Conjuration of the Salamander -- Magonomia Spell Preview

March 20, 2021 Andrew Gronosky

We’re working on finishing up the manuscript for Magonomia Core Rules. If roleplaying a wizard who uses Renaissance themed magic appeals to you, our crowdfunding campaign is accepting late pledges through March 31, 2021. Here’s an example of one of our 200 spells in the core book, inspired by Renaissance sources:

Conjuration of the Salamander

Degree 4 Sorcery; governed by Mars

Conjure a salamander—a small, cold, poisonous lizard with power over fire. Conjuration, Needs Fire to Survive

Onstage Preparation: 1 minute

Augmentation: None

Components: Fire, circle, alchemical reagents, incantations

Activation: Overcome vs. 4

Duration: Until the salamander dies or is dismissed

A salamander is an elemental spirit of fire that takes the form of a three to six inch long, cold, moist, lizard-like creature. Salamanders have extremely poisonous skin and breath. They must be handled with gloves or tongs. Their elemental nature gives them fantastic powers over fire.

The conjured salamander obeys the wizards’s commands, within reason. Giving the salamander an order takes up the wizard’s turn in an Exchange. It’s Timid by Nature, so it’s reluctant to attack creatures with its poison. It will gladly extinguish and control fires.

Special: You can dismiss a salamander by ordering it back into the conjuring circle (or drawing a new circle around it) and speaking a brief incantation. Its body seems to burst into flames but its spirit is released and lives on. This also means you can use this spell to dismiss any rogue salamander you might encounter in your adventures.

Extra: Salamander (Major NPC)

Permissions: Learn the spell Conjuration of the Salamander

Costs: Spell

Aspects: (Fantastic +6) Controls and Extinguishes Fire; (Fantastic +6) Deadly Poison; Needs Fire to Survive; Timid by Nature

Skills: Good (+3) Stealth

Poor (-1) Fighting

Stress: Physical: 1 box

Mental: 2 boxes

One might expect a fire elemental to be made of fire, but the salamander is a small, moist, cold creature that looks like a lizard that’s three to six inches long and has golden stars upon its back. They arise, phoenix-like, among the flames of any fire that has burned continually for seven years.

Be careful not to pick up a salamander without gloves, for its skin is so poisonous that it can kill through contact with flesh, and its foul breath is equally poisonous. If it wraps itself around a young tree, the tree withers and dies, and the fruit upon it becomes tainted with deadly poison. Likewise, if the salamander falls in a well, it poisons the well. Fortunately, this is a rare occurrence, because the skin of a salamander is so freezing cold that it causes water to freeze soon after immersion, though the salamander can claw its way out of the ice.

If a living creature touches the salamander or is exposed to its breath, resolve that as an Attack vs. Physique using the (Fantastic +6) Deadly Poison Aspect as a skill. The salamander can Create an Advantage to spread its (Fantastic +6) Deadly Poison Aspect to food or drink, which then Attacks whomever consumes it.

The salamander has marvelous powers over fire. It can instantly extinguish any fire it touches, even a raging conflagration that engulfs an entire Zone. A fire guarded by a salamander will never spit out hot embers or move beyond its confines, but burn safely at whatever temperature you desire, for the salamander can regulate the heat of the fire at will. Contrariwise, the salamander can use its (Fantastic +6) Controls and Extinguishes Fire to Create an Advantage to fan the flames and create a Hazard—then put out the fire when it’s no longer needed!

A salamander feeds on fire and Needs Fire to Survive. It will die within an hour if left at room temperature. Some wizards keep a conjured salamander in their laboratory for long periods, feeding them hot coals every day.

Having a salamander in the lab is a great help to brewing potions and other processes that involve fire. The salamander sheds its skin like a snake. That skin is extremely valuable; if enough are collected, they can be fashioned in to silk-like garments that never burn.