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[Puppyguard]

Let's try and pay a rat catcher for a live rat. If he asks, say we are trying to mutate it.

+1,But if he asks how we are trying to mutate it say that we're going to try to make it easier to catch.

[TopHat]

I'd say don't even mention mutation, just state that we're working on a spell and need the bits (easier to talk about convincingly, no risk of rumours spreading or them taking offence at us trying to put them out of a job).

I severely doubt we'll find a catcher who takes them alive, though; we'd probably be better off going down the personalisation-by-the-catcher route, if we can find an appropriate catcher. Less likelihood of tricky questions, too.

[Mithras]

In the basement of the office for hygiene a rat’s corpse sells for two copper pieces. Once sold the carcass is stripped of everything that might be of value, fat is rendered meat is fed to the dogs of the night watch and the paladins, the bones are boiled to make thin glues. The only parts which aren’t used are the tail, often saved as trophies by the rat catches, and the pelts which are simply discarded. Though this bounty originated as a way of keeping the city’s rat population down some rat catchers are rumoured to keep  underground rat farms to make their living, as the rat catcher’s spend most of their time below street level and few people are inclined to go there this is a rumour that’s never been substantiated.

You know of one rat catcher, Glag the Piper. In your youth you would deliver rats the terrier had mangled to him, two rats a copper. Glag was one of the more sociable sort of rat catcher, who’d occasionally come up to the public house and play his pipes for ales, still you remember him as a bent old man with sallow waxy skin and a ratty look in his eyes. It’s very conceivable that he might have passed in the years since you met him- still you know where to find him in the underground labyrinth so it’s worth a go.

You make your way back to your old neighbourhood, through a shored up arch into a crumbling tunnel, take one of the torches left in an alcove and follow the chalk stick drawings of pan pipes (five vertical lines of varying lengths. It’s damp underfoot and the stone is slick, so you are careful to keep your free hand on the wall. The trip feels a lot shorter than it did in your youth, it still chills you but you spend the time wondering how many corpses might be forgotten down here, and how you might find them without getting horrifically lost.

Eventually you make it to an old wooden door in the tunnel and pull a string, it’s a good ten minutes before Glag answers, he looks the same to you, though it’s obvious he doesn’t recognise you.

“Got rats to sell have you boy?”

He asks immediately. You shake your head.

“Actually I was wondering if I could buy one from you, I-  “

He cuts you off immediately.

“5 coppers, the office doesn’t take kindly to selling rats off market- people ask questions.”

“Actually, I’d like a living rat.

The old man squints at you suspiciously.

Now boy I didn’t have you down as an informer, you know I wouldn’t have no living rats to sell.

“Look, I just need it for magical experiments ok, I don’t care how you get it. I’d pay good money for one and- “

“Look here boy, this isn’t the time for that sort of talk, maybe in a week or a month when the night watch isn’t poking their heads into everyone’s business. Maybe then I can save you a live one if you put a deposit down, say a silver piece, but until then if someone catches me with a caged rat I’d be barred from the office.”
“Ok, look, a corpse will do just fine, the biggest one you’ve got please.”

The man gives you an odd look but disappears back into his tunnel for a small while, appearing with a rather portly scarred rat corpses.

“Here you go kid, that’ll be six coppers.”.

You bite your lip, pay the money and stow the corpse in a pouch you bought especially for this purpose, as you do so you make small talk.

“So why is the night watch down here anyway?”

Glag shrugs,

“Rat’s further down have been getting testy, people have been getting swarmed, getting themselves killed. Night Watch have been asking questions getting an idea of where the deaths have been happening, taking the opportunity to poke around where they don’t belong while they’re at it.”

You nod.

What do you do next?

Spoiler: Naleen Muldraun (click to show/hide)

 

Health: 10/10
Mana: 10/10
Will: 5

Skills:
Competent Magical Theorist (d8)
Competent Mage (d8)
Novice Necromancer (d6)
Proficient Scholar (d10)
Novice Handyman (d6)
Novice Negotiator (d6)

Items of import (ask about what else you might have that makes sense):
The Path to Power (+1 to summoning corporeal undead)
2 gold, 9 silver and 4 copper coins worth of coinage

