Tempête Subtile - Session 4

# Where she and Max fail to stay low in Chcago

25 April 2021 IRL

The train arrives in Chicago.  Tempête and Max grab their gear and disembark.  She is still presenting as the human Luna, and Max is “Chuck”.

Chuck has no idea why they’re after her, but he sounds jealous that they’re not after him, since he’s “the best” bounty hunter.  Luna assures him that since they’re together, he’s probably also going to be a target.

Luna is sad that Chloe took away her badge and now she’s a bounty hunter without a badge or an association.  She feels sad that she can’t go to an association for help.  Chuck points out that Chloe is likely not her ally, perhaps neutral, perhaps less than neutral, but taking her badge was not the move of an ally.

They decide to seek help from the Blue Lake BH Assoc. , at the Violet Hour bar.        It’s a very very fancy bar, there’s a chandelier in the middle, the patrons are well dressed.  ‘Chuck’ tries to put on a fake American accent, starts talking nonsense to the doorman about Libya and throwing up periwinkle and that is a thing that American’s do.  The doorman says in perfect French “Greetings Maxime of Montreal”.  Perhaps Thieve’s Cant was used.

They go inside, and there’s a secret entrance via a crawl tunnel into a dingy bar with a big board with bounty prices on the side.  A large pale man who’s skin looks like it’s made of stone, wearing a cowboy hat, carrying a rifle and pistol turns around.  He smiles and greets Maxime, who greets him back “Tide, hello!”.  Max has dropped his pretense of being ‘Chuck’ while here in the Blue Lake Bounty Hunter Association bar.

Tide Alabaster, second in command of Blue Lake, introduces himself to Luna, who says she’s glad to meet him.  Tide asks Max where his other friend is, and looks at her penetratingly.  Max blusters that he has no other friends.  Luna orders a dark and stormy, Max a very drrrrry martini.

Tide wants to know what’s up, why they are here from over the border.  The Coffin is after her, and she wants to know why.  Tide murmurs “hmm they usually get their orders from ....” and breaks off.  Luna perks up and presses him for information.

“They get them from a demon, maybe a god.”  Tide thinks they get them from evil people.  It doesn’t make sense, Luna put one of their members away 10 years ago, but why would they break Camille out now and come after her?

Tide asks if she’s still looking for that John guy, and Luna is surprised he knows who John Doe is, to which Tide replies, “Who do you think called Max?”.

When prodded, Tide offers up that John Doe is south of the border, maybe Mexico, maybe Paraguay.  He killed at least 8 people, but that was some time ago.

A genasi named Cement comes to show them to their room.

Insight check 12 - she looks at Cement and they look a lot nicer than Tide does.  He’s very nicely dressed, very fancy.  He leads them through a door and down a hallway with an assortment of cells, which have prisoners in them.  They look ragged, like they’ve been in battle.  They pass into the nice rooms, and Max whispers to Luna “Why do they put the nice rooms on the other side of the cells?  What is this”.  “I don’t know but I hope there’s a back entrance” she whispers back at him.

Cement shows them a room and asks if it’s okay to share.  “Oui, we are lovers”, Max blusters.  Luna says it’s fine.   Before he leaves, Luna asks Tide if anyone else is here.  Synessa is here, the rest is Blue Lake business, he can’t disclose.  Perception check 15 - she hears the beginning of some conversation.  Tide is overheard saying “hey it’s Tide, yeah we have a problem” and then the conversation passes out of earshot.  Max hasn’t heard any of this, he’s already half-undressed laying on the bed seductively.

“Ah mademoiselle....”, “No Max” Luna says automatically.  “Ah well...” he shrugs it off and acts much more normal.  Luna puts her pack under her head to keep it close, and cuddles up to Max to sleep.  “Sleep, cherie, I will keep you safe”, he murmurs.

Luna is awakened by aggressive banging on the door at 4pm, 10 hours later.  Tide hollers “Come on let’s go, we have a problem...” Max is struggling to get his clothes on, Luna opens the door.  Tide has a large crack running across his face, across his neck, and down into his shirt.

Yari is out, we have to get him, all the rest of the bounty hunters are gone, lets go.  History 12- Yari is an infamous assassin, not a part of the Coffin.  As Luna passed through the jail cell, she saw a skinny elvish man in a dark blue-black robe with a dark hood, which is what Yari is said to wear.  The jail cell with the elfin man is now empty and the other cell occupants are cheering.  Tide looks terrified, and turns, “Come on we need you”.  Max hops out the room with one shoe in his mouth, trying to slip the other shoe on.

