Foot-Soldiers of the Master

If the magi of a saga invent the Intangible Assassin effects, then many good stories can be told about the adventures of the trusted grogs and companions who are sent out to recover Arcane Connections for their masters:

"We always get the good jobs"

A team of grogs are sent to sneak into the middle of an enemy covenant to recover Arcane Connections to the enemy magi. Can the grogs avoid the mundane and magical protections of the covenant?

The Sleeper Awakes

A grog character has his memory altered and is then put into a situation whereby an enemy covenant recruits him. Sometime later, the grog regains his memory. Having remembered it, he can now begin to complete his mission: to collect some Arcane Connections and escape back to his original covenant. A good way for this story to begin is with the grog slowly regaining his original memories while he is working inside the enemy covenant.

The Wandering Scribe

A magus and his grog scribe spend a season in Durenmar copying spell texts. The scribe is nominally making copies of books for his magus, but has instead been secretly tasked with sneaking around Durenmar, collecting Arcane Connections to the other magi visiting the covenant.

The Hunters in the Woods

A band of grogs is sent to lurk in the forests near an enemy covenant. Their task is to trail magi approaching and leaving the covenant, and attempt to recover Arcane Connections from their campsites and trails.

Seduction

The grogs are sent to a town near the enemy covenant. Their mission is to befriend or seduce the enemy grogs when they visit the town. The plan is to then take advantage of this friendship to recover Arcane Connections to the enemy magi.

When casting this spell, the caster holds a glass phial in one hand. When cast, the spell instantly transports a quantity of spilled blood that the caster can see and is within one league (3 miles) into the phial. The blood can be used as a +3 Arcane Connection to the character(s) from which it came. The Arcane Connection lasts for years (see ArM5, page 84).

If the blood comes from a mixture of individuals, it must be sorted using a spell such as Division According to Blood before it can be used as an Arcane Connection. The exception is that the unsorted blood can be used as an Arcane Connection for effects that use a Group target to affect the entire group from which the blood came.

This spell works because once the blood of a character has been spilled, it does not inherit the character's Magic Resistance. Versions of this spell that instantly transport the blood a shorter (or longer) distance can obviously be invented. The blood might be spilled by a spell effect such as Crystal Rain, or it might be spilled via mundane means such as a sword blow or a punch in the face.

The caster may require some sort of enhancement to his senses (such as Eyes of the Hawk) to target the spilled blood at the extremes of the range of this spell.

(Base 25, +3 Sight)

Required Lab Total to invent spell: One Season (80), Two Seasons (60), Three Seasons (54), Four Seasons (50).

Division According to Blood

Re(In)Co 25

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Part

To cast this spell, the caster holds a glass phial in each hand. One phial contains blood which may come from a mixture of sources. The other phial is empty. Upon casting the spell, all the blood from one individual only (in the first phial) is instantly transported into the second phial. By repeatedly casting this spell (and having a sufficient quantity of empty phials available), the caster may separate out the blood from a number of individuals. If the first phial contains only blood from one individual, then all of it will instantly transport into the second phial.

The Intellego requisite is required to distinguish between the different sorts of blood in the phial. The target is Part because only a fraction of the blood (that belonging to one individual) is instantly transported into the second phial.

(Base 10, +1 Touch, +1 Part, +1 requisite) Required Lab Total to invent spell: One Season (50), Two Seasons (38), Three Seasons (34), Four Seasons (32).

Breath of the Glassworker

CrTe 15

R: Touch, D: Sun, T: Individual

The caster of this spell makes an "O" shape with his thumb and index finger, into which he then blows. This forms and inflates a small glass phial. The phial only lasts for a day, but this is often long enough to hold a sample of some substance until it is either used or taken to the magi's laboratory and repackaged.

(Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 elaborate shape)

Required Lab Total to invent spell: One Season (30), Two Seasons (23), Three Seasons (20), Four Seasons (19).

The Shattered Goblet

CrTe 20

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Group, Ritual

At the conclusion of this ritual, the caster throws a glass goblet onto the ground which splits into thousands of sharp glass shards, with many times the volume of the original goblet (about 1,000 cubic paces).

If spread about on the ground, the glass shards cause +5 damage to anyone who walks over the ground, but this damage can be totally avoided by wearing hard-soled boots or shoes. The glass can cover an area about 60 paces across in glass 1 foot deep.

The glass shards are intended to be used with the Crystal Rain spell. The glass shards can be reduced in size to be more easily carried, using the Miniaturist of Venice spell.

(Base 3, +1 Touch, +2 Group, +2 Size) Required Lab Total to invent spell: One Season (40), Two Seasons (30), Three Seasons (27), Four Seasons (25).

The Thirsty Dagger

CrTe 20

R: Touch, D: Momentary, T: Individual, Ritual

This ritual creates a metal dagger. The blade contains cleverly designed gutters that feed into a reservoir in the hilt. This means that if anyone is injured by the dagger (takes a Wound), then a sample of their blood is collected in the dagger's hilt. A version of this ritual could be created with as a spell with a duration (such as Sun) for use in emergency circumstances. However, the dagger created with the ritual is not magical, so it does not need to Penetrate Magic Resistance to harm a target (which a spell with a non-Momentary duration would need to do).

The dagger can be used as either a thrown or melee weapon. It is less useful in Defense than a normal dagger, and less aerodynamic than a throwing knife. In both cases, this is because The Thirsty Dagger is oddly weighted due to the blood reservoir. The dagger's weapon characteristics are:

Ability: Brawl, Init: +0, Atk: +2, Dfn: –1, Dam: +3, Str: –1, Load: 0 Ability: Thrown, Init: –1, Atk: 0, Dfn: –1, Dam: +2, Str: –1, Load: 0