Week 02-07, 2002

Week 07

Hooray, a new shelf - with a new key! Lets pray we don´t loose it anymore. And the scroll on the Brions is finally updated.

Lots of interesting things happening, but Koric has as usual the most important stuff. Kyuem pieces, Ethereal Boots etc. On the Boots - it was PTF who went trough that sparkly flower the first time and acquired the Boots. We had been looking towards that place for quite some time. It had all the necessary ingredients so to speak. Zodiac Signs, Maze - paths all over. And with the knowledge that the rising Zodiac will take you outside of the circle in EP - it was natural to also try that in the Maze. And we had heard that Achates had stumbled into one with Yor of course right behind, and they had ended up in the Warrior. Luck and knowledge and some communication across the Suntime, and PTF was there with some shiny boots on.

What have struck me lately is the rumour that Melabrion has been heard chanting in Ancient, and uttering some words in the language of Magic. We already know he is quite the Wizard - but Ancient?? Fascinating. Melabrion seems to be quite interested in all things Puddlebian. He has shown interest in the white, pink etc stones we find - and are willing to trade them for other things. Tater has sent me a transcript of a meeting that took place in the autumn of 544. As expected, he was quite charmed by the "little one". Melabrion is directing numerous studies with different exiles on Bloodblades, Ores and stones, and Greymyrs - Elenis reports. Wangah Rah has been commissioned to scan them out in the passes. And Melabrion has also stated that the gem he used on Katan is a way he has to measure whether departs have any effect on ether levels in this plane. I am not so sure I buy into that explanation, time will tell...

And the Doc, Tessa Malthus have done some extensive research on the Sword of Souls. What she have found out is quite scary to say the least.

On another note, I finally understood the layout of the gardenmaze the other day. Ok, so I am a bit slow. Give me an ethereal plane to map over a maze any day... In my defense, I haven´t been there so often - 3 times all in all perhaps. There are 12 zodiacs, and 12 gardens for each Zodiac. Going down a well or up a ladder will take you to a new Zodiac garden, as long as you don´t do that - you are still in the same Zodiac-garden. Woo! I wish I had understood that a bit sooner though. 4 of us were running all over the place in a retreat from the QC some days ago.

On running, I had a long run in the second sphere of EP. Yor, Hellpop, Haenk and Drue bet I wouldn´t last longer than 14 sec at the most. Hah! I lasted for eons! My scouting reveled large snells with no place to hide, loads of roaming beasties - and snells with a single Zodiac sign. The Skull square with the Kyuem in the middle might be an exit but I didn´t get the chance to try. I reported my scouting to other exiles and I just heard a larger group had gone there and found some new and interesting things! Koric was in the group, so expect an extensive report in his journal, if not already.

Callia had a chance to talk with Tenebrion some days back, and as always when Callia speaks to him - interesting subjects are discussed. The transcript is long, the thoughts are complicated - but if you want to learn more about ether and planes, it´s a good document to study.

Skirwan was found on Ash I heard. But, his brain was missing. An open skull was all what was left. Kira told me the wounds looked like a Bloodblade´s doing, and many suspects Aldernon. As you may remember, he is good friends with the fiery one Umbrion. On a perhaps related note, Shepherd is missing. Last seen and heard from going to talk with someone named Anubis. After that no one has seen or heard anything from him. Nox is in hard weather these days, as many had been missing previously. That was why Shepherd was going to talk to this fellow. Callia asked Tenebrion about it in a subtle way:

Sorry dear reader for not updating sooner. Time is a precious thing, and lately I haven´t had enough of that. But I have had time to adventure, only not writing about it. These days I don´t feel so bad when I can´t write, as there are so many now that keeps journals, and also keep me updated as well.

