# Enchantment

Enchantment is the name given to thaumic radiation, which may be given off either by a specific object, or by the background in a room.

## Enchanted items

### Effects of enchantment on items

Enchanted items have the following effects, which vary in proportion to the degree to which they are enchanted:

• Enchanted armour has the following effects associated with it:
• It provides additional damage reduction.[1]
• It is more durable.
• Enchanted weapons have the following effects associated with them:
• They deliver more damage on striking
• They are harder to use
• They are more durable.

### Enchantment capacity

Each item has an enchantment capacity proportional to its weight. The enchantment capacity is the amount of thaumic energy that can be channeled into the item and can be calculated with the equation

Total Capacity = floor(2.25 * weight in lb + 5) thaums

As general guidelines:

• Items with a lesser enchantment capacity are quicker to enchant than items with a greater capacity.
• Items with a lesser enchantment capacity are harder to enchant to a given fraction of their total capacity than items with a greater capacity.

### Enchanting an item

Almost any item can be enchanted, via one of three means:

Each casting of the above will raise the enchantment level of the item by a fixed amount, until a limit is reached based on: research

• The type of spell cast - Master Glimer's Amazing Glowing Thing allows an item to be enchanted to its maximum enchantment capacity, whereas the other two spells are capped at a lesser fraction of the total enchantment capacity, affected by the following:
• The item's weight - the lighter the item, the lower the limit is.
• The caster's magic.spells.misc bonus - the higher the better.

It should be noted that some magical items such as magic staves are 'pre-enchanted' when bought from shops.

### Item enchantment levels

The degree of enchantment on an item may be seen when a wizard or witch looks at it, and is displayed as follows, based on the degree of enchantment as a fraction of the item's total enchantment capacity:

• 1-10%: 'It occasionally pulses with octarine light'
• 11-20%: 'It emits a slight octarine glow'
• 21-30%: 'It softly pulses in dull octarine shades'
• 31-40%: 'It gives off a steady but dull octarine glow'
• 41-50%: 'It gives off a steady octarine glow'
• 51-60%: 'It glows an intense octarine'
• 61-70%: 'It emits a bright octarine colour'
• 71-80%: 'It brightly pulses octarine'
• 81-90%: 'It glows brilliant octarine shades'
• 91-100%: 'It radiates pure octarine brilliance'

### Enchantment decay

All items have a 'natural enchantment level', which is typically around 50% of the item's maximum enchantment capacity. If enchanted beyond this level, then the enchantment level of the item will gradually decay over a period of time (usually weeks to months) until it returns to this level. research

## Background enchantment

Background enchantment is the amount of magical energy present in a room, measured in thaums.

### Effects of background enchantment

Background enchantment has the following effects:

• It increases the power of magical spells - for example, the item enchantment spells listed above impart more thaums into their target items in a higher background enchantment level.
• Higher levels of background enchantment attract Thyngs from the Dungeon Dimensions. The Thyngs are very eager to get close to magic users; so eager in fact that they may cause damage, break or tear off limbs of anyone casting magic in such rooms.
• Thaum crystals are charged from the background enchantment of a room.
• Players in rooms of high background enchantment are more likely to be the target of a misportal.

### Natural background enchantment

All rooms on the disc have a natural background enchantment level. Usually this is very low, however, rooms in the vicinity of large magic sources gain a higher natural level due to thaumic fallout.

Examples of rooms with a high natural background enchantment level include:

• Rooms near the hub, which gain a lot of thaumic fallout as a result of the disc's magical field passing over the hub.
• Rooms near to the Unseen University (for example Unreal Estate) suffer from the fallout from the wizards' experiments.
• Rooms near to the Illusionary Institute of Learning likewise suffer fallout from the nearby wizards' experiments.

### Increasing enchantment levels

Background enchantment levels can be increased via the following means:

• By casting any spell (either wizard or witch) in that room; casting spells will generate thaums equal to 1/5 the size of the spell (in units of mind space).
• By recharging a magical artifact; this will generate thaums equal to 1/5 of the Guild Points used (even if no charges are added to the artifact).
• By smashing a thaum crystal, which causes it to release all its pent up enchantment into the room.

### Enchantment proof rooms

There are a few rooms on the disc that have been specially proofed against enchantment - the thaumic radiation from spells cast in these rooms immediately leaks away, and does not build up. These rooms include:

### Magic circles

Magic circles drawn by witches have the following special properties with respect to background enchantment:

• All magic circles have zero background enchantment in them when drawn, irrespective of the background enchantment level of the room containing them.
• All spells cast inside a magic circle affect and are affected by the background enchantment level of the circle, not the room containing it.
• When a magic circle is dispelled or fades, it does not transfer enchantment accumulated within it into the room containing it - this enchantment just fades away with the circle.

### Background enchantment levels

The following are the background enchantment levels - in order of lowest to highest background enchantment - which may be seen by a wizard or witch: research

Range Description Notes
50 - 149 There is the residual taste of magic in this place.
150 - 249 This place has seen some use of magic.
250 - 500 A considerable amount of magic has been used here.
500 - 749 A very large quantity of magic has been manipulated here.
750 - 999 You can feel the Dungeon Dimensions trying to push in. At this point red warning messages are displayed on any attempts to cast, and it is possible to take minor damage on casting.
1000 - 1499 Little sparks flash in from the Dungeon Dimensions. At this point it is more likely that damage will be taken from spellcasting. Broken legs and lost limbs are also very possible.
1500 - 1999 Apparitions of things with lots of tentacles seem to be on the edge of your vision. From this point beyond it is highly likely that legs will be broken or limbs lost from spellcasting.
2000 - ???? So much magic has been expended here that the area is in danger of dumping itself into the Dungeon Dimensions.

### Background enchantment decay

Background enchantment levels in a room will decay to the room's natural background enchantment level, at a rate roughly proportional research to the difference between the current and natural background enchantment levels. This is a considerably faster process than item enchantment decay - left alone, rooms will typically return to their natural levels within approximately an hour.

## Measuring enchantment

Both object and background enchantment can be measured in absolute terms using thaumometers and divining bobs.