{"id":793,"date":"2000-06-16T03:27:33","date_gmt":"2000-06-16T10:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.puddleby.com\/lundar\/?p=793"},"modified":"2000-06-16T03:27:33","modified_gmt":"2000-06-16T10:27:33","slug":"unholy-communion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/2000\/06\/unholy-communion\/","title":{"rendered":"Unholy Communion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nDay 73, Year 538 of the Ascendancy<\/font><\/p>\n

\nLate one afternoon on the 73rd day of Winter, I
\nfound myself relaxing in the River Tunnel, listening to the quiet the
\nquiet babbling of the water. The air around me was quite cool, and
\ndamp; and as I lay upon my boat being gently rocked by river water, I
\nfell asleep.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"Chilling<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhen I awoke, I sensed a cold from within myself.
\nAt first I thought I had caught a cold from the damp air of the Tunnel,
\nbut I quickly realized that there was something much more sinister to
\nthe sensation. Feeling uncomfortable, I grabbed the ores of my boat,
\nand paddled towards Puddleby. However, as I made my way for town, I
\nheard several disconcerting sunstone messages. It seemed that several
\nother exiles had felt similar sensations. Some felt “very cold” while
\nothers felt a cold deep inside them, like a distant anger. Garr sensed
\nthe air around him charged with a great power, and the chill deepening.
\nBy now, everybody was worried, but we could not figure out a pattern to
\nthis disturbance; exiles of all proffesions and genders felt the chill.
\nHowever, after comparing notes, it seemed that most exiles who had felt
\nthe chill were in the northern parts of the isle. My hunch was that
\nsomething dark was going down in the undine hut, and made my way
\nswiftly there. My hunch was correct.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"Skeletal<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhat awaited me in the undine hut was a peculiar
\nsight. Four skeletals stood before the ladder leading into the undine
\ncave, and a lone ‘Zo by the name of Garr stood silent vigil. Strangely,
\nthe skeletals made no move to attack myself, or the ‘Zo, attacking only
\nwhen I got too close to the ladder. Garr warned me not to descend the
\nladder, for the witch-priestess Lilit was conducting some sort of dark
\nceremony. I thought it in my best interest not to get slaughtered by
\nhordes of undine, so I waited in the cave. Soon other exiles arrived,
\nand joined me in waiting before the ladder. Garr continued to persist
\nthat we not enter the cave; he claimed that Lilit had somehow saved his
\nlife, and as a favor, he was here to make sure nobody interrupted her.
\nHowever, curiosity overcame some of the exiles, and they stepped into
\nthe dark portal.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nMoments later, the same exiles stepped climbed up
\nthe ladder, with looks of horror engraved on their faces. It was if
\nthey had witnessed their own deaths; all the blood had drained from
\ntheir faces. The exiles that returned spoke of hordes of undine waiting
\nwithin, but strangely not attacking. The few that remained within tried
\nto urge more exiles to enter the cave, but none dared to move a step.
\nTime passed, and still more exiles milled into the hut. Now my own
\ncurriosity was too much to deny, and if the undine were not attacking,
\nI reasoned, it would be safe for myself. I descended the ladder.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhat awaited me was a most shocking sight. Within
\nthe cavern milled about at least fifty undead monsters, yet they did
\nnot move to attack me. In the midst of all these beasts stood Lilit
\nherself, uttering strange chants, and between her chants, warnings for
\nus to leave. She claimed that this was some sort of “Communion”, and
\nthat it was supposed to be peaceful, with no bloodshed on either side.
\nShe warned us that if we continued to disrupt her ceremonies, she would
\nnot be able to maintain control of the undine. I lingered in the cave
\nfor a moment longer, marveling at the stationary undine, then fled back
\nto the hut lest Lilit unleash her army upon me.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nBack in the hut, more exiles were sitting about
\nthan ever, not knowing what to make of this strange event. A few exiles
\nhad joined with Garr now, pleading for the exiles not to attack the
\nundine, and blocking the entrance to the cavern. Now, I did not know
\nwhat to make of this. Who was in the right? Should we go down and
\nslaughter undine who meant us no harm? Or was Lilit lying, and this was
\nall just some plot to summon an enormous horde of undine to unleash
\nupon us? I was confused, for ever since I arrived on this isle, and
\ncame across the undine, they had always been creatures of unsurpassed
\nevil. The very world had been rent asunder because of them, during the
\nRipture War(though I am sure Lilit would argue that it was our fault
\nfor using the Soul Glasses).<\/font><\/p>\n

\nExiles began to argue with each other, tempers
\nflared, and finally the exiles protecting the undine were flung aside,
\nand a small army of exiles poured into the cave, and began to slaughter
\nthe undine. Lilit lost control of the undine part way through, and now
\neveryone was fighting for their lives. The undine were all eventually
\ndestroyed, but questions still filled my head. What had been the
\npurpose of this communion? Had it really been a peaceful meaning?
\nPerhaps Lilit started whole thing to set exile against exile, and place
\ndoubts in the hearts of men and women, who until then had not
\nquestioned the wanton destruction of undine. Or perhaps the Communion
\nhad an even darker purpose. Only time will tell…(Check out a Vision
\nStone of the Communion<\/a>, some of the Dissension<\/a> between exiles, and finally the Release<\/a> of the undine.)
\n<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 73, Year 538 of the Ascendancy Late one afternoon on the 73rd day of Winter, I found myself relaxing in the River Tunnel, listening to the quiet the quiet babbling of the water. The air around me was quite cool, and damp; and as I lay upon my boat being gently rocked by river […]<\/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\/793"}],"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=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/puddleby.com\/lundar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}