For those of you who've read the first Hyrian Chronicles novel (and if you haven't, don't feel bad, we've been delayed in publishing it), you'll rewmember Nikola, a black cat with quite a lot of knowledge in that little head of his, even if he can't figure out why Hyrians wear eye clothes...
Last night, during our nightly roleplaying, Amsti and her party visited a loremaster and identified a few objects that they've been toting around. One of them was a jar full of some unknown substance they'd found on the floor of the dungeon. Well, it turned out to have been a jar of pure magic in its liquid state (multiplies the effect of a spell by 10, but is highly addictive).
So what did they do with this liquid you could easily buy a kingdom with? Amsti found a high-level druid, handed her the jar, and requested that Pussy be awakened. Having discussed it previously with Pussy, the cat was all for it and told the druid as much (one speak with animals later). So the druid cast awaken using the jar... Then had an enlarge animal (with permanency) added (at DM's discretion, mind you).
The result?
Nikola's *starting* stats are STR=7, Dex=13, CON=10, INT=96, WIS=81, CHA=78! HIs racial skill points were 180, but he only could use 140 of them. On top of that, he took his first level as a Bard, so he's got a bardic knowledge of 44! Yes, he makes Elminster look like a dunce! ^_^
From level 2 on, it's been decided he'll become strictly a sorcerer, using the PHB2 optional metamagic ability. Add to that the fact that the party (thanks to the player being an ex-DM) has basically exploited almost every flaw in the d20 system (and there are a LOT of them) and you've got a party that's got ungodly powerful stats, items, and cash-on-hand. Between Amsti and Nikola, we've got two epic-quality chars (the two half-dragons have a ways to go yet, especially the female).
As for Nikola, he's grabbing leadership as soon as he can and will probably end up taking over the world by level 20 LOL Seriously, though, because of his intelligence, he WILL be building a spelljammer in the very near future, so if a black cat, half-elf with ungodly beauty, and two half dragons appear in your skies, you know we're there. ^_^