Your mind is the most powerful weapon you can have. Without it not only are you not you, but you would be unable to use any other weapon you have effectively. It is also a weakness as all you have to do to defeat someone is break their mind, afterwards they cannot be a threat to you. – Unnamed Cerebremancer

Adrian

After separating out the weapons amongst the five of us, setting aside the ones for Tomas, we eat in silence some burgers using the meat that has started to defrost while the power was out. The food was good but nobody was in the mood.

As Bryan volunteered for first watch I took a few of the sleeping bags to use as a rough mattress, a bit lumpy but much better than the floor. Jason found some beer and is drinking it, I hope he doesn’t drink too much.

Even with the soreness over my body I quickly fall asleep.

I find myself in a grey void, nothing in any direction. I am standing on nothing? I’m not falling, no wind, my breath makes no noise nor can I feel it. What is this place?

Somehow, I now know, this is a dream space of some sort. It is not mine, the gods of some place called Althrá made this. There is nothing here, a fragment of an astral realm. Only one person will ever be in a fragment at a time. But why do I now know this? Why did these ‘gods’ make this place? Why am I here?

Suddenly a burst of information floods my mind. I fall to my knees gripping my head. This place answers certain kinds of questions, guides some sort of boon. I’m not sure, a proper noun of some sort the concept of whatever this place guides, is foreign to me. The gods of Althrá made this place to guide, no aid the denizens of their world against something. A taint?

Another piece of information stabs into my mind. I cringe for a moment, my guess was right the gods of Althrá give aid to fight against the invasion of demonic entities. Fragmented spirits driven mad and corrupted. Back to the previous questions, I’m here to be aided to be told something? What am I to be told? Why not just tell me instead of this waiting until I guess the question I need the answer to?

I collapse to the floor, my mind ripping at the influx of information. I cry out a silent scream into this grey void. Some time passes before I pick myself back up. Too much information at once hurts the mind and soul? The realm is taxed from many new people entering it? A pinprick crashes though my thoughts, yes, my guesses are right. This realm allows one to have near perfect introspection, one can easily tell the amount of improvement you have. It has other functions as well, granting knowledge, skill, power but not freely. You must earn it with your actions outside of this realm.

How do I use introspection? As grandpa taught or another manner here? Ah, here I can just ask and this realm will tell me about myself. Must I think to ask about each detail individually, or can it be compounded to some sort of display? A question appears in my thoughts display how? So, this realm is sentient? Is conversation possible? The realm is a mental construct, a program of sorts, but it is possible. How? Helping it learn, or wake my own guide?

What guide? I grab my head as more knowledge bursts into my mind, echoing over my thoughts. My family, we warp reality not with mana as others do but our mind and a second soul. Mine is asleep, weak because of how 'thick' reality is on Earth. As much as I want to know about that I’m sure that’ll knock me to the floor again. It, the other piece of me, will wake in time as I warp reality more. How do I help you learn then?

Willing it to be so, fine converse and learn to adapt to what I need in this realm.

[What did you mean by display?]

Direct thought projection, I don’t know how to do that. How can I respond?

[Speak aloud.]

“A display, such as a character sheet. Some sort of interface, like a computer game.”

[What are these things?]

“Can you look at my mind if I think of them?”

[Yes, but only if you allow it. Only questions can we hear otherwise.]

“Then look” I draw upon the games I’ve played. Having my experiences of RPGs flash though the surface of my thoughts.

[I think I understand. None have ever thought of a standardized display. This is new, it is a good idea. Can I show the other parts of myself this concept?]

“Sure, but why do you ask?”

[We wish to implement this, what do you want for it?]

“Help me and my friends survive.”

[We will already do that, it is our purpose. Name another thing.]

“What do you mean by thing?”

[Knowledge, Skill, and Power. Name what you will if it is not too great a cost we will give it.]

“Can you integrate and add the things you were shown within my examples of character sheets to you?”

[Yes, but that is not a payment to you. That would be you paying us more, ideas and concepts such as those only help us fulfill our purpose.]

“Are there are limits to how far you help normally?”

[Yes. Once what you would standardize as a level reaches a certain point we can aid no more. We also only aid a being in a single aspect of themselves.]

“Perfect, take and implement what you can. Remove as many of your restrictions to aid on me as you are able.”

[We accept, but some restrictions are for your protection. Some powers cannot mix, we should not help you gain a power that conflicts with what you already possess.]

“That’s fine. Can you interact with me outside of this dream state?”

[We are too heavily burdened by new beings such as yourself, but in time we will recover and be able to.]

“No rush, what do you need me to do to allow you to see what you need to in my mind for this?”

[Permission.]

“You are permitted to look through my memories related to this subject; given that no harm comes to myself from the search and that I am not incapacitated while you do so.”

[We will look, it will take some time should you stay conscious as we look. But the concept of character sheets can be added immediately. We will now proceed. . . What may I help you with as you are here?]

“Show me a character sheet of myself.”

[Reveal Stat block, Gain Class: Dragon Knight: Void, DK: V 2 (20SP), EP15, Magus 2 (+40SP), Accumulated SP:175, Gain Title: Party Leader [+2 Attributes], Gain Title: Reality Weaver, . . .]

