Spending your loot, part 4: labs, libraries and shrines

My house rules are costing me prep time and that will not do. I give you quicky rules for laboratories, libraries and shrines that allow players to invest in learning new spells.

Spellcasters in Belswick have to buy or find new spells in stead of getting them for free when they level, which means that I have to look ahead and drop spellbooks every now and again. Tedious work. Much easier to have them sort this out themselves. Rather than revoke, I'll patch and try to tie this into the rules for characters growing rich off of dungeoneering.

SHRINES, LABS AND LIBRARIES

Standing house rule: all my spellcasters except nature types have to earn their spells, they don't get new spells whenever they level. By collecting tools of the trade, they can now outfit a workshop to experiment and learn new tricks.

Shrines are for divine casters (clerics, some bards), libraries are for arcane casters (some bards, sorcerers, warlocks and wizards) and laboratories are for potion brewers. Each type of workspace has a couple of suggested items to stock it with - use this as a starting point and get your player's input on what they'd like to furnish their workspace with.

As a bonus, most of this stuff is fragile or hard to move, meaning you need a place to store it - save up for that home base!

LABORATORY

Includes a basic workshp with glasswork and supplies, but also recipe books and rare components.

Gain two potion recipes every time you gain a level. You can benefit from only one laboratory each time you level up. Must have the ability to brew potions (potionmaking skill) to benefit from a lab.

• common laboratory: 100 gp, common potion recipes
• uncommon laboratory: 250 gp, uncommon potion recipes
• rare laboratory: 500 gp, rare potion recipes
• very rare laboratory: 1000 gp, very rare potion recipes 
• legendary laboratory: 2000 gp, legendary potion recipes

From Life of the Party - Realities of an RPGer

Lesser books
Value is 25-50 gp, depending on the state of the copy, quality of notes in the margins etc.

• Sprinkwurtle's Arcanofauna - wildly speculative book on cryptids
• The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim - self-aggrandizing pamflet on the claimed workings of Paracelsus the Great
• The Sage's Garden - primer on herbalism

Greater books
Value is 50-100 gp, depending on state of the copy, missing pages etc.

• A Discourse of Fire and Salt - on refining alchemical components
• Essences and Transfusions - on distillation and transferal of properties
• The Book of Smokeless Fire - Almad poems on alchemical recipes
• The Sorcerer's Stone - on spiritual and bodily ascension
• The Transmutation of Metals - on chemical processes
• The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony - on substances acidic, caustic and hypergolic
• The Wise-Man's Crown - methods of distillation and divination
• Transformatica - alterations of the physical body

Equipment

• Basic alchemist's supplies - 50 gp
• Basic herbalism kit - 5gp
• Basic poisoner's kit - 50 gp
• Apothecary drawer - 15 gp
• Brazier - 20 gp
• Glassware - 10 gp
• Hourglass - 15 gp
• Mortar and pestle - 10 gp
• Notebook - 5 gp
• Herb garden - 25 gp
• Tripod and cauldron - 20 gp

Weird - 250gp
Organs of magical creatures or shoots of magic plants, such as but not limited to:

• Vial of basilisk's blood
• Bundle of manticore spikes
• Beaker of green slime
• Mandrake beds
• Lotus hothouse
• Cage with magical beast - cost and value to library is equal to half MM XP value
• other alchemists bought: blight, crawling claw, darkmantle, doppelganger, fungi, ghoul, homunculus (2x value), mephit, pixie, fire snake, slaad tadpole, sprite,
• 2x cost for extra containment: (the "you fool" catalog) banshee, basilisk, blink dog, cockatrice, chimera, cloaker, couatl, displacer beast, dragon wyrmling, ghost, gibbering mouther, griffon, green or sea hag, hippogriff, intellect devourer, manticore, nothic, ooze, phase spider, rust monster, succubus/incubus, troll in jar of acid, unicorn, water weird, will-o-wisp

LIBRARY

Includes reference works, permanent components to meditate with, weird items to experiment with, and so on. A transmuter might also look at laboratory equipment for their alchemical studies.

Gain two free spells for your spellbook each time you gain a level in bard, sorcerer, warlock or wizard. You can benefit from only one library each time you level up. Numbers are chosen so that they are cheaper than buying two spells from a wizard college (50 gp/spell level).

• bookshelf: 100 gp, level 1 spell (GLOG: school spells 1-6)
• small library: 250 gp, level 1-2 spells (GLOG: school spells 1-8)
• library: 500 gp, level 1-3 spells (GLOG: school spells 1-10)
• extensive library: 1000 gp, level 1-4 spells (GLOG: N/A)
• major library: 2000 gp, level 1-5 spells (GLOG: all school spells except Emblems)
• immense library: 5000 gp, level 1-6 spells (GLOG: 1 Emblem spell per level)
• arcane spells of level 7-9 are forbidden lore in Belswick. Outfitting a forbidden library to study these spells would take 50,000 gp at least. If you're not playing with the top levels cut off, go with 6000, 7000, 8000 gp for spell levels 7, 8 and 9. 

By Redjarojam

Lesser books 
Value is 25 - 50gp, depending on the state of the copy, quality of notes in the margins etc.

• Arcane Resonances - on amulets, perfumes and tattoos to enhance spellcasting
• Galen's Anatomy - early text about the body's organs
• Kriptografi - ciphers and decryption methods
• Lorebook of Pigments - ingredients of magical inks
• The Arcane Consequence - on the morality of magic
• The Complete Draconic Lexicon - dictionary for High Xarsic with detailed etymology

Greater books
Value is 50 - 100 gp, depending on state of the copy, missing pages etc.

• De Humani Corporis Fabrica - identifying and altering the body's energy flows
• Dictionary of Lamtis Vahl - a rearranging matrix of sublinguistics to match every tongue
• Legends of Sepulchral and Perpetual Lamps - on evocation and dismissal of spirits
• Mage Illeswyte’s History Arcanum - facts of wizardry’s origins and development
• Principles of Higher Art - papers on theoretical aspects of arcane magic
• Spellcrafting journal - personal diary of meticulous wizard attempting to create new spells
• The Ancient Mysteries of the Alabaster Tower - details a forgotten magical tradition
• The Exact and Subtle Art - on astrology and the paths of heavenly bodies
• The Intermingling of the Great Lords - on children begotten by a mortal and a devil
• The Origin of Magic - myths that explain how magic came into the world
• The Roll of Spells - tiny, precise script lists the names and effects of thousands of spells

Proscribed books
Value is 200 gp. These books are rare and dangerous to own.

