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4-Cain in a Cage
Hirelings are NPCs you can buy for a sum of Gold to tag along with you that you can outfit as well. With the right gear, they can be phenominal backup damage or support, but the thing about them is it can be very hard to equip them to survive things. Vanilla they can only equip specific weapons, armor, and a helmet. (maybe a shield as well) Nothing else. This means we can do little to layer good mods on them to improve their survivability.
Resurgence does not make any changes to Hireling loadout, but they do buff them in various ways. Every mod does this, because traditionally, there's exactly *one* type of mercenary you would run, and it's the one that can have an aura, to support you. Each mod tries to get you to use the other ones in their own ways, and Resurgence gives auras to all hirelings we can have throughout the game. Sharyn here will give us Poise, an exclusive aura that grants her and Arty improved AR, increased Attack Speed, and a chance to critically hit. It's extremely good and absolutely perfect for someone like Arty. Which means moving forward they're going to be bow buddies. They are otherwise left alone, so we'll still see Fire/Cold Arrow (we use one of these) and Inner Sight (makes monsters easier to hit) used by our Rogues.
These mercs can equip belts, gloves, and boots as well, and the normally tight restrictions on what they can wield is relaxed. Rogues normally can only put on bows, but here they get access to crossbows, quivers, and even Amazon-exclusive bows. They also have either the Vigor aura (move faster) or Meditation aura (Mana regen) depending on the hireling's subtype.
These mercs can also just put on jewelry, meaning anything you can put on, they can, so long as it respects equip type limits. This is relevant because any sets you can't use from the early superuniques, your merc might, which is good because they're also gonna be clinging unto those sets to survive. They also get a suite of skill reworks, but not auras for everybody. Even then though they may have difficulty, since everything's still supercharged. One saving grace, however, is that mercenary-only sets exist for them and they get an extreme power boost if we can get a hold of one of them. They're not easy to snag though, so it'll take some grinding later on to hunt down the pieces of merc exodia.
Then there's Median XL which kinda just flips the concept of hirelings upside down. They can equip something in every slot except rings, and you can see their skills right down here. Rogue scouts come in two flavors: Rangers, which provide party buffs, and Priestess, which provide party heals. Rogues can also just slow enemies on hit and a bunch of other stuff that's hard to keep track of.
The hardest part about any of these mercenaries is keeping them alive. Their contributions only matter if they don't get chumped, and there's plenty of ways they can get chumped, because minion AI is not the smartest around, and certain configurations of enemies will just melt anyone who wanders around aimlessly and stands still to attack. They're also famous for having difficulty sticking with you, meaning that aura you really like? Well your merc's stuck in a tree gonna have to call the fire department. But generally speaking it is good to keep them well equipped and alive so they stay with you in level, since they can be a backup damage source in case of emergency.
Music-The Rogue Encampment
Anyway, that was the big infopost about Hirelings. Let's see what Akara's up to.
There is only one Horadrim sage, schooled in the most arcane history and lore, who could advise us... His name is Deckard Cain.
You must go to Tristram and find him, my friend. I pray that he still lives.
Akara, realizing that this might be a bigger problem than one random lady can solve, asks us to call Cain. This is our first introduction to Deckard Cain...before we ever even meet him unless you played Diablo I.
Instructions unclear, so I take this moment to use the talk menu and notice there's a selection for the quest just given to me.
This quest is funny, because it's assuming a massive amount. First, Cain is still alive. Cain was around during the previous Diablo, where he was the village elder of Tristram...also the guardian of the vault where Diablo was housed but we'll get to that.
Cain by all accounts should be dead. Cain is (very) old, and has done so much to hinder demons it's unreal. How he doesn't have a reputation so low to demons that a random Fallen didn't go up, see him, and go "It's THAT motherfucker!" is honestly beyond me. Why they just tortured him a whole bunch, on Sanctuary, instead of safely within the confines of Hell, where we can't just walk up and free him, is an even bigger question, because they can do that!
I talk about this game and its lore like it's a big enriched tale. Nnnnaaaaah cause everyone here's assuming Cain is perfectly fine and nothing bad happened to him even though the town he was safeguarding exploded.
It's an excuse to visit Tristram though, and Akara is right. Tristram from here is very far away. So a portal would be nice.
Music-The Wilderness
We're actually in a region called Khanduras, north of Tristram, which was Khanduras's capital, and the gate we've heard about is the Eastgate. It's actually a very important landmark, because the Tamoe Mountains the gate cuts through is much harder to traverse than going through that gate. It's possible, just, not recommended. And I mean it when I say we are a brisk journey from the Eastgate, since the Rogue Monastery is right next to it.
Now then, as for the Stony Field, we can find the Cairn Stones early, but can't use them yet.
