D’Argentan Spire

[The Forgotten God]

“Not yet,” Asterix said. “I intended to.” The others nodded in agreement.

///

The next few hours result primarily in failure. The only magic that has any effect is divination and that simply expanded the view of the orb past its boundaries for a few seconds, showing a landscape that the tree looked like it belonged in.

[Thalia Vedas]

“At leaast we have worked out that elemental magic can effect it, and that what it presents to us is nit the sole contents. Have we had any luck on the second one, or is it the same?.

[The Forgotten God]

“The magic on them is identical, thankfully,” Elinor said. “I believe this tree was taken from somewhere and put inside this orb, whether to steal it or to protect it from the Mist I can’t be sure.”

[Thalia Vedas]

“Is there anyone here who has mist related abilities?” She asked them, thinking if the trapped mist in the case that had come to Lisandre before Melreth sent her here. “Perhaps if we directly expose it to some mist it will react?” She suggested.

[The Forgotten God]

The wizards looked at each other then shrugged. “There’s no Mist magician the Academy has, he’s a bit eccentric.” Elinor called for a lab assistant. “Go get Zechariah,” she said. The lab assistant made a face a bit like she was asking him to drink spoiled milk. “None of that! Get moving.” He ran off and Asterix looked to Thalia.

“My theory is that this needs to be taken to wherever it came from,” he said. “To break the spell. Sort of like how people believe you stop ghosts from haunting people.”

[Thalia Vedas]

“Is there anything the thesis is based off of, other than ghosts?” Thalia asked and waited fir the person to return, “I hope they were not created where we found them, that place was destroyed,”

[The Forgotten God]

Asterix shook his head. “We found records of some old magic that was like a preservation spell times a thousand, one that didn’t just preserve a book or the like but locked it in a plce out of time for safekeeping. If this is a large scale stasis spell then this tree belongs somewhere.” He handed her a heavy book that was the apparent source of what he said.

Elinor spoke up. “I’ve spoken to the druids to see if they have any information on a tree that looks like this, hopefully they can help us out as well.”

[Thalia Vedas]

Apparently Thalia had been mistaken in thinking this was just a tree, as had been described, “rather than druids, maybe we should seek out the naturalists, they may have a better idea where a tree like this is said to have come from.” Magic was not always the answer.

[The Forgotten God]

“That’s a good idea,” Asterix said. “The Botanists almost certainly have an idea where we should be looking.” The trio looked at each other then turned back to the orb as it returned slowly to its original state. “And perhaps the governor has heard of this strange fortress. He’s been farther than about anyone alive.”

[Thalia Vedas]

“Well, I can check wit( them if you all want to keep an eye on the orb.” Thalia said to them, getting the implication she’d have to. She nodded and waited for the mist expert to arrive.

[The Forgotten God]

The others nodded agreement and a few minutes later the Mist elementalist arrived. She was a tall Ed that nearly reached seven feet in height and she stared at the orbs. She ignored the other wizards and put her giant palm on the tree’s orb, and Thalia saw it radiate green a moment. Mist slowly creeped into the orb but after a few seconds it dissipated as though it had never been there. The sorceress pursed her lips. “I didn’t expect that,” she muttered to herself. She tried again and a cloud of Mist descended, only to again be sucked up into the tree’s red branches. The leaves turned a healthy green as the Most vanished. “It’s like it’s feeding on it.”

[Thalia Vedas]

“Could us bringing it here remixed it from its source of energy?” She questioned, thinking this game was taking on a vague climate change message, “without jumping to conclusions, if these feed off of mist energy could then would more be enough to drive the mist back?”

[The Forgotten God]

“Possibly,” the Mist sorcerer said. “Maybe this tree in real life was stopping the Mist and that’s why it got trapped inside this orb in the first place. But whatever it is its properties are unparalleled. If we find where it came from I think we can break the spell,” she declared confidently.

[Thalia Vedas]

“We had better get t9 it then.” Thalia agreed, nodded to the other sorcerers then headed out to finish the research.

[The Forgotten God]

///

Six months of research have garnered considerable results. The red tree reacts to a few stimuli, but more importantly the academy and Thalia had managed to trace the design of the stasis spell that held the strange artifact out of time. Asterix approached the Lisandrian sorceress one morning with a huge book. “I found it!” He said. “The key to unlocking this!” He opened the dusty tome to near the end and pointed at a sigil shaped much like the red tree. “There are facilities like the one you excavated that were built for these as a last weapon against the Mist. Apparently only this specimen survived the wars that followed. Maybe it was developed too late.” She could sense he had something more but he seemed rather eager already.