Current Training: Alternating Detha and Regia.

Donations: Helping Cassia Allin, Undrus having completed digging to the East ("permits").

Exploration: Hard times befall KI, and Ash Island Scarmis Queens appear to have forgotten how to lay eggs.

Sombdi, day 48 of Autumn, 554.

The third time is not the charm.

On my third trip to the Ash Island Scarmis den in recent days, we still have found no eggs there. What kind of colony is this anyway?

Today's trip was actually a rescue, since a group entering earlier had a very bad time and everyone fell. I joined the rescue effort.

The rescue itself was nearly a disaster too, and we were saved basically by Michael's ability to dodge gnashing mandibles and Shen Calin's ability to kill the Scaris quickly with his Bloodblade.

After the usual tactic of runners diving in to draw Scarmis away from the entrance, I entered to plant a Kudzu wall to secure our base. Unfortunately, the Scarmis were so thick that I had to plant the wall very close to the entry area, and didnt get to finish the wall since the Scarmis began crowding in toward me immediately. I ended up fighting and falling to plug a hole while the rest of the party entered.

And luck of the draw, the Queen herself was the Scarmis that wiggled in to attack me, so I fell fast and hard. But I dented her good. Unfortunately, that meant I didn't have time to tell them to stop short on entering, and parts of the wall were immediately killed by fighters jumping in with swords drawn. Basically, we were instantly reduced to fighting desperately on several fronts instead of fighting carefully and methodically at just one openning. The very tight fighting area didn't help any either. The quickly assembled wall of exile bodies did end up protecting the healers.

Still, the Queen was the first Scarmis to fall, and between careful fighting (mostly standing there and taking it) by Michael and rather suicidal-looking behavior by Shen, we came out okay in the end. It was just terrifying to watch my Zu wall disappear as the fighters entered and began jockeying around for position. Doh.

Fordi, day 40 of Autumn, 554.

The Reign of Rowl continues on Kizmia's Island, despite the purchase of an encrypted book from Fat Alice for a dear price of over 200,000 coins. Vata put in a stellar effort and managed to translate it into Common, and it is a poem that tells a tale of how Rowl pursues Groar. Unfortunately, it is short on details of what we exiles can actually do about controlling or killing Rowl.

I've done my part lately by helping search for Scarmis Eggs in the Ash Island Scarmis den, since the Eggs are an essential and rare part of the Lyfelidism cure.

Entering and clearing the Queen's Chamber has been perfected to a fine art at this point, and we slowly kill Scarmis one-by-one until the chamber is ours. It's become a fancy version of the old Arachnoid cavern. Unfortunately, _I_ only kill/dispatch everything here except the Queen herself, so you can imagine what experience Mujin-kun or Natas earns here.

Although the hunts have been great fun, if not experience fountains, I have seen no eggs there at all.

Not a one.

Makes you wonder what all the Scarmis Queens we vanquished actually had been up to!

Since we were in the Queen's Chamber anyway, we have also been conducting tours of the maze leading to the Ethereal Plane, to gather Ethereal Boots for anyone who had not yet worn any.

It's probably faster and easier going home this way than through the rest of the Scarmis tunnels.

One of these days I need to try to obtain the other parts of the Ethereal Armor, since the Boots are the only part I have ever had myself!

I spent some time hunting with Nesse and Nisse recently, and they have taken to dressing like Lyfelidae twins!

Joking aside, the continued rampaging by Rowl on Kizmia's Island has led to a goodly fraction of the population being infected with Lyfelidism. It is not surprising to see a dozen Lyfelidae lounging in town these days. Makes me shudder.

Even infected with Lyfelidism, Nesse wields a mean Bloodblade.

It did take him 2 entire hits to finish this Angry Mother Sasquatch, and he missed once too.

That small delay cost us the two healers who were taking all her fury, but down she went.

The other Angry Mother Sasquatch we ran into went down much easier, and everyone was restored to health after a short chain trip to town.

While out wandering through some out-of-the-way places I rarely visit, I ran into a chap named Frire that I don't think I had met previously.

He seemed very interested in getting one of my chains for a deep discount price, but I certainly wasn't selling!

Curiously, once he got over coveting my chains, Frire also seemed to want donations of metal and stones as well.

If he has collected any already and is building anything with these, it isn't evident yet. I'll have to chat with him again when I have a stone to donate.

I was amazed and pleased to see that my dear Shamhat managed to stumble out of the Library recently. I helped her dust off in town, and was surprised to learn that she had been studying exclusively with Horus for quite a long time. She's pretty much become a quite accomplished Horus healer when I wasn't paying attention. Who knew?

Soldi, day 14 of Autumn, 554.

I had a costly misadventure on Kizmia's Island recently. Sadly, I am not the only one, as that Island has been undergoing a reign of terror by a powerful Lyfelidae named "Rowl".

I was unaware of any strange happenings when I joined a small hunt in the East Cove of Kismia's Island several days ago. Things were going fine until we ran into what appeared to be a Cold Lyfelidae on the Glacier. A strangely red-colored one, true, but to all accounts just a Cold.

When it killed all four fighters in the party in 6 quick hits with barely a blow taken in return, we realized things were very much amiss. It was over so fast I didn't even think to sketch him. Curiously, we all fell not to a Cold Lyfelidae but to "Rowl". Not "a Rowl", but just "Rowl".

The other fighters in the group were quickly snatched up on chains, but I was missed as Rowl pursued the healers. He chased them all the way off the island and into the water, and then menaced anyone attempting to land at the cove. No one was getting past Rowl to help me. Once word spread that Rowl was at the cove, help stayed away in droves. So I lay there, melting my way deeper into the glacial ice, until a Saber Owl eventually deposited me in Groar's cave.

These days, rescueing someone from Groar's cave is usually a fairly simple task. Plenty of exiles are strong enough to take the caves. But not today. As Gorvin and Kani attempted to get a group started from the KI South hut to reclaim me, Rowl put in an appearance there and mutilated that group. After several tries on their part, spent more in retrieving fallens than in advancing toward me, I decided it wasn't worth all their effort under these circumstances, and I departed.

What is Rowl? He looks like a Cold Lyfelidae, but with red colored clothing. It isn't quite clear where he came from, but he is enormously strong and appears to remain in a night form even in the daytime. Rumours suggest he is able to infect the exiles he attacks even without felling them (and then of course they claw their Catsbane Necklaces to shreds), so I guess we were lucky on that score. I have since heard that he has appeared all over Kizmia's Island, terrorized many groups of even very strong exiles, and often brings with him waves of lesser Lyfelidae (although I didn't see any in our case). Exiles first encountered Rowl a day before I ran into him, but those reports had not been widely disseminated yet when I walked into him unaware that I should be running away.

Fat Alice has been peddling her snake oil again, this time selling - at truly astoundingly exhorbitant prices - encrypted single pages of a book that she claims will solve the Rowl problem. Oddly enough, Rowl appears just as Fat Alice comes along with a solution to the trouble he brings. Makes one wonder ...

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