Instead, Sharyn, Arty's hireling, will bring another superunique from there to us.
Rakanishu | CR: **
==Superunique
==Lightning Enchanted
==Extra Fast
We are very fortunate to have this superunique be a Carver, (or blue/tier 2 Fallen) so he and his friends have an extremely hard time staying in melee range with us and not dying to a thwack. This is all because not only does Rakanishu zip around thanks to Extra Fast, Lightning Enchanted is the bane of melee characters. In addition to bonus lightning damage on hits, each time Rakanishu is hitstunned, he fires off sparks in random directions. These sparks are fun in that they do a fixed amount of damage and scale with monster level. If you're point blank and tap him many times, it's very likely you'll eat multiple of those, and that will drop your life very quickly.
(I did miss touching the Cairn Stones right now, which will give a character quip, but all of them is a variation of "yeah shit's magic" so I think we can live without.)
Past Rakanishu, we'll meet some new critters:
Bloodhawk | CR: *
==Can sprint
Think Zombies but they can fly right up to you. Unfortunately they have the same aimless behavior Zombies have so they really can faff about for a while before finally deciding to go up to you and strike.
Bloodhawk Nest | CR: *
==Makes more Bloodhawks
==Annoying
They also have these gross giant treehives that spawn out more of them. They're quite on the tanky side but it can't do a whole lot, even when it successfully brings out one extra Bloodhawk.
Swapping to Bob, Eastern Sun likes to make a unique Bloodhawk Nest, so it gets a posse of, other Bloodhawk Nests. I'm still not too sure if this does anything but block most of the spawns.
Corrupt Rogue Archer | CR: **
==Can sprint
==Shoots arrows
Archers of all kinds can be very dangerous affairs in this game because they're good at consistently shooting you and come in groups. Corrupt Rogues are definitely one of the most dangerous since they, like other Rogues, can sprint to catch up with you. However, their damage output is lacking, so meeting 5 of these at once isn't instant death, per se.
Goatman | CR: **
Finally, goats can show up here. Goats move pretty quickly, quicker than Wendigos, but don't have remarkable damage output to be a real threat.
There is also a waypoint to hunt down in Stony Field, which is important because we'll be coming back here. The problem is this waypoint can spawn way out in the middle of nowhere and be a pain to find and then exit out of. We need it too, because we'll want quick access to the Cairn Stones beyond just doing this quest.
Once we take that though, we can pass through the Underground Passage, which should always be on a cliff face on an edge of the region. It's similar in structure to the Cave we saw last update, except it has two exits, and we want the other one. If anything, picking wrong choices means you get to go deep into this cave just to dead-end and spend a considerable amount of time running back out to try finding the correct way out.
ES has Horned Demons as their new addition to this passage. Sluggish and aimless, they are actually pretty dangerous to engage in melee because they'll knock you around and stun you when they hit you.
Skeleton Archer | CR: **
==Shoots arrows.
Our archers are introduced in bone flavor here as well. Compared to Rogue Archers, Skeleton Archers have less defenses and more accuracy. They are otherwise mostly the same. Again, the threat comes from when the entire pack is capable of reliably hitting you, so that cute little ping turns into 5 or 6 pings, or, most of your Life.
Tainted | CR: ***
==Fires lightning balls.
And I can finally talk about these! These things are actually quite dangerous, because imagine a combination of a Goatman and an archer and also just turn their projectiles into lightning so they cannot miss. Because of this, it's best to close distance as quick as possible to make sure you don't have to dodge their lightning balls. Unlike most lightning damage, where it has a floor of 1 and a ceiling of high, their balls just do their melee damage, and you can't rely on Defense at all because Defense only ever works on physical attacks. So it's very important you get into melee if you're using Defense to survive. This all becomes less relevant as we get resistances to mitigate lightning damage, but at the very beginning of the game, you have next to zero ways to stop lightning damage. That's what makes Tainted dangerous right now.
We cut to Chloe here to notice the Dark Wood is, very dark. Median XL makes it very hard to see in the Dark Wood, while other mods think nothing of the word dark in a region name. We're looking for a big dead tree, which will be marked on the minimap.
Things can't be easy though, and Chloe encounters Treehead Woodfist. He's a tree, with a head. Also wood, in the shape of a fist. His purpose in life is to use his woodfist on your treehead.
He can also make spikes appear out of the ground to damage you at range. But this is the Median XL version of this boss, which has completely different sprites for it. (Rakanishu in MXL also has a lightning field around him you had to cross to get to him.)
