Lundar's Library

Day 90, Year 544 of the Ascendancy

The last couple expeditions to the Foothills and beyond have been mixed
experience. On the one hand we were able to map out the new territory
without departing, but on the other hand, we have been unable to make
any progress toward finding the Orga Stronghold and Trillbane’s
Library. Perhaps our next expedition will be more successful. Jazz, Koric, Norm, and Babajaga have all written excellent accounts of these expeditions on their scrolls.

Enough with the bad news though. Today there were
too positive events worth celebrating about. The first is the full moon
OC raid, led by Jo’Maril and Tonoto, which successfully led to Robin
Greyhawk acquiring a teleportation stone. Several times the party was
almost wiped out, and at one point we gave up and decided to wait until
midnight, but we were soon reinforced by a party led by Zorton, and we
managed to dispatch all of the ‘locks in OC4 and get Robin the stone.

The second bit of good news is that the Mystic
Council saw it fit that the Journeyman Mystic Hawkthorn by advanced to
the status of full and honourable Mystic. Hawkthorn is a very talented
Mystic, skilled in the skristal and divination, and I am sure he will
continue to aid Puddleby and the Mystic Guild in his new position.

Day 65, Year 544 of the Ascendancy

“NEW ARACHNOID CAVE FOUND! Asses kicked!”

The above is a slightly edited quote from Phelps,
and it nicely sums up the end to today’s exploration in the Dreadwood,
which lasted for nearly 20 hours. Originally, Gurgi had scheduled an
expedition to the Dreadwood for next week, but when the Chaos Storm
came earlier than expected, Gurgi rounded up an impromptu exploration
party, and plunged right into the Dreadwood. What we found was that the
Chaos Storm had lured most of the powerful orga away from the entrance
of the Dreadwood, allowing us to finally explore the deadly forests
beyond. Soon we were exploring the vast, uncharted regions of the orga
forest, and making discovery after discovery in the land beyond the
Foothills. More on this later, but for now I must rest up for
tomrorrow’s expedition. ( See Koric and Jazz’s scrolls for more info. )

Day 61, Year 544 of the Ascendancy

As yi may have heard, a path has been found beyond the Foothills( see Koric’s scolls or my last entry
for more details ), and today a large mob of 60+ exiles led by Gurgi
headed for the Northeastern Foothills. Moving such a large group from
town to the Foothills was quite a daunting task, but Gurgi kept the
group organized, and our trip went fairly smoothly until we reached the
Dread Passage. In the last two trips I’ve been on with LIFE, we had
managed to make it through the Passage in less than 30 minutes.
However, due to a lack of healer power, and a couple of bad calls from
Gurgi, it took us nearly two hours to make it through the Dread
Passage. We had to back track twice to the Orga Village during our
attempts, and several times we were forced to evacuate when the south
rod collapsed. We also had some close calls with LDV spawns and loose
Hatreds, but in the end we managed to persevere and make it to the
Foothills.

Once inside the Foothills, we took a brief respite
in Katpus’ Cavern, and then headed towards Kestral’s Path. We made our
way through the Foothills quite swiftly under the leadership of Elenis
Reyav, and had little trouble dispatching the Midnight Wendecka hordes
that faced us. Finally, we made it though the twisty passes, and found
ourselves in front of Kestral’s Path. Everyone was very excited at this
point, and many of the pathfinders in the party attempted to open
Kestral’s Path. However, the artist/pathfinder Sor proved to be the
only one who could open it. We traveled east through the caverns beyond
Kestral’s Path, and through Kiriel’s Path, and finally found our way
into the valley past the Foothills. Once inside the valley, we again
took another brief break, before tackling the Dreadwood.

The Dreadwood is a nightmare, and without a doubt
one of the most deadly areas that exiles have discovered so far. The
Dreadwood makes the Dread Passage and Orga Village look like rat huts.
Our plan was to have 5 or so fighters line up at the edge of the snell,
enter at once, take a swing, and return. Sadly, even with all of the
powerful fighters present, our plan was a failure. Soon, there were
many fallen exiles within the Dreadwood, turning the situation into a
deadly cycle of chain runs. After an hour or so, were able to get
everyone out of the Dreadwood, but it left 7 of our party members PND.
We decided that going through the Dreadwood today would be impossible,
and instead switched our focus to the difficult and unopened paths that
were discovered during the last expedition. Though none of the many
pathfinders present could find a way through, the Journeyman Mystic
Antis was able to give us a taste of what is to come, using his
powerful mind casting ability.

Using the tool known as the Orb of Caesindre,
mystics are able to cast their minds into other snells, and see what
dangers lie before them. What Antis’ mind casts revealed, was a horde
of Tree Giant kin and Big Red Orgas( or BROs ), just on the other side
of the path. At first we suspected that the path might lead to Ash
Valley, but realized that there were too many Tree Giants present, and
too few Midnight Wendeckas for this to be true. Now we suspect this to
be a new, and even more deadly area, which we will hopefully be able to
reach once we open the path.

We spent the next few hours exploring the Valley
and trying to learn the difficult paths, but to no avail. Nobody was
able to learn any of the difficult paths in the valley, not even the
ones that have been already opened by Sor and Kiriel. So, we decided
that we should make a suicide run into the Dreadwood, and see what we
could see. We split up our party into two groups: those who would run
east, and those who would run north. We all agreed to make vision
stones of our runs, so that they could be pieced together later to
create a rough map of the Dreadwood. After a few anxious minutes of
praying and planning, we ran into the Dreadwood, five at a time. I was
with the group that was headed north, but I didn’t get very far because
a vermine blocked my path, and its Large Death Vermine brothers chomped
me to pieces. However, Jo’Maril managed to run far east enough to see
some sort of path, and Jazz made a death defying run into another snell.

