PARTIZAN 44: The Prison at the Top of the World
Transcribers: Ida (@gentledownpour / ida.m.ailes@gmail.com) [From 00:00 to 10:19].
Glen Campey (#1066/glenmoisescampey@gmail.com) [from 10:19 to 44:27].
Daneran#6021 [from 44:27 to end].
End of Point Diamond perspective (Phrygian and Sovereign Immunity) [0:29:37] 27
End of Point Citrine perspective (Kalar & Figure) [0:50:27] 47
End of Point Diamond perspective (Phrygian and Sovereign Immunity) [1:17:15] 72
End of Point Citrine perspective (Kalar & Figure) [1:35:09] 90
End of Point Diamond perspective (Phrygian & Sovereign Immunity) [1:59:48] 110
Winding Down the Mission [02:02:37] 112
Austin: You go through that door—you wait for a moment when no one’s there—you go through the door and just see miles and miles of quarry below you. You know, stretching in every direction with spotlights down on them. A lot of the construction machinery has been moved away from the edges of stuff as this attack—this feint—continues, and here you can see more, uh... directly, the shape above you, that is flying around and running countermeasure to those incoming artillery strikes.
[Music begins: “TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.” by Jack de Quidt.]
Austin: It seems to, in this moment, have the shape of a giant, red eagle. It’s a— It’s some sort of mech that has taken, like, huge, metallic eagle wings. There is... a clear divide between the types of construction equipment that is here. There’s a lot of really old stuff here that clearly has not moved in a long time—stuff from generations and generations before you were alive. The newer stuff seems like extremely newer stuff. This-year type stuff. The stuff that’s being moved is not quarrying stuff—these aren’t diggers, these aren’t haulers. They’re building something somewhere here.
Jack: Hm. What are these tunnels made of? Are they, like, stone tunnels or have they had stuff built into them?
Austin: So there’s a point at which the stone gives away to metal. In general, the metal stuff seems to head west, the rock stuff seems to head north.
Keith: Hmm, metal new, rock old.
Austin: Right. Metal going to Point Citrine, rock headed towards Point Diamond.
Jack (as Kalar Anakalar): Okay, I think we’ve got to split up.
Keith (as Phrygian): W— Wait, we’ve gotta split up?
Dre (as Figure in Bismuth): Yeah.
Kalar: I think we wanna hit both. I don’t think we have time to hit both.
Austin: As you’re going down these stone hallways, there’s a point at which it feels as if... as if new hallways have been made—but not new as in “there’s technology and metal and these are new construction.” It feels as if new hallways have been made by way of… erosion? [chuckling] It’s like a river ran through here, or waves crashed against it, very carefully, to dig new tunnels. It’s damp here still, somehow. It feels… a little haunted, and I think, Phrygian, you f... You know that this is the touch of a Branched.
Austin (as a voice over the intercom): All non-security personnel, please head to your nearest lockdown bunker.
Austin: Um, and they are— They are going to their own panic rooms, which have been built into… presumably the facility you’re headed towards.
There’s a draft of air that you feel. You feel like, the… the pressure change, as you step out and see before you a pair of huge, vertical holes in the ground that go deep. One of them is empty, and the other one is filled with a spaceship—with a rocket.
[Music ends]
Austin: Let’s zip back up to Point Diamond. You’ve kind of turned the corner at this point, and… uh, of that long hallway, and pretty quickly, you see that this thing goes off in a couple of different directions. And I’m just gonna give you very quickly that many of them are dead ends in a way that seems… too— dead-ends too quickly, do you know what I mean? Again, I think this is the— To understand what that means, you’d have to roll, but it’s— You know, there’s like, sort of like, “Oh, this is the Communications Wing of this secondary quarry, there’s nothing here.”
Um, “Hey, this is a tunnel that’s supposed to lead us to a vein of rare earth minerals,” and then you like, go down that thing, and it’s like “Oh, there’s supposed to be some cobalt here according to this signage,” there— No. It just stops. It just hits a hard… a hard wall where it’s just, the digging stopped. You don’t know if that’s, like, and aborted dig, or if they were wrong about the information, or what, but that keeps happening down here, and instead you keep getting funneled deeper and deeper. Um… Is there anything you wanna look for, specifically, at this stage of the quarry?
Art: I mean, I want answers. Why is this happening? What’s happening here?
Austin: What’s happening here? All right, give me a roll.
Art: I don’t have any of that.
Austin: [laughing] You have a Study!
Keith: I have a little bit “what’s happening here.”
Austin: You’ve got a Study, you’ve both— You’ve both—
Art: I’ll take a Study, yeah.
Austin: I guess, you know, Phrygian has a better Study, but… but yeah.
Keith: Art, what do you think?
Art: I mean, what’s— What’s the position for taking a Study here?
Austin: Where you’re at now, I wanna say… hm. [conflicted]
Art: I’ll fuck up a Study roll, is what I’m saying. [overlapping] I’m gonna get us in some trouble!
Dre: [overlapping] [laughing]
Austin: I think that you’re in a Controlled position here, at this moment—this particular moment, you’re in a Controlled position.
Art: All right, then I’m willing to roll it.
Austin: All right, give me a 1d6… Are you pushing yourself, or getting help, etcetera?
Art: [incredulous] No, what—
Austin: Not on a Controlled? Yeah, okay.
Art: Just fuckin’ around—
Keith: I don’t have— I don’t have the… I don’t have it to help.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: I’m no-helping today.
Austin: All right, that’s a 4. So, as before—again, with Controlled stuff, if you wanna back off and try a different attack, you can do that, um… uh, and I’ll tell you that the consequence here, um… The consequence here will be being moved into a Risky position. So you can take that… that 4 that moves you into a Risky position, or you can try to roll again, on Risky to get a success—to get a 6—and stay in a Controlled position, if that makes sense.
Art: No, I— What— Who… What…
Austin: You’re “fuck it”?
Art: Nothing… Nothing bad’s gonna happen.
Austin: In this dark cave? Yeah, sure. Um, yeah… I think you put together pretty quick—and you put this together because you know Crysanth so well—this is like, a classic Crysanth thing, right? Which is like, “hey, you make the first ninety yards real, and then the last ten yards don’t need to be”. Right? You really fucking focus on the front—no one checks the footnotes, right? No one checks the… Everyone checks the cover sheets, everyone checks the first… the first page, and you know, maybe the index, but you don’t need the fucking thing to be real, um, if you’re building something like this. You can build façades. Um, and so you very quickly put together: hey, this whole thing is a Crysanth Kesh style—Curtain style—um… like, fake. This isn’t a quarry, and like—
Keith: I took two— I took two Stress to go on a fake path?
Austin: You went on— I’m not— Well, we’re not— You’re not done the path yet.
Keith: Okay. [overlapping] All right, okay.
Austin: [overlapping] I’m talking about these little side areas. Um, that—
Art: It’s just not a quarry, it’s— but it’s a real path.
Austin: It’s a real path, and it’s a real path to something else—which I will give you, because you succeeded: You go down… You eventually find one of these side things, that, uh— I think that there’s like a, uh… One of these side paths is marked with a different, uh… I’m trying to think, uh, what would it be marked at— What is the Curtain’s version of this, what would their code be? Um… [pausing] I don’t— Hm. [chuckling] Jack, what would the Curtain idiogram be for “detainment”?
Jack: Oh! Uh, it would be, um… [pausing]
Austin: I know that’s a big… big thing to throw at you immediately.
Jack: Yeah, I don’t know. I might— I might have it. [pausing] Oh! It’s, um… [pausing] Yeah, it’s… it’s… I don’t actually know what the symbol is— Oh! It’s, it’s, uh… It’s a g— It’s a… The idiogram is “Bridewell,” um…
Austin: Right! Right-right-right-right-right.
Jack: I don’t know what the actual… what the symbol for that would be. It’s probably a gate, it’s probably a barred gate, um… [pausing]
Austin: Mm-hm. [pausing] I think then— then… What it would be… I think in this case, the thing that they would use, then, is… something that still gives it some distance from that, ‘cause a bridewell is a… is a prison, right?
Jack: [overlapping] Yes. It’s— It’s—
Austin: [overlapping] So I think that they would go a step beyond that, maybe, and actually just have “BR-period-Well,” right? And if you’re wakling through a facility and you’re like “Oh, I guess that’s… w— there’s a well… down there, I guess, okay, cool,” [Jack chuckling] but if you know this code language you’d respond to it. And so you take that one, um, just—as you’re wandering through this space, Sovereign Immunity and Phrygian—and you come to another long tunnel, except this one is more narrow, and on the, um, sides of it, are cells. Um… cells for… for prisoners. And here—
Art: Are there people in them?
Austin: [decisively] Yes.
Art: Are they, like... labeled?
Austin: [decisively] No.
Art: Mm… Do we know these people?
Austin: [pausing] Sovereign Immunity, roll... 3d6. It’s a fortune roll.
Art: [long pause while typing] Oof!
Austin: 4-1-1, [chuckling] what’s the information? Um…
Art: [chuckling] Yeah, that’s what I’m askin’ you, what’s the information!
Keith: [overlapping] [chuckling]
Austin: You don’t know know—you don’t know know any of these people, um… They’re not— They’re not… uh… [chuckling] Here’s actually what a 4 is: You don’t know them, they know you. Um, or you might know them as a category of people. These are other revolutionaries, these are other… uh— These are people who are criminals according to the Curtain, an organization meant to defend the Principality from threats known and unknown to the public. Um, and so— Well, I mean, what you’ve come to is a political black site—right? And so, I think you immediately hear someone say, like,
Austin (as Prisoner): That’s… That’s Sov— That’s the Sovereign Immunity! That’s the Farmer! [raising voice] Hey everybody, that’s the Farmer! [desperately] Hey everybody, that’s the Farmer!
