Champion of the Goddess Pt. 03

He pulled back quickly, "Sorry your mouth doesn't taste great at the moment."

She laughed, "I forgot."

He rinsed his mouth out with water and the ladies followed suit.

They stopped and ate some dried meat. He went and strip-searched the bodies. He identified another tier 3 ring of wizardry. He put it aside for the moment. He stripped everything from the crushed bodies that were magical. The chest in the tent was crushed. He looked at a desk that was just outside of it and it looked like orders. He sighed and scooped everything up.

He called out, "Sorry but I need help in this tent. The chest got crushed. I also found some orders. This was some kind of military unit, No dead bodies in the tent. These might be quest related."

They skirted the camp and came over with the portable hole. "He looked. I saw something else outside."

He went to the back of the camp and identified it. He used the command word and the door appeared. They looked at him, "A secure shelter?"

He nodded, "It is different though. They walked in and there were dozens of horses and half a dozen ponies. He finished identifying it, "It has a name, 'Barno's instant stable.'

Can house up to 50 horses and it will feed them. It currently has 42 in the stalls. Useable every 12 hours. It will camouflage into woods. People are not allowed to sleep in it. The 6 unseen servants will sweep crap onto you if you try.

If no horses are present it will drop crap from the ceiling from the last 50 horses that stayed here. It is a portable stable with a horse outhouse. It was a commissioned object. It has the same hit points as a secure shelter. When destroyed, all of the horses are shunted out the door.

It is not usable for a week while it repairs itself. I am, unfortunately, the owner. It takes 2 days for a living recipient to transfer it to someone else. I will give it to you. It is an extradimensional space. It only needs a one-foot piece of ground to be placed upon near the woods preferably.

My guess is this guy was a horse lover, ranger, scout arcane archer and he wanted a safe place for the horses. He was tired of travelers he escorted not taking care of their animals properly. This would be a good time to get a legend lore scroll and copy that into my spellbook."

She nodded. "How long will it stay up."

He looked at her, "It will stay up as long as it has horses, ponies, or some other animals. My guess is it took a wish spell to create it; if not several. I think it even has a recovery stall where injured animals are tended to.

Sorry, it has 2 of them one on each side at the back. 2 of the unseen servants will do that work when animals are placed in there. Alright, 2 wish spells at least."

He thought, "Love, nice stable. How much magic did it take to create?"

She laughed, "The fact it is not usable by player characters or personas was a big limiting factor. This was created for a player in another life. He died facing off with these guys. I did not expect you to find it. How did you find it?"

He smiled, "The camouflage is not a hundred percent perfect and then there are the horse tracks to nowhere. I noticed a distortion when I was working on the ogre magi's body. I wanted to have others in case it was another 50 of those fuckers. You avoided my question."

She laughed, "It was three castings of the secure shelter and three wishes. One to redo the interior, to define the restriction, and make it self-repairing. The second, food for all of the horses, and the medical. The third to make it usable every twelve hours but remain up as long as it is occupied or the door to it is destroyed which is only 100 hit points with a hardness of 5.

Also, the camouflage spell. It is built on camouflage to protect it. I thought about fixing what you saw but will leave it alone; he used a fifth level caster to add that spell onto it because he was running low on funds. As to the Chamo being so weak, it is just another way to find it.

He had a party wipe situation in the last battle and was the sole survivor. Wealthy was an understatement. He stuck around while it was built. Waiting to see if the others caught up. They did not but he finally picked up another group.

I about pissed myself when you threw that fortress into the camp invisible. I have had people throw one into a group of the enemy before but never invisible. It completely screwed with their minds they heard something and alerted the leader. As soon as he was within range, you made sure it got him."

He thought back, "The ogre magi was my target. If he cast or had anything to see invisibility then he could alert the others, that fact was my trigger. The leader was a bonus."

She laughed and then sighed, "I felt bad for the ladies getting sick. The rogue was a matter of time, he knew you hated him for being a bandit. He did not do anything overly stupid this time and learned quite a lot from you. Jewels was a surprise and the potion switch out pissed me off. All in all, a pretty gruesome sight."

