🚀 go-pugleaf

SWEETSPEARGIRL'S LAST GASP

Chapter 4: Dusk Falls on the Temple of the Serpent on the Mount of Sunrise


CAST OF CHARACTERS
SweetSpearGirl, Level 72 Jabazon
Euyfura, the Sarcastic Rogue
The Va-Va-Valk, Who Needs No Introduction
GreenPeppers, a Paladin

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


SweetSpearGirl had spent some significant time sorting out her gear in 
recent days, deciding that before she set off after Hell's minions again 
she needed to be better equipped. By the time she had acquired some new 
gear and shuffled through everything else she had, her resists were 
maxed out - all but poison anyway - and her life held steady at 888, 
while she had a truly staggering amount of life leech.
Well, okay, 20% wasn't *staggering*, but it was pretty good! 50% IAS 
wasn't shabby, either...

Anyway!

Out she and Euyfura, and the Valk, ventured, to the Dry Hills to pick up 
where they'd left off! Almost as soon as they stepped off the waypoint, 
Champion Sabre Cats showed up, backed up by a boss vulture, Stone Venom 
the Flayer.

"He don't look like a Flayer to me!" the Valk called.

"Yeah, we've all heard that one a dozen times!" Euyfura shot back, 
firing a volley of fire arrows into Stone Venom's stone-skinned face, 
while SweetSpearGirl got Cursed by the also-extra-fast birdie.

SweetSpearGirl does not like curses. She showed her disdain by getting 
up close and personal with Stone Venom and putting his ass down on the 
sand, although this didn't help her handle the boss Sabre Cat known as 
Soul Cloud the Unholy, who also sported Extra Fast, although her cold 
enchantment and Teleportation didn't help her much since SweetSpearGirl 
soon had her kissing the hot desert sand too. The drops were, as usual, 
nondescript - a purple, a white Hyperion Spear and a blue Balanced Knife 
being the best - but SweetSpearGirl just shrugged.

"Got plenty of gold anyway, right?"

"If you say so."

"Oh stop it, Rogue. If you never needed resurrecting, I'd be rich beyond 
either of our dreams!"

"IN your dreams, missy... YOU need resurrecting almost as much as I do!"

"Hopefully not so much with this new gear," SweetSpearGirl replied as 
the intrepid trio entered the Far Oasis.

Death Beetles and Black Raptors were the order of the day, and oooh 
lookie here, the Black Raptors were the minions of Black Brow (cold 
enchanted, teleportation, extra fast).

"Why is everything Extra Fast and Teleportation today?" SweetSpearGirl 
wondered.

"Beats me," Euyfura shrugged, getting poisoned by a minion and sticking 
it full of arrows. The waypoint followed this battle in short order; 
right *next* to the waypoint was a pack of Champion Black Raptors and 
their friends, minion Raptors and a pack of vultures. The minions were 
led by Moon Bite the Dark ("why is everything today cold enchanted as 
well?") whose cold enchantment was followed by a lightning enchantment 
and to add insult to injury, the bugger was magic resistant. Just what 
SweetSpearGirl needed, a double immune boss. She put him down as fast as 
she could. The Valk was looking distinctly unhealthy after the battle 
was over, but the boss did drop both a phat purple and Tancred's Skull.

"Makes a change from Tancred's Crowbill," Euyfura muttered. "What is a 
Crowbill anyway?"

"Beats me," SweetSpearGirl said. "Some kind of skull-splitting mace, I 
guess."

"Yuck," Euyfura said. "Flesh-skewering arrows are more my idea of a good 
time."

"I just wish I had a Fundament Rammer," SweetSpearGirl said. "Stoneraven 
is nice and all, but there are days when I really crave the opportunity 
to do half a million damage with a shitload of IAS and more 
plus-to-skills than I can shake my pointy stick at."

"You and me both, girlfriend," Euyfura replied, shooting at another 
Raptor minion that hove into view. This new boss was another 
teleportation-enhanced Raptor, Doom Eater the Tainted, who like his dead 
compatriot Moon Bite was magic resistant and also possessed of stone 
skin. SweetSpearGirl didn't like stone skin at all; fortunately, this 
bugger wasn't double immune and he bit the sand soon enough.

Flying Scimitars, on the other hand, were double-immune by nature! 
Immune to both Fire and Lightning, nonetheless they were fragile and 
soon enough were but a fading and unpleasant memory. Through a few more 
bands of monsters and it was decision time: did they go ahead into the 
Lost City to find the waypoint, or stay back and fight maggots?

"Onward and upward?" Euyfura suggested.

