Certamen

Certamen can be used to gain an Arcane Connection in two ways. First, a character can challenge another character for some item that can be used as an Arcane Connection. Examples of this could include:

• • A claim that the book a character is writing is plagiarized. Certamen is fought for possession of the manuscript. The manuscript is a short-lived Arcane Connection to the writer.
• • A claim that a character's favored eating knife is stolen. Certamen is fought for possession of the knife, which is an Arcane Connection to the true owner.

Of course, such Certamen challenges are likely to be considered vexatious by the Tribunal. However, Tribunals only occur once every seven years, by which time the Wizard's War may well have been fought. In this case, paying a small vis fine to the estate of the victim to compensate for injudicious use of Certamen is not too troubling — assuming the case is ever brought to the Tribunal at all.

The other, less controversial use of Certamen to gain an Arcane Connection is the "free" spell a victor may cast on the unconscious loser, which bypasses the loser's Parma Magica. Of course, for this to be successful the character must win the Certamen match, without his opponent withdrawing prior to total defeat. In addition, as the Technique and Form of the "free" spell must match those with which the Certamen match was fought, the Certamen match must be fought using a suitable Technique and Form combination to allow the harvesting of an Arcane Connection. A possible example is the Wizard's Breath Stolen.

Wizard's Breath Stolen

ReAu 4

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual This spell traps the breath of a character and seals it into a glass phial held by the caster. The target's breath is a shortlived Arcane Connection to him (lasts hours; ArM5 page 84), but if the caster can quickly get to a Laboratory, he can fix the Arcane Connection.

This spell must Penetrate the Magic Resistance of the target to be effective.

(Base 3, +1 Touch)

Required Lab Total to invent spell: One Season (8), Two Seasons (6), Three Seasons (6), Four Seasons (5).