Reroll

Yes, we are deep enough in discussion that we don't notice we are suddenly naked and surrounded by fire for a little while (no clocks…).

I notice first, for once, “Ah… apparently level up comes sooner rather than later.”

Ed and Betty look down at themselves, “Huh.”

I glance around… books, blotter, quill, inkwell, sheet… three sets.  Oh, the laptop made it into our little oasis… probably because we weren't touching it.  I glance at the displayed time: Midnight.

“Midnight again…” I shrug, “well, at least it's a stable pattern.  Immediately if there's a death, at midnight otherwise.”

Betty smiles, “Convenient timing.  I mean, it's perfectly reasonable to retroactively edit a sheet to account for things we missed during character creation, right?”

Ed nods, “Yeah… I remember once Frank having me rewrite a character entirely because I'd missed a detail on the house rules.”

I consider.  An Oath of Honor… Tribal seems viable… and an Oath of Ritual is okay, I have a lot of HP with this build.  I don't eat and dislike potions, so an Oath of Abstention is fine… which can pay for bonus feats; Forbidden Knowledge(Night Terrors) is fine when I don't sleep… and has a pretty easy will dc… which can pay for some bonus magic talents… I up my optimization game with extra systems while I level.  Betty takes some time to switch Wilder for Fey Adept (and picks up the recharge mechanism I used to use… she also copies my never-summoned Conjouration Companions to cover her passive skills like Sense Motive, Perception, and Knowledges), while Ed doesn't change much… he just adds to the build.

“Mythic is an alternative rule system, right?” Ed thinks while we're working.

“I could go for it,” I reply.

“Pity we always start at first on everything…” Oh Betty, why did you?

“We started at third for this campaign,” I point out, “Why not for the Mythic?” I'm trying.

Ed brightens up, “Sounds good to me.”

“Sure…” Betty agrees.

Mythic has some nice things. Third is… just barely high enough to get what I want.  Heh. Okay. So… I'll need a ring to wear; going with X-Ray Vision… and yes, Ghostly Grasp let's me wear it… the Mythic Paragon feat to count as Mythic 5 for certain things… Spheremaster path… Warp mastery to help with re-aiming… Heirloom twice gives me five things… a few of which will just be spent on always getting my heirloom back quickly… but it'll be nice to have the extra “no” on finding me… spend the rest on Intelligence so it can act on it's own… Crafting Mastery… oh, traditions… sure, I'll take the Legalistic oracle curse to have a Summoner's Eidolon… go with a Synthesist so I can have a reasonably quick access to a body when I can't bring my animal companion… a nice angel: biped with wings… Crafting Mastery frees up a feat… and I get a new one for the level… Noble Scion(War) and… meh, might as well go Monstrous Mount and change my kitten into a Griffon… actually, no; my kitty is stronger, and I'm mostly using her for a body.  Huh. Ah, there we go: Flyby Attack. Makes me a lot harder to hit when I'm incorporeal and dealing with people near walls or floors.  More Witchwarper for my main side.  For my miscellaneous side… eh. Going with the Advanced simple template for the stat boost.

There… I look up from what I'm doing and review Ed's new build… Quick Wild shape, and a ring of Invisibility that's intelligent due to Item Familiar… a Pounce with five attacks and Sudden Strike from the Ninja side will murder most things.  Nice… he just needs to wear the ring after shifting forms… oh, and the Heirophant option for casting spells by way of spending Mythic power… nice, the entire Druid list available on-demand.  Oooh, and Fey Spell lore for an expanded list.

“I definitely want you to join me at the hospital,” I comment, “You can stay silently invisible the whole time, and bail me out if I have a problem.”

“That was the plan, yes,” Ed confirms.

I also look over Betty’s in detail: She is all in on Illusion… including stocking up on the surreal feats… and she nabbed grenade proficiency and Starfinder's light armor proficiency, eh? I'll have some competition in the damage department. And she did get Monstrous Mount after all.  Oath system for more talents and feats used to support her Illusion sphere… wealth spent heavily on an Illusion implement, which makes sense, as it also feeds her temporary talents from the Shadow Magic feat and the effects of Create Reality from Fey Adept; quite the flex caster, and is setup for ten minutes per level on the illusions… nice… plus suppression… “I take it you're gunning for a spot in the possie too?”

She chuckles, “Yes. And bringing all of our pets along too.”

I consider, “We'll need to rent a cargo van…”

Ed chuckles, “And cast Reduce Animal a few times. Gotcha covered.”

Betty shakes her head, “Buy the van: Renting is for tourists: We'll need it again soon enough.  Electric if we can, so you can charge it for free and on the fly.”

I consider, “Better….” I make a few changes to my Starfinder wealth allotment, “I buy it here. We have permanent wealth, so we'll get it back the next day if it's wrecked.  We can keep the pets in carriers…” I pick up a Police Cruiser and a few Null Space Kennels, “We'll need to cover the rig with illusions so it looks like a normal car….”

“Gotcha covered,” Betty nods.

“...but that should work out better,” Autopilot with a workable modifier, flight if we need it, a pilot and two passengers - technically prisoners, but eh - and it's only a Large vehicle rather than a Huge one.  At 75 mph it won't win any races, but it covers our needs.

They go over my build too, of course, and suggest a few tweaks.  When we're done, we all sign off on the sheets… and we're back in the real world.

I chuckle, “We'll, that's certainly one way to end the discussion.  I'm going to do that stalking I mentioned. You two rest up.”

They turn in, I put my animal companion to bed, and go exploring… nude again, save for my shiny new Mythic ring… and by not having a Con score, I'm immune to the drawback of the base item (overuse of a Ring of X-Ray Vision can and will kill the user normally: It damages Constitution).  

Now, fun bit here: I don't need to step foot inside a van. A Ring of X-Ray Vision let's me see through things within certain limits (maximum 25 feet of black and white vision, blocked by three feet of wood or dirt, one foot of stone, one inch of most metals, or a thin sheet of lead).

Which, of course, means that while I'm watching the parked vans to wait for a handler to leave (I have the parking locations from the brief from the phone), I'm not in a van: I'm an inch under the pavement underneath a van, and warded via Mythic power from all detection because I'm naturally invisible.

I might be a little paranoid about getting caught.

I stake out a van for hours… and eventually, stalk the handler when he's releived by another.  I follow him as he gets in a cab, joining him, and goes back to his hotel, where he meets up with quite a few other guys… so tempting to just blow them all up… but no, I'd get at best half of them doing that, and tip off the rest that not only do I know where they sleep, but I'll cheerfully murder them in said sleep… I don't expect that would end well.

Still… I have confirmation that at least most of them are sleeping in the same place, and I know where that is.  Job done for now, I suppose.  I head back “home” on foot, confident enough that I won't be detected by anything civilian.

Once home, I check up on my cruiser… it's basically a big rounded triangular prism that's leaning back.  The driver's seat is simple cloth, the prisoners’ seats in the rather well sealed rear section are some hard metal, there's very little trunk space, and the black and white paint job doesn't appeal… and for some reason, I have the door code memorized.  Okay, it's not very luxurious, but it will do the job… and I move it to the backyard.  I wonder how many people saw it parked?  No matter… given that this is Frat Row, I imagine most will just assume it's some weird fraternity stunt, college art project, scenery for a play, or similar.

Well, unless they watched me drive it… d'oh.  I'm… pretty sure nobody was watching?  Ah well.

Not having done anything particularly strenuous, I refresh my shadow points, and head inide to greet Betty and Ed, then feed my animal companion….