Current Training: The Tao of Trillbane.

Donations: Cassia Allin (20-30%).

Exploration: Ranger Hall found. Unexpectedly training with The Tao of Trillbane.

Gradi, day 35 of Autumn, 557.

It has been an extremely eventful few days.

As usual, I have been spending whatever time I can hunting on Kizmia's Island, storing up experience for my next opportunity to visit Trillbane's Commentaries on Ways to further my pathfinding training.

After serving me successfully for a long time, my trusty Catsbane necklace puffed its last and crumbled the other day deep in Groar's caves.

Thankfully, I have a spare necklace I bought long ago. But I am gathering the parts to have yet another one made.

When not hunting Lyfelidae, I continue wandering the Lands to understand the Ranger path, even knowing I will never qualify without training hard with my Gossamer.

I was heartened to hear that Relkin was accepted as the first official Ranger. I would have preferred if Elenis had managed to do this when we first found the Ranger Hall, since I know he deserves it in my book. But I know he will be accepted in due time.

During our latest Pitch Assault Group trip, something unexpected happened.

The trip itself went quite badly, and when we sought refuge in the Orga Barricade cave, we stopped to oggle The Tao of Trillbane, the famed third advanced pathfinding book.

We were stunned to find that those of us who had read Chapter 1 of Trillbane's Commentaries on Ways were actually able to read and comprehend not just one, but several chapters in The Tao of Trillbane!

I think you could hear the dull thud in town when my jaw hit the floor of that cavern!

So, long long before I ever expected to be reading this book, I am (momentarily) the keenest pathfinder in the Lands, with 160 lessons. Soon all of my fellow PAG pathfinders who were fortunate enough to be present on our 70th trip and read the first chapter of Trillbane's Commentaries will join me - at what still seems like an outrageous amount of pathfinding skill.

What good is all this new Pathfinding skill?

Well, even now there remain paths I can't open.

I gave Elendil a warning though, that his days of exclusive use of 'his' path in the Meadow are numbered!

Of course, what I really need to do, but have not yet had time to try, is to wander everywhere and look at everything. I must see the Lands with new eyes and try to discern if there are undiscovered paths lurking right under our noses!

The one thing I have had time to do was a quick hunt on Kizmia's Island.

I managed to finish another lesson with The Tao while hunting in the Caves last night.

The more important thing is that I was able to look at all the known paths near Kizmia's hut that remained unopenned and unexplored.

No more.

I was able to open every one of these 8 paths, which appear to be Kizmia's quick transport network.

Each path is one-way, which is no surprise since we never have found paths elsewhere on the island that these might connect too.

One goes to the South side of the island near Fat Alice's hut, but still inside the island interior. The others go to various other places on the North side of the island. Overall, I expect they will be not very useful to exiles.

Unfortunately, none of the paths leads off the island without needing a boat, such as right into Fat Alice's hut. And none leads to anywhere we can't already reach more easily and more safely on foot.

The interior of Kizmia's hut itself is pretty spartan, as you can see in this sketch.

That curious cold doorknob seems to result from the stiff breeze blowing in from the unfinished North wall of the hut, which appears to abut the Glacier.

Although there is a path leading through the rocks into that frozen North, I am still unable to open it. Whether this leads to the Glacier itself, or to some new snowy section of the island, we simply do not know yet.

There is so much left to explore, I hardly know where to begin.

I can only hope that this new level of pathfinding skill will benefit many exiles rather than just a few.

Fordi, day 3 of Autumn, 557.

Rangers, Rangers everywhere?

After the Chaos Storm lifted, older fighters immediately began noticing that something new was afoot, with a series of new messages.

• Your blade flashes like a shooting star.
• You learn from travelling across the land.
• Your knowledge grows from working with the Artak Cougar.

Like all the other fighters with an interest in the Ranger path, I immediately set out to try to understand what these signified.

I dug my dusty Gossamer out of storage, and hit the trails.

I've been checking all the places I thought Ranger-likely, looking for the elusive Ranger Hall, as well as visiting all the odd corners of the Island for travel exprience and hunting all manner of beasts to work with them.

I had not been through the Rockodile nest in ages, but found nothing new there.

I finally discovered where all those chests in the Raffle Hall have been coming from when I came across the pirate Stumpy Lackluck.

One new thing I did see was a small body of water within the Rose in Muddy North Forest. Most peculiar!

After doing all this wandering, I formed an idea of how the Ranger path might work.

I happened upon Elenis Reyav right before our scheduled Pitch Assault Group trip, and we began comparing notes. Something I told him sparked an idea to test. Within 5 minutes, he was able to do what I was not: make the definitive first step in the Ranger path. It seems I had been trying the right thing, but since I myself have no Gossamer training, was unable to proceed further.

After a rather eventful Pitch Assault Group trip (more on that later, elsewhere), we picked up where we left off trying to get Elenis registered as a Ranger.

Within a short time, we had indeed located the Ranger Hall. Rather, Elenis did, since once again I was not qualified to proceed further.

Elenis was kind enough to make some sketches inside the Ranger Hall for me to share. The Hall has two sections, with quite a number of trainers.

This is a sketch of the second section of the Hall. I have blotted out the various trainer names to prevent giving away the location to the first locating Mystic to come along.

Unfortunately, Elenis found himself not quite qualified to register immediately as a the first Ranger. After a bit more work, though, he is certain to be among the first group.

From a quick look here, and from thinking about the various "working with" beast messages, it is clear what skill Rangers will specialize in. Fighters will have noticed by now that they are able to "work with" a large number of different types of beasts, and more than once too. However, sentient creatures (orga, undine) apparently cannot be "worked with". Nor Lyfelidae, although I did get some messages for other beasts while hunting on Kizmia's Island. With appropriate training, and after accumulating enough experience working with a particular beast, a Ranger should be able to sufficiently mimic its habits so as to fool its kin.

Whether this takes the form of true shapeshifting or is more like an illusion remains to be seen.

In any case, even though I cannot yet take this path myself, it was a great joy to be able to help a friend on his way.

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