Hello, Agi. It's me, the ever -adoring Tyrall
Krine, here to remind you of our shared commitment
to this cause. It is likely clear to you now
that because of your loss of the Clearwater refugee
facilities, that the estimated death toll for
our project may exceed certain acceptable loss
figures outlined by you at the start of our little
collaboration. Unfortunately, we are no longer
at a point financially or operationally where
we can afford further delays. My informants tell
me that even as we speak, the peacekeepers are
working to expand out of the city, which obviously
undermines our entire plan. Our benefactors,
while patient and understanding, will not tolerate
further delays. I suggest you encourage any important
assets to vacate the city within the next couple
of weeks. Likewise. Tell the preacher to make
a sermon about needing to kill peacekeepers or
resist or something to that effect. I need some
controversy to distract media attention. In other
news, I'll be in the system to witness the arrests
and the final stage of our plan. Hopefully we
can get lunch. Maybe sandwiches. Small ones.
Abraham, please re -transcribe this message to
make me sound more normal. Then send. Yes. T
-Roll. Okay, so last time you got sent to this
little town called Greywood Sands to basically
just kind of hold down the fort and help defend
it while the previous, I guess, warden of the
town left. You were given a few clocks to fill
to kind of represent the work you do here. The
first that you have filled already is propaganda,
which means you've got a good reputation with
the locals and that many of them have volunteered
to help out the garrison here. The second filled
clock is cell discovered, which means you now
have a contact who will be able to point out
where the gorilla cell inside the city is. That's
not all the gorillas, that's just the people
in the town. And that guy's name is Howler, and
he's waiting to meet with Loyal or whoever else
whenever you feel like doing that. The two unfinished
clocks are infrastructure and gorillas discovered,
which are at 3 out of 6 and 3 out of 8, respectively.
At the end of the last session, Loyal and Geist
went to a Clusterist Psychic Communion and fried
their brains by melding with the Clusterists
for a little bit. You learned a lot of things
there, but you only kind of remember bits and
pieces now. I've decided upon further reflection
that Geist and Loyal, you should both tick your
drive clocks for Rescuing Maze and for Finding
Retribution. Oh, yeah! That's a full drive clock
for me. Fuck you. After that, Geist ran off and
Loyal, you kind of went off to find him. But
before we cut back to Geist, let's talk about
Hex and Joseph. What have you been doing? Ping
pong, the record. We said. Did this take place
like evening, right? Yeah, it was in the evenings.
And I think, I imagine the communion took like
three hours. I don't know. I mean. Would Joseph
want to be eating with Hex? Sure. I'll hang out
with you. I'll watch you eat. And like, we know
the full extent of what's going on, right? Yeah.
So here's the thing about eating is that if you
like went out to go to a restaurant, you notice
that everything's closed because everyone is
at the communion more or less. Okay. Then I imagine
we just are nearby on standby. Yeah. Cause I
think, I think guys told you to like, yeah. be
on standby. Yeah. I figured that this was going
to be I don't know what I figured, but it definitely
was not what I expected. Okay, so in character
we're staking out nearby wherever this communion
is happening. I think it makes sense. You probably
see Geist run out. Oh shit. Yeah, he looks fucked
up. What is that like? What's going on? I in
my mind, I don't know if it's just like because
of his implants or because it was very disorienting.
But Geist is like he seems like he's like staggering,
like he's kind of out of it, like kind of half
in like a blind panic, kind of half not really
in his head. And he's kind of, you know, staggering
out of there at speed as if running away from
something. Not really with any particular aim,
I guess, by the time he gets outside. He's probably
kind of got his wits back about him a little
bit once he's like out of the building and maybe
even a little bit away from the building. And
he kind of probably just, you know, leans up
against a structure, sucking that cool evening.
It's his nighttime, right? Yeah. Yeah. So just
suck it back that cool night air through his
little respirator implant. And he looks really
sweaty. Does he sweat blue Powerade out of his
blue skin? I don't know. What skin he has left.
That'd be cool. Yeah. Yeah, so he just, he looks
all, he looks like he's been through it. He's
not, like, physically injured, but he looks like
he's in a great deal of distress. Ooh. That's
not good. Yeah, we should go over. I say to Hex.
Was he followed? Like, do we see any? I think
Loyal was following him, like, but with a bit
of a delay. Sunlit comes out, like, a little
bit afterwards. And goes to find him. It's not
hard with how much emotions he's giving off right
now. Sunlith approaches and gives this very subtle,
psychic offering of like, I can give the shield
back to you if you need some help getting your
ego back together. No judgment either way. Just
let me know what you want. He's kind of on the
edge of Geist's mind, not going in. Just trying
to be respectful. I imagine Geist is like, he's
saying that he doesn't need it, even though he
probably really does. I don't know if it's a
pride thing or what, but he's... He pushes you
away a little bit, but he's like, so you're like
outside and like close to him now? Yeah, I'm
just floating next to you. As, um, so he probably
just, um, as he sees Loyal is there, and he kind
of is putting his brain back together. I imagine
he's probably a little embarrassed, because it
was kind of... An over... I mean, it was obviously
a very obvious overreaction, but he kind of just
is, like, trying to play it off a little bit,
despite the fact that he had, like, a very, like,
primal panic response and ran out of there, and
he's like, That was... That was something else,
huh? Usually, when having a psychic experience,
you don't go into that level of it for the first
time. You did very well, considering. It looks
like our friends are coming over, and I motion
over to... Joseph. Hex. Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I'm
good. We emerge from the bushes. I sense their
presence in that berry. Are you sure you're fine?
Oh, yeah. Out of it. Did you learn anything in
there? What happened? I mean, we did the... Let's
go inside, maybe. I don't like being out here.
Let's go inside. Of course. That's a good idea.
We go back to the hotel room. Oh, I also want
to note, before we go on, that since this has
happened, something has changed on my character
sheet. Can I describe that for the viewers? Should
I be looking at that? Since this psychic communion,
my empath area, where it says I'm an empath,
an empathetic and compassionate psychic, has
this red backdrop. Where if I scroll down, the
red gets more intense and darker until it is
a dark blood red. And at the very bottom of my
character sheet, there are some words and a little
poem. And this poem says, Waves of death. Beyond
the veil. Final breaths. Doomed to fail. Rip
us apart. Tear us down. Forsake your bonds. Build
the crown. I'm starting to think this King Return
guy is not very nice. No, maybe not. What are
his interests, and are they in the best of ours?
We got a traitor! Should this be communicated
to the characters in the game? No, I don't think
this is a meta thing. I think this is our character.
It's a vibe thing. It's a vibe. Joseph's getting
a vibe from you right now. It's not good. It's
very red. Okay, that's all. We can go inside
now. Yeah, we pile in. I don't remember a lot
of it, just bits and pieces, little flashes.
It was weird. How much do we remember? Like,
obviously, we can't remember anything useful.
I know I remember very acutely that there was
a person in there that we linked with who was
like, I hate these people. I want to kill them.
And then we were like, well, actually, the easiest
way to kill us would be to do it like this. And
he was like, OK, cool. And that was just kind
of like the nature of the. Of the connection.
