Tiltowait does Diablo at 30
---------------------------

His name is Tiltowait. I first met him when he wandered into Tristram.
I could tell by his garb that he was a sorcerer. He said that he was
once very powerful but that the magic he once knew was rarely used any
more. He was looking to learn the new ways and I volunteered to look
after him. I explained to him that there were many levels full of evil
monsters below the town, all ruled by an overlord named Diablo. His
quest would be to kill Diablo himself. He was surprised because his
early adventures had been very similar, except that the evil master he
quested after was named Werdna. I also explained that it would be an
ongoing quest. He would have to do this not once, but again and again
since the forces of evil would rally together and resurrect Diablo and
his minions, even stronger than before, each time Diablo was killed.
He was glad to hear that other adventurers were able to enjoy this
quest for many years, some even as old as 50.

He killed Diablo the first time when he was 25. He didn't feel it was
a very difficult quest, but he did take some time getting to know the
new magics and the evils he would face. I had told him much about what
he would find. I explained how shrines and cauldrons worked. I told
him that he would be able to distinguish between the various standing
shrines and I told him which ones to avoid. I also told him that the
cauldrons and the shrines belonging to the Goat Men were too dangerous
to touch. I gave him some idea of the various monsters he would face
as well as which ones were a mere annoyance and which were to be
handled very carefully. He had learned it all very well and I felt
good about his progress.

He turned 30 while getting to Diablo the second time. He thought that
this time was much more difficult, a real nightmare. I tried to
convince him that the next time would be real hell but, being quite
full of himself and feeling invulnerable, he said, "I'm going to Hell
to dance with Diablo!" Feeling very protective of him, I told him he
could but he had to work out just a little more first. I wanted him to
build his stats and spell levels a little more and maybe find a
Thinking Cap to go with his AA Staff of Speed.

Off he went to the church and cats. He made it through them without
breaking a sweat. He was able to garner enough funds for a few elixirs
and books from Adria. He also found a Nightscape that I told him might
come in handy. He seemed bored with such an easy run and was anxious
to get to Diablo. I gave in and let him go after checking his gear. He
was outfitted as follows: AA Staff of Speed, Jade Crown of Sorcery
(10/+30%/+19), Awesome Mail (35/+144%), Jade Amulet of the Stars
(+28%/+9), Ring of Wizardry (+27), Ring of Wizardry (+25). This gave
him the following stats:

Str  54(45)       AC      109
Mag  238(158)     To hit  85%
Dex  70(61)       Damage  24-32
Vit  62(53)       Res All 58%
Life 101(92)
Mana 534(374)

I was uneasy with his setup, especially his resistances, but I let him
go anyway. He was gone a short while when I looked up to see him
trotting back into town naked. I asked him what happened. He said that
he had gone down the crack and found that the stairs to the next level
were right next to the entrance. He only had to dispatch one Succubus
and then headed down the stairs.

On arriving on the next level, he was swarmed by Succubi and Vortex
Lords. The Succubi fell easily to his fireballs but the Vortex Lords
overwhelmed him. He threw chain lightning as fast as he could but he
barely got a grunt out of them. Eventually he died and was
reincarnated back in town. I suggested that he restock and go down
naked, so he did. He repeated this several times, each time reporting
a little more progress. He said that he used his mana shield for
protection while flinging more and more chain lightning. He had to be
very careful not to let the chains fly out of the room to activate
more of hell's denizens. He also used stone curse on them, when he had
a chance, but he was fairly weak so he couldn't do much damage. When
he was able to pick up any of his gear he had to be careful not to
equip it or he would lose it again. Luckily, he found a junk staff on
the floor to keep him from accidentally using his good one.
Eventually, he was successful in retrieving everything and asked for
my advice on his next step.

I suggested that he try the Nightscape he found earlier. I told him
that this would cut down on his natural aura so that he wouldn't
interest as many of the bad guys at one time. Off he went again. He
was gone for quite some time when he finally showed up and appeared
very excited. I told him to sit and catch his breath while he told me
what happened.

