Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors
The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors
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Personages
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Guild Master
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| Bowgentra Summertaen, Lady Master of the Order |
Primary Contact
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| Jonnus Torgorn, Speaker for the Order, Tower of the Order |
Other Guild Members
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| Membership: 513 Xorone of the Libram, Arcane Watchlord for the Watch |
Membership
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Livery
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| Dark purple cloaks, with a white human hand, fingers together and uppermost, on the left shoulder. |
Dues
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| Entry Dues: 35 gp and majority vote of the members • Annual Dues: 7 gp/month |
Goods & Services
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| • Scrolls: prices vary • Spells Cast: prices vary • Minor Magic Items: prices vary • Fire Guard: 5 gp per night • Spell Guard: 10 gp per day • Magic Item Brokerage: prices vary |
Member Shops
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| None |
Faction Details
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| Common Descriptors: Cunning, responsible, ambitious Primary Classes: Any Alignments: Any |
Faction Ranks
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| • Apprentice: Renown 1+. You are apprenticed to a master within the Guild. • Journeyman: Renown 3+. You have completed your Journeyman's Work, and may now work within your guild's specialty, albeit under the direction of a master. |
Where once this guild was a haven for less-powerful wizards seeking to influence more powerful peers to be judicious and cautious in the wielding of their power, the Watchful Order is now the central established authority for wizardly power in Waterdeep, full stop. All wizards and sorcerers are required to establish membership with the guild if they intend to call Waterdeep home, and only guild members are exempt from rules against the use of magic outside of private residences. In return, however, the Watchful Order has a responsibility to protect Waterdeep from magical dangers and threats, aiding by various degrees the Lords, the Guilds, the Watch, and the Guard however they are called upon to do so.
- The membership gains great benefits through the Order: Members can readily communicate with fellow members to arrange training and buy magical information with assurances that they are not dealing with charlatans (the Order will expel and publicly vilify members who practice deceit on fellow members).
- Members can readily purchase rare material components (such components are not cheap, but the time necessary to procure them personally is saved) from the golem-guarded cellars of the Tower of the Order. Member and nonmember adventurers can make fairly good money by selling materials to the Order, but they won't buy overpriced or overstocked substances.
- Once the Watchful Order became well established in the City of Splendors, they began selling minor magical items and scrolls (of a single spell each) to their members. A member of the Order may, of course, resell a scroll or item purchased from the Order to a nonmember (usually for a 75% markup). This resale is rarely done, since the Order will stop selling items to a member who does it too often. The Order makes these items and scrolls available to its members.
- Members short of cash can earn ready money by serving as fire guards, spell guards, or firefighters (see "Guard Duty" below).
Services Offered
The Watchful Order offers a variety of useful services to the general public.
Magical Education
Over the years, the Watchful Order has taken over several wizardly academies, taking up the curriculum and administration of these vital sources of arcane knowledge when their original founders could not continue to do so. Most of these have no more than twenty or so students at any given time, and they all provide a graduation upon their achievement of the First Circle of magic spellcasting ability. While other academies may offer higher learning, the benefits of the Watchful Order's academies is simple: upon graduation, the Order guarantees acceptance as an apprentice in the Order, including the finding of a master to continue the young wizard's education.
- The Tower Academy: The academic and intellectual elite of the Watchful Order's academies are taught at the Tower of the Order itself, and graduates may expect to have their guild fees for joining waived, with the best masters waiting to take them into apprenticeships. The Lady Master of the Order is among those who devote themselves to the teaching in this academy.
- The Eltorchul Academy: Named for one of the old Waterdhavian Houses known for their magical education, the Eltorchul Academy was the first academy the Watchful Order ever took over from someone else. Based out of the North Ward, Eltorchul students tend to be nobles without connections to get them proper training. Noble scions with the intellect and inclination toward arcane mastery study here under noble members of the Watchful Order who can best teach them about the realities of being a spell-wielding noble in Waterdeep.
- Aurora's Academy: Funded by Aurora's Emporium trading coster, Aurora's Academy teaches working class young magicians, with a focus on the employment opportunities available to those with magic at their command. There are no fees for learning here, as students are expected to work through their apprentice and journeyman years for the Emporium, tending to the low-magic requirements of the business. This academy meets in the Emporium's central Castle Ward offices.
- The Waymoot Academy: Run almost entirely by charitable donations (half of which is provided by the Watchful Order itself), the Waymoot Academy in the South Ward takes in youths from disadvantaged backgrounds before street crime and manual labor can destroy any potential they have for the Art, training them in its use. In operation for almost twenty years now, there are a number of adventuring magicians who got their start at spellcasting here, and still contribute coin to it to this day. Per its name, the Waymoot Academy is located in the Waymoot neighborhood of the South Ward. While the academy is in a large building with plenty of room, cruel young mages in the other academies sometimes call them "stablemages," as the building was once a large stable business.
