Oh Gondor the Terrible, you will never get the solar plexus crystals now.
No, you think I need the solar plexus crystals?
Hi Scrap, have you seen Verpal come through here?
I'm a bit busy at the moment actually.
Why? What are you doing?
Nothing, just you know, Captain stuff.
Oh it's us! You have little figures of the whole crew. Is that to help plan for battles and ship coordinating?
Oh, yes, yeah.
Well how do they look so accurate?
Oh that's easy. I just made these little guys in Heroforge.
They've got a new face customizer feature so I can get everyone just right. See, I even got the adopter's flowers right there.
Their color of them is almost as pretty as they are in real life.
Well, I don't want to bother you while you're planning big Captain business things. I'll see you in the mess hall later, Captain.
Alright, later Ike.
We could use the power of the crystal to help us with this mission.
Oh yeah, Radical Dude, I was going to get skateboarded.
Oh, I had a skateboard on my home planet once.
Previously on The Atomless
A Zon-P
Ike, she.
My name's Theoriak.
What's up? My name's Skye. Welcome to the patchwork, my dudes.
You have a lead on where the next crystal is. The planet Nos in the Vanir system.
My name's Pancho. I'm the sheriff of these areas. I'm the sheriff of Neutrino Downs.
As you all cheers, there is a BOOF from outside. A loud bang. And then KOO KOO KOO. Another.
I'm out the door.
Sheriff!
Pancho.
You took. You took from the Baron.
We... we can't be having that.
The sun's setting on your ride here, Sheriff.
My name's Skye Scraper. I'm interested in joining you.
My name's Estrid. We got some money to pick up.
A store in town. The owner's fallen behind on some payments.
She raises her gun, cocks it, and fires.
Huge train. Carriages long. On a track that goes off into the distance.
The void does train them well.
Very good, Skye.
Time's up, Pancho. Let's rumble.
Time always seems to repeat itself.
Like a clock. No matter how far away the hand seems, time will always circle it back to the same moment.
The same planet. The same enemies. The same story of unknown heroes rising to the occasion.
The same things falling from the sky.
The universe wonders if it'll ever be able to escape the repeating.
This town still bears its scars.
The winds blow, picking up sand to cover a rock whose face still shows the bullet holes from the first battle.
The air itself is scared. What if time repeats? What if you fall today? Who will be left?
Is time repeating? Or is this a second chance?
You're hauled up at the north end of town. The Baron's men surround you.
Scrap is guarding some townsfolk who do not want to fight. Flare and Keelin hide amongst the town.
Skye, you are with a few of the Baron's men. Azam, you see Skye and the pair of you lock eyes. No one has fired yet.
You all breathe in the anxious air as the wind tries to run.
Gathering in a storm that builds off in the distance.
Skye, you were told by the gripply captain of this small unit, this large toad humanoid,
take some people and lead them to where we will have the best tactical advantage.
You took five people you believe haven't fully bought into the Baron's gambit, including the Monitor Brothers and Estrid, the cowgirl outlaw you met while you joined the gang.
I'll explain what the town looks like for now.
You are all near the north end of Neutrino Downs. The abandoned town hall is kind of where you all are.
Skye, you are in the midsection of Neutrino Downs, south of the abandoned town hall, and I'll use that as like a reference point.
So you're south of the town hall with the five people that pass the vibe jet.
The gripply is flanked by two other of the Baron's men riding on these large lizards.
The gripply himself is riding on this feral, aggressive, angry, acid spitting creature.
In front of them all, there are four more of the Baron's men.
There are all four of them.
There are four more of the Baron's men. There are also some to the east and the west, but the gripply, the two of the Baron's men riding these lizards, and the four who are on foot are arriving from the north.
So from the north of these, east-west are more of the Baron's men. Skye, you are to the south. You have split off and snuck around.
Eigan Therianak, you're on top of an abandoned shop where you have put the healing station, just in case things get particularly dicey.
Azarm and Poncho, both of you with your tactical training and Poncho the fact that you're the sheriff of this town, where would the pair of you like to be set up?
Poncho's just going to be right in the middle of the town. He's not going to be in some building.
He's not hiding.
Yeah, he's not hiding.
Love that.
Azarm is hiding in town hall, because I have a little length of garrote wire that I've unspooled, and whoever's the last to enter is going to get dragged out with me by the neck.
Ooh, Fadufa. Why does that make me laugh?
It's a romantic evening, really.
Momo, where would you like to lead these people?
So, I thought I was originally taking them to the abandoned town hall, but if the abandoned town hall is currently where people are going to get the shit beat out of them, where would a good place for me to take these people whose minds could potentially be changed?
Where can I take them to so that we can try and convince them to not be bad guys after?
Well, there's any of these other buildings that you will be able to, you could have set up beforehand in like the general store, you could have set that up to be a neat little trap to like bar them in.
All right, we're going to the general store. Or the bank?
Let's do the general store, which I believe is this building right here, right at the edge.
Yeah, let's go for it.
I'm seeing this through the window at this point, right?
Right, Sky, what are we doing here?
I think their minds can be changed.
All right, so that was a backup. This backup resource is inside the general store. Now we're putting up using it to cover us in case it's down the window.
Would you mind rolling me a persuasion? Diplomacy, it'll be diplomacy.
Diplomacy, whoo. That's a four.
Everyone's kind of suspicious. They've just, you've just been put like in charge of these people, even though no one here knows who you are.
When you all like splinter off to go down a way and you say, hey, we should go to the general store.
Estrid pops up. Now, Doron, why are we going there? That doesn't seem like where the action's at.
Town hall is going to be heavily guarded. They have backup supplies in the general store. If we get rid of that, they'll have nothing to land back on.
Now correct me if I'm wrong. This was your old crew, right? You flew with these people?
Yeah.
You really are turncoating on them quite quick.
Yeah.
