Book 1, Part 3: Threat of the Red Jills

[Mister Doctor]

Dead Guy - Character Sheet

---

KAC: 19/18 Fort: +10 Ref: +5 Will: +6
HP: 40/40 THP: 6/6 Hero: 1/3 | Perception: +6

---

Seeing Maria and Temperance close the distance between themselves and the Jills' nest, the corpse began to sprint along the side of the temple. Some instinct in it guided it to strike from a different approach to the others. The corpse was starting to think more.

"Jh-Jills," It rasped to itself as it ran. There was always a question of just how much the corpse was grasping what was going on around it at any given time but right now it had a target for its rage. The Red Jills were not Thrune lackeys... or, at least, that had not been confirmed yet. Regardless, their proclivities for harassing and hurting the poor and dispossessed of Kintargo was more than enough to raise the constantly simmering fury in the corpse's desiccated heart.

---

Action 1: Enter rage

Action 2 & 3: Stride to current position

Still on ground floor.

[Fletcher]

Kjersti Volden

AC: 19 | Fort: +8 | Ref: +4 | Will: +7
HP: 24/24 | Focus: 0/1 | Hero: 0/3 | Perception: +5
Conditions: None

---

Kjersti shields her eyes as she looks up to this rooftop hideout that the Jills have called their home. She can't help but wonder if they actually built it or had stolen it out from under some other group. Either way, the whole thing looked like it wouldn't survived a good swift kick, but they had to get up there one way or another. And the people at the top weren't going to be too friendly.

She wondered how many of them might be interested in flying today.

Temperance and Maria head straight up to the wall and the big farmgirl glances back at Kyla and Star, beckoning that they come on over. "We best get a'move-on. Can't have 'em noticin' us 'fore we get up there." Securing the Falco hammer through her belt, she digs her sturdy boots into the rough brick surface and starts to pull herself up.

---

Stride to the wall
2x Regular Climb Success via Discord

Edited February 21 by Fletcher (see edit history)

[theredshirtwholive]

Kyla

AC: 19 | Fort: +7 | Ref: +7 | Will: +8
HP: 28/28 | Rebel Points: 3/3 | Perception: +10 | Stealth +7
ConditionsNone

---

Kyla nods and follows Kjersti up the wall. "Can't be harder than that crabapple tree behind the Plucked Partridge," she mutters. She had whiled away many an hour in that tree...and gotten many delicious jars of jelly from its fruit. Of course, this is no crabapple tree, and she scrapes a knuckle on the exposed stonework, loses her footing, and falls flat on her ass. She glares mutinously up at the wall, considering more carefully, and this time, manages to get some of the way up.

OOC

 

 

Edited February 21 by theredshirtwholive (see edit history)

[ripleycat]

Despite the crunch of footsteps and sound of small, tumbling tieflings, the Jills seem unaware of their impending guests. Some mill about on the roof's edge, keeping absent watch. Others gather around and start a small fire in a metal brazier they've dragged onto the orphanage roof, to defend against the night's chill.

OOC

Mini-post reflecting results rolled on Discord. You remain undetected, and may take your next turns.

 

[Mister Doctor]

Dead Guy - Character Sheet

---

KAC: 19/18 Fort: +10 Ref: +5 Will: +6
HP: 40/40 THP: 6/6 Hero: 1/3 | Perception: +6

---

Cutting through a storage shed, the corpse rounded the side of the temple and came to a halt under the far side. The muscles of its jaw, exposed on one side by the terrible burns it had suffered, flexed with the constant, low-level frustration of not being able to immediately do violence. It still had to scale the outer surface of the temple to reach its next batch of victims.

"Khhk-wall," It hissed, sole intact eye casting about for the likeliest route up to the roof of the temple. All it wanted was to kill these Red Jills and be done with the matter. Was that truly so much to ask?

---

Actions 1, 2 & 3: Stride to current position

Still on ground floor.

[Fletcher]

Kjersti Volden

AC: 19 | Fort: +8 | Ref: +4 | Will: +7
HP: 24/24 | Focus: 0/1 | Hero: 0/3 | Perception: +5
Conditions: None

---

While Kjersti isn't racing Temperance to the top of the wall, she really catches her "stride" going up the wall, boots kicking extra depth into each foothold. Catching up to the tiefling, she hauls herself over the lip of the temple's roof and up to her feet. Temperance may have demonstrated her competence with the blade to her, but she wasn't about to let her get up here first and get jumped by these murderers. Reaching behind her back, she draws the Falco's long-handled maul out of the strap on her back and moves forward. Near a rope bridge that connects the two buildings, one of the Jills is on the slanted part of the roof. Kjersti scowls.

