26 Chapter Twenty-Six - Ghosts and Diamonds (1/2)
I slowly lifted up my left hand to feel my face.
Well, that rebuild went well, because I was pretty damn sure I didn't have an intact skull…
I huffed, raised my eyebrows, and slowly got myself to my feet. I stretched out, and began to go through some exercises as I thought about things.
That had been a truly brutal ending.
I made it through the spectres, leveraging what healing I had, using it during the short downtimes, going into that fight pretty much all set and ready to go.
It had worked out pretty good, all things considered, given how fast a group of spectres could take my Soak down. I'd been allocating damage to Health, so I could Vigor it and then do double duty with my healing, a two-for-one damage exchange, but I was managing it pretty well.
The Glutton Spectre had lasted three bone-chilling swipes, and I was looking forwards to getting Vajra Resist/2 today to make the last dozen of them even more ineffectual.
The follow-up had naturally been Ghosts, next up the scale of incorporeal murder-phantoms. Ghosts did a lot more melee damage then spectres did, and although there were fewer of them, they had 10 HD to the spectre's 8, making them much tougher.
However, they simply had to wave an arm through you, and supernatural aging and fleshwarping started taking you apart. I was pretty sure that four arms had gone through my skull, and it had fallen apart into powder.
There had been at least ten of them. I think I had killed two.
They didn't swing fast, but they didn't have to. They did 10d6 necroic damage with that touch attack!
Needless to say, my proud Soak and Health had only lasted seconds once more then one of them was on me.
Damn, and they weren't even the toughest of the incorps. Was the Curse going to be able to throw Banshees at me next? They started at 14 HD and 14d6 damage! Oh, no, Witchfires would be a better thematic choice. Ranged attacks from them, head up into the ceiling and zap me to death.
Right after they dealt with my Null and my fire resistance, that is. Please let the next tier be Witchfires…
Right now, I had to get past the ghosts. Being forced to three-hit them meant relying on crits to hit their nexus, which meant relying on luck. Until I could get my damage high enough to two-hit them, or somehow got my touch AC into the 30's, I was probably just going to die there.
Hmmph. They were CR10's, and I was a Four! A Deep Four, to be sure, but still a Four!
Just wait until my Banes kicked in, and I kept refining Tremble up and up!
I did all my stretches and exercises, feeling the thrumming of my Ki and Essence roiling through my Vajra.
Diamond Vajra required 20/20 of each. I was at 14/16, respectively. I needed to increase my Ki. With a Diamond Vajra, Sustained Effort would kick in, which was all sorts of valuable for a Forsaken.
Double Stat Gains from Levels was a big thing!
”Scout/3.” Cunning to +2. +1 to Danger Sense, assorted benefits, mostly vs traps or against being surprised.
10+2 Skill points, another class skill. I picked Trapsmith for the Class Skill. Trapsmith+4, its opposite Disable Device +4, Open Locks +2 to 4, Sleight of Hand and Escape Artist +1 to 4.
Two General Feats. ”Sun Mastery/1.” +1 Ki, opened Sun Advance Schema, Rising Sun swordplay. With all three Lesser Houses opened, that meant I had access to Night Rose Swordplay, and the Night Rose style, always useful. ”Cunning Soul.” +2 dmg when Sneak Attacking per Essence, +1 Essence. Invest 2 Essence…
”Advance to Way Mastery/2, Fire and Crystal.” One more level, and I'd be able to mix all three Ways of Fire, Ocean, and Crystal at the same time, as well as their Swordplays. Mixing in the Lesser Dragons would require the Lesser Way Mastery advances, which I didn't have right now.