Threadbare

The Bear Necessities

And so, the little bear saw the truth of himself in its entirety for the first time in his existence.

After some trial and error, Threadbare figured out that each series of words in its own little box was an element. So he went through the jobs first, taking a good hard look at what these mysterious things he'd agreed to learn were, and how they shaped him.

BEAR

Bears are large beasts, tough and strong and stubborn. They eat pretty much anything organic and live in a variety of terrains and climates worldwide. Bears gain experience by eating bear-associated foods, roaming their territory, and defeating foes with their natural weapons. You have discovered one or more rank up options. You may choose one of the following unlocked options at level 10 or any point beyond; Black Bear, Cave Bear, and Grizzly Bear

Cave bear? Threadbare remembered black bear and grizzly bear, but not cave bear. But then again, he was stuck in what was basically a cave for a while. Maybe living in one for extended periods of time did it? It probably came up during his hibernation, and he hadn't been awake to see it. He tried getting help for the three bear types he'd unlocked...

Grizzlies got bigger and bulkier and had an attack called Bear Hug. Black Bears would shift the color of his fur, and got a stealth skill that only worked in the woods. Cave bears got a skill called darkspawn that gave night sight and small bonuses when there wasn't any light around. Threadbare wasn't far from being a level 10 bear, so he considered his options carefully.

GREATER TOY GOLEM

Toy golems are the protectors of children everywhere! And also good, reasonably cheap guardians for any fledgling golemist. They aren't the toughest of golems, but they possess a few costly powers good for helping their charges survive. Like all golems, they're sturdy, resistant to magic, and immune to a lot of things that would kill living beings. Greater golems possess sapience, and attribute ranks that lesser golems simply do not have. They can even learn jobs! Limited in that aspect only by the intelligence of their crafter, greater golems have theoretically astronomical potential. Greater Toy Golems gain experience by doing adorable things, surviving conflict by toughing it out, and defeating foes using their natural weapons.

ANIMATOR

Animators give life to inanimate objects, awakening them to serve and defend the animator. Animators gain experience by casting animator spells and defeating foes with their animi.

DUELIST

Duelists fight with their chosen weapon and swashbuckle around, using mobility and attitude to win their fights. Duelists gain experience through fighting with their specialized weapon, defeating foes with panache and style, and doing risky, flashy things in dangerous situations. Note: Specialized weapons can be changed. Practice hard, your specialized weapon will shift to your highest weapon skill.

ENCHANTER

Enchanters are one of the oddest adventuring professions. They do most of their work beforehand, and use their items to devastating effect. Enchanters gain experience by creating magical items, casting enchanter spells, and using their created items to defeat foes.

GOLEMIST

Congratulations! Through blending Animator and Enchanter, you are now a golemist! Golemists craft unique magical constructs, and use them to fight their battles. Golemists gain experience by casting golemist spells, creating golems, and using their golems to defeat their foes.

MODEL

Models improve their bodies and attitudes, displaying their glory for all to see and controlling how others look upon them. Models gain experience by using model skills, succesfully controlling first impressions, and defeating their foes through social manuvering.

NECROMANCER

Necromancers raise the dead to do their bidding, and can negotiate with powerful spirits and undead entities. Necromancers gain experience by interacting positively with the dead, casting necromancer spells, and using the undead to defeat their foes.

RULER

Rulers entice people to work for them, and organize them through decrees and rewards to do their bidding. Rulers gain experience by having their subjects do their bidding, organizing others to a common goal, and looking out for the interests of those in their charge.

SCOUT

Scouts roam the wilderness, spying upon foes and using stealth and survival to accomplish their goals. Remember, be prepared! Scouts gain experience by using scout skills, exploring new wilderness areas, and remaining undetected by foes.

SMITH

Smiths work with metal, crafting objects with the help of a forge, anvil, and hammer.

TAILOR

Tailors work with cloth and occasionally other flexible materials, crafting objects with the help of scissors, needle, and thread.

