SWEETSPEARGIRL RETURNS

Chapter 16
Unexpected Victory

Cast of Characters:
- SweetSpearGirl, swiftly levelling towards her goal...
- Euyfura, sarcastic as ever
- Miss Frequently Recast 2006, the Ubiquitous Valk
- Nihlathak, the Fallen Necromancer
- Anya, Defacer of Shields
- Korlic the Protector
- Talic the Defender
- Madawc the Guardian
- Baal, the Lord of Destruction

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

The next morning was bright and crisp, although the leaden sky promised yet
more snow on the slopes of Arreat. SweetSpearGirl considered her options;
having levelled to 34 on a solo excursion, she decided a few more levels
were needed before the crew pressed on toward Nihlathak.

"Come on Rogue," she said. "Let's lay into a few buggers in the Trail."

"Sure. Where's the Valk?"

"Trying to chat up Qual-Kehk. It's that shiny armour of his, she can't stay
away!"

The Rogue snorted. "Good grief. Grab the silly bint and let's go."

The trio waypointed to the Glacial Trail and SweetSpearGirl threw a Decoy up
ahead. It soon attracted some attention. Star Eye (fire enchanted Reanimated
Horde) was soon followed up by a pack of Champion Abominables, but all were
dispatched with ease as our heroes moved on into the Drifter Cavern. A small
area delineated by chill, softly bubbling water, flowing down the mountain
into the Frozen River, the Cavern was filled with packs of Snow Drifters and
Frozen Terrors (the latter led by Vile Bender the Quick - extra fast; the
former by Pulse Dancer - fire enchanted).

"These buggers go down easy," SweetSpearGirl commented.

"And give good exp too," Euyfura shot back.

"Oh yes. I think we're done here. Crystalline Passage?"

"Why not? It's not like I'll get any colder than I am already!"

"Hush, you. You'll corrupt the Valk. I'll get you some better armour when I
can, I know that ring mail's a bit chilly even if it does have cold resist
on it."

Onward and downward it was, into the Crystalline Passage, where they
encountered a pack of moonies whose slaying boosted SweetSpearGirl up to
level 35. "Nice!" she grinned, slapping five more points into Strength (out
of the twenty she needed for that long-awaited Lycander's Flank, only seven
levels away now...). And the extra few points of damage were welcome, too,
against Bone Rend, who was stone skin and kicked SweetSpearGirl in the face.

"Hey!" she yelled, and rammed the business end of her Tannr Gorerod up the
harpy's fundament. "No-one kicks me and gets away with it!"

"I notice you let them get away with kicking *me* though," the Valk put in.

"That's different. I don't lose gold if you get your butt whipped."

The Valk muttered something rude in a half-forgotten language and stabbed
another moonie that charged out from a side passage.

The trio finished clearing the Passage, and just for the hell of it,
wandered into the Frozen River. The chill waters flowing downwards from the
Drifter Cavern lapped softly against the icy ledges, and then SweetSpearGirl
saw a boss charging towards them.

"Yuck!" she commented at its name - Puke Feast (!); lightning-enchanted too.
"I didn't need that image! And nor do I need - " as a stray bolt went BZZZ
into her leg - "that!" She laid into her foe and then the Succubus was gone.
SweetSpearGirl wiped her brow before recasting the Valk - who spawned with
some nice cold-resistant armour - into the middle of Frozenstein's boys. And
then there were no more buggers.

"Where to next?" the spearazon enquired of her companions.

"Somewhere in the fresh air!" Euyfura said.

"Hmmm... well there was a stairway up and out of the Glacial Trail. Let's
see if we can find that again."

As it turned out, the stairs did lead out into the open air - into the
Frozen Tundra, filled with clumps of trees and containing a very nearby
waypoint. SweetSpearGirl wasn't ready to quit yet though - she wanted to hit
level 42 today and take up her favourite weapon again! So it was onward and
upward, charging through errant packs of those damn teleporting imps
(again!) and the usual barricades and towers. Catapults lobbed elemental
death; SweetSpearGirl closed in on them and destroyed them. Imps chittered,
teleporting back and forth with a *vwhomp* sound, and spat fire;
SweetSpearGirl distracted them while Euyfura filled them with fire arrows.
And then they found the entrance to the Ancients' Way.

"Shall we?" SweetSpearGirl said.

"Lead the way!" said Euyfura.

The Valk was humming a tune and said nothing.

The Ancients Way(point) was conveniently located near the entrance; what
wasn't so convenient was several moonie bosses in the area. First up was
Bile Wing the Quick (cursed), who not only bumped SweetSpearGirl up to level
36 but also dropped a green item! Sigon's Shelter wasn't any use to anyone,
but it did pad SweetSpearGirl's nest egg by almost 19k in gold. Which was
good, because she needed a few repairs after the next boss - Death Dancer
the Dark (cold enchanted).

"Damn moonies," she muttered as it went down and chilled her to the bone.

