Preserve (spell)

Preserve affects organic edibles of every kind, causing them to remain fresh and whole for the spell's duration, as though just harvested, cooked or baked. Affected food won't rot or be touched by insects — and though it won't improve or ferment over time, it remains of precisely the same quality it had when the spell was cast.

Preserve

Range	touch
Duration	one month
Area of Effect	1 cub.ft. per level
Casting Time	1 round
Saving Throw	none
Level	mage (2nd)

Moreover, hot or cold foods retain the temperature each possessed at the time of casting, so that tea continues to steam, a pot of soup bubbles or simmers, a block of ice remains frozen and so on. Foods will retain their smell, also. Heat or cold from these items cannot impart their energy to other objects — and will cool or warm normally when individuals wish to imbibe or add the food as an ingredient to some other product.

An additional like amount of food may be affected each day, so that even a mid-level caster could preserve hundreds of cubic feet of food over the space of a month. And since a pot of boiling soup won't heat the container it's kept in, many difficulties in transporting even complicated foods can be circumvented.

The spell can only be used to preserve food, so it cannot be used to maintain the vitality of a severed limb or a dead body. The spell also cannot be used to preserve magically affected liquids or items, such as firewater, magic stones or grease.