They exit the back entrance, directly into Wicker Park, and see an individual wearing black, brown, and blue heading towards downtown.  Max is still struggling to put his shoes on, as Luna runs to keep up with Tide.

Tide pulls out his rifle to shoot, while running and shoots at disadvantage.  The boom from his all black gun covered in white runes, would have hurt Luna’s ears, but she uses her Changling ability to plug her ears.  The running figure staggers. Luna is pulling out her bow as they run.

Luna rolls dirty 20, it hits.  She casts Favorite Foe on the figure, and shoots her bow at him for 11pts damage.  “Nice shot, what’s your name again?” Tide asks.  “Luna” she snaps back.

Insight 8 - she doesn’t know what he’s thinking, but she does know that Tempête is known as the best archer in Canada.

Yari stops in the street, turns and a rifle appears in his hands. Rolld20, Tide takes 17 feet of damage, which would have hit the crack in his face if he hadn’t moved.  This person can aim even from 600 ft away.

Luna is now 570ft away, he’s weaving in and out of cars.  Acrobatics check 13 - Luna jumps on top of a parked car from the hood to the roof.  As she aims, she hears a gunshot, as Tide attacks.  Luna rolls 18, hits.  13 pts damage.

The man staggers yet again, but he’s still weaving in and out of cars and moving away.  Luna wants to run through the shadows, and she uses her Dread Ambusher skill, for another 8 pts damage.

Luna asks if she can cry.  CRYING IS A FREE ACTION!  Rangers are cool!

They’re in Noble Square, heading SE.  Perception 15 - Yari is trying to lose her, going in and out of cars, and then stopping. She can still see him though.  d20 13 - Yari hits Tide, who takes 16pts damage.

Max shows up finally, fully clothed.  He dashes for 120ft, managing to stop and help an old lady through traffic on the way.  He whips out two scimitars as he runs.

Yari continues to run towards downtown, towards the big tall building and the airships and blimps that are used for transportation.  These ships are likely powered by a sapphire shard.

Luna keeps running until she finds a pocket of darkness, and stops and shoots 19, hits, for 19pts damage.  As she’s in darkness, he is unable to perceive where the attack came from.

He shoots at Tide again, who blocks the shot with his own rifle, deflecting the bullet.

They’re currently heading SE on Milwaukee Ave, about to cross under I-90.

Luna runs for another pocket of darkness from which to take her shot, 15 does not hit.  She looks at him, and he starts moving incredibly fast, dashing in and out of cars, heading for a river.  Luna uses her Feline Agility to increase her speed, and dashes as well.

Maxime jumps as he’s running, and clicks his heels together - apparently the shoes he was so intent on grabbing are special.  Max zooms ahead.

Tide can’t keep up, and dodges to the side to flank Yari.

Constitution 12 - her feet are starting to get numb from the running and the pounding on the pavement, but she’s okay for now.  She can see his pointy ears, but that’s about it right now, as he’s still 280 ft away.  She stops in another pool of darkness and shoots, 11 pts of damage.

She sees that the shots are making him stagger, but don’t seem to be slowing him down or affecting him.  He’s still able to to dodge, run quickly, somersault over cars, etc.  Luna can tell he’s either got high level armor, or he’s an incredibly high level person.

They’re heading towards the river, the one that is tinted green for St. Patrick’s Day.  Maxime puts his scimitars away, and continues to follow at about 60 feet behind.

Luna, thinking Tide is trying to cut him off somewhere, and knowing Max is on him, rolls dirty 20 to hit, for 11 pts of damage.  The running figure, just using their speed, jumps over the river, without using a bridge.  Maxime skids to a stop and looks at her, confusion in his face.

Luna and Max dash across a bridge, following the running figure.  DM Nat 20 (he laughs and laughs “There was a 5% chance this would happen, and it DID”, DM) - The bridge slowly starts to separate and raise, as a boat wants to make it’s way through.

The opening gap is 100-120 ft away from where they are now.  Luna decides that they can likely make it using dash and Feline Agility.  Roll two d100 - 83 and 90.  As she runs, she realizes the gap is about 170 feet, and the gap they’ll have to jump will be about 20 feet wide by the time they get there, and a boat is coming under the gap as well.  If they miss, they will fall 40 feet into the water.

