Diary

Reacting on toggles from fallen comrades, I soon found myself on the beach of Dal´Noth. I knew it had to be bad, as the party that fell wasn´t a weak one, but I didn´t expect the one I met there on the beach. Qual the Wizard. Oh dear. I haven´t had much dealings with this being before, thankfully. But in this situation he was between us and those we wanted to rescue. His first deed was to throw many bolts in Sleipnir´s general direction, causing him to fall. And that made me black out for some minutes I think. I charged him with rage, only to find out that I couldn´t hit him, and that he couldn´t hit me. He threw some bolts my way, but unhappy with the results - he summoned more energy in his spell, and increased the power of the bolt. Another lightning bolt and I was fried, and my hair was all a mess.

After some dealing and wealing there on the beach, included many a fallen state, we secretly decided to run past Qual up north. Guess what, he followed us.. not surprisingly. But at least we were on the way. I have to tell you, fighting numerous Dal´Noths, Vel`Noths and the like with Qual the Wizard right behind me wasn´t pleasant. Sometimes I could feel his hits, as he stabbed me in the back - getting impatient because we didn´t move fast enough for his taste. Thankfully he wiffed me more than he hit, and Thuja and the rest of the healers were ready and alert to keep us all alive. Slowly we made it to the fallens just south of town. But I guess Qual had been busy setting up an ambush, as there were numerous Vel´Noths roaming around. I think I counted 6 of those before I cried "West!" and fell soon after. Koric quickly dragged me west, and Thuja and Mervine came right behind him. The rest of our rescue-party fell.. Wincing from many open wounds, we all healed up, and then we started cautiously to pummel those Vel´Noths down one by one.

It was close too many times that night, but we finally were able to raise the fallens and go back to beach. Yor, being in the party that we rescued - had plenty of time to talk to Qual. Funny isn´t it, how the powerful beings on our land usually like to talk to fallens and not alive ones.. Anyway, Yor has written a short account on what they talked about, but I will go trough it in short terms.

* Qual is finished with the Vel´Kin. They have done what they were supposed to do and he has no interest in them any longer. He want us to finish them off..

* The Dal´Noth Castle is not his, but he said it will be soon. He said "They can´t hold out forever..." and later "and all the secrets soon will be mine"

* He also didn´t care much for the "bloody Dar'shiken... or what ever they are called"

So, the tr´ool kin are done with their digging. It seems that many of these tunnels are located in south forest and some may even go all the way up to town, according to many recent dead trees exiles have found. If the presence of dead trees are an indication that their roots are destroyed or damaged. The mirrors might emit an energy that is deadly to the trees as well. If we could convince the tr´ools that Qual only has used them - and get them on our side, maybe we could get access to those tunnels ourselves. The mere presence of the tunnels are a liability, as Qual has said that he will use them to attack Puddleby.

It is interesting to note that the Darshaks and Qual are not in some form of alliance. If they were, he would have known what they were called, perhaps. Or maybe it´s an alliance that no longer works. He did speak of other friends though..

What, or who - is Votenkath? He said it/he/she/they was not really strong. If it´s a race or a person, maybe this is someone we ought to talk to. Related in my mind is also the castle, the "they" he refers too - seems to be keeping him from the castle and the secrets therein. Maybe "they" are Votenkath, a priest order on Dal` Noth, fighting Qual and keeping from taking over. Whoever "they" are, we really need to get in touch with them. We absolutely do not want Qual to be in charge of the castle and all the "secrets therein".

Visionstones of both the conversation between Yor and Qual, and the rescue-party´s struggle can be seen in the RQ Vault.

Althea and Urgelt told me about the concerted attacks from the darshak, orga and undine. It must have been only one day after we met Qual on Dal´Noth, or even the same day.

Althea says, "We went to get Keyser an axe. Large undine force showed up in outpost, along with a Liche and darshak. Meanwhile, the orga were invading the meadow with orga wraths, and town was under siege from undine"
Urgelt says, "And the OC was loaded with locks and wraths and furies."
Althea says, "Allof a sudden the darshak and the undine left the outpost, and attacked town"

It must have been a glorious battle. Sigh. I wish I had been there..

