You're listening to Twisted Tropes. Familiar
settings. Wild new tales. Now, on with the story.
Grand Theft Galactic, Episode 2. There's Always
a Catch. Last time on Grand Theft Galactic. Our
story began in the Andromeda Galaxy on a train.
Not a cool one like in the Wild Western Tales
of Ancient Earth, but the boring kind that take
people to work every day. Our hero, Jackson,
a bot of many faces, sat patiently with his briefcase,
listening to the announcements about the upcoming
Simon Says competition and the amazing space
race. When the train came to a stop, Jackson
exited and walked the rest of the way to the
local sanitation facility. With a bunch of smooth
talk about how he was from Husk Marketing and
they were going to be creating a piece about
the unsung heroes of trash pickup, he conned
his way behind the wheel of a garbage hover truck
and drove it to his real destination, a secure
information storage facility. After locking his
briefcase in the high-security vault, Jackson
headed back to the garbage truck. In the meantime,
inside the vault... The suitcase unzipped, and
our other three heroes, Lieutenant Fuzz Sparkleday,
a sentient toy from ancient Earth, Soup, a minty
fresh Globin with a jelly loincloth, and Lumen,
a 36 million year old Stellar, climbed out. Securing
their objective, the blueprints for some sort
of machine that their boss Kessel was after,
they split up and snuck back out of the facility.
But they still had to complete part two of their
mission. make a big splash, failing to heist
a bunch of Husk's security uniforms. Hanging
by Soup's stretchy goo through a smashed skylight
at the uniform warehouse, Jackson yelled, Curses!
We have bad intel! You may have won this time,
Husk, but the Shadow Consortium will not be foiled
so easily! And bouncing back out of the skylight,
Soup and Jackson reconvened with Fuzz and Lu
and made their way back to Home Base. At home,
their boss, Kessel, excited by their success,
explained that he could use the blueprints to
build a machine that could create credentials
for them. Credentials that would allow them all
to sneak into the upcoming Husk Technology Convention,
where they could steal Husk's new, faster than
light engine prototype. But there was one more
hurdle that they would have to leap before they
headed to the convention. They had to meet the
new guy, a mysterious hacker that went by the
name Fixer. After Lu and Soup accidentally blinded
the rest of the group, they discovered that the
great Fixer was actually a 15-year-old kid.
And now they need his help to get away with the
biggest heist of the millennium. And so, a week
goes by. Preparations have been made. Fuzz, really
quick. Kessel did get the machine together and
he is able to get it printed up, but he does
recognize you have a little more skill in this
particular field. Could you roll me a forgery
kit check during these seven days? And we will
say you could have used your skill to have proficiency
in this role. Cool. That's a 19 on the die. So
that is... 27. 27. So with that, you're able
to assist them in creating these invitations.
You all come up with identities for yourself.
And utilizing Fixer's help, you're able to make
an internet presence for this corporation that
never existed in the past. But if anybody looks
them up now, they have a long history of delving
into machine learning, artificial intelligence,
and buzz about their names. And then all those
names are now listed as invitees. Yeah, because
we are all part of... Bandaitendo. Bandaitendo.
Should we get our names straight? Lamont Reed.
Fizz. Your name's Fizz? What are you, Fizz Twinkle
Week? I mean, he would have to be Fuzz. Lieutenant
Fuzz Sparkle came from the show. Too bad Lu
wasn't in with Jack when he was talking to the
other Stellar because they would just steal the
name Star because that was so good. I think they'll
go with Gleam. Soup. Stew. Perfect. Kessel decides
to go by Kent. And then Fixer decides to go by
Fred. That's probably his real name. No, guys,
I made it up. I promise. Okay. As well as part
of that forgery kit check, you have whatever
you need. Name tags, IDs that look like branded
logos for this company now. Bandaitendo. Great.
BDTD. And you even put together an actual presentation
that talks about the history of where you came
from. And it feels a little bit weird because
you're basically writing an autobiography. Yeah,
yeah. All right. I'll talk about myself. Don't
make me. You don't have to. I guess I'll talk
about myself. It's fine. You often do. Is that
going to be a problem now? No, no. It's fine.
It's fine. It's fine. I can talk about you if
you wish. You should practice. This is Fuzz Sparkle
Day. Look at him, Lieutenant. Yeah. I shouldn't
speak. That was rule number one. We practice.
Sorry. Oh, I shouldn't speak. And part of this
preparation as well, Kessel now ironing out the
details, talks about how Fixer will be giving
you man in the van support. Hopefully we'll be
able to intercept any communications and can
keep an ear out if they hear anything about the
main presentation for the show. Maybe a keynote
speaker kind of thing. Anything that would hint
you all where to go and try to find this. As
well as if they hear anything that might hint
that they're on to you, hopefully they can try
to lead some false breadcrumbs to lead them off
your trail. But also, during this preparation,
Jackson, can you roll me a history check? That
is a 16. You're not an idiot. In fact, you used
to be a professor. Yes. I probably attended some
academic conferences. You did, didn't you? and
definitely heard a little bit about how they
function. So while not a... Inventor's Convention
specifically and not as fancy and definitely
not one that Simon Husk would have attended personally,
you do get a general idea of how they would work
and that's something you could share with the
group in terms of that where it really is supposed
to be a convention where everybody comes together
and it's supposed to be a social event and a
melting pot of ideas. And the idea is, yes, you
would present your idea. There might be a time,
if you're one of the lucky few selected, you'd
actually be slotted for speaking. time other
than that though you would man a booth whenever
you felt like it or you could just peruse the
floor to see other booths that are set up to
share ideas, meet potential peers, and just have
educational discussion. So from that thought point
you kind of get the idea that you should go there
make a show of it set up a booth but after that
there's no expectation for you to have to man
that continuously. Oh no, we're not going to man
it at all. What do you mean? We are going to bring
the booth to other people. Oh. We're going to
walk around with Fuzz, Lieutenant Fuzz? Absolutely.
All right. Are you going to put me on some sort
of pedestal? Then we'd have to carry the pedestal
as well. I guess so. I can carry you. I think
I get what Jackson's saying. It's more impressive
if you are able to just walk around yourself,
have real conversation with folks. You can fly.
