Irene, the Infirm

[MongoJerry]

The tactic of having Aliza do most of the fighting successfully took down about half of Andariel's remaining life, but Irene and Aliza's store of high quality healing potions was running low.

"Look, I know you were shaken up by that surprise gas attack," said Aliza, "but I'm dying down there. Literally! We need that spunky and cocky Irene back -- the one who started this whole adventure, the one who beat Blood Raven solo with her bare fists, the one who tanked the Countess, the one who's brains and brawn got us this far on this seemingly impossible journey. We need her back to have any hope of finishing this battle and coming out on top. Are you ready?"

Irene had been staring at the ground while Aliza had been talking. She stood silently for a few moments more. Then she slowly raised her head and a grin spread across her face. The fire in her eyes that had been extinguished by the surprise poison gas attack returned. She looked at Aliza squarely in the eyes and said, "I'm ready. Let's send this Lesser Evil back to hell."



With renewed vigor, Irene returned to her duty of baiting Andariel, allowing Aliza to (mostly) safely fire arrows uninterrupted at Andariel.



She also led Andariel in paths that would allow Aliza to accurately shoot at Andariel, and at the same time, she protected Aliza from too much harm. In fact, she got so good at it this process that Aliza only died one more time.



Only a few more arrows to go!

And without further ado, I present Andariel's death screen.



"We did it!" screamed Irene.

"Yahoo!" yelled Aliza. "Ohhhh...."

"What's the matter?" asked Irene. "Are you OK?"

"I have a headache," groaned Aliza. "I'm going to have nightmares involving poison gas for weeks."

And so, Irene and Aliza were fated to defeat the evil Queen Andariel and free the Rogue Monastery and the surrounding countryside from the influence of Diablo. They managed to do a full clear of every monster in every area of Act I, except for five immortalized monsters:

Snot Blister the Howler, Tower Level 4 (Boss blood clan, cold enchanted)
Pitspawn Fouldog, Jail Level 2 (Superunique tainted, amp cursed, cold enchanted)
Pulse Tongue the Quick, Catacombs Level 1 (Boss tainted, spectral hit)
Blight Spell, Catacombs Level 3 (Boss ghoul, cold enchanted)
Sharp Hack the Flayer, Catacombs Level 3 (Boss tainted, lightning enchanted)

Aliza had to be resurrected 18 times during the battle with Andariel, and in the end our heroines had only two regular healing potions, no light healing potions, and 75,565 gold left.

Andariel dropped a rare long bow and a rare crystal sword.

"Should we sell them like we did most everything else?" asked Aliza.

"Nah," replied Irene. "Let's put them in the stash with the pair of Cleglaw's Pincers we found. Maybe one day we'll learn how to use 'em."

Irene and Aliza returned to the Rogue Camp to a hero's welcome. Akara shook her head in disbelief at the accomplishments of her young sickly apprentice. The Rogues packed up to move back into the Rogue Monastery, and life resumed a sort of peaceful normalcy.

However, Deckard Cain warned Irene and Aliza that Diablo was still out there looking for something in the wilderness. He beseeched them to come east with him to the desert city of Lut Gholein and help thwart whatever schemes Diablo was planning.

Irene and Aliza respectfully listened to Cain, but finally, Irene spoke.

"We understand the terrible danger that the world is in," she said. "But despite what we have done, we are still but poor unarmed and unskilled warriors. We have done everything that could be asked of us to help defeat Diablo's plans and more. Now, we need to help reestablish the Order and restore peace to the region. Also, Akara and Kashya have offered to train us in their respective arts. Perhaps someday, we will follow you to Lut Gholein and to points beyond. But for now, we're going to remain here and help our sisters in their time of need."

Aliza nodded her head in agreement, and Cain realized that there would be no persuading the two heroines to join him on his journey. For now, he needed to seek out other heroes to take up the quest. Still, Cain suspected that this was not the last time he would see Irene and Aliza, the young brash heroines of the Rogue Order.

The first part of Irene and Aliza's adventures have come to an end, and for now I will let our heroines rest. If time and inclination allow, I may once again take up their story. Will they remain unskilled and unequipped? I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, my fifth character has been in stasis in Act I nightmare for a couple of weeks, and I would like to level him/her up. I'll begin writing up his/her adventures when he/she is ready to enter hell. However, I have to warn you that it may take a while to get that character's adventures started, because I'm likely to be playing the final release of 1.10 on bnet like everyone else. I'm just selfish that way. (No, I'm not going to write up the adventures of my bnet characters, because I play hardcore over a modem, and therefore the characters can't be that underpowered or interesting. However, if you're playing hardcore ladder games on USWest and see a javelin-throwing enchantress named Grizabella_hcld, be sure to say, "Hello!").

You can download Irene using one of the following links:

Zip file containing all Irene data files, including maps

Only Irene's .d2s file

I hope you enjoyed the show!