Jeeves

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Jeeves, sometimes affectionately referred to as “Old Jeevey Weevey” is the [NPC] carriage driver and overall servant for the Hardcore Heroes party. Over the course of their many adventures he becomes an inseparable part of the team.
== Introduction ==
He is first introduced in Hardcore Heroes: 011, when Malakai hires him in Clydesdale, as a groom who would go on to accompany the party in their travels as a driver for their carriage and general servant who among other duties mainly took care of the horses.
== The Beginnings of a Great Bond ==
Rather quickly Jeeves becomes a cherished and integral member of the party, just a short while after meeting each other he, Malakai & Van mourn their recent loss of Croak and together “Get shitfaced” on “shitty beer”. A few adventures later when conversing with Malakai, Jeeves informs him that he would like to save up money to take care of his sickly mother who lives in Rockwave, though this bit of backstory is not mentioned really here after and mostly likely forgotten later on. Jeeves accompanies the party on a few adventures for a while, generally being demeaned by Malakai along the way, though this would turn out to be a sort of joking comradery on Malakai's part.
== An Act of Utter Kindness ==
For a few months the party travel together with Jeeves with him being the ever faithful and reliable servant along the way doing whatever the two masters ask of him. Eventually they journey back to Shirebrook, as Van and Malakai make their way to the keep with trepidation in their hearts Van gives Jeeves a gift of 100 gold pieces saying “There’s a chance I might not be leaving here alive I’d like to do one good deed today before I die if that’s the case” to which Jeeves reacts in an overwhelmed manner, starting to wipe away some tears and stuttering “Ah a... Master Van-Healsing I don’t know what to say, I… this is…, no one has ever shown me this much kindness my whole life, not even my own papa” Van proceeds to clap Jeeves on the shoulder saying “don’t even mention it” and begins to give Jeeves directions to a tavern, but Jeeves cuts him off by responding with “No, no! It needs to be mentioned, this is truly an act of utter kindness you’re a most generous man” a few more words are exchanged and as Jeeves is about to head off to the Half-Pint Malakai calls after him claiming that half of the gold was from him, to which Jeeves responds somewhat sceptically yet politely.
== The (Mis)Adventures Continue ==
From this point onwards is where Jeeves’ issues with different types of substance abuse start to become more and more noticeable, one small example is when Malakai finds him in the Dewdrop Inn completely smashed.
During one of their following adventures Van and Malakai consider for a moment using Jeeves as bait to lure out some goblins, but quickly opt to use a random stand-in groom that they sacrifice in order to prevent any harm possibly coming to Jeeves.
The substance abuse is a continuing theme with such comments from the party members like them “hoping he hasn’t injected too many marijuana's yet”, which later culminates in Malakai giving Jeeves a rather harsh talking-to that Van walks in on.
== His Finest Hour ==
When the party is investigating some abandoned villages near Shirebrook, they run into a Hill Giant who manages to handily deal with both Bear the Dog & Van before grabbing Malakai and stuffing him into a large bag carried at his waist. As Malakai is in the giant's bag trying to cut it open, he hears a cry and a shout come from outside the bag in a familiar voice which says “PUT DOWN MASTER MALAKAI!” shortly after he hears the sound of metal striking against the giants flesh, as Jeeves the ever-faithful servant that he is, charged the giant sword in hand. Immediately following his attempt to slay the giant Jeeves is also tossed into the bag alongside Malakai. Though the attack proved to be a futile effort in the end, this show of loyalty and courage has gone down in Hardcore Heroes history as one Jeeves’ best if not the greatest moments. Later Jeeves and the rest of the party manage to escape.
== More Adventure and Drugs Await ==
The party go on more adventures over the course of which we see more references to and evidence for Jeeves’ substance abuse, in one instance he is once again found completely drunk, this time in Pinecone Ridge. When Jeeves is offered a casting of , he refuses saying that it won't please the ladies, whilst Malakai jokes that he refused instead because it would be “harder to find the vein”. In the same conversation regarding stone skin Jeeves accidentally mixed-up Van and Malakai's names, which neither were too happy about, though the important bit we learn from this is that Jeeves also used to do this all the time with his kids and even though this fact is never brought up again, it appears to be canon that Jeeves has kids and possibly even grandkids considering his age.
Later on in their adventures the party find themselves in a situation needing to flee from a basilisk, Malakai goes back to their carriage to get Jeeves out of harms way and finds him fast asleep with seemingly no idea as to what's going on. Malakai proceeds to drag the half-naked Jeeves out of the carriage as they make their way to some nearby woods and spend the night there.
Further into their journeys Jeeves reveals to Van how he used to bet on horse races in the town of Tassel and suggests that one of Van's spells that prevents a horse from tiring could be quite handy if they ever were to go there.
