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Normally, beads from the Chronurgy wizard's Arcane Abeyance feature disappear after an hour (Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 185):

When the duration ends, or if the bead is destroyed, it vanishes in a flash of light, and the spell is lost.

However, the wristpocket spell allows you to manipulate certain objects, and the spell seems to preserve the object in the following language (Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 190):

The object [...] is transported to an extradimensional space, where it remains for the duration.

[...] An object still in the pocket plane when the spell ends appears in your space, at your feet.

Does the language "remains for the duration" supersede the vanishing of the bead, and therefore allow the trigger of the vanishing to pass before the bead appears at your feet?

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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David Coffron
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  • I'll admit when I mentioned this I wasn't referring to this combination but definitely a neat find for allowing it to preserve past an hour. I think I agree though that after the 1 hour duration the bead isn't useful outside of its extradimensional space. –  Aug 17 '22 at 17:25

2 Answers2

17

The bead will vanish after its hour is up

The full text of Wristpocket is:

You flick your wrist, causing one object in your hand to vanish. The object, which only you can be holding and can weigh no more than 5 pounds, is transported to an extradimensional space, where it remains for the duration.
Until the spell ends, you can use your action to summon the object to your free hand, and you can use your action to return the object to the extradimensional space. An object still in the pocket plane when the spell ends appears in your space, at your feet.

I do not read "where it remains for the duration" to overrule the effects of time on the object, in a kind of magical preservation stasis. It just means the item is now that space until the end of the duration, at which point it appears in your space, at your feet. You even can use your actions to get it out and put it back during the duration, in contradiction to "where it remains". The spell says nothing about preservation.

If, for example, you put an egg in there that is just short of hatching, it will hatch in the extradimensional space. The space is not somehow conserving it unchanged or stopping the flow of time for it, or it would need to say so. Likewise, if you put an object there that will expire, like the bead, it will expire. The space is not conserving it or stopping the flow of time for it either. It is just that whatever happens to the object, happens to it in that space. The bead never leaves the space to somewhere else when it vanishes, it ceases to exist.

(I don't think this is a case of specific over general -- both rules are specific.)

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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    No! No! Don't mention eggs hatching! Don't ask what happens when an object becomes a creature while being affected by a storage spell! That way lies madness! – Phoenices Oct 22 '22 at 00:41
  • Re specific vs. general: I think you could argue that the general case for objects is to continue existing after 1 hour, and the rules text for any object that holds other objects (e.g. a bag of holding) is written for this general case. The Arcane Abeyance spell bead is a specific exception to this. – Ryan C. Thompson Oct 22 '22 at 05:03
  • @Phoenices I suppose a particularly troublesome argument could assert that "life begins at conception", making the egg a creature & not an object. An unfertilized egg on the other hand... At any rate, my personal ruling would be that the pocket holds objects not creatures, so upon hatching from the eggshell the creature would emerge from the pocket. Because it's not meant to contain creatures, this particular space doesn't place any restrictions upon creatures leaving it (as contrasted with Portable Hole, which does). – ProphetZarquon May 08 '23 at 21:25
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It is up to the DM

The only way to resolve this contradiction is to harken to the specific over general rule scheme of 5e. Unfortunately, there are at least two interpretations of which rule is more specific:

  1. wristpocket generally preserves an item, but the specific language of Arcane Abeyance causes it to vanish.
  2. Arcane Abeyance generally vanishes, but the specific language of wristpocket causes it to remain.

As a DM, I would lean toward the first interpretation due to wristpocket being more generally applicable (to any object), whereas Arcane Abeyance is always specific to the bead. However, another DM could certainly interpret differently.

As such, you will have to ask your DM how these features would interact at your table.

David Coffron
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    A third option is that the duration expires but the wristpocket keeps the bead from vanishing, but as soon as you pull it out and it's no longer remaining for the duration, it instantly vanishes, as it expired a while back. – Darth Pseudonym Aug 17 '22 at 16:34
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    @DarthPseudonym I think that is just what happens immediately after option 2. So the gist is that it doesn't really matter which is more specific, because after the hour is up the bead can't be used. – SeriousBri Aug 17 '22 at 16:43
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    @SeriousBri If you write that answer I'll upvote it. – Thomas Markov Aug 17 '22 at 17:14
  • I agree; even if we take Wristpocket as preserving the object past its expiration, that expiration is still past when the object leaves the pocket. Since the "remains" clause doesn't refer to objects outside the pocket & only specifies that objects 'remain' not that they are in timeless stasis, there is no wording to indicate that timers are paused inside. An apple (or Goodberry) could spoil while remaining in the pocket. Since the bead's timer can run out, it only "remains" while kept in the pocket; once removed, its normal rules apply & it vanishes. – ProphetZarquon May 08 '23 at 21:31