A note as well- while not as dramatic as a death in the family (sorry about your loss Lothindil) my metamour (aka my wife's other husband) is in the hospital and has had his foot amputated as a result of a combination of open wound, infection, and broken heel. Obviously I am still here, but I expect the recover will take months.
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Damn, sounds awful. I wish them a rapid recovery.
I used AI art to create an image of the covenant. It's not quite spot on, but close enough, perhaps.
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@Seon That is really, really nice. It evokes a really nice sense of what Al Kufra might look like. Wow! Thank you!
What tool did you use to make it?
It's "AI Art" by latitude software. Here: https://ai-art.latitude.io/
I'm in line for a beta acces to Dall-e 2, which should be way better still. If you're into this stuff, join the waiting list: DALL·E 2
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How do you feel about taking on new players now that we're contacting the outside world, @silveroak ? Whaler has already stated that he won't be continuing, so we might consider replacing him.
I just noticed this looking-for-game post from June, how about it? I don't think he's in a game yet, but has continued posting: New player looking for PbP game
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That would be fine.
@dzoonooqua Our GM has given his blessing to you joining the campaign. Would you be interested? Maybe check out some of the earlier threads, especially the "investigations" thread, to get a feel for things. The gist of it is a covenant of surprisingly rejuvenated magi are trying to manage the Autumn covenant that their post-rejuvenation old selves left them. It's in the Libyan desert mountains and there are three groups of covenfolk that don't get along so great.
Completely unrelated: What would be the base PeIg to reduce the body heat of a person slightly, enough for them to feel comfortable in hot weather? Base 4 is "chill a person enough for them to lose a fatigue level", so would comfortable cooling a'la "medieval air conditioning" be base 3 or base 2?
Also: to what degree is the difficulty of traveling from the covenant to the oasis due to terrain and to what degree distance? I.e. how much faster could you make it just by building a proper road or something?
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I would avoid going down that route. First, as you note, perdo ignem doesn't merely chill a person slightly without inventing additional guidelines. On an individual level, Rego Ignem is probably more appropriate to ward against heat. Secondly, if you want to chill the covenfolk through either of those methods, you're looking at an effect that is probably a ritual or a constant enchantment that will plausibly warp everyone. Not a good idea. Viable alternatives to indirectly cool the covenant include:
- Perdo Ignem Base 5 to keep perpetually frozen blocks of air, and take advantage of how ice should cool down the ambient air;
- Creo, Muto or Rego Auram effects for breezes, which may require an Ignem requisites depending on how much you intend to alter the temperature or merely alleviate excessive heat.
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If you want to cool the air I would use 4 "cooling ashes to be warm" as the guideline. If you are cooling people directly then 3 would suffice (3 would also make the desert air better, just not all the way to comfortable), but affecting people directly will also cause warping.
Right now the path to the oasis is a winding series of passes through mountainous terrain. Making it a proper road along the same route would allow wagons and easier transportation of cargo but wouldn't really reduce the length of the journey. Traveling as the bird flies if you wanted to tunnel through mountains or something the trip is 46 miles, so it will still be a couple of days travel even with horses or camels, but significantly faster than the 1 week it currently takes.
PS. after reading Temprobe's post I have this image of using ReIg to move the oppressive heat away from the covenant and into a "heat shield" surrounding the covenant.
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You are right, of course, thanks. Too many rules for my tiny brain to keep track of, as usual.
I think the most economical way of affecting the whole covenant at once is CrAu. Basically make a base 2 version of "Charge of the Angry Winds", so it generates just a normal "wind" instead of the "gale force" wind at base 3. The wind would be a 100 paces wide, as per the Charge of the Angry Winds spell's description. This should have a substantial cooling effect without messing anything else up. The spell would be level 10 due to the lower base.
Lares could make it into a spell and cast it once a month together with his Moon-duration Maintaining spell. Argentius could probably quite easily enchant something like this, too - haven't done any math for either yet.
Are there any flaws in my reasoning?
Is there a way to innovate on of Chamber of Spring Breezes (Argentius knows that one)?
It's creating a breeze of fresh air that is continuously moving through a room. I wonder if we could build on that spell to define the space?
Katherine Kurtz's books had this concept of warding squares (like dice) that were enchanted and used to define a space that would then be warded with various effects. I wonder if we could enchant a set of stones that define the space that the Spring Breezes impacted?
Could it be done at scale in the covenant compound itself?
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Making wind is a two edged sword- it can bring in heat from outside as well as be cooling. However bringing cool air down from the mountaintops will likely work...
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Hence why I suggested an Ignem requisite for the temperature of the wind.
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Thank you for all the tips, silveroak and temprobe!
I've got this now, seem OK? Would it be feasible for Lares to invent this, then cast as many as necessary each month (with Lares' Moon boost) to produce the cooling effect throughout the covenant?
CrAu(Ig) 10: The Chilling Fan
A wall of wind emanates from the caster, starting at their fingertips and continuing until it dissipates naturally. The wind is confined by any existing barriers, but if unconfined it can be up to a hundred paces wide. The temperature of the wind, determined at time of casting, can range from nice and cool to warm and toasty.
base 2 create wind, +1 Touch, +1 Conc, +1 unnatural, +1 Ig requisite = level 10
You would obviously need to learn/invent the moon duration spell sustaining spell as well, but in principle yes. Used for long periods of time this might have a warping effect on the covenant, though it being indirect it also might not.
Also if you left for a long adventure the effect would obviously be lost- it might be better to do this as an enchanted object.
Just to make sure we're on the same page: I meant that Lares would use the Moon-duration Maintaining the Demanding Spell that he has already invented. Is there some reason why this existing spell would not work here, necessitating the invention of a new one?
I do get the point about the long adventure, but Lares can manage inventing this spell in a season, unlike enchanting the object, which would be much more labor-intensive.
Also, since a big point of doing this community service is "ideological" in the sense that Lares is trying to convince the covenfolk of the usefulness of the magi, it doesn't hurt that he has to go out every month himself and concretely does this service for his people. Also, this would only probably be needed during the summer (unless its needed for warming in the winter?), so he can have his longer adventures in the Winter.
So if using Lares' existing Moon-duration Maintaining the Demanding Spell on this is feasible, then Lares will invent The Chilling Fan in the Summer and proceed to use it in the Autumn.
A couple of things:
First, the way it's written "A wall of wind emanates from the caster, starting at their fingertips" leaves some ambiguity into whether you intend the wind to keep emiting from your fingertips as you concentrate. Maintaining it for moon duration may turn you into a walking fan. This would make your lab windy when you're working there, rather than chilling down the covenant during daytime. I would suggest clarifying.
Second, I think silveroak's probably right when he says this may be better as an enchanted item. To turn this into a permanent item, we're looking at:
Effect Level 14 : Spell level 10 (base 2, +1 touch, +2 sun, +1 ignem requisite), +1 two uses per day, +3 environmental trigger
This would require CrAuIg lab total of 28 to do in a single season as a lesser enchantment and 2 pawns of vis - not that hard to do.
Of course, yes, considering whether we need this four seasons per year is a very valid question.
I think you missed a magnitude for the unnatural effect, temprobe. That would make it the needed total 33, which is way out of the league of any of the characters, I think.
+1 unnatural would be needed for an indoor effect, however if the idea is to refresh the open spaces of the covenant rather than a building, we shouldn't need that extra magnitude.
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