More Fun in Estuary

Tabatha: Mirror Pond, Lorikeet: Bruised Sapphire, Azel: Floodwater, Moon Kitty: Gathering Dusk

Talas: Deluge

These are some of the pants you can get with a Caustic Gland (drops after you kill the Lord of the Undermarsh), Tangleberry, and 1500c. Both the name and the color are random, although he's only made shades of blue so far. You can see all of them on Stylunk, except for Deluge but it should be added soon.

Back to AnDeux Faure

Moon Kitty reached the 450 Higgrus mark a few days ago and is back with AnDeux Faure (2 respia to 1 faustus) until Faustus reaches the 400 message. After that I'll return to Higgrus until 500.

Borzon must be awesome at parties.

Lasties make hunts challenging.

Azel was afk and came back to this.

We fell to lack of oxygen. Sligh was never raised.

The first sighting of a Snowcat. Tabatha later learned the morph.

People still like hiding Stora. Why?

Himi Passes 2nd-circle Fighter's Test

Another milestone reached

I decided to get out of the library for a bit of exercise and training when I reached another milestone with Evus. I should have about 62.5 atkus training so I decided to try the 2nd-circle Fighter's Test.

Even though I still couldn't hit the feral dummy underneath the Fighter's Hall I realized that I had to wait until the ferals swung twice before I attacked, not once. After figuring that out defeating them was no problem at all. Aside from the usual whiffs. Atkus is evil!™

Easier than expected!

I tried the 3rd-circle Fighter's Test and defeated the two vermine easily but the two orga were much tougher. I couldn't defend against their blows or hit them even after they swung so it'll take a little while longer.

I went to see the next set of trainers even though I have no intention of ever training with them directly.

Detha: 10 - 19
Balthus: 50 - 99
Regia: 50 - 99
Darkus: 40 - 49

In addition to the 1st-circle Fighter trainers.

Atkus: 50 - 99
Swengus: 100 - 149
Histia: 50 - 99
Evus: 250 - 299

My total training is 50 skea and 250 - 299 evus. No languages, baking, brewing, pathfinding, or anything else besides pure fighter training.

My goal is 400 ranks with Evus before I decide to switch to Swengus for better balance or whether I stay with Evus.

Evus is awesome!

I've mostly been in the library studying up on the basics of fighting, and when I leave usually stick to the farms where I still dispatch rats and vermine.

It's rather relaxing and yet invigorating at the same time to be able to kill Giant Slugs and Giant Vermine that used to be such a bother whenever I wanted to explore. Now I don't have any fear of them at all.

So far I have between 200 and 249 Evus in addition to the 50 Skea I got right after I reset. I was going to keep detailed track of the skills that make up Evus, but found out Gorvin already did so and far better than I would have done. I decided to just focus on killing stuff.

Right now I have a little bit over 3 swings which is far reduced from the seemingly limitless amount I had before. On the other hand I rarely miss so the swings are more effective. I've also discovered that if I swing twice and run away to recover I don't get hit often so even though I don't have any Troilus I don't have to wait too long for my health to recover.

I knew the number of swings would decrease with the Atkus in Evus, I just didn't think they would decrease so quickly with so little training. At this point I'm going to keep with Evus until Atkus is at 100 trainings which should be at 400 Evus precisely. I'll evaluate the number of swings I have and will decide then whether to train with Swengus or not.

What's really great about Evus isn't his rank bonus (although that's great) or that he trains in 2nd-circle trainers before you can get access to them (any extra Detha and Darkus is great), but that he trains in a balanced way.

The way Jeanne trained in first-circle was to get a bit of Atkus when she needed to hit better, and then Swengus when she wanted more swings, and then Histia when she needed more defense. At each point she was weak until she could get caught up in what was holding her back. Even though I'm progressing slower by comparison I'm doing so in a much more even tempo. Maybe I'm not describing it well, but I feel a lot stronger than Jeanne did at this same level.

I still can't hit Ferals though, not even when they swing once.

Atkus is evil!

Bloodmage's new debuffs

Slartibartfast wrote on the Clan Lord Sentinel:

* Big changes to cripple/disable as discussed in the other threads. High level summary is: New ability called hamstring which reduces DPS and speed, some number tweaking on the other abilities, and now training in either ability helps all three equally. (So if you had 30 ranks in cripple and 40 in disable, you effectively have 70 ranks in cripple, disable, and hamstringing now.)

* Inferno adds a bit more darkus to your inferno swing based on your health, per rank in inferno. The bonus darkus is about what one rank of bloodblade gives.

 I had given up all hope that the changes to the debuffs would ever actually happen. I had thought that Slartibartfast had stopped all work on Clan Lord entirely and was a bit upset, but tried to accept it. Probably it's why I started played Moon Kitty more often as well as being more wanted as a healer than as a bloodmage.

Now though, the changes to spirit makes me really eager to find a way to use Jeanne in a hunt. No, I'm not thinking of going back to the Estuary hunt because the thought of having to be more concerned with people's tags instead of fighting is too depressing. That and I need a ton more ranks!

Still, I think I will try to do something. These changes make being a Bloodmage sound exciting or, at the very least, less annoying.

Thanks Slartibartfast!

My first visit to Lugubrion's Castle

Lugubrion's Castle has two entrances. One is, I believe, somewhere in the Marsh and requires you to be a Thoom to use. The other is found in the Mountain Glen and requires a Mystic with sufficient illusion breaking skill to allow anyone to enter.

Recently Stinkfist had a Pirates of Lok'Groton & Friends Fun Fun Lootin' Time and I attended to lend my healing support. I'll put some pictures I took a bit later but I wanted to write down my thoughts and impressions of the castle before I forget.

Firstly, the only information I had about Lugubrion's Castle was from the Thoom hunting party that used to explore there. Maybe the Mystic illusion wasn't always there or maybe people just didn't know about it. The impression I got from reading their reports was that the castle is a dangerous place and the water guardians are tough. When it was suggested as an idea as a possible location for our small group I was a bit wary, but figured that departing was worth it to be able to go to a new place.

The gardens outside the castle were lovely and really connected you to nature. The rain added to the peacefulness and tranquility of the scene. I would have liked to explore more but we soon went to the castle itself and passed by two large lion statues. Feodoric explained that there several instances of lions used in the castle. I wonder why Lugubrion picked lions to decorate his castle.

Once in we discovered that Diotima didn't know much about the castle aside from pointing out one set of doors we shouldn't go through since they lead to the Ethereal Plane. Grateful for the warning we headed west and went in one door after the other.

For the most part Lugubrion's Castle was empty. Every room and hallway showed signs of extensive water damage. Sure it was raining outside but that didn't explain why so much of the floor was rotting away or why rooms were flooded or why mushrooms were allowed to grow.