Relationships:
Arbus the Sage (your mentor): Trusting, he has worked with you for many years and so trusts your capabilities and has insight into your character.
Bral the Labourer (Your father): Doting, he cares for all her children but has a special place in her heart for the son who will make something of himself even if he sees you rarely.
Ta the Labourer (your elder sister): Cordial, you still have contact with Ta who wants little from life, though she has always been wary of the lust for power she saw in you.
Jia the night watchman (your elder sister): Good, you two share the same drive to better yourselves you both recognise that in each other and respect it.
Ifeus the star mage: Unknown, she is an independent mage with whom Arbus corresponds with most often as such you have run some delivery’s to and from her tower
Valo apprentice to Apras the fire mage: admiration, Valo and Apras are in the employ of the temple. Valo is a couple of years younger than you and holds your magical knowledge in awe.
Cai apprentice to Didor the Druid: Rivalry.  Cai and Didor are in the employ of the kingdom. Cai is about your age and she has a drive similar to yours, this has led to a sporting rivalry which has allowed you to pick up some practical magecraft and her to be schooled in more theoretical matters.

Spells:
Bind Corpse: Creates a skeleton or zombie servant of varying power. The power depends on the soul’s strength and the skill with which you cast the spell.
Cost 1 Mana.
Difficulty d4+number of bound undead servants.

Arcane Shield: Creates a shield which deflects the actions of spirits of a certain type.
Cost 1 Mana.
Difficulty d4+number of active shields

Detect Magic: Allows you to see the spirits in an area, determining their numbers and movement
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4

Message: Compels the wind to carry something roughly the size and shape of a parchment a considerable distance
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4


Slow blood: Thickens the blood of a living being, rendering it sluggish and eventually unconscious
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4 or relevant skill

Vicious Growth: Accelerates and controls the growth of a nearby plant
Cost 1 mana
Difficulty d6

Light: Forms a ball of dim light that can be controlled for a while, will momentarily blind someone if summoned in their face.
Cost 1 mana
Difficulty d4

How do people prefer dice rolls to be communicated. Kept in the background, mentioned whether succeeded or failed or fully written out?

[TopHat]

My personal preference in this case would be for them to be kept in the background, though I can't speak for the other players, of course.

What options do we have for a secluded location to perform the spell?

[VoidSlayer]

Dice rolls should be in the background, but maybe tell us if we get critical successes and failures so we do not assume that is how it always will be. 

[Mithras]

On your way out of the sewers you consider the options you have for where to cast your first necromantic spell. You reckon a successful casting would take a little over an hour and you think that you have enough mana to make sue the first casting is successful. There’s a few places in and around the city you think you might be able to get the privacy for such a spell.

The sewers is an obvious choice, they are large enough so it is unlikely you will be stumbled upon, even with the night watch patrolling you should be able to hear them before they hear you. The real risk is the rat catchers who are said to move in silence and darkness.

You are unlikely to be caught in the act in your master’s tower, you know Arbus’ routine like clockwork and there are some rooms that you are pretty sure he has never been in since you were apprenticed to him. On the other hand, Arbus is a mage, able to sense spirits in quite a large radius. Some quick calculations lead you to the conclusion that you could go back to the basement you found the book and Arbus would not be able to detect the use of magic from his usual study, if he so happened to try to detect magic while he was closer within a few days of the spell being cast, that would be a different story, but that seems unlikely to you.

You know a way out of the city through the slums and into the fields surrounding the, if you go during the night you are unlikely to meet anyone whilst casting your spell. Unfortunately, the journey is a long one you would have to spend the night making the round trip, sneaking about at night also means dodging the patrols of night watch as those out at night are routinely searched and questioned. Explaining what you were doing would be difficult, especially if caught in possession of a dead rat.

The final alternative that occurs to you is setting up shop in one of the disused houses on the border between the slums and the market. Times have not been good to the middle class lately and as such a few of the more modest two or three-story homes come storefronts and warehouses have been abandoned. You’d have to find one that was not in use by some other clandestine group of course.

Spoiler: Naleen Muldraun (click to show/hide)

 

Health: 10/10
Mana: 10/10
Will: 5

Skills:
Competent Magical Theorist (d8)
Competent Mage (d8)
Novice Necromancer (d6)
Proficient Scholar (d10)
Novice Handyman (d6)
Novice Negotiator (d6)

Items of import (ask about what else you might have that makes sense):
The Path to Power (+1 to summoning corporeal undead)
2 gold, 9 silver and 4 copper coins worth of coinage
1 Dead Rat.

