Column Gone Walkabout Debut
First Misadventures
Fresh out of the training grounds I did what all good Isparians are supposed to do: I killed some of those five-foot tall, hopping, squeaking, stinking rats in hoods that abound everywhere. After awhile I got bored, although somehow I felt a lot stronger. What else to do? Well, I'd never seen a town before, so I headed to Arwic ruins. Following the stream of tumeroks, lugians, and humans, I ended up at the forge where everyone was busy doing a variety of activities. No one was friendly enough to strike up a conversation, but I whipped out the old cantalee lute and joined in the music. Some tumeroks kept the beat while each human had a different kind of lute. Lugians also joined in with lutes and something I can only describe as "mouth percussion." Soon we had quite a jam going on, with someone belting out some ad lib lyrics as well. Laughter and spontaneous dancing broke out all around. So it wasn't productive, but it was fun!
Eventually that broke up as people (and I use the term generally here) went off to hunt or find crafting materials. I decided that I should do some exploring myself. I checked my map before diving into a nearby portal in town and rode out the queasy feeling of falling through space. Shaking off that weird, tingly, my-entire-body-fell-asleep feeling, I started jogging. I turned more rats into pin cushions, and also tried my hand at killing a few shreths. You got to admire a creature that takes a few steps after it's been killed because it wants to get you so bad. I also had my first encounter with a drudge. I seem to remember my great-grandmother saying something about drudges, and how they used to be fuzzy, and almost kind of cute in a screechy sort of way. This one looked like it'd been shaved and beaten with an ugly stick. I was shocked when the thing cried out a few words in Isparian! The drudge's death throes, however, were highly melodramatic and comical, clutching its chest and flinging its arms up before collapsing. "Aahhhh!" I resolved to kill a few more just for the laugh.
Feeling pretty invincible, I continued on my way. I consulted my map, which seemed to imply I could just cross a river in my path. Well, turns out that the river was at the bottom of a canyon. So I ran along the edge for awhile looking for a way down. Getting off track from the path I wanted to take, I decided that I could just jump in the river and swim down a ways. I surprised myself by doing a nice flip dive, and set off downstream feeling very confident. After all, thus canyon couldn't last forever, could it? Well, it didn't, but it lasted just far enough that I drowned myself and hit the life stone with a sound like a wet rag hitting a cave floor. How embarrassing. Luckily I don't think anyone noticed, and I got myself out of town to dry off.
Vitae? Oh, vitae!
Another day, I dropped by the Arwic forge to join in another jam. That's become my routine: hunt, craft, jam, rinse and repeat. Couple folks were headed out to hunt. I asked if I could join in, but got no answer, so I went off by myself. Turned out I ended up in the same place as they were going, the excavation of old Cragstone. I did manage to join up in a fellowship with some other adventurers, but it was total insanity in there! In the darkness off the cave there were grutts and tumeroks and lugians and humans all running around, everyone trying to kill the grutts, the grutts trying to kill everyone. With all the screeching, killing, and mass confusion, each of us in the fellowship died at least twice. None of us knew of a life stone close by, so it was quite a run to get back. Eventually there was only ever two of the four of our fellows in the dungeon at any given time. Finally, our leader, Crazykiller, a tumerok, invited us to go hunt near Cavendo. The others declined so I set off with him.
Just outside of Cavendo, several drudges and lashers spawn. There's no combat etiquette out there, just slaughter. Sometimes the critters get it, sometimes we get it. The spawn is quick, so if you don't pay attention, you're monster chow. I learned this the hard way. I learned it at least twice. Messily. Crazykiller, though much wiser and more experienced with this location, also got killed once when he was resting and a frothing mad lasher jumped him from behind. I didn't even have time to nock an arrow or shout a warning. A lugian warrior was quick to bash the beast, but it wasn't quick enough to save my new comrade. Crazykiller had gotten his fill soon after that and bid me farewell. I also decided after a few more kills that I'd seen way too much of the life stone that day, and needed to go someplace where I wouldn't get clawed, chewed, stabbed or mauled. Maybe I should hunt those stinky giant rats awhile longer.