It just seems a little convenient that you're leading us away, don't you think?
Yeah, well leaving the void gave me some practice.
All right.
You want to stay here?
With the rest of the people who I don't trust but know, I'm not opposed to that.
I'm less opposed to that if you dragging us away. But as you say, oh, Maddicamander. You can tell that she is very much not buying this.
After like a small amount of silence, one of the monitor brothers turns to his brother.
I don't know. Whatever the boss says, the boss says. The Baron gave her a pretty good pass. So I think for tonight we should just listen and let egos die.
All right. Whatever you say. And they will follow you to the general store.
While that's happening, because we all did see this, Dr. Therriak, look.
Yes?
The sky's okay. She made it back.
I'm hardly surprised. Are you?
Well, I was, I think, acting very confident. I was a little worried.
Poncho, you all just stood outside?
Yeah. Poncho is just standing outside in the middle of the street in that like thorough way that kind of like meets up to where people would be coming into the town. And he is just standing there waiting.
Moving on up first, the gripply who you never really quite caught the name of, but have seen a lot. They, they saddle on up to you.
Poncho, this is your last chance.
Well, if you've seen me standing out here in the middle of the street, I guess that's a sign saying I'm turning down whatever kind of offer or whatever kind of bargain the Baron has planned for this situation.
So I'm just going to give a big old resounding no.
Your resilient one, Poncho, I'll give you that. I'll make sure to write that on your gravestone. They pull out a small laser rifle, Poncho.
Could you roll me a reflex check?
Okay. That is a 22.
The gripply puts their hands to their hip for a shot, but you again, this man just ain't quick enough. You pull out yours first.
So you see gun that Poncho pulls out isn't a standard looking, a laser pistol. When he reaches under his Poncho, you think he's going to pull out the laser pistol. What he pulls out is this insectoid looking gun that has, that looks like it's a handgun, but the body of the gun itself looks like an ant gripping on top of a pistol.
Like the ant has some weird symbiotic relationship with this pistol. And right before he pulls a trigger, the ant makes a little bit noise as he fires a shot from it. And then the bullet doesn't come out. Like the ants opens his mouth and a stinger shoots out of the ants mouth and flies at this guy's hand.
There is this silent but well known draw as the gripply and then there is a spurt of blood as you hit him in the shoulder. With that everyone's rolling initiative. However, first I would like to state this Poncho.
You gain an ability as a reaction whenever you see like once around when you see someone take a shot at an ally or yourself, you get to roll decide to roll a reflex save and you can stop that attack happening and then roll damage yourself as you are just quicker on the draw.
Oh, I guess superpower. And with that, because of the things that you have all been doing to prepare yourselves and the town at initiative 20, which is the first, you all get to pick collectively between one of three things.
You can pick open fire, which in a 10 foot circle, everyone inside that circle needs to make a reflex check or take 1d6 damage as all of the like people in the town who you have prepared all open fire, you can pick drop the barrel.
If someone is within five foot of any of the buildings in town, you can drop an oil barrel, which gives them huge amounts of damage, but then they also need to roll a reflex or you can pick three people and then the healing station is going to go off and and then every and then those three people heal.
So we get to do this at the top of each initiative order on 20 initiative. You can pick one of these three things. It's got a live chat. Got it.
Oh snap, we have our own layer actions. Cool. First thing. It's the first move since no one rolled. No one rolled above a 20. Which one would you like to do?
I'm inclined to say drop the barrel. I would love this gripply to be dry to be, you know, on a flaming lizard. I do think that's very funny.
Yeah, you want it to be on a flaming lizard. Okie dokes. Alright, alright. Is everyone into that idea?
I'm here for this.
Giving a signal, whoever gives that signal, I imagine it's a zhom. Keelin runs up inside of the abandoned town hall. Let's go over of a rope and a barrel that was home alone-esque rocking on top of this on this building rolls down and then explodes out this.
This tash tarry, which is what this gripply is riding, needs to make a reflex save. It does unfortunately make it. That's a 16 on the die plus seven. However, it takes half damage.
There is this rawr as it as it like rears back. The river is like, hey boy, as just getting shot in the shoulder is trying to control it.
Now that the first shot has been fired, these two girdled lizards are going to actually act before Poncho. The two riders are going to just open fire actually on Poncho, both of them taking shots.
They only get plus two to this. That is a seven. That fails. That is an 18. Does an 18 hit your Poncho's EAC? EAC? That meets my EAC.
Four damage to your stamina as one of these barons men on top of this golden lizard. After that, Poncho, it is you.
Poncho is going to kind of do like a little hop hop run over to that little trough over here and like duck behind it.
Yeah, that's grand. That will be half cover as you're like ducked under it. Is there any shots you would like to take? Yeah, take more shots at the one that was riding.
At the little leader. Perfect. 18 does hit. Roll that damage. Nine points of damage.
This gripply and this tachypteria are getting riddled with bullets. They have they've really in this ambush. They have been the ones who are jumped.
And then after that, if you're all done, it is who I have colloquially called the peons turn. Two of them rush off going towards the town hall.
Two of them duck behind the building that Theriac and EIG are holed up in. All of them, however, are going to take shots off at Poncho since they don't know where anyone else is.
One, two, that is two hits. A total of 10 damage as they. Bullets go straight through the sloshing trough and water is is pouring out.
You can kind of poke your little rabbit, your little kangaroo mouse eye through one of the holes and spot what's going on.
The others, the other five, as they all walk in with Sky, there are some supplies knocking around. Sky, are you the first or the last one to enter?
Like I, I want to be the last one to enter, but I also don't want these guys to be suspicious of me. So I will go in first.
If that matters. Yeah, it does. Stepping inside of this, not fully cleared out, but kind of empty general store.
You walk in, five people follow you. As you all step in, the gunshots start being heard from outside and Sky, you hear a rustle and a click of a revolver and you turn around and Estrid is pointing her laser rifle at you.