Relationships:
Arbus the Sage (your mentor): Trusting, he has worked with you for many years and so trusts your capabilities and has insight into your character.
Bral the Labourer (Your father): Doting, he cares for all her children but has a special place in her heart for the son who will make something of himself even if he sees you rarely.
Ta the Labourer (your elder sister): Cordial, you still have contact with Ta who wants little from life, though she has always been wary of the lust for power she saw in you.
Jia the night watchman (your elder sister): Good, you two share the same drive to better yourselves you both recognise that in each other and respect it.
Ifeus the star mage: Unknown, she is an independent mage with whom Arbus corresponds with most often as such you have run some delivery’s to and from her tower
Valo apprentice to Apras the fire mage: admiration, Valo and Apras are in the employ of the temple. Valo is a couple of years younger than you and holds your magical knowledge in awe.
Cai apprentice to Didor the Druid: Rivalry.  Cai and Didor are in the employ of the kingdom. Cai is about your age and she has a drive similar to yours, this has led to a sporting rivalry which has allowed you to pick up some practical magecraft and her to be schooled in more theoretical matters.

Spells:
Bind Corpse: Creates a skeleton or zombie servant of varying power. The power depends on the soul’s strength and the skill with which you cast the spell.
Cost 1 Mana.
Difficulty d4+number of bound undead servants.

Arcane Shield: Creates a shield which deflects the actions of spirits of a certain type.
Cost 1 Mana.
Difficulty d4+number of active shields

Detect Magic: Allows you to see the spirits in an area, determining their numbers and movement
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4

Message: Compels the wind to carry something roughly the size and shape of a parchment a considerable distance
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4


Slow blood: Thickens the blood of a living being, rendering it sluggish and eventually unconscious
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4 or relevant skill

Vicious Growth: Accelerates and controls the growth of a nearby plant
Cost 1 mana
Difficulty d6

Light: Forms a ball of dim light that can be controlled for a while, will momentarily blind someone if summoned in their face.
Cost 1 mana
Difficulty d4

[TopHat]

I'd say find a disused house to use.

[crazyabe]

PTW.

[Puppyguard]

find a disused house to use.

+1
Less likely to attract suspicion.

[stabbymcstabstab]

find a disused house to use.

+1
Less likely to attract suspicion.

+1

[Mithras]

It doesn’t take you long to decide to head to the market area before dusk to scope out an empty looking house you can duck into before night falls, scouting out each of the houses in the disused district to work out which is and is not occupied. Eventually you pick a likely looking candidate and discreetly slip in through the window, casting your eyes about you see no signs of habitation or use, still you decide to use the basement for your first necromantic spell, it seems more secure and fitting.

The basement is dripping and in disrepair, with weeds and moss covering the upper stairs and the patches of broken floor where the light must shine in through gaps in the floorboards above during the day. Still it seems sturdy enough for your purposes, you light a few candles and set to work carefully making the preparations to cast your spell, in time this part will take mere minutes as the spell is chanted in the short form, but for now you need to go through the full chants and the drawing of chalk circles tying yourself to the corpse in a complicated (but apparently really easy to remember) series of circles and the process takes almost an hour. Your confidence grows as you go through the spell and you speed up as you go along, getting into the tempo and within half an hour you have yourself your first zombie rat. It’s a large scarred thing that doesn’t yet smell of death and stares at you with a vacant intelligence, it follows the few commands you give and helps you clean away the evidence of your activities with a steady ease. Which is just as well because as you finish up you hear voices upstairs.

“Phew, that was close. It was almost as if the night watch were waiting for us again.”

  “There’s no need to get paranoid Wio, they just got lucky a couple of times that’s all, besides this is a good haul , we’ll eat for a few weeks and the heat will die off.”
 
“You’ll see one day that sunny outlook of yours is going to get us all- has someone been in here while we’ve gone? I think I see footprint there, going down.”

“You’re seeing things again, there’s no reason for anyone to go down there.”

There’s a short pause,

“Well if you’re so sure there is someone down there go look.”

“No way, not after getting this close to a club already tonight, Ow, be a mate and take a look?”

You hear footsteps approach. From the sound of their voices these people are teenagers, it seems they use this house as some sort of base. You mentally kick yourself for not noticing the signs earlier but next time you’ll know to look for things like that. In the mean time you’ve got to decide what to do hear. It’s dark so you might be able to hide, but can you trust your luck against a street urchin’s eyes? You might talk to them, after all you’re both doing something illicit, that said, necromancy is a step above thievery, who’s punishment is a beating and being shipped out to a farm or workshop for gainful employment. There’s always the option of violence, if you think you can take them that’s three fresh corpses and whatever it is they stole to your name, and you’d probably have the house to yourself for as long as it took some other group to move in. Of course, there’s always other choices, but whatever it is, it needs to be made quickly.

