Amanita (Chapter 37)
Template:Amanita nav The whole population of Harrogath was waiting for me in the square. When I poked my head in, they all let loose the loudest cheer a double dozen Barbarians can manage. Snow fell off the roofs and icicles tinkled to the ground. I almost jumped.
"Congratulations!" Cain shouted, trying to make himself heard.
"Besting the Ancient Ones is a mighty feat indeed," Qual-Kehk said, having a much easier time of it. "I hope this means you're ready to face Baal."
They looked pretty surprised when I dropped the crossbow by the well and started taking my gauntlets off. "No. The Worldstone is toast. He got to it already."
The square went silent. "You are certain?" Qual-Kehk finally said.
"There's pieces of red crystal all over the place, chunks as big as houses. They're in the floor, in the walls, the whole place looks bloody. The Worldstone was red, right?"
Anya nodded. "Then vengeance is all we have left to live for."
"I don't do revenge, or lost causes. There's no point. That's it. They got what they were after. Game over."
The square was still silent. Finally, Qual-Kehk said, "You left Baal alive, then? He is inside Mt. Arreat?"
I looked around. Everyone was staring at me. "Don't you get it? He won! He probably won last night while I was asleep. There's no point going after him anymore."
"We understand your words," Anya said. "It is the spirit in them that is strange. You have become a hero for me and my people. To fall into despair now is... unlike you."
"Many warriors' hearts fail when they see the enemy's power," Malah said, then smiled up at Qual-Kehk. "Even you were afraid, on your first raid into the southlands."
"I was. But I did not let that fear stop me." Qual-Kehk crossed his arms. "Warrior, the destruction of the Worldstone bodes ill, but to let the destroyer to live on would be foolish beyond measure. The Ancients themselves have honored you above all others. Does their will mean nothing to you?"
I looked at Cain. "They don't get it."
"Amy..." he began, his eyebrows wrestling each other up and down his forehead, "the end of the Worldstone does not mean the end of the world."
"It doesn't?"
"I have been speaking with many of the clansmen and women while you were away. The true nature of the Worldstone has always been a mystery. In fact, the whole history of the northlands is almost completely unknown to us, and --"
"Cain? High points! Please?"
"Uh, yes. Heaven gave us the Worldstone for our protection, but our world existed long before, and I am sure we can continue on without it."
"Oh," I said. I need some snappier comebacks.
"Our lives may be harder without the safety the Worldstone offers --"
"But they will be harder yet with the Lord of Destruction loose in our lands!" Qual-Kehk interrupted. "Outlander, why do you question what must be done?"
"You met and defeated the Ancient Ones, whom Baal feared to face," Anya said. "He must be exiled from our world if we are ever to have any peace. What comes tomorrow, we will face tomorrow. The destroyer must be destroyed today!"
Cain nodded energetically. "Taking Baal's Soulstone to the Hellforge should --"
"All right already!" I screamed. "I'm going!"
Inside Mt. Arreat was a network of wide corridors, high ceilings, columned halls, and braziers full of crackling flames that made it almost comfortable inside. Everything was made of stone and iron, without a sign of rust. If I saw red, it was either a piece of crystal, or a puddle of human blood. It looks like there were a few locals in here before me. Either that, or Baal and crew brought snacks.
The "crew" was the usual: Zombies, Succubi, and some of the floaty worm things. At least the Zombies had thawed enough I could carve them into pieces. The Succubi were wearing gold lame, and could throw a genuine Amplify curse. Bitches of quality, I guess. The curse might have worked better for them if the Zombies ever got near me. The next level down was probably just like the first, originally. The Worldstone pieces were bigger, and a dust of crystals covered the floor. The only demons were slaves who could blow themselves up without a slave-driver. Dedicated, but they still need pants.
The third level started getting dangerous. It wasn't the fire in the floor -- that wasn't good, but nothing would have been. It was the bulls. Baal's biggest load of bull-men was there, with Imps for back-up fire. The bulls hardly needed it. The Ancients wished they could move that fast, probably because the bulls didn't armor their backsides. Why, when you never run away? I gave the bulls my best efforts mentally, both to sic 'em on the Imps and so they'd turn their unprotected asses towards me. A confused bull or three is a damn fine thing for clearing out a hall.
The deepest halls were lit in red, and there was a nasty smell. The rest of Baal's bulls and his finest Succubi were scattered around, obviously waiting for me. Bulls go through Succubi even faster than Imps, but the Succubi's Amplify curse does a number on the bulls too. The Succubi were the best looking of all of them. Also the meanest, and they were all wearing lavender. I suspect that means something.
