Art above from the incredible video game Dredge.

I, Grace, and Louis from Phlox’s GLOG Discord server got into a real frenzy about a wizard who fishes up their spells. We had similar concepts, but decided to break up and work on them alone, then post together! Here are the fruits of my labor. Keep in mind that as always, these rules are designed to work with LIGAMENTS. Also keep in mind that I wrote this under a dwarf-fortress-style fell mood in… like two hours.

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Filletomancer

You are an Angler with the ability to cast a line into sources of aetheric mana that wind like rivers throughout the planes. Within these oceans are spells which are unknowable, and almost imperceptible to the mortal mind…

But to you, they look a lot like fish.

A: Angler, Mentaquarium, +1 MD
B: Leylures, Leylines, +1 MD
C: Dredging, +1 MD
D: Doom of the Fisherking or Blessing of the Kingfisher, +1 MD

Gear: Heavy fishing implement, small knife (light melee weapon), tacklebox (light container), and fishing supplies (1d12 UD) in the form of spare line, hooks, and bait.

A: Angler

Many good luck charms are included on your hat and clothing that you believe increase your chances of a good catch, but functionally just give you +3 reactions with fishers, hunters, bug catchers, or others of your ilk.

Chanting and swirling of your fishing implement accompanies a wild dance of your own invention, before flinging the hook, harpoon, or net into the aetheric oceans. In your mind, you are in a wild, frenzied battle against the vibrant seas of lime and violet, cast against an orange sky. To those around you, you just sort of stand there, drooling and dead-eyed for a full minute per fish caught.

To catch a spell fish, roll a number of magic dice. Then roll on the spell table {dice} times and test luck to catch any {low} of those fish, in any combination. Successful catches are stored in your mentaquarium. Finally, roll usage dice of your fishing supplies {low} times.

A: Mentaquarium

Half of your capacity is flooded with aetheric mana from the first time you ever caught a fish with your Angler template, this is your mentaquarium. To cast fish stored in your mentaquarium as a spell, you either kill them, or free them. Freed fish return to whence they came, grateful and serene. Killed fish are filleted on the spot, their bodies flash boiling into multicolored steam which smells like sunbaked fish guts and rotting wood. Track all fish freed or killed by you.

When a fish is cast or midnight passes, all fish in your mentaquarium test morale. Any that completely lose their morale are eaten by the others, sensing its weakness. As killed fish are cast, the spell they represent is immediately cast with randomized targets/effects. The starting morale die of caught fish is determined by the number of fish caught at once. 1 has a d10 morale die, 2 have d8, 3 have d6, and 4 have d4. Fish that die from morale loss count as being killed by you.

Items can be stored within your mentaquarium, but are susceptible to the effects of being submerged in water, so books or other soluble items will be ruined/destroyed. Physical objects take two move actions to be retrieved or stored within your mentaquarium.

B: Leylures

Using 6 rations and/or trophies from killed creatures, you may craft a number of lures equal to your filletomancer templates. Lures increase the range of possible catches by how many different creature trophies are included in their making. (For instance, if you roll the Fireball fish with a lure that was made with one trophy, you can actually pick from the Finger of Death, Fireball, or Flesh and Stone fish, as they are 1 spell above and below Fireball on the list.)

B: Leylines

If you roll doubles on your MD when catching spell fish, you have found a spot where the leylines of aetheric mana crisscross. A week of meditation here will allow the fish in your mentaquarium a chance to breed, as they feed on the pure, unfiltered aetheric mana. Choose two fish, test their morale with advantage. If they both succeed, they breed and a brand new fish is born in your mind, the effects of which are determined by your gamemaster. If either fail, it is eaten by its lover. If both fail, they eat/rut one another until melding into a single horrifying abomination fish.

This abomination prowls your mentaquarium, feasting on another fish each hour unless it has access to a ration. When it is cast, the spells used to create it are cast at the exact same time, with all benefits and detriments included. If both spells are concentration, the filletomancer passes out immediately for a number of hours determined by rolling the abomination fishes’ morale die.

C: Dredging

The wicked tides of the aetheric mana are home to things besides fish. Empty slots and containers in the Mentaquarium part of your capacity have a 45% chance to fill each midnight with dangerous, beautiful, or unthinkable odds and ends determined by the gamemaster.

The gamemaster is encouraged to get extremely weird with it, such as crawfish that grant mutations, eels that create disease, or monsters that spring from the filletomancer’s mind to attack the party. How bad would it be if the unwieldy anchor of a spelljammer got lodged into your mind, and you couldn’t lift it to remove it?

D: Doom of the Fisherking or Blessing of the Kingfisher

Compare the tally marks of fish freed versus killed. If more fish are killed or the numbers are tied, you receive the following template:

DOOM OF THE FISHERKING
– Fish eaten after they lose morale are cast with d8 magic dice instead of d6.
– Injuries to mentaquarium slots heal twice as fast.
– Abomination fish no longer suffer rations, and assimilate their prey’s effects.

If more fish are freed, you receive the following template:

BLESSING OF THE KINGFISHER
– Leylures must be made of just one kind of creature.
– Successfully bred fish spawn 1d4 children, instead of just one.
– Each time a fish is freed its spell is marked with a tally that grants +1 MD rolls on castings.