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Old 01-30-2013, 12:27 PM   #23
Proteus
 
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Default Re: Pros and cons of growing your own island nation?

How about using Ritual Path Magic? I've never played with the system myself, but always been intrigued.

Would it take Lesser Control Energy to fire up a volcanic seamount? (Lesser since it will "affect normal forms of the energy [e.g. magma] in simple, believable, and natural ways", MH1 p. 32, and "a mundane bystander would believe that the effect could have occurred naturally", MH1 p. 33). Presumably one could even have the initial stages of the eruption happen faster than normal, since outside observers wouldn't be overly surprised by unnoticed growth of an oceanic volcano. (Heck, we recently found out an entire island on Pacific maps didn't actually exist; the area is not spectacularly well-monitored.)

Then I'd guess you'd need Greater Control Matter to shape the resulting island as it formed (sheltered harbor where you want it, proper balance of hard rock versus easily-eroded pumice, etc.). I suppose a Lesser Strengthen Matter could also take up some of the load, if you didn't particularly care about the end shape.

And, then, a Greater Control Energy to reliably shut off the volcano once it had done the necessary work. (Although, would that be subject to duration costs to keep the volcano off, or just be a reversal of the initial impetus?)

I really don't know the RPM rules well at all, so I'm interested in any insights to this solution.

A rough reading does make me think that Weight, from the Ritual Effect Table, could well be the killer for this option. A mile-wide disk 500 feet thick is about 11 billion cubic feet, and basalt is about 188 pounds per cubic foot, so that's about 2 trillion pounds, or a billion tons, or a ritual effect modifier of +24 (for 1,350 x 3^13 tons).
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