Seek Earth • Information
Tells the caster the direction and approximate distance of the nearest significant amount of any one type of earth, metal, or stone. Use the long-distance modifiers (p. 14). Any known sources of that material may be excluded if the caster specifically mentions them before beginning.
Cost: 3.
Time to cast: 10 seconds.
Item
A forked stick with an ounce of the desired earth/stone/metal set in the tip; each stick will find only that one kind of earth. Cost to create: 50 energy, and cash to buy an ounce of the material sought.
Shape Earth • Regular
Move earth about and shape it into any form. If the form is stable (e.g., a hill), it will permanently remain after shaping. An unstable form (e.g., a column or wall) lasts only while the spell continues – no special concentration is required – and then collapses. An Architecture roll may be required to create a stable form.
Earth moved with this spell travels at only Move 2; stone travels at Move 1. It can harm no one except by flowing over an immobile person and burying him. If earth is moved onto a person to bury him – or from beneath him, to create a hole – he may move normally on his next turn, to escape. He is trapped only if he fails to do so.
Anyone buried in loose earth by this spell may try to claw his way out. One roll, at ST-4, is allowed per second. GMs may make this roll harder if the victim is buried under more than 2 cubic yards of earth! The victim can hold his breath (see Holding Your Breath, p. B351), but he eventually risks suffocation (see Suffocation, p. B436). A victim buried in stone may hold his breath, but unless he has some means of digging through solid stone, escape is unlikely.
Duration: 1 minute.
Cost: 1 per cubic yard of earth shaped (minimum 2). Half that to maintain (round up). Double cost to shape stone; sextuple cost to shape cut or worked stone, like a wall. It’s not easy to make your own door into the castle.
Prerequisite: Seek Earth.
Item
Staff, wand, piece of jewelry, or digging tool. Energy cost to create: 200 (500 for an item that will shape stone).
Seek Pass • Information
Tells the caster the direction and approximate distance of the nearest pass through a mountain range. Use the long-distance modifiers (p. 14).
Cost: 3.
Time to cast: 10 seconds.
Prerequisite: Seek Earth.
Earth Vision • Regular
See through the earth – to find caves, bodies of ore, buried treasure, entombed victims, etc. Earth and uncut stone (up to 50 yards deep) are transparent to the subject, wherever he looks. Metal is not transparent; neither are cut stone, bricks, etc. Thus, this spell won’t let you look through castle walls.
This is also a Knowledge spell.
Duration: 30 seconds.
Cost: 2 per 10 yards of depth to cast. Same cost to maintain.
Prerequisite: Shape Earth.
Item
Any. Energy cost to create: 400.
Earth to Stone • Regular
Turns an item of earth or clay into hard stone (but not gemstone), or turns an item of stone into a simple metal like bronze or iron. For double energy cost, turns an item of earth or clay into metal.
Duration: Permanent.
Cost: 3 per cubic yard (minimum 3).
Prerequisites: Magery 1 and Shape Earth.
Item
Staff, wand, or jewelry. Energy cost to create: 300.
Create Earth • Regular
Create good, solid earth where none existed before. This earth must be created in contact with the ground – not hanging in the air or floating in the sea!
Duration: Permanent.
Cost: 2 per cubic yard to create earth from nothingness (minimum 2); 1 per cubic yard to solidify mud into good earth (minimum 1).
Prerequisite: Earth to Stone.
Item
Staff or wand. Energy cost to create: 500.
Earth to Air • Regular
As listed under Air Spells p. 25.
Flesh to Stone • Regular; Resisted by HT
“Petrifies” a living subject (and all his gear!), turning him to stone. Must affect the entire subject.
Duration: Instantaneous, unless reversed by Stone to Flesh.
Cost: 10. For double cost, a subject may be turned into a metallic statue.
Time to cast: 2 seconds.
Prerequisite: Earth to Stone.
Item
Staff or wand. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 1,000. The item must touch the victim for the spell to work.