Hammer hanging loosely in one hand, the big farmgirl stalks to the top of the slope looking down at him, a look of cold anger in those crystal blue eyes. "Hey," she calls out to him, giving him a beckoning finger once he sees her. "Need a word with ya." A surreal encounter for him, to be sure, as she has snuck up on him. Now it's up to Temperance and Maria and the others to get up here and back her up. Lead from the front, as they say..... Or be a damn fool and rush in, as Temperance is probably thinking.

---

Critical Success Climb, reaching the top of the wall
Stride

[Toraka_Stormheart]

Temperance - Character Sheet

---

AC: 19 Fort: +6 Ref: +10 Will: +4

HP: 24/24 Rebel Points: 4/3 | Perception: +6

Ammunition: 20/20 (40 Reserve) | Alchemy PreparedAlchemical Cartridges: 20 | ConditionsNone

---

The realization that Kjersti had managed to propel herself past her caused Temperance to momentarily slip on her footing, kicking out a loose piece of wall below. Gritting her teeth, the tiefling let out a low, near-silent growl as she pulled herself up, a quick heft to hop from the wall onto the roof, her boots landing with a firm thunk behind the redheaded farmgirl.

"I think she's talking to you, Javor'tah" She uttered calmly, her longcoat swishing as she turned, stepping behind Kjersti. The short blonde kept her peripherals on the couple off to the side, remaining partially cognizant of those across the bridge. A few seconds delay. Perhaps it was enough to buy the others time to join....

Show Mechanics

Action 1: Climb, failure

Action 2: Climb, Success, moving up 5 feet, making it to roof

Action 3: Stride per Roll20

 

[pi4t]

Star - Character Sheet

---

AC: 19 (+2 nimble dodge) | Fort: +6 | Ref: +10 | Will: +6
HP: 28/28 | Rebel Points: 1/3 | Perception: +7 | Stealth +7
ConditionsNone

---

Star hangs back as Kjersti and Temperance start scaling the building. She's no stranger to climbing walls, but she also knows thief hideouts. The hatch doesn't seem to be locked, and the Jills won't have trapped the only way into their hideout - or at least, they won't have put the trap on the ladder. If she's fast enough, she should be able to get up before the Jills can react. And she has just the thing...

Star flicks at the beads of the bracelet she's wearing, then suddenly dashes forward toward the ladder. She's always been fast on her feet - or rather hooves - but now she'd outpace even an elf. She springs to the top of the ladder, opening the hatch and drawing Thorn just as Temperance is pulling herself up.

Show Mechanics

I've been unwell and unable to post over the last few weeks. With GM permission, I'm taking two turns to catch up to where everyone else is.

Round 1:
Action 1: Activate slippery ribbon (+10ft speed for 1 minute)
Action 2: Move to ladder
Action 3: Climb ladder (Success, move 40/4=10ft up ladder)

Round 2:
Action 1: Climb ladder (Success, move 10ft to top of ladder)
Action 2: Interact to open hatch and get off ladder
Action 3: Draw Thorn

Also, I've redone my post template as I wasn't satisfied with my original. Thanks to Toraka, since I basically copied yours!

 

[ripleycat]

Up close, the Red Jills are a motley band indeed, humans, tieflings, dwarves, halflings, with a bewildering array of weapons and armor, and little in common except their stripes of red. The thugs are caught on the back foot by the Ravens' sudden swarming of their home base, and many crowd together on the orphanage roof, but nobody seems keen to be the one who turns a standoff into a battle. "Whad'you want, red?" A tall, ragged human woman steps up to the edge of the rope bridge that links the two ruined buildings, while the nearest Jill, a frightened-looking girl, barely a teen, quickly retreats across it, away from Kjersti's ire (and hammer).

"You don't belong here, but if you're looking to deliver a message, you need to talk to the boss." That draws a nasty chuckle from most of the other rank-and-file Jills. The spokeswoman makes a peculiar whistle, and the reason none of them are lounging on the chapel roof becomes clear, as a huge pair of soot-colored wings unfurl from the ruins of the belltower, and a long-limbed strix woman in armor (and the requisite crimson cloak) launches skyward from a well-hidden nest. Her eyes blaze with absolute, zealous fury at the intruders, and the reason why the Jills have gotten so much more violent of late becomes a much easier mystery to solve. Under the red bandana wrapped around her head-feathers, the ends of a long and vicious scar can be seen.

