So there I was in the nether, at level 28 and trying to get higher so I can enchant things, but my pick had just broken, so I start heading back to make a new one. Then I see this in the chat:
As I approach the portal, I see a dozen pigmen crowding around where Valerian's corpse would be. I rush to the portal as the mob chases after me. I try to fend them off with my fist, and I escape from hell an instant before I would have died.
I emerge in the center of town, where a couple people are milling around. I have no armor, half a hunger bar, and a few hearts.
Then pigmen start pouring out of the portal.
I run.
The pigmen continue to chase me around spawn as I frantically try to heal myself and prepare a defense, desperate to not lose those hard-earned levels.
It wouldn't take long for Nash's full inventory to despawn. I know that we have to take out the portal if this is going to end, so I run to the chest where I left my diamond pick, and take a hit as I move it to my hotbar. I know I can't do this alone, so I ask anti to cover me while I go for the portal. He jumps down from the roof to assist, and I manage to mine an obsidian block just before the pigmen reached me.
The area was secure.
It was the best 5 minutes of Minecraft I had ever played.