Dr Ruthenia the ‘Younger’?

A human man with a dandy’s fineries walks along the path to the Daring Academy with a satchel containing a book around his shoulder and a magnificent staff decorated with arcane crystals on top. He is heading to the Mossy Mug Cafe, the often frequenting establishment of wizards. And this wizard has come precisely to enjoy the company of a colleague of his, Dr. Ruthenia Truelove, a Necromancer Wizard.

As Archie gets to the door of the Mossy Mug, he inspects his bowtie and pointed goatee in the reflection of the window and makes a few adjustments before smiling and entering. In his late 50s, Dr. Archiebald Haltuhr isn’t going to give up on looking debonair anytime soon. By contrast, Dr. Ruthenia Truelove, a more elderly human to Archie, was never herself one to be overly concerned with appearances. Well dressed; yes. Ostentatious? No. What these two wizards had in common, other than their general arcane interests, was a fascination with human lifespans and how magic could assist in its enhancement. One by way of extending it; Haltur, and the other by non-divine arcane healing; Truelove. Today, Archie had a proposal to help and interview an ‘approachable’ lich, and see if anything useful could come out of that for either of the two wizards.

Archie arrived at the table the two wizards usually reserved for their chats, only to discover a young wood-elven lady sat in Ruthenia’s chair. She cut quite a different figure to Ruthenia; younger, dressed more revealingly, and adorned with jewellery. More peculiar, this young lady appeared to have Ruthenia’s spellbook…

A little baffled, Archie asked, “excuse me… are you here with Dr. Truelove? You are her assistant perhaps? I’m Dr. Haltuhr.”

The young lady looked up at Archie’s face, presented her palm in front of her and casted the Mage Hand spell. Just like Ruthenia’s version of the spell, the spectral hand appeared to be skeletal.

“Archie. It’s me.”

“... Extraordinary!” Archie said, a little taken aback in disbelief. “What… ” he managed to stammer before being cut short.



"I know you have your questions, Archie. I thought we might as well hash them out now while we have time on our hands." the new Ruthenia mused, the bangles on her hand jingling slightly as she inspected her hand.

"But before that, tea and cakes. My form may have changed but my order hasn't."

Staggered to learn the young wood elf before him is not Ruthenia's assistant, but Ruthenia herself, Archie eventually managed, "... I certainly have some questions, yes."

Archie pulled out a chair with his telekinesis and sat himself down before continuing, with a playful smile on his face, "allow me to get these, Ruthenia. It's not often an older gent such as I get to entertain a younger lady, haha."

While Archie joked he signaled for a server to take their order.

"Ah, now be careful there Archie, I am an elf now after all. I may look like I'm 35 or so, but in all likelihood I am probably 500, maybe even 600 years old now. I will happily accept the entertainment still.`` She gave her companion a wry smile and allowed herself a laugh.

As the two wizards waited for their order to arrive, Archie brought something up that caught his eyes, and that he suspected would be of interest to Ruthenia - a lich is in need of adventurers. Ruthenia advised that Archie should put up an adventuring note to acquire a party. However, if they were to have a productive interview with the lich, Elvira Tivior, then it may be best to avoid the attention of Paladin's and Clerics. Taken under advisement, Archie made a note to refer to Elvira as a person of 'necrotically prolonged life'. But, to avoid liability, in the small print, he noted that he should still use the term lich.

"I'll put these advertisements out on the board after tea. But, first, shall we talk about your new appearance? I suspect something went wrong before it went right?"

"Try getting torn in half by a demon." Ruthenia stated plainly. "It was my own fault really; an old woman playing at a young girl's games, demon hunting and the such. I was hoping to acquire suitable test material and I suppose this is hubris."

Ruthenia rolled the orb that had once sat atop her rod around in her hand, still marvelling at the new found flexibility in it.

"Luck is what this is. Maybe some god's sense of humour. The elves that I denigrated for their long years now count me among their number. If I had been turned into an aarakocra I dare say I wouldn't have made it to the next summer. I know you're zealous in your efforts Archie but I highly doubt that reincarnation is your answer."

"No you are right," Archie said whilst tilting his head in agreement, "I can't argue with the final result mind you - you look stunning, Ruthenia - but the road travelled is undesirable. No control on the reincarnated race makes it a literal, life-altering lottery. No, I want certainty. It's True Polymorph and/or Clone for me. I'm not sure how either of those spells could be mass distributed, but there's greater certainty there." Archie pauses and looks down at the table to give his long term plans for Human Longevity some consideration. And then he catches himself being absorbed selfishly into his own thoughts.

Archie looks back up at his colleague, Ruthenia.

"How do you feel about the new body? You look stunning, you must physically feel so much better. But, are you able to enjoy all that? Or, does it just feel too foreign and strange?"

"You flatter me Archie. Not that this is new to me but it certainly has been a while. They certainly made this body with a discerning eye. Not exactly sure if that was intentional, I'm not familiar with the granular details of Old Religion magic. With that being said, I have noticed some oddities."

Ruthenia turned to Archie with a vague look of concern on her face.

"I know things that I shouldn't know. I can use swords and bows now even though I've never touched them. I can do elven trances, which while handy, is curious. More worrying is that I've forgotten things I was supposed to know. Would you believe that the other day I looked through my medicine bag and couldn't recognise any of my tinctures or ointments? It took me a considerable amount of revision but I think I'm just about back to working condition in that regard. And these are only the things that are immediately relevant to me. Who knows what else I've lost and what they've been replaced with. I have my theories but I'll need to do more research before I'm sure."

