One Year Prior To Departure

No story has a true beginning, only a point where you begin telling it. So we shall start here.

Within the illustrious nation of Aleteros Steorra lives and practices his craft. Studying time and its flows. This esoteric field of study is one with few peers, for time is often considered an immutable force, even within the arcane community. However, Sterorra views it differently and has learned to manipulate the ebb and flow of the hourglass. This has proven a fruitful endeavor. Steorra has enjoyed success in his career. He's earned the respect and esteem of his colleagues and been given the opportunity to pursue projects at his leisure.

OOC: Your character is an experienced mage, successful and well established.

Writing Prompt: Describe a day in the life of Steorra, where he lives, how he starts a typical date, the people he encounters and the projects he's working on. End your post with him learning that an extra-planar expedition is being planned.

Steorra was something of a prodigy as far as mages and the magical community goes, and within Aleteros he was something of a minor celebrity. This wasn't due just to his having magic, but for having successfully become a Time Wizard. Because Time magic was often considered to be one of the least understood and most difficulty to actualize types of magic, with more of it being in the realm of theory than practice for most mages. But for some reason, Steorra was different. He was not only able to use Time Magic, but he was genuinely a prodigy at it! Enough so where he was the only mage in the kingdom to be able to successfully claim Time as his dominant spell school. And even as a child, he as able to do things like haste and slow spells and as an adult he was doing all sorts of crazy esoteric things. Teleporting, regeneration, precognition, freezing time, and some even gossip that he was able to make someone age forward or even backwards if he desired it. One person even suggested that maybe he was some sort of Time-Lich that was several hundred years old, but  used his magic to appear perpetually in his twenties in the prime of adult youth.

And if you were wondering, no...he is not a Time-Lich or otherwise several hundred years old. He's just a young prodigy is all that happens to be both respected and misunderstood in equal measure.

He was something of a free-spirit that wandered around the kingdom as he felt the need to. However, his heart was always with the capital though and the royal family, so he always wound up coming back to his home there. Because when he was a kid, he had witnessed a procession of the Emperor passing through one of the gates into the city as he was coming back from some sort of expedition or some such, and assassins from the remnants of a conquered smaller nation had planned an attack against him right after he entered the gates and went into the main road proper, where security would be momentarily reduced due to the transition from the wall into the city. However, Steorra - who wasn't a truly trained mage then as he was like 10 but had some innate lesser time magic he could call on, decided to risk himself to try and help protect the Emperor. Several Assassins slipped past the knights escorting the Emperor in the procession, and came at him brandishing poisoned blades as the knights were turning to intercept them, for they had disguised themselves among the citizenry of the procession as well as in some of the lesser soldiers. So Steorra had to reach quickly and he used a slow spell to make the onrushing assassins suddenly move unnaturally slower by several degrees, while the child Steorra ran up to the Emperor in a hasted blur of motion, and grabbed the man by the hand.

"Excuse me, your majesty. Or Emperorness. Or whatever I'm supposed to call you. But I can't keep them at bay while also hasting both of us. But if you hold my hand, I think I'll barely manage." the child said.

The surprised Emperor saw the assassins were coming toward him, since only the nearest ones were unnaturally slowed down, so he took the boy by the hand. And suddenly, to the amazement of everyone, the Emperor and child ran up the street a ways in a blur of unnaturally hasted speed, which got them both to safety while the knights, loyal soldiers, and other loyal onlookers rallied and steamrolled the surprised assassins. However, the display of what Steorra did was quite public at that point, and the child could no longer hide or lay low about his gifts.

Thankfully, the Emperor was both grateful and immensely intrigued by the whole thing, and as a reward for helping save him and in an effort to try and nurture the gifts of someone who could potentially be an asset to the nation, the King took the young Steorra under wing as a Patron, and sponsored his enrollment to the Capital's Academy of Magic with a full scholarship and stipend. This was the gateway he had into higher society and magical society at that. And due to his stellar performance and unusual affinity for a type of magic that most mages struggled with, he was admitted to the Tower of Magic (an organization of Elite mages, something like an elite mage guild based in the capital that also has close ties to nobility and royalty to the point that most people treated them as functionally nobles, since they only answered to the Crown) at the young age of 16! Now though, he's a young man in his early twenties.

