Lecture 5: College of Earth
“Greetings Students,
“Today, I will expound upon one of the few colleges of magic that I truly enjoy. I must warn you, the topic is one that few practicing mages ever really consider and think about, although there are a few who do….”
Seek Earth
“The first spell of the college, which is the basis for nearly all of the spells of the college in some form or another, is the Seek Earth spell. This spell, used in conjunction with a mage of Divinatory arts, can be responsible for the opening up of mining operations. The spell description tells what the spell can do, but the impact upon society is often very much ignored. In lands where nobles encourage the practice of hiring a court wizard, one of the first questions that any money hungry noble will ask is ‘do I have wealth that can be exploited from the ground’. A simple use of this spell will point out where the nearest deposit of gold/silver/iron/copper/tin/salt/ etc can be found. What it doesn't tell you is how much. If I deliberately plant 50 pounds of gold within 1 mile of a mage casting this spell, and there is a deposit of 30 tons of it 2 miles away, the first casting of the spell will not latch on to the knowledge of the larger mine. Likewise, this spell will not tell you if the deposit is worth going after in the long run. If it costs $ 2,000,000 to mine some gold, and all you get from the mine is $1,000 then you are certain to have wished you used divination to determine if this will be a profitable mine or not.”Shape Earth
“Shape Earth, is another one of my most enjoyed spells, despite the fact that it isn't really all that useful. Until you examine some very elementary facts: 1) the average man, working at digging a hole that is 2 yards deep, and one yard wide must spend two hours and forty minutes excavating the hole. After working at it the person finds himself somewhat fatigued. To attain the same level of fatigue, a mage with the same strength, with a skill in the spell of well trained or lower could move twice as much earth in roughly five to ten seconds, depending on where the mage wants the earth piled up. The time it takes to excavate earth for a Motte and Bailey fortification, where one piles a huge mound of earth higher than 30 feet, is clearly much reduced if you have even one such mage working for you. In conjunction with other earth college spells, this fact becomes even more significant. Consider: you desire to excavate land that measures 30 yards by 30 yards. And you desire to dig the hole approximately 2.6 yards deep, the volume of earth to be removed is 2400 cubic yards. It would take one man 3200 hours to clear this away—assuming mathematically pure conditions like no rain, no collapses, etc. Assuming roughly 8 solid hours of work per day, it would take roughly 400 man days to clear this volume of earth. A single mage, using this spell at a decent level of power, could clear away an area that is 2 yards deep, by four yards wide, by four yards long in a mere sixty seconds, assuming that you want the earth moved away from the original location some 120 yards away! Waiting for roughly an hour and a half between castings, this mage could clear away the desired amount of soil in roughly 20 days, allowing for wastage of effort where the spell didn't exactly remove the depth called for in the plans. “If said mage has access to healing potions by the tun, he could very easily get the job done much more quickly. Remember, healing potions will restore twice as much fatigue as the potion would have healed, if the mage is not physically wounded. Generally speaking, the fatigue restored would be roughly 80 percent of that used to clear a four yard by four yard by 2 yard plot of land. “This makes the use of Shape Earth mighty valuable for nobles who want to be able to create defensible land quickly. Of course, the other nice application of this spell is that it can create defensible terrain, where none existed before. As a missile barrier in the middle of an archery killing ground, it cannot be underestimated! As a means for getting high ground against a bunch of foes, unequaled. What really makes this spell interesting, is when you cast it directly in front of a charging horse, who cannot jump over it, nor avoid it, after all, how easy is it for a horse to come to a full stop while charging full speed? One ingenious use of this spell was to keep prisoners from escaping by burying them up to their necks in loose soil. Of course, that same mage lost my respect when he allowed those men to be run over by stampeding horses, but that is another story entirely….”Sand Jet
“Moving on to Sand Jet, I find that this spell has unexpected applications. The original intent, I believe, for this spell was to be used as a form of blinding opponents. Other applications of this spell is that it can be used for creating sand for hour glasses. As the prerequisite for this spell is Create Earth, sand created by this spell is permanent. But sand also has other uses. It can be used by gardeners, it can be used to fill bags used as ballast or weights, it can even be used by glass blowers, but I have often heard that sometimes the sand is of inferior quality for what they need. I heard one mage, in a hurry, create a sand stream and used the sand to walk across an icy ledge.In short, where ever sand can be used, this spell can provide it. As a gag, I hear tell of a student who researched a variant of this spell such that it produced colored sand. After successfully researching this spell, I hear he quit school, and started up a