The Magic of Guardianship

Almost as many traps, defensive spells, and misdirectional magics guard the towers, lesser abodes, and storage caches of powerful mages as there are mighty wizards around to create them. Contingency magics guard those who can cast them—or afford the services of other casters—against death and calamity, and even the lowliest wizards paint impressive but powerless symbols on things and cast magic mouth spells in profusion in an attempt to cow would-be thieves into seeking safer goods to make off with. A definitive guide to all traps and wards used by mages—from the glowing but false spellbook that is the counterweight of a falling bag of boulders to the chain contingency- linked multiple meteor swarms of certain archmages' tombs that slaughter intruders in entire networks of false burial chambers—is something I doubt any mortal could pen. Here I have set forth some brief notes and spells gathered from my own observations of spellhurlers.
Construction Materials
It seems half of Faerun now knows that gorgon's blood in the mortar and stucco of a building prevents astral and ethereal travel into or out of it and that lead sheeting or strong concentrations of lead in rock foils scrying mag¬ics, but there is far more to be learned. To be effective, the gorgon's blood must be in a solution of one drop to a pint of water or stronger and must be applied so that no area of the external walls larger than a large man's head is untouched by it. Xorn or medusa blood can be used instead, but it must be applied in the following complex formula: three drops of xorn blood or four drops of medusa blood and two drops of unholy water per pint of water. Needless to say, the second formula is not used within upon buildings belonging to or used by good or (most) neutral faiths.
Translocational travel, such as teleport spells, can be prevented by magi¬cal items such as weirdstones1 or by the presence of sufficient Underdark radiation (strange emanations from certain rocks in which the metal aran- dur is found). These radiations fade swiftly if the rock containing them is exposed to sunlight, but if taken to the surface on moonless nights or cloaked in magical darkness, the ore can be used as a rubble filler within double walls to foil teleporters. Be warned that certain preservative spells not known to me, wondrous web spells, and magics that melt the rubble into a flowing, briefly molten mass must be used to make the protection of the radiations both continuous and long-lasting. Even with such precautions, use of Underdark ores is notorious for leaving as the turtle soup fanciers of Neverwinter say, “gaps in the shell," so that teleportation is difficult and its destinations restricted, but complete prohibition rarely gained.
I am told that when mixed with mortar, a solution of three drops of giant slug spittle, two drops of remorhaz ichor, and (as a base) a flask of amberjet poison prevents the entry of all slimes, molds, jellies, cubes, and other amor¬phous, creeping, corrosive monsters into a building or over a wall whose stones are set with this substance. I have not seen the precise formula, but I have been assured by several sages and merchants, as well as a mage I trust, that it is preserved at Candlekeep and that the mixture works because it is abhorrent to these creatures rather than a damaging magical or biologi¬cal barrier to them.
Spells
Magic is far more commonly used for the defense of temples and wizards' homes than the aforementioned construction materials with the attendant hard work necessary to implement them. Most mages are familiar with the guards and wards spell. Its clerical equivalents are all the secrets of the vari¬ous churches' priesthoods, so I will not discuss them here—to reveal such things means sure death if the church one has offended can reach one.
As readers of my guides to various regions of the Realms know, the ward- mist spell is a popular defense in the Sword Coast lands, especially in the Sword Coast North." The crafting of wardings began in the North, probably in ancient Netheril. Ancient wards often include wild magical effects and prohibitions against magical items, which simply cannot enter the wardmist. There are also instances of prohibitions against spells of a specific school or those manifesting as heat, fire, lightning, or cold. Many sorts of monsters and spells—I ran into something very nasty known as a guardian whirlwind just the other day —can be linked to wardmist spells to battle intruders. Some old wards incorporate reverse gravity effects or huge blade barriers.
The boundaries, guardian monsters, and other properties of a ward can¬not be changed once it is cast—and therein lies a weakness of wardmists. Only a single wardmist can exist in a given area, and safe entry and egress from such wards is provided by means of tokens—specific objects made of a certain material and bearing a certain rune to link them to the wardmist. Thus, ward tokens are like keys, and though they cannot be readily copied as keys can, they are often stolen. Well-known shops in all the cities of Sem- bia, Athkatla, Baldur's Gate, Calimport, Luskan, Mulmaster, Myratma, Water- deep, Westgate, and Zazesspur—plus many lesser-known or more prudently covert establishments—do a brisk trade in stolen tokens.
A second line of defense often employed by mages, priests, or those able to hire them, when they know that ward tokens have fallen into the wrong hands or that capable and unfriendly adventurers may come calling is the use of so-called wandering wards: glyph and symbol spells that cause their harmful runes to move about from place to place within an abode in order to block intruders who seek to evade such things. A third means of harming unwanted visitors is by means of enchantments on doors or doorways I am still engaged in researches on the effects of such enchantments, but I have included here a rare but very useful spell, web of ways, that can render magical door traps far more dangerous than they usually are.