Ley Line and Source Spells

[JD Lail]

Note, this was oginally posted early on 10/1 but has yet to
appear on the list. I have chosen to edit it a great deal &
now I am re-posting it.

Have you ever noticed that there are more ley related spells
than source ones in the BoM ? This injustice must be corrected
forthwith ! By my count there are 10 ley line related spells &
actions as opposed to 6 that relate to sources and that does
not take into account all of those Rings of Ley.

My assumptions & definitions

Ley Lines in this context are temporary, wizard made things. They
are not part of the natural order. The deep ancient permanent Ley
Lines of the land are not considered here.

Ley Lines are not detectable without magical intervention but sources
normally are detectable.

Only one level of Spell/Counter spell is appropriate. Thus original
states will always persevere.

What caused the imbalance.

1)There is a set of detect and hide spells for the ley line and
not for the source. (+2 Ley line spells)

2)There were no spells devised that would create magical traps for
sources*. (+2 Ley line spells).

*(excluding the source guardian spell in the Net Book).

3)Sources being located in one place are not subject to being traced.
(+1 Ley Line spells,) IMO this act is unique to ley lines and no
no source equivilant is needed.

4)Some more of this springs from the fact that no spells of creation
or destruction exist. (+1 Ley Line spells,+1 Ley Line action). IMO
these acts are unique to ley lines and need no source equivilant.

Please note that I am not referring to create holding, rule, or
contest actions but something more basic.

5)There is no way to deplete, siphon, or enhance a ley line.
(+3 Source spells) These acts are unique (imo) to sources and no ley
line equivilant is needed.

As it turns out there are 3 unique qualities of each type (3-5) and
these cancel each other out leaving the culprits as items 1 & 2. So
it appears that spells are needed to;
1) Hide a source.
2) Find a hidden source.
3) Trap a source (perhaps 2 given that there are 2 for ley lines).

Any ideas for construction out there ?

L8R

[Mark A Vandermeulen]

On Wed, 4 Oct 1995, J. D. Lail wrote:

> As it turns out there are 3 unique qualities of each type (3-5) and
> these cancel each other out leaving the culprits as items 1 & 2. So
> it appears that spells are needed to;
> 1) Hide a source.

There's a realm spell for hiding an entire province (I think, or is it
from the netbook?--I'm getting so confused) so a lesser spell could easily
be made to disguise/hide a source manifestation.

> 2) Find a hidden source.

Shouldn't be too difficult: just a spell that locates a large confluence
of mebhaighl should do it. I can even see a compass-like magical device
that always points to the highest accumulation of mebhaighl in a local
area (and I can give a magio-scientific explanation, too: think of
mebhaighl as a magical substance that seeps up from the ground: the
"highest point" in the "magical topography" will be over a source
manifestation, and the "needle" on the compass is constructed in such a
way that one end is more "magically dense" than the other, and so always
ends up pointing "downslope" on the "magical topography.")

Of course, then you get into level-opposed spells for hiding and finding
sources, as usual.

> 3) Trap a source (perhaps 2 given that there are 2 for ley lines).

I personally think that a guardian is the best idea, whether elemental,
spiritual, or beastly, but I suppose there could be others. Perhaps a
physical trap would be best: what wizard, upon finally discovering the
source of his cheif rival, would bother looking for a pitfall trap
surrounding it? Or perhaps a dimensional trap: cross the line w/o the
password and end up in the Shadow World.

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu