Scepter of Entrapment

    XP Value: 3,000
    GP Value: 45,000

These very old, rare foot-long brass scepters were made in long-ago Netheril but the secrets of their creation are unknown today. Such scepters have only 3d6 charges when found or created. Each charge fires a translucent bubble of force at any single target within 90' of the wielder and within the caster's line of sight when the scepter is activated. The caster's normal THAC0 is used for the force attack, with no magical or dexterity adjustments. If the bubble misses, it explodes in a harmless glow and puff of smoke (which lasts only 1 round).

If it strikes a creature, the bubble does no damage, but expands to entrap the target creature in a translucent bubble of force. Air and moisture can pass through this bubble (thus, bubbles directed under water can be used to drown non-waterbreathing occupants), but all attacks against the bubble (from within or without) will fail unless they are the same magics able to bring down a wall of force (disintegrate spells, a sphere of annihilation, or a rod of cancellation). This bubble can trap any creatures, including undead, constructs, and creatures of otherplanar existence, though it only entraps one target at a time.

A scepter of entrapment can only be linked to one bubble at a time; firing a new one will automatically destroy an existing one.

A scepter can move a bubble that it has created, when the scepter is grasped and willed to do so. To exercise this control, the bubble must be within 200' of the scepter. The bubble normally moves by levitation and flight with a MV rate of 15, at the scepter- \wielder's direction. The bubble can also be willed to roll at a MV of 9, though this might be very upsetting for the entrapped creature! The bubble remains immobile whenever no concentration is spared for it. Bubbles can be also be moved about by strong winds, nets and other artificial means, water currents, and so on. Noises (including speech) made by the en-trapped creature can be heard outside the bubble; the entrapped creature can cast spells, although these cannot take effect outside the bubble unless they are able to destroy the bubble in the process.

Bubbles created by this scepter last for 6d20 hours, or until the scepter-wielder wills them to collapse. A collapsing bubble does not itself injure the imprisoned creature; the trapped being can come to no harm except through drowning (as previously described) or starvation while in the bubble. However, if a bubble is de-stroyed in situations perilous to the en-trapped creature, such as high above a cliff or within the stomach of a purple worm, the damage normally done by the surroundings applies.

Text from Campaign Guide to Undermmountain by Ed Greenwood. © 1991 TSR Inc. Fnord.