Vesper's Last Ledger
A cautious apprentice records the small magics of life, death, and remembrance while searching for the truth behind a name missing from every grave.
Spellbook · Wizard, aspiring necromancer · Level 1
Vesper's Last Ledger
A cautious apprentice records the small magics of life, death, and remembrance while searching for the truth behind a name missing from every grave.
Ex librisVesper RookWizard
At a glance
Level
1
Wizard, aspiring necromancer
Spells
8
4 cantrips, 4 signature
Spell slots
1st level
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
8 spellsCantrips
4- One creature you can see within range makes a Wisdom save. On a failure, it takes necrotic damage, with the higher die used if it is missing any hit points.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Damage
- necrotic; if the target is missing any hit points
- Higher levels
- Damage increases at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything
- A hit deals necrotic damage, and the target cannot regain hit points until the start of your next turn. If the target is undead, it also has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until then.
- Duration
- 1 round
- Target
- One creature within range
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Ranged spell attack
- Damage
- necrotic
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- A spectral hand appears at a point you choose. It 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 scaling.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- Create a sound or an image of an object within range. The image must fit within a 5-foot cube and makes no sound, light, smell, or other sensory effect.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- A point within range
- Components
- S, M (a small piece of fleece)
- Save or attack
- Investigation check against your spell save DC to discern an image
- Higher levels
- No scaling.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
1st level
4- Bolster yourself with a necromantic facsimile of life and gain temporary hit points for the duration.
- Duration
- 1 hour
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of dried beetle or a feather)
- Higher levels
- When cast using a slot of 2nd level or higher, gain 5 additional temporary hit points for each slot level above 1st.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- On a hit, the target takes poison damage and must make a Constitution save or be poisoned until the end of your next turn.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature within range
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Ranged spell attack; on a hit, the target makes a Constitution saving throw
- Damage
- poison
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each slot level above 1st.
- Conditions
- Poisoned
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- One creature you can see within range must succeed on a Wisdom save or become frightened of you for the duration. It can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the spell on itself on a success.
- Duration
- Up to 1 minute, concentration
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a strip of dried flesh)
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Higher levels
- When cast using a slot of 2nd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st. Targets must be within 30 feet of each other.
- Conditions
- Frightened
- Source
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything
- On a hit, the target takes poison damage and must make a Constitution save or be poisoned until the end of your next turn.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a pinch of soot and salt)
- Save or attack
- Ranged spell attack; on a hit, the target makes a Constitution saving throw
- Damage
- poison
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each slot level above 1st.
- Conditions
- Poisoned
- Source
- Player's Handbook
In the margins
3 notes
WarningChill Touch is not a touch. The dead have a talent for misleading names.
DiaryA false pulse is still a pulse worth having. Do not mistake borrowed vigor for invulnerability.
DiagramThree rings for the living, one for the silent. Leave the center empty.
The book itself
The book smells faintly of candle smoke and rain-soaked earth.
Its owner studies death as a boundary to understand, not a power to wield carelessly.
The caster
WizardVesper Rook
Studies: NecromancyManner: Quiet, courteous, and attentive; Vesper asks the deceased for permission before disturbing a grave.Focus: A small yew wand capped with a smooth piece of river glass, used to trace signs in the air.Quirk: Taps twice on wood before entering a room, then pauses as if waiting for an answer.Wants: Find the origin of a missing name that appears in the margins of the oldest page.Vesper learned careful recordkeeping as an apprentice to a rural physician. After failing to save a patient, Vesper began studying the boundary between life and death, keeping meticulous notes rather than making promises.
The book
A narrow, black-leather folio bound with silver wire, its pages made from pale rag paper. A pressed yew leaf marks the first spell, and faint gray fingerprints appear beside passages about the dead.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatHand-bound spellbook folio
ThemeNecromancy
Written by aWizard, aspiring necromancer
Caster level1
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (2014 rules)
Plot hooks
1A gravekeeper recognizes the handwriting in the folio as belonging to a wizard who vanished decades ago.
2One page has been carefully cut out. The book's owner believes it contained the name of someone erased from the town's burial records.
3The folio's silver binding grows cold whenever its owner passes a particular sealed crypt.
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