Helicksday, 15th of Summertide (6), year 713 of the Gofarran calendar.
The Kingdom of Alancorn, Le Puy-en-Velay region, town of Ornans.
Veshrya woke early today. With the early morning sun reaching into her room through the hastily and not fully closed curtains, the light had woken her as it had moved across her face. Siting up she stretched both hands above her head but stopped mid yawn as a blue flashing icon asked for her attention in the bottom left of her vision. She knew what it was and why it was there but she had not expected it to appear for at least another two years.
She looked over to her bedside table where a pink, cartoonish bobble-headed dragon sat curled on top of a display screen. It was just after six bells so her mother would still be asleep, but letting her know about this was important. She bopped the dragons head to turn off the alarm as she got out of bed, straightened out her nightgown then headed towards her mothers' room.
"Mom, can I come in please?" Veshrya asked as she knocked on the door, waiting for a reply. "Mom?"
"Yes Colombe, come in." It took a while for the sleepy and just slightly grouchy reply to come from the inside.
She opened the door and entered the white minimalistic room and headed towards her mother's king-sized, four-poster bed, which was much too large for the occupant's slight build. Veshrya went under the duvet at the end of the bed and crawled upwards until she was snuggled up against her mother who, as was her habit, had gone to bed with nothing on.
"By Ortus Colombe, its ten past six. Why are we up at this ungodly hour?" Helinix held the young girl in her arms as she called up the holographic display from her bedside noticing the time.
"When I woke up I could see the system, then I came straight here." She felt her mother stiffen slightly, then relax as she sighed.
"You've been six for only four days, do you mind not growing up too fast little Colombe. House? Let Esmée know I won't be in today and could you put a pot of coffee on for me, the usual." Helinix asked to the room at large.
"Yes, Ma'am. Right away." A feminine if slightly robotic voice answered from the roof.
"So, to start with, if you've been sent a message it means the system now counts you as old enough to start training. Most human children as you know will get one at around age eight, same as us succubus. Which means you've got yours quite early, we were expecting it to be but… Anyway, it just means you get the talk now instead of later." Helinix said as she sat up in bed.
"Why did I get it so early?" Veshrya asked.
"When the system appears to a person it means that it believes the person is strong enough in, both body and mind, to start gaining the Skills and feats need for them to survive in a world that was overrun with monsters. For elves it's between fifty to seventy years old, for most animal-kin its six to seven and the other races have their own age." Helinix explained.
"Which means you'll be spending a lot more time with your Aunty Kelona."
"Doing the training like Soeur did?" She remembered the training her sister did every morning when she was at home and she knew it was this aunt who had taught her how to do them.
"Yes. Kelona's role in the flock is as a trainer and mentor for the other sisters. She can take what the system shows about you and find out the best path forward for you into the future. But for now, I'll give a basic explanation. To bring the actual screen up you have to direct your attention towards the icon and think about it opening." She pulled her daughter up into her lap as she talked putting an arm round the girl's waist, holding her close.
Veshrya did as her mother said, only taking a moment to get the feeling for it then a light blue slightly transparent screen appeared in front of her.
"I got it up mom."
Status
Titles
Feats and Skills
Additions
Spells
Notes
"Good. Now you can keep using your mind like you just did to open it, or you can reach out and touch it just like when you use the gloves when you play with the holograms at my lab. Grab the top corner and move it so we can both see it." Helinix watched as Veshrya moved the screen she couldn't see in front of them.
"Next you have to think about sharing the screen with me so I can see it to Colombe. Just remember, you should only show this to the people you absolutely trust. Information that is extremely important about you, that could harm you if someone bad got hold of it, will be shown on these screens. It's an act forbidden by all the Gods to spy on or force someone to show it against their will. That's how important these screens can be." As she talked the screen showed up in front of her.
"We'll go through them one by one but most of them won't have anything on them just yet. Press status first Colombe, it will be the one you will probably spend most of your time on in the future."
Name – Veshrya Sitri, Race – Succubus (Tanar'ri), Sex - Female, Age – 6 (child),
Size - Small, Alignment – Chaotic Good, Patron - N/A,
Attributes Class Level Progress
Strength-13 Succubus 5 2%
Dexterity-18 +
Constitution-13
Intelligence-15
Wisdom-12
Charisma-22
Luck-16
"So, the first row is simple to understand, just some simple information about you. The second row a bit less so." Helinix said as she traced her finger across the screen for the young girl to follow along.
