BoM/TWS Message Forum

>> By now, it's obvious that a massive retcon is coming;

That does seem very likely, doesn't it. But I want to avoid it if possible, so I've spent the last 24 hours thinking about how to revise the rules. I believe I've got a fairly decent fudge for it.

Solution:

The book says to mix all the ingredients (save the hair) in a bowl atop the sigil and set fire to them. Paint the inside of a mask with the resulting sludge. Add the hair and set fire to it (without use of a sigil). That will create the golemized mask. [Note, if you fire the mask with hair over a sigil, it will still work. The sigil's presence doesn't mess anything up.)

But the magician might slip up (because he's thinking of other spells) and add the hair with the ingredients and burn it into the sludge (atop the sigil) and paint the mask with it. However, it's no biggie, because this will get you to the same place: a golemized mask.

So the second method looks like the one I've been using, while the first method is pretty close to the one that other authors have said that they've been using.

To forestall one obvious question: What happens if you use the official method, but you use the hair off a golem? Answer: It still evaporates, leaving a free golem.

BTW, all of this is now in the Appendices -- "Background: The Book"  -- and are completely rewritten with stupid amounts of detail through the first seven spells. That includes full Latin text for each spell, plus translations and discussions, including approximations of the price of performing each spell.