He sighed, "I would have been puking right along with them. My character has an iron constitution though."

Raven looked at them, "We use this campsite or camp out with 86 horses. We killed the 5 in camp."

Blossom looked at Raven, "What do we do with the bodies?"

He looked over, "I can build one here and someone else can build one right next to it. We can walk the horses out of there without looking at the bodies. Blossom nodded, "Alright."

He created the first one and marked off the area for the second shelter. Orchid cast up the second shelter. They took some of the horses into the new 'horse stable for the night and the rest in the second shelter with Vain. She was on everyone's shit list now. She came out and put a third for just herself as they had left her little room.

He walked up to Blossom, "Ring of wizardry tier-3 from the ogre magi. I have a lot of second-tier spells I can channel through my sword, and I have third-tier spells I can channel through my bow. You know I use the bow the most. I am deadly with either. The question is do you find you cast more second-tier spells or third-tier spells? This ring is between us."

She looked at him, "You killed him solo, you keep the ring."

He nodded, "My bow appreciates it. If it had gone the other way my sword would have appreciated it."

She chuckled. He smiled as he put the ring on and took off a minor resistant ring. He headed inside to eat. The ladies were busy playing grab-ass with one another.

He looked over and Mary walked over, sat at the bunk across from him, "Do you think we got a shot at level 20 this time?"

He nodded, "I will go full bore with everything I have if I have to get us there. I can fire 3 shots with the bow now on a full attack action. Add with what this bow does and we will be good."

He thought, "We make Level ten?"

She sighed, "You will have to get to the inn tomorrow."

He looked at Mary, "We should get to the inn tomorrow according to Myssara. She laughed her ass off when I made the fortress figurine invisible and tossed it out in the middle of them."

Mary chucked, "The mess it made is another matter."

He smiled, "Well it has 4 hit points and a lot of damage reduction. I am not a fan of using it. This close to the city I am a little antsy about fooling around. I would rather have an inn and no midnight encounters."

She smiled and nodded, "Can I curl up next to you tonight?"

He smiled, "Of course. They will be busy for a couple of hours. We get the mansion spell and you can bet your ass our nights will be peaceful."

She laughed. He laid down still armored. She curled up to him naked.

He waved Bella over who had stored her armor. "As this is likely our last night together would you like to curl up on the other side."

She smiled and nodded.

He heard Myssara, "What are your plans for this upcoming level?"

He thought, "Crafting. We keep the stable?"

He heard her moan and Mother laughed.

He heard her sigh, "Yes you found it so you will have it as well as 86 horses and ponies. What do you have planned for the next level?

He thought, "Crafting."

He heard Myssara groan, "You prefer driving me crazy?"

He laughed, "I prefer you on your back, bent over, or folded against a wall."

She laughed, "All sound like fun. You want to come up?"

He sighed, "Yes but not for that. I want to talk to you and Mother."

He was in the sanctum and he looked at them, "Clothes for now. Play...maybe later."

They were dressed. He looked at Mother, "We worked on the signature weapon. We know I will always be an arcane archer of some form. Does it not stand to reason given the two lives that I have a prediction for blacked-out mithril chain even starting with a set in both lives. Have you thought about making that a signature item?"

Mother looked at him, "We will design a set for your next life. Your thoughts?"

He smiled, "Of course I have thoughts. Start it off as with the storing bracers.

The bracers are different in that for me alone it will only store my armor and for every plus, it will show and act as bracers of defense that you would start a mage with. So at level fifteen, it would like bracers +5 when my armor is stored. Never going beyond that. 15 to 20 I will likely be in the armor. To anyone, it would look like I am a mage in clothing until I put my armor on. Follow the same increase you would for the bow.

At level four add the minor displacements. For levels 7, 10, 13, and 16 I would leave it to you to decide. While we are on the subject though I think we should add a second camouflage option to the bow to make it look like a mage staff appropriate to the level. I go for the string it reveals itself. Myssara looked at him, "You would go into the first inn with them in bracer form to find a party?"

