The Power of Ten, Book Three : The Human Race

Getting admitted wasn’t difficult, although the guards gawked up at Commander Briggs, even though his name was on the list. His team kind of gathered around me and obstructed views, and I was barely noticed.

Master Fred wasn’t noticed at all. He Rode the Light past the checkpoint and just waited up ahead for us, as if he had already been admitted.

The design of the Wall was very similar to Long Island: hexagonal columns of concrete laid down and stacked up, any imperfections filled in with magic patiently and over time, and stairs and railings and the carvings necessary for the containment effect added later.

I had learned that sometimes true assholes tried to sneak in and make off with the gold in the carvings, convincing themselves that the government would fix it, so why not steal the gold and make use of it?

Sections of the Wall not being up could result in a great number of men dying, so people trying to steal that gold were basically shot, kept alive until dusk, and then got to scream and have their souls sucked out to join the horde of wraiths there, while their corpse was retained and destroyed.

It had been a while since anyone had tried that.

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Twilight Renewal washed past once again...

Ding! Ding!

I could only sigh, and pull up my Assay as the first whorls of darkness were spinning up and growing into larger things not far away. Unlike Long Island, this Wall cut right through an area that had been inhabited fairly heavily at one point, and a lot of people had died not far from it. Naturally they re-materialized there, or came floating up out of the ground, basements, silently yawning buildings, homes, and businesses fairly quickly.

The vast majority of these were wraiths, not shadows, with the spectres fairly obvious for their more human translucence, and ghosts and their chains totally so. I noted that whole units were drawn up in swordwraith formations, which I was informed indicated that they had once served in the military, retired or otherwise.

While there was motion in the distance, the local soldiers told us that the units from Arlington rarely showed up on the Wall, unless something major magical had happened somewhere and they were agitated for some reason. There was no news to that effect, so it should be a fairly uneventful night.

Like Long Island, a colorful bunch of folks showed up to do ghostly target practice, either with Weapons that could hurt them or magic for the same. Since they’d just return the next dusk, improvement was slow but steady, and mostly risk-free. It was just a way to get target practice on a dangerous enemy, when you didn’t have anything better to spend your ammunition or magic on.

Briggs got a lot of looks, as he basically stood heads and shoulders above everyone, and weighed as much as two men put together. Master Fred got startled looks for his frightening scars and nonesuch eyes, and people got out of his way even quicker than they did Briggs'... although they saw Briggs first.

I was definitely getting the looks, but hardly for professional assessment. Briggs kindly staked out a section of the Wall that was attracting some of the spirits, and deployed his men on both sides with us in the middle, keeping the gawkers at bay.

I glanced over the Assay.

Minstrel/1.

... Alrighty. Charisma-based spontaneous Caster. Yay, it gave me a bonus Spell Slot with my mighty Valence I’s. I also got four more Cantrips, and two more Valence I Spells Known.

Bardic Performances: Counter Song, Counter Illusion, Fascinate, and Heartsong (Inspire Courage at +1). 8 uses/cycles of use per day.

Now, I did need Bardsong to hit the Sublime Chords and Music of the Spheres Mastery trees. But I really would have preferred to GET TO THREE OR FOUR FIRST.

Rassum frassum...

The six skill points...were all invested in Oration. Naturally...

+1/2 Minstrel level to all Charisma checks and skills. Bards, the Druidic side of the Heartsong, were thematically creatures of lore, messengers, travelers, tellers of tales and preservers of history. Minstrels were straight performers and artistes, and while they could do many similar things to Bards, they had a completely different style and approach to things.

Or to put it another way, Minstrels were city folk, and Bards were country folk, in the minds of many. Minstrel was the preferred Class of actors, musicians, singers, acrobats, and anybody else who made their living entertaining others... and it was popular among politicians, con artists, and rabble-rousers, too.

Heartsong was another tool in the arsenal, something to expend for effects I wanted.

Had it chosen my Spells Known? Of course it had; there they were, waving at me.

Dancing Lights, Lullaby, Mending, Summon Instrument for the Cantrips, and Charm Person and Disguise Self for the spells.

I was no more a big believer in charm magic than I was in necromancy, but it wasn’t my choice, it seemed, and there might be a use for it at some point. I hated using mind-control shit like that, but there were corner cases where it could be useful.

Master Fred caught my expression of looking at something inside my eyeballs, noted the time and the spectral undead all materializing and coming our way, and asked, SIDEWAYS?

“Minstrel. So bloody annoying.” I brought up my Darts as I looked at my Feat.

Strong Soul: Even a sliver of your Soul shows remarkable strength and tempering. You gain +1 to Fortitude and Will saves, increasing to +3 against attacks involving negative energy, the undead, or necromancy.

For an anti-undead Feat, it was okay. More for a Forsaken Null or Source, with those Save boosts. I didn’t mind the boost, but I definitely had more important things to take...

It left me my Mastery again. I sighed, and mentally clicked over Basic Metamagic Mastery/1, Reach Spell.

