“Bring it on, buddy!” Ivy said, rubbing her hands.
Customizing her stats had been easy. Gamblers needed Perception (which she already had at 16), Intuition (which she’d pumped up by one to 16), and Empathy to sense people’s emotions (now bumped up to 17). She felt a little frail, with a Constitution of only 11, which was average, but she bumped that up to 12 anyway. She also wanted to be extra quick on the draw. She already had great hand-eye coordination, which was in part how she’d grown into such a skilled gamer, but an extra point might make her world class, so Agility went up to 17. And she didn’t want to be too much older, but she took an extra few years for an Education bump. “Skills, skills, skills!”
The GM said in his Hollywood leading man voice, “Your skills are based on percentages, derived in part from your character’s statistics. Some general skills have a normal human base percentage. Other specialized skills begin at zero.”
She pressed the floating button that said Skill List, and a dizzying array of skills popped up before her.
“The skills most closely pertaining to your character class are highlighted in green.”
She scanned them.
Conceal, Con, Hide, Intimidate, Perform, Persuade, Psychology. Definitely all skills a poker player would use. It was a game where you played against people using cards as your weapons. She dumped the majority of her Skill Points into those, but she also felt like this party needed some ranged skills, and her character came with a firearm of her choice. So she pumped up her Handgun skill. And in case she had to be ninja-like, her Stealth, and, just in case that failed, Athletics and Dodge so she could escape.
As soon as she locked in her skill choices, another screen popped up.
“Your character has several stats that are derived from your physical and mental abilities. Life Points represent the amount of bodily damage you can take before you’re incapacitated. It is calculated based on your Strength, Constitution, and Size. It can be increased through rest or the use of First Aid and Medicine skills. In the event you acquire magical abilities or wish to cast a spell or perform a ritual that you learn in the game, doing so requires you to expend Soul Points, a measure of your inner strength, or spirit energy as it were, which is derived from your Constitution, Intellect, and Empathy. Soul Points can only be regained normally through rest. Are there other ways? Perhaps.” The dramatic pause in his voice was plain. “The last statistic of this type is called Stability. It represents your mental strength and resilience. In the game, your character may encounter disturbing or shocking events or uncover information that shakes your character to the core. Stability is a pool of points that increases or decreases as the game unfolds. It is lost through encountering situations I just described. It can be regained through completing mission levels or side quests and by defeating enemies.”
“This is a really long run-up to starting the game. Does everyone put up with this?”
“Most don’t. For those, we offer an abbreviated version, but I can already tell that your group is special. Plus, you are Ruby Ticket holders. I have something planned that will tax your character’s abilities, and your particular skills and fortitude as a player.”
She squirmed with anticipation in her chair, then cranked up her character’s Georgia accent. “Well that’s a throw-down if I ever heard one. I’m your huckleberry.”
* * *
Ellie paused to consider the character she was creating. A forty-nine-year-old man.
Why switch genders? Maybe so James wouldn’t chase her the whole time. She’d look like a man in the game. Why so old? Forty-nine was a bit of a sweet spot. It gave her four extra Education points, maxing her out at 18, and only penalized her one point of Strength or Constitution. She picked Constitution, which was 14, because her strength was only 8, which already kind of sucked. This had given her 80 extra skill points, with which she’d happily pumped up History, Anthropology, Archeology, Astronomy, Investigate, Natural History, Occult, and Research. Her character was officially an expert in ancient art as well. She had a few points left so she spent them on Psychology so that she could read people, and also on her skill with a sword cane, in case they got in a pinch. She wasn’t much of a fighter, but in roleplaying games, fights always broke out.
She wanted to play the kind of person who knew things, and playing a man had the two-fold bonus of automatically making her more credible and deterring James. If she ever bothered to count the number of times she’d been mansplained, her life would become a slasher movie, and she’d be the killer.
James was a good kid at heart, if he ever turned down the Annoying knob, but she wasn’t interested in a boyfriend who was six years younger, much less a junior in high school.
“Your character’s vital statistics are now complete,” Galadriel said. “You may now customize your character’s attire. This is how you will appear to everyone else in the game.”
An avatar stood before her in mid-air, a man who could have been her older twin brother, dashingly handsome in a well-tailored Victorian suit with a sword cane, with a luxurious mane of salt and pepper hair falling about his shoulders. She also darkened his skin a couple of shades to make him look like Mexican aristocracy.
She caught herself grinning. “I cannot deny the snazzy of that,” she said, then started swiping through the clothing options, choosing a charcoal-gray suit and trousers, white spats, and a paisley waistcoat. “Let’s go with a purple cravat.”
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The man looked like someone capable of sweeping a woman off her feet. Maybe it would be fun, playing such a role. It would certainly surprise Ivy.
“You strike quite a dashing figure,” Galadriel said. “And what shall be your name?”
Ellie thought for a second. “Elwood. Elwood Velásquez.” She’d always like that surname. And perhaps, like Ellie herself, her character had a Caucasian mother who gave her the English-sounding first name.
It was almost time to go kick some story-butt.
* * *
James had been somewhat disappointed by the stats the GM had assigned to him. His Charisma was below average, a 10. No way he’d be able to impress Ellie with that kind of innate awkwardness. It was something he would have to cultivate as he got older.
