{Star} As I consider this, I think I should be the one for this part of the experiment. Ror, from what you have told me of your Axe, it will simply chop through whatever Spells it encounters... very useful for its speed. And Sheerak, your Dispel will immediately take down whatever it finds, if it succeeds.
My Dweomer Vortex has very specific limitations even though it is powerful in what it can do. It could not have told us about the entanglement of the Glyph and the Runes because they were too weak to withstand it together or separately, but for stronger Spells such as these, the Vortex will only take down one at a time… so we will find out if they are in fact tied together into a single complex Casting or two separate Spells. With Spells of this strength, the Vortex will be a sharp surgical knife, carving away just one Spell at a time; then we can analyze what remains after each stroke of the knife, and predict with some certainty whether Ror’s strategy will work, to leave up… and turn to our own use… a visible fog from the Guards and Wards but take down the Forbiddance to clear it out of our way.
Star repositions herself at the very back of the newly created space, and opens out a large flap from a very small pouch. A silvery, whirling cone slides out, the Dweomer Vortex soon revealing itself as a ten foot length, four feet at the wide end, half a foot at the narrow end. Just as it reaches its full length, it touches the fog, and the fog and the cone vanish in a whirling, winking sparkle.
A section of floor becomes visible, with the Alarm spell also visible below, near the floor, to those who can see it. The Forbiddance is now fully visible to Detection and Spellcraft, and still there.
Star purses her lips, and runs her fingers through her hair, freeing a shower of sparks of her own. On the Link: {Star} The two Effects were Cast separately, apparently; the fog did its job and obscured my analysis, until it was gone. I’ll need to use another Dweomer Vortex to test the Forbiddance and see if it can be taken down, as well as to find out if yet another Effect is hidden behind it.
Another silvery, whirling cone slides out. Just as the Vortex reaches its full length, it touches the Forbiddance, and the Spell and the cone vanish in another whirling, winking sparkle, leaving an area clear of the Forbiddance that Detects show to be roughly 10 feet on a side, with only the Alarm remaining.
Star changes her image on the Link, from holding her breath, to letting out a sigh, though for safety she’s not actually breathing.{Star} At least, the Forbiddance can be taken down, and nothing remains behind except the Alarm... but I had hoped for a larger area, more like sixty feet, not ten.
One more test remains: Sequence. If the Forbiddance and the Guards and Wards are truly independent, then I should be able to cut away just the Forbiddance and leave the rest intact. I’ll try a Dweomer Vortex on that neighboring area; if I aim above the Alarm, into the Forbiddance and the Guards and Wards, the Forbiddance should fall first since it is the lower Level Spell.
Star lets out a third Dweomer Vortex, aimed at a neighboring area with both fog and Forbiddance, and sure enough the Forbiddance and cone vanish in a whirling sparkle while the fog stays, as Ror’s Spellcraft and Detects confirm.{Star} The tangle is revealed, untangled. The Forbiddance can be taken down separately.
Thus I put them on the combat map on the Link, like this:
The outermost layer of three Spells… all things in threes… form a tube that coats the walls, floor, and ceiling: Ghoul Glyph separately, and Glyph of Warding and Explosive Runes interlaced. I say a tube because we also discovered these three Spells are not tied to the substance of the walls and will not Dispel by unraveling when our explosions destroy the underlying rock; my Passwall left the Spells intact when the underlying rock vanished.
And also a tube because they seem to contain the other Spells; the walls may have been used as frame of reference when the interior Spells were cast, since they do not seem to penetrate the walls, at least not here. It may please you to be careful though; the geometric constraints of some Spells may override a particular frame of reference intended by a Caster, will he, nil he. So we may yet find Forbiddance in some walls.
Within lie three more: Invisible Guards and Wards, and Forbiddance, filling the volume of the tube, and then Alarm, near the floor but with range to cover the volume, or most of it.
Sheerak, Ror, all… do what pleases you; at least you now know what you are dealing with, in some detail, in this tangle of Spells.