successful artist career in, you guessed it, sand sculpting. One last thought regarding Sand Jet. Any time the existence of sand can cause a problem, then this spell is just the thing to have. I have it on good authority, in a dimension where magic is scarce, but inventiveness is not, that machines have been invented where metal carriages move without horses. These carriages use an alchemical potion called gasoline, where depositing sand in the potion "tank" can cause a thing called an engine to stop working, thus stopping a carriage from moving. I have heard too, that instead of placing the sand in the potion called gasoline, you could instead put the sand in the opening reserved for some substance called oil. I don't know where said opening is, nor for certain what gasoline is, but I assure you, that this mage said that sand jet is one really nasty spell in that dimension. He uses it to ruin machines, and also to ruin what he calls lenses. Of course, he maintains that he could cast that spell at no energy cost for a range of 2 yards. I believe he said something about using the sand to "blast" things….”Shape Stone
“Shape Stone is another one of those often useful spells for day to day life. In a castle, or any other environment for that matter, a mage can imprison some unlucky chap by shaping the stone to accept the hands and/or feet, or other portion of the body, and then closing about it. Against mages who need to move a hand to gesture, or for those poor unfortunates who need to dance in order to get a spell successfully cast, they are out of luck. One craft that suffered greatly at the hands of mages who could work stone, were stonemasons and stone cutters. Who cares how well placed two blocks of stone were if a mage could later on, come by and cast this spell, and make them fit almost seamlessly? Instead of creating iron spikes that had to be driven into stone to hold lanterns and other useful things, just build the iron device, shape the stone, and let the stone harden around the device you wanted to anchor to the stone wall/floor/ceiling. This means now, that instead of stone castles being built, they can now be crafted. I am certain there are those of you who can point out other applications of this spell. Artists with magery and this spell can build statues without the necessary time consuming process that all other sculptors need to expend. Intricate gold and silver jewelry can also be done using this spell, but only if the mechanics of magic allow metal to be substituted for stone in various universes and dimensions.”Walk Through Earth
“Walk Through Earth is a spell that I generally avoid dealing with. It is far too expensive to use and dangerous to boot. It's useful time duration is only one second for the expenditure of almost half of a person's energy reserves, a normal person that is. I have heard stories of mages who used this spell who also walked into areas of no mana. While I doubt very much that the stories I heard were one hundred percent correct, I cannot help but wonder. After all, if your hand were to encounter the null mana zone, and your hand materialized in the stone—how could you retrieve the hand? I suspect that while this story serves to illustrate potential truths in some dimensions, it may not necessarily hold true in others….”Earth to Stone
“Earth to Stone is the second spell that I find highly useful in creating rapid defensive works. Whereas before, it was done by creating scaffolding, and using ropes, pulleys, and pure muscle power to raise precut and dressed stone to walls, mages of today can use the Move Earth spell with sufficient volume of earth to the position the mason wants a stone, and then cast this Earth to Stone spell while the earth is in a cube shape. In fact, I have heard rumors that dwarven masons using hand cut tongue and grove stones were amazed when they discovered that mages could create such stones from mere handfuls of dirt! The one thing that I have discovered in my travels between dimensions, is that magic doesn't always work as you expect it to. In my home continuum, stone made by soft earth, turns into a form of sandstone, there being too many pockets of air trapped inside the stone. However, it was discovered that if you used destroy air on the earth, it would be compressed, and turn into more solid, and more smooth stone than untreated earth. How this works in other continuums, is as varied as the number of grains of sand on a beach (or should I say, in a sand jet's stream?)”Stone to Earth
“Stone to Earth, is a self explanatory process. And just as Earth to Stone can be used for constructive purposes, the reverse can be used for destructive purposes. It can be used to free a prisoner whose hands are manacled to the stone wall by iron chains. This spell can be used in conjunction with the Earth to Stone spell to hide and retrieve valuables in a solid stone wall. Imagine, a box could be placed in the wall that is a niche much like statues use. Place a strongbox in the niche, and fill it with loose earth changed into stone. When you want to retrieve it, just cast the Stone to Earth spell. This spell can also be used to retrieve iron objects that had been embedded in the stone wall for utility purposes. “One sick mage that I knew personally, liked to terrorize peasants by casting Flesh to Stone, and then using the spell Stone to Earth, or even Shape Stone, to mutilate helpless people. It wasn't so much the pain aspect or the destruction aspect involved in this sadistic display of magic that she was after, it was the terror and horror effect on the faces of those who could only watch in helplessness. I am sorry to say, she never paid for her sadism, for there were demonic forces who witnessed this act of cruelty, and granted unto her, the ability to become a demonlike entity with 6 arms and a very long life. If you should ever run into a woman who can change between the form of a fair woman and that of a large snake with the torso of a woman with 6 arms—run. Don't even attempt to tackle her. Just report her existence to the nearest mage's guild, or high Magician, and pray she can be stopped before she does damage to the area she is in.”Create Earth
