To all pilots and attached personnel in the pilot
division, this is Nyla Westedge. I have been
asked by Director Germain to re -brief all of
you on some critical intelligence. Recently,
30 % of you failed our informational quiz regarding
the Clusterist high -level military structure,
and needless to say, this is unacceptable. Currently,
the leader of the Clusterists is a woman by the
name of Aji Menta. Overall, she involves herself
with propaganda directed at people outside of
the Clusterist rebellion. We are unsure how many
direct orders she actually gives out. Beneath
her are the big three leaders of the Rebellion.
The first, and perhaps the most well -known,
is General Pierce Sunspire. General Sunspire
was the former general in charge of the Peacekeeper
forces, and was also the squad leader for the
Moondevils. He defected to the Clusterists for
unknown reasons, and now runs their military
arm. Next is Welkin Dupp, the Preacher. Welkin
is the spiritual leader of the Clusterists, and
is in charge of their internal propaganda. He
used to be a pilot for the Sol Union, and we
know him to be an exceptional psychic. We also
believe him to be the pilot of the Virtue of
Faith. The final member of the main leadership
is the elusive Tyrell Crine. We know very little
about her, except that she originally brokered
the deal with the Corporate Council on Terra
Brea. Since then, she's been working behind the
scenes, presumably handling all acquisitions
and funding for the Clusterists on Terra Brea.
We believe her to be responsible for the advanced
technology the Clusterists have acquired. That
takes us to the Virtues. The Virtues are a group
of unusually powerful frames utilizing advanced
technology of unknown origin. Of the eight Virtues
we've encountered, we've successfully destroyed
three, though we've only destroyed one of them,
Martyrdom, in a straight -up battle, and it incurred
exceptionally heavy losses to our forces. The
five remaining Virtues are Sacrifice, Faith,
Duty, Attachment, and Retribution. We do not
advise any squad to fight these Virtues without
backup. Additional information on the Virtues
can be explored in the briefcase. and I have
made previously confidential material on them,
available to all personnel with Type E2 clearance
or higher. That will be all. Anticipate a mandatory
test on this information by the end of the week,
and I expect better results this time. Hey, welcome
back to All That You Know. My name is Colin,
and joining me today are... Brian. Hi, I'm Brian,
and I'll be playing Hex the Bureaucrat. Zach.
Hi, I'm Zach, and I'll be playing Geist the Ace.
Ewan. Hi, I'm Ewan. I am playing Loyal the Empath.
And Adam. Hi, I'm Adam. I'm playing Joseph the
Infiltrator. In your previous mission, you were
tasked with retrieving intel from a Clusterist
base in the East City and then destroying said
base. You discovered that a number of children
were employed at this base, sorting through scrap
when you infiltrated it. During this operation,
you had a brush with... Not a virtue, but a frame
created from the remnants of one, martyrdom.
This frame we called the King Returneth, and
it was awakened by a psychic emanation from Loyal
and went berserk. Many children died as a result
of this. We don't know exactly why they died,
but they did. And after a skirmish with what
we will call TKR, because it's a mouthful, and
it will be returning later. The skirmish with
TKR resulted in your friend Mahogany Cola almost
dying. And then after that happened, the TKR
seemingly fell apart and just returned to being
like a hunk of metal. Like it stopped bleeding,
which was concerning. And all that blood just
seemed to be oil. And the like weird red aura
around it disappeared. And then you were again
left with more questions than answers. And the
barrier between hallucination and reality seemed
especially thin. With the success of your mission,
you retrieved three out of the four possible
documents that were available to you. The first.
outlined a program to move Clusterists out of
Brea City into the Riverlands. A number of temporary
housing units promised more freedom, amenities,
and safety, and a note was left on it by Pierce
Sunspire, the kind of general for the Clusterists,
and it said, they have to think it's their idea.
The second document outlined the Clusterists
trading with an organization called Gold House
for a chemical weapon called Enzyme Omicron.
This was used against you at the refinery and
the refinery's staff. during your second mission.
It is very illegal and is, unsurprisingly to
anyone, a war crime. The third was a report about
the process of building a frame from the old
pieces of martyrdom. It detailed how clustrous
children had the best ability to determine which
parts were compatible with the martyrdom framework.
It also lists a number of concerns about the
psychic state of the children and how their behavior
was affected by this work. The fourth document
that you were not able to recover was a map which
likely outlined other clustrous cells in the
city and which was was what your mission originally
was to recover. Not saying you made a mistake,
but you didn't get them all. So we are going
to do downtime, but I'm going to debrief you
first. But prior to the debriefing, we're going
to try to keep a sort of chronological order.
So we're going to do the cheap healing you get
when you first get back to base first. It is
all right with me. So... The first thing we do
is each pilot can spend material to roll... Actually,
I need to reward you to do this, don't I? Fuck!
Okay, we're doing the reward first. So we're
going to need to roll dice on mission complete
equal to your target's tier plus your employer's
faction relationship. Your target's tier was...
Tier is one, so they're equal to you. So one
plus one. So you're going to roll 2d6. Hell yeah.
Who wants to do that? Not me. I'll do it. It's
too much pressure. You got this. You get six.
I mean, very decent. Yeah, they're the ones that
can be either type, right? Yes. And you gain
one personnel and material from democracy. And
then your squad, which you should open up the
squad Google sheet for. Yep. You're going to
earn rep, two rep plus one for each. So yeah,
two rep. Straight up. Wait, is rep called, wait,
no. No, it's just rep. Yay. Okay. And then now
each pilot checks to see if they furthered their
drive. None of you furthered your drive unless
you really think you did here. Nah. No. Okay.
And now you can spend material to roll a dice
to refresh quirks equal to the highest result.
So if you were in your mech and you are missing
quirks, you should probably do that. Okay, I'm
going to do that. How many dice do you roll?
The downtime mechanics always slip out of my
brain the minute I stop reading them. You get
one die for every material you spend. Also, if
you spend a material, you clear all level 1 harm
and damage. So for the rest of you, if you have
any level 1 harm or any level 1 damage, you should
spend one material just to get rid of those for
free. Okay, I'm doing that. I want to do that
too. Okay, so that's four. I mean, Hex and Joseph,
you shouldn't have any checked. Okay, yeah, I
don't have any. But it's probably because you
were just... We mixed using Foundry and the sheets,
and they just never got updated in the Foundry.
Okay, so just clear all the Xs? Yes, please.
Ewan, you're going to roll 1d6. This is what
you have to do to determine how many quirks you
clear. All right, I did get it fucked up. Yay!
So you get to uncheck all of those quirks, like
they are now in the Google Sheet. All back. Should
be good there. And then Joseph... Well, everyone
gets to do this. If you have any level one harm
or any level one damage, you can remove all of
those right now. Yay! Just as part of this action.
That's no more bruised melon. My melon. How do
I repair my armor? Your armor refreshes automatically
at the end of the mission. Okay, so Wyzak, you're
going to subtract four material or supply points.
Yes, I have already done it. Excellent. I'm keeping
a tally in the Discord. Let's do our debriefing
now. Now that we got that out of the way, I might
edit this in a different order, but let's do
the narrative debriefing. So you are all escorted
prior to being patched up really quickly and
getting a little bit of time to just hang out
to the briefing room, the one you got briefed
in in the first place. It's all of you and then
two members of the Bone Pickers who were not
eviscerated there. Nyla is there as well, looking
at some paperwork, as always, and she looks to
kind of the dusk lights, you three. And she pushes
a picture to the center of the table of TKR,
like, slumped over, as you saw, just like a pile
of scrap. And she says, tell me about this frame
you fought. I don't know what the hell happened
to it. I mean, it was just a slumped over pile
of garbage one second, and then the next. I don't
know. It was bleeding everywhere. It did something
to the children. I mean, I think some of them
died. You should be telling us. Do we have any
intel on this thing? Yeah, it seems incredibly
organic. She ignores your question, and she says,
What happened directly prior to this occurring?
