09-14-2003, 10:47 PM
MALDAR: ACT II, BEGINNING
When Maldar and Cain arrived at the desert city of Lut Gholein, Jehryn, the Lord of Lut Gholein, met them at the city gate. Jehryn had received word that Maldar, the Magnificent, had returned from retirement, and he was pleased to receive such distinguished visitors in a time of such trouble for his city.
Jehryn told Maldar and Cain that a Dark Wanderer looking for the fabled tomb of Tal Rasha had passed through his city. Not long afterward, the city became besieged by an evil power that no one could identify. People whispered tales of the dead rising from their tombs and horrible creatures lurking amongst the moonlit dunes. Suspiciously, Jehryn also told them that he couldn't invite his distinguished guests into the palace, because he said, "Things are... rather a mess right now." Clearly, Jehryn was not telling Maldar and Cain the whole truth.
Maldar and Cain wandered through the city and asked for information from the townsfolk. Atma, the tavernkeeper, told Maldar of a horrible creature hiding in the city's sewers that hungered for human flesh. She had lost both her husband and her son to it and asked Maldar to exact revenge on the terrible creature. Maldar looked sympathetically upon the mourning widow and expressed his sympathies to her. As he walked away from her, however, he was unsure about doing what she asked of him. He felt uncomfortable about embarking on a mission motivated purely by revenge. Still, her description of the creature disturbed him, so he decided to speak with Cain as well as Fara and Drognan who among the townsfolk seemed to know the most about mystical creatures and local legends.
Cain, Fara, and Drognan all came to the same conclusion. The creature appeared to be an ancient Horodric mummy and Fara said it seemed to have an unusually restless and malevolent spirit. Drognan thought that the mummy was none other than Radament the Fallen who recently decided to leave his tomb and prey on mortal flesh. The fact that Radament decided to leave his tomb so soon after the Dark Wanderer appeared seemed like too much of a coincidence for Maldar and Cain. Maldar decided to embark on Atma's quest after all. If the Dark Wanderer was indeed Diablo, then it was important to stop Radament from carrying out Diablo's plans for Lut Gholein, whatever they might be.
I typically enter the Lut Gholein sewers from the trap door next to Greiz, but just as I was about to do that, I felt a gnawing in the back of my mind. There's that other entrance to the sewers by the dockside and I've always wondered why it was there. What's more, it always seemed like I had to pass by it on my way to the stairs to level 2. I thought that maybe Blizzard included that "secret" entrance as a sneaky way for knowledgeable players to get to the second level of the sewers quickly.
So on a lark, I entered the sewers using the entrance by the docks, made a quick right, and found the stairs to level 2 almost immediately. It's funny how one can learn new things about a game even after playing it intensively for 20 months (not counting an 18 month hiatus).
![[Image: Maldar2_radament.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar2_radament.jpg)
Getting past the skeletal archers and mages was pretty easy with Dim Vision and Bone Prison/Wall. Once I got to Radament's area, I drew off most of his skeleton minions and Dim Visioned and Bone Prisoned them. Then, I ran in and spammed bone prison all around the room to hold down Radament and keep the remaining minions at bay. After that, I took down Radament with Bone Spirits, waited for the Bone Prisons to expire, picked up the book and tp'd out of there.
The Halls of the Dead (Maldar has to get every waypoint) were surprisingly dangerous. It had a lot of narrow corridors filled to the brim with skeletons, bats, and mummies. One room had a mummy boss who was Conviction aura enchanted and a boss bat who was fire and cold enchanted. That was scary as hell. But I got to the Halls waypoint all the same. *whew*
Then it was time to be off to the Maggot Lair. As I said in my opening message, the Maggot Lair is the only place where I'm allowing Maldar to use Teleport (using a staff of Teleport on weapon switch). Still, when I first entered the Lair, I tried very hard to keep to the no-teleport rule. I lead a group of scarabs and itchies back to the entrance room and Dim Visioned and Bone Prisoned them there, but then I ran into a boss maggot parked right in the middle of the corridor and there was nothing I could do but teleport past him and the monsters beyond him.