Let's look at Treehead Woodfist in PD2, who by the way, got this green item to drop. Arctic Furs, despite being one piece of a set and quilted armor, is still much better than the white armor we're wearing right now, so I put that on. (As for the list of set items below, if you have the other pieces either equipped or in your inventory or even in your stash, they'll light up here. This is why Arctic Horn is lit when I don't have it: it's in the PlugY shared stash.)
Treehead Woodfist | CR: ***
==Superunique
==Extra Strong
==Extra Fast
Treehead spawns with a small posse of other Brutes, and you get to find out here that both Extra Strong and Extra Fast partially transfers to any minions the unique has. Extra Fast also provides an attack speed boost, so they aren't just zipping to your face, they're swinging faster. This means Treehead's gang is very powerful in melee. If we walk up to them without properly kiting, or we aren't strong enough, Treehead Woodfist tends to win the damage race, by virtue of swinging faster than you, and harder than you, so it becomes very difficult to hit him when he's constantly putting you in hitstun.
Luckily we're Vanir and we have recently picked up Zeal, which is a skill to strike at random monsters near you in quick succession. We don't need multiple monsters, just one will do, and we use this and Sacrifice to pick off Treehead's minions and then dunk him. We are swinging faster than Treehead and damaging Treehead more than he can. Unfortunately, by this point, everyone has very potent tools to deal with a big stick like Treehead Woodfist. Just pretend Treehead is destroying some fresh meat who ran head first into him.
This tree bristles with magic.
Guardian taken care off, examining the tree reveals a scroll. We want that. But wait! Before we leave, we need to find the waypoint, because just like Stony Field we need to come back here after our affairs in Tristram are in order.
And just like Stony Field, it can be a pain to find this waypoint! We might get lucky and the waypoint will spawn right next to the tree. They might also be miles apart.
Dark Wood didn't introduce any new monsters, just recolors. So we're done here. Let's get this scroll read.
Hand the scroll over to Akara, and she'll hand it back after marking it. Back to the Cairn Stones.
Right clicking the scroll now will bring up its contents. Normally we only see the runes, but this time, we'll actually see which order to touch these in.
Activating the teleporter is just a matter of touching the symbols in the given order. When we do that,
(click here for the full animation)
a lot of lightning comes down and we get a red portal to Tristram. If you're wondering if there's any punishment to touching the stones wrong,
there isn't. In fact, once you get the scroll translated, you don't even need to read it. It'll disappear after touching the stones, so normally I just completely forget it's there.
Music-Tristram
All that's left of proud Tristram are ghosts and ashes.
Into Tristram we go. Zoul right now just got a Clay Golem buddy, which for the time being will be a very good tank that we can resummon as many times as we have the Mana for. That doesn't mean our Skeletons won't stop dying, but it does mean we'll be able to keep problem enemies distracted, and it'll even help out in fights with its ability to (slightly) slow down enemies. Nothing new in Tristram monster wise, buuuuuuut
Griswold | CR: **
==Superunique
==Cursed
the old town blacksmith still shuffles around to this day. Griswold is really just a zombie that doesn't faff around, and he showcases Cursed. Cursed can be VERY dangerous, because all Cursed monsters, when they get a hit off, have a high chance to cast Amplify Damage on the target. Zoul has been using that, and so can relate to watching as his entire army is now cursed with that. It can only ever be Amplify Damage thankfully, (There are worse curses.) and monsters weren't spared the nerf, so Cursed isn't as scary for Zoul.
Mind you though that if this was Resurgence or Eastern Sun, with has unnerfed Amplify, we'll need to be very careful around Cursed uniques, because getting smacked with Amplify in a game where a lot of damage taken is physical can make death come very fast.
How is this gratuitous in Median XL? Well, instead of being cursed he can summon a lot of sword projectiles. You know. Like Jane, except Jane's better at it.
That's not all with Tristram. Tristram actually has a higher than average count of unique and champion packs. It's actually a popular place to go to for early grinding because the elevated monster rarity will mean a large increase in experience and rolls for treasure.
Of note is also this corpse, which when we loot we get its leg.
In PD2 it counts as a Club so it's a Druid weapon that can roll Druid skills, shooting its value through the roof. That's why I touched it now.
Anyway, Tristram. The fuck happened to it? Well, King Leoric happened to it, mostly. But that doesn't really explain why Tristram, why Diablo was in it, and why Cain was in it.
Going back to Deckard Cain, he and the other Horadrim mages were tasked with imprisoning Diablo the last time he went on tour in Sanctuary. It was a task they succeeded in, and then spent their time guarding that vault. Mortals sitting in places for a long time become civilization, so plenty of mortals flocked to this place and called it home.
