Journal
I got my harp from Hendrux! I now have a reed flute, a gitor and a starbuck harp. I'm
really glad that Hendrux can not longer turn people into bards just by making enough
instruments for them. I want to become a bard the real way, by auditioning. Obviously
it'll take longer in my case, but that way know that my songs are good enough to pass a
full bard audition with. Doing it the right way means a lot to me, and if Hendrux could
still approve people then I'd have faced a tough decision about whether to take the antlers
or not. Now I have my harp and I can audition properly when the time comes.
There is a minor down side to my incredible luck with Hendrux: pack space. I like having
a decent amount of free pack space in case of chain breakages, etc. I took a tough decision
and decided that I'd have to get rid of my coveted stuffed large vermine. It was a tough
decision since that particular trophy means a lot to me, but really, given the number of
vermine I slaughter every hunt it was time to let it go.
After rearrainging my pack I came across a new exile in town in the traditional manner of
meeting new exiles (he was fallen outside the west rat towers). Greyfox had only been in
Puddleby for a couple of days, so I showed him a few sights, most notably the myrm hive
and Kitty Beach. I hope he will forgive me for all the times he fell, and for my rather
bossy tactical instructions. We met up with a nice Zo named Thag on the beach and hunted
there quite sucessfully. Greyfox was impressed with the coins he earned. That was actually
the point of my taking him there, since I remember how it was saving up for my sunstone,
though to tell the truth it was considerably less than I could make running through south
forest on my own. It was more fun though.
The clan had a short meeting today and went hunting on Melebrion's island and in the
waters of Kismia's island. Frucesca joined us for the hunt because we were strangely
short of healers. Our only clan healer was Yazza who joined us once we were already
on Melebrion's island.
The Melebrion's island part of the hunt went well, but we ran into trouble in the waters
of Kismia's Island. We killed one Baltoise (which, alas, I did not manage to hit even
with a decent accuracy boost from Pluto), but then the other two that were in the waters
retreated into a cave. When aquatic reptiles start showing signs of strategic thinking
it is not a good sign for the hunt. There were several attempts to go in aftern them
which resulted in various people falling, some of whom we didn't get out. Then when most
of the strong members of the hunt were inside attempting a rescue the rest of us were
attacked by giant carniverous plankton. We all fell. Yazza departed and organized a
rescue, which was quite successful, but at that point it was time for me to head to the
library, so I don't know if the rest of the hunt was more successful. One thing is certain,
though: Yazza is one of the most selfless people I know.
I had an excellent hunt with some of my clan mates today! Nephilim, Afton and I went to the
cloud to hunt. Afton had been hunting there before meeting up with us and knew the place
well. He showed us around. As he promissed, the place was a great place to go coin hunting.
Its also an excellent place for me to train.
Afton showed us around to all the sights. He was very careful to point out the edges so that
we wouldn't fall off. This was not to be a skydiving expedition. We also saw the famous
rock formation in the shape of a J. Afton has full training from the Marsh Hermit and took
us through a number of paths, though he said that you can get around the cloud without
pathfinding.
As is often the case I was very impressed with my clan mates abilities. Afton was bricking
the polar bears, though with two as once they sometimes hit him. I kept Nephilim's cad busy
while I was running around like a madwoman trying to tag everything, but I don't think he
ever even broke a sweat. His range is very good.
We ran into Mouser shortly before leaving the cloud. I can see that the cold and snowy
section of the cloud is very popular with the strong fighters. It easy to see why too,
the polar bear and snow feral furs are quite valuable. Even the snow vermine have nice
fur, though as far as I can tell they aren't noticably harder to hunt than regular
vermine. I'm wondering if they'll clean out the rest of the hunting grounds in the cloud
as well. There's an excellent supply of maha there. I was thinking that it would be a
challenging place to hunt with a group of people who were about at my level of training.
Fall is here and it looks like most of the island panthers are growing nice thick coats. It seems that the average quality of their pelts has gone up, which is good since I need the money.
Emer introduced me to a newly arrived exile named Raissa. I acted as fighte escort for her for a bit while she toured north forest on a mystical quest. Afterwards I managed to convince her and Graygradi to come hunt in the passes with me. It wasn't too hard a sell since she needed money for a sunstone. She managed to get one on they way home as Elendil was in the meadow.
