The Power of Ten, Book Three : The Human Race

Two notes rang out, and to their astonishment, the wose and its redcap servants found themselves starting to... tremble...

“This occasion calls for a song...

“Wose of the wood, that thought it could

Find cheap power for easy gain.

Bloody hats, booted twats,

Sacrifices to the Tane.

A gift of glee, happy to see,

Delivered to Sama now.

A Rantha born, their fate is shorn,

Dead without knowing how.

Tremble, She comes!"

A golden blade fully three feet long that was perfectly sized for her new reach and strength hissed to life, and she was coming, the blue of her eyes like lamps in the glow of her soulsword.

The war cries the Fey gave out as they surged to defeat her didn’t sound anywhere near as full of savagery and bloodlust as they should have. There was something in her Song that was pounding at memories in their dreams, hammering at their thoughts.

"TREMBLE, SHE COMES!

Blood my sword, feed my soul

Nurse the Land with your cries.

Your cycle done, your race is run,

Your spirit forever dies.

An axe, a sword, a peasant lord,

A tree, a man, all Nature’s Plan,

Not even carrion for the flies.

Tremble! Oh ooooh oh...

Tremble, She comes..."

---

The shrieks and screams, the buzzing roar of Summoned insects, the howling of flames and crackling of lightning, the chopping of butchered flesh and bone, the crack of shattering wood, and the shrill screech of rending metal were done.

Various pieces of redcaps were scattered about the clearing, and the hacked, rent, and ruined remains of the woodwose were disassembled among them, soaking in their pale red blood.

Sama kicked the hats of the redcaps into their owner’s blood. Those were some very useful power comps there, worth exactly one goldweight each towards a magic Weapon.

Mmm, how fast would there be a run on slaughtered redcaps if humans learned that their bloodsoaked caps were worth a goldweight? They’d be seen like walking piggy banks. They’d go from being berserker fey butchers to hounded fey dogs fleeing humans everywhere who wanted to earn themselves a couple years income with a couple shots of cold iron rounds.

The wose had tried its spells, but those hadn’t mattered all that much. They had run into her Null and done nothing to her whatsoever. She had shattered its defenses with her first blow, and taken it apart with two more, pretty much ignoring its counterblows and the explosions of thorns coming off it.

She’d actually taken most of the damage from the oversized axes on her Health... because she had a fuckload of it, and Fast Healing/1 was mending the injuries speedily, not that they’d amounted to much after DR 16/Holy Silver softened them up a lot.

Melee Five. Sage of Swords had kicked in, and the new Rantha Levels had given her the skill points to get thirteen Skills to five Ranks.

Her Sword damage had basically doubled, outside of the fact that she was four times stronger than she had been yesterday.

She picked up the Masspack sitting on the ground, where it wouldn’t be ripped apart by the Curse, and pulled out another set of clothes as her Vajra expelled redcap gore and woodwose splinters from her. The thorns sticking in her were getting forced out by the healing, too, so there was no danger from those, regardless of how much the barbed things wanted to stay stuck in her.

She put the bloody hats in a bag made from the grimy tunic of one of the redcaps, definitely the best place to store them, and then proceeded to vivic the lot of the killer gnomes, making sure they weren’t going to re-enter the auto-incarnation cycle and come back to bug someone else.

Death should not be something her enemies laughed off, even if she could, at some point.

Now she basically had to start over somewhere, new name, new face, new job, new life, and hope nobody was savvy enough to track her back to her family in the future. Have to do something about her electronic footprint so that wasn’t possible, maybe...

Anyways, she had some hiking ahead of her. Maybe something nasty would try to attack her on the way, maybe not.

Time to grow a lived-line a bit...

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Making it to St. Paul didn’t actually take all that long. After all, she could run fifty to a hundred miles a day without too much problem, and once she got out of the hill country and onto the plains, that was just easy cruising along on the Waveskating Steps.

