I'm not even certain that a fear of falling isn't learned. Most babies enjoy being lifted high into the air and let "fall" within their parent's hands, but once they get around to attempting to walk they learn that the ground hurts. It may simply be learned early and near universally to the point it seems inborn.
OTOH that would still apply to virtually all magi.
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Oh I agree with you. My point was more toward that the potential duration is only achieved if it is carefully stored. If just stored in your pocket, I'd go for one tier lower so years becomes months, months becomes weeks, etc.
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On the other hand it isn't hard to send grogs with the appropriate boxes and instructions.
I thought the same, however, core rulebook page 84 states the following (my bolding) is an arcane connection for years "Invested device, rock or metal from a specific place, blood, lock of hair, group of feathers from a bird, group of scales from a reptile."
In the 7 league stride situation, assuming the magi is going to travel and return once, grabbing a rock, shaving a splinter off of a tree, even if that last a few days, the return trip is fine.
I feel for an AC the object chosen should be somewhat important. If I go to a place with a pebble beach, I consider I could grab a pebble and it would be a strong AC as that is a key defining element of the location. If I'm in a forest, there will be a rock somewhere, however, the trees in the forest are the defining element. A splinter shaved for a tree I feel would be a relatively strong AC, a rock, no.
Maybe I'm overthinking it and the intent is location based AC are relatively easy to make once you've been to the location?
It seems to me that the issue with a loose pebble is less about how iconic it is and more about the probability some passing peasant dropped it from their shoe and it is really an AC to somewhere else.
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As the player in question, I think I might add a different perspective and give some context.
One aspect was the travel situation. It was likely to achieve nothing, but the character realistically had to do it based on the nature of the threat and the background of the character.
So while I accept my magi had to travel, throwing lots of dice to achieve nothing (it did achieve nothing) except risking warping, a finesse botch, and taking up time for other players, I was trying to reduce the dice and time. I was especially trying to avoid the "You failed the roll, that's funny. Let us see how funny." Dice rolls. "Um...Oh... you magi is dead", or crippled for seasons. Not so funny.
I was not expecting to go as the crows flies. I was expecting to be able to cut corners around towns and villages so I could avoid dominion auras, and go a fair bit further. If I have to follow the road, I could imagine 50 seven league stride spells might not do it. The horizon at ground level is roughly a league away, and that assumes one can see to the horizon. Achieving more than a league a stride would be rare.
Casting things like "Eyes of the cat", "Lift the dangling puppet" to get a lot of height, "true sight of the air' to see through rain, should help a lot. When levitating, the magi can choose a large landmark at the edge of vision and teleport 100 or so paces above the tree. Even failing the finesse, the magi just flails around in the air above the tree a bit. While mentioned in another post, my magi would not try casting in free fall. I consider that would require a challenging concentration roll.
Once levitating a long way up and having decent sight, the travel limit is arguably the biggest reasonable landmark the magi accepts to stride to. I say accepts, as the magi is not using a cathedral as a landmark.
I suspect the book may be slightly ambiguous even though it is not in the errata.
Every other item in that list is a small fraction of something else at a target location. (the invested device is just a small part of the investing mage's investing**)
Hence I have always read it as "a piece from a rock or metal from a specific place".
As @silveroak implied. a random pebble may only recently have been transported to the current location (eg dropped from a peasant's shoe, an ejected gastrolith, creek stones thrown at crop eating crows, detritus from "Crystal Dart" spell, etc) and does not qualify as an AC yet to that location.
I guess I am basically grumpy with the idea that line of sight from the top of a tree is certain to find a safe landing spot rather than a sea of tree tops. And that nobody tests beforehand if a random object is an AC to what they hope it is.
**I don't think I conjugated that sentence properly.
I qualified later on in the same post, I think a random pebble is too generous to be a strong AC, even though it's easy to interpret RAW as that.
I have a very different take. I'm not in your specific game of course but, if I am reading it correctly, this is exactly a decision I want to be faced with. My wizard believes they must travel. How do they do it? Have they anticipated it and learned appropriate spells? Are they willing to take risks to go faster or would they rather go more mundanely because it is safer (at least from botches and spell failures). Are they forced to do it magically due to time pressures and thus have to risk serious consequences?
The answers to those questions is the point of disagreement. As the crow flies distance is 62 miles. 3 casts if one can go 7 leagues each time. Travel following roads is 81 miles. 4 castings.
If I was just depending on seven league stride (SLS) during a rainy night, more than a mile would be ambitious. 80+ castings would be required. I consider characters don't know the exact maths, but they have a rough idea. The risk of warping? Honestly, a risk of a point or two for a young mage, which 80 casts would do, deal with it. The risk of botching the finesse and ending up halfway through a tree, too big a risk. In that case, I'd send a messenger.
The levitation, the eyes of the cat, seven league stride itself. They are the right spells. I have the option of doing in likely less than an hour, what a messenger would take days to do. I consider I had done the prep to make this an option. I was considering about 6 SLS was likely. 8-10, I'd have been midly disappointed, but argued the point less.
It was looking way more than 8-10, as well as hours of travel that had me arguing the point somewhat strenuouly.
Terrain is also going to be a factor. If I'm traveling through forest I'm not going to be able to teleport line of sight very far, even if I'm following a path. If you have access to a Roman road that's a different story- those were flat and clear, but without one vegetation is going to be an issue.
Also keep n mind that canopy top to canopy top might not be a real issue- all you need to find is a tree that you can be stable on top of for long enough to cast again.
OTOH players need to keep in mind that story guides are also trying to present specific challenges, and it is not their job to make your life easy because the rules say you can do a certain thing under good circumstances. My car may be able to go 120 MPH, but I'm likely to get pulled over if I drive from California to Florida at that speed. Not to mention potential engine trouble, flat tires, and so forth. Consider that they may have narrative reasons to not make your life as easy as you want it to be, and whining and complaining because things don't go your way doesn't work in the real world either.
The arguments for 6 or 10 or however many castings make a lot of sense. As you say if it turned out that you needed to do twice the number of castings than you expected it might be a minor complaint but tons more castings would be a bigger issue.
I was responding to the idea of "throwing lots of dice to achieve nothing." It gave me the impression that you wanted to hand wave away the mechanical downsides and limitations of magic in the game. While I understand speeding along play I think the risks involved in something like SLSing across England are important. Which ties back into the debate over how many castings you would need because that matters a lot when each casting has some risk.
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I think there are also, in real game terms, two elements to this. The first is the magi preparing for their journey where the players would be informed about obvious limitations that could impact their plans, perhaps pulling out a map and plotting a course that will allow for the most visibility for traveling quickly. The second is running through the actual journey- the further you travel with each step the less you will be able to see about your destination before you arrive, which means the potential to step into the middle of all kinds of interesting situations. What you can achieve in theory and what you can achieve in practice are two different things.
At no point should an SG simply state "okay, give me 38 casting rolls and 38 finesse rolls"