Art: Just kind of like, the “settle down” hand motion, going like...
Austin: Yeah. The other thing here is, a lot of these people look very tired, and ill? And hungry? You get the impression that they have not been… that they have not been fed recently, some of them. [pause] It is not a good sight. It’s a rough sight to look at.
Art: [overlapping] Yeah, great.
Austin: [overlapping] Many of these cells don’t have… like… these are not barred cells, these are doored cells? Or some of them are? So there are people in there who, just… you don’t even see what their condition is. It’s not good.
Art (as Sovereign Immunity): OK, we’ve got to just get them… we’ve gotta… we’ve gotta get them out? Of here… I don’t have an extraction plan, but… Step 1: open the doors.
Austin: Uh-huh? What is the… how do you do that?
Art: How do, how do… what’s…
Austin: It’s… It’s…
Art: Tell me about the doors!
Austin: It is mostly keyed locks. Like… regular keys: physical keys.
Keith: [overlapping] I’m great at that, we know this.
Austin: [overlapping] Actually, that’s not true… because this was a Curtain facility, which means it probably has Nideo-style locks, which means it’s the poetic cypher locks that we saw in Orzen.
Jack: Oh… what the fuck?!
Austin: Yeah…
Art: Is this the end of the hallway? Is this…?
Austin: No.
Art: Is there, like... a wall?
Austin: There's a door at the very end.
Art: All right. So — I mean — we just go in that room and I'm sure someone just has the thing written down on a Post-it note [Austin chuckles].
Austin: All right.
Art: And if it doesn’t, I mean, it might have, like... an emergency button... It might have someone we can kill for doing this. All sorts of things could be back there.
Austin: Phrygian, how is all this making you feel? [pause] Not that... not that Sovereign Immunity has also not been a prisoner for twenty years, but the two of you have both been prisoners of The Principality. I'm curious what your take is here. Your emotional responses.
Keith: Well, it seems... I mean, fairly obvious that we have to try and get him out.
Austin: OK. Yeah. It's not a quarry, it's a prison. It's always been a prison. You head down towards the end of that door…
Keith: Are… Are any of these the people that were sent here to, like... spy on them?
Austin: Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Yes. Yeah.
Keith: So it's like a prison... [overlapping] It's a prison that captures the people sent to… look at it. Right. Okay.
Jack: [overlapping] Which is very…
Austin: [overlapping] But also other people. It's not only those people, it's also political dissidents; it's also… Like if... if... if Art had gotten a 6, we would've come up with someone that Sovereign Immunity knew from Millennium Break or from a previous life. You know? [chuckles] One of the other Farmers would have been here, you know? Something like that. [overlapping] That’s the type…
Keith: I mean... what a great way to get rid of your enemy spies…? Is to make a prison — make an empty building, [Austin: Yeah.] pretend that it's secret — and when people go to spy on it, you just capture them. [laughs]
Austin: And that’s it: they don’t come back. And some of those people, to be clear, were killed also.
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: But yes, that is… among the people here are the spies who were captured, the scouts et cetera. Yeah. So you go to that door. That door is also locked by poetic cipher. Which….
Art: All right...
Austin: Go ahead.
Sovereign Immunity: Do you want to pick it? You want me to kick it down? What do we want to do right now?
Phrygian: Umm…? Well, gosh, umm… Hey, on the communicator. How do you feel about if an alarm went off over here? Would that help you over there?
Kalar: Are you safe? What's going on?
Phrygian: I don't know that we're safe, but I do know that we can either set an alarm off, or maybe not set it off. And if you're trying to get a look at this ship, having a bunch of guards rush away from there might be a helpful thing for you.
Kalar: Yeah, I mean, but that means the guards are coming towards you. So really, you know… If it's something that you feel like you can handle…? I think that Figure and I are probably going to see… This is a... this is a... a... a jumpship. It's a troop transport. When this thing's powered up, it can get off-moon, which is just fantastic to know.
Figure in Bismuth: Oh, and one already left.
Kalar: Yeah. So... I feel like our next step’s probably gonna be to try and get onto this thing, figure out what's going on. It's a possible escape path? If you're thinking about something like that? You know, if you want to set an alarm off, I'm not gonna stop you. But I would like to see you at the end of this…
Kalar: Uhm… You know?
Phrygian: Yeah.
Keith: The tunnel situation: were they... did they... were they dead ends? Or were they all, like... alternate paths to get back... that, like... routed back away from the prison?
Austin: Some of them were... they were alternate paths.
Keith: OK.
Austin: Some of those were, like... old real alternate paths that... that The Curtain built, you know?
Keith: Right.
Austin: For other parts of the quarry, for instance. Some of them were... only this one that you took was the one The Pact clearly took here.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That, like… hooked path that I drew.
Phrygian: I don't know… Sovereign Immunity? Is there anything to my plan? Is there…. Is there a there here?
Sovereign Immunity: Umm... Like… I get it… It's... the value of a diversion that funnels all of the diversionary people to the sickly people we need to get across a big distance quickly? Doesn't necessarily hit with me?
Phrygian: Okay.
Sovereign Immunity: But, I mean... we gotta do something.
Phrygian: Well, then I guess I'll try and pick it then.
Austin: [chuckles]
Sovereign Immunity: Sure.
Austin: [overlapping] Alright. Give me another....
Sovereign Immunity: I’m here. I have your back in case it's a kick situation.
Austin: Give me another Finesse then. 2D6. Is anyone… Are you helping? Do you want a Collateral Die? Do you want...?
Keith: Give me a Collateral Die!
Austin: I will introduce a new clock.
Keith: [pause] Do we know what it is? Are you gonna tell us?
Austin: No. No.
Art: Why don’t you just take my help instead?
Keith: OK. I'll take that.
Dre: I mean... you can take both.
Austin: You cannot take both, I think. Right?
Dre: Ahh… OK.
Austin: I believe... or is it the other way? Is it is it?
Keith: [overlapping] I think you can…
Austin: [overlapping] You can take Collateral but not push yourself. That's what it is. It's one of... one of those things is mutually exclusive. Push Yourself and/or accept Collateral Die. OK, yeah. So it's... maybe it's all of them.
Keith: I think I'm good with three dice.
Austin: OK, so you are taking help.
Keith: I'm taking help, yeah.
Austin: OK. How you helping, SI?
Art: Just trying to just, like... I'm trying to keep the noise down?
Austin: OK…
Sovereign Immunity: Yeah, we're here. We got you [makes shushing sound]. [Keith laughs].
Keith: 6!
Austin: [overlapping] A 6! Alright, yeah… And…
Keith: [overlapping] 4, 5, 6, that's straight, right? Bonus XP for a straight.
Austin: So yeah, you manage to, like... pop the cover off of this thing, and then... and then there is a series of picks... or a series of locks inside, that is complicated? In a way that's, like... You actually—as you finish—you kind of get a little bit of, like... pleasure out of the fact that there was a rhythm to this that must be tied to the poetic cypher that even picking this lock requires you to find a certain, like... meter, almost. And you... but you nail it. And the door opens. [overlapping] And inside is…
Keith: [overlapping] Grinding on 4/4.
Austin: Right... And inside is a security room as Sovereign Immunity predicted, and all around the room are dead bodies: wearing the uniform of The Curtain agents, who are at the very, very front of this place; not The Pact soldiers that you saw… [overlapping] or that the other people saw here.
Art: [overlapping] Oh my god… We're about to see an invisible ninja really going to town on a guard.
Austin: You’re… [overlapping] You're in. You…
Keith: [overlapping] Wait, hold on. Rewind. What is it? What's happening?
Austin: You walked into a security room and all around the security room or dead bodies of The Curtain, The Curtain guards who run this facility.
Keith: OK.
Art: Then I made a Metal Gear Solid reference.
Austin: Correct.
Keith: Right.
Art: Point Barrel or Point Meryl?
Austin: [overlapping] Boom!
Keith: [overlapping] So… So I thought… [chuckles]
Art: [laughs]
Keith: I thought what was happening was this was the gate to get into where the prisoners were, and the prisoners that we were looking at were... are not real, and they were the dead bodies and a bunch of guards. [overlapping] And I was, like… what?
Austin: [overlapping] No… no, no, no… This is a... this is the room into a security room at the end of the cellblock, basically.
Keith: Got it. If it had been the other thing, what a twist!
Austin: That’d be rough… Inside of this room, you see that there’s a bunch of, like... computers that have been smashed. You know, the machinery has been ruined.
Keith: Yeah
Austin: Actually, it hasn't been smashed, there's something else... It's rusted in places…?
Keith: It’s been pretended to be smashed…
Austin: It's destroyed, but it's not destroyed from someone, like... hitting it with a sledgehammer. And a quick peek at the guards would tell you the same thing. You can do a Gather Information here, if you want?
Keith: Yeah, I can do that. I can Study these bodies.
Austin: Yeah, go for it.
Jack:They’re inside a locked room?
Austin: No. The other end: there's another door in this room. Alright, you don't know shit. You rolled a two, three on this.
Dre: [laughs]
Austin: Their bodies have been…
Jack (overlapping, chuckles): Forget it!
