Journal
You can translate this page into other languages, but it may be more amusing than useful.
My study schedule has been very demanding of late and the few times I have gotten out of the library I've not had time to write in my journal about it afterwards. Its a shame, since there have been some interesting things going on (though I missed some of them).
I'm beginning to grow into the Lily Pond. I feel I'm no longer an obstacle when I go there now. I had some good hunts there over the summer. I also met up with a Jade Noid in east field, which I managed to hit.
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I also was out briefly when there were some very odd chaos storm effects occuring. It seems to have involved some sort of mass hallucination, or maybe I just had a very bad reaction to lizard venom. Who knows?
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Mind you, being in the library is safer than hunting. You know its not your day when you're getting sympathy from the townsfolk.
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As soon as I got out of the library today my clan mate Yazza asked me over sunstone if
I wanted to come and hunt the cloud. I knew she was interested in learning all she can
about the cloud. On the other hand I also knew that the only way off the cloud was by
jumping off the edge since both the teleporter were on KI, one of them in a pool of lava.
A group of bullies decided that it would be amusing to put one end of it in the lava
pool, no doubt because they'd get a kick out of making some unsupecting exile fall and
have to depart when they went through not knowing the portal had been moved.
Fortunatly
most exiles are kind and caring people, so while I hate to enter a situation that I knew
would mean I'd need to be rescued and chained back to town, I decided to go on the hunt
anyway.
The first step was for everyone going except Yazza to fall. Yazza is the only one of us who can go throught the mirror at will, but she can chain others through if they are fallen.
The second step in the hunt was the obligitory safetly talk. This was not to be a trip
to the lava pool.
Snowlion had recently fallen on the cloud, so our first step was to locate her. She ended
up joining us, and we had the second part of the safety talk. Yazza was our only healer,
and her specialty is spirit recovery (she has a training ledger) not in horus, so it was
very important that no one fall too hard. You can not be chained off the edge of the cloud
or be pushed off, so if anyone fell too hard for Yazza to heal they'd either have to depart
or we'd have to somehow get another healer to come up to the cloud.
We hunted the grassy areas of the cloud for a bit. Yazza and I went with the prevailing
fashion and donned our cloaks. We noticed that the cloud and sky mahas all seemed to have
a pretty bad case of mange. They did go for the weaker members of the party, though they
seemed to be smart enough to take into account the current health of various people. They
seemed to me to go for Yosaku instead of me when he was fairly wounded.
It didn't take long for the others to get bored with the mahas and want to hunt the snowy
area. I had some grave misgivings about this, given that we only had one healer. I know
how fallen a polar bear can make me. I felt sure that we would be pushing our luck, and
sadly I was right. On one of our early trips in Yazza fell trying to run things in the cave.
She immediatly departed and returned to us through the mirror. We went around to the back
entrance to the cave, but that did not work well either. Andarius ended up falling to a
polar bear and was hurt badly enough that Yazza could not raise him.
We decided to leave. I knew I'd have to factor in the time it would take to get found
from wherever we fell off the cloud, chained back to town, and gather enough horus healers
to raise us into my estimate of how long it was going to take me to get back to the library,
so I thought it best to go. I have to admit I am somewhat risk averse and was not really
enjoying the hunt. Yosaku did try to chain Andarius off the edge of the cloud, but as
we'd been told, this did not work. I tried pushing him off, and I also tried standing at the
edge and pulling him, but that did not work either. I think in the end he stayed up there in
the hope that a rescue party would come.
Skydiving was not as bad as I'd imagined it. I could tell from looking over the edge that
we'd land somewhere in East Forest and I notified Laiy of what was going on and where we'd
be landing. We were picked up pretty quicky by Laiy and Kani. Phroon also came by, and
gave us a diagnosis before we headed for town center on Kani's chain. Either Phroon has a
lot of Horus training that I don't know about or the fall was not as bad as I was told it
could be. I only have the equivalent of just over fifty Histia lessons.
Thanks to a collection of talented healers everyone who went skydiving off the cloud was
soon raised. I think once Yazza jumped she may have tried to organize a rescue for
Andarius, seeing as how there was now a collection of talented healers in town, some of
whom could no doubt either pendant off the cloud or survive the jump. I'm not sure though
since I had to go study. I don't think I'll be visiting the cloud very often if there
isn't a safe portal back. Even though I made it out OK this time, it ended up being a net
loss in coins for me, and I could have gotten the equivalent in training more easily
elsewhere.
