Converting monsters from Tales From The Infinite Staircase

[Cleon]

That organization is good enough for me with whatever modifications are necessary. Or should we specify the sargeants as "drivers" or "mages"?

While drafting that Org proposal I tried including drivers/mages but it made it unwieldy to read, e.g.:

Organization: Solitary, team (3-10 3rd-level warriors plus 1-3 sergeants [6th-level fighters or wizards, see kamerel driver and kamerel mage], or troop (10-20 3rd-level warriors plus 3-6 sergeants and 1 leader [8th-10th level wizard])

So I cut it down for my proposal and though we could explain what the "sergeants" were in flavour text.

However, on second thought we could simply use:

Organization: Solitary, team (3-10 3rd-level warriors plus 1-3 6th-level kamerel drivers or mages) or troop (10-20 3rd-level warriors and 3-6 6th-level kamerel drivers or mages, plus 1 leader of 8th-10th level)

That said, it'd still be worthwhile adding a bit of explanation what a "driver" is.

 

[freyar]

I like the second alternative there.

 

[Cleon]

I like the second alternative there.

Okay, I'll stick it in the working drafts.

Updating Kamerel Warrior.

Updating Kamerel Driver.

Updating Kamerel Mage.

I've included links in the Organization to the individual monster entries, for the sake of convenience.

 

[Cleon]

You know, I just remembered that under the original description of transport mirror even the kamerel have to reduce themselves to use it.

TRANSPORT MIRROR: Using two different, specially prepared mirrors, kamerel can transport small items or creatures from one to the other. The item can be no more than two feet long or wide, and cannot weigh more than 50 pounds. The kamerel use a reduce spell (the reverse of the enlarge spell) to make themselves or other items smaller, enabling them to be moved via a transport mirror.

Kamerel are four feet tall, so they didn't fit through their own magical transport system!

I'm thinking we ought to forget about that bit for our conversion, and just keep the current transport mirror conversion with its size cap of Small.

Two foot tall is more like Tiny in 3E. Having the PCs attacked by Tiny kidnapped monsters would both be slightly laughable and hamper the monsters by dropping their Reach to zero.

 

[freyar]

Actually, Tiny kidnapped monsters attacking the PCs would be hilarious! But I do prefer the Small limit instead.

 

[Cleon]

Actually, Tiny kidnapped monsters attacking the PCs would be hilarious! But I do prefer the Small limit instead.

Agreed.

As mentioned before, we don't really need to figure out the spatial mirror or "transport trap", since those are more scenario-specific scenery.

We could stat up the scry mirror, since all the kamerel spellcasters have that spell prepared and it crops up a lot in the adventure.

The original spell description is:

Tales From the Infinite Staircase
SCRY MIRROR: Not nearly as powerful as a magic mirror spell, a scry mirror is limited to looking upon an area already shown in a mirror somewhere. The target mirror must be within 10 miles per level of the mirror’s creator and the user must be aware of its exact location and position.

No spells can be cast through a scry mirror. Once the scrying attempt is finished, the mirror shatters. It takes a full day to create a scry mirror—although once created, they last up to 3 weeks + 1 week per level or HD total of the creator.​

The magic mirror referred to above is a 4th level Wizard spell. It's pretty much the arcane version of the scrying spell in 3E. Here's the 2E Player's Handbook spell description:

Magic Mirror
(Enchantment, Divination)

Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 rd./level
Casting Time: 1 hr.
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: None

By means of this spell, the wizard changes a normal mirror into a scrying device similar to a crystal ball. The details of the use of such a scrying device are found in the DMG (in Appendix 3: Magical Item Descriptions, under the description for the crystal ball).

The mirror used must be of finely wrought and highly polished silver and cost not less than 1,000 gp. This mirror is not harmed by casting the spell, but the other material components—the eye of a hawk, an eagle, or even a roc, and nitric acid, copper, and zinc—are used up.

