The Key of Faith

[breadcumb] Нашему сайту необходима поддержка - поскольку любого свободного времени не хватает. Подпишитесь на Boosty или Patreon

This holy book takes the form of an ornate metal key of everbright silver. It is 2 feet long, has large loops for handles, and sports a thick barrel marked with numbers from 1 through 26. Touching a number has no apparent effect, but if the tip of the Key is later touched to any solid, rela¬tively flat surface (such as a wall, door, tabletop, floor, or shield), a spell from the roster of the Key of Faith appears on that surface, slowly inscribing itself in unobtrusive letters of dull black that appear, glowing mauve in darkness. The writing does not harm the surface, and silently fades away 24 hours (144 turns) after materializing, leaving no marks or magical traces behind. Most spells take two full rounds to write out completely, and do not appear at all if the Key is touched to a surface that already bears any sort of enchantment. The same spell always appears when a given number is pressed, but only the first selected number is “active” at a time. If someone presses the number “5” and then various other numbers, the later numbers are all ignored; the Key cannot “feel” another number being selected until it has written out the spell linked to number 5. The first number pressed thereafter then becomes active, and so on. Any amount of time can pass between selecting a number and touching the Key to a surface on which the spell is to be written. This can be done unwittingly by someone who does not know the powers of the Key and accidentally touches a suitable surface. The numbers are set into a groove in the barrel in such a way that it is extremely unlikely that they will be touched by accident by someone who is merely carrying the Key or trying to find the keyhole that it opens (something that Oghmanyte lore insists exists only in the Outlands, where it is the lock of the Study of Spells in Oghma’s own House of Knowledge). Anyone can cause the Key to activate; its use is not restricted to priests or to clergy of Oghma’s faith. (The Lord of Knowledge hopes that spell-lore will be spread throughout all peoples of Faerun in this manner.) The Key of Faith first surfaced in Sembia in 1187 DR, when a merchant by the name of Feldro (who had previously seemed to worship nothing more than money, his minimal donations to temples of Waukeen being his only sign of devotion) came to the Hall of Scrolls in Ordulin (a fledgling “rent-and-read” library founded and maintained by Oghmanyte clergy). He began babbling about a “Holy Quest” of which the Wise God had spoken to him at a chance meeting in the backlands. “There is a key.!” Feldro thundered. “A Key of Faith that writes spells by the will of the Binder—spells that priests of all faiths can read!” Feldro was at first dismissed as a wander-wit, but then the Lord Librarian of the Hall received a dream-vision that featured a frowning Oghma pointing sternly at Feldro! So it was that the Holy Quest for the Key began, drawing Oghmanyte priests from all over Faerun to the Hall. Priests of Bane, who had long battled the priests of the Binder for influence in upland Sembia, saw a golden opportunity to rid themselves of many rivals at a stroke—and worked mighty summoning magics that hurled literally tons of monsters down onto the roof of the Hall without warning. It collapsed, the Banites gleefully spread word that Oghmanytes dabbled in dark beast-magics and had died by their own misadventure, and the Hall and most of the Sembian priesthood of Oghma perished in one afternoon. The others grimly set forth on two quests: to hunt down and slay two Banite priests for every Oghmanyte killed in the collapse of the Hall, and to find the Key, wherever it might be in Faerun. Mercenaries, adventurers, and the clergy of other gods, attracted by the claim that the spells of the Key could be used by all, hunted too—but only the Oghmanytes received visions from the Lord of Knowledge as to where the Key might be found; cryptic images that had to be puzzled out to draw a step nearer to the fabled Key. A season passed, and those priests of the Binder who remained faithful to the quest were converging on the Moonsea. Other seekers had begun to realize that following the Oghmanytes was their best hope for gaining the Key, and every priest of the Binder had his stealthy escort, lurking along in his wake as he drew nearer to the southern shore of the Moonsea, toward the River Lis, at Elventree! The elves who dwelt in the woods around that tranquil trading village sharpened their arrows and went hunting, reaping a deadly toll of evil priests as the dark followers drew in closer around the hunting Oghmanytes. At length, the priests of the