Construction Magic
The most obvious way to begin the construction of the Great Tower is to create a vast tower through ritual magic. The existing Conjuring the Mystic Tower ritual (ArM5, page 153) widely known across the Order does just this, but the tower it creates is somewhat mundane in its proportions, being only 80 feet tall. To even start the Great Tower, a much more potent ritual needs to be invented, and such a ritual may be beyond the abilities of a single magus to achieve without collaboration. But with that ritual in place, the magus can then invent another ritual to conjure further levels onto the tower. The risks associated with Creo rituals mean that they cannot be used to indefinitely build the Great Tower. In that case, various smaller effects to make the work of mundane craftsmen easier can be created.
Both Creo rituals and Rego craft magic rely on the Finesse ability to ensure the quality of conjured and worked things. Creo rituals always produce items that are at least the right sort of thing and are fit for their intended purpose. The aesthetic quality may be lacking given a low Finesse roll but sections of tower created through Creo ritual magic only fail if the roll botches. A failed Finesse roll creates a section of tower of shoddy quality, while a successful roll creates a standard quality section, which has a bearing on how robust the tower is. See ArM5, page 77, for a discussion of Creo magic and Finesse. Magi and their craftsmen alike would do well to learn and practice Finesse, so that spells and enchanted tools can be used to best effect.
Many of the craft magic devices later give the mason a bonus to his Craft: Mason score for determining how long a given level of the tower takes to complete. The bonuses from each device are cumulative, but each type of device can only be counted once, so two chisels enchanted with the same craft magic effect only provide the bonus once. The total bonus received by the mason is capped by his Craft: Mason score.
Conjuring the Great Tower
CrTe 55
R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual, Ritual
This ritual creates the foundations and first two levels of the tower. As the ritual concludes, the walls of a vast tower rise from the ground, surrounding those taking part in the ritual. The walls are vast, but the real power of the spell is shown below ground. The foundations extend deep into the earth, forming cellars, crypts, and cisterns between the immense stone pillars driven into the ground.
The time taken to develop this ritual is spent not only in learning how to draw the complex magical forces together, but also in designing the foundations and the lowest levels of the tower, which are filled with rooms, cloisters, courtyards, and arcades.
Creo magic that creates artificial things, such as this huge tower, requires an Int + Finesse stress roll against an Ease Factor, in this case, of 12. If the roll fails, the tower is still successfully conjured but may require additional work to improve its appearance or to repair defects introduced by the casting. A failed Finesse roll creates a section of tower of shoddy quality, while a successful roll creates a standard quality section. If the Finesse roll botches, the foundations are not strong enough to support the tower and a stress check against damage is required each year.
The +7 magnitudes for size creates a circular tower of two levels, 2,000 feet in diameter, standing 40 feet above ground level. The high modifier for the elaborate design is required for the precise placement of the foundations, a hugely important factor in a tower this large.
Casting this ritual causes a +1 preternatural tether, as per Realms of Power: Magic, page 10. If the site has no supernatural aura, this creates a level one Magic aura.
(Base 3, +1 Touch, +7 size, +4 elaborate design)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (110), 2 seasons (83), 3 seasons (74), 4 seasons (69)
The high Lab Total required to invent this ritual may persuade a magus to invest time in designing a laboratory to help with this and later effects. And even after such bonuses as that provides, experimentation may still be an attractive option. Side effects may include the over-expression of the magus' sigil or per-
sonality in the tower, or the tower may be made of an unknown stone, the properties of which the magus must investigate. They may also make the Finesse roll more difficult as the magical energies strain away from where the magus tries to direct them.
Heights of the Great Tower
CrTe 50
R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual, Ritual
This ritual conjures four fully-formed levels of the Great Tower, each 20 feet in height and building directly onto the level below, adding 80 feet to the tower in an instant. As with conjuring the foundations, this ritual requires an Int + Finesse stress roll against an Ease Factor of 12. A failed Finesse roll creates a section of tower of shoddy quality, while a successful roll creates a standard quality section. Botch dice on this Finesse roll are equal to 1 + 1 for each other level where the magus failed to meet the Finesse roll (failures should be recorded for future reference). This represents the inherent complexities and dangers of the project.
