An Amazon of Limited Means

Day 15

Kitsilan stuck her head out from under her blanket. She could hear the rain thrumming against the tarp overhead, and briefly considered sleeping in for another hour or maybe a week, that'd be nice, but then noticed the warm tea Meshif had left near her pillow.

Thus fortified against the weather, she pulled herself together and disembarked, heading for the waypoint to the Spider Forest. As she materialized at the other end, Cloud Stalkers swarmed around her in force. They weren't as much fun to puncture as the Suckers had been yesterday, so she headed down the path to see what else might be hanging around.

More Thorned Hulks and Fetishes. Death Cloud the Witch (teleportation) and his Fetish minions blew darts at her from across the stream, and danced about so much they were difficult to target. Eventually, though, she'd settled with the lot of them and collected their offerings. Continuing around and about, she cleared a largish safe zone in the area nearest the entrance to the Great Marsh. The other boss pack in the vicinity was Puke Burn (stone skin), Thorned Hulks all, whom she also handled from across a stream, only luring Puke Burn himself over when the minions were dead. The stone skin attribute meant she had to run him up and down the riverbank before he would go down, but this was a very different exercise from the chore it had been with the Specters in the Arcane Sanctuary. Puke Burn was slow. And stupid. Kits shot at him as he approached, then ducked under his swinging arm to dash to the other end of the bank. She was almost sorry when he did fwoosh into Hulk-patty. This was fun!

One of his minions dropped a very nice rare Great Axe, and Kits scooped it and the rest of the loot into her pack and headed back to Kurast. Cain identified the Axe as being Ghoul Edge, with a host of damage-enhancing properties, but insisted Kitsilan sell it. "You'd cut your own foot off at the ankle with your first swing, and anyway, it's too heavy."

Her entry into the Great Marsh was contested by Fetishes, Fetish Shamans, Gloams and Drowned Corpses. It was all very noisy and busy, but when the air cleared, Kitsilan found they'd barely touched her. As she continued up the river, more appeared, and more again. She crossed a bridge and fell back before a Swamp Dweller Champion, then returned and wasted the ten or so Drowned Carcasses who'd been following him around. Finally getting a moment to herself, she saw what all the fuss had been about: a glowing chest, whose contents she picked through and took back to sell. Alkor had some chain boots that weren't Treads of Cthon, darn it.

Kitsilan headed northeast, and into a pack of Gloams and Drowned Carcasses, one of whom dropped Civerb's Cudgel. She continued along that bank till it closed off, then doubled back to follow the stream on its other side. In this way she made sure she covered every part and nook and missed nothing, and it paid off when, after disposing of Mind Venom, a teleportation-enhanced Gloam (an attribute Kits thought as wasted as "extra fast" on a Rat Man) and his minions, she located the Great Marsh waypoint.

Alkor had light-plated boots that weren't Goblin Toes, or even better than the boots she was wearing, which seemed par for the day ("It's only gold, it's only gold, it's only… feh!").

She worked her way around a bend in the river and found herself in the Flayer Jungle. Soul Killers blew darts at her from the other bank, and several more ran across a nearby bridge toward her. Kits took care of everything in range, then touched a handy Portal Shrine. There was still a little bit of the Great Marsh to finish, and she wanted to deal with it before getting serious about questing. At some point while doing so, she levelled to 25.

With the Great Marsh cleared, she took the Portal Shrine back to Kurast and emptied her pack before stopping by to talk over her options with Ormus.

"You have questions for Ormus. You may ask."

"Um, thanks. Okay, so what's the plan? Guided Arrow? Critical Strike? Evade?"

"Ormus knows the way of the soul. Does the soul seek wisdom?"

"Well, actually, this soul seeks to rend and destroy, pretty much. And loot."

"Ormus says, 'Penetrate'."

"Again? Can I see those notes?"

"Certainly. Ormus cannot hide that which is not hidden from the eyes of the true seekers."

Kitsilan frowned over the much-thumbed notebook. "Huh. Penetrate it is, then."

"Ormus knew you would say that."

Kitsilan glared at the impassive mage, unsure if he were laughing at her or not. "Right, then. Later!" She turned on her heel, feeling the Flayers would be a good deal more comfortable to deal with.

Kits re-entered the Flayer Jungle cautiously. It seemed quiet, but that didn't last long. A covy of Flayers and Shamans descended upon her, and then another. She shot furiously in all directions, then fell back. Casting Slow Missiles, she nosed forward, encountering another wave, this one accompanied by Winged Nightingales. Once more Kits fell back, noting that among the birds was a boss pack led by Bone Weaver the Unclean (magic resistant). They were easier to take out than Kitsilan thought they would be, in the end, and she finished mopping up stray Flayers before entering their clearing.

Another wave struck, which she handled without retreating. She was pretty sure something good was on the other side of all these Flayers, and she was right. A large fiery pot sat in the middle of the path. Kitsilan walked around it, and finding no more Flayers, came back to it, prodding it with her foot experimentally. For a moment it seemed nothing happened, then she was surrounded by a half-dozen Rat Man minions and their boss, whose name, Gore Grumble the Unholy (aura enchanted) caused Kitsilan to go into a rage of arrow-firing. Next time she looked around, they were all dead and the Gidbinn lay on the ground. Beside a blue crossbow. Kitsilan picked them both up, sneering at the useless attributes on the crossbow. "Grumbles. They have no taste."

