Welcome, my little critters, to Tales from the Crit Season 2, The Level Up.
We're an actual play podcast with an ever-changing cast of players making our way through a bunch
of different RPG systems, from micro-RPGs to some of the more well-known role-playing
games out there, and the occasional highly narrative tabletop game.
Content warnings can be found in the episode's description.
My name is Riley Groves, and I am the Crit Keeper on this episode of Tales from the Crit.
Last time, on Vault 69, our lovable band of raiders awoke from a nice nap and immediately
ran into a whole lot of nasty bugs.
Thanks to some quick thinking by Gulea Roberts and some well-placed sugar, the gang makes
quick work of the pesky pests.
Later that day, they come across a very pleasant black market where they continue to gear up,
Welcome back to Tales from the Crit.
I'm your host.
Are you?
You want to try that one again?
Questionable?
No, we're going to roll with it.
We've got questions all day.
And I'm joined by my co-hosts, Mikey.
Hi.
Tim.
Hello.
Derek.
Hello.
And Rebecca.
Hey.
We're going to switch some things up and answer a question from the Ultimate RPG Campfire
Card Deck by James Diamato to learn a little bit more about our characters instead of our
selves like we normally would from our pod deck interview deck.
The question for today relies on you answering a question about your past or your character's
past.
How did you learn your most valuable skill?
Well, that's easy for Marvin.
It was programmed.
But I don't know.
Marvin's become sentient, so.
What do you feel is Marvin's most valuable skill?
Fighter Patrol?
Looking around.
With the three eyes, yeah, probably.
No.
Marvin's favorite skill would probably have to be swinging a baseball bat and looking
really cool with a formal hat.
I guess survival.
Survival is his most prized skill that he's learned from his times in the Wasteland.
And going insane.
I was kind of going to go with a similar vein after the rude awakening of realizing what
was happening in the vault.
It was an independent survival that really took over and has become a valuable skill.
Awesome.
Gullia?
My most valuable skill is probably endurance.
And what's the other part?
How I got there?
How did you learn it?
Oh, I'm a ghoul.
So I just kind of have it since I became a ghoul.
You just kept running.
Yeah, I just can run forever.
Old Tallman?
I feel like it's kind of a hard question for him because his two highest skills, strength
and endurance, would have been from the forest evolution virus.
But he has abnormally high perception, charisma and intelligence for a super mutant.
But I feel like he established that because of how old he really is.
He's from pre-war.
So self-taught.
Yeah, it was just learned and earned over the years, I guess, and a little bit of scientific
experimentation.
Fuck yeah.
All right.
Cool.
Well, that was fun.
Let's get back into the game here.
And we're picking up outside of the Super Duper Mart where you all made camp for the
night.
And it is, I believe, the beginning of day four.
Yes.
It is June 23rd.
I wrote the dates down.
And I've been crossing them off as we go.
Okay, awesome.
We're still at the Super Duper Mart as far as...
Still in section two, yeah.
Nothing really transpired throughout the night.
So you're clear to do whatever it is that you wish to do.
The world is your oyster.
The sun rises.
And it's actually a very pretty morning as far as things go.
Well, we have had another successful day of staying alive.
And as far as my experience on the surface is concerned, that is a wonderful thing.
Well, yep.
It's always good to make another day.
Perimeter secure.
Thanks, Marvin.
Yes, Marvin.
We know.
Thank you.
So where should we head now?
Would we like to acquire the large gun that we have heard rumored in the abandoned Tesla
laboratory?
Well, that does sound pretty tempting.
I'm ready to go over there.
I know we have just acquired larger firearms, but... or more, I should say.
But I think bigger would always be a plus.
Bigger is always better.
That's what they say.
You always need a big gun.
I agree.
Well, let's get trekking.
Mmm.
Roabit.
Yes, old Tallman.
Let's go.
I will lead the way.
He just starts floating in a random direction.
Well, we're going this way.
This way.
We're going east.
We're going west.
West it is.
All right.
You guys head west towards section one, the abandoned Tesla lab.
All right.
It takes about half the day before you guys get there.
And it's set pretty much in the desert, the desert fucking wasteland.
You can see the lab far off.
Mr. Handy, it seems you are leading the way.
Why don't you make me a... we'll call it perception and survival roll.
Difficulty is going to be a two, so I will need two successes.
So remember, you're going to roll 2d20 and try to come in under your perception plus
survival score.
17.
So that is not under perception.
So you're going to roll two dice.
That's the fucking hit location dice.
Wrong dice.
One with numbers preferably.
14.
Okay, so that's two failures.
Two failures.
Cool.
Don't forget, you do have things such as luck points and you do have action points.
You guys are going to start with a pool of four out of six, which you can use to increase
your knowing things.
Okay, so everybody else, you guys can increase your scores or increase the number of dice
you roll.
Everybody else can give me also a perception and survival roll.
We'll do a group check, not you, Marvin.
I'm going to need four successes from the entire group.
I got a nat 20 and a 14.
Okay, very bad.
I need those dice.
Perception plus survival.
Yep.
Oh, I add the two.
That didn't change anything.
I don't even have survival listed.
It's under your skills.
Most of the way down.
You have it tagged even.
So if you get a two or lower, it's critical.
I got a six and a 19 and perception is six plus survival is two.
That's an eight.
Okay.
And you roll under an eight.
I did roll one under an eight.
Okay.
So I rolled a six, perception is six and my survival is three and I rolled a four and
a six.
Okay.
Either of those tagged.
Survival is tagged.
But it's not.
It's a three, right?
It's a three.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you got two successes.
You got one success and Augusta, you got no successes.
Nothing.
Very bad rolls.
That's all right.
So we're just going to move forward this way and you continue on towards the lab and you
can see it.
It's actually a pretty well, not maintained building, but it's still standing.
Like structurally, it seems pretty decent as compared to everything else that's been
leveled and destroyed around here.
It's a giant concrete building.
The windows are all boarded up.
However, you can see as you approach that the door has recently been opened and closed.
Old tall man would like to see if there's been any other movement around the outside
of the building.
If there's any footprints or tracks or...
That is kind of what we just went for.
And that's what I would give you.
So that's as it's a desert, it's hard to actually see individual tracks.
I will say that there's definitely, you can see that there's been movement, but you can't
tell what kind of movement.
Okay.
It does seem like there has been someone here recently.
We should be careful.
The idea of it being abandoned led me to believe that it might have been safe, but I have little
alarm bells in the back of my head.
Speaking of alarms, Marvin, do you sense anything happening with this door here?
Any sort of alarm system or anything?
It looks as though it's been opened recently.
Perfect.
Always on top of it.
Marvin, thank you.
I think that we should be very cautious with entering.
Perhaps we do a quick walk around and see if there's another point of entry that looks
less utilized.
Maybe a side door.
You mean check the perimeter?
Yes, Marvin.
If you'd like to check the perimeter, you feel free.
He goes floating around.
Perimeter secure.
Thanks, Marvin.
Did you find anything else on the secure perimeter?
All right, Marvin, give me another perception and survival check.
