Post by Andy D on Jan 6, 2024 21:16:15 GMT
On Magnificent Conjurations
I was recently able to witness the conjurations of a master conjurer, Pandro the Powerful, a kobold archmage (perhaps?) living on the outskirts of Kundar.
I have recently mastered the conjuration spell, Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion. Cast from inside my current abode, the spell provides a varied and expansive space from which to work or unwind, and the space is several times larger than the actual abode it’s cast within. Thanks to the Mansion spell, my workspace has never been as similar to how it is back in the family home in Waterdeep, and at the same time larger. I am able to provide Mendal with an unparalleled indoor forge, and for Kavel the exercise space and equipment I can conjure in the mansion exceeds what he has available in either of the Strength Corners of Daring Height or Fort Ettin. The Magnificent Mansion spell, suffice to say, is very popular within the household. Disappointment is voiced by the others when I adventure, and choose not to expend my magical energy in the morning to recast the spell.
Pandro’s conjuration of the Magnificent Mansion spell had a couple of notable enhancements to it. Firstly the mansion was noticeably larger than my own version of it, and secondly it had a near-sentient housekeeper. In addition to these, Pandro keeped his mansion within a demiplane he had created. I intend to master the Demiplane spell myself, and also master the Clone spell, and then keep a clone inside my demiplane. Combining spells can be very useful.
Keeping one’s mansion inside a demiplane offers an extra level of security; a useful aspect of combining the said spells.
However, safe as a Magnificent Mansion is to unwelcome intruders, a combination of magic cast within said mansion can lead to unwelcome visitors penetrating the mansion’s defences! Pandro was summoning fiends to investigate the quandary of how if killed outside their home plane, their soul returns to the home plane - this in itself is a quandary, and one that would benefit humanoids of the material plane who adventure extra-planarly. But, the principle quandary that Pandro was researching was; how a fiend’s soul returns to its home plane, when fiends do not in fact have souls.
Pandro required a group of adventurers to procure ingredients for his investigation. Unfortunately, a combination of errors in planeshifting and summoning had trapped Pandro’s essence inside a green devil that he had summoned, and he found himself imprisoned in the casting circle he had created. Furthermore, having housed his demiplane near the Abyss, the combination of the proximity and errant spellcasting had caused a weakness in the demiplane and mansion allowing fiends to enter!
Us adventurers helped Pandro, stuck in his laboratory’s casting circle in a foreign body, bring together several items from inside his manor that would allow us to escape what had become a fatal situation with the looming number of fiends entering the environment.
Pandro will hopefully be able to settle, temporarily or otherwise, within the city, perhaps employed at Daring Academy. I would like to see Pandro some more and learn how he enhanced his magnificent mansion, and if he gets back to his original research matter, I would volunteer for that too. I have by proxy learned from Pandro not to lodge my own future demiplane next to the Abyss - I dare say I would have chosen an area by the Feywild anyway. One assumes Pandro chose the location he did because of his not very applaudable fascination with exploding creatures from the abyss. Whilst such creatures are not known for being peaceful co-existing creatures, and killing them outside of their home plane is not fatal; it is still far from ethically sound to explode them, experimentally or otherwise.
On Fighting Demons
Leonida - I was able to witness the fascinating enhanced combat form of Leonida, the Astaroth form, a nightmarish full-plated astral knight armour that surrounds Leonida. A powerful combat form. I daresay also more frightening than the multi-mouthed, multi-eyes and multi-limbed demons we fought!
Amble - Again I was able to witness Amble’s mastery of enchantment spells. Not for the first time I saw Amble cast Rary’s Psychic Lance and manage to split the focus of the magical lance to strike two targets very effectively. Amble has also demonstrated transmutation skills I’ve only seen scribers like myself demonstrate, this is to say altering the magical power of a spell from, say, fire to cold. I must consult with my gnome colleague as to how he has seemingly become a scriber, or perhaps even a sorcerer.
Myself - I do not have the sword finesse of Calla when casting Steel Wind Strike. However, a dagger will do, and do nicely. Rapier, longsword or dagger - demons fall to fast-moving magical blade strikes.
Calla - I heard Calla made clever, tactical use of the Wall of Force spell and the walls of Pandro Manor to separate a hoard of demons from advancing on herself and Mittens. Fantastic! Calla also cast Polymorph on Mittens to transform him into a great-ape, and a more capable creature of leverage so that they could carry the large orrery that Pandro wished to extract from the collapsing demiplane with us. I was intending to use the Creation spell to devise an apparatus to more easily carry a large object, but Polymorph, I feel, was the better idea.
Mittens - The young wizard's arcane knowledge has improved since I last saw him, which is delightful. Mittens noticed some arcane matters before either myself, Calla or Amble. The young man’s fey summon, Levkoi, I believe, is impressive. Unfortunately, we were not able to witness it as Pandro’s collapsing manor prevented the casting of conjuration spells. Mittens has yet to learn the Detect Magic spell, which worries me. However, he did propose I could teach him the spell, which is reassuring.