The Thotian Enchantement Spell.new.gif (131 octets)

This very rare spell was invented by a skillful Thothian priest, King Haptuthep. His dream was to create a vessel powerful enough to carry him to the realms beyond the Skyshield and back. He apent a great part of his life putting the spell together, but the Alphatian empire accidentally . thwarted the pharaoh's plans with a surprise invasion.

King Haptuthep fled his coastal domain while his capital and palace were ahamelessly sacked, and the unused magical papyruses were lost. King Haptuthep later became a lich in order to continue his struggle against the invaders. His followers were able to retrieve some of papyruses, but they could not locate the first sheets.

Haldemar of Haaken acquired these lost sheets in 1959 AY during the war between Thyatis and Alphatia, and the remainder were taken by him from King Haptuthep's secret lair in 2000 AY. It is not known whether other copies exist elsewhere. The first few sheets could conceivably have been reproduced in Thyatis or Alphatia, while copies of the last might be found in some forgotten lair of King Haptuthep.

The spell conjures the soul of a powerful, mortal being in order to confer a large object with intelligence and some magical abilities akin to that of the conjured crea ture. The object becomes attuned to the thoughts of the caster. The spell was originally written with a greater sky in mind, but it could be modified to affect other types of creatures. The spell can be cast either by a wizard (9th-level spell, or by a cleric of Haptuthep's ideology (7thlevel spell).

The first part of the spell invokes the life force of the creature in order to seal the magical abilities within the object. The last part compels the creature's psyche to become one with the object in order to give it sentient thought. This second part is by far the more difficult to master, because the sigils used by Haptuthep are both sophiaticated and cursed.

- In order to understand and use the second part, the caster temporarily becomes a gate between the Prime Material Plane and the Plane of Nightmares. By holding someone by the hands and gazing in his eyes, the caster can send that person to the other plane and eventually bring him back.

The spell bestows upon the caster a limited prescience that enhances his psychic perception. This grants a better understanding of the hieroglyphs, the sensing of emanations from the Plane of Nightmares in the Prime Material Plane, and the comprehension of other languages. The caster, however, cannot use any spells, magical items, or magical abilities during the time of the enchantment.

Since the spell deals with the very fiber of Chaos, Intelligence checks (or Wisdom checks for clerics) are needed at random times to avoid temporary insanity. Check once every 2d12 hours. Temporary insanity lasts 1d4 hours. Assume a failed check wastes half a day of work. Each time the caster fails an Intelligence check, his Intel- ligence score drops one point. Three consecutive failures to avoid temporary insanity will cause the caster to spoil the enchantment. He then phases into the Plane of Nightmare and remains permanently insane. Only a wish or a cureall spell can cure the insanity if the caster is later retrieved from the Plane of Nightmares. The caster may recover Intelligence at the rate of one point for every five successful Intelligence checks. The caster also gets a + 3 bonus on Intelligence checks if he is sleeping or deliberately not working on the enchantment at the time of the check.

Completion of the spell requires 30 days of work (assume the caster can work for 12 hours each day) minus a number of days equal to the caster's initial intelligence score. The caster may interrupt his work for any length of time, but he must keep checking against temporary insanity until the enchantment is completed. The spell automatically succeeds if the caster hasn't become permanently insane by the end of the enchantment time.

Upon completion, the spell binds the caster's and creature's souls to the object of interest. The creature may alter the shape of the object in the process, and the caster gains the ability to mentally control the final object through the bound creature's mind. The creature can physically move any original part of the object that is mobile (e.g., doors, levers, windows, traps, and other mechanical parts). If the object was capable of movement, the creature can then control the object's path. Conflicts of personality may occur between the creature and the caster, just as with intelligent weapons.

Should the caster die, the object will lose its powers and the creature's soul will be freed. If the object is destroyed, the caster dies instantly and the creature's soul is consumed. The enchantment is permanent and cannot be broken by a mortal wish.

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