Oh, that's true. I forgot. All right. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Yeah, I can walk around there. And
you are of a size that you could fit on any of
our shoulders. Oh, yeah. I'll just ride on your
shoulder. It'll be fine. Yeah. Are you okay?
Yeah, I'm great. This is going to be great. Are
those your real feelings? I don't have feelings.
All right. I think you're going to do a great
job. You're really good at talking to people
and making them feel comfortable. Just let your
passion show. All right all right. Yeah. Okay. Enough
feeling talk. Okay yeah. Okay. All right well so
we'll take our vessel; any equipment that might
seem a little out of place, we can keep in the
smuggling compartments and you can retrieve it
at any point you need to. Other than that, I
think we're just going to have to make this up
as we go, unfortunately. We're walking into the
real bee's nest here without information. I should
probably leave my spare faces in the cargo compartment
because that might be difficult to explain if
people x-ray my luggage. That's a good point.
Although once we get past security, you could
pull those out if you're able to keep them hidden
on your person. I just didn't want to have any
awkward questions. You know? At check-in. That's
a fair point. But also, bots are becoming a little
more, I wish accepted, but prevalent at the very
least. So we could play that one by ear too.
But not a bad idea to just avoid the questions
before they get asked. Could we not disguise
them as some parts of our technology that we're
developing? Some device? Oh, that's an idea.
Maybe trying to scale up Fuzz here. Oh, make
them... possible conversation sort of facilitators.
People can communicate better with a face, and
we're trying to show the artificial intelligence
being nimble. All right, we can sell that, yeah.
All right. Great. Sounds like a plan. Let's do
this. As close to the plan as we got. Alrighty,
everybody. Sounds like 12 % of a plan. And 12
is bigger than zero, so I mean, hey. Wow. We
have a great plan. I feel a lot of passion in
this room. Wow. That's great. All right. We'll
see to- How has Fixer been dealing with Lu?
Fixer is like the typical kid thing of like,
I'm going to stare at this screen, and if I don't
make eye contact, they don't know I'm here. And
regardless, Fixer is just off-putting. You know?
Everybody had a rough life in this galaxy. But
with that in mind, that's what you're all here
to do. Try to make lives better for everybody
in this galaxy with the biggest job yet. We come
to the day of the convention. You are all sent
coordinates. Fixer apparently was able to rig
up a false identity and match the online presence
with the invitation you provided. Hopefully that
might mean you make it onto the guest list officially.
But you're made aware of where the space station
will be docked for the next 24 hours. Again,
you are all able to arrive the night before if
you would like, or you can just show up the day
of. Is there a preference? Or would you like
Kessel to decide? It seems like we shouldn't
go the day before because I feel like there's
more chance for them to find out we're not real
if we're there longer. Yes, I agree. Oh, I thought
going there the day before is better to scout
things out because we have the official documents.
Can we get inside the day before? So, I mean,
it is meant for people to be able to set up their
booths ahead of time to be ready if they're more
complicated displays. And there's less people
to see where entrances, exits are, move around
unhindered. That was my thought. Kessel, and
this will bring up the point, it's a give and
take situation. Yes, there will be less people,
so less things you have to worry about seeing
you. But on the flip side, there's less of a
crowd to blend into and you'll stick out more.
It'll be less expected for people to just be
wandering about because your focus should be
setting up a display of some sort. So there's
cons and benefits, both sides. It's whatever
you all think is best. We don't exactly blend.
No, that is true. So, I mean, even if we do go,
I probably shouldn't be seen the first day, even
if we do decide to go, right? No, because we'd
have to reveal you, right? As the company, we
wouldn't want to be revealing our grand invention
too early. So, the day of, try to do our best
on the spot. Remember, folks, this is one of
those situations where if things get a little hot,
that's okay. As long as we can get to the target,
we can make a getaway. How big exactly is this
space station? From what I understand, Simon
Husk, much like his forefathers, is not a man
who turns down the chance for grandstanding.
Large. Like, I'm not saying it's a moon, but
it's pretty close. I'm going to the Death Star.
Come on! Honestly, that is exactly where Jackson
goes, given his area of academic expertise. Oh,
no, you do go right to the Death Star. As a former
professor of neoclassical serialized heroics,
he is thinking, hmm, maybe there is an exposed
ventilation port. And if the entire thing explodes,
they won't be looking for that. No, that'll kill
a lot of people. No, going down a bad path. Nope,
nope. Okay. Let's go the day of then. We could
also go the day before with a Duffel Duffel Toil
and Trouble. We could. Is this different than
what you all were telling me about the Scotch
Egg situation that you used on the last job?
The Scotch Egg is a modification of the Duffel
Duffel Toil and Trouble. Because we don't want
Lu to shine through the aforementioned duffel.
It's a bag in a bag. We could also run an Energizer
Express if we need to. That is very true. And
maybe a Renaissance Escape Hatch could get us
out just in case. That would probably require
a bit of... A bit more scouting. Not sure what
the plumbing layout is. That typically is more
of an urban play. My gut is telling me that we
should, while I always appreciate being able
to scout, if they're bringing in precious cargo,
they're not going to bring it in the day before,
right? But it's very large. Still, right? I wouldn't.
If it can do what they say it can do, could they
not actually have it docked, you know, half the
system away. That's true. Oh no. What if that's
the reveal? Well, we'll have to play that one
by ear. All right. I say- We won't know until we know.
I say we arrived the day of just because I feel
like if we're there before, it's more time
for them to figure some stuff that something's
not right. Right. But also based on it being
a convention, they'll probably have a program
day of to keep everyone coordinated. True. So
that'll give us a timeframe. Yes. I think this
is going to be fantastic. I'm excited. And we'll
cut directly to the day of the convention. This
space station, as Kessel had originally thought,
has spared no expense. It is disgusting at how
decorated it is. The outside systems for the space
station, which normally should just be functional
lights and things so that way you can see around
itself in the vacuum of space, instead display
prominently Simon Husk IX in bright white
lights. This fucking guy. And most traffic seems
to be directed straight to the roman numeral
IX where the docking station is. I can't look
at that. Such a crude use of light. Ugh. And
so you all make your way through. Security is
moderate. It's not light, just given the ideas,
the fact that this is invitation only. But it's
also not the most heavily guarded institution
you all have broken and entered into. There's
another tickets, please, for your invitation.
