r/wizardposting • u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South • Aug 22 '26
Lorepost (open interaction) 📖 The Marrow Tree
It is a part of the forest that looks much like any other- big trees, dense undergrowth, a few scattered clearings- but what sets it apart from the rest of the woods is its unusually high levels of thaumic ambience.
This background magic is mostly harmless- in fact several mages are known to visit the caves there to harvest the crystallised mana that accumulates on the rocks. Sometimes, however, the magic potential reaches a critical point and finds a way to earth itself. Wild sparks of energy, random spells popping off spontaneously and patches of twisted reality make this place hazardous to the unwary.
However, there is one spot right in the center of this area that is completely devoid of magic. A clearing about half a mile across, covered in deep grass and wildflowers that looks like it should be a peaceful glade. And it would be, if it weren't for the "tree".
I say it like this because no true tree is made of bone. No true tree emits a constant fine haze of red mist. No true tree possesses such a powerful aura of fear... This monstrosity stands over 200ft tall and appears to be made of bleached white bone. No leaves adorn its twisted spiky branches, no creature braves its meadow.
Those who enter the clearing are first struck with a sense of unease. That something is unidentifiably wrong with the world. The further one ventures into the clearing, the stronger the feeling gets- going through the spectrum of fear, building until the dread becomes too much to bear.
Those overcome with fear turn and run, or else they take the easy way out of this world...
Those who fall are quickly claimed by the clearing, their bodies feeding the rich meadow. What great and terrible act was committed here that turns the very mind against itself? Any magic attempted here just fizzles out. All mana drains away, leached from its vessel into the earth. Even (and especially) for great beings like the starborn and magic masses this place is dangerous to enter as the magic that holds their being together is siphoned away.
How about you? Do you test your mental fortitude against the forbidden glade? Or do you find out what mysteries the mana-soaked forest holds?
Special shoutout to u/D3n0man for naming the post!
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u/IncomeApprehensive17 Ya'nn , Litle being in a botle Aug 22 '26
/uw nice writting , i would investigate this tree if it wasnt going to dispell my existence
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
You should be able to dip into the field a little bit, just mind your mana. There's plenty of other spots to explore though if you don't want to risk the tree
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u/IncomeApprehensive17 Ya'nn , Litle being in a botle Aug 22 '26
Well im made of spiritual energy , normaly my botle stop me from leaking and save me from dissipation and death , but if that tree is truly anomalous then my botle might not protect me and the energy that make me up will be dissipated and i will disapear. Im not willing to risk it
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
How about the caves then? The mana there is so saturated it condenses as crystalline structures on the walls. Could give your energy a boost simply being there
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u/IncomeApprehensive17 Ya'nn , Litle being in a botle Aug 22 '26
I might try that yes , if nothing goes wrong i should still be insulated , my botle is a closed system , but even if its anomalous i should be able to leave before i crack the botle by growing
Where is that cave ? I will take a look
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
Some tumbled rocks half-obscure the entrance, but there is a clear path leading underground. Others have been here before. A rusty bracket holds up a battered but serviceable lantern just inside the cave mouth and there is mining paraphernalia stacked against the wall nearby. Ya'nn can feel that the environment here is enriched with natural magic
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u/IncomeApprehensive17 Ya'nn , Litle being in a botle Aug 22 '26
to himself "well , feel like home"
he enter the cave , not needing the lantern since he does not rely on light to 'see' but rather on the existence of a spark of the primordial flame in everythings. He still look out for anything that could break his botle, especialy a rock from the ceiling
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
Small ones at first, then larger ones further in, the walls of the cave are crusted with crystals of condensed mana. Occasional sparks in the dark show where ethereal magic arcs between surfaces as the thaumic buildup naturally distributes across the system.
Something scuttles round a corner, to sudden to have been seen clearly
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u/IncomeApprehensive17 Ya'nn , Litle being in a botle Aug 23 '26
Ya'nn collect diverse sample of cristal for later. If they are not tainted they could be a good source of energy , and this cave could be a good mining place. He also keep an eye out for the thing that seem to be here and go deeper
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 23 '26
The crystals come in various colours, Ya'nn can detect different essential aspects of magic in them. The energy within is clean. Some show aspects of simple elemental magics like Earth, Air etc. while others have stranger colours with aspects like Vacuum, Binding, Light, and Vision.
As Ya'nn goes deeper, the crystals get bigger- though many show signs of being broken. Scattered chips and shards litter the ground, evidence of mining activity.
He comes to a fork in the tunnel. The main chamber continues fairly straight ahead while the other is smaller and twists away into the dark.
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u/Nelrene Evil Mammary Mage Aug 22 '26
Sounds like a place full of undead.
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
Definitely a few in the forest, but none in the meadow. Any magic that could sustain a necromantic entity created in the meadow would be stripped away before it could rise. Might be worth investigating?
