Scroll Infusion Extended Documentation

Original Play.net document

Some clarifications/corrections made and approved by GM Estild.

Section 1: Introduction to Extended Documentation

The intricacies of the Scroll Infusion spell can be difficult to grasp. It's among the most complicated of Elanthia's magic, and proper training is only a baseline requirement for usage. While this document isn't intended to be a fully comprehensive guide to the spell, it should serve as a basis for further research incentives that will eventually lead to mastery.

This document will assume that its readers begin with little or no understanding of Scroll Infusion and progress into more complex explanations as they read through. It's recommended that each section be read lightly at first to get a grip on basic spell usage and technique and then re-read as you become more familiar with the workings of the magic.

The basic requirements to begin using Scroll Infusion are ink, a cup of water, a brush, a prepared item on which runes may be scribed, and a fresh scroll. These materials are available in alchemist's shops across Elanthia for a reasonable cost.

It's also recommend that an infuser acquire backroom access to the General Store in Wehnimer's Landing, as the smooth stones there will prove useful. Once you have these materials, you can take the first step towards infusing a scroll, which is to prepare an item to receive a rune. Conversely, one may also buy complete runestones second-hand or from wandering merchants.

Section 2: Runestone Creation and Types

Runestone Creation

Runestone creation is a fairly simple procedure, and can be done in one of two ways. A sorcerer may purchase runestones that are already prepared for scribing from an alchemist shop or wandering merchant, or they may prepare an item (like a smooth stone) for scribing themselves by pouring an aish'vrak potion on it. Once they have a prepared item, they'll need to be holding a brush and [have access to the] ink [, which can be kept in a container or on a surface], and DIP MY BRUSH IN INK. Then DRAW [rune name] RUNE while holding the prepared item and the brush.

How perfectly a rune is scribed onto an item has no impact on its effectiveness. The number of charges that a runestone will yield is dependent on the rune that is scribed. The value of the canvas has no effect on the quantity of its charges, but charge levels of runestones already prepared or scribed by certain merchants may vary.

Cups of water are used to rinse dried ink off of a brush. Each dip of ink gets two uses before the brush needs to be cleaned and dipped again. DIP MY BRUSH IN {water container} to clean the brush. As with the ink, the cup of water can be in a container or on a surface.

From here on out, any item scribed with a rune will be referenced as a "runestone".

A sorcerer learns all of the runes needed for Scroll Infusion when they learn the spell (714). Without it, they won't have any of them. Five or more ranks of Arcane Symbols are required to read the full set of runes. Anyone may check the runes they know by typing RUNE for usage, or RUNE COMMON.

Runestone Types

A full list of common runes that a sorcerer may learn follows:

Common Runes:

• ag'loenar
• beiron'fyn
• erikar'fyn
• grik'tyr
• ikar'fyn
• lorae'tyr
• odeir'cos
• quiss'fyn
• shien'tyr
• vakra
• wy'zio

Not all of these runes are for use with Scroll Infusion -- some are used with Minor Summoning. Those that are relevant to infusion are listed below, along with their properties and the number of charges an aish'vrak-prepared item will hold when scribed with the rune.

• beiron'fyn - WAVE at a scroll to unlock one spell 5th level or lower for 5 potential charges (6 charges)
• erikar'fyn - WAVE at a scroll to unlock one spell 10th level or lower for 10 potential charges (6 charges)
• ikar'fyn - WAVE at a scroll to unlock one spell 15th level or lower for 15 potential charges (6 charges)
• quiss'fyn - WAVE at a scroll to unlock one spell 20th level or lower for 20 potential charges (6 charges)
• odeir'cos - WAVE at a scroll to get a detection readout (50 charges)
• ag'loenar - hold in a free hand to INFUSE mana into a linked scroll held in your other hand (50 charges)
• wy'zio - this rune allows a player to forget a known unique [uncommon] rune (3 charges)
• dikar'fyn - this rune is not available to players, but is able to unlock one spell 25th level or lower for 25 potential charges

When all of the charges on a runestone are used up, it will crumble to dust. Make sure that you don't use the last charge if you're particularly attached to a runestone and plan on using it for infusing! No way exists for sorcerers to determine how many charges are left in a given runestone, so pay attention.

Every so often a merchant appears at a pay event, such as Ebon Gate, and distributes a limited number of dikar'fyn runes.

