Back on Earth, far away from Terra Brea, reporters
cram themselves into a crowded room as the Peacekeeper
press conference begins. A burly, uniformed man
walks on the stage, a plethora of medals clanking
with each step as he takes his place in front
of a sea of cameras, scanners, and microphones.
He waits for total silence, then begins. Just
a year ago, we announced an extensive plan to
scale back the Peacekeeper presence on the planet
following some major developments. We had hoped
that the reduced presence would speed along a
peaceful conclusion to the conflict, but it seems
not everything has gone to plan. The incident
at Clearwater Crater is a tragedy, and stands
against the very principles that the Peacekeepers
were founded on. We all mourn the death of Mercy
Mariner as well as the tens of thousands of civilians
caught in this attack. We'll now hear a couple
of questions determined by random lottery. D
-52. Matter Bliss, Channel Z News. What is the
official state of the conflict on Terra Brea?
The Peacekeeper Office has provided no updates
since the announcement last year. Good question.
We are still committed to reaching a peaceful
solution to the conflict. That's all I can say
right now. Next question. W27, are you here?
Absinthe Miller, GG14 News. It seems pretty clear
by the footage and leaked audio of the briefing
who is responsible. How will the perpetrators
be brought to justice? We have already dispatched
a ship to arrest those involved with the attack.
We can expect to have them in custody within
a month. A public trial will, of course, be held
once they're brought back to Earth. And I hate
to cut this short, but I think that's enough
questions for now. Thank you all for your time.
Hello! Welcome back to Calamity Cascade. Today
we will be continuing our Beam Saber campaign,
All That You Know. I'm Colin, the GM, and joining
me today are Brian. I'm Brian, the bureaucrat
hex. New format, I like it. Zach. I'm Zach, and
I'm playing Geist, the ace. Ewan. Hello, I am
Ewan, playing Loyal, the empath. And Adam. I'm
Adam. I'm playing Joseph the Infiltrator. Cool.
So we have all done our vignettes. We kind of
know what's going on. I have some pieces of news
for all of you that kind of took place probably
during your vignettes, maybe a little bit afterwards,
depending on how long your vignettes take, how
long they took, or when they took place. The
first piece of news is that two members of the
Shutterbugs, Cheapskate and Temple, have been
killed in a brutal ambush during one of their
operations. Luckily, the other two Shutterbugs
had been stationed elsewhere at that phase, so
they're fine. But this is a pretty devastating
blow to the peacekeepers. And Joseph, chances
are this ambush was because of the tracker you
put on Cheapskate for Goldhouse. But there's
no way to know for sure. No. I mean, how do we
know? How do we really know? The second piece
of news involves local affairs, which is that
there have been some minor skirmishes between
Peacekeeper and Clusterous forces in the East
City again, coinciding with a substantial amount
of Clusterous leaving the city, somewhere around
10 % in that side of the city. There's kind of
limited intelligence available on that, but from
what you have heard, people are being encouraged
to leave the city, citing dangers. Informants
have told the Peacekeepers that while many want
to leave, they aren't able to. due to lack of
housing and resources outside of the capital,
especially after what happened at Clearwater
Crater. Oops. The third and final big news item
you may have already heard from Hex or from other
sources, but it has been confirmed that the main
peacekeeper organization back on Earth has made
an official statement regarding what is called
the drowning of Clearwater. And that is the intro
to this episode, which we've all heard. Basically,
they are sending a team to arrest those responsible
for the incident. It's not clear who that includes.
I hope they find him. Those bastards. I was in
front of a moo. Other than that, there's just
some minor personal changes that have happened.
Joseph got a new mech in downtime, which you
said looks the exact same as the previous one.
Yeah, I think Joseph probably gave a little blueprint
and says, do this again. And then he just waited
for it to come. Perfect. And Geist, you may look
different as well. Yeah, a little bit different.
Should I go over it now or when we're in a room
together? You'll be in a room together in a sec,
so we can just do it now. Okay. Geist looks pretty
much the same, unless you really look at him.
possible now especially depending on what he's
wearing along his spine there's like little um
little bumps beneath his jacket little ridges
that maybe come up a couple inches like he's
like a spinosaurus or something um but it's all
covered by his jacket except that the back of
his head is now covered in like bolted down plating
i think he used to have like a i imagine him
as having hair do you guys imagine him as having
hair i don't think i ever said it out loud i
imagine he still had hair on the top of his head
despite the fact that like He was missing his
jaw. So like the bottom half of his face is all
mostly machine. But like now the back of his
head has like visible plating bolted into it.
And when he's not moving, he's like extremely
still, like unnaturally still. He doesn't really
like fidget at all unless he's like moving to
accomplish a task. So what parts of Geist are
like still human at this point? Lungs? Does he
breathe? What's going on? He's still got a bunch
of his torso meat. It just has augmentations
bolted onto it for necessity. His brain, I think.
Does he have robo arms and legs? Yes. At the
start of this whole thing, he had robot arms
and legs, or at least forearms and lower legs,
like below the knees and elbows. His extremities
got pretty mangled, and he had to have severe
implantation. But he's mostly organic still in
his core, or at least he was until they went
in and removed his spine. He still has his hair?
I guess a little bit. I imagine he looks progressively
more and more fucked up because he's got the
blue skin now and this plating on the back of
his head. So he just has a little bit at the
top of his head. Just a little bit left. Yeah.
awesome like a baby got one little curl big blue
baby that's exactly what he is uh you are called
in for a briefing of course um you know in light
of this news nyla is here as she always is looking
more tired than ever before and she kind of seems
a little out of it like you don't know if it's
sleep deprivation or if she's like on something
Which is a little weird. An upper or a downer?
Probably a downer. Oh, Nyla. She kind of just
waits for you all to enter the room and just
kind of jumps into it and says, you are being
sent to Greywood Sands River Valley Settlement,
which has been chosen as The location of future
firebases now that we don't have to worry about
duty in the area. A garrison is stationed there,
led by one of the members of the Shovel Scum,
Jawbone. Jawbone has worked extensively to cultivate
a relationship with the locals, as well as defend
against clustrous guerrillas seeking to capture
the town. Her frame was damaged in recent sabotage,
and her garrison has been depleted by repeat
attacks from the hostiles in the nearby forest,
so we're going to have you go in and help her
out while we figure out more. permanent solution
out uh your job essentially will be to give the
garrison some breathing room by bringing your
frames in and scaring off any further attacks
we don't anticipate there will be any large offensives
once you show up they have not attacked with
any frames or really any significant hardware
so we hope that you just being there will be
enough um once you arrive jawbone will be shuttled
back to the capital so she can get her frame
repaired she'll return in about a week to relieve
you And she's going to give you some extra information
once you get there as well. In the meantime,
you're going to be put in control of the garrison
and tasked with securing the town further just
to make things easier for them. Clearwater has
disrupted a lot of the goodwill that has been
built here. The locals don't, well, we don't
think the locals know about your squad's role
in that particular event. This is not your typical
operation, but you do have some rules of engagement
here. While in the city, do not fire until fired
upon. Use proportionate force only. Do not destroy
any infrastructure in the town. Do not employ
frames inside the town. Do not torture or interrogate
combatants. Do not use any chemical weapons or
large -scale anti -personnel weapons while in
the town. And do not use any weapons which might
damage the force nearby, as it is vital to the
town's infrastructure and industries. You leave
in a few hours, but I'll hear your questions
now if you need to ask them. What the? We're
a bunch of frame pilots. What do we know about
troop deployment? Well, you know, you all get
basic infantry training as part of the pilot
course. And if anything, you are a symbol more
than anything for these people. And we bring
in our guys, like, you know, Warhawk and them.