We eventually ran into a few employees who weren't happy to see us. I guess they keep on doing what they were hired to do even though Lugubrion himself seems to have left the castle a while ago. We did find a weapon's room with a great looking glaive which I think we all wanted. Sadly they weren't selling them for any price.

We wandered around more and surprisingly were able to stick together for the most part. The few Watery Guardians and floating Watery Bolts were dispatched with ease. They probably would be more dangerous if we had a lot more of them, but then again I was the only one healing and we only had Stinkfist and Gremlins as our fighters.

Lugubrion spent a lot of time and effort making a gigantic castle only to fill it with absolutely nothing of importance and then he's letting it all go to waste. Is this on purpose because he has somewhere more important to be and figures he can just repair it when he gets back? He allowed Thooms to gain entrance which means that if he didn't want us exploring he could have shut down that entrance as well as the illusion that enables anyone to enter. I wonder if we'll ever get the chance to find out.

Regardless we eventually found our way to a huge library filled with all manner of books. Some were making noises, others were glowing and a deep mist covered more. There were books covering many different topics from navigating the water to the Ethereal Plane, magical barriers, creation myths, and more. Unfortunately some books were ruined by the water and others couldn't be read due to the language or them being blank.

We were gathering to leave and explore some more when we found something new and amazing. We found 2 scrolls and a book lying on the floor able to be picked up and read in-depth. One was on "Dwarven Satire & humor" another on "sylvan carvings and carving" and I have no information on what the third one was.

Stinkfist decided to return to town immediately and give them to the Castle Alliance which is looking for books to build a library. However, we ended up going back to the entrance and then heading east to explore a bit more but skipped going into the side-rooms along the way and didn't find anything of note.

After gathering in the Castle Alliance we found Dekkins the librarian to be eagerly awaiting our arrival, although he was a bit shocked at us stealing the books from Lugubrion. We assured him that if he came back for them we could handle whatever he threw at us. Dekkins turned out to have a bookish sense of humor, which makes sense given that he's a librarian.

He told us that we could keep the books while he prepared the library to keep them. Apparently he has let all of the shelves get dusty and damp and they were in no condition to hold books or scrolls. We also got some bonus experience for science.

Stinkfist decided to hold another book hunting party next Saturday at 2 p.m. and you can use this time link to find out what it is in your time. We have a list of possible places to find books and will decide where to go based on who shows up.

Not sure why the special scrolls and book decided to make an appearance now since Stinkfist told me they weren't discovered before. It has been a few years since the Thoom group explored Lugubrion's Castle so maybe the magic of the place just took longer to work. Whatever the reason it was exciting to be present for Pirate Science.

Debuffs on the way?

Repairing my Sungem.

I finally reached the 900 respia message after reaching 350 faustus which took a lot longer than expected. I had no idea my respia was as low as it was as I thought it would have been a lot closer to 900. That might explain why my self-heal was a bit poorer than expected as well.

I'm on to training with Higgrus now with my aim getting to 450 before returning to AnDeux Faure until faustus reaches 400. I think I need the extra health as my self-heal isn't one of my strong suits. My sespus is low and compared to other healers so is my respia. I have no plans on getting a lot of additional sespus, although I may get to the next message, and I think 50 higgrus will help me out a lot more than getting 50 respia.

Estuary is going smoothly. It seems that even if I hadn't decided to switch from Jeanne to Moon Kitty I probably would have had to anyway. The numbers of healers has not been high lately with just Lorikeet and myself many days. Even though Azel told me she'd switch to her healer that would have swapped an excellent fighter (Azel) with a mediocre Bloodmage (Jeanne). Even though Mujin-kun doesn't need anyone else to dominate anywhere she chooses to go most of the time, I prefer to enjoy fighting not watching someone else do the fighting while I lay fallen.

The next expansion has all of the required materials and I'm looking forward to it being done. Based on what Yappy has said on his blog, that is still being worked on which makes me happy just to know what's happening. So many GMs refuse to talk to the players that it's easy for me to think that no work is being done at all.

In fact, Slartibartfast actually posted on our forums to tell us that he's working on the debuffs as promised. All 3 debuffs in one trainer and he's tweaked the blood so that we get more spirit back based on our health. That means even if it's a slaughter we'll get more blood back than we used to which means we might be able to debuff at weaker areas even if we don't vanquish the stuff there. I say might because I don't know if anyone's tested it (I really have to do that.) which may mean our debuffs will be usable in more areas. It would be great to be able to debuff and use hemorrhage in areas where I vanquish stuff without running out of spirit.

Even though Jeanne is still going to get to 100 Crato Defeal (spirit trainer) because better to be safe than sorry if the numbers get tweaked as Slartibartfast threatened to do if they were too good. :-(

Time to go to bed. Sweet dreams!

Pretty in Pink

Parrots are almost as thickheaded as Mystics

Parrots can rarely be found in the Estuary and can be captured by Full Mystics and made their pet. It's not easy for them to be found because they attack anyone on sight and, try as I might to lose this one, kept finding its way back to us. I think someone ended up accidentally killing it when it wouldn't leave us alone and just got in the way.

Ooh la la!

Mephisto asked me to get him a pink shirt when I was in the Estuary and I must say he looks pretty darn cute.

I reached the first of many healer milestones when I attained 350 faustus, which makes me slightly faster than I used to be. It's no match for the real healer speed demons, but I'm out of newbie territory at least.

I was going to switch to training with Higgrus for 50 more lessons, when I decided to get to the 900-999 message with Respia which will give me a 2.57:1 respia to faustus ratio. It's a bit lower than the 3:1 ratio I'd like but I'll correct that in due time, and as long as I don't go under 2:1 ratio I'll be fine. I still haven't finished with Respia which surprises me as I thought I was a lot closer to 900 respia than I was.

When I'm done with Respia I plan on getting another 50 higgrus and then back to AnDeux Faure until 400 faustus and then another 50 higgrus. Maybe I'll be able to pass into 7th circle after this, since I've been healing her over 50% so far. Once I'm done with this I have no idea what to do so I'll probably end up with AnQuart Faure until I figure it out.

Are there any GMs left?

I'm evaluating whether to start any projects with Clan Lord, and I've started wondering if there are any GMs left, aside from whomever is working on the Estuary.

Yappy used to talk about the bugs he was fixing, but his blog hasn't been updated in a long time. Does he still work on Clan Lord? Slartibartfast pops up every now and again to tell us he's still working on Bloodmage debuffs and then disappears with nothing changed. I don't think Eldon likes the Clan Lord Sentinel so he posts rarely and probably doesn't read anything there. Everyone else that I know of has either left or works behind the scenes.

