Stone of Rapid Defence

... At first when I came across this odd green uncut block of dubious material, I was unsure what it was and unaware of it's awesome potential. Sold to me by a rather odd being, in Campton towns Wizard Tower, with all his little eyes focusing entirely on every magical item visibly in my possession. I was amazed when I realised that He had burned the symbol of Mystara across his central eye and sealed it shut. He was, on conversation rather intelligent and welcoming to a fellow practitioner of magic. Anyway, he shows me this rather large green stone and he tells me it will read my mind and cast every defensive spell I have memorised, in an instant.

... So as a member of the clergy of Mystara, I was obviously curious. I purchased a stone and he told me he'd have another ready, if I need it, "after the world turns over", whatever that meant. I came home with the new item in tow, to study every defensive spell I could think of in their pure unmodified state with none of my meta-magic knowledge applied, because something told me the "SoRD" wouldn't read the still, silent, enhanced, maximised or extended versions of the spells from my mind, but would only understand the basic magic.

... As it turns out there was an awful lot of spells in my library, and many more then I've ever looked into before. Some I didn't even know I had previously studied. I went to bed praying to my mistress, in hope that I hadn't missed any spells from my research. In the morning I awoke with the spells burning in my mind for release and some spells I didn't research were there too, looks as though my mistress had filled me with her knowledge too.

... I spent all morning allowing the stone to absorb my thoughts. Then at midday I willed it to "work", and bang, whoosh, boom. The room filled with the crackling of magic as my mind drained of every spell I had and within mere moments, what would have took anywhere up to 4 hours casting was over in around a minute. Amazing. From what I could deduce the stone had cast the following spells:

Stone of Rapid Defence wrote:

Crag's Armour of Stone
Bless
Bulls Strength
Clarity
Dark Vision
Death Armour
Death Ward
Displacement
Divine Power
Eagle's Splendour
Fire Shield
Endurance
Endure Elements: Acid
Endure Elements: Cold
Endure Elements: Electricity
Endure Elements: Fire
Endure Elements: Sonic
Energy Buffer
Entropic Shield
Etherealness
Expeditious Retreat
Flora's Razorleaf Shield
Fox's Cunning
Ghostly Visage
Glacius' Ice Armour
Greater Spell Mantle
Greater Stoneskin
Haste
Holy Aura
Improved Invisibility
Invisibility
Ironguts
Lesser Mind Blank
Lesser Spell Mantle
Mage Armour
Magic Circle Against Chaos
Magic Circle Against Evil
Magic Circle Against Good
Magic Circle Against Law
Magic Vestment
Mass Haste
Mestil's Acid Sheath
Mind Blank
Minor Globe of Invulnerability
Monstrous Regeneration
Negative Energy Protection
Owl's Wisdom
Flora's Plant Armour
Prayer
Premonition
Protection from Elements
Protection from Evil
Protection from Good
Protection from Law
Protection from Spells
Protection from Chaos
Regenerate
Resist Elements
Resistance
Shadow Shield
Shield
Shield of Law
Spell Mantle
Spell Resistance
Stoneskin
Tempest's Protective Gale
Tempest's Shielding Wind
Tempest's Stormshield
Virtue
Water Breathing

... Now I must take this odd device to Master Crideas and see if he can get it to work with any of the amazing spells he knows. Maybe I should ask Master Aga as well, and if anyone can find him the Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Ignatius Arkayn. I wonder who else could benefit from this device and why it took so long for it to come to my attention.

~~ From the journal of Grace Fularras, walking Library and Holy Magi of Mystara



// The list above is cut-copy-pasted and slightly edited from my log files of the casted spells from the stone of Grace's first trial with it and every defensive spell I could think of ... ... ... It is a mighty fine list isn't it .... ...

An exceptional device, to be sure. A blessing for any arcane practitioner.

I myself do not utilize it often, as I rely heavily on the versatility of metamagic, and hence using the stone would leave egregious gaps in my spell defenses.

However, there have been a scant few times when I prepared my spells
with the express intent of capitalizing on the benefits of the Stone... and it
did perform quite well.