"I told them they didn't have much of a chance," Jean muttered to himself as he took point again and began leading the party out of the club. "Good job on not dying, Bishop. I doubt the SIU or Hightowers will be as lucky."
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"Cease chanting and come out where we can see you." Jean said, training his rifle on the figure, putting himself between the party and whatever was lurking in the darkness.
"There was an ambush inside when I passed through the last time. Dunno if they've replaced the bodies yet," Jean said, preparing to take point. "Can someone light it up?"
"He's definitely not the sort I've seen causing chaos around here. They looked to be local muscle," Jean said, keeping his eyes moving. They were exposed here and it would frankly be simpler to just haul everyone downstairs and sort out who was who later.
That got a snort out of Jean. "Please, this ain't a warzone, this is a bad Sunday in Old Fishmarket Near," he said with a flat look. "Nice hat, by the way."
"Hold on," Jean said, moving to the shut door. "Yeah, the auto has been disabled and we're moving out. Best come out if you want to join us."
"Hmm? Oh, no, this is someone else's blood." Other than a more intense than usual annoyance at the world, he was physically fine. "After a fashion. I can report that dropping the Ghoul down an elevator shaft did not seem to stop it. Shooting worked though." As if to illustrate, Jean worked the action on his rifle again.
Jean worked the lever of his rifle again, slammed home a fresh charger and put one last round into the hound's head for good measure. He finally deigned to respond after that. "Yes." "We've got a groups of vigilantes roaming the building nominally led by a figure known as 'the Nameless Ghoul'. It looks like they've seized control of the building's infrastructure... including security measures," Jean pushed the remains of the hound over with a boot. "It's a good thing you didn't take the elevator, that would be a fantastically foolish idea right now. We need to keep moving."
Jean worked the lever on his rifle, expelling the spent casing, and sighted on the hound again. It was not one of his special rounds but getting hit with it would probably be no fun regardless.
Have no fear! Jean is here!
Jean, with all the subtlety of a man in heavy armor with a very large gun, shoulder checks the door open, clocks the situation, shoulders his rifle and fires. The gun discharged with a sharp crack and expelled a plume of almost searing steam that smelled of ozone. The large caliber round, propelled by mixed accelerants, was neatly on target for the hound's center of mass.
Spoiler: "You look out for the souls that stand with you when it's time to spill blood," Jean said simply. "Everyone's equal in the trenches. It's why I hauled you out of there."
Hearing the sound ahead, Jean shouldered his rifle and made sure the weapon was ready and charged. "Eyes forward."
Spoiler: "Not sure, this place is like a maze and I doubt they've sat still and waited. You think Bishop is still alive? He had a lot of fight in him for a lunger." Jean kept the pace quick, only slowing to sweep cross passages for potential hostiles with his rifle. So long as he got eye on them before they spotted him, he figured he could convince them to keep their head down.
Spoiler: Jean got out of the way and shouted after them, "If you survive, look me up in Lady Ainsworth's retinue! We can trade notes!"
They were being fools but Jean did not have time to try and keep fools out of trouble right now and let them go. He started clanking along his original route. "Lady, you still with me?"
Spoiler: "Got other matters to see to," Jean said, waving away the offer and resuming his route if none of the Hightower party moved to stop him, "You'd be better coming with me and rallying with the rest of the no- *ahem* lords and ladies so we can move in force. Last I saw, the Ghoul was lurking back the way I came and going toe to toe with a rather vicious caster."
I'll roll local when I get home, but I'm not too keen on holding them up beyond this.
'Piece' Talks: "You sound like you know the man of the hour... or, at least, know of him. Care to enlighten me?" Four against one, he did not like those odds if things turned nasty. Lady might still be around and while it would not be the first time she had chosen to ignore his directions, she was not something he could count on. The question was whether to try and blindside the big guy first, take out the scrawnier ones first, or beat feet out of here.
A direct approach: "You probably can't take him," Jean said loudly, positioning himself in the open with the barrel of his rifle pointed down and practicing trigger discipline.
"But it sounds like you might have some insight, how about we chat?" Jean was not stealthy, but he could draw attention so that Lady could sneak as needed.
Jean and Sensibility: "I'll just file this conversation under 'to be concluded' with the rest of them, shall I?" Jean said, putting Lady down and readying his rifle. If she could avoid answering questions, she could stand on her own two feet for the moment.
"Keep moving, I'll be right behind you, don't wait up if I fall behind," Jean ordered her as he loaded another special round and charged the chamber of his rifle.
Running out of jokes: "Wouldn't be running if I had," Jean said between breaths. Now on the light, he moved at a more considered pace. Not moving at the same dead sprint, but still with haste. His revolver was easily visible from where Lady was sling and even though it was not as modified as his rifle, Lady has seen him use it to great effect in the sewer.
"So what are you?" Jean asked bluntly, clearly he was sharp enough to put things together on the fly but he wanted to piece the last parts together quickly.