Difficulty of two.
Don't forget, you can use action points to roll more dice.
So I rolled a 19 and a three.
What would we be looking at?
Perception and survival.
Survival, I have a two.
You need to roll underneath.
So you got one.
I got one.
One success.
I'd like to reroll that 19.
I'll use an action point.
All right.
A 10, so no, it didn't do anything.
Okay, great.
Yeah, you don't see shit out of the ordinary.
Just floating around, seeing the sun, seeing the sand, seeing the building all boarded
up.
I don't see any other points of entry.
Well, I'm ready to just stealth right in here.
Yeah, I think it's a good idea if you two go in first and I'll hang back a little bit.
All right, I'll head in first.
I'm right behind you.
I think he meant Augusta and me, but you're a little loud sometimes.
Crashing and clanging into things.
All right, let's head on in.
Stealthily.
Okay.
Yes, stealthily move into the building and it's a rather large building.
The bottom floor is mostly a lobby.
You see some old desks that have been turned over, some pre-collapse technology, some old
computers, shit like that.
Everything's got a pretty solid layer of dust.
As you're moving through, you do see not footprints of people, but definitely you guys would recognize
rad roach prints kind of all over all of the desks and stuff.
So everybody give me, not everybody, you two give me a agility and sneak roll.
Just a successive one for each of you.
I had to get under an eight.
I got a 15 and a two.
My sneak is tagged at three.
So because I got below three, I did get a crit.
You did get a crit.
Awesome.
I had to get under a seven and I got a three and a 13.
Three and a 13.
Anything tagged?
No.
All right.
Awesome.
So go ahead and take one action point back because you guys did a crit and you went over
the necessary number of successes that you needed to be successful, obviously, at sneaking.
And so as you guys are in here, the two of you looking around, knowing that there's rad
roaches or have been, can see that there are at least five rad roaches on this floor.
There's a staircase across the lobby and that's about all that's in the lobby.
Do you think that we should just regroup real quick and bring the rest in and try to make
it to that stairwell as a group quietly or continue on and report back after we have
found something?
I think it'd be worth it to fill the group in on what we found.
I mean, it's not really anything we've found yet, but I don't really want to fight all
them rad roaches by ourselves.
I don't really like the large bugs.
It seems they're much tougher than we ever think they are.
Yeah.
Let's kind of bolster our ranks here.
Old tall man would be standing right outside the door.
So are you holding the door open or are you just outside it?
I'm outside trying to listen to see if they need anything or if they're being quiet.
I'm going to let them move forward before I start poking my head in.
Yeah, and I think Marvin's finally made his way all the way around.
Back to old tall man.
So you're trying to listen, however, the consequence of an earlier rolled critical failure by one
of the characters who is now inside.
You hear in the distance something much larger and more menacing that distracts you from
trying to listen to what's going on inside.
You hear it just it's still off in the distance, but a loud shrieking roar coming from somewhere
relatively nearby.
Can I see Marvin?
Marvin's made his way back to you and Marvin, you would definitely be able to sense this
as well.
Marvin, do you do know what that is?
Give me an intelligence and survival roll.
Marvin has a one.
You can always roll.
Roll two dice.
Always roll two dice.
And a 15.
I'm going to spend an action point on one.
Isn't that didn't you have to roll a nine or lower?
Your intelligence is a seven.
Your survival is a two.
True.
So that's a nine.
You rolled a seven.
OK, so I so I passed on survival.
OK, yeah, I mean, you passed.
You passed the test.
Marvin, you would know, even though you may not have ever heard it yourself, you search
your archived data to know that this is definitely a death claw.
What is it?
I don't want it to be what I think it is, but I think it is what I don't want it to
be.
Are you familiar with the death claw?
I grab Marvin and we walk in and I pull him into the building.
Damn, you are very strong if you just I guess like he's floating.
He's floating.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Oh, holding hands.
So as the two of you, Julia or Gullia, Julie, Gullia, Gullia, soft G, Gullia and Augusta
as the two of you are making your way back out the door, Old Tolman and Marvin make their
way into the door.
Oh, hey, guys, we were we were just I mean, quiet.
We were just coming to find you.
What's you?
You seem in a rush.
What's happening out there?
We live here now.
Oh, outside is no longer safe.
Well, we have five roommates in our new abode and they are all those radroaches we had to
fight at the Red Rocket Station.
So if we are very careful, maybe we can make our way.
We found a stairwell at the back of that hallway.
Maybe we can get an advantage visually on what did you say was outside?
Death claw.
Is the claw attached to something?
A lot of monster.
Oh, yeah, let's just head up them stairs and worry about what's in here and maybe not what's
out there.
Just does she not know what they are?
I have no idea what is the death claw is about a 15 foot tall hybridization of a chameleon
and primordial, irradiated fury that has got large, talonous death claws for hands.
A giant camouflaging monster.
Yeah, let us.
It is unknown whether or not they can camouflage because they are an apex predator and don't
necessarily need to.
All right, let's let's get some sort of barrier on this front door here just to make sure
we don't have a 15 foot armed guest inside here with us.
I'd rather take my chances with the roaches.
Yes, we've got much better odds in here.
Shall we go up these stairs once you patch that door up?
With any luck, there's a giant gun in here that can destroy death claws.
That we could shoot from the rooftop and maybe not have to get near it.
Old doll man is going to pull his sledgehammer and keep an eye on the rat roaches while they
board up the windows and door.
Are you still, are you going to try to board it up sneakily?
I mean, I'm really thinking more than like something in front.
Oh my God.
Like it just showed me a picture of the death claw.
That is not what I was picturing.
That's more of a demon than a chameleon.
I'm going to check if I can get the lock to work manually because I feel if it's unlocked
and there is a very obvious like, oh, there's something on the other side.
There would be the idea that something is in here.
I don't know how intelligent this thing is.
So I don't want to give it the advantage of knowing we're here.
So if I can get the locks to work, then I think it seems like more of a, you know, oh,
this building has already been locked up or something.
Yeah, I like that.
Give me an intelligence and science role.
Give me two.
I need two successes.
All right.
I need to get below a 12 and I have science tagged at a three.
All right, let's see it.
We got a 17 and a 13.
Okay.
Do you want to spend any action points to maybe try to 100%?
Yes, please.
So to to roll one additional die is one to roll two additional die is two more action
points.
Would old tall man when he's looking around, would there be a bookshelf, a statue, like
a something very large?
I mean, there's desks are the biggest thing because it is mostly a lobby down here.
So you're not in one of the like more furnitured areas.
Nope.
16.
All right.
You were unable to get the locks to re-engage.
Did you get the locks engaged?
I didn't.
We'd better grab that desk over there.
We're going to have to do it the old fashioned way.
Old tall man turns to push the desk up against the.
We should we should we should pick it up that desk because of the roaches.
We want it.
We don't want to get them too aware of us.
Marvin helps tall men move desks.
Okay.
You guys give me strength and stealth roles.
I know it's an uncommon pairing, but we'll see what happens.
Making quiet muscles.
Try not to flex too loudly.
Can you flip an action point for me?
