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  The Stone of Alman

  The last Artefact created by a god. Infused with his dying breath, this holds the very essence of the once trusting God of Nature.

  Inherent Energy*: 12

  *Energy in Artefacts can only be used to activate Artefact powers.

  The Forest Knows: The Stone of Alman causes a root network to manifest around it if one does not already exist. If any trees already exist, they will seamlessly integrate with this new root network. The network expands at a rate of one mile of radius per day around the stone, requires no maintenance or external power, and connects itself automatically to any existing root network that is not specifically being kept contained. Even if the trees are of different species, they will connect to the root network. For more local needs, the Stone of Alman can conjure up to a century-old tree per day with ten minutes of focus from the wielder.

  Forestwalk: Commit Energy until the next loading screen to make one target vanish and emerge instantly from any tree within one mile or within the same root network.

  Brain Root: Commit Energy. While using this power, you may splinter your awareness into thousands of subsidiary foci, monitoring separate locations and controlling distant plants if they are connected to a root network that you can access. While this power is in effect you have an invulnerable defense against mind-reading or mind-controlling effects.

  The Music in the Willows: By singing to the root-network any part of it my be accessed or modified by even mortal creatures without suffering the mortal downside.

  Mortal Downside: The root network craves the one thing that it cannot create on its own: Feelings. Those who sleep within the root network will find hope, joy and any positive feeling drained from their minds like the roots drain the soil of nutrients. Anyone who wields the Stone of Alman will slowly become one with the root network, shifting into an ent, and integrated as another tree.

  Riez stared at the pop-up that was blocking her vision. She had managed to make her way down the long set of stairs, deep underneath the giant redwood that made up the town hall. She had been sure that she had reached the root network, and based on the description of the artefact, she probably had.

  She minimised the description and saw the stone in all its glory.

  It was large, about the size of a small car, and how anyone could be a wielder of such a thing was beyond her. However, things suddenly made a lot more sense.

  She suddenly understood why the forest around the world tree was as diverse as it appeared, as the stone seemingly just sprouted whatever tree the wielder wanted. It also made sense why the elves had been such droopy party poopers. The stone was quite literally sucking out their joy and happiness. Last but not least, she also understood why they wanted to claim every forest under Mek. They could quite literally teleport among the plants, and who knew how large the root network was.

  She was slowly moving around the stone. It was suspended in the air, held up by multiple roots that seemed to spread into the compacted earth that made up the walls. The stone had been engraved with strange symbols, all along the surface. The script seemed cursive and fluid, as if it had been written on paper, not carved in stone.

  The room it was placed in was circular, with eleven exits, just like the one Riez had come down. She assumed that each of them was connected to an office of some sort, as a cursory glance revealed that each of them had the same carved wood stairs leading up.

  Riez blinked, as something else suddenly made sense. What Spif and Spaf had been saying, what they had experienced and what she herself had seen.

  The two goblins couldn't be killed. They would simply regenerate at the tree of life, but what if the tree of life were connected to the root network? That would explain why they had regenerated instantly, without Jasper having messed up when he removed Spof. The Tree of Life was incredibly powerful as well, and connecting it to a large network of other trees would probably not end well, and if nothing else, the game would throw a fit.

  "Flim Flam" The words seemed to echo in Reiz's mind. That was how the goblins had described it. Based on what she had learned, it was probably fairly descriptive of the process.

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  "I am glad you found your way down here. I knew it would be just a matter of time." The voice came from the walls themselves, and Riez prepared for a fight.

  The source of the voice became clear as a section of the packed dirt walls seemed to crumble into the room, and roots wrapped around the dirt. Long arms, legs and even a head shaped from these roots, as the dirt clump was pierced every which way by the other ends of the roots.

  Soon, a figure made from nothing but root seemed to stumble from its earthen birth towards Riez.

  It was at that moment that Riez realised that unless that figure actively attacked her, she wasn't really that well equipped for combat. With a kit made for pranking, it seemed like she was forced to try and talk to the being before she just knocked it on its butt.

  "And who are you?" She tried, slowly backing away.

  The voice flowed from the being, the face made from roots, not moving any lips as it spoke. "I am the council chair. I am the keeper of the stone, and I have observed you through the eyes of every tree here in Mek. I saw you as soon as you entered the border of our forest, and I knew that you would come here." To Riez's surprise, the voice sounded almost normal. She had expected it to be creaky and plagued by wood, but it didn't sound like any of the sort. The voice was soft, though clearly a little rough from disuse.

