This spell is a part of the Currents of Time spell chain and is found in the Currents of Time rune stone.
The Fountain of Youth is one of the oldest legends in Nor'Ova. The legend that somewhere, in some forgotten place, there exists a source of water that turns back the hands of time on whoever drinks from it. Explorers have sought it. Rulers have funded expeditions to find it. The old and the dying have spent fortunes chasing rumors of its location. The praeteriamancer finds this mildly amusing. Why chase after a legend when with a simple runic manipulation and connection to Memory, one can create their own fountain of youth?
When this spell is cast the praeteriamancer reaches into the currents of time and pulls the past forward in a specific and concentrated way. They are not manipulating time for a single target but for an area, a 4x4 space of the praeteriamancer's choosing that becomes saturated with restorative temporal energy. Anyone within that space feels it immediately. A warmth, a lightness, the particular sensation of a body remembering what it felt like when everything worked a little better than it does now washes over them. All traits increase by 1 for the first round, the youth flowing in gently.
But the fountain compounds. Each round a target remains within the area that initial increase doubles. The second round bringing +2, the third +4, the youth flowing more freely the longer one stays in it as the temporal energy builds upon itself. The fountain does not ask for credentials nor does Memory take sides. Enemy and ally alike who enter the area of effect receive the same benefit, time's restorative power being entirely indifferent to which side of the conflict someone is on.
Should the praeteriamancer roll a natural 1 on the casting roll however, the currents flow in the wrong direction entirely. The fountain becomes something considerably less legendary, a Fountain of Old Age - a likely jest of Doom becoming apparent. The temporal energy is reversed, reducing all traits by 1 and compounding in the same fashion for anyone unfortunate enough to be within it. The praeteriamancer reached for youth and grabbed age instead. Time, it turns out, runs in both directions and does not always cooperate with the direction requested.
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