Some days ago Puddleby got to meet Melabrion, another of the Brion brothers. I have stolen this sketch from Connie´s visionstone. He insists on speaking dwarven, of all things. Some interesting conversation went on here. A sample:

Melabrion was interested in making a deal with the dwarfs. That will prove to be easy I am sure. Give them as much beer as they can drink, and they will be easy to negotiate with. Melabrion says in Dwarven, "You garner me a meeting with the local dwarves and get me a Merc staff and I'll offer to someone an Ethereal Portal" Melabrion didn´t only get a Merc Staff, he got a servant as well. I really have to question Kalian´s sanity. Being a cruel Wizards servant for 6 years, unwillingly , I doubt any exile willingly giving up on himself like that. Have you noticed how the Brion brothers get more and more shady, cagey and dangerous as we meet one after the other? While most of us can deal with Mr T in some ways, I really fear the day we meet the last one of them - Sombrion. This Melabrion didn´t exactly spread trust if you know what I mean. Kalian departed, but first Melabrion readied a gem he held in his hand. Then Kalian was asked to depart. I may be just a fighter, but there is no doubt in my mind what that means. Seemed to me like it was a gem that worked very much like the Sword of Souls. Kalian must be mad. Even Tenebrion pitied him.

And so Kalian became Melabrion´s servant. May Gaia have pity on his soul. A part of it is now Melabrion´s. Ooof. Melabrion is still interested in a meeting with the dwarfs. Some sober dwarfs should attend as well. I know of , hmm, 3 in all of Puddleby...

PTF have been doing the regular adventuring/hunting these zodiacs. We have had a longer break, because of Bawkmas and all. We have gone through a spring cleaning, very much the same as LIFE has had. While we are not as strong, we will be better off - as those remaining have the same goals. We still have positions available, so if you are interested - please don`t hesitate to drop me a note, or ask any of us in the lands. We are especially looking for healers, but fighters and mystics can apply as well. Important, make sure you read our intro first.

The thing about being in an adventure group like this is, that I know that I at least once a zodiac will experience some great and fun and challenging things. No matter how many books I have to read in the library that particular zodiac. And there is nothing that grow bonds than figthing to survive in various places. This time it was Tenebrion´s Keep. And while it seem to be rather dangerous on the sketch, right then it was controllable. We can face many more beasties with Tessa and Thuja healing you know. But, then - as it sometimes does - disaster struck. See the barrel south of Thuja? That is the exit to the fifth floor. Thuja slipped accidentally down, was instantly trapped and fell. No problem I thought. We can do this with one healer. Our guest for the day, Sargon - had sadly fallen previously on entry. Then Tessa also hits the Barrel of Death, and we are suddenly healer less! Ooops... Needless to say, we were down pretty soon after that. We were saved by no less than the regular ran cores, who do have their uses from time to time... Thanks to Michael, Natas and Ziff and a whole lot of other exiles for scraping us off the floor.

But, PTF had a busy day. Another goal was to check out the Scarmis Pen and cave beneath. Around this time Mr. T was sensed in the lands, and he wanted to talk with Tessa. He had to wait till we were finished with our doings, but then we headed back to his keep. We had a lengthy conversation with him, fully covered in Drablak´s Journal. The essence of the talk was that he wanted a brain to do some experiments on. How much ether can a Noxie-brain take.... Thing about Mr T, he is neither good nor evil. He just grabs for whatever is next on his list, driven by a motive that is hidden to us. Or maybe it´s just the scientist dream. I dunno. That can make him an ally, or a dangerous foe - depending on whether we are in the way or not... I tried to dance him a little, to see how far he would go. By the way - those sylvan skins in the libraries on the ethereal tower are not ordinary ones... Read Drablak´s journal, you´ll see...

In other news, The Knight is excited, as the New Hall of Courteous Ones is finished. The ones inside bow almost as he does. He being the first Knight on the island, and the establisher of the Knighthood - I hope his pride survived being formally inducted by someone else.

I have also done some vast ran coring recently. All comprised in 4 runs in the Valley. That is usually more than I can take. I am a roamer, I need to see other and new things rather often. After 4 runs I had enough, so I started to roam. I ended up in Dark Chamber - after invite by Lard Almighty. A group there needed a brick he said. I am usually never invited to do that sort of thing, probably cause many think I don´t want to. But DC is a fun place, even if I do not learn anything. The group there shared with me though, whoa! Very kind and very sweet of them. I have great memories from Dark Chamber. It was that place that taught me a lot about fighting in groups, as it requires some special things to survive in there. I tend to enjoy fighting to survive more than fighting to learn. I have to admit though, I was a bit skeptical, with scars from my last and daylong rescue in DC, but they all seemed to be back to their regular state. Later we gathered up with Veer and crew to hunt in the cave under Ash. But as we found out, the recent storm had brought some changes. The entry cave now had exits to the west. Wooo! Being our first time there, we didn´t really know what to expect. The group was not the strongest either, so we fell into a heap after entering the main room.

