Vey is currently squatting over the sleeping form of Sera on the floor of the lab. Vey isn’t sure how she managed to fall asleep on the stone floor, with only her arms to support her head and her clothes for warmth. Really, though, it is a good reminder for Vey that it has been working on spellcraft for far, far too long now. Vey gently pushes both of its arms underneath her body, one under her thighs and the other her back, and lifts. It really is a testament to how Sera’s changed in the last three months that she doesn’t even wake up from Vey carrying her to her room from the lab.
As Vey sets her down in the bed, and pulls the crude blanket up over her, it makes a mental note to itself to ask her about how she feels when she wakes up. Truthfully, with the knowledge Sera has willingly shared with Vey, combined with its own conclusions, it knows she is happy, but Vey still has some trouble reading some of her emotions and thoughts. For example, twice in the last three months she’s had what she calls ‘periods’ which seem to be perfectly natural biological processes. What confuses Vey about them is that they were both preceded and followed by a few days of what it would describe as ‘clinginess’ on behalf of Sera, and she practically begged to be included in everything Vey did-usually from close proximity-and slept a lot less than she usually did.
Sera didn’t seem to be aware of this herself though, at least not in a way Vey could discern. What Vey is discerning, which is becoming more evident now as it brushes some hair away from her mouth, is that her body is growing. Vey assumes that from the way Sera talked about her life before being taken here that her body is in a sort of ‘transitionary period’ between being a child and an adult, which is probably why the changes hadn’t started until she was being properly fed. Vey estimates it would need to ask her to stand still for a full body inspection to compare the full scope of the changes with its previous documentation, and leaves her room to go tend to its next, more serious task.
Vey made a moderate amount of spellcraft progress, but hasn’t been making any level progress, or at least hasn’t leveled up, since the fight with the adventurers. Sera’s injury from the fight healed long ago now, the corpses of those adventurers have rotted too far to be useful for much, and no new adventurers or bandits or anything have tried to encroach on Vey’s territory, which is both good and bad. Vey is beginning to suspect that no matter how much ‘progress’ it makes towards progressing its level, it still needs to survive combat to actually level up.
So while not having to worry about its research or ‘daily’ life with Sera being interrupted, the lack of chances to both test its magic and advance its class have begun rubbing it the wrong way. Hence why it has begun stationing the now actually quite competent undead throughout the dungeon, actively patrolling as opposed to simply training at the hallway before the stairs. Sera still only ventures beyond the lab when accompanied by Vey, but she was quite happy when Vey let her outside, despite the risk of her trying to run. ‘Let’ is a strong word, and so is ‘risk’, as Sera had begged for it for over a week, but ended up practically hugging Vey the entire time and covering her eyes from the sun’s light for the entire time they were outside. She was even the one who decided when they should go back in.
Speaking of the outside, Vey’s wood gathering has begun to noticeably affect the landscape, the small clearing beyond the dungeon’s mouth is now more of a large clearing full of stumps. Not all of the wood was for paper, though, as Vey has begun experimenting making all sorts of things out of wood, from furniture(mostly a failed venture) to traps(marginally more successful). Vey is especially proud of the large wooden shields it fashioned for the melee undead, the small bit of militarism remaining from [Undead Lieutenant] satisfied by every advancement to its soldiers' might.
Vey knows from experience that Sera will probably sleep for another six hours at least, long enough for Vey to focus on a project relatively far away from her bedroom(it had begun trying to be there for her ‘breakfast’ at her request), namely scoping out more of the environs beyond the dungeon’s clearing. It knows from Sera’s story that there should be a road almost straight ahead of the clearing about a mile’s walk through the forest, and Vey can see the faint path the adventurers had probably taken to get to here.
Once upon a time, Vey had considered resorting to banditry for supplies, but now, Vey was considering resorting to banditry for the far, far simpler reason that it needs someone to kill to test its theory on level ups. It knows that sort of thing would probably be common knowledge to Sera, but Vey doesn’t want to introduce the idea of killing her for its gain to her mind, remembering how distraught she was about thoughts like that until that day nearly four months ago now.
As Vey looks down the slight hill, to the path leading through the forest, supposedly with a well traveled road on the other end, it contemplates the one thing Sera would probably defy Vey on. It checks its status, and reads through all of its attributes and abilities, running through scenario after scenario in its mind on how it could kill anyone it finds on that road.
