My name is Adjimenta. Many of you know me as
the leader of the Clusterist Resistance, but
I consider myself as something else, an advocate
for all of us. My father, Pana, now he, he was
a leader. He was a radical, level -headed, he
was, he was so sure of his beliefs, so determined
to change, to peaceful change. I didn't want
to follow in his footsteps. I didn't want to
lead. I thought the Union would hear us, and
they would let us live our lives. But I was wrong.
We were wrong, and it cost my father his life.
I had no choice. I could either join the cause
or be eradicated by the government I once thought
stood for justice. I know there are many of you
that look at our cause and only see hatred and
violence, but you're wrong. We don't want to
do this. Every day I send messages to the peacekeepers
asking for peace, for some solution where we
can live our lives on our home, but every day
those messages are ignored. To those of you sitting
on the sidelines, hoping that someday, magically,
this will all be over, I ask you this. How much
pain can you take? How much cruelty will you
endure? Because they will inflict it upon you.
They will take everything from you, because they
don't see you. or me as people, they see us as
insects, an unfortunate infestation on some alien's
land. I wish I could say you have a choice, but
you don't. Fight or die, that's all the choice
we've been given by our oppressors, and I know
what I would choose. Alright, let's get started.
So as you'll recall, last time you were tasked
with infiltrating this refinery to steal the
Krabby Patty secret formula for refining incandescent
rods. Your cover for this operation was that
you were going to be helping the refinery staff
deal with some Clusterist -affiliated eco -terrorists
in the area. After a successful infiltration,
Joseph stole the plans and ran into a guy named
Glass. New Lane while doing so. This guy is presumably
a member of the opposition. He was also seemingly
unaware that you are his enemy. After the successful
theft, the facility came under attack. These
missiles full of yellow gas burst into the refinery,
causing the staff exposed to them to choke and
die. Right now, it's Joseph downstairs near the
factory floor witnessing this happening, and
the rest of you are in an office upstairs meeting
with the plant's head of security. Wow, that's
bad. I take it we hear that? Yes. Joseph gets
the up close and personal, but you hear that
first, and then followed by the screaming is
the ground shaking three times exceptionally
loudly. Unmistakably the sound of heavy machinery
landing on the ground, and after a brief silence,
explosions, and then the sound of a very large
gun firing automatically, and a hole gets like...
joseph i guess see this like bullets come through
the refinery building come through one side and
out the other and you see like one poor worker
just get absolutely vaporized by it um and all
of you see a haze warning pop up on your heads
up display as whoever is here as you may have
expected isn't friendly i have a kind of abstract
question sure well like and just based on what
we know Because we're kind of operating as a
deniable asset and the Corporate Council is not
our faction, do I get the impression that this
is our problem? Or should we be going full rules
as written and taking off into the jungle to
try and use this as a fun little distraction
so that we can raise their base when they're
all away from it? Do I get the impression that
mission parameters have changed? Or like, do
I have any reason to believe that we should give
a shit about this beyond getting away? So the
premise of the mission is basically you are assisting
these people. Okay. If you run away at this point,
and you're the ones who are most capable of defending
this, I think they would see this part of the
mission as a failure. Okay. Although you have
accomplished your primary objective. So, you
know, it's really up to you. You definitely get
some flack for it. But if you want to save the
energy. I know it's up to you. Oh, no, I sorry.
I didn't mean to like abandon these fuckers,
but I meant just like trying to complete the
objective of rooting out their base in the jungle
rather than fighting them here. You know, because,
you know, like the whole reason we left our frames
behind is so that they wouldn't go to ground.
Yes. But like if we call everything to bear in
this mission. There's like for this fight right
here, I just it might. uh cause issues down the
line for the other thing if we're even still
interested in trying to do it up to you presumably
our forces are split up half of them are here
maybe there's some left behind at the base if
we get our frames we can do like a scan of the
immediate area of the woods the activity find
out where the base is immediately and then choose
what to do after that if we roll well yeah the
main think of it this way the main purpose of
this mission is to protect the refinery Okay.
Your timetable just moved up exceptionally. Yeah,
we got to get our frames. Geist is going to look
at the guy here and he's like, I need to get
outside somewhere. I can see the sky now. The
stairwell outside. What's going on? You're being
attacked, you fucking idiot. And then Geist boots
him out of the room. Fast as he can. You should
leave. Everybody just hears this high -pitched,
like, fuck, I can't whistle. High -pitched whistle.
Yeah, please don't whistle. High -pitched whistle,
and then, like, the telescoping legs of Loyal's
exopod come out, like, and he starts kind of,
like, telescoping Leggan out of the room at high
speed, and presumably the whistle was used to
call the frames, hopefully. The frames, we can't
get, we gotta shoot the flare gun. Oh yeah, right.
That's the bitch about the hazes. Can't call
them in. Yeah. So, Joseph, you are the closest
to the factory floor right now while everyone
is running to the, presumably the roof. Yes.
Are you heading that way too or do you have something
else in mind? Could I film what I just saw with
my eyes from what I witnessed or no? Hmm. Yes.
I'm just looking to see if we need if you need
to check off. No, a smartphone is a free load,
so you don't need to check that off. Yes, you
can record that. Sure. I just want to record
what I saw, like the everything happening on
the factory floor. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah, I
I'll probably radio to loyal and I'll say you
heard that, too, right? Yes. What's happening
out there? I think we're under attack. I got
the objective. Should I meet you somewhere outside?
Going to the roof now, quickly. Yes. All right,
I'm going to the roof. All right. This sounds
like a group action. You're all trying to get
up the roof while avoiding being hurt. Hell yeah.