Guard Duty
- A fire guard is hired for a building (often only when it con- tains valuables, although DMs should note that many nobles consider themselves valuable, night and day, as long as their money holds out) for 5 gold pieces/night. The guild keeps 1 gold piece of the fee, and gives the guarding member 4 gold pieces. Such duty consists of loading up with affect normal fires, cone of cold, conjure water elemental, and similar spells and standing watch, with a guardian pigeon. If the pigeon is released, it will fly back to the Tower, and firefighting mages will come quickly, sometimes by aerial steed (the Lady Master has a Pegasus, who will carry one other with her, so long as Mhair is mounted too).
- Firefighting mages, of whom the Order retains four to six a night, are paid 9 gold pieces each by the Order directly. If summoned by a fire guard, they cost the building owner nothing. If they arrive to fight an unguarded building, the city will pay the Order a fee of 10 gold pieces per building if the owner cannot be found, is deceased, or is unwilling to pay. Otherwise, owners are charged 10 gold pieces per fire-fighting mage.
- A spell guard costs 10 gold pieces per day (of which the Order gets 1 gold piece, and the guard 9 gold pieces), and the duty is simply accompanying a merchant, noble, or other paranoid individual through a day of living, partying, or working, to detect and counter spells cast at him or her (obviously, detect magic and dispel magic are needed here).
Magic Item Brokerage
The Order also performs Magic Item Brokerage services, with a +10 to their checks to do so. This works in one of two ways:
- Any Magic Item: For a flat fee of 75gp per tenday, the Order will take the Buy Magic Item downtime action on behalf of the client.
- A Specific Magic Item: A client who is searching to buy a specific magic item may employ the Order to search for that item. This is a fee of 20gp per tenday + 5% of the final cost of the item. Each tenday, the Order makes a check to find it, with a DC based on how rare the item is: Common (DC 10), Uncommon (DC 20), Rare (DC 25), Very Rare (DC 30). If the check succeeds, the item is found. If it fails, the Order continues to search, gaining a +1 to the check per failed previous check, cumulative.
Spells Cast
| Spell | Cost |
|---|---|
| identify | 20 gp |
| arcane lock | 40 gp |
| continual flame | 40 gp |
| dispel magic | 90 gp |
| glyph of warding | 90 gp |
| remove curse | 90 gp |
| Mordenkainen's private sanctum | 210 gp |
Goods Offered
Spell Scrolls for Sale
| Cantrips | Cost | 1st Level Spells | Cost | 2nd Level Spells | Cost | 3rd Level Spells | Cost | 4th Level Spells | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| control flames (XGE) | 35 gp | comprehend languages | 60 gp | arcane lock | 180 gp | dispel magic | 325 gp | arcane eye | 950 gp |
| light | 35 gp | detect magic | 50 gp | darkvision | 175 gp | glyph of warding | 550 gp | locate creature | 900 gp |
| mending | 25 gp | identify | 65 gp | knock | 180 gp | remove curse | 300 gp | Mordenkainen's private sanctum | 1000 gp |
| prestidigitation | 25 gp | protection from good and evil | 65 gp | locate object | 175 gp | tongues | 325 gp | ||
| shield | 55 gp | reveal magic (below) | 180 gp | water breathing | 350 gp | ||||
| wound bind (below) | 170 gp |
Magic Items for Sale
| Common Item | Cost | Uncommon Item | Cost | Uncommon Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| broom of evercleaning | 100 gp | alchemy jug | 750 gp | bag of holding | 1000 gp |
| enduring spellbook | 175 gp | brooch of shielding | 550 gp | dagger of homing | 650 gp |
| hat of wizardry | 100 gp | decanter of endless water | 725 gp | driftglobe | 500 gp |
| orb of direction | 135 gp | silver raven (figurine of wondrous power) | 625 gp | Keogthom's ointment | 375 gp |
| orb of time | 135 gp | lantern of revealing | 750 gp | ring of mind shielding | 575 gp |
| pipe of smoke monsters | 135 gp | pearl of power | 450 gp | potion of greater healing | 200 gp |
| potion of climbing | 75 gp | ring of swimming | 625 gp | ring of warmth | 450 gp |
| potion of healing | 50 gp | sending stones (one pair) | 800 gp | stamp of the messenger (gold) | 500 gp |
| ruby of the war mage | 85 gp | wand of magic detection | 600 gp | ||
| stamp of the messenger (silver) | 150 gp | ||||
| tankard of sobriety | 135 gp | p |
Notable Members
Lady Master of the Order
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Bowgentra Summertaen Lady Master of the Order (Rank 4) Having once been betrayed by the Order's Speaker (who was central in a plot that assassinated multiple Masked Lords), Bowgentra has become more reclusive and suspicious by nature. She passes this off as an increasing desire to do research and experimentation, but the whispers say that she is simply fearful of letting anyone get too close to her again. |
Masters