All right, that was the jobs gone through. Threadbare considered, tried to find a common theme with his jobs. At first there wasn't really one, but then he figured out that half of them involved minions. It all came down to having things that he could get to his bidding.

Well, this was all the adventuring jobs he could get, as far as he knew. Past words had suggested there might be a way to unlearn jobs? Perhaps he'd find out more about that later.

Now, on to the skills. He had a ton of the damned things, and no idea what most of them did.

The Generic skills seemed pretty self-explanatory, so he skipped those. But the rest looked important. He decided to review racial and crafting skills first, then on to the ones from adventuring jobs.

ADORABLE

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant

Adorable has a chance of activating when you do something cute in front of an audience, or onlookers blame you for something that isn't your fault. It improves the attitude of anyone who fails to resist your charms.

GIFT OF SAPIENCE

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant

Congratulations, you now have all the attributes and can think and learn. Good luck with that. You also have 0/8 adventuring job slots, and 2/4 crafting job slots.

GOLEM BODY

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant

Your body has no organs, and is made from inorganic or once-organic material infused with a magical force. By being exposed to effects that would kill or cripple living beings and surviving them, this skill will level up. As it levels up, you will gain immunity and resistance to a wider range of lethal effects.

INNOCENT EMBRACE

Level 5, Cost: Sanity equal to half the amount healed, Duration: Instant

Heals an embraced target 10 X the level of this skill. Will affect on other golems, is standard healing otherwise. Currently activated through Animalistic Interface, and will affect any legal target embraced. Does not affect uninjured targets.

Interesting. So that was why he'd healed the Basement Cat. Threadbare fiddled with his status screen until he found a way to turn the automatic activation off for this one.

MAGIC RESISTANCE

Level 1, Cost: N/A, Duration: Passive Constant

Has a chance of negating any non-beneficial magic cast upon you. The chance of success is dependant upon the spellcaster's level.

On to the bear jobs!

ANIMALISTIC INTERFACE

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Constant Passive

Allows the beast to use their racial skills without requiring vocalization. All skills that are not constant passives may be turned on and off as the situation and instinct require.

CLAW SWIPES

Level 1, Cost 5 Sta, Duration: 5 attacks

Enhances the damage caused by your hands and feet, and adds the sharp quality for the next five strikes. Currently activated through Animalistic Interface, and will activate whenever you brawl with intent to injure.

FORAGE

Level 1, Cost 10 Sta, Duration: 10 minutes

Greatly enhances your perception for the purposes of finding food, water, or other natural resources in the wilderness. At higher levels, may be used to locate specific naturally occuring resources. Currently activated through Animalistic Interface, will activate whenever you hunt for natural resources.

GROWL

Level 5, Cost 10 Mox, Duration: Instant

Growl at a target to damage their sanity.

HIBERNATE

Level 5, Cost N/A, Duration: 1-3 months

Go into a torpid sleep. Requires a cool, dark place and you cannot be affected by the Starving condition. Restores all pools to full, as per a normal rest.

SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 5 minutes

Activates heightened smell, greatly increasing perception for that sense and allowing you to catalogue and remember specific odors. Currently activated through Animalistic Interface, and will activate whenever you encounter an interesting scent.

STUBBORN

Level 5, Cost N/A, Duration: Constant Passive

Increases your resistance to sanity damaging effects.

TOUGHNESS

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Constant Passive

Has a chance of increasing whenever you take serious damage. Raises your maximum HP by two whenever it increases.

Phew! Lots of things. On to the crafting job skills. Smith was first on the list...

REFINE ORE

Level 1, Cost 10 Sta, Duration: Instant

Separates any usable crafting materials in a container or dirt, ore, or stone into neat piles of material.

Okay. He'd keep that in mind if he ever found buckets of dirt or rocks. Tailor, however, proved more interesting.

ADJUST OUTFIT

Level 5, Cost 20 Sta, Duration: Instant

Resizes any cloth outfit to fit the chosen wearer, and also allows minor alterations.