"Size usually only matters for spells or feats and a few other things. Something or someone is counted as small if it's under four foot tall. The patron section will be filled only if, or when, you decide to undergo a baptism so we can ignore that one for now." She pointed to the two sections then to the on between them.
"Now alignment is a very short description of what type of person you are. Good and Evil are easy to understand. Someone is lawfull if they follow the rules were someone who is Chaotic likes to break them. If someone is Neutral they can be a mix of both. Now while this is very simplistic in its description of an actual person it's still a good measure for you to go by.
Whether someone is Lawful or Chaotic usually has more to do with who a person was born as rather than how they were raised. Because Succubus are part of the Tanar'ri class taxon we are all mostly chaotic at heart but basically, it just means we have to have a good reason to follow any orders or rules.
If someone is Good or Evil is more impacted by how they grew up and I've put in a lot of work to raise you right my little Colombe." She said the last part then gave Veshrya a large hug, planting lots of kisses on her cheek causing the girl to squirm and laugh in her arms.
"You should know what the individual attributes like Strength and Intelligence are but Kelona will give you a better understanding of how they actually effect you and what the numbers mean." Helinix continued after the small tussle ended.
"The average human male has scores of between nine and eleven so even your lowest score is quite above average."
Veshrya looked over her shoulder to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while since she had seen the screen.
"Is that why you made me do all those control exercises before you let me play with the other kids' mom?"
"Yes dear, even as a baby you, well, let's say you had quite the grip on you. And we didn't want you hurting any of your friends." Helinix said.
"What's the largest number you've seen mom?" Veshrya asked.
"For me myself it was someone with a score of thirty-two while the highest ever recorded was sixty-one in strength.
Now, all races of the Folk when they gain access to the system don't have a class. See that plus symbol? If you press it a list of the classes you have available to you right now will be listed for you to chose from. What's there will depend on the individual, what race they are, who and were they were born to, what they have done up to that point in life and many other conditions.
Being a Succubus, you can see that you already have our race as a class."
The mother tightened the hug on the girl, kissing the top of her head before she continued on.
"That's one reason our kind haven't always been treated well by the Folk. Some of it we earned ourselves but this is a big part of it. You see, all monsters are created with its own race class. A Dire wolf starts with a Dire wolf class and a Wyvern starts with a Wyvern class and so on. Most will only have the one class for as long as they live, but a few can be lucky enough to gain more, and for many, many years that's just what most Folk believed us to be. Humanoid shaped monsters that, as a race, had just got lucky.
Pixies, Orcs, Kobolds, Dragons and Succubus were all grouped together as Monstrous Folk. Some of us were good, some bad, smart or strong, it didn't matter, we just weren't proper Folk to most people. That's gone for the most part, luckily, but not completely." She looked down at her youngest daughter and smiled warmly.
"Just remember you have family and friends that love you Colombe."
"Ma'am. I believe it's a good time to say the coffee is ready. Would you like it brought up?" The synthetic voice of the house A.I. sounded in the following silence as the mother and daughter cuddled together in the warmth of the bed.
"Thank you, House. It's ok, I'll go for it myself." Helinix stood up from the bed. "One moment Colombe I'll bring you up something too."
"Ma'am, I took the opportunity to make some eggs and toast when I started the coffee. It should be ready in a moment."
"A Godsend as always. Thank you." The woman said as moved from the bedroom not bothering to cover herself. Her eldest daughter had gone to a nearby town for a mercenary contract with her two partners, in both senses of the word, so she didn't need to worry about either of the two men that might have been in the house. Even if they were here, it would have been a toss-up if she would have put something on anyway.
It didn't take long for her to return to the room carrying a tray with food for the both of them.
Placing it on the side table she climbed back into the bed getting back into the position she had left. They spent their time eating just chatting and playing together until the meal was finished, then it was time to continue.
"The good thing about the Succubus class is that it doesn't count towards the class limit. The average human can have four or five classes at most and no one really knows how many they have until they take their last one and that plus symbol doesn't show anymore.
