S1E10 Escaping the Grave of Truth

In this episode, our unflappable crew must choose between treasure and heroism, and their choice will surprise you. Several people drink dark truths from a firehose. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It's March already?

SPEAKER_05 0:02

Yep. Today's March first. Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Also, we've been behind on grading.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

We started this um in at the end of November, I think.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Did we?

SPEAKER_02 0:19

I mean we at least were doing auditions at the end of November.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Oh yeah, we were doing auditions back then because No, wasn't it October?

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Did we do a Halloween thing? I think we did, didn't we? Yeah, I think Bree's right. Fuck.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Well, I want to say, honestly, uh the fact that we got we're about to have a whole season recorded. Um I mean, it's because of you guys and let's be honest, Salot Z, uh, unfortunately, that this, you know, we that that we moved this project to the point where like it's about to be a thing that we're gonna be able to share with other people. And that is incredible, and I'm super fucking grateful to have gotten to work with you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

You know, for something that had the content of a compliment that sounded an awful lot like a complaint. Hey fans, this is part two of the season one finale. So we're gonna skip the usual introductions and get right to the action.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Kill the shit. Yeah, uh, working on it, bud.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

We'll get there real soon. Uh, and uh Tegan's kinda try to get a little further away from this thing, and I wanna like bound up one of these broken stacks and try to get a sight line to shoot at the top of this spidery crab demon colossus thing.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

So I'm gonna bound up and uh use my ranger's focus, which I've uh already got, so it's still my focus, and I want to take a pop shot at anything I can see on top of the dice that looks critical or uh I didn't really get a good look at the top of this thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Okay. So if you want to just move one close up, that'll be fine. I you can just do the attack, but if you want to get higher than that, I'll need an agility challenge roll.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Uh I'm just gonna get the one up right now.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Uh so you look at the top of this thing, um, circular, with the uh six like stacks coming out of it uh equidistantly spaced apart. The whole thing has a radius of close uh around, and it's got six little nubs wiggling off the side of it trying to scoot around.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Okay, yeah, I bound up there and I just start to uh shoot down at the joints and where they're connected. Alright, give me a roll.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Ooh, it's a 14 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

14 with hope. Uh so get that hope.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

I need it.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

You will see when you shoot at the uh dice proper that your bullets, as they approach, decelerate until they just gently lay on the surface of the creature.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Oh okay. Well that's not cool. Hate it. So I take it I don't get a damage roll.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

You sure don't. I mean you can roll one if you want. But yeah. If you want to see what it could have been.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Uh so um that's oh man.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

You did succeed with hope if somebody wants to follow that up. Yeah, somebody can follow that up.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

Uh, given that the the bells have all been blown out, can I now shout enough to make a spell cast roll?

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

And I will definitely shout out to the rest of the group that it's got some sort of like deceleration field and my bullets just aren't hitting. So that way everyone else knows that hey, range attacks probably aren't gonna be that good right now.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Yeah. Glitch at this point isn't even reaching for plasma spanner, she's just extending both palms out. You'll see them start to glow purple as she channels her essentia and attempts to unleash chaos on the beast.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Okay. And uh how far are you from it?

SPEAKER_04 4:49

Well, she's tried to scuttle backwards, so whatever she can do without rolling an agility roll to get farther.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

So you're about close range right now.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Okay. I was close, yeah. That is an 18. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

So you will go to uh with fear, uh, double nice. So um actually, that's fantastic. Um so you go to blast this thing, and as your magic connects, you will see that a channel, a back channel, will form across the street where you blasted your magic out to hit the creature. And uh, I'm gonna spend that fear now. I need you to make me an instinct reaction roll.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

An eight.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

An eight. Can we get a memory or a secret associated with one of your experiences?

SPEAKER_04 5:45

Yes. Uh Glitch's memories being relatively uh uh amnesiac are very broken. So it's like watching an old video that Fidelity is run out on, uh something where the memory itself is compromised, but it's there, and you're in a laboratory and there's strange purple glowing tanks everywhere, and uh an individual you can't see their face with tech much like glitch's running down their arms, is laying there on the table, and you see glitch pull a tube out of one of the glowing purple tanks that has been going into this person's arm and plugs it into her own tank and the purple glowing Essentia begins to blood into her own arm as she steals it from one of her companions.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Alright. The experience associated with this cannot be used currently, and you're going to take five direct magic or sorry, four direct magic damage.

SPEAKER_04 6:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

And also the uh attack does no damage.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Okay. Oh man. Uh Tabitha or Qualo? On the Deus, are there control interfaces?

SPEAKER_02 7:10

It does look like between each of the six stacks there are uh little raised uh it almost looks like a a small desk. The only person who's been up there is Tabitha, uh, but she would have seen that yes, it does look like there's some kind of control interface on those little desks. Oh. Okay, well I I run up there and sit down at the desk. Okay. There is no place to sit, but you can run up to one of those desks. What are you gonna do while you're there? Um what kind of interface is it? Buttons, screens? It doesn't look like anything you've ever seen before. Uh it is like a touch interface with weird not symbols exactly, but like a layout that might guide where you would touch. But it isn't clear what any of that would do when you don't see any writing or what you can discern as writing.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Okay. Do the symbols match anything in the stack columns or on the carapace? Um, like the in like the UI, the user interface. Um, yeah, sure. Alright. Uh I'm gonna hit a pattern that looks like it matches uh so um I'm sorry, was it on the carapace or on the stacks uh with the scrolls? On the stacks. Okay. So I'm gonna look for a a nearby stack that's still standing and see if it has, you know, like essentially something like an ID number or like a call number, and I'm gonna press that number into the symbols at the desk.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Give me a knowledge roll with disadvantage.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Oh, fun. Um did Curiosity kill the cat? Yeah, it did. Alright. Let's see if I will be satisfied when I roll. A 24 with hope, baby. Nice! Woo!

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Qualo has completely forgotten that he's in a fight.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Okay, you roll me a D4. A two. Okay, you deal two stress to this, and then um you will have a very brief fever dream. You will know in the span of that dream that you are witnessing a secret that was meant to be kept potentially forever, that no one was supposed to witness. And it is just awe-striking. Like if if the truth of this were to get out, it would change uh the entire Empyrean. But when you come to, exactly like a fading dream, within moments it begins to slip into the back of your mind. And you will put on your character sheet that you have a hush secret. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

A hush secret.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

And that will one day, sooner rather than later, come back to haunt you, probably. Very nice.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Um, yeah. Hey gang. I think Yeah. I think if we put in these codes, it'll it'll eventually shut it down.

