An Amazon of Limited Means

Day 28

Kitsilan opened her stash and pulled out an Ort and an Eth.

"What's with the runes, Kits?" asked Kyle.

"That bow of yours is getting worn. It's that one I had in Kurast—long war bow with three flawed gems. I don't think we've upgraded it since you levelled enough to use it."

Kyle shrugged. "It's done all right by us."

"Maybe so, but time you were using something more in keeping with your current abilities. Remember that two-socketed edge bow we found yesterday? I bet it'd make a decent Zephyr. It's speedy, for one thing, and its base damage is better than the war bow's. Let me check my notes, though, setting runes is tricky."

"What happens if you get the runes mixed up?"

"Don't even think about it. You don't want to know." So saying, Kitsilan carefully set first the Ort and then the Eth. No blinding lights or claps of thunder followed, but just the same she knew she had done it right. Kyle equipped her new Zephyr, and as an added bonus, Kits passed Tarnhelm over. "I'm not wearing it, you might as well. That way we'll both get some benefit from it."

"I can't wait to show off for Kashya—she's never seen any kit so fine, I'm sure," Kyle gloated, "Tarnhelm, Greyform and now a Zephyr!"

Kitsilan closed her stash and stood. "You've earned it. And you'll earn it again today—players 8!"

"Players what?" Kyle's eyes widened in alarm.

"You heard me. Move yer arse, Rogue. I want a two-socketed high-end armour, and we're gonna kill till I see one." Kitsilan strode over to the waypoint and cast her Valkyrie. In the light of the Companion's glow, she saw Anya headed their way. "FrigidHighlandsWaypointNOWNOWNOW!"

"That's my boss, she'll face down the fiercest monsters," Kyle said, as the energies warped them outward.

"Hush, you. You'll corrupt the Valk."

They beat their way through Eldritch and then Shenk, Kyle levelling to 40 in short order. Kitsilan carefully checked each drop, including the meager offerings of the skull & bones contraptions. She'd made room in her pack by selling Bverrit Keep and creating the Zephyr, and rather felt that it was now incumbent upon the monsters to spit up something worth picking up. Such was the strength of her convictions that one nameless Enslaved did just that.

"You didn't sacrifice Larzuk to Tyrael while I was making coffee, did you?" Kyle asked, peering over Kitsilan's shoulder.

"Coif of Glory…" Kitsilan wondered, turning the battered helm around in the light of the torches. "Hit Blinds Target, +100 to Missile Defense, 15% lightning resistance. Not bad."

"Might look better on you than Iratha's," Kyle offered. "Much less ostentatious."

They finished clearing the Bloody Foothills and walked through Harrogath's main gate. Cain was engrossed in a dice game with Qual-Kehk, and looked up only long enough to identify the rest of the loot in Kitsilan's pack.

Kitsilan rearranged her gear, swapping a plated belt with high fire resistance for Goldwrap, and tossed Iratha's crown into the stash. The Coif of Glory, while not high fashion, was indeed an improvement. She looked forward to blinding a few targets.

They moved on to the Crystalline Passage for another tour of its chilly (and profitable) passages. Kyle noticed Kitsilan perking up every time they heard a bow drop, and finally stopped to ask about it. "After all, that snowy leeching bow is killing fast enough."

"It's just that I've heard some rumours," Kits replied, scanning the dark tunnel before them and sending a Decoy into its maw, "about a golden bow, a golden edge bow, mind, with damage stats that would put both of ours in the dust. The stories say it can be found in the mountains and valleys around Harrogath. Skystrike, it's called. Keep an eye out, all right?"

"Skystrike?" Kyle shook her head. "I've not heard that name since I was a wee Rogue still shooting regular arrows. Wouldn't that be something, if it were for real?"

They cleared a swath to the opening for the Glacial Trail. Blinding things was fun, Kits thought, and she soon levelled to 41. The drops continued depressingly almost, but not quite, of the order she sought. They moved almost absentmindedly into the Drifter's Canyon.

Kitsilan woke up then; harpies and wookies all seemed to be either boss packs or champions. She practised positioning herself and Kyle so that the monsters were stuck on outcroppings, milling madly but unable to reach her. She cast Decoy liberally in an effort to take some of the heat off the Valkyrie. At last the Canyon was empty, and Kits had leisure on her way back to the entry to notice a shrine by a bridge. A gem shrine!

Two seconds of pondering and Kitsilan plucked a flawless ruby from her stash. Perfect rubies could be crafted for Blood gear. Well pleased, she tethered the Valk to her belt for the jog back through the Crystalline and over to the entry to the Frozen River.

"Yikes!" Kitsilan exclaimed, leaping backward and cutting the Valk loose, Kyle ducking and stumbling at her heels. "I forgot we hadn't cleared this area today."

"I accept your apology, boss!" Kyle yelled, pounding arrows into the Champion Death Maulers that followed them. The Valk was nowhere to be seen, so Kits re-cast and added a Decoy for good measure. They dropped a grey Plate Mail, but it had only one socket and was ethereal to boot.

Kits and Kyle both levelled to 42 in the Frozen River. They methodically cleared the area without much fuss. Kits wasn't positive, but it did seem that she got surrounded a lot less now that she was blinding the monsters. Of course, spamming Decoy from here to the horizon might have something to do with it, as well.

Back in Harrogath, Kitsilan closed her stash to find Anya standing just behind it. "Hi, Anya!" she said brightly, "We were just about to go after Nihlathak, weren't we, Kyle?"

"Um, if you say so, boss," Kyle replied, checking her Zephyr for any minute flaws that might have sprung up in the last hundred kills.

The Valkyrie wandered over to the waypoint, trying with all her might to do it a lethal injury.

