An Amazon of Limited Means

ACT III

Day 14

Kitsilan wasn't sure if it was morning or evening when she stepped onto the Kurast Docks. The permanent gloomy drizzle seemed to saturate her very skin, and what it did to her bowstrings was a crime.

She wandered around for bit, in kind of a daze. The dock dwellers ranged from mildly eccentric to full-out weird. She decided to bunk on Meshif's boat for as long as he stayed around.

The jungle wasn't far away, indeed, it was all too close. Kitsilan walked over the bridge leading to the Spider Forest and readied her bow. Already there was trouble—a tall man, hooded and cloaked, was just ahead of her. Kits tried shooting him, with no luck. He was apparently surrounded by the same vile magic that protected the eggs in the Maggot Lair. So then she tried running in circles around him. This seemed to annoy him—he conjured up four or five nasty little beasts to distract her while he portalled away. Didn't drop anything, though, the little cheapskates.

Afterward, she felt more herself and began to explore the jungle in earnest. Thorned Hulks, Jungle Beasts and Fetishes creaked or streaked out of the surrounding bushes. The Fetishes were the most difficult to target, as they moved as fast as Rat Men and hit harder with those giant knives they favoured. Dire Touch the Strong (extra strong) hit Kits once for half her life; he didn't get a second chance, luckily. The Thorned Hulks were hardly any threat—they moved so slowly Kitsilan had no trouble targeting them, and the Jungle Beasts rarely got close enough to do her any real harm, either.

The Suckers were annoying, but there weren't enough of them to be more than that. Devil Tongue (teleportation) proved quite fragile. Kitsilan made use of an intervening stream to take out his minions, then waited at the bridge for him to buzz over to her side, so she wouldn't have to walk far for his drop (blue light-plated boots).

Filling her pack with several very nice items, she portaled back to Kurast. She was surprised to find she'd picked up over 10,000 gold in just that little walk.

Wandering further up the riverbank and taking bridges at random, she found the Arachnid Lair and near it, the waypoint. She unloaded her pack in Kurast and prepared to enter the cave.

It was even gloomier than the jungle outside, and covered in old webbing. Kitsilan took only a few steps before she was attacked by Poison Spinners. These were fast, but not quite fast enough. The closeness of the passages made it hard for them to approach Kitsilan in number, and she had no real difficulty in picking them off before they could hurt her.

Keeping the Spinners company in the Lair were Giant Lampreys, who laid many eggs at a time and whose young soon covered the floor of the tunnels. "Ick!" Kitsilan exclaimed, picking her way through the mess. She went through the cave as quickly as possible, and soon found herself outside again, glad for the rain washing the goo from her boots.

She continued following the bank, shooting the occasional Thorned Hulk or Jungle Beast. She took a perverse pleasure in shooting Suckers, noticing how their insides exited their rears just before they fell like overripe tomatoes to the ground.

Kitsilan does not like bugs.

Finding the edge where the Spider Forest meets the Great Marsh, she killed a few Fetish-like yammerers and backtracked into the Forest again. She continued in a southeasterly direction, more or less back toward Kurast, and in rechecking a clearing through which she'd previously chased a few Jungle Beasts, she found the Spider Cavern.

Down she went. This cavern was much of a muchness with the Arachnid Lair, except it had at least one boss Poison Spinner almost right at the entry. Spine Froth (cold-enchanted) had a nasty bite, and so did his minions, but he dropped an amulet and a Jade Figurine.

Kitsilan knows a quest when she sees one bouncing at her feet. She picked up the Figurine (and the amulet, +2 to dex, she sold it) and portalled back to Kurast. Cain sent her to Meshif, who gave her a Golden Bird in exchange. This didn't seem to be much improvement to Kits, but then Cain told her that Alkor might be interested in the Bird. And, by the way, she and he are there in Kurast for a Great Purpose and she shouldn't forget it.

"Forget what?" Kitsilan asked.

"Mephisto, you rock-skulled baggage!"

"Oh, yeah, him. What about him?"

Cain took a deep breath and continued, "You will need to recover Khalim's Relics from the jungle. You must then find Khalim's Flail, and transmute them all in the Cube. When you have done this, you—"

"Khalim's what?"

"Relics."

"What are relics?"

"Well, there's his Eye, his Brain and his Heart."

"An eye."

"Yes."

"A brain."

"That's right."

"A heart."

"Very good! Are you writing this down? You should be writing this down."

It was Kitsilan's turn to take a deep breath. "Um, Cain, I'm not so sure—"

"Do you need a pen? Why don't Heroes ever carry pens?"

"Because we need the space for carrying Amulets of the Sun. Cain, old buddy, out there, past that bridge, is a jungle. What you're wanting me to fetch back are body parts. Are you getting my drift yet?"

"These were Khalim's. They will still be whole."

"So they've been, what? Kept on some kind of Horadric dry ice all this time?"

"Something like that, yes. Now go get them."

"Okay."

Alkor the chemist was overcome at the sight of the Golden Bird, and went off to make a potion with it. While he was occupied, Kitsilan wandered over to the blacksmith's to see about getting a dent knocked out of Tarnhelm. Before she could ask about it, though, Hratli told her about a sacred object that had been lost in the jungle. Assuring her that it was not some unfortunate priest's or shaman's liver, he fixed her helm and she went back to Alkor to see what he'd come up with.

A +20 to life potion! Considering what he might have made from the ashes of yet another dead guy inside an object d'art, Kitsilan was relieved it was something she could use.

"So," asked Alkor, "Hratli has an errand for you, then?"

"Yeah. He wants me to look out for some kind of… Scat Singing Gibbon?"

"Indeed? Well, I'm sure he has his reasons."

"I'm glad someone thinks someone here has reason. Gotta go!"

Back in the Spider Cavern once more, Kitsilan proceeded cautiously clockwise around the perimeter. Fiends and Giant Lampreys fell before her, as did Flame Spiders. She took to casting Slow Missiles every few steps and then just shooting a few arrows to see what would go splat. In the southern corner, she sensed that the chest she sought was somewhere just north of her, but the way was blocked. She quick-marched back to the entrance and hunted till she found the by-pass. More Flame Spiders and Fiends, and then she was close to her goal. A clutch of Lampreys delayed her, but better to get them now than to have them at her back.

Casting Slow Missiles, she flushed out another pack of Flame Spiders, only these were minions. She led them backward, hoping against hope their boss was still unaware of her. Catching them in a bottleneck, she finished them off and tiptoed back to where they'd been. A light blue-green spider ran for her—Sszark the Burning (extra strong, cursed). Kitsilan fell back shooting, then held her ground, stunning him and slowing his approach. He was almost upon her when he burst apart, not a single curse cast.

The glowing chest held a decent amount of gold, a fancy plated belt (which Kits did not need, being belt-poor) and Khalim's Eye. It was as Cain had said—whole.

"This is so gross," Kitsilan muttered, gingerly wrapping it in a bit of webbing and dropping it in her pack with a squish.

Back in town, Cain was so happy to see her again, and with the first Relic already in her possession, that he apologised handsomely for being so ill-tempered. "By the way," he went on, "whatever you do, don't say 'scat singing gibbon' in front of Ormus."

"Why not?"

"Let me put it this way: there are not enough identify scrolls in the whole of Kurast for you to finish writing 'Skatsimi Gidbinn'."

"Uh-oh."

"Indeed. You'll perhaps want to write that down, too."

"Um, yeah, guess I will. Thanks!"

Kitsilan decided to call it a day, even though it was early yet. She was still tired from yesterday's efforts, and today she had cleared the entire Spider Forest. Tomorrow would be time enough to see what the Great Marsh held.