SPEAKER_05 10:09

I'm in favor of trying to shut it down with codes instead of smacking it.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Tegan looks at you with uh the dumb look in his eyes of a not a well-educated man.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Also, as I say this, you can tell that my eyes had like rolled into the back of my head and like a little bit of froth came out of my mouth. Uh and I kind of like like I had a little bit of a seizure and I came back. This is why I don't learn none.

SPEAKER_05 10:31

I just assumed that the same thing happened to him that happened to me. I'm like, I get it.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Tegan liked to go up on uh and like bound on top of that thing past its like twitching legs. Uh and now that I'm close, I just want to like basically point blank into one of these like nodes and just start racking the lever on the thing and just dumping rounds into it. Alright, give me the roll. Book learning for nerds. Uh that's how I feel about books.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

How dare you tell me to read?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Nobody makes me read my own words. That is a critical success. That is two sixes. Alright, yeah, give me the damage. Okay, so I'm gonna get a hope back from that. And uh let's see here. I am additionally spending another stress to up my proficiency on that. Uh 2d8 is uh 16 plus 12, 28 plus 2, 30, 30 damage? Uh right in one of these. Uh and if it does severe damage, it does two stress, but it does do one extra stress.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Alright. Uh, so you blast this thing, and both sparks and goo are going to go everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Just getting spattered by it.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Yep, I'm about to spend a bunch of fear. Oh! Oh! I know you crit spend a fear to steal the pot like uh spotlight. Oh, that's so good though. Uh you did. You're really good, which is why I want to have this thing get off a few more licks before you finish it off. So uh it's learn it it's knowledge is in my mouth.

SPEAKER_06 12:19

Uh it sure is.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Can you give me an instinct reaction role, Tegan? Uh I can. Uh and I will. And I'm trying to see if there's anything I can do to make this better. Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Uh if you have anything about having your secrets extracted.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Oh, no, I don't.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Uh he's a taciturn.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

I'll call you a liar if you said you did. Taciturn? Yeah. That's a 14. Uh, weak. Okay. Oh, awesome. You say that's just resist. Uh, and then I'm going to spend yet another fear, and I need a strength reaction roll from Tegan and Qualo.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

My memories are mine, but maybe my footing's not. Is this uh anything? Steady footing, yeah. Steady footing.

SPEAKER_06 13:07

It's trying to throw you off.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Okay. And uh I'm gonna use that. Thank you, uh, Ridgeborn community for giving me advantage on this role. It didn't help any. That's an 11.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Okay, and then what did you make, Wallow?

SPEAKER_00 13:21

13. 13. Nice. Hold on. This thing Hold on. I can end my Ranger's focus to re-roll my duality dice. I'm gonna do that. Okay. So I uh am no longer focused, but I am going to re-roll that.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

16 that time. Okay. So uh Tegan, you will only take a stress as you ride this bucking Bronco. Yes! Uh Wallow, uh, as you're still writhing in ecstasy, you are tossed and you slam into a stack of the like um scrolls, and you will mark one HP.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Hmm. Secret.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Secret. Uh Glitch, you've been pretty quiet uh after you've been siphoned, but this sort of stuff seems like you're jammed. You want to do anything now that you see it's you know bucking and you have learned that maybe the secret extraction works both ways?

SPEAKER_04 14:25

Yes, I do. I uh I want to first attempt to move backwards again into far range, and in necessary, I can spend a hope to allow myself to walk on walls in order to get far enough away and high enough up to see what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Okay. Uh yeah, spend the hope to move uh vertically, but yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

And then I am going to once again attempt a spell cast roll against it. Tell mom mama.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

And is this channeling chaos?

SPEAKER_04 14:57

Yes. 12. And so I am going to spend a stress to add two to that.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Turn it to 14. Mm-hmm. Oh, Glitch, I love you so much. Uh, can you can you give me an instinct reaction roll? Uh shite. Well, you hit.

unknown 15:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Unfortunately. 18. Ah, okay. So you go to blast this thing, and again, it it tries to back channel but you you know, see it coming this time and resist. You are locked in a in a mental stalemate with the Central Dais. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Did it do any damage this time?

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Nope, no damage. It's almost like it's immune from damage greater than a certain distance.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yeah, I'm like, you gotta get on top of it! Yep. So Close up damage, you say. I I I wish I had like a melee weapon or something. All I have is a gun that I'm just shooting at my own feet.

SPEAKER_06 16:02

I'm like, ah okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

And that was a roll with fear. So, Tegan, could you give me another instinct reaction roll?

SPEAKER_03 16:12

Oh, I can. Want to, though. Oh no, that's an 11.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Okay, can you give us a secret associated with one of your experiences?

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Oh. Um, yeah, so uh we'll do it off my Campfire Cowboy experience. So this is kind of uh a multiple kind of flashbacks as he's learning all of these uh different skills that go along with this trade. But the th the central figure that keeps happening is you know, you you see him learning how to rope and you see him learn how to ride and how to you know start a fire out in the the hinterlands and uh all this. But there's always this uh boy that's with him as he's growing. Uh and his name's uh Hamish, and he's always kind of sharing like a uh you know small smiles and you know little looks as they're like learning this stuff together. Uh Tegan's obviously trying to do the best he can to impress this uh this elven boy. Did you cut out? No, no, I stopped. I thought that was enough, but uh, apparently it's not so I'll just keep talking, you know.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

No, no, no, you're good, you're good. You're good, you're good. Uh no, uh, as you feel that memory extracted from your mind, you will take seven damage, and you cannot use that experience.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Oh two hit points. I don't like that at all. Yeah. Uh you have uh blood that comes out of your ears. Oh no! Because that's where the secrets are stored. Um Hey Tabitha, what are you doing? I'm still wondering if the goo coming out of the legs is edible.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Take that memory. Do you want to act on that? Or do you or is someone want to act? This thing is just bleeding you guys dry, and it's happy to do so.

SPEAKER_05 18:10

Is it still thrashing? Like his legs?

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

Well, what about the legs that we chopped off? Like, are they just laying there, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:20

Can I take out some Tupperware from my like my nomads pack?

SPEAKER_03 18:27

Okay, and then gather up some of this muscle.

SPEAKER_05 18:31

I want to gather up some of this muscle goo for later.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Okay, so since it's actively thrashing, I'm gonna have that be a roll.

SPEAKER_05 18:39

No, one of the legs that we chop on.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, okay. Well, that's not gonna be an action. Does somebody want to do something with the necromancing?

