121). Natural 20 attacks get their damage doubled: instead of rolling an additional die, I instead just add a x2 at the end of the Damge result, it's easier for me to calculate as I'm naturally lazy
2). flanking rule is a thing: so if I describe two character at the opposite ends of a enemy that isn't two sizes away from them, they get advantage
3). This will rarely be a thing so it won't nearly be as broken, but a Inspiration is a automatic Natural 20 in reserves in my story
4). NPCs can roll Con+modifiers once per short rest to regain HP
5). While the duration to attune to Magic items are the same, Sentient Weapons can instantly attune to you if you allow it, (unless it can forcefully attune to you)
6). To cure Permanent Blindness/Deafness/Mute and other disabilities (like your born with it) that is not caused by injury, you need Greater Restoration
Chapter 9 - Back on Track
It was quiet in the room for a minute, as we watched the last remnants of the wraith disappear into nothingness.
Then there was just silence
"…Sooo, not to be rude or anything,…but do you think you can turn off the miniature sun over there," said the hissing Sarith, who was hissing in pain.
To be honest it sounded like he was seconds away from banging his head hard against the wall repeatedly.
I turned to look at the sword with my silent question, for a few moments it didn't say anything, before replying in a small voice.
"do…do I have to?,"
She honestly sounded really sad from the request, it actually made me feel kinda bad. From what I could keen of our new bond is that sitting in complete darkness developed a sort of fear of it to the blade.
"…do you have an alternative?" While I did feel bad, several of my friends were suffering from her light that was essentially the copy of the sunlight.
She didn't answer for a bit, before suddenly the bright light started to dim. until eventually, it was only bright light around 10 feet from me, while everything else was dimly lit.
I can feel the slight hope, directed at me, and looking at my companions, I could see their relieved expressions, they weren't in pain anymore.
"It'll do nicely," I replied, which brought relieved joy to her, which leaked to me feeling it as well.
Looking at the dropped lid of the Coffin, I walk over to the top of it, and easily pried off the golden sheathe on it. I then placed Dawn in it as I hung it on my waist, Dawn didn't seem to get any less brighter despite being in the sheathe.
"So…we came down here…to save a sword?" Said the dwarf warrior, who looked a little annoyed as she placed her hammer on her back.
I then returned the deadpanned look back to her, "a sword that has a personality and has developed abandonment issues,".
She blinked and opened her mouth, but didn't speak anything and simply closed her mouth at that, "fair enough".
As the party left to the hallway to leave, Dawn spoke up in my minds, "actually if I'm not wrong, there is a treasure chest that is invisible in this room, if you are interested in having that,"
Blinking at that, I hummed, " well, we do need the "compensation"" I said with a small smirk on my face.
Turning around, just as the party were each trying to climb out of the hole in the previous room, I quickly searched the room.
Quickly, I managed to find the chest, and luckily it didn't seem to be locked. So opening it up I quickly gathered the riches and stored them on my person.
While I was storing, I found that the chest actually had more than coins in it, there were eleven light blue gems of decent size, and three objects.
A necklace, it seemed to be a big copper chain, would fit nicely on the neck of an average person, slightly loose so it wouldn't tightly hug your neck.
What caught my eye was that at the front of the necklace there were five smaller chains, each connecting to five orange orbs, wrapping around them nicely; they also seem detectable at closer inspection.
"Necklace of Fireballs, it is quite a nifty item!, it basically stores a powerful tier 3 fire spell into a physical form for later use, these would be great against weaker, but more numerous opponents," Dawn, helpfully informed me of the item.
Huh, that would be useful for a small army, nodding at a good Magic item, I put it on my neck for emergency use.
The next I pulled out was a pink, slim bottle, the liquid was colored what I would imagine would belong to a rose, it was also bubbling quite a bit.
"Huh, a weirdly-shaped, fizzy potion of hea-?, no, WAIT! There is a single heart shaped bubble!,…yeah~ this is a Philter of Love, which I would imagine was created by some creep a while back," Dawn sounded annoyed at that.
I paused at that, and took a closer look at the potion. And sure enough I spotted the heart-shaped bubble which was drifting around the bottle among hundreds of other bubbles. Though if dawn hadn't mentioned it I would've likely not have seen that.
"Well, it uses the bases on a spell called Charm Person, but instead of making the drinker think that whoever they first see is their good friend, instead whoever drinks it and whoever they first see, if they are their preferred gender, it makes them think for the next hour that they are their true love,".
...yeah, I agreed with Dawn, whoever was the inventor was a creep if they thought this was a good idea, as I shivered at the thought.
