Today was a slower day. I wasn't feeling my best, so I took things easy and tried not to take on too much stress at a time. After a while of running about and checking my reputation in a few remaining locations, I joined in a North Ro Adventure with Avengers and a Shaman and Bard. We had some difficulties with the Bard pulling too many, and after his third death, Sarneho took over pulling, and we achieved our goal in the last ten or fifteen minutes of the allotted time.

After the Adventure, the rest of the evening was spent testing the effectiveness and amount of effort for raising my reputation with a few factions.  I was deeply hated by the Erudite Heretics of Paineel for my lack of evil and some past indiscretions in bringing a few of their questionable members to justice.  I spent sometime under an hour running from one side of The Warrens to the other and back again, clearing the mangy kobolds out. They fell very quickly, and I managed to remove several hundred before emerging and claiming the respect due for the service to the community. The Heretics were satisfied to forgive me my past and non-evil nature, and will now permit me to walk among them unimpeded. They regard me somewhat dubiously, but such is an improvement from chasing me out of their town at bladepoint.

After securing my reputation among the Heretics, I headed to my very old home of the Faydark, and experimented with my level of reputation with the Emerald Warriors, Storm Guard, and Scouts of Tunare. Apparently I have not reached the pinnacle of my reputation with any of the three, and the stingy roguish Scouts have given me no credit for any past accomplishments on behalf of my kind. I will eventually have to prove myself to them separately. I am not certain what can be done for the bardic Songweavers in town, for they care not what happens outside their doors, and will not normally become friendly with any but members of their own guild. We shall see if theirs is a lost cause.

Today wasn't quite as exciting as yesterday, but there was nothing to complain about. I visited Erudin, the city of the human-related Erudites on the island continent of Odus. I'm getting along nicely in verifying my reputation with the various factions of Norrath et cetera.  After conversing with several persons representing the various factions of the Erudite city, I moved on to a few of the nature folk. I made the run from Qeynos to South Karana, then Lake Rathetear, and finally the Rathe Mountains before finally finding the elusive Unkempt Druids. I had forgotten where they resided, and followed poor directions from the Qeynos area locals.

Once I finally shot the breeze with a pair of the Unkempt Druids (who certainly deserved the name... they smelled like wild animals), Xumten raised the call among the Avengers that he had found a certain gnome he had been waiting for in the Steamfont Mountains regarding the Ragebringer... a very powerful and difficult to obtain Roguish epic weapon, akin to my own hard earned Swiftwind. A group of us gathered in the Mountains to meet this gnome and to bring justice to an evil rogue named Renux Herkanor that only he could lead us to.

We talked over strategies while we prepared, and it was decided that I would keep the rogue so enraged with my ensnaring abilities that she would chase me all across the mountains, while the remainder of the party wore her down from behind. It was difficult, as she was very clever and managed to resist many of my attempts to ensnare her, but I finally got her with my most powerful entrapment, and she was ours. Justice was swiftly done, and she was banished from the realm of Norrath. Xumten was a step closer to acquiring Ragebringer.

After congratulating Xumten and dispersing, I headed over to the Butcherblock Mountains and embarked on another Mistmoore dungeon Adventure with a group of Avengers and Tharbad, a Half Elf Bard. We were swift in our freeing of the tortured undead souls from the catacombs, and reached our goal in thirty-five minutes.

After that Adventure, I contributed to several more throughout the night, in Everfrost, North Ro, and finally Guk (South Ro) with Foxanudo and Klim and three others. I really would like to do more Adventuring in the dungeons of Guk. There are great pieces of armour that I can earn from the Wayfarers for performing the undead froglok clearing services there.

After the final Guk Adventure, our group was preparing for one more run, but we decided we were too tired, and to turn in. Until tomorrow!

Trakanon

Today marked an accomplishment for the Avengers in Faith. When I appeared in the world for the day, we already knew what our plan was, and had already begun to gather... we were headed to the Ruins of Old Sebilis this evening, to challenge and defeat the ancient and unloved undead dragon Trakanon. We had never challenged this being in his regular form before, and reveled in the prospect of challenge, reward, and the reputation of having defeated him.

