Two answers to the same problem, and neither is common. This chapter holds the preparations
an officer of the Lazaret carries in a case, and the spells three separate groups have
written about the broods and each kept to themselves.
Alchemy comes first because it needs nothing of the caster. Magic does very little about
what these creatures do to a body; alchemy does more, slowly, at a price, and out of
materials that have to be taken off the creatures themselves. That is why the order’s field
work has always been a trade in jars rather than a laying on of hands.
Alchemy
Everything under this heading can be made by a character with no spellcasting whatsoever.
Materials
Every preparation is made from one of the three broods, and the differences between them
decide what a cell, a house, or a party can realistically keep on hand.
Sporophore material is the only kind that stockpiles, which is why every house keeps a
cupboard of it and why the cheapest preparations are the ones most likely to be available.
Inquiline material requires a captive parasite, alive and feeding, and cannot be carried.
Necrophore material requires a fresh death, which is the whole cost of that line and the
reason its preparations are rare in the hands of anyone who is not already killing.
The brood named on a preparation is the material it is made from, not the brood it works
against. Several of the most useful entries here are made from one and used against
another, because what a material does to flesh matters more than which creature it came
off. Ashcap dries a body, so ashcap keeps a corpse from being worth laying in. Rotgill and
crust stink and stick, so they keep small things from taking hold. Neither fact has
anything to do with what the ashcap or the rotgill wanted.
Harvesting follows the rules in each brood’s chapter. Fire ruins Sporophore material
outright.
Making them
Preparations are made with alchemist’s supplies or a herbalism kit and an Intelligence
check. A failed check spoils the materials.
What they cost, and who makes them
The Lazaret does not make everything in this section. A house is a hospital, a school, and
a records office, and its cupboard holds what those three things need: diagnosis,
protection, palliation, and the removal of a graft without killing the patient. Officers
are trained on all of it, and a house sells at cost to anybody who asks, including people
it has good reason to suspect.
What a house will not make is anything whose only use is on a person. Four of the poisons
below fall there, and the order has never held a formula for any of them without arguing
about whether to burn it. They come from poisoners, from cells, and from the sort of trade
that operates two streets from a house and knows the officers by sight. Prices for those
run higher, because nothing undercuts them.
The three at the bottom have no price and no trade. Two of them are in the True File, and
the third is named there only to say that it exists.
Using a preparation
Nothing here needs a rule of its own. A preparation costs whatever the game already charges
for the equipment it most resembles — a potion, a vial of poison, a flask of oil:
- Drinking a draught takes a Bonus Action, as drinking a potion does, and so does
administering one to a creature within 5 feet.
- Applying an unguent to the user or to a creature within 5 feet takes a Utilize action.
Anointing a corpse takes 1 minute.
- Lighting a fume takes a Utilize action. A fume must be set down or planted rather than
carried, unless its entry says otherwise.
- Coating a weapon with a poison takes a Bonus Action and covers one weapon or up to
three pieces of ammunition. The coating keeps its potency for 1 minute or until its damage
is dealt, whichever comes first.
- Throwing a poison replaces one attack of the Attack action, against a target within 20
feet.
A preparation is not magical and is not affected by a Dispel Magic spell, an antimagic
field, or anything that detects magic. Nothing here can be identified by an Identify spell.
Working out what is in an unlabeled bottle takes a DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) check and,
for most of them, a willingness to taste it.
Draughts
Countenance
Draught, common. Inquiline. Not sold.
No house stocks it and no house will make one. The order’s position is that a preparation
which leaves a case looking well and feeling well, while the graft goes on exactly as it
would in somebody screaming, is worse than anything in the poisons below, because
everything in the poisons below announces itself. The formula is in part IV of the True
File and nowhere else that anybody has found. It changes hands for nothing, passed on by people who
are handed one themselves every morning.
Inquiline tissue boiled down and strained twice. The result is clear, faintly warm to the
hand however long it has stood, and never quite still: held to a light there is a slow
drift in it that does not settle. It has no smell and almost no taste going down, then
leaves something metallic in the back of the throat a minute later.
Suppresses the effects of the drinker’s current stage for 24 hours, beginning at once.
Depth accrues as normal and the graft deepens as normal. No effect at stage 4. While it
holds, the drinker does not present the marks of their stage, and no Wisdom (Medicine)
check can identify the disease. A Detect Poison and Disease spell finds the graft
regardless.
