"Legitimate" way to get a bunch of bones

[Smiling_Bandit]

Figure I need to get my hands on a fair sized pile of bones, with out the social stigma of purposefully collecting bones. Could I buy some domestic animals and donate the meat to town and quietly get the bones out of town without causing suspicions? Obviously I could just kill the animals (or people for that matter) and just leave bad memories. I figure it's a nice halfway measure to get what I want without making folks remember me as that murderous bone collector.

Smiling_Bandit - Won't say what they're for, he just needs a *lot* of them

[kiralon]

Go to a butcher in a decent sized town

[Grazzik]

A bit of work, but...

Somehow convince the local noble to raise money through a retroactive grave tax on cemeteries - easy to count and always adding more. Then go to the townsfolk and offer to empty the graves and dispose of the bones for a small fee so they can avoid the new expensive and unfair tax. You do what is perceived as a public service, get paid for it, and the noble comes across as the jerk. Let's hope the townsfolk don't rise up in protest forcing the noble to send in his goons...

[Library Ogre]

Go to a butcher in a decent sized town

Butcher should work. Or, like you said, buy a bunch of animals, slaughter them, and find a use for the meat. If you're at all religious, throw a feast.

[The Dark Elf]

Buy a dog. Visit a butchers. Buy the bones for your dog....

Then slaughter the dog and use it bones!

[Grazzik]

Since no context was given re location or culture or laws, none of these butchering or feasting ideas would be "legitimate" in communities or societies that are vegetarian or honor nature/animals... killing a pet dog might be considered a heinous crime... just sayin'...

[Grazzik]

Oh, and just had some more ideas...
- do butchers in the area need a license from the local noble to operate? To butcher yourself do you need one and is that restricted by a guild?
- how does the local Necromancer coven or death cult feel about you muscling in on their supply?
- how does the local priesthood feel about an outside usurper holding a feast without their say so? Perhaps undermining their power over locals as it would send the message that if you have enough gold pieces you can buy holiness...
- local herds might not be sizeable enough to fit your needs or it may be the wrong season...
- bonemeal is often used in fertilizer and aquafarming... are you about to devastate a local industry/economy and cause locals to starve this coming winter? Evil...
- will the release of so much PPE at once draw something unwanted and dangerous to the community?

Sometimes, it hard being an upstanding necromancer...

[green.nova343]

Soup bones. Markets will have bones from various animals that can be used to make soup and/or broth.

[darthauthor]

The Dark Elf,

You are BRUTAL!

[Goblin-Jack]

As a variation on one of your suggested course of action, why not donate the animals to a church (or cult), let them sacrifice the animals and process the carcasses as they see fit, so long as they agree to give you the bones. That way they do all your dirty work, but also get the benefit of a sacrifice and feast for their worshipers without the cost of actually buying (or leaning on their congregation to buy) the livestock. You could even setup a regular arrangement with them so on a routine basis, you bring them livestock which they convert to bones for you, and you gain the benefit of them seeing you as an ally if not a benefactor, and perhaps will then supply you with information or assistance you can use for other endeavors.

[Stone Gargoyle]

Depending on how many bones you are talking about, you might need a way of storing and/or moving them out of town. No matter what you do, collecting a huge amount f bones is going to draw attention. You have not provided any context as to what your character does or why he needs the bones, so it is hard t ffer suggestions with such limited information.