I did not roll well.
Yeah, we'll need just one success for me to be.
Boy, we are burning through those.
Hey, it is.
That's a one and a four.
Nice.
Hell yeah.
So that is and you got one success.
I got one success.
Okay.
So take two action points back, please.
And you guys are able to seamlessly get this desk picked up and moved and placed in front
of the door without the rad roaches knowing that you're there.
Awesome.
Augusta is going to start making their way down the hallway toward the stairs.
I'm already at the stairs is what I'm deciding.
Okay.
We'll say you're moving to the stairs.
So to get past the rad roaches, everybody give me one more stealth and survival role.
Group test of three.
Delphic survival.
Sorry.
Give me agility and sneak.
Oh, sneak.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
Old Toleman failed miserably.
Agility and sneak on one dice.
Two dice.
Two failures here.
Remember, you roll two dice every time you roll, unless you want to roll more.
You got a natural one.
I got a one.
So that's two successes for Mikey.
I got one success.
You got one success.
That is a group of three, which is exactly what the target was.
So even though Augusta and old Toleman, I think one of you told a joke on your way out
and somebody snickered a little bit too hard or some shit like that.
Somebody stubbed their toe for home and parted.
I was going to say Augusta told a joke and Toleman let out a kind of echoed.
And you guys are actually able to make it out and around the rad roaches and to the
staircase.
It is separated by a door, so you're able to get into the stairwell.
Up the stairs.
Marvin, would you mind leading and just making sure there's no crazy booby traps on the stairs
here?
I feel like you have a.
Absolutely.
Okay.
There are four flights of, or there are four floors to the building and the staircase goes
all the way to the top.
I want to find the one that's labeled R and D. Wouldn't they have labels at the each stairwell?
Skunkworks.
Second floor says offices.
The third floor says animal lab and the fourth floor says main lab.
I vote we skip the second one.
I mean the third one.
We should not go to the animal labs.
No.
Being as there were technically five animals downstairs that could have come from the third
floor, and there may be more.
So the main lab then?
I would do the office floor first.
Typically labs are locked.
Offices have keys.
Oh, fair enough.
These are all good points.
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's see what we can uncover here in the office floor.
I go, I lead the way with my trusty baseball bat at my side.
What do you do?
Walk me through it.
We're on the office floor.
Just gonna go maybe check and see if there's like a corner office, like a bosses, like
where a boss, like a bigger, the biggest office and see if there's anything in there worth
investigating.
Or if there's any terminals.
Which one has the best of you?
If there's any working computers.
Can I have the dice please?
What's your defense Marvin?
My health is eight.
Defense one.
Okay.
As you go through the door of the second floor into the offices, you are rocked by an explosion.
As a bottle cap mine goes off and deals three damage to your left leg.
I have no legs.
Yes, but you do on there.
What would be considered your left leg?
His probably his left thruster.
Okay.
So you have a damage reduction of anything for that for physical?
Two.
Okay.
So you take one damage as that mine goes off.
And now in front of you is a floor filled with offices.
So Mr. Handy, are you still going to go look for a corner office?
Yes.
Okay.
What's everybody else doing?
As soon as old tall man hears the bomb go off, he looks at the other two and goes, robots
dead.
I'm sure it was not that bad.
Marvin, Marvin, are you all right over there?
I am okay.
I found money came at me very fast.
I think when the bomb went off, I kind of leaned up against the door to the stairs so
that if the radroach is noticed, maybe they don't just come flying in.
Okay.
I'm going to continue searching.
I'm more looking around like the walls just to see if like there's any old school like
key boxes or anything.
Yeah.
You know, those like lock boxes on the walls, the whole keys to see if there's like anything
like that that I can find or like if there's any, I know a lot of places will just print
out all the passwords and everything and just put the paper on the wall so everyone can
see it.
You know, okay.
See if I find anything like that.
Yeah.
So is everybody just scavenging around these offices?
Yeah.
Well, Tom, man's going to go up and start looking behind picture frames and opening desk
drawers.
Okay.
Everybody give me an intelligence.
I feel like we use intelligence and survival so often.
I'd like to do something else, but but we're scavenging, but we're scavenging.
So everybody give me intelligence and survival.
Sweet.
No, I have two failures, but I wasn't really looking that hard.
I have a critical success.
Okay.
Awesome.
I have one success.
If Derek crit, do I flip over a action?
Yes, for him.
So Augusta and Gullio, you guys don't find jack shit for Marvin and Old Thulman.
Old Thulman, you do find a key stashed away in some obscure desk drawer.
And with that, you find 25 energy ammo.
Marvin, you find a hundred caps weighing in a pile.
How many caps did I find from the bottle cap mine just picking them up off the ground?
Five.
Well, are we ready to go up to the labs?
Yeah, I think we should continue up.
We should definitely check the hallway before we get too crazy on that door to make sure
none of those roaches heard that explosion.
Marvin, you're sure you're okay?
There's a little kind of just like a exposed chunk of wire out of the thruster, but all
in all, I'm okay.
Is there a spot where I can look out to see where the death clause?
Yeah, sure.
There's some windows up here.
You find one that's not been boarded up.
All right.
So perception and survival.
Perception and survival.
Sure.
Ooh, is that a natural one?
It's a natural one and a seven, which both of them are successes and one's a critical
success.
Okay.
So flip over your sixth action point.
Old Thulman, while you're scouring, looking around the desert out through the window,
not too far off from the lab, you see a kind of rocky outcropping buried into a hill and
you see the death claw making its way back inside what essentially looks like a cave.
It's about, you know, maybe 400 yards away.
Which direction just for continuity sake?
We'll say north.
So it's like north of the lab.
Got it.
All right.
Looks like we're in the clear from the death claw guys.
It went back to its thing.
We just don't go north of here.
I'll give you this too.
You see half buried in the sand, something very large and very shiny out near that rocky
outcropping that it just went into.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah.
I'm ready to go out that door.
Okay.
You guys head back to the staircase and you make your way up to the third floor.
You actively hear noise coming from that third floor, like shit getting knocked over, ran
through.
There's definitely...
Third floor is the animal lab?
Yes.
Okay.
You move up, continue moving to the fourth floor.
Oh, I'm not going to the animal lab.
You move up and that door is the only one that has a large lock on it and the door is
locked.
I don't tell anybody I found the key.
You fucking dick.
Well, it does seem that we're going to have to get through this.
Marvin, do you have a lock pick or what kind of a lock is this?
Is this something we can just slam with a sledgehammer?
I have some bobby pins.
Yeah, it's kind of like a regular lock.
It doesn't seem like it could be unlocked with a key.
You could attempt to attack it and knock it down.
Nobody says you can't.
At least give it a shot.
I do like the bobby pin idea.
Marvin, is it within your capabilities to try forcing the lock on this?
Yes.
What?
Yeah.
You want to try to do that, buddy?
What would that be?
Lock pick and lock?
Agility?
I think it would be intelligence.
Well, the lock pick says perception next to it.
Okay, sure.
Perception and lock picking.
I've got a three in lock picking apparently, I just realized.
