Hey everyone, it's Colin. So we are getting near
the end of things here. Not that close, but it
is approaching. And once the season is complete,
we're planning on recording a post -season wrap
-up with everyone, just discussing the campaign,
our thoughts, etc. And we would love if you,
our wonderful listeners, submitted some questions
for us to respond to. You can ask about anything,
no matter how simple or weird you think it might
be. We'll be taking questions on our Tumblr,
which is calamitycascade .tumblr .com. And we're
also going to be taking emails at calamitycascade
at gmail .com. I'm looking forward to hearing
from you. If you happen to be hearing this after
the wrap -up episode has aired, you're still
welcome to submit questions, but because of the
linear nature of time, they won't likely be featured
unless I make some very serious breakthroughs.
Anyways, thank you for listening, and on to the
intro. To Adjimenta. This is Pierce Sunspire.
The project is complete, and a firing solution
has been prepared. I don't care how you do it,
but you need to get our people out of there.
I have upheld my part of the bargain. Now, it's
your turn. Hello! Welcome back to All That You
Know. My name is Colin, and I am the Game Master.
Joining me today are Brian. Hey, I'm Brian, and
I'll be playing Hex the Bureaucrat. Adam. I'm
Adam. I'm playing Joseph the Infiltrator. Zach.
I'm Zach. I'm playing Geist the Ace. And Ewan.
Hi, I'm Ewan. I am playing Loyal the Empath.
So, you've just completed... A very exciting
operation where you went to a resort and killed
some rich people and made others extremely wealthy
and powerful. Following your successful operation,
you have returned to Bluth's Salad Warehouse.
It is barren, except for some old crates of non
-perishable salad ingredients. The entire place
has a very faint scent of onion, and nothing
seems to be able to get rid of that smell. Gopher
is chatting with Captain Spud, who is currently
wheelchair -bound, regaling him with some old
war stories. The Sparrows and Raptors have constructed
a hoop out of some rebar and a modified colander
and are playing an impromptu game of basketball.
The Raptors are winning, but it is a close game.
Worthy is fiddling with his ship, and you are
all waiting to hear back from Bluth. You probably
get a text from Jenny saying that's going to
be a few days before he is recovered and is done
maneuvering the council. because he got shot,
and that is unfortunate for him, I guess. So
let's get into end -of -session stuff. You don't
need to roll for supply. You're going to get
seven supply straight up from the emergency funds.
Holy shit! Oh, yeah. I'll keep a running total.
Thank you, Treasure Master. are not going to
get any additional personnel or material because
of democracy, because you are outside of the
peacekeepers entirely at this point. You are
going to gain four rep, but since your rep tracker
is full, it is going to disappear into the ether.
I don't believe any of you furthered your drives.
So unless you have any complaints, you don't
get anything. And now you can all spend one supply
to refresh 1d6 quirks. And remove all level 1
harm and damage. I have a quick question before
we do anything. Yes. How much does it cost for
us to increase our tier? Because that will definitely
influence how much I'm willing to spend. Don't
worry about it. Okay, I won't worry about it.
In that case, I'm going to skim $4 off the top.
Right? Does everybody need to do that? I definitely
do. I have two level one harms and two level
one damages. Yeah, I'd like to heal. Cool. I
have arm sticky. I don't know what I put in it.
It's sticky and scorched. I don't think it actually
I think it was jammed and then it got unjammed
but it still sticks. It's not sticky as in covered
in syrup. He put his arm in jam and that's why
it was sticky. Well, isn't English wonderful?
It's a great language. Okay. Either way, I'm
going to roll because I got to have my quirks.
Yeah, so you can all remove all level one arm
and damage. I don't think any of you have missing
quirks, but if you do, you can roll 1d6 and restore.
I do. I'm missing three because I was remote
piloting the changeling. And I think some of
those were left over. All level 1 harm and all
level 1 damage. Okay. Bye -bye. Thank God. That's
like, I was going to spend everything on this
session, so I'm happy. Oh, fuck off, man. Whatever,
it's fine. I'm not mad. I'm not furious or fucking
mad. You can have the two of mine that I didn't
get. Doesn't look like that. That's fine. I've
got all but one of my quirks back. That'll be
okay. Awesome. If everyone is set there, I will
continue. As far as trust goes, you're not going
to gain any trust with the Peacekeepers, but
you have completely flipped your relationship
with the Corporate Council, so I've moved you
from a minus one to a plus one with them. Yay!
Which is a substantial move. They love their
death squads. I mean, yeah. Ask Coca -Cola. You
need them. I've been thinking about them lately.
xp pilot xp is what we're going to start with
uh you get one xp if you expressed your tragedy
history or opening you get another xp if you
struggled because of your beliefs scars or your
vehicle's quirks um and you get another one to
two xp for addressing challenges with methods
determined by your playbook which is for the
ace piloting or violence empath understanding
or poise infiltrator stealth or evasion, and
bureaucrat, procedure or management. And I think
you basically all get 2 XP for that. I guess
I did pilot and I did regular violence. I don't
think I got anything else though, unfortunately.
Because I didn't really express my history, beliefs,
opening tragedy, scars, or quarks. I don't think.
I think I'm going to say I expressed my history
by meeting my fucking dad. Yeah, that's a big
one for sure. He was just being firm. Oh my god,
dad, this is so embarrassing. What are you doing
here? Get off the planet. I hate you. Squad XP.
Face against challenges above your tier. You're
going to get 2 XP for a tier 3 target. Reinforcing
your squad's reputation, you're going to get
1 XP for reinforcing your subtle reputation,
which is like your secondary reputation we gave
you. Drives, goals, inner conflict, instinct
of the squad. One XP, I think. And then successful
battle, delivery, or rescue operation. I'm just
going to give you one XP because I think you
should get it. We're one away from another squad
upgrade. Cool. GM, I have a question. Hell yeah.
Yes. Does it count as struggling with my beliefs
due to me heinously killing a man? starting the
game as trying to be a pacifist. Is that an XP?
Sure. Okay, thanks. As long as you feel bad about
it. So bad. The worst. It's that easy, folks.
If you feel bad, just look at American Sniper.
Just be miserable all the time. Just feel bad
about it and it'll all work out. We're sorry.
We're sorry. Uh, okay. Entanglements. I already
rolled your entanglement because I'm a heinous
man. That's good. But, so shortly after you arrive
back at the onion warehouse, a beat up little
car pulls up and out of it steps a absolutely
massive man. A huge, muscular, bulky guy. Almost
comically. He's like bulging out of this, uh,
What is he wearing? I didn't write it down. I'm
imagining a casual button -up, maybe some slacks,
and he's got a very big duffel bag slung over
his shoulder, and he's just walking straight
towards the warehouse. What do you do? Uh...
Are we expecting a guy? Not me. Waves at him
and asks, Hey, who are you? Uh, how close do
you let him get to the building before you flag
him down? Probably not that close. Okay. Yeah,
I could use the projector on my exopod to, like,
yell at him from afar. Unusually large man! Fuck
off! Step aside! State your name and intentions
now, or back away. Uh, he says, uh, My name is
Archibald Bellworth. I've been sent over by Dr.
Grace for my residency. Your salad residency?
I'm a relatively skilled surgeon for my level
of education. Oh, shit. This is one of Grace's
guys. All right, yeah. Come on in. You rolled
a one on table C, which is new recruit, and you've
gained a specialist with a tier of one. with
qualities eager and loyal. This is a hashtag
doctor. Fuck yeah. Hope he's a mechanic too.