He had gone back down to the second level of hell and started working
carefully around the edge of the level looking for the next stairway
down. Stealth mode was working very well and he never had to deal with
more than 2 or 3 Vortex Lords or Succubi at a time. Stone curse and
beatings worked well to dispatch them without alerting the rest of the
level. About halfway around, he killed one of the VLords which dropped
a unique skull cap. Knowing what that meant, he hurried back to town
and had Cain check it out. Sure enough, he now had the much sought
Thinking Cap I had hoped he would find. I told him that he wouldn't be
able to use it as is or it would surely be destroyed. I explained that
he had to find some Hidden shrines to increase its durability. This
time he seemed OK with postponing the dance and he headed off to the
church and cats to do some shrine hunting.

He was gone for a very long time. It had been several days since I
sent him off and I was beginning to get very concerned. I was just
about to use my Wizard's Eye to check on him when I heard a commotion
outside. I looked out the window to see him jumping up and down on
something. I rushed out and pulled him aside. I looked down to see
that he was stomping on his hard won Thinking Cap! I asked him what
had happened. He had good reason to be frustrated. He had started his
shrine hunting well enough. On the second run through the church and
cats, he had found a Hidden shrine. It seemed to do what was expected
and his cap did feel sturdier, but he knew it still would not hold up
to a real beating. He headed back in. He repeated this 28 more times
before finding another one! He was on the last level of the cats when
he finally came across it. Besides the cap, he also had a very sturdy
staff and splint mail equipped. He touched the shrine and had the
sudden feeling that something had gone wrong. He checked the cap and,
sure enough, it again felt no more durable than a heavy piece of
paper. He screamed so loud he was sure Diablo himself had heard him.

I did my best to console him. I told him that he would probably be
better off with his jade crown anyway. It would give him more
resistance to the monsters non-physical attacks, which he would find
more common in hell. He was very upset and not in any mood to be
cheered up. In his obsession with hunting for the Hidden shrines, he
didn't see all the other good that he was doing for himself. After
making 30 shrine hunts, he had run into many other beneficial shrines.
He had also found many books and some elixirs. Whenever a monster or
storage device yielded a good amount of gold or an item that had a
strong magical aura, blue or gold, he would also pick it up for later
sale. This large amount of gold allowed him to buy some other
equipment and even more books and elixirs from the witch. In fact, he
had bought so many books that he could no longer learn anything about
any of the spells except for Blood Star, and this one he had only ever
used in practice. He had gotten so many elixirs that, if Adria had
also sold Elixirs of Vitality, he would have, as the elders would say,
"gone gold". So, even though he had gained no new experience, he had
become a very formidable foe for Diablo and his crew.

Tiltowait headed off to do some heavy drinking and find himself a
room. It was a full two days before I saw him again. To my surprise,
he had what looked to be a new Thinking Cap with him. He smiled and
said that, among many others, one of the items he had found during his
hunts was indeed another Thinking Cap. He wasn't going to use this one
yet, but would keep it in case he had the opportunity to improve it in
his future adventures. He looked refreshed and ready to take on the
big guy again. The only change in his equipment was that he now had a
Knight's Quarter Staff of Wizardry (+38%/+103%/+23). With this
equipment change and all the elixirs he had used, his stats were now:

Str  54(45)       AC      113
Mag  353(250)     To hit  135%
Dex  94(85)       Damage  28-40
Vit  77(68)       Res All 58%
Life 116(107)
Mana 764(558)

For backup he had: Obsidian Short Staff of Wizardry (+34%/+30),
Arch-Angels Long Staff of Nova, Civerb's Cudgel, Nightscape, Amulet of
the Stars (+11), Amber Amulet (+20%), Jade Ring of the Wolf
(+23%/+39), Pearl Ring of Sorcery (+22%/+18), Snake's Ring of the Moon
(+21/+6), Thinking Cap.

I watched as he entered the large crack behind the healer's house and
then went in to follow his progress on my brand new Sony Wizard's Eye
(with high definition picture and 3D surround sound). As he entered
the first level of hell, he cast mana shield and read an infravision
scroll. He would repeat this ritual each time he entered a new level.
His first encounter was a Snow Witch. This was a great start. A single
fireball knocked her off her feet. He dealt with several others and
then came upon a Black Knight. His luck couldn't be running any
better. He was able to sweep through the level using only the
fireball. He found the stairs down in the second quadrant he entered,
but he finished the level anyway. I guess that I had impressed upon
him the fun of "finding stuff".

