Since the chaos storm, there has been a new area opened up under the town, accessible via the ossuary in the healer temple and a hidden path in the west rat towers. Although most exiles seem to be calling this the Underground, I prefer the Catacombs, a name J'nder proposed. I guess we'll see what sticks. Unfortunately, these Catacombs are very tricky for healers, with narrow passageways and many monsters that love to surround and peck away at the poor, defenseless healer. I got caught by some arachne shortly after entering to look for a fallen exile, and I ended up falling down this short corridor.

Babajaga and I rescue Shingo in the Catacombs.

Back to today's Rising Claw hunt (sorry, I tend to get lost in rants sometimes). We did quite a bit of exploring of the forests and the area near the lake, though it was slow going. Some members of the group weren't all there, and we kept getting separated. But we still had fun and eventually found some danger in the Firewalker's Cave.

Look at the size of that Island Panther!

We had a couple go down, but the rest of the party made quick work of the flamethrowers and other creatures inside. Our mystic accompanist, Ma'Harba, didn't fall once, which in itself makes such a hunt a rare gem! Later, after the hunt, Kodo got himself into some difficulty deep inside the maha den in the savannah, near the entrance to the tomb.

Kodo and Manx are saved with the help of Aldernon and Poplar.

Try as I might, I couldn't lead enough of the huge swarm of cave wurms, snakes, spiders and skeletons away from Manx (who got surrounded herself trying to rescue Kodo) and Kodo. In fact, I almost fell, but I managed to run into the tomb and risked climbing down underground. Luckily, it was clear enough there that I could heal up and wait for fighter support.

Aldernon and Poplar eventually fought their way past the half-dozen or so mahas that I passed on my way in, and they easily cleared out the rest. Then we all went outside to help Crow and Dandelion, who were fallen near the gem mine.

We got a little sloppy in our tactics and were surprised by a sudden spawn of 3 Vel'Noths on top of several other nasties (I never can seem to get away from those damned purple Dal'Noths). These lightning throwers knocked Natas and Sephroth out and then made quick work of the three healers. Fortunately, Crunch managed to escape and hide in a hut. Even better, a rescue party was already nearby since Shadrock had just fallen earlier.

A kind group of rescuers helps us out.

Joy dispatched the Vel'Noths with relative ease, and Ace picked us all up. Veer, Charlos and Shadrock then arrived on the scene as backup. I thought we were going to lay there fallen for hours, but since many mystics were clanning, Dal'Noth had a pretty good-sized contingent of helpful exiles. My opinion of this place keeps getting better and better.

Suddenly, there's danger in east field.

Back in town, I was keeping an eye on a few low-level exiles around town when I saw that Lightfoot had fallen. It didn't take much time to locate him in East Field, but I didn't count on such a large swarm of Large Vermine. Fortunately, LunaBlue and I were able to keep them busy until Cobalt arrived to methodically eliminate them. As it usually happens, I was almost immediately aware of another rescue situation right after the east field mess was resolved. Felicity and some friends had fallen in the Death Trap for Healers known as the North Bear Caves.

I thought I was ready for anything, but not this!

Sooner or later I will learn not to enter the east cave without fighter support, especially when Chocolate Bears are around, in this case, *three* of them. And of course, a bat and a snake blocked the exit sufficiently to trap this clumsy healer and I fell without getting so much of a glimpse at the fallens north of me.

Saved (again!) by Veer and my clawmate Malloc.

Malloc soon came to our assistance and bravely risked a fall and one of his valued chains to pull no less than six exiles out of danger. Of course, Veer was nearby again to help me out, and my former student Looloo was also a quite capable assistant (though she does need some more work on her horus skills!).

A deceptively difficult rescue begins in the South Forest.

My last rescue of the day was Drenn, who along with GrayGradi I had managed to help save earlier in the East t'rool mine in the brambles (that was a tricky one, but I was throwing caution to the wind a lot today to keep life interesting). I decided to cad him up without clearing rats, but he was pretty chewed up. Before I could raise him, an artak, a couple of large vermine and a bolok cougar showed up to harass me!

