Archive for January, 2003


Day 15, Year 549

We had a pretty small turnout at today’s meeting because many of my
clanmates were seeking the rare Superb Owl that visits the isles just
once every four years. A few of us managed to make it to the meeting
though, and we even had a few visitors who were interested in the clan.

Small Meeting
Small turnout

Afterwards, we decided do a quick hunt in the passes, but we
couldn’t find any healers to join us. We decided to take a chance and
go hunting without any healers, which proved to be challenging. At one
point I had to be chained all the way back to town after being hit by a
greymyr rock. On the whole though, it was a short but exciting hunt.

The Passes
Hunting with no healer

Day 12, Year 549
Squire Ceremony
Squirel is squired to Raldin

Today I had the chance to bear witness to the apprentice Squirrel being
squired to the Mystic Knight Raldin, in the Temple of Falinea. After a
brief ceremony, Raldin tapped Squirrel on the shoulder with his sword,
and dubbed her a Squire of the Order of the Sun! Grudos Squirrel on
your accomplishment, and min’fait on the long road ahead!

Day 7, Year 549

Happy New Year everyone, or as we say in Ilsardinish, Noi’fenbril
Myrthian! I’ve been pretty busy with my studies lately, so I haven’t
been keeping up with my journal as much as I would like. My tutors have
finally given me break from my studies today though, so I’ll take this
time to recount my adventures from my last clan meeting.

ELF Meeting
The Sylvan Circle

Last moon my clanmates gathered around the campfire near the Myrm
Highlands, as we do every moon, and discussed a number of things of
interest to our clan, including the plans for an upcomming joint-clan
hunt with clan Hunter.

At the conclusion of the meeting, we headed to the clan house
and joined the brave fighter Myiasis as a new clan Hopeful! Welcome to
the clan Myiasis!

Hopeful Myiasis
Myiasis becomes a hopeful!

Afterwards we decided to go hunting, but many of my clanmates had to
leave. This left us with only one healer, and only handful of fighters.
This didn’t deter us, however, and we started off the hunt with a quick
trip to the Rocky Cavern, where we encountered a number of Grey Wyrms.

Hunting Grey Wyrms
Hunting in RC

After dispatching some Wyrms, we decided to move our hunt to the
Arachnoid Cavern. This proved to be deadly. At first we were able to
hunt the ‘Noids successfully by utilizing the narrow passage of the
cavern, but none of us were able to brick the Arachnoids, and our lone
healer Vequalir could not keep up with the damage.

First Fleming fell, then Vequalir, and then we were all in
trouble. At this point a few more clanmates showed up for the hunt, but
they ended up falling as well. Soon there was a growing pile of sylvans
fallen in the Arachnoid Cavern.

Trouble in 'Noids
Trouble in ‘Noids

Luckily, we were soon rescued by Anfyr’s buff twin sister Shalyn,
who was able to slay the ‘Noids easily. Soon we were all back on our
feet, taking our revenge on the overgrown spiders.

After we cleared out the ‘Noids cavern, we began making our way
back towards town, but not before making a stop at the Tree Giant
Breeding Grounds for some TGs, Foxweirs, and Spriggins, bringing the
hunt to a close.

TGBG
The Hunt’s Finale

Day 318, Year 548

The Dun’ilsar
is a traditional sylvan inter-clan competition, in which the clans
compete against each other for honor and glory. That sylvan tradition
was brought to Puddlbey by E’las Loth’mon Ferindril, and has since
become one of the most exciting and longest running contests in the
lands.

Dunilsar Icon

Today, my clan challenged the Order of the White Elephant to a
contest of skill, hoping to improve our ranking within the Dun’ilsar
ladder. For the contest we chose the Hunter
challenge, in which one member from each of the clans is designated the
“Hunter”, and is given 3 puddle hours to slay the greatest variety of
monsters possible. The rest of the clan members can either aid their
Hunter, or hinder the opposing team’s Hunter.

For the challenge we chose our Clan Lord Fleming to be our
Hunter, and the dwarf Charlos was chosen as the Hunter for OWE. Before
the start of the challenge, both of our clans gathered in the Puddleby
park and lined up to begin. Then, on the word of the dwarf Torin, the
contest was begun!

Contest Start
The contest begins!

The first destination for ELF was the Lily Pond, where we hoped to
find a large variety of critters. However, a number of members from OWE
followed us to LP in an effort to distract us.

Once we reached the Lily Pond, OWE set up a formidable wall of
pretzels and kudzu in the narrow entrance to the Pond. Thus, while our
Hunter Fleming was off hunting, the rest of us were furiously cutting
down kudzu, and eating our way through boxes of pretzels.

Pretzels & Zu
OWE sets up a Pretzel Wall

Lucikily, we were able to clear most of the fortifications by the
time Fleming was done in LP, foiling OWE’s plans. Having been
unsuccessful in their efforts to distract us, OWE ceased following us,
and returned to aid their own Hunter. Meanwhile, our clan made its way
to the Myrm Hive.

Hunting in the Hive soon proved to be disasterous. We soon
became split up in the twisted passages of the Hive, and several of my
clanmates became lost. Then, in the Queen’s Chamber, we lost all three
of our Fighters while fighting the the Queen Myrm, leaving only our
healers up.

Queen's Chamber
Trouble in the Hive

It took us quite a while to extricate ourselves from the mess, and
afterwards we struggled to make up for the lost time. We headed from
the Hive to the Bear Cave, then hit the River Tunnel and Wurm Cave.
From there we worked our way south through the beaches, and made a
quick stop at the Meshra Cave and Marsh.