Yes, they won't shut up about needing to be on
this mission, so I hope so. Are we gonna say
anything about the elephant in the room? Which
one? I think you know what I mean. Big announcement,
they're on their way to lock up somebody. Nobody
seems to know exactly who. Yeah. One month. And
it'll be three weeks when you get back from this
operation. So what, then? We just stay the course?
Well, if we knew where the Clusterous HQ was,
I would have everyone throw everything they had
at it. But unfortunately, with insurgencies,
we're trying to get information, but half the
Shutterbugs just got wiped out, and they were
kind of big for our intel division. Okay. Alright.
That's it for me. I should say, they did say
one month. I do not know what they're basing
those projections on, but if a ship is actually
on its way now, as they said, that's actually
two weeks, not one month, before they arrive
here. Do we have any plans for when they do get
here? I'm formulating some ideas. Understood.
What is... She kind of... leans in a little bit
and you it's hard to tell without a roll but
it seems like she reaches in her pocket for a
moment before moving on to saying this next part
and she says how do you feel about things going
forward Does it look like there's anything large
in her pocket? Yeah, like, can we, like, do a
perception? Yeah, one of you can roll a survey.
There will not be any stakes. You can just roll
it. Not I, for I have zero dots. Does anybody
have a dot in survey? I got nothing. I got one.
Oh, shit. We got survey. Time to survey. Is that
the best we got? Okay. Let's see what we get.
Failure. Yeah. You are not sure. It doesn't look
like she has anything out of the ordinary in
her pocket. Too bad. Assuming we all get the
gist that she reached for something, my mind
immediately goes to a recorder. He's recording
our responses. I guess. You want to call her
out on it? No. Well, Hex is paranoid. You know
what? Is anyone else listening? And he kind of
gestures to her chest pocket. Not anymore. And
she gives a little wry grin. I don't believe
her. Loyal, she's telling the truth. I can tell.
What was the question she just asked us? How
are we feeling about all of this? Yeah. Yeah.
That is... Complicated question to answer, Nyla,
as I'm sure you're well aware. Of course. It's
just, worst case scenario, let's say they arrest
the Dusklights, they arrest the Moondevils, they
arrest me, maybe, Director Jermaine, more likely,
then this operation won't happen. Like, we'll
lose. Yeah. And... Yeah. Just consider what you're
willing to do to make sure that doesn't happen.
I guess that's all I'd say. Think about that
with your week. Is the Seoul Union really willing
to dumpster our relations with the Euro so thoroughly
by completely abandoning the campaign, do you
think? I don't know what they're thinking. Crapshoot.
It's always been a crapshoot, but this one in
particular has been so difficult. Let me put
it this way. If they're coming to arrest us,
if they're coming to arrest me, I don't think
there's anything left to lose. She nods. That
said, I'm not exactly thrilled. About the destruction
of a major population center. And he shoots a
little glance at Harold, just a little one. Harold
doesn't flinch. Yes, it was, uh... Yeah, we've...
There's no worth dwelling on the past. We've
got to keep going. Got to see this through. And
we're in way too deep to change course now. It's
kind of funny, isn't it? If that one girl hadn't
died there, nobody would have given half a shit
for all those thousands of other people. Not
really. Yeah. Fuck. Well, uh, folks, you leave
in, uh, you leave soon, so grab your things and,
uh, you know, if you, since we're not anticipating
an active combat zone, you should be able to
reach me. if you need anything while you're in
the field. All right. Yeah. Unless anyone has
anything else, I think we should get the hell
out of here. Agreed. Agreed. Jolly good. Cool.
Cheery briefing. Cheery briefing. Always is.
Aren't they all? Yeah, you saddle up. Worthy
gets you in a ship. You're... The raptors and
the sparrows, your two fire teams, come on in.
Warhawk is grooving. He's excited for a little
bit of infantry action. And it is a short flight
to Greywood Sands. Worthy sets you down on the
north side of the city amongst a cleared area
filled with tree stumps. Ahead of you is the
town, which is kind of a rural but substantial
installment of area. Probably three square miles
between you and it is a large but sparsely manned...
portable wall dotted with weapons and placements.
Just behind the wall, you see the keeled over
wreckage of Jawbone's frame. Its cockpit is like
really jacked up. Its legs seem to have been
exploded. It is like totally wrecked. Behind
you, about like 100 feet from the wall, is this
large forest of what they call graywood trees.
They are kind of 50, around 50 feet tall. Each
has these fern -like minty white branches and
leaves, and they are completely radial symmetrical.
Radially symmetric. Each branch kind of mirrored
on the opposite side of the trunk. And while
most of Terra Brea has been terraformed to be
approximately Earth -like, these trees are definitely
endemic to the planet. As you get out from Worthy's
ship, you are met by a woman who you recognize
to be Jomon. She's flanked by two infantrymen
who seem to be intently watching the tree line
behind you. Jawbone is of average stature with
tan skin. She's wearing a pilot's jumpsuit dotted
with patches which show her, I guess, veteran
status in multiple conflicts. Her face and neck
are made of a darker color of synthetic skin
edged with some silver where the new skin meets
the old. And she nods to you and says, Well,
great. I asked for help and they send me the
very same folks who are the reason I'm in so
much trouble. I was wondering why our squad was
chosen in particular for this. Well, we're desperate,
honey. Ain't that the fucking truth? Right. Well,
I'm Jawbone. Go on and march your frames through
the front gate and park them in front of the
motel, then meet me inside the conference room
on the bottom level, alright? Yeah. Right. Welcome
to Greywood. She turns on a heel and walks away.
What does a frame parking lot look like? It's
just a parking lot. There's cars there too. Wow.
The town is pretty nice. All printed structures.
You see some restaurants kind of dotting the
side of the street. A handful of like large buildings
rise above the horizon. The motel is kind of
a stout building. Pretty dingy. There are some
peacekeeper soldiers milling about in the parking
lot around an armored transport vehicle, which
is clearly seen more than its fair share of action.
Jawbone's frame is here, as I've said, kind of
blown up. But there is room for your frames here.
It's not really the most secure place, but apparently
this is the best you're going to get. I was about
to ask, are there people around? How are they
reacting to us marching down the street? Yeah,
there are definitely civilians who are watching
you come in, whispering to each other. You see
a child pointing at the frames. There are soldiers
around the motel, kind of keeping people away.
There does seem to be a bit of sensitivity in
the situation. But once you disembark, presuming
you do, you're not going to step on the motel.
Not yet. You go to the meeting room. Jawbone
hands over a set of keys, which indicates which
motel rooms you'll be staying in while you're
here. You each get your own room. Isn't that
nice? Wow, that is nice. Do we need to declare
pilot load? We'll get to that. But yes, if you
want to think about that, you can. And Jawbone
rolls out the map, the map you're looking at
now. And she says, all right, let's get you up
to speed. For the viewers at home, I'll give
you a brief description of the map. And we're
going to try not to reference it too much since
you can't see it. It's like a small riverside
town. Very basic. There's a... Big wall on the
north side and some of these trees. On the south,
like beyond the town, is just like stumps and
like a lone watchtower where it's labeled snipers,
which we'll get to. On the eastern side of town
is where most of the buildings are. They're like
almost flush with the trees on that side. There's
a big apartment building. There is like a factory,
a temple. There's all sorts of stuff. Jawbone
continues with her briefing. Unless you have
a question for her before she starts. No, no,
I'm going to wait. Okay, great. All right. This
town's full of Clusterists who are willing to
leave the planet once the conflict is over. We
struck a deal with them that they could stay
as long as the fighting was still going on, but
after that, they'd leave. They're pretty friendly
folk, but recent events have stirred up those
less than satisfied with our arrangement. A local
drove a car bomb right into my frame, took herself
and some of my guys with her, which is a damn
shame. The north side of the town, closest to
the trees, is the most heavily reinforced, as
I'm sure you saw. We don't see much action there.