He nodded, "I want to vary what people might look for. One life, like my next one the bow could be stored in my holy symbol. Recalled as an instantaneous action." Mother looked at him, "On the armor, I would add dexterity plus two, then four, and finally six at level thirteen. Level sixteen we would add the ability to go ethereal three times a day for a single round.

Storing his bow in his holy symbol would be very appropriate; he would walk in with whatever weapon he is carrying. We should do that now."

Raven looked at her, "I have a necklace already for poison."

She smiled, "This life and any others that holy symbol will merge onto a necklace you are wearing while you are wearing it; the holy symbol is visible. Thou most will never see it unless in your bed or playing a religious character.

If you switch necklaces it shall switch to that item. The bracers are a slot you are giving up." He nodded, "I expected as much. I would say for the next one we make level 7 the mirror image spell caster level 7 for 3x a day and then do your dex modifiers if you want. I cannot wear gloves and bracers at the same time. We already put gravity bow in the bow at level 7 and bracers are more defensive anyway."

Mother nodded, "I like that idea and we can skip the ethereal that way." He walked around for a second, "I would expect the armor ability to function in either form though. So If I want to stay looking like an arcane throughout it makes it that much harder for people to nail down tell-tale signs that I am the champion. When I made that request. It restricts out a lot of items."

Mother looked at Myssara, "Set him up with it now. I like the concept."

Myssara nodded. He sighed, "Next thing I want to talk about is a champion's chest. I would spend so much time crafting the same items from one session to another. A champion upon completing a life should be able to take one item he had crafted and put it in the chest. The item would be purchasable in any follow-on life.

At the cost of the item without having to spend extra to have it crafted." Mother looked at him, "It is not out of balance, it is only for crafted items?"

He nodded, "Correct...No Holy Avengers on stables of unaffordable description."

Mother chuckled at that last comment. She nodded, "I like it, and so will the other champions. Do you know what you would add?"

He shook his head, "A high-end resistance cloak with camouflaged caster level 9. Before you ask it is to offset the penalties associated with snipping. That is one I will make on this next visit. I have close to a 135,000 in gold not counting what we will be selling. Extra magical gear and that ore are bloody expensive.

Then there is the bounty and all of the items for the alchemical shop. Now with a smaller group and dividing the assets of the dead party members."

He heard Myssara groan. "I see the problem; I threw the heaver combats at your group because you are in it and the treasure is over the top. Especially with your trophy hunting ways and losing the other party members."

He sighed, "We lost 2 and 1 of those we should not have had to lose If I just let the rogue die in the tree. We will lose a third. Is Vain leaving or is she stuck until level 20?"

She looked at him, "She will be gone after you arrive."

He sighed, "Remember where the children go for her, and the last name she does not need to know. Well, that takes us to 6 for all of the alchemical stuff. I never asked you to have the combats doubled up upon the rode simply because I am part of the party.

But it is a problem for you to deal with as you can see I have not had an issue rising to the challenge without going full bore. Pretty soon nobody will want to run with your champion because it is 'too difficult with him in our party.'"

Mother nodded, "We have had this discussion amongst ourselves. Do you have any suggestions."

He nodded, "For one count my character as 2, not 6 players. Gestalt is 2 class lines but I still only have so many actions to do in a given round.

You want to penalize the party for my knowledge there is no solution for that. When you calculate out XP you add one additional player and throw it away. So a party of 8 you divide by 9 instead."

Mother looked at the last set of quests, "Myssara would have still had the same problem, but it would have gotten another encounter or 2 at least. His suggestion of having 3 different quests.

Give him real options instead of 2 where he is saddled with another broken Paladin. I even found him obnoxious. That idea has merit as well. It will take time to make those kinds of changes. The scaling you discussed would also work out well to deal with party loss across parties.

That alone would have saved this quest leg. Factor in his XP adjustment he talked about. You would have had the ability to run the entire chain. Just adding one additional member when adjusting the difficulty."

Myssara nodded, "We already determined to try that on your next life as a..." She sighed, "I know you hate this. Proof of concept."

