Upstairs, Second Floor, Stellar Toy Company, Industrial District, Byjerfal City
(Urban Exploration)
Even Clarissa had to admit that she was trying something without the certainty of success, really, to try to convince the thing or at least get the Dex' to maybe give out something helpful or do something interseting to make itself a 'nice target' to entice the Rotom to at least investigate it. And it would be this lattermost point that would seem to spark something to occur at the very least, it seemed, as the psychic tried to ad-lib her way through things as best as she could in the moment.
“H-hey. What do you think you’re doing? I’m a valuable and expensive piece of equipment!” The mini Camphor would complain as Clarissa held out the pokedex. “This is my home, you little brat. You think I want uninvited guests?! Well, on the other hand it’d be a unique opportunity to study a Rotom up close…mmngh…”
"Sorry..."
....Well the mini-Camphor cetainly seemed like the normal one just a bit more now, given that reaction. Not that it wasn't a mini version of the professor for nothing! Not that it didn't make her feel a bit bad about doing this, but otherwise they'd all be trapped in here! Etc, etc. Though if the Rotom wished to come along, well, her offer was still genuine despite her haste in making it. She certainly wasn't lying to it, that much was for sure
“Ro?”
“Bzzt-Ro.”
Ah. It seemed curious about the Dex' in her hands, at the very least, though it didn't seem too fussed to move either still for the moment being. At least it was not nothing though? Certainly.
Well, the Rotom seemed content and happy enough about its situation here for the most part from what the psychic could tell. Couldn't blame it for feeling like that either.....even if it made her feel a bit embarassed to have spilled one of her own secrets like that in trying to convince it. What had she been thinking?! Albeit she could understand being a bit 'wary' about things as that emotion came across to her via her psychic powers, at least given what the whole situation was and how it was all going down so suddenly and otherwise. She'd be wary and hesitant herself, really, if she had to relive that situation all over again somewhat. But still, she had to admit to herself that, like she'd said aloud to the Rotom, coming to Eidda had honestly given her and Sir Lopsalot the opportunity to-
“I’d have to put up some fire walls, maybe partition some of the device…since the pokedex doesn’t have the functionality of a Rotom dex, it’d basically just be a glorified pokeball…” Camphor continued to mutter audibly, ignoring both Clarissa and the Rotom now, as she’d pace back and forth across the screen, a few pixelated equations floating around her head as she’d stop in front of a whiteboard, and start scribbling out some highly complex looking diagrams.
Eh? She hadn't expected that to come out, but it did make her raise an eyebrow as Sir Lopsalot looked down at the talking Mini-Camphor as well out of his own curiosity now. Well maybe that could work if the Rotom got in, but she also didn't want to spook the poor thing either. Make it fearful. Etc. It was at least happy here, so even though some part of her wished it would come along she didn't want to trick the Rotom either. If it came along, she wanted to treat it well to try to convince it to stick with her and become one of her Pokemon. That was her general intent, really, even if that meant probably going out and showing it some cool things even she was nervous about or such. Ugh.....yeah, that was a bit of a reminder. She still needed to go to that contest she'd been given the VIP ticket for.
“...Ro!”
“Weh-!”
Having made up its mind, suddenly the entire facility started powering down. Well, more like every switch was flipped off, and every conveyor belt was slowed to a halt as the Rotom zapped itself from the TV Monitor to the Pokedex.
“Oi-you pest-stop that!”
The pokedex vibrated violently in Clarissa’s hand. The screen blinked and buzzed, the audio briefly becoming distorted as the pokedex suddenly shut off completely.
Clarissa almost jumped out of her skin as the sudden shift of the Rotom between the factory around her and into her Dex' came in a moment that felt almost like it came out of nowhere. It was enough to cause the psychic to jump, falling back on the floor even as her but hit the old floor with a 'thud'. Yet as the flash of movement and electricity stopped, and the room and machinery slowed down to a stop in the newly-wrought darkness she sat in, the psychic sat there and slowly blinked for a moment as she tried to process things. Not a word had left her lips, or even a sound, despite her jumping.....but even Sir Lopsalot seemed mildly dizzy for his part while getting up off of the floor as well. Albeit he did so after having fallen off of her shoulder, before rolling back into the door behind his trainer with a much softer and smaller 'thud'. It was only when Clarissa took a few seconds to take in and let out a slow, deep breath that she beganto stand as her starting partner Pokemon walked over and hopped back up on her right shoulder once more.
She got the feeling the Rotom had decided something, or rather had made up its mind on her offer somewhat, after seeing more of the mini-Camphor A.I. operating in her Dex' there. Or something of the sort. Still, the girl held up her Dex', which had fallen onto the table as she'd jumped, gently holding it and looking the powered-off device over for damage. Nope. Not even a scratch was on it, really, despite it all.
...Whew.
"...Well then, ah, welcome aboard little one. You're welcome to stay as long as you wish, though I must find some more food for yourself and the others now after heading to the Contest Hall for this evening. I owe you that much at the very least."
It was just living inside of her Pokedex for the time being, not being a caught and captured Pokemon. But, well, it was a start at least! And that much Clarissa felt glad for as she tried to parse what had happened. Either way she'd try her best to be good to the little Rotom, in hopes it'd join her formally sooner or later. Hopefully. For now, though, she needed to get her Murkrow and reunite with the others for the time being. Then came having to go to the Contest Hall and such once they left....though she felt a bit bad they hadn't managed to get to her or her to them already either. Almost felt like she'd run through this whole situation in a hurry while her rescuers had also been trapped in here too in all likeliness.
Well, one thing at a time then. Just like her grandmother had told her. Breathe in and out. Ok.
"Ah, you are welcome to come with us as well, Gastly. If you wish to, I mean. I've a lot of jerky in that one bag my father gave me as well, and you seem to enjoy it."
Picking up her captured Murkrow in its Pokeball, after having made her offer to the watching Gastly verbally and by trying to reach out a little to it with her psychic powers, Clarissa would attach the Pokeball to her belt. There it would also sit in the 'second slot' position in her team, having been placed right next to the empty Pokeball that was Sir Lopsalot's if he wanted to take a rest in it or was forced to after fainting. That was at least one Murkrow, and one new tentative friend or traveling compatriot of sorts somewhat, with her and Sir Lopsalot now for the time being. Even so, the girl would turn her eyes to the door she'd come in before looking to the new route that had opened up to her. Those closer stairs led down to the others, right?
Thus the psychic would begin to walk to the closer stairs, moving with the aim to go reunite with her rescue party. Hopefully they would be, or had been, ok enough thus far at least.
"Bun. Bun bun, bunbun bun."
True, Sir Lopsalot had a point there. It could have gone just a strange for them as this had all been for her so far too. They'd just have to go to them and see, really, to make that determination in the end.
Whatever their choice would have been seemed to matter little as it let out a cry and flapped it's massive wings towards them. With that came a strong gale that, even from this distance, could be felt.
"Time's up..."
Why hadn't she just tried to drag one or two of these guys back so they could already have been running away? Or something....even if it meant just slowly backing away herself to avoid the mess and start the fleeing process at least for herself? Ugh. No. No, they'd have to do something now and there was no way around it at this venture. Not even if running was cetainly something her instinctual brain felt like was an option still too. Or, well, was it more a 'core' now? Core. Brain? Brain-core-thing. Hmm.
Doubly so, now that the bird had lifted off from where it had been standing and began to fly at the four.
There was some time before it drew close enough to do whatever it planned to do, but any opportunities to plan seemed to be very quickly running thin.
Jase began shouting order to the party mage, the Confused Man with the halberd seemd to try to ready himself, and naturally the giant metal bird was going to try something on them ranging from a swoop to a dive-by to whatever it was going to do at them. Gust of wind wasn't insignificant either as it had sent it at them, which mean it was strong. Heavy. Metal. Yup. They were potentially going to die all over again and so soon if they didn't get their act together, and all over again they'd just wasted away their time trying to think of what to do. Relateable, but certainly not a good thing in the heat of a major situation like this one. Not at all. The only good thing was that the forest was at their backs, so-....hmm.
Actually, 'that' could work. Maybe. Or it'd be suicide.
Either way, the knightess would without a second thought rushed to put herself at the forefront of the diving bird as best she could, took a knee, stabbed her blade into the ground next to her, and tried to apply her height and armor as she held up her shield using both of her arms. She'd try to aim the metal shield to defend, but attempting to likewise reflect light into the bird's eyes if she could. Draw attention, or whatever trying to reflect light into its eyes could do, maybe it'd aim for her first. If that was going to be any bit viable, she'd at least try to make it viable as best as she could.
