{"id":755,"date":"2001-06-02T17:34:43","date_gmt":"2001-06-03T00:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.puddleby.com\/lundar\/?p=755"},"modified":"2001-06-02T17:34:43","modified_gmt":"2001-06-03T00:34:43","slug":"ether-storm-hits-puddleby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/2001\/06\/ether-storm-hits-puddleby\/","title":{"rendered":"Ether Storm Hits Puddleby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 67, Year 542 of the Ascendancy<\/font><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nStrange emanations in town, Puddleby under siege, and rifts in the very
\nfabric of space itself. Are these scenes taken from the next next
\nRipture War? Nai, but this strange phenomena could prove equally as
\ndeadly to Puddleby. As yi may know, the stability of Purgatory and the
\nEthreal Plane have been declining steadily as of late, and this has in
\nturn been causing many strange phenomena to occur in Puddleby. Add to
\nthis today, another odd manifestation of the Ethreal: the Cloud of
\nEther. No one is exactly sure how this strange Cloud first appeared in
\nPuddleby, but in a matter of minutes, the Cloud had multiplied,
\nspawning multiple portals to the Ethreal, and held the town in thrall.
\nClick here<\/u><\/a> to read more.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

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

<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nAfterwards we had a bunch of fun, including
\nseveral one-on-one matches. Hawkthorn felled the Apprentice Forey with
\na few fell swoops of his axe, but I managed to beat Hawkthorn into the
\nground with my staff, and Forey turned around and stabbed me to death
\nwith his dagger. I guess yi could say we were pretty evenly matched.
\nAnyways, as the contests wound down to a close, we heard over the
\nsunstone that there was an invasion in town. We all rushed for our
\nboats, and headed back to Puddleby. Landing on the west beach, we were
\na bit surprised that there were no Darshak Warships present at the
\ndocks. However, when we staggered into town square, it became apparent
\nwhy.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nTown square was littered with the bodies of fallen
\nexiles, and all about them floated stunning balls of mist, that moved
\nabout with surprising speed. Mai’s Lawn was one big mass of fog, so
\nsaturated was it with these spherical beings, and upon the lawn also
\nstood several Ethreal Portals, that howled with a wind not of this
\nworld. I was quickly felled by these mist like beings, but the exiles
\nwere eventually able to lead and trap all of the mist-creatures in
\nMai’s Lawn.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe “mist-creatures” turned our to be Clouds of
\nEther, strange manifistations of the Ethreal Plane. They seem to
\npossess some sort of vague intelligence, or else are just drawn to
\nliving beings, for the Clouds chased down living exiles with unerring
\naccuracy. These Clouds are composed of the misty, ether stuff of their
\nhome plane, and at first it seemed doubtful that we would be able to
\nharm these strange misty beasts. However, it was discovered that the
\ncore of the Clouds are composed of a crystalline substance that can be
\nstruck by weapons, and destroyed. However, in order to get to the core,
\none must step into the deadly mists of the Cloud, and the Cloud is
\nquite capable of harming exiles.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nAn added peril of the clouds, is the strange
\nability of the Clouds to randomly create portals leading to the Ethreal
\nPlane. These portals last for about 10-15 minutes, and exiles
\nunfortunate enough to slip in are almost guaranteed a depart. Several
\nexiles did happen to fall into the portals, including the town’s
\nbeloved Algernon, but any and all rescue attempts ended in failure, and
\nwe were all forced to depart from the Ethreal Plane.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nAnyways, after several hours of fighting with the
\nClouds of Ether, victory seemed impossible. The Clouds, as mentioned
\nabove, were very powerful, and it was difficult to surround the Clouds,
\nor to even damage them, since their cores were so small. The high rate
\nat which the Clouds multiplied, also deterred us. Several times, the
\nnumber of the Clouds was reduced to two or three, but each time, the
\nClouds would spew out more of their Ether, and the number of Clouds
\nwould go soaring back to twenty. However, after over eight hours of
\nintensive fighting, we finally managed to erradicate the Clouds, and
\nthe last of the Ethreal Portals were closed. Thus the town was saved
\nfrom the menace of the Ethreal Clouds.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nBefore the last of the portals closed however, we
\nall made a last ditch attempt to rescue fallens from the Ethreal Plane,
\nbut we again ended up departing. However, one good thing did come out
\nof our unsuccessful efforts in the Ethreal. It seems that several
\nexiles that went through the portals found a strange tower standing
\namidst the shifting clouds of the Ethreal Plane. To my knowledge, no
\none was able to enter the tower, but there was a mirror that stood
\nbeside it, that led back to Puddleby. Unfortunately, no one remembers
\nhow to get back to the tower, but now at least we know it exists. Now
\nour job is to return to the Ethreal Plane, and find it! (Check out Norm’s diary<\/u><\/a> for another excellent account of the Cloud phenomena).<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}