I just wonder if anyone is working on bugs, or new features, or new items, or new areas (besides Estuary which is awesome), or new skills, or new stories, or continuing old stories, or anything at all. There are a ton of things a person could be working on if they wanted to.

I don't like the uncertainty.

Why I haven't been going on hunts (long, semi-ooc)

A pause in the action.

It's kind of strange that the entry following the one in which I exalt at Jeanne finally getting out of the library I'm explaining why I haven't left the library at all in the past two weeks.

I'm going to be using some OOC (out of character) terms and explanations because I don't want to bother with finding an IC (in character) reason. Even if I did it might just muddy the issue which is contrary to what I want.

For a few weeks I have gone on Azel's Estuary Hunt from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and then Mujin's Hunt from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. That's a minimum of 4.5 hours every day devoted to Clan Lord and I began to feel that was too much.

Plus, I was getting a bit bored with healing in Ash City. There was some excitement, but there just wasn't much challenge. I could entertain myself with reading blogs or sites at the same time but can't easily do that on the computer I have. It's an old PowerMac G4 and a small 17" monitor and I have dial-up all of which add up to not being able to see the Clan Lord screen and the browser at the same time and any time I open up a web page that means I can't do anything in Clan Lord due to lack of bandwidth.

The only job I have that does pay me money requires me to write news articles and seeing an article I wanted to write get snatched up by someone else, thus denying me needed dollars, was painful.

Yes, I know I need a new computer but I also need a job and finding work is damn near impossible.

Besides, even if I could do this I'm not sure I'd want to after seeing Lorikeet standing off in the corner while fighters fall left and right and me being unable to keep up with the damage being done. That always frustrates me and I don't want to mimic that behavior.

Frustration is why I haven't been going to Azel's Estuary Hunts either. I found myself becoming very negative and saying only negative comments, especially to Azel, and I don't want her to think that I'm only thinking negative thoughts or are a negative person.

I just don't like the tagging mentality hunts seem to always have. It's tough enough having to keep in mind what you've tagged so you don't do too much damage before everyone else has tagged. Plus you have to remember what you haven't tagged so you can tag it before everyone else kills it. Then there's Mujin-kun who basically can kill everything in the Estuary just by looking at it and there's no telling when she'll decide something has to die even if it's at high health and you're trying to get to it to tag it first. There have been many times when I've been running to a beast or two trying to be able to hit and just as I get to them, Mujin-kun kills them before I have a chance to swing. I don't expect her to remember what everyone has or hasn't hit but she can see me running up to her if she's paying attention. Maybe she thinks "I don't need Jeanne to help me kill these things. I'll kill them before she gets here!" while I'm thinking "I haven't hit those things. Please don't kill them yet!

The tagging mentality also means that no one pays much attention to anyone else. It's as if the only things they see are themselves and the beasts. It doesn't matter if they make it difficult for you to get out of their way, thus trapping you and making you fall and miss tags. It doesn't matter if they lead a bunch of stuff to you which makes you fall and miss tags. It doesn't matter if a bunch of stuff is on red and attacking the healers because they've already tagged it. Then when you kill the stuff on red to help the Healers they then kill the stuff you haven't tagged before you can get to them. It's as if the minimal strategy Clan Lord has is just thrown out of the window and it's a purely chaotic environment where no one tries to work with anyone else. As long as Lorikeet and Mujin-kun are up they could care less about who else misses tags as long as they get theirs.

It makes me frustrated and it's no good asking people to be more considerate because the only thing they wait for are Rangers getting their last hits. If a Ranger wants to get a last hit on something it's even harder to tag because people will be focused on keeping that person alive and everyone else doesn't matter. I admit to doing this on Moon Kitty at times although I've tried to put a stop to it if there's a lot of stuff so the fallen doesn't miss out on too many tags.

It's not that I don't like missing tags because of the missed experience, although that's why I'm there in the first place and that is a factor in my frustration. It's just that after a certain amount of missed tags one begins to think that it would have been better to just stay in the library and that working so hard for no return is a waste of time and effort. One also thinks that they're not needed on the hunt at all and that maybe one's time is better spent elsewhere.

Although missing tags and experience are frustrating, I think that not being able to use all of the Bloodmage abilities is even more so. It seems like being able to use my Bloodblade damage as a big hit or over time could be useful depending on the circumstances. Being able to add extra damage with hemorrhage and weaken the beast with disable and/or cripple could help with healing. None of that matters because I have to keep on control mode to avoid doing too much damage, reducing the strength of a beast doesn't matter with regards to Mujin-kun, and hemorrhage uses more spirit than what I can replace with blood.

I'm reduced to running around desperately trying to hit everything before I fall without regard to tactics or what's stronger and should be killed first or the people around me and what they have or haven't tagged because I can barely keep up with my own tags much less everyone else and I can only hope I am not too inconsiderate in the process even though I try my hardest not to be.

THIS IS NOT FUN!

Anyway, I'm considering returning to Azel's Estuary Hunt but on Moon Kitty and not on Jeanne because I know that as long as the hunt contains Rangers who need last hits and taggers, it will continue to be frustrating for me. I also need to return the armor she borrowed from Azel. Well, Azel will have to accept me back of course and considering I disappeared without a word she may be very angry at me and not want me around. If that's her decision I will just have to accept it as my due for being an inconsiderate jerk.

Jeanne may as well be retired and I may just use her for role-playing purposes or if I want to revive the Sun Dragon Clan and/or Catenae for anything or if I want to go out hunting for coins. If I have the opportunity to go on a tactical hunt instead of a tagging hunt then I'll certainly go but I doubt those exist at all. I still like the Bloodmage class and it has a lot of nifty tricks and tools no other class can even approach, but being on a tagging hunt fills me with a murderous rage that can only remain unfulfilled.

Once Himitsu gets to a higher level and becomes a Ranger herself she'll be much more fun to run around and kill stuff with. Unfortunately this won't happen for a long while. I should give her some coins so she can spend time in the more expensive library.

As to Mujin-kun's hunt I'm less certain I want to return simply because her hunts are longer. Going on one 1.5 hour hunt every day is acceptable but then going on another hunt immediately after for another 2-2.5 hours is too much.

Therefore I think I'll apologize to Azel and ask to return on Moon Kitty and tell Mujin-kun I won't be going to her hunts.

Gosh this was a long post.

Jeanne gets out of the library!

I've included a few pictures of today's hunt to the Estuary and you'll see that it's not me as Moon Kitty, but Jeanne. Yes! I've actually been able to leave the library as Jeanne and go on a hunt where I get kills and vanquishes. I can still scarcely believe it myself but thanks to Azel's generosity it's possible. She said that after she got the Reed Cat morph that she'd switch to her healer and I could bring Jeanne instead of Moon Kitty as a reward for my (mostly) reliable healing. Ironically enough, we've had so many healers lately that Azel hasn't needed to switch at all.

