Week 51-52, 01

	What to do with Sendorian Falinea rescues OC3 Adventuring in the Abyss Dal´Noth is in! Young ones Poems from the news-scrolls High-leveled fighters in arena brawl			The Puddleby Zoo Aki tricked by the witches DM hunt in deep cavern Dal´Noth is even more in! A successfull witch-stabbing

Week 51

It was a rescue. It had been a rescue for many many hours. Fallens in OC3 , but along with them was also around 14 locks. The high higgrus healers Tarf and Outcast were jumping into OC3, pushing and pulling the ones near the entrance out. I think Outcast finally understood that the brave fighters were better off standing in OC2 and fighting those furies than trying to enter OC3 and be bolted to death. And add to the death pile. But, I don´t know. You never know how much Outcast understands do you.... Many were saved by these two healers this way, while the rest of the group pummeled whatever came out of there. Assortment of DV´s , some locks, rages, a fury etc... When the group had grown some, we decided (or was it rather the one who yell the loudest "Charge!") to take OC3, as the rest of the fallens were deeper inside. Well, what can I say.. we had a rod.. and then suddenly we didn´t have one anymore.. And then I saw the backs of the brave exiles trying to reach the portal to oc2 before the bolts hit them. I fell too of course. Couldn´t leave my friends could I! It was just a hopeless situation. The locks was still 13 or about in number, and although some made it to OC2, it would take a long time to kill those locks, and in the meantime new ones would appear. Secretly I began my conversation with departus, but then I heard a crystal-clear voice over the Locks´bolts. Falinea!!!!! Oh thank Gaia Falinea was here! I heard the bolts zizzled trough the air, some grunts from dying locks, and a yell from the Winged Centaur that she was "thinning out" the orgas. Oh joy! It has been a long time since I have seen her, and even longer since I have had the fortune to be saved by her. And from the tip of our lunges, the dozen fallens in there cheered while the Centaur pummeled the beasties to oblivion. The rescue was of course easy after that, as the group from OC2 joined us, and the healers slowly began to work their way trough the pile of fallens.

Urgelt the Peerless One was seen in town some days ago. Along with him, or was it a gift I don´t know, was a keg of beer. Chaos ensued as the dwarfs in the lands rushed to the keg and drank themselves senseless. In the midst of it all stood Urgelt, calm as ever. I do hope he will be seen more in the lands soon. We need the peerless one.

I really didn´t want to go. I mean, really. I didn´t. Caddrel talked me into it, as usual. The reason why I didn´t want to was that I believe in having a chance. A small one, but at least a chance. This group did not have that. This group was a suicide run into the abyss. I have been dreaming of getting to the Abyss for so long now. I have been trying and trying to convince the higher leveled fighters and healers to go there , at least try. But they just shake their heads and talk about the Abyssal Hunters hitting you every second now, after Beasties 2.0. I don´t blame them. They , as I , want to have a solid chance of success. Planning a depart is not seen as success. Ah well, I checked my lessons with departus, and found myself on the red line. Curiosity killed etc... Regrouping near the cloud on the astral plane, we found some Astral Guardians. And had a wiff fest. We finally killed them but I think they just fell down of pure boredom. Has anyone ever hit these reliably? Probably not. As we jumped into the cloud leading to the abyss, I took a deep breath - holding my axe high, and fell straight down in a lava pool.. Gah..

That brave Maz tried to get me out of that pool, but the flames hit him too. And that could have been that if not the healers got us up. Indeed! We had alive healers running around healing us and we were able to regroup again in the astral plane! Maz held two Abyssal Hunters in the trap northwest. It looked good there for awhile. The rest of the group was healing in the plane, Abyss was "sort of" under control, and then I hear Maz think "RUN!" And then he jumped into the plane too. Four abyssal hunter´s in addition to those two already there. Hmm, I´m not a mathematician, but that makes it 6 and nearly impossible.. But, most of us were alive still, we got some reinforcements from DT as they had killed those Liche´s lurking there, we had been inside and we were out again... Another try.. I took a deep breath, jumped into the cloud, and didn´t hit the lava pool this time. But alas... 2 of our healers did near me, and I could hear that other healers did as well. I pulled my chain out, slowly moving towards the healers, thinking I could get them out and back into the plane. But the lava pools tricked me. Their range is wider than the one I can see. So I fall too. And that, as they say, was that. I never got a chance to hit an Abyssal Hunter, or be hit by one. I still don´t know if I can stand a hit or be able to hit one. I will be back though, sometime. With a better chance of success if I can get these high-leveled fighters and healers to join me in a more serious effort to take over the Abyss. I am still dreaming. Someday...