"Pretenders! Rats scurrying in the shadows! I am Scarplume, and the skies are mine, Ravens! This city will burn and bleed and suffer as you have done to the Itarii, as you have done to so many others! There is nothing to save here! There are riches to plunder and revenge to be had! Nothing else! Break them open! Strip their flesh! Let us show Kintargo the red it deserves!"

OOC

Roll20 adjusted. We are now in combat mode! Limitations of 2d maps: Scarplume is 30 feet up, vertically, in the air, for targeting purposes and range penalties.

Scarplume uses one action to fly upward, and two to cast Resist Energy (fire) on herself.

You guys may act.

Edited March 13 by ripleycat (see edit history)

[theredshirtwholive]

 Kyla

AC: 19 | Fort: +7 | Ref: +7 | Will: +8
HP: 28/28 | Rebel Points: 3/3 | Perception: +10 | Stealth +7
ConditionsNone

---

"Hey, feather butt!" Kyla yells. "Yeah, you! You with the raggedy-ass plumage! You know the nice thing about lightning?" A bolt zips from her fingers and slams into Scarplume with all the force of an angry Deado, and a few singed feathers fall from the sky. "It always strikes the highest thing first!"

OOC

First two actions, I cast electric arc. She rolled a critical fail, so 14 points of damage. Then, I rolled to demoralize, but failed.

 

[Mister Doctor]

Dead Guy - Character Sheet

---

KAC: 19/18 Fort: +10 Ref: +5 Will: +6
HP: 40/40 THP: 6/6 Hero: 1/3 | Perception: +6

---

The corpse reached up to the bricks, only to find them crumbling in its hands and completely failing to hold the bulk of armored undead flesh. The retrained rage began to boil over as the corpse could no longer countenance waiting.

Snarling, it drew the much abused sword that had served it so well over the course of the last few days and simply began to hack at the crumbling structure with its typical singular mad focus. The first blow thudded into the ill-kept masonry with a horrible sound that and that first impact sent an alarming crack up the side of the building. Between the sound and the sudden shift of the roof under their feet, it seemed entirely unlikely that the two Red Jills up above could miss what was happening.

---

Action 1: Attempt to climb, failing with a 12

Action 2: Draw sword

Action 3: Strike wall for 7 damage after hardness

Still on ground floor.

[Toraka_Stormheart]

Temperance - Character Sheet

---

AC: 19 Fort: +6 Ref: +10 Will: +4

HP: 24/24 Rebel Points: 4/3 | Perception: +6

Ammunition: 19/20 (40 Reserve) | Alchemy PreparedAlchemical Cartridges: 20 | ConditionsNone

---

As those facing them were speaking, Temperance kept a level head, yellow eyes unblinking, lips slightly pursed as she stared down the Jills across the bridge. The tiefling's tailed flicked idly under her longcoat, gloved hands kept unclenched at her sides. Unclenched, but ready. And when the shrieking voice of the Strix careened out from behind and above them, she did not move.

She did not move when a sudden shaking of the building to the west end caused the ground beneath her boots to unsettle.

The quips of Kyla as she made the top of the ladder and sending lightning through the supposed leader of these Red Jills was when the blonde shifted. For Kjersti, the movement may have barely been registered, but for Maria, Star and Kyla, her movement was in full view.

Turning on her heel, the tiefling spun on one foot, hands going to the back of her coat. Seemingly from nowhere, her caplock musket materialized seemingly out of nowhere in her hands. Twirling as her grasp on the weapon adjusted to ready, Temperance's thumb pulled the hammer back as the barreled arced up, sighting honing in on the raging Strix. With a click of the trigger, the loud rapport of the powder discharging pealed out, paired with the bright muzzle flash and flame from her barrel.

In the few seconds to pass, the tiefling had reloaded the rifle, promptly stowed it onto her back, and finished her spin just where she was before, facing the bridge. A crashing thud onto the roof followed not long after, a headless body of Scarplume joining their elevation.

"..."

Show Mechanics

Action 1: Quickdraw Strike on Scarplume with rifle, critically hits for 31(!!!) bludgeoning/piercing damage, kills.

