So, I decided I wanted a Heart of the Oak. I've never had one before and I
like the look of it. My skellimancer's Spirit sword is fine and all but some
resists and another +1 to skills looks good. I found a 4 socket flail but
the problem was, no Vex rune. I've been doing some mule rushes to the
hellforge and, by yesterday afternoon I had three Ists (and sundry other,
lower runes). I mentioned to Alice that I only wanted one more Ist and then
I could cube a Vex. She told me I could trade for a Vex, that it's worth
1.66 - 2 Ists. (How do you get 1.66 Ists?). She tells me that I should be
able to get virtually any high rune for two Ists, there is only one that
trades for higher, maybe a Ber.

So I asked her if she thought making a game called "2 x Ist for Vex" was a
good idea. She said yes, if I was in a hurry. LOL. Ok, I tried it, hell
difficulty. I decided to MF in it while waiting. I killed Shenk and Eldritch
and nothing exciting so I moved on to the Ancients Way, not wanting to be in
the middle of anything nasty if a trader showed up. I was dropped a +34% MF
Gheeds by a normal monster there and I had been in the game about 10 minutes
I guess when someone shows up. I said "Hi", got a "Hi" back. I asked "Do you
have a Vex?" and was replied to in the affirmative I went to rogues, opened
a trade window and put two of my Ists in it and, Woot!, a Vex! Cool! that
saved me two Ists from the way I'd planned to do it and netted me a Gheeds.

So I mule in the other runes and the flail and make my HotO, as I drop the
runes in I say "30%" as I've had miserable luck with runewords recently.
(The variable stat is resist all, 30 - 40%). The last rune drops in and,,
Woot! 40% resist all!! A perfect HotO! I mention it to Alice later when I
see
her, say my necro loves it. She asks if I'm really going to keep it. I say
"What? Of course." Then she tells me that a perfect HotO is worth "A pile of
Ists" and that only a reallt rich player would actually keep it. Hmmm. Alice
reckons that traders are a fussy lot, they'll pay an extra two Ists for a
perfect HotO over a 39 HotO and a 39 HotO is worth a few. She couldn't give
me a number as she's not had much to do with this ladder but....

So I'm considering joining the traders forum and asking for offers. I'm told
I could get a lower HotO and several Ists for mine at the very least. I'm
thinking of trading it, maybe I'll finally get the runes for the Enigma that
I want, maybe the Chains of Honour and another HotO too.

Ok, the other thing. Equiped with his HotO I decide that I'll finally tackle
the lesser ubers with my necro. I picked a time when both Shari and Kaytie
were intending to be on-line for a while just in case it all turned
pear-shaped and proceeded to kill them. The only place I had problems with
The Matron's Den. I was killed once by a boss pack of succubi (I left and
rejoined to get my body, I had a barb for BO and a sorc for enchant in the
game so it would stay up). Lilith herself was difficult, she took four
armies to kill. No revives, even though I can get 17, just 13 skellies, 6
mages, a clay golem and my merc. I'll use revives next time. If I didn't
have Naj's Puzzler in switch for the tele charges it would have been nice to
have a weapon with PMH on it, she regenerates very fast.

So now I have the body parts, I just have to get a few levels on my
Freezealot before I attempt UT. I'ma  bit apprehensive as my pally doesn't
seem anywhere near as invincible as my last ladder one, now off-ladder.
Maybe, if I don't find a Stormlash, he'll be better with the Azurewrath I
found when he gets to lvl 85, he's only 81 ATM.

During my MFing I've been hoping to find Tal's ammy and armour. Alice told
me that she got about 30 Tal's ammys last ladder from NM Andy (She was
trading them to AGDers for 20 Pgems, a really good deal for us). However,
I've had no luck with finding it. Tonight I'm self-rushing a new necro
through, my current one is lvl 91 and, experience, or superstition tells me
that, after about lvl 89, the drops seem to slow right down.

Anyway, he's level 22, wearing my own patented rushing set, using an
enchanted (level 33 enchant, level 35 BO) Ravenclaw when he kills the
Council in normal and they drop a green ammy. Another Vidalya's thinks I.
Boy was I surprised when Cain told me it was a Tal Rasha's Adjudication! I
didn't think they could drop that early in the game. I'm not complaining
though.

All-in-all a good weekend playing D2 I feel, very lucrative.

I hope you all had good weekends too.