Fortunately, the brave fighter Ethernal was there, challenging and
distracting Gerag, and I was able to sneak past them both and grab
Algy on my chain. Hoping to dispatch him, I dragged Algy behind me
and lured the beast into town, summoning all available fighters
to town for a battle.
By ducking in and out of the temple and generally letting the drake
chase me all over town, I was able to buy enough time for plenty of
fighters to arrive. Gerag was surrounded, and we got him down to
yellow, but then he reared back and flamed everyone. Once several
exiles were fallen, he pulled his way free and fled for his lair.
I was worried that he would escape into hiding before we had a chance
to finish him, so I kept Algernon on my chain and headed to his lair,
which is just outside of the south pass. My intention was to keep him
occupied and outside until help arrived. Pretty soon, Gerag showed
up (I beat him there using some pathfinding, even though he is
exceptionally fast). Again, I managed to stay just a step ahead of
him, using Algy's body as a shield while I ran.
Several fighters showed up, but we didn't have the same manpower that
we had in town. We tried reasoning with him. Babajaga and several
others tried to convince him to try some tasty Orga, but Gerag would
have none of it. Later, the idea came to us that perhaps Gerag would
like pretzels or cookies or some other baked goods. Maybe next time.
In the end, Gerag could see that his efforts to trap Algy were not going
to pay off. We kept him too well hidden, and there were too many exiles
interfering with his food gathering, so he slinked back into his cave
and is now back in hiding. If only we could find some way to trap him
so that we could talk to him, but he only seems interested in halflings
as meals.
It's nice to see a little greenery around our drab town. I wish I
could've stopped Johnny. Those seeds could come in handy. Maybe
we could plant a tree and trap Gerag in his cave. It would work
a lot better than kudzu seedlings.
One of my best students, a healer from the Golden Tree clan by the
name of Azael, continues to progress. His 400+ ranks of Horus will
come in handy on LIFE expeditions and in many other areas, I am
sure. It's always good to see more Horus in the lands, particularly
for the day I get dragged into town perilously near death!
Speaking of training, I'm taking a little side trip...
My recent experiences on rescues and hunts, along with my membership
in and respect for the chaining guild, Catenae, has finally convinced me
to take a break from my Horus/Eva/Respia training pattern and get myself
some more Loovma Geer ranks.
As a rule of thumb, I find that each training with Loovma Geer increases
your average chain lifetime by a pull or two over the long haul. If you
chain a lot like I do, that can add up to big money, and if you have
occasion to chain many fallens at once, it can make a huge difference in
cost and success. Nothing is worse that dragging six fallens through a
sn'ell, just about to escape...then you try for that last one, and bang,
chain breaks, disaster.
There has been some talk in the lands about chains and usage policy. There
are always exiles who feel that chains are overused. For example, suppose
I am in the south forest at the mirror. There are 10-20 cats and a fallen
out in the middle of the sn'ell. I ask for fighter support but none is
forthcoming. Should I chain, or should I keep pestering everyone for help
while the fallen waits?
I had occasion to make exactly this choice a few puddledays ago. While I
was calling out for help for the second time, I fell. That's the risk,
of course, of not chaining right away. You can lose control of the
situation and possibly extend the fallen's down time by a lot. Luckily,
my request for help was answered by a crowd of exiles. In the end, what
would've been a solo chain rescue, ho hum to the hospital and that's it,
turned into a town event and lots of fun.
So in this case, even though I fell, my decision not to chain resulted
in only a little more down time for the fallen and lots of fun for
several exiles from town. As a general rule, though, this sort of thing
doesn't happen, I find, especially in places more distant from town.
So my policy is typically to ask once if fighter support is coming,
give a minute or so for a response, and if no one has offered, I don't
waste time risking a fall. I chain the fallen to safety, heal him
or her up, and we both go on our way.
Same story happened later in Herpetad Forest. Several fallens and a huge
load of beasts, but this time there were already a half-dozen exiles there
fighting and slowly winning. It's a shame that the situation was too
dangerous to raise fallens and let them help in the battle (in such cases,
it is almost always a much better idea to support those who are standing
until it is safer).
Later, though, I found myself at kitty beach, helping out on a rescue.
There were three fallens out there, five cats. One of the fallens was
tantalizingly close to the safe exit, so I pushed and pushed and got him
up and out, both of us on red. It was very exciting, and I was happy
that I managed to get the rescue going without a chain. Now there were
two of us up, and we could get the other two... but then another healer
ran in behind me with the other two fallens on a chain.
Oh well, so much for that challenge. I didn't complain, and I'm sure the
fallens didn't either, but in the big picture, I can sure see why some
people complain about chain overuse. This is one reason I support the
chaining guild run by Cronos, Catenae. Those allowed into this guild
must meet with some rigorous standards for proper chaining use (not
overuse) and be able to take care of their chains (30 Loovma Geer trainings
is a goal for all members).
As the guild slowly grows and (I hope) gains some respect, I think people
will start to appreciate that many of us are very discriminating about
when and where we use our chains. We are human and we do make mistakes
or errors in judgement, but as a general rule, we do a good job with
our chains, I think.
I saw Trystran D'Ark in town a few days ago, and she has recently
crossed through the threshold of 350 trainings in the art of
healing those closer to death! It is always nice to see students
pass new milestones. Trys is becoming quite a powerful and useful
healer, I must say, and her help in the recent Dun'ilsar competition
made the difference between winning and losing.
Our fine clan recently challeged Order of the White Elephant to
a Dun'ilsar contest. This was high stakes. We were fighting for
the top spot! For this contest, clans agreed to compete to be the
first to have a designated faller fall to a Darshak Thug, a Large
Sand Wurm and a small rock.
Well, we had a huge turnout, and we needed pretty much everyone.
After some initial madness finding a thug, I led our bunny southward
to the savannah to fall to a LSW. After he fell, I almost fell myself
to a collection of savannah mahas (where are they all when I am
hunting for skins with a fighter?), but Kodo and Trystran ran to
my rescue, both falling to protect me and our faller, who then raced
to south pass (expertly cleared by Odesseus and DeathLord, a small
part of the overall team, each of whom had a role at various points)
and into GMV to fall. So Rising Claw is now Dun'ilsar! Woo!
The kind and generous Hunter clan member known as Rel'lim loaned
out his oak basher and mace to a young sylvan lady named Sarian'
(who claims to be the sister of Kalle' but I do not know
if this is true), an exile who has been around in the lands for
some time now and has earned a measure of trust about Hunters.
Well, Sarian' fled with the two weapons and then handed them over
to a shady new exile named Kiyeko, who appeared on the docks acting
as though he had just hand-made a new oak basher and mace for
sale. Rel'lim acted quickly to sue Kiyeko, but Kiyeko fled before
harsh justice could be delivered by the courts. If you have any
information about either of these two exiles or other exiles they
might be related to, etc., please contact me or any Hunter clan
member.
Click here to go backward in the archive
to Winter 543, Part 1.
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to Summer 543, Part 1.
Back to Koric's Journal Archives
Exiles battle Gerag the drake in town (note Tater's disguise).
Chased outside of Gerag's lair.
New trees have been planted around town.
Azael reaches a Horus milestone.
Loovma Geer helps brush up my maintenance skills.
A big rescue at the mirror.
A Herpetad Forest battle.
Clawmate Trystran has attained tremendous skill!
Rising Claw assembles on the docks for a Dun'ilsar vs OWE.