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honourablejester · 1 year

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PF2e Character Concept: Inbal the Listener

So I was browsing around the Investigator class in Archives of Nethys, and some of the flavour text leans towards an occult detective: You seek to uncover the truth, doggedly pursuing leads to reveal the plots of devious villains, discover ancient secrets, or unravel other mysteries. I’ve been wanting to build an occulty sort of character in PF2e since basically reading some of the occultism skill feats way back when. If you want a sort of ESP-feeling, psychometry, vibe-focused sort of character, occultism just feels like a really good skill to build around.

So I was looking at that, and the Investigator methodologies, and for some reason while browsing past the Forensic Medicine methodology, my brain thought ‘Igor’. Gothic horror, bodies, henchpeople. Frankenstein. Which, naturally, brought me back to the Fleshwarp ancestry. Because they’re just really really cool. But. If we tie a bow around all of that. Bodies. Forensic Science. Occultism. Gothic Horror. Servants.

How about a character who was built, designed, to search out occult mysteries. A body built from pieces of strange creatures, a servant crafted to aid in certain obscure and obscene mysteries. A shambling creature who wound up on their own, with only insatiable curiosity, strange senses, and a healer’s eye for the physical form to keep them going. A hideous creature, a feared creature, but they offer help. Medicine, healing. Expertise. Help for when things are strange or terrifying.

Inbal the Listener. A nervy, alarming creature with long, spidery fingers and worrisome sensory tendrils, who sidles around the edges of civilisation offering cheap doctoring or help with unusual mysteries to survive.

(Yes, my Nosferatu is showing again. VtM was responsible for a lot. Also Universal and Hammer Horror)

Character Concept: Inbal the Listener, Sensor of Hidden Things

Ancestry, Heritage

Fleshwarp, Surgewise

I really, really, really like Fleshwarps. Horrendously transformed or warped or created beings, strange bodies for unusual people. For Inbal we’re aiming for a gothic/cosmic horror sort of origin, a bit of an Ustalavian feel. Some scientist or necromancer in Ustalav decided to make themselves a servant to help search out and understand areas of heavy occult energies, and in that cause decided to merge a broadly humanoid form with several … more unusual sorts of organs and origins.

So we’ll be going for the Surgewise heritage: The undulations of your body's cilia are hyper-attuned to wellsprings of magic; they trill and thrum with insights into occult energies, and their vibrations alert you to the presence of secrets. You gain the trained proficiency rank in Occultism. If you're trained in Occultism, you instead become trained in another skill of your choice. You also gain the Oddity Identification skill feat.

You’ve got to love a heritage that gives you canonical sensory tendrils (cilia). I want to imagine a sort of skinny, hunched, hairless creature, with bluey-grey skin, and these little fringes or fronds of cilia along certain areas. Below the ears. Along the spine and the back of the neck, over the crest of the head. Along the ridge of the arm, down to the wrist. The hands are elongated, pale, spidery fingers that stitch your wounds or delicately trace writings or gently examine clues. The eyes are dark and without whites, black orbs, and … let’s make the eyelids transparent. The eyes don’t close in sleep, or they don’t appear to close, though the transparent lids do protect them and keep them from drying out. Inbal is neither male nor female, they were never designed with reproduction in mind. They were meant to feel and to seek and to explore.

The medicine, the understanding of flesh, they came to themselves, as a product of their making.

As a note, ‘Inbal’, in Hebrew, means ‘tongue of a bell’. They named themselves, as something that will not only listen, not only feel, but also speak. They were not designed for it, but they have their own mind, and they have carved out their own life. That is important to them.

Ancestry Feats:

Low-Light Vision: You can see in dim light as though it were bright light, and you ignore the concealed condition due to dim light.

Unusual Anatomy: Your unorthodox body resists physical afflictions meant for other creatures. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saves against diseases and poisons.

Oddity Identification: You have a sense for spells that twist minds or reveal secrets. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Occultism checks to Identify Magic with the mental, possession, prediction, or scrying traits.

And for our first level ancestry feat we’ll take:

Deepvision: Your vision is suited for night or the underground. You gain darkvision.