The Maggot Lair was tight and it was rough when I'd teleport right in the middle of a pack of monsters.
![[Image: Maldar2_maggots1.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar2_maggots1.jpg)
But that didn't stop me from doing a little item finding by opening a few chests and kicking open a few jugs. What's kind of cool about casting Dim Vision on maggots is that they seem to consider the act of laying eggs as an "attack." So, if you blind them so that they can't see you, they don't lay eggs and you don't have to deal with hordes of little baby maggots. (There are baby maggots in the above screenshot because of the boss maggot who can't be blinded).
When I found the main chamber, I Dim Visioned everything as quickly as I could to try to limit the number of baby maggots that would be created. Then, I teleported right to the chest, thinking that I could hit the chest and exit before the bugs knew what was happening and that if there were bugs there, I could cast Terror on them to make some space and then hit the chest.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. There were too many itchies and other monsters there and I couldn't hit the chest. Plus, they were packed in so tightly that when I cast Terror on them, they had nowhere to run. I took a lot of hits and after quaffing my third full rejuv, I Dim Visioned everything, teleported across the room to a temporarily clear spot and tp'd to town to refresh my potions.
![[Image: Maldar2_maggots2.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar2_maggots2.jpg)
When I returned, I adjusted my strategy. I Dim Visioned everything again but this time I cast a bunch of bone prisons on the nearest half of the room. The idea was first to protect me from randomly wandering monsters and second to attract the more distant monsters near the chest toward my side of the room. I let the Dim Vision expire for a few seconds and cast a few more bone prisons on my side of the room. Then, I recast Dim Vision and teleported over to the chest.
![[Image: Maldar2_maggots3.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar2_maggots3.jpg)
The strategy worked. Most of the bugs had moved away from the chest. Two itchies remained in the area, however, preventing me from clicking on the chest. I cast Terror on them to move them out of the way, then Dim Vision and then some local bone prisons to hold the bugs back. Then, I hit the chest, grabbed the staff, and tp'd to town.
When Maldar and Cain arrived at the desert city of Lut Gholein, Jehryn, the Lord of Lut Gholein, met them at the city gate. Jehryn had received word that Maldar, the Magnificent, had returned from retirement, and he was pleased to receive such distinguished visitors in a time of such trouble for his city.
Jehryn told Maldar and Cain that a Dark Wanderer looking for the fabled tomb of Tal Rasha had passed through his city. Not long afterward, the city became besieged by an evil power that no one could identify. People whispered tales of the dead rising from their tombs and horrible creatures lurking amongst the moonlit dunes. Suspiciously, Jehryn also told them that he couldn't invite his distinguished guests into the palace, because he said, "Things are... rather a mess right now." Clearly, Jehryn was not telling Maldar and Cain the whole truth.
Maldar and Cain wandered through the city and asked for information from the townsfolk. Atma, the tavernkeeper, told Maldar of a horrible creature hiding in the city's sewers that hungered for human flesh. She had lost both her husband and her son to it and asked Maldar to exact revenge on the terrible creature. Maldar looked sympathetically upon the mourning widow and expressed his sympathies to her. As he walked away from her, however, he was unsure about doing what she asked of him. He felt uncomfortable about embarking on a mission motivated purely by revenge. Still, her description of the creature disturbed him, so he decided to speak with Cain as well as Fara and Drognan who among the townsfolk seemed to know the most about mystical creatures and local legends.
Cain, Fara, and Drognan all came to the same conclusion. The creature appeared to be an ancient Horodric mummy and Fara said it seemed to have an unusually restless and malevolent spirit. Drognan thought that the mummy was none other than Radament the Fallen who recently decided to leave his tomb and prey on mortal flesh. The fact that Radament decided to leave his tomb so soon after the Dark Wanderer appeared seemed like too much of a coincidence for Maldar and Cain. Maldar decided to embark on Atma's quest after all. If the Dark Wanderer was indeed Diablo, then it was important to stop Radament from carrying out Diablo's plans for Lut Gholein, whatever they might be.
