No one's given any input into this. Given the low Finesse score, I think it makes sense to say her parens taught her fewer finesse-based spells, rather than more. Checking over my notes on Norbert Gunthar, I'm going to give her Crystal Dart (Mu/Re Te 10) rather than Wielding the Invisible Sling, thinking that there is something of a parable in his teaching both those spells to her in the same season -- one she'll probably pass on to her own apprentice someday.
Tangent: Fixer, did you email me a pic of Viscaria? I can't find it in my inbox.
It would take any part of a quantity of stone and work it in any way a stonemason could do, as with Phantom Blacksmith from Covenants (+1 flexibility = variety of uses).
My reading of this, and if I'm being overly pedantic, feel free to say...
I don't think this is a spell to quarry rock. I think this is a spell to shape a rock into a finished piece suitable for building. If you want to quarry rock, I'm inclined to say it needs to be something like the Bone Carver of Atlas. That will allow someone to quarry the material, for it to be shaped later.
Again, I wouldn't worry about Viscaria's finesse problem too overmuch. I have something in mind for it. Because I had mentioned that earlier, I didn't mention it again. If you want Viscaria's pater to have taught her this spell, I'm fine with that. Sometimes masters do things for reasons their filia can't fathom. Indeed, that's the entire basis for Talia of Tytalus in PB's Canaries are dying saga. He completely deemphasized her natural talents and taught to her weaknesses. Why? Who knows, he's a Tytalus.
Quarry? No. The spell specifies things that a mason could do. Which might mean turning the side of a mountain into a sculpture, or smooth a path made of stone. Possibly, though I'm not entirely willing to concede, it could be used for engraving. But quarrying stone would have a distinct mystical difference to it.
On the other hand, with target Part, it could also work an entire block of stone, or a small part of it if the Finesse roll wasn't high enough -- not sure if we allow "floating target numbers," in this campaign. I was envisioning an example where Viscaria walks up to a large marble block, casts the spell, and then rolls to see how much of the sculpture she completes with that spell.
This basically counts as future spell design -- I've already decided to take the other combat spell, and adjusted sheets to match. Hopefully, this will be one of the spells that we find during the year's worth of bargaining and letter-writing that Viscaria has done to obtain spells for the Tribunal.
I figured as much -- locating the quarry-able stone was/is one of the goals for the exploration chapter.
Figuring out how to do that is a matter that's been discussed in the Tribunal Prep thread. Options are to make Stone Cutting Knives and Enchanted Porter Gloves, or for Viscaria to do it herself (spont or through spells acquired).
Gloves/slave bracelets, made of Silver, bronze and electrum chain links, depicting a mason’s chisel on one hand, and a small hammer on the other. Three attached rings bear stones on each hand: magnet(ite), red coral and opal
Inspiration: Design 1, or Design 2. A central pendant larger than 1 but smaller than 2, with chain links and metal bands to the three fingers shown in Design 1, with stones attached.
Components:
Glove
affect things by touch 4 Ars Magica fifth edition p110
manipulate at a distance 4 Ars Magica fifth edition p110
Mason chisel
shape stone 2 Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults p137
Small hammer
building 2 Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults p137
Silver
terram 1 The Mysteries Revised Edition p33
intellego 2 The Mysteries Revised Edition p33
lycanthropes in general 5 The Mysteries Revised Edition p33
protect spirits 3 Realms of Power: Infernal p123
Bronze
terram 3 Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults p137
darkness 5 Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults p137
Electrum
scrying 3 Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults p137
deception 3 Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults p137
muto terram 4 Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults p137
Magnet
rego 2 The Mysteries Revised Edition p33
rego corpus 4 The Mysteries Revised Edition p33
rego terram 4 The Mysteries Revised Edition p33
Coral, red
versus demons 10 Ars Magica fifth edition p110
Opal
eyes 6 Houses of Hermes: True Lineages p139
images 2 Houses of Hermes: True Lineages p139
imagination 2 The Mysteries Revised Edition p33
invisibility 2 Houses of Hermes: True Lineages p139
memory 4 The Mysteries Revised Edition p33
travel 4 Houses of Hermes: True Lineages p139
You can depict whatever you want, my gut tells me that the shape is that of a glove or bracelet, maybe ring, maybe all three. But the hammer and chisel are just depictions and wouldn't get any bonuses for shape. This isn't Potent Magic.
The season that I add an enchantment to Ogmios's Saddle for Fiona, that enchantment is a MuAn(ReTe) 30 spell, but I have a Lab Total of 67. 67 - (30*2) = 7. I get a +5 for adding enchantments to my Talisman, so that remaining 7 MuAn(ReTe) becomes a 12.
So....what's a MuAn(ReTe) 6 enchantment? +1 for 2 uses/day, +2 for Sun...drops us down to a Base 3, or Base 2. It's a Talisman, so range:Personal includes me and all my stuff, right?
Maybe it makes her spidersilk toga/dresses more durable? Or...turns it into a tent! No....
Oh! Since the MuAn(ReTe) effect going in to Ogmios's Saddle is to turn the horse into a metal-winged Pegasus capable of flight, then maybe the mini-enchantment she puts into the talisman turns her clothing into glider wings or something else that would help her avoid falling damage?
If V is taking over Korvin's princeps duties so that he can sort through A's stuff, then things get rearranged so that the season Abigail is helping her in the lab is now the season where she's enchanting the 2nd half of the mental communication link, and I'm no longer making a spell to handle refuse.
