Fordi, day 3 of Winter, 556

Today's trip was not one of our finer efforts. Things seemed fine until we started to set up in Pitch cave 1.

After luring many Noids East into Pitch cave 2, sealing off the two pits and clearing the remaining Noids, we started our usual lures from Pitch cave 2. Instead of the usuual one or two Noids following the lurers, a clump of about 8 Crimson Noids boiled out at us. There is no way we can handle that meany of these powerful beasts at once, and we were overrun where we stood. After the survivors beat a hasty retreat back up the ladder, new lurers ran many Noids back into Pitch cave 2 and the fallens were collected on chains and raised. And so we tried again from the beginning, and for a second time all the Noids rushed over at us at once and routed us. After recovering again, we finally managed to lure and kill these Crimsons in a more controlled fashion, and make some progress. However, during all this, we spent a considerable time in Pitch cave 1, and we started to get new Noids appearing behind us as well.

I was keeping track of the Kudzu walls at the two pits, and had to replant them both twice as they began to die back. That's a sign of spending far too long in the cave.

At one point, Michael announced he had learned a lesson and then disappeared. In a bit, I saw him again, and then an Olive Noid coming from the South. When I asked him to help kill it, he said something about a couple more coming. I was very confused, until I went to round up Olives and saw that the wall to the Southwest pit was open and more Olives were coming out, when I had just replanted it a minute before and knew it was fine. Apparently he had just finished Chapter 2 of Giayl's Guide, and decided to run down to the Library on his own while we were fighting lured Noids from PC2, to start studying Chapter 3. And then, since he saw only a couple Olives following him out of the pit, he left the wall open! I was livid! As a group we try to accomodate advanced pathfinders because we realize that this is the immediate goal of our efforts, and the key to many advances throughout the Lands. But I thought we had more discipline than to wander off alone in the Pitch caves, or cut zu walls ... sigh. At least it won't happen again. He'll be done with that book forever soon enough.

Finally, we did advance into PC2 and then on to PC3. The time was growing late, but we were moving forward. We spent a lot of time in PC3 as well. So much so that Noids appeared anew behind us as we lured out PC4. We set a healer rod and hoped for the best, but the amount of webs flying in at us was very high. If I had to guess, I'd say several Albino Noids were behind us. We pressed on clearing PC4, and this was finally just about under control when we were surprised by several Crimson Noids appearing right in our midst. Between the webs littering the floor already from the webbers behind us, and the Noids rampaging among us, we lost control. One by one fighters and healers were felled until, all too soon, no one remained. The dreaded PC3 curse had claimed us once again - we spent too long there and it stomped us out.

We never made it to PC5, so I never got to make my traditional group sketch there. Given our performance, maybe that's a good thing. All through the trip, the quality of the fighting was pitiful. There was no order in the ranks as fighters rushed in and got mired in webs. Folks with little chance to even tag Pitch noids - let alone contribute to actually killing one - were constantly blocking the Bloodbladers from getting hits in. Folks seemed to have their minds elsewhere, not paying attention. Sometimes we can survive that, but not today. The number of Noids in the caves was among the highest we had ever encountered here, and it was not a day that was going to reward sloppiness. Hopefully we will take this to heart and do much better next time.

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