Monstrous Compendium Ch3 bit – Grandma Tiger

~ crossovercreativechaos

Kunimittz and Dynamm nearly ran into each other; the curly-haired tank still caught the swordsman before his head could hit the ground. “What happened?” Kunimittz asked, sounding a little out of it himself. “He didn’t get hit!”

Issin gave Klein’s scarred arm one more quick glance, then shook his head and got up to go check the Moonsword. “Remember how I keep telling you guys magic’s got limits?”

“Yeah?” Klein ventured. He really didn’t want to move. Sure, the soft twig-crunching he could hear hinted someone was heading their way. Maybe a lot of someones. But this was still a safe area. Nobody would be attacking anybody else. Better for Fuurinkazan to just sit here, catch their breath, and get used to still being alive. He felt so weird.

There’s a scar. Where I got bitten. That means… but I’m not attacking anyone, my cursor’s green, what the heck is going on?

Issin rolled his eyes. “Kirito told the limits to go screw themselves.”

“He would,” Harry One muttered, as Issin tipped a Dewdrop down Kirito’s throat. The swordsman coughed, and swallowed, but didn’t look much more awake. “No guild, doesn’t even work with a PUG. You’d think the guy wanted to-”

Dale punched him in the shoulder, a muffled thump on armor. “Guys. Company.”

Armed company, Klein saw, even if half of them looked like they’d come straight from shaking the dirt off their plows. Some of them carried bows, others carried spears, and none of them looked like people Klein would have crossed lightly. Not even the old lady in ceremonial white-and-black-striped robes, whose otherwise no-nonsense spear had a tuft of silvery feathers swinging from the haft of it-

“Hey!” Klein batted away a poking spear-point. Her icon was still questing gold; that didn’t qualify as an attack? And what was that spear, magic? The tip had felt not just sharp, but hot….

Silver. Klein’s heart sank, and he swallowed hard. The spear’s silver.

“Hmm.” The old lady lifted her weapon back to parade-rest against her shoulder. “So ye beat the moon-madness. Ye’ll do, cub. Ye’ll do.”

<<Tetsutora,>> her icon read. <<Shaman of Snow Springs.>>

64 thoughts on “Monstrous Compendium Ch3 bit – Grandma Tiger”

  1. A nosy old grandmother weretiger shaman. Klein is doomed.

    And Kirito isn’t going to be any better.
    “Tch, cubs and youngsters these days. Draining themselves down down to the bone without any thought as to hat comes after. In my day………”

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  2. Had to go back to first chapter, but I don’t think Stheno knows she is in the game. So another Eberron player… And I wonder if Klein will have to learn at least a bit about Shamans or there is something else in his future.

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  3. I feel like I should have seen this coming. Badass Character is mentioned to Kirito. Kirito is impressed by Badass Character’s very name. Of course Badass Character is going to show up . . .

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    1. *Wry G* In-setting, it’s more that Stheno does have people she gossips with, and Tetsutora has been very interested in hearing about anyone associated with a guy smart enough to outfox a medusa’s gaze. Not to mention, Fuurinkazan has been building their own interesting rep. 😉

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  4. Well, this should be interesting.

    Through I think that Klein and the rest are hoping for things to be less interesting for a bit. So they can catch their breath.

    Sounds like Tetsutora has connections with weretigers or something . . . suppose a name like Iron Tiger should have been a clue . . . .

    “Kirito told the limits to go screw themselves.”

    And is anyone really surprised?

    The bunnies are picturing the members of the Telling the Limits to Screw Themselves Club: Kirito, of course. Ichigo Kurosaki. Sanzo. Sinbad. Alibaba. Jack O’Neill.

    It’s a big club . . . and the meetings would be nothing sure of pure chaos. Well, maybe something for Halloween World-type scenario where that kind of chaos might be preferable to the alternatives . . .

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    1. >“Kirito told the limits to go screw themselves.”

      And is anyone really surprised?>
      Nope. Along with the fact that the limits strolled back a couple of minutes later and said:
      “Hi remember us? We’re still a thing and you’re about to feel the effects of ignoring us.”