So I'm going to give that a shot after.
So that was a 12 and a natural one.
Heck yes.
You unlocked this door with the bobby pin.
Good job, Marvin.
You certainly are the handy-ist.
I clang the robot on the back, making a big metal clanging sound.
Good job.
Use this next time and I hand him the key.
I'm definitely going to.
I put the key in the lock and lock it.
And then throw it down the stairwell.
Feed it to the death claw.
Augusta is definitely going to draw her pistol at this point between the noises on the animal
floor and this door being locked.
Let's just, you know, she doesn't want any surprises.
You see Marvin's arms kind of turns a little bit and orients himself a little to the other
side in the arm in front of him now is there's just like a light blue flame coming out of
the tip of the flamer.
Okay.
You guys head in.
I mean, you know, stealthily.
Okay.
Who's peeking through the door?
I'll give it a go.
Augusta, give me an perception and a survival role.
No, I mean, I know, but it did not work.
Yeah, let's go ahead and use these a lock point there.
A locker and action point.
Oh, action point.
Okay.
I don't have my luck points.
That's right.
We have luck points too.
Your luck points are just how many whatever your luck score is.
So on the front you have a.
Okay, gotcha.
And so that your luck points will go down as you use them.
Your score doesn't that would they don't coincide.
So don't worry about decreasing your luck.
What are the situations that we would use a lock point for?
If you kind of want to just find something you're like, man, I really could.
Uh, Guli used it last time to say, okay, I'm going to see if I can find like a can of sugar
or something like that.
But it's pretty much like I really need to and want this item or to do this thing.
You know, can I learn a lock point?
Gotcha.
Crazy shot or something.
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
So did you know you still did not?
Okay.
Yeah, all seems good.
All right.
All clear, guys.
I wish you'd be able to head right in here.
Lead the way.
I already am.
Can I go in second with also a watchful eye?
Yeah, you want to look around too?
I do.
What did you say?
Perception and survival.
Okay, that's an eight.
Survival is tagged for me.
I have one success out of the corner of your eye.
You see something floating around this lab.
There's a lot of shelves and a lot of shit in here.
A lot of things have been kind of broken, but also it's very clean up here.
Unlike the rest of the building has been almost.
And out of the corner of your eye, you catch a glimpse of something that looks just like
Marvin.
I'm going to tap Augusta on the shoulder and point to it so that she sees it too.
And yeah, I guess that nods their understanding of, oh, yep, acknowledgement.
There's something over there.
I'm going to assume we know each other long enough that we have little hand signals for
when we need to be really quiet.
I'm going to hand signal like, should we send Marvin in?
Yeah, I think that wouldn't be the worst idea.
I think it'd be better than a bunch of people walking in.
I'm also sign languaging that too.
I'm not talking out loud.
I'm going to kind of duck behind something to try to remain unseen and motion to Marvin
like same idea.
Like, hey, there's something over there.
Okay, Marvin, are you coming in third?
I am.
With this new information, what does Marvin do?
I go over to the robot, the fellow robot.
On your way over, you definitely recognize that although it looks like a Mr. Handy, it
is way beefier than you.
And as soon as it sees you, it says intruder alert, intruder alert, someone is here.
I am not an intruder.
You are an intruder.
I am.
As you are intruding.
Hello, I am a fellow late model Mr. Handy.
I am here to help and be of aid.
Can I try to sneak around and get behind it?
Yeah, sure.
Give me an agility and sneak.
You are no help to Colonel Gutsy.
Oh, you're Colonel Gutsy.
You're the one we've been sent here to help.
We?
Who's we?
There's other Mr. Handies elsewhere.
There's a death claw den and we need a Colonel Gutsy to help destroy the death claw.
All right, I'm going to give you a chance here with charisma and speech.
As Marvin was doing that, Augusta was just staring at him, just like kind of slowly nodding
and like a little thumbs up like, yes, yeah, keep doing that.
Awesome.
So you successfully snuck behind the Colonel Gutsy.
I did.
I'm not.
I don't really remember what the grognak, the barbarian mag is, but it says I get a
one successful melee attack.
So I'm just going to wait it out.
And if Marvin fails this charisma check, I'm going to attack it.
Don't you fucking dare.
Old tall man is waiting for this to go.
Are you still in the stairwell?
I'm still behind the door waiting for it because I've listened to all this.
Yeah, huge.
And I'm waiting, knowing what a Mr. Gutsy is, I'm just waiting for it to destroy.
All right, Marvin, I'm going to need two successful rolls.
Would you say charisma and speech?
Yeah, speech is tagged.
I got a three on that.
That is it.
So I will need two successes.
Action point that one.
I mean, you still you still leave it.
You don't reroll it.
So you still got a 20.
It's a nine.
So that works.
So you got a 20 and a nine and spend an action point.
And I got a two.
OK, so you got two successes and a critical failure and a critical success and a critical
success.
OK, so take success, a critical success and a critical failure.
OK, take an action point back and I will give you that the two crits to cancel each other
out so he does not attack you on site.
Death clause.
You will help me then.
Let's go with the reinforcements right now.
You must protect the lab.
You must lead the way.
The reinforcements are.
Right behind you.
I can see three hundred and sixty degrees.
There are no reinforcements behind me.
They will be as soon as we as soon as we leave.
Let's go.
Let us go.
Lead the way, Squire.
I am no squire.
You must lead the way and let's go now.
And we and just after you out the door.
Do you follow him?
I follow him like to the door and like hopefully I'm going to.
I want him to leave and like go start going down the stairs and tall man to come in and
then we just shut and lock the door.
Well tall man, if you're going to stay hidden, I'm going to need some sort of sneak roll
as he's coming through the door that you were on the other side of.
So give me your huge old tall man is going to do his best to hide behind the dead potted
plant and the door as it opens.
OK.
Yeah, man, that sounds cool.
Give me a.
Oh boy.
What do you think?
Intelligence.
Now, you know what?
Fuck it.
Give me a walk and sneak intelligence is higher than well, you know, hide behind the potted
plant that that's that's right there.
That's hoping that the computerized robot with a 360 vision does not see.
Oh, flip on them.
I'm going with a different dice.
Yes, that's a success.
OK, I'll I'll give it to you.
You know what?
I'm going to make you burn a lock point there to find the plant.
That's fine.
Luckily, there was like a really lazy janitor here that replaced a lot of the plants with
some like plastic ones who didn't have to do as much watering.
And you get the most the biggest, most planty plant fake plant.
And Colonel Gutsy goes out the door, but he does turn and he says, soldier, what is your
name?
My name is Mr. Handy.
Mr. Handy, let us go right behind you.
Let's go.
He begins to float down the stairs.
And I grab a tug on as soon as he's out of sight.
I'm going to slip into the door and slip into the room and shut the door.
OK, and lock it with a key.
Lock it with the key.
All right, all four of you are in the main lab.
Should we be concerned about reinforcements?
He seemed to know that they were there.
That was a lie.
I told him.
OK, well, he's also alerting people that were here.
So somebody's got to be here, right?