Austin: [overlapping] Their bodies have… their bodies have, like... what you think look like rash marks on them, maybe? It's hard to say. The... there's another door here on the other end of the security room. So, imagine the security room is like a rectangle, right? You open the door on the bottom left of that rectangle: it's kind of, like... a... almost square-like... rectangle? It's not super long, but on the…
Art: Oh, it’s wider than what I was envisioning.
Austin: Okay. On the on the right hand back side, there's another door, and that door has been ripped off its fucking hinges. Or rather... it's hinges... It's off of its hinges, on the ground.
Art: Hey, that's what I was going to do! Is it... is it me?
Austin: It's you. You did this.
Art (laughing): It is? Am I doing this?
Austin: You’re the cybernetic ninja. You're a Grey Fox. What a twist...
Art: Whoa!
Austin: Again. Yeah. The door’s off of its hinges. And inside — beyond that door — is a grate with stairs leading further down.
Keith: Hmm.
Art: Shit!
Keith: Is there a…
Art: I really want to do this thing and not that thing.
Keith: Sorry, which one do you want to do?
Art: I really want to save all these people and not follow the whatever killed all these people.
Keith: OK. [overlapping] We can do both
Art: [overlapping] We can split up again?
Austin: Yeah, we could do that.
Jack (nervous laughter): Oh-oh...
Keith: Oh, you want to [laughs].
Austin: Huh…
Keith: Uhm…
Art: Is there like an Open All Cells button that I hoped would be here?
Austin: There was!
Art: Oh...
Keith: Did it go down that hole?
Jack: Sorry, I just... [pauses] I… I don't know if I'm super clear on, like... what the path of The Pact has been here? [overlapping] We saw...
Austin: [overlapping] Yea-yeah. I'll just draw it for you in a new colour.
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we... I'm not sure how they've moved [overlapping] throught this facility.
Austin: [overlapping] Someone entered here, came up, and then followed all... built all three of these red hallways. Do you see those? That go all the way out West, East and South.
Jack: Uh-huh.
Austin: Point Agate, Point Barrel, and Summer to the West.
Jack: To potentially let in... [overlapping] some other things.
Austin: [overlapping] To let in other people. They pulled here north of Point Citrine and went into Point Diamond. Then they followed Point Diamond north, took that right that I described, then they went... they found the Bridewell Tunnel? Then they went up into a cell block. This is what I'm calling the cell block here. Right? Do this…
Jack: Uhum.
Austin: Boom: cell block. Right?
Jack: [overlapping] They’ve somehow opened the poem-locked door?
Austin: [overlapping] Then they opened the back door in the cell block. Then they went from that down further down some stairs.
Keith: And maybe that's where the open button is.
Austin: The open button is in the security room. It has been damaged.
Keith: Destroyed. [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] It has been destroyed. This whole room has been... fucking wrecked.
Jack: So they locked the door behind them.
Austin: They locked... or, or, presumably behind them… You don't know which way though…
Art: Could either of us… Do you have any Engineer?
Jack (laughing slightly) Oh, that's true.
Keith: Uhh… I...
Dre: I do.
Art: Nope. You're not here!
Keith: No, I don't have any Engineer.
Art: OK. So... because I mean, a button is just something that tells some wires what to do.
Austin: That’s true...
Art: If we could find… that…
Austin: Yeah.
Art: Although if, I mean… if these doors are rip… I could just go rip all the doors off, all the fucking hinges out there.
[pause]
Jack: I don’t know… you're not a cybernetic, invisible ninja.
Art: Not yet!
Jack (laughing): Not yet!
Keith: Hm.
Art: How do you get to be a cybernetic invisible ninja, if not through [overlapping] believing in yourself in these situations?
Austin: [overlapping] True… True. Like Frank Jaeger did.
Keith: I think… I think it's through U.S. government money.
Austin: Mostly… [chuckles]
Jack: [chuckles]
Austin: The CIA.
Art: “Metal Gear…”
Austin: [with mock surprise] “The CIA…” Yeah. Uh-huh? [with mock surprise] “Darpa?”
Art: [overlapping] I don’t know, what do you want me to do?
Keith: [overlapping] You can watch the Run Button Let’s Play of Metal Gear Solid 1 on youtube.com/runbutton.
Art: Do Y'all do a lot of impressions?
Keith: I've been doing… I've been doing… Yeah. I've been doing Metal Gear… not Metal Gear, Jeez… [overlapping] I've been doing… Snake and…
Austin: [overlapping] Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
Art: [laughs]
Keith: What's his name…? It’s not the commissioner. [overlapping] Who's that? Who's your friend?
Austin: [overlapping] The Colonel?
Art: The Colonel.
Keith: The Colonel. Yeah, the Colonel. I’ve been doing the Colonel a lot, too.
Austin: Good, good.
Keith: I'd say that I have a medium good Colonel and Snake.
Austin: Good!
Keith: But not so good that I can do it right now where they haven't just been speaking.
Austin: I get you.
Art: Uhm… What do you… How do you feel in here?
Keith: [sighs] Well… we've got to get the people out of the thing.
Art: Yeah. Uh-hum.
Keith: So let's do that now.
Austin: I'm going to be the person who is a fan of the players and say: what are you doing with them? [pause] After you get them out?
Keith: Open the door and then say… wait here!
Austin: Is that safer for them?
Jack: Is it safer? [chuckles]
Austin: Than them being in where they are now? In some ways it is.
Keith: [overlapping] I have a good idea.
Austin: [overlapping] Because it means… Because it means that if you go down this… tunnel and die, they'll be out of their cells. So, yes, that would be safer for them in some ways.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: If a guard came by and was, like… “why are there fifty people out here?” that would be less safe.
Keith: I have a good idea. Well, it seems like a lot of the guards came down this way got killed…
Austin: Wait, I want to be clear. Again, there are Pact guards who are still patrolling parts of this base.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: There are Curtain guards who are still here, seemingly, and are patrolling the outer walls of this space.
Keith: Yeah.
Art: Talk to me about these doors. Are they, like… prison doors? [overlapping] Are… Do…
Austin: [overlapping] There are some of them that are prison gates… that are prison doors that are, like… those sliding…
Art: Wheels in them? Yeah, like…
Austin: Yeah. There are other ones that are more like what you'd find in solitary confinement. Big, heavy metal built into stone…
Art: But probably still with a little window?
Austin: A very little window, yes.
Art: And I don't recognize any of these people? [overlapping] Uhm… I wanna…
Austin: Again, you recognize them by… you recognize them enough to be, like… you might recognize two of them, right? It's like… “yes, that's that's Jessica. That's Jim.” Right? Sorry to say Jessica, the name of your wife, it is not your wife. Your wife is fine.
Art: That's… that's great.
Austin: That’s Kelly… That's Jim.
Art: Well, I haven’t seen her in an hour, she might be…
Keith: She’s in there way back…!
Austin (laughing): But you know them from, like… “oh, yeah, that person was someone who was in Auspice or in Marengo, who worked with Sloe Uplight and then must have gotten captured,” right? You know what I mean? Must’ve been….
Art: Is there someone that I think… is there someone that I would identify as, like… “I trust this person.”
Austin: No, not with a 4. [overlapping] And also… not…
Keith: [overlapping] How about me?
Austin: There is no one here strong enough to do what you are… what I think you're insinuating.
Art: No… I'm going to… I'm going to take… What I want to do is, take a pistol in my Load and hand that pistol to someone.
Austin: Got you. Yes. I'm going to tell you that you are handing it to a person who is very weak.
Art: I mean…
Austin: [overlapping] Which is still better than them not having a gun!
Keith: [overlapping] That’s what the gun’s for!
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Art: Yeah, that’s what the gun’s for.
Austin: Totally, totally. Fuck.
Art I dismissed a blade.
Austin: Right. I gotcha! All right, so yeah. Mark that. So, you're handing that to somebody who's in a cell still?
Keith: And…
Art: Yeah. We’ll be back!
Austin: Yeah. Kelly has it.
Sovereign Immunity:If something bad happens, shoot someone.
Austin (as KELLY): OK.
Phrygian: Oh, shoot the… bad one.
Sovereign Immunity: Yeah. Yeah. Don't shoot us, but shoot someone.
Austin: OK.
Keith: Are they all in a cell together?
Austin: [overlapping] No, it’s a cellblock.
Art: [overlapping] No, it's many cells. It’s a hallway full of cells.
Keith: [overlapping] OK. Yeah, yeah.
Austin: None of them are together. None of them have two to a cell.
Keith: OK.
Austin: And it's mostly… it's walls between cells. It's not gates, it's not bars between cells. So, you know…
Sovereign Immunity: Someone might open the door, that would be a great time to shoot them.
Austin: Right (chuckles).
Sovereign Immunity: You know… Use your judgment. I don’t know how many rounds are in this pistol, but it's probably enough.
Phrygian: Do you want to check real quick?
Austin: It's a full clip. [pause, then overlapping] It’s a full…
Keith: [overlapping] Twelve.
Austin: Twelve, yeah. Twelve are in this pistol.
Sovereign Immunity: Yeah. Make them count.
Keith: See, that's how you… that's how you… that's how you Actual Play because sometimes a clip can have less than that, right?
Austin: It's true. [overlapping] You say twelve.
Keith: [overlapping] So you say… you say twelve and then it's just true.
Austin: Uh-huh! [chuckles]
Keith: [laughs]
Art: It says it's a pistol or a revolver. A revolver would only have been six, right?
Austin: [overlapping] You can get big revolvers, but yeah…
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah. You can get a very funny looking revolver, yeah.
Art: Twelve shot revolver.
