An Amazon of Limited Means

Day 19

Kitsilan finished her morning tea and stepped onto the dock, whistling for Telash as she headed for the waypoint and Upper Kurast.

"Kitsilan!"

"Hi, Cain! What's up? Any more dismembered bits you want re-membered?"

The old mage glared at her. "If you could remember from one day to the next why we're here, I'd be satisfied with that!"

Kits stuck her tongue out at him. "Remind me, then. Why are we here? And it better have something to do with Khalim's Vitals—my stash is starting to stink."

"Just your imagination—I stand around here all day and can't smell them. But enough of that. When you find Khalim's Flail, you can transmute it and the Relics. You should be getting close. Keep an eye out."

"Flail, eh?"

"Yes."

"That would be a weapon, then? Not some fancy Horadric name for thighbone or ribcage?"

Cain's eyes narrowed. He glared at her.

"Okay, okay, I'm going, I'll bring back all the flails I find!" Kits said, grinning and backing up to the waypoint.

"Be careful!"

Kitsilan and Telash winked out as Cain was speaking, and stepped off the platform in Upper Kurast. Winged Nightmares, Thrashers, and Thrasher minions led by Grief Dancer (aura enchanted) skittered over, one after the other. They handled these with ease and set off around the corner of a nearby building. More Thrashers (creak, creak) and among their remains Kits found a rare Bastard Sword, which cheered her no end since her last visit to Alkor had netted her Vidala's Fetlock and no-name chain boots.

"I mean, Vidala was a great archer and all," she paused to shoot down a passing pack of Zealots. "But she had lousy taste in footgear."

"My boots are blue! I like blue!"

"Why do I even bother?" Kitsilan muttered, turning to blow apart a Winged Nightmare trying to sneak up on them.

Near the Causeway they encountered Moon Pox the Impaler (extra strong) with his Thrasher buddies and behind them another mixed group of Winged Nightmares and Zealots. Kits and Telash led them down an alley where they lined up nicely in their sights, then Kitsilan filled her pack and returned to the waypoint.

They cleared most of the north and east of Upper Kurast in that fashion, forcing the monsters to follow them into narrow byways where they were easily picked off. After a few more trips to the docks, Kitsilan felt ready to step out onto the Causeway.

All was quiet as they walked carefully up the stone bridge. In its centre they found wings jutting out on either side, leading to the Ruined Fane and the Disused Reliquary.

"No surprise to me it's disused," Kitsilan said, springing the trap that let the stairs down. They slipped down them, and found themselves in the middle of a pack of Blood Divers and Flesh Archers, all shooting and shocking at once. Ignoring the Blood Divers for the moment, Kitsilan targeted the Archers and took them out before they could do much damage to Telash. Mopping up the Blood Divers, she found that someone had dropped Sigon's Sabot.

Kitsilan tucked them away, wondering who else had lost shoes in Kurast. A quick run through the small building netted her a bit more in gold but nothing interesting in gear, and they headed for the surface.

Before portalling back to the docks, Kits nosed around the edge of the platform surrounding the entrance to the Ruined Fane. She noticed it had become even more quiet than before. "Telash? Telash!" she called softly.

It was no use—he'd either fallen off the edge or snuck off home, she didn't know and was too angry to care. Without further ado, she jumped down the steps to the Ruined Fane and strode purposefully through its corridors and rooms, shooting Blood Divers and Blood Diver Champs into little cubes before they knew she was there, almost.

No real loot, but she cooled off enough so that when she did portal back, she no longer felt the urge to set fire to Asheara's hut, even after seeing Telash sitting in a corner in the back, watching a spider weave a nest.

That didn't stop her from chewing out the Iron Wolf captain for five full minutes before hiring Jarulf at a discount. Asheara assured Kits that Jarulf was absolutely her most reliable man.

"And just how much is that saying?" Kits snarled.

"Look," Asheara said, taking her aside, "it's their frozen armour. They get to sniffing the bubbles too much and their brains, well, freeze up."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Asheara shrugged. "Other than that, they're okay. Just keep them in sight, and they'll stay with you and do their jobs."

"Well, all right then. Jarulf! Let's go!"

On her way to see Asheara, Ormus had stopped her and given her the low-down on the High Council in Travical. It didn't sound easy.

They entered Travincal in a hail of freezing blizzard spikes and surrounded by Zealots. Keeping a weather eye on her merc, Kitsilan concentrated on reducing the immediate threats and then finding the Heirophants casting the blizzards and lightning. They pushed up the centre of town in this fashion, until Kits spotted the Blackened Temple looming before them. More Zealots descended, and added to the mix were the Water Watchers guarding the entry to the Temple. Kitsilan took them out, and sought out the accompanying Heirophants to either side. She found the waypoint, and near it a trio of Blood Lords who flung meteors at spots where she'd been if she had tarried. More Blood Lords on the other side, and Kitsilan portalled back to heal Jarulf. He'd been taking a bit more poison from the Water Watchers than was good for him.