Botches on this roll should be handled as story events, but clearly a botch in creating and assembling several thousand tons of stone is going to be significant. As the tower grows, the complexity of controlling the magic also grows, as does the risk of disaster, which may act as a limiting factor on the number of levels a magus would feel safe in conjuring.
Note that by increasing the level of this spell by one magnitude, 40 levels of the tower could be produced, and 400 levels could be produced by increasing the spell by two magnitudes. But doing so should have a direct impact on the number of botch dice for the required Finesse roll. For each additional magnitude of size, add +3 to both the botch dice and the Finesse roll Ease Factor.
Casting this spell creates a preternatural tether of 1 and adds +1 to the aura variation modifier.
(Base 3, +1 Touch, +7 size, +3 elaborate design)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (100), 2 seasons (75), 3 seasons (67), 4 seasons (63)
The Quarryman's Gift of (Stone)
CrTe 35
R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual, Ritual
Safer than conjuring thousands of tons of stone atop an already growing tower, this spell creates enough stone for quarrymen and stone cutters to keep mundane craftsmen supplied for as long as it takes to build one new level. The amount of stone created is vast, something like ten million tons, or a block of stone 215 paces on each side.
The type of stone created is particular to the ritual's design, so variants must be designed for each of granite, limestone, and marble, for instance.
(Base 3, +1 Touch, +7 size)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (70), 2 seasons (53), 3 seasons (47), 4 seasons (44)
The Arms of Hercules
ReHe 40
Pen: +0, Unlimited Use
R: Sight, D: Concentration, T: Group
This large crane is used by mundane craftsmen to raise blocks of stone from hundreds of feet below them to where they need it, solving two problems from which its mundane counterparts suffer. First, it can move the stone from any point that the operator can see to any other such place under the operator's guidance. Second, the crane can effortlessly lift huge weights in a controlled manner where others strain and buckle.
The Arms of Hercules is a huge wooden structure, requiring 10 pawns of vis to prepare it for enchantment. As a crane, it provides a shape bonus of +5 to effects that lift things. This effect only uses four of the available 10 pawns of space in the device.
Use of the Arms of Hercules crane adds +1 to the Mason's Craft: Mason ability for the purposes of determining how long the structure takes to build (City & Guild, page 68).
(Base 4, +3 Sight, +1 Concentration, +1 Group, +1 Size; +10 Unlimited Use)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (80), 2 seasons (60), 3 seasons (54), 4 seasons (50)
The crane's shape bonus provides +5 to the Lab Total.
True Falsework
ReHe 30
Pen: +0, 24/day
R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Group
A character using this enchanted leather glove is able to build a discrete section of falsework, scaffolding, shoring, or centering in a moment by touching the glove to a pile of wood and rope. Wooden dowels are formed to pin the joints together, which are strengthened with the rope to provide a stable structure. The falsework can be of any design.
The standard Rego craft magic Perception + Finesse stress roll is required against a variable Ease Factor:
| ase Fac tor |
|---|
| 9 |
| 12 |
| 15 |
Particularly elaborate falsework may have higher Ease Factors.
Having one or more characters use the glove for a year adds +1 to the mason's Craft: Mason score for the purposes of determining how much is achieved during that year.
(Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Group, +1 flexibility; +5 24/day)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (60), 2 seasons (45), 3 seasons (40), 4 seasons (38)
The Lab Total benefits from a +4 bo-
nus for affecting things by touch, due to its Shape and Material bonus as the effect is enchanted into a glove.
The Stonemason's Art
Re(Pe)Te 15
Pen: +0, Unlimited use
R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual Given a single block of stone, this chisel enchanted with a Rego craft magic effect chips away at the stone under the control of its wielder to create the correctly formed shape, be it part of a column, a ceiling rose, or a fully-formed statue.
A Per + Finesse stress roll is required to control this spell against an Ease Factor that increases with the complexity of the piece.
| Item | Ease Fac tor |
|---|---|
| An even stone block | 9 |
| A column drum | 12 |
| A ceiling vault rib | 15 |
Use of this device adds +1 to the mason's Craft: Mason when determining how long construction takes.
