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)

She did cast a Perdo Vim-- all spells to cancel another spell are Perdo Vim spells, with no requisites (I believe the rationale is that you're destroying the essence of the magic effect created). Her first attempt was casting to dismiss a Terram spelI. Is there any chance you could tell us what the results of the stress dice to determine the spell levels dismissed, so that I know whether or not to spend confidence upon any rolls? For example, if you roll a 7, so that her spell would dispel a lv 32 effect, I'd certainly spend a confidence point to dispel a level 35 spell instead. --Eirlys 12:40, 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)

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Aloysius: Being a Mustelid, poor, wee Aloysius, bounding through the undergrowth, had an awful moment of forewarning that he was about to ram his nose into something (a ward) which, ordinarily is quite soft and spongy, but like water, actually terrible hard when compressed suddenly. Sadly, that moment of horror and the subsequent scrabbling were not sufficient to arrest his forward motion into a completely unexpected invisible obstruction. By the way, I decided that a ward did not count as an 'invisible thing' for the purposes of Second Sight.

Spell Results: Sorry, I thought your other spell was a PeVi. When your first Unravelling spell failed with zero effect, but looked really rather successful to Eirly's eye, it seemed naturally to try another art.

Rules: I refer you all to the Rego Vim Guidelines box on page 161 of AM5, wherein it states that a ReVi ward can ward against creatures of a domain, eg. ReVi(Fae), and that such wards are also possible with other forms, such as ReTe(Fae of the mountain), but that such wards are more limited in effect. I imagine this is different from previous editions, but rather handy given the Rego bunnies we have. :)

Grogs: Please note, at this point, you've not tried to send a grog through it, and are thus ignorant of that effect, unless I've misread again... :D

Apprentice level spells: I was referring to the arts used, rather than the spell effect desired. Given that you all have a single year since you were Apprentices, it isn't so unreasonable to ascert that a spell is 'apprentice level', especially given the fact that I'm too lazy to type something far longer and more specific. :D Eirlys was pitching 7.5 points worth of arts (formulaicly speaking) against gods-know-what (well, SG-knows-what). I did throw a dice though, as there was always the chance that Eirlys would succeed dramatically, or fail dramatically, as other players have been doing of late.

I hope that has solved any confusion. On with the show... I want to see what lies inside. :D --James\\^Talk 10:38, 4 May 2006 (PDT)