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Casting Spells

The actual process of casting a spell is straightforward. Most people learn spell rituals, simple checklists they run through to make sure the effect goes off as planned.
Typically, there’s a little rhyme, a bit of figure drawing in the air, and a geometric progression the caster visualizes to enact the spell. Sometimes the ritual includes a scent capsule the caster has to break or a flavor tablet for under hir tongue. When the caster speaks the command phrase at the end of the mantra, the spell takes form and releases.
Easy, peasy.
It gets a little trickier in combat. With practice and concentration, though, a body can learn to pull it off most of the time--the combat rituals available nowadays are that good. Don’t try it with generic, Brand-X civilian formulae, of course. But optimized rites you can get from reputable spellmongers, battle-tested and war wizard approved? Yeah. You can rely on those.

Succeeding When It’s Hard

Usually, it’s not all that difficult to accomplish magic in this high-fantasy world. That’s why everybody does it. Sometimes, though, it’s not just a matter of going down the checklist and saying, “Go.” Sometimes, you have to draw the exact figure while syncing the cadence on the mantra and going through your mental transform, all while trying not to get stabbed.
In cases like this, the GM may call for a check. That’s a Wyrd check for Casting Spells. It’s where the Magic Checks detailed in the Gameplay chapter come in.

Casting Quickly

Especially in combat, you’ll find times when you need to cast a spell but don’t really have time to execute the ritual in its proper cadence. For those times when you need to shorten the gestures and mantra into a split-second casting, like when you’re trying to get a shield between you and a blade, you can still do so. However, you suffer Disadvantage on the check. What’s more, you do not gain the benefits of any free Bonus Forms you might usually get from talents. Finally, you cannot cast a spell quickly if you already have Disadvantage on the casting check.
A normal spellcaster can’t just get a spell to work without using the gestures and ritual chants required to prime the magical effect. To do that, see the Quiet Caster and Still Caster advanced talents.

Effect Duration

Pretty much any spell can last for as long as you focus on it and don’t do anything else. As a rule, spells you cast and then leave only last for about an hour and for as long as they remain in the caster’s presence. Most often, that means the caster has to be in the same room (or sports field) as the spell and able to see it, although ze doesn’t necessarily have to be watching it, see? Ze just has to be able to see it.
Wizards know the special technique they call quickening, which lets them extend the duration of their effects. Quickening involves detaching part of your living mind and grafting it into the spell to keep it technically “within” your presence without you actually having to be there. Applying this technique doesn’t take more than a second, but it is a taxing method to use.
Mechanically, quickening goes like this. The wizard casting or holding a spell fills in an injury, “Sustaining x”, where X is the name of the spell. It has a trauma level equal to the number of forms grafted onto the spell (or one if it’s just a simple spell. Yes, that means the first form is technically free). Resilience does not apply to this condition. If the specified slot is already filled in, the spell goes in the next higher slot, as normal. If it would incapacitate the wizard, ze falls into a temporary coma, and the spells continue to function. The caster cannot act in the physical world, but retains control over all spells and can cancel any of them at any time.
A wizard sustaining a spell is aware of its existence and location and is generally aware of the target’s condition as if from a quick glance. Ze maintains control over the spell as if ze were there with it. Of course, the caster may be hindered by hir limited perception unless ze grafts a scrying effect. Note that this doesn’t require any concentration on the part of the caster, per se. It’s the part of the wizard’s mind that ze detached that does the work, so the caster hirself is only aware of the process as a ghost in the back of hir mind.
When a caster chooses to release a spell, which ze can do at any time, the detached part of hir mind immediately returns to hir. This happens, no matter where ze is or what ze’s doing. The trauma condition vanishes immediately.
A caster can choose to release a spell before ze assigns another injury to prevent increasing its level. However, ze cannot increase the severity of an existing spell’s trauma to fit a new injury into the slot underneath it. Ze has to release the effect or suffer the damage.
If a wizard increases a new injury to Level 4 only because ze is unwilling to release a spell ze’s sustaining, the Level 4 injury stands. The caster falls into a coma, and the spell continues until the caster actually dies. If a wizard suffers an actual Level 4 injury, all spells ze’s sustaining immediately end as the caster goes into shock and starts dying.
Rue Gold casts Flame Shield (Power 1 / Reinforced 1) to protect her ally while she moves to flank the enemy. It has 2 levels of Forms, so we write "Sustaining Flame Shield" in the Level 2 Injury slot as temporary trauma. That slot carries a -1 Injury penalty and impairs Rue’s spellcasting ability, giving her Disadvantage on casting checks.
If Rue wants to summon a Flame Elemental to fight beside her ally in addition to the Fire Shield, she’d better restrict it to Tier 1--otherwise, her spellcasting actions will be Restricted and she won’t be able to cast any more spells.
If Rue quickens both spells and then takes 1 Wound during her own battle, it’ll get promoted to a Level 3 Wound unless she drops one of the spells. It hurts like the dickens, but that’s the cost of quickening magic.