He's not a mechanic. You, Gopher. Yeah. Gopher's
a fucking crack mechanic. He's the best in the
biz now. Is he trained in veterinary medicine?
Like dogs and such? Exclusively. And other animals
that may or may not be sapient. Well, it's funny
you mention that. I actually only do dog surgery
up until recently. What type of dog is Bippo?
What is the species of Bippo? We don't. I think
we decided specifically not to get into it. Well,
yeah, Bippo is like a custom dog. That's like
trying to put a species name on a unique stream.
You can't do that. Okay, that's true. Bippo is
a dog, asterisk. Bippo is Skywalker OG. Yeah,
he's British. Bippo? No, Archibald Bellworth.
Bippo is British. You heard it here first, folks.
This is the hard -hitting journalism the fans
want. Alright, yeah, come on in. We hopefully
won't be here for too long. But make yourself
comfortable if you can. Maybe that's a bit of
an all -order. I don't know. Oh, don't worry
about me. I'm very eager. Were they telling the
truth? Like, about being a doctor? What he said
is that he is a relatively skilled surgeon for
his level of education. Is that true? It is.
He believes it to be true. That's what really
matters, technically. It's true. He is only,
until recently, only worked with dogs. Well,
at least he's fucking ripped, so if we get attacked,
we can order him to bludgeon... Yeah, I think
we need to Skype for something else, honestly.
Oh, I'm... I'm sorry, I'm a pacifist. Wow. This,
uh... This is all genetics, unfortunately. I
tried... I tried to get smaller, and it just,
uh... It just didn't stick. Well, you don't even
work out? Like, it just... No. No, I try not
to. If I work out, I get even bigger. How did
you try to get smaller? Well, I just laid around
for a while and I tried to not eat anything and
not go outside and I just kind of this is my
weight. This is what I look like. I see. It's
a curse. A curse of being too buff. Okay. I'm
ready to move on from Archibald. I'm not. Hex,
your phone goes off. Jenny is calling you. Isn't
Hex traumatized? Oh, what new trauma did you
get? I don't know if we solved that. We didn't.
Traumatized out in the car or ride home, right?
But you do get untraumatized once you get back.
You just look different now, I guess, or act
different. I think just cold works. Oh, yeah,
for sure. I definitely am feeling Hex going cold.
Yeah. Okay, Harold, Jenny is calling you. All
right, Harold picks up. Hello? Hey, Harold, how's
it going? going man you would not believe what
just happened to me some really crazy stuff just
went down uh blue says i can't talk about it
but like it was crazy he got shot bro no way
hex responds he's doing paperwork in the background
clearly not paying attention but you know He's
still keeping the conversation going on the off
chance there's something valuable here. Anyways,
we're getting situated here. Could you send over
a list of everything you need, where you want
it staged and stuff, and we can start preparing
it. It's probably going to be like a month with
how things are looking until everything's set
up, but we're rushing, but we don't want to get
you guys tracked down or whatever. That works
for us, Heck says. And I guess, does she have
anything else to say? Jenny is a guy. Generator
E. Oh, duh, yes. Of course, Generator E. You
can't forget Generator E. Stupid. No, that's
it. I'm going to send you a gift basket for hooking
me up with this cool job and all. You don't have
to. Hex does and hangs up. He's cold. Wow. So
fucking cold. What a bitch. Cold. Hex mutters,
always hated her. Bro. Poor Jenny. Poor fucking
Jenny. So you now are situated where you can
build a new base or start building a new base.
It'll be built in a month. I already gave you
all homework to discuss this, but for the viewers,
I will tell you what that homework was, which
was to choose a location, and I outlined three
that would be the most realistic. The first being
Caldera Lake, which is where you are now, which
is far west of the city, past a big, giant, icy
desert, which is pretty affluent, but kind of
outside the conflict zone. The second was the
River Valley, which is where most of your missions
have happened, largest part of this area of the
planet. Well situated to get to the city and
to get to operations. But there is like a risk
of discovery by clusterists or peacekeepers if
you are not careful. And then the third location
was the ice desert, which is very self -explanatory.
It is just on the west side of the city. It is
a massive icy tundra where there's like basically
nothing there. It is very difficult to navigate
and it has no resources or amenities, but it
is very well hidden and very safe. And for your
upgrades, you're going to retain all of your
existing squad hideout upgrades, and you're going
to be given the quarters upgrade for free because
you're going to be forced to live in this new
base. And you're going to get five other upgrades
as well. And I ask for each of you to choose
four of any cost, so you'll have to figure out
what you want to spend those on ultimately. And
to finish it all off... You will be bumped up
to tier two for free because of your successful
negotiation with Bluth at the start of your last
operation that I believe Hex did. Yes. Which
is a hell of a value. That's like a 16 supply
value right there. So let's look at what you
guys wrote for your ideas and let's discuss what
we're thinking in general. I don't know if you...
Do you guys think we should read it off first
or just kind of go freeform? You can read it
off. That's fun. Yeah, reading off the descriptions
would be good, at least. But I guess you kind
of have to have the rest of it. Let's just do
general vibes. For my example one that I put
down, it was an abandoned ranch in the river
valley that had some sort of dust storm generator
to hide it. Logline. Nice and easy. Adam, what
did you think of, clever guy? I like the ice
desert region. And when I was thinking of the
ice desert region, I immediately thought of the
film The Thing. And I was thinking about the
research outpost that is featured in there. And
I really liked the idea of it is hidden because
it is literally just a bunch of little squares
in just white snow. And it looks almost like
rocks. It's like no one else would ever find
this fucking thing. So that's that's how in my
brain I imagine it is hidden. But then I also
wanted the tunnels upgrade. And then when I was
thinking of tunnels, I also was thinking of Hoth
from Star Wars. So like, oh, yeah, I imagine
that there's just like these, you know, like
little structures on top. But then underneath
there's like whole cave system, you know, that
we actually go through kind of just like in Empire.
And that's also how I like the idea of. Instead
of our frames being stored vertically, if they're
just flat and we don't have a lot of room to
work on them, but when they need to deploy, they're
going to rise up from the ground like zombies.
Shootout. I like that imagery. That's good. That
is my brain thought. Hell yeah. Thank you. Ewan?
Mine is also ice desert. Ice desert game. Gang
rise up. Yeah, mine is basically also an ice
cave. based on what adam just said but just you
get through it through a cliff so from the air
you just can't see anything at all and the ice
cave is large and we just put all our shit in
there and it's very well hidden the road frigid
but kitted out and then a good place for the
squad to meditate on their sins lord knows we
need that uh brian We ain't meditating shit here.
This is Brian reporting in live from the River
Valley. So, you know, Hex is thinking better
if we're closer to the enemy. In terms of location,
he was thinking an abandoned hydroelectric dam
substation. So, you know, getting closer to the
dam, very plot relevant. But, you know, with
the thinking that who'd be stupid enough to put
a base there, you know, after everything that's
happened. So what better place than an inconspicuous
substation? Yeah, in terms of description, I
was thinking there'd be a big cavernous area
beneath where the frames could be stored and
brought up via some sort of lift. That's obscured.
So folks don't immediately know we're there.
It's worth noting, literally everyone chose the
hidden FOB option. Yeah, we want to be hiding.
