Current Training: Balthus, with Mujin-kun.

Circle test this week: Darn that Wrath!

Donations: Helping Cassia Allin build fortifications.

Exploration: Too busy rescuing lately to look much.

Merdi, day 18 of Summer, 549.

Today, I was asked to help rescue the East Cove at Kizmia's Island. When I arrived, there were several healers standing in the cave, and several fighters all fallen in the slope above.

When I popped up onto the field to try to chain some fallens, I was instantly surrounded and felled. I had never seen so many Lyfelidae at once! There were several Orgaberrys and at least one Cold in the crowd.

By the time I managed to make this sketch, the Lyfelidae had dispersed again, but there were several dozens of them. The folks already fallen there assured it me that it was even worse earlier in the morning.

Well, gradually more exiles appeared and mostly fell. Some folks got lucky and were able to land in a spot with a clear exit and could chain fallens into the relative safety of the cave. Some fallens were simply shoved into the cave by pushy Lyfelidae (this happened to me once too).

I did manage to do a couple of successful chain runs, but I spent far more time on my back, I'm afraid.

The Detha-specialists (Natas, Sabbit) ruled the day and gradually were able to create a defensive perimeter near the cave. Eventually, the numbers were thinned out and everyone was raised.

Thank Gaia it was after sunrise, or rescue would have been well nigh impossible.

Soldi, day 14 of Summer, 549.

Today when I was coin hunting in the North Forests, I ran into a Forest Drake in the Muddy section. Since I could find no suitable closely-spaced trees to trap it against and I kept getting flamed while trying to clear the snell of other creatures, I lured it Southward into the more heavily wooded section of the forest.

To my surprise, as I headed South I was attacked by a Giant Feral as well. An embarrassment of riches!

I made short work of the Feral, but had to call in healer backup (Conaria) to safely finish off the Drake. There is just no way to avoid getting burned when attacking a Drake.

Soon afterward, Olmy announced that he had gotten himself trapped in the deep Arachnoid cavern, so I rushed over to help out.

It seems he was hunting alone, using a kudzu wall to control the Noids, and had gone South to lure another one but was trapped in a crowd on the way back up.

When I arrived, he had accumulated a very large assortment of Noids around him at a bend in the choke passage, but the area above the Kudzu wall was conveniently free of Noids. So I was immediately able to set to work reducing their numbers one at a time, using the wall to allow only one to swing at me.

With the healing help of Conaria and Kromolux and the moral support of the Apprentices Abe and Comus, we relatively quickly cut a swath through to Olmy and set him free. With some cadding along the way, once the healers could get close enough, he didn't even get to fall. Now that is an efficient rescue!

Afterward, I also helped several exiles fallen near the Mirror in the South Forest. The Forest was quite active, and it was one of those cascading catastrophes: exile 2 comes to help the fallen exile 1, and then falls; then exile 3 comes to look for the first two fallens, and falls. By the time I arrived, there were six fallens scattered over three snells. With a bit of axe-work and chaining by Olmy and myself, the area was quickly pacified, and the fallens then collected and rapidly raised.

Terrdi, day 10 of Summer, 549.

Well, Coeur de Leon finally obtained his DFU Founder's Affiliation Medal from Sheba, and has wasted no time in officially signing up Puddleby's most notorious exiles-in-falling.

Although I am not much of a faller, he asked me to join, so I signed on too.

I hope I don't have to meet some fall quota to stay an active member in good standing (or falling, as the case may be)!

Today I reached a milestone with Balthus, 500 trainings, pretty much when expected. I'm glad some things still are still predictable.

Somehow, I greatly underestimated the amount of Balthus in Swengus training. I will continue to train with Balthus (actually, with Mujin-kun) until Swengus notices the extra effort and decides I have had the equivalent of 900 lessons with him. It can't be far off, can it?

Hopefully, the extra balance I train over the coming weeks will help my defense abilities.

Soldi, day 83 of Spring, 549.

Today, I hunted with Mujin-kun and Farhope in the East Cove of Kizmia's Island. We started at dusk, and found a surprising 15 Hunter Lyfelidae in the cave. I am happy to say that I helped vanquish every one of them. Later, we moved on to Melabrion's Island and found a number of Young Sasquatch and Valley Panthers. It was a good hunt.

Mujin told us a sad tale of a small daytime Kizmia's Island hunt yesterday that went very very bad, leading to her and almost everyone else departing, including the rescue team. Yikes!

On the other hand, she claims to have recently broken the 3000-training mark. Amazing!

I heard today from Conaria that I had just missed Master Horus roaming around town looking for Coeur de Leon, to give him the Affiliation Medal for his founding of the Designated Fallen Union, DFU ("Friends don't let friends fall; use a designated fallen."). His deputy, Sheba, accepted it in his stead, and hopefully Coeur will manage to get out of that library to actually accept it. I spoke to Coeur in the library, and he was very pleased and excited that his efforts to help exiles had been so recognized. Way to go, Coeur!

If anyone has a sketch or visionstone of this event, please send it to me by courier (Azriel_CL@lycos.com).

Terrdi, day 79 of Spring, 549.

The usual round of fur collecting and quick hunts lately.

I had a fun time in the Rocky Cavern with Mujin-kun and company yesterday. She is easily able to trap and hold a Sunwyrm, but hitting it consistently enough to kill it is another matter. I certainly manage to tag them, but even using my Fell Blade that takes some time. Maybe I'll get around to training in that blade one of these days!

We swung away at this one for what seemed like ages before we finally whittled it down to a vanquish. It took a lot of smiles from Master Luckus to do it though!

Well, I finally reached 450 lessons with Regia, and still with no sign of Swengus budging in his estimate of my skills. Clearly I shall need more Balthus for that. I stopped to train one lesson with Darkus though, to make up for the one lesson I lost while training with Angilsa - that dropped me to below 200 Darkus. Now that I am back on track with Darkus, I have switched to Balthus training. I expect to reach 500 lessons with him fairly quickly, and I'll just have to see when Swengus notices anything different.

As usual, I was beaten up pretty badly in the Sixth Circle test. I killed both Midnight Wendeckas, but the Orga Wrath pounded me repeatedly until I fell. I don't really expect much progress until I add either more Atkus, more Histia or more defensive skills, since I don't hit consistently enough and can't take all the pounding. Maybe my current Balthus binge will help ...

Curiously, I noticed that the doorman Cerberal seems to have forgotten the Zodiac, and now gives his next test waiting times in days. How frustratingly straightforward!

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