Thought Capture (Divination)

Sphere: Thought

Range: 0

Components: V, S

Duration: Instantaneous

Casting Time: 3

Area of Effect: 10 yards

Saving Throw: None

One of the more bizarre contentions held by priests of the School of Thought is generally scoffed at by outsiders. The theory states that once a thought has occurred in someone's brain, it exists as a "freestanding mental object." This "thought object" usually remains inside the brain of the creature that created it, but sometimes it escapes (this supposedly explains why people forget things). When this happens, the thought object stays in the geographical area where it was lost. Any receptive brain (usually the brain of the creature that initially created the thought) can pick it up again simply by bumping into the invisible, free-floating thought. According to the theory, this is the reason that people can regain a lost thought by going back to the location where the thought was lost. This supposedly works because the free-floating thought is recaptured, not because the locale reminds them of the thought. Unfortunately for philosophers who disagree with this, thought capture seems to be extremely strong evidence for this theory.

This spell makes the priest's brain something of a magnet that attracts thought objects in close proximity. The priest can sense strong thoughts and emotions and can sometimes even see momentary visions of creatures who died or suffered some powerful emotion in the immediate vicinity. Thought objects are always attracted to the priest in the order of the strongest (those attached to powerful emotions or significant events) to the weakest. Thus, if several thought objects share the same vicinity, the priest will perceive information about the most interesting or significant event. The priest might pick up images of a battle from the point of view of a warrior who died there, or he might gain information about the victor of the battle.

The DM dictates the information provided to the priest, and thus can use this spell to provide players with important background information or can add texture to a campaign world. The information provided might be highly cryptic or symbolic, perhaps in the form of a rhyme or riddle.

The priest gains one thought object per casting of the spell. The spell may be cast a number of times in the same locale, with the priest gaining a different thought object with each casting. A locale contains a finite number of thoughts, however, and once the priest has gained all of them (per the DM), the spell will fail in that locale.

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