You're in a risky position presently. So we're
going to do a group action. It's going to be
a prowl. So when you all want to do something
together, I'll set the position in effect and
it's going to be risky. So everyone's going to
roll prowl. We're going to take the highest result
between all of you. But whoever's leading the
action, this is going to be the main prowler,
takes one stress for each person that rolled
a one to three as their best result. Who has
stress right now? Anybody? I think who has prowl.
I have two prowl. The best prowl result. I think
we should probably let Joseph lead it because
he is our prowler. It doesn't matter who leads
it in terms of the skill rating because no matter
who you all roll, it's just you take the highest
result. Oh, you take the highest result. The
leader is the one who has to pick up the slack
for everyone else and gets the stress for it.
Okay, who? I already have a stress. I believe
you. I mean, I don't know. Is there stress on
your sheet? I have some. You guys cleared it
out. You guys cut loose last time, but I don't
know. Yeah, but during this mission, did I get
one? I forget. No, you haven't cleared any of
this. Wait, he didn't push himself, did he? You
did. No, I did. I should have one. You should
have two stress. It's two to push yourself. Okay,
so I have two stress. I have no stress. I could
lead it. Okay. Sneaky Dolphin, let's go. I have
really bad prowl. Okay. Everyone roll proud.
Does anyone want to push themselves? It'd actually
be statistically a bad idea to push yourself
here. No, I will not. Damn. Let's prowl. Let's
prowl. Hey, I did good! Two partial successes.
That's sweet! And Sunleth, you take two stress.
Easy. A partial success with zero dice is pretty
dang good. I'm proud of everybody. So you guys
run up the stairs very, very quickly. You know,
it's kind of hard with all of you. You pass them
like employees who are coming down from higher
office levels are like, oh, my God, what's going
on? You know, some of them like coughing, trying
to help each other down. And there's these little
windows in the stairwell where you can see outside
and you see these huge frames, three of them
surplus military units that Hex and Geist and
Loyal you'd be familiar with. These are likely
fixed up. peacekeeper models from like the early
years of the war and from the markings on the
frames you would actually recognize these as
members of the hyenas which is a the scavenging
squad um and there are three of them the first
one we're going to call graft is one with a very
large flamethrower and he is currently lighting
A little barracks on the side of the refinery
on fire. And there are people dying. The second
one we will call Weld, who is a frame with a
large plasma blade and this like huge submachine
gun. And you can hear these shell casings hitting
the ground as the bullets hit the building. And
then frame three is called Egg White, who is
a frame with a big sniper, like a laser sniper.
And it is kind of hanging back. It's a little
bit smaller. It's like perched on top of a smokestack
right now. Yeah, there are three clocks I've
made in the visible clock section, and that is
for each of these frames. And so the consequence
of your partial success is that as you go up,
you are brought face to face with one of these
office doors that is open and is leaking this
yellow gas into the stairwell, which is blocking
your path. You can try to run past it before
it fully floods the stairwell, but that is up
to you. But you are in a desperate position is
the real consequence here. OK, yeah, I think
I'm just going to I mean, Geist is he's he knows
what he's got to do. He's just going to I think
he's just going to try and boot it. He's just
going to sprint as fast as his little robot legs
will take him, which is not perhaps quite as
much as would be good. I don't know. Is that
finesse or would it be? I don't know what what
skill applies here. It's also worth noting for
everyone. Except for Joseph. You don't have to
worry about this because this is meant only for
biological organisms and it will not affect you
at all. Yippee. There is a thing on your character
sheet called an environmental suit, which is
too load, which will make you immune to this
as long as it is not breached. I have actually
a fine environmental suit. Oh, look at that.
It's extra nice, I think. And I got plenty of
load. I will check off load for my fine environmental
suit. And it'll be two boxes, because I actually
talked to Austin Ramsey about this, about how
this works, and if you were not wearing it when
you started the mission, then it is two boxes.
Yes. Okay, so yeah. All the organics should probably
check that off. I can hold my breath for ten
minutes. Okay, we'll probably still burn your
skin. I'm in a pod. I have a system that... My
water is constantly being oxygenated by some
like little micro fans that are like drawing
air into my complex system. But I could like
turn that off temporarily and try to hold my
breath going through this. That seems risky,
but that's really cool. If you are going to be
leaning on your. Like your clothing, essentially,
I should check it out. Be an environmental suit,
then you should just check off environmental
suit because that is what you are using here.
Okay, I will do that. Joseph, you're fine. Flex
on these meat bags. Yeah, you all, you know,
you stop in the stairwell. I think, I imagine
like Geist whipping out this giant duffel bag.
You know, Hex and Geist suit up really quickly
in these little military environmental suits.
Loyal, you like flick a couple switches and you're
like, you go on internal oxygen reserves. And
Joseph, you know, kind of just stands there tapping
his foot impatiently. Am I with them now? Yeah,
you've caught up. Okay. Okay. Especially now
that they're, you probably catch them suiting
up. That's why you caught up with them. Yeah.
I'm going to film this too. It's embarrassing.
I look, I see Geist's underwear. How embarrassing.
Oh my God. I kind of like it. It is very robotic.
