Journal
I fought two rages today. The first one I came across in south forest when I was hunting
alone. I quickly hid in the hollow tree just north of the mirror and sunstoned for help
since I knew I was no match for a rage. Lerris, who I had just passed at the mirror came
back north and killed it rather easily.
The second rage was much more trouble. I was on a hunt with Gady, Alderan, Sunoril and
Taryn on Fire Island. We were having fun hunting Orga Beserks and Shamens. The rage
showed up though, and was more than we could handle, though we did make several attempts
at it. We were then faced with the choice of either leaving or calling in backup. I
suggested asking Ayella to come, and everyone quickly agreed that she was a good choice
to deal with the rage problem.
Ayella quickly agreed to show up after she located Aravir, and the two of them soon arrived.
As expected, the rage was no problem once we had Ayella's considerable fighting skills on our
side.
Shortly after I got out of the library today I hear my friend Laiy send out a general
sunstone message saying "Darshak Outpost". She then fell to a darshak. Since I know that
people often don't pay much attention to general sunstones, and since I was still upset
about the recent invasion I decided to head over to Ash Island to deal with the darshaks
who had felled Laiy and make the place a bit safer for when a healer came. I landed and
killed a thug or two, and then Sagramor showed up. He could have easily dealt with the
situation by himself, but we went to the outpost together making short work of the darshak
we met along the way. We located Laiy and Aughra who was also fallen there, and cleaned the
place out. After a bit of a wait it was clear that no healer was coming, so Sagramor used
his chain to get them both back to town. I was very pleased to note that the rank and file
darshak that we met were fairly easy for me to deal with. Xepel's lessons in defense are
really starting to help.
Once Laiy was safe in town I hunted with Rellen for a while in South Forest. We also had a nice fen'neko along name Runswithscissors or something like that. After Runs left we ventured down into the brambles and visited the trool mines. We didn't find ore though, but I think if I am cautious I should be able to handle the brambles alone, so I might try looking for ore there in the future.
After parting with Rellen I met Santa Chicken. He'd been looking for me because he had a
Bawkmas present for me! I hadn't been expecting anything at all, so you can imagine my
surprise when he had a bundle of reeds for me. It was more than I ever could have hoped
for. I do hope there are Bard questor auditions soon. I now have four and a half songs
written, and three bundles of reeds. Maybe in the spring... I've noticed the auditions
seem to have been once a year in the spring since I arrived in Puddleby. I sure hope my
songs are good enough, it would be very embarraswing to have so many reeds and not pass
the audition. For that matter, its a bit embarrassing to have that many reeds in the first
place, but a reed flute is the one instrument that I truly yearn to play.
Speaking of things I'd like to have, Aravir kindly agreed to be on the lookout for metal for sale for me. I can't afford a chain yet, but I can afford the two pieces of metal needed for one, assuming that prices do not go up too much more.
Today there was a great battle.
I had started out the day normally enough. I tried to stretch my training to the limits, and see if I could solo mid pass. I was doing fairly well, though with long troilus breaks. That gets old fast, so I asked Anfyr to join me, and we soon had a little party hunting in the passes. Then the others felt it... a dark sensation. It grew stronger and I felt it too. We sensed that something terrible was about to happen, and rushed back to town to help.
Many of us knew instinctivly that such a dark feeling could only mean one thing... darshak
magic at work. We rushed to the boats, and sure enough there were many darshak in the water.
We set up base on Centaur Island, and with persistance and a good deal of chaining, all the
darshak war vessels were eventually sunk. We thought we were doing well.
We then took the fight to the darshak cove on Ash itself. We could see from the water the
masses arrayed against us. Still, we felt that with strategy and timing we could beat the
darshak. We landed, and the combined strength of Puddleby soon had the beachhead under
our control. We were feeling confident. That's when the call came out to storm the horde.
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Almost everyone who stormed the horde fell not long after, myself included, though I do think I managed to take one of them with me. The horde was packed with their various darshak, including many acolytes, priests, and a greater death. Then Necro showed up. I have a decidedly bad feeling about him, and his presence made the nightmare that haunt my dreams seem all too real. Ayella and I did what we could to comfort one another while we lay fallen there. We both have reason to hate the darshak.
I was not fallen all that long considering the state of things, though it seemed like a very
long time indeed. Callus made a brave and very skillful chaining run into the horde and
chained out at least a dozen of the fallen, myself included. The fight continued, and now
it turns out that things were active at the outpost, with another greater death there. I
lose track of the battle from there, but it soon turned out that there were no fewer than
four greater deaths in the horde before the end, not to mention Necro doing his foul
experiments. My heart went out to Ayella, who lay fallen much of that time. I have a fair
idea of what she and the others must have been going through. The time near for our
upcoming Dun'ilsar with OWE, and I heard over the sunstone that OWE was preparing. I was
a bit upset by that. It seemed to me not the time to have a hunting contest with things
in the state they were in, though I admit there was nothing I could do to help the situation
in the horde. Indeed, people were waiting for sunrise in the hopes that Gurgi could join
them then and do someting about the greater deaths and Necro. It was during this period
that I fainted. I soon came to my senses, but I just didn't have it in me to contine.
When the others decided to charge the horde on what was likely a suicide run, my courage
broke and I ran.
I got a chance to look inside the clan house today. E'las Loth'mon Ferindril has the clan
house rented out this season. Its really nice inside there, with a big room for meetings,
a smaller room upstairs, and a place to sleep. I'm glad I got the opportunity to see the
inside, though I'm not sure of what use the place is for a clan of sylvans. The camp fire
in the grove near north field is much better suited, with its tall trees and soft grass.
I didn't stay in town for very long. After admiring the clan house I went to south forest
for some hunting. Already I am noticing an improvement in my defenses thanks to Xepel's
lessons, though I certainly have a long way to go. I was realizing this especially when
I was fleeing from a pack of angry cats just outside of Yada's place. That's when I heard
a call for help. Zeitgeist had been double-teamed by a maha and a zerk and was in need of
some aid. We got the zerk once he was up, but search as we might we couldn't find the maha
so that he could exact his revenge, though we found lots of other wildlife.
