The Star-Glass Codex
A meticulous wizard's treasured star-chart grimoire holds the key to a vanished observatory and the dangerous spell that erased it from the maps.
Spellbook · Wizard, School of Abjuration · Level 5
The Star-Glass Codex
A meticulous wizard's treasured star-chart grimoire holds the key to a vanished observatory and the dangerous spell that erased it from the maps.
Ex librisVesper AsterWizard, School of Abjuration
At a glance
Level
5
Wizard, School of Abjuration
Spells
12
4 cantrips, 2 signature
Spell slots
1st level
2nd level
3rd level
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
12 spellsCantrips
4- A spectral hand appears at a point within range and can manipulate objects, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item, or pour out a vial. It cannot attack, activate magic items, or carry more than 10 pounds.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- One spectral hand
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No effect from higher-level slots.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Creates a minor magical trick, such as a brief sensory effect, lighting or snuffing a small flame, cleaning or soiling an object, chilling or warming nonliving material, or creating a small mark or trinket.
- Duration
- Up to 1 hour
- Target
- A small object or point within range
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- You can have up to three non-instantaneous effects active at once.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- On a hit, a beam of frigid light deals cold damage to one creature and reduces its speed by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Ranged spell attack
- Damage
- cold
- Higher levels
- Damage increases to at character level 5, at level 11, and at level 17.
- Conditions
- Speed reduced by 10 feet
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Creates either a sound or an image of an object. A sound can be quiet or loud and may continue through the duration; an image must fit within a 5-foot cube and cannot create sound, light, smell, or other sensory effects.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- A point within range
- Components
- S, M (a bit of fleece)
- Save or attack
- Investigation check against your spell save DC to discern an image
- Higher levels
- The cantrip's level-based improvements do not increase its image or sound limits.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
1st level
4- For the duration, you sense magic within 30 feet. You can use an action to see a faint aura around a visible magical creature or object and learn its school, if any. The spell is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
- Target
- Self; senses magic within 30 feet
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- Can be cast as a ritual without expending a spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- A willing creature not wearing armor gains base AC 13 + its Dexterity modifier for the duration.
- Duration
- 8 hours
- Target
- One willing creature not wearing armor
- Components
- V, S, M (a piece of cured leather)
- Higher levels
- No effect from higher-level slots.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- You create three glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One or more creatures you can see
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- None; the darts hit automatically
- Damage
- 3 darts, each dealing force
- Higher levels
- One additional dart for each slot level above 1st.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Until the start of your next turn, you gain a bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and take no damage from magic missile.
- Duration
- 1 round
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No effect from higher-level slots.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
2nd level
2- Briefly surrounded by silvery mist, you teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V
- Higher levels
- No effect from higher-level slots.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Suggest a course of activity to a creature that can hear and understand you. On a failed save, it pursues the suggestion to the best of its ability. The spell ends if you or your companions damage the target.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 8 hours
- Target
- One creature that can hear and understand you
- Components
- V, M (a snake's tongue and either a bit of honeycomb or a drop of sweet oil)
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Higher levels
- The duration increases by 8 hours for each slot level above 2nd.
- Conditions
- Charmed
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
3rd level
2- You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell. On success, the spell fails and has no effect.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature casting a spell within range
- Components
- S
- Save or attack
- None for spells of 3rd level or lower; for a higher-level spell, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability, + the spell's level
- Higher levels
- Automatically interrupts a spell if its level is equal to or lower than the slot used; otherwise make the described ability check.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- A bright streak flashes from your pointing finger to a point within range, then blossoms into a 20-foot-radius sphere of flame. Creatures in the area take fire damage on a failed save.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Creatures in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur)
- Save or attack
- Dexterity saving throw; half damage on a success
- Damage
- fire
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each slot level above 3rd.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
In the margins
4 notes
WarningThe third star is not a star. Do not answer if it speaks.
DiaryShield held against the brass astrolabe's discharge. Add a grounding wire before the next test.
FormulaA counterspell succeeds by breaking the pattern, not by overpowering it. Find the hinge in the enemy's syllables.
DiagramApproximate alignment of the eastern tower, the winter constellation, and the sealed basement door.
The book itself
The silver ink glimmers when a spell is being cast nearby.
Every diagram is aligned to a different imagined night sky.
The book smells faintly of lamp oil, cedar, and ozone.
The caster
Wizard, School of AbjurationVesper Aster
Studies: Abjuration and defensive spellcraftManner: Courteous, observant, and slow to trust; speaks as if every conversation might become a proof.Focus: A brass astrolabe with a chipped lens, used to trace spell patterns in the air.Quirk: Counts the visible stars before entering any unfamiliar room, even when there are no windows.Wants: Find the missing observatory and learn why its final star chart was torn from the royal archives.Vesper studied protective magic under a court astrologer, then left after discovering that the royal observatory was hiding records of a vanished constellation.
The book
A narrow, midnight-blue leather codex with silver corner guards and a clasp shaped like an eclipsed star. Its vellum pages are covered in precise diagrams, tiny annotations, and faintly shifting constellations.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatStar-chart codex
ThemeArcane
Written by aWizard, School of Abjuration
Caster level5
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
Plot hooks
1A star chart tucked into the back cover points toward an observatory that disappeared from every official map.
2The book's former owner, an astronomer presumed dead, sends Vesper a letter asking for the return of a page that is still bound inside the codex.
3One night, the silver diagrams rearrange themselves to depict a constellation no one else can see.
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