Baking in the Sun

My day started relaxed with some hunting in Niamph. Laden with furs i had just settled down in Arilon again, when i felt that Malachym and Dresko were slowly cooking in lavaland. I went searching them, when suddenly i heard the piping of lots of mice. Indeed in the middle of the lava, surrounded by a huge group of firerats that looked starved and eager for meat lay the 2 fallens. I managed to smash most of the rats and pull the others back on the relatively cool pavement, but then i had to run myself, bleeding from several wounds. Unfortunately i fell too, but as i had informed the rest of the world where the trouble was we were rescued soon after.

In the evening we then tried to form a group for Ravyn. Getting there was no problem, but several stallions and mares made climbing down into the plains and getting a foothold more than difficult. After several close situations finally with my last strength i managed to climb up again, but was accelerated the last bit by a stallions hoof. Only Dolphins managed to follow me, but i was unhealable and so the only pathfinder was dead.
Luckily Crash had finished his nap in the meanwhile and brought reinforcements with which we finally entered Ravyn. We hadn´t come far, when we reached the cliffs of the high plains in the east. To our surprise not only scorching heat made the air flickering up there, but behind a bush the head of a maha appeared. Never before had we seen any sign of life up there and so immediately our focus changed to searching the cliff for possible ways up. We did not have to go far, before my eyes judged a part of the cliff handy enough to climb up. I was sent in as a scout, protected by Ledas shield to judge what we would encounter. I was more excited than afraid and in the heights my selfconfidence rose when i managed to easily avoid the first blows of Mahas and Tigris alike. Right in the snell the stood an old monolith, surrounded by broken fragments of others. We saw several of them the evening, but Leda couldn´t find any use or meaning.
Despite the hot, still air that made me sweating, as i still have most of my winters fur, we travelled a long, long distance. At first we went north, until the earth turned slowly green, at first hesitantly, then some bushes and trees and finally a river came into view. Here we encountered the first coyotes, distinct relatives of the hyenas, but with a red fur to blend into the sunbaked rocks of their surroundings. On this way we also found a safe plateau, prepared with a rope from earlier travellers, where the skilled eye may find a small fissure in the rocks, leading back into the wastelands.
On to the west we went until a narrow canyon leading north captured our eyes. In the glen a few houses at a small lake braved the enormous heat. One inhabitant of the village called Jiwurr is selling very strong (and expensive) axes, while others look for jewels for their wives.
Even further west we went and another spot to climb up to an even higher plateau. Here we found termites. I had always imagined them maybe the size of the smaller Myrm, but these were as big as spiders or arachnoids! Another safe in the northern rocks releaved the trader of perfect spiderwebs standing in the shade, but on we went. Now Grendels had to be fought as well, but we managed well enough. In general there were less foes than one might think, but the far distances and the baking sun took their tolls, our movements slowed more and more.
Excited about all the things to see i was running to and fro, examining every spot likely to show a way elsewhere. Indeed i found 2 more such places, one of them leading directly in the fangs of a gigantic snake. This proved to be the toughest foe, wriggling away from our blows and biting with its deadly fangs, but with the whole group we eventually managed to bring it down.
Soon after i couldn´t stand it any longer and so i made my way home. I had to search in the end, but my way west had carried me close to the way to the wasteland and from there i knew the way home. On the way i even heard that Leda had found a portal place to shorten the way for further expeditions.

The Door opens again

It´s been some time since my last entry, but not only meditation has kept me occupied, also a strange incident with the jammed door of the medi tower prevented noteworthy adventures. At least this resulted in a try to start catalouging all the beasts in our lands, a task i´d pushed away from me for quite some time. Since our craftsmen managed to pry it open again i´ve been on the fresh air more often.

My first trip led to the hidden valley. A quite large group had gathered and a lot more Tok'Hans than usual made for a challenging way from the ridge in the mountains to the buildings that house the tests for the 4th circle for healers and fighters.
When we had arrived we gathered at the fence to see our healers in action, but although their selfhealing abilities and luring techniques were a great show, none of them managed to heal the fallen. My own little test in the neighbour building only showed me what i already knew: cobrateeth leave ugly and painful marks.
Nevertheless Terra Bul was in a cheery mood and so she performed a dance in town with Zyrober, who seems to have lost none of his agility while meditating. I´m sure soon he will be seen dashing through the world again like in old days, maybe he will even try to give another lesson in fightrobics.
I´ve also visited the castle of Torthens several times recently, since it turned out that the nors can make shovels from the ore that Nauggaths like to collect in the tunnels under the castle. The Nauggaths don´t really seem to approve my tries to wrestle the glittering stones from them, but it seems as if we can help the Urdar with enough shovels for their work on crashed tunnels in a little while.

Yesterday i went with a group to Chelicae, an area better known as Wasteland-Noids. Appleseed wanted to learn the portal there and so wet set off with a nice group, although i had my doubts that we could kill the hoardes of Noids quickly enough to make progress.
As it turned out that wasn´t neccessary, as we used the famous "run to xy - seperate - some fall, some arrive - some chaining, some healing, some falling - run to yz..." tactic, which eventually brought all of us to the south of the caves. While Appleseed started learning, Lafa got the opportunity to hone his dentistskills a little and the Kyttyns tried to relax after the luring, pushing, healing and chaining. In the end we all got teleported back to town, happy to have survived this journey.

