The Flame of the Spirit

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The Flame of the Spirit is a lump of amber that has been sculpted into a wiggling flame or (as some less reverent observers have described it) a giant tadpole. Its base is heavy and rounded, and the touches of countless hands down the centuries have left it satiny smooth. No inclusions are visible in the depths of the amber, but it often seems as if a shifting radiance sparkles there. There are mentions of attempts to destroy the Flame of the Spirit, but it appears able to with¬stand all blows from “normal” weapons. Tymorans consider it one of their most holy relics, and are currently engaged in an avid search for it. Possessors of the Flame should know that devout Tymorans consider the only rightful place for the piece is on an altar sacred to Lady Luck. Theft or seizure, while it is in the custody of others is not considered a crime by Tymorans (whatever the laws of the realm in which the Flame lies), and the nature of the goddess and her faithful makes the execution of reckless acts to regain it almost necessary. The Flame of the Spirit remains no more than a gemstone of unusual size and beauty unless it is touched directly by the flesh of a living being. If that being is of the faith of Tymora, the Flame shimmers and slides its shape into that of a tablet, tilted for easy reading and resting on whatever surface on which it is set. (If no such surface exists, the tablet levi¬tates at the spot where it shifted shape, though it may be freely moved about, the levitation reasserts itself whenever the tablet is released and not placed upon any surface.) In its tablet form, the Flame displays randomly selected spells from its roster, changing to another spell whenever it is touched again by a worshiper of Tymora. No one can control the order in which the spells are displayed, but all of the magics stored in the tome are presented (each in its entirety, but alone on the tablet) before any spell “repeats.” Upon the second repetition of the spell display, upon the passage of a continuous day (24 hours) without the touch of any worshiper of Tymora, upon the utterance of a secret word while the book is being touched, or upon contact with the flesh of a creature who does not worship Lady Luck, the tablet reverts to flame form, and levitation ceases. Whenever the Flame of the Spirit comes into direct contact with the flesh of any being who does not venerate Tymora, it emits a searing flame that burns and is corrosive to flesh as well (thus, immunity to fire cuts damage in half rather than eliminating it), and inflicts 6d4 points of damage per contact, or per round of continuous contact. No being who is of the faith of Tymora can get the Flame to shift into tablet form and display its spells unless he casts or unleashes certain secret and powerful opening magics while touching the Flame (and suffering its damage). This “holy fire” erupts only into the being touching the amber, not from any other part of it. The sculpted amber can rest on flammable materials while emitting the flame without igniting them. The Flame of the Spirit is thought to be very ancient (some believe it was created in the days of Netheril, or even earlier), but the first mention of it is in the book To Serve Fair Fortune, penned by the adventurer-priest Ithlom Dhaunart, and sold as popular enter¬tainment in the Vilhon Reach area from 442 DR onwards. Ithlom’s exploits (a long series of predicaments and naughty deceptions in which Ithlom always emerges triumphant through daring and astonishing good luck) are colorful and quite possibly embroidered, but his description of the Flame as a holy item kept by the Faithful Sisters of Tymora at their temple-farm at Smiling Lady Well (now sunk beneath the waves of the Moonsea along with nearby Northkeep) is borne out by the fact that the center of their compound was marked by a shrine called “The House of the Holy Flame.” This is the only instance of a “flame” being associated with Tymora. Tymoran lore has always whispered wild tales about a band of devout adventurers daring to go down into the sunken farm and bring back relics of the Lady; it is likely (though the tales have never mentioned it) that the Flame was among them. What became of it after that is unknown until 982 DR, when the adventurer Jorthan Twocastle (a loveable rogue who happened to serve a Tymoran temple in Sembia both well and often) escaped alone from the lair of Thungarbarath Flamegout, after the red wyrm had slaughtered all of his fellows in the adventuring company, the Brave Broadsword Band. Jorthan took only a handful of coins and a sculpted piece of amber out of Thungarbarath’s hoard when he fled from the high mountain cavern in the Thunder Peaks. He tried to sell the amber flame in Archenbridge, but its fire slew the merchant who laid her hand on it, and word spread quickly that the red dragon must have laid some sort of fire-curse on the gem. Deprived of the price of his booty, Jorthan soon grew hungry again and took to guarding caravans in Sembia. Before he left Ordulin on his first trip, he hid the Flame of the Spirit in one of the Brave Boardswords’ favorite caches: an empty coffin in the Mulsiner family crypt deep within Ordulin’s Graveyard of the Sleeping Gryphon. When he returned from trail-riding a season later, the coffin had been opened, and the Flame was gone. Jorthan had no idea where to look for it, so shrugged and got on with his life. He told his true tale only years later, as he lay dying in the care of the monks of Old Hazard Hill Farm, a monastic Tymoran retreat north of Huddagh. The Flame surfaces again as a means of murder in Calimport in 1150 DR, when a number of satraps and powerful shaleiras (wealthy investor-concubines who sponsored various men into positions of power and manipulated them all their lives afterward) were found dead in their beds, their bare skins all bearing single burns. The killer remained a mystery despite the use of powerful seeking spells, and may have been a drow or another dweller of the Underdark who had learned how to handle the amber item while heavily covered. The only certain thing is that the being who slew the Ongalar of Calimport, one of the last victims, fled deep underground while closely pursued, and had the Flame at the time. No trace of the amber Flame surfaces again until 1158 DR, when it was seen by Fargoth