Potential device : levelling the land

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hi guys,
I am looking into a type of invested device which will clear the land in front of the magus and level it. I'm imagining a group of grogs on horseback racing through the land, the lead man uses a device which clears and levels the land so they can keep going at a good pace.

I was initially thinking of some type of CrTe to make a flat stone road. Make a piece of solid stone half a pace deep, 4 paces across and 50 paces long (base 3, +2 Sun, +2 voice, +2 size)

But then I remembered about hills and forests.

So my next idea is to "part the land", just push everything to the side and leave an empty space. This would let you brute force your way through a forest - the trees all get squished to the side. But I have no idea on the magnitudes.
My idea was to move the soil itself, which would move the trees and other stuff too. Sort of like using a plough. But I'm not sure if it would work or how powerful it would need to be.
I know I could put a PeHe with some size modifiers to turn all the trees into dust, but that is plan B.

2

It should probably be Mu unless you are wanting to act like the magical road pavers of roman roads. So a MUTe(He) effect with diameter duration. It would likely have to be a greater enchantment so it can be cast an unlimited number of times per day...

3

This is one of these things doomed to end in a colourful charge for interfering with mundanes.

(I'm not saying it's a bad idea, only that you have a fun story you can start working in advance for the day when two drunk grogs level up the forest where the count like to hunt, destroy the road that goes to his castle burying alive a group of merchants in the process and level up the well where he proposed to the countess or something like that).

4

Moving stuff about => Rego. Probably ReTe(He) in this case.
Though I had a player sell me on a MuTe effect to effectively turn the ground liquid like water, quickly leveling itself out just fine.

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5

One benefit of Mu for the change is that it goes back when the spell expires (if you Mu the shape instead of it's material properties)

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6

The converting back to the original shape when the effect expires if you Muto the shape is something that is extremely important to take into consideration. It prevents you from making horribly obnoxious changes to the environment, making it much less likely that you will interfere with the Mundanes/molest the Fae. It also prevents you from leaving a massive trail that those chasing/following you can take advantage of to move fast and track you.

Rego effects that move things out of your way and Muto which cause change the material to like water (so that they smooth out) do have their place, such as if you are rapidly trying to create a trail (or even road depending on base material) that last. They also have the strong possibility of seriously upsetting the local mundanes and faerie.

7

Would it, or only if you complicate the spell adding some extra requisites? If you are only doing Muto Terram, then you affect Terram, but only that Terram reverts back to normal once the effect ends.

If you muto someone into a frog without any An/He requisites, I'd rule that his clothes aren't converted and he probably will slip out of them (and also jump around in confusion leaving clothing behind and so on) so when the effect ends, then probably the target is going to be naked. If you muto the forest terram soil without adding an He requisite, I would probably rule that once the effect ends the trees will be left torn and broken all around the place even when the soil is left as it was before.

8

That is a given and sorry if my not stating it caused any confusion. I also did not add the additional magnitude required to affect stone.

A Rego requisite to ensure all the random things on the surface are returned to roughly their original position might also be a good idea. Although if you are including +1 Magnitude for the Herbam requisite, I would allow the additional Rego at +0.

9

I like the Rego requisite idea (better than the +1 for Herbam, +1 for whatever you can find in the woods, which is messy). Seems enough to avoid the angry lord story indeed :pensive:

Oh, also, wouldn't it require a T: Part +1?

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10

With the Rego requisite? It depends on the SG and if they are "nickle and dime"ing the required level in other areas.

I would actually lean more towards several levels of Size, based on how big the affected area is. Without Size, you are looking at only 10 cubic paces of dirt or 1 of stone, which is not nearly enough area for ~2 minutes of travel.

At standard riding speeds (24 miles per day), which is the slowest you want, you are looking at something around 4 miles (7,040 paces) per hour. So you need 235 paces of length or more per casting. You want 2 or 3 paces of width per casting. This would require Size +3 with enough overture to to handle up to 5.67 mph at 3 paces wide if the terrain was mostly dirt.

I would not require any increase for rocks in the terrain, as long as it was primarily dirt. The rocks would just be moved out of the way the same as the trees and other scattered materials. Terrain that was mostly rock on the other hand would require both an increase of +1 to Size and +1 Base to affect rock.

