Spell case

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Work in progress; please see the research page for more information.

Spell cases are very jealous wizardly artifacts that can be bought at Brimstone's in the Sto Lat Academy of Artificers. The spell cases act as an extension of a wizard's mind (more or less). They act as a sort of portable library that can store spells and create scrolls of them.

Uses

A scroll case is used to store spells which can later be retrieved as scrolls. This can be helpful in saving mind space by storing spells that are used infrequently, but that are still nice to have on hand when the need arises. They can also act as a portable library, helping a wizard get back on their feet after a professional visit with Death.

In order to make full use of a case the wizards must first give the case some supplies. Each case holds up to a certain number of papers depending on the size of the case. Paper is used whenever a spell is retrieved or removed, or when the case is emptied. A quill is needed to retrieve spells, which quill is somewhat unimportant as it will always show up as "a quill" once it is inside the case. Some ink is required when retrieving spells, again the type is unimportant as it will appear as simply "some ink". Some of the ink is consumed each time a scroll is retrieved. Note that these supplies cannot be retrieved once they are inside the case, and the amount of supplies contained does not affect the case's weight. Non-wizards cannot feed the case with paper or a quill, and cannot channel ink either. Therefore it seems that the case is unusable by other Guilds.

Commands

Scroll cases have various commands that are used to interact with them. Each case has a plaque attached to one end which contains a list of these commands. Each command counts separately for purposes of repeating commands. Research into these commands and the skills used by them is ongoing. See Research:Scroll case for any progress and observations, or to lend a hand.

feed

feed <object> to <case>

This syntax is used to feed a quill, paper, or scrolls to the case. The paper on which fed scrolls are scribed is shredded, but the spell will be stored inside the case. This checks magic.items.scroll and does not use GP or damage the case.

feed <spell> to <case> from my mind

This syntax allows you to feed a spell into the case directly from your mind. It is more difficult than feeding a scroll to the case but saves on paper. There are two skill checks.

  • magic.methods.mental.channeling "Creating a link between the case and your mind." Success results in the spell being fed to the case. Failure prevents the next skill check.
  • magic.spells.special "Splitting the spell in two." Success results in keeping a copy of the spell in your mind. Failure results in the spell being pushed out of your mind leaving just the one copy in the case.

Feeding spells in this way damages the case by a small amount.

This costs 25 GP.

channel

channel [ink from] <object> into <case>

This fills the case with ink. Note that many containers that contain ink can be referred to as "ink" themselves, therefore channel ink into case is usually sufficient. Like most other commands, this causes a small amount fo damage to the case with each use.

This uses the magic.methods.mental.channeling skill. (NOTE: A 230 bonus in channeling seems unable to allow one to channel ink into a pearwood case according to Shava; Balina reports that a bonus of 290 is well above enough that she's yet to fail, however; Zeef reports a successful channel with a bonus of 225)

It costs 25 GP.

list

list spells in <case>

This command lists the spells inside the case. It uses the magic.items.talisman skill and becomes more difficult as the number of spells inside the case increases. This seems to cost 25 GP and can TM the skill. It does not damage the case.

remove

remove <spell> from <case>

This command removes one copy the named spell from the case. It requires and consumes a piece of paper from inside the case and produces a pile of paper shreddings.

empty

empty <case>

This command empties all the spells from inside the case. The difficulty of this task is determined by the number of spells. A number of papers are consumed equal to the number of spells in the case and the command will fail if there is less papers than spells.

retrieve

retrieve [scroll of] <spell> from <case>

This retrieves a scroll of the named spell from the case. A copy of the spell is removed from the case, as is a piece of paper and some ink.

This costs 25 GP and damages the case by a small amount.

restore

restore <case>

This command is used to repair the case and is the only method for doing so. There is a skill check involved, likely channeling. The GP cost appears to be variable, but there is a minimum amount that must be on hand before one can attempt a repair (perhaps 25). However, it may consume less than this when repairing minor damage. When sufficiently damaged, it will consume all available GP in one go. Total GP cost for full repairs is considerable and likely measures in the thousands.

List of scroll cases

There are currently three scroll cases in the game.

Spell case Length Width Material Weight Papers Spells
Filigreed rowan case 8 3 Rowan &&&&&+1200 1 3/9 18
Caged rowan case 6 3 ironwood &&&&&+1500 1 6/9 24
Exquisite pearwood case 10 4 Pearwood &&&&&+2500 2 7/9 35
Spell case Length Width Material Weight Papers Spells