As we wander back to Stephanie, I try to make small talk through the terrible headache, “So… I should probably ask: What’s your name?”
“Oh, I’m Larry O’Brien… but I prefer Linda,” the transwoman responds, “And you’re Captain Alex Abrams… or is that Admiral now? And you…” she turns to Euler, “Euler S Number, while you…” he turns to Cowbird, “Were Ebonwing, notorious pirate, but are now Cowbird, willing slave of Alex, and very hardcore masochist. I did my homework... literally. Johann prepared a packet of target profiles we all had to read through last night.” He looks back at me out of the corner of his eye, “He clearly missed some important details, though.”
“My invisible bodyguards, yes,” no current need to give this person information that might be used against me later, “I always keep them available,” I can resummon them on a moment’s notice… and now that I know what happens with Time Stop, I essentially always have an arbitrarily large number of them on tap, pretty much irrespective of where I am, with about a second’s notice real-time… so that’s technically true, even.
Linda shakes her head, “your ‘bodyguards’ would make one fine army of theives, or assassins, or spies, or….” he shakes his head, “or bodyguards, which is what they’re doing. How in the world are you keeping that tech quiet?”
I chuckle, “It’s new,” to this world, “so hasn’t had time to spread. I’m sure I won’t be able to keep a lid on it forever… but it sure is nice being the only one with it.” I do hope to keep a lid on it for a long time, though… but I have a penchant for showing off, so… whatever. Probably going to be exclusively mine for a really long time, though.
We get to Stephanie… she’s still docked, but the airlock looks empty, so I ask, “How’d the boss manage to convince your coworkers to walk through a seemingly empty airlock?”
“Oh, that,” Linda shrugs, “Walking out of an airlock isn’t too big of a deal when you have environmental sensors and a forcepack in your armor. Those, and a Lightwarp Inlay, are… were, rather… standard issue on jobs. They’re great for getting gone or salvaging mistakes and unanticipated events that would otherwise botch an operation.”
I nod, “Ah. Well… this is my stop,” which is my way of telling you that no, I’m not inviting you into my ship, as while you weren’t giving the orders, you were absolutely drawing to shoot at me. “I’ll have your potion,” Elixir, technically, but the technical terms hardly matter, “ready in two days.”
“Thank you,” she says, smiles, and walks away. Great.
I walk into my invisible ship, and Stephanie greets me, “Did you have a nice night out while I napped, Mistress?”
I consider, “Eh… the food was good, the company I brought was great, but the atmosphere of the place… well, things happened, and I have a headache. I have something I need to take care of before I go nurse it, though.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she continues, “Let me know what I can do to help.”
I nod, “I will, thank you…” and set up the summon to make the Elixir for Linda. Summon Monster IX gets me a Trumpet Archon, which qualifies for most magic item crafting feats out of the box - which I then of course give her, along with True Seeing and a nice little buff list so she’ll stick around and be useful for whatever. I make the materials she’ll need via Fabricate, give her orders, and let her do her thing. I also task a few summons with cleaning up the ship… there’s a lot of blood.
That handled… ooh, I hate headaches. I head to my cabin, lock the door, and summon my ‘laptop’.
SpoilerSo; level six is pretty nice… the oath system gives me another feat this level, so I have two of those to spend, plus my level up points. Let’s see… first up, I need to progress spellcasting this level, as I’m natively picking up third level spells now. Seems a waste, but it’s required so… there it is, ten points gone. Although this does let me cast ninth level spells without the warm-up of spell enhancer, as my caster level is six from class levels, five more from Suffer the Flesh, three more from Create Magic Tattoo spells, one more from an Orange Prism Ioun Stone, one more from my Mythic ring, and two more from Wild Arcana, bringing me to eighteen - which is enough.
After that… hmm… choice paralysis. There is a trick I can use to get full Spheres casting… and along with it, unlimited casting of the spells I actually know, bypassing spell slots… it eats up a feat and thirty points… or two feats and twenty points, which is what I have left. Let's go with that.
Okay, so there's two components I need to grab from the Primarcane template: Font of Magic (it gives me unlimited spell points of up to my casting stat per round… so eleven of them, which is a lot in the Spheres system), and Well of Miracles (it gives me a three quarter progression caster level, and talents known of half my caster level, which I can trade out once per day).
And that's pretty handy all by themselves, but I can do better. Embodiment Casting, from the Embodiment Of Magic template, sets my Spheres caster level equal to my hit dice (which at sixth, is a difference between a caster level of four and six - which also grants another talent from Well of Miracles). Sadly, it's not as easy to boost caster level in Spheres as it is with Vancian magic. Still… lots of options in Spheres of power. Obviously, I use one of my feats on Extra JP to pay for this.
The final piece of the puzzle is the Versatile Spellcaster feat. It lets me spend two lower level spell slots to cast a spell one level higher that I know… but Spheres of power has a translation table in the compatibility section that lets me spend spell points in place of spell slots for feats and class features that burn those. Which will let me cast… basically any spell, including the Mythic ones, by way of using Enable Function on myself first to grab the Expanded Arcana feat to give me the spell in question.
