# Difference between revisions of "Klein bottle"

Klein bottles are multidimensionally twisted containers in which matter cannot enter. You can use them to capture escaped spells. Once filled with enough escaped spells they provide either +1 or +2 intelligence when held.

## Usage

Klein bottles are involuntarily made by George as shown below upon ordering a bottle. This creates a mystical link between the one who ordered and the Klein bottle.

When made, a Klein bottle is a magical talisman which needs to be bonded by a witch to the user so it can be held. You need to be the one who ordered the Klein bottle or you still won't be able to hold it.

You can then catch energies with the bonded (closed) Klein bottle and a blue funnel.

Once filled with enough energies they become stat items while held.

• It gives +1 of intelligence when the quantity of energy in the bottle is at least 90 and up to 235 mind space.
• It gives +2 of intelligence when the quantity of energy in the bottle is at least 240 mind space and above.

It is possible to hold 2 charged Klein bottles at once, but this reduces your stats as per combining stat items rules when you try to use any 2 stat items or more at once.

## How to get one

At the glassblower George on Cunning Artificers in Ankh-Morpork a bit west of Short Street.

The bottles cost \$2.50 and the colour chosen seems to be irrelevant to the final product.

You need to raise the background thaums to at least 50 before requesting a bottle, it may be beneficial to go slightly over this threshold as it will drain 50 thaums from the room when you begin the order. You are aiming for the background thaums to be "There is the residual taste of magic in this place". This can be done by casting spells such as OTF and CIPS or smashing a thaum crystal in his room.

If you are a witch or wizard George should give it to you. This creates a mental link between the one who ordered and the Klein bottle that prevents others from holding it.

If you are not a magic user then George will hide the Klein bottle and give you what you ordered.

The Klein bottle weighs 4/9 lb.

George hands you the transparent Klein bottle.

The beauty of the Klein bottle is captivating, and as you focus on the intricately twisted glass, a mental link is formed between you and it.  For just an brief instant you experience a tantalising glimpse into extra dimensions before the connection is suddenly broken by a thaumic backwash.

This is a mind-bendingly paradoxical Klein bottle which has the revolutionary property of not being able to hold anything at all on account of having no volume.  A student discovered the ingeniously intricate shape at the back of a lecture theatre, as he was trying to make a paper giraffe out of thaumic funnel paper.  This one, however, has been skilfully blown from glass.
It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.
It is in excellent condition.
It is open.


The thaumic backwash that occurs at the conclusion of the order seems to drain all your GP.

Once you have purchased a klein bottle from George, it needs to be bonded by a witch to the user so it can be held. You need to be the one who ordered the Klein bottle or you still won't be able to hold it.

## Spell capture

To catch escaped spells, you need to hold a (closed) klein bottle and you must hold a blue funnel, which is not a weapon. When you have found a spell orb you "capture energy in Klein bottle with blue funnel". If you succeed in a magic.spells.special skillcheck then the energy will be stored inside the bottle. Failures of the skillcheck may result in the orb attacking you.

The Library in the Unseen University has one of the highest concentrations of escaped spells. There is a higher likelihood of finding spell orbs the further into the library you go. However the frequency and difficulty of distortions also increases.

Spell orbs come in a variety of sizes, the table below lists them as well as the mind space range they occupy.

Mind space Form
5 a tiny speck of energy
10 - 15 a small point of energy
20 - 25 a moderately-sized ball of energy
30 - 35 a large orb of energy
40 - 60 a substantial sphere of energy

The exact size of the spell can be measured with the use of a thaumometer.

By looking at the klein bottle you can see how filled up with energy it is.

Not quite inside, but within the glass itself, you can see a tempest of pure red energy.


The classification is as follows:

Capacity used Description Intelligence modifier
5 - 25 barely noticeable wisp of <colour> energy
30 - 55 a tiny swirl of <colour> energy
60 - 85 ripple of <colour> energy
90 - 115 small waves of <colour> energy +1
120 - 145 eddying currents of <colour> energy +1
150 - 175 a turbulence of <colour> energy +1
180 - 205 a whirlpool of <colour> energy +1
210 - 235 a maelstrom of <colour> energy +1
240 - 265 a tempest of <colour> energy +2
270 - 295 a vortex of <colour> energy +2
300 - ? an impossible chaos of <colour> energy +2
? - 310 + The Klein bottle explodes!

The unit used for capacity is mind space units, 5 times the thaums released when the spell is cast.

The gp usage of capturing a spell energy is four times the spell size of the escaped spell, so you can keep track of the capacity via points as well.

You gain in experience up to 15 times the gp you spend on capturing.

It has been hinted a long time ago that Klein bottles filled with energy forms might be used as energy source or component in future spells, but that was when the first implementation of the Klein bottles came in game. It is unclear if this is still planned.

## Explosion

Trying to add energy that would put the Klein bottle over its capacity causes it to explode, dealing around 340 hp of damage, or possibly 15% of your total or remaining hit points.research

The maximum safe capacity seems to be around 300 of mind space.

A maximum of 3 energy forms are released at the time of the explosion that seem to be a third of what the bottle contained.

Wispy tendrils extend from the substantial sphere of energy, attracted through the blue funnel and into one of your Klein bottles.  As the last of the tendrils are captured, the substantial sphere of energy vanishes with a "Pop!".
You stand up.
Unable to withstand the pressure of so much energy, the Klein bottle explodes!
An arc of pure red energy surges through your body as the bottle's contents are released.
Hp: 1919 (2258) Gp: 222 (422) Xp: 2586645
While most are lost, some of the released energies shift and combine to form echoes of their original spells.
Three substantial spheres of energy swirl up from the broken shards of glass.