  "So you are one of the wood people that my two goblin friends talked about."

  The nod of the head on the root creature was disturbing, though mostly due to how human it was. "Indeed. The chair of the council will be the wielder of the stone for a hundred years. And once they have served their duty, they will become part of our military. Turns out, not having any vital organs can be incredibly handy."

  "Cool, so I am assuming that you are going to stop me from taking the stone?" She asked, and the melodic laughter she got in response wasn't what she had expected to come from the creature made from nothing but wood and earth.

  "Stop you? I am sure that I could do that, but you forget, I know who you are... or at least who you claim to be. While everyone else has only seen a fraction of what you have done, I have followed you every step of the way, and I know there is some weight to what you claim. I know that you are not a mortal, like Solskin might claim. I know that you could wield the stone without any of the downsides that might plague even us elves." The creature of wood said, long limbs adjusting as it took a stumbling and heavy step towards Riez.

  "So why would I stop you, when you could become the new custodian of the stone. My theory is fairly simple... Since the mortal downside of this relic is applied to the entire root network, a divine wielder would be able to stop it. The elves would no longer feel their emotions being drained. You would apply a solution to the problem that you have patched temporarily." The chair of the elven council said.

  Riez thought about it. If the effect that the artefact created wouldn't go away unless it didn't have a wielder or, if the ent was right, a divine wielder, then it meant that the divine intervention she had performed was effectively just putting every elf that could hear her on an antidepressant. She hadn't fixed the underlying issue, but probably given the elves the energy to fix it themselves. She had been trying to fix their problem, so maybe this wasn't as bad as she had expected.

  "Wait a second", She spoke slowly as a couple of complications started to appear in her mind. "You do know that we kind of disappear for long stretches of time, right? I will not be able to wield it for almost a hundred years, and you will be back to the same issue. Not to mention, I am pretty sure that thing can teleport, and one of my... other personas... is very much against teleporting. It is honestly one of the things that she hates the most... besides undead."

  The ent seemed to smile, once more showing a very human emotion on an inhuman face. "Do not play dumb with me. I see what every tree sees, and I know that there are at least four of you, if not more. I know the self-proclaimed god of magic, one who is far more worthy of the title than Ewen, regularly maintains leylines of this world. This is done in the guise of someone else, and you would be able to maintain the Stone of Alman. We are not looking to expand our borders any further. We have not done so for hundreds of years. Though the Tree of Life posed a solution to our problem. We thought that it might sustain the stone with the power inside the tree... but the stone was more powerful, and the Tree of Life morphed. It has become the Tree of Chaos."

  Riez blinked. "What?"

  "Yes, Alman has become the Archdemon of Chaos and Natural disasters, and with his connection to the stone, even though he does not influence it, the tree morphed. It has caused quite the skism in our druids. Where we once had only a singular, unbroken druid circle, we now have two. The Circle of Life and the Circle of Chaos. But that is not why you are here." The ent took another lumbering step forward, and Riez felt herself taking a step back, more on instinct rather than for any actual reason.

  "As for the teleportation, it seems that the stone was created before the world banned teleportation. Combined with the fact that it isn't as much instant travel as it is moving from one end of an object to the other. It just happens that the object spans most of the continent."

  "Most of the continent? That cannot be true."

  "The network expands one mile per day, and it has been doing so for thousands of years. Even during the Demon War, it was expanding."

  Riez felt like it was her turn to be hit by the proverbial flashbang. "Demon War? What is the Demon War?"

  "Oh, you have been gone for a long time. We assumed that you would have been back a hundred years ago, but when you didn't appear... well, Ballator, the son of the Archdemon of Hate, stepped upon this world and unleashed a horde of demons. Things were dire until Kelllwan's Messiah appeared. We were fortunate enough to have the protection of the Grandmasters and the Alman Stone." The ent seemed to reminisce about the war, as if it were some positive memory. "I suggest that you read up on your history, or at least follow what we mortals are up to, if you wish to meddle with our politics."

  Riez was about to talk back, but felt that this really wasn't the time. "Fine... I will give it a try, but don't blame me if this doesn't work." She said, and slowly moved over to the massive stone, and put her hand on it.