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Censers

Usable by all classes. A censer is a small covered metal vessel in which incense is burned. Unless otherwise specified, incense, leaves, or some similar smoky, aromatic substance must be burned in the censer to activate the item's powers. After the incense or other material is set alight in the censer and the lid closed, the user must by default wait an additional two rounds before the censer may be activated. Thereafter, the incense will remain lit for an hour before needing to be replenished. Unless otherwise specified, additional incense may be added to the censer as necessary to keep it activated. A PrinceCon character with a magical censer is assumed to have enough incense to keep his censer filled.

Censer of Controlling Air Elementals

Level 4 M. If the user of this censer conjures an air elemental, he can maintain control of it without having to concentrate. Once under control, the elemental will remain in the service of the mage until released. If the user orders the elemental to do something strongly against its nature or obviously self-destructive, it gets a mental saving throw against the control. If it succeeds, it instead turns upon the user of the item and attacks him. Once per week, the mage can also use the censer to conjure an air elemental, as per the mage spell Conjure Elemental.

Censer of Controlling Winds

Level 3 M. When activated, this item allows the user to cast the mage morphic spell Skylore, in the wind sphere. Up to 5 spell levels are available per day from the censer, to be divided up as the user pleases. The mage cannot add his own spell points to the censer in order to add modifiers to the spell.

Censer of Entrancement

Level 3. When this item is activated, anyone within 15' who has functioning olfactory apparatus (including the user) must make an inverted save vs. physical or fall into a trance. An inverted save is just that; the character's chance to succeed now becomes his chance to fail, and vice versa. Anyone caught in the trance gets a chance to break out every 10 melee rounds, or whenever he takes damage, by the same inverted saving throw. Those in a trance sit or stand motionless, paying no attention to anything around them, until they save. The censer can be lit only once per day. (A character's deliberately dropping his saving throws for the round does not change his inverted saving throw.)

Censer of Flight Disruption

Level 3. When activated, this item gives the user the ability to bring down a flying or levitating being. The user must point the censer toward the targeted being. The user must concentrate on the target, and the target must remain in line of sight, or the effect ceases immediately. If the target attempts to remain in the air (i.e., spends his action using his movement), he can slow his fall to 30' per round, slow enough that he takes no damage upon landing. (If he does not do so, he simply descends as if falling.) Note that this item does not dispel a magical spell or item; it simply suppresses any power that such a spell or item (or wings) provides.

Network Censer

Level 3. This censer must be prepared before it can be activated. To prepare it, the user must burn a sheet of paper or parchment with a list of up to five words in the censer. Each word must be at least two letters in length. Once this is done, the censer remains attuned to those words for exactly one week; no changes can be made to the list during that time. After this preparation, the user can activate the censer by burning incense in it as usual. Whenever it is activated, the censer affects anyone who comes within 15' of it, including the user, no saving throw. The user of the censer (only), while affected, transmits the effect by physical contact. Anyone who shakes the user's hand, or otherwise comes into deliberate contact with him, must save vs. mental or be affected by the censer. For the remainder of the week (the attunement period of the censer), any time an affected person utters a word on the list, nobody is able to hear him, and an impenetrable black spot appears over his mouth for the duration of the word. This effect includes all homophones of the proscribed words. The word is actually spoken, just not heard by intelligent beings, so the censer does not prevent the activation of magical items or the casting of prayers or spells, including Power Words.

Censer of Suffocating Death

Level 4 M. This item resembles a Censer of Controlling Air Elementals, but upon invoking its power the mage permanently loses control of the elemental, which will proceed to attack him until one or the other is dead.

Censer of Trapping Self

Level 3. This item functions as a Censer of Trapping the Unbodied. Each time it successfully traps an unbodied being, however, the user is transformed into gaseous form and entrapped in the censer as well, no saving throw. Either the being trapped inside the censer or the user can attack the other if it can normally attack while gaseous. (Treat the user as AC 12 if he is not normally "unbodied".) If either victim dies, the censer releases the survivor; otherwise, both remain trapped until the incense in the censer is used up or the lid is removed, at which time both are freed.

Censer of Trapping the Unbodied

Level 2. This item is larger than a typical magical censer, able to hold enough incense to last for 12 hours. When activated, it can be used to entrap one noncorporeal being. The user must point the censer toward the targeted being within 12". The target must save vs. physical or be sucked into the censer. The being is trapped within the censer as long as it remains closed and activated; i.e., the user cannot refill the censer or put it away, and when the incense is used up, the being will be set free. Any noncorporeal creature that saves against the censer understands the nature and source of the attack against it. Only one noncorporeal being may be entrapped at a time. Noncorporeal creatures include air elementals, djinn, creatures in gaseous form, and undead without physical form, such as shadows, wraiths, and spectres.

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Last Modified on September 25,1995.

ammulder@princeton.edu