« The Three Pillars », 3rd Edition adaptation

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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Hello, honorable mages of the Order of Hermes !

(Merlinec, tu ne devrais pas lire ce topic !)

I want to integrate « The Three Pillars » (Mistridge, 3rd Edition, p.71, 72) in my 5th Edition Campaign, but I need some explainations because I'm having trouble understanding some of the details :

  • How explain that the Pillars have pawns of vis ? And how do they work ?
  • It is said that : « The stones act like anchors, holding the demon beneath the forest. » So we can suppose the demon gains strength each time one of them is destroyed or deprived of its vis, until finally it becomes free when all three have become ineffective. So the pillars « communicate » with each other, but how?
  • What is the « Level 50 » spell that the Magus launched on it ? Not only a RegoVim lvl 50 because the spell still works centuries later… Did he use an AC between the Pillars ? Or against the Demon ?
  • The 3 pillars are arranged in a triangle; is this a new type of Target, the origin of a breakthrough, or a lost/forgotten magic?

Well, too many questions, for which I await your answers, which I hope will be numerous!

Thanks !!

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The Three Pillars

Being a conversion of the Third Edition "The Three Pillars" story seed (Mistridge, pages 71-72) to Fifth Edition.

The Mystery of Sacred Architecture (see The Mysteries Revised Edition page 97) allows its initiates to place a number of enchanted devices in a particular pattern, so that the separate devices may be united to work as one, as though a larger whole – such as an entire forest or glade – was enchanted instead. What we have in this case, is the application of this method on a truly grand scale – the three pillars, miles apart, spread their enchantment on the entire land within the triangle they define.

A base Boundary is a hundred paces in diameter; adding +2 magnitudes we reach Boundary x 100 ipso est a 10 km diameter area, which is demarcated by the triangle. By the "Extended Material and Size Table" in TMRE, this corresponds to a Size Multiplier of 10. Enchanting the very ground of this area (Soft Stone), this requires 30 pawns of raw vis.

To create this enchantment, the Diedne mage first needed to fashion 10 items with the same Size x Multiplier for each. Each of these he constructed as a compound device, comprised of a huge (x5) pillar of hard stone (4) [20] each of which actually envelops a living rowan tree (huge [x5] wood [2], for another [10]). This provides a Shape & Material bonus of +12 (4 x 3) protection against malicious magic (Rowan Wood, Living Tree).

One can only wonder if the magus had a Magic Theory of 15, or perhaps used means to reduce this huge amount of required raw vis.

Modern Hermetic Architecture would require 10 such stones. Perhaps there are ten, and only three have been found. Perhaps the magus combined several devices into one, with each pillar consisting of 3 or 4 parts melded together to form a single pillar, each containing a living tree and the stone encasing it. Or perhaps the old Diedne mystery allowed for greater efficiency, and only 3 pillars were needed.

Each of these components is then enchanted with the desired effect. In this case – a powerful warding spell, binding the demon to the ground while preventing him from affecting it. This binding is based on the MuVi spell guideline given in Realms of Power: The Infernal page 121, and the corresponding The Wicked Jar spell.

The Wicked Land MuVi 79 (B30 +1 Touch + 2 Sun +4 Boundary +2 size +3 levels environmental trigger +1 level 2/day). Bind a demon with Infernal Might 40 to the underground of the affected boundary, preventing it from rising and affecting the land itself.

This fills but 8 pawns of the item's 30. In addition, the following effect is invested in every pillar:

Synthemata of (Demon) MuVi 44 (B30 +2 Sun + 3 environmental trigger +1 2/day). See the Hermetic Synthemata mystery in The Mysteries Revised Edition page 86. (Note that it isn't clear that the mystery allows investing the synthemata in an item; apparently, the magus that created this enchantment could do so.)

This requires another 5 pawns, totaling 13 pawns out of 30 filled in each pillar.

The magus then cast the Bind the Mystical Structure ReVi level 94 (79 +5 +2 magnitudes for Boundary) mystery ritual.

Should one of these pillars be destroyed, or the tree within it die, the entire enchantment will fail and the demon will be released from its long imprisonment. The tree strangely seemingly is kept alive by the magic, even though it sees no light of day.

Like any enchanted device, each pillar can be investigated using the "Investigate Enchantment" laboratory seasonal activity, assuming the magus can construct a laboratory around the pillar. This reveals the two powers invested in the pillar: the level 79 The Wicked Land and the level 44 Synthemata of (Demon). This is contrast to the Third Edition's text, where only one level 50 effect was detected. However, the Synthemata effect, being a Mystery effect, is opaque to Hermetic investigation, and will only be shown to be an unknown non-Hermetic MuVi effect.