Thorin eventually Zeitgeist and myself, and we decided to head for the bear caves for some
lucrative hunting. The hunting was very good indeed, and we had a glorious time, though
there was a spot of trouble when we met two cinder bears at once. I'm not certain, but
I think that cinder bears are the toughest variety of bear that I've come into contact with.
I certainly have a very hard time hitting the things.
After the hunt at the bear caves was over, I decided to take a look into the Puddleby
underground. I'd only been there a little bit, at not at all since I've become proficient
at dealing with the skeletals that you find all over the place down there. While I was there
I ran into a Zo who kept on shouting "Free Puddleby!" Unfortunatly he wasn't very
forthcoming when I asked him who we should free Puddlby from. I suppose from Mobius I
would guess, though he exerts little influence here from what I can see.
I had a good hunt today with Viviana and Maxibus. We went hunting in the northern plains,
near the lake. There were a few problems with some of the large ferals, but Viviana's
excellent healing skills kept us on our feet. We also tried the northern beaches for a bit.
I was surprised to discover that some of the great rockodiles were easier to kill than I
was expecting. I don't think I can take one on by myself yet, but still, I was quite
surprised. I think once I've finished this course of training with Xepel I'll be quite
happy to take try taking one on by myself.
The hunt ended when Viviana needed to get to the library and I needed to head to the
E'las Loth'mon Ferindril meeting. I was really pleased to see Ayella joining us at the
meeting. She wants to join the clan as well. I happily showed her the bundle of reeds that
I'd gotten from the auction house, and then she gave me a bundle of reeds that she had in
her pack, so I now have two bundles of reeds! Now I just need to make it to an audition
and hope that the bard panel is feeling generous enough to make me a bard questor. I've
been re-reading all the scrolls in the library about composing music in the hopes of
figuring out how to improve the songs I've written, I can really use the help.
People filtered into the campfire. There was the traditional discussion of who would be
kwil'dan. I feel really guilty about that becase I can't stay for the entire meeting, and
thus can't help out. Then came the big moment, and we all rushed to the clan joining place
and I got to pick up my badge. Il'nia shak es pyrian et myrthian. Finnian got his badge
as well.
Normally the clan joining happens at the end of the meeting, but my clanmates had kindly
rearrainged things so that it happened first, since they knew I'd have to leave. Because
of this, Ayella hadn't had a good opportunity to say she was interested in the clan until
we were all in the clan hut, but luckily she isn't too shy and spoke up then, and got her
Prentis'mon Ferendril badge. I was really happy that I got to see her get her badge, plus
it saved everyone an extra trip. Anfyr's effective recruiting has meant many a trip to
the clan badge house.
Ayella had been a bit worried about being accepted in the clan because of her status in Nox Sorora, and Dar'floh, who is even newer to Puddleby than I am was asking her about her pendant. I'm sure she has nothing to worry about, since everyone knows she's a kind and generous person, not to mention a skilled fighter and one of the best bards in Puddleby. All the other members of Nox that I've met have been pretty nice as well. I gather from reading the historical scrolls that there was some controversy some years ago centered around one particular member and the undine. I do know that some Nox members won't hunt undine. On the other hand, most of the Nox folks I know actively oppose the darshak, which is an important fact to me, personally. I can also understand why some would be reluctant about killing undine in that context, considering that the darshak create undine using their victims. On the other hand, having narrowly escaped such a fate myself just prior to my arrival in Puddleby, I feel that the kindest and best thing to do is to put the undine out of their misery. Certainly its what I would have wanted had I been less lucky. I suppose some people are suspicious about the beliefs of Nox members too. Certainly their beliefs differ from what I believe and what many others believe, but that's really their business. Any way I look at it, I'm sure that Ayella worries needlessly. From all I've seen the clan is a model for having though of differing opinions working together.
Today was definately my lucky day. I stopped by the auction house, hoping to get some
raffle tickets for metal so that I can eventually make a chain. There was a piece of
metal being raffled off, but there was also a bundle of reeds! I'm not a bard questor,
but I do have the required four songs written and I'm waiting for the guild to hold an
audition at a time when I can get out of the library. The songs I have written are all
intended for reed flute, so when I saw the reeds, I had to have them. Tickets were
25 coins each, and I was quite prepared to empty my purse, but the guy said he could
only sell me one ticket. I guess that's to keep the price of bard parts down. I kept
my fingers crossed and ran off hunting. I got a sunstone message later when the auction
was over saying that I'd won! I immediately dashed back and reclaimed my prize. Now I
have to be sure I'm out of the library for the next questor audition. I just hope I pass,
and that Hendrux accepts the reeds. I understand from Ayella that he is really, really
picky.
Later on I went hunting with Anfyr, Emer (who had been very patient about running back to
town after the reeds, sorry Emer!), Dana and Myiasis. We went to the passes and hunted
wendies. I'm glad Anfyr invited Myiasis along, since it turned out that he was strong
enough to brick them. That made the hunt much easier than I had been expecting.
I still need to see if I won the metal that I bought tickets for, but really winning the reeds was amazing good luck, so I won't feel bad if I don't get the metal. At one point Caravaggion was asking what the going rate for metal was over sunstone. I said that I'd give him 250 coins for a piece, which I had thought was in the correct price range. I guess not, since he replied that others had told him he could get 500 coins for it. I guess I'll be waiting on that chain a lot longer than I though.
I was hunting in South Forest today, and helping out a bit with a mess at the Mirror when
Xepel came by. I'd been hoping to see him soon, as I wanted to improve my defensive skills
and I wanted to learn from him. He very graciously agreed to teach me, and I have added
a sketch of his current assessment of me to my
training scroll.
