Greetings, vislae—

Over the past few months, our efforts to summon the Black Cube have progressed nicely. It’s a ritual of momentous proportions, taking many months, but its triumphant conclusion is coming into view. We expect to have our first-off-the-line production copy of the Invisible Sun reprint in just a few weeks!

That’s not the only project in the works, of course. The Vislae Kit is on the same schedule, with long-lead components of Book M and The Nightside to follow a few weeks after.

In the meantime, Monte has been hard at work on The Wellspring and has a snippet from that title to share with you. (While the bulk of The Wellspring is written, it’s just now heading into the editing phase. The snippet we are sharing with you is unedited, pre-production text.)

Before we get to that, though, a reminder: If you backed for the supplements, and were part of the Phase 1 fulfillment, and you haven’t yet redeemed your rewards—they’re waiting for you! Just log into the MCG Shop, navigate to My Account, and click on the Coupons tab. From there you can add your coupons to your cart and check out, and we’ll ship your rewards to you!

Now back to Montes’ excerpt—a brief peek into what the Wellspring is in a physical (or metaphysical) sense, and how a vislae might navigate to its heart once they find it.

How does magic work? Where does it come from? Ask ten vislae and you’ll get ten very different answers. And so it’s difficult and perhaps fruitless to explain the Wellspring. We can, however, describe it. 

Magic itself is very often described with words that suggest water or at least liquid. Currents. Ebbs and flows. Even sometimes tides. The Wellspring, then, is a different source of magic—a different flow—that in the past has bubbled forth mystic energies, and in the past it has also stopped. There are those that say that sometimes the Wellspring just runs dry. Others contend that something—or someone—caps the Wellspring and keeps it from flowing that energy into the Actuality. (Into the Actuality from where, you might ask, but again—there are many answers to questions like that.)

If one is comfortable with the water metaphor, then it isn’t hard to understand that at the point where the Wellspring flows—the source, if you will—the magic pools. In fact, it creates a sort of oasis around that pool, where the magical power gives existence to a shore around it and even “plants” that grow at the pool’s edge. The Oasis—and that’s what most historians and theorists call it,  “the Oasis”—can’t be located on a map. It can’t be attributed to any one sun. It’s a location all its own, created and sustained by the mystical energies of the Wellspring.

The Oasis around the Wellspring, then, is a sort of (meta)physical place that one could travel to. Doing so would be the most direct way of drawing upon the power there, although only a vislae would do it.

The Oasis appears to be a pool about 800 feet across, with the “land” around it being another 200 feet extended beyond the pool’s edge in all directions. The “terrain” is barren but weirdly twisted into surreal and normally impossible shapes.

The first time the PCs travel to the Wellspring, the oasis seems frozen. One can see only a mass of cold, solidified magical energy—which looks like glistening ice—with a small, bubbling font in the middle of it. The “ice” has frozen in uneven waves, with peaks and valleys. This is because the members of the Third Hand, who discovered that the Wellspring is ripe for opening, haven’t yet performed the rituals needed to push it over the edge.

There’s still power there when it’s frozen, but it is sluggish and harder to access.

If they travel there again, however, the mystic ice has melted and the entire pool is a swirling vortex of liquid magic. The Wellspring is fully open.

Getting Across the Oasis

The “land” around the Wellspring is easily navigable, but the pool itself presents some challenges. In many cases, travelers to the Oasis are going to want to get to the Wellspring itself, often to sever or redirect its connection with a particular place.

But the Oasis itself is a dangerous location and difficult to navigate, both when it is frozen over, and when it is not.. 

Frozen: The ice is supernaturally slick. Crossing it on foot is literally impossible. However, visitors can use the slippery surface to their advantage in conjunction with the uneven ice slopes, crests, and valleys. A good thrust carries a vislae along on their backside or their stomach, moving incredibly fast, moving toward the wellspring in a spiral motion, following the patterns in the ice. Navigating their toboggan-like ride safely requires three Movement-based actions with a challenge of 5. Any time the character fails one of these actions, they suffer one damage and the challenge of the next action in the series (if any are left) is 2 higher. Worse, a failure also means that the frozen magic has scraped away some of the vislae’s personal power, so that they lose 3 Sorcery.

Should a character fail all three actions, they not only suffer the effects described, but they careen across the ice entirely out of control. They end up out of the Oasis entirely, and lose their next action. If they want to get to the Wellspring, they will have to try all over again.

This activity is not overly dangerous on its own, but in some circumstances (see each individual story in this book) enemies may attack the PCs while all of this is going on.

Unfrozen: There’s no ice to slide upon, but this circumstance is perhaps even more difficult because the water in the Oasis churns around the Wellspring like a violent whirlpool. Swimming is impossible, but characters could attempt to use the churning motion to their advantage and ride the current (or even body surf) to the middle. Similar to dealing with the frozen Oasis, letting the whirlpool-like current carry a character requires three Movement-based actions with a challenge of 5. Any time the character fails one of these actions, they suffer 2 damage (from nearly drowning) and the challenge of the next action in the series (if any are left) is 2 higher. 

Should a character fail all three actions, they not only suffer the effects described, but they begin to truly drown in the magic of the pool. They must attempt a Physicality-based action to keep from drowning, and the challenge is 3, with the challenge increasing each action by 1. The character must keep attempting these actions until a friend manages to help them out of the churning pool. A character alone in this situation is likely doomed.

At the Center of the Wellspring

Paradoxically, should one reach the Wellspring itself, they can stand as if on solid ground. Vislae who do so can cast spells or utilize other magical praxis at no Sorcery cost. Incantations and ephemera objects operate normally, but objects of power never ever deplete in that spot.

Vislae standing at the center can also make minor alterations to the flow of the Wellspring’s power as it flows into the Actuality. This requires specific knowledge of where the magic is specifically going (through an established link—as detailed in the various stories in this book). Preventing or redirecting this specific flow requires a few minutes of time and a Sorcery-based action with a challenge of 8. Multiple vislae can work together on this action, each devoting points of Sorcery to add to the venture.

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And that’s what Monte has to share with us today. We’ll have another production update in about a month, as, if everything remains on plan, production comes to an end and the Black Cube begins its journey to our warehouses. 

Thank you so much for your support!
—The Monte Cook Games team