SWEETSPEARGIRL RETURNS

Chapter 12
Assault On The Burning Hells

Cast of Characters
- SweetSpearGirl, Jabazon Beyond Compare
- Euyfura, the Mighty Merc
- Izual
- HeyFatso the Arser
- Diablo, the Lord of Terror

TAKE HEED AND BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUTHS THAT LIE HEREIN, FOR THEY ARE THE LAST LEGACY OF THE HORADRIM...

After a well-deserved rest, their bedrolls spread out on the chill marble floor of the Pandemonium Fortress, SweetSpearGirl and Euyfura prepared to venture into Hell. SweetSpearGirl set up a Decoy outside the gate and soon attracted a pair of Flesh Spawners and their young, as well as a solitary Doom Caster. Despite the way down to the Plains of Despair being very near the Fortress gates, they declined the invitation in favour of clearing the Outer Steppes. As SweetSpearGirl said, "I need the experience!"

Back and forth they ranged, slaughtering packs of Doom Knights and other beasties. The experience gain was negligible, sady, and SweetSpearGirl soon decided to move on.

"Let's blow this gaff," she said. "There's bugger-all room in my backpack, I can't even amass enough gold to pay for repairs, and I need to level up fast!"

"You'll get no argument from me, boss!" Euyfura said as they fought their way back towards the steps downwards. Near them, they finally encountered a boss - the only one of the area, Devil Call the Shade (flesh spawner; fire enchanted).

"Does he really call the Devil?" Euyfura mused as she shot him.

"He'd better not! I'm not ready to fight Diablo yet!" was the reply.

At the entrance to the Plains they encountered another Flesh Spawner boss, Bone Brow (teleportation), whose minions and their spawn clustered thickly at the base of the stairs and took a few minutes to be separated and destroyed. "Onward and downward," muttered SweetSpearGirl. "I hear this Izual fellow has quite a wallop..."

"You're so optimistic," Euyfura snarked.

More Flesh Spawners and Doom Knights were joined by Burning Souls, whose lightning attacks were painful but not particularly dangerous, and whose mana-draining abilities were plain annoying. Izual appeared, flanked by a quintet of Doom Knights, and chilled SweetSpearGirl badly before she pulled out through a town portal.

"We need a strategy," she said.

"I need a new bow," Euyfura griped.

"Here, have this one," SweetSpearGirl said, tossing the Rogue a Long War Bow of Fire. "OK, so you lose life steal, but it does give you a nice damage boost."

"Cool," Euyfura said with a grin. "NOW we need a strategy."

"Well, all I can think of is, spam Decoy and hit him hard till he dies!"

"That works."

So that was exactly what they did. And before long, Izual's spirit was drifting off on the winds. And Tyrael was granting SweetSpearGirl two skill points which she plugged into Decoy (it being a very useful skill).

They fought their way around the edge of the Plains, battling badly-behaved beasties every step of the way, until they reached the next set of stairs down, into the City of the Damned. Cautiously inching their way around the edge, they encountered - oddly enough - Damned, backed up by Maw Fiends (who spat corpses in jelly-like masses, which prompted an 'Ick!' from Euyfura). Though they hit hard and hurt, they went down easy, and our intrepid duo pressed on. They found the waypoint and, seeing no reason to delay, headed down into the River of Flame. This was home to Grotesques (cousins of the Flesh Spawners), as well as a boss pack of Venom Lords led by Black Snarl (cursed), whose fiery inferno attack hurt as SweetSpearGirl's resists - quite frankly - sucked.

Along an arm of the River, Euyfura teased out a big fat bastard - Hephasto the Armourer - who despite giving SweetSpearGirl a hefty wallop with his Malus, was soon kissing tarmac. They discovered a pack of Abyss Knights and a couple of Stranglers had been paying HeyFatso a social call, and there were so many Grotesques clustered around the Hellforge itself that our heroes had to make a strategic withdrawal. Suitably refreshed and fortified in town, they returned and beat the living daylights out of their foes, thanks in part to an Armour Shrine nearby. SweetSpearGirl placed Mephisto's soulstone on the anvil and with one sound blow from HeyFatso's Malus, shattered it. And that - aside from picking up the gems - was that.

Back to the fight. Stranglers and Abyss Knights menaced them, cold projectiles flying through the air; Grotesques spawning their Wyrms everywhere. SweetSpearGirl and Euyfura fought furiously. The Rogue levelled to 26 during one of the frays, SweetSpearGirl finding herself a good deal closer to 27 and wishing it'd hurry up! Several times they had to retreat for healing and the like before returning to the fray, but return they always did to wreak vengeance upon Hell's legions.