== The Redport Incident ==
During a rather complicated and messy affair in Redport the party find themselves accidentally on the wrong side of the law, during their escape attempt from the city both Jeeves and the carriage are taken by the city guards, Jeeves is beat up and locked up in a jail cell. Malakai using many of his great magics manages to eventually rescue both Jeeves and the carriage, showing just how much he values the loyal servant. After the ordeal is over Malakai in a somewhat uncharacteristic moment of sincerity and empathy offers Jeeves enough money to retire and live a good life.
Jeeves considers the matter and later on says that he would not want to retire fully, but rather take an extended vacation to Tassel where the horse races are held. The party gather up vast sums of gold and Kain even gifts him a glowing dagger as a farewell present. The plan is to escort Jeeves to Tassel and let him spend the rest of his days there.
== A Butler in the Shadows ==
Jeeves along with Van, Kain and a bunch of villagers and a few guardsmen were transported to the demi-plane of shadow the day before Jeeves was about to retire. Many adventures both great and dangerous take place in this shadowy place, but not much of that concerns Jeeves. Though there are a few things to note.
The first thing to mention is that even though there were many other perils to overcome and problems to figure out, keeping Jeeves alive and healthy, in this world devoid of colour, food & mostly anything else good or living, was one of Van's & Kain's top priorities. Any food they could spare they snuck over to him, when in fights they tried to make sure to keep him close by and safe.
It should also be noted that a shadow demon did try to possess Jeeves, but the butler managed to resist it and forced it off.
Jeeves was also in charge of carrying/herding Chester the animated chest, which held a lot of the parties’ valuables.
At a later point in their journey across the shadow plane the group of survivors approach the Great Pyramid of Heatstroke in order to commune better with the gods, but find the place overrun with all sorts of creatures and a strange portal at the top of the pyramid. A fight ensues during which Jeeves is unharmed thanks to him hiding underneath the corpse of an enemy. Kain falls in the battle and Jeeves is quite emotional and saddened by this news.
Sometime later after quite a few adventures of their own Malakai lead by Georg Grimgeist Baron of Misty Rapids, manage to find the stranded survivors and a relieved Malakai rushes over to Jeeves’ side giving him food and water in a joyous reunion. After everyone has shared news about their adventures and explained the situation to each other Jeeves goes over to investigate the strange portal at the top of the pyramid and starts being pulled through, Malakai grabs him, but begins to be pulled through as well. Georg attempts to grab Malakai, but is not successful. A moment or two later Van goes through the portal after Jeeves and Malakai urging Georg along with him.
Beyond the portal a fight ensues with some different demons, one of them uses a strange horn to blast the heroes and brings Jeeves to unconsciousness, though in the end Georg manages to stabilise Jeeves rather handily with his 19 INT.
== Butler Not Only In Name ==
After the previously mentioned shadow realm adventures the party manage to escape and after a few more battles with demons in their own world and the tragic fall of Georg the party relocate to the kingdom of Drekis, more specifically to the city of Bon’ Theris where they acquire and estate and Jeeves officially becomes their butler, head of household management and groundskeeper. He has a small cottage on the ground all to himself in which he is found a few times by both Malakai and Van in the company of scantily clad young ladies and having consumed copious amounts of drugs, though he still successfully and dutifully serves his masters (one time he was caught tossing copper coins at a troupe of circus performers right inside the estate itself). He is also in charge of managing the household finances and hiring on new servants as needed, later hiring on a halfling cook.
He also handed out a quest to the GTC party, to retrieve some books from the Griffon Tower for Malakais library, the quest was completed and the party was rewarded for their efforts.
== The End of It All ==
A lot of time passes as both masters of the house Van-Healsing and Malakai go on their separate and sometimes joint adventures. Eventually they head off to fight some of the demons at large in what remains of Eridon, sadly Malakai does not return home from this adventure. As Van breaks the news to Jeeves the old butler at first does not quite understand what he means and finds it incomprehensible, but slowly the reality of the situation takes hold over him and he becomes distant and detached. After a while he manages to pull himself together and goes back to his butler mannerisms.
A while later Van asks Jeeves to come along with him to on a journey to the village of Barovia. After spending a day there, they head back to Bon’ Theris. Van holds a private funeral for Malakai that Jeeves presumably attends and later a shrine is built for him so that people might come to pay their respects.
After the funeral Jeeves seems to have gotten his act together and will go about his duties without any of the drugs, hookers or gambling. Jeeves as far as we know now lives at the estate maintaining it in Vans absence as the latter went on what he promised to be his final big adventure.
==== Trivia ====
* Jeeves as an NPC was named by Nick, after Nick had suggested the name Sean asked Neal for confirmation on it “Can that be his name?” Nick responded with “It doesn’t even matter, that’s what I call him” joking that even if he was named something different Malakai would still refer to him as Jeeves.
* There was a roll made by Nick to determine whether Jeeves was male or female, the die used was a 1d6 with a result of 1-3 meaning he would have been female and a result of 4-6 making him a male. Nick was the one to roll as he would be keeping track of the carriage and horses going forward, the roll ended up a 4.
Category:Non-Player Characters