Sanctify Weapon spell

I probably also wouldn’t mind so much if it didn’t seem like the Fire Dragon always gets the short end of the stick with these types of spells…

As compared to Illiir who actually doesn’t even have a specific rune?

Santify Weapon has several adaptations. They can add another weapon, add a second rune, and increase the power-quality of a rune. Are these adaptations cumulative, or must they be added separately?

For example, if the adaptations for adding a second weapon and a second rune are both applied, does one wind up with two weapons with two runes each or one weapon with two runes and one weapon with a single rune? As a second example, if the adaptations for adding a second rune and increasing the rune’s power-quality are both applies, does one wind up with two exceptional rune or one exceptional rune and one fine rune?

My first reaction is to go safe and slow to presume that everything must be advanced separately. By that interpretation, adding a second rune means that each rune must be advanced in power separately rather than one power-adaptation increasing both. Similarly, casting the spell on a second weapon with a second rune adds only 1 net rune, and the dual-rune adaptation would have to be applied twice to get a total of 4 runes. That means two weapons with two fine runes would be CTN 34; two weapons with two exceptional runes would be CTN 58; and two weapons with two legendary runes would be CTN 82.

On the other hand, the CTN cost is high enough that perhaps at those power levels it’s reasonable to allow the parallel advancement for a single cost in order to make the spell worthwhile. That means two weapons with two fine runes would be CTN 30; two weapons with two exceptional runes would be CTN 36; and two weapons with two legendary runes would be CTN 42.

Closer examination reveals that there is no text allowing the first two adaptations (additional weapon and two runes) to be applied twice.

While at first glance, the 24-hour duration might imply that a failed casting is not a big deal, and the caster can just try again until succeeding, thereby overcoming any high CTN; consider that the speed cost is 1 hour. Thus, although a failure to cast costs only 1 tick, it also induces 1 hour of Strain; and casting through 1 hour of strain is suicide. Thus, a caster really gets only one chance per hour to cast the spell unless they have Adaptation: Delay Strain or use a Fate Point or really want to take advantage of RAW with immediate Stamina healing after every casting. It’s simple enough to rule that everyone can attempt to cast the spell a maximum of once a day.

Thus, after my analysis above, I feel like it is reasonable for the adaptations to be cumulative rather than separately. But the rules aren’t explicit.

two weapons with two exceptional runes would be CTN 58; and two weapons with two legendary runes would be CTN 82.

Are you saying two weapons with one exceptional/legendary run each or two weapons with two exceptional/legendary runes each? I don’t think the latter is legal as items can only have a single exceptional and legendary rune (and the parenthetical explanation says fine -> exceptional -> legendary and not fine -> exceptional and fine -> exceptional).

One new question that just occurred to me…

What is the deity-specific rune for Death Mongers? Do they get to choose one of the three (like they do for deity skill)?

Similarly for Benediction of the Gods and deity-specific benefit?

They are priests of all three gods, and would be able to choose from those three.

I will clarify, though, that their theology 100% prevents them from ever becoming Pantheonistic Casters, as per the Orthodoxy path. They believe the other gods are dead, so it makes it rather difficult to become a caster for a dead god.