Planned Future Ancestry Feats:

We’ll take the Ancestral Paragon general feat at 3rd level to get:

Living Weapon: You've learned to use part of your form as a weapon. When you select this feat, you gain a claws unarmed attack that deals 1d4 slashing damage and has the agile and finesse traits; a horn, jaws, or tusk unarmed attack that deals 1d6 piercing damage and has the versatile trait; or a tail unarmed attack that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage and has the backswing trait. Each of these unarmed attacks is in the brawling weapon group. Your features are mutable; you can select this feat at any level, and you can retrain into or out of this feat or change the type of attack you gain. Special You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you do, select a new attack from the options above.

Just because Investigators are martial classes, and a weapon that can’t get taken away might be handy. Not going to lie, though, Aberration Kinship is also very tempting, particularly on an occult detective sort of character. Toss up there. Then we’ll take:

Uncanny Awareness: You have a keen sense of movement around you. You gain motion sense as an imprecise sense out to 30 feet. Motion sense allows you to detect nearby motion through vibration and air movement.

Because we have sensory cilia and we’re damn well going to use them. And for the same reason, at 13th level we’ll take:

Augment Senses: You open vestigial eyes, unfurl tympanic flaps of skin, or otherwise enhance your senses. Until the start of your next turn, you gain the following benefits: you can't be flanked; when you Seek for creatures, you can scan a 60-foot cone or a 30-foot burst instead of the normal area; and when you Seek for hidden objects, you can search a 15-foot square instead of the normal area.

And at 17th level, just because, we’ll take:

Spew Tentacles: You can open your mouth to an immense size and spew forth an impossibly large field of tentacles. You can cast black tentacles once per day as an innate occult spell, though when you do so, you spew them from your mouth out to the appropriate range, where they take root and begin Grappling creatures as usual. The tentacles recognize you as a part of them and don't attempt to Grapple you, even if you are in the area.

For our 9th ancestry feat, it’s a toss up. Coating of Slime or Slip the Grasp work defensively. Transposable Compliance really gels well with our medical slant, allowing Inbal to use their own body as a set of healer’s tools, in very upsetting ways, using their own blood and skin to fix other people’s injuries at the cost of damage to themselves. It is tempting. But. If we want a combination, a very upsetting biological defensive feat, we could go:

Gaping Flesh (reaction): Frequency once per day. Trigger A creature you are aware of damages you with a melee Strike. Your wound yawns open, appalling your attacker. The attacker must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw against your class DC or spell DC, whichever is higher, or become sickened 1 (sickened 2 on a critical failure). It can't recover from the sickened condition while it's adjacent to you.

Look. They are a strange cobbled-together creature made of the upsetting bits of upsetting creatures so they could go out and look for more upsetting creatures and places and things. Their innards are not pleasant or rational things to look at. Okay? Heh.

I fucking love Fleshwarps. Anyway.

Planned Future General Feats:

Nothing too concrete, but I’ll definitely be getting True Perception at 19th level. Sensing is kind of our whole deal, after all. I’d also pick up the usuals. Fleet, Toughness. Since we’re an investigator, though, I’d like either Expeditious Search or Thorough Search. We like to examine things.

Background:

Necromancer’s Apprentice: You apprenticed under a necromancer—a hard education in a field where a cadaver you were dissecting could suddenly animate and every magical artifact seemed deadly. Now on your own, you're grateful you learned to identify magical threats quickly and thoroughly. Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Intelligence, and one is a free ability boost. You're trained in the Arcana skill and the Necromancy Lore skill. You gain the Quick Identification skill feat.

To go back to the Frankensteinian origin. Though it’ll be ‘made by’ instead of ‘apprenticed under’ a necromancer, in this case, and the necromancer also had some more … esoteric interests as well.

As for what happened to said necromancer … Inbal doesn’t know. She’s gone. Not dead, Inbal doesn’t think, just. Gone. It’s a little hazy. A lot hazy. Something happened, and suddenly Inbal was all alone in the world. Suddenly they had to investigate mysteries and poke around strange flesh for their own curiosity, instead of their master’s. But, well. That’s all right. They have a lot of curiosity. And they’re a lot freer to try to help and talk to people on their own.

Background Feats:

Quick Identification: You can Identify Magic swiftly. You take only 1 minute when using Identify Magic to determine the properties of an item, ongoing effect, or location, rather than 10 minutes. If you’re a master, it takes a 3-action activity, and if you’re legendary, it takes 1 action.

Class, Subclass, Archetype

Investigator, Forensic Medicine, Eldritch Researcher

Yes, I want to take an archetype on Inbal. Eldritch Researcher just feels so fitting. We’re an occult detective with a medical streak. I’m only going to take a couple feats from it, but it’s so nice for flavour and a couple of specific little details.