One of the projects that the Tower of Magic was working on was a special project between the various "factions" of the Tower Mages. There was a big convention where various mages from the Tower came together, and decided that as part of an effort to form bonds between the various factions and groups within the Tower, and advance the shared knowledge of magic from a unified effort to do something grand, an idea was created. That a Spire, grand and marvelous, would be created as a joint-effort from all the departments, factions, and groups of mages in the Tower as well as some of its allied organizations. This included Steorra, who was barely in his twenties now but yet was a full Magister of the Tower (one of the youngest in its history actually). He was propositioned by Necromancers rubbing elbows with Nature mages rubbing elbows with artificers rubbing elbows with enchanters. But they wanted to build a tower that would be so grand, that it would be a fitting residence for 20 or 30 elites mages who would then try and send it all through the fabric of time and space into...the beyond. Whatever that would be. And they wanted his time magic to help stabilize some of the enchantments and gizmos and such of the tower.

The project, they said, could potentially not only help advance the collective knowledge of magic as a historical and legendary accomplishment, but it could potentially allow Steorra himself to make a breakthrough into his own time magic time the fabric of time and space itself would be twisted as a part of shifting the tower to another plane. Steorra simply couldn't resist the excitement of it all, and join in on the project.

OOC: And that's how he heard about the project, was from his affiliation as a Magister of the Tower of Magic, an elite mage guild operating out of the capital that answered only to the Crown. And given the nature of his magic, he definitely worked with the teleportation mages in helping with the ritual to shift the tower across dimensions.

OOC: Your first post overlapped with some of what I was going to cover here, but so be it!

Eight Months Prior to Departure

For the last four months Steorra had worked alongside the other spellsmiths, runic cavers and arcano-engineers to help with constructing the Spellspire. The structure itself already existed, that had only taken a week for a pair of mages to fashion. It would have been shorter but there had been several reconfigurations of the rooms inside. The slate grey stone walls were the simplest part, the true work was going into the spells that laced the walls, floors, ceilings and ran throughout the whole structure like a delicate network of veins. This was the most complex arcane undertaking in history. The sheer number of mages who came and went from the tower every day was testament to that.

But the project was now entering the next phase. The Tower of Mages was beginning the process of screening candidates. The pool was said to be immense. It seemed that anyone with an inkling of magic was applying for one of the coveted positions in the tower, and many even without that inkling as well.

Steorra had taken it as a given that his position on the Spellspire was assured. Thus it came as a shock that morning when he received a fine vellum letter with had very eloquently summarized as "Declined."

As a resident Magister himself, Sterorra had the unqiue advantage that he could storm into an office to see further elucidation on why he could possible be denied. In theory, the Paramount had an open door policy for magisters, but in actuality it was very much a closed door policy. Thus the high mage was quite surprised when his door was thrown open. Blinking behind his wide spectacles, he composed himself. "Ah, Steorra. Yes, the denial. After much consideration we've determined that your abilities are better suited to other ventures. While one can never have enough time, there are other specialties we consider more immediately useful for the Expedition. Conjuration to provide supplies, geomancy for shaping the environment, diviners to foresee issues, healing for mishaps. There are limited seats you understand and we have a great many things here on the home front that could use your talents. Given the rarity of your abilities, we'd hardly wish to risk sending them out to the Beyond."

Writing Prompt: Convince the Paramount to offer you a position on the Spellspire.

Steorra at first grew flustered with surprise.

"Exactly! I have rare and wonderous abilities. I'm not some run-of-the-mill thaumaturge or something! And you don't have the right to tell me what is best for me. I am loyal to the crown and this nation, but I'm not some chained dog. I go where I please, and do as I please. I won't let myself be limited by your politics..." he said suddenly in protest. However, stopped suddenly as he quickly calmed himself.

"No, you are right. I must calm myself and be rational about this. That is really what you're testing me on, isn't it? You know I'm qualified, but you're challenging me to be thoughtful about it and not entitled. Am I right? Well in that case, I apologize for my outburst just now. That was a moment of weakness of my part, but I'm man enough to admit it." he continued, more calmly as he regained his composure.

He flicked his hand in the air suddenly. And...nothing seemed to happen. So far, anyway.

"So you're right. The expedition NEEDS people on it who can conjure, and craft, and divine, and teleport, and so on. Heck even healers. But can any of those mages you have in mind do ALL of the above, though? Because I can. Well the conjuring part is a bit tricky, but I've managed to call small items out of alternate timelines that could have existed, but don't, but that's a side-project I'm working on discovering more about. But teleporting is easy.  I can teleport at least as good as a conjurer. Ever heard of the term 'the laws of time and space?' Well...some spatial manipulation goes together with time magic." he said, as the seconds passed on.

