Tokyo-3 Arcana


Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it).

Again, the Author Notes are numbered in the text, if you are fluid in D&D/Pathfinder lore, you probably wont need most of the notes.


Chapter 17

What the Hell Was That?


Matsuhiro Secondary NERV Base Ruins.

Sublevel 26, 500 meters away from the 13th Angel Crater.

Laveth had spent the time in the bunker occupying herself with testing her own capabilities. She still had some command of spiders, otherwise she would have had to hunt for her first meal. She tested her Arachnemancer (1) abilities. Those were the only thing she had left from her former life. And at a damnable low level, Lolth be damned!

Still, it would be enough to manipulate the spiders she had left. Laveth sat regally on a strange chair, the contraption had small wheels at the end of a strange set of legs. It almost looked like a terrible representation of a spiderweb, if one only left the central spokes and forgot to add the sticky spiral.

The thrice damned thing had slid away from her when she first attempted to sit on it. But she had found the way to sit on it on her second try. Had she been a child, she would probably tried to see how far the chair would go in one push. But she was a dignified drow princess, even if she was not a demi-goddess anymore, so she refrained, even though she was alone.

Delicately, Laveth bit a cookie taken from a rations pouch, and began to project her awareness into the dozens of spiders around her, looking for a way out the cubical room. Of course, she would take as much as she could from that stupid wizard, NERV. Starting with his strange throne. It certainly was lacking in style, but the damned thing was actually comfortable.

Soon, the spiders had found a metallic door, mostly made of strange interlocking mechanisms. The thing seemed designed to either keep something very bad out, or to keep something very bad in. Laveth thouth the first option was the right one, otherwise, NERV wouldn´t have made the effort to equip and feed his minions. So, the door was made to protect NERV´s sanctuary. NERV surely had powerful enemies.

The spiders wriggled into the mechanism, informing Laveth of their findings. The exiled former demi-goddess visualized each part of the door into her mind. It was an exhausting task, and soon, Laveth nursed the mother of all headaches. She felt almost tempted to compare it with suffering the hangover of being drunk with Faerie Wine, vintage ´63. (2)


Tokyo-3

Katsuragi/Ikari/Soryu Apartament,

Shinji's Lovely Suite (inside the Portable Hole), 2:20 P.M.

"Well, it seems Shinji wasn´t the only one to come through, Tom. We have met one gnome and a dwarf, Hikari and the gnome had a run in with a gang of goblins, and now we have a possible arachnid attack to worry about."

The Tom of Arcane Knowledge sat on the lectern, with a pensive expression in his big round emerald eyes, he pushed the manga book on it until it fell from the edge. He watched the book as it fell, and then folded his paws under his body. If it wasn´t for his metallic body made of precious metals, and his gem eyes, Tom would have looked like any other house cat. "What kind of spider? Some are merely harmless vermin, others are dangerous only in swarms, and yet others are deadly by themselves." He sounded as if he had shrugged.

"What do I look like, an spiderologuist? I don´t know anything about spiders, even less about giant spiders! A week ago I didn´t even knew gnomes and dwarves were real! Mostly because they weren't!" Asuka paced around, her need to move contrasting sharply with Tom´s placid attitude.

"You certainly lack that kind of temperament. And skin pigmentation. And pointy ears. And spiderweb fetish. All of which I am very glad of. And I bet Shinji would be very relieved of too. Drow are bad news, girl. Even one is bad. And females are even worse."

"Drow? What are those? Some kind of intelligent bug?"

"Elves." Tom actually shuddered. "Sadistic, perverted, treacherous, poisonous, full-of-themselves, haughty, egotistic elves with a spider fetish. The adventuring party that adopted Shinji as their own had a couple of nasty run ins with them and their goddess (3). It was before my time, and even Shinji´s. They are all very capable fighters, each on their own way, and they dread facing the drow. At least, without an overwhelming advantage. They are all good people, and they go out of their way to kill as many drow as possible."