Driven by some sort of suicidal impulse, she let herself down into the Icy
Cellar where the three adventurers were soon having fun with one - no ,
two - no, three, boss packs! Two packs of Hell Temptresses led by Dire
Killer the Hunter (stone skin) and Plague Shank the Dead (extra fast), whose
name SweetSpearGirl made very true, very quickly - were followed by Snapchip
Shatter and his Frozen Scourge minions. A nasty amp damage curse and cold
enchantment were not an amusing combination and SweetSpearGirl and co had to
pull back for a moment to drink potions while Euyfura peppered the
slow-moving demons with arrows. Finally they went down and the Cellar was
clear. Snapchip dropped a rare amulet which, while useless to everyone in
the party, did provide 29k in gold...

And finally they stood by the stairs up to the very summit of Mount Arreat.

"Sure you two want to come with me?" the amazon queried.

"Look," Euyfura said. "Usually I avoid the sappy stuff, you know me, I'm a
cynic through and through. But I've stuck with you through everything.
This'll be the fourth time we've been through this, and I've always stayed
with you. And I think we both know why."

SweetSpearGirl nodded. "Yeah. The same reason I always feel bad about
dragging you into these fights in the first place!"

"Well, don't, okay? I know what I'm doing. Trust me."

SweetSpearGirl threw up a portal for safety, and they ventured up the
stairs. She cast a Decoy and read from the altar, stepping back as the
Ancients swirled into glowing, fighting life.

"Yowza!" she cried as Madawc threw an axe at her! She ignored him for now
and concentrated on Korlic, who was right there in her face as the Valk
fended Talic off. As soon as she'd dealt with the former, she turned to her
next adversary, whose life bar was already well down, just as the Decoy went
POP...

Finally only Madawc was left. He'd been kept busy by Euyfura, who was
holding up well against his flying axes. The three of them ganged up on him
and BOOM, he was gone too. SweetSpearGirl was boosted to level 37 and
started for the entrance to the Worldstone Keep, deep within the mountain's
heart.

"Wait!" Euyfura yelled. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"I can see you're okay from here," SweetSpearGirl smirked.

"No, not that, you idiot! Nihlathak!"

"Oh. Bugger. Do we have to?"

"Anya will be well pissed off if we don't. Besides, it's more experience,
isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Okay. Let's go."

SweetSpearGirl plugged some more points into Strength, realising as she did
so that at level 37 she could heft a Hone Sundan. OK, so some idiot had
plugged some crappy gems into it, but it would be a better proposition than
the Gorerod now. Faster, too...

She hefted the spear, marvelling at how good it felt to have a new weapon.
Someone had dropped a Shael rune, too, so she plugged that into the open
socket of the waiting Lycander's... and stepped through Anya's portal.

A good omen, maybe - Pindleskin dropped a Brainhew. Gold items good! Useless
gold items still give hope! SweetSpearGirl smiled, thinking "Skystrike for
Rogue..." as they entered the Halls of Anguish. They fought their way
through Night Lords and such, noticing various unholy altars and wondering
who built this place before Nihlathak started using it as his base of
operations from which to summon undead beasties and conspire with the Big
Bad...

Descending through the halls of Anguish and Pain, they fought their way
through various badly-behaved beasties, SweetSpearGirl slashing and Jabbing,
the Valk venting battle-cries and lancing their foes, Euyfura's arrows
unerringly finding their targets. The trio laying waste to huge numbers of
monsters and leaving nothing but the destruction of Evil in their wake.
Prowling Dead and Death Slashers and Defilers all fell to their attacks,
none of our heroes worried in the slightest. SweetSpearGirl and Euyfura even
raising their voices in a battle song as they fought, finding the Halls of
Pain waypoint, and then, "Onward and downward!" the speargirl cried.

(Even Star Snarl - cold enchanted - hadn't been enough to slow down their
advance...)

Euyfura grinned and followed, into the Halls of Vaught.

There was a welcoming committe, of course - a committee soon lying face-down
in the dirt while three adventurers raced on, relentlessly, toward their
goal. A Dragon Chang spear came out of a tomb ("could've used that back in
the Monastery!" SweetSpearGirl commented), which sold for, well, not very
much really... so they pressed on towards Nihlathak.

"I still hope he passed on his recipe for that Special Brew," SweetSpearGirl
mused.

Euyfura raised an eyebrow. "If I ever have to see that stuff again, I'll
pour the lot of it down your back!"

"Nah. We'll be drinking it! You'll just have to make do with hot water for
our baths," the spearazon smirked.

"Smartass," the Rogue shot back.

"You know it! That's the way you like me!"

SweetSpearGirl levelled to 38 as they approached a long corridor. Casting a
Decoy down it, she heard snarling, and then the abrupt squelching POP of a
corpse exploding.

"That's him!" she yelled. "After him! Follow that Necro!"