Vigil
Draught, uncommon. Inquiline. 90 gp.
Inquiline tissue reduced over a low heat for most of a day and cut with rotgill bitters to
keep it from setting in the bottle. Nearly black, oily enough to coat the glass, and
violently bitter all the way down. Officers are taught to drink it in one go.
The drinker gains no Depth from their next Long Rest. They also gain no benefit from that
rest: no Hit Points recovered, no Hit Point Dice returned, no spell slots restored, and
Exhaustion is not reduced. A graft cannot be slept away, and this is the only thing in the
order’s cupboard that answers the problem. Officers escorting a case to a house live on it.
Ablution
Draught, common. Sporophore. 20 gp.
Crust and rotgill washed, reduced, and washed again. Cloudy white with a chalky sediment
that has to be shaken back in. Tastes of chalk and salt, and smells faintly of a cold
cellar.
Reduces the drinker’s Spore Load by 1d4. It works on the Load and nothing else. A disease
already contracted at a full Load is untouched by it, and treating one of those is a
separate formula in the same cupboard.
Lavage
Draught, uncommon. Sporophore. 100 gp.
Ashcap reduced to a colorless liquid that smells of hot stone and takes the skin off a lip.
Given within a minute of a feeding, before anything has rooted properly.
A creature that drinks a lavage within 1 minute of gaining a graft removes 1d4 Depth and
takes 2d6 Acid damage that cannot be reduced or prevented. A lavage taken later than that
does the damage and nothing else. Prosectors carry two and use them without asking.
Theriac
Draught, rare. Sporophore. 600 gp.
Four days of reduction from a full fleece, ending in a thick brown liquid that has to be
warmed before it will pour. It tastes of very little and smells strongly of yeast, and a
house making one can be identified from the street.
A creature that drinks a theriac and then completes a Long Rest reduces a contracted
Sporophore disease by one stage. It has no effect at stage 4 and none on Spore Load.
Kenotic draught
Draught, rare. Inquiline. Not sold.
Living inquiline tissue, barely worked at all, suspended in clear fluid. Pale threads are
visible in it, and they move. It is faintly sweet and slightly warm.
The drinker takes a graft, rolled for location and line as though a parasite had fed on
them, with no parasite present. The formula sits in part IV of the True File, and most
ostiaries refuse to make it: the book holds that a rite performed out of a bottle is not a
rite, and a cell reaching for one has usually lost the clutch it needs to hold a Kenotics.
Unguents
Collyrium
Unguent, common. Sporophore. 25 gp.
Dried ashcap ground into rendered fat. A pale gray paste, gritty, that smells of a cold
hearth and stings badly for the first minute. It leaves a gray smear under both eyes that
takes hours to come off, which is how a village knows an officer has been working.
Smeared below the eyes. For 1 hour, the wearer can tell at a glance whether a creature they
can see within 30 feet carries a graft or a Spore Load, and can name the line of a graft by
the color it shows. It reads nothing about depth or quantity, and it reads a body under
Countenance as clean.
House pitch
Unguent, common. Sporophore. 15 sp.
Crust and rotgill boiled down into a black tar. Tacky, slow to spread, and it does not wash
out of cloth. The smell is resinous and sour and carries twenty feet, and every hand in a
cell can name it with their eyes shut.
Worked into boots, cuffs, and door frames. For 1 hour the wearer has Advantage on saving
throws against a contaminated area, and any latchkin attempting to attach to them has
Disadvantage on the attempt. The first effect is the pitch itself, which seals cloth and
skin against anything settling on them. The second is an accident nobody planned and every
house now relies on: a latchkin cannot get a grip on tar, and the sourness reads to it as
ground that has already been taken. An almoner does not wear it.
Chrism
Unguent, uncommon. Sporophore. 120 gp.
Ashcap in oil, thin enough to run. It stays warm in the jar and smells of dry ash and hot
stone. On skin it does nothing. On a body it stiffens the surface within the hour and
leaves it gray and light.
Anointed on a corpse dead no more than a day. The body dries from the outside in, and
nothing of the Necrophore will lay in it for the next 10 days. Anything already laid in it
dies. A party that carries chrism does not leave a colony anything to work with, which is
the only reliable way to travel through worked ground without feeding it.
Sounding
Unguent, common. Necrophore. 35 gp.
