Act Three, Part Two: Kurast City

Ember reached the gates of Kurast at clvl 24 with the following skills, stats and equipment:

Firebolt @ max (+1 from staff)
Warmth @ 5

Str 10, Dex 25, Vit 80, Nrg 80

Heavy Gloves of Wolf: +19 Life - bought from Elzix
Coral Light Belt of Tiger: +29 Lightning Resist, +24 Life - bought from Elzix
Boots: Faster Run, Fastest Recovery, +14 Lit Resist, +11 Life, +7 Stamina - gambled Act 2
Staff: +1 Firebolt - Initial Gear
Cathan's Seal (ring): -2 damage, +6% Life Leech - gambled Act 2
Ring: +29 Poison Resist, -1 damage, +1 Light, Half Freeze, +2 mana, +79 AR - Duriel
Amulet: -1 magic damage - gambled Act 3
No helm or armor (helm forbidden, too weak for armors with 10 Str)

In stash: Lennymo, Broc, Hotspur, Snakecord, and two socketed battle staves, one with +3 Firebolt, the other +3 Blaze (items saved for possible use in Nightmare, if Ember survives Normal).

Accompanying her was her faithful hireling, Thadar, the best of the Iron Wolves: high life, high defense, fast cast Lightning warrior-mage, who had been with her since midway through the Spider Forest.

Ember and Thadar had little trouble with the denizens of lower Kurast. Apes, birds, and children of Zakarum came at them, but in groups of three or four, rarely in larger numbers. Ember found lots of spare gear lying around and made numerous trips to town to sell it off. She gambled and hit on some decent gloves: +12 each to fire and lit resist, half freeze, -25% Poison Dur, and +1 life. Less life, more resistance. The Fire resistance in particular was notable, since she currently had none!

Fights grew a bit livelier as they entered Kurast Bazaar.

This first combat involved Zakarum Faithful, several Thrashers (see one evaporating) and hordes of insect swarms. Those latter were one-shot kills, a nice refreshing change of pace for Ember! By comparison, the hulks required a good half dozen or more shots apiece, and the Faithful about two or three.

We cleared out about one quarter of the Bazaar then found ourselves under attack by a mob of priests.

Ember tried to concentrate on the leader, but his cronies kept healing him as fast as she could hurt him. After a lengthy attept, Ember abandoned that tactic and instead focused on the minions, picking them off one by one as they rained punishment on her and Thadar.

Ember leveled up in the middle of this fight but was too busy to stop and deal with new stats and skills. She kept on firing and had used three of four potions on her belt. (The other four were full rejuvs and not to be lightly spent. I didn't see any need to use them here).

Eventually the minions were all dead... no, wait. Something's healing the boss, still! Arrgh. Ember had to seek out the last minion, who had wandered a good distance to the south but was still in range of healing the boss. Finally got that done, and then the boss fell one two three dead.

Vitality pumped up to 85, Warmth to slvl 6.

A little farther on we found the Bazaar waypoint, and nearby the Ruined Temple. Ember had just leveled and I decided no sense in postponing this fight. Other than the council's hydras, this was likely to be the worst threat to Thadar. I hoped he was up to the challenge.

Down we went, and immediately the situation was NOT GOOD.

T-formation temple, facing left, two Wailing Champs right in the front room and a Night Lord already has Thadar engaged. Rogues are coming up from the heart of the temple and this is a HOT situation. I figured to head east, toward the bottom of the screen, but just after this shot was taken, four rogues emerged from there! I couldn't even get back to the stairs. I had only one way to go, and that was west. A whole army of rogues followed me, and one of the champs. Thadar was trapped, losing life quickly, but I needed room to get a TP open as I might only get one shot at it. Too late! Thadar went down. Ember squeaked through the TP and I cursed Blizzard for their wretched stairs traps.

R.I.P. Thadar. You were a brave lad and did your duty to the end.

I went to Asheara and got my free merc from Q2, Fire mage by the name of Jelani. Hmm... Jelani? Sounds too close to Jemali for my tastes. My confidence was NOT inspired.

I knew that my chances of pulling this fight out of the fire here were next to nil. If I went back down there, I had maybe a one in twenty chance of success, one in twenty chance of actually dying, a one in ten chance of making another TP escape, and en eight in ten chance of being forced to Quit and Save.

I had to try anyway.

Down we went... HAIRBALL! Mass of them right there, no way to move past them, no way even to go back up the stairs. Certain death if I fight. So I hit that Escape key, as I expected I'd have to, and got Ember the Hell out of there the hard way.

Grrrrrrrr.

Thadar must be avenged! And no panty-waist stair trap was going to intimidate Ember. Let's do this again.

Had to fight our way through a few monsters in the Bazaar, nothing serious. Then down we went, and those Wailer champs were once again just to the west of the stairs. Ember left Jamali to deal with them and ran east immediately, to take on the four rogues to the side. Scummy whores surround her and start hacking, Ember fires back, one down, another, drink a red, poor Jemali is getting wailed on... finally kill off the rogues and run into the far chamber, pulling poor wounded Jemali after me. The wailers pursue...

