Esteemed executives of the Corporate Council,
most of you know me as September Bluth, former
union liaison. I feel I was remiss not to issue
a formal apology to you after my terrible failure
handling our situation at the refinery. Suffice
to say, I understand your actions and my recent
demotion of two levels from my previous role
has humbled me. I am deeply, deeply sorry for
my failure and the failure of my assets, and
I will have you know that it is my mission in
life now to prove to you that I am still worth
your time and your money. In the coming days,
I hope to show you this. I will show you that
not only am I deserving of my previous title,
but I am capable of more than just being a liaison.
I can be a man with a plan. A man with ideas.
A man with connections and vigor and... Ah. Well,
we'll see. I'll show you. And if you like it,
then, well, I look forward to working together
in the light of my new success. Your ever -faithful,
ever -dedicated servant, September Bluth. Welcome
back to All That You Know, or Claiming to Cascade,
whatever we call it. It's all made up. My name
is Colin, and I am the Game Master, and joining
me today are Brian. Hi, I'm Brian, and I'm playing
the Bureaucrat, Hex. Zach. I'm Zach, and I am
playing Geist, the Ace. Ewan. I am Ewan, I am
playing Loyal, the Empath. And Adam. I'm Adam.
I'm playing Joseph, the infiltrator. So, following
a fairly harrowing previous mission and equally
difficult series of vignettes, let's see how
you all feel about each other, about your beliefs
about your fellow pilots. Let's start with Joseph.
How do you feel about your squad mates? Are we
allowed to change these now, by the way? Because,
like, I feel like my views on these people have
changed, but it's still, like, the same thing
from the start. You know what I mean? I think
you can change them. Like. I don't know if I
should change them right now in the moment because
I have to think about it, but like some of them
are like, I don't think I don't know if Joseph
thinks this anymore, you know? Yeah, I mean,
you can just say say and be like, but that might
be changing. OK, so then for Geist, I have two.
The original one was will continue to push himself
until he looks like me. This could benefit me.
And the other one was he plans to die. That's
what I figured. And then for loyal, I just have
one here. It was, why is a dolphin involved in
a human war? He was placed, not conscripted.
And then the two I have for Hex are knows too
much of me and my true intentions will need to
keep him from soup head. And then boring, average,
and woefully committed to the cause, the most
respectable human I know. Loyal. My first belief
is about Geist, about how he stopped viewing
the enemy combatants as people. And that Hex...
Just joined the war because he was bored with
his bureaucratic job. And then for Joseph, that
his new sapience has been warped by being born
into war. And all he needs to do is experience
love to become fully realized. And my new belief
is that Joseph is scared of his potential humanity.
Scared of feeling feelings. Ooh. Geist. So, Geist's
beliefs have changed a little bit. His one about
loyal was empathetic abilities might make him
a liability as much as an asset. That has kind
of changed, just to be a little bit more emphatic,
to be sort of on the lines of his empathetic
abilities are extremely dangerous, but very powerful.
Geist suspects, I don't think he knows for sure,
but he suspects that um loyal had something to
do with the uh the king returned fiasco this
one about hex i feel like his original one was
he's a pencil pusher he's going to freeze up
when facing his mortality i feel like he now
believes that hex has the makings of a proper
soldier in spite of everything because he's seen
him you know he's seen him in the shit he hasn't
run away from a fight he hasn't really hesitated
to uh attack people Good soldiers follow orders,
right? I think, yes. I think Hex, he believes
that Hex has the makings of a soldier. For Mirage,
it has changed from this thing cannot be trusted,
I need to watch it, to this thing, this thing's
nascent humanity is, makes it more dangerous,
and I cannot trust him. Cool. But he does say
him rather than it. Sorry. Oh, interesting. Hex.
Alright. Cool. All right. For Mirage, X's belief
is, while he is a machine and I don't know what
his goals are after everything we've been through,
I believe he has the squad's best interests in
mind. And I changed the wording slightly on the
other two to better reflect just things. So for
Loyal, Loyal is willing to do what it takes,
but given that we're budget constrained, I doubt
the efficacy of a dolphin as a pilot. And for
Geist... He's a loose cannon, and as much as
he is useful, I need to make sure he doesn't
step out of line and do anything stupid. Great.
Thank you, everybody. It is the day after the
last vignettes, after your three interrogations,
or really four interrogations, if you think about
it. The Peacekeeper base is as active as ever.
People coming to and fro. There's kind of a buzz
around the base that the Moondevils are getting
ready for some big operation. It's like... like
semi hush hush but like people are like talking
about it because everyone likes the gossip about
the moon devils because they're so cool um in
yeah in other news your friend mahogany cola
of the bone pickers is up and about again hobbling
around on some less than perfect prosthetic legs
he is not as talkative as he once was and it
is still up in the air whether he'll pilot again
anytime soon but people are hoping You have all
kind of just been like thrown back into things
and told by Nyla to prep your gear for an operation.
So I'd like to imagine that you all meet up in
the hangar. And I would like to just have a scene
here because this is probably the first time
you have seen each other because it's been, you
know, yesterday a lot of things happened for
all of you. What does everyone do? What is everyone
doing? Depends on who gets there first. Yeah,
is this in the hangar or like wherever our frames
are from kind of thing? Yep. Is Nyla here? What
are we waiting for? He's not here. Okay. Lyle
wants to get there early in the hopes that he
can talk to Joseph about what he experienced.
He's like, I gotta tell Joseph. I gotta tell
Joseph. They're after him for some reason. So
he shows up there early if that makes any difference.
I have terrible news, because Guy spends almost
all of his free time in this hangar, so he's
definitely there first. Performing final touches.
Yeah. Joseph probably waltzes in with any equipment
he has and goes about things as normal. Wait,
it would be really funny if... all three of us,
except for Joseph, get there first. And we're
like, extremely agitated. Where is Joseph? We're
all asking each other, where is he? He's like,
what do you mean, where is he? Do you have something
to tell him? Like, I have something to tell him.
Where is that son of a bitch? What happened?
Who do you guys know? Where's Hex? That's what
we gotta know. I mean, are we going with Joseph
already being there? I didn't know if we were
switching it up. No, you know what? Joseph is
taking his time because he's preparing things
right now. You know, he's... Suitin' up. Alright,
well, Hex walks in and guns it towards Loyal
and Geist. I mean, are you guys already talking,
or...? I don't think so. I think we're already
trying to figure out what the other person knows.
Yeah, Geist is, like, working on his frame, but
he's, like, looking around a lot, like, he keeps
looking towards the doorway for him to walk in.
Then Hex waves Geist and Loyal over to just immediately
ask, So, Did you hear anything about Joseph?
Did you hear anything about Joseph? Did you guys
get roped into some fucking non -human person's
black box facility for an interrogation? Did
I hear anything about Joseph? Yeah, we were brought
to a black site. Yeah, well, she didn't fucking
tell me not to talk about any of that shit, so,
yeah. Is her a robot rogue? You guys don't have
any news. Whitecliffe was lying. What do you
mean? She was lying to me. She was saying that
Joseph has killed friendlies before, but that
was a lie. That was a lie. You're certain that's
a lie? How many times do I have to keep telling
you humans that I'm certain that people are lying?
What about the shit about Goldhouse? Was that
a lie? That was true. That son of a bitch. Why
fucking, why would she lie? What kind of head
games? Fuck. I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't
make any sense. Hex frowns. Well, did Nyla say
he'd be showing up today? Hex just kind of looks
around. Is Joseph's frame here? Yeah, I mean,
yes, it is. Yeah, I can't imagine he'd be anywhere
else. Yeah, then Hex kind of gestures towards
it. I mean, he should show up, right? Yeah. And
with that, Joseph walks in the scene, whistling,
acting as normal as he can be. No, he probably
just walks in once you appear as normal as he
can, and he sees the three of you. Standing together
and staring. We all, like, anime zero in on him
with a lightning bolt above our heads, or we
just, like, fix him with a fiery gaze. Joseph
waves from afar and starts walking over. Gentlemen,
how are you doing today? Did you really just
spy intro us? Listen, I had to, okay? So, you
know, we all got roped into something because
of you. You mind giving us an update? Anything
change? You were roped into something, all three
of you? Whitecliff is suspicious of you and she
interrogated every one of us. You three. spoke
to Whitecliffe. She told us about Goldhouse.
Okay. This is a little bit more sudden than I
was expecting, but I assure you, whatever has
happened now is being used for the advantage
of the peacekeepers. We defended your loyalty,
and then someone looks at the others like, right?
I didn't speak against you. You've been a loyal
friend. What did she ask exactly? Oh, just, you
know, if we had any doubts about your dedication
to the squad. We thought you were a liability.
A liability? She mentioned you'd killed friendlies
before. Friendlies? She lied and said that you
had killed friendlies before. Well, I'm glad
we have an empath on the team who could figure
that out. No, I have never killed any friendlies
in my past. I've only been used as an assassin
for the enemy. Or towards the enemy. How much
do you know about Whitecliff and her motivations?
I know that she preys upon me like a hawk. I
don't think there's anything I can do without
her knowing. She is always behind me and doesn't
seem to like me. But with these recent developments,
she seems... Satiated. I'm surprised that you
three had a run -in with her. Is Nyla supposed
to be here today? Where is she? I assume somebody's
gotta brief us, but look, I had a question. Because
I can't get an answer to this from fucking anybody.
Not from Jermaine, not from Wycliffe, not from
anybody. Why do you think that you're here? Huh?