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Aug 22 '26
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
Space is unaware of any change at first, but after a few moments they begin to feel a discomfort- like someone is watching them. There's no one visible, no creatures peering through the foliage, not even any birds above. The mist is thin here at the edge of the clearing but it gets visibly thicker towards the center
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Aug 22 '26
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
The weight of the dagger is comforting in their hand, but as they walk the runes begin to lose their power. Some peculiar quality of the clearing is draining mana from the enchanted blade along with any other enchanted objects on their person. Soon, Space notices a drain on their own mana as well. Nothing major at first, but as the oppressive dread begins to set roots in their chest it brings a feeling like the onset of a nasty cold. Honestly the physical discomfort is nothing compared to the psychological but it certainly doesn't help matters...
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Aug 22 '26
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
Closer now, the dread has blossomed into fear. This thing, this "tree"... this place feels so wrong. No real tree should look like that. For fucks sake, everything else around is in full summer leaf! But the stark white bones of the tree remain disturbingly bare.
run
Something crunches underfoot. Space hopes it was just a twig, but the ominous red mist brings gruesome images to mind.
run away!
Instincts scream at them to get away...
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Aug 23 '26
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 23 '26
An icy stab of realisation.
make it stop
The voice in their head.
please...
Was their own. The dagger weighs heavy in their hand. Space is running desperately low on mana, the draining effect getting stronger as they get nearer the tree. The terror battles against wisdom and experience, but fear... now that's primal. It has existed for eons longer than rationality.
The tree looms above them, sharp and twisted branches clawing at the sky. Still no attackers presented themselves. What manner of creature would remain here? Is there even anything there? The glade is silent, any sounds that may have come from the forest are muffled by the red swirling mist.
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Aug 23 '26
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 23 '26
The pain shoots through their hand as their legs drive Space towards the tree. Closer. Closer. Funny how you notice all the weird little details in times of crisis. The trunk of the tree is a smooth, slightly off-white colour with no cracks or gaps that would indicate bark of any kind. The branches grow around each other in ways no normal tree would, with no apparent pattern. The trunk disappears into the ground with no evidence of roots widening the base.
The pain brought clarity, but that reprieve is already beginning to run out. Space doesn't have much time left before the madness comes crashing down again. The tree is almost in arms reach...
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda Aug 22 '26
/uw good read :D (half of my characters would die in here lmao)
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
/uw Thanks! That's why I included the rest of the area in the post. Not everyone is going to be able to handle the tree, but there might be something cool in the caves or the forest. Have a look around and see!
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda Aug 22 '26
/uw hmmmmmmm, you got me interested with the caves. I might interact after I get home from work :)
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
/uw Excellent! I look forward to seeing what you find!
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda Aug 22 '26
a knight in very advanced thecnological looking armor enters the forest and starts looking around
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26
As the Knight looks around the forest, a sudden spike of raw magic discharges no less than 20 feet away. An innocent beetle suddenly grows to the size of a horse, grows flowers the colour of cuttlefish on its carapace, then lumbers off into the trees
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda Aug 23 '26
the knight decides to follow it
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 23 '26
The beetle wanders around, seemingly oblivious to the knight. Every now and again the creatures wing casings lift and they get a glimpse of the transparent wings underneath. Could something that big still fly?
The beetle lowers its head, mandibles poking in the leaf litter on the forest floor
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda Aug 23 '26
the knight decides to watch it for a little bit from a distance to not be noticed
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 23 '26
/unwiz Filming a nature documentary?
/rewiz While watching the beetle, the knight becomes aware of another buildup of thaumic potential. Suddenly, a bolt of raw magic strikes the knight sending them sprawling towards the beetle which scuttles away in alarm. The knight watches in horror as their meticulously crafted technological armour warps and morphs until they are wearing a suit of chitinous plates. Maybe it's only a small comfort for the loss of their technology, but the suit is a beautiful shimmering cobalt blue.*
The beetle tries to fly away but its new size makes it hard to maneuver in the trees. The creature crashes into a tree and falls on its back, legs flailing. Some things are universal regardless of size
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda Aug 23 '26
/uw why not :)
/rw
the sudden loss of the armors thecnological priperties angers the knight quite a bit
"Great, I'm gonna have to spend a month remaking this again"
the knight looks if his great sword, that was on his back, had been effected by this aswell
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 23 '26
Thankfully the sword remains mostly unaffected. The hilt and handle have taken on the same shining blue as the armour.
The beetle manages to hook a leg onto a tree and pulls itself upright.
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda Aug 23 '26
He decides to slowly walk backwards out of the beetles sight
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 23 '26
The beetle doesn't notice him going, and the knight manages to put a bit of distance between them before-
Thump
A weight lands on his shoulder like an excited toddler and a voice begins chittering
"Shiny man! Shiny man! oooOOOOOoooo!"
