Tower Environment Story Seeds

The Fallen Spider

One of the wall crawlers falls from the tower, something that should be impossible given the enchantment. It falls so far that little but a crater remains. But when the magi investigate, they find human remains, yet no sign of the crawler's control mechanism. Was it stolen or destroyed? Is this a tragic accident or something more sinister? Perhaps communing with what's left of the occupant may shed light on what happened.

The Dead Watcher

When the council is called to order, the magi discover the projection of a dead body in their council chamber. It appears that it is being produced by one of the circles used by each council member, but the body's identity is unknown and all the known circles are accounted for. Who is it? How did he die? Does this mean the council has been spied upon? For how long and by whom? And how did they get the laboratory text and the arcane connection needed to create their own circle?

Fickle Servants

A flock of magical crows has been persuaded to make the tower their home in exchange for watching the skies for signs of danger. Each year, the crows appear at the ritual casting of the Aegis of the Hearth to be welcomed anew into the covenant. But this year they haven't arrived. Unable to delay the ritual, a search party is sent to find them and bring them with all due haste.

The birds are gone, and all the grogs find is the last remaining crow, deep into her winter, her feathers sparse and her wings weak. She says that her grandsons and granddaughters have all flown away, tempted by a silver-tongued youth who flew on white wings, who offered them all the treasure they could want, if only they came to his tower.

But the fickle crows, in their desire for riches, have been tricked. They have been captured by a wind wizard intent on selling them to a magus who maintains a grand menagerie of enchanted beasts. The crows are locked in cages, their powers suppressed, awaiting such fate as their new masters decide.

A Fish Out of Water?

One of the covenfolk takes a strange fish to her husband, who takes it to the steward, who takes it to the magi. The silver-scaled fish has a long tail, fins that spread like wings, and the appearance of legs at its hind quarters. In fact, it looks very much unlike a fish, but it was apparently found in one of the ponds fed by the great waterfall. But what's more strange is that it appears not to be dead, but to be sleeping. What is the creature, how did it get into the pond, and just how do the magi wake it up?

Vim vis, after which the nail becomes a fixed arcane connection to the iron circle. Each wooden circle must then be opened with (2 x 5) 10 pawns of vis and the prepared nail hammered into it. The device is then ready to receive the following enchantment, which uses six pawns of the available space.

Convening the Council

Cr(In)Im 59

Pen: +0, Constant Effect

R: Arcane Connection, D: Sun, T: Circle

Projects the image, affecting of all the senses, of everything in this circle into another circle to which it has an arcane connection. The Intellego requisite also shows the contents of the remote circle, linked through the arcane connection present in the device, including all magically created species. It operates over all five senses, so that the magus in his own circle can see, hear, touch, smell, and taste everything that is projected into the distant council chamber.

Note, the species given off by the magus in the circle are not encumbered or inhibited by his Parma Magica and can therefore be sent from the local circle to the remote target. This is essentially an application of the common Haunt of the Living Ghost spell (ArM5, page 144) in device form.

(Base 5, +4 Arcane Connection, +2 Sun, +2 for moving images, +1 intricacy, +1 Intellego requisite; +1 for 2/day, +3 triggered at sunrise and sunset)

Required Lab Total: 1 season (118), 2 seasons (89), 3 seasons (79), 4 seasons (74)

The Lab Total benefits from a +2 bonus to constant effects granted by the device's shape, a ring, and a further +4 if the Traveling Laboratory is used to enchant the device in situ.

Gargoyles and Grotesques

Buildings of status across Mythic Europe are highly decorated, often with intricate stone carvings of allegorical scenes. These carvings also include gargoyles, statues or spouts that pour rainwater away from the tower, and grotesques, strange twisted demonic forms designed to scare away evil spirits. In the Great Tower, these grotesques could act as watchmen, scanning the skies for danger and reporting it to their masters.

Hermetic magi have many options when providing enchanted watchmen for their tower. These include finding and bargaining with magical creatures, or simply enslaving spirits and binding them into the forms of grotesques. Either of these overcomes the limitations of simple devices, chiefly their lack of thought and will. Particularly adept Verditius craftsmen may know the secrets of building automata and these, again, do not suffer the limitations of simple enchanted stone. Likewise, those who have rediscovered the ancient secrets of Heronic automata may build sentient devices, which can be put to work as guardians.