I'm still not incredibly good as either a fighter or Bloodmage, and I still need a lot more ranks in the Bloodmage skills, the Bloodblade itself (200 is too low), and more health and regia to be a force to be reckoned with. Right now I have the following planned out as to what I want to get and when with the numbers in brackets being what I currently have.

1. Cryptus to 100 (20 - 29)
2. Dantus to 50 (0)
3. Crato Defeal to 100 (50)
4. Bloodblade to 400 (200)
5. Stedfustus until Troilus is 50 (30 - 39) or Histia is 400 (300), whichever comes first
6. Troilus to 50 or Histia to 400

However this plan was made on me spending most of the time in the library and from my experience in the Estuary some skills will be more useful sooner rather than later.

I think that instead of getting cripple to 100 I'm just going to get it to 50 and wait until the debuffs get reworked to put any more ranks in it or disable. I'm also going to get another 50 Crato Defeal sooner rather than later because feign death and cripple take up a good amount of spirit, and I've had to stop using hemorrhage on a regular basis because of it. Inferno is a good ability under the right limited circumstances. Circumstances which don't usually happen in the Estuary so I can put that off until last. I'd like more hemorrhage but that takes spirit and if I don't have the atkus from enough Bloodblade I won't be able to use my special abilities so I can put that off until later as well.

The question then becomes do I get Bloodblade first or Stedfustus, keeping in mind that it will take quite a long time to get noticeable ranks in whatever I choose. On the one hand I have enough atkus to hit everything in the Estuary but fall a lot so more health will be useful. On the other hand, I tend to not get healed much over red health so how much usefulness I get out of the extra health might not be that much. However if I want to go to places where I need lots of atkus it would be good to get the Bloodblade sooner rather than later.

1. Cryptus to 50 (20 - 29)
2. Crato Defeal to 100 (50)
3. Bloodblade to 300 (200)
4. Stedfustus until Histia is 400 (300)
5. Aneurus to 150 (100)
   
6. Dantus to 50 (0)

It'll take a long time to get here and I'll probably adjust it over and over again along the way but I think it's more realistic than the one I had before.

Monkey Line

Megan got her Gloaming Wendecka morph!

We went to the Metz Rainforest for the last time in a while as Mujin-kun's hunt is going to go to Ash City from now on. Apparently it's better experience there and since more people will show up that equals more tags which equals more experience for everyone and especially Mujin-kun.

We went to the Rainforest to get some more jungle vines to get access to Ash City (although I don't see why we just can't go in through the Rebel Cave) and to get Megan her Gloaming Wendecka morph which has the atkus she needs.

I immediately thought back to the accusations Asparagus had against Mujin-kun at that Estuary hunt and chuckled. How many other people would go to a place just to get someone a morph so they can go to where you want to go when you don't particularly need them there?

We all wanted to get a phial of disgusting liquid.

It's true that more people want to go to Ash City if this line is any indication. I can't recall seeing as many people in a Rainforest hunt so Ash City must be better experience by far or at least more interesting.

On this hunt I was able to free a slave and get to the Scrap Metal guy and turn in a shank thanks to Mujin-kun, but it wasn't enough. Even though some of the Rebel's messages changed I still can't get to the Rebel leader and need more esteem. I'm not even sure there's anything there worth getting besides more talking and being able to turn in the Phial of Disgusting Liquid for experience, coins, and more esteem. Of course I did miss two Blue Skulls which might have made a difference but oh well, there will be plenty more of them.

Since I'm going back to Mujin-kun's hunts I haven't had the time to spend more time on Himitsu aside from collecting her Evus ranks and writing down the messages from Atkus, Histia, and Swengus. Right now I've learned that 18 Evus = 10 Swengus which is close to Azriel's numbers. Maybe Evus hasn't been changed at all since he last researched him, but that's what I want to find out. Even if it hasn't I am going to stick with Evus since 125 effective ranks for every 100 trained is too good to pass up.

Random Pictures

Even Mystic parrots have healthy egos

 Asenath came on a recent trip to the Estuary and was lucky enough to find a parrot in the very last section. I thought we would leave empty-handed but fortune smiled on her. Later the parrot wanted Tequila and even nipped Asenath. I hope the parrot isn't too hard to handle.

50 Skea at last!

It was only 50 ranks and I got them quickly. I just didn't like getting ranks without getting stronger as well. It occurs to me I could have gotten 50 pathfinding but after getting Trillbane on Jeanne and Moon Kitty I really don't want to go through that a third time. I had one chapter of Book 1 before I reset and it just didn't seem worth it to continue. Maybe when I get stronger and the Rat Towers don't seem so overwhelming I'll reconsider.

I'm going to be training with him for a long time.

I wish Jeanne had trained with Evus instead of with the individual trainers. He has such a good bonus that it just doesn't make sense to train with anyone but him and Swengus for a long time. Too bad there's no a good way to selectively untrain and I don't consider the trainers in Trainer's Grotto a good way.

Ranger Training & Paths

This is one idea for the training a new player can take right from the moment they land on Puddleby until they become a Ranger and beyond. I'll list what to train and why and different paths a Ranger can take.

1st Circle

1. Start training with Skea and become a Fighter after 10 ranks to get the Dagger. You can get 10 ranks in anything to qualify, but Skea will be the best investment. Don't bother with Bodrus because you'll get something better as a Fighter. Everything else you could train is just fluff and a waste of ranks.
2. Continue with Skea until you get 50 ranks. This will serve you well in your career as it will enable you to skin almost all of South and North Forest and get a reliable income. This is an annoying time as each subsequent rank takes more kills to get but you're not getting stronger. Trust me that you will really enjoy the 50 skea later.
3. After you finish with Skea you can now start on your Fighter training. You have access to Atkus (accuracy), Swengus (balance & balance recovery), Histia (health), and Evus (everything). You want to train with Evus and only Evus for a long time. Evus is a really good trainer and teaches you every skill, including a bit of Detha and Darkus, two trainers you can't get access to until 2nd circle.
4. You will find yourself gradually losing the number of swings you have, but your balance regeneration will be increasing and you'll miss less often so each swing will be more valuable. If the number of your swings becomes too low then train with Swengus. How low is up to you, but I think that maintaining 4 swings is a good number to have.