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  5. Thinking a bit more about this, I think Kirito’s solo days are counted, unless he develops godly stealth/sneaking. Between Klein, Tetsutora and Stheno he will be pushed to join a group. And given what he pulled (by my guess an ability at least a couple of levels higher than he is), lots of people will be interested in him.

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    1. considering he has Vincent Valentine as a mentor for the Survival skill, (and in general) it’s not that much of a stretch for Kirito to actually get ridiculously good at Stealth/sneaking. The question is more how much he uses them around his friends.

      Who I could totally see having a +10 to detecting him anyway. (Except Asuna. She has a +50)

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      1. Can you blame them? When their skill checks fail, Kirito does things like Solo Santa’s rabid twin or an Ice Dragon. I would probably level up that skill as fast as I could. (+50 Kirito Sight Lol)

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      4. Nah you don’t need Asuna to find him. You just need a couple of her sandwiches to serve as bait in a Kirito-sized trap.

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  6. I imagine that Grandma Tiger is going to tie (potentially literally) Kirito and Klein down until she considers them both well enough to go anywhere after this mess. Of course you then have to wonder how many times Kirito will attempt escape.

    What? Sure the Moonsword abilities may be new but Tetsutora has been around the proverbial block a good number of times. And as they say, Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.

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    1. I wonder if how long after being ‘adpoted’ without a so much as ‘by your leave’ will Klein pass on the favor and pounce-grab Kirito so he can roar long and loud that there are lots of people out there that will be very upset if he runs off alone again and gets himself killed?

      “I’m a weretiger, you are now adopted.” 🙂

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    2. Think about Kirito’s past, what he said in the first chapter and what Stheno saw in her scrying of his spirit.

      I do not want to imagine what sort of reaction a line like that would cause in Kirito. It certainly wouldn’t be a positive one though.

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      1. Right, phrasing. That last was Klein deciding if that’s the way things roll against him, he’s going to take shameless advatange and place himself as officially Kirito’s adoptive big brother, Earth style definition, not Eberron, and make sure Kirito knows damn well how it upsets some people when he runs off solo on some suicide mission.

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      1. >She’s not going to have to tie down Kirito for a few days. >
        Which implies she is going to have to tie him down after said few days. 😛

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      3. Through I imagine that sometime after he can stay awake long than a few minutes but before he’s recovered enough to be on his own again, he might try to his usual job’s-done-time-to-slip-out and in addition to running into whatever Klein’s Plan is, probably has his body sharply inform him of what it thinks of this foolishness . . .

        Like
        Kirito: I’m better so I’ll just go now . . .
        His Legs: I don’t think so, mister. *jelly – it’s like watching a newborn calf trying to get their legs to work*
        Someone Else (probably Klein or Tetsutora): “No longer knocking on death’s door doesn’t mean you are better enough to out there all on your lonesome again.”

        Hopefully Klein can get “Be solo but learn that you have willing back-up and call it when you need it!” through his head . . .

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      1. Nanny Ogg has no shame, and, in the words of her best friend Granny Weatherwax, the morals of a cat. Nanny Ogg is quoted as saying that to keep a man interested, you should always wear something to bed. She wore her witch hat. Considering her trend of outliving her husbands, and the number of offspring, she did pretty good. A friendly, dumpy old woman, and utterly set in her ways. She serves as the Mother of Lancre coven, with Granny Weatherwax as the Crone and first Magrat Garlick and then Anita Nitt as the Maiden. She was most distraught in Carpe De Jugulum when Granny was missing that she was becoming the Crone of the coven. (You need three witches for a coven because two only make an argument.)

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      3. It’s very, very funny to read her and Granny Weatherwax together. Her most unfriendly behavior is directed towards her daughters-in-law. She is not a gracious mother-in-law, and coupled with her believe that housework is something that happens to other people, is generally unfriendly about it.

        Despite this, women still marry into her family. She did something right with her boys if women still say yes.

