Magical Items - Zodiac Charms

We still haven't had the chance to talk about the spell Thousand Dancing Celestial Fates. Suffice it for now to know that the result of this spell is a magical artifact: the Zodiac Charm.

What's its use? I remember the comic confusion and vagueness ('an object of terrible power', 'a charm of incredible power') that described the properties of the charm both in the Help File and at Spellcheck Project. Only much later, when I made myself with one, did I start to discover things about it.

The first property of the charm is its beauty. Its description points it as a rich and seducing piece of jewellery:

> look charm

This is a magical charm. An artifact of mystical property, indeed! Octiron has been transmogrified into a strange, silverish-purple coloured, opaque glass or crystalline form, and shaped into a series of octagonal plates, linked together to form a bracelet. On the main plate, two beady eyes gaze curiously back at you with a greenish glow. The charm seems to shimmer iridescently as it reflects the ambient light. It's amazing how intricate the details are on this charm. It almost brims with the flames of sentient life. Circling the plates that form the charm's latch is a fine, spidery writing, which shimmies and shivers with subtle sparks. Perhaps this strange artifact has a use, or maybe it doesn't. Who knows? Who cares? It's shiny!

Sparks of octarine fly across the surface.

It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.

It appears to have something written on it.

It is in excellent condition.

The charm may be worn, and is in a perpetual state of mutation, as the animal it represents is constantly changing, but always among the 12 creatures that figure out in the Auriental Horoscope: snake, rooster, dragon, ox, horse, pig, rabbit, tiger, monkey, sheep, dog and rat. At the same time, the charm is quite a spammy piece of jewellery, which gives messages from time to time. Some of the ones I've collected are:

Violet ribbons of vapour rise from the eyes of your dragon/pig charm.
Red ribbons of vapour rise from the eyes of your dog charm.
Orange ribbons of vapour rise from the eyes of your horse/sheep charm.
Yellow ribbons of vapour rise from the eyes of your rat charm.
Orange/Green wisps of smoke pour from the mouth of your rooster charm.
Blue wisps of smoke pour from the mouth of your dragon/rat charm.
Indigo wisps of smoke pour from the mouth of your tiger/snake charm.
Yellow wisps of smoke pour from the mouth of your rabbit charm.
A tiny *roar* comes from your ox/rabbit charm.
A series of sparks dance across your sheep charm.
Smoke starts pouring from the mouth of your dragon charm and the smell of molten octiron wafts through the room.
Lightning crackles across the eyes of your tiger/horse charm.
Your rat/rabbit charm inhales its surroundings.
Your dog/rat charm exhales a bit of thaumic smoke.
Your horse charm glimmers from within.
Your rooster charm growls for all it's worth.
Your horse/ox charm emits a bright flash of colour.
Your monkey charm momentarily shines in all the colours of a rainbow.
Your sheep/monkey charm looks around with curiosity.
Your tiger charm taps you on the chest and smiles at you.
A small bolt of lightning shoots from your horse charm and chars a bit of ground

But its main use (at least, its 'magickal' use, which cannot reduce itself to 'being shiny') is as a stopper of fights and combats which you don't want to continue. To do so, one must 'gaze' at or into the charm. Automatically, the gazer will be transported into a fantasy land, and all the brawls in which he was in become suspended. The effect is quite similar to the one provocked by the spell Mugwuddle's Muddling Mirage, only that it works the other way round, trapping you in the place:

>gaze into charm

This is a fabulous land. A herd of green, nubile lemurs is flopping about on a purple swamp, while an indigo rock flops nearby.
It is a very weird nibblebing's aftermoon.
There are as many obvious exits as you could wish.
You are suddenly transported to a magical land.
You gaze into the eyes of your charm and the world suddenly grows hazy and turns upside down.

After a small amount of time, you will return to the 'real' world once again. The message changes into:

With a *POP*, reality reasserts itself.
You stand up.

You have to keep in mind that you can't 'make' the charm for yourself (like Gaelen says: 'You will, of course, have to cast this on someone else since you already know how charming you are), so you need somebody else to cast Thousand Dancing Celestial Fates for you if you're interested in the artifact. Afterwards, when you read it, you will find in it the name of the caster and he/she for whom it was cast:

>You read the pig charm:
Crafted by Tiak for Winswand.

One last thing: remember the charm is a very fragile thing, and shouldn't be worn while you're fighting; otherwise, it will deteriorate and break very soon.