Okay, as a scripting novice I've totally confused myself.

I want to use the "DragonFireProjectile02" projectile and have it fire straight up into the air from a hidden activator (like XMarkerActivator) for a duration of a couple seconds.
Do I need to create a custom magic effect (to contain the projectile) and spell (to fire it off) to accompolish this?
It's only seems to be used with voice spells/actors and I can't wrap my head around how to to rig this up.

Thanks for any insight.

Just wanted to add that I do not care about spell effects (like damage, etc.), I just want the projectile animation to run in the world for visual effect.
(When the player enters an area pillars of flame shoot skyward)
Is there a way to put the projectile in the world and just run its animation?

Try creating a magic effect. For visual effects there is a field for projectiles.

Figured it out. It's turned out pretty well.

Added a PressurePlate and set it as the ActivateParent of an XMarkerActivator.
Added an XMarker directly above the XMarkerActivator and set the LinkedRef in the XMarkerActivator to the XMarker.
Added a script to the XMarkerActivator that has a single property of Spell.
Set Spell property to VoiceDragonFire05

Scriptname KreijCastDragonBreath extends ObjectReference{Cast DragonBreath Spell}Event OnActivate(ObjectReference akActionRef)	mySpell.Cast(self, self.GetLinkedRef())endEventSPELL Property mySpell Auto

Player steps on plate and whooosh.

I think I was over-engineering the whole thing. lol