Forensic Medicine: You've learned that in most cases, especially murders, criminals tend to leave more evidence of the crime on the body than they'd like to believe. Information from bruising, bone fractures, blood spatters, and even the life cycle of carrion insects can provide valuable clues that help reconstruct the scene. You're trained in Medicine and gain the Forensic Acumen and Battle Medicine skill feats. When you use Battle Medicine, on a success the target recovers additional Hit Points equal to your level, and the target becomes temporarily immune for only 1 hour, not 1 day.

Forensic Acumen: You understand the principles of forensic medicine, making you better at examining a body to determine the cause of death or injury. You can perform a forensic examination on a body, as described under Recall Knowledge in the Medicine skill, in half the normal amount of time it would take (to a minimum of 5 minutes). If you succeed at your check, you can attempt an immediate check to Recall Knowledge to follow up on something you found, with a +2 circumstance bonus. This check is usually related to the cause of injury or death, such as a Crafting check to identify a poison or weapon that was used or an additional Medicine check to identify a specific disease. If you prefer, you can instead attempt to Recall Knowledge about the type of creature whose body you were examining, using the appropriate skill and gaining the same circumstance bonus. The circumstance bonus increases to +3 if you have master proficiency in Medicine and +4 if you have legendary proficiency.

Battle Medicine: You can patch up wounds, even in combat. Attempt a Medicine check with the same DC as for Treat Wounds and restore the corresponding amount of HP; this doesn't remove the Wounded condition. As with Treat Wounds, you can attempt checks against higher DCs if you have the minimum proficiency rank. The target is then temporarily immune to your Battle Medicine for 1 day.

Eldritch Researcher (at Level 2): An eager student of occult lore, you enjoy reading rare or forgotten tomes with ancient rituals and hidden secrets. You connect disparate facts to unlock deeper mysteries and uncover the truths of the universe, and you zealously hoard the knowledge your painstaking research produces. Aberrations fascinate you for many reasons, not the least of which is because their anatomy is wholly alien and yet, to the insightful, eminently sensible.

Eldritch Researcher Dedication: You gain the ability to cast a single arcane or occult cantrip of your choice (which is heightened to a spell level equal to half your level rounded up). If you weren't already, you become trained in that tradition's spell DCs and spell attack rolls with Intelligence as your spellcasting ability. Regardless of whether you choose an arcane or occult cantrip, you also become an expert in your choice of either Arcana or Occultism. You also gain a +1 circumstance bonus to checks you attempt with the chosen skill when Investigating or Identifying Magic. Special You can't select another dedication feat until you've gained two other feats from the Eldritch Researcher archetype.

Statistics:

We’re going to start with 18 Intelligence, 14 Constitution and Dexterity, 12 Wisdom, and 10 Strength and Charisma.

We’ll finish at 20th level with 22 Intelligence, 18 Constitution, Wisdom and Dexterity, 16 Charisma and 14 Strength.

Skills:

Because Investigators are insane when it comes to skills, at 1st level Inbal will be trained in: Arcana, Crafting, Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Necromantic Lore, Occultism, Religion, Society, Stealth and Thievery.

By 20th level, they’ll be Legendary in Crafting, Diplomacy, Medicine, Occultism, Society and Stealth, as well as Master in Arcana. Because, again, Investigators are kind of insane for skills.

Planned Class Feats:

Scalpel’s Point: Prerequisites forensic medicine methodology. Your stratagems benefit from your precise knowledge of anatomy. When you critically hit with an attack on which you substituted your attack roll due to Devising a Stratagem, if your attack dealt piercing or slashing damage, you also deal 1d6 persistent bleed damage to your target.

Blind-Fight: Prerequisites master in Perception. Your battle instincts make you more aware of concealed and invisible opponents. You don't need to succeed at a flat check to target concealed creatures. You're not flat-footed to creatures that are hidden from you (unless you're flat-footed to them for reasons other than the hidden condition), and you need only a successful DC 5 flat check to target a hidden creature. While you're adjacent to an undetected creature of your level or lower, it is instead only hidden from you.

