Dragon of Smoke and Flame

Cost: 20 motes
Target: Serpentine guide

The sorcerer expels a flying, serpentine guide from the center of her chest. It leads her on while she moves, and loops and whorls around her when she's still. By day or in light, the guide is formed of inky black smoke. By night or in darkness, the smoke transforms into heatless white flame visible for miles, illuminating its immediate surroundings as brightly as daylight.

The creature can infallibly guide the sorcerer to any specific location that is well known to her. A lost sorcerer can use the dragon of smoke and flame to find her way to a known location even out of dangerously variable environments, such as the Wyld or the twisting Labyrinth of the Underworld.

Alternatively, the sorcerer can bid the guide to seek a destination with a specific desired property, such as the nearest source of water. In this case, the sorcerer's player rolls (Wits + Occult) during the Cast Sorcery action, with a difficulty set by the property's rarity:

Difficulty	Rarity
1	Common properties, such as food or water sources in a forest.
2	Uncommon properties, such as food or water sources in a desert.
3	Highly uncommon properties, such as shelter from the elements in a nighfeatureless wasteland or a specific herb in a vast forest.
4	Rare properties, such as deposits of gold, diamonds or other valuable but non-magical materials.
5	Very rare properties, such as deposits of jade or safe haven in the Wyld.

The spell cannot locate places with unique or even exceedingly rare properties such as deposits of most magical materials (jade being the exception). Nor can it find specific locations the sorcerer has never visited or locations magically obscured in any fashion (unless the sorcerer herself was the one who magically obscured them). What counts as common or uncommon may vary by Storyteller discretion based on the region where the sorcerer casts the spell. Should the (Wits + Occult) roll fail, the serpent manifests but merely loops around the caster for its duration, providing illumination in the dark but no hint about the direction she should go.

The serpentine lasts for one full day, until the sorcerer reaches her destination, or until she dismisses it, whichever comes first.