Spell seed: Catsight.

Catsight – Google Docs

Catsight

This is a scrying spell that takes advantage of a strange, and only half-understood, mental-spiritual gestalt that seems to exist among all domesticated cats.  Simply put; when you get enough cats together within one area, they create a shared network that a trained mage can exploit. Put even more simply: a mage that casts this spell can freely look through the eyes of any and all cats within a mile of his location.

There are conditions.  First off, a lot of what the mage can see depends on the cats in question.  For regular, ordinary domestic cats, this means washed-out color and bad long-distance vision, but admittedly superior night vision. The mage can hear things, but he will only understand them precisely as well as the cat could; which is to say, not at all when it comes to actual language.  The cat is aware of the interloper in its mind, and can dimly ‘hear’ commands given to it; fortunately, the spell effects are apparently pleasant, which means that the cat will typically be amiable towards the caster, and might even be persuaded to give a closer look at something.  The cat will also be able to find the caster afterward, which is one reason why many casters who use this spell regularly acquire a lot of strays.

There are definite advantages. First off, standard detection spells won’t even notice that Catsight has been cast; second, anti-scrying spells won’t bite on Catsight at all. With a little bit of practice the caster can scan through various cat’s eyes very quickly, which can often lead to all sorts of extra information being gleaned. Further spell-casting is permitted, provided that the spell effects are a line-of-sight; spells cast that way are detected and resisted normally, but only once they’re actually cast.  And, oddly enough, joining the cats’ shared gestalt is actually rather soothing, for humanoids. It’s a lot simpler in there. Very grounding.

One last note: this spell works perfectly well on magical cats, supernatural cats, sapient domestic cats, and sentient felinoid races.  It will not work on non-sapient lions or tigers, but will work on cheetahs.  Note that an intelligent felinoid will be able to send back more information to the mage — but will also not necessarily be as amiable about the entire process as a non-sapient domestic cat would be.  The sapient will also be a lot better at tracking down the mage that borrowed its eyesight. Then again, sapient felinoids will find it fairly easy to mentally communicate with a caster of Catsight, and there are a lot of advantages to having a trained mage along in your head when you’re doing a job.