[i](Continued from a tangent in another thread...)
(& deleting redundant quotes of quotes...)[/i]
First...
...then...
Aren't Arcane Connections to places actually Arcane Connections to objects at that place anyway?
For example, an Arcane Connection to a castle might be a stone from the walls. An Arcane Connection to a forest might be an acorn from a tree in the forest, etc. A Leap of Homecoming based on these isn't going to cause the magus to appear inside the wall or inside the tree?
It's difficult for me to think of examples of Arcane Connections to places, that are not actually Arcane Connections to objects at that place?
...then...
If you have a drop of blood from an animal or human (or an innate Arcane Connection, as for a familiar), that could easily be interpreted that where ever they are ~is~ a place.
Or, not. Neither interpretation is clearly "wrong", but just because the ReCo guidelines don't, specifically, list a Base Level to "Transport to a location next to a creature to which you have an Arcane Connection" certainly doesn't mean it can't be done. Whether or not that requires a different spell than listed is a matter of Troupe decision (tho' I'd suggest a Base 35 spell should have some little latitude.)
I don't believe that's what Callen was suggesting - it was the Spell Effect, not the definition of Arcane Connection that he said his group was interpreting.
...then...
I understand all that, but my point is that for the ReCo guideline which Leap of Homecoming is based on "Transport the target instantly to a place you have an Arcane Connection to." to function it must already, actually mean "Transport the target next to an object you have an Arcane Connection to".
This is because Arcane Connections to places are really Arcane Connections to objects at a place.
If it didn't function in this way, a Leaping magus would arrive inside objects.
Ah, I see. Hmmm, yeah, that does undermine arguing for a distinction between transporting to a "place" vs. "next to an object" connected with the AC. The counter-argument would have to revolve around an AC from a "movable" object not being the same as for a fixed location, because in the end anything is movable. Or, then, somehow, could you define the AC as from the whole rather than the part - from your Lab, not that one particular flagstone in your lab? Or is it impossible to get an AC to a "place", but only to a "thing currently at a certain location"?
So- if you took your AC connection - say, a pinch of soil, from a garden - and then there was landscaping or construction and that one small area of soil got moved or buried... what would happen? If from a stone wall, or a splinter from a board in a boat, and that small portion, that one stone or board, was damaged and replaced, would you then transport to the new location of that specific stone/board, or can an AC be to a larger "whole"? Would it depend on how the AC was "fixed" in the lab?
If a mage has an AC to a tower, and that tower is destroyed, she still gets there to view the wreckage - perhaps arriving high in the air, perhaps not, but still there. If to an island volcano, and that volcano blows up, she still gets there, and not deep under the sea, even if the original dirt is now washed away. In genre, there seems to be a need to be able to tie an AC to a "place", regardless of what happens to the mundane items, landscape and buildings at that place.
(This could also go towards solving the "You teleport into a dog walking across that spot at that moment" problem. If to a "place" in general, then a little remodeling, or a crowd, doesn't stop your safe arrival.)