The Bear Necessities (1/2)
And so, the little bear saw the truth of himself in its entirety for the first time in his existence.
After some trial and error, Threadbare figured out that each series of words in its own little box was an element. So he went through the jobs first, taking a good hard look at what these mysterious things he'd agreed to learn were, and how they shaped him.
BEAR
Bears are large beasts, tough and strong and stubborn. They eat pretty much anything organic and live in a variety of terrains and climates worldwide. Bears gain experience by eating bear-associated foods, roaming their territory, and defeating foes with their natural weapons. You have discovered one or more rank up options. You may choose one of the following unlocked options at level 10 or any point beyond; Black Bear, Cave Bear, and Grizzly Bear
Cave bear? Threadbare remembered black bear and grizzly bear, but not cave bear. But then again, he was stuck in what was basically a cave for a while. Maybe living in one for extended periods of time did it? It probably came up during his hibernation, and he hadn't been awake to see it. He tried getting help for the three bear types he'd unlocked...
Grizzlies got bigger and bulkier and had an attack called Bear Hug. Black Bears would shift the color of his fur, and got a stealth skill that only worked in the woods. Cave bears got a skill called darkspawn that gave night sight and small bonuses when there wasn't any light around. Threadbare wasn't far from being a level 10 bear, so he considered his options carefully.
GREATER TOY GOLEM
Toy golems are the protectors of children everywhere! And also good, reasonably cheap guardians for any fledgling golemist. They aren't the toughest of golems, but they possess a few costly powers good for helping their charges survive. Like all golems, they're sturdy, resistant to magic, and immune to a lot of things that would kill living beings. Greater golems possess sapience, and attribute ranks that lesser golems simply do not have. They can even learn jobs! Limited in that aspect only by the intelligence of their crafter, greater golems have theoretically astronomical potential. Greater Toy Golems gain experience by doing adorable things, surviving conflict by toughing it out, and defeating foes using their natural weapons.
ANIMATOR
Animators give life to inanimate objects, awakening them to serve and defend the animator. Animators gain experience by casting animator spells and defeating foes with their animi.
DUELIST
Duelists fight with their chosen weapon and swashbuckle around, using mobility and attitude to win their fights. Duelists gain experience through fighting with their specialized weapon, defeating foes with panache and style, and doing risky, flashy things in dangerous situations. Note: Specialized weapons can be changed. Practice hard, your specialized weapon will shift to your highest weapon skill.
ENCHANTER
Enchanters are one of the oddest adventuring professions. They do most of their work beforehand, and use their items to devastating effect. Enchanters gain experience by creating magical items, casting enchanter spells, and using their created items to defeat foes.
GOLEMIST
Congratulations! Through blending Animator and Enchanter, you are now a golemist! Golemists craft unique magical constructs, and use them to fight their battles. Golemists gain experience by casting golemist spells, creating golems, and using their golems to defeat their foes.
MODEL
Models improve their bodies and attitudes, displaying their glory for all to see and controlling how others look upon them. Models gain experience by using model skills, succesfully controlling first impressions, and defeating their foes through social manuvering.
NECROMANCER
Necromancers raise the dead to do their bidding, and can negotiate with powerful spirits and undead entities. Necromancers gain experience by interacting positively with the dead, casting necromancer spells, and using the undead to defeat their foes.
RULER
Rulers entice people to work for them, and organize them through decrees and rewards to do their bidding. Rulers gain experience by having their subjects do their bidding, organizing others to a common goal, and looking out for the interests of those in their charge.
SCOUT
Scouts roam the wilderness, spying upon foes and using stealth and survival to accomplish their goals. Remember, be prepared! Scouts gain experience by using scout skills, exploring new wilderness areas, and remaining undetected by foes.
SMITH
Smiths work with metal, crafting objects with the help of a forge, anvil, and hammer.
TAILOR
Tailors work with cloth and occasionally other flexible materials, crafting objects with the help of scissors, needle, and thread.
All right, that was the jobs gone through. Threadbare considered, tried to find a common theme with his jobs. At first there wasn't really one, but then he figured out that half of them involved minions. It all came down to having things that he could get to his bidding.
Well, this was all the adventuring jobs he could get, as far as he knew. Past words had suggested there might be a way to unlearn jobs? Perhaps he'd find out more about that later.
Now, on to the skills. He had a ton of the damned things, and no idea what most of them did.
The Generic skills seemed pretty self-explanatory, so he skipped those. But the rest looked important. He decided to review racial and crafting skills first, then on to the ones from adventuring jobs.
ADORABLE
Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant
Adorable has a chance of activating when you do something cute in front of an audience, or onlookers blame you for something that isn't your fault. It improves the attitude of anyone who fails to resist your charms.
GIFT OF SAPIENCE
Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant
Congratulations, you now have all the attributes and can think and learn. Good luck with that. You also have 0/8 adventuring job slots, and 2/4 crafting job slots.
GOLEM BODY
Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant
Your body has no organs, and is made from inorganic or once-organic material infused with a magical force. By being exposed to effects that would kill or cripple living beings and surviving them, this skill will level up. As it levels up, you will gain immunity and resistance to a wider range of lethal effects.