Sneaking through the shadows, I took a look through the central hall. This isn't as easy as it sounds -- Baal didn't get the good looks in his family. His bugness was up on a palanquin in front of a red gate, passing the time idly crushing bits of crystal between his fingers. I went to clear the rest of the basement before dealing with him. No reason to rush, and I didn't want a bull sneaking up behind me while I was with their boss. The last few Succubi were in the hall with him, probably his favorites. He didn't raise a finger to protect them either... just sat there, giggling like a loon.
I shot him and closed with the katar. He might have said something, but I hate listening to freaks. He let me get inside his range, then threw down a curse: Decrepify. Then more demons appeared between me and him: Fallen Shamans. Damn, this would be harder than I thought. I fell back, waited for the curse to fade, and started sniping. Fallen aren't that bad, except for that resurrection thing. I targeted the most resplendent one, then picked off the others.
The last shaman bit the dust, and Baal summoned up a bunch of Mummies, still giggling like a schoolgirl. That's another thing I hate about having to listen to targets-- too many of them giggle. The mummies brought some skeleton mages with them. I used the standard luring tactics on the mages, then closed on the Mummies like usual. That was a mistake. Baal dropped Decrepify again, and the Mummies breathed. The stench almost knocked me out right there. I grabbed a purple, hacked the biggest Mummy to bits, and ran for safety before the rest could gang up on me. Three reds weren't enough to get rid of the poison. I had to crawl home to Malah to get it out of my system.
When I got back, Baal had more demons waiting: twisted sorcerers, led by Bartuc, Horazon's brother and Hell's most famous apologist. Seeing him now, I had to smile. So, Bart... how's that "respectful relations and open exchange of knowledge" thing working out? He and his friends didn't think much about it anymore... or anything else. It was easy to turn what was left of their minds on each other. The only problem was when they summoned Hydra. Fire spirits don't have minds I can affect at all, so I got a little singed.
The next wave was a crowd of Balrogs. It occurred to me I hadn't gotten a clear shot on Baal since the first one, but these guys were too tall to shoot over. These guys were green, which sometimes translates to poison resistance in a demon, so I used luring tactics to draw a few away for testing. They were poison resistant. Some mental misdirection and sniping whittled them down, then I cornered the last few one at a time and hacked them up.
Baal was still laughing while I raised my bow. The least I could do was shut him up, but the next and last summoning appeared right when I fired. These were strange-looking things. I've never seen or heard of anything like them. I'm not really comfortable with unknowns, especially ones that are trying to kill me, so I fell back and let two follow me out of the hall. A shot stopped one, and I let the other get me back into a side corridor. It was time to experiment.
I put my worst poison on a bolt, took careful aim, and got it right where an artery should be in anything whose anatomy makes sense. It made a strange noise, and followed me around in circles until the venom wore off. I put in another, for a repeat performance. That was bad. Even the toughest of the Ancient Ones only took two bolts. Out came the katar, and I closed in. That was also bad. The thing lowered what might have been its head and butted me across the room. I dodged the next slam, jumped over a stomp, and retreated to drink a potion. My little puppy followed, the poison worn off. I put in another bolt and led it on again. Again, no rush. I might as well see how long it takes these things to die.
A long time, it turned out. Longer than I have patience. After 5 bolts, I'd had enough, and went in with the katar again. It stomped, then swung its head. I dodged both, then jumped in and stabbed. It didn't take long to figure out that the things are incredibly strong, but not quite as strong as they are heavy. They actually need a few seconds to recover from a swing -- dodge that, and you've got 'em. It still took a long time for it to die.
On my way back to the central hall, I ran into the one I'd lost earlier. It took me so long to kill the other one, I'd forgot about it. Fortunately, this was not a problem -- now I had a chance to experiment with mind games. My first look at the thing's mind was shocking. First off, there was hardly anything there. Secondly, it had no instincts for fear or aggression, Hell's favorite motivaters. Its senses fed directly into a few simple brain pathways, with no higher processing. The only things it recognized were others like it, and Baal. Everything else, it smashed. This huge monster had a mind like an insect, only not even that complex. I couldn't misdirect it, or confuse it. There was nothing there to confuse. The best I could do mentally was overwhelm its senses and stun it for a few seconds.
Killing the second went quicker than the first, and I stopped to review my options. Mental tricks were not going to work. Poison was out. Going hand-to-hand with more than one at a time was too risky to even think about. But it looked like there was only one answer. I took a trip back to Harrogath to get my blades resharpened, and stepped in to lure them out, one at a time. They came three at a time, but a couple of mind slaps trimmed off the stragglers. Me and the leader went to an unoccupied corner to sort things out. After about 10 minutes of running, dodging, and carefully placed stabs, I squished the bug. The last two I took on together. I was feeling brave, or maybe just stupid, but they didn't hit me too much.
