Summoned Through Time and Space: The System

OVERVIEW

The mnemonic system required for magic was discovered early in this Whale Cycle of The Stolen World. However as the Wake has a number of strange effects on summoning magic, enough so summoning spells have only been used for the last 50 or so years. Also unlike a normal effect on magic, the Wake enables the summoning of creatures from far away, long ago and from distant planes, instead of the normal 'local' summoning as would be expected. As a result the summoning magic is both more crude and more powerful than spells of an equivalent order. The spells are acquired in terms of when the various orders are available under the rules you are using as concerns complexity.

For the spell list HERE

The very Quirky way these spells are learned

The Stolen Worlds magic system works like a standard mnemonic spell system: You learn how to read magical writing , you write down a spell in a spellbook, you memorize said spell of an order you are capable of casting; the summoning spells are completely different. There are two distinct methods of learning a summons spell. You cannot just discover a summons in a spellbook of a fallen foe.

Watching a mage cast a spell

You then make an appropriate check vs intellect and you will be ables to write the spell in your book and then memorize normally. This involves you watching the casting mage and doing nothing else, and yes you can do this in combat

Casting first order Detect Magic on a summoned creature

This has 50% chance of just giving you the knowledge to write it in your book, there is a 45% chance this will create the summons spell as memorized into your head(if you then cast it with out writing it into your book, you will not retain the ability to write it down.0 and finally there is a 5% chance that you will absorb the summons spell into your head, basically in reverse! You will always need the material component(see below)

Notice something wrong in all of this yet?

If another mage must cast the spell, how was the first summons learned? Nobody has the vaguest ideas on this'chicken or egg mystery' ( also funny that there are no chickens on The Stolen World).

Casting

A summons spell is cast by spending a whole combat round casting, jumping around wildly and screaming at the top of the casters lungs, it is very obvious that a summons spell is being cast(to another mage). .As is typical of setting all summons are black, white or grey magic. The material component of the casting is a live rat that disappears simultaneously with the arrival of the summoned creature, it must be a rat and it must be alive. There is nothing that can replace this. Is the rat a sacrifice or is it trading places with the summoned? More unanswered questions.

The summoned creature will have stats more or less along the lines of the following section, as modified by the specific spell. The summoned creature will last for 4 rounds if it is first order and one additional round for each order higher, thus 7 rounds for a fourth order spell. It will appear anywhere within 10 feet of caster (random spot)

There is a flat 10% chance that a summoned creature will turn on it's caster unless the spell description says otherwise.

Further casting quirks

If you fall asleep or are rendered unconscious, all summon spells in your head will appear and randomly attack. In addition unlike all other memorized spells there is a 1 in 6 chance that if you attempt to cast a summons you do not have memorized, the spell will work, this summons has a 33 % chance of turning on you.

Commanding a Summoned Creature

As these creatures are not from the normal plane of existence and speak no known language(with one exception), these summons can only be given rudimentary commands. Such as: Attack! or Guard me, not Get the Mage!

Order Equivalencies

The following are a list of the orders of spells and a rough equivalency in real world animal that would be appropriate to the spell order of a summoned creature.

FIRST ORDER: Small wolf or large bobcat with slightly better armor

SECOND ORDER: Medium cheetah or leopard, perfect

THIRD ORDER Large Lion or medium tiger, slightly better armor

FOURTH ORDER Polar bear or an aggressive moose