Stone to Earth • Regular
Turns any kind of stone (including gemstone) into simple earth. Must be cast on a whole stone or block, rather than a part of it. This spell also transmutes metal into stone, or transmutes metal into earth for double cost.
Duration: Permanent.
Cost: 6 per cubic yard (minimum 6).
Prerequisites: Earth to Stone or any four Earth spells.
Item
Staff, wand, or jewelry. Energy cost to create: 400.
Predict Earth Movement • Information
Accurately predicts any landslides, earthquakes, or volcanic activity likely to occur within a given area over a given period. It gives approximate information regarding the nature, location, and severity of the impending disaster. This spell cannot forecast magically created earthquakes or volcanoes.
Cost: 2 times the length of the forecast in days. Double the cost for a place outside the local area (beyond the horizon). Quadruple the cost for a place on another continent.
Time to cast: 5 seconds per day of forecast.
Prerequisite: Four Earth spells.
Sand Jet • Regular
Shoot a thin jet of sand particles from one hand. Each turn, the caster rolls versus DX-4 or Innate Attack skill to hit. This attack may be dodged or blocked, but not parried. If the spell strikes the face, it causes no injury, but temporarily blinds the target unless he makes a HT roll.
If he fails the HT roll, he is blinded (see Visibility, p. B394) for one second per energy point put into the spell. After the target can see again, blurry vision gives him a -3 penalty to all combat skills for a further 1d seconds. On a critically failed HT roll, the target is blinded for 1d seconds per point put into the spell. On a successful HT roll, the victim closes his eyes for the duration of the spell, and is thus unable to see for one second. On a critical success, the victim is unaffected.
Duration: 1 second.
Cost: 1 to 3. The jet’s range in yards is equal to the energy put into it. Cost to maintain is the same.
Prerequisite: Create Earth.
Item
Jewelry, staff, or wand; usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 600.
Mud Jet • Regular
Shoot a thin jet of mud from one finger. Each turn, the caster rolls versus DX-4 or Innate Attack skill to hit. This attack may be dodged or blocked, but not parried. It does knockback on all targets; it can kill or knock down flying swarm creatures. It will extinguish a one-yard-radius area of normal fire.
If the spell strikes the face, it temporarily blinds the target (see Visibility, p. B394) unless he makes a HT roll. If he fails the HT roll, each energy point in the spell blinds him for one second. After the target can see again, blurry vision gives him a -3 penalty to all combat skills for a further 1d seconds. On a critical failure of the HT roll, the target is blinded for 1d seconds per point in the spell. On a successful HT roll, the victim covers his eyes and is therefore unable to see for one second. On a critical success, the victim is unaffected.
This is also a Water spell.
Duration: 1 second.
Cost: 1 to 3. Does 1d of knockback for every point used. Range is equal to the number of dice. Cost to maintain is the same.
Prerequisites: Water Jet and Create Earth, or Create Water and Sand Jet.
Item
Staff or wand. Usable only by mages. The jet issues from the item’s tip. Energy cost to create: 600.
Stone Missile • Missile
Create a ball of stone and fire it from one hand, injuring anything it hits. This spell has 1⁄2D 40, Max 80, Acc 2.
Cost: Any amount up to your Magery level per second, for 3 seconds. The missile does 1d + 1 crushing damage per energy point.
Time to cast: 1 to 3 seconds.
Prerequisite: Create Earth.
Item
Staff or wand – the missile is fired from the end of the item. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 400.
Walk Through Earth • Regular
Pass through earth as if it were air. With this spell, the subject could walk through the stone wall of a dungeon or the earthen wall of a hut. This spell does not open a passage so that others can follow. It also doesn’t reveal what is on the other side. If the caster also knows Earth to Air, he will automatically have breathing air during his journey, at no energy cost. Otherwise, he must hold his breath!
Should the spell end before the subject regains the open air, he is buried in earth or stone, as the case may be. He is not automatically harmed, but will suffocate (see Suffocation, p. B436) if he cannot escape.
