Victor and Razan set off into the Figid Highlands. Eldritch dropped a rare ghost spear with 40% IAS, but the other stats were garbage. Burning Archers were scattered everywhere but didn't threaten me often, since they move so little. I rescued the barbs and got ready for Abaddon. Very tough monster roll:
Blood Lords (physical immune), Stygian Dolls, and Horror Archers.
Fortunately I had a long clear path to start with. I was able to pick apart a pack of Blood Lords with a bullet-proof
boss. This guy gave me fits. Unbreakable PI. He took forever to kill, longer than any Act Boss. I used my staff and cold bow with Lower Resist. Thank god Razan has 5-438 lightning damage on his polearm, or I'd have gone crazy! I had to CE his corpse, just for the heck of it!
Later, I took a p5 doll death burst, but it only took of about 1/3 my life.
The next bit of fun was the second lava area, Pit of Acheron. The monsters weren't so bad; mostly mages and unravellers. I had an NDE when I failed to notice those blackish spiked balls'o'death from a boss pack of unravellers. I went down to about a quarter life when I ran away. After healing, I greedily rushed into the fray to hit an EXP shrine. This put me in a tense position for a couple minutes, but it turned out all right. Maybe better than all right, when I noticed the boss unraveller's
awesome drop. :surprise: First time I've ever seen this.
Required level 87 ?! I wonder just how rare this weapon is? Rarer than Windforce?
Some of my characters end up with useless items I just can't bear to part with. This might be Victor's.
The Frozen River was gut-wrenching. Snow Beasts, Sirens, and Gloams Gloams Gloams. With evil urns packed full of...
Gloams, that like to spawn right on me! Those crazy sirens made things extremely difficult with their fly-by behavior. Many times I took lightning bursts to less than half life. Once I was hit from three directions with such massive bursts, I seriously accepted I was dead. I retreated with near-zero visible life, so stunned that I wasted a second before hitting a rejuv. Absolute luck.
After tossing Anya's garbage gift to the ground with disgust (yep, I didn't even sell it back to her), I set about clearing the Halls of Anguish. Incredible monster roll, with leapers, temple guardians, and uncountable dense masses of melee flayers. It was a glorious CE rout! p5 drops provided elite items every 30 seconds. No major S/U finds, but I made at least a million gold. Most exciting drop was a rare thresher (until I saw its terrible stats) and a
cruel rare lance with poison damage.
Halls of Pain was another CE-fest of blow dart flayers and blood maggots, but there were fewer bosses. Baby maggots are useless for drops, so I got robbed there. At least no danger for Victor.
Halls of Vaught opened into a stairtrap of PI Hell Temptresses and Cold Archers. No bosses, just normal monsters. I used a couple teleports to create a good angle against them, and it was all downhill after that. Nihlathak tagged me with a CE, using a corpse I was sure I'd just used myself. His cheap shot took of a good 2/3 life, so I was less bold against him after that.
My next session had me back in the Glacial Trail caves, with Moon Lords and a double dose of wimpy bone warriors. The evil urns were extra-evil, once spawning a boss pack of Moon Lords around Victor. I already had my TP set up, but was able to teleport instead. The Drifter Cavern gave me a safe entrance, and monsters that went down pretty easily. I got my favorite shrine there, a Monster Shrine, which spawned a wimpy goat boss.
After clearing the Frozen Tundra and hitting the waypoint, I finished with the Infernal Pit. Dammit, there were Oblivion Knights there which caused a dozen merc deaths. What a pain in the ass, it took a lot longer than I was hoping to clear out, as they cast their curses across the moats. But what can you do? All's well that ends well.
Conqueror Victor Shen, level 88 (barely), Act 5 Hell, Frozen Tundra
Score: 192 (thanks for the table update jiansonz)
I don't expect to get anywhere close to catching up before the end of the tourney, but with any luck I can get Jonathan out of normal. He has finished clearing the desert, and will start up on the Palace next. His score only went up by one, so I am going to hold off updating him in the table. 
