Lundar's Library

Day 99, Year 546 of the Ascendancy

Once again my purse has been deflated to a pitiful state, flopping
about at my side without its usual comforting ‘clink’. It’s true that
as a Mystic I am no stranger to poverty, but I swear there must be a
hole in my purse, at the rate at which my coins are disapearing. A very
large hole indeed.

Granted, I am not completely without income– I
still manage to scrape together a few coins from furs, and I often get
generous donations for opening illusions for wealthy exiles. However,
between my bad gambling habit, and expensive mystic research, my
coppers don’t stand a chance.

I am not without a plan though. One of the latest
crazes to hit Puddleby are the raffles which are held in the Auction
House every week. It seems that even trivial items sometimes go for
good prices there, and I’ve a few ideas which might just win me some
money.

My first idea so far has been a flop though. I
tried raffling a bunch of bitter berries that I found on Devil’s
Island, and received no raffle tickets for it at all! I guess people
don’t understand the value of an item that allows one to fall at will.
Or maybe its resemblance to bramble berries turned off buyers. I’ve got
other ideas though.

In other news, I’ve heard that a non-PM party has
recently navigated Umbrion’s Zodiac Maze successfully and acquired an
Ethereal Helemt. This party was, to my knowledge, the first non-PM
party to do so.

Apparently the Ethereal Helmet is an item which
boosts the mental energy of its wearer. Definately an item of interest
to mystics, even if it only lasts for a 24 hour period. Now we have the
knowledge to acquire 3 of the 6 Ethereal items.

Three down, three to go!

Day 82, Year 546 of the Ascendancy

Today there was a massive Darshak Invasion– but it never managed to
reach Puddleby. The invasion forces were first sighted by the
Apprentice Mystic Aravir, when he spotted a Darshak Warship enroute to
Puddleby, and it was soon intercepted by exiles intent on foiling the
Invasion.

The Darshak sent out their forces as well, and
hundreds of Darshak in rowboats poured out of Ash Island, to aid their
Warship. Wave after wave of rowboats appeared from Ash Island, and we
forced to retreat to Centaur Island several times, but in the end we
were able to sink the warship.

Afterwards, we headed to Ash Island to give the
Darshak a taste of their own medicine. However, the isle was teeming
with “elite” Darshak, and we had to retreat several times before we
could defeat the Darshak.

The battle culminated in the Darshak Horde, where
we set up a fort in the south-east corner, and slowly whittled down the
Darshak. The Darshak did not stand a chance against our persistance.

One strange thing about the Invasion, were the strange gouts of steam that appeared over the ocean during the Invasion:

No ether readings were taken at the time of the
Invasion, but I suspect that the smoke may have been caused by
fluctuations in the ether.

Perhaps the Darshak were not intending to invade
Puddleby at all, but were investigating the strange smoke. Or perhaps
they were the cause of it. I heard one exile mention that similar smoke
had been seen during a previous Darshak Invasion as well.

Certainly, this is a troubling mystery.

Day 76, Year 546 of the Ascendancy

Well, as most exiles know by now, Loombir’s bath house is now complete
and open for business. Now exiles have a place where they can go to
relax and refresh themselves between adventures. The only downside to
this, is that towel-whipping has now become one of the most popular
sports in Puddleby.

The bath house seems to be enjoying an enormous
popularity, at least for now, and even aquaphobic Fen’Nekos are giving
it a try. The bath house has several large, adjustable baths, as well
as free massages and a fine assortment of alcoholic beverages.

The only complaint seems to be that the barman does not serve any fishoil, and that’s fine as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, after partaking in the many pleasures of
the bath house, I set out to Ash Island with a group of exiles, to pay
a visit to the Scaramis Pen. We cleared out the Scaramis pretty
quickly, and even the Queen’s Chamber was of little challenge, once we
had set up our kudzu wall.

After the Scaramis Lair, we navigated Cimmbrion’s
Zodiac maze to reach the Ethereal Plane. There were a lot of powerful
undine inside the Zodiac Circle, but we managed to defeat them easily.
I even got the honor of opening the Ethereal Box, which contains a
rank’s worth of exp and a pair of Ethereal boots which allow you to run
faster.

