Soldi, day 44 of Summer, 553

Tonight just after Midnight, exiles set out from the meadow for the Pitch caves yet again. Several stragglers arrived even after we had passed through Hatred Hollow, and despite the rush due to Zorton having limited time, Elenis went back to collect them. By the time we reached the Dred Passage tunnel, we had lost an exile, as Drue'Dreemi wandered off a snell edge into the Orga Outback in a daze. With 30 other exiles and a time limit, we sadly crossed the Dred Passage and left poor Drue behind.

The set-up in PC1 was clean, and we were soon luring and killing in PC2. At one point, many fighters were in killing Olive and Malachite Noids in the entry of PC2 when a wave of Crimson Noids appeared, froze us in place with webs, and killed us one by one. Thankfully, enough fighters remained West to kill the 4 Crimson Noids. As usual, Natas killed off the last of the remaining Malahcite Noids to recover the fallen fighters.

It would not be the only recovery of the day, nor even the hardest.

As usual, PC3 was the most challenging. The initial run through PC3 was quite easy, and we stood waiting to attack PC4. The first lure back seemed normal, a Crimson, so fighters surged forward, only to find they were facing several Crimsons and at least 2 Albino Noids. We were hardly ready for that, and were mostly overrun. When things were almost stable again, several more Crimsons spawned in PC3 right in our midst, in the South passage of the cave. Again, many fell were they stood, but this time 2 groups survived. Califas, Axell and I set up an enclave to the West while others retreated to the East. The East group had enough power to start killing the Noids, so my little group simply survived. Califas and Axell rodded 2 Crimsons to keep them away from the other fighters, while I planted a Zu wall at the entry to PC4 to prevent anything from sneaking up on us from behind, and soon all the group was reunited and ready for action.

After that first super-lure, PC4 wasn't very active, and we quickly were able to pass through to PC5.

The teleport system seems well understood now. We huddled close in anticipation, and the resulting glow was inspiring. An amazing total of 26 healthy exiles were teleported by Zorton from PC5 to PC6. Well done! Hepta quickly collected the few extra exiles left in PC5 and teleported them all to PC6 as well.

From my perspective, the entry into PC6 seemed great. I saw almost no Noids as I headed out North following the runners to begin planting Zu walls. I managed to plant a retaining wall in the North tunnel, and close off the chokepoint to the Southern pit before falling, and Elenis planted another wall in the North passage, as well as a wall blocking the Southwest sector. Things seemed pretty good compared to the last trip here.

What I didn't see, but got to hear, was that the landing area was actually pretty full of Noids, and exiles were too disorganized to manage them efficiently. The healer rods maintained order for quite a long time, but the area was never really under control. Eventually, the Zu walls stared to die, and more and more Noids kept circling around the spiral heading for the central landing area. No one else had a prayer of getting past the pack in the North tunnel to try running and mapping to the Northwest. Although where I was fallen near the chockpoint to the South pit was totally Noid free (and Larno was around South and also reachable by cad, and in the clear) and one of us might have made it Northwest to try mapping if someone cadded us up (I was apparently MMS for Jade alone, who did try) the healers were really too busy to attempt this. Several exiles did manage to escape via an Ethereal portal, but many ended up departing.

So, it wasn't a productive ending, but we have now seen PC6 several times and should have an idea of how active it truly is on average. Even with 30 or more exiles, it's hard to burst into the center and control that area by dominating and killing everything. That's a tall order!

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