According to Tarf , after the huge darshak raid some days ago, a thoom named Libros came and said darshaks stole his tomes for a new library. I met this thoom just after I stumbled out of library :

Libros is a Thoom, is male, is an unknown, and has not joined a clan.
He is holding a purse and a valuable tome.
He looks tired and worn.

He has recovered 19 of 36, and those were mostly carried by Darshak pirates. Lirric sent him a message asking him to bring them from the mainland. On a question how he got past Mobius´s patrols, he answered that they had let them by, a humanitarian mission, carrying books. Lursa is holding 2 and will not return them, Tarf has sued her twice. I do not know if Libros was able to convince her to give them back - as they went off to have a private conversation.

Using his scrying stone, Aki is able to see this wizard living inside the castle on Dal´Noth. Is this the one known as Votenkath, or is he one of the Votenkath´s ? We still don´t know. Never the less he must be one of those opposing Qual and his terror, the one keeping Qual away from the castle and the "secrets therein". Every time we visit the Dal town these days we yell "Votenkath" in hopes of getting an answer. So far, nothing.

I was so lucky to be part of a historical battle. A battle against nothing less than a Greater Death. Indeed. The most fierce and dangerous creature our world has ever known. The first Greater Death killed since the Ripture War, and killed meaning pummeled and pounded by axes, not by falling to it as we have been forced to do before. Caddrel the Commander used a tactic that was known back in the 30´s. We were able to cleverly make a trap that made the GD unable to hit us while we could hit the GD. I have to confess, not many were convinced we actually would be successfull, but after we had made that trap it was just a matter of time and persistence. It took 12 hours, it meant a lot of wiffing, but eventually.. it died. I made a visionstone of the battle, and have made part 3 available if you want to see it. At this point it is bleeding badly, red, but it still takes awhile before it goes down. Envision 12 hours of that, and you have seen part 1 and 2..

This is the proud list of exiles , the GD slayers: Kisa, Thuja, Edomae, Lorikeet, Rabbi Solomon, Sor, Rieger, Malkor, Gurgi, Alcon, Caddrel, Phiros, Prince Valiant and Babajaga.

Hooray for the Exiles of Puddleby!

The recent storm (v130) hit hard, especially the healers got literally.. blown away. There is now a balance tax on changing items. Some felt this so unjust and cruel that they chose to protest by making a fall-in in town square. Eating dark berries, or simply by switching items so fast they could be hit by a rat, they piled up - making the square all messy and bloody. I really have to watch where I am going. I don´t want to accidwntally step on someones arm or leg, making their suffering even more unbearable. Rumours have it that some of their torment will be easened by next storm.

I was talking with this Sylvan a week ago. He was complaining about the lack of business. Not so many wanted to play his game, since it was the Storm of Anger. I know him to be most honorable, he has never cheated me. And I hear that a fen managed to win a lot of coppers . I was sad that day when I met him, longing for my beloved who very rarely comes out of the library these days. I wanted to play, but Blackjack refused, as he said - Never play on a broken heart..I do miss Sleipnir, so very much.

Writing this diary sometimes leads me into rather dangerous situations. Like here, where I stopped to take a sketch of the lovely snow ferals outside feral den. They were not so many at first, 3 or 4. But then the the whole family came and when I lifted my head up from the sketchbook I was surrounded. I managed to get off a SS message before I fell, and soon the rescuers came. Since I was in muddy forest only to skin some - I made sure I shared with the skinners while fallen. A smart move that was ..