Necrophore wax thinned with lamp oil. Yellow, slightly luminous in a dark room, and it
smells of fat that has gone over.
Spread across a corpse. Over the next minute the wax sinks wherever something has been laid
in, leaving dark channels that can be counted. A sounding tells whether a body has been
laid in and roughly how much is in it. It says nothing about how long ago, and it does not
work on a body treated with chrism.
Cerate
Unguent, uncommon. Sporophore. 150 gp.
Reredos, ground and blended into wax, which is the one useful thing that line has ever
provided. Hard, pale, and odorless until warmed, when it smells faintly of stone dust. It
sets across an open wound in seconds and holds.
Applied during the removal of a graft by
surgery. The surgery deals half
damage. A prosector who has run out says so before starting, and the patient is entitled to
refuse.
Fumes
Compline
Fume, common. Sporophore. 8 sp.
Rotgill fleece dried hard and wound onto a stick. Burns badly, smokes heavily, and smells
of wet rope. The cheapest thing in this section and the one most often in a pack.
Burned at a camp. For 8 hours, driftlings and spore veils will not enter a 30-foot radius.
It does nothing to anything larger and gives no protection against contaminated ground.
Pastille
Fume, uncommon. Sporophore. 110 gp.
Ashcap pressed into a hard cake with a little fat. Burns white and fast, and leaves a
bitter film on the teeth that lasts most of a day.
Burned in place. Suppresses the effect of a contaminated area in a 20-foot Cube for 1 hour.
It does not clear the ground, kill what is producing it, or prevent the area returning the
moment the smoke thins. Houses use it to move patients along a corridor and nothing else.
Wakelight taper
Fume, uncommon. Necrophore. 130 gp.
Necrophore tallow poured around a wick of the same. Burns pale green, gives no heat, and
does not gutter in wind. The smell is sweet and thin and gets into clothing.
Burns for 1 hour. Any Necrophore creature within 300 feet that can see the light moves
toward the taper by the most direct route available. A taper left burning at a distance is
the cheapest way to clear ground. A taper is planted, never carried.
Poisons
Bloom oil
Poison, uncommon. Sporophore. 200 gp.
Orcshroom spore suspended in oil that separates within the hour and has to be rolled
between the palms before use. Yellow-brown, smells of bread going wrong, and dries on the
blade to a fine dust. The dust is what does the work.
Coats one weapon or up to three pieces of ammunition. The first creature hit makes a DC 14
Constitution saving throw, taking 2d6 Poison damage and gaining 1 Spore Load on a failed
save, or half as much damage and no Load on a successful one.
Ankylotic salt
Poison, uncommon. Sporophore. 250 gp.
Reredos crushed to a coarse gray grit. Odorless, tasteless, and slow, which suits a poisoner who
intends to be elsewhere when it takes effect.
Ingested, one dose. A creature that swallows it makes a DC 15 Constitution saving throw at
the end of the next hour. On a failed save its Speed is halved and it has Disadvantage on
Dexterity saving throws for 8 hours as the joints stiffen. On a successful one the hour is
merely unpleasant.
Wakelight dust
Poison, uncommon. Necrophore. 300 gp.
Wakelight ground fine while the body is still warm. Faintly luminous, weightless, and
impossible to brush off cloth.
Thrown at a creature within 20 feet, as a ranged attack. On a hit the target is marked for
8 hours, and any Necrophore creature within 300 feet that can see the target moves toward
it by the most direct route available. Washing it off takes 10 minutes and a great deal of
water.
Adipocere
Poison, rare. Necrophore. 750 gp.
Rendered from a body’s own wax over a low heat, then set. Pale, firm, and odorless in the
tin, though it warms to a paste in the hand and then smells sweet.
Injury poison, one dose. A creature that takes damage from a coated weapon makes a DC 16
Constitution saving throw, taking 4d6 Poison damage and gaining the Poisoned condition for
1 hour on a failed save, or half as much damage and no condition on a successful one. While
Poisoned this way the creature can’t regain Hit Points.
Sallow tincture
Poison, rare. Inquiline. Not sold.
Tissue taken from a sallow-line parasite and thinned until it is indistinguishable from
water. No color, no smell, no taste. It cannot be identified in a cup by any means short of
a Detect Poison and Disease spell.
