(Vol 2) Chapter 7: Avatarhood

They began walking back out of the forest, Sammy making sure to return Azure’s staff to her in the process. The Naugite mentioned she had a horse tied off to graze, near the edge. Nestor had insisted on giving her the one she’d already taken a liking to over the brief time she’d been at the manor. Naturally, this made Sammy wonder what she was going to do about travel…

“So, Dart, ummm, can you — I can’t believe I’m asking this — but can you turn into a horse with a saddle and everything?”

Dart rolled his eyes at her. “Of course I can turn into a horse. What, did you think I had a restriction against hooves? A dislike of apples?”

“Hey, no need for sass! You’re so snooty as a human, yeesh. It was just my passive-aggressive way of making the request that you, ya know, giddyup into one or whatever.”

“I should refuse just because you used the term ‘giddyup’ honestly. That will not be the summoning command for the Great Noble Steed Dartagnan!”

Azure was smirking impishly at both of them. “I’m surprised he didn’t say something lewd about you riding him.”

Sammy sputtered for a response, but Dart gave her a haughty nobleman’s sneer. “Excuse you, Azure, that would be uncouth. And I know she’s a hottie, but she’s like my mom, for shit’s sake! She can be your MILF, but I’m good, thanks.”

“Milf? What is that?”

“D-Don’t even think about answering that, Dart! And I am not your mom! I’m Ni- I’m waay too young for that. Way way.”

“Oh please!” Dart exclaimed. “Humans can get pregnant far younger. Anyway, I’m all about you girls being fabulous models of beauty but think of it like how you appreciate a dragon’s beauty. Or a cat’s, or a peacock’s. That’s how I see you monkeys running around humping each other. It’s amusing, but over there, please… you weird, weird, lovely creatures.”

Sammy was nodding along to this and caught Azure doing the same thing, and then they were nodding to each other. “So you’re safe,” Sammy concluded.

“Just think of me as one of the girls!” In a poof of smoke (which Sammy could tell was just the illusion disguise rather than shapeshifting) Dart changed into a womanly version of the same noble, hatless so her absurdly long hair was evident, and said in a feminine voice, “If there’s a Hot Girl Summer, I ain’t missing out, one way or another.” And she flicked her hair as she walked with an exaggerated sway. “Fake it to make it, fellow babeses.”

Snickering, Sammy shook her head. The ‘hello, fellow kids’ meme came to mind. “Needs some work on the form, but okay then. Good to know. Just watch out for inadvertently making mortals fall in love.”

“Ha! If romance your direction is barking up the wrong tree, I’m barking up the wrong treant.”

Azure raised an eyebrow at that. “No romance for our dear goddess, is it?”

“Eh hehe, well, um, I’m just kinda still figuring things out, you know?”

“Things?”

“Oh, would you look at that, it’s your horse! I can see it from here. Dart, shall we? While there’s still cover. Giddyup!”

“Gah, I told you not to say that!”

Nonetheless, Dart complied to poof himself into a horse, which immediately causes gasps from the women. He was an almost indescribable pearlescent cream-gold with a vibrant sheen to his coat, which the light caught to show as multihued. His bushy mane and tail were black in contrast, and as always, he had eyes of blue crystal.

Pretty much the most magnificent horse she’d ever seen.

Dart The Horse stood proudly and regally in response, with eyes somehow smug. “Hmph. Close those mouths, ladies, before flies zoom into them.” With that, he tossed his glorious mane and approached Sammy so she could hop up into the saddle.

They moved out to retrieve Azure’s brown-and-white speckled steed, who definitely was curious about the new equine arrival. Sammy characterized it as the horse equivalent of ‘Who the fuck is this?!’ though there were no stronger reactions per se. Dart tried to make some horse sounds, which mostly caused the other to just stare and chew at the remains of the bush it had mostly devoured. Its ears flicked a little.

