Diablo 4, Season 3: Surf's Up, Satan!

 About two weeks ago, tragedy and mercy struck me simultaneously in a weird way. 

1- My mom's house was diagnosed with a case of black mold, and come to find out, I had been breathing in some nasty stuff for a couple of weeks while living there.

2- My real estate agent and her husband, Dylan, who are also really good friends in Utah from way back, invited me to stay in their basement apartment while everything got sorted out at my mom's house. 

This was great news for me for a few reasons. I was in a better, safer place that was also closer to my work here in Utah. Even better, my buddy Dylan plays a lot of the Diablo IV . . . and thus I'm once again delving into the magical game known as Diablo IV!

Coolest Necromancer Shield eva!

Dylan decided to play a Druid and loved how his character looked like a big burly, surfer dude. He was dubbed Hanzel the surfing druid, and I made a necromancer surfing sidekick for Hanzel named Kelp.

Hanzel and Kelp, Surfing Outcast Buddies Against Demons (SOBAD)

As the story goes, Kelp got caught in a most unrighteous undertow and, koo koo kachoo, ended up almost dying in the ocean. When Kelp washed up on Hansel's surfboard, he mysteriously could summon skeletal surfer buddies to ride the waves with him.

If you read that last paragraph in a stereotypical California surfing voice, you've got the basis for our entire role-play while playing Diablo IV. Cha, Dude! It's totally like that!

Hanzel, the Bronze Legend.

We're currently level 30-32 playing Veteran II and Chilling in Act 4. Good times! It does definitely get out of hand with surfer terms and role-play. My surfer voice sometimes slips into a quasi-Bill Clinton. I'm working on it! 

 Chat GPT just served up 10 great suggestions for battle cries that I'm going to have to use next play session:

• "Shred the Shadows" 
• "Hang Ten on Hell's Waves" 
• "Demonic Wipeout" 
• "Barrel Roll with Beelzebub" 
• "Radical Exorcism" 
• "Soul Carve" 
• "Demon Dunk" 
• "Demon Tide Takedown" 
• "Surf's Up, Satan!"
• "Wicked Wipeout Wraiths" 

Unfortunately, Season 3 is just about to wrap up . . . or I guess you could say fortunately, it will wrap up. The word on the street is that Season 4 is going to be game-changing for Diablo 4.  I can't wait to check it out.

Kelp's ride is appropriately themed.

It is great to be able to enjoy playing a game again. Saturdays are all about doing laundry and "Shredding the Shadows" with Hanzel. Hopefully, we'll be able to do some fun stuff with these characters before the season change puts them back into the eternal realm. 

Happy Dueling!