For the first time in a season I managed to get out of the library on clan meeting day. I
had some time before hand to get in a little coin hunting. I ended up running through
South Forest with Evdex. We ran into a Orga Rage. We were fleeing when Evdex suddenly
fainted. While I'm glad that I'm not the only one that this happens to, this was not a
good time. The rage had followed us, and while I tried to distract it from the unconcious
Evdex we both ended up fallen. A rescue part arrived quickly, but by then Evdex had
disappeared into the underbrush. I hope he got help when he woke up.
The rescue party soon turned into a rage killing party. I discovered that I do not brick
rages quite yet, even when I don't swing. Considering I had trouble hitting it from
behind its going to be quite some time before I bother with that third circle test.
Once the rage was dead I went back to my pre-meeting coin hunt. Viola actually invited me to come to the valley, but I had to turn it down since the meeting was immanent. Still, it was a big thrill to get that kind of invitation! I'll have to study hard with Evus so that I can get to the point where I can actually be of some help there, or at least not hold things up too badly.
On the way to the meeting I ran into another rage, just outside the entrace to the campfire
area where E'las Loth'mon Ferindril meets. I wonder if it was hoping to ambush Nip. I'm
hoping the orga aren't that bright, and in any even Nip wasn't at the meeting. We had a
light turnout and mostly just discussed making a Dun'ilsar challenge.
For the clan hunt we ended up going to Noids. I was really missing our clan mystics when
it came time to hitting the striped noids, but you can't have everything. We did have
Vequalir, which made the noids trip very profitable. As usual I couldn't stay for the whole
hunt, but I was pretty happy that we'd managed to clear noids by the time I had to leave.
Veer invited me to join him at the undine hut today. He had a bunch of younger exiles there.
It was a fairly short stay, and after some changes in personel we went to Ash island. Veer
was showing another Zo healer, Anu, around. Since I never turn donw the chance to hunt
darshak if I can I was happy to come along.
Veer was very careful to point out the correct path to take so as not to end up in the
Darshak Horde. I wish I'd had that lesson a few years ago before I mistakenly stumbled into
the horde. It was a good trip, though most of the darshak we killed were just low-level scum.
We also hunted the area around the dark temple. I am getting very close to being able to
brick Faithless now. They mostly whiff me now.
After the Ash Island trip Veer and Anu had to study. I ended up running into Pazuzu and we
went off to hunt the savannah with Kiera and Tima. As always, the savannah was a lot of fun.
The big cats no longer seem as amazingly tough as they once were, though they're still very
good practice for me.
When Pazuza had to go, Kiera, Tima and I went hunting in the bear caves and the surrounding
areas. Kiera got lucky in the cave with all the huge slugs and found a yellow stone. I've
heard they aren't much use now that the darshak who made the rocks into explosives isn't
around anymore. As I understand it he hasn't been seen since before I arrived in Puddleby.
Still, some collecters do value the rocks, perhaps in the hopes that they may one day be
used again, though hopefully to better purpose than the first explosive was.
People seem to be enjoying the dueling gloves and blads that arrived in Puddleby last season.
I saw Sabbit and Aries using them in town today. It seemed to be mostly a test of Aries'
self-heal ability since he didn't bother swinging. I've yet to see a formal duel with these
weapons which is probably a good thing. I think the good natured testing of one another's
abilities is to be prefered.
I got myself into trouble at midpass a little later in the day. I was hunting there as a
change from south forest. It had been a while since I'd hunted alone in the passes, and I
was much less cautios than I should have been. I was fighting the last wendecka at the well
when two night wendies appeared out of no where. I got trapped because wendies have more
health than I can deal with by swinging out. I really need to switch to training with Evus
soon. Fortunatly aid was quick in coming.
I managed to team up with Jive for some very nice hunting today. We hunted in Noids for a
while with Mouser, then headed for the cloud once Mouser had to go.
The cloud was fun, as always. We saw a couple of the new types of cats that I've been
hearing about, including the cloud maha. It didn't seem to be any tougher than a regular
maha, but it did go after Nemesis, the thoom healer who was helping us, in a way that an
ordinary maha probably wouldn't have. We ran into some problem in the polar bear cave, but
just as things were looking black, Ramandu showed up and gave us a hand. I was pretty
badly hurt, but just as we were contemplating a walk to town Sausage came by. Thoom healers
have a nice habit of turning up when they're needed most, I wish there were more of them
around.
