Scolls are ubiquitous in most medieval campaigns, but most people never stop to consider just what those one-shot spell carriers look like, or what they might be made from. If we consider a scroll at all, we probably imagine a piece of paper or parchment that's been wrapped around a stick, and curls up top & bottom. The scroll may be a standard 8 1/2 by 11 inches, or it may be 8 1/2 by reaching-to-the-ground. There are more ways to produce a scroll, either in history or in our campaigns. This article attempts to add some additional flair to that most common of treasure.
Traditional Materials
Papyrus: Papyrus is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, a wetland sedge.
Papyrus is made from the stem of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus. The outer rind is first removed, and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips of about 16 inches long. The strips are then placed side by side on a hard surface with their edges slightly overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at a right angle. The strips may have been soaked in water long enough for decomposition to begin, perhaps increasing adhesion, but this is not certain. The two layers possibly were glued together. While still moist, the two layers are hammered together, mashing the layers into a single sheet. The sheet is then dried under pressure. After drying, the sheet is polished with some rounded object, possibly a stone or seashell or round hardwood.
1
Parchment: Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of young animals such as lambs and young calves.
Parchment is prepared from pelt – i.e. wet, unhaired, and limed skin – by drying at ordinary temperatures under tension, most commonly on a wooden frame known as a stretching frame.
2
Paper: Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically and/or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed on the surface, followed by pressing and drying. Paper was originally made in single sheets by hand.3
Leather: Leather is made through a process called tanning, which takes a skin or hide of a suitable animal, and chemically alters it to make pliable and more durable.4
Cloth: Cloth of various types could be used to produce scrolls. Such scrolls could easily be made of linen, canvas, or silk.
Other Materials
Rawhide: Rawhide is made from an untanned animal skin (similar to parchment), but may or may not have been worked to make it flexible.
Clay: Clay tablets have existed since antiquity. Cuneiform is a well known form for writing on clay tablets.
Wood: Thin pieces of wood could be used to hold the magic of a spell scroll. A wooden scroll might be especially appropriate for Druidic spells.
Stone: While not quite so portable as other materials listed above, stone tablets do exist, and would make for an interesting magical scroll material.
Exotic Materials
Metal: Either as a foil or thin sheets, various metals could be used as a scroll material.
Staff or rod: A bit of writing could be written round and round a staff or similar object. Think about a last ditch offensive or defensive spell inscribed on the stick on which a sacred scroll is wound?
Wall: While not portable, a spell formula (but probably not a castable spell) could quite easily be inscribed upon a wall, floor, or celing; being particularly well suited to the walls of a wizard's college.
Other Thoughts & Considerations
A spell in and of itself is a general-use tool. The wizard casts wall of stone, but he or she still has to shape the wall into a shape of their choosing. A cleric could cast gate, but the place the gate goes to could be any of two-dozen different planes of existence. A warlock casts demiplane, but is it a totally new place, or one containing his treasures (or a nasty surprise)?
A scroll, however, is a storage device for a spells power, and a specific instance of a spell at that. Why shouldn't a spell scroll be a specific-use tool? Creation of a scroll is an expensive, time-consuming process, and few spell casters would spend the time and effort to bind the power contained within a scroll without some reason for doing so.
What does the creation of a spell scroll do for it's maker? Beyond being a fixed spell-slot-on-parchment, it could allow it's creator to become very specific in how the spell produces it's effect. Perhaps a wall of stone scroll contains a detailed "blueprint" of what is desired to be created. Any scroll containing an illusion spell could fully detail what that illusion is to be.
A spell scroll need not be cast at the lowest possible level. A geas scroll could easily be made as a seventh level scroll, causing it's duration to be an entire year instead of a month. It could also specify the precise requirements of what the creature must or must not do. This would be the very DEFINITION of a magical contract, and perhaps the scroll would not crumble to dust upon casting, but upon completion. If it is a contract, one that was entered into voluntarily, the creature would automatically fail it's saving throw (it accepted the contract of it's own free will). See the Magical Apprenticeship Agreements page for more information.
Comments