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  • Writer's pictureKarsten

NPCwednesdays #11

Alrico is a freelance spy, working in the Horasian Empire. Besides hiding his true identity he is also hiding his magical abilities, using them to further his goals.

Guildmages are normally required to cast their spells very obviously with loud incantations and visible gestures and trying to hide it comes at a penalty as omitting either of them incurs a -2 to the check and both hefty -4 and also reduces the number of further spell modifications you could do.

In Arania, Guildmages had been outlawed for centuries until recently and while most mages left Arania or pretended to be only Illusionists (like the academy in Zorgan) some mages went underground and formed secret societies, the so called Qabalya.

Over time the Qabalya Mages became very adapt in omitting gestures and incantations and as their tradition (Magic of Aventuria p. 19) started to diverge from the guild mages tradition they gained the ability to omit one of these without a penalty and only have a penalty of -2 to omit both. Also they typically do not have a mage seal tattooed to their hand, as normal guild mages do.

This is a good basis for a magical spy ( Witches or Druids or Intuitive Mages would also be good choices, I might explore those at a later date).

So Alrico has been sent by his Quabalya to the horasian empire to gather information. What spells would be useful?

As we don't use a premade profession package for this Quabalya we can easily decide what spells would fit a spy mage.

Bannbaladin can make you a good friend when you need it and the spell enhancements successful influence give you a chance the target does not even realise it was enchanted. A Respondami is a quicker, more aggressive way to get answers. And Penetrizzel let's you peek through walls (and listen, thanks to a spell enhancement). Transversalis is a good option to disappear if needed.

If Alrico finds himself in a combat situation, Armatrutz is a relatively subtle support while fighting while a Duplicatus is rather obvious but very effective. Aeolito can deal direct damage but it's main purpose is to blow an opponent prone to then give a headstart for an escape.

His main combat tactics however does not require him to spend astral energy. As a very exquisite disguise his Spell Sword and Mage's Staff are combined into a Sword Cane with the staff being the sheath.

He also has a few other tricks up his sleeve with these tradition artifacts, transforming the staff into a rope or rope whip or even into a chameleon with his mind transferring into the creature to spy around.



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