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      5. Hmmm. Most of the books Nanny Ogg shows up in Granny Weatherwax makes an appearance too. Kohaku Ryu’s definitely got a lot of good factual information (and more’n a few insights into Nanny O’s character), but I always find these some of the best representations of her:

        – When made the fairy godparent to a child, the mystical gift she blessed him with was ‘That he’ll always remember the words’ because she’d at the time gotten so drunk she couldn’t remember the words to her favourite song.

        – Her favourite songs are drinking songs. Most tend to be of a similar variety, with her number one favourite being ‘A Wizard’s Staff Has a Knob on the End’.

        – She takes more than may be her fair share of amusement from making absolutely filthy jokes. One of the reoccurring main characters she shows up alongside admits to only getting any of them once she’d become a mother herself (though it’s implied it was more the… ah… ‘making’ of the child rather than the state of motherhood or process of childbirth that clued the aforementioned character in).

        – She loves young children, and if memory serves tends to be very good with them.

        – She is probably the single best – bar none – midwife the Disc has ever produced. She has the credentials to back it up, but were you to ask her if she’s the best she would say she doesn’t know about being the best but she’s​ midwifed more than a few unique and difficult births and can rattle then off if you’re like. This is not her being humble, she knows exactly how good she is.

        – Where Granny Weatherwax encourages people to leave her well enough alone Nanny Ogg prefers being open and inviting… and roughly as subtle as a mallet.

        – Where Granny Weatherwax grumps quietly, then lectures you so cuttingly you’re likely to start bleeding, and Makes Very Clear Her Disappointment, Nanny Ogg has a different approach. Nanny Ogg’s approach is being jolly, varying levels of bawdy, and completely steamrolling you while focusing on the immediate practicalities of fixing whatever mess and very directly and cheerfully (and in a tone not unlike one discussing the weather) saying where you fucked up and what you need to do to make it right.

        – Nanny Ogg is Granny Weatherwax’s oldest friend.

        – Granny Weatherwax is made clear several times throughout the books to be a Witch’s Witch and probably the most powerful witch on the Disc. It is also implied in several books that Nanny Ogg may be just as or more powerful. If Granny Weatherwax ever goes bad (in the way Witches sometimes do, with cackling to oneself and gingerbread houses in the woods) Nanny Ogg would probably be the only and best choice to take Granny Weatherwax down.

        – Nanny Ogg is an excellent cook, though she has a bit of a fondness for spicy foods.

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    1. Right now I think Klein and Kirito feels like the punching bag at the end of said training montage.

      They don’t want to do anything but just lie there and hurt.

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  9. Had an idea about how Laughing Coffin could exist in this ‘verse and be something greatly reviled as something more then a bunch of human psychos.

    We know from Klein’s Pov that the curse/demon twists and overrides the mentality of the victim, turning them into bloodthirsty killers.

    No Klein was fighting against that, but somebody like PoH wouldn’t have any such issues. He’d probably embrace the curse as a way to cause more pain, misery, suffering and death.

    So maybe here LC is a were-heavy ‘guild’ that in addition to their torture and murder sprees, goes around infecting players (younger and/or the more non-combatant the better, for that little twist) while targeting Moonswords and any other classes that can save them. They ultimately intend to see Aincrad descend into an uncontrollable bloodbath as the rabid weres run rampant.

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    3. Here’s a fun extra twist to that scenario: combine it with what we’re told were canon recruitment tactics for Laughing Coffin.

      I forget where I heard it first, or if it’s even canon, but supposedly one ‘game’ Laughing Coffin would play was grabbing lower level players, trapping them in a pit and telling them to kill eachother if they want to live. This way Laughing Coffin members got their jollies killing people without risking becoming Red or Orange players.

      This version of Laughing Coffin has two brand new variations of this game at their disposal – if they think of it. One involves capturing specifically a party, so all the trapped players know eachother, obviously biting one or all of them and saying the survivor gets to live. The other would be take any group of green captives and individually telling them ‘I like you, so I’ll let you in on a secret. We’re about to play a game. One of the guys trapped in there with you has been bitten, and we’ve healed over the bite/concealed it with an illusion. Our game is seeing how long it takes the new were to transform and kill everyone else. ‘Course if you kill the Lycanthrope everybody gets to live. Good luck man’. Bonus points: Laughing Coffin like to mix it up. Sometimes someone actually has been bitten, sometimes they haven’t, sometimes it’s more than one person.

