The Precious Fairy Book

In-Game Book Text
Everyone is familiar with fairies, perhaps from childhood tales. This book will provide readers with a greater insight into the Norrathian version of these winged creatures.

"The Precious Fairy Book," copied from the Everling Laboratory collection -- Being a compendium of the uses for fairies and instructions for gathering them at the peak of potency.

The main body, so to speak, of work at the Everling Laboratory is the animation of certain golems. Learning how to put something together, whether by magic or by manual labor, requires knowing how to disassemble said item. In this way, our research is able to pinpoint the highest concentrations of mana that can be derived from a variety of sources.

The best sources of mana are concentrated in fey beings, such as fairies. Unless one is able to build one's laboratory directly atop a natural wellspring of mana, the next best method of obtaining it is through direct extraction. As with morning dew, the best time of day to obtain fairies for mana is at dawn.

Fairies can be found readily throughout most of modern Norrath. A large number of them reside in the Enchanted Lands. There are two main types of fairy body-style, although many subtle variations can be detected through close examination. One type is the so-called "dragonfly fairy" and the other is the typical fairy.

Dragonfly fairies are distinguished by an elongated lower body from which no legs are visible. The typical fairy looks like a shining, miniature gnome. Unless one has the need for a specific type of fairy, the dragonfly and typical fairies are interchangeable, as they both have most of the same body parts.

Consider one's purpose in obtaining concentrations of mana. If the end result is an offensive purpose, one would likely wish to use dragonfly fairies, which seem to have an essence that boosts the offensive spells. Typical fairies, on the other hand, have a faint infusion of something better for defensive spells. More research will be needed to determine what manufactures these essential traces, but it is important to keep in mind.

If you remove the fairy's wings and hold them up to the light, you can see the network of veins within them. Without their wings, fairies cannot fly. Flying springs from magic. Magic springs from mana. Therefore, the wings are concentrated mana. This is true of either dragonfly or typical fairies.

There is also the matter of fairy dust, which can be obtained again from either type of fairy. To make the most of the gathering process, it is useful to hold the fairy over a clean cloth and scrape it with the dull edge of a knife. The dust collects in the cloth, which can then be used to transfer it to a storage container.

Some who search for concentrations of mana will make a reduction from the broth made by boiling fairy bones. The sheer number of fairies it will take to make this decoction can be overwhelming. It is practical to store left-over fairy bones from previous extraction methods and prepare the reduction at one time.

Whenever there is an inbalance in the world's forces, there is an upswing in negative energy fairies. This does not mean fairies who have no energy, but rather fairies that tend toward malicious or mischevious behaviors. If it is not possible to convert these fairies to one's own purposes, they may be used in the same way as any other fairy.

Fairies are very useful in terms of distilling mana for a variety of purposes. They may have other uses as well, some of those will need to be chronicled elsewhere. If you are considering the study of fairies, you may well be the one to prepare such a volume.