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I think it is worth keeping in mind that:
  1. Every single person on the project has 6 AP all of their own each turn and they are the ones doing the heavy lifting on the rituals
  2. We are not actually making the thing from scratch, instead we are trying to adept an old Belthani working

Yeah, but all the members probably have other things to do so they probably have 2-4 AP to put into the rituals per turn. I guess it depends on how much having something to start from helps.

EDIT : Also, I guess that just because it would take Mathilde on her own a certain amount of time, doesn't mean it would take the same amount of time for a millenias' old monster.
 
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Yeah, but all the members probably have other things to do so they probably have 2-4 AP to put into the rituals per turn. I guess it depends on how much having something to start from helps.

EDIT : Also, I guess that just because it would take Mathilde on her own a certain amount of time, doesn't mean it would take the same amount of time for a millenias' old monster.
I think how much of their own time each project member spends on their tasks also depends on how committed to the project they are. The ritual makers this turn are, I think, some of the more enthusiastic members of our project. Cadaeth was the instigator of this entire project and joined it for the asking, Aksel considers himself oathbound to assist in this project and also joined for free, and Niedzwenka seemed to believe in the project when we spoke to her about it. Niedzwenka also has a sea between her and her normal base of operations, which would make spending time on personal projects logistically difficult.
 
* Waystone 1: Capstone (Thorek, Hatalath, Sarvoi, Egrimm, Max, Johann)
Question: Why is this not a WEB-MAT action if all of WEB-MAT participates? If the reason is that keeping Thorek an Hatalath off each others throats is a full time job, could this be a WEB-MAT action if we replace Hatalath with Cadaeth and/or also make sure Thorek isn't outnumbered by Elves?
I feel that, just like not every Waystone action needs to include the oldest Elf or the only Dwarf, some actions might not require the full attention of the project leader? Especially if she is being represented by her personal assistants, who are both knowledgeable and trustworthy, while also being around enough to coordinate instead of being completely absent (as per WEB-MAT precedent).

Not tagging Boney in case this has already been asked and answered, which seems likely.
 
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... You know, if you do want to make up a shortfall of CF, we do have a pretty reliable way to make a bit of CF for just 1 action...

Make a Powerstone. Then trade it in for 5 CF.

Or maybe we craft a staff, though I dunno how much it'd sell for. Or if it'd sell at all. And we'd have to roll for it.


About codifying a spell and doing things that might help with that --
[ ] Attempt to finish off the Grey College spellbook by learning Shadow of Death, Cloak Activity, and the MAPP.
What about seeking out and learning one of our own invented spells that was codified already? Maybe by being taught MAPP, and comparing it to the original MAP, we'll have an idea or two.

... Eh, nah, that feels too much like a "Let's do this thing that I want to get done" argument. I want to finish those spells (cloak activity always struck me as being quite neat for subterfuge! and if we could work it into our swordsmanship, not only could we surprise people with Branulhune's appearing and disappearing trick, we can add Cloak Activity on top of that too!) but whether knowing MAPP would help is, eh... ((Well, maybe we'd need to hire the Bright Wizard Lord to explain to us how he did it to really get the full effects of that... ... Or we just read his paper on it maybe? That'd be part of being taught the last Grey Magic spells presumably tho, so...))

Still, if we're looking for other ideas too... what about looking at sub-Battle Magic grades?

Lesser Magics
M / Aethyric Armour: Magic wraps around you and acts as armour, with effectiveness based on your mastery of magic.
Mastery - Indefatigable: While Aethyric Armour is active, you do not tire from physical exertion.
- Does not stack with actual armour.
- Needs to be recast every few minutes, which isn't a problem for the duration of battles but makes it dangerous to try to maintain for hours on end.
M / Blessed Weapon: For the next hour, the weapon this is cast upon will count as magical for the purposes of damaging creatures resistant to mundane weapons, such as ghosts.
Mastery - Blessed Hands: You instinctively channel Ulgu along any weapon you wield. Any weapon held by you counts as Magical.
- the mastery does not effect the ammunition of wielded ranged weapons, but the ammo can be blessed manually.
Shadow Magics
M / Shadowsteed: A mystical and supernaturally fast horse is summoned that will carry you or one you designate, until it is dismounted or until dawn the next day, whichever is first.
Mastery - Shadowrider: Your Shadowsteed is as familiar and easy to control as your own two legs. +5 Martial when mounted on a Shadowsteed, no penalty to rapid distance travel.
- Averages about 25 miles per hour, and Mathilde can comfortably ride for about ten hours a day. Beyond that will test her endurance.
Moderately Complicated
M / Mockery of Death: Causes someone you touch to act and appear dead for several days, or until you end it. They retain all their senses, including sight if their eyes are open, and will still need to breathe and drink.
- If the subject was asleep or unconscious when the spell is cast upon them, they will not consciously experience the time spent under Mockery of Death.

