Diablo 3: Hell's Eclipse

With Maghda's death the group returned to their hidden camp and found that the others, as in Valla and her friends, were out, as they were no doubt helping people while Luna's group dealt with their main objectives, though Tyrael was present, hence why Luna approached him.

"Maghda and her Coven have been destroyed, but she told us that Adria is alive and is somewhere in Caldeum." Luna said, something that caused Tyrael to raise an eyebrow for a moment as the others joined them, as it was clear that he wasn't too sure what to make of this information, especially after everything that Leah had told him on the way to their camp, "If she really is fighting the forces of Hell, as we've been told, would it be worth devoting time to tracking her down?"

"Hm, it might. I have no idea what she's been up to, other than what we've been told, but it would seem that the Imperial Guards are interested in her as well." Tyrael replied, where the group glanced at each other for a few seconds, because that meant either Belial knew of Adria's presence and was hunting her or the Emperor wanted to capture her on his own, or both parties were eager to get their hands on the lady, "Maybe we can convince the Emperor to aid us in tracking Adria down, on the pretense that we're dealing with a threat to the city... we can bring her here, once we've found her. Leah, what do you think?"

"Honestly? I don't know what to think... I don't know her, after all, save for the fact that she's my mother." Leah remarked, as it was easy to understand why she was lost on this fact, as her mother had abandoned her at a very young age and she had no idea if she wanted to waste time on hunting Adria down, before she sighed as she came to a decision, "But... we should try to find her. If she really has devoted her life to battling the forces of Hell, she might know of a way to help us bring down the last two Lords of Hell and end the threat of the Evils once and for all."

Luna nodded, even though she really didn't like the idea of working with someone who tossed aside her own child, because it told her that Adria hadn't been ready for such a thing and that lack of commitment really rubbed her the wrong way, so if they did find the lady she wasn't going to trust or like her for a time. Tyrael decided to remain in the camp, going over what they knew, while the group headed back into Caldeum so they could try to get an audience with the Emperor of the city, only to find that there were people struggling to survive and some were complaining about being robbed. It was like something was happening in the city and that meant Valla's group would be busy for some time, which was why they focused on the Captain of the Iron Wolves, Asheara, who was talking with the Captain of the Guard. Luna decided to tell the lady that they were here to assist the Emperor and that there was a good chance that Maghda might have sent someone to deal with the Emperor, which wouldn't be surprising, and it was their good deeds that convinced her to aid them.

With that in mind they walked through some impressive iron doors, headed down what appeared to be a path outside the palace, and came to an area that seemed to be like an audience chamber that was exposed to the open area, with an area for them to stand on and an area for the Emperor to stand on.

"So, you are as bold as the stories claim." a voice said, which turned out to be a young kid that seemed ill suited to being the Emperor of an area city, much less the entire region that he was actually in control of, and Luna felt that there was more to this than what they were seeing, even though he dressed in dark green robes, "But, ultimately, you are foolish for seeking this audience with me, since my guards have already delivered unsettling tales and eye witness accounts of you slaughtering the innocent people of Alcarnus. And don't try to claim that you are innocent, not when you have a spy in my sewers. Now, I will leave this matter in the hands of my guards... I detest violence."

Sure enough the group found that the guards attacked them the moment the Emperor was no longer in the area, quickly turning into serpent demons who attacked everyone, causing Luna to hack and slash her way through her targets, Leah used magic to blast her foes, and their friends tore down their demonic foes. Asheara did stab one demon in the chest while she understood that the heroes were telling the truth, if demons were this close to the Emperor that meant there was no telling when they'd attack him, causing them to leave the audience chamber. Such a thing meant they had to retrace their steps so they could return to the main portion of the city, but that was when more reinforcements showed up, Imperial Guards that transformed into serpent demons, confirming that the entire guard was infested. That didn't stop Luna from leading the charge against their enemies, cutting down the demons that dared to stand in their way, but being out in the open did allow Leah to use her bow again as she powered down her elemental arrows to avoid wrecking the city or palace.

"We need to head into the sewer, since that's where Adria seems to be." Leah remarked, causing Luna to nod as they cut down the rest of the demons and pushed themselves back into the main city, where they made sure to be presentable while Asheara focused on how she was going to save the Emperor from all of the demons that were around him.