It is the only vehicle accessible road from the
north, which means we need to keep an eye on
it in case they try to move armor or personnel
carriers into the city. We haven't seen any of
those, but you never know. Most of the action
we're seeing is on the east side of the city
where the forest is close. If we had it our way,
we would have burned the forest out, but they
use the forest for all their little crafts, so
we can't do that. We don't have any infrastructure
there. Our guys are holed up in some buildings
we evacuated. On the south, we've got just some
stumps. We got snipers posted up in a concrete
outpost in case anyone is stupid enough to come
from there. The people attacking us are some
sort of guerrilla group operating out of the
forest. They haven't tried a full attack, but
they've been doing a hell of a job whittling
us down. We've taken out a few of them, but they
just keep coming. We don't have the resources
to sniff them out without messing up the forest,
so we've kind of just been hunkering down, hoping
they leave us alone. Since y 'all have brought
more resources with you, I'd appreciate it if
you could firm up our security however you can,
especially with how tense things have been recently.
If you want some ideas on where to start, I'd
say we could most use help convincing locals
to join the garrison. We could use some people
to help root out any saboteurs that might be
in the city. There definitely are some, but we
don't have any names for you. Help out the locals,
make them like you more. And if you're really
ambitious, you can try to figure out where the
hell the gorillas are holed up in the forest.
But, you know, I personally wouldn't bother with
that. But, you know, who knows? I don't know
how good you guys are, but you're pilots. Anyway,
that's the long and short of it. If you have
any questions, let me know now or give me a ring
because I'll be in radio contact with you. If
you need supplies, your pilot will be coming
back with me so I can bring him back if you need
him. All right. What is the frequency of attacks
been like lately since the Clearwater incident?
They have increased. Well, from outside, at least.
They haven't tried to push into the city. Thank
God. But, you know, they've been posting up in
the trees with rifles and just, you know, trying
to take us out. And that car bomb that blew up
my frame does indicate that there may be more
of a problem inside the city as well. Last thing
we want is all the locals coming out with guns
all of a sudden and surprising us. Did you say
they were clusterists? Like, religiously or whatever?
Oh yeah, everyone here is clustrous. Just about.
They really must have been hard up if they sent
us for fuck's sake. Bottom of the bucket. Will
my appearance be a problem in this city? Oh yeah,
most definitely. Should I possibly hang back
inside at all times? No, no, it's fine. Just
try not to... And she, I guess, turns to the
rest of you and says, try not to treat him as
like a person. When you're in front of him, it
weirds him out. Joseph turns to you three to
wait for a response. Alright, don't tell you
personally, Joseph. It's just part of the job.
Joseph doesn't say anything. He just winks at
you and then turns away. Does your team have
any leads on the potential saboteurs? Well, our
one lead blew herself up. So nothing else. Okay.
No, we've been a little busy trying to just not
get our heads blown off, unfortunately. But I
should reiterate, I know it makes them seem bad,
but most of these folk are good. I went across
the street to the restaurant. I ate there without
a bodyguard detachment. Nothing too crazy up
till recently, of course. That's great for you,
but do they know who we are? I've reached out
to some people I know to let them give them a
heads up that there'll be new people coming in.
To help out? God. Why do they want to stay until
the end of the war? Well, these graywood trees
fetch a really good price once they turn them
into furniture and other shit. And they just
kind of build up a nest egg before they head
out. Because they don't know when they're going
to be able to find a good place to settle down
and set up shop. I mean, they got like a factory
here and all that good shit. And that's not something
that comes quick. And you think that they'd be
willing to join the garrison and fight against
what I can only assume are other clusterists?
Oh yeah, I already got a couple of them. Oh shit.
See, I thought this whole hive mind link up bullshit
thing made them all pretty, I guess, homogenous
in their allegiances. Uh, yeah, we got some bad
intel on that. It's a little more complicated
than that. Not that I would recommend indulging
in that particular tradition. I was kind of told
pretty strongly when I was stationed here not
to do that. But yeah, they seem good folk, unless
they're incredible liars, which I guess I'd have
it coming then. Oh, are they lying? Well, I can't
tell that right now because none of them are
here lying. Okay. I mean, what if they're not
nice? Well, no, soon. We will find out shortly.
I'll break this down for you guys. Mechanically,
how this is going to work. In the clock section,
you should see an operation folder. Player visible
clock operation. There is four clocks here. The
first is cell discovered, which is you discovering
that there is a clustrous saboteur cell in the
city, not the gorillas. Totally separate. And
that is a six step. Yeah, six step clock. The
second is propaganda, which is a eight step clock,
which represents the kind of your relationship
with the town. The higher it is, the more people
will like you. And it's going to get you more
volunteers to actually help in a fight. The third
is infrastructure, which is a six step clock,
which represents kind of tangible resources used
in defense and security. This could be like.
Turrets, training, tactical review, anything
like that. And the last is Gorillas Discovered,
which is you discovering where the gorillas are
camping in the forest. This is going to be harder
to fill. Kind of think of it more as a stretch
goal. You are not expected by anyone to be able
to pull this off. And you can use whatever method
you want to fill these clocks. New clocks may
show up depending on how things go. You may be
able to fill multiple clocks at once. We're going
to be very much like with the fiction here. If
you do something that would fill multiple clocks,
they will both fill. Some of them may drain.
You don't need to completely fill these clocks
to get the effect. Like a partial fill will count
for something. So just keep that in mind. And
we're going to be breaking up your time into
four two -day cycles. So you're going to each
get kind of like four actions each. And then
we will skip ahead two days. That's how we're
going to kind of take it to represent like these
eight days you're going to be here. And one last
thing is that you may, if you choose, decide
to slack off and take a downtime action instead
of doing anything else. It's time to blow off
steam. I need that. Go to the restaurant. He's
gonna trauma out. Like, one hit if we don't.
Can I cook the books remotely? What was that?
Can I cook the books remotely? Um... I don't
think we need money right now. I don't think
so. Maybe you don't. X needs to retire, alright?
There are other... There are other moves that
you can use to get money. Like, you can... try
to extort the locals here, for instance. Oh,
yeah. I know that was a lot of information. You
may want to take notes for this one. Don't hesitate
to ask me what the fuck's going on, because this
is going to be a little different than your typical
operation. And you should choose your pilot load,
light, medium, or heavy for your kind of personal
gear. This will probably be more relevant. In
this scenario, if you are trying to work with
people. Yeah, we should get a lot of that sort
of stuff. I'm going to go medium because I don't
think Geist is going to be... I mean, Geist isn't...
Well, he's actually not that bad of a people
person. He just has two dots. The problem is
that I can't push or anything really for this
whole op without trauma hanging out. Yeah, we're
all pretty stressed. Let's have a meeting. Let's
have a meeting. As soon as... Yeah. Cowbone leaves,
Geist is like, alright, this is a big task. It's
kind of abstract. I think we gotta split up.
Uh, Loyal, I think you should be in charge of
making people like us. I forget, how do clusters
feel about dolphins? Not well, generally, but
perhaps the people in this city are different.
I mean, they seem pretty in tune with nature.
Who knows? Anyways, you're the empath, so it's
either you or me, and I don't think they'll take
well to me. I think I'll see about troop deployments.
Maybe get our boys out, you know, running patrols
or just nearby scouting. See about shoring up
defenses. I don't know. Maybe we can pair off
so nobody gets caught with their pants down.
What do you think? I think that works well. I
can help with the infrastructure around here.