Mastery - Mockery of Substance: When affected by Mockery of Death, the subject is also intangible to anything except the caster and objects under the control of the caster. They are still affected by gravity, and will still require food and water. They are still able to breathe normally. The caster can end the intangibility at a touch without interrupting the main effect of the spell.
- As per Substance of Shadow, anything in contact with the target will continue to exert force, as will anything brought into contact with the target by the caster if they will it.
- Clothes go with the target. This is entirely because it turning people naked would be funny to write at most once and awkward every time, so it's not something that can be weaponized or abused. Apart from this, it does not work on inanimate objects.
These aren't original spells per se exactly, but... Eh, nevermind. Masteries are more of a crapshoot to incorporate anyway. If you want to do a thing, do a thing, rather than do 10 extra things before finally doing that thing.

If we want to try to codify Rite of Way we should just do that. Maybe it just involves writing it. Maybe it'll involve more than that.

I think we should just take the action -- especially because we literally just wrote a paper on terrain obstacles. So following that up with a "And here's how you get around that!" would be great sales tactics. (Wasn't the first to come up with that amusing argument. But it's still valid!)
 
These aren't original spells per se exactly, but... Eh, nevermind. Masteries are more of a crapshoot to incorporate anyway. If you want to do a thing, do a thing, rather than do 10 extra things before finally doing that thing.

If we want to try to codify Rite of Way we should just do that. Maybe it just involves writing it. Maybe it'll involve more than that.

This is an argument to never do any preparation for anything ever. Things can be hard and require more than just deciding to do something on a whim and diving right in.

Codifying battle magic spells is apparently one of the hardest things for a wizard to do, given how few codified battle magic spells there are. We know of seven Ulgu ones that exist after two hundred years of research by the Colleges, and it's very possible that they were all spells that Teclis taught the Colleges based on several thousand years of the elves' research.

Trying and failing may well be worse than not trying at all, as it may lock out future attempts as well. This isn't something we should half-ass. Particularly as it's not something that urgent or that important. If we delay codification by a few years it makes a very minor difference, assuming that the Colleges will effectively be immortal institutions.
 
This is an argument to never do any preparation for anything ever. Things can be hard and require more than just deciding to do something on a whim and diving right in.

Codifying battle magic spells is apparently one of the hardest things for a wizard to do, given how few codified battle magic spells there are. We know of seven Ulgu ones that exist after two hundred years of research by the Colleges, and it's very possible that they were all spells that Teclis taught the Colleges based on several thousand years of the elves' research.

Trying and failing may well be worse than not trying at all, as it may lock out future attempts as well. This isn't something we should half-ass. Particularly as it's not something that urgent or that important. If we delay codification by a few years it makes a very minor difference, assuming that the Colleges will effectively be immortal institutions.

I don't think anyone is arguing that we should never prepare for things, just that we are already sufficiently prepared as we are right now. There are legitimate concerns of diminishing returns, where the effort to expand on the things we can do to prepare isn't justified by the impact those preparations will have. Especially since now matter how much prep work we do, there will always be a non-zero risk of failure. I, and many others, feel like that risk has been sufficiently minimised by the skills and resources currently at our disposal, but at some point we have to accept that it will never go away and that we should just try it and find out.

That said, I am coming round to the idea of maybe learning High Nehekaran first, but only because we need to learn that for some of our other projects, so we might as well as maximise the advantage that would give us.
 
This is an argument to never do any preparation for anything ever. Things can be hard and require more than just deciding to do something on a whim and diving right in.

