So, now's also a good time to talk about something that I'm sure is of interest to many of you, which is how Fanriel can gain new spells and advance her magical prowess during the game? After all, this is a Mercenary Mage Quest, and besides recruiting new fighters to your company, you can advance your personal firepower.
Principally, you can expand your spellbook in two main ways.
The first of these is simply learning spells from an existing source, whether that be a willing teacher or a magical grimoire. Whilst this is in theory by far the easier option, acquiring said sources can be exceedingly difficult, especially considering the time period, the locale, and Fanriel's circumstances. Wizards are rare and secretive by nature, so finding one you can convince to give up their secrets to an exiled elf will not be easy.
The other option is to simply create the spells yourself. Now, you might be wondering, isn't creating new spells extremely hard? And the answer is that it is… but Fanriel is a 300-year old elven Loremaster trained in the White Tower of Hoeth and with a higher base Learning stat than any human alive.
For you it is merely difficult.
During periods of downtime, you will be able to spend actions on adding to Fanriel's repertoire by trying to recreate spells from the existing spellbook under the informational threadmarks, or crafting entirely new spells. In this you can be as vague or as specific as you'd like; you can say "I want to make an attack spell", or "I want to make a T4 Ghyran spell that shoots out a tendril of wood that pierces into my opponent and puppets them from within to fight for me". Being specific makes it more likely you'll get exactly what you want, but also makes the roll needed to succeed higher.
However, this process is still far harder than learning from an existing source, and will always involve significant commitment. Magic is not always an exact science, and sometimes you get something not quite what you intended, the action just fails, or in the worst case you run into a roadblock and can't continue that avenue of research.
So how do you make the process easier for yourself? Well, reagents, tools, workshops and assistants all help give a bonus to the attempt, as can having an existing spell close to what you want, but the primary mechanism in this quest is Inspiration.
You've already seen it in action in the last update, as Fanriel gained Inspiration for creating an Aqshy-based spell after witnessing Zanitlov invoking a Miracle of Dazh, the Kislevite God of Fire. Principally, you get Inspiration from encountering magical phenomena: fighting alongside an Ice Witch may give you Inspiration for a cold-weather based Azyr spell, studying a troll might show you some pointers for a healing spell, or fighting a Necromancer has a chance of granting insight into Shyish.
These Inspirations are then expended as a bonus to your roll the next time you try to create a spell. They can be stacked, but they cannot be stockpiled: the next time you create a spell that fits the criteria, all applicable inspirations are expended. Inspiration can also reopen previously deadlocked research: if Fanriel has previously been stumped by trying to transform into an animal, witnessing the power of the wilds in action might be just what she needs for a breakthrough.