"Halberd guy, get behind me, plant the butt of your weapon into the ground to brace it, and point the end your weapon at the thing's body as it comes in!
Jase, Vrelenor, keep the forest at your backs and get the hell behind me so I'm actually in front to take the hit as it charges in!"
Halberd held by the Confused Man, she really needed to ask his name at some point, was longer than her sword and had the most reach so far. Naturally it made sense that it would better reach against the charging giant enemy bird, and the but being stuck in the ground would brace it. She and her shield would aim to take the brunt of either a direct impact or side-swipe, though she was unsure if she had the raw mass for it as she tried her best to brace up properly. Best case, maybe at least halberd guy and her shield tactic would lead to stabbing the thing somewhat. Worst case, perhaps her actions would draw her attention and keep it off of the other guys around her.
Whatever the case, having to face a giant ugly enemy bird felt like something she only could've experienced in Sydney, Australia back home. However, here it was very real and they had no time to argue further. Action was needed, and she'd try to do just that moving forward at this particular venture. Hopefully. Maybe. Well, they'd see in the coming moments and the heat of all of this depending on how well their 'fight' instead of 'flight' instincts were right now....
Upstairs, Second Floor, Stellar Toy Company, Industrial District, Byjerfal City
(Urban Exploration)
Looking down at her Dex had certainly given her more than just audio this time around, it seemed, though admittedly she hadn't paid as much attention to the screen before either. It was her first day with the device after all!
But a....miniature version of Professor Camphor? This multi-purpose device the Professor had given each of them certianly was something, more advanced than a lot of things she had expected. But the fact it was a wild Rotom of all things was certainly a surprise, mostly as she hadn't known such a Pokemon existed before coming to Eidda. The mini-Camphor had also made a good point, as she had learned about the Rotom Dex and Rotom Phone eventually as well after coming to Eidda for that matter. Orre had been....it was a small place, in a sense. The fringes. Dangerous, yet trying to grow and improve. Suffered from a history of 'Shadow Pokemon' and such chaos. So coming to Eidda had really been an eye-opener in ways now that she thought about it-
-Wait! Maybe that could work? Or something. Er, she did feel a bit bad about some of what had just popped into her head, but maybe it would be enough. In the end she now had a plan, at least, for the moment being now.
Clarissa simply hoped that her gut instincts were somewhat right about this. But, for now, just the first step. Either way, if this wasn't solved none of them were getting out of here she imagined...
...and so for the moment she'd try to pull up the mini-Camphor again, maybe somehow get it to stay on the screen or such if she could and get it to react. Something. Something to make it look like something fun to mess with, perhaps, if she could. Rotom was having fun, it seemed, with all of this right now. Right?
"I'll admit, you have us all rather trapped right now....no way to escape. And all I have here is this device from Professor Camphor, admittedly, though it does have a little version of her that seems to like popping up now and then when Pokemon appear. Though I've never seen such a device like this one before either really."
She hadn't ever seen one like this before, but she'd heard of a Pokedex and a few such things before at the very least. It was certianly interesting, and ever since coming to Eidda she'd been able to see a lot without even having to go that far as compared to Orre! Albeit it was also nerve-wracking, being as distant as this from the place she'd known as home for so long. But...
"You also seem to be having quite a lot of fun here, actually, though I can only imagine what it's like to control a whole factory like this. Where I came from originally, there was mostly a wasteland and a lot of nothing but dangerous people and not even that many Pokemon to play with. Not much to do for fun but ride motorcycles or watch Pokemon battles, and I didn't even get to be a part of either of those things for that matter."
She had never gotten a Pokemon of her own to train with, learn with, or the like until Sir Lopsalot had found his way into her life. She had never ridden the cool hovercycles going around, even though she had always wanted to. She'd played games with the kids, watched battles on occasion in the colosseum, and once she came to Agate Villge for a while she'd talked to some adults as well. A lot of adults, actually, and mostly being trained as her grandmother had tried to help her out with her powers. It had been terrifying really, but not much fun to be had in any case aside from being pleased to show off her progress to her teachers now and then while feeling as is she was having to hold back the happiness to avoid losing control again. Not as terrifying as leaving either...
"There's a lot of things I never got to see or fun I got to have while I lived back in Orre, actually, looking back at it all. Only when my family moved here to Eidda have I gotten to see more things, and honestly I....I....I didn't want to leave Orre at all. I was content to stay back there, with what I knew, with what was familiar, because I had no idea what was in store or what things would be like once I left."
The psychic lightly bit her lower lip without thinking as she spoke now. It was...she didn't like admitting that. At all. It hurt a bit, and was something she hadn't even told her mother and father as they'd ushered her along to Eidda and such for the ride. Orre was a dangerous place, yes, but they'd been able to have such a comfortable little life. Places she knew inside and out just from being a kid there, really, and people she'd become acquainted with at Agate Village and Pyrite Town respectively. Good people. Some fun people even. Things she had enjoyed a good bit really, before her parents had made them leave for 'better shores'. She....hadn't liked it as a concept.
But, well, Sir Lopsalot had come all this way as likely a little stowaway of sorts, right? She'd not thought much about it, but he had to be some kind of brave to get as far as he had before she'd found him.
"Bun?"
Sir Lopsalot raised an eye curiously at what his trainer was saying, though he could feel the twinge of something from Clarissa as she spoke about not wanting to have left Orre a good bit back then. The stress he could feel from her back then. The sadness about getting onto that boat. The fear about going away to a whole new region. He'd heard it time and time again in private with her. But what was she getting at here and now by talking about this? Even so, the male Buneary would almost instinctuallly lightly pat her on the head to try to comfort her a little with its little left arm.
"But had I done that, had I stayed back in Orre as I so wanted to do back then, I'd never have been able to start this journey today either I'd imagine. Nor would I have been able to find the excitement of a place like this, a battle like I and Sir Lopsalot had with that Murkrow back there, to get a device like this one in my hand, and have the chance at meeting a Pokemon like yourself or your Gastly friend! And there's much more beyond this we're going to head out and see as well, so much more I don't know for sure what we'll run into really.
What I mean to say with all of this is.....I'm genuinely curious. Are you truly happy and content just staying here? Content to have fun with just the machinery in this one little factory, without seeing what other devices and electronics and places and things lie outside of just this to discover and play around with to your heart's content?"
On one hand, it was great there was a lake with a river feeding into it. Meant that they could maybe find some form of civilization if they followed it, potentially at least, which was also good. Rugged plains seemed to slop gradually upward moving out from the location of the lake as well, and open plains could likewise mean maybe some plains-faring folks potentially too? Er. While she was trying to look for the 'bright side' of things, admittedly, at the same time Nyana felt that the more pressing matter in front of them. A very large, metal-plated, imposing sort of 'pressing matter', actually, that maybe either would try to make them its own lunch or potentially not be too happy about them being around as well if a nest was nearby. What was it that they said in those nature documentaries? Large predators liked to eat smaller prey? Eh, it at least kinda fit everything she remembered from her Biology classes and otherwise in the past.
Regardless, though, usually running into such a thing in a game meant someone had wandered into a higher-level zone than they had intended to be in at first. Was a good spot for newbies to die in to let them know they'd overstepped their bounds, at least unless they were some reckless speedrunner of some sort. But, well, there was also a good point to make in this too:
Since when would a literal magical fantasy world ever frankly care about 'zone balancing' at all as even just a concept, really?
"Don't make any sudden moves," Jase whispered. "Just slowly sit down here. It's probably seen us already. If we rush over there, it might attack."
"Am I crazy, or does it look like it's wearing armor?"
"I don't think it's armour, I don't think a bird could fly with the extra weight and it might mess up however feathers work. More likely this is some sort of creature with naturally metalic hide, that sort of thing pops up in fantasy. Figured it's worth mentioning since armour implies people to forge it and strap it on. Do you think we could make it back to the forest if we moved slowly?"
"It definitely looks like it's plated in metal," he whispered to the elf mage.
"I think we should be able to inch our way back to the cliff. I'm hoping it'll get a drink of water and be on its way, but I'd rather not leave it to chance."
"Logic about the armor or hide or whatever it has, I agree we need to be careful about this and wait it out....or slowly and carefully get out before its done getting a sip of water. Either-or."
Nyana whispered to the others at a level where they could hopefully hear her, her mind racing over a potential escape route as she tried to gently look around herself and the other members of the ad-hoc adventuring party. Likewise she humanoid slime attempted to not make a bunch of loud clattering noises and rattling if she could help it to boot. Then again, she was still rather new to this whole situation of being made of slime and wearing a bunch of identity-concealing armor or such. Etc. It certainly made her efforts have to be that much more careful, though, if nothing else. Still, it was not going to be a good day if things went south here and now.
