240 Chapter Two Hundred and Forty – Nice Dawg (1/2)

”Morning there,” I told the Exemplar Wolf, whose bloodshot golden eyes glared at me, but showed confusion at the burning marilith getting sucked into my Tat, and my friendly tone and facial Tats. ”I'm going to release you, but it's going to take a minute or ten for the rusting compound to eat through this steel, as it's been treated.” Yeah, it could resist acid, or rusting, but combined acidic rust? Alchemy ftw! ”While I do that, I'm going to carve a Mark on your forehead, please suppress your healing factor long enough for it to take hold. It will up your Strength, and tie you into the telepathic link we have among us. We're here to put down the Obelisk, kill the Hags, and I bet you'd like to help some?”

His eyes moved from crimson back towards yellow, clearly intrigued, and a more than good enough judge of character to know I meant what I said. He could only growl, but I was speaking fluent Wolf right now, so I understood him perfectly.

”This will hurt like pinpricks, nothing like that spear.” The middle of his forehead was visible through the spiked muzzle of the bindings keeping him down, so I stuck my hand out over him and began to etch the Mark into him. He growled again as it bit in, and actually hurt him. He wasn't expecting a simple cutting implement to be able to do so.

Well, my hands were conducting the edges of Tremble, which had shifted in Bane of Legends just for this purpose, and Blooding to make sure his Fast Healing/10 wasn't an issue. His hide, even enhanced, wasn't an issue to the adamantine tip, and I scribed the Mark quickly and surely, given my thousands of practice sessions.

”Fill it with power.” He had to have shitloads of Karma lying around. As he did, I tossed some Warlord Karma at it, more coming in even now as the Brothers sang silently along and slaughtered away, and the Markdoor lit up in his mind.

The hard light of the full +4 bonus to Strength lit up on his forehead. True to my expectations, a Legendary-class beast could break the empowerment rules for such things.

His eyes widened at seeing The Map, and I waved at him from the other side of the Door. He mentally walked up to it, poked his head through.

The words and conversations of the Void Brothers, Briggs, and I in our own /chatroom flowed over him. He could look and measure all of us, saw the others notice him, acknowledge him, and then get back to what they were doing.

The Brothers were a deeper Green then this wolf was, and I could tell he recognized who and what they were.

Mayfair was placing the vials of acid-rust I'd wiped up, they'd be done in minutes.

”Second thing I'm going to do.” My hair reached into my Masspack, swapped in my Chakra-opening Tool. ”This is really going to hurt, but I'm going to poke some holes into your Soul, open up some very key Chakra points, and show you how to use them. You ready?”

Golden eyes in the emerald spirit before me narrowed, but he growled acceptance. He had a cursed Spear sticking out of his guts, what more this? He could smell the metal binding him start to hiss, to weaken ever so slightly, and knew I was doing what I said I was going to do.

”Okay, let me give you a quick rundown on Soul magic...”

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The Exemplar Template is hilariously dangerous. However, part of its power is based on the creature itself. It made the creature stronger at being what it was, but there was a limit.

A wolf is basically a 2-3 Hit Die creature, not that much more dangerous than a human. Indeed, we breed dogs bigger than wolves, unless you start up the magical size thing with Dire Animals. But this was a normal wolf, albeit the perfect member of the species.

That's probably why he'd been targeted, and how they'd been able to capture him. While dangerous against single foes, and absolutely lethal for his Hit Dice, he was, in the end, a 3 HD creature with monstrous Stat boosts. He really had absolutely no way to effectively battle large numbers of enemies, and while his Stats were high, they weren't insurmountable. A buffed Hag was likely stronger, for instance, so it only remained to overwhelm his gargantuan natural Luck and Insight bonuses... and since they were based on a 3 HD chassis, that wasn't impossible, either.

So, beat him down with enough brute force, and if he kills a few hundred servants, so what? Enough magic to immobilize him, wrap him up in adamantine chains even he can't break, and all he could do was sit there and be a source of blood.

I guessed that he'd been given to the Shellycoat because she'd be the weakest of the three Great Hags, and he was also a test subject. They'd go after a stronger Exemplar next.

But y'know, that was fine. Because I was giving this Wolf a crash course on Class Levels, alternate energy sources, possible advancement paths, and ways he would never, ever have to put up with this again. I brought in Elder Arg to chat with him, and even a Legendary-class Wolf was freaking impressed talking to an Epic Ape. Words were exchanged, trust established, and he agreed with my plans.

He realized he wasn't near as powerful as he had once thought, that teamwork and sufficiently powerful beings could overpower him... and he also realized he couldn't feel any luck or insight concerning me or the Void Brothers at all. While being an Exemplar gave him a precious +15 to all his Stats, his real bonuses were some truly monstrous Luck and Insight bonuses... none of which were useful against us at all.

Exemplars had triple normal speed, so he wouldn't have any troubles keeping up with us. His problem right now is that his awesomeness was limited by his Hit Dice, so he had to get his Racial and Class Levels up. Given the instant bonuses he could get, Class should come first.

So, it was Character Creation time for an Exemplar Wolf that was stepping past his limits.

Bing!

Once a day retrain Feat from Skill Focus/Perception to Improved Natural Attack. D6 bite goes to d8.

Bing!

Take Monk Level/1.

Swap out Improved Unarmed Strike for Profound Natural Attack, since he was an animal. D8 bite goes to 2d6.

Establish Ki pool, half monk level + wis. Fine, +8 ki.

Wis to AC. Oh, nice, that's a +8 to AC.

Bonus Feat. Instead of Dodge, take Elusive Soul. +13 Insight Bonus to his Soulcaster Level for Capacity Determination, effectively 15th. Can put Four Soul into it. Constitution modifier of 32, so 11 points Essence out the gate. Elusive Soul, +4 dodge bonus, bringing him up the whiff-whiff-whiff scale for a total of another +12 AC. Nobody would be able to touch him.

Flurry of Blows useless, only has the one set of jaws. Swap that out for Bonus Feat, Deflect Missiles, letting him avoid ranged attacks.