I doubt I'd be any help to get anyone on our
side. It might be best if I hide as much as I
can. Maybe I can check the walls and try to repair
things. I mean, I feel like it's okay as long
as we pretend like you're just, uh... You know,
the kind of robot that just takes orders and
does what it's told, you know? Yes. If I do go
out, though, I should probably be paired with
someone. I feel like going out alone could be
trouble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. What about you,
Hex? What do you feel like you can contribute
here? I think either the infrastructure. can
help set up defenses or discovering the cell.
I don't know if I'd be much use of propaganda,
especially if anyone gets wise about who we might
be. Well, the way I see it, if we get these people
to like us, it'll be easier to find out who the
cell is. You know what I mean? They'll be more
likely to rat out their neighbors. Okay, if you
think we can pull it off. We do have an empath.
You know what? I just had a thought. You know
a little bit about business, right, Hex? A thing
or two? Well, these people got a big ol' factory.
Heavy industry. We got a couple of frames. Maybe
it might be worth seeing how we can pitch in.
You know. I don't know what the fuck they're
actually doing as far as taking these trees down,
but you know, if we can earn a little goodwill
by lending a hand, it might be worthwhile. Okay.
I see what you're getting at. Alright, I guess...
How does everybody feel about the plan? Good
so far. Alright, then let's get the fuck on with
it. And, uh... Ace is gonna leave. I think in
order to make the most out of our time, we're
gonna be dividing and conquering. Yeah. There's
a knife in the back. Colin, I have a rules question.
We were told no mech deployment really in the
city, but what if we use it to help them with
trees and stuff? The factory. Would we get yelled
at? If the locals do not view it negatively,
you will be fine. The impression that I got was
that that was all about not seeming like we're
occupying the place against the will of the inhabitants.
So if you, like, help me carry trees around or
whatever. Should we declare a pilot gear now,
or at least a load? Yes, please choose your pilot
load. Medium. I wonder maybe if, like, Hex can,
um, like, go to the factory but not appear as,
like, a soldier or anything. He could just be,
like... he show himself as like a businessman
who wants to help and it's just like oh yeah
i just happen to have this frame here you know
it's like not the big thing that he wants to
talk about but like it's here with the keepers
yeah yeah i just happen to be here and look the
frame doesn't even hurt people it helps your
industry i push pencils exactly yeah let's do
let's do that i feel like everybody has a little
niche Hec's always lying about who he is. I have
a quick question before we proceed. And apologies
if this is out of line. Is Make the Crown supposed
to be four different clocks? I see that too.
Are other clocks changing to say Make the Crown?
That's not in the operation folder, though. Are
they multiplying? No, these are old. These have
been lingering. I just wanted to know. Yeah.
If it's a bug or a feature. I'm not going to
delete them. There you go. Did I answer your
question? No, not at all. Let's proceed. Should
we tell the viewers about that? Yeah, sure. What
is it going to tell? It's there just to give
an impression of the vibe. There's four clocks.
I'll paint a picture for you. And they have eight
slots. Seven are filled, and all of them are
labeled in all caps, MAKE THE CROWN. There was
not four before. That's the thing. I don't remember
how many there were. And the number's changing,
evidently. There's one for each of us, if you
think about it. And it wasn't called MAKE THE
CROWN before, either. No, it wasn't. It was called
The King Returned. Something's definitely happening.
I don't believe that. Adventure game protagonist
voice. That can't be right. In character, we're
all looking at our watches right now. Do we have
any other buddies here in this town besides Jawbone?
There is 20 garrison members. They are not all
named, but there are 20 people here. I think
they... Jarvan would probably tell you the leader
of the garrison, second to her, is named Captain
Grabber. And he's kind of your... He's my voice
of the garrison. So if you want to talk to someone,
that's who you're going to talk to. Didn't we
bring in infantry people, though? Yes. You have
Captain Spud, Warhawk. And... Oh, wait, is that
two people? Warhawk and Spud? No, Warhawk is
Spud. OK, OK. And are they in the town with us
or are they like waiting outside? They're there
with you. You have two squads. One is scouts
and one is like actual like soldiers. Gotcha.
So we at least have Spud if we need any help
with things. We brought our boys in. And Spud
hates me, so it's perfect. Well, I hate Spud,
actually. He doesn't hate me. He's too chill
to hate me. I was going to say, I'm just thinking
of like us going around. and Joseph being in
this town. And I'm like, yeah, Joseph probably
needs to be paired with someone. I feel like
if he goes alone, that's like not even going
to help our propaganda at all. And the other
thing is, I was wondering, he's like, I probably
shouldn't go. If I'm paired up with someone,
I probably shouldn't go with Sunliff because
that'll probably be too much for like the local
robots. Yeah, it's like robot and dolphin. Like,
where are your friends? Like, what is this? It's
like, we should probably have a human with one
of us. You know what I mean? Makes sense. Yeah,
that's at least my idea. Yeah, but that's like
why I'm thinking like just so I don't have to
pull you guys away. Maybe I unfortunately could
take Spud with me if I need to go somewhere or
maybe even Jawbone. She's not busy. Jawbone is
going to be leaving with her. Oh, OK. Yeah, we
have Captain Grabber. Maybe you have Captain
Grabber. Yeah. OK, does anyone have we're just
going to kind of start who wants to like do something
first? I had a general idea, but I don't know
if it's too far in terms of infrastructure. I
was assuming defenses is kind of what that is
talking about. Yeah, anything that would help
defend really. OK, I is like I'm trying to think
of a way Joseph could help. And like, I don't
know if this is too much, but like, do they have
maybe like turrets around that have like OK targeting?
Could I help the targeting systems on their turrets
to like? I don't know. shoot better or something
yeah like you can run like diagnostics on them
yeah like somewhere on the north garrison you
know yeah yeah absolutely like maybe they have
some old turrets out in the back there's like
we don't even know how to get these working joseph
could set them up you know yeah i think that'd
be that would be a fine thing to do okie dokie
should i do that now or should we talk everyone
else wanna or what do we think my go ahead Yeah,
well, I just wanted to do the factory idea. Seeing
if they need any help around with maybe chopping
trees or moving stuff around to leverage the
frames. That could work too. I was just going
to say, my first idea was to kind of utilize
our cohorts and more specifically try and get
our scout boys, the sparrows, out there. looking
around, just basically have them run close patrols,
not out where they can't even see the city, but
just have them scouting the immediate area if
they feel like they're not going to get immediately
blasted. Sure. And just have them basically run
close scouting operations. Sure. In that case,
we want to roll that first. then we just roll
their tier, which is one. So just roll me a d6,
see how well they do. Cool, I love rolling a
d6. It never goes poorly for me. I got a three,
it was a failure. Okay. Okay, sparrows. The sparrows
go out into, are you sending them east? Yeah,
east and then north and then south. Just like
around. Sure. The sparrows go out kind of by
the forest, trying to just scout out the area,
get a good idea of the, I guess, the safety bands
of the city. Like, where is the worst place to
be? And they pretty quickly find out that there
is definitely an active presence somewhere in
this eastern forest as a couple of them get killed
by snipers. And they are now going to be... impaired
uh that is your consequence that they they have
minus 1d now that was fast that was really fast
yes and there's i think after that there was
like a brief exchange of fire between the sparrows
and some of the garrison members on that east
side of the city um but people kind of retreat
inward and they tell you yeah it sucks out here
All right. Thanks, boys. Sorry for doing that
immediately. I can do my infrastructure upgrades
if we want to do that. I was going to go talk
to Captain Grabber. I'm going to meet with that
guy. Sure. Is he cool with meeting with me or
should I go with someone to meet with him? I
can't tell you that. Is he a clusterist or is
he a peacekeeper, like, soul union guy? Would
you have asked? No, probably not. Well, I mean,
if he works under Jawbone, I assume he knows
what's going on and wouldn't be too freaked out
at me. Does anyone want to come with me to the
guy? I don't know. Sure, Hex is happy to go.
