Jimmy "the Mole"

Today's update is without a doubt one of our well known and loved Hebdomadal Personas, however, this update is slightly different. The Hebdomadal Persona we present to you today is a part of our upcoming new Untold Mini Campaign Setting, Steamfunk. We think that you'll find it both reassuringly familiar while at the same time: surprising, while tantalizingly new and exotic! Regardless, we hope that you enjoy it and that you will likewise enjoy Steamfunk - coming soon - and that you'll let us know what you think in our new Steamfunk section of the forums!

Jimmy the Mole, Agent of The Association
Alias: Ja-He (True Gatekeeper Name)
Race: Gatekeeper (L'na Twilight)
Aspects: Body 2, Mind 3, Soul 1
Sex: Male; Ht: 4'5"; Wt: 187 lbs.

"Look, bud - ya need that extra steam?  How bad?  'Cause me an' tha boys can make it happen, but it'll take some major WORK to MAKE it happen.  Not like somebody's not gonna notice a few extra PIPES 'downstairs,' get my drift?  We gots ta grease some palms, turn some heads tha other way, an' it ain't no pleasure cruise reroutin' active steam neither.  So how bad ya need it?  'Cause ya gonna OWE me one for this.  Ya willin' to do somethin' for us ta get this thing done?"

Character Notes: The job - or the mission, rather - was supposed to be straightforward.  It was just a matter of joining up with whoever would take him in human society, blending in as long as he had meaningful intelligence to slip back to his kind, and then waiting for an ideal moment to strike a devastating blow against those who would breach the gates before returning home to his fellow Gatekeepers.  As "Jimmy the Mole" has come to learn, however, nothing is quite as simple as it first appears when The Association is involved.  Getting in was easy.  Getting out... isn't.

Then again, it's not that he's being held prisoner or anything.  The truth, as always, is far more complicated - because the humans he has come to work beside on a daily basis simply aren't the horrible creatures he'd expected them to be.  They're fallible, sure, and far too caught up on appearances... but then, as they themselves say, they're only human.  They likewise make efforts to counteract their flaws with positive, constructive good.  In short, the Gatekeeper operative Ja-He has made the unfortunate discovery that the "criminal enterprise" he joined up with is, in fact, a mere front for a group whose actual purpose is constructive social reform.  They can see the problems with the Civilization Engines as well.  Maybe not the same problems, but they know there are huge problems with them.  They want to fix the Engines, though, not destroy them... and with enough time "upstairs" Jimmy has come to see the value in that approach.  After all, it seems the entirety of human society runs off them; simply shutting them down would be as catastrophic to the surface-dwellers as letting the Deep Lords free.

That's the problem, though - "Jimmy" has in his own opinion spent far too much time "upstairs," living a lie.  The Gatekeeper operative has been juggling his double life so long that it's getting hard to tell where "Jimmy the Mole" ends and "Ja-He the Gatekeeper" begins.  He's picked up... habits... from the humans.  Cigars.  Slang.  A taste for "the finer things" that come with being part of a criminal enterprise.  Worse still, he's running out of intel to feed his handlers and excuses for his lack of activity against his coworkers on the surface.  It'll be time to go home soon - but Jimmy isn't so sure there's any reason to go back anymore.  He's technically still upholding his oath, after all - he's working to keep the Deep Lords in the depths and prevent their escape.  He's just doing it his way.  The Association way.

Tactics: When problems arise for The Association to "solve," oftentimes it's Jimmy the Mole that gets sent to solve them... because he's capable of doing it with as little muss or fuss as possible.  It's a benefit that comes with his heritage and the mystic Talismans of Ma-He he carries with him at all times.  He can "change minds," literally, or simply fry them outright if he really has to - all without leaving a single trace.  He also knows the Pipes very well, for reasons he isn't exactly quick to detail to his comrades, and as such he's also commonly sent down into them when a task needs doing in the Engine.  It's ironic, he supposes, that he's become the go-to operative for the group he infiltrated as a covert operative in the first place.  Still, the skill-sets are pretty similar: lie well, don't draw suspicion, and get the job done cleanly.  The only real difference is that Jimmy gets paid much better in his current role than he ever did in his prior one.

Click here for more information on our new Untold Mini Campaign Setting, Steamfunk!