## Decay

The energies inside a klein bottle will decay over time, thus necessitating periodic recharging. A klein bottle will reduce from impossible chaos to maelstrom in approximately fourteen days.

## Opened bottle

Attempting to capture an escaped spell with an open Klein bottle will cause the spell to immediately be released into the room again. The spell will not attack you and can be recaptured once the bottle is closed.

If you open a Klein bottle containing escaped spells up to three of the spells will escape into the room peacefully. If there are more than three spells in the Klein bottle, three will be chosen at random to be released and the others will be lost. The resulting message varies depending on how many spells were contained within the bottle. Once released the spells may be recaptured.

While most are lost, some of the released energies shift and combine to form echoes of their original spells.
A moderately-sized ball of energy and two substantial spheres of energy are released from the confines of your Klein bottle.
You open the Klein bottle.


## Combat

Klein bottles can break in combat for two reasons. First, that your combat options are set incorrectly. To avoid breaking a klein bottle from combat actions you must set your attack setting in the tactics options to only use the hand that is not holding the klein bottle. For example, if you have the klein bottle in your right hand, you should set your tactics to only attack with your left hand with "tactics attack left"

It is possible to parry with a klein bottle as well, however this may result in the bottle breaking as a result of its condition reaching zero. To avoid this, as with the attack options, you should set your parry setting to only use the hand that is not holding the klein bottle. For example, if you have the klein bottle in your right hand, you should set your tactics to only parry with your left hand with "tactics parry left"

The second way a klein can break in combat is if you are hit in the hand that is holding the klein bottle, with an attack that is powerful enough. The threshold for this appears to be quite high, NPC's that are confirmed to be strong enough to do so are the Grflx queen and the Ephebian Citadel Guards. However with appropriate arcane shielding, the likelihood of this occurring is vastly minimised.

Klein bottles can be thrown at targets. If a bottle is charged with energy and it successfully hits a target, the energies inside will be released and arc towards the target, doing a small amount of damage. This damage ignores TPA shielding, although is weak enough to be highly impractical.

A bottle charged with over 200 mind space worth of spells was only just sufficient to cause an AM trader npc to go from full health to slightly hurt.

## Accessories

These accessories for klein bottles are available from the Creel Springs wizards' guild, the House of Magic, and from the wizard's stall in Ephebe. [1]

### Klein bottle cosy

Sells for &&&&&&&&&&&+1998 LC 1|1|10 1/2 in the House of Magic and &&&&&&&&&&&+2200 S11|44de in Ephebe.

This is a fluffy cosy knitted out of wool with a mind-bending shape that makes your eyes hurt a little when you look at it closely.  It looks like it was made to fit over a Klein bottle, presumably to keep it warm.
The Klein bottle cosy is about six inches long and about four inches wide.  It is made of wool.


Syntax:

fit <klein bottle> into <cosy>
fit <cosy> over <klein bottle>
You open the Klein bottle cosy up and carefully fit one of the Klein bottles into it.  You can peel the cosy from one of the Klein bottles if you decide you don't want it any more.

peel cosy from <klein bottle>
You peel a cosy off one of the Klein bottles.


Once fitted: The item is integrated into the Klein bottle and it adds a line "It is smothered fluffily in a Klein bottle cosy."

• It can be peeled off to get the cosy back.
• It weighs exactly 80 g or 1.6/9 lb.

Effect:

• The only effect of a Klein bottle cosy is cosmetic - it suppresses the "Your Klein bottle rattles vigorously from side to side" and "<colour> sparks flicker within your Klein bottle." item-chats of holding a Klein bottle
• This does not prevent the bottle from exploding due to capturing too many spells.
• This does not prevent the Klein bottle from breaking during combat.
• This does not affect the thaum-decay rate of the Klein bottle.

### Mobius strap

Sells for &&&&&&&&&&&+1998 LC 1|1|10 1/2 in the House of Magic and &&&&&&&&&&&+2200 S11|44de in Ephebe.

This is a mind-bending, paradoxical strip of leather that's been twisted once before being riveted back to itself.  Well, all right - it's not actually all that paradoxical.  It doesn't look like it would work as a scabbard for anything conventional, though.
The mobius strap is about three inches long and roughly a couple of inches wide.  It is made of leather and looks like you could wear it.  It is in excellent condition.


This is a scabbard for Klein bottles that conflicts with sword belts and knife belts.

• You can sheathe and then draw a Klein bottle from this scabbard.
• You do not get a stat bonus from sheathed bottles.
• It weighs exactly 1/9 lb.

## Colours

Mixing different spell types results in Klein Bottles of mixed colours, and has not visibly affected the rest of their appearance or their stat boosts so far.research

Aside from Pure Red, Green, and Blue, spell mixes have produced Deep Pink, Light Pink, Vibrant Pink, Magenta, Light Violet, Lime Green, Turquoise, Royal Blue, Neon Blue, Medium Blue, Amethyst, Indigo, Crimson, Coral, Steel Blue, Pale Green, Cream, Gold, Powder Blue, and Aquamarine. Due to marginal successes on Capture Skillchecks, the exact spell size ratios of some of these colors is unknown, but known ratios of spell colours for bottle colours are listed in the table below.

Red Green Blue Colour
4 0 3 Deep Pink
4 3 3 Light Pink
4 11 8 Turquoise
4 11 3 Lime Green
1 2 Deep Violet
1 3 Indigo