Rewrite, Chapter 6

“You have chosen your path. But a Path decides only about the general direction your travel will take you. You also need to select a class, which will help you with the first steps of your journey, and many more besides. Think of it like a map, helping you to traverse your Path on the Road to Purgatory. Some maps will show you a single route, others allow you to meander, as you experience your surroundings. There are no right or wrong choices here, seek out something that you think speaks to you.” Alkmene continued and, once again, a list appeared before me.

There were some filters to this list, helping me to cut down the options to a point where I could actually start reading things, without spending an hour or two at it. I had little interest in the hybrid-classes, there was little appeal in becoming a jack of all trades but master of none. The Arcane Path, the path of Magic, was the one I had chosen and I wanted to play a true, full-caster, not some fighter who used magic at times, no, I wanted to be the gal in the back, wearing a nicely decorated robe, with staff in hand, taking a while to bathe my foes in the icy waters of cocytus. Or something like that.

Shaking off those thoughts, I began reading.

• Mage:
• Mages are those belonging  to the official Mages Guilds. They learn from their mentor and afterwards become indentured to the guild. Few Mages ever leave the guild and those that do without permission from the Guild Council are hunted as traitors. Their official status makes them equivalent to low-ranking nobles of their country.
• Summoner:
• The Astral Realm is inhabited by all sorts of spirits, quite like the Nether. A skilled caster is able to create shells for the spirits and by using his own connection to the Astral can entice spirits to inhabit the created shells. The strength of the Summoner's magical Aura is responsible for guiding the spirits to Mundus and his created shells. The combination of shell and spirit is mostly called a Spiritgolem.
• Sorcerer:
• Sorcerer are those few true Spellcasters that did not seek guidance on their path but struck out on their own. They are the trailblazer, the few who advance the state of knowledge. Most sadly die on their path to greatness but the few who make it often found their own traditions of magic.
• Warlock:
• Some learn from their elders, some choose different ways. Warlocks trade for power and knowledge with different Astral Spirits. The traded currency varies, from simple gifts of Astral Power to the sacrifice of a whole village, from a single drop of blood from the Warlock’s hand to blood of a virgin, drained directly from her heart under a dark moon. Power always has a price and it is not always the Warlock who has to pay for it. 

The Guild-Mage was mostly on the list because it was apparently the standard caster in Road to Perdition but if I'm honest with myself, nope not gonna happen. While there was a part of me that desired to be ‘normal’ for once, it didn’t apply to my escapism. In addition, being average wouldn’t give me the best starting-position if I wanted to create content.

Summoner sounded better, the idea to create my own, magical minions was appealing to me. However, the part that the 'magical Aura is responsible for guiding the spirits' meant, if I remembered the explanation of the various attributes, that the class was strongly Charisma-based and choosing a class based on one of my weakest attributes would be foolish.

Sorcerer on the other hand sounded incredibly high risk, high reward, making my own way without guidance? Well it's the beta and from everything I heard, all character-progress would be wiped for the true release with beta-testers mainly gaining the knowledge advantage, some cosmetics and maybe some traits depending on their beta-progression.

The idea about forging my own path sounded interesting, being able to simply not care what others thought was something I had been trying to do most of my life.

Finally, the Warlock sounded both intriguing but also horrible. At the end of the day, I got the impression that it was a publicity-challenge cleric, who hadn’t managed to get into the big leagues and was now pimping themselves out on a magical street-corner. If I had any inclination to pick the class before, the mental image I had conjured in my mind cured me of that.

Nodding to myself, I made my decision.

“I will walk on my Arcane Path as a Sorceress.” I told Alkmene, getting a nod and multiple blue windows in response.

• Class gained: Sorcerer
• Sorcerers don't have class-skills. They are however able  to define their own skills by trial and error, formalizing them and gaining class-bonuses on such self-created abilities.
• You gained a Special Ability: [Spell Crafting]

• Special Ability gained
• You gained the Special Ability: Spell Crafting
• This ability allows you to create and formalize your own spells. A formal spell can be auto-casted and gains bonuses, depending on the relevant skills. Spells crafted that way can also be taught to others. A spell can be based on runes, gestures, chants or for very advanced Sorcerer even thought itself.

After reading my boxes, I looked up to see Alkmene regard me with a bit of interest.

“Interesting choice. Will you be one of the few, leaving a legacy to shake the world or will you be one the many, falling along the wayside, turning into one of many conjurers? Only time will tell.” she asked, sounding genuinely interested but not invested.

