Parties and Perils 3 (2/2)

Your Clubs and Maces Skill is Level 2!

Your Clubs and Maces Skill is Level 3!

Your Clubs and Maces Skill is Level 4!

Critical Hit!

LUCK +1

Somewhere around Clubs and Maces Level 6, the thing finally succumbed to its injuries.

You are now a level 5 Toy Golem!

All Attributes +2!

You unlocked the Innocent Embrace Skill!

Your Innocent Embrace Skill is Level 1!

You are now a level 2 Bear!

CON +3

STR+3

WIS +3

Armor +2

Endurance +2

Mental Fortitude +2

He felt good for all of three seconds. Then, to his horror, a new set of those damned squiggles showed up in his vision and did not leave!

Congratulations! By committing regicide you have unlocked the Ruler job!

Would you like to become a Ruler at this time? Y/N?

Threadbare was about four fucks beyond his limit, and he'd started with no fucks at all. This was too goddamned much... but fortunately, he knew how to make those squiggles go away, now didn't he?

He concentrated on the feeling he'd had at Celia's tea party, concentrated on the feeling that was “Yes!”

DING!

You are now a Level 1 Ruler!

CHA +5

WIS +5

LUCK +5

You have Unlocked the Emboldening Speech Skill!

You gain Emboldening Speech at level 1

You have Unlocked the Identify Subject Skill!

Your gain Identify Subject at level 1

You have unlocked the Noblesse Oblige Skill!

You gain Noblesse Oblige at level 1

You have unlocked the Royal Request Skill!

You gain Royal Request at level 1

You have unlocked the Simple Decree Skill!

You gain Simple Decree at level 1

None of this meant anything to the bear. But he did feel different. He couldn't say how, so he shrugged with his remaining arm, and turned with a weariness that his body language hadn't had the complexity to show before.

Then a gleam caught his eye.

The golden scepter lay next to the fallen rat king. Threadbare marched over and scooped it up, examining it curiously... and the stylized rat's head on the end of it turned into a teddy bear's face.

His thoughts swam again, and jumbled into order. Well beyond animal intelligence at this point, he was now somewhere around the level of a sharp toddler or a very simple adult.

Twenty-five pounds of cat leaped down onto the dirt floor next to him, and Threadbare turned to study Pulsivar.

Pulsivar, for his part, leaned in and sniffed the bear.

He didn't smell rage, or fear, or hostility. He smelled rat blood and shit, sure, that was everywhere...

...but under it all, he smelled soap. The soap that Celia used to launder every piece of clothing and sheet in the place. It was a scent that to Pulsivar meant home, and family. He'd known it all his life, and associated it with shelter, food, and love.

Pulsivar looked at the bear, and wrinkled his nose. Why hadn't anyone told him the little golem was part of his family? His hoomins would get a stern lesson later. Perhaps a hairball in a shoe, or maybe he'd spray the big one's pillow. This whole thing could have been avoided.

He was still miffed at the little guy, but he had earned Pulsivar's respect during the fight. Besides, what he was dealing with here was obviously some sort of malformed kitten, thoroughly clueless and dumb. But cute.

Threadbare watched words go by.

Your Adorable Skill is now level 5!

“Marp,” Pulsivar told Threadbare, less an apology and more of an explanation. Best to let bygones be bygones.

Just to show that there were no hard feelings, he leaned in and started grooming threadbare. Normally this would heal anyone he groomed, but sadly, the little golem was incompatible with standard healing effects.

But the little bear had no idea what the cat was doing. It had seen Pulsivar doing that before, to himself, so to his newly-socially-boosted instincts, it seemed to him that the Cat was telling him that he was no longer an enemy. That he accepted Threadbare.

So, the bear leaned forward and gave him a hug as a “thank you”. And as he did so, a golden glow enveloped his arms and sunk into the cat.

Spent 10 Sanity! You have healed Pulsivar 10 points!

Your Innocent Embrace skill is now level 2!

Wow, he felt light-headed.

Pulsivar stopped, surprised. Then he gave Threadbare a few more licks, and pulled away. None of that touchy-feely stuff, thank you very much.