Though....had anyone else gotten isekai'd here from the same plane crash as well? Other groups? Other people? That was something that began to come to mind as the thoughts raced through her head for the moment being as well.
To say the path was perilous for someone like herself was, ah....yeah. Perhaps it was obvious, in hindsight, in her mind. That made the stabler footing at the base of the cliff feel that much better underneath her feet at the very least, though the sounds of a forest teeming with life and the feeling of brimming with soome kind of energy certainly was a change of pace compared to the cave proper. A light sigh escaped the lips the knightess, though now things were a bit more uncertain than they even had been before in a sense as well. A large forest of unknown location and clime sat before them, the cliff side going to either side, and the path all the way back up to the cave lied behind them in turn.
"Did anybody see any sign of water as they came down?" the half-elf asked, all business. "We won't go far without water, and the only source I know is back up there in that cave, and we have no way to carry it. That cave is also the only shelter."
"We can skirt along this clif for an hour or two, then come back if we don't find anything," he added. "Unless one of you have anything better?"
"I agree," he said to the pointy-eared fellow assessing their situation. "We've no idea how close or far civilization is from here, and can't be sure about what manner of weather patterns we'll be facing."
"If we head into the woods, it'd be easy to get disoriented and be unable to find our way back to the cave if the weather turns bad, the night turns too cold, or we're unable to find water," he continued. "But if we follow the cliffs, it should be a straighforward journey back."
Eh? EH?! Would she have to go back up the path to the cave again later? Seriously?!?! Ahhhh....no, but it was preferrable to not having anywhere to sleep or rest otherwise. She'd rather be 'safe than sorry', even if it was a cold and damp cave back up there. Still, after a moment of pause, and listening to the other two men in the group talk, Nyana would give a simple nod of agreement in turn in the end. Thank goodness her helmet hid her face and such though...
[color=violet]"I'll agree with those ideas as well. We can search along the cliffsides for a short bit, then return here before it gets dark. Though question is, which direction do we want to go first?"
Maybe they could split up into two pairs to search in two directions at once? More risk, more scouting, would be the payoff of that. But minding that this was all so new to them, ah, perhaps splitting the group wasn't such a good idea in general. Certainly the 'badness' of the idea was enough to convince her it wasn't the best shot they had at least. But they did need to try to think something up in general for how to proceed somewhat beyond this as well. Camping in the woods for all of their new lives didn't sound quite as exciting as it could be, though maybe living a nice slice-of-life isekai would be less dangerous to them as well? That could be nice....but probably had a zero precent chance of happening if she were being somewhat realistic about the matter.
"Though we will need to address the forest at some point, perhaps, given the seeming lack of civilization near us. Not unless we wanted to make a 'trail of breadcrumbs' type of things to trace back our steps when investigating the forest sooner or later now. Mark trees, leave a trail of rocks, etc?"
Upstairs, Second Floor, Stellar Toy Company, Industrial District, Byjerfal City
(Urban Exploration)
For a breif moment, the psychic got a glimpse of her all-volunteer rescue party as she darted after the ball-snatching Gastly across the catwalks. A girl with dyed hair, who seemed to be of the 'fashionable' sort, had an appearance that seemed to shout the name 'Chloe' for sure based on the texts they'd exchanged. Had a little pink dog Pokemon with her too. Then there was the ninja girl from the Professor's lab, her silly and mischevious simian by her side, and...eh? Did she just catch another Pokemon or such? Hmm. Meanwhile the sight of a blue dog-like Pokemon and grumpy-looking short-haired boy with him was likely 'Yuu' for sure. Ah. Wait, that guy had volunteered to come help her like this? Huh. Then again, Chloe had just told her the guy was a 'douchecanoe'....hmm. Seemed more to him than met the eye perhaps?
But all of this mattered very little in the heat of the moment, mostly as it was just what Clarissa could get from a quick glance at best as she pursued the Gastly onward. Her feet caused the catwalks to clatter and rumble a bit, likely having not been used to the feet of people for some time potentially, until she saw the Gastly phase through the upcoming door. Indeed, she'd try to open the door in a hurry as she tried to continue her pursuit as well, Sir Lopsalot sitting on her shoulder still as he hung on with his little Buneary arms, though upon finding it more easily opened without much of a fuss at all it seemed.
That in and of itself was strange enough, but as she opened to the door and walked in the psychic felt an almost electric sensation run across her brain and then down her spine. Her senses were....her psychic senses were, actually, going off in a way she hadn't felt before. She could feel a second Pokemon in the room, even as her eyes and ears took in the buzzing of machines and whirring of computers and clicking of switches going on seemingly impossibly around her, but the sensation was very peculiar. Very strange. It was like the room was alivesomehow, like the Pokemon to be looked for here was all over the place. Like it was in everything, or part of everything even!
It stirred the girl out of her enforced expression of stoicism once more, mouth slightly agape and eyes and ears and psychic senses looking about with some sense of surprise, wonder, and a little bit of concern as well perhaps. It was then her eyes would finally, now, she saw where the Gastly had put the Pokeball with the Murkrow on the middle of a table that itself was in the middle of the room. Still, she could feel the Pokemon lurking around and lingering still as well more distinctly than the other one that was in the same room with her too.
Slowly walking up to the table, the psychic would carefully pull out three more jerky pieces to keep held in her left hand as a 'just in case'. After this she could pull up her device from Camphor, the "Camphordex" she'd call it for now, and try to look around the room with it held in her right hand. Maybe it could find something to scan? Help her find the Pokemon here maybe? Why had the Gastly brought her here, and why was this other Pokemon running the place.. And, really, perhaps the best question was this other Pokemon potentially the one who locked her inside of this Abandoned Factory for that matter (if her growing suspicions were correct)? What reasons did it have? Even Sir Lopsalot seemed concerned enough about his trainer's intial reaction to the room as he looked around with his eyes and kept his ears open to try to be aware of potential dangers alongside his trainer (Ghosts, why'd it have to be ghosts? He couldn't punch ghosts! Well...at least not punch them yet).
"Bun..."
Tentatively, however, Clarissa would try to reach out with her telepathy to the 'everything' that was what read she could get on that second Pokemon in the room right now. See if she could, gently and safely enough, make contact with it. It was like offering a simple handshake, in a sense, as if too say 'hello there, i'm here and want to say a friendly hi to you' type of thing. Or, well, that was her intent in things at the very least. Not to spook the Pokemon, but rather to make contact with it in this case. Apparently psychics and mediums, now that she thought back to something from her days training with her grandmother, had an affinity for ghosts somewhat maybe? Eh, that was according to one of the friends of her grandmother back in Orre that she'd met....had no idea why though. But the fact this bit was coming back to mind was certainly more relevant, perhaps, to whatever was going on than other things at least.
The Camphordex, however, was pretty vulnerable right now depending on the inclinations of the second ghost Pokemon in the room that wasn't Gastly.
Upstairs, Second Floor, Stellar Toy Company, Industrial District, Byjerfal City
(Urban Exploration)
It...it worked?
"Bun bun!"
It worked!!! She'd actually, for the first time ever, caught a Pokemon on her own! Or, well, with the help of Sir Lopsalot at least. But still, it was a catch! The psychic felt the edges of her mouth tug upward somewhat, not bothering to push it back down in the moment as she suddenly sat down on the floor with a loud sigh. Sir Lopsalot, for his part, would slightly slowly hop on over to her in turn and into the psychic's lap. While beat up and seeming worse for the wear, the little bunny was certainly a tough one to stick it out....and even to give Clarissa a beaming smile despite his condition at this point in time to boot.
Reaching back to grab her second Potion of the day, Clarissa would begin to work on aplying it to her partner Pokemon despite his wincing at the sting of it at first. Still, he seemed to mtaphorically 'bite his tongue' on the matter for the most part. The medicine stung, but it certainly was better than the alternative of being more hurt again. That much he seemed to get at the very least. Even so...
"You did great, and I couldn't be more proud."
Clarissa's voice was soft, and her tone was tender, a rare moment to see even for Sir Lopsalot himself as she spoke to him. Yet feeling something still wrong with things, he would use one little arm to poke Clarissa back a bit as well.
"Bun! Bun bun."
Eh? What was he-....oh.
"Ok, ok....'we' did great. Hehe."
