Building

[Nephrite]

"Let's pretend you were a mage who could make food for the troll, but not for yourself. Does that chance the theory?" Moore asks.

[Anastasia]

"It depends if you could keep up with it. Trolls eat a lot," Sylvie points out, "Which gets to the point again: If you could make food, you could feed yourself far easier than going through the entire problem with a troll. But since you can't..." A glance at CRIMSON there.

[Nephrite]

"Then maybe the solution is to 'teach a man to fish'?" Moore asks. "Perhaps we can teach CRIMSON how to generate magic for themselves to feed off of? I don't know, I'm not happy with the idea of just feeding it forever -- and I don't mean to make it sound like it's a burden, it isn't."

[Anastasia]

CRIMSON is content with his meal for now at least.

Sylvie shakes her head, "The troll meat lesson, Moore. I doubt any solution has CRIMSON to create his own food from himself. Imagine a troll consumed itself with no other food. It wouldn't work long term, it would lose more than it gained."

[Nephrite]

"If the troll could use magic to make food, isn't that the same thing?" He asks.

[Anastasia]

"The point is," Sylvie nods slightly to acknowledge the point, "CRIMSON consumes magic and magic items. How do you think that using that same magic to feed himself is going to go?"

[Nephrite]

"Maybe the solution isn't magic, then." Moore says. "I don't think we can teach CRIMSON the Words of Creation, though. But... still, I'm not content to just let it be like this. I mean, in your example, sure, that makes sense, assuming magic itself was a finite thing, but it isn't, right? I mean, we can't exactly just... go digging and find a mineral vein full of 'The Weave,' and I don't think Mystra would take kindly to us feeding that to CRIMSON, but... my magic, your magic, it all recovers over time. Why is this any different?"

[Anastasia]

"Got an idea, then?" Sylvie asks, crossing her arms.

[Nephrite]

"The Words of Creation can create effects that mimic magic, but aren't magic." Moore says. "So... maybe something similar to that? I suppose we could always just make a trip to Dweomerheart at some point and do some research in Mystra's..."

He blinks, then snaps his fingers. "I forgot all about that! That library of hers and that... Amalgam thing."

[Anastasia]

"That," Sylvie says shortly, "What did you end up doing with it?" Her expression is less than thrilled, but she simply says, "Well?"

Calley hums at that but keeps silent, perhaps wisely.

[Nephrite]

"It's in Aurora, last I heard." Moore says. "I wonder if it changed any with your return."

[Anastasia]

"I'll find out later," Sylvie says, "The point is though, that we still have a feeding problem."

[Nephrite]

"Hm." Moore taps his chin. "Let's pretend for a second we were stronger deities and could make stronger magic items. Does that 'solve' the problem, or just prolong it? I think it just prolongs it. We really need to find something permanent... hm. Maybe the solution isn't focusing on the 'magic' part, but maybe finding a way so that CRIMSON can just absorb energy around it without destroying it? Something like... an antimagic field that suppresses magic rather than a staff that's run out of charges?"

[Anastasia]

"If it can be done," Sylvie says, "There's also a second theory to consider. Namely, what if CRIMSON is growing into something else and will achieve that once it consumes enough magic?"

[Nephrite]

"That's certainly possible." Moore says. "I'll use my spell to see if I can learn anything more about CRIMSON and we can take it from there. In the meantime, let me know if you run into anything with it."

Let's go check on our Silverbrow folks.