I have noted that there are no sylvan trainers stationed in the fighter's guild. Certainly
there are a fair number of sylvan exiles who have training ledgers, so its a bit surprising
that sylvans are not represented among the "official" trainers, even though every other
race is. This seems especially odd seeing as how sylvans are the most numerous race in
Puddleby. At any rate, there are at least two members of E'las Loth'mon Ferindril who have
training ledgers in fighter disciplines (not to mention the numerous healer training
ledgers that clan members have), and I'd like to get training from clan members whenever
I can.
One thing I learned today is that the size of a group is very important to where the group can hunt, at least at the skill level I'm at now. After I got back from South Forest, I teamed up with Aravir. We tried midpass, but while we didn't fall we concluded that we weren't up to that on our own yet. Spending the vast majority of your time troilusing is no fun. We went to Kitty Beach instead. There was a thoom healer named Audy there, and we joined forces wth him. Then Taryn joined us, and with Kitty Beach soon empty it was time to look for more challenging fields. I proposed Orionwood on Centaur Island, which I'd never been to before and was anxious to try. We had a good time for a while, but the addition of Gunslinger and then Carravaggion meant that there weren't enough tags to go around for all those who were fighting, and the close quarters of Orionwood were too crowded. Since we now had a fair sized group, I suggested going to the Darshak outpost to put a dent in the Darshak population there. That worked well for awhile, but one of the others accidentally went out the wrong way and ended up in the Dark Temple snell, where the Faithless nearly did us in, though luckily Taryn and Audy were quick thinkers and saved the day. At that point folks needed to go to the library, and so that was the end of the snowballing group.
In all the excitement around Bawkmas I have not been very good about keeping up with
my journal entries. Now I have several entries worth of stuff to record, and I think
I shall have to give it one big entry as the details are already fading in the whirl of
excitement.
Shortly before Bawkmas I was hunting in the passes with a very nice group of friends.
The big news was that Ayella had received an early Bawkmas present of sorts in that
Hendrux has finally made a starbuck harp for her. I understand that she's been waiting
years for this. Also on that hunt I found out just what a good reputation Kirth Gersen has
as a healer. Jo'Maril had been hunting deeper in the passes (maybe in GMV) and had taken
a few rocks. He got chained out to midpass where we were specifically because Kirth was
with us. Unfortunately in this case Jo had taken a rock too many and Kirth couldn't raise
him. Still, its pretty impressive for a healer to be specifically sought after like that.
Of course there aren't many who specialize in Horus training.
That same day I went hunting in the Savannah with E'las Loth'mon Ferindril and Ayella. It
was great fun, though Anfyr was having trouble hitting the mahas at first. I think she was
doing better after I advised her to switch to her dagger. I find that not only do you get
more swings with the dagger, but it seems to get through the defenses better. Of course
the larger swords do more damage, but that wasn't an issue with the strong fighters we had
with us. Unfortunatly I remember urgent business I had in the library just when the hunt
was getting good, and on trying to sprint to town I learned that the big mahas run faster
than exiles do. Myl tan'ki to Nyt Shade who chained me home quickly.
I was worried that I would miss all the Bawkmas celebrations by being stuck in the library
for the entire time. I did manage to sneak out a bit right at the height of Bawkmas. I
love the decorations, especially the lights in the trees. We need more trees in
Puddleby.
I also poked my head into a snowy grove that opened up just west of north field. There
was a group hunting there, just a random assortment of exiles it seemed. I tried tagging,
but I had no luck and was felled rather hard by a glacial meshra, and the only healer up
in the grove couldn't raise me. I ended up getting chained to town center along with
another newer exile in the same predicament. I decided that that was a signal that I
should be getting back to my studies.
The next time I got out of the library I had more Bawkmas fun. I'd found a potato, and
Mirhil helped me get to the Mirror so I could get it shredded by the Thoom lady who was
hanging around the outpost. Once I took the bowl of shredded potatos back to town I have
it to Legume who needed shredded potato for some dish she was preparing. In exchange she
gave me a gift. It turned out to be a Drakedol. I confess I have no idea what the thing
is for, some kind of gambling game I guess. I ended up passing it on to someone who
wanted it more.
A much better gift was getting to hunt the passes with Mirhil. I am just getting to the
point where I can do this provided the healer I am with is so fast that they have a
Faustus ledger. Mirhil is very humble about her abilities, but I wouldn't have wanted to
try it with anyone slower just yet. She did tell me a bit about training ledgers and how
they are attained. Apparently the trainers raise the bar a little bit for the next ledger
every time they give one out to an exile. Mirhil says that it takes a long time and
dedication to one thing to get a training ledger. She says it also makes your training
unbalanced unless the ledger is from Eva or Evus. I doubt that I will every get to the
level of training where I could even contemplate getting a training ledger in anything, I
have a training plan that I like to stick to, which I think is pretty balanced if heavier
on the Swengus than most fighters. If I were to ever get as much training from Swengus,
Evus or Regia as the current ledger holders have I'm sure that by then the bar will have
been raised much, much higher.
I also got to hunt with Viola and Magdalane over Bawkmas. We had a whole lot of fun in
the bear caves. I am noticing that bears are much easier to hit than they were when I
first hunted them. Of course, that was two years ago now. Strange, but it does not
seem like that long. Perhaps one day I will be able to hunt them alone for their furs
as Viola does.
After the bear caves the other two wanted to stop by the snowy grove. Despite my
earlier experience I was happy to go along. I knew that Viola and Magdalane would take
good care of me and I wouldn't have to worry about needing a chain ride to town. There
was a nice group in the grove hunting trying to deal with a frost giant. I was sure that
there was no way I was going to hit, but then Rincewind boosted us. He used two Akea
boosts, at leasts there were two boosts, and I'm pretty sure they were both for accuracy.
The think I am sure of, was they took me down to two swings with my dagger. Normally, I
have nearly six swings with my Longsword, and more with my dagger (at least 10). I have no
idea how powerful the boosts needed to be to reduce me to two swings with dagger, but
I imagine that they'd have to be pretty hefty indeed. Having only two swings was not a
problem though, because with the boosts I hit the frost giant with very little fuss,
something I would not have been able to do otherwise except by swinging a lot and relying
on luck. After the frost giant was dead Rincewind scanned the grove for more critters.
