Magic

Spirit Speak

Spirit Speak is the summoner's skill. On its own it does nothing; with a Summoner's Tome in your pack it decides which of the book's pages will answer you and how long whatever answers will stay. Calling one takes the page's cast time and its words of power; once it arrives, a summon fights beside you on its own clock, on top of your own swings and spells, until its time runs out.

How you train it Start it in any town, or at your own house: each attempt tries to establish a connection with the dead world. Calling a summon out of the tome is an attempt as well. It can never be raised above your Magery, so the two climb together.

What you need Standing in a town, or at home. To call a summon you also need a Summoner's Tome in your pack.

The Summoner's Tome

Bound with: 50 Inscription
Costs: 500 Leather and 250 Arcane Dust
Blessed: Never dropped on death. It cannot be sold at the market.
A summon stays, at 100 Spirit Speak: 5 minutes
A summon stays, at 50: 3 minutes
A summon stays, untrained: 1 minute

The pages

One summon at a time: calling another sends the first back. The dead come first, then the four elementals.

Summon	Spirit Speak needed	Mana to call	Also takes	Words of power	Cast time
Skeleton	No requirement	10	1 Bone	Kal Corp Ylem	2s
Zombie	20.0	15	2 Bones	Kal Uus Corp	2.5s
Ghoul	40.0	20	3 Bones	Kal Xen Corp	3s
Wraith	55.0	25	4 Bones	Kal Quas Corp	3.5s
Spectre	70.0	30	5 Bones	Kal Vas Quas Corp	4s
Lich	85.0	40	7 Bones	Kal Ort Corp	4.5s
Lich Lord	100.0	50	10 Bones	Kal Vas Ort Corp	5s
Earth Elemental	30.0	20	1 Blood Moss, 1 Mandrake Root and 1 Spider Silk	Kal Vas Xen Ylem	3s
Air Elemental	45.0	25	1 Blood Moss, 1 Mandrake Root and 1 Spider Silk	Kal Vas Xen Hur	3.5s
Water Elemental	60.0	30	1 Blood Moss, 1 Mandrake Root and 1 Spider Silk	Kal Vas Xen An Flam	4s
Fire Elemental	75.0	35	1 Blood Moss, 1 Mandrake Root, 1 Spider Silk and 1 Sulfurous Ash	Kal Vas Xen Flam	4.5s

What each one does, full-grown (level 10)

These are a page's figures at level 10; a page you have just opened is level 1 and brings a fifth of them (see Levels, below). A summon's damage is small, ignores armour and leaves the killing blow to you. What it brings is in the fourth column. Its Weaken and Curse show as the same icons over the monster as the spells', but are weaker: a summon's Weaken takes 2 off the monster's blows where the Weaken spell takes 3, and its Curse lowers armour by 8 where the Curse spell lowers it by 15. So your own cast is always worth making: it replaces a summon's, a summon never replaces yours, and Auto Magery's Debuff Missing rule still casts over a summon's. A stun wastes the monster's wind-up as well as holding it. The last column is how much of a fight the effect is up, which is more than the chance beside it suggests, because the chance is rolled on every blow.

Summon	Attack	Damage	What it brings	Up for about
Skeleton	Strikes every 3s	1–2	15% on hit: Weaken for 10s (it hits for 2 less)	42% of a fight
Zombie	Strikes every 4s	2–3	15% on hit: Stun for 2s (it cannot act, and must wind its swing up afresh after)	8% of a fight
Ghoul	Strikes every 3s	2–3	20% on hit: Curse for 10s (its armour is 8 lower, so every blow on it lands harder)	52% of a fight
Wraith	Casts Fireball every 5s	4–6	30% on hit: Weaken for 15s (it hits for 2 less)	66% of a fight
Spectre	Casts Lightning every 5s	5–7	25% on hit: Stun for 3s (it cannot act, and must wind its swing up afresh after)	15% of a fight
Lich	Casts Energy Bolt every 5s	6–8	30% on hit: Curse for 15s (its armour is 8 lower, so every blow on it lands harder)	66% of a fight
Lich Lord	Casts Flame Strike every 5s	7–10	35% on hit: Curse and Weaken for 20s (its armour is 8 lower, so every blow on it lands harder and it hits for 2 less)	82% of a fight
Earth Elemental	Strikes every 4s	2–3	Stone Ward: +5 armour while it is out, on top of any other	As long as it is out
Air Elemental	Strikes nothing	—	Clear Air: restores 4-6 mana every 5s while you fight	1.0 mana a second, while you fight
Water Elemental	Strikes nothing	—	Healing Wave: restores 3-5 health every 5s while you fight	0.8 health a second, while you fight
Fire Elemental	Strikes every 4s	2–4	Burning Aura: your weapon and your spells hit 10% harder while it is out	As long as it is out