"And healing? Believe it or not, I can use healing magic! My regeneration magic is especially good, even compared to a healer. Between a combination of speeding up the healing systems of the body combined with drawing vitality from alternate possibilities, it works! It's kind of weird, but it works! And foreseeing the future and scrying the past are easy for time magic. Because it's time magic. Do you see where I'm going with this?" Steorra said.

He was a bit wordy with his response, but this was purposeful. Because he was stalling for a couple minutes of time as much as he was answering the man's question.

He suddenly snapped his fingers.

"Oh, and you ought to check your pocket watch right now, high mage. Take a look at the time, and then check the clock over there on the wall." he said with a smirk.

The high  mage would notice that his pocketwatch was several minutes ahead compared to the one on the wall. Steorra held up his own pocket watch, and it also was several minutes ahead. This was to show the high mage his watch wasn't broken or something. And then the high mage would grasp it: the young magister had placed them both into a small bubble of localized time that itself ran much faster than the normal time of the outside world. While 5 minutes had passed for them, only about 60 seconds had passed in the "outside world."

"Ah drat! Still a 1-to-5 ratio there. I was going for 1-to-6 with that time bubble spell, but just means I need more time practicing. Get the joke?" the young man said with a chuckle.

"But that's my point. I can do a lot more with my time magic than simply manipulate time directly. What I did just now also had some spatial magic elements to it, and if we're going to manage to somehow shift an entire freaking wizards tower into some other theoretical dimension those other mages are going to need my time magic to help stabilize us. You know? By objectively anchoring us in time and space. Otherwise who knows what that dimension shifting will do to us? Maybe atomize us if we're lucky. Me being able to do various things is only icing the cake. The real necessity of me going is to help spatially and temporally anchor the tower."

OOC: TLDR his time magic can be surprisingly versatile, but that isn't the real point. The real point is that they will need Steorra to help anchor the tower temporally and spatially to help maximize their chances of the dimensional shift succeeding without a horrible mishap.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:39, Sat 27 Jan.

The Paramount bobbed his head along as Steorra spoke, but it seemed to be out of polite habit more than truly following along. When Steorra indicated the Paramount check his clock the old man blinked, then scanned the ticking clock on the shelf before fishing out a pocket watch from his robe. "Drat it all, Steorra, correcting the time on this is so fickle," he said grumpily, already starting to fiddle with the delicate knobs that controlled the mechanism. With a sigh and a shake of his head he set it down.

"Yes, yes, you're very gifted, I am aware Steorra, but this expedition will not be place for glory and fame. What happens out there in the Beyond will not have any cheering crowds or gleemen to record the heroics. There will only be a team, and teamwork has never been of those many strengths of yours has it?" the Paramount asking, leaning forward and raising his brows. "Your magic is flexible, but so are the many other branches of the arcane. One day you'll need to recognize that your peers have powers and arts just as miraculous as your own. But you seem to be passionate about this. You truly wish to leave behind the amenities of the capital? Bath houses? Fine food? Cleaning staff? Very well. I suppose if I turn you down I'll be having the fix my clocks every day of the week. You may have your position, but think on what I said. You will be far from home and those twenty five other souls may be your only companions for years to come."

Three Months Prior to Departure

Your place was secure. The final list of the expedition members was still being finalized. One poor soul had had a magical mishap and until he had the proper number of fingers again there was no way he could join. Another had suffered nervous breakdown at the deadline loomed closer. Those were rumors at least, the Tower of Mages was keeping the list of those who would go hush-hush for now. Why that would be they did not elaborate, but those were all simply details. The important thing was that your position was secure, now it was only a matter of getting your affairs in order before the final departure. There was no telling how long you would be gone, but the safest estimates all stated it was likely years.

Writing Prompt: Describe your mage getting their affairs in order before setting out. What do they do their study and their home? Do they have any projects that they need to put on hiatus? How do they do so? Is everyone in their life on board with them undertaking such a great commitment?

