An Amazon of Limited Means

Day 16

The Flayer Jungle waypoint was trapped. At least, Kitsilan was ninety percent certain it was, judging from yesterday's experiences. She poured another mug of tea and stared at the rain falling on the dock.

Hratli had nothing in stock that interested her, but Asheara pulled out Tangerine Splint Mail of Warding, which meant Kits could regain some of the lightning resistance she gave away yesterday while still maintaining magic damage reduction. Splint mail can be heavy, though. She thought about it and decided to give it a try anyway.

With that in mind, she recalled the glowing chest in the middle of the Great Marsh yesterday. It'd be filled again today, and there'd likely be Gloams about to test her new mail on, and that waypoint's not trapped, so…

Well, aside from River Stalkers, anyway. Kitsilan has a hard time figuring out if she's killed those or not, but if she hits and they go away for good, she figures that's close enough. She and Yatiraj wandered over yesterday's ground, through packs of Fetishes, Bramble Hulks, Gloams and Bog Creature minions. Rust Shard (multiple shots) was iced so fast by Yatiraj that his attribute was meaningless.

The experiment with the new mail seemed to be going well, as they reached the chest and gathered its contents. On the way back, they ran into a pack of minion Shamans, whose boss ran off so fast Kitsilan thought they'd killed him. He turned up a little way along, Spine Venom the Jagged (extra strong), and since extra strength doesn't do a thing for a Shaman relying exclusively on Inferno, they had no trouble at all with him.

They worked their way through the rest of the Great Marsh and into the Flayer Jungle. As Kitsilan had thought, the waypoint had a double dozen Flayers and Soul Killers camped out on it, but approaching through the Marsh as they had done had not only gained Kits several nice items, among them a new Amulet, 7% mana steal and 12% poison resist, a new Ring with more lightning resistance and 102% gold find (she put it in her stash), but had allowed them to sneak up on the monsters by the waypoint.

"See? Foresight. Planning," Kitsilan told Yatiraj. "These things will keep you alive."

"Ha! I am invincible!"

"What you are is a dip who won't move out of the way of even slow-moving darts. But you've a nice Glacial Spike, all the same."

"You like it?"

"Yes, but not enough to put my butt on the line for you. So try to dodge a bit more."

Back in the Jungle, they headed across the bridge to the Swampy Pit. Kitsilan figured that at the least, they'd find gold. Might even find a killer War Bow.

Sad to say, the Swampy Pit was a washout. Undead Stygian Dolls, Flayers, Shamans, Gloams, Fiends, even a Fiend boss (Chaos Call, lightning enchanted) were not enough to warrant more than passing attention. When the Pit trotted out the Preserved Dead boss pack, though, Kitsilan's dreams of riches and neat toys evaporated.

With a grim thoroughness, they went through every room on all three levels anyway. Kitsilan took it all upstairs and gambled the proceeds away on light plated boots, earning a pair with +2 to light radius. It was time to have done with the Flayers, their Jungle, their Shamans, their yammering and their really bad haircuts.

Their progress was not as quick as Kitsilan would've liked. Packs of Flayers and Soul Killers were around every bend and twist. Rot Burn the Slasher (cursed) and his Shaman minions went down early on, but there were many, many more. Kitsilan's fingers on her bowstring grew numb. Her shoulders ached. She cast Slow Missiles for the umpteenth time as yet another wave beat on them and died at their feet.

"Hey, this is great! I'm having a wonderful time; how about you?"

Kits looked sidelong at her merc. Those frozen armour bubbles seemed to have gone to his head. "This jungle has to end sometime," she muttered.

Even as she said this, she realized that it was quiet. No distant yammers, no phwt of darts from the bushes, nothing. They went on for several more yards, picking up little piles of gold as they went. A creaking, thumping noise sounded from up ahead. Kits stopped and waited.

Bramble Hulk minions, moving toward them at quite a clip. Kitsilan fired and fell back, as Yatiraj spiked madly. The minions went down, and then the lightning started.

Charged bolts in massive, painful clumps surrounded them. They fell back before Stormtree (extra fast, lightning enchanted), the guardian of the entrance to Lower Kurast. Yatiraj began to look a little yellow around the gills, as he absorbed rather more of the bolts than Kits. Just when Kitsilan was sure he wouldn't make it, Stormtree keeled over and fwooshed into Hulk-patty.

Kits suddenly realized that she'd levelled to 26 in all that. Time to heal the merc and get in a little study time.

Ormus spoke without turning around, "Penetrate."

"Again?!"

"Ormus so reads and interpretes the words of Akara."

"Sheesh. Okay. Penetrate, it is."

Kits intended only to find the waypoint, but once she noticed what a gold mine Lower Kurast could be, and what a haven of sensible monsters who walked at a reasonable speed, she basically went on a killing spree. Two boss Hell Buzzards came after them, one after the other. First Blade Wolf the Mad (extra strong) and then Devil Sludge (cursed). Kitsilan blew them apart, along with Zakarumites, Doom Apes and more Hell Buzzards. She found a rare pike and then a rare maul. Her gold pile on the docks grew to astounding levels. Well, astounding for a confirmed gambler, anyway.

She realized how tired she was while kicking baskets on the far side of town. Everything in the immediate area was dead. The Flayer Jungle had been cleared, and now Lower Kurast. She headed back to the docks. Alkor wanted a word; seemed someone he knew had lost a book and he wanted her to look for it. "Tomorrow," she said, continuing on to Meshif's boat.

One good thing about the whole day—he'd left hot cocoa out for her again.