The Countess

The Countess is a Demon and a Dark Stalker.

The Countess is found on the fifth level of the Forgotten Tower, a dungeon area below the Black Marsh in Act One. She must be killed to complete the Forgotten Tower quest. She is also the only place in the game to obtain the Key of Terror, an item required to active the Pandemonium Event.

Besides the quest and the key, the Countess is most popular for her ability to drop numerous high level runes. She is the best single source of runes in the game, and many players "run" her over and over again to obtain them. See the sections further down this page for her drop odds and more information.

• All values are listed by difficulty level: Normal / Nightmare / Hell.

Statistics

Like other Corrupt Rogues, The Countess has a walking and a running speed. The Countess' Treasure Classes are modified to greatly increase her chances of dropping runes.

Name	Level	Experience	Hit Points	Walk	Run	Max TC/Rune
The Countess	11 / 45 / 82	395 / 18295 / 204,440	72-120 / 1311-2187 / 6590-10984	6	10	12/Ral, 45/Ko, 66/Lo

Offense

Like other Corrupt Rogues, the Countess has two melee attacks (with identical Attack Ratings). She is also credited for casting the firewalls that block the entrances to her chamber.

The Countess is always Fire Enchanted, and she gains 1 random Monster Modifiers on Nightmare and 2 on Hell.

Name	Attack #1	Attack #2	Attack Rating	Firewall	# of Minions
The Countess	4-9 / 20-40 / 51-102	5-8 / 24-37 / 61-93	95 / 1170 / 4282	Per second damage: 22-24 / 29-31 / 39-40	6 / 7 / 9

Defenses

Like many other SuperUniques, The Countess does not regenerate hit points.

• Regen Rate tells what % of a monster's hit points are recovered per second. Standard is 1.2/sec.
• Blocking tells what % of successful, blockable attacks will not damage the monster. Monsters need not carry a shield to block.
• Drain Effectiveness tells what % of a character's mana and life steal apply to that monster. 100 is all, 0 is none.
• Chill Effectiveness tells what % of a character's cold length applies to the monster. 100 is all, 0 is no freeze/chill at all.

Name	Defense	Blocking	Regen Rate	Drain Effectiveness	Chill Effectiveness
The Countess	40 / 570 / 1468	25%	--	100 / 100 / 100	50 / 40 / 33

Resistances

• Resistances over 99% are listed as immunities and monsters will take no damage from that type of attack.
• Immunities can be "broken" by skills that lower resistance, if the value drops below 99%. See the Resistances page for more details.

Name	Physical	Fire	Cold	Lightning	Poison	Magic
The Countess	0% / 0% / 20%	75% / 75% / 108%	0% / 0% / 130%	0% / 0% / 33%	0% / 0% / 2 0%	0% / 0% / 20%

Locations

All SuperUniques (except for Uber Diablo are found in roughly the same location every game, on all three difficulty levels. (Except for the Uber Monsters who are only found on Hell Difficulty.)

Name	Location
The Countess	Act 1: The Forgotten Tower, Level 5.

Tir, Tal & Ral Runes dropped

Rune Drop Specials

Starting with the v1.09 patch, The Countess was given the ability to drop one or more runes almost every time she died. This ability was enhanced and modified in v1.10, and in v1.11 she is now almost certain to drop at least one rune every time (1/64 chance of none dropping), and has the capability to drop up to six, though more than 2 or 3 is a very rare sight. The runes she can drop are:

• Normal: El (r01) - Ral (r08).
• Nightmare: El (r01) - Io/Ko (r18); above Io (r16) is much rarer.
• Hell: El (r01) - Ist/Lo (r28); above Ist (r24) is much rarer.

Why are two runes listed as her top drop? She has normal item drops like any other monster; these can go up to the highest runes listed; Ko on Nightmare and Lo on Hell. She also has special rune drop calculations for her bonus rune drops; these do not allow her to drop such high level runes; Io on Nightmare and Ist on Hell. Her odds of dropping a high level rune from her normal drop tables are as astronomical as they are for every other monster in the game. Her odds to drop one from her special rune drop tables are far better. If she drops a rune from her special TC then she drops a rune from "Runes 12" TC. This TC has a 3/5045 chance for Mal and a 2/5045 chance for Ist.

Her Treasure Classes are uniquely modified, and as a result the odds of her dropping multiple runes are actually increased when there is only one player in the game. (Even though she'll never drop more than two items, her rune drops come from special treasure class sequences that are accessed if the game doesn't think she should drop other items. Since she's more likely to roll to drop additional items when more players are in the game, even though her drop is hardcapped at two magical items, this cuts down on her odds of dropping a rune.)

See the Rune Hunting page for some more details about Countess rune drops and other good places to find Runes.

The Key of Terror

The Countess can drop the Key of Terror on Hell difficulty, a required ingredient for the Pandemonium Event. This item can not be obtained from any other monster, and can only be used on the Battle.net realms, though it will drop sometimes in Single Player as well. The odds of the Key of Terror dropping depend on how many players are in the game.

• 1 or 2 players: 7%
• 3 or 4 players: 9.1%
• 5 or 6 players: 9.6%
• 7 or 8 players: 9.8%

Taunts

Here for a bloodbath? Hahaha...

Your blood will boil!

Story

Dialogue from the Moldy Tome:

...And so it came to pass that the Countess, who once bathed in the rejuvenating blood of a hundred virgins, was buried alive... And her castle in which so many cruel deeds took place fell rapidly into ruin. Rising over the buried dungeons in that god-forsaken wilderness, a solitary tower, like some monument to Evil, is all that remains.

The Countess' fortune was believed to be divided among the clergy, although some say that more remains unfound, still buried alongside the rotting skulls that bear mute witness to the inhumanity of the human creature.

According to legend, the Countess committed a great many gruesome and heinous acts in her castle, including bathing in the blood of a hundred virgins, before being buried alive. It is likely the idea for the Countess was inspired by the real historical figure, Elizabeth Báthory, often known as "Lady Dracula." Though some historians dispute the claim, she reputedly bathed in virgin blood, in the belief that it would grant extended life.

The quest is not explicitly connected to the other events in Act I. However, Akara has hinted that some of her Rogues explored the Forgotten Tower but never returned, so it may be presumed that the Countess may have counted some Sisters of the Sightless Eye among her numerous victims. The Countess has a infamous reputation that predates Andariel's corruption of the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye, so her depiction in-game as a Dark Stalker was merely a placeholder rather than being part of Andariel's forces.

Gallery

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  Ruby, Charm & Eld

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  Shel, Ist & Eld Runes

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  The Countess & Corrupt Rogues

More images featuring The Countess.