Was the battle helpful in that regard? 
Actually, it was a protracted stare-down with the Criamon Princeps of Insula Canaria. Realized she probably needed Concentration to continue staring while the Criamon's perception was...elsewhere, looked at her character sheet, and went "Um...whoops?"
After discussion with Jonathan.Link, I've tweaked her Aura of Ennobled Presence, since it didn't click that the base size for Imaginem is human size (defined somewhere as up to Size +1...which wouldn't work on Fiona, who is Size +2). Reduced the range from Touch (+1) to Personal, and added +1 Size Modifier to keep the spell level at 10.
In line with what JL was saying about Fiona's Longevity Ritual and consultation with him, I made the mistake of rerolling her aging rolls. Note to self: never do complicated die rolls en masse ever again...it was confusing. The rolls are here, here, here, and here. The results, in a long nutshell:
34: no apparent aging
35: 1 Aging Point in Sta
36: apparent age increases by one year
37: 1 Aging Point in any Characteristic (Quickness, I Choose You!)
38: apparent age increases by one year
39: apparent age increases by one year
40: apparent age increases by one year
41: apparent age increases by one year
42: apparent age increases by one year
43: apparent age increases by one year
44: no apparent aging
45: apparent age increases by one year
46: apparent age increases by one year
47: apparent age increases by one year
48: apparent age increases by one year
49: no apparent aging
p.s. This is why the Difficult Longevity Ritual kinda sucks. Even with jacking up the Longevity Ritual lab total from 55 to 70 over 16 years, it had no effect on her apparent age from the original set of rolls...in fact, it worked out worse for her, since she now has two Aging Points she didn't before. Ah well.
And speaking of Fiona's Flaws.
I know it's been over a year (in-game) since she was introduced, but for some reason I'm just not feeling that whole Ambitious thing. To be what? The best transformer? (Magebots, roll out!) The most famous giant mage?
What I think I would like to do is swap it out for Driven, to bring about peace and understanding between men and giants.
Is that acceptable to everyone? Ambitious hasn't come into play yet, and they're both Minor Flaws.
Thinking ahead on stuff I'd like Fiona to do, and I'm thinking that her talisman should be more than just a walking stick. So, I've got a couple of ideas that I'd for her to do, and I'd like comment/feedback.
Both are going to be done as "Invested Items" enchantments, and both are doable (although, at her current levels, neither one can be done in one season and the one might take a bit longer than the other)
[u]Idea the First: Accio Talisman[/u]
This would be a Rego Herbam effect, which enables Fiona to summon her talisman to her from anywhere, up to six times a day. This is not a Teleport-type effect.
Base Effect is 3 ("Control an amount of wood"), Range: Arcane Connection +4, Duration: Concentration +1, Target: Individual. Final effect level is thus 20.
Lab Modifiers: 6 uses a day, +3; Maintain Concentration +5 (which enables the Talisman to keep moving until it reaches Fiona's hand), for a final Modified Effect Level of 28.
Her current Rego Herbam Lab Total is Re 5 + He 10 + Int 1 + Magic Theory 6 + Aura 5 + Lab (Superior Equipment) 1 + Lab (Dedicated Building, Specialization: Rego) 1 + Lab (Idyllic Surroundings, Specialization: Herbam) 1 + Inventive Genius 3 + it's her Talisman 5 + S&M Bonus (Staff: control things at a distance) 4 = 42. If she experiments, she gets another +3 from her Inventive Genius, and an average of 5 on the die roll, so call it 50 per season, so she could currently do it in two seasons (regardless of whether she Experiments) at her current skill level.
My only concern is whether the whole Rego thing would work, as I would like there to be some kind of Strength roll involved if someone's holding her talisman when she summons it. The closest analog in the core rules would be The Treacherous Spear, which requires a Qui - Encumbrance Stress roll of 9+ to hold on initially, and a Str stress roll of 6+ in subsequent rounds.
Also, if I'm understanding the Talisman rules correctly, every season that she instills effects into the talisman, she gets to Attune it to something, using the Shape and Material Bonus charts for ideas. Since her Talisman is a Staff, it automatically gets "repel things," "project bolt or other missile," "control things at a distance," and "destroy things at a distance." But she could, say, attune a +3 Corpus (from Amber) in one season and +3 Perdo Vim (from Frankincense) in the next?
[u]Idea the Second: Restoring the Body Transformed[/u]
This is probably a Perdo Vim effect, more or less a restricted form of Unraveling the Form of Corpus which is limited to only undoing transformation spells (e.g., if someone is transformed into a wolf, raven, tree, stone, bucket of water, what have you).
Unraveling the Form of Corpus undoes spells of Level + 10 + Stress Die. Looking through the MuCo spells, all the non-Ritual spells have levels ≤ 35, so I'm looking at a spell level of 25 to be sure to get all of them. Unraveling the Form of Corpus has a Range of Voice, but I want the effect to be Touch range, as she would need to touch the target with her Talisman to undo the spell. So that would drop the Effect Level from 25 to 20 while still keeping the same strength?
