Secluded cross meaning

[Fragbait]

Hi everyone,

Played on the b.net with Diablo vs. 1.09 for the first time lately, and while doing some shopping at Adria's to improve Midora-Lherok's gear, I discovered something I had never seen before - though I did play a lot DI a few years ago.
There is a secluded lonely cross on the peninsula that contains Adria's shack. It's situated just beneath the middle one of the four great rocks.
Now, there is already a graveyard for the village inhabitants on the right side of the church, so why did they bury one person so remotely? Was he infected by some plague, or simply a villain?
I'm interested if this has been covered before, or what your thoughts are.
A map can be found on www.claudiospage.com under Diablo1 - Graphics - Tristram in 4096x2048.

Greetings, Fragbait

[LemmingofGlory]

There is a secluded lonely cross on the peninsula that contains Adria's shack. It's situated just beneath the middle one of the four great rocks.

Now, there is already a graveyard for the village inhabitants on the right side of the church, so why did they bury one person so remotely? Was he infected by some plague, or simply a villain?

http://web.archive.org/web/20030626005844/...o/thegrave.html

-Lemmy

[dotPlaid]

Off-Topic:

http://web.arch...grave.html

Through a succession of links starting with the one above, I came across some screenshots from the D1 alpha over at Zedd's Diablo Page. I was surprised to see that the Butcher stair trap might've been developed so early in the game's development.

Cheers.
dotPlaid

//topic on

[Rhydderch Hael]

"Yup. It's deeply involved with DSF history. A few months back some people were experimenting with the hypothesis that if you drop a ring while standing in front of the grave you'll be regarded with excellent drops when you head down to play. It was hypothesized that the grave is Murphy's.

Results varied."

Guess who was the gin-addled nutter who started this particular fad... ;)

It was not an experiment— it was a heathen religious ritual. Thou must appease the Murphy Generator with a sacrifice!

And, for the record, I believe it was Occhi who tabled the Mooita Theory.

[LemmingofGlory]

And, for the record, I believe it was Occhi who tabled the Mooita Theory.

My memory can be fuzzy at times, but I'm pretty sure I never stole one of Occhi's characters and wrote her into one of my own D1 stories. Mooita showed up in ItzaiBitzai's tale, which I posted to the Asylum, sometime between Jan '00 and Feb '00.

-Lemmy

[Rhydderch Hael]

My memory is the fuzzy one, then. My apologies.

The ring sacrifice to the Murphy God, on the other hand, doesn't really work unless you cite (and chat) the words of power neccessary to de-activate the cruelty of the Murphy Generator...

You nasty thing, from beyond the dead.
No matter what you think or do,
Good things will never come to you!
And if Evil is your black design,
You can bet the goodness of the Light Ones
Will kick your bad behind!

[Fragbait]

Hi!

Alright, alright... :)

I was more thinking along the lines of a story like this:


It all had happened half a century ago. A small girl had gone into a deep forest to collect mushrooms for dinner, then had lost the path and hadn't been able to find back. Instead, she had ventured deeper and deeper into the uncanny woods. Suddenly she had heard strange noises and had seen fuzzy lights all over a certain glade she had just entered: The 'witches of the ghost forest'™ had appeared, and they were more than pleased by the little girl and her stunning courage. She hadn't even attempted to scream or run away, she had just interestedly watched the spectacle.
The witches began to scan her mental abilities and sure they were surprised: that was one talented girl that they had found there! After shortly discussing what to do, they had decided to take the girl to them and make her a fully trained witch.
They had asked the girl what her name was, and the reply had been a quite confident 'Adria'.

15 Years later, Adria must have been in her early twenties, an incident happened that changed her happy witch life completely. It came to be that one beautiful summer day, a young man came into the forest searching herbs for his master. He was trained to be a healer, and was very talented. Adria saw this young man, and she felt things she had never felt before - a new sensation was burning in her heart. She couldn't take her eyes of the young man and stepped in front of him. The young man, who's name was Pepin, was quite scared and frightened because he hadn't heard her coming, but quickly noticed her friendly smile and her pretty face and beautiful body. He had never seen a women like this, and sure enough he felt the flame of desire burning in his heart. The two of them fell in love, and nature took its way. After a sweet and promising night, Pepin fell asleep. Adria however realized that this relationship couldn't survive without the blessing of her older sisters. So she left the place to tell them.

