Irene, the Infirm

[MongoJerry]

IRENE: CATACOMBS LEVEL 4, THE THRONE ROOM



Irene opened the wooden door to Andariel's throne room and waited. Nothing immediately charged out of the door, so she took a few steps inside to the right and woke up the group of dark ones who always spawn with a shaman just to the right of the doorway. Irene and Aliza drew most of the dark ones away to the entrance room and killed them there. Then they returned to the throne room, keeping to its right side and took out the shaman and the dark one who had been left behind.



Irene and Aliza then moved to the left side of the room, keeping well away from where they knew they'd wake up Andariel, and woke up some normal afflicted and ghouls. Interesting. There didn't appear to be any boss packs in the level. Irene and Aliza had planned on having to ditch a boss near the top of the throne room, but apparently, that wouldn't be necessary.

Anyway, Irene and Aliza lured the afflicted and ghouls into the main chamber and killed them there. Then they returned to the throne room and inched forward, hoping they could get lucky and kill the shaman who always hangs out halfway up the throne room with a volley of arrows.



Whoops! Here she comes!

Irene and Aliza weren't ready to battle Andariel just yet. They wanted to kill all of the other monsters in the Catacombs Level 4 so that they could be sure that they wouldn't be disturbed by other monsters during the final showdown. So, Irene led Andariel to the entrance room, and after snaking around the room, she bolted out the door and sprinted inside the throne room. However, Aliza had been left in the dust in addition to Andariel, and Irene worried whether Andariel might end up being led back to the throne room by Aliza. So, Irene started a townportal, went to town, and came back. That instantly "teleported" Aliza to Irene's side, and Andariel remained safely parked in the entrance room.



Then, our heroines completed a thorough clear of the throne room. They lead the dark ones at the top of the throne room down to the throne room's entrance, killed them there, quickly ran up and killed the two shaman in the area, and then returned to the throne room's entrance to kill the dark ones who had been revived. Then, Irene and Aliza finished off the three normal ghouls who wandered around near the top of the throne room.

When they had finished clearing the top of the throne room, Irene made a thorough check of the entire level -- including popping her head into the entrance room, which contained Andariel -- for any leftover monsters. She found that they had been thorough. The only monster left alive in the Catacombs Level 4 was Andariel herself.

Irene and Aliza townportaled to town, bought healing and antidote potions, returned to the center of the Rogue Camp, and stood next to their open townportal back to the Catacombs Level 4.

Irene and Aliza stared at the swirling blue portal in rapt contemplation of what they were about to do.

"So here we are," said Aliza. "Two unarmed girls with no combat training about to battle an immortal Lesser Evil."

Irene's serious expression evolved slowly into a chuckling grin, and then both girls broke into boisterous laughter at the ludicrousness of it all.

After the laughter died down, Irene turned to Aliza with a smile and simply said, "Ready?"

"Ready," Aliza replied.

"Let's go," said Irene.