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Jonnus Torgorn Speaker for the Order (Rank 3) With the Lady Master's increasing reclusiveness, the Watchful Order is fortunate to have Jonnus as its Speaker. He is very aware that the last one to hold his position used it to do great harm, and so is dedicated to redeeming the position. Fortunately, he is charismatic and cultured, a social chameleon as comfortable with peasantry as he is with nobility. He also has an incisive wit, and his apprentices all show great promise. Most assume he is the next Master of the Order. |
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Xorone of the Libram Arcane Watchlord of the Waterdeep Watch (Rank 3) A wide-waisted dragonborn wizard, Xorone is the keeper of something called the Libram of Bahamut, an artifact spellbook that contains lore, schema, and a spells of the dragonborn people. A cultural relic, he has been entrusted with not only protecting the Libram, but also with passing its knowledge on to promising dragonborn wizards, and choosing one of them to one day inherit protection of the Libram. |
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Lady Castigation Master (Rank 3) As one of the newest Masters of the Watchful Order, Lady Castigation has the dubious honor of acting as wrangler and tester for the journeymen members of the guild. She is a sarcastic, snippy tiefling wizardess who takes joy from the academic panic of her students. Still, she must be doing something right, as her immediate apprentices all promise to be quite adept in the Art. |
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Zalyreen Moonhair Master (Rank 3) Not only is Zalyreen a wizard of the Order, but she also works as a sage for arcane, occult, and extraplanar lore. She is a quiet but magnetic personality, and easily one of the most knowledgeable of the masters in esoteric and rare magical knowledge. Of course, this isn't altogether surprising: her half-elven father Ithandyl Moonhair and her human mother Maell were wizards, with Ithandyl serving as one of the Watchful Order's guildmasters in decades past. She grew up around wizardry and the Art. She has thirteen daughters, one of whom, Hemel, has just joined the Watchful Order as an apprentice. |
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Jesker Eltorchul Master (Rank 3) • Headmaster of the Eltorchul Academy A scion of House Eltorchul, a former noble house of Waterdeep, Jesker is overweeningly proud of his familial legacy and one of the most active members of the House seeking to regain their title. He is known to very actively cultivate contacts and influence within the Watchful Order to accomplish this, and is known to have the support of the Lady Guildmaster in this. He oversees the Eltorchul Academy, and takes great pride in turning the scions of noble Houses into credible mages. |
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Yurir Runewright Master (Rank 3) • Headmaster of the Aurora's Academy A dwarven wizard who was nearly into retirement as a stonecarver before he was discovered to have the potential for spellcasting by Ahmadar of the Seven Runes, Yurir has taken to his new career with dedication and a true craftsman's attention to detail. He teaches the working-magi of the Aurora's Academy, drawing on many years of workfolk's ethic before he gained his magic. |
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Varenda L'aejis Master (Rank 3) • Headmaster of the Waymoot Academy The headmaster of the Waymoot Academy is perfectly capable in her task. She also knows that it's the less-prestigious of the headmaster assignments, and clearly resents it, however. Still, it is clear that she intends to shine in the post, no matter what prestige fails to come with the office, and she does just that. |
Journeymen
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Rangur Wands Journeyman (Rank 2) A prominent and rising wizard with the Order, Rangur Wands is a proud inheritor of his family's arcane legacy. He tends to distrust "the rabble" with the powers of arcane magic, finding them selfish, boorish, and insufficiently civic-minded to be trusted with the heights of the Art. |
Apprentices
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Colfast Ovorn Apprentice (Rank 1) Something of a prodigy in the Art, Colfast is the youngest member of the Watchful Order. He has also been a member for two years, since he was thirteen, and has not advanced beyond apprentice ranking because of his age. To say that this rankles the young man - who has plenty of skill in wizardry - is an understatement. He spends a great deal of his time working in the workshops, honing his skills at alchemy, as he has reached the limits of what the Order will teach him until he is an adult. |
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Hemel Moonhair Apprentice (Rank 1) The daughter of master Zalyreen Moonhair and the granddaughter of a former guildmaster of the Watchful Order, Hemel has recently joined the Order and begun her training. she is bright and eager to learn, though quite willful. |
Faction Ranks
The Watchful Order has four ranks within their organization: Apprentices, Journeymen, Masters, and the Lord or Lady Master of the Order.