Back in Travincal, Kitsilan retreated to the town entrance and worked her way along the outer parapet, seeking out the remaining Heirophants and Zealots. That done, she felt reasonably sure the only remaining opponents were the ones holed up in the Temple with the High Council. Time to tease them out.

They popped over to the docks so that Kits could empty her pack and repair her gear. In Travincal again, Kitsilan crossed to the centre and cast a portal. She then commenced firing into the Temple. When Jarulf joined his spikes with her arrows, she knew she'd picked up something.

A Council minion was first, and Ismail Vilehand (extra fast, cursed) followed him. The minion went down quickly, and Kits led Ismail back to her portal and away from the Hydras he littered the ground with. Jarulf the Brave couldn't hold up under Ismail's Amplify Damage curse, and Kitsilan herself almost succumbed before finally retreating through her portal. Back on the docks, she refilled her potion slots and grabbed another merc (whose name she didn't catch), and hauled him through the waypoint. Before he had time to blink, she led him back around to the side where she'd left her portal and ran into Toorc Icefist (cold enchanted, stone skin). She'd picked up some gauntlets on her last gambling foray, burgundy gauntlets of readiness, and their SIAS allowed her to shoot faster than she'd ever done. It wasn't quite enough to keep the merc alive, but it let her whittle down a noticable chunk from Toorc's life bar. She cast another portal and dove through it.

Another merc, more potions, and back through the waypoint. Toorc was still by her portal, and she ran him in circles around it as Flux, the new merc, kept him chilled. He and a stray minion finally went down, and Kitsilan inched over to where her original portal had been. Ismail was still there, and he seemed pleased to see her.

Treating him as she'd done Toorc, Kits ran him back and forth and around the area, shooting all the while, and was only cursed just as he expired. Looking around, Kits found that one of them had dropped Khalim's Flail.

She scooped it up and took her portal back to the docks. Barely stopping to greet Cain, she dumped everything out of her cube and shoved in the Flail and the Relics. The lid just closed. When she opened it again, there was Khalim's Will, and not a trace of Khalim left in either her cube or her stash.

"Well, that's some good out of this," she thought, stuffing the Will into her pack. Back to Travincal, and one last leftover Council minion later, she smashed the Compelling Orb and opened the way to Mephisto's Durance of Hate.

Realizing that if she didn't go in today she'd just have to go through the Council tomorrow, Kitsilan readied herself and went down the stairs. The Durance was cold and forbidding, with piles of body parts and skeletons everywhere. Kitsilan inched carefully down the hall, looking all around her. She'd used a lot of rejuvs dealing with the Council and could only hope she'd be able to replenish her stock before she reached the lower levels.

Maulers appeared, followed by Cadavers. Kitsilan and Flux dealt with those all right, picking up a bit of gold and several Masks, one of them rare. The floorplan of Level 1 tended mostly in a southwesterly direction, and about halfway along the central corridor they ran into Rust Bender (stone skin), and his Cadaver minions. Kits does not like stone skin, but it's doable on a creature as weak as Cadaver. What made her grit her teeth was when, just after dropping Rust Bender to the ground they ran into Rot Burn, also stone skinned, some kind of super-charged Carver. He and his Warped One minions ran around and between the legs of several Maulers, making them difficult to see, let alone shoot. Finally whittling down the field to just Rot Burn, Kits was appalled to see that he still was essentially unhurt. She treated him as she had just done with Toorc and Ismail—ran him around the room while Flux chilled him, and shooting in between the dashes.

He eventually fell, and they had little else to deal with on that level.

Level 2 was vastly more interesting, in a not-fun kind of way. All Kitsilan wanted was the waypoint, and here she had to deal with Undead Stygian Dolls, more Cadavers plus Blood Lords chucking meteors everywhere, and oh gosh, the Blood Lords are minions of Pit Fester the Slayer (aura enchanted). Kitsilan has no idea what aura Pit Fester favoured, there being far too much fire on the ground to see her own feet, let alone anyone else's. Flux the Short-lived went down in the first volley and Kits almost followed him, but she kept the speed on and eventually wore through the lot.

None of them dropped anything useful, so Kitsilan continued poking into rooms, looking down hallways, waypoint, waypoint, who's got the waypoint? One small room erupted in a spew of Undead Stygian Dolls followed by Blood Lord Champions. Kitsilan was quick to pin these into corners and finally remembered to cast SM. This helped somewhat, and filling her pack with what bits she could see once the Champions were out of her way, she portaled back to the docks. She took time out to swap her gemmed bow for Rune Thirst (more life steal & straight damage) and went back.

Another mob of Cadavers and Blood Lords, but she held her own a bit better than before. Having cast a portal by accident, she decided to pick up another merc to use as a bloodhound to sniff out monsters out of her sight, since mercs were so good at locating them.

As it turns out, she could have waited. The Durance waypoint was in the next room down the hall. She took it back to the docks and walked straight down to Meshif's ship, stripping her armour as she went. She was asleep almost before she got off her boots. She did stay awake long enough to drink the cocoa, though.