Spoiler: Naleen Muldraun (click to show/hide)

 

Health: 10/10
Mana: 9/10
Will: 5

Skills:
Competent Magical Theorist (d8)
Competent Mage (d8)
Novice Necromancer (d6)
Proficient Scholar (d10)
Novice Handyman (d6)
Novice Negotiator (d6)
Novice Observer (d6)

Items of import (ask about what else you might have that makes sense):
The Path to Power (+1 to summoning corporeal undead) (Hidden in your room)
2 gold, 9 silver and 4 copper coins worth of coinage
1 Rat zombie (d4)

Relationships:
Arbus the Sage (your mentor): Trusting, he has worked with you for many years and so trusts your capabilities and has insight into your character.
Bral the Labourer (Your father): Doting, he cares for all her children but has a special place in her heart for the son who will make something of himself even if he sees you rarely.
Ta the Labourer (your elder sister): Cordial, you still have contact with Ta who wants little from life, though she has always been wary of the lust for power she saw in you.
Jia the night watchman (your elder sister): Good, you two share the same drive to better yourselves you both recognise that in each other and respect it.
Ifeus the star mage: Unknown, she is an independent mage with whom Arbus corresponds with most often as such you have run some delivery’s to and from her tower
Valo apprentice to Apras the fire mage: admiration, Valo and Apras are in the employ of the temple. Valo is a couple of years younger than you and holds your magical knowledge in awe.
Cai apprentice to Didor the Druid: Rivalry.  Cai and Didor are in the employ of the kingdom. Cai is about your age and she has a drive similar to yours, this has led to a sporting rivalry which has allowed you to pick up some practical magecraft and her to be schooled in more theoretical matters.

Spells:
Bind Corpse: Creates a skeleton or zombie servant of varying power. The power depends on the soul’s strength and the skill with which you cast the spell.
Cost 1 Mana.
Difficulty d4+number of bound undead servants.

Arcane Shield: Creates a shield which deflects the actions of spirits of a certain type.
Cost 1 Mana.
Difficulty d4+number of active shields

Detect Magic: Allows you to see the spirits in an area, determining their numbers and movement
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4

Message: Compels the wind to carry something roughly the size and shape of a parchment a considerable distance
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4


Slow blood: Thickens the blood of a living being, rendering it sluggish and eventually unconscious
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4 or relevant skill

Vicious Growth: Accelerates and controls the growth of a nearby plant
Cost 1 mana
Difficulty d6

Light: Forms a ball of dim light that can be controlled for a while, will momentarily blind someone if summoned in their face.
Cost 1 mana
Difficulty d4

[Paxiecrunchle]

PTW, hopefully this will be as fun as Monk's game.

- Lets look for someplace to flee, let's not become murders given all the good we can achieve with this and how frequently people die anyway.  However if we get cornered we should use that late spell on them, it's pretty dark down here so it should temporarily blind them and allow us too flee.
-For our next test, let's try to get the rat to do carry more objects, or something similar.

[Puppyguard]

WHAT? No fireball spells?

Our only damaging offensive spell is slow blood, and the other one will get us as soon as we cast it.

- Lets look for someplace to flee, let's not become murders given all the good we can achieve with this and how frequently people die anyway.  However if we get cornered we should use that late spell on them, it's pretty dark down here so it should temporarily blind them and allow us too flee.
-For our next test, let's try to get the rat to do carry more objects, or something similar.

+1 to this.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Don't forget we have the rat and besides who going to mis a couple of street urchins? I say we Ambush them it helps the from the sounds of it ones already a little hurt and the other is coming down by themselves.

[Mithras]

For a moment you consider killing the owners of those childish voices but you decide that for now discretion is the better option. You cast your eyes about in the candle light for an alternate exit from the cellar as the footsteps approach, desperation fuels your search and you find a small hole to the next disused cellar in the row of houses. You snuff out the candles and softly call for your new minion to follow you as you squeeze through the whole into another dark room. Peering back you see a circle of light a teenage boy, thin and malnourished and perhaps a couple of years younger than you, come to the top of the basement stairs and look around the now empty room, he does not seem to notice the faint mark of ritual on the floor before he turns and leaves again.

