"Err..." Jack reminds Rakhel... "Weren't we also here to dig through some rubble?"
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Lucky Bones: "Yeah, no... if Dreamweaver did this to the guy, I don't think we should help him get more. Water, if he needs it, but that's not why we're here."
Lucky Bones: Jack returns to the others. "Alright," he reports, noting that the others seem to have handled the man on the ground and thus ignoring him. "I don't think we've been tailed. This is a pretty run-down area, though, and I think there might have once been an Order of the Torrent safehouse nearby. So, what are we looking for here?"
Jack indeed follows Rexus and the others, wondering if the wizard is the only one who needs babysitting. But he lets the others poke around in the burned building, eyeing the streets outside and making a few laps around the building to check for any other transients or suspicious loiterers in the streets around the ruin for a minute or two.
"Right, okay. Maybe just... blend in a bit more, this time?" Jack suggests. "If they're already looking for you, just keep your head down. I think we can probably help a bit in picking less dangerous alleys."
Ehehe, Jack just sort of sleeps at the bottom of the river.
"My family's still missing," Jack shakes his head. "One of those 'fires' everybody's talking about. I'm all for this little excursion, but—I should ask now, how much were you going to pay us?"
Jack shakes his head. "If they were the involved with agitating today's rally, it was... poorly planned." "But we're probably in trouble, now, so... sure, I'd be willing to do some digging. It sounds like you need a better lookout anyway."
Don't mean to be the not-talky one here—we're all supposed to be charismatic bards, after all—I just figure in the current situation, Jack is the most paranoid and quiet, and currently somewhat convinced that if he makes the wrong move Thrune agents will burn down his house while he sleeps.
Rex says little during the walk, more interested in keeping an eye out for Dottari or citizen thugs, wondering just how much attention from the law he and his companions have attracted today. Considering how few aquatic elves actually set foot in the city, he's beginning to suspect he might quickly be facing some very unwelcome attention. He's more interested in the answer to Rakhel's question than in asking any of his own, considering that the shop he's been led to doesn't seem tied to anything illegal.
Oh, but it gives me so much time to PbP while waiting on experiments!
Yey grad school!
Jack, follows, though a little hesitantly. "And I'm certainly wondering why a group of Thrune's thugs attacked a wealthy wizard in an alley, or what he was doing there," he adds.
"Well..." Jack ponders, a bit for show, "I heard the whole proclamation, and your organization was never mentioned, but a few of its more zealous members did start attacking unarmed bystanders. And without obvious papers, proclamation or badge of office, I'd counsel against you making any more arrests until this all gets sorted out. Maybe let the woman heal your friends, and be on your way."
Well the party's not exactly on the same page right now, nor do they know or trust each other. Personally, Jack just saw these guys basically illegally beat up a bunch of people, and is kinda mad.
"This 'Civilian Militia'..." Jack frowns. "Your outfits remind me of a few hooligans we saw earlier today, disguising their colors and attacking unarmed Kintargans without cause. I'm sure the nice woman here would be willing to heal your allies, but do you have any sort of official writ or legal justification for your 'Militia' authorities?"
"Looks like someone's already gotten hurt," Jack replies, seeing the others and what's at the end of the alley. "I'd be willing to let you go without a fight, if the healer a bit behind me can confirm that man's still alive." And he pulls the deadliest implement he can think of out of his pack.
Jack moves after the others, looking to get some idea of what's happening.
"Not good," Jack calls back, from further down the alley. "Maybe magic? I hear a fight."
He's probably a succession of people, men and women, each of whom has been Jackdaw in turn, so there's always one in the city at any one time. It'd be just Kesin's luck that it's a woman now, lol. "Have you considered a career in Jackdawing?"
Jack, unable to do more and seeing the firedog, dives into the lake with a glance backward and swims for the other side.
Jack, if he can, moves to join Lia and Kesin. "This is the Thrunes we're talking about," he comments. "If the Dottari call you a rebel, you don't have much choice in the matter. Which might well be all of us now, if we're unlucky."
Jack grabs the guard's weapon off the ground with his left hand, and uses his move action to head away from the square, keeping an eye on the other ringleaders if he can.