This is a sketch of a dead Sar´Noth. Yeah! I have been hunting regularly on Dal´Noth, and are actually able to hit these things now. Which is a major improvement. If you have read about my first adventures on this terribly dangerous island, you know why I am so proud. I just had to show it see.. Of course, even in a strong group, you should never underestimate Dal. You can be ambushed any minute. A huge spawn of Vel´Noths, those bolt throwing ones, can surround your group and retreat will be the only option. This was evident a day ago when the group I was in was swamped by some Vel´s and Sar´s. After much retreating and running and killing, the only option left was to chain the fallens closer to the beach. I had six on my chain when I fell. Ever try navigating with such a burden? It´s not easy, I can tell you that. We came at least two sn´ells closer to the beach, and could cheer on the rescuers when they came. With some discipline and tactics it´s still a fun place to hunt, challenging and fun.

Week 52

Seems that the citizens of Puddleby failed to find parents for Nita, as she now has left us. Slyph´s letter didn´t seem to touch so many, and that young halfling is now in an obscure place. I am as guilty as anyone, or even more so, since Urgelt and I were the first ones assigned to find parents for her. Later I thought that Nita was not satisfied with our work and asked Slyph to help. I lost track of how it went. And now this.. sigh. Her letter is heartbreaking.

I am also concerned about another young halfling, Lethe. Last time I saw her she looked terrible. And all the time she was talking about going the path, and be pure, and she used this strange black powder. Seemed like it was some sort of drug. I was able to take a sample of that powder, and later gave it to GoldMoon for examination. I hope she can help.

Another visit to the arena this week. Some high leveled fighters had a brawl. I couldn´t resist of course. I had to try myself. And to my great surprise it went very well. So well that only Arocet and Blitz were left, but I can´t do anything with those though. Polychrome is all defense, I luckhit him to death, and when I finally figured out how to deal with Alcon´s regia, he fell too. And Cutlas. But I ran from Gandor... There were even a small audience in the arena that night. I hope it was fun to watch, I had great fun pummeling these great warriors to the ground. On a related note, I finally were able to solo a fury in the Colio. Indeed. I was! I don´t know if you can understand the sense of achievement I felt, but I have never been able to. Not before the war, not after. This was my first time ever. And while I still am half in shock, I now know that I can solo all the beasties in the fourth circle test. All I need now is the strength and speed to kill them all at the same time.....

It has been quiet in Puddleby this week. Too quiet many thought, maybe that is why one soul started working on the Zoo. I don´t know. But after a time the whole community were out looking for beasties to put in the zoo. As many of those war-veterans remember - in the early days after the war when we were all weak, we had to put beasties in there and wait for more exiles to come and defeat them. Algernon was the Zoo keeper, you can see some of his collection on his scrolls. I tried to get a Tree Giant, as these were often seen in there after the war. But I didn´t have any luck. Crius is up to the situation this time, as he was then. His usual phrase then was "We have a situation, there is a (insert dangerous beastie here)" Our tactic were usually to surround it and wiff it to death, whatever it was. I think it took 12 exiles to kill a Zerk back then. And around 50 to kill a Greywyrm. Or more...

