An Amazon of Limited Means

Day 2

Kits woke and readied herself to check out the Mausoleum and Crypt. Her cheery mood was dampened a bit when Kyle, her Rogue cannon fod—er, companion, informed her that all the monsters had regenerated during the night.

"All of them?"

"Every one."

"Blood Raven?"

"Black massing even as we speak."

"Shucks."

Nothing for it, she'd just have to clear a wide path from the Cold Plains waypoint to the Burial Grounds.

Being a leisurely sort of path clearer, Kits meandered around, shooting Fallen, Shamans, Dark Rangers, Spearwomen and Gargantuan Beasts, picking up another level in the process. A detour just inside the Stony Field (she was curious) netted her first piece of jewelry—an Amulet with +2 to Life. The donor was a Fire-Enchanted boss skeleton. She also found her first gem, a chipped ruby, which she promptly socketed into her spare socketed bow.

With a quick stop back in camp to empty her pack, she moved on with purpose to the Burial Grounds.

Blood Raven's prediction of her army destroying Kitsilan proved to be a touch optimistic. She dropped a Superior Hunter's Bow, which Kits tried for a bit due to its Very Fast Attack Speed. Liking that, when she returned from looting and pillaging the Crypt (routine), she traded it in for a Hunter's Bow with +1 to Dex. Immediately thereafter, on her second trip back with loot, a Hunter's Bow of Leeching showed itself. Squealing with delight, Kitsilan pawned her Amulet for enough gold to buy it. 6% life steal. Her fav.

Bonebreaker dropped Crimson Heavy Boots of Light, with 8% fire resist. Not that it's much, but it beats none, and Kits felt they fit even better than the Beryl Boots of Pacing anyway.

The glowing chest in the Mausoleum was in the second or third room Kits tried. It had Sturdy Quilted Armour of Health (damage reduced by 1), so the rare Quilted Kits had been wearing went into storage. The Hungry Dead boss, Whatshisname (extra fast), dropped a fancy hand axe, which helped finance another Town Portal scroll.

Kitsilan then realised that if she didn't at least hunt around the Stony Field till she found the waypoint, she'd have to clear the Cold Plains again. Again? Fun's fun, but the Cold Plains aren't all that interesting.

Nosing inside the Stony Field, then, Kitsilan worked her way around to the north and west, clipping goat boys (Moon Clan variety), Carvers and more Fallen and Skeletons. She missed the Cairn Stones, but did run across the Moldy Tome. It didn't hold her interest, especially as goat boys and Carvers swarmed her while she was skimming through it. Nevertheless, after careful consideration, she found the tale of the Countess' wealth intriguing, though the buckets of blood part she could do without. Kyle looked very dubious about the whole idea, but Kits assured it was some ways in the future and who knows what the future holds for any of us?

Doubling back, Kitsilan picked up another level, the waypoint and located the Cairn Stones and the Underground Passage that Akara was so keen on her traversing. "Probably chock full of nasty spiders and things," she thought, peering into its mouth.

Back to camp with another packful of loot, and does anyone have a nice skullcap to match her bow? No? Oh, well.

Kits entered the Underground Passage shooting. Death to stair traps! And spiders! Vile Hunters, Skeleton Archers and Carvers opposed her way, but all were grist for her bow. A few Misshapen joined the fun and went down as well. She located the second level fairly quickly and, taking a deep breath, leapt down the stairs, shooting wildly. An easy second level, as these go, only one boss (a Misshapen, fire enchanted) and a double handful of Vile Hunters and Carvers and the usual Fallen. The glowing chest's contents were dull dull dull, a bit of gold, a cracked short bow, a fancy dagger and some potions.

Deeply aggrieved, Kitsilan went on a rampage throughout the rest of the Passage, slaying all who foolishly barred her way. Wiping her Level 9 brow as she stood before the exit to the Dark Wood, she tried to remember why she was there. "Tree of… Exlax? Better go back to camp and study my notes."

In camp, Akara made her write "Inifuss" ten times on a spare Identify scroll and pinned it to her collar. However, Charsi unpinned it ("She does this stuff all the time. Don't pay any attention; we don't.") and sold her a Hunter's Bow of the Bat (6% mana steal, her other fav!) and Gheed sold her a Skull Cap of Warding (magic damage reduced by 1). Thus equipped, she prepared to tackle the Dark Wood, hoping to get the Scroll, find the waypoint and call it a night.

Akara had other ideas. Sure, Kits found the waypoint, in record time. Yes, she found the Tree, by the usual expedient of finding Treehead Woodfrost (extra fast) first and stepping over his corpse. She found the usual assortment of Carvers and Fallen and Vile Lancers and Spike Fiends. Foregoing the pleasure of full-clearing the Dark Wood this day, she waypointed back to camp with the scroll, only to find that Akara now wanted her to take the Scroll to the Stony Field, pat the Cairn Stones and then go back to Tristram.

"Um, isn't Tristram a burning shell, full of demons and monsters?"

"Yes."

"Well-armed?"

"Yes."

"Ugly dispositions?"

"You're a Hero, right?"

"Oh. Yeah. Right."

The Stony Field was dark and deserted. This was good. Kitsilan touched each Cairn Stone in turn ("Good Stone! Nice Stone!") and walked through the red portal.

Tristram used to be such a nice place. First boss monster to find her was the Skeletal Archer, and he dropped a pretty pair of leather gloves. He and his minions had the grace to go down more or less before Griswold emerged ("Hi, Griz, nice to see you too, my, what big ears you have!"), followed by Moonstone (Moon Clan boss) and his minions. Kitsilan and Kyle both ran up and down the path by the river, staying away from Griswold and quickly gunning down his glee club. He dropped a nice pair of leather gloves, too. Must be something in the air.

After freeing Cain ("Help! Help!") and tackling Skeleton Archer Champs (one of whom dropped an Ocher Light Belt, 5% lightning resist) and Carver Shamans, Kyle was looking a bit worse for wear, so Kits threw up a town portal and they walked through it to camp. Akara was very happy to see them, gave Kits a decent ring in exchange for freeing Cain (Crimson Ring of Energy, +1 to mana and 9% fire resist; it could have been Fast Cast, after all) and Cain told her all about the stuff in her pack and wanted to tell her about how he was busy finding a cure for polio when Tristram was overrun and couldn't get away from the lab in time to save his nearest and dearest from torture beyond death and he has no idea why he was spared… Kitsilan didn't care, frankly, but she thought it was nice of him to hang around and identify her stuff. One of the glove pairs was Azure Leather Gloves of Thawing (1/2 freeze duration and some cold resist) so she kept those and sold off everything else.

Before she could pocket her gold, though, Charsi asked her to look out for her Orangic Bollox if she got as far as the Rogue's Monastery, and Kits said she would.

Back to Tristram to mop up. One last boss showed himself, Vile Hand (Fallen Shaman) and he dropped a fancy sword. Kitsilan and Kyle cleared out the rest of the monsters and made sure all was quiet before coming back to camp for the last time today. Now Level 10, Kitsilan is feeling pretty pleased with herself. Not only has she cleared Stony Field and the Underground Passage, and finished off the Cain quest, but she's kept Kyle alive all day. Kyle seems pretty happy about that, too.