Lately, I've been thinking of magic mirrors, scrying orbs, magical fire... you get the idea: Something displaying images, and maybe sounds, of what happens in a faraway place.
How can one do this with spells?
(Assuming one always use Intangible tunnels when useful)
Scrying is easy. Intellego Imaginem allows this in 2 different fashions:
- Target one of your senses and move it somewhere, to see/hear/smell... from that point.
- Use one of the regular ArsM targets, to perceive it, but nothing else.
All this is good and well, but there is a fatal design flaw: These spells move your senses elsewhere, they don't display things that happen there.
This could, IMO, be "solved" by a feature in the spell, in which it appears to you as if the images are coming from the nearest reflective surface, but actual display is something more, since it allows the sharing of information and lets you stay aware of your surroundings.
More, now that I think about it, it lets you do things like cctv for grogs, shifting easily from multiple points of view. I wouldn't give that for free.
And just slapping a CrIm requisite doesn't do the trick IMO, since you essentially have 2 different effects (spy + create image) with at least 2 different targets (the scrying target, possibly a sense, and the image being created).
=> It feels like the answer is an item with 2 effets, and a linked trigger: An InIm to scry, a CrIm to display the images.
But this is not what I want, and is quite expensive for something that should be simple.
I can see an experimentation yielding a spell which requires a mirror or scrying tool in exchange for the "display" factor, something kinda non-hermetic, then, but aside from that, it seems to be quite difficult save through a Greater Enchanted item
Crap, this CCTV got me thinking...
Have a bunch of stationary circle high enough (Rego flight effect made constant). With an AC to these, you can use them to look at a location from above, as if you had a spy satellite. And with an effect like Eyes of the Eagle, this becomes very effective .
Since I want to make the image from there appear here, could Rego Imaginem do the trick?
Maaaaaaybe?
I could spy on a room by making their species appear elsewhere. This would normally just move them around, like with Image of the Wizard torn, but making them appear inside a mirror grants little, so I'd allow that for free. There's just one little problem: The targets would become invisible/mute/whatever, making it obvious to them that they are targeted by magic
But, back to my satellites ideas. Now, this is a place where Rego Imaginem could actually work!
If I put a bunch of circular mirrors up in the sky, I can have a linked mirror who, also with Ring duration, move the image reflected in the first mirror to my "scrying" one. Not very useful save for spying on armies, but at least, it works!
If I have an AC to a mirror someplace, I can do the same trick. It works, but is not very subtle or effective, especially compared to "normal" Intellego Imaginem. At least, I can use this to set up cctv for the covenant.
Example Spell:
The Eyes of (insert proud magus name) ReIm 40
Base: 15, +2 for moving images, +1 touch, +2 Ring/Circle
Moves the image reflected in a mirror to another, to which you have an arcane connection.
High level, but this has enough advantages that this doesn't bother me much.
But back to scrying tools.
Looking at it another way. Are there spells that do what I want?
Well... IIRC, there is "Enchantment of the Scrying Pool". Sadly, this is a Special spell, with very non-hermetic properties.
Serf's parma (And It took me weeks just to write this single post!), but this is the only example I can think about. Have I missed something?
Hey, the "move image from a mirror" above gave me an idea about a way this might work using Rego Imaginem.
While I can't see a way for Rego Imaginem to scry using a mirror/orb/fire as it is, I've been subconsciously limiting myself to standard hermetic targets.
But this doesn't need to be the case (See Arm p114). So maybe I can use these to do something similar to the "move the reflected image in a mirror to another mirror" trick?
Let's say:
Target: Walls (+3 magnitudes, target based on Room): This targets anything that reaches the walls of a room. By itself, this could allow you to move the species that reach the walls without it being noticeable, letting you scry as if you were on a wall. Add 1 magnitude for complexity to "zoom out", and you could move these "inside" an orb or fire, turn it around... Nice.
But it won't work. The base effect would be level 25 (15 for AC, +2 for changing image), it quickly gets into Ritual territory.
Now, I can emulate a "point of view" by having a custom target based on part, to move every species that reach a specific part of an item. This would allow things like "head cameras" on the helms of grogs.
Example Spell:
The Tactician's Eye ReIm 45
Base: 15, +2 for moving images, +1 touch, +1 concentration, +2 special target based on Part
Moves the species that reach the front of a grog's helm to a mirror to which you have an arcane connection. The images are displayed as if looked at from there.
Let's consider this as working. This is doable, but barely. Very high level spell compared to the Intellego equivalents. I'm glad that this is harder than just directly moving your own senses, but it shouldn't be that hard.
So, maybe... Muto Vim?
If I can cast a InIm spell to move my sight and hearing to another place, I can use a "Significantly change a spell" to make the target the mirror's senses.
While I can see that working just fine for the visual component, the audio is more in doubt.
This does not bother me much for a scrying mirror, much more for an orb/pool/fire (yes, this is purely subjective)
Example Spell:
Shifting the Blame MuVi 40
Base 20gen, +1 touch, +2 sun, +0 individual, +1 change of target
This spell targets an imaginem sensory spell of level 25 or less, shifting its recipient, who must be a somewhat valid target for the spell. This is often used to allow mirrors to display visual species from a faraway place.
Likewise, this is hard, but less so, and with a better duration.
And here I am.
Any ideas, suggestions, help? Have you done something like this in your game? How?