Secure Summons

Secure Summons is a book discovered in the ruins of the Guild of the Lilac Vine.

## Description

Written by the Archmage Yinlen Yarrow, Secure Summons serves as a reference text for usage of both Conjuration magic, for which the Archmage was known, but also links to that of the School of Abjuration. Intended to aid the reader in understanding how to maintain a degree of control over their conjurations, all from minor familiars to entities far greater in scope are discussed within the pages.

Contained with the pages, seemingly forgotten to the ages, was a *Badge of the Savant* associated with the School of Conjuration.

## Reading

### Completed by Rinn Zelnolar

Though surely arguments could made for many of the Schools of Magic, and certainly so those rare paths of the arcane that seem to defy such comprehensions, there is certainly something to be said for the sentiment that the School of Conjuration places a particular burden and danger upon the caster, particularly so the subsection of the School pertaining to Summoning, sometimes also grouped with the similar field of Calling - usually defined as a targetting summoning, such as those yielded by the potent *Gate* spell utilising the power of True Names. Summoning fundamentally involves the transportation of a creature or an object from its current location to the caster's specified location, more often than not within their direct vicinity, and often leaps the boundaries of the Prime, its Echoes, the Elemental Sphere and the Wandering Worlds freely, plucking entities freely from across the cosmos to serve a number of purposes. In the early steps of venturing into such magics, these efforts are widely considered to be mostly harmless, with incantations such as *Find Familiar* exceedingly popular amongst apprentice spellcasters, and thus cats, rats, toads, birds and all other of animal-like spirits a common sight throughout the campuses of the arcane across the continent. But even this is of caution, given that these spirits are not conjurations of pure magic, and are instead loosely tied to an extraplanar state - hence the faint ambient presence of celestial, fey or fiend associated with most - although other variations are known to exist with those that engage with pact-type magic, an entirely different topic thwart with potential issues and concerns.

For those that consider the process taking place, it should be little surprise that near all Summoning spells require a degree of continued focus from the spellcaster, the exceptions of *Find Familiar* dismissed due to the near-insignificant scope, *Find Steed* and *Find Greater Steed* instead attributed to the power of a paladin's oath to their ideal, to which the summoned steed is then bound, and that of *Planar Ally*, which is instead thought to be in reference to the material cost and the difference of the entity being offered up by something elsewhere, rather than directly at the whim of the spellcaster. Regardless, theories fundamentally vary here and there, with new lines of research continuously being overturned, explored and adjusted, but the overall sentiment and thought for this continued need for concentrated focus is that it is through these means that the summoned entity finds continued direction in unfamiliar surroundings. In an alternative sense, it seems that summoning would be capable without this tether of sorts, but it would be increasingly unpredictable. A small glimpse of this can be witnessed with those spells more powerful, such as those that call forth Greater Demons and Elementals, in which with the breaking of concentration, the summoned entity is liable to fall into an uncontrolled and unpredictable state of particular hazard to all those in their vicinity. Some academics have likened it to being within a cage with a hungry beast - as long as you can keep the creature focused on the bucket of offal in your hand, it will not consider the flesh of your own form. Others instead take a less violent analogue, that of a guide rope that passes through a flooded underpass within a cave system - as long as your hand remains grasped against the chain, your continued movement towards your destination can be assured without risk of growing lost. The journey between the Planes is a long and tumultuous trip indeed, and so it very much seems that spells that seek to siphon power, guide and direct or elsewise engage with entities from beyond the Prime rely on this principal, a focus point serving as a lantern light in the dark, a bait upon the fishing line, an anchor onto which to affix.

Of course, the scope of this focus is surely directly proportional to the scale of that being drawn forth. A slither of sand eel might be sufficient to catch a Carrageenan Lancer, but should a fishing vessel seek to hunt a Mosasaur in the depths of the Brumal Deep, they best start by hunting down a whale pod. Further consideration has to be given to what may hold back an entity from being summoned, for some creatures are bound in place - once again seen with their proclivity to instantaneous vanish upon the termination of the spell or their seemed destruction - and thus this must be factored into the casting process. Generally speaking, for most conventional summonings, the combination of the focused mind of an individual, and an object to which some degree of association the entity holds, either physically, or in a deeper more fundamental or spiritual sense prove sufficient. For an elemental this might be a measure of ash or distilled water with a gold-inlaid vial, for fiends freshly spilled blood tarnishing a precious gemstone is a common feature, or instead perhaps a holy reliquary for celestial entities. Often these objects themselves can be used to offer some protection to the spellcaster, akin to the hungry beast in a cage analogy briefly discussed earlier, but further precautions such as *Protection from Evil and Good, Dispel Evil and Good, Magic Circle* and similar wards are of particular use, and scrolls and other objects are frequently made to replicate their efforts in more steadfast and portable form. Naturally however, even these spells surely have their limits, and thus reliance must more frequently be made on the termination of the spell to eventually cast the summoned entity back forth from where it came, which therein brings the topic to those spells within the School of Conjuration of greatest scope, both in majesty of their potential, and threat of their hazards. Those summonings that yield a sustained and potentially permanent effect surely go above and beyond thus previously mentioned, and so their requirements are greater still, the upper limits still unreached by ongoing research. To the individual themselves this might prove that to be that the focus of their mind is widely insufficient, their very being and soul serving as this tether, a light, bait and anchor all at once. No doubt they will require objects of considerable arcane scale, either representing a vast structure, or something some dense with magic that it may very well thrum with the same frequency of the powerful entities to which it is bound, and thus necessitating a force with an immense understanding of magic itself to create.