Epilogue 1: The Path Down
Many players had investigated the rough tunnel that the world boss had dug up through the rocks in her ascent to the surface. The thought of finding a stash of loot in her lair had lured many to explore. The way was treacherous, descending steeply through loose rock that tumbled more than one player to their death. And most of the path was dark. Not the normal dark of the caverns with their glowing lichen and mushrooms, but the pitch black of a closed room. More than one group went too far and found themselves running low on lantern oil and torches. Going down was easy, going up was difficult and slow, especially in pitch darkness.
Side tunnels were found, and explored, adding more danger as most lead to areas patrolled by predators. Small stone lurkers were everywhere, along with giant carnivorous moles, poisonous mushrooms, and spiders of all types. It was the spiders that claimed the lives of more adventurers than anything else. One of the Arachnid Empires was expanding and sending out scouts. The reports back were encouraging, humans being a tasty treat that wasn't usually found in the depths. Plans were made to form a small colony in the area to harvest humans, but the discovery of a Ratkin Hollow was cause for concern. None of the eight-legged Princesses wanted a war with the rats just yet. More scouts were sent out, and the path from the surface was watched carefully.
Epilogue 2: Milo's Character Sheet at the end of Volume 2.
Stats:
STR: 8
DEX: 19
AGI: 21
CON: 11
INT: 25 (+2 Runeboned Cowl)
WIS: 15
CHA: 0
PER: 20
TOU: 8
Vitals:
Health: 1900
(100+100 per level=900, STR bonus=+120, CON bonus=+330, TOU bonus=+400, Extra Health 2:+150)
Stamina: 1855
(100+100 per level=900, STR Bonus=+240,CON bonus=+165, Were-rat bonus +500, Increased Stamina 1: +50)
Mana: 3050
(200+200 per Level=1800, WIS+INT Bonus =+1200, Increased Mana: +50)
Racial Skills:
Spine of Volax-Repat (Tail Fighting) (DEX) Rank 6
Claws of Alta-Viator (Claw Fighting) (DEX) Rank 6
Primary Skills:
Magi-Tech for Beginners (INT) Rank 2
Deep Rock Dwarven Engineering (INT) Rank 7
Bone Casting (INT) Rank 7
Manipulate Bone (INT) Rank 7
Stealthy Skulking (WIS) Rank 5
Climbing (AGI) ) Rank 6
Dodge AGI) Rank 6
Acrobatics (AGI) Rank 6
Small Blades (DEX) Rank 5
Sense Danger (PER) Rank 6
Identify (PER) Rank 7
Weak Poison Resist (Con) Rank 5
Weak Disease Resist (Con) ) Rank 5
Basic Fire Resistance (CON) Rank 0.
Mycology (WIS) Rank 5
Secondary Skills:
Throw Sharp Things (DEX) Rank 5
Fleet of Foot (AGI) Rank 3
Manipulate Locks and Traps (DEX) Rank 6
Gathering Skills:
Mining (STR) Rank 5
Foraging (PER) Rank 5
Skinning (DEX) Rank 0
Crafting Skills:
Hydraulics (INT) Rank 5
Ore Processing (INT) Rank 5
Chemistry (INT) Rank 7
Physics (INT) Rank 7
Pulley Systems (INT) Rank 7
Metallurgy (INT) Rank 5
Tool Making (INT) Rank 5
Mechanic (INT) Rank 7
Trap Making (INT) Rank 7
Bone Carving (DEX) ) Rank 5
Rune Carving (DEX) ) Rank 5
Smithing (STR) ) Rank 5
Lore Skills:
Ancient Runic Lore (INT) Rank 6
System Runic Lore (INT) Rank 6
Dwarven Engineering Rune Lore (INT) Rank 6
Enhancements:
Increased Health 2: (+150 Health)
Increased Mana 1: (+50 Mana)
Increased Stamina: 1 (+50 Stamina)
Guardian Pet 1:
Smugglers Stash 3: Storage Skill. Summons/Dispels a magical chest. Size increases with rank. Currently 27 cubic feet.
