Once, my adventuring party was directed to a safe haven from a dangerous pursuing enemy; a key landmark for finding the hidden cave was a small nearby pond, rare in the dry environs. Suspecting betrayal from the one who told us of the cave, we simply relocated the pond about a mile away and filled the cavity. The party's cleric was able to handle the movement of earth, but the pond's migration was handled by a few applications of Dust of Dryness.
Contact with the pond transformed each pouch of Dust into a small, marble-like orb. After completely absorbing the lake, we simply collected the few orbs and brought them to the site prepared by the cleric. Simply tossing the orbs hard into the pit caused them to release the held water, allowing us to very simply move the pond and foil potential pursuers. We were justified in our preparations; deciding to ambush our foes, we took advantage of the confusion from the misplaced water. Even with that trap, we barely defeated our vicious antagonists. Perhaps you wonder why we should have been carrying so much Dust of Dryness when its use is so limited in scope. I would ask a similar question, were I faced with such an oddity. In answer, we had recently excavated an ancient temple devoted to a sea god, and guessed we might be facing water elementals during our quest. For the Dust has an additional use: when thrown at a such a manifestation of the deep, the Dust will sometimes outright destroy the elemental. Even failing this, it will always result in some damage to the being. We faced fewer than expected and had some Dust leftover, thus leaving some for our later convenience. While it would have been possible to relocate or destroy the pond by other magical means, the spells not cast were later used by the cleric to save us from certain death. Such an inexpensive magic item proved a valuable asset, indeed! -The Wizard
"Never underestimate the smallest factors, as they often reveal themselves to be the fulcrum of great change." |
