About Life's Champion....

…****'s office. And for once, he's not reading: He's pacing. Which shows off the matching slacks to go with his suit coat and tie. He's not wearing the glasses, so I turn my head down and avoid contact with his lack of eyes as I get to work.

“What can I do…” he considers as he moves, “...I know she's **** me out, now… I could stop collecting her tagged souls?”

He's obviously not talking to me, so I do my paperwork. Sixth level gets me third level spells (and costs ten points as part of the progression), which opens up some really nice options, notably Enable Function: Since I'm a construct, I can cast it on myself to give myself unlimited free feats… which can become spells known, Spheres talents known, skill points, and a lot of other things. I can't use the free feats as qualifications for other feats, but…this is a serious break point. Next up is Dream Manifestation, which lets me copy spells from other lists (including discounted lists like the Paladin, Ranger, and Summoner), so I grab that. I also grab Overmind Psionics from the Legendary Medium - because psionic powers are effectively uncapped. For my Monsterkin side, I grab Telepathy from the Chrestomath Caulborn… which goes out to a mile. It's going to combine very well with the free feats: Psychic Sense will give me a mile long radar for anything with a working brain. The Time Crawler has Immunity to Temporal Magic, which will hopefully insulate me from the effects of other people's time travel… if that's even a thing here… and any changes I make with time travel myself (and yes, there IS a low level time travel spell). My third choice goes to Magic Immunity from the Wood Golem: It's not as great as the 3.0 version of Magic Immunity available from some non-updated critters in the Dracanomicon… but it's effectively infinite Spell Resistance available now, bypassed by spells that don't exist here: A nice defense for the less targeted things that bypass Reflective Hide.

**** just keeps going in circles, and I point something out, “What do you think her plan is if she wins?”

**** stops in his tracks and I feel that familiar itching in my head, “...because if I can't collect anymore, she starves out too, it just takes longer. I have no idea. Maybe… maybe she's assuming Dad will fix it?”

I nod, “Do you think your father would approve of her actions?”

“Certainly not, he forbade us fighting…” I watch out of the corner of my eye as **** stares at me, rubbing his chin, “...if I'm out of the picture, Dad will intervene, the other choice being letting all of us starve, which wouldn't be like Him. But He knows what's going on, and she has to know He does, so… what, is she betting He will think she's justified? Seems…” He trails off as he starts pacing again.

I plan out my buffs as the demonic looking entity goes in circles again, tossing the problem in the back of my head for later. When I'm done, I crack my knuckles, “I know mortals are subject to wishful thinking and absurd rationalizations. Are you and your siblings?”

“Well, yes, we were all mortal once…” he answers off handedly, still pacing.

Hmm. “How much are you allowed to interfere in mortal affairs, anyway?”

“Not much, Dad's a big fan of free will…” the well dressed black man shrugs as he walks, “...we can push some feelings to our worshippers, send dreams to our priests, and talk directly to prophets. When He has certain plans He gives us a bit more free reign to defend certain people… but I can't, say, make a Necrovite drop re-dead for being an abomination unless he's threatening a Charge from Dad.” Note to self: The lord of **** hates undeath. Good to know. “We can make our worshippers feel uncomfortable around someone, give our priests some guidance on what kinds of people to go after, lay down specific rules for our prophets… but she can't specifically tell herself where you are and that she wants you dead.”

“Could she, say, tell him to play twenty questions with the goal of finding out who she wants him to kill and where I am?” We both know the loophole. If she knows it….

I feel that familiar itching in my head again, and the man sits down at his desk as he cringes, “Yes, yes she could. The universe is pretty big, so it would be more than twenty questions, but… yes.” He takes a slow breath, “So… while we're sitting with the world on pause, is there anything you want to ask?”

I consider that, “We established a max level Mystic Dreamer already…” I consider.

“We haven't established his other resources,” **** hints.

I shrug, “He's a max level with one of the most brokenly good options, so he's probably waltzing around the universe in a very large, heavily armed ship, likely with a fleet of supporting vessels and…” and I just looked **** in the distinct lack of an eye because he turned my way. Help?

He figures it out when I trail off, and gets his cheap plastic mirrored sunglasses back on. “Sorry, and… yes, first try, how…?”

I laugh, “Easy: I pictured the worst scenario. Life has been grooming this guy as her champion for a very long time, correct?”

“Yes,” **** nods.

“And I imagine she has a lot of worshippers,” I continue, “so of course she's set her champion up to win in most arenas. Here, that will include space battles. He's probably rich as all get out as well.”

“Yes, yes, and yes,” **** nods, and tilts his head at me.

“Right,” I chuckle, “basically, when you have a long time to set things up, a lot of resources to use towards a goal, and a particular setting… solutions start to look the same in a general sense.” I shake my head, “She's probably using him as an enforcer.”

“Yes,” **** agrees, “she does use him to ‘solve’ arguments about what our worshippers should be doing.”

“The smaller details won't matter too much,” I consider, “the big wildcard is his blessing. I know what I picked…”

“If he had that, I wouldn't have been able to give it to you,” **** shakes his head, “There's some rules about overly similar blessings.”

“Right, so…” I consider, “...suppose I'm Life. I have power to burn. I'm looking for a big, impactful blessing. Immortality? Eh… no, that only matters when my champion loses, I can replace ‘automatically returns to life’ with a high-level ally elsewhere that will cast certain spells regularly to give my champion a new body and put him in it, and I can get a new champion if I need, losing him is a setback, not a problem.” I consider.

“Correct, that's not it,” **** affirms.

Well… why'd I pick Divine Providence? “Luck. Chance always lands in his favor.”

“There you go,” **** smiles… ugh, those teeth… the only bit about him that's white… and they remind me of a shark's teeth, just

[pointier.

So](http://pointier.So) his ‘dice’ only come up twenties… “So at some point, I will up against a guy who will beat every save, crit every shot, roll max in every skill, and always do maximum damage.” I purse my lips… ugh, they're still stupidly fat.

“Almost…” **** shakes his head.

Of course, “It's worse than that?” My patron nods, so I consider, “it affects anyone he opposes as well, but the other direction: Everyone rolls minimum damage, always misses, fails saves, and so on.”

“There you go,” my patron confirms.

I consider that, “When I'm using Divine Providence, I bypass the randomness… that works on him?”

**** smiles again… ugh, those teeth… “Within the limits of the ability, because there's no luck involved.”

I nod slowly, “I can work with that… anyway, I'm done with my sheet.”

**** looks it over, and whistles as he sends me back…