So I have been included in the time honored tradition of being Isekai'd. Yes yes, I am very proud of my achievement of dying at the ripe old age of not yet 20. Truly, I am blessed.
But you're not here to hear me complain, are you? Oh no, why would you? It's not like my life as I knew it was effectively over, and all the people I love and care for are forever out of my reach.
Sorry, sorry. It's just… hard adjusting to all this.
A week ago, I slipped down a flight of stairs. Apparently my neck either snapped or my head was split open. Either way, the end result was the same. I ended up in some superhero world as a young version of my D&D character.
Edward Armitage, my Great Old One Warlock.
I do have some stuff going for me. I'm still at level 20, I have all of my equipment (thank you hoarding tendencies), and I can cast magic. Like, I spent way too much time playing around with Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion. Who can blame me, though? I could do magic!
I was Isekai'd into some town called Brockton Bay, almost an hour away from Boston. It was like someone decided to play Simcity but forgot what urban planning was and just dropped it after a few days, not even bothering to upgrade everything. It's weird being by the sea after living my entire life in Colorado.
This Earth was different from mine, and it was called Earth Bet. Turns out that multiverse theory is real and proven to a degree, and Earth Aleph was the closest in regards to my own Earth, but with less superheroes than here. There were also the enormous fuck-you monsters that are slowly destroying the world. That was a delight to find out about.
I also went back in time it seems. Current date was June 23, 2010. And I can't even use my future knowledge to my own advantage. Damn. Also, I need to wait ten more years for One Piece to catch up to where I left it, so from my perspective it will take forty years to complete instead of the projected thirty. Totally not crying on the inside. Too manly for that. Totally.
There were a good few gangs, but only three that were worth paying attention to. And by that, I mean they had people with superpowers. 'Capes' they were called. The Empire 88 were basically a bunch of neo-Nazis, and had fifteen 'Capes,' effectively making them the power powerhouse of the city. ABB, or Azn Bad Boys, were the Yakuza who worked for a guy who can turn into a dragon and a teleporting suicide bomber. That sounded fun. And then the Merchants were the drug dealers.
There are a bunch more gangs out there, but who wants to hear about gangs like the 'Red Tongues' when they don't have a single person with powers? Doesn't matter that they're ripping the ABB a new one or kidnapping kids for God knows what, all that matters is that they don't have anyone with powers, so they're not important enough.
There were superheroes. There were around a dozen vigilantes, like how most are in comic books, there are Rogues, those who don't want in on the superhero/villain game, and then there's the Protectorate. Basically a government funded Justice League if you want to get simple about it. They work as a branch of the PRT, or Parahuman Response Team. It's the cops, but instead of going after all crimes, they only go after those caused by superpowers. Kind of reminded me of S.T.A.R.S. for some reason.
I did consider signing up with them, if only because I didn't exist up until a week ago and had no way of getting anything legal done. I didn't do it because, well, I don't know all that much about it beyond what I could find online. And call me paranoid, but almost every government own superhero organization in media or comics turned out to either be corrupt to high heaven, or is secretly run by the Super Illuminati.
Sidenote, PHO is basically Spacebattles but for superheroes and I love it.
But yeah, other than that, I've mostly just been living in some abandoned apartment building on the edge of Merchant territory. I don't know why there isn't anyone else living here, Lord knows I've seen enough people sleeping outside to put Seattle to shame. I mean, I'm not complaining. Got a whole building to myself. It's just that I find it weird. If I was homeless (and I am) I would rather there be a roof over my head than a park bench under it.
I've become friends with a few people in the area, especially with Miss Catherine. She was an older black woman who reminded me of my own grandma, and lived in a 'nicer' area. She asked me where I was going to school when it started, hammering in the fact that I was fifteen again, which really sucked. I told her probably Winslow (I did my research on the area), not mentioning that I don't think I could attend school without legally existing. She went on a rant about how her son used to go there before inviting me inside for biscuits. Miss Catherine never asked me about my home life, which I was thankful for. I don't think I could lie to her about that on top of everything else. She was just too nice.
Since money is always a concern, I've had to sell a hundred or so gold coins to a pawn shop. Took a while for them to make certain that yes, it is all pure gold. Somehow got me a few thousand dollars more than I thought they would be worth, but I was all too happy to accept. Spent a few of it mostly on food and a pair of modern clothes. Luckily I had flavored him as wearing modern-Victorian era clothing, so I didn't get too many stares at the store.
But I did splurge on a certain set of items.
It was for a ritual that I thought, although unnecessary, would be very helpful in the long run. At least if I wanted to try my hand at being a superhero. And come on, who wouldn't want to become a hero after gaining powers? Besides all those villains of course.
