Glamdrings Adventures

So long, and thanks for all the fish

2010-05-24T18:25:00.001+02:00

Deep into Orga Territory

2010-04-01T18:59:00.003+02:00

For the first time in what felt like ages i took the chance to join what promised to become a challenging hunt. Arilonian scouts seemed to have found another camp of a group of Orga and Pirates close to the regular Orga Camp 4. With a group of 11 people we made our way to the Orga Woods, where the signs of Pirates close at hand were visible nearly everywhere. I also got the impression, that the Orga fought more strategic than before, placing many Shaman and Warlock guards into the ways, but our healers and especially Harnic did a great job in rodding them.
We got to the tomatoseller rather quickly and here for the first time we got into a bit of trouble when the group dispersed a little and was then attacked by several strong Orga, Pirates and ranged attackers. Luckily we were able to regroup soon and were able to regain the snell. On our way back north to catch some late Arilonians we encountered some LDAVs, but our group quite easily dispatched them. In general the large vermine still posed a threat to the healers when attacking in packs, but the group worked well together, eliminating these threats always shortly after their appearance.
Back south some stronger Pirates had driven their slaves towards us and several times hoards of enemies combined with flung fireballs, bolt or flames created exciting moments, but we always kept the upper hand.
When we started for the way to Camp 4 and reached the northern turn of the labyrinthine way, we nearly faced annihilation. Suddenly not only the previous threats had to be faced, but there were also bombs and burning catapult ammunition shot at us! Luckily a small part of the group survived and began fighting off monsters threatening the healers, gathering in the rest and regrouping. We decided that stopping would be the sure road to death, as we had no way to fight the ranged attackers behind the treeline.
This proved nearly fatal again, as not only two Dredlock and several larger Orgas came towards us, but the BRO even turned out to be an OrgaFrenzy! My heart began to pound louder. Even though i had wished to face one of those, remembering being able to defeat them before the great storm, i had hoped it to be in a less dangerous situation. Completely focussed on the fight, i was sweating, dodging, stabbing - but after a while i realised: i wasn´t hurt seriously, i was able to evade nearly each and every fist the huge Orga swung at me! With renewed vigour and determination replacing the bit of fear that was left, i attacked more boldly and soon we were able to finish the Frenzy.
We took the next turn, heading north again, when we saw increasing monster activity, hinting to the camp being close by. Now Also Pirate wizards took part in the battle and even some of the fearsome Orgas from the Orga Plains and Yarimada were coming to stop us, but we prevailed.
Soon we were on the outer edge of the camp, which seemed to be built solely to stop us, as the sign "End of Orga Camp" indicated. We had to fight hard just to keep the edge, but each time we had some room to breathe we were able to recover a little less than the time before. One of our fallens was able to send his spirit into the camp and spy, so we knew we might at least conquer some magic artefacts, but cleaning the camp proved well impossible. In the end, despite a brave effort, the group went down, but not with empty hands. Ursus had managed to slip through some gaps in the defense and proudly presented his findings in town. It had been a great hunt, which i hope to experience again soon.

A trip to Aroona

2010-01-25T19:29:00.003+01:00

Yesterday i stuck my nose out of the meditation tower again. My first journey took me to the fighter guilds outpost in the hidden valley to seek admittance to the 4th circle again. Sadly the result has not changed since the last tries, but at least i managed to evade most of the Cobras bites while harming it enough to run away from me. I still have no idea how strong the hyena is, as my struggle with the Leopard left him bleeding and myself fallen - failing the test again.

Afterwards i joined a trip to Aroona, after it had been promised to me it wouldn´t involve much time in the water - oh, how they had tricked me! Ag first we progressed well enough, even collecting several very valuable furs, like the one Falk managed to recover here.
A bombthrowing pirate and a bunch of panthers costed us our only healer Frenzymac and rescue took quite some time, before we progressed again. We met a Tikari, a stronger relative of the Tigris, but to the combined efforts of our group it didn´t stand a chance.
Just behind a bridge we then came upon a camp of Orga, Pirates and some Taesu-Lyfelidaes. Luckily i wasn´t hurt too bad and still found enough strength to stop Rion from entering the water in his rescue.
In our next effort we managed to enter the actual camp and destroy some lightening statues and we found a scroll and a moonbook there. When reinforcements left the huts, the retreat became chaotic and lots of people fell. Falk, Elaine, Lafa and myself had to retreat to the lake (staying in a boat is better than being dragged into the water head-down, but not by much) and had a hard time clearing a way until Falk finally managed to chain out enough helpers to rescue all the group.
As several people had to leave by that time, we only briefly tried to bring down one of the strong Lyfes, but it regenerated too fast and too few of us were able to hurt it for our effort to bear fruit.
Back in town i caught a glimpse of Teboor waiting for some Arilonians, but as i had to sleep i couldn´t talk to him myself. Still, the others wrote a log about the meeting and Rion added his own thoughts on his scroll.

Feeling strong is not enough

2009-12-19T14:53:00.003+01:00

Yesterday i woke again after a long while of meditation and while i enjoyed the christmas-decorated town center i pondered over the meaning of the meditation for my recent studies. Fortunately Elaine woke up too and so we decided to hunt together, as we had done so often before. Glad to get the opportunty of warming up my body and using the newly won skills i lead the way east, when suddenly i stood in a place i was sure to house a shortcut to Ursusville, but my eyes slid past the way all the time and so we had to go a good bit further than intended. Finally we arrived in Marranyin and began hunting the deserts inhabitants. Some Mahas and Tigris were the first to engage us and i found myself evading them easily while dealing out severe wounds myself.
To my joy i even found myself still very capable in recovering their warmly-red shining furs.
Even whole groups of creatures didn´t manage to bring us in any severe danger, only the great snakes living there prooved too hard and so had to be lured away. After earning quite some coins, we headed back to town and i went to sleep with the sure feeling to be able to fight nearly any creature successfully.
Just thist feeling made me search companions for a way to the 4th circle fighter test when waking up again today. What could possibly go wrong there after i had managed to kill Tigris, Mahas and Kojotes in a row the day before? Well, in the test i quickly remembered the difference between fighting alone and having a skilled healer with you, as well as making contact with sharp Leopards teeth. My best skills had always been the evasion of enemies harmful strikes, but this test showed me how much i still have to learn.
On the way back i could release my frustration on some Tok'Hans and even a leech trying to torch me couldn´t stop me.

Froggy memories

2009-09-15T20:13:00.006+02:00

Yesterday a small group decided to hunt Kajmanos. After a quick journey to the temple we had to step into the small nutshells some people call boats to get further. As i had feared this proved to be a very dangerous means of travelling, 2 fully grown Sekats were waiting for us on the Ardvell river behind the Noth caves. It was a tough fight from the swaying boat, but Lafa took great care to keep me alive.
When we finally arrived at the Swamp, i didn´t even have time to be glad to have firm ground under my feet again, as a Giant Kajmano immediately seized my leg with its jaw and tried to twist it from my body! Together we managed to wound it severly enough for it to let go and finally we brought it down.
We then took a round around the swamp where it was pretty hard to not step in puddles deeper than my shoes. While young and large Kajmanos died pretty fast to our forces, giants were another matter and we had to concentrate to keep the upper hand in those encounters. Near the southeastern safe we encountered three of them and it took some time until we finally had managed to hunt them down. On our way north a strange thing happened. Lexlan pitied the frogs we cleared to have space when fighting more dangerous creatues. Of course i kept going and then some weird force - Splashs ghost? - took hold of me and i found myself shouting about revenge for Splash and all of a sudden we were standing in a bunch of angry frogs!
Of course they stood no chance and so we finally continued our round and although the way back was only possible via boat, we arrived safely back in town, although a huge pack of cougars tried to ambush us at one of the Kittyland paths.

A lost Race

2009-09-13T17:12:00.003+02:00

Some days ago i felt excited when leaving the tower. Not only were several hardened Arilonians around, they were also up for a hunt! At first we could not really decide, which became the fate of the Albino Maha roaming town for some time. He tried to get a sniff of us and in return we tried to tickle him with our weapons, Dresko showing impressive skill with hers not for the only time that evening.
In the end we settled for Orga Woods and started with the obligatory tour through camp 2, a visit at the Orga Chief, a sidestep to the Grendels and on to camp 3. As well as the group worked together and brought down whatever foes threatened them, sadly no one had brought a ladder to clear this encampment of even the last Orga witnesses to the slaughter.
Even the way to the Orga Woods was uneventful and a quick look out of the cave showed just a few Warlocks and a Fury and a Rage waiting to challenge us. Due to this we took hold of the entrance snell without really breaking asweat, but the real challenge should lie before us. The mazelike way through the woods leading south provided hiding places for a bunch of Orga Shamans who shamelessly slung their fireballs at us just when we were occupied fighting other enemies. A little way in we met our first LDV which accompanied an Orga Dredlock. Both immediately fell on us and our two younger companions went down faster than we could blink, but luckily us others could retreat out of the Shamans range and bring the pair down.
With a little luring we managed to seperate the LDVs waiting for us near the tomatosellers hut and with that reached its safety much faster and with much less resistance than i had expected. Of course we didn´t let the opportunity pass to create a fearsome war paint on our faces for the way ahead.
On we went, always keeping to the eastern trees. I peeked ahead and then lured beasts in the waiting blades of the group until it was safe for all to cross and repeat the procedure just a bit further south.
None of the feared stronger BROs bothered us, not even an LDAV was to be seen and just like that we reached the southern mountains, where we relaxed and tried to regain a little strength in the safe before we passed Ogrus Han on his plateau leading into the pirate caves. When i tried to scout ahead though, i disturbed a pack of LDVs and Frenzymac had no chance to escape when two of them pinned him down with his back to the steep mountainside. Eventually we managed to secure the region again, fending of the vermines and a Dred, but Ariel and Frenzymac had suffered wounds too severe for Tarra to heal alone. Not even a healing potion helped getting Frenzy to his feet and our prayers died away unheard.
After i had futilely looked for places to crawl through the densely standing trees on our way i was eager to do so on the way to the portal and we were quite sure we wouldn´t be able to chain the fallens back to safety, so a plan was forged. Every one of the remaining Arilonians would step west and run north as fast and far as he could, with the one getting furthest winning this race to death. Of course i intended to run along the eastern line of trees to keep an eye on possible paths, but immediately my lack of field practice became my doom. A gap i judged broad enough to pass through suddenly was blocked by the Zerk coming from behind the treetrunk and my trail of pursuers sealed off the backway - i had become trapped not even a mile away from our starting point, still more than 5 away from the portal place! It took the vermine quite some time to bring me down, but eventually i fell without managing to wriggle out of the trap. Still, it had been a most impressive hunt, thanks to the great group!

Canyon? A walk in the park...umh.. dark!

2009-08-09T11:22:00.005+02:00

Another short time out of the tower brought the next visit to a wrongly feared area, the Canyon! Balaforn had earned the title Ferrumo by impressing the fighters guild enough and so we set out to Dinken to buy a freshly forged hatchet. Except for some nasty snakes whose bites caused a temporary nausea, the way there was rather uneventful, pieces of hyenas were flying left and right as we carved our path to the town. Although Mordor and myself had not much time left i got the idea to peek into the depths of the canyon.
We climbed down the ladder and immediately some dim shapes waddled our way and red eyes glowed in the dark. I moved without thought and brought the hatchet down hard between the nearest pair of eyes. I heard the crack of bones and when i lifted my weapon the limp body of a dark vermine slid down from it. I had no time to wonder, as the shapes had come closer and were now recognizable as fungi.
We closed in around the first one and soon had chopped it into pieces, but the other required immediate attention by trying to wound us. I don´t know how long it took to fight them - illuminated only by the glowing healing crystals of our healers, the sun never touches these depths - but quite soon we stood there alone, only a nasty beetle was still around.
We finally managed to trap it near one of the steep walls and began trying to pierce its chitin hide. I managed to evade its bite most of the time, but the fight began lasting quite a while until we realised that just when we had made a scratch into it the blood began to dry and the wound to close. Either this beetle had studied long under T'rool and Hyenas or both of them are just poor nature's imitats of this creatures healing abilities and so we finally left it alone. Still, the first snell of the canyon again proved of not much difficulty, i can´t wait which formerly hard area i´ll conquer next time i wake up!

Orga Woods? Piece of cake!

2009-08-08T12:58:00.002+02:00

Some days ago i woke from my meditational state - in which i had fallen after hearing from the higher beings at the meeting that eventually evil will overwhelm our beloved lands and there´s nothing we can do about it - eager to stretch and hunt. Luckily a group was about to head to the Orga Camp and so i quickly joined them.
Only some Zippos and Ari made some problems when we cleared Camp 2 and so we set on toward Camp 3. We didn´t encounter much resistance along the way and so decided to make a detour to the Grendels, who we brought down and devided their riches among ourselves. Upon arrivl at Camp 3 i found that i brick the Trotzkis fairly well as well as hit them. Camp 3 itself wasn´t populated that much and so we had quickly conquered it. Some cowards had even climbed the steep wall in the camp to evade our blades.
Being in a bloodrage we didn´t care about having just Lafaborns healing skills around and so decided to go on and have a look into the Orga Woods. Neither stronger BROs nor Large Dark Vermines tried to bar our way there and so we arrived safely in the cave leading to the forest. A quick look outside showed some LDVs, an Orga Dredlock and some minor Orgas. Together the fighters set out to get rid of the furry vermines, which worked pretty well.
With healing up just once we managed to go out again together and reduce the rest of the Orga until finally we only had the Dredlock to face. He fought desperately, but i managed to evade his blows well enough, while every strike of McM and Ari caused gaping wounds in his hide. Finally our foe sank on his knees and died, we had conquered the first snell easily!
Sadly i had to leave again and so this short, but funny trip ended with a run home via several paths.

Hear ye, hear ye!

2009-06-25T17:53:00.003+02:00

An important meeting for all the inhabitants of Arilon has been called for on Friday the 25th at 21:00. I wonder what is so important as to gather as many as possible of us.

Into the Urdar Mines

2009-06-20T10:55:00.006+02:00

Yesterday i came out of meditower to find the world covered with a thin layer of fog. At least, to my eyes it seemed to be, others told me it was a fine day, so i guess it only was some sleep still clinging to my eyes. I wandered around a little, until i was asked to join a group going into the Urdar mines. At first i hesitated, wondering if i´d be of any use with seeing things through a thin veil, but some exercises with my hatchet showed me that at least my muscles worked properly and so i went after them. The first snell was quickly cleared and in the second we met not only bats and spiders, but also Urdar ghosts.
It was surprisingly hard to hit them where they would feel it and only Dresko seemed to have gotten these lessons from Battuo yet. Still, with some patience we managed to bring them down. At the next crossing we turned north and landed in a dead end, but had the chance to see a marvellously carved statue of a dragon in a paved spot.
Sadly we could linger much longer as the spiders were reproducing quickly and more and more ghosts came toward us, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. The next way to the north was blocked too. We could the the remnants of a stone wall, but boulders had crashed down from the ceiling and stopped us even before.
Just around the corner we suddenly faced a dozen urdars and ghostspiders. We managed to bring down several of them, but our healers slowly failed to heal our wounds as fast as we got hurt and more and more urdar mages showed up, hurling their lightening on us.
Our lines wavered and we had to watch our back too. I managed to cut the legs of two of the ghostspiders and gather them intact, but there was no time to examine them further as we were pressed back.
We tried to run to a safe, but one by one we fell, some bitten, some hit and especially he fighters powerless against lightening stikes coming from all directions. Only Newt managed to reach the safe and for once the steep ground that caused the bodies of Crash and Lafa to slide down to it seemed to be helpful. But in the end even Newt fell to the creatures waiting for him just outside the safe and so we were finally defeated.
Back in town i immediately talked to Battuo, asking him to teach me more, so that i soon may be able to find the weak spots even of ghosts.

Wake up - it´s hunting time!

2009-06-19T18:36:00.004+02:00

The last days i was lucky enough to come out of the meditower right when a hunt was about to start. Two days ago i was asked to join a group going to Yarimada. We made our way pretty quickly to the first tower, although with all the weight i have gained i was out of breath a little when we arrived. We made our way down to the basement and then disturbed the water in the well to summon the first Orga. I had to watch my balance in this fight even more than usual, always fearing to stagger and land in the water.
All in all the hunt was very successful. We proceeded well and had nearly no trouble with the bigger Orgas or the Pirates. At one point we didn´t watch out though, and Newt fell. Tarra and me had to wait for Crash to chain him to town and come back with Tofors additional healing power. Together we gathered the last pearls for the firerum Crash wanted to get. Although i fell on my way home, as it had become rather late it had been a very nice trip.
The next day i awoke and was immediately occupied with sorting my thoughts as i received lots of questions wether i´d stay awake longer with my thinking crystal. Soon it was decided to hunt in Ardvell and i headed to the eastern Kittytemple. Sadly there´s still no way to avoid the waterway if no portal-trained mage is available and due to the mage chosing the wrong landing place i had to search for a safe place to wait for them.
When we finally arrived on the spider plateaus, we immediately started killing some spiders. It went quite well, only advancing too fast into the next snell without looking and landing amidst a dozen mammuth spiders made some problems, but the group reacted quickly and solved the dangerous situation excellently.
After a while we were heading west and south from the landing place. Suddenly we saw a ladder mounted on a steep part of the cliffs to our right. We quickly agreed that it had not been there in the past, but of the builders we could find no sign. We climbed up and made a quick end to the Ch'omaks.
The small plateau was connected to one further south by a small rift, invisible to the untrained eye. But our way led into the cave opening and so we found ourselves in a new entrance into the Noth caves. We were not able to destroy some of the catapults that make the boat travel to Ardvell even more dangerous, but some of the hooded inhabitants of the caves fell to our blades. I was pretty excited and curious how well we can perform in Noths already, but as it had become late i gathered what courage i had and made my way home over the river alone. Luckily i encountered just a single Sekat and so was able to row safely home, where i started meditating, wondering which hunt will start the next time i wake up.

Challenges!

