The Lost Spells ofVenus The Lost Spells ofVenus

an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic
1. Name the spell, enchantment, or cantrap, then pass the scroll to your left: 1. Name the spell, enchantment, or cantrap, then pass the scroll to your left:

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

5. 5.

6. 6.

7. 7.

8. 8.

9. 9.

Unfold the scroll, share your adventure with your fellow wizards, and the Unfold the scroll, share your adventure with your fellow wizards, and the
1o. game is done! 1o. game is done!
 The Lost Spells ofVenus
an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic
To begin the game, name a wizard, choose an undertaking, and
name or describe an appropriate act of magic. Choose all in
silence; they will be revealed in due time!
Naming a wizard:
• Choose an object you can see or a noun you can consider.
Examples: chair, windowshade, eternity.
• Adjust the word by adding and exchanging letters, until
you have a name romantic, mysterious, fanciful, or grand.
Examples: Khaire, Wintersherre, Etrenite.
• Add a sobriquet, cognomen, office, toponym, or title.
Examples: Khaire of the House of Kab, Wintersherre the
Preceptor, Etrenite of Solace Strand.
The wizard’s name:
Choose and mark the wizard’s undertaking:
 To cross the Desert of Nephthys, scant of water and shelter, home
to night-flitting vampires, in safety and comfort.
 To cross the Sea of Hestia, where no land breaks the surface, but
gigantic intelligent whale-eels hunt ships for sport.
 To discover the fate and resting-place of six precious magical
adjuncts that have lately disappeared from my possession.
 To discover the resting place of the Grimoire of Orm Erm, an
ancient wizard of crowning cunning and seething malice.
 To discover the unworldly source of a fluxion of inimical force that
has lately crossed the boundary of my magical seclusium.
 To follow an enigmatic phantom, a winsome being of unknown
nature, who traverses dreams by night, to its home or origin mind.
 To follow the trail of a Spell of Watchful Vigilance, inserted into my
seclusium by an unknown rival wizard, to its source.
 To protect my magical seclusium from an intruder, a certain rival
wizard whom I suspect of malintent.
 To protect my magical seclusium from an intruder, a remnant ghoul
of an ancient aeon sent to discommode me.
 To traverse the region of plasmic flame that separates the realms
of the middle atmosphere from the upper.
Naming the wizard’s spell, enchantment, or cantrap:
Once you’ve named a wizard and chosen their undertaking,
name or describe the spell they intend to use to accomplish
it. Examples: a winged carriage, a spell of instantaneous
transference, armor of unworldly adamant.
Write the magic in the space for phase 1 on the front of this
scroll, then pass the scroll to the left to begin the game.
Share your adventure:
In the tenth and final phase of the game, share your adventure
with your fellow wizards, along these lines:
“I am the wizard [named above]. In order to accomplish [the
undertaking], I performed [the magic named in phase 1 on
the front of this scroll]. However, my magic underwent these
pervolutions: [describe the sequence of phases 2–9], and thus
instead I performed [the magic named in phase 10].”
Take your turn with your fellow wizards, and so ends the game!
As an additional optional phase:
You may choose with your fellow wizards to vote: whose magic
