Devils/Fire Island

[Mighty One]

I am starting a new thread since the last one runs to two pages. Hope you people at WoD dont mind. I am sure that others have discovered much more, but here are a few things I have found.

1. C8 is a somewhat unusual forest, as it has some of the "hollow" trees mixed in and what looks like a Myrm Hive entrance. I was unable to do anything with these, maybe a full pathfinder? Snell is a safe one, but have seen Rages several times just one to the north.

2. G8 has a "meadow" (flower patch surrounded by trees). Again I could find nothing else unusual

3. In the Oasis, one of the palm trees does not have a shadow. I remember hearing that no shadows means something. Could not find anything.

4. the pf path in H4 does not require too much pf I hope. I have 10 and could see the sparkles. Would like to go on an expedition to the ne part of the island sometime.

Mighty One

[Aethelred]

Hey look...Tans are taking over the WoD board! <grin>

Just wanted to let you all know...

We took a small preliminary party into the McBolie Caverns to get into the Volcoon pens last Saturday (thank you to Sargon for coming!). Although the entire group died and had to be rescued before we made it all the way through the Caverns, we now have a much better idea of what to expect (two of us were PND because of a pesky firewalker in the cavern).

I want to set up a more formal expedition next Saturday, at about 2:00 or 3:00 PM EST. Please talk to me in the lands or SS or post here or on Tan's site if you want to come so I have an idea as to how many want to come...I would prefer that the hunt not be some 50 person monster, but just those folks from Tan and WoD (or from among our friends) that are highly interested in exploration and going new places as opposed to those who prefer to fight and play whack-a-vermine.

As a word of warning, I will repeat here the warnings that I gave at the start of the last expedition {Sargon can attest to my "pep talk"}. I say these thigns not to scare people off or sound like I really know what I am doing, but because I am trying to make sure that people know what they are in for if they come. I feel REALLY guilty if I organize something and people come and then do not enjoy themselves, so I try to lay out the negatives first. Anyway, here we go:
1) this is not a hunt, but an exploration so tagging and/or killing is only incidental and should be done only efficiently and safely.
2) this is dangerous...there is a GOOD chance of falling and having to depart. This is not really an easily rescuable area...it can happen, but it is hard on the rescuers. Once inside the pens themselves, there are firewalkers and fire drakes, along with assorted dark vermine and NWs. 4

[Sargon]

Hi

Thanks for letting us join these exploration hunts! I hope I can make it too on next Saturday (ooc, gasp!) I enjoyed the last one very much even though we didn't make it that far. And Aethelred, maybe you're more lucky next time and you are the fallen next to Athala. *giggles*

I hope that other WoD members can make it too. But please keep in mind what Aethelred said. One should be prepared to have to depart...

Sargon

[Mighty One]

Red,

I would like to come to the exploration, but not sure that I can make it.

But while this may be an important step in understanding Devils Island, I can't help but be a little concerned at this forced entry approach. I heard that the DI quest was for all levels, and having to enter the center this way seems to require higher levels, what have lower level people contributed?

For what its worth a few more comments on my explorations of the island.

- A7 has two or three shacks/leantos, I could not get into. Try different professions? full pf? circle one people? Arrangement of shacks mean anything? Also a group of trees that are slightly different color with dark shadows.

- A6 some wierd looking thing, a rock?

- A6 - got disoriented in the thick brush. This happened to me in another snell. You seem to get randomly placed in the snell. Would this happen to a full pf?

- A5 tower, similar to flower tower, but cannot enter

- A3 there is a skull on the west side; pf spot? Got some experience after checking the area, coincidence?

- H1 following a lead from Drenn I was able to land in the sea side of the Damp Tunnel. Then make my way inland. Footprint tunnel very interesting and fun, needs more exploration by patient people and a healer or two (can hit your head on a rock and take damage)

- H4 I was able to go through the pf path, even though I couldn't before with no new pf skill. Fun area to explore but Spider cave seemed small

[Kiriel]

I should be able to make it Saturday, barring any real work problems arising. Prefer 3pm EST (noon PST), but I guess I can get up early one day if necessary.

[Farhope]

Thank you for this exploration, Aethelred!

Sadly for me, as I agree with you on all your conditions, I will not be able to participe: 2-3 (ooc) hours is too much for me... good exploration and fun to all!

[Kiriel]

Given that this weekend is April Fool's and there's all sorts of special stuff going on, I recommend we postpone till next weekend.

[Aethelred]

I think you maybe right Kiriel. I didn't think about that when I suggested this weekend...

Anyway, I will be in the lands at the time I mentioned, and if enough people want to go we can still do it...but I think we should count on making the major effort a week from now.

[Aethelred]

As you might have guessed, the latest trip to Fire Island was postponed due to the April Fools Day festivities. The new worlds were too fun to miss... Death due to drowning in the chocolate river, or getting nailed by a Stormtrooper's blaster, was so much more fun than falling to GV swarm.

The expedition will instead kick off next Saturday (April 7) at 2:30 pm EST.

[Tater]

Thanks, Aethelred! I'll try to make that one! FI is a fun place to explore. :)

-Tater

[Kiriel]

I posted a visionstone of the bulk of the Fire Island visit and subsequent rescue attempt on the clan scrolls photo gallery.

For those wondering how it went, it was intially good- Aethelred really knows his way around the line cave. Deado opened the path to the inside of the caverns and we wandered around. We found our way to the inside of the voolcon fence in the very northern section. There was a bit of a scare when 3 people (including our 2 full PFs) went outside the fence accidentally, but they got themselves a night wendy, fell to it next to the fence, and I was able to chain them over the fence to get them back inside (also not a bad way to add stragglers to the initial party for next time).

Then we went into the tunnels where we found a lava walker. The first one we killed pretty quickly (thanks Phiros for the boost!) but then things started to deteriorate as we kept finding more and more lava walkers at every turn, and we couldn't take them on very quickly with our fighting force. Eventually we were all at the point where we were just running around trying to stay alive and when I realized that almost everyone was fallen, I grabbed everyone nearby on a chain and hightailed it out the PF exit to the other side of the fence.

Gray Gradi and Thalion were still inside- Gray was alive and had Thalion on a chain, but didn't quite make it out in time, and fell inside the voolcon fence, further than we could see.

I took my chain of 9 or so fallens to town to get healed, and then some of us went back with some other helpful exiles, including Axell, Felicity, and Drenn to try to get Gray and Thalion out. We navigated our way through the line cave, but were unable to get in even with Axell's full PF status (she says it has worked for her in the past, but it didn't that day). Deado and Tas, our original full PFs, had to leave, so we called upon some additional full PFs, Thanadin (I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong) and Nunul, and we tried to get in, but to no avail. 3 full PFs and we couldn't open the path to the inside of the caverns, so we were forced to give up, and sadly Gray and Thalion had to depart.

It was fun visiting the caverns even with the problems we had, but some lessons to be learned:
1. Definitely be sure you have a party capable of taking on lava walkers well. Bring a mystic to boost and keep him alive :) Try to stay together as much as possible and take out the lava walkers individually so you don't end up having too much to handle
2. The inside cave entrance is very finicky, even for a full PF. Since we don't know what causes people to be able to get in, be prepared with some full PF backups if the initial PF can't open. We probably would have had more luck with the rescue had a DP raid not been going on, which sucked up the bulk of the full PFs available.
3. If you're going to fall, fall as close to the fence as possible, to enable the possibility of either chaining out or a cadder rescue.

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of right now. Watch the visionstone if you'd like to see the full event (the end is rather boring- mostly us sitting around hoping we can get the entrance open)