Duration: 10 seconds.
Cost: 3 to cast. 3 to maintain.
Double cost to pass through stone. Triple cost to pass through metal.
Prerequisites: Four Earth spells.
Item
Gray cloak or silver jewelry; only affects the wearer. Energy cost to create: 1,200.
Earth to Water • Regular
Turns earth to mud (or water). Various uses of this spell include bogging down enemies or pursuers, making mud packs to treat insect stings, softening earth to use for clay dummies or decoys, etc. This is also a Water spell.
Duration: Permanent.
Cost: 1 per cubic yard of earth turned into mud. Double to turn earth into water.
Prerequisites: Magery 1, Create Water, and Shape Earth.
Item
Staff, wand, or jewelry. Usable only by mages; the item must touch the subject. Energy cost to create: 500.
Partial Petrifaction (VH) • Melee; Resisted by HT
Turns part of a living subject to stone, usually leaving him immobile but still able to talk or be tortured. The caster must touch the subject. The body parts changed are at the discretion of the caster; the spell can petrify anything from a single finger to the entire body from the neck down, but the head can never be affected. The subject’s metabolism is magically altered to survive the experience, but he understandably finds the experience intensely uncomfortable, whatever else is done to him.
Petrified body parts are immobile, numb, and have DR 10. Victims of this spell suffer a DX penalty on any physical action they attempt: -1 or more, depending on details of the casting and the action.
Clothes, jewelry, etc., may be “caught up” in the spell and included in the petrifaction, but magic items or anything carried in the hand or a backpack remain unchanged.
Either Stone to Flesh or Remove Curse is required to negate this spell.
Duration: Permanent (until negated).
Cost: 12. It costs more to petrify larger subjects, just as if it were a Regular spell (i.e., 24 energy for SM +1, 36 energy for SM +2, etc.)
Time to cast: 3 seconds.
Prerequisites: Magery 2 and Flesh to Stone.
Item
Staff, wand, or jewelry. Usable only by mages; the item must touch the subject. Energy cost to create: 1,300.
Rain of Stones • Area
Stones rain from the sky onto the area, causing 1d-1 crushing damage per second to all within it. Characters and creatures under the rain of stones take damage on their own turns; if less than an entire second is spent in the affected area, damage is halved (round down).
The spell can only be cast outdoors. Armor protects in the usual fashion. A shield with a DB of 2 or better can be held overhead to block the stones, but it may take damage (p. B484). This requires two hands and a Ready action, and succeeds automatically in protecting the character once the shield is readied upward, but this unreadies the shield from its normal protective functions!
Inanimate objects, such as buildings, protect with their DR.
Duration: 1 minute.
Base cost: 1 to cast (minimum 2). Same cost to maintain. For double base cost, the Rain of Stones does 2d-2 per second!
Prerequisites: Magery 2 and Create Earth.
Item
Staff. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 500.
Entombment • Regular; Resisted by HT
The earth instantly swallows the subject. He remains in Suspended Animation (as per p. 94), in a tiny spherical chamber 50 feet underground, until rescued by tunneling or the reverse of this spell. A mage who casts Entombment on himself may elect to stay awake, but this is unwise unless he has some means of breathing while entombed!
Duration: Permanent, unless reversed by this spell.
Cost: 10 (but only 6 to reverse an entombment).
Time to cast: 3 seconds.
Prerequisites: Magery 2 and five Earth spells.
Item
Wand or staff – must be colored jet black. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 1,200. The item must touch the victim for the spell to work.
Essential Earth • Regular
Creates the magical essence of Earth. Essential Earth is three times as fertile: plants germinate three times faster and grow three times taller or bigger than normal. In addition, if Essential Earth is transformed into stone via the Earth to Stone spell, it will be three times as strong (DR and HP); columns or blocks cut from such stone would support three times as much weight. This Essential Stone is similar to the legendary material adamant.