      …I’m sorry, I feel like I should apologize. I think I even disturbed myself with that last one.

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  10. Finally! It took far more internet diving but I think I’ve finally found a class mix that could work for Silica.

    The problem was that in all forms of canon (and Vathara’s previous depictions which I freely admit effect my headcanon) she’s a highly agile single dagger user with light armor, some magic in ALO and no ranged weapons.

    The thing is is we need both Silica and Pina in the story. One without the other just doesn’t work. Issue was that with her base tendencies and weapon preferences, Druid or Ranger builds/class picks just didn’t feel right.

    However it was shown that magic and similar abilities are closer to prestige classes/skills that they spec in. So start Silica off as a rogue build/class as that is the closest to what she is in SAO minus Pina.

    Now remember that Silica never set out looking for Pina. She just came across it one day, offered some peanuts and it decided she was a good human. While refered to as a ‘tamed monster’, Silica’s skills that work with Pina are both have the label familiar.

    And then I remembered the Pathfinder class Witch that gains her power via a contracted familiar.

    Sure there are a lot of rough edges to polish off but that’s the idea: Silica meets Pina who is something like the 3.5 Fairy dragons, said dragon likes what she sees in this little human and offers a magical contract.

    ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼
    “I make much better contracts. She would have her dearest wish granted and become a magical girl.”
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Pardon me, I apparently have a Kyubey infestation over here, I will be right back. Now where did I put the sledgehammer?

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    1. ACKS apparently has a very complete class customization system.

      The obvious best solution is to build Silica as a Dungeon Fantasy Assassin with a lens in some variant cleric template. 🙂

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      2. More seriously, DF Swashbuckler, Assassin, or possibly Ninja, with a lens in Beastmaster, Druid or if we are still being a little silly, Monster Slaver. (Cleric and a bunch of others also get flavors of Ally, or if your GM runs the campaign enforcing a less stringent set of creation rules, just buy it off template.) Though Stheno would probably be interested in the Psychic Slayer, which I understand is sort of like a mythos fighting Jedi.

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    2. First things first: that sledgehammer is at best a temporary solution, if I were you I’d call an exterminator, or get in contact with Shoutan Himei and her Familiar Dusty.

      Second: I’m not totally certain Witch is the right way to go. Problem one: it’s a full caster. Problem two: the Familiar doesn’t offer the Witch a Contract. A Witch makes a deal with (or is chosen by) some kind of Patron/Power, and the Familiar acts as the link and channel between the Witch and their Patron.
      Problem 3: while Rogue gives you the proficiencies you want, the Witch still has to deal with Arcane Spell Failure on that light armor.

      If you’re reaching into Pathfinder I think that straight Rogue, Rogue multi-classing into Shaman, or Hunter.

      In Pathfinder there are a few archetypes class variants, as well as feats, and an Advanced Rogue Talent that all grant Rogues access to Familiars; further with the Minor Magic, Major Magic, and Wild Magic Rogue Talents and several Rogue Talents that they’re prerequisites for, you can accurately represent Silica having some magic (not much. Even a tertiary caster like a Ranger or Paladin gets more, but it’s still magic).

      The Shaman is… Kind of too good for Silica. As a distant relative of the Cleric it gets full casting, medium attack growth, as a Divine caster no Arcane Spell Failure, proficiencies with Simple weapons (like knives) and Light and Medium armor. To top off all of that, the Shaman’s magic comes from tapping into natural spirits of the world around them, and like the Witch the connection manifests as a Familiar… an extra badass Familiar with special abilities based on what natural terrain you’re drawing your power from. Of course, that’s a lot of magic for Silica, who seems to more dabble in magic. Multi-classing into Rogue should be able to fix that.