Storing that away in my bag anyway, the next item I picked up was another potion. The bottle was squarish except for the top bit, the liquid was also red, but unlike the previous potion, it wasn't bubbling.
"THAT'S the healing potion, and based on the shape of the bottle, it's a Potion of Greater Healing, it heals up pretty decently!" helpfully informing me.
Now that is a good find, placing it in one of my pockets for future use, that will at some point have to come into play.
Nodding to myself in satisfaction I made my way back to the others, where at this point the only ones in the hallway were Derendil, Eldeth, and me.
Derendil blinked when he spotted my necklace, "what did you find?, it looks quite dazzling!" As he sounded curious in his weird accent.
I shrugged, "I was told it is a magical necklace that throws a few fireballs by the Telepathic, female sword,".
All Derendil did was blankly look at him, not knowing how to respond to that.
"So cough, I see you have made it back safely," Jimjar weakly said with a small smile, while coughing small amounts of the black liquid. And then his eyes landed on my sheath where Dawn is in," and I see you brought along a magical item".
Nodding, patting Dawn's Hilt "yep, an amazing find, she will also be a massive help for me to see in the dark,".
Not wasting time, me and Derendil went to the remaining unopened door and pushed at it.
Surprisingly, there was another door after the one we opened, so going at it, we pushed once more.
And on the other side, we found a room that looked like a tomb, the western and eastern walls were carved with niches.
And looking at the truly enormous coffin, I go up to it, and immediately I notice that on the lid was mosaics depicting a majestic floating city above a beautiful landscape.
Touching the lid, I cautiously look around to see if anything suddenly appeared, seeing nothing at all, I pushed open the coffin.
What I noticed was not a corpse but a statue of a woman that must've been carved and painted before it was placed here.
…This was probably a fake tomb while the one beneath the other room was the true tomb room, and this was the real life replica of the woman we have just fought.
And then a booming voice came out
"You have disturbed the tomb of Brysis of Khaem! Accursed are you, most miserable of creatures!"
I and the rest of the part who were in the room immediately lifted their weaponry, with me lifting Dawn.
Nothing happening, I, and seeing as the party turned to the blade, I heard Dawn giggling.
"That was the wraith's voice when she was alive, she had this spell placed when her death was arriving, however the curse spell in place ended when you destroyed the wraith, I'm sorry, I should've said something, but I couldn't help myself," as she continued to giggle.
I rolled my eyes, while the others looked annoyed at the blade, while Jimjar looked a little stunned at the telepathic blade.
Sarith walking towards the door, "we have searched through all the rooms, it's time to head back out,"
With our business done, we all made our way back up the stairs, however, I was a bit confused why Buppido and Rumblefoot are still up there.
As we arrived, all we saw was an annoyed Buppido, blinking. I couldn't help but ask, "where's the Halfling?".
All Buppido did was shrug, "the Abyss if I know, but as soon as he heard unnatural screeches come from below, he bolted, and ran straight out, I gave chase, but eventually he pulled out a potion of invisibility and escaped to who knows where,".
Rumblefoot…ran? I mean, I suppose that is what a normal person would do if they heard something unnatural like the specters. But he already survived the total annihilation from his previous group, and he was also so excited to see this place.
Would he really run if he was literally inside this place?
(…I rolled a nat 20 on insight ?)
No…something wasn't right, Buppido, didn't actually look all that annoyed, if anything he seemed relaxed, like he finally let out all of his steam and frustration he had built up.
But I didn't exactly have proof other than my word and being able to see through his expression.
…this day marked where I started to keep arm-length distance away from Buppido, as I have lost all the trust I had in him.
Jimjar, on the other hand, was frowning, me and his eyes met, which then he shook his head, we were in agreement, we couldn't really talk about accusing him with no proof.
"Hn, cowardly surface dweller, should've known he would've ran from the first sight of danger," said the oblivious Topsy.
I did however turn to look at her with a deadpan.
"…you don't count! You don't even remember anything before you arrived at the slave pen!, so as far as I'm concerned until you get your memories back you're an Underdark Dweller," she argued with her arms crossed, with her brother nodding.
I kept up my deadpan stare before I rolled my eyes.
With nothing better to do, we made our way back to where the party left the two goblins at
Unknown to the rest of the party, just the opposite direction of where they started headed, they could find around 500 feet a blood trail.
It would lead on and on, to around another 500 feet, and if they were to follow the trail, they would've found a truly horrific sight.
Arms bound above head, legs spread out, both ends stuck between a massive amount of webs.
There was a Small Size creature cut open from the bottom of the neck to the Pelvis, organs taken out and rearranged in a nonsensical order, both eyes having a long, sharp rock shoved into the eye sockets.