You do not want to get discovered. What are we
doing this for if not? I guess if you hadn't
chosen that. right when it starts guys we know
where the base is you didn't even try to hide
it like what are we supposed to be doing something
oh yeah hiding put spotlights on the top and
turrets um zach yeah so mine i immediately actually
probably like at the outset of hidden secret
black ops base i thought like okay i want to
be able to fly out of a hidden cave entrance
And so my idea is firstly Caldera Lake. I just
think it's a cool location. You got all that
water nearby, but it's still a little bit remote
from the conflict. And I picked just a couple
upgrades that I thought sounded neat. So I went
with factory and workshop and I kind of like
reverse engineered this. So I picked the stuff
that I thought was cool. And then I was like,
OK, well, then what could it be? And the idea
that I came up with is a secret. uh corporate
prototyping facility so it's just like you know
it's got like basic manufacturing and maybe like
little like assembly lines and automated type
stuff for like prototyping machines and stuff
back from before the corporations united into
a council i don't even i kind of just made that
up um but like you know if they were like spying
on each other and stuff they might have wanted
a secret place to like prototype new equipment
and ideas and stuff and then obviously when they
became a council it didn't it wasn't necessary
anymore so it shut down And so it's basically
just like a completely subterranean, like factory
workshop kind of area. And I picked the airfield
upgrade with the idea that maybe the base is
like up on a sheer cliff face out over the lake.
And there's actually like a huge hole or maybe
that's at least like a hangar door that opens
and closes that you can fly aircraft through.
But it's got like a hologram projector. So it
just looks like a sheer cliff face to anyone
who would try to scan it. Oh, yeah. So that is
all of them. I don't really know how to resolve
this. I guess we'll have to work like as a group.
Or you will have to work as a group. I'm going
to stay out of this. I'm happy as long as it's
a cave. We have three cave ideas. I think we're
cave aligned generally within the group. Except
for the dam. We all know how Hex feels about
dams. I know I said I'd stay out of it, but this
is me not staying out of it. I do think it is
both very funny. Well, not just... This is very
funny. Hex wants to make his base in the scene
of his war crimes. I feel like it's in poor taste
a little bit. It's like serial killer shit. But
it's also... I get the logic. It's like... Who
would be stupid enough to make their base in
their most high -profile crime ever committed?
Exactly. The Dusklights. So I, you know... I'm
not casting a vote for that. I just wanted to
comment on it because I liked it a lot. Y 'all
sleeping on the dam, it puts us in a great position
to go, you know, do things. I'm just saying.
It's a great idea. I... I do like Hoth, though.
Yeah, I'm kind of warming, if you'll pardon the
pun, on the desert idea. I notice I'm the only
one who wanted to be at the gentrified Country
Club Lake area. That's fine. I think, honestly,
probably the best way to do this is just to reach
some kind of compromise of our ideas. Unless,
Colin, you really want us to just pick one of
these and do the whole thing. How would our characters
do this in the role? Yeah. In the fiction. Why
don't you and... Thank you. You're so welcome,
my friend. Let's get out of the meta space and
let's all have characters around a table arguing
and throwing bottles at each other. Well, okay,
see, the only issue with that, though, is that
then we're, like, talking about real concepts.
Like, if we have these four places, we can't
just be like, okay, well, what if we take the
factory from my idea and we put it in the, you
know, the ice desert cave? What about my stealth
rolls? No one's thinking about my stealth rolls.
We're gonna have to roll stealth on site. Actually,
you probably eventually will. I don't know. Can
we compromise on the ice desert? That's not even
really compromising. That's just going with majority
rules. We are a democratic faction overall. I
like Ice Desert. Okay. Cool. For structures,
it seems like we need to discuss structures.
So in the Ice Desert, there's not a lot there.
So basically, the things that Ewan and Adam listed
of Abandoned Research Outpost or Ice Cave, it's
all probably going to be in that general vibe.
Yeah, totally. Unless you guys can think of something
else, which I'm open to. I fucking love ice caves,
just, like, as an aesthetic. I love, you know,
like, the shimmery, light, like, baby blue ice
that's, like, translucent for a few feet. Fossils
in the walls. Ooh. Yeah. That'd be cool. There's
an entire frozen plesiosaur. A space plesiosaur.
I did imagine these as, like, the hangers on
Hoth, where, like, The base on Hoth is not, like,
you know, a giant structure. It's almost, like,
built into ice dunes, you know? With, like, little
holes that you go into. Like, even in my brain,
the tunnels idea was just, like, we wouldn't
even make... It's just, like, how they throw
down, like, metal sheets and run a wire through,
like, just an ice hole. And that's the tunnel.
That's how I saw it in my brain. We gotta have
tunnels. I agree. I like tunnels. That's a me
thing. But it seems so. We need to just try...
We need to do these four upgrades, right? And
technically, one of them we all agree on is hidden
FOV. So, technically, three, right? So you don't...
I made you choose four upgrades just because
it felt like a good number. You don't get four
upgrades straight up. You get five upgrade points,
if that makes sense. I think all of these, every
single thing that we picked is a one -pointer.
Oh, that makes it easy. There's not... Oh, you
know what? No, the... Hold on. Yeah, no, so a
lot of the ones that are two squares on the squad
upgrade sheet have two separate levels you can
take. So, like, for example, if you take one
level of airfield, you get one supply point.
If you take two levels of airfield, you get two.
I think motorpool is the same way. Yeah. So,
yeah, all of these are tiered. So we actually
can all buy all of them. I mean, I think that's
why, you know, for example, everybody who did
airfield put like the little one in parentheses
because it's just the one level. But if we can
get five. Points. That actually is pretty...
That's cool. That's very useful because it gives
us a little more flexibility and we can maybe
take a second level in something. Yeah. So it
looks like... I guess we should read out what
these do when we select them. Yes. It looks like...
We need to go ahead and mark hidden FOB because
you all chose it. Yes. And what that does is
makes it harder for people to find you. Your
Firebase is hidden. I guess in this case, because
it is in the ice desert and it is underground,
which is basically double hidden. If I ever make
someone discover your base, you were either very
negligent or I've been a bad person, then you
need to hit me. I'm on it. I'll keep that in
mind. What else? What else are we thinking? Should
we talk about why we chose things? What do you
think? Or should we just go through what we think
would work here? I guess let's go through some
shared things. So, workshop... Is it FOB? Yeah,
workshop was selected multiple times, which allows...
Someone tell me what it does. It allows you to
repair your frames at all. If you don't have
a workshop, you... Well, okay, so here's the
thing. We already have a... a repair bay which
is a mech cav specific thing so the repair bay
counts as a workshop but if you don't have a
workshop or a repair bay i think you have to
pay to stress every time you repair your frame
um it doesn't say that in the description but
i've read it in the um in the downtime activities
thing so you are going to get to keep your repair
bay Yes, I didn't realize that when I wrote mine,
but the cool thing is that if you already have
a workshop, then a repair bay gives you one dice
to long -term projects involving vehicles, vehicle
gear salvage, and repair. So if we take a workshop,
then we're basically just getting plus one D
to a whole bunch of project types and repairs.
And it's cool, and I think it's probably thematic
as well. I think it's probably something we would
want. So... The other things that are shared
is Gorilla Hideout. Who wants to tell me what
that does and their thoughts on it? I mean, I
can tell you what it does. Gorilla Hideout, it's
plus one to engagement rules for assault, I believe,
which is awesome. I don't know how we can justify
it. I don't really. It's one of those things
that I think. works really well or at least works
passively in like the sort of default assumption
for beam saber which is kind of very mercenary
but it's a little bit weirder in something like
this like how i think that even if we take it
it should probably look like something else rather
than us having like you know sleeper cells of
fighter guys all over the place somehow unless
they're fitting for the ice cave like we can
strike the city because we're close to it and
then just escape back into a blizzard that's
basically guerrilla warfare Yeah, but what if
you're not striking the city? Then we're fucked.
