Cambridge University Treasure Trap

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Grey Magic

The following is the teaching syllabus hastily thrown together when it was realised that students would be applying to the Grey College of the Brotherhood of Magic, Grantabrugge. At the bottom of this page can be found the two Warlock Cantrips, Grey cantrips only taught to members of the Guild of Warlocks.

Further information on the academics of the Grey College and their versatile magic is available in the Grey College players' guide.

  • Level 0: Detect Magic
  • Range: Target
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: Call "Target, Detect Magic" as you weave a complicated sensory pattern in front of your eyes, allowing you a general sense of the true elemental nature of all items in a cylinder approximately three feet across by five feet tall.

  • Level 1: Analyse Magic
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: Call "Recognise Magic" as you use a complex Grey matrix to enhance your natural ability to see magic, allowing you to see the true magical nature of a given person or item.

  • Level 1: Behold Magic
  • Range: Wide
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: Call "Wide Detect Magic" as you send out a brief call to the elements, noting the differences between the local area and the magical background count.

  • Level 2: Talk to Magical Effect
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: You may communicate with a spell or magical effect that has been cast on someone or something. Requires a ref to play the part of the spell or magical effect - if you can't find one, well, the magic must not want to talk. The magic may be able to tell you about itself (like who cast it, and when) and perhaps about its surroundings. More powerful magic is likely to be more intelligent, but also more likely to be intelligent enough to lie.

  • Level 2: Infuse Weapon
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: All the damage from one weapon you touch is converted into colourless Magic damage as you surround it with an uncomplicated corona of pure magic.

  • Level 3: Magic Missile
  • Range: Target
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: Call "Target, Magic Double" as you blast a single opponent with an unscientific bolt of pure magic.

  • Level 3: Repel Magic
  • Range: Self / Target
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged / Instant
  • Effect: You may call "Negate" to the next Magic or Colour damage call that you take, unless it is delivered by weapon. Or you may call "Target, HARM ELEMENTAL REPEL 10".

  • Level 4: Prismatic Blast
  • Range: Target (seven times)
  • Duration: Instant, for suitable values of instant
  • Effect: Call, in any order and all at a single target, "white half, black half, blue half, brown half, red half, green half, magic half" as your hand emits a coruscating spray of all the colours of magic at once. Note, if you are interrupted during this process, the rest of the calls are lost.

  • Level 4: Dissipate Magic
  • Range: Self / Target
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged / Instant
  • Effect: The next time you would be affected by a call not in the following list, you must call NEGATE: A weapon blow, a call containing 'Spirit', SLAY, DROP, or a potion. Alternatively you may call "Target, HARM ELEMENTAL MAGIC TRIPLE".

  • Level 5: Dispel Damage
  • Range: Target
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: You may call "Target! Negate that (damage call)!" as you knock the oncoming magic or weapon out of the way on behalf of another person, as long as the damage is not Spirit damage. Or you may call "Target, HARM ELEMENTAL MAGIC QUAD".

  • Level 5: Hauberk of the Elements
  • Range: Self
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: You gain 7 points of global armour for the next five minutes as you surround yourself with a shield of magic.

  • Level 6: Absorb Mana
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: The mage may absorb mana from a willing target (the target loses a quantity of mana, the caster gains it). This cannot take the mage over their normal maximum mana capacity.

  • Level 6: Dispel Magic
  • Range: Target
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: You may call "Target! Negate that (call)!" as you knock the oncoming effect out of the way on behalf of another person; this cannot be used if the call includes the words "Spirit", "DROP" or "SLAY". Or you may call "Target, HARM ELEMENTAL MAGIC QUIN".

  • Level 7: Protection from Magic
  • Range: Self
  • Duration: 5 minutes
  • Effect: You take one degree less of damage from any Magic damage source (including all coloured damage), however the damage is delivered (including by weapon blow).

  • Level 7: Extension
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: One hour
  • Effect: This is a less-efficient human copy of a fabled Light spell. The caster reaches into the matrix of a recently cast spell, and ties it expertly into the fabric of reality. Call "Inflict 7! That spell continues for an hour!" It is a byproduct of this spell that the magic will linger around on the target until nightfall even though the effect fades in an hour. The affected spell may be no higher than level 6.

  • Level 8: Carrington's Elixir
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: The mage channels power from their own mana and the world around them into a single touched elemental elf. As long as that elf is alive (however badly injured they may be), they are completely and instantaneously healed (call: "Magic Cure Sufficient"). This is the closest that magic has ever come to being able to cure injuries. All attempts to create a Grey spell that heals the wounds of a creature that is not naturally magical have resulted in failure - magic tends to worsen existing injuries.

  • Level 8: Discharge Mana
  • Range: Touch
  • Duration: Instant
  • Effect: Replace your next weapon damage call with SILENCE 300. This may have additional effects on the target's mana pool or similar, as determined by a ref, when they have the chance.

The Warlocks' Guild is known to teach the two following cantrips to its members and only its members. That is to say, your character must be a member of the Warlocks' Guild to learn them.

  • Level 0: Bladesharp
  • Range: Special
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged
  • Effect: By the favour of the Elemental Lords your weapon is made supernaturally sharp. A single bladed weapon of any length, which you and you alone must be wielding at the time of casting, grants + 1 unnatural degree of damage for its next blow. You do not need a free hand to cast this spell. You may give the weapon to another person once you have cast the spell. Note that handling too much metal for too long is as bad for Warlocks as it is for other mages. This spell is only taught to Warlocks of Apprentice rank or higher and may only be cast with a Warlock focus.

  • Level 0: Bludgeon
  • Range: Special
  • Duration: 5 minutes or until discharged
  • Effect: By the favour of the Elemental Lords your weapon is granted supernatural qualities of impact and leverage. A single blunt weapon of any length, which you and you alone must be wielding at the time of casting, grants + 1 degree of unnatural damage for its next blow. You do not need a free hand to cast this spell. You may give the weapon to another person once you have cast the spell. Note that handling too much metal for too long is bad, as above. This spell is only taught to Warlocks of Apprentice rank or higher and may only be cast with a Warlock focus.