2009-06-13T10:11:00.003+02:00

Not much has happened the last days. One day i woke up when a call for help in Boanyoo reached me. Due to my skills in finding paths that shorten the way significantly i soon arrived at the entrance to the area, where Sophos and a pretty sick-looking Rion were waiting for me. We had just climbed outside when a bunch of poisonous lizards came running towards us, trying to find victim to intoxicate. We were able to fend them off and even an Earthwyrm didn´t stop us on our way to the fallens.
The rescue then turned into a nice small hunt through Boanyoo, although a good many of the lizards were about, making you watch every step and always trying to keep yourself between the purple creatures and the healers. In the south we had some challenging moments when we met two Snigils and a sandworm at once or when a large group of Jawas tried to lay a hand to our purses. It was fun, but somehow i felt the challenge missing that had made the area even more interesting before.
Later that day we tried to hunt in Ardvell, but sadly there were always people sleeping or having to leave, so that Leda ported some of us in vain to Ardvell and back again. I decided it was time to prove myself again and so i started trying myself on several challenges offered throughout the lands in the last days. While some, like the wildcat challenge required a bit of preparation, others were managed quite easy. With the help of Lafaborn i was able to hunt enough Derain snakes, Barwidgee wolves and rats in time to complete the challenge on the very first try, i´m really grateful for the help of my clanmate here. Others, like the foxchallenge seem to require more preparation than i had thought on the first try, but i´m confident that i will be able to complete this and other challenges pretty soon.
Other than that i´ve begun to use my short muscle-stretchings outside of meditower for quick searches of ore. Recently Bertus has shown that he is really working and not only pretending to and as i´d like to have my own house one day i´m now providing some more building materials for him than i have in the past.
I´ve also made a proclamation for another try of the LDV-hunt, i´m really curious if enough people turn up this time to do what i intend to try.

Bugs!

2009-06-03T14:04:00.004+02:00

Once more a group of Arilonians sat in town, some discussing what to do, others napping peacefully. Suddenly a brown bug appeared walking on its hind legs, its wings on the back buzzing frantically, but unable to lift the massive body, and the forelegs raised for attack. At first just a few of the Blymoids appeared and we quickly slew them.
But with passing time stronger Blymoids appeared, like the red shimmering ones or the ones looking like innocent walrusses. These made for tough fights in town and we had a hard time to bring them down.
I hadn´t heard or seen anything from them since we had defeated Snarl, so i was pretty much suprised by their attack, especially considering that Snu should be grateful for our help. But maybe with their newly won strength the Blymoids now want to take revenge for their losses taken in that struggle. I wouldn´t be surprised to find that they have dug entrances from their hives to the surface again.

Later i was invited to join an expedition to Marranyin, the newly discovered area east of Ravyn. Before i knew what i´d have to face i had agreed and so i suddenly found myself not walking towards the path, but to another way into the area, which involves not only a long trip with the boat, but also running through a dark cave which houses the Grendel-like Thyonen, which are as dark and being pursued by them try not to fall into the water but jump in one of the boats! Luckily the river we had to row along lay still and was too muddy for any hostile fish to live in.
We then fought our way back north along the river, where mostly kojotes were to be found and we managed to collect several of their furs.
We then turned east, into the desert, where we met quite a lot of the adult Raste-Winder, who were a big challenge to us, as well as several cobras. These reptiles seem to feel completely at home in this hot, sandy environment on which not even Kudzu will grow.
Suddenly we saw some palm trees ahead and when we got closer we could make out a small lake and some houses. We made a small break in this village, it is called Weyiny, to investigate the houses and took the opportunity to drink to compensate for the fluid loss in the outside. Several rooms held bookshelves, but most of the books were too fragile to handle. One of their inhabitants may be worth another visit though, he is selling spiked shields.
Next we began a systematic walk over the spiderplateaus in the northeast of the region. Crash ran with his map from landmark to landmark while i took the opportunity to study the surroundings for possible paths. We did find a safe with someone off ering coins for slaying lots of the spiders in a short time and a lower lying area with a pyramid inside, but we couldn´t make out any way down. A monolith in the plains made me wonder about their purpuse though, maybe one of our mages will find a way to transport people through them.
We were already heading back, when suddenly i accidently brushed one of the sand-towers and a group of angry termites stormed out to defend it. While the small ones were killed quickly, the mediumsized bugs seemed to have a very thick chitinarmour that we could pierce only after lots of tries. Soon after we found a gaping hole in the ground and as it turned out, this was the entrance to an old mine that the termites have taken over.
It had become late and so we didn´t go deep in, but headed back to the river. Several kojotes seemed to take us for a worthwhile meal, but in the end we managed to bring them down and continue on our way. Minowia and me headed back to Arilon by then, while Newt, leda and Falk were already waiting for the rest of the group to go back. I´m curious about the discoveries they can tell me when i meet them next.

No LDV - but still a nice hunt

2009-06-01T10:55:00.005+02:00

In the last days i wasn´t travelling around that much, most noteworthy was a Wendiehunt. We did quite well and managed to kill the wendies quickly, only forgetting in our frenzy that the forceful strikes crashed the skulls of our opponents. Even Night- and a Morningwendecka were no obstacle for us and so we made it all the way to the narrow valley in the north blocked by rubble, where a moment of unawareness together with a Bloodback made an end to our hunt.I had also heard of the Cursed Marsh, a swamp in the south where it was all too easy to get lost, but which was said to be home to Kajmanos. To not get lost i decided to visit just the entrance to this area, but i didn´t even get as far as that. The so-called swamp is covered by more than kneedeep water! It seems i have to either purchase the Kajmanoskins i need or travel by boat to the Ardvell swamp, which is at least a little drier.
After my previous two crystals that i have really liked have unfortunately crumbled lately, i have decided it was time to combine some of those i still had in a more offensive way and so asked mages to mount several crystals that enhance my force of swings. I´m pretty happy with the result as these cougars had to find out.
Yesterday i had planned the first "LDV - Large Death Voyage", an open hunt that my clan Fast Feet plans to hold regularly from now on. Sadly just 7 Arilonians were present and so the plan to hunt through the Orga Woods was a bit overambitious. Instead we decided on a tour through the normal Orga Camp. We started with Camp 2, where i found that bricking Trotzkis is well within my abilities now. On we went into the underground cavern to challenge the Orga Chief. It took two tries, but eventually the big Orga crashed to the floor and didn´t move anymore, while we happily devided the coins from his treasure.
Back in Camp 2 we finally met several furies but had to experience that fighting more than two at once was too hard. But regrouping and advancing a little slower then made quick work of the furies.
After the Camp was cleared again we headed for Camp 3 with a short sidestep to the Grendels. Camp 3 and the northern passage were rather uneventful, not even a handful furies and only a single LDV were waiting for us. At the ladder we then met Leda and together entered to visit the Wyrms. Thanks to Ledas mental enhancements we had no bigger problems with two Wyrms at a time, but often we found ourselves in the middle of another spawn as we weren´t fast enough with killing. Nevertheless, these situations were not only challenging, but also great fun, at least to me.
In the end many wanted to try to reach the far end of the cave and investigate the entrance to the den there that had always been blocked in the past. I was still very sceptical that we could reach it, but with some determined trying to kill as fast as possible and some luck with rather empty western snells we finally made it. The dense carpet of poisonous mushrooms in front of the destination made some trouble and 2 of our 3 healers fell to them. Falk and Lafa tried several tactics to reach them, but none worked. In the end we managed to get everyone back on their feet though and headed back home, as it had become late. The controlled hunt became a flight when we ran into half a dozen Wyrms who followed us all the way to the entrance of the cave, but in the end we survived even this dangerous situation and so arrived exhausted, but happy back in town, although the planned LDV had to be cancelled.

Baking in the Sun

2009-05-27T21:32:00.005+02:00

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

2009-05-26T14:31:00.005+02:00

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

2009-05-06T17:38:00.002+02:00

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

2009-05-05T10:02:00.005+02:00

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.

Do horseshoes improve your luck?

2009-04-23T14:18:00.004+02:00

Some days ago a big group of bored Arilonians sat in town and couldn´t decide where to hunt. We had just started moving towards the savanna dragon cave, when we had to turn, as not everyone favoured the area and the group would have been too small. So we finally decided to visit Dinken and then Ravyn.
This proved to be a good idea. On the way through the wasteland hyena parts were flying to the right and left on our path, nothing could stand to Dreskos and Graviers Oakbashers and my Hatchet. A short visit at Hannes later, we entered the lower plains of Ravyn. We started of quite well, although the first cobra brought a surprise: it opened its mouth and bit one of us! All previously encountered specimen had passively watched intruders into their territory. In the end they didn´t prove to be much of a threat, especially as they didn´t evade blows as easily when trying to bite someone.
We then started a tour all through Ravyn, first leading north. At the wagon with the merchant offering golden horseshoes we had a critical situation, but thanks to the chainers survived. We fought lots of horses and bisons and managed not only to skin several valuable furs, but also found two intact horseshoes. Finally we arrived at the eastern river, but the only bridge is barred by someone demanding 22 more golden horseshoes to let us pass.
In the south more and more giant bisons crossed our path, but they were not much of a challenge to our group. Only stallions or a bigger number of mares presented real trouble to us, but we always prevailed until we decided to slowly head back home.
We had just come back to the western cliff with the wastelands towering above us, when our group was overrun by half a dozen stallions. I fell pretty fast standing in the first rank, but most of the others made it back east. I only heard distant noises, but after quite some time Tarra, the last standing healer, fell too. So we had to depart, but it had been a fine hunt.
As a conclusion i can only state that one horseshoe may improve your luck, but several dozen still attached to stallions feet certainly do not.

Investigations and a missed chance

2009-04-20T10:27:00.004+02:00

The past two days i´ve travelled to lots of hunting grounds again, sometimes just for the fun of testing my strength, sometimes to hunt alone, sometimes with a group. The first destination was the Tundra, where we hoped that one of the previous storms had blown a hole to the impassable northern rock and wood formation. Right at the cliff from the Bisonplains we had to face the first snow tigers and quickly slew them. I had just started complaining about how sparsely populated the cold region is, when we ran into two packs of several Tundra wolves. The group did a great job bringing these down.
I even managed to recover several of their furs, one worth 21 coins. But as it is, when you become too bold and boast about having a hand for furs: i ruined the next few furs, harvesting several taunting comments from the rest of the group. Still, the wolves and some bears proved to be worthy opponents and it was fun to fight them. Once an ice maha threatened to overwhelm us, but thanks to the mages and their boosts i was able to fell it at last.
After we couldn´t find a change in the landscape anywhere in the north or west of the Tundra we decided to quickly visit the Glaciomyrms queen chamber and look for diamonds. We had bad luck, though, only one royal myrm was present, surrounded by dozens of lesser myrms, so that we went home after a quick sidestep to the snow vermine chamber.
The rest of the day passed rather uneventful, but the next day Leda invited to a small trip to Boanyoo, where she wanted to investigate several spots. Our small group of 4 people headed there and did pretty well until we got to the graveyard. In the little chaos of retreat after Rions and my skin were rotting due to having touched foul zombies, Tarra got bitten by poisonous lizards, which was the beginning of our luck fading. We next went north to the huts sheltered in the small forest and even more lizards were laying in ambush for our healer and mage. Eventually we came near the northern village and its safe fence, but several bandits and a moment of unawareness suddenly led to me being the only survivor of our group. It took some time until my wounds closed, but then i made a run back to the middle entrance where i met with the rescue team. Via Derain and the northern entrance we managed to advance until we reached the fallens and could rescue them. Leda looked a bit disappointed on the way back, so i assume she didn´t find anything useful in the village or at the other spots.
A while later i was hunting some horses in Niamph when suddenly i found i couldn´t lift my left arm any more. My shieldhand dangled at my side and while i was still wondering what was causing the stiffness, i felt a hoof colliding with my back only a moment before another one hit my chest. The air rushed out of my lungs and all went black. I woke a bit later lying helpless on the ground and had to wait for help. The rescue team had a hard time getting through all the spiders to me, as they had no pathfinder among them. On the way back i could show them the shortcut through the spiders, only to see them land in the middle of a huge amount of mammuth spiders. I´m really sorry for all the trouble i have caused and thankful to the rescuegroup who eventually managed to bring me back to town.
A more pleasant surprise for me was the realisation that i finally learned to be swift enough to avoid a Nightwendeckas strikes. Too bad that in my joy i forgot to care for their precious skins.
After a small sleep i awoke again, only to find that Splashs newest event "Knock the Splash" had already started. Unfortunately i had forgotten about it and so wasn´t one of the candidates who got the chance to compete with him. I only arrived for the final celebration of Penthka, who could not only beat Falk in the first stage but also Splash in the real event, congratulations! I hope the next event of this series will be soon to give me the chance to participate as well.

The best cure for meditation stiffness

2009-04-18T09:54:00.004+02:00

After quite some time of meditation i woke up yesterday, eager for adventures, but stiff from the long time i had not moved. Of course the most effective treatment for this is a hunt, although the beginning feels not easy. And so i ran to the Orga Camp to catch up with a group who wanted to pay the Orga Chief a visit. I saw them soon and we ventured into the depths of the cave. In the beginning the fight seemed to go well, but badly wounded the Orga summoned the last of his strength and killed all the fighters. I had ducked too late and so could not be raised again by the healers. The rest of the fight i had to watch lying around, but the others were generous enough to bring me my part of the Orgas treasure after its death. A prayer and some quickly collected, sacrificed mushrooms from Rion then propitiated the gods who send us some healing potions that helped raising Achima and me.
A sudden urge made me run back to town, but in the passage i encountered two large death vermines. While i could lose one, the other followed me south to the ford and once again i was too inflexible yet to avoid it. I felt a sharp pain and fell into a coma, from which i only awakened in Reizendes tree some time later.
After this Leda invited me to enjoy a test of her newest achievement: the ability to open a portal to Ardvell! We went hunting some red spiders, but due to the small group didn´t make that much progress and were in constant danger of being hurt too much to be healed, which eventually was Penthkas fate and the end to our hunt.
Seeing Penthka reminded me again that the last time i had seen her she had still looked for a drop of Chabyllusblood and therefore i visit Sunken again. I hadn´t been down there for quite long and as it seemed no one else either, as way more creatures than normal greeted me. I also encountered lots of Chabys and Kraskajos and enjoyed this change to the more frequently visited hunting grounds. As a result, Penthka can now organise her big sh opping tour.
Next i ventured south and tried to collect some horsefurs, but soon dark clouds approached the sky. I had just started running back to town to seek shelter, when i felt the first drops coming down. I was so shocked by them i stopped dead in my track and nearly let myself be trapped by a horde of Niamph spiders, but i could escape and finally arrived in town, a little wet, but i am sure worse was to come. I had indeed just found a comfortable position to meditate, thunder crashed and rain came pouring down.
When i sensed the weather calming down i emerged from the tower again. The rain had caused lots of strange plants to grow in town, among them Treangi bloodbushes, wake-me-ups and strange starflowers. Suddenly i heard the heavy steps of something big and in the next instant i faced a bloodoak towering over me, trying to grab and crush me! With Penthkas help i managed to make firewood of it, but somehow this storm seemed to have made lots of creatures seeking out Arilon and so we had to fight through dozens of Myrms, bats, frogs and others until we could nearly not move any more 1w, because the blood had made a mudpool of the earth and the Myrms chitinskins made sharp-edged traps threatening to slice through bare feet.
The evening then brought back a feel of the time before the great storm. A big group went to hunt Ardvell spiders, with Aridor going first, falling and so causing more and more mammuth spiders to venture into the portal cave. I managed to trap the first two with kudzu, but just when i ran out of these useful plants, some more came into the cave. First we tried luring and picking one off to kill, but with me luring the others were short a fighter and this failed. Finally i could convince the spiders to follow me outside and push Aridor inside, so that the spiders lost interest in the corner with the cave and we could heal up and get coordinated.
After that we hunted for quite some time in the area between the portal cave and the big Inn to the south, with several people being ported back and forth to leave of join us. I had a great time, learning a lot and getting more than enough practise in the luring of spiders. I´m sure now that Leda can safely open the portal we will visit the area more frequently.
As an end to the hunt we had to take the boats, as Falk had fallen in Kajmanos. Leda's magic shield saved me from drowning when we were surprised by two Sekats and so it was not as bad as it could have been. In the swamp we quickly found Falks corpse, slaying the Anaconda, that had been his fate on our way. I arrived back in town exhausted, but happy and with the thought not to meditate as long as last time.

The Thieves Fortress

2009-04-08T15:51:00.004+02:00

After some days of mostly meditating and some tries of different challenges i decided it was time again to hunt properly. Yesterday Tarra had invited everyone to join a hunt through the Ardvell forest to change spidereggs for brooms in the thieves village there and so i joined in. We had just started when we met several Ashursos. Luckily we had to face at most two at a time and so we managed to bring down these bears after tough struggles.
On the way to the village we had to carve our way through seemingly endless hordes of Lupos and Boars with sharp tusks. Sadly in the tries to bring them down we often striked towards their head and in the end just one of them went down with intact tusks that Malachym could recover. When we arrived at the village my battlemood rose to new heights, as several barking watchdogs came running for us, accompanied by some Chocolateursos and thieves. Slowly we got the upper hand and managed to enter the village.
After a short look around and finding a hut on the western end to be safe in case of emergency we gathered to storm the fortress. My nose smelled even more dogs when i came closer to the door and indeed the thieves seem to keep the main force of them inside this structure. We had to retreat several times to heal gasping wounds. Still, our group was big and disciplined enough to defeat one foe after the other until the ground floor was in our hand. We climbed a ladder in one of the towers and tried to storm the next floor, but several Ladrons came running, capes flying behind, knives in hand and so we had to retreat to scatter them and gain control again. To avoid dying so close to our target we decided to lure Ladrons from the roof, which went quite smooth until we decided to climb up as the region around the ladder looked empty. Well, of course the Ladrons were just standing in the corners and so we had to retreat and were nearly killed by the following thieves. Luckily some healers managed to avoid their knives and could heal me, so i could distract them long enough for the others to be raised and the room being secured again. Frenzymac looked a bit pale, as he had glimpsed his greatest fear on the roof: a black-clad Ladron! To my surprise when facing him alone we had quite few problems bringing him down, encouraged by Frenzys cheers.
After this fight we took over the roof as well and visited Fasiná, a handsome Kyttyn, who handed out selfmade brooms in return for some red spidereggs. Back on the roof we fought another black Ladron, this one wearing even a black cape and no red as the first one had. But the belief in our strength had grown too much for him to stand a chance against our combined weapons and so we quickly gathered again in the middle of the village. As several people wanted to leave soon it was decided to head back via a path. On the other side we soon found out that it had been a good idea to take the long way to the village and not take the path: we were immediately surrounded by several dozen wolves, some thieves and several grey Ursos! Luckily about half the group made it to the northern border, where the trees grow more narrow and made a stand there until the opening was secure enough to go back and help the others. After this last challenge i headed back to the meditower, satisfied after a nice hunt and with a broom for the enhanced cuirass in my bag.