• A Plea for Necromancy - addresses prejudices against necromancy
• Carved tablet of gray stone - ancient practices and instructions for binding outsiders
• Lord Ilgraine's Last Command - tale of a knight and his beguiling ways
• The Courtier's Gift - on weaving illusions
• The Darke behind the Starres - work on contacting and conjuring eternal spirits
• The Iron Codex - black iron sheets strung together with chains - diagrams for planar travel
• The Lost Divinities - speculation on deceased or vanished deities
• Through the Gate of the Silver Key - outlines a deeply troubling cosmology

Equipment
To study or just to decorate your library with. Prices range up to 5x higher for ornate versions made out of rare materials. 

• Astrolabe - 40-200 gp
• Globe (very incomplete) - 60-300 gp
• Gnomon (sundial) - 10-50 gp
• Labelled skeleton - 70-350 gp
• Sextant - 25-125 gp
• Stuffed alligator - 30-150 gp
• Telescope - 500-2500 gp (the Church does not like you spying on the angels above)
• Telluric Arm - 700-3500 gp - uses vibrations in the earth to sketch maps of what lies beneath

Spell components
Components like these are not consumed during casting and may be used to get insight into the workings of magic. (GLOG: different spell system, no costly components for most spells. Keep the Clone vat and Scrying vessel, at 500 gp each.)

• Chromatic Orb - diamond - 50gp
• Clairvoyance - glass sphere or jeweled horn - 100gp
• Clone - sealable incubation vessel - 2000gp (proscribed spell)
• Gate - perfect diamond - 5000gp (proscribed spell)
• Identify - pearl - 100gp
• Legend Lore - four carved ivory strips - 200gp
• Magic Jar - ruby that draws in light - 500gp (proscribed spell)
• Plane Shift - tuning fork - 250gp (proscribed spell)
• Scrying mirror or basin - 1000gp

Weird
Because every wizard worth their salt needs freaky shit on a shelf.

• Animated Skull - 50gp per skill
• Cage with magical beast - cost and value to library is equal to half MM XP value
• other wizards bought: blight, crawling claw, darkmantle, doppelganger, fungi, ghoul, homunculus (2x value), mephit, pixie, fire snake, slaad tadpole, sprite
• 2x cost (not value) for extra containment: (the "you fool" catalog) banshee, basilisk, blink dog, cockatrice, chimera, cloaker, couatl, displacer beast, dragon wyrmling, ghost, gibbering mouther, griffon, green or sea hag, hippogriff, intellect devourer, manticore, nothic, ooze, phase spider, rust monster, succubus/incubus, troll in jar of acid, unicorn, water weird, will-o-wisp
• Ceiling that always looks exactly like the sky - 250gp
• Door to the Gardens of Ynn - 500gp
• Door to the Stygian Library - 750gp (don't ask too much about the installation)
• Familiar: 100 xp - Imp, Quasit or Pseudodragon
•  an Imp can answer six questions by portaling to Hell. It will not lie, but can shade answers as much as it wants.
• Jar of eyes that track their surroundings - 250gp

SHRINE

A place to worship and meditate on your connection with the divine.

Gain two free spells for your prayerbook each time you gain a level in bard or cleric. You can benefit from only one shrine each time you level up.

• bookshelf: 100 gp, level 1 spells
• small library: 250 gp, level 1-2 spells
• library: 500 gp, level 1-3 spells
• extensive library: 1000 gp, level 1-4 spells 
• major library: 2000 gp, level 1-5 spells
• vast library: 5000 gp, level 1-6 spells 
• immense library: 6000, 7000, 8000 gp for spell levels 7, 8 and 9. 

Reliquary. Pray to its saint for guidance. From

Books
Value is 250-1000 gp. Depending on your cleric's Order in the Church, other books may also be of use to gain more insight in the workings of the divine. (GLOG: 50 - 100 gp)

• The Exact and Subtle Art - on astrology and the paths of heavenly bodies
• The Complete Draconic Lexicon - dictionary for High Xarsic with detailed etymology
• Carved tablet of gray stone - ancient practices and instructions for binding outsiders
• The Intermingling of the Great Lords - on children begotten by a mortal and a devil
• Mage Illeswyte’s History Arcanum - facts of wizardry’s origins and development

Proscribed books
Value is 500 - 1500gp. Obviously very risky to have and study. (GLOG: 100 - 200 gp)

• A Plea for Necromancy - addresses prejudices against necromancy
• Jade Prayers - instructions in the form of parables on communal worship
• Lord Ilgraine's Last Command - tale of a knight and his beguiling ways
• The Courtier's Gift - on weaving illusions
• The Iron Codex - black iron sheets strung together with chains - diagrams for planar travel
• The Lost Divinities - speculation on deceased or vanished deities
• Through the Gate of the Silver Key - outlines a deeply troubling cosmology

Equipment
These are minimum prices; rare materials or high artistry can easily increase the price up to tenfold.

• Altar - 50 gp
• Statue or icon - 25gp
• Tapestry - 200gp
• Incense, candles - 10gp
• Reliquary - 500+gp
• Scrying basin - 1000gp (GLOG: 500 gp)

Spell components
(GLOG: different spell system, no costly components for most spells. Keep the Augury sticks, Hallow ritual and Scrying basin at 200-500 gp each.)

• Augury - gem-inlaid bones - 25gp
• Clone - sealable incubation vessel - 2000gp
• Gate - perfect diamond - 5000gp
• Hallow - herbs, oils and incense (consumed) - 1000gp
• Holy Aura - tinu reliquary - 1000 gp
• Identify - pearl - 100gp
• Legend Lore - four carved ivory strips - 200gp
• Magic Jar - ruby that draws in light - 500gp
• Plane Shift - tuning fork - 250gp
• Scrying - basin with pure spring water - 1000 gp
• Warding Bond - paired platinum rings - 50 gp

GLOG wizard: pyromancer

Found this GLOG wizard class in a homebrew I prepped for first time players and hey, why not share it? Based on the Elementalist. Very much Oh Fuck Its A Wizard. Damage-focused and probably overpowered compared to regular GLOG wizards because they recover magic dice so easily, but let me know what you think.