(Inbal’s cilia and augmented senses are doing a lot of work. A very sensory creature in general)

Suspect of Opportunity: Frequency once per hour. Trigger A foe takes a hostile action against you in combat. Sometimes something intrudes upon your case unexpectedly, such as an ambush sent to bring your investigation to a close. You've learned how to compartmentalize your main lead and pursue a new one for your current predicament. You Pursue a Lead against the triggering foe, setting aside but not ending one of your currently active leads, if you have two leads. At the end of the combat encounter, you stop Pursuing the Lead against the triggering foe and return to the original lead, if you have one.

Foresee Danger: Trigger A creature targets you with an attack and you can see the attacker. You perceive every possible way your foe's attack could land and attempt to avoid them all. The triggering attack roll targets your Perception DC instead of your AC. Though this allows you to avoid taking penalties to your AC, it doesn't remove any conditions or other effects causing such penalties. For example, an enemy with sneak attack would still deal extra damage to you for being flat-footed, even though you wouldn't take the -2 circumstance penalty when defending against the attack.

Reconstruct the Scene: You spend 1 minute surveying a small location (such as a single room) to get an impression of events that occurred there in the last day. This involves moving about the area and studying footprints, the placement of objects, spilled drinks or blood, and so forth. You get an indistinct mental impression of significant events that happened there. This gives you clues and details of the past, including the overall events and their time frame, but it's not a perfect record. This also isn't enough to identify who was involved in these events if you weren't already aware the person was there. As determined by the GM, you also pick out various seemingly small details that could serve as important clues, like a memorable weapon someone used for a murder or the type of cloak someone wore when passing through.

Trickster’s Ace: Requirements When you make your daily preparations, you must specify a trigger for this reaction using the same restrictions as the triggers for the Ready action. You also choose a single spell from the arcane, divine, occult, or primal list of 4th level or lower. The spell can't have a cost, nor can its casting time be more than 10 minutes. The spell must be able to target a single creature, and you must be a valid target for it. Trigger You specify the trigger when you make your daily preparations (see Requirements below). Whether from jury-rigged magic items, stolen magical essence, or other means, you have a contingency in your back pocket for desperate situations. When the trigger occurs, you cause the spell to come into effect. The spell targets only you, no matter how many creatures it would affect normally. If you define particularly complicated conditions, as determined by the GM, the trigger might fail. Once the contingency is triggered, the spell is expended until your next daily preparations.

(We’ve dabbled in a bit of occult spellcasting before, after all, from ancestry and archetype, so why not dabble some more)

And to cap:

All the Time in the World: Your firsthand experience of the subjective nature of time and space has given you new observational insights. Your mind processes information so quickly that time appears to stop for all creatures but you. You can take up to 9 actions in 3 sets of up to 3 actions each. During this time, you can use purely mental and observational abilities such as Recall Knowledge, Seek, and Devise a Stratagem, and you can use an action to move a mental projection of yourself to a location within a 60- foot radius to observe objects more closely and from different angles, though you can't affect your surroundings in any way (for instance, you could move your mental projection more closely to a distant door to read a minute inscription on its handle, but you could not open it to observe the other side). When the duration elapses, time resumes its normal flow.

If you can’t already tell, Inbal is definitely going to be running on a theme of sensing things. Heh.

Planned Archetype Feats:

Strange Script: Prerequisites Eldritch Researcher Dedication. You have such familiarity with obscure texts that you can compel them to reveal their secrets. Once per day, you can touch a single text (such as a tome, a wall of hieroglyphics, or something similar) and understand its meaning for 1 hour. If the text is in multiple languages, you gain the ability to understand them all for only the purposes of reading the text. If the text is in a code or cypher, you don't automatically understand the text, but you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to checks to decipher it.

(I’m going to merge this with one of the skill feats I wanted to take, Read Psychometric Resonance, and flavour it as being able to sense the meaning as a psychometric resonance.)

Entities from Afar: Prerequisites Eldritch Researcher Dedication. You can call in aberrations to fight for you or to answer questions. You can cast summon entity as an innate occult spell once per day. If you couldn't already cast occult spells, these spells use Intelligence as your spellcasting ability, and you become trained in spell attack rolls and spell DCs for occult spells; if you could already cast occult spells, your proficiency in spell attack rolls and spell DCs for occult spells increases to expert. As soon as the aberration arrives, instead of giving it any other commands, you can demand that it help you with a single question you pose to it. For the creature to effectively answer, you must Sustain the Spell for 1 minute, and you must understand and be understood by the aberration. If you do, the aberration gives you a cryptic clue as provided by the read omens spell, except that the clue is even more enigmatic than normal; the creature then immediately returns from whence it came without providing you any other benefit. At 16th level and every 2 levels thereafter, the summon entity spell is heightened by 1 level (to a maximum of 8th level when you reach 20th level).