The following effects can be enchanted into a single stone grotesque, carved independently of the Great Tower, and they allow the statue to act as watchman, alerting the tower inhabitants to approaching danger. Each grotesque holds a small sliver of bronze taken from a mirror kept within the tower. These large mirrors are normally kept together in a viewing chamber, arrayed such that the observer can scan the skies surrounding the tower from the center of the room.

The enchanted grotesques must first be opened with 12 pawns of vis (base 4 for hard stone, x3 for medium size). The effects listed nearby use nine pawns of vis, leaving another three for further effects.

The Stone Watchman

InIm 40

Pen: +42, Constant Effect R: Personal, D: Sun, T: Vision

This effect gives an enchanted device the power of sight. The grotesque is carved such that it has discernible eyes and this effect gives it a field of vision

(Base 1, +2 Sun, +4 Vision; +1 for 2/day, +3 triggered at sunrise and sunset, +21 Penetration of 42)

Required Lab Total: 1 season (80), 2 seasons (60), 3 seasons (54), 4 seasons (50)

Projecting the Watchman's Gaze

CrIm 19

Pen: +0, Constant Effect

R: Arcane Connection, D: Sun, T: Individual

The images detected through the power of sight granted by the previous effect are projected onto the mirror associated with the bronze shard held by the grotesque. The mirror shows exactly what the grotesque "sees" at that moment and the image fills the mirror's surface. There is no restriction on the size of the mirror, and the larger it is, the more detail it displays.

Given the weakness of the stone watchman's vision, potential threats with strong magical resistance will not be relayed to the mirror. But the nature of the magical vision means that a silhouette within the image will be apparent, allowing an astute observer to make assumptions about what happens to be there.

(Base 1, +4 Arcane Connection, +2 Sun; +1 for 2/day, +3 triggered by sunrise/set)

Required Lab Total: 1 season (38), 2 seasons (29), 3 seasons (26), 4 seasons (24)

The lab total receives a bonus of +1 thanks to the prior Imaginem effect.

The Restless Watchman

Re(Mu)Te 24

Pen: +0, Constant Effect

R: Personal, D: Sun, T: Individual

Grotesques are designed to scare away evil spirits and often take the form of winged demonic beasts themselves. This enchantment increases the fearsome effect by giving the stone figure constant motion. The grotesque shifts on its perch, flexes its wings, peers around with its beady eyes, and snatches at imaginary insects with its stone claws.

This has two side effects. The first is that it increases the grotesque's field of vision, increasing the area of sky it observes. The second is that regardless of whether any evil spirits are fooled by the statue, mundane birds will rarely roost anywhere near the constantly moving stone beast.

This effect could easily be enchanted into a separate stone grotesque as a Lesser Enchanted Item.

(Base 3, +2 Sun, +1 Muto requisite, +1 affect stone, +1 precise control; +1 for 2/ day, +3 triggered by sunrise/set)

Required Lab Total: 1 season (48), 2 seasons (36), 3 seasons (32), 4 seasons (30)

Capture the Wind

ReAu 34

Pen: +0, Constant Effect R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Group

Enchanted into the arms of a windmill, this effect calms and channels the winds associated with even the strongest storms. This is essential for protecting the Great Tower from powerful winds that could cause the tower to shift and sway.

The base fifth magnitude design controls severe weather phenomena, and the Group target allows it to control and channel 10 individual storm winds. These winds flow around the tower, causing no harm. But sustained storms, either natural or magical, can overwhelm these devices. And of course, these devices have no Penetration, so elemental winds are unaffected.

If using the rules for damaging objects presented in City & Guild each of these devices provides a +1 modifier to stress checks caused by storms (page 77).

(Base 5, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +2 Group; +1 for 2/day, +3 triggered at sunrise/set)

Required Lab Total: 1 season (68), 2 seasons (51), 3 seasons (46), 4 seasons (43)

Defects introduced through experimentation may cause the device to fail in certain weather, such as rain or snow, or it may give the effect a Penetration score, which may allow it to capture a small spirit of the air that the magi might need to release.

