Beast Spies
There are many aspects of real world medieval history that movies and TV shows continually get wrong. One of them is a lack of animals. This makes sense when you consider shows have limited budgets. Having animals on set means you need people to feed them, supervise them, and clean up their droppings, and it will get animal right's activists on set scrutinizing the studio. And you might have reshoot a take if an awkward animal noise interrupts a character's important line.
In modern times "free range" farm animals are uncommon, but in medieval times, what we call "free range" is what medieval people called "normal". Animals wandered around rural homesteads, cities, and even castles. Scarterra is pretty much the same. Even if you can't see domesticated animals, you can usually hear and smell them.
Animals were everywhere and were mostly taken for granted. Now imagine the animals are spying on you.
There are spells that can let a mages or theurgists see and hear out of an animals' eyes and ears turning every waddling duck and stray cat into a potential spy.
The real value of this magic is to get in your enemies' heads. The fear of Beast Spies is more dangerous than the Beasts Spies themselves. Once your enemies are jumping at the shadow of every dog or the squawk of every chicken in their vicinity, you've already won.""The Testers are the best Animal Theurgists in Scarterra, with only Stewards able to come close to us. The spell works equally well on wild or domesticated beasts. Wild beasts have more freedom of movement and better sensory acuity, but domesticated beasts are more likely to be ignored. making them more innocuous spies. Even we Testers, don't use Beast Spies a whole lot. It's a time consuming tool only for the very patient and the information you get is not always great.
Effect
The spell can be done with Animal Theurgy or Arcane Enchantment. Theurgists have an edge.
For Animal theurgists, Lesser Beast Spies is a ●●● power and Greater Beast Spies is a ●●●● power. It's cast with Charisma + Animal Ken.
For Arcane Enchanters, Lesser Beast Spies is a fourth circle power and Greater Beast Spies is a fifth circle power. It's cast with Perception + Enchantment.
Other than the level difference and casting pool, the mechanics are identical.
Both "Lesser Beast Spies" and "Greater Beast Spies" lets the caster see out of the eyes of animals. The lesser version has the animals act completely normal, and the caster has to hope that the animals will see or hear something that he wants to see or hear. The greater version can nudge animals to move towards persons, places, or events that the caster wants to keep an eye on.
Greater Beast Spies provides quicker and more accurate intel but Lesser Beast Spies is less likely to alert your target that nearby animals are acting suspiciously.
The spell lasts about thirty minutes per success rolled, and the caster is able to see and hear what the beast sees and hears. If they roll three or more successes, they can smell what the beast smells too.
The spell extends line of sight for other beast based spells. The caster can re-cast this spell in order to use their extended line of sight to leapfrog to another animal.
A caster could take the eyes and ears of a cat, when the cat looks at a bird, he can take the eyes of the bird and then when the bird flies over a horse, take the eyes of and ears of a horse, perhaps the very horse of the person they want to spy on.
Side/Secondary Effects
While the spell is active, the caster sees and hears what the animal hears AND they see and hear what is normal in their vicinity. This is extremely disorienting.
Physical and perception actions are +2 difficulty. Mental and social actions are at +1 difficulty. Remaining in this dual state for a prolonged reason can result in headaches and fatigue though this can be mitigated by the caster closing his eyes and/or plugging his ears to put their full focus on what the beast is perceiving.
Blocking or Thrwarting the Spell
Intelligent creatures that take the forms of animals cannot be used as Beast Spies at all.
The spell doesn't work on insects or worms or animals with very simple minds.
Beast Spies doesn't work on dead animals, even if they are reanimated by necromancy.
If the beast moves out of range of the caster, the spell is broken immediately.
If the beast touches a lead object or crosses a lead lined barrier, the spell is broken immediately.
If the beast crosses the boundary of an area with an anti-scrying spell in affect, the spell is broken immediately.
The magical effect can be dispelled by casting dispel magic on either the caster or the beast, but hte magic counts as @[Persistent](article:fcd93d75-3848-4c1d-b8dc-58a1eac52a59.
Any anti-enchantment spell works when cast on the beast.
The spell Sense the Tether will show a clear mystic line connecting the beast and caster.
Special Scenarios
If two caster are trying to possess the same beast, the caster who rolls more successes pushes the other out. On the event of a tie, neither caster gains possession of the beast (and the beast probably runs away in confusion).
Scarterrans have trouble using beast spies with gills. Scaraquans have trouble using beast spies with lungs. If the caster wants to bridge the gap between land and sea, the casting is at +2 difficulty. Aquatic birds and mammals are an exception (like dolphins or penguins), there are no penalties to using them as spies for Scarterrans or Scaraquans.
Supernatural beasts native to the material plane are +1 difficulty to target.
Supernatural beasts native to other planes are +2 difficulty to target, Though a character with the Fae affinity Merit can use Sprites with no penalty.
Casters linking to animals loyal to them are at -1 (their pets or steeds).
Related School
Effect Duration
30 minutes per success or until cancelled by the caster
Effect Casting Time
Standard A-action
Range
A quarter mile per permanent Willpower of the caster
Level
Varies
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