A Spell: Eidoloni‘s Manual Duality

Which Is a Difficult Spell To Split A Creature Into One Consciousness And Two Bodies In An Unpleasant Way

The caster divides himself or another creature into two creatures, split down the center of the head to the groin. A period of three days’ rest must follow. At the end of this time, each half-creature will have grown weak but capable limbs on the ‘missing side’, and the heads of each creature will adapt so the eye is in the center of the now oblong head, the nose twisted and partially regrown, the mouth sagging away from the wounded side. Creatures who may spellburn may do so from one or both bodies.

The statistics of the creature are altered. Use the following guidelines.

Strength is halved. When considering only the strength of a single limb, use the original strength value on the original side and quarter than for the regrown side.
Agility is halved. If considering only the manual dexterity of limbs on a single side (as in certain thief skills), use the original agility value on the original side and quarter that for the regrown side. Determining success in attack rolls considers more than just manual dexterity.
Stamina is generally unaffected, though ongoing tests of stamina that lung damage would affect, such as swimming, running, or holding one's breath are at a -2d penalty.
Intelligence is unaffected in the left side creature, but quartered in the right side. The right side creature's left brain is underdeveloped and not as able to understand or recall. The controlling consciousness may still direct the right side creature to perform any action desired, though the left side creature should likely do the reading and thinking for the pair.
Personality is +2 in the right side creature and halved in the left side creature, +2. The control of two bodies strengthens the psyche and the changes in appearance add a disturbing yet attractive dread to each.
Luck remains the same, and is pooled for both creatures. Expending a point for one expends it for both.

Initiative is affected by the above changes for creatures with those scores. Other right hand creatures have Initiative halved.
Mêlée and missile damage rolls are -2d if they rely on strength and/or mass instead of weapon skill. If the loss of half of a creature's sensory organs would affect missile attacks, add a 25% miss chance to them.
Armor class is affect by the above changes for creatures with those scores. Other creatures take a flat -2 penalty to armor class.
Hit Dice and class levels are unaffected.
Movement for humanoids is unaffected. Creatures as long or longer than they are tall have a 25% reduction in movement rate. Creatures more than three times as long as they are tall have a 50% reduction in movement rate.
Action dice are unaffected.
Saving throws are affected by the above changes for creatures with ability scores. For other creatures, use a d16 for Fortitude and Reflex saving throws instead of a d20.

Warriors may focus on the regrown side of such creatures without a penalty or successful Mighty Deed of Arms. They receive a +2 bonus to hit and a +1d to damage in that case.

The two creatures may act completely independently and simultaneously, as the controlling consciousness is aware of and controls perfectly each of them. When adjudicating magical effects, consider that one consciousness controls the two bodies. (Sleep or hold person spells could affect one creature but not the other; ESP on one creature would actually allow pulling from the experiences of both creatures; Confusion could affect both.)

The only way to reunite the creatures is to kill both, create a flesh golem from the bodies, and cast Resurrection upon it.

One of Undermage Foor's childhood pets

The Examples of Undermage Foor and Misfortunes of The Local Fauna

Children are cruel, mages are crueler, child mages are cruelest. Undermage Foor is still heralded as the paragon of child mages, and the first spellbook he read was Eidoloni’s. Foor openly admitted he had no reason other than curiosity for the following applications of the Manual Duality. These experiments began once he understood Eidoloni's version of the Sleep spell well enough to put the neighbor's prize bull down reliably.

Frank Farmer's Bull (before): Init +3; Atk gore or trample +3 mêlée (1d8); AC 12; HD 2d8+8 (16); MV 30'; Act 1d20; SP charge (move 30'-60' in straight line and make trample attack at +5); SV Fort +4, Ref +2, Will -2; AL N.

Frank Farmer's Bull (after, right side): Init +1; Atk gore or trample +3 mêlée (1d6); AC 10; HD 2d8+8 (16); MV 20'; Act 1d20; SP charge (move 20'-40' in straight line and make trample attack at +5), split consciousness, reduced Fort and Ref dice; SV Fort (1d16)+2, Ref (1d16)+0, Will -2; AL N.
Frank Farmer's Bull (after, left side): Init +3; Atk gore or trample +3 mêlée (1d6); AC 10; HD 2d8+8 (16); MV 20'; Act 1d20; SP charge (move 20'-40' in straight line and make trample attack at +5), split consciousness, reduced Fort and Ref dice; SV Fort (1d16)+2, Ref (1d16)+0, Will -2; AL N.

The bulls panicked when they saw children, everyone panicked when the saw the bulls. They were eventually given to the blind bachelor, Ben, who didn't care much that they tended to pull the plow in curves instead of straight lines and lived conveniently distant.

Ben (before): Str: 11, Agi: 10, Sta: 16, Int: 13, Per: 9, Luc: 13; Init: +1; Atk staff -3 mêlée (1d4); AC 8; HD 1d4 (6hp); MV 15'; Act 1d20; SP blind (penalties already applied); SV Fort +2, Ref -4, Will +2; AL N.

