Storm 331.

Current Training: Alternating Detha and Regia, from Natas.

Donations: Helping Undrus dig to the East (70-80% done).

Exploration: Trips to the Foothills.

Soldi, day 32 of Winter, 554.

I participated in yet another trip to the Foothills recently with a small group, to explore some of the seldom-visited corners of that large region. We brought along Agratis Lor'pik as well, and his occassional falls to all manner of unusual beasts stirred some curious interest from exiles in town.

We visited some known blocked caves, and determined that they remain "blocked just inside" and unenterable.

Eventually the many earthquakes here might just shake loose a pathway large enough for exiles to enter one of these to explore its depths.

We also examined the curious "Mushroom Library". It was my first visit there.

This small cave is very unusual in that while well-trained pathfinders can enter, exiles without sufficient pathfinding skill of their own cannot follow.

All the pathfinders on this trip jumped at the chance to scour the walls in here for any clues, but we found nothing else unusual beyond the narrow passage allowing limited entry.

While wandering about, we saw several unusual beasts, including a Large Midnight Wendecka, a group of Dusk Wendeckas, and several lonely Day Wendecka.

We also took some time to hunt in secluded Ash Valley and in the Dredwood, scanning along as we went for any new paths or changes. In Dredwood, we vanquished several very tough Ironwood Giants like this one, as well as some Redwood Giants and a lone Orga Hatred. Finally, having seen nothing changed, we walked home through the Orga Village.

I have also spent some time lately hunting several Angry Mother Sasquatches in the passes near Melabrion's Keep.

In recent days I have seen several of these dangerous beasts there, and as many as three of them at the same time.

I "hold" the beast and take all her fury while Nesse attempts to kill it with two powerful strokes of his Bloodblade. So far both he and I have survived the effort, but as is obvious, it's a close game.

Soldi, day 11 of Winter, 554.

Today, I joined a group of exiles trying to reach Giayl's Guide to Hidden Ways, the advanced pathfinding book located deep in an Arachnoid cavern in the Foothills.

Seventeen of us (the hidden fellow is Kojiro) braved the hazards of Snaggywood, Hatred Hollow, the Orga Outback, the Dred Passage, the Foothills themselves, Dredwood and the Orga Barricade, and the Malachite caverns, to finally be dashed on the rocks in the Pitch Arachnoid cavern.

Our trip began easily enough, and we quickly reached the tunnel leading to the Dred Passage. The Dred Passage lived up to its name today, and the fighters assaulted the Orga and their minions many times before the entire group entered. Unfortunately, a miscue sent the healer rod in one direction and the fighters in another, which necessitated a hasty retreat. After regrouping, we finally successfully traversed the killing fields and entered the relative safety of the Foothills.

In the Foothills, we surprised a bevy of rare Dawn Wendecka as we surged through the labyrinthine passages. When we reached the relative safety of Camp Dred, we hardly slowed before charging on into the Dredwood and into the Malachite Arachnoid cavern.

After working our way ever deeper, we arrived at the difficult Pitch Arachnoid cavern. We were pretty optimistic of our success in defeating these powerful Arachnoids, given that we had two Bloodbladers and two Champions amongst our company. The cavern seemed to have few enough of these web-throwing Arachnoids, but was very busy with Olive and Malachite Arachnoids. The ensnaring webs and roaming gangs of Malachites were enough to prevent this group from controlling the cavern long enough to allow anyone to race safely to the Ruined Library there. After many attempts at chain rescues of fallens with mostly diminishing returns, the remaining exiles tried a mad dash to the Library, but sadly, no one made it there alive. The entire group ended up departing to get home. So we were unsuccessful, but it was fun to get out to these distant parts of the lands once again.

Gradi, day 6 of Winter, 554.

No real adventures of late to report.

I did dabble some in the worlds through the Portal that appeared in town, but they seemed very strange indeed, and my time there was limited mainly to helping rescue fallens here and there.

While hunting bears for their pelts, I walked into the East end chamber (the "trophy room") of the New Bear caves and was instantly surrouded by snakes. Hungry snakes. Angry snakes. Seemingly endless snakes. It took me several minutes of concentrated hacking to finally finish them all off.

For awhile, I thought I might be on Gungla ("snake") Island!

I have had a couple of conversations recently about the Sword of Souls, since they are no longer available from Tenebrion's smith, and a new generation of exiles is curious about them or wants to experiment with them. I was surprised to hear the same old theories about how the Sword works that were popular when this curious blade was first made available by Tenebrion.

My own experience with the blade as one of the first to have one suggested to me that it was not capturing or counting souls as I killed beasts. Yes, it does flash and howl occassionally, but not always on a death blow (can it steal a soul from a beast that I then fail to kill?) and not only for a beast it has never killed before. As I had reported long ago, Tenebrion does occassionally appear to take an interest in observing "the pool", as he put it, as we wield these blades. But since I felt his attention on me exactly twice in all the time I used the blade, on the very same day, and as I took it out of its scabbard rather than used it to attack some beast, I'm fairly certain he is not counting how many souls each blade has collected.

Silky had much the same impression, after having used her Sword of Souls consistently for far longer than I did, before she finally traded it in for a Fell Blade.

In any case, I got my Sword out of storage, gave it a vigorous sharpening and polish until it carried a fine edge and I could see my face on the flat of the blade once again, and set out hunting. I have purposefully sought out odd beasts, those I normally ignore or those found only in unusual places, and now observe that attacking them does not lead to more sword howls than does attacking vermine or other beasts I have slaughtered by the thousands. And the sword does howl fairly frequently for beasts of the same type, over and over, and definitely not always on the death blow. Indeed, I saw it flash twice while attacking a single Large Tahxis Wurm in the East Cove on Kizmia's Island, in the presence of Nightbird. Nor have I felt Tenebrion's attention on me.

I'm fairly convinced the rumours are wrong, yet again. But I will keep using it for awhile longer, just be be sure I am not missing an important clue about how the Sword functions.

I did notice some changes in the appearance of the Northwest Forest recently.

It seems that heavy rains during the latest Chaos Storm must have washed away some soil there, because many of the protruding rock formations in that forest now show bare sand around their base.

I also had heard reports of Land Shredders being sighted near the Mirror, and when I wandered down that way I found one myself just West of the hospital. Curious creatures. They look and act just like their watery cousins the Shredders, yet share with Sand Worms the ability to navigate through loose sand.