A Revelation Quill allows its bearer to ask up to 10 questions a week to which the quill writes out responses as per the contact other plane spell. My question is, does the quill's bearer get to choose the plane contacted and does he risk the spell's usual chance of causing Intelligence and Charisma loss via this indirect usage?
A Revelation Quill allows its bearer to ask up to 10 questions a week to which the quill writes out responses as per the contact other plane spell. My question is, does the quill's bearer get to choose the plane contacted and does he risk the spell's usual chance of causing Intelligence and Charisma loss via this indirect usage?
As the quill duplicates effects of the spell and does not mention any differences from the spell in any way I would say that yes, it has standard chance of causing Intelligence/Charisma decrease. Probably the first answer written is some blasphemous sanity shattering answer that no mortal mind can stand.
As the quill duplicates effects of the spell and does not mention any differences from the spell in any way I would say that yes, it has standard chance of causing Intelligence/Charisma decrease.
The description of how it works differs from the spell's description in that it doesn't project sanity-damaging answers directly into the bearer's mind.
Probably the first answer written is some blasphemous sanity shattering answer that no mortal mind can stand.
Not disagreeing; it's a valid interpretation. But since a whole group of people might have gathered to read the results simultaneously wouldn't that mean they'd all suffer the same mental breakdown? And, once recovered, couldn't they use the sanity-shattering written message to blow the mind of anyone they care to show it to? It'd make for an awesome weapon to use against the unsuspecting. ;)
After reading the description of the quill I retrace my last statement.
Once per day, if you concentrate upon a specific future goal, event, or activity occurring within a week, the revelation quill takes over and writes out a short phrase in response, often in the form of a cryptic rhyme or omen, much in the same way the divination spell functions.
(Contact other plane power works the same but is usable once per week).
From the bold part I assume that by using powers of the quill character opens oneself for it and writes the answer automatically. Because the check for ability score decrease is made before any questions are asked so the user of the quill will be sanity-blasted before any answers are written down. No hand-held mind-shattrering sentence writen down for further use is available. Instead I would say that user writes down some gibberish or draws funny images instead.
I assume that by using powers of the quill character opens oneself for it and writes the answer automatically.
Interesting. I hadn't considered the notion of the user performing automatic writing. Unfortunately the wording of the bolded part seems to imply that the quill writes by itself whether it's being held or not. Regardless, it doesn't mean that the maddening results wouldn't be as you describe.
Instead I would say that user writes down some gibberish or draws funny images instead.
Actually, the maddening effect seems independent of the the answers' veracity. It'd seem entirely possible to suffer the mental breakdown while still receiving correct answers.
Interestingly, the main advantage of the quill over the spell that I can see is that anyone can use it, thereby accepting the risks involved. It'd seem a simple matter to find a commoner willing to accept the temporary effects and ask the quill questions in exchange for fair recompense.
One question remains however; does the user pick the plane being contacted or is it static? If the answers are coming from the mysterious "peacock spirit" wouldn't that imply that the planar source is always the same?
Actually, the maddening effect seems independent of the the answers' veracity. It'd seem entirely possible to suffer the mental breakdown while still receiving correct answers.
From the description of contact other plane spell:
If you lose Intelligence and Charisma, the effect strikes as soon as the first question is asked, and no answer is received.
So probably not. Unless the GM rules otherwise.
One question remains however; does the user pick the plane being contacted or is it static? If the answers are coming from the mysterious "peacock spirit" wouldn't that imply that the planar source is always the same?
I wondered about the same. Current power and whereabouts of Peacock Spirit is unknown making it harder to determine how effective and dangerous the quill would be. On the other hand, as Peacock Spriit was a mysterious deity it could be possible that the caster selects the degree how deeply he wants to communicate with it - more accurate answers being more dangerous to the user's mind.
So probably not. Unless the GM rules otherwise.
Ah. Quite right. My mistake.
On the other hand, as Peacock Spriit was a mysterious deity it could be possible that the caster selects the degree how deeply he wants to communicate with it - more accurate answers being more dangerous to the user's mind.
Hm. An interesting notion.
Thanks for bouncing ideas around with me. I'm curious if anyone else has any insight to offer.