Steorra had managed to convince the High Mage to let him go. He didn't necessarily care about things like fame and glory. He was the kingdom's most successful Time Mage. Practically an anomaly unto himself. He didn't need to pursue glory since such things would follow naturally as he did good work for the kingdom. He did, however, not only want to be a part of the greatest magical project in history but also use this opportunity to try and push the boundaries of his Time Magic to new heights. In theory, Dimensional manipulation was within the possibility of the time and space warping magic he wielded. Not to shift to another world, but to break across to a whole new reality! Such a thing would, in a manner of speaking, akin to the power of demi-gods!

He had to know if he could push his limits to something beyond human. Yes, among humans he was extremely gifted, since he was a Magister of the Tower and all. But his limits were ultimately still quite defined. And in the end, he was only "merely" a Magister. But if the Elucidate  project succeeded, he could only imagine the knowledge and enlightenment that he'd gain!

And also...he relished the challenge. He suspected some sacrifices would have to be made, but it couldn't be all that bad...right?

And so, he made preparations. Even if he could anchor himself in objective time, it wasn't guaranteed that he'd quickly be able to figure out the secrets of dimensional magic and its mysteries. He could actually be gone for literal years. Decades. Hell...maybe even longer! Maybe he could find a way to preserve his youth with time magic. But what about everything else? What about everyone else he knows. Family? Friends? and the royal family even, whom he had grown close to since the Emperor became his patron when he was a child.

And this, he had preparations to make:

1.) To some of his closest friends, magical and mages alike, he shared that he was chosen for the Elucidate projected, and spent time with them and said his farewells, but not goodbyes. Because goodbyes were only when you weren't expecting to ever come back.

2.) And to the Royal family, and especially the Emperor who had become like a second father to him in some ways, he spent time with them too. But he also took the time to make a gift for the Emperor, after having gone on a short adventure for a month to gather some exotic materials. But it was a special magical object. Because Steorra didn't know what would happen to his magic resonances once he switched dimensions - he suspected there was a good chance they would blip out if he technically stopped existing for a bit or some weirdness during the dimension warp. So he instead crated an item that was special: It was an hourglass, that had sockets in it for mana crystals. And whose sand was not normal sand at all, but was actually powdered quintessence - the material of physically congealed time itself - that was sourced not from Steorra and his magic, but from sacrificing some of the "spare personal time of the Emperor himself! Doing it this way made it only need a minimal amount of Steorra's power to sustain the hourglass - enough that even if his resonances faded the hourglass would be okay as long as its mana crystals never ran out of magic. However, it had a catch: It took a year of the magic item owner's life to convert to 1 minutes worth of sand. And only the owner's life could be used - to use someone else's lifeforce would attune it to them instead. This was a safeguard Steorra put in to prevent the Emperor from becoming corrupt and sacrificing people to fuel the magic hourglass. But in exchange, the hourglass could expend its sand second-by-second to grant a personal haste spell on the wielder. Steoora put a hard limit of no more than 5 years of life (or 5 minutes of sand) into the thing so the Emperor couldn't accidentally age himself to death, and the conversion would fail if the Emperor somehow didn't have a year or more of natural life left. And he also made the thing limited in it's own lifespan: once the Emperor died, so too would the Hourglass lose its power.

TLDR Steoora makes the Emperor a custom magic Hourglass item that is attuned to him. It will take up to 5 years of the Emperor's natural lifeforce (willingly given btw), and no more, and turn it into 5 minutes of Sand in the Hourglass, and 1 year of life equals 1 minute of sand. The Emperor can activate it with a twist of the hand, and while the sand runs down he will be hasted as a Haste spell, and then it turns off when he flips it back to its normal position. The main reason that he does this is to give the Emperor an emergency wild card to play if his life is ever in danger (i.e. like he can haste himself away from an assassin or something), and that won't become disenchanted when steorra leaves this dimension. That's why he put a 5 year limit to it so it doesn't kill the poor Emperor.

3.) Finally, he liquidates all of his holdings, sells all of his magical books and stuff to the Tower and other mages, and puts all of his gold and gems into the capital's royal bank. Between his Magister salary and what he gained from adventures and the kingdom he probably has at least a bit of a nice savings if he liquidates everything. I figure something as cosmopolitan as the Empire probably has some rudimentary banking and stuff at least by now. He then places it into a low-risk interest-yielding account, and then sets it up as a trust rather than for beneficiaries. The trust is set to generate interest, and keep half of the interest for itself so that the principle slowly grows over time (and in theory the interest yield too), while the other half of the interest gets paid out to his parents to support them. Once they die, the half of interest that was set to go to his parents instead will get donated to whatever the bank trustee deems is the best, most kindly orphanage in the Capital. Especially if it's one that's both poor but kind to kids. And of course, he will retain indefinite ownership of the trust including in the event he somehow makes it back from the other dimension. Even if several hundred years end up going by or something.

