The Mad Mage of the Muurn raised his staff and invoked the old words. Like iron drawn to a magnet, the lake-bottom rose to meet his feet, and the waters of Narcisse churned under his studied wizardry.

Promising all who help him that reward would come to the land if a tower is built upon that new island, Gaderian vowed to rid the angai of their pain and suffering and an end to the blight that spread in those environs upon the completion of this bastion.

But in the forests of the Ithmia, a far more ancient will was at work. The being known as Fthora procured from the Earthmother's Wilds a sapling. For a month, the villagers of Eleusis tended to it, protected it. At last, it developed golden veins along its leaves and branches: the awaited sign.

Wasting no time, the villagers transplanted the sapling onto the very same island Gaderian raised from the depths. Now, both powers are in competition for the fate of Lake Narcisse: the Mad Mage in pursuit of his tower, Fthora and Eleusis in pursuit of the restoration of the dryads of that land.

Which side will triumph, who can say? Time will tell who is most determined to brave the perils that await in hopes of earning the promised reward.

~ ~ ~

Summary: Gaderian raised an island in Lake Narcisse and is asking for adventurers to help build him a tower. Fthora produced a sapling that will cleanse that land and its inhabitants of blight. They are now locked in competition for the fate of Narcisse and its denizens.

Penned by My hand on the 6th of Daedalan, in the year 970 AF.