The coliseum was open, and I decided to go. Unfortunatly I had a mishap on the way over. A
moment's inattention allowed the current to sweep me into the Kismia's Island waters, where
I was immediately surrounded and felled by giant carniverous plankton. Luckily Emer guessed
my location almost immediatly and Pazuza and Omega came and saved me. It was bit embarrasing,
but luckily not as bad a mishap as it could have been.
When I finally got to the coliseum I got to see a few impressive fights, including my clanmate
Shalyn. I fought a bolok cougar because mahas turned out to be unavailable. I wanted to see
if I could take on one in close quarters. My normal figting style included having lots of
running room when fighting the larger cats. I did much beter than I expected. Of course,
when I meet boloks in south forest there are other critters around, and I often meet three
in quick succession.
I also finally managed to be around at the same time as Aravir. I ran to town as soon as
he left the library. You see, he'd found antlers and sent me a letter offering them to me!
Nearly every bard and questor wants a harp, and I am no exception. We met up in town and
ran off to see if Hendrux would take the antlers. Fortunately Hendrux saw the wisdom in
accepting the antlers, and has promised to have my harp ready for me next zodiac. Now I just
need to be able to make the next set of auditions. I've had the required four pieces for
flute ready since before the last set (which I couldn't come to) and I'm working hard on
writing some more, especially for my gitor. Coriakin has been exchanging messages with me;
he's been a big help. Which reminds me, I'd better get to work.
It started off as a perfectly ordinary day. I went hunting in the bear caves with some friends
and had a great time. It had been a while since I've hunted bears and they were noticably
easier to deal with than the last time. The weaker bears just don't present a challange
anymore, though I'm still a long way from soloing some of the larger more aggressive bears.
It might be worthwile for me to try my luck in the old bear caves alone sometime and see how
I fare. If I recall correctly it doesn't tend to have the larger bears. It might make a
nice change from south forest when I'm in need of money.
After bears I hunted the passes for a bit with Sauron. We ended up going to the lake in rather short order though, the passes were nearly as dead as a tomb. I think that would-be champions are making such frequent visits in the hope of finding ore than I'm just going to have to give up on hunting wendies there.
We'd only made one circuit of the lake when news came over the sunstones of a darshak invasion in town. We immediatly decided to return to town so that we could help. Sauron surprised me by using a purgatory pendant to get back to town... I didn't know he had one. I teased him about leaving me to fend for myself, though of course he knew I was in little danger returning from the lake on my own. Indeed, it was only once I got back to town that I had trouble.
I decided to go through the north farms to get back to town to avoid getting trapped in the tight corner near the pathfinding point. This turned out to be an error. Boris was fallen in north farm and there was a Darshak Harrier there. Before I could react I had been hit and was severly wounded. I then made the further blunder of diving for safety... the nearest saftey being the woman's hut. I was hit in the back on the way in and felled.
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| For the record, this is not a good place to fall. |
Sasha to the rescue |
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| A Ruen's eye view of a Darshak invasion |
Deja vu |
Being fallen in the woman's hut is not an ideal place to be. Only women can get in, and most people don't think to ask about that as a location. On the plus side, with Kiril Drakesblood dead it appears that all remaining darshak are male, so I was safe from any kidnapping attempts or necromatic rituals. I was also lucky that Sauron is really sharp. After a brief exchange of toggle talk he knew exactly where I was and dispatched Sasha to go get me. As she was on her way, Boris was finally raised, and he also sunstoned my location. I believe that someone responded "Bad place to be fallen," just before Sasha arrived.
Sasha didn't have the horus training to raise me, which was no surprise. She did chain me out, but she ended up falling herself. Gunslinger picked us both up, and did some very fancy footwork. At one point I landed in the bakery and had visions of being fallen in a building for a long time again, but luckily Gunslinger didn't have to drop the chain and I ended up getting raised in the library.
Happyness is getting a brand new Gitor from Hendrux. Thanks again to Elrohir for the
beautiful tor shell. I hear that Coriakin is doing another composing contest. I'm
going to pass on that. Even if I had a chance of winning the prize is a steel pot, and
I don't really want one. I'm just going to try for the instruments that I really, really
wants. Getting the one I want most is going to take some doing...
