Shire: "You're all still with me here? For serious? Good! I decided to continue with showing the rest of character creation, or at least feats, skills, and shopping. To Ikaru Kakou, who has disabled PMs, shopping does take the most time in my experience, because you do it in conjunction with feat selection. For instance, a Fighter is proficient in all simple and martial weapons and in all shields and gets a bonus feat for being a fighter, so a human fighter starts off with three feats he/she can select. Now, you take a look at the equipment list after having rolled for starting gold and say to yourself, "Now, what do I want?" keeping in mind that you still need money for additional clothes and amenities useful for adventuring (ten-foot pole, pot, bedroll, waterskin…), and you also need to consider whether or not you are going to require a pack animal such as a donkey, or if you are going to have a horse. If you are going to have a horse and want to fight on horseback eventually, you'll also want to take mounted feats and might want focus in a weapon such as a lance, but lances also take a -2 penalty on enemies within 10' because they have reach.
"In summary, shopping CAN take forever. And yes, while Ninja is the first class in Complete Adventurer, Pence would rather have Yuffie, newbie to the game, only deal with her class features through referencing the Player's Handbook like the other six so that they're all on the same page. The only different thing is going to be Naminé and the others when they get spells due to the Unearthed Arcana influence. Plus, Johnny C. Norris will get Lay on Hands at level 2, so he'll be able to heal 2 points of damage multiplied by his Cha mod (which I believe is +3). Now disclaimer?"
Sora: "You're a geek."
Shire: "Yes, and?"
Sora: "Just saying. This geek doesn't own us, Disney, Final Fantasy, or the Forgotten Realms, although he does own the character sheets we're making up."
-A-D-
Tables of the Keyblade
Chapter II: Shopping
"Hold on a second!" Kairi said as Pence prepared to pack away his books. "Why don't we finish this off tonight so that we can start actually playing later?"
"But you didn't tell Helia to cook for us," Riku pointed out.
"Phsh, we can order in pizza," Kairi told him flippantly.
Pence shrugged thoughtfully and ceased in putting his books and dice away. They were more eager to do this than he'd thought. "Okay. So, physical description, feats, skills, or shopping first?"
Kairi shook her head and stood up. "Actually, first I'm going to let them know that we won't be coming down for supper and will be ordering pizza. Wait up for me." The auburn-haired princess went to the door and quickly opened it and slipped out. She quietly shut the door, glancing up and down the hallway. Neither Alton nor Harland were in sight.
Sighing in relief, Kairi summoned her white Keyblade, Crowning Flame, into her right hand and tapped the door with it. She heard the lock click on the other side. This was the only way she and Naminé could be sure that the kids wouldn't enter Naminé's art studio, by having the door's lock built so that it could only be unlocked from the inside unless a person carried a Keyblade.
Kairi smiled slightly in satisfaction that their secret was still secure—beyond Hayner, Selphie, Tidus, Wakka, and Agatha—and went down the carpeted hall in her sock feet until she reached the main stairs at the centre of the house. She had just gotten to the landing when two little persons who had been thundering up the stairs in a race collided with her. Kairi shouted in distress and slight pain as she fell onto her bum and back.
"Oh Kaipee!" Alton said merrily, grinning up at her face from a spot just beneath her breasts on top of her pink t-shirt, Harland rolling off of his older brother and onto the carpet, giggling like a maniac. "We were just looking for you and Pantiné."
The pain left her and Kairi's head shot up. "Hey!" she snarled. "What have we said about calling us that?"
"I can't remember," Alton said innocently, even though Kairi knew as much as he did that she and Naminé scolded him and his brother for those nicknames at least twice a day.
Sometimes she really wanted to punch the two of them right in the nose.
"Mommy told us to get you two and the robot and Roxas for supper," Harland said.
Fire glinted in Kairi's eyes, and she shot Harland a look so sharp he recoiled as if her glance had been a sword's blade. Alton leapt off of her chest as if shocked. "What was that?" she growled in a low tone, her voice reminding them that she'd killed before and could kill again. Kairi could take them calling her Kaipee because of how juvenile they were, she could take them calling her sister Pantiné and Agatha Agabum because of their habit of unconsciously stripping down to their underwear when they felt too warm because of the crazy ice magic training Ur had put them through…
But one thing she'd stamp out of them was calling Sora a robot, even if she had to beat them to an inch from death.
