A hermetic mage is suffering from a delusion of being Baba Yaga's descendant and feels the urge to live as Baba Yaga. Thus I would like to find out how to recreate some of the iconic items associated with Baba Yaga: the walking hut, the flying cauldron (in some tales, it is a butter churn) and other items that you might suggest.
First is the house with chicken leg. The easy solution would be to enchant a large stone slate (similar to the Flying Castle in Legend of Hermes, but smaller) and call the legs a visual effect without consequence. That would be cheating in the mage's mind. So I am considering two approaches: Herbam, with magical wooden legs or Animalem, with real chicken leg.
Option one: invested item with:
MuHe 13 Streching the Legs (Base 3, +1 size modifier (between 1 to 10 cubic meter of wood), +1 Conc, Self, +3 6 uses/d, +5 maintain conc.): The legs are sculpted wooden led, about a meter long, under the floor of the hut. When activated, those legs grows and strech to become 3 meters talls, lifting the house in the process.
ReHe 31 The Striding House (Base 10 - make a plant move with purpose and intelligence, without requiring constant control, +1 Size modifier, +1 Conc, Self, +3 6 uses/d, +3 triggered effect (when Streching the Legs is in effect), +5 maintain conc.). Allows the Legs to move according to the mage command, without constant supervision. I added the triggered effect to make sure that the hut never tilts when the legs are growing - the Striding House effect immediately balance the house.
Considering that there is a +1 modifier for size, is it enough to lift the hut or does it needs a extra magnitude or two to have enough strength ?
Should I add an effect which ties or secure the legs to the hut ?
Second option: invested item, base on real chicken leg
Cr An 8 Timeless legs (Base 2 - based on CrCo 2: preserve a corpse from decay, +2 Sun, +1 2 use/d, +3 triggered by Sun set/dawn): required to preserve the chicken legs
Mu An 23 Legs of Outlandish Size (Base 10 - 2 magnitude more than Base 4 to match the huge size increase, +1 Conc, +3 6 uses/d, +5 maintain conc.) Makes the leg growns to the appropriate size to lift the hut
Re An 36 The Striding House (Base 15 - completely control an animal, +1 Size modifier, +1 Conc, Self, +3 6 uses/d, +3 triggered effect (when Legs of Outlandish Size is in effect), +5 maintain conc.). I possibly need an extra size modifier. Same question regarding the strength, however considering that animal legs are designed by nature to lift a body, maybe giving the right modifier size is enough (elephant size ?).
Now, some practial aspect that the mage will have to tackle very soon after completing which ever enchantment he decides to do: how to you make the house and its content relatively stable - enough to perform lab work, possibly with a small negative modifier - as the hut is travelling the country side ? An increase magnitude on the spell that move the hut ?
Terram is usually the way to go for non-descript items. A Rego Terram should keep them in place, but won't steady the inhabitant. Any suggestions ?
Conceptually, having a hut move (on chicken legs) in one effect.
I'd start with a mundane wooden hut with mundane wooden "chicken legs".
Assuming a very small hut "with legs" (a single room 3-4 paces by 3-4 paces, maybe, i.e. 3 meters by 3 meters) counts as T:Ind + 1 size of wood (10 cubic paces - not meters - of wood, possibly 2 of them taken by the legs, 3 by a "skeleton", and 4 by floor, walls and roof), I'd enchant it with a constant
Level ReHe 29 effect:
Base 10 "Make a plant or thing made of plant products move with purpose and intelligence, without requiring your constant control."
R:Per (+0 magn.), D:Sun (+2 magn.), T:Ind (+1 magn. size), Constant effect obtained as 2uses/day + Environmental trigger (+4 Levels).
This is not too hard to create as a Lesser Enchanted Device, requiring a lab total of 58. In fact, as a Storyguide, I'd just allow a generous +7 Shape & Material bonus from the "chicken legs", analogous to the +7 Sailing you get from a Sail and the +7 Riding you get from a Saddle; to this, I'd add the "+4 Affect dead wood" one gets from Wood. Note that a Constant effect (D:Sun, 2 uses/day) is probably better than a D:Conc, item maintains concentration effect, even if it ends up 4 levels higher, since then the hut does not require attention by the "user" every sunrise/sunset.
