I've plowed through a couple of older - and at times heated - debates on the Verditius Elder Runes but have yet to find anything on something that puzzles me a bit.
This is followed with a bit on what the runes do and how they benefit the investment of effects followed up with this:
I am now a bit confused over the intent here and I'm curious if I'm just seeing ambiguity where there is none and would like to hear your input.
A) Is the rune inscribed during the opening of the item or when effects are invested?
B) If the rune is inscribed during the opening of the item, as the first quote suggests, is the vis then payed as the rune is inscribed or whenever an effect is invested?
I have always read it to mean that the runes are inscribed dring opening, BUT you effectively railroad the item: it cannot be used to inscribe any effect you like, but only the effect you had in mind when opening the item. So, if you put elder runes to a wand to have it cast POF, you cannot later on rethink it and use the wand to cast a ReMe spell. Or you could, but all the benefits of the elder runes are automatically lost.
Yet that is already reflected in how investing effects in the item that do not use the Arts corresponding to the Elder Runes adds another five or ten to the final level of the effect without getting the benefit of the runes.
Also, since the elder runes are primarily geared toward items with more than one effect (and cannot be use in lesser or charged items) and thus difficult to design it toward one specific effect from the very opening of the item.
My understanding:
The rune is inscrbed during the opening of the Item.
Each rune takes up 1 pawn of the vis capacity of the item.
A golden ring has a capacity of 10 pawns (gold, tiny).
But since this particular ring has been inscibed with the Creo and Ignem runes, it only has 8 "spaces" left for effects.