Range: Special
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: Special
Components: VSM
Casting Time: Varies (2 turn minimum)
Saving Throw: None
Data is the old Paladian word for ‘library’. The spell allows the caster to store a large number of books or scrolls or parchments, within a single, nonmagical book. The finished book contains print too small to see or interpret with the naked eye -- print so small that ‘eyes of minute seeing’ are necessary to view it. The ‘datasafe’ book that is created by the spell does not use paper, but rather sheets of some shiny, smooth, paper-like, transparent material. The sheets are indifferent to water, dirt, inks, or stains, and do not deteriorate with time. The sheets do tend to melt, however, after brief exposure to even mild fires. The book cover is of fine (insulated) leather, designed to protect the sheets inside. The book covers bind to one another with half a dozen small buttons, preventing an observer from seeing the sheets themselves, unless the buttons are undone, and the book is opened. Datasafes can last for thousands of years if they are well cared for.
Creation of a datasafe is a long and difficult project, but one that is considered worth-while by those who utilize books. The initial portion of the spell requires two turns to cast. Once this is done, a vague, hazy darkness hovers in midair, where the first somatic component to the spell was performed. Thereafter, whatever is to be copied is placed just beneath the hazy darkness, and a second verbal and somatic component is added. This causes the hazy darkness to ‘store’ a copy of the object. An object is a page, scroll, parchment, or any flat surface up to 12"x18" in size. The exact size of the object to be copied is varied in the first verbal and somatic portion of the spell, thus preventing images other than the object to be copied from being added to the datasafe. A second object may then be placed under the hazy darkness, and the second verbal and somatic components repeated. At each repetition of the second verbal and somatic components, a new image is stored. A third and final verbal and somatic component ends the datasafe spell, and creates the actual book, in midair.
If the object to be copied contains a spell of any sort, be it an enchantment or a spell, then the datasafe spell ends immediately. If any other magic is cast within fifteen feet of the caster, or the hazy darkness, then the spell ends. Any magical items within fifteen feet of the caster, or the darkness, can also negate the spell (10% per magical item, cumulative). The caster can move about, speak, eat, or read, as he pleases while the spell is in effect; he may not sleep, cast spells, or add, remove, or use magical items, nor may he memorize or even have in his memory, other spells.
The reverse of the spell requires a bit more. Usually, the last page in a datasafe contains a listing of all the books contained within, the total number of ‘actual size’ pages, and the number of books contained within. Reversing datasafe (transferring a library from the miniature to regular sized books) requires the same casting times, but slightly different verbal and somantic components. Each time the second (reversal) somantic and verbal components are issued, a bit of the hazy darkness that forms from the original datasafe moves down, and writes onto an object (not necessarily blank). Since the reverse requires so many books, it is usually that much more expensive.
The material components of this spell are a ruby worth not less than 50GP, unburnt incense, a quart of pitch, and 20PP, all of which are consumed within the first two turns; these form the origin of the hazy darkness.
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