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SWEETSPEARGIRL'S LAST GLORY

Chapter 2: Foremost of USWesteners

Cast of Characters:
- SweetSpearGirl, the Once-Again-Reset-to-Start Amazon
- Euyfura, Rogue on Guard Duty
- Kashya, Rogue el Frustrato
- Akara
- Deckard Cain, the Old Git

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

SweetSpearGirl's first act on getting up the next morning was to snag 
the Cold Plains waypoint. (Kashya's first act was to chide 
SweetSpearGirl for not chasing after Blood Raven the night before and 
forgoing sleep.)

Her second act was to ram her spear up the fundaments of several rather 
annoying monsters, including Bishibosh and friends. Gargantuan Beasts 
and Champion Dark Spearwomen were also prowling the area; one of the 
latter gave her Hsaru's buckler, but since shields were useless to both 
herself and Euyfura, she sold it to Akara who gave our heroine a couple 
of thousand gold for it. She also levelled up to level 6 during the 
fighting and threw a point into Dodge; her level 5 point had gone into Jab.

Shortly afterwards, SweetSpearGirl peeked inside the entrance to the 
Stony Field, but decided getting rid of Blood Raven was more important 
than locating the next waypoint. She entered the Burial Grounds close to 
levelling, and a few skeletons and Hungry Dead clinched the deal before 
she thinned the herd enough to target Blood Raven herself. The big bad 
bint's elemantal arrows nearly whittled SweetSpearGirl's health down to 
corpse-recovery run levels, but she broke off in time and healed up 
before returning to the fray and soon the undead Rogue was kissing grass 
and gravestones.

Kashya was most pleased at SweetSpearGirl's achievement and was only too 
happy to let a bored and frustrated Euyfura off guard duty.

"Well thanks Gods you didn't take TOO long about it," the Rogue told her 
spearazon.

"Hey, I need sleep too you know? Besides, I'm sure you got to spit a few 
zombies with your arrows before I turned the Blood Moor into scorched 
earth."

"Ha! As if! You and your weapon did all the sticking!"

"I thought you liked my big weapon?"

"Shut up, you, and let's go. I need to frag something."

As SweetSpearGirl's Burial Grounds portal was still standing, the pair 
decided to take a quick trip into the Crypt ("Onward and dwnward?" "You 
betcha, Rogue.") and slay some wandering undead. The beasties and the 
drops were uneventful (although SweetSpearGirl did eventually find a 
chipped sapphire, courtesy of Bonebreaker, to complete the socketed bow 
for Euyfura) and the Crypt cleared, they decided to skip the Mausoleum 
and move on to the Stony Field where the experience was more rewarding. 
It was here that they met their first random boss - Pulse Thorn the 
Jagged, a light blue goat boy who favoured mana burning - and he and his 
buddies gave SweetSpearGirl a boost to level 8. She now has four points 
in Jab and despite the lack of any mana leech or regen, is enjoying them.

Snagging an Experience shrine ("I still give a better experience," 
Euyfura smirked) shortly before finding the waypoint, SweetSpearGirl was 
starting to feel optimistic. OK, so even the lowest level of her old 
charms had a level 10 or 12 requirement, but she and Euyfura were doing 
well and shortly thereafter found the Mouldy old Tome. SweetSpearGirl 
skimmed through it; she always liked the part about the treasure, 
although as she remarked, "the gallons of blood part I could do without!"

"Well round here the two tend to go hand in hand," Euyfura quipped.

"You're telling me. How many times have we been through this now?"

"I think this is number 14."

"Fourteen? Seriously? Damn. I didn't think it was that many."

"Time flies when you're having fun?"

"Uh-huh. Sure," smirked the spearazon, shoving the business end of her 
new weapon - she had obtained a three-socket spear from Charsi, plugging 
a brace of chipped topazes and a chipped emerald into it - up a pack of 
Carvers led by Rakanishu. Sadly, his drop was unremarkable, and the pair 
moved on, entering the Underground Passage.

Death to stair traps! A pair of Misshapen were moving in, accompanied by 
skeleton archers - these were numerous in the Passage and the arrows 
plinked away at SweetSpearGirl's life. Several times she had to scavenge 
through the ruins of camps of Fallen and their Shamen to find health and 
mana pots to replenish herself and at one point a Healing shrine showed 
up just when she was down to almost no life left. SweetSpearGirl did 
reach level 9 and Euyfura level 8 in the Passage, however, and the 
speargirl grinned as they reached the exit, the spoils of their battles 
chinking in her backpack.

"Onward and upward!"

Evening had fallen as they entered the Dark Wood, but neither were 
tired. Back and forth they ranged, slaying Carvers, Vile Lancers and 
TreeWood HeadFist (extra strong, extra fast) and his big furry friends 
before grabbing the bark scrool of InfiWhatsItCalledAgain and snagging 
the Waypoint. Akara was delighted to translate the mystic runes on the 
scrool, enabling them to open the forbidding red portal to Tristram 
(SweetSpearGirl enjoyed the light show) and enter the ruined town.

Their first run-in was with a pair of Returned Archers. These were soon 
joined by Black Jade the Hammer, a fire-enchanted goat boy, and his 
friends; not so swiftly on their heels was Griswold, moving slowly, but 
because he was a big Cursed bully SweetSpearGirl was careful to put him 
down without any other buggers in the way. His death boosted her to 
level 10, at which point she felt free to let Cain out of his cage 
("Ahh! I thank you, friend, for coming to my aid!") and put down a pack 
of Champion Carver Shamans lurking in the area resurrecting goblins as 
fast as Euyfura's arrows put them down. Cain portalled off home while 
our intrepid pair headed up the west side of town, finding a boss Carver 
Shaman and then Wirt's corpse spewing gold. SweetSpearGirl portalled 
back to town, got the usual low-end ring from Akara ("You have risked 
your life to rescue Cain. For that we thank you." "Well for this I don't 
really thank YOU! Although it is better than +14 to attack rating like 
my old one.") and had Cain ID her stuff.

After that, while Charsi repaired and polished their gear - and 
requested they find her Horadric Bollock - SweetSpearGirl and Euyfura 
slept the sleep of the just through what was left of the night.

TO BE CONTINUED...

-- 
* 404 Error: Weapons of Mass Destruction not found. Please reinstall 
regime and reboot.

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