Return of the Devs: Thirdspell
Thirdspell: A Message from the Sun
The sun flickers while the Hero rests, and a toaster delivers Warlic’s urgent message. Something is draining the sun’s energy. Before the Hero can work out how to arrive sooner than possible, a spell brings them to Cysero’s forge. Warlic warns that the weakening light threatens more than warmth: the loss of solar mana would strain Lore’s ley lines and could break the balance of magic itself.
Walking onto the sun is out of the question. Instead, Warlic and Cysero propose sending the Hero’s consciousness, mind, and soul through the ley lines and the paraelemental plane of Magic. The body will remain behind under their protection. Warlic says ordinary physical heat and cold will pass through the projected soul; the journey is not a promise that every kind of danger will be harmless.
Preparations begin with Cysero’s breakfast. A request for brains sends the Hero to Doomwood before Warlic discovers that Cysero meant eggs. Once a connection to the sun’s elemental core opens, fiery creatures pour into the intervening plane. The Hero holds them back, gathers phoenix eggs, and places them as burning barricades so the creatures cannot reach Lore while the mages prepare the expedition.
The Hero clears the elemental pathway and brings Warlic the rare green eyes needed for his incantation. Keeping Cysero occupied with conversation gives the Blue Mage time to finish. Before departure, Cysero establishes a link between the Hero’s spirit and Warlic’s, allowing them to speak across the distance. Warlic asks the Hero to contact him before confronting whatever is draining the sun and explains the plan to replenish its core with gathered magical energy.
Thirdspell: The Frozen Road to Fire
The portal does not give the Hero an unobstructed route. A wall of mana blocks the way. Warlic has the Hero capture a Mana Phoenix and translates its language: the Great Solar Elemental built the barrier to keep more sun creatures from passing through. Finding it does not produce a willing explanation. After a fight, the Hero learns that the wall is frozen solid rather than merely crystallized mana.
More phoenix eggs provide the heat needed to melt the obstruction. The Great Solar Elemental objects, forcing another confrontation before the Hero can continue. Warlic promises to heal the creature afterward, but that repair is a promise made during the mission rather than an additional scene of recovery. The way to the sun is finally open.
On the sun, the Hero traces the moving sunspots and gathers embers to strengthen the connection to the body left behind. Warlic questions the local fire beings through their shared language of mana. Their information points to a shadow drawing energy into itself. The Hero locates the Vortex of Flames, then battles the enraged Solar Incarnation to obtain the Heart of the Sun, concentrated energy that can restore the failing star.
Beyond the flames, the Hero discovers the shadow’s identity: the Queen of Monsters. Warlic protests that he can still sense her on Lore. The answer is that only a fragment of her spirit has traveled here. The Hero has used an astral journey to reach the sun, and the Queen has sent part of herself by a comparable means. Confronting that fragment will not mean defeating or imprisoning the whole Queen.
Thirdspell: The Mother Stays
Warlic advises against trying to fight the Queen’s fragment directly. Instead, he proposes binding its prison to the sun’s core, so that the returning light will strengthen the confinement. The Hero points out the problem: their gathered power appears sufficient either to restore the sun or to hold the fragment, but not both. The offered Good response volunteers to stay while the sun is restored; the Evil response favors imprisonment despite the cold. Both choices lead to the same solution.
Warlic could supply the needed force himself, but says the mana he would create in doing so would endanger Lore. He turns instead to someone he considers roughly his equal in strength: Cysero. The spell closes a peppermint-like prison around the Queen’s fragment. It insists that trapping one piece will not stop its wider power, while the Hero still has the Heart to return to the sun. Cysero’s contribution makes the two tasks possible together.
The Hero deposits the Heart, and the sun’s energy returns. Warlic orders an immediate retreat. The Hero’s question about immunity to heat receives a sharper answer now: the surge could burn the projected soul and carry the damage through the psychic link to the waiting body. The Hero runs for the portal and returns to the forge, shaken and smelling inexplicably of applesauce.
Cysero is exhausted and confused after handling so much straight mana, though Warlic expects him to recover. The sky clears and the sun shines again. The victory leaves a fragment of the Queen imprisoned there, rather than removing her from Lore, and the Hero still worries what damage that fragment could cause. Nearby, Ergotth offers only a refusal to discuss his secret mission; his presence supplies no further answer. For now, Lore has its sun back, and the mages have survived the effort to save it.