The Vesper Codex
A meticulous young abjurer’s star-chart codex holds the key to an invisible ward whose boundaries are slowly closing around a forgotten observatory.
Spellbook · Wizard, School of Abjuration · Level 3
The Vesper Codex
A meticulous young abjurer’s star-chart codex holds the key to an invisible ward whose boundaries are slowly closing around a forgotten observatory.
Ex librisMira VeyWizard, School of Abjuration
At a glance
Level
3
Wizard, School of Abjuration
Spells
11
5 cantrips, 1 signature
Spell slots
1st level
2nd level
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
11 spellsCantrips
5- A frigid beam deals cold damage on a hit and reduces the target's 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 by at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- A spectral hand appears at a point you choose and can manipulate objects, open unlocked doors or containers, retrieve or stow items, or pour out the contents of 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
- An object you touch sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet. If you target an object held or worn by a hostile creature, that creature can avoid the spell with a Dexterity saving throw.
- Duration
- 1 hour
- Target
- One object no larger than 10 feet in any dimension
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No scaling.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- 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 is not being worn or carried.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature or object
- Components
- V, S, M (a tiny ball of bat guano and sulfur)
- Save or attack
- Ranged spell attack
- Damage
- fire
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- You create a sound or an image of an object. The sound can be as quiet as a whisper or as loud as a scream; the image must fit within a 5-foot cube and has no sensory effects beyond sight. Physical interaction reveals an image as an illusion.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- A point within range; sound or image confined as described
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
- Save or attack
- Investigation check against your spell save DC to discern an image; no save for sound
- Higher levels
- No scaling.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
1st level
4- A willing creature not wearing armor gains base AC 13 + its Dexterity modifier for the duration. The spell ends if the target dons armor.
- Duration
- 8 hours
- Target
- One willing creature not wearing armor
- Components
- V, S, M (a small square of silk)
- Higher levels
- No scaling.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- An invisible barrier grants +5 AC, including against the triggering attack, until the start of your next turn. You take no damage from Magic Missile for the duration.
- Duration
- 1 round
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- When cast with a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, no additional effect.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- For the duration, you sense the presence of 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, M (a copper piece)
- Higher levels
- No scaling.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- You learn the properties and use of a magic item or other magic-imbued object, whether it requires attunement, how many charges it has, and what spells are affecting it. You can instead learn which spells are affecting a creature you touch.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One object or creature you touch
- Components
- V, S, M (a pearl worth at least 100 gp and an owl feather)
- Higher levels
- No scaling.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
2nd level
2- You create a mass of sticky webs in a 20-foot cube. The webs make the area difficult terrain and lightly obscure it. A creature that fails its Dexterity save is restrained while in the webs, and can use its action to make a Strength check against your spell save DC to free itself. The webs can be set alight, dealing fire damage to a creature that starts its turn in the flames.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Target
- A point within range; webs fill a 20-foot cube
- Components
- V, S, M (a forked twig)
- Save or attack
- Dexterity saving throw when the webs appear in a creature's space or when a creature starts its turn there
- Higher levels
- When cast with a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the webs fill one additional 5-foot cube for each slot level above 2nd.
- Conditions
- Restrained
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- 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 additional effect when cast with a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
In the margins
4 notes
WarningShielding is not the same as safety. Count the exits before you begin.
DiagramCopper filings align with the winter stars. They do not align with the stars above the observatory.
DiaryI heard the ward answer my name tonight. I have never taught it my name.
FormulaA spell is a question asked of the world with impeccable grammar.
The book itself
The copper diagrams shift subtly to reflect the reader's position beneath the night sky.
Its pages smell of lamp oil, rain, and the faint metallic tang of a storm.
The caster
Wizard, School of AbjurationMira Vey
Studies: Abjuration, with a scholar’s interest in the structure of arcane magic.Manner: Courteous and observant, with the cautious precision of someone who checks every door twice.Focus: A brass astrolabe with a cracked glass lens, used to trace spell geometry in the air.Quirk: She taps a spell’s written title three times before copying it, convinced the rhythm catches transcription errors.Wants: Find the source of the answering chime and learn why the observatory’s old wards recognize her.Mira Vey grew up cataloguing broken wards in her aunt’s ruined observatory. She bound her field notes into this codex after finding a protective diagram that was absent from every known archive.
The book
A narrow, midnight-blue codex bound in worn star-map leather. Fine copper lines trace constellations across its cover, and its pages shimmer faintly when a spell is spoken nearby.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatStar-chart codex
ThemeArcane
Written by aWizard, School of Abjuration
Caster level3
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
Plot hooks
1The codex’s shifting star charts point toward an abandoned observatory that does not appear on any local map.
2A rival scholar claims the book contains the only surviving instructions for safely dismantling a city-sized arcane ward.
3Each time the owner casts Alarm, the ward answers with a second, distant chime from somewhere underground.
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