Modes of Travel in the Order of Hermes

In a recent journey, I held an interesting discussion with a young Mercere on the habit of wizards of finding magical ways to shorten the tedium of long journeys.

• One of the classic methods of travel is seven league boots. It takes a strong enchanter to create a pair that can provide an unlimited number of magical steps; once created, they are truly impressive. On a clear day in clear terrain, the wearer can outrun a thunderclap. Even under normal circumstances, a traveller can manage perhaps two hundred miles in an hour of journeying, and along a prepared route (with Arcane Connections ready to supply teleport coordinates) can easily cross Europe in a single day.

• Enchanted vessels, like the Aristeia, are rare. ? of Verditius, in the Levant, has a most impressive flying carpet.

• Transformation magicks are also an excellent means of getting around the problems of distance. Some of the more friendly magi of House Bjornaer have donated feather-cloaks to House Mercere, permitting travel in the shape of a bird.

• Wizards seeking to return to their labs in time to get a full season's work done have invented a number of interesting spells. Wings of the Soaring Wind is unreliable in the long term (though cloaks that maintain concentration for you are popular); The Travelling Thistledown, an invention from Amurgsval, is a more reliable option that can be learned even by apprentices. Felis Umbrosus has spells, The Avian Form (which allows the recipient to fly, usually by sprouting wings) and The Billow of Eiderdown (which makes a cloud solid enough to stand upon) that are only valid options to a Merinita, as they rely upon faerie magic.

• A smaller transport enchantment I have seen is a sail and mast, as of a very small boat, attached to a board just large enough to stand on. I would guess this to have been created by someone who preferred Herbam magicks to Corpus ones when finding an alternative to The Travelling Thistledown.

• Enchanted and magically enhanced riding steeds are often very useful. Mercere without the Gift have much less difficulty dealing with horses than most magi, and a modest investment of Animál vis-- which is already inexpensive-- can give a beast incredible strength and stamina for a matter of years. Enchanted horseshoes that enable beasts to always travel as if on level ground, even though the terrain is miserable, are perhaps more expensive but of greater use in the long term.

• Such spells as Hermes' Portal are obscenely expensive in vis cost; they are only truly useful when such a portal is required in a matter of hours. A competent Verditius can make an enchanted hallway and door (with substantial bonuses from these) with a dedicated teleport to another location using magicks based on Leap of Homecoming, providing the same effect as Hermes' Portal without the horrifying price. However, few magi have invested such effort: such a device would present a great hole in a covenant's defenses without great additional efort in warding. (This, at least, is an advantage of Hermes' Portal: it is highly unlikely that invading mundanes would possess the requisite Terram vis, especially in quantity to bring in a sizable force!)

• In this vein are the works of Dworkin of Jerbiton, an Imaginem specialist who mixed enchanment and painting to create works of art that were doorways to the scenes they depicted. Rumour has it that the painting he was working on shortly before Final Twilight is still within the hands of the Order, though none who has entered the painting has ever been seen again.