Alter Aeon The Great Library

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Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  13776
Title: a book entitled "Magus Novum V: Scrying"

Mages manipulate tiny distortions in the fabric of space. Beyond evoking
energy and matter from other planes and conjuring elementals, a mage can
learn to focus on nearby places, objects and creatures and gather
information about them. Exceptionally powerful mages can summon creatures
from across continental distances, or teleport themselves to distant
locals.

Scrying magic is poorly understood, and thus its methodology tends to be
downright sloppy. Even the castings of the best scryers yield very uneven
results. Scrying for a specific landmark often results in remotely viewing
a random location. Locating an object generally just gives the caster a
vague sense of where dozens or hundreds of loosely related objects can be
found. Finding an item is much more successful if the caster already has a
similar object in hand. Remotely viewing creatures is the strongest  of the
scrying spells, but sometimes the target entity senses the scrying and
blocks the spell.

Related to scrying magic are a handful of transportation spells. The summon
spell should not be confused with the summoning of elementals or demons,
though they have much in common. Those spells conjure creatures from
distant planes. The summon spell pulls creatures across a distance of miles
to the proximity of the caster. It is very difficult to summon a creature
against its will. The spell is mostly used to pull allies out of dangerous
situations, such a traps or prison spells.

Teleportation is the opposite of the summon spell. Instead of bringing a
creature to the mage, the mage flings himself across the face of the world.
The spell found more use in days gone by, when specially enchanted stone
obelisks made up a network across the land. When the teleport spell was
cast upon one of these "transfer stones", the caster was transported
directly to a sister stone, which could be hundreds of miles away.

Some scholars believe that the teleport spell is a relic --while
maintenance on the transfer stone network ceased and the stones went dead,
the spell that activated them has been handed down from mage to mage into
modern times. Without the stones to guide them, the teleportation spell
lands the caster in a random location. This may be in a peaceful meadow,
the lair of a hostile dragon, in the middle of the Southern Ocean or
entombed inside of a mountain.

The transfer stone network has largely been replaced by cleric waypoints.
In addition, a few cities maintain galleries of magic mirrors or paintings
that serve as portals.

Beacon stones are similar to transfer stones, except they allowed
transportation between planes. Some scholars believe that they both date
from the era of the Giant Pyramid Builder Civilizations. Each beacon stone
leads to a specific plane and requires a specially crafted key to activate.
A few beacon stones survive into modern times, though almost all of the
keys have been lost to history.

Many important locations are warded against teleportation and summoning.
These wards also protect against intrusions by shadow magic. Only very
foolish or impoverished rulers leave their personal keeps unwarded. A
single invisible mage could infiltrate such a stronghold and summon an
army, one member at a time.