Level and Hit Die:
3, 3
Current HP/MHP
24/24
Armor Class
11
MP
32
Class:
Wizard
Name:
Vey
Race:
Skeleton[Human, Male, Adult]
Subrace:
None/NA
Alignment:
Lawful Evil
Height
5’6 ft
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Attributes:
MHP
STR
CON
DEX
INT
WIS
CHA
SPD
LCK
NAC
Base:
24
10
11
10
8
6
8
30ft
2
10
Race:
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
Study:
0
NA
NA
NA
3
4
0
NA
NA
NA
Effects:
0
0
0
0
4
4
4
0
0
0
Total:
24
10
11
12
15
14
12
30ft
2
10
Proficiencies
Skills(Passive)
Skills(Active)
Magic Effects
Pacts and Curses
Simple Weapon
Proficiency
Undead Endurance
Alacritous Cogitation
Positive Energy Weakness
Simple Tool Proficiency
Death Blow
Overcast
Negative Energy Healing
Light Armor Proficiency
Preparation Spellcasting(Wizard 3)
Layered Augmentation
Undead Lieutenant
Spellcraft(Wizard)
Awakened
Lifetime Achievements
Titles
Human(Common) Killed: 3
Awakened One
Magical Breakthroughs: 4
Arcane Thesis
Orcs(Common) Killed: 1
Elffriend
Successful Surgeries: 1
Spells Available for Casting: 10(Wzd Lvl + IntMod + 5)
Spell Mana Costs
Scorching Ray
4
Telekinetic Tentacle
4
Cutting Hand
2
Fist of Stone
2
Web
4
Mage Armor
2
Fog
4
False Aura
4
Ghoul Touch
2
Mirror Image
4
Spellbook 1
Light
Permanent Light
Cutting Hand
Fist of Stone
Magic Missile
Mage Armor
Detect Magic
False Aura
Firebolt
Mirror Image
Ghoul Touch
Command Undead
Conjure Simple Meal
Create Water
Quick Potion
Lesser Transmutive Crafting
Identify
Fog
Alarm(Greater)
Web
Bonefiddle
Scorching Ray
Telekinetic Tentacle
As Vey looks through what it currently has prepared as its ‘combat’ spells, reads all of the potential options for differing spell loadouts, strategies, or underutilization of its capabilities, it settles on a core plan of attack if it has the element of surprise. Its buffing spells, [Mage Armor], [Cutting Hand], [Fists of Stone], [Telekinetic Tentacle], [Mirror Image], and [False Aura] will be applied in advance using the combination of its Alacritous Cogitation and Layered Augmentation to negate the downsides of trying to cast multiple buff spells in one fight. Incidentally, it doesn’t remember when it acquired Layered Augmentation, but presumes it earned the skill by using itself as a test subject for so many of its spells.
Alacritous Cogitation
Allows the user to perform immensely difficult or complex tasks of calculation or data processing incredibly quickly for a duration of thirty seconds, in exchange for an MP cost. Can only be used once every thirty minutes without suffering a stacking -2 intelligence penalty lasting thirty minutes.
MP cost: 4
Layered Augmentation
Allows the user to apply any number of spells that target themself in a single cast. Requires the user’s full cognitive abilities to perform, and the single cast takes the same amount of time as it takes the user’s mind to calculate the parameters. The skill costs no MP, but leaves the user unable to take other actions before the cast is finished.
Vey’s plans to open any given fight with [Fog], using the confusion caused by the multiple [Mirror Images] and the obstruction to enemy vision(an effect Vey is immune too on account of its undead physiology) to pick off priority targets like casters and healers before using heavy-hitting spells like [Scorching Ray] to kill ranged combatants. [Telekinetic Tentacle] should give Vey the complete advantage in any melee fight, as the tentacle should be able to restrict an opponent enough to use its Death Blow skill or wait for an opportunity to land a deadly critical strike the old fashioned way, meaning Vey would only really need to rely on its [Mirror Image]s and [Mage Armor] to defend itself before striking any melee fighter down.
Vey’s planning session and overview of its abilities takes around an hour, during which Vey has walked the path through the forest far enough to begin seeing the signs of mortal activity, namely, the remains of what looks like a fire pit, several dug holes filled with waste, and a forgotten tent peg. Vey matches the tent peg in particular to the messing tent peg from the former half-orc cleric’s adventuring supplies, and concludes that from here, the road is probably only about a twenty minute or so walk away. Satisfied with this knowledge, Vey begins its return trip, as it can see the sky to the east lightening, and does not want to be caught in daylight.