"Stop stealing my phrase," SweetSpearGirl stuck her tongue out at the 
Rogue, who merely blew her a kiss back.

Darkness fell as they engaged their first pack of chilling-blow 
Marauders in the Lost City, who were accompanied by a boss Marauder, 
Pulse Slime (extra strong, cold enchanted, fire enchanted) and his minions.

"A million billion minions!" Euyfura hissed, firing arrow after arrow 
until her arms ached from pulling on the bowstring and her fingers were 
all but red and raw.

"Tiptoe through the minions," SweetSpearGirl muttered, stabbing at Pulse 
Slime until he exploded, messily, on the darkened sands that were now 
darkened even further, soaked with Marauder blood. They dealt with the 
last of the Marauder minions none too soon, as Tomb Creeper minions hove 
into view; a Conviction aura wrapped itself around the feet of our 
heroes just seconds later.

"Oh, hells!" SweetSpearGirl snarled in frustration and worry. The boss 
wasn't far behind his minions, either: she spotted him even as a Plague 
Bearer shambled up behind the Valk.

The boss Tomb Creeper was Soul Eater: in addition to his Conviction, he 
was a fire-enchanted mana burner, which combination SweetSpearGirl found 
deeply annoying! Making a mental note to invest in some phat blues at 
Drognan's Potion Emporium, she swiftly set about her nemesis, backed up 
by the Valk, until he expired and dropped a yellow amulet. He had also 
brought SweetSpearGirl within a hair's breadth of level 73, about which 
she was rather pleased.

"Don't be so smug, you're not there yet!" Euyfura cautioned. And well it 
seemed that she might, too! Not ten steps from Soul Eater's death site, 
they encountered a pair of Fire Towers blasting flame-balls everywhere, 
while moving grimly towards them were at least seven Plague Bearers and 
a pack of Tomb Creepers, the former being led by the Dark Elder (extra 
fast, magic resistant, spectral hit, fire enchanted, immune to fire, 
immune to magic), and SweetSpearGirl blanched in horror. She hastily 
threw up a portal in case a swift escape was needed, recast the Valk to 
full health, and set up a Decoy to lead the large numbers of determined 
zombies into a kill zone. Euyfura stood safely back, blasting fire 
arrows all over the place (though with the fire enchantment of the boss, 
what good they were doing was anybody's guess). Finally, Dark Elder 
expired, dropping a thin purple and some nondescript gear, and as he did 
so, SweetSpearGirl felt the welcome lightness of being that signified a 
level gain.

She boosted her vitality, her life creeping up to 905, and plugged her 
skill point into Decoy between two more battles. These involved Champion 
Marauders and Champion Tomb Creepers, one of whom coughed up a Sol rune 
which SweetSpearGirl eagerly pounced on.
"Nice," she said with appreciation.

"Hardly a Vex or a Zod," Euyfura snarked.

"Oh come on, girl, you know how rune-poor I am! What's the best I've 
found lately? Dol? Io? I think?"

"Io," Euyfura sniggered. "Far cry from way back, isn't it?"

"Damn world constantly changing," SweetSpearGirl sighed. "Must be the 
aftershocks from the first time Tyrael had to destroy the Worldstone. Oh 
for my ethereal Breath of the Dying and Chains of Honour, or even my 
ethereal upgraded Lycander's Flank!"

More Tomb Creepers, more Marauder minions, oh look, Puke Claw is once 
again extra-fast and teleportation and magic resistant. Just what the 
world needs, yet another set of those mods.

"Down you go, bitch!"

"How rude, Euyfura. You know that's insulting to bitches."

The Rogue only sniggered.

A lull in the fighting allowed SweetSpearGirl to finally identify the 
rare amulet dropped by Soul Eater; it turned out rather nice, if you 
were a Barbarian and had nothing better, but it was pretty useless to 
her. Black Touch (extra fast AGAIN, cold enchanted, spectral hit) and 
his Tomb Creeper friends menaced the trio further on, but enough Decoys 
allowed them to send him packing.

A pack of Champion Plague Bearers poisoned SweetSpearGirl and Euyfura 
while the former was distracted: an old friend had suddenly shown up, a 
powerful Paladin by the name of GreenPeppers, and she quickly 
backpedalled, casting Decoys at them while Euyfura fired arrows. 
GreenPeppers caught up with them as their foes expired, both he and his 
merc lending them auras, and suddenly the trio became a quintet: a 
quintet that stampeded through the monsters like they were made of 
butter and swiftly found the Lost City waypoint (after a brief diversion 
with a pack of Marauders and more Plague Bearers).