The End - April Fool

2009-04-01T13:17:00.004+02:00

As the pages run out and the ink goes dry this will be my last entry into my diary. Here i´ve written down many great adventures i´ve had as well as funny encounters and hard-earned achievements. I want to thank all of my frequent readers, you are the main reason i kept this up for so long!
But from now on my travels will only live on in my memory, so if you want to know about them, come out of the meditower and experience them at my side.

Of course this was just a joke, although the low number of reactions (and as the librarian told me, readers in general) may lead to this becoming real sometime.

Scales in the Dark

2009-03-31T11:02:00.004+02:00

For the first time since the great storm i joined a group to the southern dragon caves. Although we took some shortcuts to get there, the way was quite exciting. Outside Salynos we fought a cobra and the dunes around the cave were bustling by half a dozen large sandworms. We killed all of them and i was a little disappointed noting that these immense creatures were not all worth a vanquish anymore.
We had just entered the cave, our eyes still not adjusted, when from all directions we could hear strange sounds rushing towards us. Many-colored scales glittered in the dark and furry shadows ran past. But we held our ground, trapping and killing beast after beast until the cave was in our hand.
We then set out to hunt in the dark den, often only warned by some scales reflecting some source of light before another dragon launched itself or a ball of fire at us. There were some close situations, but all in all we managed quite well. We even found a handful of emeralds, but sadly no rubys that we had set out for at first. We were lucky to meet mostly baby dragons though, the fire of adults proved devastating still, so we had to leave those alone.

Summer Refreshments

2009-03-30T14:38:00.003+02:00

While most Arilonians enjoy the height of summer with long, warm days, the inhabitants of the colder places of our known world seem to feel less comfortable. Wether their native regions are becoming too warm in summer or if they just wanted to cause some trouble will remain unknown, but a huge pack of whitefurred animals attacked the Arilonians yesterday.
While the snowvermines, tigers or cougars didn´t pose much of a threat anymore, the giant snowvermines bites caused devastating wounds on those too slow to evade them. As no healers were around when the first creatures appeared this caused some trouble, but with more people leaving the meditower the situation improved. All of a sudden yells of fear were to be heard: a frostgiant had sneaked up and caused some chaos. In the end we had to lure it away, hoping it to melt or die of heat, as our weapons all slid along his icy hide but could not penetrate it.

My Preciousss

2009-03-26T10:44:00.003+01:00

After some time of meditation i woke up to learn that a storm had swept the lands. It turned out to have uncovered the previously hidden entrance to a cave northeast of the Urdarvillage in the Crocovalley. First glimpses have shown black Myrmustenen living in the deep. Their rough environment has made them evolve into tough opponents fighting fiercely against intruders. One proof for that is my quick scetch of one of their royals, who could propably rise to queenstatus in every other tribe.
Yesterday we went into the T'roolhives to kill every defender of their main chambers in the hope to find some of their valuable stones. While the group for Paghos and Rugumond was quite big, it disbanded afterwards. It took quite some asking from me until i found people who joined the trip to the Sharags, the only tribe i still needed a stone of. Finally Jazzmertize and Dresko came with me and thanks to a well planted wall of Kudzu we could begin fighting the T'rool as soon as we had entered our selfmade fort. It was a bloody battle and i have no idea where Dresko took the time to catch all the Sharags blood to sell it, but in the end we were rewarded. One of the redskinned creatures died and i saw a stone rolling out of its pocket. I jumped after it and i finally held the desired Sharag stone in my hand!
Immediately after we had cleared the chamber, i went to Glofur to fetch some money and travelled back south to the Paghorim tribe. As a token of my dislike for the other tribes i handed one of them a stone of each of them and in exchange for some more money and gold i finally received what i had long tried to get: a Paghorim necklace! While these T'rool are certainly not the finest smiths around and the necklace is rather crude, the charme of their jewelry lies in their regenerative aura for the wearer.
A little later my clanmates Dresko and Lafaborn and set out with me for a small hunt. We went to Bisons, where a cobra near the path we took nearly ended our hunt before it had begun. But we managed to hurt it severely before we fell and so Lafa could raise us. We took revenge and began killing our way through the plains. I took great pleasure in skinning the soft furs of bisons and wolves, although i had to sharpen my knife several times due to the many beasts we slayed. It didn´t take long until we found the leather we had come for and so we ventured on towards the Tundra. Hunting there was great as both of us fighters had the skill to hit the beasts there. I had so much fun that i forgot to sharpen my knife and when we killed a bear this proved desastrous. The fur gleamed like freshly fallen snow and was as soft as one could wish, the hair fine. I estimated it to be worth 90 coins, but when i set the cut, my dulled knife tore an ugly slash right through it and it was ruined. Still, we managed to bring down several tough opponents and only ended our hunt due to a call for help from Ardvell.
It turned out that some Ogopogos were guarding the waterways and had ambushed a group. Although i dislike the way there i agreed to help, eager to make the waterways as safe as possible and helping Leda to get to the portal. The gigantic amphibians were killed one after the other. With a group of decent size this isn´t much of a problem any more. I was most relieved that i could not only hit it with my oar without making the small boat oscillate too much, but also evade some of its blows by lying flat before its jaw swept over my boat. Qwert was so happy about his rescue that he turned into a frog chasing after some flies. I would never have thought an Urdar would make for a frog light enough to walk over the water.
After this we made our way north towards the portal. Some mammuth spiders tried to stop us but they were quickly brought down by the group. As it had become late, i then took the portal home and went meditating, happy to be finally wearing a necklace.

Care for your friends

2009-03-11T10:56:00.005+01:00

I had just left the meditower, when i was asked if i wanted to come to Eilean to hunt some horses. Knowing it for a tough challenge and deceived by Graviers claim that they had cleared the sea of fish trying to sink any boat i ventured north. Of course the sea was as dangerous as ever, but i rowed in a frenzy and arrived on dry land soon. On eilean we had a hard time killing one horse after the other, falling when another appeared and waiting for Frenzy to rescue everyone several times. After some time Knuff had to go and so we decided to change places too.
The small rest of the group decided to go to the Glacier. On the way there i used a small break of the rest to find out that Snowtigers are easy prey now and that i can´t hit Tundrawolves yet unless several others around it distract it from me hits. Once in the glacier i started luring bigger Myrm from their chambers to the waiting blades of the rest. While we managed to kill the nobles quite fast, royals took all our strength to bring them down. Once again Frenzy proved to be the live saver and with time we even found several sparkling diamonds.
Some rescues later it was time for the next drawing of Zifers lottery. Hanashi came as well, as she had been called to share infos about the most recent events with her. We told her of the note we had come by, as well as the think of Qush. Additionally some brave Arilonians seemed to have gotten a hand to more messengers going north at Leilah and we now possess several books written in a strange language. Hanashi examined the note and together with what she knew pieced together that indeed the Dor'Shak has been defeated and won´t be a threat for quite some time. Still, it might be possible that the others named in the note, seemingly also disciples of the evil Arindal, might want revenge or that now other enemies try to conquer our town and our Arindal.
The way it is now, the world is kept in balance and everyone may walk freely where he chooses to. Should one side manage to hold both Arindal though, they´d have the power to control everything. Therefore we must continue to do everything thats necessary to keep others away from our town. In the days that had passed Hanashi had also gathered some more news. She could tell us that known actions of Merown were directed against both sides and so for the moment we should assume he has not chosen a side. Also she could tell us that rumors of the other Arindal having been in the robber kytten hideout in the infested woods were just that: rumors. When Gravier asked her on which side Ugh and Irina stand, she could only give us good advice. The two of them are still free, to do as they please, but if we respect them and help them they may become powerful allies. We should just remember their needs before the enemy does and they turn against us. With the promise to contact the keeper of the books and then tell us what she may find out, Hanashi wished us good luck for the drawing and left.
What followed was the drawing of the lottery. The numbers 11, 14, 18 and 24 fell out of the magic machine, leaving me without any matching number. Even in the ticket roulette i ended up with no win.

News

2009-03-10T11:24:00.003+01:00

For some time Dasumia is back in the lands. Some talks with her showed that even over all this time she longs for news of her beloved Man'tao and nurished her hate for Merown. Much more important for me was what she told me yesterday though. She had news about Leaticia! Oh, how i had longed for any hint what had happened to my love when the great storm swept over us. I had feared she might have been in the open or in our house, which had been completely borne away. Now, after all these years, Dasumia told me she had seen her shortly before the storm, wandering away to a safe place. Still, these news are bittersweet, although i know now that she is alive, her last wish was to be left alone to fulfil a task she didn´t even know and bid no one searching for her. As much as i hope she is well and respect her wish, i don´t know if i really can stand not searching for her, talking to her once more.
The next news are way more disturbing. Some Arilonians caught a guy in a red robe with 2 Zerk bodyguards passing through town. They managed to lay hand on a note the person was carrying and it read: Dor'Zain, I will rule this town soon, those people are weak. Please prepare the next steps. The zodiac is Himero. Ask Dor'Van about the gems, you will need the blue ones, not the red ones! And don't forget to feed my Zerk. Dor'Shak As there was no date on the note we began to fear that Dor'Shak was either still well or had recovered far faster than assumed. It also tells us the names of at least two more disciples of the dark Arindal or maybe helpers of the Dor'Shak. I guess we have to ask the mage guild when the time of the Himero-zodiac will come and ponder about what blue gems we know. Maybe he means sapphires or topaz?
Suddenly another Zerk appeared, then another robed figure and the second bodyguard. We quickly slew the Orga and then tried to capture the supposed messenger. He escaped us, but he must have means to communicate, as suddenly our thinking crystals sensed a message from Qush: "Take care. Don't transport the books and notes of lost master Dor'Shak through the town." This gives us yet another name and even more important the hint that the Dor'Shak may be defeated for the moment. Lets hope that the messengers don´t change their route, we should try to capture as many as possible and where it doesn´t work at least snatch away whatever they carry. Perhaps we could even manage to sneak after one, finding out what their destination in the east is.
Last, but not least, i am glad that we managed to accept Tofor into the clan, so that all the six founding members of the Fast Feet are now officially wearing our symbol.

The labor paid off

2009-03-09T15:19:00.003+01:00

Finally we can allow our backs to relax again, after spending several weeks either bent to the ground to search for traces of ore in stony regions or bent because of a bag full of ore or metals slung over the shoulder. Cas Luath has done a great job in erecting our hut and so we are the first clan to finish our own clanhouse.
As it seems at the moment everyone can enter, so until we get our own lock, we will keep some watchful pets in the house. Maybe they´ll make nice carpets later. Even more important than finishing the house is our now official recognition as a clan as of Merdi, Day 64 in Spring 574, allowing us to recruit more members and maybe other things too.

Defeating the Dor'Shak

2009-03-09T11:29:00.004+01:00

Yesterday finally the big battle had come. The Elders spy had done well and found out well before the Dor'Shak wanted to go to his laboratory and warned us. While we were gathering in town, Hanashi, the storyteller came to Arilon. She had quite some news for us. For one, she confirmed that another, evil Arindal exists, one that revives all the creatures hostile to us in the world. This other Arindal has also a group of people watching over it, like the Elders are mentally linked to ours. The downside to this link is, that if one of the Elders disciples like Lider is badly hurt it will take quite some time for the disciple as well as the Elder to recover. Dor'Shak on the other hand is a disciple of a watcher of the other Arindal. So while we can´t really kill him, defeating him with the Es'zpada would at least weaken him for a considerable amount of time. We also learned that Hanashi herself helps one of "our" disciples and that it is still unknown if Merown is one of the evil disciples.
After some good wishes we then made for Ceolsige again, the pirate town in Yarimada. Things went quite smooth until there, but then some people didn´t watch their step and stumbled down a ladder into the storeroom that i had wanted to avoid. It was narrow and two bombers made a quick end to any rescue. It was only until some of the more dangerous pirates wanted to get out and the remaining part of the group clearing the ranged attackers from the outside that we got out again.
The deepest floor of the ship proved dangerous as well. Several pirate priests had formed a circle around the ladder and together with some bombers made for a warm welcome. As people started fighting at the ladder all the ranged attacks were directed there and no one could move away to avoid it. Luckily with some chaining we could regroup upstairs again and when we just rushed through and got into the pirates backs they were quickly finished with.
From here on i had to steel myself and keep in mind that killing the Dor'Shak was very important, otherwise i might have turned in the prospect of the diving passages to come. The way into the mirrorroom that we got to last time went well again, except for some bombs greeting the first ones to enter a room here or there. And indeed, the Dor'Shak was waiting in this room! Next to him stood an impressive yellow Orga with a red sash. After some confusion we managed to start killing first the lesser minions and then go after the Orga. First he threatened us, then all he could do was yelling for his master before he took his last breath.
The Dor'Shak wasn´t so easy prey. He pulled his way out of traps, received healing energy that may have come from fallens from our group and merrily teleported himself through the room and ran in the mirrors. At first he laughed at us daring to attack him, but fear crept into his voice when i drew the Es'zpada. When i managed to hit him the red lightening ran all over his black robe and suddenly he seemed vulnerable to normal blades too, so maybe the sabre had been needed to finish some magic shield of his. We kept trying to trap him whereever he appeared and constantly stabbing into the robe, hoping to hit something vital. Suddenly blood was soaking his robe and we redoubled our efforts. The Es'zpada had not yet recharged its magic energy but it was as sharp as ever and then, all of a sudden, the Dor'Shak collapsed in a pile and disappeared afterwards. Unsure, we looked at each other: had this been his end? Somehow we all seemed to have expected some magic spectacle at his death, but the sabre that had been reforged by Durin seems to have only been the key to his shield and after this, he was (nearly) as vulnerable as anyone else. After all these months of Orga and pirate invasions, camps in the jungle, search for rare items in dangerous areas we now can hope to sleep peacefully again until the next foe foolishly steps up and tries to make our lifes miserable or put an end to them.

Silencing dogs

2009-03-04T15:22:00.005+01:00

Yesterday we were sitting in town and discussed once more a hunting destination. In the end we settled for Ardvell, but hoping for some reinforcements we delayed the start a bit. To kill the time (and some Orga) a small group decided to make its way to Orga Camp and pay a visit to the Orga Chieftain in the caves below Camp 2. The cave was heavily guarded, making fighting a challenge, but the situation was always under control.
As we killed our way further into the cave, Gravier and me already discussed who would get a chainride home, because he would be unhealable, because we had only 2 healers with us and the Chieftain is famous for his solid blows. But as Jazz pointed out, he is also very slow, so that in the end we managed to overwhelm him. Trapping and hacking until the situation gets critical, then luring and repeating proved a successful strategy. We were rewarded by discovering a nice, full chest the Orga was carrying around and quickly devided the coins.
No more people had shown up and so we made our way to Ardvell. My schooled eyes quickly found a way through the dense forest in the first snell, so we could avoid the run through the mazelike way leading deeper into the woods. First we turned south as i estimated the thieves village to lie just behind some trees and i wanted to examine the place for a way to slip through. I had just found a promising spot, when we were ambushed by a pack of barking watchdogs. First my heart beat much faster, then my hate for them took over and with cold determination we lured one after the other to the north and killed them. As much as i despise them, their furs are indeed very soft, leading to high prices.
After we got reinforced by another healer we ventured further into the forest, where Dresko demonstrated her impressive skill in guessing the creatures movements and so hitting with nearly every strike. When we encountered Ashursos we thought our hunt to be over, but we at least wanted to try to bring one of them down. We lured him away and much to our surprise didn´t have too many difficulties. I was able to evade nearly all his angry blows, while Dresko wounded him from the side, until we all tried to get a hit and in the end vanquished him. All in all it was a very nice hunt, especially the fights with the Ursos, of which we encountered a whole lot on our way back, were challenging and insturctive.

Durin returns

2009-03-02T12:30:00.003+01:00

Yesterday started with a nice little hunt to the hidden valley. After stripping the fur off some Caverncercops, we ventured south, fighting Tok'Han and rattlesnakes. The former leave deep wounds if you don´t manage to evade quickly enough, the latter pump their poison in your blood if they manage to bite you, so it was really nasty. In the end we arrived at the 4th circle testhouses, where Tarra, Jazzmertize and Frenzymac each tried to pass but sadly all failed.
Afterwards we went north to challenge some more cercops and hoping to find some dragons too. We did and even found an emerald. While hitting the beasts proved not so great a problem, i was rather disappointed to be hit by nearly everything living in this valley, i really have to train harder.

Later that day several people were relaxing in town when Durin Stonemaster appeared. He was so satisfied with the result of his forging that he asked to be called Durin Weaponmaster from now on. Indeed, the Es'zpada he had reforged is balanced very well and is very sharp. When you grip it, you feel like controlling a small thunderstorm, sure to plant fear in the heart of every enemy you strike at. As no one else dared to speak up, i took the weapon in my keep for now. Durins mood became even better when he got some Urdarbeer and when we promised to make a quick end to the Dor'Shak and his Orga minions, as he seemed to have been attacked by Orga in the jungle recently and had dropped his beer in shock.

Ceolsige Bay

2009-02-26T13:35:00.006+01:00

An eventful day has passed. When i woke up from a short nap in town, Durin Stonemaster had arrived and was in a conversation about the fountain with Newt. Soon we steered the talk to the reason for his visit and he told us that the Elders had contacted him to forge a weapon for us. He muttered quite a lot about not being a smith, being unable to reject the Elders and other unrightousnesses and it was not until i provided a barrel of beer for his dry throat that his mood became better. He still complained about the list of orders from the Elders and the urge of speed, but he took all the items we had gathered and promised to work swiftly. He will come back to Arilon as soon as he has finished the weapon. We agreed he could give it to any Arilonian as long as there were other witnesses so the weapon won't be missing all of a sudden. I hope whoever meets him will provide some beer for him to keep him in good mood.