By the time she finished applying the Potion to fix Sir Lopsalot back up a bit, the psychic would return to her usual expression of general stoicism before looking to the next bit of business ahead of them. The Pokeball. Her new Pokemon. The blasted Murkrow that she'd been seeking so far, finally caught in a handy Pokeball. It was decently strong too....she'd have to train Sir Lopsalot a bit to get him up to par too, though for now-
Before she could actually pick up the pokeball, the Gastly from earlier would phase through the wall, grab the ball in its mouth, give a ghostly laughed before zipping through a door - consequently throwing it open in the process.
She’d probably want to give chase. Unless she didn’t want to keep the pokeball.
"...Bun."
Sir Lopsalot wasn't amused. Well, wasn't very amused at least. Meanwhile, Clarissa scrambled to her feet and grabbed her things up again as Sir Lopsalot jumped up on her right shoulder. After that, it was a dead run toward the newly opened door the other Pokemon had taken its ill-stolen gains through. They had to go after that Gastly, and get back that Pokeball! Albeit as Clarissa did so, and Sir Lopsalot held on staying in his place, the girl's device would go off with another message. This time, it seemed, it was from Chloe once more with hopefully an update from the rescue party that had come to help her.
O M G girl im SO sorry for leaving u on read!! u wont BELIEVE what happened here 😱😱 ill tell u abt it later like??? it's crazy. anyway are u ok? we're coming NOW i promise 💖
ps. the dude with us is like an actual legit douchecanoe omg 🤡
The boy was a douchecanoe? What was his name....Yuu? Yuu. Reminded her of the more abrasive-seeming guy back at the Professor's lab who had fussed about Ripley and his less-than-stellar earlier comments. Was that the same guy who had come to help? Perhaps. But she also didn't have any idea what had happened with the group of rescuers either thus far, aside from them coming in through a window it seemed. Oh dear. And now the psychic herself likely had just one Potion left now, right?
Oh this was certianly a situation for sure. But she'd try to hash out a quick response to Chloe as she ran in a sliughtly exasperated pursuit of it at least.
You will have 2 tell me later for sure. Somehow ran in2 and caught an actual Murkrow. Little rough for the wear 4 now.
Then the Gastly I ran into earlier just took the Pokeball I caught it in and ran off with it. In pursuit to try to get the Pokeball back.
"I'm ready to go, but we might as well take this with us," he spoke, picking up the pelt in the chest. "I don't seem to have anything resembling currency, but we might be able to barter this for something."
"Okay, false alarm. Let's go find ourselves a way out of here," Jase said, reasoning if someone brought the chest in, they must have a way out... unless it arrived the same way they did.
Well, however it had worked out she had the flute safely on her person now and in her inventory. That much was simple, though she would let the other armored man take the pelt. Even so, it didn't take a genius to be told 'please be careful with that thing' even if she was a bit grateful for someone else showing a bit of caution on the matter at the very least. It would hopefully be useful to them as they moved along, and maybe she'd be able to play it later if she remembered anything about musical instruments? Either way she wasn't going to test it right now, lest some evil would destroy the world in a three-day-long time loop or something. Or, well, in case it drew anything bad to their location and such to boot...they didn't know fully where they were after all.
"I'll aim to be careful with this thing, yes. But having something to barter with like that pelt would cewrtianly help too."
Still, with the armored man in tow she hoped the others would come along too so they could just get out of the cave altogether and move things onward a bit for their survival situation here.
"Literally nothing in the alcoves, I have no idea why they're even here. We could try playing the flute, maybe it'll do something interesting and we could do that while moving. I've got to say a flute and a pelt is a very random combination though, random loot is certainly common in fiction, but doesn't make much sense, maybe when we get out of here we can ask a local."
...Well, at least he hadn't triggered some sort of trap or the like in the process. But while he seemed to mean well, something about the mage felt a bit grating to the slime girl knight.
Maybe it was the somewhat defeatist way of just shrugging his shoulders at things prior, and simply going 'just let the tank walk into it'. Maybe it was the seemingly lakidasical effort or manner she felt he fired off an ice ball at the chest without thinking twice about it as Jase's suggestion. Maybe it was even the way he had just suggested just tinkering with a random item they found in a seemingly real magical world they'd all be isekai'd into that rubbed her a bit of the wrong way. Something about him was mildly irritating to her in the end, but for all she knew she was irritating as hell too somehow thus far. Or perhaps it was just the situation in and of itself getting to her a bit as she tried to keep a cool head and keep moving onward right now. It was a fair bit jarring to wake up in a new body and in a new world and....all of this crap so far really.
Still, they were all former people, it seemed, and she wasn't going to try to assume too much up front here. She hoped. Indeed, Nyana would mentally take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Whew. Again, the party mage seemed to be genuine enough about being helpful at least and hadn't tried anything worse like immediate PvP shenanigans or the ilk. Etc. Plus they had all just met, and had just met and were stuck in jointly not-so-expected circumstances to boot. That was not to mention the whole planbe crash business they'd all just been in. So yeah, she just needed to breathe and they all needed to keep on moving before the day was over.
The clanking of armor would echo throughout the cavern, as would the footsteps of the group, but eventually the next corridor would give way to a new chamber.
Or, well, maybe it would be more apt to simply call this the "entrance" to the cave proper? The midday sun would be very visibly shining through from the opening visible in the distance, and past that would be an expansive deciduous forest that seemed to stretch into the horizon. The cave they had awoken in, it seemed, was situated at the top of a cliffside that overlooked this grand scenery. There did seem to be a natural pathway leading from the cavern towards ground level, but it seemed rather precarious all the same.
Fresh air! That much was a welcome sight to her for the moment being. Though there were more than a few people in her, she supposed now 'prior', life who'd have joked about her 'touching grass' as well in a situation like this. Haha. What was decidely less funny to muse about for more than a moment, however, was the fact that the cave they'd been in was at the top of a cliffside with a somewhat questionable and precarious but natural pathway leading down to proper ground below. Ah....joy. But with the sun in the middle of the sky, it seemed, they had some time left to actually get out of here and do something at least.
Or, well, maybe they'd manage to leave in one piece and find some non-hostile civilization of some sort at least. Maybe a place to trade the pelt in, she wasn't going to hand over that flute for now after all, and get a cheap room they could all crash in. Or maybe a meal instead? Er, that'd certainly be something to work out in such a case now, wouldn't it? But no. For now, get off of the cliffside and getting moving would be good.
"We'd better be careful, one at a time," he advised as he very carefully exited the cave, making his way down the path, hoping that the boots he had been reincarnated in would have good enough traction.
"Of course."
Nyana would look over as Javal had spoken to them all, deciding to be the first to try to navigate the path down, and she for one would let him be the first at the very least. Then, whenever he'd get down the path, she'd let the others move forward to be the next one to go down the path to the ground...alone. One at a time. Etc. But having a tank down at the bottom earlier on, just in case, would perhaps be a safer bet? Eh? Maybe a thought to express on her part in the future, should they all find themselves still together in a a group and in a simialr situation of course.
"Well, that is quite the view, I've seen forests before, but not that reach the horizon. Uh, any of you know how to survive in a forest? Because I'm not seeing as much as a village."
Good question. She'd seen enough shows to get some gist, she felt, about that sort of thing. Boil water in the wild. Shelter. Attempt to make a fire. Er....hang food up in a bad? Or was that just something for bears in Alaska? Ugh. But perhaps Jase or the other armored man would have some outdoorsing-type skills to put to use for them in the case they got stuck out here for the night. Either way she didn't want to overthink it more than she had to at the moment.
"Sing out if you see water," he said gruffly, glancing behind him at the knight. "And mind your step."
Nyana would silently nod back at Jase, gruffness aside, and once the 'Confused Man' (she'd yet to learn his name), Vrelenor, and then Jase made their ways down individually she'd follow behind them in turn. Her armor and shield and sword made it tougher, but as she moved cautiosly and carefully onward down the path Nyana would mind to keep herself pushed as close to the cliff-face as she reasonably could. Each step was at a normal-ish pacing, though each was also placed carefully she kept a close eye out on her surroundings for tricky spots or crumbling stone or dirt underneath her feet and such things.
Upstairs, Second Floor, Stellar Toy Company, Industrial District, Byjerfal City
(Urban Exploration)
CRASH
THUNK
FLOP
THUD!!!
Clarissa endured the Gust as best as she could, though the beating her hair and clothes took was certainly not unexpected. Thank goodness it wasn't a far stronger Pokemon, or else-....well, she didn't want to think about it. Getting thrown back into a wall or down a flight of stairs wasn't appetizing as a thought or a thing to have to deal with on the conceptual level. However, for now at least, the Murkrow was on the ground now. Sir Lopsalot was too, for that matter. That much made the psychic glad to some extent, though, as she quickly reached back into her things for a moment while seeing the scene in front of her.
