The official PEBAblo game thread

[John]

Death was the only release for Izual

At long last, Diablo, the Lord of Terror, is defeated!

Quests Completed

• The Fallen Angel - We have arrived at the Pandemonium Fortress, the setting of Act IV, the final Act of the original Diablo II campaign. The Pandemonium Fortress is the last outpost of Heaven at the gates of Hell. It serves as a base for the angels and their mortal allies in their struggle against the forces of darkness. Despite its precarious position, the forces of Hell have never captured it. It is sustained by powerful magic and considered unassailable. The angel Tyrael is here. We freed Tyrael from the Binding Stone in Tal Rasha's Chamber. Now Tyrael told us that there is a dark, tortured soul who was trapped within this forsaken realm long ago. He was called Izual by mortal men, and in ages past he was Tyrael's most trusted Lieutenant. Yet against Tyrael's wishes, he led an ill-fated assault upon the fiery Hellforge itself. Despite his valor and strength, Izual was captured by the Prime Evils and twisted by their perverse power. They forced him to betray his own kind and give up Heaven's most guarded secrets. He became a corrupt shadow of his former self; a fallen angel trusted neither by Heaven nor Hell. For his transgressions, Izual's spirit was bound within the form of a terrible creature which was summoned from the Abyss. His maddened spirit has resided within that tortured husk for many ages now. We found Izual and released him from his cruel imprisonment. Death put an end to his guilt and suffering.
• Hell's Forge - The time had finally arrived for us to destroy Mephisto's Soulstone, which we pried from his cold, dead heart after slaying him in our last session. We took the Stone to the Hellforge, found deep withing the Burning Hells. There, we were challenged by The Smith, the vile overlord of the Hellforge. He was no match for our combined might. From his lifeless fingers fell the Hellforge Hammer. We placed the Soulstone upon the forge and struck it soundly with the Hammer. Only by doing this could we prevent Mephisto from manifesting in this world ever again.
  
  Diablo, the Lord of Terror
  

  This guy came to kick ass and chew gum... and he's all out of gum
• Terror's End - Of the Prime Evils, only Diablo remained. But the Lord of Terror is not to be underestimated. He single-handedly destroyed the town of Tristram and corrupted the last noble hero who tried to stop him. This time, we must defeat him for good. As with Mephisto, only by destroying the Soulstone which Diablo carries will his spirit be banished forever. Though this be our darkest hour, it was yet our greatest moment. Together, Balkadan, Hruodland, Iysa, Shiska-Barb and Thorfinn stood against this mighty foe. And he could not stand against us. Diablo fell to our blows and spells. The world was finally safe from his scourge.

But our journey is not over, friends! There lies before us one final Act, which we shall begin next Tuesday. Tune in then for what may be the final report from our PEBAblo game!

[Lions]

The last act is a long one... but it ends satisfyingly.

[John]

The last act is a long one... but it ends satisfyingly.

That's good to hear because I've never played it. This will be the first time I've had a chance to experience the expansion areas. Looking forward to it!

[Lions]

I will most likely not make this tomorrow.

[John]

Hey Bill, how are you doing with your catch-up work? What Act are you on now? We've just finished Act IV (the main campaign) and are getting ready to start the expansion areas.

[Bill]

I haven't been able to play at all unfortunately. Realistically, Im not going to be able to play fast enough to keep up. Admittedly, I have enough other stuff going on this spring that it is probably better if I don't play at nights anyway.

[John]

Baal is all that remains of the Prime Evils

With their leader defeated, the siege on Harrogath ends

Quests Completed

• Siege on Harrogath - Diablo is defeated, but his brother Baal still remains. Not resting after our victory over the Lord of Terror, we traveled through the portal created by the archangel Tyrael to Harrogath, the last stronghold held by Barbarian defenders against Baal's siege to eradicate all opposition. Harrogath was under siege by Baal's demons. Upon our arrival, we were met by Larzuk, blacksmith of Harrogath. He challenged us to prove our intentions, and we swore an oath to him and the others that we would bring the infernal catapults to a halt. And that's exactly what we did.
• Rescue on Mount Arreat - With the siege has ended, Qual-Kehk, mercenary captain of Harrogath, expressed his concern toward his men still imprisoned among the demons. The gods only knew what was being done with them. Qual-Kehk asked us to keep our eyes open for his soldiers during our journey up Mount Arreat, and bring them back to him if we can. Mount Arreat is the tallest mountain near Harrogath, and the resting place of the Worldstone, which Baal and his forces is marching on. It is believed that the Worldstone is the ancient source of power for the Soulstones, which empower the Prime Evils. We were able to find and rescue a number of Qual-Kehk's men. Sadly, some fell to the cruel swords of demons before we could intervene.
• Prison of Ice - Anya, a much-loved young alchemist and daughter to a slain elder of Harrogath, disappeared before the siege. She is a strong, crafty woman with a spirit like no others. One night before our arrival, Malah the healer saw her and Nihlathak arguing about something. Nihlathak is also an elder of the town. The next morning, she was gone. Nihlathak had his own stories as to where she went, but Malah feared he was hiding something... maybe something Anya knows about. We were asked to find Anya and bring her back to Harrogath, for if something truly was wrong with Nihlathak, she would know what to do. Our search took us to the Frozen River in the Crystalline Passage, an icy cavern IN the [url-http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Arreat_Plateau]Arreat Plateau[/url]. She was frozen solid and guarded by a brutish creature who called itself "Frozenstein". This Frozenstein was indeed a master of ice, but he was unprepared for heroes bringing fire to his lair. Anya was thawed and returned to Harrogath, where she spoke of Nihlathak's treachery...
• Betrayal of Harrogath - It seems that Nihlathak had plans to make a deal with Baal to protect the town. He gave Baal the Relic of the Ancients, a most holy token of the barbarians. It allows anyone to walk unfettered into the mountain. Anya tried to stop Nihlathak but he imprisoned her among the hordes. Of course, only a fool would think that Baal could be bargained with. Nihlathak must be stopped before he doomed us all. His delirium was no excuse for his actions. As much as Anya would have loved to strangle the life out of him herself, her imprisonment left her too weak. It fell to us to kill him and prevent him from destroying everything the barbarians have fought for eons to protect. We found Nihlathak in the Halls of Vaught. It turned out that Nihlathak was a capable necromancer, a talent he must have kept hidden from the townsfolk. In fear, he used his dark sorcery to consume corpses and teleport away from us, but he could not run forever. Eventually, we hunted down the coward and put him out of his misery. He'll strike no more deals with the Devil (or the Devil's brother).

