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Originally posted by Ayrik

Haven't read it. But the context suggests that the character Variance is a bard or something, simply casting detect magic in the form of a spellsong. Much the same as any "normal" spellcasting, except the verbal or somatic components are set to music.

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Originally posted by Barastir

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Originally posted by Ayrik

Haven't read it. But the context suggests that the character Variance is a bard or something, simply casting detect magic in the form of a spellsong. Much the same as any "normal" spellcasting, except the verbal or somatic components are set to music.

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So, maybe "tellsong" is a typo for "spellsong"?

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Originally posted by Ayrik

I doubt "tellsong" is a typo of "spellsong", which is just an appropriate-seeming term I invented/abused on the spot ...

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Hi again, all.
Jeremy, Ed and I chatted about BED when I first read it (some time back, now), and here's he sent me about tellsongs:

A tellsong is an alarm spell, triggered under specific conditions (like those governing a magic mouth), that is invisible, and its "alarm" is a chiming tune, audible only to the caster (unless the caster desires otherwise and sets it so during casting), that sounds whenever the caster comes within range.
It either chimes one way, to signal its continued presence and active status, or another way, to tell the caster whatever it was set to detect has happened.
If touched by detection magic or by any powerful unleashed magical effect, the tellsong is instantly and tracelessly destroyed (i.e. the person detecting magic wouldn't detect it, because their attempt to detect it would destroy it).
Meaning, in this particular case, the Lord Warder knows that someone or something destroyed this tellsong of his, without "setting it off." Which in turn usually means a spellcaster of some skills, who was alert for traps or alarms, has been in a tellsong-guarded area.
The name of the spell came from its earliest form, devised long ago, when Myth Drannan casters (usually elves, but this was the [[first]]time of the City of Song open to all races) sang something or magically "recorded" someone else singing something, and used it as the audible alarm part of the spell.

So saith Ed. And there you have it. Ed works all sorts of new magics, and everyday casual names for spells already in the rulebooks, into all of his Realms fiction, and some of it survives the editing ... and gets noticed.
love,
THO

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Originally posted by Markustay

Going with the 'small thread' theory, I think - by the context of what El said - is that it meant to one thing, but something else happened there... which seems to also be part of hat it can do.

So this is what I pictured when I read that: it a tiny 'thread' of magic strung across an aperture, that retains a connection to the caster, so that the caster knows when something has passed the opening. It is also very fragile, so in the presence of strong magic, it simply disintegrates (without notifying the caster). Its like 'alarm', but much simpler - probably an ancient, 'lost' (Elven, Netherse, etc) cantrip that Elminster knows about.

Thus, Elminster expected the tellsong to be there, but it wasn't, which lead him to surmise "strong Magic was cast nearby". This ties into the way magic works in Ed's realms - that it is everywhere, but when you cast it, it draws from 'The Weave', which is the same as saying it is drawn from the surrounding area. Thus, something as small and fragile as a 'tellsong' gets 'sucked into' the magical draw of a strong spell being cast (the spell utilizing all magic in the area for its casting).

Just my best guess, is all.

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