D&D spell illustration challenge, day 40 (12 days late): Contingency
A single 6th level spell could have saved the CERN tens of billions of investiment expenditures.
Prompt: Inside a cluttered wizard’s study—books on quantum thaumaturgy and multiverse harmonics lie open—a robed archmage with well-trimmed grey hair and starry robes lounges in a velvet armchair, sipping tea. A large glass orb glows faintly overhead. Suddenly, the orb lights up bright blue. The wizard freezes mid-sip, eyes wide with awe and triumph. Behind him, a chalkboard reads: “Contigent Light: if a Higgs Boson is present in the Universe.” A cat jumps, startled, from the windowsill.
Commentary: this one was tough, how do you illustrate a spell that does absolutely nothing? Also, yes, Contingency is being nerfed over and over (in 3.5 you could have Contingency, Chained Contingency and Simbul's Spell Sequencer stacked, now you need to wait for level 11 to get a single Contingent spell...) but they didn't specify the limitations on what the trigger is. Contingent Light triggered by "the assassin of Lord Greystaff is within 5 feet of me" as you tour the suspects, "Contingent Gaseous Form whenever I am about to be hit by a physical attack" or "Contingent Teleport whenever I am holding my staff parallel to the floor in the exact direction of the Lost Temple of Xzurg..." (triangulation is the worst enemy of old ruins) still remain attemptable by players.
A single 6th level spell could have saved the CERN tens of billions of investiment expenditures.
Prompt: Inside a cluttered wizard’s study—books on quantum thaumaturgy and multiverse harmonics lie open—a robed archmage with well-trimmed grey hair and starry robes lounges in a velvet armchair, sipping tea. A large glass orb glows faintly overhead. Suddenly, the orb lights up bright blue. The wizard freezes mid-sip, eyes wide with awe and triumph. Behind him, a chalkboard reads: “Contigent Light: if a Higgs Boson is present in the Universe.” A cat jumps, startled, from the windowsill.
Commentary: this one was tough, how do you illustrate a spell that does absolutely nothing? Also, yes, Contingency is being nerfed over and over (in 3.5 you could have Contingency, Chained Contingency and Simbul's Spell Sequencer stacked, now you need to wait for level 11 to get a single Contingent spell...) but they didn't specify the limitations on what the trigger is. Contingent Light triggered by "the assassin of Lord Greystaff is within 5 feet of me" as you tour the suspects, "Contingent Gaseous Form whenever I am about to be hit by a physical attack" or "Contingent Teleport whenever I am holding my staff parallel to the floor in the exact direction of the Lost Temple of Xzurg..." (triangulation is the worst enemy of old ruins) still remain attemptable by players.