The entrance to the Valley of Snakes lay not far from the waypoint.

"Maggots, or vipers?" SweetSpearGirl asked.

"All of the above!" GreenPeppers said with a grin.

"It's all the same to me," Euyfura said, with a slight tremor in her voice.

"Yes, Euyfura," SweetSpearGirl snorted, "I know you're scared of snakes!"

"And I know YOU'RE scared of bugs!"

"Shut up, Rogue. We're right by the Temple, so let's do that first."

They descended into the Claw Viper Temple. The first thing they 
encountered was a stair trap: several Claw Vipers were lurking around 
the entrance! They put them down swiftly, however, and as GreenPeppers 
commented, "At least they're not the poison variety!"

"You are NOT kidding," Euyfura said, while SweetSpearGirl just raced 
down the corridor, followed by the others: unwisely, as it turned out! 
The next room was crowded with snakes: a champion pack of Salamanders 
led the bunch, while ordinary Salamanders and Claw Vipers joined in. 
Before it was clear, SweetSpearGirl had had to down five of her precious 
phat purples; while somebody dropped a Grand Charm which GreenPeppers 
identified (1-9 lightning damage and +36 to mana), nobody of them needed 
it and the quintet pressed on.

Grimly the five heroes pressed through the Temple, taking out packs of 
Champion Salamanders, Mummy Sarcophagi and their Dried Corpses, and 
finally at one end of the temple an orange boss Claw Viper, Blight Pus, 
who was (of course) Extra Fast and Cursed as well as Stone Skin. 
However, courtesy of GreenPeppers' Conviction aura, the Valk, and the 
varied attacks of the heroes, he didn't last long, although he did get 
one curse off before expiring.

Down to level 2! GreenPeppers and the Decoy drew out Fangskin (extra 
fast, lightning enchanted, magic resistant, cold enchanted, dual immune) 
and they swiftly put him and his various friends down. Almost before 
they realised it, the chamber was empty, and SweetSpearGirl seized the 
Viper Amulet from the altar.

Ahhh... sunlight!

"Well... sunlight for a minute anyway," Euyfura smirked.

"I know, I know, maggot tunnels time," SweetSpearGirl sighed.

"How's the lightning resist?" GreenPeppers popped in, referring to the 
Death Beetles and Scarabs that were sure to patrol the tunnels.

"No problem there, I just don't like bugs!" SweetSpearGirl couldn't help 
but laugh.

The entrance to the Maggot Lair wasn't far from the waypoint, through a 
couple of packs of Black Raptors and Death Beetles, and the five of them 
scrambled downward one by one. SweetSpearGirl groaned as she pulled 
herself upright in the tunnel.

"Not so agile as I used to be," she muttered. "But here goes!"

Death Beetle minions awaited them around the first corner. Doom Spawn 
the Jagged, just like everybody and everything else, came bearing not 
gifts but Curses and an extra fast fire enchanted self.

"What the *hells*?" SweetSpearGirl gasped. "Why is EVERYTHING Extra Fast 
and/or Cursed today?"

*SPLATTER* went the boss, just as SweetSpearGirl needed to suck down 
another purple. Huge packs of Death Beetles seemed to bar their way 
around every corner and in every chamber; occasionally, even 
GreenPeppers, who was at level 90, had some trouble with them.

"Tough crowd," he commented after a battle of at least eleven beetles 
was over.

"Not as tough as us!" SweetSpearGirl smirked.

"Famous last words, missy," Euyfura cautioned.

"Oh hush, you," the Valk put in.

"Hey, that's my line!" SweetSpearGirl couldn't help but laugh out loud, 
her voice echoing through the dark, dank tunnels. Sadly, this attracted 
more of the lair's denizens, and she hastily quieted herself and 
prepared for more fighting. Black Locusts (physical immune - "Eeesh!") 
buzzed down a corridor, backed up by Scarabs and Champion Scarabs, and 
GreenPeppers stood back a little, allowing the Valk and SweetSpearGirl 
to lay into their foes.

"I can't even use Holy Bolt in these corridors!" he gasped. "Can't heal 
you up because-"

"I'm in the way?" the Valk smirked innocently.

"Probably," SweetSpearGirl grinned. Death Beetles swarmed out of the 
next chamber and she recast the Valk straight into the bevy of badly 
behaved beasties, letting her take the brunt of their attacks.

"Go Valk," Euyfura smirked.