Why do you think that the Soul Union... has a
non -human person's unit that seems to absolutely
loathe and mistrust their little creations, but
still sends them out into the world. None of
this makes any fucking sense. Well, simply put,
I think I'm pretty good at what I do, and that's
why they employed me here. I don't know if there's
any other reason, but you are correct. They do
seem to be a little bit worried about everything
I have done here. This is a lore question, but
how uncommon is it for, one, emergent personalities
to just come into existence, and two, for them
to be used in the military? It's very, very uncommon
for them to come into existence, but it's known
about in pop culture to an extent. So then, is
what I'm saying a lie then? Because I don't know
if Joseph knows, but he's just saying what he
believes. So then would Boyle know that I'm lying?
Well, I mean, if Joseph believes it, it's not
a lie, is it? I guess so. Wouldn't that be funny
if we could discern objective truths by just
saying something and finding out objectively
if you're correct or not? My God. Everything
would be so easy. Putting emergent personalities
in the military is new, but not unheard of. But
it is... new for this conflict, especially. I
don't know why they put me here, but I racked
up many kills as an assassin before. Maybe they
thought I could be useful here, and it seems
like it has been going well. Yeah, look, I'm
not trying to say that you're not good, all right?
You're good, but when the cost of having operatives
like you in the field is massive... black box
budget and facilities that operate completely
without any kind of electronics. It's just like,
is the juice really worth the squeeze? There's
something... It seems to me like something else
is going on here, and I can't wrap my fucking
head around it. I'm just silently impressed that
you're doing a cost -effectiveness analysis of
all this. Yeah, Joseph puts his hand on his chin
and kind of rubs it, because... He was convinced
that he was put on here just because he was really
fucking good at killing people, and that's why
they, like, conscripted him, but he's never really
thought of this different angle before, because
he's like, well, humans are so stupid that they'll
just employ me because I'm good at killing. But
he didn't think of that different angle being
used. This is not something even I have the full
answer to, but it is something I'd like to investigate.
You are right, Geist. Why am I here? They are
clearly afraid of you. They keep you in a small
tank. Short leash? Is that the correct human
euphemism? I believe so. Anyways, we should be
careful going forwards. Listen, I appreciate
you all for standing up for me when speaking
to Wycliffe. I know it couldn't have been easy,
but I assure you, my trust is placed 100 % within
the Peacekeepers, and I have gone to them. with
the truth of everything that I've known. And
I will not betray any of you. Okay? Is that a
lie? Everybody looks at, yeah, loyal immediately.
I don't think it was a lie. I think he believes
that. Whatever my, like, exopod equivalent of
a sigh is that comes out of Sun with a suit.
He's like, it was the truth. Stand down now,
everyone. We're a team. Remember? Yeah. All of
the lights in the hangar and the lights on your
frames blink on and off, not in any particular
order, just randomly. That's all. And then you
all get a message from Nyla. What about, does
it happen? It's distracted. Do I sense water
vapor? worlds appearing retribution he's here
he's here does like is it all electronics like
does do geists implants flicker does loyal's
exopod do a little joseph blinks rapidly um yeah
anything that's networked actually would do that
shit um and like um like on your exopod uh loyal
Like, you know sometimes when you start up your
computer and like a command prompt pops up for
half a second and closes? Yeah. That happens
to your Exopod. It resets the Exopod to default
factory settings and Loyal can only speak Spanish
for the rest of the operation. Hola. Hola. Me
hablo espanol! Aqui en la mer. I guess, Joseph,
you... You particularly feel the room shake from
your perspective. That's it. Then you all get
the message from Nyla. Can't dwell on that. It
instructs Hex, Joseph, and Geist to go to the
corporate tower for a briefing from September
Bluth. Not me. Quick question, Colin. Did Hex
lose that hard drive? No, you still have it.
Alright, then. Hex, as, like, whatever, right
before we leave, I don't want to end the scene,
though, but Hex looks at Joseph and just says,
by the way, we need to talk about something later.
Of course. Might need your help. Absolutely.
Hex looks at the message and reads it and then
looks back to the rest of the team and is like,
what, they're going to have us fucking doing
corporate lackey bullshit again? Why isn't Loyal
coming? Yes, why are they splitting us up? It
might be because they want to lie to you. Yeah,
that was my thought. Loyal, see what you can
find out about what the fuck's going on, about
what that power flicker was. Message us. This
stinks. I don't like having to do this without
a formal in -person briefing. Yeah, I'm like
looking around at the ceiling and the walls,
being like, yeah, sure, I will. Yes, I am not
an empath, but I certainly feel it's... I certainly
felt something, so please be careful. I always
am. We'll be in touch. Geist goes over to the
changeling and hops in. Yep. I go to my frame.
You wouldn't typically take your frame to another
place in the city. We want to look cool, okay?
You certainly could. But, yeah, sure. Whatever.
No, I mean, we can take transportation. It doesn't
really matter to me. I was just letting you know
in terms of, like, social standards. Stomp through
the street. Yeah, I'm gonna drive my fucking
army tank to the corporate building. Do we have
our man Worthy here? Yeah, Worthy's in the hangar.
Cool. I guess we'll... Use Worthy. Yeah, we'll
stomp over. Guys will stomp over in the changeling
and be like, Hey, Worthy, new orders down the
pipe. We need a ride. Oh, y 'all want me to drop?
That's not, he's not Southern. He's from Minnesota.
Oh, you want me to drop you on the roof? I could
do that. They have like a landing pad there,
right? Probably for helicopters or VTOL or something.
Yeah, sure. Nothing this size, but he seems excited
by the prospect of trying to land on that small
of a target. Well, you know what? If Bluth wants
to use Soul Union Peacekeeper as his lackeys,
he's got to pay the fucking troll toll and reinforce
his helipad after we shatter it by Halo jumping
onto it. Did those guys say that? Maybe without
the Holy Sun. Yeah. Fuck it, that's not our problem.
We weren't told how. I'm not leaving my frame
behind, I'll tell you that. That's smart. We
should go. Great. As they're heading out, as
they're heading out, Loyal, you get a text too.
It is Nyla asking you to meet her in the conference
room, and that she wants to talk to you while
the others go get briefed, and she assures you
that they will fill you in when they get back
to the hangar. Alright. Can I, like, take a little
extra time to poke around here, and let's see,
do I have... I'm pretty sure I have some kind
of tech skill because I needed to operate my
exopod. I'll be embarrassed if I don't. Interface?
Yeah. Interface is the skill for that. Yes, I
do have one data interface. I want to, like,
just go to wherever the equivalent of the breaker
is around here. I'm assuming it's a more advanced
because we're in the future. Sure. There's the
multiplex hub. Interface with the multiplex hub.
Risky. Controlled. Yeah, controlled. Controlled
standard. Nothing's happening here. Failure.
Yeah, you go to the hub and there's nothing there.
But there's nothing there to the point that it
doesn't even register the power fluctuations
at all. It's like nothing happened. I kind of
expected that, so I didn't really learn anything,
but it doesn't make me feel any better. No. I'll
go see Nyla. Also, it's worth noting, you didn't
feel anything psychic being an empath. There
was nothing psychic about what happened. Yeah,
I'd be freaking out a lot more if there was.
Uh, yeah. You arrive at the conference room.
Nyla is already there. Of course, sitting at
the table, and she says, Sunleth, how are you
doing? I'm doing alright. What calls me here
today? I just wanted to talk to you. And that's
a lie. And then she winces at that. That she
knows what she just did and that you can tell.
And she says, it's just important you're here.
And that is true. I understand. You do not have
to hide things from me. Not that you can. But
that goes on soon. This fucking dolphin. How
have you been feeling? I have some points of
relationship with Nyla, right? Yeah, too. You
guys are good friends. We're good friends. I'll
be honest -ish with Nyla. I'll tell her I may
be experiencing some typical effects of wartime
trauma, having been here for some time, and having
experienced some of the things that have recently
been happening on this planet, but... I continue
to be dedicated to the mission. You know I care
a lot about all of us, right? The Union, the
Dusklights, all of that. That comes across, right?
Of course I do, Nyla. Thank you, Loyal. It's
really important. And have you thought at all
about the coronation? The king's throne has been
empty for so long. King? Oh, no. King? Loyal,
are you okay? Loyal, like, shakes his head in
his exopod and tries to, like, very quickly look
through the logs of his exopod to see if anything
strange has happened in that last second to account
for whatever the hell is going on right now.
Yeah, the last thing she said was, I'm glad I
can talk to you. This job asks so much of me
sometimes. I just want people to know that all
of this is for a good reason. You most of all.
Yes. I'm sorry. I appear to have had a glitch
in my exopod. It's probably nothing. That was
a lie. Well, sorry about that. Listen, I brought
some lunch, and she kind of, like, produces a
little basket. Said, why don't we eat before
everyone gets back? Of course. Are you able to
tell me why? The rest of my team has been selected
to meet with Mr. Bluth. No. Hmm. I see. Should
I be concerned for them at all? I would never
send you or the Dusklights into any mission that
wasn't for the good of the Soul Union. That is
a very carefully worded sentence. Yes, it is.
I'll play this game with Shivgrathor. What? Jack
says she procured in her basket. Shrimp chips,
of course. Hell yeah. Some good fish. Some fish
you have to go out of your way to procure. Wow.
Loyal says, You know you don't have to go out
of your way to get these from me. I have learned
to gather my own ingredients on this planet,
and you know that old Luigi is... Very talented
at cooking seafood. He nods at you and says,
let's just have a good lunch, okay? Okay. Very
suspicious now. I'm going to end it there. You
have a good lunch. She's not very talkative.
So, team, you show up at the corporate tower.
It's not a long flight at all. It's like maybe
15 minutes, like including takeoff. And you...