Raven nodded, "Then the question comes in how much of it already exists. The camouflage caster level 9 is the big piece at 36,000.

If you have that in a cloak and we added the maximum resistance to it that is 25,000 base which is just over four days."

She asked, "Why the sudden issues with your stealth?"

He chuckled, "Not sudden. If I am going to be snipping, I need to counter the penalty. I will sell off the one sword here; the intelligent one. I have no need for a depressed sword who hates that I will wield it. I will also sell the starting blade so it is out of the game."

Mother laughed and Myssara answered, "You have enough gear to outfit someone if you need to. The paladin is geared. The other one you might pick up is not as well geared."

He looked at her, "You think we will pick them up then? Meaning you have someone in mind already, yet again?"

She wanted to answer but hesitated, "No, but you will lose Vain. She wants to switch worlds to get away from me. She is so put off by women in her bed."

He chuckled, "Not until she gives birth; She has had 6 lives so I am assuming one of them was here to level 20. If not she has to hit level 20 first, right? She just lost her halfling lover and she is a cold-hearted bitch to boot. Jewels doing alright?"

She sighed, "You are right she will have to give birth here first. There are exceptions on occasion to the level 20 rule. I can swap her into another world. Yes, disappointed but another 3 groups are forming and reforming at that inn. Bella coming back for her and your support in making that happen has helped to stabilize her."

He thought, "The shelter with the horses will be in place when we get to our new location?"

She nodded, "Along with all 86 horses and ponies."

He nodded, "I want to get the meeting with the 6 recruits done."

He heard Mother sigh. He continued, "I would like Mary, Blossom, Jason, and Violet."

Mother looked at him, "Why do we need Jason and Violet?"

He looked at her, "Because I have to tell my story. That includes my first 3 adult children and how they came about. Ravanna will be watching and come in when needed. Her involvement with one of these 6 makes it required for this group.

From the talk with this group, we will know how better to tailor the conversation. Because one of them was impacted by my daughter's actions I need this to be addressed."

Mother sat down in the grass.

She looked at Raven, "We cannot simply do that for the one?"

He shook his head. "These are the first 6. They need to know that this universe has been around for centuries but some of the goddesses have not. Mistakes are made. The fact that she did not bring him here, was incapable of bringing him here is extremely important."

Mother finally relented. She nodded as Violet appeared in the middle of them. Violet looked around, "You made it to your inn?"

He smiled, "Not yet but we finished the last major battle we will be there in the morning. We are level ten effectively. What about you??

She sighed, "Level thirteen; you went up fast and made up a lot of ground."

He nodded, "Yes we did." Blossom, Jason. and Mary arrived. "Something else came up. I wanted you, your brother and sister to be present. Jason this is your half-sister Violet."

Jason shook her hand and Violet smiled. "Is she in our world?"

He shook his head, "No. Maybe, eventually. That is being debated. This deals with 6 people recruited from Earth since the rules were changed in recruitment. Everyone is fully dressed for this thankfully.

I would like a large circular U-shaped table that can seat 20 people in size. That leaves an opening in the middle for me to walk and talk to people. I want my children and ladies on one side, the Goddesses at the head of the table and the 6 on the other side of the table. Bring them in standing just have chairs here for them."

Mother nodded and the 6 of them were standing there while Raven spoke, "First I would say you are not dreaming this but you are in a dream state. This is very real. My name is Raven. Would the 6 of you please have a seat as I have a lot to discuss."

One of the guys smiles, "You look like your statue."

Raven nodded, "I was not given any insight into the design. All 6 of you were supposed to be brought in using new recruitment rules. I would prefer they did not recruit at all. The best I could get them to do was be more open and honest with their recruitment process.

The 2 gentlemen sitting on the end I met the other night. They were brought here in the wrong way. Mr. observant. You walked into your game store or whatever and heard about the lady in the next room. Can you tell us what happened after she talked with you about gaming?"

He looked at Raven, "She told me there was a universe where gaming is all they do. If I loved gaming that much and wanted to live my life that way then she could take me there. The catch was I would simply disappear from Earth. I could not say goodbye to anyone or tell them where I was going.