Week 42 -45 -01

Sometimes, you have to risk everything to learn new things. When I came out of the library this day, a group had already assembled a crystal, and they were ready for planar travel. With us was Zorton. And we saw a great opportunity to learn what the books in the tower libraries said. So, after the initial battle in the Rat Zodiac, many ran for the Ethereal Tower. A few made it, including Zorton. We then went through the floors, one by one and let him peruse the books there. This is what he found :

Every new message has been added, if he got the same as on the previous floors I have edited it out. Note that the editing was done from a scroll, without the help of a visionstone to clearly mark the readings in space. However, we went from Tenebrion´s and up - so thats what I have been basing the floors on. Including skristal readings where we went though the portals. Just a warning though, there might be some errors.

We then tried the different portals there. There are 6 floors in the keep, one for each brother. There are portals at every floor. 5 of these are now open. The portals lead to the respective brother´s keeps. Tenebrion´s and Umbrions are oneway, here you end up in the crystal room and the firemaze. Lugubrions, Sombrions and Melabrions are twoway. However, there are locked doors there so you can´t go further inside their keeps. Cimmbrion´s portal is still closed. I went for Umbrion´s portal, and the others for Lugubrion´s in the end. I ended up in the Firemaze, close to the constellation room and the Ash Key. My only option was to run like mad, and try to get out. My shoes were sticky though, and I met the worst kind in that situation. A bridge..

I was concentrating real hard to hit the bridge right, but ended up running on lava. Now, that hurts I can tell you...

Althea is now back to her normal, nonfurry self. It seems finally someone in her clan was able to learn enough to make the salve. If we notice the difference, is another matter...

I am a very sad Sylvan today. Indeed. The crazy halfling Azael sued me for cursing him and hiding my true face to Puddleby. What a travesty! Once while we were hunting Toise outside Kismia´s Isle, Azael saw one of the Lyfes and he lost his voice. Probably from the fear in seeing such terrible beasties. He then accuses me of casting a curse on him. I have no such powers. All I have is a longsword. Every exile know that I am no witch. I myself have been the victim of some of their cruel deeds in the past. The verdict was guilty, as accused - and I was thrown in jail. and fined. I was deeply shocked and saddened. That none of the things I have done for Puddleby mattered. That any whacky, insane Gaia crying halfling can accuse me of terrible things, and then get away with it. Not only that, but they will believe him! My "hidden" nature? What hidden nature! I am a kind, gentle, sweet and helpful exile I am! Indeed I am! He backed up his case by using some fake and forged so-called "Baba-statements". Everyone knows that a visionstone can be forged, and scrolls can be as well. Such a great shame. I lack words. In the jury I saw many exiles I have helped and considered friendly. How can they believe such lies? The superstition among the majority of puddlebians is growing like a wildfire. It is a sad state of affairs.

Why Azael wants to hurt me in this way I don´t know. We once had a long discussion on the matters of faith. He is a follower of Gaia. He showed such resentment to other ideas, such fanatism and hate, and the debate got a bit hotheaded. But that is the only time we have been in such an arguement. What "his" hidden motives are, I don´t know. But I will find out. In the meantime, if he starts to argue with you - just nod and smile and pretend to agree. Or you will end up in jail as I did....deemed a "menace to society". Bah!

Not much to tell abut this zodiac. I have mostly been in the library while swc was fuming and writing long articles to the newsscrolls. You´ll probably hear it all in her private corner soon. I was however part of an expedition to the firemaze under Umbrion´s Keep. Very confusing, and rather annoying - as the typical collision between the explorers and the hunters happened. Mostly because the hunters didn´t quite know what they agreed to beforehand. And Gurgi having a clear idea of what he wanted to do, but not so good in telling that to others. The idea of mapping it was a very good one though. It´s huge. Much larger than I thought. And it could be hiding something interesting, in addition to what we have already found there. It was night when we exited the castle, and we had a pretty rough time getting the "trouble sylvan fighters" to their trees, as usual. There isn´t any place on that island that is worse than near my tree. Orgaberry Lyfes in abundance. We had to retreat 4 times, and most on Thuja´s chain - before we eventually made it. And we got saved by daylight in the end too.

The Feast of Tsrinn is over us again. It´s my third feast. It´s kind of odd to think about. And every time I am drawn between the desire to spread "terror" throughout town, and the responsibility of a sylvan warrior. Sigh. Why can´t I just have some fun like everybody else! First time, we had to beg Slasher to come and relieve the town of the Baba menace, second time - I was being Oh so responsible all the time - until White Wolf talked me into charging the waves at West beach. We both did, and caused quite the stir. And then Thuja came, and gave us the "look". You know... that look that just tells you you have been very very foolish and caused a lot of problems. So, White Wolf and I went back to being responsible after that. I even helped Magnels drop off Vagile down in the marsh somewhere after a plea from the healers. Sigh. I guess responsibility mode is on this year too. But I´ll be sure to look good!

There was recently a large raid to Tenebrions Tower, Umbrions Keep and Kismia´s Isle. Their mission was to test the Crystal in the firemaze under Umbrion´s Keep. To see whether this could be used as a guiding crystal there also. It couldn´t , it was just lifeless in their hands. So, now the test of the Sword is next...

And PTF had again a successfull trip to KI, this time our mission was to get Callia and Himitsu to the Amulet trainer , to get Elenis a Phanta.. thing.. and to try and use less time on our way out than previously. The final object was of course as always to get all safe to the boatman and out. All missions accomplished! Woooo! Callia is writing the tale in her journal.