Later i was to lead an expediation to the west. I intended to check the pirate docks, Ceolsige and its harbour for signs of the arrival of the Dor'Shak as well as his hidden laboratory. A huge group of up to 20 people followed and so we arrived at the pirate docks soon. Only 2 ships lay anchored there and although i couldn?t make out their names, they seemed to be the ones lying there for some time now. Because of this we headed on, Ceolsige being just a short trip away thanks to Leda activating the magic portal for us. The town looked unchanged, nowhere were signs of alchemy or Orga to be found. Only a big spiral-clam attached to one of the stone-pillars attracted my interest and i was wondering if it had always been there. This observation proved to be valuable later on. In the harbour we were surprised by many-oared pirate galleys, but our sheer number enabled us to battle and eventually sink them. We advanced to the gigantic ship anchored in the harbour and tried to climb it, but unsuccessfully. The main deck was simply much too high above the waterline. I had just called for a break in town and was pondering about the best way to search for another harbour or town in the west, when Lider contacted us with an urgent message. The Elders had managed to tranlate another nearly unrecognizable rune from the scroll, named shibumi. As it turned out, the rope ladder of the ship had been magically constructed and this was just the command to make it roll out and provide a way onto the ship for us! The deck showed many signs of being home to the Dor'Shaks minions, Pirates and Orga alike tried to drive us back into the water as soon as we set foot on the deck. But our group was big and experienced enough to kill the deckhands swiftly. The interior of the ship seemed to be acessible by two ladders and one door, so i decided to check the southern ladder first. It seemed easiest to search the cargo rooms in the belly of the ship first and leave the captains and officers quarters as last, as i expected resistance to be greatest there. The first people had just climbed down, when we heared yells of pain. The room turned out to have no cargo, but lightening-pillars instead! After some confusion, we regrouped on deck and after assigning some healers as rod points, we managed to destroy one pillar after the other and killing every moving foe around too. Suddenly a hooded fighter came running from the back of the room and caused confusion and deeps wounds among us. It took some time to trap him and get the group together again, as i couldn?t give proper orders, laying fallen in the middle of the maze-like wooden walls serving as room-deviders and therefore seeing nothing. But thanks to some boosts of our mages and the never-wavering wall of weapons being flung in his direction, we finally defeated the Merirosvo. In his robe we found a clam, looking like the one seen in Ceolsige. After searching the rest of the room i ordered the group off the ship and towards the stonepillar. Placing the clam on its counterpart a hidden door opened and we could enter the pillar. A small note dropped there showed another password. My luck held, as exactly this was needed to unlock the trapdoor of a ladder leading deeper into the middle of the ship. Here we had to deal with drunkards, throwing bottles of rum after us and more pirate wizards, who sent clouds of acid rain towards us. We couldn´t reach all of them and so had to fight the next robed pirate wet and smelly.
This one had a differently shaped clam, opening another room in the stone pillar and providing another password. Nothing but the captains quarters were left now and we readied ourselves for a final effort. The room behind the door looked like a small laboratory, but we unlocked the door and went through the hole down the ladder.

Finally we seemed to have reached the laboratory, what else could be behind a sparkling door barred with a statue and two pillars and guarded by countless stormcasters, Orga and pirates? To our surprise the door led into a stone, so the ship seems to have anchored in the harbor long ago for the workers to be able to contruct a tunnel to the pillars next to it. Much to my and several other Kyttyns despair we then had to swim underwater to move on! We waited in the dry while the others searched a way and cleared it of fish and then moved as fast as we possibly could. Only my curiousness kept me going, i´m not sure i´d swim there again. What followed was a search of every room we found, some holding the nasty surprise of yet another dive. We had a critical situation once, when some pirate bombers decided it would be funny to throw bombs in our midst and to our fallens, but thanks to the combined knowledge of all the present healers everyone could be raised.
In the end we arrived in a room with bookshelves, strange signs on the floor, some tables and 3 mirrors. The books seemed to be nearly all about the Orga, one was even about Merown. But there seemed to be no way to activate something, open another hidden door or move on. After a small break we decided this would surely be the mysterious laboratory of the Dor'Shak and headed back, as it had become quite late. Knowing the way and having reduced the defenders lines drastically, the way back was pretty fast.
All in all the Dor'Shak seems to fear Kyttyns a lot, if the location of his laboratory has any bigger meaning. And we saw once more that when working together, we can achieve a lot!

The Town´s Underground

2009-02-25T16:13:00.003+01:00

Yesterday Tarra led an exploration into the Arilon underground. First we made our way through the slightly smelly tunnels of the sewers. Hundreds of rats as well as several other slimy creatures tried to stop us in our way and get a festive meal, but our weapons let us keep the upper hand. While the rest of the group went on i climbed a small ladder to see if Irina was still held captive in the cell we had seen her last. She was indeed still there, looking very miserable. Unfortunately she only spoke in the magic language, so i didn´t understand her words.
After that we entered the Blooddungeon. The butchers and occasional Haemons were hardest to dodge and i did not always manage to evade their blows, but mostly it went much smoother than i had hoped for. We made our way through several parts of the dungeon and everything in these depths seemed to have been unaltered by the great storm that swept our lands 4 years ago. That means we can still free irina, but a major effort would have to be done if we want to strengthen and free Irina even before we encounter the Dor'Shak.

News from Lider

2009-02-23T10:21:00.003+01:00

Yesterday a storm swept the lands. It is said it brought access to another new area, but most important for me was that the builder of our clanhouse had arrived right after the storm. He was still sorting some of his tools and measuring the building site, when i started unloading building material. After all this time carrying the heavy stuff my back seemed to sigh relieved when i was finished unloading.

The bards used the fresh air after the storm to hold an audition, in which young musicians may perform in front of a jury of bards and if they prove worthy of their standards may be accepted as members of the bard guild. Only 2 brave auditioners showed up, Puppy and Arlon. Both played 3 self-written songs, although a duet written by Arlon had to be repeated several times because of some trouble with his partner. When the jury finally came back on stage to tell their decision the crowd was eagerly waiting. Both auditioners were praised for their advancement since the last audition, but both seemed to lack the last bit of creativity and therefore were declined bardship this time and offered to come to the next audition.

People were just gathering in town to discuss an area to hunt, when Lider appeared. He had talked to the Elders in the meantime and brought some news. First we will need a skilled smith, but the only one coming to our mind was Durin Stonemaster, who crafts his own tools. Lider promised to tell the Elders to contact him for asking if he could do this and if so, how the forging has to be done. He also told us that the Elders had managed to get a spy in the Dor'Shaks company. His informations are not very comforting, the Dor'Shak is reported to arrive soon via ship and has established an alchemy laboratory.
The only good news is that we might find the Dor'Shak in this laboratory once we have our weapon forged. More troubling news came from Newt. Lasifa had told him from a meeting with Hanashi, the story teller, where she had said that the Dor'Shak was commanding an evil version of our Arindal and that the balance of the world was lying at the state of the 2 magical artefacts. Hopefully Hanashi will pass through our town soon and the Elders find a way to contact Durin, so this threat can be dealt with as soon as possible.

What you train for

2009-02-22T11:23:00.004+01:00

It´s been some time since my last entry, but not really much had happened in the meantime. The only hunt worth some lines was a hunt from Rapukiza to Eilean. It turned out to be pretty hard and i was pretty discouraged that i couldn´t even properly brick some kills. At some point we were overwhelmed while crossing a snell border and a desperate struggle for survival started. Some people had to depart, while other lucky ones like me got rescued in the end.

Yesterday Lafa was a bit bored (and suicidal), so he asked for a hunt towards the 4th circle tests. We set out with a small group and thanks to some paths arrived quickly near the Hidden Valley lake. Here we had to deal with some Tok'Han, but they were slain quickly.
So as Lafa had initiated the trip, he was the first to try. It´s really a shame that one can only see half of the healer tests area as a visitor. I caught two glimpses of a sweating Lafaborn pacing by, trying to outrun the Cobra at his heels. Sadly he was overwhelmed soon and so didn´t pass the test.
After this we went over to the fighter hall, where first Pit and then myself let ourselves be slaughtered. I did way better than expected, mostly owed to guessing right what the Leo would do and so avoidinng his first strike. I found i couldn´t brick the cobra, but already hit it. I even managed to get it to yellow and spare a strike for the Hyena as well. This little test showed me that the training i have in mind will surely lead to success one day.

Lider comes back to Town

2009-02-16T11:48:00.003+01:00

Yesterday we met Lider once more. I don´t know if he has hidden in his room in Rôt Fiis Inn or if he came back from a longer journey, but we were happy to see him. Lider is the Lepori who arranged a meeting with the Elder Waltraud after we had found the scroll with the weapon recipe. This time he didn´t have a portal stone, but at least we could tell him that we had gathered every item listed on the scroll and he promised to send the Elders a message to contact us as soon as possible.
I don´t know if the Dor'Shak just felt that there´s a danger for him or if he has spies in town or if he just felt it was time to get on our nerves again, but just a little bit later he sent a group of his Orga minions to town. Under the cover of several piratepriests they besieged us in Reizis tree and quickly erected two statues and a hut in town center. Leda immediately proposed to capture some of their builders to finish our residential area and the clanhouses for us just as swiftly, but we knew no mercy and killed every last one of the intruders.
I begin to wonder what power the Dor'Shak really has over Pirates or Orgas, but for the pirests there seem to be only the weak or dumb fighting for him, not one of the clever highranked Pirates or sly big Orgas is helping him. Anyway, i am looking forward to make an end to his claim to the beach, the jungle and Arilon and show our enemies once more that we are not so easily overcome.

Shiny Daggers

2009-02-07T12:43:00.003+01:00

Yesterday i had once more called for brave Arilonians to explore the dark depths of the Mynna Crypt. We can´t say for sure if the Dor'Shak got news from this or not, but the force of Orgas invading town shortly before our start didn´t delay us much. Soon we arrived in Mynna with a sizable force. I quickly went through the routine rules and we went in. My plan was to get the skelettons from the first level and then to go after the next dagger. The very first chamber then proved nearly desastrous. We recovered the skeleton easy enough, but someone must have shifted the lid of one of the tombs, so that numerous mummies could squeeze out. At one time only Sharelock was left standing and the situation looked nearly hopeless. But bit by bit we recovered until we finally made it out of the room.
This event had cost us far more time than i had thought of for the first floor, so we went right down to the next and challenged the big blue skeletton fighting with an ancient dagger that we sought to wrestle from him. It took some time to smash enough of his bones to bring him down, but we managed well enough.
From the third deep, one could clearly see signs of nature claiming back its realm, water was leaking in the grave chambers, moss was think on the stones. From this level the group began to work together better and better. We went to a new chamber, clearing it from monsters while trying not to touch anything or walk over something looking suspiciusly different from the rest of the floor. Then one person would touch the pile of gold to summon the undead guardian. The healers would rod it until we cleared the other enemies and then we´d bring down the skeletton. It was a pleasure to lead the group in this stage. The look of the tombs, that we had to search for passwords to the next level, had changed too. Maybe Elithren had been buried here, the tombs had been carved right out of treestumps, the roots still intact.
Slowly, but steadily we made our way deeper in the crypt, until finally we came to a huge grave with a sculpture on top. We rummaged through it, when a big red skeletton appeared. Luckily it looked more scary than it was and so we quickly found the last password in the tomb.
This made free the way to the very last chamber, that we reached with some difficulties, as some mage spirits wanted to stop us after all our way. But eventually we prevailed and encouraged by little Jades comment also managed to get the fifth and last dagger!
The way back to the surface was a little more chaotic as some people ran off, fell and no one really knew who was in front or behind, but in the end everyone still present at the time reached fresh air again safely. We displayed all the slightly differently crafted daggers to the Maqua, who then gave us a barrel of oil. To me it looks more like a big bucket, but i hope it will suffice. Now we have to wait for Lider to appear and make a date with the Elders to learn how to forge the weapon we long for.
Thanks again to the group!

The Dreki Cave

2009-02-06T11:28:00.003+01:00

Yesterday started with some challenging fights in collosseum. I wanted to see if the magnificent blade was sharp enough to cut through lots of Orga skin in short time and so i asked for a fight with 2 Orga Rages. After i won the fight i had to try 3 of course and to my own total amazement i made it! I just wanted to dance with joy when it hit me: i am getting too old! I can so easily predict what a Rage does that i had killed one of them! My mood only got better when i managed to vanquish a Cavern Cercops in the first try, while other fighters had a hard time with the angry brother of it afterwards.

After this, it was up and about to the next hunt. Tarra had organized a Ravyntour, but due to the huge interest (5 of the Fast Feet were present too), we just passed Ravyn and went into the Dreki caves. They are inhabited by red dragons with golden wings. While some of them can throw fire, others trust in the sharpness of their claws and teeth to get rid of intruders.
We managed pretty well, until we met the first big Dreki. These adults are truly a stunning view, their whole bodies covered by glittering scales, their eyes glowing like furnaces. And their breath - the flames coming out of their glands is burning away everything, only the fine quality of our armour saved us from turning to ash in an instant. It was a tough and hot battle, but in the end we managed to kill it.
Although Tarra had promised Caipis for refreshment, those who like alcohol were not disappointed, when we discovered several glasses of other cocktails in the caves. Somehow the Drekis had managed to slide past them and left them intact. But even Nyv, our mage, had no idea who could have placed them into the dark. At last we found another opening, leading back to the south of Ravyn. We fought our way back to the Wasteland, where the nice hunt ended.

Waking up

2009-02-04T14:36:00.003+01:00

After my last adventures in the Ravynplains i fell into a deep slumber in meditower, mentally recalling all my fights and trying to learn from my mistakes. When i woke up yesterday most of my dreams faded away, but some mistakes in my fighting style stood clear in my mind and after a bit of training i could indeed fight slightly better. When i talked to some of my trainers i was surprised: the fighters guild had finally admitted my training process to have advanced far enough to call me Ferrumo again.
Immediately after i heard this, i got some coins from the bank and journeyed to Dinken in the Wasteland, to buy a hatchet to celebrate the day. It still feels a little strange in my hands after swinging my handaxe for so long, but the craftmanship of the Dinken smiths has not lessened since i last held such a magnificent blade.Another unsuccessful smoking out of the Shar'Kins main chamber later, i returned wearily to town, where we were greeted by some Piratepriests and dozens of Orgas. I helped clearing part of the first waves, but i was nearly too tired to even lift my hatchet any more, so i had to retire soon. But i am sure the brave Arilonians present could drive the Orga back and secure Arilon once more.Still, as soon as i feel a bit persistent again, i will try to lead more explorations into the Mynna Crypt, so that we can forge our weapon as soon as possible.

Spiders and the wild, wild East

2009-01-26T13:15:00.004+01:00

Yesterday started with a small Wendiehunt to kill the time Lafa was sleeping. We cleared the area around the bagsellers hut, where several Nightwendeckas were waiting for us. While i wished for a Morningwendie next, we encountered a Treegiant instead. It took quite some time, but eventually we had chopped enough bits out of him that he couldn´t stand anymore. In the battle Frenzymac once more showed his extraordinary fighting skills.
As soon as Lafa was awake, we headed towards Ardvell. After i had been promised that they wouldn´t let me drown in my small boat, i was still a bit suspicious, but felt secure enough to join. We landed near the portal cave and i started luring one spider after the other in the raised weapons of the group. After a time, we got bored and so bolder and decided to venture inland. We turned west toward the next safe, where we were captured for a while. A treacherous dense fog had appeared where one could nearly not see one's own hands anymore, not to talk of spiders creeping up. Howls of Ch'omaks from the highlands came clearly to our eyes, carried very far by the fog and so we made a picknick in an abandoned hut until the weather cleared up and we could glimpse the stars again. Excellent healing, trapping and luring brought us as far as Burh Fierlen. My heart always gets filled with pity when i visit this town. Its inhabitants have to endure endless rain, and only few houses have roofs solid enough to get dry indoors. On our way back then happened what we had feared all the time. A particularly strong Mammutspider sank its teetch deep in Pit Buls chest, leaving a terrible mess of broken bones, torn flesh and blood that even Frenzy andLafa together couldn´t fix. They even tried to help Pit with 2 potions to stop the blood, but ti didn´t help. But a great chainrun from Falk and some dodging by the rest of us brought us through the spiders to the boats and eventually back home again.

In the evening it was time for another shopping trip. This time an Elithren was the organiser, so as you might guess the destination was a shirt-tailor. The aim was to reach the town in the Noidcaves to buy white shirts. After our start, that was a bit chaotic i called for a leader, knowing that we wouldn´t survive the Noids when everyone acted on his own. After a bit of humming and hawing i took charge and we set out. Quickly we were surrounded by dozens of bulky bodies walking on 8 legs.
It took some time, but with sticking together and eliminating the biggest dangers first we did well enough and eventually reached the dark caves. When we entered, hundreds of facet eyes reflected the light we had brought with us. A fierce stuggle at the entrance began. After regrouping outside our second approach won us the entrance. Luckily Leda remembered pretty well where the town was hidden and so we could keep close to walls or borders and not had to fight every Noid in the caves. They breed incredibly fast in the dark, we would never have approached if we had tried to kill every one of them. At last we made it close to the town. Nasty blue and green Arachnoids were lurking here, making the fight for the narrow path to the city one of our hardest tasks, but in the end we triumphed. Rion Taur'ar bought shirts for everyone who wanted one (and had the money for it) and we headed to the south, were Leda opened a portal back home.

Quite a lot of people still wanted to hunt, so we decided to go nearly the same way again, but this time turn off to the east of the Wastelands, to Ravyn. We entered by climbing down the cliff in a place Gravier and me had discovered a while ago. A bit of chaos was the result, as some people started fighting in the plain, while others were still climbing down or waiting above for their turn. As a result we fell one by one. Well, not quite, bleeding severely i managed to climb up again, but couldn´t lend anyone else a hand. Calling for help made Frenzy and BlackCat aware of our misfortune. After i fetched them, i showed Blacky where to climb down and she fastened long chains on some fallens. Together we pulled them up to us and so after a while everyone was alive again.
We travelled through the plains that are inhabited by bisons and horses as well as some nomads travelling with their covered wagons. Far in the east, on a beautiful clearing in a small forest some of them have established a small settlement, where they rest and offer fights with their Zebras to earn money.
Further east we could see a fiery highplain, but found no place to climb up and explore it. We were busy enough keeping all the animals in Ravyn from stampeding over us as it was. A further addition to the area are treacherous swamps, where one skins in deeply in the mud, causing dozens of Moskitos to rise from their rest and buzz about. Another deadly mistake can be to walk too close to the small holes on the ground for they are a sure sign for a cobras den. At one occasion we angered 4 of them at once, but as they only tried to threaten us away and didn´t bite, we could quickly kill them.