Bookkeeping… my Eidolon gains another hit die and another evolution point… I'll take more skills, I suppose; and that brings my Base Attack Bonus up too. Saves all go up a point, as do skills. Oh, my Starfinder Theme picks up Quick Pidgin here… ten minutes to get a worse version of Tongues… woohoo. Eh, whatever. Hit points and stamina points go up as well. Spells slots… no longer matter, but I have them. Spells known… anything with a casting time of longer than one immediate action isn't worth a spell known slot… a few other odds and ends….
[collapse]I review my work, commit my updates… and my headache goes away. Of course, there's also the other thing… I double check my door to make sure it's locked.
Then I check in with my ship, “How are you feeling in the new chassis, Stephanie?”
She answers quickly enough, “Pretty good, Mistress. I'm a lot bigger than I was, and it's nice to have a heavy weapon. Ooh, and you warmed the body up for me, thank you.”
Oh, yes, the buff spells, “You’re welcome. Just don't try to change your shape while pregnant or occupied; I don't know what effects that would have on you.”
She chuckles over the coms, “Not a problem. I'm used to being left outside.”
Hmm. I need to figure out a way to address that, as she’ll usually be with child… “Well, as I’m sure you heard the headache comment….”
She picks up on it, “It's time for another fitting? I have noticed that pattern, yes.”
I take off my shirt and dismiss the illusion; Stephanie gives me the numbers without my needing to ask, “One thousand forty CC’s per side; a slightly large 34G on your frame. And as you'll want to know, the next cup up is a 34H at one thousand one hundred eighty CC's per side.”
So… my tally: Six levels, one death, one Mythic rank; three copies of Create Magic Tattoo for the caster levels, two copies of Suffer the Flesh, one copy each of One Step Beyond and True Seeing to put me where she's measuring; the casting of Veil I usually keep up won't push me over.
I take a moment to look myself over in a mirror, then shake my head: I look like an adult movie star… but these puppies… I lift one and it spills out to the sides of my fingers, a touch of white dripping from the tip… my hands have gotten smaller, huh… aren't silicone. I get a warm feeling in my middle looking myself over… I'm definitely still attracted to women.
I can live with it. With what I've done to myself, I have few options there: I can't die, and if I do manage to kick it, I won't stay dead.
I adjust my clothes, dress, put my illusion back on, and head into the ship.
As we wander back to Stephanie, I try to make small talk through the terrible headache, “So… I should probably ask: What’s your name?”
“Oh, I’m Larry O’Brien… but I prefer Linda,” the transwoman responds, “And you’re Captain Alex Abrams… or is that Admiral now? And you…” she turns to Euler, “Euler S Number, while you…” he turns to Cowbird, “Were Ebonwing, notorious pirate, but are now Cowbird, willing slave of Alex, and very hardcore masochist. I did my homework... literally. Johann prepared a packet of target profiles we all had to read through last night.” He looks back at me out of the corner of his eye, “He clearly missed some important details, though.”
“My invisible bodyguards, yes,” no current need to give this person information that might be used against me later, “I always keep them available,” I can resummon them on a moment’s notice… and now that I know what happens with Time Stop, I essentially always have an arbitrarily large number of them on tap, pretty much irrespective of where I am, with about a second’s notice real-time… so that’s technically true, even.
Linda shakes her head, “your ‘bodyguards’ would make one fine army of theives, or assassins, or spies, or….” he shakes his head, “or bodyguards, which is what they’re doing. How in the world are you keeping that tech quiet?”
I chuckle, “It’s new,” to this world, “so hasn’t had time to spread. I’m sure I won’t be able to keep a lid on it forever… but it sure is nice being the only one with it.” I do hope to keep a lid on it for a long time, though… but I have a penchant for showing off, so… whatever. Probably going to be exclusively mine for a really long time, though.
We get to Stephanie… she’s still docked, but the airlock looks empty, so I ask, “How’d the boss manage to convince your coworkers to walk through a seemingly empty airlock?”
“Oh, that,” Linda shrugs, “Walking out of an airlock isn’t too big of a deal when you have environmental sensors and a forcepack in your armor. Those, and a Lightwarp Inlay, are… were, rather… standard issue on jobs. They’re great for getting gone or salvaging mistakes and unanticipated events that would otherwise botch an operation.”
I nod, “Ah. Well… this is my stop,” which is my way of telling you that no, I’m not inviting you into my ship, as while you weren’t giving the orders, you were absolutely drawing to shoot at me. “I’ll have your potion,” Elixir, technically, but the technical terms hardly matter, “ready in two days.”
“Thank you,” she says, smiles, and walks away. Great.
I walk into my invisible ship, and Stephanie greets me, “Did you have a nice night out while I napped, Mistress?”
