The Scepter of Mystra

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This legendary, rarely seen “tome” features in many fanciful Faerunian “just desserts” tales for children (in which people who misuse magic receive fitting punishments in the end), particularly in the Sword Coast lands. However, many mages and most common folk believe it is no more than a fancy or perhaps something Mystra took away from mortals long ago. However, the Scepter of Mystra is very real. It has a striking, unmistakable appearance, simplified in children’s stories into “a glass rod with metal ends that has little silver circles moving up and down the glass bit by themselves.” In reality, the Scepter is a glassteel rod with spired everbright electrum ends. Ten small silver ovoids (one for each of the nine spell levels, and a tenth for true dweomers) drift continuously up and down its length, moving about at random and ignoring external stimuli. Only someone grasping one of the ends of the Scepter can see the numbers on each ovoid. A “1” means first level spells, “2” means second, and so on, with a star denoting the true dweomers (which are described in the DM™ Option: High-Level Campaigns sourcebook. DMs lacking this source should have the 10th ovoid irregularly and unpredictably provide access to strange new spells). Touching one numbered ovoid causes each of the others to display one spell name (of spells that are the same level as the number touched). Each additional touch of that same ovoid causes the others to display different spell names, offering different (random) selections of spells at the chosen level. When a desired spell appears, a touch of the ovoid bearing its name causes one of the ends of the Scepter to emit “letters of fire” that write the spell in midair (as an intan¬gible, illusionary image). The other ovoids in the Scepter will move to one end of the glass rod to prevent inadvertently triggering the item. A spell takes 1 round of writing per level of the spell to appear completely (explosive runes, a 3rd-level spell, would be complete in three rounds). It vanishes instantly if the ovoid bearing its name is touched a second time—where¬upon all of the ovoids revert to displaying level numbers and moving up and down the glass rod. The Scepter has one other power that most of its wielders have discovered by accident: If the name “Mystra” is uttered by a person grasping it, that person is instantly able to see all magical auras within 90 feet for 1 turn, distinguishing their age, power, and extent by their precise outlines and intensity. This power works only thrice in each 24-hour period. Much of the history of the Scepter of Mystra is clouded by all of the tales of childhood, which have been embellished and re-embellished many times down the years by minstrels, but some things about this strange item can be recounted with fair reliability. Mystran doctrine holds that Mystra has used several items to test the loyalties of her servants (such as Azuth, various of the Chosen, and even the mysterious Savras), and that the Scepter is one of them. Later, it was given to the Magister with the command to “set” one of the spells in its roster to be a spell that teleports the Scepter away to a random Faerunian destination when accessed and to change this setting from time to time. (It is known that Mystra, the Magister, Azuth, and all of the Chosen can trace the whereabouts of the Scepter at all times and see its wielder and immediate surroundings, merely by spending 1d3 rounds in concentration. The first three named beings on this list can call the Scepter to themselves without appearing in person.) The Magister was told to give the item to a minor mage some¬where on Toril and then let it wander as “the doings of mortals” dictated, reclaiming it only if a Red Wizard of Thay, a mage of Halruaa, or another powerful mage, linked by social ties to a group of archmages, took possession of it. This was done on or about Midsummer of 994 DR. A minor hedge-wizard by the name of Naerlus “Flamespell” Anarthandyer was the first recipient of the Scepter. He promptly aban¬doned his former kindly befuddlement and used its magic to build himself into a petty tyrant in the coastlands north of Leilon. The Magister of the day judged it was best to remove the Scepter from Naerlus before he got embroiled in a major war and called on it in earnest. At the same time the Magister reached this conclusion, however, Naerlus unwittingly found the flyaway spell, sending the Scepter away to an unknown destination—which proved to be a ruined abbey of Shar in northern Calimshan. It was found there a season later by adventurers who were too fearful of the item to experiment with it, but happily sold it to Amblaeryn Alaba, a rich Calishite satrap