By means of this spell, the mage is able to enchant a specially prepared dagger to be a magical object capable of Sending-like abilities (c.f. Sending). The daggers must be purchased and prepared ahead of time by the mage. The cost is 165 sp per dagger, and includes the cost of the dagger and the magical preparation (which takes 1 hour per dagger but permanently prepares the dagger for this spell). The material component of this spell is the dagger, which is not used up in the casting of the spell, but may continue to be used.
Once enchanted by this spell, the target daggers (up to 1, plus 1 per rank, may be affected) become objects of communication. By speaking a command word into the haft of the dagger, it begins to "transmit" anything said by the speaker to any other daggers that are affected by the same spell, cast by the same mage. Maximum range is 1 mile per rank (25 miles at rank 21, 50 miles at rank 22) and the effect lasts for 1 hour per rank. Although the daggers can receive these transmission over the entire duration of the spell, they are more limited on sending. A total of 3 rounds per rank is available for sending. Once this is used, the dagger ceases to be able to send or receive.
Example: A rank 10 battle mage can cast this spell on up to 11 specially prepared daggers. The daggers can be used to communicate with all of the other daggers for 10 hours. During this time, each dagger is capable of 30 rounds (5 minutes) of sending usable in any increments of time, from 1 second to the remaining allotment of time.
Note that the one-time magical preparation of each dagger uses a ritual form of this same spell. Use the mage's normal cast chance with this spell to determine whether the preparation succeeds. If it fails, the dagger (usually worth about 65 sp) is not destroyed, but it will cost another 100 sp to try again. |