The Phantasmonomicon is intruiging. When I go there, I can´t help but train a little - and then I change it when I come back to town. And then I train a bit more. I´m confused but tempted. There is something that draws me to it though. Don´t know what.

Two groups have met with Tenebrion and Umbrion respectively. They want readings from throughout our plane. Umbrion wants many at each snell, to account for natural fluctuations. Umbrion : " We need to know where there are extreme readings..Both high and low." Neige has made a scroll available for those that are interested in his readings. Thanks to Gurgi and Pureheat for sending me vstones. Thank you thank you thank you. I didn´t even have to ask! Woooo.

For new tidbits, also check out my Brion scroll. Why they want this, I have no idea. I highly doubt it´s because they just want to "help" us. They need this information for themselves too, so much is clear. After Zorton´s readings in the EP tower, I must admit I am getting more and more suspicious on their true motives. Are we giving out information that will hurt us? Will they use this against us? While we will learn things in the process, they will also....

And now, for a tiny plea. I have noticed how exiles spurts out that we are trampling around on the Brion´s territory. Please, do be careful about what you tell them. We are basically stealing, poking and putting our nose where they probably think it doesn´t belong. If we are going to establish some sort of trust, we need to be more laid back in what we tell them we are doing... If you want to tease them, that´s fine - but do so at your own risk, and don´t involve other exile´s names. The EP tower is theirs, the zodiac circles on the EP are theirs, keeps are theirs etc.. . When we go to these places we are practically invading their homes, peeking at their property and sometimes even "borrowing" things they own. Umbrion had to be in a good mood the other day, or else those visiting him would have been fried. I really don´t want to be around when any of the brothers gets angry. Remember, in the EP tower Zorton noticed that some of the the scrolls were made of SYLVAN SKIN!!!!!!! Neither of the Brions should be mistaken for cute, helpful and friendly butterflies....

Another thing taken from the list of things to try. The EP sword didn´t work in the Zodiac Circle under UK. We now know we have to try elsewhere.

I have found that I can maintain a stable portal configuration with two portals open at once. Unfortunately in that mode when only one of them is open it becomes somewhat dangerous. Let me demonstrate a harmless display.
Here he opens two portals:
With two portals open at once, they feed each other. It is very safe. But when one closes, the other has a flushing effect. I will need the readings Robin took the other day to know more. These will run out of energy soon. The next step is to maintain them for a longer duration. They require a large investment of energy. They are very expensive to establish. They are also not portable.

It was PFT´s monthly raid again. This time we made a quick detour to Umbrion´s Keep to get Popo and Drablak to the trainer, and then we headed for the Lyfeledia Cave. This huge complex that makes every Pathfinder think they are in heaven. Kizmia´s Isle is dangerous to go to now when the days are so short. We didn´t have much time, and ran through as fast as we could. We knew we would still meet night sometime during this trip, but we wanted to be as far beyond the whirlpool as possible when that happened. Well, this day - destiny had other things in store for us. We had reached our destination, had a short break - and was heading out, when Entil`zha really couldn´t resist the temptation to peek around. You know how these pathfinders are, and especially Entil´s kind. Always busy running around, looking at things, thinks mapping is the greatest thing to do, and simply can´t stand still. This time she came too close to the well, and fell in. Ooops. No problem said we. Save Entil said we. Onwards! Kill those nasty beasts. And into the frey we jumped. And was met with around a zillion beasties on four and two legs. And then the sun set. Double oops.....

The situation did look grim. After some roars and smacks, most of us were decorating the ground, and the Lyfes seemed to be in control. I have been in this kind of situation before. It´s always a long puzzle. The "I´m going to pull this corpse over here, and kill that beast over there, while you can pull that over there.. etc" kind of puzzle. We went up and down, up and down. Those striped ones were nasty. Orgaberry and Flower Lyfe at night. Ouch! It was a stand off. We didn´t win, and we didn´t lose. We tried various ways of dealing with it, until we finally were able to get to the corner and get more fighters up at the same time. Sometimes the lyfeledia would fight eachother, and some died that way. We were actually able to pull this off. Don´t ask me how though. I have no idea. We had spent more than 4 PT hours on this, and were running out of time. But PTF will die standing... so to speak.. so we headed for the exit. And came 2 snells west, and there we met a large group of more cats, and cobras. I fell in the retreat, but I hear Kojiro fought valiantly as the last fighter, backed with Thuja as the last healer. And then we all met up in Purgatory. Quite the adventure though. But I think we have to leave KI to the cats until Spring. We started this raid at the break of dawn, but only came halfway when the sun set. Entil has promised though that she will not peek inside wells alone anymore. That might be a good ting...

Rumours from the grapewine that the Darshaks have a larger base than Ash close to town. Where are those Elite Darshaks coming from but not there.

Not many days for me hunting this zodiac. I hear LIFE has recently been to the Foothills again and stayed there for many days. Reports are in both from Lundar and Koric. Sounds like a grand adventure!

And Tharloch has decoded the cipher we found in the EP tower. I have no idea how he did that, some exiles just have large brains I guess. That he is a dwarf makes it even more amazing...


	Zorton´s readings in the Ethereal Tower Sued by Azael the Mad One The Feast of Tsrinn			Tenebrion and Umbrion talks about ether, portals and science. PTF in cavebrawl on KI Tharloch decipher the cypher found in EP tower