Once our force was mustered at the Sebilis entrance, we commenced the journey into the deepest area, defeating hordes of frogloks as they challenged our descent. These frogloks were very different from the new race of Frogloks that recently established themselves in the once-Troll city of Grobb, now renamed Gukta. Not too far into the cavernous region was a bridge over some rather repulsive green liquid. It was said that this waterway would be our most unattractive route to the lair of the dragon. While most definitely not thinking about what the water might be, we took the dive en masse and followed Sceaduwulf, our experienced scout leader, into the sewers of Sebilis.

We emerged in an area resembling an old prison, now inhabited of course by more frogloks, and now strange creatures of fungus, nicknamed shrooms for their mushroom-like appearance. These challenged us and fell quickly enough, and once all found their proper way out of the foul liquid, we moved on, following Sceaduwulf through twists and passages, ever deeper in towards our goal.  After more twists than I can remember now, we emerged in a stone room. This room was surprisingly well fashioned, and much less ravaged by muck, slime, and time than the areas we had passed through thus far.  Much care had been put into the shaping of this room some long forgotten time ago... now only mindless Frogloks keep it tended, wasted.

This room would prove to be our preparation area for the assault on Trakanon. The far wall of the room was a ruse... a passageway therin led to the final passage to Trakanon's cavernous room. He was near enough that had he been still alive and not undead, we would surely hear him scratching and growling from his resting point.  The drums of readiness and anticipation beat a steady rhythm in all our hearts as those with ties to the mystic arts used their abilities to strengthen us as much as possible. We especially protected ourselves as we could against the dragon's dangerous poison.

We knew that besides a few remaining frogloks, one small army of creatures yet stood between us and our goal: Juggernauts. We had fought a few on our way in from the outside, and Raphayl the Human Monk was fortunate enough to have been awarded an Undead Dragon Sinew, a trophy sought after by the Sarnaks of Chardok. I hope she is able to acquire the other trophies they desire for the trading of the coveted Spirit Wracked Cord.

After the nearby juggernauts were felled, we moved in to a broken bridge across a small lake of more foul greenish liquid.  Using my own mystical abilities I saw through the eyes of our scout and a few last remaining juggernauts across the bridge... and was presented with an eyeful of a most fearsome looking beast...  there, across the bridge and around a corner, lay our ultimate challenger this evening... the undead dragon Trakanon himself. As I watched from the eyes of others, Raphayl proceeded in her attempt to pull the few remaining juggernauts away from the dragon, so we would not have to worry about them aiding him against us when we fought him.

Unfortunately, the dragon noticed her attempts, and she did not see it.  He followed her and the juggernauts around the corner where we waited, but we were not ready for them all.  Once the cry that Trakanon was coming rang out, our clerics quickly camped out of the world in preparation for recovering from the massacre that was to come.  Those who could feign death in an attempt to save themselves did so. The rest of us tried to make to a safe distance and go down with as much honour as could be preserved. I myself stumbled from the walkway where we were gathered onto a rock outcropping out of the lake, and was not able to make my way back up to the group nor camp out before I was felled by four of the beasts. We had been defeated by a most unfortunate happenstance. But we would not be giving up after the one attempt.

We waited for a long while to see if we could recover and muster for a second attempt at the dragon from where we had fallen, but it was not to be. After several attempts by our death feigners and clerics to pick up the pieces and resurrect the dead, we were completely wiped out.  We gathered ourselves and made a run back to the Ruins for the messy sort of recovery. Our Shadow Knights used their control over death to summon our fallen corpses from deep inside the cavern to where we gathered at the entrance, and our clerics resurrected us as we geared up for the second assault.

It was much the same going back in the second time, but we all knew what to expect this time, and the going was much quicker. Once back in the strangely undamaged stone room again, we strengthened ourselves in preparation for the battle.  Raphayl resumed the pulling of the juggernauts from Trakanon's lair, and though he noticed her once more, she saw it this time and managed to prevent him from following all the way to our force. After he returned to his place and the remainder of his guards were down, we moved on to the bridge and across, and awaited the call to engage him.

There were a few juggernauts and an old froglok remaining in the huge chamber above the green lake, but we would not be disturbing them. Our opponent was too near to waste any more time on others.  The battle cry rang out, and we rounded the corner where Solaxx the Human Warrior began to engage the beast in battle.  Once Solaxx had sufficiently distracted the dragon such that he noticed the rest of us not, the remainder of our force proceeded to engage him.  Trakanon was weak in his ancient rot and apathy, and he fell quickly.