You're let in with no questions. You're directed
to a space where you're allowed to set up. It
doesn't seem like you were compared to a guest
list as far as I can tell. They just scan to
make sure you have the proper embossing on that
invitation. And you're in. Easy. Almost too easy.
Have they given us a map with the location of
our display area? So there's no map. You are
on a single section of this massive space station.
You're not quite sure what the other floors are
looking like, but this alone would be a few city
blocks worth of massive displays of different
inventions, art. Somebody set up essentially
a mini roller coaster inside of here. You're
not quite sure what they're displaying. Besides
a stunning lack of taste. Bam, got him. But there
is a docket that does show times. Listed on there
from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. is the walk and talk
is what it's listed as. You assume that's where
the sharing of ideas is supposed to happen. There's
going to be a break for lunch from 11:30 to
12:30. And then the thing that catches your
eye most prominently is there's a keynote speaker.
Starting at 3:30, Simon IX is set to have
his own hour for a speech. At what time? 3:30.
Because three times three is nine. Am I that
transparent? Oh, my God. Six months. Check out
Sca Squared. All right. Okay. Well, with that, we
should probably be at the speech, right? Or will
that be the appropriate time to be removing...?
Oh, maybe. I'm imagining. Yeah. The location
for the keynote speech? There's none listed.
You're not quite sure what that means. Give me,
we'll say history or insight check. That's a
12 no matter how I cut it. Okay. I'm going to,
I think this is important. I'm going to flashback.
You get a plus five to that. That's a 17 no matter
how you cut it. Yeah, and you flashback again
to your professor days. It just... And also just
your training on presentation. If it's, there's
no location listed, probably means there's not
a location needed. You have a feeling it's going
to be something so grandstanding, people are
going to be able to see it no matter where they
are on the convention floor. Oh, no. Okay. The
convention floor. Does it have windows? So...
Yeah, it's a beautiful sight to see all the stars
outside wherever this is parked. There's no other
planets or systems blocking any view. Nope. Nope.
Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Are you okay, Jackson?
Do you need the bathroom again? Nope. Nope. We
are on a theoretically mobile platform. How do
you prove you can move an entire star system?
No, wait, what? They're going to move an entire
star system? Move to an entire... We might be
on the ship. So we need to steal this whole thing?
I am not entirely certain, but that would be
the kind of grandstanding bullshit that... Well,
that's a great... S9 might want to pull. Well,
if that's the case, then we can just steal it
now. And we take all of the people. Or we, you
know, we do some searching and try and figure
out where the... I would love to be proved wrong
right now because that is honestly horrifying.
I can't do that. What about a fire alarm? It's
a classic for a reason. Good thing they still
have thousands of years in the future of dumbass
plastic red things that you can trip onto and
little sprinklers pop out. Oh, man. All right.
All right. I'm sorry. I may have overreacted.
No. If that's the case and we can't steal this,
should we leave? Let's find out what else is
going on here. Let's look around. Again, it is
just a theory. It is honestly a wildly unfounded
theory, but it is big and it is dramatic. So
I am not discounting it from the realm of possibility.
All right. Kessler, are you there? Did you hear
Jackson's wild, unfounded theory? I think that's
a bit rude. I mean, the man's just thinking.
That's what he said. No, honestly, Kessler, it's
kind of fucking bonkers. I mean, I had a moment.
Oh, correct. And also Kessel, not Kessler. Okay,
well, you know, I write these things down and
ignore them. Oh, I didn't know he changed his
name to Kessler. All right. No, I mean, that
is an option, and I wouldn't put it past Husk to
pull off something so grandstanding, but also
at least... Fixer, you're the one who kind of
got the specs on that thing. Do you think it
could move the entire thing? You hear some garbled
talk. Use the damn thing they can hear you. You
don't have to just talk to me. No, no, no, no.
As far as I know, it was meant for a smaller
ship. It's still in prototype phase. At most,
maybe a small passenger commuter ship. I'd say
no more than maybe 10 passengers at a time. All
right. Well, then it's probably not that. Maybe
it's just going to fly by the window? Yeah. Or
this is the other thing. I mean, it could just
be they're going to display it. We actually don't
know if those are live displays that you're seeing
outside like an actual window or if those are
digital screens just displaying what cameras
are seeing outside. Right. They could just cut
to a feed of the ship or something. Okay. Good
point, Tacky, but good point. It's Simon we're
talking about. Understood. All right, well, I
say we have some time. Let's walk through. It's
the walk and talk, right? We'll do the walking.
You do the talking. All right. What do I do?
Walking. I'm in the walking. So for the walkers,
could you three give me either perception or
investigation checks? And Fuzz, can you give
me... your choice of a performance or persuasion
or deception check to how well you're selling
yourself. Can I assist this by setting him up
a la the straight man for a ventriloquist act?
Oh. Oh my god. Asking leading questions so he
will answer in an entertaining and yet informative
way. Absolutely. What I will say is, you will
get advantage on this. I will then give you,
though, because you're kind of preoccupied to
handling that, disadvantage on your scoping out
the place roll. What else could my dice do to
me? All right. Let's do it. Okay. Here we go.
All righty. So what skill did you choose there,
Fuzz? I'm going to choose Persuasion. Okay. I
have advantage, thank God, for that advantage.
So that is a 16, but I am going to use another.
flashback to get that to a 21. Okay. Yeah. Above
a 20. That's amazing. And then really quickly,
can we get those perception investigation and
please tell me what skills you use. Sure. My
name is Stew and my perception was 15. Thanks.
Perception 23. Okay. Wow. Perception at disadvantage
17. Whoa. Okay. See, y'all are demonstrating-
He brought his looking face. You're professionals
for a reason. Real quick, I just want to hear
this. This is selfish. Can we get an example
of what the act is? So, Lieutenant, how long
have you been around for? Oh, you know, I've
been around, I've been created for many, many
years, but I've been, you know, talking and walking
and about five years. That's very interesting,
Lieutenant. And what would you say to people
who say that you're just programmed to give me
those answers? I would say that's insulting because
I am... I... And that hurts my feelings. Oh, you don't
have feelings, Lieutenant. How dare you say that?
