Storm 294.

Circle test this week: All-but-Sas™.

Donations: Helping Cassia Allin build fortifications.

Exploration: Mobile teleporters keep moving about.

Fordi, day 46 of Winter, 551.

To be different, I have been spending time some time hunting Greymyr. They are about the only creature found in any numbers that are reliably to be found and that I can hunt alone. Unfortunately, I dispatch a lot of them, and it is ridiculously chancey with all the random rocks being tossed around. I seem to be able to kill only two before having to run to town for a heal. Sigh.

Where's the Bloodwyrm Breeding Ground when you need it?

Today I went to Melabrion's Island to help a group kill a Culcan, and then stayed on to help with two Angry Mother Sasquatches. After that, most of the group left, but I stayed on with Larno, Panos and Dongle to make sure the passes were clear. They weren't.

We hunted for a surprisingly long time, since more and more Young Sasquatches rushed down from the rocks after us. Almost 25 of them in all. Plus assorted Valley Panthers and Valley Cougars. Larno did a commendable job as the target for most attacks while the fighters fought, but once a Valley Panther did manage to take him down. We ended up retreating to the beach several times when groups of Sasquatches attacked at once, but we finally whittled them down. I was a bit depressed to dispatch two of the Valley Cougars, but that's progress. I guess.

Sombdi, day 19 of Winter, 551.

After a vacation in the Orga Outback and Dredwood, the portal is back at work in Falinea's Garden, transporting happy exiles to the Dark Cloud. Painfully.

I took a ride up to gather some coins today, and noticed a new builder has set up shop in the Cold and Snowy region.

He wants to build a nice little cabin in the snow where we can warm our toes after a day's hunting.

I have to wonder if he has the permission of whatever beings created this "Cloud"? He wouldn't say.

It's also an odd spot for a safe hut, since the mirror area two snells away is fairly (but not completely) safe. Except for that painful teleporter, anyway.

Merdi, day 3 of Winter, 551.

A New Year has begun, without much fanfare. I was about on New Year's Day, and was amazed to see that there were only 6 or 7 other exiles about in the Lands!

Too much partying the night before, perhaps?

Someone (or rather, some large group of someones, since it was clearly a big endeavor) moved the teleporter so that one end is in Gaia's Garden in East town and the other end is in the Trainer Grotto in the Orga Outback, past Hatred Hollow. Talk about dedication!

I had to hop through to look around, and spoke a bit to the advanced Fighter trainers there. We exchanged pleasantries, but I didn't sign on with any of them because I am not ready to give up on old Evus quite yet. I definitely will train more with Rodnus, eventually.

My first time through, I decided to hunt the Outback alone, since I was alone. I stayed in just the one snell outside t e grotto, and found innumerable Shaman, several Zerks and Rages, and eventually two Furies. When I dispatched one of the Fures, I decided that it wasn't worth my time and teleported back to town.

Later, my fellow POS member Luther informed me that he had found two Orga Hatreds there, and I rushed to join a small group grappling with these fierce beasts.

J'jh served as a rod point to distract the Hatreds while the fighters whiffed away at them. I managed to hit both after a lot of swings. Since both Luther and Viola are well-trained in Fell Blade, however, it was only a matter of time before both Hatreds were history.

One Hatred was carrying an enormous chest of some 800 coins, and I was very pleased with my 100 coin share of it.

Now that's more like it!

Fordi, day 87 of Autumn, 550.

Last night's hunt was a very frustrating one. I spent more time staring up at the sky than hunting.

I started the evening by rowing over to Melabrion's Island to help rescue Viola, who had fallen there to the ever-present Giant Carnivorous Plankton. I promptly fell too, because I tried to outrun the GCP to the beach where I thought I could get a clear chance to chain Viola out, and got hung up by a rock near the shore. One moment of immobility and I was irretrievably surrounded and rapidly nibbled to death.

It took awhile for help to arrive, and the first would-be rescuer, Cyberbeing, also quickly joined us in the water. When we were finally rescued, we had accumulated a nice group and stayed on to hunt Valley Cougars and Young Sasquatches. Things went smoothly enough there.

Since by then it was near Midnight, we set out for the East Cove on Kizmia's Island.

In the cavern, we found a lot of Harvest Lyfelidae. No sooner had we cleared one part of the cave, then I found yet another group waiting around the next bend.

In all, we finished off over 30 of these beasts there.

After this crowd, the outside seemed fairly empty, and we moved on to the Glacier quickly enough. At the Southern end of the Glacier, however, we walked right into a clump of 4 or 5 Tae-su Lyfelidae. Some folks fell instantly and the rest of us were pretty wounded.

We retreated and chained the fallens back to the supposed safety of the grassy area we had just cleared. Unfortunately, a large group of Hunter Lyfelidae was waiting there for us. All of the remaining fighters fell in moments, and I lasted only a bit longer myself. Whatever pride I felt at my recent shepherding of a group of somewhat weaker exiles in the Valley was wiped out by this failure.

We fallens did make a passable wall, however, protecting our healers, Poor-X and Caelith. Poor-X did a simply outstanding job of surviving for a really long time without any help. He eventually raised me several times, but each time I could find nowhere to hide until I had enough strength to face the Hunter's long enough for others to be raised too. We managed to get a kudzu wall started, but things went awry when a Hunter stepped over a seedling and was trapped on our side of the wall. After numerous tries, we got lucky and a lowly rat trapped the Hunter against the growing kudzu, so Viola and I could get healed to full. Finally, Viola dashed out through the wall to distract the crowd, and I managed to grab all the too-fallens on my chain. I snatched up Viola on the way to the cave, since she didn't make it through the gauntlet.

After all that, Poor-X finally fell just in front of me in the cave, distracting some Cave Cobras. I couldn't stop to grab him then, as I rushed for the supposed safety of the water trailing angry snakes. Of course there were GCP there, but thankfully not so many that I could not slip through with my precious load of fallen exiles.

Everyone was healed in town, and we resolved to go rescue the valiant Poor-X, and to have our revenge on those Hunters and the Tae-su beyond.

Alas, it was not to be.

We easily defeated the Cave Cobras in the cavern and raised Poor-X, but when we started to stalk those Hunter Lyfelidae in earnest, the most unexpected thing happened. We stepped out of the cave and were instantly surrounded not by Hunter Lyfelidae, but by Valley Panthers! Doh! I counted well nearly two dozen around us, and again most of the party fell instantly. Including me.

The hunt turned, once again, into a desperate rescue. Many attempts by the few survivors (I think Dongle was the only fighter still standing) at dashing in and chaining out a fallen or two eventually got all the fallens recovered, but I spent yet more time staring up toward the cold stars. In the end, I was the lead dash-chainer (Dongle having broken at least one chain), and the last fallen I grabbed turned out to be far too rat-chewed even for Poor-X and Sai together to raise. Sadly, I returned to town with the rest of the party to see Malloc raised, knowing that we had won only ashes in this night's hunt.