[Feat Performed: Kill multiple tainted creatures (+5EP)

Feat Performed: Submit Improvements to ???: Gain Trait: Free Multiclassing]

[

Adrian Human male, STR 14 DEX 17, CON 13, INT 18, WIS 17, CHA 15, APR 16

Class: Magus 2, DK: V 2, Age 17 HP: 30 MP: 12 EP20 SP235

Skills: Ranged 2, Firearms 2, Archery 1, Melee 2, Perception 2, Evasion 1, Arcana 7, Nature 5, Physics 4, Mathematics 5, Religion 2, Tactics 3, Technology 2, Chemistry 3, Planes 3, Handle Animal 2, Empathy 2 Drive 3, Computers 3, Cooking 3, Sewing 2, Leatherwork 1, Drawing 2, Carving 2,

Traits: Perfect Recall, Free Multiclassing, Party Leader, Reality Weaver,

Language: English, Spanish, Portuguese,

Magic: Arcane Might 2, Space 2, Fate 1, Life 1, Death 1, Mind 1, Primal 1, Soul 0, Planar 0, Time , Manipulation 1, Telekinetic 0, Fire 2, Lightning 2, Light 1, Darkness 0,

]

Well, not that neat but workable. “Still improving on the concept, I guess?”

[Affirmative]

“What’s with the ‘???’?”

[We lack an identification.]

“You should get one at some point. What are these EP and SP? And why are there spheres with values of 0 while other spheres that I know exist are not displayed?”

[EP are points? spent to improve your base body, or bloodline abilities. After a body is fully matured EP can no longer be used on the body itself. SP are spent on things other than your base body. Spheres of your magic are displayed based on proficiency, a 0 means you are not completely oblivious to the concept.]

“Explain.”

[Example: Magnetism, you know of its existence but are oblivious to any way to warp it with your power. Darkness, you are aware enough to affect it via light though not directly. You are closer to being able to manipulate Darkness than Magnetism.]

“How do I spend EP and SP?”

[Asking]

I slap my forehead, of course everything works here by questions.

“What am I able to buy with my current EP?”

[ Keen Senses (-15EP) : Augments your awareness to your senses, more likely to notice a sensation without active effort.]

“And what are other options not yet available?”

[Barring abilities that are not viable:

Darkvision 30 Infravision 30 Keen Senses 15

BlindSense 50 ManaSight 75 Echolocation 40

[]Sense 45

Inc STAT (+2) 10M [Elem] Infusion 50 [Elem] Touched 50

Draconic 75 Winged 75 []Breathing 50

Demonic 75 Celestial 75 Scales 30

AltForm 100 BreathWeap 50 Mana Infusion 75

Mana Touched 100 [Special] Infusion 75 [Special] Touched 75

Basic descriptions sent to your memory.]

A twinge of pain in my mind as I now know what these powers entail, I defiantly want to wait.

“And what of SP, what are the costs of things with it?”

[To purchase something, a basic formula is followed:

Skill Costs: Lang 30, normal 2R*3 STAT: 2R*10

School Cost: 20*R

Sphere Cost: 5*2R+X, X is a modifier based on sphere difficulty. Arcane Power costs: 10*2R

]

“I want to purchase an increase to my Arcane Power, and Sphere: Life.”

[Purchase: Life 2 (-80SP), Arcane Power 3 (-80SP)]

A flood of information about how to manipulate reality enters my mind. Understanding dawns on me over a variety of things that I should be able to manipulate now. My head throbs as the understanding grow deeper, and I feel my power rise. This place is great, I feel as though I was able to spend months focused on studying in but a moment.

[Safety Protocol: Approaching Enemies: Ejecting Adrian Ravnos

Please survive, we are also removing the restriction on the number of visits one can have in their sleep within 24 hours.]

The grey void slips away from my vision.

I open my eyes and bolt upright, the breaking of glass echoes through the empty store. Bryan rushes over to Jason as Abagail is already awake. Jason has several cans of beer around him, I think he passed out since he is on the bare floor.

I grab the rifle I left to the side of my bedding, as I get up and move to where I can see the windowed section of the store. Having arrived I see humanoids about the size of the red goblins that were outside the store entering through the now broken windows. It’s too dark for me to tell exactly what they are. Abagail moves over to a breaker box and looks at me while pointing to the lights above our heads. I nod and she flips the beaker switch lights turning on throughout the store.

My eyes quickly adjust, the creatures are more of the red midget goblinoids. They are hissing at the lights, so they have overly sensitive eyes. Good, that means that we have an advantage in well-lit areas. Bryan gives up on waking Jason, grabs a rifle and a few magazines taking a position to get a different angle than me.

I look down the sight on the rifle, and begin to aim into the confused crowd of goblins. I fire and one of them now has a hole through its head. I tilt the gun now aiming at another and get another easy kill as the goblins are adjusting to the light. I hear Bryan taking shots to my right, and someone else firing to my left; it has to be Abagail. I hope we manage to pick these creatures off before they get close to us. We don’t have enough people awake to defend those passed out.