Chapter 9-256: Seeing You Off (1/2)
The food was good, and the company was excellent and varied, all with their own interesting stories that were fun to listen to. They had a lot of interest and energy towards the changes coming in the world, and a buzz of enthusiasm for what would happen if the Shroud came down, underscored by a trepidation that they would have to be ready for the event when it was time.
I was more than happy to tell them that I could eventually take out every single Shroudzone on the planet... but that wasn’t my job. My job was to get everyone else to do that, preparing themselves for what was going to come afterwards. If the planet wasn’t strong enough, who knew what would happen?
They grimly acknowledged that. After all, I couldn’t be everywhere. There was serious talking about heading to California to join the clearing of the Colmos Cloud there, as it didn’t have much of a Spirit Host, but everyone wanted to join the Heavenbound Horde in New York and Washington DC, so getting to California first would assure them of some quick kills once they got Vivus going on their Weapons... which most of them already had.
All in all, it was a good time, meeting people I’d only seen in Markspace. That the Blakhamars weren’t humans didn’t bother me, as I fit in among misfits and non-humans pretty easily nowadays.
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The Blakhamars all stuffed themselves on everything, raving about how good the food was and that having Sama back on Turkey Day was just the greatest. QL 30 cuisine wasn’t found outside the toppest of top restaurants, and it was being used on good wholesome home cooking, not some effete ninny meals.
When Briggs brought out a barrel of his personal brew and passed it around for everyone to try, even the most discerning of these ale-swilling fiends roared for more, and soon he was in deep discussions with some of them about marketing this for some really fine money.
Endure was getting passed around for them to examine and salivate over, his Hammer drinking in the attention. None of them were going to gainsay Sama’s Smithwork, of course, but when Briggs bent forwards and began talking in Smith-Cant seriously, he very quickly had two dozen people, including Hank Blakhamar, listening very carefully indeed.
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My Dusk had been earlier in the day, but I could still feel the breath of Aethra running across the world as the night came.
It was time to go. The world wasn’t going to save itself, that was my job... or at least, kickstarting it was.
The Mick indicated he’d be finding his own way home, probably in the company of a cream-skinned Blooded woman with rubies in her eyes at the thought of finally being able to learn a form of magic that would not turn her into an undead monster. Given how volatile Blooded could be in their passions, and The Mick’s natural charm (he was actually older than Hank Blakhamar was, and the two of them had a good long discussion together later in the night), I wished them both well, hoping he had finally found a woman he could spend some serious time and thought with.
Amaretta Blakhamar was also a student/older foster sister of Sama’s, and although she preferred the Sword to the not-a-warsaber-Katana, that would only make things spicier between her and The Mick.
The Blakhamars sent us off in a flurry of dimension-bending magic; I wafted us off across the folds of space, and we materialized on the waiting Energized Seal in a certain warehouse in Detroit.
Crates and boxes were expertly stacked one on top of another to a height of twenty feet in a cube, not an inch more. Underneath them a large woven sheet waited, the edges extending just an inch past the edges of the boxes.
“That’s a lot of ordnance,” Briggs noted approvingly, seeing the stacks of ammunition, grenades, clips, and even older missiles among the stacked boxes.
“The Taiwanese have older stuff, and can’t make enough without the raw materials. This should give the Daoists a nice surprise when those attack helicopters suddenly have missiles, ammunition, and fuel.” I pointed at a small case clearly labeled ITEMIZED AVIATION FUEL.
Briggs had to smile. This time he was coming with Sama. He had people in place in Baja, taking things over, and could monitor it from a distance. No reason not to apply his Hammer where it was needed.
I drew my Lived-Line the length of the world, Messaging ahead, -Master Gong, I am on the way.-
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My Renewal had been for Artificer/5 (8). The Class Benefit was the Feat Create Golem.
Seriously, when did I have time to work up a Golem? Would I even dare to do so, under the Shroud? What crap was it flinging at me?
It also filled the General and Purchased Feats, plus the Mastery, up with three of the Imbued Staff Feat/Masteries. Now those were actually useful. Create Golem... damn, I didn’t even dare make a homunculus! My Eidolon/Animal Companion was a half-undead elemental fright horse I had to steal from an Old God. Like I was going to make something that required dumpster-diving the Shroud for a random spirit!
My main problem with this was that Clavus was an enchanted Stave, but not a true Staff... i.e., a Weapon and an Implement, but not a storehouse of magic in its own right. Furthermore, he was in the middle of becoming Indestructible, and I wasn’t going to interrupt him in the middle of it.
It was fine. I could still work with what I had.
Enchant Staff was the key thing, making a fake Staff out of him. I could set up a single spell per Valence, and Cast them through Clavus once a day each. It was like adding a row of additional spells. Such things were not as necessary or nice as they might have been without my Caster Engine available, but as deeper emergency reserves, they were anything but inappropriate. I just had to determine what those reserves were going to be...
Invest Spell gave me the option of swapping out one of my permanent Spell Engrams, and putting it in Clavus, usable thrice a day. A non-Metaworthy spell that I could get frequent use out of, maybe it was worth it. For now, not worth it at all. I’d rather have the diversity of more Engrams than an additional two Castings of a niche spell per day.
Imbued Strength was much nicer. It allowed me to use my Intellect bonus when hitting things with Clavus, instead of my Strength bonus. Now, I was very strong by any measure, but I was much smarter than I was strong.
This was basically a telekinetic effect, constantly in use on my Staff. I didn’t mind it at all, as it was one of the core benefits of being a Stafflord.