2nd Circle

1. When you get access to 2nd circle you'll find four more trainers; Detha (defense), Balthus (balance), Regia (balance regeneration), and Darkus (damage). You might be tempted to stop training with Evus and/or Swengus and learn from one of the new trainers. DON'T! Evus and Swengus will be the trainers you want to stay with. Evus has just the amount of Detha and Darkus you want and if you want better balance it's far better to train with Swengus. If you want better damage later on it's better to wait until you become a Ranger when you get access to Bangus. I know it's tempting to change trainers, but you'll regret it later when you've missed out on the bonus Evus gives.
2. To repeat, STAY WITH EVUS AND SWENGUS.

3rd Circle

1. Now you can start preparing yourself to become a Ranger by qualifying for the Gossamer. You do this by killing stuff in one hit which usually means rats and vermine. Yes, now that you don't get any experience from them you're expected to go back and kill them. There's a Vermine Tree with a lot of rats and vermine that is a good place to go to. Just spend a few minutes every day, because it will take a long time to qualify.
2. Once you qualify for the Gossamer buy it if you have 5,000c. You should be saving all of the coins you have earned and with your 50 Skea should be close to this amount. If not, go out and kill more, find stuff to sell, beg in town, ask for a loan, gamble, and do anything to get a Gossamer. Once you have it train 100 ranks in it and use it as your main weapon from now on. Not only does 100 ranks enable you to qualify for Ranger but it will also conserve balance on the killing blow.
3. Now that you're stronger and can go to more dangerous places, you might want to train with the Marsh Hermit in pathfinding. He teaches a maximum of 100 ranks and enables access to the pathfinding books in the Slate Caves and Trillbane. You absolutely don't need to get pathfinding or even all 100 ranks if you get it at all. You could get just 50 ranks and be able to go to Northwest Forest and the other paths in the forests which can be useful. Just keep in mind that getting above 100 pathfinding is a royal pain in the butt and requires a large group for Book 2 and Trillbane.
4. Continue with Evus and Swengus.

4th Circle

1. You get access to the best trainer a fighter can get and that's Rodnus, who's unfortunately located in a rather hard-to-get location. Just find a stronger fighter or two and a healer or two, some pathfinding and go to the Trainer's Grotto. Rodnus enables healers to heal you more efficiently and some health as well. All fighters should get this asap.
2. Do some of the fighter hunt challenges (rat, large vermine, island panther) as the rank you get is worth more than the rank you would have gotten if you did it earlier. I've also heard that this counts toward qualifying for Ranger.
3. Train another 100 ranks in the Gossamer as 200 ranks is a good amount to have and is about what the average Ranger has.
4. While you could have become a Ranger in 3rd circle I think most don't until 4th circle at the earliest. The reason being the higher circle you are the easier it is to qualify for a sub-class.
5. Continue with Evus and Swengus.

Ranger

1. Now you're a Ranger and you have many options ahead of you as well as some goals and items to work towards. The charm (enables you to briefly run fast), belt (enables studying creatures), and extra study slots (you start with 1, can have up to 4).
2. You can switch your main trainer from Evus to Bangus (offense) or Farly (health/troilus). Bangus has troilus and a bigger damage range than Evus but with morphs you'll be able to make better use out of troilus than other fighters.
3. You can also decide as to what kind of Ranger you'll want to be. One type is the High Gossamer/Studies Ranger who has more than the 200-250 Gossamer most Rangers have and focuses on studies rather than morphs. They get most of their power from the Gossamer. Another is the Core Fighter Ranger which gets most of their power from fighter skills and only gets the most powerful studies and morphs which means they have fewer than the average Ranger. Other Rangers pick a theme and try to get morphs out of that family. Gremlins with his spiders, Azel with her cats, and Super Chicken with his birds. Another type is the Morphing Ranger who gets morphs with the atkus that will enable them to get studies and tougher morphs. As an example if you have 200 Atkus when becoming a Ranger you'll pick a morph that you can hit but which gives you more Atkus than what you have. I've heard Jade Noids or Valley Panthers are good first morphs which can give you up to 400 Atkus. With this you can go to tougher places than you normally would and enable you to get even stronger morphs. Many Rangers get the GCP as a tagging morph. There are also Fighter Test Rangers who get 5 studies in a family that's present in the Fighter Test to enable them to use the 50% family bonus and pass the test. I put them separately because if it wasn't for the test I doubt anyone would bother with studying greymyrs. There are Defensive Rangers which use the Gossamer for offense which frees up their ranks to train with Histia, Detha, and Balthus. Which one you want to be is entirely up to you.
4. Just be sure to train in spirit and spirit regeneration once you start getting studies, befriends, and morphs because after getting hundreds of last hits to get a morph you'll want to be able to use it. Until then you don't need to as you won't use spirit unless you've studied a creature's movements.

As to myself I'm leaning more to the Core Fighter Ranger and I might not get any studies at all until 5th or 6th circle. It's possible to pass those Fighter tests with only core Fighter ranks as I did it on Jeanne with a Longsword so you don't need to get studies with families you don't want just to pass them sooner. After 4th circle the only thing you get from passing the tests are a new belt (which doesn't really apply to you since you'll be wearing your Ranger belt) and at 7th and 8th circle you can change your weapon's color to gray and black respectively. I'll be going through the families and deciding what the weakest creature I'll study, if I decide to do it at all, and if I can't hit them reliably then I'll just get more fighter skills rather than more studies.

You might think this is a bit silly. Why become a Ranger if you're not going to take advantage of studies and morphs as soon as you can? Well, to qualify for tougher morphs you need a certain amount of ranks and I'm not sure if Gossamer ranks count. In other words if I spend Duvin getting studies on a weaker creature which I don't need and which I'll eventually hit well enough with the family bonus and core fighter skills, I'll eventually need more core fighter skills to qualify for the studies and morphs I do want. In other words, why waste Duvin on studying Artak Cougars? I'd rather get advance slower and get movements on powerful beasts than Duvin on weaker beasts just to be able to fight the powerful beasts sooner just to have to train extra Duvin to study them.

The same thing with the fighter tests since most of them are for bragging rights anyway and not of any practical importance past 4th circle. You can pass all of them with only core fighter skills and from my experience with Jeanne only the 7th and 8th fighter tests really benefit from sub-class skills. I'm not going to go out of my way to study a useless family just to pass those tests sooner. It seems a waste of time and ranks.

Two Pictures

I don't usually see such a strong reaction from her.

On one of Azel's Estuary Hunts it seemed Mujin-kun wasn't coming so Tabatha asked and got permission for Asparagus to come. I knew he used to be Blindkan-C (aka BKC) and a Dwarf, which I always thought was a really strange name, until he changed both his name and race. I didn't mind him coming and kind of hoped that his change was an indication that he was a nicer guy. Even though my interaction with BKC was limited he seems to be the same pompous and arrogant person he used to be.

