Incanter and something else

“You realize that means I'll need to read through the whole thing?” I don't really mind, but he might.

“Well… yes…” he takes a breath, “...but I can have you read it, or find out the hard way what I can and can't do, and you seem decent enough.”

I nod, “Okay. I'll need a pen and paper, obviously.”

“Yeah, I wouldn't want it in an electronic format,” he nods, “I got a notepad in the car. Thank you.”

He turns and I follow him as he walks around to his car (parked in Alice's extra-long driveway) gets out a police pad and a pen, and hands them to me. I then sit and stare at the man, writing things down. I pause when I go through history and other notes, “4621?”

“My debit card pin is in there?” He cringes, “Ah… don't copy that kind of stuff down, please, I know my own history.”

“Also lots of very personal history," I shake my head, “It'd be dishonest not to mention I saw it. I'll stick to the mechanics….”

I copy down his stats (he's not using a standard point buy, must have rolled really well), his race (human), size (it gives it in feet and inches, as well as the size category), initiative modifier, perception, AC, hit points, BAB, attack bonus, save modifiers, skills bonuses and ranks, magic talents, and such. He has quite a few skills listed beyond what he should have as an Incanter, and several of them simply aren't Incanter class skills, but are getting the class skill bonus for it: Like he's Gestalt too, and I can't see that part of his build… best guess is a Ranger with some alternative class features… I note those discrepancies down, along with my thoughts on the matter.

When I'm done, I hand him the notebook, “Here you go.”

He reads through, a thoughtful look on his face, “Huh.” I raise my eyebrows, and he continues, “I can't say I disagree with the choices… this is all stuff I might have chosen, knowing it's for real life.” He nods, “which lines up with the idea that the instigator doesn't mean any harm. Magic…” he takes a breath, “at least I can be mostly quiet about it, thanks to Cunning Caster.”

“Alice's casting tradition is loud and proud,” I chuckle, “nobody's going to miss it when she casts a spell.” She's ultimately more flexible though: All of Adam's abilities are fixed from day to day, she can change her talents on a daily basis… possibly faster, I haven't checked what Arcanist Exploit she has.

“You should do this for her, too…” Adam nods, then pauses, “Ah, has anyone else had your milk?”

Oh. Oh no.

“That expression is an ‘oh fuck’. Don't tell me…” he cringes.

“The **** murderer took a drink…” I take a slow breath, “...and I have no reason to believe you aren't on an experience based growth path.”

Adam whistles, “I told you not to tell me… let's go brief Alice on the problem.”

“Yeah…” I agree, my mouth feeling a bit dry.

We head back around and wave down the detective, who rides over to us on her rainbow cat, which kneels down, and she climbs off. “What's… oh, that's not a good look on you two.”

“The guy who **** and killed me had a drink,” I spit it out quickly.

“Oh boy,” she grasps the problem, “Umm… I'm guessing that the ‘improving by killing’ thing doesn't just work with rats?”

“Right,” I whisper, “can we maybe prioritize finding the scumbag?”

“I do believe the vacation is over, yes…” Alice takes a slow breath, “...let's get to work.” The big cat nuzzles Alice's hand, and she calmly scratches the beast's head, “what am I going to do with you?”

“You can dismiss her when she's inconvenient, and re-summon her later,” I suggest, “although she is a keystone for the rest of your magic… oh, and I can read your build, so we should probably copy it down and go over everything so you know your powers and limitations.”

“We also need to go hunting to get stronger…” Adam rubs his chin, “...we have an advantage in knowing the underlying mechanics, but he has a head start.”

“I need to not spend much time around those we don't trust…” I consider, “...speaking of, how much do you trust your current lady, Adam?”

“She's great…” Alice answers, interestingly, “...we can bring her in. Double date with intent to orgy maybe?”

“I'll find a different way to phrase it,” Adam nods, “we can do this tonight… and we need to go over mechanics with you anyway,” the man looks at Alice, “So… Pathfinder campaign?”

“Make it an ‘in real life’ hook,” I rub my chin, “Alice got a childhood dream, and you agreed with your build…” and I get to choose mine, “...if we have her write up a character with the same basic assumptions, we can get her to quietly write her own character, and give her some build help at the same time.”

“Here work?” The male detective asks the female.

“I got the space, yeah,” she nods, “and the living room is actually clean…” she turns to me, “...thank you.”

“No problem. I'm living here too, and don't exactly have a job.” I don't even exist on paper, “I can clean up a few more rooms while you two make the other arrangements?”

“Works for me,” Alice nods.

“Six o'clock?” Adam glances at Alice, who nods, so Adam continues, “Great! I'll place the call.”

He gets up and dials on his cell, “Hey, honey, how's it hanging?”

“Looking forward to getting off work, my Stallion,” I find I can hear both sides of the conversation… and I get the nickname there.

“Cool… hey, so, my partner has a new lady, Dana, and I figured it'd be a good idea to introduce you to her so you'd know she's batting for the other team if you happen to see us together at some point; just to make it fun, we're starting a Pathfinder game with an ‘in real life’ spin at Alice's place. I'd appreciate it if you'd show up, at least for the first session or two.” Note to self: Don't play poker with this guy.

“All right my Stallion,” she giggles, “Meet you there after work.”

“I can't wait to see you,” he makes some kissing noises, she does as well, and they both hang up.

“All set… I'll order pizza…” Adam chuckles.

I get to cleaning, pulling out my two summons to do a lot of the work….