I keep wondering why he has not been promoted to full mystic long since, he is the most
effective locater that I know, has potent boosts and is skilled in scanning for beasts.
Of course I am told that the mystics are more concerned with things other than skill and
effectiveness. I suppose that's all very well for them, but when I share with someone
like Rincewind its primarily because I value his skill and effectiveness.
That reminds me, I have noticed my Regia training paying off substantially. I can now
solo weaker bolok cougars. Since these creatures hit so hard and run so fast, and since
I am still unable to defend against them I simply swing like mad when I see one. With
almost six swings I can usually take down the weaker ones now before they return the
favor.
One last Bawkmas not. I went to the monthly E'las Loth'mon Ferindril meeting. As is
usual, the librarians were expecting me shortly after the meeting began and I had to
leave quite early. I later learned through the pigeons (the Ferindril's enchanted mail)
that I am to be joined to the clan at the next meeting, hopefully before I have to beat
a hasty retreat to the library. I am very pleased at the news; its the best Bawkmas
present I could have hoped for.
As I said once before, I know I've had a good day when I come home with a pack that is
overstuffed with sketches. Given that I only keep about half the sketches I take, its
easy to see that this was an eventful day.
When I came out of the library Ayella was about in the lands. She was hunting on Ash Island and invited me to come along. I was happy to do so, and it was agreed that I would meet her there. I got there and yelled for her, but she wasn't in the three snells I knew... the ones starting on the south beach and ending with the Dark Temple. I sunstoned her as I dodged Faithless, and she said she was in the Outpost, on the west side of the island. She gave me the cryptic instruction "follow the moons". Well, I got back in my boat, landed on the west side, and started running around and yelling for her. I didn't see any moons, but I guess I wasn't looking closely enough. Before I knew it I was in a grove of dead trees and surrounded by darshak. By going on an all out defense I managed to stay up long enough to sunstone Ayella that I needed help and had gone south. I was even still standing.... barely... when she got there. Apparently I'd managed to stumble into a place called the Horde. It appears to be Darshak central. Ayella did a great job at whittling the Darshak down, but eventually she too fell, and Topaz came to help and fell as well. Luckily I'd been sharing Rincewind (who will likely never be promoted because he is by far the most helpful mystic around) and our location was well known. A powerful rescue party arrived in next to no time, and we were soon safe.
Once Ayella found out how ignorant I was about Ash Island, she gave me a tour of the part
she had been hunting, the Outpost. She showed me the moon symbols that I should have been
following, as well as the other symbols that marked the horde, a place I will know to stay
away from, at least without powerful help. We killed a whole bunch of Darshaks along the
way, and talked about them for a bit. It seems that many exiles are here party or mostly
because of nasty run-ins with them. I was pleased to find that I was having little trouble
dealing with most of them; I guess they don't train their rank and file all that well,
instead relying on magic, their undine, and the sheer press of numbers.
After we'd killed all the Darshak we could find in the Outpost, we headed out to midpass to
hunt for fur for a little bit. We discovered that Thorin had just cleared it out, so we
went north. There wasn't much there either, so Ayella suggested that we try the orga camp.
That sounded great to me since I'd only been there once before, on the joint ELF/Winds of
Dawn hunt. Ayella told me that it was important to kill the shamans first, since they attack
with flame. We were doing ok until I got a little overconfident and ended up getting
surrounded with a zerk near enough to hit me (they have long arms!). Needless to say, I
fell.
Ayella was rather anxious to get help for me. A zealot had turned up, and she was worried
that I would be teleported to the Orga Village.
I've never been there, and I certainly
didn't want my first trip to occur when I was fallen. J'dy showed up really promptly, but
I was too fallen for her to raise me. She and Ayella had a lot of orga to deal with by then,
and eventually J'dy had to concentrate on keeping herself up rather than healing Ayella, who
soon fell. Luckily Ayella is good at getting powerful aid when she needs it. Jo'Maril and
Eyeball soon showed up, and Hex came along to help with the healing. It was next to no time
then before the camp was clear and we were all relaxing back in the meadow.
After a short discussion, Jo'Maril organized a hunt for us in Snagglewood. It was Jo'Maril,
Eyeball, Dandelion, Ayella and me. He was very good at organizing and leading. I should
have been taking notes. Its easy to see why Ayella says he is her hero.
We hunted for a good long time in Snagglewood. All my swengus training was really paying
off, and the hunt seemed to be more a tag-fest for my benefit than anything else. Everyone
was holding stuff for me and waiting for me to tag it before killing it, with Dandelion
chasing after me with her cad. I soon lost count of how many zerks I vanquished, and I
noticed that some of the smaller ones were seeming like there weren't so much more powerful
than me anymore.
At the start of the hunt, Jo had given some instructions. One was to yell if I saw a big red orga. Sure enough we saw a big red orga. I didn't yell becase someone else spotted it first. I did manage to tag it though, which made me very happy. The others took it down as easily I deal with the little green ones. Another instruction was to stay put if I accidentlally crossed a snell boundary. Sure enough, at one point when trying to kill a shaman (remembering Ayella's instruction to kill them first), I accidentally went west a snell. I sunstoned quickly, while running like mad, but it didn't take me long to fall. I had stayed in the same snell, though, and the others asked me to confirm this via toggling, then they came and got me. Not long after that it was time for me to head to the library (very reluctantly). I'd had a great day though, and learned a lot.
Some days it really pays to just relax and go along with whatever is happening in the lands.
This was one of those days.
I started out by trying my hand at package delivery. Aravir has heen compiling a list of all the people who receive packages, and I thout I'd try it out. I rather expected to get someone I had no hope of getting to. I was happily surprised when the package I was given was for Gol Bluze. I guess word has gotten around about all the time I've been spending in South Forest lately. Needless to say I am quite familiar with Gol, even though I'm pretty sure the Abyss will freeze over before I can afford one of his shirts. I did nearly fall on my way down to give him the package thanks to a nasty green crawler who was lying in wait outside the back door to the hospital, but luckily I made it past and gave Gol his package. On the way back (after a long break to practice my Troilus lessons) I ran into my first summer artak... very pretty.
