Journal
Sometimes falling is not such a bad thing as you might imagine, even when things look bad.
I was hunting along the marshside of south forest today when I ran into a horde of vermine and a tree giant. This is not a winning combination for someone of my abilities. I tried running away first, but even I couldn't cut through the vermine fast enough, and I ended up with a good view of the sky. No problem there, except that one of the healers I was sharing with was asleep (understandable, everyone naps sometimes), and I was pretty sure that the other were off someplace interesting, at least based on what one of them was falling to, so things weren't looking so good. They did notice though, and asked if I was getting help. After a bit, a thoom named Audy said he'd go look for me, and asked if I was in TGBG. Sadly, no one had had the time to play 20 question over sunstone with me and figure out that that was not where I was, and Audy had never met me before, so he didn't know I'd never set foot in TGBG alone unless I had a death wish. He assumed that I was in TGBG since that's where you find tree giants. I wasn't sure how to signal that yes, I want a rescue, but you've got the wrong place. I ended up just toggling like crazy when he asked for a fighter to clear the spriggins out of the tree for him, and that worked. His third guess as to where I was was correct and I was soon on my feet again, with help from Manx, who'd been persistant about requesting help for me, and Flux who'd also been trying to locate me.
Now not only was I up, but I had a skilled healer along. We'd just started
to hunt together when Megan invited me on a noids hunt. I accepted provided that Audy
could come too, and we soon joined Megan, Nightbird and Deebo in Noids. I am in danger
of becoming addict to that place, though apperently Megan is quite fond of it too. She
discussed her training progress at length, and its remarkable. I know I'm a bit of an
underachiever, but I had no idea that such rapid progress was even possible. She apparently
gained more Atkus training than I have in total between the last time I'd hunted with her
less than half a zodiac ago and this time. I expect that the next time I meet her she'll
at least have surpased me in total training. She'll likely have earned a white belt by
Spring.
I got invited along a very nice hunt in Snagglewood with Drue'dreemi, Lorikeet, Kaerie, and
another fighter who's name I just can't think of just now (but he's a nice guy). I was
pretty impressed. We made it through with no major incidents, and we even cleared out
Bones, through careful scouting and planning by Dreemi and Lorikeet. I got to see Lorikeet
rod the lightning on her own, which was pretty impressive. Of course Lorikeet is just
pretty impressive altogether. All in all it was a great hunt and I got back to the library
in the nick of time.
At long last I finally beat the large vermine challenge. I did it without a healer or any
other help and
without gathering up the little critters before hand. Generally the problem I've had in
the past is a simple lack of Large Vermine, but today there were enough of them in south
forest that I got my thirty under the time limit, though I had to kill a lot of other stuff
along the way, including some of the more fearsome cats. I suppose I'll try the island
panther challenge next.
After my successful completion of the challenge I wandered into town square. Megan was
getting together a noids hunt and agreed to let me come along. It was a small hunt, but it
was a really good group. I'm really getting to like hunting noids.
While we were in noids the others talked a bit about the recent boardwalk games and the
paint prizes. I was sorry to have missed it all and said so. GrayGradi very kindly gave
me a pot of paint, which I really appreciated. It was the perfect green to match my blouse!
I hope I'm around the next time one of these fun diversions comes to Puddleby.
The noids were cleared out in rather short order and the hunt dispersed. I met of with
Aravir, and together we joined Fleming in the northern plains, after a brief incident
involving an ambush by about a dozen wendeckas just north of north pass. We were also
joined by Alexander who had helped with the post-wendecka cleanup. It was good to have
a healer along. We hunted the plains until Aravir needed to return to town, and then
we went to the savannah. Fleming had started to train me in accuracy before we went to
the savannah, and already I found that those big Mahas were easier to hit. I'm planning
on training with Fleming until I keep Atkus on his toes, or until I drop below five swings
with my longsword, whichever comes first. I'm currently at just over seven swings with my
longsword, so I'm hoping I can get the 40 lessons I think its going to take to get to the
level I want without losing the 5th swing.
The townspeople have taken to addressing my by the title of Lady. I find there standards
a little odd, since it seems that the vast majority if the population has the title of
Lord or Lady. Indeed, when the Winds of Dawn ran their contests for newcomers, entry
was open to everyone who did not have that title. I suppose its the thought that counts.
I had a nice hunt in the savannah today with Fleming and Nephilim. It was short since I
didn't have a lot of time, but we made a fairly good number of coins. I fell once badly
enough that Nephilim couldn't raise me, but Lorikeet was nearby so I was quickly on my
feet again.