Luna weaved a spell around them and everyone vanished from the eyes of the people of the city, allowing them to reach the nearby sewer lid without being seen, thus allowing everyone to head down into the sewer without delay, where they found a bunch of the swarm insects and feral beasts that looked like they were poisonous. Such a thing made Luna wonder just how many deadly creatures were in this world, as there seemed far too many in her eyes and made her curious about the rest of the provinces of Sanctuary, but she focused on cutting down the foes that came at her. Leah focused on manipulating the bits of sewer water into water arrows, which seemed rather strong when Luna saw them, though at the same time she could see that having to maintain them was difficult, something Leah seemed okay with. There were even serpent demons down in the sewers as well, which told everyone that they were on the right track since Belial's servants had to have Adria down here, and it wasn't long before they found an opening that had screams coming from it.

That was followed by them discovering an area that had a few serpent demons inside it, though one was in the middle of torturing a red robed woman with a staff, who had to be Adria since she was still down in the sewers, and none of their foes seemed to realize that they had entered the area.

"Tell us about the Black Soulstone, witch! We know of the ones that imprisoned the Greater Evils, but what does this 'Black' Soulstone do?" the main serpent demon asked, where it shocked Adria with lightning, light enough to avoid doing any sort of lasting damage but potent enough to be incredibly convincing, and based on the fact that Adria was resisting him it seemed like the demons weren't making any progress.

Leah, as it turned out, moved to act before anyone else as she created water arrows with her magic and released them at all of the serpent demons, hitting all seven of them before even a single one realized that the group was present, and the one that was tormenting her mother was struck in the head, releasing Adria as she stared at Leah with shock on her face.

"Leah... I can't believe my eyes... you... you used magic." Adria said, though this told Luna something important, Adria must have kept taps on Leah over the years for her to be able to recognize her daughter so quickly, while at the same time she seemed surprised that her child was capable of using magic, despite the fact that Adria, herself, was a witch, before she let out a cough as she stood up, "I'm sorry for not contacting you over the years, even though I was watching from time to time, but I did so because I didn't want the dark forces we are up against to use you against me... though honestly I wasn't expecting us to meet up like this, or that you would have such interesting company."

"Adria... mother... this is Luna, my... close friend... and our friends." Leah stated, where it was easy to tell that Leah wasn't too sure what to say right now, especially given the closeness that she and Luna felt for each other, so she was going at simple things right now, but she did glance at Luna, who nodded and opened a portal back to their hidden camp, "Come, we can talk more at our camp."

Adria nodded and followed them through the portal, allowing her to see the camp on the other side after she entered it, as she could see everyone that was doing their own thing while they appeared nearby, while Tyrael moved away from the map he had been studying to approach the group.

"Adria, there is something you should know: Uncle Deckard has passed, but I have taken on his work." Leah stated, which was the truth, she was going to complete Cain's work so no one else would have to worry about the Lords of Hell, and had to hope that taking them out would stop Hell from invading Sanctuary, enough to give them some peace, "We know that one of the remaining Lords of Hell is here, in Caldeum, but you already know that since you were caught searching for Belial... none of us have figured out where Azmodan is hiding, but Tyrael is working on that. Now, those demons mentioned the Black Soulstone, but uncle's tome has only a few references to it... what does it do?"

"The dark mage Zoltun Kulle made it to hold the souls of demons, but unlike the other soulstones this one was designed to hold multiple souls at once." Adria replied, which caused Tyrael to raise an eyebrow for a moment as he heard that, which told them that there was either some truth to the tale or he was interested in what the witch had discovered during her time away from Leah, "If we can claim the Black Soulstone, and imprison the last two Lords of Hell inside it, we can then destroy it in a safe place that would remove the threat of the Lords of Hell, forever... while I was searching for Belial I uncovered a few bits of paper from a Horadrim tome, indicating that Kulle's head was buried somewhere in the Dahlgur Oasis."

"So we've got to track down the head of the Dark Horadrim, no doubt use magic to revive it, and then ask him for help in tracking down this Black Soulstone." Luna commented, thinking about it for a moment, as she had read parts of the tome that Leah kept with her and knew about the figure in question, it had interested her when she found the passage about him, before she considered the rest of his tale, "He'll most like ask for a deal, no doubt to be revived, but allying with someone like him might be the key to bringing down the Lords of Hell... it's like a minor evil helping to bring down a major evil, when you think about it."

Of course Luna had to wonder about this plan, it seemed like there might be something dark hiding in plain sight, but for the time being she decided to shelve that thought as they went over the information that was being given to them, so they could be prepared for whatever the future had to throw at them.