GURPS - Magic.pdf

FOOD SPELLS
These spells are concerned with food and drink. A meal, for purposes
of these spells, is equal to a pound of food. None of these spells will turn
living beings (or the undead) directly into food; they can’t be used in
combat.
Test Food
Information
Lets the caster know if a substance is good to eat. The spell tells
nothing about taste or nutrition; it detects poisons, dangerous decay, or
foreign objects (razor blades in fruit). It does not check for magic on food.
Cost: 1 to test a single meal or a single bottle of wine; 3 per hex to
check all the food and drink in a 1-hex area.
Item: Staff, wand or jewelry. Energy cost to create: 100.
Preserve Food
Regular
Keeps any organic material from spoiling, drying out, etc. Very useful
for travelers!
Duration: 1 week.
Cost: 2 per pound of food, plus 1 to maintain.
Prerequisites: Sterilize, Test Food.
Item: (a) Staff, wand or jewelry. Energy cost to create: 200. (b) Chest
or sack; always on; contents of the chest are preserved indefinitely. Energy
cost to create: 20 for every pound of food to be held (round up).
Seek Food
Information
Lets the caster determine the direction, distance, and general nature of
the nearest significant source of food. Use the long-distance modifiers (p.
10). The food found will be wholesome, but not necessarily appetizing -
e.g., edible insects. Any known sources of food (such as those delicious
insects) may be excluded if the caster specifically mentions them before
beginning.
Cost: 2.
Item: A forked stick. Energy cost to create: 300.
Decay
Regular
Makes food rot away immediately and become worthless (it can be
saved if a counterspell is cast, or Purify Food is cast, within a minute).
Cost: 1 per meal destroyed.
Prerequisite: Test Food
Item: Staff or wand. Must touch subject food. Energy cost to create:
100.
Purify Food
Regular
Removes foreign objects, poisons, and decay, and renders food fit to
eat. Will work only on an edible or formerly-edible item - and if the whole
item is unwholesome, the spell will remove all the unwholesomeness and
leave nothing.
Cost: 1 per pound of material to be purified.
Prerequisite: Preserve Food or Decay.
Item: Staff, wand or jewelry. Must touch subject food. Energy cost to
create: 400.
Poison Food
Regular
Introduces a physical poison into food. This poison can be detected by
Test Food, and remains indefinitely. Anyone eating the poisoned food
must make a HT roll. On a successful roll, they merely feel sick and lose 2
HT. On a failed roll, they will be seized by painful stomach cramps and
lose 1d+1 HT immediately; they will be at -3 for all skills or spells until
the lost HT is restored.
Cost: 3 per meal.
Prerequisite: Purify Food, Decay.
Item: Staff or wand. Must touch subject food. Energy cost to create:
600.
Cook
Regular
Turns raw ingredients into a finished meal. Produces only simple fare
(stews, etc.) and only as wholesome as the ingredients. No cooking-fire is
necessary; the spell provides the heat.
Cost: 1 per meal.
Time to cast: 5 seconds.
Prerequisite: Test Food, Create Fire.
Item: A pot which will cook any food placed within it, at no energy
cost to the user. Requires about a minute to cook. Size of the pot does not
matter, but each pot can be used only a limited number of times daily.
Energy cost to create: 30 per meal per day (i.e., a pot which would cook 3
meals per day would have an energy cost of 90 to create).
Create Food
Regular
Turns any nonmetallic substance into edible food. The more edible the
starting substance, the better; this spell will make rocks edible, but not
tasty!
Duration: Permanent.
Cost: 3 per meal created if the starting substance is totally inedible, or
2 if the starting substance is plant material of some kind.
Time to cast: 30 seconds.
Prerequisite: Cook, Seek Food.
Item: (a) Wand, staff, or jewelry; usable only by a mage. Must touch
material to be turned into food. Energy cost to create: 600. (b) A pot, as
described for Cook, which will turn anything placed inside into a cooked
meal. Energy cost to create: 200 per meal per day.
Ferment
Regular
Causes accelerated fermentation in any matter which can be fermented.
Primarily used to make beer, ale, and wine quickly, but will also
cause bread to rise rapidly. The fermentation process will finish in a single
hour (or one minute for bread).
Duration: 1 hour (1 minute for bread).
Cost: 1 per pint of liquid or loaf of bread. Cannot be maintained.
Time to cast: 10 seconds.
Prerequisites: Decay.
Item: A small keg which works at no energy cost to the user, but only
works a limited number of times per day. Energy cost to create: 50 per
gallon of size, for each time/day the item is usable. Example: a 10 gallon
keg that works twice per day costs 1,000 energy to create.
SPELL LIST
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