This evening, I got the opportunity to rescue Tandor in the North Forest. Over the past several months, as I have been enhancing my skills with Proximus, I have begun to really appreciate the tactical significance of distance healing, both in combat and rescues. Really, I'm just applying lessons learned from years of watching Axell and Thuja, among others.

The trick is to get enough proximus (at least 100 ranks) to be able to stand comfortably a few body-lengths away from the fallen exile. If you can take damage from the surrounding beasts long enough and prevent them from surrounding you with some careful walking, you can often get a fallen on his or her feet without the need for a helpful fighter or risking a fragile chain.

It takes some judgment in borderline situations. Try to bite off more than you can chew, and the next healer is left needing to perform two rescues instead of one. The nice thing about proximus training is that it gives you time to make that decision, rather than moonstone healing, which forces you to remain in contact with the fallen, greatly limiting your ability to avoid getting surrounded.

This also negates the need to waste your balance and take lots of passing hits while you try to peel rats off the fallen. What with the horrible regia of a healer and the delay in regia regeneration that accompanies switching from a weapon back-and-forth to a moonstone or cad, this can often save you from taking 30 or more higgrus ranks worth of damage, just from dusting off rats. Of course, leaving the rats leaves the risk of a luck hit when the fallen arises, but being able to ignore the rats almost always works out for the best.

Here's a place where proximus training is all but worthless. When being chased by one of the big cats in the savannah, a slow healer like me doesn't have the luxury of standing back and taking hits while cadding, not to mention the worry of clearing rats. Fortunately, I find that can usually loop a chain around a fallen exile and drag them right out from a big pile of rats as needed. Thank goodness for my 20 trainings with Loovma Geer. My chains are lasting me an average of over 10 pulls these days.

On this day, Amon Yret, one of the staff of the monastery told some exiles she had heard of a new trainer who was seeking Puddleby from his isolated home on the far side of the island. Several exiles went out to look for this new trainer, and they found Bracis near the North Pass. After fending off several wild beasts, the exiles escorted Bracis to town. I got to meet Bracis in the East Forest along the way, and I complimented him on his finely colored robe, similar to the colors of my former clan, the Lizards.

Bracis enters the Puddleby monastery, escorted by Grandmaster Sutai and other monks.

Bracis arrived at north gate and was greeted by grandmaster Sutai, who graciously invited Bracis on a tour of the monastery. Bracis was clear that he had not yet decided to stay in town. He was a little guarded about making any commitments before seeing the situation here. Fortunately, Bracis found the monastery most agreeable. He liked the relative isolation he could find there, the sake was tasty, the library/meeting room was found to be stocked with many useful tomes, and he sounded fairly positive.

Sutai and his apprentices demonstrate their techniques for the new sensei.

Bracis asked us about our previous trainers and our skills. Sutai and his apprentices demonstrated their skill with hand-to-hand combat on some of the dummies set up in the training room. Bracis was suitably impressed, and he would soon offer to begin training these exiles in further improving their skills. Perhaps the only bit of bad news Bracis got was that the basement of the monastery is currently flooded (perhaps this explains the muddy soil he commented on near north gate).

Bracis has stern words for the monastery staff.

Upon hearing this, Bracis dressed down poor Amon Yret, who tried to explain away the flooding by saying that most of the monastery's resources were devoted to a search for a new sensei. That didn't go over too well with Bracis, who worried about overseeing a monastery with a flood-damaged foundation. Amon Yret scurried off downstairs to begin work on repairing the damage and pumping out the water.

Amon Yret gets to work on the flooded basement.

Shortly after Amon disappeared, it looked like things were getting all set at the monastery. Bracis began training some of the monks, to their great delight, and he took up a post (at least for now) as a trainer opposite Hanmai. By this time, the hour of my Rising Claw induction was growing very near, so I ran to town square.

Several future clanmates await the induction in town center.

While we waited for the rest of the clan to come out of the library, there was some scary talk of initiation rites! Reye and Kodo had a good laugh, and so did I.

Kodo gets creative.

I was hopping around with excitement, and it was almost an unbearable wait, but we finally made our way down to the clan hall for the official induction. My clanmates stood in the "Deadly Claw" formation around me as Lorikeet registered me with Gnaroon as the newest member of the Clan. The shouting, both over the sunstone and in the room, was joyously deafening.

Koric is inducted into the Clan of the Rising Claw

But the induction was only the beginning of an island-wide orga bashing party that I had been planning for quite some time. Thanks to the new bounty paying system made available in the fairgrounds, I was able to turn Orga into 10 coin party favors.

I talk to Bontiper and set up the big event.

Just setting up the bounty wasn't enough, though. I wanted this party to be open to all exiles, so just announcing it over the sunstone network would leave out exiles without the luxury of a sunstone. With Orga as the targets, I wanted to be sure everyone in the lands had the opportunity to participate in the fun and the money!

I spend a treasured announce token to get the party underway.