SPEAKER_00 18:47

I'll have it fucking tuning. I'll keep shooting it with like nodes and trying to kill this thing.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Shoot at the nodes.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

I I I admire her get down. I I stand up and I'm like, I look at her, like I mean, look completely ignoring the combat. And I'm just like when I'm hungry too, I know.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Um I'm gonna go ahead and spend a hope and see if I can't refocus on this thing. Uh, but I do have six seeds, so uh, we'll see how this goes first. Oh my god, that's a five with hope. So well, you get the hope. I'm glad. Uh I need that hope. Yeah. Can I get a strength reaction roll? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's about time for one of those, isn't it? Uh is it trying to buck me off again? It is. Good thing I'm just so steady, so I'm uh get that uh advantage. 17 that time. Alright. So that would that went a bit better.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

You will take uh a stress, and then uh I'm going to spend another fear for it to thrash. I need agility challenge rolls from everyone. As it's going to try to knock down more shelves on top of you.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

You said uh agility from everyone?

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Uh except for Glitch, who uh moved really far away from this thing. But so the you three will need to give me uh agility reaction rolls.

SPEAKER_05 20:18

14.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Uh now that I'm like on now that I'm on top of it, would it be fair to say that I'm riding it?

SPEAKER_03 20:25

Yes, it would be.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Ooh, I'm gonna use my if it runs rolls or flies experience. Uh for this uh buck and spider bronco.

SPEAKER_04 20:36

This feels like the most appropriate use of this experience you will ever have.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Uh so one of our show's fans has pointed out that his favorite part of the show has been hearing how you use that experience, Tegan.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Uh unfortunate wait, hold on. I only rolled a 10. Uh however, I've got a human ability that is adaptable. If I fail a roll that utilizes one of my experiences, I can mark a stress to re-roll. I'm gonna do that, although I am dangerous for running low on stress.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Come on. Nope, that's uh an 11. Yeah, I I literally got one better.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Okay, uh Tabitha, you will take three damage, uh Qualo and Tegan, you will take six. Six damage, I will spend an armor slot. As you get deluged with knowledge.

unknown 21:35

Oh!

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Stop it! I didn't want to do no book learning. That's what you think reading is, is getting hit with books?

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Uh, Qualo, I assume you're gonna try to get at least one more secret out of this thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah, I'm gonna uh scramble back on top of it. Find uh desk drink a health potion because I am not doing well.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

That's a good idea. Do I have one of those?

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Gain two hit points back, which is better than losing two hit points, I'll say that much. Uh and then I'll make what was it, a knowledge roll and analyze it?

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Uh yes, and it will not be a disadvantage this time. Sweet Since you have figured it out.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Yeah, um, I will continue to be cu a curious cat that is ever more satisfied. Nineteen with fear.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

Nineteen with fear. Uh cool. So you guys are gonna do this to each other. Okay. Can I get an instinct reaction roll from you?

SPEAKER_03 22:56

Twelve. Twelve.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Okay, so um you will feel uh can you give me a memory associated with one of your experiences?

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Let's see. Um so growing up communally, you know, he didn't have any individual parent fingers, uh parent figures. Uh he had lots of parent fingers, but no figures in the commune. Uh so you know, whatever happened, just whatever adult was nearby would punish or praise whatever children were nearby as appropriate. And so very early on, Kualo figured out which of the parents were tolerant of mischief and would praise him, even if he did something wrong. And so he just kind of always hung out with them. That's what fueled his propensity to just ignore any signs of trouble or any warnings or any body language or tones that would suggest that you ought not to open that box or go through that door or ask that question. Uh, and because of the parents that he hung out with, he was always just sort of routinely praised for it. Or, you know, it was one of those things where they'd punish him and put him in time out, but while he was there, they'd come by and give him a sweet treat and a smile and make him feel better for it.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Okay. So that memory becomes overlaid with a memory of a politician from a major world being assassinated and then replaced with a doppelganger. And so you're a kid doing mischief where while in the background, uh, yes, this emperor is killed and then replaced with a look-alike. And the sort of like weird mix of these like memories together uh is going to cause you six direct magic damage. Uh and then can I get a d4 roll from you? Do I know which world? Um it it fades from your memory, um, but it it is in the back of your mind. And you think that when you have some time outside of this combat to to reflect that you can probably piece it together.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

And it's it's a d4, not a d6, because I'm smarter and better at it this time. What do you guys think? Should be a d6? Absolutely. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

D6 sounds great. Do that. Alright. That sounds better for us and worse for the GM. Hopefully. Maybe it won't be. Six, baby!

SPEAKER_03 25:28

Woo! Oh.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Does he lose six of his fingers?

SPEAKER_02 25:32

His parent fingers? His parent fingers, yeah. Uh, so you are uh again, uh like mid-extracting secrets from this thing. And then that one secret comes, and then you feel like a cork on cork in your mind. And you're that uh gif of the dog drinking from the hose. War garble? Yeah. And uh you just blasted with information, more uh information than could fit uh in a million minds. Like so much more than you could ever retain or hope to retain. You briefly completely lose the sense of yourself uh as you uh live many lives, learn unspeakable truths that if you ever did remember would completely shatter you, and you will blissfully forget the amount of knowledge that washes through Koalo is uh uh literally visible from outside of you. Everyone who's uh off this creature can see that like Koalo's hands are on the dais, and there is light, like his head is glowing, and the stacks that are on the back of this creature all begin to uh vibrate and symbols start to come off of them, and then those symbols like get large and start to blast around. And in this shrapnel of light and information that's literally shooting out of this, uh, you all will get caught in this blast as these stacks violently purge everything inside of them. And while Koala will face the brunt of it, each of you will just get completely doused uh in this knowledge radiation. Uh and like these symbols when they're remember kids, stay out of school. Uh of the Clauses of the Crux podcast. Um books, they're addictive. Don't not even one.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

See brave, Satan of the learning.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Uh yes, as uh everywhere one of these symbols hits you leaves a uh like sunburned imprint uh and then imparts some shred, some fraction of a secret to you.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

No fractions over decimal points, I don't want it.

unknown 28:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

So on each of your character sheets, uh, can you put uh knowledge radiation on your sheet?

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Knowledge radiation? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Alright, that's going in the journal, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

And if you ever roll double ones, uh this will come out. Okay. And then Qualo, you will immediately fall unconscious. You drop to the ground, uh, you're frothing at the mouth, you have no sense of yourself, and we'll have to figure out how to put that on your character sheet. Uh but yeah, uh so after this thing uh explodes, this uh knowledge radiation blasting off is going to start hitting the stacks, which will uh themselves begin to start spitting radiation and vibrating, and then you can feel that this entire place is starting to rumble. Oh, we got to get the hell out of here. Yeah, Koalo is super dupes unconscious.