The Waterfall

ReAq 59

Pen: +0, Constant Effect

R: Arcane Connection, D: Sun, T: Part Deep underground, amid the foundations of the tower, several great cisterns collect and store the water that runs in from a nearby stream. This device, in the form of constantly turning waterwheel, magically draws water through a channel up into the tower and over the wheel, where it then cascades back down again.

Water can be collected and channeled from both the ascending stream and the waterfall. The constant flow of water helps to freshen the environment, and chambers can be built within the tower to collect the water, allowing small ponds and streams to form.

The wheel's rotation can be stopped, which suspends the effect. This is done so that the wheel can be raised to a new higher position within the tower. This is likely to become an event of some significance, representing as it does not just the passing of time, but also the growth of the tower.

(Base 10, +4 Arcane Connection, +2 Sun, +1 Part, +2 size; +1 for 2/day, +3 triggered by sunrise/set)

Required Lab Total: 1 season (118), 2 seasons (89), 3 seasons (79), 4 seasons (74)

The wheel provides +2 bonus for a constant effect.

The Endless Well

ReAq 65

Pen: +0, 24/day

R: Arcane Connection, D: Momentary, T: Individual

This enchanted bucket draws water from a remote well, by instantly transporting it into the bucket as it is tipped up. Given the height of the tower, it may not be feasible for covenfolk to fetch and carry water between levels, so these buckets replace the need for wells. Such a device may also be useful aboard a ship, where it can reduce the need to carry fresh water, or to those crossing the desert.

This device is first prepared by having an arcane connection to a spring, well, or other body of water fixed into a bucket. A season is spent preparing the bucket in water collected from the well and a pawn of Vim vis. The magus must attend to the activity throughout the season, at the end of which the bucket has become a permanent connection to the well.

It is then opened for enchantment with 10 pawns of vis (base 5 for iron, x2 for medium size) during a second season, and the effect can be enchanted from the third season. Although primarily of wood, the bucket is strengthened with iron straps. It is opened as a compound device, with the iron straps the most expensive part to open.

A base effect level of 40 has been used for this device. The starting point for this is the base effect for "Control liquid in an extremely violent way," as per ArM5, page 124, which is then modified based on the difficulty of transporting a Corpus target over a range of distances. Applying one magnitude for transport over five paces, two magnitudes for transport over 50 paces, etc. By following the progression under the Rego Corpus guidelines, we arrive at a base effect level of 40 allowing the effect to transport water to a location defined by an arcane connection.

(Base 40, +4 Arcane Connection; +5 for 24/day)

Required Lab Total: 1 season (130), 2 seasons (98), 3 seasons (87), 4 seasons (82)

As a bucket, the device provides a +5 bonus to transporting water.

Of course, there are alternatives to enchanted buckets or unnatural waterfalls.

Devices could be enchanted that transported water less frequently but in greater quantity, in order to refresh cisterns built at intervals as the tower rises.

Gardens and Orchards

CrHe 19

Pen: +0, Constant Effect R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Room

A number of large halls within the tower serve as gardens, fields, and orchards. This effect, enchanted using the Traveling Laboratory described earlier, ensures that the plants grow well throughout the year. The plants still need soil, sunlight, and rain, and this spell has little effect if the plants do not have at least these essentials. But gargoyles can collect rain as it falls and route it to these indoor gardens, and simple magic or large open arcades can provide all the sunlight that the growing plants need.

As the gardens and orchards are sub-

ject to constant magical effects, warping will accumulate at the rate of one Warping Point per year. This means that trees and other plants that remain within the orchards will eventually show signs of warping. This may manifest either as flawed crops, reduced yield, or even a slowlygrowing sentience.

(Base 1, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +2 Room, +1 size; +1 for 2/day, +3 triggered at sunrise/set)

Required Lab Total: 1 season (38), 2 seasons (29), 3 seasons (26), 4 seasons (24)

The Traveling Laboratory provides +4 to the lab total.