While I'd been in the hospital Frucesca sunstone me and invited me to hunt with her. I was
delighted, though I ended up being slower answering her than I had intended. Sunstones don't
work so well with some nicknames, and mine doesn't seem to understand why I mean when I think
"Frucy". Of course the hunt with Frucesca was fun. She had a group, and we teamed up with
another group to help kill an Oak Giant in TGBG. I managed to get a blow in, so I was happy.
Then we went to the Lily Pond for a teeny bit. The swamp ferals are still hard enough that
I usually don't land a blow before they're killed, but I was finding large sand wurms
quiet managable... though I was careful to be elsewhere when they had the balance to attack.
The hunt was then cut a bit short when Frucesca was called away in a rescue in KI. I was
reluctant to go... people asked if everyone had a necklace (meaning a catsbane necklace)
and of course I don't. Those things cost more money that I've ever seen. In the ended I
ended up going as far as the water just outside the cove, which was as far as was needed.
Frucesca had managed to chain the fallen out around then. He was in pretty bad shape, so
they went back to town to get him healed.
It was when they got back to town that people remarked that Algernon was missing. Algernon is a poor little halfling who is not like the rest of us. He is very good at telling the time though. Apparently he managed to become a healer somehow, and he can heal if given explicit instructions, though I feel this to be a little rude. I much prefer getting healed by people who have a full grasp of all there faculties; I wouldn't want to take advantage of the little guy. At any rate, Algy was fallen somewhere. It seems that some people think its amusing to lead him off somewhere and cause him to fall in a place where he can't be rescued. Nearly everone I've met in Puddleby has been nice, but I guess there are a few who will stoop to the lowest acts imaginable.
After the rescue Frucesca had to go study for a bit. Just as I was wondering what to do
next Anfyr showed up. Anfyr managed to get us both invited on a hunt in the Dark Temple
that Gurgi was organizing. Her brother who had just arrived in Puddleby, Dar'floh, also
came.
We hunted for quite some time on Ash Island and in the Dark Temple. Mostly it was hooded corpses, skeletals and Faithless. This was very good training for me. At some point this huge skull turned up. I'm not sure what it was, but it was very tough. I believe that Gurgi soloed it, whatever it was... I don't think it ever hit him, and I don't think any or the rest of us managed to so much as scratch it, not that we weren't trying. It was pretty impressive to watch.
The only bad thing about the hunt was that I fainted again. This is the second time I've been to the Dark Temple, and the second time I've fainted there. At least this time I woke up fairly quickly. Mind you, I've fainted in other places too, like South Forest and the Savannah. It makes me wonder, though, if there isn't something in the Dark Temple that I am reacting badly too. I really do think that it was some sort of Darshak magic that nearly killed me shortly before I was rescued and brought to Puddleby, so it would make sense for me to have a bad reaction in the Dark Temple.
Today I learned that organizing a hunt can be a real pain. I was tired of just randomly
hunting in place I can (mostly) handle on my own, and wanted to spend some time with my
friends hunting in a place that was more of a challenge. When Thorin was in town, then
I thought I'd take the opportunity to drag him off to the passes, which is about my limit
without a healer along. Things quickly got complicated from there. As we were leaving
Dagiris thought we were going with him for some reason... anyway to make a long story short
it kinda turned into a invite to noids, where I have never been before but I understand it
should be good training for me. We never got there however. There was a lot of confusion
and there were some fallens in midpass, and a lot of zipping back and forth between midpass
and noids. Thorin was in one of his really weird moods which didn't help. There was also
a Greymyr in midpass, though I didn't get a sketch because I was too busy running.
Then Sasha
showed up and Thorin settled down, and all the confusion ended in the folks who had been
fallen deep in mid pass getting chained to town to be healed. It was not what I'd
been planning, but at least I can say that in all the confusion I soloed my first wendy.
Once we were back in town, I tried again to get a hunt going. Thorin and Sasha are always good to hunt with. Also Xepel and Anfyr had just come out of the library, and I wanted to hunt with them too. There was a lot of sunstone messages involved, and poking of Sasha who seemed a bit distrated, but eventually it was agreed that we'd go hunt. I picked the Savannah since the coins would make it somewhat worthwhile to Xepel and Thorin who likely slaughter anything that Anfyr and I can even dream about hitting. We got there in good order, and met a few mahas, though the place was fairly empty. Anfyr was having trouble hitting :-(. Then I had one of my fainting spells, though luckily it was brief. We'd hunted in the savannah for about an hour (as Puddleby measures time) when Sasha asked again about doing scaramis. She kept getting invited on a hunt there. I'd told her I didn't have much time, and that Anfyr and I likely wouldn't be able to hit. She insisted that there'd be a powerful mystic along who could boost us well enough that we could hit. I was pretty doubtful, but it seemed like she really wanted to go, and Xepel and Anfyr seemed interested. So we left to join that hunt. The thing was once we got to town I reminded Sasha of how little time I had left and she said it would take that long just to get there. I wish I'd insisted on staying in the savannah a little longer. I need to work on my organizational skills or something so that I get better at this group thing.
While in town early today I came across an impressive number of healers trying to raise
Natas. Fortunately for him, I wasn't there long when Lorikeet (one of the formost horus
healers in the lands) arrived and he was soon on the mend. Apparently he'd been hit by
several rocks. I can sympathize with that, I still remember getting hit by three rocks
on my trip to the Greymyr village.
I checked in with my trainers and I reached a breakthrough with Evus. He now says that
teachng me is a challenge. I've been working with him for a while. I'm going to take a
little break now and get some lessons from Skea. I'd like to make some more money so I
can save up for metal and eventually get a chain. Then I'll train some with Regia to improve
my recovery from swings. I tested on the fighter dummies, and I now have exactly almost
exactly five swings with my longsword. I consider this to be the bare minimum for my style
of fighting. Hopefully a little training with Regia will boost that up a bit, though I
mainly just want the swings to come faster when I'm out hunting. I think this testing is
a good validation of my training program, though. If I continue to train in the ratios that
I have mapped out I should maintain five swings as I progress or even gain swings gradually.