Ben (after, right side): Str: 5, Agi: 5, Sta: 16, Int: 3, Per: 11, Luc: 13; Init: -1; Atk staff -5 mêlée (1d4-2); AC 8; HD 1d4 (6hp); MV 15'; Act 1d20; SP blind (penalties already applied), split consciousness, shared luck; SV Fort +2, Ref -4, Will +2; AL N.
Ben (after, left side): Str: 5, Dex: 5, Sta: 16, Int: 13, Per: 6, Luc: 13; Init: -1; Atk staff -5 mêlée (1d4-2); AC 8; HD 1d4 (6hp); MV 15'; Act 1d20; SP blind (penalties already applied), split consciousness, shared luck; SV Fort +2, Ref -4, Will +0; AL N.

Foor was the only child who bothered to visit Blind Ben and didn't flee after catching sight of his disgusting bulls. The sleep spell that overtook a bull outmatched Ben as well. Once he had finished the surgery, Foor despaired at the time it would take to clean himself up and the three days' wait until he could see Ben get up and experience his new lives. Impulsiveness is another characteristic common in child mages, tending to kill them off before they become adult ones. So Foor began his Sleep spell with more force than he'd ever brought forth, and soon the whole village slept and would not wake for days.

Foor was careful with his next casting. The magic let the knife cut much easier than it ought to, through his pelvis and spine, but it still hurt.

Foor (before): Human Wiz 2; Str: 8, Agi: 13, Sta: 12, Int: 18, Per: 16, Luc: 17; Init: +1; Atk knife +0 mêlée (1d3); AC 12 (leather jerkin); HD 3d4 (8hp); MV 30'; Act 1d20; SP Spell Check +5, Sleep (rush of wind), Eidoloni’s Manual Duality (aura of decay), Read Magic, Ropework (ravenous); SV Fort +1, Ref +1, Will: +5; AL C.

Foor (after, right side): Human Wiz 2; Str: 4, Agi: 6, Sta: 12, Int: 5, Per: 18, Luc: 17; Init: +1; Atk knife -2 mêlée (1d3-2); AC 12 (leather jerkin); HD 3d4 (8hp); MV 30'; Act 1d20; SP Spell Check +1 Sleep (rush of wind), Eidoloni’s Manual Duality (aura of decay), Read Magic, Ropework (ravenous); split consciousness, shared luck; SV Fort -1, Ref -1, Will: +4; AL C.
Foor (after, left side): Human Wiz 2; Str: 4, Agi: 6, Sta: 12, Int: 18, Per: 10 Luck: 17; Init: +1; Atk knife -2 mêlée (1d3-2); AC 10; HD 3d4 (8hp); MV 30'; Act 1d20; SP Spell Check +5, Sleep (rush of wind), Eidoloni’s Manual Duality (aura of decay), Read Magic, Ropework (ravenous); SV Fort +1, Ref +1, Will: +5; AL C.

Foor awoke in two twisted bodies, each with a new half, still drying and hardening like a molted cicada. Two perspectives looked down at blind Bens ready to awaken. With a laugh he cancelled the sleeping spell that blanketed the village and watched one milky eye open in each Ben. Ben harmonized with his own scream. The vocal cords must have regrown just a little differently on each side.

The Example of Eidoloni Himself

Eidoloni Himself was granted unheard of regenerative capacity for the period between one new moon and the next by a benevolent spirit many years after theorizing this spell but never casting it. He feared of moral pollution should he cast it on another, and physical extinction should be attempt it upon his own body. As he was practically incorruptable, it seemed a perfect time to test the magic.

It worked flawlessly. He awoke after three nights' death, or sleep, in two deformed bodies, itching furiously on the raw sides but otherwise in perfect health; none of the physical defects he predicted affected him, as he had regenerated the split portions perfectly. The control of two bodies was euphoric. Three days later, Eidoloni decided he should be four if he might be two, and had another three nights' death, or sleep. 

The month ended with Eidoloni in possession of two hundred and fifty-six bodies perfect bodies. (Each doubling had also increased his Personality score, which was now far beyond that in the normal human range.) Though his prodigious mind had no difficulty coördinating them all, he found it boring to negotiate a doorframe two hundred and fifty-six times, using a restroom two hundred and fifty-six times, etc. when once used to suffice. Knowing his healing boon expired, and feeling at peace with death after spending so much time adjacent to it while doubling, he decided upon a self-culling and a personal advancement he felt now entitled to.

He held eight of his perfect selves in reserve. One of them cast a spell to invoke his patron. Another, a spell to bond himself tighter to it. The third intoned a spell to hold his patron. The fourth, fifth, and sixth cast the spells held dear to the patron. The seventh found a pulse underlying the simultaneous magic, and beat syncopations in the flowing phlogiston with a kind of intuitive scatting of magical phonemes. The eighth drained all it could spellburn from two hundred and forty-eight powerful wizards.

The identity of Eidoloni's patron remains unknown. Eidoloni replaced him long ago, and now dwells in some distant Overworld. Sages and scientists still seek the eight perfect bodies Eidoloni contained his patron within in order to answer that question.