Storm 313.

Current Training: Rodnus; having finished Giayl's Guide to Hidden Ways, chapter 3.

Donations: Helping Undrus dig to the East (40-50% done).

Exploration: A quick trip to the Pitch Cave ends with a Storm.

Gradi, day 56 of Summer, 552.

I was lazing about town after some daytime hunting at Kizmia's Island East Cove and the passes of Melabrion's Island, and struck up a conversation with Lorikeet. She seemed a bit bored doing nothing in particular, and inquired about my training since I had been whistfully hoping to speak to Rodnus in a previous entry here.

In pretty short order, she had whistled up a group (my clanmate Spad; Sephroth, J'jh and Natas from OWE; Megami; Connie Crete; Orr; Jinx; and Smeester) and we were headed to the Orga Camp.

Hatred's Hollow didn't give us much trouble until we reached the far East side. There some Hemlocks and Warlocks started to burn folks despite our rod, and several of the younger fighters fell. I got pretty red there myself chasing down Warlocks! When it became clear that we could either maintain the rod or heal the fallens, but not both, I grabbed some fallens on my chain and we headed through to the Orga Outback without bothering to clear the pit Northwest of the exit. I was pleased to still be able to open this path, and hope that with 130 lessons in pathfinding I never forget it again!

We all healed up in the Trainer Grotto, and I spoke briefly with Rodnus. I am just about halfway through his lesson plan, and I look forward to being totally done. The extra Histia training will do me good, and the increased healability should make some healers a bit happier to see me.

Since we were in the Outback already, we took a quick poll and everyone wanted to stay a short while and hunt.

We decided to take the Grotto path and then head to the Orga Village before heading home.

I was pleased to see this difficult path at long last, and was more pleased to be able to open it myself.

It was a nice feeling to be whiffed far more often than not by the various Big Red Orga we ran into in the Outback. I also noticed during a visit to the Arachnoid Cavern for a rescue a few days ago that Green Arachnoids pretty well missed me every time. That extra training with Detha awhile back has made a really noticeable difference in my defensive skills. I guess Mujin-kun does know what she's talking about.

I was a bit disappointed to only kill the one Orga Frenzy we encountered though. I still can't hit those well, either. There's a reason I'm still aiming to reach 350 Atkus lessons ... "soon".

We sailed right through the Orga Outback, clearing the few snells we passed through. We even took the extra time to let the younger exiles tag the Orga Furies and Wraths. I'm not sure if any of them managed to hit the Frenzy though.

Once we had cleared the Orga Village as well, two Orga Dredlocks came out of hiding to try to ambush us, and I was pleased to vanquish those, at least. Not much experience out here for me anymore, I'm afraid.

I collected an Uli flower in the Orga Village garden, which J'jh won.

So, now I am back to training with Rodnus after only a brief interlude (2 lessons) with Evus. This is much faster than I expected, since I was assuming I would simply trail along with some group passing through Hatred Hollow to the Outback whenever I found one.

Thanks to Lorikeet for being bored in town and looking for a quick adventure! Hopefully, this was enough for her, at least for a little while.

I teased her that she instigated the trip merely to try to get her name in the paper. Just like those Pogue's, always seeking publicity!

Oh, and that 67c Starbuck Lyfelidae pelt that Connie Crete recoverred on my last Scarmis egg trip did indeed earn her second place in the ELF skinning contest. Way to go, Connie!

Soldi, day 47 of Summer, 552.

I had the pleasant task today of choosing a new trainer, since I have now learned all that is learnable from Giayl's Guide to Hidden Ways. I think I may well be the first 6th circle fighter to have accomplished this. I never expected to reach this point so soon, and am very glad I have managed to get out to the Foothills and into the Ruined Library as often as I have over the past several zodiacs. Even if nearly every trip ended with me taking an unpleasant trip to Purgatory. Thanks Zorton and Fundin and Yor!

Now I need to figure out how to understand The Tao of Trillbane, or to find whatever other intermediary book that would make it understandable ...

I toyed with training some with my Gossamer finally, just to see what is is like, but ended up back with Evus anyway for the time being. I won't be happy with my base skills until I reach 350 Atkus lessons, and I want to get that through Evus training. Of course, I'll drop that in an instant if I get the chance to talk to Rodnus again (being stalled at 24 lessons), but I don't know when that might happen.

I did use my Gossamer quite a bit today. It occured to me that Rangers, being experts at Gossamer, might like to spend their time practicing in a place like the Vermine Tree (much as Bloodbladers like to hang around Nacerus' undine cave). So I went there and made a very thorough search, after spending some time clearing it of the innumerable vermine. Nothing looked promising, but I will keep an eye on that area.

Gradi, day 35 of Summer, 552.