Worthy expertly positions the ramp of the dropcraft
right at the edge of the tower, where, Hex, not
too long ago, you had just done a very long walk
down. I hate this place. Hex, let's have a groan
thinking of that last time, but is the elevator
working this time? It is. It's not designed for
people to enter at the top without having gone
up at first, so it does not prompt you for any
access credentials. Hell yeah. It is also one
of the few times that, well, that's not true.
The elevator is not designed to prompt people
to go down floors, only to go up floors. So it
doesn't actually cause a problem for you. And
you go to his office, 61 -91 -2. But when you
arrive, you notice that his nameplate on the
office has been removed. And it is dark inside
and unoccupied. There's nobody there? There is
no one in this office. Geist immediately turns
back to the rest of his team and he's like, I
think we were pulled away intentionally. This
is either a fucking trap for us or for Loyal.
We have to get back up to the roof now. Agreed.
Can we do, like, a survey to see if anything's
off? Sure. Let's see. I mean, I'll just give
this to you, Hex, because of your background.
Everything about this... It's as if he was fired
or demoted. Okay, so there's still admin staff
around that Hex can get to. Yeah, there's people
doing mail stuff. If you pull one aside, they're
like, oh, he's on floor 40 now. Okay, that happens.
And Hex goes back to Geist with a smile on his
face and says, don't worry, I don't think this
is like that. Not a trap? No. More like a nice
gift. Oh. So, but, like, where should we go then?
I thought we were here to meet him. Oh, well,
let's go to the 40th floor. Right, yeah. We were
told to meet him. They'll give you, like, they
tell you what office he's in now. Yeah. Which
is 40 -75 -9. And, like, we're on 100 or whatever?
You're on 61. All right, no. We went in the wrong
elevator. Just a mistake. Do we have to walk?
Yeah, let's go down and see him. No, as long
as you're going down floors, you can take the
elevator. All right, cool. Let's do it. Let's
do it. And you arrive at the office. It is clear,
as you suspected, that he has been demoted. Not
only has he been moved down the tower, but his
title, which is now on a paper insert instead
of an engraved one, just reads September Bluth
Union Advisor 2, which is not just a one, but
two steps below his previous role as union liaison.
I like the new office. You enter, I presume?
Yeah. It no longer has the fancy self -scanning
locks. You can just open the door. No more whale
skeleton either, I presume? I'll tell you in
a second. So his office is markedly worse. Plain
carpeted floor, no conversation pit, no whalebone
table. However, his Xeno spiral desk remains.
Presumably he actually owns that. And he sits
behind the desk. pouring over some holographic
document, and as you enter, he dismisses it and
straightens up from his undignified slouch. I
always preferred normal handles. Heck says, like,
to his team after walking in. September. The
front... Oh, I have to find his voice, don't
I? Fuck. The front desk did not say you were
checked in. Yeah, we kind of let ourselves in.
Oh, typical. Take a seat. And he says, gesturing
to a plain plastiform couch tucked in the corner
next to a wilting office plant. Yeah, Geist strolls
over. Geist thought this guy was a pretty big
douchebag the one time that he met him, and he
kind of knows that Hex doesn't like him very
much, so he's kind of just like, you know, trying
to be as blasé as possible. He strolls over and
flops down on the couch. Joseph has like no...
He doesn't understand anything about what is
happening. He just thinks someone was moved.
So he sits down and immediately says, It seems
you've been demoted from your position. I'm so
sorry to hear that, but I'm sure wherever they
place you, you can be a great help to all of
us. He nods. He stares at you for maybe ten seconds.
Since you are all so adept at destruction, I
have a very simple job for you. A corporation
not associated with the corporate count. This
isn't his voice. Antebellum. A corporation not
associated with the Corporate Council has decided
to erect some algal extraction operations in
Caldera Lake. They are directly funded by the
Clusterists. Well, rather, they are directly
funding the Clusterists, so this will have a
great benefit to you and your cause. We need
you to destroy their four extraction platforms.
And he brings up a holographic diagram of the
platforms, which I will actually have a... It's
not very complicated, but I do have a visual
aid for you. It should pop up. Oh, there you
go. Each is about three kilometers apart from
each other. We have no further intel on their
capabilities, but expect resistance. They will
likely have their own security. We do know they
have an office in the Commerce District, which
could have more information. Whether you decide
or not to gather more information is at your
discretion. Once it's done, we'll have you plant
the wreckage of a Clusterous frame in the area
to implicate them. Regardless, it will be a solid
blow to their representation. Let me get this
straight. We're being sent on a false flag, corporate
-funded sabotage operation, allegedly to harm
Clusterous interests, and it's just so fucking
convenient that the only member of our team...
Who is unable to tell if a person is telling
a lie or the truth was not invited to the briefing.
Doesn't that sound a little convenient? What
do you mean? I don't think it's worth the breath.
I think I've heard everything I need to. Very
well, well, your rules of engagement are as follows.
Destroy all four platforms, prevent any evidence
of our involvement from leaving that facility,
and then plant the evidence. Likewise, you cannot
mention the particulars of this operation to
anyone until it is complete, especially... in
this building. Failure will mean no more funding
from the council. Even this operation was funded
using my personal equity. There's no room for
failure. Do you understand? Just some nods. Thank
you. There's one thing I know how to do. Let's
blow shit up. Nods. Always a pleasure. You may
go. Grace leaves him. He even had to sell the
whale bone. Uh, yeah, you are returned to your
hangar to plan your next steps. As soon as we
leave, as soon as we get out of the meeting room
even, I think Geist is going to try and message
Loyal. Is Loyal still with Nyla at this time,
or is their lunch over now? That's up to you,
really, Loyal. How long did their meeting take?
How long does Nyla detain me, so to speak? I
don't think it matters that much. I think there
could be overlap either way, so you can choose
where you are. Yeah, I don't think Loyal will
have stuck around with Nyla if she wasn't telling
him to specifically say some pleasantries and
be like, well, thank you for lunch, bye, and
then go back to probably the hangar, honestly.
Something ain't right there. And that's where
he will get the call from Geist. Yeah, Geist
will just be like, look, we got briefed. This
one's real murky. But, uh... I don't know. We'll
go over the particulars when we get back. I suspect
we may have been lied to about a couple of things,
and we should probably do a little digging of
our own. Just a thought. This is unsurprising.
We will look into this together. Yeah, we fly
back. Actually, can we even get back up to the
roof? Do we gotta Shanghai somebody into giving
us access or something, because it's up? Yeah,
it probably takes a lot longer than you would
hope it would. Where it's like, sorry, you gotta
go down to the front desk and get your guest
badges, and then we need to void the guest badges,
and then we need to make you a one -time access
patch to go to the roof. And they're like, actually,
I don't think we're gonna be able to do that,
because it's Tuesday, and we have executives
meeting up there, and there's more security,
so you're just gonna have to take a taxi. Take
a taxi to the fucking roof to get my billion
-dollar killer robot back? No, take a taxi to
the base. Can you see why I left? Ugh. Hex, can
I just shoot him? I wish. That would be a bad
idea. Is there any way that Worthy can scoop
our frames off the roof so we don't have to come
back to get them? No, sorry. You don't get to
use them in the next mission. Damn it. You can
remote pilot them. Worthy can pilot them. It's
not an issue. I forgot. I have, like, a super
quality remote that I can use. Yeah. I mean,
did you... Looks like an Xbox controller. Did
you fly up there, jump out of... onto the ground
with your frame, then get out of your frame like
a Matryoshka doll? I thought we jumped out of
our frames onto the roof and then out of our...
Sorry, out of the ship onto the roof and then
out of our frames. You could have done that.
Yeah, sure. Yeah. I mean, if our frames just
aren't there, then yeah, we can take a taxi back.
That's fine. Geist, I don't think, has that kind
of level of pride that he would be unwilling
to, especially if it's such a short distance.
No, you get him back one way or another. You
could have landed on the roof. It's not really
important. Okay. Okay, you are all back together
in the hangar. Support staff is there. Military,
the soldiers, gopher, all that stuff. Yeah, Geist
gives Loyal all the information that we received.
So Nangma was the reason that you weren't allowed
to come along, is that correct? It was strange.
It was very purposeful that I was not there.
Did she question you at all? So he definitely
did lie. There was no questioning. She gave me
lunch. Lunch? She said it was very important
that I was with her, but... I know Nyla. She
was uncomfortable with the entire situation.
Sounds like we're just making dirty money. That
doesn't sound so strange to me. The only thing
I can think of that could possibly be a lie is
the idea that this whole operation is cluster
-ist funded, everything else, you know, we could
verify pretty easily. I mean, would Hex have
working knowledge that, like, we're tight on
budget? Like, peacekeepers? Yeah, like, even
more so lately that we would need this. uh yeah
so it was basically like the first mission you
did for them lend lease um yep was well it was
a failure so you got less money than you were
supposed to and it was like basically the understanding
that in order to sustain your current level of
readiness and like the amount of downtime actions
you get mechanically you would need to continue
to be doing these missions for them every now
and then guys it's pretty simple this you're
right this this is dirty but If we want to keep
doing our work, this is the price we pay. So
you're telling me that there's really good odds
that we're just about to knock over one of the
Corporate Council's competitors who aren't involved
in the war at all? Pretty much. A tale as old
as time. This is real fucking dirty. Frames don't
grow on trees. I guess not. What were we told
that we could dig up extra intel on? Was it just
like the operation in general? Yes, they have
the company that does this algal extraction operation
actually has a office in the Commerce District,
which is not far from where you are. And he said
there may be information there that you can use
to help you on this operation. He can't guarantee
it, but it sounds like he knows very little himself.