I can't imagine there actually is something here.
I think that's just old protocol kicking in.
It sounds more like the automated response.
I am, however, concerned.
I'm sure you noticed as it floated by us, that is way beefier than it should be.
And I'm a little...
That door might not hold up much longer.
We should probably just try to reinforce it as a precaution.
It will be back.
I'm sorry.
It will be back.
That's from this old movie we used to watch in the vault.
Well, all right.
Dead air.
Old tall man is going to start looking for stuff up here, not necessarily to bar the
door.
He's more in a hurry than...
Yeah, I think we should more...
Than fortify, yeah.
I will look around also.
Give me a group scavenge check.
So that'd be intelligence and survival.
I have two successes.
I have one success and a critical success.
Oh, boy.
All right, so you guys are up to...
I have a critical success and a failure.
Okay.
I have a critical success and a failure.
All right, flip over all the action points.
Hell yeah.
Yeah.
It's as if all four of you converge on the same desk at the same time after looking around,
wondering why you couldn't find what you were looking for before.
But sitting on a pedestal in the desk in the middle of the room is a Tesla rifle.
Holy shit.
Well, howdy.
Would you look at that.
This is an energy weapon.
It does five damage.
It does have the arcing feature, so it will hit multiple enemies that are near each other
at once.
It's got a fire rate of two and a medium distance.
It is two handed, however, so keep that in mind.
All man hands his rifle to Gullia and then reaches for the Tesla cannon.
Not Tesla cannon.
Tesla rifle.
Sorry.
They are two distinct things.
Yes.
I already have a rifle.
Do you want to hand it to somebody else?
I don't know who else needs a rifle.
Augusta, what do you got?
Can I handle this thing?
It seems like it's rather large.
He's handing you his old rifle.
He's going to take the Tesla.
I'm going to take the Tesla.
Hell yeah, I'll take that rifle.
It's a pipe rifle and I have seven rounds for it.
Sweet.
What is the range on that?
It is close.
It's close range.
Yeah.
Okay.
And rate?
Two.
Hell yeah.
And?
Weight is three.
Damage is three.
I forgot what TN means, but it's six.
That's toughness, but we're not tracking.
Okay.
I'm going to take the Tesla.
It takes fusion cells, right?
The energy weapon cells.
Energy ammo.
It takes energy ammo, yeah.
And it does specifically take a certain type of fusion reactor cell kind of thing, but
there is one in it.
As you're all handing each other weapons and exchanging them and getting a feel for your
new rifle, you hear a banging at that door that you barricaded.
Mr. Handy, it is time to go.
Where have you been?
The door is locked.
I will remedy this.
And you hear his buzzsaw start cutting through part of the door.
I'm going to say, Mr. Handy, maybe you should just lead him out.
He'll take a left.
We'll take a right.
We'll follow behind you.
Yeah.
Head towards the death clause with him.
I am going to assume that because he is programmed to protect this office, that there has to
be some sort of fail safe computer or something to change programming or at least like make,
you know, at least we could be identify ourselves as friends and noncombatants.
I'd like to burn a luck point to try and find like that type of protocol.
Terminal.
Okay.
Otherwise, it would be that I have the cable that I can use on Mr. Handy would assume it
would work on that.
And I need to try to sneak up behind it, plug in and then just say that we're, you know,
just to see that we're friends.
All right.
Here's what I'll give you because you're going to burn a luck point.
You do find a terminal that does seem to have power on it.
There are several entries that you could look into.
The first one says override roof access?
The second is Colonel Gutsy schematic.
And then the third would be engage alarms.
Boy.
I was going for the Colonel, but now I'm awfully curious about this roof access thing.
I wonder what's up on the roof.
Our immediate problem is the Colonel.
Yeah.
I'm going to pull up those schematics.
Okay.
Upon doing so, give me an intelligence and science role.
One success, please.
That is a success and it's a critical because I rolled below a three.
Awesome.
So you get a lot of information really quickly, but you do see that the access port to plug
into is on the bottom of the Colonel Gutsy.
Like his crotch area.
Yeah.
Where the crotch of the robot would be kind of thruster adjacent.
Yes.
Right near the thruster.
All right, guys.
It looks like I can hack in through the port located in the bottom front section.
I think I'm going to look around and see if there's anything tall.
I think that we should stack various items kind of on both sides of the door.
When he eventually breaks through, we will topple these onto him, trying to pin him temporarily.
Will I plug in and just force the introduction that we are friends?
Is that cool with you, Marvin?
Would that upset you if we just made it so that we're friends?
That seems okay.
Don't harm a robot.
I'm not looking to harm him with the pinning as far as damage.
I'm just looking to hold him still long enough so that we can change his temperament.
I think that's acceptable.
Awesome.
Thank you, Marvin.
All right.
Let's stack these as quickly as possible because that scary robot, I feel, will be in here
in no time.
Tallman, let's move some desks again.
Yeah.
Old Tallman is going to help move the stuff in the way, but he's also going to prepare
for this to go pretty south.
You're just sitting there looking at your shiny new laser gun.
Exactly.
He's going to move a desk over to the door for them, and then he's going to prop himself
behind something and take aim at the doorway.
My other thought was, is Tallman strong enough to strong arm this thing if that has to be
the way we pin it?
Quite possibly.
There's a chance that when he comes in, I could just start either engage or grapple
him for long enough for you to just pop in.
You just have to come up from behind him and plug a cable in.
I think you and I are the strongest with eight and nine.
Yeah, I'll stand there in front of the door to do what I can, but I also know he's got
what, a flamethrower and a laser rifle attached to him?
That's what I have.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's got a laser rifle, a buzz saw, and a flamethrower.
I need to upgrade.
Yeah, then old Tallman is going to stand there with his sledgehammer and wait to see what
he needs to do to keep this thing engaged.
Okay.
I'll say that I'm not going to ask for any checks to move stuff around.
You guys have already proved to be pretty proficient in there and you're not trying
to sneak.
It doesn't take long for Colonel Gutsy to cut through the lock on the door and then
he pushes it in with his whole body and enters the room.
Thank you.
That was scary.
This place has a mind of its own, it seems.
You two are doing the pushing?
Augusta and Gulea?
I was thinking-
No, Augusta's got to come up.
Augusta's-
Yeah, Augusta's hiding right now.
Tallman and Gulea would be doing the pushing.
Yeah.
Push on the desk.
Okay.
We're going to do something different then.
We're going to go straight strength checks and he's going to contest them against the
two of you.
I got a crit and a five.
I succeeded on both.
Wait, there's crits for strength?
Well, isn't that just if we get a one?
Oh, you got a one?
I got a one and a five and they're both under a six.
I got a four and a nine and they're both under a nine.
Fantastic.
Two failures.
Yeah, you guys are able to push this stuff on top of him and he seems very agitated when
this happens and makes a large robot-wearing noise.
But for momentarily, he is pinned underneath.
Excuse me, Colonel Mustard, I'm just going to plug in real quick.
It's another reference from the vault.
Okay, intelligence and science, please.
I needed to get under a 12.