Although a couple of other exiles showed up to help, not even Fist of Fluff's fine fighting skills were a match for these beasts. Veer (surprise!) eventually showed up to chain them to safety while I was uselessly trying to run around and lose the cats.

Back in town, I got a chance to talk training with Lorikeet today. She's now at 685 Horus and counting up to 700 while I have stopped at 690 to mix in another 10 ranks of respia. My basic training strategy at this point is 10 ranks of Horus, 10 ranks of something else, 10 ranks of Horus, etc. The question is what to mix in. I've decided on more Proximus (up to 150), a little more respia and then a lot more Eva (I could sure use the Higgrus and the Faustus that she offers as part of her lessons). Who knows? Maybe in another couple of puddleyears, I'll be a halfway decent support healer for a simple forest hunt or maybe even bears!

Of course, my Proximus ranks help to some extent, but I just don't have the faustus to keep up with the kind of damage a weak party would sustain on Dal'Noth Isle (or most strong parties, for that matter). This time, though, I was well-complemented (who isn't) by Thuja's presence. She and I were able to keep our very strong party topped off, and we made short work of just about everything we ran into (some were disappointed we didn't run into tougher noths, in fact). Ah well, my hunting will get better with time if I stick to my training strategy.

Mudgeon provides a lead on a fallen exile.

Back in town, I needed something to keep me busy, so I went to see good old Mudgeon, and he told me about a fallen novice exile that I had heard was hunting on a beach. I went down to check it out and found two fallens (Aethelred and Sausage) and J'jh working to save them with a bolok cougar on her back (and this in Southwest farms!).

Clawmate Biff to the rescue.

Fortunately, Biff was in the neighborhood and vanquished (well, probably slaughtered when you get right down to it) the bolok, and the party went on its way. I understand that later on, a party went back to try to extend their knowledge of the Dread Passage. Babajaga discussed this briefly in her diary (week 08 entry), including a link to the new dread passage map.

The information on this map was obtained through some brilliant tactics. Bascially, the exiles ran in as far as they could to get information, fell and were dutifully transported to the Orga Village by zealots. But this time, a party of exiles awaited them in Orga Village to raise them so there were no useless departs. I can't wait to see more!

We tried to hunt a bit with Sleipnir, and he did manage to dispatch 5 mahas with our combined (but still rather slow) backpacking. Babajaga and Cutlas were coming behind us, though, and poor Sleipnir did not seem anxious to see Cutlas. Well, either that, or he had to relieve himself in the gem mine tents. Either way, he soon fled, breaking up the hunt, so I returned to town. As luck would have it, just the exile I wanted to talk to, Azure, was coming out of the library.

For those who don't know, after Thuja was rescued yesterday from the Orga Village, an event that will go down in history as probably one of most rewarding, exhilirating, fun and satisfying rescue expeditions in quite some time, she was brought to trial by Azure. Azure, who himself is a member of Pogue Mahone, sued Thuja on the grounds that by remaining fallen in the Orga Village, she was soliciting other exiles to endanger themselves to rescue her. The verdict was swift and sure: frivolous with a hefty fine.

Personally, I try to imagine a scenario more conducive to furthering the bitter rift between many of the community and the Pogue Mahone clan, and I can't succeed. A lawsuit from a member of the PM clan who is suing one of the leaders of the Puddleby Marine Corps expeditions (the famously well-respected Thuja no less) over goings on in the Dread Passage/Orga Village area...the mind boggles. Worse, a transcript of a clearly out-of-context conversation between Azure and his clanmates who were expressing support for him (as any clanmates would regardless of the circumstances, especially when they didn't know the whole story) was published, further inflaming tempers and hardening resolve.

