@SlendyScott Rutherford
Lysakr, Alfheimr
Month OneScott managed to convince Belle to hang around long enough for him to properly read the ancient book, instead of just skimming for a quick glance as he thought he'd have to do. In return Scott offered himself as a conversationalist besides Belle's usual companions, who were evil demons and that simply couldn't be healthy! As that was kind of an unfair trade he allowed Belle to study the few tomes of magic the Warlock had collected, though most were on Conjuration, Demonology, and Destruction magics, not the safest or most useful fields... but modern magic all the same.
Scott was nearing the end of the Mistakes Chapter when he discovered the enchantments on the book, ancient, powerful,
enormous enchantments. The power needed to power such things did not exist in mortal Earth any longer. He asked Belle about the purpose of the book beyond it's stored knowledge and immediately became interested in finding a source strong enough to make it's powers active again. Of course the first place he looked was at mundane electricity, but even their largest, most efficient machines could not power the book even if he had the capacity to directly turn the energy into magic. Next he appealed to a Seer in western Russia, and her answer had simply been 'Elves'. Used to the vague hints and riddles his kind so delighted in, Scott quickly set to work researching Elves, and then he met one. A bitter man forced from his home after it's sacking by the Merged in the War of Immortals.
Scott managed to get him to share the secrets of his homeland with him, and though he never mentioned how he convinced the elf, he did say it had been quite costly information. Now they knew what they needed; an Alfsteinn, Elf-Stone. For uncountable years the Elves of Alfheimr channeled a bit of their magic every day into a stone so they could tap into the power to defend their home if attacked. Eventually the cause was forgotten, and the daily ritual simply became a cultural tradition, after all it was not often they were attacked and when they were they could handle themselves.
Until the Merged went to war with the Pantheons.
By the time the Elves knew how to use the stones again they feared them, even to use them in defense of their cities, the power of an Alfsteinn was fathomless and opening even a tiny crack could allow a storm of immense magic to destroy their entire realm. The fact that there was one in every city was a dangerous prospect. So they hid the stones deep within their temples, and layered them with defensive and obscuring spells so they would not be discovered and accidentally set off during the attacks of the Gods.
Scott believed they could create a device to regulate the amount of power released from the Alfsteinn to minuscule amounts, and so convinced Belle to go with him to Alfheimr in search of one of these stones. Hundreds of cities were destroyed in the battles upon Alfheimr, some completely wiped away to nothingness or sunk deep into the dirt. Others were crawling with summoned beasts and monsters left over from the invasion.
Belle and Scott would find Lysakr first, a city of burnt out husks and crumbling ruins. Vitovlad and several other of the more fiery inclined Merged had formed a formidable team during the War of Immortals. Lysakr was one of their victims. Crazed elementals of fire and constructs of pure flame still wandered the city aimlessly, forgotten by their creators and left to their own simple tasks; kill the enemy, and since everything on this world had been an enemy during the war... trespassers would not be tolerated. To make matters worse, many of the fires were magical in nature, and still burned all this time latter. Many of the Elves who had perished in the inferno had become spirits and shades, ghosts imbued with the magic surrounding their deaths and becoming mindless demons of rage and flame.
Scott stood on the edge of a ridge just outside the city. Lysakr had been built in a crater-like valley, surrounded on all sides by inclines to make a bowl shape. This gave the two adventurers, as well as Belle's unwanted tag-a-longs, a great vantage point over the massive city. It had probably once boasted a population near 30.000 people, and it was a sprawling thing with more than the expected longhouses, several multistory buildings lined the lake at the city's center, the body of water was fed by two rivers from either side, both of them covered by bridges and what looked to be wreckage of canoe-like ships.
Scott whistled appreciatively,
"Impressive, but I'm thankful I only fought the dead in the war. Imagine having something like this on your conscious? What a mess." He frowned down at the city, looking for anything that stuck out to him, but it was all scorched stone and crumbling charcoal. Just black, and black, and more black. Occasionally a spot of unscorched gray stone could be seen, or the winding of the transparent river reflecting the slightly less black sky, but for the most part smoke and same-y tones made it hard to determine what had been what.
"See anything temple-like?" He asked Belle, giving up and turning back to their camp on the ridge. It was a simple thing, a few tents and a couple water-proof trunks for their things, all of which had been shoved through a portal on a cart, which rested nearby, looking slightly beat up from where Scott had accidentally rolled it down the ridge and had needed to summon it back to him with his magic. Needless to say, his accident had been embarassing, but his recovery was rather impressive, showing off his fast reflexes and talent for spellcraft.
