Delusions of Grandeur
Delusions of Grandeur is a miscellaneous spell that primes an object to expect people to Believe that it is a magical talisman. The spell does not actually make the object a talisman, it merely awakens it to the possibility and paves the way for it to become one. Once the object is thus primed, pandering to its newfound ego is required; this gives it enough Belief to latch onto and eventually attain full fledged talisman-ness.
After the spell is cast, the object must first be given a reputation. Refering to it by this reputation and most especially showing the object off will then soothe and reassure it enough that it may eventually become a bonafide talisman. This process takes Some Days and, while the object's resolve may be strengthened by repeated casting of the spell, the passage of a certain amount time is required. If it is neglected, on the other hand, the poor little object will eventually give up on its efforts.
Note that anyone may give the object its reputation by using the 'dub' command, not only the witch who Deludes it. Likewise, anyone may pander to its fragile ego. Note also the two syntaxes for the 'dub' command; the first actually gives the talisman a Proper Name which it may eventually show off proudly, whereas the second gives it a reputation by which one may refer to it but that isn't as obvious to onlookers.
From the in-game helpfile on this spell.
The Facts
1. There is a maximum of 20 characters available for the name length. Go beyond this and the spell will be broken.
2. You can only use letters and comma's in the name.
Hyphens, brackets and similar will not show up and there is not enough room to use colours.
3. Mock can be used to break the spell on an uncompleted delude. Once the delude is complete the change is permanent.
4. Each word in the items new name will start with a capital letter.
5. Player names and certain place or item names will not be available.
6. Deludes are covered by the MUD's profanity rules.
7. You can not delude objects that are already Magical Talismans. eg. broomsticks, crystal balls.
8. The level of delusion will fade a little bit ever few minutes if the object is not yet a talisman.
If it fades completely the spell will be broken.
9. Each level of delusion can be considered as a discreet section of a larger chart.
10. Each time you pander to the delude it will gain one point on the chart.
11. When the object fades a little bit, it has only faded one point, not one level.
12. There is a definite time factor as well as the point chart. This is time spent actually logged in.
13. You will need to pass both the time factor and the top of the chart for the delude to Change.
14. Heavier objects have a larger chart and require both more pandering and more time.
15. Leaving the object in a vault, clubhouse, playerhouse or shop when logged off so as to speed things up no longer works.
16. Only witches and wizards can naturally see the delusion levels and notice the fading.
17. Priests of Gufnork and Sandelfon can use the ritual Detect Magic to see the delude level of an object.
18. Mortals with some skill in magic.items.held.wands may use a 'short wand' to see the levels.
19. The item change will need to be triggered by a pander, even if the time requirment has been reached.
20. When the artifact achieves talisman status it will flash octarine and shake violently in your hand for a second.
The Levels
1. It has a faint octarine shadow about it that disappears if you look at it squarely.
2. It has a faint octarine shadow about it.
3. It has an octarine shadow about it that flickers occasionally out of the corner of your eye.
4. It has a flickering octarine shadow about it.
5. It has a flickering octarine haze about it.
6. It has the hazy octarine sparkle of a magical talisman.
Training the Delude
There are various methods of training (pandering to) a deluded object.
Pandering is any command that connects the object with its name.
examples: get House from pack, locate Troll House, appraise House, behead <person> with House.
You can do all this manually or set up an alias.
Be aware that if you are caught afk while the alias runs, the creators will not show mercy.
Many players chose to add a line to a common alias, such as warcry or backstab.
example: alias kill locate house;condition house in bag;warcry wibble wibble Wibble!;attack $*$
This works well, but it will also create artificial lag.
Pandering facts:
Using the same command to refer to the object twice or more in a row has little or no effect.
Vary the command used.
Showing off the Delude
The most effective method of training a delude is to show it to people.
You can either hang around a popular place such as the Mended Drum, ask a friend to help you, or pay someone to show accept offer a few hundred times.
Showing facts:
Show is only more effective than normal pandering if the viewer uses show accept offer.
Automatically accepted shows work the same as any other reference to the name and so will not help greatly.
Showing the object to one person alone is less effective than showing to many people, but the difference is negligable.
Show is at least twice as effective as the other methods by itself.
If you refer to the object by its name when showing it will become even more effective.
Show does not in any way effect the time factor, you will still need to wait.
My personal method of deluding is to pay the deluding Witch extra to show accept offer it for me.
I can get it to haze three or four minutes after the delude this way.
By showing it a hundred or more times past haze I ensure that even as the object fades it will still be at change point when the time factor has been passed. For heavy items it would be a good idea to double the shows past haze stage.
Recasting the spell
Recasting the spell will help, but only in the normal pandering sense.
Each time the deluded object is referred to by the spell it will gain a point, other than this there is no point in recasting.
An object-targetted spell's tendency to refer to the object several times is of more use when portalling.
There is no additional lag, the portal is cast and the object gains 3 or 4 points.
Delusions of Grandeur
The spell "Delusions of Grandeur" is a miscellaneous spell. the casting uses the skills divining, convoking and enchanting.
Skill requirements: divining: 200, convoking: unknown, enchanting: unknown
It is easier to cast the spell on larger objects.