We don't have time for this. We ain't going to be falling for nothing, sugar. You ain't very convincing. You have only been with us, what, one week? You really expect us to fall for the fact that you're all on our team?
Are you done? Go on. Defend yourself.
I hate this. You know that power we got from the crystal? Yes, yes, yes, yes. The pole? Yeah, yeah.
I want Wally to have a chance to use it. Could I use it just because Momo doesn't know how to get out of this predicament and I know a way that requires the use of the crystal power? Would that be okay?
I'm okay. I'm okay with using it. Oh my God. You are surrounded by five people. Do it. So possibly getting out in any way is a smart one.
Okay, I'd like to use the crystal power and I'd like to just telekinesis her gun into my hand. Okay. Am I able to do that?
Yeah, you absolutely are. This is going to be a contested reflex as you use the ability of the crystal to yank the gun out of her hand and into yours.
So you're going to have to roll a reflex and I will roll one, whichever one's high against it.
23.
The dust storm you all saw earlier is like so far away yet there is this thunder storm that you hear above you as sinking in with this time that you've spent with the crystal and this huge beacon-ous explosion that you all felt when arriving on Nos.
Sky, there is this small tingling on your tongue, this memory of licking it when you first came into contact with it.
There is this breaking of glass as the crystal eye leaves your pouch, shoots out through the window, through two other buildings and then into the general store.
Sky reaching at your hand, the gun immediately falls into yours. Estrin is now unarmed and you now have a rifle in your hands.
The crystal hovers floating, stuck in the air as you summoned it to use this. It shakes and then clangs to the floor.
You now hold the gun in your hand. The awareness of everyone who has walked in this building is like, hey, hey, hey, as they all point their guns and get ready, but they're not pointing it at you.
They're just like pointing, they're just like readied. Your gun leaves Estrin and are you pointing it at her? Did you just have it?
I just have it. I'd like to take the gun and then just say to the rest of the group, giving Astrid a bit of a cold shoulder, take what you want, we'll destroy the rest on my signal.
I'm going to watch the door. I will tell you when it's safe to leave. Am I understood?
Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. They all walk off, no role needed. Estrin doesn't move and is stood looking at you and then looks toward the crystal. How'd y'all do that?
I'd rather leave you wondering what else I can do and then I'd like to hand her gun back to her.
Ma, you all full of surprises.
Yeah, you have no idea.
And then I'm going to go watch the door.
The Gripley patting themselves down, wiping the oil off of the Tash Tari that they're riding. The Tash Tari kind of lands on the ground.
This red lizard with this large almost scorpion like tail and this big sack underneath its throat that almost like the Gripley toad riding it is like raising and breathing.
Gripley Commander Patsit is going to point at where Poncho is.
He's a good shot. Let's make sure he can't do that no more, boy.
And then this Tash Tari, it's the sack underneath its throat like glows this bright white. It opens its mouth and there's this huge incredibly bright flash that happens like someone has just let off a firework or an extremely bright camera right in your eyes.
Poncho, I'm going to need you to make a Fortitude save.
That is a 15.
You duck back down behind the trough and it almost looks like the night turns into day for a second. You understand that if you looked at that you would be fully blinded. Azan, it is you.
Yes, yes. So this friendly fella is like right on the opposite side of the door, right? I'm going to just sneak up here, take that garrote wire and pull him around his neck and drag him through the door probably screaming like a ghost.
Like exactly like a ghost. Absolutely. Give me a let's have a strength.
How does a 22 do?
22 does exceedingly well. This person ran toward the door. They're like a scruffy like dog humanoid. They run up, get to the door, but then they turn around and they fire at Poncho leaving their back open for you to open this door and then grab them and pull them in.
There is this and then this as they are yanked in.
Yeah, I think I just want to like sit here and knock them out as quickly as possible. That's it. That's my goal.
Roll me an attack then. Another 22. No need to roll damage. There is this will real quick like you grab them and are you just choking them into unconsciousness?
There's a small struggle, but in the gunfire going off, no one is able to hear them as they pass out and then you throw them off to one side.
Great. I'm just going to hang out behind this door in case the other one gets any fun ideas.
Just waited? Absolutely. Hi.
Can I see the red and green little fellows? This one and this one from where I am?
You would be able to see if you go to like the very edge of the building, you would be able to see both of them because the red is like fully pressed up against the wall and the green one is just kind of poking out.
From there, which is just like five foot away, you can see the green one. He's like almost in the middle of the street firing at Poncho.
Okay, so I'll just I'll move just one more over, but all I'm going to do from here is whatever one he's got a kind of weapon in his hands.
He's got a rifle. He's got a joint. It's advanced. Great. You want that? Good. Yeah. Yeah, that's even better.
And I just want to kind of lay down on the roof and lean over just a bit, put over my head and...
You don't want to fire? You don't want to fire at all? You don't even like killing people?
And I cast incompetence on him so that he cannot shoot rifles. He forgets to do it. What do I have to do? Is that a will?
A will saving throw 15. Or a 17, unfortunately. Okay, all right. Spell cast.
There is a moment when he's like pressed up against it. He's clearly fired this rifle a lot. You do see him like, confusedly look at his gun like he's just had a moment of, oh shit, am I having performance anxiety right now?
Because I've completely forgotten how to do this. Looks at his weapon and then it's like, oh no, it's fine. But he does hear you at the top. So looks up as he rests his back against the wall.
Well, if he looks at me, I go, this gutter is disgusting. Perfectly hidden. Has no idea you're part of the fight.
Sky, you are, it is your turn. Theoretic, you are on deck. You will be next. Sky, what's up?
So I have a masked Vigige, which I don't know if it would be an action to put my little bandit mask and my gas mask on. But it says if my face is covered, then no one will recognize me.