Personally, I'd go with a MuHe/An effect that gives a wooden object an unnatural animal feature.
Hut with the Chicken Legs (MuHe/An 40)
Base 4 - Change a plant or item made from plant products into metal or stone (Terram requisite), +1 for changing the plant into something else (as per the general guidelines' text on ArM5 p.137), +2 complexity (only parts of the hut is changed, the legs are animated)
R: Per +0
D: Conc +1
T:Str +3 (I know this is somewhat big but it covers any size of hut)
+5 levels for item maintaining concentration
Add a few levels if you need multiple uses per day.
You would build a hut with the leg, find a lab big enough to have it fit in and proceed with the enchantment of the whole structure.
Then the legs becomes an extension of the house and the medium to have it move.
More simple than my proposals.
I would still go with an invested device though, because I want to have more than one effect instilled. Virtus is not too much of problem as long as it remains within the 20-30 pawns total - it will be more the Magic Theory, but very likely, he will have to hire a more qualified person for the opening and maybe to instill some effect.
If I go with the enchanted hut, the main (and only) room should be the lab ? Other MuHe could take care of expanding the Hut when the mage settle somewhere (with an additional bedroom, kitchen and whatnot). I found a lab to be quite delicate so having a spell to sort, store and reinstall a lab a dangerous solution, unless you have a very high Finess roll - it takes normally a whole season for a mage to organise a lab to make it operational.
Would it not be:
Base: 4+1 (as your proposal)
R: Per: +0
D: Conc +1
T: Part +1, with an additional +3 as size modifier ? - I have not seen spell with +2 complexity to affect only some parts of it. At the end, the spell level will be more or less the same (30 instead of 35)
+5 maintain conc, + a few levels for extra uses.
Ah. You did not mention you wanted your hut to be a Hermetic lab!
If that's the case, there are issues. If you do not own Covenants, you should probably rule that such a "movable" lab incurs some risk/penalty (the plus is that you can easily relocate it, including to high level auras). Also, note that 500 square feet are needed for a standard lab (this means a square room approximately 7 1/2 paces to the side) is a bit larger than what 10 cubic paces of wood can provide; you should boost your target to T:Ind+2 or T:Struct... or take additional penalties.
If you do own Covenants, note that it has a number of ideas for lab personalization that might apply. First, you definitely should take the Virtue "Mobile", and probably the suggested Flaw "Unstable". Second, if you choose a small lab, you can take additional Virtues or Flaws that reflect that the lab is very compact (Size -3, or 100 square feet, is about what you should achieve with a T:Ind+1 hut).
Finally, there's nothing that says that you can't sleep in the lab (again check Covenants for ideas, in particular the Virtue Living Quarters)... but it would certainly be appropriate to instill an effect that turns the hut into a magnificent mansion, adding bedrooms, a grand hall, kitchens etc. I'd probably go with a CrHe effect, rather than a MuHe one, for this -- "adding" the new stuff.
Well, if you make the Hut your Talisman, things become simpler. Just make the Chicken Legs one of the elements that go into the Talisman, yes? Magic Theory of 8 or so should give you enough parts to make the hut, while giving you the spaces you need. And if it is going to be your lab, making it your Talisman is quite a bonus, giving the whole thing your Magic Resistance.......
Making the hut his talisman is an interesting twist. Of course, it means that the mage must build a lab large enough to create the hut, but it will fit well with his delusion. And it will allow him to expand and improve the hut over time.
A Baba Yaga faerie would certainly loves this mage as he will contribute to spread the lore and make it more real.
Yes I do own it and thought about combining some of these elements.
If I make this hut his talisman, he can build up many enchantments, to make it near indestructible, and his siege of power. A few Twilight episodes later and he will be a fine, weird, old creepy warlock, wandering Novgorod Tribunal. I make him a Ex Miscellanea with a few adequate Supernatural virtues and he will be an interesting characters for my player. Possibly a patron of some sort, sponsoring them with vis and magical items for some "menial services" on behalf of the Black Hag...
With the Hut being such an important part of the character, you now have a direction, because he really should know the mystery "Great Talisman". Heck, I for one would allow the same season for adding a new component to count as adding a Feature to your lab........