The Star-Warded Codex
A meticulous young abjurer’s treasured codex holds the spells and secrets she needs to keep an ancient observatory from waking.
Spellbook · Wizard, School of Abjuration · Level 4
The Star-Warded Codex
A meticulous young abjurer’s treasured codex holds the spells and secrets she needs to keep an ancient observatory from waking.
Ex librisVesper AulneWizard
At a glance
Level
4
Wizard, School of Abjuration
Spells
11
3 cantrips, 3 signature
Spell slots
1st level
2nd level
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
11 spellsCantrips
3- A mote of fire streaks toward 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
- Save or attack
- Ranged spell attack
- Damage
- force
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- On a hit, the target takes lightning damage and cannot take reactions until the start of its next turn.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Melee spell attack; advantage if the target wears metal armor
- Damage
- lightning
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- Create a sound or an image of an object within range. The image must fit in a 5-foot cube; it makes no sound, light, smell, or other sensory effect.
- Duration
- Up to 1 minute
- Target
- A point within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
- Higher levels
- No improvement at higher levels.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
1st level
4- 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 tiny strip of white cloth)
- Higher levels
- No improvement at higher levels.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- Gain a bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and take no damage from magic missile.
- Duration
- Until the start of your next turn
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No improvement at higher levels.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- Create three 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
- 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
- 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.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Target
- Self, sensing magic within 30 feet
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
- Higher levels
- No improvement at higher levels.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
2nd level
4- Create a 20-foot cube of sticky webs that lightly obscure the area and can restrain creatures. The webs must be anchored or layered across a surface, or they collapse and the spell ends at the start of your next turn.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Target
- A point within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a small piece of spiderweb)
- Save or attack
- Creatures in the area make a Dexterity saving throw or become restrained; a restrained creature can use its action to make a Strength check against the spell save DC
- Higher levels
- The area increases by 5 feet 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, S
- Higher levels
- No improvement at higher levels.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- One creature or loose object rises vertically up to 20 feet and remains suspended. An unwilling creature that succeeds on its save is unaffected; a target can move only by pushing or pulling against a fixed object or surface.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
- Target
- One creature or loose object weighing up to 500 pounds
- Components
- V, S, M (a pinch of dust)
- Save or attack
- An unwilling creature makes a Constitution saving throw
- Higher levels
- You can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- A creature you touch becomes invisible, along with anything it is wearing or carrying, until the spell ends. The spell ends early for a target that attacks or casts a spell.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Target
- One creature
- Components
- V, S, M (a pinch of soot and salt)
- Higher levels
- You can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
In the margins
3 notes
WarningShield is not a substitute for watching the door. It is, however, an excellent second choice.
DiaryThe star-map on this page changes when the observatory bell rings, though the tower has been silent for a century.
DiagramFor the ward: three circles, one unbroken; leave a finger-width gap only at the eastern mark.
The book itself
The silver ink glimmers faintly whenever a spell is prepared from the book.
A pressed bluebell marks the page where the owner first learned to trust protective magic.
The caster
WizardVesper Aulne
Studies: Abjuration, with a fascination for precise arcane geometry.Manner: Courteous and composed, though she watches every doorway and quietly counts exits.Focus: A brass astrolabe with a cracked crystal lens, used to trace spell diagrams in the air.Quirk: She labels ordinary objects with tiny paper tags, as if cataloguing them for a future spell.Wants: Discover why the observatory’s wards are weakening and locate her missing mentor before something stirs beneath the tower.Vesper Aulne apprenticed at a remote observatory, where she learned to chart magical disturbances and mend its failing wards. She inherited this codex from her vanished mentor.
The book
A midnight-blue calfskin codex with brass corners and a spine etched in tiny moving constellations. Its pages are vellum ruled with silver ink; diagrams shift subtly when viewed by candlelight.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatBrass-bound arcane codex
ThemeArcane
Written by aWizard, School of Abjuration
Caster level4
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
Plot hooks
1The observatory’s silent bell rings in the middle of the night, and a new constellation appears in the codex, pointing toward a sealed chamber.
2A rival scholar claims the book was copied from a missing archmage’s original and wants its pages returned before the observatory’s wards fail.
3One page has been carefully cut from the binding. Its absence makes the book’s protective ward falter whenever the owner casts a spell.
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