Brutus' Laboratory Item (1)

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hi Guys,
I am putting some items up here for people to throw rocks at, they are meant to be used in a lab and give a bonus to various lab activities. Please bear in mind that my magus is a Verditius Goldsmith.

Brutus Right Gauntlet (+12 Enchanting Items, +1 General Quality, +2 Aesthetics)
Silver gauntlet, medium sized, opened for 18 pawns of vis.
Second Skin
MuTe 39
Requisite: Animal (free), Rego
R:Personal, D:Sun, T:Individual

The glove becomes supple like worked leather, but as heat resistant and conductive as granite.
It alters its size and shape to fit the hand within like a second skin, when commanded to remove it will re-shape itself into the original gauntlet shape.
Base 4, +2 sun; +1 Requisite, +2 Silver, +1 Size, +1 Complexity; +1 level 2 uses, +3 Environmental Trigger

Helping Hand
ReTe 50
R: Touch, D: Conc, T: Group, Unlimited use, Concentration, Penetration: 10

The item in the glove remains fixed in place (even in mid-air) until the duration ends. Many items can be held in the air at the same time, making intricate work easier.
Base 2, +1 Conc, +2 Group, +1 Touch, +2 Gemstones, +1 Size, +1 Intricacy; +5 levels 10 Penetration, +5 levels item maintains concentration, +10 level unlimited uses.

Item of Increased Size
MuTe 35
Requisites: Herbam
R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Ind, Frequency: 24/day

Makes any object upto the size of a chest twice as large in each dimension. This allows more detailed work to be carried out.
Base 4, +2 Sun, +1 Touch; +1 Requisite, +2 Gemstones; +5 levels 24 uses

Molded by my hand
MuTe 30
Requisites: Herbam
R: Touch, D: Conc, T: Ind, Frequency: Unlimited uses

This effect causes any terram or herbam object to become like clay so it can be easily sculpted and molded.
Base 3, +1 Conc, +1 Touch; +1 Requisite, +2 Gemstones; +10 levels Unlimited uses

Edge of the Razor
MuTe 20
R: Touch, D: Conc, T:Ind. Frequency: 24 uses

As base spell, sharpens a metallic edge to unnatural sharpness
Base 3, +1 Touch, +1 Concentration; +2 Metal; +5 levels 24 uses

Vis dial (Safety +1)
A small bronze dial with numbers around the outside going from 0 to 50.

Quantify the vis
InVi 20
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Frequency: 24/day, Penetration: 10

Causes lines to appear from the center of the dial to the numbers around the outside. The line points to the number of pawns of vis, the colour indicates the art it is associated with.
InVi base 4, +1 Touch; +1 Complexity; +5 levels 24 uses, +5 levels 10 Penetration

Box of Charcoal (-1 upkeep)
A large metal box with a lid at the top and a flap at the bottom.

Fill the box
CrHe 20
R: Touch, D: Moon, T: Group, Frequency: 1/day

Creates enough pure charcoal to fill the container. There is enough charcoal to keep the forge burning for a few days.
Base 2, +3 Moon, +2 Group, +1 Touch

2

I like them. I think the that not all of the bonuses would get dropped into Items for the glove. Plenty of them seem pretty Terram based, so should give a bonus to Terram instead maybe.

Also regarding the magical charcoal. It might reduce the Upkeep, but I also see a reliance on conjured charcoal used over the Season causing problems. A likely side effect might be either a Warping score for the lab or a penaly to Safety or both. I think the Warping is more suited; one of the advantages of magic items is that they tend to be reliable, so it shouldn't conjure unsafe coal. But at the same time since the coal is conjured it can certainly bring about extra magic and possibly Warp the creations it's used for.

3

I wouldn't worry about coal warping, however unless your lab has a very high upkeep its almost certainly better to use that item for general covenant cost reduction. 4 pounds of silver a year according to the guideline.

4

The enchantments can effect Terram or Herbam, which I thought could apply to most things. All I need to add is free animal and corpus requisites to make it more general.

I'm not sure about burning magical charcoal giving warping. I have a forge in my lab and a high upkeep cost. Using the magical charcoal will save me between 4lb and 5lb a year.
It is a mundane flame, even if a magical fuel...

5

Yeah, I don't think that magical heating causes warping. And this is a step removed from magical heating. No way this causes warping.

6

Oh, actually another thing about the gauntlet. You should always try to go the route of lesser items when possible to save on vis costs. Remember that an "item" say a sword, can be enchanted piecewise. You can enchant the blade, each gem set into the pommel, the pommel, and the gold inlay in the blade itself each as a different item. If possible any enchantments that you can do as lesser, should just be a gem or something set into the glove. It saves on the invested item space.

Basically you can duct tape items together.

7

I'm not sure about that, unless you are only enchanting a single part at a time, as an individual item. If it was done as a composite item then wouldn't it be only able to take the one effect?

That means I would have to have several small devices, or different parts of the gauntlet which I would need to touch to objects. Having a single object just means that anything touching the gauntlet can be affected - not a specific part of the gauntlet.

Hmm. It's late at night and I'm rambling a bit. I hope you see what I mean though.

8

What Lamech suggests is, instead of a single gauntlet, to have a selection of tool where you'd use several tools to achieve the same effect.
It's cheaper in vis, since the device doesn't need to be prepared with Vim Vis first.

Ofcourse, if any of your planned effects require more than one season to invest, this risks becomming a false economy as these would still have to be done with prepared invested devices.