Converting monsters from Tales From The Infinite Staircase

[freyar]

It's unclear from the adventure whether "transport mirror" is a magical item, a spell, or both. For example, the "transport trap" sends a PC through one transport mirror to another. On the other hand, the kamerel, "cast transport mirror" on hostile creatures, which maybe sounds like it sends the monsters to a transport mirror magical item.

My reading is that there are both an item and a spell. Transport mirrors are magic items that allow objects/creatures to pass between them, like a gate. Meanwhile, there is a transport mirror spell, which I read as a teleportation spell since it actually sends a creature somewhere, unlike a summoning. The spell sends a creature from whereever it happens to be to a transport mirror (within range, of course). It's not clear to me if the reduce effect is an automatic effect of the mirrors or some kind of add-on (again, contradictory information appears in the quotes).

Applicable quotes:

Using a special transport mirror, the kamerel replace one of the mirrors in the main library. When a character attempts to pass through the mirror, he instead is reduced down to 20% of his height if he fails his saving throw and then is immediately transported (no save) to the transport mirror associated with the first (see page 111). In this case, the kamerel keep the second mirror in their headquarters, where one kamerel warrior per level of the character waits to subdue him as he appears, disoriented and extremely small.

The kamerel secret a number of transport mirrors throughout the area around their foes. Then a few of the spellcasters head out of the library and into the Outlands with the corresponding mirrors. Once in the wilds, they look for hostile creatures to cast transport mirror upon, sending them into the main library to attack their foes. If a beast is too large (often the case) they shrink it down using reduce.

 

[Cleon]

It's unclear from the adventure whether "transport mirror" is a magical item, a spell, or both. For example, the "transport trap" sends a PC through one transport mirror to another. On the other hand, the kamerel, "cast transport mirror" on hostile creatures, which maybe sounds like it sends the monsters to a transport mirror magical item.

My reading of it is that transport mirror is a mirror magic spell. It's on the spell lists of both the kamerel wizards, the Mirror Magic section refers to them as "spells". Its just the spell requires a material component (two specially prepared mirrors).

Now, the Mirror Magic section does say "The spells (which are more appropriately thought of as special abilities) presented here will not function for any non-kamerel caster", but I think we've already got that covered by making Mirror Magic a "special ability" of the Kamerel.

It's not clear to me if the reduce effect is an automatic effect of the mirrors or some kind of add-on (again, contradictory information appears in the quotes).

It seems pretty clear to me that the basic transport mirror doesn't automatically reduce creatures. The original Mirror Magic entry says "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", plus the description of how they transported in the monsters has them using reduce to shrink the monsters before kidnapping them.

As for your quotes, notice that the transport mirror trap says that it's a special transport mirror that auto-reduces the victim, while the monster-capturing teams just cast "transport mirror" and have to cast reduce to get the monsters small enough to fit through. Also, the special transport mirror replaced another mirror - one of the 20 foot square mirrors in the main library, which themselves are part of an infinitely-recursive spacial mirror*. To me, that's pretty clear that the "trap transport mirror" is a separate spell, and I'm thinking it'd be sensible to make the "monster capturing mirror" a separate spell too, if only to make it a better fit with 3E's standard approach on summoning/conjuring monsters.

I'm thinking that in our conversion the kamerel mage can carry several of transport mirrors in the form of scrolls - although I suppose the scroll would be divided into two halves, otherwise it wouldn't have two mirrors to transport between. In 3E terms I'd eyeball it as around a 3rd level spell, so they probably have high-enough slots to prepare it as a normal spell, but the adventure says they've prepared scry mirrors and transport mirrors over the millenia before emerging from reflection, so it'd be more practical to make them in the form of scrolls.

Incidentally, I think we can safely skip statting up the spacial mirror spell/item, since (a) it'll likely be an epic spell or artifact in 3E terms, and (b) it's not something the kamerel mages will be casting to fight the PCs.

 

[freyar]

Tell you what, I'm happy to have a transport mirror spell that requires two separated mirrors as the spell focus requirement. But I wouldn't make a trap transport mirror spell. I'd rather that be a separate magic item (which we don't need to contribute). I also agree that the normal spacial mirrors in the library are artifacts.

 

[Cleon]

Tell you what, I'm happy to have a transport mirror spell that requires two separated mirrors as the spell focus requirement. But I wouldn't make a trap transport mirror spell. I'd rather that be a separate magic item (which we don't need to contribute). I also agree that the normal spacial mirrors in the library are artifacts.

I'm fine forgetting about the "trap mirror" since it's not part of their normal equipment - there are a fair few other magical traps scattered about the Mirror Library which I wasn't going to bother with either, so we can just consider it one of them.

We can probably do the same with the monster summoning "traps" since it all happens off-camera as far as the PCs are concerned.

So, shall we start on the transport mirror spell?

The closest match in the SRD is probably dimension door, so we can use that as a foundation.

 

[freyar]

Dimension door is a good comparison. To make it a little different than DD, maybe the spell can have a non-instantaneous duration, so the mirrors remain as gates for a short while. What do you think?

 

[Cleon]

Dimension door is a good comparison. To make it a little different than DD, maybe the spell can have a non-instantaneous duration, so the mirrors remain as gates for a short while. What do you think?

Hmm, the original description does say the spell can "transport small items or creatures", which means it could allow multiple objects instead of one, but unfortunately it doesn't say so clearly.

Indeed, the whole description is rather vague... Come to think of it, we ought to have the spell description in this thread for the sake of this discussion:

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. The distance that separates the two mirrors can be no greater than 1 mile per level or HD total of the creator of the mirrors.