I don't understand how some fighters can hunt with only two or three.
Nothing terribly interesting happened when I went hunting. I was doing fairly well in
South Forest; or course it was daytime. I'm not up to handling South Forest at night
on my own. I was really lucky and found some wild kudzu by the mirror. I've been out
or kudzu since the Sun Dragon Clan hunt. I did a little farming. It was working well, I'd
farm a bit, then bash the critters that wandered by. At times a got a little bloody, which
lead to me taking a sketch I thought was funny... it makes it look like soloing kudzy is
dangerous. Of course the mirror is not the ideal place for a just-turned-second-circle
fighter to farm kudzu, and just as the kudzu started to die off an expecially tough feral
came along. I was cocky after my testing triumph... and well I learned that I still have
a lot to learn about fighting ferals. Theo toggle located me, and since he was busy Hex
came along and got me on my feet. Sadly, by then the mirror was full of critters, and we
got surrounded (my fault, I had trouble putting my sword away). By the time we were clear
we were both on red. I made it to the hospital, but Hex fell stalling the beasts. I then
had to call for a rescue for my rescuer, but luckily people were nearby and the mirror was
soon under control.
I've been stuck in the library a lot lately, and it looks likely that I won't get out too
much until after Bawkmas. Evus is getting really frusterated with my slow progress and has
been giving me extra home work. I did get out for a bit, but really I only had time to
coin hunt, which I needed to do rather urgently what with library fees and all.
While I was coin hunting I met up with Ferrel and a new exile named Joplaya. She's trying
to become an apprentice mystic. I decided not to try to warn her off since she seemed
quite firm about it. We did have a good time hunting in South Forest with Ferrel keeping us
up. It was good fun and my purse soon had enough for to pay for another zodiac in the cheap
library. We did run into some trouble when a few artaks and a bunch of other stuff all
attacked us at once. All would have been well, except that just then a bolok cougar
showed up as well, and Ferrel was a bit too busy keeping himself up to help either
Joplaya or me. Ayella had asked if I needed help though, and she was kind enough to drop
by and kill the nasties for us. She's very talented... a strong fighter, one of the best
bards in the lands, and great fashion sense.
Yay! I finally worked up the nerve to take the second circle fighters test today, and I
passed! I even have a vision stone save
here. Afterward I got a skin
dye, dark tan to celebrate no longer being a complete newcomer to the islands. Plus it
goes well with my skirt and the spiffy brown shirt the Ayella gave me.
Speaking of cool clothes, earlier in the day when I'd been trying (and failing) the large
vermine challenge I had fallen in Tanglewood. Thuja, Jade and Magdalene came and saved
me. They'd been deeper in the woods, out in one of the orga camps from what they were
saying. Anyway, Jade has a cool new dress that looks a lot like the one Thuja has. I took
a sketch once we were all safely back in town.
I spent almost all my time out of the library today hunting in the bear caves. Thorin
invited me; he was hunting there with Zeitgeist and Viviana. He had to leave after not
too long, but then just as things were getting a bit rough we were joined by Leos and Sook.
It was a great hunt. There were loads of bears, especially the tougher kinds like honey
bears and chestnut bears. I was pleased with my ability to hit them. I still remember my
first trip to the bear caves with Caravagio when I had real difficulty hitting anything,
even from behind when the bears were recovering from a swing. Now things are going much
smoother. Of course I won't be able to hunt the bear caves without the help of much stronger
fighters for quite some time, but still its progress.
In addition to the bears we seem to have stumbled across a nest of carrion arachnes. There was a huge group of them in the cave all of a sudden. It reminded me of the times when all the vermine swarm in north field, and vermine fighting techniques were quite useful. Speaking of which, I've started to notice lately that rats no longer offer good practice for the fighting techniques I've been learning lately. I should think about taking the test for second circle soon. Hopefully before Bawkmas.
I spent a few minutes at the bard audition/concert before I had to head back to the library. The music was lovely. Poor Ayella still does not have a harp though.
Today definately had its ups and downs. It started off really well. I got to go hunting
with Firebird, one of the fastest healers in the lands and a skilled bard besides. We
went to South Forest since Kitty Beach already had a hunting party in it. Things were
going well until a bolok, a feral and 2 maha runkees decided to descend on us. To make a
long story short we fell. People were quick to inquire after us though. Tardalus even
put out a huge reward since he couldn't come in person. I was a little stunned since we
weren't far from town, but it was very kind of him. We were soon rescued and on our way
back to town.
Once we got back to town Firebird had some patients come in on a chain and Anfyr (his wife)
came out of the library. We were having a pleasant sit down in town with others, including
my good friend Finnias who'd helped rescue us. That's when things turned a bit sour. A
zo named Black Knight started hugging everyone there. That was bizarre and a little
irritating. Hugs are great between friends but I don't like being hugged by complete
strangers. Then he escalated to kisses. Being told "go away", "leave me alone" and being
slapped didn't do anything to disuade him. Finally I had enough, especially since he gave
a touch more of this unwelcome attention to me than to the others. I took him to court.
I know there are problems with the court system, but I figured it was the best solution
since if left unchallenged he'd likely just victimize others. He didn't show up to answer
the charge, and he was convicted. He hid himself in the library before the sentance was
pronouced. Thanks to jury for their time, to Anfyr who testified, and to the others who
offered to testify.
After that bit of unpleasantness was over I decided to go off with Aravir. He had a package
that he was trying to deliver to the beach south of Kitty Beach. We soon needed healing,
and Mehan joined us. It turned into a very pleasant hunt, which Aravir has also
written about. We discovered
that not only can zo be sensitive about their appearance, trools can too! (I had a sketch
of the hunt that was almost identical to the one Aravir took too, so I decided not to post
that one.)