Section 3: Runestone Usage

The Unlocking Runes

beiron'fyn, erikar'fyn, ikar'fyn, and quiss'fyn

Once an infuser has purchased or created the appropriate runestone, it's time to begin using it on a fresh scroll. The core element of scroll charging is unlocking. A spell on a scroll is either locked or unlocked. Unlocked spells can be charged, while locked spells cannot.

Spells on a scroll can't ever be unlocked if the scroll has ever been INVOKEd or INFUSEd, or if it has been ruined for unlocking due to a failed INFUSE or WAVE attempt, or if it has reached its infusion capacity (explained in detail in Section 4). Some merchant-sold scrolls or scrolls that have received specialty work such as charging or combining cannot be unlocked due to their complex nature.

Unlocking a scroll is a simple procedure. While holding the scroll to be unlocked and a runestone, WAVE MY [stone/shard/etc.] AT MY [scroll/vellum/etc.]. Assuming the type of runestone being used can unlock at least the lowest level spell on the scroll, the user's skills will be checked against the difficulty of the spell and the overall scroll. On a success, one qualifying spell on the scroll will unlock.

Some examples of unlocking attempts follow:

1.) Using a beiron'fyn runestone to unlock spells on a scroll with 303, 308, and 318 on it. Beiron'fyn can only unlock spells level 5 or lower for up to 5 charges, so the only qualifying spell is 303. A WAVE attempt would always try to unlock 303. Using an erikar'fyn instead would successfully unlock 303 for up to 10 charges and additionally could unlock 308 for up to 10 charges. A quiss'fyn would be required to unlock 318.

2.) Using an ikar'fyn runestone to unlock spells on a scroll with 215, 318, and 219 on it. Ikar'fyn can only unlock spells level 15 or lower for up to 15 charges, so the only qualifying spell is 215. A WAVE attempt would always try to unlock 215. A quiss’fyn would be required to unlock 318 and 219.

3.) Using a quiss'fyn runestone to unlock spells on a scroll with 502, 515, and 503 on it. Quiss'fyn can unlock all spells level 20 and lower, so all of the spells on this scroll qualify. Three WAVEs of a quiss'fyn rune would allow an infuser to put up to 20 charges in 502, up to 20 charges in 515, and up to 20 charges in 503.

It's important for novice infusers to keep in mind that unlocking a spell does not automatically bring it to its charge potential. For example, unlocking 202 with a quiss'fyn runestone allows that spell to hold up to 20 charges at any given time, but does not bring the spell to 20 charges. For that, the scroll will need to be charged, which is covered in Section 4.

The more charges that a particular runestone unlocks for, the harder it will be to use that runestone. For example, unlocking 303 with a beiron’fyn runestone will unlock the spell for five charges. Using a quiss’fyn runestone will unlock it for up to 20 charges, but it will be harder to do so even though both are unlocking a level 3 spell.

The Detection Rune

odeir'cos

An odeir'cos runestone can be WAVEd at a scroll to give a readout of each spell on the scroll. The information includes whether or not the spell is unlocked, how many charges are remaining, and how many charges could potentially be added.

An example usage of an odeir'cos runestone:

>wave my stone at my papyrus
You wave your stone at a scrap of faded papyrus.
As the stone passes over the scroll, you sense:
(501) Sleep with many charges remaining and the potential to add one charge.
(907) Major Cold with many charges remaining and the potential to add no charges.
(901) Minor Shock with many charges remaining and the potential to add no charges.
(911) Mass Blur with many charges remaining and the potential to add a couple charges.
(906) Minor Fire with many charges remaining and the potential to add no charges.
(402) Presence with many charges remaining and the potential to add no charges.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

If a spell is followed by a "potential to add" descriptor, that spell is unlocked. If no descriptor is present, the spell is not unlocked. Odeir'cos won't give information on whether or not a spell can be unlocked, just whether it is or isn't.

For reference, there are six indicators for the charge levels displayed by odeir'cos:

one charge	1 charge
a couple charges	2 charges
a few charges	3-5 charges
a number of charges	6-10 charges
many charges	11-19 charges
very many charges	20 charges or more

Odeir'cos runestones, aside from displaying some interesting information about your scroll, have some practical uses.