Asuka looks askew at Tom. "Okay, I get it. We are gonna need reinforcements. How about a gnome cleric and a dwarf gal with a big axe?"

"Hmm… Might be enough. What does Shinji say?"

"I don´t know," she bit her lower lip, then shook her head. "He´s been in a cell since he opened a big can of ´Yurskrood´ on the last Angel. That was just after I met you."

"Hmm… I see. That explains why he hasn´t brought the next volume…" Tom looked at the manga book on the floor. "Aaaanyway. I think you better talk with those friends of yours and explain things."

Asuka stopped her pacing. "Look. I know Shinji wants to keep the secret of you and his magic. But at this point, Misato, the First Child and Kaji are already aware of some things. Hell in a handbasket." Asuka began to count with her fingers. "Rei squashed flat a giant spider already, Hikari lives with a gnome cleric, Aida brought a dwarf artisan home, Misato has used a healing potion, and Kaji was here when Rei told us about the gott-damned spider!"

Tom turned his head around and sighed. "Worst secret keepers, you humans are. Okay. I guess I couldn't do more harm if I wanted to. Open that chest. If you are going to do what I think you are itching to do, you better be rightly equipped for it."


Tokyo-3

Katsuragi/Ikari/Soryu Apartament

Same Time

"Oh, boy… that was an ugly thing, that´s for sure." Misato shuddered as she returned Rei´s cell to the bluenette. Kaji wiped his forehead with a hand.

"Yeah… I don´t know if I would have the stones to do as Rei did. I would probably have thought I was either dreaming or hallucinating."

The First Child simply nodded at the compliment, a second later, she asked. "Could you loan me a laptop? I´d like to check internet for any similar spiders."

"Sure." Misato pushed her own laptop towards Rei. "I don´t believe you´ll find anything that big and ugly, but who knows." Reflexively, she touched the bruise at the side of her neck, amazed at how quick the potion had hastened her recovery.

Expertly, Rei began a search, using some auxiliary software to narrow the search by description of the spider. Aside the pictures, she had an excellent memory. Otherwise, her notes at school would be abysmal, instead of merely adequate, due to her many absences.

A few minutes later, she had discarded dozens of pictures, that on the surface resembled the giant spider, but weren't close enough for Rei´s taste. Deliberately, she hadn´t put any size parameters in her search. A spider that size simply couldn´t exist on Earth. At least not without an internal skeleton and serious evolutionary changes to both its respiratory and circulatory systems (3). Her cursory examination of the dead creature hadn´t yielded anything that could neither prove nor disprove the possibility of such changes.

While Kaji and Misato discussed the possibility of charging into action, guns blazing, Asuka returned, her arms loaded with archaic looking weapons, and a toy cat sitting smugly on her left shoulder.

"Okay, people, look alive, this is the Tom of Arcane Knowledge, my magic teacher and a complete pain in the shoulder."

"Oh, sorry, girl." Tom disentangled his claws from Asuka´s blouse. The redhead put her bounty on the table. Tom jumped down to it, under the curious eyes of the other three.

"Yeah, I´m a magical talking toy cat. Get over it, people. Shinji has told me about you, Misato, Kaji." Tom looked at each of then in turn, paused, and continued after a curious look at Rei. "You must be Ayanami." He turned back to face the adults in the room, "He respects you a lot. But unless you close your mouths right now, I´m going to lose any shred of second-hand respect I have for you." Misato did as told, and after feeling her elbow hit his ribs, Kaji followed suit. "That´s so much better. Now, my apprentice here tells me you have a spider problem. Describe the bug, maybe I know about it."

"Uh… Tom… right?" Kaji was the first adult to recover the power of speech. "We have pictures of it. Rei snapped a couple before the bug evaporated." At a nod, Rei showed the pictures to the mechanical cat. She hadn't even blinked.

