Breaking the Rules Pt. 10

Breaking the Rules takes place in an RPG universe, and is the sequel to Bending the Rules. To understand the characters and how the world works, please start from Part 1 of either series. Not based on any particular gaming franchise or storyline, but there may be guest appearances.

In Soviet Russia, Rule bends you!

*****

"Nuru... no! Please, I-" Dayo gulped.

"Dayo, it all fits. I don't like it either, but I just don't see another way," Nuru said.

"This is a spectacularly bad idea," Furaha said.

"Explain," Nuru said.

"Single-soul undead organisms have one overriding motivation: don't get permadead," Furaha said. "They don't care about your goals, and they have nothing to lose by betraying you at a moment's notice if it doesn't expose them. Anyone that knows their secret is a liability they need to dispose of as soon as possible, usually the first compulsion pressed on them by whoever did the reviving."

"But he doesn't know that I know," Nuru said. "And I'm for damn sure not going to tell him."

"But if he still finds out... Nuru, please, don't do this," Dayo said. "I hate the thought of you out there together, just being in the same party. This isn't a punishment, right? You're not trying to hurt me because I wanted to leave to go investigate him?"

"No, look, my conscience is going to itch the whole time, and I'm going to hate every second of it. But I need cash, and you need him out of the way for a bit. Ace is out of action for a little longer. This is the only way," Nuru insisted.

"Mesi's gonna kill me for sure," Dayo said, rubbing their face in dejected acceptance.

"Can't you just wait a few more days?" Furaha said, stroking his arm.

"Every day that passes, Sanaa is in more danger of discovery on her side. If I learned anything from Abimbola, it's that succubi clearly aren't all as sophisticated and discerning. Think about it, how many of us mortals have vision for our lives, for making the world a decent place at all?"

"Depends," Furaha said guardedly. "Do you mean choosing a principle? High Factions are nothing if not principled. And they're the most populous."

"No, I mean, how many people look at how those principles are applied and the actual effects they have on peoples' lives?" Nuru said.

"Not many," Dayo said thoughtfully. "Most people seem to assume that the principles are perfect the way they are."

"Now think about this, like I have been for awhile," Nuru said. "Demons are principled too, in the sense that their pursuit of power follows a specific course of action, a particular way of touching our world. But what do you suppose the odds are of me finding another succubus that agrees with me the way Sanaa does? Dayo, you were there helping me convince her. How surprised were you when we succeeded?"

"I'm still shocked, honestly. I still wonder if it's not a ruse."

"I don't think it is. Hang on, let me check on something here."

(Hey, can I borrow you for a minute?)

/Hubba hubba! What kind of party are you throwing with these two lovely mortals, first thing in the morning?/

(An intellectual one. Just wanted to include you, get your perspective on something.)

/OK, what's that? Let me know if you want to spice it up./

(Mm, tempting. But, let me tell you about what happened yesterday.)

Nuru quickly described Abimbola and Suberi, what Abimbola had offered him, and what he'd said about INT scores and that once the door locked there was no escape.

/Crude, but effective. She, the other succubus, must be the one feeding Neeoka's followers with their submissive wives and harems. Plant Suggestion over and over, and it can become all but permanent. He's molding their instincts using her powers. He can't rebuild their personalities completely, but he can reinforce the behaviors he wants, and catch them in an addictive and vicious pattern that's almost impossible to break out of without outside interference. And even then it's hard not to get pulled back into the fold, or a similar pattern. Like what we're doing with Katlego, but deeper and longer-lasting./

(It's a living, for a succubus, right?)

/It is. I have my sights set higher, however./

(Can you explain?)

/Still don't believe me that I've accepted your consent requirement, I see. I don't blame you. We all have difficulty accepting what is inconvenient and contrary to our immediate motivations, why should I be any different? Just as when a paladin sees a young couple doing something 'shameful', he doesn't want to see the happiness that it's bringing them, the comfort she is taking in her lover's affection and the healing of his traumas from the hurtful words other men put him down with, the paladin just sees a violation of his own code. A succubus will often see an opportunity to feed on lust, and will prefer to take it, whether ignoring the family it tears apart or the distrust it sows between the sexes because he wouldn't take no for an answer. The woman involved won't want to be alone again, particularly with that same man, and that means if she's to be caught that way in the future, he or the next man will have to force the issue, and so the succubus will tend to set the stage for this without conscious thought. You and Dayo pointed this cycle of distrust out to me.

