BOOM!

On top of the wooden guard tower of New Tristram, a guard was about to doze off when he was awakened by a loud blast. He then looks around and notices there is smoke rising from the direction of Old Tristram.

The guard slaps his cheeks and looks again to ensure he was not dreaming.

Guard: Captain! Captain Rumford!

The guard shouts several times before a man comes out from a shack with a half filled bottle of alcohol in his hand.

Rumford: What’s with the ruckus? Do you know what time is it? Yawn!

Rumford is taking a nap without his armor on and his dream was cut off from the repeating shouts from the guard.

Guard: I am sorry, Captain but there was a loud noise and smoke is seen rising from Old Tristram!

Rumford: Loud noise and smoke? Hmm? I am forgetting something here.

It took a while for Rumford to gather his memory after being drunk.

Rumford: Oh, it must be the work of Leah and the others.

Rumford recalls his conversation with the three heroes.

Rumford: Ignore it. Our main priority is to protect New Tristram. Don’t report anymore about Old Tristram. There is enough hell for the villagers to worry about. We don’t need any more hell from our old home.

Guard: But Captain…

Rumford: Forget that godforsaken town and focus on your job. That’s an order. You understand?

Guard: ... Yes, Captain.

Rumford: Tell the boys there's no need for tonight patrol. Tell them to have fun.

Guard: Yes, Captain!

Rumford’s thoughts: Sorry, Leah. My men need time to recover. Hope you can stay alive from the mess you made. It helps to attract more monsters from New Tristram so we have fewer things to worry.

Rumford sincerely prays in his heart.

Hearing the loud noise from the path towards Adria’s hut, Valla speaks.

Valla: That was the last of my explosives. Hope the trip to your mother’s cabin is not a waste of time.

Leah: Thank you so much.

After cleaning the wretched mothers in Old Tristram, the group continues their journey when they keep meeting droves of Risen Dead, Wretched Mother and Hungry Corpses.

The group realize sooner or later they will not be able to keep up with fighting the dead and will be surrounded by them in no time.

Eucliwood’s skeletal minions are a good help but there is a limit to how long she can control them. Same goes for Valla, there is a limit to her ammunition that she might have to rely on melee weapons.

Leah comes up with the idea of making a loud noise so that the dead will be distracted and they can make their way to her mother’s hut.

Shang has no comments as he is busy stitching and bandaging up Sonya and Kharazim as they don’t wear armor. Both Johanna and Kharazim have the skills to heal but they had to save up their energy to fight the next incoming dead.

The group goes ahead with Leah’s idea and makes their way to Adria’s hut while recovering.

Upon reaching Adria’s hut, they find bodies of Tristram guards lying around after their fight to defend the evacuating villagers from the cathedral.

The group searches the bodies for the key and they are unable to find any.

Sonya: We could have use that explosion to blast open those gates.

Sonya says, swinging her axe onto the wall with anger.

Leah: The gates can handle more than one of those explosives. If it’s not for the gates, more dead could have climb over and more villagers would have died.

Leah says as she searches around.

As Leah walks over to another location to search, she steps on something that sounds hollow.

She sweeps the floor with her feet and in front of her is a trapdoor.

Leah: Over here! I found something.

Leah pulls up the handle of the trapdoor and a foul stench is released in the air.

Valla: This doesn’t bode good.

Valla says as she points at the signs of scratching on the ladder which leads down to the cellar below.

Shang: At least we have hints that will be a fight if we go down. Going prepared is better than going unprepared.

Shang: Should we start?