Merdi, day 35 of Winter, 554

29 exiles ventured out from the Meadow today, including Zorton as teleporting Mystic and 4 Bloodbladers. The group size was a small problem, since Zorton and Rincewind both appeared but had only one teleport stone between them (so Rincewind retired to the Library). Of the 29, only 26 exiles would be able to move on to PC6.

During the run out to the Foothills caves, Elenis tried to keep a tight reign on the herd, but still folks slipped ahead on their own at critical moments: in Dred Passage going into the Foothills, through Foothills paths, and in Dredwood. He was not pleased, and stopped the whole group to lecture a bit on staying together and concentrating on what we're doing. It didn't seem to help once we arrived at the Pitch caves, as the group seemed much more mob-like than usual.

Once at the Pitch caves, the initial set-up was close to perfect. CJ ran many webbers to PC2, Larno ran some into the Southeast pit, and the pits were zued off quickly, leaving a scant 2 Olive Arachnoids in the main cavern. I killed one on my way back upstairs, but fell to the other and was dragged out by Natas. So, within minutes of arriving, the group moved into PC1 and began clearing PC2.

While clearing PC2 of Malachites with fighter runs, a spawn of 3 Pitch Arachnoids appeared in PC1. Two were brought down quickly by the Bloodbladers before they all fell, and the other Pitch was held at bay by the returning fighters and some healers until the Bloodbladers could be raised to finish it as well. Things seemed to be working properly, but we were glad to move on soon afterward into PC2 and away from other potentially deadly PC1 spawns.

In PC3, we once again used the deep lure technique, and the lurers had already started luring from PC4 when suddenly, 3 Crimson Arachnoids appeared behind us, from the Northwest near PC2 - despite an intact zu wall blocking the way from PC2! They were quickly dealt with, but their appearance was quite a surprise. Then came the call came to advance toward PC4. As we were all spread out running toward the end of PC3, we ran into a spawn of 2 Albino Arachnoids just past the Southeast pit. I immediately turned back when I saw a webber, and the call went out to return to the initial spot to fight these. But very few fighters returned to where I was standing with many of the healers, presumably because the scattered fighters chose to race in to fight 2 Albinos rather than regrouping first. I heard many yells from the South telling someone to zu in the Albinos. Instead of fighter help, the Albinos finally came North. One was killed by the 2 Bloodbladers who had returned, but the other felled nearly everyone.

Things looked very very grim. We were too disorganized, once again, and most of the group was fallen to rampaging Albino Arachnoids. And the living exiles were still at extreme risk, since that one Noid was killing them one by one. Thankfully, someone finally managed to zu in the Albino in the Northwest, and the very few remaining healers (Sai and Talin) slowly started raising fallens. Eventually enough fighters were raised to hold the Albino for the Bloodbladers to finish it, and the recovery of the many fallens scattered to the South was begun. So we survived, but personally, I feel it was undeserved luck more than anything else. The scattered exiles mostly choosing to continue to run in to face multiple webbers (what if it were 3 Albinos, and not "only" 2?) instead of retreating and regrouping to fight on our terms was ill-advised. Poor discipline is what kills us in PC3.

Once we all regained our feet, folks acted a bit more serious, and PC4 was controlled fairly quickly. We moved on into PC5 yet another time. Finally those two "extra" exiles needed to be dealt with, and after some discussion, Tonoto took his leave via Purgatory pendant. The others broke into share groups, and huddled in close to Zorton for the trip to PC6. Lorreen and Mjollnir tried to latch on as extra group members, but I don't think they were teleported.

In PC6, I appeared near the North passage, and waited until CJ ran past heading for the far Northwest corner as a luring runner. Nightbird and I then ran in to zu the North passage. I planted one wall right away, and as I moved deeper in to plant the next wall I caught up with Nightbird tangled with 2 Pitch Arachnoids. I managed to plant the second wall and distracted the Pitches enough that Nightbird ran on to zu off the South pit. While I was heading back to the Landing Zone, those 2 Pitches continued to follow me, and I ran into Natas who was luring yet more Arachnoids toward the West out of the Landing Zone. In getting out of his way by looping to the West, I fell in the North corridor. There I lay for the remainder of our stay.

I heard a lot of anguished yelling from the Landing Zone, and apparently, despite the luring away done by both CJ and later Natas, so many Arachnoids remained and so many webs flew in that control eluded us. Once the rod collapsed, all the remaining healers took damage while trying to raise fallens, until all the fallens were too fallen to raise. After a time, someone opened an Ethereal Portal to escape, but I don't know if it was used successfully. For most of us, it was a depart.

Since I was outside the Landing Zone during most of the action, as usual, I don't really know what to say about what went wrong or how to make it right. This seems to be the single hardest section of the caves, and our huge progress on the previous trip suggests that if we can survive the entry here, we will advance further. Since we now know which way to go - into PC9 instead of teleporting from PC8 - succeeding in PC6 is critical to our overall success.

It took us some 25 trips to go from finding PC5 (on trip 3) to actually advancing from PC5 into PC6 and beyond in a controlled way (trip 29). Lets act smart, so controlling PC6 and advancing again won't take another 25 trips!

Click here to go back the Foothill trip index.

Click here to go back to Azriel's Main scroll.