Of course, she didn’t just run. She had bloody red hats to burn off on her Floating Forge, boosting Fall, and she was also working on carving Implements or making Swords every day, too. She didn’t have a lot of raw material, but since she wasn’t working at eye-blurring speed, it was fine.

There were definitely things that wanted to accost her along the way. Wandering spirits who thought a lone girl out in the middle of nowhere would make fine prey were a thing. There was a wolfwere pack that didn’t like humans at all, and probably thought they’d surprise her with their cold iron vulnerability, instead of silver. Alas for them, Ki Strike Mastery/3 filled in that weakness for her... and she wasn’t the twelve-year old pure Human girl she had been a few days ago.

======

Sama Rantha, NG Rantha/4, Sustained

Classes: Melee/5 (P), Archer/3, Monk/3, Scout/3, Expert/3, Vizard/3, (Null Druid (4), Null Sorcerer (4)), Runesmith/3, Rune Chemist/3, Minstrel/1

Strength: 20 +5

Dexterity: 22 +6

Constitution: 30 +10 (+5 Inherent)

Intellect: 22 +6

Wisdom: 17 +3

Charisma: 20 +5

Health: 100 (75 (4x (d10+10 Con) + 5 (Toughness) +20 (Spirit-Reinforced Body)

Soak: 145 (105 (5x (d10+1FC+10 Con)) + 20 (Toughness/2) + 20 (Tough Spirit))

Ki: 32 (30 Invested)

Valences: 46

Null: 25

Talent: Natural Swordsman

Racial Benefits: Rantha Hag

Traits: Rantha Hag

Karma: Current Eight (63%)

Base Abilities...

Feats/Class Abilities...

======

Twelve hundred miles was quite a bit overland, especially fording rivers and with some minor mountains in Wyoming in the way and stuff.

She loved it all, trotting along for eight hours at a stretch, seeing the new landscape changing, and not really caring if she followed the roads or not. She had stuff to keep her busy, and if a bunch of birch dryads looking for some easy fertilizer ignored the head of the woodwose she was holding onto and its implications, well, it wasn’t her problem if they wanted to commit suicide.

If the dryads' satyr and other Fey amours thought she was running away from their vengeance, they also learned different, much to their sorrow. If an angry Black Ent thought she was ignoring the trees moving as she sat there working, well, that was unfortunate for it when it tried to surprise her in concert with a shambling mound...

She could have gone to Yellowstone and picked at the edges of the Fireland there, killing the endless amounts of pyric beings that spawned there out of the fumaroles, lava lakes, volcanoes, and firefalls of the burning landscape... but she didn’t want to draw attention yet. She wanted to get to Six, get her Null into the 30 range if possible, and make some more diverse Gear, if at all possible.

The Null was the big thing. The astonishment of the Fey when she tore into them was pretty good proof that they weren’t expecting a mere human to be so powerful in close combat. Getting to 30 would render her mostly invulnerable to anything under a Ten Caster, which meant instant-kill tactics would be off the board. Her Health and Soak were already so high it would be hard to stop her without auto-cannons shooting at her, which was already surprising a whole lot of things.

The Fast Healing/1 she got as a Rantha/4, which she could build on with Warshaper and Healing Spirit, meant she could regain Health very quickly compared to a normal person, and wouldn’t be reliant on magical Healing, a true bonus. Soak would thus be a buffer effect against instant kills... she was going to be taking most of her damage on her Health, which would be a lot more painful, but that was what a high Constitution was for.

-------

Montana’s mountains and hills were left behind, and with them most of the Fey encounters she’d been having. South Dakota was rolling out before her with an endless sea of grass, winds, and the occasional creatures lurking in the waves of gold, thinking a lone human was great prey.

She welcomed them all on her way into Wisconsin, and if she was making a casual name for herself as something that was not prey, it was only among the things that remained hidden as she passed by, because she didn’t leave anything that thought it was a good idea to attack her alive in her wake.