Yesterday, I joined a medium group led by Charlos on a Scarmis Egg expedition. Goodness knows those are always needed and not gathered so often since Urgelt stopped his more-or-less regular egg collecting hunts some time ago.

We entered Kizmia's Island from the South just after daybreak, and rapidly cleared the East side of the island. After clearing a bit on the West side too, the party split and headed straight for their trees. Once reunited on the North end of the island, we bee-lined to the Scarmis Hive.

The hive itself seemed fairly lightly defended, and the first cavern was quickly subdued. The second cavern was a bit better defended, so we erected a Kudzu wall to defend our flank. Once the second cavern was cleared, Charlos set right into luring Scarmis from the Queen's chamber.

On just his third or fourth try, he lured the Queen herself over to the waiting fighters, and before she could summon up even a single spit of acid, she was vanquished.

Since we came for valuable eggs, we were pleased to hear that Charlos had found two. One is apparently meant for Maquiladora, and the other was won by Benylin with a roll of the dice. After tidying up, we headed above ground again and then right for the boatmaker's hut.

Along the way, Connie Crete was trying to impress Yazza, our official ELF Skinning contest judge, with her expertise. She had a few quite nice skins, but nothing beating the current records.

Then, near the North end of the island, *I* managed to gather a really impressive 72c Valley Cougar skin. Unfortunately, the then-current record was 73c. I had to laugh. Is there a contest category for luckiest skin? Heh!

Then, right inside the Boatmaker's cave, we unexpectedly found a lurking Starbuck Lyfelidae, and Connie skinnned it for a vauable 67c pelt. Nice going, and right at the last second! This pelt DID beat the previous best. I hope her record stands until the end of the contest; she works hard at her skinning.

Today, I found myself back at Kizmia's Island in a small hunt with Sor, Darth Wader, Shiner, Dongle and Dagiris. We started before dawn, and found the island fairly empty, which we found out was due to Mujin-kun, Tyndall and Degu hunting a bit ahead of us. Still, we found prey enough to keep us busy, and trouble too. At one point, we unwisely all moved forward together without sending in a scout first, and several Cave Cobras converged on the scattered fighters already engaged in fighting Common Vultures and the like. Three fighters fell, including me, and the others ran off in disarray. Darth Wader did some impressive chaining, and brought us to safety in the South hut. Larno joined us to help raise Dagiris, and Darth took his leave, and the hunt resumed.

The other problem we had was that we all kept running into venomous snakes, and someone or other was always getting poisoned. I actually found two venom glands myself today, so it was a lot of snakes! Several times one of the healers was poisoned and had to fall to an aborted pendant to stop the spread of poison. Sor kept complaining that his pendant wasn't working consistently and acted as if his concentration was broken while being attacked, although he wasn't. I'm not sure what that means. Worse, at one time Shiner and I were both poisoned, and couldn't find anything nearby strong enough to fall too. I think I'll have to start carrying a bitter berry for such moments. Anyway, after searching a few nearby quiet areas, we finally found a bit too much activity. Although we fell fine, the rest of the group had followed us and the two remaining fighters were ineffectually tagging the many circling Cougars and Lyfelidae, but killing none. Finally, everyone had lost so much health that the group was in grave danger. Sor grabbed several fallens on his chain as we was persued by a crowd of Lyfelidae, Cougars and Cobras, and finally managed to hole up in the Passes in fairly poor health. Thankfully, it was quiet there, and he managed to raise us all.

It was a fun hunt, but a bit too exciting in some ways since we weren't all working together so well and situations nearly got out of hand a couple of times. That can be very hazardous!

Soldi, day 88 of Spring, 552.

It's been an eventful day.

Before the Chaos Storm swept through, it was also a Full Moon day. I helped Yor and Zorton (and a host of others) assault OC4 to try to wrest a Strange Stone from the Orga Magician. We had a great turnout, and overall had an easy time advancing deep into the Orga camps. We had timed it so that we needn't wait for the Magician to appear, but he was already working his foul enchantments. So as soon as we arrived and stabilized, we rushed in and did him in. Being half a step behind, I missed the chance at striking at this fierce yet fragile Orga, and he was down by the time I reached him. Zorton entered the "Power Room " and found the Strange Stone, so the trip was a success.

Since Zorton had a fresh new Stone, what's a Mystic to do but inaugurate it, right? So he teleported a mid-sized group of us from the Meadow to Camp Dred. We had a pretty easy time in the Dredwood until we got close to the Waterfall. We nearly had a total disater there when we got cocky and kept rushing in toward multiple Dredlocks with a stretched out rod and separated fighters. Most of the party fell, including me (thankfully to a Dredlock hit instead of a bolt). But J'nder, Yor and Natas survived (barely), by taking the risky move of dashing into the cave near the North barrier. They healed there and went on chain runs to gather up the fallens. Once I had been chained in, we had another close moment when several Large Death Vermine appeared in the cave and headed straight for the still wobbly healers, who were all either just raised or straining to raise their comrades. Thankfully, Yor and Natas (the only fighters up still) had enough health left to kill the LDV before they felled all the healers. J'nder and Jade survived by dodging around fighters and fallens, but it looked like an awfully close thing to me.