I'll allow that to be like a swift action.
Yay, thank you.
Alright, and then I would like to take the chance and not lock the door. Azam gave me that fire rifle. I'd like to fire at the frog man. Please and thank you.
I will give you that the lizard, the two lizards and the peons outside, as well as the grippy, don't recognize you as skyscraper, the person who led you in. The five people in the general store will watch you walk out and shoot.
Nevermind, maybe I should lock the door.
You lock the door?
Maybe I should lock the door.
Or maybe I want to be in this little scrap, but I'm like, maybe I should just watch the door.
Wait for this all to blow over.
You can lock the door from the outside.
I know, but then they're going to start to panic probably. How sturdy is this door?
It's sturdy. They won't be able to kick it down immediately, but they will be able to get out eventually. But you might be able to finish the fight before they do.
I have lockpicking. Does that work both ways?
Yeah, it's still a lock the door. You can still lock the door.
25 to lock the door.
Okay, alright.
Actually, can I do something else as well?
Do I have an action beyond locking the door?
I have a smoke grenade.
So you're going to chuck the smoke grenade inside of the...
Okay, I'll give you this. I will let you either put the mask on and lock the door, put the mask on and throw the smoke grenade, or throw the smoke grenade and lock the door.
You have to pick one of the three things to not do.
I throw the smoke grenade and lock the door.
Okay, you throw the smoke grenade and lock the door.
Rolling the smoke grenade down, the five people immediately react with confusion and anger as this grenade goes off.
They're all coughing and unable to see. You duck your head as bullets like this go over your head.
Run out the door, shut it, lock the door.
You see the rest of these Baron's men firing.
Thiriaq, it is your turn. What would we like to do?
What if I shot?
It's a ballroom blitz.
Thiriaq with a gun? Who would have thought?
I can use a full action to attack twice.
You see Thiriaq loading the injector pistol with the inhibitor addition.
This isn't that different from what I was doing prior to Wild Times.
This isn't?
No.
I thought you just got picked up and started Wild Times.
I wish it were that easy.
What if I was a little rambunctious and I was aiming at the Steves?
Perfect, to like, buck the people off of them?
To buck Frog Homey here.
Alright, so I'm attacking twice.
I have the inhibitor.
Attacking twice.
That's a 16 and a dirty 20 to hit.
That would be a total of 10 piercing damage to the Steed.
I think hit one is to buck, hit two is to have it run off.
Get off the field.
It is definitely spooked. It's going to try and buck the Gribling.
And this is going to be just him doing a reflex to see if he can stay on.
That's a nat one.
Can I flavor this?
Yeah, tell me what's up.
This creature...what kind of creature is this by the way?
Give me a physical science.
A life science.
No, no, our life. I think our life science is endless.
Theory of failing a life science challenge. Sure.
I'm at 33. Tell me, bitch.
You might have read something on these like, deep desert lizards.
These huge, almost apex predators of desert areas.
They build up bioluminescent sparks in their throat to like fire out these extremely bright flashes of light to stun prey before they poison them and then begin eating them.
It is...they are one of these creatures that almost never trainable, but you can form some sort of bonded connection with them.
They are this weird like frog lizard hybrid again.
This big scorpion's tail that when not in use like curls into almost like a pig's tail and then will...
Would you say that they are tameable but not domesticated?
Yes, I would say that. Yes, that's a really very good way of putting it.
This frog lizard thing does not buck back, but bucks forward.
And frog guy falls forward and then is trampled by the steed as it runs.
Oh, beautiful. Yeah, falls ass overhead. There's this startled, surprised scream that the gripply gives as this creature...and then charges off up the path.
They fall off, are able to like roll half out the way, but as they roll they leave a quite like high powered rifle in the dirt.
The tesh-tari is like rearing its legs and the gripply sees this opportunity to like go and grab for their rifle.
And then the tesh-tari lands on his arm and there is a hugely loud crack as he yells out in pain and the tesh-tari runs off.
He is still alive, but is extremely badly broken.
Poncho back to the trough looking out, sky being out in the open, Azam having elevation and not focused.
Actually no, Azam, you know what, I've stated it now. I'm going to say everyone does.
There is this loud crack of thunder that you hear from this far, far distant storm that is raging. Huge, the fiery sandstorm.
These lightning cracks are hidden, buffeted by the extremely powerful sandstorm winds that are whipping up around it.
As you all look, you see another at least 30 people on lizards charging toward the neutrino dams.
Elsewhere in a small mining hut, a dusty rat sits and waits, having hidden most of the town inside of the mines.
Scrap waits for these three barons men to walk in. They do gun blazing. As they do, Scrap immediately puts up his hands and is like,
Hey, we're all good, we're all good, it's okay. We don't mean nothing, there's no one here, there's just good people.
We don't care about the people, give us the damn ore.
The ore? I already spoke to your boss, I will get you the ore.
You spoke to the baron about this?
The baron, no, I spoke to Wendy about it.
I don't think, I don't know a Wendy.
Wendy's nuts gonna fit in your mouth, pulls out a gun, doot, doot, doot.
And there, one of the people, a almost elven looking person, these sharp ears, mullet of mopped brown hair, gurgles and coughs, Scrap sighs.
I'm so sorry buddy, I haven't done this in a real long time.
Looking at you, I do, I think you're gonna live, you'll be fine. Scrap grabs a rag, stepping over the two other dead bodies, their heads over the floor, pushes an old oiled rag into this bullet wound that's in their chest.
You're a bit taller than I'm used to shooting, I think the recoil on this gun is a little bad.
Keep pressure on that, you'll be fine.
Scrap goes to walk out.
You ain't gonna win, there are almost a hundred of us riding to this town.
Yeah, we know there's a lot of you, but we'll be fine. Thank you very much for your input.
And when we take over this town, we're gonna kill and execute all of you. And then the baron is gonna take that fucking blue-haired bitch and throw her off the train.
