The second story in Sword and Sorceress VIII is Wings of Fire by Mercedes Lackey. At the risk of trashing what little old school cred I have I have to admit to enjoying a lot of Misty's writing. My favorites were her Diana Tregarde novels of which there were only three due to poor sales although a novella appeared in a 2010 collection. There were two short stories about Diana originally written to be included in Stalking the Night Fantastic.
Wings of Fire is a Tarma and Kethry. While the main characters and broader setting elements aren't easily transferable to the Grjeee setting (although some could fit the Maerr Idnn) I have found a few things I'd like to important at this early stage. The first is a spell.
Quote from Wings of Fire, copyright Mercedes Lackey.
Okay, you say lost spell and I hear campaign material. What we know is it is called the paralysis spell and it suffocates the victim to unconsciousness but not death. Because it is used to paralyzed both main characters to capture them it seems to follow the Hold Person and Hold Monster spells but it also causes damage but not fatally. It also seems to be general in effect.
Wings of Fire is a Tarma and Kethry. While the main characters and broader setting elements aren't easily transferable to the Grjeee setting (although some could fit the Maerr Idnn) I have found a few things I'd like to important at this early stage. The first is a spell.
The bird shrieked in alarm and shot skyward. Tamara cursed; Kethry was too busy trying to breathe.
It's the paralysis spell, she thought even as she struggled to get more air into her lungs. But she couldn't breathe in without first breathing out, and every time she did that the hand closed tighter on her chest. That's-supposed-to-be-
A darkness that had nothing to do with the hour dimmed the moonlight, and her lungs screamed for air.
-lost-
Blackness swooped in like a stooping hawk, and covered her.
Quote from Wings of Fire, copyright Mercedes Lackey.
Okay, you say lost spell and I hear campaign material. What we know is it is called the paralysis spell and it suffocates the victim to unconsciousness but not death. Because it is used to paralyzed both main characters to capture them it seems to follow the Hold Person and Hold Monster spells but it also causes damage but not fatally. It also seems to be general in effect.
Paralyze
Magic-User Level 6
Duration: 1 round/level
Range: 120’
This spell will render any living creature paralyzed. Targets of the spell are aware, but cannot breathe normally or take any actions, including speech. A successful save vs. magic will negate the effect. The spell may be cast at a single monster, which makes its save at -2, or at a group, in which case 1d4 of the creatures in the group may be affected.
The inability to breath will deal 1d6 damage per round but will not take the victim to negative hit points. If the victim reaches 0 hit points due to the spell's damage he will fall unconscious.
A winged creature which is paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls (if in flight at the time). A paralyzed swimmer can’t swim and may drown.
If a magic item or spell operates to partially negate the effects of paralysis, failure on the saving throw will have the effect of a Slow spell rather than completely immobilizing the target and will only cause 1d3 per round damage from breathing difficulty.
As per the licensing page the material in this box is available under Open Gaming License or Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. I prefer the Creative Commons license.
Magic-User Level 6
Duration: 1 round/level
Range: 120’
This spell will render any living creature paralyzed. Targets of the spell are aware, but cannot breathe normally or take any actions, including speech. A successful save vs. magic will negate the effect. The spell may be cast at a single monster, which makes its save at -2, or at a group, in which case 1d4 of the creatures in the group may be affected.
The inability to breath will deal 1d6 damage per round but will not take the victim to negative hit points. If the victim reaches 0 hit points due to the spell's damage he will fall unconscious.
A winged creature which is paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls (if in flight at the time). A paralyzed swimmer can’t swim and may drown.
If a magic item or spell operates to partially negate the effects of paralysis, failure on the saving throw will have the effect of a Slow spell rather than completely immobilizing the target and will only cause 1d3 per round damage from breathing difficulty.
As per the licensing page the material in this box is available under Open Gaming License or Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. I prefer the Creative Commons license.
Nice! 6th level feels a little high for this, even if it is, in effect a save-or-die spell...
ReplyDelete...except, looking at my Cook Expert book, I see Hold Monster and Cloud Kill are 5th level, and this one needs to be higher level than both of those. Still, yanked! Danke!
Lackey is one of those I should gt around to reading. I was an MZB fan and am still a huge Robin McKinley fan, but for some reason I just never got around to Lackey.
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was surprised hold monster is 5th, although hold person is 2nd. Still, given this is Hold Monster with the additional unconsciousness effect I needed to move up at least one leve.
Lackey is good although I'll admit the Valdemar books started to feel like "let's rewrite that last trilogy but longer". Then again, she did take a several year break from them about the time she hit that point. Still, they're solid and could be an interesting setting in their own right.