Labbard, a rooftop sneak-thief in Elturel, turning into a tablet under the command of a Tymoran adventurer whom Fargoth promptly robbed. His booty burned Fargoth badly when he tried to examine it in his rooftop hideaway. His arms fell into ashes as he collapsed. Another thief who robbed him died in agony, flames spewing from his eyes and mouth, after he thrust the gem inside his shirt to swing away on a rope. The amber Flame bounced away from the burning body when it crashed to the cobbles of an Elturian street. and was scooped up by a servant of the local mage Helgarth, who wrapped it in his cloak. Helgarth examined the gem carefully, and when he was sure that its magic would not aid him, he placed it in an open chest, as a decoy for thieves, inside the window of his tower that always stood open to admit his flying gargoyle servants. Over the next three decades, the Flame slew 10 thieves, and sorely wounded at least three others. It gained the name “Helgarth’s Death” after a furious young apprentice took revenge on her master after a whipping by thrusting the gem into his mouth and holding it there. The apprentice, Nagathra of Baldur’s Gate, promptly found herself under attack from all of Helgarth’s servitor- creatures and her fellow apprentices. In the battle, the gem was hurled out into the streets along with most of the eastern side of Helgarth’s Tower. It was gingerly taken up and put on display under a glass hood in Amscoth’s Ales, a tavern, where many travelers saw it (including the historian Urbuth of Athkatla and several Tymoran priests) and heard the increasingly fanciful tales of its exploits as “the Flying Flame” that sought out and slew the evil or the unworthy or just the foes of the Hidden One who commanded it from afar, while pretending to be a simple merchant (or, some said, fishwife or small girl-child). Skeptical readers are warned that at least one mage who overheard these tales was so smitten with the idea that he crafted his own deadly statuette that he could trace (and activate to emit slaying spells) from afar, and sold it to a trader with the admonition not to tell anyone of its powers. And so it passed from hand to hand up and down the Sword Coast for many years before its trail of dead wizards scared someone into hurling it overboard, somewhere off Mintarn. In 1192 DR, the Flame of the Spirit was snatched from its place in the tavern by the dancer Falaera “Manybells” Drachan, who said the gem was holy to Tymora, and should be returned to the goddess. Someone evidently disagreed. Falaera’s headless body was found beside a farm lane a tenday later—and the Flame had vanished from her backpack. In 1212 DR, unchartered adventurers exploring the Fields of the Dead north of Elturel found a tomb beneath the Hill of the Headless Dancer. They speculated that the dancing zombie for whom the hill was named was Falaera, animated by whoever had populated the tomb with guardian undead. The Flame of the Spirit was set into a door, its base protruding to form the door-handle (so as to burn all non-Tymorans who tried to open the door). The door led only to a string of traps, but the rest of the tomb, hidden beyond a concealed door, was furnished as the abode of a wizard—an absent wizard who presumably had met with misfortune while away from home, and would never return. The adventurers took the amber flame away in a coffer and sold it to a gem merchant in Iriaebor, not bothering to warn him of its properties. He disappeared within a tenday. The Flame reappeared in 1269 DR, when it was found on a brigand’s body lying in the rubbish heaps of the Rat Hills, south of Waterdeep by the priest Ungold of Tyr, who concealed the gem and revealed its whereabouts to Waterdhavian worshipers of Tymora. The Tymorans were slain by unknown assailants during their return to the city, and the gem vanished again, only to come to light in 1287 DR at a MageFair in the Fallen Lands, where a certain Udo of Felthaeran (a village in the Vilhon since destroyed by spell-battles and storms) attempted to sell it to Prasker of Torbold. The aged Lord Mage recognized the gem and refused it, subsequently informing Nanthoe of Esmeltaran, a priestess of Tymora, of Udo’s attempt. Nanthoe set many Tymorans searching for Udo down the decades that followed, but he was never found. The Flame did not become known again until 1244 DR, when it was seen in Skullport by Mirt the Moneylender. An anonymous mage who learned how to open the Flame into its tablet form was trying to sell it to discerning buyers as “a tome of many mighty magics from long-lost Netheril.” He fled when Mirt tried to seize the gem, and proved to have both dopplegangers and illithids among his loyal bodyguards. It took over a dozen years for their attempts to slay Mirt to cease (at least, Mirt hopes they have ceased). The current whereabouts of the Flame are unknown, but Tymoran-sponsored bands of adventurers still scour Skullport (and much of the rest of Undermountain, too), in search of the gem or the mage. (Mirt allowed a Tymoran Elder to cast a spell that painted his best mind-image of the mysterious mage onto canvas, for all to see.) The spells known to be in the Flame are listed alphabeti¬cally hereafter. Other spells may well be present in the roster, and it must be stressed that there is no known way of control¬ling which spell appears initially or in what order the others will follow. It is also recorded (in several writings) that on very rare occasions the goddess acts directly through the gem to give a supplicant (or even someone who is merely carrying the gem, perhaps unaware that a pressing need for such aid is upon them) the precise magic she deems they need at the time. Such “special” spells can rarely be called forth from the Flame later by mortals. The spells are: Accelerate healing (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), blessed abundance (Tome of Magic), boon of fortune (a spell detailed below), chaotic combat (Tome of Magic), create food & water, cure critical wounds, dispel magic, favor of Tymora (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars sourcebook), feat (Faiths & Avatars), flame strike, fortunate fate (detailed below), free action, luckbolt (Faiths & Avatars), memory read (Tome of Magic), morale (Tome of Magic), raise dead, remove curse, resur¬rection, sacred guardian (Tome of Magic), spell immunity, and threefold boon (detailed below).