The fighters are arming up

2009-01-24T11:05:00.005+01:00

In the last days i´ve had many adventures that i want to tell of now. It all started with a cry for help that came to my ears right after waking up. As it turned out some Arilonians had started another sortie to clear the jungle of Orgahuts and in the meantime a small company of Orgas had evaded this force and made their way to town to build another hut and statue there. These were quickly destryoed again and so i set out to help in the jungle. It was a long, tough battle and although the group was quite big, we didn´t make much advancement. In several hours of labour we could clear just a single snell. This was owed as much to the newly learned skills of the Piratepriests as to our uncoordinatedness. When most of the people left, Dresko and me helped Tofor to get some leather gloves and learn from fights.

The next day was even more exciting. I just sat in town, making scetches of the monsters recently discovered in the lands, when i heard that once more Rion was so curious when discovering a new path that he had to try it - and fell. Now he was on the other end of Tigerland than his group. Luckily the last storm revealed more shortcuts through the northeast, so i arrived quickly at Kashoum and together we made our way to Rions body. I stayed with the group for a while longer, although this time Frenzymac cleary won our skinning duel.

Even more scetches later Gravier, Dresko, Lafa and me went to Wasteland for the first big shopping tour. Dresko had become strong enough to lift a Hatchet and for good measure she purchased an Oakbasher as well. The craftsmen in Dinken were happy to see us and even more so when she paid not only with coins, but also with food.
This trade seemed to wake some bloodthirst in the Nors and so Gravier and Crash persuaded us to try to reach the end of the treacherous snakepass in the Orga Camp mountains. With a queasy feeling i joined the trip. The first surprise was waiting in the tunnel to Camp 2, where two large death vermine tried to stop us early and in return got their fur skinned by us.
We had a very strong group and to my amazement i was able to brick the first cobras coming towards us! We slaid them and an examination showed us that these had been Chamicobras. As these were the only cobras we encountered on our way through the pass, we even survived an ambush by 3 of these snakes without greater difficulty and so reached the cave at the far end. Gravier and Crash unslung their bags and piled several items in front of the inhabitant until he was willing to give each of them a mace.
The way back then held what i had expected of the pass: not only did some Furys help the other Orga, now Forst- and Cavecobras had come out of their den. Halfway back, the combined strength of several cobras and Trotzkis killed everyone but Frenzy. Crash departed and came back to try to chain us out, but both of them fell in the attempt. So the members of the Fast Feet, who lay deepest in the pass, decided to depart as well and help those who stayed.
It was a hard fight, but eventually we rescued them. On the way back i realised something strange. The scared Orga Scout north of Camp 2 stood differently on his island and his alerting cries sounded even more desperate. Did he know what the last storm had caused? I examined the shore and found a place where i could easily jump onto the island. Long had i waited to silence this little guy who always warned the Orgas in the camp of us. I lifted my axe, but as he shrank away shivering i pitied him and let him live. Instead we climbed down the ladder on the island, curious of the underground of the Orga Camp.
A vast cave was stretching out before us, maybe one of their breeding grounds. Lots of Orga Mamas and smaller Orga were trying to stop us, but died quickly. Then we found a fenced off area, several skulls on sticks were smikring at us. Of course our curiousness won and we explored this part too. When i touched one of the stones, they shifted and from the opening a gigantic Orga emerged, the Chief! At first we were still a little stunned by his appearance and so he managed to land several hurting blows. Then we regrouped and with a better tactic could wound him on more and more places, until he was slowed from exhaustion and bloodloss. When he finally died, we found a chest with lots of coins in his posession, a nice ending to a long and interesting hunt.

Founding of the Fast Feet

2009-01-20T13:28:00.004+01:00

Yesterday i was sitting around in town and trying to copy a fading map onto the world map, when i noticed that all the people interested in forming a Clan were in the lands. We met at Werrins house to discuss the general setup of the Clan we wanted to form.
When Tofor admitted he goes crazy if someone takes his beer, Dresko must have felt sympathy, because she sponsored a whole keg of Urdarbeer to moisten our mouths during the discussion. We soon found out that we agreed on nearly all the basic aspects of a Clan, so the biggest difficulty proved to be finding a name and a location for the Clanhouse. Finally we agreed on the name Fast Feet. I hope we will have lots of fun together and match our name well by travelling fast and far. The only glitch was Werrin refusing to write down Tofors name on the list, so that it needed quite some rubbing of his head to soothe him again.

Although in the future we want to organise bigger hunts, our first hunt together was a short trip to the Autumn Woods, where Tofor bought some cloth bracers and was busy tagging everything we could lure and brick for him. I am sure soon he will be equipped well and his trainers be proud of him.

On Sunday Gravier had already trained organising big hunts, he had called for a trip to the Mynna Crypt. Under his leadership we first looted 3 more skelettons from the first level and then went down to the 2nd. Quickly we could trade 5 heaps of bones for a sturdier pickaxe to open the coffins in this level.
We were lucky and in the first grave we inspected we found a small paper with the password for the next level: fliuch. But here our luck endet, as the other chambers were really crowded and as some people already had to leave, we couldn´t try to get the second dagger or look into the third level. Still, we gained precious knowledge on this trip that we can hopefully use soon.

The tides turn

2009-01-18T18:23:00.005+01:00

As surely as the sun rises each morning the luck is turning again and so the recent hunt have been very successful again. One evening we went to Yaramida with a small group. Thanks to Leda we were able to quickly reach the towers there, as she knows a way to activate the portalstones there. We made our way into the first two cellars without much trouble, killing the minor Orgas and the big mean ones alike!
The second Orga chief had a shiny blue pearl in his pockets and with this we made our way to Ceolsige, the Pirate harbour in Yaramida. Leda was able to trade 4 differently coloured pearls against a bottle of firerum and then we explored the town a little. The pirate´s main trade seems to be slavery, the miserable being are caged everywhere in the village. In one of the houses you can battle an old bear for some coins, while outside the ring someone is offering to trade a chain for the nail of a bear. But even with Leda's magic shield none of us was able to even hit the still agile bear.
We were just on the way back from the forth tower to the next portalstone, when we were ambushed by pirates who killed our healers. With some stops, Leda, Gravier and me made it as far as the beach south of the pirate docks. But when we thought of the narrow way through the caves to the tiny crack leading outside, our hopes dwindled. So i ran there on my own, meeting with Elron, Sindi, Echnaton and Jago. Together we made our way back and everyone could be healed. Thanks again to the rescuers!

In the afternoon of the second day a whole lot of people were around and as the Orgas are camping further and further into the jungle are getting really annoying we set out to teach them a lesson. From Kabana on we clove a way through their ranks, concentrating on destroying the defending statues as well as killing as many defenders as we could.
The further we got to the sea and the ford at Swindlys tower, the more fierce the resistance became and we were always more busy defending against reinforcements rather than advancing further. Still, it was a successful sortie and hopefully we will soon be enough people to be able to destroy the huts too, so that the Dor'Shak is busy defending while we try to get the missing substances for forging a weapon against him.

We had hoped to do exactly this in the evening, but like so many other times, it came differently. There were not that many people around and so we decided to hunt in Hidden Valley. Somehow there were unusually many animals around. We had just jumped over the logs keeping the dragons in the south, when a whole group of big yellow cercops gathered north of the log and made threatening sounds. We didn´t hesitate, but jumped over the log, knives ready and axes above our heads and cut and skinned our way through them.
Then we concentrated on the narrow valleys that are inhabited by Cavern-Cercops and -Dragons. We found an emerald and could kill lots of them. Leyenda even managed to recover a whole armful of Cercopsfurs worth more than 20 coins!
The only foes that overmatched our skills were 2 Mountain Panthers, much larger than their relatives living in our forests, who jumped down on us from the height. None of us had ever seen them in this valley and we wondered if these were just passing through or defending their territory. They fought fiercely, taking small cuts now and then while constantly clawing the group apart. At last, we had to leave them and not only Leyenda and me gave their fur a last regretful view.

Unsatisfying hunts, great prizes and a storm

2009-01-15T23:58:00.005+01:00

Although i was not that long awake in the last days i participated in several nice hunts, although nearly all of them ended in desaster.

Some days ago i was on an Aroonahunt with several others. We managed to lure some of the giant Tigris that blocked the stairs from the water to the steady ground away and established a foothold in the area.
We recovered quite a lot of nice furs, among them a most beautiful one worth 30 coins, that Frenzymac stripped with all his skill from the carcass. The agile Panthers were a constant danger to the healers and sadly a pack of them set an end to our hunt, as Lafaborn was not able to heal the others.

Yesterday i was glad to be able to attend Zifers lottery drawing. I had bought one ticket beforehand and another that very day, as Zifer wanted to get rid of the last ones. Then i even won a third one, as i could answer his riddle: "I am weightless, but you can see me. Put me in a bucket, and I'll make it lighter. What am I?" I was very agitated when the drawing began and even more so when the first numbers were matching those on my tickets! In the end i had a ticket with 2 right numbers and won enough money to buy tickets for the next few drawings :) Sadly i didn´t win anything in the famous Ticketroulette, but the shirt, the red potions and the bottle with white dye were surely premium-prizes for so cheap tickets!

Today a big storm swept over our homeland, altering many things in the lands. We were eager to see the famous Ravyn horses and bisons in their own environment and set out to search for a way into their territory. We were just arriving in the Wastelands, when a call for help for Frenzymac arrived us, he had already run ahead to search a way. What he found was a cave in the southeastern corner of the dangerous Noid-territory. Our group fought towards the south, but the unbelievable number of Noids first scattered our group (and left me no time to make a scetch of the scenery) and then clawed many a hole into us as we made a run for the ominous cave. Gladly we entered it, thinking ourselves safe. But - alas! - a red dragon with golden wings was awaiting us and a ball of flames was greeting us. Being split up and hurt, with nowhere to reatreat, we fell one by one, leaving the cave unexplored and a way to Ravyn yet to be found. Pathfinders should keep their eyes open if they don´t want to run that far and search for a way through the caves. I am sure, though, that there is some other way down to the planes of Ravyn, future explorations will tell.

To compensate for this outcome we decided to go to Aroona once more. After discovering a path that might spare some boattrips in the future we had to try it of course and the result was this:
I decided that hunting was no good today and so i set off to search some paths that the storm had laid open. Indeed i found quite a few and so i meditated happily.

A camping excursion

2009-01-12T14:51:00.005+01:00

Yesterday happened so much that i will have to write it down at once, lest the impressions vanish from my head. I started the day with a quick hunt into the Savanna, where i tried to clear some bushes from places likely to have an easy and quick way behind them. Penthka used the trip to do some shopping, while Pit Bull and me were competing about who could recover the most valuable fur of a Maha.

But as soon as a call for an Orga Camp hunt was going through our network of mindcrystals, the shiny little gems on our forehead that allow us to communicate over great distance, we decided to accompany the hunting group. As a pathfinder the way can be travelled in a really short time and so the hutn could start soon after. Our first destination was OC 1, that we quickly took control of, as a Fury was the toughest foe to match.
We made our way north until we struck the river and turned east then. Cries of surprise, dismay and pain arose, as suddenly several member sof our groups burst into flame! The whole area was filled with Orga Shamans, who tried to hide behind trees, where they could safely mumble their spells and cast fireballs upon us. Through all the trip, they should become a bother and in the end, our fate.
After we hadn´t found a cobra in the first parts of the Snakepass, much to Lafas regret, we moved into Camp 2. The Orgas seemed to be alert, but didn´t stand a chance against the groups skills. Not only was every member cunning in his profession, we also worked very well as a unit. On the way to Camp 3 we then burst into a meeting of 5 Furies. Quickly we retreated, knowing we could not engage all at once. We managed to scatter them and kill them seperately. Unfortunately our withdrawal had to go so fast and silent that i couldn´t pause to make a scetch of it. In the end we could clear the Camp and while we were deciding what to do next, some Trotzkis guided by 2 Shamans rushed towards us and claimed a high blood toll amongst the fighters, but the healers did a great job and so the danger was soon over.
We had made up our minds: we would try to fight our way into the Orga Woods. A Large Death Vermine(LDV) guarded the tunnel, but we quickly "convinced" it to let us pass. Our arrival in the Woods meant we had to deal with a deadly combination of foes: we met more Shamans, Furies, Warlocks, a Dredlock and even Large Dark Vermines(LDaV)! I had wished to fight one of them for quite some time, but it something else entirely to fight a lonely vermine somewhere in the open or to fight one beneath big trees where you never know where the next Shaman or big Orga is hiding. But my biggest surprise was that the vermines were much slower than i had expected and i even managed to evade nearly all their bites!
We made it as far as the Tomatoseller and of course this opportunity was used for a small battle with the vegetables.
We just wanted to hunt back, when a LDaVsprung at us at the same time that several Orga were distracting us and fireballs were cast on us. We didn´t retreat fast enough and in an instant all the fighters were fallen. As if it isn´t hard enough for a healer to run among LDaVs, a Dred and lots of other Orga, constantly fearing to burst into flame, stand still and heal other is nearly impossible and so one after the other fell as well. We had to depart, but it had been a great hunt! Don´t miss Graviers view of the events!

A T'roolhunt later Ziyal was gathering us in the OOC-Room to see how we could deal with several monsters. We had to fight yellow Orgas from the Orga Plains, an Ash Wood Giant, Acid Cobras and beasts from the deeps of the BloodDungeon. It was a chaotic and painful experience, but Ziyal nods showed she had learned enough.

The end of the day saw another T'roolhunt, on which i finally found my second stone: that of the Rugumond tribe. Half my search is done, i will have to concentrate on the red Shar'Kin now to be able to trade a ring and a necklace.

Confusing the Orgas

2009-01-11T11:34:00.004+01:00

The last days i have made great progress in my search for interesting paths in the landscape. Although searching some areas like the Ursuswoods can be rather painful, i´ve had much fun and discovered quite a lot previously unknown paths.

Because of that i didn´t hunt as much as before, but one of our hunts led to the Orga Camp. Of course i used the opportunity to look into the underbrush for potential ways through the dense vegetation. One of these ways led us quite fast into Camp 3 that we captured easily. I had hoped for more BROs, but it was nevertheless exciting, especially when Gravier spread the rumor that the BRO in one of the huts was a hatred. Of course it was just a fury that was quickly killed, but he had caused some confusion with his statement.

For a change we headed the other way through the OC and by this surprised the watch in Camp 2 by emerging from the hut instead of coming from the north. We took advantage of their confusion and carved through their ranks, quickly securing the place. A bunch of Trotzkis, aTG and a Rage caused some delay on our way home, but in the end we reached Arilon safely.

Another advantage of being a pathfinder is that i´m finally an effective help for a rescue group. While before i always had to watch deedless when discovering a fallen, as i can neither heal nor chain, i am now able to help healers arrive at a fallen much faster. If the healer then uses the technique Camdopi tried on Gravier here, i doubt there´s much left to rescue though:

Another challenging hunt led to Tigers yesterday. Despite nearly only Nors being in the land and their insisting on their superiority the Tigers cut quite some holes in Schmandweg and Mordor. We had some close calls when we encountered whole packs, but Frenzy proved to be the same survivalist as ever and so we were able to recover lots of nice furs and learn from many a fight.

I am a Pathfinder!

2009-01-07T16:02:00.003+01:00

Yesterday i finally learned the rest of what Paad Finegrr could teach me about finding paths where there seem to be none. Some weeks after F'rritti had sent me to him, i can now call myself a full pathfinder!In the time to come i´ll search even more thoroughly for paths that might help to shorten ways instead of only discovering them walking by per chance.

Ninja-Fighting

2009-01-06T13:58:00.004+01:00

The last days i continued further in my studies, i am confident i will very soon have learned all that Paad Finegrr can teach me. As a sideeffect i´ve discovered several more shortcuts through the lands, nearly every time i go to search in an area i see a crack in a wall, a path through some trees or past looming mountains that will get me to the other side of the obstacle.

Of course there is nothing better to learn from than challenging fights and we had just these on a trip into the Ardvell forest. Right in the first snell we were greeted by 3 Ashursos, who quickly killed the whole group.
Dresko and me were exchanging bloody grins, it seemed we had accomplished to "call" for more healers far faster than we had thought. Together with the help, we managed to kill the bears one after the other and explore deeper into the woods. Several wolflike Lupos and some boars tried to bar the way, but we advanced always further. Deeper in the woods some Thieves thought to empty our pockets while we were eager to keep all the Lupos in view. Most of the unskilled ones didn´t succeed well, but then we met some Ninja-like Ladrons. One was throwing shurikas at us and in the cover of them others clad in woodden brown sneaked up at us to land a hit and disappear again. They forced us to give some ground, but as soon as we had eliminated all other threats we dealt with them and took revenge for many hurting wounds. We made it as far as the river and although i was not overly pleased, we shipped up the river to get back home, because - as the others pointed out, while i remained doubtful - the way there was safer. But we made it back indeed, knowing it will be quite some time until we can challenge the Thieves in the outpost they have erected in the forest.

Another newsworthy hunt lead us to the Glacier. After part of the group (including myself of course) had been beaten unhealable by Grendels while we tried to rescue Dresko there, we were once more reinforced and took revenge on the muddy heaps. Right on the plateau marking the cold Tundra a pack of Tundrawolves were waiting on us with slobbering jaws. We managed to scatter them a little and then killed one after the other. Sadly the densely falling snow made it hard to see where to cut their furs, so we got nearly no coins for them.
Some Wolves, Tigers and Bears later we had arrived at the Glacier. We dared to visit the vermine chamber, but no big ones were around. So we made our way deeper into the Glacier towards the Glaciomyrmchambers. They are tough fighters when challenged in their home, but we brought down a number of Nobles. After some time we left without a diamond, but with the certainity of being able to kill an Ice-Maha, who was waiting for us right at the Tundraentrance. It had been a funny hunt and Leda ported us home quickly.

Precious Scales

2009-01-04T11:06:00.004+01:00

It's been some days since i´ve last written here, but as the librarian told me that only on days of advertising more than a handful of people requests this diary to have a look in it, i´ll reduce my writing a little. Having not studied with Harnd Rite it always takes me some time to put down a readable version of my adventures.

In these days i´ve had quite some nice hunts, among them nice hunts with people only recently awakened from a longtime meditation, in places such as Niamphjungle, Sunken Woods or Wendies. Two days ago i was with a group that first hunted a little in Aroona and then searched for the missing Maquas who are supposed to run our postoffice . Although we discovered a few not so well-known things and Leda had made us try some things, we still don´t have a clue how to free them, as there doesn´t seem to be an obvious barrier keeping the Maqua in the cave we found them in.