[John]

After their defeat, the Ancients turned to statues

Quests Completed

• Rite of Passage - We made our way up to the top of Mount Arreat. None would ever dare get as close to it as we have. It is sacred to the barbarians of Harrogath; their most holy place. The legends say that it is guarded by the Ancients Ones. They block the path of all the unworthy.[ They will decide if we are worthy of this battle with Baal. We faced the Ancients - Madawc the Guardian, Talic the Defender, and Korlic the Protector - and emerged victorious. The gates to the mountain were at last open to us.
• Eve of Destruction - As we entered the gates to the mountain, we sensed that we were not alone. Baal, the Lord of Destruction, was already inside. Tyrael has always been our protector, but even he could not help us now. Baal had blocked Tyrael's spiritual presence from entering the chamber of the Worldstone. Only us mortals had any chance of defeating Baal now. By threatening the Worldstone, Baal threatened the world itself. We must stop him before it is too late, for if he gained control of the Worldstone, all would be lost. We fought our way through the Worldstone Keep until you reached the Throne of Destruction. There, we at last stood face to face with Baal. He summoned waves of minions, but they all fell to our swords and spells. With his creatures defeated, we turned our full wrath against Baal himself, finally bringing the Lord of Destruction low.
  
  

  With Baal dead at our feet, Tyrael commands the destruction of the Worldstone
  With Baal gone, Tyrael was free to approach. Surprisingly, Tyrael told us that the Worldstone must be destroyed. Tyrael decided that it must be destroyed. This comes as a shock. The Prophecy stated that the Worldstone would be corrupted, but nothing was said about it having to be destroyed. Though we weren't sure of what would happen - or even if it had to be destroyed in the first place - we obeyed Tyrael and destroyed the Worldstone. The full effects of doing so are yet to be revealed. Some speculate that Tyrael has somehow been corrupted by Baal or the corrupted Worldstone. It may be years before the truth is known... or maybe it will be sooner than we think...

The Worldstone shatters. What does this portend?

Thus ends the story of Diablo II. The PEBAblo gaming group will continue to meet every Tuesday and Thursday night as we play though the game again on Nightmare and Hell difficulty levels, but since the story will be the same, I will not be providing recaps. I hope you have enjoyed reading of our exploits!

Our victories have earned us fame!

[Hitmen]

Now the real fun begins as the game gets harder for the group. Beating the expansion was new to me though, I tried it in the past but never beat it as by then I was losing interest in the game. Looking forward to next weeks games

[Lions]

I'm quite bummed I missed this last night. The past two days at work have kept me pretty late as I'm responsible for installing some new software with a vendor and things have simply not been working. I'll have to try to catch up again if I have some time over the weekend.

I've also been asked to join a softball team on Tuesday nights, so I may end up missing that session completely for the next several weeks. It's been a few years since I played, and I was obviously a bit rusty. I was way out in front of the pitches on my first two AB's, grounding out both times, but got a pair of singles to go 2-4 with a run scored and an assist from LF. We lost 13-8 after having a single bad inning in which we gave up 9 runs. Everything was just falling in. Fun, though!

[DanD]

Bad news: I just found out I will be unavailable tonight due to work. Good luck to the rest of the party!

[John]

Bad news: I just found out I will be unavailable tonight due to work. Good luck to the rest of the party!

Given this news and the fact that Bill won't be joining us and I'm not sure about Frank, I'm going to call tonight's session off. We'll pick up on Thursday night.

[Hitmen]

Bad news: I just found out I will be unavailable tonight due to work. Good luck to the rest of the party!

Given this news and the fact that Bill won't be joining us and I'm not sure about Frank, I'm going to call tonight's session off. We'll pick up on Thursday night.

Will let Tom know See you guys Thursday night then.

[Hitmen]

Hey John,

I just wanted to post that Tom will not be available for tonight's game. He is taking summer classes and is swamped tonight with his workload from classes. I apologize that this is sort of late, but he didn't realize he had to watch a bunch of hour long videos online before he was able to complete some assignments.

[Lions]

I am not yet past Baal, so I'll need to do some catching up before I can join you guys again.