I land on Dan’s demiplane, and query the voice of Dan in my head: "How much xp for the trap in the hospital?"

Dan’s voice replies,  "That thing had a CR over 50.  It would rocket you well past 20th, however, there's that obscure rule that prevents leveling up twice at once, so you get a level, and are now one XP shy of the next."

So I have some work to do, after I give Dan all the Oracle spells. After which I'll need to kill a rat or something and do more.  Sweet. I hope they plant more of those bombs.

I take a moment to enjoy the fresh air and faux sunshine. I can feel the warmth on my skin, but when I check the sky… no sun. I amuse myself by examining the shadow of a plant. It's not sharp, like what I would expect of sunshine on a clear day. Instead, it's a very fuzzy shadow, like on a severely cloudy day. I guess the entire sky is lit up, and it just looks blue because that’s how Dan wanted it.

When Dan arrives… he looks pale, and not very happy. He covers his eyes and mutters for a few seconds before squinting and looking around for me. As he does, I approach him, and inquire, "You’re looking a bit pale, you OK?"

"Yes my goddess," he responds, "But I didn't think the downside from my curse would be this bad."

"Which did you get?"

"Shadow mystery, Shadowbound curse,  and the Spirit Guide archetype as per our free archetype house rules. Because Shadow spells give me access to a good chunk of the Sorcerer and Wizard list, on demand, and Spirit Guide gives me a decent floating pool of more spells known. But ugh, it's too bright."

"Oh, that's an easy fix," I say, granting him relief from the sun via the Protective Penumbra spell, making sure to use Invisible Spell so it's not obvious,  "You just need to find some shade."

"Thanks," he says, "That… completely negates the downside, doesn't it?"

"Other than the coloration, which the Shapechange you get through our link can solve, assuming you don’t mind my listening in on your thoughts, yes. I'm happy to help.  So… spells today?"

"Extra Revelation too, please. Shadow has some good ones that let me nab things off other class lists."

So I spend a few hours loading Dan up with all the revelations he qualifies to have, as well as all the Cleric/Oracle spells, via Enable Function for Extra Revelation and Expanded Arcana, with Attuned Mysticism so it affects him. I also give him all the metamagic he could want, Versatile Spellcaster so he can use spells a level above where he has slots, spellcraft so he can craft whatever he’d like, Use Magic Device to help him cross-list via items, plus Skill Focus in both and Magical Aptitude to boost his check further.

Yeah, I know he's going to go craft crazy. He'll have fun with it. I'm going to be worse, honestly. Magic gear is great. Most of it I can do with spells, but extradimensional storage will be sweet. I figure a couple of Keyhomes will do until I can cast Magnificent Mansion without needing it to help a worshiper. By that time, Greater Plane Shift to go back and forth will be more convenient. Just two more levels after I finish these two.

There's enough spells that it's several hours to load him up. I'm eager for my level ups, so no, we don’t do the same game as yesterday.

When we're done, I plane shift out, and Teleport to my hotel room without incident.

Firing up my laptop, I go through my options (fortunately, the contents of all the books are available online). I settle on some mostly boring things for 9th: Boost AC, boost stealth, add the Alchemist's 'spells' to things I can prepare … but I do pick up the Cloistered Cleric’s Domains. That nabs me Knowledge (boring, but fundamental to where I'm getting them), Strength (Self-Realization) - mostly for Paragon Surge, as it grants a feat and does not have the pesky requirements problem… doesn't self stack, but I can use it as a floating feat. Also Luck(Fate) to give others rerolls (the Opportunity spell gives me three tries per die roll already).

I commit the changes, and don't bother updating my buffs for my new caster level. Instead, I go hunting… first rat I see dies to a magic missile barrage, and then I'm back going through my options for my tenth level.

10th is mostly continuing what came before; more casting, more numbers boosting, and of course increased base numbers. I do pick up Galactic Emissary from the Vortex Dragon - I don't want my teleporting blocked ever again - and Immunity to Temporal Magic from the Time Crawler.  I don't want to get wiped from existence if someone figures out time travel, you know? And as this is tenth, I get another type from Attuned Mysticism, and I pick Constructs. Why? It'll let me put my full class A buff list on my phone. Still won't benefit from Delay Death, but it will be able to Shapechange and stuff, and I'll be able to command it purely mentally. That'll be handy at some point, I'm sure.

That committed, I have a new level of spells now. Which means I need to rest so I can prepare them. I mean, new spells will be cool, because I can cheat a bit to have Greater Teleport - no range limit, no miss chance - because it's a 5th level spell on the Summoner list. I'll just have to retrieve it with Mage's Lucubration after use. Simulacrum is too, and that spell is all kinds of broken. The casting time sucks, though.

So I veg out in front of World's Cuddliest Animals again. It's boring, but it's "restful calm" for folks who don't sleep - like me - which is required for preparing spells. After my eight hours is up, I prepare my spells.  Then replace all my buffs (new level, new faked ranks, new modifiers from scaling spells), and add a few more. Ah, Energy Immunity, how long I've wanted you.

…

OK, it's been like, maybe three days. Still. If I want to go swimming in the sun, now I can, theoretically. Or maybe I could set that crazy firebomb from the hospital off in my own face. Not that I plan to try.

I apply my full class A buff list to both stylus and phone, plus a full set of Energy Immunity spells.  That should keep them mostly safe.

Now, I have some crafting to do… but hey, I'm rich now. And with my strength, I can carry a lot. So I find a couple of big box stores online, Greater Teleport to them, and buy them all out of salt, Plane Shifting it to my extraplanar mansion in my 'divine realm' in batches based on what I can carry. After all, it will take like two tons of salt to make a Keyhome, and I'll want several.

I do get some odd looks from folks when I take an entire cart of nothing but bulk salt bags to the register, though I make sure nobody's watching when I actually Plane Shift or Teleport. Of course, I dress myself up in a Persistent Veil spell. Only one in 400 folks who look closely should see through that, and I don’t use my own face. Not that anyone who sees through the illusion will see my face anyway - it's invisible.

It doesn't take too long for me to have the twenty tons of salt I'll need for current projects waiting in my 'Divine Realm.'  I don't do the crafting myself. That'd take too long. Even working quickly they take ten days each, and while my trick with changing what a day means cuts that down by a third, it's still 33 days and change of Earth time to make ten Keyhomes. I can do better.

Enter Summon Marked Homunculos. It's an Eberron-specific spell that… summons a homunculos. They're weak critters after level two or three, but one of the options is a dedicated wright - which you can spend an hour loading up, and it crafts for you. The spell doesn't normally last long enough for a multi-day project… but I'm not exactly normal. I summon ten of them, load them up, and set them fast-crafting Keyhomes for me, using color-coded blank keys I picked up at a hardware store.

Yes, it’s ten hours of work, but in a little over three days (Earth time), my magic items will be ready. I'll have a key ring with ten keys on it, each of which goes to it's own extradimensional room of ten contiguous ten-foot cubes. Each is 1,000 square feet of floor space with a ten-foot ceiling. So I’ll have a 10,000 square foot mobile home… although going from one section to another means stepping outside.  All but one are designed as a 30×30 foot square with a 10×10 'nook' sticking out of the same wall the door is on, to the left. The last is basically a hundred foot hallway.

Honestly, I mostly plan to use them for storage. I will kit one out like an apartment, one as a rec room, one as a meeting room… and the long empty hallway for when I'm a few levels up and can set up a set of Energy Substituted Magnifying Chimes for some truly terrible blasting when someone really needs to be blown into next week.

But mostly they'll be storage.