In Kurast, Ormus was shocked out of his customary cynical vagueness by the sight of the Gidbinn. Shocked enough, in fact to give Kitsilan quite a nice ring:

Bone Spiral

+1 to Mana after each Kill

+6 to Light Radius

+7 to Mana

+5 to Strength

10% better chance of getting Magic Items

He said she needed to see Asheara as well, so Kitsilan stopped there next. Asheara, who traded in bows and lighter armours than Hratli, was familiar to Kitsilan and a regular stop on her visits to Kurast. Kits made a beeline for her storage boxes, but Asheara stopped her, saying that since she'd found the Gidbinn, one of the Iron Wolves was going to hang with her, help her out, isn't that nice?

Kitsilan was simply aghast at this idea, but there was nothing she could do except agree. She checked the fellow out—seemed sturdy enough, might live longer than Waheed or Hazade, but Jelani was unlikely to be another Kyle even so.

Well, it wasn't her lookout. She didn't ask for this. Thanking Asheara, she headed over to Hratli's forge to get Goldwrap cleaned and sell Bone Weaver's greaves and the crossbow.

The entrance to the Flayer Dungeon was a little way beyond the Gidbinn. Past that they ran into another double wave of Flayers, and Kitsilan got a taste of what Jelani could do, as he filled the area with charged bolts and lightning flashes. Somewhat annoyed at this ("Dammit, boy! I can't see!") she soon grew used to it, and then to appreciate the level of damage it did. When they ran into more trouble near the waypoint, and Jelani caught a few too many Flayer darts, Kits was therefore inclined to portal him to town for healing instead of promising to remember his valiant deeds.

The area around the waypoint closed off, with nothing beyond but a bridge leading to the Swampy Pit or some such. Kitsilan decided to go back to the Dungeon and see what vital organs of long-dead mages might be still burbling away in a dark corner.

They cleared the first level handily, smacking down pushy Flayers and Shamans as they found them. Bone Hawk the Cold (magic resistant) and his minions, Undead Flayers, gave them only minor resistance. Jelani held his own well, though he didn't seem to have enough sense to get out of the way of poison spit from River Stalkers, even after Kits had cast Slow Missiles all over them and a crippled Zombie could have dodged the things. Kitsilan could only hope his poison resistance was a good deal higher than her own.

They headed down for the second level. Easing through the corridor that opened before them, they ran into serious trouble right away. The Flayers and Soul Killers and Shamans were difficult enough, and certainly numerous enough, but when a boss pack of Apparitions was added to the mix, poor Jelani was gathered to his forebears. The boss, Devil Claw (extra fast), pursued Kits all the way back to the stairs, at one point trapping her in a cul-de-sac where she used several rejuvs trying to get free.

Escaping to level one, Kitsilan portalled back to town. She wanted a cold merc to put some ice on Devil Claw's nippiness. Asheara raised her eyebrows at the sight of Kitsilan alone, but made no comment. Yatiraj was available, and the difference he made was night and day. The Apparitions were halted in their tracks, and the Soul Killers abusing Kitsilan on the side were rendered ineffectual as well. Devil Claw dropped a nice Battle Staff which Kitsilan used to finance the purchase of a new breast plate, this one with enhanced defense and magic damage reduction. She was sacrificing lightning resistance, but thought it might be a worthwhile tradeoff at this stage.

The rest of level two was tame in contrast. They found the stairs to level three in good order and stepped down. Packs of Soul Killers and Shamans gave them some grief, but nothing they couldn't handle. Then for long stretches it seemed the rest of the level was empty. Room after room, and they found no signs of monsters. Piles of gold, trapped of course, but nothing living. It made Kitsilan nervous.

When Witch Doctor Endugu (magic resistant, fire enchanted) sent a gang of minion Shamans and Soul Killers after them, it was almost a relief. Kitsilan really likes killing things, after all, and danced around as she popped one target after another. Then there was nothing for it but to locate the glowing chest containing Khalim's brain.

Of course, having located it she had to bring herself to touch it. Gritting her teeth, Kits scooped the thing up off the floor and into her pack. Squelch!

They checked out the rest of the level for form's sake, but there was nothing and no one else of any account. Portalling back to Kurast, Kitsilan listened politely to Cain's raptures over her find, and slipped off as soon as she could to put it away in a corner of her stash next to Khalim's eye.

"I suppose," she remarked to Yatiraj, "it could be worse. It could be Khalim's Spleen, or Khalim's Thyroid—now that'd be an organ easy to miss."

"Why are we looking for them, anyway? I never heard."

"I dunno. Some Horadric hocus-pocus. Hey, I just do what they tell me. It's worked out okay so far."

The rain was still falling, and Kitsilan fell asleep to its drumming on the tarp. Meshif had saved hot cocoa for her.