Yeah, you do not remember anything concrete,
really. um you get like impressions like if you
want to draw on those impressions later that's
something i could i could see being useful the
only thing that you i guess really know is that
loyal has something for you oh yeah loyal has
something for me that's great do we remember
seeing the prophet that seemed like it was kind
of like a weird segmented bit of it or like do
we not remember anything concrete you i i think
you do i want to i want it's like a imagine like
a dream where like he's like yeah like like adam
was there and he was like telling me something
really important yeah uh i don't know it was
now i was expecting i don't know what i was expecting
it was weird and very intense, but, like, a very
disturbing dream. Interesting. I don't know.
Is that normal? He looks loyal. Is that, like,
is it always like that for you? Like, I don't,
I don't know. Sunlit Nonsense, like, whatever
you feel in there is ultimately normal. And he
turns to Joseph and Hex and says, we connected
with the minds of every cholesterolist in that
room, and... The minds around them that are linked
to them and felt what you would imagine from
them. Lots of bad, some good. I can't remember
all of it either because you can't hold that
much in your mind when you're out of it. But
I think it was good. I have a feeling about this.
Interesting. Do you feel like our positions were
compromised here? Do I feel that way? That's
a good question. Um... No. I don't think so.
That's good. That's good. Did we get anything
of value from this? We have maintained our friendly
position in this town by partaking in this. That
was the value of this. That is important. That
is. Yeah. Joseph's kind of like, eyeing Geist
just a little bit. He says, How did it feel?
Uh, it was like, it's kind of hard to describe.
It's like being dunked into a pool of water,
but instead of water, it's like a bunch of people's
minds and then your mind kind of flows into it
and everything you are kind of becomes diluted
in them. I don't remember much, just impressions
and... I don't know. He doesn't say this out
loud. I don't know... How can loyal detect lies
by omission? Probably not, eh? It's kind of like
a binary, like you just said something that was
a falsehood sort of thing. Honestly, I think
with Geist right now it'd be a little... since
his emotions are kind of all over the place.
Makes them a little harder to read. But he's
not concerned. I think Geist is aware that it
felt nice to not be constantly aware of how much
he has lost and the mental torment that he's
in at all times being slightly diluted, but he
would never, ever say that to anybody. He would
never admit it. Mm -hmm. Joseph nods and says,
Fascinating. Well, I'm very wary. I gotta say,
I don't really understand, like, I guess, you
know, I just always assumed that people like,
you know, Jupiter, the fucking turncoats, that
it was this little mental joining shit that made
him flip sides, but I don't know. I don't see
it. Possibly. Interesting. I don't think I ever
felt like I wanted to flip to the other team,
you know what I mean? That's good. That's the
truth. Okay. Unless you guys have anything else
you want to say, we can move on. Yeah, I think.
Let's get some sleep. Start the day fresh. Long
rest. We are now on day six out of eight until
Jawbone returns, so you can all kind of just
do things or slack off or do whatever you want.
I want to go look at the trees. The special trees.
Sure. Oh, yeah. This is our last, like, two -day
segment, right? This is our, like, last chance
to do stuff. Yeah, we gotta make it count. I
believe so. Yes. Okay. Um, is, like, following
up on this lead for determining the insurgents
in the town, is that, like, somebody's action,
or is that something that happens separate? Um,
it wouldn't take a lot of time to do. Um, you
could, like, knock it out in a day, I would say.
Okay. Um, I mean, I think that's kind of our
priority, because if we don't stop those guys...
they're probably going to do another bit of grand
sabotage. Could be another car bomb. Could be
something in concert with the people outside.
So I think that, like, taking them out of the
equation should really be our... That's true.
The thoughts were essential out of the four.
I forget. I don't know that any of them were
necessarily essential. I think they just all
will influence things in their own way. There
wasn't one like, if this doesn't happen, that's
okay, but these three we have to get done? Oh
yeah, finding the gorillas out in the wilderness
was the one that we, that was like a straight
goal. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. We have like a general
cone shape of where their location is. Yeah,
yeah. So, who wants to meet with Howler? then
you're informant. I feel like Loyal definitely
needs to at least be there for the purposes of
lie detection. Geist can go. Geist doesn't have...
I think I mentioned this before. Geist doesn't
have a lot of out -of -brain skills, but he does
have one point in struggle. So he can fight.
Me and Hex could do infrastructure then. Let's
do it. I don't know how, but we'll figure it
out. Why don't you think on that while we do
the Howler meeting? I'm going with medium load.
Medium load. Alright, Howler lives in the apartment.
You're both going? You and Loyal? Loyal, what's
your load? I'm going to go light load. Light
being, of course, relative when you're in a pod
that's 500 pounds. I just need myself, man. uh
okay you show up at the apartment he has a um
just like an upper floor room like 623 or something
um you knock on the door if you knock um which
i assume you will because there are no stakes
here i'm not going to ask you how you open the
door um and he does answer the door a sheepish
young man um named howler and he says oh uh you
brought a friend Hey, don't worry about it. I
just, we move in teams. It's not, you know, don't
let it stress you out. Okay, I'm not stressed.
That's a lie. And he invites you into his little
hovel. Not a hovel. That was mean. I'm sorry,
Howler. I didn't mean it like that. How dare
you? He's going out on a limb for us, all right?
It's a very nice place, I'm sure. It's not very
clean, okay? I'm just going to say, he does not
have the best personal hygiene. Maybe he's going
through some things right now, but there are
bottles on the desk, okay? There are multiple
empty bottles of drink on the desk. If you're
listening at home and you have multiple empty
bottles on your desk, you should probably clean
them up. You might feel good. Don't at me. Don't
at me. Okay. Yes. Howler is here and he kind
of sits down on the couch and kind of says, just
sit anywhere or stand anywhere. I don't know.
Yeah, I'll sit. um geist is trying to make him
i feel like this has been a running theme of
like geist taking a seat or not as like a form
of like expression during briefing so he's gonna
he's gonna pointedly take a seat to try and make
this guy feel at ease he's gonna like sprawl
out a little bit make it seem like he's really
taking it easy i also feel like after the communion
last night some of this mind is still feeling
a little bit fuzzy so like i think he's Kind
of giving off an ambient calmness that I don't
know if I need to roll for that or if I'm going
to be upset by this or not, but that's happening.
You already kind of won this clock, so I won't
make you roll anything. He calms down a little
bit. He says, so you must want to know about
the people who are the... Yeah. The leader of,
I guess, the people in the town is... is this
guy Ambrose, Ambrose Grave. He's always been
kind of difficult with the peacekeepers, but
after Clearwater, everyone is really upset. I
tried telling multiple people that it was probably
an accident, that you didn't mean to do that,
and that it was just cut up to make it look...
Bad. I mean, it was, right? That's what happened?
That's the nature of propaganda, I'm afraid.
Okay. Well, Ambrose has been gathering some people
in the sub -levels of the factory. I think there's
a meeting tonight. And they're working on something.
They wanted to... to have everyone on board.
But, uh, lately people haven't been so, so keen
on, on joining up with his, his little group.
So, uh, I don't, I don't know exactly what's
going on there, but it's trouble. I know that
much. All right. Interesting. Yeah. None of that
was lies, right? Uh, no. All right. Yeah. So
guys still look to loyal just to like, cause
he knows that loyal can tell. He's in the subtle
nod. All right. Well, look, we really appreciate
you going out on a limb for us like this. I mean,
you know, it's in the name. We're with the Peacekeepers.
We're not here to stir shit up, but it's unfortunate
that not everyone can have the same sensibilities.