Afterwards, we returned to town for a quick break.
I then joined a party that was headed to the Dal’Noth Underground, to
search for the Dark Bubbling. To our disapointment, however, we were
unable to find anything new in the caverns beneath Dal’Noth Isle.

All in all it was quite an exciting day of exploration and adventure.

Day 64, Year 546 of the Ascendancy

Today a great battle was fought in the Bard’s Field. The two clans,
E’las Loth’mon Ferindril and Rising Claw, clashed in the Field of Bards
today, in a great competition.

However, this battle was not fought with swords and axes. Instead; words, wit, poetry, and music were the weapons of the day.

This was the Dun’ilsar competition, a great sylvan tradition in which clans vie for glory and honor.

This time, the clan ELF challenged the current
Dun’ilsar champions, Rising Claw, to a most interesting contest.
Instead of the usual race or Arena battle, ELF challenged RC to come up
with creative names, stories, and poetry to help with their Arboretum project.

The turnout was great from both clans, and members
from each clan took turns reciting poetry and telling stories in front
of the judges, and a large audience.

At the end of the day, the verdict of the judges
was very close, but it was Rising Claw who walked away with the title
of Dun’ilsar.

I’ve created several Vision Stones of the event, which show members from each of the clans presenting their stories and poetry:

Sareth has also created a Vision Stone of the event, which can be found here.

Congratulations to both clans! The competition was very close and exciting. Tav’riel ferindril! For the glory of all clans!

Day 46, Year 546 of the Ascendancy

Finally, after months of study with the Phantasmonomicon trainer Asteshesha, my training is complete!

I now feel that I have a solid understanding of
phantasms, and how to create them. Now, if only I could stop gambling
long enough to save up for a Phantasmonomicon…

In other news, it seems that the Juliosaur, which
attacked Puddleby a few days ago, was the pet Ona Chigger of
Soulmaster, which mutated on Kizmia’s Island into a fearsome beast.
However, there is still no sign of where the beast may have disapeared
off to.

Several exiles have written about the incident, including Rylanter and Fishwrap Magazine.

Day 33, Year 546 of the Ascendancy

Today, a most strange looking creature appeared in town center. It was
a Juliosaur, an eight-legged beast which resembles a 20 foot tall Ona
Chigger.

No one knew exactly where the beast had come from,
but it was first spotted outside of town, and followed exiles into town
center.

Despite appearances to the contrary, the Juliosaur
was incredibly powerful, and not even the 5th circle fighters who were
present could stand up to its powerful mandibles.

Because we had no way to get rid of the Juliosaur,
we decided to trap it in Mai’s Lawn with kudzu. This was fairly
successful, for a while.

As exiles stood around the captured Juliosaur,
trying to make something of this strange beast, the trickster Malkor
began teleporting people inside the kudzu entrapment with his spriggin
stick.

This was really quite amusing– until I broke one of my chains trying to pull the poor exiles out.

The giant chigger was kept captive until the
foolish exile Madcat decided to kill off the kudzu, at which point the
Juliosaur went on a rampage in town, until exiles managed to lead it
away.

Now, none know where the Juliosaur has disapeared,
but I have a feeling that it will not be long before we again meet up
with this fearsome arachnid.

Day 30, Year 546 of the Ascendancy

The new year has rolled around once again, and there is surprisingly
little to report. Granted, I’ve been pretty busy with my studies
lately, but there just haven’t been that many exciting events going on
lately.

I feel that I am almost finished with my
phantasmonomicon training, though I am still pretty far from affording
one. My gambling habbit isn’t helping matters either.

Anyway, now that my phantasm training draws to a
close, I feel that I will soon have more time to spend outside of the
library again. Hopefully, the year 546 will be an exciting and
prosperous one.

Already the last Chaos Storm has brought a few
interesting changes to Puddleby. Let us see what the next few months
will have in store for us.