Austin: Boom. So yeah.
Art: Twelve Shot Revolver is a good name.
Austin: Twelve Shot Revolver is…
Art: Someone write that down.
Austin: That feels like a… That feels like a… What-do-you-call-it song…
Keith: Spinal Tap.
Austin: No… I mean that also...
Jack: Mountain Goats.
Austin: At the Drive-In is what I was going with. I feel like… I feel like…
Dre: Hm…!
Austin: Twelve Shot Revolver is the sequel song to One-Armed Scissor
Jack: [chuckles quietly]
Austin: Anyway… Please listen to At the Drive-In, that… That band slaps.
Jack: Yes!
Austin: Uhm, you… So then, at that point, you go back down. You go through the security room and then head down that last… [overlapping] that next… Uhm…
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah. That seems stupid. But yeah… It doesn’t… it seems stupid because I’m afraid that we’re going to die.
Austin: Sure. You… You head into… down to, kind of… another level deeper in. You hear your comms kind of… flicker for a second? They're still working, but it's rougher. [chuckles] And you see a trio of doors in front of you.
Keith: [overlapping] At this point we're, like…
Austin: [overlapping] That's not right, it’s four doors.
Keith: What… an airport and half a high school away?
Austin: Yeah, you're pretty far.
Jack: [chuckles]
Austin: Plus elevation levels, you know?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You're at least an airport down also, but like a height airport. Not a length airport. You… You see up there four doors in front of you. One of them just says “cell”. The other ones say ST1, ST2, ST3, ST4.
[pause]
Austin: OK, back to Point Citrine, Kalar and Figure, what are you all up to?
Dre: That’s a good question…
Austin: You’ve managed not to get seen, which is very impressive.
Dre: Just to clarify…
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Were we informed that they found a bunch of prisoners?
Austin: I don't remember if that came up!
Dre: I don't think it did either.
Jack: No. I think the last we heard from them, they were… [pauses] They said if we’d set an alarm off, right? [overlapping] I don't think they said why they would set an alarm off…
Austin: [overlapping] They asked: “Hey, would you be okay if we set an alarm off up here to draw people away?” Yeah.
Dre: [laughs quietly]
Jack: And we sort of said, [overlapping] “yes, sure.”
Austin: “Yeah, sure, I guess.”
Dre: I can't believe we have the peanut butter and they have the jelly and we don't know it.
Jack: [laughs quietly]
Art: Well, we know it.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Dre: Yeah, fair.
Austin: Uhm…
Jack: I think I want to board this rocket.
Austin: [overlapping] Okay.
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah, absolutely.
Jack: Uhm… Figure is far away from me, though, and is in a position where getting them to me would be tricky, right?
Austin: It’d be tricky, yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Dre: [overlapping] Are — I…
Austin: I would let you lead a stealth roll here, or a Prowl roll here. Even though you've done your side already, in a sense, if you wanted to take that on? Or you could… you just help, also. Which I guess would be a very similar thing depending on how… I don't know how the math works out there. But…
[pause]
Jack: What do you think? [pause]
Austin: Figure has 0 in Prowl, right?
Dre: Yeah, no… [overlapping] I'm trash at Prowl.
Jack: [overlapping] I mean, if there's anything I'm helping you then… because you have an incredible… you have a magnificent head.
[others chuckle]
Keith: Too nice to sneak.
Jack: [chuckles]
Austin: Too nice to sneak… too big to sneak.
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: Uhm. Yeah. There's no way here I'm not helping you, whether that's through a… a sort of… [overlapping] an action or via helping.
Dre: [overlapping] A Lead Action or a… yeah.
Jack: Do you want to join me in trying to, sort of… infiltrate this rocket? Or do you want to do other stuff?
Dre: I definitely would like to see what is inside this rocket because, I mean, the only other thing I could think of would be if I just start punching people out here and that's probably no help.
Jack : No… (laughing) I don’t know if that helps! Yeah…
Austin: My touchstone, by the way, for this thing is a Mon Calamari Cruiser. I think it's probably a little more arrow-shaped than this?
Jack: [overlapping] Oh, sure!
Dre: [overlapping] Oooh!
Austin: But these are, like…. the sort of general shapes, right? It’s… [overlapping] It has that kind of, like rounded triangular vibe.
Keith: [overlapping] Toyota… the Toyota Corolla of the sky.
Austin: Sure.
Jack: And this thing is… is vertical? [overlapping] Or is…?
Austin: [overlapping] Vertical, it’s vertical. Yeah.
Jack: Yeah, right. Okay.
Austin: And again: holds a lot of people.
Jack: Yeah. Absolutely. And presumably, on a ship this size — and I sort of picture Kalar, like… crouching on scaffolding around it — I can see an entryway even if [overlapping] I don’t necessarily know how to open it. Right? There’s…
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah. There… There are a number of entry ways.
Jack: Doors, and…
Austin: In fact, I think you see someone leave it and shut one of the doors. You know? As they scurry off towards one of these… [overlapping] bunkers. Uhm…
Jack: [overlapping] Are they wearing… Curtain gear?
Austin: I’m gonna say… Yeah, yeah, yeah… absolutely Curtain gear. Sorry! No, no, no… no. Pact gear.
[pause]
Jack: They’re wearing Pact gear?
Austin: All of this… all of the people this far in are Pact.
Dre: Hm.
Jack: Oh, even down…
Austin: [overlapping] Yes, yes.
Jack: OK, I see. Even down here.
Austin: You were the ones who saw the Pact folks.
Keith: Wha—
Austin: Yeah. One hundred percent.
Keith: Then… But the people up above were…
Austin: Curtain.
Keith: Curtain.
Jack: Yeah. They— they've skipped their infiltrate… It seems to me like…
Austin: [overlapping] You don't…
Jack: [overlapping] The Pact’s infiltration plan has skipped…
Austin: I’m not going to… You don't have the information you need to know what happened here.
Keith: [overlapping] Pact and Curtain are the same!
Jack: [overlapping] I’m just guessing. No. Yeah…
Austin: Okay.
Jack: I'm guessing that, like… they have skipped the whole surface level infiltration scheme completely.
Austin: I think that you would know that would be remarkable for them to have not noticed that they're working on giant spaceships under… literally under their noses.
Keith: My…
Austin: I think Kalar would be smart enough to know that if they were working on these spaceships for weeks, someone upstairs would have found out.
Jack: Oh, fuck! Right, this is weeks, yes! I’d just sort of been picturing it, like…
Austin: No.
Jack: This infiltration that happened…
Austin: [overlapping] Yesterday or something.
Jack: [overlapping] Three hours ago. And everyone upstairs just hasn’t…
Austin: [overlapping] No, no! They're dug in!
Jack: Jesus…
Austin: Right, remember, Valor is flying above them.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah. Uh-huh.
Austin: [overlapping] An Apostolosian Divine.
Jack: Which we did think was weird at first…
Austin: Yes…
Jack: We did think that was strange.
Austin: Yeah…
Jack: OK. I don't care for any of this. (Laughing) All right. [overlapping] Figure, would you like…?
Austin: [overlapping] But yeah, so the thing I wanted to give you was: from your position, you can see one of these, like… engineers? This is not a scientist — this is someone who is clearly working on stuff interior to the ship — leaves, and… closing the door behind them, you see inside a soldier.
Jack: OK.
Austin: Different type of Armor. This is, like… a ship-based soldier, not a… not a… you know… this is someone who has basically… the uniform of someone providing security on board a ship like this.
Jack: Right.
Dre: Gotcha.
Jack: Are they wearing a pentagram sigil?
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Jack: Pentagon.
Austin: The Pentagon Sigil. Yes. Yeah. [overlapping] They're not cool enough to be a pentagram.
Jack: [overlapping] A pentagram is a witch!
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Jack: Is this a Pact… a classic Pact icon? Or is this…
Austin: This is, like… newly developed. Newly… they have to have a public face now, right? And so, to some degree,
Jack: [overlapping] Oh sure… they’ve got a branding…
Austin: [overlapping] I think they're branding… they've branded themselves here. Yeah.
Dre: Mm hmm.
Austin: And it's like five stars. You know?
Jack: Yeah.
Dre: [overlapping] Sure.
Austin: [overlapping] So it's a Pentagon constellation. I think it's unfinished? Like… the two squared off sides don't touch. Do you know what I mean? So it's almost, like… an arrow, like a five point arrow or something, you know?
Jack: Yeah. Huh… OK. [pause] I think Kalar just sort of, like… cocks his head at Figure like, “get over here…” beckoning with your head. And yeah. Let's… let's… let's try and do this. [overlapping] Do you want me…
Dre: [overlapping] I think, mechanics wise, it would be… Because how much Stress do you take if I fail an action if you do this… If you lead it as a group action? Is it two Stress?
Austin: [overlapping] You take one stress per failure.
Keith: [overlapping] Just one.
Dre: OK. I think that's probably going to be better…
Austin: That makes sense… [overlapping] Because…
Dre: [overlapping] Than, like, you helping me. Because even if you help me, I only have one die.
Keith: Yeah. Meanwhile, you can piggyback off… [overlapping] of Kalar’s success.
Austin: [overlapping] The 3 Prowl that Kalar has.
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] That is definitely the safer route here. So, yeah, so 3D6 from Kalar and 2D6 take lowest from Figure.
[pause]
Jack: Oh, fuck me, that's bad! I rolled a two, a one, and two.
Austin: Oh shit!
Keith: Wow.
Art: [shouting, from a distance] Ohh!
