VoLo's Gcifoe to ALL Things Magical As Edited and Amended by ELrm'nsteR of Snaoocooate (Hotoeuen Hand He Might Cane to Deny It) by with Erzic L. Boy d

Sample file

Do you always turn to the exciting bits in any book you open? The "And then the dragon breathed fire, and the tower toppled slowly, screaming mages plunging to their death" scenes? No? Well, what then? Oh. You look for the deep, insightful passages that lay bare the secrets of All That Is? Dear, dear. You've got hold of the wrong book. This is one of the other sort, and the dragon's just about to ... —Sylune of Shadowdale, Slumbertime Stories For Sprigs Dedication To Julia Martin, Steve Schend, and Eric Boyd for keeping the flame bright. And to Eric, again, for unlocking more shining secrets of the Realms for us all.

Cnedits Design: Ed Greenwood Artifacts and original Magic in My Hand Design: Eric L. Boyd (additional design by Ed Greenwood) Editing: Julia Martin Art Director: Robert J. Galica Cover Art: Ciruelo Cabral Interior Art: Tony Crnkovich, Ned Dameron, and Valerie Valusek Typesetting: Nancy J. Kerkstra Production: Heather Le May and Dee Barnett

Of hen Related Socitzcebooks in Che VoLo's Guide Semes Volo's Guide to Waterdeep Sample file Volo's Guide to the North Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast (includes information on the Western Heartlands) Volo's Guide to Cormyr Volo's Guide to the Dalelands

