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Skizlum Skallaglamm

Geysers and Mine Shafts

Skizlum Skallaglamm's Zargnoth Adventures

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I'm done with my excavations, so now its time to turn my eyes upwards rather than downwards.

As long as I'm at the Mine Shaft, I dodge in just once, and maim a Mine troll to the very brink of death. That done, I pop back to the Temple, kowtow once again for health (I love being a Temple Guardian), wind myself up, and transport myself back out of the Zargnoth. That done, I move out, never looking back, and head to a nearby Great Cave. I go in, and search around carefully, but find nothing of interest save one Damaged Large Iron Shield. This is _not_ what I wanted. I pass my Skull Mace on to a nearby monster (I've got too much stuff as it is), and settle in for the night.

Okay, I rid myself of a lot of small stuff, and try this again. In I go, and right off the bat I kill a Xanxu Cave Spider, which bodes well. A couple creatures later, I find what I was looking for: a Xanxu Wart Toad! I kill him quickly, and only then notice that my item limits are set such that I choose to leave the Feet behind. Lookingly longingly behind me, I finish exploring (getting a Great Dark Sword for my troubles) and depart. Well. As long as I'm in the area, I nose into a Tainted Hollow, which is much as I remember it. I do make a nice haul out of it, though- a Large Locked Box, 31 Oculars, and a Kudo Bone. Nice. I also try to dodge into a Large Cave, but I decide I've done myself enough damage for one day. Tomorrow, back to that stupid Great Cave, this time with my brain operating properly...

Okay, I fix my item pick-up guidelines, Heal myself a little, Cache a Large Iron Shield, and head back in. One trip later, I find no treasure, but I do kill a Wart Toad, and _finally_ am carrying the set of Xanxu Webbed Feet that I was looking for. So what do I do with them? I step outside, and Rid them (along with my Large Locked Box) into a Fire Rider cache. Then, I promptly turn around and go back into the cave. Hey, this is working- I find yet another Xanxu Webbed Feet! My treasure is an Opened Large Box, which kind of hurts, as now I'm carrying too much too reclaim my Locked Box. Sigh. In any case, now I don't need to pick up the set of Feet that I just left here, so I jog back the the Temple, and place a Kudo Bone and three Silver Bone Necklaces reverently inside. I don't have enough spell points to teleport at the moment, so I make camp there for the night, feast on my 33 excess food, and plan on returning to the Z tomorrow.

I throw some stuff in the store room, and it's time to teleport. Welcome back to the Z! I kowtow quickly, and hey, I have Health again! A quick jog south puts me back at the Mine Shaft, and I go one for two in killing Rock Trolls. From there, it's only a few short squares to our local Tower Ruins, and I cache some Xanxu stuff there for future use. I settle in, and do some serious rebuilding, with the help of four fellow Fire Riders. 1206 APs still to go...

There are a _lot_ of us here. Four days later, the Tower is as completed as we can get it, and Raven Nevermore has magically created a Xanxu Construct. I immediately focus 150 APs of my will into using it, and am rewarded by seeing it come to life and build a section of wall. Cool! I dodge down into the Cellar, running the usual route, and come out with a Shingle Poison and a Dragonbone. Something for Reepicheep, I guess. I try to transfer four Yellow Lotus Leaves to a fellow Fire Rider, but he's no longer here, so I don't bother. Then, it's off west, to a CocoPalm, where I sit and collect Oil galore. Hey, here's the moster I tried to transfer the items too! I go ahead and transfer them after all...

And back I go. I run by OPUB, and stop and make/transfer six White Lotus Elixir to her, which should help her in her efforts. From there, it's a quick jog back to the Tower, where I put 252 APs into the Tower, and watch the Construct putting nearly final touches on the top minaret. Only 70 more APs are needed! It's so nice doing this with a large group...

Two days later, Raven Nevermore gathers myself and eight other Fire Riders together, and chants a powerful spell. After some ear-splitting thunder, Xamadu the Wizard steps from his other-wordly prison and greets us! We've called forth our first Wizard! He shows us around his Tower, and I'm gratified to see that he offers those of us who aided in his ceremony his services for free. I spend a _lot_ of time learning new and interesting things. However, I'll keep most of what he has to show us a quiet secret for a little while, just so as not to spoil it for the world. Suffice to say, if you have money and time it's well worth your effort to talk to the wizards... Anyway, not much energy left for the day, so I make my way over to the Temple and curl up inside, guarding it against those who might care to mess with it. All in all, A good day.

Reepicheep drops by during the night, and I have to slip out to meet him (Shroud is rather snooty about us inviting in Lightsiders). He passes me a Banded Iron Armor and a Xanxu Webbed Feet, the latter of which I promptly stash in the Temple. As dawn breaks, I stash some more Xanxu pieces, and place my Great Dark Sword on the altar. Then, it's back to the Tower where I learn all sorts of things about Green Lotus Elixirs, though I still don't have a clue what it does. I can make it, though. I jog back out and over to the Mine Shaft, where I kill another Troll, and then put myself up for the night.

