Lundar's Library

Day 220, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

Well, the 226th Chaos Storm has come to pass, and I’m sorry to say that
it hasn’t brought any positive changes to the lands. The other day I
led a small party to explore the southern parts of the ‘Noth
underground, in hopes that the Chaos Storm might have revealed the
secret passage that Qual spoke about, but to no avail. The blocked
passage underneath Dal’Noth Isle just seems impassable at the moment.

Also, more bad news, the portal that leads into
Umbrion’s Tower now seems to be one way only, which makes getting into
the tower very easy, but getting out a very difficult task. The
Phantasmonomicon seller and trainer Cerider and Asteshesha have also
disapeared from their usual spot in Umbrion’s tower, and are now
missing. This is very bad news for me, as I have yet to purchase a
Phantasmonomicon, and now it seems impossible. Somehow, I am still
receiving lessons from Asteshesha though. I remember Cerider telling me
that Umbrion would kill him if he found out that he was selling
Phantasmonomicons to exiles, so perhaps that is what happened to them.
For now I can only hope for the best.

Day 195, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

Spriggins invaded town today, when the Spriggin King Blink came to
town. The trickster Blink managed to convince the human Fishylish that
he wanted to visit town so he could make peace with Puddleby, and
Fishylish happily led the Spriggin monarch into town, along with a
small Spriggin army. Of course everyone was shocked when a horde of
Spriggins suddenly appeared in town center, but people were generally
careful as not to trample the little people in their midst, and things
went peacefully enough.

However, Spriggins are known for their mischievous
minds and slippery fingers, and Blink’s enoturage was no different. No
sooner had they stepped into town did the Spriggins begin tripping
citizens with their magic, and robbing them of their money.
Understandably this angered quite a few people, and the fighter
Ba’alzamon took it as fas as to slay the Spriggin King himself.

This of course resulted in a full-scale war
between Puddleby and the Spriggins, who poured forth from the Spirit
Wood in record numbers. For a time there were more Spriggins in
Puddleby than Puddlebians, and the East Field was painted blue with the
tide of Spriggins. However, it soon became apparent that the little
people were no match for the forces of Puddleby, and army of Spriggins
was pushed back into the Spirit Wood.

Thus, Puddleby was able to defeat the Spriggin
King and his Spriggin army. I have a feeling, though, that this is not
the last we will see of the trickster Blink. ( iolaus has also written
an accout of the invasion on his scrolls ).

Day 191, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

There have been many strange occurences and invasions that have been
taking place in Puddleby recently. For example, a few weeks ago strange
water spouts began to appear in the oceans surrounding our isle, along
with deadly Ethereal Stalkers. And just recently there was a major
Darshak invasion, that nearly overwhelmed town. But perhaps most
shocking of all is the recent T’rool invasion, in which the evil wizard
Qual was defeated through the use of the Separ. Yor has written a
detailed account of the victory on his scrolls.

Once the Separ was used to “cure” the wizard Qual,
it was revealed that the wizard was actually a sylvan who had been
possessed by the powerful Dark Bubbling. Once Qual regained his senses,
he informed us that the Dark Bubbling had escaped to ‘Noth island, and
was hiding within the cavernous passages underground:

Using the information that Qual gave us, a small party explored the
‘Noth underground today, in search of the hidden passages that Qual
spoke of. Our party traveled through the caves as far south as we
could, as per the instructions, but we didn’t find anything other than
a few dews and rippers. We then checked the northern parts of the
tunnels, stopping by the puzzling magic barrier, but again we were
unable to find anything.

We looked around for a while more, and even
re-checked the southern parts of the cavern for something we might have
missed, but we still couldn’t find a thing. In the end we left the
caverns without discovering any new passages, but we vowed to return
and search again. Hopefully the upcomming Chaos Storm will reveal that
which was hidden from us.

Day 177, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

The ‘Brion brothers seem to have created a portal of sorts, which
connects several of their Keeps together. Since today was ELF’s monthly
meeting, we decided to head into the portal, and see where it lead. We
soon found that the portal lead to four of the ‘Brion’s Keeps:
Tenebrion’s, Umbrion’s, Cimmbrion’s, and Melabrion’s. After poking
around a bit, we decided to look around Umbrion’s Keep, which turned
out to be a mistake because several of us got toasted beyond healing by
Lava Walkers. Since I was the only one alive with a chain, I proceeded
to drag my clanmates’ fallen bodies out of the Tower.

