# [[Gears]] Gears is a hulking gnoll who is part of the rival adventuring party [[Calamity's Ruin]]. He has goggles and a rancour (a three-pronged spear for disarming) that has gadgets on it. He's some sort of alchemist or tinkerer. He gave [[Skram]] a *Lesser Dread Ampoule* in [[023_20221015 Calamity's Ruin and the Undead Unkillers]]. He seemed amenable to teaching Skram more later. ## Recent Developments According to [[Dread]], Gears sometimes just turns feral as a gnoll. [[Calamity's Ruin]] has known about this for a while and could handle it. Gears and [[Karsh]] turned on [[Calamity's Ruin]] and betrayed them. ## Session 125 - Signs of Passage Back at [[The Gauntlight]], [[Jaspen Bond Callistair|Bond]] noticed traps Gears had left around the place, evidence that he'd been through recently. ## Session 128 - Feral and Rocket-Propelled Gears turned up fighting alongside [[Calamity's Ruin]] again — but in a full rage, feral, exactly the state [[Dread]] described. He was swinging a glaive taken from another demon with some kind of rocket strapped to it, and he missed with it twice; the [[Dreshkans]] have a reaction that punishes misses, and he had to deflect the damage. He ended the session by howling, charging Echbos, hitting something, and setting off an explosion. His presence raises a question the party hasn't asked yet: if Gears betrayed Calamity's Ruin, why is he in the room with them now? ## Session 129 - Suicide Bomber Gears exploded **three separate times** in one session, and the first one nearly took [[Zuhri]] with it. The glaive he carries once belonged to a devil, so it still holds that devil's own magic, and Gears has bolted his own work onto it: rockets, extra material, and at least one button that detonates a **10-foot burst for 7d6 fire**. In his rage he ran straight up to [[Echbos]] and pressed it. [[Dread]] was shouting at him to leave Echbos alone; Gears never heard. Zuhri was clipped by the very edge of the burst, and the GM was explicit that Gears had no idea she was there. She critically saved and took nothing. The table called him a suicide bomber and it is hard to argue. - Second explosion: 22 fire, bloodying Dreshkans 4 and 5 - Third explosion: 29 fire, bloodying Dreshkan 6 and leaving Dreshkan 4 almost dead - Also used **Overdrive**, his inventor class ability, electrifying his weapon for extra damage, then charged a Dreshkan for 25 (the glaive also inflicts bleed) - Took 16 damage from a Dreshkan and is **bloodied**, which the party agreed makes the raging problem worse rather than better - He is an **inventor**, and has to roll to keep Overdrive going - Dread flanked with him using Rallying Charge, so the two are still fighting as a unit whatever happened between them He is fighting alongside [[Calamity's Ruin]] with no sign of the betrayal being resolved, and nobody has asked him about it. ## Session 130 - Saved, and Still Dangerous The bombing run nearly cost Gears his life. The Dreshkans put 16 more damage into him and left him near death, and it was [[Ashnefrotty|Ash]] and Zuhri who killed the last two off him. He did not thank them. Still frothing and still raging, he was close enough to turn on the party instead, and the only reason he did not was a successful will save: he growled at Ash and then went south, in the same direction Dread and [[Shawanti|Bee]] were chasing Echbos. So the party has now saved the life of the gnoll who supposedly betrayed Calamity's Ruin, and still nobody has asked him about it. ## Session 132 - Fighting Retreat With [[Dread]], Gears retreated while fighting a ranged fleshwarp that a soul-tongue creature kept healing. He then prepared to re-enter the fight once the [[Dreshkan|Dreshkans]] turned into zombies. ## Session 133 - As If Nothing Happened Gears came back to [[Otari]] badly hurt and infected with the [[Black Hollow Curse]], and was healed by [[Vayle]] with the rest of Calamity's Ruin. On the walk to the [[Dawnflower Library]] he fell in beside the party and started talking shop as if nothing had happened ([[133_20261018 Healer Heal Thyself]]).