Rescue requests were coming fast and furious today. Lorikeet, Manx, Dora, Califas and a few others were on full tilt and we could barely keep up with the fallens everywhere. What a fun day! Here, Califas and I were the first to arrive to help my Clawmate Biff rescue another Clawmate Panos. While en route, I heard that Manx, Kendra and Lorikeet were also on the way, so I decided to take a few more risks than I normally would.

What I should have done, of course, is wait for Biff to lead everything away, clearing it out so Panos could be healed in safety. Instead, I dove into the fray and got Panos up and running but then fell myself. Not to worry, look at the crowd that eventually showed up for the rescue!

A happy ending.

And I didn't even fit everyone into the sketch. My Clawmate Tyndall showed up, and several others offered to help, too. It was that kind of day, with exiles madly running all over the lands helping each other.

A Queen's Chamber rescue, and I get a cheap healer tag.

My last rescue of the day was a very difficult one. Kard and Lightbringer were fallen near the QC entry in the myrm hive. Mortag was in the entrance fighting off several warriors. Fortunately, K'tt'n'ia offered to come along to help out, too. When we entered, shortly after Mortag fell, we were instantly surrounded.

Brave K'tt'n'ia manuevered me to safety and was able to fend off eight warriors while I healed Mortag at the edge of the fray. By the time the entry was cleared, we had all touched low yellow or even red. Thank goodness K'tt'n'ia is such a stout zo, or we would've been in bad shape waiting for help, I think. I eventually got a rare chance to tag a Queen Myrm.

Fortunately, it was an easy rescue, as Kodo cleared out the junk and I was able to raise Zenna without taking too many hits myself. That tree helped matters a bit, since I was able to use it as a shield against the ferals while still cadding. As Zenna returned to town, we heard news of a few more fallens in mid-pass.

Clawmates Kodo and Biff help on a mid-pass rescue with Ezi the mystic.

Though there were many wendies, Biff was there to help out. Ezi downplayed his own contributions, but he gave us important moral support, as I was quick to point out! Next stop, the North Bear Cave...

A rescue gone horribly wrong.

Saru was fallen deep inside the bear cave complex, and a group of us went to help. I foolishly ran on ahead and ran into the scene you see above. I'm not sure how, but I managed to make it out and avoid making the rescue even worse. I'd like to think that I dragged some of this dangerous stuff away from Pon-X, Sai and Kodo so they could complete the rescue, but that wasn't quite the original plan! I headed to the South Forest for something I could handle a little more easily.

Healing Drenn in the safe tree north of the mirror in South Forest.

It was pretty crowded there today, with many cats and vermine. I managed to chain Drenn to safety in the always handy safe tree just north of the mirror sn'ell in south forest. If you don't know how to find it, it is the large tree in the SE corner of the sn'ell north of the mirror, just west of some vermine holes. I come here sometimes to meditate, and it is a nice spot to rest, being so close to so many areas (especially if you can navigate the marsh pretty well) where exiles often fall.

A quiet spot in the Old Cemetary

While I was searching the marsh for a fallen exile today, we were all having so much trouble finding poor TerraHawk that I thought perhaps he was in the difficult-to-find Dead Tree Marsh near the Old Cemetary. Turns out he was just in a rarely-visited south marsh sn'ell and soon raised, but Kodo and I took the opportunity anyway to revisit this lonely marsh and pay our respects to Famkuld the Dwarf. Aside from a hidden clothing seller I've heard about, I wonder if this cemetary holds any more secrets? Maybe I'll ask the Hermit.

East Field is rarely this dangerous.

The Darshak were fairly active today. A large group of Thugs showed up in the East Field and started harassing exiles who were passing through. Here, Sarah and I barely manage to fend off a large crowd of thugs to raise Agent and run away. I understand there was another, much larger invasion of Thugs at the docks somewhat later. I wonder why the increase in Darshak activity now when it has been quiet for so long? Or have I just missed previous invasions?

A rescue in the brambles.

Poor Nurg the zo was fallen in the brambles today. He always seems to hunt where there are a lot of cats, and I'm sure he must be accumulating a bit of wealth by now! In fact, Nurg was the first to collect a bounty when I was testing out Bontiper prior to the Orga Hunt. It is nice to know this tough zo is around in places I often find myself rescuing others. There was no question here, with a bolok and so many Orcs and T'rools that this was not going to be a cadding rescue. Luckily, the South Forest hospital was near, and we made it there in one piece.

Outside treacherous Dal'Noth

The real excitement of the day began when I learned that a party hunting in the insanely dangerous Pallidew cave on Dal'Noth needed my Horus skills. Although Cloud and Thuja were already there helping out a party of very powerful fighters, Thuja had fallen to a point that Cloud could not heal. So I made the journal to the storm-ringed shores of this island, and the mystic Selucreh opened up a passage for me to enter.

A rare chance to help out the legendary Thuja Occidentalis.

Once inside, healing the fallens outside the Pallidew cave was no problem. Thuja has helped me and so many others in the past so many times, there's no question that whenever she is in a tough spot, most of us will do just about anything possible to assist her. But this wasn't the end of the rescue.

Thuja bravely enters the deadly cave to lure away monsters from a fallen exile.

PureHeat the zo fighter was still stranded inside and badly fallen, so to rescue him, Thuja risked running into the cave first to lure the monsters away while Urgelt followed shortly thereafter to chain him out to safety. Thuja is exceptionally talented at luring, especially because her fast self-healing skills enable her to survive the hits she takes while she runs the monsters, and she also has loads of experience. Soon, PureHeat was saved, and we all entered the cave for a challenging fight!