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TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. 2O1 Sheridan Springs Rd. 120 Church End Lake Geneva Cherry Hinton WI53147 Cambridge CB1 3LB U.S.A. United Kingdom Elminster's Introduction 4 Weirdstone 78 Volo's Introduction: The Secrets Laid Bare 5 Wonderful Throne 78 The Mage Fairs 5 Zarangan 79 The Well of Spells 5 The Magic of the Person 80 Hideaways 6 Innate Talents 82 The Sorceress in Gray 7 Elixirs 83 The Magic of Guardianship 8 Annath's Draft 84 Construction Materials 9 The Flame Elixir 84 Spells 9 Halaster's Quaff. 85 Wizard Guardianship Spells 9 The Great Elixir 86 Priest Guardianship Spell 11 Special Powers 86 The Magic of Items 12 Spellfire 87 The Effects of Overenchantment 13 The Nature of Spellfire 87 Item Entrapment 13 Empowering Energy 87 The Enchantment of Items 14 Spellfire Experience 88 Beginnings 14 Immunities to Spellfire 88 Primary Casting 14 Body Effects 88 Shell Creation 15 Spellfire Overloading 89 Enstarment 16 Spellfire Unleashed 89 Mastering 17 Wizshades 92 Awakening 17 Wizshade (Spellshade) MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM® Sheet 93 Veiling 17 Artifacts of the Realms 94 The Random Element 17 Beacon of Light 95 Wizard Item: Andratha's Wand of Battle 18 Blood of Lathander 96 Wizard Item Enchantment Spells 20 Chessmen of Ultham-Urre 97 Priest Item: Mace of Reaving 24 Crenshinibon the Crystal Shard 99 Priest Item Enchantment Spells 27 Crown of Horns 101 Collected Words of Activation 32 Cyrinishad 102 Suspected Words of Activation 32 Dawnstone 103 The Universal Material Component Sample33 Death file Moon Orb 104 Raw Materials: Gemstones 34 The Dragonking's Eye 105 Raw Materials: Metals 54 Gatekeeper's Crystal 106 Treatments 58 Guardian's Tear 108 Raw Materials: Woods 59 Iron Helm of Heroes 109 Latheebree's Librams 64 Living Gem 110 Latheebree's Folio of Reversal 64 Ring of Winter 112 Lathebree's Pantograph Pages 65 Scepter of Savras 113 Magic in My Hand 65 Starym Moonblade 114 The Seven Lost Rings of Mhzentul 66 Thakorsiis Seat 116 Ring of Burning 67 TearofSelune 118 RingofColdfire 67 Windwalker Amulet 120 Ring of Night 67 Wyvern Crown ofCormyr 121 Ring of Scribes 67 Yuthla the Eye of the Beholder 123 Ring of Stone 67 Zeladazar the Ghost Sword 124 RingoftheTshala 67 Appendix I: Gemstone Tables 126 Ring of Wayfaring 68 Gems of the Realms 126 Ring Spells 68 Gem Variations 126 HelmofZulae 69 Ornamental Stones 126 Luck Medallion of Tyrnora 69 Semiprecous Stones 126 Thunderstaff 69 Fancy Stones 126 ThunderstaffSpells 70 Precious Stones 127 The Magic of Movement 74 Gems 127 Some Collected Notes and Thoughts 75 Jewels 127 Movement Magics 75 Hardstones 127 Wizard Spells 75 Shells 127 Priest Spells 77 Appendix II: Spell and Magical Item Index 128 Magical Items 78 hat a pretentious title. Not even / would dare to Spells found in other recently released volumes of Realms- I pen something that purported to be a guide to all lore,3 by the way, for the most part are not repeated herein things magical. Volo did not even try. What he unless substantial amplifications or corrections of earlier foisted upon Faerunians hungry for enough accounts are also included. With that said, the reader is I secrets of magic to make them rulers of the warned that to act on much of the information in these pages Realms was a grab bag full of odds and ends about the Art: is inherently dangerous and may even earn the dabbler some notes about this and that, gossip, and distorted fragments of perilous foes. Moreover, much of the information herein" is spells and processes copied from spellbooks on the sly or mis- dangerously wrong! remembered from brief glimpses snatched in places and on On the other hand, the revised work in your hands does occasions when he dared not write anything down. have value as a source of ideas—a spur to the sorcerously cre- In the interests of reader safety, I was forced to spearhead ative, if ye will. A crucial part of the Art and any understanding an exhaustive search for every last copy of his masterpiece of of it is to recognize that there are many ways to achieve a horrors—I think we got them all—and then convince him of desired effect or result, just as many cooks prepare the same the error of his ways. Just about every other mage who had dish in different ways. What Volo says herein may be a way of seen the work offered to help in this little task. After due pas- doing thus or so, but bear in mind that it is often (nay, usually) sage of time, I agreed that something called Volo's Guide to All not the only way of doing it. Things Magical (that title—what an arrogant longnose!) should Priests will find some lore of practical use to them in this become available across Faerun, if only to stop greedy adven- book, and mages who follow other paths to mastery of magic turers from getting themselves killed in the defenses of every will find that what appears herein is almost wholly concerned mage's tower between Evermeet and Kara-Tur in an attempt with magic as practiced by humans dwelling in Faerun. 1 to gain a copy of the work rumored to yet to survive. Yet— Thankfully, Volo resisted the temptation to set down wizard mark ye—it was not going to be the same opus Volo fondly jokes in print, so none of them are perpetuated here.5 thought of as his great gift to all seekers after magic. I set to For all my work, this tome is still a grab bag of this and that work on the only copy of the text remaining (safely kept up to and not a comprehensive guide at all. That is something that that point in my library) to expunge the worst of his distortions can probably never be written. Only the beings known to us as and just plain errors in order to keep Faerun from being over- Mystra and Azuth could possibly encompass the subject, and I run with uncontrolled elementals and worse summoned can conceive of nothing that would induce them to write a extraplanar beasts—to identify just one considerationSample. wor kfile that lays bare in a few pages what should take mortals a And then, of course, a little minor surgery was necessary on lifetime of careful study and experimentation to learn the pal- what he got right. I really do not think the Realms would be try beginnings of. better off without any wizards around to keep the beholders, To readers who trust in the sword or the dagger and hope dragons, drow, ore hordes, petty sword-swinging tyrants, to find in these pages a guide to how to lay mages low, I tender insane Baneliches, and other evils at bay—and that is what the following piece of very good advice: "Wizards? Avoid 'em. would have happened if Volo's little list of carefully pilfered Life's better when ye're not a frog." That anonymous trail say- command words, phrases of activation, truenames, and the ing of the Sword Coast lands has been around a long, long like had fallen into the hands of the inhabitants of wider time, but it is best never forgotten—if ye take my point. Faerun. Some things only the magically enlightened, whether Happy reading, then, dabblers in magic—and fry to leave a wizards or priests, are meant to know—really! Accordingly, I little of the Realms still standing when ye are done, will ye not? considered just what delicate deletions to make and then went out and got a good sharp meat axe. When a small pile of tattered scraps of parchment were all that remained of Volo's opus, I set to work restating his fum- bling prose into understandable terms2 and chopping the most irresponsible blow-up-all-Toril spells. What emerged is that which ye hold in your hands: a few fragments of useful material about magic. These are only the bones of Volo's colossus of magical revelation, but at least they are now the right bones to keep the thing standing up.