So let's... I mean, mechanically, this is very
good. Plus one to engagement roll is the bomb.
Yeah, that's fucking nuts. That's awesome. So
we could call this whatever we want. Let's think
about that, because I think we're going to end
up choosing this because of how many there are
voting for it already. What if... This will probably
actually color everything else we do. What if
it's like a... Like an ICBM launch pad or something.
What if we can just launch missiles? Is that
too much? That's a little... That maybe has too
much implication for other things other than
just getting plus one. Yeah, because I could...
There'd be a lot of times where it's like, why
wouldn't you just have launched the missile?
Yeah, we could just fire a bomb at it. That's
a great question. I think it's on the right track.
We could call it like... Fucking... Some sort
of satellite that gives you artillery telemetry,
maybe? I don't know. The hard part is picking
something that we can't just say we're going
to use in the middle of an operation as well
because it's really powerful. I think it should
be limited in some way for sure. What if it's
just like... something where you have a device
that can like hypercharge your frames reactors
um so that they are better on the outset of an
operation um or something like that i can i can
fuck with that i actually have like i have a
boosted reactor item that kind of does a similar
thing so it'll be just kind of like you know
a you know a different application of the same
tech sure i think that works Hyper booster. That's
what I'm calling it. That's cool. That's cool.
And I will check off workshop as well. If we're
cool with that. Yeah. All right. That's two out
of five. Also, I chose the upgrades like as my
character. That's why I like a lot of them are
just stealth stuff. I don't know if we were not
supposed to do that or not. But I think either
way, it's good. Because like stealth and then
like prowl stuff, that's why specifically I was
like, okay, these are all the things Joseph would
choose. That's why I went into that. But I know
like helping on, I think tunnels, what is tunnels?
Does that assist on prowl rolls or something?
Prowl rolls while you're in the base. Yeah, see
that's why I'm like Joseph would love that, but
I know that helps no one besides Joseph. Those
two. I know secure FOB is something that we have
two people talking about. Yeah, we do have two
in secure. So secure FOB is like defenses, like
turrets and stuff. I mean, if we're hidden, do
we need it? Can we save a little bit of cost
there? That was my rationale, but also if somebody
does find us and we're going to have to, you
know, get into the shit right here at home, it
would be good to have. I think we could put it
in a maybe for now. Um, cause we have five, we
have, we can take five one point things as well.
We don't need to take, you know, we, we can spend,
I mean, I assume we can spend these points wherever
we want. Um, I think that cause it could be really
useful, but it also might not be. I think airfield
is just a, as well. Yeah. I think it's a no brainer
because it's useful. And also because like we
have a ship and it would be good to have a place
that we can be landing it. We could have our
own little hothanger. Sure. Does that sound good?
Mm -hmm. I like it. I picked factory as mine.
I think that that no longer fits thematically
with this ice cave, so I'm going to probably
say that we shouldn't bother. Is there anything
else upgrade -wise that we haven't talked on?
I think we've mentioned. What does a commissary
do? Commissary, yeah. Oh, I like that because
it helps with sway, I want to say. consort roles
on site so if you bring somebody over the problem
with that though is that you need to bring people
to the super secret base in order to schmooze
them here and that it's a hex choice you know
it's like tunnels is a joseph just saying how
many points do we have left is it one or two
Actually, yeah. We've only taken three. We've
taken airfield. We've taken hyper boosters. We've
taken hidden FOB. Oh, no, we've also taken workshop.
So that's four. So we have one more left. I lied.
What else do we have that people talked about?
Oh, we've talked about everything here. Everything
that we chose for upgrades. Yeah, yeah. So what
do we have on the list that we have? We haven't
taken secure FOB. We got two votes for. I like
that one. That was a me thing, but Brian, I don't
know. I know, but you said you said you didn't
want it because it was way for hidden, right?
Well, I mean, you know, sometimes we might not
need it, but who knows what the end game looks
like here? We might we might have to fight. That's
my thought is we should at least have some sort
of defense because we don't want to be caught
with our pants down just in case. I know we're
trying to hide, but I would not put it out that
somehow we fuck something up and then people
do come and find us. And if that does happen,
I like the idea that we have. We'll choose. Yeah.
Exactly. Like, for when that happens, we don't
get incredibly owned. We only get owned a little
bit, because we at least have some turrets ready
or something. Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, we got
tunnels, and we got secure FOB, and secure FOB
got two votes, so maybe we should just, you know,
get the turrets, get the guns. Sure. Yeah. Low
insurance. Yeah, never hurts. Never hurts. They're
hungry. You don't want it until you need it.
Sounds cool. Got a good vision of this highly
secure ice base. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Let's move
on. Is this still going to be like tunnels? Not
tunnels upgrade, but can there just be tunnels?
Just because we don't have tunnels doesn't mean
there aren't tunnels. Yay! We have non -mechanically
relevant tunnels. Thank God. I want to crawl
on the ceiling. There's tunnels, but only for
Joseph. Yeah. Don't call Joseph's tunnels. I
need to make my own vents. Joseph just vented.
Oh, God. Oh, fuck. So, with that in mind, these
upgrades that you just got will not apply to
this downtime. You're not going to get anything.
Wow. Yeah, sorry. So, we don't... My airfield.
We don't have to talk about this. Well, we don't
have to talk about it now, but just to get you
all thinking, we didn't decide on your exact
approach with the frames, but it sounds like
from what we've kind of discussed both on and
off, Mike, that you want to refurbish them to
make them less visible, not like get brand new
ones. Yes. Which means everyone should do that,
except perhaps you don't have to do it. because
you have a generic frame. So if you don't want
to, you're fine. But if you want to, you can
also do that too. Totally up to you. Metagamer.
Regardless of whether you refurbish or not, you
can clear all the items on your frame and re
-declare them as you wish in a mission. Okay.
You don't have to describe anything now. Don't
decide anything. But on the next mission, in
like a month of in -game time... You'll use your
new frames. We will describe them. It'll be a
cool reveal. So think about what you would change
to make it not as recognizable. I just got a
really fucking cool idea. Hell yeah. I'll keep
it inside. I'll bottle it up. Keep it inside.
Push it down. So for this downtime, you're going
to get three actions. And since you are going
to be here for a month until your next mission,
Just while the military police stuff kind of
dies down and your new base gets built, I'm going
to increase the effect of all your downtime actions,
depending if it's appropriate, due to this longer
time period you're going to have. I don't even
know what the fuck to do with myself. I have
no damage to repair. What about stress? I assume
we all have stress we got to get out. Anybody
need to cut loose? I think all of us do. Hex
is at zero because he trauma'd out, right? Yeah.
You're so chill. Relaxing. Next is the morning
hangout. Emotionally and physically cold. Oh
wait, we're not at the ice. So this downtime
takes place like in the warehouse, right? Or
like in the warehouse area? That's a month of
audience. Not to me. I'm getting water. I can't
smell. It gets in the water too. It's nasty.
No, it doesn't. Oh, my God. It leaches through
the exosuit. It's like bio -molecular onion.
Oh, that's really bad. That's awful. You're sprouting.
Oh, God. Whoa. No. Um, yeah, I'm going to cut
loose. I'm going to relax. I'm going to chill
and hang. With? It's a good question. Who wants
to hang out? Is this one of those things where
beliefs help? Yes, how many points you have.
