https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkIWmsP3c_s
effect: Possibly the most useful song in his arsenal as a law enforcement officer, if Doug knows, or is at least relatively certain, with or without admissible proof, of who committed a crime, or at least of the time and location of one, this song will let him divine what evidence of it exists (his song knows what they did in the dark) and where to find it (it lights it up) so he can make sure it gets collected in a legally useful way, though in the second case it will just be solid evidence that a crime was committed and only incidentally by whom if the same evidence (or other material that can be found nearby, subject to the usual vagaries of luck and perception) would point to that. If he actually had a LEO position on his trip it would be horribly unfair and from a storytelling perspective probably a plot-breaking shortcut, but that hasn't been the case as far as I can recall at any point in his chronicled adventures.
Exactly what constitutes a crime (by local standards, by his, by some collection of local custom and tradition ingrained into the magical field by collective belief?) and standards of admissibility and so on may vary, but as its entire effect is divination of the present, collecting that data as well is not outside the scope. The only problem I can see is that his usual range is not that large, but that could be a reasonable restriction to the effect for storytelling purposes.
effect: Possibly the most useful song in his arsenal as a law enforcement officer, if Doug knows, or is at least relatively certain, with or without admissible proof, of who committed a crime, or at least of the time and location of one, this song will let him divine what evidence of it exists (his song knows what they did in the dark) and where to find it (it lights it up) so he can make sure it gets collected in a legally useful way, though in the second case it will just be solid evidence that a crime was committed and only incidentally by whom if the same evidence (or other material that can be found nearby, subject to the usual vagaries of luck and perception) would point to that. If he actually had a LEO position on his trip it would be horribly unfair and from a storytelling perspective probably a plot-breaking shortcut, but that hasn't been the case as far as I can recall at any point in his chronicled adventures.
Exactly what constitutes a crime (by local standards, by his, by some collection of local custom and tradition ingrained into the magical field by collective belief?) and standards of admissibility and so on may vary, but as its entire effect is divination of the present, collecting that data as well is not outside the scope. The only problem I can see is that his usual range is not that large, but that could be a reasonable restriction to the effect for storytelling purposes.
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noli esse culus
noli esse culus