Why are you special?

I do like the actual office portion of my ‘office’. I have a nice view of a sunset over the sea, I can hear the waves, and smell the salt.  It's very relaxing. The sun never actually sets, mind… yet it's also never the same.  Clouds drift by, colored in hues of red, pink, purple, and orange by the angled rays of the sun.

Of course, I'm here to pick out my class features… and I have a bit of choice paralysis. My spellcasting gets me the vast majority of what I actively want: Fast healing, basic numbers, movement modes, some immunities, extra actions, and many special senses. And the features I already have get me immunities, regeneration, spellcasting, extra actions, more numbers, and a bunch of weird abilities… then Mythic turns around and does the same.

Well… I'm getting three abilities and a feat… eh, more of me, maybe? The Shadow Traced Creature template can get me some copies of myself that are less fragile: Shadow Traces. Immediate action effect… might as well.

And Shadow Transposition from the same template gives me an immediate action “Nope” on getting hit if I have any traces out… which is also an immediate action, and I can get a couple of those each round. Yeah, I'll grab that.

For the third… eh, stick with a Shadow theme, and grab Reshape Reality from the Protean Attractor third party template. It lets me, once a day, cover the terrain (including buildings) with an illusion as I see fit… and it’ll be twenty percent real (fully real, if someone fails a will save versus the effectively ninth level effect) although there are some limits in area and environmental damage possibilities.  Given that I have a method to recharge my X/day abilities, it’s essentially at-will.

The feat… hmm. Reach Spell metamagic, maybe? It'll let me use touch range spells at a distance. It also goes well with Chain Spell… yeah, sure. It'll be handy if I ever want to empower an army.

And… my eidolon gets another hit die and evolution point… I guess I'll get a bonus to Spellcraft? At this point I can change all this up with a little bit of notice thanks to Complete Reversion from Spheres of Power… or no notice, if I abuse Mythic Time Stop as well. Huh.  I guess that makes me Schrödinger's Wizard, always having exactly what I need for the situation… no matter.  Given that I've had the spells from the three big class lists on tap at will since level two, I suppose I have been Schrödinger's Wizard for a while.

Spells known… barely matter, but I do pick them. The rest is just numbers: Saves, skills, spell slots, armor class, attack bonus… all of those are just calculations.

Hmm.  Well, I guess I'm ready.  But as long as everything is on pause anyway… yes, I do have curtains in the actual office portion of my “office”... also storm shutters that are essentially solid slabs of wood with some decoration. If I were to close them along with the door, then no natural light would get in.  Well… no exterior light. How do you define ‘natural’ when the maker of all things set up both the interior and exterior lights directly?  In a very real sense, the lamps in here are as natural as the sun.

Philosophy aside, it looks like Dad planned for me to invite Death into my sanctum at some point: He does seem to plan ahead.

I’ll need to do that… at some point. For now… I do believe I'm done here.  So I go back out to watch the waves as I finish stepping out of the guildhall.  I'm still getting used to being in more than one place at a time. With my new nature it's not confusing, but it's still weird.

And I have a LOT of prisoners to release… carefully. Most I can probably pawn off on Time Clones… but I think the two captured Prophets deserve direct handling. But I really don’t want to start with them.

So I go to my crafting plane and grab a gemstone holding one of the lesser officers. I think. I didn't capture them all personally, and the mass capture means the resulting stones come from groups… eh, whatever.   I'm not planning on ransoming or interrogating these folks, so it doesn’t matter much.

I consider: How do I want to set this up? I want them to realize the pickle they're in, not be able to fight back, and be trapped. So… a demiplane so there's nowhere to run, looped shape so leaving through the walls gets you nowhere, Dead Magic trait so they can't escape that way, then put them on the ground while I fly? That should do.

So I make my setup: The Create Greater Demiplane spell gives me a prison plane in the shape I desire, basically just a big cube. A second casting of the same makes it loop in on itself. A third kills off the magic.

This place is dull… but that's kind of the point. I fly up a bit, pull out the gem, and break it.  That releases the trapped soldier… he kind of forms out of gas released from the gemstone, and lands gently on the ground here.  He's… well, a rank and file soldier. He has a breastplate, a pike in his hands, a bow slung over his shoulder, a helmet, a backpack, a quiver of arrows, and a bit of a uniform… mud caked, looks like it was red at one time?  I guess I got a grunt.

He looks around himself curiously… seems a little disoriented. Ah, right. The spell basically put him into stasis.  From his perspective, he was just on the battlefield.

I call out to the guy, “You were captured and put on ice. It's only been a matter of hours since the battle. You've been freed to discuss the terms of your release.”

He looks up at me, looks around at the dead area he's stuck in, and looks back up at me, “Just like that, and it's all over? Who are you?” He's reacting well… those Mythic attitude mods are handy.

I chuckle, and - seeing that he doesn't seem prone to violence - head down to his level, “Just like that; I captured the entire deployed force in one sweep, then came back for the other Champions individually.  I am the new champion of The Blessed Mother… and I get by.”

He's slightly taller than I am… but it doesn't matter. I'm flying, so I can keep my eyes level with his eyes easily enough.

“So what's my freedom going to cost?” He seems relaxed enough… he's not yelling at all.

I shrug, “I'm honestly mostly interested in preventing another attack… which means I'm taking everything you have on you, then providing two traveler's outfits, a backpack, a month of trail rations, basic tools of a nonviolent trade of your choice, a couple of full waterskins, a tent, a bedroll, thirty pieces of silver, plus a basic shortbow and some matching arrows for hunting and self defense. After that, I'll teleport you to a major city of your choice.  Oh, and this is intended as exile; don't come anywhere near Brasilia again.”

He pauses, “That is remarkably generous. Thank you. I know some carpentry, so those tools, please. I am… pleasantly surprised I'm not being interrogated or ransomed or anything.”

I shrug as I start making his new gear, “You’re Ravell Eshting, son of Hidme and Indu, twenty seven years old, born on the third of Sun's Dawn in the village of Newtower. You have three sisters - Sinsaal, Ninkhi, and Thamseb - and no children,” that you know of, anyway.  “Do I need to go on? I don't need to interrogate you.” Divine sight rocks, and birth is covered by my Aspect, so I know everything about it that I want, “I could ransom you back to your lord, sure, but I don't need the money, so it's not worth the bother.  Better to disarm you and set you loose with enough to set yourself up as a simple craftsman.  Now: Off with it all.”

The man's shaking as he hastens to comply, his eyes very wide as he shucks his gear.  He keeps glancing back at me as he dresses in the fresh gear I created for him. While he's doing so, I gather his old gear - nobody else's spells will work here, so I'm not worried about magical traps - pop open a gate, and hurl it all through, closing it after.

When he's done dressing, I smile, “So: Where would you like me to drop you off?”

His voice is shaky as he gives me his reply, “Newtower, please. I may as well visit my folks.”

I nod, “Have a good day,” as I open a Gate to his hometown. He walks through, taking one last look at me through the hole in reality before I close it.

Well, that worked well enough.

I set a series of Time Clones on the job of handling the rank and file, as I turn my attention to my higher profile prisoners….