Hunting

Fetching Adam is simple: I call him from the van. I then wait, and we go back to our impromptu headquarters, and hand out the goods: A bat and crossbow for each of our classed possie.

Charles looks everything over, and gives his verdict, “Appraise is telling me that the bats function as masterwork clubs, and the crossbows as light masterwork crossbows. Ironically, just the kind of loot we'd want to use at first level; good job.”

He pauses, and continues, “And… I need some of the cash for a vet appointment to get the cats vaccinated and registered, so we don't get into trouble for that.”

“Won't that leave a provable paper trail for your landlord?” I cringe as I say it, not that anyone can tell.

“Oh, absolutely,” Charles shrugs, “but the landlord doesn't need proof as I can't afford to sue the company anyway. I'm already on notice and will need to move out shortly. All mail of consequence goes to my PO box, and as long as I keep up with the bills I won't need to prove an address.”

“Ah… you mean you're planning on…” Brian can't finish.

“I have Survival for getting along in the wild now,” Charles rolls his eyes, “It's a class skill, I have Wis based casting, and Prestidigitation can keep me fresh as a daisy while Endure Elements will handle the cold; the cats can keep my gear safe while I'm away, and I can charge my phone at work; I'll be fine.”

I nod slowly, not that anyone can see, “All right. If it doesn't work out like you think, let us know.”

We show him the bag of cash, he grabs a couple hundred, loads up the cats into Adam's van, and the two of them head out to a farm supply store of all places… apparently they do vaccinations and registration without the overhead of an office visit charge.

Brian and I don't just waste our time, however; we put the crossbows together. Storing them strung - or worse, cocked - is bad, as the arms will slowly lose the ability to bend back into shape, and the bolt won't fly as quickly as a result. A few hours is no big deal, but there's no telling how many months - or even years - a specific unit will wait on the store's shelves, so they don't ship in a fully ready state.

As evening approaches, the two return, and we head out to hunt. Our plan isn't really all that well formed: We'll each pick a weapon to use when we're not casting (it's an open carry state, so as long as we're not hiding them and stay away from schools, it's legal). We'll take the cats out for a walk, look for rats and other pests, and kill them where it's safe to do so. I have low light vision from being a half-elf, and starlight is enough for that: The outdoors are as bright as day despite the darkness. Brian gets Darkvision from his Bonded Eidolon, and Charles gets the same from being a tiefling… but their Darkvision is limited to just sixty feet: Low-light vision is much better in low light conditions (Darkvision, however, is superior when there's no light at all, as it doesn't require any illumination whatsoever… as long as the darkness isn't magical).

Charles ends up taking the lead… simply because he has the three cats to manage. I say cats… but they're the size of large dogs, each over a hundred pounds of muscle, and they have segmented skin like an armadillo. That said…

“Charles, why are they so…” I begin as one of them pounces on a bit of fluff, then brings up a paw to see the feather that had blown in the wind.

“They're kittens… cubs, technically.” He pauses, “The adults get to some twenty five feet long from nose to the base of their tail. They'd become adolescents at level seven and hit the size of horses, but I plan to do the merging thing before then to get a Griffon. Don't worry though, they're trained well. In fact…” he kneels and says something in Druidic to one of them… which immediately puts its nose to the ground and goes looking. “Come on… she's got something.”

We follow, and… yep, a nest of rats. I spend a spell point on the illusion of a fire springing up at the spot, and I hear dice in my head, “Only one passes the save; the rest pass out from the heat.” The one running away is picked off by the same Warcat of Rull that found the nest, biting the thing pretty much in half. The smell of burnt rat? Not really appetizing. I keep the illusion up until I get a notice ‘from Adam’ in my head that the rats are dead… six hundred experience points, split three ways. Charles lets his companions have the toasted snack, and we move on.

We find several more rat nests, we lose some crossbow bolts, the cats get more snacks… and of course, we do get a visitor.

A guy with a badge, wearing his vest and body camera… “Excuse me,” he begins, “What's with the crossbows?”

As I'm invisible, I let everyone else lead. Charles speaks up, “We're just out getting our exercise, officer.” I suppose that's technically true.

“At night, carrying lethal weapons?" He raises an eyebrow.

