Back In Nightmare...

Hahhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrr!

I grit my teeth as my soul stitched itself back together. Fortitude Save to throw off negative levels. Fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou!

It burned and cut and chilled and nauseated me all at once. The shredded bits of my soul gathered back together, and I swore over and over and over as they did.

“Minstrel/2! Give me that damn Foe Hunter Feat against spectral undead NOW! Forsaken Feat to Strong Soul! Bardic Feat to Extra Bardsong! And if I don’t qualify for Ghost-Scarred after being killed by incorps twice and butchering over fifty of them, I’m gonna hit something!”

I crawled up off the ground, feeling like I’d been burned and scarred all over, my skin writhing as if I had been electrocuted. My emotions were raging like a storm as I tried to get mind, body, and soul back in synch after some severe maltreatment.

But I hadn’t LOST anything. They might have been able to strip something from me, if I was weak and failed the Fortitude saves against the Energy Drain.

There was a damn good reason I had a high Fort save. Wraiths only required a 16 to resist making the drain permanent, giving me a 90% chance of making it. Even passing three of them wasn’t beyond the realm of disbelief.

“Fahhhh…” I sat down in meditation, and forcibly calmed myself down. Essence and ki went spinning through my blood and nerves, percolating and cooling everything down, stitching it all back together and soothing all my little hurtsies, yes little Sama, poor little Sama, there, there now…

------

It took me a good hour to get rid of all the muscle tics, the fluttering heart, the surges of emotion, and the body-wide Charlie Horses. The gut-chilling fear and horror of something latching onto my soul, feeling that yawning not-death pulling at me with all the power of Sin and the Curse behind it… I stared at it with scorn and a growing sense of wrath.

So, I had to fight lots and lots of undead now, did I?

I was so going to show them!

“Advance to Charisma/1. Skill points to Piano, Violin.” Yes, I was going to be a remarkable musician someday, I could almost feel my hands and fingertips creaking. Thankfully, with a Vajra I didn’t need to worry about calluses on my fingers interfering with things. I was going to make beautiful music one day.

With a Sword, damn this Curse. I was The Sage of Swords, just wait…

I also had more music on my brain, and began to compose the second act of my theme song in the back of my head, because I could.

Strong Soul gave me +1 to Fort and Will Saves, +3 against necromantic influences, which included most everything undead did, and Fear, among other things. I was immune to Fear, but you never knew. The bonuses doubled at Ten, as normal, and really gave a nice lift to my saves against Energy Drain.

I had hit the fifty kills against Incorps, so I gained a constant +2 Morale bonus TH/Dmg against them, wouldn’t need to Wardance on them.

Getting Strength and Energy Drained to death satisfied the reqs for Ghost-Scarred. It gave me a +2 Insight bonus TH/Dmg/Saves against incorporeal undead, as I had very, very intimately felt what they were, what they could do, felt their Damned touch upon my soul, and I was so not going to play with them.

Tomorrow… I would have Vivic. Maybe it was only +d6 against undead, but they were going to burn, and I was going to feel happy. It should easily be enough to get me comfortably into the two-hit-kill range.

+1 Fort Save meant +1 Soak, too.

Tremble hummed happily in my hand. For now, that was all it could do. But it was aware now, just unable to communicate. Vivic would insure it stayed pure from the Curse.

I would get Vivic, Blooding to fight regenerating shit, and Flaming and Frost for universal damage and utility. Then, if there were no other surprises, I would start working on Bane and Slaughter. It wasn’t like I didn’t have enough monster types to build up Slaughter already…

My emotions were calming down. I had been eaten as a baby. These things wanted to scar my soul? They had a ways to go!

I picked up Tremble and strode for the mist.

More +1’s. Let’s see what the bastards did with them!

--------------

Another soul-sucking death later...

“Hah hahahahaha…”

I had Inspired for Whirlwind Attack, normally a rather dumb Feat to go for. Basically, one attack on everything in my reach. Good if you were fighting one-hit-kill minions. Around, up, down, didn’t matter. You had to move really quickly, slicing in all directions around ever-changing arcs and points of contact.

Didn’t kill any of them with the Whirlwind.

I killed them all when the first Wraith missed, however. I Riposted through his neck, and Supreme Cleave’d through to every single damn one of them around me, like two Whirlwinds going off back-to-back.

Even the nominally fearless undead halted at the sight of me shredding eight of them in under two seconds.

I could barely lift Tremble physically, but my ki was just fine!

