An Amazon of Limited Means

Day 7

Kitsilan woke up and took a long, hard look at her bow collection. They were adequate, yes, but truly good bows just weren't dropping and she was concerned about the the amount of damage she was able to deal out. What she really wanted was to meld the two into one bow, with life steal and cold/fire damage. Fara had a plain short battle bow in her stock, and that clinched it.

Time to talk to Charsi about that promise she made a couple of days ago.

Kitsilan had noticed yesterday when she stepped on the Sewers waypoint, that she could also go to any other waypoint she'd already been to, including that of the Rogues' camp. "Faster than riding with Warriv," she thought, and let the magic of the Horadrim or whoever twinkle her away.

Charsi didn't seem surprised to see her back, and cheerfully took Kits' battle bow into her workshop. When she emerged it was with this:

Rune Thirst

Two-Hand Damage: 9 - 20

Fast Attack Speed

+1 to Light Radius

5% life stolen per hit

enhanced damage

fire resist 5%

+67 to attack rating

"Cold damage?" Kitsilan asked. "Way fast attack speed? Mana steal?"

"It's a Malus," Charsi said carefully, "not a bloody short order conjuring cook! What is it with you Heroes, always wanting something that will kill demons whilst you stand around buffing your nails!"

"Hey, no, it's lovely, really, just what I needed! I'm really very grateful, you did splendidly and I adore the inlay on the grip."

"You like it?"

"Yes."

"Really like it, no fooling?"

"I love it. I'll go and try it out right now."

"Well, okay. Take care!"

Kitsilan climbed back aboard the waypoint machine and headed straight for Sewers Level 2. Rune Thirst upped her Magic Arrow damage to between 18 and 35, and her chance-to-hit to 73%. True enough, the Burning Dead skels went down more easily, and even the boss she ran into burst apart in no time.

Back in town, she sold her first long bow to Fara and kept the gemmed one for, well, no good reason except she didn't want to sell it yet.

It was a bright sunny day, so Kitsilan headed out into the Rocky Waste. She was immediately greeted by Sand Leapers and Carrion Birds, followed closely by Slinger kitties. Slinger kitties look very silly when one casts Slow Missiles on them. Serves them right, too. Even Haze Eye the Shade (stone skin) seemed a bit disconcerted. Kits walloped her and her minions, then began exploring.

She didn't see much at first, some urns to kick into bits, a few guard corpes to roll, the usual. She found out that she could one-shot kill the Carrion Birds, mostly, and that it's best to target one Leaper puppy until it's dead before going after the next.

Somewhere in a cloud of Sand Leapers, she levelled up to 17. Not yet ready to go back to town and puzzle through her options, she kept on in a leisurely, east-southish criss-cross. A gaggle of Carrion Birds tried to sneak up on her, and one of them dropped her very first Set item—Hsaru's Iron Stay.

She found the Stony Tomb shortly thereafter and portalled back to town with a full pack. Full mostly of potions, true, but there were one or two other things worth carting around. After thinking about it for some minutes, she finally decided that Hsaru's was marginally better than the belt she had, due to its boost to life and mainly to its 20% cold resist. "Anyway, if I don't like the fit, I've still got the other," she told Fara, as she pushed her Critical Strike level to 8.

Having covered the southeast section, Kitsilan rounded toward the north, dispatching several more packs of Leapers and Birds. A few Slingers gave her some trouble, but she SM'd them and practised dodging their spears. Not as easy as might be, since there were several ground obstacles in the immediate area, so it was a good workout. Just as that finished, though, she ran into a boss pack of Dung Soldier Scarabs. She quickly backed away and cast a portal. Returning to their area, things got hairy, as she fought to take them down and stay out of the way of their charged bolts. Then, with a third of her life gone, she made the mistake of shooting the boss, Star Skin the Howler (lightning enchanted, as if he needed the extra boost), point blank.

Kits' life dropped to almost nothing, as she ran and dodged and drank healing potions. If she hadn't had Hsaru's Belt on, she'd have been doing a corpse recovery run right at that point.

Okay, so, lesson learned. Still a bit wild-eyed, she finished Star Skin off from a safer distance and recovered his drop (blue crystal sword). Pausing only to find and toast a straggling minion plus a stray Slinger, she then took the portal to town.

"What the heck is this for?" she asked Fara, setting the Crystal Sword of Slaying on the table.

"Um… to kill the spawn of Diablo?"

"No, really, what's it for?"

"What do you mean? It's a sword."

"If you look at it cross-eyed, it will shatter," Kitsilan expostulated. "It's not strong enough to whack a pillow with, much less a monster!"

"But look--" Fara held it up in the light of the setting sun. "See how it glows!"

"Uh-huh. What's the min/max damage of 'glow'?"

"Okay, so you've got a point. I'll give you 735 gold for it, if you promise not to tell any Barbarians."

"You're on."

There was just enough time left in the day for Kitsilan to finish clearing the Rocky Waste. But first, she had to see if Elzix had anything interesting in his Chance box.

Oooh, leather gloves…. could be…. Shucks. +3 to life?!

This exchange put Kits in the proper frame of mind to thrash any and all creatures foolish enough to cross her path. Luckily, there was still one leftover Dung Soldier minion and a few Slingers upon whom she could work out her mood. By the time she trudged back through the entryway to Lut Gholein, she'd cheered up quite a bit. "After all, it's only gold," she told Cain on the way to her corner of the enclave. "Plenty more out there!"