I got a 10 and a 16.
So one success.
One success.
Yeah, let's burn that action point and try to...
You can burn two more to get another.
Oh, wait.
No, I needed a 12 and I got a 12.
Okay, that's two successes.
That's exactly what we were looking for.
You are able to hack into this Colonel Gutsy and reprogram it enough to where it recognizes
you all as allies.
Awesome.
As it comes out from underneath the debris.
Oh, you are all the backup.
Perfect.
It's time to go attack the death clause that menaced the lab.
After you, Colonel.
Well, I don't know if we should do that.
Maybe we should go to the roof to get a full vantage point and really plan our path.
The roof has been off limits of late.
Why?
Due to visitors, unexpected and unwanted.
Oh.
Well, as far as I'm aware, with our recent experience in New Springfield, I feel like
the main people that could get on the roof would be the Brotherhood.
So maybe we don't stir that bee nest.
If it makes any difference.
There looks to be a shiny thing, roughly human sized, stuck out in the grass or out in the
sand.
So there might not actually be anyone left alive on the roof.
Colonel, I think that we should check the roof anyway.
You do have backup, so I feel that we would be able to safely navigate any sort of intrusion.
You are the backup.
Which means you take point.
The death clause are not on the roof.
They could be.
If we go to the roof and use our superior robotic vision and get a better lay of the
land, maybe we can see the weakness of the death claw and its lair.
And we can eradicate any non terrestrials that were left up on the roof.
Exactly.
To the roof.
Good idea.
Non terrestrials.
Like birds and shit.
That's not a non terrestrial, but.
I feel like an alien.
You hear the door.
It's not like I'm an alien.
You hear the door unlock on the other side of the room and Colonel Gutsy heads towards
the stairwell to the roof.
I feel very comfortable in my programming skills, so I'm just going to get right in
line.
Follow them up.
I'm going to bring up the rear.
All of you head up to the roof.
It is a roof.
It's mostly bare.
There is a gigantic, like, atom looking fucking statue up there.
It looks like an atom.
And Colonel Gutsy immediately heads over to the side of the roof to look over the edge
and look for the death claw nest.
Mr. Handy, where is the death claws?
I go and look and point to where the sound came from and where Tallman said the lair
was towards the north.
I do see an anomaly out in the desert.
We must head there now.
All right, Colonel.
I think that sounds good to us.
Lead the way.
Just want to do a quick.
Yeah, that sounds good.
I think someone's going to take a quick look around while they were looking at the, to
see what he was talking about non terrestrials.
Investigate the rooftop.
Everybody investigating?
Yep.
Sure.
And we're all here.
Okay, I'm going to need an intelligence and survival role.
I will need four successes from the group.
I have one success.
So my thought with the Colonel is we could get him off the monster thing and get him
to come help us with the vault thing.
Okay, we have enough successes.
I have one success and a critical success.
Nice.
Excellent.
So you guys got four?
Yep.
Five.
I think we got five.
We got five successes.
Taking action point back.
Who rolled the lowest?
I got a two and a three.
Four.
Mike did.
Yeah, Mike did.
Not me.
Marvin did.
Come on, space gun.
You do find a gun that looks nothing like anything that you have found on earth.
You search your databases and you don't recognize the technology at all.
Or the strange little gray being that is half decomposed laying next to it.
And Colonel Gutsy goes, that is the non-terrestrial.
Did you eliminate him or is this just, did he just simply die up here?
I eliminated him.
Like I eliminate all threats.
Good job.
I take the gun.
Holy shit.
I look at Augusta and I go, this isn't one of yours, is it?
I, I, I, I.
The vault dealers get weird down there.
My, I don't, I don't know.
I don't, I'm having a hard, I understand that there are some creatures out there who
are how they are because of radiation.
This.
I think this creature was from out there.
I thought this was all kind of make-em-ups from some of the films we watched in the vault.
I have to sit down for a second.
Well, don't sit too long.
I think we should get tracking.
This day is almost over.
We only got six days left.
Yeah.
Augusta's mind is just kind of reeling right now with the idea of, oh, it's not just
radiated monsters and fellow humans.
Now there are extra terrestrial life forms that apparently are against this as well.
And that's just not something that was taught at the vault.
This is a brand new piece of information.
It's kind of breaking her brain a little bit.
And the idea that everyone else is so chill about it is also kind of freaking her out
a little bit.
Okay.
So this is an alien atomizer.
It does six damage.
It is energy.
It has the tag of vicious.
It's got a firing rate of three.
It is close range.
Hey, Augusta, do you think you could swap out one of his arms with this thing?
Yeah, I'm sure we could.
I can hold it with the pincer arm.
Yes, but you can't fire it with the pincer arm.
It's a pincher.
Okay.
I mean, you'd have the worst aim ever.
You'd be shooting sideways.
But yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Yeah, let's actually attaching it to you.
We'll stop at the lab real quick.
I noticed some equipment down there that I'm sure I could utilize to get this happening.
So Augusta heads back to the edge of the roof and he says, all right, gang, time to eradicate
the enemies.
All right.
We're just going to do a quick modification so we're more well armed with Mr. Hansi on
the way down and we're good to go.
Mr. Hansi.
That was it.
Andy.
Maybe with you, he's Hansi.
He doesn't have enough pincer arms to be Mr. Hansi.
He looks at all three of you, even though you don't know that because he just has 360
eyes and he addresses Mr. Handy.
Mr. Handy, it is time to aim for the bushes.
Ha ha.
And he just leaps off the edge.
We will meet you at the front.
Now, why would you say that?
We have no choice but to go out the front.
I thought we weren't fighting this monster.
Are we going to?
There might be a power armor over there.
Yeah, that seems risky.
I think with his extra armor and insane desire to destroy everything, we shouldn't have to
do much.
Well, all right.
I'm going to head down.
Yeah, let's try and catch up with him.
All right.
Let's head to the lab real quick, Marvin.
We'll get that on you in no time.
I'll stand guard while they do surgery.
Which arm do I want to give up?
Pincer, buzzsaw, or flamer?
I'd give up buzzsaw or flamer.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'll switch out the buzzsaw.
Okay.
I'm going to switch out the buzzsaw.
Yeah, I'll switch out the buzzsaw.
Actually the flamer, I don't know.
It's an energy ammo.
Replacing a burst spread gun for a laser gun.
It is entirely up to you.
Buzzsaw.
Do I have to roll for the...
Oh, definitely.
So to find the right parts, I'm going to need somebody to spend a luck point.
Either one of you can.
I got it.
I am the one looking.
Okay.
And then to successfully do it, I'm going to need three successes.
And this is for...
Oh, science and intelligence.
All right.
I needed a...
I needed a 12.
I got a 15 and a 7.
So one success.
One success.
I'm going to flip two of those.
So flip over three action points until we roll two more die.
Five and a one.
So actually a double crit because it's a one crit and I also have the tag in it.
Okay.
So flip two of those action points back over.
Marvin, now instead of a buzzsaw, you do have an alien atomizer arm.
My first upgrade.
Thank you, Augusta.
You're welcome, Marvin.