“Welp, a tragic bore, this one,” Dart muttered. The mouthless voice was just barely detectable as coming from the horse. “I Thought maybe I could be King of Horses, but I don’t even know the local horsey lingo it seems. Or regional lingo, for that matter.”

Azure laughed as she untied the animal and mounted up. “Shappy here is a farm animal through and through. Not much use but for getting from place to place. I’d like to eventually send him back here when I get a decent koskee mount. But I suppose sending some silver in compensation is easier.”

“What is a koskee?”

“Oh, you don’t know? The gold standard equine breed for adventurers and light cavalry. Though there are technically multiple lines these days, the term is for the ancient tradition of mind magic used over long periods in horse breeding, to reinforce their discipline and mitigate their fear. The perfect koskee is unfazeable to magic, supernatural creatures, or battle. Though technically the koskee are mare and stallion lines obviously, the actual end result is almost universally better in a gelding.”

“Wow. Interesting. So the magic caused heritable traits?”

“Indeed. Their fearlessness is quite variable in practice. The purest koskee are the dark brown, spotless horses of the Dominion, and there is an unmistakable look in their eyes to any rider worth their salt. These are rare outside their lands, sadly. There are a few excellent breeding and training traditions in the Southlands, but the demand is high. Usually, you have to judge for yourself whether you’re buying one with that ‘edge’ or just a typical gentle gelding that will freak out in a real problem scenario.”

“I always figured stallions were used for war.”

“Oh, they are, in many cases. As chargers. They’re more aggressive, bigger, often vicious. But koskee geldings are better for literally everything else.”

“Interesting. Alright, well, you lead the way. Any ideas where to go?”

Azure nodded as they began making their way through grass and weeds. “We take it slow through the wilderness and occasional farms vaguely parallel to the Seabreaker, the road headed northwest. Eventually, we’ll come to Brackenhome, an inn and tiny hamlet positioned basically a day’s travel from Geirkos, if one were taking the road.”

“Is it safe? Would he send spies to track you?”

“Eventually… perhaps not yet. I don’t know. Maybe you can keep an eye on him and counter-spy for me.”

“I certainly will. Actually… sorry I didn’t do a better job there. If I had, maybe I could’ve warned you sooner.”

“I understand you cannot be everywhere at once, Your Majesty. His speed of influence once again amazed.” Her eyes cast out over the terrain in thoughtfulness. “In truth, I’m glad I faced him. And I am forever grateful to you for giving me the chance.”

Azure gave Sammy a brilliant smile, which she returned. “I’ll keep tabs on him,” Sammy added, “though I probably can’t track all of his spies. We’ll see.”

As they began riding through the countryside, she figured it was about time to take a look at the Avatar description.

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Avatar (Samantha; Core)

This is the physical representation of your deific presence in-world. All abilities are freely usable, as are physical class invocations. [Goddess] counts as [Brute] for purposes of Strength Feats. [Goddess] also retains +1 Effective Levels for the Lethality Grade of melee attacks. You may cast spells as though a priest but do not need slots. These are considered spell-like abilities.

The physical form of an Avatar is a facsimile of life — you do not need to breathe, drink or eat, are immune to poisons and diseases, do not need blood or functioning internal organs (such as the heart) to remain animated, and cannot experience more than minor discomfort from pain. You cannot be damaged from bleeding. You can only be stunned from head or spine trauma, or by magic.

You still depend on a nervous system, musculature and bone structure, and an undamaged brain. You are vulnerable to dismemberment, decapitation, and severe brain damage. Without a coup de grace opportunity, these are difficult to perform on you, but not impossible.

For wound comparison purposes in normal combat, add +4 Effective Levels for torso, +3 for limbs or neck, +2 for head or spine, and +2 for any magic. Superficial wounds appear as wounds but do nothing to you. Minor wounds do nothing to you but may be upgraded to Major with additional attacks. Mortal wounds (except to head or spine) are downgraded to Major unless crossing an additional +3 level threshold. Lethal wounds are case-by-case but dismemberment is possible.

