Mizor (Chapter 18)

Template:Mizor nav Mizor: "Aawwnakaakl." (I don't want to talk to Nihlathak.)

Paige: "Come on. Be nice to Malah."

Mizor: "Aawmmsls." (I don't like the way he smells.)

Paige: "Well, I don't like the way you smell. I don't like the way anyone up here smells. But I've got to admit, Nihlathak does smell pretty strange."

Mizor: "Sssmmrzbee." (He smells like a zombie.)

Paige: "Kind of. He smells more like a rat."

Mizor: "Rrrrmass." (I've met many much nicer rats.)

Paige: "They were probably poorer conversationalists. Look, Malah is old, even if we get Baal, she's not long for the world. It would be nice if she at least knew what happened to this Anya person. Someone should get some peace of mind, somehow."

Mizor: "Hwwme?" (What about me?)

Paige: "You get to make peace. Hello, elder Nihlathak."

Nihlathak: "Well, well, our little siege-breakers. So kind of you to deign to visit. How may I be of service to our illustrious guests?"

Mizor: "Rrrr..."

Paige: "We were kind of wondering, about someone missing from the citadel..."

Nihlathak: "Many are missing from our city. You may have heard something about them being dead. This happens, during war. However, we are not eager to repopulate with nosy outlanders, or their trained animals."

Mizor: (Oh so dearly and desperately wants to smash his smirking face in.)

Paige: "We heard about someone specific... named Anya?"

Nihlathak: "You've been talking with Malah, haven't you? What has she been telling you?"

Mizor: "Whaaookassd." (That you're a creepy, sneaky bastard.)

Nihlathak: "Never mind, I know what she's been saying. Yes, Anya. The darling daughter of our dear departed high chief. A true princess. She and I had an argument about 'daddy', and she stormed off when I did not agree that dying was the best thing I could have done for our land. Unfortunately, her temper led her outside the gates. She was a headstrong girl, and must have thought the invading army would never dare disturb her in her royal sulk."

Paige: "She stormed off outside the gates? She opened the gates?"

Mizor: "Hhhrronnaarnng." (Headstrong and arm-strong.)

Nihlathak: "I am quite sure she is now a nutritional supplement. Despite what Malah thinks, a poor temper is not a sign of an indomitable spirit. And neither will save you from a blade."

Further conversation seemed pointless. Mizor thought the rats were better company. With no idea what Anya looked like, they could never identify her among the mangled corpses outside the gates, so she might actually be there. But Nihlathak's saying she was dead was good evidence that she was really alive, in Mizor's opinion. Back on the plateau, they fought up to a glacial wall, solid ice blocking the path. At the base of the glacier was a small cave, and an urn. An evil urn, it looked like. What was so evil about it? When Mizor opened it, he found Tancred's Hobnails and a few large spiders, which wandered around on the ice and looked very sad before they froze to death.

Going under the glacier, into a long passage made of beautiful crystalline ice, Mizor looked at the Hobnails. They weren't great, but he'd found many artifacts of name on Arreat. The Arctic Furs (where else?), Death's Guard, Isenhart's Case, Angelic Raiment, the General's Tan Do Li something... the Barbarians had collected a lot of legendary equipment. There were bull-men under the glacier, heavily armored and swinging huge axes, one in each hand. Was there no shortage of evil animal people? More bulls appeared when Mizor opened an evil urn; maybe that's what was evil about them, the bulls were genuinely dangerous.

Down at the very base of the ice, by a river of meltwater, Mizor found another evil urn. After clearing the immediate area, he opened it, summoning up a lightning enchanted Yeti, but Bear ran off and found an extra-fast minotaur at the same time. Stupid bear. Stupid bear, have to fight both packs, stupid bear, don't die Paige, here's a potion, stupid bear, stay away from the lightning enchanted one, there goes the Spirit...

Paige: "Dammit, stupid bear!"

Mizor: "Mrrr?"

Paige: "No, the other one!"

Bear: "Rrrr!"

Paige did not die, and neither did Bear, though it might have taught him some sense. Further up the river, near where it came out from under the ice, they found a huge pack of Yetis, led by a chief. Bear, by way of apology, killed the chief Yeti, Frozenstein, all by himself. Paige even scratched his ears to show he was forgiven. The Yeti were guarding someone, a Barbarian woman frozen in a shell of ice; it was Anya, and Nihlathak had done this to her to get her out of the way. Malah quickly whipped up a mega-thawing potion, and Anya went back to town through a portal. Everyone uses those things these days.

Malah: "Bless you and thank you, great hero. This is an ancient scroll of resistance I had at the bottom of an old trunk. I hope it will be of use to you."

Mizor: "Waaahgh! Waahttaihm?" (Wow! Can I go through your attic sometime?)

Anya: "And thank you, hero, for rescuing me. Here is a token of my appreciation, I had it custom made for you, by Larzuk." (Hands Mizor a fairly useless rare wolf pelt.)

Mizor: (Gee, I thought only we knew how to make these things.)

Anya: "Nihlathak negotiated with Baal. In exchange for sparing Harrogath, Nihlathak is going to give Baal our most holy totem, which would allow him to pass the summit of Mount Arreat unchallenged! He could just walk in!"

Mizor: "RRRRRAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

Anya: "Through this red portal, Nihlathak's... (Mizor grabs Paige and runs through the portal.) Uh, well, never mind, you'll find out."

Dammit, dammit, dammit! The Nephilim were at the summit, and Mizor had been counting on them to buy some time, surely they'd be able to at least delay Baal for a while. But if Baal didn't need to get through their challenge, and Mizor did, he'd never catch him! Maybe the Guardians would be sensible and ignore the totem, and attack Baal anyway. Maybe they'd be kind enough to let Mizor in, despite not having the totem. And maybe Mizor could grow wings and fly up to the summit, if he found enough magic pixie dust.

Beyond the red gate was Nihlathak's temple. The place was just dripping with zombies, real lively ones too. They'd even get up to a run occasionally, and you never knew when they were really dead for good. Down at the bottom of the temple, they found Nihlathak, with a crew of little sword-swingers and a huge group of Succubi. Mizor didn't ask what he was doing with so many Succubi -- you'd think one would be enough for any man -- he charged.

When the little guys started dying, Nihlathak laughed (a lot like Izual laughed) and the corpses started popping like overripe blueberries. Dammit, he wasn't an elder, he was a necromancer! Cursed filth-drenched unnatural unsanitary necromancer desperately needs to get some death of his own, and Mizor was just the one to dish some high grade carnage out, except that those corpse explosions hurt a lot... so he ran around, feeling no compunction about blindsiding necro-boy at all. Soon, even without Mizor on his scrawny behind, Nihlathak ran out of corpses, saw the light of reason, and kicked the bucket in a truly spectacular way. Hell opened up beneath him, stripped the flesh from his bones, and sucked him down into the inferno's maw. Unfortunately, he probably wasn't headed for real punishment down there. Most likely some kind of desk job. The Ancient's totem wasn't in the temple. Nihlathak had already given it to Baal.