Spell Scrolls

Scrolls are magical items which allow a Cleric to invoke a miracle without prior memorization, even if the miracle has higher Casting Number than the Cleric is able to cast. The scrolls are written in the language of the writer, so no Read Magic spell is necessary as it is for Magic-User spells, but to use a scroll a Cleric must be able to read the language of the writer. Curiously, scrolls written by Clerics of different religions can be used with no penalty or modification, and it is this fact that leads some heretical and blasphemous philosophers to believe that Cleric miracles are not actually directly connected to any particular religion or deity.

Using a scroll to invoke a miracle erases it from the scroll. A character must hold the scroll with both hands in order to read/use it, and if used in combat takes the entire action of the caster to use. All miracles invoked from scrolls use the level of the reader, not the writer, to determine the effects.

Writing a Scroll

Any Cleric can create a spell scroll for any miracle that they are able to invoke. The process costs 50sp per day in offerings to the Cleric’s deity and/or ritual expenses. Even though a scroll is essentially a “one-use” formula for a miracle, scrolls must be individually created with the requisite prayers and meditation.

Protection Scrolls

Clerics are able to create scrolls which can repel certain types of creatures. The Cleric creating the scroll even gets to choose which category. It can be as specific as the Cleric wants (“Humanoids who dwell in the Foul Caverns!”), but can only be so general as to make easy distinction between affected and non-affected creatures. Protection scrolls, when used, will prevent the target class of creature from approaching within 10' of the user for d4+ 2 Turns.

The making of such scrolls requires a sacrifice — a number of creatures of the target class must be sacrificed (in a manner consistent with the Cleric’s religious teachings) to capture the effect of the warding magic. The total Hit Dice value of the creatures sacrificed determines the length of time of the scroll’s crafting as well as the chance that the preparation will be successful. For each 5 Hit Dice of this total, the Cleric must spend one day preparing the scroll, while the total number of creature Hit Dice equals the percentage chance that the process will successfully create a working Protection scroll. It costs 50 sp per day in offerings to the Cleric’s deity and/or ritual expenses to create a Protection Scroll.

Researching a Spell

A Cleric’s player can invent totally new spells for their character to research. The player must first write the spell in the format of the other spells in the spell lists. The Referee must approve the spell, and should revise the spell for the player in advance of any research (sometimes this will merely involve altering the spell level). If successful, the character now has a spell that no other character has in the game! The process costs 100 sp per day in sacrifices and/or ritual costs as determined by the Cleric’s religion.

Note: There are many sources of new spells found in published supplements and online sources. It will be up to the Referee to decide whether researching these spells would count as being on a “standard spell list” or not. The Referee also has the right to change the listed Casting Number of the spell as suits the campaign, change other details, or even disallow a spell entirely.

Time of Holy Activities

When writing scrolls or researching miracles, the character (and player) will never know exactly how long it will take. The player must declare ahead of time how long the character will take to perform the activity. The Referee will randomly determine the actual necessary length of time it should take according to the table below (which the player may also use to estimate how long they wish to work). The period must be uninterrupted for the character; any significant interruption undoes all work and the project must be started anew. The costs up to that time are wasted. Only after the time passes in-game and the money is spent can success be determined. If the character spent time equal to, or greater than, the amount necessary, then the work is automatically a success. If the character spent less time, the entire project is a failure; all work has been for naught, all money spent has been wasted, and the process must begin from scratch. There is also a 10% chance that any failed project results in a curse as determined by the Referee. The time required is doubled if the Cleric is not working in a temple or church of his religion of a size more than a square times the Casting Number of the miracle. The character’s Wisdom modifier is applied to the final number of required days (with a positive modifier lessening the number of days, of course). The minimum amount of time it takes to research spells or write scrolls is never less than a day.