Right, Jack things. This isn't a fight, it's an evacuation. Let's see if we can remember any of the thugs' faces... "Everybody!" he shouts, "Go home!" But, since the thug in front of him is still armed, he attempts to knock the man's weapon away before he retreats.
"Right!" Jack calls out, pointing at the guard captain. "We've got an abomination here! Ignore it, and get out of the square." Seeing the guards fighting lethally, he moves (if he can) to try and disarm one of a sword or other weapon.
Sounds good. Can I retcon my last round action to walk up to where Lia and Adonara are, so that I'm messaging Rakhel and actually yelling at Lia/Adonara?
Oh, woops. Yeah, I've just always played Message as "magical walky talkies." I guess I can only add one person to this new casting? Is Jack relaying messages between everyone? I think my preference as a player would be "Jack is untrained in spellcraft, and used the spell badly... here's what actually happens"
Jack breathes in, and balances on one foot for two seconds, trying to remember Master Koshi's mantra—something, something, fight like a tiger, something about disarming enemies. Hopefully good enough... And he looks around, picking out the ringleaders of the confusion, and adding them to his message spell—the agitator who threw the knife and the woman with him, and two of the more capable fighters nearby.
"There's a guard down. Dottari will be out for blood, now—which is what these Asmodeans clearly planned. Get this crowd out of here, but don't get trapped behind. If you have to fight, aim for legs and weapons, more blood will just make things worse."
@Kesin: Whooooops. Whoooooooooooooops. Okay, yeah. I guess I'll use my next turn to Martial Flexibility that proficiency. Probably shoulda gone with a whip, then. But eh, either way Exotic proficiency is easier to flex than improved disarm.
Well, at least Thrune was the one who started the violence, Jack thinks, and immediately returns to the message spell he’s been keeping up, pointing at Lia and Adonara to link them into the spell. ”If anyone dies, this goes from bad to worse! The guards inside will be better armed—see if you can keep the crowd outside and throwing things. I’ll see about healing the guards who are down and snatching weapons from the ones who aren't.” And he reaches into his bag, pulling out a weapon he’s never used outside of sparring—one of Master Koshi’s monk knives, made specially for disarming enemies.
Jack notices something odd about the drunk stumbling through the crowd. Attempting to shadow the man, he casts Detect Magic, scanning to see if the flask is some sort of potion.
If there's anything magical about the flask, Jack will try to sneak up behind him, trip the man "accidentally," and grab the alcohol in the confusion. [dice=Sleight of Hand to "accidentally" spill/shatter the entire bottle onto the ground, if it's magical]1d20+7[/dice]
Aww, you're not going to stick with the same theme? Inquisitor of Shelyn: "This is what you give me to work with? Well, honey, I've seen worse. We're gonna turn this sow's ear into a silk purse."
I'm totally adding that into my guide to being a Warpriest of Shelyn, for future reference... 'Go first with a rose. If one isn't enough, bring all your friends. With more roses. Also, singing and dancing. Aggressively.' Heh. Have you heard my bit about being interrogated by Golarion's more unusual inquisitions? Inquisitor of Irori: "Brother, do you even lift?"
"Right. Just be careful, then. Make a scene if you want, I'm all for disrupting Mr. Thrune's peaceful quiet, but keep these guys from getting violent. I'll be keeping an eye on the guards." And Jack slinks off, trying to generally observe the opera house and fringes of the protest for the next hour.
Alright. I'll be leaving for a ballroom competition for a lot of the weekend, though, and might be a bit slower, so feel free to leave me behind.
I mean that's a good point. But he was just assuming at some point someone's going to tell them to charge the guards, and doesn't want that to happen.
Yeah... it's not until hour 3 that Jack is trying anything. But, like, he's worried about the limits of inciting.
