Phil, speaking elven: "Good morning to you, my friend. While the arcane skill of the elves is legendary, we are all aligned in a common cause, and I would be honored to provide any assistance I can muster."
Phil will use this first roll to attempt to glean the source of these fragments from their appearance, and also from the context of the chemicals the elf is employing. If he can begin the conversation by demonstrating some knowledge, perhaps this elven wizard may open up to him more readily?
The elf looks at you out of the corner of his eye, blinks rapidly three times, and then turns his attention back to the fragments. "Specimen 23101 was retrieved from a deceased tree in the courtyard of the Academy of Arts."
"Specimen 23105c is a fragment broken off from a larger piece of marble -- 23105 -- after previous shock tests revealed minor transmutation effects had 'softened' the crystalline structure. Naturally, this called for exposure to Salannarr's Essence of Revelation. True to its name it confirmed my theory that both the plant
and the rock were warped by repeated exposure to relativistic fluctuations."
He looks back to you, his eyes gleaming an intense green. "Now what, what could be causing these fluctuations? What could cause this tree to age a thousand years, when other samples near by are only two hundred years old? Answer me gnome. What could do it? Prove yourself worth the interruption you've caused."
OOC: Phil's roll is good enough to suggest that that there must be some sort of temporal effect in play around the Academy of Arts. Perhaps some ancient spell is folding time upon itself over and over again. Or there is a planar effect that causes time to rebound. Or there is a rip in the fabric of time that is causing these terrible fluctuations. Or perhaps a powerful demon has become out of phase with the surrounding reality, causing the very land around the Academy of Arts to be corrupted!
The possibilities stagger the mind, but Phil finds them all very, very exciting.