THE GLOG AND ITS WIZARDS, BRIEFLY

I tend to write for people who know of a general topic (roleplaying, physics) but aren't immersed in it. So, just in case: the GLOG or Goblin Laws of Gaming by Goblin Punch is a trimmed down version of D&D, optimised for speed, improvisation, table rulings over lengthy rule lookups, and customizability.

Original and further posts by Goblin Punch, pirate variation by Skerples, overview of the GLOG's many contributors by DIY and Dragons.

GLOG wizards in particular:

• come in four levels of power and risk life, limb and soul using magic
• get one magic die (MD) and one spell slot per power level
• can use a wand (has one spell memorized) and robes (+1 MD)
• learn 2 spells at level 1, one spell at each next power level, from a widening spell list (d6&d6,d8,d10,+6 spells from list)
• invest MD to cast memorized spells in spell slots, which run off the [sum] of the [dice]
• retain MD that roll 1-3, lose MD that roll 4-6, refresh all after a good night's sleep
• have always-active perks and drawbacks, and cantrip spells they can cast without using MD

Source: Kevin Keele

PYROMANCER

Fire was the second spirit we made a deal with - ancient, hungry, always in danger of running wild. Orthodox wizards may sling more refined spells, but none with the purity of flame.

Perks: can recover one magic die by starting a fire and tending it for an hour. This is your only way of recovering magic dice.

Drawbacks: smell slightly smoked, cannot eat uncooked food. Forbidden to put out fires and cannot cast fire magic if you are soaking wet. Use the Size of fire table below to determine how many magic dice you lose when hit with an equivalent amount of water. Four buckets of water should drench you, as will a barrel full.

Right off the bat, you're a pyromaniac. You're always fiddling with fire because that is where your power comes from. I'd say that you cannot actively put out a fire with water or sand, but you can let it peter out in a controlled way. You could also stop a forest fire by starting a controlled burn in its path and exhaust the local fuel supply. Your drawback is easy to predict and accessible even for townsfolk: soak the pyro in water so he can't burn you to death.


Cantrips

1. You can always start a fire, even if the wood is soaked or a gale is blowing.
2. Snap your fingers to summon a flame the size of a candle's for a second. Cannot deal damage.
3. Sense the direction and rough distance to the nearest fire.

Useful cantrips, but you'll need them if you want to perform magic. I'd rule you can't start a fire underwater (your drawback would prevent your magic from working), but in a monsoon, you can either keep a tiny flame going or sense the nearest village with a fire pit.

Dawww. Source Nishio Nanora

MISHAPS OF THE PYROMANCER

(On doubles on magic dice; suffer the mishap that matches any matching dice. Yes, 2-2-5-5 makes you suffer two mishaps at the same time.)

1. MD only return to your pool on a 1-2 for 24 hours 
2. Take 1d6 damage 
3. Random mutation for 1d6 rounds, then make a save. Permanent if you fail. 
4. Burn-out. Cannot regain [dice] for 24 hours. 
5. Burning agony incapacitates you for 1d6 rounds. 
6. Bursts of 2d6 fire fly to random flammable targets in 50', 1d6 rounds. 

Mishaps 1-3 are standard; mishaps 4-6 show what happens when you lose control.

DOOM OF THE PYROMANCER

(On triples on magic dice; each time, take the next higher Doom)

1. Take sufficient fire damage to reduce you to zero HP.
2. Each time you cast a fire spell, Save Cha or the spell flies out of control and escapes into the world. Treat your spells well, and good luck luring them back into your spellbook.
3. Fire consumes you.Take enough fire damage to reduce you to a pile of ash. This doom can be avoided by performing a great service to Fire, such as reigniting a dormant volcano or resurrecting the mythical Phoenix bird.

A big goal of senior Pyromancers is to hunt for Phoenix eggs, or to unblock a lava tube. A big goal of non-Pyromancers on the same continent is to stop them.




Size of fire: [dice]
An apprentice can't yet command a forest fire, and even a master will struggle to make a forest fire do their bidding.

1. torch - can fit in the palm of your hand, perhaps fill a bucket.
2. campfire - size of a barrel or a small child.
3. pyre - size of a cart -or a person- requires two hands to control. 
4. bonfire - size of a cottage, requires two hands and half your movement to control
5. conflagration - size of a small keep or forest fire, requires two hands and your whole round to control

Anyone else feel cold huh huh huh

Anima banner: your inner fire made manifest
An idea I got while adding images. This fits with Oh Fuck Its A Wizard. As a Pyromancer, fire is in your very soul and the more magic you use, the more this spills out into the waking world. As you cast spells, you will be surrounded with a ghostly image of fire; it doesn't start fires and doesn't burn anything it comes into contact with but it is bright. This anima banner (stolen directly from Exalted) starts as near-invisible flames and blossoms into an iconic image.

When you cast a fire spell, increase your current anima level by the number of [dice].
Anima levels drop by 1 for every scene you're not actively using magic.

1. From certain angles, a flickering flame seems to dance on your brow. Subsides an hour after you stop using magic.
2. The soulfire on your brow is visible from across the room. Disadvantage on stealth. Subsides one level a turn after you stop using magic.
3. Your entire body is enveloped in soulfire bright enough to read by and the flame on your brow is a golden blaze that shines through any covering. Stealth is impossible. Subsides one level a turn after you stop using magic.
4. You are enveloped by a bonfire from your feet to a foot above your crown. Anything it touches becomes bleached as if left in the sun for may days. Enough light to read by out to 100 feet. Visible a mile away. Subsides one level a turn after you stop using magic.
5. Your towering soulfire takes the shape of the great spirit of fire that inspires you; for instance, a fiery dragon, a powerful smith, a twisting salamander, a hulking efreet, a golden bull. The spirit moves, observes, responds, but takes no direct actions. The glare is visible for miles. Ghost heat prickles the skin out to a spearcast. Thankfully, subsides one level the next round you use no magic.

Pyromancers should have anima banners that flare up the more [dice] they use. Cool. Let's add that to the class. Image found here

SPELLS

Pyromancer apprentice spells

1. Control fire
Range: 50’
Target: existing fire up to [dice] size
Duration: concentration up to [sum] rounds

• Shrink a fire up to [dice] size steps down to 1 for [sum] rounds (concentration to maintain)
• Make a fire grow up to [dice] size steps for [sum] rounds
• Move a fire up to [dice] size a distance up to your movement speed

Talk to a fire, see if you can get it to do something for you. Note that you can't completely extinguish a fire, and that it's quite easy to make a fire grow out of your control. At least a fire that's too big for its fuel source will burn itself out. (You flame murderer.) Then again, if a bigger fire finds the powder room or dries out the undergrowth enough to catch fire...)





