Mystic Aegis
Jamie's Esoterica / Jamie's Character Sheet
Level 6 Hermetic Thaumaturgy
This rune provides protection against magic that affects the protected object or person. Blood Sorcery, other forms of “hedge magic,” and the True Magick used by the mortals who call themselves Mages are all more difficult to use against the target.
System: The caster starts by drawing onto or etching a rune into the item to be protected. A rune etched into a mystic talisman or a tattoo may serve to protect a person: the materials used to make inks or stains are specific to the material the object to be protected is made of, and generally quite rare. The caster then infuses the rune with quicksilver, while reciting a complicated chant that takes 20 minutes to complete.
If the caster is attempting to tattoo the protection onto a vampire, the recipient may spend a point of willpower. If the recipient does not spend the willpower, the tattoo disappears normally as his or her vampiric body reverts to its "natural" form over the course of the next day. Obviously, the failure of its physical anchor will destroy all affects of Mystic Aegis.
Once the rune is completed, it provides one level of protection per two successes on the casting roll (round down). Each level of protection removes 1 success from any magic that affects the protected object or person. Protected individuals are alerted whenever the Aegis is activated. A botched Mystic Aegis increases the effect of any hostile (storyteller's discretion) magic that affects the protected object, and randomly alerts the user about bogus attacks.
Mystic Aegis grants only limited protection from area effects: The area effect is reduced (or negated) by the appropriate number of successes for the protected object or person only, but has full effect everywhere else. Thus, a well-enough protected individual may be able to walk untouched through a bonfire created by Lure of Flames, though the character must still roll Rotschreck, and will be affected normally by any mundane fires started by the magic. Similarly, the character may be unaffected by a bolt of electricity thrown down a hallway by the user of the Path of Levinbolt, but those behind him are affected normally. This protection extends to things carried or worn by the character, within reason.
Mystic Aegis may "stack" with the effect of the Path of Countermagic: re-enforcing reality in multiple ways is encouraged, not discouraged, by consensual reality.
