Once per day the rod can form a 2-foot-diameter mirror-like area at its top end. The wielder can look through the hack side of the mirror and view the scene as with true seeing. The mirror also protects the wearer from all gaze attacks and illusion (pattern) effects coming from one half of the battlefield (see the shield spell for information on orienting such an effect). The mirror is completely insubstantial and remains for 11 minutes. The wizard Glendar, a patron of adventurers with a hatred for medusas and basilisks, created the first rod of mirrors. He eventually became evil and transformed himself into a lich, only to be destroyed by some of the adventurers he had once sponsored.