Spellstone

((Unless you are a Dwarven Wizard, the information contained within this article is very likely completely unknown to you.))
Dwarven Wizards do not have the natural talent with magic that Sorcerers, Druids, Bards, and other types of spellcasters have. They must learn magic through practice, training, and long hours of study. For anything more potent than a simple cantrip, Wizards have found the magical energies of the universe to be too potent, complicated, and dangerous to tap into and control on the fly. However, through a great amount of effort, trial and error, and a lot of dead and injured Wizards from failed experiments, they have discovered a few tricks they can use to cast magic relatively safely in the field. The biggest trick they've learned is that if they bring a bit of the magical energy from a spell into their bodies, this energy can act as a bit of a conductor when they wish to cast the spell for real, to make it far safer to cast. To do this, they require a Spellstone.
A Spellstone is a simple stone tablet, with the various steps, incantations, gestures and other instructions required to cast the spell written upon it. A Wizard must spent quite some time making their Spellstone, and cannot simply read off of another Wizards Spellstone and hope to have good results. However, simply copying the instructions, even studying and practicing them, is not enough to make this process work. For that, they require one or more gemstones to be laid into the Spellstone. Crystals are natural conductors of magical energies, and the purer they are, and especially if they are cut correctly, the better they can hold and direct magic. The Wizard will lay the gemstone into the stone tablet, either personally, or by a skilled geomancer, so that the gemstone won't be able to fall out of the tablet. Then the Wizard will copy the instructions for casting the spell over onto the tablet, but not necessarily verbatim. The Wizard will practice as he goes, and try to get it just right for their own particular idiosyncrasies and natural talents. The Wizard will be pulling upon small amounts of magical energy the entire time, and imbuing the gemstone with them, effectively charging the spellstone with the very spell he hopes to cast.
When this process is finished, it is now an official Spellstone. The more powerful the spell, the more detailed the instructions have to be, and the more power has to be imbued into the Spellstone. This requires bigger tablets, and bigger, or at least more gemstones.
Once a Spellstone is made, the Wizard can spend a bit of time preparing the spell in their mind, by studying the Spellstone, memorizing the incantations and gestures they must make to cast the spell. And during this time, they will be absorbing the magical energies from the Spellstone, so that when they cast the spell without the use of the Spellstone, they can do so quickly, and safely. The more talented and experienced a Wizard is, the more energy he can hold, and the more spells he can have memorized.

Item type

Magical

Rarity

The stone tablets used for the spells are not particularly rare, however the gemstones required for this are fairly uncommon, and have a good deal of value.

Weight

1 pound per Spell Level

Raw materials & Components

A stone tablet large enough to hold the Dwarven writing, and enough gemstones to hold the magical energies. Some Dwarves have attempted to "write smaller" so that they can hold powerful spells on tiny tablets, but the stone seems to conduct some amount of the magical energies itself, and the more powerful the spell, the more space it seems to require, else usually the stone shatters, and sometimes explodes.

Tools

Most Dwarves have the ability to write in stone with their fingers, due to some small natural Geomancy talents inherent to all Dwarves. However, not all Dwarves have the natural ability or skill to open up a space to lay the gemstone in without compromising the integrity of the tablet. Therefore, some Dwarves require a Geomancer to lay in the gemstone for them.