He'll shack up at the Tower or with the royal family or something in the meantime.

Three Days Prior to Departure

The time was upon you. A year had passed in a blur. Arrangements had been made, goodbyes said. Now it was the time for looking forward. It was also the first chance to visit the Elucidate. You had seen it for months from the outside. The Spellspire stood prominently in the capital plaza, a tower a dozen stories tall with slate gray walls punctuated by a number of evenly spaced windows. It was not a pretty structure like many of the other soaring towers that made up the capital, but this building had been built for function over form.

Two great double doors made up the entrance and they stood open now. Striding through, you enter a great reception hall whose vaulted ceiling is suspended by a dozen stone pillars. There are alcoves set along the walls, each neatly labeled and judging by the shimmer inside, they're some sort of transportation apparatus. This hunch is proven correct as your guide, one of the arcano-engineers, takes you over to an alcove. "Each mage shares a floor with one other, this will be yours," she said proudly and ushered you through the transport.

In a shimmer of gold, you step out onto a receiving chamber on another floor. This room has one of the towers windows opposite the transport. There are also only two doors. The engineer takes you over to one and, procuring a great brass key, turns it in the lock and throws it open. It reveals a perfunctory room whose walls and floor are made up of flat gray stone. It seemed to be a single chamber. If there are only two doors here, where is the rest of the floor hiding? As if sensing your thoughts, the engineer speaks up. "We've folded space here. The room can be customized to meet your needs," she explains proudly. Motioning to a panel of gemstones on the walls, she manipulates one and a door appears on the far side of the room. Another and a window appears. Pressing a diamond and furniture starts to materialize. "We have a setting for every need. Now this conjured furniture will dematerialize if it leaves the tower, but within the Elucidate you'll have every comfort and tool you could require. Your personal quarters can have as many rooms as you need for personal space and study. Please, take some time to make yourself comfortable."

Writing Prompt: Take time to personalize your room within the Elucidate. Describe anything you bring.

OOC: Note, any functional items you bring, extra enchantments, materials, basically anything that might be useful, will be rendered inert by the trip, so this is all flavor.

The Surviving Spell

While the maiden voyage of the Elucidate will not go according to plan. One of your spells has survived the journey. Choose one of the spells below and add it to your spellbook. Indicate in your post which you've chosen.

Far Reach: Through a complex manipulation of time and locations relative in time, you can grab and retrieve an object from a distance. It flies to your hand.
Ability: Once per adventure you can retrieve an object that's outside your normal reach. (Weight of said object retrieved being dependent on your current potency.)

Killing Time: While most individuals view time as a steady progression of connected events, it is more accurate to say its all occurring simultaneously. It's simply our perception that creates the sense of continuity. This awareness means that wounds to the time stream can be made every so precisely.
Ability: Once per adventure make a blow with a knife composed of temporal matter.

Hasten: While most have to wait for the time to be ripe, quite literally in regards to fruit, you have a spell to expedite the arrival of that specific moment.
Ability: Once per adventure when you are waiting for a particular event to occur which you know will happen, you can speed up the arrival of said event. (Does it slow you down or speed up the rest of the world? The metaphysics of it are difficult to describe, but suffice to say it works. Only for predictable events: IE, sunrise, changing of a guard shift, the ripening/rotting of food, the aligning of stars etc.)

So today was the day when Steorra finally moved into his chambers in the Elucidate. Having half of a floor all to himself wasn't so bad once you factored in the folded space, the separate doorways, and all of the extremely cool amenities that the mage-smiths had somehow managed to build and incorporate into the tower. As the guide demonstrated the gems, he couldn't help but be impressed by the combination of spatial magic, conjuring, and even some bits of his own time magic that were seamlessly used in order to stabilize the mystical lattice that underlined the gem system. Truly, even without the dimension warping thing, the Elucidate alone was a huge testament to magical craftsmanship as well as a sort of peace monument of sorts that spoke of the cooperation of many different mages, of which he himself was only but one of the many. He smiled at it - he didn't like to always show it, but such symbolic displays did please him and he noted them, especially the spirit of cooperation that went into making the Elucidate.

