We've all had frustrating experiences in multiplayer games. Heck, it's not that unusual for the worst of them to upset you in real life for a brief spell, and perhaps inspire some intemperate messages or uncivil voice chat. But for one Diablo 2 player, KrimzontheRed, the insult dealt by a bunch of gankers in the game's hardcore mode was simply too much. They wanted revenge and, even in hell, that is a dish best served cold.
Krimzon tells their own story in a post on the Diablo 2 JSP forums, and something that very quickly becomes clear is that this is not a joke: boy does this player have receipts. After the Diablo 4 beta weekends had re-ignited their interest in Diablo 2 Remastered, they decided to try their first-ever Diablo 2 hardcore run in April this year.
"I got a lot of help from the Community along the way, which unfortunately gave me a very false sense of security in Hardcore," writes Krimzon. "I jumped into my first Hell Chaos runs at level 70, and learned a valuable lesson…"
Krimzon was open in chat about being inexperienced in hardcore and asking for help, which is probably why a group led by a player called Don fixed its sights on him. Rather than ganking Krimzon directly, however, they led him to a "dirty" teleport with a whole host of hell's nasties on the other side and Don made the in-game call that it was safe for Krimzon to go through.
Krimzon's under-geared character died almost instantly. "It felt like most of the other players in the game were in on it," writes Krimzon. "One of the players joked about checking [Diablo forum] JSP to see if I’d made a post about my death [...] That same player decided they would post on my JSP thread, offer to give me a couple of starter items to get back on track, and pretended they were an innocent bystander."
The players exchanged some harsh words and "we parted ways." But Krimzon made a note of the player names and battletags of the group, and didn't forget.
Fast-forward to September 2023 and Krimzon's back in the hardcore saddle, enjoying a fresh reset and running with a team of buddies. Then in October, enter Gwyneth.
Ah, the unsuspecting Gwyneth. Gwyneth knew who Krimzon was. "He asked me if I’d been PK-d [player killed] a couple of seasons ago, and mentioned that he was in the game back in April when Don set the dirty [teleporter]," writes Krimzon. Krimzon checked his list of names and realised this player wasn't only part of the group that had led his previous HC character to death, but the one who'd been joking about the forums to boot.
"I wasn’t sure if Gwyneth was Don, or just entirely complicit in his actions," writes our hero. "Neither mattered."
This guy was toast, and Krimzon had a new goal for D2R's season 5: "Seek Revenge. Kill Gwyneth." They befriended the player, invited him to private runs, and hung out with them in-game doing random stuff and farming.
"I started sharing my corpse with him through these runs. I wanted him to trust me. He started sharing his back, until we’d reached the point where any game we were both in, it was common practice," writes Krimzon. "I said nothing of my plans for revenge [...] The game was well and truly afoot."
The only issue? Krimzon didn't really 'do' Diablo PvP. "I also knew that I wanted the kill to be a clean one," writes Krimzon. "I will never set a dirty TP after what was done to me. That felt low."
Avoiding the weeds of build specifics, Krimzon tweaked their barbarian class and cut in a few close friends on his plans, and together they farmed for the runes and charms that would maximise damage. They hit level 99 before switching to a whirlwind focused barbarian, all the while devouring everything they could find about high-level Diablo 2 PvP, practicing their whirlwind combos, and basically doing everything possible to prepare for PvP without actually taking part in PvP.
It was all building up to one irresistible right click. Come December 2023, "I felt ready to put my revenge plans in motion [and] I knew how I wanted to do it," Krimzon wrote. The plan was to catch the victim in a terror zone at "the right moment to strike", to which end they played through multiple terror zones with Gwyneth while waiting, doing everything possible to avert suspicion.
On 5 December, 2023, Krimzon "checked Bnet and saw that Gwyneth was online." The terror zones looked like exactly what they'd been looking for. "I knew I might not get another chance. I knew that the time to strike was upon us."
Krizon joined Gwyneth's game, and played it cool for a while even though "my heart was racing." Then disaster: their PC crashed.
"I panicked. I powered on/off [...] I thought, at the final hurdle, I’d probably died. I’d been lucky.
"I rejoined Gwyneth. We cleared the Outer Steppes. Gwyneth opened a new game. It was time."
Krimzon sprinted to the Plains of Despair, and began buffing themselves ready for Gwyneth's arrival.
"He ran outside of the Pandamonium Fortess. I ran back inside. I took a second. I toiled. I nearly backed out. But I committed. I turned hostile.
"Two steps. Two Whirlwinds."
And Gwyneth (level 97 Assassin) was slain by Krimzon. It was over in seconds, if that. All of Krimzon's dedication seems almost ludicrous in the context of how fast it happened: but in those seconds, they cost Gwyneth lord knows how many hours.
"I feel conflicted," writes Krimzon. "I killed a guy, who I’d lured into a false sense of security. He feels betrayed. And I understand that. Weeks, even months of his time invested in that character have been deleted in a second. And a big part of me is sorry.
"But, there’s a valuable lesson here. Don’t be an arsehole."
Krimzon vows that they will never target an innocent player but adds "there are still a few players on my list. A few new additions this season [...] and the rest of the players who sent me to my grave in that first Chaos game back in April.
"I hope to see you soon."
If you're feeling faintly terrified by Krimzon, you're not alone. But the reaction of the Diablo 2 players is almost unanimous: delicious, sweet revenge. People generally don't like player killers but on hardcore? That's a whole different level of hate.
"The level of pettiness on display here fills my heart," commented Flaky_Supermarket_83. "Good on you for taking out the trash."
After Gwyneth's death, the player behind the character messaged Krimzon: "why man?"
Krimzon's reply was as simple and ice cold as they come: "Now we're even."