We'll handle it. You won't be mentioned. Yeah,
yeah. Thank you. That's great. I just want to
get back to work, you know? Yeah, don't I fucking
know it, buddy. Alright, uh, unless there's anything
else, I, uh, I think we gotta get going on, but
you've done a really good thing here today. Okay,
uh, just, um, I just hope that no one has to
get hurt anymore. Yeah, me too. And he kinda
lets you leave. When Geist says that, It's a
lie. Well, it's like it's half a lie. All right,
guys. He wants these people to get hurt, but
he knows that they will have to get hurt. And
he has absolutely no compunction about being
the one to hurt them. Yep. It's complicated.
OK, so why don't. Hex and Joseph, you tell me
about what you're working on just in general
over the next two days. If you want to be in
the scene where they go to the factory, that's
fine, but I just want a general idea of what
you're working on. Oh, we already planned it
out. We both entered our mind palace together,
so we're able to communicate. We're going to
assist the docks with infrastructure, we figured.
Either by bolstering defenses or helping lay
out more docks for the people there. We know
we could use our frames for that, so we figured
we'd be able to help. Yeah, like what sort of
defenses are you thinking? I was thinking if
maybe we'd be able to use some of the trees to
set up like a perimeter around the docks to help
defend it from the water. Sure. That sounds good
to me. We can pick up the trees with our frames
and then start putting them down. They're like
Lincoln logs. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that sounds
like a roll. Since you're doing it together,
I will make it easier for you, but it does kind
of sound like... That would be a manipulate.
A manipulate? Nothing manipulative about this.
It's a frame skill. Yeah, manipulate is like
manipulating objects in a dexterous fashion with
your frame hands. Adam, I gotta be real with
you. I got only one. Oh, well you have one more
than me. Since you're doing it together, I'll
just say you can roll two dice and we'll see
how it goes. So plus 2D modifier? This would
probably be a group action. I think about it.
Oh, damn. Both of you roll, and then whoever
wants to lead it, which is whoever has the most
stress to spare. I have none. Hex is stress -free
right now, but he typically accrues it committing
fraud for us, so can you take this? No, if I
stress one more time, I'm trauma -y now. Oh,
never mind, never mind. Hex is taking one for
the team. Oh, wait, wait, fuck, I'm looking at
my, not the Google, she's looking at my stress.
So here is one thing to keep in mind, is that
if you guys both get a six, then it counts as
a crit because of a special ability we have from
our team called Synchronize. So we have a little
edge. Yeah, we have a little edge in group actions.
You guys are both going to roll sixes, so it's
going to be dope, and everything will be wonderful
and fantastic. Risky standard? Yep. Well, it's
just controlled standard, but that's fine. Uh
-oh. Oh, don't worry. Here comes Joseph. Uh -oh.
Uh -oh. Double failure all the way. One of those
numbers. Thank you. It's a three for Hex and
then a four and a two. Take the lowest for Joseph,
which is a... That's nothing. That's nothing,
I'm afraid. And then you... Hex, you take two
stress. Uh -oh. Thanks, Ryan. You saved me from...
Draw me now, at least. But I'm going to not check
the clock at all. You can re -roll that if you'd
like and switch to risky position. You just drop
all the trees and decide if you want to pick
them up or not. Do I still take the stress? Yes,
you still take the stress. Well, actually, no.
Sorry. I guess not. If you re -roll and you succeed,
you won't take any stress if both of you succeed.
Well, I'm not going to get any stressed out,
right? No. I mean, if it's a re -roll, maybe
we should try it, right? You know what? Let's
risk it for the biscuit. Let's do it. It's flipping
a coin, baby. Let's see it. One die. Is risky
this time? Mm -hmm. Surely we will not be hoisted
upon our own petard. We have... Oh, well, we
have become hoisted. No, this is it. All on you.
You have to roll two dice and both of them have
to be above. I got like a comical amount of trees
in my frame hands right now and I'm like tiptoeing
around the docks. You take one stress because
you failed. You guys get a partial success on
a risky, which you're going to get two ticks
in the infrastructure. Which will bring it up
to five. Ooh, we're so close. If it lets me tick
it. Five out of six. And your consequence is...
because you are kind of pushing yourself here
to move this stuff joseph like an actuator in
your frame's arm gets strained um so you're just
gonna take the level one damage to your frame
uh strained and you can resist that with quirks
or armor or whatever i'll resist it with armor
everyone dabbles so geist um and loyal what is
your plan with this intel that you have So what
I was thinking is that we get our good buddy
Warhawk and our fighting cohort, the raptors,
who are undamaged, unlike the sparrows. I mean,
it's basically just like a round of SWAT 4. We
surround the building, we kick in the doors,
we yell get on the ground a lot, we handcuff
one person and tase them like 13 times because
it's pretty funny. You brought a taser? No, I
lied. I just hit them with my gun. I knew it.
But, you know, like, pretty standard, just, like,
breach and clear, you know, arrest everybody
kind of thing. You can bring Joseph and Hex with
you if you would like. Yes, absolutely, I would
like. But, like, I'm going to take Joseph aside
and be like, listen, it would be bad for our
relationship with the people if, like, every
one of these guys had their throat cut. You know
what I mean? Absolutely. I will refrain. you
know, tie them up, knock them unconscious, cut
their throat if you have to, but, like, try not
to, maybe. You know what I mean? No full death,
I understand. Unless you have to, in which case,
like, you can. Try not to. Yes. Only partial
death. Yeah, partial death only. Why does Joseph
only get the rules of engagement and we don't?
Because Joseph used to kill a lot of people.
He's an assassin. I guess, you know what, maybe
he would go over to Hex and be like, hey, don't
fucking kill everybody. Yeah, listen, that's
not the fucking damn. We haven't really talked
about that. He's really stressed after dropping
all those logs. Why do you keep looking at the
river, Hex? What's going on? We're not going
to, like, dig a trench and flood the factory
basement. Alright? Okay, so... Let me go over
the factory information for you again, from what
you know from Hex being inside of it. There is...
It's very big. It's a very large facility. So
if you wanted to post people all around the outside
of it, that would be an expenditure of labor,
which you could do, but you should just keep
that in mind. There are a lot of floors to it.
It is very kind of almost maze -like. There are
some signage that indicates which way to go,
but you can kind of see how people would hide
things in there. And as Howard told you, there
is a sub -level. He did not have an exact room
that they are in on the second sub -level. I
guess he was just told, like, go here and someone
will lead you where you need to go at night.
So that is what you know. Okay. Wait, he's arranging
for somebody to lead us or like the insurgents
have somebody meeting other insurgents to lead
them in? Yeah, so I guess what Fowler would have
been told is like come to the factory, come to
like sub -level three. There will be someone
near the stairwell who will lead you to where
we're meeting. And that's what he knows. Okay,
so that's what he was told by them. Yeah. We
need a disguise, then, if we want to be lit.
Loyal just tapes Groucho Marx glasses to the
front of his exopod. He just draws it on the
front with a sharpie. Yeah, so I think, actually,
I just realized the sparrows aren't out of action.
They're just impaired, so they're at minus 1D,
but we can have them on Overwatch outside. Yeah,
they should be outside. We'll have them outside
and then we can have the raptors as the breach
team. It's like Rainbow Six. It is exactly like
Rainbow Six. Sure. Where are you planning this?
In the motel? Like the little meeting area? Yeah.