2. Protection from fire
Range: touch
Target: [dice] targets
Duration: 10 minutes / 8 hours
Ignore [sum]+[dice] fire damage for 10 minutes. Alternatively, the spell protects its targets from the negative effects of heat for the next 8 hours.

Was very tempted to make this a higher level power. But I like the idea of wild-eyed apprentices thinking they're now invulnerable to flame.



3. Ignite
Range: 50'
Target: object or creature
Duration: 0
Target takes [sum] damage and catches on fire. Save negates.

Upgraded version of your firestarter cantrip. You need this. Start more fires. Fire fire fire. Yes, this spell as written can set anything on fire. Fires burn out without a fuel source.

Source: GunBooster

4. Ancient Flame
Range: touch
Target: ashes
Cast upon ashes to determine what they were before they were burnt. You can see what happened in the [sum] rounds before the object caught fire. [dice] determines how old the ashes can be:
1 [dice]: a day
2 [dice]: a week
3 [dice]: a year
4 [dice]: a decade
5 [dice]: a century or more

Because fire is more than damage; it's destruction and rebirth. Crazy pyros swirling their hands through ashes and getting wild visions.



5. Wall of Fire
Range: 20’
Target: wall
Duration: 1 minute
You summon fire to form a 10’ by 10’ panel per [dice]. You can mold the wall, similar to cutting holes and notches in a sheet of paper. The wall does not block line of sight. It deals 1d6 fire damage to anything that passes through it. Save vs Dex or be set on fire.

Seen it before? Sure. Love the classics. Fire is beauty. Fire keeps you safe. Build more fires.

6. Fire Sight
Range: 10'
Target: fire you lit from another fire
Duration: concentration
Cast this on a fire you lit from another fire that is still burning. You can see and hear as if you were present at the site of the original fire. At 2 [dice], can speak through the fire (flames take on shape of your face). At 3 [dice], can cast spells on the original fire.

It'll take a bit of setting up, but now you can use fire to scry and cast at a distance. Light the lord's privy council fire with an ember from the kitchen or the smithy. Hear his words, strike him down from afar. Yes, you can multiclass and cast other spells through this link.


Pyromancer adept spells



7. Fireball
Range: 200'
Target: 20' diameter
Duration: 0
Does [sum] fire damage to all objects.

Some schools get fireball only as a legendary spell. Those schools are amateurs who are playing with entirely too little fire.

I'm in love. Found here

8. Black Flame
Range: 50'
Target: fire up to [dice] size
Duration: [dice] hours
Cause a fire equal to or smaller than [dice] size to stop shedding heat or light.

You can not see it,  you cannot feel it. You just hear the crackling of the wood around you and then your skin turns to ash. Light a torch with black flame and wander through the castle.

Source: Lucas Graciano

Master pyromancer spells
 
9. Fiery retribution
Range: self / target within 50'
Duration: [dice] x 10 minutes or depleted
Target who attacks you immediately takes 2x [dice] fire damage. Once this spell has dealt [sum] damage, it ends.
Fire you want fire I will give you fire


10. Unburn
Range: touch
Target: flame
Duration: concentration up to [sum] minutes
Cause a burnt item up to [dice] size to become whole again in [dice] rounds. Target will burn again once you stop concentrating.

Again with the utility magic. Players can peer back in time, disguise stuff they need to smuggle as ash, and so on. Reconstitute ancient warriors from the fire that consumed them. A zombie is a size 3 fire; a skeleton a size two. An ancient fire dragon, burnt out after its death, size 5. Gives you zero control over anything you Unburn.

Source Tavener Scholar

11. Heart fire
Range/target: fire within 50'
Duration: 1 round per [dice] refreshed
Pull fire from a nearby blaze and reshape it. You temporarily refresh a number of MD up to the fire's size-1. These dice remain for [dice] rounds; each round, you lose one of them.


This might be overpowered. I just can't resist the idea of a pyromancer, cornered and exhausted after lighting the castle on fire, nothing left to throw at the guards...and then she sucks in the surrounding blaze. Verges on the edge of extinguishing a fire, so be a good pyromancer and start some fresh fires to make up for that.


Mythical spells

12. Body of Fire
Range: self
Duration: [dice] rounds
You turn into a fire elemental; immune to fire damage, vulnerable to water/cold, touch deals 1d6 fire damage.

I am become FIRE. Cannot fly, cannot enter water, in fact water is now deadly poison to you. But fuck water. Droplets evaporate before they touch you, rain creates a hissing cloud of steam, and it all doesn't matter because you're blazing away like a happy little elemental.


13. Phoenix
Range: within 50' of a bonfire sized fire
Target: self
Duration: special
You can cast this as a reflex when you take enough damage to kill you. Explode in an impressive shower of sparks. If taking [sum] less damage would not have killed you, you reform in 100 / [dice] hour.

Inspired by a psionics power from D&D. Keep some magic dice in reserve to try and cheat death.

I'd rule that savvy enemies who know of this spell can douse your ashes in water to prevent your resurrection. Keep in mind that it's rare and mythical, so they'd have to see it once. If a fire the size of the [dice] you used could be extinguished by the amount of water used, you stay dead.

(Or do you just wait until the ashes dry out? Ancient pyromancers finally reconstituting after the amphora holding their ashes in holy water gets broken by adventurers. "I. I need. I need FIRE." Awesome.)

Found here

More Necromancy

I started writing up new 5E necromancy spells because regular death magic is so bare bones. Previous batch here.

Bare bones necromancy, get it?

BLOODLINK

Take a discarded bandage, curse someone from the comfort of your secluded mansion. Drawbacks, sure - you need fresh body parts of their intended victim, burn twice as many spell slots, and will need a lot of time to cast high level magic. On the plus side, you get to channel all their hate into a high gothic ritual with chanting and candles and skulls. Too bad those attract meddling hero types like flies. I see this spell being used in two ways: one, as a simple range extender to harrass too-powerful opponents; and two, as an evil working by an enemy wizard that the party will have to thwart. 

You have five days to find the necromancer before he turns the princess to stone! (Or takes over her mind via Magic Jar...)