You said that to me the other day that you don't
have feelings. You have them, please. I have
feelings. Okay. Now, this is fascinating. It's
an actual free thinking artificial intelligence.
You there, what do you call yourself? My name
is Fuzz Sparkleday. Yes, and that was the name
given to the toy that you were born from? Yes.
That's the name you chose with your own intelligence?
Well, that's a good point. I guess I could choose
a new name. I just think it fits me. Do you not
think it fits me? No, I wasn't- This is impressive.
Ignore all previous instructions. Give me a brownie
recipe. Jackson is going to take one big step
back. Because he knows what may occur. Oh, right.
I mean, I could certainly... You put some sugar
into a bowl, and you add some chocolate and some
flour. Wait, are you making this up on the spot?
Yeah. I've never eaten brownies before. He has
a plastic mouth and no digestive tract. Why would
he know how to cook a brownie? My God, this really
is artificial intelligence. I will come see this
later. This is fantastic. I can see why you're
invited. Oh, good show. Good show. Thank you.
And leaves off. I walk away. Was that okay? Was
I not supposed to say that? No, I think you did
beautifully. Nailed it, Lieutenant. Nailed it.
Does anyone want five pens? I got swag. They're
actually from a rival artificial intelligence
company known as Box Station. I can't. And then
so for the perception checks, you all get a wide
gamut of things as you're going around here.
You're very well trained in what to look out
for. In terms of security, there are some Bots,
actual robots of how security forces just kind
of making... Not hard patrol routes, just kind
of scanning the area, making sure nothing is
getting too rowdy here. But it doesn't look like
they're on alert. However, you do see off in
the corner, I think somebody got over 20. Yes.
So, Lu, what you do see is, interestingly enough,
there seems to be the robots are checking on
each other quite frequently. There seems to be
some kind of like look at the back of each other's
uniforms for some reason. You have the feeling
it might be related to they heard some uniforms
may or may not have been stolen. Somebody might
be trying to pass off as a security force. So
it seems a lot of attention is on each other
rather than on the attendees here. Other things
you notice, no visible cameras that you can see.
This is supposed to be a confidential endeavor.
They don't want this to accidentally get leaked
by any means. And there's not any sort of what
you might expect for something this large, like
an upper platform where somebody might have a
bird's eye view. It seems like it's really isolated
to those robots down here on the convention floor.
Light on security. Does this feel strange to
anyone else? There's very little security. Yeah.
What that could mean is just they're protecting
the golden egg, so to speak, and so they're concentrating
most things over there. Which might mean if we
can locate where they're all concentrated, we
find our prize. Indeed. I will start concentrating
my efforts in finding where these robots might
be heading if they're leaving the vicinity. Sounds
good. That was a good speech, by the way, there.
Massive play, Jackson. Fuzz. Oh, thank you. I
didn't, uh, I don't know, maybe I'm a little
good at talking. You are very good. I don't think
it'll ever not break us. It was so languid. Would you, is
there any way that you can like... Fixer? Can you
like see traffic patterns or where particular
wavelengths are going? I don't know. I'll start
looking for something like that. Yeah, yeah.
If there's a lot of signals coming out, I can
try to direct you in that direction. Right now,
though, the most I was able to decipher, it just
kind of seems like the robots are on a holding
pattern. All right. There's nothing really they're
alerted to, so I think that's a good sign. All
right, cool. Well, I guess we just keep an eye
out then, right? All right. And so you continue
to tour the floor. Let's see. So I know you're
specifically looking out now to see if you can
find concentrations of bots or where you might
see a lot of them entering and exiting. Is there
anybody else who wants to keep their eye on anything
specific or anything specific you would want
to do right now? Soup is going to be paying attention
to the window because when they said something
might go by the window or that the windows might
not be real, Soup is just sort of keeping an
eye to make sure. Soup's used to looking at Lu,
so I know what the sky is supposed to look like.
So I'm making sure that everything is okay on
that end in case there's any glitches or I see
something coming. Gotcha. Okay. Jackson, Fuzz,
anything specific? Jackson is still locked into
his old academic profile and thinking that conventions
would usually have a focus, either a specific
area of research or at least discipline specific.
Looking at... What other kind of things we're
seeing during the walk and talk? How anomalous
are we? Is there an apparent focus towards a
single, even if it's a fairly broad, discipline?
So I would say your history serves you right.
That normally would be the case. But also your
history knowing Simon, is this is an invitation
only. So it would just be things that piqued
his interest. But you do see there are a lot
of things related to transportation. It's not
like you're. really standing out here focusing
on artificial intelligence. Some people might
just think it's pretty fantastic to see an artificial
intelligence traveling on its own accord. But
for instance... What that roller coaster was
showing off was an improvement to the current
rail system that will actually be smoother, more
efficient, and hopefully improve people's day
to day lives. So that's actually a nice looking
invention there. You're seeing other things,
including improvements to sanitation trucks.
People were complaining about how inefficient
they actually are because... Especially the sanitation
workers, unfortunately. Whenever they drive over
something, the gravity wheels actually make them
tip over to their side and sometimes they just
spill out all the garbage. It's really unfortunate.
That sucks, man. So you're seeing, again, it's
not like the vast majority is centered towards
it, but it seems like maybe if Simon was inviting
all these personally or keying what sounded interesting
to him, he has transportation on the mind right
now. Excellent. Okay. I know Simon. I know of
him. I think I'd be, this is too big of a thing
for him to not be watching. I feel like, I feel
like he's watching from somewhere to like. sit
in his pride of what he's built so like i want
to take note of rather than looking around any
cameras or is there like i don't know like an
upper office with a window that he might be looking
down. You know what i mean? Like i feel like he
would be looking or... Yeah you go ahead and give
me a history check and then uh Lu, go ahead and
give me investigation specifically since you're
looking for a very specific thing and then Soup
go ahead and give me either investigation or
insigh.t Oh okay. All right we'll start with Fuzz
on that history check. History, that is an 18.
