Screams From The Darkness
A reclusive illusionist’s codex teaches that the darkest shadows are not empty, but listening.
Spellbook · Wizard, School of Illusion · Level 5
Screams From The Darkness
A reclusive illusionist’s codex teaches that the darkest shadows are not empty, but listening.
Ex librisMara VeyWizard, School of Illusion
At a glance
Level
5
Wizard, School of Illusion
Spells
11
2 cantrips, 3 signature
Spell slots
1st level
2nd level
3rd level
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
11 spellsCantrips
2- Creates a sound or an image of an object within range. The illusion ends if you cast it again or dismiss it as an action; physical interaction reveals an image as illusory.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- A point within range; sound or an image of an object no larger than a 5-foot cube
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
- Save or attack
- Investigation check against your spell save DC to discern an image or sound
- Higher levels
- No effect from higher-level spell slots.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- On a failed save, the target takes psychic damage and subtracts from the next saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn.
- Duration
- 1 round
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V
- Save or attack
- Intelligence saving throw
- Damage
- psychic; increases by at character levels 5, 11, and 17
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
1st level
3- One creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for the duration. The target can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the spell on a success.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a pinch of soot and salt)
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Higher levels
- When cast using a 2nd-level or higher spell slot, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st.
- Conditions
- frightened
- Source
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything
- Creates three darts of magical force. Each dart deals force damage to a creature of your choice; the darts strike simultaneously and can be directed at one creature or several.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One or more creatures you can see within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a tiny bell and a piece of fine silver wire)
- Save or attack
- No attack roll or saving throw; each dart hits a creature you can see
- Damage
- force per missile
- Higher levels
- Creates one additional dart for each slot level above 1st.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- Creates the image of an object, creature, or other visible phenomenon that fits in a 15-foot cube. You can move it within range; physical interaction reveals it as an illusion.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
- Target
- A point within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of bat fur and a drop of pitch or a piece of coal)
- Save or attack
- Investigation check against your spell save DC to discern the illusion
- Higher levels
- No effect from higher-level spell slots.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
2nd level
3- Choose to blind or deafen one creature. On a failed save, it has the chosen condition for the duration and repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the spell on a success.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a pinch of dried carrot or an agate)
- Save or attack
- Constitution saving throw
- Higher levels
- You can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.
- Conditions
- blinded, deafened
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- On a failed save, creates a phantasm no larger than a 10-foot cube, perceived only by the target. The target treats it as real and rationalizes inconsistencies; a dangerous phantasm can deal psychic damage once per turn.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
- Save or attack
- Intelligence saving throw; a target can use its action to make an Investigation check against your spell save DC
- Damage
- psychic each turn when the phantasm is in or within 5 feet of the target
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each slot level above 2nd.
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- You create a magic sword of gloom in your hand. It is a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient, deals psychic damage on a hit, and has the finesse, light, and thrown properties (range 20/60). It has advantage on attacks against a target in dim light or darkness.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- Self; a blade appears in your hand
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Melee spell attack
- Damage
- psychic, or against a creature with darkvision
- Higher levels
- The damage becomes when cast using a 3rd- or 4th-level slot, and with a 5th-level slot or higher.
- Source
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything
3rd level
3- Each creature in the cone that fails its save drops what it is holding and becomes frightened. While frightened, it must Dash and move away by the safest available route on each turn unless it has nowhere to move.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- Each creature in a 30-foot cone
- Components
- V, S, M (a white feather or the heart of a hen)
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Higher levels
- No effect from higher-level spell slots.
- Conditions
- frightened
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- Creates a twisting pattern in a 30-foot cube. Creatures that see it and fail their save are charmed and incapacitated, with their speed reduced to 0, for the duration.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- Each creature in a 30-foot cube within range that sees the pattern
- Components
- S, M (a pinch of white sand)
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Higher levels
- No effect from higher-level spell slots.
- Conditions
- charmed, incapacitated
- Source
- Player's Handbook
- One creature you can see hears a voice describing its worst fear. It takes psychic damage and becomes frightened on a failed save, or takes half damage without becoming frightened on a successful save. A frightened target repeats its save at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened condition on a success.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- One creature you can see within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of fleece)
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Damage
- psychic on a failed save; half as much on a successful save
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each slot level above 3rd.
- Conditions
- frightened
- Source
- Original Creation
In the margins
4 notes
DiagramA diagram of a lantern surrounded by a ring of tiny, watching eyes.
WarningDo not read the final line aloud. It answers in the reader’s own voice.
DiaryI found another voice beneath the cellar floor. It knew my childhood name.
FormulaFear is the mind giving shape to what the eyes cannot bear.
The book itself
The book smells faintly of rain on stone and extinguished candles.
Its ink appears to tremble when someone nearby speaks of a nightmare.
The title is readable only in dim light.
The caster
Wizard, School of IllusionMara Vey
Studies: Illusion and fear magic, with practical study of shadow and psychic disturbances.Manner: Soft-spoken and courteous, with the unnerving habit of pausing as if listening to someone just behind you.Focus: A smoky quartz lens set in a tarnished silver handle, used to catch and redirect glimmers of light.Quirk: She covers mirrors at night, but leaves one narrow corner uncovered so she can see whether its reflection moves first.Wants: To discover who, or what, is speaking through the darkness in her dreams before it finds a way to speak aloud.Mara Vey was once an archivist who catalogued testimony from survivors of a shadow-haunted ruin. She began studying illusion magic after realizing that several witnesses described the same impossible voice.
The book
A black-lacquered codex bound in cracked, midnight-blue leather. Its pages are thin vellum that seems to drink in candlelight; diagrams shift at the edge of sight, and several passages are stitched shut with silver thread.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatA warded, hand-bound codex
ThemeArcane shadow and madness
Written by aWizard, School of Illusion
Caster level5
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
Plot hooks
1The codex’s stitched-shut pages contain a map to a buried observatory, but the silver thread is beginning to unravel.
2A village hears screams from a sealed mine each night. The voice matches one that occasionally speaks from the book.
3The spellcaster seeks a missing former apprentice who stole a page containing a private fear made magically real.
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