Austin: Oh, that's a hard failure!
Dre: [laughs]
Austin: Fuck! [overlapping] Dre rolled a 6 and a 2.
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah. I saw the six and my brain was, like… Green Square! [general laughter]
Austin: Yeah… no… no… That is a hard failure. So, first of all, take 2 Stress out the gate… Kalar.
Jack: Why two?
Austin: ‘Cause you failed too.
Jack: [pauses] Oh! It’s per…
Austin: [overlapping] I’m pretty sure? I’ll double-check.
Keith: [overlapping] Right, we were assuming… No, you’re right. We were assuming that Kalar was going to just do it.
Austin: [overlapping] “For each participant who rolled a 1 to 3.” Yes. So Kalar rolled 2, 1, 2. And… and Figure rolled 6, 2, take lowest — takes the 2. The… You manage to sneak past like the first set of people and, you know… the kind of exterior guards. And then… and then as you, kind of… go to get onto the… cross the the gangway to, like… get to one of the doors that you think is maybe like a little bit ajar? The the gangway swings out away from the ship, pulling you away from that entry point and slamming into one of the sides of the… of the… one of the sides of the… You know, what am I… what am I? What's the word I'm looking for here?
Jack: [overlapping] The bay?
Austin: [overlapping] Like the other scaffolding, basically? And… And one of you goes tumbling. So I think… I think, Figure: you go tumbling down. Take the Level 1 Harm, “bruised.” And then that sound also echoes up throughout the entire place, so the alarm moves up. By…
Dre: [overlapping] Question…
Austin: [overlapping] By one.
Keith: To three? [overlapping] Not to…
Austin: [overlapping] To three, correct. As people’re going…
Austin (as Guards): Wait, what was that noise?
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah. [laughs]
Austin: [overlapping] You can resist these.
Dre: Uhm… So, Austin, one of my abilities that I have…
Austin: Uh-hum?
Dre: … is called Tough as Nails…
Austin: [overlapping] Correct.
Dre: [overlapping] “Pentaties from harm are one level less severe”? Okay.
Austin: [overlapping] You take the Harm, but you don't take less effect until you take… until you get a Level 2 Harm.
Dre: [overlapping] Got you. OK.
Austin: But your Harm starts to fill up.
Dre: OK.
Austin: So you can just accept that if you want to and not resist it.
Dre: Yeah, I'll just take them.
Austin: Now we have the tough team over here, huh?
Dre: Uh-hum.
Austin: So then, yeah…
Jack: [overlapping] Tough boys gang!
Austin: [overlapping] You could try to resist the alarm going up. By, like… you know… quickly sturdying the thing, or preventing it from slamming into the side, maybe?
Dre: Hmm… [overlapping] Yeah…! Oh, OK…
Austin: [overlapping] I think it would be on Kalar more than Figure. Cos Figure, your consequence was that damage.
Dre: Gotcha. Okay.
Jack: [pauses] What kind of a resistance roll do you think this would be, Austin?
Austin: I think that’d be a prowess. You're... “Wait, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!” You know?
Jack: [overlapping] So I'd be rolling 3D6, and taking…
Austin: [overlapping] Yep. Six minus the lowest.
Jack: Six minus the lowest. [overlapping] I mean… Let me see…
Austin: [overlapping] Yes. Which, for the record, in the last roll you did… six minus the highest, not the lowest. Six minus the highest. So in the last roll you did, for instance, last 3D6, you would have taken 4. [chuckles] 4 Stress.
Jack: Yeah… [overlapping] Yeah, I’ll do it.
Austin: [overlapping] You would have to be better than that this time, right?
Jack: Yeah, so I’m just gonna roll 3D6.
Austin: A very funny thing that's happened here is y’all have so many good combat things?
Dre: [overlapping] Uh-hum.
Austin: [overlapping] But you've stayed out of combat…
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Like, for instance, SBBR has Forged in the Fire, which gives you those bonuses to resistance rolls in combat? But you're just not in combat. And so you’re just not…
Jack: This is…
Austin: It's very interesting.
Jack: This is part of why I am… [pause] the Stress that I'm spending here is the Stress that I would be using to fight a Divine…
Austin: Right, right.
Jack: Or something.
Austin: Right..
Jack: So there's a bit of me that's just, like… this is… And I think there's definitely a bit of Kalar that is, like… “this is the currency of the mission.”
Austin: Right.
Keith: I have more stress now than at a much more dire point [overlapping] in that Motion fight.
Jack: Yeah! Oh, in the…
Austin: Uh-huh?
Keith: [laughs]
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Here, let me… let me just paint something… let me just emphasize something for you. To some degree that should… that should feel like… Do you remember, at the very beginning, you were like… one of the things that comes up when you do Entanglements or when you do Engagement Rolls is, “Is there another force working against us here?” I was, like…
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] “Yes!” and you're, like… “Who is it?” And I was like: “you didn’t do the fucking legwork for that…” Yes, there is. Right? And I want that… I think that part of this should, in your own minds, have that feeling of, like… [chuckles] “why is nothing going the way I want it to?”
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: And for Kalar, we've talked about that being that sense of it being Valour in the air that's kind of corrupting this… the feeling of the mission a little bit? For Phrygian, it is the sense that Branched tech has been through here, right? For Sovereign Immunity, it's seeing all these old… these old rebels. And for and for… for The Figure, it's the sense that, like… “Am I working with people who would stab me in the back the second I turn my back to them, because they don't trust the person who I trust, and who I work for?”
And I think that that is a degree of, like… To me, that's part of why things should should be colored as stressful as they are,even though what's really happening is rolls? Like… the TV episode would be framing these shots such to to emphasize those relationships, those fears, those stressors. Anyway, you’re gonna roll this 3D6 to resist.
[pause]
Austin: There you go. That's a 5. That's not so bad. Take 1 Stress.
Jack: I just take one Stress. [overlapping] Just…
Austin: [overlapping] Oh, boy, that’s your 6th point, huh?
Jack: Yeh.
Austin: OK.
Jack: Uhm… Just… yeah. It's like… it's like when the bottle starts rolling towards the edge in the slapstick movie…
Austin: Yeah, yes.
Jack: … you see us reaching out.
Austin: You reach out, you grab it. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So the thing doesn't shake, there’s no loud bang, but you are now far away from where you were trying to get into the spaceship. [chuckles]
Jack: And the alarm is back down to two, right?
Austin: Yes, I’m going to move that alarm back down to two.
Jack: Hmm, OK.
Austin: Also, I should emphasize: it would be really bad at this situation if this alarm goes off. While you were outside, it was almost less scary for that alarm to go off.
Jack: Now we’re in the fucking Pact space!
Austin: You're in the heart of the fucking beast, right? So. So, yeah. So good job managing that alarm. Let's stay with you for another beat before we go back up to Point Diamond. I'll let y’all, like, kind of tell me if you get back together, if you're gonna go about this a different way, if you're gonna try to find another route in there or something… But that's up to you.
[Pause]
Jack: Hmm. How do you feel about this, Dre? I fucking want to get into that spaceship, [overlapping] is the problem. But now you're...
Dre: [overlapping] No, yeah, me too.
Jack: How close is The Figure to an entrance point close to the ground?
Austin: I mean, I think you're both pretty high up right now. You have a long way down to go. That could have been really bad.
Jack: Right, Figure hasn't fallen far.
Austin: Yeah. We're lucky that Figure hit another piece of scaffolding, right? Below you is death. A hard fall here would kill either one of you. Even you, Kalar.
Dre: Sure
Jack: Right. Yeah, totally.
Austin: I know you can glide a little bit. You'd roll for it. You know what I mean? But like… But it's a very far drop. It would be very… It’d be very intensive for you to, like… [chuckles] flap your way… down.
Dre: Oh. Hey, wait a minute. I'm looking at my items.
Austin: Yes. [overlapping] Always look at your items.
Dre: [overlapping] I have a grav-chute.
Austin: Oh! You do!
Jack: I’m sorry?!
Dre: “An advanced piece of gear that uses anti-gravity tech to safely slow the wearer’s descent.”
Austin: Yeah. You want a pop to that and take that Harm back?
Dre: Uhm…
Austin: Or do you wanna use that to get down?
Dre: Yeah, I’ll prolly’ use that to get down.
Austin: Okay.
Dre: I mean, honestly, the Harm doesn't really matter to me.
Austin: Yeah, I gotcha. So, yeah, I listen! Between that and Kalar gliding, you could… y'all could make some sort of Roll to get down to the bottom of this ship.
Jack: To an… to an entrance door?
Austin: Presumably? [chuckles]
Jack: [overlapping] Well, it’s like… Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] At the very least likely less trafficked. Right? As far as you can see…
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah.
Jack: I'd still want to be moving ourselves further away from…
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah.
Jack: [overlapping] … you know, progress on the ship. Right?
Austin: You would need a… You know, it's the system, right? You need a roll to find a place in. And I think it's fair to say that the the bottom level here will be less trafficked in this moment, probably… than the rest… than up where you are, where you've seen a lot of activity. Where there are guards looking for people. Because there's a way into this area up there. There doesn't seem to be a way in down there — which means you kind of be trapping yourself in a dead end. But it does mean you could probably act a little more freely without risking being seen. Right? And without risking falling to your death at that point.
[pause]
Jack: [overlapping] What do you think, Dre?
Austin: [overlapping] And as always, we try to Study to find something, and get a little bonus here.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: But… Or Survey.