At this, Scrap halfway out the door stops and turns back around.
What's your name buddy?
Fuck you. I'm trying to help you. What's your name?
Kano.
Does that name mean anything to you, Kano?
I just don't fuck... doesn't your name mean anything? Play with me here.
My mama used to say that it was long life. That's funny.
Where I'm from, in my home, names have meaning.
They have importance about who you are and what you're willing to do to survive.
My name is Scrap. Scrapyard, officially.
That blue-haired bitch that you call, her name's Skyscraper.
The only reason that your head is not completely caved in from that little comment is because of something that she did for me about a year ago now.
And I'm gonna tell you that if she didn't do that, you would be part of the ocean of bodies that I have buried, immolated, crushed, chopped up, thrown in rivers.
I would not only make your mother a liar, I would embarrass that woman.
What is this train that you're talking about?
Moving back to the town, seeing these people right up. Everyone's radio's shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
The Baron, he's riding out on a train at the minute. He apparently is gonna be long, long gone in an hour. We will not be able to catch up to him.
Poncho, this is all down to you. You can choose. We can either go for the Baron right now and try to cut this off at the source, or we can stay here.
Poncho grabs his com device. It's not in his ear because his ears are too cute and large to hold the com piece in it.
It's like one underneath his little poncho. He speaks into it and says,
We're into this now. We're gonna take the fight to him. If we don't, he'll come back in a week or a month.
The only way to get rid of a snake is to cut off its head.
I'll bring the truck around. Meet me at the town hall. We'll get on and we'll ride out to the train.
Six more peons arrive surrounding the town. You now get, and again this is a choice of everyone, you get one of the three moves that you can use.
You can pick either open fire, you can drop a barrel to anyone within five foot of any building, or you can decide to heal someone.
Well if we're leaving, I think this is time. Open fire, have everybody come out.
Yeah, I think like right here. Try and catch these three newcomers.
Which one? The ones from the...
The ones coming from the west. Okay, that's what I was gonna say also, that we take out the ones that are coming from the sides.
As these three from the west come, who's gonna make the call? Who makes the order to open fire?
Poncho will cast a glance up to Zan in the window, hold up two fingers, and drop him down to give him the signal.
A few of the townsfolk, Mr. Mr. and Mrs. from the haberdashery, the owner of the inn, Flare and Keelin all spot this signal and there is this huge hail of bullets firing from all angles to these three people.
All three of these barons members immediately as they step foot onto the scene, you give the order and there is this...and they all riddled with bullets.
A pretty successful move. Poncho, it is now you.
Okay, so there's these three guys coming up from behind me. He will whip around and I'm going to use a full out attack to shoot one and then shoot another one.
Beautiful. And because I have staccato strut, when I make a full attack with small arms and I attack a different creature with each attack, I reduce the penalty.
Oh, love that. Hell yeah. That is an 18. Okay. That is a 19. Perfect. Both of those hit.
So that's a nine on the first one and 11 on the second one. Bam bam. Both of them go down.
After he takes out those two, he speaks into the comms. Bring the truck around. I'll follow y'all on horseback. Well, on thistle brush.
What about the five that I have in the general store?
Dang. Is the door locked?
Yeah. Someone's going to have to stay behind to keep an eye on him.
You got it, mate. I'm stuck in the tunnel anyway.
Sure. Hell yeah.
All right. Rest of y'all mount up. Let's go.
And he will head out from his little cover from behind and head out into the middle of the street. And that rifle that the dude dropped.
The gripply? Yeah. Is it just there? On the ground?
It is just there on the ground. Can I run over and pick it up?
Absolutely. You run over and pick it up as you run over.
The gripply, who is still alive, still trying to grab for it with his one good arm, gets a hand on it as soon as you get a hand on it.
This ain't over yet. The Baron is stronger than any of us.
Pancho, we're just reliving history.
Pancho looks down at the gripply. Yeah, we can relive history.
But you gotta understand this. Every sentient being out there in the world, they have the right to rewrite history.
And I'm going to give you a choice. And he pulls out his pistol and points it at him.
Drop your belt. Drop your weapons and run out into that desert.
And don't look back. Or I could end this history for you right now.
And your story will be written. And not a single dang person is going to remember who you are.
We always said you were a compassionate man, Pancho.
He puts his hand on his belt and fumbly unbuckles it.
I have it. Useless to me now anyway.
Immediately try and duck under some behind some barrels and then sneak out of this firefight.
He has a moment where he watches the guy sneak away. He levels the gun at them as they're walking away.
But then twirls it, puts it away, picks up the rifle and lets him go.
Next in the initiative order are the peons.
One that is left that has come in from the north, Pancho, you one-twoed the other two people that they came with.
Stealing themselves, pulls out a rifle and I think is going to go.
I would like to use my quick draw reflex.
Nice. Perfect. This is a contested reflex then as they make a shot at you.
I got a 19 on the dice so that's a 26.
Let's go. It's some form of spidey sense. There is someone who aims a gun at you like 60, 70 foot away.
Do you turn with the rifle that you've just picked up or do you point with the pistol?
The first thing that turns is his cute little, like his gigantic cute ears.
One just turns instantly right in that direction and he takes the rifle and bam, fires.
So that is nine points of damage.
Your ear twitch, hearing this click of a rifle, turn, fire and they go. Amazing. They go and they fall down.
He shakes his head because you know, honor without combat right there.
And he heads bouncing, bouncing over to where the super rush is at.
These two that are hiding underneath the building that I is on top of, spotting I are both going to open fire.
I has full cover so you have a slightly larger AC boost.
However, not good enough because that is a natural 20 when it comes on one of them.
And the second one fires. That is a 19, 21. That's a 21.
Certainly, of course.
There is this small, like you are poking your head over and as you duck under there is a rifle fire.