Here's the thing. I feel like I almost don't
want to hang out with Loyal because I don't want
my belief clock to reset to one because it makes
our assist actions worse. Which I don't really
like. I don't think we could relax together anyways
because Loyal would just be like, hey, put on
the crown. Hey, put on the crown. Hey, put on
the crown. Bro. Bro. put on this ground please
you can always hang out with a robot yeah sure
you want to hang out yeah i need to get some
stress off cool let's hang out i have an idea
for what it could be oh what is that geist either
finds or like just like gets a hold of like like
a boat like a motorboat he just wants to go because
like he's a he's a skilled He's super fucking
good, and I imagine he'd be really good at driving
a boat just to go fucking, you know, just whip
around in a boat for a little while. It'd be
fun. Sure. I like that. You could go down to,
like, some tourist trap rental location. Yeah.
Well, I don't know, actually. I might have to
send Gopher to rent the boat and drive it over.
You have disguises. You still have your disguises.
Oh, yeah. Oh, shit. I forgot the holograms. That's
really good news. I'm still Stockton Zecker.
I haven't, like, chosen a job or anything, but
that's my name. What was my name? Franklin Bean?
It is. I have it written down here. I'm glad
somebody did. Just in case. Yeah, Geist goes
and is like, I gotta get the fuck out of here.
I can't stand the smell of onions. Let's go do
something. I don't care what. Right behind you.
I'm following. Cool, yeah. We're gonna go rent
a boat, but like a fast one. Like a speed boat.
Let's get a scene. You're speeding on the relatively
still waters of Caldera Lake. Just you and Joseph.
Wind in your hair. Or neither of you have hair,
I don't think, so... I got a little... I got
some wisps. Wind in your wisps. Wind in my wisps.
Joseph is holding on, terrified, as you speed
around. Yeah, I feel like at the start, Guy's
just like, you know, he guns it a little bit,
mostly just going slow, and he's like, You ever
even rowed on a boat before? Possibly. Maybe.
Before. This. Oh yeah, probably nothing you remember,
eh? Uh, it's fun, you know, I used to, I used
to take him around sometimes myself. Let's, uh,
let's see. And he just fucking, without warning,
pulls the throttle, like, guns it all the way
full in front of the boat. Like, it almost flips
over because it can keep guns in the engine so
fast. We just take off, fucking. Joseph falls
backward. I guess, like, boop. Alright. He's
having a good time. He's having actual fun a
little bit. Your son, Joseph. When you're doing
this, maybe as you're speeding around, Joseph
is putting his hand in the water and having his
fingers go through the water real fast. He's
just interested by that. He's just like, ooh,
cool. He's having a human moment. That's so cute.
Okay. If you're both doing it with each other,
you're both cutting loose. Both of you, why don't
you roll me the cut loose action? Okay, so two.
So that's two dice. Yeah, I have two. So it's
2d6? Yeah, you take the highest. R2d6. I got
snake eyes. Fuck off, man. Oh, wait, that's not
good. Joseph likes it. If I get too much, doesn't
it fuck up or something? Oh, wait, did you go
over? I got 10, didn't I? No, you got six. You
took the highest of the two dice, yeah. Oh, okay,
six. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Hey, what a great time.
How do we how do we frame this? I feel like Joseph,
you know, they're just having a good time. Geist
is like trying to have a good time, but he can't
stop thinking about how much he'd rather be in
the changeling. Maybe every time you like slow
down, just was like. Go faster. Keep going. Why
don't you slow down? Again, again. Circle, circle.
Yeah, that makes sense. You really can connect
to the changeling. It's just not the same with
other vehicles anymore. Yeah. Got that itch.
I gotta go fuck my mech. I'll see you guys later.
Don't open the door. Okay. Excellent. Good work.
And now you each increase your bond level by
one and write a new belief whenever you remember
to do it. I should start doing that, yeah. Geist
is cool. How about that? Hex and loyal. Any idea
on what you want to do? I wish I could cut loose
with Hex because I have a great idea for a scene
that I just came up with after googling onion
processing plant. Yeah, like Hex could just...
Yeah, you can still have a scene with him. He
just won't also take the action. So you'll get
an extra... You'll get one bond point with him.
He won't get a bond point with you. Yeah, I think
that... It's one -sided. I think that since Geist
and Joseph are out on their boat pleasure cruise
and Loyal and Hex are just left behind in this
warehouse with their very large surgeon and not
much is going on, I would love to do... A scene
in there. You find Hex doing admin -y things.
Where is this occurring? I guess wherever the
frames are stored. The onion -y part of the warehouse.
I know that's most parts of it. You're in the
deep onion now. You can take some liberties.
He is not crying. He's used to the onions at
this point. That works for me. Loyal is floating
directly in front of the... onion grading packing
line, which is a series of rails and chutes and
slides, basically, that determine the size of
the onion and which machine it goes into to be
sliced, packed, etc. And he's lonely as fuck.
No one else is in here. So he kind of sends a
little psychic mind tendril over to Hex because
he is not feeling the energy to speak. but wants
to know how Hex is doing, kind of wants him to
come over and doesn't want to seem desperate
about it, but does this anyways. So Hex would
feel just like as if Loyal was maybe like next
to him, but then if he turns around, he's across
the warehouse. Has Loyal done this to Hex before?
No, never. Like would Hex know what this is?
I don't know. I mean, he's seen Loyal in action
for a bit, but everyone reacts to psychic phenomena
differently. Okay, so just so I'm getting this
clear, it just feels like Loyal's there, but
Loyal's not? Yeah, but if he turns around, he
would see him further away than he thought he
would be. So that would be a little startling.
Okay, Hex turns around and sees that Loyal is
further away than he intended on and looks visibly
confused. It kind of waves. Lil waves one of
his exo parts back at him. He's like, what are
you doing over there? What are you doing over
there? He kind of looks at the spot where he
thought you were a little pointedly. If I could
smile placidly at you, I would. Anyways. That
feeling is conveyed. Hex is confused. Excellent.
I love it. Loyal says, hey, I have a question
for you. Go over here. Was this in his head?
This is the actual voice. It's not doing any
reaction with your mind anymore. Hex walks on
over. Are you yelling at him? Hey, I have a question
for you. I have a question for you. Hex walks
on over, a little confused. Hex, have you ever
engaged in the art of meditation? Not. Quite.
Why do you ask? I think it may be beneficial
to us in the current time, given everything happening.
I know that Joseph and Geist are out soothing
the mind in their own way. Perhaps we could do
the same. I mean, I don't have anything better
going on. Hex kind of shrugs. I mean, the new
base is a month away. There's only so much that
can be done around here. He just says, try sitting
on this crate. And there's just like an upturned
plastic crate that also faces the onion sorting
facilities. Okay. Hex sits on the crate. And
then I think Loyal just like doesn't say anything
for a good 30 seconds until he probably notices
Hex fidgeting uncomfortably. He notices Hex checking
his phone equivalent. Oh yeah, absolutely. Bro,
is that Candy Crush? Are you serious? I'm bored,
okay? When Loyal sees this, he says, what a marvelous
machine this is, isn't it? Again, just looking
at the onion sorter. Yeah. I mean, we'll see
how well the onion... The salad market is over
here on Terra Brea, but I mean, Bluth can sure
generate some output here. Loyal just seems like
he's not really listening to what Hex is saying
at all. And he's like, this machine built so
lovingly for such a singular purpose to sort
these onions into specific sizes and take them
where they need to go all along these predetermined
routes. So efficient. Do you ever wish that there
was something? In our lives, that would be similar
to take us where we need to go. That's a good
question. I don't think I want to end up in a
salad. No, I suppose not. But maybe ending up
in a salad is a use in its own right. I mean,
yeah, we need salads. Insane. Okay, roll your
bonds, Loyal. So how long is this meditation
thing supposed to last? Are we done yet? One
month. Jesus. I want to play Fortnite. We're
going to become onion, like, fucking gurus by
the end of this. I only have one belief. I only
have one bond with Hex, so that's just one D6.