A Jean-ty Stroll: Well, that either indicated she was entirely out of blood or there was supernatural buggery going on. These days it was a crapshoot. Best to hurry and keep his revolver in hand should she revive with a hunger for human flesh or something. In long sprints, his armor still slowed him down but far less than that much alloy plate should have. Jean ran full tilt in the darkness, trusting to his instincts and the adrenaline singing in his veins to keep him on something like the right path. He was not quiet, his armored feet pounded the fine wood floors and carpets brutally he clipped furniture here and there but his armor shrugged off the blows. Some part of him idly wondered if his path of destruction was going to drive some interior decorator to drink.
I'm going to be wildly amused if Jean was the only one that managed to hurt the Ghoul this entire section of the adventure.
Right, that should be my full movement into the darkness if I'm reading the situation right. I'm fully prepared to rugby tackle the Ghoul if he happens to be in my way.
So I'm going to be running into the darkness, correct?
A rolling Jean gathers no moss: Jean moved quickly for a man wearing this much plate and carrying a body. It was easy to focus on either being perfectly agile or a thunderous brute but on a battlefield you needed some of both. Bishop would either see to himself or he would not. In either case, Jean's patience for the situation was about at an end. He was taking Lady and going. With luck he could pick his ground and make a stand at the very least.
He's definitely being put through the wringer here... somehow without outright taking any damage, which is impressive. Some unlovely rolls and circumstances have inadvertently pushed his character to the breaking point. I had been hoping for a chance to drop his defenses and give framing for his worldview (especially his anti-aristocratic tendencies) before hitting it this hard. He doesn't feel close enough to any of the other PCs to get them to help shoulder the burden of what will feel like a significant failure to him once the anger wears off. Even with the spat he had with Lady and the fact that they really barely knew each other, Jean is a firm believer of taking care of people that put their faith in you. So he's probably going to end up even more stiff and distant to the other PCs (if that was somehow possible). However, if the Ghoul escapes alive and Bishop plays his cards right, he's going to have some serious leverage over Jean. Possibly enough to have him go full 'good soldier' and just about completely sublimate his anti-authoritarian streak. Helping Jean exact a bloody reckoning on the Ghoul is going to be a hell of a motivator. On the other hand, if he doesn't... we may be saying goodbye to Jean. Which is okay, really. I'm a firm believer in not trying to force a character to fit into a story situation they don't belong in.
OOOF! That crit would be so tasty right now, but there is no way a 16 confirms against an enemy like the Ghoul.
Jean's Argument: While he waited on a response from Bishop, Jean put his rifle to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. They needed to get past the Ghoul to escape anyway, it would be better to give the bastard cause to hesitate. Jean drew a bead on those overly theatrical eyes of his enemy but then dropped the barrel and aimed for center mass. There was very little that could shrug off a direct hit from his rifle with a full charge and a special round chambered. He did not wait for confirmation of a hit but instead slung his rifle over a shoulder and stooped to throw Lady's remains over a shoulder. He would be more gentle but there was still a good chance he would need to fight off an attacker.
Okay, so, to be clear, we want to head to the right side of the map to get out of this chamber?
Sitting on a Metaphorical Edge: There was a pause, then Jean asked flatly, "Or what?" It did not take a great analytical mind to parse that Jean was strongly considering going against direct orders yet again. The last time it had happened, his commanding officer had needed to have his jaw wired. This time, as a small mercy, his aggression was directed elsewhere.
Jean is pissed: (+1 if avoiding surprise) "If you've got any healing at your disposal, keep her alive," Jean said in a cold way that he had yet to use with Bishop. There were hints of it here and there when something managed to break through his mask of annoyed indifference but this was something else. There was a terrible calculus running in his head, one that was simply tallying numbers and deciding on a course without ego or pride. One thing was certain, if the Ghoul made the mistake of letting Jean leave here alive he would make a very dedicated and thorough enemy. "Get her to your boss and get out safely. If I survive, we can talk about insubordination. I might drop away but you keep moving."
While I'm glad to see we're keeping discussion civil here, please take discussions of real life politics to PMs if you'd like to continue. It wasn't my intention to start the subject. Sorry, with the current state of affairs a lot of things feel more raw and personal. There's a lot of subjects that are more quickly going to segue into overtly political talk. It's easy to forget shared hobbies don't always mean shared points of view. I'll see about keeping a lid on it in the future.
A Jean About Town: "Hmm," Jean murmured to himself and stuffed the note into the inside of his breastplate.
"Nothing specific. Anyone here you know of match the description of a 'beast'?" Jean asked his two marginally erstwhile companion as he moved to take point again. He kept the pace brisk despite the obvious weight of his armor. The perks of modern engineering at work. It took some training to learn how to trust the pneumatics and anyone who did not know how to move in such a rig would likely end up bruised, blistered, and frustrated. "Three hostiles down in the Devil's Dance Floor. Advancing further."