That is 15 stamina.
The one that Azam didn't grab is going to look back at, toward their friend, see that they are not there and is going to step foot inside of the building.
I have got my back pressed against the other side of the door.
It is not very strong. It is going to try and open it as you have your back pressed to it.
Fails dramatically. That is like a four. No roll needed from you is like pushing it open and hey Billy, Billy did you get in here?
Billy, did you shut the door behind you Billy?
The last one who has just come in from the east is going to see Skye and is going to, not knowing who she is, is going to take a pot shot at Skye.
That is an 18 to your EAC Skye. Does that hit?
I am going to assume it. It does. Yeah, it is 12.
Perfect. That is five damage to you as he is going to open fire at you.
And you just said stamina first right?
Just stamina first. From the general store, smoke billows from the broken window and these now numerous bullet holes that are appearing as people fearfully shoot around not knowing where they are.
I am going to give an intelligence check to them as a whole to see if they can find their way toward the door.
Esther, you can hear from inside a muffled.
Boys get the damn act together. We're fine. Stop shooting. Calm the fuck down. The door is over here.
There is a thudding at the door and she is going to make a strength check to try and kick it open.
There is this thud of the door as she is trying to break through followed by more kicks of more people trying to kick down this door and get back into the action.
Azam, you are up. Ike, you are on deck.
So now that the person is banging on the door trying to shake it, I am going to wait for the right moment. Turn around and open it so he falls right into my arms.
Roll me a strength. I am going to roll it in conjunction.
Fuck. 19. Shit. I was like yeah I got it.
You open the door at the exact time they try to kick it. Their leg falls through and you grab them as they are like halfway toward the door.
If this was a slightly more romantic situation you would be holding each other beautifully but right now you are two just sweaty dusty men.
Which again sounds sexual if there wasn't murder happening.
Two sweaty dusty men.
Sweaty dusty men.
The title of my next romance novel.
I feel like Azam has done this move before. It's a sad thing.
But they were two sweaty dusty men in a romantic scene though.
That's how it was.
Your mind falls back.
Maybe because there is a last stand hold here, brings back a lot of memories. Some form of revolution, some form of standing up against a far more bigger oppressive power.
Perhaps it is quite literally this exact hold that you have on this person.
But your mind falls back to a dance. A ball.
You just successfully held a position and took a huge heath stronghold. People are celebrating dancing. There's music going on.
You are there with a shorter than you, blue-flamed young man who you know is everything.
You dance softly. When the music picks up, dance a little faster.
And then you dip him in a way that he says, you know if we were in a more compromising position, you could kill me right now.
And you know I never would.
As you bend yourself to kiss him, it snaps back to this moment.
Almost the exact same pose with this other person in a move where if you wanted, you could kill him.
I simply knock him out.
A heavy punch to him immediately makes him pass out.
Dropping him to the ground.
And then I'm going to head out so I can, I guess, meet with Skye.
Stepping out you see Skye. You see these two lizards. You see the action that's going on.
You also get a clear review of the people storming toward Neutrino Downs. They're a little bit far away, but they are racing.
Can I ask you a question, Pancho? In our time preparing for this, would Pancho have maybe told me stories about past fights with this group of ne'er-do-wells?
Would maybe Pancho have told me some of their previous kills and things like that?
Pancho, what if 100% relate any kind of information? If they asked, he would be more than happy to talk about it. Yeah.
Okay. So then I, having just taken two shots grazing by her cheeks, take a deep breath in. She like, kind of like expels the air back out of her puffed up cheeks.
But instead of like sound coming from her vocal cords, the sound of a previous fight, one that they won, these bandits, the sounds of the previous people that they've killed on the battlefield.
In the throes of passion, gunshots firing and them screaming, shouting orders at each other and calling out these memories at them in their ears.
The sound of 20 people to save DC 14 willpower as they hear the ghost sounds.
Oh wow. Okay. Okay. Beautiful. I got a five.
I'm focusing on these two right here.
So they hear these ghost sounds. I'm going to roll a will to see if they get spooked and decide to bounce because of ghosts.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. One of them, one of them, one of them gets pretty high. So he's scared, but isn't running.
This Vesk, this like chameleon like lizard man sprints off. Sky, is you. Theoretic, you are up next.
Oh, I like to, it's a skateboard here. The purple, purple guy.
And you, I got a little thing on my skateboard that Flare installed or something, right? Where if I do a trick over somebody, it confuses them.
You can dazzle them. That's true. Yeah, you do.
I'd like to dazzle them, please. Is that my whole action?
No, that is a movement. You get to do that as a movement.
Brilliant. Brilliant. I believe mechanically what I'm going to be doing is an unarmed strike, but narratively, I imagine Sky uses the trick as a way to like wrap her legs around the shoulders of this person.
And I want to snap their neck. Beautiful. Twenty, twenty three to, to hit. Beautiful. Eight. Eight is the damage. The damage. Perfect. I think.
Jumping on skateboards, there's this, as a skateboard like immediately takes off. You fly over this person who is firing at you. Do a, what's the trick? Fifty, fifty boneless? Do a fifty, fifty space boneless?
I literally looked up, I literally looked up a list of skateboard tricks and it was a thing of like a hundred ridiculous sounding names, but no visuals. So what I imagine in my head is she, she like kicks the board up and like grabs his shoulders and like does a little tornado.
Oh. You know, like a, almost like a martial arts move. Yeah. Like around him. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I see what you mean. Yeah.
So she does like a hurrican, like does like a kickflip into a hurricana around their neck.
You jump, do this like twist a move. There is this loud like crack as this person falls down in this like whirlwind of sand.
Did I actually, did I actually kill him? You did, yeah.
It looked sick as fuck.
I think I'm the only one who saw that. Yeah. His arms like, so like if you turn back to his arms, it's just like a chef's kiss.
