Current Training: Detha.

Donations: Helping Undrus dig to the East.

Exploration: Some old buildings get a new look, as does Kudzu.

Sombdi, day 10 of Spring, 552.

Now that the Feast of Tsrrin is at an end, I've resumed my usual hunting habits.

I scour the Northwest Forest and New Bear Caves for furs, then rush through the Marsh to the Southern Brambles for furs and ore, then the Savannah for more furs and ore, and through the Marsh Hermit's own path to the East Forest and on to the South Pass for a run through the various wells, passes and the Greymyr Village for furs and ore. Furs and ore, rinse, repeat. Along the way in my usual run, if I'm lucky, I kill a Greymyr or two, but most often I just dispatch them.

In the Marsh recently, I saw Patti Sprin examining the flora, searching for unusual brewing or cooking ingredients. I wonder what she might find?

Since I am in the South Forest/Brambles, Marsh and Savanna pretty frequently, I pay attention to that Dark Cloud, waiting for a time when it might venture toward the Mirror again. So far, I can only conclude that it likes the Savanna and Southern Dunes very much, because it always seems to be there. Prevailing winds? Lately, when I saw it hovering over the Savanna Mushroom, I noted that I could see the Cloud from all the Savanna and from the Old Cemetary, but not from the Marsh itself nor from the Southern edge of the South Forest or South Pass. I have to assume that there is some inaccessible region of the island to the North and East of the Savanna where one might see the Cloud nearby. I have had no luck in finding a way to get to such an area, however. I shall keep looking.

In some hunting lately, I have been lucky enough to find many Big Red Critters. They aren't what they used to be ...

In the Rocky Cavern a couple of days ago, I found five Bloodwyrms ... and an ore. It's hard to ask for more than that. Except I dispatched two of them.

Since I found that I vanquish Orga Zealots, I have been spending more time in the Orga Camp and Snaggywood as well. Yesterday, I found two Orga Furies just West of the Orga Camp. It looks impressive, but I'm sad to say that I dispatch most of these (once) fearsome brutes.

I also ended up falling alone in the Snaggywood again when I got trapped in a crowd of junk and toasted by a gaggle of Shamans. I hate that! But Mujin-kun and Puffy-s were kind enough to come pretty quickly and get me up again.

Today, I was lucky enough to join a Portal-based hunt in the Dredwood. Someone had placed one end of the Portal in Camp Dred, so this small group (plus Yor, off luring) went through to try our luck out there.

We encountered reasonable resistance, and managed to clear all the area except the Orga Stronghold itself. With a bit of luring, and the strong rodding ability of Darnok, we swept through snell after snell.

In honor of our means of transport to this far-off place, I jokingly named our group The PortalBorne. Death from Above. We Rule the Skies.

It was a fun and challenging hunt, since we ran into quite a number of Dredlocks and massed Warlocks. It was also pretty good experience for us all, since we found a large number of Orga Zealots. Everyone seemed surprised to vanquish Zealots. Obviously not regular readers of this scroll, tsk tsk. Still, it is odd to dispatch a somewhat dangerous Orga Hemlock but vanquish a fairly docile Orga Zealot. Who am I to complain about the sometimes perverse oddity of the World?

The hunt finally ended when we started to attack the area with the Waterfall, and Yor was fallen hard to PND almost immediately on his first luring run. When we rushed in to chain him away, we saw that there were five Orga Dredlocks standing right close by waiting to fry us. Thankfully, we presented them with so many targets all at once that no one of us took the brunt of their wrath, and we were able to grab Yor and run.

Overall, I was surprised at how little experience I gained here (only 40-some vanquishes and not so many kills in a very target-rich environment). And more than half of the vanquishes were Zealots. In other times I've hunted here, I have chalked up the low experience to being part of a mob and only fighting a fraction of what was there as we rushed through. But today, hitting nearly everything, I noted that there is an awful lot of sound and fury but little actual experience (other than the Zealots) for someone of my strength. Still, it was challenging and a welcome break from my more common Kizmia's Island hunts.

Sombdi, day 73 of Winter, 552.

The Feast of Tsrrin is in full swing, and everyone seems to be enjoying dressing up in costume.

I heard a rumour that a very hard path was spotted in Elendil Faril's tree in the Meadow, so I headed out that way to have a look for it. Sure enough, after a bit of close examination, I spotted the place. Of course, I couldn't open it even after I stared at it quite awhile (along with Sa'Wrap), and what I heard was that no one else who has tried has passed through either, even those having studied all 3 chapters in Giayl's Guide. Peculiar.