Two more trips into the Mine Shaft kills one more Troll, but my Riskiness falls to 6, so that pretty much concludes my fighting. Not much new at the Temple, so I bring my Health up to par and pop back west. A few hours later I'm at the Blazing Arrowhead, and I stop to unload about ten different items. I wish these Inns would buy my weaponry, though- I'm tired of carrying all this stuff. There are about five more monsters staying here, and I'm Tougher, I'm more Muscular, I'm Badder, and I'm Healthier than each and every one of them! When did I turn into a tough girl? I used to be such a wimp.

Where's everybody go? Now there's just two monsters here. Oh, well, I transfer my Wooden Fuvah Statue over to one of them, sell a few things, and its off into the wild again. Hey, there are Knolltir in this conveneient Hillock! I kill two quick, and continue on. I dodge through the local Temple, and get rid of my Long Sword and my Grasping Scourge there. Keeping moving, I come to a Tainted Hollow, and make my way through it, killing Possessed Palm after Possessed Palm until I get to the center. Facing the Red Wood Palm, I flee! What? Oh, wait, my Riskiness is still at minimal from two turns ago. Sigh. I set up camp on the edge of the Hollow, and rejoice in the fact that today's efforts have pushed my skill level with Pointed Weapons to Level 6. That's six in everything but Missile for me, so it's time to start working on a seven. Hopefully, this Troll Hammer will fill the bill...

Just one short square away, I collect the Locked Large Box I left a month or two ago, and then dodge into a Great Cave a couple times. My treasure is an Iron Helm and an Iron Shield respectively, but I do get the Xanxu Webbed Feet I wanted. From there, I head back to the Shroud Temple, and set up camp for the night.

During the night, I get a request from a friend that I hang around for a while so as to transfer him my Wooden Kabuki Statue, so I end up camping here for a bit. Nineteen days later, I'm up and active. Billie Bob has come through as well, so I end up pulling a couple of nice pieces of equipment out of the Temple and donating them to my favorite charity (Billie Bob is a godless monster, trying to get together some equipment to power a small corps of godless monsters), In any case, my friend is up at the Inn, so I have to camp there tonight. For something to do, I jog through a Loggerhead Camp, knocking off four without raising a sweat. Then back to the Inn, where I set up my tent and transfer Rufus Stonefist the Statue. He tries to transfer me a Golden Dragon Statue in return, but group transferring still seems to not be functional, and as he hands me the Statue it disappears in mid-air between his hands and mine. Sigh.

Oops. I forgot to transfer Rufus my spare suit of Banded Armor, so I do that now. It's a quick run back to the Temple, stopping only to kill three Knolltir, and I dig out a Great Sword to give to Billie Bob. I kowtow for spells while I'm here, and once again Shroud chooses not to teach me the Identify Item spell I'm missing. Sigh. I teleport back to the Z again, kowtow for full health, and head east.

Another days' travel, and I kill several things as I go: a Chomper, a Grizzley Hedgehog, a Giant Tree Squid (hidden in a Kongo-Mongo Tree), and a Chasuck. I run through a Fort (only the second I've ever seen, and the first was on my one and only turn so mangled as to be completely illegible), but my questing teaches me nothing new. I Loot 'n' Vandalize it just to see what happens, and end up rousting some poor monster out of their bed and chasing them out into the wilderness. With a smile on my face, I move on to a set of rebuilt Tower Ruins, cache two White Lotus Leaves and a Xanxu Webbed Feet, and settle in for the night. Lots of Fire Riders in the area- I wonder if something could be up?

Arrgh, glitch, crash. Ater some weird time effects, I head out for the Great Cave, only to end my trip on the spot, not bothering to do any of the things I planned to.

Okay, let us try this again. I throw away a heapin' helpin' o' stuff I no longer need, and head into the Great Cave. First trip gets me a Large iron Shield, second gets me a Dragon Ichor. More importantly, though, I collect a set of Xanxu Webbed Feet. These in tow, I head back to the Tower Ruins, and cache them there. This is coming together nicely.

Well, we still need more feet, so I guess that it's back to the Cave one more time. This time, I come up with two sets of Webbed Feet, so I cache one here and take the other back to the Tower with me. Oh, yeah, I also picked up a Shadow Sword and a Great Light Sword, which I'll have to find other homes for, I suppose. Meanwhile, I empty my pockets next to the Tower, and this thing is finally just about done.

Just about done. Hah! Things are going seriously awry, and for the second time, half of our cache has mysteriously disappeared. So, I get up and tramp off to the Great Cave yet again. Two trips in gets me two dirty Loggerhead shoes as treasure. (Joy.) I also get the parts I needed, and trek back to the Tower site and cache them. I also transfer away last turns treasure, as I had no real use for either. What a great use of my time.

Okay, the stupid Construct is finally built. I do one quick jog to the Great Cave (getting a Wooden Shroud Statue as treasure), and then back to the Tower. One of my compatriots confesses he accidentally did a LV here instead of a U 33, so it turns out some construction is necessary first. I do a Z 500, and do the necessary building and then waste _all_ my remaining APs, apparently not having the sense to stop rebuilding once there's no more rebuilding I can do. Then, of course, I don't use the Construct as all, as I used all my energy in not rebuilding the Tower already.

Once more over to the Great Cave (Iron Greaves), and then back again to the Tower. 188 APs of Construct usage leaves the thing with 250 APs still to go. I've done my bit (too many times over), and now I'm just going to sit and wait 'til its done...

Next up: Is it done?

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These articles were taken from Skizlum Skallaglamm's Monster Island Page.
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