who hoped that with its aid his five hired mages could destroy a rival and his hired guardian mages. The five mages made eager use of the Scepter and then employed the powers they had gained to utterly destroy Amblaeryn, in accordance with the secret deal they had made with his rival, Imtherl. When Imtherl balked at paying them what he had promised, they destroyed him and his mage bodyguards. Unfortunately, five ambitious wizards do not easily share a single powerful magical item, and it was not long before a dispute over its usage arose—a dispute that left one mage dead and another trapped in the shape of a stone . . . somewhere among thousands of similar stones on a pebble beach north of Ormpur. The winner of the dispute, Earndus Orthorm, was promptly attacked by the other two surviving mages, who were driven to make war on him by their fear of what he might do to them with the Scepter. In his hasty preparation attempts (as they struggled to win past his defenses), Orthorm accidentally found the flyaway spell—and the Scepter vanished just as his two attackers crashed into his spellchamber. This time the wandering Scepter found its way to a mountain cavern and the hands of an orc shaman. He tried to harness its powers but failed. Goaded by fear and by the roused lightning crackling around him, he flung it down into a deep gorge, acti¬vating a previously unknown property of the Scepter: If it is dropped or thrown more than 100 feet, it spontaneously tele¬ports away to a random Faerunian destination. The strange glass rod appeared in a tavern in Telflamm, demonstrating another of its properties: In the presence of unleashed magic (just cast offensive spells), it levitates to the height of a man, above a surface, and gives off a faint blue- white glow (akin to a faerie fire spell). This behavior does not manifest at all if it is in the immediate possession of a living being and ceases as soon as it is grasped by a living being. The appearance of the Scepter caused a shocked halt to a low-level spell-duel between two novice wizards. When a thief vaulted a table and tried to snatch it, bedlam ensued. In the brawl that followed, a serving-wench made off with the Scepter, hotly pursued by one of the magelings. In an alley behind the tavern, the furious wizard made the fatal discovery that the lass was really a doppleganger. When “she” finished strangling him, she tossed the body out into the street where it caused a passing priest of Tymora to trip and cry out. A wizard accompanying that priest saw the doppleganger with the Scepter in its hand and let fly with the most powerful offensive spell he was carrying. His meteor swarm tore ramshackle buildings apart all around and reduced the doppleganger to a spattering of ashes on the tumbled stones of one of them—but left the Scepter hanging in midair, unharmed and glowing. A little hesitantly, the archmage claimed it. Taluth of Telflamm was a careful and methodical man who experimented with the Scepter carefully and made meticulous notes of his observations. It is from his accounts that much of the public information about the Scepter derives (including its ability to confer upon its wielder immunity to petrification and paral¬ysis). His care inevitably led him to finally trigger the disap¬pearance of the item through its flyaway enchantment, plunging it into the darkness of a drowned tomb in a deserted suburb of Calimport that was crumbling into the sea. Merfolk found it there in the spring of 997 DR, and traded it to a Calishite merchant, who in turn sold it at a bazaar in Schamedar. Its purchaser, Kloroth of the Seven Curses, discov¬ered yet another power of the Scepter: If a wizard or Mystran priest touches it as he glances at any fully written spells of the next level higher than the one he can currently use, the Scepter informs him that it can allow the use of one of those spells normally beyond his level each time it is grasped and ordered. (This “shuts down” the spell display powers of the Scepter for 6 hours, and does not allow a mage capable of casting 9th-level spells access to 10th-level magic or true dweomers, or let a priest already capable of casting 7th-level spells access to divine magic. It does not increase the number of 9th-level spells a mage can wield, or 7th-level spells a priest can carry.) Kloroth used this property of the Scepter to open a series of permanent gates or portals linking Faerunian locations. It was his intention to enrich himself by providing a fast, discreet “small valuable goods” courier service between the Sword Coast cities (Waterdeep in particular) and the Inner Sea lands (Sembia). However, he was unaware of another property of the Scepter: Whenever it is used in conjunction with permanency or equivalent spells, it also places