Action 2: Reload Rifle

Action 3: Interact, stow rifle

 

[Fletcher]

Kjersti Volden

AC: 19 | Fort: +8 | Ref: +4 | Will: +7
HP: 24/24 | Focus: 0/1 | Hero: 0/3 | Perception: +5
Conditions: None

---

Kjersti realizes after she's presented herself as an intimidating interloper that the Jill before her is, in fact, just a kid. Not so much younger than herself and certainly not the bloodthirsty brigand she was imagining. In the few steps it took to approach, she had considered kicking her off the roof and letting the fall sort her out... and now she feels a knot in the pit of her stomach at the thought. A bit of unintentional moderation had spared her some terrible nightmares. The girl scampers away across the bridge and the farmgirl's attention follows her, seeing the whole rest of the crew over there rise and size her up.

"You need to talk to the boss."

Narrowing her eyes at the woman, the curious whistle rings out, followed by a mess of commotion... the building shaking and crumbling... an imperious voice hurling threats... Kyla's zapping arcana and wit... the barely-noticeable shuffle of Temperance... the deafening boom of that powerful weapon... the messy crash of whatever that had all been about. Kjersti held the woman's gaze the whole time. Now, she walks to the other end of the rope bridge and places a boot heavily on the first step. Her piercing blue gaze turns over one shoulder to see the ruin of the strix on the rooftop behind her, then back to the woman on the other side.

"So... Which of y'all is the boss now?" Her body language is relaxed but daring them to move on her.

[ripleycat]

Scarplume's brutal and immediate death shocks the remaining Red Jills into a kind of stupor. They gather together like spooked prey animals. Some are clearly weighing the risk of staying within rifle-shot versus the leap from the roof, but the ground is no safer at the moment.

The ones who are forced to act are the unfortunate pair directly above the dead man's raging assault on the building itself. As roof tiles crack and shake, one is able to grab the remains of a gutter and haul herself back up to safety, but the other is not so lucky, taking a long and painful tumble off the roof, and what's worse, landing basically right in front of the zombie, gasping for breath through cracked ribs as she tries to scramble away from the terrible creature. "No, please, mercy. Mercy! I surrender! D-Don't! NO!"

Credit the Jills where it's due - they are a more practical bunch than many of the Thrunish true believers the Silver Ravens have encountered, happy to wade in and die because someone told them to. "What are you doing? Weapons on the ground, now. You stupid bastards gonna die for a corpse? It's over."

There's a flurry of hurried whispers and shouts before the Jills lay down their arms. One, a hard-eyed, dark-featured human who looks like a two-copper novelist's idea of a career outlaw, sheds her red cloak and steps forward, revealing a belt of heavy cartridges. She unholsters a four-barrel pepperbox revolver and fixes Temperance with a meaningful look before laying the weapon on the rooftop. "Well, everyone else seems to be yellow under their red, so I suppose it's me for now."

"We give. But call off your beast, now, or we'll fight our way out and let fate settle this."

OOC

We are no longer in combat time, at least for the moment.

[Fletcher]

Kjersti Volden

AC: 19 | Fort: +8 | Ref: +4 | Will: +7
HP: 24/24 | Focus: 0/1 | Hero: 0/3 | Perception: +5
Conditions: None

---

In truth, a standoff like this is not so far outside Kjersti's wheelhouse, except in most cases it has been with angry livestock or marauding predators. Anger and fear is a bad combination in the simplest of beasts but even moreso for sentient beings. Animals make animal decisions. People make crazy decisions. She watches the group across the bridge shuffle uncertainly, hears the cries of their fallen comrade really sealing the deal after the abrupt ending to their leader. When the gun-toting woman steps forward and lays down her firearm, the farmgirl straightens a bit and nods. Slowly, she reaches up and slots the long haft of the Falco's hammer into the loops on her back in solidarity. "Miss Star, would y'kindly go ask Mister Lavigne to stand down?" she glances sidelong over her shoulder to the tiefling, then looks over at Maria. "Mar... couldja grab their friend up off th'ledge, please? 'Fore she falls?"

That said, she crosses her arms and sizes up the woman across the bridge. "I hear tell the Red Jills been a bit of a Thieves Guild in the past, pickin' pockets an' such. Puttin' folks off the coin they earned, but not much more... til now. Folks 'round here become friends with us lately an' din't take too kindly to the murderin'. Took pretty serious exception to it, in fact. S'why we're here. I feel like I heard enough outta that one's ravin' to take a guess who was all 'bout the bloodshed... an' with 'er gone, sounds like there ain't much wind left in them sails. So..." She looks long and hard across the line of faces across the way.

"Y'all gonna slink off into the night an' do more'a the same? Get the Cloven Hoof ringin' our bell again to come back? Or do y'think y'all can put your talents to better use?"