Not that Sir Lopsalot seemed to find what was going on all very palatable, admittedly, given he was hitting at the Murkrow's beak with his little fists to try to defend himself now as well. In some capacity, really, the two Pokemon looked like two siblings fighting over something stupid until both of them were bruised and beaten up. But perhaps that was a bit of well-wishing? Ah, well, or something of the sort. But what could the adventerous duo do at a time like this? With the enemy in such a position, it was the perfect time to try to do something effective! They had come here to battle and catch one of these Pokemon, after all.
“Muuuur…!”
"Bun!"
Perhaps it was time to chance a Pokeball now? It seemed reasonable enough, even if it wasn't a perfect guarantee in the end. Worst case? Ah, Sir Lopsalot could....oh! That could work well, at least if it came through. Er, at any rate, she'd been practicing her throwing a good bit before coming to Byjerfal in the first place at least. So maybe they could have a moment to try something to better the odds for the time being, if nothing else, and see if the hurt put on the Murkrow was enough to catch it as well. Either way it would further the goal of trying to complete their mission here! THhough hopefulyl thhey'd meet up with the others before eventually escaping this place and going to the Contest!
*Clarissa threw a Pokeball at the Wild Murkrow!*
"Prepare a Power-Up Punch, and be ready to attack it immediately, if it breaks out of the Pokeball!"
Even if the Pokeball merely brought them a moment's reprieve, if it was enough time for Sir Lopsalot to get a good attack ready....then they might have a chance! Still, if the Pokeball hit the Murkrow and interrupted the two Pokemon's battle Sir Lopsalot would nod as he did what his trainer had told him to. Albeit he would wince in pain....the damage was racking up for sure in the fight. But he had to perservere! He would not stop until the battle was won! Such was the seriousness of his incredible resolve. (Though if the Pokeball for some reason didn't hit the Murkrow and try to capture it, Sir Lopsalot would just try to smack the Murkrow back into the nearest wall with a Power-Up Punch instead.)
Would the fist of justice once again crash into Sir Lopsalot's foe before the day was through? Would the attempt to catch the Pokemon previal? Only the whims of fate and chance could tell now....
Description: A faction of mutants, ghouls, and humans whose settling within the Divide has resulted in a long, meandering settlement reaching from the Canyon Wreckage and winding all the way down to the walled-up and fortified area of what was once Hopeville itself. This is the true “Jacobsville”, as it were, with the location of the former Canyon Wreckage now being a settlement in the Mojave Wasteland and being the Mojave-facing-front of the faction. Aside from its current safehouse in the somewhat Green-encroached “Cure Cove” location, its presence in the main of the Mojave is at current times small in terms of settlements. It is a cosmopolitan haven for mutants, ghouls, and humans in a general sense, and its leadership and staff have been working on study of and hoping to solve the matter of The Green since the days of it once being just “Jacobstown” in the northwest of the Mojave Wasteland.
At the same time, however, Jacobsville is a faction and a place that has for certain found itself lingering in Mojave rumors and the ‘underground’ of the Mojave to an extent as well by current times. It is a faction with less production and not the largest of populations, even if it admittedly has a growing population, but even so whose desire remains to avoid drawing unwanted or other forms of ill-attention to itself is a stand-out feature. It is, however, a hub of higher knowledge and expertise, and due to this one can get things tinkered on in Jacobsville, find the know-how for mystery or pre-war types of technology, get decent medical care there outside of the likes of the Followers, and even find specialty or rare items for sale to boot. It is a place that, by coming there, forces customers to accept them before they even show up and in that vein keeps away negative attention as well.
While individuals and businesses are willing to make deals with outsiders and work with them, however, there is also simultaneously a communal and close-knit sort of culture within Jacobsville at its very innate core. They are all part of the same fabric, the same community, the same trial-and-fire-tested ‘whole’ and home and the like that binds them all together and gives them hope for building a better future. It is like the phrase ‘blood is thicker than water’, though rather than literal blood relations it is applied in a cultural and community sense to the denizens of Jacobsville. In a world forsaken by the nations/ideals that birthed the wastelands of the former United States of America, they carry what traditions they know on their backs like a flag.....and likewise hoist aloft new hopes and new dreams like a battle standard moving foward as they move on to support the new life in front of them.
The faction internally has remained rather self-sufficient, thus its isolation in a sense from wider matters has generally been a thing by current times, though it externally maintains close ties and trade relations with both the Bright Brotherhood at the REPCONN Test Site and the growing ghoul settlement at Camp Searchlight. While the proximity of the NCR to Novac limits things to an extent in terms of trade or diplomacy there, trade for sure (and some diplomacy even) is also present between Jacobsville and the Gibson Scrap Yard outright otherwise. Unless on active missions, however, Jacoobsville’s mutants do not leave the borders of Jacobsville and aren’t seen outside of it, leaving mostly humans and ghouls to be liaisons with the outside world in turn.
Leadership: Jacobsville’s leadership takes the form of several figures.
The first to note within Jacobsville’s leadership is a large Nightkin named Alexander. A descendant of Vault Dwellers, and among such descendants who got taken to turned into a Nightkin for the army of The Master, though after the death of The Master he wandered off with a group of his kind. His mind ultimately fragmented into several split personalities by the time he and his group made their way to Jacobstown and then Cure Cove for treatment. Yet while out in the wastes, Alexander and his group were a terror to face for the most part. They most often targeted raiders and raider camps for the sake of ‘entertainment’ and conquest, all at their leader’s behest, though upon getting treatment the “Alexander the Great” delusions of this Nighkin came to an end and he came to show his original personality more so: Calm yet tactical, cool-headed yet commanding, just and equitable yet not afraid to get his hands dirty, and understanding yet personally stoic in the face of adversity. Alexander also came with his own personal weapon, a recharger-breeder-infused gatling laser named “Unending Conquest” that can still overheat but functionally has ‘infinite’ ammunition. This one-off weapon was ‘commissioned’ by the Nightkin from some ‘conquered’ Vault Dwellers during his years prior to going to Jacobstown, something that fit his more grandiose madness back in the day but which still remains a beloved personal weapon of Alexander to this day.
The second member of Jacobsville’s leadership is that of Marcus, an intelligent Super Mutant who helped found the original Jacobstown. Niel, Marcus’ former mole at Black Mountain, has also joined alongside him as an assistant. Mostly helping with regards to internal relations and diplomacy on the part of Jacobsville’s mutants, he has remained in the leadership of Jacobsville and helped with other internal matters and Mojave diplomacy by current times.
The third member of the leadership is Keene, whose reception of the cure for the Nightkin’s schizophrenia proved to at least make him much less irritable and self-conscious than he once was. His impatience at times has had its issues even still, but his presence in helping keep order internally over the past years has given him a new and improved ‘voice’ of a sort within the faction by current times. He works with a former Black Lung mercenary human named Noah, and a pre-war female ghoul named Noel in his role of internal security and such. He also wields the “Oh Baby!” super sledge that was originally found deep in the Nightstalker Den in the area of what was once Jacobstown’s surrounding foothills by current times.
The fourth member of Jacobsville’s leadership is Doc Henry, an ex-Enclave Remnant whose time has mostly been focused on trying to solve the issues of The Green more than anything else. Despite having developed the still faction-distributed cure for Nightkin several years ago, he has become near-reclusive with his work in the last two years alongside his other staff. While he rarely comes to meetings anymore, Marcus on occasion visits Henry when the good doctor and scientist has a very rare moment of forced rest from his labors. In lieu of this, Henry often sends a second, a human staff member named Eleonora, as his representative.