Let's head down and find the Colonel.
We can go check out that shiny thing.
I do hope that Colonel Gutsy is okay from jumping from such a great height.
Yeah.
You can't do that, can you, Marvin?
I've never tried.
Let's not make it today the day to start that.
We'll just use the stairs.
They've proven.
Perhaps his thuster is upgraded.
You guys go back down the stairs to the bottom floor?
Definitely not jumping off the bill.
Okay.
You come...
I'm keeping my buzzsaw arm in my inventory.
You guys come through the first floor door and back into the Radroach infested lobby.
Let's get back through.
I'm going to need agility and sneak rolls.
I had a thought.
Do we want to set the alarm off here to draw the Deathclaw out of its thing?
Because it would draw him and Gutsy back into the building and then we could just leave.
At the same time, it would be a huge advantage to have him against the...
With us.
True.
That's if we want to actually kill it.
But I was just thinking if we just want to distract and grab whatever's there and leave.
Distractions have proven to be the best thing.
So I am not going to argue with that.
Just roll it around to see if it...
Thinking about it right before we leave.
Sorry.
And Ronnie needs...
Yes.
I need a group success of three to get through these Radroaches.
Agility and survival, you said?
I said agility and sneak.
I failed both.
One success.
I failed miserably.
One success.
Not a crit fail, but still not great.
Okay.
You guys fail as a group.
And as you're sneaking through, all five of these Radroaches begin to spread their wings
and descend on the group.
You have two choices.
You can flee or you can run.
You can flee or you can fight.
I say we just run.
Yeah, I'm going to use that sprint turn option and get outside as fast as possible.
I think me and old Talman run first so we can knock down the desks that we put there
in the first place.
Oh, they shouldn't be there anymore, should they?
No, they're still there.
Nothing ever came through.
Oh, right.
Oh, shit.
Is there a window next to there?
So all the windows are boarded up.
Yeah, I'm just thinking, as I said at first, the boarded window might be easier to go through
than the three feet of desk.
It's up to you guys.
Old Talman is going to make a sprint for the most damaged looking window and try and throw
himself, well, not throw, but you know, cannonball through it to make an opening.
Okay.
Give me a strength and an athletics roll.
I'll try to bust through this window, old Talman.
I need two successes.
This is either going to be epic or- 13 and a seven, both our successes.
You smash through the window, creating a hole for everybody else.
And as the light pours into the lobby, the Radroaches are a bit taken aback and they
scatter further away from the light, having been in this lobby for quite some time.
And the other three of you can jump out the window.
You hear in the distance, oh, come on, as he runs towards Mr. Gunsey.
When you get outside actually, and all four of you are out there, you see that Colonel
Gutsy is sputtering and sparking on the ground after falling from an incredibly high height.
It turns out his thruster was not good enough to do what he anticipated and he is laying
mostly damaged outside of the Tesla lab.
Well, Marvin, should we gather some spare parts?
I was thinking the same thing.
Marvin here could use a full upgrade while Gulea and I go check out this shiny thing
without waking up that death claw.
That sounds like an excellent option.
They always say split the party.
Is Mr. or Colonel Gutsy still- He's still alive.
How much does it look like it's going to take to dismantle him?
To knock his block off.
I mean, it's definitely something that you could do.
He's pretty incapacitated.
I'll leave it up to you if you want.
What does Marvin think it is?
Shut him off and- Wouldn't it make more sense to just plug them into each other and transfer-
Oh wait, no, we don't want to transfer consciousness.
No, we want physical pieces, not consciousness.
Yeah.
I would say your best bet to avoid going nuts would just be power him down and pretend like
you're going to make repairs.
Yeah, don't forget, Marvin is very against other robots getting hurt by-
Oh, that was why I asked, hey, do you want some upgrades?
Why don't we take Marvin with us and you strip-
Mr. Handy, Mr. Gutsy, time to help.
We will help you, Colonel Gutsy.
Good, give me your parts so I can repair.
You wait here.
We'll be back.
We're going to go check out the death claw.
We will be back and we will repair you.
The Vault Dweller is very good with repair.
Charisma and speech.
Are me and Tom already walking away?
It's up to you guys.
I would think so, but if he's going to have an issue, I'd try and bring him with us.
It's one failure.
I'm going to burn an action point.
Two successes.
Okay.
Colonel Gutsy doesn't respond and he just lays on the ground, sputtering.
We will be back.
Do you want to say a prayer or something before you go, Marvin?
Because I don't think your friend's going to make it.
I can do a lot of repairs, but he's pretty far gone.
Robots do not believe in a higher power.
Okay.
So if you were to come back-
But if there was one, I wanted to help Colonel Gutsy through you.
Alright.
Fair enough, Marvin.
Marvin, we need you.
Okay.
Then the four of you head towards the death claw lair?
Yeah.
Okay.
Are you going to-
I'm not staying behind.
You're not staying behind?
I will respect Marvin's wishes.
I'm not going to do anything behind his back where I don't want to-
No, you should- if the three of us go, you could turn them off and start breaking them
down.
Yeah, but you're going to know.
Marvin has said, don't do that.
And Marvin is going to be like, hmm, boy, I recognize that.
I mean, you're a robot.
You're going to be like, I know where those robot parts came from.
As far as Augusta is concerned, they will be honoring the wishes of Marvin.
Okay.
That works.
All four of us head towards the death claw.
You guys make it a couple hundred yards as you crest over a small dune.
And you can see the rocky outcropping ahead, still another 200 yards off.
And outside of it is the largest creature that most of you have ever seen.
And let's see, it would be Mr. Handy would probably have the most information.
It's alive?
Oh, it is alive.
Yes, definitely.
Is it the silver claw thing?
The death claw?
Yeah, but that's farther out.
Are we near that armor?
The armor is right outside the rocky outcropping.
They're close to each other.
So it's shining.
It is gleaming in the sunlight, but it is near the entrance of the cave where you saw
the death claw go into.
And the death claw is outside of the cave.
And it is huge.
So we're definitely going to attract it if we go to look at that.
Can I use my Pip-Boy to see if I get any sort of readings from this metallic object?
The power armor still has power.
You may be able to see on your Pip-Boy as like a radar blips from its sensors.
That's what I'm looking for.
I'm going to ping this thing and see if it pings back.
OK, so it does not ping back.
Whatever that is, it definitely seems to be out of commission.
Do we still want to investigate?
There's a chance that it's not going to.
I don't know.
At this point, I'm not sure what it is, but it's not pinging back.
Mr. Handy, give me a perception and survival roll.
I got one success.
OK, going back into your archival data, see that there is something unique about this
death claw that you're seeing outside of the cave.
It is not a regular death claw.
It is, in fact, larger and has more exaggerated features.
It may be, although difficult to tell exactly from this distance, a death claw matriarch,
which you know would lead a pack of death claws, or an alpha death claw.
You're not entirely sure.
I relay that to the group.
My thought at this point is to go set the alarm off at the building and hopefully draw
them out of the cave.
I agree.
Even if it's just.
Yeah.
