The Mighty Rune of the Master

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This holy book takes the form of a three-dimensional construct of shining, silvery everbright-treated metal (of an unknown type, probably a unique alloy), a curved rather than flat symbol or rune. If touched and held by any living being, it remains quiet and stationary. However, if released, it hangs (or rises to hang) in midair above the ground (usually at about the height of a man’s head, although the actual height varies from occasion to occasion, apparently at random), where it rotates slowly and endlessly, chiming softly. No symbol, glyph, or other spell involving discharges by touching, passing, or completing a rune can be successfully cast within 40 feet of the Mighty Rune of the Master, it negates them. Conversely, if any priest casts such a spell while in direct contact with the Mighty Rune, the spell can (according to his choice) function normally, do the maximum possible damage or take the maximum possible effect, or function twice (in other words, work all over again at the same spot and with the same conditions of triggering, after having been discharged once). If the Mighty Rune is touched as the name “Deneir” is uttered, the rune will speak in a soft, ghostly voice, listing its roster of spells alphabetically. If uninterrupted, it will do this twice through, and then cease (continuing with its rotating and chiming). Touching it again while saying “Deneir” will cause it to begin the roster all over again, but touching it and saying the god’s name while it is listing does not interrupt it or cause it to start over. If a living being touches the Mighty Rune as it is speaking its spells and utters the name of any spell contained on the roster, the rune will fall silent and promptly project the spell, in glowing script, onto the empty air in front of the being who touched it. Once the spell appears, it remains (written on a vertical plane, and immobile) for 4 turns. During this time the Mighty Rune slowly orbits the script (if allowed to do so). It will not list its roster again or cause another spell to appear, no matter how often it is touched and ordered, until the display time has elapsed. A being who uses the Mighty Rune of the Master to touch any surface or any area on which a suspected magical symbol is written, causes that symbol to glow, displaying itself clearly, without discharging. The wielder of the rune can then, if he desires, will the symbol to fade away without taking effect, if he can reach to touch it directly with the rune. (The initial revelation of the symbol can be accomplished by touching the rune to any part of a wall, gate, or on whatever physical object the symbol is inscribed—it need not be close to the symbol.) The symbol vanishes harmlessly after one round of contact, regardless of its nature or power (unless the symbol was personally placed by a deity). Anyone who touches the Mighty Rune and wills it to “shine” or “be dark” can cause it to do so, either turning dull and lifeless in appearance or shining brightly enough to allow people beneath it to sew, read, apply cosmetics, or perform other exacting tasks. It can be released to rotate and chime high up in a room or tent, or simply in the air above folk resting in the open, to provide light. A priest of Deneir who touches the Mighty Rune and then, in the round immediately following, casts any spell, has his choice of the following boons (once every 24 hours): his spell automatically strikes its intended target; his spell takes its maximum possible effect or does its maximum possible damage (regardless of any saving throws normally allowed to the targets or his spell functions without any alteration—but the priest does not forget it and can call on it a second time, later, as if it had never been cast on this round. The Mighty Rune of the Master is one of the most intriguing looking holy items of present day Faerun, it is also one of the few whose origin is precisely known. It was created over the period of a tenday, beginning on the 7th of Eleint, in the year 1332 DR, by Hansandrar Ilmeth, an archmage of Halruaa, after Deneir appeared in his dreams and instructed him on how to construct it. Hansandrar made the rune by the granted secret process in Starspires, his remote keep among the peaks that line the Talath Pass, and went mad in the process. Shortly afterwards, priests of Deneir came to Starspires and bore Hansandrar away, to care for him until he perished of exposure, while wandering over the roofs of the Deneirrath abbey at Roaringford in the winter of 1351 DR. The wizard’s keep lapsed into ruin and remains so to this day, for it now holds something that destroys mages who try to take up residence there. Some Halruaans say darkly that Deneir is trying to keep mortals away from secrets