Nonmagical Research- Carabas's Missing Wits and the Pool of Life

 The Athenaeum of the Dying Sun received a research request most usual a couple weeks ago. Much in Orm seems different since then. It was before the death of the 111th Company founder Banx. It was before the magician Scamandros, sometimes called Riverborn, stabbed the Sorcerer King Valtropis in his heart with his own dagger. The adventuring assassin Thea Noir was still a captive of the Order of the Illuminated Eye. The skald Fancy Jean-Yves Beauvollier wasn't married yet, either. Yes, indeed, times were very different in Orm when the Midnight Marauders offered to trade the location of an unspoiled chest of treasure for a quartet of librarians assistance in fixing the injury to their light-fingered compatriot Carabas.

Some vats as drawn by Hate Pit's player Marie for comic. The Pool of Life is more orderly than this but looks less cool.

The magician and co-founder of the Athenaeum, Journeyman Crannoc, quickly volunteered to undertake the first round of research into the matter. What ails Carabas struck Crannoc as similar in its symptoms as the circumstances currently plaguing the Athenaeum's hostage Valtropis and Crannoc's own faithful feathered beast, Plumes. All three were given new life from what the dwarf Bors Redbeard terms "The Pool of Life" after losing theirs from assorted foes within the tunnels of 'The Complex'. Unlike others that have found their life returned as it was by the Pool, these three seem to have lost their wits in the process.

Crannoc, with his designs on raising his own attempts at new life from the vats on Level 2 of 'The Complex,' has spent much of his time pouring over a stack of thin metal plates covering most of the operations of these vats. The only real mention of putting already existing beings into the Pool among these plates is a stern warning against doing it. One piece of information from them, though, stands out. All the information on the plates has all been authorized by the seal of one Dependable Custodian Cushalsa.

Buried in the stacks of the Athenaeum, oddly among the religious scrolls purchased more recently by the Athenaeum is a report in Old Imperialish filed by Dependable Custodian Cushalsa:. The report covers issues around the 'Level 2 Vats of Creation' and its inability to create similar healing results the the Level 4 vats that these Level 2 ones were modeled. The Vat seemed to have very poor success in healing or removing deleretious effects and diseases. When it comes to reviving the dead, the results of were even worse. About one in five of subjects revived ended up in a mental state similar to the punitive spell for those charged with necromancy and unsavory practitioners of enchantments known as Feeble Mind. Unlike that spell of 5th Level, a simple casting of Dispel Magic magic by a powerful enough Magic-User produced no positive relief.

The facts, it seemed, to be against any remedy provided by spells currently known. Magic-Users in a more advanced age possessed such spells in their repertoire but they were lost even by the time of. Cushalsa does make an aside to discuss debates among the philosophers employed by the Imperial Court as to whether the killing the afflicted then Reincarnating them would end the ailment or not. None of the arguments clearly seem stronger than another and it was decided to not test the theory due to the ethics surrounding the matter.

Cushalsa talks some about how the 'Healing Machine' on Level 5 might prove an effective in providing relief.  There is also speculation that the 'Lord of Alchemy' could be used to concoct a solution if an effective potion was known.

In addition to studying deeper the healing research conducted with the 'Pool of Life', the following topics have been unlocked for further research:

1. The Level 4 Vat of Creation
2. The Healing Machine
3. The Lord of Alchemy
4. Reincarnation as a method of ending deleterious circumstances
5. Issues surrounding the use of the 'Pool of Life'