- Every time a member of the Order can demonstrate a new Circle (level) of magic, they automatically gain a single point of Renown.
Apprentice (Rank 1)
Watchful Order Secrets
- Enchantment Shattering: Add the dispel magic spell to your spellbook, if you do not already have it. When casting dispel magic you have advantage on the check to dispel spells of higher than the level the dispel magic is cast at.
- Improved Counterspell: Add the counterspell spell to your spellbook, if you do not already have it. When casting counterspell you have advantage on the check to counter spells of higher than the level the counterspell is cast at.
- Subduing Spells: When you cast a spell that inflicts damage, you may invoke this ability to cause it to inflict subdual-type damage, which does not kill creatures no matter the originating spell. You may invoke this ability a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1).
Focus Specialist (Feat)
Prerequisite: Ability to use the wand, staff, or orb spell focus.
- Your Intelligence score increases by +1.
- Choose one focus type. You may attune one additional magic item of that time; this does not count against your limit of attuned items.
Additionally, you gain another benefit, based on the item type you chose:
- Orb Specialist: When you cast a divination, enchantment, or illusion spell of at least 1st level using the orb as a spell focus, you can "store" one phantom spell level within the orb.
- As a bonus action, you can "tap" into the orb to drain it of spell levels, regaining a single spell slot of up to the number of phantom levels in the orb. These spell slots can only be used to cast divination, enchantment, or illusion spells.
- All phantom spell levels within the orb are lost and the orb does not gain additional phantom spells levels until after you finish a long rest.
- Staff Specialist: During a short rest, you may spend a hit die. Roll this die, and add your Intelligence modifier to the result. One attuned staff of your choice regains that many charges.
- When you cast a spell using a staff as the spell focus, you may use a bonus action to also make an attack with the staff.
- Staves are never destroyed when you spend the last charge in them.
- Wand Specialist: During a short rest, you may spend a hit die. Roll this die, and add your Intelligence modifier to the result. One attuned wand of your choice regains that many charges.
- When you cast a cantrip using a wand as the spell focus, you may add your Intelligence modifier to the damage.
- Wands are never destroyed when you spend the last charge in them.
You may purchase this feat multiple times, each time applying to a new focus type.
Prerequisite: Watchful Order Renown 1
- Improved Spell Acquisition: Each time you gain a level in wizard, you add one additional spell to your spellbook.
- Language Training: You learn one new language.
- Library: You have access to the Order's arcane library, allowing you to take the Research downtime action without paying any gold. It can only be used for researching spell formulae, magic item schema, or Arcana lore.
- Order Work: When you take the Work downtime action, you may use Intelligence (Arcana) as your check for doing so. This work includes guard duty, spellcasting, magic item enchantment, or other Order tasks offered to paying clients.
- Society of Magi: When you take the Carousing downtime action, you may use Intelligence (Arcana) as your check for doing so. This is still available at all three levels of society, with Lower Class society covering adventurers, working casters, and hedge magicians, Middle Class reflecting guilds-magi, professional spellcasters and artificers, and watchwizards, and Upper Class concerning noble magicians, important guilds-magi, archmages, and the like.
Journeyman (Rank 2)
Prerequisite: At least three months at Rank 1 and Watchful Order Renown 3+
- Guildbook of the Watchful Order: You are given a copy of the Guildbook of the Watchful Order, the proprietary spellbook of the Order. You are considered to have added all the spells within it to your spellbook. The one stipulation is that you must not allow other wizards to copy the spells therein, on pain of expulsion (possibly with a punitive curse) from the Order. It includes all of the spells listed in Spell Scrolls and Magic Items for sale, above.
- Additionally, it also has the following spells (from the Guildbook of the Watchful Order PDF unless indicated otherwise): analyze portal (2nd, div, EGD), battering ram (2nd, evo), blinding chain of fate (9th, evo), disarm (1st, evo), horn marker (1st, ill), Igedrazaar's miasma (2nd, conj), pyrotechnics (2nd, trans), reveal magic (2nd, div), Trobriand's teleport (4th, conj), Trobriand's crystalbrittle (3rd, trans), Trobriand's glassee (6th, trans), wound bind (2nd, nec)
- Language Training: You learn one new language.