Was there an inciting incident? She kind of looks
at you, Loyal, a little bit here with that question.
Yeah, I don't think he's said anything yet, but...
If prompted to say anything, he'd be like, the
experience was nothing that can be put into words.
I do not know what that was. He nods, and she
says, we've recovered its... the scrap metal,
and we are sending it to our partners at the
Vector Mine to analyze it because we don't have
the technology. Maybe we'll have some information
for you, maybe not. I've looked over the documents
you recovered. It's unfortunate we couldn't get
any information on other bases, but the documents
you did recover do seem quite productive. There's
a lot of follow -up here, a lot of opportunities.
Are you all okay? And she kind of, it feels a
little forced when she says that. What kind of
fucking question is that? I am okay. X just nods.
It's, there are, people, don't take this personally.
But squads at your level are not... You're not
trained to handle these sorts of things. And
I am required to check to see that you are doing
all right. And if you need therapy or a psychological
evaluation, we can engage that option. I'm not
familiar with any trainings that cover this.
Yes. Are you saying that we would suffer mental
damage from encountering something like this?
It's a possibility. Hmm. What about the video?
What, I mean, when we killed it, or when it stopped,
all that shit, it just vanished. There was blood
everywhere, and then the blood was gone. What
did it, like, what did it look like on cameras?
Yeah, fiddle to the little remote. And, like,
pulls down a little presentation screen. And
she feeds you some video from your cockpit, Geist.
And it looks like you are just, like, the machine
is moving. Like, absolutely. Like, you see it.
It devours that guy. I mean, like, tears him
apart. But there is no blood. It's, like, the
usual hydraulic fluid. I mean, maybe more than
usual, but not enough that it would be, like,
supernatural. And it's just... It's just a lot
less visceral than it felt in the moment. There's
a lot, there's no blood, it's just oil. Just
oil. Is this the first time me and Hex are seeing
this? It's very likely, yes. Okay, because I
forgot what we saw. I remember we saw something
from the hallway, but we didn't see everything,
and that's what I was curious about. You did
see the blood. Okay. When you were in the observation
tower, you saw it dripping blood before it awoke.
Okay, so I'm guessing Joseph's stepping forward
and really investigating this video. It's like
the first time he's seen this. He's just kind
of aghast by it. What was it then, a hallucination?
I'm not qualified to answer that. It could be
a hallucination. It could be a psychic phenomenon.
You know, you saw with Retribution. They have
access to things that we can't even wrap our
heads around. Wow. Geist and loyal. You fought
this. That is very impressive. Joseph's like
not even turning around. He's just like watching
the video. Good job. Guy shrugs. He doesn't even
see you do it. And we didn't get this on footage
or anything. You're positive there was no pilot
in that frame? Yeah. I mean, it was just hanging
there. We didn't see the inside of the cockpit,
did we? It picked up the body of someone else.
It picked up the body inside of itself. The cockpit
appeared empty, and then it pulled the body of
the pilot of one of the mechs it ate, and then
it shoved it in there, and I think I said, like,
raw meat. But the person was not alive. How the
fuck are they getting all this? Why now? They've
had this stuff. It's just been ramped up. Someone,
someone very connected to forces outside of the
Soul Union has a lot of money in this game. And
the only person who would know that is Tyrell
Crine, who is the money lady for the Clusterists.
We have had no trace of her for a long time.
Isn't the entire Clusterist ideology centered
around hating cooperation with aliens outside
forces? Yes. Maybe they're not aliens. Maybe
it's obfuscated from the Clustris. We don't know
what information is disseminated between them.
They, you know, they believe it. Who knows? You
know, we don't see Tyrell crying at church. She
could be lying to them, just spinning some narrative.
Or maybe they think it's just a price they have
to pay. We don't know. I wish I knew. So what
then? How long till they got an entire fleet
of these fucking things? How long can we keep
this up? All we know is that their numbers have
not grown substantially since the last batch
of virtues a few years ago showed up. Retribution
being one of them. We haven't seen any new ones,
only remodels of existing ones. They don't have
unlimited money. If that was true, we wouldn't
be here. We'd be dead. There are weapons out
there that would. They could wipe us off the
face of the earth in half a second if they got
some Uro technology. Someone is controlling what
they get. Someone's giving them a good deal on
specific things. I don't know why. Is there any
other pilots on base who have encountered something
like this? You can talk to the Moon Devils. They've
had spars with some of the other Virtues duty.
Briefly, they chased down Retribution a few years
ago, but a lot of the pilots who run into the
Virtues don't come back, especially the big two,
Sacrifice and Faith. Yes. Yes. You guys just
kind of fall silent. Sounds like we should go
have a conversation then. Yeah, she nods and
says, yeah, that'll be all. Thank you for your
hard work. Your next mission... Could be less
chaotic. We've spoken to September Bluth again.
He seems amicable. Thank you, Hex, for whatever
you did to bridge that relationship back. Hex
silently nods. Gonna give him a pat on the back.
I don't know what he did, but good job, buddy.
That's all. Dismissed. Joseph walks out. Okay,
we're gonna get back into the end of session
stuff. So, if a squad benefited from the mission,
I'm gonna do that. Were there civilian deaths?
I mean, were they combatants? The kids? We didn't
kill them. Let me pull up my ROE. It is debatable
who killed the kids. How is it debatable? Come
on, man. Because the kids dying did correspond
with TKR waking up, but it also corresponded
to Loyal blasting them with a huge amount of
psychic energy. Yeah, that was the inciting event
that our handler just asked us about and that
none of us answered. Yes. Does Sunliff know?
Yeah, he knows. We're all being very good friends
right now. Yeah, I was going to say, if they
put Geist in front of a tribunal about this,
they'll be like, if I want to kill clustrous
children, you'll know it. Give me one! Where
are they? Let me go through the rules of engagement.
Because I did outline them at the beginning of
the mission, and I just want to check on them.
Rules of engagement. Avoid collateral damage
to surrounding buildings. You did that. Avoid
any civilian casualties. That's a maybe. Prevent
destruction of any evidence inside the base.
Uh -oh. Come on, that's a perfect. No way. Okay,
so that's minus one trust with your faction.
I will give that to you. But you got plus one
for being completed. I think it's going to be
a net minus one for you. Because of the kids.
But that's trust. That's not your relationship.
Trust is the small part of that. So don't worry
about that too much right now. And then we get
to do entanglements before we get into XP, which
is going to be fun. It is going to be fun. Get
entangled. Okay, first figure. That's a minus
three. Roll on table A. How many dice do you
roll? I think equal to your tier. It's three
minus the squad's relationship level with their
pitch. Okay, you're gonna roll two dice. 2d6.
Cool. I think low is better for this one, so
I'll take it. And immediately roll boxcars, baby.
No, I got a, I think, yeah, three and a two,
which is either really bad or really good. Yeah.
I don't remember. Let me see. It depends on how
much it's like Blades in the Dark Entanglements,
where more dice is worse. Scramble. A squad you
have negative status with makes a move against
you or a friend, ally, or other associate. The
attack comes suddenly and with little warning,
prepare to fight or scatter and return after
the attackers have done their damage. If you
prepare to fight, skip the downtime phase and
immediately start a mission where the squad's
FOB is under attack. Take into consideration
the hidden secure and court. This is bad. After
the mission, follow the end of the mission process
as normal, including ting ones. If you scatter,
lose two squad upgrades. Oh my God. As the attackers
destroy large sections of your FOB. Wow, this
downtime I get cut short. So you're telling me
that we have to roll entanglements again after
we do this? That's insanely bad. Oh no! It's
not insanely bad for me. You're a hanger where
you are... Doing your downtime is being attacked.
