Spell Review, Water

These are my thoughts on each spell. I don't expect any or all of these changes
to go in. I'd be happy with just one or two, especially the new spell ideas at
the very end.

Cloak of the Seven:

The singular reason other mages put a Learn slot into Elliueh, and probably the
most-abused spell on the list, both in recent memory and throughout TI's history
as far as I've been told. This was Sarathi's favorite thing to whine about, both
in and out of character, and I am loathe to discuss it overmuch because I simply
do not want to be seen as emulating his poor behavior in any way.

I will talk about it a little, though.

There is the matter of various echoes that still appear even while invisible
that probably shouldn't, like walking within a room but not through it, or the
echoes you get when eavesdropping from another room, or item manipulations
within the inventory, or how the cloak command echoes to the room and even shows
the cloak's short description, but those are essentially oversights and bugs and
I don't think I need to go on at lenght about them; just list them and move on.

At risk of sounding like Sarathi, I do want to bring up casting the spell on
others. The spell was made self-cast-only after Sarathi encouraged me (and I,
naively trusting my 2GL to not be a turd, listened) to make a bunch of Void
Snakes invisible in an attempt to ambush a bunch of people with them. The idea,
itself, was Briar's, and it seemed fine at face value, until I realized later
that there was absolutely no way it was A: fair to deal with and B: the snakes,
being dumb NPCs, could not follow the honor-system policy in the spell helpfile.

With that said, I think the spell could be expanded along the same lines other
spells have had extra features added to them, as could Facade, with a simple
limitation: Only Water mages can cast the spell on other people, and the spell
can only be cast on someone who either knows the spell themselves, or on their
or your own retainers; this can be flavored like, 'Those who are not familiar
with the experience of this spell's effects cannot benefit from it, as they will
immediately lose focus and break the spell.' or what-have-you.

The main benefit I want to preserve of that function is to encourage teamwork.
The advantage casting it on another mage or their retainers has is simple: They
can hold a spell they have evoked beforehand, and use it in an ambush, burglary,
and so forth. Knowing the spell themselves ensures there is no excuse for them
to break the spell's policy text. The same justification should work for Facade.

Contaminate:

This spell says it's subtle. It isn't subtle. It echoes to the room when you
invoke it, at least on specific containers, seemingly. Not being able to control
which poison you make with it, or which disease, makes it largely useless; it is
extremely difficult to get away with poisoning someone to start with.

It's unclear if it's intended, but poisons (and maybe diseases) created with
this spell cannot be cured with spells that ordinarily should. I have never, in
nearly a year of playing a Water mage, used this spell for anything besides the
highly masochistic game of "drinking mystery poisons for fun in the meeting
circle", and while that is a time-honored traditional Sanctum pastime I think
this should be more directly usable.

Consider allowing this spell to be used on a target directly, through the usual
Attunement - Etherpool - <Other Spell> means; consider allowing Water mages to
choose which poisons or diseases they inflict; consider adding poisons and
diseases that can -only- be inflicted by this spell, that are magical in nature,
and roll against the victim's mental statistics instead of just Constitution.

Diaphoresis:

This spell is one of the reasons people learn Water magic. It's kind of gross,
but the number one use for this spell is removing Wound Rot, which for some
unknown reason I seem to get every single time I get hit by literally any animal
after just one, superficial hit; or for unmarried characters who need to remove
the Pox after they use the breed command. Getting any other kind of illness is
fairly rare, in my experience.

Consider an additional invokation argument for diagnosing the illness without
curing it; consider allowing Water mages to collect the black sweat caused by
the spell in a vial that functions as if it were Contamined (as the spell) with
the disease thus purged, to then possibly be used on someone else; consider
allowing this spell to remove magical diseases created by Contaminate.

Etherpool:

This spell is the number one reason aggressive mages learn Water magic, by a
pretty wide margin. It's the only spell that'll put an attuned item onto
another character, and it does a very good job of it.

Consider adding an invokation argument that adds a delay to the arrival of the
item on the target; consider adding an invokation argument for Water mages that
causes the item to return to the Water mage after a specified amount of time.