CLEAN AND PRESS

Level 1, Cost 10 Sta, Duration: Instanty

Instantly cleans the selected item, and removes any wrinkles, stains, or other blemishes. Only works on items that are primarily textiles.

He was happy with those skills. Especially since the first one would let him wear clothes he found along the way. As fun as his earlier clothing creation attempts had been, he'd been interested in the clothes people were wearing before he knew what they were. And keeping clean was good, he'd learned that Celia didn't like to hug him when he was dirty.

Now on to the adventurer jobs. This was very much a lot of reading for the little bear, but thanks to his newly-sharpened intelligence, he got the gist of most of it. And he was learning so very very much! Most of this would be new territory, as it seemed a lot of these skills required him to say things to activate. Hopefully they were good, he'd need every edge he could get if he wanted to save Celia.

Animator skills first.

ANIMUS

Level 1, Cost 10+ San, Duration: 10 min/level

Turns an object into an animi, capable of movement, combat, and simple tasks as ordered by its creator. Must be in its creator's party to do anything beyond defend itself. The greater the size and mass of the object, the more it costs to animate, and the more hit points, strength, and constitution it begins with. The type of material also factors in, and determines the starting armor rating of the animi.

COMMAND ANIMUS

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: Instant

Allows the caster to issue one command to an animi that isn't currently in its creator's party. If successfully cast, the animi will follow the command to the best of its ability until it is impossible to do so.

CREATOR'S GUARDIANS

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant

Enhances animi in the creator's party, boosting all attributes. The amount buffed is influenced by the animator's will and this skill's level. Has a chance of increasing every time a new animi first joins the animator's party.

EYE FOR DETAIL

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 1 minute

Allows the animator to examine the status of any animi, golem, or other construct he looks upon. Also analyzes any object for animation potential and sanity cost. Can be resisted.

MEND

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: Instant

Instantly repairs the target construct or object, restoring a small amount of HP, influenced by the level of this skill and the animator's will.

Okay, that last one was going to come in handy, if only to save him from using up all his tailoring supplies. Good stuff here.

Duelist was next on the list.

CHALLENGE

Level 1, Cost 5 Mox, Duration: Instant

Calls out a target to fight you. They suffer combat penalties based on your charisma unless they are actively trying to attack you. Resistible, because some foes are just too cool for you.

DAZZLING ENTRANCE

Level 1, Cost 10 Mox, Duration: Instant

Used before revealing yourself to foes, the more dramatic your appearance the better. Boosts your charisma and cool for a short time.

FANCY FLOURISH

Level 1, Cost 5 Sta, Duration: InstantReaD lat𝙚St chapters at nô(v)(𝒆)lbin.c/o/m Only

Unleash a fancy set of moves that don't hurt your foe but look really cool. Attacks their moxie.

GUARD STANCE

Level 1, Cost 10 Sta, Duration: Until dropped, or the end of the fight

Assume a guard stance, and gain a bonus to your dodge skill and armor, at the cost of lowering your strength and dexterity.

WEAPON SPECIALIST

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Passive Constant

Enhances your weapon skill. Automatically assigned to your highest weapon skill. If you have two or more equal highest weapon skills, you may freely choose which to specialize in at any time.

After looking around a bit, Threadbare figured out that mox was moxie. Duelist had the first skills he'd found that did something with that attribute pool. Could be handy, he supposed. He'd have to experiment with them later.

Enchanter was next.

APPRAISE

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 5 minutes

Allows you to see all relevant information about a mundane or magical item.

GLOWGLEAM

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 1 hour per level

Infuses any object with a simple light spell. The luminescence is based upon the caster's intelligence.

HARDEN

Level 1, Cost 10 San, Duration: 10 minutes

Increases the toughness of any object or construct temporarily, adding to its armor and/or damage potential.

SOFTEN

Level 1, Cost 10 San, Duration: 10 minutes

Decreases the toughness of any object or construct temporarily, reducing its armor and/or damage potential.