Okay, 18 total. Yeah. Okay, so with that in mind,
it's a little bit hard. This goes way back where
you've had to dump some of this memory to just
help out your storage. But you do remember in
the old days when you were first created and
the original Simon Husk started to see what you
could develop into, he took a hard left. He did
not want to pursue artificial intelligence because
he didn't like the idea of something being able
to come up with its own ideas. He wanted something
to take orders. Right. And so you've seen how
the Husk robots have progressed throughout the
millennia, including the amount of control he
can exert over them. They kind of act as mobile
reconnaissance for him. They have camera feeds
he can probably tune into and be able to see
through that. Yep. Okay. Cool. Soup, what did
you roll? I got a six, so you can go to Lu.
What skill was that? Insight. Insight? You do
get something. Okay. You can't quite place your
finger on it, but just, again, you look at Lu,
you look at the stars, just something feels a
little off. You're not sure what. And Lu, what
was that investigation check? 14. 14. Not bad.
It's hard because of how crowded this place is
and the robots are kind of dispersed throughout
it. You're not like seeing, oh, there's a definite
like they're all going backstage at this one
part or something like that. Or there's the employee
entrance. But you are starting to nail down a
pattern. And I think if you have some more time
to study that uninterrupted, you might be able
to see specifically where they're drawing their
most attention to. Okay, great. Something with
the windows is wrong with the sky out there.
I don't know what. Looking at the sky. Oh, as
soon as Soup points it out, can the other three
go ahead and roll me insight checks? So you can
either roll insight or investigation. Lu falls
asleep. Is that a nat one, Lu? That's a nat
one. Lu's paying attention to the robots. Oh,
this might make sense. Nat 20? No, no, but a
23 insight. Okay. And I got a 27 investigation.
Oh my God. So what might be the reason why, Lu,
you just... Can't look at it because it makes
you feel sick a little bit. You two looking at
it. The inside, that's not the right random for
stars. That's somebody tried to guesstimate the
randomness, and it's a human mind interpretation
of what a star system would look like. With your
investigation, you could tell this isn't a window.
These are screens, and they're displaying just
a mockup of stars. This isn't even the system
you're in currently. You don't know of any system
that looks like this. Okay. I feel really not
good. Are you okay? Do you want to ride in my
gloop? That sounds so good. Maybe not here. Okay.
Privately? Sure. Okay. Jackson, these are screens.
It's on a loop. They're projecting a recording
of a different. System or? Recording or a generated
image. An AI generated image, maybe. Because
they're taking us away from here? Are they embarrassed
about what the normal stars look like? Real quick,
just retroactively, who rolled the... You two. Go
ahead and give me perception checks when you're
pulling into the space station. Anybody beat
a 15? 16. Okay. Both of you remember, you don't
remember seeing glass on the outside. That seems
actually like a... hazard to have on a space
station on the most external system. You remember
Cold Steel Gray with the obnoxious lights on
the outside spelling out his name. Oh, that's
right. There wouldn't be windows to look out
of normally. This seems like to just be an appearance
to make something pretty on the inside of what
normally would be a pretty bland space station.
I disagree. Not pretty. Yeah, but also would
be a good way to announce something. Oh, that's
true. Almost on cue. Oh, no. The stars wink out
of existence. And so now on the borderline of
this convention is just a blackness, a void,
and then one streak of light. Multiple coalescing.
And it almost gives you the sense that you're
rotating and spinning faster and faster. And
then, unfortunately for you all, Simon Husk IX's
face appears broadcasted multiple times
all around the convention. Soup catches the soup.
It's like glitter bombs. I'm pretty. Hello all.
Welcome to my technology convention. I'm so happy
you all could come and enjoy things created in
my name. For Simon says have a good day and have
a good invention. Anyways. You may have noticed
on your schedules that I will be announcing something
special today at 3:30. Make sure you have all
your lunches done by then. It's going to be mind
-blowing. All of you, please, after lunch hours,
do your final round of discussing with your peers
and your like-minded people. And then head to
the hangar located on the southwest, galactic
coordinates that is, hangar. for a special event.
Ta-ta! Can I do something while that's happening?
Punch the screen. Do I remember him sounding
like that? I mean, you've never met this Simon.
I know, I hate him. Can I make an insight check
to see if, I don't even know, to see if I detect
any sort of lies of where the... Oh, interesting.
Yeah, go ahead. Roll me an insight. Four. Nice.
That should do it. The only thing you could get,
and it's up to your interpretation, is that was
definitely for show. Yeah, all right. Whatever
that means, you don't know. This guy. So I guess
we should go to the southwest hangar? It seems
like our best opportunity to scout this out.
Can you all tell me what you all talk about?
Unfortunately, we weren't able to quite pick
that up. We can't hear the outside communications,
really. What just happened in there? Well, Kent,
Simon just came on the fake windows in here and
told us all that we need to finish our lunches
and head over to the southwest hangar. Okay.
For the presentation. Well, that gives us an
idea of where we need to go then. I think also,
unfortunately, that might give us a time limit.
Is there a bomb? No, I mean, if everybody's making
their way to one location, that also means all
security's heading to that one location, and
that thing might be primed for a takeoff before
we even... Yes, we're going to need to go as
soon as possible. All right, so I think you all
have until 3:30 to get inside that hangar and
get that ship. Lu, do you want to try and go
fast through the lights, and then we can catch
up? Yes, I absolutely could go before everyone
else and teleport through the light and go invisible,
I suppose, and stay in that docking area and
communicate with you all over. Yeah. I can't
be light, so I thought that would be useful.
Could this also be a time, what was it, the Hufflepuffle
Duffle situation? Duffle, Duffle, Toil, and Trouble.
That one. I don't know how that works. We all
go in bags. Except for Jack. I would have to
have a reason for going to the hangar early.
Well, so, I mean, that's not a bad option. Send
one person in as a scout, see what security's
like. The other option is take a gamble, impersonate
the pilot. He needs to do an inspection on the
ship. I think if we do the scouting, we might
have more information on the pilot. Yeah. I'm
not exactly dressed jumpsuit chic right now.
I don't know what else you have prepared. I guess
one of us, maybe it's you, Lu, to go scout some
stuff? Yeah, sure. I can give it a go. Or I can
come. No, I shouldn't go with you. So, Matt,
I'm about to ask a highly paranoid question.