'There aren't any left. Really. They're all gone. Elminster says he destroyed the last original after composing this work. Vellum burns remarkably well. 2Elminster's terminology has, of course, been translated into ADVANCED DUNGEONS &. DRAGONS8 game terms. 3Such as Pages From the Mages and The Seven Sisters. 4How much? Just as much as each Dungeon Master desires! 5It's not likely that Elminster would have let them survive to the final edition, in any case. 'V Tbe SecRets Lafr> Bane olumes such as this one come along but once in a life- who permit entry only to those who demonstrate an ability to cast time. You are wise indeed to have opened this tome— spells. after, I hope, laying down good coin for it—for your eyes Initially held once a decade, then every five years, and for a brief now look upon more lore useful to spellcasters than can time every three summers, Mage Fairs are now annual affairs, their be found anywhere else in all Faerun. Oh, there are more increasing frequency driven by the enormous rise in the numbers of powerful spells, and books that bristle with more of them, but this is the competent mages in Faerun during the current century. At a Mage Fair, place where lore about the use of such magic appears. The reader of mages of all backgrounds meet under the safety of an agreed-upon set Volo's Guide to All Things Magical can gain a brief taste of the rich vari- of rules3 to conduct business. They negotiate and sign contracts, nonag- ety and manyfold complexity of the Art of wielding magic—at least, as gression and territorial agreements, and research pacts, and they sell human mages outside of secretive Thay and Halruaa practice it. services, spells, training, enchanted items, rare material components, Writing this book almost got me killed—or worse, transformed into a potions, and information. Young mages lusting after a reputation and helpless shape and placed in a spell-governed situation of endless torment elders desiring to attract followers or pupils show off their mastery of where death would remain forever elusive, but the raw pain would make it difficult or powerful spells, and would-be masters and would-be desirable (or so a certain Catanarla the Crimson Cloaked, a sorceress of apprentices take their measures of each other, trying to find the right Telflamm, promised me). Many mages, it seemed, objected to my revela- match. Several well-known mages in cities up and down the Sword tions of their pet spells, past peccadilloes, secret words, and names of Coast sell complex spell disguises (for 1,000 gp per layer, with the sim- power. Elminster and Khelben between them saw to it that I lived—though plest having eight layers and most running to at least double that) for not before amusing themselves by delivering me into the claw—er, graceful use by wizards who dare not attend a Mage Fair as themselves. (Wizards hands of the Simbul, Witch-Queen of Aglarond, who demonstrated upon of any age or accomplishment seem to acquire enemies, or at least my person what the consequences of future unauthorized sorcerous jour- unscrupulous rivals, as easily as most of us breathe.) nalism would be. It is not much fun to be thrust into bird form and forced Most readers will be unsurprised to learn that duels are common at to fly full-tilt into a stone wall, not to mention smelling all the hair burnt out Mage Fairs, and magical pranks even more numerous. Due to the nature of my head, along with other more—horrific—experiences. of magic, both duels and pranks are apt to get out of hand, and Mage I will not even open the subject of all the curses that are riding upon Fairs are therefore usually held in remote meadows or valleys, ruins, me as we speak, ready to strike if I do delve further into any means of abandoned castles, and similar places where few folk dwell who might be revealing the secrets of sorcery. Suffice it to say that I am going to be a terrorized—or driven to attack attendees of the fair. The only recent Mage very good boy where dealings with wizards are concerned for a long Fair to be held in a settlement of any size took place over a dozen years time to come. They have promised me that. ago in Derlusk, a port city in the Border Kingdoms. I do not know where This book of mine, however (suitably butcher—er, revised and embel- the next Mage Fair will be held, but the Heralds will begin to spread the lished by the vigilant Elminster), will now see a wider audience than I had word a good year before the event, once the Magister decrees the site. A ever hoped it would, and some, at least, of the juicy secrets I uncovereSampled counci filel of senior wizards organizes and decides the location of the fairs, will be shared with readers who are not all (I hope) crotchety old arch- but how one gets onto that governing body—or even who is on it—are 4 wizards or liches already. So welcome, and read on: magnificent power secrets guarded, I am told, by no less than divine Azuth himself! and fascinating lore about it awaits thee, as old Elminster might say.1 This spot is perhaps the best place to touch on a few odd topics that do not fitanywher e else in this dissertation. They are but a few of the fascinat- The WeLL of SpeLLs ing things I have learned about sorcery in Faerun. Read on, and discover a This legendary site seems to move about from place to place in Faerun at whole book of them. It is my hope that my Faerunian readers find this the will of Mystra.5 It is always found in a large cavern, but the cavern may work both enjoyable and practical and that it goads them into at least be deep in Undermountain or the Underdark, high up in the heart of a investigating magic. Life for all in the Realms can only become richer and lofty mountain, beneath the crumbling ruins of Myth Drannor, or half a better if there are many folk who can wield a modest amount of magic 2 hundred lesser fallen places. Apprentices in the