Luna, since she’s crazy, decides to try it.  Acrobatics 16 - she runs and jumps, trying to use the top part of the boat as a springboard.  The boat is wet, and she slips...Dex 15 - as she’s falling, she grabs the edge of the boat.  The bridge is now about 6ft over her head.  She decides to climb up and jump up for the bridge edge Ath 17.  She jumps, and Max who had already jumped across, grabs her hand and helps her up.  They tumble down the rising bridge.  Dexterity save 19 - they avoid rolling into the median and getting hit by debris.  As they land, they take 4 pts bludgeoning damage.

Perception check 22 - She hits her butt as she falls down this bridge, and she can just barely see, not the person running, but the carnage of cars he left in his wake.  She and Max are on his trail, and she can see Tide following, about 2 blocks to the side.  Luna gingerly rubs her tuchis as the wind blows around her.  Con 6 - the 45 mph gust of wind shoves her into the path of an oncoming bus, which she can’t avoid.  She takes 18pts of “Bus Smacking Damage”.  She takes a free action to cry, then gets up, swears at the damned bus, and keeps running after them.

She arrives at an 80ft tall building, and sees Tide outside before he runs in.  Luna takes a healing potion for ## hp.  She can’t see Max, but knows he’s coming.

Luna follows Tide in.  It’s a beautiful huge lobby, with a tall ceiling that comes to an arch at the top, 800 ft up at the 80th floor.  In the center of the room is a column with elevators.  The lobby is full of frazzled people who have been shoved, some have bloody noses, and the receptionist is looking distraught.

Max runs in and skids to a stop. “Oh this is a beautiful room” he breathes.  “Max, no time” Luna pants.  In one of the elevators, around the 40th floor, a little elfin face smiles and waves.

Insight 17 - Luna asks the receptionist if there’s an emergency stop or override for the elevator.  The receptionist stammers and hesitates, not sure what to do.     She reaches out and pushes the panic button.  All the elevators stop, bright purple neon lights turn on, sirens start, and people start exiting the building, slowly.  The elevator car with the elf is stopped at the 60th floor.

“Tide, shoot the cables”, she says.  “What?!”.  “If we shoot out the cables, the elevator will fall and smash, it’s the only option”.  Tide shoots once, and hits a cable, which snaps, also breaking a glass panel holding the elevator in the column.  He shoots again, snapping another cable, and another glass panel.  The elevator is dangling by one cable, and hanging outside of the column it’s supposed to be in.

He jumps out of the elevator, and starts free falling.  Luna shoots as he falls for 12pts of damage.  As he falls, he uses Dimension Door to disappear.  Luna feels some drops of wetness on her face, as the blood she drew falls from 60 floors up.  “Why the fuck did he have all his toys in the jail cell?!” She yells.

Luna swears very creatively and in French, and runs over to the receptionist desk, undoing the panic button.  The trio gets into an eleveator and heads to the roof, as she knows the Dimension Door can only take him 500 feet, and he was heading to the roof.  They get to the 80th floor, and see that the roof access hatch is open.  Luna climbs out of the hatch into firighteningly fast gusts of wind that slam her against the walls.  A small, 4 ft wall is all that separates them from falling.  There’s a narrow set of stairs leading up, to 1000 feet above the hard pavement below.  She can see Yari at the top of the stairs, on the roof, standing in the middle of the glass, with the purple lights from below flickering through.  He grins, as an airship heads his direction.

As the wind howls around them, Luna shouts out, “Tide, shoot out the fucking glass, it’s our only chance”.  As Tide moves to shoot, Yari casts Spell of Death??  For 18 pts of damage.

Tide shoots despite the pain.  He hits the glass, cracking it, but not yet doing enough damage to shatter it.  The wind in Chicago is so fierce, all the glass this high up is quite thick.  Max comes out on the roof and curses as he staggers in the wind.

Luna yells “Max, give me your shard!”.  Max looks at her funny, but tosses her his $1500 emerald shard, which she uses to cast Cure Wounds on Tide, who looks like he’s pretty close to being gravel with one more hit.

From behind them, a man appears.  He’s older, about 60ish, wearing all black, looking somewhat life-worn.  He’s followed by a small, greenish kid with frizzy hair and a white pistol on his hip.

Max turns and breathes in surprise, “Coyote?”