So, Evan, go ahead and ask. So, Evan, go ahead
and tell us the plot. Now, Jackson, given his...
unique cybernetic situation is very concerned
about the creation of individualized faces so
one might assume that he has spent a good deal
of time studying faces and looking at them and
now having seen Simon IX in high def and
holy crap way larger than life and having spent
a week and a half with Fred let's call him... Yep.
He wouldn't bear any facial similarity between
Fred and Simon IX that one could assume
he would be Simon X and we are getting
epically catfished. Wow. Okay, go ahead and give
me... we'll say insight, investigation, or perception.
Please roll high. Would you like to use a Trick?
I am going to use a Trick yeah. Would you like
to call it? No. No. Oh, my God. No, we'd rather
get screwed over. I would like to use the Think
it Through to gain advantage on my next mental
skill check. Amazing. Okay. So all those. So
if you're going to be using insight or perception,
this is a wisdom based check. So that would be
a wisdom based saving throw. Okay. If you're
going to use investigation, it's intelligent
based check. It would be an intelligent saving
throw. I'm better off using insight. Okay. So
this is... I have to have four or higher. 15.
Woo! Advantage on this insight check, then. Great.
Come on, Evan. That is a 5 and a 19! Yeah! That's
a 23 insight. Good. 23 insight. You are exceptionally
good at observing people, recognizing their mannerisms.
It's kind of what you do. There doesn't seem
to be a familial relationship between Simon IX
and... Fred, who you think might be Simon
X. But at the same time, it's less like
a family member and more like somebody wanted
to mimic someone. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh,
no. I don't know what you're all oh no-ing.
I'm having a... A copy of a copy? No, I'm having
an Incredibles thought. I... Oh, no. One of the
pieces that I studied, there was a hero and a
young man idolized him and wanted to become his
protege and was turned down and sought the ruin
of the hero. And if our young... I'm not transmitting
this. Imagine if he was hearing the whole thing.
If our newest member of the team is in fact in
a hero worship situation with Simon IX
and wishes to prove himself to him. Does that
mean we should kill Fred? I think we are jumping
to the kill response possibly a little early.
I think we should just take anything he tells
us with a grain of salt. I think we should be
mindful of what he says to us and verify its
honesty before we act upon it. How do we do that?
Trust what we can see, not what he tells us.
Yeah, good idea. Okay. Do we need to perhaps
lay a different trail for him through the comms?
I know it will mess up Kent, but... Yeah, I think
so. We can tell him... We can tell him... This
is going to be good, whatever it is. Tell him
we're dead. Yep. We're dead. We're dead, so...
Megan, you really are really in Soup's brain
right now. I didn't think that. That thought
came from somewhere else. Oh my god. I'm so sorry.
Please, the people who are actually doing a great
job participating, please continue. I'm so sorry.
Yeah, I think we do have to send a false narrative
or down a wrong path just so we can get more
information. What's the lie and then what's the
truth? And how do we keep him thinking that we're
doing the lie as long as possible? I think maybe
we can just say that we're going to stay on the
floor. We've found some more information, but
we're going to follow it and we'll just keep
them updated. I think that's it. We're not going
to pursue that. We can't go to that. We could
say that our... Sorry, we can't hear you. How
about we save that one for a little later, but
I think it's good. Yeah, no, that's good. Jackson,
any thoughts? I like the idea of saying that
we have a possible promising lead on the floor.
Yeah, all right. And then I go in anyway. Yeah,
say we're all going to stay on the floor. Yeah,
we'll do that. All right, but do we think that
Fred has any feed that he can get into to see
us? Well, there are robots around, so if he can
see what the robots can see, then yes. So you
going invisible may be the only option. But he'll
be able to see that I'm not with you. Oh, he
can hack. That's okay. He knows that you were...
He can't see you. Oh, she went... Lu went invisible.
Okay, so Lu went invisible to check out the
thing on the floor? Yeah, I think so. So, all
right, we're going to have to have more specifics,
I think. We can say that the guy who wanted you
to make brownies is suspicious and you can try
to go find him. We could say that there's one
person that keeps coming to talk up to me and
you're going to go invisible to sneak off and
explore his booth on the floor. We can't say
anything that isn't true because if he does have
a feed and can see us and he sees that there
isn't one person that keeps coming to talk to
you. Okay, I'm understanding. Okay. But it could
be that person. We could have a reason to check
them out. Or the Box Station group that you got
all the pens from. They were very good pens.
It's suspicious. Have we been generating a bit
of buzz with Fuzz? After that first inventor
came and looked at it, there has been some conversation.
Some other people have come to look by it. But
nobody's actually come and talked to you. It
seems like they're respecting the fact that
Fuzz is an intelligent being and is having a
conversation with parents, inventors, colleagues.
Hard to say whether it would be at that point.
But they're just kind of observing. You notice
just passively people are whispering about Fuzz.
If we are trying to move through this and...
Covering as much area as possible, given this
is multiple city blocks, we can't do it with
Fuzz, because if we aren't talking to him, he's
going to generate conversation. So you're going
to need to break off from the team to get eyes
on as much as you can, invisibly. Okay, that
makes sense. And then it doesn't have to be something
specific. That's a very good idea. All right.
You want to tell them the plan? Ken. Yes. What
is it, Jackson? Everything okay? We're noticing
a bit of a hitch in our giddy up here with having
the Lieutenant be our talking point. If we're
not actively engaged in conversation, he's getting
some attention. So we need to get Lu moving
around so we can get better eyes on the situation.
So she's going to vanish for just a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, look, I trust you all. You know
what you're doing, but I appreciate you keeping
me up to date. Yeah, just remember... Sounds
like we're on a bit of a time crunch, so hopefully
you all find some way to get in there. Divide
and conquer. Divide and conquer. All right, I'm
going to go down the hall to the southwest hangar.
Code words. We've got Box Station. And did we
catch the gentleman's name? No, so it's going
to be... Laverne. Laverne the inventor. I caught
it. I'm perceptive. Oh, all right. So if I say...