However, due to the steep nature of Umbrion’s
Tower, chains slip when going between each of the levels. Needless to
say this resulted in us having to push the corpses for much of the way,
and my chains became quite worn from having to reattach to the corpses
at each level. Finally, we managed to get the fallens up to the top of
the tower, and were able to push them into the Ethereal Plane. As I
prepared to drag the corpses back to town through Tenebrion’s Keep,
however, my chain snapped, which was understandable after being used
more than 300 times, but when I tried to chain the bodies again, I
managed to snap another chain, which hadn’t been used at all! Not
wanting to risk another chain, we pushed the bodies out of the Ethereal
Plane, and I was able to chain the bodies back to town from Tenebrion’s
Keep successfully.

Meanwhile, my clanmate Vequalir was finding
himself in a lot of trouble. While helping to push the corpses up
Umbrion’s Tower, Vequalir managed to take a wrong turn, and found
himself in the private quarters of the Pyromaniac Umbrion himself!
Inside he found a private storage room, where he could purchase various
items from Umbrion’s slaves for a single coin, and a ladder leading up
to the very top of the tower. The only problem was that Vequalir
couldn’t found his way back out again. After worrying about his
predicament for a bit, Vequalir began to purchase items from the
cellar, and selling them to my clanmates outside. However, after a few
minutes an angry Umbrion arrived, and took back the items from Vequalir
and kicked him out of his private chambers.

All in all, it was a very exciting adventure. Nothing is as unpredictable (or deadly) as ELF’s monthly hunts!

Day 163, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

I came out of the library today after a long study break to attend our
monthly LIFE expedition. Last month we made a successful trek to the
Foothills and found that nothing had changed, so today we decided to
explore Umbrion’s Zodiac Maze instead, in search of the elusive
Ethereal Helmet. However, we encountered some difficulty inside the
maze because some of our members kept slipping into the various
different zodiac signs and others became too toasted by Fire Beetles
and Lava Walkers. In the end we had to give up on our expedition,
without finding a way to the Ethereal Plane. It was kind of
disapointing that we couldn’t find our way through the maze, especially
since it’s rumored that PM has already found an Ethereal Helmet, but it
was exciting to explore somewhere other than the Foothills for a
change. Hopefully we will be able to be able to navigate the maze
successfully on our expedition.

Day 109, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

I’ve been studying in the library a lot lately, finishing up my studies
in breaking illusions, and I haven’t been able to come out as often as
I’ve wanted to. I still haven’t made back my money from playing
Blackjack, but the very generous Salandra repayed my debt to
Wormtounge, so now I have my two chains back, at least. Now I can start
saving up for a Phantasmonomicon once more.

Other than that, there isn’t a whole lot to
report. The 222nd Chaos Storm swept by through the isles while I was in
the library, bringing with it a few new changes, as usual. There now
seems to be a halfling couple on the southern beaches that sell
“crawler cracker” flails to fighters, though I’m not sure how effective
they are. There also appears to be a Sarir who is wandering around the
lands stirring up troubles. The Sarir are slaves that are often used by
Tenebrion and Umbrion to meet with us, when we wish to speak with them
on our own island. However, this Sarir is odd in that it claims to be
an exile. I’m not sure what this means, or whether the Sarir is even
telling the truth, but Farhope has written more about it on her scrolls.

Finally, I’ve heard that Axell, one of Puddleby’s
most beloved rescue healers, is soon returning to the Mainland with her
family. This is truly saddening, as anyone who’s been in the lands for
any length of time has probably been rescued by Axell. I myself have
been rescued by Axell countless times… probably more times than most
healers combined. Puddleby will never be the same without her. Farewell
Axell, and good luck on the Mainland!