Invisible Tail: Even in bright light, everyone thinks you are a boring human. Stay away from mages who can see through illusions. And guards with high perception. And dogs!
Jumping Jack 2: You may leap three times as far as normal.
Slashing Tail 2: Your tail does increased damage and can slash at your foes like a whip. Damage is increased by +30
Strong Claws 2: Increased Claw Damage by +30.
Weak Poison Resistance: Gain the Primary CON skill: Weak Poison Resistance.
Weak Disease Resistance: Gain the Primary CON skill: Weak Disease Resistance
Pretty Good Regeneration: Grants increased (x4), health recovery. Slowly regenerate scar tissue and missing body parts. A steady diet of cheese speeds up the process.
Breathless 2: You may hold your breath for 10x as long. (10 minutes.)
Abundance 3: Your gathering skills return +50% more resources than normally expected.
Skilled Provider 1: Your gathering skills have a significantly increased chance of finding better quality items and even rare items.
Fiendish Traps 2: Your traps and machinery almost always work, and in fiendish ways no one (sometimes even you!) suspected. Everyone gets a surprise. This core skill affects Mechanics, Trap-Maker, and other such skills.
Never Lost: You gain a better memory of the routes you take, giving you maps to track where you have been.
Unlimited Dark Vision: You see in Darkness and Magical Darkness as if it were a cloudy day but in shades of gray.
Perks
Acrobatics: You are skilled at tumbling, walking a tightrope, or swinging from a trapeze. If you have an evasive defense skill, such as dodge, it gains a 20% bonus.
Alert: Others might pause at the start of trouble, but not you. A spell or weapon is immediately at hand and you will act before your enemies unless they have a similar skill or somehow surprised you.
Fast Casting: When you cast an attack spell at a single target, you may immediately repeat the spell for twice the mana.
Counter Attack: You recognize when someone else is about to cast a spell. Hand motions, shouting magic words, the smell of ozone, and that stupid smirk on their face give it away. You may counter their spell with an attack of your own. After all, it's hard to cast a spell if someone just cut off your fingers or put a knife in your throat. If you did not use Fast Casting immediately before this attack, you may also cast a single spell instead of attacking. If you do damage, their spell is disrupted.
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Juggling: You are adept at juggling items in the air. You may also catch items thrown at you, and return them to their owner. You are also skilled at Sleight of Hand and gain small bonuses for skills such as Pickpocket, or Gambling.
You have a +20% chance to hit with physical ranged attacks.
Fast Hands, Faster Brain!: Any task that involves assembly, disassembly, sorting, or manipulating multiple objects is trivial for you. You don't have to think which part goes where you just know!
Uncanny Dodge: Any avoidance skill that you use to dodge incoming damage from a source you are aware of will gain a +20% increase in your chance to dodge. You must know the direction the damage is coming from.
Trifecta! Raising two stats to 10 is difficult, but raising three is simply amazing!
This Perk adds +50 to Health, Mana, and Stamina.
Quadratic!
For raising 4 stats to 10 or higher, you receive a special benefit:
Extra Rib of Magna-Stultas: +100 Mana Per Tier
Blessing of the Oracle of Oblivion: (+100 Mana per Level)
Blessing of Regulus Tyborian: While bound to the Bone-Runed Cowl you gain +2 Int.
Speed-Runed Skin: For the cost of 100 stamina, you increase your swimming speed to twice that of your land speed. Duration 30 minutes, you leave the water, or you lose your skin.
Hard-Runed Bones: Your bones are hard. Falls and blunt trauma do far less damage to you. 50% of force damage, and blunt weapon damage is mitigated. Mana will power the rune, costing you one mana for each 10-damage negated.
Sharp-Runed Talons: Your Talons are extensions of your bones. Use your sharp talons to hunt the eels wherever they are. Claw attacks will do +20 damage per Tier.