“Create Earth, unlike Sand Jet, only allows for created earth matter to be created in contact with the earth itself. I am certain that there are those of you who can come up with really innovative uses for earth created with this spell. What makes this spell really useful in certain areas is that areas that look barren, or are too rocky for farming, can benefit from the application of this spell. Also, said spell can be used to help barricade shut doors that swing inwards towards you, although, I still can't get over the story about the excited mage who created a pile of dirt to block a door, and the door opened out away from the mage, instead of in towards him. “Other applications of this spell is that it can be used to help shape the terrain that the mage is on. By constantly casting this spell at the edge of a beach, a mage could build a land bridge that can cross the slow moving waters.”Flesh to Stone, Stone to Flesh
“Flesh to Stone and Stone to Flesh are complimentary spells effecting change in either a stone person, or turning said person into stone. There aren't too awful many applications that I have seen this spell put to, and I feel the spell is generally to specialized and expensive in energy cost to be effective. Were Flesh to Stone not required to learn how to change Stone to Flesh, I doubt there would be too many people who would want to learn this spell. Problem is, there are far too many more useful spells that are cheaper in energy cost that can kill a person.”Body of Stone
“The Body of Stone spell is another one of those too specialized spells that I dislike so. It's effects are very limited in that they will grant certain protections for the beneficiary of the spell, but again, it is so expensive in energy, that I have rarely seen mages to study it.”Stone Missile
“Stone Missile is another one of those spells that is highly specialized, but it is one I see often. How many uses can one find for a stone object that is cast like an oversized sling pellet that disappears once it impacts? However, it is a very efficient means for damaging and killing your opponents. Since this seems to be one of Mankind's favorite past-times, I doubt that this spell will ever be forgotten by man, as long as magic works.”Earth To Air
“Earth to Air is one spell that I really can't even discuss with familiarity. I confess that I am unable to come up with really plausible uses for this spell other than to convert earth into air for breathing purposes. I suppose that it is useful for destroying earth or stone, or it may be used to create a hollow area of stone/earth without attempting to move it/shape it etc.”Earth Vision
“Earth Vision is one fun spell that can be used for informational purposes. If you are looking at a section of earth, chances are, there will be something worth looking at. One could watch animals, or determine if animals are present within a lair or cave. It could be used by a necromancer to find buried bodies that are of use to him. It could even be used to determine where a murderer has hidden a body of someone he has slain. What is more important, Earth vision can also stop those who are attempting to tunnel under the ground in an attempt to sap the walls. Earth Vision can even be used to find underground tunnels. “Before you attempt to disagree with me on that last statement, remember, what you can't see is just as important as what you can see. You just can't see what is inside of those secret tunnels. In addition, you can see where those tunnels go by virtue of what areas you can't see into. I must remind you of one pertinent fact here regarding Earth Vision, you cannot see into areas that have been worked, so anyone who wants to keep their area Earth Vision proof, had better lay in a layer of brick or cut stone to shield the area from this spell.”Entombment
“Entombment is a really nice spell in some respects. While costly in terms of fatigue, its secondary use is well worth the cost. For an additional 60 percent of energy cost, this spell is equal to that of Suspended Animation. Mages who don't have Suspended Animation are able to cast this instead, and be able to place their charge in a protected environment. Also, when faced with certain death by overwhelming numbers of non-mage foes, a wizard can use this spell to escape certain death by casting this spell upon himself. The spell Earth To Air allows a mage to avoid having to go into suspended animation and effect his own release up to the surface with the casting of this spell in reverse. What puzzles me about this spell, is that I can't determine the amount of air that is present when the person is sent below in the entombment chamber….”Earthquake, Volcano