I consider, “Eh… the food was good, the company I brought was great, but the atmosphere of the place… well, things happened, and I have a headache. I have something I need to take care of before I go nurse it, though.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she continues, “Let me know what I can do to help.”
I nod, “I will, thank you…” and set up the summon to make the Elixir for Linda. Summon Monster IX gets me a Trumpet Archon, which qualifies for most magic item crafting feats out of the box - which I then of course give her, along with True Seeing and a nice little buff list so she’ll stick around and be useful for whatever. I make the materials she’ll need via Fabricate, give her orders, and let her do her thing. I also task a few summons with cleaning up the ship… there’s a lot of blood.
That handled… ooh, I hate headaches. I head to my cabin, lock the door, and summon my ‘laptop’.
SpoilerSo; level six is pretty nice… the oath system gives me another feat this level, so I have two of those to spend, plus my level up points. Let’s see… first up, I need to progress spellcasting this level, as I’m natively picking up third level spells now. Seems a waste, but it’s required so… there it is, ten points gone. Although this does let me cast ninth level spells without the warm-up of spell enhancer, as my caster level is six from class levels, five more from Suffer the Flesh, three more from Create Magic Tattoo spells, one more from an Orange Prism Ioun Stone, one more from my Mythic ring, and two more from Wild Arcana, bringing me to eighteen - which is enough.
After that… hmm… choice paralysis. There is a trick I can use to get full Spheres casting… and along with it, unlimited casting of the spells I actually know, bypassing spell slots… it eats up a feat and thirty points… or two feats and twenty points, which is what I have left. Let's go with that.
Okay, so there's two components I need to grab from the Primarcane template: Font of Magic (it gives me unlimited spell points of up to my casting stat per round… so eleven of them, which is a lot in the Spheres system), and Well of Miracles (it gives me a three quarter progression caster level, and talents known of half my caster level, which I can trade out once per day).
And that's pretty handy all by themselves, but I can do better. Embodiment Casting, from the Embodiment Of Magic template, sets my Spheres caster level equal to my hit dice (which at sixth, is a difference between a caster level of four and six - which also grants another talent from Well of Miracles). Sadly, it's not as easy to boost caster level in Spheres as it is with Vancian magic. Still… lots of options in Spheres of power. Obviously, I use one of my feats on Extra JP to pay for this.
The final piece of the puzzle is the Versatile Spellcaster feat. It lets me spend two lower level spell slots to cast a spell one level higher that I know… but Spheres of power has a translation table in the compatibility section that lets me spend spell points in place of spell slots for feats and class features that burn those. Which will let me cast… basically any spell, including the Mythic ones, by way of using Enable Function on myself first to grab the Expanded Arcana feat to give me the spell in question.
Bookkeeping… my Eidolon gains another hit die and another evolution point… I'll take more skills, I suppose; and that brings my Base Attack Bonus up too. Saves all go up a point, as do skills. Oh, my Starfinder Theme picks up Quick Pidgin here… ten minutes to get a worse version of Tongues… woohoo. Eh, whatever. Hit points and stamina points go up as well. Spells slots… no longer matter, but I have them. Spells known… anything with a casting time of longer than one immediate action isn't worth a spell known slot… a few other odds and ends….
[collapse]I review my work, commit my updates… and my headache goes away. Of course, there's also the other thing… I double check my door to make sure it's locked.
Then I check in with my ship, “How are you feeling in the new chassis, Stephanie?”
She answers quickly enough, “Pretty good, Mistress. I'm a lot bigger than I was, and it's nice to have a heavy weapon. Ooh, and you warmed the body up for me, thank you.”
Oh, yes, the buff spells, “You’re welcome. Just don't try to change your shape while pregnant or occupied; I don't know what effects that would have on you.”
She chuckles over the coms, “Not a problem. I'm used to being left outside.”
Hmm. I need to figure out a way to address that, as she’ll usually be with child… “Well, as I’m sure you heard the headache comment….”
She picks up on it, “It's time for another fitting? I have noticed that pattern, yes.”
I take off my shirt and dismiss the illusion; Stephanie gives me the numbers without my needing to ask, “One thousand forty CC’s per side; a slightly large 34G on your frame. And as you'll want to know, the next cup up is a 34H at one thousand one hundred eighty CC's per side.”
So… my tally: Six levels, one death, one Mythic rank; three copies of Create Magic Tattoo for the caster levels, two copies of Suffer the Flesh, one copy each of One Step Beyond and True Seeing to put me where she's measuring; the casting of Veil I usually keep up won't push me over.
I take a moment to look myself over in a mirror, then shake my head: I look like an adult movie star… but these puppies… I lift one and it spills out to the sides of my fingers, a touch of white dripping from the tip… my hands have gotten smaller, huh… aren't silicone. I get a warm feeling in my middle looking myself over… I'm definitely still attracted to women.
I can live with it. With what I've done to myself, I have few options there: I can't die, and if I do manage to kick it, I won't stay dead.
I adjust my clothes, dress, put my illusion back on, and head into the ship.
