Metamagic spells:
by Carl Quaif(NB: I use the term "metamagic" to refer to a spell which alters or incorporates other spells. Contingency, for instance, is metamagic under this criterion.)
Eboram's Conferral
Level: 4
Range: touch
Duration: special
Effect: 1 spell
Created by the Thyatian research mage Eboram Deionychus, after
reading an account by a group of adventurers who fought Landryn
Teriak, the Wraith Lord. He was particularly interested in Teriak's
innate ability to confer the power to cast a spell on other
creatures, and determined to devise a metamagic capable of
achieving a similar effect. The result, after years of work, was
the group of spells known as Eboram's Conferral. Each spell (which
must be learnt separately) can confer the ability to generate a
single casting of a particular spell of level 1-3 upon a living
being of greater than animal intelligence. The spells are named
according to the magic they confer, such as "Eboram's Conferral:
Magic Missile" or "Eboram's Conferral: Fireball" - a mage
memorising a Conferral does not need to know the spell referred to,
as the magic is contained within the formula of the metamagic. A
conferred spell will remain dormant until activated by the
recipient, either by a keyword or by an act of will, depending on
the casting mage's desire - the former is a better choice, if the
recipient is to carry more than one spell. There is no limit to the
number of Conferrals a single being can receive; A guard could
carry multiple Lightning Bolts, for example, or a messenger could
hold a Fly, an Invisibility and a Charm Person. Once cast, the
spell is gone, as if cast by a mage. All spells function as if cast
by a 6th-level mage, whatever the true level of the caster. Note:
any Conferrals unused by the time the Day of Dread comes around
will fade away harmlessly.
Robyn's Insurance
Level: 4
Range: touch
Duration: special
Effect: 1 spell, 1 target
This nasty Metamagic was based on the "Eboram's Conferral" series
of spells. Robyn Simerius was a Thyatian mage of Hinterlander
descent, and a close comrade of Eboram before the war with Alphatia
- in fact, they had once been lovers. Unbeknownst to Eboram, Robyn
was secretly in the employ of the Alphatian military, one of
several sleeper agents recruited years before. She had free access
to the trusting, naive Eboram's research notes, and realised the
incredible military advantage an army of mundanes with Conferred
spells on them would provide - effectively, Thyatis would have
legions of sword-wielding, armour-wearing wizards at their disposal
- if this information reached the Thyatian government. While Eboram
perfected his research, she adapted it, creating a magical trap.
The Robyn's Insurance series of spells cover the same range of
spell effects, conferred upon a living being. However, the
recipient of a Robyn's Insurance spell has no control over its
release; the spell is triggered either by an act of will from the
caster, or by the recipient performing a certain action or series
of actions. Once the spell is triggered, the spell takes effect
(with no saving throw) on the carrier. Such a spell is usually
damage-causing (Eboram was himself the victim of a "Robyn's
Insurance: Fireball" spell, triggered when he attempted to stop her
from escaping his workshop), but can be a harmless or even useful
spell (for instance, a "Robyn's Insurance: Levitation" spell,
triggered if the carrier falls more than 10 feet). Each Insurance
spell can have only one automatic trigger, but like Conferrals, a
victim can have any number of Insurances cast upon them. Example:
Every new apprentice of the paranoid mage Arianus has the following
Insurance spells cast upon them: Hold Person (if they try to enter
his library unaccompanied), Sleep (if they try to read any of his
spellbooks), and Fireball (if they ever try to speak his name
outside his tower). After Robyn's escape to Alphatia, she sold the
formulae for her spells to allow her to buy land and materials for
a new tower of her own. The various Insurance spells were coming
into regular use in Alphatia before the Wrath of the Immortals;
following the transfer of the continent to the Hollow World, only a
few mages, in Belissaria and elsewhere, retain knowledge of them on
the outer world.