Well... What do you think, Hex? Do you feel like
blustering in on another corporate op to try
and steal secrets? I suspect this one will have
less, you know, child combatants than the last
one. Something isn't adding up here. I have no
doubts that we are now fighting for money instead
of for any cause. However, it's so obvious to
hold me back. In order to hide the lie from you,
they must have known that you would come back
and ask me about it. Or that it would be construed
this way. Yeah, I don't know what the hell they
think they're getting away with. You're right.
It is too simple. I'd hope Nyla knows that we'd
be able to figure this out. Are they really getting
this sloppy? Fuck, I hope not. I don't think
so. You know, I always, especially back in the
old days, had this. idea, you know, that the
whole bureaucracy smokescreen, the black sites
and the black budgets and the non -human person
divisions of, you know, the peacekeeper organization
were all obfuscating these grand secrets, you
know, the kind of black box shit that could really
change the war and turn things over. What if
they're not? What if they just have no idea?
What if they're all floundering? I think that's
worse. Yes, much worse. I think that's closer
to truth. You think Bluth has any control over
his situation? Of all of us, you wouldn't know
the most about high organization. We all answer
to someone, and unfortunately, we're going to
have to do something unsavory here. I'm ready
to go in stealthier again. I think I learned
from last time and Joseph and I can pull it off.
That's the other thing that I don't get about
all this is that if they were trying to keep
information from us, then what point us to a
source of uncompromised intelligence that might
contradict the lie. It can't be that simple.
I don't think we should waste any more time thinking
about it. Not for now. Is that in the hangar?
I don't think so. Do the peacekeepers have an
open door policy? I mean, you could call her
if you want. I wanted to do that for my own reasons,
but I'll wait to see what everyone else does.
Or do we all just want to go knock on her door?
Actually, I want to ask Joseph to try to interface
with the hangar matrix to be like, hey, I tried
this and failed. Maybe you'd be better at it
than me. I still want to figure out what that
was. Okay, am I allowed to do that? Redo a roll.
Yes, you do it, and there's nothing there. In
fact, you look at it, and the power fluctuations
are perfectly registered, and everything seems
normal. There's a surge in the power grid. It's
reported right there, line 26. I relay this to
Loyal. Thank you for doing this favor for me.
It's like... It makes sense how he could have
missed it. It was under a subdirectory. The logs
aren't always obvious where they are. Power Surge
goes into a different thing. It's hard. But you're
a robot. You're smart, Joseph. Good on you. Thanks.
God. You're welcome, son. If we have major questions,
maybe we can all go to Nyla and ask her to see
what's up. We could, but if... They went through
all this effort to keep Loyal out of the briefing.
Well. Nyla won't be able to answer. She'll want
to, but... No, you're right. She's... I think
we'd only bring her pain. She's professional.
Well. Feels like we're getting in over our heads.
Yeah, I don't think we have a choice here, not
for now. Colin, question. On the hard drive,
was this company, the LG one, mentioned at all?
No, not at all. If you Ctrl -F it, it's not there.
He would've. I gotta use my suspiciously air
-gapped laptop really, really fast for an undisclosed
reason. Fuck, it's corrupted still. Is that Linux?
Can I text Nyla a messaging instead of calling
her? Just to say, like, can we talk? Question
mark. Send that off. And wait, hopefully, for
a response. Was it red? No response. You get
a red receipt. God damn it. Maybe we can find
something at their headquarters that'll shed
some more light. Like before, you know, this
whole infiltration thing is in my bag, so I can't
really do much besides stand back and wait, unless
you want me to stand there and look intimidating.
So, I don't know. Your call. I think we go in
with that setup again. What do you think, Joseph?
That I can do. Ready to be a briefcase again?
It's very easy. No matter what, we cannot implicate
the Peacekeepers Union on this, so don't get
your ass caught. So you are heading to the office
of the Mixin Extraction Corporation? Yeah. Do
we have air load, by the way? Yeah, is this like
an engagement role type thing, or is this just
a little side scene thing? No, I mean, I'll just
assume you're light load and all that stuff.
I'm not going to do an engagement role, because
this isn't even the real thing, and it's not
going to be that hard. Okay. Yes, it is a tiny
office in the Commerce District. It's like, you
think about like those little strip mall offices
you would see in the world that we live in. It's
like that. You know, there's like a front desk.
um presumably some offices behind the desk um
and there's like a bored looking security officer
sitting in the lobby like you can just see that
from outside through the glass windows seems
simple enough so are we all outside or is it
just me and joseph it's up to you uh you loyal
and guys do you want to hang back and be fire
support or you want to try stealthing in no guys
uh Yeah, here's the thing. Geist, fire support
in this context is a peacekeeper frame leveling
a small corporate office in the city. So I don't
think, unless things get really bad, Geist probably
isn't going to intervene. But I'll take a look
at the pilot. Maybe he can just be on an adjacent...
Yeah, he's just got him. I'll take light load.
He's got his hitman rifle in a briefcase. And
he's hanging around. Yeah, I'll be back up in
case something goes really wacko, but I'm hoping
it won't come to that. So what are we exactly
doing right now? So we're going in. Infiltrating.
We're infiltrating. And we're fucking false flagging,
if I understand correctly. You're not false flagging.
And we need to blow up four silos or something?
There are four oil platforms. You are getting
information on them at this office. Can I make
a sonar map? Of the office? Yeah, if you give
me a roll. Cool. You shatter the eardrums of
the front desk person. Oh, no. There's a dolphin
out there. Get your guns. Okay, that's going
to be... I'm doing it with my mech. Or do I even
have my mech? Maybe you're really far away. You
probably don't want to have your mech here. That's,
yeah. Hmm. And you and your dolphin in the chair.
Yeah, how do I get close enough to make a sonar
map if it's just going to be Hex and Joseph doing
this? If you want, there can just be a side alley
next to it, and you just walk into the alley.
Put your melon against the wall. I float into
the alley, and I put my melon against the wall,
and I survey it. Is this controlled or risky?
There are no stakes. This is a gather information
roll. Cool. Six. That's a success. Here's what
you know. They're behind the desk. Our offices
at the end of the hallway is a server room, which
is across from the break room. And that is the
entire thing. There's nothing particularly shocking.
One of the office workers has a gun, like a pistol.
That's Kosta's belly, baby. The railgun's coming
out. What's the ROE? In other news, a local strip
mall was... Exploded. Alright, so do you convey
this to us, Loyal? Oh yeah. Shows up on our headsets.
Alright. Hex speaks over our comms. This feels
too easy. I almost feel like we're being sent
out of the way. Anyone could have done this.
Agreed. Well, maybe I'm not answering back. Also,
I guess I can't really be put in a briefcase.
I'm probably not that small, but I could be in
a toolbox. A toolbox sort of makes sense. I feel
like I could fold up into a toolbox. You could
be in a large floating toolbox. There you go.
The old toolbox trick. And also like a visual
question, Loyal, I always assumed you were like
rolling around in an orb of water. Are you a
floating orb of water? Yeah, I made a 3D model
of what my exopod looks like. Find that gif,
put it back in the chat. You're like Grogu. Alright,
that's better. I like that more. It's like a
floating kind of throne, but capsule -shaped,
and also there's like a glass tube -ish thing.
That's ADA -compliant. And I live in it. Oh yeah.
Hex waltzes in with his conveniently acquired
construction hat. Hazard vest. And clipboard
along with his floating toolbox. You know, all
reliable. All reliable. Love this one. And well,
let me read this because I took this. When you
use a disguise or other form of covert misdirection,
I get to add plus one to all of my action rules.
So just to confuse or deflect suspicion. So yeah,
just just for this situation here. So Hex walks
in and just gets into character. And says, who's
in charge here? The front desk lady speaks to
you. And she says, the office manager, I guess?
All right. I'm here on behalf of the building
owner. Apparently, we're out of compliance on
some load -bearing walls or something. It could
pose a danger. You mind if I inspect? And then
the walls over there, he kind of gestures towards.
Like, the areas around the server room. Give
me a sway. Get a plus one for your thing. Control.
Standard. You got this. Oh, but I have bad news.
I suck at sway. It's okay. Sway. Plus one. Controlled.
Alright. I'm leaving you. Come on, Hex. Are you
fucking with me? Good god. Failure! Alright.
She says, Oh, I'm... I absolutely I'd love to.
Can we see like some documentation of that just
so we can, you know, log it in our book? What
am I thinking? This hex, you know, he's prepared
and he has some fine official documents. Which
he hands over and they identify him as, you know,
a liaison for the landlord of this building and
that he needs to perform this inspection. Give
me another sway roll. If you would like, you
can take the same roll, but now as a risky position.
This one will be a five. Let me see if... Do
I bribe her? You could push yourself. Got this.
Fine. Sway, risky, plus one. Alright. Partial
success. That's what I said! I said it was gonna
be a five. I am prophetic. Yeah, she notes it
down and says, um, okay, just, um, you're gonna
have to be out in five minutes because we have
some clients coming by, so just make it quick,
please. I'll do my best, but I think your clients
would appreciate it if the building didn't fall
on them. She rolls her eyes. Alright. Hex goes
over there. Idiot. The toolbox gives you a thumbs
up. Alright. You get to the, wherever you want
to be, outside the server room door, I presume.
Yeah, I'm ready to uncoil like a hyper. Is there
anyone watching? No, not really. Alright, then
Hex gives Joseph the all clear and just starts
pretending to be writing things down and inspecting.
Okay. Or how about this? You open the toolbox
and I'm using my camo and then I like crawl out
and then you put your hand in the toolbox. So
it looks like you're grabbing something that
way. Even on the camera, you can't see Joseph.
