Soon, I learned Frozen Shade had fallen in the Tree Giant Breeding Ground, so I rushed over that way to return the favor for her earlier kindness. In the small tunnel connecting the two halves of Spirit Wood, what do I encounter but a Tree Giant! Gack! Fortunately, the tunnel was just big enough for me to get around. The spriggin balance-thieves and small monsters are enough of a challenge without this!

Within my own Rising Claw clan, some exiles are expressing regret, some are not. I hope we are bigger than this pettiness and stick together. I am sure once someone finally has the good fortune to stumble across this silly entrance, the wounds will heal quickly. But I fear only more of this sort of thing in the future. It was like this initially when Dal'Noth Isle was discovered, and the Foothills will likely be even worse for a time.

I continue to be confused at how exiles can claim that they are friends and companions to those at the root of this secrecy policy (and I am convinced it is but a few who are loudly behind it while others have only recently been driven to their side by this polarizing debate). What sort of friend subjects his or her companions to such a burdensome vow? Is the need for excitment in the lands so absolutely desperate that exiles are willing to throw aside friendship and community just for the sake of the temporary adrenaline rush of someplace new and challenging?

Some exiles tell me that this sort of thing will continue no matter what they do. If they cease behaving selfishly, then others will spoil their fun or be selfish or continue to hate them, and so on. I can only say this: The world is what we make of it. If you wish you believe that your own selfish behavior is meaningless or unimportant or irrelevant in the larger scheme of the community, then I doubt there is any way I can shake you free of your comforting rationalization.

It amazes me that so many can feel that they are important enough, special enough and powerful enough to be better than everyone else, yet somehow come to the passive conclusion that their behavior is not significant. Because they are part of the community whether they wish it or not, I wish all members of PMF well and hope for their sake that an honorable end comes about soon.

Particularly Lorikeet, whom I know is being pulled *hard* by her wonderful and supportive friends in Pogue Mahone (yes, they can be wonderful and supportive just like everyone else) and in her own clan, including me. How she balances it while still remaining so clear-headed, confident and fun to be around I'll never know or understand. But I do have a better idea now that I've gotten to talk with her about it. Both sides are blessed by her skills and her presence.

Disaster in the Northwest Forest

With these thoughts burdening me, I was tempted to hide in the library all day, but I thought perhaps some rescue and interaction with my other clanmates would be a welcome tonic. But the vermine spawned fast and furious and surrounded me instantly on this rescue, and this was after I had already broken two chains earlier nearby.

A painful visit to get replacement chains.

Thanks to the generosity of most exiles whom I have the occasion to rescue, funding for new chains isn't so much of a problem (my Loovma training enabled me to recover 3 of the 4 possible pieces of metal, adding to the one I already had), but this 1000 coins does set back the date of the next big Orga Hunt by a fair piece. Just not my day.

Rescued in the Savannah by Sargon, Crippler and 2 Clawmates.

Life did not improve when I went to south forest to rescue two others and just about fell again to vermine bites. That was followed soon thereafter by a trip to the Savannah to save several fallen. Despite my efforts to chain D'nah to safety, too many maha blocked my way. Sargon, a rescue healer who has been making quite an active name for himself lately, accompanied 3 others to help out. Kodo and Aldernon dispatched well over a dozen of these fearsome beasts, enabling us to raise everyone.

A new builder by the south gate.

Returning to town, I was happy to see that the chaos storm left us with someone willing to begin beautifying Puddleby a bit. Too bad I have no wood or stone to help the cause right now. Speaking of builders, the underground tunnel builder sure got off to a quick start. There are now vast tunnels beneath the town that I have yet to fully explore. Perhaps I'll wander around there in the next few days to escape the turmoil above me.

Turns out my theories are probably *way* off, because the sn'ell where the Foothills entrance was discovered (32) wasn't near the sn'ells that I would have guessed (22 was my main guess for a variety of reasons). No matter, Axell discovered the path and found the elusive ladder that Babajaga mentioned finding from sn'ell 33 (but they couldn't get to it from there). Babajaga has more details in her diary (week 07).

The Foothills entrance is discovered by the community (sketch courtesy of Prince Valiant).

And so the blight imposed by a few selfish exiles in the PM clan, exerted over the rest of them and some other kind-hearted exiles, has finally been lifted from us all. It is my feeling that those in the PM clan who were worried about the horrific price they had paid in hard work, sleepless nights and multiple departs will be proven wrong. They will find the rest of the community equally willing to pay this price for the benefit of conquering whatever there is to find. The result is that we will all likely enjoy the benefits sooner rather than later or perhaps never.