- Order Feat: Gain one of the following feats: Alchemist, Arcanist, Elemental Adept, Focus Specialist, Keen Mind, Magic Initiate, Ritual Caster, Spell Sniper, War Caster
- Watchful Order Secret: You gain one Watchful Order Secret.
Master (Rank 3)
Prerequisite: At least one year at Rank 2 and Watchful Order Renown 10+
- Alleviation of Dues: You are no longer expected to pay dues to the Order.
- Language Training: You learn one new language.
- Spellpool Access: You are allowed to attune to the spellpool. As an action or a bonus action, you can tap into the spellpool, choosing one spell from the Player's Handbook or Xanathar's Guide to Everything. You are treated as though you had this spell prepared, allowing you to cast it immediately by expending the appropriate level spell slot. If you do not cast (or begin casting) the spell on the same turn that you access the spellpool, you lose access to it. You may access the spellpool a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). You renew all uses of this ability when you finish a long rest.
- Watchful Order Secret: You gain one Watchful Order Secret.
Lord/Lady Master (Rank 4)
Prerequisite: At least five years at Rank 3 and Watchful Order Renown 25+
- The entire resources of the Watchful Order are at your command. It is believed this includes not just ample coffers and a small legion of spellcasters, but also an armory of magical item, an exhaustive library of rare and unique spells, plus true mastery of the spellpool, the details of which are unknown.
Spells of the Order
The Order created the following spells, and offers them for sale.
Reveal Magic
2nd-level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
You can make the hidden auras of magical spells and items visible to all, rather than personally viewing them with detect magic. When cast, the spell reveals all magic within a 20 foot radius as radiance, and you may move around an area while the spell is active, as it remains centered on you. The magic does not differentiate between different intensities or types of magic when used thus.
Anyone may choose to study a source of magic within the revealed area in order to learn more about it. This requires an Intelligence (Arcana) check, DC 14, with success revealing a rough idea of the intensity of the magic (as determined by spell level or magical item rarity), and the primary color of the studied radiance revealing to what school of magic that effect belongs.
Like detect magic, this spell is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the area affected by the spell increases by 10 feet in radius per spell level above 2nd.
Wound Bind
2nd-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
You can cause wounds to stop bleeding and being knitting immediately, drawing on the body's own natural vitality to do so. The target you touch with this spell may immediately spend two hit dice as a Reaction, rolling them and adding his Constitution bonus to the result, gaining that many hit points.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the target may spend one additional hit die for every spell level above 2nd.
Magic Items of the Order
The Order created the following magic items, and offers them for sale.
Broom of Evercleaning
Wondrous item, common
This pedestrian magic item is in great demand, and thus far only the only source of them is the Order. They are magical cleaning tools - when a command word is spoken, the broom animates and vigorously cleans a 10 foot radius circle around its starting point, leaving a small pile to be collected later. This process takes only two minutes for the entire twenty foot diameter circle. The magic in the broom lasts for one year, and it eventually crumbles into its own swept pile of dust.
Dagger of Homing
Weapon, uncommon
These appear to be daggers of average heft, balanced for throwing. They all come with a leather sheath with a metal mouth, and the engraved designs on the weapon's hilt flow down to the mouth of the sheathe - when it is sheathed, it is difficult to tell where weapon ends and sheathe begins. When the dagger is separated from its sheathe for more than a heartbeat or two, it immediately teleports back into its sheathe unless it is actively being held by the one who bears the sheathe. The bearer may also choose to delay this teleportation by up to one minute. The dagger has no magical bonuses to hit or damage otherwise, however.
Stamp of the Messenger
Wondrous item, common (silver) or uncommon (gold)
These stamps are made to order only, as they must incorporate the heraldry of the purchaser in question, and the Watchful Order is careful to work with the other Guilds and the Herald of Waterdeep to ensure that only legitimate persons are given stamps of official heraldry. There are two of these stamps: the more common silver, and the uncommon gold.
Silver stamps are well-crafted wax stamps, with silver handle. When applied to a document, edges of an envelope or edge of a rolled scroll and the command word is spoken, it immediately creates a blob of silvery wax, imprints it with the sigil on the stamp, and then rapidly dries, sealing it perfectly.
Golden stamps have one additional feature - the circle which surrounds the heraldry has wings incorporated into its design. When a second command word is spoken, and the name of the intended recipient (who must be known to the user and within two miles by crow), the wings pull themselves free of the surrounding wax and begin to flap with the speed of a dragonfly's wings, flying away (flying speed of 60, at a height of about ten feet off the ground), heading directly to the one so named. If that person is not a viable target (they are too far away, for instance), the wings simply do not move at all.