Beautiful. Genius. Anyways. And also, Joseph,
you know this. We have like a payday mechanic
with this beneath noticeability. So when I throw
off this disguise, we get initiative. Oh. Just
in case we need to beat her up, you know? Yeah,
just letting you know. She's the final boss.
Alright. Yeah, I kind of uncoil and I look for
a vent. I suppose I'm looking for a vent to get
into the server room. You don't need to. The
door's unlocked. Oh, okay. Well then, I slip
inside the server room. Sure. You are inside
the server room. There's a computer in front
of you. Would you like to interface with it to
gather their dark secrets? Can I search the server
room first for any traps? This is so easy. For
any new terrorist collaborators to befriend.
Yeah. Sure. All right. That would be a survey.
Let's see. Just so we're safe here. Okay, cool.
I guess. What happens? A three and a two. Failure.
You notice that there is, like, the equipment
here is, like, way too high spec for what it
is. Like, they have some advanced firewalls here
that makes you a little... I can't tell you how
you feel, but it's not impossible that they would
have some countermeasures on the server in case
you hacked it and messed up. Hmm. Okay. Well.
I don't know. Maybe I take some pictures with
my robot face camera of these and I'll send them
to loyal and guys since they're hanging out and
say like pretty advanced. I send that off to
them. Question mark. And I guess I'll get to
interfacing with the computer, right? And that's
just risky standard. Yes, that is risky standard,
my friend. Partial success. Okay. The platforms
are... They look like oil rigs. I'm going to
put a picture up. If you're watching and you
want to know what an oil rig looks like, Google
oil rig. Here you go. This is what they look
like in general. There are four of them. They
are a certain amount of part. They do have security.
They have a security personnel on site that you
do find out about. I'm not... going to pin down
a lot of hard details, but instead of what I'm
going to do, I'm going to give you one preparation,
which is a resource I made up to resemble things
abstractly, which you can use for a free or discounted
flashback regarding this operation whenever it
takes place. If I said, like... Actually, no,
that gives away what won't happen. If, like,
I said, like, a giant demon showed up out of
a portal, you'd be like, well... I knew about
the demons in this part of town, so I was ready
for this and brought my demons or something like
that. Yeah, you know, just so keep that in mind
because it will be helpful. Okay, I have some
ideas already. But there are no security systems
on here that trigger. Nothing goes wrong. Just,
you know, you just get a little bit more information
because you run out of time. You know, the people
start coming in and they're like, hey, You gotta
go. Hey, building inspector, who's typing on
our hard drives? Hex is outside, I presume. We
really need you to leave. You guys have a restroom?
Can I go before we go? No. Yeah, they let you
pee. Joseph can fold back up into the toolbox.
I'm not gonna make you roll for it. It works
out. All fine. They're not suspicious of you.
Hex, Phil, get the fuck out. Alright, he leaves
and stole a candy bar from their snack thing
on the way out. So I assume you share with the
class what we got? Yeah. We rendezvous. Give
them everything I have. I tell you this didn't
do anything to make me feel less suspicious about
this bullshit. Why was it so easy? Why did they
have such a high -end server but nothing protecting
it? It does feel like we're walking right into
something, doesn't it? You know, for once, I
think everything is as it should be. Leave this
to be a standard mission? It's not a clean one.
I think it's just dirty because of why we're
doing it, not necessarily anything else. I mean,
you guys tell me. Do you think Nyla has a reason
to want us off base? The timing just feels strange,
after all our interrogations and keeping Loyal
away. Yeah. If it's so simple, why is so much
thought being placed into it, it seems? Seems
things have been made easier for us. This might
just be the simple part. I mean, they do have
pretty advanced tech. Look, Hex, if you think
that this is just a slightly dirty op to help
the solar union pay the bills, then fucking fine.
I'm in. You have my support as well. I'll be
there. That's what I think, but... It feels like
you all know a little bit more than I do about
bigger dynamics at play here. I don't know shit,
I'm just jumping at shadows. I just count the
beans. Let's just all be extremely careful on
this one. How about that? Alright, caution. Caution
is still warranted. Yes, let's move out then.
So we return to base with our ill -gotten info.
I really hate to say this because I know that
it is just tempting fate on a grand scale, but
I think we just gotta go. I think this is just
a good old smash and grab. I think we just put
some clusterous little ID badges on the shoulders
of our frames and bring our little false flag
baggie of crack cocaine to sprinkle on the dead
bodies and we just go blow all this shit up.
Alright, and you know, because it was close enough,
I'm gonna just assume that was in character because
that feels like a good briefing. Yeah. In regards
to that, just so you understand the rules of
engagement, there can't be any evidence or witnesses.
Well, I mean, can't there be witnesses if we
look, like, clusterous? Like, what if we just,
like, spray -paint ourselves or something? Like,
what outwardly marks us as, um... There is footage
of your frames fighting at the refinery. We're
famous. That's part of that consequence. What's
the personnel list here? How many people are
we condemning to death? Oh, that's a great question.
Let me look up how many people work on an oil
rig and then add it up. Oh, that's small. That's
not a big number. But these are big oil rigs.
The goal is to blow them up, right? Am I crazy?
Yes, destroy them. How are we going to do that?
Probably like... Like 100? Okay. 120 times. Well,
these are big rigs, so let's say 200 times 800
people. So yeah, nearly a thousand innocent people
were condemning to death to help the solar union
pay the bills. They're not innocent. They're
funding the clusterists. Yeah, I'm sure that's
fucking true. I don't know. I think Geist is
getting edgy from all of this talk of conspiracies
and black boxes, and he's willing to just blast
in there and kill everybody, but he is willing
to entertain other ideas as well. Our alternatives
are we have to either kill everybody or not get
seen. And both of those seem like fairly tall
orders. So I don't know. Also trying to figure
out how Sorry, go ahead, Brian. Hex is very much
in camp. Just follow orders, destroy everything.
Let's not complicate it. Yeah, I am as well.
I'm just trying to figure out, like, how do we
destroy four of the rigs without, like, we can
bring our frames in, but then we're immediately
going to get noticed. So then are we, like, going
in and setting charges? We just kill everybody.
Missile? Yeah. Well, we can bombard it, but the
easiest way would probably be to just blow up
the support beams and sink it into the ocean.
That'll probably kill everybody. Would we be
able to do that with, like, worthy ship? Like,
from above, send missiles over? We could declare
vehicle gear that's destruction tools. Missiles
are expensive. There's no way that they would
authorize a missile strike, especially because
the Clusterists don't have the facilities to
probably launch that kind of hardware remotely
unless it's off of a frame. Gotcha. But yeah,
we got stuff. I got a railgun. Yeah, like, we
could also just declare two destruction tools
and just break it. Yeah, we can get in there.
We can use our prep to blow stuff up. There's
all kinds of ways to... Destroying things is...
Generally, yeah, it's relatively easy. Like,
to just, to put into context the power of flashbacks
in general, because I know we haven't used them
a ton, you can do some really insane shit with
flashbacks. When I was playing one of Wyzak's
games, I made it so that my character had paid
off one of the people on the other side to kill
another person. Like, you can really do some
weird shit. You can even, you could be like...
Well, Hex got a job on the oil platform. You
know? He falsified his documents. He got hired.
You know? Like, you can do crazy shit. I'm not
abusing this enough. Okay. Yeah, no. Flashbacks
are fucking awesome. They just cost your stress.
Yeah. So let's get in there. We gotta pick. Let's
just get in. Let's start going. What's our...
So we gotta pick our approach. Yeah, what's your
method? What's our method? I'm trying to find
the fucking summary thing. Is it on the... Is
it the bottom, right? It's where they're planning
the mission. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Assault, Deception,
Social, Stealth, Transport, Scientific. I mean,
Geist is definitely an Assault kind of man. I
don't know if you guys have an idea for a Deception
or a Stealth. Hex can always get a job and Joseph
can plant explosives. Back in the old reliable.
Back in the toolbox. Well, no, because they'll
know your frame. Yeah, and then they'll die.
Oh, but they might radio it out. Can we get a
haze dropped on the place? I mean, you each have
giant haze -generating mechs. Oh, our mechs can
generate haze? Is that a gear? No, they just
all have that. Sorry, I should have made that
clear. That's an implicit thing every frame has.
Okay. Could we theoretically breathe one of the...
what, one of the Derricks? Or is that too far
of an area of effect? I just want to know if
we can, like, stop some dipshit from looking
out the window and then sending a text to his
friend, LOL, the peacekeepers are here, right
before I, like, fire my rocket into the window
of his house, you know what I mean? I mean, if,
like, you're, from what you know, you're, like,
one frame is enough to cover an entire platform.
Okay. Provided they are using wireless transmissions.
Which I guess, so here's the thing I ran into
when I was prepping this, is that I didn't want
to hard code all the variables of the mission
to allow for more flexibility, but also like,
some of it I kind of have to? Like, that was
something. Anyways, I don't know. Let's just
get in. Yeah, let's just go about it and we'll
see what happens. Yeah, if there's complications,
it's because you rolled that. Yes, let's attack.
I'm in for attacking. Let me give you a couple
things. Now I'm looking over a thumbsling. So,
a couple information that you might know about
the area. There are megafauna in the lake. They
do attack vessels, but most, like, there's technology
to repulse them. It's very easy to use. That
is an option. What else might you know? Platforms
1 and 4 are obscured. by the curvature of the
planet, from each other. Oh, that's convenient.
These are foggy. And I guess you would also see,
yeah, they're, like, miles apart. Okay. I guess
also you would know that in the early mornings,
it is very foggy, and they cannot see each other
at all. Cool. Let's attack at dawn. I think...
Do we all need to go for a different platform
for the haze thing? That's if we want to jam
them all at once, but if we just jam one, they
shouldn't be able to talk to each other. I'm
just wondering if they see smoke, you know, from
a fire or something. They're like, oh, fuck.
