A teleportation that went wrong
Malor is a Level 7 Mage spell on the Wizardry series of games, particularly those of the Llylgamyn Saga. This spell allows the party to teleport to a specific area of the dungeon in particular, and thus becomes an important asset of the group once acquired.
Using Malor[]
Once the spell is used, the player is prompted to indicate a series of coordinates. This relates to the horizontal movement (on the North-South axis and the East-West axis) as well as the vertical movement (the dungeon level) of the party. It is important to realize that, when using Malor, what matters is the desired number of steps one wishes to travel, not the end coordinates. This is important, because a failed teleportation attempt may cause the group to teleport into rock, causing instant death and the inability to recover the characters, which are lost forever.
As an example of this: assume the group is on the dungeon entrance (thus being at East 0, North 0, Level 1; let's assume this to be X 0, Y 0, Z 0). By increasing East by 1 and leaving all others the same, the group is moved one step to the right (if facing north); thus ending on East 1, North 0, Level 1 (X 1, Y 0, Z 0). By increasing North by 1 and leaving all others the same, the party would move instead one step forward (if facing north); thus ending on East 0, North 1, Level 1 (X 0, Y 1, Z 0). By increasing Down by 1 and leaving all others the same, the party would end up at East 0, North 0 of Level 2, thus lowering one dungeon level.
The coordinates may also work differently. By decreasing East further than 0, the coordinates now indicate West, meaning the party will move to the left (if facing north); likewise, decreasing North further than 0 causes the coordinates to indicate South, meaning the party will move backwards (if facing north). Note, however, that this is basically determining movement, not actually traveling to those coordinates; thus, a party that is on East 5, North 19 and decides to travel West 4, South 10 will actually end up in the coordinates East 1, North 9, not West 4, South 10. This is best seen if replacing the coordinates; in this case, the actual position of the party is X 5, Y 19; if the party then decides to travel West 4, South 10 (X -4, Y -10), the party will end up in East 1, North 9 (X 5-4 = X 1; Y 19-10 = Y 9). This also works with the Down (Z) coordinate, in which case the party travels one dungeon level up for every point in the dungeon coordinate. Going any further than Down 1 will cause the party to end up in the city (Down 0, or Z 0) or far above, which will also cause the party to perish.
Finding the East/West, North/South and Level coordinates require using the Dumapic spell, which is a level 1 Mage spell. Thus, it is important to have multiple Mages (or users of Mage spells, such as Samurai or Bishops) to properly use Malor, as it is important to determine the exact coordinates and then indicate the proper steps to travel.
At times, the Malor spell will fail; this may indicate the area is protected against teleportation and will prevent access. The group may use the Malor spell to travel to an area that allows such access, but not directly inside. Also, being on a place that is protected against teleportation prevents escaping from the area.
Notes[]
In some remakes of the games (such as the SNES versions of of Wizardry 1-3 or 5, or the Japan-only Gaiden games based on these), Malor will present the player with a map of the explored dungeon and allow them to choose their destination from that. Some such games allow the player to configure the behavior of Malor between this simplified version and the classic coordinate behavior in their options menu.
Spell facts[]
Name: Malor (Level 7 Mage Spell)
Meaning : Teleportation
Type: Any time
Affects: Party
Effect: Teleports party to desired destination.