The library is probably relatively safe, but we make a lot of noise on arrival and so would break rule #1 of libraries immediately, which could cause us serious problems if it's a magic library. The glade's fresh bloodstain is worrying and the fact that the elementals are doing things makes me worried somebody is lurking offscreen who might take offense to use trying to steal their elementals.
If we start out being kind to the elementals rather than hijacking them, we can hopefully avoid any
really big problems. The bloodstains are troubling but we at least have a readily visible source of help and protection if things get ugly.
That just leaves the dragon or the not-elf. Between the two I'd prefer the dragon since it's lower risk - the kind of imprisonment described is the sort that is just a bit unethical so either she's there unjustly or she's the equivalent of
Queen Jadis and whoever imprisoned her wasn't able to kill her. If it's the former, the ants are already working on breaking her out; if it's the latter, there's very little we can do to keep her imprisoned and she might be able to convince us to free her if we go there.
The dragon, meanwhile, doesn't appear to have any signs of having killed people (at least recently) so we should at least have a chance to explain ourselves before we are served with ketchup.
The flip side is that dragons
may decide to kill or at least be unhelpful anyway. If the elfin sorceress in the imprisonment is actually a very nasty character (a la Jadis), well... We don't really have her escape on our conscience because she would have gotten out anyway when the ants broke the containment, and we may well
still be able to derive benefit from a short-term interaction with her, then escape via the tether effect.
My intuition is far from perfect, but it's telling me not to worry about her too much. If she's a nasty character I feel like she'll be managably so.
Dragon shows no signs of having moved recently, either, and there's no light in its cavern apart from a few (magical) gemstones. It could just as easily be super pissed that we woke it up from its nap.
So torn whether to vote this 'funny' or 'insightful.'
Yep. Primarily with enchanted objects, solid mana, land, gold, silver, or sometimes gemstones.
...Which, come to think of it, are all very valuable things we do not have.
Necromancer maybe? Undeath could cover the food thing and necromancers were mentioned to have been imprisoned on world #2. And if they do it there and the mechanics remain the same they might be imprisoned in other places too.
The ants could be undead she is controlling to slowly escape.
I feel like this is a bit of a stretch, among other things because she doesn't
look dead, and you'd think that one of the first things they'd do when imprisoning her is break any glamours that are making her look normal or prettier-than-normal. Why let your prisoner manipulate illusions? Also, swarms of undead ants, while plausible, would be pretty unusual and difficult, and I suspect undead ant swarms would be hard to control, especially through a bunch of wards specifically intended to stop you from controlling dead things, which I imagine these are. Whoever built this prison
knew it was in (presumably) a wilderness area or something, they had to know creatures would live or die near the prison. Taking over random animals that happen to die near the prison would be, like, the
obvious way for a necromancer to escape captivity.
I think it's more likely that the ants are an attempt by a comrade or supporter to rescue her subtly without tripping alarms by approaching the prison.
I would think all the chains and runes would keep her from controlling anything. The runes and the like could also explain lack of food - magical life support. Which if ,she is something that can reincarnate after death, would keep her from refusing food etc. Also means she can seduce the guards bringing her food.
Or it could be that she's being forced to use what little power she can access and control in her present state just to nourish herself. If she lets herself starve, well and good from their point of view; if she doesn't, she has to expend so much magical energy compensating for the lack of food and water that she can't undermine the containment as easily.