The next level would turn out to be more difficult. The first ones he
encountered were Hell Spawns. They were immune to his fireball and
very resistant to lightning. He used stone curse on them. When they
were in small numbers, he would beat on the statues until they were
destroyed. He often had to stone them again before finishing them off.
The other critters he ran into were Balrogs. They proved to be even
more difficult to deal with. They had the same resistances as the Hell
Spawns, but they seemed to enjoy doing an annoying dance before coming
in close. He stoned and beat them just as he did the Hell Spawns. The
next stairway was again in the second quadrant he went to. This time
he went down without clearing the rest of the level. Before going
down, he cast a town portal in case the monsters got the better of
him. He would be able to get back without having to walk a great
distance.

Now he was on Lazarus's level. His first fight was with a couple of
Snow Witches. He was glad to see an easy opponent. However, the next
bad guys he ran into were those annoying Balrogs. On this level, they
seemed to bunch up in greater numbers. He went to work on them with
his stone curse but used chain lightning to dispatch them. He would
try to group them together. Then he would fire off a chain to see
where the majority went due to their heat seeking effect. Next he
reoriented himself to maximize the number of chains that passed
through each of the beasts. This worked quite well even though he was
guzzling grape juice. He was making fairly quick work of it even
though he had to clear most of the level before finding Diablo's
pentagram. In fact, he must have been feeling a little too cocky. He
was blasting an unstoned Balrog when the monster took a swipe at him.
Down he went. He came back into town looking a little embarrassed. He
went back down naked because he knew he had a clear path to his
equipment and had just one Balrog to kill to get his stuff. The rest
of the level was uneventful. He did in Laz and his cronies with
combinations of fireballs, stone curse and beatings. Of course, none
of them yielded anything to aid his quest. He headed over to the
pentagram and found that the center portal was indeed open.

He entered Diablo's level and took a quick look around. This level
never seemed to change so he knew it pretty well. He saw that he was
between Diablo's lair and the room with two bone switches. He began
clearing out around the two rooms. He would cast a couple of
elementals and wait. This usually brought the Blood Knights to him. A
stone curse and a couple of quick fireballs did each one in. He then
sent a golem out hunting the Advocates for him. This was taking too
long and he was getting anxious so he started stoning and beating them
to help out his newly built buddy. They quickly had the perimeters of
the two rooms clear. He wasn't going to bother with the two upper
rooms or even the majority of the bad guys in the two lower rooms. He
went to the outside of the two switch room. He was able to throw the
switches with his telekinesis spell. This finally gave him access to
Diablo. He knew that he could get Diablo to come out, without the
assistance of his horde, by standing and yelling taunts to him, "YOUR
MOMMA WEARS ARMY BOOTS". Just for good measure, he threw a holy bolt
in there in case he had become hard of hearing from the continual
beatings. Sure enough, Diablo came stomping out and started casting
his apocalypse spell. It is a good thing he knows that one. He
certainly couldn't handle one that took any skill to use.

Tiltowait headed off to a corner and started doing a pretty good job
on the big guy. Just then he must have remembered the stuff he left
laying in town because he stood still and let Diablo have his way with
him. He had learned early on that he wouldn't have to recover his
equipment if he died on Diablo's level. He gathered up as much as he
could in town. His backpack was already bulging so he had to leave
some items and over 100,000 gold pieces laying in town. He told the
townsfolk that they could have it all as long as none went to that
annoying peg legged boy on the outskirts of town. He headed back down
and made his way over to Diablo. Big D howled and grunted but couldn't
do much else because the fireballs were hitting him too fast. He
finally screamed and started spewing guts all over. Tiltowait chuckled
a little and then I saw him bend over. I quickly hit the <alt><tab> on
my Wizard's Eye remote to activate the instant portal feature. I got
there just in time. He was just swinging the Soul Stone towards his
forehead when I stopped his arm. I explained that he would not be able
to contain Diablo's evil. The best he could do was to let him be
resurrected and then do it all over again. Soon Diablo's knees would
shake at the mere utterance of the name Tiltowait. Besides that, I
reminded him that he was only 30 and that he could keep having fun and
looking for stuff at least until he was 50. He smiled widely...