Something's happening over there. Like, they
would start to realize, right? Yeah. Does Worthy
have a submarine he can use? How's Joseph in
water? As far as I know, you only have one submarine,
and that's Sunless Mech. Wait, I have a great
idea. Remember, Adam, you love Red Alert, right?
I love Red Alert. Remember the suicide dolphins,
but not suicide in this case. They have lasers
on their head, okay? They have sonic beams. Yeah,
the dolphins didn't do suicide bombs. What if
Loyal just planted bombs at the bases? I was
going to say, can Loyal convince the megafauna
to attack the bases? Like with empathetic abilities.
Angry giant squid time. Something is easier to
talk to than others. We have a dolphin, let's
leverage it. We could also, we could send one
operator, one, each member of the team goes to
offline their own place however they want to,
but that would kind of be a nightmare to run,
so maybe that's not the best. Let's just get
into it. I just wanna... Choose your method.
So, we're gonna assault, we're going to assault
one of the, we're gonna go, so are we gonna go
everybody to one, and we're gonna start with
the two that are obscured? Yeah. I guess so.
Which platform are you aiming for? Can you bring
back up the... Can I see the... It's basically
north, west, east, south. And north and south
can't see each other even on a good day. So I
guess we'll start with east. We would start with
east or west, the close by ones while we have
the benefit of the fog cover. We should get into
it. I want to be able to finish this operation
at least in this session. Okay, let's drop down.
Okay. Is the mission bold? Yes. Yeah. Okay, one
die. Is the mission exploit the target's vulnerabilities?
Yeah, I guess so. That's a weakness. The weakness
is that they're completely unprepared for a military
assault. Yeah, they have no idea. Sure. Is the
squad receiving external support? Not really.
No, he's part of your thing. Any other factors?
Tier difference, minus 1D. So you have one die,
two die. Three die, minus one die for two, and
you have extra intel, which I'm going to take
you back up to three. So you'll have three dice
for this mission. Let's get into it. Let's smash
some shit up, boys. Who wants to be the lucky
star who... I'm going to risk it. I'm going to
risk it because this is... Geist hasn't been
able to do just like a no -holds -barred kind
of thing like this in a while, and he's really
excited about it, so I'm going to do it. Oh,
I think that's bad. That's a failure. That's
a full failure. Okay, for context, that is the
third time in a row that I have rolled a full
failure on three dice. I did it twice in my vignette.
Three times in a row. Like, even Hearthstone
has that. Like, no, sorry. No legendary card
for you. So, let me give you a bit of context.
So, it's a 10 -hour flight from Brass City at
the drop site. And Worthy's ship is not a very
comfortable ship to fly in. It takes you up over
the ice desert, which is just, you know, it's
exactly what it sounds like. I don't think I
need to describe that to anyone. Then it comes
back down over the mountains onto the coastal
shores of Caldera Lake, which is a humongous
lake which dwarfs everything around it. It takes
up a huge portion of the planet's surface. Like,
it is like one mega ocean, but in a lake. And
even from up here, you can see the palatial estates
which line the coast where the richest citizens
of Terra Brea live. or at least where their vacation
homes are. Your target is farther towards the
center of the lake, at least a couple of hours
from the coast. Here, the water is perpetually
warm because of the geothermal activity below,
resulting in a wide variety of life, and the
drop lights turn yellow in the cockpit, and Worthy's
voice comes over the intercom and says, you know,
10 minutes till drop, pilots, get ready. You
sit there, waiting for the drop light to turn
red, and, you know, he starts crawling towards
the objective. The drop light turns red, and
then a large shockwave hits Worthy's craft as
a flak round detonates right next to it. It's
never that easy. Surprise! Unfortunately, the
releases on your frames release as an unfortunate
little bug of being hit by this flak round, and
you go falling down into the ocean, missing your
target completely. Oh, no. You're in the water
now. And you're kind of like, I want to say like
maybe also, um, guys, you can fly so you can
avoid going in the water. Yeah. That's what I
was going to say. Can I transform and like speed?
Absolutely. He has mobility now. You can have
it for a little bit. Fuck. My jet pack sucks.
Um, so that is the first part of it. There will
be another part for the people in the water,
but I would like to give an opportunity. If guys,
you want to do anything, you're about like half.
a kilometer from platform three where you're
trying to get and you do like see additional
flak rounds hitting worthy's ship above you it's
like pulling out and he's like telling you like
i gotta get out here good luck i'll be back around
when it's over oh fuck um can i try and actually
grab you said joseph's frame was lighter i might
try and grab him and have the two of us fly to
the nearest target yeah sharp corners I could
slam my elbow into you and hold on. Sounds terrible.
Oh, come on. Catching a chainsaw. Yeah, that's
a maneuver. Yes, I love to maneuver. Let's see.
Let's see if I can go four for four on failing
three dice rolls. I don't think so. Good one.
That's a special. Yeah, I'll take it. So that
was desperate, just so you know. So you get an
XP for that. Yeah, you have... Get Joseph. Presuming
you get Joseph, where are you taking him? You
said that we were a half kilometer out from the
nearest target, right? The nearest platform that
we were going to jump on? Yes. Is that where
you wanted to put him? And you? Yeah. Okay. You
grab Joseph. You fly him to the platform. As
you approach the platform, you see that there
is already a frame on top of it. which is this
sleek, medium -sized corporate frame, like, all
black, everything, with these, like, precision
rifles. And you have your haze field on, so it's
very broken up, what you receive, but there's
this message that goes on the screen that says,
like, you know, this is a civilian operation.
Please break off. Like, we have tried to communicate
with you. This is your final warning. Cool. I
want to throw Joseph at this guy. Sure. The consequence
is that he's firing at you. That was just your
last chance. Yeah. And it's going to hit you,
Geist. This is a desperate consequence, but because
of the situation, I'm going to give you the level
two. Actually, I'm going to be way meaner than
that because I love to be a little bastard. Not
to Geist. What determines that you can fly? I
assume it is my fine mobility suite. It breaks.
A perfect shot right to your motor, and it just
deactivates. You can resist that, of course.
So if I resist that, I can resist one more. I
have three quirks left, so I can resist one thing,
and if I do, I can't push myself. But if I can't
fly, then we can't go between the platforms anymore.
Well, not without. Yes. I will... Oh, I could
junk my grapple hook. That would be devastating
to lose it so early, but I don't have almost
any gear declared because I fixed all my old
shit. Yeah, I think I'm gonna... Isn't junking
to resist harm? I thought it was to resist damage.
I'm sorry, to resist damage? This isn't damage,
this is me destroying a piece of your gear. Oh,
that is true. Okay, um... Let me read the description
on boosted reactor. I will... This is hard. I'll
resist it. I will resist it. All right. Spend
them quirks. I've added a few clocks under the
player visible clocks. It is alert sent, which
I'm going to tick once. There's the no witnesses
clock, and then there's match one, two, three,
and four, which are the name of four frames that
exist so far. Yeah, so I... Geist is going to
shout through the, uh, the microphone. Joseph,
can you take him out? Uh, Joseph says yeah. Okay,
I'm gonna, I'm gonna let go of Joseph in such
a way that the projector angle sent him flinging
at the rifle man. Also, I'll say this. That was
a lie. Okay, Joseph, you've been hurled. at this
guy just threw a crumpled piece of paper at this
man it's gonna bounce right off also i guess
i'm supposed to ask how did you resist geist
like what did that look um basically so i the
quirks i checked off were flexible flame and
roaring fast so i think that he just um basically
just by like as soon as he saw that the rifles
were tracking he put on just like a little bit
of extra boost and uh jiggled or basically jiggled
around the flexible configuration of his mech
so that the bullets ended up hitting, I will
say, not non -vital, but it ended up not holding
his jet area. Perfect. Okay. Joseph, what are
we doing? I assumed that, so I think Geist, and
also me in real life, assumed that Joseph had,
like, his mech had similar capabilities to his
pilot, and that if I threw him at him, he would
do some crazy ninja shit. Hopefully that was
not a completely misplaced idea. I have multiple
options that I've been thinking. All of them
seem impossible. But if I monkeyed onto this
man's cockpit, if with my sharp corners, could
I like punch through the view screen and just
like kill the guy in the cockpit? Or is it too
strong? Not using a weapon like your bare hands
would be less effective than using a weapon.
Yeah. Which you have all of your or most of your
vehicle gear is undeclared. So you can. you know
still declare i don't have a i have that laser
that's like the one thing i have um that's the
other thing i was like can i should i charge
up my laser as i'm flying and then like if i
land on him i could fire the laser into his cockpit
i don't know that's too hard you even firewall
going while flying there you know this is a realm
of of beauty and absurdism so firewall flying
through the air that'd be sick Sure. I mean,
it takes a little bit to power up. That's why
I'm like, if I land on him, I'm going to have
to power up and shoot him. But if I power up
as I'm going there, if I land, I could fire right
away. That sounds like a battle. Okay. Did I?
You can, you know, try for a bombard if you want.
I'll give you less effect, though. Can I assist?
Can I basically just... I mean, could this...
Can my... Just the action that I have declared
be counted as an assist? No. You can spend...
You can spend... Yeah, that's what I mean. I
can at least spend the stress. Yeah, okay. Absolutely.
Maybe I should bombard because I have two in
that and only one in battle. But it'll be less
effect. And if I miss two, then you get an extra
die, so that's two. Okay, we could try battling.
I just think effect is important because it means
we'll fill up these, kill these guys' clocks
faster, which I think is pretty vital right now.
