Enter the temple, nothing at all stationed in the tiny front room. I drew the east-facing T, which was probably not good. I've had better luck with the south-facing T. Oh well.

I take one step and some Spider Maguses emerge from the north. I'm thinking, "Good, this is good, fight these off, set a portal up in the corner, lure Sarina and crew there, come back via waypoint and RUN past everything right to the book, grab, Save and Exit!

That was the plan.

In reality, Barani walks over to the spiders, casts Inferno, that pisses off Sarina who comes ROARING out of the main chamber, huge mob of rogues in tow, and Ember takes a ride on Upschitz Creek. This is way too much, way too fast, and not even Sirian was foolhardy enough to stick this one out.

I bailed back up the stairs immediately, kindly thanked Sarina (from the safety of the outdoors) for curing me of my brainlessness, and took what was left of poor Barani back to town for healing (to my amazement he was still breathing, but for how long? He had a sliver left and was poisoned).

Well I was all geared up for a dramatic fight and I'd been denied. Consolation prize was a weekend vacation package in lovely Kurast Sewers, complete accomodations for two. I took the east entrance (it was closer to the waypoint) and didn't have to go far to run into Horrors en masse. I lured them away a bit and laid into them, but at four shots apiece I forgot how stout they are! Preserved Dead made an appearance, and then before I could locate him, some Horadrim Ancient in the darkness across the stream started resurrecting the slain and Ember got into some deep life and death problems very quickly. I had to drink off the belt more than once just to get out of there in one piece.

Rather than go back down there, something whispered to try the other entrance first. I did, it was nowhere near as crowded, and just around the first corner I found... bats! Riftwing! Yay! I actually fought the bats, then down to level two and there's an undead flayer boss down there. Yikes! I was too busy not dying to take it's picture, sorry. I don't even remember its abilities. We'll just call it "Extra Dead" and be done with it, shall we? :)

Well, all in all a VERY easy sewer draw, once I listened to the whispers of my guardian angels and went the other way. I'd have been in there all night if I hadn't, as the bats were behind my location and I was working in the other direction. I may have cleared the whole darn place out if I'd pressed ahead.

On to Upper Kurast, and here comes the welcoming committee:

I was in the mood to waste no time, plus Ember needed no more level-ups, so I worked clockwise along the west edge of town and around the top corner of the screen, found the waypoint there (but wouldn't have gone looking for it if I hadn't, I was on a beeline to Travincal now). I did take the time to clear out some extra space around the Causeway entrance (hey, you never know if I'll be retreating back here with council bosses in tow for parking purposes, so let's be prepared).

Some unbelievers tried to block my way! I swear! The boldness of those infidels was unmatched. :)

I gambled up a new set of boots in town: faster run, fastest recovery, 20something fire resistance, some poison resistance, and minor bonuses. These actually looked promising, so I sold Lennymo to make room, moved Hotspur to ground storage, and put the new rares away for safe keeping.

Back to action, itching for the big fights.

My plan for Travincal was simple, really: get up on the outer railing and stay there until I'd killed everything that dared to come out after me. Why run willynilly all over town? Up there I could manage my risks so much more effectively, even without teleport.

Travincal is one of the funnest places in the game, in my opinion. I love the pace, the opponents, the tactics, the terrain. I love everything about it, except, perhaps, the council's sometimes-overweening healing abilities. Even that I don't mind a tenth as much as the tediums of Duriel.

All too soon, the fun was over, the city cleared except for the Blackened Temple.

I made fantastic use of that gem shrine in the picture: I hit it, took the gem chip and made myself another rejuv! Hey, I'd used a few here in Act Three, might as well replace them as I could. Ember had no other use for gems, except maybe rerolling a magic item with perfects, and who had stash room to go for that?? Surely not Ember, the biggest Hidurare-enabling ratpacker to roam the four corners.

I closed in for a look-see at what I'd be dealing with. Oh, this didn't look very promising at all. :(

Geleb I knew would be FEB (and hopeless to deal with), but Extra Fast too? I'd have to be very careful when parking him somewhere the sun didn't shine.

Worse news, though, was Ismail Magic Resistant. That put him out of reach too, utterly hopeless on Ember's feeble offense. If Toorc was Fire Resistant too, this hand was over and deal em again. Then I spotted Toorc for just a moment: Mana Burn. Well that was manageable (and if I couldn't kill THAT, then it was completely hopeless anyway).