Your body can regenerate if all in one piece, equivalent to removing 1 wound an hour — major or worse cost 1 FE per wound. Regrowing a lost/unrecoverable limb costs 5 FE. External healing works normally, even if the body appears dead and is inoperable.

Total destruction of the body is possible through laborious pulverization and particle dispersal, magical disintegration, or other such methods. If subjected to the torso or head, regeneration becomes impossible and the Avatar is considered destroyed.

Your brain is considered continually possessed by your psyche/consciousness while the Avatar is in-world, and is vulnerable to mental attacks. Projection to your Demiplane does not protect you, only full Dematerialization.

Dematerialization takes 1 minute of focused concentration to perform. You are considered ‘anchored’ to that spot and can only re-materialize the Avatar there without other abilities. Re-materialization takes 1 action.

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“Wow. So I’m a tank.”

“Pardon, Your Majesty?” Azure said curiously.

“I was looking at my Avatar description. I’m slightly a juggernaut. Or superhero. Except for the low-level issue. But I can take wounds way above my level.”

‘I’d prefer that you not.”

“Ditto,” Dart added.

Sammy chuckled. “Well, in an ideal world, sure. And I’d prefer not to fight, but when we have to, I can probably take some shots without issue.”

“I’m pleased that’s the case, at least,” Azure offered.

“Right… now for this other shit…”

She had various ‘alerts’ related to updated abilities and such. The first was just the reminder about her free [Bound] item, which she passed over. The second was Faith Energy Utilization:

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Faith Energy Utilization

You can perform a variety of acts utilizing Faith Energy (FE) obtained from Followers and Deity-related quests. This includes but is not limited to: power use, spell-like ability use, various ‘Investiture’ abilities, and Demiplane Domain customization.

FE has three forms: generic, domain-specialized, or personal (for Avatar or priestly use).

Avatarhood: You may convert generic FE (only) into PFE (Personal Faith Energy) invested into an Avatar at the rate of 1:5, to a maximum PFE of 10 + (20 x deity levels). Conversion requires focused concentration as an Avatar for 1 minute. PFE may be used for Avatar-related power use and spell-like ability use.

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Ah, there we are, some efficiency benefits to being in-world.

She cleared a general (fairly redundant) alert that explained she could now cast all of the divine spells her priestly Followers could cast, for 1 PFE per level of the spell. In addition to the healing spell, it was particularly useful for the buffs, letting her stack on different effects… and because she was level 2, she could drop AoE level 1 buffs, which was awesome.

There were other level 2 spells with apparent domain representation and not just things she specifically had an ability for already…

‘Reflection of Harm,’ which would inflict wounds on the caster in place of the subject. ‘Spirit of Deception,’ which improved social acts of bluffing or… deception. ‘Predictive Instincts,’ which was a more concrete form of her Intuition ability for combat, basically allowing the bonus generically and stacking well with other buffs.

‘Stack the Deck,’ which was like her ‘Dealer’s Choice’ ability for a single target, but allowed knowing two cards and picking between them for the buff.

Some curses too. ‘Haunt of Phantoms,’ which was a test that if failed would stick a subject with a personal haunting illusion, which was likely to waste actions if they failed, and inflicted a malus on all actions if they did not win by two or more levels. ‘Eye of Dark Prediction’ which would cause a target’s next contest to be at -2 levels, and irresistible. But it had a short duration one could try to avoid or play defensively around.

“Nice… you priestly types will have some good stuff at level 2.”

“Good to know,” Azure said, a bit forlorn. “I’m still not even level 1.”

“You’ll get there. Anyway, Fate looks like it will have a lot of buffs and curses.”

“Ah, yes, congratulations by the way. It was more subdued than the last occasion… the declaration… but I recall sensing you shift. I felt like you lifted into the heavens. I wasn’t worried, as you seemed at peace.”

Sammy grinned. “Not sure I’m there wholly there yet, but I got a taste of it at least.”

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