We'd had no problem getting to the savannah, but getting back to town was another story. Halfway there we got lost in the marsh. Then we got seperated. We ended up in south forest in different snells. Fleming sunstoned that he was surrounded at one point, and I was looking for him when I met up with a meaner-than-usual bolok cougar and ended up staring at the sky again. Once more I was too fallen for Nephilim. I think I need to get more Evus training soon.
I hunted today with Fleming, Anfyr, Ayella, Firebird and Topaz. We hunted the lily pond,
and afterwards we went on my first ever trip to the Arachnoid cavern.
Firebird and Ayella are not getting along. Fleming and I had hoped that getting them together on a hunt might help. I'm sad to say that while the hunt was successful in vanquishing a great number of cave maha, large sand wurms and arachnoids of different flavors it failed in its main purpose. This is a difficult time, and I feel fairly helpless. I know what to do when faced with an arachnoid, I don't know what to do when two friends aren't getting along and seemed to be passed the point of being able to work out their differences. The two did not argue at all during the hunt, but I almost wished they had. In a way the icy silence was more ominous than even the most explosive argument.
A very strange thing happened to me today. I came out of the library for a short while. I headed up the bard's field because I wanted to practice two pieces that I wrote for the next bard auditions. I especially wanted to practice the one I did about the spring festival. I also visited with Hendrux. He suggested that I learn another instrument. I had been thinking of maybe trying something that could play chords (I've been reading up about them a lot in the library), but I was going to get four workable pieces for the flute done first. Well, I figured, it wouldn't hurt to check the east forest for antlers or a tor shell, and besides it would be much more fitting to write a harp part to the peice about the spring festival.. Suddenly, I felt inspired. Very very inspired. I felt so inspired in fact that everyone I was spirit linked to noticed it and sunstoned me to ask about it. I couldn't explain much more than that I was feeling particularly inspired remembering the spring festival, which I hope explains it.
I didn't find any instrument parts, though there were a couple of wendies to skin. No matter, if I'm meant to have more than just my flute I'm sure the parts will come to me. I certainly can't complain since I already have the one instrument I wanted most.
After endless coin hunting for my chain, I decided to vary my hunting a bit. Since I
now only needed enough for library fees (though they can get steep), I could spend some
time hunting creatures that don't have furs. I met up with two great rockodiles on one
of the beaches. I was partway through dealing with them when help showed up. I think his
name was Tirilus? Something like that... Anyway, he helped me with the second rocko,
though we had to call a healer at one point when the rocko took a big chunk out of him.
The really funny thing was that the silly little crawlers were hitting me a lot more than
the rocko, and as a result doing a lot more damage. With the rocko dead I offerend to
help clean the beach for Tirilus so that he could find the thing he was looking for more
easily, but he was pretty fast and didn't really need the help.
After the beaches I ended up hunting the passes with the delightful Peony, who is
Poesy's sister. We had a good
time with the Wendies, then went off to help out Anfyr, who was in a bit of difficulty
near the feral den. That was a lot of fun because on the way we passed the Rose, which
Peony had never seen before.
After the rescue, Peony expressed an interest in coin hunting. Knowing that south forest
was probably crowded with other exiles doing just that, I decided to try taking Peony to
Orionwood on Centaur Island. Things went well at first, and we got a few good skins. Then
we tried to leave. That wasn't so easy, and the Peony fell when we were seperated. I'm
glad I had my chain, and I broke it in trying to get her off the island. I had to drop it
at one point because I got surrounded by vermine, and she kept getting caught on trees,
which was a problem since you can't chain folks through the exit, but I eventually got her
back to town.
Getting of Centaur took so long that I was late for the clan hunt in Snagglewood. Luckily
my clan mates were understanding. Finally we gather enough people and headed off. We
fought a number of orga, including a few of the big red kind. Things were looking good
until we headed into Bones. There was so much lightning and flames that people started
falling fast. Fleming had said that it was OK to retreat back to the previous snell, and
I did just that when it because clear to me that I would fall if I remained in Bones.
Ly'fender and I both retreated. Unfortuantly the snell was not completely clear. I stayed
up for a little while, but then a flame got me. With only Firebird and Sasha still up
it looked to me like we needed help. Then Sasha fell, and finally Firebird. Sometimes
I hate it when I'm right. Fortunately
Lundar
came out of the library and got a rescue for us; he has a better sketch of the rescue
for us. I had to run as soon as I was vertical, since I was overdue for the library.