The face of the said creature was permanently stuck in an agonized expression where tears could've been seen trailing alongside blood.
Fingers broken, teeth kicked in, and even in some parts of the body skinned alive.
And while the one responsible was walking with the party, all that he felt was satisfaction and joy.
Fargas Rumblefoot did not have a happy ending
"So you finally came back huh?, came back from your tea party with the Baator damned spider dijya," said the annoyed Yuk Yuk.
And then he looked at me, squinting his eyes, "and you seem to have brought a monster beacon for a companion,".
My eyes twitched at his insult
Although I suppose it's only fair since they were left here waiting for around 3 hours, more or less.
So I opted to go for a mature answer and gave him the bird.
Yuk Yuk rolled his eyes, "anyway, like I said before, you better put that light away or you will be attracting monsters far more often, your choice,".
I raised an eyebrow for that, "aren't we really close to the other side"
Yuk Yuk took his right hand and kept tilting it side to side, "sort of, it's a lot less about distance and more about if we find a good web bridge that brings us to the desired destination,".
Sarith rubbed his head, "Then let's get to it,".
Deciding it didn't matter that we had a light source since we could deal with pretty much anything quickly.
Yuk Yuk and Spiderbait, usually didn't stay with us as a group, they were using their weird substance to do parlor tricks on the web.
Seriously I was sure that Spiderbait was gonna fall off the bridge when he tried to do a barrel roll.
But then a swarm of 7 spiders appeared, and wasn't that a horrifying sight, especially so many of them.
We did take a fair bit of damage, me having to use my remaining hit dice of the day, thankfully no one died.
It didn't help that we seemingly found a chest in the middle of the bridge, which turned out to be a monster called a mimic.
At the very least we managed to get across the Silky Paths, we walked around 2 hours before we decided to sleep.
No, the Real surprise was when I stared at my upgrade screen.
[
EXP Amount : 5650
Options
Bloodhunter - level 1 - 300 exp
Rogue - level 3- 900 exp
Fighter - level 4- 2700 exp
Fighter - Subclass Switch - 900
[Locked] Artificer
[Locked] Barbarion
[Locked] Bard
[Locked] Cleric
[Locked] Druid
[Locked] Fighter
[Locked] Monk
[Locked] Paladin
[Locked] Ranger
[Locked] Rogue
[Locked] Sorcerer
[Locked] Warlock
[Locked] Wizard
]
On the side note, one, it seemed whoever is in charge of this decided to combine this to show off what is and what is not available.
Two, the fancy wand I found was just a fancy stick that literally did nothing.
Three,…god damn, that exp, I literally had enough to buy the level 4 fighter two times, that was AMAZING!
The first thing I did was buy the level 4 upgrade, I needed that out of the way, and level 5 is probably out of current price range.
[
ASI or a Feat
In this instance, you get to decide if you would like an ASI, or Ability Score Improvement, or get a feat that ranges from social, combat, or passive ability, though not limited by it.
This will usually appear at every 4 levels, although Fighter is a sole exception to that rule in this case
]
…well then, I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but I think I remember that some feats give their own slight ASI, so I think that is a better alternative.
Looking back at the Feats options that I haven't seen since the first day I arrived here, I looked more closely at the selection.
I was a little tempted to grab Tough, just to make me a lot more tanky, but I will probably save that for later.
Alert and Dungeon Delver were also pretty amazing, I will eventually need to get Keen Mind, else I will start forgetting quite a bit of things.
Mage Slayer, Magic Initiate, Observant, Mobile, Savage Attacker…
I think I will pick Sentinel, if they attack someone other than me, or try to run from me, when I'm in front of them, I can stop them right in their tracks.
And right after I picked up level 3 Rogue, deciding to bring that up to speed as well.
[
Rogue Subclass Selection
Arcane Trickster
Assassin
Inquisitive
Mastermind
Phantom
Scout
Soulknife
Swashbuckler
Thief
Wild Card
Revived
]
I am really thankful that it doesn't automatically open all of the subclass selection, THAT was a pain at the start to sort through.
And on the side note, I can actually see what it gives me and will eventually give me, so that was a major upside.
And looking through all of these, while Revived would technically fit me, it is not really as attractive as some of the other choices.
Arcane Magician is a discount magician who is obsessed with mage hand.
Assassin on the other hand is on the list! It is amazing that I can see myself using it so often, and eventually being able to deal a bullshit amount of damage.
Inquisitive was mostly about information gathering, while it can be good, it wasn't much the best matchup for me who likes to jump into action.
Mastermind was facing the same problems with Inquisitive, I was mainly focused on action. The only thing that really caught my eye was the last ability it gave, but that wasn't happening anytime soon.
