What is the go to spell (or guideline) for basic scrying? Like, say I wanted to make a crystal ball that could peer down to see and hear what a rival was up to. How would I do that? There seem to be a whole lot of things illegal about it in the Code, but I can't figure out how to do it.
As I was typing this I was reminded of SUMMONING THE DISTANT IMAGE, but that seems to only work if the target is in an actual bounded space. What if they weren't, but you wanted a bird's-eye view of them anyway? Or if you just wanted to see and hear them but not the area around them (i.e. as a hologram-like image in my crystal ball)?
Step one: Give enemy a bowl enchanted with Enchantment of the Scrying Pool as a "gift," but make sure its penetration is too low to be used against you.
Step two: Use bowl which enemy filled with water for his own purposes to use Enchantment of the Scrying Pool against him.
Step three: ???
Step four: Profit.
Actually, there's also, like, Eagle's Eye or Eye of the Hawk or something. InAu, gives an aerial view. Has annoying range if I remember correctly, though.
Simplest is an InIm effect*, and then an Arcane Connection. Duration of your choice. Done.
(* Base # = # of senses used at a distance; so "seeing" would be Base 1, "seeing, hearing & smelling" would be Base 3, etc.)
You could also possibly use one of several In(Fo) effects, to "Sense a specific piece of info about X" - that "specific info" being what their physical appearance is at the moment. But, again, R = Arcane, with Duration.
A serious Hermetic "crystal ball" would need a library of AC's to all the important locations they would want to scry upon, or be frustratingly limited. (Note that Enchantment of the Scrying Pool, which allows scrying without AC's, specifically states that 1) this is not purely Hermetic so 2) it does not conform to the InAq guidelines, and also 3) theoreticians have not been able to make it more generally applicable.)
If you want a scrying effect that you can use anywhere, you have to go with something more like Re(In)Im "Image from the Wizard Torn" (but be invisible so "your image" is not visible once torn from you). I would think there are other ways to do that same ballpark effect, which is essentially anything that takes an AC (provided at the time of casting) and then sends it "out" to wherever they want to scry using Rego, and uses In(Fo) to see what's around that Rego'd object.
The InIm spells in the core rules are for listening at a location, rather than targeting a creature. Useful for that reason alone, but as you say they don't target a creature directly at all. A core example to find a person directly is The Inexorable Search, which is InCo to locate a person on a map.
To target a creature directly you can use separate effects which also see and hear require the requisites for Imagonem, or use an Intangible Tunnel and then target through the tunnel at range Touch with additional spells (a better approach as it can grant additional diversity too if the other effects are designed to be multi-purpose, but requires more spells).
Use InIm for the spell (maybe with a Corpus Requisite to effect a human, not sure without my books). Potentially the spell could work for any arcane connection you have regardless of what type of thing being targeted. This is the type of level I'd expect to see in an enchanted device.
"What are you doing now?"
Effect level 15, Intellego Imagonem, with R:Arc, D: Con, T: Ind
Base 2 - use two senses at range. Arc +4, Conc +1
For use after a suitable level Opening the Intangible Tunnel (ReVi gen) is cast:
"eavesdrop the tunnel"
Effect level 4, Intellego Imagonem, with R:Touch, D: Con, T: Ind
Base 2 - use two senses at range. Touch +1, Conc +1
I've got a few questions about Image from the wizard torn. It says "The image is your image, so while you may move it in space you may not have it sit down if you are standing." What does that mean, exactly? Can I tie a fingernail to the leg of a homing pigeon and send my image soaring across Mythic Europe (with me making a Superman pose on the floor of my sanctum)? In fact, does the Arcane Connection have to be physically attached to anything, or can I "move it in space" any way I wish?
With the effect as described, the AC "becomes an integral part of the image". So for all intents and purposes, the AC disappears into the image while the effect is active, allowing the image to pass through solid objects. (I'm assuming no Muto is required b/c the AC is assumed to be very, very small.)
Since the spell says it can be moved thru solid objects, it seems clear to me that full 3-dimensional movement is allowed - down into the earth, up thru the ceiling, across water, thru walls or waves or into a cow - where ever.
(Which part of "that"? The part about being your image, or moving it in space, or the part about not sitting while you are standing?)
About moving it with a pigeon, no, not with that effect, no. The AC is not just as intangible as the image, it has become one and the same as the image itself, pure Imagonem.
(It does not specific how fast that effect allows the image to be moved, but I'd rule the same as other similar Rego effects that move a Form - not very fast.)
You could make a similar effect that keeps the AC solid (and still moves w/ the image) and so could not pass thru solid objects - but how then to detach the AC (and so your image) from the pigeon once it is at its destination is another matter.
(As described, moving the image has nothing to do with the pose you make. It just might look odd, is all. If the caster is just standing there while the image is moving, witnesses would see a "standing wizard" moving - something like"sprite-quality" animation. You'd need another Magnitude or two to control the image separate from "your" current image, as one might control a CrIm illusion of oneself moving about.)
Not just more magnitudes, you'd need a Muto requisite to change the image without moving yourself. You can't use rego to make it look like you're walking when you're not, that's always muto.
I think than the first spell, it works accord to the rules, the description talks about how the magi uses it, he scryes the area with one group of trees or something, again, one Arcane Connection and one Group of delimited trees (the same type and near to one area are two points to make a coherent group), or jsut delimited by the trees than he got ACs to scry.
The second add one magnitud to one equivalent Room, but that is really canon on the Core Book and used on the more canon magic book, Hermetic projects too.
