NOVEL NEXT Chapter Two – The System
I had a Hard Soul. It could kill me out of spite, but it couldn’t turn me into a Hag!
I clenched my phantasmal fists again.
I just had to survive, until I grew stronger. Until the physical body it had devoured and imitated grew stronger. Then my body itself would start rejecting the very Curse that formed it, and I would be free…
The Curse would be trying to suppress me, annihilate my consciousness and will, and purge me from existence so it could truly steal my soul. It would attack me, and I would have to fight back.
I would have to grow my soul. I would have to rip power from the Curse by fighting it, grow stronger, and never, ever give up.
It would be like a game that I could not afford to lose.
I looked at the whispering mists and shadows all around, the trees that dissolved into nothing as I looked at them.
This… was some sort of proto-zone formed by my own desires. If I stepped into the mists, I’d be stepping into its dreams, and whatever horrors it could warp and twist out of them to fight me.
I would be the nightmare of the Hagborn which had replaced me, the opponent of the Curse it truly was.
All I had to do was not give up, and not be afraid.
The Power of Ten gave us the framework which the rules of magic and advancing one’s soul were built upon. I was a Forsaken, and would never be able to directly manipulate, use, or project magic or spiritual force. Hard Soul.
But that did not mean that there weren’t avenues of power for the Power-less.
I just had to decide how I was going to fight this dreamscape.
I couldn’t rely on tools, which was harsh. I’d been a swordswoman, one of the best in the game. But this was a dream, tools were not something I could rely on the dreamscape to provide me.
This was dream lucidity, I would have to be my own weapon.
“Sama Rantha, Human/1 Hagchild, Melee/1,” I stated and visualized the process of character creation. If the rules of the Power of Ten were applicable here, then I literally had the option of building myself within the framework of those rules.
The dark smoke of my nails turned harder and blacker.
Karma provided energy. I still had unassigned Karma from my last life, waiting to be allocated. In worlds of magic, akashic links exist, connecting the living to the departed, to the knowledge of our ancestors. In a place where casting balls of fire was remarkable, nigh-instantaneous ability to learn was a very, very underestimated ability.
Humans gained a d8 for Health, meaning physical body integrity. Damage to Health was bruises, bumps, cuts, and actual physical injury, stick me, bleed me, break me. Humans gained six skill points, allocated to any Skill they chose, two of which became Class skills. Ranks of Skills were level-dependent, so at level 1, Humans had a number of skills they could pick from to survive.
I could and would train to increase my Health, and my Constitution would help. So, in the dreamscape, I would get tougher.
Humans, standard ability score range, +2 to a Stat of choice, one bonus Feat, one extra skill point per Level. Option to give up the bonus Feat and skill point for +2 to another Stat.
Female, -2 to Strength, +2 to another Stat of choice. Hagchild, no such penalty to Strength.
Mental Stats, I would use my own, whatever they were. Assume a build line of 10 for them. All possible points would be allocated to dream-physical ability.
As a Forsaken, I set Constitution to 18. It wasn’t even a question. My Human bonus would crank it to 20. My first level Forsaken +1 Inherent bonus would raise that to a nearly superhuman 21. I would be extremely tough on a spiritual and physical level.
My hands solidified into something almost as real as flesh. I knew they weren’t real, but they somehow felt a lot more solid now.
Dexterity to 18. Gender bonus, +2, getting it to 20. I would be agile, nimble, flexible, coordinated, graceful, and have quick reflexes, even if I looked like skin and bones, at the very top of human natural potential.
I watched ripples run along my arms, and I felt light, responsive, with a wider range of motion.
Strength with whatever was left. I could raise it with Levels and magic items later, and there were quite a few that would help.
Sinewy muscles joined the ripples along my arms, tendons rose up that looked thicker than most humans should have.
Swap Human bonus Feat and skill points for +2 to Intellect.
I blinked as there was literally a surge in my skull, and my memory and speed of thought seemed to speed up. It was basically a wash, as the +2 to Intellect would raise the bonus by +1, which would replace the skill points lost, but also give me another starting language and +1 to all Int rolls, as well as making it easier for me to qualify for Int-based Feats.
This focused dreamscape designing was working…
D8 Hit Die for Human/1. I was an adventurer, not a civilian. Set Health at Level One to maximum!
There was a tremble as energy seemed to run through me, acknowledging that point.
Languages, Human plus Int bonus in others. This would indirectly provide me my Intellect score.
My eyes narrowed. Who and what would I face in a dreamscape?
“Fey.” They literally lived here. “Undead.” Wandering spirits, the perfect nightmare creature. “Jotun.” Giants would be an easy creature to dream up for a child. “Demonic.” No reaction...
The three languages seemed to expand in the back of my head, as if I’d always known them. They were also rather disgusting, and I was glad I hadn’t picked Aklo, which was supposedly literally mind-bending to learn. Jotun was fine, but every syllable reeked of age and primal power long passed, at once strong and depressing and unchanging. It was the base language of Runes, and I’d need to learn it to learn Runelore, or Runic Item Creation.