Four. Four. Stress. That's enough for me. Nice.
That's not too bad. Could have been more, but
also could have been way less. How much stress
do you have? I am one away from trauma -ing out.
Or was, but now I'm a little bit safer. Everyone
has not taken an action. Hex, what do you want
to do for your first downtime action? And we
already did that big project, so let me see if
I have any other clocks. Maybe train? Sure. Let's
just do that. Where is that description? Training.
So you just get one XP. Every time you take the
training action, you get one XP for... Either
in a tribute or playbook. Let's do it for playbook.
If you train resolve, you're going to get 2 XP
as a train just because you have that upgrade.
Wait, no. You don't have that. We don't have
any of our stuff. I'll just gain one. What else
do people want to do? Joseph? Hex? I mean, if
you let Hex train one more time, that's a level
up. Go for it. You can train as much as you want.
Alright. Pick an ability at some point. Maybe
not bureaucrat. Maybe, you know, his trauma changed
him a little bit. I like shooting guns now. Especially
little kids. Fuck yeah. Oh my god. Here's the
thing. I want to start a new downtime, a long
-term project. Something that'll up my drive
clock, because I need three more ticks in order
to be able to kill Retribution. And I need...
So, firstly, I don't know what this should look
like, and I especially don't know how the fuck
I'm going to advance it while out here in a warehouse,
so maybe I should just not do that this downtime.
Oh, shit. I just remembered. Um... I told you
that you'd get improved effect on everything.
Uh, so... Hex. Gain two more XP for your two
trainings. Oh, lit. And then for those of you
who recovered stress, if it won't put you over,
I think you can remove one more. Thank you, Basin
Gene. Oh, awesome. Now I have to sit up. But
if you still want to cut loose. Yes, I still
have six stress left, so that's two out of my
when I was formerly eight. So I actually am not
even in any risk of trauma. Yeah, I was right
there. I was one point away. It was a stressful
day. Play onion meditating. I was one point away
too, but then after the simple workout of the
onion meditation, I'm better. That's beautiful.
Let's cut this. Let's party. Geist is going stir
-crazy in the warehouse. He wants out. What do
you want to do? What is this cut loose? Same
thing? Different thing? I don't know. I mean,
Loyal can't exactly... I guess Loyal could ride
on a boat, but that would be really stupid. That
would be so funny. No, no, you have to be in
the exopod on the boat or it's not fun. I'm inclined
to have this happen just because of how funny
the visual is. Sure, sure. Geist is... He tried
to cut loose. He's feeling frustrated. It's not
the same as driving the changeling. He's pissed
off. And he invites Loyal out this time because
Joseph presumably has stuff to do. Loyal is pleasantly
surprised that he gets to ride on the boat too.
I mean, I think, how much does your exopod weigh?
We should be with intolerance. Oh god, yeah.
How does the floating work? If you take a sudden
turn, do I just go off the railing? what happens
to your exopod when it goes in water like i can't
imagine it's very or no it is awkward it's it
was designed to go under the water and just turns
into a little mini sub and yeah so yeah that's
fine yeah i imagine that like when it like the
exopod settles down into the boat like the whole
thing sinks yeah it's at least a thousand pounds
i'm gonna tell you that just because my weight
is in there the water's weight is in there i'm
big But it does have anti -gravity. So as long
as you don't take any sudden turns, I won't go
overboard. He's loyal to telling Geist that.
Instructing him on the concepts of physics and
water and boats and delayed momentum. Geist is
visibly like, he's not upset, but he seems like
he's having a rough time. He's doing something
that's supposed to be leisure activity, but he
looks pissed off. Isn't that normal for him?
I mean, I feel like normally it's hard to tell,
but he's got the angry eyebrows on. That's how
you know. Before Geist rolls, just to address
the elephant in the room, are you going to talk
about your situation? Your shared situation?
I have a plan for this boat ride. What I was
going to say specifically about what happened
on the last operation is the fact that Loyal
just said it out of nowhere and then did weird
psychic shit that like sucked all the stress
right out of Geist's brain. I imagine that he
probably isn't even sure that it happened or
that it's real or maybe he doesn't even remember
it because it was like in the middle of a very
or was at the beginning of a very intense operation
where a whole bunch of shit happened. It was
right before we started. Yeah, yeah. So I feel
like he probably like is not even consciously
aware that that specifically happened, that Loyal
said that to him. Oh, so oblivious. So easy to
cyclically manipulate. How did Loyal become so
evil? When he became haunted and then somehow
soft. Soft works into this some way. He thinks
it's a mercy what he's doing to you. Well, I'm
haunted. I'm also reckless. So we are having
a rough ride in this boat right now. If you brought
an axe, he would have drinking with you. That's
true. So yeah, what does Loyal do? What does
Loyal's plan look like? Yeah, I want them to
go out in the water and then like because they
can't go really fast and Loyal could tell that
Gaius is still antsy and needs to go fast so
his worries fall away behind him. He will go
to the edge of the water and like put something
from his exopod into the water. Maybe like one
of the spokes. And he starts to sing this little
fish attractor song in the hopes that some pretty
little fish will rise up from the depths and
be entertaining to look at. Oh, that's cool.
Can there just be fish? You can just have fish.
Excellent. Yes. Yeah, Geist, I think I'll just
let the motor wind down. The boat will just coast
out for a little while. Look at the cool fish.
I imagine that Terabrea has some pretty wacko
fish. You did war crimes with them. That is true!
The cuttlefish show up and say, thanks for doing
the terrorism. Our home is so much nicer now.
I mean, you are in the same lake. They could
show up if you wanted. Ooh, yeah, let's fucking
do it. Call out to them. Yeah. Geist might start
freaking out a little bit, like, oh, fucking
shit, oh my god, what is that? Do not worry,
Geist. They are friendly. Look. And he just,
like, shows him the tendrils from the cuttlefish,
just kind of slowly curling around the spoke
of his exopod and then going back into the water,
and they're kind of just floating there, looking
at each other in cute. And then Loyal says, It's
not so bad when it's quiet, is it? I don't know.
I feel like... You know, everything that's happened,
everything that we've been through, every single
piece of metal that's been bolted into my body
is all, you know, keyed me up to be moving, doing
shit, acting, and this standing still drives
me fucking insane. Hmm. I suppose that means
that moments like these are all the more precious.
Yeah, I guess so. Geist. You have to wear the
crown. What are you talking about? You have to
take it away from Maze. Maze cannot be the one
who wears it. Who the fuck is Maze? You're not
making any sense. They were in the prison room
with her together, weren't they? Yeah, I think
they were. But, like, Geist never learned the
name. Yeah. You know that he came in or it was
just me in there? I don't know that... Well,
no. As I recall, Geist was in there, but I don't
think Geist knows that is Maze. Oh, yeah. I guess,
yeah, Loyola would say Maze is the one who is
not a child. Not anymore. She was in the prisons.
Is still in the prisons. I've been trying to
get her off the planet. And if I don't do it
soon, something very bad will happen. Why are
you trying to get her off the planet? Because...
She was a child. She was the first child soldier
that I encountered on this mission. Yeah, I remember.
That's the one that Joseph... Broke both of her
legs, yes. Broke both of her legs, yeah. Fuck.
I thought if I could help one person that something
would change in this world. Yeah, and how's that
working out for you? The goal is still the same,
more or less. So what of this crown? You're talking
about that thing right from the warehouse. It
seems there are only two things that will happen.