SPEAKER_05 29:02

You know, I I've I've safely tucked in my uh Colossus Meat goop into my uh pack, and then I pick up Qualo. I'm all like, everybody, let's get out of here.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Um tell me twice. If I only have my scooter, I could go faster. Alright, I need uh checks from you all. I need uh four successes inside six rolls to make it out of here safely. So how do you all escape? Paint the paint the train. Raw strength. Yeah, just describe it for me and then you gotta give me a check.

SPEAKER_05 29:41

Okay, just leaping, running, bounding over things and obstacles while carrying uh quallo in one arm.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Okay, give me that roll.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

An eight with hope.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Okay, get the hope. So he is acting as an impediment. Like he's he's not very heavy, but he's very gangly, and you're trying not to let his like head wobble too much because he's like full ragdoll.

SPEAKER_05 30:10

And so he's a lanky guy.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Yeah, he's legitimately slowing you down. Uh Glitch, you've uh you've already spent the hope so you could move vertically. Uh so I'm gonna give you advantage uh if you can tie that into how you help the gang escape.

SPEAKER_04 30:26

Absolutely. She is completely focused in on navigating the best path through the rubble, be it uh running up and down walls uh and dodging the path as she makes her way towards the exit. Just turns, looks over her shoulder and says, Follow my path exactly.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Okay. Uh I believe that would be agility.

SPEAKER_04 30:56

Uh I was gonna go with instinct since it's navigation. Okay, oh yep, yep, yep, yep. That sounds good. But uh okay instinct's good. That is a 14 with hope.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Alright, you uh you succeed. Fantastic. Uh boop, boop.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Spotlight you guys.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Tegan.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

I am gonna try to uh as I'm like diligently falling behind, glitch, and I feel like I'm pulling up the rear. Tabitha's got Kualo. Uh I'm gonna try to get on the comms and get Josephine to get the rising close by. Okay. Josephine, we need to we're this whole place falling apart. We need you come in here and like open up the rear hatch. Uh, we're gonna have a couple of extra scientists come on board, but uh the the thing that hurt that was frightening the ship is dead or whatever it is, we we need you to come on over. Uh and I'm gonna try to convince her.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

Yeah. Presence roll. Presence roll. 17 with hope!

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Oh seventeen with hope. Okay, so uh you get out the comms and it is really static y.

SPEAKER_06 32:06

Tegan.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah, Josephine. I uh there's no place coming down. We need you to come in. Bring bring the rising in close. Open up the rear hatch. Over.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Uh Tegan. Um I I I'll try, but the ship's the ship's been overrun.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Overrun? With who?

SPEAKER_02 32:27

They say they're scientists.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Don't let them have access to anything vital. Tell Slim Jimmy to get them stew! Uh, okay, cool. Tabitha, back up to you. Oh man. Hey, uh, Qualo, these aren't like your best friends, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Uh actually, so can I make a roll? Because I haven't uh an option. You are unconscious. I know. Oh yeah. So let me pitch one to you, and then you can just tell me no. Um my scientist buddy, uh, Phalanges, you hear him come through my comms, right? Which are uh in my jewelry, and so Tabata would hear this, and he's like, Hey, hey Qualo, the other scientists here want to take off, but but you know, you and I are buddies, and um there's a shortcut that'll save you some time. Maybe you can get back to the ship before they figure out a way to override your commands. And uh I can roll a presence roll to cause that's uh that makes sense, or maybe instinct to see if they see the shortcut? Uh no, it's two presents. Okay with fear. Oof.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Well, tried guys. So uh you hear phalanges come over the the comm and and uh say this idea, and then you hear a voice that sounds like uh slightly quieter. Philages, are are you helping them?

SPEAKER_01 33:48

And then you hear like Yeah, and his chunks his instructions were a little garbled, so we we couldn't figure out what the uh the shortcut was.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

Yeah, and so you guys have to succeed on these next two rolls, or something very bad is going to happen.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Yeah. Uh I've got an idea for the last one. Uh, if somebody wants to do the one in between.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

So you guys, I'll say you're now on the catwalk, and uh the stacks are exploding in waves of light. You can hear voices talking, you can see images being projected as all of these secrets are just being like cast out into reality. Uh just keep going. Okay. Uh, you want to give me an agility challenge roll this time to parkour? Parkour parkour?

SPEAKER_03 34:38

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 34:43

Come on. You know what? No, no. I am going to use my feline instincts to re-roll that agility roll.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

What was it before you re-roll it for the uh listeners?

SPEAKER_05 34:57

It was an eight with fear.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

If ever you were gonna re-roll a roll. Eight is the new 22.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

For real. Like what's happening? Oh damn it!

SPEAKER_05 35:12

Oh my god. It's a four with that kitty.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Well, you get a hope. Oh.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

This is awful.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

What is it not a crit with a four? What?

SPEAKER_03 35:29

What? Why would it be a crit?

SPEAKER_02 35:31

What is it? Did you get two fours? What what what's the dice? What are the dice results?

SPEAKER_05 35:36

I got a two, a one, and a plus one.

SPEAKER_02 35:39

Oh, okay. Uh, so um, as you guys are scrambling along the catwalk, uh, the catwalk is going to uh like release from the ceiling of this place and swing down and smack against the wall. And I need strength challenge rolls from Tabitha, Tegan, and Glitch. Well, actually, uh not Glitch because Glitch can just cling to the surface. So Tegan and Tabitha, I need uh strength uh reaction rolls.

SPEAKER_05 36:12

Oh 22.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Would this be considered something like navigating harsh terrains that I might be able to get some? Yes, it would be. Awesome, thank you. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_05 36:21

What are the odds of us getting this many 22s today?

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Uh, the 25.

SPEAKER_05 36:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

Okay. Uh, so then uh you both just take a stress. It's my last stress.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

So you're vulnerable now? I am vulnerable now. All right. Emotionally, physically, mentally.

SPEAKER_05 36:45

You're like you're on the edge of like just absolute insanity. You're like, I have to get out of here now.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Okay. Um maybe that's really therapeutic crab meat. We can calm me down with it.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

All right, take it, you had an idea. You had an idea for the last roll.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Uh so uh we, you know, we're like across the stacks and we're getting back towards which, you know, the area where the scientists were and where the tether was. Uh so what's the state of the tether in the Ryzen and what's going on there?