From the town hall there is this woo and you see Flair, they're like leg up, poking slightly out of the window with a sniper rifle and like taking pot shots at the people very far away as they also saw you do it.
Oh, am I done? Or could I shout, could I shout a thing? Sure, absolutely. Nevermind. I'll shout, nevermind. Then be next. Nevermind. No, do it now. Do it now. Yeah, do it now.
I was gonna, I was gonna go up to like the window or something and just yell into, is it Astrid or Esther? Cause I think we've said both.
So it's Estrid. It's spelled Astrid but with an E instead of an A. Okay, I just wanted to go up to the window and shout.
Estrid, I know that you're confused and you're scared, but you have to believe that I'm doing this for you cause I really needed somebody to do it for me.
The kicking at the door stops. You hear a, Esther, come on, we gotta get it open. What do you mean, get me out?
The sheriff's gonna talk to you. Just hear him out. He's not gonna hurt you. He'll let you leave. Just listen to what he's gonna say.
I ain't a bad woman but this town ain't gonna last. I'm on the side that wins, honey. I'm gonna look at his arm. I don't know what to say to her but you do.
Would it be excessive to take these lizard guys? Or do they belong to...? Both of them have riders. There is someone on them but I tell you what, if you give me a full action we can see if we can hit the riders off.
Because I do have an AC to shoot the riders off of the things. Just two attacks. You need to beat an EAC of 14 for both.
I have a plus 7 to my Needler pistol attack. Minus 4 for full action. That means I would need to get 11 or higher so it's kind of 50-50. Because meets it beats it, right?
Meets it beats it. That's a 13 and a nat 20. Oh let's fucking go! The theory act who in another life. Tell you what, let's go back.
Wildtimes isn't a thing yet. You've just arrived on a dune. One of our first missions.
The resort of Wildtimes exists but it's purely a domicile for hyper-rich of Saga to come and relax. The idea of a park is no one even. That's completely not in anyone's mind.
There is the hotel and there is the rest of the planet.
That's it. You are but a trainee who has been sent to execute a group of animals. They want to build housing where this multi-lin buffalo-esque creatures are.
They excrete this quite powerful poison when touched and can shed their fur to grow incredibly small. They do it to run away. It's like a panic move. Their hide is incredibly thick.
You are with who is at the time Mr. Wildtimes but not co-founder Mr. Wildtimes. You see these two creatures.
Now we just need to take the shot. I know you're new but all you need is to breathe and squeeze the trigger. You've shot a gun before right?
I can't even say I've seen one before today.
Well it's a damn good time to learn. He hands you this big uncomfortable cold metal. It's just as easy as aiming at the head and squeezing the trigger.
The area cast alike completely reorient themselves in order to merely wield this enormous hunting rifle.
Where I am from, we know of the four elements that make up everything in the universe.
It's a religion called FODO. They aim the barrel of the rifle towards these buffalo creatures.
We believe every creature can feel all four of these at once in every interaction.
When I fire this, these beasts will feel the solid iron burrowing through their bodies. They'll feel the flame of the firing.
They'll feel the liquid rushing out of their veins and the plasma building up in their minds as they don't know how to react next.
Everything is these four things.
The area breathes in and fires.
It is a thunderous shot and it feels like these buffalo were smited by a god.
Hands the rifle, shoves it in Wilde's face. Every creature adapts. Even you will.
And walks off to collect them.
Flashing back to now, there are two creatures. There is these girdled lizards and these people riding them.
Feeling the heavy weight of another scoped rifle in your hand. Where does Theria come from?
Theria does not aim for their heads. Would be aiming again more so for their flanks.
It feels like a lifetime ago. So much has changed since then. You aim, fire.
You feel these lizards get this boost of strength and they buck back from this powerful hit and the two riders fall off.
Unable to keep on to the bucking of these lizards. They, not being scared from these shots, just bound a little forward.
And the two of the barons men who are on top of them just fall to the side and scramble up.
I am going to look back to Ige. Shall we?
She'll grab their hand and follow.
And we hop off the roof and we take them all down.
There is this roar of a truck blasting itself around the corner. You haven't actually seen what Scrap has been doing for most of the time that Sky has been gone and everyone has been preparing.
But you see now that they have adapted these huge metal girders that originally built the framework of the patchwork, the only thing of the patchwork that is left, onto this eight wheeled truck.
It looks very much like a giant dune buggy. Come on gang, we've got a train to catch.
Poncho, Theriak, Ige, you are all taking individual lizards?
Harkto's riding Thistlebush.
Sky, are you going to ride with Scrap?
Where is the truck?
The truck will be in the center of town. It will be very easy for you to go and get on it.
I don't want to leave my fellow criminals.
I rush on up to the door. I know you don't know me, but I know you. I know of you, most importantly, I know everything you are capable of.
But there is a time in which you have got to decide what are you fighting for. Because it cannot be just another paycheck. You cannot die for another paycheck and I can kill you. Walk away. It's all you have to do.
Give me a diplomacy roll.
The sound of gunfire emanates all around you as well as these more powerful winds as they pick up. But there is also this honking of a horn as Scrap is trying to get the attention of people.
You see her through the broken wispy smoke tilt her head to look out at the truck. You're going to go kill the Baron.
And we're going to succeed. Please don't make me start with you. And as I press my hand to the door, my arm is going to start glowing.
I do have something to fight for. I always have. That is me. And I do only pick the winning side. If you're going to go kill the Baron, I want in.
Can I sense motive? I want to see if she's telling the truth.
Absolutely. 15. She is not lying. She is almost 100% of the time in it for herself. If there is going to be a winning side, you can see that she wants to be on it.
I kick open the door, but my arm is still splayed out. Rest of you?
I'm good to walk away. I'll walk away.
Get to walking.
Slinging the rifle from her shoulder to her hands. You are joined by Estrid. Are you going to go to the truck?
