[Studying] You roll a 15 (required 10). Success!

With your energy well spent, you make your way back to the docks and board the Sunbringer. Once below decks, Moonflower gives you an affectionate nuzzle before trotting off to the nearest card game. You arrive at your cabin a moment later, and slowly creak the door open.

You find Honourshine sitting on her bed with an open book in front of her. She welcomes you in with a nod and a smile. As you step into the room, you notice a calming floral smell swirling out of few scented candles.

Honourshine: "Something the crew brought in to freshen up the musty old cabins. Moonflower isn't with you?"

While you take a seat at the candlelit table and open a book of your own — Spellcasting 101 —, you let Honourshine know that Moonflower still had a few games in her. The young historian replies with another nod, then resumes her reading in comfortable silence.

You do the same; after all, you figure that if you are to venture out into the island's treacherous wilderness, then you may well need every tool you can get.

The next chapter of the book, which marks its halfway point, introduces the concept of spellcrafting. It reveals that by combining the knowledge acquired in previous lessons, a unicorn can design new and useful spells.

A table of examples follows for each of the previously taught spells. Between Spark and Camouflage are Glow, a spell which causes an object to emit light, and Heat Barrier, a spell which creates an area protected from heat.

It is noted that these examples are only few of countless, perhaps not-as-useful possibilities, and that every known rune exponentially increases a spellcaster's potential library. Such runes may be found in future volumes.

The following few dozen pages expand on several ways each of the spells can be altered with different runes to create new effects, and after them is a glossary of all twelve runes introduced in the book so far.

You realize that the six spells taught by the book have suddenly turned into many more. And while the concept of crafting your own spells intrigues you, it currently feels like a solution without a problem.

Still, you decide to look over the listed runes for inspiration. The aspect runes affect force, heat, light or sound. The subject runes target either magic itself, a pocket of air, a specific location, or a relative position. The command runes offer to decrease, increase, move, or stop something.

By replacing the runes of a spell you already know, you could come up with something new. However, you are not exactly sure how some of them would turn out. The sheer number of possible experiments grants you a new appreciation for spell scrolls.

With that in mind, you could also try and learn more of the previously listed spells, and thus more runes in process: Light, a spell which creates a light source; Twinkle, a spell which creates magical floating glitters; Protect, a spell which creates a protective barrier; and Silence, a spell which creates a soundproofing bubble.

You take a moment to consider your options.