"Never mind Nihlathak," Anya said hurriedly, glancing over her shoulder toward the forge. "That's not what I want to discuss with you right now."

Kitsilan blinked. "Okay." She blinked again. "Nihlathak who?"

Anya grabbed her shoulder and led her around the corner. Kyle followed, curious. The Valkyrie stuck in a bit of fence and vibrated.

"Has Larzuk said anything to you, well, about me?" Anya whispered.

Kyle joined them. "Oh, hey, he's all the time talk—ow!"

Kitsilan lifted her heel from the Rogue's instep. "Not really, no. Why?"

"It's just that, well…"

Kits and Kyle waited, the latter leaning heavily on her bow.

"He's really kind of cute, you know?" Anya stammered.

Kits shrugged. "He's all right. What do you think, Kyle?"

Kyle tried on a glare and gave it up. "He's not so bad, if you like 'em beefy."

Anya's eyes narrowed and her face reddened. "Beefy?"

"Kyle didn't mean beefy, really, did you, Kyle? She just meant that he's, um, well built."

"I've seen scrawnier cattle," Kyle muttered.

"Well, yeah, but that was in Tristram. They hadn't been feeding well."

"Okay, true, but how about those ones in--"

"IF you two are quite through comparing Harrogath's finest smith to, to farm animals, you might want to pencil in a date with Nihlathak before he hands the relic off to Baal!" Anya stalked off Cain-ward.

"Way to go, boss," Kyle said, as they stepped through the red portal. "She's got it bad for him, all right."

Prowling Dead rose up around them as they stepped onto the path. Kyle found a safe vantage point between a tall, dead plant and a ruined pillar. Kitsilan was not so quick, but eventually got a Decoy between her and the charging zombies. When the latter finally quit coming to life, they inched their way into Nihlathak's Temple, confronting Pindleskin in the anteroom. Kitsilan had high hopes of his drop, but it didn't amount to much after all.

They stepped down to the first level, the Halls of Anguish. More Prowling Dead met them, along with clutches of Night Lords. The level was extensive, with many long, crisscrossing narrow corridors. They'd finally cleared it (Kitsilan levelling to 43 in the process) when it became apparent to them that the one big difference between this area and the others they'd worked was that here there were no boss packs. Just regular monsters.

The drops weren't bad, though nothing to match Kitsilan's wishes. She found an Amn rune and a rare battle staff that would have made a sorceress squeal. Onward and downward.

The second level was known as the Halls of Pain, and sported gangs of Unholy Corpses mixed with Death Brawlers and all egged on by Putrid Defilers. Kyle levelled to 43 in her turn, and Kitsilan sold everything she found before they went down the last stairway to the Halls of Vaught.

Kits got a bit carried away chasing a Wretched Defiler down one corridor before Kyle caught her up with a reminder that this was the level where Nihlathak was rumoured to be. "And shouldn't you crank that ol' 'players' chant down a few notches?"

"Um, yeah, that's not a bad idea at that," Kitsilan said, swallowing. She'd levelled to 44 and barely noticed. "Players 1! There."

"You sure that's got it?"

"Should've. Think so. C'mon!"

A two-socketed scale mail dropped just then, from a boss pack of Hell Temptresses Kits found inside an Evil Urn. She left it on the floor.

The next arm found them peeking around a corner at Nihlathak before they knew it. They'd sliced through the Ice Spawn and Hell Temptresses as though they were made of gauze. A number of monsters died all in a pile at Kitsilan's feet, and she backed up, leaving a Decoy in their midst. She and Kyle winced at the sounds of corpses exploding all around it.

"You'd think he'd have heard of the Decoy skill," Kyle said.

"Maybe he didn't get out much," Kits replied. "Hey! Where are you going?"

Kyle had unaccountably raced out beside the Decoy and began shooting toward Nihlathak. "I've got him trapped!" she called back, and then, "Ow!"

Kits tossed her a fat purple and raced around the corner, not stopping to shoot. She whipped between Ice Spawn, around Nihlathak, and into the far hall, right through a pack of harpies. With the latter hot on her heels, she pulled them far enough away to allow her to cast a Decoy and then pepper them outside the range of Nihlathak's Corpse Explosion curse. Kyle jogged up as the last one died.

"I had him! What'd you do that for?" she demanded.

"I didn't want anything circling around behind us," Kitsilan improvised.

"Oh. Okay."

They snuck back to the corner. Nihlathak was finally out of corpses to blow up, it seemed, and they quickly got a tight bead on him. Within seconds he exploded in his turn, and his spirit twisted and spun into nothing.

"You know," Kitsilan said, looking at her Decoy, "this armour makes my butt look big."

Kyle changed the subject. "Back to 'players 8'?"

"Okay."

They beat their way through the last two arms and the remaining hordes of harpies and ice spawn. In the last room of the last arm, a champion pack of Putrid Defilers dropped nothing at all beyond gold and potions.

But the armour rack held a two-socketed gothic plate.

Back in Harrogath, Kyle stood guard while Kitsilan concentrated on setting the runes for Stealth. With a snick, the second rune settled into place and Kitsilan tossed her Viridian Field Plate aside for Larzuk. "What do you think?" she asked Kyle, turning around and shifting her shoulder pieces to a more comfortable position.

"Hm," Kyle murmured, "Boss, your butt is definitely smaller in the Stealth."

Later that evening, they stopped by Anya's to report on their doings. She didn't seem to think it quite the unqualified success they did, but was too distracted ("Have you seen his shoulders? Too bad he can't dance.") to chew them out, and actually offered to personalize Kitsilan's gear.

Kitsilan declined, for the moment, anyway. She'd heard about Anya and runewords, and Kyle already had a name.