The following spells can be cast through a magic mirror: comprehend languages, read magic, tongues, and infravision. The following spells have a 5% chance per level of the caster of operating correctly: detect magic, detect good or evil, and message. The base chances for the subject to detect any crystal ball-like spell are listed in the DMG (again, in Appendix 3: Magical Item Descriptions, under the description for the crystal ball.​

So, in 3E terms, scrying mirror is basically the scrying spell with a really impressive duration but its magical sensor is fixed to the location of a mirror somewhere within 10 miles per caster level. Plus, it uses a mirror as a disposable material component instead of a reusable focus.

Shall we stat that up?

Hmm, comes to think of it. Is a scrying mirror fixed to one particular mirror when cast, or can the caster switch the sensor from mirror to mirror? In the adventure, there's a location ("5. More Empty Rooms") that says:

Nen Itan, their overall leader, watches through a scry mirror (he has many) to monitor the exits and the progress of any non-kamerel that he knows are within Timaresh.

That suggests the viewpoint is switchable, since he use a scry mirror (e.g. a single casting) to look at many exits and follow the progress of one or more target creatures.

 

[Cleon]

I'm thinking we should add the following to the Mirror Magic description:

A mirror magic spell that normally only affects humanoids (i.e. spells with "person" in its name, such as hold person), will also affect kamerel.

 

[freyar]

I'll agree to that addition to mirror magic.

As for scrying mirror, I don't think the spell has a long duration (or 1 day casting time!). It reads to me that the material component is a minor magic item (or several).

 

[Cleon]

I'll agree to that addition to mirror magic.

Updating Kamerel Mage.

It reads to me that the material component is a minor magic item (or several).

Well the adventure says scry mirror lasts for at least a month (to be exact, 3 weeks plus 1 week per caster level). That certainly seems a long duration!

3E scrying spell is pretty much that edition's equivalent of magic mirror and has the same casting time (1 hour) and duration (1 minute/level). A version with a duration measured in weeks ought to have a higher spell level, although the shorter range, inability to see other planes, and not being able to cast divination spells through it goes someway toward compensating for that.

Nen Itan is a 10th level wizard, so the spell needs to be 5th level or lower for him to be able to cast it.

I'm thinking if the spell is easy to interrupt or difficult to maintain it'd help lower the caster level - for example, the wording suggests the viewpoint can switch from mirror to mirror, so maybe the target gets a new save each time the viewpoint mirror switches?

It reads to me that the material component is a minor magic item (or several).

The adventure says it's a spell - or rather "spell-like", and the kamerel casters in the adventure have it prepared on their spell list, so there doesn't seem much doubt that the adventure does not consider it a magic item.

As for the material components, it must be a lot easier to make than the mirrors used in transport mirror since it only takes a day to manufacture instead of a week.

That implies it costs one-seventh as much, or about 6 gold pieces. Hardly an arduous investment.

 

[freyar]

I don't read that the same way. Your interpretation seems to be that the spell takes a day to cast and has a month+ duration.

Tales From the Infinite Staircase
SCRY MIRROR: Not nearly as powerful as a magic mirror spell, a scry mirror is limited to looking upon an area already shown in a mirror somewhere. The target mirror must be within 10 miles per level of the mirror’s creator and the user must be aware of its exact location and position.

No spells can be cast through a scry mirror. Once the scrying attempt is finished, the mirror shatters. It takes a full day to create a scry mirror—although once created, they last up to 3 weeks + 1 week per level or HD total of the creator.

The way I read this is that someone makes some scry mirror items. These each take a day to create and remain magical for a month+. To use these magic items, the creator casts a scry mirror spell and can access any scry mirror items within 10 miles/level. For whatever the spell duration is, the creator can change the scry mirror he/she is looking through. However, once he/she is done scrying through a particular mirror, that mirror breaks and becomes unusable. In other words, it's just a normal spell with a reasonable duration, but the material component requires some preparation and has only a limited shelf life.