Meleezon finished admiring herself in her new gear and packed the rest away in her stash. Balthassar and Frozen called out to her as they left camp:
"Nice meeting you Meleezon, but we've got to go retrieve Hidalgo. He spotted a rabbit and if we don't stop him soon he'll get his head jammed down a warren again."
They left, and Meleezon strode over to the blacksmithing tent. Charsi had her rock in some water, apparently giving it a bath.
"You're a dirty rock, yes you are."
"Ah, Charsi? Here's your hammer."
"Wow! Thanks!" she cried, dropping the rock with a splash. "That was ssoo sweet of you."
"Yeah. That's me. Sweet all over. Give me my reward."
"Of course! Just give me a weapon or bit of armour, and I'll use my special hammer to imbue it with magic powers." Charsi said, making twinkling motions with her fingers and going 'ooohhhh' in a spooky way.
"Alright…" said Meleezon cautiously. "I've been saving this helm for awhile. Imbue it for me."
"Sure!" says Charsi. She took the helm, went over to her anvil and smacked it three times with her hammer. After a quick glance over, she returned to Meleezon and handed it back.
"…. So what does it do?"
"I don't know. I just imbue it."
"It has three dents and is twisted slightly out of shape. It's broken, not imbued."
"Umm… I'm pretty sure it's magic now." Charsi said indignantly, while making twinkling motions with her fingers and going 'ooohhhh' in a spooky way.
"No, it's f-&ed. There's a difference. I don't count that as my reward." Meleezon threw the helm away and handed Charsi some chain mail. "Imbue that. And this time, don't wreak it."
"Sure! No problem!" nodded Charsi. She took the armour and returned to her anvil.
-6 hours later-
"Here you are."
"Ok. Now, what does it do?"
"Oh you know… makes you stronger… bit resistant against some elements…"
"That's it?"
"Well… yeah."
"It took you 6 hours to make my armour do that?"
"Oh no, that only took 10 minutes."
"Then what'd you spend the other 5 hours and 50 minutes doing?"
"Making that hole there!" says Charsi, pointing to a gap in the armour around the belly button. "It'd perfect for putting gems or jewels in and looks reeaalllyy stylish."
Meleezon took her armour and began to back away slowly.
"Ahhh… yeah. I'm sure it is. Thanks Charsi... I'm just going to go over here now and…"
Charsi watched the Amazon running away at full speed and sighed.
"Well, that's gratitude for you. But you still love me, don't you George? Yes you do…"
---Fast Forward---
Meleezon and Divo stood at the entrance to the jail and peered into the gaping blackness all around them. Various torture devices filled the area and endless cells lined the walls.
"I thought you Rogues were nice?" Meleezon scoffed.
"Oh we are," replied Divo. "But have you ever seen a couple hundred women all living in one big Citadel together? Someone always has PMS. We need a place to relieve our tension; namely by finding the first man that pisses us off and hanging him from his ankles, while we nag at him for endless hours about how his kind never appreciates us enough. Most don't even live to the physical torture part."
Meleezon shrugged in agreement.
"Makes sense I guess. But why have you got so many cells? This place is huge!"
"Oh, this is only the first level. There's two more below this. And we have to go through all 3 to get to the Inner Cloister."
Meleezons jaw dropped.
"Your freakin kidding me, right? No way am I walking through 3 levels of this place. It's dark as all hell! And it smells! Isn't there a shortcut?"
"Of course, follow me."
---Fast Forward – Outer Cloister---
Meleezon and Divo, now back in the Outer Cloister, were facing the far wall of one of the 3 rooms surrounding the Cloisters center.
"Divo, this is a dead end," said Meleezon.
"Ah, but watch." Divo reached over and pulled a torch from the wall. Nothing happened. "Um… I'll be just a second," she stammered.
Mumbling to herself, she searched the wall until she found a brick, and gave it a hard push. Again, nothing happened.
"Open Sesame!" she shouted. The wall didn't reply.
"Um, hey, Divo? Maybe I should pull this lever here that says 'Pull For Secret Passageway'?"
"Oh… yeah that'll work."
Meleezon pulled the lever and the wall opened to reveal the Inner Cloister.
"Hah! Sucked in to all those heroes running through the Jail at the moment."
They walked through the doorway together and Divo paused.
"Wow, I just realized! I'm in the Outer Cloister…. Now I'm in the Inner Cloister. Outer Cloister… Inner Cloisture… Outer Cloi-"
"Divo-"
"Yeah I know. I'm coming"
---Fast Forward – The Cathedral---
"That was a cool green skeleton."
"Yeah, that was Bone Ash. Used to be the priest here. One of the few men allowed."
"How'd he die?"
"Oh, one of the Rogues asked him if wearing a habit made her ass look big."
"What'd he say?"
"The truth"
"Oh dear…"
"Yeah. We found him stabbed, shot with an arrow and set on fire."
"Nice to see she went easy on him."
"Yeah I don't think he suffered much."
"So; where now?"
"Well, we're in the Cathedral at the moment. And we reckon Andariel's taken up residence on the fourth floor of the Catacombs below us-"
"Whoa what? FOURTH floor?"
"Yeah. The catacombs have four floors."
"… are they all as dark as the jail?"
"I'd say so, maybe a tad darker."
"Oh screw this. I'm going back to town."
Next Blog: PK does not stand for 'Peace Keeper'.
