Mizzium Apparatus

Stub-class article · First seen: s17 · Last seen: s18
Mizzium Apparatus
Mike's apparatus
Mizzium Apparatus, Magic item (spell-casting device) portrait
Item
StatusIn-Aurelian-Custody
First seens17
Last seens18
TypeMagic item (spell-casting device)
HolderThe Aurelian patrol (taken from Mike's body, s18 L2287)
OriginMade by Mike, by his own account (s18 L269)

The Mizzium Apparatus is the device that Mike, the Vedalken caster Brian played in sessions 17 and 18, built his casting on. By its rule he could cast any spell on his list by passing an Arcana check, and a failed check cast a different random spell of the same level [14][30][31]. His casting on the skiff and the Aurelian coast included Detect Thoughts on Hugo and the Phantasmal Force lava cube that trapped the Brinemaw Wyrm [52][54]. A Message cast through it in front of an Aurelian patrol was ruled arcane spellcasting, the knight Glenn killed Mike for it, and the patrol took the apparatus from his body [17][19][68].

Overview

The Mizzium Apparatus is the device Mike built his casting on. Mike was a Vedalken cleric, druid and wizard, played by Brian in sessions 17 and 18 [13]. The apparatus let him cast “any spell that’s on your spell list” provided he passed an Arcana check [14]. Mike called it his own invention [15]. In Aurelian lands, where a patrol had just told the party to report “arcane heretics” [16], a cantrip cast through it was ruled arcane spellcasting, and the patrol’s knight, Glenn, killed Mike for it [17][18][19].

Description

Brian brought the idea to the table, having meant to play “something very similar” in an earlier campaign that did not get going [14]. Terry, who knew it, said “I’m so excited someone’s playing it.” [20], and later called it “the ultimate multi-class build” [21].

For a session its look was undecided: Mike said “I don’t know” [22] and floated an amulet or a bracelet [23]. Then he settled it as “an amulet or something that fused itself into my chest”, with “magic veins kind of running through it” [24]. Steven put it as “he’s just magical Iron Man he’s got the arc reactor in his chest” [25].

Mike’s account of its making: “This is mine. I invented it. I am its master.” [15]. He had left his people, who held that a caster must choose one kind of magic, to pursue it, believing “through technology, all things are possible” [26][27]. He named Arcanthys as home [28].

Mechanics (as played)

  • Casting. Mike could cast “any spell that’s on your spell list” if he passed an Arcana check [14]. He said only a handful of paladin and warlock spells, and the ranger spells, were out of reach [29].
  • Backfire. A failed check still cast a spell: “they still cast a random spell”, just not “the one that you want” [30][31]. For a failed first-level cast, the replacement comes from a d6 list [32]. Mike noted that the new spell might not suit the range or target [33], and the DM’s first thought was that a single-target result would hit whoever stood nearest the original aim [34].
  • Reliability. Mike said “it’s impossible for me to fail at a level one” [35]. No backfire is recorded in play. Mike assumed that everything he cast went through the apparatus [36]; the DM’s ruling addressed only spells off his own list.
  • Scrolls and rituals. Mike told Terry that first-level scrolls were of little use to him [37]. He cast Detect Magic and Unseen Servant as rituals through it [38][39], and Shield as a reaction [40][41].
  • Aurelian detection. A cantrip “not on your cantrip list” had to go through the apparatus, and the DM told Mike he needed to “set up your spell list” to cast it as a cleric spell ([17][42]; DM ruling 14). Terry’s reading, which Mike accepted, was that anything cast through the apparatus is a magic-item cast and so counts as arcane [43][44].

Open questions

  • Where the apparatus is, and what the Aurelians mean to do with it. Logged at Open Threads.
  • Whether it would work for anyone but Mike. Nobody else has tried it in play.

History in the campaign

Session 17: New Hands, the Black Mask’s Renegotiation, and the Rimeclaw

Main article: Session 17

Mike arrived with the apparatus and used it throughout. He began Unseen Servant to row the skiff but stopped when Nessa’s alarm showed he must not cast in view, then passed Mending and Light off as a cleric’s work while he mended her sail [38][45][46][47]. After she left, the servants took over the rowing [48]. He cast Detect Magic as a ritual on Captain Stone, which was not magical, and on Hugo’s Biogloom vials and blood, then Detect Thoughts on Hugo on an Arcana total of 29 [39][49][50][51][52][53]. At the reef line he wrapped the Brinemaw Wyrm in a Phantasmal Force cube of illusory lava, and the Wyrm failed both its save and a later check to see through it [54][55][56].

