Item: Mapping the Monster's Meanderings

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

I have an idea for a useful magic item for the covenant to have in my upcoming saga. I think I have a grasp of how it works, but I just want to be sure that what I'm doing is kosher.

Basically, the covenant's vis source is the eggs of the Loch Ness Monster. So, to enable them to track the wee beastie's location, they have enchanted a map of the loch with something like The Inexorable Search (or the Marauder's Map). It shows the current location of the monster at all times.

Now, The Inexorable Search requires an Arcane Connection. Then it occurred to me as I was thinking in my laboratory that since Nessie is (ims) a type of sea serpent, and sea snakes shed their skin, that they managed to get some of the shed skin and have made the map out of that skin. Reasonable?

Now, to the item itself. Map of the Monster's Meanderings. It should be Intellego Animal, I'm thinking probably Base 2. It's not in the guidelines, but the two guidelines I can find with a direct correlation between InAm and InCo (Sense/get general information, at 3 An/4 Co, and get/learn a specific fact about an animal/a body, at An4/Co5) indicate that it would be one level less for Animal than for Corpus. Since the InCo 3 is "Locate a person to whom you have an Arcane Connection", by extension the InAm equivalent would be InAn2. Range: Arcane Connection (+4), Duration: Concentration (+1), Target: Individual brings the Spell Level to 15.

Having it usable twice a day (+1), having the map maintain Concentration (+5), and having an Environmental Trigger for Sunrise/Sunset (+3) brings the Inexorable Search part of the item to 24. Oh, and plus Penetration because she's got a Might score.

Now, for the mapping part. CrIm base 1 to "create an image that affects a single sense." Since it's creating the image on itself (the map), that would be R: Personal, D: Concentration (+1), T: Individual, for a Spell Level of 2. Making the image move about the map adds a magnitude, making the Level 3, I believe.

Usable twice a day (+1), maintaining Concentration (+5), and an Environmental Trigger as above (+3) brings it to 12 and counting. It should have a Linked Trigger to have it display the location of the monster using the Inexorable Search above, which would be +3. But if it has an Linked Trigger, it doesn't need the Environmental Trigger, right? If not, that would have a Effect Level of 12. If it needs both, 15.

However, what I would really like is for it to show the path for the last few hours, similar to what the Marauder's Map does in the movies. Would that be possible?

(as an aside, I'm also thinking that the shed skin would be a pawn of Vis, probably Muto, but that might be beside the point)

Ideas, comments?

2

Looks perfectly kosher to me, both with the meandering line and without it. Up to you if you want the map to show it or not. I would require an extra magnitude if you want to be able to turn the meandering path on and off, but not if the meandering path is shown at all times

Cheers,
Xavi

3

I think I would require (from my players) to bump the base duration of the drawing effect up to how long you want the path to be shown for. It would be one magnitude anyway, I guess, up to a day's worth.

I don't think the level would change much (no books).

4

If it is a multiple enchantments:

  1. track where the beast is and show it as line in some color on the map. +2 to effect for sun duration and then +4 for environmental trigger and 2/day. The usual constant effect.
  2. perdo enchantment (intelligo requisite) to erase any portion of the line that is more than 6 hours old (based on dryness of the ink).
5

The marker is pure CrIm rather than conjured ink. I think that a red dot leaving a pink trail that fades over a few hours is simple and specific enough that no extra magnitudes are needed and no Pe requisite as the fading is a quality of the trail as created.

6

CrIm base 1 to "create an image that affects a single sense."
R: Personal, D: Sun (+2), T: Individual
=> lvl 3

Environmental trigger (+3), unlimited uses (+10)

=> lvl 16.

It creates a dot each turn at the monster's location. These dots last for sun duration.
=> you've got a path, and it is visible for Sun duration.

7

Beat me to it.

See also for reference, Eternal Repetition In A Bottomless Pool, in Covenants, pg 101. It has a number of really valuable CrIm modifiers that don't show up elsewhere: +1 clear words (or, in this case, detail), +2 accepts commands, +1 extremely intricate

Now you have a map that can tell you all kinds of things about Nessie. "Where did she last feed? Has she laid any eggs in the last day?"