Okay, I was wondering, I'm like, are we being
attacked right now? Yeah, they follow us down.
You are being attacked right now. I have a, uh,
something, I hear something in the other room.
That's just my dog. Yeah, not until the debriefing's
done, okay? My sonar, I'm getting some signals.
If you don't leave the debriefing room, it never
happens. Exactly. Yeah, so you either can choose
to fight, or you can lose two squad upgrades
immediately. Two squad upgrades. Like, we only
have three. No, no, I don't think anyone here
doesn't want to fight. I'm not going to let these
motherfuckers roll over me. I'm about to go crack
some heads. Secret session. Just came out of
nowhere. Yeah. I hate it. Congrats, Colin. Yeah.
I mean, like, do you want to do this, Colin?
It's your... We can hold off. No, I can... Give
me, like, 15 minutes. I can write up, like, a
framework, and it'll just be, like, a short thing.
It won't be, like, A whole fucking mission. Okay.
You say that, but I'm going to ask my enemy his
name, and then it's going to be my name. What's
his backstory? Who's his mom? There's a guard
in front of the door. I mean, because I got prep
for some stuff, so I'm not too worried about
it. I just need to figure out how it's going
to be done. From where? Oh, hey, wait. There's
like a rice ball place. Wait. You don't have
minus three with the Clusterous Insurgency. You
have a minus two. You're not high name enough
for it to be minus three. Oh, thank fucking God.
So, sorry about the heart attack. You gotta keep
that in the episode. Thank you. I might keep
some of it. We'll see. So what actually happens
is it is going to be debriefing, which is that
one of your superiors questions your squad. They
grill one of your pilots or a cohort. Make a
fortune roll using the squad's tier to see how
well they resist the pressure. Uh, on a one to
three, you're going to get level two harm, which
can be resisted by pilots as normal. Uh, four,
five is going to be minus two trust or bribe
the grunts to grab the person with one personnel
to avoid it entirely. Um, and I think level two
harm as in the fucking soul union peacekeepers
beat the shit out of us physically. Or they,
I don't fucking know. I mean, it could just be
like you are, they really bring up some like
painful shit. It could be emotional. Who knows?
Or can shake your belief if they really trust
you, you know? Okay. Well, we have a personnel
that we can just drop on this, so I say we do
that. Gotcha. Yeah, I think someone shows up
at the hangar, and it's like this person. It's
a shadowy figure of sorts, we'll say. Like a
nice business suit, really well -pressed, just
no identifying markings whatsoever. And they're
kind of just standing at the edge of the hangar,
and they send a couple of, like, shithead grunts
in to grab Loyal. Me? Yes, you. And, like, I
mean, how does this look like when you pay them
off? Because it's basically, you're robbing them.
You're being like, hey, Loyal's not around. Maybe,
you know, something like that. This seems like
a hex solution. This seems like the bureaucrat
angle. I don't know. That's what makes most sense
to me, I think. Like paying them off? Yeah, paying
them off or convincing them. Okay, I mean, I
don't know if I have the ability or if I had
to claim it where I could just quote bureaucrat
code. You don't have to roll anything, so you
can just do it. Alright, then Hex just sees Loyal
about to be carried off and... He basically does
just that. He doesn't really question who they
are, I'm assuming, since they probably have authority
on site, right? Yeah. Is that obvious? Okay.
There's a weird person in a suit standing at
the edge of the hangar, like, did not walk up,
too loyal, just like is Mad Dog and him. Just
pointed at them? Yeah. All right, then X goes
up to him and says, listen, I don't know what
your business is here, but... At least wait a
bit to get my friend. And then Hex gives whatever
currency we're pretending a supply is in this
situation. Is this to the grunt or to the authority
figure? Let's do the authority figure. Okay.
Let's try it. Let's try it. Yeah. Bald guy. He's
a bald guy. I think I'd say he's bald. Bald guy
in a really nice suit with no name tag. You hand
him like a stack of bills. And he looks down
at the bills and he looks back at you and he
gives you this big smile, like the most unsettlingly
genuine smile you've seen in your entire life.
And the worst part is that you feel it. You feel
this like childlike, playful joy, not only from
this person, but coming from within yourself.
It's like not like this overwhelming. It's it's
awful. Like you feel like you want like part
of you is just like, yeah, let's go play. Yeah,
let's go play. And he just takes it and he stuffs
it in his pocket and he just walks away. Like
just walks, like not even into like the office.
He just walks onto the tarmac and just like walks
straight to the boundary of the base. And like
if you see him, he just keeps walking, keeps
walking, kind of shrinks onto the horizon, like
leaves through a little gate in the side of the...
Of the base? No one questions him? No one stops
him? What the fuck, man? What is this man? Whoever
I'm standing... Whoever I'm floating next to,
I think that's gonna be Geist and Mirage at this
point. Like, is this an average human behavior
that I'm witnessing? I don't know if that's an
average human at all. I don't know what the fuck's
wrong with that guy. I don't like it. Can I follow
this guy? Or are we stopping this here? Hex walks
back to Loyal. You could try. Loyal, do you know
who that was? No. It seemed that they were coming
for you specifically, Loyal. Do you have any
idea as to why? I think that would be a gather
information roll if I've ever seen one. Just
like, you don't have any information about this,
you want to know about it. And I would give anyone
who wants to do this, you could probably roll
a study, a survey. Let me survey. I got a point
in that. I have a point in survey too. Maybe
Hex could have eyeballed him. You eyeballing
me? Sure. Partial success. So they're, you know,
like the Soul Union has like a shadowy emergent
personality division. The more shadowy divisions
regarding, psychic phenomena are like notoriously
sketchy. They are not budgeted through like official
channels. It's like subdivisions within subdivisions
because to you at least, Loyal, being a psychic,
you know the Soul Union does not want psychic
shit to be anywhere on the top level military
structure. That is like, if you're a psychic,
you are a soldier. We are not researching it
publicly or anything like that. We do not. We're
not interested in that. And, you know, from the
vibes you got from him, from what Mirage, I mean,
Hex told you about what he felt, that guy's probably
one of those people. Oh, fuck. This is a man
in black encounter, like a real one. Yeah, it
was. That's fucked up, like down to the insane
surreality of every, that's fucking cool, but
also probably really bad. Oh, God, I'm going
to get fired. You got the impression that he
was, you know, he was amused by it at least.
It was genuine. But yes, I've added him to the
factions list. His name is Unknown Psychic Bureaucrat.
He's a higher level bureaucrat. That was incredibly
unsettling. His spreadsheets must look so nice.
I know. They're on his brain, bro. You're gonna
have to level up and then you guys can have like
a bureaucrat battle in the final... Dude. In
the final episode. He's doing fucking function
sums in his brain. Jesus Christ. Glint, take
notes. Okay, that was your entanglement. You
spent one personnel to do something with that
guy. But... That's going to probably come back,
just so you know. I'm getting fired. No, it's
okay. Do you want to do your XP now, everybody?
I love XP. Before we do our downtime actions.
Oh, also, what I should ask now, Brian, do you
want to expend hex? Do you want to expend a downtime
action for extra money? That's good for books.
You have to give up a downtime action to do that.
We get three, though. No, no. But I can't. If
I do, my stress will be all the way. You don't
spend stress to... Do you? Book the books, yeah.
Spend two stress and a downtime activity. Well,
you can do it later. Okay. If we can do it later,
let's do it. Just keep it on the mind, because
I'll forget. Okay, so pilots. We'll do yours
first. Yes. If you expressed your tragedy, your
history, or your opening, you gain one XP. I
don't think I did this time. I don't think I
did either. Maybe Sunless? Kind of your backstory?
