I'm doing some brainstorming for a magic item I'd like to make. Basically no restrictions, I'm just trying to figure out what effects you'd need and rough levels.
What I want is before enchantment, a piece of leather big enough to use as a map, but completely blank. After enchantment, it should accurately copy all terrain around it onto the map. It either needs to have a fixed map scale, or be able to resize as necessary (so if you start mapping, then go on a month-long sailing trip, it should shrink the map each time you reach the edge of the leather so the whole map still fits). The user should be able to erase the map when they're done, and add comments for things magic wouldn't detect (like names of cities). The map needs to be readable until you erase it, and you should be able to make a nonmagical, permanent copy of the map without using Vis.
Effect 1: "See terrain". Sense the exact location and elevation of the terrain around the map. InTe 20 (base 2 "visible property", R: Per, D: Con, T: Vision, 1 uses per day, device maintains concentration.) You would add Aq and Her requisites and 1 magnitude if you wanted waterways & forests drawn on the map instead of just contours. Can be once a day since you usually won't be travelling nonstop for 24 hours, and concentration lets you "turn it off" when you are done mapping and don't want the map to change anymore. I suppose if you started with InVim, you might be able to add regios or auras to the map, but that would add a magnitude or two since the base effect would be level 3, and possibly another magnitude or two for more accurate regio shape detection.
2: "Draw map". Draw lines and areas by changing the color of the map leather. MuAn 15 (Base 1 "color change", R: Per, D: Sun, T: Part, 2 uses per day, sunrise/sunset trigger, +1 magnitude for carefully & accurately drawn lines, 2 linked triggers - one to the "see terrain", one to the "mentail control") I thought this would work better than controlling or creating ink since this way the map can easily change, be erased & reused, etc. This effect would also be used to erase the map and make annotations when combined with mental control. One thing I'm not sure of is if continuous effect would let the map change as it got updates, or if continuous just means "the colors change when this effect triggers, and are continually the same after".
3: "Mental control". The effect described in the main book under linked trigger, an InMe 30 effect. The user can give commands to erase the map, add notes to points on the map, zoom in and out to a limited extent.
4: "Copy map". When commanded, while touching ink and a writeable surface, create a permanent copy of whatever the map currently shows. ReAq 7 (Base 1 "gentle control", R: Touch, D: Mom, Tar: Ind, +2 mags for very unnatural control, 1 use per day, linked to the "mental control" effect)
Requires a total of 8 pawns to enchant these effects, so needs to be either a piece of leather the size of a shield, or a slighly smaller leather with bone edging.
So does this do what I want it to do? And any suggestions on improving it?
