Diablo 2: Lord Of Destruction Walkthrough

ACT FIVE


Townsfolk

MALAH - Malah is a Healer in Harrogath, who is weary of treating the wounded in the struggle against Baal, and prays that the fighting will end soon. 

QUAL-KEHK - Senior Man-at-Arms of Harrogath, Qual-Kehk directs troops into combat, and can offer the services of one of a selection of his barbarians to you as a hireling should you wish.

CAIN - As trusty as ANY lap dog, Deckard Cain has followed you yet again into this newest land of peril.

NIHLATHAK - Nihlathak is the only surviving Village Elder ... all the other Elders sacrificed themselves to create a protective ward around Harrogath, but Nihlathak abstained for whatever reason. He appears to be quite aloof and haughty.

LARZUK - Larzuk is the village's Blacksmith and Armourer ... his skill is legendary, and many people who have not even met him know of his work.

ANYA - Although not present in the village at the outset, you will eventually get the opportunity to meet Anya. Anya is the daughter of one of the Village Elders, and does not like Nihlathak.

SIEGE ON HARROGATH

Once you have spoken with Deckard Cain in the town, you can go and speak with Larzuk to get your first quest - SIEGE ON HARROGATH.

It transpires that whilst Baal has started to ascend Mount Arreat, he has left one of his Overlords - an 'ORRIBLE little mutha called Shenk the Overseer - to continue the siege on Harrogath. Baal's war machines reign fire and death down on Harrogath from afar, and Larzuk is worrying because he isn't sure how much longer Harrogath's walls will hold from this assault.

Don't you WORRY luv - leave it to us !!

So ... off we go !!

In order to complete the first quest you need to exit the village and head up the Bloody Foothills ...

On the way you will find several barbarians dotted about the place, fighting Baal's minions.

Yes, you CAN help them !! So I would strongly suggest that you do, as it will increase the number of peeps that you will have barrelling up that field towards their ultimate destination, and this in turn should help you get by quicker !!

HINT: The Paladin's Auras will actually extend so as to cover Barbarians ... as will the Desert Mercenary's, so if you are playing as/with either of these characters, you can help them out a bit if you like ;)

Take out any and all catapults that you find, and make sure to keep on the move so as to keep dodging the incoming attacks from those catapults higher up the field.

The enemies that you will fight in Act V are unlike any you have encountered before ... Demon Sprites, Death Brawlers, Stygian Harlots, all these and more await you ... so you need to learn how each one attacks and work out ways of dealing with it FAST ... otherwise you can quickly find yourself outgunned and in BIIIIIIG trouble !!

QUICK WORD ABOUT RUNNING BOMBERS

You will find that certain enemies run towards you with kegs of explosives strapped to their bodies. They scamper at you like dogs and are considerably quicker than their brethren. DO NOT ATTACK THESE GUYS IN HAND TO HAND. The damage that they dish out when they explode is CONSIDERABLE. Instead ? Try and deal with them by either standing your ground until they enter melee range and then IMMEDIATELY running away (which causes them to detonate themselves and, if you're quick enough, you'll get away unscathed), or simply allow your hireling to take care of them (as they don't seem to take as much damage as you), OR take them out with ranged weaponry ... but NEVER ... EVER engage them in hand-to-hand.

Once you have worked your way up to the top of the Bloody Foothills you will find what looks like a big burnt circle in the ground and there, in the middle of it (at least at the outset) is Shenk the Overseer. He is armed with a whip, and can use this to whip his troops into a frenzied state wherein they attack faster and harder than normal ... he can also use it to fire projectiles at you.

Once Shenk has fallen, you should return to Larzuk for your reward, which iiisss ???

He will place sockets into any item of your choosing ... now ... before you go nuts and grab the first thing that you can lay your fingers on ? THINK !! The number of sockets depends to a certain degree on the size of the original object; the maximum number of sockets I have ever been able to have inserted into an item by Larzuk is 5, with the minimum being a paltry 1.

Larzuk can put sockets into pretty much any type of weapon or item too, so it shouldn't matter whether it's ordinary, magic, unique, set, personalised or WHATEVER ... THIS is the boi to socket it !!

Once Larzuk has socketed your weapon/item/whatever, the quest is completed.

RESCUE ON MOUNT ARREAT

To obtain the second quest you now need to go and speak with Qual-Kehk, who will tell you that several of his warriors have not reported back, and he is concerned for their safety.

He asks you to send them back to him if you find any on your travels.

Basically there are three sets of Qual-Kehk's Men located in the area past the Bloody Foothills.

It's called the Frigid Highlands, and it's also the location of the first waypoint in Act 5.