“The spells Earthquake and Volcano are relatively self explanatory destructive spells. They are area effect spells that are generally useless in low powered effects—or are they? The oddity of Earthquake is that the distance factor that almost always effects spell casting adversely is modified by some unknown and unguessed at reason. Instead of adversely affecting the success of a spell casting due to distance, the adversity factor is 20 times weaker than normal. So instead of your skill being lowered by each yard distance, the spell is adversely affected every 20 yards. Imagine what would happen, if a thief were trying to pick a lock, and the ground were to begin to tremble? Picture what would be the result of an archer who will hit your friend with a shaft from 40 yards away, and you decide to create a severe shaking on the ground—one can knock him down to the ground? Even if you don't use the severe shaking option, you can always throw off his aim comparable to the target evading rapidly or even as if the firer were moving—depending on how severe the shaking really is. “Do you need to scare a horse? Use the Earthquake spell directly under it, when it isn't expecting it. Need to knock something that is precariously balance or on the edge of something? Do you need to catch one man's attention, but you don't want to draw attention to yourself other than by what spell casting might cause? All of these are useful applications of the Earthquake spell. No more expensive than a double strength Stone Missile, the Earthquake spell can provide amusement, and even life saving abilities. “Volcano on the other hand, is not overly subtle, nor is the spell all that quick in its activity. To top it off, to maintain this spell, one needs to spend as much time concentrating on it as one spends on enchantments! All in all, a strategic spell in every sense of the word.”Elemental Spells
“This subcategory of spells are ones that I find myself unwilling to discuss at this point in time. While they are properly categorized as elemental earth spells, they are really spells dealing specifically with a lifeform. They are spells that deal with earth elementals, but don't really deal with earth itself, so I will leave this discussion for when I have concluded the other elements as well. “The following spells are found in grimoires from about other lands. My familiarity is not total, nor have I had much time or experience with them. I will comment on them from my experience as a mage on the grounds that spells are only as good as the mage who uses them…”Rain of Stones
“Rain Of Stones is a spell that is good for causing people to keep their heads down and their bodies out of harms way. The problem that I have regarding this spell is that the manuscript in my library doesn't tell me if the stones that rain upon the ground are permanent, or temporary in nature. If these stones are like stone missiles, they will disappear upon impact, if, however, they follow the pattern set by most spells using Create Earth as a prerequisite, then chances are the stones that fall to the ground last for as long as the spell is in effect, or last permanently. In either of the latter two cases, fallen stone can actually provide for rough foot where before, it was clear and clean footing. This has the effect of making footing hazardous when running, or moving quickly, and also has the effect of making combat that much more difficult to concentrate on. Another use of this spell might be when you are in an area where there are walls and a gateway with an arch. Have your defender stand under the arch, while raining the stones upon his attackers. If nothing else, he can attack the enemy while they use their shields against the rain, or they take damage from the rain while attempting to attack him.”Mud Jet
The Advantages that I spoke of regarding Sand Jet can almost be applied to Mud Jet verbatim. The other nasty effect of this spell is that the end products of the mud will make the ground slippery enough if there is enough mud available. By virtue of the fact that mud created by this spell can and will blind you for more than one second means that mud created by this is permanent—it doesn't disappear upon use, nor does it disappear after the spell expires—since it only lasts one second. In all, I approve of this spell.Partial Petrification
Had Lemuria stayed around long enough to be able to learn Partial Petrification, I am certain her sadistic mind would have appreciated this spell. She always depended upon the horror of changing flesh into stone, and then ruining the person thus changed. With this spell, she would have been able to enjoy the terror of the victim itself! Again, I warn you to stay away from any woman who can change into the form of a human sized snake with the upper torso of a six armed woman. I suspect that given her propensity towards this kind of spell, that she may have invented it, or at least learned it.Steelwraith
Steelwraith is another one of those specialized spells that but for the beneficial aspect of defense, is almost a waste of time. The same effect that can be had by this spell can also be had by Body Of Air. While there are differences between the two spells, I would much rather have the Body Of Air spell than this.Essential Earth
“Essential Earth is one spell that I can appreciate. It generally has no practical combat applications, or problem solving applications, it is really good for growing crops. In fact, this soil is actually better than using Bless Plants in the sense that you can increase your yield by 300 percent for planting plants in Essential Earth as compared to plants that have been blessed. However, Bless Plants is cheaper in energy cost by a wide margin, at least in the short term. Essential Earth will, over many years, be the more cost effective choice.”Alter Terrain