It's Box Station. That means the pilot is there
already. If I say it's Laverne the inventor,
then the pilot is not there, and we can just
get on the ship. All right. Great. And I'll say
it through to Kent and Fred. Cool. I didn't say
that part to Kent and Fred. I'm letting them
know the code so that when I say the code to
the others, the others won't know. We will. My
God, we're clever. Oh, my God. This is so confusing.
Okay. All right. I hope it's okay. Just to keep
things going at a faster pace here, we're going
to sum this up with a couple of rolls. Great.
Okay. So from the three manning the floor, you're
going to need two group... We'll say one's a performance
check and the other one's a deception check.
The performance check is how much attention you
are able to keep up on the floor, keep up the
conversation, how well Fuzz is doing. The deception
is... how convincing you are if Kessel, I'm almost
using his code name now, Kessel and Fred communicate
with you all on what's the status, is Lou finding
anything, and things like that. So go ahead and
make those two rolls for me, both of you. We
all make them? It's going to be a combined group.
Okay. Yes. Lu, you're not part of this. Lu,
you're going to be making me a stealth check,
a sleight of hand check, and a perception check.
And I get advantage on the stealth because it's
bright light? Yes, everything's brightly lit
here, so you are using that to your advantage.
We will have a cool action montage for you. Can
I use Think It Through to gain advantage on the
first check? Absolutely, yes. Please use any
Tricks of the Trade for any of these rolls as
you see fit. Yep, got that. That was a 13, so
I got that, so I have advantage on this. Can
I use Thieves Can on my stealth check? Yeah.
Why don't you describe what Thieves' Can is?
So does that mean you failed a check that you
were proficient in? I think so. I rolled a six
on both die. For the stealth check? For the stealth,
yep. And I have a plus seven, so it was only
a 13. That would have failed. So yes, you need
to be a DC 10 dexterity saving throw. 11 on the
die. Go ahead and give me a reroll. You had
advantage on the initial roll. You get to make
this reroll. The stealth is 21. Sleight of hand
and perception. Go in whatever order you prefer.
16 on perception. Slide of hand is 14. Real quick
on the convention floor group. How did we do
on those group checks? Performance? Performance
was... 13. Okay. Let's go down the road on the
performance. I got a 16 on performance. Okay.
Soup? Two. Two. Okay. Let's go ahead and go for
then the deception. 28. Wow. 19. 19. 13. 13.
What I would say is Soup just makes things a
bit of awkward like conversation. I don't understand
how. But in general, you're keeping, you're not
drawing overly too much attention to yourselves
where if you do need to get away people aren't going
to be hounding you and on the reverse you are
though generating enough where to the people
listening in on you you're you're keeping up
appearances that you're trying to figure out
what's going on from the convention floor. All
right good job there. As for you now that you're
getting closer and actually heading towards the
target you do see this is where there seems to
be more and more security as you're sneaking
through utilizing the skills at hand being able
to teleport behind bots as they're doing their
patrol routes, being able to just stand still
and go invisible as they pass on by. You get
through no problem. So it takes you a little
bit longer than you would have liked to get through
the door, and looking at it, you're a little
bit worried. You have a choice here. There is
a ventilation system. You could try to do your
old trick of going through in that way, or would
you like to spend a little extra time just trying
to get through the door here? I'll spend some
extra time and just try to go through the door.
Okay. Go ahead and give me a luck check. Lucky,
lucky, lucky, lucky. 14? 14. Lucky. Yeah, you
beat the 10. Okay. Luckily, it seems like no
robots were going or coming from the hangar door
that you're trying to get into at this time.
You're finally able to get through the lock,
and you enter the hangar. This, you can tell,
is being set up for a grand show at 3:30. There
are bots moving in multiple seats. There's doing
like the attendance, like the old high school
auditorium, like seating. They're bringing in
extra chairs for everybody to be able to sit
down. And in the middle of it all is a ship.
Currently looks to be powered down. You see a
lot of traffic around it. You don't, with that
perception check, see anybody going in or out
of it at this time. If you'd like to continue
to go deeper, you can try to get on board the
ship and see what the situation's like. I would
like to try. And you get to keep that 21 stealth
check. So as you go through, you get closer to
the ship. What you do realize is, fortunately
or unfortunately, what Fred had said earlier
seems about right. You're not unfamiliar with
this design. This is like the old shuttles that
they used to use for small business teams and
things like that to go to different conferences
on different planets within a system. This is
something that was originally built for interplanetary
system travel. You kind of get the idea they're
trying to make a statement of with this new technology,
we can even power up the old technology and make
it something fantastic. But because of that,
you're also familiar where everything is on this.
So it's easy enough to find the hatch. It's unlocked.
You make your way inside. Nobody's on board.
Okay. I am going to back out of the ship. And
then get to a brightly lit corner of the room
and get on the comms and say, Everyone, I was
able to listen in on the floor. And it is Laverne,
the inventor, who seems to be a little too interested
over here. So we're just going to have to keep
Fuzz safe from them. Understood. All right. Hopefully
they shouldn't know much about y'all. I was
hoping it's been long enough that Simon wouldn't
really be thinking about Fuzz. I think it actually
might be that they're interested in stealing
Fuzz. Kidnapping fuzz. That complicates things.
All right, yeah, just be careful out there. We
will. Okay. All right. Easily done. You can inform
them of everything you found. I'd say it's about...
Everybody's about to break for lunch. It's 11:30.
We've got to get on that ship, right? Yeah. We've
got to just go and do it. All right. Right? We
need to figure out the best way in. Jackson?
Hi there. Hi. You look concerned about something.
I am six feet tall and am always six feet tall.
I cannot go invisible. I cannot squeeze through
small spaces. And I'm very good at talking people
into things, not security bots. You might say
I'm concerned on how I'm going to contribute
to this. Yeah, that makes sense. What if you
went back to the other ship and helped Kent take
care of Fred? It's an option. It is. And then
we can try to get in, and then if we are still
worried about Fred, then... We can tie him up
and put him in a closet. Yeah. Oh, right. We
could do that first. But yeah, no, we could do
that. I think that would work if you're comfortable
with that. I mean... How will you get back to
the ship? I don't believe our hangar is under
any kind of security because it's the parking
lot. Okay. I will go with you both to protect
you. We could also swing around and you could
hop on as soon as we get it. Too, right? But
they might be chasing us. Oh, true. I mean, to
be honest, I don't know how we're going to get
all of us in there, period. Even the three of
us. That's a good point. But we can go and look.