Ingested or injury, one dose. A creature already carrying a graft gains 1d4 Depth with no
saving throw. A creature carrying no graft is unaffected and never learns it was dosed. The
order has never made it. Part V of the True File names it in passing as something a hand
should not need.
Magic
Three groups have written spells for these creatures, and none of the three publishes.
The Lazaret’s counter-work sits at the first house and is copied nowhere. The order argues
about this in writing, at length, because it publishes everything else. The argument has
never been resolved and the catalog has never left the building.
The Hands of the Host keep theirs in part V of the True File, which arrives in the founder’s
own hand or not at all. Most cells have never seen one.
The third group has no order, no doctrine, and no interest in either. Practitioners who
work on these creatures as material do so alone, write for themselves, and leave notebooks
that outlive them. A wizard’s spellbook is where most of it ends up.
A Game Master places these spells. None of them is available at a shop, in a temple, or by
asking a tutor, and a character does not learn one at a level-up without a source in front
of them.
What casting costs
Most of these spells cost a slot and nothing else.
Three cannot be cast by a clean caster at all. Instar,
Preferment, and Second Assignment require a graft,
and the cult considers this the proof of everything it teaches. A practitioner who has read
part V and has no graft owns a book of spells they will never cast, which is where most of
them stay.
Chantry Tithe offers a caster more in exchange for 1 Depth. The payment
is optional and the spell works without it.
Four spells give the caster a graft or move Depth onto them: Assumption of the Case, Instar,
Preferment, and Second Assignment. A character who casts these regularly is managing a case,
and the disease rules in the earlier chapters apply to
them in full. Nothing here suspends Depth accruing on a Long Rest, and nothing here reaches
stage 4.
Reading a spell’s origin
Each description is followed by a note naming where the spell comes from. This matters for
what a party can find and who will teach it.
- The order’s. Every officer leaves the school with some of it, and each of the three
ranks is trusted with more, so the officers’ stat blocks
are where a party meets most of these. The rest is held in the counter-work at the first
house, and a party earns access to that by being useful to a house, never by paying for it.
- The True File. In the founder’s hand, in one cell’s copy of the book. Taking it means
taking the book off a cell that will not surrender it.
- A practitioner’s. In a notebook, in a tower, behind whoever wrote it. These are the
ones a party is most likely to find by accident and least likely to understand when they
do.
The spell list
Twenty-three spells, by level:
The cantrips
Anamnesis
Divination Cantrip
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Touch
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You read a willing creature or a corpse and learn whether it carries a graft, a Spore Load, or anything of the Necrophore laid in it, and which line is responsible. You don’t learn the stage, the Depth, or the size of the Load.
A body under a suppression of any kind reads as clean, and the spell gives no sign that anything is being suppressed.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Wizard
Douter
Evocation Cantrip
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 60 feet
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You extinguish every nonmagical flame in a 20-foot Cube centered on a point within range, and put out any wakelight in the area. A creature in the area that produces wakelight of its own emits none until the end of its next turn.
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Fair Copy
Illusion Cantrip
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Self
- Components
- S
- Duration
- 1 hour
For the duration, you show no outward mark of any disease you carry. Skin, eyes, color, and gait read as ordinary to anyone watching, and a Wisdom (Medicine) check made by observation alone can’t identify what is wrong with you.
Fair Copy suppresses nothing. Every penalty of your stage applies in full, and any examination that involves touching you, or any magic that reads a body rather than looks at one, sees through it at once.
Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Latchwork
Transmutation Cantrip
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 30 feet
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You make a ranged spell attack against one creature within range. On a hit, the target takes 1d10 Piercing damage and has Disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.
Cantrip Upgrade. The damage increases by 1d10 when you reach level 5 (2d10), level 11 (3d10), and level 17 (4d10).
Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Unction
Necromancy Cantrip
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Touch
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- 1 hour
You touch a corpse. For the duration, nothing of the Necrophore can lay in that body, and any attempt to do so fails without a roll.
Unction affects one corpse and does nothing to a living creature.
Classes: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard
Level 1
Brood Inquest
Level 1 Divination
- Casting Time
- Action or Ritual
- Range
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You learn the number of corpses within 60 feet that have been laid in by the Necrophore, and the direction of each. The spell doesn’t distinguish one from another, doesn’t say how much is in any of them, and doesn’t detect a body that has been treated to prevent laying.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Wizard
Countenance
Level 1 Abjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Self
- Components
- S
- Duration
- 24 hours
You suppress the effects of your current stage of an Inquiline disease. For the duration you suffer none of that stage’s penalties, don’t present its marks, and can’t be identified by a Wisdom (Medicine) check.