The most beneficial is probably to determine what spell was unlocked with a WAVE of a runestone. The fewer spells that are unlocked on a scroll, the more of its infusion value is available to go towards the other unlocked spells. Since qualifying spells are unlocked randomly on a successful WAVE, there's no way to indicate which one gets unlocked. Using an odeir'cos runestone on the scroll after each success will at give information on what was unlocked.

Example: a scroll scribed with 202, 207, and 318. The infuser would like to maximize the lifespan of 318 by ensuring that the scroll's infusion capacity (explained in more detail in Section 4) isn't reduced by charging 202 or 207. They would WAVE a quiss'fyn runestone at the scroll hoping to unlock 318. After each success, they'd then WAVE an odeir'cos runestone at the scroll to see if 318 was unlocked. If so, they would not unlock other spells.

Another practical use for odeir'cos is helping to monitor charge levels. Through experience, an infuser will come to know how many charges they can safely put into various spells. As the limits of their ability are pressed, it's a wise idea to stop trying to fit more charges into a spell. Infusing close to charging limits increases the chances of a scroll locking and being ruined for future infusions.

The Charging Rune

ag'loenar

The ag'loenar rune has only one use, and that is to serve as a channeling device for mana going into a scroll. Mana cannot be INFUSEd into a scroll unless the infuser is holding an ag'loenar runestone in their other hand and the scroll is linked to them by having cast 714 at it prior to infusing. Provided they have enough mana to make an attempt, each one (regardless of outcome) will drain 1 charge from the ag'loenar runestone.

WAVE Results

Success with a detection rune is automatic and has no skill check. Success with runes that unlock a spell is dependent on training in Arcane Symbols and Magic Item Use, Aura and Wisdom bonuses, knowledge of the spell or sphere, spell level, and rune difficulty.

Unlocking in a magical workshop is easier than unlocking outside of a workshop. Magic Item Use is more important than Arcane Symbols for purposes of unlocking.

Success

A success indicates that one spell on the scroll was unlocked.

>wave my stone at my scroll
You wave your stone at an aged scroll.
The smooth stone vibrates and beings to glow. You sense that the scroll has somehow been altered.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Minor failure

Minor failures will never damage the stone or the scroll, but they will waste one of the runestone's charges. They most commonly occur when an infuser tries to unlock a scroll that either can't be unlocked or all of its spells are already unlocked. Refer to the beginning of Section 3 for reasons why a scroll might not be unlockable.

This failure may also simply mean an infuser had poor luck on that the attempt, or that none of the spells on the scroll qualify to be unlocked with the runestone that was used -- i.e., this message would result if an erikar'fyn runestone was used on a scroll that doesn't have any spells level 10 or lower.

>wave my stone at my papyrus
You wave your stone at a scrap of faded papyrus.
The smooth stone shakes slightly, but nothing happens.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Major failure

There are two types of major WAVE failures. One type may damage the stone, the other may damage the scroll. Both of them involve a white aura surrounding the stone or scroll on a WAVE attempt and waste one of the runestone's charges.

Major failures can ruin the stone for further use, ruin the scroll for further unlocking, or lock any unlocked spells on the scroll. Combinations of these negative effects can happen on a single major WAVE failure.

>wave my stone at my palimpset
You wave your stone at a dark palimpsest.
The smooth stone is momentarily surrounded by a dim white aura.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Catastrophic Failure

Catastrophic failures will destroy the stone and the scroll. Additionally, they will often engulf anything nearby (like novice infusers) in agonizing, fiery death. Catastrophic failures can only occur when attempting to unlock a spell on a scroll.

>wave my stone at my scroll
You wave your stone at a torn scroll.
The smooth stone explodes in a flash of blue flame as it passes over the torn scroll, destroying it.
<fiery death here>

All types of failures will result as an infuser undergoes the process of becoming familiar with their limitations.

Section 4: Charging and Infusion Capacity

Charging

After one or more spells on a scroll are unlocked, they can receive charges. The maximum number of charges an instance of a spell can hold at any given time is dictated by the type of runestone used, as covered in Section 2. If a spell is unlocked and already has more charges than the runestone limit, the spell will not be chargeable until it has fewer charges than that limit.

To begin charging a scroll, PREPARE 714 and CAST AT MY [scroll/vellum/etc.]. If there are (or were, at some point) unlocked spells on the scroll, the infuser will establish a link to the scroll which will last a few minutes:

>prepare 714
You begin drawing a faint, twisting symbol while softly intoning the words for Scroll Infusion...
Your spell is ready.