Yeah, Hex, why don't you come with me? I'm just
going to go. You don't even need to say anything.
I'll do the talking. Just stand there. I'm ready
to quote some red tape. I'm ready. Alright, cool.
Captain... Let me get you his visual description.
Which is that he is a... I'll wait for you when
you get back. Unless he can hear us, but I can't
tell if he can. But this is the beach episode.
As opposed to a beach episode, as you'll get.
Don't you see it, guys? What's that up there?
For the viewers at home, there is a blue streak
and then there's some like yellow and beige next
to it. That's technically a beach. It is sand.
You know, it's called Graywood Sands. That is
the name of the town. That sounds like the name
of the beach. Oh, you know what? I'm writing
that down. Graywood Sands. Also, temple. So like,
are these people in here, are they like, like
the religious clusterists? Like the religious,
religious clusterists? All clusterists are religious.
because like what makes you a cluster is is that
you do psychic communions which are like the
thing but there's specifically a temple here
for clusterism right yes that that is that you
would find that basically any cluster is town
okay i feel like this is yeah it's just like
it it feels like a bad place for joseph it's
like all i'm thinking it's like i should watch
out here yeah you're you will like me you know
you might get hatecraft Yeah, that's what I'm
trying to be ready with. I need a buddy. I'm
back. Oh, there's that Ewan. Okay, you have gone,
Joseph, to, with Hex, to Captain Grabber. He
is a, here are my notes, they're pretty extensive,
a dour, scarred man. And in the interest of improv,
he's smoking a cigar, a big fat one. Ooh. I know.
This guy's cool. I'd like to think so. He says,
if it isn't the tin can. I'm going to do a little
retcon. Before we went in here, I probably told
Hex, actually, you should talk first. You should
talk first before I say anything. So just introduce
us and say I'm here to help. Hey there. I'm Harold.
I'm going to nod. Is that your call sign? I mean,
I also go by Hex, but we could be useful around
here. Hex. Bad luck. Okay. Justin's pulling his
collar. Do we already know if there's turrets
we can help with? Are we asking? I assume that
there are, right? Yeah. I'm sure he'd give you,
like, a piece of paperwork that's, like, everything
that's fucking broken in this shit -ass town.
Yeah. You could just tell him that, like, I'm
here to help fix this. Yeah, okay. I just wasn't
sure where we were at. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well,
bad luck aside, it just might be your lucky day.
I hear you have some equipment that we can help
by upgrading. Can you show me where that is?
We're happy to have this tin can over here help
you. Yeah, we have some stuff in room 302. Just
go in there. It's unlocked. Hex winks at Joseph
when he says tin can, by the way. Yeah, don't
worry. Word of advice. You should keep that one
on a short leash. The EP. Locals don't like them.
Believe me, we do. I can't do anything. I just
stand there. Like a tin can. Okay, so we go?
Yeah, let's go get those turrets. I'll follow
you. All right. And as we're walking, I'll just
kind of whisper to you and say, I apologize,
X. I didn't know that you'd have to do so much
talking. Maybe you can just get me to the North
Garrison and leave me there. I'll get to the
diagnostics. Happy to. And I hope you know I
don't actually feel that way about you. Oh, I
know. And then Joseph gives you a wink. All right.
all right so here's my question for you mechanically
are you guys doing this task together you both
gonna do it so what i was kind of saying was
just get me to the north garrison and then uh
hex can be like all right uh my guy's here he's
gonna work here for a couple hours and do his
stuff i'll be here to pick them up later. That's
what I was thinking. That's a good idea, though,
because they're watching. Don't call him a person.
Call him, just say, I'm deploying my autonomous
drone to enact some repairs. Do you think I'm
going to be a hate crime at the North Garrison?
Yes. I just need a short leash. There are soldiers
at the North Garrison who presumably wouldn't
kill you. I can't promise you they won't, but
I, like, they are peacekeeper soldiers. You know,
maybe... Maybe we can ask Spud to watch my back.
Yeah, sure. In a cruel twist of fate so you can
go and do stuff. Let's do that. Yeah, I like
that. In fact, I like it so much, I'm going to
make Spud talk to you. No! So why don't you roll...
Do you want to call this interface? Yeah, I figure
I'm doing computer stuff. Yeah. Go into a little
North Garrison. Start programming one of these
bunk -ass turrets. Let me just double check this.
All right. Risky standard? Controlled. Controlled
standard. Okay. Partial. Great. You recalibrate
these things. Their targeting was all fucked
up by the trees for some reason. I guess I'll
give you a little bit of something interesting
that I can't promise is relevant. is that all
the trees seem to be emitting some sort of electronic
interference. Ooh, can I like send this as like
a text to the other guys just so they know? Yeah,
sure. Okay, I'm going to do that. Yeah, there
should be a group chat for this episode just
so we could like talk whenever we're in different
areas. Well, yeah, you absolutely can communicate
because there's no house field. Isn't that nice?
That's so nice. You can even talk to people back
in the city, like real soldiers. We call Nyla
before we go to bed. Exactly. Right. Read your
bedtime story. Thank God. Okay, good. Yeah, you
do that. I think Spud leans against the wall,
like arms crossed. He has a Hawaiian shirt over
like a plate carrier on his chest. And just like,
these people, these people, man, they don't,
they don't like you. You get that? You get that
feeling? I definitely get that feeling, Spud.
You know what makes me sick? You know what makes
me sick, man? Bigots. I agree. I can't handle
bigots, but I'm glad you're here watching my
side constantly, Spud. Hey, if one of these fuckers
messes with you, if a kid throws a rock at you,
I'll drop him. Don't even worry about it. Just
like that. Bam. Over. Done. Zero tolerance. Joseph?
Joseph hesitates. But then slowly, against his
will, but he does it anyways, he raises up his
hand for a fist bump. Oh my god. Spotty gives
you a big fucking grin. And he bumps it. And?
Do you explode? Do you explode it with him? Yes.
Oh my god. The world is changing. All right.
You have a touching moment with Spud. You feel
something between you two. Your heart stirs.
You've learned to surf. Okay. It's been downloaded
into your brain. Who has a thought about what
they want to do next? Well, Hex is free for the
factory, but he already had a voice line if someone
else wants to go first. I mean, I kind of already
did an action, I think. I will say, you using
your cohort, I think they can just act autonomously.
Maybe a little less effectively than you can,
but you can definitely do something if you'd
like. Well, I was going to think maybe... So
Geist knows that we need to make these people
like us, and he wants to make these people like
us, but he has really bad people skills, so I
think he's going to go to Loyal and be like,
hey, you want to come do good for the... For
the people. Or whatever. I don't know, I need
your help. Lionel's been just trying to think
of anything good they could do in this city,
this town, for basically this entire time, and
he's like, sure, I'll go with you. It's just,
I mean, can't you do that? Can't you, like, you
know, feel out the... general feeling or something.
I don't know how it works. Come on, help me out.
What is the general feeling? Because that's what
Loyal would have been doing this entire time,
was trying to get the vibe, vibe check, everything.
He's been thinking of something in particular
that is formulating still. I think getting the
general vibe would probably be a role. It would
tick a clock, but that is something that you
would probably want to do. You could just walk
around and put out some tendrils. Yeah, he's
floating and kind of as he's floating looking
for like a central square plaza area of this
place. I'm going to go with and just kind of
like take the mundane vibe in and see if people
are like shooting us dirty looks and closing
their doors and raising their shutters as we
go by or whatever, you know what I mean? Sure.