“Alter Terrain is a spell that I will not comment upon by the nature of the spell. It is extremely efficient at what it does for the energy cost involved. It can be used to remove a small area of terrain that is either worth attacking, or it can be used to remove a set piece of terrain from harm, specifically speaking--buildings.”Move Terrain
“Move Terrain is another variant of Alter Terrain, but this particular spell can be quite devastating as written. On the face of it, it doesn't look like an offensive spell, but used correctly, it can actually make or break a city. Granted, my perspective towards magic is a bit skewed towards warfare at the moment due to the class project and all, but picture the scenario as presented: Offensive mage knows this spell and has access to 200 fatigue levels of energy. This creates a 41 yard diameter circle that one can cram full of fighting men. Since no one want's to save, the casting of this spell would be considered such that there would be no resistance contests required. Caster of this spell now takes the time to teleport into a new location—say the inside of a city wall. The caster then allows the spell to lapse and two things happen. The first thing is the enemy's city now has a bunch of troops that arrive without warning. The second thing is that the terrain nearby, is overlaid with the new arrival and is disrupted as if a huge Shape Stone spell had been cast. This means that the integrity of the city wall would be horrendously violated…. “There are similar applications that this spell can be used for, one of which is to carry heavy items, or bulky items long distances. For example, if a person wanted to, using this spell, could sneak into a dragon's lair—cast this spell for 20 points, and gather up a 9 foot diameter of treasure. Said treasure could easily be transported out—assuming of course that leaving the lair was an easy operation….”Purify Earth
“Purify Earth is one of those helpful spells that while useful for the purpose for which it was intended, also have unintended consequences. If this spell is cast without the benefit of having Earth Vision, it can be used to force medium sized items out of hiding from below the surface. This means that it is not save to hide money and valuables beneath the earth in small chests. Of course, if a bag was buried beneath the surface, and the bag rots, instead of getting the coins that may have been in the bag, you wind up destroying the money, but that is the risk that you take….”Earth to Water
“Earth To Water, is another specialized spell that does very little beyond its stated purpose of converting earth to mud or water. I will say that this spell is actually quite useful in supplanting the role of Create Water due to the concept that I suspect the volume of water contained in 54 cubic feet (one hex of volume) is greater than the amount of water than can be created with the Create Water spell for the same energy cost. The problem with using this spell over that of Create Water is that you lose a volume of earth equal to that of the water you are gaining….” “All in all, I feel that the spells of this college can be quite useful for civilization purposes. A well trained mage using this college of spells, along with the skills of masons, stone cutters, and architects can build stone buildings rather quickly. “When used in conjunction with magic items, whether Earth College spells, or other specializations from other colleges, this college can be extremely useful for civilization. The down side of this college of spells is that it gets used on a regular basis, and next the the Healing college, is probably responsible for more critical spell failures per college than any other college. For security purposes, I will not elaborate on certain uses of this college, but I can assure you all, that this college of spells would very much make itself felt in civilization. One other advantage that that this college affords is that you no longer have problems with the transportation of building materials. Recently, I had a discussion with a mage who comes from another dimension, where technology advanced greatly, but not at the expense of magic. Hand in hand, both Technology and Magic was able to create some really bizarre environments. This mage also pointed out that buildings that reach greatly into the sky benefit from the ability to create stone out of thin air. He spoke of the art of imbedding steel skeletons within the stone to make the stone better able to withstand great amounts of weight. He also mentioned that the ability to create stone around objects with a shorter "cure time", whatever that means, allows devices to be created in buildings that could not be done if magic did not exist…. “I will leave you all to consider other applications of spells that were discussed today. The next lecture will discuss certain effects of the Air College of spells. As a teaser, one of the spells in this college is a much sought after spell for the magic item it produces. The spell item? Why Odor of course! When Wealthy women are constantly trying to find ways to attract the attention of others around them, a perfume item would be in great demand, for it never fades, and you never have to replenish the supply of ingredients because a batch went stale due to age. As an added bonus, mages with enchantment abilities who also wish to impress women can whip up such an item in less than an hour if they have access to a Powerstone of suitable power levels. “Class is dismissed….”
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