Magic and how to use it

How to cast a spell

In order to cast a spell you need the following three things:

Knowledge of the Spell
The proper Magic chit [representing the knowledge of the ritual used to cast the spell]
The power (color magic) to cast it

You have knowledge of any spell written on your character sheet. You can also cast any spell that has been "awakened" in a magic item in your possession and active.
Each spell requires a certain ritual (type I-VIII). You have to have a Magic chit of the appropriate ritual active to cast the spell. Magic items that contain spells also can be used as a magic chit (the ritual type of the item is in red on the item's card), these have a time number of ZERO but can only be used to cast "awakened" spells that are contained in the item.
The hardest part is coming up with the proper color magic. Each spell has a color associated with it. In order to cast the spell you have to use some of this color from some source. Sources can be, the tile itself (if it has been enchanted), the day of the week (each Sunday has a certain color associated with it), a special treasure (the color is printed in red on it), or your own effort (see spell phases below).

Once you have all the necessary ingredients, you can cast your spell. You do this as an action during the Encounter Step in the Evening phase. Your target is chosen during the Melee Step. If your time is less than or equal to the times of all the monsters/chits on your sheet your spell works! However if someone targets you with a spell, your time has to be less than their spells time.

If your worried about your time number not being fast enough. You can Alert the spell chit during the day, in which case the time number becomes 0.

If the spell was an attack spell, you then use the chit just like a fight chit to determine if you hit your targets.

What a Spell Phase is for

The first spell phase is not used for anything (called the SPX phase in the second edition rules). During that phase your player is meditating, getting ready to perform a useful spell phase. Note you don't have to do this in order to actually cast a spell at the end of a day.

Any spell phase recorded after the first can be used for one of two things:

You can generate some Color Magic by turning over one of your Magic Chits. The color of the chit is determined by the ritual on the chit. This chit can now be used ONLY for supplying the proper color once. After it is used, it is fatigued. When you rest it back it becomes a normal Magic chit again and you must use another spell phase to enchant it again.
You can enchant a tile. You need to supply a ritual chit and a source of color magic that matches the ritual. If the source of color is from one of your own chits converted as (1) above then it is fatigued) and the Tile is flipped over.

Examples:

The Black Knight has no way of using magic when the game starts. He needs to find all three of the spell ingredients above to cast any spell.

While talking to the Company he finds they have the BEAST PIPES so he buys them. This gives him a Magic VIII chit with a time number of 0. However the chit can only be used with the spell in the item.

He spends a search phase (or several search phases) trying the read the runes on the pipes and finally awakens the spell. It turns out to be BAD LUCK. He now has a spell and a chit, all he needs is the right color.

He looks up bad luck and finds that any color will do to cast this spell. This means he can cast it whenever it's Sunday (and color magic is supplied to the whole board), he can cast it in any enchanted tile, at the Church (where White magic is supplied), or if he is in the same clearing with any Treasure that supplies color magic.

While walking through some enchanted woods, he comes across the Elf. The Elf has already killed two players and blocks the Black Knight. The Black Knight can't run and considering the Elfs Archer ability is in sorry straights. One thing the Black Knight can do is to use the Beast Pipes (Magic VIII 0 chit), and the Gold color (from the enchanted tile), to cast his Bad Luck spell on the Elf. This will go a long way toward helping the Black Knight win the fight and might even encourage the Elf to run away himself!

The White Knight only has one Magic Chit and he gets a spell at the start of the game. Lets say he takes MAKE WHOLE.

After a fierce battle with some goblins, he finds himself with very few chits active and his armor damaged. He now wants to cast his spell to fix his armor and rest all his chits quickly.

He has the spell and a chit to cast it with but he needs the color. Two spell phases will allow him to turn his Magic chit into a color chit but then he won't be able to use it's ritual type to cast the spell! So he must find the color elsewhere.

Fortunately, the Chapel is near by so he goes there and now has a source of White Color to power his spell. Note, the Sacred Grail and the first Sunday of the month also supply the color he needs.

If he had found the Sacred Statue and read the runes on it to awaken it's spell, he could use a spell phase to Enchant his Magic Chit. Then he would have the Statue for the Ritual Type, his enchanted chit for the color, and the spell in the statue to cast.

The Witch King has lots of Magic Chits but no Move chits. Lets assume that one of the spells he picks at the start of the game is UNLEASH POWER (although this spell is more suited to the Sorcerer)

He finds the Crystal Ball but the clearing is getting rather dangerous. He really doesn't want to stay here but he can't pick-up the ball (something about being non-corporeal :-)

He wants to cast his unleash power spell so he can pick up the ball and take it somewhere safer. He has the spell, and a type VI magic chit but where will the color come from?

During the day he spends a spell phase to meditate, then another to enchant a type IV magic chit into Purple Magic. That evening he casts the spell on his MAGIC V4* chit (note you must cast Unleash Power on a chit). The next day, he can use the unleashed power in the MAGIC V4* chit to pick up the ball and move off.