Down to level 2. This was much of a muchness with the first level, with 
the exception of the Black Locust boss. For a change, Gloom Weaver the 
Slasher was enchanted with a Holy Shock aura, and to continue the 
'shocking' theme was also Lightning Enchanted. Being physical immune 
already, Stone Skin did absolutely nothing for the pack of bugs, and 
soon he was giving way to the Death Beetle boss of the level, another 
physical (and lightning) immune Stone Skin beastie named Storm Call, who 
like his Locust friend was Lightning Enchanted - something he also 
didn't need! - while he packed a Spectral Hit on top. SweetSpearGirl 
shoved the Valk into Storm Call's line of fire and he didn't last long 
after that. A cursed boss Scarab whose name SweetSpearGirl didn't catch 
followed, a phat purple scavenged from his remains, and then a dead-end 
chamber occupied by another Locust boss.

Spirit Skull the Mad was lightning enchanted (again), magic resistant 
and fire enchanted.

"You'd think that combination would make 'em Triple immune!" 
SweetSpearGirl gasped, but no, Spirit Skull was only Physical Immune and 
soon exploded. Yet another Locust boss, Sharp Froth the Grim (cursed and 
teleportation and magic resistant YET AGAIN) also didn't last long in 
the face of the quintet's overwhelming onslaught!

The last of their troubles on level 2 was yet another Locust boss who 
SweetSpearGirl ran into unexpectedly round a sharp corner and had to 
quickly back away from, sucking down purples! Pulse Tongue the Unclean 
was extra strong and fire enchanted, packing another spectral hit, but 
GreenPeppers was at SweetSpearGirl's side in a second, and between the 
five of them they busted the boss pack into bug smithereens. Finally! 
the way down!

"Eureka!" GreenPeppers grinned.

"That's Old Kurastian for 'give me a towel'," SweetSpearGirl laughed.

It was on level 3 that the group first encountered packs of actual 
maggots! Rock Worm minions barred their way, clustering around their 
bright yellow boss Mind Eater the Impaler (YET AGAIN stone skin, fire 
enchanted, magic resistant, immune to physical). Their hatching brood 
chittered and swarmed, Death Beetles coming down a nearby tunnel to act 
as backup, and as SweetSpearGirl swallowed another purple, laying into 
the foes, she began to wonder how many of the potions she had left!

"Not enough, I'll wager," she muttered.

"Stone skin maggots and lightning enchanted lightning bugs," 
GreenPeppers muttered, a lightning-enchanted boss beetle coming into 
view whose name SweetSpearGirl, being flustered by all the fighting and 
lights, couldn't catch. Champion Death Beetles followed in short order, 
and SweetSpearGirl grimaced. Her muscles ached, her weapon was looking 
the worse for wear and her armour was covered in slime and bug bits and 
singed by lightning bolts. Grimly she forced herself onwards, noticing 
Euyfura's hands were raw and bleeding from plucking her bow, and the 
last straw was when they encountered Devil Jade, another stone-skinned 
physical-immune Rock Worm who - just like everything else - favoured 
magic resistance and fire enchantments. The sickly-green bug went down 
and SweetSpearGirl wiped her brow, groaning in pain as her back twinged.

"This sucks," she groaned. "Where in the hells is Coldworm's chamber?"

"Look on the bright side," Euyfura said. "You're so close to level 74 
Coldworm will probably boost you there!"

"I hope so," SweetSpearGirl muttered, as they rounded a corner into the 
huge maggot queen's chamber itself!

Surrounded by maggots and their young, the giant beast was - as 
everything else today - magic resistant and lightning enchanted. While 
her Spectral Hit was of no consequence, the bug never attacking anything 
directly, her cold-enchanted death blast was a worry for SweetSpearGirl, 
who threw up a town portal.

"Don't worry about that!" Euyfura called, as GreenPeppers and his merc 
laid into the swarming maggots. "Your resists are maxed out after all! 
Wish I could say the same!"

All five of them were badly poisoned by the time Coldworm died and the 
chamber was cleared, but SweetSpearGirl was very happy to be able to 
snatch the Horadric Shaft from its resting place in the golden chest and 
- finally! - return to town, where the intrepid group could heal, repair 
their gear, and rest their weary bodies before the next session of heavy 
fighting. SweetSpearGirl had missed out on reaching level 74 by a mere 
sliver of experience, but as she snuggled down beside Euyfura, wincing 
at her aching back, she remarked:
"Absolutely no way am I going to fight anything else today, experience 
be damned!"

"Don't blame you," Euyfura muttered sleepily, as the Valk wandered off 
to annoy Greiz.


***NOTE: GreenPeppers is of course the mighty Bruce (Demigoddess). 
Thanks for the company! More to come! *grin***