Voolkons of Fire Isle

[Nunul]

Please post any info pertaining the Voolkons of Fire Isle in this thread.

[Konoko]

Please see the "OOC: RP, TK and stuff" topic under General. Tan is interested in doing some FI exploring.

I'm guessing it's more investigations and exploring with the Voolcon stuff! So let's get busy! :)

[Aethelred]

Well...Karkras is the real Tan expert on FI, not I (yet). BUT, I believe I do know how to get INTO the Voolcon pen/fort now (and get to the west shore of the lake). I think the bulk of our investigations will have to go those places before we figure out where else to go, and what else to do.

we also have not yet fully explored all of the caves on the island...

[Nugget]

Ask Kiriel I believe she is the true FI expert :D


Nugget

[Aethelred]

/action chuckles

I still remember Kiriel taking me to FI when I had been exiled for something like two weeks. I promptly fell to a Zerk.

Travellers Advisory = the critters on FI seem to be getting worse. We are routinely running into Darshak Blades on the east coast, Orga Rages in the forests, and now Orga Berserkers and Furies, in addition to 'zerks and Shamans, in the grasslands and near the Volcoon pens (along with the occassional Lava Walker just to make running from the Fury more difficult).

[Kiriel]

Just a note, the critters you describe are actually normal. FI is a pretty erratic place, with furies and rages regularly popping up in random places, and lava walkers occasionally wandering into the voolcons area. Darshaks are pretty much always on the east coast. The key to a sucessful FI adventure is fast feet. It's generally ok to hunt there, but occasionally you pop into something beyond your skill level and you have to make for a safe area or you'll be thumped.

Actually tho Aethelred, I'm pretty sure it's a rage you fell to :) A zerk wouldn't have been a real problem, but the rage was in the eastern coast, where they don't generally hang out much. I chained ya tho, didn't I? ;)

[Konoko]

Kiri - you chaining people on FI is pretty much safe to say to anybody! We've all fallen there at one time or another on your FI hunts and then you came to the resq with your hnady chain! :)

It's definitely fun though! I think it'd be great if Tan and WoD figure out stuff with the Voolcons.

Konoko

[Aethelred]

Ahh, so THAT is what it was! At that stage I couldn't tell one Orga from another! =D

And I had a tremendously fun time on that hunt...Kiriel can chain me anytime she wants to!!!!!

[Sargon]

Hi

Although I often fall while I'm on FI I'm very interested in investigating the Voolcon issue more. I'm beginning to understand how to navigate on FI a lil better though! And thanks to Kiri and her chain I prolly saw most part of it already. *giggles*

Sargon

[Aethelred]

I was wondering if Kiri could verify these impressions for me:

North part of island (north of the Pit): fairly safe for all levels of exile. Mostly "junk" critters.

Around Pit: Still OK for most exils. Mostly LV, GV, Wendies, some NW, and firebombs from Lava Walkers (except when you get east of the pit, when you get Carnivorous worms and Tahaxis).

South part of island: Tougher than north, but beaches are fairly safe with rockos, crawlers, and low level orga. Grass areas get tougher, with higher level orga (up to and including Fury and Berserker).

West Forests: good for competent parties (or newer exiles with good escorts) with kitties, orga up to and including Rages, and lotsa the various vermine o' the day.

East beaches: Tough area. Small numbers of Darshaks of all stripes (Blade is the highest I have seen here), some grizzly bears, some orga (again, up to Fury and Berserker), various beachy type stuff, and the occassional kitty.

Around the Volcoon "Fort": Nasty area. High level orga. Lava Walkers. Flame bursts. Wendies and night Wendies. Nasty area. 'Nuff said.

Hmm...I wonder (if the above makes any sense to Kiriel) if the distribution of monsters might in and of itself be a clue....

OK...I want to plan an expedition to get into the Volcoon Fort, and onto the west shore of the lake. Full PFs being hard to come by, are any of the WoD members full pathfinders? Tan only has one that I know of, and his clanning times are rare...

Kiriel, can you drop me a line to Aethelred_The_Bard@hotmail.com so I can get an e-mail address for you?

Thanks,
Aethelred

[Konoko]

WoD has a 3 full PFs that I know of (Corwin, Nunul, and Farhope)...

I'm looking forward to any and all FI stuff that we do!

[Kiriel]

Here's FI as I see it:

North part of island (north of the Pit): Mostly "junk" critters, beach kinda dangerous for low levels because of large crawlers (green, deadly, etc.). Occasionally a zerk or wendy in forest area, but mostly ok once you get past beach. Some caves are very bad there tho. Entrance to inside voolcon area is actually by a cave here.