The fifth and final member of Jacobsville’s leadership is a pre-war ghoul named George Robert Johnston, he was a former army commander who served in the Great War before being sent home after an injury and being reassigned to the home front after recovering. He was assigned to a nuclear missile launch silo base in the northern Midwest, along with several others under his command, and they had already launched their missiles when the bombs fell. The small bunker they made it into at the base kept them from being annihalated by the Chinese nukes, but it crumpled up well enough that those in the bunker were irradiated to high hell and turned into ghouls in the end. From here it was Georgo who gathered up his men and went to find if there were other 'survivors' closer to the blasts. It was he who felt the weight of the Great War and his part in it on his shoulders, even as he led a group of surviving military and some other distnat locals or ghouls to find a safe haven. It was along the way that the nightmares of the past haunted him, sounds of dying soldiers and the crunch of defening nuclear blasts from the bunker, even as he saw what the United States and the citizenry and everything had become in the wake of it all. Ultimately he and the remaining ghoulified survivors under him, after some struggles to head southwest, made their way to the Mojave Wasteland in the end after losing moistly some 'civilians' along the way as he'd say it. It was here, however, the group would find out about the presence of The Green and its dangers, and going around eastern Vegas to escape it before they moved west again with intent to head to California and see the fabled NCR for themselves. It was, however, that night when George had a dream.....a strange dream, a dream of a place carved up by nuclear fire and filled with storms of harsh dust and sand. A place that, despite how it looked, seemed to have people trailing into it. Settling in it. A filled him with....hope? Hope. It had been a long time since he'd felt that. Hope. Waking from this dream, however, George roused his people and led them further west a bit earlier than he'd usually set out. It was still dark, and very early in the morning, but it was here the ghouls came across a Jacobstown party headed to the Divide. One thing led to another, and by current times Robert has become a voice in the leadership for the ghouls of the faction as well as their representative of sorts within the faction’s leadership. He carries a 12.7mm pistol he bought in the Mojave called the “Li’l Devil”, or “Head Eraser” sometimes by him due to its tendency to ‘remove heads in a hurry’, a bowie knife he took off of a killed Marked Man, and a pre-war Service Rifle that apparently has been fixed up and cared for well for over the past two and some-odd centuries since his time on the front lines of the Great War so very long ago. To say the very least George, the man, the ghoul, the soldier, the criminal, has sought ever since to shore up and support the new 'hope' he and his people have found in Jacobsville and its growing population.
There is also a figure of some note in the faction who goes by the name of "Ulysses", he being a human man with a flag and the weight of it carried on his back who has come to be a figure of some sort within the faction proper. He one day walked into early Jacobsville with silence on his mouth and a look in his eyes. Ultimately he would become a figure in training the scouts of the Jacobsville armed forces in due time, after a behind-closed-doors conversation with Jacobsville's leadership, as well as eventually help run important messages and train new runners within the faction's territory to boot. It is known that he is close to Jacobsville's leadership as well, though he still seems to retain some amount of 'mystery' or 'mystique' to him in the end. However, his ardent support for the faction and the 'hope' he says it embodies has been described by all who meet him as 'more genuine than anything'.
Territory:
***Mojave - Hopetown (Canyon Wreckage; Major Settlement), Cure Cove (formerly the abandoned Tribal Village; was once a Settlement, but currently is now just primarily a safe house, as well as being a point of contact with declining importance in that sense as time goes on that is manned by a very small garrison of five volunteers there keeping it maintained and keeping a lookout), and three pairs of two traders, each pair having roughly three outsourced/hired Caravan guards and two domestically-assigned ones, are stationed at and move between Jacobsville, Camp Searchlight, the Gibson Scrap Yard, and the REPCONN Test Site respectively for regular trade interactions and such (six traders total, each with a total of five guards for a grand total of 15 between the three pairs, and then each pair with their guards have some accompanying pack Brahmin/Bighorners).
***Note: The faction, given the encroaching green getting a bit too close to Cure Cove, is seeking out another viable safehouse location. That among other things at least.
Sphere of influence (What areas of the Mojave is your faction active in): Generally they are active in spots stretching from west to east from the Canyon Wreckage following the Nevada 164 highway to Camp Searchlight, and then north from Camp Searchlight up to Novac and the REPCONN Test Site heading north on Highway 95. They mostly deal in peaceful trade and establishing diplomatic relations.
***Note: More humans live in the Silo Bunker and Hopetown, becoming more common the closer one gets to the Mojave and less common the farther into the Divide one gets. Likewise, and inversely, more mutants and ghouls can be found farther into the Divide and less commonly heading toward the Mojave. However, this is just a general trend for the population rather than a hard rule.
Force Composition (How many fighting members, what are they armed with etc.):
***Numbers - The total fighting power for Jacobsville numbers at 300, though it can be broken down into two parts. The first is the “full-time fighting members”, who consist of 150 full-time soldiers and guards who operate for and within the faction, and the second part consists of up to 150 armed citizens who hold other jobs and such but can be mustered on an as-needed basis otherwise.
The particular breakdown for the 150 full-time soldiers and guards, however, is the following:
20 Nightkin
50 Super Mutants
35 Humans
35 Ghouls
In general, full-time soldiers and guards are generally well-disciplined and well-trained, overall both individually and in working as a team. Professional organization of troops and supplies is used by the faction as well in this vein, mostly to keep things generally organized and allow things to work more smoothly. These ‘standard’ 110 full-time soldiers and guards are generally mixed units, combining the majority of less-intelligent Generation 2 Super Mutants with intelligent leaders and supporting comrades to try to best utilize their strength. A few all-mutant squads do exist as well, though mostly mix intelligent cured Nightkin with Gen 2 Super Mutants to best effect.
Roughly twenty percent of all full-time soldiers and guards, totalling 30 in number, are highly-trained and highly-disciplined ex-Enclave trained humans and ghouls and ex-Master Army mutants. These “Elites” likewise receive better arms and armor than their standard counterparts in turn inherently, and are both held to a higher standard as well as are more effective in the field than their standard counterparts in a general sense. A few are based at the settlement of Hopetown at what was once the Canyon Wreckage, though most are within the territory held inside of the Divide.
The final component and last 10 members of the faction’s 150 full-time soldiers are a squad of 10 top-tier elites within the faction. Composed by a mix of humans and ghouls in particular, it is dubbed “Bannermen”. This unit most notably dons a mixed pattern of Enclave and US Army T-51B and T-45 power armor respectively, as well as the best weapons and most strict and maintained high-grade training and discipline within the entirety of the Jacobsville military. The top of the top, in other words, even above the elite troops the faction fields, despite being ultimately rather few in number.
Meanwhile, mustered armed citizens go once every few months in rotating groups to get some basic drilling/training before going back to their normal jobs and such. Upon being mustered for combat, this is generally meant to make them more ‘prepared’ for things in some sense and ready to go ‘well enough’ as soon as they are brought in.
Rifles/SMGs utilized by the soldiers of Jacobsville include: Hunting Rifles, Brush Guns, 10mm Pistols, Hunting Revolvers, Recharger Pistols, and Recharger Rifles.
Heavy weapons utilized by the soldiers of Jacobsville take the form of: SMMGs (most commonly), Red Glare(s) (A Very Limited Number), and Incinerator/Heavy Incinerator (Just A Limited Number).
Explosives utilized by the soldiers of Jacobsville include: Frag Grenades (most common), Flash Grenades (“Flashbangs”), and Satchel Charges.
Melee weapon utilized by the soldiers of Jacobsville take the form of: Bowie Knives (most common/easy to trade for or produce), Sledgehammers, Super Sledges, and “Blade of the West” replicas either wrought based on those of Marked Men make or which were traded for with individual Marked Men traders in turn.
***Armor -
Standard troops are dressed in reinforced leather armor, including a helmet of sorts, which has metal plates sewn into vitals-protecting areas for added defense. A super-mutant sized form is also used on mutant soldiers in turn. This armor is cheaper to make, cheaper to modify into existence by purchasing regular or lighter leather armor, and offers a general sort of protection and survivability while being light enough to allow soldiers to move on the battlefield.
Elite soldiers of the human and ghoul variety, meanwhile, are equipped and dressed for their own particular roles on the battlefield in terms of armor. Domestically produced armor for elite troops of this sort appears similar to something like Vault Security Armor or regular old world Combat Armor with improved protection in key areas. Likewise salvaged or acquired suits of Riot Armor/Elite Riot Armor from the Divide, including helmets, are used and maintained but cannot be reproduced by the faction as well.
Finally, Nightkin/Super Mutant soldiers are generally dressed in their own armor with similar specifications to those of human/ghoul troops but for a larger-sized individual. The standard mutant soldiers wear the equivalent of standard soldier reinforced leather armor, with the metal plates sewn in and a helmet too of course, though their helmet is usually made of metal outright in this case instead of having leather put over it. Meanwhile elite mutant soldiers don much more metal with their and include added bits of added protection such as face guards and shin protection and the like. Unlike average super mutant armor, the design of these has been generally ‘standardized’ in its make at the very least to give a consistent and different-looking appearance in the field compared to ‘wild’ super mutant ways of making armor.
The faction also possesses ten suits of power armor total/at all, with most of these having been brought in by ex-Enclave soldiers or the Remnants and the remainder having been acquired or salvaged one way or another. Meanwhile training for the use of Power armor has been passed down to the faction by ex-Enclave members, with power armor training having been formally recorded down and been instituted for the Bannermen.