“Oh, whatsamatter? Don’t like being two-hit?” I purred, sliding forward without moving my feet. My target didn’t notice fast enough, and the one I was closest to was suddenly hacked apart before it could retreat. One of the others lunged in to swipe at me, missed, and tried to retreat, not making it out as the two AoO’s in response chased it into vapor.

Then the Dread Wraith loomed up behind the lesser minions, eyes like dead suns as they met mine, full of hate and fear and an endless hunger which no amount of souls could satiate.

Ah, damn. 16 Hit Dice. Damn near 200 Health. Reach. Touch attack at something like +20 to hit. It was going to swing at me three times, and I was going to die.

I wouldn’t be able to kill it fast enough… but I should be able to kill all of its minions, if I was really quick and agile. The more Karma, the better.

I laughed and attacked, ripping into its minions, knowing it was going to shred my soul again, and knowing that I would take it.

------

Taking it one more time...

“Hah ah…”

I laid there as Renewal burned through me, and I fought off the lingering negative energies trying to neutralize part of my soul and tear away my hard-earned Karma.

No need to rush. Today was an important day.

Because all my off-Classes were at Two, and I could advance my Melee Class to Four.

Which I did!

Three key effects.

Bumped my Fort Save by +1, Will Save +1.

At Melee Four, Weapon Group Training +1 kicks in, adds to Great Fortitude, which meant my Fort Save also went up by another +1.

Level Four, the Cover Your Weakness Class Ability kicked in. My choice of Stat was Con, which also went up by another +1 with my Forsaken Inherent Level bonus. Con 25, bonus to +7, Fort Save goes up by +1.

In addition, my lowest Physical Stat, Strength, went up by +1. My lowest Mental Stat, Wisdom, also went up by +1.

My Melee Attack Bonus went up by +1.

My AoO per round went up by +1 with Weapon Training kicking in.

I could pick a second one-handed weapon to be Finessable via Expertise. I picked Shield.

Expertise and Deadly Precision increased to +2, which meant a damage and AC increase. I added Improved Bull Rush to Improved Sunder under Expertise’s Special Manuvers.

Inspiration Feats +1 via Expertise.

Primary Group Weapon Training increased by +1. That took me to +2 on Sword and UA, doubled by Spec to +4/+4.

Another +2 was good to work with.

+2 went into my Combat Pool, still set to Improved Grab/Grapple and Trip Defense.

D6+4+Con+FC of Soak, plus prior Hit Points adjusted for the rise in my Constitution Stat. +3 prior Levels, +1 Health, say +15 for now, +3 from Improved Toughness, soon to increase with my deaths toughening me up to max. Toughness +1 to Health.

Health 21. Soak, goes from 88 to 109, +21 in total, 112 when maxed in six more days. Wait, none. Toughness mixed with Weapon Training, added +AB towards max Hit Points. Straight to 112.

Oh, and I was Level Four. I could take another Level in Human! I flicked over that lever, and could feel the energy coursing through my body as I actually and truly toughened up, and felt the Obsession mindset of Human/2 come down on me.

I was Sama Rantha, Grandmaster of the Sword, Sage of the Sword, and I simply wasn’t going to let a Hag-spawned Curse beat me, ever! The idea sat in my head, smoldering, the core of everything I was. I would be that Grandmaster again one day!...

D8+Con in Health. Say 11. My Health was now 32, 36 in eight, seven days. That was now significantly higher than my Vigor, which would be nice.

Two bonus General Feats. Added to my Forsaken Bonus and two Combat Techniques.

Skill points, 5+FC+Int, so +3 = 9. +6 more for the Human Racial Level.

Oh, yes, this was a very big Level.

Tremble, Arsenal, Vivic.

Silently, unwhite flames, etherfires, the necrotao opposite of necroic energies, ghosted up on the blade of my Sword, falling quietly towards the ground, unlike normal flames.

That was because Vivic energies fed things to the Land. They did no harm to anything that lived, unless it was suffused with otherworldly or negative energies, in which case it did 1d6. It could also set corpses and carcasses on vivic fire, which would slowly burn them away, just like fire burned wood… only, like, in billowing mists which sank into the ground and purified away Taint, Corruption, and other negative energies.

Still got only one Mastery Advance. It was silly, but I just picked Constitution/1, since I needed to get it to /3 at Five to get a Con point off the Mastery.

For my Human Feat, Font of Life. Immediate Fort Save to avoid Energy or Stat drain/damage effects. Damage applied, but the necroic effect would not.

