Thunguul's Preservation

Thunguul's preservation drains a portion of the caster's life energy equal to 3d4 hit points and stores it in a special candle, safe from any harm that might befall the wizard. The number of hit points set aside in this fashion cannot exceed the caster's current hit point total at the time the spell is cast. For example, if the caster had only 6 hit points left, Thunguul's preservation would take no more than 5, leaving a temporary total of 1 hit point. The candle is lit when the spell is cast, and gradually burns down until the duration expires. If the candle is extinguished or destroyed prematurely, the reserved hit points are lost, and the wizard must then recover them as if he had been injured normally.

The reserved hit points cannot be recovered by the wizard until the spell ends. In the meantime, if his remaining hit points drop below 0, the wizard will appear to die. To all tests and divinations, he will seem dead. However, when the spell expires, the borrowed life energy returns and restores the caster to life. This is not a true resurrection, since the caster's life force was never completely extinguished. Of course, a caster who is “dead" when the candle is extinguished perishes immediately.

As the caster's life energy returns, normal wounds and injuries may vanish, but severed limbs and conditions such as poisoning, disease, incineration, disintegration, and other such things are not altered. Thus, if the wizard's body has been rendered incapable of supporting life, the spell returns the life force only for the caster to immediately perish again. Similarly, if the caster's body is in a life-threatening location (for instance, the bottom of a lake), the caster may perish before reaching safety.

Only one Thunguul's preservation can be in effect for a caster at a time.

The material component is a special candle that costs 1,000 gp to prepare.