I am sure this path is one of the ways Elendil seems to get about so quickly. I asked him politely if he knew advanced pathfinding and could teach me some, but he denied everything. How like a Mystic!

While out in Orga Country anyway, I decided to take a look in the Orga Camp and Snaggywood for Orgaberries. Since I had just recently found a Lilaberry, I was feeling lucky. I did see a Tangleberry in my wanderings, but no Orgaberries today.

What I did find was that when I attacked a pesky Orga Zealot, I vanquished it.

Well, that's odd, I thought. The last several hundred Orga Zealots I fought, I only slaughtered. So I went looking for more. I vanquished every single one! Now that's very peculiar, I thought.

So I did the obvious thing and recruited Sa'Wrap so we could comb the Snaggywood for more Zealots to vanquish. I'm sure I gained more solo vanquishes today than in the last few years combined!

We managed to find quite a few Orga Zealots around Snaggywood. But we got a bit too ambitious and a bit too greedy, and tried to take Bones' snell too. We just had to look in case there was one Zealot hiding somewhere there, even though we saw many lightning-throwing Warlocks but no chain fireballs thrown by Zealots.

After a bit of luring, we pretty well had things almost in hand, but we were pretty low on health from the accumulated lightning bolts and the incessant fire thrown by Orga Shamans. Then Sa'Wrap slipped off the edge and fell, and when I went to look for him, I fell as well. But, this is the Feast of Tsrrin, so we both came back to life as undead and started wandering around the Snaggywood uncontrollably.

Really really bad timing, since most of town was already a bit busy, engaged in a fight with the undead in town itself.

Finally a rescue group came to get me. I'm sad to say they didn't have a lot of trouble felling me from the undead state. In my defense, so to say, I point out that I was uncontrollably overswung, and a great deal of my defense is in the form of Balthus. Yet there is a reason I am training with Detha at the moment ...

Back in town later, I also helped for a time try to keep the undead at bay. It was a constant challenge, because some exiles thrill to be undead. Future Darshaks of Puddleby, I say, and smack them down hard.

We settled on corraling the undead in the town zoo when too many started to accumulate. They didn't much like that, and often dropped off my chain dragging them there, but they can't help following living bait into the pen, and once in can be easily held there.

I finally tired of the constant battle, and retired to the quiet of the Library to pen these notes. I'm sure the battle will rage on until the power of the undead declines and the Feast ends.

Fordi, day 64 of Winter, 552.

Leaving the Library after the Chaos Storm, I felt a distinct shiver down my spine.

Yes, it is fast approaching the quadrennial Feast of Tsrrin. That's always a fun time. Just a few more days now.

After the Storm cleared, I helped a group rescue Yor in the Ethereal Plane, and used the Town Portal on Portal Island (I guess that is it's name now) for the first time. I got to help kill a couple Serac Wyrms, and noted that I hit them pretty easily. I chained the very wounded Yor to Purgatory through a Portal Stone, but he slipped off my chain when we got there, and for once I fell out of Purgatory so fast I didn't have time to grab him again, so some healers had to go fetch him out to be raised in town. I tried to join a group heading to the Foothills, but the weather was so bad I got left behind. That was probably a good thing, since I has several other bouts of intensely bad weather. I finally ended up rocked and PND in the passes during one episode. All for one lump of ore, but it had good metal so I am back up to 6 chains. Thankfully, Farhope came and dragged me out of the South Passes beyond the Well to be healed.

In town square, I noticed a few folks sitting around watching Kudzu grow. Now normally, this is a not a very exciting pastime, but on closer inspection it seems that Kudzu has a very fresh look to it now. It is much easier to tell the age and health of the plant by its shape and foliage color. Very nice.

Around town I noticed a few other things. Several buildings in town appear to have had a nice cleaning and look shiny and new again. The Treasury in the Savanna Maha cave also looks a bit nicer.

I was headed down to the Savanna and the Treasury to help chain Kalian, who fell while visiting that chap Nacerus. There's bloody business afoot in there, that's sure.

On my the way through the Marsh, I scooped up a nice fresh Lilaberry cluster. Whoo!

I have noticed a wider variety of Detached Spirits wandering about the Lands for awhile now.

This gal in particular reminded me very much of Tara, and I found myself desperately declining her insistent offer of fresh muffins ...

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