[M&M 3e] Defying the Future IC

[Dorni]

Helios trip took him to the edge of the camp and back again. He didn't return to the administration building, instead kneel near an otherwise nondescript patch of barren soil a little ways off to side of it where he invoked another spell and began excavating the. He didn't find any buried treasure or ominious devices, but his frown deepened as as the soil piled up. "Well, I have good news and bad news," he at last spoke up, the dirt now flying off the pile and filling in the hole.

"Good news is I have a pretty solid idea what happened here. That Siren we fought wasn't a Spirit. She was... This whole camp is a natural wellspring of Death energy. The energy welling up here reached a critical point where it coalesced and took the form of the siren. That's why my spell had the effect it did. I- oh. I can explain the mechanics later, but the core is that she wasn't a Spirit in the sense of being a being of corporeal living aether. I think a more appropriate description is that it was a Death Elemental."

"The bad news is that the camp is still a danger. The Death is still welling up from the font. I'd have to study it longer to say for sure, but I'd guess we have maybe 3 months before it reaches a point where another siren - or something else like it - manifests again."

Helios grimaced. "And that's not all. You all know the Suneaters practice necromancy. If they found this place it would be a huge power source for them. They could call forth and bind Sirens of their own or just try to take the power for themselves."

"We might have a few options for dealing with it though. If I had the time to work I could probably seal it, whether by channeling enough Life into it to critically weaken it or by diffusing the Death energy here into the forest to keep it from reaching critical mass and letting it dissipate naturally. The problem is that I do mean it will take time. Weeks, maybe. I'm not sure we have that kind of time for starters, and there's a risk that the Suneaters might sense the working or one of them might investigate if they get wind that I'm spending a lot of time around the camp."

"There's also another option. A faster, but more far more risky one. This camp is a wellspring of Death. Rapheal was a massive wellspring of Life. Rapheal's energy could almost certainly overwhelm this place and offset the Death here. With a little care, I'm confident I could channel her Life to accelerate cancelling out the Deathwell without harming Rapheal herself. The obvious problem is that we'd have to get Rapheal into the forest here and Manchineel would almost certainly seek her out if she sensed Rapheal's return."

"There's a final, potentially even more risky issue. We know Manchineel and her brood avoid this place. I think we now know why. Manchineel's powers are based around Life. The abundant Death here might be a potent weapon against her. "