Each transport mirror requires a week of preparation. Both mirrors must be created by the same sorcerer. Both shatter upon completion after use.

I'm reluctant to give it a non-instantaneous duration because it would increase the level of the spell significantly if transport mirror could transport as many creatures as can run through it during its duration. Even a 1 round duration would allow two dozen humanoids with speed 30 ft. to run through — or four dozen if they can use both sides of the mirror. That's a lot more effective than a single creature. I'd eyeball it as about 5th level spell. We could apply a duration limit AND a number of creature limit I suppose.

We could always have a greater transport mirror that has a duration if you're keen on the idea, then allow the basic spell to be single creature only.

That reminds me of something I roughed out while working on my Homebrew version. The kamerel will need some kind of greater reduce monster spell that shrinks a creature by 2 size categories to produce the effects they do in the adventure. That implies they also have reduce monster and greater reduce person spells.

 

[Oryan77]

We could apply a duration limit AND a number of creature limit I suppose.

The text is definitely vague for a lot of this stuff. I've always been frustrated by that even when I ran this adventure back in the 90's with AD&D rules.

I always assumed the mirror only allowed 1 person to enter it (one way) based on the trap scenario mentioned in the book. The Kamerel set up the trap and wait in another room with the other end of the mirror. Then they pounce on the person that entered it and overwhelm him. So I had originally just allowed a single PC to step into the mirror and then the spell ends. They may go and set more of the traps if they needed to capture more PCs. Slow and steady wins the race.

That makes more sense to me anyway since it would be much more difficult for Kamerel to pounce on multiple PCs at once. There would need to be way more Kamerel in the encounter waiting behind the trap to successfully subdue an entire group of PCs.

My vote would be to make the spell have a duration of 10 minutes per level, and limit to 1 creature. Spell ends when used. The text mentions nothing about there being a save vs spell. Teleportation Circle has always seemed the most similar to me, but it's a 9th level spell. Would our version need to allow a saving throw to keep the spell level down? Dimensional Doors is "willing creature".

 

[Cleon]

The text is definitely vague for a lot of this stuff. I've always been frustrated by that even when I ran this adventure back in the 90's with AD&D rules.

I always assumed the mirror only allowed 1 person to enter it (one way) based on the trap scenario mentioned in the book. The Kamerel set up the trap and wait in another room with the other end of the mirror. Then they pounce on the person that entered it and overwhelm him. So I had originally just allowed a single PC to step into the mirror and then the spell ends. They may go and set more of the traps if they needed to capture more PCs. Slow and steady wins the race.

Well the transport mirror trap was a "special" transport mirror that used different rules, but I'd be inclined to make the standard transport mirror a single creature deal.

It'd keep the spell level down, and basic spells tend to start out as single-target.

Admittedly the dimension door spell allows one additional creature per three caster levels, but if we wanted a multiple person level-dependent version I'd rather make it a separate higher spell level. Maybe a "mass transport mirror" that has a duration like Freyar suggested.

My vote would be to make the spell have a duration of 10 minutes per level, and limit to 1 creature. Spell ends when used.

I assumed you just cast the spell while the target creature is touching a mirror and they "blinked" over to its corresponding mirror, causing both mirrors to shatter. That'd make it instantaneous, like dimension door.

Oh, and I'm thinking the order of the mirrors doesn't matter - so an enemy can blink out of a mirror you're carrying if you're careless about where you left the corresponding mirror.

The text mentions nothing about there being a save vs spell. Teleportation Circle has always seemed the most similar to me, but it's a 9th level spell. Would our version need to allow a saving throw to keep the spell level down? Dimensional Doors is "willing creature".

Actually, the special transport mirror trap mentions saves:

"When a character attempts to pass through the mirror, he instead is reduced down to 20% of his height if he fails his saving throw and then is immediately transported (no save) to the transport mirror associated with the first".

So that version doesn't allow a save for the teleportation effect, but does for the reduction effect, meaning that a creature that's Small or larger was automatically "blinked", while one that was Medium or larger only "blinked" if it failed the save vs. reduce.

The standard transport mirror obviously affects "unwilling creature", since they were used to abduct those monsters. I'd be inclined to allow a saving throw for our conversion though, just out of principle. In either case, it'd allow spell resistance. Don't forget the transported creature has to be able to touch the mirror - if the caster has to make a melee attack to hit an unwilling creature it makes it more difficult (and dangerous!) to use.

 

[Oryan77]

I always read the description as if they cast the spell on the mirror (turning the mirror into a magic trap), and "if" a creature walked into the mirror, that is when the spell effect activates and transports them to the other mirror. It's a trap, so I never imagined a caster had to be there to cast when a creature touches the mirror.

The mirrors inside the library are large mirrors that character need to walk through to access each room within the library. I thought those were the mirrors that the spell is cast on so that when the PCs walk through it thinking they are just passing into the next room like they have been doing, that mirror instead transports them to the receiving mirror that the Kamerel keep in another room. As for them using the spell to abduct the monsters outside, I thought they cast it on a smaller mirror that they carried out, and forced or lured the creature into the mirror. That was my take on it.

 

[Cleon]

I always read the description as if they cast the spell on the mirror (turning the mirror into a magic trap), and "if" a creature walked into the mirror, that is when the spell effect activates and transports them to the other mirror. It's a trap, so I never imagined a caster had to be there to cast when a creature touches the mirror.

We're currently working on the transport mirror spell that's described in the Mirror Magic section.

The transport mirror trap you're talking about is something different, it's a "special" triggered item that's basically a portable magical trap, so it's separate from the actual monster.