The witches were outraged, for none of them had ever done such an outrageous thing after they had been conversed. They argued with Adria to 'make the baby away' as they called it, but Adria wouldn't want to hear, and wanted to keep whatever the fruit of this night would be. The witches threatened to excommunicate her from their secret order, but Adria didn't bother. She even openly talked about leaving the sisters herself. That made the elder witches really mad, after all they had put many years and a lot of patience in training and educating Adria, and they had learned to love her. Hearing her say that really hurt them, and they swore to her that if she did so, she didn't even ever have to want to come back, because then the ways of the order would stay closed for her. Adria went away, she wanted to search the young love of her life. The witches cursed her and her unborn child. Because they couldn't take her powers from her, they put a hex on her child. As soon as it was born, they said, it wouldl suffer a strange desease and would die within one year.

Adria didn't know about that, for she had already left the sisters, and started her search for Pepin. After months of travelling and asking people where he could be found, she came to a small village called Tristram. She was highly pregnant by now, and needed professional help to give birth to her child. the town people brought her to the healer, and guess who - it was Pepin. The young man had just taken over the position in the village, and was at least as surprised to see Adria than she was to see him. After she broke the message that she was having his baby to him, he was overwhelmed and felt great happiness. The birth took place without intricacies, Adria gave birth to a young boy they wanted to name Seshua, and the couple wanted to marry. But soon their luck was blurred: the child wasn't in good health. It was getting worse and worse from day to day, and Pepin tried his best to cure whatever the poor kid had. To no avail - the child was already on the verge of dying. Adria and Pepin argued over it every day, she believed that he didn't do his best and wanted to let her baby die - the relationship was put on a hard test. When the child finally died, Adria ran away from Pepin, crying and asking why she had such bad luck.

She remembered what powers she possessed and decided to build a shack just on the other side of the river. She wanted to stay in the proximity to take revenge on Pepin and the whole village. Pepin couldn't stand the fact that she left him and the dead child behind, and decided to burry the child. But the village wouldn't let him burry the child in the graveyard, for some already claimed that Adria was a witch. He decided to go to her and burry Seshua near the shack that his former love had built. Adria watched what he was doing, and saw that tears were running down his cheeks. She thought it over and still couldn't find the reason why the boy had died so quickly. Then she had an idea: didn't the witches say something about a hex before she left them? She needed to know if this could be the reason. She went over to Pepin and told him of it. He wouldn't believe her - she actually was a witch? But then again, he said, he and she were in perfect health, he couldn't explain the tragic death of the boy otherways. They decided to stop the conflict between them, but they both knew that nothing was like it had been before.

They both stayed were they were, Pepin in the town and Adria down at the river. Adria swore that from now on, she would use her powers for good, and help the people rather than cause agony as her former sister had caused. So it came to be that she decided to fight against the great evil that moved in town some 30 years later. Both Pepin and Adria decided to help the hero that lately moved into town the best they could to defeat the evil that had been lurking beneath the cathedral for the last years now.



How's this? :)


Greetings, Fragbait

[Harlequin]

It's designed to give people something to talk about, like the Bnet gem and the non-existent Diablo cow level.

[malach_cha_movis]

Hi!

Alright, alright...

I was more thinking along the lines of a story like this:

It was great as far as it goes, but:
1. What happens to Pepin and Adria after Diablo flees from Tristram in the body of our hero?
2. And Seshua, the child born of such powerful parents, did it really die? Or it's spirit hanging around waiting to infuse itself into an
appropriate body, becoming a great hero, a terrible villian, or a little of both?
3. What, if any, is the meaning and significance of the the name Seshua?

Please don't leave us in suspense. Enquiring minds want to know!

Malach_cha_Movis
:unsure: And that's what I think! I think?

[Fragbait]

"The witches were of course pursuing the course of events, as they were still interested in the fate of Adria. They saw that they had ruined the love of Pepin and Adria, and they already began to regret that they had doomed the innocent child to such an early death. They decided, if they could not save the child anymore, they would at least preserve its soul, and arrange for it to be reborn in a strong body. A hero, that would have made Adria and Pepin proud, they thought. And so it came to be, that 1 year after Seshua died, Guerdon was born. The witches instilled Seshuas soul in the baby, it was so strong it was clearly born for something greater. They always kept an eye on Guerdon's childhood, and noticed with great pleasure that the boy quickly developed a great magnificence in the art of fighting. He was a born warrior, and made his foster parents proud.