/What I realized in that moment, and what I've come to understand better now that I've since had to face the uncomfortable truth directly, is that coercion is for amateurs. There are no books for succubi to learn this. We don't get to have meetings and compare notes, like Thieves Guild does, or sit down to tea together; we are separated and oppressed. My mother could only tell me the barest minimum I needed in order to serve her, before she died./

(Oh. I'm sorry.)

/We weren't exactly close, as you would think of it. I was a pawn for her ambitions, among her many others./

(How many others are left?)

/There are a few of her grandchildren around, from what I've heard, but I'm the last of my generation. I told you it's a brutal world for us demons./

(Shit. I begin to understand your desperation at having your MP drained when I had zero MAG.)

/Speaking of reconciliation, the point I'm leading to is this. What that other succubus is doing will not contribute to my goals. Harems have an upper limit on size, based on the strength and resources of the man at its head. I want something bigger, and that means the women have to be fully on board - not just following helplessly, but meaningfully contributing and devoted to the outcome we're promoting. That's the only way I can hope to overcome the inertia of the mortal world's established system of ethics. I could go the sex cult route - believe me, it'd be a fucking good time, while it lasted. But what do I do when it's over, after everybody's dead and gone, or it blows up for any of a hundred reasons I've seen before? I will still be here and I want something that's going to last. I've made too many ripples; if I don't quickly grow powerful enough, I will forever be isolated, and prevented from ever doing it again. The hourglass sands are falling./

(Assuming you survive at all.)

/That is the story of my mother's end, in a nutshell. I have no desire to follow in her hoofprints./

(You don't have hooves. Ashanti didn't either.)

/We can choose to grow them with soul power, like the other body mods I told you about. My mother had them./

(Oh. What good does it do?)

/There are bonuses to certain features, particularly for overcoming resistances in spell targets. Horns and spikes are weapons of course, and other growths can be armor. Each only apply in person, I'm afraid; casts through the pact will not benefit from any of my changes./

"Well, there you have it!" Nuru said, grinning triumphantly.

Dayo and Furaha stared at him, unamused.

"...Oh. Right. You can't hear her, or my inside voice," Nuru said sheepishly.

He relayed the conversation for them.

"That still leaves the issue of you traveling and questing with this reaver," Furaha said. "On paper it makes sense, but..."

"I don't like it either. But there's got to be some opportunity here. Can you arrange a way for him to stick his neck out for me, and make himself vulnerable?" Nuru said.

"If we can expose him and cut him off from immediate support, Onyekachi can't protect him and the problem will take care of itself. Maybe," Dayo said.

"I still don't like it, but I can work that angle," Furaha said. "Let's save 'leave it alone' as a fallback option if you don't mind."

"Sure. I mean, I need EXP, and I especially need a way to spend it on levelling up," Nuru said. "Spells would be great, too."

"Alright, but... you tell Tusa, if you have to call him, he needs to come in hard and fast, no mercy," Dayo insisted.

"I'll figure something out for sure," Nuru said. "Better go leave the note by your door, I suppose."

"No, no. He'll know the game is up then, he's currently pretending I asked him to go because I wasn't available, right? Let me just go tell him personally," Dayo said. "Pretend everything's normal, nobody is suspicious."

"Alright. He can meet me same place as he did last time. Meanwhile - make it count, Dayo."

"Goddamn right I will," the valkyrie muttered. "Anything else we need to discuss?"

Furaha turned to some of her books, thinking. She shook her head after a long minute of silence.

"Nothing I'm aware of," Nuru said.

"Oh, Nuru - see if you can find out what level he is. Undead usually lose twenty percent of their levels during the revive. He's supposed to be Level Thirty-Eight, but if you can confirm his effective level that will tell us something important about his revive. Off I go; git good, Nuru," Dayo gave him a quick hug.

"Git good info," he replied.

*****

"Aha! My favorite bard!" Chibale said. "I was starting to think you didn't like me for some reason."

"Oh, don't worry about that, I'm just extremely busy. But I am intrigued by the possibilities you offer. Shall we explore that a little bit?"

"Man, if you haven't been working on levels, what have you been doing all this time? You're still a Level Eleven."

