Staves and magicians are linked in the mind, and for good reason. Staves are the magical items most sought after by Mages, due to their considerable power and flexibility. And now you have learned the secret of their creation.

To create a staff, you must start by expending 1,000cp to acquire the raw materials—rare woods, large gemstones, the bones or sinews of supernatural creatures, enchanted paints…every staff is different, and requires different materials.

Next, you must Prepare Spells, selecting exactly ten levels of spells from your Grimoire. You must have this list of spells prepared whenever you take the Craft a Staff activity; it is the list of spells that the staff will have.

If you have a Focus, you may choose to make the staff count as your Focus implement, regardless of what that implement might normally be.

You must then Take Down-Time, taking the Craft a Staff activity.

When you accumulate ten Success Points, your staff is finished. If your staff is also a Focus implement, you must accumulate twelve Success Points to complete it. If you accumulate five Failure Points, you have managed to ruin your staff and wasted the raw materials.

When you Prepare Spells, you may choose one staff that you own and empower it. All the spells embedded in the staff become Prepared. You may only have one staff empowered at a time. You need not have a free hand to Cast a Spell, either from the staff or from your own list of Prepared spells, if you have a magical staff in hand.

Whenever you have the staff in hand, you may Cast a Spell that the staff has Prepared as though you had the spell Prepared yourself. When you do so, however, then should you be required to select a Bad Thing from Casting that Spell, it must be:

• The staff's stored energy for that spell is depleted, and the staff no longer has that spell Prepared.