I opened a portal but it opened BEHIND Ember. She was right on the edge of the cliff, I guess, and there were Venom Lords in mid-swing as Ember stepped through to safety. I had wanted to park that whole lot, but I did not intend to cut it so close, nor did I want to park them right smack in the middle of everything. That nest was going to be a problem. I felt all but certain that some or all of them would catch sight of Ember when she passed by, even if she stuck ridiculously close to the south edge of the map.

Look at the trap Ember walked in to, then barely walked out:

The Steppes were now practically cut in half by two hordes of enemies. No way could I even dream of going around to the right. I had to go back to the left side and hope that I wouldn't get noticed by that whole pack at one time. This was going to get sticky, and my parking options were not promising if it went wrong again before I could establish another place to park another large-scale enemy offensive. And at this point, I was certain there WOULD be another, maybe several more. It would not be enough just to find the way to the Plains, I had to secure it, too. I would undoubtedly do better to use the Steppes as a fall back area than to start off right away with Parking moves in the Plains that would only reduce my options in the long run. Let me reiterate that parking was my last resort, not my preferred first tactic. If I ran out of parking options completely and got into more trouble, Ember's quest would end in surrender or death.

An hour and a half into this tribulation, not even halfway through the Outer Steppes, still no sign of the stairs to the Plains, and a long long way to go to reach New Orleans. I had already passed the point of no return. This was too much work to do twice. I wouldn't allow Ember to die if I could prevent it, but barring an actual game crash (and maybe even then!) this one attempt would be for all the marbles.

As I moved Ember around and down along the south, two monsters came racing over from the middle areas where the portal still glowed yellow on the map: a Venom and a Caster. Another Venom tagged along as I fought those two, but when these were dead, I stood Ember on the edge of range and waited to see what else would wake up. Nothing did, so I continued east. Only then did a Venom charge out from the middle. This made no particular sense to me, but I put him down then moved on. If I could find the stairs in the bottom corner, I'd clear out that area if I could, then advance to the plains.

What I found in the corner was another mob of Venoms, four of them.

As Ember fell back, passing the latitude of the portal again, another Venom snuck out from the parked pack and turned this into a party of five. I continued into the upper left corner, then cut back and headed east again.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth along the south edge, moving from upper to lower left in a long line with a microloop at each end. Five minutes, ten, fifteen and still there were five of them!

I finally wore a couple of them down to half and had one getting low. Two steps forward and one step back. One step forward and two steps back! Ack! Ack! Ack! Two steps forward...

And then there were four:

This cut the difficulty in half (and established beyond all doubt that five at a time was Ember's uppermost limit. Four would be her ceiling for minions). If you can already see where this will present a massive problem down the line (if Ember gets there) I congratulate you. If not, cross your fingers and hang on tight, because unless Ember survives the Outer Steppes you'll never get to see the big fight.

And then there were three...

When those were dead, I continued clockwise around the perimeter, now at the bottom of the map. That corner proved to be a cul-de-sac and turned me back to the west, two whole segments' worth. Then I turned north, still following the map edge, moving toward the upper right of screen now... I caught sight of the stairs to the Plains! There were situated in the north wall not far east of Ember's original parking location. Yuck. Worse, I woke up half a dozen Venom Lords, and as I fell back I attracted the attention of stragglers from Ember's last parking move. I had no place to go with this pack where I was willing to leave them. I had no choice but to open a portal right smack in the middle of everything and flee as the walls closed in from all sides.

There were now three full mobs arranged in an arc, blocking Ember off completely from the rest of the Outer Steppes, and more importantly, from access to the Plains of Despair. What the Hell was I supposed to do with this mess??

I stationed Ember next to Cain in the fortress and went to get myself a hot drink (chocolate). I needed a few minutes to think this through. Obviously, I had to go THROUGH at least one of those parked nests. The question was, which one? And how could I pull it off?

I finally hit on a plan. Click Here to read about Sirian the Nutcase.