"It'll last seven days at most," Anse deduced.
The hourglass on the back of the platinum card was no mere decoration. Once it ran out, the spell inside the card would dissipate, and the card itself would be destroyed by Hexfire corrosion.
If he was willing to expend a grain of sands of time, the card would last permanently.
It was essentially a single-use magic item.
"This seems pretty powerful."
His spell cards were no ordinary magic items. Each held an eleventh-circle spell sealed with the power of time, powerful enough to destroy an entire territory. A single spell could wipe Waterdeep off the map.
He could make a few every day and give them to Elise and their future children for protection.
He could also mass-produce a batch of short-lived spell cards before a major battle, either for his own use or for the crew of the Star-Eye to unleash a collective bombardment. After all, he only had one pair of eyes and could not keep track of every little detail. His quickened spellcasting relied more on instinct, making precision strikes impossible. The crew could observe the enemy from different angles and make targeted strikes based on their own judgment, producing better results.
However, his spells were so powerful that ordinary spellcasters could only lock onto a target before activating them. They could not guide or control them at all. "This ability is more useful than Spell Scrolls."
Scribing Spell Scrolls took a great deal of time. Their advantage was that they could be purchased, but their spells were not powerful enough, nor could metamagic be applied to them. His spell cards took little time to make, and he determined their power himself, making them better suited to his circumstances.
There was a drawback, too: he still had to