Ars Magica 5e, Rhine Tribunal, 1220

Originally the barrier was a wall, that you 'opened' with magic. How it opened is somewhat up to you, though as it is Rego the results would stay as they are unless other magic changes them back.. or a team of men spent a day or two re-mortaring.

Indeed, the aura is holy, though not massively so. Out one of the small window slits you can see the castle not far away; you would imagine you are in the small chapel or a building near by it built behind the castle, on some cliffs above the river.
 

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"Perhaps", Leo say, "this was a gateway to another covenant site, that got turned over to the Church". He slithers back to the stairway. "One definitely feels the weight of the Dominion in there" he adds casually.

OOC: Ah, got it! I thought there was an actual door, which rather confused me. All clear now ;) Well, all except what is going on...

If it's up to me, then the stones that were once in the wall now form the efges of a path leading to the doorway, opening up into the room. Putting them back together again into the wall would, I'm afraid, require rather higher-level magic...
 

Gorgamesh

"So we are stuck with this opening I guess..."
Gorgamesh eyes Leo
"Maybe we can move a cupboard or cover it with a tapestry.
Seeing a lion and deformed magi will be a joke compared to what they'll see at night in here."
 



"Oh honestly," Ilshana mutters. "Step back a bit, and try not to make any noise."

The irises of her eyes flash with green light as she begins to murmur a spell, weaving her hands in complex patterns before her.

(I'd like to create a visual illusion of the wall there in the hole...as if it had never been opened.)
 

(I'd like to create a visual illusion of the wall there in the hole...as if it had never been opened.)

OOC

You are trying to create an image, so this is a Creo Imaginem effect. Going to the Imaginem guidelines on page 143, you can see that mimicking the specific wall requires a Perception + Finesse roll; AM will need to decide if it was high enough (hopefully, mimicking a wall that is right in front of you won't be hard).

It also says that an Individual amount is about the size of a human being - which seems about right to me, this is about the size of the illusion you want to create. This means that you can use the base guidelines given, and don't need to put in more power to create a bigger effect. If ArghMark decides that you need to increase size, then you'll need to add +1 magnitude to all the spell calculations below.

Moving on to the Creo Imaginem guidelines in the next page, I'd say you would want to use base 2 for two senses (sight + touch).

Now you need to add +1 magnitude to increase the range from Personal (the default) to Touch - you need to have the illusion form where your hands are waving, not on yourself (you can also use a larger range, like Voice - but that will just increase the spell's level needlessly).

The default duration is Momentary, which is hardly enough; you'll probably want to add +2 magnitudes to increase it to Sun. Higher durations are, of course, also possible.

The defailt target is Individual, which as I said above is enough.

Summing up, we've got a base spell level of 2, and +3 magnitudes, for spell level 5. (Further magnitudes will each add +5 levels, not +1 level - magnitudes add 5 levels past spell level 5.) The final spell is hence

Ilshana's Instant Wall
Range: Touch, Duration: Sun, Target: Individual
This spell creates the illusion of a wall segment. The illusion affects both sight and touch, but offers no resistance.
(base 2, +1 touch, +2 sun)

Now you need to cast it. That's handled on page 81. Your casting score is Creo + Imaginem + Stamina + Aure Modifier (whatever ArghMark says it is), which is about +12 for you (sans aura). Since you don't know the spell, you need to cast using Spontaneous Magic. There are two options - Non-Fatiguing has you divide your casting score by 5, which brings it to about 2, so you can't reach the desired spell level this way. You have to use the Faitguing option. This means rolling a stress dice, and adding your casting score, and then dividing by 2. If this comes out to 5 or more, you've cast the spell succesfully.

So, in practice, you need to:
* Make a stress roll, add your casting score (+12+aura), and divide the total by 2. Assuming the aura isn't too bad, and you don't botch, this should be about 5, enough to cast the spell.
* Make another stress roll (ArghMark can decide it's a simple roll, but that seems unlikely in the circumstances), and add your Perception + Finesse. If this is high enough (ArghMark's call), the wall appears good enough to fool (most?) people.

If any of these botches... well, that could be interesting... :)

The wall will probably suffice for cursory examination, but anyone trying to push through it will. It will fade at sunset.
 




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