Where the insurgents have a spy microphone just
taped underneath the table. That makes this even
cooler though. It's going to go wrong. Yeah,
exactly. We have one person who is the least
suspicious to go, like, be the meat, and then
everyone else kind of just, like, tracking them.
They have a tracker on them through the building,
and then, like, once they get to the spot, we
just barge in, like, this is a bust. Everybody
down. I think Hex is the only person who can
even pass as normal in this entire party. Exactly.
I was thinking this. He's the only one. Wait,
do Clusterists have a problem with, like, just,
like, regular old prosthetics? Uh, not... Enough
that it's a big deal. Wear a jacket. They don't
have to see. Wear a jacket and some gloves. Whereas
the average citizen might see someone with prosthetics
and be like, oh, that's not a big deal. Clusters
should be like, oh, it's such a terrible thing
that you had to get a prosthetic if it functions
better than a normal piece of your body. But
yeah, they're not like true haters. Hashtag true
haters. Thank God. Okay, good. I think while
you're figuring out your exact mode of the operation,
Warhawk is kind of in the corner, like loading
up magazines with ammo, like whistling. Yeah,
that's what I like to see. That's my fucking
guy. But Geist will be like, all right, listen,
Warhawk, rules of engagement. All right, we don't
want to kill these people if we don't have to.
We've worked really hard. To get this town to
trust us, I had to beat up Joseph a whole bunch
of times to pretend to. So try not to kill anybody
if you can, but also don't, like, you know, don't
not kill someone if it would get one of your
boys killed. You know what I mean? Does that
make sense? Oh, yeah, man, that makes total sense.
Don't worry. We want to take them alive. We can
squeeze them, you know, but we can't squeeze
a corpse for information, right? Loyal, we can't
do that. Son, look, we can't squeeze a corpse.
You can't, like, you know, get in there. No full
death. Yeah, no full death, yeah. We have a word
for that. Yeah, so just keep that, tell, you
know, tell the raptors. We want them alive if
we can get them. Yeah, shoot the legs. I got
it, don't worry. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's better
than shooting the torso, I guess. What are you
talking about? You can bleed out. Ah, it's fine.
You got a robot arm. It all works out. Uh, yeah.
Okay. Let's talk about your... Like, the operation.
The actual, um... The thing. The checklist we
do. Are we making an engagement roll? An engagement
roll. Oh my god. So everyone has to choose a
load. I'm going medium, because heavy's only
one extra point. And I feel like it makes you
slower. I gotta be quick on my feet here. Yeah.
I'm going my typical, I think. I'm doing light.
I'm going to do medium. I'm doing heavy, honestly.
Oh, shit. You're like a tank. I want to be the
tank that just rolls in at the end. You're just
a ball. You roll in. Let me do that door first
and just have me with my amplifier. You ever
play Overwatch? You're like the hamster. I'm
like the hamster. So, you get 1D for just...
For luck. Is the mission bold? I don't really
think it's that bold. No, we kind of clearly
have the advantage here. We have a whole trained
team. You don't think our boys in blue are bold?
I mean, it's not bold in the sense that we're
not going up against overwhelming odds. We risk
our lives every day for you, okay? You have no
idea. Is the mission complex? Not particularly.
Does it exploit vulnerabilities? Not really.
Is the tactic ineffective? No. Do you have external
support? Do you want to call in? This is an option.
Do you want to call in members of the garrison
to help you? We could. There's a better chance,
yes. The flip side of it, though, is that it
will leave the settlement less defended, which,
like, it would be really bad if they were, like,
coming to attack us right now. I guess it's possible
that they could do it in response to this bout
of violence, if they just, like, you know, hear
the stuff going on, or if they're even a part
of it, you know what I mean? And they want this
on purpose. I guess that's also possible. I feel
like we should leave them where they're at. Okay,
but then that puts us on, like, a straight coin
flip for the engagement. You'll get a bonus die
from tear, and another bonus die from propaganda
as well. okay yeah then fuck yeah let's let's
let the garrison watch our backs i think that's
more important if we have you know okay better
odds from other sources and you have it 3d you
can't possibly fuck this up i all i can and i
always do every time somebody else has to do
it that's all i'm saying somebody else has to
do it i'm thinking about what howler said again
he just said like there's some guy who's gonna
meet you to take or meet someone To take them
into this place? I think he was told that someone
was going to meet him. I think that's what he
was trying to convey, that the instructions he
was given was like, come here, somebody will
lead you down to the meet. I just realized there's
nothing that he could have said that I would
have registered as a lie, as in this is not a
trap. Yeah, that's the problem with lie detection
being a binary system of yes and no. Hmm. Well.
I mean, like, scout it out with my optical camo.
Just like go in and look? Yeah. I mean, we have
to do the engagement roll first, but we should
talk about what your actual strategy is. Assault,
deception, scientific, social, stealth, or transport.
I think in my mind, this is playing out straight
up like an assault. Like it's literally like
a swap raid. We're kicking down doors. We got
shotguns. We're yelling at people to get on the
ground. you know what i mean does that i mean
we could do it another way we just need to say
that we're doing it another way and in my mind
that's like the most straightforward way to do
it if somebody has a better idea I feel like
we got the people to do an assault. That's what
I mean. We got a squad of soldiers. Spud wanted
some action. Here's his action. If he gets killed,
we won't have to feel bad because he really,
literally begged us to put him in this position.
I like him now. He defended me from robot racists.
Yeah, you're friends. Yeah, you really... He
was really into it. It seems like he's really...
Carrying a torch for that one, which is good.
Not all heroes wear capes. Some of them wear
flip -flops. Yeah, let's get into it. Three dice
engagement roll. Let's fucking bust in here.
I'm ready. What roll is that? So you are assaulting.
Yes, we are. Run in and go SWAT style. Say hands
on your heads. Yes. Oh, fuck yeah, that's a...
Okay, that's three fours, so that's a straight
partial success. I saw it was the total first,
so I saw the 12, and I was so excited. I was
like, there has to be a six in there. The three
fours is good luck. It's a good omen. I'll take
a partial success every single time. I will never
be mad at a partial. So you're going to start
in a risky position. Yeah. You push in kind of
like explosive... What is it? Explosive... Not
insertion, right? That sounds... That sounds
naughty. Explosive entry. That's what it's called.
Explosive entry, you go into the main lobby area
and start yelling at people, whoever you see,
to get on the ground. Some people who are carrying
a big wooden bench drop it, and you see their
hard work of their wood joinery splinter a little
bit. It's really sad. I think Hex... As you guys
are going through, the foreman, who you know,
Chiller, I think his name was, goes up to you
and is like, what the hell's going on? And some
of the raptors start shoving him to the side
a little bit. Listen, we have reason to suspect
activities here. Don't worry, just stay calm
and it'll all work out. In my factory? Where?
That's what we're looking to find out. Hey, he
kind of like puts his hands on his head. Are
you cable tying people? Maybe not on the top
floor. We don't need to cave. The people on the
top floor, they're just doing their job. I mean,
as long as they're not carrying like Tannerite
or like bombs, I think we can just, I think we
can focus. Because the whole thing is we're trying
to crash, like, a meeting of insurgents, right?
If anybody's not, like, obviously posted as a
guard, and they're just up here woodworking,
I don't think we need to rough them up, and I
don't think we should, frankly. Yeah, I want
to be, like... I don't think we need to rough
someone up just to cure them. I want to be sonar
scanning people for weapons. Sure. I'll just
include that in the role that you have going
forward. Yeah, everyone's kind of unoccupied.