Her goal was a certain dwarven blacksmith in St. Paul she had communicated with in the past. Using him as cover for her own smithing and Crafting efforts was a good idea; it just remained to see if he was amenable to it. High-end dwarven smiths had no end of applicants for apprenticeships, which they generally tightly held to their own kin, aware of the importance of their ability to make magical items without being Casters, and their status as Powered, even if most of them preferred crafting to fighting.

Dwarves, like gnomes and elves and hyn, had come into being after the return of magic to the world, so they didn’t have the long history that humans did to build a culture behind themselves, so no dwarf-centric fighting tradition existed. That being said, they were already renowned for their stalwart nature when fighting, although few nations wanted to risk a Powered who could Craft as a line soldier.

Master Vrune should at least have a positive impression of her, and she didn’t need any teaching from him, just a covering shield from prying eyes...

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Info dump!

The Rantha Racial Class

With the large numbers of Ranthas in the Far Future galaxy as a foundation, and the Titanic Sage Sama as an anchor, the Rantha Curseline has now spread into other realms and places. Like the Hag Curse, it operates autonomously and mostly without direction, although Sage Sama can reach down and alter the ‘greeting message’ for each new Rantha, depending on the realm they are in.

Each Rantha is the reincarnation of someone who was slain by great Evil, as opposed to someone who WAS greatly Evil. It is totally possible, and even likely, for a Rantha to be the incarnation of someone who was slain by a person who will be reborn as a Hag.

All Ranthas start at the same place with physical and mental Stats, selectively better if they’ve managed to Level as a child. Their Favored Class is always Melee. Their single Talent is Natural Swordsman, until they incarnation dive, and then they can pick up the Talent of their previous Incarnation.

A Rantha is now fixed in her evolution and cannot take other Racial Levels at all. That doesn’t seem to bother any of them, for some reason...

Her Racial AB is +1/Level, both for Ranged and Melee. She has all good Saves, a d10 Health Die (which she will generally pay to max out), and 8 Skill Points a Level. Unlike Humans, Rantha Racial Levels go all the way to Twenty, just like an Outsider or monster’s might... and potentially beyond, into Eternal Levels, although only at the cost of Class Levels.

A Rantha starts out with base 14 Strength, 18 Dex, and 20 Constitution; 18 Intellect, 12 Wisdom, and 10 Charisma. They are sapient right from birth (mental scores apply immediately), but naturally don’t reach their full physical Stats until they Awaken as Hags.

A Rantha Hag’s Levels replace her Human Levels after Awakening. They are not true Hag Levels; she is still Human for purposes of Bane and the like, merely highly evolved.

+1 Strength per Racial Level (RL), to a maximum of +16.

+1 Constitution and Dexterity per RL, max +20.

+2 Charisma/RL to Eight, +1/2 RL after, to a maximum of +20 at 16.

+2 Intellect and Wisdom, +1/2 Levels, maximum +12.

Foot speed of base 40, +5 per 4 RL, up to 60 at 16.

Natural Armor of +1 per 2 RL.

Damage Reduction 5/Magic at 1, increasing to 5/Magic Silver at 4, 5/Good and Silver at 8, 10/Good and Silver at 12, and 15/Good and Silver at 16.

Immunity to normal poisons, petrification, paralysis, Curses, and forced polymorphing, +8 saves versus magical poisons. She is immune to lightning and radiant damage at 1, fire damage at 4, cold damage at 8, and acid damage at 12. She has Energy Resistance 3/RL against elemental damage on top of this. If she has a Vajra, the two do not stack, the higher one applies.

She has no maximum age, and thus will never reach beyond age 30-40 in terms of physical ability/appearance. She still gains mental age bonuses based on years passing, to the normal maximum of +3 to each, and these are replicated by Sustained Effort to her physical Stats.

She has infravision, ultravision, low-light vision, scent, devilsight (immune to darkness), and devasight (immune to brightness and most manipulation of visual effects, with a broader color spectrum.) She gains immunity to most illusions at RL 4, and True Sight at RL 8.