Would you want to roll a survey? Yes, I would
want to roll a survey, which I have one dot in.
Any modifiers? No. Controlled. This isn't risky.
Good. No, it's controlled. Failure. Man, we love
to be failing. Yeah. Okay. So, here's... You
can just fail, or you can roll again at risky,
if you'd like. It's another coin flip. The thing
Sunleth wants to do is possibly very insane.
I like insane. I've had this idea that just kind
of came to me. I don't know if it's normal or
not, but suddenly it's not feeling very normal,
so this is something that he would do. But I
will roll again with risky. What does that look
like, I guess? Well, have we found a central
area? Yeah, let's say... So, on this east side,
in this apartment complex, This is where, like,
the most commerce is, like, restaurants, stores.
This town, they didn't tell you the population.
It's, like, around 2 ,000 -something. So it's
not, like, it's very small. There's a lot of
people here. This apartment building is huge,
by the way. This is, like, the tallest building.
You think most people probably live in this giant
apartment block. And the central square is, like,
maybe, like, a playground even. There's, like,
parents out, people, like, eating. You definitely
are getting looks. Mm -hmm. Not nice looks. Okay.
So before I roll this again at Risky, and I want
to... Can I push myself on this? Yeah, you could.
You could take two stress. Or could... No. Geist
still has too many stress. It can't aid me anyways.
The sunlith kind of, like, stops once they get
to this central area. And... Looks at Geisen
and is like, do any of your mechanical parts
emit sound? Uh, I mean, they're pretty top of
the line. You can kind of hear the servos if
you really listen, but it's pretty quiet. I can
hear it inside my head a little bit. Could you
produce a basic metronome at roughly 60 beats
per minute? What the hell? Uh. That's, like,
that's, like, just, like, once a second, right?
Yeah, I guess. I mean, like, if you're asking
me if I have a fucking metronome built in, the
answer is no, but I can just count it. And Geisel
just starts, like, tapping his one arm on his
other arm, just, like, roughly once a second.
I think it's a little faster. Let's do 80. Yeah,
something's just, like, staring at me, like,
okay, a little bit, a little bit more, and just,
like, tuning him to be the pace that he needs.
He's like, alright. You ready to do something?
I guess. Just stay here. Watch my back. If it
looks dangerous, we will leave. Understood? Do
I gotta keep ticking? You have to keep ticking.
Alright. I'm not going to actually keep ticking,
but Geist is going to keep ticking. So, um, okay,
two stress, pushed myself. I'm doing just another
survey. Yep. And as Monfa gives me one more dice,
so... Okay, what Sunless does is he, with Geist
behind him, doing this ticking, walks towards
this central plaza, if there's like a raised
area with no one on it, or just like... someplace
kind of in the middle with good acoustics he
goes there and releases the spokes of his exopod
so that he's stable and also in the back of his
mind so that he can escape quickly if need be
and I'm sure Geist is looking at him strangely
but he closes his eyes and he just listens to
the beat that he has had Geist make and he starts
to Just whistle. A very mournful song. This just
sad, grief -filled song that is haunting. And
it's quiet at first, but he keeps his eyes closed.
He's not looking around him because he doesn't
want to see. Maybe he even has the psychic ability
to shut off a little bit for this so he can just
focus. on the music, but it's something he hasn't
done for a long time, but something that he would
have done back on Earth with his fellow dolphins
if they're experiencing anything similar to what
everyone on this planet is experiencing now.
And I'm going to do that roll and see what happens.
Come on, please. Yes! Finally! Hell yeah. Yeah,
I think... I'm going to tick propaganda twice.
You get a sense of... A lot of people look at
you. There's definitely a lot of curiosity, especially
in the younger children. They definitely find
this very novel. There is a... What to them?
These children probably have never seen it as
often in their entire fucking life. So you are
essentially an alien in a big glass tube that
is singing very well to them. And they quite
like it. I think since your eyes are closed,
you don't see it. But Geist, a couple of parents
are just like looking on. Some of them are like
keeping their children close. Others are like,
okay, you can go investigate. I don't think this
thing is going to attack my child or whatever.
At least not the dolphin. Hey. And I think if
I don't think it makes them like you, but I think
they definitely appreciate the gesture. And I
certainly think you feel a it's not a sense of
community, but you can feel psychically their
attention and. Not openness, but willingness
to listen to your song and see, like, what is
this? What is going on? And when it's over, they
kind of just, you know, go back to doing their
thing. No one, like, rushes you off with, like,
a sword saying, like, get the fuck away from
my children. What's a good slur for a dolphin?
Did we already do this? Yeah, we have a whole
bunch. We came up with a bunch. Bottlenose. Blowfish.
Yeah, but you have a good effect. You get your
two little thingies. Yay! Before the song finishes,
if he notices, or as he starts to notice, the
tension on him and just being surrounded by children,
he would just play it louder and finish it with
a flourish that has just like a slight optic
of hope put in there at the end. Very nice. Actually,
I think I'll introduce someone at this point.
Since you are kind of near where he is, this
guy approaches you, a kind -looking older man,
and he says, Well, hello. You must be the new
people that Miss Jawbone told us about. He opens
his eyes and just retracts the telescopic legs
of his exopod so he can face this man a little
easier. He says, Hello. Yes, that's us. That
was a nice little song. I didn't know dolphins
could sing on frequencies we could hear. Someone
just nods and says, thank you. I wanted it to
be heard. My name is Twofold Prone. I'm kind
of a community organizer, administrator here.
I run the temple, and I guess I kind of run the
town in a lot of ways. I just wanted to say welcome.
I'm glad to see that you are... You're not hiding
in the motel. I was kind of worried that once
Jaboan left, it would just be four big robots
sitting there while no one knows what's going
on. So it's nice to see you. Thank you. I appreciate
it. I can't imagine that your job is very easy.
Could you tell me more about what it is you do
here? Maybe we could help. A little bit of this,
a little bit of that. You know, kind of spiritual
guidance. I'm not like a mayor, but people come
to me when they have problems. You are welcome
to come to me if you have problems as well. I
couldn't say exactly what we need help with except,
you know, the fighting. But I'll send people
to you if they come to me and I think you could
help. I am trained as an empath. I am much different
from... other life on this planet, so I do not
know how they will react to me, but I hope that
maybe after this they will see me in a different
light. Oh, we have no problems with dolphins
here. Well, I don't have any problems with dolphins.
You just, like, hear a kind of wry little dolphin
hybrid chuckle from them. That is good to know.
I appreciate it. We're all from Earth here, you
know? It's got to stick together. What's your
name? My name is Sunleth. And who's this handsome
gentleman with you? My name's Garrett. Nice to
meet you. Well, I will see you folks around.
Let me know if you need anything. Here's my future
cell phone number. Oh, there's 40 digits. augmented
reality screen stuff. There's letters in here.
It's totally normal to me being from the future
as I am. Geist, I think he seems like he wants
to ask something and then he doesn't say anything
and then he's like, I got a question. I'm sorry
if it's insensitive, but I haven't really gotten
a good answer. Why? You know, we get told that,
you know, Clusterism is about, you know, like
making your minds connect. And we've seen, I
mean, I've seen, you know, small children so
imprinted with hate that they become violent
gorillas at the age of 12. But it doesn't really
seem like that's what's going on here. And you
clearly have no love for the gorillas trying
to... Dude up your town. I guess I just don't
really understand. Well, I would ask you this.
