Cambridge University Treasure Trap

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Brown Magic

This is the teaching syllabus used by all the masters of the Earth College of the Brotherhood of Magic, Grantabrugge.

More information about Earth Magic may be found in the Earth College players' guide.

  • Level 0: Create Pebble
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: A pebble or stone, no larger across than the caster's handspan, appears in the caster's hand. (The caster should provide a LARP-safe throwing rock or other suitable physrep.)

  • Level 1: Harden Stone
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: Enchants a (LARP safe) blunt throwing weapon to do + 1 degree of damage, converting all its damage to Brown damage. The magic is expended on the first thing the weapon hits, then dissipates.

  • Level 1: Mending
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: Torn, bent and broken items become whole under your t ouch - touch a piece of armour to restore armour on that location to full strength.

  • Level 2: Skin of Pebble
  • Range: Self
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged
  • Effect: Your skin becomes smooth and hard - gain four points of global armour. This may also be cast to repair four points of damage to any other armour-granting Earth spell you may be under. Armour spells do not otherwise stack or interact..

  • Level 2: Talk to Inanimate
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: You may communicate freely with a single touched inanimate object. Requires a ref to play the part of the object - if you can't find one, well, that object must not want to talk. Objects will always tell you everything they could have discovered via the sense of touch while under the influence of this spell (i.e. have they been used lately?), will often boast (or complain) about anything particularly special about them that you might not have noticed (i.e. 'have you seen my hidden compartment?', or 'Actually, I am insanely valuable to collectors of Andalucian sculpture', or 'stupid wretches couldn't even be bothered to put a decent lock on me, if you tap me hard on the corner I spring right open'), may give you precise directions to places they've been, and may tell you anything that someone standing where the object was might have seen occur (including such useful details as who's been picking them up and using them). The more 'intelligent' the item seems to be, the more likely it is to be intelligent enough to lie.

  • Level 3: Trip
  • Range: Target
  • Duration: 10 seconds
  • Effect: Call "Target, STRIKEDOWN 10!" as the target stumbles over a new patch of rough ground. (A favourite of earth mages.)

  • Level 3: Harden Club
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: Enchants a blunt object of less than 18" in length to do +1 degree of damage, converting all that weapon's damage to Brown damage.

  • Level 4: Harden Mace
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: Enchants a blunt weapon 42" or less in length to do +1 degree of damage, converting all that weapon's damage to Brown damage.

  • Level 4: Plate Self
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged
  • Effect: Your skin becomes hard and metallic - gain eight points of global armour. This may also be cast to patch a higher level armour spell by eight points, much like the lower level Skin of Pebble. Armour spells do not otherwise stack.

  • Level 5: Force of Earth
  • Range: Target
  • Duration: 30 seconds
  • Effect: Call "Target, STRIKEDOWN 30!" as the target is dragged to the ground and held there.

  • Level 5: Tremors
  • Range: Mass
  • Duration: 10 seconds
  • Effect: Call "MASS STRIKEDOWN 10!". You infuse all around you with heavy Earthen energy, causing them to fall to the ground and preventing them getting back up for 10 seconds, as if there were a minor, localised earthquake.

  • Level 6: Harden Staff
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: Enchants a blunt weapon of length 42" or more to do +1 degree of damage, converting all that weapon's damage to Brown damage. (This is just as good for massive warhammers (often favoured by brown warlocks) as it is for staves).

  • Level 6: Plate Other
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged
  • Effect: Touch one person; their skin becomes hard and metallic, granting them 8 points of global armour. This may be used to patch another person's armour-granting spell (but not a miracle). Armour spells do not otherwise stack.

  • Level 7: Earthquake
  • Range: Wide
  • Duration: 10 seconds
  • Effect: Call "WIDE STRIKEDOWN 10!" as you cause an actual earthquake to hit the area, causing everyone in the vicinity to fall over.

  • Level 7: Plate Others
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged
  • Effect: Touch three other people - either all at once, or immediately in sequence; their skin becomes hard and metallic, granting them 4 points of global armour. This may be used to patch another person's armour-granting spell (but not a miracle). Armour spells do not otherwise stack.

  • Level 8: Stoneskin
  • Range: Self
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged
  • Effect: Your skin becomes stony and almost impervious to damage. Gain 16 global armour. This could be used to patch another Earth armour spell you were under, but there would be little point unless you have uncovered some more powerful armour-granting magic.

  • Level 8: Strength of the World
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: Scene-Length or 5 minutes
  • Effect: Imbue a single touched blunt weapon of any length with the full majesty of the element of Earth. You may replace any damage call made with this weapon over the duration with BROWN SINGLE STRIKEDOWN.