Spell for Moderation: MuHe(Vi)20 Lavender Nostalgia of Magic

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hi,
Since my concept of a Herbam specialist somehow evolves towards a tradition of magical gardeners, I'm brainstorming some herbam spells ; some of which might border on the "sligtly unusuals" fence - hence, my uncertainty about their design.

This one, in particular....

[size=150]Muto Herbam, 20 - Lavender Nostalgia of Magic[/size]
[size=75](English being my second language, this might sound as a lame spell name to native speakers)[/size].

R: Touch, D: Moon, T: Ind., Casting Requisite : Vim

This spell dries a piece of lavender flower shrub by substituing its natural sap with the invisible flux of a magical aura, granting it the peculiar property of flourishing afresh when it goes back in any magical aura. As long as it's in a magical aura, it recovers its fresh, supple and colorful state, exhaling it's strong perfume. Out in the mundane, it just looks as it is : a nice but fragile dried lavender bud, with but a shadow of its former glory and fragrance.

In game terms, this gives the dried lavender bud a equivalent sensibility to magic, as described in the spell "Sense of Magical Power" (a modest level 2 InVi spell, page157).

Limitations :.

  • First, since this spell substitute the natural sap with invisible flux magic, it has to be initially cast in a magical aura.
  • Second, and at Storyteller's discretion, the lavender bud might further wither and brittles when in a Divine or Infernal aura (while it's almost impossible to predict how it would react in a faerie one), meaning that anybody carying it would be advised/constrained to travel in the wilderness or at least very mundane lands. (I'm especially uncertain about this one)

Storywise, such a flower might catch the players attention even if decoratively staying in their own covenant's aura, for exemple by indirectly foretelling of unusual magical changes on their home grounds.
(Base 4(Awaken the magical sensibility of a plant), +1Touch, +3Moon, +0Vim(form tied to the main effect(*)) ).

(*) => Right ?

In advance, thanks for any advices, comments and criticisms 8)

2

I like the spell quite a bit I especially like your two conditions they make the spell much cooler than it would otherwise be.

Vim should be a normal requisite. You've written casting requisite your mention of vim in the level calculations seems to indicate that you didn't mean it..

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this spell does NOT require an intellego requisite , but after some scrutiny I might change my mind.

I think that if you change your description to emphasize how the plant is muto-ed to subsist from a magical aura rather than sun, water, air and earth and you change your description "Awaken the magical sensibility of a plant" in your level calculation others won't demand an intellego requisite either.

I envision our flower wilting or perking up over the course of 10-20 minutes of when it changes auras, Do you imagine the timing to be different?

To reiterate, I like it very much.