Current Training: Alternating Detha and Regia.

Donations: Helping Undrus dig to the East ("finishing touches").

Exploration: Sarra, Ethereal Forge, Dal'Noth Island.

Fordi, day 81 of Summer, 554.

You just don't wake up and think to yourself, "Today I'm going to rescue a group on Dal'Noth." But sometimes it happens anyway.

This small group was apparently hunting on Dal'Noth, and ran into some Dew trouble in the passes. They were all overcome by several Landdews and Pallidews.

Phiros appeared to open the Illusion for a small rescue group (myself, Tyndall, Sor, Innocence), and we landed on the West beach of the island to find it fairly quiet. Just to the North in the passes, however, trouble was waiting.

After luring and killing some Pallidews, several Landdews came from the passes and drove us off the island. From the bay, we lured them to the South end of the beach, and I was able to slip by to the North to slap a chain on the four fallens there and drag them back to Puddleby to be raised.

Yesterday Yor asked me to join another of his infamous Uli runs out to the Orga Village and Foothills.

This small group gathered at the Meadow and then headed through the Snaggywood to Hatred Hollow. In Hatred Hollow, the going was slow, since there were many Orga to be killed and not so many fighters to do it. The lightning was also fairly heavy, due to several Orga Hemlocks present. We pushed steadily onward, and finally advanced through to the Orga Outback.

In the Trainer Grotto, Sa'Wrap lead us through the path deep into the Outback, and thence on to the Dred Passage tree. We started clearing the Dred Passage with fighter runs, but it was quite busy and pretty hot too.

During one of the runs, I was the last one heading to the ladder when I got stopped by a gang of vermine and Orga. Before I could hack my way out, and mere steps away from safety below ground, all the lightning in he air shifted to target poor me. I could only watch in stunned horror as late lightning bolts continued to fry my smoldering carcass.

The others were able to chain me to safety, but by then I was badly toasted. It took three Red Healing Potions to get me mobile again.

We wisely decided to pass on the Foothills, and instead swept through the Orga Village to claim an Uli flower there.

Still, the trip was a net loss due to my nasty fall. Sigh.

Recently, I joined PTF to make a trip to the Ethereal Forge. I had been coveting the Ethereal Portal Stones many folks seem to always have at the ready for emergency exits, and had gathered the necessary supplies to have two Portal Stones forged. Making these devices requires the services of a Mystic, and can only be done in the Ethereal Forge.

Getting to the Forge seems easy in theory, especially with the Portal Island entry to the Ethereal Plane leaving one in a known location fairly close to the Forge. In practice, the Etheral Plane seems ever ready to throw up nasty surprises.

Yor went ahead to scout the next section and draw the nasties away from the spot we would enter, but instead quickly fell to the lightning of an Ethereal Cloud. Natas went to get him, and he himself also fell. When the rest of the group entered to try to rescue them, we ran into trouble due to 2 Clouds attacking us. We killed one, but folks started to fall to the other. I grabbed several fallens on my chain, but by running a bit had lost my place and crossed into a new snell instead of the one we had come from. As I was heading back to try again, I ran smack into some invisible something (a Ghastly Presence, no doubt) and stopped in my tracks, and was quickly brought down by lightning.

Yor ended up departing, poor soul, and came back for the rest of us. In one of his stellar chain runs, he gathered up the rest of the group and brought us all right to the Ethereal Forge, where healers awaited us. So we made it anyway, despite a poor first try.

I was only to happy to hand Drablak a pile of parts for him to use to make my stones, and accepted the finished stones back with trembling hands. I am in no rush to make use of these, but I feel comforted that I now have them at the ready if the need arises.

Some days ago, I joined a small group hunting the caves of Kizmia's Island.

I was a bit late arriving, and the others had already entered the caves from the East Cove glacier. Despite the others having just pacified the cove area, I ran into 2 Cave Cobras that hungrily chased me through that cave. Thankfully, I ran fast enough to avoid being brought down, and then joined the hunt in progress.

The Lyfe caves are always fun, with the tight quarters making it easier in some ways (the Lyfelidae can't circle away as readily), and harder in others (sometimes you turn a corner and find yourself in the midst of a crowd of Lyfes).

Over the course of the hunt, we found quite a number of Thunder and Pink Lyfelidae, and quite a few Orgaberry Lyfelidae. I was pleased to practice nearly two full lessons in Regia by hunting all night.

In one small section of the cavern, we found a curious mix of day-form and night-form Lyfelidae, even though it was the deep of night. Very odd.

No hunt would be complete without some serious falls.

In a crowd including Mujin-kun, Tyndall and me, I'm pretty sure to be elected as the faller. I had a couple serious ones, generally as I noticed one hit that was much much harder than the others, and turned to run away from a Starbuck amid Thunders, or Orgaberry among Wyrms, but wasn't quick enough. Only this one hit was potentially infective, and my trusty Catsbane Necklace saved the day again.

Merdi, day 51 of Summer, 554.

Today I joined the PTF group to explore and hunt in the land of Sarra.

We had along two Mystics (names withheld) well trained in the arts of dispersing Illusions, and planned to enter Sarra through that somewhat easier entry. However, neither Mystic could open the way! I found that very strange, since both had pierced this Illusion previously. Has something changed here?

So I got to be the most important exile on the hunt for all of one minute, and led the group through the Rainbow Falls path into the Sarra jungle. This entry is a bit harder, since you end up not in a cave but out in the open, so we quickly raised a Kudzu fort. Once safely surrounded, we began to kill the assemble denizens of Sarra.

We took a route following the outer wall of the crater (since it obviously is an old crater), looking for anything new and hunting as we went.

The hunting went quite well, and we cleared a number of sections of the jungle and then looked about intensively. Even with just one Bloodblader along (that's Snowlion hiding behind a bush), we managed to kill even the toughest beasts we found, including these two green Sarra'yrms. I suppose it's a good thing that we didn't run into any of their red cousins though.

When it was time to leave, we intended to send a runner past the AMS mesa to clear the way for the rest of us. But everyone who entered the passes was immediately surrounded by a curious mixture of Rats, Co'achas, Young Sasquatch and a few Angry Mother Sasquatch, and quickly brought down to the thrown rocks. The exit was simply impossible.

I really don't see how we could manage to exit safely when it is already full like that before we even get there. Of the times I have been here, the exit is passable by running quickly and dodging about half the time, and an impassible death zone the other half of the time. Not great odds, which helps explain why so few groups seem to go here despite the awesome hunting challenges.

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