Root and Rivet
A field artificer's treasured folio holds ingenious charms for coaxing life from wild places, and a map to the grove she failed to save.
Spellbook · Artificer · Level 5
Root and Rivet
A field artificer's treasured folio holds ingenious charms for coaxing life from wild places, and a map to the grove she failed to save.
Ex librisMara VennArtificer, using a personal nature-focused craft tradition
At a glance
Level
5
Artificer
Spells
11
2 cantrips, 2 signature
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
11 spellsCantrips
2- Cause one seed or tiny dormant plant to sprout, or make a small harmless botanical change such as opening a flower or turning a leaf.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One seed, tiny plant, or botanical part
- Components
- A pinch of soil and a small copper filament
- Higher levels
- No additional effect at higher tiers.
- Source
- Original Creation
- Mark a short path you have traveled with faintly glowing moss, visible to you and creatures you designate when casting.
- Duration
- Up to 1 hour
- Target
- A path up to 100 feet long
- Components
- A carved wooden marker
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, mark one additional trail segment per tier above 1.
- Source
- Original Creation
1st level
6- Ask a plant a simple question about nearby events it could have sensed. Its answer is limited by its awareness and expressed through rustles, scents, or images.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One ordinary plant
- Components
- A pressed leaf
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, ask one additional simple question per tier above 1.
- Source
- Original Creation
- Cause roots, reeds, or nearby vines to braid into a waist-high barrier that provides cover. The barrier is fragile and can be cut or broken.
- Duration
- Up to 1 minute
- Target
- A straight barrier up to 10 feet long
- Components
- A seed and a loop of copper wire
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the barrier can extend 5 additional feet per tier above 1.
- Source
- Original Creation
- A cool dew settles on one willing living creature, restoring health.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One willing living creature
- Components
- A pinch of clean water and a living leaf
- Higher levels
- Restores an additional health per tier above 1.
- Source
- Original Creation
- Bramble lashes at one creature. On a failed save, it takes piercing damage and is restrained until the spell ends or the brambles are destroyed.
- Duration
- Up to 1 minute
- Target
- One creature
- Components
- A thorn and a copper winding
- Save or attack
- Target makes a Dexterity saving throw; on a success, it avoids the snare.
- Damage
- piercing
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, damage increases by per tier above 1.
- Conditions
- Restrained
- Source
- Original Creation
- Grow a fist-sized flower that sheds soft light, bright nearby and dim farther away. You may set the bloom to a chosen color.
- Duration
- Up to 10 minutes
- Target
- One seed capsule or small plant
- Components
- A seed capsule
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, create one additional bloom per tier above 1.
- Source
- Original Creation
- Sense the direction of the nearest natural source of fresh water within a short distance, if one is present.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Self
- Components
- A small vial of water and a copper pin
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, the spell can also indicate whether the water is visibly fouled or stagnant.
- Source
- Original Creation
2nd level
3- Whirling leaves and slender branches form a screen that obscures sight through one area. Strong wind can disperse it.
- Duration
- Up to 1 minute
- Target
- A 10-foot-long, 10-foot-high screen
- Components
- A handful of fallen leaves and a copper gear
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, increase the screen's maximum length by 10 feet per tier above 2.
- Conditions
- Obscured
- Source
- Original Creation
- Grow a sturdy, narrow path of interwoven roots between two surfaces you can see. It can support walking creatures but is not a permanent bridge.
- Duration
- Up to 10 minutes
- Target
- A root-path up to 15 feet long
- Components
- A seed from a hardy tree and a copper brace
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, extend the root-path by 5 feet per tier above 2.
- Source
- Original Creation
- Join two compatible pieces of wood, plant matter, or simple nonmagical mechanism so they hold together securely. The repair is practical rather than perfect.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One small object, mechanism, or plant
- Components
- A fresh sprig and a small copper token
- Higher levels
- At higher tiers, affect one additional object or plant per tier above 2.
- Source
- Original Creation
In the margins
4 notes
WarningNever use the silver pruning shears on a plant that has spoken to you. It remembers.
FormulaCopper conducts the pulse. Living wood gives it somewhere to go.
DiaryThe east seedlings have taken. I promised the old grove I would bring them home.
DiagramSketch: a copper loop around a seed, with three roots marked for grounding.
The book itself
The pages smell faintly of rain-wet soil and cedar.
Freshly written diagrams slowly take the shape of branching vines.
The folio's copper clasps warm when held near a living tree.
The caster
Artificer, using a personal nature-focused craft traditionMara Venn
Studies: Botanical mechanisms and restorative field craftManner: Practical and quietly kind; she listens carefully before offering advice, whether to a person or a plant.Focus: A copper-handled grafting knife, a pocket lens, and small prepared seed capsulesQuirk: Labels every tool and seed, then apologizes aloud when she has to borrow one from a living plant.Wants: Find a surviving rootstock from the burned grove and learn what has been poisoning the springs beneath it.Mara Venn grew up repairing irrigation wheels and orchard tools. After a wildfire destroyed the hillside grove she tended, she began combining practical mechanisms with patient plant craft to restore damaged land.
The book
A weather-softened field folio bound in bark-brown leather, with pressed leaves sealed beneath translucent resin on its covers. Copper hinges are etched like branching roots, and tiny green shoots sometimes emerge between its pages after rain.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatHand-bound field folio with copper clasps and resin-sealed botanical inserts
ThemeNature
Written by aArtificer
Caster level5
SystemGeneric Fantasy
Plot hooks
1A blight is spreading through the valley, and the folio's notes suggest it began where the last seedling from Mara's lost grove was planted.
2A neighboring inventor claims the folio's root-and-copper designs were stolen from their workshop, but the oldest pages bear marks older than either inventor.
3The spellbook's clasps have begun opening on their own whenever it is brought near a forgotten orchard.
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