Seems he gave Mujin-kun a ton of bad karma and criticized her on her style of leading groups previously and did so again in this instance. He actually said that she didn't wait for Rangers to get last hits which made me chuckle. It's true that when we're overwhelmed she'll kill everything and not wait for last hits, but she's actually very patient when it comes to Rangers. Sometimes a lot more patient than I am feeling at the time. Generally speaking I think she does a good job between enabling Rangers to get last hints and preventing the entire group for falling and having to depart. She's not perfect, and sometimes she kills when I think she could have waited, but she's a lot better than most other group leaders and fighters when it comes to last hits.

Anyway, Asparagus and Tabatha finally left after some awkward moments and the hunt went smoothly after that. I think Tabatha has bad taste in men but I think it's a combination of "It's okay if he treats others badly because he treats me like a princess" and "My love will make him a better and kinder man". So far her love doesn't seem to have made much of a dent in his personality.

My first day as a fighter!

Just in case you needed proof that I really did reset. Here's me as an undisclosed fighter.

Himitsu is Reborn!

Today I finally reset Himitsu after making some visionstones of the Mystic Garden, Academy, Pub, and Butterfly Hut. Then it was a quick visit to the Fairgrounds to reset and I came out a new woman. I've decided to keep my race undisclosed for now as I'm not sure which one I'm going to choose. I definitely don't want to be a Halfling again and there are way too many Fen'neko around. I'm leaning towards the human because they have the most variety in clothing and I like being able to wear a dress or pants as the mood strikes.

You might be wondering what led me to reset when I spent so many months being indecisive about doing so. It was a thread on the Sentinel about why the mystics suck. In the thread they talked about some history that I had forgotten and which made me realize that I didn't want to be a Full Mystic anymore. Specifically it was when Nyssa was promoted to Full Mystic and then visited Untrainus to get some more illusion breaking ability. She thought she had prepared by checking to see how many times she could untrain before losing her Full Mystic status. Unfortunately after only doing it once she was demoted to Journeyman Mystic.

What I didn't know at the time was that Nyssa was expressing some displeasure with how things were being done in the Mystic Council which made some of the members worried. They thought she might try to make her own council and when she was demoted they were all relieved and refused to promote her again. Eventually she left Puddleby entirely and hasn't been seen since. Way after the fact Helpful GM said that she should have been reinstated but it was too late for Nyssa.

What does this have to do with me? Well, I have a lot of dissatisfaction with how the Mystic Council is run and disagree with the amount of information they keep from each other. I think promoting Apprentice and Journeyman Mystics should be more uniform and not based on whims and there should be better communication. However, a person with these beliefs is not likely to be promoted to Full Mystic and if they do that person is not likely to be listened to and will probably be ostracized.

In other words, there's absolutely no reason for me to stay as a mystic because any desire to get promoted and take my place on the council has completely evaporated. Being a Full Mystic isn't something that interests me and playing politics is not something I'm good at.

Anyway, I reset and got the ten ranks with Skea needed to become a Fighter. I thought it was 5 ranks in anything but either my memory is wrong or the requirement got increased. The rat towers are as boring as I remember them and if it wasn't for Stora being around it would be a lot more tedious and time-consuming. I was going to go do some of the mystic quests for some extra experience but I quickly put that thought aside. Even if they do give experience why would I want to go through that kind of agony again? I don't need the doodads you get before choosing another path. I'd just end up throwing them away.

The dagger is a big improvement over the club and I should miss a lot less often when I come out of the library tomorrow. My first goal is to get to 50 skea and then switch over to Evus for the near future.

Firstly I want to get the skea out of the way as soon as possible because it's very low slaughter. When I'm able to kill stuff with fur I want to be able to get the coins. Then I want to update Azriel's Trainers Notes with what Evus trains since that hasn't been updated in a long time by training with Evus until I can get to 2nd circle before training with Swengus. I have a more detailed guide to becoming a Ranger which I'll post a bit later.

To summarize for the moment, I plan on training with core fighter trainers for a very long time even after becoming a Ranger. It will either be Evus + Swengus, Bangus + Swengus, or Farly + Swengus until 5th circle. I'm not sure how many studies I'll do in preparation to pass the fighter tests but as I don't place a high priority on them I don't think I'll do very many. I don't intend to waste ranks on studying the greymyr family just to pass the test but the noid family might be worth it generally so I probably will study them. I won't get movements until late to avoid a waste of duvin and won't get morphs until later. Of course all of this is up in the air but I'm okay with acting like a regular fighter for a long time.

Update

I haven't written in a while and don't want this to be one of those Clan Lord journals that end up dusty and forgotten so I'll tell you what's been happening recently. No pictures though, sorry.

Moon Kitty

I've stopped going to Mujin-kun's Rainforest hunt because I've been much too busy writing, but I've learned that she's disappeared suddenly and hasn't been around for three zodiacs. We all hope that she's doing well and will be back soon.

Her absence did make Azel's Estuary hunt more difficult since we didn't have strong fighters and so stayed in the first area. On the plus side that enabled us to find more Reed Cats for Azel and since Tabatha hasn't been showing up we didn't need to get to the frogs for her to lasty. However, I advertised and we've been getting some strong fighters recently including Stinkfist, Ravenstorm, Kalian, and Hel so it's been going much better. I hope that continues as it was easy to take Mujin-kun and her immense strength for granted.

Azel is down to less than 120 Reed Cat lastys so she'll get the morph soon. She said that once she gets the morph we'll continue the hunt and that I can switch to Jeanne and she'll bring out one of her healers. That would be nice since as much as I enjoy healing, I miss being able to kill stuff too and Jeanne has improved as much as possible while being stuck in the library.

My training is going well as I've been with AnDeux Faure for a while and will be training with him for a long, long, long time to come. What he trains is 2 respia and 1 faustus for every 3 lessons with him which are precisely what I need. I started out with 300 faustus and 800 respia which is pretty low for my level and when I'm done I'll have 400 faustus and 1,000 respia which is much better.

I don't know what I'll do after that though I have a few ideas. My original idea was to alternate between Sprite and Respia with some extra Horus every now and again but I'm not so sure now. My 500 horus is more than enough, and I don't really want to be a rod and many healers never heal me anyway even if I'm at low health so my 600 sprite is probably enough. I'm not sure if I want to focus on improving my radius healing since it is situational although I do have 100 ranks in it already. I was thinking of doing AnQuart Faure (4 respia/1 faustus) and/or AnDeux Faure and Higgrus for better healing and survivability. I really don't know how I survived with 300 higgrus all this time as I really underestimated how powerful having lots of health is and overestimated how much damage I can avoid by having lots of proximus. I still love proximus, don't get wrong, there's just too much stuff that ferals and no reliable way of tanking. Anyway, it'll take so long to get to my goals that I'm sure I'll think of what I'll need when I get there.