Sorry, Hotaru! Jack just had a moment of "uh oh, these guys are too rowdy to arrest, someone might get seriously injured" and is now trying to coordinate the party, which seems to have... derailed things slightly. Also, Jack's not being super subtle, which means anyone standing nearby might notice with a bit of spellcraft or arcana that he's talking into a message spell. (The way message works, IIRC, only the caster needs to point at people to loop them into the spell; everyone else can whisper into their hand)
"Just whisper," Jack replies, "And I'll hear it. It's easier. I can loop your friend into the spell, if you want." And then, "Look, I hate Cheliax as much as the next non-human. But I'm worried we're about to send an unarmed crowd up against a trained killer, and that's not what I want."
This is moving too quickly, Jack begins to think, as he realizes that he's not the only one playing the crowd. While he's never had a head for this tactical stuff, he seems to be one of the few people at the protest actually paying attention, and that's made him nervous. I'm not the only one playing the crowd, am I? Stepping out of the pond, he dries himself off with a wave of prestidigitation, and gathers a handful of dirty water from the banks. Focusing on the spell, he freezes the water into three crude, small orbs of room-temperature ice, which he juggles briefly and then tosses to people in the crowd. "Show's over," he says, shaking his head, "Today's not a good day for satire, apparently." And, trying to be inconspicuous, he returns to his tree, noticing a woman pontificating on the fountain. Turning to lean against the trunk, he spins a quiet Message spell, and then turns to point at Lia with his left hand. With his right hand, he covers his mouth as he whispers. "Psst! Ms. Politician. Things are going a bit far, and this could get dangerous. Guards by the opera house looked nervous, but the captain with the ugly eyes? Saw her weapons, she'd definitely be up for a bloodbath." "Don't know what you're trying to accomplish, and it might well get a few people hurt, or worse. But that number might be less if you have any idea on how to pull that captain away from the gates for the next few hours.
Jack sighs to himself, though he doesn't let the disappointment show on his face. He's trying to blend in, but as long as he's got an audience... well, he might as well give them a show. And so he puts on a big, oversized smile, and walks towards the lake, reaching into his bag as he does so and pulling out his smallest metal ring and largest leather ball. With a laugh and a flourish, he tosses the ring to one of the smaller audience members, then gestures for them to throw it back. By the time they do, he's close to the lake. Focusing for half a minute on an ongoing Prestidigitation, and summoning an Unseen Servant, he colors the ball bright silver, and the ring in stripes of red and black, the colors of Imperial Cheliax. Jack throws the ball and ring to new audience members, and waves his hands in a "pass them around" gesture," as he steps into the lake, leaving his pack on the shore. When he's reached shoulder height, he waves again, and this time his Unseen Servant retrieves the ball and ring, rolling them artfully across the park and into the lake. With a bit of effort, Jack manages to jam the leather ball inside the metal ring such that it sticks, forming a sort of saturn-shape. And then he hurls the ball-and-ring as high as he can into the air, dives into the shallow water, swims for several seconds and pops out again, leaping several feat into the air, fist held aloft; with any luck, he manages to punch the ball so that it flies upwards and out of the ring, and then uses his other hand to spike the silver ball into the crowd while spinning the red-and-black ring on his arm. (If the stunt fails, he tries it a few times, making the failures look intentional). Landing shoulder-deep in the water, he points to the audience, then to the silver ball, then to the opera house and then to the ring on his arm. And then the Unseen Servant takes the ball back to him, and he shrugs. Nothing I can do, his exaggerated frown says, and then he points at the audience again, and winks, and laughs several seconds of a practiced, tinkling, stereotypical "Elvish" laugh as he does a few backflips. He'll repeat the performance a few times. The symbolism is crude, but with any luck it'll appeal to the sympathies of the crowd, and maybe get them motivated to go back to protesting. Meanwhile, he scans the observers for anyone not obviously amused, hoping to spot the Silver Ravens contact.
Better than my tiny, grappling monstrosity. But First Worlders are totally OP (and not valid with Unchained).
Well dang, that thing's gonna stick out like a sore thumb...
Jack would consider joining in on the protest, but—not yet. He's got other reasons to be here, and has no interest in standing out more than he has to. Instead, he leans against a wet tree (though he's more familiar with the Aria Park lake), casually juggling two blunt metal hoops without much effort or skill. Occasionally, he shouts a "Yep!" or "Hear!" in with the crowd.
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