Casting more Decoys ahead, they raced towards the sound. Ice Spawn swarmed
around them, only to die and then explode messily. Finally the area was
clear enough for SweetSpearGirl to pin her teleporting Necromantic foe
against a wall.

"I will keep my end of Baal's bargain!" he cried.

"Only if you give me that Special Brew recipe first!" SweetSpearGirl
snarled.

Nihlathak just laughed. "I will kill you!" he cried.

SweetSpearGirl laid into him. "I doubt it, somehow," she said as he fell,
his screaming soul pulled down into a glowing pit of Hell which shut with a
snap. "No, I don't think so at all."

Euyfura was at her shoulder. "No recipe, eh?"

"Ha! He took it with him, the sod."

"Oh well. You drunk isn't a sight I want to see often anyway. Except at
Atma's."

"I guess. Why can't the world let us stay in Lut Gholein? It's so warm and
peaceful and beautiful there."

"You'd die of boredom eventually," Euyfura said. "And you know how the Valk
irritates Greiz."

"Screw him," SweetSpearGirl said forcefully.

"Ew. No thanks!"

They headed back to town. Nihlathak had already given the Relic to Baal and
Baal had passed into the Keep, but they knew that already from the Ancients.
It was time. Time to end this.

They entered the Worldstone Keep, fighting yet more waves of monsters. The
second level tended towards exploding hell spawn, whose odd detonations both
chilled and burned SweetSpearGirl, yet had no effect on Euyfura and the
Valk.

"Guess it's our natural charm," the Rogue smirked, and SweetSpearGirl blew a
raspberry at her before stepping onto the waypoint. The next level down
contained Death Lords ("more damn moonies," muttered SweetSpearGirl), as
well as yet more of those teleporting imps! Sadly, the most remarkable drop
was a Nef rune, but SweetSpearGirl kept it anyway (as she said, "a rune's a
rune!").

Onward into Baal's throne room in the bottom of the Keep. The air was hot
and the walls red as they approached the very site of the Worldstone. Baal's
laughter echoed off the walls as they fought. He threw packs of his minions
at them - Colenzo the Annihilator (warped shamen, fire enchanted and
something else) was first up, but died so quickly SweetSpearGirl didn't even
catch his other attribute.

Baal laughed again. Down came Achmel the Cursed (immune to poison). The
poison he and his buddies spewed was incredibly potent, knocking
SweetSpearGirl's health down to almost nothing very fast. Baal decrep'd her
as she tried to run, and she had to down a potion as a Death Mage cold
missile slowed her even further! Finally, they turned their attention to the
Valk and let her get in behind, knocking them down one by one until they
were all gone.

Up came sudden Hydras shooting firebolts at our heroes. Bartuc the Bloody
(lightning enchanted) sent his Council minions swarming around and was soon
going BZZZBZZZ as SweetSpearGirl hit him. It was a fight to the death - but
it was his death. not any of the adventurers'. The hydras vanished one by
one as Euyfura and the Valk pinned the last minion against a wall.

Ventar the Unholy's (extra fast) pack was also a bit of a swarmer,
surrounding our heroes, but they went down much easier. Almost as easy as
Colenzo and friends. All that was left now between SweetSpearGirl and Baal,
was Lister the Tormentor (spectral hit), who slammed SweetSpearGirl and the
Valk around, getting them into stun lock frequently. SweetSpearGirl pulled
back, casting a Decoy and drawing off a minion at a time, and with a *jab*
*stab* *poke*, one by one, whittled them down into nothing.

Baal turned, vanishing into a flowing red portal.

"I'm so gonna get my a.s kicked," the Valk said.

"You said that last time!" Euyfura retorted. "Come on, Valk. Into the lion's
den!"

They stepped through. The Worldstone lay before them, huge and scarlet,
ancient source of the Soulstones. But that wasn't all that was there. Baal
cried out as he saw them, shouting, "My brothers have not died in vain!" but
SweetSpearGirl was already attacking him, a Decoy at the ready.

Euyfura stood back, firing, as he chilled SweetSpearGirl and the Valk. He
was hurting, though, and they kept up the attack. "No ass-kicking from you
THIS time!" SweetSpearGirl yelled...

...And then it was over. One minute he was attacking them with cold wedges
and tentacles, the next he keeled over, coughing his guts up, dropping some
stuff. A Duskdeep full helm (which SweetSpearGirl donned; it was a decent
replacement for her rare crown), some gold, and various other unforgettable
items.

She forestalled Tyrael as he spoke from above.

"I know, I know. You need to destroy the Worldstone. Well, whatever. We're
going home. Please, if at all possible next time, ask somebody else!"

They stepped through the portal.

THE END
=======

(Addendum: SweetSpearGirl followed up with a few Baal runs to get herself to
level 43, at which point she equipped herself with not only her Shael'ed
Lycanders - 50% IAS!! - but also some very nice rare gloves with +2 to spear
skills and - at last! - some mana steal...)

(Query: does anyone want me to write SSG's adventures in NM and Hell?? <g>)