The Chanting Chain

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Perhaps the farthest in shape and form from normal books, even magical ones, this tome takes the curious pattern of a steel chain, treated with everbright, which consists of simple, opposing oval links. The links are unusually large, being of the thickness of a small girl’s wrist, and encompassing an area large enough for a boy’s head to pass through. Though short (14 links), this massive chain is very heavy. Its two end links terminate in hooks engraved with the triple lightning bolts of Talos. Usually hung above an altar of the god of storms and prayed to as “an ear of the god,” the chain radiates strong magic and has the power to reflect 100% of all dispel magic spells and lightning-related magic back to their sources. If at least seven beings (of any race, alignment, and faith) perform a secret “circle chant” (so-called because it repeats itself) to the glory of Talos while touching the chain continu¬ously and through at least six repetitions, the true purpose and powers of the chain are revealed. This chant seems to be in a lost human tongue of the south, and even the faithful of Talos do not know what the words truly mean. Rendered phonetically, it sounds like this: Oomraun shond, oomraun shond, raulith raulith Bhaelros! Umberth ommerth lanshan beldrond Felder ommlin belorth krommorth elemlathtor Stelter stelter halorvan beldrond (repeat) When the chant has been properly performed, discs of electrum whirl out of extra-dimen¬sional space to appear within each link of the chain (slicing through anything in their path, such as carelessly placed hands), filling the links with metal “pages,” each page bearing one spell. These plates remain until the next sunrise or sunset, or until all of them have been studied in detail (whichever of these conditions is met first). The Chanting Chain first appears in Realmslore at the Great Bazaar of the Master of the Gargoyles in 633 DR, held in the western Shaar. There it was exhibited as a holy thing for adherents of Bhaelros (Talos) to revere. Its keeper then was the wild-eyed Tothur, Holy Hurler of Lightnings, a self-styled “Storm Prophet” who challenged the existing hierarchy of the church of Talos—and was promptly branded an insane heretic. Over the next two centuries, Tothur (obviously enjoying at least some divine support), battled the orthodox Talassan clergy, employing the chain on several occasions as a sort of spellhurling ally. He alone, it seems, could call forth spells from the holy item without need of six chanting assistants, or any prayer or any study. It is also clear that the Storm Prophet magi¬cally prolonged his life, though his means of doing so are not recorded. By means of a secret ritual, Tothur claimed to be able to empower devout followers of the Destroyer with “living lightning,” which enabled them to fly about and hurl bolts of lightning at will for short periods (although it drank their life-force at the same time). If this claim is true, the ritual is now lost, though the stormrage spell contained in the chain may be one of its lesser forms. Whatever his true power and nature, the Storm Prophet gained many followers among the nomadic tribes of the Shaar and the smaller villages of the Tashalar, and it is certain that many of these followers exhibited such minor masteries of lightning-magic from time to time. This all ended at Kormul in 888 DR, when Tothur perished in the Struggle of Storms, slaying over 40 Talassan archpriests and shattering the power of the church of Talos in Faerun for three centuries. In the battle, the earth was shattered in a hundred places and cleaved in a thousand more, and it was through one of these rents that the Chanting Chain evidently reached the Underdark, falling into drow hands. The much-copied, bawdy narrative Life of Rebrum (evidently penned circa 1210 DR by a traveling merchant, Rebrum of Sheirtalar) mentions a drow trading band trying to barter away the chain to dark elves from a distant city at a trade-fair in the great subterranean cavern-complex of Vaerndoun. (The complex is a network of interconnected caves, many containing lakes, that stretch in a northeast/southwest line for over a hundred miles, with the midpoint deep beneath the surface city of Torsch.) The drow sellers, sent by the ruling matrons of their city, evidently knew that the chain was both powerful and magical, but could find no use for it. The annual trade-fair in Vaerndoun, called “the Eleave” by the drow, takes place during the first two rides of Alturiak, and is run by a realm of illithids, who refer to themselves and their subterranean land as the Asglyth. (The price of admission to the fair is that all participants must bring slaves upon which the mind flayers feed.) The chain evidently ended in the possession of the Asglyth, for at Kurrsh in 1257 DR there is an account of the raising of a band of warriors to smash a stronghold of Talos-worshipers who proved to be led by a mind flayer. After several costly skir¬mishes, the local warriors slaughtered the Talassans and burned their keep, looting some coin, a few jeweled swords, and the Chain as spoils. For several seasons, the enchanted links hung from the rafters of a tavern in Kurrsh, until the place was burned to the ground one night in Eleint in 1261 DR by furious, crusading Talassans from the Vilhon. They bore away the Chain in triumph and rode home raging, looting, and butchering in exultation, until they were hunted down near Shamph by militia forces. Many powerful Talassans escaped what became known as the Slaughter of the Crazed, and the Chain is, no doubt, in the possession of one of them. Another tavern now stands on the site of the destroyed establishment in Kurrsh, and its name commemorates the destruction of its predecessor—it is known as Cups of Fire and Lightning. The Chanting Chain disappeared from public records for some 40-odd years, next being written of at Ormath in 1318 DR, where Lalagos Indivvur, a priest of Talos, publicly conducted the chant that calls forth spells from it in order to impress locals into joining the faith. Evidently Lalagos met with some success, but attracted more folk hungry for power than strong in their devotion to the God of Storms, for during the next decade, followers of Talos up and down the Vilhon battled each other for supremacy. An aged priest by the name of Yathgoum won the bloody struggle, but soon perished through the ravages of old age. Yet, at no time did he possess the Chain, which was evidently hidden by a Talassan who was later slain. The current where¬abouts of the article are unknown. It is from a set of instructions written by Lalagos shortly before he was murdered by a rival during the “Talassan Troubles” that we know the 14 spells of the Chanting Chain. In order from one hook to the other (the end link hooks are iden¬tical, there is no ready way of initially distinguishing one end of the links from the other), the spells are as follows: Call lightning, tumblethorns (a spell detailed below), wind walk, weather summoning, flame strike, repeat action (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), fire storm, lightning lance (detailed below), wind lash (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars sourcebook), storm cone (Faiths & Avatars), scouring wind (detailed below), clear path (Tome of Magic), shrieking walls (Tome of Magic), and stormrage (detailed below).