And you get up to the roof. I won't make you
roll again for that. And you fire your flare
into the air and you hear like this little crackling
static sound, which you presume to be worthy
trying to contact you, but you don't hear what
it says. One thing that very much surprises me
is that there's not really any. There's not really
any way to take a big ass gun as a pilot unless
you are a soldier. We got rifles and shotguns
here in the far future. Does seem that way. And
placed explosives. That is true, but I'm not
that much of a badass ninja. Joseph actually
might be, but I think that the closest guy to
us is the one with the flamethrower, so probably
not a super cool idea to run up to. Yeah, I think
we just got to fucking lay. So as soon as he
gets close, I have a very neat little gadget
that allows me to pilot my mech remotely without
any degradation of intent. But until the frames
get here, we're kind of just on the back foot
trying to survive. I don't know. What do you
guys think? Like, do you is there any way that
we can run interference on these guys without
getting immediately vaporized by vehicle scale
weapons? Nothing comes to mind here for me. The
old don't shoot me on nice trick won't work,
so. It doesn't all seem to kind of die. Yeah,
I mean, there's like. The general out of combat
action study survey. Prowl interface, I could
see argument for you want to do like electric
interference or something like that. I don't
know. At this point, you are going to this going
to be like either you're going to be trying to
avoid getting killed by stray fire. or direct
fire, or be like, because if you just wait, the
refinery is going to get fucked up. Like, how
long you wait and don't do anything is going
to determine, and also I'm going to make you
roll a fortune doll. Yeah. Sure. Think about
it. Think if you want to do anything to mitigate
circumstances before your frames arrive, because
they are on the way. We are very soon. What is
consortium? Consort is for hanging out with people
you know. Also, we don't know these guys. There
are flashbacks. If you want to say that when
you were sneaking off, you placed like, I don't
know, mines or something around or like some
sort of, I don't know, thing. That's also an
option. Can I propose something? Yeah. And this
is just looking at my sheet right now because
I think I know what I want to do. But I was so
when I made Geist, the scar that I picked. was
cold but i don't think it really fits based on
how he behaved in the first action and based
on what i'm about to do here could i switch it
for reckless instead sure cool um in that case
geist is going to look at his uh compatriots
and he's going to say if we don't distract these
fucking things there's not going to be anything
left by the time our frames show up And then
he's going to run and jump off the side of the
building in the direction of whatever the...
Which one of the three mechs is closest? Is it
the machine gun sword guy or the flamethrower
guy? It's going to be Graf, the flamethrower
guy. That's really bad news because I'm probably
going to do this anyways. I'm going to check
off my grav chute for one piece of load so that
I don't pancake. I'm going to do a really cool
descent jump off the thing. And then I think
I'm also going to check off... A rifle, and I'm
just going to, as I'm falling, so the guy sprints,
jumps off the side of the building, activates
his grav chute to slow his descent, and as he's
getting down to the ground level, he's basically
going to pop off a few shots at the flamethrower
frame just to try and catch its attention, because
it probably won't be able to do any damage, and
then take off in such a way that it's not going
to immediately barbecue him, because I think
I'm still kind of far away. Okay, my friend.
I think that's a prowl. That's generous. Well,
good news. I have zero in prowl and finesse,
which I think would be the other one. Does anyone
want to aid? I wanted to use placed explosives.
Can I tie that into this? If you want to do a
flashback. Yeah. Where is the flamethrower mic
standing relative to the building? Is it the
plaza? Where do you want him to be standing?
I want him to be standing near the bathrooms,
coincidentally enough. Sure. To plant some explosives
prior to this. He just had a feeling. It wasn't
meant to kill anyone. It's more of a distraction.
Oh, it was like a contingency when we were trying
to steal the plants? I mean, like, if someone
was in the bathroom, yes, they would have died,
but it's more of a contingency. So, I will give
this to you for one stress with the caveat that
you're going to have to roll some sort of roll
for, like, well, I don't know, what roll would
you be angling for here if I made you roll? In
terms of stats, I think this is a manipulate.
I mean, I guess the question is, do you want
to damage this thing or do you want to distract
it? distract okay i think i'll just give that
to you and i'll let the bonus carry over to geist
mark one stress for this and guys you will get
a d yeah does this system have devil's bargains
or is it literally just the collateral damage
one it's well it's called the collateral die
but it is a devil's bargain okay um because i'm
not sure if i might just push myself for an extra
die so i'm rolling with two see it okay it's
time to prowl And this is desperate? Yes, you
are in a desperate position. Yeah. Go get him.
Yes! Haha! Success! That's it. Yeah, you jump
off this fucking thing. My god. You're floating
down. I imagine you're like firing automatically
as your chute deploys, like pinging off this
thing's cameras. Right before it's about to put
a flamethrower to a giant tank of incandesium.
And it turns to you, and it is about to roast
you, but then the explosive goes off. It goes
off. It's off balance now. The flamethrower,
like, goes over your head, and it actually gets
tangled up in some scaffolding, almost. Like,
the explosion knocked it over into it, and now
it's, like, kind of scraped up. And it's not,
like, damage, but I'm actually going to tick
a clock for graft one tick. Because you did well,
and it's distracted now. Hell yeah. What is everyone
else doing as this happens? Are you standing
there? The question about this building, like,
over the edge of it, like, how sure is the drop?
Are there, like, window ledges? Are there, like,
multiple levels that go down to the ground? Sure.
I want to do some fucked up sea urchin shit.
Like, I imagine Loyal is just watching Geist
jump off this building, thinking to himself,
oh, human Christ. And then getting ready to...
Human Christ? Well, there's probably a different
dolphin. Is there a dolphin, Jesus? Is there
a dolphin named Jesus Christ? There was. He's
actually a gardener. He's accomplished much.
