Safe Little World

(• • • Correspondence,  • • • Life;  or  • • • Spirit;  or  • • Mind,  • Life;  sometimes with         • • • Spirit and/ or • • Mind)         

The Orphans Survival Guide  129
"By the power of three times three, I ward thee and sanctify thee from harm."  This standard but important charm protects an apartment, car, box-home, etc.  from invasion.  While the ritual is usually a bit more complicated than simply reciting a charm, it keeps most trespassers from fucking with your shit.

To set the ward, an orphan paces around the area he wants to protect, chanting the charm and sealing it with some sort of ritual (often involving salt, wax, prayers, esoteric designs and sometimes a sacrifice).  With a final blessing, he leaves the area, assured that nothing unusual will enter the area without his knowledge.

[There are many ways to set a safeguard:  The basic Correspondence 3/ Life 3 variation keeps human trespassers out of the area.  (See Ward in Mage, p. 189, for details.)  Ghosts and other spirits can be banned by adding Spirit 3 to the spell.  Mind 2, meanwhile, alerts the mage is a trespasser does manage to enter the protected area -- giving him a "hunch" that something's wrong back home.

[A simple, spirit-based variation favored by Darklings uses Spirit 3/ Mind 2 to post Otherworldly guards around the area; if a trespasser tries to enter, the spirits kick her ass (see Awaken the Inanimate or Free the Mad Howlers in Mage, page 218)  while notifying the mage that his sanctuary is under attack.  Naturally, a Darkling had better treat his "employees" well; disgruntled guards have a way of snoozing on duty.....

[An orphan without much magickal skill can settle for a simple Mind 3/ Life 1 "alarm system"; it won't keep anyone out, but it will let the mage know if someone comes in.

[Since most mortals consider solid walls of air to be impossible, Safe Little World is vulgar; the caster rolls against difficulty 7 and takes one point of Paradox each time he sets up a ward.  The Mind 2/ Life 1 version is coincidental, however -- only the mage knows it exits.]