She gains a Double Matrix at every Level, equal to a Prepared and a Spontaneous Full Caster using Con as their base Stat for additional Valences. If the world allows psionics, this will also include the Reserve of a Psion of the appropriate Level.

She gains a Deflection bonus to AC and Resistance bonus to saves equal to a maximum of her Charisma bonus if not in armor (Max bonus +1/3 Levels, rounding up, so +7 at RL 20).

She gains Fast Healing/1 at 4, increasing by +1/4 RL. She gains Regeneration 1/Holy Silver at 6, increasing by +1/4 RL. Note that Fast Healing and Regeneration only affect Health, not Soak.

She has a +4 racial bonus to Stealth and Perception checks.

The potential to gain extra arms, wings, tails, horns, go Large, and similar things are there, but must be paid for individually, and generally are better acquired on a spot basis through use of Tats and Valences/Soul.

All Ranthas not born of another Rantha via soul-channeling become golden blonde of hair, blue-eyed, and default Caucasian in skin color (the original PoT character color scheme). They generally have enough Vajra control that they can rapidly darken their skin, hair, and eye colors to blend into the local human population. A Rantha born from a Rantha has the coloration, if somewhat more vivid, of their preincarnation.

Ranthas have no mammary glands, and so their chests are flat as a board. The rest of them can generally qualify for supermodel status, with nymph/succubus level complexions, curves, and long arms and legs. The residual blue-black lines of their Curses automatically accrue to the left side of their face, neck, and down their left shoulder and back, and draw the eye, detracting greatly from their facial beauty. Their mounting Strength doesn’t result in massive musculature, and is instead visible as increased tone and sinew, i.e. getting more ripped. Their wounds and injuries will heal up almost seamlessly, but under UV light, the fine hairline scars of previous injuries do become visible.

Their nails are always black, and they always have double canine teeth. They can claw for d6 and bite for d6 damage, and this damage scales evenly, up to a base 2-16 damage at 16. If they have ki and Monk Levels, the latter subsumes these natural weapon attacks.

All children born by a Rantha Hag are either Rantha Hags or Briggs Hagspawn. Notably, there is no genetic relation between such children or their parents, as it is based on their spiritual preincarnations, and the Rantha must have access to souls killed by great Evil to start the process.

--Briggs Hagspawn

The bonuses differ slightly, as do Stats. Briggs are Str-Centered, instead of Con.

They gain a +4 Size bonus to Str at 1, which is part of the bonuses of going to size L if they choose to evolve to that. Their Charisma advance is +1/2 RL.

A Briggs will start with Str 20 (24), Con 18 Dex 12, Int 15 Wis 14 Ch 13.

A Curse-born Briggs is always born as a human Ancient, with dark hair, bronze skin, and pale violet eyes, and will grow up to be about seven feet tall... or taller, if he desires, and built like a freaking brick. Unlike a Hag, he is born as a Hagspawn, and starts accruing the benefits, and having to pay for them, immediately.

Any time a Briggs gains a Racial Level, he has the option to increase in height, up to a max of +total height = RL. This gains him an extra +1 Size bonus to Str/foot, +1 Con/2 feet, and +1 Nat AC/Size. At +1 foot, he is considered Size Large, with a 10’ reach; at +9 feet he is considered size Huge (16’), and at +17 feet size Gigantic (24’ tall). Note that very few bother to become so big, as it’s a permanent change they can only temporarily overcome with some transformation magic. Also note they don’t suffer a Dex penalty for increasing in size, although their reach, speed and Might/Carrying ability do increase.

Anytime a Rantha Hag is born by the action of the Hag Curse, a Briggs Hagspawn is born as well. There is an unconscious Karmic tie between them, and his Source nature will end up bringing them together by happenstance, especially if he knows she exists. They might well be former lovers or family killed by the same event in their preincarnations.

