Janistaar, Carlia, and a small party went exploring from 1642.03 to 1643.03, north of Distar and along the mountains from the dwarf city east gate to Zokat.
(The remainder of this report was written by Kim Barrett.)

As it turned out, their journey was well timed to avoid any possible interaction with the dwarves campaigning against the goblins presently occupying the east gate.

A party comprising Janistaar, Carlia, David, Adrastus, Vanar, and Dawn, with telepathic support by Athemenes from the Castle, set out to do some exploration.

In early April 1642 they travelled by ship from Malarme to Gortoa, and then on to Distar.

From Distar they retraced the path taken by the elf group nearly 20 years before. They travelled upriver to the town of Isalien. From there, they continued upriver along the eastern fork to its end, and then eastward and northward through the desert along the southern edge of the mountains, until reaching the eastern end of the mountains and reaching plains. They then travelled westward through plains and foothills, along the northern edge of the mountains. They eventually found the East Gate of the Dwarf City, took a good look, and then retreated. They spent some more time exploring, following a river down to the sea. Eventually they returned to Isalien.

From Isalien they explored up the western fork of the river, and returned. They then went back up the eastern fork and made their way west along the mountains to the headwaters of the western fork. From there they continued mostly westward along the mountains, retreated back to refill on water. Making better time (they'd already covered some of the route, and for a while switched from 2 watches to 3 in order to spend more time travelling, deeming the risk from smaller watches to be worthwhile), they went back westward along the mountains, reaching the western-most extent of that range, and then headed roughly west of north, ultimately reaching Zokat by mid-November 1642.

For the most part, they successfully avoided encounters, including a jabberwok during the night. (Acuity continues to demonstrate its value in controlling encounters). Unfortunately, a second jabberwok night-time encounter was not spotted sufficiently far away for the party to escape unnoticed. Unfortunate for the jabberwok, as it turned out. It seemed surprised when it glared at David and he wasn't engulfed in a ball of fire. (Thank you, Carlia!) It seemed disappointed when David fended off its bite. And it seemed quite stunned when David and Janistaar smacked it on the head and Vanar cut of its tail, thrashing about while the three of them proceeded to make pulp of its head. Adrastus was unsuccessful in collecting any blood though.

This excursion was the first time Janistaar has used any of the manticore-based jerky he's collected over the years. Much better than cram on these long expeditions, being both lighter and not poisonous over long exposure. He is planning to replenish his stock during the coming months of manticore hunting. [Adrastus wonders how the Earl prevented the spoilage of these extra rations we were carrying, and thinks the elves should try to learn this trick.]

Adrastus and David have both decided that they should look for Porter training.

Carlia collected a lot of geographic information to be put toward future improved maps.

[Owain was getting reports from Athemenes. Fingladrin and Pelor will get Adrastus's version of this when the exploration party returns to the County in March 1643.]