Targeting an Arcane Connection + other demon hunting stuff

In context - last session, a demon showed up just outside the covenant, and offered information in exchange for some blood. The loyal grog on guard duty acquiesced, and in fact learned some useful information - including the True Name of another demon, who was infesting the castle due to a mistake made by my own PC a few days earlier. (St. Avery thought he was showing off the castle to a friendly farie, and gave it permission to enter the Aegis. Permission was revoked, but the demon hasn't left yet.)

Now, it turns out that the True Name was actually that of the first demon's boss, in the Infernal version of office politics - so when the PC's used the True Name to summon it up, they got a different demon than the one they were expecting. But, the PC's collectively shrugged and shanked it's demonic arse.

So - the castle is still infested by a demon, and one of the grogs gave an arcane connection to another demon. The former is being dealt with. However, that leaves a grog in danger of being connected to a demon for some time.

Now, there is the Perdo Vim effect that reduces the duration of an Arcane connection, as long as you specifically know what you're aiming at. (In this case, "the blood the grog gave to the demon".) It's currently at Range: Arcane Connection - ie, the demon took it when he left. However, some of the blood was turned into gold, as "payment" to the grog. The grog declined payment, but the demon left it in the donation box at the local church. (Yes, it's irony.) Also, the Grog is still here (currently standing inside a lvl 50 "Circular ward against demons").

So, some questions:

1a. Does the grog count as an arcane connection to his own arcane connection? My thought is "Yes - connections can travel both ways".

1b. If so, do sympathetic bonuses work? My thought is "ehh... I don't know." Normally you'd use the nickname or signature of the GROG - but the target is "a clump of blood that was the grog's". It doesn't really have any of the normal sympathetic connections. Or maybe the blood still counts as part of the grog - in which case the normal sympathetic bonuses would work.

  1. If not, does the transformed blood/gold count as a connection? My thought is "very much yes - it's part of "the blood the grog gave to the demon".
    2a. As above - what would a sympathetic connection to this look like?

  2. Can the spell that destroys arcane connections be cast multiple times, at the same level? Again, my thought is "yes - there's nothing that says you can't, and the text (Am5th, pg. 160) seems to imply that the reason you would use the more powerful versions is to destroy the connection instantly - which, in turn, implies that you can destroy it over time if you want to." Also, other PeVi effects can be cast multiple times (Demon's Eternal Oblivion), so there seems to be precedent.

  3. Does targeting the arcane connection need to penetrate any magic resistance the entity holding it has?

  4. If so - how do you target someone who is holding the blood? (low-level Demon's Eternal Oblivion+high penetration). My thought - "Open the Intangable Tunnel" - you gain a Touch effect vs. anyone in range of the arcane connection. (Yes, they gain a touch vs. you as well.) But it's an arcane connection in reverse. Again - do arcane connections even work like that?

I thought you'd said it had been turned into gold? (sorry, discworld joke there).

Remember that it has to penetrate, but I'm sure you've dealt with that.

No.
Or rather, that's been extensively debated.
Try forum-diving a bit, but as I recall, the current thinking is 'no'.

Less relevant, because of the above no.

This one we could talk about - but why do you want a sympathetic connection? It's not the MR of the grog or the blood you'll need to penetrate, as he presumably has none. It would be the MR of the Demon, and for that I don't really see a connection to the grog being an advantage.

I can't see any reason why that shouldn't work.

Kinda depends I think.
For the sake of giving you an actual story rather than an exercise in dice rolling, I'd say yes.

There's some text on that in Hermetic Projects - which by the way is much more permissive than I would have been if I had written those rules - but as I recall, the connection is between you and whatever you have a connection to. You cannot eg. use a R: Touch, T: Room effect to target things around the target of the Tunnel (in this case the blood). Indeed, from a mystical PoV, you 'touch' the blood - but not whatever is touching it.

Indeedie - the caster's total is 80+die roll (for 30 levels of penetration), but we just discovered the joys of the Jerbiton "Ceremonial casting with Props" page - so it's probably more like 90+die roll.

Well, I was thinking of the blood as a separate entity from the grog in this instance. As such, Penetration bonuses would allow the PC to target the blood, and be able to punch through any sort of magic resistance that may be shielding it - be it a Parma, an Aegis, or the MR of the demon holding it. At the least, it would help in destroying the blood itself with the PeVi spell.

Yeah, I just picked that up - wowza, that's an entire discussion on "how to kill people with lvl 5 effects". Thanks for reminding me! However, your claim seems to contradict HP, pg. 79 - "It is possible to cast spells through the tunnel that affect the Room, Structure, or Boundary that the structure is in..."

But thanks for reminding me of this section - assuming the blood-gold is an arcane connection to the rest of the blood, then most of this seems to apply.