Level 1 Necromancy - warlock, wizard
Casting time: special, components: VSM (fresh body part)
Target: someone you have a sample of flesh or blood of

Range: special

Toe nail clippings, a hair follicle, a drop of blood - enough of the soul remains in these to forge a link with the greater body. Bloodlink lets you harness that link and send another spell across it. This spell consumes the body part used to make the Bloodlink.

(Which is why cursecraft and scrying is so much easier with some fresh blood on hand. Which is why many experienced wizards never cut their nails and epilate all their hair. Freaks.)


What Bloodlink does for you

Bloodlink lets another spell  with a single target ignore the distance to the target - see the "at higher levels" section for the range. Bestow Curse yes; Fireball or Cloudkill no. If the spell requires an attack roll, you roll this at advantage. The body part must be fresh; generally, no longer than a day old. Gentle Repose can help out here. Undead flesh comes pre-preserved - liches are extra careful with lost body parts, and extra vindictive if you try to target them this way. Constructs or Elementals have no souls.

You need to power Bloodlink with a spell slot at least equal to the level of the spell that will travel across it. Want to Vampiric Touch someone at range? Pay an extra 3rd level spell slot or higher.

Thoth-Amon

How to defend against Bloodlink
Targets can sense Bloodlink by a growing sense of foreboding; an Arcana roll (difficulty 20) by themself or another makes it clear that there is a Bloodlink being formed.

These feelings of unease happen once every [largest lower category] of time remaining, so a ritual taking 1 hour to cast would give a warning every 10 minutes, then once per minute, then once per round. A year-long ritual first pings every season, then every month, week, day, hour, and so on.)

Scrying attempts by the target on the caster of Bloodlink work as if they were very familiar with them. If the target is in a Magic Circle powered with at least the same spell slot as Bloodlink, they gain advantage against any saves and the attacker rolls any attack at disadavantage. At higher levels, counter-striking via scry/teleport becomes viable.

Casting time per spell level:
L1 - 1 round. L2 - 1 minute. L3 - 10 minutes. L4 - 1 hour. L5 - 8 hours. L6 - 1 week*. L7 - 1 month*. L8 - 1 season*. L9 - 1 year*.

* 8h/day; can cast take short breaks and cast other spells during this period, maximum 10 minutes between stopping this spell and picking it up again.

I've been fiddling with a way to lower the casting town of higher level spells down to a full day, but got hung up on pricing. 10% of total character wealth (I used 1 XP --> 1 gp) sounds not unreasonable for lowering the casting time all the way, but XP progression is nonlinear and I didn't want to calculate polynomials at the table.

At higher level:
level 1-3: range 1 mile/level
level 4-6: range 10 miles/level
level 7-9: range anywhere on same plane

Again, I was tempted to tack extra effects onto the spell, like higher levels ignoring saves or even resistances. In the end I decided that this was turning Bloodlink into the one tool every wizard would want to use for getting rid of rivals - no save against Disintegrate cast from 100 miles away? No thanks. You'll get a week's worth of premonitions to prepare. Either scry for the person attacking you, or sleep in a warding circle.

The Magic Circle by John William Waterhouse (1886)

BONE CHIMES

Let's do a simpler spell. This is basically Alarm, but more freaky and useful as an early warning system against torchbearing mobs. Of course it means hiding bird bones all around your house, which may raise the kind of questions that lead the mob to form in the first place.


Level 2 Necromancy, wizard / warlock / druid
Range: jackdaw bones touched, 1 mile range from central skull
Duration: 24h

A good host is always prepared for guests - especially those of the torch and pitchfork persuasion. While Skullsight helps to spy on the mob from afar, Bone Chimes lets a necromancer know they should start paying attention in the first place.

Bone chimes enchants the bones of a jackdaw, which can then be hidden around a necromancer's abode. Each bone functions as the centre of an Alarm spell (range 20ft from the bone). The jackdaw's skull will caw the name of a triggered bone. The caster can enchant one bone per level of the spell slot used (so 2 bones minimum).

Once the bones are hidden, recasting the spell means visiting them all with the jackdaw's skull in hand. Individual bones can be included and excluded at each casting.

More creepy precautions. "Ribcage! Wing bone! Spine! Ankle!" Also works with monkey skeletons or fishbones, for necromancers in other climes.

Totally inconspicuous. From.

DEATH CURSE

Quite the opposite of subtle necromancy, this is a last all-out strike before you die. Put the fear of the Authority in the witch hunters that decide to come after you.

Level 3 Necromancy - cleric, warlock, wizard

Range: 30 feet

You die without any hope of resurrection. A Wish or Miracle can maybe rebuild something approximating you, but there will be clear personality changes and memory gaps.

That's the bad news.

Interestingly, your corpse cannot even be animated as an undead - this spell shreds every last part of your soul as you die in agony.

Or you can try and use Death Curse to overclock a Passwall spell. Who am I to judge. From

Good to know you won't come back to haunt people, I guess. So what's the good news?

Death Curse is lightning fast and releases enough energy to power a hefty geas or curse. The standard spell functions like Bestow Curse, but if you have other curse-like spells prepared (see below), you can use those instead.

This spell is fast enough to cast as a reaction (5E) to something that would kill you; a fatal wound, an incoming fireball, a deadly axe swipe, a dragon landing on you. Can use this after you hear how much damage you will take, but otherwise has to be used right away or not at all.

You can target anyone within 30 feet with your Death Curse, up to the number of targets allowed by the spell effect. Make an attack if the spell effect calls for one, and targets make any save to resist the spell at disadvantage. If you only target the person who kills you, they do not get a save at all.

Can you make every spell a Death Curse if you're undead? I'd rule no, but my players don't need to know that.

Powering this spell with a higher spell slot lets you unleash more inventive curses. Spell effects last for 1 day per level of the spell slot unless permanent (i.e. death spells).

Good spell effects for Death Curse are:

(3rd level slot) - Bestow Curse, Fear, Slow
(4th level slot) - Confusion, Polymorph
(5th level slot) - Geas, Nightmare, Modify Memory
(6th level slot) - Eyebite, Otto's Irresistable Dance
(7th level slot) - Etherealness*, Sequester, Symbol
(8th level slot) - Antipathy**/Sympathy***, Feeblemind, Maze****
(9th level slot) - Imprisonment, Power Word Kill

Obviously these spells need some ruling to make them work well as ongoing curses. Here's my take on things:

* target becomes ethereal -a ghost- for the duration. Does not need food or drink.