Colosseum massacre

When i stepped out of the tower yesterday i had to rub my eyes - did i still dream? The whole town center was littered with hundreds of beer mugs. At first i thought it was a day of celebration of the Urdar, but none of them was in sight. I left the wonder behind, but when i returned Arilon had been cleaned up by some Urdars who woke up in the meanwhile.
I heard the ring of a bell and decided to visit the colosseum again and use the opportunity of being the only fighter there to test my strength against various monsters. First i ordered a fight with a leopard, who tore me apart way too quickly for me to have any hopes of passing the next test any time soon. The Ripper also was true to its name and evading this lizard proved hopeless. I went over to challenge some apes, which went better. I found i could evade about half of the blows the Bloodback Wendecka tried to deal, but in the end of course died, as i couldn´t hit him. But at least the cavern cercops and the nightwendecka didn´t prove to be much of a challenge anymore. After some large death vermine also decided that i tasted good, i tried to defeat an Orga Dredlock. I knew i would have no chance to kill him in time, but i might at least survive the whole time. And so i did, dealing blow after blow while dodging his fists, so that when the time was over, he did not only try to run away, but had just become red!
In the evening we went to Dean, as Leda hoped to discover something in this area she had never been before. The group had no problems crossing the small part of Aroona and treangi and so we arrived in Dean whole, but with quite some delay. Immediately the first wendeckas tried to drive us back, but we had no trouble killing them. Encouraged by Ledas mental enhancements we even brought down a stonemyr pretty quickly, although i still think Dresko had to do most of the work.
We ventured north, toward the castle and the village, as many hadn´t been there before. On our way we encountered not only more wendeckas, but also some cobras, that i had never before seen in this rocky surrounding. Their black skin makes them nearly invisible on the ground, if you are unlucky, you will only see them when they open their mouth right in front of you. But the group was big and strong enough to deal easily with the snakes.
For the way back we chose to tour the western slope of the mountain, encountering several large wendeckas, that finally proved to be a challenge. Several stonemyrs roaming the valleys had to be left behind though, as they still required several boosts and time. Finally we went back by boat. I had intended to run through Aroona by foot and so evade more than half of the boattrip, but in the end we had some trouble getting back and i had to go with the others.

Trying to chain

After some time of meditation i wakened again with the urge to go hunting. To stretch my muscles and get warmed up i hunted in Niamph, waiting for a decision of a hunting place for later. I was greeted by dozens of wild horses near the entrance, giving myself the chance to practise luring, fighting and skinning skills all at once. After a time a destination for the bigger hunt was chosen and i headed home to meet the group.
Much to my joy we travelled to Aroona, a place we had departed from more often than not, which promised a nice challenge. We entered from the east and quickly faced the first Tigris. I was pleased to notice that i could even evade the giant cats when concentrating on it.
We reached the northern wall quickly and from there hunted to the west. The group stayed well together and had no trouble dealing with the felines we encountered. Their furs are really soft and sometimes showing special patterns of stripes making them very valuable. I was really happy when i managed to cut lose one of a grey giant Tigris, worth 38 coins!
Only a bit further to the west we were then awaited by a pack of four huge tigris who quickly decimated our group. Suddenly only Tarra, Lafaborn and me were alive and we slowly retreated. But the creatures followed us and suddenly were helped by new tigris in the other snells. Tarra fell and Lafa and me ran for our lives. We glimpsed some boats and i chose the nutshell over certain death. We gathered ourselves and searched our bags for a map to decide what to do next, as neither of us is a skilled chainer and therefore had no chain with us. But we discovered that our group had met its fate close to the teaseller safe and that was easily reachable via boat. A quick scouting showed the fallens being too far away for being pushed to the safe though. Luckily Yerbo was so happy about the prospect of having more guests who might enjoy his teas that he lend me his old chain. Only once before had i tried this strange skill of running past a fallen comrade, linking the chain to his belt and then dragging him along, but i succeeded to get Falk to the safe. Despite him being a well-trained chainer i couldn´t resist and set out again to search for Tofor, the next healer. But in my excitement i had forgotten that the chain was old and i am no expert and so a too sharp tug at Tofors body and the chain shattered! But Falk could gather the rest and with the help of Terra Bul who had arrived in the meantime, cheating her Elithren roots and finding us without getting lost, the group was safed. I tried to offer Yerbo compensation for his chain, but he said he was happy enough with many guests enjoying his tea.
We set out again, following the traces of the giant tigris who had caused all the trouble. The group was well prepared this time, but it hadn´t counted on all the panthers bustling about the bigger cats legs. These agile little creatures quickly decimated our healers and then the fighters. Again Falk managed to chain a lot of us, but despite our remarks about the boats in the snell Tarra and him decided to make a stand on the land. The clever tigris surrounded them and so Tarra fell too. It took quite some time and some brave departs until a sizable rescue force was able to gather our remains and save the remaining group.
I had had enough adventures and boats for one day and so had others. We then made our way back home, where to my joy i met Zyrober in town. I had thought the cheerful Lepori lost or worse, but he was chattering gaily in Arilon. I hope to see him again soon and histen to his adventures in the last months.