Are only clusterists able to inspire hate in
a child as young as 12? No, but they certainly
seem better at it. Desperation will drive anyone
to extremes. Our spiritual beliefs are one of
connection with community. If a community brings
hatred to it, then that will be spread. But we
try to... I try to push us in a better direction
than that. I guess that's kind of my big question,
is how... You know, if you're all linking your
minds or whatever, how do ideologies have solid
lines? Like, is it just the community here that
all touches brains, or... It's... Not something
that's easy to put into words. Perhaps... Oh?
Listen. I don't know you very well. You don't
know me. But if things go well, maybe you two
could attend one. Hmm? Oh. Yeah, maybe. Sunleth
perks up at this. It's, uh... Yeah, it... I don't
know. Sorry. I'm getting emotional. Yeah, alright.
We gotta get back to work, but I think we'll
see you around. Yes, I'll see you. And he kind
of waves. Waves you and walks away. That went
better than expected. Yeah. I don't know. We
should go. Yeah. Yeah, we should. Okay. So Hex
and Geist, you have to like the role you made
kind of is for the next two days. So I'll assume
that Loyal, you kind of continue doing vaguely
similar things since you had success over that
time period. But Geist, if you want to spend
time doing something else, you could do that
or you could, you know. Just say you work with
Loyal and we can take it from there. Yeah, I
have an idea, actually. I was thinking I could
consort and talk with the local garrison guys
and just, like, you know, see if I can, like,
pull any clues or details out of them that maybe
they don't think are significant but are. Or,
like, you know, a little, you know what I mean?
Like, see if, like, they have any information
that could be significant or useful. Now that
I can consort. I only have one die in any given
non -vehicle action versus the Curse of the Ace.
So I really, it's kind of liberating because
I can engineer, struggle, command, or consort
all equally well. Excellent. So yeah, I... Yeah,
sure. Just like shoot the shit with the boys
and maybe like if that's not really enough for
this sort of thing Just like maybe trying to
identify weak points and do basic infrastructure
stuff That'll probably be the front of it. Anyways,
it's just like organizing truth, but I'm really
just trying to chat people up Yeah, I'm totally
cool that especially like on these early days
just do things more Establishing figuring out
what is going on? Yeah, we're looking sort Here
we go coin flip to failure. Oh That's a partial.
Yeah, I have to cherish these So you're... What
kind of information are you aiming for? Is there
any information? Yeah, information about the
town or information about the enemies. Basically
just things that I think that they might have
overlooked or, you know, just like maybe like
anything that would provide more clues to the
current situation that wasn't given to us on
our initial debrief. Stuff that might be useful.
Yeah, sure. I think you're on like the the North
Garrison, maybe. Yeah. And... Well, actually,
where do you want to take place? North garrison?
East garrison? Sniper tower? Let's go east. Let's
go east. Say start at the north, then move to
the east. It's a little more exciting over there.
There are... I say grabbers over here for this,
because grabbers, like, the voice of the garrison.
Yeah. The people on the east side are all...
They're in, like, residential buildings that
have been, like, reinforced with, like, some
sandbags. You know, they have, like... It's little
decoy helmets for luring out snipers. I think,
like, you hear, like, a bullet, like, ping through
one of the helmets, and, like, some guy in the
corner of the room, like, scratches another notch
in the wall for, like, number of tricked, clustrous
snipers. They'll be out of bullets any day now,
those fools. And I guess Grabber tells you, like,
yeah, I'm, uh, it's, uh, this town is just crazy.
I wish we didn't have to set up here, but the
folks here are mostly decent. The problem is
we don't know which ones might put a knife in
their back. There's that Ambrose kid. He's trouble.
I'm not entirely sure if he's just young and
annoying, or if he might be a... Something more
malicious. And he tells you that this kid, Ambrose
Grave, he works in the factory. And what else
would he tell you that's useful? He tells you
that there is also a guy, a guy named Guy Drury.
Yeah, Guy Drury, he owns the motel. He's also
kind of the business guy in town. He's a real
sleazy guy. He throws in with us right now, but
if things turned the other way, I wouldn't be
surprised if he showed up with a gun pointing
the wrong way. Yeah, just opportunist type. I
know him. What was this guy's name? Guy... Guy
Drury. Guy Drury and Ambrose Grave, who's a young...
Ambrose Grave, who's a young man who is either...
Just like an annoying kid who is anti -authority
or is actually involved in something greater.
It's not clear. And I'll give you two ticks in
the... Actually, I'll give you one tick in Cell
Discovery since that was a partial success. So
Geist and Sunlith are like spending a couple
days together doing this, right? Yeah, sure.
We're hanging out. Yeah, at some point during
this when they're not in a tense situation. Someone
just randomly asked Geist, so, have you been
having any strange dreams lately? Can you elaborate?
There's a pause before he responds. Anything
related to blood or flowers or thorns, perhaps?
Look, I've been having the same dream. Every
night, ever since I went into my coma. And I
had it a whole bunch of times then, too. Can
you guess what it is? Tell me. It's... The Incident.
My last moments as Callsign Jester. I'm there
in my frame, and it's crippled on the ground,
and she tries to tell me something, but we can't
get it out all the way before she dies screaming,
and that's the last thing that I hear. And then
I wake up. I see. You know, I think the psychiatric...
Wait, do we have a psychiatric part of this?
Peacekeeper area? They probably got sent home
in the restructuring. We don't have the funding.
That's true. The most you get to, like... I think
you have been offered therapy by Nyla before.
Like, that there are people on staff who can
do that. Maybe Dr. Grace can do it. Who knows?
She's a very talented lady. Yeah, that's what
I was going to say. Grace tried giving me some
pills for it, or, I mean, some injections. Didn't
work. Hmm. It doesn't matter. I see. Thank you
for sharing. Yeah. Have I been having those dreams?
Yeah, sure. No, no, have I been having the King
Returneth dreams? No, you have not been. Or at
least you don't remember them, if you have. I
just want to make sure I wasn't telling a lie
accidentally. I think... Geist, as you kind of
turn away to attend to something, you hear Loyal
say, Garrett. What? Why are you whispering? What
do you want? What is it? What are you looking
at me for? You said my name. I did not. Oh. Alright.
He keeps going. A chill goes down someone's spine.
I'm all creepy. Must have been the wind. Okay.
Hex, do you want to go to the factory? Yeah.
Let's do it. What does that look like? You rolling
up? Yeah. Rolling up. He's got a clipboard, you
know, for authenticity's sake. And I guess Guy
Drury isn't at the factory and he doesn't run
things there, right? He's not involved. He runs
the motel. Okay, I'm just making sure. He runs
the motel. Then yeah, he's just going to the
factory and he's gonna ask around for who's in
charge. Sure. The Greywood. So the factory is
actually called the Greywood Sands Creation Co
-op. It is a large facility, four stories high
and surrounded by these tall fences. It is kind
of like a huge art studio more than it is like
what you typically think of as a factory. You
kind of enter into this foyer. There's like a
person door and like a cargo door. And, you know,
someone. there's not like a front desk here.
Like it's clearly not set up for receiving a
lot of outsiders, but eventually some guy, um,
runs into you and it's like, Oh, um, Hey, can
I, can I help you with something? Yeah. I wanted
to ask who's in charge here. I heard we can help
around in charge, in charge. Oh, uh, you probably
want to talk to, uh, uh, chiller. Chiller. It
is. He's... I honestly don't know where he is
right now. You might try... I'll just walk you
there. It's going to be easier. Thank you. He
walks you through these narrow hallways. It's
kind of sprawling in this place. Let me get to
my places tab. A lot of hallways, stairwells.
There's signs pointing to lathe room, mill, printers.
electronics and all that stuff. It's very impressive.
