I couldn't find any discussion of the CL for mind blank, actually. However, the spell effects don't depend on CL except for range, so I'd be happy enough with CL=HD in this case.
Well
mind blank has a minimum CL of 15th (as a wizard spell) and ML 13th for its psionic equivalent (psychic warrior with
personal mind blank), so how about making it CL 13th?
The Secrets of the Magister stats would help me to compare the two different alkadas.
Oh very well...
Wingless Wonder
Climate/Terrain: Any nonarctic wilderness
Frequency: Rare
Organization: Solitary or pair
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Omnivore
Intelligence: Low (5-7)
Treasure: Q×2
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 1-2
Armor Class: 8
Movement: 6
Hit Dice: 2+2
THAC0: 19
No. of Attacks: 9
Damage/Attack: 1 (×8), 4d4
Special Attacks: “Dying scream”
Special Defenses: Antimagic shell, immune to fire and heat damage
Magic Resistance: 44%
Size: S (4’ tall)
Morale: Fearless (20)
XP Value: 650
Known to some sages as the alkada, and to many common folk as “the walking egg,” the wingless wonder must be one of the most comical, stupid, awkward, and odd-looking creatures of Faerûn. A “wonder” looks like a blue-green egg with a purplish bottom, a head of wormlike tentacles, two rather unsteady legs, and two puny arms that it flaps constantly, as if it were trying to fly (hence its common name).
Wonders are shortsighted and curious. They explore the world with an air of shy innocence, occasionally emitting a high-pitched chittering. They redden when angry or excited and are attracted to flashy objects or anything red or purple, the more brilliant the better. Gems, cut glass, and other sparkling or translucent but light-catching objects fascinate them, and wonders devour such things whole without harm, They do not digest these curious trophies, but carry them in their stomachs until death.
Combat: The large, sad-looking eyes of an alkada can only see about 6 feet, and the creatures do not tend to notice menacing approaches or anything short of an attack that hits home. They commonly react to attacks by chittering excitedly and reaching out with their tentacles at whatever hit them, in case it might be good to eat.
Wonders prefer to dine on fruit, but they have a tendency to put almost any living thing into their mouths and chew, spitting out what they do not like the taste of (a highly individualistic matter, from one wonder to another). The beaklike, extremely powerful snapping and grinding mouth of a wonder is atop its head, surrounded by a restless fringe of eight tentacles that are normally about 2 feet long, but can shoot out rapidly to full lengths of 12 feet.
Alkada legs and tentacles are soft, rubbery, and sticky; the legs end in hoof-shaped flexible pads that can cling to even slippery and near-vertical surfaces, and the tentacles can grasp and hold anything they touch that the wonder desires them to, including humans in armour (unless such humans employ
oil of slipperiness), though the grasp of a tentacle can be broken by any hit on it.
Wonders use their tentacles to explore surroundings, help in moving around, handle items, and bring food to their mouths. Almost anything is considered food unless the wonder learns otherwise; its tentacles feel along all accessible sides of any encountered item in an attempt to identify it.
While alive, wonders radiate a continuous
antimagic shell that extends out several inches from their skin, and is visible as a faint purple-white glow (akin to
faerie fire) when a wonder is pregnant. They are immune to all damage from natural and magical fires, but suffer 1 hit point per die of damage from explosions (such as the burst of a
fireball).
Wonders cannot be subdued or made to flee, they seem oblivious to offered doom, and endlessly surprised by pain dealt to them, rather than swiftly identifying weapons that have done them harm.
When slain, a wonder lashes out at its slayer(s) with a psionic blast so awesome in its power that the disintegrating mind twists the mental effect into invisible beams of physically damaging raw force. One beam stabs unerringly at each creature within 120 feet of the dying wonder who has recently attacked the wonder, and deals the target(s) 8d4 hit points of damage (no saving throw). This “dying scream” is the only time an alkada exhibits psionic or magical powers.
The fuzz-covered skin of a wonder is delicate and heals slowly; most alkada live out their lives dripping blood from many small wounds. They are easily slain and have become rare in populated areas.
Habitat/Society: A wonder can function as either male or female. Whenever two adult wonders meet for the first time, they intertwine their tentacles and chitter excitedly in chorus, exchanging fluids through tentacle ducts that fertilize pea-shaped eggs inside each other (all alkada produce these, and carry an internal cluster of up to a dozen at all times). Some six months later, both wonders will excrete a rubbery egg about the size of a human head (pregnant wonders can carry multiple eggs at once, if they should happen to encounter more than one of their own kind for the first time during a pregnancy). The excreted eggs fall to the ground and split open to reveal small and clumsy (but otherwise fully developed) wonders. These offspring often accompany their parent for a time, but are expected to fend for themselves.
Sane wonders (see hereafter) never willingly fight other wonders and dislike violence, noise, lots of rushing about, and death. They like to wander, though they develop “favourite spots,” and seem to retain a sense of where such places are, showing an astonishing ability to cover great distances to return to them.
Some people who possess large walled gardens have created “wonder pens,” into which offal and refuse are dumped; wonders seem content to devour creature wastes, kitchen scraps, dead bodies, and other recently dead things as long as they have access to living things (such as bushes, grass, and flowers) upon which they can dine. Wonders will eat other wonders, but only after death is certain (rotting has begun).
Wonders develop eggs within their bodies, excreting them when they are ready to hatch (gestation seems to take 6 or 7 months). An egg falls to the ground as its parent wonder wanders away, ignoring it, and splits open in 1d4 rounds, to reveal a small and even more
Ecology: Wingless wonders have probably escaped extinction because their flesh tastes putrid and is poisonous to all mammals. Sages believe that a slightly larger, slower, twelve-tentacled subspecies of alkada has now died out. Wonder skin rots in 1d4+3 days after death, but before decaying can serve as fireproof coverings or cloaks against natural (but not magical) fire. The antimagic field of a wonder fades within moments of its death. Wonder eggs can often be salvaged from wonder corpses, and if kept warm and bathed in nutrients such as thick soup (which they can absorb at an astonishing rate) will usually grow by themselves and eventually split to emit a very curious and hungry miniature wonder into the world.
Almost a quarter of all alkada roaming Faerûn today are actually transformed humans or demihumans (most of whom were mages, though very few of them are Magisters of former Magisters). They are the result of a fad among wizards; the notorious Durshult the Doomweaver was forced into wonder form after losing a duel with Rarimmon Tlarn, the Archwizard of the Castle in the Clouds. For decades after that, mages delighted in transforming defeated foes into wingless wonders.
Lacking the means to work spells or communicate effectively with others, such unfortunates are trapped indefinitely (though young mages needing tutors, allies, or aid have been known to cast spells on any alkada they meet, in hopes of freeing a wizard who might feel beholden to them, and render them a service). Beings trapped in alkada form retain their intelligence and knowledge (though acting “as stupid as other alkada” is often their wisest course of action), and the frustrations of their existence often drives them insane. (To determine insanity, check once per year, with a base percentage chance of 50 minus the being’s wisdom score, and plus 1 per year spent in wonder form. What form the insanity takes varies widely, but often includes multiple personalities, with one or more of them being murderous and maniacally energetic, and others being schemers who may try to thwart the murderous sides.) Beings in wonder form exhibit no “dying scream” power when slain.
Originally appeared in Secrets of the Magister (2000).
