Current Training: Darkus, just a bit; Atkus, just a bit.

Circle test this week: That Banshee still seems to have higher defense than it did 2 storms ago. If I were hitting a touch better, my new defense would probably get me by. Since I know I am weak in damage, I am training just a bit with Darkus this week (aiming for "hard to find more to teach") and then a little bit more with Atkus.

Donations: Und'rus. I'm still looking for a builder working on a more interesting project.

Exploration: I finally made it into the Ash Island Scarmis pen and tunnels, as part of a rescue. I was running far too fast for a careful look though.

Well, the Chivalry Hall has opened. I poked my head in to see if I could chat with that cute Fen D'rraldrri, but I couldn't find her around. There were several locked doors, and some most courteous docents who were oh so polite in telling me to shove off that I found them a bit impolite.

Chivalry is not my cup of tea anyway.

I got a chance to put my chaining skills to use recently when several exiles fell in the orga camp.

Actually, truth be told, I was searching the orga camp alone looking for berries and to test the snaggywood path after the storm, when I fell to lightning from a lone warlock while surrounded by rank-and-file orga. Several kind folks came to save me and promptly fell themselves, and I felt obliged to help them in return.

Know Your Noths.

I managed to get into a Dal'Noth hunt run by the ever-present hunt organizer Veer, with a nice mix of experienced folks and newer exiles, and we had a great hunt. My own relatively rare forays to this strange island really showed when I would rush ahead to scout, find some nasty, and have to think a minute what name to yell out!

So, a mini-bestiary of Noths:

The plain purple ones are either Dal'Noths or Kal'Noths, but as I am slaughtering most of these now, I am beginning to see why so many fighters refer to them as Dal'Rats.

The lightning-throwing ones I know well from many a painful sting: the green Vel'Noth and the pale blue Hel'Noth. We saw quite a few of these.

These are the Sar'Noth, Gar'Noth and Xar'Noth, respectively. I always confuse these.

At one point in Dal town, I popped my nose into a hut and ran smack into this friendly chap, the rare and tough Tuz'Noth. We beat a hasty retreat to the east gate. With a bit of rodding by Veer and Axell and Falinus, we dispatched him painlessly enough.

The painful part of hunting here now seems to be the Dews. When I frequented Dal'Noth Isle some time ago, Pallidews were tough but not really dangerous. Now they are quite hard to hit and pack a real wallop. A couple times a large swarm of these forced our quick strategic withdrawal. No Hardews or Wickedews on this trip.

Even worse are the pebble-throwing Landews. We met several of these and had to carefully set up a healer rod to contain their fury so we fighters could whiff them to death. With no major Atkus fighters along, that was the way it seemed anyway.

An expedition into the Ash Island Scarmis Pen and the tunnels beneath it went awry today, and I took the chance to head in with the second rescue squad to get a look around there finally.

After passing through the mystical illusion near the Dark Chamber (why are these so close???), I saw the mighty wall enclosing the Scarmis pen and a few of the beasts beyond it.

Together with a large group I slipped down a hole to the tunnels below. There were just a few scattered Scarmis and fallens in the outer tunnels, that we quickly sliced up or gathered up, respectively.

The deeper tunnels were another story. Exiles plunged in with bags of Kudzu and quickly erected walls of impassable plants, and once the Scarmis were distracted, the chaining began. Quite a few exiles from the original group were damaged well beyond easy repair, and were dragged off to town. The healable ones were raised, and we proceeded to thin out the Scarmis colony.

I felt a surge of pride as the Ancients took note and rewarded our Bravery and Compassion for saving our fellow exiles.

I for one was very pleased to see the exit finally, and to walk through it to the surface under my own power!

This will certainly be a place I will come back to again, along with a powerful enough group. The hunting was really very invigorating and productive.

My dear Shamhat has called to my attention her observation that I seem to have an aversion to showing a sketch of myself fallen. I told her that it's merely because I spend so little of my time in the Lands on the ground.

The other day I did spend a good deal of time on the ground, and had a chance to think some. I was rummaging for coins on Fire Island and decided to try to find something to kill rather than slaughter. So I headed for the Lava Cave to hunt Lava Walkers. I usually do fine hunting these alone, with a bit of weaving and dodging. On this day, I was immediately surrounded by fire rats and other assorted critters, and was pretty rapidly reduced to ashes by the Lava Walkers, who obviously were smart enough to stay well out of my axe range. And then the Fire Rats started to feast.

I wasn't too worried, because I had managed to send out a general distress sunstone call with my exact location.

This is where the thinking comes in.

Thought 1: As amazing as it seems, I conclude that apparently no one actually pays any attention to sunstone messages. I know this because gradually friends started asking where I had fallen and where I might be, both to me directly (for the toggle game) and to the general listening audience for hints. NO ONE KNEW WHERE I WAS. This, despite the fact that I had told, well, everyone. I really don't know what to think about this. I know that I pay attention, as circumstances permit, to what others are thinking and especially to falling cries for help. I have to imagine that rescue healers and locating mystics pay even closer attention, this being their chosen job and all. As I lay there getting chewed on, I recalled previous times where this same exact thing had happened to me. Eventually, the toggle dance paid off, helped by the not-so-subtle hint that a Fire Rat contributed to my demise, and I was found. But it makes me wonder whether my last gasp cry for help was worth the trouble at all. Is this a general problem?

Thought 2: After being Rat food for quite awhile, and Fire Rat food at that, you can well imagine the state of my earthly remains. The healers on the scene pronounced me the dreaded "perilously near death". What was left of me was dragged to town, where I was expecting to lay for some time waiting for the Korileets and super-healers to have their fun. I was really shocked when a large handful of, to me, pretty regular healers managed to raise me from that state, with no dedicated Horus-ites present at all. It made me think that we exiles, as a population, have indeed come a long way together. My hat is off to you regular-size healers, who have bit by bit become a formidable force. Good on ya!

Oh, and one other thing: I was so busy thinking about these things that I forgot to make a sketch of my sorry fallen self. ;-)

Well, today Perkusi and Coeur and I were hunting Bloodwyrms at the Rocky Cavern when we felt that Sagramor had fallen to an Orga Fury, and so we rushed over to check the Orga Camp.

We found Sag fallen just west of the Orga Camp, and a Fury there. Perkusi got him up and we kilt the Fury, and then decided to take a look at the Orga Camp itself. Well, well, we found another Fury there too, and kilt that. We had to take a peek at the Snaggywood too, naturally, and found six Furies in Maenygh's snell alone!

With a bit of recruiting and regrouping, we kilt all those and decided to make a Snaggywood hunt of it. The rest of the Wood was not as active, but we had a successful hunt nonetheless. We saw a number of Furies and many Zerks, and curiously, most of these were carrying chests today. We also saw a few Zealots and a surprising number of Warlocks outside of Bones snell, and the expected several there as well. We also kilt two Rages, and one of those yielded an orga eye, which I had not seen since pretty soon after the War. All of us had one, so when I tried to pick it up, it slipped from my fingers.

We ended up in Bones' snell at Wisher's Gate.

With three full pathfinders along (myself, Coeur and Sagramor), only Sagramor could actually see the path, but he could not use it.

We tried the pushing and sleeping tricks, but to no avail.

Anyway, with only Perkusi along as healer, we weren't going far into Hatred Hollow even if we could get in!

But all the Orga activity out there makes me wonder if they are up to something?

Click here for my report on the previous storm.

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