“Now, you can choose some traits. They will shape your Avatar further, making it wholly yours. But beware, some of them have positive effects, others negative and some both. You have a number of points to spend and their cost will depend on their effects.” Alkemen explained and, to my dismay, one more blue box, filled with options came into existence in front of me. Without any real idea what options there were, I began to read.

Even just skimming over the list had taken me for what felt like hours. It likely hadn’t been that long but it certainly felt like it. As I had been reading, I had begun to wonder just what kind of drugs the people at Pantheon Entertainment had used to come up with their list. Some of the traits one could choose were just that out there. One of them, for example, was called “Apes together strong!” increasing the amount of EXP one gained while in a group with other Travellers by a fixed percentage while in turn decreasing the EXP gained when out alone. The trait itself, what it actually did, seemed fine, not for me, but certainly useful for some. But the name, it just made me facepalm.

On the other hand, there were traits with names that worked just fine but the actual effect of the trait was just as out there as some of the names. An example? Well, the trait “Well Endowed” doubled the size of certain body-parts, depending whether your avatar was male, female or didn’t quite fit into the binary norm of sexual reproduction. It was at that point that I began to wonder whether there would be someone picking a Gnome, Pixie or some other physically small race, maxing that particular slider before dumping as many points as they could into traits like the “Well Endowed” one. Somehow, that thought felt frightening.

But other than those traits, there were many I would have loved to have, but sadly, there were only so many points I could freely spend and not that many negative traits I was willing to take on. What I thought was interesting was that a few of the traits I had gained earlier were on the list as well, things like the Low-light vision I gained from my race or the Natural Mage, which I had gained during the testing. It made me wonder if the traits I had already gained had been subtracted from the points I got to spend now. Similarly, the detriments I had received due to my race were there as well, their base-versions greyed-out that I couldn’t take them again. I decided against increasing the detriments, as they might have turned into crippling disabilities. I had no desire to be forced to life underground or turn nocturnal, simply because I couldn’t stand the sunlight.

A curious find, in my opinion, was a combination of Traits called Magical Hair, which cost only three-quarters of another trait, called Astral Power. Astral Power had three stages, each increasing the size of your mana-pool, or rather the amount of Astral Power you could store, by eleven percent, giving you thirty-three when maxing it. Meanwhile, the Magical Hair did the same thirty-three percent increase by storing power within your hair, which seemed like a small draw-back for the amount of discount. Personally, I decided that I wanted both, to fit my theme as a pure spell-caster. To further that idea, I added a trait that worked similarly to Astral Power, increasing the regeneration by twenty-five percent per stage.

Sadly, those three traits ate up all points I had to play with and then some, forcing me to either skimp on the positive traits, or add a few negatives.

Going over the traits, I decided to take a trait called Unbound, which would set my maximum starting reputation to neutral, whatever that meant, while taking away my starting-faction. The idea there was that I hadn’t been too hot on the idea to become a storm-trooper for some deity, which was distinctly possible with the race I had chosen and taking away the starting-faction neatly got rid of that possibility.

I added to that, with a trait called Child of the Wild, mainly due to the insane amount of points it gave and because the name made me chuckle. It set my reputation to a maximum of neutral with any large faction, whatever large factions meant. I hoped that wouldn’t be too much of a detriment, something to find out in the beta. In all games I had played before, reputation was something that could be improved by doing tasks for them, starting at neutral would mean I would have to do some task more often.

It was for similar reasons that I took a trait called Outsider, with a rather nebulous description but I thought it would allow me to act independently within Road to Purgatory. In addition, I was used to being the outsider, I had been all my life, so why change what had worked more or less well in the past?

Finally, with the last few points that I had over, I took two cheap, likely due to their inbuilt-detriments, traits that would hopefully help me to thrive, despite the previous choices.

One was called “The Road is my Teacher”, allowing me to learn faster without a teacher but slower when with a teacher. It also meant I had to come up with my own Special Abilities, something that seemed to fit with the Sorcerer-Class I had chosen. Hopefully, the increase in learning-speed would compensate for the lack of teachers, due to lacking a starting-faction.

And last, but hopefully not least, I decided on the opposite of the “Apes together Strong!” trait, increasing the amount of EXP gained when playing without another Traveller but decreasing the amount of EXP gained when playing with one. There were multiple reasons, chief amongst them that I was planning to spend a lot of time within the game, which would make scheduling with another difficult, if not impossible. To add to that, I was amongst the first wave of testers, ten-thousand people spread out into a game-world the size of Earth. Depending how they handled the distribution, I might not see another Traveler for a few in-game months.