The three sets of barbarians are located in pens of sharp spears that appear WHITE on your map ... as soon as a set of barbarians appears on your screen, bad guys in the surrounding area will start to attack their barbarian prisoners in an attempt to kill them before you get to them.

STOP THEM !!!!!

Once you have opened the door to the pen, the barbarians (five per pen) will Town Portal back to Harrogath.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Sometimes ... surprisingly and annoyingly frequently to be honest, you will find that for NO reason at all, you will fail this quest. What will happen is at least one of the Barbarians won't leave the pen, and will instead just potter around in there. If this happens just abandon the lot of them and skip ahead to the next quest ... there is nothing more you can do for them. If it happens ? You also have my sympathies, because it's a real PAIN IN THE @RSE !!

Once you have released all 15 of Qual-Kehk's Men from their imprisonment, the quest is over !!

Nice and easy, non ?? You should now return to Qual-Kehk for your reward :- three runes ...

1 x Ort Rune, 1 x Ral Rune, 1 x Tal Rune. A VERY VERY VERY nice combo I might add, as they give (when socketed into a weapon) Lightning PLUS Fire PLUS Poison damage !! R-E-S-U-L-T !!!!!

PRISON OF ICE

In order to obtain your third quest you need to speak with Malah. She tells you that Anya - that girl that I mentioned a while ago whilst I was giving you a run-down on the characters in Harrogath ?? Is missing ...

... um ... we knew that luv ... that's why she's not here ??

She confides in you and tells you that she believes Nihlathak has something to do with Anya's disappearance, as she heard the two of them arguing shortly before she vanished ... Malah doesn't seem to like Nihlathak ... I wonder why !!

If you go and confront Nihlathak about Anya's disappearance, he will not surprisingly rebuff Malah's rendition of events, and tell you his own tale as to what happened ...

... who ya gonna trust ? I have an idea ... let's find Anya and ask her !!

To find Anya you need to make your way through the Frigid Highlands to the Crystalline Passage, and from there you need to descend down to the Frozen River, where you will find Anya.

DON'T go to the Glacial Trail - that comes later ;) You need to go DIRECTLY from the Crystalline Passage to the Frozen River.

PLEASE MAKE SURE that you activate the waypoint in the Crystalline Passage BEFORE you enter the Frozen River, ok ?????

As there isn't really anything I can say ... you just sorta have to fight your way down there, I will skip now to the bit where you find Anya.

When you are in the Frozen River and you get a quest update, it means you are about to be MOBBED by a load of those Drifter creatures ?? Led by a bad boy called Frozenstein.

Once Frozenstein and his minions have fallen, you can go and talk to Anya ... Anya tells you that Nihlathak trapped her here, and that the only way she is going to be able to get out is with Malah's help ... use a Town Portal scroll and go back to Harrogath to speak with Malah.

Malah provides you with a THAWING POTION 3000 to give to Anya that should break her free from her frozen prison ... return through the Town Portal and give the potion to Anya to set her free.

Anya will then Town Portal back to Harrogath, so follow her through your own Town Portal (obviously you'll need to create another for this purpose) and speak to her when you get back to town ... she's just to the south-east of Deckard Cain.

Anya is obviously most grateful to you for having freed her from her prison, and presents you with an item that she has had specially made for you by Larzuk.

Treasure it, or sell it - it's entirely up to you !!

Quest over !!

Incidentally, if you go to see Nihlathak to give him a piece of your mind ? You'll find that he's already skipped town ... bumbumhead ... =./

BETRAYAL OF HARROGATH

You now need to speak with Anya again to get the next quest - "Betrayal of Harrogath". It appears that Anya confronted Nihlathak who, in a true Bond Villain stylee, told her EVERYTHING she needed to know about his plan, including dates, times, locations of bombs, numbers of henchmen and their weaknessess, bla bla bla.

Anya can now confirm that Nihlathak made an arrangement with Baal, whereby Harrogath would be spared from Baal's Destructive Influence IF Nihlathak agreed to turn over one of the Barbarian Stronghold's most sacred relics - an item which allows the bearer to gain access to the Worldstone Keep !!

See, the whole thing goes ...

... ordinarily in order to gain access to the Worldstone Keep, one must prove him/herself worthy to the Ancients - I.E. beat the cr@p out of them in mortal combat. However, if Baal gains possession of this relic, he will be able to waltz straight past them as a "friend of the barbarian people", and gain access to the Worldstone Keep without any challenge whatsoever !!

THIS IS NOT GOOD !!

Anya then creates you a red Town Portal to the entrance to Nihlathak's Temple, and suggests you haul @ss to go kick some tail and sort him out good and proper !!

LET'S GO !!