The Astral Index
A meticulous young wizard’s living star-chart codex holds the key to a vanished observatory and the secret hidden in its final blank page.
Spellbook · Wizard · Level 5
The Astral Index
A meticulous young wizard’s living star-chart codex holds the key to a vanished observatory and the secret hidden in its final blank page.
Ex librisIlyra VennWizard
At a glance
Level
5
Wizard
Spells
11
3 cantrips, 3 signature
Spell slots
1st level
2nd level
3rd level
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
11 spellsCantrips
3- Creates a spectral hand that 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
- A point within range
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Creates a minor magical effect, such as a sensory effect, lighting or snuffing a small flame, cleaning or soiling an object, or chilling, warming, or flavoring nonliving material.
- Duration
- Up to 1 hour
- Target
- An 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 (2024)
- You hurl a mote of fire at a creature or object. On a hit, the target takes fire damage; a flammable object hit by the spell ignites if it isn't being worn or carried.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature or flammable object
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Ranged spell attack
- Damage
- fire
- Higher levels
- Damage increases to at character level 5, at level 11, and at level 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
1st level
4- An invisible barrier grants you a bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and prevents damage from Magic Missile.
- Duration
- Until the start of your next turn
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- You create three glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range and deals force damage.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One or more creatures you can see
- Components
- V, S
- Damage
- 3 darts, each dealing force
- Higher levels
- Creates one additional dart for each spell slot level above 1st.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- You sense the presence of magic within 30 feet. You can take the Magic action to see a faint aura around a visible magical creature or object and learn its school, if any.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
- Target
- Self, sensing within 30 feet
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- You gain the service of a spirit in an animal form you choose. It acts independently but obeys your commands; while within 100 feet, you can communicate telepathically and briefly perceive through its senses as a Bonus Action.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- An unoccupied space within range
- Components
- V, S, M (burning incense worth 10+ GP, which the spell consumes)
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
2nd level
2- You teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Three illusory duplicates appear around you. When a creature targets you with an attack during the spell, a duplicate can cause the attack to target it instead; a duplicate disappears when hit.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
3rd level
2- You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell. On a failed Constitution save, the creature's spell fails and has no effect.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature casting a spell within range
- Components
- S
- Save or attack
- The spellcaster makes a Constitution saving throw; on a failure, the spell fails and has no effect.
- Higher levels
- If the interrupted spell is level 4 or higher, it automatically fails when its level is no greater than the slot used for Counterspell.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- A bright streak flashes from you to a point within range and blossoms into a fiery explosion. Creatures in the sphere take fire damage, or half as much on a successful save; unattended flammable objects ignite.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- A point within range; creatures in a 20-foot-radius sphere
- Components
- V, S, M (a tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur)
- Save or attack
- Dexterity saving throw
- Damage
- fire
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each spell slot level above 3rd.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
In the margins
4 notes
DiaryA spell is not a flame in a bottle. It is a question the world has been trained to answer.
DiagramThree concentric circles, each marked with tiny runes. Do not confuse the inner ring with the boundary of the ward.
WarningThe silver ink is warm. If it begins to hum, close the book and leave the room.
FormulaTrace the star-path in reverse: intention, pattern, release. Never reverse the final stroke.
The book itself
The diagrams resemble constellations, though their stars mark spells rather than celestial bodies.
A few pages smell faintly of lamp oil and winter rain.
The codex's silver page edges glimmer when a spell is cast nearby.
The caster
WizardIlyra Venn
Studies: Arcane theory and protective spellcraftManner: Soft-spoken and exacting, Ilyra treats even casual conversation as an opportunity to test a theory.Focus: A slender brass astrolabe with a cracked glass lens, used to trace spell patterns in the air.Quirk: She taps her astrolabe twice before answering a difficult question, as if consulting an invisible chart.Wants: Find the vanished observatory and learn why its star charts show a constellation absent from the night sky.Ilyra Venn was apprenticed to a cartographer of magical ley lines. When her mentor and the observatory they studied vanished, she kept the mentor’s annotated codex and began searching for what the stars had concealed.
The book
A midnight-blue codex bound in dark leather, its silvered page edges reflecting tiny, star-like sparks. Diagrams shift subtly when viewed from different angles, and a brass clasp shaped like an open eye seals the cover.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatStar-chart codex
ThemeArcane
Written by aWizard
Caster level5
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (2024)
Plot hooks
1A letter tucked into the binding claims that the vanished observatory has reappeared for one night, and that its doors open only to the book's owner.
2The codex's blank final page begins filling with a star chart that points to a place no astronomer recognizes.
3A rival scholar insists that one of the book's annotations is in the handwriting of a wizard who disappeared a century ago.
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