"Hmm... interesting stuff you guys have. Very convenient." Tom sat on his haunches, while he examined the first picture. "No. I do not recognize this kind of spider. Maybe your otherworldly friends could, girl." He tapped the screen with a silver claw. "But judging from the size of those fangs, it must be a hunter. You are gonna need more edges to locate its lair. Probably, there are more spiders."

Tom walked cheekily over the table. Stepping carefully aside the stuff Asuka had brought. "Okay, people, We are going to need a few more hands to squash these bugs. A bug hunt is relatively low risk, at least when it is starting. I doubt the spiders have had time to reproduce. Much. So, our best bet is to locate the lair and kill the juveniles and/or cocoons there. Preferably with fire. The dwarf and the gnome could be good guides, as they have low-light vision. Get them here, and we can begin to plan the expedition."

Asuka nodded, and sent a message to Hikari, and called Mrs. Hayabusha Inn; luckily, it was Rusilka who answered the phone. The dwarf agreed to come to Misato's. It would take her a few minutes to arrive.

Tom kept walking on the table, "Asuka here brought, on my advice, some weapons for the party. These are magical weapons, I think Shinji won't object much if I loan them to you. For just one dungeon crawl, understood? Afterwards, you'll return them. Is that perfectly understood, hmm?" He extended his neck to emphasize his point.

"My apprentice gets two wands and the magical dagger, plus five vials of poison antidote, You get a magical sword each, supposing you can wield one without decapitating yourselves, plus one vial of antidote and a healing potion each. Bluey, I have no idea of your combat capabilities, do you favor melee or ranged combat?"

"Ranged. I have sniper training."

"Good, I think you guys might be too melee oriented, adding the dwarf, who I think might be a fighter. Okay, Bluey, you get the bow and the arrows. The bow is magical too. Just point, pull and release. Also, you are in charge of the healing potions reserve. Five in all. Try not to use them all in one go. Shinji brought a limited amount. We can replenish them, but slowly, unless we get a cleric to prepare more."

Asuka was the first to unsheathe the weapon assigned. The blade glistened in the light like the surface of a lake under the sun. "This… this is beautiful…" she gasped.

"Well, you are a connoisseur, dear girl." An oily voice rang in the room. Startled by the voice, Asuka dropped the dagger. "Ow! Careful, girl. I don´t mind getting nicked in the heat of battle, but by accident? No, that just won´t do. I am too beautiful to be scarred by accident."

Misato put her own sword on the table. "Okay, what was that? Explain."

Tom looked somewhat sheepish. "Hmm… Me bad. I should have warned you. Some of the magical weapons in Oerth are actually intelligent and self-conscious."

"I have never been self-conscious in my entire life, cat. I am glorious! Radiant! Magnificent."

"Show-off too. People, this is…"

"I can do the introduction myself, thank you very much! Ahem…" Somehow, everybody had the impression the dagger was looking around, despite a remarkable lack of eyes. "I am… The one and original… Weapon of heroes… Risus Vester Misericors, slayer of villains and killer of monsters! Call me Vester, please."

"You forgot Peeler of Apples." Tom was busy examining his claws.

"That was only once, and I wasn´t quite awake then, cat." The dagger huffed. "Now I am very awake and I found somebody worthy of wielding me in battle!"

A flash of light crossed between Vester and Asuka. The girl yelped, reverting to her mother tongue, "Was zur Hölle war das?"

"We are bonded now, kid. You are now the lucky wielder of the best magical dagger in Oerth!" Vester sounded terribly smug.

Tom hissed, "You had no right to do that, Peeler! She doesn't know what that means!"

Misato intervened, "Enough, you two, we have better things to do than watching a talking cat and a talking dagger argue with each other." She stopped to pinch the bridge of her nose. "I cant believe I just said that..." Before Kaji could add anything, she elbowed him in the ribs again. "Shut up, just shut up. Tom, in twenty five words or less, explain what just happened."