(… Look, Inbal’s already 90% Aberration, they might as well get to call some up for help occasionally)

Planned Skill Feats:

I’m going to mention these, because there’s some specific skill feats I want for the vibe and to build flavour in and around class/ancestry feats.

In particular I want:

Read Psychometric Resonance: Prerequisites trained in Occultism. With a touch, you can read the psychic impressions left on objects by their previous owners. This exploration activity functions similarly to Detect Magic in that you move at half your travel speed or slower while looking for psychometric resonance. You must brush your bare hands over any objects you pass while you do this. This detects objects with significant emotional resonance attached to them, such as the joy from a child's beloved teddy bear, the sorrow from a widower's wedding ring, or the fear from a victim's murder weapon. If you're looking for a particular type of emotional resonance, you can choose to ignore other emotions. If you find an item with that resonance, you can explore that resonance with the following action. Psychometric Assessment (concentrate, divination, emotion, exploration, mental, occult) Requirements Your bare hands are touching an object in which you detected psychometric resonance; Effect You spend 1 minute concentrating on the object to get a vision of the face of the person who imbued the item with such emotion in the first place. If the associated emotion is painfully negative, you might take 1d6 psychic damage, as determined by the GM.

PF2e has a psychometry skill. I love it. You don’t know how much. Like I said above, I want to build this with a few things, like Inbal’s sensory cilia from Surgewise, and the Strange Script feat from Eldritch Researcher. Their spidery fingers and swaying tendrils give them glimpses beyond the physical. They were made to feel things and to explore things, and they’re not unhappy about it.

On a theme of occultism and sensing things, I also want Arcane Sense, Consult the Spirits: Occultism, Recognise Spell and Quick Recognition. Root Magic is more protection than sensing, but that also fits in pretty well.

On a theme of Medicine, because it’s how they make their little space in the world, how they help, how they convince people not to murder them, I would also like Ward Medic, Robust Recovery, Advanced First Aid, Paragon Battle Medicine, and Legendary Medic.

All of this is possible, by the way, because, as mentioned, Investigators are ridiculous when it comes to skills and skill feats and they get twenty million of them. So on top of those, we can add on some of the usual suspects like Swift Sneak, Foil Senses, and Legendary Sneak, because Inbal is gonna need to be sneaky, because they’ve got to skulk around the edges of the world and avoid being hacked up as an abomination. Streetwise and Legendary Codebreaker from Society, because they’ll need some mundane mystery-solving abilities, and Codebreaker fits nicely with Strange Script too, in that by higher levels they’ve sensed enough to learn how to decode languages manually and permanently, instead of just reading meanings in the moment. And then we’ll throw in Magical Crafting, Craft Anything and Legendary Negotiation, because Investigators just have all the skills. All of them. Heh.

Spells: As a small side note, by the time they finish, between various feats, Inbal will also have a small collection of mostly occult spells available to them: Haunting Hymn, Detect Magic, Telepathy, Summon Entity and Black Tentacles.

And … that’ll be Inbal the Listener. A strange skulker around the edges of the light, with a curious form and a curious mind, looking to help and to explore in equal measure.

#pf2e #character concepts #investigators #occult detectives #cosmic horror #body horror #esp #i'm building around a theme of sensing things #i love fleshwarps #excellent ancestry

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dcxdpdabbles · 8 months

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DC X DP: The Summoning Conditions of the Ghost King.

Danny Fenton is new to his title.

It's been about two years since he defeated Pariah Dark and inherited his seat through the right of conquest. Now Danny knew, on some level, that Pariah was King of Ghosts, but in all honestly, he had been preoccupied with getting his town back from the zone and keeping his friends and family (and the rest of the town, he guessed) alive.

The victory had been just within the lines of a fair fight, only because a dew ghost argued that his shifting his dad's ecto-skeleton suit was a form of armor only after his power ran over it.

If Danny had fought in the ecto-skeleton suit without doing so then it would not have been considered a fair fight as it wasn't his own strength, and thus, he would not won the right of conquest.

