Memory activation: rereading the B/X rules for my #Dungeon23 work and was reminded that B/X magic users can only fight with a dagger. This prompted a crystal clear memory of reading the AD&D PHB, learning that magic-users now got staves and darts, and being thrilled for my 3rd level MU… in those days when teenagers mixed and matched every rules set without a care. But since we’re doing B/X, we’re going with dagger only.
Athame
“An athame or athamé is a ceremonial blade, generally with a
black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used
in ceremonial magic traditions…. A black-handled knife called an arthame
appears in certain versions of the Key of Solomon, a grimoire dating to the
Renaissance.The proper use of the tool was started by the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn, in the early 20th century, for the use of banishing rituals.
Wikipedia
Every Magic-User has a stage midway through their
apprenticeship when they craft their athame: a bone white blade made by mixing
fire with earth, with a removable curved crystal pommel attached to a hollowed
ebony-wood handle the length of the blade, inside which is held spell
components such as black lotus extract, powdered mushrooms, rowan bark, ground
silver, runestones, and whatever else the magic-user might need to ingest,
inject or distribute in casting of their spells.
The Athame’s blade never needs honing, always as sharp as the
finest dwarf-forged blade. Much lighter than steel with no cross-guard it is
not a weapon for parrying, but any magic-user is so comfortable with his athame
that they strike with it as proficiently as any veteran. There are small marks
at the athames tip to indicate dosages of mind-expanding formulae or amounts of
rowan bark to be stirred into fluids (water, tea, blood, etc.) the distribution
of which can be used to divine the past or present. The pommel crystal is used in
a variety of divinations.
An Athame is very difficult to destroy; strikes will snap
the all but indestructible blade from the replaceable hilt. The blade is
magically linked to its creator, and they can feel its direction and distance
if separated from it. If a spell requires spell components, the caster’s Athame
is the primary one. In non-magical terms, the blade is fired ceramic (which is
why you don’t sharpen it), and the pommel is a lens that can be used to magnifying.
Every magic-user knows “Create Athame” as a spell, but since it takes a month
to cast and causes 1d4 HP damage it’s not part of the useful spell list. .
Runes
Magic-User also know Rune Magic; the ability to make their
spells permanent by binding magical
runes into objects. (Light is the earliest Rune Magic, and Continual Light is
the permanent, standardized, quick to cast version; Hold Portal and Wizard Lock
are similar and it’s runes are called Wards). Runes can have a variety of
different effects but require the caster to be 2-3 levels higher than the level
of the spell it’s based on and to have a very clear idea of what they want to
do. Creating a new Rune takes a month of time and does 1d4 damage to the
caster, just like creating an Athame; common runes like the two mentioned
above, have been refined over the centuries to be much easier.
Runes can be damaged by time, magical effort or extreme
force, but any caster who knows the spell it was based on can repair a damaged
ward. (This is in part to make Hold Portal more useful to PCs, as it can rebuild
many of the damaged wards throughout the dungeon.)
In Lost Galmagia Hold Portal/Wizard Lock spells were made
runes in a variety of ways, most often as ward to prevent loose water from entering
places, or giving paper screens the strength of mortared brick to act as interior
walls. Wards are also permanent illusions, places of continual light, or
magical traps. I just want to provide a consistent explanation for these things
that, as Ben Milton at Questing Beast recommends, lets the players get their
hands into the guts of the setting and tear it apart from the inside.
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