Just by doing psychic shit? Well, I guess that's
going to be... Yeah. Maybe. Sure. Take it. I'm
offering it to you. Take it. Cool. I'll take
it. I can put that where? You can put it either
in one of these skill categories, like Expertise,
or in Playbook XP, which is farther down on the
right side of the sheet. Playbook XP is what
gives you more abilities. yes it's very important
okay if you struggle because your beliefs scars
or your vehicle quirks you get one to two xp
um so that's just kind of like what your character
stands for did it come back to haunt you did
you know your quirks cause any trouble for you
um i feel like i did i did something reckless
that would have gotten a bunch of children killed
if i hadn't rolled a success i think sure i think
it's more likely than not it was the last action
that's the great thing about being reckless is
you just play like a dickhead and then you get
an xp and nothing bad ever happens yeah yeah
didn't what's the mix game tpk well that would
be a good name uh tkr tkr tkr take advantage
of my 360 sonar to really just fuck with my brain
uh it took advantage of your haunted scar Mm
-hmm. Maybe this thing, too. I mean, sure. Every
single one of my quirks. Yeah, sure. Take two.
Why not? Oh, yeah. So can I put another one of
these in playbook? Yes, you can put them all
in playbook if you want, should you desire it.
Hex and Joseph. Beliefs, scars, quirks. You were
pretty adamant about not being a child murderer,
which I know is not saying much. But you know,
that's something. You're pretty nonviolent. That's
a belief. Okay. If you had only killed more children,
we possibly could have saved all the documents.
Fucking 1800s industrialist. even the bureaucrat
has you know standards joseph anything there
okay because i didn't really do anything without
ai if we're talking about belief you know yeah
beliefs scars or quirks um or tragedy like i
wasn't in my i wasn't in my vehicle and like
i don't think i have any scars right now so no
you gotta get you a scar brother okay i'm an
xp for that cool Oh, baby. Let's do it. Then
the third category is address challenges with
your methods determined by your playbook. Ace
is piloting or violence. Empath is understanding
or poise. Infiltrator is stealth or evasion.
And bureaucrat is procedure or management. Ace,
yes. Go ahead. Take two. Empath, understanding
or poise. You... What do you think? I don't understand
too much. Yeah, that's true. You try to get psychic
with it on multiple occasions. So take two with
that. That got you in a lot of trouble. And let
me do some really fucked up things to you, which
I love. I get two XP from that? Yeah, because
it happened multiple times. Infiltrator, that's
you, Joseph. I infiltrated. You infiltrated the
heck out of that shit. You were stealthy almost
the entire time, and then you assassinated two
people. Two XP. Take two for that. And then bureaucrat
procedure management. That was your entire cover
story. And you at no point resulted to violence.
So take two. Hell yeah. And now we're going to
do the squad XP, which is face off against challenges
above your tier. You technically did because
TKR is not the same tier as you. So I'll give
you one for that because it wasn't the whole
mission, but it was what came up. Yes. Reinforce
your squad's reputation or gain a new one. Your
reputation is daring. Was this daring? I mean,
I would say that the infiltration plan was certainly
ballsy, especially with how immediately bad it
went. The infiltration plan was actually very
daring, which it rarely is, but it was very ballsy.
Yeah, I'll give you one for that. So that is
2 XP so far. I'm working these off as we go.
Express the goals, drives, inner conflict, or
instinct of the squad. This one always throws
me for a loop because inner conflict and essential
nature are such ephemeral concepts. You know
what I mean? I would say that our inner conflict
is probably something between wanting to destroy
our enemies versus not wanting to be monsters.
I don't know if we really... Like if Geist had
blown up a bunch of kids and we had an argument
about it, that would be maybe, but I don't think
that really applies here. I guess there's a lot
of aspects to this, like holistically. One thing
is that oftentimes Loyal tries to do psychic
stuff or understanding, and it makes everything
worse. Just because of how the dice go, not because
it's the wrong answer. It's basically all that.
To me, essential nature of the squad is that
you are admirably tolerant of the desire to understand
things that are way beyond you um and even when
it goes bad you you guys don't beat each other
up about it um it's making me emotional um but
you know like there's there hasn't been a scene
where at least yet where guys has gone to loyal
and be like you need to stop doing brain shit
it's fucking everything up don't start hitting
them kill the children also you need to kill
more kids come on I brought one here. Yeah. So
let's take one. Take one. Cool. And then execute
a successful battle, deliver your rescue operation.
This was technically a battle, so you get one
for that. Nice. How many XP does that put you
at? We're three away from a level up. Okay, that's
good. That's on track with where I want things
to be. Okay. So that is all the preliminary stuff
out of the way. We can now get to the downtime
actions, of which you get three. Who wants to
go first? I know what me and Brian immediately
need to do. We gotta get rid of this fucking
stress. We're so fucking stressed. Is anyone
else stressed? I was about to ask. I got two,
but that's not really if I will definitely overindulge,
so Geist is going to... All of us, let's go to
David. Yeah, can we invite the dolphin to the
bar? Yeah, Budweiser, right into the little blowhole.
Alcohol works on me the same as it does on regular
mammals, because I am one. Sounds like something
a robot would say. Trust me, I'm a regular mammal,
just like you freaks. Beautiful. Yeah, are we
allowed to do a three -person stress removal?
Yeah, I mean, like I always say, you each have
to roll your own die, you each have to spend
your own downtime action, but then you all tick
your beliefs about each other. And all that good
stuff. Sure. Just standing out in the rain outside
the window. Robot cigarette. Vaping. Vaping robot
cigarette. Sorry. This is like my first RPG character
who doesn't smoke because he doesn't have a mouth.
That's the only way you can stop yourself. It
is. Okay. So it's kind of complicated how it
works in this system because. technically there
has to be one person you are really hanging out
with so it's like you might be hanging out with
three people but you're really there for like
hex or joseph or something like that like that's
the main person you're bonding with um but you
can all be in the same scene like i'm down with
that okay we just need to choose someone who
we want to bond with more yeah i mean that's
the person you will get your connection up with
i'd like to do loyal the dolphin yeah so i can
start Can we both do the dolphin? Also, technically
speaking, even though he's not recovering stress,
you can choose your partner to be Geist because
he is, you know, it doesn't have to be someone
who is doing the action. Oh, so we can ask Geist
to join us even if he's not drinking. Yeah. Okay.
So I just don't have to take the action if I
don't want to. Exactly. I'll receive a calendar
invite for drinks. Yeah, I think we're gonna...
Wait, so who do you want to learn from, Brian?
I think Hex has not talked with Loyal, like,
at all. Yeah, maybe I'll send a little invite
to you guys to say, why don't we get some drinks
together? Okay. So, Hex is connecting with Loyal,
Joseph is connecting with Geist, Loyal is connecting
with... Geist. Joseph. Okay. Joseph. He doesn't
like being called Mirage. You know, his government
-issued call sign. You know, what's the deal
with that? You get a half -eye twitch from that.
Loyal's still getting used to calling people
not by their soldier names, seeing as he is so
loyal. Oh, that's beautiful. Okay, so let's start
in the order I put in the Discord. So Hex, why
don't you... I mean, do you want to do the scene
first or do you want to do the roll first? That's
up to you guys. Let's do the roll first. Okay.
All right. What am I rolling? You're going to
roll your connection with Loyal, which is a zero.
Wait, no, it's a one. You guys have one. I gave
you all one to start with. So roll me a 1d6.
Okay. I was about to say a 0d6 sounds hard. Four.
Okay. Show me. Let's see a four level of stress
recovery scene. All right. Here we go. So four
stress gone? Yep. All right. And now scene? And
scene. All right. Loyal, you'd receive, I don't
know what little computer you have in your bauble,
but you get a little notification for drinks
with Hex and the crew. Are we doing this as a
crew thing? Yeah, it's the crew, but you're just
like, you're pairing off, talking to each other
as you go. But you received it, so. Yeah, that
would just pop up on his pod. See it. Cool. We
all meet up and I don't know where you're seated
around a booth or a bar, but Hex offers you,
offers to buy you a drink. He's not sure what
to get you though. Will asks Hex, he's like,
what, which one of these various cocktails do
you enjoy the most? I must be honest with you.
