Talk:Story : In the deep forest

From Ars Magica

Umm, I have a vague memory of some results of the spell Longinus cast being up before while checking in during my travels. Have we established that the 'ward' didn't stop any magic, nor anyone with MR? And what about the Intellego Terram spell checking for anything that could be in teh shape of a giant ring? --Corbon 00:06, 4 May 2006 (PDT)

Just to refine my feel for ArsMagica, would someone explain to me what make a lvl 15 spell "apprentice level"? --Samuel

IMO, nothing much - especially a spontanious spell. Given that an apprentice is casting a formulaic spell which they know, they should be able to manage anything 10 or lower with loss of fatigue. I suppose, if you take into account, a postive stamina, hand waving and yelling and an aura of at least 2, then the same could be said for a level 15 spell. However, managing the same spell spontaniously would be beyond most apprentices I would say, assuming they don't have strong scores in those Arts. Of course, it doesn't really matter if the spell was sponted or done formulaicly for the effect. Thus, I presume the GM is making a comment that the spell is too strong to be dispelled by such a spell cast by a hypothetical apprentice. If Eirlys were able to cast this spell formulaicly, then it would be of a much higher level and might have a better chance of knocking down the ward. --Perikles 22:41, 3 May 2006 (PDT)

I'm confused as to the results of the spell being cast. "Unravelling the Fabric of Terram" despite being a straight-up Perdo Vim with no Terram requisite, will only attempt to dispel a Terram spell. If there's no Terram spell to affect, it will not do anything. Are you saying it doesn't interact with the circular ward, but does bump up against another Terram spell in the area? Also, the Perdo spell dispels an effect of the spell level, plus ten, *plus a stress die roll*. It's significantly more buff than a Wind of Mundane Silence (whose level must double the level of an effect in order to dispel it) because 1- it only affects one spell (not everything in the area) and 2- you have to specify the form it'll affect, so if you're trying to dispel an unknown spell, you either have to preface it with a good Intellego Vim, or cast it ten times, once for each Form :) --Eirlys 09:41, 3 May 2006 (PDT)

I suspect the GM may have just been being kind and allowed the spell to have an unforseen effect when encountering the ward to give you a hint - as opposed to just stating that "Nothing happens".--Perikles 22:41, 3 May 2006 (PDT)

ALternatively, she may have interferred with something Longinus was doing quietly... ;-) --Corbon 00:06, 4 May 2006 (PDT)

See, "something happens" and "nothing happens" are two entirely different hints, and it looks like I'm getting both, so knowing which was intended would be a positive thing! --Eirlys 02:01, 4 May 2006 (PDT)

"You bumped your nose on it-- which means it doesn't affect your whiskers, just your body; so it can't be an Animal effect, or you'd have felt the resistance of the barrier with your whiskers as well."

Not knowing anything about ferrets, but basing my general assumptions onthem based off other animals, I would have assumed that whiskers stick out at the side and there to help the animal sense how far they get their head and/or body into a small space - like a cat's whiskers. It is a fairly usual assumption that an animal's nose is the most forward part of it. Further, if the animal in question were bounding forward at the time when he hit his nose, whiskers wouldn't do much good. He would probably complain about his sore sensitive nose though, and not a bent whisker or two. Remember that your OOC knowledge which you can translate into IC knowledge is not the same as other people's OOC knowledge and hence they may not arrive at the same IC knowledge. Ruling out the possibility of the ward being animal seems a little hasty.

On the other hand, if the ward is to keep out faeries, then it would be a Vim type aura, and not animal either... Ho hum. And if you ask me, what better place for an anti faerie ward than in a faerie aura? Why would you want one in a divine aura? It's not like you'd ever find any there. Not unless they were REALLY religious :P--Perikles 00:16, 4 May 2006 (PDT)

Ah my dear Peri, that would be an incorrect assumption :) Mustelids are burrowing creatures; their whiskers are extremely sensitive. From their whiskers, they can navigate through underground burrows of their prey and overcome them without any visual input whatsoever. Mustelids (ferrets, polecats, etc) are not unique in this; it's quite common among mammals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrissae This may be OOC knowledge that translates to IC knowledge (Eirlys has been with Aloysius MUCH longer than I've had ferrets of my own), but it's not any unreasonable assumption, as James has expressed that comparative biology is as much a passion of his as it is a burden of mine :P

Anti-faerie wards would not be a Vim spell-- they're specific to the magic might type of the faerie in question. There's forest, mountain, water, and air faeries that have corresponding Rego spells as faerie wards. There are also faeries of Corpus and Animal, but there are no wards for those types (at least, there have not been any in any Ars books). A Rego Vim with Herbam, Corpus, Animal, Terram, Aquam, and Auram requisites could theoretically work against all faeries, but it would likely be a lower-level spell effect given the likelihood of a generalist nature from the magus inventing it. --Eirlys 02:01, 4 May 2006 (PDT)