We cheered in our success and the rewards that followed. Three of us were each awarded a tooth of the slain beast, a prize required by the spirit Emperor Ganak in exchange for the key to Veeshan's Peak, a lair of much more fearsome dragons than Trakanon.  A second Sinew was also found, and awarded to Gravelor, the Iksar Shadow Knight. Sceaduwulf received Mrylokar's Breastplate, a coveted piece for Rogues. A Blood Ember Breastplate for Shadow Knights was also found and stored away for later awarding.

It was a most adventurous night, and after cheering each other again, we dispersed.

I continued a bit more work on my Faction Compilation and, when I could stay awake no longer, I turned in for the night.

I travelled around the world a bit working on my Norrathian faction compilation for a while before getting a call for some fun and action in the Plane of Valor. I finished up what I was doing and headed over to the Plane, tracking my friends to a western cavern and slipping by the creatures along the corridors. Xumten the Gnomish Rogue heeded the call with me, but was unfortunately detected and clobbered by one of the stone faceted inhabitants. Nral the Trollish Shadow Knight and I slinked about the caverns attempting to find his corpse, and I finally located it behind some rocks. I dragged it to where our party was happily fighting and defeating various creatures of rock and greenish scales, and we proceeded to have some fun, carefully avoiding the silent stone menace across the cavernous room, apparently named The Sleep Walker.

I had earned about 5% towards my next combat level there before enough Avengers started appearing in the world to qualify as a raiding force. The presence of The Sleep Walker was made known, and the call arose to meet the challenge. We gathered in the cave, a mighty group of talented friends. Shantar the (sometimes) Koada'Dal Enchanter took a defeat when his attempt to put the Walker's guards to sleep was unfortunately discovered and thwarted, but we recovered quickly and Giocoso the Feir'Dal Bard managed to succeed in his own attempt with his lullabies. With his guards asleep, we challenged The Sleep Walker, and in a matter of minutes we took him down like a pile of so many stones. We made the encounter look easier than it was. We cheered in our success, the rewards were distributed, and most dispersed. A few of us stayed for a few minutes to see if we could muster a sufficient group to continue the fighting in the cave with its regular inhabitants, but a healer and slower were not to be found, so we left.

I worked a little more on my faction compilation before Ainolin the Feir'Dal Bard called a few of us together for a romp in the relatively newly discovered area in the caverns of Solusek... commonly nicknamed Sol C. We never all made it to the dungeon together. Ainolin had a difficult time maintaining his presence in the world, involuntarily vanishing three times. He apparently gave up on returning after the third disappearance, while Nral and I were still attempting to figure out how to find the proper entrance to the dungeon, as there are apparently two, one from Lord Nagafen's Lair, and one from its neighboring cavern system, Solusek's Eye. I actually managed to accidentally find my way out of the caves altogether and back into the Lavastorm Mountains in my wandering. After it was understood that Ainolin would not be returning to lead the romp, we decided to give it a try at a later date. Sceaduwulf the Tier'Dal Rogue twice met defeat at the hands of gangs of youngling creatures while working on extricating herself from the place. I felt for her. I had already left the area by the time Sceaduwulf's trouble had begun, but Foxanudo the Erudite Necromancer forsook her not, and helped her out. He earned my respect for his efforts, and I'm certain Sceaduwulf greatly appreciated his aid.

After leaving the caverns of Solusek behind, I returned once more to work on my Norrathian faction compilation, then wound up heading to the Plane of Nightmares with Tigran the Barbarian Shaman and Nral for some fun and fighting in the Hedge Maze of that Plane. It turned out to be a lot of fun, indeed, and the entire time was very peaceful. We pulled in single opponents and brought them down for a good three hours, and I earned another 15% towards Level 63 there before we three were too tired to continue, and left for the night. We attempted to leave the easy way, with Thelin Poxbourne meeting his scripted fate of falling to the creatures of the maze and our party being ejected to the graveyard, but though Thelin fell, we remained. Two potions and a spell sufficed, though, and the three of us went our separate ways. I left with 25% remaining to 63. The true nature of my walk in the world will finally begin once I attain Level 65 and acquire the magical abilities called Endless Quiver and Archery Mastery.