Ahaha
Perdo(Rego) Terram 35 Range Sight: Duration Sun: Target Part
This Spell creates a series of Ditches (or ha-ha's) in dirt/sand. The Ditches are in a continuous straight line, a depth of 10 feet, and the total length is 200 ft. The Ditch is such that the side away from the caster is vertical, and the side towards the caster is sloped at 45degrees, (thus the total volume removed is 1000 cubic feet). The Rego requisite maintains the vertical side, but the designer of the spell assumed that the other side did not need its slope maintaining after casting.
If the caster desires the ditches need not be continuous. With a Perception +Finesse Ease Factor of 6 they can be placed in a circle, or in a rectangular grid. For an Ease Factor of 9 they may be placed in concentric circles, For more complicated designs higher Ease Factors may apply.
When Patricia of Mercere casts this spell, the dirt sublimes into a harmless gas, that smells of Gin (all of Patricia's spells have a faint whiff of alcohol)
Base 3 (destroy Dirt),Part +1,Sun +2, Sight +3,+2 Size
First of all have I duplicated a spell that already exists? and if not are my Ease Factors/general approach completely wrong? Should the Rego Requisite add another magnitude?
[strike]It's a little bit similar to "A Simple Method for Rapid Vallation" on HoH:TL p141 - it's a Tremere CrTe level 35 to put walls up[/strike]
Oh wait, this is digging trenches in dirt rather than building walls. I don't think the maths is wrong, it's similar enough to the entrenching spell my magus in the old "Insula Canaria" PbP game had, and I've seen people use similar effects to create terraces for agriculture as seen in medieval Italy. Fortification building, water-guiding, canal-widening - there are lots of uses for straight-line digging spells.
I think the most objectionable part is the sigil of gin, when distilled alcohol is incredibly rare in the early 13th century, but de gustibus non est disputandum as our Latin-speaking magi would say
Essence of wine (alcohol) is probably pretty commonly known by magi. They can refine virtually any mundane substance. The gin smell may be that her nature reflects juniper in some fashion.
It was my subconscious working. I typed the word `sublime' and my mind went to gin.
The primary purpose of the spell is an anti-Mongol spell as the maga in question has weak magic and therefore can't really rely on anything that might have to penetrate. So making the horses stumble is the next best thing.
1000 cubic feet is 101010. Not very big. A 200ft long ditch that is 10 feet deep will be a little more than an inch wide. Useful against Mongols only in a Honey, I Shrunk the Mongols sequel (prequel).
Note that the spell won't work if the ground is obscured by steppe grass, and will not destroy said vegetation.
The Rego requisite is sufficient, I think. But if you want the spell to do tricky things, like multiple ditches, that ought to be a magnitude.
