After offing Duriel rather easily, by virtue of the Reaper's Toll and
Holy Freeze merc keeping Duriel moving at a clip slower than the rest
of the world BongoMage and MsShythed move onward.

The torrid twosome lay Szzark and his minions to waste and survive the
dolls in the Flayer Dungeon. The gidbinn produced two of the sorryest
rings that we have seen of late. Although mine was level 14 the mods
sucked. Although Bongo's mods were better it required level 60,
therefore it was also "teh sukc".

Moved well through Lower, Bazaar and Upper. The 2nd level of the sewers
was close to the entrance. The two of them handled a stair trap in the
Ruined Temple very well.

The battle with the Council in Travincal was a classic and they came
out on top once again. The luck continued and they only encountered one
pack of dolls on Durance 1 and on Durance 2 there were no dolls.

MsShythed fought off god awful lag during the initial battles on
Durance 3. Bongo told Orion that he should have bailed out. Bongo is
right. In a fit of loyalty Orion kept MsShythed present and drank
purples "just in case" he was getting hit and not seeing it. Orion's PC
picked a bad time to work on sending out pings for windows or Norton
updates or something. Mepf went down like a whiskey bottle that was
laid on the table in front of a dehydrated alcoholic who just woke up
from 15 hour nap.

They are now sitting in Pandemonium pondering their next actions.

Bongo, I like to say I am brave and want to move onwards. I also like
to say that MsShythed is "Thee Breadwinner" for Clan Shythed in
Hardcore and I expect that she is needed by the rest of the Shythed
crew to obtain some items, gear etc for the ones that are plotting
their course through Nightmare and headed towards Hell.

I am sure that we can handle the Outer Steppes with ease. If we come
across Burning Souls in the Plains of Despair, well those things can be
nasty in Hell. I am also concerned with the poison that the Knights in
Act 4 Hell send forth, not for me but for the lovely BongoMage. My
resists are maxed but I still need to exercise because the Hell
creatures that certain combos of mods tend to blindside even the most
stallworth adventure.

Perhaps it would be wise to take a slight breather and farm some of the
areas that we have previously covered, whether it be solo or together.
This might also give us a chance to catch up a looter to our present
location. Clan Shythed is very dependant upon MsShythed and have hopes
that she can bring them home some "bacon" prior to her moving onward.

I need to go rune hunting for my lower characters for when they arrive
in Hell. I predict that I will have need of several LUM runes over the
next 4 months. My shieldless Ranger Druid dare not come close to
entering Hell until he has a Smoke. I am amazed that he is surviving in
act 5 Nightmare with a defense of 247. He surely keeps me on my toes
and I am sure his minions are doing well.

This is being quite the experience Bongo

What a long strange trip its been.

Orion Ryder