Current Training: Regia-in-a-rush with Angilsa ... until Evus got mad ... and then back to Regia.

Circle test this week: Very badly, sigh.

Donations: Helping Cassia Allin build fortifications.

Exploration: A quick run through Hatred Hollow to the Trainer Grotto, but I could not see the HH exit path.

Terrdi, day 56 of Autumn, 548.

Today after my usual round of offshore hunting with Mujin-kun, we then joined Urgelt in the Rocky Cavern to kill this Sun Wyrm.

Afterward, Urgelt organized a "quick" Kizmia's Island hunt, concentrating on hunting mainly on the North side of the island.

The hunt was scheduled to start just before sundown, but I was occupied with other things and the rest of the group headed in without me for the quick run to the tar pit and then on to the trees.

I arrived a bit late and had to run straight to my tree, after crashing my boat on the south shore. It was quite a run! I found the two logs I needed along the way, and actually beat the rest of the party to the whirlpool.

After killing a few Wailing Spirits in the tunnels to make things easier for the rest of the party, I took the time to stare at the rocks Northwest of the whirlpool to see if I could pick my way through to the Scarmis side. No luck.

Later, I also managed to spend a bit of time looking at these rocks from the other side.

It seems that this path is suddenly much more useful than it has been, for times when the Lyfelidae town is too heavily guarded for groups to pass through easily. I will keep trying to use these paths every time I pass through here.

Our main hunting was in the Glacier and Cabin Creek Ranch areas. I was very amused to see that a large feral had managed to find his way into the Lyfe town sheep pen. Good eating tonight!

We found quite a number of strong Lyfelidae throughout the night, and even Urgelt and Mujin-kun managed to fall a time or two. We made two passes from the whirlpool through the glacier to the boatmaker's cave, and back again, and even did some quick hunting in the Scarmis pit. We finally left just before dawn broke.

Unfortunately, one in our party, Slayer, fell hard near dawn and was infected. He did not have the protection of a Catsbane necklace, and his luck finally ran out.

I won the pinch of catsbane we found on the glacier, so I gave it to him for his cure or necklace.

Fordi, day 51 of Autumn, 548.

Since I had recently lost the ability to teach balanced fighting to others by training with Angilsa, I decided to make an effort to regain my teacher status. I knew that Evus thinks I am weakest in Histia, so I stopped training with Angilsa but switched to Histia instead. After but a single lesson with Histia and a chat with Kretski (who informed Evus of my renewed efforts), I found that I could train exiles once again. Needless to say, I am very very pleased!

I have since switched my training back to Regia. After another lesson with her, I found that she had raised her estimate of my skills and called me "nearly her equal". I was very proud.

Today, I hunted with Mujin-kun and Urgelt in the Kizmia's Island east cove glacier (Tae-su and Starbuck Lyfelidae), and then with Mujin-kun and White Wolf on Melabrion's Island (Young Sasquatches and Valley Cougars).

White Wolf passed the 6th Circle test shortly afterward. Congrats!

Sombdi, day 38 of Autumn, 548.

Today I went to the Coliseum for the first time since they began to stock only those beasts that exiles had brought in for the games. I was very disappointed to see a long list of little one-hit slaughter creatures, and a lack of most things actually on any of the fighter (or healer) Circle tests. I did try fighting a Young Sasquatch, which predictably and rapidly pounded me to mush. I need some barrier to dodge behind while I recover my balance, and just don't have the defense skills to go toe-to-toe with those. I also fought some Valley Cougars, and survived fighting two at once but did very poorly with three at once. There just isn't enough room for that many of them to run away and circle about in the small Coliseum ring, so they stayed close by - hitting me - instead. It was fun, but less fun than it has been in the past.

I also got the chance to check with her today, and Mujin-kun was unable to train me in Evus, despite my losing the ability to teach this skill myself. Very odd indeed. In any case, I stopped training with Angilsa after eight lessons - before this loss of Evus skills gets out of hand. I decided that I'm not in so much of a rush to add Regia that I will erode my main skillset.

Gradi, day 34 of Autumn, 548.

Well, what I had feared has happened. When I checked today whether I could train another fighter (Mujin-kun), I found that I was unable to do so. Somehow, I just didn't feel qualified any more.

I have now trained with Angilsa seven times, and in doing so have nibbled away at Evus' trainings - apparently just enough to prevent me from training others in Evus' style of fighting. I know that I am really only a lesson or two too low in Histia for his taste, and I will make these up pretty soon.

Sigh. I was hoping I would get away with flirting with Angilsa the swift, but apparently old Evus was watching me too closely. Who knew he'd be so jealous of that fast and stylish Fen?

At least Shammie hasn't noticed me obsessing about Angilsa.

Silly me, I realize now that I forgot to ask Mujin-kun if she was now able to train me, after her recent amusing (to me) failure to be qualified to train me!

Otherwise, I have spent my time either hunting the usual spots (Kizmia's Island East and West coves for Lyfelidae, Melabrion's Island for Sasquatches) with Mujin-kun and company, or gathering furry coins.

Today's hunt in the passes of Melabrion's Island was particularly 'colorful' after a pair of Valley Cougars and a Young Sasquatch ganged up on us unexpectedly, and left the party in varying degrees of unhealthiness.