So, I'd be looking at a Base Effect Level of 20. Usable 3x a day for +2. I'm thinking I'd like to add some Penetration in case there's Parma or some kind of MR involved. So...say Penetration 12 for +6. That makes the final Effect Level 28.
Her current Perdo Vim Lab Total is Pe 5 + Vi 6 + Int 1 + Magic Theory 6 + Aura 5 + Lab (Superior Equipment) 1 + Inventive Genius 3 + it's her Talisman 5 + Attunement (Perdo Vim, above) 3 = 35. If she experiments, she gets another +3 from her Inventive Genius, and an average of 5 on the die roll, so call it 43 per season. So, she can probably do it in two seasons, at her current skill level. It might behoove her to increase her Pe and Vim enough for her to ramp up the Penetration, because I think that could be an issue when she goes to use it.
And she would probably give an Attunement: +5 Muto (from Mercury) in the first season and maybe +5 Lycanthropes (from Silver) just in case in the second.
Ok, couple of things going on here. Let's talk about compound items first.
It looks like you want a staff with multiple items, consistent with your magical interests. Your limit to the number of components is your score in Magic Theory, which in your case is 6.
Preparing the item for enchantment will require the lesser of all the components in the item OR the individual component with the highest single value. So your largest vis capacity item can require no more than 12 pawns of vis to prepare for enchantment. That's season one.
Season two, you attune it as your talisman, and you have to pick one of the bonuses that you'll activate.
Further attunements can be awakened in subsequent seasons when you either increase the capacity of the device, or add an enchantment to the talisman.
Does that make sense?
For Accio Talisman, I'd say a strength + size check of 9+ would be reasonable, if you want it more difficult, make an addition for complexity, for lack of a better word.
For the Restoring the Body Transformed, sure that's fine. I would caution experimentation with your talisman, however...
Better off making the effect into an item first, and then instilling the effect into your talisman based on the lab text you now have...
I actually thought she had already made and attuned the talisman, since it's on her character sheet and I've referred to it as her Talisman several times.
I didn't realize that you add one of the bonuses when you attune it. I'll have to figure out which one to choose, then.
Sounds good.
Yeah, experimenting with your Talisman would be on the cover of Bad Ideas Quarterly. I can probably do another item first, maybe with experimentation, and/or increase her Perdo and/or Vim first.
Also, should we create like a Hermetic Sandbox thread for people to throw out their ideas/plans for spells, items, etcetera for review/comment, or keep putting it in our character creation threads?
Moved Fiona's 1220 Aging Roll here from the Seasonal Activities thread.
Age (50/10) 5 - Living Conditions Modifier 2 - Longevity Ritual Modifier 7 + die roll of 4 = 0: No apparent aging.
Jormungand and Fiona have invented her new Longevity Potion, but she doesn't have the eleven pawns of vis to do it yet. She will after the council meeting, will run off to make the potion slash perform the ritual directly afterward, and then probably grab Jormungand to...erm..celebrate 
So, for 1221, she is still using her old Longevity Potion.
Age (51/10, round up) 6 - Living Conditions Modifier Modifier 2 - Longevity Ritual Modifier 7 + die roll of 3 = 0. No apparent aging.
Laetitia has extra Creo vis she could lend Fiona.
[color=blue]"Thank you, again, Laetitia." Fiona currently has 2 Muto and 4 Rego...so...um...yeah, she needs 11 pawns of Creo/Corpus/Vim. Just for a couple of days.
"Here's 11 Creo; I'll accept your 2 Muto and 4 Rego, and you can give me five pawns whenever you come into more. Don't postpone your ritual; that's silly. Whenever you pay me back, any type of vis is fine, although when possible I do prefer Intellego."
So, this had completely slipped my mind until working I was working on Fiona's stuff for the next few years, but Fiona had gotten some pretty spiffy (to her, anyway) lab texts from Valnastium when she was there in Autumn of '21. They were never actually finalized, though, near as I can tell from what I cut&pasted from the pm's that we had. So I wanted to run this past you guys, see what you thought and if there was something blatantly wrong/missing before I put the lab texts in the library.
Greenhouse a la Valnastium
The Skilled Gardener's Touch: This Enchantment ensures that any seeds, cuttings, transplants, etc, will grow as if they were in their native soil and environment. This uses the Creo Herbam Level 1 guideline "Ensure that a plant grows well for the duration of the spell." R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Room, for a final Spell Level of 4. Usable twice a day (+1), with an Environmental Trigger (+3), for a final Effect Level of 8 (1 pawn).
Fighting the Blight: This Enchantment keeps all the plants within healthy and vigorous. This uses the Creo Herbam Level 1 guideline "Prevent a plant from becoming sick." R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Room, for a final Spell Level of 4. Usable twice a day (+1), with an Environmental Trigger (+3), for a final Effect Level of 8 (1 pawn).