Inside the Pallidew cave, a horrific array of monsters awaited us.

That vile creature striking PureHeat is one of the deadliest of all the magical creations on Dal'Noth Isle, the Tuz'Noth. Next to it, a sky blue lightning-throwing Hel'Noth is casting a shock spell on Mujin-kun despite the efforts of Nerazus. Saturnus and Urgelt are seen here preparing to battle one of the dozens of horrible variants of Dews (this one a Wickedew, I believe, though there were several of the less deadly Pallidews about).

Cheap healer tags make trips to Dal'Noth particularly rewarding.

Eventually, the cave cleared out enough that I had the luxury of taking a swing or two at the dreaded Tuz'Noth while Cloud and Thuja held it at bay. I also eventually got a chance to do a little running of my own, herding some of the Pallidews that spawned while we fought off the Tuz'Noth. All in all, a very interesting and valuable experience for me and a nice change of pace from being a rescue healer.

Once again, my Proximus training was valuable, but in places like this, I do not kid myself. My main role is to remain safe and be the healer of last resort in case everything goes wrong. I simply do not have the kind of speed to effectively keep up with the damage these monsters dish out (neither does any healer, to be honest, but my lack of faustus relative to most 3c and 4c healers is particularly appalling in such situations).

The lightning in the Hollow is bad enough without all of the big red orga around. On this day, it took as about four puddlehours, with several retreats, to finally get all the way through the Hollow and into the Orga Outback. During the fighting, a Hatred appeared. Our party was strong enough to dispatch it, but it would have taken a long time and subjected us to a lot of lightning. Instead, we used a common tactic and fenced the Hatred in with Kudzu, leaving it for another day.

Kudzu farming with Gurgi.

I'm starting to learn a little bit more about how to farm Kudzu seedlings efficiently. It seems the best way to go is to allow the initial plant to grow into a formation like the one shown here, giving it enough plants so that new ones spawn frequently but not so many that the ones in the center begin to die off without replacement. As new kudzu appear on the boundary of this formation, they can be hacked away, and sometimes seedlings can be recovered for use later.

Orga Warlocks have a parting gift for Achates as our party heads into the Outback.

Finally, we managed to get through to the Outback path, with one of our most talented pathfinders, Entil'Zha, leading the way. We had to hurry since Orga were starting to gather again in the Hollow behind us. This isn't the place a party wants to be trapped, I can assure you!

Footprints in the Outback. A crude Orga code?

Our mission was to explore and look for new paths, so pathfinders Entil'Zha, Magnels and Achates explored lots of trees while the rest of the party waited. To while away the time, I closely examined some of the footprints. It is my feeling, shared by Achates among others, that these footprints represent some sort of numerical or symbolic code. Entil'Zha has promised to make me a copy of a scroll she made comparing the various footprints found. I intend to examine these carefully along with a map of the Orga Outback, an immensely valuable document recently made public by Lorikeet and Rakshasa. You can examine the map here.

Gurgi finds some very rare Orga Berries during the hunt.

As the hours wore upon us all, the tedious exploration was occasionally livened up by dispatching some furies, wraths and rages (or here, when expedition leader Gurgi was rewarded by the discovery of valuable Orga berries). Several times near sn'ell boundaries, we got separated from one another, but we were very fortunate to lose no one in this way. Sadly, Kojiro and Sala Dragon couldn't stay with us, and they fell on the way home in Snaggy Wood, which resulted in departs and a tough loss of experience.

J'nder takes a shortcut home as I desperately try to latch on.

J'nder also had to leave us, but she was able to take a shortcut home through Purgatory. Sadly, pendants only work for one exile, so neither myself nor K'Pyn could accompany her despite our half-hearted efforts. We slogged ahead with the group, hoping to find Orga Village soon and the path home.

Orga Village at last!

After another couple of puddlehours, the weary party staggered into the Orga Village. We were met by a few large red orga, but fortunately none were Hatreds. Here you can see Raiine practicing a common tactic of using candies to distinguish between the different sorts of similar-looking Orga. They all seem to have slightly different reactions to the smell of some candies. Despite some close calls with lightning-throwers, we managed to clean out the place.

After this sketch, I'm not so sure Entil'Zha will loan me those footprint drawings...

Our industrious pathfinder Entil'Zha scoured the village, hoping to find hidden paths, but nothing new was found here. Shortly after Entil expressed her lament, I could have *sworn* I saw a look on K'Pyn's face that said "Except for me!" Thooms can be very expressive (and very funny) if you know how to read their expressions.

A Tree Giant in Orga Village.

As we made our way toward the south part of the Village, we encountered a Tree Giant. Taking a look at the trees, the terrain and the location, I wondered if we weren't relatively close to the area outside of the muddy North forest known as the Fringe (or the Feral Coast). No Ferals were present, but that Tree Giant may have come from Jannar's Grove. Something tells me we will someday discover a path from some part of the Fringe (or the Grove) back into this place without having to slog through the Outback. I can always dream.

At long last, the path home.

Finally, we all lined up to follow Magnels through the path leading back to the Orga Camp, and I made my way to the library before I collapsed in exhaustion. All in all, not a very productive trip in terms of finding new things, but I think I might be able to make something out of those darned footprints if given the information.