Levels

Every page has 10 levels, and you raise each page on its own. A summon learns the way a companion does: one point of experience for every coin your kills pay while it is out, and only the one that is out learns. The climb is a mid-tier companion's, 500,000 experience in all, with the early levels quick and the last one long. As it rises it is drawn bigger, and what it DOES grows: its damage, the strength of the debuff it leaves, how long its stun holds, its aura, its wave. How often its effect lands, how long a debuff lasts, what it costs to call and how long it stays do not change.

Level	Experience needed	Share of its full figures	Size
1	0	20%	70%
2	6,173	29%	73%
3	24,691	38%	77%
4	55,556	47%	80%
5	98,765	56%	83%
6	154,321	64%	87%
7	222,222	73%	90%
8	302,469	82%	93%
9	395,062	91%	97%
10	500,000	100%	100%

🦴

Calling a summon takes something out of your pack as well as mana. The dead are called with Bones: one for a Skeleton up to ten for a Lich Lord. Bones are left by the undead and by nothing else, about one kill in two, and stack in your pack. The four elementals are called with reagents instead: one Blood Moss, one Mandrake Root and one Spider Silk each, and the Fire Elemental burns one Sulfurous Ash as well. Either is taken as you begin to call, and Keep Active pays the same each time it renews. They must be carried, loose or in a bag; what is in the bank is not counted.

📖

The Summoner's Tome is bound in the Inscription window. Click it in your pack to open it, pick a page and Summon — in a fight or before one. The summon shows on your buff bar with the time it has left.

🗣️

Calling a summon takes its cast time: you speak the page's words of power, the mana is spent as you begin, and the summon arrives when the words are done. A bar under your own feet counts the wait down, as does a row in the Combat window during a fight and the open tome itself. It is read out of the tome on a clock of its own, so it does not wait for a spell you are casting, a hit does not interrupt it, and your weapon stays in your hand. One calling at a time. If you die before it finishes, the calling is lost.

👻

Calling a summon has a chance to raise Spirit Speak — the same chance as one attempt of the practice, and no more often than once every 6 seconds, so summoning trains you while you fight but never faster than practising. In a dungeon your summon is drawn at your side: one that strikes takes the monster's other flank, and a caster or a healer keeps its distance.

🌊

The four elementals are not there to hurt anything; each does one thing for you instead. An Earth Elemental puts its Stone Ward on you for as long as it is out — armour added on top of a Protection spell or anything else you wear. A Fire Elemental's Burning Aura makes your weapon and your spells hit harder, on top of any potion. A Water Elemental and an Air Elemental strike nothing at all: while you fight, the one sends a healing wave over you every few seconds and the other gives you mana back, and neither does anything when you are already full. In a party a wave is its own summoner's alone.

♾️

Tick Keep Active in the tome and the summon you last called is called again as its time runs out, for its mana, in a fight or out of one, for as long as you are online with the tome in your pack. The renewal is a calling like any other — the same words, the same cast time — and is begun a little early, so the summon is never missing while it is read. If you are short of mana it waits and is called the moment you have it. Dismissing a summon unticks the box, and lets go of a calling already under way.

🔮

Spirit Speak can never be raised above your Magery — not by practice, not by summoning, not offline and not by a skill scroll. A summoner is a mage first.

Other Magic skills

Magery Meditation Magic Resistance Evaluating Intelligence