"Mom said to get you and Naminé and Sora and Roxas for supper," Alton repeated, cowering with his brother. They consistently forgot just how scary their new sisters could be when roused.
Kairi stood, and when she looked at the two boys again it was with a smile. She'd flipped the switch. "Good," she said brightly. "That's what I thought you said. Anyway, you can tell Kaylee and Ovan that we're sorry but we won't be coming down for supper tonight. We're doing something with our friends and want to finish it tonight so we're ordering pizza."
The very word 'pizza' had that magic effect on the boys that made them forget that Kairi had implied that she had no qualms in killing them to protect her man's honour just moments before. "Pizza?" Harland asked. "Can we have a slice? Please? Pretty please Kairi?"
"With whipped cream and a cherry on top?" Alton pleaded. "And if you're having a pizza and movie party can we watch too?"
"No, we're not having a movie party and no, you can't come," Kairi said firmly.
"Well then what are you doing? And can we still have pizza?"
"What are we doing?"
Alton nodded. "Yeah, what are you doing Your Lady Princess Kairi, the beautiful Wielder of Light and most esteemed Dragon Knight of Radiant Garden?"
The fact that he was trying to butter her up barely a minute after calling her 'Kaipee' only solidified how much he and his brother wanted pizza. "What we're doing," she repeated, "we're doing…" What were they doing? There was no way she could tell them that they were playing Dungeons and Dragons. Oh Light, what were they doing?
"Math!" she exclaimed triumphantly.
"Math?" Alton and Harland repeated.
"And anthropology!" she elaborated. "And mythology! Tough level high school homework. You wouldn't be interested in it at all. We need all the pizza and cockatrice wings and coke we can get to keep our energy up while we're doing it, so we won't be down for supper. Okay?"
"Can we have—?"
"No," Kairi answered simply, turning back down towards the studio. She could hear them thundering after her. Even on carpet, those two were never quiet. She was forced to stop as weight suddenly appeared around her ankles.
"Can we please, please, please have some pizza Your Highness?" the two pleaded, cute and innocent faces looking up at the princess. "We'll do anything."
Kairi had been about to retort 'no' when she stopped herself. Twisting around to look at the pair latched onto her legs, Kairi looked down. Both of them were looking up at her with smiles on their faces.
Except, they weren't exactly looking up at her face, their eyes were being drawn to underneath the white miniskirt she was wearing. Angry blood filled all the veins and arteries and capillaries beneath the skin of her cheeks and Kairi screamed, "You little perverts!" before kicking each of them off, sending the boys flying twelve feet down the hall until they landed and rolled on the carpet. Neither seemed to care about the bruises that would later form on their bodies, they just rolled and laughed and giggled. Incensed, Kairi tromped back to the studio.
She'd just taken out her Keyblade and unlocked the door when a voice called from behind her. "Wait!" Kairi recognized the voice as Agatha's and so paused, turning to look at the handmaiden of her sister. "If you call for the pizza," she said, "I'll wait for it at the door and call you when it gets here, but could I come in with you guys and have some?"
Kairi's eyes widened in slight surprise before she grinned. "Want to try your hand at playing Agatha?"
"No," the nineteen-year-old replied vehemently. "I just want some pizza and to get away from those two. I'll watch you guys and laugh though." Kairi nodded.
"Okay, come in. You can help us order." Agatha smiled and followed Kairi into the room, shutting the door behind the two.
"—you're mad. Salt and pepper are the best."
"No Sora, you're crazy," Yuffie fired back. "Teriyaki sauce is the best thing to put on cockatrice wings!"
"I prefer honey garlic," Naminé said, the group of six pouring over a take-out menu from their favourite pizza place.
"Naminé," Kairi began as she and Agatha approached the table, all the sheets, pencils, and books lying abandoned for the moment. "You know that you took your shirt off right?"
