Bartok and Trillbane

As this news has already been reported on Thoomcare, I feel I can I can write about it as well...

I was recently part of an epic adventure into orga lands, an adventure that ended up surprising just about ever single one of us. The exploration was done by the combined exploration groups of EAT and PAG, as well as a few guests (such as I). The goal: to penetrate the Orga Stronghold and reach the pathfinder Trillbane, who was last spotted hiding deep within the Stronghold.

Instead of going the more direct route through the OS "front door," we chose a backdoor approach. It is quite a bit longer in distance, and requires us to have teleporting mystics, but the path is not anywhere near as hard. Going through the front door sometimes requires hours of runs, killing 'lock after 'lock only to have orga reinforcements arrive and negate all our progress. Going through the back door is much more reliable - we can take and hold those snells much more readily, and advance quicker even though we are going a longer distance.

We made quick work of the Slate Caves, and soon were rushing through the Stronghold. We were almost to where we planned to go, when something strange and unusual happened! Bartok appeared, and chained several of our group away!

Soon it was found out that Bartok also was chaining away the fallen body of Trillbane! What a discovery!



Bartok dragged Trillbane and the others deeper into the Stronghold, up atop a heavily guarded platau. We changed our goal, and started working towards that point.

It took several tries, but we eventually managed to secure a hut located on top of the platau. Thankfully for us, Trillbane was fallen right nearby! After a bit of prodding, our healers finally managed to raise the famed Trillbane, and he followed us back into our secured hut.

There, before we could even talk much to him, people were already clamoring to train in his pathfinding ways. He ended up with quite a few new students!



While the rest of us went out to vanquish more orga and rescue several other fallens, the mystics talked quite a bit with Trillbane. You can probably find a more complete transcript of the talks elsewhere, but I can summarize what he said: The Stronghold used to be a large city, the city that he lived in. It was destroyed and taken over by the Orga some time ago. Trillbane had a huge library there, far greater than our puny ones in Puddleby. The library too was mostly destroyed, and the few pathfinding books we've found are remnants that survived.

Trillbane knows a lot of paths around the Stronghold area, and showed us one of them - a path from the Stronghold to the Orga Village. Trillbane agreed to come visit Puddleby, where he found a few more willing students. He was not very impressed with Puddleby, though he was modest and didn't say too many bad things about our little outpost town.

A large group of people then took Trillbane to visit one of his books - the third pathfinding book, the "Tao of Trillbane." Apparently Trillbane himself didn't write it, but his most gifted student did.

By that time, I (and most others!) were extremely tired. It had been almost an entire day of exploration for us! We trod off to our library, and Trillbane disappeared into the forest around Camp Dred.

All in all, an amazing day!

The Folly of Invasions

The other day I helped out on an Alchemist's Folly rescue.

It was the first time I've been there. Honestly, I really expected the place to be much... larger. And more folly-ful. There were a couple of undine in the tunnel, but as long as you had a little room to dodge rocks, it was pretty simple. I can see how it might be a death trap for newer exiles though - thankfully, the entrance needs some pathfinding skill and so is not always terribly accessable.



Not too much later, I heard a cry out on the sunstone - there were higher than usual numbers of trool in the south forest. Soon it was learned that an invasion force had arrived, and was marching towards Puddleby!

I first went to scout the area, and managed to pick up a fallen MaryJane and bring her back to town. I immediately went off again to help fight off the invaders.



... unfortunately, their numbers were great, and I got surrounded pretty fast. Morphing kept me alive for a very long time, allowing me to whittle down their numbers and give others time to get to me.

But town rallied, and soon there were quite a few exiles smashing the forces of the trool'kin. One by one the south forest snells were cleared, and we moved on to the Brambles... which was packed.



Thankfully we not only had a dozen rangers along, but we also had the lava-cloaking powers of Razz. While each flame didn't hurt them terribly much, they kept lighting each other on fire so much that it was fairly easy to take them down.