Codifying battle magic spells is apparently one of the hardest things for a wizard to do, given how few codified battle magic spells there are. We know of seven Ulgu ones that exist after two hundred years of research by the Colleges, and it's very possible that they were all spells that Teclis taught the Colleges based on several thousand years of the elves' research.

Trying and failing may well be worse than not trying at all, as it may lock out future attempts as well. This isn't something we should half-ass. Particularly as it's not something that urgent or that important. If we delay codification by a few years it makes a very minor difference, assuming that the Colleges will effectively be immortal institutions.
No, it was me talking outloud "No, wait, I shouldn't try to argue for people to fill out the Ulgu spellbook and to try to spell-ify one of our Mastery Spells by using 'It's practice for codifying Rite of Way!' as an excuse to do things-I-want-to-do-anyway..." again.

And also, no, it obviously is not an argument to never do any preparation for anything ever?

For starters, we don't actually know what steps codifying a spell requires, and thus what actions would be useful for that. The best way to learn what would be useful for codifying a spell is to actually start codifying a spell.

You just want to use Rite of Way as an excuse-anchor to get people to vote for Anoqeyan and whatever other stuff too.

Especially because you just now argued "And we can't possibly even begin to try yet, because we might fail badly enough that we can't even keep going, which means we should only try when we are super-ready."

Like, I'll admit that as Derpmind pointed out 2 pages ago might have merit -- that codifying RoW might require casting it, which might be somewhat risky (though with our staff of Mistery and with our +20 to Ulgu spells Tower..) -- but your argument of "If we fail to codify Rite of Way badly enough, we might literally never be able to codify it, and so it's better to do a bunch of things before we even start" is, uh, like an attempt to hold an option hostage to get people to give in to your demands.

There's not going to be something that'll stop us from eeeever codifying a spell when we otherwise would have been able to, unless that thing were "rolling poorly enough that you kill yourself or you forget a spell and by misfortune it happens to be Rite of Way."

If there were something that stopped us from codifying Rite of Way, it'll probably be something like "Ah, okay, so we just need to do this X thing and then we can try again?" You know, the sort of thing that you learn you are lacking in and so you can go and learn that thing. But you will never learn you are lacking, unless you actually try it and learn what you are lacking in.

You might make the argument of "But you can't be sure that you won't try to codify it and then fail badly enough that you will forever fail to do so. You can't be sure that that fail-state isn't on the table." and you know what? I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that hypothetical failure state. Because that failure state will exist anyway, no matter whether we know Anoqeyan or have gone on the Elfcation or not or whatever.

The most reasonable way I could see that happening, is if we roll badly enough to miscast, and then land on the "Forget a spell" outcome. But that would just be a result of being unlucky in rolls? That exact same thing could happen to us if we had done the other hypothetical prep too. Just because we can roll a sucky miscast result (and we have a Grounding Rod too, so... and a +20 Tower, and a Staff of Mistery) is no reason to fear.

The worst that can happen (to you, anyway) from taking this action is that we learn what we need to do to help finish it, and it turns out that none of those things include learning Anoqeyan or whatever.

(Or perhaps, in a feat of cosmic irony, codifying spells could have a component like the Ritual Crafting one; which has a "you have to change the magical language" possible random result on it. But in that case, that would still just be sheer dumb luck that would result in that! And it would just mean that you would delay things as you go learn a new Arcane Language. I mean, it could just be the case that the reason that knowing multiple Arcane Languages is useful for some magics is because of the "When doing some magic stuff, like ritual research, you might roll an effect like 'have to change the language you're using.'" i.e. Knowing multiple languages is helpful not because it necessarily gives you a +2 circumstance bonus to spellcraft checks, but because sometimes an adventurer or adventurer-wizard runs into a situation where knowing that specific language is useful in some way. Such as because of reasons like "You looted Nehekharan stuff and need to figure out what it says." Or maybe "You refrained from looting Nehekharan stuff -- because you've heard how that story ends -- so you can only work with what you can read in the Nehekharan library you are in right now. Boy, it sure is a good thing you can read High Nehekharan..." Or maybe "You want to read the prophecies of W'soran... and you can't allow anybody to translate it because, well, it's sensitive.")
 