I carefully followed the guideline within my Pact Tome, making damn sure not to mess up. The white charcoal was steady under my grip. My new knowledge in Arcana and the Tome said that making this circle wasn't required at all, but would help make sure that I got the certain nature that I wanted.
When I was done, it looked like a mix of the Norse Runic Compass (Vegvisir I think. Gwen was always the Norse Nut out of all of us), and the "Circle of Dream Magic." Kind of fitting, considering where I got my powers from.
I placed the charcoal into the brazier with all of the herbs, and started lighting the incense with Prestidigitation. I checked my Tome one last time to make sure I did everything right so far. I had, good.
You would think that the hardest part was getting a brass brazier, but I found a small one in a Goodwill. Crazy how that worked out, huh? I thought I was going to have to take out all the pipes in the building and weld those together. At least, I think that the brown pipes were brass. Maybe it was actually copper? I don't know, I'm not a plumber.
I placed the brazier onto the 'head' of the circle, and set the herbs inside on fire. Thank God that the fire alarm system doesn't work here. Everything was placed exactly where it should, so I started the rest of the ritual.
It was hard. The ritual requires all the different types of components. Verbal, Semantic, and Material. What they don't tell you is that it all needs to be going constantly. So I had to walk around, do weird hand movements, and talk in what I assume to be a dead language for an hour straight. My arms and throat were sore afterwards.
But it was worth it.
After doing all of that, there was a flash of dark green, almost an emerald shade, energy, and it appeared in the middle of the circle. A raven. My familiar.
I don't know how, maybe it was the magical connection between us, but I knew for sure that my familiar was female. She was a bit larger than most I think, but that just means that she was much more important than others of her kind. But then again, most ravens aren't Fae in nature.
I didn't go with a Celestial nature because Adam somehow got Mount Celeste angry at all us in one session, and I didn't want to know if that carried over into here. I didn't go with a Fiend nature because no one wants a literal demon bird. Those are no fun. So Fae it was.
She watched me as I pulled out something from my Bag of Holding. That something being peanuts I bought earlier today, just for this occasion. She happily accepted the offer of friendship and food.
"We need a name for you," I said, stroking her along her back. She had very soft feathers. "I was thinking either Maleficent or Huginn. What do you think? One caw for Maleficent, two for Huginn."
"Caw!"
"Maleficent it is. You can call me Edward, and I'm very thankful you decided to answer my summon." She caw-ed again, sounding particularly smug. How did a bird sound smug? Fae. That's all I can give you as an answer. If there was ever a creature who embodied smug, it was them.
"After this, would you go fly around the city for a bit? Get used to the area?" Another caw, this one accepting. Such an expressive birb. "Thank you."
The sun had set, I opened a window for her to fly too and from, and I plopped down on the old mattress I had been using. I made it more comfy by taking out a bedroom and a few animal pelts I held into for who knows why, but I'm certainly not complaining right now. It was nice and fluffy now.
I closed my eyes, feeling not as alone as before.
That night, I dreamt of a group, familiar and unknown, as they fought and talked their way to an ancient Mine.
Brockton Bay wasn't all that bad, once you're actually living in it. Sure, the gangs are apparently bleeding the city to death, but at least there's the Boardwalk.
It's probably the tourist location, what with all of the nice shops and cafes. I was slowly becoming a regular at an internet cafe, just called The Web. It had a cool spider logo that drew me in, so you may proceed to make your jokes about that. It did cost a decent amount, but I found it worth it.
Maleficent was enjoying herself flying around outside while I was looking up the powers of every 'cape' in the city. I didn't find anything on this Coil villain, but he reminded me too much of a Bond villain or Ra's Al Ghul for my liking. Worst part? I couldn't do shit about him right now. If I had been thrown into this world with my friends, or my Party, than I'm sure we could've stumbled around until we found something. But no, just a lone, squishy spell caster in the Big Bad City. God I missed those retards.
Moving on, my first target would have to be the Merchants. They do the most damage to the people and seem like the relatively easiest group to deal with. I mean, how scary can a guy who makes you go left instead of right possibly be? Aaaand I just taunted Murphy, fuck.
He'll probably bite me in the ass using that car girl. Squeaker? Yeah, I think that's it.
But no, what matters right now isn't fighting and locking away villains, that comes later. What matters is destroying their gang from more… mundane means. Attacking weapon caches, destroying their drug stores, basically crippling them financially before actually attacking their villains. One exception would have to be Squeaker's workshop, but it will be so worth it.
