6. Find / Hide the Path

Sered Cycles of the Tree Peoples

Media: Willow / Beech / Palm

BTS: 70% (Wp)

ULT: 8SL hours

Materials: a stick or other pointer

Actions:  Find the Path: spin Materials to find the correct direction (they will indicate it if the Spell succeeds) / Hide the Path: point Materials at the path to be hidden and spin them to randomise the direction

Effect of Throw:

1 to 15    No Effect

³ 16    Max. Distance to Target Location = 2(T-11) miles

Duration:    4t hrs     -t(t-1)/2      (expires on reaching Target Location)

Range to centre of Radius (Lose the Path): 50d ft    -d(d-1)/2%

Radius (Lose the Path):    50r ft    -r(r-1)/2

Notes:

  1. The Spell may be Cast as either Find the Path or Lose the Path,
  2. Find the Path finds the shortest, most direct physical Path through a Forest to a Target Location sufficiently specified by Caster.
  3. Hide the Path makes an existing physical Path  through a Forest to a Target Location sufficiently specified by Caster impossible to follow by anyone who fails their saving throw.
  4. The Spell only works to identify or obscure existing physical paths through the Forest, which may vary from roads to animal tracks.  A "Forest" for this purpose will normally be woodland or jungle, but may be any Natural environment with Circs Mod > 0 provided it has paths (e.g. the Spell will not work underwater).  It will identify secret paths known only to the locals.
  5. Target Location must be known to Caster (though not to the same degree as for Teleport and similar Spells) or a public location known to other inhabitants of the Forest, and must be sufficiently described by Caster in the Incantation.  It must be a fixed (i.e. not moving or moveable) point that is unambiguously described.  Examples: a description such as "the exit from this wood" is insufficient, but a Target Location known to be outside the wood but within Max. Distance would find a path leading out of the wood towards Target Location.  "The place where our horses are tied up" is insufficient (as the horses may move or be moved) but "the place where we tied up the horses" may be sufficient if it is the place rather than the horses that is being specified.  A description such as "The But An Oak Tavern in Taur-na-Dúiren" is sufficient, as there is only one tavern of that name in Taur-na-Dúiren and it is well-known (even though it might in theory move to another location), but a description such as "The Secret Cave of The Ungwaith in Taur Ungolath" is insufficient (except for a Spider Cultist Druid of Taur Ungolath, as the location is not publicly known (even though inhabitants of that Forest may have been taken there as food by the Giant Spiders).
  6. Target Location must be within Max. Distance on Casting (calculated as the crow flies, irrespective of obstacles which would lengthen the Path).  Target Locations on other Planes or in the Otherworlds will usually be outside Max. Distance, unless there is an open Portal through which the Path may be followed and Max. Distance traced (even if the Path turns at that point), in which case Caster takes 2/3 T for Target Location being on other Plane.  Planewalking Effects upon the Caster do not count as such a Portal.
  7. For the Duration, the Caster and those travelling with them (but not anyone following them) can identify the correct Path to the Target Location, but do not know the distance to Target Location or the approximate length of the Path.  The Path will be traversable by the Caster / Target Being (though not necessarily safely), but they may still have to overcome obstacles.  When there is a choice of routes along the way, the Caster / Target Being will know which route is the shortest and most direct to the Target Location.  The Path will only follow existing tracks and paths and not go across country or open water.  There does not have to be a complete Path to Target Location, as the Spell simply identifies the one which leads most directly towards Target Location.  If the route so identified includes a pathless stretch, Caster's party will only be able to identify the Path if it is visible to them beyond the pathless strertch. The Path will not avoid traps, encounters or ways that others may consider illegal to traverse .
  8. Caster and their party do not have to follow the Path, which will still update if they take a different route.  If Caster / Target Being strays outside Max. Distance from Target Location, the Spell expires even if Duration has not yet expired.
  9. Hide the Path obscures all possible paths to Target Location within Radius for all Beings within Radius who fail their st.  It will not obscure paths leading in other directions, just all possible alternative routes to Target Location.
  10. Find the Path overrides Thievish and other attempts to camouflage or block a path, so long as the path has not been totally erased.
  11. If both Find the Path and Hide/Lose the Path Effects apply, they simply cancel each other out and the Path must be found in the normal way.