No, it was me talking outloud "No, wait, I shouldn't try to argue for people to fill out the Ulgu spellbook and to try to spell-ify one of our Mastery Spells by using 'It's practice for codifying Rite of Way!' as an excuse to do things-I-want-to-do-anyway..." again.

And also, no, it obviously is not an argument to never do any preparation for anything ever?

For starters, we don't actually know what steps codifying a spell requires, and thus what actions would be useful for that. The best way to learn what would be useful for codifying a spell is to actually start codifying a spell.

That's not true though. Boney has told us what can help with spell codification. I quoted it not long ago:

Reference materials will be helpful some of the time.
Too many variables for there to be one answer. Different people with different paradigms have different levels of difficulty translating their spells into something communicable, and experience as a teacher or deep knowledge of magical theory or knowing multiple magical languages can (not will, can) make it easier. And whether a Battle Magic spell is actually 'true' Battle Magic or just an inefficiently codified spell that has sub-BM level effects is always open to debate

And we have codified a spell before. That didn't tell us anything about what can help codify it, or what can help get a better result. Why would trying it again tell us what trying us last time didn't. We may simply have silently missed a threshold to codify a better version of the spell and never been able to tell.

Now, we don't know in what circumstances the various things that can help will help, but as these things can also be useful with other things, learning them wouldn't be a waste even if we don't need them this time, and would make us more likely to succeed if we try to codify other spells in future.

When we do prep for anything we have no guarantee that prep will actually help. We might roll so well that it makes no difference. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do prep because it may turn out we'd have succeeded anyway. Having a guarantee that it can help us more than we usually get.
 
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Turn 40 Results - 2489.5 - Part 6
When work begins on prototyping new forms of tributary, Tochter immediately gravitates towards Cadaeth's design based on entreating the Dreaming Wood to anchor a tributary stone, and Zlata towards Aksel's straightforward beseeching of Halétha. This leaves only Max unpaired, which means that more or less by default he ends up drawn into working on Niedzwenka's spirit-stones. If it were anyone else you might be concerned with how they'd react to such a domineering and condescending research partner, but you've come to know what makes Max and his ego tick over the years. In matters relating to his craft or his personal life, he's as easily nettled as he is slow to forget. But you've never seen it raise so much as a peep in his professional life, no matter how tedious or inglorious a task you give him. As far as you can tell, the reason for this is simple: he doesn't really care. Oh, he has pride in doing the best job he can, and is happy to be doing work that matters with people he likes, but at the end of the day all of this is just the price he pays for the salary, contacts, and resources to pursue his own personal vision of true transmutation.

So with impressive serenity he accepts the condescension of Baba Niedzwenka, accepting the menial tasks she places upon him and taking careful notes of every step of the way as the Hag Witch begins to gather the implements and offerings that she theorizes might be used to entreat or cajole a specific spirit into cooperation. Specifically a Melusine, a type of spring Naiad usually found in Bretonnia, associated with a bevy of tales in which they either assist and hinder knights errant according to their whims. Niedzwenka posits that a tributary is just a spring in reverse and with magic instead of water, so its creation could fall within the capabilities of a spirit. You leave them to it, trusting that Max will report back anything particularly of interest or alarm, and turn your attention to the other, more natural partnerships.

Cadaeth's problem, it seems, is not in securing the partnership of the Dreaming Wood, as Laurelorn's is as thoroughly tamed as is possible to achieve. The problem is that a Dreaming Wood does not comprehend things like Aethyric conductivity or regolith saturation or cardinality. One way to solve this is for the caster to fully and completely understand what needs to be done and open their mind up to the Dreaming Wood and simply ask it to do this; the other is to translate what needs to be done into metaphors that the Dreaming Wood can comprehend. The problem with the former is that it means that tributary creation could only be performed by someone that completely understands the task at hand and is willing and able to expose their consciousness to an ancient and alien consciousness made up of the combined lives of an entire forest, while the problem with the latter is that an entirely new set of metaphors will need to be built to fit the conceptual idiom of each new Dreaming Wood that is enlisted to create tributaries. The debate between the two temporarily reverses the splintering of the six contributors as it draws back in everyone else to input their own opinions.

