i just spent an entire day at Verant Int. it was a helluva lotta fun. I met the guy who developed all the spells, went to lunch with smed, etc. I even had a chance to ask him about the runed totem and that skull. RUMOR. you can do no such thing. his GM character has one and it's called the staff of discord and you probably get it if you kill the priest of discord. other than that, the runed totem staff is ONLY the runed totem staff and cannot into something else....