Quote:
Originally Posted by patchwork
Question 89 Aside from the stupendous hat, is there any reliable way to distinguish an Archmage, Mage or ordinary Imperial? Can Mages simply sense each other's power? How accurately and at what range? Is there some alchemical means of distinguishing them, and if so how involved, expensive and portable is it? Or could any Imperial be a Mage if, you know, they were wearing peasant clothes for some reason?
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Combining the scholarly fields of natural philosophy and alchemy has led to the invention of a device that can detect an individual with special abilities. A needle shaped lodestone that has been treated with a alchemical preparation can point towards a mage or archmage.
The alchemical preperation includes the blood of an individual with the power being detected so not just imperial mages can be found with this method.
There are a couple of catches however, the range is limited to a dozen or so yards when detecting a typical mage and twice that when detecting the more powerful archmages. The second problem is that a mage who can move objects with their mind can control the orientation of the needle if they are aware of it...
Summoning can in theory create a link to a being who can detect abilities, but the only entities known to have the appropriate abilities are difficult to deal with.
Question 90
The pit [edit: now "The chequered Field"] is an unusual portal that rather than allowing transport to another place instead "pulls" individuals, objects and creatures to its location when certain conditions are met.
How is this portal used?