Tomur-Oul headed East to the desert town of Lut Gholein. He hired a desert mercenary to aid him in battle while he was still discovering his own power. Deckard Cain as well as the local sorcerer Drognan aided him with information throughout his pursuit of Diablo. He followed their orders and obtained some sacred Horadric artifacts, but unfortunately he was too late. Diablo had escaped and was on his way to free his brothers!
I have not found an equal among Diablo's minions. Tomur thought to himself.
But Diablo himself is always able to escape me.Tomur headed east on the heels of Diablo. His path led him to an old jungle city named Kurast. Once a great civilization, time had taken its toll. He spent some time chatting with the locals and learned that Diablo had been successful in freeing his brother Mephisto. The Lord of Hatred was at large. Tomur knew where the entrance to Mephisto's lair was, but to unlock it he had to locate some artifacts throughout the jungle and defeat Mephisto's decrepit council of elders. Once faced with Mephisto himself, Tomur knew exactly why he was named the Lord of Hatred. From the instant his eyes laid upon the demon, his heart was filled with hate. How could his father have died? What kind of life would allow this tragedy? He wanted to destroy the entire world in that moment. Luckily, he was able to focus his hatred onto Mephisto for long enough to kill him, and the spell was lifted. Upon Mephisto's death, a portal opened to Hell itself.
He entered the portal not knowing what to expect, but he certainly did not expect what met him on the other side. An angel, one of Heaven's warriors was waiting for him. Tyrael was there to let Tomur know that he was indeed on the correct path, and that he was not far off from a face-off with Diablo. Tomur battled through Hell, reached Diablo's Sanctuary and discovered 5 crypto-seals. These seals, when all opened, released Diablo into the Physical Plane. Tomur's battle with Diablo was long and intense. He feared for his life throughout the entire fight, but he knew that he mustn't fail. After a battle that would decide the fate of the planet, a battle watched over by both angels and demons, Tomur-Oul stood victorious. The world was saved!
But all was not well. Diablo had another brother named Baal. Baal was on the move, amassing an army, intent on the destruction of the planet. Baal needed access to the Worldstone - a very powerful and ancient artifact under the guard of the last stronghold of Barbarians: the town of Harrogath. Word had reached Tyrael that Baal was taking seige on Harrogath, and he sent Tomur there to make things right.
Tomur began his pursuit of Baal right away. After living among the Barbarians for several weeks and learning their ways, he became charmed by their simple way of life and extremely impressed by the skill and passion they take to the battle field. When one Barbarian took an interest in Tomur's quest, he offered to come along with Tomur as his permanent ally. Tomur could not, and would not refuse the help of one of these noble warriors. His hired muscle went back to the desert, and Tomur accepted the help of this pure-of-heart Barbarian instead.
After nearly 2 months of toiling through treacherous mountain passes and endless onslaughts of evil demons and undead, Tomur and his ally Ip had reached Mount Arreat, the home of the Worldstone. To gain entry, they had to defeat The Ancients in battle; three legendary Barbarians of old who were taked with guarding entry to the Worldstone Chamber for all eternity. Ip was honored to test his skill against those who were viewed as Gods in his culture. Ip on his own was nomatch for The Ancients, but Tomur had been on the war path for nearly a year at this point, and he was ready. He had Baal in his sights.
Tomur and Ip reached The Worldstone Chamber after having defeated Baal's 5 waves of his strongest generals and minions. His fight against Baal was a long one. Baal was able to duplicate himself! A dark magic like Tomur had never witnessed before. But Tomur did not come all this way just to die ay Baal's feet. He would poison Baal periodically, and then spend some time hiding in the shadows while the poison did its work. After some time, Baal succumbed to his poisoned wounds. All of the Prime Evils were dead. It was finally over! He felt overwhelmed with joy and relief as Tyrael descended downwards from the heavens to congratulate him and send him home with a portal. Tomur took the portal, but something instantly felt wrong.
He was falling, or at least he felt like he was. There was absolutely nothing around him for him to fall relative to, so although he felt the sensation of falling, visually he was just floating in a void. Eventually he landed on solid ground on his own two feet.
"What... What is this?!" Tomur cried out in exasperation.
He was back at the Rogue Encampment. He had never left! Early on in his adventure, one of Hell's minions was able to cast a sort of mind-control spell on him, and inside his head they had been playing the illusion of Tomur seeking out and defeating all evil. This was a tactic by Diablo to slow Tomur down in his pursuit, and it had worked! He was absolutely convinced that he had spent the last year hunting down and destroying the powers of Hell, but in reality he lay twitching in a ditch, spun on his mental images. Maybe he was not as powerful as he thought he was. Maybe he was not ready at all.
This is a Nightmare...Stats at level 21, starting act 2!
I have an incredible map for Gem Shrine farming. Four shrines right outside of Rogue Camp, and four shrines right beside the Black Marsh waypoint. I am able to check 8 shrines within about 20 seconds, and it takes me only around 5 minutes to take a gem from chipped to perfect. Whenever I've done this, I've only shown the Perfect Gem dropping from the shrine in order to save space/boring pictures... But if anyone has doubts please let me know, I did take a screenshot of every single upgrade from chipped to perfect for every single gem that I upgraded. Like I said, the only reason I'm not posting them is because it's a lot of boring pics.
Merc armor heading into act 2.