The Wooden Greenhouse: This Enchantment simply makes the greenhouse transparent from the inside, by virtue of transmitting all species striking it from the outside to the inside, including the sun's warmth. Rego Imaginem Base 2, "Make an object appear (to one sense) to be up to one pace away from its actual position," with an Ignem requisite for the heat. R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Room, +2 magnitudes for size, for a final Spell Level of 10. Usable twice a day (+1), with an Environmental Trigger (+3), for a final Effect Level of 14 (2 pawns).
The item itself would be Wood (2 base points) and Huge +1 (the size of a good-sized room, about 480 square feet), for a multiplier of x6), so it would take 12 pawns of vis to Open for enchantment.
I had thought about having it be made of Almond Wood, which adds +3 to the Lab Total for Creo Herbam, but I thought that would be too limiting for a lab text from Valnastium.
So, 12 pawns to open the wooden structure, 1 pawn for The Skilled Gardener's Touch, 1 pawn for Fighting the Blight, and two pawns for The Wooden Greenhouse, which leaves 8 pawns in the thing. Look good?
I'm pretty sure that's actually 12 pawns to open 120 levels, and 4 pawns to instill 30 levels of effects, leaving 90 levels worth
You could increase the two CrHe enchantments to Structure for a mere +1Lvl
Why are you enchanting the room? Why not just enchant a statue in the room? If you enchant the room, your laboratory has to be big enough to have the room in it, and then you'll have to move the room out of it. You've got a total of 30 levels here, 32 if you increase the CrHe effects to Structure. Unless you want to add enchantments later to the same object, you don't need to open anything so huge.
If you are using the building itself, then the enchantment would be personal, not Touch for The Wooden Greenhouse.
These spells would only affect mundane plants. If you wanted them to affect magical plants as well, you'd need to include penetration.
Viscaria, of course, would be happy to make several of these for you.
~checks rules for lab texts~
Dammit, I forgot about the niggling rules for LTs.
- This will take 2 seasons to enchant because you can't mix and match techniques/forms during a season.
- You can't use lesser enchantment LTs to instill effects into greater enchantments
- You have to use the exact same shape and material every time you use a lab text.
This affects Fiona not at all, but will definitely affect Viscaria's plans.
I've always done it "by the book" where you spend one pawn "for every 10 points, or fraction thereof, of the modified level of the effect" instead of one pawn buys you ten points
I think this is one of those cases where, because of the building design, the building is a single room. Either one would work, but Room is one magnitude less. Doesn't matter on such a small effect, but it could make a difference down the road if we go to enchant a more significant effect.
shrug It's what we came up way back when. I can actually see it being something enchanted into one of those clay wall-hangings of the Green Man or something. Make it Hard Stone, Medium (about the size of a skull?), and it holds the same amount of vis. And hanging on the wall, it makes Touch range make more sense.
I thought of that, but at least for the Herbam effects, if we put more than 4 Penetration in (+2 modifier), it would increase the Vis cost, and if you're going to do that, might as well make it buff enough to heal Swamp Thing.
I honestly wasn't expecting this to be made right away, I just wanted to get it checked before I put the lab text in the library.
I think you're contradicting yourself here, as well as missing my point.
The cost of enchanting is 1 pawn for every 10 points or fraction thereof. However, the capacity of the Greater Device is measured in effect levels, not pawns -- as you indicate in the second quoted section.
I figured 
She'll be busy until 1228 anyway.
p. 96, under Invested Items, says "The total number of pawns of vis expended when instilling effects may not exceed the number of pawns of vis spent to prepare the item for enchantment." So, if I open an item with 12 pawns, then I can spend another 12 pawns on the effects themselves. If I put in an effect with a modified level of 12, that's two pawns...which is just as much vis as if I had tweaked duration, or penetration or concentration or whatever to get it up to a Level 20. Whereas, if I'm understanding you correctly, that 12 pawns of vis lets me put in 120 levels of stuff. That Level 12 effect lowers the "available space" to 108 levels. Assuming that I put in a number of level 12 effects, my way, I can only do that six times; your way, I can do that ten times. World of difference.
And while we're on the subject of aging rolls.
- 1222: die roll of 7 + 6 – 1 – 12 = 0 (No apparent aging.)
- 1223: die roll of 6 + 6 – 1 – 12 = -1 (No apparent aging.)
- 1224: die roll of 2 + 6 – 1 – 12 = -5 (No apparent aging.)
- 1225: die roll of 9 + 6 – 1 – 12 = 2 (No apparent aging.)
- 1226: die roll of 2 + 6 – 1 – 12 = -5 (No apparent aging.)
- 1227: die roll of 1 (followed by a die roll of 3, so 6) + 6 – 1 – 12 = -1 (No apparent aging.)
And I'm thinking that, since Jormungand is the one who invented Fiona's Longevity Ritual, that when the ritual is working extra-hard to stave off the effects of growing older during the winter months, it's going to have an effect on Fiona...namely, she's probably feeling extra frisky. And since she's not that proficient in sponting PeIm, her housemates are probably either just going to have to deal with not getting much sleep or crash someplace else. 
This is the way I view enchanting. Your device is limited by Vis capacity from preparation. It does not provide spell level capacity. An effect is designed and it costs x pawns to invest.