Shakham's Loop Doors

As promised, some more from Shakham the Great:

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Shakham's Loop Doors
Conjuration (Teleportation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

“The unsuspecting archer does not know that one loop door has been placed straight in front of him, while it's pair right behind him. He stretches his bow, takes aim, and fires. The arrow flies a short distance before disappearing in mid air. His face frozen in terrible surprise, the archer falls to the ground while his own arrow sticks from the back of his head.”

When you cast this spell, choose two clear areas within range. You must either see these areas, or know they are there. Two invisible port holes, 5 ft. in diameter each, appear at the designated points facing each other. Any non-living object entering through the front of either door exits from the front of the opposite door. If it entered at an angle it will exit at that exact angle, meaning it will not change its direction, only its displacement.

Objects that are left only half-way through the doors while the spell is stopped end up outside either of the doors, according to where the majority of the object was when the spell stopped. Living creatures that attempt to pass through the doors dispel them.

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The amount of things that can be achieved with such a clever device are numerous, with a small hint of one in the name of spell, but that I leave up to you, the readers.

Bazzal and the Beggar

 Before I continue with Shakham's work I have one small gem to share. I ran into a traveling wizard at the market today. At first he did not seem anything other than part of the crowd, but his spellbook caught my eye from afar. In view from where I was enjoying the morning tea, a local beggar asked him for spare change. The wizard looked at the begging woman in front of him, possibly measuring her earnestness. He then proceeded without a word to walk down the market square, to the beggar's disappointment. Yet in short time he returned with an orange fruit in his hand, rather rare and expensive in these parts, and asked the woman to eat it and give him one of the seeds. The beggar, who thought mockery was his intention, refused to accept the fruit. "I would rather have a plain piece of bread than you rich folks' fancy fruits, sir." He smiled at this, then continued, now asking the woman to show him where she lived. Puzzeled, she pointed to a makeshift tent in the garden just outside the market. Again he left without a word.
 After a short time a crowd was gathering at the outskirts of the garden. Curious, I went closer to see what was causing so much excitement. When I reached the place I saw the wizard casting a spell near the beggar's tent. Much to the crowd's amazement a tree grew out of the bare soil of the unkempt garden at an unbelievable speed. Within seconds a fully grown orange tree with fruit stood where a minute ago nothing but bare ground lay. The beggar reached the place with a face struck pale with amazement. The wizard then proclaimed that the tree was his gift to the beggar so that she use its fruit to sell at the market.
 As he left the place accompanied by the crowds cheers - mostly at the amusement rather than the act of kindness probably - I caught up with him to learn his name was Bazzal. We exchanged a few words and a spell:

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Bazzal's Orange Tree

Transmutation

Level: Sor/Wiz 4

Components: V, S, M

Casting Time: Three rounds

Range: Touch

Duration: Instantaneous

Saving Throw: None

Spell Resistance: No

This spell almost instantly grows a living orange tree where the caster designates. Its roots attempt to drive into the ground with significant force (enough to push into cracks in a side-walk or wall). At the end of the spell, the tree is rooted into the ground (if possible) and full of fruit. It will stay alive if its surrounding allows it.

Material Focus: an orange tree seed.

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He assures me this spell has more uses than would seem at first glance, and it has saved his life on several occasions. I have arranged to meet with Bazzal later to further investigate his spellbook, so expect more of this intriguing fellow's magic in the near future...

More from Shakham the Great

  Another spell from the masters book, as I promised to write here earlier.
  One evening while I was accompanying Shakham and his fellows, a drunken local thug tried to harass the group in the city street. Not wanting to draw attention to themselves, as to not compromise their mission, Shakham cast this spell on the bully to make him turn elsewhere:

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Shakham's Riddle

Enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind-Affecting]

Level: Brd 1, Sor/Wiz 1

Components: V, S

Casting Time: 1 standard action (or more, depending on the riddles length; see text)

Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)

Target: One intelligent creature or object

Duration: 1 hour/level

Saving Throw: Will negates (and see text)

Spell Resistance: Yes

  "To cast the spell, he pointed his finger at the man and asked him the riddle at a commanding voice. The man's face suddenly filled with urgency as he ran past us, pushing us aside, and started a frantic quest for the answer, asking everyone he met in his way."

  This spell imbues the target with an uncontrollable need to solve the riddle you face him with. It will not sleep, eat, drink, or do any of its plans or duties until it finds the answer. It will defend its own life if the need arises. If in the middle of combat, it will fight its way out so that it could search for the solution. The riddle must be uttered in a language the target understands. The riddle must have a logical answer

  If the target knows or discovers the answer than the spell is broken. The game master may roll a knowledge or intelligence check to see if the target succeeds on solving the riddle, assuming the target can answer it on its own (a simple commoner could not likely be able to answer a riddle about the different plains of existence, as he probably has no knowledge on the subject). The riddle's DC will be determined by the game master according to the difficulty of the riddle and the save DC of the spell (altering the spell's DC by a small amount (+2/-2) to account for a good or bad riddle). On a successful roll by the target, the margin in which the roll was higher than the riddle's DC will determine how long it took the target to answer (the bigger the margin - the quicker the time).

• If the target's knowledge/intelligence roll scores any higher than the riddle's DC, then it takes the target half the spell duration to solve it.
• If the target rolls by a margin of 5 or greater then it takes a quarter of the spell's original duration to solve the riddle.
• If the margin is 10 or greater, or a natural 20 is rolled, then the riddle is answered on the spot.

  For wizards, a riddle must be chosen as the spell's trigger during the spell's preparation. A different riddle can be assigned for each separate preparation of the spell.

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  Although the two examples presented so far deal with smaller things than Shakham's title would imply, I assure you that future excerpts from his spell collection will amend this situation. His more advance work deals with space, time, and the cosmos; matters his early work may only hint at.

Shakham the Great

I was accompanying a party of mercenaries under the employment of a local prince who hired them to stage his own kidnapping. I was there to record everything for the prince's planned confession, confusing as that may seem. As interesting as that story was though, I was much more intrigued by the wizard in the party, Shakham the Great. He first caught my eye when he used this charming little cantrip to fold out his plans to the group:

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Shakham's Vectorgram

Illusion

Level: Sor/Wiz 0

Components: S, F

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Touch

Effect: Lines of glowing substance

Duration: Concentration

Saving Throw: None

Spell Resistance: No

  "He raised the piece of chalk in the air and began to sketch the fort they were about to invade. The three dimensional model of the building made things much easier to explain to the party..."

  This spell allows you to draw lines of glowing substance in mid air. The lines are stationary and will evaporate if touched or blown by a sufficient wind force. The color of the lines can be chosen at the time of casting and interchanged in the middle. When the spell is let go the lines disappear.

  Material Focus: A bit of chalk.

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Shakham displayed a great cunning during their work for the prince. And later I inquired him about this spell and others I've seen him use which I did not recognize. He was kind enough to allow me to study his spellbook after the fuss was over, and what a treasure it was. Surely worthy of his title, each spell presented an artful understanding of forces both grand and small. I will present his works here little by little, after I have had the time to study the copies I made of his original scripts.