Downtime Part 5: The Last One, For Real This Time
"You got it, sibling."
Take the deal! And then guess what?
Everybody's doing it, READ
And then sleep. There's no way these non-thinkers got through 20 tomes whilst I was talking to a demon.
Negotiating with a demon is just long and complicated like that.
No, I'm kidding.
(10d2=16xd100=873%+38% from last time=911%)
After shaking its paw, Zizgolith disappears when blink, and you do a little light reading before bed.
You continue with
18 Facts About the Mountain of Dusk Everyone Thinks Are True, and learn a few more facts (5d6=20), about
+20% Knowledge (Mountain of Dusk) skill worth.
Then you move on to
Everleigh Chenwere Around The World, which talks about Everleigh Chenwere's journeys around the world during the Emnity Aeon, such as her voyages in the Shark's Realm, her theft of the Holy Citrus from the Orange Empire, her escaping the treacherous Past Forest, the time she conquered the Chambers of the Vanishing Hound, and many other adventures, up to her death in the Lost Temple on the Mountain of Dusk. (5d6=20) You gain
+20% History (Everleigh Chenwere) skill.
The next book,
Amphibians And Everleigh Chenwere, talks about her friendship and popularity with various amphibians, including her longtime friend and frequent companion, Cyndrell Falvillex the Ice Axolotl. (History (Everleigh Chenwere) knowledge roll d100>20%=15% Failure) Of course, most of this information was covered in the previous book.
Turning to
The Legend Of Everleigh Chenwere, (History (Everleigh Chenwere) knowledge roll d100>20%=3% Failure), it again doesn't really say anything you didn't already learn in the previous two books. Like, you already knew that she was exiled by her Sad Dwarf clan at a young age, because of a prophecy that she would bring about their ruin, which ironically came true later because of her exile.
Mages And Hobgoblins: The Everleigh Chenwere Story (History (Everleigh Chenwere) knowledge roll d100>20%=45% Success!) finally covers some new territory, in how she constantly outwitted and pitted both mages and hobgoblins against each other, often because they were both enemies of hers that got in the way of her goals, but also sometimes just for fun, not to any actually benefit to herself. (d6=4)
+4% History (Everleigh Chenwere) skill.
Looking through the pages of
The Secrets of The Misfortune Elixir, it talks about how it was originally created in the now fallen Prasan Empire, by alchemists working for scheming government officials looking to overthrow the Zezaeteron Dynasty, and how the elixir apparently seemed to work so well that it took down both the emperor and his family along with the entire empire. With the amount of unluckiness energy believed to be contained in this elixir, the book warns that terrible things could happen if it ended up in the wrong hands. (5d6=16)
+16% Knowledge (Misfortune Elixir) skill.
The Myth of The Misfortune Elixir (Knowledge (Misfortune Elixir) knowledge roll d100>16%=4% Failure) then mostly seems to cover the same ground.
You could have sworn that was the last book you checked out, but you seem seem to find a couple more, including one that seems to be bound with skin of some kind that's titled,
A GUIDE TO THE EVISCERATION OF MORTALS. It seems to be a rather comprehensive knife-fighting manual. (10d6=37)
+37% Knife Fighting Skill.
There's also another book, which seems to be silently screaming in agony, called
THE MORTAL TENDANCY TOWARD EXSANGUINATION, which talks about how to make knife wounds bleed more, apparently. (Knife Fighting skill knowledge roll 1d00>37%=35% Failure), which seems to be pretty much covered by the basic concept of stabbing.
Then, there's another one called
DANGERS Of ARCANE FAMILIARS, which seems to mention some stuff about how familiars can end up tricking their masters into performing horrifying crimes or leading them down a path that leads to damnation, but you fall asleep before you get too far into it.
Then you wake up the next morning, and the extra books have all disappeared.
>Rest until tomorrow morning.