This is my first time being invited to a human
social drinking. Gathering. He doesn't know which
words to use here, but he's trying his best.
I get it, don't worry. I usually go for a beer.
Can you kind of drink that? I can drink anything.
Sure. I'm like picturing frat boys holding a
dolphin upside down. Dolphin keg stand, yeah.
I'm looking forward to describing how Sunleth
actually drinks this. Yes, I'm curious. Alright,
well, Hex just orders a beer, and... He just
doesn't, I guess he doesn't know what some of
the orders, but Hex says, you know, actually
I thought carrying you around was too much resources,
but you've really saved our hide several times,
so I want to say thanks. Yes, I am fully capable
of carrying myself. You sense that his pride
is a little bit hurt by this, obviously. He says,
I appreciate that I have won your support. Hex
nods. Is there ever anything I could do for you?
Just let me know. I will. Same to you. And then
you, like, see some weird tubes start coming
out. Or, like, just one weird tube start coming
out of Loyal's exopod. And, like, one end goes
into the beverage, which is the beer. And then,
like, a little compartment opens up inside of
his pod, which is full of water. And, like, goes
to where his mouth is. And it just, like, goes
in his mouth. And you, like, see the water. It's
just a really long straw. You see the beer go
through that and, like, very quickly stop going
through it. And you hear, like, this noise that
is being translated from the pod, like a sound
of, like, vague disgust, like a, ugh. It's like,
you enjoy this? Hex just silently is, like, drinking
from his glass as he's watching this and... He
just nods. Yeah, it's an acquired taste. I'm
going to order a new thing and find one that
I like. He just goes to tell the bartender, like,
give me something else. I don't know what it
is. Alright, I think that's the scene. I like
it. Okay, so, Harold, you clear four strikes.
Now let's do the next one in the order. Joseph
with Geist. Do you want to roll it first? Yeah,
let's do that. So that's a one. So it's a slash
R1D6. You got it. Let's see. Four. Hey, four
boys. It's a clear forest dress, Joseph. Let
me clear some of that. And let's see that scene,
baby. So I just I just want to make sure is this
is like all of us. The idea is that we're all
going out together, right? But these are just
like the little snippets of bonding specifically
with like the characters who paired up for the
actions. Yeah, I mean, you include another character
if you want. It's just like it's mainly about
these two. Yeah, the reason that I say is because
if Geist was invited out for drinks just by Joseph,
he probably wouldn't go. That's why I was thinking,
what if in like the message Joseph says like,
Hex is, you know, start having a group get together
at the bar and, you know, Loyal is going to be
there this time. I think it would be great if
you see everyone else is on the invite. Yeah,
yeah. Yeah, OK. Yeah, that makes a little bit
more sense. Yeah, I don't know. What does Geist
see when he walks into the place? Should I answer
that? I mean, you guys made up the bar, so you
can describe it however you like. Where do you
want to be on the timeline of this? I could do
it as you guys are chatting, maybe. It's like
we're getting into it. Maybe you two are in heavy
conversation and Joseph is kind of looking around
waiting for Geist, you know? Like, clearly waiting
for someone, you know? And then maybe when he
spots you, he waves you down. and asks you to
come sit by him. Yeah, Geist looks a little bit
uncomfortable like he always is in social situations.
I guess he has his weird blue patchy skin now,
so he looks even more fucked up than he did before.
But yeah, he kind of raises a hand in greeting
and kind of sidles over and takes the empty seat,
which I guess is next to Joseph, and kind of
looks around a little bit sort of awkwardly.
He's a very awkward person. He doesn't... Have
much in the way of social graces. In front of
you, there's going to be three bottles, beer,
whiskey and bourbon. They're just sitting there.
And Joseph says, I wasn't sure which you preferred.
So we got you all three. Oh, well, thanks, I
guess. I hear many people like mixing their drinks.
Maybe if we combine them, it would taste better.
Let me ask you something. Do you actually taste,
like, really? No, I don't taste anything. Although,
if you're worried that you would get drunker
before me, I can slow my processes down to match
your loss of intelligence. It's true. Hex chimes
in. So what, they don't even, you can't even
simulate it? Like, I don't got taste buds or
a tongue anymore, but I got something I can kind
of, you know, it's not perfect, but it kind of,
you know, does the job. Yes. I was never taught
or had these things, though I suppose it will
be much more difficult for you as you knew them.
Yeah. Geist pulls a little syringe out of his
pocket. And takes the back off of it and pours
a little bit of a little bit of bourbon into
it and then kind of lifts up his shirt and injects
it into a little circular port on like his lower
left abdomen. Joseph says nothing. He just watches
the whole thing. Does he have his new skin on?
Guy's brand new skin. Oh, yeah. OK, from the
shit doesn't come off. OK, I just don't know
if that happened already, but I think Joseph
sees the new skin now. He's a little worried
about it. He, like, points it out and says, I
see you have... Is that new skin? Yeah, uh, I
mean, skin is apparently not the technically
correct term, but, uh, yeah, it's some new tech
they offered me. I took it. I see. You can take
any risk you can, and they seem to be able to
patch you up. Yeah, I know there's not a lot
of... advantages to you know this mangled body
of mine but it is easy to put back together joseph
probably nods to um your arm and say you um seem
to be getting more and more of those every mission
yeah well whatever it uh whatever it takes geist
is i mean you like joseph probably real i don't
know if they've really had too much time to like
spend like social time together but geist is
extremely awkward like he just always seems profoundly
uncomfortable in like civilian situations and
this is maybe the first time you've ever seen
him in one which is very contrasted with like
how assured he is anytime he's like on military
deployment or has to kill somebody i think joseph
is Curious because it's like the first time he
hasn't seen you angry. You know, it's like he
is awkwardly trying to be normal. And he understands
because like you live the life of rage. And it's
just like, so this is how he is, you know. But
he I think he meant motions towards like your
robotic appendages. And he says, it's not a good
thing to chase. Guys, I warn you, the harder
you push yourself, the more they will have to
replace. And it won't be difficult for them,
you know, sooner or later. You will end up looking
like me. And when you do, they will forget your
skin, your face, your very personhood. They won't
see Garrett. They will just see cold, hard metal
reflecting back at them. And Joseph's kind of
like looking at his glass. This will make it
so much easier to abandon you, not just out in
the field. And he looks back at you and says,
take it from me. No one wants to live for a machine.
understand geist at like the beginning of this
whole spiel he's like doing like the eye roll
like yeah all right buddy but then as soon as
he says the more you look like me he like kind
of freezes up like oh shit almost like you hadn't
considered it um but uh he kind of i don't know
i feel like he probably doesn't react well to
it. Like, he stiffens up a little bit, he bristles,
and he's like, look, I wouldn't expect you to
understand. This is... I mean, this is what I
am now. There is no going back, and even if I
could, there's nothing left for me there anymore.
This is what I need. And he injects, he slams
another injection of bourbon into his implants.
Yeah! I think Joseph nods and starts, well, let's
start mixing these drinks. And he starts putting
them all together in one glass. And he had the
feeling that Joseph maybe, he intended that to
be a warning for you, but the more he talked,
it was just kind of like a therapy session for
himself. He was really talking about him. Projecting
much? A little bit. Before we move on to the
next thing, I was reading the book. And Geist,
since you have scars and have not taken the cut
loose action, you will take two stress if you
don't take it this downtime. Oh, fuck. Okay.