Art and readers in Candle- rather than a few stunted old graybeards who wield a lot! keep who do not care to get any closer to magic than reading about it whisper excited tales of the Well of Spells to each other as they come across them in their readings, for it truly seems like a paradise for mages. The Well is not a shaft or pit filledwit h water at all, but rather a verti- cal, cylindrical field of glowing golden light that marks the boundaries of its magic. Its diameter has varied from appearance to appearance, but it The Mage Fams seems able to assume any diameter. Any wizard who finds and enters it is Many wild legends and tavern tales across the Realms mention these borne up by its enchantment, flying very slowly at MV 3 (A) in a random wild, spell-hurling occasions, and only a few of these stories exagger- direction and for a random distance until the Well stops providing lift for ate what goes on at a Mage Fair. These gatherings are open only to him or her; the wizard floats slowly along, driven by force of will, but wizards, and the usually remote sites at which they are held are need not concentrate unduly on this movement so as to affect his or her guarded by heavily spell-shielded guardian mages (often levitating) other actions. 'Elminster: But, ye'U notice, had the good taste not to. zElminster: Ahem. Pay no attention to the ranting man behind the curtain.. .. 2Volo: Among other stipulations, the rules ban the use of teleportation and any casting of a combat spell outside of a formal demonstration or duel. 4EIminster: Correct. Overcoming my astonishment at witnessing Volo cleaving to the truth, I'm bound to add that a rather fanciful account of a visit to one fair appears in the TSR anthology Realms of Valor in the tale "Elminster at the Mage Fair." sElminster: This is true, but why the Well exists in the first place is something I've never managed to learn from Mystra. Lord Secotha Amraster Lionsfriend, protected from scrying, investigates a magical cache in his hideaway. If this is the mage's first visit to the Well, she or he is confronted in its glow- ject is not necessarily something the mage is interested in or desires to see, ing heart by a monster materialized by the Well. All sorts of beastsSample have been and thfilee vision is often cryptic in its relevance. Beings who are not wizards reported to have shown up, but neither they nor the mages they attack can are not affected by the Well or its monsters. They can see its radiance, but employ magic or psionics while inside the Well. If a wizard flees from the Well, it does not cause them to float or affect them in any way, except to remove this monster pursues, but if the mage slays the beast within the Well by physi- charm spells, curses (including lycanthropy), geas spells, and other magi- cal means, she or he is instantly granted full knowledge and use of a spell new cal controls and compulsions existing upon them at the time of contact. to him or her. The spell is never be one that is wished for, but seems to be This power of the Well can affect the same nonwizard beings again and always determined randomly—it may even be of a level or school normally again if they find and enter the Well repeatedly. denied to the mage and still be successfully used by him or her at no penalty. This mystically granted spell is gained as an extra spell and carried in addition to the wizard's usual roster. Its casting never requires material components. Note that if a mage flees or is hurled forth from the Well and defeats Across Faerun, many scores of extradimensional chambers or complexes the monster outside it, no spell is gained. Reentry into the Well calls of rooms known as hideaways or safeholds exist. Here I recount only forth another monster for the wizard to face. The Well lands the wizard descriptions of a few of these hidden places, but it should be noted that and ceases to allow him or her to fly if the wizard leaves the Well while Chessenta and Turmish are said to be positively riddled with them. They fleeing the monster or after the wizard gains the random spell. are said to feature so many of these hideaways that a military invasion of The Well has no top or bottom. A wizard reaching its uppermost either country would be imperiled from the outset by the ability of reaches is transported instantly to the bottom, and vice versa. Any num- defenders to hide away in the heart of an invading army, striking at ber of sorcerers can be in the Well at the same time and can see and leisure from concealment. speak to each other, but they cannot strike at or pass items to each other, The construction of such hidden lairs was evidently greatly in fashion since each wizard and all of his or her possessions seem intangible to in the dangerous days of human dominance in Faerun in the centuries other wizards in the Well. Missiles fired into the Well reach its edges and after the fall of Myth Drannor, but many of the spells used to construct stop, hanging frozen in its radiance, but they can readily be retrieved by these areas, which typically have magically concealed and operated anyone reaching into the radiance. entries, have since been lost or become secrets hoarded carefully by 6 If a wizard has entered the Well before, all that is gained by reentering liches and perhaps a few living mages. Some of these safeholds are it is a vision of a being, place, or item of importance to the mage. This sub- clearly retreats for desperate warriors to hide in, but others are just as

"Elminster: Let it be known here and now that I am not one of them. I suspect that—aside from a few wizards who have passed into a lich state—the secrets of making safeholds died with those human mages who perished after the fall of Myth Drannor. Certain elves in Evermeet may still know the necessary castings, but no one in Hal- ruaa or Thay does (despite what they may pretend to be able to do).