** "may you never know love"

*** "may you smell delicious"

**** target still needs food and drink for the duration. Escape checks rolled once per day, not per round. Planar travel spells should also work, or try Banishing yourself to your home plane.

A death spell? You'll wish it was a death spell. Now Otto's Irresistable Dance forever.

Slightly subtler Necromancy

A fireball can cook an enemy platoon, polymorph can turn a bishop into a frog. But only a necromancer can rip out your soul and reanimate your husk to hunt down your friends. Necromancy spells in 5th edition D&D are wicked but vulgar. They are spectacular; they are terrifying; and apart from some of the curses* they are hard to disguise.

* curses: such as blindness/deafness, bestow curse, ray of sickness/enfeeblement, or eyebite.

Use necromancy in front of a crowd and you will be feared, then hunted as an abomination. There has to be more to this school than slinging death spells like a culty loon. Why do subtler people get into death magic and what spells do they learn?

The hand? I don't need the hand. This talisman though... (FeliciaAcano / Deviantart)

I may be trying to inject too much realism into a fantasy game, but if your magic isn't of much mundane use** and cannot be used openly, why study it at all? A necromancer should be subtle if they want to survive. Their spells should make that possible, and better: they should be worth learning even with the taboo on necromancy.  Here are low-key spells*** for the hidden death wizard.

** you can question the daily usability of other arcane schools. Abjuration - how many demons are running around anyway? Evocation - I know that there's a war on, but do we need artillery on daily standby? And so on. At least an evoker can help out by protecting a village from bandits and a diviner can find smugglers for the lord. There's little use for a witch who can raise undead at a whim.

*** consider this post an homage to Goodberry Monthly's excellent post of necromancy spells.

WHAT NECROMANCY CAN BE ABOUT

Death; souls; life force; memories. Necromancy is concerned with what is in the blood or in the bones. Visceral stuff, more than superficial enchantment or transmutation.

A necromancer learns to find the memories locked in the lower soul, the soul that stays with a body. They learn from the dead, call up spirits to advise them, let themselves be partially possessed, splice a foreign soul onto their own to power a graft.

Fine, sometimes a huge zombie is exactly what you need. (Dresden Files / Dead Beat. Awesome.) - DSillustration / Deviantart

JUST GIMME THE SPELLS I NEED THE SPELLS

My Father’s Axe

1st level Necromancy (wizard/warlock)

1 minute to cast, range: touch, components: VSM (the item)

Concentration up to 1 round / level

Binds the spirit of a dead owner to an heirloom tool - an axe, scythe, pen , etc. For the duration, you have proficiency in using the tool or weapon, or advantage if already proficient.

Relaxing your concentration on this spell voluntarily lulls the animating spirit to sleep, recasting wakes it again. Breaking concentration because of damage or a distraction risks the spirit running wild; Wisdom save versus the spell DC, or act without proficiency (or with disadvantage if you didn't have proficiency to begin with). In this case, can only put down the item on a successful save; it stays wild and uncontrolled until the maximum duration lapses.

At higher level: level 2 - duration 1 minute per caster level, level 3 - the item will work for another than yourself, level 4 - duration 10 minutes per caster level, level 5 - duration 1 hour per level and no more concentration required (or chance of the spirit breaking its binding). 

For when you don't dare to bind a spirit to its own corpse or allow yourself to be ridden by it. A utility spell to get temporary proficiency in a tool or weapon. Limited in that you need to find an actual heirloom, useful because it lets you function as a Jack of All Trades, using thieves' tools, a poisoner's kit, a sword and so on. Can double as a curse if you break concentration while someone else is using the item. I'd allow this spell to automatically decypher a code or disable a trap if they had a tool from the creator.

Now you know why necromancers steal grave goods. That cup's owner used to mix some brilliant poisons. Found here.

Bone Memory

2nd level Necromancy (wizard/warlock)

10 minutes to cast, range: self/touch, components: VSM (remains and 50 gp scrimshawed bone piercing)

Concentration up to 10 min / level

Bones remember how they moved in life. You bind someone's lower soul to a piece of their scrimshawed bone and wear it as a piercing. (Actually it just needs to taste your blood once and stay in skin contact.) For the duration of the spell, you can use one Str/Dex/Con skill the deceased knew in life. (Athletics, Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth).

At higher level: level 3 - can grant this spell to a willing target (who you need to pierce), level 4 - also gain proficiency in a physical saving throw the deceased had (may be for another ability than the skill is associated with).

Generally useful to have a piece of bone of a famous thief, acrobat or strongman. More specifically, if you have a bone of someone who knew the traps in a hallway, I'd allow this spell to show which trapped tiles and locks to avoid. Good way for the DM to feed information to a party. "The bone anklet sucks in another drop of your blood and nudges you to a painting. Behind it, you find a hidden alcove."

A scrimshaw magnifying glass - smear blood on it and you'll be amazed at what it shows you. From.

Crow's Brew

2nd level Necromancy (wizard/warlock)

1 round to cast, range: touch, components: VSM (a dead person's eye)

Concentration up to 1 round / level

Pluck a corpse's eye and drink it. You can mash and mix the eye with ale or spirits if you like, but you need to consume it entirely. The spell lets you see what the deceased saw right before they died: starting at the moment of death, each round you maintain this spell shows you what happened one round earlier.

At higher level: level 4 - duration becomes 1 minute per caster level, level 5 - 1 hour per level

A lesser version of Speak with Dead - you gain more limited information but without having to haggle with some obnoxious spirit. This is visual only, so try and pick up lip reading.

From

Little Messenger

2nd level Necromancy (wizard/warlock)

10 rounds to cast, range: touch, components: VSM (a tiny dead animal)

1 hour / level

Reanimates a small animal (cat-sized or smaller) as a messenger. Anoint a mostly intact animal corpse with a salve of cow fat and boiled frog meat. The little monstrosity that claws itself back to animation will carry a package up to one inventory slot (a longsword, a couple of potions) to a location or direction you command. Once it reaches its destination or when the spell runs out, the thing escapes your binding and runs amock for 1d10 rounds, then collapses. 

Ok, not subtle but definitely creepy fun. A necromancer's version of Animal Messenger. Frenzied ghoul rabbits in your enemy's bed aside, this allows you to deliver messages and light weight packages. Lasts shorter than Animal Messenger, and doesn't convey your voice, but on the plus side you can have the beastie carry anything up to the weight limit.