Finally, Aksel's part requires him to travel back to Forest of Shadows to properly entreat Halétha in her own territory. Considering the short distance and relative safety of the journey, you're not sure if it would be proper to call it a pilgrimage, but you do so anyway as it adds some more dramatic weight to the task at hand. Zlata seems interested in traveling with him. You haven't pried into why, as whether it's because of the complicated relationship between Kislev's magic-users and the Hedgewise that border it or something just between the two of them, it's not your business either way. Or at least, it might aggravate them if you informed them that it actually is your business, and the risks of being found out while snooping are greater than the value of knowing for sure what's going on.

With all three projects in varying amounts of underway, you leave them to it while you turn your attention to your other responsibilities for a time.

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Halétha, it seems, was in an obliging mood. After barely a couple of reportedly uneventful months spent in the Forest of Shadows Aksel and Zlata emerge once more with a scribed ritual to share. The exact details make you raise an eyebrow - that if the ritual is cast outside the Forest of Shadows, it requires that the caster be of the bloodline of the ancient Was Jutones, and that the ritual chants are in their ancient and largely forgotten tongue, could lead one to suspect that Aksel crafted the ritual to ensure that the Nordland Hedgewise could not be cut out of the project. But it's an entirely deniable suspicion, as it's far from the most obscure requirement you've heard of from a ritual, and the hand at work here may be that of Halétha herself. The other downsides of the ritual are the cost, as it requires and consumes a lodestone each time it is performed, and what happens if it is fumbled, as it not only riles up local spirits but also makes any spellcraft that might be employed to defend oneself from them more dangerous to perform. Considering the sorts of spirits that tend to accumulate in areas with excess magical energies that need draining away, that could get rather dangerous.

Hopefully the other two projects will find equal success.

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You check in regularly with Cadaeth and Tochter's camp within the Golden Wood, but even then you find yourself having to communicate by exchanging letters as much of their efforts are located within the Dreaming Wood, which is not so conveniently accessible here as the Wishing Woods with its massive portal and obliging servitors. It seems that their efforts had seemingly responded to the dual contributors, as the ritual had morphed over weeks of iterations to require a second caster, and then after several months of unchanging effort, a breakthrough sees the ritual overhauled out of the Anoqeyån that Cadaeth preferred into the Lingua Praestantia that Tochter has been pushing for since the start. In the end the final piece of the puzzle was the inclusion of some sort of ritual drinking horn common to most of the nature deities you know of, and when the two of them finally emerge it's with a complete ritual ready for distribution. The ritual requires the presence of a Dreaming Wood, of course, but also requires that the caster has spent a significant amount of time within it recently, and if fumbled will permanently cut off the local copse from the Dreaming Wood. The responsible way to deal with this is apparently to clear-cut the lot, because the alternative is that the sort of malevolent creatures that the Dreaming Wood outright rejects can find refuge within it.

All the while you've been receiving regular reports from Max, who tells of Niedzwenka alternately cajoling and threatening a Bretonnian water-spirit into cooperation, though not as an actual contributor to the ritual, more as a sort of medium through which to operate. These reports do confirm that the ritual has grown to require a steady supply of biscuits, the acquisition of which you'd previously assumed to be the most minor form of embezzlement imaginable, and apparently hovered on the precipice of success pretty much from week one and refused to cross that final threshold for almost half a year. Eventually the formidable witch got frustrated enough with being roadblocked at the final threshold, and at being mocked for it by a surprisingly mouthy Bretonnian river ghost, that she took it as a personal affront and reworked it entirely so that it could incorporate any type of water spirit, apparently to lend her threats to replace the Melusine with more weight, as well as paring down the time it requires to cast from a full week to a mere two days. Max reports that it's hard to say whether the tension between Niedzwenka and the spirit was simply a demonstration of a heavy-handed and domineering form of spirit-wrangling, or if it was a product of a ritual that seems to enrage the spirit contributor upon failure.

The final round-up of results presents a triumph on all fronts, albeit one requiring a careful smattering of qualifying footnotes, as all three rituals are capable of creating a tributary and thereby bolstering the Waystone Network anywhere it currently stretches to. However, the plain fact of the matter is that you're unable to take this back to the Colleges and begin implementing it entirely in-house, though you're still debating whether to call this a problem or an opportunity, as by chance or, more likely, by design, all three require resources or expertise outside the domain of the Colleges.