Then, with 40 puddle minutes of the contest remaining, we made
our way to the West T’rool Mines. Most of us did not make it that far,
but Fleming managed to reach the T’rool mines by himself, and added a
number of T’rools, ‘Dews, and cave critters to our already long list of
slain monsters. Then the time ran out for the contest, and we returned
to park to tally up our counts.

Tallying up the kills for both of the Hunters proved to be a long and suspensful task, even with the aid of the helpful Scribia. Finally, after a series of very long minutes, Fleming announced the results: OWE 74, ELF 64. We had lost the Dun’ilsar.

Dun'ilsar Loss
OWE wins the Dun’ilsar contest

Still, it was a very exciting and close contest. The beauty of
Dun’ilsar is that there are no losers, as long as everyone has fun. OWE
is now considering challenging the Clan of the Rising Claw for the top
spot in the Dun’ilsar ladder, and ELF is working on a challenge against
the Dwarven Millitia. Tav’riel Dun’ilsar! For the Glory of all Clans!

Day 318, Year 548

As I stepped out of the library today, I sensed that several of my friends were fallen in the Darshak Horde. I rushed myself to Ash Island to find a small party already there. My clanmates Ruen and Anfyr filled me in on the horrifying details: there were an incredible FOUR Greater Deaths inside the Darshak Horde, along with an assortment of Darshak Pirates and a powerful Necromancer!

Our party was determined to rescue the numerous exiles fallen inside,
and we gathered our forces at the southern entrance to the Darshak
Horde. Then, on the count of three, we charged into the Horde in a
tidal wave of exiles. It was a massacre.

Darshak Horde
Fallen in the Horde

We were surrounded by the Darshak the moment we entered the Horde,
and one by one were cut down and incinerated by the Darshak scum. I
counted no less than 25 fallens exiles scattered about the Horde, with
many more out of my sight. There were still a few of us left outside,
but our only real hope lay in a poweful party hunting on Kizmia’s Isle.
Unfortunately, I could not wait around for a rescue, for I had to
participate in my clan’s Dun’ilsar competition, and was forced to depart.

Later I heard that a large party did succeed in rescuing the Darshak
Horde, and were able to slay the Greater Deaths with the aid of the
powerful Blood Mage Aldernon. Still, it is a mystery why so many
Greater Deaths were gathered together in one place. Usually it is a
rare thing to sight even a single Greater Death– four of them together
is unheard of!

One more thing worth noting: it seems the activity in the
Darshak Horde drew a larger number of exiles out of the library than
usual. At one point during the invasion, I witnessed as many as 107
exiles out of the library at one time, which is a lot more than I’ve
seen in a long while.

Day 302, Year 548

FMOCR Success
FMOCR success!

The other day we had an incredibly successful FMOCR with one of the
smallest FMOCR parties I’ve ever seen. What’s more, we were able to
make it through all of the Orga Camps with only four healers! It was
quite amazing.

It only took us a few attempts to take the deadly OC4, and
Robin Greyhawk was able to obtain the teleportation stone for trade
with the ‘Brions. F’nom tan’ki to all those exiles who made this one of
the most organized and successful FMOCRs ever!

Day 290, Year 548

Hopeful Ayella
Ayella becomes an ELF Hopeful!

ELF really is growing by leaps and bounds! Today two of our Hopefuls, Finnian and Ruen, joined our clan as full members! The skilled fighter Ayella
also joined our clan as a new Hopeful. It seems that every moon we are
visiting the clan house, and we add new members so swiftly that our
poor Clan Lord can scarcely keep up!

After the clan meeting we decided to go hunting on Dal’Noth
Isle. We started off hunting on the west side of the isle, but were
chased off by a particularly nasty Wil’Dew. We decided to go hunting on
the east side of the isle instead, which proved to be much better
hunting.

Hunting on 'Noth
Hunting on ‘Noth

Afterwards, we made a quick trip to the Arachnoid Caverns before
calling it a day, returning home with our hard-won arachnoid mandibles.
All in all it was quite an exciting day!

Day 286, Year 548

I spent most of the holiday season away from Puddleby and the Bawkmas
festivities; instead wandering alone in the forests of Lok’Groton,
spending my time with the trees. Now that I’ve settled my matters of
the spirit, I’ve returned to Puddleby once more, in search of fresh
adventures.

Today I got the chance to go exploring on Devil’s Isle, with the invitation of Kiriel D’Sol to join an exploratory party headed for the Drake Den.

Kiriel was recently abducted by a Fire Drake and taken to its lair, nearly seven years since the last recorded incident of such an attack. The Drake Den has been nearly empty
for the past few years, so this was particularly puzzling. Our party
set off for the Drake Den, determined to solve this puzzle.

McBolie Cavern
Crawling through McBolies

Our party made its way through Devil’s Isle under the leadership of
Kiriel, and we were able to overcome the many challenges of Devil’s
Isle with relative ease; from the narrow, claustraphobic passages of
McBolie’s Cavern to the deadly flame-throwing Lava Walkers.

Finally, we made our way to the very heart of the volcano of
Devil’s Isle, to the lair of the Fire Drakes. However, to our
disapointment, the Den was completely empty save for rats– which was
strange, since when I scanned the cave for creatures, I sensed the
presence of a Fire Drake.

Fire Drake
A mental projection of the Fire Drake

We spent serveal hours searching the cavern for the Drake, or for
any secret passages in which it could be hiding, but we could find
nothing. In the end we left the Den with more questions than we had
when we arrived, and none of the answers. The Drake Den remains one of
the greatest mysteries of our isles.