He's accomplished much. Well, we'll think about
dolphin religion at a different point. But Sunlith
gets his spokes in gear and just kind of like,
to the people who are standing at the top of
this building on the roof, it looks like he kind
of just falls off to the side. But you like hear
property damage as he starts to use the overhangs
of the windows, any like things sticking out
the side of this building. to have his spokes
attached to that and get him down to the ground
somewhat smoothly. But you realize that the amount
of water and just like the weight of his body
into this exopod is extremely heavy because everything
is just breaking. He is tearing up the side of
this building when he gets down to the ground
and starts like shooting off with all these like
spokes telescoping in front of him like some
weird centipede that he's actually tearing up
the concrete and the like dirt. Also, as he's
running towards where Geist is to help. And I
want to check off the item called an unusual
weapon, because I would love for Loyal to have
a disabling goo gun to shoot around the feet
and the joints of frames while he is as a pedestrian.
and attempt to disable them in some way. Okay.
What do you want to roll for that? I'm assuming
that would be a... Let's see, a hunt or a struggle.
Yeah. Oh, I could use hunt too. It wouldn't really
matter either way, but I already have an experience
dot in prowess, so I think I will do struggle.
What position are we in? Desperate limited. Okay.
I want that XP. Let's do it. Let's shoot a goo
gun. Oh my god, another six. Yeah, you manage
to dodge as a humongous shot goes through the
building. The whole building shakes. And you
shoot a giant goo gun at, I'm assuming the same
one? Mm -hmm. Raph. And you manage to goo up
his flamethrower, greatly affecting its... Potency,
I guess you'd call it. It's flamency. Yeah, it's
flamency. I'm going to reduce its effect in the
future. So you're as far as this one is concerned,
you won't be desperate against that flamethrower,
which is good because it is very dangerous. Joseph,
is there anything you want to do before the frames
arrive? I don't know if Joseph can do anything.
I was maybe just going to do my fine optical
camo and hide for now until I get my big Mac.
Do you want to go somewhere? Let's say you know
the landing zone of where the mechs are going
to land. Yeah, I would want to be as close to
that as possible so I can jump in real quickly.
Sure. Sneak over there. I like to imagine that
Hex saw two of his squad mates jump off a building
and then turns to the last one and he just disappears
into thin air. Poor Hex has just left. He did
his job, and now he's going to wait. I'm going
to say, since you're using your final camo, and
since this mech is very distracted, you can just
get there. I won't make you roll for it. Cool.
You do notice that there are some infantry here
as well now. They're clashing with the infantry
of the people in the security forces here. They
are kind of losing because the clusterists have
gas masks and the personnel don't. These gas
shells are coming in from like some artillery
nearby and just really fucking up the personnel.
But your frames arrive, my friends. They all
come crashing down kind of behind the building.
So there's not a direct line of sight between
these enemy frames and your frames. Um, but they're
here. Uh, they're kind of sitting ducks now,
so you want to get to them quickly if you can.
I know what I want to do. Air ass. Air grass.
If you would humor me. I want to humor you. Oh,
no! Oh, I've fucked myself real bad, boys. Oh.
You used all your loads, so now you can't use
your... I used all my... Oh! I didn't even need
this stupid rifle. Okay, uh, yeah, I'm gonna...
I'm so bad at math. Wyzak, I will offer you a
retcon if you want, which is I'll let you switch
out the rifle for an unusual weapon, which is
only one tick, which is, I think, different than
Blades of the Dark. And say that you also use
some sort of light anti -vehicle weapon instead,
because... Well, I mean, I could just take a
pistol instead. If I, like, I was literally,
I knew it wasn't going to do any damage. I wasn't
trying to damage it. I was just trying to distract
it. Okay, so I'll see what you want to do, and
I want to have that cool fine remote control
moment. Yeah, I really wanted it. Well, thank
you for that. So what I actually am going to
do is now that the flamethrower mech is really
kind of gummed up, what Geist is going to do
is toss himself just like into, because I mean,
he already was in cover relative to the flamethrower
mech. So he's basically just going to dive somewhere
low, pull out his fine vehicle remote control,
and then have the changeling try and put a rail
gun round. Through Weld, the sword and machine
gun one. He's basically going to try and nail,
well, he's going to have his frame kind of boost
up and then put a rail gun round through Weld.
Roll it. I'm going to try and bombard. So when
his vehicle is in this form, it loses one point
on maneuver and one point in scan and gets them
both in bombard. um and it loses its fine mobility
suite in exchange for a um the generic version
of a of heavy weapon i believe it's just called
a big it's like supposed to be like a heavy weapon
large bore cannon but um his has a big rail gun
and um it's basically just going to peek up over
the side of the building and then there's a huge
cascade of energy and then it fires a supersonic
shell um at the other frame which i assume is
kind of just you know having its way with the
facility right now yeah it's not being contested
at all so we'll give him something to think about
um this is still desperate standard yes because
you are still at threat here okay cool desperate
standard let's go bombardment that's a partial
success i'll take it success um are you also
heading towards your frame at this time or are
you just gonna Yeah, I'm going to kind of start
moving towards it, but that's not the, that's
like much less in focus. But yeah, I am moving
as I can. So that'd be a good way to get shot.
Great. You do it. The shell goes right through,
I think it goes through the building. I would
like to imagine you shoot it through windows.
Like you've lined up two windows perfectly so
you can see well through them. It just goes through,
like, in between, like, a firefight with two
sides shooting at each other, and this giant,
like, supersonic bolt of energy just cracks through
the room, like, knocking people over, but not
killing anyone. And, yeah, smacking Weld right
in the arm. I think Weld loses the arm holding
the machine gun and now only has the energy sword.
Hell yeah. But there is a consequence here, which
is, I think... The... God, what is his name?
Gra... Graff, the fire guy. He opens up his flamethrower
and just shoots it at the ground, trying to clear
it of its goo. And some of that is going to hurt
you. And it's also going to hurt Spunleth, who
is on the ground with you. No! And you are both
going to take the level 2 harm, Charred, as the...