a permanent, involuntary poly¬morph self on its user, changing his shape uncontrollably every turn. (The “shift” takes 1d3 rounds and is usually disconcerting to watch.) The recipient cannot control the shape he takes, nor end the effect (unless a limited wish or wish spell is used, and dispel magic only delays the shift for an additional round). The user is often trapped, unable to move or communicate or cast spells in the forms taken. Although these forms are never fatally unsuited to their surroundings (no “fish out of water”), they are often monstrous and invite terrified attack from nearby creatures. Kloroth thus acquired an eighth curse, this one personal (the other seven had been spells he cast on opponents) and crip¬pling to his social life—he was forced to go into hiding and his fate is unknown. The Scepter was taken from Kloroth as he stood helpless in the form of a shrieker mushroom in a dark street in Selgaunt. It brought no good fortune to the one who seized it, however, for it bloodily changed hands six times that night as various thieves used daggers ruthlessly and snatched the glowing thing of power. Dawn found the last of them confronted by an incredulous wizard, an older and wiser Naerlus “Flamespell” Anarthandyer, who had been forced to flee the Sword Coast when he had lost the Scepter and found himself facing many roused foes. He promptly cast a spell that gave him many tentacles, and reached out to slay the bearer of the Scepter who leapt frantically away, only to fall through one of Kloroth’s gates, and end up stunned on the stones of a street in lawless Skullport. A mind flayer promptly slew the thief and took the Scepter, fleeing into Undermountain when wizards saw the item and gave chase. The illithid soon perished at the hands of drow in the depths of that vast and deadly dungeon, but thanks to the traps of Halaster, the drow patrol never got out of Undermountain. The Scepter wandered its halls for fully two centuries afterward, in the hands of various hapless adventurers and monsters, until a day in Elesias, 1199 DR, when it was found (in the bone-filled lap of a trap- festooned stone statue on the 6th level of Undermountain) by an adventuring band known as Thornstar’s Company. Thornstar was an aging, suspicious warrior who was weary of adventures and sick of Undermountain in particular, after six long and increasingly desperate months of searching for a way out and fresh food and water, and having to slay all manner of foes to get the latter. Thornstar was also facing dissension in the ranks, in particular from the wizard of the company, one Ilragoth Morndlar. Ilragoth hoped that the Scepter would give him the means to blast his way out of the dungeon just when Thornstar needed magical aid the most. Unfortunately for the ambitious wizard, his apprentice was even more desperate and continued experimenting with the item on watch one night after his exhausted master had fallen asleep—only to trigger the flyaway spell in combination with another (he never figured out just which spell) that took both apprentice and Scepter out of the dungeon. The apprentice, Impaladus Nolorn, found himself standing atop Mount Waterdeep in the moonlight of a breezy night, with the Scepter in his hand. He took care to drop out of sight in the bustle of the city, joining its Watchful Order and hiring out for a spot of warehouse guard duty as he examined his “great treasure.” Four years passed, and during his cautious study Impaladus discovered yet another unsuspected ability of the Scepter: If the proper prayer to Mystra is uttered aloud as one of the ends of the Scepter is touched to a magical item that requires recharging, the item instantly gains 1d6+2 charges (this ability can be used once a day, but is only effective on the same item once a month). Impaladus kept careful notes just as Taluth had done earlier, but they did not save him one night in Sea Ward at a Watchful Order revel, when a rival mage opened a gate to another plane and lured Impaladus through it. That rival had befriended Impaladus and promised to marry him. She was eager to seize all of his spells and magical items— perhaps a little too eager. She triggered a trap that blasted her to nothingness and left her dupe’s magic open to any passing Waterdhavian who might covet it. Inevitably (and shortly), one did, and then another, who struck down the first as he was grunting along under the weight of all the loot. The noise attracted the attention of a mage, who used a spell to blast the second acquisitor and win the Scepter for his own. Unfortunately, the first magic he examined proved to be the flyaway spell, and the Scepter was off wandering again, up and down the Sword Coast North this time. In the century that followed, it surfaced