In a good mood, he chit-chatted with the guide a bit and complimented her on her tour before dismissing her, and placing his hand onto the crystal gem lattice that led into his half of the floor. He let it encode his personal essence, essentially taking "ownership" of that part of the tower as his own, and began to  cause the folded space to shift into several rooms. He made liberal use of the conjuration and illusory elements to make his chambers quite lavish. Far more than he even enjoyed before. After he was done, his chambers would be fit for a king.

Chambers created: 1 Foyer, 1 Parlor for receiving guests, 1 library, 1 Master Bedroom with an attached Bathroom (which itself had functional running water, a shower, and a large mystically-powered hottub with various settings), 1 normal bathroom with a shower in that was more accessible to guests, a vault of sorts to store Treasure, enchantments, artifacts, etc, a spell casting chamber (which could also function as an observatory), a laboratory of sorts (which also functioned as a workshop), an office, a solarium that was linked to one of the floor's windows (and could function as a greenhouse if need be), a miscellaneous storage room, and a small kitchenet connected to a small laundry room that had magical laundry slimes or vats or something in it. Finally, he had 1 other room that he left alone as a miscellaneous room that could be used to host a guest or something if needed. The whole suite of rooms has a very cosmic and time-space magic feel to it, while still being lavish.

And of course, in that vault he would store his spellbook. And the eventual journey would cause him to lost the majority of his magical discoveries and prowess, but the vault would protect 2 spells: His Haste Spell, which was his bread-and-butter and was the thing that he was born with that mage him different from other mages. It also was the foundation of all his time magic, and in that sense could never be forgotten. But also the vault would protect a spell that he had developed early on as a child that proved that time magic had legit segues into spatial magic, while still being Time magic. The Far Reach Spell was far more fundamental than people realized.


This message was last edited by the player at 04:28, Wed 31 Jan.

"Dimensional translocation in ten, nine, eight," the pleasant androgenous voice chimed melodically throughout the corridors of the tower. The smell of atmosphere grew sharper as the arcane energies gathered. The gray slate stones of the tower Elucidate seemed to thrum with the growing power. Outside a sea of onlookers stood gathered, held only at a safe distance from the barriers set up around the plaza. Their cheers filled the air like the dull roar of some gargantuan beast, but inside the Spellspire there was only that soft voice and its steady count down. "Six, five four."

Inside his study Almanic sat rigidly in his armchair in front of the fire. "Silly old man, teleportation doesn't jostle," he said to himself, even as his hands gripped the arms of the chair tighter. The polished wood pipe clenched between his teeth was in danger of cracking. Staring doggedly into the dancing flames in the hearth, he tried to ignore the numbers steadily ticking down.

Two floors up Taebor had the windows of his room thrown open and was almost hanging out as he waved both arms excitedly at the crowd. Their surge of cheers at his antics only encouraging more enthusiastic waving of his arms. Dressed in glimmering white cloth that sparkled and shone, the man was impossible to miss against the gray slate walls. It was why he'd chosen it after all.

At the top of the tower the three mages ringed around the whirling glass control sphere of the tower made waves of their hands and twists of their fingers which corresponded to dozens of tiny incremental adjustments. Even in the final seconds before translocation adjustments must be made. "Nether weave stabilized," said Lyshen. "There are ripples in the arcano-sphere... but they're within acceptable parameters," advised Anders. The last member of the trio ran a hand through her silver hair, her pupil-less eyes matching the color. Her inner eye was tracing the arcane threads that ran off that orb to every corner of the Spellspire. Elucidate was a miracle of arcano-engineering. The best forged by diviners, spellsmiths, runecarvers and a dozen other fields of mysticism. All those arcane threads hummed, drawing taut with anticipation as the arcane forces gathered. She held their destination in her mind as she plucked those chords. "Sen tailen est," she murmured softly for good luck. "Our location is locked. So we step beyond the boundaries of gods and men."

"Three, two, one."

A beam of searing yellow light shot up from the Spellspire and expanded to engulf the structure. The cheering throng fell into awed silence as the radiance grew until they were forced to avert their eyes. Then as suddenly it was gone. The plaza where the two dozen story structure once stood was now empty. The twenty six souls who inhabited the tower gone along with it. Twenty six intrepid explorers who had set forth to blaze the trail so that others might follow after.

This was the expedition of the Spellspire Elucidate.

OOC: And this concludes getting to know the character. Let the proper adventure begin shortly!