"... So based on the logic of guys walking around the quad at college, I have two sure-fire ways to win a woman's heart. The first is get really good at guitar and play Wonderwall while leaning against a tree. Sadly, I only have talent at the kazoo, and I'm fairly certain guitar and kazoo are not interchangeable. The second is to walk around with an adorable puppy." I knelt down and rubbed Dalos' belly. He gleefully rolled onto his back to give me a better angle. "And I just have the bestest most adorable little pupper on the planet. So Dalos, I need you to make this mystery woman fall in love with me."
In the midst of enjoying his belly rubs, Dalos responded quizzically. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that my little Tindalos Hound familiar understood what I was saying.
"First, you are a complete idiot. Second, you are absolutely insufferable." Joan crossed her arms in front of her chest and scowled at me. "Third, if I didn't already understand why you were so bad with women, I would no longer have any lingering doubts. Fourth, Wonderwall?"
"All four of your points are painful, and I demand an apology. Although I think you owe Oasis an apology for your cheap shot at an alternative rock classic." Even though it might not seem like it, Joan's harsh criticisms were actually helping me calm down a little bit. After hearing what that god had planned, I definitely felt helpless. I mean, I still felt pretty helpless, but at least Joan was making sure I wasn't feeling helpless and alone.
Possibly the biggest shock of the conversation I had with that god had been that they knew about my weaknesses. From what I understood, they had no way of observing me, so it meant that someone had given that god information about me. Depending on the source, it might be more reliable than others.
There were three possibilities: Tara, Raif, and Tep.
I felt, or at least I hoped, that Tara wasn't a realistic option. I didn't understand what was going on in her head, but I didn't see her as being capable of acting as a spy. If I were to have this conversation out loud, Joan would adamantly disagree with me and would probably put Tara at the top of the list.
Raif had the best motive to share my information with that god. Aside from a very brief moment when I was pretty much catatonic after Dalos' minions committed genocide on a civilization of Deep Ones inside a cave, Raif had always been actively hostile toward me. For a brief moment, I thought I had connected with him, but he quickly proved me wrong. But if Raif really was the source of the leak, then that meant he had to have at least some communication with that god. I really didn't want to imagine that possibility because it meant I was in even more danger than I realized.
Overall, I felt that the most likely candidate across the board was Tep. Nyarlathotep the eldritch god of chaos or something, also known as Tep, was able to make direct contact with me and admitted to having direct contact with that god. We'd had a fairly in depth conversation, and I wasn't entirely sure what all I might have spilled to them. They'd been very skillful at manipulating me into an identity crisis. By the end of our brief conversation, they had me questioning if I had even been on The Love Craft, which was just absolutely impossible.
But Clay wasn't on the ship... There was no Clay on that ship.
Tep's words still echoed in my head. I had to be an absolute idiot to believe anything they said. But the thing about severe anxiety was that it could make a person paranoid over the least believable things. I knew I was on that ship. Joan had confirmed that she'd talked to me just like I remembered. There was also that man-bun guy that cowered in fear when I reminded him that I was five eleven and a half feet tall. He definitely didn't give me a wedgie and throw me in the trash like a free U2 album on your smartphone. On top of that, as much as I wished it weren't true, other people had watched and laughed, so I was at least memorable to some people who were likely still alive in this game.
Back to the matter at hand, was it Tep that leaked my personal information to that god? They had admitted to being tasked with killing me, but they also admitted to not being too keen on assisting that god. Although I'm not the best judge of character (I'm the worst judge of character, literally the worst), but I couldn't help but feel like Tep had his own motives. Sharing my information to that god would get in the way of their long term goals.
So what did it all mean? I had to be extra cautious around Raif... and Tara, I guess. If they acted as a spy, they also had access to that god, and likely meant they had other advantages that I wasn't aware of. If it had been Tep, I needed to be extra careful. I already didn't trust them, but I would need to really watch my mouth if they ever appeared in front of me again.