Around Pit: West of pit is mostly wendies, sometimes boloks, orga bezerkers, dark vermine, and medium to large spiders. NE of the voolcon area has firebursts that pop out of the ground and hit hard, best to walk along the edge in this snell. SE of pit is mostly wendies and spiders, with sometime dark vermine and firewalkers. NE and E of pit has wendies, dark vermine, firewalkers, orga bezerkers, boloks, and the carnivorous worms (haven't actually seen a Tahaxis, but they may be there too). The degree of okness of these areas is really dependent on whether you have enough horus to heal someone who gets to little (not uncommon with some of these nasty critters) and how good folks are at running when they find something unpleasant.

South part of island: This is actually the easiest part of the island. There are very rarely any crawlers larger than the basic ones. The grass areas are very random, I've seen anything from spiders to wendies to furies there. Usually there's not anything bigger than a NW, but occasionally the big orga will show up, or dark vermine.

West Forests: good for competent parties (or newer exiles with good escorts) with kitties, orga up to and including furies, and lotsa the various vermine o' the day. Sometimes there are zealots in the area west of voolcons and tree giants in the northwest part of the forest, but at least TG are easy to avoid. The key with the west forests is just to establish a run direction before you enter a snell so if you run into anything troublesome you can run from it. The voolcon area can perform as a semi-safe area to run to when trouble hits.

East beaches: Not overly bad area. Small numbers of Darshaks of all stripes (seen blades and acolytes here), kitties, orga (generally small ones, but occasionally big ones), and vermine.

Around the Volcoon "Fort": Nasty area. High level orga. Lava Walkers. Flame bursts. Wendies and night Wendies. Nasty area. 'Nuff said. (if you mean the part inside the fort, I would probably agree, but I've only seen it from the outside).

The general rule with FI is that the big stuff seems to occasionally wander the island, but not overly frequently. Most of the time the big orga stay in the western forests (and you can often find orga bezerkers W of the east forest), but you have to be prepared to come across them almost anywhere.

My biggest concern about a visit to the voolcon fort is I'm afraid some voolcons might get killed. Additionally, getting to the fort through the line cave is a very onerous process, but you probably already know that. I would love to participate in this effort, but I would like to know how we plan to avoid any voolcon deaths in the process.

My enchanted mail address is kiriel@windsofdawn.org (should be pretty easy to remember)

[Aethelred]

The trick once inside will be avoiding party death, not Volcoon death =D

Actually, that concern is one of the reasons I want to keep the party small...say 3-4 fighters and 2-3 healers (well, that and just manageability). I am not sure if clearing the pen will last for a while, or if the spawns will be ongoing. If we can clear it and be safe for at least a limited amount of time, then we have a nice window for studying the volcoon up close. If the spawns of nasty stuff are ongoing, then we have a problem. The first time into the pen I see as a quick visit to check how bad things are, and what will be required for a more complete trip. Theoretically, the fighters that come should be able to "hold the line" while one person concentrates on the volcoons, and the other healers support the fighters. I am not sure if this is realistic or not.

The fighters most likely to come would probably be from the group of Kiriel, Karkras, Konoko, Fist of Fluff, Farhope, and Thalion (at least those are the ones who have expressed interest up to this point). Healers would seem to be me, Sargon, Tas, Theo and maybe Tater and Luna. That sound right?

Also, the line cave (McBolie Cavern) also leads to the west side of the lake, which I believe is still basically unexplored and definitely unmapped. This is another area needing a full expedition...

As to the Volcoons, there seem to be a few possibilities for talking to them. The two I come up with are:
1) bring a mystic
2) bring one to the lady who is translating the letter in Husus' house (how?!?!?)

Any other ideas?

Aethelred

[Konoko]

Ok - so when is this first expedition going to happen?

How soon? This weekend? After the weekly clan meeting? When does Tan meet? WoD meets Sundays at 2 PM CST.

Konoko

[Aethelred]

Well, the timing of the expedition depends on the availability of a full PF more than anything. Tan also meets on Sundays (at 1:00 pm CST), so I wonder if a Saturday expedition would be best?

If we can get a full pf that is available for the duration, then we can get everything else set up very quickly... If this weekend is no good, then we can schedule a specific time next week.

[Nuvali]

I'm game if you have room. (Note: I have absolutely no PF).

[TerraHawk]

I'm always interested in exploration, and the Volcoons have intrigued me a bit.

I'm not a high-level fighter, but count me in if you need an extra hand.

TH.

[Althus]

I'm a decent healer, but the group seems pretty pre-selected... I can wait.

-Awfus

[Tas]

I'm the full PF Aethelred refers to as being out rarely... the problem is lately I can only come out for short periods of time. I've a rough couple of zodiacs lately and the next one is unpredictable. We do have a second full PF that I only see in a blue moon or so -- Deado.

Aethelred speaks well, the Tans meet on Sundays for meeting at 1:30pm CST followed by a clan hunt at 2:00pm CST.

Saturdays are also good for many Tans around the time you mentioned: 1:00pm ish CST. We used to meet at 2:00pm on Saturdays so for some this is still a popular time to stick our noses outside the library!

I'm curious as well how we would avoid harming the Vool's.

/action pats his tummy.