I got in some great hunting today with Yasaku, Pazuzu and Shadowsky. We hunted the Savannah
and the Southern dunes. We managed to take out a couple of Large Sand Wurms before someone
needed a chain ride back to town, and surprisingly enough it wasn't me! It seems that
Large Sand Wurms if I am lucky I can still be standing after a Large Sand Wurm bite, though
only barely. I have the equivalent of about 50 lessons from Hisita, just about all of it
thanks to my training with evus, so I'd say I'd need a fair bit more evus before I change
from my current tactics of tag and flee when dealing with these beasts.
After most of my savannah-hunting friends had to go study I took Greyfox hunting on Kitty
Beach. Willow was kind enough to join us for some much needed healing. She also had some good
fighting tips.
It turns out that Greyfox wants to be a mystic. I spoke to him about it for a bit, and I'm worried that he's making a mistake. He seems to have heard the standard "its a hard path, are you really sure speech" several times, and he's spent some time talking to current mystics, but it sounded like he wasn't that clear on what was involved. While I was asking him questions about his choice Aravir stepped out of the library, so I invited him to join us. By the time I had to go a little later, I was only more convinced that Greyfox is making a mistake. He was much more interested in hunting the cats in order to further his training than is talking to Aravir about his experiences. It is certainly my impression that Appretince mystics have to resign themselves to learning slowly and do not learn most of their lessons through direct fighting. I think a person who is very concerned with hunting and learning quickly will be unhappy as a mystic. It is his choice to make, I just hope he doesn't regret it.
I've been trying challenges a lot lately. I mananged to finish the feral challenge today with
plenty of time to spare. I'm still having trouble finding enough Island Panthers for that one.
South Forest is such a popular hunting ground its just hard to come up with the right number
in the given amount of time, and often I get distracted by something like the need to help
rescue someone from the vermine tree. I'm sure I'll get it sooner or later.
After the challenge Connie invited me to hunt the Lily Pond with her. Axia and Dagiris were
also there, so we had a great group. I note that Large Sand Wurms still fell me in one bite.
My health (or rather lack thereof) is the current focus of my training. Right now I'm working
on with Troilus, as all those vermine tree rescues show that being nibbled to death is a
problem no matter how much defense training you have. Next it'll be more training with Evus
which will among other things increase the amount of damage I can take.
With the Large Sand Wurms gone we headed for the Tree Giant Breeding Ground. We cut a number
of Tree Giants down to size, includint two willow giants. I also had the opportunity to notice
that vixens are hard to hit.
While at TGBG Connie asked me how my testing was going. I was a little surprised. The truth is I have only ever taken one fighter test, the test for second circle, which I passed on the first try. I hadn't bothered to take the test until I knew I could pass and I was almost ready for some of the second circle trainers. Specifically I wanted lessons with Regia and with Xepel. I haven't bothered to take the third circle test because I know I just don't have the accuracy to land blows on the rage. Given what I know of Connie's I find it a little odd that she was asking, though she was probably just making conversation or asking after my training in general. I'm just not in a rush to pass the third circle test. A white belt would be nice, but that's about all I'd get for passing the test. The special weapons might be interesting, but I'm really put off by the fact that the training is so easy to forget. I'll take the test when I have a decent chance of passing, but not before.
I was invited to hunt in Noids today by Cowboy. The hunt turned out to be an almost all
dwarf hunt, with me as the loan sylvan. It was loads of fun though, even though there
was no beer involved. I still have a great deal of trouble hitting the striped arachnoids,
but I'm doing fine with all the other types. It does take be a few swings to get the blue
ones, but its rare that I can't tag them at least once before I swing out. The grey and
purple noids are certainly less of a challenge than they once were. I actually feel like I'm
providing meaningful help in killing those these days instead of mostly just trying to land
a blow for the learning experience. I suppose thats progress.
In other news I've finished my first piece for gitor. I've been getting composing tutoring from Coriakin. He's been amazingly helpful and generous with his time. Better still, he says that its OK to use the gitor piece when I audition for full bard, even though he helped me fix the broken bit. I'm trying to write a harp piece next so that I can have a piece for each of my instruments when I audition. If I get a decent harp piece done by spring I'll have six pieces to audion with, which is the maximum allowed, though I don't really want to play "Echos of the Past" in the audition because I think it sounds tedious after a while, and I don't really know how to fix that.