[pause]
Dre: Uhm… Yeah, I mean, could I do a Study to try and find, like, another way to get into the ship? [overlapping] Besides just that door?
Jack: [overlapping] That's close to our level?
Austin: That’s… Yea… I… I would have it be broader than that. If… depending on the roll. You know what I mean? So, yeah, you could. This would be, again, a Risky… a Risky Standard to do this, because you're still up in that area surrounded by people.
Dre: Right.
Austin: This is not a simple Gather Information, you know? But you could push yourself; you could get help; you could ask for Controlled… or you can ask for Collateral Die.
Dre: Just double checking Moves and Items and everything. [pauses] Is it 2 Stress to push yourself? [overlapping] Right?
Austin: [overlapping] It is… It is 2 Stressed to push yourself, correct.
Dre: OK. Yeah, I can push myself on this.
Austin: OK.
Dre: So I’ll give you 3d6.
[pause]
Austin: Hey, that's a six! [overlapping] There we go.
Dre: [overlapping] Yeaaay.
Keith: Nice.
Austin: Yeah, I think on a… on a 6… I'm going to give you… Are we calling this a… What do we call this! Was this a Setup Action or was this just a… trying to figure out, like, fictionally what's on the table. I think I wanna give this to you, I think.
Dre: [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] I think that with a 6… You see a door that's been left open in the middle of the… of the ship. Down… let's say, twelve floors? Something like that? Not all the way down, but down a bunch of floors, with another gangway that connects to it. Another kind of walkway over… that you didn't see at first because of the way that the shadow, the light hit it. But that's a way in. And so, yeah, you can you can you can find your way down there and you make your way in. Do the two of you just do that?
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah, it sounds good to me.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah. I think so. Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] OK. Cool. So, yeah, you had it in. And the last detail I wanna give you before we switch back over is just: the ship is currently in… like, is in… like, vertical seated mode where the… there are… What it thinks… Not what it thinks, but it's arranged such that there's like walkways on what once it's up in space will become walls. So it's almost as if it's been… It's lots of ladders and lots of vertical climbing up and down between levels? And in between rooms, in a way that once it's up in the air and horizontal in space, that stuff will be horizontal. Do you know what I mean?
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah.
Dre: [overlapping] Hmm…
Austin: [overlapping] Does that make… sense? So you, like, literally climbing in and out of rooms. I mean, lots of things are just like… you know, basically welded to the side of… things. And there's some sort of, like, modular furniture arrangement where like the furniture is, you know, the chairs can slide from one wall to another on a track that then locks them in place. So like, you know that… a chair and a desk can slide from being on what would be your wall to being on your floor depending on what orientation the ship is in. And right now, it's… it's in the proper mode. And as you go in, you, again, hear a call from inside the… from inside the ship, there's, like, an onboard, you know, PA call that says:
Austin (as Voice on PA): Alright, we're moving all gangplanks away for total security. Make sure all doors are locked. We're gonna settle in for the night. You know, anytime… anytime there's attack… or an attack, we want to make sure that this… this vessel is secure. So everyone… Keep it… Keep it quiet. Report anything you hear. Over.
Kalar: Come in, Sovereign Immunity!
Sovereign Immunity: Yeah.
Kalar: We've trapped ourselves on the rocket ship. Over.
Austin: [overlapping] I mean, your door is still open.
Sovereign Immunity: [overlapping] Trapped yourself…
Austin: I want to be clear. Your door is still open.
Jack: [laughs] OK. It’s not, like…
Austin: But someone's gonna come close it because it's on record as being open. You know what I mean? So.
Jack: Yeah. Okay.
Kalar: Correction. We might be about to trap ourselves on the rocket ship. It doesn't seem like it's going to launch or anything, but they, like, locking it down.
Sovereign Immunity: Now, what do you say on the rocket ship? Do you mean on top of the rocket ship or do you mean within the rocke— like, traveling on the rocket ship?
Kalar: Uh… The latter.
Sovereign Immunity: Okay. That's… That's better.
Austin: [laughs]
Keith: Hm…
Austin: We cut back to you, Sovereign Immunity, standing before these four doors: Cell and then ST1, ST2, ST3. [pause] What do you do?
Art: Great question. Uhm…
Austin: The Cell door is similarly removed from its hinges… and is, like, leaning against the doorframe? So like, it’s… It’s still blocking your view from that… from that… whatever is down that next hallway. But it's… it has been removed, clearly.
Art: [overlapping] And it has…
Austin: [overlapping] But then more and more gently, placed to the side.
Art: But it's a hallway. It's deep like a hallway.
[pause]
Art: Uhm…
Keith: This is down… This is down the hatch already?
Austin: You're already down— Yes, you already gone down from the security hall. The security room. Yeah.
Art: Do I have to take a Load for a flashlight? Flashlight. Flashlight is Load… That’s…
Austin: Is it?
Art: Yeah.
Austin: OK.
Art: It feels like it should be one of those not Load things.
Austin: Yeah.
Art: Alright, I'll take it! Wait. One, two, three. Yeah, I'll take it.
Austin: OK. Where are you at on Load?
Art: This is 3 of 5.
Austin: OK.
Austin: Uhm…
Art: And I'm gonna… gonna shine a flashlight down this hallway.
Austin: You know, it cuts across the dark here…
Art: Or hallway-appearing-thing.
Austin: Yeah. Are you moving the door to get a better view? You just kind of peeking through the bit that's uncovered?
Keith: [overlapping] Hm.
Art: [overlapping] I'm going to start with that.
Austin: OK. The shape of this thing is that it's a hallway with a wall on the right hand side that comes to a stop — I would say — 20, 30… Let's say 30 feet in front of you. A hard wall stop. And then on the left side, it seems to open a bunch. And because you're shining a flashlight in there, you see the flashlight catches, like, some sort of plastic or glass separator from the rest of what is a room from the hallway. So it's almost like…
And I'll just, again, draw straight up on here. Just… This is not the scale, right? But… it's like… Here's the door. Right? Here… So, like, let's say… Hold up. Let's say that that's the door. Or let's say that that's the room you're in. Right? Is like this. Right? And then, the… the Cell door is on the north side of this thing. It goes all the way up. The hallway goes up like this. It goes over it goes down… So there’s a hallway… It doesn't have that bad curve in it. But then there seems to be a room that then is attached to it like that. Do you see what I mean? And that middle…
Art: Oh…!
Austin: It's a cell. It's another cell that you're looking at. Right?
Art: But it's huge!
Austin: It's big. It's bigger. It's big. Yes.
Art: Yeah.
Keith: I… I hate that. I hate a big cell.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Is that some kind of plastic…
Austin: And…
Jack: … plastic…
Austin: Correct.
Jack: … window? Or like…?
Austin: You'd have to go in there to investigate further.
Keith: [overlapping] We thought…
Art: [overlapping] Yeah, let’s go.
Austin: Alright.
Keith: We thought the cell up there is bad. But this one is.
Art: What you said? There are three other doors like this?
Austin: There are three other doors. Yeah. ST1, ST2 and ST3.
Keith: [overlapping] Perfect cell.
Art: [overlapping] Well, we’ll start with this one and then we'll work our way over.
Austin: Totally.
Art: [overlapping] Or we'll be dead in five minutes.
Austin: [overlapping] Yep.
Keith: [overlapping] I have a quick… I have a quick nuts-and-bolts question.
Austin: Sure.
Keith: We all did our disguises, right? And I have subterfuge supplies.
Austin: You do.
Keith: One of my italic items that don't count is Inconspicuous Clothing.
Austin: Sure.
Keith: Can I have done that instead?
Austin: No. [overlapping] That's not a disguise.
Keith: [overlapping] OK.
Austin: You are a Branched. [pause] Like… [chuckles] you need a disguise.
Keith: Mm.
Austin: Your face is made of living wires. [pause] You are the enemy of this people. They are racist and terrible. Uh… So, as you step in… to this place, you see this long plastic or glass thing and it comes to a point… You know, it's probably the actual doorway in is actually probably, like, in the middle of it. And that has been shattered.
But it's been shattered in a way that doesn't look at the way glass shatters. It's almost as if there's, like… You know, glass shatters and like all these different shapes. Do you know what I mean? You punch through a wall of glass and you look down and there's, like, it's… jagged and weird. Right? This has been broken… As if it had been weakened through a series of, like, concentric… acid marks or something? It's almost as if it's been chewed? [overlapping] Or burned?
Keith: [overlapping] Ah, like those rashes! Or something.
Austin: Something like that. Yes. Or what happened to the consoles up above the security consoles. And then burst through. And so it ends up being— it still has a sort of jagged stuff, but it's almost as if it's, like, it was weakened then broken through…
Keith: Perforated glass.
Austin: Sort of. Yeah. And inside in the dark, as you move your flashlight across this whole space, you see… there's a… It's a well-appointed cell. To some degree, at least. There is a bed. There is a… shelf with, like, a book… a bookshelf with a number of books on it and other sorts of things. Other sorts of like, you know, little… statues and stuff.
There is a… One of the walls is… a kind of a fake outside window that provides light when it's on — you know, this, like, device. It's not operational right now, but it… you know, that's, like, what it's supposed to do is like give you the impression of looking outside. There's enough space to, like, move around a little bit to work out, et cetera.
But there is something else here which immediately gives… There are two other things. It kind of gives something away. The first is there are just chains on the wall. Where you immediately understand this is like: “oh, if this person is being punished, they just get chained to the wall.” If this… if this prisoner is being… you know, punished for bad behaviour or whatever, they just get tripped up, chained to the wall.