The Haléthan ritual, dubbed 'Roots of Stone', requires a working knowledge of the near-dead language of Was Jutonian - only spoken by the Hedgewise and a handful of extremely isolated villages. A second major limitation is that to be cast outside the Forest of Shadows, it requires someone descended from the Was Jutonian: those members of the Jutones tribe that stayed true to the Goddess of the Forest of Shadows instead of leaving Her and it to attempt to conquer the lowlands of what would become Westerland, and returning with nothing to show for it but a faith in the God of the neighbouring Teutogens, Ulric. A bloodline only really found within the Hedgefolk of Nordland and Ostland, as it happens. Fair enough, considering the ritual does call upon said Goddess for her assistance, and that it can be cast within the Forest of Shadows itself without that limitation suggests that it might be an actual requirement instead of an attempt to make the ritual unusable to outsiders - it could be that for the Goddess to intervene outside of her domain requires the presence of a bloodline that has been faithful to her for millennia.

The Dreaming Wood ritual, 'Liminal Germination', is mainly limited by requiring both the presence of, and a considerable amount of time spent within, a local Dreaming Wood. You're not yet knowledgeable enough on the subject to be able to say how much of a limitation that might be, though your understanding so far suggests that the kind of places that most need magical energies drained out of them tends to have a rather unruly Dreaming Wood as a direct or indirect result. Of the three rituals, this one possesses the most Collegiate fingerprints, as it uses Lingua Praestantia and has incorporated as a requirement a sort of ritual drinking horn that would be easy to source from the Druids or the Cult of Taal. It is also, of course, of no use anywhere that does not possess a Dreaming Wood.

The Hag Witch ritual, whose Reikspiel name of 'Aethyric Impluvium' is almost certainly the work of Max, might be the crown of the three, as it takes a mere two days to perform instead of the full week the other two require, and can be performed anywhere where liquid water can be found. It does require the presence, if not strictly the cooperation, of a water-spirit, which is outside the expertise of the Colleges - perhaps the Cults of Taal and Rhya might be able to help with that, or perhaps, as a last resort, the Elementalists of Nuln - and presents a danger in that if failed, the magical effort invested in the ritual goes to empowering and enraging said spirit. Another limitation is that it requires a grasp of Scythian, the language of the ancestors of the Kurgan, Gospodar, and Ungols, which is kept alive only as the arcane language of the magical traditions of Kislev.

You don't really begrudge anyone for perhaps having influenced the trajectory of the ritual so that the Colleges could not effortlessly steal all three and cut out their creators. All three would, under a strict reading of the Accords, normally be the prey of the Witch Hunters within the borders of the Empire. And from a certain perspective, that this might force greater cooperation between Imperial authorities and the magical societies of the Hedgewise, Eonir, and Hag Witches could be a benefit, rather than a limitation, of what you've done here. All in all, you're happy to call this a victory.

Haléthan Tributary Ritual, First Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Was Jutonian
Difficulty: Moderately Complicated
Description: The ritual calls upon Halétha to partially subsume a standing stone into the Hedge, so that it will draw magical energies out of the air and allow them to come to rest deep within the ground.
Consequences: If failed, local Winds will be riled up, making spellcasting more dangerous and aggravating local spirits.
Ingredients: Dowsing rod, standing stone, lodestone (consumed)
Conditions: The ritual must be cast by someone from the lineage of the Was Jutones, or within the Forest of Shadows.
Casting Time: One week.

Research Result: 68. Slightly increased casting difficulty.
Casting Attempt: 93. Success!

Roots of Stone, Second and Final Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Was Jutonian
Difficulty: Moderately Complicated
Description: The ritual calls upon Halétha to partially subsume a standing stone into the Hedge, so that it will draw magical energies out of the air and allow them to come to rest deep within the ground.
Consequences: If failed, local Winds will be riled up, making spellcasting more dangerous and aggravating local spirits.
Ingredients: Dowsing rod, standing stone, lodestone (consumed)
Conditions: The ritual must be cast by someone from the lineage of the Was Jutones, or within the Forest of Shadows.
Casting Time: One week.

