Scrolls are simply magic spells that have been recorded on paper. It is from these papers that they can be cast to achveve their purpose.

Only Wizards can write scrolls on papers (called "scribing"), but anyone with the correct levels in the necessary magic skills can cast these spells.

Scrolls are often found in player shops. Fruitcakes is usually the most plentiful source as this is the main shop used by Wizards as an outlet. Wizzies earn money by selling scrolls to the shop for onward sale. Most other player shops have scroll supplies (try Keb's "Bizarre" in Djelibeybi for example, or, Magic & Mayhem in bp). PLEASE NOTE this is not a recommendation, merely examples.

Scrolls (with the exception of the portal spell (Jorodins Portal of Cheaper Travel (JPOCT)) are usually sould in waxed paper packets containing 4 papers. Each of these papers holds one spell. Once a spell has been cast, the paper it was written on is blank - the magic has been used. JPOCT scrolls are sold in packets of 2, 3, or 4 - this is because the spell requirements have changed recentley and an attempt has been made to supply lesser numbers of spells in packets to avoid people killing themselves because they no longer have the necessary skills to contain the magic of the spells in their mind.

IMPORTANT. You need to know how many scrolls you can carry safely. Much research has been done by noda. This site contains details about most wizard spells and is reasonably up-to-date. A BASIC RULE OF THUMB is the "mindspace" you need to carry scrolls you can carry is governed by your ma.it.he.sc bonus which (at last testing) I think was (bonus +30) / 2. You also need some ma.sp.sp to be able to cast spells successfully, but for most witches this is not a problem as it is a skill we advance anyways.

There are over 60 spells that Wizzies have the power to scribe. There is only a small number, however, that are likely to be useful to Witches. These typically are defensive and miscellaneous magic to either help us stay alive during combat, or to move around without the restriction of a broomstick.

There is more detail on the 3 most likely spells to be used below:- JPOCT, CCC, TPA

Wizzies always refer to spells by their initials, and so here are a few that may be useful, together with an overview of what they do, and the skills needed to use them:

Jorodins Portal of Cheaper Travel (JPOCT).

Requires:- a blorple (not consumed)

The spell requires 100 gp to cast.

This is the portal spell used to travel to different locations. The caster must have a blorple (usually on a piece of jewellery obtained thru Player shops) to the room to which they want to travel .

This is a miscellaneous spell which uses the skills enchanting, evoking, binding, dancing and banishing. The required bonuses are around 150 except banishing which now seems to need a bonus of more than 200 to get reasonable results. Below these figiures, mis-portals (the door opening to a romm not the original target) are extremely common. . This spell costs 100 guild points to cast . To cast the spell you need a piece of jewellery with a blorped location recorded in it. For those interested, the spell adds only 2 thaums to the area when cast.

This spell creates a portal between two places in a similar reality. This means that it will open a door between the place you are currently, and the place stored in the piece of jewellery. Note this is a one way trip only.

Even though this spell requires only lowish levels of magic to cast, it has disportionately high failure rates. If you fail the spell, one of the following will occur:

You may also receive a message about the jewellery or rock having forgotten the location:- you will have to recast using a new scroll.

The door and begins to rumble (either before or after you open the door). DON'T attempt to enter as it will subsequently explode in your face, causing damage.

A burning door can appear. Each time you touch the door you take damage, this means opening it, pushing it and entering it. If you do all three, you may take up to 1.5k damage. There are reported deaths from burning portals. If you have enough HP you can still use the portal, but should heal yourself IMMEDIATELY on the other side.

Once you cast the spell, a door will appear. At the simplest level, you open the door and enter it, and hopefully end up in the right place. If it rumbles after you open the door, you should not use it, and so it is a good idea to pause after this stage rather than queuing commands. If the door is not rumbling, you should 'push door' and then 'enter door'. This means that the door will fall over sometime soon after you enter, preventing others from using your portal. This can be important for a number of reasons, including newbies entering your portals to dangerous places without being aware of what they are doing. You cannot cast portal in a room where a door is already open.

Remember to use "look in door" before entering any portal.

Wizards research suggests that the type of doors which appears, such as a dirty piece of fur or crystal door is random and independent of skills. To date, the research suggests the same thing for the burning, rumbling and wobbling doors. That is, you cannot reduce the frequency of these by improving your skills.