It will be given to Maze, and given her history,
given what I know I have seen in her heart and
in her mind. It will not end well for us. I don't
know what will happen if you take it, but it
will be better than her anything, anyone. We'll
be better than her. So just let me get this straight
so that we're perfectly clear. You want me to
become the sacrificial lamb for some fucked up
thing that the Soul Union was keeping locked
in a warehouse after we took it away from the
Clusterists. The spirit of martyrdom, might I
add, which probably means that I'll fucking die.
Did that ever cross your mind? Yes. I think Dice
just kind of looks at Loyal as if for the first
time. Well, it just says, when every single one
of us came to this planet, we knew what we were
getting ourselves into, the kind of sacrifices
we may be asked to make. This is one of the greatest
ones, and I do not know what will happen to you.
I don't know if you will still be there, but
you might be. I just know that if it's you, Behind
martyrdom, we might have more of a chance. You
knew. I asked you if you had something for me.
I could feel this thing working on me. I asked
you if you had something for me, and you fucking
lied to me right to my face. You feel some, like,
you felt some psychic walls around Loyal before,
but now all of a sudden they've grown little
spikes. He backs up from you a little bit and
retracts the spokes of his exopod so he's floating
again. And says, there are many things each of
us have to do when we are deployed in this way.
I hope you will not take it personally. I think
Geist guns the boat so that it drives away while
Loyal's hovering. above it and he gets left behind.
So the railing breaks if this happens. He just
hits it and the thing just shatters. Oh god.
He's just left back in the water with his little
fish friends. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's it.
I think that's rolling bones. Let's see what
kind of fifth nurses I get from this. That was
very relaxing. I got a sixth. I'm at zero stress.
I am calm as a placid leap. Motherfucker, I'm
fine. He doesn't need to vent his anger. He's
shooting off of a boat. So, with that last tick,
and your clock fills up, right? Yes. Oh, yeah,
it does. That actually sucks. I have a belief
that I didn't write in that I should have. You
can, if you can think of it on the spot. Sure,
I'll come back. Was it meta to come up with one
about the situation that just happened? Is that
too much? No, I don't think so. Okay, cool. We're
on service of the story. And since you filled
up that last clock, you get to ask Loyal a question
about any of your beliefs. And Loyal must answer
truthfully. That's kind of cool. Okay. Did Loyal
actually consider Garrett to be his friend? Ooh.
Yes. And that's the fucked up thing. Cool. With
friends like this, who needs enemies? Your connection
goes back down to zero, I believe. It goes back
to one, I just checked. Okay, back to one. That
is so fitting for being shot off the side of
a boat. It's all recontextualized. Wow. Wowza.
Okay. When it works, it works. The fiction. And
we both take one XP as well. I can go anywhere.
Not just me, we both get it. I level up. Congratulations!
Yay! I think I'm gonna actually take telepathy
proper now. Yeah. And get the benefits from it.
What does that do? So this whole time I've been
able to just kind of talk to people and the fiction
in their brains, but the actual ability... Allows
you to take part in a group action and spend
one stress per participant to let the others
involved use the leader's action rating instead
of their own. So you can get better dice if I
spend a stress on you. That's really good. Yeah.
Wow. Okay. Next. Downtime actions. So Geist has
one left. X has one left. Joseph and Loyal have
two left, if I recall correctly. Joseph and Loyal,
what do you want to do? I won't go gunning for
any XP. That I can promise you. Don't worry.
Why not? You could get so much XP with increased
effects. Because I had a little uh -oh, and we're
not going to talk about it, right? We're not
going to get into it. It's going to go forward.
Well, you know, Contrition was on your side,
so... Yeah, that's totally right. My god. You're
so right. I could work on my long -term project.
Find like -minded AI enthusiasts. Sure. There's
not a lot to do right now except go on fucking
Facebook. Would you be, or would you be cool
if I try to rank up my playbook XP, not my skills?
Yeah, sure. Okay, because I'm kind of close to
my playbook XP, so maybe I should try that. Yeah,
I'd like to do that. What do I got to do for
that? You just get one, one playbook XP. You
say you're going to do it, and then it happens,
and you get one. Okay. Congratulations. Usually
you'd get two, but because you're, uh -oh, I'm
going to give you one. That's fair. That's fair.
I'll take that. Why would he get two? Oh, because
of the thing. That's right. The long -term thing.
Loyal. I want to do my clocks, my maze clock
somehow. Yes. So your current two clocks that
you have left are convince warden maze is not
a threat and convince maze to leave planet. I
think you kind of already did that. Which one
has the closest to completion right now? They're
actually equally close to completion. I think
I want to go back to convince Warden Maze is
not a threat because I've kind of given up on
Maze at this point. Okay, so we should discuss
how are you getting there? How are you hiding
yourself? Are you doing it remotely instead?
That sort of stuff. What is a revealing interaction?
Could you give me more context as to why you
want to know that? If I have had a revealing
interaction with a guard, now that I have the
actual mechanical benefits of telepathy, I can
communicate directly to his mind. I guess that's
from any distance, right? It doesn't really specify.
It doesn't say there is a limiter on this. Also,
there's other abilities that say regardless of
distance, so I think that's just a psychic thing.
You know what? I'm interested to hear your pitch
as to how you're going to convince this warden
via telepathy over many miles. So I'm interested.
What are you doing? I'm waiting until I am most
likely to encounter him while he's asleep. I
hope that he's asleep when I do this. That's
what I'll say. It's like, I don't know, 1, 2
a .m. I know that the military people have very
strict... sleeping hours sure and then what i
want to go into his dream and inception plant
an idea of jesus man we're really close to having
to like deal with this maze prisoner situation
it's been a really long time not getting any
information maybe i should just like Look up
in the Clusterous files one more time, and I'm
hoping that he will go look at the misinformation
that I had Joseph plant earlier about there's
a failsafe in the Clusterous psyche where they
train the children to lose all their memories
or go insane or something if they're captured.
So he will maybe find this and then go check
on Maze and see that she is. crazy with martyrdom
and be like ah fuck she's lost all the information
better let her go okay um give me a sway sure
i certainly will this is gonna be good i don't
think i'm gonna give you the extra effect given
how wild this is but you do have three dots and
sway so i don't think there'll be much of a problem
all right um regular risky standard six three
ticks in that clock wow um which is going to
take you to one left on the convince a warden
that maze is not a threat um i'd say you managed
to do this amazingly um he i don't know how much
you can tell if it works or not but he he awakes
uh like He's like, that was a weird dream. And
he like opens up his PDA and like goes in the
files and like, holy shit, it's real. And he's
convinced that maids is not useful anymore. Now
that all it will really take to push him over
the edge is to convince him that maids is not
a threat anymore. But if you want to roll again
to do that, you can if you don't have anything
else you want to do with your downtime actions.
I don't. Okay, what's an extra thing I can do?
I wait until the morning and, yeah, I wait until
the morning and, like, when I think he might
be awake and having his breakfast, I send another
thought. It's like, I should go look at me. And
he has to go in there and see the crazy scribblings
that I'm reasonably certain she's doing right
now. And that's supposed to convince him she's
not a threat? Um, convince him that... She is
incapacitated by insanity. I don't know. In that
case, let her go. Yeah, I can see that. I can
see that. Roll it again. I mean, you're going
to succeed no matter what, so do it. Let's fucking
do it. That's another success. Holy fuck. Oh
my god, big ups. Dolphins are very psychically
powerful. Dolphins are very psychically powerful.