SPELLSTORE I

Level 1, Cost 10 San, Duration: Permanent

Prepares an object that stores a spell or skill inside of it. Anyone can then read, break, drink, or otherwise use the object in an appropriate manner to activate the spell. Requires and consumes one dose of RED Reagents. The enchanter does not have to be the person storing the spell inside the Spellstore.

Okay, that looked fairly interesting. Harden in particular... he was a construct, he thought, given how the class descriptions and other skills referred to him. Threadbare put that in his 'things to test later' list.

Three jobs down, five left. On to the big one. Golemist!

COMMAND GOLEM

Level 1, Cost 20 San, Duration: 1 minute per level

Allows the caster to issue one command to a golem that isn't currently in a party. If unresisted, the golem will follow the command to the best of its ability until it is impossible to do so, or until the command wears off.

GOLEM ANIMUS

Level 1, Cost 50 San, Duration: Permanent

Turns a prepared golem shell into a functional lesser golem, that will obey its creator's commands to the best of its ability.

INVITE GOLEM

Level 1, Cost 10 San, Duration: Instant

Used to invite golems into your party. Automatically affects golems created by the golemist, can be resisted by other golems. Will not affect golems in their creator's party.

TOY GOLEM

Level 1, Cost 100 San, Duration: Permanent

Allows the golemist to construct a toy golem shell. Requires a toy, one dose of YELLOW reagents, and a level 1 Crystal.

Wow, okay, those were some pretty costly skills, sanity-wise. And it required stuff he'd never heard of before, to make more toy golems. Maybe he'd look into this later, after Celia was safe.

Now, on to the model skills.

DIETARY RESTRICTIONS

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Until broken

So long as you have spent the last week without eating anything with the UNHEALTHY identifier you gain a small buff to all pools. This bonus is cumulative, up to twice your rank of this skill. Eating UNHEALTHY designated food immediately removes all versions of the buff.

FASCINATION

Level 1, Cost N/A, Duration: Dependant upon skill

Heal, aid, or otherwise be nice to an enemy in combat. If unresisted by mental fortitude, the foe will become temporarily fascinated with you, for a duration proportionate to this skill's level.

FLEX

Level 1, Cost 10 Sta, Duration: 1 minute per level

Buff your endurance and cool by the level of this skill.

SELF-ESTEEM

Level 1, Cost 10 Mox, Duration: 1 minute per level

Buff your mental fortitude and cool by the level of this skill.

WORK IT BABY

Level 1, Cost NA, Duration: Passive Constant

Whenever one of your worn or wielded items creates a favorable impression in at least one onlooker, then this skill has a chance of increasing. All worn and wielded items that confer bonuses have their bonuses increased by a small percentage for each level of this skill. Note that the difference is harder to see with lower level gear and lower levels of the skill.

That job was a lot more useful than he expected. Three of the skills didn't even require activation, or cost anything to do so! And the downside to dietary restrictions didn't matter much to a creature that never had to eat in the first place. It was pretty much free bonuses. Yeah, he could live with this. Especially with the defensive buffs that he could whip out. They didn't look like they'd last long, but that was fine, they'd get better with practice.

Was necromancer as nice? Hopefully.

ASSESS CORPSE

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 1 minute

Allows the animator to examine the status of any undead creature he looks upon. Also analyzes any corpse for animation potential and sanity cost. Can be resisted.

COMMAND THE DEAD

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 1 minute per level

Allows the caster to issue a command to a single undead creature. If unresisted, the creature most follow its orders to the best of its ability. Can also be used to invite unintelligent undead into a party, at which point they can be verbally commanded indefinitely by the caster.

SOULSTONE

Level 1, Cost: 20 San, Duration: Permanent

Creates a soulstone crystal, which can house a newly-deceased spirit or an existing incorporeal undead. A spirit in a soulstone may be conversed with, used to create a new undead, or simply unleashed upon the world at a time of the caster's choosing.

SPEAK WITH DEAD

Level 1, Cost: 5 San, Duration: 1 minute per level

Allows the necromancer to converse with corpses, spirits, or normally incoherent undead. In places with particularly strong spirits, the caster may be notified of the presence of conversable spirits.