Day 76, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

The fiery zodiac maze of the pyromaniac Umbrion has often been visited
by explorers and adventurers, but no one has yet to create an accurate
map of the place. Sensing the need for such a map, a small party headed
off to Umbrion’s Keep today, to set about creating a map of Umbrion’s
maze. I learned about the party shortly after I stepped out of the
library, when I was asked to dispell the illusions around the Keep to
let in healer reinforcements. I agreed, and headed to Kizmia’s Island
with the healers.

Inside Umbrion’s Keep, I met up with the party,
and headed into the zodiac maze. It was the first time I had been in
Umbrion’s maze, and I must say that I was overwhelmed. The maze was
unlike anything I had ever seen before. In a nutshell, the maze is a
series of interconnected and identical rooms, which have walls that are
made of fire. Inside those walls prowl deadly creatures of fire, such
as Fire Vermine and Pumaces. The real danger, though, are the Lava
Walkers, which can hurl deadly fire balls at you from almost anywhere
in the maze. The only way to traverse the maze is by walking through
the walls of fire. However, not all walls are passable, and some walls
teleport you to different parts of the maze. Combine all this together,
and you have one heck of a confusing maze.

The first time we entered the maze, we nearly got
wiped out. As we tried to clear the rooms of monsters, fireballs
continuously burst forth from the fiery walls, slowly weakening our
party until only a few of us were left standing. A retreat was called,
and we were chained out back into Umbrion’s Keep. After a short debate
on a new strategy, we decided that we would send in Yor, Callus, and
Sor first, to clear out all of the Lava Walkers and other monsters, and
the rest of the party would follow. As it turned out, this plan worked
rather nicely, and our second forray into the zodiac maze went much
more smoothly.

Inside the maze, our party was led by Entil’Zha,
who was the main cartographer for the expedition. Due to the quirky
nature of the maze, our party got split up a couple times, and there
were a few fearful momments when I became separated from the party and
lost, but all in all the expedition went smoothly, and we got a lot of
mapping done. Afterwards, we met up with Yor, Sor, and Callus, and
prepared to go home.

Our ticket out of the zodiac maze and off the
island was Entil’Zha’s Ethereal Portal Stone. Instead of taking the
long way off the island, Entil’Zha simply created a portal to the
Ethereal in the middle of Umbrion’s Zodiac maze. Our party headed
through the portal to the Ethereal plane, where we met up with another
party which came through Cimmbrion’s Keep. However, as we prepared to
leave the Ethereal plane, we were beset by the hordes of powerful
undine, and not even our combined might was enough to fend them off.
So, the expedition ended in a dreadful mass depart, which further
damaged the vital plane of Purgatory. Hopefully the next expedition
will be more successful, and we will be able to fully map the zodiac
maze of Umbrion.

Day 56, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

Some people were never meant to gamble. Some people just don’t know how
to quit when they’re up, or stop when they’re down. I am one of these
people. It all started innocently enough yesterday, when I decided to
blow the 25 coins that I had on Black Jack. I decided to try out a
theory of mine which I have been thinking about for a while. The gist
of it is this: I start off by betting 1 coin, and if I lose it I bet 2,
and if I lose that I bet 4, and so forth. That way, when I win I will
always make a 1 coin profit. Also, it gives me multiple chances to win,
and probability dictates that it is unlikely that I will end up losing
5 games in a row.

So, I set about testing this theory, and surely
enough it worked. It took me a bit, but I worked my way up from 25
coins to more than 50. As I was playing, a fen named Dartalion sat down
at the table, and joined me in playing in Black Jack. After a few
minutes of playing, however, my luck turned sour. Though it is unlikely
to lose 5 games in a row, it is certainly within the realm of
possibility. Jack Vintian dealt me hand after hand of bad cards, and I
ended up losing all my money, save two copper pennies. I shrugged my
shoulders at this point, bid Dartalion good day, and stood up to leave
the casino. It should have ended right there. I should have left the
caino and gone on with my life. That should have been the end of my
gambling. But it wasn’t.