As an American currently living paycheck to paycheck without medical insurance in the middle of a pandemic, I can wholeheartedly say you guys should pretty much avoid American-style anything. Granted, I'm going to take a hard pass on a few of your things as well. The Tories, for instance, sound insufferable and if it wasn't obvious from my character, I'm pretty soundly anti-monarchist.
I celebrated in the most ethical and responsible way I could: Being salty in my own apartment, eating Indian takeout (lamb tikka masala is an all time favorite), and playing games from the big racial justice bundle Itch.io did.
Swing a little more: "One second, I'm sick of flying blind," Jean said, crouching by the body of the orc for a second and doing a quick pat down. He was looking for a wallet or anything potentially identifying. He had not heard of the Ghoul working with teams of thugs before so picking up a bit on information on just who these people were would be useful.
His pat down complete, Jean stood and took point again. With his rifle and armor, he was still the most likely to be able to take hits in a dust up. One thing was very clear, Lady and Bishop were better with a distraction.
Huh, could have sworn I already posted that
A little more next to me: Move action to chamber the next round and regain focus. Standard to charge the pressure chambers again.
Jean worked the action on his rifle with deliberate motions and jammed another charger home. The space around him was thick with the smell of ozone now. Raising his rifle, he swept the business end around the room, looking for anything that might indicate another hostile. "Bishop, Lady, sound off."
Swing A Little More:
Jean trusted his armor like he had been trained, catching the axe blade on a bracer and shunting the force of the blow away instead of letting it sink in. Sparks scattered as rough metal met rough metal. Twirling away, he finished working the action, sending a sent casing to the floor, and jammed another pressure charge into the receiver. A gout of ozone-scented steam escaped from the mechanisms as he charged the pressure chamber. Finishing the motion, he raised the barrel and sighted on the half-orc's unlovely face. The weapon's report was thunder.
Swing a little more: "Time to see what you're paying for," Jean said to Bishop, before stepping in and starting a proper scrap. He was trained to fight at a range and this was definitely not an ideal situation for him. However, Jean was not entirely helpless with a foe up in his face, he just needed better footwork. Resting the barrel of his repeater in the crook of his elbow, Jean fired what amounted to point blank into the gut of the looming thug. Jean's rifle released the steam charge in time with the chemical accelerant, rapidly speeding a special caliber round into the body of his foe. Even as he fired, Jean's head was on a swivel, looking for that other combatant Lady had mentioned.
Okay... Dedicated sniper in close quarters. Let's see if my first shot puts him on his butt, then pray that my armor and fall back melee/kiting skills are up to the challenge... It's times like this where I really hope I'm as good at building a well-rounded character as I think I am.
Swing A Little More: Jean looked into the space, glanced at Bishop and Lady before sighing. "Lady, I want you on my six at all times, hand on my shoulder. We pick a wall and follow it. Can either of you do up some magic lights?"
The Nines: "Yeah, already scrapped with Ghoul once tonight when he decided to drop an elevator with my contractor in it to the bottom of the shaft. He's packing some serious artillery," Jean said as the teleportation hit him. He felt his stomach roil in protest but tamped it down. "I'll also remind you that my 'post' was voluntary and not an order."
Jean cycled the charge on his rifle when his feet were on solid ground again, just to be certain, and began moving up the stairs, taking point in his bulky armor. "In the staircase to floor 26, moving up."
Halls: "Not there yet, met up with friendlies mobilized in the building," Jean reported back. At the gunshots, Jean leveled his rifle until he got a good view of the carnage below. "I don't think I could order a general around if I tried," he noted mildly. He took stock and made another quick report. "Just confirmed three dead hostiles, looks like the Ghoul is not operating alone here." Pointing his rifle to the ceiling and away from Bishop for the time being he fixed the other man with his habitual, mildly annoyed gaze. "Bishop, this is Lady, an information broker and sub-contractor. Lady, this is Bishop, my immediate superior. Walk and talk, what's the situation?"
I'm never trusting elevators in this game again. You all should fully expect Jean to demand to examine the next elevator he is asked to get on. He'll be taking ranks in Profession (elevator inspector) and everything.
Stairs: "Good, then they aren't being stupid," Jean said flatly. Despite appearances, he was thankful for small mercies right now. "Can you point me to the route they're ta-" It was about then that the lights went out and Jean began cussing up a blue streak that felt like it should have managed to provide illumination from the sheer fury contained within. "-suicidally persistent bastard!" he ended, it was actually difficult to tell whether his litany was targeted at himself or the Ghoul. Neither indicated good things. "Openheim! Power was just cut on my floor, I don't know how many more were hit, he's making a move," Jean reported into the borrowed radio. He pointed a finger at the other armored figure in the stairs with him. "We need to move, if they've taken an elevator, I'm going to strangle someone."
Nines: "We'll discuss it later, when you're sober," Jean said flatly and began clanking along behind her. There was not even a snort of annoyance from him.
'The Money' in this case is Morgana as she is paying us.
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