I did some serious coin hunting in south forest today. It seems like I am barely keeping
ahead of library fees and other expenses. I imagine that's what its like for most exiles,
the more money you can make, the more expenses you find that you have. Shortly before the
clan meeting I met up with Myiasis at the mirror and we hunted together towards the meeting
place. He's a very impressive fighter.
We had a short meeting today, partly because of low attendance, and partly because a
myrm invasion began shortly after the meeting started. We ran off to fight the myrm, which
was loads of fun. There were tons of red myrm, nobles and royals around, and once we got
into the hive the narrow passages made it difficult for all the exiles present to engage
the myrm at the same time. (I noticed that I can now brick royals... its been quite some time
since I've been in to the hive, I don't think I've fought royal myrm since before I passed
second circle.) The combined strength of Puddleby soon cleared the queen's chamber, though I
was not there when that happened... ELF was dealing with a backspawn in the early chambers.
Most then went on to the Highland hive. Some of us got a little lost, but Fleming led us
out.
With the myrm dealt with E'las Loth'mon Ferindril had important business at the clan joiner's
hut. Zeitgeist was finally given his official clan symbol! Grudos Zeitgeist!
When I left the library today I heard Koppi announce that Jacob is trying to sell a log of fine wood for 9000c! Actually, he wants people to bid on it starting at that price, so probably he expects to get even more than that. All the bards I know are a little flabbergasted at such blatent greed. Actually I'm pretty surprised. Every single part I've gotten has been either a free gift or for a small token price. I'm glad that most exiles I know are like Ayella, Elrohir, MeRoka, Santa Chicken, and whomever it was who set up the one-ticket-only per exile auction where I won my first set of reeds.
I spent a lot of time hunting the unsuccessfully today. On the first trip over Omega showed
Nip and me Sir West's grave. I'd never seen it before. I've heard a great deal about Sir
West, though he died a long time ago.
The rest of the trip was fun, but a bit frustrating. North pass was nearly clear, Omega suggested going around the back way through GMV to midpass. I asked him if he had a chain, which he did. It was a good thing two because Nip got hit by a rock, and just as Omega was getting him back on his feet he got hit again. Poor Nip ended up riding Omega's chain back to town.
Omega needed to take a nap after the return to town. Nip and I went back to Midpass. There followed a serious of accidents. We fell. Aravir tried to rescue us and he fell. We got a chain ride back to a healer courtesy of a dwarf in a blue belt. Nip had to leave. I fell at the well. Aravir broke his chain trying to rescue me, then fell. Xenos fell trying to get us. Paramedic rescued Xenos, then got trapped and fell trying to get us. Finally Falken showed up and cleared out the wendies, and Thoomcare soon had us on our feet again.
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Aravir decided that passes were too dangerous. We went to the vermine tree to, but with not much better luck. Snow and Indigo rescued us, and then we had a good time hunting in SF with Snow, Vequalir and occasional others.
I guess the lessons to take away from this are a) Swengus is lying when he says there is not much more that he can teach me and b) I need more training from Troilus if I'm going to hunt in the vermine tree.
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I feel more than a little silly about whining so very recently about Hendrux. Elrohir gave me a Tor shell today, and Hendrux accepted it. I'm very excited, and very, very grateful to Elrohir. I'm looking really looking forward to getting my Gitor and I'll be busy experimenting with all the cool things I might be able to do with a chorded instrument in the meantime. The next time the bards hold auditions I really hope I can make it. I'm sure I'll have a better chance of passing the auditions if I can stretch myself to write more than just simple melodies.
I had some pretty neat adventure today. Aravir showed me hollow tree full of vermine
that he'd herard about in South Forest. I'd never seen it before... it looks like
the vermine must have just recently made enough holes so that you could wiggle into the
tunnel below.
At first we were alone, and things were a little bit touch and go.
The cave under the initial cavern is much larger than the initial chamber and filled
with stronger vermine
There were enough
vermine in the place to keep us quite busy, and there were a couple of trips back to
town, the second one after a dark vermine showed up and decided that Aravir looked tastier
than I did. I broke my chain on that trip. Luckily I had a spare that Sasha had given
me. I did manage to recover all the metal, and Aravir kindly gave me money for the repair...