They were all languages I’d known in the game, too.
+3 meant my boosted Intellect was a 16 or 17. That… was fine. It was pretty cool thinking I’d had a 14 or 15. I’d been old enough to earn that first age bonus, maybe that was why… eh!
Six skill points. No Int bonus yet. Two of the six would be All-Class Skills, no penalty for taking them when advancing in another Class if I so desired.
Survival, Stealth, Perception, Meditation, Concentration, Knowledge/The Planes.
A bunch of basic awareness suddenly unfolded in my mind. Had to be my Sama knowledge from the game, repressed until it was properly paid for. Fine, fine, I could handle it.
Survival, basic knowledge of how to stay alive, find food and shelter, and just plain live in any situation, without being artistic or with access to many tools.
Stealth, basic knowledge of how to move and breathe to avoid being sensed. An All skill, because it was so universal.
Perception, using all the senses to uncover information, more about paying proper attention than increasing sensitivity. This would also be an All Skill, just because it was so important.
Meditation and Concentration, required for mastery of Ki and Essence, basically the foundation of mental and spiritual disciplines Forsaken could use.
Knowledge/The Planes gave me more ability to analyze and manipulate the aspects of Dreamtime. Intentionally or otherwise, this place would be connected to the Ethereal Plane, and things could go in and out while I was here. Knowing how to influence it, even in the very general way Forsaken were restricted to… or to defy its manipulations, which was much more my cup of tea, and more realistic.
I was duly informed that I was basically a lucid soul entrapped in a dreamscape, and thus the most real thing here. So, I could actually have a ‘physical’ existence, whereas most other things would have strengths related to force of will or cunning.
That was fine with me. Forsaken got their power from being tough physically and mentally.
Since the Curse couldn’t let me die, I could be torn apart, but my lucid body would naturally reform. I was of the impression that I was going to die a lot, and it wouldn’t be a picnic when I did.
Choose Good saving throws for Human/1. I picked Will and Reflex, which would cover the gaps in my later choices. It didn’t mean much, since Human only went to Three, but it was something.
Human/1, Forsaken Hagchild, done!
I examined my rather sharp black nails, thinking.
The next part of ‘creating’ myself was Class Levels. Class levels were what differentiated humanoids from most monsters. Most monsters had lots of Racial Levels, which for most humans topped out at Human/3. Many of their skills were derived directly from their genetics, needing no training, as basic to them as instincts. So, like, most Fire Giants were fantastic smiths, even if they never picked up a hammer. Their knowledge was more instinct than learned, and didn’t meet Rank requirements for many Feats, but it was still possible to give any Fire Giant a hammer and he could pound out a perfectly usable set of full plate if he could examine one first!
Class Levels sort of worked the same way, but didn’t require genetics. They were Karmic Paths, slowly carved into the Akasha by our ancestors, providing roads for us to advance on that didn’t require massive amounts of magical energy to acquire templates, or evolving our genetics to the next level.
Monsters often considered Class Levels to be cheating. Obviously, the way to get stronger was to be bigger, faster, stronger, and older, accumulating power. Humans got stronger by… learning stuff. Little shits like us just shouldn’t be so hard to kill, or dangerous. Class Levels let Humans get as powerful as creatures much bigger and stronger than us, let us learn many things that gave us an edge over those creatures that had might handed to them on a magical platter.
So, time for Class Levels.
I narrowed my eyes thoughtfully.
I should already HAVE some Class Levels. I should be an Expert, an NPC class.
Experts were the folk who had lots of skills, even if they weren’t great masters in them. D6 hit points, Poor Attack bonuses, good Will save to reflect mental ability, and 8 skill points a Level, as good as a Scout/Thief/Rogue. In fact, a Scout was considered an Expert upgraded to combatant status. Experts forced into the adventurer life usually ‘trained up’ to Scout status, gaining the extra combat skills along the way quicker than multi-classing.
I had been… older. But a lot of specifics about my past life were greyed out. I could recall I had two brothers and two sisters, but not their names… or my own, other than Sama Rantha. Sama had been stamped on my soul. I could vaguely recall I’d been involved in businesses, and I’d been well-educated, but not what I’d done there. Some sort of teaching involved…?
I didn’t know, but I had literally no Skills, which was very odd. It was like I knew a lot of stuff, without knowing anything.
I probably wasn’t expected to drag my past life’s benefits into this life, on top of being Sama Rantha. I also probably wasn’t supposed to be self-aware and eaten by a Hag, either.
So, I should have Expert levels. I didn’t think I was an elite at Four, but I was more than just competent, so I was probably a Three before… which meant that I was simply an Expert/3 with nothing assigned right now.
Which meant I was a base Three, and could take Masteries and Feats an Expert/3 could take. I could also take my Skill Ranks UP to 3… which might give me a notable early edge.
Only one way to find out!