Phantom was a close second on my consideration, right behind Assassin. But mainly because Assassin gives me immediate powerful benefits while everything I desired in Phantom is at the latter stages.
Scout was mainly about mobility, like getting away from your opponent or increasing my overall speed, in general or in certain aspects.
Soulknife would've been great,…if I didn't already have Dawn with me, though it still wasn't a bad option as that can give me a backup weapon just in case, but it isn't on top.
Swashbuckler was a great option as well, it removed the necessity that you needed an advantage in battle to do sneak attack.
And Thief basically did what it sounded like, better lock picker, better mobility, made me basically a parkour master, etc.
And finally, Wild Card, ...was a bit of a weird one, it had a lot to do with cards and such, and then applies it to the world, and a bunch of chances.
Assassin won effortlessly in my books, and I honestly liked it quite a bit, selecting it I went back to the class selection screen.
[
EXP Amount : 2050
Options
Bloodhunter - level 1 - 300 exp
Rogue - level 4- 2,700 exp
Fighter - level 5- 6,500 exp
Switching Subclass - 900 exp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Locked] Artificer
[Locked] Barbarian
[Locked] Bard
[Locked] Cleric
[Locked] Druid
[Locked] Fighter
[Locked] Monk
[Locked] Paladin
[Locked] Ranger
[Locked] Rogue
[Locked] Sorcerer
[Locked] Warlock
[Locked] Wizard
]
Seeing that I have 2,000 exp, and that I have more than enough hp to perform this kind of magic, I bought the first two levels.
My health points at this point was at 98, this was straight up cheating, I know for a fact if u focused on one class I wouldn't even be close to being this tanky.
In the Skill selection, I chose History and Religion, as that was the only thing I could choose, leaving one of the selections blank.
Proficiency in Alchemist Supplies, no additional save proficiencies added in, and I don't receive any equipment.
[
Hunter's Bane
At 1st level, you have survived the Hunter's Bane—a dangerous, long-guarded ritual that alters your life's blood, forever binding you to the darkness and honing your senses against it. You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track fey, fiends, or undead, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about such creatures.
The Hunter's Bane also empowers your body to control and shape hemocraft magic, using your own blood and life essence to fuel your abilities. Some of your features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:
Hemocraft save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Hemocraft modifier (your choice between Intelligence and Wisdom)
]
Ok, sorta expected the save calculation, and do however like the ability to potential track down Fey, Undead, and Fiends, that would at some point be useful.
[
Blood Maledict
Also at 1st level, you gain the ability to channel—or sometimes sacrifice—a part of your vital essence to curse and manipulate creatures through hemocraft magic. You know one Blood Curse of your choice. You learn one additional blood curse of your choice at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level. Each time you learn a new blood curse, you can also choose one of the blood curses you know and replace it with another blood curse.
Each time you use your Blood Maledict feature, you choose which curse to invoke from the curses you know. While invoking a blood curse, but before it affects the target, you can choose to amplify the curse by taking necrotic damage equal to one roll of your hemocraft die. This damage can't be reduced in any way. An amplified curse gains an additional effect, noted in the curse's description. Creatures that do not have blood are immune to blood curses unless you have amplified the curse.
Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. You can use Blood Maledict twice between rests starting at 6th level, three times starting at 13th level, and four times starting at 17th level.
]
It had its own list of certain abilities, I took one I believe will have massive benefits if I want to use certain abilities that creatures are normally immune to.
[
Selected Blood Curse:
Blood Curse of the Eyeless
When a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an attack, you can use your reaction to roll one hemocraft die and subtract the number rolled from the creature's attack roll. You can choose to use this feature after the creature's roll, but before the DM determines whether the attack hits or misses. The creature is immune to this curse if it is immune to the blinded condition.
Amplify. You apply this curse to all the creature's attack rolls until the end of the creature's turn. You roll separately for each affected attack.
]
I can literally temporarily take away someone's resistance, or even immunities at least once per day. I am not sure what I would be using this for, but I can always switch it out later when I pick another Blood Curse in the future, and taking away immunities is by no means bad.
Now this is where the confusing part came in, I believe I remember that you can only have one fighting style, at a time, ...but it is giving me the option.
Not complaining, I go through the options and selected Two-Weapon Fighting.
[
Two-Weapon Fighting
When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.
]
If at any point a shield becomes redundant, I can simply pick up another weapon to use, like my shortsword that is currently sitting around in my bag.