Edit: And this is only for standard long distance traveling speed. If you are going all out then the speed jumps up to around 10 mph (by C&G). If you want actual top speed for a horse then you are looking at 30+ mph for a short distance (Quarter Horses, not around yet, hit in the mid 50s mph. Trust me, scary speed across a field or on a trail). So to max out a horse for a short distance, you are looking at a total Size +4.

11

actually most spells to affect terrain are target:part because you aren't affecting the whole continent or planet- terrain is not a distinct object.

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12

Hi guys, many thanks for your thoughts. But I'm a little confused about the shape thing. If I MuTe the land to make it as soft as water, then ReTe to make it level, after the MuTe ends the land should still be level. It is just no-longer liquid.

So If I do this I will move all of the trees and other stuff to the sides and make a permanent path through the forest.

I can't see any reason why it would reform back into a forest naturally.

Look at "Rock of viscid clay". Once the MuTe effect ends the target regains its normal properties - but the new shape will remain.

So, summing up.

Treading the dirt Path
Re(Mu)Te(He) lvl 45
R:V, D:S, T:P
This effect creates a temporary dirt road 0.5 paces deep, 4 paces wide and 500 paces long. All bushes and trees are pushed to the side by the moving soil. The soil then becomes as flat as a board and as hard as stone.
(Base 3, +2 Voice, +2 Sun, +1 Part; +2 Requisites, +2 Size, +1 fancy effect)
[base 3 due to the ReTe guidelines, base for dirt is 10 cubic paces. 2 size magnitudes makes 1000 cubic paces]

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13

We were not talking about a MuTe to make it soft as water/mud/sand, but a MuTe to change its shape. Using Rego to make something change its shape for most things will retain that shape when the spell ends. Using Muto to change the shape of something will return their original shape when the spell ends.

Your spell as designed would leave the dirt path when the spell expired. While it would lose its hard as stone effect and would quickly become less flat, it would still be there. The duration is long enough that someone chasing you would benefit from the hard surface for speed (plus running on stone is bad for horses). And of course unless you are very careful in how you use it there is a good chance of upsetting some group (peasants, merchants, lord, faerie, etc).

The spell we were discussing would be a a Mu(Re)Te(He) spell. Muto would be used to split the path down the middle and squeeze everything that was originally there into two narrow strips on each side of your now open path. The Rego requirement is to ensure that everything on the ground (rocks, leaves, grass, bushes, small trees, etc) handles the movement without falling over or being oddly displaced, both at the beginning and end of the spell. The Rego is to ensure smooth movement/placement, not the primary means of movement.

Some of the other changes that would happen with this version is the the duration could be lowered to Diameter, the Herbam Requisite would be +0, and you still need the +1 for a Complex (or fancy as you say) effect. It would not have the hard as stone effect, but that is not a big loss for horses running on it (I have horses, you never run on blacktop or stone).

You should really try for an effect width that is roughly double what you want your path width to be. I should have been clearer in my original breakdown, since what I meant was you want 2 or 3 paces cleared which requires 4 to 6 paces of effected width.

Depth required will vary dramatically on what is in the way of the spell. If it is mostly brush, smallish rocks (not boulders), and very small trees then half a pace depth might be fine. However if there are full grown trees then you will need noticeably more depth on average. I figured 1 pace deep in the original math even if the actual path is only about half a pace of depth, leaving 500 cubic paces of dirt to handle things like the roots of larger trees. That is on the high end, so when I wrote the spell I figured 250 cubic paces of extra would be enough.

The Temporary Path of Travel
Mu(Re)Te(He) lvl 35
R: Voice, D: Diameter, T: Part
This spell causes the top quarter pace of a 250 pace long by 6 pace wide strip of ground to split down the middle and folds to the sides leaving a clear 3 pace wide path down the middle. Any rocks and other debris on the cleared path are pushed down a quarter pace into the exposed dirt. As the spell ends, the ground folds back flat and returns everything to its original position.
Note: The spell has 250 cubic paces of unused effect to handle moving large tree (specifically their roots) and larger rocks.
(Base 3, +2 Voice, +1 Diameter, +1 Part; +1 Requisite, +2 Size, +1 Complex)

A few notes:

  • The path produced is a little longer than what can be ridden in 2 minutes at normal travel speed.
  • At the fast (unladen rider, not breaking horse) speed you will cover the length in 1.6 minutes.
  • The spell would need to be cast again every 20 (normal) or 16 rounds (fast). Because of this, this spell would be best in an enchanted device if used under stress.
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