Yesterday i was invited to a Hidden Valley hunt after i had searched for new paths offering shortcuts for me. Upon arriving i was surprised by only Dolphins and Dresko awaiting me, but we set out nevertheless, determined to hunt as long as possible and if neccessary attract a bigger group by falling. The first Cave Dragons and Cercops fell rather easy to our Axes, as we could kill them right at a barrier only us Arilonians found a way past. When Gravier arrived, we became bolder and ventured further in. While a tour around the lake killing the Tok'Hans proved easier than feared, our venture in a northwestern valley ended with the hoped-for reinforcements. With the additional healers we cleared the whole Valley of foes and could even surprise a Dragon carrying an emerald.
Another unsuccessful T'roolhunt later we gathered for a hunt in Ardvell. While we seemed too few for a spiderhunt there, it turned out that hunting Kajmanos in the swamp was not much of a challenge. Only on the few occasions where we had to deal with several of the bigger ones and the one time we encountered devil leeches proved to be a real challenge. The biggers ones also made up for a nice contest between Jago as the scale-master of the hunt and lucky scale-recoveries by Leda.
We had just decided to change for the spider-plateaus as we were awaiting reinforcements, when we saw an Anaconda wiggling along the shore. Of course we went back to kill the beast, which was less of a problem than some seemed to hope for. The Baby Ogopogo we met on the river was of another category. The group needed just one try, but quite some time to wrestle it down. In the end we were rewarded with several coins for everyone, because Penthka saved some scales from drowning that were worth an amazing 84 coins!
The day ended with the killing of some red spiders. We made our way twice from the landing place to the portal, once to let Leda check wether she could train it and the second time with the newly arrived only to go back home as several others had to leave and hunting in Ardvell would have been too dangerous for the rest. But after all it had been a nice hunt and with the discipline the group showed i may lead such a group to spiders next time.

The Camyrmhive

2008-12-31T11:05:00.002+01:00

The last days were rather quiet, i enjoyed some small hunts and rescues. On one evening a small group decided to check wether it was already possible to hunt for Camyrmeggs, which are needed to enter the Dean Castle. Due to severe injuries and curiousness more and more Arilonians arrived, until finally more than 20 were roaming the Camyrm-Queenchamber. The queen still proved more than a match for us, so we sealed it away at the western entrance.
Our numbers allowed us to survive several reinforcements of Camyrm despite the chaotic behaviour. Luckily we could capture 2 eggs in the process. All in all it was a funny experience, although the temperature in the hive was way too high for me, even though i already have my summer fur.

Later that day i went to NiamphSpiders together with Neleth, Penthka and Kathius. I know all of them for a long time and wanted to help them search for spiderlegs. We encountered and defeated lots and lots of Mammuts, but were rewarded with very few intact legs. Still, it had reminded me of the time before the great storm, which shall never be forgotten.

A Kyttyn in the Dark

2008-12-29T13:20:00.004+01:00

Oh, what a day it has been! I am really glad that we Kyttyn have eyes that easily adjust to the dark, otherwise i maybe wouldn not have survived my adventures, especially the boattrips in dark night.

First i was invited to a trip to the Caverns of Darkness. Although the first levels are flooded with water, i accepted, knowing the danger is not too great with a group and hoping for the money and experience there. We did quite well and cleared all the Worm- and Golemcaves.

Some rescues in Howling Woods, Ponyland and Snowland later i decided enough people were there to give the gloomy Mynna Crypt another try. I could convince nearly everyone to join and so a sizeable force of up to 19 Arilonians made its way to Mynna. As it seemed my set of rules had been sufficient, except for some spoken trouble the group worked together really good.
After we had fought our way through the entrance, we headed for the northeastern chamber to reassure us of the Pickaxe-Trader. The southeastern chamber was next, as i remembered tairs in a corner there. We did quite well against the strong skeletton guarding the chambers treasure and soon we had gained a second Ancient Dagger!
Unfortunately the stairs were protected by a password, which was yet unknown. So we cleared the other chambers with treasures, guarded by minor Skelettons, whose bodies we then traded for a pickaxe. In the fights the group showed what coordination it was able to: Mordus and Leda were rodding the bosses with some healers, while the rest killed minor monsters until all concentrated on the main target. In the meantime Crash had arrived with the 3 previously attained Skelettons in his bag. Not knowing how many graves we would have to open or how long it might take, we got another Pickaxe, which proved a mistake later on. Nevertheless, the Pickaxes helped us opening grave after grave, most haunted by spooky Undead. In one of them we found a nearly rotten note, with a single word: malseki. We went back to the stairs - and it worked!
Down in the next floor we found another Maqua researcher. He would trade harder pickaxes for 5 Skelettons. Unfortunately we had given all the skelettons to the first Maqua, so we needed new ones. We got one more, but then we headed back for the exit as most people wanted to meditate.

A few people had stayed and we discussed what to do. Finally we decided to try to explore the rest of Dean Valley, a shadowy, dark region of passes. We killed some Tigris and due to being just a small group decided to go through Trengi, which went very smooth. Soon we arrived in Dean and ventured into the western parts. We completed a circle and finally were back in the village near Yaramida. Suddenly Gravier yelled to us to come quickly! He had crossed the bridge guarded by watch towers and there - in the middle of steaming chasms - stood a gigantic castle. We went in and spoke with the door guard, to discover his master wants as many as 100 Camyrmuseggs, before we are allowed to go inside!
With the fixed intention to quickly buy 10 bags and find the 100 eggs, we then set out on the way back through Yaramida, as i felt i had had enough of boats for a day. But we were ambushed by a pack of Pirates on a narrow bridge and Tarra was wounded too severely for Kathius to heal. So Gravier took his chain and dragged the Lepori behind while we all headed from shelter to shelter first through Dean and then through Treangi. We even made it back to the teaseller-safe in Aroona! But then, in the treacherous waters just beside it, Kathius became victim to a jellyfish. Luckily Dresko is an apt chainer as well and so we three fighters made our way back to town, dragging the fallen healers behind.
A big thanks to everyone for the great day with lots of dangers, but no departs (save for those who had to leave early) and quite a lot of improvement in the search for the Ancient Daggers.

How to travel quickly

2008-12-28T14:30:00.003+01:00

Once more a lot of people had gathered at the well in Arilon, so we decided to try our luck with hunting Glaciomyrms. Sadly no mage can open a portal into the Tundra yet, but Gravier led the group through several paths in a very clever way north. On the way i even discovered one path previously unknown to me. Soon we stood in the mud of the Grendelpass and started fighting the immense monsters. Sadly the third one proved a little strong, but we wanted to go on anyway.

When we arrived at the Glacier, we found the Royal and Noble Myrms to be easy prey when fighting one at a time. We killed quite a lot of them, but found no diamonds.
The Queens glittering skin looked too tough to bore through and her mandibles too strong to try to fight her, but her whole royal household fell to our weapons. When we could find no more big Myrm, we made a makeshift safe with the help of sturdy Kudzus. It is amazing that they even grow on totally frozen ground. Sadly i felt an urgent need to meditate then and had to run home. Thanks to Paads instructions it didn´t take very long until i was back in town and in the tower.

Exploring Dean

2008-12-27T11:43:00.002+01:00

When i woke up yesterday, the same picture as all the last days awaited me: a peaceful town and quite a lot of well-known, new and longtime not seen faces. This time i went hunting in Niamphjungle with Penthka, Zarok, Zoid and Gravier. Although Gravier fell rarely, we found quite a lot of leather. Twice he could show his chaining skill, as all but the two of us fell deep in the jungle. Luckily we are both skilled pathfinders, so the way back to Niamph Bridge, where helping hands awaited us was quickly covered.
When the healers wished to meditate after the second time, we looked for a more dangerous target. First we thought of Boanyoo, but while Gravier ran for his gloves, we decided it´d be nice to explore Dean a little. A first surprise was waiting at the docks: a Fearless and several other Orga were patrolling there, but had not yet erected huts. One can only speculate if they didn´t because we already got the sabre and there´s nothing left to protect or wether they don´t want to draw our attention.
But quickly we were in Yaramida, heading south. Soon we had encountered and killed several Dean Wendeckas, when two of the large kind "persuaded" us to retreat to the village and advance more wary next time. We made good progress this way. It turned out that the boats near the village were leading down a river and not a lake. We kept the mountains always on our left, while the way led south. Suddenly we found ourselves in a small cave and heard different sounds outside. A quick look confirmed that we had landed in a different region: Aroona! We were in the most northeastern-corner, the caves north must be those also leading to Treangi, if you keep west at the bridge. Unfortunately Lafaborn was killed by the waiting Tigris and so we searched for a way home. What proved not so good for us, will lead to good in the future: the incomplete map of this part led to some quick approaches in different directions searching the fastest way home. I hope i memorized it correctly so i can adjust the map accordingly. On the way back first Zarok and then Tarra fell too and Sophos, whom we met in the Aroona village, could not help any of them. But we were nearly back into safe regions and so everyone was rescued after a short while. I´m looking forward to the next trip to explore more of Dean.

Hunting in Ardvell

2008-12-22T12:59:00.003+01:00

Yesterday a lot of people were around and to refresh memories of good old days before the big storm, a huge group set out to hunt Ardvell Spiders. First stop was the local graveyard, where Lafaborn bought a skullcap to be protected better when trying to recover the teeth of spiders in death struggle.

Sadly, we still have to take boats to get to Ardvell and some Sekats turned my boat upside down twice.
Cleaning and drying my fur took some time, but the hunt was worth it. We ventured towards the portal cave, where Leda learned to her dismay that she was unable to study making a portal from Arilon to Ardvell. Then our way led always south, through lots and lots of gigantic Ardvell Mammutspiders, whose teeth bit through armour like a hot knife through butter and only the quick reflexes i studied to pass Firutins test preserved me from falling even more often. We had several critical situations, but the group was big and well-trained enough to survive them.
The way home was more pleasant: Leda was able to open a portal the other way and so i was spared to enter a boat again. Like every time i nearly forgot to run in the portal, as the marvellous look of the magical pass can make you forget time.

Back in town, we decided there was still time for another hunt and so we ventured southwest, to visit the T'rool once more. Frenzymac did a great job in keeping us alive against the numerous enemies, but although we met quite a lot of red T'rool, once more none of them carried a stone. Even the Sharaq-Boss, whom we captured with Kudzu pretended not to understand our questions where they hide the precious stones.

A dwarf coming to Arilon

2008-12-21T11:40:00.003+01:00

The day started very pleasantly: Lee, a newly arrived Wanderer (rumor says the way to the Arindal has become easier to find from the outside world) needed help. I gladly showed him around a little and watched him becoming a fighter apprentice. After Etta showed him the basic hunting grounds, we went to SF for some starting money. Shortly after a Wendiehunt started and we took Lee along. Although he had to take lots of blows, he managed to hit quite a lot of the apes and was so tired after that he went meditating immediately. I hope to see him in the lands for a long time.
Another unsuccessful T'roolhunt later, a small group made its way into the Orga Camp. Soon we had come close to Camp 2, where we burst into a gathering of Zerks. But they have become a rather easy enemy, especially for groups and so it didn´t take long until we continued. Lots of Trotzkis tried to bar the way into the Camp itself, but a few tries later we entered the tunnel leading towards Camp 3.
Quite a lot of Furies were around to guard this Camp and we had a nice time killing every one we could lay hands on. While entering the Camp had still provided some difficulties, staying in the Camp and killing Orga-reinforcements proved no greater difficulty.
On the way back to town we discovered that the way north of the river is now full with Large Dark Vermines. Although we dearly liked to challenge one and try to recover its fur, the 3 watching the ladder seemed too clear a depart to risk it.

Clash of the Titans

2008-12-18T09:51:00.004+01:00

Yesterday the match of the year took place: TeamPlayer versus TeamGM in Capture the Flag! We met early in the evening and Qwert tried to teach us the basics, which didn´t went very well. Finally we decided that tactics would have to be learned in the match itself.
For a fire to dry myself and a meal after the game i had let myself even be persuaded to enter the flagtowers, which were really mean: their basement was filled with water! But this should prove only one minor of many painful experiences that evening.
When both teams had gathered, the Players chose blue shirts, the GMs red ones. Of the matches themselves i can´t tell everything, there was just so much happening at once. Only this may be said: Surprisingly TeamPlayer could decide the first match for their side, while the two following games went to TeamGM. We players had an advantage in numbers, but the GMs learned at an incredible rate and even those who were easily killed in the first match proved overwhelming enemies in the last. We also experienced several more of the mighty skills of GMs, such as lots of dangerous monsters appearing, morphed GMs, chaining and teleporting of players, bombs, lightening, sudden selfheal, earthquakes, summoning of several well known individuals such as Ugh and Merown and meanest of all: rainclouds over our heads. And i swear this time i did not imagine the water hurting me! But i will let some quick paintings speak for themselves now.

After the match was over, Aerandir granted us another round of monster roulette, this time in the arena. We encountered Ravyn Mares, Jellyfishs, Zerks, Frostgiants, Dean Wendeckas and more. Twice we were overwhelmed, but Aerandir (who looked very pleased about our behaviour) came to our help and guaranteed a happy ending to an exhausting, yet funny evening.

Oh Happy Day

2008-12-15T14:39:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was (nearly) a perfect day, just one of my undertakings didn´t bring the hoped for result, while i could achieve several goals.
A hunt to the bagseller with Frenzymac and Balaforn marked the beginning of the day. Here we witnessed the effects of spring, as dozens of Wendeckas had chosen that snell for the place to search a mate. Our intrusion was not looked upon gently by them and so we found ourselves in a long, but victorious struggle with the primates. Luckily we also found an intact Wendieskull, so that after the hunt i was able to purchase a skullcap.
We had just sat down to rest, when we were asked if we would help in testing the strength of a bunch of animals captured in Ravyn, an area said to lie east of the Wasteland. Of course we agreed and soon we found ourselves surrounded by dozens of Bisons, some of them more than twice as big as any seen before. Some Mosquitos also mingled in the crowd that chased us, but after some time we gained the upper hand and reported our observations. Maybe we soon find an entrance to this area where we can fight the monsters on their own ground.
Again just a short rest was allowed, as the cries "There are Orgas and Pirates in town!" were heard. Indeed, once more a sizeable force of them came streaming in from the West. At first, odds looked bad and Frenzymac as the only healer had much more to do than he wished for. But when more healers reinforced us, we could drive the Orga back to the northwest of town, where they had quickly erected one of their huts. A tough battle later, our town was saved from another Orga scouting party.
Our next destination were the T'rooltribes. We cleared all three main chambers, two of them even twice. Unfortunately, none of the red T'rool had been carrying one of the precious stones, tokens of their tribal loyalty.
The sun climbed higher and a good many people were leaving MediTower, so we looked for a nice destination. Someone mentioned all the things we need for the weapon against the Dor'Shak and soon we were on our way to the Docks, to search the first Pirateship for the blade-part of the broken Sabre. The deeper we went into the belly of the ship, the fiercer the Pirates fought us and we always had to retreat several times before we could establish a foothold in the next room and finally take it. The deepest room, with no place for the Pirates to retreat to, saw the bloodiest battle of all of them. But one by one we hacked the Pirates down until only the Captain of the ship remained on his feet to face us. With one hand he tried to kill us while his other desperately clutched a bag. But we were many and steeled from previous fights and against this he didn´t stand a chance. Puppy opened the bag and found what we had come for: a blade of a sabre! The way out to the air proved to be nearly as hard as the way in had been, but soon we had made our way back to town, carrying the blade with us. Now we just need to get enough Ancient Daggers to trade against the oil we need as the last ingredient of the weapon recipe.
After some relaxing of the aching muscles and tending the last wounds, i decided it was time again to try to pass the test to the 3rd fighter circle. The whole day i had been very optimistic, but when i entered the room with the monsters, i got doubts. I found them approved only a moment later, when both the Zerk and the GV had hit me once while i hadn´t even landed a single hit. But i found my concentration and always thinking of my lessons killed both of them without any further trouble. Soon i had trapped the Fury in a corner and was slowly wounding it more and more. Suddenly it turned and wanted to run away. I became hasty, as i thought myself close to killing it and neglected my defense, which immediately resulted in some hard blows. My heart pounded so hard, i thought it would crrack my chest, until suddenly the giant Orga sank to its knees and Firutin announced that i was allowed into the next circle of the fighter guild.
I was so pleased that i had achieved my aim to become the first Contego to be allowed into the 3rd circle, that i fell on the way back because i wanted to recover some Lyfelidaeskins. But i was rescued soon and started buying drinks and then invited everyone to TC for some beer, wine and milk to celebrate. All in all this was propably one of the most happy days since i first came to Arilon.

2008-12-14T12:52:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was one of the more quiet days. In the morning we hunted in the Pyramide, because Jago wanted to reinforce her gloves. In the ground level the biggest challenge was to stay on your feet and not get too dizzy from the gases pouring out of the Mummies. In the top floor lots of stronger Mummies appeared and nearly the whole group fell and, after several brave rescue attempts from Sharelock, Elaine and Jago nearly everyone had to depart. I was lucky and got out alive, though.
The evening held a long discussion about a hunting destination. All of the time people wanted to hunt somewhere else than the rest, had to leave, wanted to join...At one point i was in the maze leading into the Ardvell Forest. I wanted to catch a glimpse of the forest again, but an Ash Urso ended this way more quickly than i had expected. Tarra eventually rescued me and we set out to Boanyoo. On the way we visited the small town in Barwidgee, where Leyenda bought thick leather. Uncommonly lots of bears were around and we recovered some nice furs and found honeycombs.
Boanyoo proved to be a tough challenge for our small group, but we managed well and after a visit to the northern village, which looks really sad, we eventually returned safely to town to sleep.

Kissed by a butterfly

2008-12-13T10:59:00.002+01:00

The day started with a hunt in Tigerland. We looted lots of nice furs, but suddenly Gravier, Frenzy and me found ourselves amidst a huge pack of Tigers, who hunted us down. Luckily reinforcements came out of the tower and eventually rescued us from what had seemed a sure depart, thanks!

In the evening we had a meeting with Ziyal and Aerandir, with whom we discussed how to increase the dwindling number of Arilonians and potential dangers of that.Afterwards, Aerandir granted us a session of his famous Monsterroulette, where you have to guess two numbers x and y and he will then release y monsters, which stand in place x in his list. This is mostly very dangerous, but always great fun. This time we "won" Ghidoras, catapults, Barrakudas and purple Arachnoids among others.

