Aria nodded at the explanations, "Thanks, it's nice to travel with someone who can actually understand magic...and has a better sense of character. I think the drowess said he was a Zhentarim, as sinister an association as any, but perhaps he finally felt he'd gone too far, or something. I wonder how recently he came under the Sharran slut's sway. If we do revive him, I like your idea about erasing his associated memories - I'll be perfectly honest, I would put preventing a small chance of that spell being used on a whole city before saving or redeeming one life...of course, I suppose reviving him could actually help that way, if there were other copies of the spell or those who know it which he hadn't time to mention."<br/><br/>"On a bright note, I'm eager to enjoy our material rewards as well....but I was thinking, Siwa seemed a far smaller settlement than Arabel or some others. We might better be able to move our king's ransom worth of treasure - and find those who can upgrade our own gear or sell new toys - in a more cosmopolitan place. If you wish to go back to Siwa first in any case, though, and then go back here or somewhere else later....well maybe the Teleport spell of your runestave will suffice for places we've already been, to save on the expensive scrolls and the succubus's staff."<br/><br/>She then let Kass concentrate on the spellbook while she moved about the dressing room and shop, drawing closed the front window's curtains, then searching and generally keeping watch. She found the door to the back room to be locked (perhaps by the shopmistress when she'd heard battle noises), but almost casually lockpicked it, and found a surprisingly subdued-looking office empty of persons, and with an open back door leading into an alley. "I think any employees you ran across have fled," she called out, and placed a moonstone in a drawer by way of payment and apology for the store's trouble or lost business (though she supposed their probably preventing the city being devastated had been in its larger interest already!)<br/><br/>The wizard's effects would further attest to the level of mastery Kass and Aria had witnessed: he had six spellbooks, organized by school (Abjuration, Divination and Universal, Illusion, Transmutation, and two for Conjuration; the other three schools noticeably absent), and most nearly full. Kass would be able to decipher about ten spells a minute, but after only a score of such spells, not one yet such as they'd witnessed in the Mulhorandi wastes, the shop front door vibrated noisily under knocking so thunderous it might've broken in an unbolted door.<br/><br/>"In the name of the Lady Lord!" came a booming, authoritative voice. "By the Crown of Cormyr! Open and present selves, all within!"<br/><br/><br/><br/>I should've mentioned earlier when I noticed this misconception in your prior IC post - he didn't succeed with Time Stop. When he began casting it, the spellcast was disrupted by the moonblade's effect (one aspect of the Moonblade spell is that if you hit someone, then on their next turn if they try to cast they must make a Concentration check, which failed). The misconception is amusing - b/c you are completely right that the effects of a successful Time Stop would be unobservable by everyone else anyway. All the buffs were things he had up before, things that he or she can make last all day (or long enough for 1-2 casts to last all day), except for Gr Blink (his Contingency).<br/><br/>Also Modify Memory is bard only (although I bet there are sor/wiz enchantment spells that would do it; I think there's a 9th level one with the Evil descriptor called Mindrape that can change their entire memory/personality/self-perceived-identity) - though if anything that'd probably make it easier for Kass to find a caster.<br/><br/>On spellbooks:<br/>Reading (and 'identifying') a spell in a spellbook is Spellcraft DC 20 + spell level (which Kass can always make by taking 10) and one full round action per spell (= 10 /minute). They can also be read w/o checks via Read Magic (such as Aria has) but that's far slower (one page per minute, and a spell is one page per spell level, so that's 10-90x slower than just Spellcraft!)<br/>http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/arcaneSpells.htm#arcaneMagicalWritings (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/arcaneSpells.htm#arcaneMagicalWritings)<br/>http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/spellcraft.htm (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/spellcraft.htm)<br/>(In general when I link SRD it's not an insinuation that you should already know, or read, it, more like a 'citation' to explain my own reasoning or what just happened IC, in this case the pace of reading.)