Breathing masks are a staple for ‘unsafe environments’ and areas close enough in proximity to The Green for all soldiers and personnel, including mustered ones, where or on an as-needed basis. Some have been scavenged from The Divide, while the rest have been produced domestically by copying designs. A very small number of respirators (10) exist, though are makeshift and mostly made for fun by one or two bored engineers before being seized as inventory by command afterwards.
***Weapons Production/Acquisition -
In-house ammo and weapon production is not done for export due to its rather limited scope and scale and size, mostly leading to it being streamlined as effectively as possible into what little the faction can create for itself. This has led to a standard for weapons using 10mm and .45-70 Gov’t ammunition, which is locally produced, as well as the production of 12 gauge ammo to be used with the corresponding 12g shotguns and Riot Shotguns. This more streamlined focus in production to only a few ammo types at most has led Jacobsville to make the most out of what they can produce and make for themselves, and has allowed more for the recycling of other ammo and weapon types as materials for in-house production in turn. Meanwhile, the production, trading for, or salvaging of Bowie Knives has become common, and the general fixing up or repairing of acquired, traded, or salvaged Recharger weapons acquired from the Bright Brotherhood at the REPCONN Test Site has become a normal part of trade with that faction. Even SMMGs have entered domestic production to some extent within the Jacobsville faction as a whole to make use of their already-being-used ammo type and domestic production of it in turn.
Otherwise, other weapons and ammunition used are traded for or scavenged locally or by mutant-led scavenging groups sent into the Divide elsewhere outside of Jacobsville territory. In this vein, any existing Red Glares in the faction have only ever been salvaged, or traded for with Marked Men, though existing ones are maintained as best as possible as designs are studied with the ‘hopes’ of at some point in the future producing them at-home at some point. Meanwhile Incinerators and Heavy Incinerators are mostly traded for in general, with very few having been fashioned over the years or makeshift together with advanced knowledge in the first place.
***Loadout -
The most basic loadout for a Standard Soldier of Jacobsvillle includes: A Bowie Knife, a 10mm pistol or Recharger Pistol, Hunting Rifle or Recharger Rifle, and two frag or incendiary grenades. They may also alternatively use a 10mm SMG, Riot Shotgun, or general 12g Shotgun to add more mixed effectiveness to units on the battlefield when closing the distance or having the distance closed against them in turn (or when fighting in closer/urban quarters, etc). Scouting or Sabotage units might utilize satchel charges instead of just two frag grenades, and likewise a custom silenced 10mm SMG/pistol or the like might be used to assist in the stealthy nature of the mission in such a particular role.
Elite Soldiers on the average are armed with the following as the most basic form of loadout: A Hunting Revolver, a Brush Gun, a bowie knife, and two or three frag grenades. Alternatively they will be armed with a Riot Shotgun or be decked out as a heavy weapons specialist. Heavy Weapon Specialists most often carry as a loadout: A heavy weapon (usually an SMMG), a Hunting Revolver, and two frag grenades. Elite melee weapons like a “Blade of the West” or Sledgehammer might also be used in certain scenarios or squads or conditions to boot.
Nightkin or Super Mutants usually end up wielding 10mm SMGs, Riot Shotguns or 12g Shotguns, SMMGs, various faction-available explosives, Super Sledges, Sledgehammers, or even “Blade of the West” replicas made by their kind or traded for with individual Marked Men traders. They are usually heavier and heartier troops that take hits and likewise dish them out rather well at the same time, the ‘meat’ of certain patrols and especially in scavenging teams sent out into the rough dangers of the Divide. Nightkin can serve in scouting/sabotage units using scavenged Stealth Boys acquired from the Divide or Wasteland, or traded for with traders, which are domestically upgraded within Jacobsville territory in turn.
History:
2281 - Doc Henry and Marcus, the effective leadership of Jacobstown at the time aside from Keene, scrounge up caps to hire some caps-desperate mercs called the “Black Lung” via friendly caravan contracts from the edge of NCR territory to help him get night stalker samples and such. They also bring back a strange weapon from the bottom of the night stalker den to boot. Said mercenaries were also present during the confrontation with NCR-hired harassing mercs, and through offering Keene the weapon from the Night Stalker Den and being a presence to reinforce Doc Henry’s side during the nightkin’s attempt to take the experimental Stealth Boy the end result is managing to somehow deter Keene from his actions in the end. Peace is restored within Jacobstown, and with some insight from a pre-war doctor ghoul among the mercenaries’ ranks Doc Henry is able to test his work on night stalker brains moving forward. In the wake of this, the Black Lung Mercenaries move to return to their gloomy corner of NCR territory with a bonus to their paycheck for assisting the town with the other NCR mercs and avoiding a full-on firefight at least.
However, the mercenaries driven off from Jacobstown report back to the one who had hired them, leading to a certain party in the NCR getting the Black Lung Mercenaries blacklisted back in the NCR as a result after returning home for “helping the muties”. Gathering what they can of their things and caps and such, even as the government is going to seize their home base imminently with NCR troop support to evict them, the mercenaries evacuate the NCR and end up coming back to live at Jacobstown. It leads to a brief standoff at the entrance as the remainder of the mercenaries’ company comes back with them, but in the end Marcus, Keene, and Henry are able to agree on the mercenaries moving in to live with them after all of the trouble. The new arrivals begin to settle into new roles, ranging from assisting in the care of Bighorner livestock to assisting Henry in his work to even helping protect the town itself and keeping the roads clear for friendly incoming/outbound caravans.
2282 - With a new assistant in the form of the ghoul doctor who had given him the idea for testing on night stalker brains prior, and Calamity’s continued support as his assistant, Doc Henry in early 2282 finally develops a cure for the Nightkin’s schizophrenia. Keene, at his own insistence, is the first subject to receive the cure and becomes the veritable poster-boy for its effects as he helps encourage the rest of his kin to receive it as well. Word begins to be spread out, and several from Davidson’s outfit at the REPCONN Test Site and eventually Tabitha’s operation on Black Mountain begin to flock to Jacobstown alongside other super mutants and Nightkin from afar being drawn in by the news. Due to worries and concern about the sudden grown in population in Jacobstown proper, however, Keene and several others go south to help clear out the old and abandoned Tribal Village of its Cazadors and work with Doc Henry’s new assistant to set up a secondary living and cure-providing center that would become known as “Cure Cove” in the Mojave.
Strange plants likewise begin to get noticed in the foothills by foragers and scouts from Jacobstown, things that stand out from the normal plantlife and the like. However, the matter mostly becomes moot as the focus on providing the cure and housing new mutants in Jacobstown and at Cure Cove becomes a focus. Davidson refuses to go to Jacobstown, however, at the behest of “Antler”. He also takes the remainder of his people and leaves the REPCONN Test Site after a number of his people defect to go get the cure. The Bright Brotherhood is saved from the violence of Davidson and his people in turn, and begins to expand back into their original territory at the test site while striking a salvage deal with Novac to narrowly avoid a total collapse of the settlement’s notably-declined economy at this point in time. It will take time for Novac to recover from the decline from its time spent cut off from the Test Site and its salvage, but the Bright Brotherhood provides assistance to the town that will forge a closer bond between the two groups in the coming years.
By the end of the year, though, naturally the issues of Greenlung and events of the Mojave have come to the attention of Jacobstown while simultaneously some Greenlung cases have occurred around Jacobstown to boot. Cure Cove, meanwhile, seems to not have any cases of Greenlung. Further, the seeming resistance of mutants to dying of Greenlung, compared to humans and ghouls at least, leads Doc Henry to ponder if they might hold a possible source for a ‘vaccine’ to the condition. However, odd behavior among formerly-infected mutants is becoming more and more common and noticeable to Doc Henry and Marcus and Keene. It is a worrying sight to them, being dubbed ‘Greenlung Insanity’ by Doc Henry, especially as such cases of odd behavior seem to disappear into the foothills in the dead of night or seemingly out of the blue. Several cases of this ‘insanity’ begin to be locked up in the lodge itself for study and attempts to develop a cure for them begin on the part of Doc Henry. With more assistance needed to also distribute the cure to the influx of new mutants, though, the abandonment of Old Mormon Fort by the Followers and NCR coincides with the same time frame that Doc Henry contacts Arcade Ganon and other Enclave Remnants to be eyes and ears for him in the Mojave for more news about Greenlung. Arcade is able to help Doc Henry in the hiring of several disaffected but more ‘amenable’ Followers members who had fled Camp McCarran to assist in his own work, though this comes with some hesitation on the hired members’ part at first after the ‘McCarran Incident’.