-Tas Furrfoot

[Aethelred]

Not at all preselected Althus. To be honest, I just do not know who is interested and who not.

It will be the most fun if we have people going who are very interested (and not a lot of people seem to be). It looks like we might have enough to do two concurrent groups...one exploring and mapping the west side of the lake, and one to concentrate on the volcoons in the pen.

Perhaps one led by Kiriel and one by Karkras..the two who know the most about the island of our clans I think. We could keep each other updated via sunstone..and make a Tan-Wod event of it.

Please note...as Kiriel mentioned, the entracne through the line cave will be tedious and prolly semi long. And then the efforts to explore and investigate might take a while, so this could be a whole-day thing..

i am really looking forward to making this effort as this is one of the main reasons I have trained the way I have...I love exploring new areas and solving problems! (with the help of Tas, Mongo, Fist, Zed and Jinx I finally got into the Footprint Cave and the Damp Tunnel...which was like pulling teeth. Great night it was, too).

Thanks all,
Aethelred

[Tas]

/action suffers an anxiety attack after nearly panicking in the footprint cave.

/ponder watch out for the low overhead rocks! specially those tall people!

That was fun. That cave was plain frustrating though!

Tas

[Tater]

I'd love to help do some exploring on Fire Island. I'll watch for date and time and if I'm available, I'll certainly be there.

I'm curious to see if the Volcoons can understand anything that Stone Statue in North East farm says, too.

I believe Baff collected quite a few phrases that it's spoken. He posted them on the newsgroup a while back, but I don't know how to go about finding them again. I suppose we could just take a couple and see if the Volcoons react in any way.

-Tater

[TerraHawk]

You could always do a search on http://www.google.com (they bought out Deja and now have the ability to search the Deja Archive of usenet groups).

TH.

[Tater]

Thanks, TerraHawk.

Here's a list I found, posted by WormTounge:

Kyelraz Icen
Raeruna Sokidkv
Kthaxu Prahid
Mododrebt Deat
Wyfu Test
Ossec Nergra
Asupro Jes
Bupongo Fladolo
Swil Weeyerseu
Sawpado Amehgmll
Grenols Aged
Boot Berrygneijo
Deraldthw Thadr
Shadir Neare
Tande Dohumb
Hawtyll Priineh
Juubbyz Growly
Aronderd Thract

-Tater

[Mighty One]

I've been on a few group hunts with Tan to Devils Island and have just begun some solo explorations when there is no one else on. I like to solo explore sometimes, because I can be very methodical, hugging every tree etc. If I'm with a group, they have long since left the area or are yelling at me to come on :)

Of course, when I am solo, I have to stay in the safest places or places I can run to safty easily from. So far just the south beach area. Here area a few observations and questions I have. I will refer to map snells using the grid system in the map at http://Lodge29.tripod.com/fimaplg.gif. If there is another map of the island, could someone post the address?

1. Crossing snell boundries on Devils Island seems to be a little bit more random than on Puddleby island. You seem to be displaced sometimes, further away from the edge, and sometimes, the crossing will fail and you will be back in the snell you left. I had this happen to me once moving from one south beach snell to another one. I was also displaced once from near the surf line all the way to the beach grass line. None of these strange happenings was repeatable. I also see sparkles (now that I am training with the Marsh Hermit) as I am crossing the snells. Would following a path finder (similar to the technique in the south marsh) reduce the scatter as you cross a snell?

2. I have only explored snells C8 - F8 so far. Most of the time when a party lands on the south beach, there is a period of confusion as parties land on different snells. D8 has some 'green' sand at the east edge near the surf, E8 does not. A party can agree to meet at the green sand. When you land, if the surf line is straight and but there is no green sand, then go one snell west. If the surf line is crooked, then you need to go several snells west, you might want to reboard your boat and reland, trying to keep west while you land on the south shore.

3. I have had not problems surviving D8-E8 encountering mostly orga, crawlers and large vermine. F8 is more difficult, I saw artaks and needed to run from a bolok. Also the Driftwood cave may be too hard for me solo. There were just too many creatures and I had to flee, but saw mostly spiders and adders. A small party of characters of my level (low 2nd circle) should be able to clear out the cave I think. I have yet to examine the cave carefully.

4. C8 is a maze of woods. I didn't hit every tree, but could find no secret passages. Just before I left, I got the idea that the layout of the snell itself, with the maze of trees, might mean something if I could only get a birds eye view of the snell. Has anyone else tried mapping one of the mazes? How would this be accomplished?

That's all I have now :)

[Farhope]

I reply to point 1., Mighty One

Yes, I definitively think that the more training with the Marsh Hermite you have, the easier you have to navigate the island... but you have to cross the boundaries, leading the group.
For example, there are some place where you cross the boundaries and go back to the same location if you don't have enough (or no) training with the Marsh Hermite. Even if you have a good training with him but you follow someone who don't have enough training you go back with the leading person.