Again, it depends on the person, Elves get around six and so on. A Succubus can have around six as well, along with their race class. So, in theory a Succubus should always be slightly stronger than any equivalent Folk. The down side is that the class will take some experience that would go to your other ones and will make you level slightly slower.
We're not going to pick a class for you just yet as your Aunt will need to look you over first." Helinix paused as she took a sip of coffee.
"What classes do you and Soeur have?"
"Cahrya has Scout and Rouge. I have a few, but Alchemist and Transmuter are the ones that people know me for. What else should you know?" She taped a finger on her chin.
"Oh right. Every five levels you go up in a Class means you can pick a Feat or Skill from it. As a Scout Cahrya got the Move Silently Skill at level five. Let's go to the Skills and Feats tab now if you please Colombe, since were on the topic."
A Few seconds of playing with the system and a new screen came up.
Feats and Skills
General Skills
- Language – Ma'rion (basic), Tanar'ri (basic)
- Mathematics (intermediate)
- Cleaning (basic)
- Cooking (basic)
- Singing (basic)
Knowledge
- History (basic)
- Local (basic)
- Art (basic)
- Biology (basic)
General Feats
- Weapon Finesse
Succubus
- Immunity – Electricity, Poison,
- Resistance – Acid, Cold, Fire,
- Darkvision (60ft)
- Alternate Form
+
"General skills are just that. There what we learn and use as we go through life, so all your time doing maths at your Grand-mère Yasmine's place is shown here. Knowledge is the information you've gained. The difference between the two sections is not that well understood and many think it's just a leftover from when it was first created." Helinix said as she again traced her finger over the screen.
"How was it created? The System I mean. And by who?" Veshrya asked.
"We don't know. No history can even agree on when it was let alone by who, and the Gods are silent on the issue. Now the Skills you have on the screen are what you've learnt up to now, while the Succubus column is what you were born with. General Feats has Weapon Finesse which you learnt yourself when you were controlling your Attributes. Again, more about that from your aunt. The Succubus class has a cap on how high you can you can go until you reach adulthood, so you won't be able go past level twenty. And most of its Skills and Feats will be unavailable until then, like our Wings. So, no flying until your twelve little Colombe." Helinix smiled as her youngest daughter raised her arms up and booed, she knew that her not having them was the largest reason for any bickering her children get up to.
She pointed at the symbol at the bottom of the succubus column.
"Press the plus and let's see what is available to you right now."
A large list appeared if front of them listing them showing them the Skills and Feats available to Veshrya at this moment. It took a moment for her mother to skim over them.
"Mom? Why is Use Rope with the other Skills? The rest are all about talking with people or deceiving them, shouldn't be a general Skill or?" Veshrya asked innocently to which her mother laughed, tussling her hair.
"Its fine for it to be their Colombe, you'll see its usefulness in time. But for now, I can see two good options for you. The first is Succubus Racial Spells which gives you a number of useful spells that you can use basically as you will. The other is Disarming looks that will help you get or do what you want easier if you play on how cute you are. You won't pick one right now but soon enough."
Veshrya had her face scrunched up slightly as she read through the list and listened to her mother's explanations.
"Why is everything about tricking people mom?"
"That's who we are Colombe. Our race survived for thousands of years hiding from almost every race out there, if we didn't have these Skills and Feats we wouldn't have survived as long as we did. Still, just remember, while a gun or a sword is dangerous that depends on the person wielding it. A Good person will use them to protect while an Evil person would use them to harm." Helinix replied.
"Next would be the four other tabs but for you they should all be empty. In the Spells tab every five levels of a caster class give you a number of spells, how many and how to use them depends on the Class itself. The Titles tab lists any Titles you manage to earn, but they are all extremely difficult to do so. Additions tab is if you put anything on or in yourself, your Aunt Qinorin's robotic arm would show up on this tab. And in the Notes tab is a place you can use to mark as you wish. There are a number of tricks you can use this tab to do, but will teach you them when you start training.
Which reminds me. House, call Kelona please. There is no time like the present to get this started. I'm sure she won't mind being woken up so early."
There was a crooked smile on Helinix as the dial tone rang in the room. If she was going to be up this early she might as well spread the joy to at least one of her sisters, shouldn't she?