He's like... Slightly weakened. Waves of Fire
hit both of you. Okay. Does resisting this sort
of consequence work the same way that it does
in Blades, where you roll an action group? It's
really rolling prowess here. Yeah, I would like
to resist being charged. So, the bad thing is
that if I roll a 1, I'm going to trauma out of
this fight. You just don't roll a 1? question
mark you're right i'm glad it's so easy i rolled
a one fuck um yeah i guess uh good luck everybody
geist uh tries to run he's activated his mech
to uh blast that other pilot and as the flames
come looking across he tries to get out of the
way but i imagine that um like his cybernetic
parts weren't really made to be combat durable
um and he doesn't have any load left to check
off armor so he just um i imagine he gets very
badly burned again and but more importantly most
of his uh the servos in his arms and legs uh
fry to the point where they're longer uh capable
of function and he He goes down. He gets another
scar. When a pilot reaches their max stress,
they can either leave the situation quietly to
lick their wounds or push on recklessly. If they
remove themselves quietly, the pilot deals all
stress and chooses a scar suitable to the event.
If they push on recklessly, they can take a dire
action. A dire action lets the pilot ignore their
existing harm or damage penalties. They cannot
spend stress on this action, nor can they make
a resistance roll since their stress maxed out.
They get a six on their dire action. They can
make another dire action when they next act.
Potentially... The result is five or lower. This
is their last action. After taking their last
action, they receive an appropriate level three
harm and are removed from the scene in bad shape.
OK, so you get so the trade off is that you get
to act, but you get a level three harm deal with.
There's later an ability that lets you keep acting
as long as you get fours, which I'm going to
buy eventually. But of course. Yeah, I mean,
so I assume that I just like I can act once the
turn order runs back around to me, right? I'm
going to take the dire action because it's the
reckless thing to do, but I think... Do you want
me to do it now, or do you want me to... We'll
go back around. Okay. Loyal, Hex, Joseph, let's
go. Get in there, soldier. I mean, Hex is exactly
in a great position. Are you guys still on the
roof? Because I guess I'm the closest to the
mech right now. I could drop my frame if it's
dropped down now. Yeah, I suggest that you can
be in your frame right now if you want. Yeah.
Okay. Let's all get in our frames. Let's all
get in our frames. I could go pick Hex up with
my hand if I get in my frame and then carry him
to his frame. Thank you. He's still on the roof.
Go back through the building. Hex will remember
this. Hex is on top of the building. Loyal, you're
on the other side of the building from your frame.
And Joseph is in his frame on the correct side
of the building as the other mechs. joseph has
to pick hex up king kong style he could if he
wanted to uh i was gonna fight the uh other frames
but i can pick up uh brian you you hear a little
message because you have been in contact with
loyal for the duration of this mission and lois
is like hey you you should pick up hex you bring
him to his frame joseph complies what does that
look like thank you He's going to use his sharp
appendages, his sharp frame, and run up the fucking
building and kind of claw his way up there as
fast as he can. Sure, that sounds... Sharp corners
is a frame perk that I have. I have it here.
I know. Are you pushing yourself to use it? Uh,
no. I was just going to use it. Like, talk about
it. Are we... Does this require a roll? Yes.
Oh. You're in a war zone, so... If you want to
quickly and safely move your friend to his mech,
that's going to be... A maneuver. A maneuver.
I'd also accept maneuver. I can do that. I'll
roll that. Are you pushing yourself or are you
going to roll a base? I'll roll a base. All right.
Uh -oh. Here we go. Yeah. Here we go again. You
start climbing up the building to pick up your
friend and bring him to his mech, but your mech
is not the most friendly mech in the world. I
would say it's very pointy. It's sharp, as you
were just pointing out. All its sharp corners.
That's true. As desperately as you try to pick
up Hex carefully, as you're picking him up, a
stray round from the big sniper mech, Eggwhite,
just grazes you and causes you to jostle. And
unfortunately, it cuts your friend very badly.
And Hex, you're going to take the level 2 harm.
Fuck yeah. Shaved. As you slide down over this
very sharp part of Joseph's hand. The moment's
hand. But you are in his hand and you are moved
to your frame. You just now have that. Who thought
making a frame out of sandpaper was a good idea?
Joseph, do you want to resist that consequence?
What would that do to me? it wouldn't do anything
to you and help your friend since you rolled
you're the one i think i don't actually know
if so i could just get that for free i could
just like stop that from him no you roll and
then you get um you spend oh okay uh oh yeah
oh i don't want to i don't want to cut you up
brian give hex very complex feelings towards
you i'm trying to not cut you okay you're going
to check off um Quirks equal to four minus the
number of dots you have in that vehicle category,
which is going to be, since you did some of the
expertise roll, so you're going to exhaust three
quirks in order to resist this effect. Gotcha.
Okay. But you are in your mech now, Hex. You
are going to take just the level one harm scraped
instead of the level two harm, whatever I said,
caved. Shaved. Shaved. Yeah. And you're at your
mech, so Hex can go, and Loyal can go. I need
to get to the other side of this building. Yeah,
I don't think I want to use an item to get to
the other side of this building. I just want
to use... That's a good thing to roll, to get
someplace quickly and not get hurt. That is a
prowl. That's what I'm on the mech, yeah. You're
not on the mech. So it'd be a prowl, unless you're
fighting your way through, in which case I'd
have to accept the struggle. Well, I still have
my goo gun. Maybe it has some more shots in it.
You could... try for a survey see you want to
find the route with the least conflict so you
can just walk through i would accept that considering
the situation that's a good point i'll do that
i'll use my dolphin brain to survey this shit
what's my position um your position is desperate
well what are you gonna ask me actually no it's
not desperate anymore it's gonna be risky because
the main conflict is off of you it's gonna be
risky standard do you want to push yourself I
have four stress left from getting a bunch right
now. So I want to wait to push myself when I'm
actually in the mech. But once you get in the
mech... You don't use... Yeah, you use quirks.
