“ Believable magic, like ordinary physicis, operates according to some invariable laws that always result in some kind of cost or 'bounce back'. The grater the magic, the more it should cost the character physically, emotionally, and spiritually.”
“ A certain culture believes that evil can live beyond the grave. They also believe that the destruction of the dead body can keep that one from coming back. Destroying the newly deceased body can destroy the soul if done properly. They first burn the body for 24 hours, smash the remains as well as possible, then burn the what is left for another 24 hours.”
“ With a huge number of sacrificial victims, another realm long ago secretly bound a Prince of the land spirits, Iorstonn by name, thus ensuring the fertility, and improving the magical defences, of their realm. But binding that Prince to one spot has disrupted the weather and magical patterns (ley lines?) over half the continent. Things have become bad enough that a coalition has been formed to rectify the situation, once divinations have established the cause.
Your party is one of the teams assembled to do the rectification: find the binding object and steal it ('so that we can destroy it here in our realm, of course'...*) or destroy it over there. Presumably the Prince will be grateful to his rescuers and angry at the binders, but with a greater spirit like Iorstonn one can never be sure: such beings are 'tricksy'.
* Of course, the rulers of our realm might want to control Iorstonn for their own ends...”