SPEAKER_02 37:25

Uh so the uh Ryzen is now uh butted up against the goddelver, the other ship, with a gangplank between them. You can see that one of the scientists is actively trying to cut the tether.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Okay. So I would like to uh use my lasso as I like run along the tether to like grab a hold of that scientist and like basically yank him towards us before he's able to cut that tether so that we can run across.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Okay. Yeah, sounds dope.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Okay. So here's the fun part. I have to switch my weapons, my currently equipped weapons, my rifle. And normally to do that, I have to spend a stress, so I think I have to mark a hit point. Yep. Okay, I'm gonna do it. So I'm gonna do that to switch back to my lasso. I am very, very close to being dead.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

And your heart is pounding in your ears?

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Yep. Uh, since I am lassoing him, much like I used to do with the Rubaro back on uh two dogs, um, I can't use can I I can't use my experience, can I still? The one that got eaten? Damn it! Okay. Okay. Oof. Alright, let's give it a shot. I mean, someone else could spend hope to give you advantage. Ooh, that's true. Anybody else want to help me out here? Other than Kuala, who's a lots of purse?

SPEAKER_02 38:52

It's one hope, and you have to narratively describe what you're doing to give advantage. I will say, if anyone can boost uh his movement, because I'm being very, very generous with the movement here. So if somebody can spend advantage to maybe throw him a little further than he would go otherwise.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

Uh, yeah. I was thinking about doing something like that. Yeah, I'll do it. I'll spend my last hope.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

So, like, I'm running behind you, uh, you like crouch down, and I can like, you know, step on like your shoulders and then you launch me.

SPEAKER_05 39:24

Yeah. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

And then as I'm going, I try to lasso this guy. Okay, I will take that advantage and come on. I was kind of hoping she was gonna use me like a baseball bat. That's an 11? That's an 11 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

So thankfully, these scientists have very low difficulty. Oh thank god.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Thank god.

SPEAKER_04 39:46

Thank god for emaciation.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

So, uh, you you jump off, and you're lassoing, and your vision is tunneling, your heart's beating in your ears, your mind is blank now, you just are trying to get back to the ship, and yeah, you throw your lasso wrap around the guy, he makes a sound as the lasso like squeezes around him. Do you uh use the lasso to toss him into the void, or what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 40:15

Uh no, so uh since he's like there, uh, and I'm gonna say that I slightly get I'm not directly on the tether, I'm slightly off. So I lasso him, and then we like as I kind of go under, it jerks him around, and so we kind of do that thing where you've got the two balls on the end of the string and it clacks together around it. So we're like, whoop.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

And uh that reinforces the little cut bits of the the the tether so that the gang can cross.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

Okay. Alright, uh, so you all manage to cross. You are on the God Delver now, and at the entrance of the ship, you can see that the Fungrol, the chief scientist, has a shiv made from a broken wooden ladle pressed against Slim Jimmy's, what you think would be a frog's jugular. I'm not a biologist, I don't know if frogs have jugulars or not. But um uh, and he's like, we you don't understand, we have to get out of here! We couldn't risk you not taking us. Just just I'm sorry, we'll be back.

SPEAKER_05 41:20

Why can't we just all go now? Why are you trying to take it from us now that we're here?

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Well, we I don't know, now that we've done this, it seems unlikely that you'll let us stay on board.

SPEAKER_05 41:31

Well, you can put the frog down, or we can kill all of you and the frog, so.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Kill kill me? Some chimmy says.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Sorry, Jim! She never liked you! What about that stew and what have given to her bubble guts? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

Uh, Pabda, I think this sounds like an intimidation, like a presence role.

SPEAKER_05 41:56

Yes. I am trying to intimidate.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

I would like to I would like to spend a hope to assist her, as I very much make it clear that uh she will absolutely do this, and she never likes Slim Jimmy, so the uh scientist is like by threatening Jimmy, is like uh basically trying to take monopoly money to the casino here. Alright.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

I I believe that's with advantage, Tabitha.

SPEAKER_05 42:23

Oh god, fingers crossed for me. I've seen her eat people's faces. Uh 11 with fear. Why spend these numbers?

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Was that with advantage? Yes. Wow. Well, the scientists do suck.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

Okay. So, uh, that fear, I I'd like to spend it now immediately. Uh obviously, that so the scientist is going to uh acquiesce, right? He he is intimidated. Yeah, uh you you scare him and slip Jimmy's like eyes go really wide with your like I would easily kill Jimmy to get to you. And yeah, he'll back away from the door to let you all in.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Okay. I'm gonna drink a health potion on the way in as I like my shoulder hits the bulkhead. I'm like, ugh.

unknown 43:12

Come here.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

Some of Grandpappy's old cough medicine. But uh, as I'm kind of like slamming against and leaving a blood trail, I'll be like, get them in the cargo hold. Yosephine, we gotta get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Oh, Tegan, I was so afraid.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Um, I'll be right, it's Rain. I'll be just fine, darling. Uh, but yeah, we we need to get out of here. I'll be up there in a moment. Uh and I throw up. Where should I plot a course to? Uh, back to the city at the crux. Let's start with that. Let's start with dock station theta.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

Plotting a course to dock station theta. Oh. Oh, Tegan. Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Uh what's what's the matter, darling? Don't worry, I'm coming. I'm coming. You guys deal with this, I gotta go. And I start running up towards the bridge.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Okay. So as you run up toward the bridge, you will see a very bizarre scene. It's gonna take your uh mind a moment to wrap around everything, but the tube that Josephine is normally in is down, and the fluid that's normally in the tube is all over the floor. So when you walk into the room, uh it like immediately sticks to your feet.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

I don't like that. Uh I'm looking around, like, uh is she in on the bridge? Is it look like the tube's been smashed open, or is there plastic or glass everywhere?

SPEAKER_02 44:33

It looks like it's just been pulled down, but it was pulled down rapidly, not the way it's supposed to be, where it drains first. But you don't see like broken glass anywhere. You see that Josephine is leaning against the captain's chair, and she's been using the captain's comms to speak to you. Uh, she's leaned over it, looks like she's trying to support her weight. You can see now, when you're able to get a better look at her, that her limbs are very frail, and her skin has a whitish-green hue. She has a long, slender neck and large eyes. And she is not looking at you, she's looking out the window of the ship. And she reaches up to point with a long, slender finger out the window.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Uh, as she does that, I like go in and scoop her up in my arms so that I can support her. It's it's it's it's gonna be okay, we're gonna we're gonna get you back. Just rather like turn and just like let my eyes follow the the point of her finger. What are we seeing out there?

SPEAKER_02 45:39

So she is pointing to a figure, and you can see that again the that large invisible-ish sphere has started to collapse in on itself, but you can feel the toll of it even inside the ship. Uh but she's pointing at some uh like a dot in the distance, and as you range your eyes focus, you can see that dot is a small goblin just free-floating in the sea sky. A goblin?

