I mean like grass cover that would block sight even if the ground was transparent.
There are places where that could be a problem if nothing is done about the grass, and others where there is no grass.
At the spot near the center of the valley, Balaurega procures a large table, either transporting it or crafting it with magic, depending on whether a sturdy table was brought. The next morning, she is up before dawn, traveling to the center with a large amount of vis, and she will cast again, this time a spell to empower her vision to see through earth.
Starting at dawn, she casts for a little over two hours, consuming a large amount of vis. At the end, her spell succeeds, and her eyes glow with a sinister yellow light, shining forth like beacons, making her look even more draconic than usual.
She then flies and looks around, surveying the valley completely. if there are are large areas obscured by plant life, she will take measures to counteract those, but hopefully looking from a different angle will work just as well.
[ 2 Sta + 5 In + 21 Te + 5 Aura + 2 AL + 2 Ph +3 props +1 gestures +1 words = 42.
26 pawns (5 In 21 Te) = +52 so total 94
InTe 20 Per 0/Conc 1/Sight 4 = 45; if able to get high enough extending duration to Sun.
Rolling on discord.
Got a 102 so duration bumps up to Sun]
As noted on discord, your art is terram is 21 so you cannot use more than 21 pawns of vis, since intelligo vis was not allocated towards a construction project. Also please note that if you do use such a massive amount of vis it may cause shortcomings in the stated purpose of the project which is to quickly construct the oppida.
Well if there wasn't vis to get to the necessary number then she can't have cast the spell.
But if using Rego Terram for construction, no vis will be necessary.
While construction is underway, Themmix will make sure to help in whatever way she can. Whether it be patrolling with some guards, and making sure no mundanes approach, to treating any injuries, to casting spells on the guards to prevent them from contracting diseases. It was best to show that she can be a team player, even if her skill are not suited for the main task.
Since there is no Intellego vis, she will check whether there is an item provided that can do a geological survey. If not, she will do multiple castings of MuTe to make the dirt transparent.
Base 1, +1 Touch, Mom, Part +1, +4 mags size is a level 15 effect, that would be 100,000 cubic paces, which is a cube 46 paces on a side
2 Sta + 5 Mu + 21 Te + 5 Aura +1 gestures +1 words = 35; she can reliably cast level 15 and get up to 20 about half the time (a 100 pace cube).
Do you want a bunch of rolls? Balaurega's goal is to establish where the rock is under the surface, especially at the center of the valley, and use that rock to construct a large hidden fortification, as well as a set of catacombs deep down. I have a detailed idea in mind for what the end result is, but not sure how you want to handle.
Go ahead and make the roll for a few sections- maybe even stopping at one depending on how much information she wants and what she is looking for.
got a 47 which gives me level 20, 100 pace cube at the center.
second roll is potential botch, botch dice?
since you are still getting used to this aura, having just arrived, 6 botch dice.
The first will reveal that the soil goes to a maximum depth of 10 inches.
I'm not sure what commune with natural rock actually does. It would be base 30 +1 touch +2 sun so would take a lot of vis to spont cast, starting from 42 for my best spont numbers. Is there a casting tablet of it available?
Share's the rock's most intimate details mentally, and no
Are there any relevant casting tablets for surveying the underground layout? Or are any of the npc magi able to do that?
Mining in medieval europe is largely a matter of expanding on Roman era mines, so prospecting- mundane or magical- is not a well established thing. However Miner's keen eye from the core book is certainly a well established spell... and you could probably get a casting tablet for that...
That spell is within the range of being spont-able, but only goes three paces deep. Trying to get a big picture of the subterranean scenery is seeming maybe impossible right now.
But maybe it's not really necessary.
So the first thing Balaurega does when she begins building is to go to the center of the valley, and making sure everyone is clear, she puts a hand to the dirt, and with a spell, she pushes it away in a circle, shifting it to an earthworks, so there is bare stone in a circle, surrounded by a wall of packed earth, packed as tightly as she can make it - strong enough to be an earthworks fortification 50 paces high, sheer on the inside and on the outside forming a 45 degree slope, with two openings 10 paces wide, one at 8 o'clock and one at 4 o'clock, where 12 o'clock is the entrance to the valley.
[This is ReTe 2, Touch +1/Mom/Part +1
Rolled on discord to get a level 25 spell, so that makes +5 size, which is 1,000,000 cubic paces.
That could be a 1 pace thick circle 1128 paces diameter, but she is not making it more than 500 paces diameter; and she doesn't know the thickness, she is just moving everything that can be moved with the "dirt" version. 22 on finesse.]
Waiting to see if there's any feedback/anything revealed, if not I can keep going.
Keep in mind that there is a mystic tower already in the center of the valley, so you will need to adjust the description appropriately. Keep in mind that the dirt layer is under 1/3 pace thick, so if you are pushing dirt you will get 3x the square paces from your 1 pace calculation. Even centered on the tower what you decribe is certainly accomplished with the main variances being a) description and b) the size of the embankment, which has a pre-packed volume equal to (pi)r^21/3 cubic paces of dirt and a perimiter length of 2*(PI)*r linear paces meaning a cross section of 2/3 r paces squared. Making an estimate based on a chart of physical properties I'm going to say you can pack the dirt down to 3/5 that volume (rock is 1/2 the volume of loose dirt, roughly, but re won't simulate geological processes, so you are getting very well packed dirt) with a radius of 500 paces means the earthwork walls will have a cross section of 333 square paces. The shape you describe is 1250 square paces in cross section, so you will need to reduce that in some way. A 50 pace high (roughly 15 stories high) rectangular wall (which you can do with this level of compactness) would be just over 6 paces thick. You can also use a triangual shape with a 45 degree angle as described with a height of 25 paces (7.5 stories). It is worth noting that putting a 45 degree angle on the inside makes for much better defenses, generally speaking, than putting them on the outside, until you get to the level of technology where you worry about deflecting bullets or canon fire.
I didn't realize the tower was in the center of the valley, will adjust.
For the earthworks, the main goal is to keep the complex hidden; she is planning to have it be covered with grass/sod, so that from a distance it will just seem like a flat hill or a rise in the terrain. I think 45 degrees is steep enough so that it wouldn't be easy for attackers to run up it, do you agree? (If not, will make it steeper). But will adjust to 25 paces height otherwise.
There is also going to be stone backing the earthworks.
(Repeating from discord) If I use a concentration duration on ReTe, does it allow a changing Part target? So for instance to walk along and change the stone around me as I walk?
45 degrees mean rise and run are the same. This is much steeper than the surrounding terrain, as such it would stick out rather than concealing anything, and would still not be difficult to run up for anyone who is in shape. On the other hand the surrounding peaks rise 600 feet more or less above the bottom of the bowl, and someone would need to have climbed those (forming a circle 2 miles radius around your covenant) to see anything, and three miles from that is the closest sign of civilization in the town of Ubdina. The fact is that anything you put here will be dwarfed by nearby mountains which will also see right over any walls.