10 Chapter Ten – A little Cunning (1/2)

”Huh!”

I wasn't in a web, I was back in the starting circle. Maybe the Curse didn't want me killing so many spiders. But things would change today.

I'd killed over forty of the nasty buggers, before the sheer amount of poison dragged me down.

However, all that poison was building my resistance to it very effectively. They had a hard time hitting me with a 23 AC, and half of those attacks bounced off my DR, which meant no poison. I had an 80% chance of saving against the poison, until cumulative successes lowered my save by two from the sheer volume of venom, and I swear I had a pint of the shit coursing through my blood before I went down, buried in ripped and torn spider bodies.

Today I was taking Scout. Scouts, Rogues, or Thieves, whatever you wanted to call them, were the intelligent combatants, talented at learning stuff and bending their skills to their needs, mishmashes of Experts and Vizards with cunning combat ability thrown in.

Naturally I wasn't taking the magical Scout, who tricked the universe into giving him magical abilities.

Hit dice, weapon profs, saves, blah blah.

Weapon Finesse. That freed up an Inspiration slot. I immediately used my free Versatile use to swap in Cleave.

Now, whenever I killed one of them, I could attack another one within reach. Since I couldn't do it with damage, I had to do it with raw numbers of attacks.

Skills and Cunning. Four class skills of Stealth, Perception, Bluff, and Disable Device. Then pick another four, + number equal to intelligence, as Class Skills, plus another one for every point of Cunning. Skill points equal to 8+Cunning.

I picked Weaponsmith, Acrobatics, Balance, Open Locks, and Ride for the optionals.

I invested Skill points as Disable Device 3, Acrobatics 1, Balance 1, Open Locks 1, and Ride 3.

Cunning gave its Bonus to Class Skills at full Ranks, and half that to Class Skills not at full Ranks. I'd be taking other Skills as Class Skills as I ranked up. Specifically, any Feat that made a Skill a Class Skill made it one for all Classes taken, so, for instance, all Knowledge Skills from Educated got the bonus.

Cunning also gave its bonus as Precision damage normally, or as a d6 if it qualified for Sneak Attack damage.

Cunning Mastery/1 gave me my Sneak Attack damage if I moved at least 30 feet before attacking. If I could use skirmish attacks, my damage would be excellent. With a charge attack, I should be able to one-shot any spider I hit, every time.

Balance and Tumbling Ranks meant I was nimbler and more flexible than before, and simply because I could, I drew up a basic tumbling routine of flips and rolls and somersaults and the like. I couldn't quite do a backflip in place, but walking around on my hands wasn't that hard. I didn't know what my strength was at, but it was excellent for my body weight, so I didn't much care. I was long-boned and skinny, which was fine at this point… Annis-born had thick tendons and sinews, not massive muscles, nor the perfect bodies and strength enhancements of Amazons.

Hagchild will be Hagchild.

I also got a Mastery Advance. I picked the Thorns Mastery. This was a Mastery built around AoO triggers. The one I picked was Close-Quarters Fighting, triggering on a grab or grappling attempt, which the spiders were always trying, and any damage went up against the contested roll. Since I was already +12 against Grabs, this was both a nice bonus and would be a source of many extra attacks, since they were always trying to grab me.

Thorn Stance meant that if they moved anywhere in the area I threatened, I got an AoO. That included trying to rise up and grab me. So that action would trigger two AoO's, which just might kill the bastards.

Flexing my hands, buoyed by the knowledge I was also working on Construct Foe Hunter and Felines Foe Hunter, day by day, I headed into the mist.

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When it cleared, I found myself down on the floor of the baby's room, right in the middle of the sunlight.

Okay, that made me a target of, like, everything. The two fliers would be able to get in long swoops and diving attacks, I would be at the level of the hellcat when it walked in, and all the spiders above could fixate on me.

Well, fuck this. It was time for me to get rid of the spiders, not sit here and be a punching bag. I could only kill the hellcat from surprise, so I didn't want to be here.

Without any hesitation, I booked for the corner of the wall, even as the horse from the mobile dropped down to start the show.

The wood was polished, but it was still wood, and my hands were climbing claws, my toes were spikes, and I didn't need no belt. With ideal climbing equipment, my progress was pretty good despite my low Ranks, and I rapidly gained altitude as I climbed towards the spiders above.

The spiders naturally saw me coming, and started moving to greet me. Some even started crawling down the wall in my direction.

That was fine, because they left lines of silk behind them, which made great things to swing on after I drove my fist into the first of them, tearing through its head. The silk gave me an anchor, and I was perfectly happy to play bouncing Sama on the walls, kicking off here and there and coming back down with spear-toes and axe-heels to impale the waiting spiders there, running back and forth to get momentum as I hung on with one hand to several silk lines and generally had a good time.