Session 18: The Wyrm Falls, the Catfish Escapes, and Mike Dies on the Road

Main article: Session 18

The Wyrm thrashed at the lava box it still saw, and Mike’s Command drew it back to it [57][58]. He mended the hull “through your apparatus”, as the DM put it, and settled its look [59][24]. On the coast he cast Bless, Create Bonfire, Unseen Servant, Find Familiar and, with his last spell slot, Goodberry [60][61][62][63][64]. Talking to an Aurelian patrol, he cast Message with a copper wire [65][66]. The DM ruled that the cantrip went through the apparatus, and the confessor raised a finger [17][67]. Glenn killed Mike, and the patrol took “the very obvious magical artifact” from his body [18][19][68].

Status

As of session 23. In Aurelian hands since Mike’s death on the road inland from the coast [68]. No later session says where it is or what has been done with it.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 17, line 37-50: Brian's introduction of Mike and the apparatus, its casting rule and the backfire.
  2. ^ Session 17, line 512-514: First-level scrolls are of little use to Mike; "right now it's impossible for me to fail at a level one".
  3. ^ Session 17, line 842-850: Unseen Servant rows the skiff until Nessa's alarm makes Mike stop.
  4. ^ Session 17, line 910-938: Mending and Light for Nessa's sail; Detect Magic as a ritual on Captain Stone.
  5. ^ Session 17, line 1325-1350: Detect Thoughts cast through the apparatus on an Arcana total of 29; the DM finds the backfire table.
  6. ^ Session 17, line 1468-1483: Detect Magic as a ritual on Hugo's Biogloom vials and his blood.
  7. ^ Session 17, line 1691-1711: The Phantasmal Force lava cube around the Brinemaw Wyrm, which the DM sizes as Large.
  8. ^ Session 18, line 126-137: The Wyrm thrashes at the box it still believes is around it; Command to bring it back.
  9. ^ Session 18, line 262-283: Mending on the skiff's hull; "I invented it"; why Mike left his people.
  10. ^ Session 18, line 338-341: Mike settles the look, an amulet fused into his chest (the Iron Man arc reactor).
  11. ^ Session 18, line 2020-2058: The Message cantrip is ruled a cast through the apparatus, and the confessor raises a finger.
  12. ^ Session 18, line 2272-2287: Glenn beheads Mike and the patrol removes the apparatus from the body.
  13. ^ Session 17, line 37: Inline citation.
  14. ^ Session 17, line 45: Inline citation.
  15. ^ Session 18, line 269: Inline citation.
  16. ^ Session 18, line 2012: Inline citation.
  17. ^ Session 18, line 2039: Inline citation.
  18. ^ Session 18, line 2094: Inline citation.
  19. ^ Session 18, line 2274: Inline citation.
  20. ^ Session 17, line 44: Inline citation.
  21. ^ Session 17, line 1349: Inline citation.
  22. ^ Session 18, line 200: Inline citation.
  23. ^ Session 18, line 209: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 18, line 338: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 18, line 341: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 18, line 281: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 18, line 283: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 18, line 1747: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 17, line 1350: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 17, line 48: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 17, line 50: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 17, line 1344-1348: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 17, line 54: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 17, line 55: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 17, line 514: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 18, line 265: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 17, line 512: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 17, line 842: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 17, line 932: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 17, line 1609: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 17, line 1815: Inline citation.
  42. ^ Session 18, line 2047: Inline citation.
  43. ^ Session 18, line 2049: Inline citation.
  44. ^ Session 18, line 2050: Inline citation.
  45. ^ Session 17, line 850: Inline citation.
  46. ^ Session 17, line 912: Inline citation.
  47. ^ Session 17, line 918: Inline citation.
  48. ^ Session 17, line 1151: Inline citation.
  49. ^ Session 17, line 938: Inline citation.
  50. ^ Session 17, line 1469: Inline citation.
  51. ^ Session 17, line 1483: Inline citation.
  52. ^ Session 17, line 1325: Inline citation.
  53. ^ Session 17, line 1339: Inline citation.
  54. ^ Session 17, line 1697: Inline citation.
  55. ^ Session 17, line 1707: Inline citation.
  56. ^ Session 17, line 1876-1880: Inline citation.
  57. ^ Session 18, line 126: Inline citation.
  58. ^ Session 18, line 135: Inline citation.
  59. ^ Session 18, line 262: Inline citation.
  60. ^ Session 18, line 696: Inline citation.
  61. ^ Session 18, line 1177: Inline citation.
  62. ^ Session 18, line 1194: Inline citation.
  63. ^ Session 18, line 1683: Inline citation.
  64. ^ Session 18, line 1813: Inline citation.
  65. ^ Session 18, line 2020: Inline citation.
  66. ^ Session 18, line 2022: Inline citation.
  67. ^ Session 18, line 2044: Inline citation.
  68. ^ Session 18, line 2287: Inline citation.
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