Barrier
From The Heretic Knowledge Vault
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Barrier | |
| First use: | 2003/06/16 |
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Where used | |
| 2003/06/16, 2007/08/03, 2007/08/22 | |
| Notes: | |
This article describes the spell used by individuals for magical protection. For the effect used by the elves to secure their home city of Praenubilus Astu, see Elven Barrier.
A spell. It may be the same thing as a magical Shield, although the caster seems to use different words when invoking the two, and there seem to be subtle differences in effect.
Description
Barrier may -- or may not -- differ from a Shield spell in certain regards, but the idea is the same: erect a magical defense against attack via directed magical energy. Barrier, unlike Shield, seems to be an area-effect spell; the first time we saw it cast, the result was to turn a Flame Volley (an area-effect offensive spell) away not only from the nun who cast it, but also away from the NPC Guards accompanying her -- and unfortunately, back toward the books in the Heretic Knowledge Vault, which reacted to a blast of flame just the way any other collection of ancient, flammable paper would. This is another difference between Barrier and Shield: the Shield spell seems to simply absorb the magical energy without it bouncing.
Where Used
Used by a nun of the Veracian Church to stop (or at least deflect) Ian's Flame Volley here. Later, as church headquarters is being bombarded by Ian in his Anilis-possessed state, another Barrier is cast (possibly by the same nun) to protect Jeramel and other high mucky-mucks of the church. On this occasion the effect of the spell is shown more clearly: a shimmering hemisphere of magical force surrounds those being protected. It lasts a short while, then dissipates as the churchfolk head for a hidey-hole. The nun tries to set it up again, but this time it turns out even more disastrously (and maybe fatally for the caster) than before.
