaving a magical wound that cannot close.

Haplo decided to carry it with him the next day when he went out to find this countess character he read of in a book somewhere. Charsi, the blacksmith of the camp had also asked him to look out for her hammer when he passed through the monastery so tomorrow was looking like a busy day. At least the red potions the mensch made seemed to work fine for healing him too. The potions where cheap to buy and could be found all over this land. They where not as effective at healing as his own magic but they did not require the healing sleep which proved usefull. He had also seen purple potion that was far more potent and rare that worked almost like Patryn magic. He was looking out for them as he still occasionaly met demons that could land blows past his armour.

The mensch archer who had proved so usefull after Haplo equiped her with the magicaly enhanced bow was enjoying practicing with her newly socketed bow. Haplo had found a blue gem earlier that he had enhanced to chill the enemies it hit. The bow now did physical, lightning, and cold damage and the effects where good. He was hoping to find a larger gem soon that he could embue with more power to increase the damage output more.

Cain had finally been distracted by the dog who had pinched some of his supper of his ignored plate. Haplo gratefully called the dog over and scratched his ear while Cain finished what was left of his supper in offended silence. A new rune construct that was easy to maintain and useful against the demons elemental attacks had been forming in Haplo's mind for some time. With a relatively low investment of magical energy Haplo could see how he could create an armour of wind that would shield him from all elemental damage. He would try the basic construct tomorrow as well he decided. The creatures of this land for the most part where easier to kill than those of the Labyrinth he knew but there where more of them so he was trying to conserve his magic. Another idea began forming in his mind of enhancing magic he could cast on the dog to increase its power. With these thoughts running through his mind he slowly drifted off to sleep. -end


As you may have guessed I am classing items yo fit into the death gate universe. Blue items are magical items made by the mensch. They would be similar to the magical elven weapons discussed in book 2. Yellow items are the advanced Mensch weapons. Uniques and set items will be sartan weapons and items left by the Sartan. This fits as uniques are often better than the rares and migical items and this reflects the telative power of sartan/patryn magic vs mensch magic.

 

[roninDOG]

Nice work Cius, I absolutely love the story thus far. Keep it up!

-rD

 

[Cius]

Sigh. I feel a bit stupid. Tuesday my screen failed. At least that was what the symptoms showed. Tried a few things. Thought of trying a different moniter but I did not have one handy. Anyways, I work from home so I desperately needed a monitor and bought a new one yesterday. Plugged it in and got the same flipping thing! Argh!!!!

After that I had a close look at the back end of my PC and noticed that I had an onboard screencard that I have never seen or used. I plugged the screen in there and it all works fine. So its my screen card that is blown. At least its still under warranty. Its 11 months old now. Due to this circus I have not had time to play this week at all. And I wasted R700 ($100) on a new monitor that I have no need of.

Dog thinks this is all very funny and wonders why I did not spend the R700 buying sausages for him.

 

[Cius]

Dungeons

Haplo hated the closed rooms. Everything in the monastery was closed. He preferred the open sky where you had space to manoeuvre. He had entered the monastery with dog, and Kyle the archer almost half an hour before. He knew from what Charsi had said that the Malus was somewhere on the ground floor. He also knew that it was guarded by the smith. The sprawling building was huge and he did not want to have to fight his way through every room. While his new weapon was doing wonders with its crushing blows and deadly wounds he would still like to get to Andarial as fast as possible.

"Well Dog, can you smell a smithy anywhere near?" The dog barked and dashed off to the left leading them deeper into the monastery.

: An hour later

Haplo threw a stone as hard as he could at the stupid mutt. It dodged nimbly to the side and carried on gnawing on the shin bone of the champion archer. Dog seemed to be grinning, although with dogs it’s hard to tell. "That's the last time you lead you stupid mutt!" Dog had smelled a juicy bone it wanted rather than a smelly smithy. The fact that the bone was part of a champion archer who had 2 friends seemed like a minor detail when he first sniffed it. The fact that his master had almost died 3 times and had used up all his healing potions on himself and the archer was also a detail. Everyone was fine, he had his bone, and now he could show Haplo where the Smith really was, 2 rooms over. It had only been a short detour anyways. Dog couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Sure the open wounds on master’s new weapon did not work on skeletons who could after all not take wounds, but all that master should have done was switch back to his sceptre and things would have been fine. He had just forgotten so Dog and the nice archer lady who scratched his ears occasionally had done most of the work.

Anyways, it was time to move on. The dog darted through the door and quickly led Haplo to the Smith who fell fast. The smith was also a liar the dog found. He said there was fresh meat there but the dog did not see any! After killing the smith they ventured deeper and deeper into the dungeons. As they entered the jail area Haplo decided to try out the magical rune construct on the dog he had been thinking about.

The area was clear but just ahead there was a small group of fallen, a good weak enemy to test things on in case something went wrong. Weaving the runes with his fingers deftly he knelt next to the dog and whispered: "Take them". As the dog leapt forward a low growl in its throat the runes expanded and wrapped themselves around him. The growl suddenly deepened as the dog began to grow. Muscles swelled, its eyes turned blood red and its speed and agility increased incredibly. The fallen did not know what hit them. Haplo stood back and watched as the dog tore through the pack with the occasional arrow to help it from Kayle.