>cast at my scroll
You gesture at a faded scroll.
You focus your mind on the faded scroll and form a link with it.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

If the scroll does not have and has never had any unlocked spells, the spell will misfire:

>pre 714
You begin drawing a faint, twisting symbol while softly intoning the words for Scroll Infusion...
Your spell is ready.

>cast at my scroll
You gesture at an aged scroll.
Your spell misfires.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Note that even though a link can be established with scrolls that once had unlocked spells but do not at the time of the cast, nothing can be done with them. Mana going into a scroll with no unlocked spells will dissipate in the same fashion as it would going into a fully charged scroll, so using an odeir'cos runestone prior to charging is usually a wise idea.

Once a link is established, the scroll may receive mana (charges) until the link dissipates. Mana is randomly channeled into one of the unlocked spells on the scroll. The amount of mana drained for a given spell on an infusion attempt is largely based on the spell’s level and sphere (magic that sorcerers do not have knowledge of, such as mentalist magic, require more mana to charge). High levels of Mana Control training (spiritual and elemental) will reduce the mana required.

The infusion syntax is INFUSE MY [scroll/vellum/etc.] while holding a linked scroll in one hand and an ag'loenar runestone in the other.

Mana doesn't always go into a scroll on a 1-to-1 ratio, and if the sorcerer is infusing spells that he doesn’t know, it will often cost more mana. An infuser will never be able to put more mana into a scroll than they have available, as a safeguard.

Scroll Infusion only charges one a spell at a time. If an infusion brings any spell on the scroll to its maximum charge level, the scroll will need to be infused again to charge the other spells regardless of the infuser's skill level. Even with 200 ranks of Arcane Symbols, two infusions would still be needed to bring two spells to their maximum charge limit. If there are six drained spells on a scroll, then six infusions are needed, etc.

The closer to an infuser's skill limits a spell goes, the fewer charges they'll be able to add in a single infusion. So if a scroll has 219 on it and it has 1 charge remaining, multiple charges of 219 will go into the scroll in a single infusion provided they have enough skill. As an infuser draws closer to their skill limit, fewer and fewer charges will go into the spell per infusion. Eventually, this will drop to only one charge per infusion, then infusions will begin to fail, and finally the scroll will be locked and ruined. It's wise to stop before then.

Charging limitations are fairly hard-set. While an infuser may be able to exceed their safe limits and put an additional charge or two into a scroll simply by getting high rolls on the INFUSE attempt, the possibility of this continuing will quickly drop dramatically.

Infusion Success

The success of an infusion is dependent on Arcane Symbols skill, knowledge of the spell or spell sphere being charged, training in the relevant spell spheres (i.e. Minor Elemental for elemental sphere spells, and Minor Spirit for spirit sphere spells), sorcerer spell ranks, quality of the unlocking rune used, and number of charges the attempted spell already has.

Mana Control does not help infusion succeed but does reduce the mana cost necessary for a given spell. Infusing in a workshop garners a bonus to success.

Quality of Runes

The harder unlocking runes are considered better quality and provide bonuses to the infusion process. Generally, those runes which unlock scrolls for more charges are harder to use but will provide larger bonuses to infusion success.

For example, unlocking a level 5 spell with the beiron’fyn rune will be easier than unlocking it with the erikar’fyn rune, but unlocking it with the erikar’fyn will subsequently make infusing the spell easier.

Infusion Capacity

Finally, the explanation on infusion capacity promised in Section 2.

Every scroll suffers wear and tear during the infusion process. Any charges added to that scroll will decrease its infusion capacity until it reaches 0, at which point the scroll will "wear out" and lock permanently. The maximum infusion capacity of a scroll is a function of its value, and that value is commonly based on the level of the spells on the scroll (more higher level spells = more infusion capacity). Merchant-sold scrolls may have higher innate values. The amount of wear and tear that a scroll suffers depends on the spell being infused. More sought after spells will generally drain value quicker than more common ones. Those higher level spells that add infusion capacity also drain that capacity faster.

Infusion capacity is better illustrated in the following example.