Now... how to get Toorc isolated???

I tried luring out one at a time into the outer part of the temple. That worked, sort of. I lured out a minion.

I thought, good, Ember can handle a minion, but no, as fate would have it, she could not. Hrmm. The rat bastard would NOT lay off the hydras and was dilligent with the healing, too. Those were definitely his hydras, not the others back in the main temple. He raised so many, that five trips to town later, I'd spent thousands on reds, then hired out the remaining mercs, and was now back around to being able to hire a cold merc. That spelled the doom of this minion! Ha!

Unfortunately, bosses aren't impressed by that freeze trick. I tried to lure out something else and things went dreadfully wrong in a hurry. Ismail and three extra fast minions spilled out of the temple in a rush, Ismail snapping at Ember's heels. then downing Haphet in one blow. I broke into a full sprint for the causeway, council trailing, and I did not stop until I reached Upper Kurast. To my eminent surprise, and considering how bad of a jail break that was, none of them followed me that far. I went back onto the causeway, expecting to find Ismail. Instead I found a minion, lured it to the base of the causeway, ran around to one side and shot at it from relative safety until it finally died. The thing ran around a bit, restlessly, and of course it healed some, but I nailed it.

Went back expecting to find Ismael, but instead found two more minions. Repeat the process with them and all is well.

Ismael was next in line, waiting in the town square. I lured him to the same spot, tried a bit of shooting, realized the complete hopelessness of THAT within twenty seconds, then lured him over and behind the Upper Kurast waypoint, opened a portal and parked that bastard there. I went back via the waypoint to torment him a bit, and shoot at him, but yes it was hopeless and once he raised some hydras I just went back to town.

I went through the Travincal waypoint and back to the temple. OH MY GOD, GELEB'S LOOSE!

And here he comes!

Full sprint with Geleb and two extra fast minions across Travincal, to the far bottom corner of the screen, where I opened a portal and parked them there. This was a much livelier flight than Ismael, as Geleb seemed REALLY ticked off and determined.

Back through the waypoint again, just Toorc and one minion left. I killed the minion through the temple grates, eating hydra fire in the process, then I let Toorc out and we looped around the pools in front.

Toorc was slow and not much into healing with me allowing him to stay close, teasing him though not tempting him. He did heal twice, but I kept him close for a bit of hairy run n gun action. After several laps, he was getting really low over on the west end of the pools and actually ran from Ember. I panicked, expecting him to heal and heal and heal, so I chased him and managed to get his attention back.

I thought I might have him so I pressed hard and stood my ground, and... success!

I assembled the Will and smashed the Orb. I could taste blood and made the decision right then to complete Act Three before I stopped for the night -- or perhaps... to die trying.

Down into the Durance, the first critters I found were some Cadavers. Easy pickins.

Then the real opponents showed up and it was time to get this party started!

Yes that's an undead flayer boss. Zippy little bastards had me tempting back and forth and only occasionally getting in some shots as time permitted. Once only the boss was left, I managed to get his picture and then painstakingly endure his many healings, careful not to let him hit me (he got some licks in, but not enough to panic me), and bide my time praying for him to just please DIE ALREADY.

Finally!

Some Dark Lords argued with me back and forth and their meteors stung a bit. I went through a lot of keys opening chests and made multiple trips to town with junk weapons. Also turned up three rares on these first two levels, but all items out of Ember's strength range. Found the way down to level two and didn't bother clearing any more of one. Level two: more cadavers, but now some Maulers and more undead flayers, not a boss this time, just the garden variety. Then these speedy stalwarts appeared:

They ran Ember around quite a bit, and those two were only half of them. The others got into the act a bit later. Beyond that mob lay the waypoint, and now (barring a crash in the next few minutes) I had secured Ember's access to the Durance without any need to revisit those council snobs upstairs.

The very last encounter on level two turned out to be a Hell of a doozy:

Extra Strong and Extra Fast, on an undead flayer. I had to RUN to Tempt this bastard and his brood, and this was just about the liveliest fight I've ever had in which I was actually in no serious danger but for some sort of colossal blunder on my part. Just temp, shoot, run. Tempt, shoot, run. I handled the little cuss about as easily as possible for Ember, even if I do say so myself. :)

Just through the last uncharted doorway, the room with the stairs to level 3.

Buckle up. It's going to be a Bumpy Ride!