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Dreaming Wood Tributary Ritual, First Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Anoqeyån
Difficulty: Moderately Complicated
Description: The ritual makes a standing stone exist simultaneously in reality and the Dreaming Wood, allowing it to draw magical energy out of the forest and sink it into the ground.
Consequences: If failed, plantlife in the area is cut off from the Dreaming Wood. Usually this means they will be outcompeted by other plants, but it can become the residence of any number of beings that may be hostile to the Woods.
Ingredients: A seed from the locally dominant form of plant life.
Conditions: A Dreaming Wood must be present, and the ritual must be cast by at least two people who have spent at least a week from the last month within it.
Casting Time: One week.

Research Result: 46. More casters.
Casting Attempt: 38. Failure.

Research Result: 100. Solid work.
Casting Attempt: 41. Failure.

Research Result: 49. Two results.
Research Result: 47. Shift of language.
Research Result: 37. New ingredient.
Casting Attempt: 67+20 (Gambler). Success!

Liminal Germination, Fourth and Final Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Lingua Praestantia
Difficulty: Moderately Complicated
Description: The ritual makes a standing stone exist simultaneously in reality and the Dreaming Wood, allowing it to draw magical energy out of the forest and sink it into the ground.
Consequences: If failed, plantlife in the area is cut off from the Dreaming Wood. Usually this means they will be outcompeted by other plants, but it can become the residence of any number of beings that may be hostile to the Woods.
Ingredients: A seed from the locally dominant form of plant life, a rhyton dedicated to a nature God.
Conditions: A Dreaming Wood must be present, and the ritual must be cast by at least two people who have spent at least a week from the last month within it.
Casting Time: One week.

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Spirit-Stone Tributary Ritual, First Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Scythian
Difficulty: Moderately Complicated
Description: The ritual forms an inverted spring that drains magical energies into the ground to fountain through the soil.
Consequences: If failed, the spirit will attack or attempt to escape from the caster.
Ingredients: Water drawn from the local river basin (consumed).
Conditions: Requires the cooperation of a Melusine.
Casting time: One week.

Research Result: 37. New ingredient.
Casting Attempt: 68. Near Success, +30 on next attempt.

Research Result: 55. Increased casting difficulty.
Casting Attempt: 67. Near Success, +30 on next attempt.

Research Result: 120. Solid work.
Casting Attempt: 129. Success!

Aethyric Impluvium, Fourth and Final Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Scythian
Difficulty: Fiendishly Complex
Description: The ritual forms an inverted spring that drains magical energies into the ground to fountain through the soil.
Consequences: If failed, the spirit will be empowered to attack or attempt to escape from the caster.
Ingredients: Water drawn from the local water basin (consumed), a biscuit (consumed).
Conditions: Requires the presence of a water-spirit.
Casting time: Two days.

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Back when you were designing Rite of Way, you interviewed a number of logistical experts in the potential terrain-induced difficulties that one might encounter when trying to move at speed, and took rather extensive notes while doing so. You have to stretch to imagine who it might be immediately of note for - road architects? Artillery logisticians? - but if it was useful to you, it might one day be useful to someone else, and not every paper you put your name to needs to shatter the status quo and carve your name among the stars. So you spend the time to get your notes in order and get to work on converting it to something more accessible to someone that isn't you.

[Writing: Learning, 76+29-10(Faded)+5(Library: Geography)+1(Library: Logistics)=101.]

It was never going to be a page-turner, but you can take pride in making it at least easy to get at. You took out your long-standing dislike of vague tables of contents and absent indexes to ensure that if information within these pages was of use to someone, they'd be able to find the part that's relevant to them. Not the greatest contribution to your legacy, perhaps, but if nothing else, it will get your name onto the bookshelves of people who otherwise would have no reason to read your works.

[A Compendium of Terrain Obstacles, 2489. Subject: Common, -1. Insight: Common, -1. Delivery: Competent, +0. Thorough, +1. Varied, +1. Accessible, +1. Useful, +1. Total: +2.]
 
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The problem with Rite of Way, and I do mean problem, I am not advocating for a 4AP focus on the thing is that its utility falls off a cliff if we get anything less than an ideal result.

