We’re gonna feed a tree!
What do trees grow on? In the real world, we’d care about nitrogen and phosphorus and whatnot, and maybe there’s a degree of that in Fabula Ultima worlds, but in the aetherological sense, we need these elements: earth (soil for the roots), water (the lifeblood of a plant), and air (the open sky and bright sun).
To escape the city, we’re bootstrapping a whole process here. What do we have to work with, both initially and long-term?
Biomass. The city is full of existing biomass, sadly including the occupants of the stasis chambers, but also including all the existing oceanic life that came up when the city rose from the depths, the odd monster, and so on.
Water. We’ve got no shortage of ocean water, but unfortunately it’s salty - or is it? Is the Contour Sea freshwater? If so, that saves us a step. Either way, maybe a magical tree doesn’t care about things like salt content.
Ritual. Mizzle can work further magic, using the sacrifice domain to try and transform one form of energy into another. Something like this might be necessary to sustain the tree in the short term no matter what, but “I gain strength from suffering” has a rock-solid pedigree in magical tradition.
Mushrooms. Following Surdak’s example, maybe there’s something about fungus that could cushion the taint of the miasma? This might be a long-term project, using a layer of fungus between the miasma and the tree, buffering the miasma’s intensity to make it easier to purify.
City Infrastructure. Here’s the neat option! The city is wired up to distribute power everywhere. What if those systems intertwined with its roots - what if the tree itself adapted to nourish itself partially on the energy that ran the city? That doesn’t help us immediately (the city’s on reserve power), but what if that meant long-term that artificial power sources could nourish the tree?
What are we doing as a ritual?
Strictly speaking, we’re using the plant domain of Grandfather Oak to overcome a challenge, and we’ve got a rare item (the seedling) to halve the MP cost. This is either a Major (40 MP, DL 13) or Extreme (50 MP, DL 16) effect, with either a Large (x3) or Huge (x4) area. Large areas include “a small forest” or “a giant creature” and I feel like we’re in that territory.
A Large Major ritual would be 120 MP, DL 13, while a Large Extreme Ritual would be 150 MP, DL 16. Either way, having a rare item halves the MP cost, meaning Mizzle’s got the MP budget to cast it (assuming the seedling counts).
What are our chances? Unaided, Mizzle’s +2 to Magic Checks gives him a 55% chance of hitting DL 13 or 28% for DL 16 - not great. If Saraid repeats her actions and boosts WLP to d12, that goes up to 68% and 45%. If we also benefit from at least one success on a group check, that’s 89% or 75%.
At the start of session, we also have 2 FP to throw at this - one for Mizzle, and one for Saraid via My Trust In You. Two rerolls, with those odds, feel pretty solid to me! The Trimaldis would reserve their FP to reroll their bond check, as I basically need one of the two other PCs to succeed in supporting me.
How about our buddy Surdak? At this point he’s got two options open to avoid recycling:
- Plug himself into the city and act as mystic mentor for Lubeck and anyone else who feels like working here. Maybe he gets a body out of the deal, who knows?
- Become an Arcanum. Mizzle’s willing to cooperate with him on this.
Both options are really contingent on him figuring out selflessness. If he hasn’t got an answer to Mizzle’s riddle by the time we reach the Druids, we may just hand him over. Really remains to be seen.