ZOMBIES

Level 1, Cost: 10 San, Duration: Permanent

Turns a corpse into a zombie. Requires a spirit present in the area.

Threadbare didn't have any natural revulsion to the dead, or any sort of taboo against messing with them, but he didn't know how useful this was. Still, he'd had to do an awful lot of fighting in his short existence, so he knew that corpses weren't too hard to come by. Spirits? Hard to say. He did notice that unlike animators, necromancers didn't seem to have any way to heal their undead. Animated objects sounded more useful that way... though zombies were evidently permanent, whereas animi needed to be renewed when their duration was up. And golems took special stuff to build.

Mulling over the differences, he moved on to the Ruler skills.

EMBOLDENING SPEECH

Level 1, Cost: 10 Mox, Duration: Instant

Buffs all allies moxie and sanity by an amount related to the ruler's charisma. Only affects allies within earshot.

IDENTIFY SUBJECT

Level 1, Cost: 5 Mox, Duration: 5 minutes

Allows the ruler to examine a sworn subject's status screen. May also be used on people within your party, giving more information than the party status screen.

NOBLESSE OBLIGE

Level 1, Cost: N/A, Duration: Passive Constant

Buffs all sworn subjects and party members a small amount. The stat buffed is dependant upon your highest attribute.

ROYAL AUDIENCE

Level 1, Cost 10 Mox, Duration: 1 Minute per level

Buffs your charisma, but only when dealing with sworn subjects

SIMPLE DECREE

Level 1, Cost 10 Mox, Duration: Permanent until changed

Declare a simple command in twelve words or less. All sworn subjects are notified of the decree. Any who do not comply with this decree take moxie damage influenced by your charisma and wisdom, resisted by cool. Only one simple decree may be in place at a time. Simple commands may not be used to inflict suicidal or self-harmful activities.

Threadbare looked over these skills, and... well, there was that one that buffed people in his party, and one that let him restore moxie. That must have been what the rat king used, he thought, remembering back to the desperate fight in the basement.

But the rest dealt with sworn subjects. How did you get those? Maybe skills would show up later on.

The last job was up, and from what he'd seen Mordecai pull, it had some awesome stuff.

CAMOUFLAGE

Level 1, Cost 5 San/Min, Duration: Until dismissed or exhausted

Blends the Scout in with his surroundings, buffing their stealth skill. More effective in the wilderness, scales according to skill level.

FIRESTARTER

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: Instant

Creates a fire, burning any flammable material it's used upon. Intensity of the starting flames depends on the skill level.

KEEN EYE

Level 1, Cost 5 Sta, Duration: A minute per scout level

Buffs a scout's perception, effects dependent upon skill level

STURDY BACK

Level 1, Cost NA, Duration: Passive Constant

Lightens the burdens of any heavy load carried, making items literally weigh less. Does not apply to weapons and armor equipped. Higher skill level means more weight reduction

WIND'S WHISPER

Level 1, Cost 5 San, Duration: 1 message

May be activated silently. Sends a message on the wind to any named target within range. Range and amount of words speakable per message increase with skill level.

This now, this was helpful. he could see most of these coming in handy, and soon, too. There wasn't much except wilderness all around him, and this would help him avoid trouble and find what he needed out here.

Mulling it over, Threadbare flicked a pebble into the river, and watched it splash and sink. It had taken a very long time to read all those entries, and he had Celia to save. He pretty much had nothing to work with here, and nothing to gain by staying beside the river.

He was going to need help, that was the inescapable conclusion that finally meandered its way through the little bear's mind. The half-orc brothers had vanished, maybe they were still around? It was a long shot, but he didn't have very many shots right now. Threadbare thought back, to before the long sleeps and endless dark of the basement, and he remembered Garon saying something about meeting back up at Oblivion Point.

Well.

He knew how to get there, didn't he?

The little bear got up and headed into the woods.