– Two for the price of one this week! Variations on the basic “light spell” theme. The second owes a pretty obvious debt to Gandalf’s staff in Lord of the Rings.

Werelight

The caster summons a small ball of light approximately as bright as a normal candle (enough to read by or to dimly illuminate a three-meter radius). Its color can be changed at will, and it will drift about within arm’s reach of the caster, usually around head level. A werelight can be maintained with minimal concentration, so it is possible to read, talk, eat, mend, and so on while the light remains active, but not sleep or perform any action that requires a Concentration roll. This spell inflicts one point of strain, and standard difficulty is d4. Extra werelights can be called, and assigned to follow people other than the caster, by increasing the difficulty by one step for each extra light.

Torch of the Magi

The caster causes the tip of a staff, or some similar part of some inanimate object, to glow brightly. The light typically illuminates a nine-meter radius. The light is cold, but the caster may strike the object against something else and command it to produce sparks sufficient to light a fire in dry tinder or cause one point of damage to a struck target. Like a werelight, the magic can be maintained with minimal concentration, but only while the object is in hand. If the caster puts it down or passes it off to another, it slowly dims, losing about one meter of radius every ten minutes or so.

This spell inflicts three points of strain. Using an enchanted staff or other specially-prepared object reduces the cost of casting to one and produces light that can illuminate up to a twelve-meter radius. Each command to produce sparks costs another point of strain. The standard difficulty is d4, but the light radius can be increased in three-meter steps by either doubling the cost in strain or increasing the difficulty by one step.