Well, the big finale is coming for both Pastyface and Trueheart. The showdown with the greater evils began with Meph fallnig to Pasty's minions and Trueheart's truncheon. Moving on, they each dispatched the Fallen Angel Izual and prepared to enter Diablo's lair. Along the way Trueheart found a new weapon: Headstriker.
Pastyface, secure behind his horde, boldly entered the river of flame. Abyss knights, Urdar, ghosts, none could stand before his skeletons long. At the hellforge he smashed Mephistos soulstone, revealing some gems and a Lem rune. Diablo's sanctuary was similarly no challenge, and soon the lord of terror was defeated as well. Quest drop: garbage. While the residents of Harrogath were not exactly overjoyed to meet him, they soon warmed with the lifting of the seige and the release of captured soldiers.
Trueheart took his new blade and entered the river of flame. Abyss Knights showered at him with bolts of magical energy from every direction. For every short advance it seemed he had to return to town to recover. Maggots spawned hordes of young to attack him, but he dispatched these with explosions of flame from his trusty crossbow. Balrogs tried to incinerate him, but his long experience with fire left him resilient to these attacks and he dispatched them with fanatic blows from his sword. After great effort he reached the hellforge where the terrible smith Hephaesto charged at him. Hephaesto turned on Vikhyat, the trusty mercenary that had stayed with him all this time, and crushed him with 2 rapid blows of his hammer. Under the relentless assualt, Trueheart was also forced to retreat to the safety of the Pandemonium fortress from the nearby waypoint. Tyreal brought Vikhyat back from the dead, and another attempt was made for the hellforge, but again the smith beat him back. On a third attempt finally Hephaesto was destroyed, and the soulstone of Meph smashed on the forge. A Lem rune was revealed amongst the shards of the smashed stone. After this test, Diablo's lair seemed simple. The doom knights were lured away from their masters, and dispatched with lightning. The Balrogs and ghosts were no match for his magical steel. Trueheart pulled out the massive Hellrack crossbow, and sent bolts through the Oblivion knights at range, saving himself the danger of their iron maiden curse. Soon, he faced Diablo himself, and showed the great demon that though it may take 1000 strokes, even a prime evil of hell could be destroyed in his own domain. (Quest drop was crap again) Thus Trueheart found himself in Harrogath, charged with destroying the overlord Shenk, and relieving the siege. Entering the blood soaked hill surrounding Harrogath Trueheart headed toward the concentrated catapults on the hill above. Immediated a shower of arrows descended upon him. Volley after volley fell, and though he might destroy the undead archers that fired them, it seemed there were always more behind the next trench. With the cuts of a thousand arrows he finally reached shenk, only to find the overlord weaker than the archers.
Ok, so I officially believe that Blizz hates melee chars. Where a ranged char could pick off the millions of archers, Trueheart was forced to advance into them, receiving a hail of arrows at every turn. At one point a cursed extra strong boss made his merc evaporate about 5 times before Trueheart was able to pick off enough minions to safely approach. Individually the archers weren't so bad, it was the fact that they spawned in groups of 6-10 and typically 2-4 groups were on the screen I wish I had taken screenshots a couple of times, but it woudn't have been safe to do so. In any case, Trueheart did fight his way to the plateau WP and rescued the soldiers. No good finds, but survival is reward in this case.
Back to Pasty now.
CB
edit: forgot to mention, with 2 lems, the ethereal hellforge plate became a 'treachery' for the merc. He had been using it plain up to this point because without a Hel there was no way to unsocket it for a later change. The range of 1 for the weapons Trueheart has had have been a problem, so he is hoping to be able to find a Beserker axe that can be used for 'Passion' for a better weapon.