Fool's Tongue:

I have never heard of anyone casting this spell on any other person, ever. Not
even once. Its effect is useless. It cannot be used subtly; using it in a room
with other people is a great way to expose yourself as a mage and nothing else;
it doesn't seem to affect thoughs, so Aquiel's Stalker is far better for talking
without other people understanding you; and it doesn't seem to combine with the
Riddle of Babel or Silvertongue to allow a group of mages to use it as a coded
languge in front of other people or as a battle-language.

This spell, besides I think one imbuement of a potion nobody uses anyway, could
safely be removed from the game to make way for another more useful Adept-tier
Elliueh spell, without it affecting anyone's gameplay, which means it is bad.

If this instead just -added- a unique language you can only speak while under
its effects, it might see some occasional, if niche use.

Icefence:

Makes a big wall of ice that blocks an exit. Cool, but you can't cancel it like
you can Chains of Tanios. I don't know what happens if someone ashes it. If ash
gets rid of it, it is strictly worse than Chains of Tanios for most purposes,
though its invokation thread is only three or so steps long and it goes really
fast. Like Whiff of the Beast and Somnii Succedaneum it is weirdly difficult to
cast because it imbalances the moons very strongly despite not being a GM spell.

If it interacts with Combustion melon-bombs in the same way Firehedge does, then
this spell is great. If it doesn't, it's serviceable-at-best. If ash -doesn't-
get rid of it, and you HAVE to bash it down or wait it out, it's one of the few
ways a mage can sideline a Knight without just killing them (trap them in a room
with no other ways out, like a phome, for example).

Consider allowing Water mages to cancel this spell; consider adding a Tower of
Tanios version that covers all exits, not just one, but each exit is then
canceled separately; consider making Ice Daggers either impart Dagger skill
based on the imbuer's Water skills, or being more durable based on Water skills,
or just remove Ice Dagger as a magecraft because it's currently a massive trap.

See Simulacrum suggestion toward the end for other uses of this spell.

Imago:

Bugged, and bizarrely difficult to learn or cast for what it does. Very useful
for hidden mages who want to help exposed mages do distance magic on people. Not
very useful for hidden mages, since the victim remembers the truth afterward and
casting the spell on someone exposes you're a mage to them.

When the bugs are fixed it's probably okay for what it is. I've had a total of
two occasions, ever, where I wanted to use this, to allow a friend to cast a
spell on someone I knew that they didn't.

Consider allowing Water mages to take a copy of a remember entry from someone
ELSE, so long as they know a keyword the other person remembered the person as;
consider allowing this spell to copy a random entry from another person's list,
if no name is specified, so long as that entry isn't already on the mage's list;
consider allowing this spell to be distance-cast; consider allowing this spell
to be used to share cnotes instead of just remember entries with automatic
addition of a cnote that records which cnote was shared with whom.

Kismet:

Weird spell. Luck mechanics are meant to be opaque to players, but this spell
just kind of reveals all of them through trial and error. Oddly, luck isn't a
factor in coded gambling at all, so this spell's obvious use doesn't work for
that. Might have some factor in success of breed command usage. The spell is
obvious to the caster and target and exposes whoever cast it, so the 'curse'
option is useless; I don't know why the curse is the default argument, either.

Strangely useful in resolving plots, almost useless otherwise.

Consider scaling the number of checks this spell works for with Water skill, or
for Water mages only, let it scale by Circle; give it a number of "charges"
that are expended one at a time.

Moment of Respite:

The only way to restore MV during combat, and a low-skill spell, so it could
theoretically be used multiple times. Occasionally extremely convenient when
you run out of food. I don't really think this needs many changes.

Consider allowing Water mages to use the spell in a hostile manner, to steal
MV from someone else at half effectiveness.

Nullem Oblivion:

Temporarily erases a specified memory and prevents new ones from forming. Cool
idea, but it also forces the victim to RP being a drooling braindead mook for
about 5 OOC hours, and the spell doesn't tick down while logged out, which is
really frustrating for whoever it's cast on. Two hours at minimum effort; still
usually way too long.

Seems like a spell somebody abused and got it nerfed, I've only ever used this
spell to transport people into Sanctuary without them being able to cnote the
discovery of the location/passphrase.

