You summon a veil of spectral mist, swirling with faint shapes and echoes. Within this haze, memories take form, allowing you to either project yourself across vast distances or guide others into a living vision of the past. When you cast this spell, choose one of the following effects.
Spectral Simulacrum. You create an illusory duplicate of yourself at any location you have seen before or can clearly describe, regardless of distance, even across continents. This functions in most respects like the Project Image spell, but with similarities to Simulacrum in that the image is a flawless likeness imbued with your mannerisms, voice, and memories. Unlike Simulacrum, it is entirely non-physical and maintained only while you concentrate. You may alter the image’s form or the surrounding scenery by shaping the mist, allowing for embellishment or disguise. The image can move as you direct and perfectly mimics your speech. It cannot physically interact with the world, but it can perform intricate gestures, facial expressions, and environmental illusions within a 30-foot radius of itself.
Walk the Ghosted Past. You and up to four willing creatures within range take on indistinct, shadowed forms, recognisable only to one another. Each target’s body is left behind in a state of suspended animation; it has the unconscious condition. The mist becomes an immersive recreation of a moment from a chosen subject’s past—the subject being any creature physically touching the mist when the spell is cast. The target can’t be incapacitated prior to the spells casting. The subject does not need to be a participant in the spell. You may change the chosen subject during the illusion, but only to another creature that is in contact with the mist at the moment of the switch; the scene may partially fade and reform as it shifts to the new perspective. An unwilling subject must make an Intelligence saving throw against your spell save DC. On a success, the spell fails to access their memories. On a failure, the vision is created, but its accuracy may be compromised in ways not immediately apparent: certain details might be incomplete, distorted, or false without clear indication to the participants. In such cases, the area within which the illusion can reliably portray events and surroundings is reduced by half, and beyond that area the scene is more likely to appear hazy or inconsistent. An unwilling subject must remain in contact with the mist for the spell to continue drawing on their memories; if contact is broken, the scene may distort or collapse until a valid subject is chosen or the vision ends.
If you cast this effect only on yourself, you assume a form within the scene and may move and possess as below. If you include other creatures, you forgo any form within the vision and remain an unseen presence, focusing entirely on maintaining the illusion; in this state you can’t interact with the scene. While the mist is forming or dissolving you may speak to participants as a disembodied voice; once the vision fully manifests, you can’t communicate with them until the scene ends or collapses.
Participants may explore freely, though moving beyond remembered places or events causes the illusion to become hazy or distorted. Figures within the scene don’t ordinarily perceive participants. The spell may assign a participant to “possess” a figure in the memory; this resembles Magic Jar in presentation but is purely illusory and grants no actual control. Possession isn’t chosen by a participant and isn’t guaranteed to occur. In addition, Possession may occur while participants are within the scene. Not every individual present in the original event is necessarily rendered by the illusion, and potential hosts might be indistinct, absent, or only implied by context. The DM determines if and when a possession occurs. When it does, the spell selects a host that best preserves continuity—this might be (a) a clearly rendered figure in the scene, (b) a plausible bystander who would reasonably be present though not originally recalled in detail, or (c) a narrative composite that fits the circumstances. On possession, the participant seamlessly takes on the host’s appearance, mannerisms, surface thoughts and relevant memories, and the scene treats them as if present all along. If the possessed host would suffer harm, the participant experiences the sensation as if it were happening to them, though they take no real damage. If the host is incapacitated or killed within the memory, the participant is immediately ejected from the host. If a suitable replacement host exists, the spell transfers them automatically; otherwise, they revert to ghost form and can only observe for the remainder of the vision. If a participant’s actions would deviate from the course of events, the vision resists and redirects them; if continuity would break, the spell rewinds to an earlier point or prevents the action.
Accuracy. Within 120 feet of the memory’s focal area (typically a central location or memorable event), details are rendered with high fidelity; beyond that, vague or unknown elements appear indistinct, warped, or absent. Speech is preserved exactly as originally spoken.
You can maintain this spell indefinitely while you concentrate. For each full day that passes within the simulated vision, you gain one level of exhaustion upon returning to reality. This toll applies only to you, not to other participants.
Using a Higher‑Level Spell Slot. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 8th level or higher, the following benefits apply: For Spectral Simulacrum, with an 8th‑level slot the duplicate can appear on a different plane of existence you are familiar with; with a 9th‑level slot the duplicate can physically interact with its surroundings as if under the effects of the Telekinesis spell. For Walk the Ghosted Past, you can include one additional willing creature beyond four for each slot level above 7th; the area in which details remain clear and reliable increases by 60 feet for each slot level above 7th; and the spell’s divinatory interpolation becomes more precise, allowing even minor, half‑forgotten events to be reconstructed accurately; with an 8th-level slot, unwilling subjects have disadvantage on their saving throws to resist the spell’s effects; with an 9th-level slot, unwilling subjects who fail their saving throw no longer produce inaccurate or misleading details within the vision. Instead, any events, figures, or surroundings the spell cannot accurately reconstruct appear as indistinct gaps filled with drifting silver mist, which participants intuitively recognise as missing or incomplete information.
* - (a polished gemstone worth at least 500 gp)