Whole Cloth

In this useful but mind-bending spell, a magician reaches forward in time and plucks from their own hands an object. Its existence is maintained for a while through sheer force of will until finally it disappears, stolen by the past, and the loop is closed. The object can be almost anything the caster can picture, but it must be a kind of thing that they are intimately familiar with, having handled and examined other objects of the same kind in great detail – otherwise the mists of the future prove too confusing, and a random object is stolen instead.

The base difficulty to create a short-lived stable time loop is d12, and the base cost is one fatigue for each point of Size of the object. In addition, the caster must pass a relevant Knowledge skill check at d12 difficulty, or the object summoned is random (chosen by the GM). The caster may spend rest actions inspecting objects of the appropriate type; each such action spent gives a +1 bonus to create such items out of Whole Cloth within the next day or so.

Each round the object exists inflicts two strain on the caster; this cost cannot be replaced (e.g. by using outside sources of energy or converting the cost to harm or fatigue), reduced, or recovered in any way as long as the time loop remains open. Attempts to destroy the object before it can be stolen by one’s past, or otherwise create a paradox, cause it to be stolen just before the attempt and inflict a permanent point of SP damage on the perpetrator.

It is possible to create living things with this spell; temporal clones of either a general type (increasing the difficulty by two steps) or a specific individual (an additional two steps). Like inanimate objects, creatures appear in the caster’s hands, and behave as normal for their nature. Cloning a sentient being other than oneself in this way is considered morally dubious at best, due to the spell’s typically short lifespan.

(I was hesitant to include this spell in the lineup: it has a sci-fi smell that clashes a bit with the “late antiquity” feel that I want for my fantasy worlds, and there’s no lack of magic already outlined for getting one’s hands on useful tools. But something about it also makes me really happy for some reason, and I feel like I’ve been on a bit of a kick for magic that encourages creativity through  wide-open applicability recently… so here you have it.)