It took a few minutes for this announcement to really penetrate the thinking of the exiles in the lands. Well, it took a few minutes plus the first couple of exiles announcing over the sunstones that they were starting to mow down Orga and collect bounties! Pretty soon, most of the exiles in the lands were making a beeline for Tanglewood, Orga Camp and Snaggy Wood, including the Clan of the Rising Claw.

The bounty system works!

I got to collect my first 10c bounty in Orga Camp as Zyloth, my new mystic clanmate, allowed me to deliver the killing blow to an Orga, so I knew it was working. By this time, Tanglewood was virtually empty of Orga (that in itself makes this event historic), and exiles were running full speed in a million different directions, trying to find the elusive Orga. The riot was in full swing.

I helpfully call out the positions of Orga.

Snaggy Wood was the next stop for the Rising Claw hunt, so everyone ran in and (this is the best part) pretty much ignored Zerks, Rages and Shaman to hunt regular Orga. Instead of calling out "z" or "r" to locate zerks and rages, we called out the positions of regular Orga to be killed. Well, most of us did. Malkor was being unusually (?) greedy on this day and was stealing Orga kills (and thus, bounties) whenever and wherever he could, but there were plenty to go around.

Mad Mark gets ready to collect some bounties.

For the careful hunter like Mad Mark, there were still some isolated places in Tanglewood where respawns were generating hundreds of coins in revenue, so the number of Orga eligible for a bounty was dropping fast. In just one puddlehour, it was down from 500 to 400, and the rate of Orga killing was accelerating. The hunt started at about 11am Puddleby Time, and by 3pm, 500 Orga had been dispatched. But the hunt was not officially over for me.

With my first hunting fall, my induction into the clan is complete!

A longstanding tradition with the Clan of the Rising Claw is that you can't go out on your first hunt without at least one silly fall. A massive spawn of Orga Warriors in the Orga Camp was just what the doctor ordered, and I quickly fell, surrounded by the welcoming arms of my new clanmates. What a great day in Puddleby!

I sponsored this hunt to celebrate my induction into the clan, but these hunts are so much fun in and of themselves. It is my hope that other generous exiles will follow in my footsteps, particularly with hunts that lesser exiles can participate in and gain from. If not, I'm sure that once I build up my cash reserves sufficiently, I'll sponsor another hunt for those pesky and hated Orga. I just hope that I haven't painted a big target on myself in the eyes of the Orga on this island. I will be sure to tread carefully when I am in their territory in the future, I can promise you that!

Here I got to use my caduceus to strategic advantage. You can see here how useful it is. Having the ability to stand at a distance allows me to stay clear of the fray. This way, I avoid getting whacked by the monsters around Biff, and I also leave him with an avenue of escape should he need to flee. Also, Biff has the freedom to manuever so that fewer beasts can attack him at once. I tell you, any combat support healer without sufficient Proximus training is likely doing more harm than good!

An exile I haven't met before is fallen across my path.

Also in the north forest, I ran across an exile in the lands I haven't met before by the name of Rhys Carroch. Like Tandor several days ago, I tried a cadding rescue, drawing the ferals and vermine upon myself. Unfortunately, ferals do not like to cooperate with my tactics, so I soon had to abandon this method and drag poor Rhys to the safety of the lily pond for healing.

I pay the price for an error in judgment.

Soon, exiles in the Northwest Forest were calling for help, but alas, I stumbled onto one of the deadly bridges in that forest and was quickly surrounded. That foul Orga blocked my best escape route! Argh, I would have thought all those bounties would have cleared the Orga from the lands, at least temporarily. Those damned things must spawn like gerbils. Despite Abby's capable efforts, I was doomed to fall this time, exacerbating the rescue situation instead of helping things.

Saved by a Clawmate and friends.

Fortunately for me, Otepei, Torin and another brand new clawmate, the mighty Tyndall, soon arrived to bail me out. While the two fighters cleared the beasts, Otepei (who is commonly found in the Northwest Forest ... it's a good idea to share with him, you fighters who hang out there!) and I healed each other. Tyndall would later help me rescue my former clanmate (and still fast friend) Eyeball, whose efforts to attain a bloodblade again met with frustration in the savannah tomb. More about that another time...

An offer from a stranger in town.

Back in town, a stranger versed in the tailor's arts approached me and offered to fix my cloak, which has worn a bit over the past several days. I've noticed quite a few talented tailors popping up in town since the clothing workshop was opened, but I don't recognize any of their names. It is hard for me to place my trust, not to mention a cloak that is priceless to me and worth well over 4000 coins, into the hands of a complete stranger. These tailors will have to put in some hard work and build a good reputation before I will trust my business to them.

Forgoing the discount offered, I do business with the trustworthy Striss

Meanwhile, Striss has the ability to fix my cloak for about 10 coins more than Kodel was offering. That's just one orga bounty! And it is a small price to pay for the security of not having to hand over my beautiful cloak to a stranger, no matter how friendly and talented that stranger may be.