SPEAKER_00 46:10

Yeah, a goblin. Uh okay, so uh a couple of questions. One, is the colo the the collapsing archives, is it like pulling us towards it? Yep. Okay. And do I recognize the goblin as somebody I know?

SPEAKER_02 46:31

If you can remember out of character, I'll just give it to you. I will also offer you a roll to try to recognize the goblin, but should you roll with fear, fail or success, you will lose time to escape the collapse of this. Oh man. Uh okay. Goblins. While you think about this, I will also remind Glitch, as Glitch is tossing uh the tied-up scientists into uh where are you tossing them? Into the hole or Yep. Okay. Glitch, you're gonna remember part of the whole reason you guys came out here is that there is a literal treasure trove of things on the front half of the god delver, the ship that brought the scientists here. You can also feel the tug of the collapsing station, the collapsing archive. And for sure, if no one does anything, then you know, this like literal chest of chests of gold is just gonna get pulled into the collapsing structure.

SPEAKER_05 47:33

Can I use my my grapplers to grab the ship?

SPEAKER_02 47:39

You're you you you so for the listeners, Tabitha motioned with her hands? And I don't know if she means her big old cat paws or if she means a part of the ship. The the ship grapplers. Okay. You confuse me because you're using your hands as little as little claws.

SPEAKER_05 48:00

That's how I picture the ship grapplers. It's an extension arms.

SPEAKER_02 48:08

Also, I don't know why. Uh also for the listeners, but Koalo is gripping his own face. And I don't know if it's a clue to the rest of the cast. Or he's got a very grippable face.

SPEAKER_00 48:22

So I am not remembering the goblin. Uh I feel like I I I know we have goblins that we've talked to and that have been our our you know helped us with this. Either way, I don't think Tegan cares. What he's gonna do is he's gonna like scoop up Josephine in his arms. He's gonna sit in the captain's chair, he's gonna rest like her head, she's gonna be sitting in his lap, he's gonna rest her head on his shoulder, and he's like, you know, just telling her to be, you know, still now. Uh, and then he's gonna goose the engines, and he's gonna make a fly like he's gonna fly the ship towards the goblin to try to retrieve them and avoid the pull of the collapsing archive with his piloting skill.

SPEAKER_02 49:05

Okay. I want to make sure that the stakes of this are very, very clear. You will be able to either go grab that goblin, or grab the ship, not both, and if you attempt either, there will be a roll to escape the the reality well of the structure collapsing, and if you fail that roll, the ship will be damaged.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

So you can escape with the ship unscathed, or you can risk it for the space biscuit, the sea sky biscuit, and try to get the the goblin, but should you grab the goblin, you're giving up the opportunity to grab the front half of the goddelver.

SPEAKER_05 49:47

I see the goblin.

SPEAKER_00 49:49

Yeah, I'm I'm Tegan's kinda got a a uh a heart underneath of his gruff cowboy exterior. Um, and that's what I'm aiming for, unless somebody, you know, shouts something.

SPEAKER_04 50:01

Well, speaking of shouting, Glitch is going to punt the last of the scientists into the hull. Um Get in there! She's furious. Her goggles are on top of her head, her eyes are just flaming violet, and she just growls, back away from that panel before I remove you from reality, and then she slams her hand into the wall, triggering the comms. Tegan, what is going on up there?

SPEAKER_00 50:26

Glitch, I'm gonna need you up here right now. Yosin's out of the tube, like she's out of the pot, she needs to get put back in. I'm I'm not sure what's wrong with her right now, but we gotta go.

SPEAKER_04 50:34

Uh there's a there's a boatload of treasure. Are we leaving here with nothing?

SPEAKER_00 50:39

I get up here now. You have to help her. Uh, and then I goose the engine, I go off for the goblin. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 50:45

Uh Glitch goes tearing up towards the bridge.

SPEAKER_02 50:48

The real treasure are the goblins you find along the way. Uh as you as you rush up the the stairs to get out of the uh hull area, you can see that Stitch and Mango, the ship's uh repair drone and cat, respectively, are spraying fluids all over the scientists. Nice. Okay. Uh we got uh an engine gooser. Tabitha, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_05 51:19

I guess I instead of trying to grab the ship with my my little grappler thingies, I'll I'll like use the arm to gently catch the little goblin man.

unknown 51:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

So you sprint up the stairs to to assist?

SPEAKER_05 51:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

Okay. While you and Glitch are sprinting up the stairs to assist, hey Qualo, remember you're uh a character in the session? I know you remember. I want you to know I remember as the GM. Sure. Okay. So I I didn't forget about you. I know you're I know you're a player in the game. Very important. Uh you're having just the wildest dream right now. Uh, and it's gonna get pretty pretty vivid and intense, such that uh you begin seizing violently, and should no one help you, you're going to take a lot of damage. I'm still carrying him. You were carrying him while you were tying up the scientists? I didn't tie them up. Okay, that's fine. So if you assist Koalow medically, which is I totally encourage you to do, then the ship will get a disadvantage on the role to grab, or not to grab the goblin, but the role to escape the gravity well. So you'll have to choose between helping Qualo and assisting grabbing the goblin. Anyway, you you can make that you can make that decision here in a second. Qualo, the dream that you're having is first darkness and the archive, and seeing a felon messing with the machine. And then you are moving backward, you have this point of view of seeing the sea sky directly, being in the Empyrean, but it's almost like you're seeing it from the point of view of not being in a ship, right? So like seeing it like you're just free-floating in it, and you're flying backwards away from the archive, and you're moving faster and faster in time as you move backward. Uh, and then by the time you get back to Dock Station Theta, you're moving in reverse, and you're seeing all of the interactions that you had with you all. So you see yourself staring into your own face at some point, but it's moving so quickly backward that it's hard to keep track of what's going on. And you're gathering data and you're talking with the CPA about something, uh, the Cruxian port authority, since it's been a while since I mentioned them for the listener. Uh, and then you're back on the city of the Crux, and time starts to slow back down, still moving in reverse, and you are given something, a scroll that matches one of the scrolls on the archive, and it's being handed to you by a three-eyed Katari giant who has a grayish fur and gold-flecked eyes. But this one looks a little differently than maybe another three-eyed Katari giant you're used to seeing. A little older? No, a little younger. Just a touch. And this one looks male instead of female. Like a little brother? Yeah, I uh you know, who knows? Who knows if it's a little brother? I I'm not a doctor of giant catariology. So your eyes pop open, but you are still very much seizing. Tabitha. You need to decide are you going to go to the bridge and grab the goblin, or are you going to administer medical aid to Qualo?