The Crimson Rites ability however was very much welcomed
[
Crimson Rite
Also at 2nd level, you learn to invoke a rite of hemocraft that infuses your weapon strikes with elemental energy. As a bonus action, you can activate any rite you know on one weapon you're holding. The effect of the rite lasts until you finish a short or long rest. When you activate a rite, you take necrotic damage equal to one roll of your hemocraft die. This damage can't be reduced in any way.
While the rite is in effect, attacks you make with this weapon are magical, and deal extra damage equal to your hemocraft die of the type determined by the chosen rite. A weapon can hold only one active rite at a time. Other creatures can't gain the benefit of your rite.
You choose one rite from the crimson rites below when you first gain this feature. You learn an additional crimson rite at 7th level, and again at 14th level.
Crimson Rites
Rite of the Flame. Your rite damage is fire damage.
Rite of the Frozen. Your rite damage is cold damage.
Rite of the Storm. Your rite damage is lightning damage.
Rite of the Dead. Your rite damage is necrotic damage. (Prerequisite: 14th level)
Rite of the Oracle. Your rite damage is psychic damage. (Prerequisite: 14th level)
Rite of the Roar. Your rite damage is thunder damage. (Prerequisite: 14th level)
]
I wasn't particularly sure what element to take that I would place on Dawn. On one hand Fire fits well with the Sun theme, but Cold could serve as an ironic joke if the enemies expect heat, while in my humblest opinion lightning is the coolest.
…actually now that I think about it, wasn't Fire a really common resistance to have in this world? Then it would be kinda pointless to use, so the choice was between Cold and Lightning.
And who was immune to the cold? I could recall some demons or devils that do have that, probably some creatures that hang out in cold climates.
While lightning…giants? Blue dragons,…probably creatures that use lightning,…yeah i think that lightning will do.
It's cool and I can't remember a lot of creatures resistant to lightning, though that was probably on me.
[
EXP Amount : 1450
Options
Bloodhunter - level 3 - 900 exp
Rogue - level 4- 2,700 exp
Fighter - level 5- 6,500 exp
Switching Subclass - 900 exp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Locked] Artificer
[Locked] Barbarian
[Locked] Bard
[Locked] Cleric
[Locked] Druid
[Locked] Fighter
[Locked] Monk
[Locked] Paladin
[Locked] Ranger
[Locked] Rogue
[Locked] Sorcerer
[Locked] Warlock
[Locked] Wizard
]
…I guess one additional level wouldn't hurt, will give me a boost in hp and power, as well as a subclass.
[
The Bloodhunter Order: Subclass Selection
At 3rd level, you commit to an order of blood hunters whose philosophy will guide you throughout your life. The order you choose grants you features at 3rd level, and again at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 18th level.
]
That did cause me to pause for a bit, as I wasn't entirely sure if philosophy should come into play for my decision.
It didn't really matter, since the information and training will probably just be pushed into my head the instant I'm out of here…
But it kinda makes me uncomfortable to take the physical abilities from one thing…and completely ignore the portion about the mind.
Guess I gonna have to cross my fingers in hopes that each of the subclass' philosophy isn't something I don't want to be in on.
[
Pick on Order to follow!
Ghostslayer
Lycan
Mutant
Profane Soul
]
Starting at Ghostslayer, it's apparently the oldest and has rediscovered the blood Magic. And I don't particularly mind killing the undead and all those that create them, so there's one.
The immediate benefit is the crimson rite, but to be honest? The only benefit that it actually gives that Dawn doesn't have already is the Necrotic Resistance, every else Dawn can do better for now.
Aether walks was a cool gimmick, Brand of Sundering was decent enough, but the final ability is what I liked about it, essentially a backup plan if I was somehow one shot.
So Ghosthunter was definitely in the consideration at the moment.
I don't believe I'm entirely ok at becoming a werewolf or some shit, so while it would be badass, I don't think I'm ready to become a beast.
Mutant was even worse, and while a lot of the mutant abilities have powerful abilities, it also gives me a glaring weakness.
Profane Soul, the last of the four, was a weird one, since it basically reminded me of warlocks, in fact this is basically a discount warlock.
But it literally states I'm giving some small part of myself away for power, so that is an out as I'm not aware if it is literal or not.
So Ghostlayer it is, I won't really go out o my way to kill necromancers, because if I did it would sound like I was going through a holy crusade.
So if that necromancer just so happens to be killing people, then that's my primary target.
And with that?
I think I'm ready, and now I should watch myself, because I can literally feel my pride swelling, I need that to be cut off fast.
But anything else? I'm pretty sure I can now pull my weight in the world for real now.
This was by no means my best work, so many little time skips, a bit wordy in places, and many places felt lazy and rushed ?.
Well hope it isn't as bad as I'm imagining it is