Good ol’ Mom had used me to set the standard for the Hag Rantha race, I was the Exemplar Lite thereof. She had left out all the extreme shit that had been forced upon her, and actually given me the advancement profile. These girls of mine were thus Cursed to be Rantha Hags... just like me!

Mom’s revenge on the Hag Curse had taken it full circle. She was now drawing on its incredible power to bootstrap in a bunch of Rantha Hags to help me get things rolling here.

I laughed quietly to myself. They’d open their eyes as Karmic Sixes, with an utterly unbelievable bloodline to take advantage of. Of course, they’d all be Nulls, no deviations, and that was strictly by intent. Holy Mithar, a Powered with this bloodline would be so susceptible to temptation it wasn’t funny...

I sighed and continued walking, my Null extended out and caressing the fragile bare Nulls of the little girls growing around me, looking for troubles, even as the data dump from each tube assured me that medically, everything was just fine.

The Sweiss technicians had walked into the room where they’d installed all the tubes, found them all gone for their ‘regular check-up’, and had no way to contact me to castigate me for my carelessness in not letting them do their regular monitoring. Aie, all they could do was report me for renegade use of vat-tech, and take their money, and their attempt to suborn what I was doing, and go away...

Things were going to be very, very different in a few months.

-----

I reviewed this custom racial class I was the ExLite of that Mom had basically customized for me, and had to shake my head. No, no, she wasn’t a power-gamer or nothing...

She’d blended sixteen or more different races into mine, using Humanity for the base, and then exploding off it from there. I didn’t want to think how many she’d been forced to take herself.

Nominally, this Rantha Class should have stopped at Seventeen, which is where the rote Succubi advance stopped. However... Elven Racial Levels had no cap, AND... Hamadryad Levels capped at Twenty, although they were Fey Levels, so ugh.

So, effectively no cap on my Racial Levels. It was just there was no ‘automatic advance’ into Eternal, like Briggs had with his Behemoth Gorilla Levels... and for most practical purposes, the supplemental benefits stopped at Seventeen.

The most powerful thing, of course, was how incredibly front-loaded the whole design schematic was. Compared to humans, this was just insane. Of course, the Karmic load was much, much higher, but since I was so much more capable, who cared?

First of all, all of us started with the same Stat array, which was derived from the one applied to her, the original Sama Rantha block. So, Strength 14, Intellect 15, Wisdom 11, Dexterity 18, Constitution 18, Charisma 10.

That was definitely a superior Stat Array, by any measures... and we could Nog it all to 18 bases... and got the free Caster Levels to do just that...

We got Resistance to all Elements equal to 10x Racial Level. Thunder maxed at 30, but since it stacked with a Vajra, kept climbing. At 6th, the other Resistances fell back to +whatever from Vajra... but the Acid, Fire, Cold, and Lightning turned into Immunity, while the Resistance stayed for things that bypassed Immunity... like Primal, Divine, and Eldritch versions of such energies.

We were all programmed to come in at Rantha/3, Expert and Melee/3, Null Psion/2, Psi-Warrior/2 (Bladebelle), Null Soulshaper/2. Instant Vajra Mark IV possible. Health and Soak maxed, unbelievably tough. Still had to choose our Feats and Masteries, but those were almost predetermined if we wanted to get the Vajra off the bat.

I thought we gained a point of DR/Holy Silver per Level, but it had another component of DR/Cold Iron, +1 every OTHER level, that Fey stuff at work. Holy Silver maxed out at 15, Cold Iron at 10. Our learned Crystal Dragon stacked with both, of course, as did my ExLite. So even if they did get their hands on Holy Silver, there was something else in the way.

Or a +V weapon, whereupon DR/- would still be there...

Also, started with immunity to disease, paralyzation, mortal poisons, death magic, curses, and petrifaction, and a +4 bonus to all other poisons on top of that...

Huge front load of Stats, on average +1 per Level up to Ten. +2 to Charisma through Eight, however. Which meant even at a starting base of 10, effective Charisma was... 20 for both me and my erstwhile daughters, with Marks yet to be Powered up. At Ten, Twelve, Fourteen, and Sixteen, it increased another point...

Strength increased by +1 per level through Sixteen. Dexterity increased at the same rate, with +2’s at Four, Eight, Twelve, and Sixteen. Constitution did the same. Wisdom and Intellect had only minor increases after Eight.

Scaling claw/UA damage ending up at 2-16 at Sixteen from Lilitu, counterpart to monkish Ki UA damage improvements...

Natural Armor increased by +1 per Level through Twelve. Our skin and flesh would be as rigid and powerful as dragonscale.

Infravision, ultravision, and devasight at One. Devilsight and Tremblesense at Three, along with mistsight, smokesight, watersight, spiritsight, blindsight, blindsense, sandsight, and immunity to illusions...

Seeing the Invisible kicked in at Four. Planar Sense at Five. True Seeing was active at Eight.

A bunch of abilities required specific Karmic investments, as many were attached to Soul Magic. I ran down those and shook my head.

Speak with Animals and Plants at One. Damn. Although it did flash up the Whiskers of the Wild while active, and advanced to Understand Everyone at Eight. Huh.

I could hear telepathy if I chose, but not broadcast... and I could eavesdrop, just like listening in on conversations.

Natural Fast Healing was 1 at Three, +1 every third Level, capping at 5/rd at 15. Stacked with ExLite and WarShifter levels... my self-healing was going to be quite impressive, especially with Blood and Soul also tacking on. I could potentially reach 20/round... the girls, 15.

Better yet, Regeneration/Holy Silver, 1 point at Five, every fifth level, max of 3. That meant without Holy Silver attacks, I was almost impossible to kill...