Depth accrues as normal, the graft deepens as normal, and the disease advances on its usual schedule. The spell has no effect at stage 4, and it doesn’t hide the graft from a Detect Poison and Disease spell.
Countenance can’t be cast on another creature, and there is no version of it without a Somatic component.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Exacerbation
Level 1 Necromancy
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Touch
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You touch one creature, which makes a Constitution saving throw, taking 3d6 Necrotic damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.
On a failed save, a target that carries a graft gains 1 Depth, and a target that carries a Spore Load gains 1 Spore Load. A target carrying neither takes the damage and nothing more.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The damage increases by 1d6 for each spell slot level above 1.
Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Lazaret Sill
Level 1 Abjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 30 feet
- Components
- V, S, M (a length of cord)
- Duration
- 10 minutes
You draw a line up to 30 feet long across a surface within range. For the duration, no Tiny creature of any of the three broods can cross it, and no contaminated area can spread past it.
A creature of Small size or larger crosses the line without difficulty and without breaking it.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Wizard
Level 2
Assumption of the Case
Level 2 Abjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Touch
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You touch a willing creature and take up to 1d4 of its Depth into yourself. The creature loses that Depth and you gain it, exactly as though you had been fed on.
If you carry no graft, you receive one, in the target’s line, with the Depth transferred.
Assumption of the Case can’t move Depth away from a creature at stage 4.
Classes: Cleric, Paladin, Warlock
Bloom Interdict
Level 2 Abjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 60 feet
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
You suppress every contaminated area within a 15-foot-radius Sphere centered on a point within range. For the duration, creatures in the Sphere make no saving throws against contaminated ground and gain no Spore Load from it.
Bloom Interdict doesn’t clear the ground, harm what is producing the contamination, or prevent the area resuming the instant the spell ends.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Wizard
Discharge
Level 2 Evocation
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 30 feet
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- 1 minute
One corpse you can see within range burns for the duration and is consumed entirely, along with anything laid in it and anything growing on it. The fire doesn’t spread and doesn’t harm a creature that touches it.
A corpse consumed by Discharge can’t be raised by any means short of a True Resurrection spell.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Sorcerer, Wizard
Efflorescence
Level 2 Conjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 60 feet
- Components
- V, S, M (a pinch of dried spore)
- Duration
- Instantaneous
Each creature in a 15-foot-radius Sphere centered on a point within range makes a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 4d6 Poison damage and gains 1 Spore Load. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and gains no Load.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The damage increases by 1d6 for each spell slot level above 2.
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Level 3
Chantry Tithe
Level 3 Necromancy
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
For the duration, whenever a creature other than you casts a spell while within 30 feet of you, you gain 5 Temporary Hit Points and can move up to 10 feet as a Reaction.
Optional cost. If you carry a graft, you can extend the radius to 60 feet by taking 1 Depth as the spell is cast. The spell functions normally without this.
Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
False Wakelight
Level 3 Evocation
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 120 feet
- Components
- V, S, M (wakelight taken from a creature dead within the last 24 hours, which the spell consumes)
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
You create a cold, pale light at a point within range. For the duration, every Necrophore creature within 1 mile that can perceive the light moves toward it by the most direct route available, and won’t willingly move away from it while it can be seen.
The light is stationary and can’t be moved once placed.
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Glebe
Level 3 Conjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 90 feet
- Components
- V, S, M (a handful of soil from contaminated ground)
- Duration
- 10 minutes
You contaminate the ground in a 20-foot-radius area centered on a point within range. For the duration the area counts as contaminated ground of a line you choose, with a Difficulty Class equal to your spell save DC.
The ground returns to normal when the spell ends. Nothing grows there afterward.
Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Prosector’s Purgation
Level 3 Abjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Touch
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You touch a willing creature. It loses 2d4 Depth and takes 4d6 Force damage, which can’t be reduced, prevented, or resisted by any means.
Prosector’s Purgation has no effect at stage 4, and the damage is dealt whether or not any Depth remains to remove.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Paladin
Level 4
Instar
Level 4 Transmutation
- Casting Time
- Bonus Action
- Range
- Self
- Components
- V
- Duration
- 1 minute
You must carry a graft to cast this spell.