Back in town several butterflies were searching for flowers. I managed to trap one and get transformed by it. The rest of the day i felt really light, it was a nice experience.Of course this strange body had some disadvantages as well, so i had to be really careful not to burn my wings in Boanyoo, where we hunted late in the evening. I also experienced that i had to avoid any enemy touching them, as any contact immediately lessened its usefulness. Luckily Newt and Brommi knew how to tend butterflies and so i survived the challenging hunt, at the end of which Crash even found the long sought-after Sanddollar, which he needed to buy a Warhammer.

All Quiet on the Western Front

2008-12-12T12:30:00.003+01:00

Two days ago a storm swept the lands. As so many times before i hoped it was strong enough to sweep the treetrunks away, that block the way west in Niamphjungle. I took quite some risk, but managed to run there alone and found the way still blocked more than Nor-high.

I had just arrived back on the plateaus, when i met several Arilonians who had come to rescue Reindinho. After he was up, i turned and went with them, to hunt some Mammutspiders and Wildhorses.
Quite a lot of them had been driven out of their hide by the storm and we had an exhausting, but interesting hunt. Although Gravier was with us, we managed to find leveral leather.

Since then a lot of other places have been checked, but as can be seen in the Stormlog, which is maintained by several inhabitants of our wonderful town, nearly nothing seems to have changed with the storm.

Boarding the Pirate Ships

2008-12-09T15:45:00.004+01:00

After buying a new mind crystal i went hunting T'rool with Gravier, Pit Bul and Dolphins. We quickly cleared the Paghorim boss chamber, where Pit found a stone while rummaging through a dead red ones pockets. We then went on to the Rugumonds, where Tarra replaced Pit. With the help of some Kudzus we managed to clear the chamber in just one try as well. So we went to Sharags, where we had to plant a large Kudzu wall before we could find a position to stand against the T'rool. Sadly we didn´t find a stone from these tribes.
In the evening enough people had awakened and we decided to search the recently docked pirate ships for parts of a broken sabre. Lider had informed us they were parts of the weapon against the Dor'Shak and most likely to be found in the posession of pirates. Despite some struggles at the beach we reached the docks quickly, thanks to Gravier. After a first view of the ship (at least these look as if you are not consantly reminded of being on water all the time) we rumagged through the slave-dens of the first ship.
The slaves were pityful to watch, but somehow they seemed to have gone mad under the pirates' treatment, as they fought us with no thought about their own survival. Even killing their guards did nothing to slow their frenzy, so i guess killing them was the best we could do for them.
Several of the lower floors seemed to have small holes, allowing water to intrude, but my try to sink the whole boat proved fruitless, the timbers were too thick.
We went on to the second ship, finding it to be much the same. Here we entered the rear cabins and fought our way through the crews bunks and the treasure room down to the hindmost room. The Captain with his personal bodyguard was present when we entered and we accepted the fight and came out on top. Balaforn saw a sparkling in the Captains bag and that was how we discovered the handle of a broken sabre. Now we only have to find the snapped off blade matching the fine handiwork of this item.
Of course we took our success as a sign to try to enter the corridor leading into the back of the first ship once more. At first we managed to gain some meters, but soon it evolved into a stale-mate. When we wanted to heal up and gather outside we found the deck guarded by more than a dozen pirates from the docks who must have been alarmed by our going aboard. Thanks to Gravier, Pit Bul and Newt i was healed later in a safe on the beach. I´m sure if we search the first ship thoroughly we will find the blade. If not there´s always the pirate bar near the docks which attracts a lot of pirates, one of whom may keep the blade or at least know where we can find it, if only we ask with enough pressure.

Update on Orga problem

2008-12-08T16:26:00.002+01:00

As my mind crystal was about to crack, i just went to Swindly to buy a new one. On the way there i observed that while the snell with his tower and the one south of there are still nearly empty from Orga, the snell in the southeast has been fortified again with new statues.
As it seems we have to clear snells completely for the success to last a while.

Orga Invasion

2008-12-08T12:26:00.003+01:00

Yesterday some Orga invaded our peaceful town once more. Luckily several Arilonians were close to help and the Warriors, Zerks, Warlocks and Fearless proved no problem for us. The revived skeletons of Orga Rages were tougher, but eventually we killed them for good as well.
As a revenge we decided to clean Piratebeach as far as possible from the Orga's presence. It was a tough fight, as the Orga got more and stronger reinforcements as time passed by. Nevertheless we managed to destroy several huts and some of the Orgas statues close to the ford of Swindlys tower. The Orga still hold the part between the tower and Blue Bat Cave, as well as some northern parts.
While we were busy fighting at the beach, some mean Orgas slipped past us and began their evil work in Arilon. In our absence they quickly erected some statues and huts and then killed poor Reizende! Luckily they didn´t think of kidnapping her, so she could be raised soon after.
When some people had to leave the whole group went back to TC to remedy the Orgas damage. It can´t be denied that Dor'Shaks influence is growing and we will soon face major problems if we can´t stop him.

Searching for a Pearl

2008-12-04T22:38:00.003+01:00

Two days ago i left the tower to find everyone waiting for Zifers lottery. Sadly he had only sold less than half his tickets for this drawing, but nevertheless it was very exciting. This time i even won a special shirt in the ticket roulette! Although i am no fashion victim i am curious what effects can be reached by dying the shirt.

After the drawing a big group went to Yaramida. Shortly before we had learned that the pearls we could steal from Orga chiefs in the basements of towers on these cliffs were needed to get a badly needed bottle of fire rum, which is essential for forging the weapon against the Dor'Shak. So we searched for yet unknown towers, but first we found a cave leading into a deserted village. Big chasms with hot steam rushing out were amidst the houses and some Wendecka were around as well. There was water to the south, which could be accessed by docks and we even found a Stonemyr living there. But our weapons turned out to be too dull to penetrate its skin, so we left him and the area to search for the tower.

Soon after we found a tower, and fought our way to the basement. One after the other we battled the Orga Chiefs.
The last one had a sash slung around its body, which seemed to be a sign for the highest ranked Orga. After a bloody battle we brought him down and in his belongings we found a red pearl.

It had become late and so i left for Arilon "the fast way", while the rest of the group ventured on and found the last pearl and got the rum. Now we have to concentrate on the other ingredients.

Together we are strong

2008-11-29T10:46:00.005+01:00

Yesterday started with a nice hunt in Wendies. Although we didn´t find a skull, we managed to hunt in all the eastern passes. First we checked the (still closed) cave in the Stonemyr-area, then we ventured to Flips, the Skullbuyer.

While hunting back more and more people gathered in Arilon and so a bigger hunt was to happen. We quickly chose Orga Camp as our destination and set out. We were a large group and so had no problems getting past Camp 2. There´s just one thing we should keep an eye on: there are more and more Pirates roaming in the Orga territory, we should be wary if the Dor'Shak tries to increase his influence. From there on the number of Orga Furies increased a lot and in total i helped defeating as many as 30 of these fearsome enemies.
The group was strong enough to not have any major problems with the Trotzkis still guarding the entrance to the Camp, and the Warlocks and other Furies were quickly killed as well. The Orga had even enlarged their Camp, there were 2 newly erected huts and 2 statues, all of which we tore down.
After lingering around a little, killing whatever reinforcements the Orga sent to win their Camp back, our Arilonian sense for adventure broke through and we decided to try to clear the area north of the OC-River. This is not without danger, as sometimes Large Dark Vermine or Orga Frenzies can be seen there. But they weren´t and we reached the ladder in the west shortly after, where we made a small break, only protected by a brave single Kudzu. One discovery might be mentioned here: Behind the northern mountains we could hear the splashing of a sea!

Our curiousness wasn´t stilled and so we set ourselves a new goal: clearing the first snell in Orgawoods!. We were greeted by several LDVs, some Warlocks and Zerks and 2 Dredlocks. But with patience, some nice chainruns by Gravier and Falk and nice luring by Tarra we managed to slowly win the upper hand. When the LDVs were dead, the rest was easy as pie, as the slow Orgas can be excellently lured. So we evolved into the first group to clear an entire snell in Orgawoods!

Here two of our healers had to leave, who did a great job until then. Once i had even needed the skill of all 6 healers to vet me, when a nasty LDV killed me while i was already strongly bleeding. The rest of the group went north in the cave, toward the Wyrm. I found i could brick the grey ones and Dresko proved to be the most Battuo-skilled Arilonian. We had vanquished 2 of the Wyrm when many got tired from all the bloodshed and we decided to go home.

At the ladder, 3 LDVs avaited us and some unlucky moves killed us swiftly. But still, we had had a lot of fun and can be really proud about our achievements.

Hunting Wolves

2008-11-26T16:57:00.004+01:00

Yesterday i accompanied Lafaborn to Barwidgee to hunt for the last Wolffurs he needed to get thick leather for another protective layer on his bracers.

We kept to the northern parts mostly and had little problems killing the numerous wolves there. Unfortunately most carcasses were rather badly injured and so it took quite some time to find intact furs.
Twice we stepped in the middle of huge spawns, once just while fighting gigantic wolves, but both times we managed to retreat and slowly kill the packs. We had to make several rounds, but finally we managed to find the 3 missing furs and reach the village where Lafa bought some thick leather. The hunt had tired us and as we didn´t have enough money with us to let the bracers be reinforced immediately we returned to Arilon, where sleep took me.

Into the Orga Camp

2008-11-25T20:56:00.003+01:00

Yesterday a lot of people where in town and a discussion about a hunting area started. Some wanted to visit the Tigers, others were eager try to reach Orga Camp 3 with so many people around. Finally a group was on the way to both destinations, i had chosen to go to OC. The groups were a little unevenly balanced, while we had Tarra, Newt and Terra Bul as healers, only Gravier and me attended from the fighters.

We quickly made it through the first snells and were a little disappointed when we had to watch a whole lot of potential vanqs behind the river in the north who we couldn´t reach. Soon after we were standing in Camp 2, which we had conquered with only few problems and continued toward Camp 3.
The snells south of Camp 3 did not only house a lot of annoying Zippos, but also several Furies, welcome training objects for me. But the closer we got to the plateau upon which the Orga have their encampment, the more Trotzkis were around. We entered the Camp twice, but had to retreat immediately both times. While we could kill the Orga that had followed us, a spawn of Trotzkis south of the stairs as well as west on the plateau with the Orga from the Camp coming from the east proved deadly for the group.
Still, we had managed to come this far with just little fighting power and had had a great time. I am sure it won´t be soon until the Camp will become a frequent hunting target.

A stone and an astonishing confirmation

2008-11-23T12:13:00.009+01:00

Yesterday i successfully hunted in a variety of places. At first Lafaborn called for a Nauggath-hunt to search for some ore. We had a strong group and cleared the caves several times, finding not only lots of ore but also some large Nauggaths.

A little later, when i awoke from my catnap, i was invited to join a little Niamphspiderhunt.
All went well, until Blacky left us and Lafa, Leyenda and me settled down in the first safe for a small break. Frenzymac, the only other healer in the world, fell poisoned in Wasteland! We decided to quickly head there for help, but when we left the hut, Leyenda was trapped and fell by the scores of Mammuts avaiting us. Lafa and me had to make a decision: kill all the spiders and help Leyenda first or take the time to help Frenzy first and get fighterhelp for Niamph then. We decided for the latter and although many poisonous snakes lurked in the passes we safely made it to Frenzys group.

Rescuing Leyenda with the reinforcements was no problem at all and so we went on to the Niamphjungle, where we had a nice time killing horses and skinning them. There were one or two close situations, but it has to be an amazing force indeed to stop the team of Lafaborn and Frenzymac.

Again i took a catnap, exhausted from the long distance runs. To get warm again i decided to pay a visit to the Paghorim-T'rool-Tribe as i have done for some weeks now. Finally it paid off, as i caught one of their stronger inhabitants with one of their precious stones, which the others tribes ask as a token of your opposition to the other tribes before they offer trade with you. The easiest stone is found, now i will need to concentrate on the other tribes.

Shortly after my find i heard a call for a Tiger-hunt. I didn´t hesitate but set out for Kashoum immediately. I arrived in time to reinforce the group in a critical situation and then we had a nice time fighting Tigers and collecting their furs.

The hunt ended well and i ran to Niamph where Leyenda had been lying for some time because there was no fighter to help the healers around. Back in town, i reflected the day and joyously noted i hadn´t fallen once on all these hunts! It made me a little proud and is a nice affirmation for the way i want to train.

Hunting with a tough Hamini

2008-11-21T17:12:00.003+01:00

When i left the meditower today i saw that Elaine was around as well. I hadn´t seen her for quite some time and not hunted for even longer, so we quickly decided to hunt some Niamphhorses. On the way we had to pass the Niamphspiders, because i can see potential paths leading through them, but can´t really decide how to place my feet into the shortcut. I got a first glimpse of Elaine´s skills, which were as honed as always.

The jungle with the horses proved to be just the right area for us. It was challenging, but not too hard. While i tried to brick and skin as many horses as possible, Elaine did a great job staying alive and still taking care of my wounds and tagging some of the horses. Although i fell once, we never got in really deep trouble as we proved to be a good team. I really hope to see her again soon, so we might be able to hunt together again.

Urdar fly raiser and a close call

2008-11-21T10:56:00.004+01:00

Yesterday i was with a group in Niamph. First we killed the spiders on a tour, because Leyenda seeks to buy Leather-Bracers. Sadly we didn´t meet any Mammutspiders, only some grey ones proved at least some challenge. But it was a perfect opportunity to train for fast-tagging, where i avoided pretty well in getting caught by too many of the eigth-legged monsters.

As we were quite a lot of fighters we went on to the horse jungle to search for a challenge. Gurff joined us and managed not only to fight horses but also took great care of the flies buzzing about him. This is not surprising for an Urdar, but then he started to use smelly dirt to attrackt the flies also to beforehand clean Kyttyn furs! While i managed not to get caught by him, poor Jago and Leyenda will have to clean their furs back in town. Only some spawns with lots of wildhorses proved a bit of a greater difficulty, but Frenzymac is just too skilled to let himself get caught by them and happily i observed that i didn´t have many problems dodging the horses and killing them.

Back in Arilon i decided it was time again to check on my progress in evading. Tarra accompanied me to the 3rd circle fighter test. I quickly killed the Giant Vermine, but the Zerk managed to land a blow, because i needed way too long to kill him. But eventually it was dead, as well as the Death Vermine. I had needed a considerable time already when i finally faced the real challenge: the Orga Fury. I tensed my muscles and waited for the approaching beast. And behold! i managed to evade its angry blows! I waited for it to get a little of balance and landed some hits on my own. From time to time i didn´t turn fast enough and was hit, but i managed to make it bleed from lots of smaller wounds so that it was more than half dead when it finally killed me. It seems i can now change to Laedo Ledo to be taught in the art of swinging harder and hitting more fragile parts of my enemies.

Waking up again

2008-11-19T14:43:00.006+01:00

I finally awoke after quite a long meditation and brought life back to my body by running first to T'rools and then to Niamph where i had some challenging fights. But meditating too long made my muscles weary soon and so i headed back to Arilon.

I was just thinking about resting again, when Zifer announced it was time for the lottery drawing! I arrived in time to buy some of the last available tickets. The drawing was really exciting, i had nearly forgotten how much. After the lottery Zifer also raffled some items in his Ticketroulette.

Sadly i hadn´t chosen a single number of those drawn, but nevertheless i´m really happy that Zifer is back and decided to continue the lottery once more. I´m sure next time i´ll check the Lottery Scrolls earlier to learn about the next drawing and buy my tickets.

Into the Crypt

2008-11-09T11:04:00.003+01:00

Yesterday evening the colosseum opened its doors and quite a lot of people met there, fought monsters and driven by Splashs freehanded use of his coins placed lots of bets on the coming fights. Personally i first fought a Cavern Wendecka, but i wasn´t quick enough to evade its blows and so lost this fight. Then i decided to combat a large Deathvermine, which i defeated without a scratch. Of course i now wanted to try 2 of them and this fight saw even higher bets than the one before. Once again i managed to survive without even a scratch, much to my own amazement! Last came what had to come: i ordered one more LDV for the next fight and the bids rose to new heights. This time Splashs guess proved right: when the fight started i was pushed right in the midst of the 3 waiting Vermines and although i frantically turned around and tried to keep all at once in sight i could dodge only 2 and the third managed to jump at my throat and land a killing bite in the first attempt. Still, it was a useful experience.

After colosseum a bigger hunt was planned: a visit to the Mynna Crypt! The group of more than 10 Arilonians was devided in two and Rion Taur'ar and me brought them pretty quickly to Partybeach, from where we took boats to Mynna. Knowing so many people around really helped to calm me down on this part of the journey. After some waiting for latecomers and refreshing we entered the dark Crypt and were immediately greeted by a bunch of Undead and Scorpions. Eventually we secured the entrance and could proceed deeper into the corridors. Splash had gotten the lead, but only half the group listened to him, which made for a much slower advancement than would have been possible had the group stayed together and used appropriate tactics like trapping, bricking/rodding, letting the stronger fighters get to the stronger monsters etc.

Still, we managed to kill several strong skeletons named Myrryn'dhor or similar, who appeared in chambers when one of us touched the piles of Gold in a corner. As no one managed to brick it reliably, we managed to establish Sharelock Holmes as a rod after some tries and with 2 healers tending him we brought them down with no bigger trouble. Strangely their bones did not shatter when the last bit of life left them, but we could take the whole skeleton along.

A particularly big Skeleton fought us with a small, old-looking blade and after we killed him, we ecxamined the weapon: we had found the first Ancient Dagger, which we will need as exchange good to get some Mynna Oil for the recipe for the weapon against the Dor'Shak. Tarra, the curious Lepori, found a room with a lonely person on one of his roaming, who promised to give us a pickaxe if we could bring him 3 skeletons. Luckily this was just the number we had found whole, but the way to this room ended in desaster. Only said Tarra and Frenzymac on his chain managed to get out of the Crypt, the rest was quickly mangled by Ghostrats and lots of Banshees guarded the way out.

Exploring Yaramida

2008-11-07T17:40:00.004+01:00

After the storm had swept the lands i was rather frustrated. It seemed to have been particularly wet, as the bathhouse opened after filling its pools. An even greater danger is to be found in the north of Alchera. No sign or post is warning one of the danger: Once you enter the portal you are pushed into a small boat and set out in the middle of a huge sea!