The bear stared at him for a bit, then started looking around for a way out. Celia was around here somewhere, she'd know what to do. Maybe she could clean up this mess.

He made his way back to the stairs, tucked his new scepter into one of the holes in his body, and did his best to climb the stairs one-armed.

Your Climb Skill is now Level 2!

Your Climb Skill is now Level 3!

AGL +1

After some time and repeated falls, he managed to make his way up to the door. He pushed on it, but it didn't open. He pushed harder, and stopped once more stuffing threatened to bulge out of him. He didn't have that much left, so this clearly wouldn't work.

He clambered down the stairs once more, and looked around the basement. No way out, except...

PER +1

One window, high on the wall. About five feet up.

Threadbare looked to the dowel rod, picked it up, and smashed the window.

INT +1

Immediately, just like before, Pulsivar jumped up on the nearest shelf and fled through the newly-made exit. Much slower, and with a great deal more effort, Threadbare followed, fell a few times, kept trying until he got up there...

Your Climb Skill is now Level 4!

...And managed to squirm through the window.

AGL +1

He lay there for a bit, in the grass and the flower beds, watching the trees overhead. The wind swayed the branches in the sunlight, and finally, just maybe, this particular ordeal was over.

“I think it came from over here!” Celia's voice came from around the corner of the house. Tired, drained, and hurt, Threadbare clambered to his feet and ran as fast as he could toward her voice.

“Oh my gods! What happened to you?” Celia grabbed him up, then wrinkled her nose. “Ew ew ew you smell horrible! What is this- is this blood?” She went pale. Then she fled, shrieking, toward the front door. “Daddy! Daddy Daddy Daddy Threadbare's dying!”

She hugged him to her so tight that she pushed the scepter well down into his body, without even noticing. The bear just clung to her and hugged her as best he could, with one arm gone. This time no glowy stuff happened, and he didn't know why. Someone could have explained to him that Innocent Embrace only triggered if the target was injured or the caster had enough sanity to use it, but again, he probably wouldn't have understood.

Not yet, anyway. He'd been through a lot, and he was starting to learn, learn and grow.

“Celia, what's... wrong?” The old man burst into the front room as his blood-smeared daughter cried and thrust her toy at him.

“Oh dear heavens! Ah, let me... ugh, this is horrible. Give him here, give him here.”

“Can, *sniff*, can I mend him without his arm? Will it stay that way?”

“No, he's a golem. The severed parts will dissolve from where they're at and reattach as he's mended, so it shouldn't be a problem. No, don't mend him yet, if there's anything inside him the mending will seal it in. We'll have to get the blood and filth off him first.” The old man held Threadbare at arm's length, and cleared his throat. “Clean and Press!”

Instantly the grime fled Threadbare's body. The old man nodded. “Now you can mend him.”

Celia shouted her ”Mend” spell until he was whole again. Relieved, she hugged her best friend close. “Oh thank you thank you! And I even skilled up! Yay me...”

“Then it was worthwhile, whatever happened.” The old man frowned. “Er, what did happen? That wasn't your blood, so whose was—”

“Wait a minute.” The little girl's face turned into a mask of dawning comprehension. “You cleaned him in like an instant. How did you do that?”

The old man coughed, and reddened. “Ah, we'll discuss that later. For now, let's figure out how he got so bloody in the first-”

“You said you were low on sanity, and couldn't do any more magic today! And that was a spell!”

“Well I was, I mean, it's only a level 1 spell.”

“I've been doing the laundry for years, and you could have done it just like that with a level 1 spell? What the hell, Daddy?”

“Celia!”

“It's like hours a week out of my life and you could have done that at any time? Seriously?”

“It's a very important chore! You can't depend on magic, you have to learn how to do things without-”

“Well why not teach me, then! I'm old enough to be a level 5 animator, why don't you teach me that level 1 trick!”

“It's not an animator trick, it's a tailor skill-”

“Then teach me to be a tailor!”