I suppose the situation is done. So yeah.
I'm going to start to run for the truck.
You get to Thistlebrush. There are these two human men that have hold of Thistlebrush's reins and are wrestling with it, trying to take it out of the stable.
I pop a shot, but the first one is just up in the air to shake them and to get them to stop what they're doing.
Both of them look to you, but only one lets go of the reins. The other one is pulled forward slightly.
This one that lets go goes for their rifle and pulls it out. They are incredibly quick. Quicker than you have seen most people be able to pull a gun.
You go to fire, but as you click the trigger, there is this shhk of an empty chamber. They turn this gun to you.
Just before they click, there is another gunshot that rings out and in their head falls down.
Turning to see where this gunshot is, you see just sand dunes, slight broken ruins.
You hear the other person let go of Thistlebrush's rear and kicks. They go to pull their gun and then again another thhshhshhshhshh.
Out behind a broken barrel and piece of stone, a tall Velka, almost white wolf humanoid comes out, small little cowboy hat.
You see, Poncho, your wife, Oxana, she steps out. I leave you for two weeks and you go get my town shot up.
Now darling, you know I didn't mean to get the town shot up while you were gone or anything. It was just the Baron came into town. You know I don't have to fight back.
He's damn baron this and baron that. Where you off to?
We're gonna go catch a train.
Is that a ticket for Toopy?
If you'd like to come along, I would love the company.
I'd love to catch up with my best little man.
He hops, hops over to her and hops up and gives her a kiss on the cheek.
This very buff, tall, white wolf humanoid, she looks similar to Keelin.
But like covered in dust and dust in her fur and stuff?
He's like a different, Poncho do you want to describe your wife?
Yeah, so Oxana is like six foot six tall. She has snow white fur that is just, looks like that no matter how many times she's washed it, the dust has never left it.
Like maybe at one time it was pure white fur but not anymore. She is wearing you know pretty much just Wild West clothes, has a cowboy hat on top of her head.
They have this sniper rifle that looks like it was custom made for her use. And she is like, she dwarfs Poncho in everything. Like she's, like they're the basic tall small kind of couple.
You haven't seen her in a few weeks, she left just before Patchwork arrived about a week before.
Used to be the barmaid but now has like picked up other, picked up other like small mercenary work just to make some money.
I think she was visiting family at this time actually.
Yeah she was visiting family this time.
She puts you down and you go grab Thistlebrush.
I, you join Theriaq. Sky you're on the truck?
I'm running for the truck but my speed's on the third gear?
That's fine, no you get on the truck that's great.
Azam you join, closely followed by Estrid who like very casually leaps onto the back of this like small pickup truck-esque area.
Like onto our truck?
Onto your truck.
No no no no no no no no no no, you're not coming with us.
She wants to take down the veteran.
I mean you said you were gonna save me and how are you gonna save me if I ain't here with you?
Help me friend.
The truck begins and you hear, wait, wait!
And a very sunburnt flare walks out of the town hall.
He has a cane now that he's using to prop himself up.
Not carrying any guns, he's left the sniper rifle up.
From inside you see Keelan who is like readying the gun.
Are you sure about this? Hey listen it's catching a train, it'll be easy.
You stay here, I'll keep in contact alright?
They're probably gonna need me, I mean they're not that good with like tech and stuff.
I guess yes but what if there's more tech? They'll need someone, I'll be back in two seconds.
Flair knocks on the door, is there room for one more?
I open the door and reach my hand out.
Thank you, puts the cane inside, sits in, Scrap's like, okay is that everyone?
I kinda elbow sky a little bit, looks like we're the only one who picked up a friend.
And I point towards Xana and Poncho.
She's a musk, she's a beautiful woman, very like dusty and like that classic kind of cowgirl aesthetic little jagger she has.
She's holding a sniper rifle in her hand and is on the back with Poncho.
I love it.
Scrap rolls down the window, alright Sheriff, we ready to go?
Alright, let's ride y'all.
And he cracks the reins and takes off.
There is this whoosh as the truck starts, Ike, Therac both of you whip the lizards and you all are bounding along and you take off toward the Baron's train.
Hello there beautiful souls, thank you so much for listening to the Adamless and a few quick thanks for a shout out to the players.
First things first, it's our Patreon shout out, thank you so much my personal heroes.
We have Anna, Daniel Neruda, Mary, Meeba444, Noah, Sunny420, thank you true gamers for joining the patchwork support.
If you would like a little shout out then you could also join our Patreon at the patchwork support tier but you can't quite afford it or you're just not really interested in that don't even worry because every tier has extra content and other wonderful things such as a wild time sticker from Andre.
We have a Discord which you can join through that as well as some secret extra channels that we chat in as well as things like our little animatics that we have which I love oh so deliciously.
Speaking of animatics, if you would like to watch those or listen to the actual plays of the show, watch them and our beautiful faces then you can head on over to the Adamless on YouTube for all of our videos as well as little edited clips.
Speaking of merch, we've also teamed up with a familiar shop to make some Adamless themed soaps.
Each member of the patchwork has a soap based around their character and if you go over to the familiar shop on Etsy and pick up one of them then you're directly supporting us as well as supporting this wonderful small business and supporting your body with soap which is a good positive thing.
You should absolutely do that. Our players today were beautiful wonderful Mowgli Brian playing Sky SuperDom playing I Gnording Elite Kadir who is Werewolf Fields on socials who is playing Azam and Andre Rivera Art who is our wonderful little garlic and then of course me Matthew Edward Captain Krell on all things and I voiced all of the pew pews and the other stuff as well.
We also had our beautiful guest Wally who is with us playing Poncho and I love them oh so dearly they are a friendly slime on socials. Thank you so much for listening I give you so many kisses and for the next time you fly through the Adamless sea I hope you will be there to fly with us. Thank you so much.
Thank you.