Consider letting this spell be used to break ongoing mental spells on the target
such as Aquiel's Stalker or Somnii Succedaneum; the only way to break these at
the moment is to log out, which seems cheesey and unintuitive (and should NOT be
a hard-counter for magic like that!). Consider splitting up the functions of
blocking a memory and blocking new memories. Consider allowing Water mages to
alter a memory, rather than delete it, and/or modify memories on a permanent
basis (including adding a cnote to the victim that specifies what, in specific,
was erased. Copy this from the clipboard like Dreamweave does so that the mage
can format it with @f so it's readable). Consider making it room-targetable,
such that anyone who walks in without Voidsense active is unable to remember
anything or anyone within the room (and hide everything from outside observers,
as if the room were empty, including via scan).

Consider splitting the above suggestions up into higher-skill-requirement
spells or as effects that require a higher skill to use those invoke arguments.

Ovinavem:

I've never seen anyone else use it. Secretly a really good spell, though it is
mildly bugged in a weird way. Besides the obvious use of traversing water 
without having to fly or use a boat, it also keeps you from getting dirty when
you walk through sewer tiles, which is a cool hidden function that should stay.
I like not having to bathe every time I run an errand.

Consider making this just a spell you cast on yourself instead of an object, and
making the egg into a magecraft item instead; consider making this spell a
bypass for statexits where you dive through water, like the underground lake in
the southwestish sewers.

Pillar of Water:

Situationally better than Moment of Respite. Apparently required for making a
new Moonwell of Elliueh, according to an old book I don't know is actually canon
or not. The spring it conjures doesn't disappear when you drink all the water,
which is odd. The spell description doesn't adequately describe how quickly the
spring conjured goes away (it's fairly quick!), but maybe it doesn't need to.
Useful as a source of water for Etherpooling out in the field.

Consider adding invoke argument to a container object to instantly fill it with
clean water.

Purge the Viper:

May not actually work. Poisoning is so rare that the only time I've tried to 
cure something with this was for poisons produced by Contaminate casts. Is an
okay spell on its own; produces Antidote and the other poison-cure magecrafts,
so it's useful for that if you prepare ahead of time.

Consider making it work on Contaminate poisons; as well as on drugs (it doesn't)
and maybe check that it works on poison whatsoever. It seems to just fail to
recognize a given target or object is poisoned, period. Consider allowing Water
mages of skill higher than that required to craft a given poison to cure that
poison and extract it into an object that can be used later. Consider making
this spell also work as a buff spell if it fails to cure a poison, providing a
bonus to any rolls to recover from or endure its effect.

Purifying Essence:

Almost cool. Cool thematically. Doesn't actually do anything other than un-
Attune an item. I have never actually wanted to do that. Might work on summoning
circles to dispel a demon; haven't had the opportunity to try it. This is the
'directed anti-magic spell', but it fails completely at that job.

Consider allowing it to disenchant talismans and other magecrafts with variable
effects based on the imbuer's skills, so that they can be reimbued by a mage of
higher skill for better effect; consider allowing Water mages to purify dirty
water sources with this spell; consider making it dispel a random magic effect
on a person if the caster's skill is higher than the skill of the mage who cast
the dispelled spell; consider allowing Water mages to dispel a spell by name or
cancel another mage's Wyrd if their skill is greater or equal to that of the
other mage.

Silvertongue:

This spell, along with Aquiel's Auspex and Stalker, is the favorite of every
"cast spells in my bedroom and nowhere else" mage on grid. For that kind of mage
(which is now, essentially, against policy; hooray!), this spell gives a huge
information advantage with absolutely no risk involved.

Consider allowing Sanctum mages to speak Eld aloud with this spell; consider
exempting Eld from this spell's effect for non-Sanctum mages.

Somnii Succedaneum:

Extremely powerful, and extremely janky. People who metagame this spell's
spinal chill echo will just flicker log to cancel it; I have had this happen
several times, by different people. It shows a huge amount of information, but
as it is an OOCly obvious magical effect, people tend to clam up or find an
excuse to leave the scene they're in if they notice the echo. If they don't
notice it, it's a great spell.

Works better if you sleep in an object with good MV recovery rates or have a
friendly mage (or better, Regnant Master) feeding you Ambrosia or casting Moment
of Respite on you when your MV is low, or both.