One guy has a carving knife, which, you know...
He's a whittler. You guys push into the stairwells.
You kind of clear floor by floor, and then eventually
you get to the third floor, which is where Howler
said someone would meet with you guys. And there
is, like, someone's, like, running down the hall,
kind of away from you at the stairwell. He's,
like, halfway down the hallway. And I think this
is where I will ask you what you do. He's resisting
arrest. I've already, so I imagined that Hex
was, or not Hex, Geist was like, you know, doing
the SWAT thing, like clearing every door with
his shotgun. So I've declared two load. He has
like a, Geist has a combat shotgun that he doesn't
get to use very often. um in his hands i could
try and put some buckshot through his legs but
i only have one die so i'm probably either going
to miss or kill him which isn't super great does
anybody have a better struggle than me i was
gonna say i could i would a prowl here work would
i be able to like chase and jump on this guy
yeah he has his back turn i think that would
be very valid yeah yeah i get him just run him
down on him pounce on his ass yeah uh you're
in risky position standard Oh. That's a failure.
1 -3. That is a bummer. I was there and I hit
a metal pole with my face. You jump on the guy.
Here's what happens. You pounce on this guy as
he's running away from you. And you crunch him
to the ground, essentially. A little too much
force. And you probably break his arm or something.
And then you like, notice that he was holding
something, which is a grenade, which is now missing
its pin. And he, like, looks up at you and starts,
like, yelling, like, get off me, get off me,
get off me, get off me! Is there a stairwell
nearby that you can throw that into? Good luck,
Adam. And your consequence is that you're now
in a desperate position. Okay. Yeah, I gotta
throw this thing, I guess, out of here. Is that,
like, is there an athletics thing or something
I have to do for that? I honestly might just
be another prowl that's in a desperate position.
Unless anyone else has anything that they want
to do. I mean, I could also... I don't know if
I want to use this early, but I could use my
shadow, right? You could. Because this would
be a feat of athletics to, like, totally save
this guy. Yes. But we haven't even gotten into
the juice of this mission yet. That is true.
I don't know if I want to. Yeah, this could be
a little early. Is there, like, a window you
could throw down nearby? Is there, Colin? Well,
you are underground. Yeah, this is the basement.
You are in a very long hallway, so you could
throw it forward, I guess, where he was running.
Can someone assist me on my prowl? Telekinetically
push it. You just throw the grenade into the
crowded meeting room. You shouldn't have pulled
the pin. You shouldn't have a grenade as the
door watch guy, for fuck's sake. I assist Joseph
with calmness. He has steady aim to throw it
exactly down the hallway in a straight line hit
as far away as possible. You could do that. I'll
do that. Pam, what's your bond level with Joseph?
Oh, it's three. You're going to take three stress
loyal. But Joseph, you get plus one die, greater
effect, and there's one other thing you get.
You get benefits equal to that, so you can have
1d, 1 effect, and improved position, which would
actually take it down to risky. It would be risky
great with an extra die. Not bad. So, plus 1d,
risky great. Yes. This is the second time that
Sunlip has ever entered Joseph's mind. Yeah,
and I think Joseph doesn't have time to talk
about it right now. He's letting it happen. Ooh,
crap! All right, it was baseball days. I watched
a lot of baseball in my little pond. Yeah, what,
like what? Ambrose runs through the door and
the grenade bounces right off his groin, incapacitating
him and then flies away far enough that nobody
gets killed. Yeah, I guess, like, what is your
ideal outcome here? Do you want the grenade just
to not go off at all? I mean, that would be great
if that's a possibility. Ask for that, man. Maybe
the pin is gone, but the safety lever is still
there. That's what I was going to say originally.
Or like you diffuse it really quickly. I mean,
you're a fucking robot. I wouldn't put it past
you. You have a little... That little engraving
laser you have, and it's like... Oh, yeah. Maybe
I do it out of, like, instinct. I don't even
realize what I've done. It'll be like, I don't
know what I used to do as an assassin, but I
guess it came out of me right now. All those
courses I took at Divine University for bomb
disarming. Frag defusal. Yeah, you disable it,
and I think you, like, clamp a hand over the
guy's mouth while he's screaming, so, like, he
does not even get, like, a whimper out, and you
have, like, neutralized him, and... I don't think
I think I'm going to put you back in a controlled
position because I don't think anyone knows you're
even here now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Perfect. I presume
you like drag this guy back to your group. Yeah.
Yeah. I get down real close to him and I say,
you're welcome. Yeah. I still give Joseph a nod
of approval and not a fucking job because that
was a crit with great effect. That was good.
Yeah, let's fucking, let's creep up. I'm gonna
creep up to the door. You know, it's just like,
it's just like, so he stacks up on one side of
the door and makes some, like, complicated hand
gestures and, like, it's like a breach and clear.
Do we have flashbang grenades? Are we allowed
to have those? Does somebody on Spud's team have
a flashbang grenade? Okay, you do not actually
know where the door is. What do you, I mean,
oh. There's no, like, door at the end of the
hallway. There are many doors in this. You have
to get it out of this guy. Yeah, ask this guy.
Loyal should ask this guy. Quietly. Yeah. Load
up shouldn't be, like, Tell us where the entrance
is. Give me a sway. Yeah. Yeah, probably a sway.
I still feel like Sunleth is using a lot more
psychic stuff lately. He just doesn't care anymore.
Controlled, great. Four sway. Yay! Success! You
do it. Six five. Yeah, he like... is very shaken
up from everything that just happened he's kind
of like cradling his arm and it's like uh they're
just like the three three f that's that's the
room they're in there i i'm just the watchman
i don't even i don't even like what they're doing
in there okay is that a lie to the hospital um
i he believes himself right now but if you'd
asked him when he had like a grenade to hold
his leverage, he probably would have been lying.
I like that. Fluid mind. Anyways, get this guy
to the hospital. Let's get going. Yeah, drag
him out of here. Don't use grenades next time.
The more you know. Yeah, he won't have a robot
to save you. And Joseph, if you want to use that
grenade in the future, you can just, for this
operation, you can say you can use it, you know,
whatever. Yeah, now you can stack up at the door.
Yes. Now I have to ask you if we have flashbang
grenades or if Spud has flashbang grenades. Roll
me a die. Alright. I would also like to survey
this room. I imagine that if I critically fail,
he says yes, but it's actually like white phosphorus.
Oh, those are frag grenades. Oh, I did roll a
fail. That's a two. He says, flashbang grenades?
What is this, a humanitarian mission? Yes! Alright,
we're doing it the old -fashioned way. Thank
you. Let me look at, hold on, just before we
breach, I'm going to look at the list of pilot
gear. I do want a survey. I want to, like, sonar
this place. See how many people are in there.
You do that while I look. Do it. What's my position?
Controlled standard. Wow, six. Holy shit, dude!
Really good at rolling lately. Fuck yeah! Yes,
you kind of like sonar on this door, and the
resonant frequencies are so perfect. You can
see right through it. It's like it's a fucking
window. There is a few things in this... It's
a very large room. It's kind of a warehouse.
There's a bigger door farther down that kind
of indicates that... This is like a large storage
facility, more than just like a tiny workshop.
There's about 20 -odd people in there. They're
all kind of doing different things. Some are
definitely armed. Some have, like, tools. And
some are kind of just hanging out, like you see
some guys playing cards in the corner of the
room, kind of unaware that anything is even wrong.