SPEAKER_05 54:53

What kind of medical aid can I give a seizing person other than putting them in the recovery position?

SPEAKER_02 55:00

Putting him in the recovery position. There's not a lot of time here, right? You can do one or the other.

SPEAKER_05 55:04

Well, I'm on the stairs to the bridge, I'm assuming, so I can't really lay him where I'm at right now, anyway.

SPEAKER_06 55:10

Right.

SPEAKER_05 55:11

So I just go to the bridge and lay him down on the floor as soon as I can. And like in the recovery position, and I guess I make sure he doesn't like fling himself into something.

SPEAKER_02 55:22

Okay. Now, here we have glitch. Glitch, do you attempt to return Yosefine to her tube? Or do you assist in like monitoring the ship systems to help Tegan? And you can do one or the other. But if you don't help Josephine get back in her tube, she won't be able to make the jump away from the space station, and you risk uh having to make a second roll for the ship getting damaged.

SPEAKER_04 55:48

So you can Alright, as soon as Glitch's feet hit the bridge, she looks around, and it's probably the first time you've ever seen her um look openly panicked. Especially since her her goggles are up, you can see her eyes, they're wide. She's looking at Tegan, she's looking at Josephine, and she's looking at the tube, and she just gulps. As though she's pushing down an instinct, and runs over to Tegan and very gently takes Josephine out of his arms. I've got this. Just get us out of here.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

Uh, I give a curtain on.

SPEAKER_02 56:29

Glitch, have I ever told you how beautiful I think your eyes are?

SPEAKER_04 56:35

Glitch looks down at Josephine just in abject horror. And as gently as she possibly can. Though it actually is paining her to say this, she goes. Thank you. We gotta get you back into the tube. Come on. And she just starts to move her towards the uh back towards the tube area.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

As you move Josephine back toward her tube, she's going to reach up a slender arm, and her long, slender, grayish fingers are going to touch your face. She looks at you with those big eyes, and you're moving her into it, and the tube starts to like slide up and simultaneously like begins to very slowly refill with fluid. Please don't keep me in here forever. The tube like slides into the ceiling and uh floods with fluid, and she's lost in the milky liquid.

SPEAKER_04 57:34

And Glitch um doesn't say anything out loud, but in that moment she remembers a flash of something that's happened to her in the past, and she just mouths the words that no one can see. I promise.

SPEAKER_02 57:50

Okay. Now, hey Tegan. Hey, voice of narrator. You feelin' good? You feeling you feeling froggy? Yeah. Okay. Great. So you remember. What's a what's a thing that happened on Two Dogs that that feels like it has these stakes right now of you have to pilot this thing perfectly. A leaf on the wind, if you will, to glide around the well and grab this goblin.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Um, let's see here, back on two dogs. Uh Tegan had just started learning how to like pilot the skipcraft, you know, the and the the kind of cargo carriers that would be used to haul, you know, rubaroos around to new pastures and things like that. And uh he had had one of the thrusters fail, and he had a basically a full load of these animals at the back, and he was going down between these like two rocky cliff faces. Uh, and he knew if he didn't thread the needle, uh not only was you know a good chance that like the craft would be you know destroyed, but he was gonna die. Uh and the boy whose name he can't remember right now because his memory just got eaten uh next to him uh was gonna go down with him.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

Okay. So I need you to describe how you maneuver the ship and uh how you attempt to scoop up the goblin, and then I'm gonna have you make a roll. And the better your description, the lower roll you have to make. And I will say, it is a very high roll to start.

SPEAKER_00 59:32

Okay. So goblins floating somewhere off, you know, away from the God Delver. The archives are imploding, things are getting pulled in. Tegan takes the console to the left and the joystick, like thruster, throttles the engines up. You feel the whole ship shake as the Faster than Reality drive vents into the conventional thrusters. Normally he would never do it this hard because he knows that uh glitch has warned him that the thrust stabilizers can't take it, uh, but we don't really have a great choice right now. So he boosts it harder than it needs, you know, that he knows is is dangerous. Uh, and as he is starting to careen towards the goblin, he intentionally lets off uh uh one side of the ships so that he essentially like cuts all thrust to that side and puts us into like a swirl. That way we can I can kick open the lever that opens the back hatch, um, like the back cargo bay door enough to try to ask sweep the goblin into it. Uh since I don't have anyone on the the grapplers, as I'm also using that momentum to like skip off of I'm gonna actually skip the ship off of the god delver, like a skipping stone, and then return the thrust to the last one and get us the the the hell out of here.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:54

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, this is why I GM. That was absolutely spectacular. Alright. So right before you roll, two things are going to happen. One, Slim Jimmy is going to burst onto the deck and be like, How can I help? And two, as the structure is collapsing right beneath you, like large cracks have already formed, it's like parts of it are are crumpling. What is left of Hush is going to bang its way out of the shell of this and reach a destroyed leg up and like jangle one of its bells, wallow, you are going to snap out of your seizure. You will have something that you can describe that you do in in an actual two-second window to assist with this. And I will say, you have a cognizance of the situation that is preternatural. You wake up with a three-dimensional understanding of the ship's position and how it's moving, where the goblin is, everything. What do you do in a two-second window that can assist?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Um, could you describe one more time what the gong thing was doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:11

Hush rung its bell from a broken leg, and it's the sound of that jangling that passes through the ship, and that's what wakes you up.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

Tegan, the sound's showing you the path of less resistance.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:25

Okay, do you have a hope to spend to give him advantage? Sure. Okay. Tegan, as you hear this, you see the wisp of the sea sky take on this pattern, right? And you can see what it is that Kwala was talking about. And you've never seen the sea sky ripple like this, such that it like created what looks like a path through. Uh, but yes, it is moving from you in a very strange like pattern all the way to the Goblin. Okay, I follow it. Awesome. Give me a roll with advantage. And I believe, what is this? Agility? Or is it benefits? I would say it's agility. Okay. Um, which one of your stats is higher?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:15

Well, so, and the reason I'm saying is because uh agility is for sprint, dodge, and leap, and this seems more of a desperate maneuver than it is like the take the time to have a fine control.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:27

Alright. Uh I'm sold. So I'm, believe it or not, gonna go ahead and use an experience here and spend hope on if it runs, rolls, or flies. You didn't lose that during the fight? Nope, I gave up Campfire Cowboy.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:42

I hate you so much. Roll it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:45

Uh, that would be a 29 with fear.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:50

