Level: 4
Range: 1" plus 1" /level of caster
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: See below
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 4 segments (plus writing time)
Saving Throw: None

By means of this spell, a normal message containing
up to 66 characters or letters (about
fifteen words) written on parchment,
stone, or the like can be made unreadable
(even to magics such as comprehend
languages, read magic, and true
seeing) to all but the spellcaster, any
being or beings named in the message
(regardless of the caster's wishes in this
regard) and a specific recipient being,
who must be named aloud and pictured
mentally by the caster at the time of
casting.

Such a message will appear to
all others as an illegible, smudged area
radiating a dweomer.

A cryptic message will remain until
erased magically, willed to disappear by
the caster (who may be at any distance,
but must be on the same plane to do sol,
or a dispel magic is cast so that the message
is within its area of effect. Weathering
and other physical effects such as
burning, scrubbing, or defacing the
smudged area will not destroy the message
as long as the actual surface it was
written on survives (encrypt can be
safely cast on any reasonably stable surface,
such as stone, wood, or paper, but
not usually with success on messages
scrawled in soot, dust, or snow); it will
still be clearly legible to those identified
above.

The message does not glow or in any
way attract attention to itself?an
intended recipient may well not see it if
not looking for a message or not chancing
to look in the right place. A message
encrypted in a language not known to
the intended recipient is not made
understandable by means of this magic;
nor will it magnify script too small for
the recipient to read. The text of a spell
may not be encryptically concealed, but
writing related to magic such as spell
ink formulae, magic-item command
words, and directions for magical processes
such as enchanting a certain item
or constructing a golem may be so concealed.
No part of any message longer than
the first 66 characters will be obscured
or protected by this magic--attempting
to encrypt such an overlong message
would result in wastage of the spell; the
entire message could be read (or
destroyed) normally. Additional writing
in the same area after the spell is cast
will not affect an encrypted message,
thus, a second message can be written
on top of an encrypted one to further
conceal the former, without rendering
the original message unreadable by
those for whom it is intended. Morever,
adding words or characters to a message
known to be encrypted will not
cause it to appear; the additions will
remain clearly visible and the original
will remain concealed. Multiple encrypt
spells cast on the same or adjacent
areas will not allow messages longer
than 66 characters to be concealed ?
rather, when a second encrypt spell is
cast, the concealed message of the first
encrypt spell will vanish forever,
replaced by the second message. "Adjacent" in this case extends to areas of
effect that are up to 10 feet distant, so
that different walls in a small room cannot
be used to encrypt multiple messages.
Different sides of a wall or object
cannot be used, either, unless the distance
separating them is more than 10
feet. Writing used in encrypted messages
can be very large or very small,
written on walls, mountainsides, or
even small bones or slivers of wood,
and still be concealed so long as the
maximum of 66 characters is not
exceeded.

Encrypt may be used to conceal messages
written by others, regardless of
time elapsed since the writing, and will
be effective in obscuring even runes
deeply graven in stone, or letters
formed by patterns of colored mosaic
tiles. In such a case, the surface will
appear faded, stained, and/or discolored,
or even covered with a smoky,
sooty deposit so that the message is concealed.
As aforementioned, no amount
of physical cleaning will reveal the concealed
message. The figure given for
range in the above text is the distance at
which the caster can obscure a message
with the encrypt spell.

A true seeing spell will reveal clearly
the outlines of an encrypt spell's
dweomer, but will not allow the message
to be read, unless the viewer can
deduce by the shape of the dweomer
what is concealed. Written or graven
symbols can be encrypted, but magical
symbols or glyphs will be unaffected.
And encrypt will conceal, but not harm,
the efficacy of protective pentagrams,
thaumaturgic triangles, and the like.
If the caster of encrypt writes the
message to be concealed himself or herself,
this writing must be done directly;
the spell cannot cause it to be magically
written from afar.

A pinch of dust or grey lint "fluff,"
and a feather,
and are consumed in the casting.
 

Orjalun's Arbatel

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Books of the Forgotten Realms