As I started to walk towards the door, Dartalion
called out to me. I halted mid-stride, puzzled, and turned back to
Dartalion, who tossed me a small sack. The sack contained 10 copper
coins. I grinned at Dartalion, bid him thanks, and seated myself down
at the table again for another game of Black Jack. Little did I know
that I was making a grave mistake. I placed my bet on the table,
expecting to lose, but ended up doing something far worse. I won. Hand
after hand I won, and even those hands I lost, I made up in record
time. Soon my money was doubled, trippled, quadroupled, and more. I sat
there entranced, hardly believing what was happening. I had discovered
a fountain of money. Once I amassed a hundred coins, I started betting
by 2’s, then 4’s, then 5’s, ’til I found myself betting by 20’s and
40’s. After several hours of gambling, against all likelihood, I had
amassed over 900 coins.

At this point, my luck began to sour. The
trickster Jack Vintian pulled three Black Jacks in a row, and I ended
up losing nearly all of my money. The only way I could recover from my
loss was by betting 640 coins, which I no longer had. Not wanting to
lose all of the money I had made in the past 4 hours or so, I paid a
visit to the bank and pulled out the money I needed from my
Phantasmonomicon fund. I placed the bulging stack of coins down on the
Black Jack table, and crossed my fingers. To my profound relief, I won.
I rushed back to the bank, deposited the money I had withdrawn, and
returned to the table.

I played for several more games, and started to
win once more. However, once I hit 1100 coins, I began losing again.
Soon, I found myself in the same predicament I was in before. I had to
withdraw 640 coins from the bank again, to get back the money I had
gambled. This time, however, I lost the hand. I was shocked, my head
was spinning, and I began to lose my wits. I returned to the bank
again, and this time I withdrew all my savings. I then rushed back to
the Black Jack table, and placed down my bet of 1280 coins. To my
dismay, the dealer dealt me a lousy hand of 14, which I did not want to
risk by hitting. I stood with 14, and slowly watched as Vintian drew
his cards. 3-5-6-2-9-BUST!!! I had won my money back!

I jumped up and down in elation, and ran down to
Dartalion, who had been watching the game, and gave him a big hug.
That’s when I realized that the dealer hadn’t payed me yet. I returned
to the table, and demanded that I be payed my winnings. However, the
dealer feigned ignorance, and refused to pay me my money. I was
furious, but there was little I could do about it with the bouncer
watching. I had lost all of my winnings and savings, and was left with
only 200 coins. A little crazed by this point, I bet the rest of the
money I had, and began working my way up once more. I managed to reach
as high as 1400 coins, before I lost all of my money again. This time I
was totally broke. I left the casino, and headed for the library in a
daze. I’d lost every single coin I owned. It would take me forever now
to save up enough for a Phantasmonomicon.

That night, I could hardly sleep. My mind was
racing, thinking of how I could get my hard earned money back. Robbing
the casino was out of the question. I scrutinized my gambling strategy,
and decided I hadn’t been careful enough. I spent the rest of the night
thinking of ways in which to improve my strategy, and by the end of the
night I had a strategy that I felt was foolproof. Now, if I could only
borrow 1000 coins from someone, I could make back all of the money I
had lost, and make a hefty profit to boot.

The next day…

Totally convinced that my plan was going to work,
I set about trying to borrow a thousand coins from someone. In town I
ran into my friend Wormtounge, who is a merchant and banker of sorts,
and he agreed to lend me 900 coins at 5% interest a month, with the
collateral of two chains. I quickly agreed to the offer, and rushed to
casino to test out my revised theory. I played careful this time, and
made sure not to bet too high, or rush my bidding. After an hour or so,
my 900 coins had blossomed into 1600. However, chance is a screwy
thing. Every probability curve has it’s low end. In the games that
followed, I managed to lose every hand I played, and lost every single
penny I had made in the past hour, as well as the money I had been
loaned from Wormtounge.

Now, not only am I broke, but I am also in a lot
of debt as well. I thought I could win at the Black Jack game, but I
was wrong. I suppose there is a lesson to be learned from all this.
Perhaps it is “Stop playing while you’re ahead,” or “Casinos don’t get
rich by losing,” or “Not even mystics can outsmart probability.”
Whatever it is, the one thing I know for sure is that if Jack Vintian
ever finds himself alone in the Badlands, he will be wishing that the
only thing I take from him is his money.

