Editing The Great Castlemourn Campaign Magic (section)

==Researching Spells==

Magic in Mournra is largely lost. For a sorcerer or enchantress to learn new magics, they must usually be found in some ancient ruin or taken as a prize from some other magic-user.

It is, however, possible to develop spells through careful experimentation and research. This is a long process, and is almost always performed over the Winter Phase as part of a character's training. It is very difficult to do, though the possession of magical items can aid greatly in the process. The process is often very unpleasant, as well, and can involve a number of questionable tasks.

For a magician to perform spell research as part of her Winter Phase, she must meet one of three conditions:
1. She has trained a magic skill (not including Crown Tongue), and put all of her points gained into it.
2. She has a magic skill (other an Crown Tongue) already at 20 or higher, and performs no other training.
3. She is in possession of a magical item which she wishes to study.

If the magician meets one of these criteria, she simply specifies more or less what she is trying to research when she does her training. It has to either be a spell related to the skill being trained or at 20, or be a spell related to the magical item. The sorceress then attempts two rolls: one of Crown Tongue and one of the appropriate magic skill. If both rolls succeed, the spell is successfully researched. Some very potent spells may require a critical success in the magic skill to successfully research. Below is a list of modifiers which can affect the roll, some favorable to the caster, others not.

You have seen someone else perform the spell: +5
You research the spell prudishly: -10
You research the spell recklessly: +5*
You research the spell unnaturally: +10*
You are researching with a written scroll: +5
The spell is not of your Natural Talent: -5
You research the spell in a magical place or time: +5 or more
You research the spell in an oppositely magical place or time: -5 or more

Researching a spell prudishly means that you are going out of your way not to do anything inappropriate - you aren't scrounging for corpses or testing the spell on servants (or otherwise involving them if we're talking deadly magics). Reckless research means doing such this more than strictly necessary. Unnatural research means human sacrifices, unnatural liaisons with monsters, and otherwise doing things which would get you in huge trouble. In short, normal research makes other people uncomfortable but doesn't usually cause harm; prudish research seeks to avoid even this discomfort, reckless research puts people at risk, unnatural research is just straight up hurting them (or otherwise effecting their fears).

A critical success on the magic skill roll may be worth some small benefit with the spell - perhaps a free talisman or similar small benefit. A fumble on the magic skill roll means that things go wrong somehow. This is usually bad, but not necessarily, and may or may not directly affect you. When researching recklessly, a natural roll of 1 or 2 will always cause something to go wrong, though the spell may be successfully researched regardless. When researching unnaturally, something always goes wrong, though the research is very likely to also succeed.