Basic Info:
Name: Lord Screech XIII
Class(es): Sniper, h4x0r
Race:
Skittlemorph (Green)
Inventory:
Equipped: Silenced AWP (5/10 FMJ)
Ammunition:
5x 10-round sniper mags (FMJ)
1x 10-round sniper mag (Incendiary)
Other items:
1x Pile of Rain Turtle Gibs
Currency:
13 golden pennies
Stats:
Fortitude IV (82)
Prudence V (88)
Temperance II (30)
Justice IV (73)
Skills:
-Firearms (56%)
-Hacking (48%)
-Long-range combat (76%)
-Stealth (44%)
-Philosophy (General) (24%)
-Religion (Jul) (20%)
-Anatomy (General) (43%)
Abilities:
-Class:
-Sniper:
-Steady weapon: Active - Requires standing still, guarantees a hit with a ranged weapon if you're not interrupted before your next action. Uses Long-range combat and Firearms skill, depending on which one rolls higher.
-Heartbeat Shot: Passive - Gain +1d4-1% skill bonus while sniping.
-Called Shots: Active - By taking a 50% penalty to your shot, you can deal twice the normal dice worth of damage. Alternatively, you may forgo this extra damage to apply some other effect, such as crippling the enemy's attack, for example.
-H4x0r:
-Basic Automation Control Override: Active - Allows rolling to control an enemy mechanical unit (robots, drones, etc) for 1d6 turns. Uses Hacking skill.
-Racial:
-Natural Camouflage (Green): Passive - Gets a 20% bonus to blending in near green objects and environments, like forests, jungles, and grasslands.
Kill count:
1x Rain Turtle
You dream.
You're on a couch in the middle of the ocean. A glassblower is there. He asks you to make a choice. Do you choose your ex-lover, or do you want your hair to fall out?
Suddenly, a bear appears! It says you've been voted class president.
This lets you see the cemetery nearby that you realize has always been there. Everyone's started boarding the cemetery, but they won't let you in because you don't have your boarding pass. A celebrity pushes you out of the way. He says he's on his way to construct a new animal.
Then everyone starts photographing you with bright flashes, and you ask them to stop, but they won't, and then you wake up.
Alright. I think I got this.
I'll first sell the leather key chain with no keys and blue crystal for 223 Republic Coins to cover travel expenses. I'll also cover Sponcy's fare as they have been reasonably useful so far.
Next I'll use my remaining 7 Druid Spell Slots to cast Nature's Guidance on myself that many times to try to learn some useful information. (Its not actually much more effective at learning skills than reading is, but reading fatigue doesn't affect this spell)
I'll board the train when it is ready, and rest while in transit to restore my druid spell slots!
(
-leather key chain with no keys)
(
-blue crystal)
(
+223 Republic Coins)
You perform the transaction with the pawn broker, and she gives you pawn slips for the items, so that you can buy them back later if you get money together for them later and they haven't been sold by then.
(
+pawn slip for leather key chain with no keys)
(
+pawn slip for blue crystal)
Then you cast Nature's Guidance on yourself 7 times.
1. You know the blue crystal you just sold would have teleported you into the headquarters of the Crystal Rose Syndicate, the people responsible for killing that one coconut's wife.
2. That leather key chain you sold wasn't important, it was just a nice keychain the assassin found in a store one time, but, after she bought it, she realized she doesn't actually own any keys.
3. The 133° Southeast Line is sometimes attacked by train robbers, so you should be prepared for that.
+10% Insight to rolls dealing with train robbers.
4. The Misfortune Elixir is an artifact of powerful unluckiness energy, and you should be careful of anyone seeking it, as they may have ill intentions (or they may be trying to stop someone, who knows).
5. Aya-Vary-Jury has been consorting with a dark spirit.
6. When you get to the Mountain of Dusk, you will likely face many enemies. Several powerful secret societies seek the Misfortune Elixir for their own goals.
7. Just a pretty good pancake recipe that the spirits happen to have (
+Pretty Good Pancake Recipe). They thought you might like it.