Okay, fine. I will push myself to get an extra
die. How many stress does that cost? Two. Two
stress. Okay, I can handle that. I hope. Survey.
Partial success. Yeah. Yes, you managed to...
Locate a pretty safe route past the fighting,
especially because there's these loud plumes
of gas, which you can actually walk through because
you have your environmental suit on. So you get
to the gas, you get like through the building
to your frame, and it's just bad luck. Someone
like sees a shape through the gas and takes a
shot at you because you look you don't look like
a human. So they're like, that's a hostile. Take
a shot at you and you can take the level two
harm leaking as your exopod. gets dented and
starts leaking would like to resist leaking okay
do you want to you can check off armor and you
can resist if you want to get rid of it completely
or you can just resist check off armor and resist
where is um here you have two stress left i have
two stress left if you do not roll a five or
six you will trauma out you will be joining joining
Geist in the Bad News Club. So I can't use this
person at all. I'm just punctured. You can take
it down to level one by chucking off two armor
boxes. Yeah, I'll do that. Try to avoid trauma
-ing out if you can because ostensibly we still
want to win this fight. Although I have at least
one more thing I can try to do. No total player
kills yet. Okay. I've checked armor. And this
is now what type of harm? This is going to be
level one harm. Cracked. Okay. You are at your
mech. You get back in. You're all good. Hex,
I think you're the only one who hasn't went.
You're freshly cut up by Joseph Sand, but you've
been placed into your cockpit of your frame.
All right. Hex is ready to rumble then. Which
of the opposing forces is nearest him? I think,
so just on the other side of the building, there's
Weld and Graft, one with a... big laser sword
and the other with a malfunctioning flamethrower
and then farther away near the edge of the stage
is egg white with a big energy sniper rifle okay
uh question about gear so are the ticks i have
the last time still apply like i'm good to use
those or yes those don't go away all right then
hex's first thing is to try to use his rack of
missiles to get a sniper boy roll me a Take a
bombard or a struggle. Let's do struggle it is.
Fuck. No. Sorry. Lock on to egg white with your
missiles and just as you do a hot searing hot
beam of plasma streaks across you and penetrates
your arm knocking your shots off and they just
go sailing into the air away from any so you're
going to take the Level two damage, I guess melting.
All right. You know, that's better than I thought
you would do. Like a child ran right at the.
You didn't get rules of engagement for this.
Oh, yeah. Then fire more racks of missiles. Yeah.
The only rule is don't destroy the refinery because
we're supposed to be protecting it. But yeah,
you take that level two arm. Do you want to resist
it? Or do you have armor? Let's see. Do I have
armor? I mean. medium so you have so don't forget
that everybody you get two free load of weapons
or armor because of our mechanized cavalry ability
so you can technically take whatever your vehicle
gear load is plus two well that's why it says
negative two on here i'm like what am i doing
wrong it's like we just get that shit okay you
want to check two boxes for armor that'll bring
it down to level one and then you can resist
it to level zero okay let's do that all right
you do so cool It hurt, but he's okay. Do you
want to resist? I mean, beyond that? So you took
the level one harm, Bill. Oh, okay. And now let's...
I won't. I'll take that. Okay. That means you'll
have reduced effect with any other vehicle actions,
just so you know. All right. He's just normal
melting now. Just normal melting. A little melty.
Scorched, if you will. Okay, we're back at the
top. I guess, Geist, you are... burning badly
i'm burning badly and faced with a choice geist
can either try to you know do the sensible thing
uh try and put the fire out and not die um but
unfortunately for him he never does the sensible
thing so what i want to do and this so i think
this the book is very vague on if this is even
allowed but i assume that because i have my fine
vehicle remote control I can take a vehicle action
as my as my like last desperate action. Yeah,
sure. Why the hell not? What I want to do is
I want to transform the changeling back into
mobility mode. I want to activate my boosted
reactor, which I haven't used this time to basically
super juice the reactor. And I want to have it.
fly over geist to pick him up and then basically
plow directly into um graft and then i want to
check off uh a melee weapon or two as uh my last
piece of vehicle load to basically like so the
the thing boosts up to hyper speed scoops geist
off the ground and then torpedoes directly into
uh graft using its melee weapons which are basically
um It's kind of like the steak driver from Bloodborne,
if you know what that's like. But it's like it's
basically just like the fists are mechanized
in such a way that they punch very short distances
with extreme force. That's sick. So it's basically
just like jackhammer hands. But it's going to.
So the boosted reactor is kind of just my justification
for how it can do both of those things in one
round because it's like that. But yeah, I'm basically
just going to I'm going to try and plow into
this guy. Super speed. And I am going to definitely
exhaust a quirk to... Yeah, I'm going to... I
guess I'll check off Roaring Fast to say that
basically just the thing, it's flying real fucking
fast, scoops him up, and then it's going to slam
into him full force. I might take a collateral
die as well. What do you... Is it the same thing
where I ask you what you can offer me for it
and then decide if I want to take it? That's
exactly it. All right, what do you got? So right
now you don't have any damage, right? No. I have
no damage. I have, I mean, I will have a level
three. You will take a level three if you take
this action. I will give you a, what do you think
is interesting? I think. That damage to the frame
would be logical. I think maybe. I don't know,
because he's already like facing down a very,
very bad consequence, even if he fails. Here's
what I'll say. I'll say is that you will get
a lot of publicity for this. All of you. Is that
where we weren't told to be secret, were we?
