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Calomon's Heredity

by Carl Quaif

Level: 9
Range: touch
Duration: special
Effect: 1 female creature
This unique variant of the Clone spell was devised by the powerful War Wizard Calomon, a hero of great renown now resident in Norwold. Having devoted his life first to his Art, then later to carving his Domain from the wilderness, the 55-year-old Mage had never found time for romance, let alone marriage, in his life. Realising that he had no-one to leave his land, fortune and knowledge to, but by now too set in his ways to ever be anything but a confirmed bachelor, Calomon naturally turned to magic to provide an answer. After months of research, he managed to devise a spell which, he felt, would solve all his problems.

Calomon's Heredity requires the brewing and enchanting of a potion which, in addition to some extremely rare herbs and other esoteric ingredients (total cost should be around 1000 gp per level of the caster), includes nine drops of the prospective "parent's" blood (which may be the caster, or some other being of either sex). This potion must be consumed by a consenting female of childbearing age, and of the same species as the "parent" (although an immoral Mage might easily Charm an unwilling female to perform the same function). The caster must then make a Save vs. Spells; if he fails, the spell is wasted and the caster must start again. If successful, however, the spell takes effect, and the female spontaneously conceives a child of the same sex and race of the "parent" - a child, in fact, who is effectively a Clone of that person. Unlike the Clone spell, the duplicate does not attempt to kill the original if both are on the same plane, having come into the world "naturally", and is not born with the memories, abilities and statistics of the original - to all intents and purposes, it is a normal baby of its species. However, the child will grow up with the same appearance, the same basic personality, and the same interests as the original - a Mage's child will grow up to be a Mage, with exactly the same potential as the "parent". If two children are gestated at the same time (with different host-mothers) using this spell, they will grow up more alike than the closest identical twins.

This spell has, so far, been cast only once; Calomon used it to gestate his "son", Calodar, now a sturdy five-year-old boy, with the willing aid of his housekeeper, Maharene. Most people believe the child to be her natural son, and neither adult is willing to dispel that impression...not yet, anyway.