A little later i was asked to join the trip to a new area behind the piratedocks. Its name is Yaramida and is inhabited by gulls, Pirate Guards and several Orga and Vermine, whose strength is comparable to those we know as "normal" Orga.

After we covered several miles on the narrow cliffs poking out of the sea, we reached a tower. After destroying several Orga statues,we came to a corridor, which was inhabited by really strange looking creatures (Crash named them "feather dusters"):

Behind the corridor we entered 2 adjacent rooms with big schulptures in the middle of pools. Once we touched them, big and dangerous Orgas appeared from their hiding places. Eventually we managed to kill them and Crash found a green Pearl in one of the chests they carried. Sadly we were ambushed when leaving the tower and in the end had to depart, but it was an exciting exploration. I´m curious to see more of this area and maybe there are more dry lands to discover!

A very nice and skilled healer

2008-11-05T18:48:00.005+01:00

While i was dozing in town i woke up with the strange feeling something bad had befallen Terra Bul. Soon after Tarra asked for fighter help in Aroona and in moments i was on my way. Luckily i know a few shortcuts to the west, so i arrived at Partybeach not long after the call for help. Before i knew what i was doing i was rowing towards Aroona! I still can´t help the feeling Terra Bul somehow hypnotised me or did something else to me that clouds my mind when it comes to boats. I don´t know if i should be grateful for it, as the chance of something bad happening while sitting in a boat will increase with this...
Anyway, the village in Aroona was roamed by several Tigris and we had to wait for reinforcements, but after those arrived we quickly secured the place. While doing so, Leda recovered a really beautiful fur of a gray Aroona Gianttigris. It was so huge, i am sure one could cover the whole living room of a bigger house with it. Soon the fallens were raised and we could go back to town.

This morning i woke up to find a surprise! Terra Bul has made a nice painting of me and was so kind to leave me with a copy of it:

I am really happy about this picture, thanks a lot Terra!

To add to my excitement, a storm seems to have swept the lands while i was meditating, i am eager to see what is new.

Mages make you believe

2008-11-04T17:31:00.003+01:00

Yesterday we went on a fast Wendiehunt to try to find the last skulls for Tarras cap. We had already brought down a few, when we decided to try to kill the Silverback-Nightwendecka who had haunted the place for some time now. At first i was a bit sceptical as i couldn´t recall a single event from before the great storm where we had manged to kill one of these impressive beasts. But Abe joined our group and with his mental enhancement we fighters were able to mostly evade its giant fists.
Crash didn´t seem to be fully into it, he feared the Silverback might be his father. Although both have quite broad shoulders, i can´t really imagine his father being a Wendecka. I think one would notice differences in his appearance then, such as full hair.
But soon after the first attempts Leda came along and boosted us even more and with this belief in our own strength we quickly killed the Silverback. Crash didn´t really look happy, but it was done! I was really impressed by what a skilled group can achieve. Soon after we found another Silverback and brought him down aswell. It made me wonder wether the two had been rivals and their fights had weakened them, but it might also have been my lasting astonishment about us coming out on top of these fights.

It didn´t take that long until we had found Tarra's skulls and decided it was time once more to search for fox meat. Therefore we ran to Foxden and with Leda and Abe convincing us that we were able to kill all the foxes we indeed managed to slay them. Sadly we found not the slightest hint on how to peel a fox joint out of one of their bodies, but at least we were able to recover a lot of their nice furs.

Excellent healers save the day

2008-11-02T13:21:00.005+01:00

The day started with some more festivities in the Hall'o'ween-tower. Several fighters were around and doing quests or killing various monsters. When i ahd to visit Reizende i discovered that she, too, had prepared for the celebrations and wore a costume. She was in a full plate armour that seemed shaped for a Kyttyn rather than for a Hamini, but she walked sure-footed and handled her mooncrystal with the same skill as always.

Back in the tower i discovered a fine piece of sculptors art: a dragon! Although the surrounding was not exactly inviting this statue made me linger there for a while.

Later in the evening i was once again asked if i was interested in a hunt to Ardvell. Although there were just Ursus and me as fighters, which made me a little doubtful, Jade and 4 healers we managed quite well. In the beginning Ursus lured the spiders towards us again, but then we became more bold and hunted through some few snells. Open borders then caused half the group to fall, but a nice chainrun from Ursus back to the landing place saved us. We had just gone west again when a huge spawn of Mammut arachnes forced us to flee again. In the following confusion nearly everyone fell and as a Sekat and some Nathair were waiting in the water the healers couldn´t go there either. What followed was a great example for Lepori zigzagging and Azcatl selfheal in the course of which Tarra and Lafaborn managed to lure spiders away, rise the other healers and bring us towards a rather safe place. I was so impressed i forgot to run when i was raised first, but the pain reminded me of my visinity again. We then ran to the portal cave(maybe on one of the next hunts a mage willing to learn that portal will accompany us, it would save us the boattrip!), where Ursus had been chained to and soon after manged to rescue Jade as well.

We decided we had killed enough spiders by then, as we had even found several red spidereggs! Our next target was the Ardvell Swamp. Jago joined our group for this hunt, while Terra Bul and Jade left. Her skills in recovering scales paid off well as the swamp is not only housed by Meshra but also by Kajmanos. We didn´t find any Kajmanoskin, but won the knowledge that we are actually able to hunt there. We even defeated an Anaconda, one of the biggest snakes i ever saw!
A narrow ravine in the northeastern mountains is fortified with a huge stone wall, behind which several flea-slings...umh..dogs kept watch. The guard at the gate was very rude though and barred the entrance.

Before we returned we quickly landed on the Thieves plateau in the west to see wether we could kill the boars lurking near the landing place. As it turned out we could, but we did not have the skill to cut their tusks from the cadavers. A man in Burh Fierlen, the rainy city in Ardvell, is asking for them in order to open his weapon shop again.

Exhausted, but not really sleepy yet, i went into the Hall'o'ween tower again. With the help of the others i managed to do the Onaquest, which was a very hard and tiring chase. After helping Jago try it as well and helping to get to fallen Warrax i was so weary i could only go meditating.

Booohooooo

2008-11-01T13:22:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was the first day of the feast of Hall'o'ween, which we celebrate every four years. A magic (and scary) tower appeared next to the arena and a Clown in TC is selling tickets for it. The tower itself houses even more towers! You can see Ghosts, Skeletons and Pumpkins everywhere.

Shortly after we entered the tower, Leda awoke and brought me my cap, on which she had mounted propably the finest crystal i ever found. It has four attributes, all of them positive! Wounds close faster now, i feel more healthy, can keep my balance better and hit more accurate!

Soon we found out that there were people looking for certain items who gave a reward for bringing them this item. More and more people came to celebrate the feast and so we entered the southwestern tower. It´s floors are littered with monoliths, which required some tactics, but the 3rd floor proved too hard for us. But there were also some Golems we could fight. Gravier, who is back in the lands seems to have recovered from long sitting around and already sounds like a true Nor again:I hope the festivities will continue some more days, i am eager to try to kill some eerie eyes in the spider-like tower with a nice group.

Hypnotised?

2008-10-31T16:40:00.004+01:00

Yesterday started with a meeting with Ziyal. She wanted to check the strengths of some pirates aswell as of those Undead living in the Mynna Crypt. The fight against the pirates went pretty well and i was glad for every single lesson i have already spent listening to Battuo. Only very few pirates managed to escape with their lifes and give us a hard time, among those the crew of a battleship.

The Undead proved to be a bigger threat, mostly owned to their numbers, but also because noone managed to brick the Banshees and some Skeletons and Spirits were reincarnations of apparently very strong warriors. Terra Bul managed to paint some of the scenes of this fight, i was too busy swinging, evading and running.

After the test was over, i was invited on a hunt to Ardvell. The way to the spiderplateau involved a boattrip, but i was hoping for solid ground under my feet again and so endured what can´t be avoided until i find some hidden paths or a mage learns the art of opening a Portal into this region. Some days ago Terra Bul had told me she´d like to try hypnotising me to take my fear of boats and in retrospect i am wondering if she did so yesterday without asking me. The fights with the spiders were very dangerous, even for the large and skilled group, especially when there was more than one to fight. Ursus did a great job luring them to us, but several times we fell or had to flee to the river. I suppose i´ll never know if Terra's hypnosis on me caused me to take a boat rather than fall on the ground or wether it was due to the peer pressure of everyone else running there. Anyway, it was slightly better than being dragged into the muddy river upside down. After killing some spiders it was getting late and we headed back to the safety of MT. I´m sure that more spiderhunts will follow and with the skills enhanced we´ll give them a better stand than now and kill even more.

Exploring Boanyoo

2008-10-28T10:45:00.013+01:00

Yesterday i discovered i can finally use shortcuts leading to Plateau aswell as to Kittyland, so my short training with F'rritti has paid off well. Although i don´t really like the pirate, i am now listening to Tutamen to learn how to keep on my feet longer even when i get hurt.

After i went to Donoma with Lafaborn, where he bought a harness fitting for an Azcatl (waitsize XXS). Afterwards we joined Tarra and Ursus in Wendies, where we petted the Silverback.

After this Crash, Ursus, Tarra, Terra Bul and me hunted through the Caverns of Darkness. At first i was afraid of the seemingly shoreless lakes in the caves, but Terra was so kind to lead my boatthrough relatively calm waters to the next landing places. We earned quite some money there and i gained lots of experience aswell. The trip would have been even nicer if all caves had had bridges connecting the isles with oneanother. Even the deepest cave, where bolting monoliths made my fur stand up, didn´t prove a real difficulty due to excellent teamwork.

When we finally emerged from the caves, we found it was still quite early in the day and so decided to go on a follow-up hunt. The choice fell on Boanyoo, which made me quite excited as i hadn´t had more than a glimpse of the region when exploring Derain and accidently peeking through a cave leading into the desert.

We had just arrived, when Newt joined us and so we started exploring Boanyoo from the place where we entered (we took the bridge leading over the Derain ravine) to the south. Just one mile west of the entrance is a little village, which looks quite forsaken. The houses look shabby and most have been hastily locked. But this is understandable, as the village lacks defensive structures and the region is inhabited not only by worms, poisonous lizards and Camels, but also by Jawas and Sandbandits, some of which even mounted lizards to ride upon. The way south and west took us to a beautiful beach, where a seemingly rather calm ocean branded upon. The beach also housed mutated Sandmahas. Terra found them rather ugly, but their unusual built made their furs rather valuable. We also encountered Sandwyrm, Snigils and greater Sandworms, but after all the adventures that day the group worked together well and we rarely got ourselves into deep trouble.
Another remarkable place is a graveyard of considerable size. It is haunted by Undead, but nevertheless Terra Bul seemed to like the location near the beach and claimed one of the graves for herself.
After we had seen all of southern Boanyoo and found it to be bordered by the mountains, behind which Derain valley lies, in the east and an ocean in the south and west., we went home as it had become late. It was a great tour, with a lot to see!

Into the cold

2008-10-24T13:52:00.004+02:00

Yesterday started with a visit to Wendies, where Tarra and Pit Bull were hunting. We didn´t found any skull, but met a Silverback-Nightwendecka! I was wondering how much the fur of this impressive animal is worth, but until we can seriously challenge it a lot of lectures have to be learned first.

A rescue at the riverbed resulted in a hunt at Niamph jungle, which provided Reindinho with 2 leather and i had quite some fun skinning and evading multiple hooves at once.

Back in town Crash asked me if i wanted to come along on a trip to the Longsword-seller and i gladly accepted. After some slimy falls of the group when we fought a bunch of Taxhisworms, we ran into Bisonland. This time we didn´t meet a cobra and so we soon arrived at the spot where the skilled eyes of pathfinders like Crash and me can see a way to climb up to Tundra. We didn´t want to return immediately and so we decided to hunt a little in Tundra. I was glad my fur is already becoming longer due to approaching winter, because it was icy cold there. We met and killed several Snowtigers and - thanks to Abe's mental boost - even a Sabreowl aswell as many Gianthermelins. I would have liked to try to skin a Tundrawolf, but maybe i should be happy we didn´t meet one. Still, the hunt was nice and i´m sure we will hunt in Tundra from time to time now.

An exhausting day

2008-10-21T16:18:00.006+02:00

The day started with something lots of Arilonians might call easy work or even being lazy: i sat in front of Reizendes tree and finally copied Newts map of Tarana and Treangi into the world map, which i am currently keeping and cultivating. I had pushed this task ahead long enough, dreading Taranas cliffs, plateaus and mountain passes. It took quite a while, but when i was done i felt a great burden being taken from me. I will now add some more details and then publish the newest version of the map.

After a very exciting, relaxing hunt with Frenzymac and Pit Bull in the Niamph jungle, where i discovered a previously unknown path, i was asked if i would be interested to hunt even stronger horses, on Eilean! I agreed and while i was waiting at the meeting point, i remembered i once started to map the island aswell. Soon i found the scetch, which had some dog ears but was otherwise unharmed. I think i will add the already mapped half to the map, before i publish it. The hunt itself was not very nice, the horses knew how to kick with their hooves and we had to end the hunt quickly, i even had to be chained headlong through the water to carrots, where Tarra and Terra Bul had to clear my lungs of water. I hate these experiences!

To compensate for the misery we wanted to hunt some Barwidgee Wolves, so that Tarra could buy reinforced bracers. The search went well and soon we had found the leather he needed. I even managed to skin a quite valuable fur of a bear:

Of course the hunt didn´t go smoothly all the time, at the end we had to run from quite some Snigils to save everyone, but it was a nice end of the days labours. Now i just have to find a path along the stones in Mirrin Bay to spare myself the boats to reduce the dangers of the way.

Dor'Shak tests our skills

2008-10-20T16:42:00.005+02:00

My day started with a rescue towards Chateau Loredan. Apparently a group had displeased the guards and the strongly armed watchmen proved the better fighters. So Tarra, Penthka and me set out and headed for a path leading us from Autumn Woods to Ponyland. Lots of horses and a little miscalculation from me lead to myself arriving at the Chauteau - but both healers were fallen on the way. Luckily Kathius had left the Meditower in the meantime and was soon coming to Autumn Wood together with Balaforn. This time we fought us down to the palace and we managed to get up the fallen healers aswell as those in the Chateau.

Back in town, i wanted to check if i judge my current training correctly. As can be seen on the next picture, i did:

After that i went to Wasteland once more together with Pit Bull and Newt. We did quite well and even found 2 leather for Pit. Close to the river we were attacked by a pack of blue tinged hyenas and i managed to recover quite a nice fur:

Once more town center called and there my nap was disrupted by some Orga sticking their heads into Arilon. It seems the Dor'Shak is slowly getting serious with killing us, the forces he sent yesterday seemed to be a test of our strength. Several Fearless, some Snow Zerks and even a Fury were part of the army. Lots of Pirates accompanied the Orga, about half of them being priests. Once when we were healing up in Reizendes tree, the Orga even managed to build a statue near the Arindal-cave. Their buildings skills must have improved greatly and we really have to be careful to not be surrounded by an Orga siege one day.

Watch out!

2008-10-19T12:28:00.004+02:00

It seems the Dor'Shak, who has been quiet for some time and thus slowly escaped the mind of many Arilonians is stirring again. Yesterday he started sending scouting parties to TC again, consisting of Orga forces assisted by some pirates. Newt and me were able to fight back the first forces, but later in the evening another party appeared and they erected a statue and a hut west of Arilon! Arlon and Puppy managed to question one of the pirates and learned that they only help the Dor'Shak because he forces them to. The pirate also repeated that our hooded enemy is gathering an army. We should watch out for more scouts and try to forge the weapon against the Dor'Shak as fast as possible!

But the day also held joyous news: on a hunt to Wasteland with Frenzymac, Hermes and Balaforn i got the last mising leather, so i could finally obtain one of Donoma's fine caps. The effort paid off, it fits my head well and i´m sure it will offer better protection than a thin layer of leather had.

The barren lands proved the more successful hunting area

2008-10-14T15:25:00.006+02:00

When i woke up yesterday a nice ratio of healers and fighters was around and after a while i was heading towards Wasteland together with Jago, Terra Bul and Tarra. In the rocky passes i made the pleasant observation that Jago must have studied with Skalio, as she recovered lots of snakescales with ease. Although the snakes sometimes managed to sink their poisonous teeth into the skin of one of us, this made their presence much more welcome.

When we reached the dry lands behind the passes we started working our way towards Dinken. If you always keep the Canyon, a deep gorge deviding the Wasteland nearly into two parts, to your right you can´t miss it. Although we had delivered the last food for the inhabitants quite some time ago the inhabitants still look miserable. It seems only the craftsmen creating Anevays and Oakbashers have recovered their full strength. I had hoped to see the forger of the Hatchets again and learn his price or maybe another promising, young smith, but that hope proved vain.

On our way back i insisted on greeting Hannes, who has been looking into the Canyon probably longer than i am old. It always makes me a little sad seeing him sitting lost in thought on the edge of a barren country. But on the way back to the passes (Tarra had to go back to Meditower, but Newt already waited at the passes to accompany us) and on another tour deeper south nearly towards the river, we found 2 pieces of hyena leather, which cheered me up quite a bit. Now Jago and me only need to find 2 more each.

In the meanwhile more and more people had come out of the tower and i took the opportunity and announced a hunt at Aroona, where i wanted to give Newt the opportunity to fill the last bleak spots on his map, so i can one day paint them into the big world map. The start was rather fast, as the group kept together well enough to follow me through various paths leading us to Party Beach. We had to take boats then, as i sadly haven´t found safe paths across the stones scattered between Piratebeach and Mirrin Islands yet. We rowed north and soon had explored the small plateau in the east of Aroona. The part around the little village proved not much more difficult, but we were able to recover quite some nice furs from the tigris.

Only when we wanted to land in the northeast of the inland lake we had become a little careless. The first try of taking the long, steep stairs leading from the docks up to the grassy plateau was not successful, but some nice chainruns saved the group. Then we went to the east and disaster struck. All of a sudden several grey panther were lunging at the group from the north. Although they are small, their teeth and claws are sharp as a razor, which brought down about half the group. Then large grey tigris appeared too and caused further trouble. Sadly i waited a little too long with my order for retreat and so only a few healers made it back onto the lake. Sadly, rescue efforts proved vain.

All in all it was a nice, but much too short hunt, on which i learned to keep a more watchful eye on the time of retreat. I only wonder wether it was a sign, that both times i gave the order to retreat to the boats, i was hit and killed right after and the one time i was on a chain and pulled towards the boats the chainer also fell.