Catastrophe 2 (2/2)

You are now a Level 8 Toy Golem!

All Attributes +2!

You are now a Level 6 Bear!

CON +5

STR +5

WIS +5

Armor +3

Endurance +3

Mental Fortitude +3

You are now a Level 2 Model!

AGL +3

CHA +3

PER +3

-Suddenly, Threadbare felt a hell of a lot better. Though he didn’t know it, leveling up refilled his pools… all save for his poor, battered hit points. He sat down and patched his wounds, and as he did the green clouds cleared away. He saw a green, dripping dagger with a curved blade lying on the stone table, right next to another ball of cat intestines. Grabbing them both, he looked around. The haze had dissipated a bit, and there seemed to be an exit ramp, a large one, going up from here. There was another door out, but the handle was way too high up for him to reach, so he decided to give the ramp a try instead.

While on it, he got another message from Celia. “Testing? Oh thank heavens, you’re alive. I miss you. I miss you so much…”

“We stopped to rest. It’s rough, it’s so rough, we almost lost Jarrik, but we’re coming for you, okay? We won’t…”

“This is the last sanity I can spare, then I need to drink up for the next part. You survive, okay? You come back to…”

Threadbare squared his shoulders and jogged up the ramp, throwing caution to the winds. Up and up and up, waving his new dagger, not caring what lay between him and danger…

…until the ramp leveled out, and he burst into a dusty room.

In the half-reduced light of his glow gleam effect, he could see that it was filled with old furniture, covered in sheets. And every sheet, every alcove, every dusty wardrobe and cloaked chair had bonikitties sitting on it.

And all of them were watching him. Watching that dragon’s head and wings twitch and bop as he scrambled to a halt.

Watching and rising, slinking forward, butts wiggling as they readied to pounce-

“That’s enough now! Let me see who’s come, hmmmm?” An old woman’s voice cracked the silence, as dusty and faded as the room itself.

Threadbare lowered the dagger. The undead cats settled. For now.

“Come closer, my dears! Let me have a look at you… hoo hoo hoo!”

Threadbare paced into the room, and his light showed him the one section of it that wasn’t entirely covered in cats.

There was a table, set with fine, if dusty china, and a half-translucent old human woman sitting at the head of it. Her frizzy hair stuck out from under a glowing, crooked top hat, and she wore a patchwork dress covered with embroidery showing cats playing, cats sleeping, cats doing all sorts of cat things.

She was knitting bones. Threadbare watched as she finished knitting spectral strands to old cat’s bones, then once she was done, leaned down to the skull and whispered “Rise…”

The new bonikitty stood up, shook itself, and the old ghostly lady clapped her hands with glee. “Oh my dear! You’re good as new! Go play, there’s a good boy.” She pointed toward a hole in the wall, and the skeletal feline leaped down, and paced through, disappearing from sight.

“Now then, I suppose we should get to our… little… fight…” She squinted down at Threadbare, and her jaw dropped open.

Threadbare waved.

Your Adorable skill is now level 15!

“Hoo hoo hoo! Hooo hoooo hooo…” She pounded the table noiselessly with one spectral hand. “Oh my goodness, you’re just the cutest little thing! Well, you’d be cuter if you were a cat. But I suppose nobody’s perfect. Except cats.”

Beyond her, Threadbare could see a set of stairs. He pointed at them.

CHA +1

“Mmm, you want to go through?”

Threadbare nodded, and she giggled as his dragon hat flopped back and forth.

“Well, now we’re in a pickle, then. Normally I’m supposed to fight the people who come here. They all deserve it, since they’ve hurt my poor dearies so! But look at you, you wouldn’t hurt a fly, I bet.”

Threadbare nodded. He’d never had to fight any flies, after all. And they seemed really hard to hit, too.

“But… Well, the Master never said anything about fighting toys. And if I know you, you’re someone’s toy. Got a little girl to go back to, hm?”

Threadbare nodded harder, and mimed hugging the air.

“Well, I tell you what. You do something nice for me, and something nice for my dears, and we’ll let you through.” She pointed at the thirty-some Bonikitties scattered around the room.

Threadbare nodded, then pointed at the kittens, and shrugged.

“Well, they like meat, do you have any of that?”

He shook his head. If he’d brought the jerky from Celia’s pack, maybe, but he hadn’t seen a need for it.

“Perhaps a toy?”

He considered, then pulled out a ball of intestines.

Fortunately for him, the old lady didn’t know much anatomy. “Oh! Yes, that’ll do! Just throw it down the ramp, that’ll keep them from being naughty.”

He hurled it, and with a meowing, clattering cacophony, the bonikitties rushed after it, following it ALL the way down.

“Well done! Come up here.” She patted an adjacent chair. “I won’t be so easily appeased, though.”

Threadbare stood in it, staring up at her, eyes just slightly higher than the table. He pointed at the old lady and shrugged.

She leaned in and grinned. “To get past ME without a fight, you’ll have to play my favorite game. Tea party!”

And if he could have, Threadbare would have smiled.

Twenty minutes later, and three Charisma points higher, he bowed deeply to the very happy old ghost, and started to walk up the stairs. She’d given him her second-favorite cat blanket as thanks, tying it around his neck as a cape. It was embroidered with paws all up and down its length, and very, very dusty. But overall he was happy, and it almost seemed to lighten his step as he walked.