But he did. And now Danny was crowned Ghost King. Which came with all sorts of responsibilities and proper conduct for someone of his new stature.

Many ghosts were willing to teach him the way- Princess Dora, Clockwork, Frostbite, Ghostwriter, and even the Observants- but Danny struggled to adjust. He had no idea being King meant he had to play diplomat to the literal multiverse- as the Ghost Zone or Infinite Realms touched every possible world at every possible time- and follow specific rules of being a Ghost.

A vampire could not entire a home without being invited in.

A fae could not take control over a human without knowing their name.

And a ghost could not make a chance to the living plane without meeting requirements, like an agreement on a contract.

That was why the Ghosts never passed Amity Park's limits and why Pariah Dark had chosen to take the town into his domain instead of expanding his attack. The Fentons have unknowingly created an open contract with anything that could get past their portal by opening it up and claiming themselves the protectors against ghosts kind.

If a ghost could defeat everyone in the Fenton household- as the ground of where the zone was open and the beings calling that location a home- then they would become the portal's rulers and be able to leave the city. Thankfully, that contact applied to Danny, and he had never lost, no matter who challenged him.

His ghost sense activated the contract, alerting him of a new challenger. After finding his family contract, Danny had thrown a fit in the Ghost King's Keep. Thankfully, he could close it with the help of Clockwork, who agreed to be his final challenger, and once he won, the portal was forever closed.

Danny then discovered he had to create his own Ghost Conditions as Phantom, The Protective Spirt of Amity Park, and Phantom, the Ghost King. He argued with the Infinite Releams council, something he installed to help him rule and to lowkey have them continue to govern themselves with his own laws, keeping them from killing each other- until his core began to deteriorate the more he neglected his Ghost Conditions.

Clockwork has to intervene, telling him in little words to write up his Ghost Conditions and have them ready in a month or experience his soul being ripped apart by nature.

Danny agreed to write up the Conditions as soon as he could....and then did what any sixteen-year-old teenager would do with a work assignment. He procrastinated until the night before it was due.

Panicked, he sat down in front of his laptop to write, telling his parents he had a big essay due and could not answer any calls until late.

At three am of the following day, Clockworked appeared for his Ghost Conditions which outlined his limitations and certain requirements for Danny to operate.

He worked hard on Phantom, The Protective Spirt of Amity Park, to allow him to live everyday human life and shift into a ghost to protect his town whenever he needs to. He ensured that he could not be used to cause human death by a weapon in a mortal war, and his condition for working on behalf of a human was to have a recommendation letter from both FrostBite and Clockwork out of both ghost-freewill.

He figured it would make it practically impossible to make him a weapon or make him do anything against his will. He didn't want to end up like Ember or Desiree, who relied on mortals to get power, but he also did not want to be so obsessive about protecting something he forwent everything like Sculker or Walker.

He spent so much time on it that he forgot to leave time to work on the Phantom, and Ghost King lists until his eyes were dropping closed and Clockwork was messaging him that he was on his way to both lists.

Danny panicked and wrote something down- hoping he would redo the assignment later on- just to have something to turn in. The lack of sleep and stress caused him to not think clearly.

When he woke seven hours later, he realized this wasn't just some English assignment he could ask his teacher to let him redo. This was set in stone conditions and said conditions had already been passed around the multiverse. Some of his work even appears in his timeline, in some ancient civilization, thanks to Clockwork flinging copies of his Ghost Conditions into time portals.

Thank the Ancient Cores that Danny had copied and pasted the parts of about not making him a weapon for mortal wars or mindlessly killer. He hoped that it wouldn't come to bite him in the ass.

It bit him in the ass a week later when an alien threat so big the Heros of the Justice League were so desperate for a counter-attack they allowed Batman to attempt to summon the Ghost King even at the Justice League Dark's warning.

Batman had known about the Ghost King's Summoning Conditions from his time with Ra's Al Ghul. It was, after all, Ra's civilization that had been the one to find Danny's list from Clockworks time portals.

Danny knew this because one of the conditions was letting him know of the human's intention before they could summon him. He honestly heard whatever Batman was thinking and whatever the man could hear.

"Bats, this is baty even for you!" A disembodied voice hissed. Danny was startled so hard on his bed, having been scrolling on his phone when the British man spoke.

"If we can convince the King that the lives of Earth are at risk, he will aid us in the battle. He can not kill humans, but the aliens are not human." Batman answered, and Danny felt his core drop. Oh no. a loophole.

