[PnP] re pnp digest vol 155, issue #5 - writing a spell book

[Bessie Hadley]

I kinda like your '3 pages/day' suggestion. Special care would be necessary for documenting such information (& possibly the mage's using a secret or supernatural language, which may not be a written one, & need phonetic clues) As far as "MEL/EL" I haven't tried for myself to decide how one is written yet, but if one has only a beginner's knowledge & is careless about his/her written notes, they may not survive the next effort fully intact. As such, part of one's own safety would be a very accurate notation(s) for the spell & would have to be carefully written out, to be discernible decades later (and would there have been room for all the footnotes made over time to be together, or would they be scattered. And, as you suggested, the script could easily be a most careful, neat, flowing one, that must be legible for the owner decades later. 

As one's MEL/EL advance, the spells noted in a book would become stronger, or last longer, have greater area of affect, etc & notes about such changes should be documented for one's own safety (& that of his companions). I begin to see how such a book might have notes about one particular spell written in several places, if a mage has been practicing many years, & finding a particular note could take time. To be readable, it would need careful documentation in the first place (including updated notes), so limiting written notes to 3 pages/day seems reasonable. One could easily have, I suppose, a less-neat, personal journal that one jots quick notes in, for later careful notation in the spellbook. The spell book might be carefully stored away at the time, after all, and one wants privacy for such secret notes. The spell book, after all, is the mage's own, not for anyone else to use or misuse. So finding one could be a great treasure, if from a long, successful career, or a trap, if the mage was careless & blew himself or his friends up. (or he/she doesn't want the book found and/or used by another)

This subject is an interesting one. Did you guys like Disney's live-action "The Sorcereer's Apprentice"? That was an interesting tome - lol. 


Bess L. Hadley