From:	"Rent-a-Lemming" <ratinox@******.COE.NORTHEASTERN.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Fetish Focus
Date:	Sat, 30 Jan 93 07:36:07 CET

>>>>> On Sat, 30 Jan 93 07:23:57 CET, "Jason Carter,
Nightstalker"
>>>>> <CARTER@***.EDU> said:

Jason> Stainless Steel Rat Said:
>>This was probably dramatic license on the part of the author. Fetish foci,
>>a kind of one-shot enchanted fetish, do have an astral signature, just like
>>other kinds of foci. As such, they may be grounded through.

Jason> Are you sure about that. Now I'll agree that the Fetish foci is
Jason> techncially a Focus, but there's no Karma involved. All the other
Jason> focuses appear on the Astral plane because of the Karma invested
Jason> into them. Besides you can only ground through a focus when it is
Jason> active, but when you activate a fetish focus you drain all of the
Jason> magic from it and make it a mundane item. So what's left to ground
Jason> through?

That's why I said it may be dramatic license.

Regular fetishes are not enchanted and are not innately magical, per se.
Fetish foci *are* enchanted, and thus have an astral presence, even if not
bonded. This is one requirement for the target of a grounding: active
astral presence.

A spell lock is bonded to the owning mage, but not necessarily the user.
However, the *user* becomes the target of a spell grounded through that
lock, through the astral conduit created by the spell. This is the other
requirement for the target of a grounding: active astral power conduit.

Taking this line of reasoning a bit further, if a spell is cast using a
fetish focus, an astral conduit is opened through the focus just like a
Power focus. It is theoretically possible to ground a spell through this
conduit, through the fetish focus. The timing has to be absolutely perfect,
and you probably have to overcome the force of the spell and/or the rating
of the fetish focus.

--Rat PGP Public Key Block available upon request
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Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat ratinox@******.coe.northeastern.edu
Carpe Joltem! (Seize the Caffeine) --Me