If Essential Earth is transformed into metal via Earth to Stone, that Essential Metal will also have triple the strength (HP, DR, and carrying capacity) of normal metal; this is similar to the legendary alloy orichalcu.
Duration: Permanent.
Cost: 8.
Time to cast: 30 seconds.
Prerequisites: Six Earth spells
Item
Staff. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 500.
Stone to Flesh • Regular
Reverses the effects of Flesh to Stone and brings the victim back to life (stunned). Cannot be used to animate a statue that was never alive.
Duration: Instantaneous.
Cost: 10. Double cost to restore a person turned to metal.
Time to cast: 5 seconds.
Prerequisites: Magery 2, Flesh to Stone, and Stone to Earth.
Item
Staff or wand. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 1,000. The item must touch the victim for the spell to work.
Body of Stone (VH) • Regular; Resisted by HT
Subject becomes an animated stone statue; he temporarily acquires the Body of Stone meta-trait (p. B262). Clothes also become stone, but carried equipment does not.
Duration: 1 minute.
Cost: 10 to cast. 5 to maintain.
Time to cast: 5 seconds.
Prerequisites: Stone to Flesh.
Item
Staff, wand, or jewelry. Only affects the wearer. Energy cost to create: 1,500.
Steelwraith • Regular; Resisted by HT
Renders the subject intangible to the touch of metal. Swords pass through him, he cannot hold metal keys or to wear metal armor, he passes through bars and metal floors …
Duration: 1 minute.
Cost: 7 to cast. 4 to maintain.
Time to cast: 2 seconds.
Prerequisites: Magery 2 and Walk Through Earth.
Item
(a) Wand, staff, or jewelry. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 1,200. (b) A metallic weapon may be enchanted to counter the spell (so that it may be wielded by or against a Steelwraithed being). Energy cost to create: 250 per pound of weight (minimum 1 pound).
Purify Earth • Area
Removes foreign objects, poisons, and harmful elements from soil, rendering it fit to support growing plants. This spell also remedies any deficiencies in the soil’s composition. Small foreign objects (coins, nails) underground are destroyed; medium ones (swords, artillery shells, chests, statuettes) “float” to the surface. Large objects (coffins, walls, large statues) will cause the spell to fail, but the caster gets a general idea of the reason. This is also a Plant spell.
Duration: Permanent.
Base cost: 2. Double cost in poor soil such as rocky flats or sandy desert.
Time to cast: 30 seconds.
Prerequisites: Create Earth and Plant Growth.
Item
Staff. Energy cost to create: 400.
Sandstorm • Area
As listed under Air Spells, p. 27.
Earthquake • Area
Shakes the affected area. The caster probably won’t want the area to include him. Divide the actual distance from caster to edge of affected area by 20 before figuring the skill penalty.
The spell must be cast over a fairly large area to be useful. Shaking one corner of a building will upset the occupants, but won’t wreck the building. Cost depends on strength of the quake:
Tiny: Just a demonstration – a slight swaying. Pay base cost.
Mild: Slight damage to buildings. Multiply base cost by 2. DX roll required, every second, for those in affected area to keep their feet.
Severe: Stone walls crack; towers may fall. Multiply base cost by 4. DX- 3 roll required, every second, for those in affected area to keep their feet.
Duration: One minute.
Base cost: 2 to cast. Same cost to maintain.
Time to cast: 30 seconds.
Prerequisites: Magery 2 and at least six Earth spells, including Earth Vision.
Volcano • Regular
Causes vapor and lava to spew from a chosen spot of ground. This is not a quick spell, but it is very serious! The volcano starts out small – a small hole spitting stones and vapors – and increase its diameter by a couple of yards per day. This spell can also reactivate a dormant volcano. When the spell is allowed to lapse, the volcano ceases to grow and will soon die (a formerly dormant volcano may stay active at the GM’s discretion).
Duration: One day.
Cost: 15 to cast. 10 to maintain.
