The thing is, as I sat on the train, that my decision and confidence, my desire to commit criminal acts to gain power? That was not because I was some crazy bastard who was just waiting for a chance of gaining power. I did not have an issue distinguishing fantasy from reality. No, rather this was more of the fact that when I was terrified out of my mind I tended to rush about and fling myself into the thick of things. Because if things were moving to a video game setting? If things were becoming some unholy d20 mashup due to gods looking for shits and giggles?
In many ways, power was needed to survive. How many would die in the first few hours, as monsters appeared and the world shifted? Would things start slowly and build up over time... or would there be horrific things that appear out of nowhere, terrible beasts that can shatter minds and nations to drive the world into despair and fury to steer things towards a new world order, or rather a return to the old days of might makes right and the rule of the sword.
In truth, as the train continued to make its way along the tracks, the forests and hills of north-western Ontario vanishing into the rolling prairies, it might be that I WAS getting lost in the fantasy of it all, that I was trying to escape to some degree. That, or I had already internalized that to survive the coming storm, I needed to be a monster among monsters, to be able to claw my way to the top of the pile and impose something like safety, sanity and order in the region directly in my reach.
Because the simple truth was, that there were going to be people with even fewer morals or restraints that me, that would welcome the collapse of society and sanity to do as they please and let that be the whole of the law. At the very least, I was just planning on heading after cattle. And even then, not that many. Given how it would take me half an hour to harvest each cow and the fact that I needed to be back home in a day or two maximum (because there was no way the family wouldn't be checking up on me at some point), there was a cap to how many I could actually process.
The thing was, I would not really be too bothered if the experience gain was minimal either. Sure, it would be nice to level before the full release, but there was also a reason why I was headed to raid farms (at some distance from my own rural community) rather than trying to stumble out in the woods looking for bears, wolves and boars. Mostly because I had no real experience hunting and while I gained telepathy, the range for that was only twenty feet and I did not have the mindsight feat yet.
I knew 3.5 and a good deal of its glorious, glorious cheese, which made me think of poutine for some reason. Then again, I was just looking through some of my stats, pondering some of the differences from a standard D&D game. Because as it was? I was seeing some Conan RPG and Game of Thrones elements to go along with everything else. Granted, I was curious about what effects the mental ability scores would have on me, just how those were implemented.
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Granted, the barb about my appearance did not sting... because frankly? I was an anti-social grouch at the best of times and had stopped caring about what strangers thought of me for years. I was not attractive, and I had long looked at the dating market and decided that it was WAY too much work to inevitably have everything taken from me and then forced into debt slavery. Sorry, child support and alimony. Bitter? Yes. Backed up by statistics? Probably not quite that bleak, but it was a smart fellow that looked into things and decided that they did not want to gamble with their lives.
So, as my small and smugly girl growled and whined, I booped her on her button snoot, before I began to rub her belly, looking over the defenses... that I recognized from the Conan RPG. Well, this used Armor Rating instead of Damage Reduction, but close enough.
Nothing I wasn't expecting really, as that was nice and simple to understand and lay out. Made sense, and based on some more things... each class would have its own base dodge and parry bonus. Armor? Well, the thing was I didn't need to worry that much about armor, thanks in large part due to being able to get some natural armor, to balance out only being proficient with light armor. I didn't need to worry about arcane armor failure, in no small part due to the lack of rituals known at the moment.
And my only current magic tricks involve telepathy at short range and bind things to my crown chakra for six seconds at a time. Sure, I can spend four days and five hundred gold to research a cantrip and then a bit of time and experience to make a focus for that cantrip... but that's what I get for being a Harry Dresden style spellcaster. And currently lacking the feats to make me some magic items to actually use magic quickly.
Still, there was not too much to do, other than sketch out plans of some of the eventual grafts. And ponder. While I would likely never be able to get my AI companionship robot (seriously, I had heard some of those AI chatbots were able to run a random D&D campaign), nothing said I couldn't get creative and simply make some later.
Jon Smith
All in all, it was a quiet and peaceful train ride, and far more relaxing than simply flying. Yes, it needed a few layovers and switches between the various lines, but he had been doing this for years and had seen all sorts of people. So, the young man a few rows down, that was hugging a small dog, cellphone in hand? A part of him wanted to get up and ask him if he would mind a few pictures, as his nieces would find the pug adorable. And then the young man started to chuckle in a rather sinister manner.
Even more disturbing? The pug was chuffing and snorting along in a similar manner. On second thought, he would leave the young man alone. Given everything on the news of late.... hopefully whatever mental health problems the young man was suffering from where not the sort where he would shoot or stab anyone.