Mehan eventually had to leave us. There was a FMOCR going on at the time, and a friend
of hers had asked her to go to OC1 to raise a fallen. I am still of the opinion that
the trade with the brothers in not a good idea. We noticed that there were a fair number
of orga in the forest, obviously they were not helping their side in the raid. Perhaps
some of the orga want the trade to go through. More likely though they just slipped out
because they liked their chances against Aravir and me better than the full might of the
FMOCR party. I'm glad we proved them wrong.
Today was the day of the big joint hunt between E'las Loth'mon Ferindril and the Winds if
Dawn. I got out of the libary early enough that I got in some coin hunting before hand
with Laiy. We weren't on Kitty beach long when the need for a healer became apparent.
Luckily Tomair appeared just then. This was really handy for me, since he's a member
of the Winds of Dawn and would be going on the hunt later as well. He saved us a couple of
times from some nasty boloks that showed up. Then we had a really big group of artak cougars
show up. Delirium came by to help us clean out those, then it was time to head out for the
hunt.
The hunt was going to take place in the Orga Outback, which is a really dangerous place.
Actually, by my estimations parts of Tanglewood cound as really dangerous, but this was
a lot more dangerous than that. It was necessary to have a strategy session in the meadow
before we got underway. We also had to recruit a few more healers because folks thought
we didn't have enough healing power. Once I saw the lightning beyond Wisher's Gate I
figured out why. Eventually we had everyone and we had out plan.
We set out through Tanglewood to the Orga Camp, which we quickly took over. Then we went
through a path and fought our way through Snagglewood. This was a lot more fun that I'd
been expecting, and I managed to help vanquish several Orga berserks, and even a rage. It
was very exciting. Then we saw the famous Wishers gate. We went through in several forays.
There were orga, lightning bolts and death vermine everywhere. We were still going back
and forth when a party was going back to the camp to get Anfyr, and I decided to go with
them, then leave for town. The our was growing late and I needed to be in the library. I
wish I could have stayed for the whole thing, it was a fabulous hunt.
I got out of the library today and noticed that there were a lot of ELF members abroad in
the lands. I was pretty excited about that, especially when I got a sunstone message from
Fleming asking me to go to come to South Pass. It turned out that Anfyr was fallen somewhere
in there to a wendecka and the clan was going to look for her and rescue her. Drock was in
the area too and came along as a welcome additional sword arm.
We searched for Anfyr, getting as far as strange lava pool east of South Pass. We were
milling around there considering how to proceed in our search when we felt through spirit
linking that Anfyr was no longer fallen. It was soon clear that she had departed. I was
very sad about that; I'm sure we would have found her shortly we were such a powerful group.
(Aside from myself that is.)
At that point talk turned to changing the rescue into a hunt. It was then that Tardalus did something very strange. He had been kneeling by the lava pool when suddenly he jumped in. He fell rather quickly. I didn't see what happened next clearly, but I saw that he was no longer in the lava pool. I was confused, but I was sure that the healers we had could get him back on his feet. Before they could even get their moonstones out, though, he departed. Everyone present was very confused by his behavior. We were troubled, but there seemed little we could do about it immediately.
The decision was made to head north to the Greymir Village. I'd never been anyplace so
dangerous before. From my earlier trips to the passes I knew that it was dangerous to
stand still in certain places because of the boulders that are hurled down on the unwary
in these places. I was careful about standing still and about not overreaching my self
trying to get hits in on the dangerous beasts that we found there. Generally I tried to
stay out of the way.
Thing started off well enough. We killed several Greymir, with Vequilar usually running
them while everyone got into a good position. Then Fleming would call for an attack
just after the Greymir threw a boulder. This worked welll, and I even managed to land some
blows, much to my own surprise. Then we got deeper into the village and there were simply
too many Greymir for us to deal with. We estimate that we got into a snell with no fewer
than 10 Greymir. Three of us fell when it got so that there was no good place to run to.
the others regrouped, and there was some impressive running. Marko even managed to push me
into a more secluded position as he ran by.
At least some of the fallens were raised, but the hunt never managed to regroup and get
all of the fallens. There were just too many Greymir. Another problem we had was that
we did not have a chainer along. I spent a long time fallen and even took another two
rocks as one of our healers ran passed pursued by several Greymir. Fleming asked several
times for a chainer to come assist us, but with the price of metal in the lands they are
understandably rare.
The calls for help were answered by Ramandu who mangaged to get to us. My friend Thorin
also came to help try to keep those pesky rock throwers under control. Ramandu soon
chained us out of there and we beat a hasty retreat for town. We were all exceedingly
grateful to Ramandu for coming for us and getting us out of there so skillfully. It
made me even more certain that I want to learn how to chain as soon as I can. I plan
to do it sometime after I pass the second circle test and get a little training from
Detha.
 |
 |
There was some cheerful speculation among the fallens once were were safetly on the way back to town as to who was the most damaged and would need the most healers to be restored to health. I was easily the winner there. I am told my body was unrecognizable. Not surprising really, Histia seems to be frustrated by my slow progress in her style of training.
Despite the lengthy time spent fallen I had a great time, and I'm looking forward to the planned joint hunt with the Winds of Dawn in a few days. I hear we might be going to the orga outback. I imagine that the lightning bolts of the orgas will be at least as good at felling me as "small" rocks.
I hunted with Makie and Sasha for a bit. When I came out of the library they were in the
savannah with Elise, but she got tired and took a nap out there. I ended up meeting them
in the marsh. We hunted in south forest for a bit. Sasha is hoping to get a potrait
of herself done by Laiy (who did a great portrait of Makie) and is wondering if she should
sit for it with skin dye or without.
We met several people while hunting in South Forest, some of whom joined us. One of them was Vequalir. I was really pleased to get a chance to hunt with him for a bit. When the others had to go he took me around and showed me parts of the island that I had not seen before. We ventured down into that well thats in the east farms. It looks like all the snakes had run off in fear of the mighty healer. We also visited a number of the western beaches. I'm really only familiar with Kitty Beach and the beach west of the green shirt seller, so it was nice to see the other places, including the Meshra lair.