"Yeah, they told me," the blonde replied nonchalantly, wearing only a simple black bra on her chest above her beige short shorts, her white shirt lying in a rumpled pile on the other side of the room. "But it's hot and everyone here's seen me in my underwear anyway so who really cares?"
"I care," Roxas muttered under his breath, not that anyone heard his complaint.
"So one large cheese, one large ham and pineapple, one large meat lover's, one large vegetarian, and one large steak and cheese," Riku asked aloud, "with three two-litre cokes and two dozen wings?"
"Half of them salt and pepper," Sora insisted.
"No, hot and spicy!" Roxas countered. The brothers pressed their foreheads together.
"Salt and pepper!"
"Hot and spicy!"
"Salt and pepper!"
"Hot and spicy!"
"Roxas," Sora growled, "don't make me pull rank on you."
"We're not doing any Keyblade-related stuff Sora, you can't pull rank on me like that."
"Just watch me."
Agatha sighed and went up to the two sixteen-year-olds. Grabbing each of them by a fistful of their insane spiky hairstyles, she pulled their heads back before slamming them together again. "Honey garlic," the oldest of the eight people currently gathered in the room declared. "All of them."
"Honey garlic it is," Riku agreed.
"Good choice," said Olette, giggling a little at the dazed looks on Sora and Roxas.
-A-D-
"Okay," Pence said, grabbing a slice of cheese as Riku closed the door and Sora locked it, the last of their supplies inside the studio, "so have you guys come up with physical descriptions for your characters yet?"
"I have," Kairi said. "Eletra Greenwood is nineteen years old, five feet and nine inches tall, one hundred and thirty pounds, fair-skinned, with blue eyes and shoulder-length raven-black hair which she keeps in a braid down the back of her neck."
"Pretty nice," Sora said, nodding his head.
"Yeah," Kairi said, smiling, "and her appearance stat is fourteen. So she is pretty. Oh, and she also has a small green, brown, and blue tattoo of a butterfly on her left upper arm."
"Thinking of getting a tat Kairi?" Roxas asked.
She blushed and shrugged. "Well maybe…"
"We can work on what they look like on our own," Riku said. "Johnny C. Norris wants his weapons."
Sora nodded in agreement. "Especially since my fighter can't have a Keyblade."
"Sora, if you shut up about the Keyblade, I'll let you have a mastercraft longsword as part of your staring gear even though you're not playing a preferred class of Silverymoon," Pence told him.
"Alright!" Sora fist-pumped. "What's a mastercraft longsword?"
"A +1 longsword. It adds one to every attack roll you make, but not every damage roll you make. A magic +1 longsword adds one to both."
"What's the difference between an attack roll and a damage roll?" Yuffie asked.
"An attack roll is when you roll a d20 to see whether or not your attack actually hits the enemy or not. You only roll for damage if your attack roll succeeds," Olette replied.
"Okay…" Kairi said, in between gnawing bites on her honey garlic wing piece. She loved cockatrice wings, especially since they were almost twice the size of a chicken wing; lots more meat on the bones. "So I was thinking, should I even get a melee weapon for my ranger? I've got a bow right?"
Pence nodded his head, and swallowed. He took a sip from the cup he'd poured his pop into. "Since you're from Silverymoon and Ranger is a preferred class for that region, you can actually start with a mastercraft longbow instead of having to buy one."
"Buy one?" Roxas asked incredulously through a mouthful of meat lover's pizza. "You men we can't jus haf our weapons?"
Pence shook his head. "Have to roll for starting gold and then buy them," he answered. "After that, you can spend your gold on whatever you want."
The group of seven nodded while Agatha hung back, half keeping Bast from jumping in on anyone or their pizza boxes. They ate and drank while each looked over both the list of equipment in the Player's Handbook, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (which Pence finally relented to show them so they could look at the regional equipment available to them), and Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue.
"Want to roll for starting gold?" Pence asked after a few more minutes, in which there were mutterings and grumblings about what sort of weapons each one would like to have or other pieces of equipment.
"Sure," Sora said. He took another two big bites of his pizza and chewed a little before swallowing. The brunet took a swig from his pop. "What do I roll?"
