Spells of Compulsion
by John HarePerhaps a possible adventure idea
out of this is some evil mage is inscribing spells of compulsion
inside likely research tomes to affect the magic users who read
them. Perhaps some sort of primer for beginning mages. Introduction
to spell casting 101. When it is read the magic user must save vs
spells or be affected by the compulsion (to a: donate money to some
local front company; b: when a new spell is researched to give a
copy to the controlling mage, c: agree to go and find some
component when the controlling mage asks, etc) And because it is a
primer that may have been around for decades the controlling mage
would have a large following to tap on for some sort of specific
missions. Of course the higher level primers have more specific
tasks: burn down all the warehouses owned by merchant family X,
etc.