Visable Fetchs ???

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From: Dave Cordes (dave_cordes@cl_63smtp_gw.chinalake.navy.mil)
Date: Wed 02 Nov 1994 - 03:54:39 EET 

CL QM-SMTP gw                 Visable Fetchs ???
David Dunham X-RQ-ID: 6820

>You succeeded, but didn't Critical, in your Library Use roll. According to
>the errata (no doubt posted somewhere the Internet-enabled can get it),
>Visibility is a ranged spell.

Actually we have the errata. But our GM has not yet decided which, if any, of the changes he is going to incorporate into our game. He keeps asking us what we think. (dangerous question). And since there are 6 of us involved he generally gets anywhere from 5 to 8 opinions (some of us like to pretend we're illuminated). So my lack of a critical Library Use Roll was based on a mistake of perceptions. We have not yet incorporated the errata, so I didn't think to check it before quoting the book.

>>Or the spell could be cast by a shaman's fetch while the shaman was on the
>>mundane plane.

>Can you explain the logic for this capability? The only mention of fetches
>casting spells is while the shaman is discorporate. Given that a corporate
>shaman's spirit appears single, I don't think there's grounds for
>considering the fetch as a separate, spell-casting entity.

Since we couldn't find written game constructs for how shamans handle spirits, fetches, etc. Our GM decided how certain things should work. In particular, how a shaman gets a spirit from the spirit plane to the material plane. Our GM ruled that a spirit which a discorporate shaman defeats on the spirit plane, can be stored in his fetch (if the fetch has sufficient magic points). However, once the shaman returns to the material plane he can only use that captured spirit if he can get it transfered to the material plane. Since the fetch is on the spirit plane then any spirits that it is holding are also on the spirit plane.

Our procedure for a shaman collecting spirits is:

  1. Discorporate.
  2. Find a spirit that you want to keep or use.
  3. Defeat the spirit in spirit combat.
  4. Demand an appropriate one time service from the spirit. - or -
  5. Ask the spirit it's true name and then set it free. - or -
  6. If the shaman's fetch has sufficient magic points, store the spirit in the fetch.
  7. If the fetch has more room continue looking for spirits. Repeat steps 2-4.
  8. Return to the material plane.
  9. Prepare an appropriate binding to hold the spirit.
  10. Summon the spirit from your fetch to the material plane. This requires the appropriate summon spell. (ie Summon Wraith, or Summon Magic Spirit).
  11. Defeat the summoned spirit in spirit combat and order it into the binding.
  12. Leave the binding in an accessable place and discorporate again.
  13. While on the spirit plane have your fetch, who is now on the material plane next to the binding you left, order the captured spirit into the binding. Then return to the material plane
  14. Use the spirit that you now have stored in a binding as you wish. Knowledge of the appropriate Control spell will allow you to use the spirit more than once since you will be able to order it back into the binding when it is done.

Examination of these procedures will indicate some considerable limitations:

  1. A shaman cannot use a spirit in combat unless he has it stored in binding on the material plane.
  2. Storing a spirit in a fetch is only a temporary control. A shaman cannot order a spirit that is stored in a fetch to effect the material plane. If a shaman orders a captured passion spirit to attack someone. When the fetch releases the spirit it is on the spirit plane and cannot therefore sffect anyone on the material plane. The only exception to theis are INT and POW spirits. If a fetch is holding a POW Spirit then the shaman can draw on that's spirits manna. Likewise an INT Spirit that the fetch is holding can be used to store spells.
  3. Both of the techniques used to capture spirits require the shaman to know either the summon or the binding spells for the spirit they wish to capture. My arguement against some of these rules was that if a shaman already knew the summon and binding spells for the spirit type he was looking for, Why would he ever go hunting spirits on the spirit plane? He is much safer on the material plane. There he has the use of his fetch's power for defense during the spirit combat. On the spirit plane he is all alone.
  4. If a shaman wants to be immediately effective in dealing with the material plane he will have to be a walking storehouse of bound spirits. Summoning or hunting down a spirit everytime you need one is just too time consuming.

This brings me to the answer to David's (nice rune, by the way) question. The logic for having a fetch cast a visability on itself would allow the fetch and the shaman to interact together on the material plane. Then the shaman could avoid the repeated spirit combats or the repeated discorporations. He could store the defeated spirit in his fetch and then return to the material plane. There he could prepare a binding. The fetch could cast a visability on itself. Then when it appeared it could order the spirit into the binding.

But since it has been pointed out that a fetch can only cast spells while shaman is discorporated I guess we're back to repeating ourselves again. Either that or we just sit around and summon spirits, and not bother to do any spirit hunting on the spirit plane.

But I do have another reason for arguing for incorporation of at least one of the errata corrections.

David

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