Secret Crafts of Glantri

The most intersting features of the Great School of Magic are its secret crafts. These are arcane philosphies of magic use that have led to the creation of new magic. The general public is not aware of these factions, but any student curious enough to ask questions and observe people at the School can discover the secret order's existance.

Each secret order is divided into five circles controlled by a High Master. The Master's identity is unknown to all, except disciples of the Fourth Circle within their orders. Upon finishing studies at each circle, a follower gains special magical abilities. All of them are natural abilities of the disciple, not related to normal spell casting limits. Except for alchemists, they are all magical abilities that can be dispelled at any time. Unlike spells, they do not need to be memorized every day to be used.

Circle	Time	Cost	Experience	Min Level	Min Int	Success	# of Uses
1st	14	100	5,000	5th	14	60 + 1/lvl	3 a day
2nd	28	200	10,000	7th	15	50 + 1/lvl	2 a day
3rd	42	300	20,000	10th	16	40 + 1/lvl	1 a day
4th	56	400	35,000	14th	17	30 + 1/lvl	1 a week
5th	70	500	55,000	18th	18	20 + 1/lvl	1 a month

Circle: A disciples rank in the order.

Time: The time in days it takes to master a circle. A student may freely interrupt his studies, come back later, and pick up where he left off.

Cost: The fee in gold pieces per daynof studies. The gold is paid to the teacher, each day, or in advance for the full cycle.

Experience: Learning a cycle takes a lot of focus away from the wizard's normal studies. To represent this, a wizard has to sacrifice the listed amount of experiance to learn the cycle. A wizard may not sacrifice so much experience that he loses a level, nor may a wizard 'owe' experience.

Min Level: The minimum wizard level to start studying the circle.

Min Int: The minimum intelligence required to start studying the circle.

Success: The percent chance of using an ability of that circle.

# of Uses: The number of times within the specified period that an ability of that circle can be used.

5th Circle

A 4th Circle student must find the way to reach the 5th Circle by himself. Costs and time on the table are guidelines for personal research. Once he has reached the last circle, the High Master will challenge his rival to a dual. The 5th Circle ability is gained only after the High Master is defeated.

Masters of Alchemy

Alchemists are wizards specialized in the use of rare ingredients and compoundsm and the alteration of matter, energy, or their own bodies. Their abilities are not spells but experiments requiring a laboratory. Experiments of the First Circle take 1d6 hours to accomplish, 2d6 hours for the Second, up to 5d6 hours for the Fifth. They must be uninterrupted to succeed (-5% chance per minor interruption of a few rounds or less). Only one experiment can be attempted at a time.

An alchemist's laboratory costs 5,000gp per circle (a High Master needs a 25,000 gp laboratory), complete with beakers, retorts, baloons, crucibles, components, powders, liquids, crystals, balms, gases, ores, etc.

Find Components (First Circle): This operation defines all components within a non magical item (specific minerals, metals, basic substances, as well as known compounds: gasses, liquids, vegetables, flesh, etc). This is ideal for detecting and identifying poisons, vegetables, bones, etc. A roll of 01 indicates a false interpretation.

Alchemical Preparation (First Circle): The alchemist concocts a powder, balm, or liquid solution producing a specific effect. He must first research the formula in a laboratory before being able to produce the compound.

Once the formula is known, it must be written in the Alchemist's Codex (book of formulae). Alchemical preperations should be used rapidly because they only last 1d4 days. After this period, the components separate and decompose, becoming totally useless.

Their effects are not magical, although they can imitate known spells, such as neutralize poison, cure disease, cure light wounds, purify food and water, etc. The alchemist can make other non magical substances, such as poisons, inflammable oil, smoking devices, etc. The DM makes the final judgement on which formulas can be discovered and what their effects are. The success of a preparation is known at the time it is used (the DM secretly rolls a d100: a natural 01 indicates the presence of harmful components whose effects are up to the DM). Cost per preperation: variable but about a quarter the cost of a similar magical potion.

Find Magical Components (Second Circle): This experiment is similar to the Find Components of the first circle, except that it allows identification of magical potions and items. In addition, the alchemist detects the kind of energy radiating from an item (electrical, magical, and so forth). A roll of 01 indicates a false interpretation.

Magical Preperation (Second Circle): This ability works like the Alchemical Preparation, except it allows the creation of magical or clerical potions at half price. Alchemists do not need to know corresponding spells to make magical potions. Preparations need not be liquid potions, but can be powders, balms, pills, or oils. Unlike true magical potions these only last 1d4 days per level of the alchemist. A roll of 01 indicates a flaw in the magical compounds (effects up to the DM).

Transmute Matter (Third Circle): This changes the nature of the nature of a non-living object to another non-living matter, such as minerals, crystals, metals, gas, liquid, or dead organic matter like wood, hides, fur, bones, claws, etc.

The alchemist can affect up to 10cn of material per level of experience. This produces the same weight in minerals, metals, organic substances, etc., or 1 cu ft. of gases (per level) or 1 quart of liquid (per level). Remaining matter burns during the operation.

The original material must be a single item. For example, one coin or one weapon can easily be changed but a portion of a wall or pile of coins cannot.

This form of transformation is not an easy way to make money. Many alchemists have a techinique for turning lead into gold. Unfortunately this process costs more than the gold produced is worth. Where this transmutation has its greatest benefit is in creating materials that are not easily available. For example, while it might be prohibitively expensive to try to mass produce mithral, a character might be willing to go to the expense and effort required to make enough to forge an exceptional blade for a magical sword.

Transcend Energy (Fourth Circle): This enables the alchemist to focus energy into matter. Usable energies include a bolt from the sky during a storm, concentrated sunlight during a solar erruption, or spells causing 60d6 of damage (six maximum strength fireballs or lighting bolts cast simultaneously).

This ability is a way of recharging magical items, animating golems or constructs, reverse aging (one week per level) recalling to life a creature (dead no more than one day per level of the alchemist), and other such mighty works.

A device to collect the energy and focus it towards a specific area must be built in the laboratory. It requires a 12,000 gp component (a huge antena, a giant magnifier, a large gem, etc.) Each use destroys the component in a very spectacular way. A roll of 01 causes a fireball explosion destroying the laboratory and all of its contents.

Mutate Lifeform (Fifth Circle): The alchemist is able to alter part or all of his body (or a helpless man-sized victim's). The affected living material turns into a mineral, metal, gas, liquid, crystal or a living flesh of the alchemist's choice.

For example, the alchemist could change his hands into "living gold", in effect creating a gold-based life form. He could change his whole body's molecular composition to that of a black pudding, or a fire elemental, thus gaining their innate abilities. Dragon flesh does not enable one to breathe fire, nor does troll flesh allow ont to claw and bite as a troll, but the latter would allow regeneration.

Only the alchemist's appearance and consistency change, not his body shape, intelligence or spell casting abilities. A living crystal alchemist would become AC 0 and be translucent.

Masters of Dragons

Masters of the Elements

Masters of Illusions

Masters of Necromancy

Masters of the Runes

Masters of Witchcraft