This was definitely going to work well. The dog was now bigger, tougher, stronger, and did a lot more damage with his stronger jaws.

Haplo, Dog, and Kayle moved swiftly through the sprawling monastery and eventually came to the waypoint on level two of the catacombs. Being late they returned to town to rest and sort through the loot. The townsfolk where a little disturbed by the new appearance of the dog. After he had explained for the 4th time that it was not a dire-wolf they settled down. Still, dog did not get many pats that night. Morosely he lay down next to Haplo and watched him play with a new stone he was interested in. Haplo had found a curious object when they killed the countess. It was a small grey stone with a sartan rune on it that read Eld. The rune on it's own had little power, but Haplo had the sense that if a proper rune construct was made with others like it powerful weapons and armours could be created. Thinking about this he drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow he would face Andarial.

Comments:
Haplo is now level 19. Dog is now a level one Dire wolf. The gnasher does pitiful physical damage but the 50% open wounds and 20% CB coupled with my poison charms fells everything that can take open wounds very fast on players 8. The Merc does really good damage at this stage as well with her 3 socketed bow. As to skills I am busy pumping cyclone armour. Zero points in shape shifting. One point in Oak Sage, Raven, spirit wolves, and Dire wolf. The rest I am saving for hurricane and Tornado. I think I will go with a no dex, no energy druid. I will try for high defence though and will probably go for a defensive merc in Act 2. With no dex I can also put more into strength and equip him with Heavy armour etc. As a rune magic user I would like Haplo to use runewords as much as possible. As such I will be re-running the countess and maybe LK as often as needed. I do not bother looking for runes above Um though. That is about the highest I think can be reasonably found.

Besides maxing the 3 wind/cold skills I am not sure where I will spend the other points. It will all go into summoning but I will have to decide how to distribute the points between Oak sage, Grizzly, and dire wolf. Any suggestions would be welcome.

 

[Cius]

Hmm. Not much interest in this. Should I stop boring the SPF to death? Or perhaps just cut out the story and report progress more briefly?

Suggestions would be welcome.

Comments, questions ....... rude remarks? :grin:

The short update would be more brief like this:

Haplo is now in Act 2 having killed Andarial. Retrieved the cube and will do Radament next. Using a defensive merc and I get hit a lot less often now. The gnasher is sucking though as much of Act 2 is the undead and open wounds does not work! Need to get a better sceptre. I shopped a 2 and a 3 socketed scepter with no staff mods, and may run Countess a bit to get some runes for basic RW's like strength etc.

 

[roninDOG]

My personal advice: write for you, not for them. Whatever your creating here in this thread should be satisfying to you. I dont think that many people have read the series and you are fairly new so you dont know to many people yet either. But, if you continue writing people will start reading. It may take some time but if its fun for you there is no reason to quit or adjust. Me and Butzull will be reading, and while I wont always post, you can be assured that I will read. Im always appreciative of the people who take some time out to entertain here, as I read while I eat at work. So, in short, keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

And as far as playing goes, Ive been playing Untwinked HC for a long time. If you have any questions just ask. My personal suggests on improving your char may contradict with the vision you have in mind of what Haplo should be. I dont want to change that, because the theme of a character is important. I dont know if you were going to allow yourself to have 3 wolves or not. If so they can compete with a bear because they take up space. They will need to be recast more often because they are weaker. If you are planning on just sticking with a single companion id go for bear. A fully synergized wind druid is always best, but I guess 3 skills would be ok, but your summoning tree will suffer. Id say pick your companion set, 3 dire wolves or 1 bear. Max whichever you prefer, put 1 point in the others. +skills could help out alot on your char, and dont forget you can prebuff your casts. Ravens rule btw, in Untwinked HC. Id also ditch the gnasher for raw dmg in normal, get the biggest hurty weapon you can find. Save the gnasher or make a malice later to deal with PI using OW.

And good luck.

-rD

 

[Cius]

Thanks roninDog. Think I will just write as much as I feel comfortable with. I glanced through Butzull's thread as well and noticed that he also did not always get tons of replies so I am less worried as his still makes a great thread! As to the build Haplo will only have a single pet. I am sticking with one dire wolf till I can put a point in Grizzly. I was then going to max the wind synergies + nado and put left overs in Oak. Can a 1 pt grizzly cut it in Hell for a decent amount of time? I figered OakS would help me, the grizzly and the merc, so points there where better than ones spent in Griz.

 

[Cius]

Haplo was tired. He rested at the Kurast Docks. After fighting Andarial who had proven easier than he had thought he had traveled with Wariv to Lut Gollien, where he had hired a new assistant. After equiping him he had traveled the desert land fighting until eventualy he found himself in the tombs of the ancients. There he faced Duriel, one of the toughest challenges he had ever faced, yet he was victorious. Now he had traveled over a sea and traveled through a jungle to Kurast. Many quests later Haplo was getting stronger. His magic now did most of the killing. He used powerfull tornado's to tear his enemies apart. Dog was struggeling though and Haplo was developing another idea to make him almost bear like. Stronger, with almost impregnable skin and more damage.