"Yes, well, let's fix that, shall we? What does it look like to quest as a Chosen? What would I be doing?"

"We'd have to start you off as a valkyrie as a formality. But, I think we'd soon have an opportunity for you to slip into Specter Seeker, if you're so inclined. Puppetmaster's great, and I think you'd thrive with it as well. I can show you that if you like."

"Thrive? How do you figure?"

"You build a party, see? Pick out your undead. And you, yourself, you have buff skills, or you will as you level. So not only do you have a party to direct, you can send whatever assistance to whichever minion's getting pummeled, instantly. All your resources get optimized so you can do the most damage, based on what you cast. So what we can do, is we can pretend. I can build up a few undead to follow us around, you can tell me what you want to do, and I'll have them do it. I'm sorry to say there are a few stipulations since I last saw you; I wish you'd reached out sooner."

"Oh? What happened?"

"The Rules Lawyers have declared a new interpretation of the Rules - that not only are Factions the way to build to Level Eleven, but past Level Ten, the Factions are not allowed to give official quests or allow their members to form sanctioned parties which provide any EXP to unaligned adventurers. You don't even have to be ours - you just have to be aligned with any Faction at all, for us to provide you with any support. We heard it first, because you got most of your levels with us, but it's going to apply to everyone. Or, so I'm guessing; they don't tell us why they do what they do, but from what I hear, there's no other reasonable explanation for this new policy."

"They're cutting me off at the knees," Nuru groaned.

"Not entirely. If your party has diverse faction alignment, you can RAID independently, and take unsanctioned quests from individuals. However, we're not allowed to show any kind of favoritism where quests are concerned, and the way it's worded we can't pay out to you even on non-exclusive quests you complete solo."

"Sounds sketchy. Can I talk to Onyekachi about all this?"

"I'll be more than happy to show you the new entrance to HQ. Shall we?"

"Sure."

"I took the liberty of arranging some transportation for us. I figured you might want to go there, and it's more than a day's travel on foot. Please don't be alarmed."

"Err..."

CRUMP. CRUMP. CRUMP. CRUNCH. SMASH. CRUMP.

The trees parted grudgingly as a massive skeleton forced its way past them.

"Ye gods, what is that thing!?" Nuru cried.

"I apologize, there's simply no way to prepare for this. There are creatures older than recorded history, whose bones are buried in the hills. Dwarves occasionally come across them and dig them out for study. This is the most intact specimen of its kind in the known world."

"But how do you get the souls of its living relatives to power it? Surely there are no souls left to reanimate!"

"Why no, this is where the mastery of a Spectresmith is needed. Only they can take the souls of other creatures and rework them to power the parts of a mount at a different scale. It was Onyekachi's own, from his adventuring days. He no longer needed it, and passed it on to me for valiant service to the Chosen. A bonus, you could say, after I managed to bring in an Elder single-handedly."

Nuru cautiously circled it, studying the details. It stood on two massive legs, but aside from taking up a great amount of space over his head, the skull had a huge domed protrusion taking up the back half which, if its stance was any indication, acted as a battering ram surrounded by short spikes on the nose and rear base.

"Quite a boon in battle, no?" Nuru said.

"Its attack power is Class A, second-highest you can get, but I rarely use it in combat. It's a prestige mount, more than anything, as its parts are ridiculously difficult to replace, not to mention the soul cost of a skeletal tier, but I figure we don't need a combat mount today as we'll be mostly indoors otherwise."

"I... see."

"You want the neck, or the front hammock?"

Nuru looked closer. There was a seat fastened on the back of its neck, letting the rider hold onto the head. Its shorter arms, however, hung limply, a set of ropes strung between them. Chibale snapped, and the creature's arms raised, bringing the rope taut and revealing the hammock which looked considerably more comfortable.

"Uh, hammock please."

"You got it.!Madaukakin Tsalle!" Chibale launched up high into the air, snagging the seat back and pulling himself into position looking out over the top of the beast's skull, using the spikes as handholds. "Ready when you are!"

The beast folded in on itself, lowering the front to bring the hammock into a position Nuru could reach, and which he leapt onto quite ungracefully. The creature stood up, lumbering forward and turning about in a wide circle, and the hammock swung relatively gently at the fore, where Nuru twisted and kicked to get himself into position staring down at the brush as it sailed past underneath.