My Fort Save was now +18, +20 against undead. My Null was 24… 26 against undead!

A 5 HD Wraith had no chance to Drain me now, nor a normal shadow. A Greater Shadow at 9 HD had a 1 in 5 chance. Even a 16 HD Dread Wraith only had a fifty percent chance now.

One Level shifted everything that much! +1’s, Hear Me Roar!

I had Melee Weapon Mastery. An Achievement Feat upgrade kicked in. Necropotence, required Foe Hunter - Undead, Melee Primary Weapon Training, Weapon Specialization, and getting your ass drained by undead. It doubled the Specialization damage bonus against undead. So, an additional +4 damage against them.

Not a huge amount, but it all went on the stack when multiplying, unlike +dice. Steady increments towards One-Hit-Kill range!

The Cleave Technique and Fleet Technique were my choices for Techniques.

These two freed up some room for my Inspiration. The Cleave Technique automatically gave me several layers of Cleaving, going up with my MAB, like a Mastery and Feats I didn’t have to pay for.

There were two kinds of Cleaving. The one I normally used was to drop a foe, attack a foe adjacent to it with Sweeping Cleave, or spend an AoO to attack one not adjacent to it via Extra Cleaving. There was another called Impaling Cleave, where you impaled a foe, and used an AoO to stick the one behind it if it died, which was great when charging.

Improved Cleaving removed the AoO cost of Extra Cleaving. Supreme Cleaving allowed a 5’ step between Cleave attacks, up to your total base movement rate if you kept dropping creatures, truly an awesome form of minion-slaying.

Improved Cleaving kicked in at +7 MAB, and Supreme Cleaving at +9. So, just some Levels to gain now. Whirlwind Attack was the gift at +5 MAB. One more level, and I wouldn't need to Inspire for it…

The Fleet Technique was a combination of speed and agility. It granted +5 to base movement speed, and then +5’ of Fast Movement per level of Armor Training. This popped my current 50’ base speed to 60’, as fast as a wraith. This worked out great for Melees, as Armor Mastery/Exoskeleton made their medium and heavy armors effectively weightless at later levels, so they didn’t lose the Fast Movement, unlike, oh, a Barbarian would if they slapped on plate.

The Fleet Technique also gave Sprint at MAB +3, which was x5 running speed vs the normal x4, and Endurance Runner at MAB +5, which was double length between endurance checks for long-term movement.

I still had two Feats left! Four was such a great Level!

Endurance Technique. Opened a lot of pre-req doors. Very, very importantly, +1 to Con if Forsaken. My Con was now 26, +8! Sleep in medium armor (yay). Bonus on lots of endurance-type checks. Opened the Die Hard Mastery.

Fort Save +1. Soak +5. Null +1. Health +2. 33 and 117 respectively… +19/+21 Fort save… Null 25/27...

At Armor Mastery I, ignore the first exhaustion and fatigued result per day. At Armor Mastery II, ignore fatigue entirely, exhaustion becomes fatigue, keep right on trucking.

Enduring Life for the General Feat. Any effects of necroic draining or damage are delayed for one minute per Con bonus. So, an eight-minute delay, during which they could only do damage to me… at the end of which, I got to make my Fort Saves to stave off all of the effects, and maybe die from overwhelming Drains… but in the meantime, they could only kill me with straight damage, which they were pathetic at, and I’d suffer no penalties.

Yeah, let’s do that. It certainly fit my theme.

Then I was going to have to work on my Battlemind Focus. At Five, I’d get access to Battle Vigor, and wouldn’t that just make me a cockroach to these bastards…

And just wait until I hit Five and also got my Profound Artisan…

Skill Points to assign. 15 of those suckers, just to get to four Ranks in stuff, between my Human and Melee Levels.

Armorsmith, Weaponsmith, Blacksmith, Whitesmith, Leatherworker, Woodworker. Perception, Stealth, Concentration, Meditation, Survival, Heal. Martial Lore. Alchemy. Spellcraft.

That was 15. I r smart, I r!

I waited as my brain grew, rooms opening up and airing their contents into the rest of my skull with the force of endless libraries consulted and thousands of hours of practice. The ancestors of humanity were watching over me, and hopefully spitting on the Curse of the Hag with me.

I hoped they could see what I was doing and were laughing heartily. I was probably the toughest damn Four they’d ever seen, and it was only going to get better.

My hand closed on Tremble, both of us stronger now than we had been a short time ago, and I got to my feet.

“Time to go kick some ass again.” Tremble hummed in response, and I strode out for the mist.