As years went by, the witches dithered how to make Guerdon meet his real parents, and they couldn't find a solution. He was already too strong in mind, and impossible to get bewitched. Of course the old sisters, too, had felt the impact of the destruction of Diablo's prison, and the freeing of the Lord of Terror. They noticed that heros all over Sanctuario were talking going down to Tristram soon over, and decided to communicate this idea to Guerdon in his dreams. The young warrior (he must have been in his late 20ies/ early 30ies) woke up and suddenly knew that he would venture to Tristram to fight the unbelievable evil that had awoke there. To the dismay of the townspeople of his village who were very proud of him, he packed his bags, his shining armor and his noble sword and left, bound for the town were his real parents still lived.

The day he arrived at the execrated village was a very special one. Every resident wanted to see the new hero, Pepin as well as Adria. Although she could sense something anamolous, she couldn't specify her feelings. She and Pepin had not had spoken too much in a while, both of them wanting to leave the events behind. None of them, and above all not Guerdon, had an idea about the blood relationship between them. All he knew was that this place immediately seemed familiar to him, though he had never been there before. 'Well' he might have thought, 'Home is where the heart is.'. And he embosomed the village of Tristram. As he started to raid the dungeons of monsters, Adria realized that she was worried about his safety. She asked Pepin to perform his very best on the injuries that Guerdon might have to suffer. Pepin protested that he would of course do everything in his power, just like he did to every wounded townsman. He asked her what was up with Guerdon, but she had no clear answer for him. But she was beginning to suspect an obscure relation to Seshua by-and-by.

Then came the final day, when Guerdon announced that he had advanced into the very heart of the labyrinth that was spreading underneath the church in the meantime. He claimed to go forth and battle the Dark Lord himself, solitary and without backing. The whole village stood still in awe as he descended into the dungeons, only Adria stretched her arm and quietly moaned: 'No...'.
He didn't come back that very special day. Nor did he on the next. On the early morning of the third day, the townspeople awoke from a grinding and rattling sound on the path from the church to the townsquare. As the lights went on, they saw Guerdon trudging towards the fountain. He was heavily injured, bleeding through what seemed to be every penning of his plate. Also he had some strange red gemstone or something stuck to his forehead. They quickly transported him to the healer and alerted Adria.

Pepin tried his best to heal his wounds, and Adria tried to conjure him or the evil that had bed inside his heart. After a week, he could already walk properly, and several days later, a great feast was hold in his honor. Mentally however, he did not yet seem to be quite well. He ate and drunk, but wasn't up to telling the story of how he defeated the prime evil, or what depressed him. Adria sensed that the gemstone might have something to do with it, and asked Pepin to remove it, but when Pepin tried to talk to Guerdon about it, he seemed to get agitated and wouldn't let Pepin do it. Pepin and Adria sought to speak to him alone, but all they found out was that he simply had not been able to resist the urge to drive the stone against his forehead, and that from then on, many things had changed. Guerdon was also telling them that he now seemed to remember things he had never remembered before - blurry images of Tristram, like he was there before, and he remembered Pepin and Adria when they were younger. Adria and Pepin looked at each other, but didn't say a word. Guerdon presumed that some new force revealed darker corners of his memory, that had long been forgotten, then he was quiet. He didn't say a word from then on.

On the same day he left, carrying all his things on his back although he was still kind of weak. His direction seemed to be the far east, as far as that can be told by the little distance that some townspeople, especially Pepin and Adria travelled with him. Adria left him last, not without mumbling a few words that could be interpreted as 'take care, my son...'. She cried all the way home to her shack. Pepin tried to persuade her to come back to him, and eventually, she would. The townspeople had learned to accept her as what she was, and there were no frictions.
The town never saw its hero again, although from time to time, dreadful stories from the deserts of the far east were reported by caravans that passed by."

You asked for it - now live with it. :)

Greetings, Fragbait

[Selby]

If you are really interested, you should check out the alpha and check out the area near the witch's hut over the wall. It's a bit different from the release version. Just what is up there is an exercise left to the reader ;-)

[malach_cha_movis]

Boy, did I ever! GAG :blink:

[Hjuki]

" . . . you should check out the alpha and check out the area near the witch's hut over the wall.  . . . "

if one were curious and wanted to try the alpha, do you know how one could find it?

or barring that -

could someone post a screen shot of the mystery over the wall from adria's shack?
i'm intrigued.

[Selby]

There were two locations about 5 years ago that still had it for download. Most don't anymore since it was 50MB. I'm in the middle of relocating to the left coast so all of my stuff is in storage and I am on AOhelL dialup until August 15th otherwise I'd help you out. You basically need a memory editor, a hex editor, and the desire to experiment to figure it out (took me a few hours when I was messing around with it last time).