No. What is Geist doing? Geist is going sicko
mode. Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take the publicity.
I mean, I don't think Geist, the character, wants
it, but I, the player, think that that's really
cool, even though it's probably going to cause
a lot of problems. That's our squad reputation,
isn't it? Yeah, and we're about to have a reputation
as, well, I mean, I guess it depends on how the
roll goes. So right now I'm rolling four dice.
i really want this to go wait do you do you exhaust
quirks to help other pilots do stuff can you
still do that can you still leverage assists
i think you can i mean it seems to imply that
you aid with stress still so someone could aid
you especially since i guess you're on foot still
okay does anybody well i mean does anybody want
to assist me destroying weld or not weld graft
it might be the bathroom bomb already i mean
but i mean he's in a robot now so Fuck it. How
do you help? Missiles, of course. Alright, just
distract them? Well, these are kill missiles,
so could I use them for that? Sure. But distracts
work too. Kill missiles. I mean, it is what it
is. We'll see how it goes. Okay. Wait, actually,
I don't... Sorry, one sec. If you can't, if it's
by design that you can't give dice that way,
that's totally fine. I don't think... You can
push and aid. I'm not entirely sure, though.
I'll accept that ruling. I don't need any help.
I want all the glory for myself. I will. So this
is, I assume, desperate. It's probably standard,
right? The booster only increases your effect
in terms of speed or going fast. So I don't know
if that applies here or not. I think, because
I like you, Isaac. Because this is an exceptionally
ballsy thing to do, and maybe your last action
for a while. I will give you great advice. All
right, here we go. Four dice. If I get a six,
I get to keep going. You're about to see why
they call him Geist. I got my fingers crossed.
Maybe. Okay. Three, five, six. Holy smokes. You
did. Wow. You pushed through it. I think, like...
You're honestly starting to black out a little
bit from the pain, but the muscle memory takes
over and your brain goes speeding over your very
head. The foot probably lands within a few meters
of you, but just plows into Weld? It's not Weld.
I thought it was Weld because Weld's something
the fire guy would have, but yeah, no, it's Graft.
Yeah, you plows into Graft, who is still struggling
with his flamethrower. You punch through the
flamethrower. causing it to explode into Graf's
cockpit, and the explosion and your fists come
out the other side, and he is completely out
of the fight. He's dead. Gosh. Nice. Got him.
I'm still in it. I'm still moving. You're still
fucking moving somehow. Incredible. Okay. I think
Joseph and Hex and Loyal still can go. Yep. I
have something I want to do. Sure. Go for it.
Do it. I want to have the Nautilus reach back
behind its back, pull out its large shield, activate
the shield, and then with all fin thrusters activated,
just shoot over towards Eggwhite, our sniper
in the distance who's wreaking havoc on us, and
engage them in melee combat. That's going to
be a prowl to close that distance. That's a prowl,
not a struggle. egg white is on the opposite
side of the refinery you're not that's why i
am going fast because i again want to make myself
a target want to make a big glowing shield coming
at them quickly to make them stop fucking shooting
at people sounds like a maneuver to me all right
let us maneuver Let me see if I have any cool
quirk to use to help me get another dice while
I do this. I'll activate the 360 sonar while
I'm doing this. Sure. Navigate myself out of
any other incoming hits as I'm trying to maneuver
towards egg white. That's one more die. What's
my position? Risky. Standard, because you're
in your mech, so no longer desperate. All right.
You do it. Six and a five. So you go forward
with your shield in front of you. Eggwhite takes
a couple shots at you, and the giant laser rifle
actually bounces off your shield, hits it just
at the right angle, and it just goes up into
the sky. Yes. And while you do not do any damage
to Eggwhite right now, you get close enough that
they are forced to give up their elevated position.
They drop down outside of the refinery and are
honestly backpedaling. not in a position to really
provide any support anymore. Good shit. So you've
got to chase them away temporarily. We'll see
if that keeps up. Hell yeah. Joseph or Hex? Do
you have an idea, Brian? You can go. Well, Hex
wants to go smack Machine Gun Man. Just like
hands? You have a melee weapon. You have the
baton. Sure. I mean, you're right over here to
smack him. You're close enough. He has a sword.
You have a baton. Let's do it. Bat versus knife.
Shit. We're about to find out. It's back. It
keeps coming back. It's never going away. Yeah,
roll me a struggle. Sir, yes, sir. This is risky.
No modifiers were good. Ah, knife wins. Knife
wins. That's what I was saying. That's what I
was saying. Yeah, so you go up with the baton,
but Weld is a little bit more... A little faster
than you'd think, even missing an arm. Weld trips
you with his giant frame foot, knocking you on
the ground, and begins to plunge his beam saber.
Name of the game. Oh! He said it. Plunging down
towards your cockpit. So instead of damaging
you, I'm going to put you in a desperate position.
Okay. Joseph. I'll shoot that guy with my laser.
Thick. That's a bombard, baby. Can I roll it?
Yeah, you want any extra dice? You can push yourself
or accept a collateral die if you want one. I
guess I'll give myself two more stress and push
myself. You do the quirk now, since you're in
your mech. You check off. Oh, okay. Well, I only
have one, and these don't regen, right? They
do after the game is over. Oh, OK. Yeah, I guess
I'll use a quirk. Sure. Use your last quirk.
My last. What are you using? A redundant move
in systems was my last one. Are you are you on
your your wheels shooting them? I'm around. I'm
using the momentum of my wheels to really make
this laser hurt. You hop on a skateboard. It's
like, yeah, flip. That's not good. That's fucking
cool. Not a lot of good rolls today, gamers.
