Explorations near Fastor, and a dead Hillock...

Having concluded my look into the Tainted Hollow, it's time to head back out into the wilderness...

A quick run through the town lets me sell off some goodies: 5 Unreadable Scrolls, 3 Emu Darts, an Iron Helm, 22 Koala Teeth and my Silver-Tipped spear all go out the door. Equipping the King's Spiked Helmet I just acquired, it's time to move on... Unfortunately, there's nothing much to be found hereabouts. Jungle surrounds me as far as the eyes can see, and very little else. I do run across a Chasuck, and have very little trouble dispatching him- one round of combat does 63 to it, 28 to me, and it's dead.

An anniversary, of sorts, for me: Turn 200! The turn starts out explorationally dull- I kill yet another Chasuck (55 to it, 26 to me in one round), and that's it for the newer creatures this time around. I stumble across a small gaggle of older creatures, including a quite annoying Thermadon Rex that survives 161 points of health loss. I also find something I've been looking for since I crossed the Wall: Oil! Yes, I finally find my first Cocopalm of the Zargnoth! Bad luck on my part (not finding one for 20+ turns), or are they a little rarer here? The end of my day's travels provides food for thought, however, and I'm not sure I like what I'm swallowing. Exactly 60 squares east of the Zargnoth/Kunbar Crystal Hills border, I've come across three spaces of Crystal Hills running due North/South. Neither Detect Creatures nor Detect Above-Ground Places show anything east of these squares. Am I at yet another wall? I'll try to go around these next turn, but my suspicion is that I might not be able to.

The answer to the big question? It's a wall. It seems pretty definite- I'm up to at least nine squares of Crystal Hills running due North/South, with nothing detectable past. That's enough evidence for me- I'm going to turn my focus back to the interior of the Zargnoth for a bit. After finding no Cocopalms 'til now, I find four this turn. And so it goes. Nothing new even to fight, which is just as well as the Creature fighting was dysfunctional. I apparently killed a Smite, as he's on my map and I killed one Creature, but he doesn't show up in my text. Something to play in- a Hillock! Yes, apparently those pesky Knolltir haunt even the Zargnoth. I think I may do my part to clear them out of here.

Nine Knolltir and one Dune Ooze less on the island, but nothing to report, save perhaps that Knolltir die as easily in the Zargnoth as they do anywhere else. My apologies, but I think I'll spend a few turns emptying out this Hillock and reclaiming my rightful hold on the "Most Monsters Battled" title on the Camp Mangy website (these nine put me at 203 Monsters battled)!

Fourteen more Knolltir and another Dune Ooze down. Knolltir seem to have the same Health and treasure range they've always had, as expected. That's a total of 23 Knolltir down, who knows how many more to go...

Four more Knolltir, one more Dune Ooze. And with 27 Knolltir total killed, the Hillock is empty! Treasure acquired: one Iron Helm, a Short Sword, a Large Lockpick, and a Kudo Bone. One of my many later trips in today also turns up a Silver Ring. Basically, it looks like the Hillocks here are exactly the same as back west- no better treasure, no tougher Knolltir, no extra Knolltir. Ah, well, in any case it's still another empty Hillock for my trophy belt.

Back to wandering the interior Zargnoth go I... And what do I find? Nothing! Fearful of my extreme prowess, all the island's creatures go into hiding for a day. By spyglass and by spell I do turn up a few things of mild interest: a Large Cave, a Hillock (again!), and a King Ock Mushroom Grove.

Though perhaps not the toughest creature on the island, it's now on my "to avoid" list: the Giant Tree Squid. Let's see- I'm a reasonably tough and well-armored monster. So I attack the Squid. We do the full two rounds of combat, and it dies, after taking 86 points of damage. However, in those two rounds, it does 132 points to me! Ouch! For this I jumped out of a balloon? And what do you get from a dead squid? Zippo. Not even some cool squid ink, or something like that. Some weeks it just doesn't pay to wake up on this island...

Thanks to that annoying Squid, my trek into a Tainted Hollow is somewhat less than successful. From there, it's a quick jog back to the town of Fastor, where I learn that the last Monster there was Mirg the Magnificent, about 16 days before me. Lots of tracks to be found, however: Viper tracks, Monger tracks, and Plodder tracks. Assuming that Tong the Mad is one of the other two tracks, I wonder who the third monster is? Oh, well- I promptly hop the train for Dillon, so I guess I'll never know. From there it's a quick jog to the Inn, where I register for some Whip training (the only category I don't have level 5 or better in). There's another Monster here as well... One Pumped-Up Babe. Now where do I know that name from? I do love these trains- the ability to combine with Monsters anywhere on the map is so convenient...

Well, after that quick stop at The Slaughtered Plodder in Dillon, it's time to continue my explorations and head out into the wilderness again...