There were several Basic Metamagicks, where you were basically twinking with the features common to all spells. No Materials was universal to all Sorcerers, and meant you didn’t need bat guano and sulfur to make fireballs, letting you bypass the need for cheap material components, if not expensive ones. No Motion, often called Still Spell, meant you didn’t have to gesture to cast a spell, and could basically just say a word and the spell went off. No Words , often called Silent Spell, naturally meant you didn’t have to say anything, and could cast the spell with just a gesture.

In addition to the three No Components Feats, there was Extend Spell, Reach Spell, and Widen Spell Area, which affected spell duration, spell range, and spell area, respectively. There were also Feats and Masteries to quicken Casting time, Sculpt spells and give them widely varying appearances, and of course Raising Spells to higher Valences for additional power and effects was a thing, especially with Damage Cap-breakers like Delimit...

They were all things I had to acquire over time and Levels, and which I was definitely missing right now.

Reach Spell allowed you to increase the range of your spell by either one category, from touch to short to medium to long-range... and then it could double it again, once, to a maximum of twice long range. Each range increase cost a Valence.

Many people didn’t realize that the Feat also allowed you to decrease the range of a spell down to touch, and if so, would increase the power of it by a die size, i.e. 10d6 would become 10d8. If you were channeling the spell through a Weapon, say, with Spell Combat, that little bit of extra damage could be quite useful.

I picked it because it would give my Darts Medium range, the same as Spellwarping them, but keeping them separate... and with much higher long-term upside.

Notably, I could right now Reach three times and blow these Cantrips into Extreme Range, over a thousand feet away, and even if they’d have no punch, they could still HIT out there.

And I could do the same with Shards... with considerably more impact.

Reach r strong, it r.

Triple Metamagic reduction before rep counts was strong, too...

YOUR VOICE IS DIFFERENT, he told me in a flutter of flames.

“Minstrel/1. It dumped all the Skill Ranks into Oration.” Yes, I was talking different. I had a unique accent that was drawing off all the languages I knew, and his eyebrow, and those around me turning my way, showed that it was indeed attention-getting, especially in Human. “Master Fred, Commander Briggs, we’re going to start the show with you two.” I flicked up the Darts, now only girt in red and black, no need to supercharge them with these two here, using Reach to ensure that I had the range.

The jetsilver teardrops still looked pretty impressive, and they were still doing 4-24+8 against these things, especially now that I was using my Staff like a Wand, and I had Invested it to Ki-Bound, gave it two ki, and it was now +II.

I definitely had a lot of work to do with it, but that would have to wait until I got Bonecarver ranks...

The two men swung their shooting irons into play. Master Fred’s was burning with ready Wrath, while Commander Briggs’ had a Baneskull framing the muzzle, and a Token Against the Undead dangling from it.

My Darts went out, bashed into two adjacent wraiths there, both burning with visible black flames from a Minister hidden somewhere close by.

They didn’t get the chance to break the Wardfield before the shots arrived. Multi-colored Wrath detonated inside and tore the first apart, while a twelve-inch blast of Banefire ripped through the other and blew it to drifting motes. Vivic fire feasted eagerly over the remains, and they vanished.

The undead were unperturbed, not knowing that said Damned spirits would not be returning come the dusk tomorrow, but since they probably didn’t recognize or remember them too well, it just didn’t matter.

The troops there whooped at the precise and efficient one-shot kills. I flicked up two more Darts, pointed them at my targets out there, and let fly.

There was no hesitation, no shifting of targets. Both men were accomplished shooters, and the Wraiths simply didn’t have a chance against the force of the firepower they were putting out.

I shot six times, and six pairs of wraiths died, with more zooming into this busy section after they saw us popping them, aching for their chance for us to miss. The six troopers to the sides were there on back-up, so even if one did end up really juiced, the instant it breached the field it would have gotten a salvo of back-up shots.

“Switch out. Gunners ready.”

Grit and Boomer were stowed, Endure and Idiot flipped out to readiness... and both men hopped easily up onto the battlement of the Wall, completely unconcerned about the sixty-foot drop.

I shot, and this time the wraiths got to breach. Howling mad, they charged right in for me, quite ignoring the men... which was a bad idea.

Briggs just snapped his wrists, and Endure tore through one Wraith, blasting it into vivus-devoured smoke. Master Fred cut smoothly, Wrath blew off the burning arc of his Sword, and his wraith got no further than the other had.

This repeated four times, and the fifth ones decided to get clever and fly away from us, heading for some other targets on the wall.

The shooters said no. Accurate rifle fire plowed into them and blew holes in them that vivus ate away. I waited until the targets were confirmed dead and they swung their barrels back in line, and shot again.

With six each done, Briggs and Master Fred redrew their own firearms, and stepped back for the two teams of three shooters each to step forwards.

As there were three Weapons to each team, that naturally required more pairs of Wraiths than Master Fred and their Commander, but I was perfectly willing to pop wraiths, and the wraiths were eager to be popped.