I engaged in a friendly duel with another wizard the other day when he defeated me by unravelling my defensive screens. I asked him how he did that and he told me that upon casting astral vision (a well known spell that lets magic users examine a visual picture of a spell system, shows up as glowing lines when viewing a spell) he had seen my shield was tinged with blue and red and in a cross-hatch, indicating I was using Mercah`s Shield or variation. He knew this spell was built to rebuff ice and fire and physical objects bigger than a certain size. Normally this would be considered a very good defensive spell, especially if he was going to try to batter it down by oversaturating its absorbative capacity. So he used Atol`s Unraveller with regents of flint, ice chips and pebble against the shield. I have never heard of that spell and asked him about it. Well he explained he had only just recently gotten the unraveller varient which supported up to 3 elements, although he had heard rumors which could handle four. I asked him if he would sell me a copy of the spell, and he told me that he could not, as the spell was old and faded and would not withstand the onslaught of a copy spell. He said that he had gotten the spell from a merchant in a far off city, but that it had been scribed originally by a man named Azzst. I sent a post to Azzst and Atol asking them if they would contact me regarding the spell.
Several days later, as I travelled through the woods I receive a magical communication from Atol. He explained that that cost of the unraveller spell was 100 talons and that I would have to travel to him to buy the spell. I was very saddened as that was more money than I have ever seen. He chuckled and then told me that I should see the Black With of Heccah and that she would set me on the road to learning the spell myself.
I travelled to Heccah and after inquiring around, heard that the witch lived in a valley to the north, and that she was very difficult to find. The next day I travelled north and after a time came to a dark valley that seemed to cloak even the sun at its height. I entered the valley and was lost for some time, encountering foul beasts which I dispatched or evaded. Eventually I came to small stone well engraved in an ancient language, which thankfully I had learned earlier in my apprenticeship (ooc: dead written languages make for excellent quested skills which can be pre-requisites for other quests). The stone said that all that sought the witch must enter the well alone. I cast protections around myself and jumped down the well.
There was some visual disturbances which signaled that I was slipping into a pocket universe (ooc: dungeon portal) and the color of the magic which flowed around me spoke of an evil place. In a short time I found myself in a small cavern, damp and dark. In front of me, hunched over a bubbling cauldron, was a old hag. Warily I approched her and laid my gift at her feet, a small scroll of some minor power from the library at J`eratz. I kneeled and bowed my head and held that position until she spoke. I told her that Atol has sent me and that I had come to learn of the spell of unravelling (ooc: the name of a quets completer perhaps has signifigance here). She said that for such rare knowledge I need to perform a series of tasks to prove my worth and to help defray the cost making of the spell scroll. She set me on 3 tasks. I was to gather spider silk from the Widow of Crestfallen, a spindle of gold from the famed crafter`s city of Eliton and finally I was to defeat her rival, the White Sorceress of the south wood, in a small valley to the north.
It took me several days to gain the spider silk and spindle because of the distances involved, even though I was able to use several magic mirrors at the wizard guilds scattered throughout the land. The sorceress concerned me, for no one had ever heard of her, nor could I find any information on her in my reading on the "Wizard Web of Words". (ooc: this is because this quest was randomly generated, and the Sorceress only exists to fight me, should I be able to find her)
So following the witch`s directions I went to the valley south of her home and following her instructions, dropped the token she had given me on the mossy stone alter I found deep within the woods (ooc: this triggers the solo quest dungeon) Immediatly the earth opened up and dragged me down inside its clutches, leaving me in a plain stone corridor (ooc: dungeon was just built for this one person). I cast astral vision and my most potant defensive spells before walking cautiously down the corridor. I turned the bend and found a glowing barrior in front of me. I applied the appropriate counter-spell and moved on, shortly thereafter I found myself faced with a gaping chasm. I cast levitate and floated across. To be on the safe side I cast detect traps and find that there is a mechanical trap in the walls ahead of me. Thinking there might be spears in the walls, I cast a spell to protect me from piercing damage and walk forward. There was a rumble and the walls rushed foward to crush me. I had hardly a breath to scream before my concieousness stole away. (ooc: the quest dungeons are designed per "class" as in the tests set before the quester are specific to the type of class they are, a fighter`s quest might have feats of strength, or require long jumps, or require holding your breath a long time).
So great was my service to my god, that he granted my broken body life once again, and I returned to awareness next to the alter which marked the entrance to the sorceress` domain (when you are defeated in a solo quest dungeon, your body is returned to the entrance). Quickly I made my preparations and again decended into the domain of the white sorceress.
This time I quickly thwarted the traps laid before me and before long found myself faced with the white sorceress, who I defeated in a mighty spell battle (ooc: main quest opponent spawned to be of appropriate level to be challenging). I took her wand as proof of her death back to the black witch, who gave me the spell scroll.
Current Day:
With the passing of Atol and Azzt from this world many years ago, and with the destruction of the Black Witch by Olthor the Mighty, I have the only remaining original copy of the spell of Unravelling. To this day I am asked to copy the spell for use by even my most potant of peers