His Education was just average, which he grudgingly supposed made sense since he was still in high school, but he was way smarter than most of his classmates. The GM had seen fit to reflect that with a 15 Intellect.
He was just as surprised, but pleasantly so, to see his Intuition was a 16, his highest trait. He did always get a pretty accurate vibe from people and situations—when he wasn’t drowning in teenage libido and hormones.
He was also pretty strong-willed, with a Resilience of 15, and soft-hearted—again, behind a facade of teenage boy, which he recognized in his more lucid moments—with an Empathy of 14.
Physically he was pretty average, except for an Agility of 15, which made him a more than passable skateboarder.
So, to patch over his personal deficiencies, he put three points into Education, for a total of 14, which would boost his skill points, and one point each into Perception and Appearance, making them a 13 and 14, respectively. Up and coming young occultists should be handsome and highly perceptive.
What skills did an Occultist need? Why, they needed the Occult skill, knowledge of history, ancient languages like Latin and a smattering of occult languages like Enochian (he didn’t know what that was, but it sounded cool), skills for negotiation like Persuade and Con, some Psychology to augment his skills at reading people, and just in case things got dicey, a ten percent boost to his Punching skill, which would do well with the set of brass knuckles he’d spotted in the available hand-to-hand weapons list.
He punched the empty air. “Take that, dweebs and losers!”
“Your skill selection is now complete,” the GM said. “May I take you to your choice of spells?”
He rubbed his hands together. “Bring it on, Sean. Or, Mr. Connery, if you prefer.”
“I like ‘Sean.’ We hardly wish to be formal, since I’m already inside your gamesuit.”
James stared at his skin-tight suited limbs and started squirming. “Whut?”
“Just a joke.” James could hear the humor in the A.I.’s voice. “I’m messing with you.”
“Oh, okay.”
“But I am in full communication with your gamesuit telemetry.” Before James could utter another word, the dressing room disappeared and became a dank, musty, dungeon room, lit by candles and a spear of moonlight coming from some tiny aperture high above. The detail amazed him, even here in the entry zones like this. The place smelled like a dank, musty dungeon. In the center it stood a podium of ancient wood, upon which rested a thick book, bound in leather and bronze, encrusted with gems. “You may consult the Tome of the Cosmos.”
“Sick…” James breathed.
He stood and took the few steps to the podium, amazed at how real it looked. He could smell the leather. When he touched the cover, he felt it. The parchment pages crackled. Magical symbols swirled in the ink, forming the words Tome of the Cosmos. Again, he could smell the dust, the parchment. It was so utterly convincing, he found himself giggling with joy. “Oh, god, this is amazing!”
He turned the page, rubbing the parchment between his fingers, and encountered the Table of Contents.
Spells are divided into the following categories: Attack Binding Divination Enchantment Protection Summoning
What kind of spellcaster did he want to be? So many possibilities. He paged through the book. Each category had dozens of spells available, but many of them were grayed out, saying things like Requires Level 3 or Requires Intellect 17. So he touched an icon at the top of the page that read Hide Unavailable Spells.
He flipped pages. So many cool names. Mist of Rygath. Blood Binding. Chant of Ancient Wisdom. Nightmares of Mad Morrigan. Tendrils of Taratha. Veil of Zorath-lin.
But he could choose only one spell.
“Hey, Sean,” he said, “what are the chances I could learn more than one spell?”
“Additional spells can only be learned by encountering them in game scenarios, or by leveling up. If you level up, you will be presented once again with the spell book and may choose another spell.”
“This is the sickest thing ever! Uh, one question, though. I notice that Summon spells and Binding spells are different categories. So, does this mean that if I summon something, I also need to bind it successfully? And they’re separate castings?”
“You are correct.”
“Harsh.”
“The supernatural entities of the Crimson Castle are not to be trifled with, and do not respond well to bullets,” the Gamemaster said in his Sean Connery voice.
“Hah! I got that reference, you sly dog.” Then James mimicked the voice, “‘Some things in here don’t respond well to bullets.’”
“I’m surprised you caught that one. Somewhat before your time.”
“Hunt for Red October was one of my dad’s favorite movies. Okay. Attack spell it is.” He tapped the tome’s entry for Eldritch Fire.
“You have chosen Eldritch Fire as your spell. Confirm?”
“Yes.”
Spell: Eldritch Fire Type: Attack Casting Time: Five seconds Casting Requirements: Incantation, gestures Range: 30 foot cone Effect: Caster summons green balefire from the nether realms and blasts it in a cone of fiery destruction capable of harming living, undead, and magical creatures. Damage: 1-10 points of damage per every 4 Soul Points spent Side effects: Bringing forth Eldritch Fire from unknown realms weakens the caster’s mental grip on reality as they know it. The Caster suffers a loss of Stability equal to half the Soul Points spent.
“So with this I can fry bad guys to a crisp, and then go sleep off the heebie-jeebies…” He waited a moment for the Gamemaster to confirm or deny this assessment, but got only silence. “Do all spells require spending Stability points, too?”
“Most of them, yes. Real magic is a dark and dangerous realm, where humans should not tread lightly.”
“Magic, dangerous. Got it. Okay, I think I’m ready. Let’s get into it!”