I mean, I would even volunteer for that because one of the human sized, if it's power armor,
only one of you two can wear it.
Yeah, I think it's if we are to move forward in this direction, we cannot attempt a straight
on assault.
We need to do a distraction.
All right, I think we should go back to your first plan, tall man, and set off that alarm
because this seems scary.
I should take Marvin.
Marvin, you want to come with me to the.
I think we should all go and hide.
I mean, where would we hide out here?
It's a big flat desert.
My thought was for you two to find hide behind the.
Oh, the rock.
The rocks.
OK.
And hopefully they would come out towards the sound and ignore the random smell and
come out towards the blaring siren.
And it'd be easier for one of us to sneak out of the building than it would be for us
to sneak in front of a death claw hive hide nest.
Yes.
Layer.
OK.
Yeah, I think that's a good idea.
I'm up for whatever.
I think that maybe this armor might not be worth the death claw match, but sure.
I remember in the show how that guy was super obsessed.
I remember getting that armor and it almost killed him when he couldn't get out of it.
I was just thinking about two days ago and when we came across the Brotherhood of Steel
and we got our asses ganked.
Yeah, I'm going to.
Marvin, would you mind scanning the nearby outcropping and just letting me know which
one would be the most concealed from that location of the cave opening?
Yes, I will check the perimeter.
Old tall man's going to head start heading back towards the building because you guys
can catch up faster than tall man can move.
Riley just made the scariest face I might have ever seen.
He's got a lot of damage dice in his hand.
Death claws are crazy, too, depending on what abilities they have.
As you're scanning, looking for the outcropping, everybody but Tallman, give me agility and
sneak.
I'm going to need three successes, one failure and one critical success.
OK, so that's two.
I have only failures.
I'm going to burn an AP and I have a success.
OK, so three successes.
As you're looking and scanning, although you can stay hidden, you do hear this death claw
let out a large roar as it does sense some sort of presence.
You see it begins to look around, knowing that there's something nearby and from the
cave comes another three death claws that are descending onto the desert.
If we're going to hide, we better hide.
That's definitely the plan.
Marvin, best spot.
Right there.
OK, awesome.
Right there.
Go right there.
We go there.
We go to the spot that he says is the best spot.
And then I chase after Tallman.
Hearing the death claw, Tallman picks up his pace a little bit.
Give me agility and survival roles, both Marvin and Old Tallman.
I'm going to burn an AP.
I have a success.
I got one success.
The two of you go making your way as fast as you can back to the Tesla lab.
And you can hear now that there are multiple.
Mr. Old Tallman, you wouldn't know that there are multiple death claws.
Yeah, you only hear the shriek.
Marvin, you see that they several of them have left the cave and are beginning to explore
the area.
And as you're making your way, you're about halfway to Old Tallman when one crests the
hill that you guys were just peeking over.
And although you do make it to the Tesla lab, you both make it in.
One of them definitely knows that you are here.
Good.
We want them to follow us.
You two make me a sneak and luck on this one, actually.
Good call.
That's not a good phase.
I got a success.
I got one success.
Critical failure.
I got a two and a 13, my two succeeds.
Augusta, sorry to say with your critical failure, it's going to negate your success.
And just a hundred yards away, one of the death claws spots you as you are hiding and
lets out a loud shriek and begins to run across the desert towards the two of you.
Can I shoot it with my hunting rifle?
Yeah, you can.
Otherwise I have a pipe wrench, a pipe gun.
I think that we should, I think we should spread out.
It's definitely coming over here.
We should split up to at least encourage the chance of one of us surviving because I have
a feeling one of us is, this isn't going to go well.
All right.
I'm going to sneak a little bit away from Augusta and then I'm going to try to hook
a baseball grenade away from us so it maybe goes that way towards the grenade instead
of just mauling Augusta in two seconds.
How is it closer to me or is it closer to the silver claw that's running this way?
It's closer to the death claw.
The death claw.
Definitely.
It's a few hundred yards away from you and like we'll say 25 yards outside of the cave
entrance.
I'm going to relocate.
So it's not just like I'm staying in this area.
It's obviously coming here.
So yeah, I guess try to find some vantage, some sort of vantage point.
Maybe there's a higher spot in the outcropping I can try to get up on.
Okay.
The two of you.
Guli Roberts, because you successfully made your sneak and didn't get seen, I'm going
to give you the ability to kind of skirt away from Augusta.
Augusta, from you.
Knowing that you were seen looking for a different vantage point, I am going to need, I'm going
to say agility and survival.
One success, one failure.
Yeah, I forgot.
Let's put a toughness at two.
So I'm going to burn a thingy my barber.
Okay.
No, it's a one success.
Can I hook my grenade?
Guli, as you watch this death claw taking off across the desert, seeing that Augusta
is trying to make some space from you and find, you know, up on a hill, get a little
bit of a height advantage on it, you know, have the high ground as some very old stories
would say.
Some learned Jedi would tell you.
Yes, from something that he saw in an old movie in the vault, knowing that if he has
the high ground, he has a better chance of survival.
You hook your grenade.
Make a.
You can use performance and explosives or agility and throwing.
Performance?
Perception?
Oh, yeah, perception.
Sorry.
Perception and explosives or what?
Agility and throwing.
I'm going to go with perception and explosives because that's an eight and that's higher.
Okay.
You'll need at least two successes to hit it.
I got two successes.
Okay.
So now you can roll damage.
Hit those five little blonde guys.
Okay, let's see it.
I got two guys and two blanks.
Okay, so that's two successes.
But if I have five of those, shouldn't I roll another dice?
Yes, please do.
Okay.
Three little guys and two blanks.
Okay.
The baseball grenade explodes and you see that the death claw does get hit by that explosion.
However, you also see that now several of the death claws are looking your way and moving
closer.
The death claw for Augusta unfortunately does not stop.
Oh.
So roll initiative, Augusta.
I tried to slow him down.
Did you hear that?
Actually you don't roll initiative.
It's just who has the higher initiative.
Did you hear that explosion?
Something might be going wrong with them over there, Tallman.
You head back.
You are both aware too that you were seen and there are.
Are they giving chase on us?
One of them.
I was just, yeah, but I was still thinking if you head back, I have a plan for inside
of this.
I'm just waiting for.
Waiting for everyone else to die.
No, waiting for Riley to just cut to our scene.
Okay.
Yeah.
Whenever, whenever they.
Yeah.
So let's do this.
The death clause initiative is 15.
Augusta, what's yours?
My initiative is 11.
Okay.
So the death claw is going to go first.
And as you see it raise its gigantic claw, we jumped to Marvin and old Tallman who have
just gotten set back inside the Tesla lab.
And that's going to do it for today's episode.
So until next time, we will see you next next Tuesday.
Tales from the Crit is part of the Wolfbeard Games podcast network.
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Feeling dumb?
Drink Smartle.
Oh, I love it.
Yeah, I think another handy.
This portion of Tales from the Crit is brought to you by water and coffee.
Today's letter is F for fluids.
We're having a hard time with math today.
I guess so.
I don't like it.
Very difficult.