Woddeley's Occult Primer

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Woddeley's Occult Primer is a book found in the Unseen University Library that describes the various magic method skills in the magic skill tree.

Note that the Elemental Methods are not described, perhaps because they are self-explanatory.

A closed thin book is chained to the ornate lectern.

This is a thin, useful-looking, cloth-bound book.  It looks well read, judging by the way the pages curl at the corners.
It appears to have something written on it.
It is closed.

You read the cover of the closed thin book:
Woddeley's Occult Primer
You read page one of the thin book:

Contents of Woddeley's Occult Primer

I. Mental Methods:
Animating. . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Channeling . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Charming . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Convoking. . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Cursing. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

II. Physickal Methods:
Binding. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Brewing. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Chanting . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Dancing. . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Enchanting . . . . . . . . . . .11
Evoking. . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Healing. . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Scrying. . . . . . . . . . . . .14

III. Spiritual Methods:
Abjuring . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Banishing. . . . . . . . . . . .16
Conjuring. . . . . . . . . . . .17
Divining . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Summoning. . . . . . . . . . . .19

2

You read page two of the thin book:

Animating:

   Animating involves giving a mind to somethyng
inanimate.  The clasfic ecksample ys the creation
of a golem; a more fafhionable ecksample ys the
making of a Brassica oleracea ambulata, the walking
cabbage.  Generally speaking, animating ys not too
arduous, since all thyngs yearn towards sentience,
but yt works beft with a object of suitable complecksity
to hold the mind.

3

You read page three of the thin book:

Channeling:

   Channeling ys the conveying of mental energy from
one place to another, ufually between minds.  The moft
bafic form would be the tranfferral of power from one
wyzard to another; the reverfe of thys, the sucking of
energy from one mind by a wyzard ys evil and, moreover,
dangerous, since yt attracts the attention of Thyngs.

4

You read page four of the thin book:

Charming:

   Charming ys ufed to convince someone to do your
bydding.  Yt becomes more dyfficult to charm wyth
yncreafed mental ability of the target, although
choofing a target for whom the relevant action would
be yn character or conform with the target's beliefs
helps confiderably.

5

You read page five of the thin book:

Convoking:

   Convoking draws together other minds, either to
magnify the power to be ufed yn a spell or merely
for a mental conference.  An ynterefting eckfample of
thys skyll may be found yn the spell "Kamikaze
Oryctolagus Flammula", one of the famous creature
spells of the fyre wyzard Frottjor.

6

You read page six of the thin book:

Cursing:

   Cursing ys the method ufed to affect the beliefs
and other attributes - though ufually belief ys
sufficient - of someone.  Thys tends to be the province
of wytches, whereas wyzards prefer being more direct.

7

You read page seven of the thin book:

Binding:

   Binding involves the attaching of a magickal
effect to an object.  Thys ys ufed, for inftance,
yn the manufacture of magickal weapons and armour:
a wyzard might bind an effect to allow better night
vifion ynto a helm or a better grip for climbing
ynto a pair of gloves.

8

You read page eight of the thin book:

Brewing:

   Brewing ys another method that tends not to be
practifed by wyzards but ys moftly utilifed by wytches
and apothecaries.  Yt confifts of performing a magickal
reaction on a micksture of subftances - as oppofed to a
merely alchemical reaction - to obtain a magickal subftance
or potion.

9

You read page nine of the thin book:

Chanting:

   Chanting concerns the vocal afpects of spell cafting.
Often more important for the attainment of a mood or
feeling, yt can still have a profound occult effect on some
types of creature.

10

You read page ten of the thin book:

Dancing:

   Dancing ys a method similar to chanting yn many
regards, confifting as yt does of the ufe of body-motion
afpects of spell cafting.  Many treatifes on wytchcraft
contain fafcinating accounts of rites involving thys
skill to which the interefted reader ys directed.

11

You read page eleven of the thin book:

Enchanting:

   Enchanting deals directly with the raw matter, so to
speak, of magick as yt ys the changing of the magickal
field of an object.  Except yn the prefence of a
sourceror, enchantment muft be conferved: for low power
spells, such as Brother Happalon's Elementary Enchanting,
the enchantment may be eckstracted from the naturally
occurring fluctuations yn the background, while more
powerful spells muft, yn esfence, tranffer enchantment
from one object to another.

12

You read page twelve of the thin book:

Evoking:

   Evoking means to draw forth the magickal properties
of an object.  A subtle method, yt ys important for
wyzards as yt ys the major diagnoftic skill yn probing
thyngs magickal.

13

You read page thirteen of the thin book:

Healing:

   Healing by magick ys a tricky bufinesf, but when yt
works yt boofts the life force of a living thyng.
Yt ys generally better to rely upon potions or the
attentions of a prieft, yet those sufficiently skilled
may have enough control to ufe yt succesffully.

14

You read page fourteen of the thin book:

Scrying:

   Scrying ys a broadly applied method ufed to send a 
wyzard's senfes to another place.  Often thys ys done 
indirectly using crystal balls, mirrors, bowls of 
water, Caroc cards, Ching-a-ling and a whole hoft of 
techniques ending in -mancy.  Thefe methods are 
generally preferred over sending the raw senfes where 
there ys the danger of not coming back.

15

You read page fifteen of the thin book:

Abjuring:

   Abjuring ys one of the moft important parts of 
demonology, for those that care to get involved in such 
thyngs, as yt forces a spirit to abftain from some 
action, such as leaping out of the magick octogram and 
devouring the wyzard.

16

You read page sixteen of the thin book:

Banishing:

   Banishing ys usually ufed to end an encounter with 
a spirit, sending yt back to yts normal place of dwelling. 
Having control over the spirit ys a great asfet, as often 
they prefer being here and don't want to go back.

17

You read page seventeen of the thin book:

Conjuring:

   Conjuring - not to be confufed with the type of 
magickal creation of thyngs - ys ufed to requeft a 
spirit to perform some action, like abjuring but the 
other way around.

18

You read page eighteen of the thin book:

Divining:

   Divining ys the eckftraction of information 
from a spirit.  A counterpart to scrying, yt has the 
advantage of not putting your own senfes at ryfk, but 
the difadvantage that most spirits are notorious 
meaning twifters.

19

You read page nineteen of the thin book:

Summoning:

   Summoning ys the firft method ufed yn any spirit 
meeting or demonological encounter, since yt ys 
ufed to bring a spirit into a wyzard's prefence.

See also