Azure assures me that he has the best interests of the community at heart. He has long thought that some exiles are irresponsible by not departing and thus implicitly (or explicitly) requesting a rescue, endangering other exiles. So his lawsuit was a matter of principle. He even spoke with some exiles before filing the lawsuit, and they told him that they thought he had a point worth considering. Given his knowledge now, however, he has expressed remorse to me, wishing that he had chosen a different vehicle to express his opinion, one less harmful to the community he presumably sued to protect.

There are so many things wrong with this lawsuit, it is hard to know where to begin. First, Thuja made it clear that she did not expect a rescue expedition. She simply remained behind to conduct birdwatching exercises until such time as another group managed to make it to OV (a reasonable action, given the frequency of such hunts now). Azure did not make himself aware of this fact before the trial.

Nor did he apparently talk to a representative group of exiles (based on his conversations with others, he felt that he "had a case"). Those with whom I have spoken have unanimously indicated that the proper verdict was either "innocent" or "frivolous". My opinion is that if you bring a trial in which a "guilty" outcome is essentially impossible, you are wasting the jury's time and thus should be judged frivolous.

Second, it was the exiles' choice to go. I found it amazingly ironic that Azure, a member of a clan that prides itself on independence and pretty much demands that other exiles stay out of PM affairs unless invited, would sue to change the behavior of another exile whose actions he disapproved. Azure assures me that he was not suing with the support of PM, only on his own. Nevertheless, he is a member of that clan and surely agrees to some extent with its principles. This lawsuit seems to run counter to those principles, in my opinion. Thus, his apparent hypocrisy leads me to question his motivation.

Azure claims that he was suing on behalf of the community (which clearly must be so as he cannot claim to have suffered harm in this affair), who he says suffered harm because of the risk they were exposed to. In my view, the exiles who rescue others freely choose to take on that risk, and there is no need for the court system to get involved. Also, I was not aware that exiles now had the practice of suing on behalf of the community. I thought Tarf had that role, but I may have missed the news that we no longer have a prosecutor.

In any case, this action seemed presumptuous to the extreme. Azure has a right to bring any suit he wants, but he has the responsibility to bring suits that have merit and a chance of success. If he doesn't exercise the responsibility with the right, he loses my sympathy and respect for his action (and runs a high risk of a justified frivolous verdict).

In any case, exiles freely choose risk all of the time in return for the reward that goes along with it. By Azure's logic, the leader or object of virtually any rescue expedition could theoretically be sued on these grounds. Of course, Azure doesn't go this far. He only wishes that some sort of line be drawn by the community for protocol in future rescue cases. I disagree both that such a line could be possibly agreed upon or that it would be useful, given the unique nature of every rescue, so on those grounds, I would also consider the case frivolous.

Finally, the background behind this case cannot be ignored. Azure says he did not consider this at all when bringing his case, and that was a mistake on his part. Many, many exiles in the community are currently rather upset with the exclusivity of the PM clan, and they will take it out on PM members (and sympathizers) at the drop of a hat. Subjecting oneself to a jury verdict is like shouting "fire!" in a crowded room. The rhetoric in other forums is already heating up well beyond the level of previous battles over the Dread Passage, needlessly exacerbating the "cost" to the community of the whole PMF affair, to which I have referred to before (it gives me no pleasure to be validated in this, time and again).

I personally think that such abuses on the part of the community against the PM clan are mistaken. The court system is meant to be impartial. Further, I think projecting Azure's actions onto the rest of his clanmates is also unfair, and I hope others who hear about this will understand that Azure acted completely independently. That's one reason I'm writing this long entry, so that somewhere, there is a view of both sides of this situation which never should have happened. It is only through rational discussion and attempts at understanding that this rift in the community will ever have hope of being healed.

Azure has expressed remorse over his methods but not the principle that motivated them (and I respect his right to stand by his original principle, even though I do not agree with it). He has paid the price assessed by a jury of his peers for bringing a frivolous case. Let us leave it at that and remember this event for how it brought so many exiles together and gave us all a rare chance to repay Thuja for her kindness, not for a silly trial. Is it too much to hope that maybe next time an Orga Village rescue is put together that PM members will be asked to help (and that they will agree to)?