🚀 go-pugleaf

"Well this is pretty lousy, and no two ways about it," Amarice griped as
she continued her hard slog through the True Tomb of Tal Rasha. The tomb
was massive and it seemed like around every corner there was a new pack
of fire-flinging Ghoul Lords and lightning-spewing Steel Scarabs.

"You ain't kidding," her merc, Paige, shot back. "Our gear sucks, our
resists are hopeless, and these beasties hit way too hard."

"I wish we had better bows," Amarice said. "A two-socket Stag Bow and a
blue Composite Bow? Useless, all but. Only good thing is the two perfect
skulls. Shame I can't find a rare short war bow with two sockets, eh?"

"Find one for both of us," the Rogue said. "That'd be nice."

"No kidding," Amarice said.

They turned a corner and ran SMACK into a boss pack of Apparitions
backed up by Gorebellies and more Ghoul Lords. Thankfully as they backed
up, shooting and thinning out the crowd, Amarice spotted the tell-tale
glow of the Circle of Seven Symbols and its receptacle.

"That must be where the Horadric Staff fits," she guessed. "Let's see
what it leads to, eh?"

"Are you sure about this?" Paige said. "You know what happened last time
you opened a big door and said 'Let's see what it leads to.'"

"Yeah, it led to Andariel!" Amarice said. "Don't worry, just stay beside
me and we'll puncture whatever awaits us."

As it turned out, it was Duriel that awaited them, and he was a big 
bugger with lots of hit points and a nasty freezing aura. Fortunately by 
dint of potion-gulping (Amarice had quite a few Greater Healing Potions 
by now) he went down, and on they went to Kurast after conversing with 
the Archangel Tyrael and various townsfolk.

"Blah," Amarice muttered; the rain and humidity were not to her liking 
and what the weather did to her bowstrings was just criminal. 
Nevertheless, she and Paige geared up and headed out.

Packs of little jungly tribesmen were a pain in the butt, hunting for 
squishy bits of dead guys that went SQUELCH into Amarice's Horadric Cube 
was icky, but by dint of a lot of fighting and questing they slowly 
levelled up and Amarice was able to don her new amulet (+12 resist all 
and 3% life steal) at level 25.

At which point, she was also entering the Durance of Hate and descending 
to find Mephisto.

Various badly-behaved beasties barred her and Paige's way and some came 
close to killing them both: the Undead Stygian Doll boss exploded 
nastily and after that came Bremm Sparkfist backed up by a pack of Blood 
Lords, but they persevered and finally only Mephisto remained.

"YOU'RE TOO LATE!" he howled, laughing, as he attacked: Amarice had to 
gulp a lot of potions fighting him, but both her and Paige survived the 
battle and soon he was down, leaving the two of them to rake over the 
useless items he'd dropped.

The dark, ominous portal awaited, and they emerged into the Pandemonium 
Fortress.

The story of which, will be told tomorrow!