Between a recently lengthy library stay and my purchase of a sungem I'm afraid my purse is
looking pretty empty.
After the second town trip we got sidetracked a bit. We met up with Ayella and investigaed
a few things. Lots of people were hearing drake
calls, though as far as I know no one actually saw a drake. Then there was a Jade Arachnoid
in east field. I learned the hard way that Jade Arachnoids are faster than exiles, and
hard to shake. We finally got back to the cave under the vermine tree. Aravir couldn't
see any paths, even with complete training from the Marsh Hermit. It did look suspciously
like you aught to be able to get through is a few places... perhaps some advanced pathfinders
will have better luck.
I'm sure that according to Coriakin's scrolls I have no right to play the blues, but I'm
feeling a trifle unlucky about being a bard questor just now. The next round of Bard
Auditions are coming up in a few days, and while I have my flute and four songs that I'm not
embarrased to play ready I'm just not going to be able to make it out of the library to
play them at the audition. There's always next time, but that's likely to be a whole year
away. I'm also yearning of another instrument. I love my reed flute... it was the one
instrument that I had to have. Now that I've got a number of songs written for it, though
I can see its limitations. I've been reading all sorts of stuff about composing on
Coriakin's and Xepels scrolls, and I'd really like to try doing something with chords. I
know I shouldn't complain... there are some questors that last i heard still didn't even
have one instrument. I was even feeling pretty virtuous because I turned down a bone
(bone flute is so close in sound to a reed flute... it seemed like it would just be
greedy to take it) and I didn't buy tickets for the steel pot in the auction house since
cassorole isn't really on my wish list. I guess Hendux isn't as well informed as Santa
Chicken on who's been naughty and nice. When the kind and generous dwarf MeRoka gave
me a beautiful Torjo shell he turned it down.
I know I shouldn't pout. One day soon some kind person will give me some antlers or a strand of Faliena's hair, or another shell. Next time I should remember to bring some large burly person along with me to see Hendrux... that might make him a bit more accomodating when he examines the part.
I had a great hunt today with Elrohir and many others. Elrohir is joining ELF, so we ended
up hunting together today to get to know one another better. The first part of the hunt was
a bit dull, that's because I was leading. We ran through South Forest and checked for ore
in the Brambles (and didn't find any). Then I said that he was in charge, and the hunt
improved dramatically.
Elrohir suggested that we recruit a healer and hunt in Noids. He didn't recruit just any healer either, he got Tonoto (of mapping legend) to join us. We ended up with a nice little hunting party in Noids. We cleared the cavern quickly with no mishaps. I must say that Noids is my favorite hunting ground for learning.
Once Noids was clear whe went to the slime caves which were empty, and to the inner passes. Vequalir came out of the library then and tried to join us there, but there was a little confusion when we were running for our lives from a greymir that we almost killed. Mostly Elrohir almost killed it, I didn't even nick it. My accuracy is still pretty bad, even after some special coaching from Fleming. I'm currently back to training with Evus though; I need the extra health and darkus especially. Its paying off too, I was hit by a rock in the passes, and was still (barely) on my feet afterwards.
We ended the hunt by clearing the Orga Camp. Actually, that's where my portion of it ended. The others were going on to the trainers grotto, but it was time for me to return to the library.
I've been very busy recently with my studies and I haven't been updating my journal as
often as I would like. Sadly I'll have to just leave some adventures unrecorded.
ELF continues to grow. We have several new members. One of them is Nip, the Fen'neko
who made such a bad first impression on me. It turns out that he was raised by sylvans,
and was just a tad too overeager to join. He's very eager to please and learns quickly.
I wish I could say as much of myself. On our first trip to the chamealopod forest I was
the one who ended up riding back to town on a chain.
In other big news the new island is complete. I ventured out to see it with Sauron after
a chaos storm struck. I like the colour scheme.
We didn't meet up with any beasts save for a few fire rats. I suppose the brothers didn't
transport any animals to the island, so I doubt we'll see much in the way of wildlife there
save for a few odd things that find the place hospitable.