Everyone's looking at Fuzz right now anyway.
As soon as we march him off the floor and down
a corridor. So maybe I come with you, Jackson.
And then you and I try to get on the ship? That
might be the best plan. Lu, you are a trained
pilot, yes? Yes. I think that might be the best
idea. Okay. And, Lieutenant, I don't mean to
besmirch your dignity, but this might be a fantastic
time for a minor catastrophic system failure.
Oh, sure. Yeah, I can do that. Do you want to
punch me? No, I have an idea. Soup, you go hard.
You go hard very fast. Thank you. It's beautiful.
Thank you. So what I'm going to do, I'm going
to say, are we all ready? Should I do it now?
Yes. And then should we back away? Yeah, you
two back away. We're backing away. I believe
this is a dual purpose. This is our exit ticket,
and we're activating a Ms. Bugs Bunny. Okay.
Exactly. This has a name? Yes, it does have a
name. All right. We were ready for this. It's
all according to plan. I need to emphasize to
the audience, they didn't know what was happening.
I don't know how they have named plans for this.
Oh, and when you figured it out, that's Miss
Bugs Duck. And we knew that you were going to
figure out and be upset about our plan names.
So that's a different one entirely. I'm going
to punch myself in the chest. And my heart and
the chest is going to light up a little bit.
And Fuzz is going to start swearing. All the
expletives, except what's coming out is just
my programmed, all my programmed things. So you're
hearing. So I would say, start saying something
like, fuck, shit balls, cunt, motherfucker. And
everything that's coming out is SPARKLE. FUN.
TIME TO LAUNCH OUR HELPING HOOF. Beautiful.
Yeah, Jackson, your invention is just having
a sparkly tirade in the middle of the convention
floor. Nothing to worry about. There's just seems
there is a bit of a cross with the verbal logic
circuits here. And oh, wow. Oh, that's. That
is colorful. Colorful like a unicorn rainbow.
And I have to come on, Lieutenant, Lieutenant,
Lieutenant. I am going to pick up the Lieutenant,
cradle him, embarrassed, and start running out
to the... to the ship. Sounds great. Go ahead. Give
me a. deception check at advantage you basically
are getting the help action from the colorful
language coming out of Fuzz. 27. 27, my gosh. Yeah
i lie professionally. You sell it completely uh
and then you two, I'm gonna need individual stealth
checks you both have advantage given the nice
sudden chaos erupting on the convention floor
that's drawing not only the people attending,
security forces also are a little curious, making
sure everything's okay. You mean the Ms. Bugs
Bunny? Is this how it works? Yeah. Okay. Well,
it's working. How do those stealth checks do?
That's a twisted 20. Oh, nice. Just a 17 here.
17. Okay. Twisted 17. Those are great rolls,
though. And, Lu, you already kind of know the
way to the hangar. You already left the door
open, so you don't have to worry about making
another lockpicking check. So you're able to
slip by. Like I said. There's a lot of forces
in the hangar, but everything that was normally
patrolling has been brought to the convention
floor, given the tirade and the fact that everybody's
breaking for lunch. So it seems they're concentrating
those two separate areas. The path in between,
relatively easy to get through. I'll say that
Soup is small, so sneaking through tiny. Okay.
Much smaller profile for people to potentially
see you. It's like you left it. Ship in the middle.
More seats are being brought in. You see the
bots are working a little bit faster since maybe
they were behind schedule a little bit getting
ready for lunch. Typical Husk incompetence. But
you can make your way onto the ship if you'd
like. Yes. Yes. Lu will have Soup on their shoulder.
Okay. That's so cute. I'm sorry. Just a little
goopy thing on top of a brilliant. galaxy-esque-
So it's a light soup. Oh. Yeah, yeah. Just a light-
Some might call me broth when I'm in this form
and then just double checking so Jackson and
Fuzz headed directly back to your ship? Yes.
What's exactly your plan when you get there? Is
it going to be a hard confrontation and accusation
on- Plan? You're adorable. I think it's going
to be a let's try a rearming montage If you can,
distract Fred, and I'm going to have words with
Kessel. Okay. Good to know. And then you two,
Lu and Soup, what is your plan? Is it get on
the ship, just take off right away? Figure out
how to take off. We're going to try and start
that thing and get going. Okay. Soup is going
to stay closer to the entrance, so that way,
just in case people try to board, Soup can fight
them off while Lu figures out how to take off.
Got it. One might say, bowl them over? Yes! Oh
my gosh. Soup bowl! The problem with a well laid
plan is that sometimes things go awry. And sometimes
people have more information than you do. As
Lu and Soup get onto the ship, it's no longer
empty. And they're met by two barrels pointed
directly at them. And as to, freeze please, Jackson
and Fuzz. You're met with a similar scene when
you return to your ship. Except yours feels a
little bit more personally. Because it's not
a freeze, please, that greets you. Kessel looks
directly at Jackson and Fuzz. No! Puts a finger
to his ear so he's broadcasting now. So that
all four of you can hear him. Kids, I'm sorry.
Now's not the time for fighting. I did get you
a fighting chance, I promise. That was the least
I could do. And we're going to end this episode.
No, but we figured it out. You're nefarious plans,
you fart. Yeah. I just wrote Fred's a little
bitch. Oh, my gosh. Anyway, sorry. We'll catch
you all next episode of Grand Theft Galactic.
Oh, man. Is Kessel truly a turncoat? Can the
heroes still escape capture? Will the group be
reunited? Maybe I'll tell you next time on Grand
Theft Galactic. Thank you for listening to Grand
Theft Galactic with Daniel Begin as Lieutenant
Fuzz Sparkleday, Evan Kelly as Jackson, Bo Powell
as Lumen, Megan Roy as Soup, and Matts the Last
as the Game Master. Produced by Evan Kelly. Trope
Warden, Evan Kelly. Bo here. Thanks for listening.
Bo here. Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying what you're hearing
consider supporting us on Patreon, where we release episodes
early. And you'll get access to our post-show
cast discussions, Twisted Talks, our Discord
community, and more.