We need speed. What does that do, effect? It
means you'll fill up his clock more easily. I
don't know the particulars, but it's like, for
example, if you rolled a full success with normal
effect, it will put more checks in the clock
than it would if it was limited effect. Okay.
All right. So it's a battle roll. It's a battle
roll, it is. And wait, do I need to change any
of the things on, like it'll affect the dice
and stuff? I need to like... You have plus one
die. It is desperate standard. That's a one and
a three. The worst outcome. Wow. Well, I feel
partially responsible for this one. Okay. This
whole thing, I was like, I feel like we're going
to die on this one. There's like no way we're
getting out of this. It felt like a suicide mission.
Here's what I'll do. You succeed. You pull off
a exceptionally good attack. You damage this
guy. I'm going to give him three ticks on his
clock. Match three is his name. You pull off
a very good attack on him. You charge your beam,
it shoots him, it lops off one of his arms, so
he's now one -handing this rifle of his. And
you go skidding across the deck, weapons at the
ready. Oh no, not the megafauna. Please. Not
the megafauna. We'll get to that. Okay. I'm just
going to say, I'm ticking the alert clock three
more times. Oh no. There is two ticks left on
this clock now until the jig is up. And that's
it. You don't take any damage. You did a good
job. Didn't you? And now I'm going to switch
to the other team. Hex and Loyal. You are half
a kilometer out from your friends. The last thing
you see is them starting to shoot before you
go into the watery deep. So, Loyal, you are particularly
aware of this. There is like a field that you
kind of like feel. It's not too dissimilar from
sonar. It's like this oscillating wave that you
can kind of see like in the bubbles just like
underneath these platforms and you are like outside
of it which is not great and you very quickly
notice the shapes big dark shapes underneath
you like a family of something is down there
and you know as you get your bearings and like
the the bubbles that are surrounding it kind
of clear away you see this huge shelled limb
kind of like You know, like, how squids have,
like, tentacles? Like, actually, more like cuttlefish,
how their faces are kind of tentacles? Yes. Imagine,
like, that, but crustacean. Like, just shelled,
multi -pronged, like, eight little things, like,
reaching for you and Hex. Is this a real thing,
or am I hallucinating again? Hex sees it, too.
Yeah, you hear Hex asking, hey, what are we doing?
I reach out to it psychically. My training kicks
in for dealing with the nautilids back on Europa,
and I'm going to try to calm it down, because
it's just an animal, right? Yeah, they're both
fish. That sounds like it would be a sway. Yep.
Desperate standard. Okay. Success! Thank God.
We needed one. Put that on the wall. Yeah, it's
upset. You know, in the classic story of environmentalism,
the algae extraction has upset their breeding
grounds and their eggs. And they thought that
you were one of them and wanted to crush you.
But now it knows that you are a friend to all
fishies. And they kind of just retract and they
sense your intentions. Your intentions being
to murder people. Yeah, suddenly I don't care
about destroying this oil rig. I was, like, on
the fence about it before. I'm like, we're doing
a dirty job. This is kind of weird. But now the,
like, the cuttlefish has come up to me like,
wait, I remember myself. I know who I am. I'm
protecting... Ecotourism! Yeah! I just need to
be home. Yeah, so you are no longer in a desperate
situation. You're in a cozy risky with Hex. Hex,
I don't know if you want to do anything or if
you want... Loyal to do something, but now it's
your time. You know what? I didn't like... Can
I just change what the mobility gear is since
it didn't work for flying? No, yeah. I mean,
yes, because you would have set it up in the
interim anyway, so you're fine. All right. It's
just like really shitty propellers, so I'm already
making my way to the platform. Sure. Y 'all be
swimming. Do you want to... I like the meme,
Wyzak. It's the King Returneth, just so you know.
Oh, I fucked it up. God damn it. Get another
take on that? Unbelievable. No, I will live with
my shame. To describe the meme for the listeners,
it is the, is this a butterfly image? Let's not
get off track. Instead of the butterfly, it is
a cuttlefish. And it says, is this the king returnid?
Which is wrong. Shame wise, Zach, shame. It's
not even funny because of that reason, which
is terrible. No, that makes it funnier. Keep
it. Are we back to the oil rig gamers? I mean,
Hex, unless you want to push it for a maneuver
roll to see how quickly you can get there, I
think you guys will get there in the next turn.
Could I be a battleship and just missile rack
from this distance? You could, except your missile
rack is broken because you never fixed it. Oh,
shit. Okay. Oh, no. Rip. We'll have to use a
gun. Gotta use your bare hands. Wait, isn't your
missile rack broken? I thought we fixed everything
in between because this was... Yeah, I thought
everyone's frames got okay. So, refreshing your
quirks is different than repairing junk gear
as a separate expense. It doesn't take a downtime
action, but you have to pay fun bucks to do it.
Okay, then. No missiles. You have other things
as well. Yeah, you can declare. A heavy cannon
is another thing that you can declare. You still
have this declared. It's just junked. Okay, I'm
going to have to look at the sheet history then
to fix that. For now, let's... How many do I
have? Okay. Yeah, I'll do the heavy cannon. Let's
put a howitzer. Fuck yeah. Yeah. He has an idea
where that first, the black corporate mech is,
and he's going to just fire it there. Sounds
a lot like a bombard, but if you want to try
battle, you can do it with less effect. Go for
it. Yeah, let's do battle. I'm not going to tell
anybody to take the less dice road anymore. Also,
technically speaking, he only has one tick left,
so all you need to do is one tick. I'm not falling
for it. Yeah, so risky standard, battle. Risky
standard battle. And I don't get disguise bonus
because I'm disguised as a boat. I'm not going
to answer that. Partial success. Actually, I
would have been risky limited, but it doesn't
matter. You suffer harm, complication occurs,
you have reduced effect, you end up in a desperate
position. Yeah, you fire your howitzer. It's
pretty amazing. Joseph, you're right in front
of it. It's like squaring up to shoot at you.
And then a large artillery shell hits it and
it explodes. Also taking out some... fleeing
personnel around it. Here are the comms. Did
I get them? You did well. Your consequence is...
The crabs are pissed. The crabs are not pissed.
Mega fodder. Not quite yet. Crabs love us. We're
fighting for their rights. Yeah. A vessel takes
off from the platform. It is like a cargo craft.
It looks like whatever they use to transport
the algae into orbit. And there are, like, a
bunch of people have piled into it and are just
taking off towards the sky. That is your complication,
is that this is a problem you have to deal with.
I have an idea for that. I probably see it. Yeah,
you all see it. I was going to try and see if
I could, like, destroy, like, some sort of communications
equipment to maybe take a tick off of alert sent.
So, Joseph, if you think that you can destroy
this ship, then you can go ahead, but I would
know for a fact that I could. Yeah. I was thinking
of maybe using my shadow to somehow deal with
it or the alarm, but I didn't know how I would
deal with the alarm. So I was shooting, I don't
know, like a radio tower? This seems like a flashback
opportunity. Yes, also, talking about shadow,
you could spend shadow to resist the ticks I
did to that clock. Like, you could resist that.
Nah, it's okay. I guess we're already here. Sure.
Just keep moving forward. Probably use it to
stop any future issues. But yeah, because I was
like, I could use Shadow on the leaving aircraft,
you know, the departing aircraft. Yeah, you guys
can do whatever you want. It's tied amongst yourselves.
You guys are very free in this situation. There's
a reason I'm not describing a lot about these
platforms. If you want to be like, is there a
communications tower I could see, I'd probably
be like, hey, survey for it. Or, you know, shit
like that. The two big things are an alert sent
and these guys leaving. So we probably need to
take care of those immediately. And if there
is a radio tower, then we just destroy that while
I take care of the fleeing craft. That sounds
right to you guys. So would I need to scan to
find how they're planning, how they're setting
out these alerts? Like, do they have some sort
of communications that can pierce the haze or?
Yes, you would need to. Someone would need to
scan. I can actually, I have two dice in scan.
I will have, you know, but I'm not the best at
it. I'll do it. Fuck it, I'll do it. I'm flying
over. I'm looking for a target because I know
that shit has gone bad and I know that we need
to find some way that we can pull this shit back.
So I'm going to try. I'm going to try scanning.
That was snake eyes. Come on, man. Yeah, I guess
that was risky too. Actually, I'm just going
to move you into a desperate position. You're
scanning the fucking cargo vessel. God save its
soul, someone installed afterburners on it, and
you see them kick in. It's like, whoa, what the
fuck? All that money is good for something. And
they are getting pretty out of your range. Oh,
fuck. Fly. Fly a little, Wyzak. I mean, I can
just shoot him out of the sky with my railgun.
Yeah, and my shadow can't do shooting. It's just
athletics or stuff. Then maybe Joseph should
just be the one scanning. Okay. My survey's done
for that. I got no survey. Yeah, I was going
to say, I can't take another action so soon.
Can I wait until I come back around in the rotation?
Yeah, because you're kind of spending your time
looking around for this stuff and leaving the
vessels for someone else. But we don't have to
do the same order now. You guys are all here,
so however you want to do it, feel free. Can
I... Am I able to use my shadow? Is it too far
away now for me to use my shadow? My idea was
I was going to jump from the platform and grab
onto it, smash its engines and direct it into
the sea, but at the base of the oil platform
so I can jump back on it and no one needs to
get me. Thus destroying the craft and getting
back to the area. It is pretty far. Do you want?
Can I be flown again? Okay, that's what I was
going to say. Here's what I'll say. Because it's
so far away, but because I want you to do something
cool. You could get there, Joseph. But not your
frame. Just you. Oh my god. Your frame cannot
be thrown that far. But you can. That's true.