Okay. So the fear, I'm going to make you choose. You open up the back of the ship. Now, you were probably not cognizant of this, right? You're you're in a panic and you're in a hurry, and you weren't down there. But the back of the ship is full of those scientists that you guys threw back there. And so I'm gonna let you choose. Does the ship get damaged, or do you sling out the scientists?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:17

Uh I'm gonna tell you what glitch would vote for.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:22

I know, I know, I know. Um So here's here's a question I've got. Would you say that I have failed or succeeded the roll? Uh you succeeded the roll.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:33

So you are going to. This is this is the fear, is going to be that choice. But uh, A, you you will escape, uh, and B, you will get the goblin.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:43

Okay. The reason I was asking is because I have a uh an ancestry feature that lets me re-roll if I used an experience and I failed, but I didn't fail, so I can't utilize this. I am gonna say I'm gonna put a dent in the ship. Yep. So I yep, I I scoop up the goblin, and again, we we s we slam a little too hard on skip off the goddelver.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:06

Um, and it's gonna tear something loose.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

Yeah, you all feel this violent rock has to do the ship. Uh and the scientists grieve as a goblin launches past them. of the hull. Uh, and over the com, you're gonna very weakly hear uh thank all of the great goblin comment.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:34

And then I yell at Jimmy to sit down.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

So uh Jimmy does uh sit crisscross applesauce on the floor of the deck. Um he doesn't take a chair, he just sits down and is okay. Nobody nobody remembers that voice?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:51

I do. It's the guy that made the other half of the transponder for us, the drunk. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:57

How did Glim Glam get here ahead of Uh yeah, Glampweasel.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:03

Glampweasel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:04

Yeah, it was like episode seven, I think, where uh Apelian had brought Glamp Weasel to the thing. You guys come like you guys were communicating with Clamp Weasel.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:16

Yeah, and you're right. We yeah, so that's the whole reason we got the uh we had to we had to have the the gremlins like track him and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. We got clampweasel. You guys totally forgot about clampweasel. I did. I knew it was clampweasel! That's that was over Glitch's dude. My dude was Slim Jimmy. He's been a fucking useless so far, so hopefully we picked up another.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:40

I just assume he was still on a Palion ship.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:43

Uh over the calm, you hear a uh I need a drink.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:49

Glitch just grabs her head and just in her hands and she's like, oh, all the goblins and all the sea skies and all the voids. How did we end up with this one?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:00

Uh we can figure that out later.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:03

Yo, Spain, tell me when we're ready to jump. Hey GM, am I holding a scroll in my hand? No. Did I read it?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:12

Uh, yes. You looked at it, and it was a pattern, a map of the Imperium that showed nine positions. And even in your, you know, brief glance at this before you awoke, uh awakened? Uh-awake? Okay. Uh, that uh one of those positions was the archive.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:37

So when he hands me the note, uh, I feel myself about to wake up, and I open it and glance at it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:46

So, uh, do you do anything with the information that you have from your your fever dream?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:53

Yeah. Um. What's Slim Jimmy wearing?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:57

Uh, Tabitha, you you haven't had a lot of screen time. What is Slim Jimmy's outfit?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:03

Uh, since he was uh it was his day off. Right?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:10

He's got his hands on.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:14

Yeah, like he's gonna be like, it's it's well dressed for him. It's still like, because he's a ho he was a hobo, right? Like uh so it's still stained and soiled, but you can tell that he like he tried to iron it. You know, so that he's like he like he's wearing like uh a button-up that has a few like small, smaller than usual holes in it and stains and stuff, and he's like wearing some like slacks of similar condition and uh a belt that looks like a rat had chewed halfway through it.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:48

Um are his slacks way too short for his uh for his legs? So he's got like a lot of skin showing.

unknown 1:08:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:00

So you can see his long socks underneath.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:03

Yeah, they were also whole and stained. They're originally slacks, but on him they look like capris.

unknown 1:09:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:12

Uh while I'm reclining casually on the floor and still waking up, I grab Tabitha's hand and gently but firmly take her index finger, you know, pop her claw, cut out the back of Slim Jimmy's shirt so that it's you know, I have like a rectangle, right? Uh and then I take out a pen and I start recreating the star pattern that I saw in the Fever Dream. Okay. And you don't do anything else? Um, you don't have to. When I am done drawing it, because that's the important part, I look at Tabitha. Do you have a little brother?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:49

How do you know that I have a brother?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:53

I think I saw him in a dream. He he's the one who showed me this.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:58

Huh. That is uh very good.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:01

And if he said anything I was supposed to remember, I don't.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:05

Uh Tabitha, what is the name of your little brother?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:08

Uh, he goes by Bartleby. And his the rest of his name is uh is um Noonfield Throat Ripper.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:19

Okay. Josephine says over the comm. Making the jump to faster than reality in three, two, one. And Glitch, you're still looking at the Milky Fluid as she's floating around in it. And it it comes as a startling realization that you're having as you're looking at the tube that she's in. That you have been flying with this crew for something like five years, right? Right. And all of a sudden you realize you have never seen her outside the tube before today. And it just it never occurred to you till now that that was the case.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:59

You know, as soon as we make the jump, like whatever like last bit of what Tegan had keeping him going and adrenaline fades, and he just like slumps out of the pilot's chair.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:10

Glitch, what do you do in this this last second?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:13

Glitch is still just staring open-eyed in in this realization, uh, as it reverberates through her, especially because it it relates so closely to a past she barely remembers, which is pretty much she doesn't remember much before joining this crew.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:36

Uh contemplating about my brother Barley.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:42

And then Qualo. As the other three characters are having a cathartic moments, uh Slim Jimmy looks around to ask why I cut his shirt, and I'm not there anymore. I'm done in a hold having a drink with that weasel. And with that, we're gonna end the first season of the losses at the cross.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:20

Uh which uh is now I don't know if we've announced this yet, but it's uh the player Eugene. Now the the sound guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:31

Hey, wait a minute. I'm gonna use the mighty powers of the editor, to note that. I'm only half the sound team. All the great music and folio effects are added in by our friend Tones. Thanks, T. We wouldn't sound half as good without you.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a uh real MVP. Alright, uh, Darrington Press for creating Daggerheart, the awesome game we're playing, and to you, our incredible fans, who managed to make it through ten plus hours of audio. Holy crap. Don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, five stars, the whole thing. It's the number one way to help the show. Losses of the Crux is part of the Witch Key March universe. If you're interested in playing and any of the associated games, you can find them on startplaying dot games. And we will see you next season.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:22

Bye, everybody.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:57

Yeah, definitely more impactful.