Tan'ki to Praetorius for the excellent directions. I'm a little amazed I made it out
of Snaggy on my own in one piece, my running must be improving.
When I came out of the library today I knew that this would be the day. If I hunted on
my own in South Forest for long enough I would have enough money for a chain. With my
goal in ming I ventured south. Much to my own astonishment, I managed to solo my first
maha runknee. It must have been a cub. Of course bolok cougars are still always a
surprise. Sometimes they are not much harder than artaks, and sometimes I wind up on
my back waiting to be rescued.
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Hunting was very interesting. I tried to use the terrain to my advantage when I happened across an orga beserk and a bolok cougar at the same time. Either alone is a challenge for me, so squeezed between the rocks just outside of Yada's place so that only one of them could attack me at once. This worked well for a while, then a maha showed up, coming directly for the other gap in the rocks. I did the only sensible thing, and ducked into Yada's for long enough for them to wander off. It took some time, but I did eventually get all three of them. When I was done I had enough money for my chain, as long as I stayed in the cheap library until I could get more money. I just had enough time to run to town and buy the chain before heading to my clan meeting.
At the meeting we had some very serious things to discuss. It was decided that we would
start hunting at a clan at times other than our meeting, and we'd like to hone our
abilities to hunt as a group. After the meeting Sasha and Midleaf joined the clan as
hopefuls.
After many tries I finally won a piece of metal in a raffle. Now I have two, enough for a chain as soon as I scrape the coins together. Of course I also need to get more training with Loovma Geer, otherwise I'll be hunting for coins for a repair almost immediately.
I went hunting in south forest in the hopes of filling my purse for this purpose. I ended up hunting with Anfyr and Leos. We had a great time and there were some pretty funny moments on the hunt.
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We had a very good clan meeting this moon.
Lundar has a very good account of it. The circle around the campfire was quite large,
and we had a very welcome visitor. Farhope
dropped by our meeting and joined us. She even fed us donuts before she left, while
Nephilum provided beer to wash them down with. Its nice to have visitors, especially
when they bring such yummy food. Unfortunately not all visitors are as well behaved as
Farhope. Nip "the warrior" showed up during the part of the meeting where we were
discussion prospective new members, which is the one part of the meeting that we would
like to keep private for obvious reasons. He was very poorly behaved and insisted on
staying repeating questions even though it was obvious that we were trying to conduct
business. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't speak sylvan though, so I simply switched
languages and hoped that he would take the hint. Regardless we managed to finish the
business at hand.
At the end of the meeting we went to the clan house and got Selan her badge. She'd come
out of the library moments after it was decided to have her join. Its too bad Ayella's
timing wasn't as good, though hopefully she'll be around next time so we can give her
her badge. I'm really looking forward to having Ayella join the clan, she's fun to be
around, and she's been something of a mentor to me as a bard hopeful.
I should mention that we had a fine hunt before the meeting. Fleming and Anfyr and I, with Graygradi from the Winds of Dawn, and a bunch other people, many of whom were new exiles. Zeitgeist was with us, but left, and Finnian showed up at the end... and I'm probably forgetting people. We had a good time in the west trool mine, the really deep parts, and then hunted up along the western beaches and through the meshra lair. Its interesting to see newer exiles hunting. Was I ever like that? I've been here for nearly three years, it seems so long ago, and yet I know I'm still a newcomer in the eyes of most of Puddleby's residents.
I have my flute! I dropped by to see Hendrux first thing today, and he'd finished it. I
hadn't expected it for another four days or so since I thought it would take a full zodiac
to finish, but he had it ready for me when I visited! I tested in out in the Bards field
as soon as I got it, and it sounds great... or as good it can be considering the quality
of my playing. I made a pest of myself showing it to everyone all day, but I think they
understood.
I went hunting with Anfyr, and we invited Mazulan along. We tried the passes. Omega joined
us for a time, which is nice because hunting without a healer is no fun. Later we joined
up with Zeitgeist and hunted in south forest for a bit. We found an Orga Beserk there,
which was fun, because I found out I can brick those now. All those lessons with Xepel
are paying off. Then we found an Orga Rage. That was more .... interesting. Our first
attempt at it was looking pretty good until a bolok cougar showed up and wanted to join
in the fun. 