Jelani is slain with the next blow. Ember lays into the Wailer for all she's got but opens a TP as he reaches her and gets out of there. There were no monsters to the far west, so that area is still open. If I hire another merc I can retreat to there if push comes to shove in that front room.

Time to hire the big gun now:

Top of the line cold mage there, yes sir. Not that Jelani failed me. He actually did a good job. But when you need the big artillery, you call on Jarulf! :)

Down we go, and a Wailer is right there. The other is over near the TP. By the time he gets back to the main room, that first champ is dead. Jarulf didn't even take much of a beating here! Other wailer falls, but here comes Sarina and crew. Ember retreats to the west and the battle is joined there:

Jarulf's shot freeze the minions, and slow Sarina, who gets Ember's full attention. This battle goes well, but there are still plenty of rogues left in this place.

Here you see us mopping up the last of them. A rare moment, captured above, shows both Ember and Jarulf missing, their shots racing each other like something out of a 3rd Rock From The Sun scene breaker. :) Comet vs Meteor? Hmm. :)

Oh yeah: VICTORY! Thadar has been avenged.

In the back corner of the Bazaar, a hulk crew tried to ambush us. Unfortunately for them, that's like the tortoise trying to ambush the hare.

The Disused Fane was the last fight in this region, and inside awaited some beetles. This was remarkable in that the Disused Fane only rarely seems to set up ambushes. The boss pack wasn't in the starting room but our arrival got their immediate attention and we had to fight them in a cramped space lest we get into deeper problems.

Great news! That beetle boss dropped a Ruby Amulet! +45 Fire Resistance, and +12 Dex. Fooey on the Dex, but ah, that resistance. Just what Ember needed most, even if at the cost of -1 md.

Jarulf was no Thadar, I must say, but this wasn't the jungle any more either, and his glacial spike did come in handy in these close-quarter fights in the temples. We marched on through Upper Kurast and Ember rarely had to retreat far to pull Jarulf out of troubles. The forgotten temple was unremarkable, for once, but the reliquary gave us two good fights. Below is shown the mop-up after a serious run in with spiders:

There was a teleporting Infidel boss in the Causeway, who actually came after us before we had cleared the last of Kurast. Infidels only show up here, and only as champs or bosses, it seems. Same with the Temple Guards. It's almost a pity to fight endless hordes of ghouls, burning dead, apparitions, unravellers and mummies when full-clearing Tal Rasha's seven tombs, then get maybe one fight every three or four games with the likes of these. Diablo 2 makes up, to some degree, for the lack of variety in monster population in each area by having so many MORE total areas than D1 did, and of course it's inevitable that some monsters will appear more than others. Still, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to play with a very different monster mix: with more randomnity in what appears where.

Jarulf earned his keep in the Disused Reliquary:

Archer boss! -shudder- Extra Fast too!

The Ruined Fane was quiet, as it almost always is. Yes, there was a boss in there, but no big deal.

Time for some more gambling, and lo and behold, my fifth unique:

Stash has gotten pretty crowded now! Greyform I might actually wear through Ember's career in Nightmare, unless something with colossus and high resists turns up. Storing this armor meant carrying more of my spare rejuvs, though. I was down to fourteen slots open, just enough room to pick up two armors/weapons, or one and a bunch of potions. I'd have eight more slots open if I had a four-row belt, but enough whining about that.

On to Travincal! Heirophants would be a royal PITA if this were Hell, but here in Normal their fire resistance is still manageable and Ember had no problems. In fact, she had no problems at all with the normal denizens of Travincal. She hid behind Jarulf whenever the Zealot mobs charged out, and otherwise she easily rolled through the spellcasters. Back end of town, just the temple left now, and Ember had to lure out the council from the inner room to that balcony on the west of the temple, where she could get a better shot at them but more importantly fight just one or two of them at a time, meaning only one or two of them raising hydras instead of six or seven.

Toorc was the unlucky taker, and when Ember got him out to the front, yet still caged, she bit him and hung on like a pitbull. Nonstop firebolts. Toorc raised hydras, Jarulf bought the farm, Ember drank healings and minor rejuvs and never relented. Scratch one Council boss.

For round two, she lured out Ismael, yet that coward ran when she got him low on health, and out pops Geleb with his maximum resistant self. He was too much to defeat there at the temple. Ember ended up having to lure him far far away, and she resorted to buying some rancid gas potions to help soften him up and end the fight more quickly. Not much more quickly, mind you, but it worked to some degree.

Ember finally defeated him near the southeast corner of the map, with a little help from a fire res shrine (and wearing her -1 md ammy to boot).

Ismael died easily, still caged, once the rest of the minions were eliminated. Ember grabbed the flail and headed back to town, ready to cube it and head into the Durance. Hmm... something seems to be missing here. Doh! Forgot to go get the heart!