Tapping the menu a few times, I finalised my choices, and the list disappeared, replaced by blue boxes.

• Trait gained 
• You gained the trait: Magical Hair
• Your hair is able to store up to 33% of your total Astral Power, in effect increasing your pool by that amount. You need to have at least twenty inches of hair to store the maximum amount and if your hair is cut, you lose the stored power.

• Trait gained 
• You gained the trait: Astral Power III
• You can store extra Astral Power within your body. This increases the maximum stored amount of Astral power by 33%

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Astral Regeneration III
• Your connection to the Astral Rivers flowing through the world is especially close. You regenerate Astral Power 75% faster. That regeneration always occurs.

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: The Road is my Teacher
• You are able to learn skills 25% faster without a teacher.
• You are able to learn Special Abilities by using them without a teacher
• When learning from a teacher, skills train 25% slower.
• You are unable to learn Special Abilities from a teacher.

• Trait gained
• ]You gained the trait: Unbound
• You belong to any Country or Creed.
• Maximum starting reputation with any large faction is Neutral.

• Trait gained 
• You gained the trait: Outsider
• You don't belong. Even among your own people, you are the one who doesn't fit. People are more suspicions of you, making you the prime suspect if something bad happens.

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Child of the Wild 
• You were quite literally raised by wolves. You don't belong to any family, tribe or community.
• No starting faction.

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Lone Traveller
• You walk the world alone, without any like you at your side.
• When in a group with other Travellers, you gain 10% less experience.
• When alone or in a group with natives, you gain 10% more experience. 

Now, Alkmene was looking at me with true curiosity in her eyes.

“Well, you are convinced to make your own way, are you not? No Creed, no country, no family, no tribe, you will be all alone in the world of Mundus.” she mused, one eyebrow raised.

“I guess you will either die somewhere in the wild or you will become one of the brightest shining stars at the end of the road. Which will it be, I wonder? I will have to ask the Mistress to keep up with your progress and maybe let me watch.” she continued, amusement strong in her voice.

“Now, due to your traits, there is nowhere you call home, so you will start somewhere in the wilds. Don't worry, I will not place you in some frost-wyrm lair, that would be boring. Why don't you look over your final character sheet before I send you on your way?” she asked and I realised that I might have screwed up. Or I might not have, just as Alkmene had said, it might be the best choice possible. I would just have to make sure I actually got to make my choices work.

• Basic Overview
• Name: Morgana
• Race: Firn-Elf
• Class-Level: 1
• Health: 84/84
• Stamina: 88/88
• Astral Power: 224/224
• Divine Power:  -
• Strength: 9
• Agility: 13
• Dexterity: 12
• Intelligence: 17
• Intuition: 16
• Charisma: 9
• Courage: 13
• Endurance: 11
• Vitality: 11

• Social Overview
• Tribe: None
• Country: None
• Guild: None
• Creed: None

• Regeneration
• Health Regeneration: 0.55% per minute
• Stamina Regenration: 1.1% per minute
• Astral Power Regeneration: 2.8% per minute
• Divine Power Decay: - 
• Please note that the regeneration-rates above is for being idle, outside of combat. Different activities and conditions can change the regeneration-rate.

• Trait Overview:
• [Rune Affinity: Ice]
• [Rune Affinity: Darkness]
•  [Rune Affinity: Blood]
•  [Frost-Resistance]
•  [Low-Light Vision]
• [Denizen of the Dark]
•  [Denizen of the Eternal Ice]
•  [Heat-Sensitive]
• [Glare Sensitivity]
• [Unbound]
•  [Outsider]
• [Child of the Wild]
•  [Lone Traveller]
•  [Magical Hair]
•  [Astral Power III]
•  [Astral Regeneration III]
• [The Road is my Teacher]

After looking over my character-sheet and chuckling at the slightly pathetic Social Overview, I nodded.

“Yes, Alkmene, looks good to me, please, send me in and farewell.”

Her eyes turned distant for a moment, before returning my nod.

“Very well, Traveller.  A lesser daimon will help you with the first few steps on Mundus but don't expect any true help from it, it will only pass some obvious information. I wish you farewell and good luck.”

With that, the meadow, Alkmene and everything vanished.