See, there are power classifications here, one of them being Tinker. Tinkers are discount Iron Men, in that they can build a whole lot of crazy shit, but are specialized to a certain type of 'tinkering.' The most famous example would be Hero, a guy who specialized in wavelengths before a cannibal tiger lady killed him ten years ago. Then there's a Canadian Tinker that goes by Dragon, and she can reverse engineer anything.
Fact of the matter is, Tinkers were versatile, could supply armies, and were expensive. I'm hoping that a Polymorph into an Adult Red Dragon would be enough to break everything. Could be wrong though, who knows. Maybe she'll have an anti-dragon tank. And considering there's another guy in town who can turn into a dragon, it wouldn't surprise me.
I signed out of PHO, played the guy at the counter what I owed, and left for lunch. I've been hearing about some place called Fugly Bob's. Apparently the greasiest burger you can get is served there. Might as well try it, I feel like I've earned something special.
… This thing looks like it gives heartburn to anyone just looking at it. It did taste pretty good though, kinda reminded me of a Wendy's burger. Except, you know, more grease than patty. I got a few stares when I fed my fries to Maleficent, but no one commented on it. Good for them. Also good bird. No reason for it, she's just a good birb. A Best Birb, if you will.
So while I was eating my hand held heart attack, I also planned out how to go about bringing down an entire gang. The hardest part would have to be getting leads for where I could find their supplies. Luckily, I'm pretty good at Investigation now, and it shouldn't take me too long to find where the meth heads keep their stuff. Plus, I'm certain that at least half of them are completely baked at any given point, so they shouldn't resist much under questioning. I hope.
Doesn't matter.
I go back to my building, Maleficent perched on my shoulder like she owns it. I sort through all of my hoarded magical items and artifacts that my Party said to sell. Well look who's laughing now! Here I stand, dozens of magic items (Like the almighty Alchemy Jug) waiting to do my bidding while they… spend time with their family and living the lives they made for themselves…
Shit, now I'm sad.
My familiar rubs her face against my cheek, in a sort of weird way to get all the sadness out. It works a little bit. After all, who can be mad at her?
I throw all of my previous thoughts to the side while I plan my plan. But first, a nap. I have Maleficent know to wake me up around dusk, and head off to my bed of an old mattress and animal furs.
Tonight, I become Vengeance! I become the Night! I become...
Not-a-Murderhobo! The most sought after D&D player!
Name: Edward Armitage
Race: Human - Variant
Gender: Male
Apparent Age: 15
Class: Warlock; Great Old One
Background: Urban Bounty Hunter
Alignment: Neutral Good
Level: 20
Stats:
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 12
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 20
Feats:
Lucky: You can reroll a d20 roll you make or an attack against you 3/day
Spell Sniper: Your spells ignore ½ and ¾ cover, your ranged attack roll spells have doubled range, and you gain one attack roll cantrip
War Caster: You gain advantage on concentration vs damage, can still cast while holding weapons, and can cast a single target 1 action spell as an opportunity attack
Spells:
Cantrips: Druidcraft, Eldritch Blast, Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Mending, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy
1st Level: Cause Fear, Dissonant Whispers, Hex
2nd Level: Darkness, Misty Step
3rd Level: Dispel Magic, Fly, Hunger of Hadar, Hypnotic Pattern
4th Level: Black Tentacles, Dimension Door, Sickening Radiance
5th Level: Dominate Person, Scrying, Telekinesis
6th level: Mental Prison
7th level: Plane Shift
8th level: Feeblemind
9th level: Power Word Kill
Invocations:
Agonizing Blast: Your Eldritch Blast does Cha mod extra damage
Eldritch Spear: Your Eldritch Blast has a range of 300 feet
Devil's Sight: You can see through 120 feet of darkness, even magical darkness
Book of Ancient Secrets: You can cast any class's rituals from your Book of Shadows
Eldritch Sight: You don't use a spell slot when casting Detect Magic
Master of Myriad Forms: You don't use a spell slot when casting Alter Self
Shroud of Shadow: You don't use a spell slot when casting Invisibility
Sculptor of Flesh: You can cast Polymorph once per long rest using a spell slot
Proficiencies:
Armor: Light Armor
Weapons: Simple Weapons, Whips
Skills: Arcana, Investigation, Deception, Performance, Persuasion
Tools: Playing Cards, Ocarina
Languages: Common, Deep Speech
A/N: Before you lot start, this is my D&D character that I have been playing for the past three years. We recently ended the campaign three weeks ago, and my desire to play more with my little asshole here brought me to fanfic territory. Also, I finished reading the 'Overlord' light novels, so that kind of helped start this. Don't know when I'll continue this, so enjoy it for now!