"Vester and Asuka are now in a mutual dependency situation. Basically, they can't be apart for more than a few hours each day."

"Kami above, that is gonna cause problems..."

"Nah," Vester almost laughed, "I can stay in a transdimensional space near her, and appear when she needs me. But I have to be out and on her person at least two hours daily."

Asuka recovered from the surprise, "What? Do I have to wield you every sprocking day? I guess I have to kill some monster every day too, right?"

"I'd like that, but no. You only have to have me in a sheath or something, as long as I am occupying the place of a hand weapon for those two hours, we are both good. Can be a belt, a boot, at your back, as long as I am at your reach and on your person, we're good."

"We?" Asuka arched an eyebrow, "what is this we you're talking about."

"We." Repeated Vester. "If we are forcibly separated, I will begin to feel drowsy, until I fall asleep again. You get weaker. Nothing too bad, I've been told. You'd recover eventually, with some exercise and personal growth." (5)

"How come you were awake?" Misato asked.

"Shinji had a partial bond with me, just enough for me to be half-awake, mind you. He couldn't bond with me, not completely. His spirit isn't compatible with mine. He only wielded me to my minimum capabilities. Now, Asuka here, she is as perfect for me as I am for her. Together we will grow and access to more and better powers! I can barely wait to see what they are!"

Asuka grinned.

Meanwhile, Rei had placed the bow on the table, looking at it with a lot of suspicion.


Tokyo-3, GeoFront

NERV HQ; Commander Ikari´s Lair, 2:35 P.M.

"Any question?" Commander Ikari tented his fingers in front of him, hiding his face. His orange tinted glasses hid his eyes, so his facial expression was mostly unreadable. He had cultivated the habit of staying still for as long as possible, to hide his thoughts and reactions. It was the main reason most people found him creepy. That and his callous disregard for everybody else.

"No, Sir." The jailor shook his head.

"No lasting damage, just a... friendly warning will be enough."

"Got it, Sir." The man was quite the anomaly in NERV, he was big, burly, and brutish looking. Frankly, guarding the brig was the only place he wouldn't look out of place. His face was round and rough, his eyes small, his jaw big and hard. He only missed a whip and a black hood to look the part of a medieval jailor.

Behind the Commander's desk, Sub-Commander Kozo Fujutsuki wracked his brain, trying to find a way to stop the Commander's plan. He came up with nothing. The best he could do in case things went wrong was to prepare the sick bay for the younger Ikari.


Author Notes:

(1) The Aracnemancer prestige class was detailed in Dungeon 84, the same issue that introduced Laveth.

(2) Faerie Wine, Vintage ´63 is an incredibly potent wine. It gets the drinker completely wasted in less than it takes to say it, and the hangover comes almost immediately after (or even, during) its consumption. In the hands of Escalla, it can be a terrible weapon, capable of laying waste to a whole city, and decimating its population! (just check Descent into the Depths of the Earth. I swear you will enjoy the tale.)

(3) The drow and their goddess Lolth were the main antagonists in the second and third novels with the Justicar and Escalla. Nasty run-ins barely starts to cover the description of their clashes.

(4) Completely true. The Law of Inverse Square stops any creature to grow beyond a certain size. Basically, doubling the length of something increases the surface by four, and the volume by eight. Bones or exoskeletons have a limit of how much weight they can support before collapsing. Plus, Arthropoda have a very simple respiratory system. Usually, a series of tubes distribute air inside the body. Some spiders have primitive lungs, shaped like a series of folds, kinda like a book, and in fact, that's their name "book lungs". But over a certain size, the surface of the folds isn't enough for the oxygen the creature would need. Therefore, and despite how much I like the movies, Mothra simply cannot exist.

(5)Meaning that Vester reverts to being an inert weapon, and Asuka loses 1d3 STR, until she goes up a level for each point of STR lost. Worst scenario, she has to go up three levels (in any class, should she multi class) to recover completely.