Binder all found themselves staring at each other around a well and then with one accord looked down into the shaft. For just an instant, a glowing scroll seemed to unroll and flash at them on the dark waters down below. With a shout the priests scrambled to climb down the well, leaping recklessly until many of them became jammed together in the cavity, their bodies broken under the weight of those above. A few drowned, and a few more perished in the fire magics sent down the well shaft soon after by an evil priest who had survived the elven gauntlet. Most found a door in the side of the well, and beyond it a curious labyrinth of passages. It was clear they were in the tomb of an ancient patriarch of Oghma, but mists shrouded their minds, and to each man and woman it seemed as if each walked alone. Every room they entered held a ghostly voice that challenged them with lore queries or tests of their faith, and so it was that Oghma chose the best from among his clergy. The rest were carried away by the mists, to awaken elsewhere with all memory of their past lives gone. Of all the priests of Oghma who undertook the Holy Quest, only 26 reached the final room. There the mists rolled away, and they all saw each other and the glowing Key. As each hesitated, not quite daring to stride forward to seize the Key, a voice rolled out of it, saying, “One spell for each of you shall slumber here. The quest is fulfilled. Touch the Key and turn from it, serving me better than before. The Key is not for you, but for those who venture into perilous places, to be found unsought. It shall stay with no man long.” And after all had touched the Key, it vanished. The 26 priests who left the well stood straighter, and looked wiser, and saw more shrewdly for the rest of their days. Their fellows said they were “Touched by the Most Wise.” And in the teachings of Oghma from that day forward it was understood that the Key would lie in dungeons and lairs and ruins and tombs, to be found by adventurers and outlaws and explorers and the desperate, to serve them briefly and then vanish of its own accord. This was borne out in reports from Walgund’s Warriors in 1214 DR (they found the Key on Undermountain’s second level, in a room of broken statues), and from Oskul’s Marauders in 1231 DR (the Key came to them high on a ledge in a half-flooded cellar in Marsember). Both bands of adventurers reported that immersing the Key in any corrupted liquid purifies the fluid and makes it palat¬able for human consumption, removing all poisons, pollution, and unpleasant tastes or odors. Moreover, alcohol is turned to water without altering its taste or appearance, and can no longer intoxicate. A later band of adventurers, the Ladies of the Blade (some bored noblewomen of Westgate, who found the Key somewhere in the Ghost Holds in Battledale, in 1265 DR), discovered another property of the sacred object: When left touching bread or cheese—and only bread or cheese— overnight (for at least 10 consecutive hours), it turned one loaf or wheel of cheese into two, exactly doubling the original measure. It also banished all molds on and spoiled parts of the provender. Several individuals since then (most notably the kenku Reeatlann in 1278 DR) have confirmed this property. The overuse of it, however, makes the Key vanish very quickly. The Key always disappears, quietly, by itself, when least expected or unobserved. Suddenly, despite any locks, coffers, chests, vaults, ward-spells, or guards that may be present, the Key is simply no longer to be found. If word of this comes to any priest of the Binder, he will go to the nearest temple, and toll a bell as all the clergy chant, “Oghma Reclaims.” Then an entry is made in the Doings of Oghma, and the priests await the next news of the Key. The spells stored by the Key of Faith are as follows, in alphabetical order. (What spell corresponds to which number on the Key is one of the “sacred mysteries” of Oghmanyte lore, though any possessor of the Key can readily find out.) Create holy symbol (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), detect scrying, disbelief (Tome of Magic), duplicate (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars source¬book), genius (Tome of Magic), handcandle (a spell detailed below), idea (Tome of Magic), identify, impart knowledge (Faiths & Avatars), know age (Tome of Magic), know customs (Tome of Magic), know direction (Tome of Magic), know time (Tome of Magic), legend lore, locate object, magic mirror, memory read (Tome of Magic), memory wrack (Tome of Magic), mind read (Tome of Magic), missing word (detailed below), personal reading (Tome of Magic), reincarnation, secret page, spellbind (Faiths & Avatars), true seeing, and word of binding (detailed below).