The second thing is coming up through the cracks in the corners and maybe even through parts of the floor are little bits of grass. And… the chained parts, the chains on the wall, and the kind of clasps, have been covered over with moss. And you get the sense that this place is, like, a little damper than the rest of… the area — that the rest of the prison that you walked through. But there is not a prisoner here.
Keith: Even though we're underground in the…
Austin: Yeah. I mean, the rest of it’s, like, deeply climate controlled and blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean? This is like… This feels… This feels alive in a way that the other places didn’t.
Keith: OK.
Austin: And again, you get this… Here you get the sense of being watched. [overlapping] In a way that usually…
Keith: [overlapping] These are the walls of the inside of this cell room?
Austin: Yes.
Keith: Is what we're looking at…? OK.
Austin: You're in that cell now. You can continue to look around here for additional stuff. I don't know. I don't know if there's enough for you to be like: “aha! I've got it!” here… But…
Keith: Well, you said we're being watched. [overlapping] So I…
Austin: [overlapping] You get the soul feeling. Yeah.
Keith: I would like… I would like to explore that with a with a Gather Information.
Austin: This would not be a Gather Information. [overlapping] This would be a Risky Standard Action Roll.
Keith: [overlapping] It’d be an Action Roll?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Of Study?
Austin: A Study or Survey. I think Survey would give you better results here because that's about what's… predicting outcomes about what's popping off. Study would give you more information about what happened here, about what the… area around you was used for, etc. I’d still give you some insight into the situation at hand. But…
Keith: [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] But Survey is the more than thing for “hey, who is watching me?”
Keith: Let's do Survey. And what… What's the Collateral Die sitch on this?
Austin: Uhm… [sighs] I don’t even I have a good one at this point where things are kind of already lined up.
Keith: Ehh, give me a bad one!
[Keith and Dre laugh]
Austin: I mean, a bad one is you suffer Harm. You'll suffer a level one Harm.
Keith: If I… if I fail or [overlapping] just regardless?
Austin: [overlapping] No. If you take a Collateral Die, the thing happens. Even if you succeed.
[pause]
Art: You're sure you don't just want a… [overlapping] little bit of help?
Keith: [overlapping] No, I want a good one.
Austin: Yeah, well!
Keith: Well, let's hear what [overlapping] a good Collateral Die is like.
Austin: [overlapping] No. That's the Collateral Die for this. This is the situation you’re in.
Keith: [overlapping] Alright. I’m curious.
Austin: So you taking it?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: OK.
Keith: Six.
Austin: Look at you! Alright. The… I mean, I'll make the… The situation becomes very clear for you. Because you're going to take the Level 1 Harm unless you can Resist the Harm. You just have to Resist the Harm if you want to Resist the Harm. Let's see.
Keith: I will resist the Harm…!
Austin: You might Stress out from it. [overlapping] Just let's make sure you're 100 percent clear on it. ‘Cause you are very close.
Keith: [overlapping] OK. Do my Reflexes here help me?
Austin: This will be a… no. No.
Keith: OK.
Austin: Because you just have to roll through this. This will be a… Prowess Resist, which you're good at. Which is good. The Harm… comes from the sense that the wiring that makes up your body — the kind of wires and cables that make up your body — begin to kind of… become… incoherent? They begin to, like, lose their connection with each other?
Keith: [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] Do you know how you always talk about your… You have… an altogether convincing face?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: The face becomes less convincing.
Keith: Got it.
Austin: As you begin to dissolve. You take the Level 1 Harm… “dissolving.”
Keith: And I can't… [overlapping] Could or could I…
Austin: [overlapping] You could Resist it!
Keith: I could resist it. But what if I took Armor? [overlapping] What if I had Armor on?
Austin: [overlapping] This is not the sort of thing that takes Armor for. This isn't like a bullet. You could take… If you had some sort of Super Special Armor. Let me see. Mm…
Keith: Oh, I actually do have…! Let's see! For free I have Environmental Suit.
Austin: You could declare that. You could totally…
Keith: OK.
Austin: Wait, how do you that for free? Jesus!
Keith: It's just one of my free things. [overlapping] I have an Environmental Suit.
Austin: [overlapping] I guess. Is that everybody? I guess everybody has one of those. Yeah. [pause] Oh, it's Load 0 if worn, its Load 2… So. I… You will have to declare that as an additional thing, because we know that you were… [overlapping] We know that you were wearing a disguise.
Keith: [overlapping] Was not… I was not wearing it.
Austin: Right. So you would have to declare that as a Level… As a 2… Let me see if that's what it says. It says…
Keith: [overlapping] 2 if carried.
Austin: [overlapping] Load 0 if worn, 2 if carried as a secondary outfit. So if you were upstairs, like: “you know what, I'm gonna slip this on!” [chuckles]
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] Which… fair! That’d cost 2 Load.
Keith: [overlapping] Right. Or it would be…
Austin: [overlapping] Which would leave you with 1 Load.
Keith: Or it would be a flashback, which is 2 Stress.
Austin: I would give you the flash… Well. No. It would be a… It would not be a flashback. Because the flashback… You would have not… There was a point at which you could not have been wearing that suit, which is when you came inside to the… base.
Keith: [overlapping] Right. Right.
Austin: [overlapping] Right? Uhm… And at that point… At the point at which the mission starts, the way you declare that Load is my spending Load.
Keith: [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] It’s not by spending…
Keith: I can't flashback to the upstairs prison to be like: “wow. Right before we go down here, ‘I bet…’”
Austin: I’m gonna put on the thing…
Keith: “... I’m gonna put on this!” [overlapping] I'm seeing these weird rashes…
Austin: [overlapping] The thing there is it would still have been…
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: … a second suit that you carried with you.
Keith: Right.
Austin: [overlapping] Into the mission.
Keith: [overlapping] So it would have been 2 Load before.
Austin: It would… It would be to Load no matter what.
Keith: Right.
Austin: And the only time that it wouldn't have been 2 Load is if you said at the beginning of the mission…
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah, yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] … before you came in the door… ‘fore you… Before you get in the car, “I'm going to put on the Environmental Suit.” And you can flash back to doing that.
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah. Uhum.
Austin: [overlapping] But we can't do that, because it would… because it would retcon you coming in the front door dressed the way you were dressed.
Keith: Right.
Austin: You know?
Keith: Okay. So let's do the…
Austin: [overlapping] But I will let…
Keith: [overlapping] Let me hear the math on the Resist roll, though.
Austin: [overlapping] It would be…
Keith: [overlapping] So…
Austin: 3d6.
Keith: [overlapping] 3d6
Austin: [overlapping] And you take Stress equal to 6 minus the highest die.
Keith: On six minus the highest to die.
Austin: I'm gonna give you the… You also rolled a 6. You're gonna get what you want from this, which is figure out what the fuck is going on in terms of who is… after you here? [chuckles]
Keith: Yeah…
Austin: But you do take this Harm. But you're not gonna… You're gonna take this Harm, but this person is not going to get the drop on you if that makes sense, because you did succeed here. I want to be clear about that.
Keith: Yeah.
[pause]
Austin: So you want to resist or do you wanna… you wanna…?
Keith: [sighs, then overlapping] This sucks.
Austin: Let me… Let me give you a yes before you… [overlapping] Let me give you the success…
Keith: [overlapping] OK, OK.
Austin: So you know what the fuck is going on here. This is like the… There's like a canary in the coal mine situation here, which is that you specifically are responding to… It's almost like sympathetic neurons or something — where because you are a Branched, you’re responding to this other Brancht… Branched… like, self… or their state before even Sovereign Immunity does. Uhm… This is the touch of a Branched who is named Corrasion. Named for the type of erosion that happens when waves slam against the rock.
Keith: Does that anything you do with that… What, we were talking about sea glass, right? What was that about?
Austin: That's a different thing.
Keith: [overlapping] Oh, OK.
Austin: [overlapping] That was just the way that Cas’alear had been… had been… had gone through surgery. And had gotten kind of a new cybernetic enhancements after the…
Keith: OK.
Austin: … after their wounds. This does have to do with the person who dug those holes!
Keith: Sure. [overlapping] Right!
Austin: [overlapping] Who, in that moment, you realize is a Branched working for The Pact. Which is stunning in some ways.
Keith: [sighs]
Austin: And bad.
Jack: What's this name again?
Austin: It’s Corrasion. C-o-r-r-a-s-i-o-n.
Jack: [overlapping] Huh.
Austin: [overlapping] And it is clear they are the person who has dissolved much of the things above; who led this attack inte… on the interior of this base; and who is coming for you now. Because… Again, it's like… it's like catching them, their smell on the wind, except it would have burned you. Again, unless you resisted.
Keith: 6. Hoohh!
Austin: There you go! No Stress!
Keith: [sighs in relief]
Austin: What’s good! Uhm… So, yeah, they're coming down the… You can… You can feel them getting closer.
Keith: For anyone who's lost track, I have s… I have only…
Austin: [overlapping] 3 Stress you’re playing with…
Keith: [overlapping] I have 3 Stress left. I only have two free spaces before…
Austin: Yeah. It's a rough one.
Keith: Before I hit the… The…
Austin: Oh yeah.
Keith: What do we call… What do we call these this season?
Austin: Scars. They’re Scars.
Keith: Scars.
Austin: Are you… [overlapping] Are you warning…
Keith: [overlapping] Oh, they’re right there.
Austin: Are you warning… Sovereign Immunity?
