Symrustar's Spellbinding (Abjuration, Evocation)
Level: 9
Range: 10 yds.
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 9
Area of Effect: The caster
Saving Throw: None
This spectacular spell deconstructs wizard spells targeted at the caster or area-effect spells of which the caster is included, cancelling their effects and using their own magic to inscribe the particulars of the spell into the book or scrolls marked as the recording medium. In essence, this spell cancels incoming spells and writes them down for the caster to learn later.
When cast, specially prepared scrolls or a spellbook must be touched by the caster. Any spell that comes within 10 yards of the caster (whether targeted there or cast as a missile, etc.) is immediately cancelled, and its magic transformed. Instead of the expected visual effect, the magic becomes a small glowing quill that rushes to the book or scrolls and breaks down the magic of the spell into spell instructions (just as they are in the caster's spellbooks). Under the spell's duration, no magic can harm the book or scrolls upon which the magic plays, though they can be physically affected during this time. If the book is destroyed or damaged physically, the spell ends.
Symrustar's spellbinding can absorb and transcribe the details on quite a number of spells, though it affects only the first contacted spell each round. The magic also can only affect and deconstruct up to the caster's level in spell levels. The magic otherwise lasts for 1 round + 1 round/3 levels of the caster, before it stops grabbing spells out of the air to record for posterity. The writing itself is still magical and only lasts for 1 hour/level. If the caster wishes to save the spells, she must cast permanency and then dispel magic on each spell individually to make them into true spellbook pages for later use and study. If not, the "spellbound" spells fade away and are lost.
The Symrustar's spellbinding spell was developed by Symrustar after she became a Chosen of Mystra in the Year of the Soaring Stars (261 DR). Acting as an advocate for the sharing of magical knowledge, this spell granted Symrustar both a unique defense while allowing her to snatch powerful magical knowledge from her foes and spread its secrets among all the races. After three centuries of using this spell, Symrustar managed to record over 100 spells that were once close-kept secrets of one house or another. These spells were always shared with Elminster Aumar, the Shrinshee, the Coronal, and various faculties of wizards' schools in Myth Drannor. This spell alone made her the political enemy of some many nobles, though they did not stop its use, as they were just as eager to gain information on rival House's magic as humans were to learn the simplest of elven spells.
Notes: Known by the elven Chosen of Mystra, Symrustar Auglamyr of the ARCANE AGE of the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting; now only known by the Chosen of Mystra.
