Disenchanters were dromedary-like creatures that fed on the dweomer of magic items.[1][2][3][4]
Description[]
Disenchanters looked roughly like spindly, pale electric blue dromedaries. Their small heads possessed a flexible, elephant-like trunk which could reach out 5 ft (1.5 m). The creatures were somewhat translucent, and would occasionally shimmer.[2][3][4][note 1]
Abilities[]
The disenchanter's namesake ability allowed them to leech the dweomer of any magic item touched by its snout, rendering the tapped object fully intact but magically inert. This ability could also be used to absorb tangible spell effects.[2][3][4]
In order to support their diet, disenchanters could detect magic around them in a 120 ft (37 m) radius.[2][3]
Behavior[]
Typically docile creatures, disenchanters tended to become aggressive only towards those carrying magical items. Despite the fact that they were more difficult to drain, the creatures had a preference for objects with stronger enchantments, although they avoided extremely potent items, such as artifacts.[2][3][4]
Disenchanters could speak, but typically only in their own language. A scant few were known to speak Common or Elven.[2][3]
Combat[]
Disenchanters could only be struck by magical weapons, which did not lose their capabilities from coming into contact with any part of the body besides the snout.[2][3][4]
Ecology[]
A disenchanter with blue hide.
An obscure beast, the disenchanter's curious metabolism was poorly understood, and its lairing conditions were a mystery.[4] Similarly, the reproductive cycle of the creature was unknown, though the lack of evidence of young specimens led many sages to believe the creatures were born through fission when a disenchanter fed on enough magic. Upon death, a disenchanter's body shriveled up into a small withered gray lump.[2][3]
Disenchanters had no known predators, which led some sages to conclude that their population was tied to the availability of magical energy in their environment.[2][3]
Habitats[]
Disenchanters usually lived in the lands east of Anauroch, with most of the creatures taking up residence around the Sea of Fallen Stars.[2][3]
Uses[]
A disenchanter's cranial fluids were used in the concoction of a disorienting and corrosive poison known as calad.[5]
12 oz (340 g) of disenchanter hair was typically used in the creation of a bottle of oil of disenchantment.[6]
A technique to improve one's chances with a great elixir was to drink any other beneficial elixir immediately followed up by an entire goblet of disenchanter blood. Doing so got rid of the positive effects of the "lesser" elixir, but in return almost eliminated the danger of death from drinking the great elixir.[7]
The essence of a disenchanter was reportedly effective when used in ink for writing scrolls. It was also possibly used in creating rods of cancellation.[2][3]
By the Year of the Gauntlet, 1369 DR, disenchanter brains were among the items considered to be a possible universal material component.[8]
History[]
Some sages speculated that disenchanters were originally created by the phaerimm as a weapon against Netheril or the sharn.[2][3]
Every 150 years or so, disenchanters converged upon the historic site of Sarbreen, which since the 13th century housed the city of Ravens Bluff. The last of these Plagues of Disenchanters before the settlement of the Living City, around the Year of the Toppled Tree, 1220 DR, was witnessed by the evoker Tym, whose writings about the creatures in A Miscellany of Magical Monsters led to more widespread knowledge about disenchanters.[2]
Sometime in the 1360s DR, the Emerald Enclave member Selsian Earthenhands started off his ill-fated project to construct a garden near the Elven Court in Cormanthor, commissioned by his organization to welcome migrating Evermeetian elves in return for favors from Queen Amlaruil Moonflower, by releasing a pack of disenchanters to clear out undesired ambient magic from the site.[9]
The first Plague of Disenchanters experienced by Ravens Bluff circa the Year of the Tankard, 1370 DR, drew mixed reactions. The Chauntean House of Bountiful Harvest saw the creatures as a blessing from their goddess, and decreed no harm should come to them. Conversely, the Wizards Guild put up a bounty of 100 gp per disenchanter tail, which caused a rapid decrease in the creatures' numbers in the area. The Guild retracted this bounty not too long after they deemed the danger was quelled.[10][11]
Notable Disenchanters[]
In the mid-14th century DR, the Tsurlagoli slaver Temmi Dharimm employed a number of trained monsters, including a pair of disenchanters.[12][13]
Appendix[]
See Also[]
Notes[]
- ↑ In the 3rd edition Fiend Folio, while retaining many of their traits from prior writeups, disenchanters are presented differently in key ways that can't be reconciled with their Forgotten Realms-specific description in Pages from the Mages, which is in line with that of the 1st edition Fiend Folio. This article therefore ignores the physical description from this source per the Canon Hierarchy, despite the fact that it is more recent.
Appearances[]
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
Slippery When Wet • Scrutiny on the Bounty • Salvation • Dog Days of Summer • What You Don't Know
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Eric Cagle, Jesse Decker, James Jacobs, Erik Mona, Matthew Sernett, Chris Thomasson, and James Wyatt (April 2003). Fiend Folio. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 62–63. ISBN 0-7869-2780-1.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 Ed Greenwood, Tim Beach (November 1995). Pages from the Mages. Edited by Jon Pickens. (TSR, Inc.), p. 118. ISBN 0-7869-0183-7.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 Jon Pickens ed. (November 1996). Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 24. ISBN 0786904496.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Don Turnbull (1981). Fiend Folio. (TSR Hobbies), p. 27. ISBN 0-9356-9621-0.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (October 2012). Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0786960345.
- ↑ Tom Armstrong (February 1988). “Better Living Through Alchemy”. In Roger E. Moore ed. Dragon #130 (TSR, Inc.), p. 40.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd (1996). Volo's Guide to All Things Magical. (TSR, Inc), p. 86. ISBN 0-7869-0446-1.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd (1996). Volo's Guide to All Things Magical. (TSR, Inc), p. 34. ISBN 0-7869-0446-1.
- ↑ Jeff Quick (2001-11-14). “Emerald Enclave Portals: Cormanthor”. Perilous Gateways. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2016-07-16. Retrieved on 2014-12-13.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (October 1998). The City of Ravens Bluff. Edited by John D. Rateliff. (TSR, Inc.), p. 26. ISBN 0-7869-1195-6.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (October 1998). The City of Ravens Bluff. Edited by John D. Rateliff. (TSR, Inc.), p. 28. ISBN 0-7869-1195-6.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb (August 1987). “DM's Sourcebook of the Realms”. In Karen S. Martin ed. Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (TSR, Inc.), p. 32. ISBN 0-88038-472-7.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), Running the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 43. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.