But in the center of the room is a frame, almost
completely assembled. Most of its structure seems
to be made out of a type of wood. And there's
a large rivet gun and a big welding torch hung
above it, which you presume to be the intended
arsenal for this creation. Right, okay. So I
relay this information to the team. I'm like,
frame, center room, 20 or so people, this many
are armed, this many are not, etc. Is it obvious?
The frame is made out of wood. Yeah, how's it
going to get out of there? There's a large door
on the other end of the room. In the back. I
would like to... So it's a door that leads outside?
Not directly outside, no. It leads into this
large hallway you're in now. Okay. Oh, I see.
So, like, we are currently in the way that a
frame would get outside. Yeah, but maybe there's,
like, a fire exit if you want to do something
with it. I don't know. Well, no, I was just thinking.
I was going to check off my fine remote vehicle
control and position the changeling right outside
the door so that if the frame tries to leave,
I can just fucking punch it into splinters. This
fucking stupid -ass wooden robot. Yeah, sure.
Do you have a flamethrower? I don't have a flamethrower.
I could declare one. I've got one piece of vehicle
load ready. But yeah, I'm going to check off
my fine remote as soon as I get this bit of information.
Geist pulls his, like, you've seen it before,
it's his little frame remote control, and he
just, like, fiddles with it for a couple seconds.
He's like, alright, let's, uh, let's get the
fuck in there, I got the changeling on standby
if things go real sideways. It is worth noting,
you are three levels underground. Yes, I know.
This is like, this is like if it tries to, like,
if we get flattened or have to fall back, and
the frame tries to leave the factory, it will
have a surprise when it opens the door. Alright.
How do you want to proceed? Who wants to go first?
You want the raptors going first, or...? Can
cohorts give you a bonus? Like, can we do a group
action, but it's like us plus our cohort all
acting together? Uh... I've got stress to fucking
burn because I got a trauma, so my bar's empty.
I could lead a group struggle action. The cohort
can roll as a one die, because they're tier one.
Okay. So if you want to do a group struggle,
I'm all for it. Do you guys want to just do,
does anybody want to do anything besides just
like bust in their cracking heads? Cause the
goal is not to kill anyone. Um, but I mean like
if somebody raises a gun, you can kill them,
but it's just like, you know, the struggle as
an approach to this with a full group action
is basically us doing the SWAT thing where we
kick in all the doors. We like threaten people,
get on the ground. You know what I mean? Does
that, does anybody have, does anybody want to
do anything different? I guess is my question.
No. I feel like we're already going that route,
so yeah. Yeah, I'm there. Target the mech, the
people working on the mech. Get people away from
it. Yeah, so I'll take one stress for every person
who does not pass this test, right? Including
myself. Yes. Okay, I have no stress, so I'm not
in danger of... Literally, I have three scars
now, so one more full stress bar and Geist is
removed from the game. So I gotta play it safe,
but this can't... Even if it went disastrously
and everybody, including myself, failed, I would
not trauma out, so I'm okay. I'm okay to lead
this. Yeah, so Geist, I guess, is just like,
alright, sweep and clear, prioritize targets
with weapons, prioritize anybody moving for the
frame, try not to kill anybody, but don't hesitate
if you have to. That's the orders to everybody,
and I think we're gonna group action. Is everybody
ready? I'm ready. I think you are all rolling
two dice and taking the lowest, so I'm fully
expecting to take three stress and probably four
and possibly five. Does anybody have struggle?
You're all rolling struggle. Oh, I have one in
struggle. Yeah, okay. I have one too, yeah. Oh,
look at that, we're fine. And it's risky standard,
right? Yes, you're at risky standard. It's no
longer controlled, because this is... This is
a risky thing to do. Alright. Ready when y 'all
are. Partial. Nice. So that's two failures and
two partials. So I only take two stress. Actually,
do we have to roll for the raptor? I already
rolled for them. They got a partial. Okay, cool.
So I just take two stress. That's fine. Alright.
Yeah. Good. Good, good. Okay. You are going to
go in. guns blazing, yelling for everyone to
fucking get on the floor, basically. I want to
see your hands! Do we see their hands, or are
they resisting? Let me think. Let me think how
to narrate. Give me a moment. Suddenly just rolls
in with a stun gun, which he's not been seen
with before, and it is live with electricity.
Like, one of his hands is switched out for this.
It's just glowing. He's making the tank treads
noise, too. He's, like, turned up the volume
of his speakers, and he's like, do not resist.
Get on the ground. Okay. One second. I need to
make a clock. Yes, everyone... Kind of freezes.
Everyone is very surprised. Some people go for
the guns, but kind of realize that it is a poor
decision to do so. I think... Did you know what
Ambrose looks like? Did someone tell you? So
Joseph talked to the voice of the garrison about
him. Captain Grabber. Yes, my man Grabber. So,
I mean, I don't know that it specifically included
a physical description, but it could have. I
don't really remember. For the sake of understanding,
yes, Joseph Ambrose Grave is here. He kind of
puts his hands up in the air. You see that he
has some pistols holstered under his little coat.
And he says, well, look who decided to show up.
I don't think I say anything. I'm just like,
move forward. The guy says, hands on your fucking
hand! Who is this guy again? He's the known troublemaker
who is in charge of this cell. I forgot to say
this bit of flavor. Hex has a glint pistol. Fuck
yeah! That's awesome. I needed to say that. And
Ambrose bolts straight at you guys uh reaching
for his guns of course um that was obviously
a bad idea all right bro you could shoot him
you got the gun i mean unless unless if one of
you in particular wants to kill him he will be
gunned down um by a spud i mean i'm good i'm
fine to let spud spud was out for blood i mean
he's reaching for a gun i think it's perfectly
just yeah no this is this was in the rules of
engagement he spuds aloud We gotta give it to
Spud. Yeah, let him have it. He needs the dub.
He's been sitting on the sidelines for too long.
Yeah, Spud dispatches it very quickly, like two
clean shots to the chest, and says, What the
hell was that guy thinking? And mid -sentence,
you hear the frame starting to boot up. And there
is a clock started called boot up four. Yeah,
that's where the situation is now. Is there anyone
in it? Yes, there is. Okay. Who has stress to...
Okay, now, first of all, the best question, does
anybody have any points in Wreck? I think I know
the answer. No. No. Okay. It's also sad. No.
Does anybody have stress to spend? No. Not me.
Definitely not me. A little bit. Yeah. You have
a little bit? Okay, do you have... I don't know,
what's your... What's your, how many relationship
points do you have with Geist? I have two. Do
you have two stress to spend? I do, and the one
thing about one of these relationship points
is it's one I didn't write. It's in red. It says,
he'd make a worthy king. See, I have one from
you that I didn't write that is also in red that
says, he has something for me. Scary. I wasn't
going to mention it. But yeah, so do you want...
My plan is I'm going to check off a... Yeah,
a placed explosive, and I would like to roll
rep. I'm going to push myself, and I'm going
to have Loyal help me somehow. How can Loyal
help? What does that look like? I don't have
a pilot gear for this, but I want him to also
have a riot shield somehow in his other hand,
like the stun gun in one hand. I don't know if
that's allowed, Mr. GM. That could be an unusual
weapon. I'll check it off as an unusual weapon.
