User blog:ENG/The Defeat of Duriel!

Several times I was defeated by Duriel. Had it not been for a pact with an Angel early in life, I would have passed on in a hardcore manner. Regardless, I keep coming back thanks to the angel's everlasting resurrective spell.

However, a very evil magic is at work here: Every time I resurrect and return to the field of fighting, new demons and adversaries appear again! I thought I had killed them off! Even The Summoner and other lead monsters have resurrected as well. However, this only occurs when I need to resurrect. I don't know why, but I hypothesize that demons have exploited a loophole in my resurrection spell that somehow allows all the demons I've killed to resurrect as well.

The beauty about this loophole however, is that all gold and treasures are replicated on them as well. Mercenary work could be the most lucrative job in all the land if someone kept resurrecting just so they could recreate monsters for us all.

Now onto the tale at hand - Duriel resembled an Olthoi Queen (of Dereth, Auberean) but had a very masculine voice. Perhaps on Auberean, he would be known as an Olthoi King? His eviscerations packed quite a wallop; I had to spend over 1,000 gold to get all of my used items repaired afterwards. My new War Scepter cast a 3rd level Holy Freeze spell that makes him colder than the frozen northern wastes so that helped my cause a little bit.

Once I defeated him all without a mercenary's help, his death caused the chamber to shake. Rocks fell all around me but miraculously only sand grains hit myself. He dropped several Unique items, but they all weren't so impressive. A swarm of hot-dog-sized maggots diverged from Duriel's carcass and I could step on many of them, but they were too numerous to bother dealing with.

Meeting of Tyrael
Next, I was told in my quest book to go explore the rest of Tal Rasha's chamber. There were no more creatures to fight (that I had to do more than just step on) and I happened upon a huge PIT that led over a mile down to a lava pit of Hell. Archangel Tyrael was where Baal was tied to a post and possessed by Tal Shiar. Diablo trapped Tyrael in Baal's place and I was the one who freed him.

He was such a superimposing, prominent ENIGMA that moved me and made me feel remarkably at peace! I have never felt such inner calm and solace since sometime in my childhood! (Even if the childhood was an abbreviated one.) His heavenly aura had such an unspeakable wonderful power about him that could really turn many mortals from evil tendencies for the last time in their lives!

I hope to meet Tyrael again; I must feel his emotion-changing power as often as humanly possible!

Kurastian Trip
After I tied up some remaining loose ends with the townsfolk of LG, I met with Meshif to set sail for Kurast. The docks were all in disrepair; had I not have gambled so heavily with Elzix for marginally better items, I would have the money to hire repairmen and lumber supplies to repair the creaking and rotted floorbloards! Some docks have holes, termite damage, and missing boards that could cause people to fall through, and file lawsuits in a futuristic civilization at least 700 years hence!

The shacks and docks looked Khanduran and Westmarchesque, but the stone structures looked remarkably foreign; the only times I remember seeing structures of resemblance were in the old Earth tales of medieval "Meso-America" - the Mayan and Aztec civilizations had castles and temples that had steep steps up along their pyramidal walls. Kurast is quite possibly the "America of Sanctuary." Too bad there are no "Native Kurastians" that I have found so far, because either they have been killed off, turned into Undead, or now work for the minions of the Prime Evils.

The merchants aren't much of an improvement in these parts; I had thought their trade price limit for the items I sell would double to 20,000! (It doubled last time.) Alas, they only buy for merely 5,000 more. It doesn't matter if an item is worth over 150,000; they'll buy for no more than 15,000. If only I knew what spell to cast to persuade them otherwise! --ENG 05:00, 3 January 2009 (UTC)