Bartok the Orga Chief has yet again been seen in the lands. Mork and Angel met him in the meadow. All he said was "Leave!" . Of course they didn´t .. Shortly followed a long and hard battle, where we tried to take control over the meadow. The orga´s are getting better at defending their Warlocks. They had formed a line of regular orga in front of the locks, so the bolt throwing ones were hard to get to. Finally we prevailed, only to find that the orga camp was full of a new battalion of Warlocks. Bartok must have fled this way, and these were defending his escape route. Bartok was the one who lead the Orgas to victory in the recent Orga War, where they stole our temple altar.

Puddleby´s first Beauty Pageant was held in the bards field. There were a lot of exiles gathered there. And the contestant line was long. The swimwear they presented was everything from starbuck steaks to complete nudeness. Yes, indeed! Bloodhawk feathers, maha furs - you name it, the exiles had it. The judges were Reye, Papa, Kevin, Shamhat, Elenis Reyav and myself. Sleipnir the Noble Knight was MC, since Kojiro didn´t show up. The winners were :

1 prize Sutai - Lila berries and 2000 coppers , Runner up Pacifist Thoom - Shiny dagger, Best dressed Exile Althea - 1000 coppers and sadly but true, disqualified for attempted bribery of the judges, Una

See, the sisterwitches were trying to bribe the judges, handing them a note saying " Una must win" together with a small sum of coppers. This cannot be tolerated. The judges promptly told the judge-panel about the on goings of the witches, and we decided that we should not let this color our judgment of Una, neither good or bad, but that it was of course a disqualify reason. After this the judges have taken much abuse from the witch community. They somehow think that the blame is on our part, while it´s clearly their actions that led to this sad result. And just look at what Paramedic reports in his #2 Daily Fishwrap

If you haven´t heard, Noivad is actually going to marry Prue. And Noivad is the one running for the sheriff title. Just imagine, witchery and law enforcement together..

A dream come true. A moment I have been waiting for. Ever since the Ripture War this has been a goal of mine. To be able to hunt the abyss, and especially the Abyssal Hunters. The attempts have been many, departs even more. But at last. We had been hunting liches in DT, and Astral Guardians in the astral plane, when Gurgi tells us we are going to the abyss. We are? I asked, and I could feel how my knees sort of clapped together. Yes, he said. trying to get a party going he said. Oh dear. I have to admit my heart sank a little, with our last attempt fresh in my mind. As the party gathered around the red cloud, I found some courage.. somewhere.. These brave exiles formed the group: Yoshida-X, Dianus, Knucklehead, Thuja, Degu, Gurgi and myself. Gurgi went in alone many times first, to clear out the demonic vermine, the largest threat to our healers. he then proceeded to trap them all in the northeast corner. This way we only had to face one Abyssal Hunter at a time. Which is a Good Thing.. They swing fast, they are the fastest in the lands in that respect. So when I moved up to one it would wiff me some, but then suddenly strike me - and usually many times in a row, leaving me bleeding on the ground. But I hit many- almost all I think. And the joy I felt when I sensed that I had helped vanquish an abyssal hunter is hard to explain. We were the first group to take over the abyss since Beastie 2.0. Quite an accomplishment. I am proud to have been part of that. Thuja made a visionstone of a part of the hunt. Later I heard that several groups had been there after us that day. We showed it could be done, although still highly dangerous.

I met them in town, and got drawn into their argument. Apparently Sutai would not let Aki see the egg, not even examine it. Aki was of course very concerned that Sutai´s carelessness could destroy the egg. I tried to let Sutai give it to a trustee, but that seemed hopeless as it turned out he doesn´t trust anyone. Since I understood Aki´s concern, I pretended I didn´t believe the egg was unharmed. And went on and on with how much exiles would hate him for destroying such a precious item.. etc. Indeed. I tricked him. I was worried about the egg too! Finally Sutai gave in and showed the egg to Aki, but the place he kept it didn´t calm down Aki a bit. On the contrary. Fining that the egg was kept in a dark and cold cave, Aki became frantic. And accepted Sutai´s challenge, to fight over the egg. So if you see Sutai struggling to lift things, or running around the Sentinel, you know why. He tries to get in shape.

I was so lucky to provide Polygon with a Tor shell that Hendrux actually accepted many many moons ago. I met Polygon when he approached me, eager to learn how to dance the beasties. We had a nice lection in the eastern pass, and when I found a tor shell it was natural for me to give it to this fine exile. He honored me and thanked me by writing me a tune, especially for me! How terribly sweet of him that was. Alas I was not able to write the notes down, but as soon as I see Polygon again I will.