CrMe Base 3 +1 touch, +3 envir trigger, +3 6 uses/day - CrMe10
Familiar Enchantment. Notifies one when the other receives damage or passes out (environmental trigger)
"The Falling Swan"
MuAn(ReTe)Base 3, +1 Touch, +1 diameter, +1 2 uses/day = Total 6
Mirroring the enchantment made to Ogmios's Saddle, this effect will be enchanted into her Talisman using the remaining LabTotal from that season. The MuAn turns the spidersilk clothing into wings, the Te requisite adds metal boning to the wings, and the Rego requisite to slow the descent to survivable levels.
"Perceive The Mystic Aura"
Base CrIg2 : candlelight / InVi2 : Determine Power of a Mystic Aura, +1 Conc, Ind, +2 InVi requisites +5lvl Item Concs, +3 environmental trigger, +10 unlimited = CrIg(InVi) 23
This spell is triggered by shifts in the aura. It causes one of the multifaceted gems built into the talisman to glow in a manner that expresses the strength of the magic aura. It can be turned on or off by command. There are four versions of this lab text, to detect each known aura type.
Note that Perceive the Mystic Aura requires a lab text for Viscaria to complete the enchantment during that season.
Yep! That's half the fun for me. I suppose that technically, the season I spend doing MuAn(ReTe), I can use the leftovers on any old MuAn, but it just seems a lot more fun to restrict myself to the exact arts and try to come up with something.
It's a pain, but the alternative involves doing percentile math, and I say to hell with that.
1224.2 Theraphosa refines the lab and removes the flaw "Missing Equipment." She rolls Int + MT vs 12/15 for the chance to gain Highly Organized and Spotless (note that Gunthar's Broom does not provide Spotless+Warping, but gives a bonus to Health and Upkeep instead).
Int 1 + MT 5 + die 0,8. URGH. If there's more than 1 botch die, this may mean a possible botch, and therefore a Hidden Defect Flaw.
And thus, by strange mechanics, we discover that IF Theraphosa botched then Patience, the daughter of Viscaria's Forge Companion, who fetches and carries and generally Servant's for the enchantress, has a Int of +1 or greater, and is probably the only one who has noticed the Hidden Defect, and spends the next 3 years quietly keeping it from destroying the entire mountaintop.
(Hidden Defect is -3 Safety, which would bring the lab to -1, which would require all kinds of extra math. Patience, however, has been listed as a Servant +(Int/2, round up) to Safety this entire time, with her Int unknown -- it could have been -3 and the lab still would have been Safety 0+.)
Speaking of lab dangers, Viscaria's lab has Warping 1. I am presuming that I do not need to roll that Warping roll on seasons when she is not working in the lab except for Hermetic Alchemy -- side effect/modified effect on vis extraction makes little sense. If you want me to roll for those seasons too, let me know.
Add effect to Talisman (24 left over +5 Talisman) (affect things by touch + 4)
"Glimmer of the Magician's Strength" Base CrIg2 (candlelight) / InVi2 : Determine Power of a Mystic Aura Per :, +1 Conc, Ind, +1 CrIg(InVi) requisite +5lvl Item Concs, +3 environmental trigger, +10 unlimited = 22
(Causes one of the multi-facted gems in the Talisman to glimmer in a way that reveals the current Magic aura strength)
Three effects, three even/odd dice: invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3695872/
1d10 → [7] = (7) - Side Effect
1d10 → [8] = (8) - Modified Effect
1d10 → [9] = (9) - Side Effect
Effects: invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3695874/
1d10 → [4] = (4) Minor side Effect on the Lamp Lighter enchantment
1d10 → [6] = (6) The range, duration, target or potency is increased on the Hearth Starter
1d10 → [2] = (2) Major Side benefit on the Talisman's CrIg(InVi)/Magic Aura enchantment
The warping comes from the Chaotic nature of the labs' constantly shifting stalactites.
For the Lamp Lighter enchantment, how about the light generated by these circles are unusually attractive to insects?
Increasing potency on the Hearth Starter from Base 4 to 5 gives the option of merely increased fire strength OR the same quality of fire, only in unnatural(non-cosmetic) shapes. That's interesting, but doesn't yield any obvious ideas to me that aren't purely cosmetic. What if my talisman enchantment's InVi gets mixed in there by accident? The fires created by the Hearth Starter grow stronger in the presence of vis -- a subtle warping which we probably might not even notice, until the Tribunal comes along.
I feel like it's out of place for me to suggest a major side benefit for a constantly-active effect on my talisman, but there are a few ideas that I'll throw out just to get the conversation started:
the most obvious one would be if the spell measured and detected more than one kind of aura type. That would be a much more valuable lab text if it wasn't for the fact that it was for my talisman -- I believe that even under the new house rules, no one else would be able to use it to reproduce the same side benefit.
perhaps it detects things besides aura strength
left field option, maybe it keeps her "warm to the touch" regardless of the weather or her clothing
completely left field, she accidentally rarefies a tame, insect-sized Fire Elemental (Might 1) who now lives in the gem, feeding off the magical fire and reacting to the aura.
Okay! That was one helluva tangent. The other roll I was going to make was the experimentation roll on the Villa De Luna spell. I was holding off on it as I debated between doing it as Original Research or simple experimentation. I've decided that I'm going to do it as simple experimentation.
Dice rolls:
1d10.open(10) → [7] = (7) More than the 2 I needed to complete the spell.
1d10.open(10) → [9] = (9) +2 = 12, Modified Effect
Twice more:
1d10.open(10) → [3] = (3)+3 = 6 (Side Effect): minor flaw
1d10.open(10) → [[10, 3]] = (13) Possible botch (Golden Cord -2 botch dice), No botch, otherwise 3 (no effect)
~sigh~ So there's some kind of minor flaw with the spell she plans on using to create all the housing that she wanted everyone to be so impressed with....
Too tired now to figure out what that might be. This was way more dice rolling that I expected to do.