And that was pretty much the end of the
expedition. Most of us who fell in the Dreadwood departed, though a few
of the more stubborn ones are hanging on until the upcomming Chaos
Storm. There are also a few exiles still camped out in the Valley, in
hopes that they can learn to open the difficult paths there, before the
Storm blows them back to town. Gurgi is already planning for the next
expedition, which will take place in a few days( ooc: this Sunday ).
All in all it was a very exciting raid, but we will definately need to
work on some clever strategies before we can make it through the
Dreadwood. Hopefully, our pathfinders can open up some of the other
difficult paths, and create alternate avenues for exploration.

Day 41, Year 544 of the Ascendancy

Exciting news! Three new paths have been discovered today by members of
LIFE in the North Eastern Foothills. Though I was unable to attend this
expedition because of my studies, there is currently a party camped out
in the Foothills even as I write this. Even more interestingly, the
party is camped out by this path( affectionately known as “Kestral’s
Path” or “KP” ) with none other than Pogue Mahone and Friends!

The path was discovered earlier today by the
pathfinders of LIFE. What the party found after Sor opened KP, was a
serries of caverns, along with two more pf paths! Thus far, no one in
the party has been able to open these two paths, but there is a strong
indication that they may lead beyond the Foothills. This possibility is
strengthened by the fact that there is a PMF party camped out by the
paths as well, though they too seem unable to open the paths as of yet.
The atmosphere of the camps has been described as “strained, but
non-violent” by the exiles who are currently based there. It looks as
if this may turn into a race between LIFE and PMF to see who can open
the paths first, and find their way to Trillbane’s Library.

UPDATE: Kiriel D’Sol has managed to open the northern path past the Foothills! Check out a vision stone at the Winds of Dawn scrolls!

Day 8, Year 544 of the Ascendancy

*

Happy New Year all! Winter has returned once again
to Puddleby, and the days grow shorter and shorter. As a result, the
Lok’groton Islands Foundation for Exploration(LIFE) decided to take a
break from exploring Kizmia’s Isle(which can be very deadly at night)
and return once more to the Foothills. LIFE’s decision was also
influenced by the rumor that the clan Pogue Mahone had discovered a way
past the Foothills, and into the Orga Stronghold. Thus, a large party
was assembled in the Lily Pond, composed of both LIFE members and a
non-LIFE party led by Gurgi. We truly had a powerful party with us, and
it took us little more than hour to get from the Lily Pond, through the
Orga Outback and Dread Passage, to the Northeastern Foothills.

Once inside the Foothills, we split up into two
different parties. The LIFE party headed south towards the blocked
cavern, in hopes that the recent Chaos Storm might have cleared up some
of the rocks, while the party led by Gurgi headed north towards the Ash
Valley. However, after both parties encountered near-death situations,
the group rejoined once more, and headed to the blocked cavern
together. To our disapointment though, there was nothing changed with
the blocked cavern, or the mysterious shimmering pool. So, after taking
a quick break near the shimmering pool, we once more split up into two
parties, and explored the caverns. However, some of the people in
Gurgi’s party accidentally fell into the Ash Valley, and a massive
rescue attempt ensued. The whole rescue took more than four hours, but
we were successful in raising everybody, and returning to Katpus’ safe
cave.

Now we are all camped out in the safe cave, and
resting up from today’s adventures, and preparing for the further
exploration to come. We’ve thus far been unsuccessful in finding a way
past the Foothills, but I am confident that with the many powerful
minds that we have in our party, we will be able to solve this great
mystery.

Day 343, Year 543 of the Ascendancy

Recently, a trio of troublemakers have been causing mischief and
harassing mystics. The brothers, who go by the names Rot, Wilt, and
Itch seem to hold some grudge against mystics, and try to make
nuicanses of themselves by planting kudzu in locales that mystics
frequent. Just today, I was lured into the hut in SE Field where the
brothers Rot and Wilt had planted a batch of kudzu near the entrance. I
managed to push myself past the kudzu only to find an assortment of
deadly creatures waiting for me, and I could not retreat because my
exit was blocked. Later, I was able to track the two down with my clan
mate Drue’Dreemi, and confront the two troublemakers. The two claimed
that mystics were “lightworms,” and that he and his brothers would try
to rid Puddleby of the Mystic Guild. That sounds a little grand to me,
coming from a trio of kudzu planters, but mystics should still be wary
of the brothers, and any who call themselves memebers of the so called
“Crafters of Oblivion.”

In other news, the mystics of Puddleby have been
able to meet with Tenebrion and Umbrion, and discuss the current
research being conducted on ether. More details can be found on Koric and Babajaga’s Scrolls,
but the gist of it is that the two ‘Brions want information concerning
the ether levels of every snell on Puddleby. Now, this is certainly a
daunting task, but the mystics of Puddleby are pouring over research
concerning the use of ethereal amulets, and are carefully mapping the
ether levels of our island. Neige and Callia
have both created scrolls tracking the progress of their studies, and I
am sure more mystics will soon follow suit. This research shall no
doubt prove invaluable to finding the leaks in the Ethereal Plane, that
have been plaguing Puddleby in recent months.