"You're a fighter, so you'll roll a d4 six times and then multiply it by ten," Pence answered. The jet-haired teen set his second slice aside on a napkin and wiped his hand on his jeans before handing Sora the four-sided pyramidal die.
Clack-clack-clack
"Four."
Clack-clack-clack
"Eight."
Clack-clack-clack
"Nine."
Clack-clack-clack
"Eleven."
Clack-clack-clack
"Fifteen."
Clack-clack-clack
"Nineteen. So, I get one hundred and ninety gold then right?"
Pence looked at Sora's rolls in partial amazement. "Yes, yes you do. That's rolling really well Sora. I'm kinda considering withdrawing my offer to give you a mastercraft longsword for free to shut you up on the Keyblade."
"What's the difference between a mastercraft longsword and a regular one besides the +1?" asked Sora.
"Three hundred gold pieces," Pence answered. Sora's jaw dropped and eyes around the table widened.
"Three hundred gold?" Naminé asked, astounded.
"Hey, it's mastercraft."
Sora cupped his hands together. "May I please have that mastercraft sword, oh great and powerful dungeon master?"
Pence rolled his eyes, but he had to admit that Sora pleading for something from his was something he could get used to. "Sure, fine."
"Yippee!" cried Sora. "Okay, so I've got 190gp and a mastercraft longsword. Now then, what else do I want for my fighter?"
"While he's going through the shopping list why don't the rest of you roll for gold?" Pence asked.
They did so. Riku rolled 130gp, Kairi earned herself 140gp and Olette 160gp for the two rangers, Roxas took away 100gp for his rolls and Naminé wound up with only 70gp. Yuffie really lucked out though, and declared that her halfling rogue was from the city of Waterdeep and so claimed 300gp from the regional equipment she was permitted as well as a further 90gp from rolling Pence's four-sided die.
"Okay," Riku said, having decided sooner than Sora after consultations with Pence. "Johnny C. Norris will take the mastercraft chain shirt as my regional equipment for being a paladin from Silverymoon, and that will give me an armour class bonus of +4, and I'll also buy a greatsword for 50gp."
"What's armour class again?" Naminé asked.
"The chance for an enemy to not hit you," Pence said. "When you attack, your attack roll has to be higher than an enemy's AC, and when they attack it needs to be higher than your AC to hit you and deal damage. Stor, Johnny, and Balin should probably have higher ACs because they're the front line fighters."
"Bah," Roxas said. "Balin doesn't really need a high AC. He's a barbarian. Besides, I'm taking the dwarven waraxe as my regional gear."
"What region is your dwarf from?" Pence asked.
"Dwarf, shield," Roxas answered. "It says I can declare that my dwarf's region is his race, even though he's from that Silverymoon city place."
"But he's a barbarian," Pence muttered, frowning. "I don't think they can…"
"It says for favoured regions for barbarians that some shield dwarves become them," Roxas argued. "So that means that I can pick from the dwarf, shield equipment, right?"
"I'll allow it," Pence said after a second. "That's mastercraft then?"
"Yes."
"Seems all you guys are taking mastercraft if you can except for Yuffie."
"Why wouldn't we?" Naminé asked. "If we get a bonus for it, why wouldn't we take something offered like that?"
"Okay, I've decided," Sora declared. "I'm going to have that longsword, thanks Pence, but I'm also going to take a composite longbow and forty arrows, a heavy wooden shield, and scale mail."
"Alright," Kairi noted as Sora wrote this information down on his sheet while she double checked the prices. "So you're spending… one hundred on the bow, fifty on the armour, seven on the shield and two on the arrows, one hundred fifty-nine gold out of your one hundred ninety."
"Yeah."
"So you have thirty-one pieces left."
"Yes Kairi, I know."
"And your character still doesn't have any clothes."
"Yes Kairi, I know; I'm on it. What about you? Does your ranger prefer to run around the woods naked?"
"Don't worry," she groaned back, "I'm going to buy clothes."
"Just so long as your ranger doesn't buy too many outfits Kairi," Yuffie told her. "She doesn't need ballroom dancing clothes while out in the middle of the woods."
