Arduin Grimoire, part 6

By: Unknown on 07:12

Okay, let's get back on track with this Arduin Grimoire thing.  Today I'll be looking at some magical spell type things, starting with

PRISMATIC WALLS AND THEIR USES

Did you ever stop and consider that the usual color scheme for Prismatic Walls and such was inadequate?  That prismatic effects clearly needed some additional colors?  Yeah, me neither.  But Dave Hargrave apparently dug on Prismatic Spheres and such so much that he expanded the list of possible colors to include Red, Violet, Indigo, Rose, Orange, Purple, Magenta, Cyan, Pink, Silver, Bronze, Copper, Gold, Blue Green, Yellow, Lavender, Black, Black & Silver, Black & Gold, Red & Blue, Green & Yellow, Purple & Silver and Green & Gold.  Each has a listed effect on people trying to cross a prismatic wall of that color and a NULLIFYING AGENT that will shut it down.  My favorite color is either Gold, which stops greater demons but not lesser demons from passing through or Green & Yellow, which keeps out dragons and which no dragon attack (breath, claw, spell, lobbed tomato) can pass through.  Magenta prismatic walls can only be nullified by Thunderballs of at least 8 dice, which amuses me to no end.  I just like saying the word, that's all.

Incidentally, don't look at a prismatic wall with True Sight.  There's a five percent chance per level under 20th that you will go permanently insane.  And even if you don't you will be stunned 2d10 months.

Moving along, let's tear through the new spells offered here.  I really dig on most of the names.

DRUID SPELLS
Yalynwyn's Spell of the Singing Winds - sounds so pretty it charms people into sitting and listening to it
Kharch's Spell of the Binding Earth - feet sink into ground, pinning you in place
Cuelchain's Spell of the Wonderful Wind Horse - magic air horsey runs fast or beats people up for you
Marlyn's Mighty Mystical Mouse Spell - tiny angel mouse can fly, put people to sleep with its bite, act as eyes and ears of the druid
Chastarade's Spell of the Stone That Weeps in Silence - don't like a dude? turn him into a rock that's still sentient.  harsh.

MAGE SPELLS
The Rosy Mist of Reason - Forces people to sit down and talk things out like reasonable creatures, but may enrage non-intelligent animals in the area of effect.  I tend to imagine the effects on everyone present as a really mellow high.
Anti-Web Aura - keeps of webs, both magic and cob
Stephan Le Strange's Spell of Instant Idleness - save or goof off the rest of the day
The Wailing Wheel of Fire - whirling disc of flame hurts folks, scares the bejeesus out of anyone under 4th level
Flames of Doom - single target bursts into black flames, taking 1d8 damage and losing a level for every round you keep the spell going, putting out the fire requires simultaneous dispel magic and cure disease
Rhoar-Eee's Transit Spell - object moves 10x normal speed
Masayuki's Mist of Malevolent Misery - a creepy ass version of cloud kill, good for wiping out low level foes
Morgorn's Spell of Red Death - turns a single foe inside out
Waragen's Wave - redirect river, pond, etc. to drown some poor bastard
Yorgan's Falling For Forever Spell - foe falls upward forever, if target saves they still fall 100' up, then presumably back down
Sulthoe's Blaze of Glory - either fire off all remaining spells and mana in a Death Blossom or one spell overpowered by all remaining mana, caster falls asleep for d12 turns thereafter
Stafford's Star Bridge - A rainbow bridge that you can selectively let people fall through.  I've heard this spell was written as a swipe at Greg Stafford at Chaosium for some perceived slight, but I have no confirmation.
Khurluu's Call of the Hell Spawn - summons one or more demon locusts to wreck some shit
Antigan's Shell of Silvery Safety - a forcefield that keeps out spells under 11th level, laser beams and bullets.  only has enough air inside for d10 rounds.
Gandolyn's Gates - target placed inside magic room with 8 doors, the only way out is to blast out with a phaser rifle or go through a door.  Seven of the doors lead to a random hell, eighth to deep space.
The Curse of Tindalos - target is 'claimed' by the Hounds of Tindalos in d20 days, no save

CLERIC SPELLS
Aura of Evil Detection - your basic detect evil except the spell manifests as a whisper in the cleric's ear "something wicked this way comes".  Also one example of what can be detected for evil is a windowframe.  Clearly, I need to put more evil windowframes into my games.
Korgen's Cloud of Kindness - the Rosy Mist of Reason for clerics
Transfer Curse - cast before reading a scroll or trying a new magic item.  If it's cursed the effect lands on your designated proxy instead of you.  Hargrave warns that using this spell belligerently could anger your gods.
Gathering the Sheaves - Gathers up the pieces of a corpse.  Handy.
Wilamon's Wall - puts a wall between you and a foe.  wall moves to keep between you two.
Visions of Hell - basicly Phantasmal Killer for clerics
Heavenly Fog of Forgetfulness - amnesia fog
Aura of Angellic Fire - golden flame aura surrounds cleric, burns foes, burns/disrupts undead, absorbs level drains
Rhyton's Release - sets off all magic items in the area of effect  "This one's fun!"
Spell of the Horns of Joshua - Show those jerks in Jericho who the boss is.
The Askalonian Avert Spell - 75% chance to send a curse back at the one who laid it.  Works on the Curse of Tindalos.

RUNE WEAVER RUNES

If I understand the Rune Weaver class correctly, they can use all normal M-U spells but they cast much slower, using their ancient weaving technique.  They also get the following wicked cool web-themed attack spells.  Each one comes with a description of the energy web that they build during the rounds they are casting, which is nice.  I don't know about your players, but mine will probably never find out which description goes with which spell.  If they see some sinister jerkwad building a spiderweb out of laser beams in the back rank of the foes, you can bet dollars to donuts that guy is going to eat every attack the party has available.

Spell of the Web That Eats Men - cast green slime as an attack spell
Kaid's Web of the Wondrous Star Spyder - drags foes to another universe
Werthal's Web of the Fire Spyder - d6 fire damage per turn foe trapped
Spiraad's Spell of the Web of Pain - d6 acid per turn
Palazaand's Witch Fire Web - d6 fire and paralyzes, web "screams and roars!"
Spell of the North Wind Spyder - d6 cold per turn until frozen solid
Waziran's Wondrous Web of Paralysis - paralyzes, "can only be cut by magikal items", implying that the other webs cn be cut
Rorgoe's Spell of the Lightning Spyder - d6 electrical damage per turn, if you save take no damage but stunned
Argoth's Spell of the Spyder Golem - save: slowed, no save: petrified
Skylar's Web of Wondrous Entrapment - 10% strength drain per turn trapped
Web of the Hell Spyder - drains one level per turn
Moira's Spell of Shrinking Beauty - shrinks those trapped down to 18 inches tall

All in all there's some really great spells here.  Yet another section that leaves me wondering why I never tried a straight-up Arduin campaign rather than just cherrypicking from here and there.