Why not? Maybe it's like a cool thing. You can
hit someone with a riot shield. You can. Anyways,
yeah, I'm giving Geist cover while he's doing
this. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to try and place
a bomb on this fucking thing. Okay, so you're
going to get position and effect. I mean, die
and effect? Is that what you want, or do you
want die and position? Um, no, I want... I want
die in effect. I don't care about position. Fuck
me up. I think we've established that Geist does
not care what position he is in. Although I guess
maybe that's changed. You are in a... You are
in a risky position. It's not desperate yet.
Good, good, good. So... Okay. Plus two dice.
Risky standard. What do we got, baby? I'm really
good at failing threes, so maybe that means I
will pass a two. Let's wreck. I did not pass
a two. Three and one. Your consequence is I'm
checking this clock twice for boot up. You see
it starting to... It has... I think one of its
legs is only partially connected, and it's just
kind of staggering to its feet. It reaches up
and grabs at this big welding torch thing on
the ceiling and starts cramping its hands around
it. Around you... The people who have been apprehended
aren't reaching for their guns or anything yet,
but they're getting shifty. They're getting the
feeling that maybe something is changing in the
situation. What does my failure look like? Because
I was trying to plant a bomb on its leg. I think
you get up to it, like you are on it. It shifts
its leg as you're trying to plant it. I guess
you're straddling the leg almost. Yeah. As it
kind of thrashes around. The real consequence
is that it's not immobile anymore. This is just
going to take more time to get it to arm correctly.
Yeah, okay, cool. Someone with better gear than
fine artistic tools, help out. I got optical
camo. I don't know. I fade from view. Goodbye,
everyone. Good luck. I mean, I could use my shadow,
but I still feel like I should hold that. Wait
till we're in desperate position. Maybe Hex could
do a fun placed explosives thing? I mean, that's
what I'm doing. You want to come help? Yeah.
I could declare that. Brian, you sound far away.
Oh, sorry. I moved my microphone. Yeah, no, no.
I moved the arm when, yeah. I can prowl, but
that, I have like a, I don't know. How about
we do two placed explosives? You could prowl,
or sorry, I mean, that's a good idea, but also
Joseph could like try prowling up there to rip
the pilot out. Or like, that'd be sick. If I
were to do a shadow, it was going to be like,
I jump feet first into the cockpit, see if I
can impale the guy. But I don't want to use my
shadow yet. But I could use my prowl. Well, the
safe option is place explosives. But the cool
option... We can do both. We can work it from
multiple angles. Yeah, how about you place explosives
first? If that doesn't work, we'll use plastic.
Plastic Joseph prowl. Never goes wrong. Your
bureaucrat -specific gear might not be useful
here. I hate to be the one to tell you this.
Maybe it's something to do with the trees? I
don't know. You could do something with blueprints,
I don't know. Like there's a gas line above them
or some shit. Analyze the scenario. Like your
numbers. According to this building code. I remember
this in college. They should have been OSHA compliant.
And it lights the robot on fire because it's
made of fucking wood. That's fun. No, Hex isn't
that smart. Let's just do normal. It's explosive.
Okay. I'm going to try to do the same thing that
Geist is doing, which is run up and slap an explosive
on it. Okay. That's probably a zero dive wreck,
unfortunately. It's reasonable. It was a failure.
Wow. That's a four and a two. Another failure.
Yeah. Okay. Okay, guys. It was fun today, but...
It was fun. We had a lot of fun here. Yeah, you
know. We tried. Is there a clock for the robot
turning on? I don't see it. Well, it was four,
and it's now taken off. Oh, boot up. Yeah, yeah,
there it is. It's now full. Yeah, it gets up.
It pulls the weapons that are above its head
down towards it. One of them is a rivet gun.
That one's obvious. And then it turns out that
the welders have kind of been fashioned into...
A large plasma sword, which ignites, and you
can feel just heat filling the room as this thing
stands up. And I think people just start going
for their guns, and you're now in a desperate
position, everyone. Cool. Could I attempt my
jump now? Into the cockpit? Yeah. The cockpit
is sealed, but if you want to try to get into
the cockpit somehow... I'm open to suggestions.
Could I use my shadow for a feat of great athletics?
Are you gonna do like the ghost in the shell
thing and break both your arms in half trying
to pull it open? I was just gonna use both my
legs to like super jump and then kick my way
like through the fucking cockpit and kill the
guy inside. Yeah. I'm like a bullet going in,
and I'm going to land on his chair, and my legs
are going to go through his body. That's what
I was thinking. Your position is desperate limited.
I will tell you that. Even with the shadow? Well,
shadow... Let me look at your sheet. It's for
spending a spark. Yeah. For a free push, essentially.
And so you can push... Yeah. You can push to
either increase your effect or add one die, but...
I will have you know that I can actually now
assist you, and I can do it for free because
of my new move. Tactical Genius is what it's
called. Oh, right. You can do that. Guys have
decided to become a leader. And I can help you
using Tactical Genius. I can get two times permission.
I can assist a squadmate without paying stress.
I just have to tell how I prepared for this.
This is an ability that is familiar to me. This
is kind of like a really... a really edge case.
I don't know how Geist could have possibly known
that there was going to be a frame down here.
I guess I, the player, certainly didn't suspect
it, but maybe Geist is smarter than me. It is
a factory, after all. Is my plan still allowed,
though? Yeah, I mean, you're always allowed to
try things. Am I allowed to... Is that, like,
physically allowed? Like, I can try to jump so
hard that I put my feet through the cockpit.
It is impossible that you will kill him in one
roll. Okay. But if you want to begin this process
and start ticking clocks on this six -step clock,
which is now called the Vanguard Grey, then absolutely,
you can do that. I mean, people have broken into
your cockpits before, so it's only fair. And
this is made out of wood. Fair is fair. But yeah,
I'm going to assist you. So what you can do is
basically you can use your push to get an extra
die, and then you can use my assist to get extra
effects that will be standard instead of limited.
So you get your push for spark, and then you
get my assistance for free, and that will allow
you plus one die, and either plus one extra die,
which is, I don't know if you want to do that,
or you can increase your effect from limited
to standard, which means that it will be less
of an ineffectual move. You'll have better effect.
But this won't even stop anything, right? I'm
just going to be getting to the cockpit. You'll
be ticking the clock to destroy this thing, which
is actually better because that's something we
can all work towards. There's no action that
anyone could take which would end this threat
immediately. It's a giant robot. Now that would
be something. That would end this whole operation
really, really fast. We no longer have to worry
about defending the town. Yeah, get in there.
I guess maybe like... Maybe after Geist beat
up or pretended to beat up Joseph a whole bunch
of times, we were just talking shop on tactics.
Yeah, I was thinking about that, too. You're
pretty fast. You're pretty sneaky. If we were
ever in a real bad situation or you didn't have
your frame, you could just get in there. You
got those robot arms. Just peel the cockpit open
and get to the... the meat inside you know what
i mean and just you're terrifying me but i do
agree with you yeah i feel like they did talk
about how like joseph's stronger outside his
frame and like how could we use that in a battle
you know even if we're fighting a frame maybe
we came up with like the idea of me go cockpit
hunting reach my little hands inside i feel like
in my in my mind so we guys got this free move
from being part of like the the clusterist you
know hive mind merging thing and i feel like
he like he it's cheesy but like he realized that
the ability to be a leader was within him all
along you know what i mean i love it that's beautiful
he was already he was already there um and now
we're going to use it to brutally stomp out this
insurgency but that's that's what the assistance
looks like okay so you can prowl with one plus
one die and standard effect and hopefully it
will do something. Okay, position, desperate,
plus 1D, desperate, standard, prowl. Get his
ass! That's good! Okay, I'll tick this clock
twice for partial effect. You hop on up this
pretty effortlessly up this giant frame. I guess
it's in similar height to your frame, Joseph.
which might help with getting there. I think
light frames are like 20, 30 feet in size. Yeah.