"But you never know when you might want fancy clothes," Kairi protested. "You never know when you might be invited into the palace of a king and will want to wear clothes that don't have mud and dirt all over them."
"I'm pretty sure Lady Alustriel doesn't care if you come before her dressed like the forester your character is Kairi," Pence said. He grinned. "But she might care if you're naked."
"Fine," Kairi grumbled. "I won't blow all my gold on clothes."
"So I'll get a traveller's outfit," Sora declared. "That's got boots, wool breeches, a belt, a shirt which I'll take with a vest since it doesn't increase the price, and a cloak. All of that is one gold. And at the same time, I'll buy…" he looked in Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue, "leather gauntlets for two gold, and then a backpack, a bedroll, three candles, flint and steel, a hooded lantern, a mug, two flasks of oil, wait, forget the lantern and oil but I will take a flask, an iron pot, fifty feet of hemp rope, a belt pouch, a sack, a signal whistle, four torches, and a whetstone. So that's… two gold for the backpack, one silver for the bedroll, three copper for the candles, three copper for the flask, one gold for the flint and steel, two copper for the mug, five silver for the pot, one gold for the belt pouch, one gold for the rope, one silver for the sack, eight silver for the whistle, four copper for the torches, and two copper for the whetstone. Including the clothes, that's 8gp, 15sp, and 14cp."
"No waterskin?" Pence asked him. "You're going to adventure without a means to carry water?"
"Oops," Sora mumbled sheepishly. "I'll add in two waterskins then. There. Ten gold, fifteen silver, and fourteen copper is my total."
"Money in this is in tens right?" Naminé asked. "Ten copper to a silver and ten silver to a gold?" Pence nodded. "So in other words, you're spending eleven gold, six silver, and four copper. So you'll have nineteen gold, three silver, and six copper left."
"I think that's enough to stand on," Sora replied, "looking at these prices."
"So besides my greatsword," said Riku. "Johnny C. Norris is going to take a traveler's outfit as well, along with a lot of the same things that Stor is getting, but he'll also have a healer's kit for fifty gold, the hooded lantern and two pints of oil for seven gold pieces and two silver, a map case, a vial of ink, an inkpen, five pieces of parchment, and a sledge; and four javelins. So it cost Stor Stormwind ten gold pieces, fifteen silver pieces, and fourteen copper pieces for his gear, and it'll cost Johnny C. Norris another… fifty for the kit, fifty-seven with the lantern, fifty-eight with the map case, sixty-six with the ink, sixty-seven with the sledge, seventy-one with the javelins… crap, I don't have enough money. Scratch the javelins, so it'll cost me seventy-seven gold, twenty-six silver, and fourteen copper. Seventy-nine gold, seven silver, and four copper out of my eighty gold."
Roxas gave a low whistle. "Wow, the paladin's broke."
"Johnny C. Norris also has a greatsword," Riku reminded him.
"Johnny C. Norris also has no money for a day's worth of trail rations," Pence corrected him. "So you might want to think of dropping some of that stuff so that you can at least get some food."
"Johnny C. Norris doesn't need to buy food, food flocks to him in the wilderness."
"You don't have survival as a class skill."
"I'm pretty sure either one of our rangers would hunt for him if he asked nicely," Riku put out, looking at Kairi and Olette. They shared sceptical looks with one another. "His appearance is seventeen," he reminded them with a cheeky grin.
"Riku just drop the lantern and oil," Pence told him. "Then you'll at least have some spending money for food when you guys have to go out adventuring."
"Fine, I'll drop the lantern and oil. That'll free up seven gold and two silver for food. I still say I could get the rangers to hunt for me."
"You probably could, but don't risk it," Yuffie said.
In the back at the coffee table, Agatha just shook her head as she helped herself to more pizza. "My masters are such geeks," she sighed, even though she was smiling lovingly. There came a knock on the door. "Nobody's in here!" she called.
"Kairi, Naminé," called a male voice, "open this door please."
The twin princesses glanced at each other. It was their godfather, Ovan Ramius. "I'll go," Kairi said quickly, "you're shopping right now." Most of the activity within the room ceased as numerous eyes followed the auburn-haired girl to the door at the edge of the room. "Yes?" Kairi asked, opening the door up a crack.