in Triboar, Mirabar, and Sundabar, before someone in Silverymoon added it to a private collection. From there it emerged in a spell-battle between adventuring bands one hot summer night in 1314 DR. Unfortunately, few folk on either side of that fray survived, and some of those who did fled across the river, vanishing into nearby forests trapped in half-bat shapes or worse. The Scepter went with one of them, only to be found washing down the Delimbiyr 30 years later. Its finder, a ranger by the name of Lastern Mendever, took the curious item of power to the nearest Mielikkian shrine where the priestess advised him that it was no thing that any devout folk of the Forest should carry and bade him throw it back into the river. Reluctantly, Lastern did so, and was astonished to see two dragons fighting above the river that evening, one of them clutching the glowing spire-tipped rod in its huge talons! The smaller and more agile of the two, a silver dragon, eventually darted away with the Scepter in its possession, pursued hotly by an amethyst wyrm. That night in the spring of 1336 DR is the last certain sighting of the holy Mystran item, although a farmer in Secomber, downriver, claims to have seen a “great flash of ravening fire” in the sky that night, outlining the bones of a dragon flying frantically for a moment before breaking apart and tumbling to the ground and into the darkness. Certain Dweomerkeepers of the Mystran faith are currently seeking the Scepter, but if any of them have found it, no word of this has come to any temple of the Goddess of All Magic. The spells known to be in the roster of the Scepter of Mystra are given hereafter. The flyaway spell may be any of them and its effects may be modified by previously selected spells or spell levels. Four common variants in its activation come from two combinations of effects: The Scepter vanishes partway through reading the spell or vanishes when the spell is successfully memorized, and the Scepter teleports by itself or takes any crea¬tures in contact with it along. The contents of the are generally agreed to be as follows: Abjure, accelerate healing (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), air walk, animate object, animate rock, anti-animal shell, anti-plant shell, anyspell (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars sourcebook), astral spell, barkskin, barrier of retention (Tome of Magic), blade barrier, blessed abundance (Tome of Magic), body clock (Tome of Magic), call upon faith (Tome of Magic), circle of privacy (Tome of Magic), cloud of purification (Tome of Magic), continual light, control weather, control winds, create holy symbol (Tome of Magic), cure blindness or deafness, cure disease, cure serious wounds, detect charm, detect lie, dimen¬sional folding (Tome of Magic), disbelief (Tome of Magic), dispel magic, dragonbane (Tome of Magic), efficacious monster ward (Tome of Magic), enchant phylactery (a spell detailed below), extradimensional detection (Tome of Magic), faerie fire, find traps, fire purge (Tome of Magic), fire storm, flame strike, flame walk, free action, gate, greater mantle of Mystra (detailed below), grounding (Tome of Magic), heal, helping hand (Tome of Magic), hold person, holy star (detailed below), holy word, hovering road (Tome of Magic), idea (Tome of Magic), imbue with spell ability, invisi¬bility to undead, know age (Tome of Magic), know customs (Tome of Magic), know time (Tome of Magic), land of stability (Tome of Magic), light, lighten load (Tome of Magic), locate object, magic font, magical vestment, mantle of Mystra (detailed below), meld into stone, might of Mystra (detailed below), mind read (Tome of Magic), miscast magic (Tome of Magic), mistaken missive (Tome of Magic), monster mount (Tome of Magic), mystic transfer (Tome of Magic), nap (Tome of Magic), negative plane protection, pass plant, personal reading (Tome of Magic), plane shift, protection from fire, pyrotechnics, quest, rapport (Tome of Magic), remove curse, remove fear, remove paralysis, restoration, sacred guardian (Tome of Magic), seclusion (Tome of Magic), shadow engines (Tome of Magic), speak with astral traveler (Tome of Magic), speak with dead, speak with monsters, spell immunity, spell shield (detailed below), spell ward (Faiths & Avatars), stone shape, stone tell, sunray, symbol, telepathy (Tome of Magic), thought broadcast (Tome of Magic), thought capture (Tome of Magic), time pool (Tome of Magic), timelessness (Tome of Magic), true seeing, unceasing vigilance of the holy sentinel (Tome of Magic), undead ward (Tome of Magic), uplift (Tome of Magic), warp and weave (detailed below), water breathing, weighty chest (Tome of Magic), wondrous recall (Faiths & Avatars), wyvern watch, and zone of truth (Tome of Magic).