Spiders and the wild, wild East

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

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

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.