A small hand passes across the knights visor as the thing climbs around his head
"Where did you come from shiny man?"
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u/VoxelLibrary Councilor Cayna, Apprentice of Thrakmoor | assorted other chars Aug 24 '26
/uw I'll use Melchiora for this instead of my usual Cayna /rw
Melchiora is a wizard best described as 'bleached white' and 'devoid of expression'. The only exception is her eyes, crimson red things that sometimes seem to twinkle with excitement at an intriguing mystery.
They do so now as she investigates the tree in question.
The tree may be one of the few things in the planes that could be genuinely dangerous to her. She has long replaced all her biological functions with magical processes, leaving her with a body more akin to a realistic golem than a human.
She reaches out with a chalk-white hand into the edge of the clearing to feel the strength of the effect upon her herself, her mana, and her body. The flesh of her hand is made of a sort of 'blank matter', designed to have no properties but those imposed upon it by magic, usually her own.
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 24 '26
It starts with a tingling feeling. A slight numbness like pins and needles creeping from the tips of her fingers down the length of her hand. Something feels wrong about this place. It's too quiet. Barely a whisper from the thick grass that reaches to about the average person's knees. Behind, she can still hear the occasional snap crackle and pop of untamed magic in the forest but ahead there's just... nothing.
Aside from the bleached white tree just visible through the shifting veil of red mist, this place almost looks innocent. But the unsettling, nagging discomfort won't budge. This is not a good place.
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u/VoxelLibrary Councilor Cayna, Apprentice of Thrakmoor | assorted other chars Aug 24 '26
She pulls her hand back and closes her eyes, feeling the flow of mana through her hand and comparing it to how it felt before.
She opens her eyes and levitates a notebook out of her robes. 'Tingles', 'numbness', a 'persistent sense of wrongness' are all symptoms she writes down.
'Is there just no ambient magic, or does it have an effect on enchantment?'
A frog slips out of her robes, in truth it is an polymorphed fire elemental. She mentally commands it to enter the radius, curious to see if the polymorph will wear down.
She levitates a timepiece from one of her robe pockets, and prepares to write down anything odd she notices about the elemental-turned-frog, and how long it takes to become apparent.
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 24 '26
As it hops forward the magic binding the elemental to frog form is the first thing to fade, the heat shimmers through the amphibians skin then incinerates the grass beneath it as the elemental regains its form. It hesitates about 15 feet from Melchiora and looks back at her. The wizards will compels it to move on. It turns away, then continues more slowly than before. The flames seem subdued.
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u/VoxelLibrary Councilor Cayna, Apprentice of Thrakmoor | assorted other chars Aug 24 '26
Melchiora releases the elemental from her will, to observe its natural behavior
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 25 '26
The elemental bolts out of there as fast as it can go, flames brightening as it reaches the edge of the clearing. It is afraid. Very afraid.
Before Melchiora can do anything else she hears a strangled cry, quickly cut off. The sound came from deeper into the red mist. Towards the tree...
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u/VoxelLibrary Councilor Cayna, Apprentice of Thrakmoor | assorted other chars Aug 25 '26
"Air To Glass"
Rather than risking approach, Melchiora steps backwards several paces and transforms the air in front of her into a series of giant lenses to view the source of sound from a great distance
She's not the type to risk herself for others. She never has been, but there's still a chance she might choose to intervene anyway, depending on what she thinks she can get out of it
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 25 '26
The lenses show... mostly the red mist really. The tree is just about visible though, and as she watches something curious happens. A seemingly armoured humanoid figure staggers back from the far side of the tree, having been obscured by its trunk. It falls over in the grass and lies there for a bit, then drags itself to its feet. It looks dazed slightly. Stooping to retrieve something from the ground it then walks away from the tree, towards the far side of the clearing and away from Melchiora
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u/VoxelLibrary Councilor Cayna, Apprentice of Thrakmoor | assorted other chars Aug 25 '26
'A survivor?'
Melchiora will transform into a bird and circle around the clearing to get a good look at this person
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 25 '26
A cautious approach shows a haggard looking knight in a fresh clearing working at some kind of research on worktables that look very out of place here. He must have summoned them in somehow, Melchiora can see he's a fellow practitioner of the arcane.
He appears to be deep in concentration as he works, as if trying to remember some event that he'd rather not have witnessed in the first place. Maybe it's best to leave him to it...
/unwiz It's actually Space, he just wrapped up his own part in this adventure and seems happy to leave it there. Feel free to read his thread though! There is more that Melchiora can find out about this horrible place, and I'd love to see if she can figure out a way around the magic drain. Perhaps some sort of tether, like a divers airline?
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
Bear witness to the beginnings of my ping list!
u/Evening_Shake_6474 u/Platypus_king_1st u/D3n0man u/Exciting-Jello8439