While I was off with his bugs, Baal left. I couldn't imagine him just leaving without saying goodbye, so I checked out the red gate. It took me to a cave almost completely filled by a giant bloody-red floating glassy clear crystal of almighty awesomeness. Even broken, it was stunning. Most of the top was gone, and pieces were floating around like clouds. Clouds that weighed several tons, to look at the gouges in the walls and ceiling, but --
The Decrepify curse hit me, and tentacles schlorped up out of the cave floor. I cursed and took off as fast as my aching joints could take me. Baal was on a catwalk leading out to the Worldstone. He's on a catwalk, giggles like a girl, all his favorite girlfriends wear lavender... in spite of all the spells, I was having a hard time taking this Lord of Hell seriously. As I ran to the catwalk, he teleported behind me, and stamped out a wave of cold that almost pushed me off the edge. Ok, that was serious. I put a bolt in him and hid behind a pillar until the chill and his curse wore off.
When I looked around again, there were two of him. One had to be an illusion, but it was a damned good one. I could sense active minds in both. But only one had a crossbow bolt sticking out of him. I concentrated on that one, from outside his spell range. Baal's spells, it turned out, were very powerful, but had lousy range. His cold wave petered out at about 20 yards. Likewise a tentacly spell I didn't recognize. He could still curse, but with no way to reach me his curses meant as much as mine did. Sniping was my best option, moving when he did, slowly filling him with poison until he threw his own guts up and collapsed.
Now, guess who turned up next? That's right, Tyrael. The second Baal stopped twitching, his pureness vaporized a hole in the ceiling and he fluttered in on a beam of light.
MORTAL, EVEN I AM IMPRESSED.
YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THE IMPOSSIBLE.
BUT I FEAR IT IS TOO LATE TO SAVE THE
WW WW OOOOOO RRRRR LL DDDDD SSSSS TTTTTT OOOOOO N NN EEEEEE
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BAAL'S CORRUPTING TOUCH HAS BROKEN
THE BONDS WHICH ANCHORED IT TO YOUR WORLD
AND MADE IT THE SHIELD THAT IT ONCE WAS.
NOW IT CAN ONLY BE A WEAPON, FOR HELL.
IN TIME, EVIL WILL RECOVER ITS STRENGTH
AND THEY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO USE IT
AGAINST YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU HAVE MADE.
TO SAVE YOUR WORLD, I MUST DESTROY IT.
There's no way I could explain to Cain what I did next. I walked up to him and kicked him in the shin.
You damned sorry excuse for an anthropomorphic manifestation how DARE you come traipsing in here and say "NICE TRY, BUT TOO LATE" after what I had to go through slogging up this stupid mountain through all those stupid Imps and the stupid Zombies and those bulls and everything that was in here just to get here too late to do anything because Nihlathak was so stupid he gave away the whole game that you guys gave us the stupid artifact didn't you? so get your face down here where I can slap you right now you stupid aw fuck it
He didn't kill me.
BAAL'S SOULSTONE IS LINKED TO THE
WW WW OOOOOO RRRRR LL DDDDD SSSSS TTTTTT OOOOOO N NN EEEEEE
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SO HE WAS ABLE TO USE ITS POWER
TO PREVENT ME FROM ENTERING THIS PLACE.
YOUR ANGER IS NOT MISPLACED.
ALL THAT TRANSPIRED ON YOUR LONG JOURNEY
GREW OUT OF MY MISTAKES IN AGES PAST.
BUT REGRET WILL ACCOMPLISH NOTHING. YOU
HAVE EARNED A LONG REST FROM THIS BATTLE
WHICH WILL CONTINUE ANOTHER DAY.
I HAVE PREPARED A GATE FOR YOU.
GO, AND MAY HEAVEN SHINE ON YOUR PATH.
I looked at the red gate, and shook my head. "Nah. I'll find my own way. I'm going back to Harrogath. There's a party I need to start."
Concluding Thoughts:
- Wow, the Ancients went down easy. I hardly had to do anything. Lister was a serious problem; he just would not die.
- The Assassin's in-game dialogue has to be the worst of all the characters. Maybe I got spoiled by the Necromancer, who has some of the game's best lines, but I didn't like anything about what the Assassin said or how she said it.
- Venom Assassins are better off with bows than crossbows. The Heavy Crossbow I was using was much too slow without Burst of Speed, and I couldn't use that and Venom at the same time. I think you can use both in version 1.10.
- Using a Shadow Warrior or Master with a ranged Assassin might be good, if the Shadow doesn't start spamming Cloak of Shadows. That's why I didn't use one. However, this build would be fantastic with a Holy Freeze merc.
Poison is pretty good with a ranged attack. Maybe when I switch over to 1.10, I'll rebuild Amanita, but I've had enough of poison and want something that kills faster. And when I think of a fast girl, I think of the Amazon!