For Magic Mondays today we give you an array to keep you high and dry during stormy days.
This week we show you the Courteous Umbrella array.
Notation: Create a Containment Field in the shape of a Half-Sphere 100 times larger than the array that excludes Water if Water occupies the same space.
Class: Utility
Description: A common theme among the runic arrays, especially so in the Runed Age’s grand city of Middelburg, is that is is not the array itself which is remarkable, nor the effects it creates. Rather it is the use of the array that makes it remarkable; the way that it is blended with technology in order to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
The Courteous Umbrella is a stellar example of this.
At first glance, it is an entirely unremarkable and mundane array that simply acts as an umbrella normally would, by preventing you getting wet in the rain. At best, from just looking at this array, it is a very convenient array as the If-Then statement means it activates automatically should it detect water.
But when you think about, really think about it, that’s when it becomes remarkable.
Because it is a simple drawing, it isn’t actually an umbrella, it replaces an umbrella. You don’t need to lug around an umbrella wherever you go in the hopes of one day needing it only to not carry it with you when it does start raining. You can inscribe this array on the top or bottom of a walking stick and simply hold it up when it starts to rain. You can put this small array on your hat and never again have to think about it or even worry about rain. If you aren’t a hat person, then simply put the array on the shoulders of your shirts and jackets and it will still work the same. Wanting to open up a small cafe outside? Just put this array in the centre of any table and your customers would never get wet while enjoying a romantic rainy day coffee.
And then of course there is a reason this is called the “courteous” umbrella. In a crowded city like Middelburg, on the rare times the city’s government allows it to rain, can you imagine how even more crowded it would become when a million people start opening umbrellas in those narrow streets? You won’t be able to even move for lack of trying. But with this array, that same crowd will move as if it was a sunny day and with all the overlapping containment fields from all the arrays, the streets would barely even get wet.
Remember that arrays are not just for combat, they can be useful in even the most mundane of situations.
If you want to get more arrays and incantations, check out our Journal of Array Design over on DriveThruRPG, now also available as a deck of magic cards.