I had to be extra cautious around Raif... and Tara? What was I thinking? If I was going to be spending any time worrying about Tara, then I should have been spending it by finding her. She disappeared near the end of the last investigation, and I still wasn't sure why. I thought things were going well, but when I looked up after pursuing a lead, she had run off. I could only hope that she hadn't run into Raif. The two most likely possibilities were that she was either alone in this new world, or she was with Raif. Neither of those options gave me anything but anxiety.
"We don't have time to focus on any of these other distractions. We need to find Tara before anything else." I turned to Joan with unclouded eyes.
"Why does it feel like the only times you get serious are when it involves that traitor?" She did little to hide her disgust.
"My my, Miss Joan, do I sense jealousy?" I did my best attempt at a southern belle accent, but I think I probably sounded more like Foghorn Leghorn from Looney Tunes.
A sharp death glare told me that I was treading dangerous waters. "Your naivety will get both of us killed. You should reevaluate your loyalties."
"Joan..." My heart sank because I could sense that she felt betrayed. I owed so much to Joan, and she'd never done anything to make me question it. I don't know if I'd ever had someone in my life who had shown me this level of loyalty. "I know that I'm not being fair, but I can't just leave things as they are. We agreed to go after her as soon as we could, so please don't go back on your word."
She clicked her tongue, realizing I had a point. After a moment, she appeared to recover her confidence. "Fine, but I'll ask you this... Where are we going to look? We don't have any leads. Are we just going to walk aimlessly?"
"We could..." I wanted to disagree, but I had nothing. "We could look for leads..."
"If we were pursuing the investigation, we could still look for leads on Tara. In fact, if she were pursing the investigation, we'd have a better chance finding her if we were also pursuing the investigation instead of wandering around aimlessly." Every word Joan spoke rang of truth. I'd really let my emotions control my actions. This was why I needed Joan, she kept me in check. "Besides, don't we have to do that dice thing again? Weren't your stats supposed to reset between investigations? I mean, you understand it more than me, but you made it seem pretty important last time."
Joan was referring to a peculiar mechanic between our in-game abilities. Along with being constantly reminded that I wasn't invited to this game (but I also wasn't aloud to leave without dying), my stats were incredibly glitchy. As +h3 /\/u11, which was how my occupation read on my character sheet, my stats all showed up as errors.
I pulled out my journal to confirm my current stats. I held my hand in front of me and spoke the word "Journal" causing the black leatherbound book to appear in my hand. I opened it up to the first page to look at my stats.
Investigator: (14Y
Occupation: +h3 /\/u11
Str: error
Dex: error +3
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Con: error +3
Int: error
Wis: error
Cha: error
Just as Joan had implied, my stats had been reset. Unlike last time, they included the modifiers I'd added after leveling up after the first investigation, but I'd be a dead-man-walking if I didn't fix the situation before exiting our safe room.
Luckily, among Joan's abilities was a curious skill called Character Sheet. The skill allowed her to roll dice for the stats of a player who didn't already have completed stats. In other words, her ability existed specifically for me and nobody else. It was a mystery we had yet to solve, but somehow my existence and her abilities were designed to keep the two of us together. We had no idea who provided the two of us with these unique circumstances, but for the time being I was just grateful that I had a method to at least give me a fighting chance.
In reality, the situation gave Joan almost no incentive to stick around. Outside of the potential guilt she'd feel if she left me for dead, she wouldn't really lose anything if she abandoned me. On the other hand, I was entirely dependent on her. If she abandoned me, as soon as a new investigation started, I would be completely helpless.
I really was grateful to Joan. I literally owed her my life. But I still made her put up with my constant tangents and weaknesses.
I needed to do better.
