Otto's Arcane Manipulations of the Entourage

Jokingly described by Otto Taratarat as “Ah, the book I wrote on how to make friends and influence people.” The joke, like most of Otto’s jokes, is doing more work than it appears to.

Otto wrote this book in 577 as payment to the Society of Magi, without ever saying why. It is also actually called Otto’s Hexad, and was a one-off until the Society duplicated and sold it with the name it is known by today. Why the Society chose to rename it is unclear. Why Otto permitted it is equally so, though one suspects that a man who pays debts he will not explain is unlikely to quarrel over a title.

It is carefully curated extracts from his notebooks, diaries, and spell-books from around 559 to 561 covering Greyhawk City, his residency under the ruins, his apprenticeship with the wizard Tenser, and his rise to Magus-de-Camp to the warrior Robilar.

Points of note include Otto’s using an unknown befriending charm, mostly to gather everyone he needed to explore and reside at the castle ruins. He did not name those enamoured, but his charm offensive — and it was an offensive, conducted with the same deliberation a general brings to a campaign — was successful. Some of his new friends knew of secret ways into the ruins and had connections with some of the different power groups found there. He still spent considerable amounts of time rewarding those who helped him set up his residency under the castle. Otto has always understood that charm alone, even magical charm, does not hold people. Payment does.

The castle ruins at this time were being explored by hundreds if not thousands of treasure hunters, mostly unprepared to deal with what they found there. Death was the reward for their efforts. Otto wrote that it was possible more wealth and magic was heading into the castle than getting out. There were, however, three adventurers who had become famous, and very powerful, from their successful explorations at the castle. They were, of course, Robilar, Terik, and Tenser.

Otto writes that he avoided those three, using an unknown compulsion charm on top of the befriending charm to survive the many dangers below the castle. He hoped to have been prepared for anything, but fate had other plans. Otto describes in detail his confrontation with Tenser, having to submit to the more powerful wizard to survive. It is one of the more honest passages in the literature of Greyhawk’s wizards — a man of considerable ability describing, without self-pity, the moment he recognised that submission was the only alternative to death.

Quickly apprenticed, Otto realised that he got a lot more out of the deal than Tenser did, a situation that Tenser was aware of and less than pleased with.

Otto quickly gained in magical power, catching the attention of Robilar, who could see that Otto could outdo Tenser in the future. Robilar asked Otto to be his Magus-de-Camp, offering to supply magic and other resources that Robilar could not use, in exchange for the power, protections, knowledge and resources Otto could provide on expeditions. As Magus-de-Camp, Otto would take over and merge their people networks to ensure unrivalled advantages in information gathering and the resources needed to plunder the lower levels. How could Otto not agree? And Robilar quickly convinced Tenser to free Otto. That the word is “free” and not “release” tells you something about what the apprenticeship had become.

Otto then goes on to describe all the magics he used to enhance Robilar and his allies during explorations and adventures. His craftsmanship and organisational ability helped Robilar build a small fortress to the northeast of the ruins that partially controlled access to the castle, whilst Terik took control of the main ruins and Tenser built a tower to the west. The three thus divided the territory between them, and Otto, who controlled none of it in his own name, understood the whole of it better than any of them.

The diary covers the use of charms — not just as spells, but everything affected by having charms cast upon them, or as used in the manufacture of items holding the unseen power of the charm. This is the essential contribution. That Otto treats this subject as a unified field of study rather than a collection of individual spell effects is what elevates the work above a mere notebook.

There are parts referencing charms of a much earlier work by the sorcerer Ka’ar Assari of Zeif. Ka’ar is thought to have helped found that nation about one thousand years ago. He is attributed with writing twenty-seven scrolls which collectively are called “The Assarian Charms,” these being based off even older works likely lost in the fall of the Suel Imperium.

Most of the Assarian Charms were also then lost or destroyed, though copies still existed for twelve, referred to as the Dodekad, and they were also written up into a book of the same name by the wizard Efhard.

Whilst exploring with Robilar, Otto discovered eleven previously thought lost scrolls, as well as eight more matching the known copies, all of which appeared to be the original scrolls by Ka’ar. It is believed Otto’s study and research of the nineteen scrolls in his possession allowed him to produce his most famous spells. Otto’s discussion of the charms in the essay is not just wonderfully written but should really be considered an essential part of wizardly learning. Charms are the essential magic that add different properties to objects or creatures which, as a result, often change what the object or person does. This essay by Otto should be considered as invaluable in the conducting of spell research, and can be applied to nearly all schools of magic. It is not often that a work of practical scholarship also happens to be a pleasure to read. This is one of those rare occasions.

The Society of Magi also made copies of eight of the rediscovered scrolls, supplied to the Society by Otto, making the known collection total twenty-three of the original twenty-seven, all of which they have as recommended reading for any aspiring wizard. The Library at Grey College also has several copies for similar reasons.

It is believed that the enigmatic book collector Erabry N’qu-el bought or acquired the original handwritten book by Otto from the Society of Magi, and it is rumoured that Erabry now has all nineteen of the original scrolls that make up “The Assarian Charms.” It is unknown who besides Otto and Erabry has ever seen the three unpublished scrolls. Otto has said he will not discuss them. Erabry, as is his way, has said nothing at all.