It should have been an easy rescue.....Sometimes, it´s the dumbest things that makes you fall and wait for a rescue for many hours. Cutlas was showing a new pathfinder the path to snaggy from OC. And well, they went inside. The pathfinder went the wrong way, and Cutlas came back alone. Achates and I bravely entered Snaggy along with Cutlas, and went to tne Snell where the pathfinder supposedly fell, only to hear over SS that the PF had departed. Snaggy was wild that night. Every snell was filled with critters, and neither of us lasted long. I am a dancer, not a bricker - still. Even though my defense isn´t bad, I am dead if I get surrounded, even by the thiniest of critters. And I got surrounded by Orga and vermine while I was on low health. Well, what can I say.. I fell to the vermine.. And my clanmates made sure I didn´t forget that..The first thing Slyph did was of course to broadcast the news all over public SS. And I got many a comment from others as well while I lay there fallen.. somewhere in Snaggy.. The rescue took 4 hours. And it was the third rescue party that finally succeeded. By that time the number of fallens in Snaggy had grown, and I heard that the initial place where hte PF fell had a heap of fallens. I was badly fallen, being fallen for so long. Perilously close the healers said.. oh dear. Lugh dragged me on a chain around Snagglewood while the party was looking for more fallens. He even made sure I saw the battle against a superfury - that was sweet of him. I got chained to town eventually, and there i was finally able to be raised and could walk again. I didn´t need as many healers as when I fell to the GD a year ago, that ws 14 as far as I can remember - but still..it took some healers with horus that.

Lesson learned - don´t fall to vermine when your clanmates are in the lands, and Vagile better fall to large critters from now on. If she doesn´t , I will be there ASAP and gloat. Indeed.

It was a regular hunt on Dal´Noth. Not the strongest resistance we have met there either. But I guess we have underestimated the `Noths to some degree. Suddenly a huge force came from the south, and at that same time - we heard over SS that the vel kin were moving north from trool town. They must have planned this attack in advance, as they effectively cut us off from the beach, and as such also our aid to the exiles fighting in south forest. In the panic that ensued, many in our party fell, but some of us made it into one of the houses. There we set up a HQ, and slowly, very slowly and carefully we proceeded to run in and out and try to kill as much as possible. After many hours we succeeded and were able to raise the fallens. Our way back to beach was a long and hard one, as the Noths seemed to be determined in their effort to stop us.

It was not only the usual kind of Noths that met us, but also those ... creatures that looks like something Qual has made in his laboratory. There are many kinds of these, they all seem to be of the Dew-kind though. This one here is a Pallidew, if I am not mistaken. I have to admit, I am still somewhat confused as to what is what. If you remember, Qual spoke of some "friends" last time we had an encounter with him. These might be what he meant. Some .. friends.

Our party then met near sylvan scout, and went south to the mirrors, killing every trool we could see on the way. There were fallens everywhere - and the battlecries filled the forest as we were able to defeat the trools and raise the fallens.

Near trool-town we met another huge force, but they too were soon defeated by revenge-hungry exiles. In trool-town, we came upon a Sar´Noth inside one of the huts. Phiros had stepped in and interrupted their little "chat" there, and this is what he heard, before the Sar´Noth turned and killed him.

What caves? The caves they have made on our island? The ones the vel kin have been digging all the time? That doesn´t make much sense, which leaves me to believe that he must mean the caves underneath Dal´Noth. he also mentions Qual. But why would the vel kin be interested in the caves underneath Dal? Is this the reward for digging all those caves underneath our island? And why on earth would the vel kin see that as a reward? if you have ever been in the caverns beneath Dal, you know they are vast and damp - and not exactly hospitable. Under a tour to the magic barrier under Dal, it suddenly occurred to me that it might be the caverns that leads from there. It´s a vel´noth that guards that barrier from the inside. One of Qual´s minions. Maybe there are vast caverns beyond that point. I don´t know..

As always, Yor has more.


	Meeting with Qual the Wizard on Dal´Noth Libros and the new library New trainer in town, Lovma Geer What Aki and his scrying stone tells A Greater Death bites the dust		Blitz, the new fighter-trainer The Puddleby fall-in Snowferals outside feral Den Falling to vermines.... The Trool/Noth alliance