“Work makes it difficult to do so in the day,” Charles shrugs, “and a girl needs to stay safe… it's not a great neighborhood.” A lie and a truth. We wanted a dirty area so we could find vermin… and yeah, Charles mostly looks female.

I hear dice in my head, followed by ‘he's not buying it,’ in Adam's voice.

“Uh-huh. I'm afraid I need to ask you to…” his eyes get a little glassy as Charles says something that sounds like a stream pouring over rocks and waves his hands.

I hear dice in my head, ‘Charm Person’.

Charles picks up the conversation, “Sorry officer, we really don't mean any harm, and we're really not hurting anything, are we?” To be fair, we're not: Illusory fire can't get out of control, and we're reducing the local rat population.

He smiles, and steps up, putting his hand gently on Charles’ back, “Look… you're a fine young woman, but you're not wrong that it's dangerous out at night, and…”

Charles smiles, “Oh, we'll be fine… please just let whoever made the complaint know that it's all good, just some people out getting their exercise. We'll just keep going so as not to make anyone feel threatened, all right?”

“Okay,” he smiles, “you're such a good person… yeah, go on…” he chuckles, and heads off.

After he's out of earshot, I whisper to Charles, “Dude… did you seriously just Charm a police officer?”

He shrugs, and his chest jiggles a bit, “So what? He's going to be fine in an hour, and Charms are pretty subtle. And we really aren't hurting anything.”

“Yeah, but…” I begin.

“Let it go,” Brian steps in, “seriously, it's fine. No harm done, we aren't actually doing anything illegal, and he would have just ended up telling us to go home and go to bed.”

I drop it.

We of course just keep going about our current task: Hunting rats on the move. After a couple hours, I run low on spell points and the others run low on crossbow bolts… but more importantly, we get a notice from ‘Adam' in our heads: ‘That's enough for level up; next long rest.’

So yes, we all go home, very excited.

I crack my books open, and plant out my level up: One feat from the Oath system, three things for class features, three things for Monsterkin. I think for a long, long time… and eventually settle on a set of tricks that were never meant to be combined. I also make some notes to update my preparation spells… then focus on my final worksheet and say, “Okay Adam, here's the changes.”

I then hear his reply in my head, ‘Multiply templated monsters to get the CR down so you can poach abilities off them early… you worship yourself and grant yourself favored worshipper status… Mythic Traditions… all legal. Okay. You'll have full access to everything after your next long rest.’

Of course, I don't sleep, so I empty my milk jugs into the tub (which feels far better than it should; I may not get to be me, but I can at least enjoy the body), set an alarm on my phone, and sit down in front of my laptop for eight hours of restful calm vegging out in front of TubeFlicks.

When my alarm finally goes off I turn off the laptop. I then summon my shiny new Synthesist Eidolon meatsuit, Prepare my spells (a lot more of them now: Psychic and Alchemical ones in addition to the Arcane and Divine). Little trick with Mythic and Monsterkin gets me any spell of a level I can cast off the Wizard, Druid, and Cleric spell lists as at-wills… so I also set up a buff routine, and set an alarm for every 30 minutes on my phone to renew them: A vibration alarm, of course. Most of the buffs I grab last all day, a couple just four hours (for now), and two just forty minutes. I stay away from anything minutes a level or less: They can be quite good, but it's more of a time investment than I want to accommodate for now.

Of course, I do call Adam via my voice assistant, because I have a trick that could be VERY relevant to him. I wait for him to pick up.

“Hey Dan, what's up?” His tone is low and slow… sounds a little depressed, honestly.

That's okay… I think I know what's bothering him and how to fix it, "You know how I was planning on nabbing Powers of Faith, and the self-worship trick?"

“The deity thing to get Mythic?” He pauses, “Yeah, already said go for it when you were planning, because you could share. What of it?”

“Well… we agreed that I couldn't take my own High Priest position, and that I couldn't give it to Brian, Charles, or a minion…” I grin - not that he can see, “...which means it's open. How do you feel about representing me?”

The line goes very silent for a bit, “You want to hand me nine Mythic ranks?”

“Well… you missed out on getting your own cosmic power because you were helping family out,” I shrug, not that he could see even if this was a voice call, “I kind of feel bad about that… so… you want it?”

There's a long pause, “Yes, my goddess, and I know just how I want to apply your power.”

I smile as I focus, and assign High Priesthood to what is technically my second ever worshipper….