It was the capital of Khanduras so sayeth King Leoric. (not because anyone wanted it to be) Leoric was a high-ranking member of the Zakarum faith; you know, Paladins n shit. The Zakarum Church didn't want Leoric to just be a king. Nonetheless, Leoric was reported by the townsfolk to be, "A very good king that feeds us and does smart things." Disapproval from his church didn't stop him.
Neither did Diablo. You see, there was a bit of a critical miscalculation in Diablo's prison. If you've ever read J.R.R. Tolkien's works and kept track of Sauron the Sorcerer's movements when he was imprisoned in Numenor, you may be able to guess what happened next.
Where this differs is that Diablo first went straight to Leoric but found himself unable to properly possess him. He was too goody goody. That doesn't mean he was unaffected. Oh no, the episode left Leoric permanently unhinged. Then one day Leoric decided I'm going to war with our neighboring country Westmarch. Why? Because he can. Also his vizier said they're going to backstab him so he's going to backstab them first.
This was a cat fighting a tiger. Any brains still left in the King's Court was slaughtered on the battlefield.
To pause lore time for a bit, I found a champion. Champion monsters are like Unique monsters, but the boosts they get is more generalized, and they're just a pack of Champions instead of one Unique and a pack of minions. Champions typically just get boosts to life, accuracy, move speed, and damage, but some different flavors of Champion exists, like Fanatic, Ghostly, Berserker, and Posessed. Ghostly, specifically, is a funny meme that will force physical resistance to 80%. This will overwrite physical immunities, so a Ghostly Ghost becomes hittable with a stick. Possessed meanwhile supercharges their life total and can't be cursed. Fanatics trade Defense for sheer move speed and Berserkers trade life for sheer damage output. They're very uncommon, because they're more likely to be Uniques than Champions, but sometimes a pack of strong dudes is more threatening than one stronger dude with minions.
Anyway, Archbishop Lazarus was the only one of the king's court to call this war a good idea. Archbishop Lazarus was also instacorrupted and found and freed Diablo. Archbishop Lazarus is also the one who kidnapped Leoric's son Albrecht for Diablo to possess to gain a new physical form. (He was a spoopy ghost before.) Archbishop Lazarus fucking sucks.
What was left of Tristram's army when it returned annihilated by Westmarch got sick of their king and killed him. Not before Leoric damned them to serve him even in death. The rest of this story can be touched up on later. The takeaway from this story now is, next time, try not building your kingdom underneath an ancient demon's burial ground. Just because they tell you it's safe, doesn't mean it is.
Now then, let's free Cain.
Deckard Cain! If you value your life, leave here immediately!
Always the charmer, Zoul.
Freeing Cain gives us one of the best things to have in this game when ID scrolls aren't obsoleted: free identification in town. No more having to lug these scrolls around. I still do though because I identify valuable items on the spot, but any and all loot we pick up to sell to vendors we aren't paying an ID scroll and some mouse clicks just to get the most value out of.
As you know, some time ago Diablo was slain beneath Tristram. And when our hero emerged triumphant from the labyrinth beneath town, we held a grand celebration that lasted several days.
Yet, as the weeks passed, our hero became increasingly aloof. He kept his distance from the rest of the townsfolk and seemed to lapse into a dark, brooding depression. I thought that perhaps his ordeal had been so disturbing that he simply could not put it out of his mind.
The hero seemed more tormented every passing day. I remember he awoke many times -- screaming in the night -- always something about 'the East'.
One day, he simply left. And shortly thereafter Tristram was attacked by legions of foul demons. Many were slain, and the demons left me to die in that cursed cage.
I believe now that Tristram's hero was that Dark Wanderer who passed this way before the Monastery fell.
I fear even worse, my friend... I fear that Diablo has taken possession of the
hero who sought to slay him. If true, Diablo will become more powerful than ever before.
You must stop him or all will be lost.
So this is what talking to Cain is like. Once he pops he just don't stop. I'm, sitting here trying to say something positive about Deckard Cain, about why people cared about him and tell me to my face that he's an iconic character, but other than the fact that he's been in I and II and he will say his catchphrase a lot in this game, I can't think of any. Mind you this has nothing to do with Cain as a character. Last surviving Horadric mage and literally just an old hero is a good background. It's more, I can't stand to transcribe his tirades about Diablo.
The quest is...not done. It wants me to speak to Akara as well.
Akara will dump a ring on us for finding Cain,
and I swear 9 times out of 10 the ring is garbage. It's very likely to be a blue ring, and we aren't at the point where good modifiers can reliably show up on rings yet. I guess if you've just been unlucky with ring drops??? Nonetheless, with Cain rescued and Akara's pity gift given, this quest is complete.
...That is, unless you're Median XL, in which case, instead, you get her robe.
...Okay. Not bad though.
Next time: We take a commercial break to do adventurer things.