Since we were in the cave, we took a quick tour of the deeper levels, since most folks along had not seen this (including me).

I was pleased to finally get a close look at the fabled tome The Tao of Trillbane, even if I couldn't learn anything from it. Someday ...

We then regrouped and assaulted the waterfall, finally clearing the area of dangerous Dredlocks.

On to the Malachite lair we went, to hunt Olive and Malachite Arachnoids. In the first cavern, I was in the enviable position of being alive after some mis-steps in luring around the Kudzu wall (someone lured them all at once) killed most of the fighters. After a quick retreat behind the wall, Natas and I killed all the remaining Arachnoids one by one. Plenty of tags for me this way, but none for the poor fighters who had been stampeded. Level 2 seemed empty at first, but several Noids were lurking deeper down, and at level 3, we met Purple Arachnoids, which I almost 1-hit now. It seemed laughable until a Malachite backspawn nearly did us in. We kept control by retreating behind the Zu wall, and slowly cleared this cavern as well.

By the time we had reached the entrance to the fourth deepest cavern, the Pitch or Web Cavern itself, there was a wild feeling in the air of a rapidly approaching Chaos Storm. Throwing caution to the winds, we decided to rush into the Cavern en masse.

Most of the group went in first and headed East toward the unknown, and incidentally luring Noids away to make a somewhat freer passage for us. Connie Crete, Zorton and I headed Southwest, toward the ruined library. Zorton fell along the way, but deflected enough attention from us that both Connie and I narrowly made it past and in. Thanks Zorton! Great Mystic dedication, falling when needed!

Behind Connie, however, came two Crimson Noids right into the ruined library. So it is true!

I rushed into the inner chamber lest they web me before reaching the all-important book, and was pleased to see that Connie made it too.

I gratefully scanned Chapter 3 of Giayl's Guide for new insights. I look forward to understanding all I read today.

I did not expect to have the chance to read this today or even anytime soon. Since I had just reached 300 lessons with Detha this very morning, I had given some thought to training, and finally switched to Evus more as a default than preferred choice. Before completing even a single lesson with him, I find myself training with Giayl again. It's odd how things work out sometimes.

Quickly, the Storm was upon us and I lost consciousness. When I awoke, I was surprised to find myself still in the Ruined Library, instead of in the Temple in town. The great powers that permeate the Lands, connecting exiles with Purgatory and the Altar and that allow us to reach home after times of chaos, appear to have changed. How or why, I know not.

With little other choice, I peeked into the outer hall to see if those Crimson Arachnoids awaited me with outstretched mandibles and ready webs. Amazingly, they had gone from the Library foyer, so I was free to stay here safely. Yet why would I stay so far off from my adopted home and friends, in so dangerous a place? I determined to run swiftly toward the unknown East, to see if I could learn anything. I made a good start, but before I reached my goal, I was encircled by webs and Arachnoids along the east wall before the passage to the East, and was quickly brought down. Once more I visited Purgatory (as I do most times I have come here), and yet I was pleased to see that this much of the magic of the Lands still worked, as I quickly found my way to Puddleby and home again.

After returning to town, I set out on my own to look around after the Storm. I chose the Orga Camp and Snaggywood to start with. In the Snaggywood entrance, I was totally surrounded, and eventually burned down by several pesky Shaman always hovering well out of reach of my axe. A small group (Farhope, Krandor, Mouser Amfi, and Tomair) quickly came to help me. Once there, we set out together to look at deeper Snaggywood and Wishergate. It was fairly easy going, and I was pleased to be able to enter the Gate, and more pleased when multiple Big Red Orga past it turned out to be Orga Wraths. After we cleared the West end of Hatred Hollow, we set out for home.

After the Storm, I noticed that I was no longer vanquishing Orga Zealots, whereas for a month before this Storm I vanquished every one I met. I slaughtered most but dispatched a couple today. This seems fair, considering the very minor risk they are to my health, but since this huge experience has been around for some time I was feeling more hopeful that it was permanent. Au revoir, Snaggywood, who knows when I will go there again? And who knows when I might ever manage another solo vanquish?

In my wanderings lately, I found not one, but two, pink crystalline stones.

This, after not ever finding one at all before (indeed, of all the colored stones, only having found one lonely powdery white rock, ever) and walking through this area almost daily.