Hansandrar left behind, but Deneirrath scoff at this, pointing out that the Great Scribe promotes evermore widespread reading and knowledge, and that he has ample power to remove any writing from anywhere he does not want it found, without resorting to killing folk. Under the leadership of Revered Reader Aubrin Maltoch, the clergy at the small, quiet abbey at Roaringford made the Mighty Rune the center of their daily rituals to the Lord of All Glyphs and Images until the morning of the 22nd of Uktar, 1353 DR, when it was stolen from them in a bloody raid by a large flight of gargoyles led by something “dark-skinned, with many tentacles and bat wings.” Deneir manifested above the altar in Roaringford Abbey and told the devastated surviving priests that though this theft was an unanticipated act of evil, the fate of the stolen holy treasure was meant to be, for the rune was destined to be an elusive thing, quested after by the faithful down the ages, meant to wander the Realms in the company of adventurers and vagabonds, spreading the power of Deneir to those who would not otherwise know it. Deneirrath were not to keep the Mighty Rune guarded or hidden away in their temples, but allow it to pass from hand to hand between unbelievers and faithful, to all in need of it alike. The Rule of the Rune stands to this day, as Deneir proclaimed it then: If any creature brings the rune to a Deneirrath temple, their needs are to be seen to “without stint, judgement, or charge,” and they are to be made welcome in the faith “or not, as they desire.” This has been interpreted by senior clergy of the faith to mean that injured, sick, and. magi¬cally harmed beings are to be restored to full health without any price being exacted, that they are to be given a place to stay in the temple if they want, for as long as they want, and are to be treated as full priests whatever their true beliefs and skills. It is also mandated that they be given mounts, food, gear, travel money, and as much as a healing potion or two if they go into dangerous regions. Their names and likenesses (for Deneirrath have secret spells that can capture and preserve the images of persons and things as well as the eyes of most folk) are remem¬bered and passed along to other Deneirrath throughout Faerun, so that they will be regarded as “friends of the faith,” and treated accordingly. One adventurer, the rogue Fildar of Lachom, has brought the Mighty Rune to different Deneirrath temples on various occa¬sions, seeking money every time, and has been patiently accom¬modated for each request. Fildar’s luck ran out recently when he was maimed by a rival who tracked him to his treasure cache (a hollow minaret on the roof of someone else’s grand house in Nimpeth) and threw him to the ground. Fildar’s treasure vanished with the mysterious rival, but the rune soon surfaced again, floating and chiming above the entrance to an abandoned mine in the Giant’s Run Mountains—a mine left idle some centuries ago, when miners broke through into the Underdark, and unleashed illithids, drow, and worse into the mine. The finders of the Mighty Rune, an adventuring band from Westgate known as Sornborn’s Hunters, thought they could get the best price for the rune in Waterdeep—and wanted an excuse to make the long and perilous journey to see the fabled City of Splendors. Unfortunately, dopplegangers found the group on the road, and by the time they reached Scornubel, Sornborn himself was the only human member of the group, left alive by the wily monsters because he knew the way, the contacts, and the customs. A tavern brawl in that city revealed the dopplegangers, and Sornborn fled, leaving the rune in their keeping. At least two of the beasts perished in the brawl and its aftermath, when patrons discovered they were fighting shapechanging monsters. But the others got away and, barring misadventure, have the rune now. The spells contained in the rune are known to include the magics listed hereafter, but may not be limited to the roster given here: Amanuensis (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars source¬book), circle of privacy (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), continual light, cure blindness cure deafness, divine inspi¬ration (Tome of Magic), find traps, glyph of revealing (Faiths & Avatars), glyph of warding, heal, imbue with spell ability, know age (Tome of Magic), know alignment, light, locate object, master rune (a spell detailed below), meld into stone, memory read (Tome of Magic), mystic transfer (Tome of Magic), personal reading (Tome of Magic), restore rune (detailed below), sanctified marker (detailed below), shift glyph (Faiths & Avatars), speak with monsters, stone tell, symbol, thought capture (Tome of Magic), time pool (Tome of Magic), timelessness (Tome of Magic), and true seeing.