With this spell, the mage can connect a television monitor to any camera that is nearly connected to a network to which the monitor is connected. This spell is almost always used with a computer connected to the Internet, because many monitoring cameras in the Western world are connected to an intranet that is connected to the Internet.
Although the camera is distant, the network is not, so this is not sympathetic magic. The spell also does not grant control of the camera, so the mage can only see what the camera is pointing at. This is not a Space portal; the mage can only look in the same way that a Sleeper who is actually connected to the camera could look.
- Practice: Ruling
- Action: Instant
- Duration: Prolonged (one scene)
- Aspect: Covert (if connected to the same network as the camera) Or Vulgar (if one step removed from the camera itself, but still connected through thinks like power a neighborhood power grid)
- Cost: None
Free Council Rote: Open Circuit Television
Sometimes it’s as easy as magically activating a webcam on some distant twig of a big sprawling network. Sometimes it’s as complicated as drawing the video signal from the camera that sees it to the equipment that wants to. It’s trickier, but these machines want to see and show. You just have to appeal to their natures.