"How's your homework coming along?" Ovan asked. "The boys said that it was math, and ancordopy and mythology?"
"Anthropology," Kairi politely corrected him, "and it's coming along very well."
The man frowned. "Funny, I don't remember anthropology being taught in high schools these days." A little bit of panic crossed through Kairi's mind.
"We're studying it on our own," she replied quickly. He nodded his head from behind the door, just catching sight of the books open on the table.
"Good. It's a good thing for a future queen to know," he remarked, looking towards Naminé through the crack of the door. "Just make sure that you and your friends aren't up too late hanging out when you're done. Oh, and Kairi," the girl stopped as she had begun to close the door.
"Yes?" she asked cautiously.
"They also told me that you kicked them across the hallway."
At this Kairi frowned and spoke with complete justification. "They looked up my skirt," she grumbled with a grimace. Ovan nodded his head as if he'd thought that it was something like that, and bid her once again that they not stay up too late. Kairi nodded and shut the door before locking it and listening. She could hear his feet padding away from the doorway.
"Good, he believed it," she said. "And he even saw the books."
"He saw the books open to text and tables without seeing their covers," Olette said, "and from that distance he wouldn't have been able to read any of it."
"True," Kairi agreed. She took another slice of vegetarian.
"Pence, would I really need a weapon?" Naminé asked. "I mean, I'm a wizard."
"You're a level one wizard," Pence told her flatly. "Just what can you do?"
"Well, I have all cantrips and I can choose any four first level spells from the Player's Handbook, Book of Erotic Fantasy, and Spell Compendium right?"
Pence frowned slightly. "Run the first level spells you want by me and I'll see if you can have them or not."
"Orb of Cold (lesser), Ray of Flame, Block the Seed, and Unseen Servant."
Pence flipped through the books. He took another bite of his pizza. "Yeah, okay, you can have those four. Even so, you're going to want a weapon because you'll only start with three spell points, so you'll only have three casts of any two first level spells for the whole day and five casts of any four cantrips. That probably won't be enough for an encounter, so you will want a weapon."
Naminé sighed. "Great. But then again, I am level one. Okay, so weapons. I'm proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, and quarterstaff, and I'm not proficient with any armours or shields. I'm from Silverymoon with a preferred class, but I'm not proficient with anything being offered as extra starting equipment, so I'll take the mastercraft chain shirt because it's being offered but I'll sell it back for half of its listed price. A mastercraft chain shirt would cost… 250gp, so I'll get 125gp back from it to start with 215gp. Now, using that, I'll buy a light crossbow for 35gp and thirty bolts for 3gp, and I'll take a quarterstaff because it's free and a dagger for 2gp. Wait, can I switch out Ray of Flame for Magic Weapon?"
"Yes," Pence told her.
"Okay," Naminé said, erasing Ray of Flame from her list of spells and writing in Magic Weapon. "I'll have a scholar's outfit, a backpack, a bedroll, a tent, five candles, a spellbook, two vials of ink, three inkpens, a hooded lantern, two flasks of oil, a bottle of wine and a glass, a dozen sheets of paper, six pitons for my tent and a hammer, a half-pound of soap, a waterskin, two sunrods and six tindertwigs, an hourglass, a pony and riding saddle, two saddlebags, black linen hosiery and black hose supporters, insect netting for the tent, fine linen gloves, a red girdle with gold floral embroidery, silver silk dancing shoes, and dark brown hard low boots; oh, and a linen purse with wire mesh netting to keep thieves from cutting it and the letters 'I' and 'M' embroidered on the purse."
"A pony?" Yuffie laughed. "Well, looks like miss wizard here enjoys the comfy life."
"And she blows her money on clothes and shoes," Kairi exclaimed.
"She probably does," Pence muttered. "It costs her one thousand gold pieces a year for tuition at The Lady's College in Silverymoon as a level one wizard."