Jeanne

Not much has happened with Jeanne since she's been stuck in the library working on getting her Bloodblade to 200 ranks so she can then further increase Cryptus and work on other Bloodmage skills before returning to the Bloodblade to get a total of 400 ranks. Primarily I want to get enough Bloodblade to have the atkus to hit anything whether on high or low health and get most of my damage through hemorrhage.

This will take a long time and while I try not to be impatient, because without going on daily hunts to places with good experience such as Estuary, Rainforest, and Ash Barrens the amount of experience gained is small. However, I don't think I'm at the point where I'm ready to go on hunts to those places until I get the 200 Bloodblade and all of the Bloodmage skills that will make me useful in a group. Maybe once I get the Cryptus, Dantus, and Crato and am working on my second 200 ranks in Bloodblade I'll try to get in a regular higher-level hunt but I doubt it will be easy. People would much rather me bring Moon Kitty out than Jeanne.

Himitsu

I still haven't reset her but I'm pretty close to doing so. I just need a good time when I can devote some hours to taking her through the rat towers.

The problem with the Sentinel

I used to enjoy going to the Clan Lord Sentinel to catch up on what has been happening and to read what ideas other folks have about fixing problems or introducing new features. Granted the chance of any of their suggestions actually making it into Clan Lord are between zero and none. However, I like discussing what could be even if it will never actually be just because I find game theory and mechanics interesting.

The problem is with Maeght and the people who respond to him, thinking that he's engaging in serious discussion. Destian has had some interesting ideas about the Healer class and while I'd love to post on his threads they've all basically degenerated into a conversation between Maeght and Destian. Destian says something reasonable, Maeght counters with examples that have never happened or could never happen and arguments that are absurd or are designed to change the topic of the conversation from what it originally was, Destian responds reasonably, Maeght counters with more insanity, and so on and so forth.

Actually Maeght does this with everyone and even though I've ignored him long ago not everyone does and he tends to take over a thread completely. I've fallen into the trap once or twice, especially when he says that I've said something different then what I meant to say and I think "I'll need to correct him because I don't want anyone not understanding me" only to find out that I was perfectly clear. Does Maeght do that on purpose or is he just stupid? Maybe it's a combination of both but it doesn't really matter because he derails threads regardless of the reason.

I used to think the Clan Lord GMs would gain a lot from reading our ideas, solutions, and problems at the Sentinel but now that far too many of the posters spend far too much responding to Maeght it has lost a lot of its usefulness and general enjoyment.

Preparing

I took another step closer to resetting and becoming a Ranger by transferring everything I wanted to keep to Jeanne and Moon Kitty so that the only things I have are my mystic tools and yellow outfit. I auctioned off my phantasm books which actually sold even though I didn't bother to get very many phantasms. Jeanne has a bunch of ethereal amulets and ethercles which can be used if we ever want or need to explore the Ethereal Plane again. Maybe one day we'll rescue Tenebrion and find out if he's really dead or alive. I gave Moki my wooden parrot which she is going to treasure since she's a pirate. I think she's been standing up a little straighter with it perched on her shoulder.

I know I should have reset ages ago, but was waiting for something to convince me that I shouldn't. After all, there aren't very many mystics that have full ethereal training and even though I haven't been to the ethereal plane in years and there's no real interest in it I was telling myself that maybe one day I'd be needed. Plus, I have good training in everything except boosting and I think it wouldn't take a lot of training in order to get good at that too. I didn't want to throw all of that away even though there's no real need for any of it. Plus, I kept on thinking maybe there would be more added for mystics but it'll probably be added for Full Mystics with Journeyman and Apprentice Mystics left behind.

Of course, I haven't really left the library much lately and that's required to be promoted. As with all mystics that's always the goal especially since you're not really considered a Mystic until you're a Full Mystic but after a recent trip I started thinking that maybe I didn't want to be a Full Mystic after all.

For one thing I'd have to play politics and probably would have to change my entire personality to be considered the right kind of Mystic to be promoted. I'm not one for politics and I don't care if I'm the right kind of Mystic as far as they're concerned. I think it was talking with Rincewind that really sealed the deal though.

I was talking to him about the parrots that are found in the latest area in the Estuary as well as Tart'targ who's also found there and who refuses to teach us because we're too young. He was telling me that the other Mystics refused to share any information because they were playing politics with what they know. I then asked myself if they were the people I wanted to call my colleagues. What's the point of being accepted into an "elite" group dedicated to knowledge if they won't share knowledge with each other? I can understand why they'd want to pick and choose with what they tell other classes but with each other I thought they'd be more honest if only to have a united front. I probably learn more about mystic secrets by just inviting Mystics to the hunts I'm on and asking them questions then I'd ever get by being a Mystic myself. That's so bizarre I can't quite understand it.

I'm not quite ready to hit the reset button but I'm very close to it. It's just a lot harder to do than I expected. Even if the only thing I got after years of effort is useless junk, it's still my useless junk if that makes any sense at all.

Back from a Break

Accomplished an easy goal, now to AnDeux Faure.

I came back after a brief time away since I wanted to go on vacation and was a little tired of the Rainforest and Estuary. They're lovely places but when you only go there they can get a little tedious and I just wanted a break from it all.

On the plus side my trip enabled me to get to the next stage of my radius healing development so now I'm on my long trek of learning with AnDeux Faure. The speed of my healing and spirit regeneration have been low for a long time and I have to focus on them. At one point I thought I could get all of the faustus training I needed through Sprite, but I need more than her teachings provide. It'll take a long time to go from the 300 faustus I have to the 400 faustus that's my goal since I'm not training with Faustus directly. I could and it would be a lot faster but then my Respia:Faustus ratio would be 2:1 and I'd probably would train with Respia after anyway. It will take a lot longer to get to my goal with AnDeux Faure but when I'm done I'll have 400 Faustus and 1,000 Respia which I think will make me a much better healer overall.

After I got back from the Estuary I decided to take the 6th-circle healer's test thinking that it was going to be another failure. After all I was told that most who passed were stronger than me, but I put on my Iron Breastplate and started the test. I had a feeling something was different when I only had a bear and a feral hitting me for the longest time instead of the three or four. I kept healing and healing and then she stood up. I passed!

How the heck did this happen?

I must not be dreaming.

There's not even a comfy couch to sit on.

Since I didn't expect to pass I don't have a visionstone or even pictures of the actual test, but I can tell you that I was healing her from the southeast and didn't move at all. The 400 higgrus combined with the full iron armor set and being in the right position were necessary for me to pass.