Finally, there lay the waypoint. Twinkling back to town for healing and repairs, SweetSpearGirl turned to Euyfura. "I suppose you want a break now?"

"Just for a few. I think we both want to see Diablo sent back to Hell for good!"

"Nice one Rogue," SweetSpearGirl grinned.

On they went, casting Decoys and slaughtering enemies wherever they found them. A three-socketed Short War Bow dropped, which SweetSpearGirl plugged a flawless skull, standard ruby and sapphire into for Euyfura. "There you go. Life leech back again."

"w00t," Euyfura grinned.

By now they had reached the gate of the Chaos Sanctuary. SweetSpearGirl threw up another Decoy to distract the Oblivion Knights, while she and Euyfura took out their Doom Knight buddies. Someone cast Amp Damage but that didn't matter much. A boss pack of Venom Lords led by Bone First the Mad (fire enchanted) awaited them just inside; he dropped a Berserker's Hauberk which sold for a decent sum, giving SweetSpearGirl enough money for repairs and some more pots.

More Venom Lords and Doom Knights approached, led by four Oblivion Knights lobbing fire and poison missiles. Someone cast Iron Maiden and SweetSpearGirl stood well back until one of the others cast something else. Storm Casters followed, doing their annoying mana-draining trick, but were little more than a hindrance otherwise. A Venom Lord dropped a gold broad axe which identified as Goreshovel, but for obvious reasons it was useless except as an extra bit of money for repairs.

The enemies became more numerous and troublesome as they worked their way deeper into the Sanctuary. Oblivion Knights became more and more of a pain in the butt; as Euyfura remarked, "Buggers."

Finally, halfway through a pack of Doom Knights, SweetSpearGirl levelled to 27! She immediately grabbed her Tannr Gorerod, and prepared to set about her foes with her new-found power...

Given the situation, it was inevitable that an Iron Maiden curse would eventually catch her in the middle of a Jab cycle. This it did - and a corpse-recovery run followed.

"This sucks," she grumbled, resurrecting the Rogue. "Bastards!"

She noticed that she could, however, equip her new +1 to skills+3 to minimum damage+17 to life amulet. OK, the loss of resists wasn't good - but she hoped like hell she could make that up somewhere else. The intrepid duo battled their way through a huge pack of Knights to activate the first Seal.

Lord de Seis (extra strong, fanaticism aura) appeared down the passageway, but for all his apparent strength, he was defenceless once his minions were lured out of aura range. He got off a Life Tap curse but went down before he could make anything of it. SweetSpearGirl and Euyfura grinned at each other and moved on.

Next up - the Grand Vizier of Chaos (extra strong, fire enchanted). Almost as much of a wuss, especially when separated from his minions! Considering the only real trouble SweetSpearGirl was having now, was with the Oblivion Knights, she was wondering now if it wasn't all becoming too easy - and how mean Diablo himself would be...

Another arm, another pack of OKies and Venom Lords. SweetSpearGirl snagged a combat shrine but since she got cursed straight away after, it wasn't much use! Working their way downwards, triggering another Seal, and then there was the last one. SweetSpearGirl trggered it and out popped the Infector of Souls (extra fast, and something else she didn't catch at the time). His minions surrounded her and Euyfura, breathing fire all over them, and they only survived by portalling out pretty damn sharpish.

"River waypoint?" Euyfura said.

"Hell yes. No way I'm going back through that portal!"

SweetSpearGirl snagged the combat shrine again, and they were able to pull the Infector (whose other attribute was spectral hit) and a stray minion onto a Decoy. Then they drew the remaining minions out, one by one. Easy as pie.

The air acquired a red glow. The Chaos Sanctuary shook. A thunderous voice spoke.

"NOT EVEN DEATH CAN SAVE YOU FROM ME!"

SweetSpearGirl shook her head at the sheer arrogance. "Well not even my death can save YOU!" she cried, darting forward towards the huge red lizard.

And died. Without even getting a single hit in. Diablo had thrown a stream of red lightning at her, and her life had gone from 267 to 0 in less than two seconds.

She needed help.

Fortunately a generous sorceress dropped by, lending aid (and Static Field) until finally Diablo went down! He dropped Tancred's Crowbill, some other nondescript gear, and a rare helm - which had two sockets and some fire resist! SweetSpearGirl squealed and grabbed it, slapping Ort and Thul runes into it to boost her other resists.

Onward - to Harrogath!