I had the option of growing a Third Eye. If I did, Medusa Petrification was on the table, among other things... so was Charming Gaze... which would stack nastily with a Lilitu tail... and the (holy crap) Gaze of Wrath of a Ghaele? The Hell?

Manufacturing poisons in my mouth... and tails? Yeah...

Scent, had, okay, came in at Two...

Grace was an option, bonus to saves and deflection to AC, but had to buy it up, and it was Level-dependent... still scarily strong, since it had no true cap...

Holy crap. Nymph’s Blinding Beauty was available at Eight? Nereid Aura at Twelve? Nymph Killing Beauty at Sixteen? It was basically enchanting a magic item as yourself, for a horrifically strong passive, but still...

I rubbed my forehead...

Animated hair, right out of the Erinyes...

Demonic gifts, +8 to Bluff, Perception, and Stealth. Okay, we were all born liars and killers...

Hamadryad proficiency with wood, +8 Crafting Checks. Well, wasn’t that all kinds of useful here in the future tech world...

Swim speed from Nymph, Sirine, and Nereid. Good lord. Potential water-breathing at Four...

Succubi Energy Drain kiss... oh good heavens, it was an alternate procreation method...

Natural Ghost Touch, poor incorps...

Up to four extra arms...

Up to nine tails, one primary, four lilitu, four fox-like from those kitsune... which reminded me that I needed to make one...

Wings, angelic or demonic, as desired...

Horns... why?... Well, gore/ram attack, ornamental? Best slaved to a Halo Crown effect... about as necessary as fuzzy ears. She actually threw that in? Okay, turning into a Warp monstrosity hadn’t gotten rid of her sense of whimsical humor...

Increased base movement, from 40’ at One to 60’ at Sixteen... Increased base hand attack speed from Lilitu, along with a +1/Level Attack bonus, both Melee and Ranged... and the d10 Hit Die for effect... 8 Skill points per Level, and all Skills as viable picks... although the basic skills were basically Locked In Stone for us (Perception, Stealth, Intimidation, Bluff, Survival, Athletics, Sense Motive, Animal Empathy). Our Intellect bonuses were ours to pick, however...

Whole face an eyeball, didn’t actually need eyes... possible at Ten. Trying to figure why I would need that, unless I was blinded... but it wasn’t like I was susceptible to gaze weapons. I suppose I could wear a blindfold and still see perfectly...

Greater Dop Levels? Extended the use of Altering Self off the Marks, telepathic listening... and being able to consume genetics.

Oh, that wasn’t ominous in its implications at all...

And the crème de la crème, bonus effective Caster Levels...

One Cleric, Druid, and Minstrel Caster Level per Level, per Ahren, Nymph, and Lillend. One Arcane Level per Level, per Sylph and Elf combined. One Favored Level per Level, per Lilithi. Stacked with Null Levels for Matrix and bonus spell advancement...

Good lord, all that spellcasting ability, and none of us were even Powered. And while we had to pay for it, it was still basically a non-time thing, as we didn’t have to switch Classes to advance, just take the stuff!

Ugh. It was insane. Only six times normal costs? The defenses alone were insane!

Okay, okay, if we were Powered, it would be even worse. I couldn’t imagine the sheer spellcasting Power a Rantha Hag could have if it were true.

This was what happened when you turned the Hag Curse on its ear. We were the counterbalance against all those puffed-up evil spellcasting crones everywhere out there in the multiverse... and the Evil Soulborn they treated with and evolved into over time.

Just insane. Well, I suppose it was good these girls were going to be coming in preprogrammed with human-level expectations of power. Just like me, they’d know how totally souped-up they were, and had empathy for normal folks because of it.

They’d also know just how much Karma it was going to take to advance these sweet, sweet Rantha Levels. Damn! I thought I wasn’t earning that much Karma, it took me so long to get to Ten despite everything I was doing and the Seals feeding me. Turns out it was because I was just so overpowered, and the universe was fair making me purchase all this shit...

It was still the best decision. I was almost sorry I didn’t get free Psion Levels out of this, but I considered that I still had to do something, right?

I considered where I was going and what I would have to do from here.

I was a Natural Swordswoman and had an unhealthy thirst for personal combat and beating up stuff bigger than me, especially if they were male, and really if they were Evil unrepentant bastards.

However, it was a stupid way to fight in an era of ranged combat, so I was going to have to be up on my ranged combat skills. Likewise, if I didn’t learn all the vehicular combat modes, I was a complete fool.

All of which required time, practice, levels, Karma.

Let’s see. Bike. Car. Heavy Machinery. Tank. Hovercraft. Copter. Airship. Spaceship. Power Armor. Mechsuit/Walker Mech.

Starfighter. Spaceship. Ship of the Line... Space Station? Meh, more like a city manager, that...

Ugh. It made my head hurt. 13 more sets of skills to max out?

Well, Pilot, Driver, and Mech-User were also Classes, and there’d certainly be overlap between them, and there’d be synergies between them.

Well, I really only had to expend time on Melee and Archer for combat classes, Psion and Psy-Warrior for PP, and the rest were basically support skills. If I needed to know those Classes in more depth, I could take Levels in them as I went?...

Ugh, I rolled my eyes. No, I needed huge investments in technology trees and the supporting theoretical knowledge. I had a 40 Intellect, and the +15 Skills per Level was far from enough to do everything I needed to do. Ugh. What a horrible feeling. I was insanely, ungodly smart, and I knew it. But there was just so much stuff I had to Know to do the job right. Yeah, when my daughters, such as they were, woke up, I’d be able to delegate some of the work, but the fact remained that I needed to have max Ranks in the Tech stuff to drive things forwards, and break out from under the Mekkers.

So much crap to know, and not enough time...