What can RoW give us?
  • CF, any positive result would give us this, but it is also something we could get in a thousand other ways
  • Tactical mobility for imperial armies, relevant if we can teach if widely, it is already limited as both a free cast spell and an enchantment by being Battle magic so available to the 20 odd Grey Wizards who can cast any battle-magic past Smoke and Mirrors. the higher the casting number the smaller the number of people whll bother to learn or or dare to use it if they did learn it
  • Strategic mobility, this could be transformational, it could make it so any Grey Wizard who can cast FC spells would be able to allow whole units of the Imperial army to have mobility comparable to the World Roots or Beast Paths
 
Interesting that the Haléthan Tributary Ritual is arcane rather than divine.

And that the Spirit-Stone one is arcane rather than Witchcraft.
 
[A Compendium of Terrain Obstacles, 2489. Subject: Common, -1. Insight: Common, -1. Delivery: Thorough, +1. Varied, +1. Accessible, +1. Useful, +1. Total: +2.]
What was the Delivery? Competent, +0?

Because "thorough" is a miscellaneous factor rather than a 'How does this read?' factor. If a roll of 76-turned-111 is good enough to hit Compelling, it'd be another +1 bringing it up to a +3.


Delivery:
Impenetrable, -2. Either badly written or extremely technical.
Dull, -1. Readable but uncompelling.
Competent, +0. Delivers the information without tedium.
Compelling, +1. Gripping to anyone already interested in the topic.
Thrilling, +2. Genuinely fascinating, even to those outside the field. A rarity in academia.

Miscellaneous:
Thorough, +1: Author was able to get it 'on the slab' and study it at their leisure and with proper implements, or had a thorough enough understanding to be able to derive an almost complete theoretical understanding.

EDIT: Ah, it was "Competent", gotcha.
 
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Strategic mobility, this could be transformational, it could make it so any Grey Wizard who can cast FC spells would be able to allow whole units of the Imperial army to have mobility comparable to the World Roots or Beast Paths
This one is a bit over the top. Rite of way doesn't make you go faster or teleport you. It just makes the ground nice and flat. It's nothing like the speed of a world root or a beast path, it's like a decent road.
 
If nothing else, the Eonir now have a tributary that can be used in Laurelorn that doesn't need precious metals. And encourages getting help from the Colleges.

Not a bad result so far.
 
Er, should that 93 be a 113 since it got the +20 to it? Not that it matters I guess, since it worked out anyway.

... Actually, since Ranald's Coin activates twice... what was the other +20 Coin activation on? Or has it not happened yet? (EDIT: By which I mean, since Cadaeth's roll was the one that showed itself as getting the gambler applied to it, not Aksel's. Was there just not another Ranald activation since it simply was not needed or predicted?)
Erm... not sure what's going on here, some of these hyperlinks don't go to the right ones...

Like, the second Research Result links to the 35+20=55 one.

The second casting attempt is at least correct, because it had a +30 from the first casting attempt so even it rolled a 37 it is correct to make it a 67.
 
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It was never going to be a page-turner, but you can take pride in making it at least easy to get at. You took out your long-standing dislike of vague tables of contents and absent indexes to ensure that if information within these pages was of use to someone, they'd be able to find the part that's relevant to them. Not the greatest contribution to your legacy, perhaps, but if nothing else, it will get your name onto the bookshelves of people who otherwise would have no reason to read your works.

Centuries later, after a prolonged scrutiny and, ultimately, a purge of any and all materials pertaining magical theory published by the infamous Black Magister Everchosen Mathilde Nyancat Webber Kraggsdottir, this is the only surviving work she is remembered by. :V
 
The exact details make you raise an eyebrow - that the ritual can only be cast outside of the Forest of Shadows by someone of the bloodline of the ancient Was Jutones
Conditions: The ritual must be cast by someone from the lineage of the Was Jutones, or within the Forest of Shadows.
Err… I think some of the conditions on the Haléthan ritual have gotten mixed up a bit.
 
I said comparable to not identical, true it does not teleport, but it also works everywhere not just in a forest.
It really is not comparable. World roots are straight up teleporting and beast paths iirc are too. Rite of way makes nice flat roads but doesn't make anyone go faster then on any other decent road.
I will give you that it's more widely applicable then a world root though.
 
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