Aki whispers, "I almost got K'pyn's soul back"
Babajaga whispers, "Oh do tell! When!"
Aki whispers, "but witches tricked me :("
Babajaga exclaims, "Ah no!"
Babajaga whispers, "Tell me everything please"
Aki whispers, "The witches wanted to have 2 new sunstone v2 and a mystic SieLimpa had 2. These witches were trying to rip Sie, so I stopped them. They ask me to tell SieLimpa to make deal with them on new sunstone. As payment, they promised K'pyn soul free"
Babajaga whispers, "Ah..."
Babajaga whispers, "And then?"
Aki whispers, "Everything was ok till we came to last point. In the document of the deal, which I put my hand blood sign, they wrote "Kingpyn". After they got sun stone.... she "free"ed Kingpyn's soul... but says nothing to do with K´pyn"
Babajaga whispers, "They are some wicked ones!"
Aki whispers, "And claims they had Kingpin´s soul too :P"
Babajaga whispers, "So they got off with 2 sunstones.."
Aki whispers, "Well yes... of course, Sie got reasonable coins... so... not so bad"

He also told me that Skate has had a similar experience, but I didn´t get the chance to speak with him. I later spoke with the Witch Prue, and she had to nerve to claim that K´pyn went willingly in enslavement! I don´t believe that of this good thoom. Not at all!

Week 01

I was called to rescue some exiles in the deep cavern. If I had known who these exiles were, I maybe wouldn´t have rushed in so fast. It was a DM hunt see, and well.. they have been after RQ for some time, although they have lessened their attack some after Lilit left us. But fallen exiles are fallen exiles most of the time, and thus have to be saved, differences or not. I have to admit, Humbaba is a sweet one. After all were up and healed and saved, he pulls out this large keg fom his sack and places it on the ground. In the deep cavern. With lots of arachnoids about. And when another spawn came, the DM`s yelled so loud I have this ringing in my ears still: " Protect the keg"! So while the DM´s fought, drank, and drank again - I was hitting arachnoids laughing all the time. Seeing Haffron trying to kill a striped one with her beer mug might have done it too..

Look at this. We are five, I repeat five! And we were able to take the outpost, the Dal town, and survive all the way back to the beach. Who would have thought that some months ago! Now, this isn´t just the ordinary Dal crew, but still. Soulmaster was also part of this group. He was our comic relief between bashing and whacking. Although he still kill wendies, he gave up on hitting things and talked a lot instead. After a large spawn in town , where some of us fell, and Papa went into glasseyed mode, he departed. No need to. We would have gotten him as there were 2 fighters and a healer alive at that time he fell. Shortly after we were five again. That was a fun and challenging hunt.

Again I have to congratulate Vagile on a witch stab well done. She had been lurking and stalking Prue a long long time. I think this was a hired hit again, but what do I know... I have of course no idea who paid for this either. No, none so ever. Completely blank on that one. Indeed. But since Vagile is a clan-member I wanted of course to help her, some. Prue and Ashe fled inside the healer temple, and Vagile and I set up a trap just outside. I sent in some spies too, but they were not reliable spies as they came back and said that the witches were not inside. Can´t trust exiles these days can you.. Vagile hid behind the north wall, and I was preparing a set of questions to ask the witches when they came out. Try to stall them while Vagile made her move. So, when they finally stepped out of the healer temple after a very long time, (RQ´s are the patient ones) I stopped them and said to Prue casually like... I have a question, and then I yelled from the tip of my lounges "Go Vagile, Go!" And she came. Jumped right at Prue and gave her a real witch stab! Hooray! But then Ashe sneaks up behind Vagile and gives her a clap on the shoulder. And Vagile falls down as struck by lightning or something! I don´t really know what that was, but one thing is certain. It was a poisoned something, maybe Ashe´s hat pin. Maybe something else. But I am sure it was the poisoned sort of thing. Vagile of course became worried. So worried even that she took a bath! Indeed! Later Prue said that Ashe should make sure she washed her hands. I wrote it down in my book, in case someone was going to sue someone else. You never know in these witch stabbing cases. Best to be prepared for everything. Outcast is of course completely ignorant on what is going on, and talks about something completely unrelated to what happens right in front of him. That thoom is a strange one..