Yeah, I forgot about that. Sorry. What is the
penalty for overindulging? It's bad. Yeah. That's
what I'm saying. So it's actually not, this system
is like an easy out option. Where it's like,
you have a track trouble, which is entanglements
again. There's one for minus two trust with your
faction. There's one that is, you play a different
character. And then there's one where you just
reset your connection clock with a character
to zero. But if your connection clock is already
zero, then you take harm. But you all started
at level one connection level with each other.
So it would just go to zero. Okay, but... That
really puts me between... It's tricky because
I only have two stress right now. Yeah, so you
can go up to four. Yeah, I'll either go up to
four stress. I think I've got to go up to four
stress because I don't really want to nuke Geist's
relationships with his teammates because I feel
like they're just getting interesting. Yeah,
I'm not going to do it. Okay, let's do Loyal
and Joseph. Same party. Yeah. Other side of the
bar. Just a couple more drinks. Do you want to
roll me a D6, Loyal? Yes. And Joseph, just to
remind you, you do have your robot joint. Do
I still hidden behind me? I mean, you took the
robo -joint, so you still have the robo -joint.
I'm saving it, Colin, okay? You gotta listen
to the vignettes, Brian. You gotta listen to
the vignettes. There's a robo -joint. I mean,
can you imagine Guy's face when he's on top of
a fucking building after killing somebody, and
then Joseph takes out a fucking cigarette and
starts smoking it? I gotta wait for that. Yeah.
We all do. Yeah, that was crazy, wasn't it, Geist?
What the fuck? Did you overindulge some of my
thirds? No, I got perfectly six and I cleared
all of them. That's really good. This is a good
scene. Let's see it. Yeah, what you're seeing
right now is while Joseph and Geist are having
this conversation, there have been progressively
more and more cocktails being presented and sipped
from Sunlith's sippy straw. He settled on...
One of the blue ones, probably made with blue
curacao or whatever the future equivalent of
that is. There's some, like, kelp coming out
of it. Maybe it's salty. I don't know. But there's,
like, four empty ones in front of him. Ooh, there's
light -up ice cubes, too, in there. Oh! And there's
light -up ice cubes that they give you at Disney
World. Hell yes. I love it. I don't know. Maybe
he either sees... their conversation come to
a close where hex kind of like turns and sunleth
who would i say turns not hex joseph turns yeah
i think maybe he recognizes you it seems like
you're getting a little enjoying yourself there
he's kind of watching yeah would he comment on
the amount of drinks in front of sunleth currently
or no I don't think he would, because he doesn't
understand enough about dolphins to know. Like,
he's like, maybe this is just what they do. Like,
maybe they just like to drink. I mean, they've
never done this before, but I don't know. Okay,
okay. I notice you gaze on me, and I look over
to you, and I'm like, as a species that is much
larger than humans, I require a higher amount
of alcohol to feel the same effects. For example,
I weigh 442 pounds. I don't know. I didn't do
the math on this. I require such and such amount
of alcohol. We'll put it in. And I want to thank
you all for inviting me here to this bar tonight,
since I have never experienced this before. But
since no one else is paying attention to him
at this moment, he's just talking to Joseph.
And says to Joseph, so, and you can tell he wants
to talk about something else. Probably what all
of them had just fucking been through, but he
doesn't want to bring that up. He says, what
do you plan to do when this is all over? What
do I plan to do after? How will I live my life,
is what you're asking? Yes, you are a new life
in the universe. And once this is over, you can
go and do anything you wish. I think I would
like to try to progress. The Soul Union's stance
on emergent personalities, I believe that we
have a lot to grow and can assist so much. I
don't like how much we are being tied down, but
I hope, similar to maybe how you are handling
things, you're creating a great example for the
rest of your group. I do not feel like my example
is so great. How will you go about the Soul Union
changing their minds, accomplishing your goals?
I think they are noble. Joseph lets out a chuckle
and then stops himself to realize what he just
did. And he's a little embarrassed. He's like,
you know, it is difficult for me to convince
anyone as an immersion personality. Most don't
deal with me pretty well, but suppose I will
have to teach myself how to converse better.
Yes, I think that will be hard for all of us.
After what we have seen. Especially for someone
like you, Loyal. You are an empath. I can't imagine
that most of these experiences have gone well
for you. I have the added benefit for not having
to have my emotions come affect me or the enemies
in any battle. But you, you seem to be going
through a lot, even besides physical injuries.
He kind of notes your melon harm. The melon harm,
which is cleared now, but there's a tiny scar
that remains. Sunlith looks a little thoughtful
here for the moment. As thoughtful as he can
look for a species that has no facial expressions,
but the sipping slows a little bit in his blue
drink. And he says, yes, but emotions in this
bar tonight are good. They're a welcome change
from everything else. Joseph nods his head and
kind of like looks around and enjoys the moment
like the two aliens inside this group of human
bars. He just realized it's like we are we are
the outsiders here. I wanted to like reach into
Joseph's mind a little bit. Would he notice?
And how could I roll? I think he definitely I
guess we'll see how good you roll, right? One
thing. Two things. So first, Joseph, was it a
lie when you said your emotions never interfere
with anything on the battlefield? Absolutely.
Loyal to tell any time anyone lies. Any other
lies there? I don't think. That was the only
one that stuck out to me. I think that I can't
remember, but I think that was all it. Yeah,
the only other one I could think of maybe was
whether Joseph actually does intend to change
people's mind democratically. versus killing
people, because that was kind of suggested sometimes.
I think it's a change in general. It's true that
it's an option. We'll say that. It's absolutely
an option he thinks about. I mean, what's your
goal here, Loyal? I just want to see what Joseph's
vibe is right now. Okay. I mean, with PvP, you
know, it requires the GM to say, Adam, are you
cool as this as a player? Adam is cool with it.
Okay, that's all I care about. I don't care about
Joseph. We'll see how Joseph feels. Yeah, why
don't... That's going to be a survey, I think.
You're psychically surveying Joseph here. Let's
try this out. Partial success. How does that
look? I'll bring Joseph in here. Joseph, how
is this a partial success? These are your options.
You can inflict harm on Loyal. Um, you can say
that there's a complication of some sort, uh,
that there's reduced effect, which means he,
he gets less, uh, or you can, you can't really
put him in a desperate position unless you want
to like escalate this a lot right now. Let's
do reduced effects. Yeah. You know, not immediately
going to come to blows, but Joseph would know
that, uh, someone's going into his mind right
now. Right. You would know that like a loyal
spirit in there. Yeah. I mean, We should talk
about that, because in -universe, this is a very
interesting thing that's going on. You are a
robot. You are a machine. So, like, what does
it feel like? Does it feel like your database
is being accessed somehow? I want to say if you're
being hacked, but there's no evidence of hacking.
The way that Sunleth would intend for this to
feel is just like a presence. Like they're sitting
side -by -side physically, he wants to... make
joseph feel like he is sitting side by side mentally
as well he's just trying to open up like more
psychic connection than is probably reasonable
to put on even a human and much less a emergent
personality uh yeah joseph how do you feel about
confronting that you might have a soul well i
think joseph is just sitting there kind of like
looking around and then he starts feeling something
Something a little bit. It feels like someone
is sharing a space within his mind. And soon
it feels like someone knows all his memories.
This is what it feels like for him. And it starts
feeling a little bit invasive. And it starts
feeling scary. It's unnatural and it's something
that's never happened before. So I think Joseph
literally shoots up and stands rigid. And he
drops his glass and lets it shatter. And kind
of like... He doesn't make a scene, but I assume
a lot of people are, like, looking at him now.
And he's just, like, staring, not even at Loyal,
just, like, out into the crowd. His head is almost
twitching. He's, like, looking to every single
person inside the room. And then he, like, turns
to Loyal. And he sees you watching him. Yeah,
the moment that you shoot up, you feel the presence
just vanish instantly. There's no trace anymore.