The graft rises to just beneath the skin and stays there for the duration. You gain the following benefits:
- 20 Temporary Hit Points.
- A natural weapon. You can attack with it as an Action, and on a hit it deals 2d8 Piercing damage plus your spellcasting ability modifier.
- Advantage on saving throws against being Frightened or Charmed.
When the spell ends, you gain 1 Depth.
Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock
Second Assignment
Level 4 Transmutation
- Casting Time
- 1 minute
- Range
- Touch
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You must carry a graft to cast this spell.
You touch two creatures, one of which carries a graft and one of which doesn’t. The graft leaves the first and takes in the second, at the same stage and with the same Depth. The first creature is free of it entirely, and the second gains it in full, including everything it had already become.
A creature that doesn’t consent makes a Charisma saving throw, and the spell fails against it on a successful save.
Second Assignment has no effect at stage 4.
Classes: Warlock, Wizard
Sequestration
Level 4 Abjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- 60 feet
- Components
- V, S, M (a house key)
- Duration
- 1 hour
You create a 30-foot-radius Sphere of still air centered on a point within range. For the duration, no creature of any of the three broods can enter or leave the Sphere, no spore or wakelight passes its boundary in either direction, and no contaminated area inside it spreads outside it.
Creatures that are not of the broods pass in and out freely, and carry nothing out with them that the spell would have stopped.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Wizard
Level 5
Extirpation
Level 5 Abjuration
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Touch
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You touch a creature carrying a graft that hasn’t reached stage 4. The graft leaves the body at once and the creature is cured completely, with no Depth, no stage, and no lasting effect.
The graft appears in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the creature as the stage 4 form of its line, fully grown, hostile, and acting on its own Initiative from that moment. It has taken nothing from the body it left and is not weakened by the extraction.
Classes: Cleric, Druid, Wizard
Laying-In
Level 5 Conjuration
- Casting Time
- 1 minute
- Range
- Touch
- Components
- V, S, M (a corpse dead within the last 24 hours, which the spell consumes)
- Duration
- Instantaneous
You lay in a corpse. One hour later a Crypt Instar rises from it under your control and remains so for 24 hours. At the end of that time your control ends, and the creature behaves as any other of its kind.
You can have only one creature raised by Laying-In at a time. Casting it again ends your control over the previous one immediately.
Classes: Warlock, Wizard
Preferment
Level 5 Transmutation
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Self
- Components
- V
- Duration
- 1 minute
You must carry a graft to cast this spell.
You advance your own case by one full stage. This is permanent and isn’t reversed when the spell ends.
For the duration, you gain the following benefits:
- Your Speed increases by 20 feet.
- You have Advantage on attack rolls and on Constitution saving throws.
- At the start of each of your turns you gain 10 Temporary Hit Points.
- You can’t be Frightened or Charmed, and can’t be put to sleep by magic.
If you cast Preferment at stage 3, you reach stage 4, and everything that follows from stage 4 follows on schedule.
Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock
What already casts them
Three creatures from the earlier chapters draw on this section. None of them changes
Challenge Rating, and none of them gains a spellcasting block it did not have:
- Orcshroom Sporespeaker casts
Anamnesis at will and Glebe twice a day. Nothing it knows comes from the True File — a
sporespeaker works alone, from a tradition that has never been written down, and Glebe is
the one that puts ground under its control.
- Psalter Tick can spend a stolen slot on
Exacerbation or Chantry Tithe. The tick feeds on spellcasting, and Chantry Tithe rewards a
caster for standing near other casters who are casting.
- Choirgall casts Anamnesis at will and Bloom
Interdict once a day. A choirgall casting Bloom Interdict looks like help; it is protecting
the casters it feeds on from the ground, so that they keep casting.
The three Lazaret officers in chapter 2 carry the
order’s own share of this section, split by rank: the registrar surveys, the prosector works
in the field, and the lector holds what a house does behind its own doors.
NOTE
The rest of the library casts nothing new. The Exemplar predates every tradition in this chapter,
the Lacuna and the Amanuensis are what is left after a graft leaves, and the Necrophore has no
relationship with magic — its creatures are the target of Unction, False Wakelight, and Laying-In
rather than casters of them.