Well, time to hire a new mercenary. I wanted to get a fire mage this time, as Lightning wouldn't work well at all against the horrors in the sewer. Horrors = black skels, not generic term for baddies, in this case. They resist lightning. Well, oops, no Fire mercs available for hire? Arg. No choice then but to hire Cold. The best available man was named... Jelani? I thought he was already dead. Hmm. Maybe that's just a popular name in Kurast. Oh well. Jelani it is, this time the icy version.

The sewers were filled wall to wall with undead, including flayers. Ember and Jelani worked their way through it, clearing out the entire place with methodical determination. There were some champs, but the only boss was Riftwing, and nothing particularly noteworthy happened in this region (other than the fact that Ember and Jelani cleared out without dying).

Now to the Durance, and level one was nothing special, for the most part. On the other hand, there was one undead flayer boss. I laughed at his special ability!

Like, what was he going to DO with that aura? Cut Ember's defense rating?? LOL! I'm guessing that this changed her be-hit chances from 95% to... 95%. Ha! :)

On the other hand, it did affect Jelani, so I killed off these pests as quickly as I could.

Down on level two and here come the boss packs. First the Maulers:

These were no particular trouble, but I did retreat Ember and Jelani through a door there to reduce the number of them able to pound on my tank. That did the trick.

Then near the end of the level, two more boss packs that appeared to be hanging out together and shooting dice or rolling bones or whatever they do in large numbers to entertain themselves.

Poor Jelani was getting battered around by the Maulers and Ember had to fend for herself. Of course, if it's slow, it's not much threat. Period. So she managed.

Now it was time for the big fight, and I knew the merc was a goner here. I wanted him to go out in style, though, making himself useful in some capacity. After visiting town, down we went, my intent to clear out the front room but not yet to disturb Bremm. Well so much for that. For whatever reason he was more alert and came charging in to interrupt Ember's argument with a pair of blood lords. He had three minions with him, too. So now it's six on two, and one of the six is a tough LEB. I tried hard to concentrate on a single foe, to get those odds reduced, but the enemy just wouldn't cooperate. In particular, Bremm just kept ignoring poor Jelani and charging at Ember, interposing himself as a shield between Ember and any other target. Jelani perished, Ember's cheap pots on belt ran out and I retreated her up the stairs, having not yet killed a single thing on Durance 3.

OK, new plan: outright sacrifice a merc. Get him in front of Bremm, somehow, and then go hardline against any other available target, taking whatever punishment comes but GET THAT KILL. Back to town, hire some poor sap (don't even remember his name, don't want to), back to level 3, execute the plan. YES! One Blood Lord down, now a minion, oops merc dead, now another minion. Now it's three on one, and Ember can handle that. She concentrated on the second blood lord next, nailed him, then worked on the last minion until he was gone. Up the stairs, restock belt, and now time for that bastard to get some.

And now time for the next bastard to get his piece.

Now for the last one. No screenie for him, sorry. Was too busy with a very serious fight to stop and take pictures. (Taking these screens is gonna get me killed one day, let me tell you. It's hard to be a journalist and a soldier in the same moment, and some day I'm gonna pick the wrong moment to not be a soldier).

I'll describe the action, though. I hired yet another rube... er, mercenary, to sacrifice. My plan? Stand behind him and shoot, and shoot and shoot, while he took the hits. Well, that sounded good in theory, right?

In reality, the merc was half dead the moment the fight began, and there was quite a mob of blood lords keeping Maffer company. They rather spoiled the plan with their firewalls and meteors. I retreated back to Wyand's side, the now-battered merc in tow. Dangit, the blood lords followed! How did they manage that? Well, only two followed, but that was enough to mess up my Plan B. I used the last moments of the merc to retreat back to the middle, where I tried (and failed) to shoot things across the lava.

I ended up carefully moving ember all the way south, to clean up the blood lords left behind in Maffer's room. Once that was done I had to work on the blood lords hanging out with him to the north, and had to make a trip to town to restock healings. Finally got the blood lords down, and then repeated my stand with Toorc: I just stood there and fired nonstop at Maffer, eating the fire damage from his many hydras and drinking reds and minor purples to stay alive. Finally got him.

I'll say it again: Maffer's the CLEAR supreme threat in Act 3 to any no-teleport Sorcie worth her salt. The rest are sissy hair-pullers by comparison. And yes, that includes Mephisto:

This fight took over ten minutes, and yes I DID get hit by his cold shot over half a dozen times despite great care. Just so long can I do the same set of maneuvers before the repetition leads to some breakdown in execution and enough of a mistake to take a hit. I can tell you flat out, even with Ember's nearly 300 life and 29 cold resist, she could NOT survive two of those hits in a row without healing. I rather used up most of her store of minor purples as a result of this.

Mephisto dropped weapons and I sold them.

Three bosses down, one to go. Ember will see you in Act Four.

- Sirian

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