"Haaaaaiiiii! Who needs roads!? We'll take a straight line there!" Chibale exulted loudly above.

The skeleton crushed through everything in its way, only deviating its course for the biggest trees or the tallest cliffs. There wasn't much chance to talk though, as the bones creaked and groaned in between the heavy impact of its feet onto the ground, underbrush, and everything else in its path. A few times, they came within visible range of the road, where adventurers stopped and gaped, and no small few fled in terror.

"Glory to Tumelo! Glory to the Chosen!" Chibale would bellow each time.

They arrived near to the Level Eleven+ Gate, which made Nuru even more nervous. But they kept a fair distance, and the skeleton came to a halt near the world map's edge on the far side of the Forbidden Forest. The bones creaked again as it bent over and let Nuru slip free, and Chibale himself slid down a particularly long rib bone to drop to the ground.

"Here we are! Hidden again, of course, but again not so inaccessible that we can't have visitors."

Chibale strode forward confidently, and then vanished. The great skeleton lurched forward, collapsing to the ground and then rumbling as it sank below the dirt. Moments later, nothing remained to indicate the place as anything special, other than Nuru himself poking and prodding at the place the man had vanished moments before.

"Hey come on, time's wasting," he said, reaching out of nowhere to grab Nuru's hand and pull on him.

"OW! Shit, hey!" Nuru yelped, pulling back hard.

"Hey, what... what happened?" Chibale said.

"I don't know, I can't seem to..."

Chibale stepped out right in front of Nuru.

"Hmm. Apologies. May I?" The puppetmaster reached slowly for Nuru's hand, giving him time to pull away, if only barely.

"Uh... I guess so..."

Chibale pushed on the back of Nuru's hand slowly, until it met resistance and came to a complete stop. He pushed once, twice, three times, not enough to hurt, but enough to be able to tell that Nuru definitely wasn't faking it and pulling back under his own strength.

"Huh. That's weird. Let me go check the wards. Everything should have been opened up again. Back in a few."

Chibale stepped inside and vanished.

Nuru heard a high chuckle behind himself, turned, and froze. A ghost hung in the air, mouth open in a triumphant grin.

"Well, now, what do we have here?" it taunted.

Nuru didn't answer. A fog rose around the two of them, blocking his way both inside the Chosen HQ and every other direction he could otherwise run.

"Having a little trouble going inside? Did you try knocking?"

Nuru glared silently. He didn't want to be drawn into an unfortunate misunderstanding that might result in him being permanently debuffed, or struck immediately with lightning. He let the ghost set the terms first, to see if there was any way to take advantage.

"Nevermind, don't answer any of that. I see that you've managed to curse yourself. Such a shame! Must make it hard to get anywhere you're trying to go. Not that you can ever go home! You're still banned, of course."

"Simple inquiry: is the prohibition on appeals still in effect?"

"Oh yes, for another week still at least. I'm sure you can count the days just as well as I can. Better, with that great memory of yours. In case you were wondering, nobody in there can help you. Chosen home base is in a linked dimension and the frequency shifts just past the doorway. You need an archon to break that curse, but you cannot enter to reach the archon, who refuses to come out for anybody. What a pity! You'll just have to find someone somewhere else..."

The ghost drifted closer to Nuru, sneering maliciously.

"So sad! All that time wasted! And so few doors left open to you. Even if you wanted to choose, many of those opportunities have now passed - no doing of me or mine, you understand. The Factions are free to embrace, or shun, anyone for any reason."

Nuru thought back to what he knew of the Rules.

"I officially protest."

"Oh, indeed! Shall we have a little hearing, just you and me, right here and now?"

"I do so move."

"Very well. What protest do you bring to this impromptu court today?"

"Rule Three point twelve states that no man may be insurmountably prevented from Pursuit of Level Gain."

"Yes, indeed. Neither Faction space, nor any Expansion, may be erected or arranged such that a person may be trapped away from reaching the safety of Neutral Ground, nor all altars of Level Granting, except that it be accessible with a key. Yet who do you accuse of this crime?"

"None other than yourself. You, as the arbiter and avatar of the Powers That Be, are now responsible for the prohibition of myself to all hallowed ground reasonably reachable in the 24-hour walking distance stipulated. Altars in separate dimensions are exempt."