Snell by snell, the brambles were cleared as well. That's one invasion force which may think twice next time!

More, More, More

Just a few little tidbits...

I was out running through cove, looking for daytime lyfes to kill, when I came upon a massive group of Mammoth Arachne. Now, they may be weak for their size, but a horde of them can be intimidating regardless! In the end, however, they were quickly slaughtered... where I went on to find even more Mammoths (and no lyfes) throughout the outer KI cove area. Hrmph!



Also, I managed to come upon yet another AMS!



Chalk up a third solo vanquish for me! This is the first time that one had a chest, too. Whee.

To Kill and Be Killed

It's been an exciting past few days.

Unfortunately, I've been slow to put pen to paper, and so things inevitiably get missed. Ah well! I can touch on the high- (and low!) lights...

First the high: While doing my normal hunting rounds on MI, I found myself face to face with one of the mothers of them all - an Angry Mother Sasquatch! Instead of fleeing or running for help, I stood my ground and faced the beast face to face! After a bit of fancy footwork, my blows eventually took the AMS down. I'm glad to have had my armor repaired recently!



This was the second AMS I have had the pleasure of soloing. It's good to know the first time wasn't a fluke!

Then the low: I was recently involved in a little bit of hunting at Death Trap Noids. Unless you're with a very prepared group, that place really is a death trap. In our case, our initial charge went... er.... unwell.



We spent the rest of the time sitting and waiting for those dratted crimsons to move southward. Those arachnoids tend to love to stick together, which means they either all go south or none go south. And since there were such little spaces for them to move south, they tended to keep accumulating at the entrance.

Eventually they all moved south (momentarily!), and the rescue forces rushed in. Hit, chain, out! No more DTN for us, enough is enough!

The Invasion

Greetings again all.

It's been a while since my last update. There have been some large changes in the library, I've been moving some things around. Hopefully this will be the last move for a long while.

Today was a day of excitement - as soon as I left the library, I heard shouts and thoughts of battle! On the west docks, undine were invading - a large amount of lesser undine, plus a good number of banshees. There were also Darshak Priests and likely Necromancers helping things along.

This first wave was easily pushed back, and the fight moved to the seas, and then quickly to the Darshak island of Ash. There, many exiles (myself included) dove in to the Horde, where most were brought down to the ground quickly by dozens and dozens of Priests and Banshees. It was clear that Necro was behind this, and his presence was felt in the lands.

Eventually, more healer and fighter power arrived, and the Horde (and then the also-full Outpost) were cleared. Some things were cleared out of the Temple, but for the most part, fighting was over.

Then over the Sunstone I heard that people were talking to Necro's Apprentice in a hidden hut. The talking was done with by the time I got there, but I heard he had mentioned something about blood...

Passing 5th

Greetings all.

I've been wondering how to start this journal. Stories of my past? How I got here? Meh! Those can wait. I thought I might start things off on a high note - finally passing a circle test!

I haven't passed a circle test in years. My studies have focused on Ranger skills, morphing skills - skills that aren't allowed to be used in the test. I suppose none of this really matters; all that matters is my skill in the wild. There, I fight like a 6th circle fighter. In the test... well, 4th has been my limit there.

Until today!

Today, the test started off with a happy surprise - I managed to take down the banshee in three hits. The blood wyrm was next, and while it hit me every time, I took it down much faster than it could take me. I took my time on the last creature - the lava beetle. I made sure not to swing out... and a few strong hits later, it was smashed.

Huzzah! 5th circle is mine.

These later circle tests may not give any further benefit (besides a belt), but passing them does make me proud. Of course, Cereberal still waxes on about my supposed strength - even now, having just passed 5th, he says that most who passed 6th are stronger than I! Of course, 6th is probably several more years in the future. I tried taking the test, and while I managed to dispatch one midnight wendy, the rest of the creatures quickly slaughtered me. Ah well!

I wish I would've gotten some pictures of the testing, but I never expected to pass. Next time!