Lundar's Library

Day 67, Year 542 of the Ascendancy

Strange emanations in town, Puddleby under siege, and rifts in the very
fabric of space itself. Are these scenes taken from the next next
Ripture War? Nai, but this strange phenomena could prove equally as
deadly to Puddleby. As yi may know, the stability of Purgatory and the
Ethreal Plane have been declining steadily as of late, and this has in
turn been causing many strange phenomena to occur in Puddleby. Add to
this today, another odd manifestation of the Ethreal: the Cloud of
Ether. No one is exactly sure how this strange Cloud first appeared in
Puddleby, but in a matter of minutes, the Cloud had multiplied,
spawning multiple portals to the Ethreal, and held the town in thrall.
Click here to read more.

The events of the fateful day began peacefully enough, with a battle to
the death in the Arena. It was a fairly uneventful and boring evening,
and several mystics decided to pass the time by having a Battle Royale
in the Arena. Forey, Mystara, Hawkthorn, and myself were present, and
we decided that the winner would receive a 5 coin prize from the
losers. The four mystics went to different corners of the Arena, and
the battle was begun! Mystara was taken out early on, and Hawkthorn and
I brought each other to red, before he finally felled me. Forey and
Hawkthorn, the last two remaining mystics, fought it toe-to-toe, but
Hawthorn’s powerful blows soon sent Forey to the ground. Then,
Hawkthorn called for a healer, and the prize money was paid up. (Check
out a Vision Stone of this event.)

The two kind healers that showed up were Azael and
Slyph. With their combined healing power, we were all back on our feet
in no time. Mystara had to leave, but the two healers decided to join
in on the fun, and we challenged Slyph to a duel. She accepted, and we
boosted each other up, and surround and pounded her to the ground. The
spectators present compared the scene to a healer being surrounded by a
horde of rats, but I rather resent that statement. It took us a while
to finally bring her down, but when we did, we brought down the wrath
of Althea upon us. We managed to place all the blame on Hawkthorn, and
he was promptly chopped to bits by Althea’s Bloodblade.

Afterwards we had a bunch of fun, including
several one-on-one matches. Hawkthorn felled the Apprentice Forey with
a few fell swoops of his axe, but I managed to beat Hawkthorn into the
ground with my staff, and Forey turned around and stabbed me to death
with his dagger. I guess yi could say we were pretty evenly matched.
Anyways, as the contests wound down to a close, we heard over the
sunstone that there was an invasion in town. We all rushed for our
boats, and headed back to Puddleby. Landing on the west beach, we were
a bit surprised that there were no Darshak Warships present at the
docks. However, when we staggered into town square, it became apparent
why.

Town square was littered with the bodies of fallen
exiles, and all about them floated stunning balls of mist, that moved
about with surprising speed. Mai’s Lawn was one big mass of fog, so
saturated was it with these spherical beings, and upon the lawn also
stood several Ethreal Portals, that howled with a wind not of this
world. I was quickly felled by these mist like beings, but the exiles
were eventually able to lead and trap all of the mist-creatures in
Mai’s Lawn.

The “mist-creatures” turned our to be Clouds of
Ether, strange manifistations of the Ethreal Plane. They seem to
possess some sort of vague intelligence, or else are just drawn to
living beings, for the Clouds chased down living exiles with unerring
accuracy. These Clouds are composed of the misty, ether stuff of their
home plane, and at first it seemed doubtful that we would be able to
harm these strange misty beasts. However, it was discovered that the
core of the Clouds are composed of a crystalline substance that can be
struck by weapons, and destroyed. However, in order to get to the core,
one must step into the deadly mists of the Cloud, and the Cloud is
quite capable of harming exiles.

An added peril of the clouds, is the strange
ability of the Clouds to randomly create portals leading to the Ethreal
Plane. These portals last for about 10-15 minutes, and exiles
unfortunate enough to slip in are almost guaranteed a depart. Several
exiles did happen to fall into the portals, including the town’s
beloved Algernon, but any and all rescue attempts ended in failure, and
we were all forced to depart from the Ethreal Plane.

Anyways, after several hours of fighting with the
Clouds of Ether, victory seemed impossible. The Clouds, as mentioned
above, were very powerful, and it was difficult to surround the Clouds,
or to even damage them, since their cores were so small. The high rate
at which the Clouds multiplied, also deterred us. Several times, the
number of the Clouds was reduced to two or three, but each time, the
Clouds would spew out more of their Ether, and the number of Clouds
would go soaring back to twenty. However, after over eight hours of
intensive fighting, we finally managed to erradicate the Clouds, and
the last of the Ethreal Portals were closed. Thus the town was saved
from the menace of the Ethreal Clouds.

Before the last of the portals closed however, we
all made a last ditch attempt to rescue fallens from the Ethreal Plane,
but we again ended up departing. However, one good thing did come out
of our unsuccessful efforts in the Ethreal. It seems that several
exiles that went through the portals found a strange tower standing
amidst the shifting clouds of the Ethreal Plane. To my knowledge, no
one was able to enter the tower, but there was a mirror that stood
beside it, that led back to Puddleby. Unfortunately, no one remembers
how to get back to the tower, but now at least we know it exists. Now
our job is to return to the Ethreal Plane, and find it! (Check out Norm’s diary for another excellent account of the Cloud phenomena).