The result was a ride back to
town on Anfyr's chain. We went for a second try, which was looking even worse, but we
got some strong support, and the rage went down.
After dealing with the rage the others needed a study break. Sasha came out of the library
though, and I hunted with her for a bit. We ended up going to Zerkwood on Fire Island with
Maxibus. 
The place did not live up to its
name; I don't think we saw more than one zerk the entire time we were there, though there
were a fair number of orga shamen. The fire is annoying and I don't like the way they look
at me. We did find a fair number of cats though, but we would probably have been better
off staying in south forest if we wanted cats.
I also managed to get in some hunting with
Thorin. Thorin was wearing a brand new red belt with his usual blue outfit. When I asked
him about it he said he'd passed the fifth circle test about a zodiac ago. Its nice to have
such a skilled dwarf to hunt with, especially since he takes me places that are good
places for me to practice advanced skills.
We went to the old bear cave, and the river tunnels. I need to work on my atkus
sometime rather soonish, I was having trouble hitting the carniverous wurms, and they move
around too much for me to spend all day swinging at them.
Its certainly been a day to remember! The Spring Festival ended today in the big ball,
and I passed my audition and became a bard questor.
I was really worried about the audition. I went first, and after having listened to the real bards play for a while (no questors turned up for the full bard auditions) I realized that all my songs were way too short and simple. Its a good thing that I went first too, because all the other hopefuls were way better than me. I'm glad that Wheatstone didn't go right after me, because he also auditioned on reed flute, and his songs were way, way better than mine. I guess the bards were in a good mood or something, though, because they passed everyone, including me. Coriakin really had me worried for a while too right before he told me. I was sure he was telling me that I'd failed and I'd better forget about this whole bard thing. It was really intimidating with about twenty bards all standing there in a half circle. They were scarier than a couple dozen cave mahas.
Earlier in the zodiac the dancing lessons went really well. Lundar's partner dances were
a big hit, especially Bentil... the dance of the sapling. We practiced for a long time
to get the timing down just right. At first we had to dance without music, since we didn't
have a bard, but Fleming managed to talk Frozen Shade into coming and playing for us. She
has some of the prettiest songs, and it was a real pleasure to dance to them.
I have been absolutely terrible about writing in my journal lately. Part of that is that I haven't gotten out much. Part of that is that I'm really busy... The big spring festival is coming and I volenteered to do dancing lessons. I've been pretty busy with choreography and practice. Lots of steps to learn, but most of them are short and simple. I have until dawn on the 66th day of Spring (OOC 11:30am PST March 1) to get everything down pat, and get myself to the Bards field, because that's when and where the lessons will be.
Some dances.
Speaking of Bards, the next auditions were finally annouced! I signed up as soon as I saw and got the last spot. Now I just need to finish fixing two of my songs which probably aren't good enough.
Some recent sketches:
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| Anfyr takes a nap, and her clanmates have can't push her off the beach... Are we going to be late for the meeting? | Having passed the 5th circle fighters test, Xepel reveals what he plans to do once he passes the 6th circle fighters test. |
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I had an excellent hunt with some clanmates and a couple of others. I started out in South Forest (again!) with Nephilim. We were making money at a decent clip... despite splitting the coins I make money so much faster when I have a decent healer along since I don't waste time binding my wounds. Not to mention its safer with a healer and a lot more fun with someone as nice as Nephilim.
We made an excurions into the brambles to look for some ore in the Trool mines. We didn't find any, but we did go farily far into one mine, and I saw my first mildew (ick!) and some funny red trools. Upon exiting back north to the mirror snell we met up with Anfyr and a healer named Sean. We also met a fair number of artak cougars, and despite many lessons from Xepel, I found I still do not brick them perfectly. I wasn't down for long though.
I had a fun time hunting with iTornade. I met him just after I'd run out of the highlands.
There had been a maha there, and I knew I was no match for it, especially as I was already
hurting. I told iTornade about the maha, though, knowing he could kill it easily, and
he went a killed it with a little bit of help from myself.
He then invited me to hunt with him in the Northwest Forest. The last time I'd ventured in,
I'd spent most of my time flat on my back, even with help from a powerful fighter. That was
over two years ago though, and I do know that its a very lucrative area to hunt.
This time I didn't fall, though I came close a number of times. The beasts aren't
particularly harder than what you find in South Forest, its just that there are more of them,
especially the more difficult kinds, not to mention the dangers of toxins from the herpatids,
which I thankfully managed to avoid most of the time.