Stone Sense: Even in complete darkness you can feel the shape of natural stone and earth to a distance of 50' and up to 10' past the surface of the stone. This allows movement through caves and similar terrain even in complete darkness at a normal pace.
You know when creatures move around you if they are treading on stone or packed earth by the vibrations they make. Some stealth abilities may partially negate this, as will a very light tread.
Enhanced Sense of Smell: Not as good as your lizard, but a lot better than a human.
The Power of Cheese!: (Variable)
Magical Items:
Rune Boned Cowl
+2 INT, Grants the ability to use Bonecasting Spells. Soulbound Item.
Shadow Blight (Legendary Ratkin Spikeystick)
This ancient spikeystick has been used by generations of ratkin champions to slay their foes and instill fear in their enemies. The carvings on the bone spikes will weaken your foes, robbing their attacks of damage as Shadowblight curses them.
Foes will do -10 damage against you with melee weapons for each wound that you inflict upon them. The weakness stacks and will last for one minute. As they weaken, your strikes find the weak points in their armor. For each curse applied, your foes armor will be decreased by 10, increasing your damage.
Base chance to hit: 40% +5xDex%+5%x Small Blades
Base damage: 40 + 5xDex + Rank in Small Blades x5
Slay more foes to reveal more of Shadowblight's powers.
Soul-bound Black Pick of Skulking
This sturdy pick is made of Tier 4 materials and will cut through lesser materials with ease. When mining, the normal sound of a tool hitting rocks is decreased by 75% and the sound dies out entirely after 50 feet.
Eveldeeves Spiked Collar of Pain-Gifting
This fashionable collar was created by the Dark Elf Fashionista Eveldeeves and worn by her champion during Murderfest VI. 25% of the damage done to the wearer is gifted back to the striker. Very fashionable and often sold in matching sets to loving couples.
Ring of the Swiss Army.
Made by the Archmagi Elsener and given to each member of the mage corps of Swissleland. This ring can cast the following spells without the need for mana. Each spell may be cast 1 time each day.
Darn Socks (2 pairs)
Water Breathing (self, 1 Hour)
Summon Nut Cracker (Lasts until no more nuts present in 10'.)
Protection from biting and stinging insects (Keeps them at bay for 1 hour.)
Heat Fondue (Creates a small flame that will heat oil or other things in a fondue pot. Duration 4 hours.)
Sharpen Tool. (4 sharpening per day.)
Karl's Handy Tent Helper (Sets up a large tent or packs it up. Usable twice a day.)
Summon Guard Lizard (Bring a Guard Lizard from the Feenokioki swamp to guard your camp for 8 hours.)
Deflect Minor Blame (Something bad happened, can't be your fault, must be someone else! ).
Dog Bite Fixer (Takes the edge off of nasty hangovers.)
Summon Wine (1 Quart, quality varies.)
Spells:
Harpoon of the Winds.
By carving a Rune of Destruction, and a Rune of Velocity into a small bone harpoon, you create a powerful ranged weapon.
Base damage of 200.
+60 Damage for INT above 10
Modifier: +30% damage for Skill: Ancient Runes (6)
Total Base Damage: 338
Exploding Skull: Charge a skull with your mana and hurl it at your enemies, damaging anyone within 20 feet of its impact point. Cost: 50 mana. If a prepared rune-carved skull is used, the normal damage of 50 is increased to 75 points and the area to 30 feet in radius.
Mend Bones: A healing spell that affects only bones. Heal fractures and breaks. Particularly bad breaks will need additional mana. Normal Cost: 50 mana per bone.
The Curse of Brittle Bones: Your enemy's bones break easily, and attacks with a physical impact will do additional damage. The curse has a cost of 100 mana, a duration of one hour, and a range of 20 ft.
Extra-Rib: Gain power by adding a rib bone from a sentient, spell-casting race to your ribcage. Effects will vary.