She dwells on the thought for longer than she intends, before snapping back to the subject at hand. Academics is easier than introspection.

"Well the production of a spell scroll is one thing, one I dare say you are well prepared for, the main issue is the sheer magical power required. More than you or I could muster and we are both accomplished mages in our own right. Making it so they are in reach of the average man, that is your true difficulty. One that I feel I too will struggle with in time."

“It’s certainly a very long term project. One I feel I won’t be able to accomplish without first achieving my own extended longevity,” Archie commented.

Archie enjoyed having a colleague to explore ideas with and offer advice. As much as he loved and listened to his friends Mendal and Kavel, neither were wizards. Ruthenia provided a much needed friendship for his work. As his friend, he couldn’t drift away from her observations on her new body.

Archie looked back at Ruthenia, “... the elven trance seems to be at least part nature than nurture, so to speak. The loss of your medical expertise… impairment in the reincarnation process, perhaps? I suppose it’s even possible that Humans have more skill potential… maybe?”

"Maybe. I suppose it would be even more suspicious if there were no side effects." Ruthenia mused. "In any case, I'll work it all out in time. I always do. Speaking of time, I must ask, why do you rush to extend your lifespan so? To what end do you do this?"

Ruthenia paused, nodding a silent thank you to the waitress who by now had returned with their tea and cakes.

"I understand that it's an intense question and if you don't want to answer, that is fine. It's just curious to me, someone extending their lifespan so they can extend others. There has to be some end goal in mind. Why does it matter so much, and more to the point, why does it matter to you, Archie Haltuhr?"

“Well,” Archie began, straightening his posture, “I find that as a shared humanoid culture, we’ve all simply bought into the idea that some of our races live shorter lives on average than others. But why? Why is this the case, and why don’t we question it? And what if we could extend the average lifespan of the shorter lived races? Now we know it’s possible to make changes on a small scale with the Clone spell or True Polymorph spell. But to extend the benefits at a population level, that’s going to take time. It will take more than one human lifetime, and I want to witness the changes my work could make. To do that; I need to ‘make it’, so to speak.”

Archie leant back in his chair, before asking, “what do you think? It also seems to me that if your work in unlocking non-divine arcane healing was cracked and reproduced at scale it would cure all disease. If you could additionally halt or restore senescence as well as off-set disease, well, you would, in addition to achieving your own goal, actually achieve my goal as an upshot - no senescence and no succumbing to disease means the body stays healthy and lives for longer.”

"I see. That's all well and good but I must wonder about whether a long life is in fact a good life. It's an entire world away from the lives of you and I but plenty of humans manage to live fulfilled lives in their short time. I suppose for people like you or I it'll take far longer than a century, but for others I'm not so convinced. Maybe that's why I work on the other side; stopping the abrupt shortening of life. Simply put, I do not like it when people die before their time. It is as tragic as it is wasteful. All that potential just gone. And yet our understanding of both medicine and necromancy will remain stunted as long as we accept divine healing and resurrection as the standard. It's like throwing fireballs into a field blindfolded and hoping you hit something. And there are a lot of things it misses. Chronic pain, age related ailments and disorders of the mind, just to say a few. It is not an enlightened method by any stretch of the imagination. I also find it distasteful that life can end so easily and yet its return is dictated by a select few 'chosen ones'. We are the ones who have to live with this plane, why are we not our own masters?!"

The stares from the other tables alerted Ruthenia to the fact that her voice had elevated for beyond the normal volume for afternoon tea. She adjusted herself in her chair, cleared her throat slightly, and continued, returning back to normal.

"Our goals are similar, but not exactly the same. In time I shall come to ask what first drove you to this. For now, I'll simply ask for your continued support in my endeavours, and in exchange, I shall treat you with the same kindness." She said, holding her hand out for a shake.

Archie kept his head facing Ruthenia as he glanced his eyes to the side to check if the other patrons were staring. If they were, they were no longer.

“I was already, you know? But, with that speech you’ll definitely find me to be an ardent supporter of your endeavours. Plus, I really do feel success in your field is a success in mine.”

Archie shook Ruthenia’s hand.

"But of course. I appreciate it Archie, it has been a while since I've had a colleague on the same level with similar goals. May this partnership prove ever fruitful." She gave Archie's hand a firm shake before withdrawing hers.

"Enough seriousness for now. Tell me, if you were to Polymorph yourself, what about yourself, besides the lifespan of course, would you change?"

"To be honest, not much else. But I believe I'd have to have some angles to my ears if I'm to attain a longer lifespan. I don't believe the spell will allow me to pick the extended lifespan of, say, a Half-Elf without taking the whole package"

"Although, without wishing to sound conceited," Archie said with an intentionally conceited look on his face, "if any wizard were to snip in and out aspects of a spell; maybe it would have to be a Scriber, like me?"

"That's what I like to hear, although I'm surprised, are you sure you wouldn't make yourself look younger? Or is it that this is your prime?"

“Oh, maybe I’d go with my late forties. I don’t want to look too young. Maybe people wouldn’t take me seriously, you know? ‘Did you hear what that upstart said?’ That sort of thing. ”

Ruthenia took one last sip of her tea.

"I think about it sometimes. If I just looked like a younger version of my old self rather than as I do now. But I'm not sure I'd like to be her. Poor, weak, feeble little thing she was. No, age is what gives us our strength, so may our years be long and our faces never show it, I say! Now, shall we get to work with these posters?"

A notepad seemed to lift itself out of Archie’s shoulder bag and place itself on the table opened up to a new page. Archie’s wizardly quill appeared on the page and wrote, ‘Adventurers Wanted’.