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...