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daforsto
Where in the books does it detail that a mage/shaman will know when one of their spirits, elementals, or watchers are banished, dispelled, or killed ? I don't doubt this happens, but am very interested in the mechanics.

In the thread : Advanced GM : Magical Security the fact is acknowledged, but not sited.

Additoinal questions I have :
1) Will banishing a mage/shaman's watcher's wake them out of a normal sleep ?

2) Does the banishment set of an immediate alarm, or must the mage/shaman think about the watcher, elemental, or spirit first ?

3) Does the force of the spirit, watcher, or elemental have an impact on how obivous to the conjuerer or summoner the creature's banishment is ?

Related questions, but not directly tied to magical security :

4) How does a shaman know how many tasks a spirit will grant them upon summoning it ? I know the result of the sumoning answer this question, but how does the character, not the player know ?

5) Same question for duration of a watcher on summoning... how does the character know how long the watcher will hang out for ? It is pretty clear to the player, but how does this information manifest itself to the magic user ?

Thanks,
--Dave
tisoz
QUOTE (daforsto)
Where in the books does it detail that a mage/shaman will know when one of their spirits, elementals, or watchers are banished, dispelled, or killed ? I don't doubt this happens, but am very interested in the mechanics.

SR3, p.189
QUOTE

1) Will banishing a mage/shaman's watcher's wake them out of a normal sleep ?

Probably, they know it has been done. If they are sleeping, they would immediately know and I guess they could choose to wake or not.
QUOTE

2) Does the banishment set of an immediate alarm, or must the mage/shaman think about the watcher, elemental, or spirit first ?

Yes, immediate.
QUOTE

3) Does the force of the spirit, watcher, or elemental have an impact on how obivous to the conjuerer or summoner the creature's banishment is ?

No.
QUOTE

4) How does a shaman know how many tasks a spirit will grant them upon summoning it ?  I know the result of the sumoning answer this question, but how does the character, not the player know ?

The Spirit telepathically informs the shaman? Like when the genie appears and informs you that he will grant 3 wishes.

If the spirit and the magician are linked, as they must be for the magician to know if they have been destroyed, I'd say the same link tells the magician how many services he may request.
QUOTE

5) Same question for duration of a watcher on summoning... how does the character know how long the watcher will hang out for ?  It is pretty clear to the player, but how does this information manifest itself to the magic user ?

He would get some idea by how hard the drain was to overcome. That is still pretty much player knowledge though, so I would have to go with the telepathic link thing again and the spirit lets the magician know how long it will be able to survuve.
Backgammon
P.189 3rd paragraph SR3: "If a spirit is killed or disrupted, it's summoner knows immediatly".

1) GM call I suppose. I'd say yes.
2) Immediate alarm. See above quote.
3) No.

4&5) You could make a GM ruling to add flavour, but generally speaking, the character knows these things. For services, the elemental or spirit can tell them, cause they sure know. For watchers, yeah, could be entertaining not to let the player know. Watchers tend to be comic relief in my games anyway. Not that they're not useful, but they can be pretty funny.
A Rodent of Unusual Size
4) One of the aspects of summoning is that you're bartering with (though intimidating would be a closer example) the spirit in order to get it to perform services with you. In the process of that bartering, you discover exactly how willing the spirit is to perform the task in exchange for you releasing it from the magical restraints you're using to keep it from its home.
Berzerker
So if your group goes up against a patrolling spirit, could the groups magician attempt to control it? Would the summoning magician get an opposed roll even though he's not there? Would he know that the spirit was hijacked? After all its not destroyed and its not disrupted.
tisoz
QUOTE (Berzerker)
So if your group goes up against a patrolling spirit, could the groups magician attempt to control it? Would the summoning magician get an opposed roll even though he's not there? Would he know that the spirit was hijacked? After all its not destroyed and its not disrupted.

SR3 page 189 again. Yes ,the summoner gets a roll. Even if not present, even if he doesn't have an action or is busy doing something else.
Necro Tech
Also something to remember, the summoning mage must be within a fixed distance of the elemental (the only type you usually see patrolling) or it is a remote service. When it goes remote it no longer counts as part of your stable so the rules shouldn't apply. Same thing when a shaman sends off their spirit on a service then crosses a domain line and summons another. I believe MITS states that the caster chooses how long a watcher will live when summoning and that watchers aren't connected enough to the caster to notify them when they die.
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