You walk past a couple of workers who are arguing
over the correct shape of a bench. Very fevered
argument. Eventually you come to this room where
the guy lets you in. I'm not giving this guy
a name because he is only to get you to the named
character. There's a guy wearing some goggles
in here and I have a description for him. he's
wearing like kind of like a work outfit it's
like really oil stained and his like hands are
like dyed gray um presumably from like this liquid
spitting out of this log of gray wood in front
of him um and he is sawing it into i want to
say like a sculpture right now he's doing like
the more broad work just like trimming off bark
It takes a little bit for him to realize that
you're here, and he turns off the saw and looks
up and says, Yeah? Hey there, I hear you're Chiller.
Yeah, Chillerprone, what's up? Yeah, so my friends
and I, we're with the Peacekeepers, we're here
to get help around this facility. Oh, you're
the, uh... The new guys? Yeah, something like
that. Right. Help how? Do you know how to work
a lathe? I was under the impression this was
more of a factory. Do you need help getting resources?
Yeah. I mean, if you want to work in the field,
sure. Do you know how to use a chainsaw? Oh,
buddy. I could learn. Do I? What's your name?
Harold. Harold. Harold. Got it. Yeah, sorry.
This is just a little unusual is all. Yeah, definitely
is. Shoot the trees down with the cannon on your
robot. Actually, they're huge fucking robots.
Surely giant frames could be of some use in an
industry based around working gigantic trees.
I mean, what kind of fields are these? When you
say fields, I don't think trees. Is it still
trees? They are 50 foot tall plus trees. Okay,
that's why... Okay, I was a little confused.
I mean, I do have a faster way we could do this,
though. Yeah, let's hear it. We could use our
frames. You would do that? You'd just... You'd
do that? I mean, save us a lot of time. Damn,
I wish I had a giant fucking saw. Do you... Uh,
yeah, I guess we could... Uh, okay. Let me walk
you through it. And I guess he... You've caught
his interest. Let's get a roll to see how this
actually turns out. Okay. What do you want to
roll? Uh... Roll battle. It's time to destroy
the forest. Does it imply that this roll is what
I'm doing to the trees? I think this could be
anything from consort, just for planning, to...
I don't think you're going to need to battle
the trees. That's not the hard part. No, let's
just consort then, just to hash out a plan. Sure.
And talking about your frame, what on your frame
are you actually using to do this? Or are you
just trying to snap them in half? Snap them in
half. Nothing elegant here. I don't think any.
Let me look at my equipment again. Do you have
any free load? No, I think my vehicle gear is
pretty full. Yeah, just be grabbing them and
snapping them. All right, roll whatever you feel
is good. All right, we're rolling to consort,
please. Oof. That was controlled, so you can
roll again at risky if you'd like. Okay, let's
do it. Risky. Come on, baby. Partial success,
so you didn't get a complication. Yeah, you guys
kind of talk about things. He describes to you
that it is very important that you don't rip
out the roots of the trees because they do regrow
from the stumps eventually. And he's kind of
talking on a time frame where he will never have
to leave the planet. that does not factor into
his mind that if things go your way, he's going
to be leaving in like a couple of years. Um,
but he seems to think that he can like affix
some blades to your telescopic baton, or even
just to like your frames hands, um, to help you
cut through it more neatly than just snapping
in half and risking damage to the root structure.
Okay. Um, he's, I think he's skeptical of you
in many ways, or it's like, What's your angle?
Are you trying to get an in here? Mm -hmm. And
the complication that I'm going to give you...
Well, the answer is yes, we are. Absolutely.
I'm probably going to just give you less effect
here. I don't have anything I really want to
do to you yet. Thank you. That's so kind. You're
welcome. Great. Everyone has done their action.
What was your good deed of the day? I peed in
the water and it fed fish that drink urine. The
future is beautiful. Okay, so let's talk before
we fast forward just about the town. You all
spent two days here. how are you eating? Are
you going out or are you kind of just trying
to stay in the motel area? We should go out.
What the fuck? Geist has his vials of Nutri Paste.
Unless somebody in this town has a blender. You're
right. What can you eat? I mean, it literally
is just that he has a liquid diet. That sucks.
Yeah. He lives a pretty miserable life. He's
not gonna eat motel food. Right? If Hex goes
out to the restaurant, Sunlith goes with him.
Yeah. Cool. I guess Joseph and Geist are hanging
out in the motel. Joseph stays in his room and
looks at the wall. I think Geist would go. I
think Geist has determined that it is part of
his duty to... Like, not only he's obviously
interested in making these people like us, but
more importantly, he wants to keep an eye out
for anything that might be clues for insurgents.
So he's going to be like, sorry, Joseph, I gotta
go out for this one, buddy. It'll be fine. That's
quite alright. I actually need to work at something
in my motel room, so maybe I can show it to you
tomorrow. Cool. Sounds good. Yeah, I'm going
to go as well. Great. Yeah, you guys go out to
a... I only have one. The nearest restaurant
that I think would probably be most interesting
to Sunless is there is a place called Profit's
Catch Fish House and Eatery. Fish house, yeah!
Which is a seafood restaurant and market in the
middle of the city where everything is caught
fresh from the river on the west side of town.
It is pretty busy. It's pretty close to the apartment.
You definitely get some weird looks once... What
is your load? Medium. Mine is also medium, but,
like, can I just, like, put my shit down in the
hotel and say that my load is zero? You can absolutely
go light load. Okay, yeah, I'm gonna go light
load. You guys are free to, like, switch that
up, like, in a moment. I'll only really pull
it if something happens. Yeah. And then, you
know, the crabs attack. I ate them all. Ate them
all really fast. Wow. I won't even make you roll
for that. It's very good food. I'm not really
interested in getting into the ecology of this
planet in depth, but I think what you eat here
is alien, not something that was brought here.
Cool. Which is probably good. The people here,
you definitely get a lot of looks because the
dolphin cannot fit at a normal table. They do
not have a dolphin seat. And you also eat really
weird, as I recall. They not just dump the plates
into the top of the... Just pour the soup into
the fluid mixture. I don't make them do that
themselves. Geist also eats weird. Geist literally
has to order the thinnest soup they have and
inject it into his sternum. Yummy, yummy. That's
not the most beautiful experience. I'm trying
to decide if something happens. Give me a sec.
I'm just waiting to fucking activate the remote
control for my frame and have it smashed through
the side of the restaurant at the first sign
of danger. Sorry, we're out of the hat a little
bit. You have a peaceful meal. No wandering monster.
Good. Okay, we are going to... jumped to an event
um it is now two days after you first got there
um hex you have been working in the fields um
with your with your frame it is pretty cool there's
definitely um i mean do you listen to music hex
you send some music in your frame just got classical
music going i knew he was going to say that There's
a Mozart in there while he's chopping down those
trees. Hell yeah. While you're listening to music
in your frame, I think as you chop down the trees,
there's a singing in the background of the music
that you do not recognize as being in the original
song. It seems to, when you cut down the trees,
get a little louder and then go back to the normal
level. I did send the text, though, so he does
know that there's something coming out of the
trees, right? Yeah. That's cool. Hex is a little
unnerved by this. But continue his work. We're
getting somewhere. Chiller. What's Chiller? Chiller
is the foreman. I'm not mixing that up, right?
Yeah, Chiller, the foreman, is very thankful
for your help. And I think it's like the morning
of the third day. Um, and you wake up and the
foreman is like right outside your door. Hex.
Okay. And he's like, Hey, uh, Harold, right?
Yeah. I don't know why I'm saying that. Like
I, we haven't been working together the last
two days. Um, but, uh, my, my fucking truck,
uh, broke down. Um, Do you mind giving it a lift
with your big machine that's back to the factory?
So we really need to get these shipments going
and the tow from the nearby city will take forever.
And let's pause there for today.