was best, in all its pervolutions? You may thereby declare the
game’s winner.
The Lost Spells ofVenus
an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic
To begin the game, name a wizard, choose an undertaking, and
name or describe an appropriate act of magic. Choose all in
silence; they will be revealed in due time!
Naming a wizard:
• Choose an object you can see or a noun you can consider.
Examples: chair, windowshade, eternity.
• Adjust the word by adding and exchanging letters, until
you have a name romantic, mysterious, fanciful, or grand.
Examples: Khaire, Wintersherre, Etrenite.
• Add a sobriquet, cognomen, office, toponym, or title.
Examples: Khaire of the House of Kab, Wintersherre the
Preceptor, Etrenite of Solace Strand.
The wizard’s name:
Choose and mark the wizard’s undertaking:
 To cross the icy Waste of Irkalla, where crusts of ice plunge
travelers into chasms and stilt-legged hunting hyenas cry the wind.
 To discover the hiding place of my rival wizard, the Magus
Rhipbarrag of the Four Tongues, who has been avoiding me.
 To discover the resting place of the Tablarro of Fasther of the
House of Io, a powerful relic.
 To go in safety and comfort to the City of Idun, though the road is
plagued by restless bandits, lancet-grass, and gallows-ghosts.
 To go in safety and comfort to the City of Anahita, though the way
passes through a breeding ground of chanting hyenas.
 To open the Grimoire of Stajpallor Penult, guarded with two spells:
first a spell of shriveling infliction, then a spell of purgative fire.
 To protect my magical seclusium from an intruder, a strange being
who slips from room to room and gnaws the covers of my books.
 To punish my rival wizard, Topa the Gure, whom I apprehended
stealing spcimens from the gardens of my magical seclusium.
 To rid my magical seclusium of an infesting colony of beggar-bats,
flightless and disease-carrying scavenging bats the size of raccoons.
 To traverse in safety the region of vacuate chill that separates this
world, Venus, from her sister world, Earth.
Naming the wizard’s spell, enchantment, or cantrap:
Once you’ve named a wizard and chosen their undertaking,
name or describe the spell they intend to use to accomplish
it. Examples: a winged carriage, a spell of instantaneous
transference, armor of unworldly adamant.
Write the magic in the space for phase 1 on the front of this
scroll, then pass the scroll to the left to begin the game.
Share your adventure:
In the tenth and final phase of the game, share your adventure
with your fellow wizards, along these lines:
“I am the wizard [named above]. In order to accomplish [the
undertaking], I performed [the magic named in phase 1 on
the front of this scroll]. However, my magic underwent these
pervolutions: [describe the sequence of phases 2–9], and thus
instead I performed [the magic named in phase 10].”
Take your turn with your fellow wizards, and so ends the game!
As an additional optional phase:
You may choose with your fellow wizards to vote: whose magic
was best, in all its pervolutions? You may thereby declare the
game’s winner.
 The Lost Spells ofVenus The Lost Spells ofVenus
an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic
1. Name the spell, enchantment, or cantrap, then pass the scroll to your left: 1. Name the spell, enchantment, or cantrap, then pass the scroll to your left:

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

5. 5.

6. 6.

7. 7.

8. 8.

9. 9.

Unfold the scroll, share your adventure with your fellow wizards, and the Unfold the scroll, share your adventure with your fellow wizards, and the
1o. game is done! 1o. game is done!
 The Lost Spells ofVenus
an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic
To begin the game, name a wizard, choose an undertaking, and
name or describe an appropriate act of magic. Choose all in
silence; they will be revealed in due time!
Naming a wizard:
• Choose an object you can see or a noun you can consider.
Examples: chair, windowshade, eternity.
• Adjust the word by adding and exchanging letters, until
you have a name romantic, mysterious, fanciful, or grand.
Examples: Khaire, Wintersherre, Etrenite.
• Add a sobriquet, cognomen, office, toponym, or title.
Examples: Khaire of the House of Kab, Wintersherre the
Preceptor, Etrenite of Solace Strand.
The wizard’s name:
Choose and mark the wizard’s undertaking:
 To cross through the Forest of Proserpine, scant of track, where
poisonous milk salamanders and ruthless brigands dwell.
 To defend myself from a company of sworn wizard-killers, followers
of the Archveult Zassande, now swaggering toward me.
 To defend myself from a gang of avaricious bravos, who adjudge
me a person of wealth but do not yet guess my power.
 To defend myself from a malicious dusk-comer who has been
stalking me on my travels, now furtively approaching me.
 To defend myself from a sinister entity, whom I suspect to be a
creature of my rival wizard, Topa the Gure, now sidling toward me.
 To descend safely into the chasmic region below Andromeda Vale,
home to vulperine rock-bats and 80-foot mine-orms.
 To descend safely into the Well of Ashperine the Explorer, which
egresses onto the inhospitable surface of an alien moon.
 To imprison a milk salamander, a creature as big as a bull with a
coating of poisonous slime, hopefully to tame or at least mollify it.
 To secure entry into the seclusium of my rival wizard, the magus
Rhipbarrag of the Four Tongues, who has barred it against me.
 To secure for myself a place to recuperate, having come under
assault from a hunting band of psyche-assailing chanting hyenas.
Naming the wizard’s spell, enchantment, or cantrap:
Once you’ve named a wizard and chosen their undertaking,
name or describe the spell they intend to use to accomplish
it. Examples: a winged carriage, a spell of instantaneous
transference, armor of unworldly adamant.
Write the magic in the space for phase 1 on the front of this
scroll, then pass the scroll to the left to begin the game.
Share your adventure:
In the tenth and final phase of the game, share your adventure
with your fellow wizards, along these lines:
“I am the wizard [named above]. In order to accomplish [the
undertaking], I performed [the magic named in phase 1 on
the front of this scroll]. However, my magic underwent these
pervolutions: [describe the sequence of phases 2–9], and thus
instead I performed [the magic named in phase 10].”
Take your turn with your fellow wizards, and so ends the game!
As an additional optional phase:
You may choose with your fellow wizards to vote: whose magic
was best, in all its pervolutions? You may thereby declare the
game’s winner.
The Lost Spells ofVenus
an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic
To begin the game, name a wizard, choose an undertaking, and
name or describe an appropriate act of magic. Choose all in
silence; they will be revealed in due time!
Naming a wizard:
• Choose an object you can see or a noun you can consider.
Examples: chair, windowshade, eternity.
• Adjust the word by adding and exchanging letters, until
you have a name romantic, mysterious, fanciful, or grand.
Examples: Khaire, Wintersherre, Etrenite.
• Add a sobriquet, cognomen, office, toponym, or title.
Examples: Khaire of the House of Kab, Wintersherre the
Preceptor, Etrenite of Solace Strand.
The wizard’s name:
Choose and mark the wizard’s undertaking:
 To cross the Mountains of Isis, where blasting ice assails travelers
and great flightless white-furred bats hunt.
 To defend myself from a breakbone ghoul sent by my rival wizard,
Gulibochus the Twice-barred, to beat and rob me.
 To encase an ancient and malignant object of sorcery in stasis,
blunting its worldly potency and lessening its radiant malinfluence.
 To protect my magical seclusium from an intruder, a malicious
plasmic creature of the lower atmosphere.
 To protect my magical seclusium from an intruder, an uncanny
dream-sipper drawn by my precious and powerful belongings.
 To punish my rival wizard, the Magus Rhipbarrag of the Four
Tongues, whose affronts against me defy moderation.
 To retrieve an amulet from the magical seclusium of my rival
wizard, Caidle of the Three Discs, who thinks to secure it from me.
 To steal a powerful talisman of volcanic magic from its owner, the
Dukessa Larka-Topis, who thinks it merely a ruby set in burnt-gold.
 To steal a useful magical implement, in form a bronze mirror of
seven facets, from my rival wizard, Gulibochus the Twice-barred.
 To traverse Tinctum’s Region, an unworldly zone of virulent weeds,
biting ivies, lancet-grass, clasping-fern, and stinging vaspids.
Naming the wizard’s spell, enchantment, or cantrap:
Once you’ve named a wizard and chosen their undertaking,
name or describe the spell they intend to use to accomplish
it. Examples: a winged carriage, a spell of instantaneous
transference, armor of unworldly adamant.
Write the magic in the space for phase 1 on the front of this
scroll, then pass the scroll to the left to begin the game.
Share your adventure:
In the tenth and final phase of the game, share your adventure
with your fellow wizards, along these lines:
“I am the wizard [named above]. In order to accomplish [the
undertaking], I performed [the magic named in phase 1 on
the front of this scroll]. However, my magic underwent these
pervolutions: [describe the sequence of phases 2–9], and thus
instead I performed [the magic named in phase 10].”
Take your turn with your fellow wizards, and so ends the game!
As an additional optional phase:
You may choose with your fellow wizards to vote: whose magic
was best, in all its pervolutions? You may thereby declare the
game’s winner.
 The Lost Spells ofVenus The Lost Spells ofVenus
an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic

Venus was not always as it is now. A hundred million years ago, 1. Name the spell, enchantment, or cantrap, then pass the scroll to your left:
it was a world as beautiful as Earth, or more beautiful: Earth’s
sister, a blue and green jewel of a world.

You are one of the great wizards of Old Venus. You live in an 2. In this space, illustrate the magic named above. Fold at the line above,
then pass the scroll to your left.
age of high adventure and exacting magic, now lost forever!

You will need:

• A group of 3–6 friends, or more.
• An equal number of spell scrolls, printed and cut. (Note that
there are 4 different versions of the spell scroll. Distribute
them at random; duplicates are allowed.)
• 30 minutes to play.

Beginning the game:

On the reverse of your spell scroll, find the rules for naming a
wizard and choosing — in secret! — that wizard’s undertaking. 3. In this space, name the magic you see above. Fold at the line above, then
pass the scroll to your left.
Follow those rules to begin the game.

The order of play: 4. In this space, illustrate the magic named above. Fold at the line above,
then pass the scroll to your left.
Play the game in 9 phases:
• In the first phase, write the name of the spell, enchantment, or
cantrap, and pass the scroll to the player at your left.
• In the second phase, quickly illustrate the magic named on the
scroll that’s been passed to you. Fold the scroll over above your A Model Scroll
illustration, so that the name is hidden and your illustration to Explicate the Phases of Play
remains visible, and pass the scroll to your left.
• In the third phase, name the magic you see illustrated on the scroll
that’s been passed to you. Fold the scroll over above your name, so
that now the illustration is hidden, and pass the scroll to your left.
• Continue so in the fourth through ninth phases, alternating 5. In this space, name the magic you see above. Fold at the line above, then
pass the scroll to your left.
illustrating the magic you see named, and naming the magic you
see illustrated. Always fold the scroll over and pass it to your left. 6. In this space, illustrate the magic named above. Fold at the line above,
then pass the scroll to your left.
• Never study the reverse of the scroll! It will be revealed in time.
• In the tenth and final phase, unfold the scroll that’s been passed to
you. You are this wizard! Study the reverse of the scroll to discover
your name and your undertaking, and follow the rules you find
there to share your adventure with your fellow wizards.

The game is done!

The goal of the game:
The rule of the game is that you should illustrate the magics
you see named, and name the magics you see illustrated,
within the scope of honesty. 7. In this space, name the magic you see above. Fold at the line above, then
pass the scroll to your left.
While following this rule in the broad, you might make it your
personal goal to bring into your play your own exactitude, 8. In this space, illustrate the magic named above. Fold at the line above,
then pass the scroll to your left.
or ingenuousness, or ingenuity, or whimsy, or frivolity, or
grandiosity — interpreting the magics you name and illustrate
accordingly, just as you choose.

Still, keep to the scope of honesty and commit no intentional

mischiefs! This is the duty of all wizards.

The Lost Spells of Venus:

an Exquisite Corpse game of Vancian Magic
© 2020 by Meguey Baker & D. Vincent Baker. 9.
Based on Eat Poop You Cat, a party game in the public domain.
Inspired by the wizardry in The Dying Earth and Lyonesse by Jack Vance.
Permission granted to print or duplicate for personal use.
a lumpley game. 1o.
In this space, name the magic you see above. Fold at the line above, then
pass the scroll to your left.
Unfold the scroll, share your adventure with your fellow wizards, and the
game is done!