We found a large number of Young Sasquatches there today, as well as many Valley Cougars, and left feeling very successful in the hunt.

I also took a nostalgic route to coin hunting instead of my usual North Forest/Bear Caves route, doing the Savanna and all the Wendecka Passes - in remembrance of old times hunting there daily with Coeur and Spad. Ahhh, the good old days!

I even found an elusive lump of ore in the South Pass! It turned out to be only a stone, of course, but still it felt good to spot one.

Terrdi, day 7 of Autumn, 548.

I joined a Kizmia's Island hunt last evening with a small group including Urgelt, Elenis Reyav and several others. Along the way we noted the presence of this new large bird, the Saber Owl.

Things went fine all through the night, and as dawn broke, we readied ourselves to pass underground to the North side of the island. We cleared both sides of the passes, and then split into West side and East side groups to seek our respective trees. My East side group all made it through fine, and we gathered at the whirlpool. The West side group found disaster in the form of several Valley Panthers, that they apparently decided to fight just before their goal. In a short time, all in that party were fallen.

We in the East side group made our cautiously and quickly through the Ice Cave and Cabin Creek Ranch areas, and set out West once across the river to try to re-enter the South side of the Island from the brushy path along the West edge of the mountain ridge. Four full pathfinders (myself, Elenis, SaWrap, and Typ) failed to open this path leading South.

Undaunted, we slipped around the Scarmis pits to the east side of the island (the direct way past the sheep pens being blocked by a recent rockslide), and we were able to ease through the rocks on the Eastern shore to the Southern part of the island once again. Unfortunately, Valley panthers were waiting, and one by one the fighters all fell. With some swift chaining and swifter dodging, Typ dragged us to the passes and made a fort of our dead bodies. With the aide of two potions, all were raised again, and we made our way to the river hut.

All our comrades had fallen North and East of the hut across the river, so Elenis made a quick dash around and across the river to chain them.

Now, most folks had sent their spirits away while waiting, and when they returned, they found themselves deep underground in Groar's cave instead of where they had left their fallen bodies!

Haze had stayed awake, and Elenis did manage to get him to the hut, but he was chewed to within a sliver of death. In looking for the other fallens, Elenis finally fell, and I rushed out to chain him back. With Elenis and Haze on my chain, the remaining four of us ran headlong to the south end of the island to the safe hut. Jade graciously made a housecall and got Elenis up, but Haze remained very very fallen.

We decided to chance rescuing our comrades from the deep caverns a quick way, and we sat in the hut and sent our spirits away for awhile. When we returned, our bodies were still in the hut, however. We tried again, outside the hut in a kudzu fort along the rock walls, and when we reappeared this time, we had indeed been transported magically to Groar's cave, and alive. We each ran to the small hut there for safety, and gathered in our fallen friends, but none of them were raisable.

Now the trick was to get out alive. With the route memorized and hands free, we ran headlong to the western well and down into the narrow caverns themselves. Alas, the narrow caverns proved our undoing, as they were so filled with Lyfelidae that all were almost immediately surrounded and felled. Most of us departed in disgust, although some linger there in hopes of rescue. I wish them well. My own depart at least did not set me back below zero in my training.

Gradi, day 6 of Autumn, 548.

Today I joined a group helping to rescue a fallen Sagramor in Snaggywood, and once he was raised we pressed on to try our luck at Hatred Hollow. I always grab a chance to refresh my ability to pass through Wisher's Gate, and my frequent returns here were rewarded by an easy entry on this trip as well.

We stayed to hunt the larger Orga in Hatred Hollow, and before too long realized that we had nearly cleared the place. With Hunter, Larno and Talin absorbing the lightning bolts, we pressed right on through and cleared the entire area.

I was unsurprised to find that I was unable to open or even see the path leading from the far side of Hatred Hollow to the Trainer Grotto, since I so infrequently get the chance to try it.

But someone in our group (I think it was Larno) did open it right away.

We ran on to the Trainer Grotto, and killed many Furies and Wraths there as well.

Since we had not set out to hunt the Outback, we soon decided to return to town, as some of the exiles present had more pressing needs there. Still, it is always fun to make it through the firestorm in Hatred Hollow.

While at the Trainer Grotto, I took a moment to consider unusual training options, and have taken a Nyssa-like chance by starting to train with Angilsa. She can very rapidly train fighters in her Regia-like skill, but in doing so she reduces one's skill at Evus. This will cut in half the time it will take me to qualify to teach Swengus, at some price in all other skills. I'll risk it for the 20 or so trainings it should take.

Since I only just qualified for my Ledger from Evus, I am bit concerned that he may not approve of this action, but he is a doddy old man and doesn't notice things very well. If he reaches to reclaim my Ledger, I think I can take him.

I shall avoid that tattletale Kretski for the time being, though, I think.

One other real oddity concerning training. During a lull in the fighting we were healing in Boneswood, and Mujin-kun was playing with judging exiles in the various skills (4!) that she teaches.

I think she was shocked to discover that she was not qualified to train me in Evus any longer!

On the other hand, I was able to offer her such training, although she politely demurred it.

This was very confusing, since she had qualified for her Evus ledger long before me. Unless the training hierarchy depends not on when you got your ledger, but on which exile has the most trainings in it? Do I even have more Evus training than Mujin-kun?

I'll try this with her again after a few Angilsa trainings and see what happens.

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