Back to Nightmare Calling...

I slowly lifted my left hand up to feel my face.

Well, that rebuild went well, because I am pretty damn sure I didn’t have an intact skull…

I huffed, raised my eyebrows, and slowly got myself to my feet. I stretched out, and began to go through some exercises as I thought about things.

That had been a truly brutal ending.

I made it through the spectres, leveraging what healing I had, using it during the short downtimes, going into that fight pretty much all set and ready to go.

It had worked out pretty well, all things considered, given how fast a group of spectres could take my Soak down. I’d been allocating damage to Health, so I could Vigor it and then do double duty with my healing in a two-for-one damage exchange. I was managing it pretty well.

The Glutton Spectre had lasted through three bone-chilling swipes, and I was looking forwards to getting Vajra Resist/2 today to make the last dozen swipes even more ineffectual.

The follow-up to the spectres had naturally been ghosts, next up the scale of incorporeal murder-phantoms. Ghosts did a lot more melee damage than spectres did, and although there were fewer of them, they had 10 HD to the spectres’ 8, making them much tougher.

However, they only had to wave an arm through you, and supernatural aging and fleshwarping started taking you apart. I was pretty sure that four arms had gone through my skull, and it had fallen apart into powder.

There had been at least ten of them. I think I killed two.

They didn’t swing fast, but they didn’t have to. They did 10d6 necroic damage with that touch attack!

Needless to say, my proud Soak and Health had only lasted seconds once more than one of them was on me.

Damn, and they weren’t even the toughest of the incorps. Was the Curse going to be able to throw Banshees at me next? They started at 14 HD and 14d6 damage! Oh, no, Witchfires would be a better thematic choice. Ranged attacks from them, head up into the ceiling and zap me to death.

Right after they deal with my Null and my fire resistance, that is. Please let the next tier be Witchfires…

Right now, I had to get past the ghosts. Being forced to three-hit them meant relying on crits to hit their nexus, which meant relying on luck. Until I could get my damage high enough to two-hit them, or somehow got my touch AC into the 30’s, I was probably just going to die there.

Hmmph! They were CR10’s, and I was a Four! A Deep Four, to be sure, but still a Four!

Just wait until my Banes kick in, and I keep refining Tremble up and up!

I did all my stretches and exercises, feeling the thrumming of my Ki and Essence roiling through my Vajra.

A Diamond Vajra required 20 of each. I was at 14/16, respectively. I needed to increase my Ki. With a Diamond Vajra, Sustained Effort would kick in, which was all sorts of valuable for a Forsaken.

Double Stat Gains from Levels was a big thing!

“Scout/3.” Cunning to +2. +1 to Danger Sense, assorted benefits, mostly vs traps or against being surprised.

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10+2 Skill points, another class skill. I picked Trapsmith for the Class Skill. Trapsmith+4, its opposite Disable Device +4, Open Locks +2 to 4, Sleight of Hand and Escape Artist +1 to 4.

Two General Feats. “Sun Mastery/1.” +1 Ki, opened Sun Advance Schema, Rising Sun swordplay. With all three Lesser Houses opened, that meant I had access to Night Rose Swordplay, and the Night Rose style, always useful. “Cunning Soul.” +2 dmg when Sneak Attacking per Essence, +1 Essence. Invest 2 Essence…

“Advance to Way Mastery/2, Fire and Crystal.” One more level, and I’d be able to mix all three Ways of Fire, Ocean, and Crystal at the same time, as well as their Swordplays. Mixing in the Lesser Dragons would require the Lesser Way Mastery advances, which I didn’t have right now.

Ki to 15, Essence to 17. Health to 50, Soak to 123...

Tremble was 2/8 towards Bane and Slaughter, and +8500 on the Intelligent Weapon scale. I was investing into its minor powers: it could already Detect Magic, and I was working on Detect Precious Materials, then Detecting Bane… which would naturally require Bane to be active, of course.

All in good time.

I tapped that Increase Lowest Stat bar, and felt something change for the better. Probably Charisma…

I spent eight hours refining Tremble towards a higher standard, and then I walked out into the mists to die. Eagerly.

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One haunting of ghosts later...

I flicked my eyes open, and laughed to myself.

I’d killed five ghosts, and felt pretty good about myself.

I’d opened with a charge attack. With Spirited Charge’s triple damage, that had been enough to take one down, much to its astonishment, I’d Cleaved to a second one, and before they could properly react, got off the Whirlwind. The one I’d Cleaved had clawed for me, Sword Beats Fist went off, and I had cut it down and Cleaved to a second one, which had also struck at me. I’d parried with a Wall of Blades, Riposted to kill it, cut into a third, who had lashed through my chest and turned my lungs into something a ninety-year-old might be proud of.

The fourth one had missed me as I juked, and the fifth one had charged me and run right into my Archer Stand Thrust, dying instantly. I tore Tremble through him, lashing back at #3 who was leaping at my back as I pulled my Sword out, wrenched and spun after she died, and caught #4 squarely in the old fart’s nexus as I did so.

Six more ghosts piled on me, and I died two seconds later, falling apart before I could hit the floor. Poosh, a hundred hit points evaporated, just like that. Don’t get swarmed by ghosts, I guess…

So, at least eleven of them. But I’d been in the middle of the room, there could be more at the edges.

Needed to get my Touch AC up, and/or have a lot more Soak, to get through all those ghosts.

That, or get my Diamond Vajra singing with Negative energy damage resistance, which was basically everything they were throwing at me. Oh, they were not going to like me when I accomplished that, and getting my Diamond Vajra was like the #1 thing I wanted to get done, with Bane/Slaughter #2 on the list.

That said, Karma was still flowing, shadows, spectres, and ghosts were dying, and fuel for the engine of apotheosis was still incoming, thank you, Curse of the Hags…

I flicked that Lowest Stat button, and felt that weird shifting where nothing happened, but something changed.

Ah. It was getting rid of my age bonuses, and changing them into point buy. I wanted to take advantage of being a kid again, it followed that the age bonuses would need to go away. Couldn’t reasonably be a kid and exploiting the growing-up with shitloads of Karma and training, and be an overweight middle-aged doofus at the same time…

I was pretty sure my Wis and Cha had all started at 10 or 11. Age bonus might have brought Wis and Cha to 13, and these were being subbed for right now. Str was probably 12, and would start to improve soon.

Meh, just meant I had a long way to go. Needed that Diamond Vajra.

Had to take Stat Advance Masteries with Character Levels. Normal Mastery Advances I could take as long as they tied to the Class. The only Class with universal access was my Primary Class, which I didn’t want to use until I maxed out my point-buy… although Vizard could be used for anything relating to Skills and Masteries.

Yes, I was going to get my Diamond Vajra after I got the Stat advances I needed. Every day fed Tremble Naming Karma, and the thoughtfully provided power comps made by the Curse let my Blade get stronger and stronger, even as I refined it and increased its Quality Level so I could expand its Arsenal.

Before today, it was progress every day, driving me forward to the next foe. I was at a bottleneck, and progress would change when I reached a milestone, and things shifted.

My Diamond Vajra would be that milestone.