The feeling around town is one of relief, not excitement. Relief that this latest divisive incident is behind us. Now we will all share in the joy of exploration and discovery. There were many departs on this first discovery, and I'm sure there are many more to come. But who cares? It will be fun. And to top it off, I found orga berries!

A lucky find in the Orga Camp.

These will undoubtedly go toward raising money for my clan in the upcoming clan auction. I offered them to Polerand in exchange for another chain, but out of the goodness of his heart, he simply gave the chain to me! So I will happily donate my orga berries to the clan in the hopes of raising money for a worthy cause.

A rescue in the fringe.

Later, I discovered that Mandos had fallen to a large feral in the fringe. It took some time, but I managed to round up Aldernon and Falken (the pf) to help me find him. Elenis and Eyeball also helped us out. I rarely get to rescue anyone in the fringe because it is so far from town and hard to get a party organized, so this rescue was really special. Mandos was pretty rat-chewed, too, by the time we got to him, so this was a handy use for my horus skills.

Fun with my former clanmate in town.

Eyeball and I sometimes have this silly "big box" greeting for each other. It was just that kind of day today. Everything clicked. This is what being in a community is all about.

But...onwards. Our first stop, Hatred Hollow, and boy did it live up to its name!

Three of the Hatreds, trapped by Gurgi and others' nimble planting.

There were no less than SIX Orga Hatreds waiting for us, but amazingly, we managed to get the entire group through with absolutely no losses! We healed up in Trainers' Grove, and I went inside the grotto to get a glimpse of the trainers I've only met twice before...

The high-level fighter trainers past Hatred Hollow.

No time for chit-chat, as we still had the arduous Outback journey ahead of us. Sn'ell 32 would require (I lost count and am way too tired to check the map) many many sn'ell crossings, but yes, we did finally arrive with the entire group in tact. Into the tunnel, and we all peeked in to see the nightmare we've heard about.

My only glimpse of the battle above.

I only climbed up the ladder and entered the battleground once so I could get a sketch and get my bearings. Lots of lightning, big orga and even one Large Deadly Vermine over there just below the two zerks. At least, that's all *I* could see before ducking back down for triage duty.

After a few trips up, a few of our exiles were left fallen for too long (which for some, unfortunately, means about 5 seconds!) and ended up being teleported deep inside the Orga Village by some zealots (who tend to do that to fallens in the Outback). We decided after losing a few to venture to the Village and get them, also allowing some who wanted to go home to access the path to the Orga Camp.

One of many Dreadlocks that awaited us in the Orga Village.

We fought our way through all the lightning and managed to raise all of our fallens, and at that point, about half the party was ready to call it a day. The rest of us started the arduous trek back to the Dread Passage, dispatching a few Hatreds along the way. Some of those things have troilus to die for, I tell you! Anyway, with our smaller group, our chances for doing anything in the Dread Passage were not so great.

But we decided to take a peek anyway and see if we could do it. This first time out, I think a lot of us were feeling rather reckless. Well, it wasn't long before 5 of our 13 remaining party members were fallen, two (Gurgi and Prince Valiant) beyond hope of our combined horus skills. The other three were out of reach of chaining because the passage was so incredibly awful.

So we decided to make the dash back to the Orga Village to try to pick up these fallens and make our way home to lick our wounds. Realistically, we all should've left when our party was weakened by half, but we were too pumped up. I put Gurgi and Prince Valiant on my chain whie Ziff and Elim fought orga and Bones, Thuja and Fyn rodded and healed.

Fighting our way back to Orga Village, with two on my chain.

I did my best to use Gurgi and Prince Valiant as shields, assisting in combat when possible and luring nasties away, etc. Ziff and Elim fought bravely, clearing out the east half of the Orga Village enough to allow us (after about 40 minutes of solid fighting) to risk peeking to the West where the fallens were teleported.

Initially, it didn't seem so bad. Kodo and Magnels were waiting for a rescue, and there was one Dreadlock, a few warlocks and a few furies. But just as we finished off the furies and the warlocks, FOUR more Dreadlocks spawned right next to the fallens. Knowing it was then hopeless for our small party, we retreated to the Southwestern portion of Orga Village and made our way home, losing poor Elim in the process to lightning as we retreated.

Gurgi is healed by the community of healers in town.

Happily for Gurgi and Prince Valiant (who were both nearing death only using my skills to diagnose), Lorikeet stuck around long enough, despite being very sleepy I am sure, to help heal them, and we barely managed to do it with just about every healer clanning helping out. So for many of us (the first half who left and those of us who survived our second-half folly without departing), it was a happy ending, but I think even the departing exiles did all right. I am personally just about beyond amazement that I survived the affair without a depart. I hereby jinx myself by proclaiming that it has been almost two puddleyears since my last depart! Heh.