Right now the evil wizard is stuck in a natural relic, and might not be inclined to talk. Mizzle’s strategy is to point out, “this is your last chance to influence the world and share knowledge, your alternative is to both forget and be forgotten, so why not?”
Here’s a list of starting questions. I’ll probably have others depending on the answers.
What was your interest in the squirrelkin?
Mizzle’s assumption: “I wanted to encase my spirit into a squirrel body and take over the Archmagus’ empire”
What happened between you and Sir Ortis?
Do you have any other bound souls elsewhere, beings like Sir Ortis?
“Pathetic child,” Surdak balks from within the bark, “do not assume victory just because you have managed to temporarily inconvenience me. You are hardly the first to attempt to usurp my ascension and you won’t be the last.”
(If Mizzle continues to prod.)
“Is this stubbornness what they teach at the Gallimaufry these days? What a pitiable decline.” Surdak guffaws dismissively. “If you intend to continue needling, I will play along, if only so that you can claim tutelage of a true great mind.”
"You’ve now seen the prize of all those who follow the Disciple’s call: to ascend the Stairs of Heaven to godhood, just as the Archmagus did before us. I have spent years honing my mind so that it will not fragment under the pressure that others who have attempted ascension before me. "
“See before you the fruits of my labor. A lesser soul would have dissolved long ago into the cycle of reincarnation, but for me death was merely a stepping stone. Your amateurish trap would have rend asunder anyone else, but my mind remains as keen as the day I left behind my mortal shell. This is the folly of your plans: you cannot harm in any way that matters.”
(Obligatory “What did any of that have to do with the squirrelkin?”)
“The squirrelkin are merely another means to an end. Every Disciple has been denied the chance to study directly from the master and only been able to pick over the scraps that he left behind. The Archmagus warded his sanctum well and none have been able to pierce it, but his sentimentality for these creatures may yet provide the key.”
“When I thought these merely descendants of the pet, I’d hoped to use one of them to discover the resting place of their progenitor. But now that I know they are true copies made from the same mold, I can make use of one of them directly. Then all the secrets of the Archmagus will be laid bare before me.”
“Ortis was a broken man when he came to me, willing to sell his sword for whatever pittance he could earn. While his body was withered, it still remembered great skill with the blade, it merely needed a masterful touch to unlock it again.” With a self-satisfied tone, Surdak says, “Desperation is wonderful tool. It’s regrettable that I needed to retain so much of his former self, the wisps that remained to Ortis’ soul made him good for nothing but a blunt instrument.”
“Have you heard nothing? Ortis was a poor servant in every way, why would I look to repeat that mistake? If you manage to retain any scrap of usefulness from this lesson, have it be this: trust only in yourself and your own power, others will only disappoint you.”
Surdak chuckles bemusedly. “What does a god care for history? I suppose the last survivors of this world will think of me as terrible plague before I wash over and rebuild it, but that will hardly matter once my work is complete.”
“This world is a pathetic creation of lesser hands, satisfied to allow greatness to slip into oblivion after a turn. But the rot remains, eternal. And so shall I be, after I ascend the Stairs of Heaven and take my rightful place as Godhead. Then I will remake this broken world into a fairer one, where life blooms eternal and the wheel of reincarnation sits broken, left to feed the rot it rejected.”
What are the Stairs of Heaven and where do they go?
It sounds like your big problem is fear of reincarnation.
If the stuff you know how to do is such a big deal, why not put it in a book, share it with others, etc.?
(Miz won’t ask about the elves and I’m pretty sure he couldn’t - I assume Surdak does not know about the elves’ connection to the Phoenix and their ancestral memory stuff)