You sigh in relief and turn to the new room you are in, lighting a candle to see by. This room is in much better condition than the last, the broken-down wall is blocked from the majority of the room by a pile of crates. Squeezing through you find yourself in a modest armoury of sorts, a few armour stands sporting suits of leather armour, some of the crates are opened and contain stacks of various weapons wrapped in oil cloth. You try the door at the top of the stairs, it is locked. You listen out at the door for any signs of occupation but hear nothing. You have no idea why anyone would keep arms for over a hundred people and armour for twenty or so in an abandoned building’s cellar but right now the lock is the most annoying part of that problem, baring finding a way to bust through with force or magic you’ll have to wait until the urchin’s next door are gone or you think they’re sleeping.

While you decide what to do next you spend a little time ordering your zombie rat around to assess its capabilities. The rat seems stronger than most rats its size and can drag fairly heavy objects so long as it can find purchase with its teeth. For objects like stones it is limited to slowly pushing them with its own body weight which is a slow process.

Regretting your lack of offensive spells. You make a mental note that you can ask Arbus to teach you how to control fire (or Valo, though he would be a much worse teacher) alternatively you could start using some of the magical theories you’ve read in your own spare time (or again ask Arbus for training) to refine your control of types of spirits you already command into more offensive spells. All this can wait. For now there is simply a new barrier to you getting a good night’s sleep, and a small opportunity, if you’ve always wanted your own sword.

Spoiler: Naleen Muldraun (click to show/hide)

 

Health: 10/10
Mana: 9/10
Will: 4

Skills:
Competent Magical Theorist (d8)
Competent Mage (d8)
Novice Necromancer (d6)
Proficient Scholar (d10)
Novice Handyman (d6)
Novice Negotiator (d6)
Novice Observer (d6)

Items of import (ask about what else you might have that makes sense):
The Path to Power (+1 to summoning corporeal undead) (Hidden in your room)
2 gold, 9 silver and 4 copper coins worth of coinage
1 Rat zombie (d4)

Relationships:
Arbus the Sage (your mentor): Trusting, he has worked with you for many years and so trusts your capabilities and has insight into your character.
Bral the Labourer (Your father): Doting, he cares for all her children but has a special place in her heart for the son who will make something of himself even if he sees you rarely.
Ta the Labourer (your elder sister): Cordial, you still have contact with Ta who wants little from life, though she has always been wary of the lust for power she saw in you.
Jia the night watchman (your elder sister): Good, you two share the same drive to better yourselves you both recognise that in each other and respect it.
Ifeus the star mage: Unknown, she is an independent mage with whom Arbus corresponds with most often as such you have run some delivery’s to and from her tower
Valo apprentice to Apras the fire mage: admiration, Valo and Apras are in the employ of the temple. Valo is a couple of years younger than you and holds your magical knowledge in awe.
Cai apprentice to Didor the Druid: Rivalry.  Cai and Didor are in the employ of the kingdom. Cai is about your age and she has a drive similar to yours, this has led to a sporting rivalry which has allowed you to pick up some practical magecraft and her to be schooled in more theoretical matters.

Spells:
Bind Corpse: Creates a skeleton or zombie servant of varying power. The power depends on the soul’s strength and the skill with which you cast the spell.
Cost 1 Mana.
Difficulty d4+number of bound undead servants.

Arcane Shield: Creates a shield which deflects the actions of spirits of a certain type.
Cost 1 Mana.
Difficulty d4+number of active shields

Detect Magic: Allows you to see the spirits in an area, determining their numbers and movement
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4

Message: Compels the wind to carry something roughly the size and shape of a parchment a considerable distance
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4


Slow blood: Thickens the blood of a living being, rendering it sluggish and eventually unconscious
Cost 1 Mana
Difficulty d4 or relevant skill

Vicious Growth: Accelerates and controls the growth of a nearby plant, which dies when the spell has ended.
Cost 1 mana
Difficulty d6

Light: Forms a ball of dim light that can be controlled for a while, will momentarily blind someone if summoned in their face.
Cost 1 mana
Difficulty d4

Spoiler: ooc note (click to show/hide)

 The spells in your spell list, apart from bind corpse, can be cast fairly instantly with minimal chanting and hand gestures. This will be true for all spells that do not have permanent effects, for example plant's grown using vicious growth spell dies when you are no longer focused on the spell, while a spell which permanently enhances the growth cycle of a seed would take longer to cast but the plant would not die after you'd finished with the spell.

Also man, for now I'm just focusing on the low bar of being interesting enough that people keep giving suggestions, never mind being as good as a 150 page long game.