“You're not ready to make such life-altering decisions yet-”

“Not ready? Not ready! That's all I ever hear from you is that I'm not ready!”

“No! There's an upper limit, you can only ever have so many jobs! I can't waste your potential with the trivial stuff-”

“But it wasn't too trivial for you! And you're okay with wasting my potential on doing laundry by hand! What the hell, Daddy!”

The old man stood bolt upright, glaring down at Celia. “I will not be talked to like this in my own house! Go to your room, young lady!”

“Fine!” Celia stormed upstairs, threw herself onto her bed, hugged Threadbare to her, and cried her eyes out.

Inside Threadbare, the scepter itched a bit. He settled into Celia's embrace, and moved by new instincts, stroked. He'd been frightened and upset when Celia and his creator started shouting, but it hadn't come to a fight. Which was good, because he didn't have any shelves around to drop on the old man and he was pretty sure the guy would be harder to take down than the rat king had been.

Outside, the light faded as dusk came on, and night covered the land. The little girl fell into a troubled sleep, and Threadbare settled into the crook of her arms. For now, at least, all was well with the world.

*****

In the dark of the night, in a sprawling hillside village set among several farmers' fields, a batwinged form settled onto the window of the largest house. It slunk in, peering with beady eyes, as it folded its wings against its scaly back.

Sitting up in bed, a blanket clutched to her voluptuous form, a raven-haired woman smiled sweetly at the imp. But the smile didn't reach her eyes, which might as well have been chips of ice.

“Caminthraxus? You have a report to make? About the girl?”

“No, milady. About Caradon.”

“Ah... So the old man has figured it out, then?”

“Er, no. The old man has made no real progress with his research.”

“Then why do you waste my time?” Her tone didn't change, but the imp knew how close he was to torment, right now, unless he found a way to make her happy.

The tiny demon shuddered, and tried to find his courage. “I, I learned that he keeps a set of scrolls within his house. An emergency stash. Many of them are spells that let the user command golems.”

Icy eyes gleamed. And a set of perfect white teeth smiled. “Ah. Yes, that will make things easier. I'll send word on to the master, and we'll see how he wants to use that information. Thank you Caminthraxus, you've done well.”

“Just my duty,” the lesser demon hissed, though his gaze was drawn to the figure next to the woman, just visible through the sheets. “Are you going to finish that one?”

The woman turned, and considered the man next to her. Drawn skin over shriveled bones, his paper-like eyelids moved up and down, as horrified eyes moved from her to the imp. Muscles thoroughly drained from the night's earlier activities twitched, and the woman easily held him down with one red-nailed hand.

“Mmmm... no, I think I'm done. You can have what's left.”

The imp grinned, showing teeth that Pulsivar would have envied, and moved in for the feast.

Threadbare's Character Sheet

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Threadbare Age: 2 Hours

Jobs:

Greater Toy Golem Level 5

Bear Level 2

Ruler Level 1

Attributes:

Strength: 31 Constitution: 41 Hit Points: 112 Armor: 16

Intelligence: 20 Wisdom: 34(39) Sanity: 54(59) Mental Fortitude: 6

Dexterity: 17 Agility: 19 Stamina: 46 Endurance: 26

Charisma: 17(22) Willpower: 21 Moxie: 38(43) Cool: 20 (30)

Perception: 17 Luck: 21 Fortune: 38 Fate: 5

Generic Skills

Brawling - Level 8

Climb - Level 4

Clubs and Maces - Level 6

Ride - Level 1

Greater Toy Golem Skills

Adorable – Level 5

Gift of Sapience – Level NA

Golem Body – Level 4

Innocent Embrace - Level 2

Magic Resistance –Level 2

Bear Skills

Animalistic Interface – NA

Claw Swipes – 5

Forage – 1

Scents and Sensibility – 2

Toughness – 5

Ruler Skills

Emboldening Speech - Level 1

Identify Subject - Level 1

Noblesse Oblige - Level 1

Royal Request - Level 1

Simple Decree - Level 1

Equipment

Rod of Baronly Might - (Level 5 Club, CHA +5, WIS +5, +10 Cool )