Terrdi, day 52 of Winter, 553.

Today just after Midnight, 22 exiles sallied from the Meadow toward the Pitch caverns.

We had a slow start and a slow trip, mainly because several folks were straggling to show up or were napping as we took off into the Orga Camp. There was a late last arrival even at Hatred Hollow, so that the snell was basically cleared when the last exile entered it. There were foggy conditions for many in the Dred Passage, but we sailed right through. I got to open the Southwest pit, and despite being the first exile in and facing three Dredlocks, I actually survived. Barely. Finally, after a surprisingly quick start into the first Pitch cave, some exiles were caught napping and almost got left behind as we advanced into Cave 2. Distractions and interruptions always happen, but today we seemed cursed with them.

Today, I got to be one of the Pitch cave zuers, but we tried something a bit different. One zuer headed to block off the Southwest pit, while three of us headed to the Southeast pit. I zued off that chokepoint, but locked myself inside, and headed to the Southeast rocks. I actually made it and took a decent but quick look for paths in the rock wall there. I saw none, so there are certainly no "easy" paths present. If there are "hard" paths that take time staring at to notice, I didn't have time to notice them this trip.

For the non-pathfinders, a word on how quirky "hard" paths can be. A few weeks ago when I heard a rumour that there was a path inside Elendil's tree in the Meadow, it took me half an hour of slowly staring around all the walls of that tiny space to finally see the sparkles. That's an awfully hard path, in that no one with 130 lessons can open it (to my knowledge). Similarly, when I first saw the Rainbow Falls on Gungla Island (an specifically that I didn't take any damage standing under the cascade), it seemed a perfect path location - but I didn't see one there. Others were luckier and did see the path behind the falls right away, but it then took me 6 days of going there and staring for some time to finally get to see the sparkles for myself. If you are walking fast, it's really really easy to pass right by these hard paths.

The initial run in and zuing worked, and we were clearing the North of the cave almost immediately. I napped and reappeared in the North, as did the others, and we set to consolidating control of Cave 1. We took some time clearing it and then clearing Cave 2 with alternating lures and fighter rushes, though - some time mainly because of healing, since we were seemed relatively low on horus, and many or most healers would gather to raise each fallen. Those couple extra healers we have had before do make a big difference, as does Sai with her mega-Horus training.

We did move on to Cave 2, and steadily advanced toward Cave 4. Along the way, I scanned the Southern walls of Caves 2 and 3 (I did the North walls 2 trips ago), and again saw no paths.

Once again we seemed safely ensconced in Cave 3 ready to lure out Cave 4. We had a wall set to prevent backspawns attacking us from the East side of Cave 3, and were fighting well back from entry to Cave 4 to give Bloodbladers room to maneuver. It worked well for a time, until a multple lure (2 Pitch, 1 Crimson) overran the two Bloodbladers (who both got unlucky, so neither Pitch was killed), and remaining fighters simply could not finish the Pitches fast enough. Most exiles were rapidly caught in webs trying to retreat and regroup. Eventually all survivors were hunted down, and we came home the unpleasant way.

Still, a great trip. Two advances through Cave 3 (and a bit more) in the last 3 attempts.

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