Capturing spells

Eighteen years ago (my! how time flies!!) I was writing you about the appearance of Klein Bottles in the Disc. At the time, they weren't much good for anything, but they were a fancy toy. For catching spells with them you needed, besides some magical skills, a butterfly net and a funnel. Free spells were also very hard to come by. You basically had to fail a remembering from a scroll to get the spell to break free. Two years ago, though, things changed substantially: the Unseen University started to be populated by spheres of energy of varying sizes, and a Klein bottle full of them could now act as a substantial boost to your intelligence -and therefore, your spell-casting abilities. So I added a brief addendum to the original post:

UPDATE (16/08/2024): Since I last wrote this, Klein bottles have actually become a very useful tool in the wizard's kit, as they can now 'capture' spells, and while holding the bottle, they give a boost to the wizards intelligence.

But I notice that I didn't actually explain or show what capturing a spell looks like. First of all, the increase will be by one or two intelligence points, depending on how many spells you keep in the bottle. Second, you now no longer need a net: just the funnel and the bottle. Also, you have to be careful to keep the bottle closed, or the energies will dissipate and come out. Thirdly, you have to be careful how much you fill it up, as if you go over the top limit, the bottle will explode. You have all the information available and in detail at the Discworld wiki, so here I'll just proceed to show you how it actually looks like:

This is somewhere in the Library of Unseen University.  You are in a corner formed by shelves to your left and in front of you.  A strange muttering sound surrounds you, a low murmur like the sound of starlings playing Agatean whispers.  However hard you try, you cannot localise the source - it seems to be coming from everywhere, like the strange violet light that almost illuminates the Library.

Your skin tingles with the discharge of magic and the air feels greasy and tastes of tin.

There are two obvious exits: right and backward.

A tiny speck of energy is tracing a blue pattern in the air.

Tiny speck is 5 thaums capture size.

l speck

A writhing mass of pure energy; it darts around in sudden fast moving jumps.  You cannot make out any substance from the hazy blur - it moves around far too much to be certain of anything.  Except that it looks unhappy.

It is in good shape.

It is tracing a blue pattern in the air.

The tiny speck of energy sparkles slightly.

sheathe sword

You sheathe the sea serpent fang in the silver-studded sword belt.

get funnel from pack

The tiny speck of energy leaves a trail of colour as it moves.

You get a blue funnel from a pocket in an ornate bone backpack.

hold funnel

You hold a blue funnel in your left hand.

capture energy in bottle with funnel

You see a book suddenly try and make a break for freedom: it strains at its chains, but can't get loose, and falls back looking limp.

You confidently position the blue funnel between the Klein bottle and the tiny speck of energy.  From your deep understanding of magic, you recognise it as energy released from the spell "Brother Happalon's Elementary Enchanting".  You aim the blue funnel squarely at the energy and begin capturing it.

Wispy tendrils extend from the tiny speck of energy, attracted through the blue funnel and into your Klein bottle.  As the last of the tendrils are captured, the tiny speck of energy vanishes with a "Pop!".

Your Klein bottle trembles and flickers orange briefly.

l bottle

This is a mind-bendingly paradoxical Klein bottle which has the revolutionary property of not being able to hold anything at all on account of having no volume.  A student discovered the ingeniously intricate shape at the back of a lecture theatre, as he was trying to make a paper giraffe out of thaumic funnel paper.  This one, however, has been skilfully blown from glass.

It is smothered fluffily in a Klein bottle cosy.

Not quite inside, but within the glass itself, you can see a vortex of orange energy.

270 - 295 : +2 Int, capture TINY ONLY!

It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.

It is in excellent condition.

It is closed.

A couple of things deserve mentioning. I am using Quow's pluggins, which are the ones that give me the information of what size-spells I should be catching, if any. Also, the bottles can be quite spammy, so if you want to keep them quiet, there's a cosy you can buy for them at the Ephebe and at the Creel Springs wizard shop, some of them colored, and whose description looks like this:

This is a fluffy cosy knitted out of wool with a mind-bending shape that makes your eyes hurt a little when you look at it closely. It looks like it was made to fit over a Klein bottle, presumably to keep it warm.

The Klein bottle cosy is about six inches long and about four inches wide. It is made of wool.

Something that has also been made available in the same places is a special type of scabbard for klein bottles: the Mobius strap!

This is a mind-bending, paradoxical strip of leather that's been twisted once before being riveted back to itself. Well, all right - it's not actually all that paradoxical. It doesn't look like it would work as a scabbard for anything conventional, though. The mobius strap is about three inches long and roughly a couple of inches wide. It is made of leather and looks like you could wear it. It is in excellent condition.