So you climb up that thing like a fucking spider.
I think Hex and Geist kind of are at its feet
now, kind of shaken off. And you get up to the
cockpit. There is, like this thing was not done
being made. It was not even fully sealed. So
you are beginning to peel back this cockpit.
um open it is a large metal hatch um oh fuck
what i i know i have an idea are you thinking
about it too uh i i think i know what you have
in mind yeah okay um um but it is starting to
open the i guess the pilot kind of notices this
maybe sees some sort of like access alert go
up and kind of swings wildly with this big plasma
sword, which is going to completely annihilate
all the raptors. Oh, no. Resist the consequence.
Do you have any stress left? No. Fuck no. I'll
be owned. Bye, raptors. The raptors have died.
Yeah. Okay. Is Spud dying? Right here in front
of us? Is this it for Spud? Or are they just,
are they removed from the scene or are they like
dead? There are mechanics for damaging cohorts,
as I recall. Let me look at them. It's just,
it's literally just like you check off. One hit,
they become... It's like harm on a player. One
hit, they have reduced defense. Two hits, they
have negative one die. Three hits, they're incapacitated.
Broken, yeah. That was a really good sword swing.
I mean, it's a small space, and it's a big sword.
Yeah, and it's a disparate position. That's what
happens. It's like seers over the top of... I
think this probably hits loyal as well, unfortunately.
No! Narratively, you are kind of in that same
area. You are going to take the level 2 damage,
loyal. Seared, I guess? Like an ahi tuna? To
resist being an ahi tuna. That would be an expertise,
not expertise. That would be probably prowess.
Prowess, yes. It's got finesse and prowess in
there, yeah. You're at risk of stressing out
again, aren't you? A little bit. Already? Not
our dolphin. Can't do this to the dolphin. We
don't have a good time. How many traumas do you
have? You could use armor instead. You have a
lot of load. Oh, right. I'll do that. Let's just
armor up that old extra pawn. So if you want
to do take, if you want to take no damage at
all, you need to check off five boxes of armor.
All right. You have room for. Okay. This, this
giant. burning blade goes over the top of your
head and, like, just starts melting this armor
on the outside of your exopod. I think it, like,
pops itself off automatically as it detects that
it, like, reaches the temperature threshold.
And you look over to your left and you see Spud
just, like, duck for cover, like, trying to get
out of the room as a lot of the raptors are just,
like, completely incinerated. And you think Spud
definitely gets hit by this as well. as he, like,
leaps out of the room, and a big molten scar
just, like, carved through the wall on the side
of you. He wanted action. He got it. He got action.
And I think people are going for their guns now,
seeing as the tide has turned. I will also say
that a lot of people are running as well. Like,
a lot of the people here are not combatants.
Did any of the clusters get hit by that sword
swing? No. Wow. Smart, too. Shit. Hex goes for
cover and starts opening fire on some of the
clusterers reaching for their weapons. What's
that a roll for? Probably... Struggle. Yeah.
Let's do it. We out here struggling every day.
Taste it. Yay! Parcel success! We'll take it.
We're doing it. I don't know. It's a four. I
was going to make it a four -step clock for the
infantry because these guys aren't like... Busterist
dudes. Two ticks. Yeah, you take cover behind
like some fucking crates or some barrels or something.
You know, generic warehouse cover. Yeah, those
warehouse chest high walls. Exactly. And you
take a few out with your very slick new gun.
You're fine in a pistol, I believe it is. It
works. Which I think actually I will give you
another tick because I think that's a thing you're
supposed to do when there's a big tier difference.
Yes, it is. And there is definitely a tier difference
here. These people are not trained as soldiers
in the slightest. And some of them return fire
back to you and you get some like shrapnel in
your cheek, which will just be a level one damage,
like scraped. Cool. But you are near a giant
frame. Which is swing wildly. I trust my friends.
Okay. I think, yeah, it's top of the order again,
I guess. You can go wherever you guys want. Does
Joseph want to go first? I'm just going to try
and maybe plant the ball and probably get punted
against the wall. I have a funny bit that I had
an idea for. I'm sure Colin, you know, too. I
love a funny bit. I was thinking. With the little
hole that I've created, I'd like to return their
grenade. You are a genius. We're giving the Clusterists
back their bomb. Yeah. Yeah. Is that a roll?
Or can I just drop in? I mean, it's a roll. It's
definitely a roll. I need to think of what it
is. What do you want to roll? What do you think
this is? It's interface, clearly. I mean, I'm
interfacing with the fucking grenade. Maybe it's
like a struggle, I was thinking. Struggle or
finesse. Yeah, you have one tick in each, so
that's... Yeah, just roll a die. Desperate Great
is your position, because it's a... Hey, it's
perfect. Don't forget to XP for these decks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Struggle, yeah. And I can't
add anything to this because... Unless someone
helps you. Anyone want to cheer me on? I don't
know if you guys have stress to spend, though.
I have an ability, too. Oh, let's hear it. After
I see the results of an action roll, I can push
myself to redo that roll. What? Or assist. And
if zero dice are rolled, roll again with one
dice. That's fucking nuts. That's really... Is
that an incapability? It's carry that weight.
Oh, shit. A cowboy bebop reference, too. There's
also another part of it where it's, like, out
of combat. If I have a personal moment with someone,
I can, like, take some of your stress away. Wow,
that's cool. Empath class is pretty cool. Yeah,
I don't know if anyone has... i i guess i would
have to roll first if we want to see if we could
do loyals the thing is i have another free one
but i feel like it's getting more and more difficult
to justify yeah i know if guys i can't do my
ability no one yeah yeah it specifically has
to be nobody okay yeah that's fair because like
if i and i have to think of some way that it
came up in conversation like yeah if you got
a frames cockpit open just a little bit, you
could stuff a frag grenade in there. That'd make
a real fucking mess. Here's how you do it. No.
It's too much. I think it's too much. It's a
miracle we talked about all that. I mean, it'd
be funny. It would be funny, but I think it's
too much, and I think Loyal has this covered.
This is a desperate great. Desperate great? Desperate
great. You got this. That's a five! Five, baby.
Partial success. Hell yeah. Can I say something?
Yes, please. You drop this. Yes! Yeah, you toss
the grenade in through the little crack and you
hear a muffled, What the crack? And it explodes.
And I think... The fuse might have been a little
shorter than you thought, Joseph. I think that'll
be your consequence. A little bit of explosion
and a little bit, I think, probably human flesh
and blood comes out of the hole. You're going
to take the level two damage. Let's just call
it like severed legs or like damaged legs or
something where like your legs get fucked up.
All right, I'm getting hurt, but it was worth
it. But yeah, it blows up. It drops both of its
weapons onto the ground with a big clanking noise.
I think this is enough to demoralize the people
who are still fighting to drop their guns. And
the fighting sort of dies down. The frame collapses
to the ground, shaking the whole building. And
I think we'll pause there for today.