"Or he could kill everything around in a fit of rage!" The other man yelled. "No one understands the Ghost King! His Conditions were so open-ended anything could happen!"

Hey, Danny thought they were pretty solid, actually.

"Doesn't matter. We are out of options." Batman replied, and between one moment and the next, Danny was floating above a summoning circle, still wearing his snowflake pajamas- complete with a large holding- his phone in the same lying on his stomach position.

Thankfully, he was in his ghost form.

"What-"

"Phantom, Ghost King, I call upon you for aid. The lives of all human life are at risk of destruction." Batman said, his thoughts silent like the grave, and Danny had no idea what he was thinking.

Danm. Danny's wording of "Knowing a human's intention before summoning the King" meant that he could not hear the human's intention once the summon happened. Maybe his language was too open-ended.

"Ugh." He slowly sat up in a cross-leg position, eyeing the gathered heroes. It looked like all of the Justice League was present- all looking worse for wear. Whatever aliens were, the League wasn't kidding when they sent out an emergency shelter notice. "Um, that is...Well, you see, the funny thing is you have to pass some trials before I can help you. Batman Sir."

The Dark Knight showed no outward emotion as he nodded even as a few heroes seemed confused by Danny's nervousness. "I will undergo them."

Please disagree. Danny wanted to scream, flushing a bright green. He wrote those trails in two minutes. They are embarrassing!

Instead, he heard himself say as if speaking from his frozen ice core. "You must pass all my trails. The first shall begin right now and you must have opponents of those you cherish the most. They must be someone you love so much that the thought of them hurting will destroy you. They must take part now or drop dead if they refuse."

A glowing green snowflake appears under the feet of five individuals in the crowd. Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Orphan and Spoiler.are dragged to the front of the crowd, to stand next to Batman in the Ghost Kind's trails.

Batman froze and a man in a trench coat swore. "I warned you!"

"Wait!" Flash yelled, but it was too late. The Ghost King Trails had already begun. Danny wanted to scream, but he felt his body move one arm up, creating a sizeable frozen slate of ice to hover over the heroes.

A familiar song filled the air as smaller slates appeared before each hero. Words slowly carved across the large and small ice, much to the confusion of everyone present.

"Is...Is this Kahoot?" Red Robin dared to ask, watching the words finish being made, and the Kahoot music continued to count down.

Danny wants to hide his face in his hands, but he instead shouts, "The first to twenty is the victor and shall be the one I shall give my aid to! Now time is running out, humans, pick your answer for... Question one...According to the Ghost King, which Gotham hero has the best ass?"

Ding.

Everyone turned to Orphan when she quickly pressed B. on her ice tablet. Since she was the only one who moved in time before the timer ran out, her answer was displayed before all eyes.

She chose correctly. B. for Red Robin.

Orphan shrugs at Red Robin's gape. "His Highness' eyes did a slow up and down when they spotted you. It wasn't hard to guess."

Danny thought making a Kahoot was fast, and no one would be able to guess the answers to questions about himself. He thought it was foolproof.

He was wrong.

"Question two: Which is the prettiest star in the Milky Way!" Danny shouts in a pompous tone that contradicts his embarrassed frown and glowing green blush.

The heroes of Gotham stare at him before they all press A for Sirius.

"How!?" He asks when all of them get the answer right. Right now, Orphan is winning, so she is the closest to his contact dealer.

"You're wearing the star on your nightcap," Red Hood deadpans.

"Q-Question three.....What is the Ghost King's favorite Holiday?"

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.

Nightwing, Red Robin, Red Hood, Spoiler, and Orphan picked D. for Halloween but only Batman chooses correctly with B. for Valentine's Day.

He does not explain how he knows that, and Danny is starting to worry the greatest detective in the world is going to figure all his answers out, and he will end up serving them.

Sweating, he moves on to the next question as John Consistent watches on, wondering if he indeed was an Occult expert as he thought or not because none of what was happening was what he thought would happen.

They may stand a chance yet.

Master Post Link

#dcxdpdabbles #dc x dp crossover #The Summoning Conditions of the Ghost King #ghost king danny #crack taken seriously #Danny's trails are what you expect from a procrastinator #The bats are literally the best detectives ever #They are breezing through trail one #John Constantine would kick his Occult degree in the trash if he had one after this #Dead tired

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