School chronomancy; Level time mage 4
CASTING
Casting Time 1 round
EFFECT
Range 0 ft.
Effect 1-inch-diameter dollop of quintessence; see text
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
DESCRIPTION
You collapse a bit of time from the continuum, forming a 1-ounce dollop of thick, gooey material called quintessence. This substance shimmers like a silver mirror when viewed from some angles but is transparent from other viewpoints. You can smooth a dollop of quintessence around any extremely small object.
Objects sealed within quintessence are protected from the effects of time; in practical terms, they enter a state of stasis. Living flesh with only partial contact with quintessence is also partially pulled out of the time stream (the caster is immune to this effect). This disruption deals 1 point of damage per round beginning 10 rounds after partial contact occurs.
Quintessence can be manually scraped away from a protected object, freeing it to rejoin the time stream. When you do this, there is a 75% chance that the quintessence evaporates back into the continuum. Otherwise, it coalesces again into a 1-inch-diameter bead, available for later use.