I typically enter the Lut Gholein sewers from the trap door next to Greiz, but just as I was about to do that, I felt a gnawing in the back of my mind. There's that other entrance to the sewers by the dockside and I've always wondered why it was there. What's more, it always seemed like I had to pass by it on my way to the stairs to level 2. I thought that maybe Blizzard included that "secret" entrance as a sneaky way for knowledgeable players to get to the second level of the sewers quickly.
So on a lark, I entered the sewers using the entrance by the docks, made a quick right, and found the stairs to level 2 almost immediately. It's funny how one can learn new things about a game even after playing it intensively for 20 months (not counting an 18 month hiatus).
Getting past the skeletal archers and mages was pretty easy with Dim Vision and Bone Prison/Wall. Once I got to Radament's area, I drew off most of his skeleton minions and Dim Visioned and Bone Prisoned them. Then, I ran in and spammed bone prison all around the room to hold down Radament and keep the remaining minions at bay. After that, I took down Radament with Bone Spirits, waited for the Bone Prisons to expire, picked up the book and tp'd out of there.
The Halls of the Dead (Maldar has to get every waypoint) were surprisingly dangerous. It had a lot of narrow corridors filled to the brim with skeletons, bats, and mummies. One room had a mummy boss who was Conviction aura enchanted and a boss bat who was fire and cold enchanted. That was scary as hell. But I got to the Halls waypoint all the same. *whew*
Then it was time to be off to the Maggot Lair. As I said in my opening message, the Maggot Lair is the only place where I'm allowing Maldar to use Teleport (using a staff of Teleport on weapon switch). Still, when I first entered the Lair, I tried very hard to keep to the no-teleport rule. I lead a group of scarabs and itchies back to the entrance room and Dim Visioned and Bone Prisoned them there, but then I ran into a boss maggot parked right in the middle of the corridor and there was nothing I could do but teleport past him and the monsters beyond him.
The Maggot Lair was tight and it was rough when I'd teleport right in the middle of a pack of monsters.
But that didn't stop me from doing a little item finding by opening a few chests and kicking open a few jugs. What's kind of cool about casting Dim Vision on maggots is that they seem to consider the act of laying eggs as an "attack." So, if you blind them so that they can't see you, they don't lay eggs and you don't have to deal with hordes of little baby maggots. (There are baby maggots in the above screenshot because of the boss maggot who can't be blinded).
When I found the main chamber, I Dim Visioned everything as quickly as I could to try to limit the number of baby maggots that would be created. Then, I teleported right to the chest, thinking that I could hit the chest and exit before the bugs knew what was happening and that if there were bugs there, I could cast Terror on them to make some space and then hit the chest.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. There were too many itchies and other monsters there and I couldn't hit the chest. Plus, they were packed in so tightly that when I cast Terror on them, they had nowhere to run. I took a lot of hits and after quaffing my third full rejuv, I Dim Visioned everything, teleported across the room to a temporarily clear spot and tp'd to town to refresh my potions.
When I returned, I adjusted my strategy. I Dim Visioned everything again but this time I cast a bunch of bone prisons on the nearest half of the room. The idea was first to protect me from randomly wandering monsters and second to attract the more distant monsters near the chest toward my side of the room. I let the Dim Vision expire for a few seconds and cast a few more bone prisons on my side of the room. Then, I recast Dim Vision and teleported over to the chest.
The strategy worked. Most of the bugs had moved away from the chest. Two itchies remained in the area, however, preventing me from clicking on the chest. I cast Terror on them to move them out of the way, then Dim Vision and then some local bone prisons to hold the bugs back. Then, I hit the chest, grabbed the staff, and tp'd to town.