That is true. And we gotta deal with this. I
think Joseph's toastering out of his thing and
trying to get over to our wise -axe hand. I'm
gonna land in it. It's like a little somersault,
and I land, and I don't even say anything. I
just point over there at the fleeing craft. Yeah,
I guess... What do we want to call this? Shadow?
Or is this a... I have to do a roll as well?
I mean, Shadow is for pushing yourself or resisting
a consequence. So you can use that. Like, this
will be a feat of athletics. You could definitely
get it for that plus 1D. Okay. I guess it would
be like... Prowl? Is this a prowl? Is this like...
Because I'm like jumping. I'm like jumping on
these people and ripping them to shreds. He's
just a springboard. So, yeah, I guess. Are you
going to aid Geis? You want to give that one
stress? Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll give
you the. Yeah, I'm going to do it. All right.
I've got. So you get plus one D. And then if
you want to use shadow, you can get another D.
Alley -oop time. Yeah. So plus two D. Risky standard
on a prowl. Yep. Yeah. All right. The little
arm's going back. Joseph turns into a little
cannonball. He hunches back. And he's ready.
And we're thrown. Yay! It's beautiful. Three,
sixes. Five and three. Yes, the Geist hurls you.
And with, like, a little bit of mid -trajectory
repositioning, you... So it's like a big ship.
Yeah. And I think it's so perfect. The back ramp
is still open, I think, as they pull up. You
go skidding through the middle of the cargo bay,
through the cockpit door, and you just ace the
two pilots in the cockpit, and it just starts
careening back down towards the Earth, which
I guess we'll get back to you. Just remember
your situation and what you'd like to do next.
It'd also be funny if the ramp is up and they're
all like, we got away from that. And then a robot
flies through the metal wall. Just like perpendicular
flying. Well, then I have to, you know, confirm
in fiction that Joseph is armor piercing. Of
course he is. You know, he's hollow point. Oh
shit. He has like a pointy hat on. Yeah. He puts
his party hat on. It's like throwback. Okay.
Hex and Loyal, you are on the platform now. You
just saw this take place. There are, like, people
still around. There are, like, some soldiers
who are, like, scrambling to get into position.
What do you want to do? How do we continue to
cover this up? Loyal, are you ready to get blood
on your hands? Because it's about to get brutal.
I'm thinking about the cuttlefish. All right.
Yeah, I suppose so. Hex knew that no witnesses
was the MO here, so he hooked up some anti -infantry
defenses. Oh, hell yes. That's what it fucking
is. So now that, I assume we're really close
to the platformer now, right? You are on it.
You pop up out onto it. Yeah, we pop up out,
and I imagine these look like little tiny, like,
swivel -mounted shotgun tubes on the outside
of a Texas mech, but they just start locking
onto any, you know, personnel running around
and just blast at them. like with shrapnel. So
is this a load item you are declaring? Yes. Oh,
and infantry defense. There it is. It's literally
just like a blender for any poor bastard who's
pretty much... Yeah. Some of these people...
Just so you know, some of these people are soldiers
and some of them are just like cowering people
wearing like safety vests. Yep. Okay. Just making
sure everyone knows what's going on. Roll it.
It's controlled. Controlled great. We're on that
righteous eco -crusader angle now, so we don't
have to feel bad. No, think of the squids. Is
this battle? This is battle. Oh, flamethrower
would be cool, too. It sure would be. All right,
that's a war crime. Listen, Hex draws the line
there. This is just very effective, all right?
That's what they're saying to each other in the
comments. Use the anti -personnel weapon for
the personnel. He's just checking boxes. How
far away is Hex? dang from these people when
he's doing this and i have a question about psychic
abilities after we're done with hex's attack
uh i assumed this was kind of uh like in my head
just a hex flips it on and it just starts it
if you play titanfall it's like auto mech defenses
that's how i imagine it so he's like well turns
it on and it just starts gunning people down
but if before the narrative colin you want him
to have to manually be shooting everyone we could
go that route too No, I think it's much more
appropriate for the setting that it's a machine
deciding who dies. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm
going for. Yeah, you turn on the kill human shaped
targets toggle. And it gets to work. It's extremely
efficient. This is what this thing is designed
to do. There's a reason people fight in frames.
And it's because when you fight a frame as a
person without special training, you get killed
by a robot that decides that you look too much
like a human. And yeah, you do it like they all
die. Like, it is quick. It is gory. Nice. Bye.
The no witnesses clock is going to go up by one.
You have handled that. Hell yeah. Easy. It ain't
much. That's it. Loyal. How much psychic effort
does it cause me and my mech to make me and my
mech, or my mech specifically, look like a clusterist
vehicle? Two people looking upon it. That would
be quite a sustained effort. Yeah. I mean, do
you have an appropriate ability besides the broadcast?
Well, I have a psionic amplifier built into my
mech. An inspiring appearance that can be many
things, but probably not applied here. I mean,
like, there's probably some people around you
could do it to. Like, if you want... Like, I
get what you're going for. But no one is going
to survive this, but if they get a communication
out during this attack, it could be bad for us,
etc. I'll allow it. In this limited scope, I
would say that what you'd be rolling at would
be to reduce the alert sent clock, because the
real danger of the alert is not that someone
knows it's under attack, it's that it's under
attack by you. Yeah. That's a good idea. Sure.
But what I would... Yeah, but this is an emotional
response. Mm -hmm. Okay. That's probably a sway.
Sure. Let's try it. What's my position? Controlled.
Standard. That's a six. You love to see it. Okay,
so it goes down by two. I just want to, like,
sink this whole platform. How so? How do oil
rigs in the future sit atop the surface? You
could. Use that prep that we have to say that
you just have a huge fucking bomb and you can
just slap it on the old support beam. Like the
plan B was you dive in and you just plant it.
That sounds good. Yeah. I mean, like the main
threat of this platform is gone. You can just
say you do it. Like whether you're smashing struts
or, you know, blowing it up with bombs, you know,
take like a few minutes and you can do that and
move on to the next platform. Yeah, I want to
say that my mech is very large. I'm actually
just physically destroying the struts. Like,
I don't think Loyal came into this with much
destructive gear because he was, like, really
on the fence about it. But, man, those cuttlefish.
He saw them and he remembered. Remembered something
deep inside himself that he'd forgotten. I'm
not a human, therefore I can kill them. There
you go. Yeah, Joseph. You are in the cockpit,
and the plane is, you know, it no longer has
a pilot, so whatever you want that to mean. Yeah,
I think, okay, I know what I want to do. Oh,
shit. So, go ahead. I was going to say, the hangar
is full of screaming people. Okay, perfect. Oh,
here's what I wanted to do. Oh, no. I want to
open the hangar doors and fly straight up and
dump them into the sea. I thought you were going
to say you should crash it into one of the other
rigs. I could do that, but then I'm just going
to be alone over there with probably another
frame. That's true. But we're going to be coming
soon. Joseph, you brainiac, you. So can I do
that? Just pour people out of it? Yeah, like
just because if I go in and kill them all, it
makes no sense. It's like going to take me a
while. So it's like. The quickest and most robot
-efficient way to deal with this is just to dump
them, because I know they'll die anyways in the
sea. I think that's going to be a roll still.
Interface with, like, the controls? Yeah, if
you want to maintain control of the vessel while
killing them, I would say interface. Okay. Let's
try that. Let's see if Joseph's crazy plan works.
Uh -oh. Failure. I'm excited about this one,
though. Your squad mates can see your feed, right?
Yeah. Oh, me? There's a helmet cam. Yeah, I assume
so, because he broadcasts everything. Yeah. At
this point, I think you guys are all just watching
the plane, because you're trying to reign the
regroup. Yeah, he turns the ship backwards, and
you notice that there are probably five or six
full families in the back as they begin to fall
out. Oh, no. So, Loyal, you are going to take
the level three harm. Extreme guilt as you watch
six families, children, parents fall to their
death with no way to save them. Do the auto cannons
lock onto them? Also, empathetically, Hex, I
know Geist, you probably are a little bit more
hardened. Hex, any feelings? Hex doesn't like
it. Okay, cool. You take the level one harm.
Guilt. He's just not looking, but he knows what's
happening. But do the autocannons lock on? Because
I think... Not at this distance. They're pretty
far away. Okay. The robot inside the autocannon
is like, my biggest regret is that I do not have
enough range to kill those women and children
that are falling into the ocean. A single tear
leaves the process. You were saying, Loyal? I
don't think I resist that. Okay. I'll say this.
Any of you can take this level 1 or level 2 harm
and you'll get a corresponding amount of XP.
That'll be my temptation for you. Is it guilt?
What do I name it? It is guilt. Alright, cool.
Level 3 is incapacitating, isn't it? It is. Oh,
dolphin with the drinking problem. Uh -oh. No,
as in, like, they can't... Loyal won't be able
to do anything without assistance. Yeah, the
mission's done, though. It's already sinking
into the ocean. That's not true. You have three
more platforms. Come on, you can't get soft on
the first one. Actually, if we're being honest
with the fiction, this would only be level two
harm because of the role. But level two harm,
extreme guilt. Okay, fine. Shouldn't have brought
their family around Clusterists. All I'm saying.
And one less die effective. And you can resist
that also, like anything else in this game. You
can spend your prep for a flashback where you
drink the hist sap, and they look like goblins.
Finally. Okay. Yes, so anyone who took guilt's
harm, you get one XP per level. So Loyla gets
two, Hex you get one. Joseph or Geist, if you
want to take any, you're welcome to. Hell no,
baby, I'm cold. This doesn't even please me.
How much XP do I get? That's the secret. That's
what I've been saying. You get 2 XP, Loyal. Ooh,
XP. I've been choking on my water in real life.
I was vicious. I might even gain stress back.