I tried the 7th-circle healer test and while I healed her more than halfway, much better than expected, I'll need more faustus and respia training in order to pass that test.

Problems with Healers aren't just about Healers

There have been some posts lately on the Clan Lord Sentinel about Healers needing more stuff to do, more ways of getting unstuck when surrounded, more reasons to bring lower-level healers on hunts, and basically more independence from needing fighters to do anything. There are many suggestions from healer pets to tagging weapons to a potion giving a shieldstone effect and many more besides.


The essential problem is that Clan Lord has little else to offer besides going on hunts for experience, coins, or rarely both. The only way to get baking, brewing, blacksmith, bard, alchemy, and berries is to go from snell to snell and hope you get lucky. Professions are only suitable for a library character since you need so many ranks that they're unsuitable for anything else. Both of which mean that gathering and crafting, which many other MMOs have as a way of doing something besides killing stuff, are nonexistent. Even if you do bother to learn how to bake or brew there's really not much point as most of the items you can buy with coins that are much easier to get, and besides food and beer are only for role-playing.

Well you say, wandering around finding items is something I can do without killing stuff. Except you probably can't because practically every beast is hostile and will attack you if they see you or even if you just enter the snell which makes leaving Puddleby not a safe thing to do. Of course, some beasts should be hostile such as Orgas since we are at war with them, but I'd really like to see more beasts be passive or hostile only if you get close just to let people be able to walk around in peace. At the present moment however, only fighters can really wander around at their leisure.

The concept for Clan Lord is that ranks would have the most impact on a character's development which means that there are few items that make a noticeable difference and therefore we have no stable economy and nothing really to spend our money on besides the library. Since everything is found by luck people basically save their money and if something is found such as a bard part or an orgaberry then they spend thousands just because it's such a pain to find them. Maybe when we get items then we could have some quests because at the moment there would be nothing to reward people with besides experience and money.

I've written elsewhere about the death of role-playing and GM-guided stories and the difficulty in creating Player-guided stories. There are many stories that players can't work on without official support and most of the role-playing that did take place didn't really involve more than a select few. Using clans as a means of role-playing or even getting people involved would be great but there's basically no point to being in a clan either.

What I'm saying is that there's nothing for people to do besides hunt and hunting revolves around fighters and when fighters get hurt they need healers and mystics get left behind. Healers need more to do but everyone needs more to do which is why the population is small and isn't likely to increase no matter how much advertising is done. There are free MMOs on Facebook with more features than Clan Lord and I don't think that's how things should be.

There should be a different profession system that doesn't use ranks, a different gathering system that doesn't rely on luck, more items/item customization which lessens the importance of ranks, more support for role-playing and clans, an easier time of being able to wander around without needing an escort, a revamp of the mystic and healer and Champion classes, and a change in the interface with less of a reliance on the sidebar to see if something happened. Unfortunately the odds of any of these things happening is about zero as the GMs that are active don't bother to tell us what they're doing or interact with us at all lately. Apparently we're too negative or demanding or something.

I'm saying all this because, as many great aspects there are to Clan Lord, there are many more bad aspects and there just isn't anyone with the time or knowledge or money to make the needed changes to turn Clan Lord from being barely above solitaire in being something to do when there's nothing else to do to being an MMO people will not only want to play but will spend money to play. At this point I think Joe Williams only keeps Clan Lord around from a sense of guilt because he doesn't seem to want to do anything with it. The GMs seem to be good at making new areas and there's an artist or two who are good at adding a tree or beast, but I don't think any of them have the time or inclination to make fundamental changes to the game even if Joe Williams would allow them to.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems to me that the problems that some healers are complaining about run deeper than just being bad class design to being bad game design and there doesn't seem to be anyone capable or willing of changing this.

Does the Sun Dragon Clan have a future?

A few months ago I tried to change the direction of the Sun Dragon Clan, and have everyone who was active have a voice in what should be changed to have more active members. My thought was that if I made the changes on my own without any feedback from the members that I would be imposing my will on the clan and that I had no right to do that. What happened was no one had any opinions, no one wanted to do anything, and as of now I'm pretty much the only one still clanning.

By contrast let's look at Neko no Kessha (NNK); one of the few clans who has clan pride, active members, and a regular hunt. What's the difference? NNK doesn't have a complicated clan structure or many people in charge but what they do have is a clan leader willing to take charge and make decisions. That's what the Sun Dragon Clan needs, a leader who will say what his ideas are and how to make them a reality. A leader that people will want to follow and who will take their ideas and use them to make the clan better and stronger.

I do wonder if it's past the time where this should even be considered since there's no one to lead and I'd have to work essentially from nothing but how the Sun Dragon Clan used to be in the past and what I think it should be in the future. I don't think it should be up to one person but if I don't take the lead then no one will.

Accomplishments

After what felt like forever I reached 400 ranks with Higgrus. After exploring further in the Estuary and Rainforest, I wonder how I ever managed to survive with just 300 higgrus. Many times I've survived with only a little bit of health which means I would have fallen if I hadn't trained with Higgrus. It makes my previous assumption that I could avoid most or all danger by just having enough proximus as being naive and silly.

I may train more health in the future, but for now I'm getting a tad more radium until 100, and then getting enough AnDeux Faure until my Faustus is 400 since my healing speed is woefully inadequate at 300.

The next area of the Estuary has been released and it's incredibly awesome. Tons of folks to talk to, a new story with the Orga, new pinkish clothes, maybe even something new for mystics, and best of all there's a pier that needs fixing so the area will get even bigger. The folks who worked on this area definitely put a lot of love and care and it's gratifying to see.

Ansset came with us on our trip and I was glad he came because not only did he find a mystic illusion but he was able to get a cage and capture his very own parrot. It sits on his shoulder and makes a lot of noise but it still makes me a little jealous. As a pirate where is my parrot?

I want to write a long article about the Estuary but I'm afraid I have many other things to do today and can't spare the time. I will say that it's definitely a place that everyone should experience at least once.

Even Mujin-kun gets tired of the same look!

Finally I left Daimoth's clan and returned to the Sun Dragon Clan since he isn't clanning much or at all, isn't doing anything to expand the clan, and since only he did the inviting I didn't see any point to staying in it. Even though most clans are dead I'd rather have Sun Dragon Clan on my label than anyone else's.

Hello!

Hello!

On this journal I'll be describing the adventures of three exiles in the Lok'Groton island chain in the game of Clan Lord.

• Jeanne: Bloodmage
• Moon Kitty: Healer
• Himitsu: Former Journeyman Mystic turned Fighter on the path to Ranger.

Unfortunately I must leave because I need to go sleep now, but I will write shortly about my many adventures.