Current Training: Evus.

Circle test this week: All-but-Sas™. Next time I try a new strategy that Urgelt recommended!

Donations: Helping Cassia Allin build fortifications (60%).

Exploration: Not much.

Merdi, day 18 of Spring, 551.

Today as I stepped from the Library, Viola asked me to join "a small, underpowered group" hunting in the Sasquatch Valley.

It turned out that nearly every awake exile was hunting there! They had already passed by some dozen Stinging Beetles in the entry cave because they could not manage to kill even one, so my Darkus and defensive skills were appreciated..

It was a fun hunt, since several of the Exiles were pretty easy prey for various beasts, so we were living on the edge quite a bit. A large spawn of Cave Cobras nearly wiped us out more than once, and we were saved mainly because of tara's ability to run them away from our fallens while we regrouped and healed up. The exit cave was particularly nasty, but after a number of distraction runs by Tara, the fighters were able to kill 6 Cave Cobras and then a number of Beetles to allow the group to exit safely.

I also participated in a raucous hunt at the Kizmia's Island cove in the wee hours of Gradi, day 9 of Spring. We ran into a large group of Thunder Lyfelidae on the Glacier. Everyone seemed to think that, although red, one last swing would drop that last pesky Lyfelidae. We were all wrong. Only Darth Wader survived and dragged us all away to safety to be raised again.

Otherwise, I have been spending a lot of time alone in the Passes, collecting ore for Urgelt's Champion effort and killing as many Greymyr as possible before having to retreat to heal. I'm getting pretty good at both. It's a lot of fun to dance the Greymyr alone, fighting them one at a time with the rocks flying about and a phalanx of stone men advancing.

Wow, 105 Troilus trainings seems like so few these days though!

My attempt at the Fighter Sixth Circle test using Urgelt's tag-and-run strategy ended as all the other tests have lately. I killed both Midnight Wendecka and the Orga Wrath but lost a lot of health, and started on the Young Sasquacth at low yellow. I got him yellow before falling. Looking back over older visionstones of my past tests, I think I might have passed this way some time ago, but I just haven't practiced this style enough. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I pass.

Gradi, day 85 of Winter, 551.

Tonight, I joined Urgelt and a medium sized group (5 fighters, 4 healers) for a hunt on Kizmia's Island.

We had a pretty easy time of it overall, and I recorded over 60 vanquishes and 50 kills.

There were a couple of trouble spots though.

On one snell, we ran into two Cold Lyfelidae at once. We managed to take the first one down quickly, but ended up retreating in the face of the second. After some chaining and regrouping (including a quick offshore pick-me-up for Urgelt, by Manx), we finished the second one off too.

We also ran into a several groups of Thunder Lyfelidae, and some gangs of Orgaberry Lyfelidae, and a few stray Flower Lyfelidae.

I fell a couple of times when I got caught between two stronger Lyfelidae, which is a bad idea for someone with my pretty poor defensive skills.

The funny part of the hunt was that Urgelt kept getting poisoned by venomous snakes, and he had to go fall to limit the effects of the poison. Three or four times. It seems they have a taste for Dwarf!

While we were on the island, some enterprising folks were busy moving the teleporter to the safe hut on the South beach of Kizmia's Island. Other folks in town didn't like that idea much so they moved it away again, and then the first group returned it to Kizmia's Island a second time. Most of those folks got stuck when they were wiped out by the accumulated Lyfelidae at the beach.

We turned our hunt around to help then out and get them up again.

The net effect was that our group was able to leave the island without dropping down our individual trees or traversing the North end of the island.

And I had already dumped out my root beer to have an empty barrel too!

How long it the teleporter will last there is anyone's guess, but when I left many folks were taking advantage of it to frolic with the Lyfelidae. Hopefully they all practice safe hunting and wear their necklaces.

In other hunting, I have been spending a lot more time in the Passes and Greymyr Village lately, hunting Greymyrs and prospecting for ore.

When I ran across a lone Greymyr in the Southern Wendecka Breeding Grounds, I had to laugh. Not that long ago I would have turned tail and run, but now it seemed like a freebie. I killed him readily after finishing all those distracting pebble-throwing Elder Wendeckas.

I haven't found anything interesting in my ore samples yet, but I'll keep looking around for a rich vein.

I also found that the Marsh Hermit's path to the South Forest was behaving itself for me again. Hooray for small victories!

Merdi, day 59 of Winter, 551.

The Fire Drake that was terrorizing Puddleby is no more. Almost every exile awake in the Lands helped to finally vanquish this great beast today. It took over 40 minutes of continuous fighting to finally bring it down, even with skilled Bloodbladers and Fell Bladers. Thank goodness for the valiant healers who nearly melted their Caduceuii and Moonstones keeping Tuzar Bloodblade up while he was averting attacks from the fighters, and keeping the many fighters mostly on their feet. Great job!

Unfortunately, the fight truly was an unruly mob, and the tight working space between the Wedding Chapel and Courthouse did not help any. After a long period of frustration and some warning pulls, I ended up cursing a younger fighter who refused to move aside for the rest of us after swinging. How silly is it to insist of swinging slowly from the bottom of your balance when several fighters with a full bar of balance are waiting to step into your spot, and when the only thing that won the day for us was the continued rate of attacks and luck hits? It's not like this Drake was dying so fast that everyone did not have a fair chance to tag, is it? She didn't take it well, assuming I was disrespecting her fighting skills instead of showing her how she looked to the others around her, and she ran off in a huff. Hopefully she learns, after reflecting on it. We have all done our share of silly/rude/dangerous stuff before someone pointed out a better way.

Sigh.

In my wanderings since the latest Chaos Storm, I noticed a couple of things not to my liking.

First, I was traversing the Marsh on my way to the East Forest and Passes, when I found that I could not use the Marsh Hermit's own path to the forest. In fact, I could not even see it, even after several attempts. I went around and through the path the other way, so it is there, but had no luck going from the Marsh to the forest. Oh blessed pathfinding ...

Next, I thought I was lucky when I found some Bloodwyrms in the Rocky Cavern, but was surprised to see I dispatched the first one. Bummer, I thought, bound to happen eventually. Then I dispatched the next one too. Doh! Bloodeyrms were about the only beast on Puddleby Island I both regularly found and routinely killed solo. We'll see just how bad off I am when I find some more Bloodwyrms to fight.

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