The beaches got more dangerous as we went further south, and we ventured into a cave just
west of the southern part of South Forest. It was full of big green crawlers, and I fell.
Vequalir had just gotten me back on my feet when Tardalus showed up to help rescue me. With
their combined healing power those nasty green crawlers didn't stand a chance. The inside
of the wet cave was pretty creepy, with what look like the remains of dead bodies in some
of the back ways. I guess that's what happens to people who venture there without serious
healers along. Those crawlers can be nasty.
There's someone selling something called a "crawler cracker" on one of those beaches, but even if I had the 300c the thing costs I think I prefer my longsword.
I had some good hunting experiences today. I started off with Aravir and Snow in Kitty
Beach. We were doing really well, and even killed a maha that happened by without too
much trouble. Of course Snow's wonderful healing ability made all the difference.
Aravir is well on his way to relearning the skinning skills he had before he resigned
from the Mystics Guild, and it was a very lucrative hunt. After a while Snow and Aravir
had to go. I'm afraid I was getting cocky and decided to stay on my own. Of course that's
when a bolok showed up. I almost soloed it, but almost doesn't keep a person from falling.
Luckily Makie was on her way to rescue me and Snow and Aravir turned back, and picked me
up off the ground.
I hunted with various people, notably Makie and Aylis. After Makie left and just before
Aylis was about to another bolok showed up and Aylis and I fell. This one wasn't even an
almost. Tardalus came and rescued us. I then got to hunt with him for a while. He's
a really fast healer and very nice. I had a great time and I only wish I could have
stayed out of the library longer.
Today was a very big day for me. It started really well with some coin hunting in the
highlands with Anfyr. We got to talking while recovering from some cat scratches, and
she suggested that I join E'las Loth'mon Ferindril. I told her that I don't have much
time away from my studies which I've felt has been one of the major reason why I haven't
joined a clan so far. I had been looking hopefully into two clans, but they both seem
to have gone inactive. ELF is one of the oldest and best clans in the land, and I while
I am sylvan I was a little surprised when Anfyr suggested it. I may have been here a year,
but I still feel very new and inexperienced. Still, Anfyr was so positive it was easy to
believe that all would be well, and I'd certainly been looking at the ELF scrols in the
hopes that they would have me. I looked carefully at my study schedule, and found that
I might be able to manage the to make the clan meeting later that night.
After hunting together for a while, Anfyr and I decided that we wanted to get a group
together and hunt the bear caves. We were just gathering outside the entrance when a
drake showed up and started attacking Kaitlyn while she resting her eyes for a bit. We
tried to defend her, and someone got a sunstone message off so we soon had help. Before
long the drake was dead, which served it right for attacking a healer.
Our hunt was great fun. We started out with Anfyr, Amberdrake, Kaitlyn, Hor and me. Then
we got an invitation to the Lily Pond and joined Spook and Dongle for a bit. It was my
first time there, and the furs were amazing. Hor is rigt when he raves about that place.
When it was empty we went back to the bears plan. We hunted in the caves for a long time,
with a few changes in personel as we hunted. We lost people, and gained Ayella, Zorri and
Vata over the course of the hunt. Ayella played us a little bear hunting music at one point.
I should remember that music does not sooth the savage beast, at least not if the beasts
are bears. We were surrounded and ambushed by several grizzly bears while Ayella was playing
for us. To make matters worse we were without a healer at that point, and Ayella had to
have a female healer, because of a religious rite she was undergoing at the time. Luckily
that was when Vata showed up. Eventually everyone got tired of bears and went off to
study. I took a brief study break too so that I'd be able to make it to the ELF meeting.
The ELF meeting got off to a bit of a late start with member trickling in. I did meet a
number of the members though. It was fun and there was a good deal of joking between the
older members. Once everyone was there I had to introduce myself to the clan, which made
me a little nervous. I didn't get too tongue tied though, and hopefully I didn't say
anything that came out wrong... I seem to have a talent for putting things badly. There
were a number of other hopefuls at the meeting, but they had already been introduced to
the clan. After the meeting was over Tardalus got his E'las Loth'mon Ferindril badge since
he'd been accepted into the clan, and I got my Prentis'mon Ferindril badge, making me an
official hopeful for the clan. I wish I could have stayed for the hunt afterwards, but I
was waaaaaaay overdue for the library.
I spent a lot of time studying in the library lately, and as I result I missed the entire
feast of T'ssrin and I spend all my money on library fees.
When I finally made it out today I had no coins left at all. As a result, I spent most of my time hunting for furs. I tried all the usualy place: the highlands, kitty beach, and the northern reaches of south forest. I got trapped at one point, just south of the scout and fell. Viola found me, and after calling Typ to heal me offered to let me tag along with her. Not only was this great fun, but I got way more money than I could have possibly made on my own. After running through South Forest she took me down to the brambles and the trool mines. We ran into a swarm of large vermine and a bolok cougar at one point and I fell, but luckily Typ came again. Once I was up again we found an ore in one of the mines and Viola let me have it! It didn't have any metal in it when I checked it in town later, so I gave it to the guy building the fighter pub.
After a bit Viola had to study, so I tried hunting some more on my own. Solo coin hunting is rather boring, and in my case not very profitable. I really need to study with Skea some more when I can. I'm promissing myself ten more lessons from her after I finish up this set of Evus lessons, which probably won't be until summer at the rate I learn.
I ran into Aravir towards the end of the day. He's doing much better with skea, but he doesn't solo artaks yet, so we teamed up. We headed for the highlands, and ended up joining Viviana and Calil. We had a good hunt, ending up in South Forest, where there were an unusually large number of sand wurms. Thankfully we were strong enough to deal with them. I dread meeting the larger variety. I also got to finally see the outpost that I've been reading so much about. I do hope they open the rest of it soon.