2283 though 2284 - This time period of two years sees legends of a "Cure Cove'' location become a spreading rumor in the Mojave as some ill and sickly mistake it for a place to find refuge and cure from the spreading cases of Greenlung. Many have to be turned away who manage to find Cure Cove in that vein, though several more desperate or violent groups of affected cases are instead killed. Some non-ill and anti-NCR or at least amenable-enough Mojave locals both ghoul and human alike, however, find refuge with Jacobstown and at Cure Cove and join its ranks to avoid Abernathy and his rule. Further, a new arrival becomes a secondary Nightkin (OC) leader for Jacobstown and a major figure starting after they help assert control and bring order to an increasingly chaotic Cure Cove location over the course of this year. Connections between the strange plant life continuing to be found in the foothills of Jacobstown and the seemingly new odd cases of 'insanity' in super mutants has fully established within this time period, and in that vein some of Jacobstown’s ever-growing population and new arrivals are instead moved to the burgeoning and expanding Cure Cove location instead. Foraging or scouting is done with procured breathing masks or other such protective gear makeshift together or acquired from friendly Caravans along the way.
More Followers who have become more distrusting of the NCR after the Vault 22 expedition goes missing, and the more amenable of these end up being recruited via Caravan contacts by Doc Henry as well in this time period. These end up being split between cure distribution/production and Doc Henry’s work toward curing Greenlung. A group of four older ex-Enclave, with two younger individuals in the same group with them, eventually reach the Mojave Wasteland in this time period and make contact with Doc Henry and his people after Henry and his friends seek out others to help with their work. Henry’s contacts in the Mojave, however, still help feed him information on what is going on elsewhere with Greenlung and the strange plants within the Mojave Wasteland. Ultimately Jacobstown leadership decides on transferring a portion of the town’s growing population to Cure Cove proper, mostly as it is being fortified into a growing town in its own right over the long-term.
2285 - This year sees the growth and cases get worse as Henry and his people try to look into the Greenlung and strange plants, and more personnel/mutants and things are moved out of Jacobstown to Cure Cove to get them safe and away from things. But it is apparent that things are getting pretty bad on all fronts. NCR presence in the Mojave under the leadership of Abernathy puts its own form of pressure, Jacobstown is suffering from cases of attacking 'monsters' in the night that no one has properly seen or can identify, missing formerly-infected mutants disappearing into the night has still been ongoing, odd behavior continues to be studied by those locked up in the lodge or rarely observed in the wild as more of the strange plant life continues to encroach more and more on Jacobstown in a worrying manner, and the encroachment of bad news from Westside and Judah Kreiger’s flight from there with some more amenable locals from there to live with Doc Henry and his people after the loss of Westside has only stacked up more on the growing population problems at Cure Cove and even still.
With the mounting issues, information the ex-Enclave newcomers have brought leads to Jacobstown leadership deciding on relocating Jacobstown to a location called “The Divide” in Mojave lore after the Jacobstown situation is declared ‘untenable’. Relocation of the population to the Divide in early October 2285 with the first larger armed party of mutants and settlers being sent out there. Overall, however, the migration and movement are being kept covert and secret from caravans and others to try to avoid NCR aggression or otherwise on the road during the course of it. Likewise, the path to the new location avoids NCR-active or NCR-controlled territory in the Mojave for the most part. Stuff likewise begins to be taken out and moved from the Remnants Bunker as well as the Green encroaches upon it and Jacobstown.
Initial contact with hostile Marked Men also occurs at the end of the year, though upon driving out enemy forces as far as Hopeville proper within the Divide in late December the process of securing and fortifying up this gained ground for further settlement is started. This comes at a cost, however, and ultimately sees this become the final extent of the newly-claimed ‘borders’ of the migrants and forces coming from Jacobstown moving to their current maximum extent. Further, an outpost of sorts is set up at the Canyon Wreckage at the entrance to the Divide for newcomers and incoming migrant groups from Jacobstown and Cure Cove.
2286 through 2287 - By March 2286, the outpost built around the Canyon Wreckage has grown large enough to begin life as a proper settlement, and likewise settlement of the divide within the large Hopeville Silo Bunker and fortifying and rebuilding remnants of Hopeville are in full swing. Cure Cove has lost over half of its once overcrowded population by this point, and patrols guide new arriving mutants or other recruits to the Canyon Wreckage settlement. Jacobstown just has a small protective-gear-equipped left, who are all using makeshift or acquired protective gear to go anywhere, that are observing and trying to get data from infected 'Greenlung Insanity'-afflicted mutants and the like before Jacobstown becomes fully lost to the Green. However, the month of April sees the remnants in Jacobstown forced to flee due to the explosive growth of the strange plants after the abnormally-high rainfall that month. Most escape, but some are lost in the process as the remainder escape with what they could bring with them to Cure Cove. Cure Cove is set to remain as an outpost, though a secondary outpost and settlement location at Lone Wolf Radio is established as a redundancy as the continued expansion of the Green continues. Both locations redirect mutants to the new location, setting up their own garrisons and fortifications in the process, while in the end the rest of the population leaves for the Divide.
The final loss of Jacobstown leads to the renaming of the faction to “Jacobsville’ in honor of the growing mixed-population faction’s new status and composition, though this is also done in more part to help new arriving mutants both Nightkin and Super Mutant alike identify and find it easier. Meanwhile the growing Canyon Wreckage settlement of Hopetown becomes the new arrival point for the large majority of incoming mutants and refugees and such like who join the faction’s ranks as well.
Jacobsville also recruits Orion Moreno, who hates the NCR well enough, and Cannibal Johnson to come help out with training and knowledge alongside Doc Henry and others who already live there. Enclave Remnants training and knowledge gets disseminated into the faction functionally enough, though the ideology isn’t passed down in favor of more practical knowledge and the like for locals to help get things set up and improve conditions for those living within the Jacobsville faction’s territory for the most part. That and prepare them in case of NCR troubles….that was at least one thing they could all worry about at the very least. The faction gets its own food production going, with Bighorners still being primary sources but now beginning to formally cultivate and include desert plants like the banana yucca and such that can be grown to feed the bighorners and be food for the people too. The faction also begins to build up capability to produce its own arms and armor to a certain extent, and likewise seeks to establish its own medical capabilities in turn.
Further, seeking trade and diplomatic relations elsewhere in the Mojave, Jacobsville also moves to establish relations with other settlements and groups within the Mojave Wasteland. Of particular note, the faction establishes formal and ultimately close relations with both the recovered Bright Brotherhood at the REPCONN Test Site and a new growing ghoul settlement forming within the ruins of the former Camp Searchlight. Beyond this, the settlement establishes good relations and trade with the settlement of Novac and the nearby Gibson Scrap Yard as well.
2288 - Some avenue of trade is established on the side with the Gun Runners in lieu of the strife between it and the NCR-affiliated Van Graffs, albeit the trade is kept on a legal basis to try to avoid trouble, though beyond this much business carries on as usual. Jacobsville becomes a haven for many who settle within its borders, becoming a cosmopolitan hub of knowledge and trade while still seeking to stay out of the limelight and not seeking to attract attention to draw it to itself. A place where diplomacy and trade and keeping out of the limelight aims to keep it safe and out of the eyes of the NCR or other potentially-harmful polities.
However, more trouble yet ultimately seems to be brewing for Jacobsville and its inhabitants even yet still. The continued encroachment of The Green within the Mojave Wasteland continues to fuel the concern over finding a solution to the problem, as well as begins to encroach on the location of Cure Cove, and if not solved in enough time the spreading plague brought by The Green might consume the whole of the Mojave….and then some. Yet this ongoing problem hasn’t been the only concerning matter either.
Further, the return of the NCR’s attentions to the Mojave with a new ambassador to the Mojave, the completion of the Trans-Mojave Railroad, and the changing of the guard at Helios One and Hoover Dam with Van Graff CSF seems to signal a new chapter in the involvement of the NCR in the Mojave to boot. Rumors from the eyes and ears Jacobsville has within the Wasteland also seem to indicate that the Three Families are up to something or another in their own right, and the silence of Mr House has been concerning in its own right during this time period to boot. This likewise comes as rumors of a lingering Mojave Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel likewise comes to the ears of Jacobsville leadership. To say the very least, it would seem potential danger has been growing across the board even as Jacobsville has simply tried to go about its own business in things.
But what will come next? No one truly knows….but the people of Jacobsville must keep an eye out and try to be ready nonetheless.
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