INNOCENT EMBRACE
Level 5, Cost: Sanity equal to half the amount healed, Duration: Instant
Heals an embraced target 10 X the level of this skill. Will affect on other golems, is standard healing otherwise. Currently activated through Animalistic Interface, and will affect any legal target embraced. Does not affect uninjured targets.
Interesting. So that was why he'd healed the Basement Cat. Threadbare fiddled with his status screen until he found a way to turn the automatic activation off for this one.
MAGIC RESISTANCE
Level 1, Cost: N/A, Duration: Passive Constant
Has a chance of negating any non-beneficial magic cast upon you. The chance of success is dependant upon the spellcaster's level.
On to the bear jobs!
ANIMALISTIC INTERFACE
Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Constant Passive
Allows the beast to use their racial skills without requiring vocalization. All skills that are not constant passives may be turned on and off as the situation and instinct require.
CLAW SWIPES
Level 1, Cost 5 Sta, Duration: 5 attacks
Enhances the damage caused by your hands and feet, and adds the sharp quality for the next five strikes. Currently activated through Animalistic Interface, and will activate whenever you brawl with intent to injure.
FORAGE
Level 1, Cost 10 Sta, Duration: 10 minutes
Greatly enhances your perception for the purposes of finding food, water, or other natural resources in the wilderness. At higher levels, may be used to locate specific naturally occuring resources. Currently activated through Animalistic Interface, will activate whenever you hunt for natural resources.
GROWL
Level 5, Cost 10 Mox, Duration: Instant
Growl at a target to damage their sanity.
HIBERNATE
Level 5, Cost N/A, Duration: 1-3 months
Go into a torpid sleep. Requires a cool, dark place and you cannot be affected by the Starving condition. Restores all pools to full, as per a normal rest.
SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY
Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 5 minutes
Activates heightened smell, greatly increasing perception for that sense and allowing you to catalogue and remember specific odors. Currently activated through Animalistic Interface, and will activate whenever you encounter an interesting scent.
STUBBORN
Level 5, Cost N/A, Duration: Constant Passive
Increases your resistance to sanity damaging effects.
TOUGHNESS
Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Constant Passive
Has a chance of increasing whenever you take serious damage. Raises your maximum HP by two whenever it increases.
Phew! Lots of things. On to the crafting job skills. Smith was first on the list...
REFINE ORE
Level 1, Cost 10 Sta, Duration: Instant
Separates any usable crafting materials in a container or dirt, ore, or stone into neat piles of material.
Okay. He'd keep that in mind if he ever found buckets of dirt or rocks. Tailor, however, proved more interesting.
ADJUST OUTFIT
Level 5, Cost 20 Sta, Duration: Instant
Resizes any cloth outfit to fit the chosen wearer, and also allows minor alterations.
CLEAN AND PRESS
Level 1, Cost 10 Sta, Duration: Instanty
Instantly cleans the selected item, and removes any wrinkles, stains, or other blemishes. Only works on items that are primarily textiles.
He was happy with those skills. Especially since the first one would let him wear clothes he found along the way. As fun as his earlier clothing creation attempts had been, he'd been interested in the clothes people were wearing before he knew what they were. And keeping clean was good, he'd learned that Celia didn't like to hug him when he was dirty.
Now on to the adventurer jobs. This was very much a lot of reading for the little bear, but thanks to his newly-sharpened intelligence, he got the gist of most of it. And he was learning so very very much! Most of this would be new territory, as it seemed a lot of these skills required him to say things to activate. Hopefully they were good, he'd need every edge he could get if he wanted to save Celia.
Animator skills first.
ANIMUS
Level 1, Cost 10+ San, Duration: 10 min/level
Turns an object into an animi, capable of movement, combat, and simple tasks as ordered by its creator. Must be in its creator's party to do anything beyond defend itself. The greater the size and mass of the object, the more it costs to animate, and the more hit points, strength, and constitution it begins with. The type of material also factors in, and determines the starting armor rating of the animi.
COMMAND ANIMUS
Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: Instant
Allows the caster to issue one command to an animi that isn't currently in its creator's party. If successfully cast, the animi will follow the command to the best of its ability until it is impossible to do so.
CREATOR'S GUARDIANS
Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant
Enhances animi in the creator's party, boosting all attributes. The amount buffed is influenced by the animator's will and this skill's level. Has a chance of increasing every time a new animi first joins the animator's party.
EYE FOR DETAIL
Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 1 minute
Allows the animator to examine the status of any animi, golem, or other construct he looks upon. Also analyzes any object for animation potential and sanity cost. Can be resisted.
MEND
Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: Instant
Instantly repairs the target construct or object, restoring a small amount of HP, influenced by the level of this skill and the animator's will.
Okay, that last one was going to come in handy, if only to save him from using up all his tailoring supplies. Good stuff here.
Duelist was next on the list.
CHALLENGE
Level 1, Cost 5 Mox, Duration: Instant
Calls out a target to fight you. They suffer combat penalties based on your charisma unless they are actively trying to attack you. Resistible, because some foes are just too cool for you.
DAZZLING ENTRANCE
Level 1, Cost 10 Mox, Duration: Instant
Used before revealing yourself to foes, the more dramatic your appearance the better. Boosts your charisma and cool for a short time.
FANCY FLOURISH
Level 1, Cost 5 Sta, Duration: Instant
Unleash a fancy set of moves that don't hurt your foe but look really cool. Attacks their moxie.