Yeah. How do I hurt myself? Like, trip. I shoot
the laser into my fucking brain. There's a big
banana and you step on it and everyone laughs
at you. Yeah. Then Egg White laughs at me from
afar. And then there's a rake. Oh, shit. That'd
be embarrassing. God, can you imagine? The leaf
child. I think you shoot at... I mean, you're
shooting at the one that was on top of X. Yeah,
I wanted to try to help. You shoot at Weld, and
it does miss because right as you are lining
up the shot, and you have him right in your sights,
it's just bad luck. The incandescent tank next
to you just catches a stray, and that's all it
takes. It just explodes. Huge explosion, bright
white light just bathes all over your mech, and
you take the level 2 damage exploded, and you
cannot resist that because you are out of quirks.
Ain't that how it goes. So I guess we're back
to the top. All right. Well, does that put, uh,
who's nice back up? It does. I run out of six.
You don't have to go in that order. You can have
someone go first if you don't want to. If somebody
else wants to go first, they can. I think I know
what I want to do, but it might be a good idea
for Hex to take a turn first to get out of the
line of fire or to maybe see if he can even deal
with Weld on his own. Yeah, Hex is going to try
to not get beam sabered. Not yet. He's going
to try to roll away. Are you trying to maneuver,
then? Yeah, he's trying to outmaneuver this guy.
He was a little in over his head. Gonna go lick
his wounds. Are you gonna push yourself at all,
or are you just gonna roll it raw again? I don't
wanna. I'm gonna just not struggle. Let's do
it. I feel lucky. Yay! You were lucky. Yeah,
you roll out of the way, he plunges it down.
And you know what? He didn't call 411 before
digging because he hits a subterranean incandescent
line. Blasts up into his own face. Explodes up
into his face. And because he already had two
ticks, that's it for him. Gets completely roasted.
His other arm gets blown off and he is out of
the fight. Oh, shit. Hex brushes the dirt off
his chest. Should have called 411. Hey, who wants
to go next? Loyal, you could go, or... Yeah,
Eggwhite's the only combatant still capable of
combating. Eggwhite is, yeah, Eggwhite is retreating,
backpedaling. I'm also assuming Eggwhite is distracted
by the not one, but two incantanium, incandesium,
whatever the fuck they are, explosions. Yeah,
sure. So what do you want to do? I just want
to drill him. I want to drill and disable his
frame. Okay. I don't trust him to not come back
and fuck up our shit. Let's see it. Let's see
it. Time to battle. A battle. I'm battling Eggwhite.
Position? Risky? Risky. Well, he's a sniper.
I would say, I would go as far as to say that
you have seized the advantage here and you are
in a, let's call it risky great, actually. Still
risky, but great effects. Cool. Let's do it.
You want to push yourself? Nope. Fuck. Would
you like help? Oh, wait. Oh, that's already been
rolled. Too late, unfortunately. I feel like
I'm far away from you guys right now, too. Yeah,
you were outside the refinery chasing this guy
down, and you lose this opportunity. I think
Eggwhite... Oh, he gets away? He gets away. He
takes a shot at your... I guess he's not going
to damage you. He shoots the sand in front of
you, and you just... trapped in this giant cloud
of dust, and when you get out of it, he has disappeared
somehow into the forest. Egg white. You have
lost egg white, and egg white will return. I
like this. Okay, cool. So has this situation
ended, or is the infantry still a persistent
threat? I think you are able to handle the infantry.
They are both routed, and they have in many ways
completed what they've come here to do. If we're
being honest. Yeah. Sadly. So, yeah, you are
left rattled, hurt quite badly. The haze warning
fades away and you look over the refinery. You
were tasked to defend and it is in bad shape.
Extremely exploded. Very bad shape. And you guys
are in pretty bad shape as well. And, you know,
Worthy finally gets through to you and he says,
pilots, you read me? Geist. I feel like Geist.
So he was he carried the momentum through from
punching through from punching through. What
the fuck was that guy's name? Graft. And then
so he transforms his mech back into bombardment
mode, sees there's no targets left, fires his
machine gun at some of the infantry in the plaza
and then succumbs to his wounds. So it kind of
just like it like coasts up and then kind of
the jets shut off and then it kind of just. stalls
out and lands on its feet motionless and Geist
is passed out and burning in the field. Yeah,
I think Loyal communicates to Worthy. He's like,
we have wounded here. We need an airlift out.
All right, I'm coming in. I'm patching through
control and you hear Miss West Edge's voice cut
in and says, this is control. Have you secured
the plans? Plans are secured. Pilots are wounded.
We need backup. Affirmative. We've managed to
locate where the artillery was launched from.
We're going to send in the thimbles to clean
up and deal with any biohazards. Get back here
ASAP. Worthy's five minutes out. And she hangs
up. And sure enough, Worthy does show up. You
know, touches down and you all load in. You find
Geist and like, just like fucking look like he
lost a fight with an air fryer. You scoop them
into the evac shuttle and you load up and start
pulling away. As the ship jostles Geist, you're
like in and out of consciousness, I think, just
from the pain and everything. You get this, I
guess, synesthesia almost. Your vision is swimming
and you feel like a faint alarm, a haze warning,
but you're not in your cockpit, so it's not possible.
And you get this. horrible, horrible sinking
feeling in your stomach that something is very
wrong. And you're going to take the level one
harm. Minor haze psychosis. Oh, no. And that
sounds cool. It is cool. The weird thing about
it is that you're not getting this as a consequence
for any of your actions because this is a rival
move. And I think, guys, it dawns on you that
he's here. Retribution, the one who put you in
this coma. And again, you're crippled. and he's
going to try to take everything away from you
one more time. Oh, my God. And we'll leave it
there for today.