The Perdo requisite is required as the spell does not simply process or rearrange components but diminishes the stone, by destroying parts of the block, in order to do its work.
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +1 stone, +1 flexibility; +10 for unlimited use)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (30), 2 seasons (23), 3 seasons (20), 4 seasons (19)
This device is best designed as a lesser enchantment, as even a small iron tool takes 10 pawns of vis to prepare for enchantment. The shape of the chisel provides a bonus of +4 to shape or destroy stone, which means that the magus only needs a Lab Total of 26 to enchant this effect in a single season. Experimentation may help to reach this, in which case the chisel may produce particularly attractive or unsightly work, or may introduce flaws to the stones that may only be noticed when it is too late.
Hermetic Projects
The Laborer's Rest
ReTe 25
Pen: +0, Unlimited Use
R: Voice, D: Concentration, T: Individual
This small wooden wand allows the wielder to move blocks of stone with the power of his voice. The blocks are hefted into the air by magical forces, following their master's commands.
Use of this device adds +1 to the mason's Craft: Mason when determining how long construction takes.
(Base 3, +2 Voice, +1 Concentration, +1 stone; +10 for unlimited use)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (50), 2 seasons (38), 3 seasons (34), 4 seasons (32)
The wand provides a +4 bonus to control things at a distance. Experimentation may distort the effect, so that any one stone block can only be targeted once, or the effect might be restricted to certain types of stone.
The Water Wheel
ReHe 44
Pen: +0, Constant Effect
R: Arcane Connection, D: Sun, T: Group
This water wheel is seeded with arcane connections to other water wheels located elsewhere in the tower. As another water wheel is made, one of the slats of the wheel is processed to make a fixed arcane connection. This arcane connection is then fitted into the central wheel, allowing the device to act over the remote wheel.
As the main water wheel turns, each other wheel to which it has an arcane connection turns at the same pace, as though it was pushed by the same force of water.
By tying the action of the targets to the action of this wheel, the base effect is reduced, from moving the target in an unnatural fashion to a natural fashion, because of the action of the water. In this way, the central water wheel powers grain mills, forges, cranes, and other devices.
Each craftsman that can make use of a wheel gains a +1 Innovation bonus to his Workshop Total. This cannot take the workshop's total innovation bonus beyond +3.
(Base 3, +4 Arcane Connection, +2 Sun, +2 Group, +1 size; +1 for 2/day, +3 triggered at sunrise/set)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (88), 2 seasons (66), 3 seasons (59), 4 seasons (55)
The shape of the wheel provides a +2 bonus to constant effects.
The Flying Buttress
ReTe 29
Pen: +0, Constant Effect
R: Personal, D: Sun, T: Individual
One distinctive feature of cathedrals across Mythic Europe is the set of external supports, or buttresses, that help strengthen and support the structure's walls. These work by distributing the weight, load, and lateral forces placed on the structure by its own mass and, in particular, the roof.
Buttresses in mundane buildings need to be anchored firmly into the ground to disperse the forces, but this is impossible with the Great Tower. In this case, the buttresses must support themselves through Rego magic.
These devices take the form of small pillars external to the Great Tower. They are connected through stonework built out from the tower to the buttress, usually in a sweeping arch, but a straight bridge of stone may be used. Each buttress is enchanted such that the pillar floats in mid-air and resists all attempts to move it from its position. This provides a +1 modifier to stress checks against events that threaten to damage the tower. The Great Tower can benefit from a number of these devices equal to the master mason's Craft: Mason score.
The buttress may be used for other purposes, such as a supporting a watchtower, though building any more than a simple room on top of the pillar detracts from its primary purpose and negates the +1 bonus.
The additional magnitudes for size in
the effect design ensure that the buttress resists the weight of the tower bearing down on it.
(Base 3, +2 Sun, +1 stone, 3 size; +1 for 2/day, +3 triggered at sunrise/set)
Required Lab Total: 1 season (58), 2 seasons (44), 3 seasons (39), 4 seasons (37)
The relatively low lab totals required for this device means that it could be enchanted as a lesser device in a single season. The resulting lab text makes subsequent copies easier still.