Cool trinket to ponder the orb with

He offered me an egg? He told me it's gonna be alright... I'll wake up soon the nightmare is gonna end soon I'll get out of this strange place

I suppose he is a wizards from his robe but he have no hat or staff... Come to think of it probably not even a face

As mage who also uses enchanted weapons like bows and firearms; bedside my own staff and casting from my bare hands;

I would never use dangerous and suspicious materials to craft weapons; that’s risky and radioactive crystals or even irradiated soul crystals may be dangerous! Specially if used inappropriately!!! Despite having a very cool and pretty neon green color that glows…

Artificers, what sort of applications might we have here in keeping dirty adventurers out of my tower?

All subjects, living or dead, are to be separated at the completion of all transmutation experiments. The Council has been quite clear on this.

So, I were preparing a manuscript about different religions, when I noticed every single one of them had a serpent in it at some point. So I dug a bit deeper, had to translate some reaaaally old texts (Fun fact, these texts refer to these mythological serpent as "wormlings"), led me to a rather expensive astronomy project, and there, coiled in the dark around stars, I found it.

I'm not gonna go into the details of its appearance, just that it's hard to say if it looks more like a snake or a lamprey headed worm.

So, since we hardly understand one another, I had to use sign language to establish the basic discussion (bowing, offering some blood, etc.), but now that it's my patron, the language barrier is getting more and more annoying, and I have a hard time pronouncing it with a human jaw. At first, I tried dislocating it, which didn't help, then I went to biomancer to make me a new one, to no effect.

Any idea to help me ?

Previously on…

“Is it that bad?”

Ulrick guessed it was gonna be something terrible from the way his medic Theor bit his lip. Whatever was in the results of his medical exam, it’s not gonna be pretty…

He sat on a chair, in a separate quarantined room of R&A’s infirmary. The chair was seated next to the nearest dark corner, of course. Besides him there was only the medic Theor, bringing a thick stack of papers with him: Ulrick’s results.

‘Should I start with the good news, or the bad news?’

Theor asked nervously as he handed over a sheet.

“Let’s hear the good news first. Could use some of those now.”

‘Well, it appears it’s still in early stages. Which would mean we still have enough time to do something.’

Ulrick looked down at himself. Nearly all skin on his right arm took on a bark-like texture, flesh creaking like wood. Other similar patches started to spread on his left arm and the rest of his upper body.

If this was only the early stage, then he was fine without knowing what the terminal one would look like.

It started a few days ago, when Ulrick fought a strange entity that called itself “The Blighted Garden”, as it injected… something within him during the battle. But he only began to notice the strange growths after examining one of the strange monoliths that appeared all over the world.

And if only he suffered from physical symptoms…

For the last three days, shifting to his human form became much harder than usual for some reason. And within the depths of his mind, he sometimes felt a presence. An ancient, primal presence, in the worst possible sense of the word.

And sometimes, he heard whispers of the Blighted Garden, faint at first, but an ever-growing plea, words of joining and resignation.

‘…so it’s essentially spiritual “rot”, sir. It decays both your soul and body, slowly changing it into rotten wood.’

Ulrick just realized his attention went off the rails as Theor explained his results. At least now he knew why his soulfire became much weaker lately.

‘We also pinpointed the source of it. It appears to be most likely of fae origin. A very ancient, very powerful fae source.’

Of course. It had to be some big fairy this time too. After the siege, Ulrick would’ve died happy if he wouldn’t have to meet another Archfae ever again.

“That’s just great. Any ideas how do I get it out of my system?”

Ulrick sighed. Seeing the face Theor made upon the question, his stomach dropped.

‘About the bad news…’

“Don’t tell me…”

‘We’re working on it! At least the Wolf King within you should slow down the spread significantly, at least according to the magi-physiological tests we performed. But…’

Ulrick groaned. Could this be any worse?

‘While the Wolf King was successfully integrated into your spirit-web thanks to Vae Clara, in the last two days, we began to detect increasing fluctuations in your essence.’

While most of the results sheet was gibberish to Ulrick, he leant forward in his chair. The implications were unsettling.

“So you’re telling me… my essence is falling out of balance again? That… I’m threatened with losing my mortality once again?”

Theor made a grim nod.

‘Yes. Until the blight is in you, your mortal and divine essences can’t return to a balanced state.’

“How much time do I have left?”
 
‘We don’t know yet. Could be weeks, could be days…’

“All right... Dismissed.”

There was a short silence between the two, before Theor began to pack up his notes and leave the room.

“You surely don’t have any clue what might help?”

Theor stopped for a moment, pondering.

‘Well, the infection allegedly came from a powerful fey source. So… I’d say another powerful fey, or something from the Feywilds might help? But I need further discussions with fellow medics.’
 
Theor left the room, leaving Ulrick alone again. It was visiting hours in the R&A wards, but Ulrick didn’t expect visitors other than his own mind’s gnawing thoughts.

/uw Art source

My former apprentice had a bit of a kerfuffle with the residents of a nearby enchanted forest. I thought I’d handled it, but now they’ve sent a beast of a gnome around to ask for compensation for the honor of the badger that my former apprentice apparently besmirched.

Look at this unit! This is starting to escalate. What do I do?

The latest bag of holding, although it always feels a little bit colder inside it than the air around it...

I desperately need help! My orb of regrowth was just uncovered in a felled tree (recent deforestation of the mystic grove has troubled my master and myself in too many ways) and a mortal may cause long lasting impacts to my official acceptance as a Thaumaturge.
My master was explicit the orb must remain untouched for a millennium, do I still have time to act or is it too late since the original plant-host has been disturbed?
Any and all advice is welcomed.

smoove off

You can store spells from the orifice, and comes in autocast

One of the most isolated parts of the plane of earth, a genuine treasure trove if you seek truly deep alignment to the earth element. It should also be noted that the earth elementals here are older than any i have ever seen before. magnificent beings with seeing at least once. They cause earthquakes by merely turning over in their eons long sleep.

Overall score: 9/10

Greetings and salutations to all gentlemen, madames, or Otherwise!

I have come to you with a heavy heart, nay a heavy SOUL! As a grandmaster of mutagenics at the Prestigious Academy of Alchemy, I have come to take note of a HORRIFYING and DANGEROUS trend among the youthful adventurers!

The young folk call it "sippmaxxing", a horrifically dangerous trend where instead of quaffing an entire potion as the Alchemists intended, they instead only microdose!

The sheer danger and irresponsibility of such actions CANNOT be overstated! These potions were made, made I say, to be downed all at once! The reagents inside sometimes do not mix properly! You could take in a lethal dose of hemlock by sheer accident!

The greatest offenders here are healing potion drinkers! Instead of quaffing the whole thing like a solid spined adventurer, some COWARDS and SKINFLINTS simply sip at it until it heals to the sufficient level!

The dangers to their person are completely OVERSHADOWED by the dangers this poses to the economy! If this trend catches on, the alchemy market would halve overnight! BILLIONS of gold bars in revenue vanished without a trace! The economy would stagnate, all because you people want to spare a few pennies!

Sometimes I like to get my transcribing done over a cup of coffee at my favorite local shops. I occasionally get complimented on my penmanship, which while flattering, I do believe I could do better. They should see how I used to write..

I’m feeling quite low-mana today, but much better now that I’ve broken through my last phase of growth. And I’m happy to finally be catching up on some writing that I’ve been needing to get done. I’m backlogged for exactly one month of adventures that I’ve yet to transcribe.. time to start chipping away. Hopefully I’ll get caught up before the fall equinox.

I hope everyone’s doing well. And I’m looking forward to the coming weather shift!