And for the first time in oh so long, two Quillers were in the rescue party! Whooo! RQ! My beloved the Knight Sleipnir and Vagile no less. While Sleipnir grabbed all of us on a borrowed chain from Thuja, Vagile seemed more interested in getting her revenge over Slyph. Why? Cause it involves a sum of coppers and a loss in the casino, that´s why. Anyway, this is how we all were transported to town Square. Turned out be quite a busy day for the townhealers, as chains with fallens came in from all over our island.

I was really gone. I was a "Lorikeet and Koric" case, and then you know you are in a pretty bad shape. Those scarmis larvas are really mean. I don´t think I have been so fallen since the rat towers. Hmm, no wait - since the orga camp raids I was able to participate in. I do think I prefer the frying over the larva nibbling though.

Eager to learn if the illusion had broken down a bit, as Umbrion´s did in it´s time, I got Nevyn to try some days later. And he could open it, hooray! We quickly got a stronger group together, with the intent of exploring it more. Of course, many had already been to the place in the days that had passed since our discovery. They were talking about a maze I couldn´t pinpoint. I soon learned though. But on the way we managed to secure the main room and kill the Queen.

This a sketch from our fight with the Acid spitting Scarmis Queen. I went from all healthy to this state.. That is quite the spit I tell you. I tried to yell break, and the acid hit me then. After watching the visionstone it seems she targets an exile rather soon, and then no matter where the exile is - she will just spit. Bon Temps was the targeted one. That is quite a range don´t you think? Fighting the Scarmis Attendants protecting the queen was a weird experience. I have never met a beastie who have shown so little interest in exiles. You might think that is good and all, but it is actually quite challenging. They seem to target just one exile at a time, and the same one. So, if you are not that exile - you will have a hard time getting their attention. But I need their attention in order to be able to hit them. So we had some dancing and running and some "walk into the horde" and slap them over the "nose" - kind of thing. I made some visionstones if you are interested, of the fight with some attendants, the trapping of the queen, and the killing of it in the end.

Then we headed off to the Gardenmaze. Frankly, that place gives me a headache, almost making me as confused as talking to Nevyn sometimes can make me. And dizzy too. Going east will get you west of where you were. Yelling coming from south will you hear as coming from north. Makes me dizzy just thinking about it. Elenis is making the map, thank Gaia. I can´t wait to see how it really looks like.. Inside this maze there are zodiac signs, that will lead inside the Scarmis Pen. From there you can exit down the scarmis hole. Don´t touch the skulls though, if you remember Lundar´s tale - they lead to another sphere of ethereal plane. Yor could tell that he went through a path somewhere in the maze, near some odd flowers the pathfinder Achates saw. And he ended up inside the Warrior circle in EP! We of course needed to try that. It took a little time before we found the place, but we did and headed in. No guardian inside, just the usual stuff. Drablak ended up being too fallen alas after some close tangle with an astral drake. So a few of use decided to try and run for the tower, chaining Drablak behind. A run in Ep always ends up in a disaster, and this was not any different. Me roaming around the snell unable to find the tower in time didn´t actually help any. When I finally found the place Thuja had of course fallen. End of run. And no chains on this sylvan. I was running out of time before I needed to head back to the library, so I didn´t get the chance to see much. Just a short stop inside the portal from the marsh floor. These days, I am learning how to maintain my tools better. Time to at least be able to use a chain in a crisis. I will never be a Catena member though. With my curse, and Slyph continuing to put glue under my shoes - I make a lousy chainer.


	The Gardenmaze under Cimmbrion´s Keep Acid spitting Scarmis Queen Scarmis Cave under Ash PTF in Tenebrion´s Keep Kalian becomes Melabrion´s servant			Shepherd is missing, and Skirwan´s body is found on Ash Fat Alice seeks a gem A run through the second sphere of EP PTF equips the Ethereal Boots