Soldi, 40 Spring 568 (9/22/07)

It’s hard to believe, but I happened to step out of the library the other day, and…well, actually, I could stop right there, the fact that I was even out of the library is astonishing enough; despite my wishes I almost never get out these days, and then only to gather a few coins and pay my storage fees. But I do get out every once in a great while, and this time I had no sooner stepped out than somebody in town square mentioned to me that a group was about to attempt to thwart an ethereal incursion on Metz Island. At first I thought that I would have to take a pass, since I know that pretty much any place on Metz is very difficult to reach, but it seems that some clever exiles were moving the green portal to the site of the incursion, so that it was a simple matter of making a trip to the South Forest to hopping through a couple of mirrors to join the group. There I found a wide range of exiles, both the powerful and the not-so (I include myself in the latter group these days). We were moving the portal through passes in the interior of Metz, fighting the many wendies and dark-rock ‘myrs and trying to dodge the variety of rocks and pebbles they were tossing our way. Finally we reached the location of the incursion, where we eventually cleared out most of the ‘myrs so that Wangah Rah could set up the proto-kyuem out in the middle of a small valley; meanwhile the bulk of the exiles established camp around the green portal on a nearby plateau.

The camp location was not entirely secure, as there were more ‘myrs and wendies sneaking up from behind, and a number of them were tossing rocks from the tops of nearby hills where we couldn’t reach them. Now the real problem began, as the incursion started and hordes of etherial creatures poured in through the ripture. Most of these weren’t terribly strong, but there were a lot of them, and when a big wave arrived at the same time as several ‘myrs things could get pretty frantic, and we would be forced to retreat back to the plateau to heal up in preparation for another rush into the valley. We could mow the ethereals down pretty fast, but we took a lot of damage in the process, and even with the large number of healers present we would occasionally need a breather to catch up. Having the green portal on the plateau was a lifesaver, as reinforcements could arrive during the battle and help turn the tide when things were looking grim, and I saw a number of amazing chain runs to pull exiles out of the valley for healing (I took part in several of these as chainee). And once Kyloter pushed me out of the valley with the entire ethereal horde pounding on him, an impressive feat even for a dwarf.

I gather that the point of the exercise is to prevent the ethereals from killing the “sprites” that flow from the ripture to the proto-kyuem, taking the form of small whisps of vapor; if enough sprites made it intact then the kyuem would stabilize the area and the incursion would be over, but if most were killed by the malevolent ethereals then ethereal warming would increase, which I understand is a bad thing. Although we were beaten back several times, we managed to hold the area near the kyuem open for long periods of time, and as more troops arrived the periods became longer, until finally the kyuem started a steady glow and the ripture was closed. Much celebration (and healing) followed, and the clever exiles prepared to move the green portal back towards civilization. I decided to take a short vacation in Camp Dred (where there were no rocks or pebbles being tossed at me, I think that was the hardest part of the whole battle). I have been told that if the exiles can establish a few more kyuems then a stable pattern will have been established and the threat of ethereal warming will have been averted; I’m glad I got the chance to take even a small part in one of the battles to help save Puddle from yet another threat.