Consider letting Aquiel's Stalker work in both directions while this spell is
active. Currently, others can hear your thoughts while you're sleeping, but you
cannot hear theirs (because you are sleeping, and you cannot hear thoughts while
you sleep, with Auspex or otherwise). As such, it is hard to relay information
in realtime with this spell. Not impossible, though.

This spell should not break when the target logs out; it should resume when they
log back in, if the caster has not woken up on their end, though it should have
a normal spell duration to compensate.

Consider allowing this spell to work on your own nonhuman retainers, so that a
mage can leave pets around the city and spy on people through them.

Tears of Elliueh:

Excellent thematically, not very useful on grid. Super useful in plots (see:
Lothos Rebellion plot arc!) and as part of world lore in general. I use this to
explain why Darav has so many people despite being a desert (and I like to claim
that it is -why- Darav is a desert; greedy mages hoarding all the water in the
cities and leaving everything else dry and tainted!).

Also makes snow if it's really cold. That part is cute.

Consider making sandstorms that blind anyone who walks outside (treat all light
sources as off) if used in conjunction with Desert Heat to make it super ***;
consider making the effect last for 24-72 (random) OOC hours, as currently it
goes away pretty fast.

Thrum of Power:

Silly spell. Makes objects have the (humming) tag. I like to cast this on
specially-prepared bloodwood furniture that I've strung in as cursed a manner
possible, like my folding chair that groans when you sit on it, or my shield
that screams when you hit it.

Consider allowing Water mages to cast this on themselves, and thus substitute
their Water skill for skill in Singing or Strings or other instrument skills;
consider making the magic fishing pole (humming) instead of (Glowing); consider
allowing this spell to be used instead to yell really, really loudly, where the
echoed message extends out by 1 extra tile per 15 skill in Water (to a maximum
of eight tiles; think 'foghorn' levels of loudness); consider adding an invoke
argument when this is used on an object such that the object will speak or sing
the provided phrase when it is held and used, or perhaps when looked at or
appraised directly (because a painting that says hello when you look at it would
be a great gag gift).

Consider adding 'a large block of solid ice' as a forageable item to the
various mountain tiles around the grid, but only when it's snowing outside, or
as items that appear on those tiles the same way banks of snow do to make snow-
men or snowballs. The blocks of ice could be used in brewing for cold drinks to
give them a fun mundane purpose. The ice should decay over time, if slowly.Also,
could be used with master cooking to make ice cream, sorbet, etc. Can be foraged
year-round at the 2 rooms at the absolute highest point on the western mountain.

Consider allowing the Icefence spell to be used on a block of ice to create
five or six blocks of ice with matching decay timers to the original.

Weird pattern; none of the Water spells are named after or credited to any of
the Seven. Did Water magic not exist in Super Old TI? Did everyone just forget?
Or maybe the one nameless member was their Water mage?

These are groupings of ideas for the same kind or role of spell; I don't expect
all of the suggestions for each one to make it in (though it'd be cool).
Probably just some subset of each one.

Naiad:

Scouting spell for Water mages; Shadowmeld equivalent, Adept Water (~50) spell.

Spell duration is limited by MV. Can drink water to restore MV. No MV costs for
movement when it's raining. Can drink other things, too, and can become drunk.

Swims and traverses sewer tiles without losing MV. Uses more MV in tiles without
a water object of some kind in it, or a water flag. Pops like a bubble if MV
hits 0.

Can fly, but only in outdoor tiles, and only when it's raining.

Ignores water statexits like Avatars do.

Touching someone ends the spell and makes them wet, as if they stood in the rain
or took a bath.

Customizable short and long desc; use the invoke argument for the short desc and
the clipboard for the long desc. Appearance should be similar to a Water Avatar
or Water Astral mob, but very small; no bigger than the span of a hand.

No arguments should just default to a generic smol Astral mob, like a little
minnow or guppy or something along those lines.

Cannot be harmed by normal weapons. Instantly destroyed by throwing salt or ash
at it. Can squeeze through the bottom of closed doors if the door is not high-
quality (the kind only stone phomes and similar can have), or through the
keyhole, etc. Cannot enter rooms where salt has been scattered (or ashed rooms).

For Water mages, can become invisible by consuming half remaining MV, per Cloak
of the Seven.

Resting in the rain restores MV quicker.

Simulacrum:

Water minion. Fire of Life equivalent (75/X spell requirement).