We've been saying this. I heard it here first,
folks. Okay, so that is complete. The warden
walks in, sees Maze, has... I think she's murmuring
to herself, rocking back and forth in a ball
position. She's drawn some things on the walls,
pictures of crowns and things. And... uh he talks
to a guard like how long has this been going
on and the guard does something non -committal
and he says maybe maybe she should be given to
a different facility that's his conclusion yeah
that's what i was angling for so there there's
a there's an opening there um so all you really
need to i guess um i'm gonna check you have right
now you have a two out of six clock called Convince
Maze to Leave the Planet. I'm just going to change
this to Get Maze Off the Planet. And things don't
typically overflow on other clocks, but I will
put you one here for you. So you'll be three
away. Cool. Thanks. Who wants to go next? We're
going to consort with Wile E. Coyote to strap
her to a big rocket that says Acme on the side.
This will work. Loyal making moves. I can do
my last move. Maybe I... I feel like I should
work on my long -term project. Sure. Find like
-minded AI enthusiasts. What must I roll for
that? What must you roll for that? What do you
think's appropriate? Interface, maybe? It's on
the web? That's what I figured. He'd be... If
anything, he's just like... Because he's away
from everyone and stuck in the onion place. He's
like, oh, I can... Reach out through the internet
and try to find something. Go to chat rooms.
ASL, guys. Let me roll my interface. Five and
one. Partial. Partial success. So you're going
to get two ticks in that. Does that go up for
the greater effect or no? Yes, definitely. So
that's the two. Let me check. I think it goes
up to... Three. You get three, so leave four
total. Okay. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, you continue
to go on. I mean, what's your angle this time?
Chat rooms? I think he's probably, yeah, I assume
chat rooms are probably trying to check, like,
let me see if I can find, like, let me go to
see if I can find, like, a local chat, like,
on Terabrea. Like, are there people around here
who are, like, switching sides? Has, like, anything
happened with emergent personalities? Like, do
some research. I found that fucking, you know,
emergent personality in that frame. Like, does
anyone else? Is there, like, rumors about that?
That's what I'm kind of looking into. Yeah, sure.
I think you get... There's a story, right, on,
like, some one of these chat boards, which, like,
all the forum comments are saying, like, this
is obviously bullshit. This is obviously bait.
And it's, like, a guy. I'm suddenly, with the
modern era, I'm suddenly very interested in imagining
how soldiers are saying shit, like really sensitive
shit on social media. And there's like a fucking
clustrous gorilla, self -identifying, who's saying,
I got really drunk one night, and I talked to
this pilot who had never shown his face, and
he said he was an emergent personality that had
been sent there from off -planet to help us.
And I think he was fucking with me, but there
was something about the way he said it that made
me really fucking confused. And then he died.
Joseph upvotes this and closes the laptop. I
can't believe Reddit's still around. That's fucking
awesome. Yeah, this is like literally Geist uploading
the schematics for the changeling to the War
Thunder forums so that the devs will love it.
Joseph's just shaking his head like, humans are
so easy. Yeah, you definitely find that information.
I think you find some people who are like, maybe
they're not so bad after all if they're fighting
on our side. Okay. Who else has actions? I think
Hex has one. I think Geist has one. I have one
left, yeah. I think I know what I want to do,
actually. I want to, because I filled up my last
retribution -related long -term project. I want
to start a long -term project. I want to consort
with Ziggurat to basically just get her to start
developing my anti -retribution countermeasures
that she promised after I sold her my fucking
spinal cord. Does that seem like something I
can do from here? Tell me how you're doing it.
Tell me how you're covering your tracks. I'm
just going to call her on the phone. I'll call
her from a payphone. Where's the payphone? I
wasn't serious. I have to come up with a better
way. We don't have access to our frames at all,
do we? No, we do. They're actually probably being
worked on. So you probably can't. Would that...
I don't know. I guess... How secure are cell
phones? Like, I don't really have context for
this information. I know in real life, not terribly,
but, like, is the situation kind of the same
here, and that whoever maintains the telecom
infrastructure could easily, like, just, like,
spy on my messages? I just don't know how stupid
of an idea it would be to call her. I'm not supposed
to put positions on downtime actions. A teacher
told me that I'm not supposed to do that anymore.
This is just us on the playground. Just you and
me. I'm going to say that I'm going to put a
controlled position on this downtime action since
you are trying to communicate with someone in
the city. And you're not a psychic, so you can't
just accept this, unfortunately. Okay, cool.
Yeah, I'll take it. I will take it. That actually
is a... A very useful way that the game mechanics
are contextualizing this for me, which is super
good. I'm going to... Oh, you know what? No,
I'm not going to do that. I'm going to roll,
but I may spend one personnel to up it to a partial
if I fail. You will get a plus one tick on this
clock as well. Cool. I'm out here consorting
my little heart out. Let's see. Cool, that's
a partial success. I'll spend One I'll spend
one person off to upgrade it to a full okay,
and then you will get four total then that is
fucking bitch And I assume I don't know what
how many steps is it I six is like the next one
so I assumed it was that but so you are the the
counter measure Yeah, but it doesn't have to
be like all done in this one project either Really,
what I need is a drive clock check, so what actually
happens is somewhat immaterial. Let me look at
your sheet. You are three away. Let's call this
a four step. I'll give you a tick. A drive clock
tick for this. And I think how it turns out is
that Ziggurat communicates with you. There's
an area where Retribution probably is in the
River Valley. The... What needs to happen next
is you need to basically... She sends you the
schematics for a device which you need to hit
him with to get telemetry information on his
location. And then they can proceed from there
to narrow the scope. Ooh, I like it. I fucking
love that. So next time you see Retribution,
hit him once with this thing. Cool, cool, cool,
cool. That's fucking awesome. I love that. Hex?
Training. Amongst the onions, he's reading. You
get two more ticks. So this whole, for 30 days
in the onion warehouse, Hex is just fucking pumping
iron. Archibald is there, right? Staring at a
picture of a graph trending downward. And he
looks pissed. The beefcake doctor will help him.
The beefcake doctor doesn't work out. He doesn't
know anything about it. He's gonna learn. He
shields his eyes when he looks at Hex working
out. No, I can't watch you do that. My eyes will
become too muscular. Go stay in the corner. Okay,
who's left? I think that's everyone. I used all
mine. Yeah, I think that's everyone. We have
one material and two supply left if anybody needs
or wants to do anything else, but it would be
not a bad idea to fold onto those for a rainy
day. The one material is Joseph's super material,
so we don't want to spend that unless we have
to. That's his little piggy bank with, like,
a billion dollars in it. Oh, yeah. It's terrorism.
Bucks. Yeah. I'll just put one in each. It is
now a month later. Your new doctor has done a
passable job on Spud. He is still badly burned,
and he now requires, like, this full -body structural
frame to really move around, but he's up and
about. Power suit. He's been running training
drills obsessively with the Raptors and Sparrows,
turning the ragtag band into a formidable strike
force. Gopher has been hard at work helping refurbish
your frames as materials come in and is just
now putting the finishing touches on them. When
a very nice aircraft lands outside the salad
warehouse, a sleek futuristic vessel not too
dissimilar to what you took in the... refinery
mission. A gravity lift spills out from its belly
and down floats September Bluth, Ziggurat, Jenny,
Agent Whitecliff, and Nyla. The whole gang. Nyla.
The whole gang. Bluth is dressed in his usual
all -white outfit, though he seems a little more
sprightly than usual. He approaches you all and
kind of strikes a pose almost. Hands on hips
and says, Well, Dusklights, it's about time we
discuss ending this war once and for all. And
that's the end. Fuck yeah! Hell yeah.