"It's just like we guessed. Everything is back to looking like an error. We'll need to roll everything again. Can you use your ability?" I took a deep breath as I watched Joan summon her dice. Just like before, three six sided dice appeared. The dice were translucent with some sort of fog swirling around inside. Due to my repeated experiences with miasma since entering this world, I was certain that the swirling fog inside the dice was miasma. The numbers on the dice glowed red. Along with the dice, a paper character sheet with my information appeared. We placed the materials on the desk between us.
"You're going to have to walk me through this." It was refreshing to have Joan rely on me. I was so dependent on her, but there were rare moments where she needed me. I wasn't used to the feeling of people depending on me, so even though it felt nice, it was also a little embarrassing.
So anyway, her ability worked like this:
-
Joan rolled the dice and added up the numbers.
-
The number was automatically assigned to the next available stat.
-
The stats went in the order: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA
Since she had leveled up her Character Sheet ability at the end of the last investigation, there would also be the opportunity to increase some skills or something. To be honest, we'd have to figure it out when we got to that point because it was still a complete mystery to me.
First we had to get the rolls out of the way. After rolling my stats, I was left with these updated numbers:
STR: 7
DEX: 10 +3 (13)
CON: 16 +3 (19)
INT: 8
WIS: 14
CHA: 9
On the last investigation, I had to rely heavily on dexterity since my stats were incredibly high. This time, my ability was just slightly above average. My strength was also very low, so I'd be hurting in direct combat. With my constitution being high, I would at least be pretty durable in combat, but I couldn't directly cause much damage. My intelligence and charisma were low, but I hadn't relied on them in the first investigation.
The biggest wildcard was my high wisdom stat. Wisdom was the stat typically connected to things like animal handling, insight, and perception. If I was correct, my high wisdom stat might give me a major edge this time around. Unlike last investigation, I had an incredibly powerful weapon. My Hound of Tindalos puppy, Dalos.
As I looked down at Dalos proudly, I heard an odd noise and saw a cloud of miasma spread from his rear. Did he just fart miasma?! Dalos met my eyes with his adorable glowing yellow orbs, which showed a hint of embarrassment.
Blame it on the four dimensional, legendary, eldritch canine.
I took a moment to briefly explain my new stats to Joan, but she didn't seem to understand or care.
"You're the one who has to deal with them. As long as you know what they mean, that's all that matters." Joan must have realized I had noticed her apathetic attitude and chose to defend herself.
"So now we should be able to do something with skills. Do you have any instructions?" I wasn't able to see the contents of Joan's journal, so I could only watch her as she scanned through her journal.
"It says we can increase two basic skills based on their modifier. I don't really know what any of that means, but it lists off a bunch of abilities." Her voice was confused. She didn't have any experience with table top gaming mechanics, so most of this must have seemed like random words to her. "Acrobatics, Performance, Slight of Hand, Deception..."
I immediately recognized what her ability was implying. I was also very familiar with the skills she was listing. It further supported a theory I had about the mechanics of my character in this death game.
From what I had seen in the last investigation, the other players all followed mechanics similar to the Call of Cthulhu table-top game. Meanwhile, my stats followed a much more common table-top RPG mechanic. Not only did their specific listed stats not directly match up with mine (for instance instead of charisma, they had appearance) but the numbers allocated next to the stats were on completely different scales. For my stats, 10 was considered average. For the others their numbers were based on percentages, so 50 would be the closest equivalent to one of my stats being 10. If I had a strength stat of 50, I would be like Saitama from One-Punch Man just absolutely destroying anything with a single punch. If Joan had a strength stat of 50, her strength would be an average person's strength.
The skills Joan had started to list were common to the typical table-top role play game mechanics. In fact, two of the most popular fantasy role play games used nearly identical skills lists. These skills would be triggered in specific circumstances and would increase the likelihood of success in those situations. For instance, if I had a +5 in stealth, I would be much more likely to sneak past a person without being noticed. The skills were typically determined by a character's base stats. Since 10 was considered average, it came with a modifier of 0. I wasn't sure of the exact mechanics of this game, but numbers above 10 should be a positive modifier, and numbers below would be a negative modifier.