Naminé shrugged. "Well let's see how much I've got left. I started with 215gp." She muttered to herself as she did the math. "Now I've got 13gp and 2sp," she declared. Her mind started to whirl. "Crap. If I've got loads of tuition to pay each year, I'm going to have to find a way to get another thousand gold pieces for the next year's tuition."
"Hence adventuring," Riku told her.
"Or less partying," Kairi added with a smile. Naminé stuck her tongue out at her sister.
"You might gain a level," Pence said, "and then you'd need 1,500gp."
Naminé squealed in distress.
"Wait a sec," Olette said. "You said that you started with 70gp and gained 125gp from selling back the chain shirt?"
"Yes," Naminé said.
"Then you didn't have 215gp, you had 195gp. Going off that, you're six gold and eight silver in debt."
"Then I'll change it from having bought and resold a mastercraft chain shirt for 125gp from its cost of 250gp, and I'll take the mastercraft longbow for 375gp and sell it back for 187gp and 5sp. So adding that to my original 70gp gives me 257gp and 5sp, which is 42gp and 5sp more than what I believed to have had before, so if I don't buy anything else, which I won't, I'll still have 55gp and 2sp."
"And all that means is that you have a bit more money in your pocket," Sora said. "So you won't have to worry so much about being broke, like Riku."
"Hey, I'm not broke anymore," Riku returned.
The other party members all purchased somewhat the same items, backpacks, bedrolls, waterskins, travelling clothes, torches and the like. Innohnine was still the only one to keep an animal, and Furindy took a small mandolin and remained with the largest amount of gold—but she'd also started with the greatest amount—and Balin Stoneaxe was taking with him a gallon of ale in a jug.
"He's a dwarf," Roxas justified. "He likes his drink!"
"Cheers to the dwarf!" Sora shouted. "We can all have a drink after battle."
"You guys can have your ale," Naminé said politely, "but my wizard will drink slowly from her bottle of wine."
"Who says that we'll let you bring your wine?" Roxas asked.
"Well who says that your dwarf can bring along his cask of ale?" Naminé countered. "Or that he'll even be able to carry it?"
"I don't have too much weight on me," Roxas replied dismissively.
"But will you be able to carry it?" Pence asked. "You don't have a baggage animal."
"We have a pony," Olette said.
"She's my riding pony," Naminé retorted, "and she won't be used for carrying a dwarf's beer."
"Whatever," Pence said. "So that's equipment. How about skills and feats?"
"I get skills," Sora said, "but what are feats?"
"It's a feature that gives your character a new ability or an edge over others," Pence told them. "For instance Sora, since Stor's a fighter he gets fighter bonus feats which give him more combat options. Since we're also including all these other feats besides the ones in the handbook, I'm going to give each of you an additional feat at the start. Normally a character gets one upon creation at level one, and another one if you're human because of their versatility to learning new things. However, because of all the new feats, I'm letting you all each get one extra feat to select at start. Sora, you're the only one who can't take regional feats."
"You've got something against me, I just know it," Sora grumbled.
"Hey, you're the one who wanted to play a fighter and I still gave you that sword. Stop bitching."
"No Bast, off the table."
"Hey, can you pass me a slice of meat lover's?"
"We're out."
"Fine then I'll take cheese."
"Hey there's one last wing, anyone want it? No? Dibs."
"I'll take Education and Eschew Materials as my two feats," Naminé declared. "Education makes all Knowledge skills class skills and Eschew Materials means I don't have to worry about material components for my spells unless they need a focus or a material component with a substantial value."
"Smooth Talk and Weapon Focus (Greatsword)," said Riku. "Smooth Talk gives me a +2 on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks and the Weapon Focus gives me a +1 attack bonus with my greatsword."
"Smart choices," Pence said, nodding. He frowned. "Wait. Naminé, don't take Education."
"Why?"
"You're a Wizard. Wizards already have all knowledge skills as class skills. Do you really also just want a +1 bonus in any two knowledge skills?"
"Oops," Naminé said sheepishly. "If that's the case, then I'll take… Combat Casting for +4 to Concentration when casting on the defensive."
"Weapon Focus (Longsword), Power Attack, Toughness, and Improved Initiative," said Sora. "All of them combat feats to help out my fighter."