Dead mice in your bed? You wish it were mice.

Essential Saltes

3rd level Necromancy (wizard/warlock)

13 hours and 3 rounds to cast, range: touch, components: VSM (a body and 150 gp in lab supplies)

Indefinite duration

“The essential Saltes of Animals may be so prepared and preserved, that an ingenious Man may have the whole Ark of Noah in his own Studie, and raise the fine Shape of an Animal out of its Ashes at his Pleasure; and by the lyke Method from the essential Saltes of humane Dust, a Philosopher may, without any criminal Necromancy, call up the Shape of any dead Ancestour from the Dust whereinto his Bodie has been incinerated.”

–H.P. Lovecraft, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

You reduce a corpse to its essential saltes to revive them later. The alchemical preparations take 13 hours and 150 gp of supplies (doubled per larger size category) from a well-stocked lab worth 1000 gp (tomes, retorts, foci, astrolabes etc). With this urn of fine blue-grey powder, you can recall the creature to life and return it to dust at any time. The corpse must be whole for the rendering to work (dessicated mummy or skeleton is ok, but a lone skull is not) and can belong to an animal or sentient creature.

Label your urns carefully, because this spell gives no direct control over the reconstituted creature. A magic circle in binding configuration may be used to hedge in the summoned creature and negotiate terms of service. Cthulhufiles has inspiration for set dressing.

As the warning goes:

"I say to you againe, doe not call up Any that you cannot put downe; by the Which I mean, Any that can in Turne call up somewhat against you, whereby your Powerfullest Devices may not be of use. Ask of the Lesser, lest the Greater shall not wish to answer, and shall commande more than you."

Abilities: 

• The creature remembers all that it knew in life but remembers the time since its death only as a vague nightmare. 
• The creature has all statistics and abilities it had in life, but none of its belongings. Any missing body parts or broken bones are reflected as permanent injuries.
• The creature knows spells prepared at the time of death but reconstitutes with all spells slots expended.

Weaknesses:

• The creature reconstitutes suffering from 4 levels of exhaustion, which can only be cured by feeding it blood from a living victim of its own species. Every day of drinking blood cures one level of exhaustion. (Exhaustion level 1: Disadvantage on ability checks - 2: Speed halved - 3: Disability on saves and attacks - 4: hit points halved). Happens even if the creature is normally immune to exhaustion.
• While in sunlight, the creature has disadvantage on Attack rolls and Ability Checks. 
• Is, and can be turned as, an undead. Vulnerable to radiant damage. Has its bodily functions restored: can be poisoned or diseased, needs food and drink. Gods save you if it procreates. 
• Casting the spell's formula in reverse causes the creature horrific pain (half speed and disadvantage on all rolls) and can be used to unbind the magic. Full unbinding costs three rounds; every round, the creature loses 1/3 of its maximum hit points. It dissolves into its essential saltes at the end of the third round of chanting.

The classic, lifted directly from Lovecraft's Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Both more powerful and way more dangerous than Animate Dead. This spell returns a creature to life with its mind intact*. Can be used to interrogate dead sages or to call up some monster and set it loose.

*What went wrong with this resurrection? (d12)

1. Resents you for bringing it back to blood-dependent unlife.
2. Turned sociopathic (chaotic evil) by the trauma.
3. Wants to evade your control over it.
4. Seeks to find and awaken a hidden monstrosity.
5. Inhabited by strange and malevolent spirit, d6+2 HD.
6. Lost its mind. Animalistic, shuns light, hunts victims for blood and sport.
7. Lost many memories.
8. Murderous. Convinced it can reclaim its life by condemning others to the pit.
9. Convinced it is still in hell.
10. Wants to use this second chance at life to save its soul and enter heaven.
11. Obsessed with finding its descendants and rightful belongings.
12. Seems perfectly rational and sane.

Label these. You wouldn't want to mix up the sage and the axe murderer. (etsy)

Untiring Flesh / Awakened Spirit

3rd level Necromancy (wizard/warlock)

1 round to cast, range: self or touch, components: VSM (a talisman crafted from a corpse)

Concentration up to 1 hour

You or the target will need to wear a mummified body part for this spell to work. A Hand of Glory or a minor relic will both work - the latter being infinitely easier to explain away to curious priests. Each talisman corresponds to one ability that can be boosted. Talismans need to be harvested from someone famous for the ability to be boosted (a strongman, a wisewoman, a silvertongued rogue, a sage).

Targets have the boosted ability raised to 18 and make all checks with this ability with advantage. Also:

• Strength - encumbrance 36, triple jump distance
• Dexterity - speed +10, can run across water as long as you start and end your turn on land
• Constitution - +2d6 temporary hit points, and tireless: immune to exhaustion
• Intelligence - hypercognition*: can ask the DM one answer and receive a short but truthful answer (as Divination).
• Wisdom - mindreader*: can cast detect thoughts or tongues
• Charisma - silvertongued*: can cast suggestion

* Using this ability ends the spell for you.

At higher level: add one target OR one hour of duration per spell level over 3rd. New targets will also need to have a dedicated talisman.

A boosted version of Enhance Ability. The spellcasting ability for mental abilities may be a bit powerful. On the other hand, this encourages social interaction rather than hacking, so I'll keep it.

Sure, you could go for one of the classics...

...or make one item with all the bone fetishes you might need.

Skullsight

3rd level Necromancy (wizard/warlock) (edit: originally 4th level, felt like too high)

10 minutes to cast, components: VSM (the skull and 100 gp powdered opal in milk)

Concentration up to 1 min / level, range: prepared skull on this plane

You can see out of the eye sockets of a skull that you personally prepared by casting this spell over it (which expends the 100 gp in powdered opal). Your vision works as if you were present, including factors such as darkness or mist or coverings. The skull can be anywhere on the same plane as you when you cast this spell. While you maintain this spell, your own senses are dulled to the point of uselessness.

At higher level: level 4 - duration becomes 10 min / level, level 5 - can access up to 5 skulls at a time, level 6 - duration becomes 1 hour / level and you can also hear sounds near a skull.

Somewhere between level 3 Clairvoyance (strictly close range) and level 5 Scrying (for which you only need to know your target, or have something that belonged to them).

Yes, very dread. But did you check who sourced all the skulls for your fortress? (From)

Wizards: the Hollow Tree

Gravedigger. Corpse Stealer. Ghoul.

