"Gentlemen, if you could enlighten us to your troubles, I'm sure we can help."
It takes
several more minutes for Sosus to end the argument, even in spite of Maikah's yell, and even that requires a lot of yelling and dispute over the wisdom of listening to anything any of you have to say (plus lots more of the previous). He finally just convinces both of them to "bring the entire lab," after even his proclamation that
he'd make the decision resulted in another round of argument.
The two mages storm off, returning with several strange... things. Sosus maneuvers them around, then sits down and begins arranging some in front of him.
"NOW! Since those BLITHERING IMBECILES still can't agree on the time of day, we're going to go over the exact process, and then I'm going to get the opinion- JUST THE OPINION- of the ones who will actually be doing the legwork. Everyone else shall remain silent."Taking a deep breath, Sosus opens up a box, about a foot across, and takes out a tiny vial. It seems to be a padded box with holes just for that purpose, as there are several more vials visible.
"Now," he says, having calmed down,
"this is a sample of a pure element." He holds it forward, and you can see it shine with a brown glow. Looking closely reveals that the thing inside the vial looks sort of like a clod of dirt.
"In order to form the gem, you'll need a sample of this. Larger than this one, it's just an example. This is how the device can draw like energy to itself. This also means you'll need to know what you're after ahead of time."He puts the vial back and lifts up... something. It's round on top, but curvy circles on the bottom, like a crystal ball on an ornate chess piece base. A thick swinging handle, like that of a lantern, is set a little lower than the orb part. The base is a black stone, while the orb is a shiny red metal.
"This is our current attempt at the device. The fire device, specifically. The others are similar. It has some advanced functions I should probably explain, but for the most part you simply leave it near the source. Shouldn't take long, if you're encouraging the right thing.
Now, the difficult part is deciding on the right thing. We need elements from Air, Fire, Light, Darkness, Earth and Water. We have several prospective sources scouted out, to some degree, but as you'll be the ones in charge of doing it, I'd like your opinions.
Ah, and one more thing. I haven't explained how you'll be getting there... we have a portal set up. Several portals. Being set up, at least. It should take you where you need to go; then you acquire the gemstone and return. Simple enough.
Now, I'm sure you're all anxious to get going, so I suppose I'll ask you the short question: What element would you want to attempt first?"