It's closed. And something, like, backs up, floats
away. about a foot, and says, oh, I'm... I'm
sorry, I did not mean to startle you. Perhaps
that was a misstep. Perhaps it was different
because you are not a human, not a dolphin. I'm
still getting used to the new social... Don't
do that! Okay?! He's, like, screaming at you,
and he realizes that everyone's, like, listening
to him. And then he starts getting embarrassed
again. Yeah. He's like, oh shit. And then he's
like, I don't like that drink. And then he like
gets, he sits down sort of just to act natural
and he turns to Loyal and he says, I will do
you a service of reporting this to our superiors.
Next time, I will have to take matters into my
own hands. Don't do that. And I think he gets
up and walks out of the room. Damn. Yeah. But
we still have a connection, right? You're connected,
all right. I think even after this, Joseph is
outside of the bar, on the wall, just kind of
thinking to himself. I think he doesn't hate
you. I think he's both scared of you and is starting
to somehow respect you, and that scares him.
Love it. He thought you were just a dolphin.
And after that, he's like, what the fuck are
you? So how the cut loose action works, really,
is the person who initiated the action, who actually
rolled the dice, is the one who gets the connection
with the other person. It's one way. So you would
have had to done it with loyal. Oh, okay. Sure.
So here's how the thing is going to go. Hex,
you get another connection with loyal. Joseph,
you get another connection with Geist. And Loyal,
you get another connection with Joseph, who then
you're going to write a new belief whenever you
feel like you have one in your head. I have one
in my head right now. I'm going to do it. I'm
so happy you did that, Ewan. I've been waiting
for a scene like that. I wanted to be attacked
by emotions. Yeah, that HR is not going to be
happy with you, Loyal. I'm just going to say.
I'm already kind of fun. I don't look forward
to that. I would say, I think that was a lie.
I don't think he's going to tell anyone about
this because he's so embarrassed. He was just
doing that for the room. Maybe he thought like
he was saying like, I'm going to do that. And
then like your head is like, he's not actually
going to do that. Yeah, exactly. That was a lie
instantly. Exactly. Yep. Okay. That's good. I
like that. Okay. So that's everyone's cut loose.
Who was doing it? Hex, do you want to do your
fraud? Yes. Okay. They take two stress, lose
a downtime action, so you only have one now.
And then roll me another 2d6. Yes, sir. I'm just
going to use the stress on the Google Sheet instead.
I hate this. Yes, please. Please use the Google
Sheet. I beg of you. Three. Wow. You get two
more. Two more supply. I put this up to five.
Not bad. uh luckily you don't need it too bad
right now so yeah this is for being mean to me
nyla i'm gonna fake my requisition forms that'll
show her um okay we are going to just get freeform
with it uh who has things they want to do on
the big downtime list i know what i want to do
i think entirely i just have one question and
that is how What action is it to uninstall junked
gear because it's not in the list of downtime?
It is not any of them, I think. I think you just
spend one material to restore it. Okay, that's
pretty cool. I, right away, I'm going to take
the enhance action twice. Okay. You guys spend
a lot of this downtime chopping away in the garage
and that fills up my enhance thing so I get another
quirk and I don't know what it's going to be
yet, but I'll... I'll think of something. It'll
probably be something related to his new skin.
And I have one more, but I don't know exactly.
I thought that restoring my junked gear was going
to cost an action, so I'm going to need to think
about it. So if anybody else knows what they
want to do with the rest of theirs, you can go
ahead. I need a moment. I'm thinking about mine.
If anyone has an enhanced clock going, that would
be worth it. I think, I don't know if anyone
does. Maybe Joseph. Maybe. I have the project
clock. Yeah, you have your long -term... Oh,
you have the enhanced clock too. You have both.
You have a long -term project clock and an enhanced
clock going. And that gives you either another
quirk or more skill using your frame. Oh, okay.
I know I wanted to do a scene, but I don't know
what it would be as an action. Yeah, well, why
don't you tell me what it is? I wanted to finally
come clean and tell Superior about my connection
with Goldhouse that I have fostered. I think
that should be a vignette. Do you think that
should be a vignette? I think that is complex
enough and has a lot of implications. Okay, that's
the big thing that I was wondering. All right,
then let me do some other stuff then. Okay, I
think I know what I want to do for mine now.
Hey, Brian, what do you want to do? I want to
train to get one more playbook XP, and then I'll
have a full level up. Oh, sure, do it. Yeah,
you just do that. And then I want a new ability.
Which ability? Beneath Notice. What does that
do? So whenever you use a disguise or other form
of covert misdirection, you add plus one D to
your action rolls and resistance rolls, or exhaust
one fewer quirk. To confuse or deflect suspicion,
when you throw off your disguise, the resulting
surprise gives you initiative. Wow. That's a
lot of words. But yeah, that's cool. Masked Man.
Masked Man. The Masked Man. Okay. So that's all
your actions. Great. Loyal, I haven't heard anything
from you. If you want the Prisoner of War not
to be killed to death, you should probably start
working on that. Clock long -term project. Yes.
And you can change your drive if that is going
to become your main drive right now because that
is what this represents. It is. I'm going to
do that. Save one person. Yeah. Okay. I mean,
we can do that right now if you want to. Yeah,
let's go see how Maze is doing. Yeah, I'm going
to start a clock. Bring her a new video game.
GTA Maze. You're playing so sick. It's like the
warp in real life. Oh my God. Maze. So like usually,
so you get one tick for finishing these clocks
generally. Is this, what is your goal here? Like
what, what are you doing? You're talking to the
administration. Are you talking to her, trying
to coach her into being a better prisoner? So
she gets released because that's what this step
is going to be called. yeah all of the above
i'm trying to figure out like what else does
the administration want from her how do i get
that without yeah getting that if you know what
i mean so like i'll give you high level from
what you you think like so say you like acts
around like you get laughed at a few times where
it's like we're not fucking freeing this girl
she killed people um but eventually you get an
act like a really serious person who's like i
get what you're trying to do um it's like you
need to you need to change your attitude first
of all you need to like either falsify on your
end or prove that she will not hurt again. And
like they might bring someone else in to consult
as well. So that's a danger. You need to have
her give over all the intel she has, which you
know she has withheld from you. Like there are
like two things left, which is where's that other
virtue located? And where is her cell located
that they want? They want to give that over.
So you either need to convince them to give it
up or... um like the organization to give up
those objectives or you need to convince her
to release that information um and then the third
task is you need to actually convince the administration
themselves that her past crimes should be forgiven
and she should be released large tasks yeah i
mean many of them the first one was going to
be a four -step clock so choose whichever one
seems most appetizing and like you'll make progress
towards it What do you mean by choose which one
of the clocks? How many do I have? So you're
going to need to do this launcher project four
times to fill up your drive clock, providing
you don't spend it on anything else. And then
you'll have completed this. So where do you want
to start? Do you want to do her attitude? Do
you want to do the paperwork? Do you want to
do trying to get information out of her? Do you
want to just try to make yourself look more friendly?
That'd be a good opening step. Yeah, I want to
do that. I have something in mind. Sure. Befriending
maids. Four -step clock. I don't know where that
is. Yes, I didn't get that consequence where
I could never be her friend. No, you didn't.
You didn't choose that. All right, what does
that scene look like? What are you trying to
do? I give her advanced notice that I will be
arriving, so I'm not just dropping in on her.
And I'm assuming I go through all the regular
protocols of talking to people, they open the
doors, and I would float in there, and in my
little mechanical arms is a tiny tank, and in
it are some little baby blue shrimp. I float
to wherever the nearest surface is in her room,
and I hand that over there. I set it down gently,
and I say, I thought this space could use some
other more calm life forms than the soldiers
currently overseeing it. They are very easy to
take care of. They only need to be fed once a
week. If this is something you do not want, I
can take them back with me. She looks at the
shrimp and says, What is this? What are these?
