A knight is going to venture on a 1-day journey to the south across the plains, to sneak into a ruin.
A spirit-binder goes to the knight before he sets out on said journey, and wants to bind a spirit to help the knight sneak across the plains, so he may approach the ruin safely.
The spirit-binder is bound to the plains, so she is able to attempt to bind the spirit.
She settles on a strength 1 spirit.
She sets the spirit’s task as Service -> Help, providing 1D of help to the knight’s attempts at stealth.
Now the question I need clarified is on the medium and domain.
The spirit-binder is not going with the knight, but stays behind. By the time the knight needs to use the spirit’s help, he’ll be a day’s travel away from where the spirit-binding took place, though he will still be on the plains.
What is the Medium / Domain modifier?
Is this a specific medium, a partial domain, or a domain binding?
To answer that question, we have to answer what the spirit is. Plains is the domain. Is the spirit-binder binding the entirety of the plains in which the knight is traveling? That’s a domain binding. Is she binding the Great Grass Sea that dominates the Central Plains? That’s a partial domain. Is she binding the whipping wind that whistles through the grasses? That’s a specific medium.
Think of it this way: If she does a domain binding, the spirit can help within the bounds of the plains, no matter what. If she does a partial domain binding, the service is limited to the partial domain. If it’s specific medium, the spirit can only help if the wind – the specific medium – is present.
That’s so cool! And also entirely not what we had happen! We described it as a ghostly fox (that none in the group could see) appearing and following the knight, keeping an eye out.
But it seems that’s way off the mark for how spirit binding actually plays.
It’s cool to interpret it that way. By default, spirit-binding is supposed to be very subtle. A sudden gust of wind that just nudges an arrow off course, an unnoticed root or hidden dip that snags your pursuer’s foot, a wind-borne leaf that floats in the direction you should travel. Omens and signs.