Seth Walther
Marietta, Ohio
(Dragon 84)
 

Seth, you've got the right idea. There's no
reason why a wyvern-horn amulet can't exist in
an AD&D universe -- and no reason why you
can't make the fairly simple adaptation from
DRAGONQUEST game terminology into
terms used in the AD&D rules. You'll need a
wyvern horn (do wyverns in the AD&D rules
have horns? Oh, well . . .) and some kind of
powerful magic (enchant an item, wish), and
you'll end up with an amulet that can detect
magic in essentially the same ways that the version
in the article does. Restrictions? Nothing to
worry about, as long as the new amulet is not so
over-powerful that it unbalances the game in
favor of a character who wears one.

This simple conversion works not only for
objects described in DRAGON® magazine articles,
but also for procedures and concepts that just
happen to be written in the "language" of a
certain game. Don't be turned off by an article
that seems to be about a game you don't play --
sure, the words in the article are about that
"other" game, but the ideas behind those words
may hit you right between the ears if you give
'em a chance.

-- KM
(Dragon 84)
 

The wyvern-horn amulet
by Craig Barrett

Have you ever wanted to be able to detect
the presence of magic before you stumble
into it? An Enchanter, using this
formula, can make it possible to do just
that. And this formula doesn?t break any of
the DRAGONQUEST rules, though it may
bend one or two of them.

The formula is based on the fact that 
while a wyvern (see the rulebook, page 115) <link>
doesn't know any magic, it can obtain
magical items and so must have some kind
of affinity for, or attraction to, magic.
Neither a picture nor a detailed description
of the wyvern is offered, which makes it
possible to suppose that the wyvern has a
small, backward-curving horn growing near
the tip of its snout. It's in this horn that the
wyvern's affinity for magic is centered; and,
on the principle of Sympathetic Magic, an
Enchanter can use this horn to create an
amulet that can be used to detect magical
auras.

The horn itself shouldn't be enormously
difficult to obtain, since wyvern horn has
recognized medicinal properties in addition
to its little-known magical-detection properties.
A horn of the proper size will cost
about 1,000 SPs. But to be of any magical
use, the horn must have been cut from a
living wyvern, since the trauma of death
destroys its affinity. About 40% of the horns
being sold will have come from living
wyverns. (The "horn" is actually made up
of horny hair fibers growing out from the
skin, just like the horn of the rhinoceros;
and experienced hunters know that if the
wyvern is left alive in the wild after its horn
and poison are harvested, in about a year
its quickly growing horn can be harvested
again.) An Enchanter can easily tell
whether a horn has been cut from a living
or a dead wyvern, simply by holding the
horn in his hand.

Once the wyvern horn is obtained, the
Enchanter uses it to create an amulet by
performing the "Ritual of Creating Crystal
of Vision" (36.Q-2), using the horn in place
of a piece of crystal. This takes about three
hours, and the total cost of creating the
amulet is the cost of the horn plus the cost
of the ambergris used, in all about 2,000
SPs.

The amulet can be employed in two
ways. In the simplest procedure, a character
holds the amulet in his hand and recites
whatever activating phrase the Enchanter
has built into the amulet. For one minute
thereafter, the character will be able to
recognize any magical aura -- spell, Ward,
amulet, etc. -- within his field of vision,
providing he continues to hold the amulet,
though he will be unable to distinguish the
nature of the magic (the kind of spell or
Ward it is, its purpose, how it's triggered,
etc.). This procedure can used one time
each day, +1 time per Rank the Enchanter
has with the "Ritual of Creating Crystal of
Vision."

In the second procedure, the Enchanter
performs an Investment Ritual (Rule 32.3)
on the amulet and invests it with "Wizard?s
Eye Spell" (36. S-10). When this spell is
activated, the character will not only be able
to recognize magical auras as in the first
procedure, but if he has the Witchsight
talent (36.T-1, 38.T-1, or 46.T-1, but not
the 44.G-7 spell) he can also learn something
about the nature of the magic. Base
Chance for success in this is the same as the
Adept's normal Base Chance with Witchsight,
with no penalty for failure. If the
Adept succeeds, the GM should tell him one
fact about the magical aura he is investigating,
such as the name of the spell or Ward
involved, or its effects, or its activation
instructions, or what College is involved
(and whether General or Special Knowledge),
etc. Exactly what piece of information
the success yields is up to the GM. The
Adept has only one opportunity to learn one
fact about each magical aura he investigates
while the "Wizard's Eye Spell" is in effect.
Using a second "Wizard?s Eye Spell," he
can re-investigate auras he failed to learn
anything about, but he can learn nothing
new about auras that he has already succeeded
in investigating.

GMs should treat this formula as not very
widely known, about as difficult for an
Enchanter to obtain as the "Wizard's Eye
Spell" itself -- and even less well-known to
non-Enchanters. The availability of appropriate
wyvern horns can also be restricted.

An attendant danger in carrying a
wyvern-horn amulet is that wyverns tend to
notice such things and then react in an
unfavorable manner. In fact, it's not impossible
that a wyvern's trove of magical items
could contain a wyvern-horn amulet taken
from some unwary and unfortunate Adept.