If a scroll has 202 and 219 on it, infusing 219 will cause the spell to “wear out” much quicker than infusions of 202. However, the scroll may begin with a larger infusion capacity than one that just contained 202 and 101. While charging 101 will use up relatively little of the scroll’s value, it will likely not begin with as high a value as a scroll with 219 on it. However, scrolls generated by the treasure system do vary in their values so a lot of randomness factors into this.

This is why it's ideal to try to unlock only the spells that will be used. If spell X is infused, that takes up infusion value that could have gone into spell Y. If spell X is not needed by the sorcerer it is best not to unlock it as it will inevitably eat up value as it randomly gets charged.

Remember from Section 2 that the spell a runestone unlocks is random, so there's no way to control which spell gets unlocked in the above example. Sometimes, however, prudent use of runestones can assist:

Example, a scroll scribed with 217, 216, and 215. An infuser wants to get the most out of 215. It wouldn't be a good idea use a quiss'fyn rune on the scroll, because that might potentially unlock 217 and 216. It would be wiser to use an ikar'fyn rune on the scroll, which would only be able to unlock 215 and not run the risk of unlocking 216 or 217.

INFUSE Results:

No runestone

This is probably the most common and confusing result for novice infusers, so we'll get it out of the way first. It indicates that you're trying to infuse a scroll without holding an ag'loenar runestone in your other hand.

>infuse my scroll
You concentrate on infusing the scroll, but lose your focus.

Success

A success indicates that one or more charges were added to an unlocked spell on the scroll.

>infuse my vellum
You focus on a smooth stone, channeling your mana through it. Soon, an infusion of mana leaps from it to the strip of vellum. The vellum glows dimly for a moment.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Dissipation

If mana dissipates on an infusion attempt, then the scroll doesn't have any unlocked spells on it to receive mana, or all of its spells are fully charged. Continuing to infuse when mana begins dissipating will never harm the scroll, but it will waste charges of the ag'loenar runestone.

>infuse my vellum
You focus on a smooth stone, channeling your mana through it. Soon, an infusion of mana leaps from it to the torn vellum. The mana dissipates.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Not enough mana

The minimum mana required for an infusion is equal to one charge of the spell that is randomly chosen for infusion. If the infuser doesn't have that, this results. This result will not drain a charge of the ag'loenar runestone.

>infuse my scroll
You don't have enough mana.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Minor failure

Minor failures won't damage the scroll in any way, but it won't add charges either. They generally indicate that the charge level of a spell that tried to receive mana is at or near the infuser's skill limit, though these failures can also be the result of poor luck. Continue attempting to infuse at the scroll's risk.

>infuse my scroll
You focus on a smooth stone, channeling your mana through it. Soon, an infusion of mana leaps from it to the dark scroll. You strain to harness the mana and focus it into the dark scroll, but fail.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Major failure

Major infusion failures will not only fail to add charges, but they'll also permanently lock the scroll. They most commonly occur when an infuser attempts to push the charge limits of a spell beyond what their skills allow, though they can also happen as the result of very poor luck.

>infuse my scroll
The scroll is momentarily surrounded by a bright white aura.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Wearing out

When a scroll's infusion capacity reaches 0, it will wear out and lock permanently. This is the check on the power of Scroll Infusion, ensuring that no scroll lasts forever. Note that mana will be infused into the scroll when it wears out, it'll just be the last that the scroll ever receives.

>infuse my scroll
You focus on a smooth stone, channeling your mana through it. Soon, an infusion of mana leaps from it to the crumpled scroll. The scroll glows dimly for a moment, and then grows cold.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

Section 5: Further Research, Questions, and Acknowledgements

This document has hopefully provided some guidance to novice and experienced infusers alike. It isn't absolutely comprehensive, but it does cover a significant range of relevant information regarding Scroll Infusion.

In the end, though, no guide is going to teach what experience will, so this document isn't intended to replace the subtleties and nuances that can only be learned in the field. The spell system is intensely complex and by far one of the most powerful and beneficial magics that sorcerers have ever known.

Further questions about Scroll Infusion should be brought to the Sorcerer profession folder of the GemStone IV Forums.

There are also a few acknowledgements to be made. These individuals have written guides, gone through hours of testing, and consistently given their insight to novice infusers since the spell came out in Gemstone IV Alpha. They are, in no particular order: Hadiar, Nershyve, Avaia, and Caladrial.

Good luck. You're probably going to need it.

-Mekthros