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Retrieval of Lost Words

Celestial Circle spell

Cost: 20 motes
Target: One conjured creature

This spell brings forth one of the Celestial Librarians of the Forbidden Manse of Ivy, servants of the Maiden of Secrets that manage and care for the huge library under the care of the Bureau of Secrets in the Celestial City of Yu-Shan. These Little Gods are dressed in concealing white robes, with slender white hands that end in four digits. They speak in soft lilting voices, seldom over the volume of a whisper, and have a perfect recall of every book they have ever read. These gods are not given to small chat however, and tend to react poorly to having their work disturbed via summoning, yet they will do their duty as the Sorcerous Oath demands them. The Celestial Librarian's mind is bent toward a single task for the sorcerer, though the nature of that task is predetermined. In specific, a Celestial Librarian can either seek out a specific tome for the Sorcerer, or gather for him a small yet exhaustive library on a given subject.

If they are commanded to find a given tome, the Celestial Librarian must be given the title of the book and any additional information that the sorcerer possesses. The god then dematerializes and searches over Creation using its innate knowledge and charms, usually returning with the book after a variable amount of time. The Storyteller should roll the spirits Intelligence + Investigation (11 dice), with a difficulty depending on the amount of information the sorcerer can give on the tome in question. A solid title and author usually gives a difficulty of 2, while a few quotes from a book give a difficulty of 5. The exact amount of time required varies from anywhere between one hour to over 30 days, depending on the rarity of the book and the number of successes on the roll.

The Celestial Librarians do not particularly like assembling a library for the Sorcerer, and must be given a precise definition of what topic they want the library to be on. Examples of popular choices include "Sorcery", or "the East". The extent to which the God labours on the behalf of the Sorcerer depends on the result of a Charisma + Occult roll. A single success results in a nice but not particularly noteworthy library on the subject at hand, while three successes gives the Exalt a particularly impressive library on the subject with some rare books and a thorough covering of the subject matter. Five successes means that the God is particularly impressed, and loans the Sorcerer a book or two from the Forbidden Mase of Ivy for a short period of time. These books must be returned after a month.

A book taken by this charm is stolen and gone forever, and thus most Sorcerer's attempt to protect their libraries in various ways. Mortal Thaumaturges can lay traps or decoys for the Celestial Librarians, raising the difficulty of the rolls by 1 to 5. Dragon-Blooded can protect books for a time using the Incantation of Spiritual Discretion, while Celestial Exalted have more permanent means of barring the little gods access to their libraries. The Forbidden Manse of Ivy and several other Heavenly Librarians are generally off limit with this charm, unless the Librarian chooses to loan the Exalted the book in question.