March 25, 2007
South Forest Ethereal Incident

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What follows is a full report on the recent Planar Collision Incident in South Forest. In the image above, exiles gather on the south side of East Farms and wait for word from Malkor. Malkor had determined in advance that the planar collision would open up a portal to the Ethereal Plane in the sn'ell to the south.

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Exiles rushed south to confront the ethereal invasion force once the portal opened. Rakshasa got things off to a good start by tail-whipping this Ethereal Skeleton.

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Our initial attack did not go particularly well. We beat a hasty retreat to try to preserve our forces. The initial number of exiles prepared to engage the ethereal forces was unfortunately small. As the battle continued, more exiles joined in.

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The ethereal forces had no reservations about chasing us north into the East Farms. At one point, we almost lost East Farms and had to seek refuge in the huts.

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Here Gilean steps in to prevent Ethereal Slugs from feasting on the fallen.

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The kyeum is the key. In order to secure the sn'ell from ethereal incursion, a kyeum needs to be installed and powered up. Some exiles wanted Malkor to hurry up and place it, but Malkor wanted to make sure that exiles could actually hold the sn'ell long enough to allow the kyeum to power up. There was some concern that we might lose this sn'ell early on.

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The exile defense force strengthened and better organized itself, however, and eventually established itself in the sn'ell. The kyeum was placed; now we had to wait for an ethereal flow from the portal to power up the device.

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Waiting for the flow. By this time, more exiles had joined the battle, helping to secure the sn'ell.

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Ethereal forces continued to spawn, however.

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The flow begins. Ethereal strands flowed from the portal to the kyeum.

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The ethereal flow slowly powered up the kyeum. All the while, exiles continued to fend off ethereal spawn outbreaks, which threatened to disrupt the flow.

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Once the kyeum was fully charged, it glowed with multi-colored plasma. As Malkor noted, the sn'ell was now safe from ethereal incusion. No more ethereal monsters could escape into our plane through this portal. The portal remains in place, however, and exiles can travel to the ethereal plane and back through it.

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Exiles celebrate.

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Unfortunately, the remaining now-open portal exerts a powerful psychic effect on passersby. Exiles who see or approach such a portal suffer from a powerful suicidal temptation to jump inside, even if they know better. This tends to set off a cycle of suicidal leaps and rescues that can go on for extended periods of time and take up valuable resources. Immediately after the celebration, such a cycle occurred. Here, you see several exiles looking at the portal and wondering how best to rescue the fallen therein.

On the Clan Lord Sentinel, Crunch has opened up a discussion about how to counter this suicidal reality distortion field emitted by the portals. Malkor has suggested hiring builders to wall off the open portals.

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Rakshasa chews on an Ethereal Slug as the Ethereal Slug chews on Althea.

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After a few rescue-and-fall cycles, the rescue was complete.

Special thanks to Malkor and MaryJane for helping to coordinate Puddleby's response to this Planar Collision Incident.

Posted by Para at March 25, 2007 10:19 AM
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