Time to cast: One hour until the first effects are visible. Continued concentration for 8 hours each day is necessary to keep the volcano growing.
Prerequisites: Earthquake and at least six Fire spells.
Alter Terrain (VH) • Area
Can be used to completely transform vast amounts of terrain. If cast over a large enough area, this spell can turn a city into a lake or sea, or an offshore island into a mountain range.
The profile of the ground (including sea, lake, or river beds) within the affected area can be raised, lowered, or reshaped as the caster chooses, or changed in texture to anything between soft earth and sand to hard granite. Stone or brick buildings and vegetable matter can all be transformed into “natural” stone or earth, but not vice-versa. Submerged areas raised above their natural level become dry land; any area lowered below the local water table may be flooded. The GM should require Architecture, Artist, or Engineer rolls if the caster tries to alter the area into something specific.
Beings and loose items on the surface at the time the spell is cast are simply raised or lowered, with no personal injury. If they are inside buildings, they are gently expelled rather than entombed. Of course, if they find themselves under water, they may have problems…
If the spell is countered or dispelled, the whole area returns to its former condition; even transformed buildings and trees are restored.
Duration: 2d days.
Base cost: 1 to cast (minimum cost 15). Cannot be maintained. Volumes taller than 4 yards may be affected by multiplying the base cost accordingly.
Time to cast: 10 seconds.
Prerequisites: Magery 3 and all four elemental “Shape” spells.
Item
An area may be permanently altered for 100 times casting cost.
Small Earth ElementalThis is the basic earth elemental summoned by casting Summon Small Earth Elemental [40 points]Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; DX-2 [-40]; IQ-4 [-80]. |
Move Terrain (VH) • Area; Special Resistance
Enables an entire area of terrain, with all buildings, animals, plants, and people on or in it, to be moved over large distances. Once the spell is cast, the area to be transported vanishes (see below), replaced by bare earth or open water. The caster is now “carrying” that area in invisible, intangible form (this fact can be determined by Detect Magic or something similar). Beings caught in the affected area have a resistance roll based on the best Will among them, modified by -1 for every additional yard of radius of the subject area (thus, Move Terrain with a 2-yard radius is resisted by Will-1). Successful resistance negates the spell.
Once the casting is successfully completed, the subject area “shrinks” in radius at the rate of 1 yard per second, moving toward the caster at the same rate. Victims quick enough on their feet should be able to jump out of the area as it shrinks (this has good dramatic potential) – make DX and IQ rolls! GMs may decide this warrants a Fright Check.
Beings caught by the spell are aware of a wild, swirling sky above their heads and a physically impenetrable barrier all around them. The atmosphere inside remains breathable and comfortable (so this spell cannot be used to suffocate someone!). Spells cast out of the area automatically hit the Move Terrain’s holder – thus, a trapped mage could walk up to the
affected area’s edge, lay his hand against the barrier, and cast Deathtouch at the holder! Captive mages could also cast Dispel Magic or Counterspell on the affected area, forcing the spell to end abruptly if they are successful.
When the caster stops maintaining the spell, the terrain reappears. The caster’s location falls anywhere within it or at its edge. The subject area “expands” back to normal size at the same rate it shrank. If there is no suitable space available, anything in the way is moved aside as if by Shape Earth.
The caster may not use this spell again for one full day. The subject area or any part of it cannot be moved again by this spell (from any caster or magic item) for the same period.
Cast over a large enough area, this spell can place mountains in the middle of plains, open water (as deep as half the radius of effect, transported from lake or ocean) in the midst of a desert – or shift islands miles inland to form hills!
Duration: 1 hour. (The effects, once the area is “placed,” are permanent.)
Base cost: 10 to cast. 8 to maintain.
Time to cast: 1 minute.
Prerequisites: Alter Terrain and Hide Object.
Item
Staff. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 3,000.
Summon Earth Elemental, Control Earth Elemental, Create Earth Elemental
See Air Elemental.