All minion stats are equal to (Elliueh skill / 75) x 75.

Any skills inherited from another are equal to (Elliueh / 75) x subject's skill.

All stats and skills of minion increase by 10 if in an outdoor room in the rain.

Invoked with no arguments, creates an amorphous blob of water similar to the
sewer creatures from the Wasting plotline. Inherits languages and Water/Elliueh
skill from creator. Cannot wear armor. Cannot manipulate most items but can ooze
through doors (even locked ones) of low-medium quality. Fights with mattacks
only. Can drink things to restore MV and HP. Loses HP when squeezing through
doors and etc.

Invoked with a remembered player as an argument, creates a humanoid blob of
water in that player's likeness. Uses the remembered player's short description,
but copies from the caster's clipboard for the long description. Otherwise
functions as the no-argument version. Appearance must be obviously magical, or
appends a pmood that cannot be cleared that makes the magic appearance obvious.

Add three ice sculpture recipes to Artwork at Adept-level (matching stone ones).
Ice sculptures decay when it is warm outside. Ice sculptures are made from the
'block of ice' item outlined above.

Invoked upon an ice sculpture, animates that ice sculpture. Uses the sculpture's
short desc as the minion's desc. Uses the caster's clipboard contents as the
minion's long desc. Minion is obviously magical. Functions as a normal human mob
for most purposes. Cannot drink water to restore MV or HP. Loses HP at the rate
that resting restores HP in rooms with active hearths or other lit heat sources.
Loses MV at that rate also. Can wear clothes, manipulate objects, wield weapons,
etc. Inherits the creator's combat skills, or uses generic veteran guard skills,
whichever is higher.

Add a Magecraft recipe at Master-level with a large ice sculpture, an ice rose,
and a bottle of vodka as its ingredients. Creates a specially-prepared icy shell
that decays at the same rate as normal ice objects (to prevent stockpiling).Call
it 'Figment of the Formless' and credit it to the unnamed seventh member of the
Seven of old.

Imbuing the Figment of the Formless requires a remembered, online player as its
argument. This creates an ice sculpture minion (as above) that inherits its
short and long desc directly from the targeted player. If the targeted player is
in the room when the Figment is imbued, it copies their visible, worn equipment;
this equipment is made of ice and is extremely fragile (armor lasts 4-5 hits at
best). Inherits the target's physical skills, the creator's physical skills, or
uses the default veteran guard mob's skill line, whichever is highest.

Watery minions are temporary, expiring when their MV runs out or after a normal
spell duration expires. Ice minions are permanent. All function as retainers.

Form of the Formless:

Works as the Familiar spell, except it can only target Simulacrum minions.
Minions controlled in this way use the creator's Avatar stats or its own,
whichever is higher.

Invoked upon a Figment of the Formless minion, the minion ceases to be obviously
magical, and instead looks, for all intents and purposes, exactly like the
player copied. Will appear as the remembered player to those who have the player
remembered. Peeking the minion will reveal the illusion, spotting the lack of
breathing or visible breath in cold air, or other signs of warm life. The
minion's skin is ice-cold, and any interactions that touch the minion's illusory
skin should by policy reveal the illusion. The minion's desc should be player-
white, not NPC-yellow, while the illusion holds.

Upon invoking it in this way, the mimicked player receives a deep spinal chill,
just like the one Somnii Succedaneum causes (which both alerts them to something
odd happening, and limits metagaming of the Somnii effect).

The mimicked player themselves can immediately recognize that the Figment is
magical; however, they cannot remember any interactions with the Figment once it
leaves their line of sight, as if their memory was suppressed by Nullem Obliv.

Being in the same room as the targeted player will automatically break the
illusory effect.

The illusion can be manually be broken with the visible command, like Facade.

When the illusion is broken, the minion's short desc is changed to,
'an animate statue of ice resembling <original short desc>', and it becomes NPC
yellow, to signal which creature is the impostor.

Figment loses HP and MV as per a normal Simulacrum ice sculpture minion, and
will melt into a puddle if its MV or HP reaches zero, dumping all the items it
is carrying onto the floor.

Using this spell on a Figment minion only works if the mimicked player is
currently online. While the mimicked player is offline, the figment loses HP and
MV as if it were standing in a *** room, causing it to eventually crumble.