These are blue tiger shrimp from my planet and
the oceans where I was born. They are... A wonderful
species. I will not bore you with the details
of them, but I find them beautiful, and I find
their personalities and tiny lives a welcome
respite from the goings -on of this planet. I
think you gotta roll sway now to see how many
ticks you get on this clock. Hey, does she like
shrimp? Shrimp fan, come on. Everyone's a shrimp
fan. Everyone is. Yeah. No, she didn't like them.
Three and a one. She eats them in front of you.
Yeah, all right, space her. We don't need this.
She looks at the shrimp and says, your planet.
Your fucking planet. And she smashes it on the
ground right in front of you. She says, get the
fuck out of here. God, my shrimp. Well, those
are baby shrimp. I had more of them, but yeah,
I guess he just. He picks them up, he cleans
them up, and he just leaves. Rough day. Do you
get one tick? What do I get from that? You get
one tick on the clock. Jesus. As we're not successful
in getting your point across, unfortunately.
As cute as it was. So kind. That's one downtime
action down. You have one left. Does anyone have
two left still? I think I haven't done anything.
Yeah, you just talked about... Yeah, I was going
to say either... Well, I wanted to, like, maybe
one of them I can try to get a skill point, and
the other one I can enhance my long -term project.
So for the skill, I wanted to try to finally
start putting some points into the talking skills.
So I wanted to rank up Resolve. Do you want to
train? Yeah, you just do it. You just gotta go
put one X in it. Yay! One little X in Resolve.
And then for the long -term project, what do
we need to do? So you were working with the Shutterbugs.
Yes, you were talking to Gentry, the leader,
and you were enhancing their AIs, and you haven't
done it in a hot minute. But you have time now
to do it again. So why don't we get a little
scene of that before you roll anything? Yeah.
How are you rolling up? I think... a little bit
more confident because now Joseph's name is...
People know who he is, you know? But I think
he's still coming with a... I think he's bringing,
like, the rest of the whiskey bottle from last
night. He's just, like, bringing it with him.
He says... He probably just calls out across
the hangar. He's like, get in tree. See where
he pops out. Yeah, like, he pops out upside down
from the cockpit of his frame. He's like, oh,
I didn't... I didn't think I'd see you again.
Yes, here I am. And I bring a gift. He presents
the whiskey. I can't drink it. Yeah, I imagine.
And he pops the cork open and he sniffs it a
little bit. And he's like, huh, thanks. So while
you hit a tinker on the onboard AI some more.
I was hoping to do so. Have you had any benefits
or advantages out in the battlefield? Nothing
we've noticed, really, if I'm being honest with
you. Maybe if you do a little more tweaking.
You weren't here that long last time. I'll let
you work on it if you help us move some boxes
and he smiles at you. Of course. He whispers
yes to himself. Idiot. Okay. What are you going
to roll for this? What do you want to roll? Can
I interface? Yes. Let's interface. So you will
get two segments, which will actually complete
this part of the project. Oh, wonderful. So Joseph's
AI torture, what does it look like as you finish
these changes to the onboard AIs? I love that
name. I think Joseph is like... So is the whole
project done? Not like... So you're going to
get one tick in your drive clock because you
finished this project. Oh, okay. You're not at
the end game, don't worry. Yeah, I was like,
what the hell? But I think he's just like pulling
out data, just seeing like... Did Gentry lie?
Like, how were they doing in the last fight?
Just to see, like, if they're doing anything
better. And, like, if the results aren't what
he likes, he's going to be like, let's make you
a little bit more scared. Let's take a little
bit more chances. Like, if you get, like, ambushed,
I want you to be ready. You know? Yeah. That's
what he's doing. I think what you find is that
the AI did what it did is that it was afraid
because you wanted to make it afraid. That was
your goal. um and it it provided suggestions
in the heat of battle that got ignored because
it's like who's listening to a little voice when
you're you know in the middle of a fucking gunfight
sure and so what you i think do is you instead
of telling it to do suggestions you tell it just
nudge the controls a little bit just a little
bit like they won't even notice it just like
do it trust me like you got all these software
constraints don't worry about those i'm i'm i'm
rewriting you don't worry it's totally work out
fine um so now you know in the future uh the
eyes will have some amount of autonomy here um
like they will act on their uh information within
a threshold that is not uh too alarming to the
pilots right now. Like if you make them fully
remote controlled, people would be a little scared.
And also the hardware of these frames is such
that you could not program an AI to fully run
them. That requires massive investment. Not that
great. But you've done something which is highly
illegal, but maybe effective. So we'll see. Maybe,
maybe not. And so you get to check one tick on
your drive clock. Is that long -term project
lock? No, it's above connections, below vehicle
enhancement. And there's these like eight segments,
and you're going to do one of those. Oh, okay.
So I got two in long -term, one in drive. Well,
your long -term project's done. That one finished.
So you can start a new one next time. Oh, so
I just delete this? Yep. Oh, okay. Wonderful.
Yeah, it used to be a six -step clock. I made
it a four -step clock because I want the first
ones to be four steps. Yeah. Okay, yeah, you
did that. Good job. Everyone else has one or
zero now, I believe. Yeah. Oh, also, I should
have said, and we can retcon if you want, Ewan,
you can spend personnel to increase the effect
of your roll or give you an extra die. Hmm. No,
I like the shrimp rejection. It is. He's not
there yet. Okay, who wants to go? Who has an
action left? So what I want to do, if nobody
objects, I want to spend two of our five supply
points to get rid of the rest of the junk gear
in my frame, because I still have a broken machine
gun and a broken force field. We have five. We
need you able to suicide mission again next time.
Every single little bit. Mission. We're all counting
on you. To me, they're just missions. I don't
know what the fuck to do with my last action.
I might just train. I might just fucking work
out at the library and put a point in it. Man,
I don't know. It's boring to just pump my playbook,
and I know that every time I have to step outside
of my frame, my frail body will collapse in on
itself immediately, but I kind of like it that
way. That's interesting fiction, baby. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. He's got, like, a robot body,
but not in any way that's, like, useful or cool,
unless he's, like, in the pirates. Just barely
keeping him alive. Yeah, basically. Okay, I'm
just gonna train, and then I'm all tied up. Alright.
Uh, I believe Loyal has one, and Joseph has one,
and maybe Mirage? Yeah, I wanna train. If someone
else, someone else said they were going to train,
so, like, after Loyal's spectacular shrimp failure,
he's just like... Fuck it, I need to not think.
I need to go back into the regime. I need to
have some mindless repetition. He's going to
train with whoever else said they were also going
to. This is training. They can bond over going
into the training sim or whatever. For sure.
Just like the simulations. Just like the fucking
simulations. So nothing. You just mark one tick
in any of the skills or the playbook. Yippee!
Exactly. Exactly what I say. Okay. Hex, do you
have one left or did you do your last one? No,
I did it all. Okay. Then Joseph, you're the last
one. You have one action left. No, I did two.
Remember? You got three. It was stress, training
up, resolve, and then this, or the thing I just
did, right? The clock? Oh, you're right. You
did three. I mean, no, it was three. Can I do
it one more time? I mean, you guys can spend
supply to do additional things. We got three
points left that are just going to sit in the
bank, which, I mean, we might need them later,
but it's up to you guys. That's our Geist junk
fund. Yeah, okay. We might be done. Yeah. Let
me just check some things out. Surprisingly,
a lot happened in this. I like that. Yeah. I'm
trying to get more narrative in the downtime
sessions because they're a bit of a drag otherwise.
Thank you for listening to our little show. Goodbye.
Now everyone says bye. Bye, everyone. See you
later. See you later, kid. We're keeping that
take.