But not a second later, words flashed up right before his eyes.

Through repeated peaceful contact with the undead, you have unlocked the Necromancer job!

Do you want to be a Necromancer at this time? y/n?

Wow, another word he didn’t know. But job levels made him stronger, so why not?

You are now a level 1 Necromancer!

+3 INT

+3 WILL

+3 WIS

You have learned the skill Assess Corpse!

Your Assess Corpse skill is now level 1!

You have learned the skill Command the Dead!

Your Command the Dead skill is now level 1!

You have learned the skill Soulstone!

Your Soulstone skill is now level 1!

You have learned the skill Speak With Dead!

Your Speak With Dead skill is now level 1!

You have learned the skill Zombies!

Your Zombies skill is now level 1!

The bear shook his head, as ideas burst together, filling and expanding it. Then he ran. As thankfully peaceful as that last room had been, it had eaten up precious time. He needed to find his little girl. He needed to get her out of this place! It was dangerous, he now understood that. Any of those things down below could have seriously hurt her, or worse. What was the upper part of this mountain like, if the secret way was so rough?

The stairs topped out in a long corridor, broken by stony pillars…. Stalagmites, he knew, though he couldn’t say how. They thinned to sharp, wicked looking points up top, and they were packed in tightly. He picked his way through them, and the ceiling widened up and up until it disappeared.

“Hey! Something’s coming!” He heard Jarrik call, and sped up, overjoyed to hear the half-orc’s voice.

“I see it… Threadbare? Is that you?” Celia called. Threadbare stopped and jumped up and down, in joy. They were all right! They were alive!”

“So that’s how you get down into that chasm. I thought there was a way.” Jarrik said. “Hang on, I’m lowering a rope.”

Threadbare picked his way through the stalagmite field, to the side of the wall which wasn’t a wall at all, but a sheer cliff up to the ledge of a deep chasm, a chasm which he was at the bottom of. He grabbed the rope, gave it a few tugs, and got hauled up.

And then he was in Celia’s arms, and everything was okay.

Golden light flared, and she said “Oh!”

You healed Celia 70 points!

Your Innocent Embrace skill is now level 7!

Threadbare rubbed his head, as 35 more sanity drained out of him. But what looked to be a bunch of scrapes and bruises and cuts along her arms were now gone, so that was fine.

“Right, that’s done then,” Beryl said. “Let’s… ah… “

“What?” Celia said, turning to look at the dwarven girl.

“What the hell is he wearing?”

Celia put him down, and Threadbare waved to the group, dragon hat flopping on its loose stitches, resplendent in his panty tunic and kitty cape.

Your Work It Baby skill is now level 2!

And then there was nothing but laughter, as the exhausted children sat there giggling, deep in the heart of the dungeon.

THREADBARE'S CHARACTER SHEET

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: Threadbare

Age: 9 days

Jobs:

Greater Toy Golem Level 8

Bear Level 6

Ruler Level 2

Scout Level 2

Tailor Level 2

Model Level 2

Necromancer Level 1

Attributes:

Strength: 62 Constitution: 68 Hit Points: 176 Armor: 28

Intelligence: 44 Wisdom: 72(77) Sanity: 116(121) Mental Fortitude: 18

Dexterity: 29(39) Agility: 42(52) Stamina: 81(101) Endurance: 38

Charisma: 47(52) Willpower: 33 Moxie: 80(85) Cool: 20 (30)

Perception: 51 Luck: 43 Fortune: 94 Fate: 8

Generic Skills

Brawling - Level 12

Climb - Level 6

Clubs and Maces - Level 9

Dagger - Level 9(19)

Dodge - Level 2

Fishing - Level 1

Ride - Level 2

Stealth - Level 3

Swim - Level 2

Greater Toy Golem Skills

Adorable – Level 15

Gift of Sapience – Level NA

Golem Body – Level 14

Innocent Embrace - Level 7

Magic Resistance –Level 4

Bear Skills

Animalistic Interface – NA

Claw Swipes – 10

Forage – 7

Growl - 1

Hibernate - 1

Scents and Sensibility – 9

Stubborn - 6

Toughness – 8

Ruler Skills

Emboldening Speech - Level 1

Identify Subject - Level 1

Noblesse Oblige - Level 1

Royal Request - Level 1

Simple Decree - Level 1

Scout Skills

Camouflage - Level 1

Firestarter - Level 1

Keen Eye - Level 1

Sturdy Back - Level 5

Wind's Whisper - Level 1

Tailor Skills

Talioring - Level 9

Clean and Press - Level 1

Model Skills

Dietary Restriction - 1

Fascination - 1

Flex - 1

Self-Esteem - 1

Work it Baby - 2

Necromancer Skills

Assess Corpse - 1

Command the Dead - 1

Soulstone - 1

Speak With Dead -1

Zombies - 1

Equipment

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

Draco Chapeaux

Pantunic

Paws Button Cape - (Level 10 Cape, AGL +10, Activate bullet time once per day)

Breathstealer's Other Fang - (Level 10 Dagger, Dex +10, Dagger Skill +10, Chance of inflicting ”Cat Scratch Fever” upon hit

Quests