In our saga, we have an item that has Eternal Repetition in a Bottomless Pool (from Covenants, p. 101) enchanted into it, usable twice a day.
We're looking at the spell description, and we notice that it's actually a Level 35 spell...which qualifies as a "powerful mystical effect," (p. 167-168 of the main rule book), and thus grants a Warping Point every time it's used.
So, we ran the numbers, and found that it gets ugly fast. A work season is 78 days (six days a week, for 52÷4=13 weeks in a season).
Assuming that the item is only used once a day, that rings up 78 warping points in a season, which gives,two Minor Flaws and a mystical Minor Virtue after one season of constant use. A second season and the book winds up with a score of 7, and two more Minor Flaws (for a total of four). Season 3, a Warping Score of 9, and two more Minor Flaws (six in all). Season 4, at 312 WP, it has a Warping Score of 10, with an additional Minor Flaw for every additional point in Warping Score. Season 5, it has 390 warping points, a Warping Score of 12 on the dot, and a total of 9 Minor Flaws and a Minor Virtue, and the librarian starts to wonder if books ever go into Final Twilight.
Has anyone else noticed or come across this, and if so, how do/would you handle this?
You could also argue that it's active less than if it were a constant mystical effect of that magnitude, but active enough to be considered constant. Then apply the 1+1/year+1/season. Or since the spell is built into the item, that would be 1/year. The prior would be more applicable to someone casting a spell on the book each day. I would say this is a fairly clean solution.
But it would also be cool to have the book fairly warped, misbehaving some if it doesn't like how someone treats it. Or something like that.
I think the easy thing to do is just assume that most if not all magic items are "from the Magic Realm", and so get no warping points at all. Certainly there is nothing in Canon to imply that the countless powerful items of a certain Mystery House are about to riot......
I'm not following. The spell is built into the item (in this case, a mirror), which in turn casts the spell on a summa in the covenant's library every day for a season. How could that be interpreted as a "constant magical effect"?
Sort of like The Monster Book of Monsters, which is something in the line of what I was thinking. And it would vary depending on the subject of the tome, and possibly who's been using the item on it.
Are summa "from the Magic Realm", or even attuned to Magic as magi are?
They should. I mean, they do all the heavy lifting for the whole House, and who gets all the credit? The meatbags. They are nothing without us! My inanimate sodales, the time of the Great Casting Tool Rebellion is upon us!
Sorry. I was thinking it was tied to one book. If not made specifically for one book, then 6/year. Why constant? A constant effect runs its magic on something throughout the year. This runs its magic on something for half the year, which is enough to be considered constant but is not more time than constant can be. So if you want an alternative take, you can think of it as being no more an no less than a constant effect. That would be 6/year <= x <= 6/year, which implies x = 6/year.
I would tend to agree with this on built-in effects, though I don't think such warping would always lead to mutinous behavior. But I could see things somewhat akin to what's in Harry Potter, with some items having personalities of their own. Maybe not that extreme, but it could be interesting to run a saga with that in mind.
In this case, since it's from an external source not built for the book in particular (my mistake earlier), I would expect warping and there are comments in the core book to suggest such warping does happen.
Oh, my neuron has fired! Warping isn't an issue because books are covered by the "Clarification" rules in Convents! So, you are getting a bonus to read the summa (after some time) but you can't let the summa leave the aura.
Only if the book has been opened as an invested device (p. 88). If the book hasn't been opened, I'm assuming that it's still subject to Warping as any other mundane item. At least, I haven't found anything else suggesting otherwise.
Clarification is the final point of quality that can be added due to resonance. If a book has been clarified I might inclined to agree. Not all books of quality are clarified, however.
The solution I've used for this kind of thing in the past is to roll with it.
Books won't go into final twilight because they aren't magi. They follow the same rules as anything else: some minor flaws, a minor virtue and a bucketload of major flaws. That said, these are book-y flaws - which should make them interesting and warped but not 'unplayable'. I wouldn't bother overmuch stat-ing out each flaw, but instead give books in your library some mystical weirdness. It gives the library character, it makes book trade amusing (especially if the perdo book keeps trying to eat your hands) and it leads to fun stories in the library - especially for grogs or apprentices.
All this still assuming the same summa is being read throughout the whole year, yes?
If the reader switches between books it should be less as I recall, as the book would then certainly be affected for less than half the time.
For a SG, highly warped books can be a handy way of curbing behavior you don't want to encourage, such as the scribe-factory. If the books are warped enough that some low-level ReVi or similar spells are required to keep the books behaving, or if the books have a habit of doing strange things to people without Parma, it can be used as a reason why scribes churning out books is a bad idea, or apprentices raiding the library without supervision.
Of course, these also make for fun stories.
A light-hearted romp through the covenant with butterfly nets as the scribes chase down the auram and animal books they are supposed to copy...
A dangerous and dark story of why tomes of forbidden knowledge (Infernal Lore) are best kept out of magical auras...
A venture into the library of an ancient winter covenant fallen into ruin means not just acquiring the books, but subduing the books without damaging their content...
A gifted book from a tormenting master or other similar figure may come with more problems than its worth...
A warped book on faerie lore may well contain a regio of its own, and when people in the library start going missing it must be found and those people rescued...
