Sorcerer's Sand

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True Sorcerer's Sand is an extremely rare material with very potent magical properities. It can be used as a focus in spell-casting; a magical amplifier; or a spell-storer. It is vital in creating permanent ritual sites, and has uses in many areas. The making of Sorcerer's Sand, as well as many other wondrous things, was lost at the end of the Mage Wars.

Description

True Sorcerer's Sand is so rare, few historians ever had a chance to glimpse it, and what accounts survived from the Mage Wars were considered wild and unbelievable. Needing a first-hand look, historian Herbet Patric Galactis applied for, and was given, special permission by the Gudersnipe Foundation to view and even handle samples of known-sand captured during the Mage Wars. He had this to say:

"It is like grains of glass, but feels as fine, warm sand to the touch. It is not gritty, and rolls right off your fingers without delay. Each granule reflects light as though it were a tiny, faceted stone. Each piece is there to stay, there is no grit or dust to coat your hands after. The material is alive, almost conscious. Though I know it to be merely sand, I believe it is more confident in it's own purpose than half the men I know."

Galactis was not a mage, but was able to detect the power within the material. Based on his descriptions, it was then found that 99.45% of Sorcerer's Sand on display in museums was cheap and often unimaginative copies.

Contents

The exact making of sorcerer's sand is unknown; even the Gudersnipe Foundation, who attempted to scientifically-analyze the material, can offer no suggestions. According to surviving sources, it is made from many things, and certain conditions must be met in order to produce it.

The Boi-Sen Document, a fragmentary parchment dating to the late First Chaotic Period, lists the recipe as such:

The chief ingredient is powdered White Ivory, but not simple ground; the powder must come from the stones of a Mage Tower, and that tower must have been blown apart by another tower (thus disgracing the Mages within, who were dead). The fragments of stone then had to be ground in a mortar made from the bones of a wizard who died casting the spell (in order to make the degradation complete).

Then, the bodies of the wizards who died in the destroyed tower must be left until they have rotted away to bones bleached white by an uncaring sun, and the char from those bones mixed with the dust of the tower.

Finally, the whole thing must be washed with purified water, and struck with Magefire until the mage has nearly given his life away. And that will produce Sorcerer's Sand.

Though the authenticity of the document is genuine, the exact steps of the process are somewhat questionable. Unfortunately, it cannot be tested, as the recipe calls for, at minimum, 2.5 wizards to die, and for enough White Ivory to build a tower (difficult when sufficient quantities to construct a park bench cannot be located). Further, the technique of 'Magefire' has been lost, and the document fails to mention exactly what "purified water" means.

Still, the Boi-Sen is the only historical source, and its instructions can be hypothesized possibly accurate. The Foundation, which possesses both the document and the only analyzed samples of sand, has suggested that the process may not be too far from truth. While nearly every test they've run has been inconclusive, the Foundation does report that it contains "traces of calcium carbonate and organic materials".

Known Quantities

The Gudersnipe Foundation possess an unknown amount captured during the Mage Wars (the exact range of their efforts during the First Chaotic Period are unknown, but it is well-documented that they looted Magical Materials from cities and states they captured). When Galactis was allowed to view some belonging to the Foundation, he was only given access to a small container, but he says he "believed there to be much more in the store rooms".

Eieber captured 780 chests of Sorcerer's Sand during his campaign (though how much of it is "true" has been called into question). This sand was used in the construction of a massive spell-form that lines the floor of Stormreaver Valley. This sand was placed in a series of long, sealed chambers in order to make up the spell-form. There is no access to the chambers, and their exact locations are a closely-guarded secret (known only to the Craftsmen, if at all).