      Finally for Pathfinder options: the Hunter. It’s a secondary caster, Cleric attack growth, Divine so it can cast in armor, it gets the equipment proficiencies Silica uses, and is entirely built and focused around having an animal companion like a druid, and being even more super special connected to your animal companion. Seriously, the main unique class feature it uses to attract people is getting to manifest traits of various animals, and granting such abilities to your animal companion. The Hunter is probably the single class that can be said to make a better Beast Tamer than either the Druid or the Ranger, and in DnD that’s pretty impressive.

      Of course, these suggestions all assume for Pathfinder. Going straight 3.5 I have less ideas, but aside from Pina Silica’s build actually sounds like a Bard. I’m pretty sure 3.5 has multiple ways for a Bard to get a familiar.

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      1. >Of course, these suggestions all assume for Pathfinder. Going straight 3.5 I have less ideas, but aside from Pina Silica’s build actually sounds like a Bard. I’m pretty sure 3.5 has multiple ways for a Bard to get a familiar.>
        Yeah I think there is a feat to that extent. And yes, Silica canon is kind of a skill monkey as it were:
        Musical Instrument, Sewing, Cooking,
        Familiar Recovery, Familiar Communication,
        Acrobatics
        One Handed Dagger, Light Metal Equipment.

        The reason I avoided shaman/druid was that I recalled that one or both of them had issues with metal equipment.

        And I admit I was flailing around a fair bit since it’s kind of hard to slot Silica into any given class and keep the feel right. Of course given how in this SAO, class titles tended to get slapped on to discribe the roles people play. Because it seems like you start out as the proverbial level 1 commoner and then based on the skills you choose, your ‘profession’ begins as you continue to invest points into it.

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      2. The Metal equipment thing is a problem for Druids and Druids alone, fortunately that’s been becoming less and less weird as editions go on. In Pathfinder I know it’s just metal armor and shields that Druids have a problem with – though wood enchanted to be mechanically identical to steel via the Ironwood spell is apparently all fine and dandy. In 3.0 I remember that they weren’t allowed either metal armor or weapons, except the Scimitar for no well explained reason, and I don’t remember which the 3.5 Druid is closer to.

        Honestly, for Silica I was pretty much assuming Druid from the start, and cheating by assuming she’s at least a few levels behind​ all the Clearers, but keeps up okay-ish because she’s playing the Cleric-or-Druid-Zilla.

        Going Pathfinder though I’d definitely make her a Hunter variant.

        Pina doesn’t fit the base Animal Companion list of possibilities, but Shaman is just a bit too cast-y to feel right even if their specially buffed Familiar feels perfect for involves-herself-in-frontline-combat Pina. I figure as an Animal Companion you can just Homebrew it by borrowing the progression chart used for the Homunculus that the Alchemist Variant with a Homunculus Companion gets. The base starting Homunculus and Faerie Dragon are considered roughly equivalent as both are Improved Familiars, you can modify from there as necessary. I mean: we’re talking about Main Characters, they’re probably gonna be breaking the rules a little bit anyways.

        As for Homunculus/Animal Companions sizing up at certain points, pick your poison: Pina hasn’t sized up because Silica is too low-level; Pina doesn’t want to size up, and so just she’s a Companion variant that doesn’t size up (see: DnD 3.5 ‘Dungeon-bred’ +0 template for ideas as to how this might look); Silica’s Hunter Variant is the Packmaster, Pina is her first and toughest Animal Companion, but not her only one, and while Silica has ‘set aside’ effective druid levels to bond with other Animal Companions, she hasn’t bonded with any other just yet; some combination of any or all of the above.

        Alternatively, if there’s a Shaman Archetype Variant with a reduced casting capability Silica may be that.

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      3. Hmm. I’m leaning toward some kind of rogue-style character with an aura that “tastes nice” to the dragonette. Alternatively, she might be one of the Factotum class from Dungeonscape, or even a beast heart adept!

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  11. Almost missed this.
    >First things first: that sledgehammer is at best a temporary solution, if I were you I’d call an exterminator, or get in contact with Shoutan Himei and her Familiar Dusty.>
    That’s a blast from the past. So do you know them from the original Sailor Nothing or the Battle Fantasia Project?

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