Void Messenger-Hearable by Auspex

[Eldar]

This one is pretty self explanatory. I strongly feel that void messengers should be considered thoughts, and 'pose' to the room as such, making it possible to pick them up via auspex. Instead of treating it as a regular thought, maybe put in something like 'a thought suddenly inserts itself into a woman's head.

Currently, there is no risk for discovery when using a void messenger, as, outside of the player flat out telling them what happened, it's completely undetectable. This would create an element of some risk to using the spell. After all, you never know who might be listening.

[Kinaed]

Agreed.

[Onyxsoulle]

Love that idea! :D

[Dice]

I actually don't like this because the risk is too high. It immediately means the person targeted is marked out as a known friend/confidante of a mage if the Auspex's overheard, and there's no reasonable way for the caster to avoid it. Magic should be able to get you caught IF you're careless - but it shouldn't require extreme effort to avoid being caught just for using a spell for its intended purpose.

[Geras]

I'm a little confused as to what's being suggested here...

Would muggles see the "a thought inserts..." pose, or only mages who have Auspex up?

[Bennie]

I'm a little confused as to what's being suggested here...

Would muggles see the "a thought inserts..." pose, or only mages who have Auspex up?

My understanding is that it would only be mages with auspex up that would see it. Just like they see other people's thoughts as "A man thinks..." Muggles would still see nothing, just like with thoughts as usual.

I am split on this issue, honestly. I see Dice's point on it being a bit of a risk you can't really reduce by being careful. All the same, Void Messenger always seemed a little -too- safe for my taste. Not to mention that fact it is a very powerful spell. Sure, it doesn't kill people or do damage, but it is a way to disseminate information remotely, instantly, with no cost and no evidence. Information is power in TI, especially when it comes to the order-mage conflict.

I think that perhaps putting this in would make void messenger just a little bit more of a risk. I understand that by using the spell, I endanger myself and my target. If I'm going to use it and take that risk, I best have a very good reason.

In a perfect world, there would be a way to take precautions with this spell, but I can't think of a way to do that. In my opinion, the interests of making sure the powers of this spell are attached to some risk holds precedence.

[Onyxsoulle]

In my opinion, there is actually little risk in this. True, a mage with auspex up could hear the thought being sent by Void Messenger.

Steve is a void mage with Auspex up.

Tom may or may not be a mage, but he's thinking, " I need to buy milk later on."

Voidmage123421553 sends Tom a message, " Hey Tom, got the stuff, meet me at the place."

OMG! Steve just found out that Tom (at the very least) knows and interacts with a mage.

And thus rp was born, Steve now may have a reason for interacting with Tom, if Steve cares.

It's not like everyone in the Order will automatically know what Tom heard in his mind. If Steve tells on Tom, the first thing that's going to be asked is how did Steve come up with this information, which puts Steve on the spot.

All Tom has to do is deny what was reported. Plus, this is all dependant on if Tom is by himself, if there is more people in the room (males obviously), the mage won't know who it was(unless like in my example, Tom's name was used.

Overall, I think it makes sense for Void Messenger to be 'heard' with Auspex. That's the point of Auspex, you hear thoughts of those around you, and by Void Messengers description, it is indeed a thought, one that is at the forefront of the mind at the time, so it should be caught.

Personally. I think that if people don't want to be caught sending messages to people in this way, send a regular message, rp it as a thrall or something.

[Geras]

You wouldn't necessarily know it was Tom either then. I'd be fine with that.

[Applesauce]

Not sure how I feel on should it be heard vs should it not be heard, but thought I'd throw a wrench into how it's displayed:

Is the thought considered the receiver's own thought, or the sender's thought INSERTED into the receiver's mind? Meaning, Johnny Mage sends Mary Sue a thought, "I'll meet you at the Park." The "I" is Johnny, so should the output be "A man thinks..."?

Could be argued either way, but the few Void Messengers I've been privy to have never been phrased in the native way the receiving character usually thinks, so it makes sense to me to use the sender as the true origin. Plus it's one more level of deniability - if there's one man and one woman in the room, there's no way for the eavesdropper to know who the recipient was.

Unless of course the message is "Mary, this is Johnny, meet me at the Park," obviously.

[Eldar]

As an added sense of 'security' perhaps if the target has voidsense up, then the void messenger could not be heard by others? It's already used as protection against several spells. (vision of leagues comes to mind) so why not add this to the list of things it could defend against at the same time?

Jusa thought about the issues being raised on this.