09-21-2003, 12:32 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-21-2003, 11:14 PM by MongoJerry.)
MALDAR: ACT IV, THE RIVER OF FLAME
Having successfully freed Izual from his bonds, Maldar continued his journey across the Plains of Despair and the City of the Damned. At length, he found a stairway leading down to a glowing red abyss. Surely, this could be nothing less than the entrance to the fabled River of Flame. No mortal hero, no matter how great, had ever ventured this far into hell. Any sane person would have fled this place immediately, for even the darkest terrors of a person's imagination could not possibly reach the scope of the horrors that awaited a visitor down below.
And yet the very future of the mortal realm itself required Maldar to travel along the River of Flame, smash Mephisto's soulstone at the fabled Hellforge, and battle Diablo in his lair. Maldar took a deep breath, closed his eyes to the terror that seeped through his veins, and took his first step down into the heart of hell itself.
When I first entered the River of Flame, I found maggots. My gut reaction was to restart the game to reroll the monsters, but I decided to give the maggot-ridden RoF a try. The going went well until I came upon a bridge blocked by two large maggots. I cast Terror on them to try to get them out of the way and at first, the idea seemed to work. But then one of the maggots managed to lay an egg on top of the bridge when the Terror curse wore off. The situation quickly degenerated as I tried to deal with the new baby maggots. The big maggots kept laying even more eggs and the bridge kept getting clogged up. There just wasn't going to be any crossing of that bridge. I tp'd to town and restarted the game.
![[Image: Maldar4_river1.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar4_river1.jpg)
This time, I there were maw fiends, grotesques, and stranglers. They would do. Before I entered the RoF, I had wondered how difficult it would be for Maldar to make his way along the RoF, but it turned out that the traveling wasn't bad at all. The paths there are wide enough to get around most monster obstacles and any narrow areas like bridges can be cleared with Terror pretty easily (if there aren't any maggots).
![[Image: Maldar4_river2.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar4_river2.jpg)
At the Hellforge, I knew it was going to be difficult fighting Hephasto while simultaneously not killing any of the monsters around him. At first, I tried to keep things simple by casting Dim Vision on the regular monsters and casting Bone Prisons only around Hephasto himself. But there were too many monsters in too many directions to keep that up. Several grotesques pumped out baby worms, and I couldn't keep control of everything with Dim Vision alone, so I sprayed Bone Prisons and Bone Walls all around to keep the monsters at bay.
![[Image: Maldar4_river3.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar4_river3.jpg)
It was difficult keeping both Hephasto and the minion monsters imprisoned at the same time. Hephasto himself gradually punched his way through Bone Prisons toward me, so I again found myself engaging in a "fighting retreat."
![[Image: Maldar4_river4.jpg]](http://www.idiom.com/~gmonsen/diablo/Maldar4_river4.jpg)
While retreating (after having gone back to town to refresh potions), I found myself trapped by one of the rock formations. At first, I thought it was the maw fiend who was blocking me, so I cast Terror on it to move it out of the way. That plan didn't work. It was the rock formation itself that was blocking me, not the maw fiend. Hephasto himself had me trapped in a spot I couldn't move out of and he was clobbering me. Having 75% block and good resistances (he's spectral hit) helped, but I wouldn't be able to take the pounding for long. So I started up a town portal and hoped it would appear in a spot I could get to. Luckily, it did and I went to town. *whew!*
I was in a quandary, though. Should I waypoint to the City of the Damned and take the long way around through all of the monsters I had already woken up? Or should I start the game over and try to kill a fresh Hephasto?
Having successfully freed Izual from his bonds, Maldar continued his journey across the Plains of Despair and the City of the Damned. At length, he found a stairway leading down to a glowing red abyss. Surely, this could be nothing less than the entrance to the fabled River of Flame. No mortal hero, no matter how great, had ever ventured this far into hell. Any sane person would have fled this place immediately, for even the darkest terrors of a person's imagination could not possibly reach the scope of the horrors that awaited a visitor down below.
And yet the very future of the mortal realm itself required Maldar to travel along the River of Flame, smash Mephisto's soulstone at the fabled Hellforge, and battle Diablo in his lair. Maldar took a deep breath, closed his eyes to the terror that seeped through his veins, and took his first step down into the heart of hell itself.
When I first entered the River of Flame, I found maggots. My gut reaction was to restart the game to reroll the monsters, but I decided to give the maggot-ridden RoF a try. The going went well until I came upon a bridge blocked by two large maggots. I cast Terror on them to try to get them out of the way and at first, the idea seemed to work. But then one of the maggots managed to lay an egg on top of the bridge when the Terror curse wore off. The situation quickly degenerated as I tried to deal with the new baby maggots. The big maggots kept laying even more eggs and the bridge kept getting clogged up. There just wasn't going to be any crossing of that bridge. I tp'd to town and restarted the game.
This time, I there were maw fiends, grotesques, and stranglers. They would do. Before I entered the RoF, I had wondered how difficult it would be for Maldar to make his way along the RoF, but it turned out that the traveling wasn't bad at all. The paths there are wide enough to get around most monster obstacles and any narrow areas like bridges can be cleared with Terror pretty easily (if there aren't any maggots).
At the Hellforge, I knew it was going to be difficult fighting Hephasto while simultaneously not killing any of the monsters around him. At first, I tried to keep things simple by casting Dim Vision on the regular monsters and casting Bone Prisons only around Hephasto himself. But there were too many monsters in too many directions to keep that up. Several grotesques pumped out baby worms, and I couldn't keep control of everything with Dim Vision alone, so I sprayed Bone Prisons and Bone Walls all around to keep the monsters at bay.
It was difficult keeping both Hephasto and the minion monsters imprisoned at the same time. Hephasto himself gradually punched his way through Bone Prisons toward me, so I again found myself engaging in a "fighting retreat."
While retreating (after having gone back to town to refresh potions), I found myself trapped by one of the rock formations. At first, I thought it was the maw fiend who was blocking me, so I cast Terror on it to move it out of the way. That plan didn't work. It was the rock formation itself that was blocking me, not the maw fiend. Hephasto himself had me trapped in a spot I couldn't move out of and he was clobbering me. Having 75% block and good resistances (he's spectral hit) helped, but I wouldn't be able to take the pounding for long. So I started up a town portal and hoped it would appear in a spot I could get to. Luckily, it did and I went to town. *whew!*
I was in a quandary, though. Should I waypoint to the City of the Damned and take the long way around through all of the monsters I had already woken up? Or should I start the game over and try to kill a fresh Hephasto?