For a person familiar with table top RPGs, this system was fairly common. There were always casual players in each campaign that I played who didn't really understand any of the numbers. They usually just relied on the game master to tell them what to roll and what modifiers to apply in each situation. Helping Joan complete my character sheet reminded me of some of the less miserable times of my past life. As long as I didn't think about my former best friend and my former fiancée, I could see this all as pleasant nostalgia.
Damnit! Now I was thinking about Kyle and Stacy. Why did it always have to come to this. Couldn't I just forget about them? I was having a pleasant moment, but just like when they betrayed me, they had to ruin everything.
"Focus!" Thankfully Joan pulled me out of my downward spiral of a tangent. It was uncanny how she was able to identify when my mental state was declining. I had always doubted her claims of being a playwright were false, mostly because she had yet to convince me that theaters and plays still existed. Why would a person see a play when there were countless seasons of anime to watch? Joan's ability seemed much more like a counselor or a psychiatrist than a playwright.
"Sorry." I took a breath before I forced myself back on track. "I have two skills to increase according to your description. So... Are animal handling and insight on the list?"
"Yes, they are..." Joan looked at me, clearly impressed. I didn't want to ruin this rare moment of approval by letting her know that my guess wasn't anything particularly advanced. "They both have WIS next to them."
"Choose those." I was almost giddy as I watched the character sheet in my journal update with two new skills. There was an additional notification, but I focused on the skills first.
Animal Handling: +4
Insight: +4
I had actually been expecting the modifier to only be +2, so for it to be +4 made me practically shake with excitement.
"So, I know I said I didn't care, but what do those two things do?" I was surprised to see Joan showing interest.
"I mean, this is just an educated guess based on experience with similar games..." I didn't want to be overconfident, but I was almost positive I understood exactly what these skills would do for me. "Animal handling gives me a boost to the likelihood of succeeding in situations with training and interacting with an animal, specifically Dalos. It would also help with some non-combat actions toward animals we'd run across."
Her eyes lit up. It wasn't hard for her to understand why I'd immediately chosen that skill. "That should help out a lot, especially since you just started training him."
I puffed out my chest, finding myself feeling a little cocky. "That's not all. The insight skill..." For most people this wouldn't be a huge issue, but I had always been inconsistent in reading the intentions of others. I was even more excited for the benefits I'd gain from having Insight. "It increases my ability to read the actions of others. Like if someone is trying to deceive me, or what a person's expressions mean."
"Now you don't have an excuse for being dense." Joan could have definitely worded her reaction in a much less confrontational manner, but she had a point. She also didn't know the contents of the other notification I'd received. For the moment, I'd keep that to myself since I wasn't sure exactly how it would function. I didn't want her to set the bar too high for me.
I turned my attention back to the additional notification when I'd increased my insight skill.
Congratulations!
Due to your increased Insight skill, one of your abilities has temporarily evolved.
Read the Room has gained a temporary ability.
User will occasionally be provided with additional information on targets:
Intention, Emotion, Motive
"All things considered, I'm pretty pumped about my skills for this investigation." I patted Dalos's head, making sure he understood that he was a major portion of my newfound confidence. "So let's head out. Who knows where Tara is, and I don't want to be too late to help her. I know we'll be focusing on figuring out the investigation, but we can look for clues to her whereabouts as well."
"Of course. I'll do everything I can to help you look for her while we focus on the investigation." She smiled as she got up from her leather chair.
I remained seated because a new notification appeared in front of Joan. My new evolved ability had triggered already.
Player is attempting to deceive User
Emotion: Unknown
Motive: Unknown
"What's wrong, Clay? Didn't you say you wanted to hurry?" She smiled and I could see a slight sparkle in her hazel eyes. "Focus!"
The notification disappeared.
"Sorry... Just got lost in another one of my tangents." I awkwardly forced a smile as I climbed to my feet.
What was that?!