As prepared magical items, the vis in these pillars should be unavailable to Hermetic magi. Yet, in this particular case each pillar clearly appears to contain 17 pawns of raw vis, in addition to being an invested device; perhaps the long years have warped the unused prepared pawns of Vim vis, rendering them usable. Like any raw vis, this raw vis can be transferred to another container in a day, as a laboratory but day-long (rather than seasonal) activity. Doing so destroys the enchantment of the pillar, however, releasing the demon from its binding.

What are the effects of binding the demon to the land in this manner? Perhaps the land carries a weak Infernal aura. Perhaps it is mildly poisonous, infused as it is with its demonic essence for so long. Or perhaps the malign spirit is kept underground, where it can act with all its power, but is prevented from affecting the surface level.

One may wonder, why anyone would have gone to the immense effort of enchanting this strange multi-component device, to bind the demon to the land in this strange way. Perhaps the Diedne had use of the bound demon, being able to draw on its energy and powers from within the land. Or maybe the demon never took corporeal form, and so was hard to target and hence bind except by casting so wide a net.

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I’ll submit that some of the remaining vis could be used for a “Keep this tree from dying” enchantment, which might only take up an extra pawn each, maybe two.

Also, nice write up. The last paragraph is especially fun to me - a fun mystery to solve (that perhaps would be better left alone)

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Wow, what an incredible response! Sorry for the delay, I was reading all the references you cited and it took me a while to absorb everything.

I think Hermetic Architecture is definitely the right path! But as you said about Synthemata, the analysis of Hermetic Architecture also remains opaque to investigations by those uninitiated into the Mystery.

Furthermore, rather than using a kind of Synthemata (which is a new minor Virtue from a second Mystery), wouldn't it be possible to consider another kind with an AC?

I've carefully studied the spells you posted, and The Wicked Land seems obvious, but I imagine that given their colossal levels, what would the Total Lab of this Mage Diedne need to be to cast the three spells you suggested: MuVi 79 and 44, and ReVi 94? In your opinion, could several mages have teamed up to cast such spells at such high levels, perhaps with a Wizard's Communion?

To allow for potential detection by players and to include the level 50 spell to be discovered in the 3rd Edition, The Wicked Land's Base would therefore need to be reduced to… 1! So, minimal protection against a daemon of Power 11 max… Not great!!

Thank you for all the good questions you ask at the end, which are all potential story ideas!

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Fair enough. I reasoned that the effect itself is Hermetic, even if the ability to invest it in an item (or, in this case, several items) is not. But it would be more fun if it isn't discoverable.

Certainly, you can just invent an alternative way to boost penetration.

Note that this isn't striclty Hermetic, however. Arcane connections cannot, unfortunately, be incorporated into invested devices using vanila Hermetic magic. A mystery to allow this seems eminently plausible, however.

I chose to use the Synthemata in order to not bloat the Wicked Jar's spell level even more than it is already.

The first two are invested powers, not spells, so the magus need a huge lab total. A MuVi lab total of 119, enough to invent the level 79 effect in 2 seasons, can be achieved with [3 Int + 12 Magic Theory + 33 Mu + 22 Vi + 22 Magical Focus + 12 Shape & Material +12 familiar's magic theory +3 familiar's intelligence]. He might have employed other means of increasing his lab total too, however, such as Celestial Magic. As he needs to reach this lab total multiple (10?!) times, assistants do not seem likely.

Casting the ReVi level 94 spell, however, can use assistants - it's a Ritual spell, after all. I don't think he even needs to invent it, just cast it. And he need only reach 10 levels below it, so 84.

A reasonable base casting total might be 59 [6 die + 1 Sta + 10 Rego + 22 Vi + 10 Magical Focus + 5 talisman attunements + 2 Artes Liberales + 3 Philosophiae]. So he is 25 short, which he might have compensated for with 13 pawns of raw vis. He seems to have a LOT of raw vis, so this shouldn't be much of a cost; although the chance to botch is high, but then-again it's high in any case.

Or, he could have used the assistance of a few magi. Assuming each knows a Wizard's Vigil of level 40, which counts as a Wizard's Communion of level 30, he will need 5 assistants (to double the 94 spell level).

With 6 magi (him + 5) in the group, the spell level is effectively 16, so success is all but assured. It also adds +6 botch dice, but that's less than the +13 used if boosting the roll with raw vis.

Yes. I've considered binding an even stronger demon, but the level is quite high as-is.

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And this is all assuming that the Diedne are using “Standard” Hermetic Enchanting (or as standard as Hermetic Architecture gets) instead of something else - perhaps the Enchantment was laid with some other power that facilitates the far higher levels needed, sacrifices or some such.

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If it’s an issue of bringing sufficient power to bear, I might start considering if some elements of the Divine might be involved.

Perhaps the stones of the pillars are from the first Temple of Solomon, or the Tomb of Christ, or some other source likely to pin down a demon.