Day 52, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

*

Today Gurgi led an expedition to the Foothills, and as usually happens
with Gurgi’s raids, there was a huge turnout. More than 50 exiles met
up in the meadow, and together we headed to the Foothills. Of course,
with such such a large group places like Snaggy and Hatred’s Hollow was
a breeze. We even managed to make it through OOB to the Dred Passage
without losing a single member of our party. However, as we attempted
to clear the monsters out of Dred Passage, we found ourselves caught in
a time warp( ooc: a server crash ) and when we came to our senses, we
found that we were back in town again, and had to make the journey once
more. The second journeu to DP was not as smooth as the first, but we
still made excellent time.

Once inside the Dred Passage, several fighter
raids were made to clear the area surrounding the entrance, before the
entire party went in. Our group easily dealt with the orga and their
lightning, and had cleared out the Dred Passage in no time. We stepped
through the path, where just 4 days ago LIFE had been massacred, and
entered the Northeastern Foothills.

Being in the Foothills again was exciting for
everybody, as nobody had visited the area in months. Traveling through
the tight passes was a bit of a challenge, though, and we created one
heck of a traffic jam. However, we still managed to travel through the
passes with little incident, and though we had some trouble opening
paths, we made it into the Camp Dred. After taking a brief break, our
party headed into the Dred Wood. Our destination was the Malachite
Lair, where we hoped to look for new paths, and the enigmatic
Trillbane. Our large party traveled through the Dred Wood with ease,
and were hardly phased by the powerful ‘Noids in the Malachite Lair.

After clearing out the cavern, our pathfinders
spread out, and set about looking for any hidden pf paths. I helped to
look for paths as well, and also kept my eye out for any mystic
illusions. However, all our searching came to no avail, and we were
unable to locate any new passages. We left the Lair a little
discouraged; and after taking a quick look around the Dred Wood, our
party left to return to Puddleby. It is rather disapointing that we
were unable to find anything new, but it was still exciting to be in
the Foothills again. I am sure one of these days we will be able to
find Trillbane, and the fabled Orga Stronghold.

Day 48, Year 545 of the Ascendancy

Today I got to attend another LIFE expedition, but as yi can see from
the sketch, it was a failure. At first though, things didn’t look so
bad. We met in the meadow around 10 am this morning, then headed to OC
after waiting for stragglers. We then traveled through Snaggle Wood,
and regrouped in Bones. Once we were all organized into our squads, we
headed into Hatred’s Hollow, which we traveled through easily.

However, problems started arising once we hit the
Orga Outback. Several of our party members got separated from the group
multiple times, which forced us to double back and rescue our comrades,
which can be quite time consuming in the deadly and maze-like Snaggle
Wood. We even had to pay a visit to the Orga Village to rescue some
fallen exiles. Afterwards, we managed to make it to the DP tree, but
just as were about to let out a collective sigh of relief, we realized
we had lost one of our members in OOB. A small rescue party was sent to
retrieve the fallen exile, but they too fell, and in turn had to be
rescued by another rescue party.

Finally, we were ready to tackle the challenges of
the Dred Passage, and we were met by Cronos and Yor, who were waiting
for us in the DP tree. After several fighter runs, the Dred Passage was
declared clear enough to traverse, and we broke up into two squads, and
made an attempt to reach the Foothills. However, things did not go well
for us. The northern squad, which consisted mostly of healers, was
unable to cope with the lightning, and fell. The southern squad fared a
little better, and we actually made it to the exit of DP. However, as
fate would have it, we were unable to open the path that led to the
Foothills.

At first I tried to open the path, then I tried
pushing the fallen Entil’Zha, and Kestral and Olmy also gave the path a
try, but to no avail. Finally, the mystic Fanan was able to open the
path, but by then it was already too late, as all of the chainers and
healers in our party were down. Three fighters managed to make it to
the Foothills, but with no healers they didn’t stand a chance at
rescuing us.

Now I lie fallen in the Orga Village, awaiting a
rescue party. Those who made it to the Foothills have either departed,
or have left the Foothills for OOB, and are also waiting for the rescue
party. I hear that Gurgi is planning another expedition to the
Foothills tomorrow, which I also plan to attend. Hopefully Gurgi’s
expedition will be more successful than the one we had today. It has
been a while since I’ve last visited the Foothills, and I am excited to
see if there have been any changes to the area since I last set foot
there.