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Historic Reference file 9845 -- The War Diaries of Prilock Castian

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On the first day of the invasion, there was no signal to suggest that an attack was about to begin. Certainly, everyone was aware that the Runic War was underway and that the issues at stake concerned who would control the dominant language and thereby shape the context of future occurrences. I remember exactly where I was when the first attack began.

I was approaching from the east side of town when an out-of-place gentleman with a curious hairstyle and unusual attire walked almost directly into me. I don't know what this man's business was, but he was so out of place I thought it would be wise to press him for some information. I doubted that he was the vanguard of the attack, but he stood out so much in such an odd way that my curiosity got the better of me. The man indicated to me that he intended to head to the nearby home and that was the place he was in a hurry to get to. I do not know what it was, but something in this man's bearing despite his strange appearance was especially familiar to me--like I knew him. Regardless, I informed him that the nearby home would not be the best choice for shelter as the man who lived there most of us regarded as crazy on a good day, and outright mad on an off day. In the entire time I have lived in Undertown, I cannot think of a single guest that the man at that house had had. In fact, it was hard for me to recall even seeing the man who lived there. I knew that was his residence, and had been for as long as I had been in Undertown, but for some reason, he just never really concerned me so I never gave him much thought until this strangely familiar fellow said he was going to his house.

It seemed like the out-of-place gentleman was going to insist on going to the man's house anyway, right up until the first volley of the conflict asserted itself fast and furious. The Metheons apparently had closed in around our community, and began unleashing psionic attacks and had somehow evaded our watches. The only thing that saved us in those early unprepared hours was the fact that the psionic attacks they were using were not ground conducting. There was a blanket of neutral thermal energy that we could lay down in and avoid that which was being directed at us until we could all assemble and formulate some defenses. Since Undertown was trying to remain neutral during the conflict, we did not have any plans or contingencies where weapons were involved for our own self-defense. Still, we lost men and women in those first days. I can still smell their charred flesh sometimes before I go to bed at night. I can still hear the Metheons chanting. There is something deeply disturbing about attending to your day just as you always have one moment, only to be fighting for your life in the next. It is as if the mind has gears and shifting between those two states of being is too far apart.

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