There are a number of places where you cannot portal either to or from such as vaults, jail cells, and the t-shop.

Chrenedict's Calcareous Covering (CCC).

Requires:- sap, varnish, powdered chalk (all consumed)

The spell costs 20 gp to cast.

CCC is a defensive spell which uses the skills binding and evoking. Bonuses required are around 200. The spell adds 4 thaums to the area.

This spell gives the target (not necessarily only the caster) skin similar to that of a troll. CCC lasts until the spell is worn away from damage, and is not dependent on time. The spell will absorb a number of hits, each hit wearing away the troll skin until there is nothing left.

Being troll skin, it only absorbs the blows of sharp and pierce weapons (also damaging them as normal trolls do). Any blunt hit is not absorbed, and does not count towards wearing the spell off. A minor note is that the spell does not appear to stop poison from entering your system, even if the means to inject it is. The main example of this is the giant spiders of Gloomy forest.

A recent change to the spell is a limitation on stacking or multiple layers of the spell. It is still possible to stack the spell, however, you run into decreasing marginal effects. That is to say, each successive cast will add less hits to the total than the previous, up until the point where the last adds nothing. Of course, long before that point, it will become very cost ineffective to keep casting. You will get feedback about how much is being added, for example your skin becomes slightly harder, or you feel your skin get a tiny bit harder. To illustrate, say for example that your skills give you a single cast with 25 hits. The next cast may only add 15, the following 10 giving a total of 50 hits from 3 layers. After this point, it is probably inadvisable to continue.

The total limit you can reach, and the amount dropped at each successive cast depends on your skills.

This spell can be quite useful as a last means of defence after other magical defensive measures. Since it does not break with time, you can cast it and forget about it and then it will be there for when you really need it. Due to the components and not affecting hits from blunt weapons, it is a backup, not a substitute, for the other shield spells.

Transcendent Pneumatic Alleviator (TPA)

Requires a shield (not consumed) and grey ash (consumed)

The spell costs 75 guild points to cast

This is a defensive spell which uses the skills evoking, air, chanting, enchanting and channeling. The bonuses required are around 200 or lower for a few skills. The spell adds 9 thaums to the area when cast.

The spell creates a magical impact shield which surrounds the target and absorbs all hits until it breaks. The shield can break either from excessive damage, or from the effects of time. The time duration of the spell is dependent on your skills.

A relative indication of how many more hits a shield can take is the colour of the shield. When the shield is first cast, it is invisible, and the scale from strongest to weakest is invisible, dull red, bright red, wobbling orange and flickering yellow. If the shield is at one of the lower levels and ceases to take damage, the shield will move back up the scale to invisible again. However, once it does this, the new full strength shield (ie invisible) will be weaker than the original.

Something else that effects the strength of the shield is the amount of time it has been running. The shield loses strength as time passes. Some of this may be attributed to above, but if a shield has not taken any hits but is also nearing the time when it would wear out, it is far weaker and may only take one or two hits.

The time which each stage of the shield takes to regenerate is directly related to the amount of damage that it must restore. This means, if a layer does not take full damage, it will take less time. More importantly, this means that the length of time each stage requires to regenerate increases the more your skills do. Th

The time which the spell lasts without taking any damage ranges from about 2 minutes for low skills to up to about an hour with high levels, though it of course varies considerable between spells. Arrant times also often appear such as thirty seconds, or in rare cases, many hours.

TPA is not considered powerful enough to be used as a primary means of defence in combat. It is broken relatively easy by any reasonable opponent, and is therefore used primarily as a backup to a floating guard, both for the hits that pass through, and the period when it is knocked down and before you can recover your floater.

On a side note, there are a few things that are not stopped by tpa. Poison attacks are not stopped, for example from ornate warhammers or from spiders. It also does not protect from falling from heights.

Since it does not matter which type of shield you use to cast TPA, find the lightest one you can!

The ash is consumed with each casting. Each handful of ash weighs 1/9th of a pound, and so it is relatively easy to carry large amounts. There are also a number of places where you can get ash for free, usually in the remains of campfires such as the circle of stones in skund forest ,from some smithies,and the McSweeny mansion in CWC (upstairs above the groom).

This page was written and submitted by Beattieess who conferred her results with Sekiri's, Noda's, and Sined's webpages.