Then you go to bed and sleep well and wake up the next morning.
Go to the local hippie commune, and ask for them to continue to train me in their ways.
You go to the local hippie commune, and they welcome you, as you are obviously one of their own, though they're pretty chill, and would accept just about anybody as long as they're not cops or something.
Before they will teach you their ways, they first test your ability (Substance Tolerance 400000%>d100=3% Success!). They see you prepared to understand their ways, and, in fact, wonder if there is anything they can actually even teach you.
(10d2=15)
They test your Acoustics ability (Acoustics 77%<d100=32% Failure). It's no good, you're too good! They decide they can't teach you anything about acoustics.
Then they try your Chill, trying to see if they can upset you. (Chill 40%<d100=30% Failure) Try as they might, you're just too chill. They have nothing to help you with here.
After that, they try your Knows Stuff, questioning your knowledge, trying to see if there's some stuff you don't know. (Knows Stuff 36%<d100=73% Success!) It seems there's a few things you could learn, so they teach you (d6=3)
+3% Knows Stuff skill.
Then they try your knowledge some more, (Knows Stuff 39%<d100=32% Failure), and, after the first question, they're pretty sure you know all the stuff.
So, from there, they test your LSD Summoning, asking you to summon as much LSD as you can. (LSD Summoning 82%<d100=25% Failure) You summon a whole bunch of LSD, so they're pretty sure you're good on that front.
Since they started off by testing your Substance Tolerance, they ask to see your Weedomancy, and you (Weedomancy 67%<d100=39% Failure) display such proficiency with the craft that they dare not question it again.
Then they wonder about your Cooking, and you (Cooking 20%<d100=91% Success!) show such incompetence that they're certain they can actually teach you a lot about this. (d6=2)
+2% Cooking skill.
They test you Cooking some more. (Cooking 22%<8d100=8 Successes!) You are just so generally bad at cooking that they spend the rest of the night teaching you to cook, and you gain (8d6=29) +
29% Cooking skill.
Then they give you a beanbag to bed down for the night, and you sleep and then wake up the next morning or so.
I guess I'll just lay on the ground unconscious after getting slapped by a fat dolphin and wake up when ever the unconsciousness wears off.
Name: Bubba Jobob
Class(es): Wagonmancer
Race(s): Zebra / Wagon kin
Equipped Weapon: MP40 (24/30)
Stats:
Strength: Slightly above average
Agility: Okay
Speed: Medium
Intelligence: High
Style: Fancy
Charisma: Not very
Perception: Great
Amount of stripes: Loads of them
Skills:
Wagon summoning: 43%
Wagon language: 14%
Brick throwing: 20%
Egg detection: 50%
Dodging: 05%
Firearm use: 24%
Small creature kicking: 30%
Abilities:
Polymorph other into wagon
Raise wagon from dead
Friend to all wagons
Anything Else: Is an enemy of the state Road Island
Inventory:
MP40 (24/30)
Whispering Launcher (1/1)
Whispering Grenades 12
Currency:
Sea Copper 120
Perfect Farthings 16
As you are unconscious, you dream.
You are ascending into the heavens, and you seem a cat being pet by someone.
The cat gives off a presence of evil. You realize this cat is your ex-lover. As you watch, it grows old before you eyes.
Suddenly, you are flying. As you fly, you bump into your step-sibling, and they are growing larger and larger.
They open their mouth, and inside you see a couple being attacked by someone wielding a chainsaw. Then, all of them get swept up in a swift current, and a gambling den appears in their place.
The gambling den is having people bet on train crashes. Anyone who loses a bet gets their tongue cut out.
You make a bet, and your train doesn't crash, so you anticipate that you're about to get your tongue cut out, but then it turns out that your ex-sweatheart has appeared, and they're killing you.
News of your death reaches a bunch of people gathered in some kind of social event, and it looks like they are about to mourn, but then a tornado appears.
Then you wake up on the beach the next morning.