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Wizard Guardianship Spells
7th Level
Wardmist
(Wiz 7; Evocation, Alteration, Enchantment/Charm)
Range: Special Components: Special Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 1 hour Area of Effect: Special Saving Throw: Special
The caster must stand in an area that will become part of the ward and visualize the route of the desired ward boundary. An area of 600 square feet per level of the caster may be enclosed. If the wizard tries to enclose too large an area, the spell fails and is wasted. Wizards casting simultaneous wardmists may combine their protections

The spell creates a wardmist. This is a 40-foot-high, 60-foot-wide band of permanent, milky-white mist that must rest on the ground, floor, or other solid surface. (It need not be level.) The area protected by the ward is measured from the inner edge of the wardmist. The thickness of the mist is not included. The ward extends 40 feet beneath the surface of the ground and may be narrower than 60 feet in width wherever desired. Its boundaries can twist and turn corners as sharply and as often as desired to protect a certain area, and they may exclude whatever areas the caster desires. Once cast, a wardmist cannot be moved.

A wardmist can always be freely entered or left. Beings entering it are sensed by the spell, which reacts by flashing a radiant or audible warning (or both, as desired) to a specific spot or being. The spot or being is set upon casting, and it cannot be changed thereafter. Such a warning would still function in the location of a destroyed room--even in midair - or inside the tomb of a dead being.

Warnings classify those who enter the wardmist into two categories: those who bear ward tokens and intruders. Wardmist warnings transmit numbers and general locations of all intruders.

Sight and all known magical and psionic means of scrying do not work through the boundaries of a wardmist. A being in the mist can see through the mist to a distance of about 10 feet in darkness and 40 feet when light is present. One cannot see out of the mist though, even if one is only inches away from its edge. one cannot see out of the mist to either the area it excludes or the area it encloses. A wardmist can be seen over freely by anyone tall enough or stationed high enough to be able to do so.

When visibility is reduced by darkness, intruders in a wardmist who do not use lamps, markers, or other means of proceeding in a straight path will move in a random direction each round of movement in which they fail a secret Intelligence ability check. It is possible to wander, lost, in a wardmist for quite some time.

The caster of a wardmist spell can try to link certain types of magically animated or undead monsters to the ward as it is forming to serve as guardian monsters. To become guardians, these monsters must be present, and must fail a saving throw vs. spell.

When an intruder reaches a certain locale in a wardmist or has been in the mist for a set time, some guardian monsters are teleported to within 20 feet of the intruder. The types and numbers of guardian monsters are set by the initial wardmist spell but are limited by the available stable of guardians. Their typical orders are to attack and destroy all intruders, although some may be instructed to subdue, disarm, and capture while dealing as little damage as possible.

Guardian monsters are kept in stasis by the wardmist when not active. 'They do not age, heal, or eat. They become inactive 2d4 rounds after an intruder is slain or leaves the warded area. A guardian monster can be healed at any time by application of the proper potions or spells. A destroyed guardian is forever gone. it cannot be resurrected or replaced by the wardmist spell. Monsters can be unleashed to wander in an existing wardmist, but to be linked to and teleported about by the ward, they must be part of the initial wardmist casting. Only the types of magically created or undead monsters listed in the boxed text at left can be linked to a wardmist, although individual mages may have successfully modified their wardmist spells to augment this list. Tales exist of wards defended by golems and even by undead titans.

Mages may combine their efforts when creating a wardmist so as to give it multiple sets of guardians of the same or different types. Each mage casts a wardmist spell at the same time, though only one ward is created, and it is set to a single sort of ward token.

A few wards are linked to more powerful guardians, such as liches assisted by robed and hooded skeletons (to look like other liches or mages). These skeletons are imbued with spell ability to cast combat spells and have magic mouths cast on them to allow them to "speak." They act as decoys and are used to identify spellcasting intruders to their lich. There are even reports of multiple invisible stalkers linked to a wardmist-each being freed from servitude in Toril after they slay a certain number of intruders.

A wardmist does not seem to exist for a being who carries the proper token. Ward tokens must be made of a certain material, and they must bear a certain rune that is drawn while a secret word is uttered. The material, the rune, and the word are all set during the ward's casting, and they cannot be changed thereafter. For convenience, tokens to a particular ward are usually of a common shape and size, but the wardmist recognizes anything of the right material that bears the right rune. Some ward tokens have been inset into the pommels of swords, for instance, or baked into clay jugs or statuettes. In some large holdings, warders carry rings of varying tokens just as they do rings of keys. Tokens can be made freely after the casting of a wardmist-but the requirements for a valid token cannot be changed without using another wardmist spell.

A being bearing a valid token cannot see or be affected by a wardmist and is not subject to attacks by any guardian monsters linked to the wardmist An intruder who seizes a valid token from another being, even while in battle with a guardian, is instantly free of such guardian monster attacks.

Only one wardmist spell can exist in a given area. If a dispel magic is cast on a wardmist, it increases visibility around the caster by 20 feet, delays the appearance of any guardian monsters by a round, and sets off an immediate warning. Only a limited wish or wish can destroy a wardmist. Even repeated dispel magics will fail, and an anti-magic shell cannot form within a wardmist. If this is attempted, the anti-magic shell is wasted, and the wardmist is unaffected.

The most common addition to a wardmist is a band of armed human guards assigned to respond to the magic's warnings. Spell triggers are also popular. These are spells that have specific preset conditions to set them off; they then launch the effects of other "hanging" spells, also cast earlier.

The material components of this spell are an amount of silver larger in total volume than the caster's fist, phase spider silk, and three powdered pieces of amber of no less than 500 GP value each. Other material components may be required if unusual spells or monsters are to be linked to the wardmist.

Typical Wardmist Guardian Monsters
d8 Number & Type of Monsters
1 2d6 baneguards* (MCA1)
2 1d3 blazing bones+ (MCA1)
3 2d8 bonebats* 4 3d4 helmed horrors' (MCA1)
5 3d4 skeletons or 2d4 monster skeletons (MM)
6 1d2 watchghosts.*
7 1d2 wraiths (MM)
8 2d12 zombies (MM)

Monsters marked with an asterisk (*) appear in the revised FORGOTTEN Realms Campaign Setting box. Those appearing in the MONSTROUS Manual game accessory are denoted by "MM," and those in the Monstrous Compendium Annual volumes have the volume number appended to the abbreviation "MCA." Those marked with a dagger (+) appear in the Ruins of Myth Drannor boxed set. A diesis denotes those in the Ruins of Undermountain boxed set. DMs lacking a particular source should substitute another monster from the list.