A default Briggs is born with Natural Smith as a Talent, giving him a +4 bonus to all Smithing Skills, a mighty Talent. In return, they are cursed to Can’t Sing; a Briggs engaging in any kind of musical air-based or vocal Performance activity suffers a negative result equal to the die roll+modifiers. He thinks he sounds fine, but everyone around will be horrified at what they are hearing. They can, however, beat drums, use Oratory to replace diplomatic Skills, and really learn how to cut a rug.

A Briggs Hagspawn is treated like a king by any ape or monkey beast or magical beast (+8 to any social check modifiers, starting attitude positive), and gets a +4 to checks against Jotuns, too. He automatically starts with Simian and Jotun as bonus Known Languages.

---

All Ranthas and Briggs have the exact same respective starting memories, which is a template of the in-game experience of the saved Briggs and Sama Rantha characters as experienced by their original players in the Power of Ten video game at its last save point. However, they also know that they are NOT those characters, if for no other reason than the complete lack of ‘real’ non-gaming/family/childhood/growing-up memories. As a result, they truly treasure their new childhoods and family.

As a minor effect of the Rantha Curse, they will be named something similar to their own names, which over time will get nicknamed to Sama and Briggs.

Costs

A Rantha requires an extraordinary amount of Karma to Level.

As each Racial Level is considered a Human evolution, all bonuses and effects must be paid off with Karma to proceed to the next Level, exactly as if they were magical item effects. The fastest this can accumulate is naturally 1000/day, just like a magical item. They are effectively turning themselves into highly evolved biological magic items with Karma.

The ‘perfect base’ of the Rantha Class itself costs twice the Karma of a standard Human Level. The Double Matrix of a Caster increases that to triple, and the extra senses and minor bonuses to quadruple.

All Stat bonuses, elemental resistances, Damage reduction, speed, and other bonus evolved effects must be paid for as if they were magic items. They are considered both Racial and Enhancement bonuses, and so stack with neither. They subsume both Atlantean and Advanced Human bonuses at the appropriate Levels, so there is no additional benefit for reaching those RL’s.

A Rantha Hag’s Soul Tats and Marks come pre-Scribed, so she doesn’t have to inflict them on herself, but they are not powered up. She must charge them up just like a magic item, which means she is not applying that Karma to her Racial bonuses.

Normal Class Levels cost double the normal Karma to Level, similar to an Amazon. Notably, however, training times and costs for training extra Feats and Masteries are not affected. Ranthas can train sideways and go Deep fairly easily. Going higher is the hard part, which means Ranthas are hungry for IMMENSE amounts of Karma. And while the costs of the extrahuman bonuses continue to increase, the rate at which they can pay them off remains constant, meaning even with a continuous Karma stream, advancing their Racial Level takes a great deal of time.

Most magical items that increase natural defenses and Stats are thus useless to a Rantha, since they don’t stack with their natural benefits. This is another pure Human advantage in time, as they can have someone else make the magic items FOR them, subbing gold for Karma, and multiple people for just their own efforts. It does, however, make Ranthas incredibly self-reliant for a lot of what others use Gear for: just feed them Karma!

They get their HD and Skills points as soon as they gain a new RL, then must pay the Karma for ALL the other abilities to reach the NEXT Level, i.e. there’s no way to avoid paying for them.

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By design, a Rantha will Level VERY slowly next to a human if they have access to the same levels of Karma. However, a Rantha has a plethora of natural defenses, stat boosts, and senses that a normal human does not... but who could potentially buy or make magical items to gain similar effects.

This means that Ranthas tend to labor constantly to accumulate Karma, as they always have somewhere to put it, driving them to keep adventuring, working, and training, getting into conflicts, so that they can grow and improve, even more than an average adventurer. Without needing to accumulate money to buy so much Gear, they themselves are practically bottomless pits of Karma.

A normal Human could easily reach Ten before a Rantha’s Racial Level hits Six, with Karma to spare, and will only keep pulling away.

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Having gotten past this Sama’s childhood and her first steps into her new life, we will be returning to the present day with Arc 3 and Traveler in the next chapter...