"Well for a fighter, yeah," Roxas said with a smirk. "Now, my barbarian. Weapon Focus (Dwarven Waraxe) and Skill Focus (Intimidate). That gives me +1 to attack and +3 to Intimidate, so I'll have a +1 Intimidate check because my Cha mod is -2, right?"
"Yep."
Kairi went next. "Weapon Focus (Longbow), Self-Sufficient, and Point-Blank Shot, giving me +1 with my bow, +1 bonus on attack and damage within thirty feet, and +2 on Survival and Heal, checks."
Olette appeared to be mulling over her choices, and then said, "Weapon finesse (rapier), and Stealthy, to give a +2 on Hide and Move Silently."
Yuffie went last of all with her halfling rogue. "I'll take Artist, and Deft Hands. They give +2 to Perform and to one Craft skill involving an art, and +2 to Sleight of Hand and Use Rope. So I'll take Craft (Carving)."
"She's going to steal all of our stuff," Roxas said to nobody in particular.
"She'd better not," Riku told her. "Or Johnny C. Norris will deal with her."
"Craft (Carving)?" asked Olette quizzically.
"Yeah," Yuffie answered. "It'd be anything involving wooden carvings probably."
Pence yawned and looked at the clock. It was getting late. "I think we should get the skills done and the stop. If you want we can go over back-story at lunch tomorrow at school and then get into adventuring tomorrow night."
"Sounds good," Sora said, looking at the time as well. He laughed. "Who knew making a character could take so long?"
"Way too many options," Yuffie remarked with a smile. "But at least it gave my halfling an interesting name: Furindy Penelibaris."
"Well, let's take a look," Pence began again. "I really don't think that I'll need to explain what any of the skills are, and by this point you can just look them up in the skills chapter if you have a question. Yuffie, as a rogue Furindy's class skills are appraise, balance, bluff, climb, craft, decipher script, diplomacy, disable device, disguise, escape artist, forgery, gather information, hide, intimidate, jump, knowledge (local), listen, move silently, open lock, perform, sleight of hand, profession, search, sense motive, spot, swim, tumble, use magic device, and use rope."
Roxas gave a low whistle. "That's a lot."
"Well I'm a rogue," Yuffie replied with a knowing shrug. "You have to know lots of things if you want to stay alive in the world of the city's underbelly."
"Right," Pence agreed listlessly, "now you can put up to four ranks into any of those skills by spending one skill point each, and up to two ranks in any other skills by spending one skill point for each half rank."
"How many skill points am I starting with again?" Yuffie asked.
"You're a rogue, so you start with eight plus your intelligence modifier of one, so nine, multiplied by four. And with each new level you'll gain nine more skill points to spend."
"Okay," Yuffie replied cheerily, beginning to mark down her skills.
It took some minutes for the others to mark down their own skill points, needing to double-check their starting number as well as their class skills and cross-class skills by flipping back and forth through Pence's two Player's Handbooks, but within twenty minutes, the seven players had arranged their skills to their satisfaction.
"So that's it?" Sora asked. "We're done?"
Pence reviewed all of their sheets. "Hm, I think so…wait. Naminé, you've yet to take a familiar."
"I have?" she asked.
"Yes," Pence told her. "Here they are, page fifty-two."
"Hm," Naminé said with pursed lips, "I think I'll take a cat as a familiar."
"Okay, and now we're done."
Agatha yawned from the chair she'd been sitting in at the coffee table. "Hm? What? You guys finally done?"
"Guess so," Kairi answered, stretching her limbs out. "So we actually get to play tomorrow?"
"Make it Wednesday," Riku said. "That way we'll actually have time to get those books and dice."
"Alright, Wednesday," Sora agreed.
Pence secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had originally thought to send them on one escapade, but was only now realizing that it might be too much for them or too far out of their reach. Wednesday would give him time to come up with a smaller adventure for them, something within their ability. Plus, he still needed some sort of a situation in which all seven of their characters could come together.
The teen shook his head. He'd figure all that out soon enough. Right now, he needed to get home.
-A-D-
DONE character creation. Now that all of that crap's out of the way, the real fun can begin.
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk
