Curious Objects: Helm of Teleportation

I mentioned in my earlier post about communication that the Helm of Teleportation is a bit, well, odd. I thought I would talk a little about that today.

As non-combat oriented items go, it's pretty powerful. It emulates a fifth level spell up to once per round! Albeit with a few caveats.

First off, it's a piece of armor that only magic-users or elves can use. That's not such a big deal. Elves can wear armor, and I usually picture items like this as more decorative than protective. Secondly, the helm is a one-time item when you first find it. To quote the description:

"This item may only be used once by a magic-user or elf. It will have no further effect until a teleport spell is cast on it"

So think about that for a moment. You find this bad boy and it will let you teleport ONE time. Then you need to cast the fifth level spell on it to reset it. After that, you can pop around all you want, UNLESS:

"The user may try to teleport another creature or item; an unwilling victim may avoid the effect by making a saving throw vs. Spells. If used to teleport an unwilling creature the helmet will only work once, and the helm must thereafter be recharged with another teleport spell before again becoming useful."

So if, for instance, your party is fighting some big, bad nasty and you decide the best course of action is to teleport it far away, fine. But then your helmet is out of gas until a new teleport spell is cast on it. Note that its magic is only dissipated if the target is unwilling. If you use it to teleport someone that wants to go, there's no problem.

The whole idea that to make this thing useful requires access to a 9th level arcane caster who already has the spell amuses me. I suppose a scroll would do as well. Remember too that Teleport is a spell fraught with its own risks: There is a not-insignificant chance of instant death when being teleported.

oops!

All this makes me think about how I mentioned using this spell or item as a communication tool in the previous post. I think it might be even rarer given the chance of failure. Keep in mind that the spell as written only teleports the caster or another creature. Not an object. You can't just send the letter, someone has to carry it.

Getting the Word Out: Communication in a BX World.

For a radical change of pace, I was looking at the Moldvay/Cook rules and noticed something that I found interesting: I've always assumed that a society with access to relatively reliable magic would be able to use it to communicate over long distances. e.g. relaying messages across hundreds of miles in moments instead of days, telepathic communication, etc. This came up as I was noodling with an idea for an adventure: A nobleman dies in the capital, and the PCs must get word to his heir out at the distant estate. Why, I thought, would the PCs need to be sent? Can't the people involved just magically notify the heir?

...or send a raven?

Turns out, not so much.

The fastest way to magically send a message, BtB, is the teleport spell. That's right. You need to zap someone from point A to point B via a 5th level MU spell. That means a name level wizard (or elf), a pricey scroll, or a Helm of Teleportation (a seriously odd item in its own right)  is involved. Things like a Crystal Ball allow for observing, but not sending to, distant locations. If one went full palantir, there could be a network of such items where the operators could check in at preplanned times and literally read the writing on the wall left for them to see, but multiple crystal balls quickly becomes an expensive proposition.

Every method in the BX rules that lets a PC communicate over long distances actually requires that the distance itself be traversed (even if instantaneously). Of course this led me to think of flying carpets and winged mounts like griffons or pterippi (look it up).

What if a country's ruler kept a small "fleet" of winged messengers for the most critical of missives? Sure it's way faster than a man on a horse, but it's not instant. The message can still be intercepted. Mounts must rest, and carpets carrying more than one person aren't terribly fast, so the rider probably needs to stop to sleep, so people wanting to literally kill the messenger would probably get at least one opportunity. The fact is, most long distance communication would be written on sealed letters and delivered by horse or ship and take some time. This would also have the effect of driving up the value of things like griffon eggs or similar. Likewise successful research into a long-distance sending spell.

I don't know why, exactly. But that makes me smile.