Rajit: Level 12: Machine-Like Precision

click-click-click-tuk THOK click-click-click-tuk THOK click-click-click-tuk THOK A trio of crossbow bolts strike an archery target set up against the west wall in Hyssop Home’s yard. “That’s really not that bad. A bit lacking in draw strength and unnecessarily loud for my taste but your bolts help make up for that, huh? Still more likely to spook a beast on the hunt with that ratchet than get a clear shot, though.” A half-elven woman clad in the green of Hyssop Home’s keepers comments as she leans against a rock, watching the archer in practice.
 
A thin looking blonde halfling, Rajit, shakes her wrist out and lowers her crossbow, adjusting her glasses as she looks at the strike pattern. Her tunic is stained with sweat and she gives a nod, approving of the precision of the arrows. “You know I don’t hunt in the field anyway, I just keep my remedy tablets in a bottle and eat those. I’d never be able to move enough food or drink around for Gilbert and I.” She hefts her crossbow up and examines the mechanisms. “You know I think that fixed my accuracy issue, but that’s about as much speed as I’m going to get out of it. Any more and the springs will snap, or my hand will come flying off the crank. What do you think, Lilroh?”
 
“I think three bolts on target at 80 feet in 6 seconds is quite good, even if it sounds like a grandfather clock falling down stairs. I guess Gilbert will know when to duck out of the way though.” The half-elf stands up off the rock and stretches before nocking an arrow, she aims carefully and plants it right in the center of Rajit’s three bolts. “I still think nothing beats an old-fashioned longbow, though!”
 
Rajit smirks at Lilroh, but she does raise her eyebrows in appreciation at the accuracy of the shot. “You’ll see, machines and alchemy will make everything better one way or another.” Lilroh shrugs and saunters back towards Hyssop Home, throwing a look over her shoulder. “How about lunch? And nothing that comes out of one of your damn bottles, you’re thin enough. Come on, I’m supposed to go meet Thresher.” Rajit waves to Lilroh as she goes. “Oh, I would never get between you two lovebirds. Say hello to your new wife for me!” Lilroh throws her hands into the air and yells back in frustration: “We’re not even married yet!” Rajit grins back and retorts: “Oh, ‘not yet?’ You said you weren’t even dating last time!” Rajit’s only answer was a grunt of dismissal as the half-elven woman went for her promised lunch with her ‘wife’ Thresher.
 
“They really are cute together.” Rajit grinned to herself as she picked up her things from the yard. The sweat cooled as the heat of her practice ended and she decided to treat herself to a bath. “One of the benefits of being small, private bathing…” Rajit went back to her room and dragged out a simple wooden laundry tub, and filled it with water. A few drops of pyroil and a bit of powdered heat and a light steam wafted from the tub. Rajit grabbed her latest book, a generic romance, then disrobed and settled into the tub. Her glasses began to fog immediately, and she took them off. “Huh, that’s odd… maybe I need to get new glasses.
 
Rajit blinked at the pages. Normally she could still read something close enough with her glasses off but the pages blurred and no matter how she squinted the letters didn’t clear. With a sigh she set the book down and sunk down in the tub to relax. She looked at her arms and even with her poor vision she could tell she’d toned up from all the practice. It felt good. Not so long ago she’d barely been able to fight, but now she was a threat with her crossbow. “There’s nothing more left for me there though… so what’s next?”
 
Rajit relaxed and blew bubbles in the water as she thought. Her teamwork with Gilbert was almost as good as it gets, but she could certainly work on training him further. She could also learn more about her enemies. Her studies on undead had paid dividends, and her investigation into fiends had lead her to many interesting alchemical studies. Alchemy, there was another option. What new formulae could she come up with if she went back to studying? And study itself was a whole additional idea. She’d learned some basics from the arcane but after discovering her talent in alchemy she had wandered elsewhere. “When is the last time I even opened my spellbook?”
 
Rajit finished her bath and wrapped herself up in a towel, loose hairs dripping down her shoulders as she put back on her glasses. She went to her desk and opened the bottom drawer, pulling out her spellbook for the first time in quite a while. She flipped it open and tried to read the arcana of the spells she knew, but found it difficult to read. “Ugh, damn fog.” Rajit wiped her glasses, but the lettering was still small and difficult to make out. “My eyes really are getting worse…”
 
Rajit sighed and pulled out a thick black book she had recently been gifted by a Storm Giant Seer. This giant crafted spellbook has a motif of a storm cloud and lightning bolt on the front of it’s dark leather cover. It was roughly bound by large hands, and opening and closing it, it claps loudly with a rather loud book-y sound of opening and closing. There is a cipher to understanding the Auran language in the back of the book. “I guess recopying my spells would be a good start to getting back into it…” Rajit started from the beginning of her wizardly studies again, transcribing the spells in a larger font matching her now larger spellbook to remain readable to her failing eyes.
 
Rajit reaches level 12, taking her 5th and final level in Mutant Blood Hunter. Rajit’s dedication to her crossbow and continued improvements have resulted in her mastering her hand crossbow, gaining the Extra Attack Feature. Rajit’s continued use of her mutagens have resulted in more concentrated brews increasing her mutation score to 2. Her use of Blue Blur (Celerity Formula) has continued to degrade her eyesight, and though her dexterity increase is now 2 her wisdom has dropped by 2. Her Jolt Bolts (Rite of the Storm) have also been more purely refined, increasing their damage to 1d6 though the fumes associated with their activation continue to degrade Rajit’s health. She also develops a condensed electrolytic fluid which when applied to a target increase its electrical conductivity. She develops a delivery system and attached it to her crossbow, Rajit learns Blood Curse of the Marked.