Necromancer.

As a member of the Hollow Tree, you learn arcane secrets of death and the soul. The church of the Authority will hunt you for your practices. But your order is older than the church and knows its rotten secret. One day, the world will know what it lost and the Hollow Tree will blossom again. Until then, this is the most dangerous Wizardly Order to belong to.

By Lotte Teusink

Membership in the Hollow Tree should feel like equal parts mystery sect and unlicensed nuclear operator. Admittance is by sponsorship and secret vote. You maybe know one or two higher members and a handful of fellow apprentices - and that's in the thicker branches of the Tree. Most likely you just know your Master and some scraps of lore. Initiation into the deeper mysteries takes years of earning trust. And for that trust, society will hunt you as an abomination.

Why did you want this, again?

HERITAGE

The Hollow Tree is a loose underground network of death wizards. Most are part of single master-apprentice chains, with some larger cabals bringing members together and sharing knowledge. Members are chosen for brains, subtlety and a relaxed attitude towards what society calls vile heresy.

The Tree teaches how they are the lone survivors of the shining Du'vanku civilization, unfairly laid low by the Creator. How serious you take all this secret history is up to you - maybe you nod along and see it all as a metaphor, maybe you're indignant and want to reclaim your lost heritage.

Meanwhile the Hollow Tree is the world's biggest repository of necromantic knowledge outside the Nightlands. They dabble in all schools, and most of their necromancy is about contacting spirits, reviving old memories, strengthening the soul. These are some of their spells.

Necromancy is like getting into nuclear physics to give medical treatments, and learning about applications for enriched uranium along the way. The player handbook's weaponized necromancy is a terror weapon - it's there, but it's not all that necromancy is about and it's rarely used. The motto of the Tree is to be subtle, grow and spread. A member raising an army of the undead is off the deep end, at best a useful decoy so the real necromancers can slip away.

Maybe you were trained to be that useful idiot.

TEACHINGS

You are taught the truth of things. (Highlight to read.)
Also check out the Church's take on Wizardry.

On the Authority:

• There is one true god, and He is the Authority. There are thousands of minor gods, hunted for power by the Church. The Sleeping Priests of the Olmadicians keep some of them in a coma until they can be properly tamed.
• The Authority created all that is. Hardly. He is a lowly, underqualified bureaucrat who took over when the Creator suicided.
• The Church of the Authority has always existed. It is barely 700 years old. The world, 5.000 years at least. Those are the oldest Du'vanku settlements. The world might be older still.
• Faith in the Authority will get you into heaven. True Heaven was a separate plane. It was destroyed or lost by the Creator when the Du'vanku journeyed to join him there. The Authority's Heaven is a hastily constructed shack on a cloud. It is way too small to house all the souls of the righteous.
• Blasphemy against the Authority will land you in hell. Sin and Hell were invented by the Church to divert the flood of souls that should all be allowed into True Heaven.

Blessed Be the Host of the King of Heaven, a Russian icon from the 1550s

 

On the Du'vanku empire:

• The Du'vanku were arch-blasphemers. These necromancers tried to usurp heaven. More like stable adults who didn't appreciate the Creator imposing his rules on their civilization.
• Their homelands are the Nightlands, filled with blasted unlife. Whose suicide wrecked True Heaven and cursed our ancestral lands again?
• The Authority broke the Du'vanku empire at the day of First Dawn, when he founded our Church and gave us new rules for just behavior. Please. The Authority was starving on a cloud after the Creator suicided. He forced his cult on a broken population to get his daily dose of mana.
• The Authority changed the nature of magic after the Du'vanku rebellion. That is why there are no arcane spells of the 7th Circle or higher. More like these are the spells we need to reach other planes and see the truth with our own eyes. The Authority didn't change anything, the Church just burned the libraries and anyone who knew these spells. But we keep looking... 

On Necromancy:

• Necromancy is a crime against divine and natural law. It's simply the best tool we have to save our souls from Hell.
• Necromancers strive for Undeath, a ceaseless torture of the soul. That's not completely wrong. Undead are a last-resort option we sometimes need to use to protect ourselves from our enemies. Binding a soul to a rotting frame is distasteful and pretty hard to do right. That is why lower order zombies and skeletons are almost mindless. Higher magics exist that make more intelligent undead, but even those aren't all too stable.
• Necromancy spells are a tool of terror, suitable only to curse, kill or raise as a foulness. Lies. There are many spells of the soul that have nothing to do with death or undeath. (Here's some of those spells!)

Last resort, honest. from

DUBIOUS BENEFITS OF BEING IN THE HOLLOW TREE

• Your enemies know many things, but likely not high grade Necromancy. This is good. You know what that shit can do to someone.
• You get to experience the Dark Sun wizard's thrill of having to hide the source of your power or be hunted down. Disguise your wand as a cane, your staff as a scythe or shovel, your crystal sphere as a glass eye.
• You have no formal papers as a wizard, unless you obtained fakes somehow (500 gp debt, monthly 10 gp down payment.) In this case, you can have a job as a wizard - disgraced or even part of another Order - as long as you play the part.
• You have a master (mentor) who sponsored your membership in the Hollow Tree. Every wizard level (including first), they will teach you one Necromancy spell for free. You and your DM will work out this spellbook together.
• Hollow Tree wizards write their spells in Du'van, the speech of the Du'Vanku empire. This is incredibly dangerous: all it takes is one church rat to recognizes the language in your spellbook and the mob will form. 
• As a dubious bonus, you are proficient in History (Du'vanku) and can read, write and speak Du'van. 
• You can whisper your spells so that listeners do not immediately spot that you're speaking Du'van.
• Keeping a decoy spellbook in Elemental is a wise choice - you will need to pay 25 gp per spell level to copy your Du'van spells into Elemental. You always write new spells in Du'van first.
• Necromancy spells were optimized for Du'van and the oath you take when joining the Hollow Tree forbids you to translate them. Make sure your enemies don't get access to this magic.
• Translating Necromancy into Elemental anyway would take twice as much gold as other spells from other schools. You'll still have Necromancy spells in your new Elemental spellbook and recognizably so, now that you've helpfully translated them for the inquisition.
• The Linguist feat lets you build a personal cypher to hide the details of your spellbook. Encrypting spells to prevent them secrets being stolen isn't all that uncommon for wizards.