Keith: Yes. Oh yeah. Uhm. And I might I might even… I might even flick on the… throat mic for this. Uhm. Yeah. I communicate that I'm like, “there's a Branched here, watch out!” There's… You know.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Do I… Do… This is, like… Corrosive…
Austin: Uhum.
Keith: [overlapping] Erosion.
Austin: [overlapping] Not acidic!
Keith: It’s not acidic.
Austin: [overlapping] It is like… physic…
Keith: [overlapping] But it’s like a thousand years of erosion in a second.
Austin: [overlapping] But in a second. Exactly.
Keith: Right.
Austin: That's exactly right.
Keith: So I say that.
Austin: Yeah. Not good.
Kalar: Yikes. Okay. [overlapping] Stay safe.
Art: [overlapping] Yikes indeed!
Phrygian: Thank you.
Kalar: Let us know if there's anything we can do. Uhm…
Jack: I don't think… Austin can our…
Keith: Don't… don't need our help.
Jack: [laughs] Doesn’t our… our Improved Communications [overlapping] let us help with rolls remotely?
Austin: [overlapping] Totally could help the rolls remotely. If you can tell me how. A hundred percent.
Jack: OK. Yeah. Great. Good to know. [overlapping] So that’s a…
Austin: [overlapping] If there’s a great, like, “hey there’s a bomb we need to… defuse. Can someone talk me through it?” type thing, you know.
Jack: Right. Okay. Good to know.
Austin: Oh yeah.
Keith: Uhm.
Jack: We haven't seen Corrasion yet, as far as we know? The camera.
Austin: I mean, did you see… When did you first see Deck 7?
Jack: Yeah. Yeah. So like… [laughs] The answer might be: absolutely.
Austin: [overlapping] Uh-huh.
Jack: [overlapping] We've absolutely not seen them. Uhm…
Austin: Yeah. I mean, I think that's what I'll say is — I think it's fair to say — you've probably traveled through Corrasion at this point.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah. Uhum.
Austin: [overlapping] Corrasion was probably upstairs… Corrasion was certainly in the… in the hallways. Corrasion is… I'll wait for them to to speak for themselves a little bit here just in case. But but let's…
Jack: [overlapping, chuckling] You’ll wait for them to finish their dread hunt.
Keith: [overlapping] Do I know Corrasion?
Austin: I don't know. Give me… Give me a… Give me a roll. Give me a 3D6 the way that SI did before.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: You know, there's a chance! Yes. There's… There's a big chance… Like, for me… [overlapping] Actually, let’s not roll dice. What’s more interesting for you? What’s more interesting for you?
Keith: [overlapping] There’s only so many Branched get here.
Austin: Is this a different Branched that you've never met? Or is it that this is somebody you met back in the Golden Branch? Or is it… is it someone who came with you on your team? And is changed?
Keith: I think that these are all plausible and could all be interesting.
Austin: Do you want to decide one or would you rather leave it up for a roll?
Keith: I'll… I'll leave it up for the roll.
Austin: Alright, what do we think a 6 is? [chuckles]
Keith: So we think. 6… 6 is…
Austin: You know them.
Keith: I know… I know them intimately.
Austin: Right. 4-5 is [overlapping] you knew them back in the day.
Keith: [overlapping] Not intimately. At least just very well.
Austin: Right-right-right.
Keith: Yeah. I know… Or know of them…
Austin: [overlapping] And then a 1-3 is… Stranger.
Keith: [overlapping] And then fail… A failure is… Yeah.
Austin: OK.
Keith: Stranger.
Austin: Gimme 3d6! This is no Stress. That's a 6!
Keith: 6.
Austin: So yeah. They came with you on this trip.
Keith: Right.
Austin: You recognize them immediately — except the… the version of them that you knew would never have done this to a person.
Keith: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] You remember, we had all these talks about, like, how you don't want your War Form to be the form that you are, right?
Keith: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: To be the self… This is someone who is, like: “no, I… I love feeling like a river tearing through a valley. And also now I want to do that to people. Why don't I just do that to people? [chuckles] There's lots of things to be one of them is the type of thing that kills people.”
Keith: Right.
Austin: And… This is… You recognize this immedia… At this point, it clicks into place. You know, maybe there's a certain, like, smell in the air that puts it together for you. But it's unthinkable that the person who, like, came here to help figure out what the deal was with Gur Sevraq and Autonomy Itself would now be doing this, too.
Keith: Now…
Austin: On behalf of The Pact of Necessary Venture.
Keith: Now that I know that this is Corrasion, can I see them? Like, have I, like: [overlapping] “Oh, now there you are!”
Austin: [overlapping] I think that, you know, you would… they were in one… that they were one of the cells above. You know what I mean? Or something like that.
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] You know what I mean?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But now, you know, you can feel that dread coming closer and closer to you.
Keith: [overlapping] Uhum.
Austin: [overlapping] It sounds like rushing water. It sounds like water… If we just get a single shot of water running down the latticed metal stairwell, coming down into this basement floor. As if like… As if someone's opened a hose at the top.
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] And as it does, the stairs start to like… you know, give way. The hole in the grates grow bigger.
Keith: [overlapping] And this is not…
Austin: [overlapping] As the links get wider and wider.
Keith: This is not their War Form. This is their… themself.
Austin: It seems to… It would seem to me and the camera that this is… this is what it looks like when you give up that idea that you need a War Form separate from the form you want to hurt people with.
Keith: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] Or separate from the form you want to be day to day.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: This is a Branched who says: “fuck it baby, let's go!” The identity… Of all identities… And this is the thing that I think — I guess is probably worth saying is — that: like, the Branched, as we first understood them, can be anything. But caught in that with the… asterisk is, like — based on what we knew about the way the Golden Branch operated in the Branch as a culture operated — there was a degree of, like, “your freedom to throw your fist ends at my nose” about them.
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] They were not a people who… went to war, that invaded other people.
Keith: [overlapping] Uhum.
Austin: [overlapping] And so by default that means… Or, by process of elimination, that means we know that one of the things that they refuse to be is… None of them were like: “and I dream to be a colonist.” [chuckles]
Keith: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] And that's my ideal form. “Give me the fuckin…”
Keith: [overlapping] They’ve… They’ve been… [chuckles]
Austin: [overlapping] “... safari hat! Give me the…”
Keith: They've been dragged by The Divine Principality into being a people that have…
Austin: [overlapping] Have to fight at all!
Keith: [overlapping] … have people in a war.
Austin: And now what you're seeing is someone who goes a step beyond that and says: “No, my ideal self is someone who dissolves other people. That's the self I want to be.” And that means… And, like, “a self exists in conversation with others already. I'm no different than someone who wants to make other people smile. I just want to make other people dissolve. That other person also requires the other person as part of their selfhood. But for me, the thing I want to do is make people dissolve!”
Keith: Right. [overlapping] Like an asshole.
Austin: [overlapping] “I didn’t realize that before!” You know? And maybe this is…
Jack: [overlapping] “It’s my vocation!”
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah. “It's my vocation. This is… This is a calling for me.”
Keith: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] “You understand this. You just don't happen to be built this way. You just happen to not want to do this. But if you did, then join me.” You know, that's the sort of… That's the sort of, you know… Maybe this is happening, like, enzymatically. Maybe there's some sort of weird Branched pseudo conversation happening here.
Keith: [overlapping] Uhum.
Austin: [overlapping] In which you can feel that intent sweep into the room?
Keith: OK. Well, then I'm… I'm intending then to try and figure out if they were… captured? That's the only thing that makes sense is if they were captured like I was captured.
Austin: Uhum.
Keith: And whoever captured them did a better job of it…
Austin: Uhm… [overlapping] Yeah. The answer is yes!
Keith: Because presumably this is what they wanted for me, too.
Austin: So that is the difference. They did not want this from you. They wanted to turn you into a gun or something. Right, like, literally.
Keith: Right. [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] They were experimenting on you. I think that Corrasion just says this to you. Or maybe it echoes here: it's the sound of water taking voices… taking voice. And it says, like:
Austin (as Corrasion): I just didn't know all of the things I could be yet. They showed me more Form. They didn't have to torture me, Phrygian. I was already curious.
Keith: Is that true?
Austin: Yeah. To a degree! Like, what's radicalization look like? Would this have worked 200 years ago when… you know, whenever before the Golden… the war had started between the Branched? Probably not.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Probably not. But there'd been a swelling of that. And… And I think this is… [overlapping] actually, maybe more than that. We have to say.
Keith: [overlapping] People who already had to go to war.
Austin: Right, I think just the things they added to that that helps sell this to you is, like:
Corrasion: The Pact also wants to destroy The Principality. The nations will still exist when it's over, but they'll be just like the Branched: small… self-contained. They'll be checks against themselves. They'll leave our territory alone. Kesh might still want it, but we’ll dissolve Kesh overnight without the support of Apostolos and Orion and everyone else. [pause] Why wouldn't I work for the Pact?
[pause]
Keith: Hmm. As a… player… my understanding… I think that they're wrong, that The Pact would be…
Austin: [chuckles]
Keith: … like, would would turn The Principality into a less significant… [overlapping] force…
Austin: [overlapping] I'd… No. Narra… Let's be clear. The Pact goal is to separate The Principality into five states.
Keith: [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] And then to dethrone the Princept and replace it with a sort of federation council of leaders from each of those five states.
Keith: [overlapping] But do…
Austin: [overlapping] There would still be a unified body, but it would be… it would definitely be less cohesive and more internally combative and competitive than what The Principality is now.
Keith: [overlapping] And you think the less… galactically imperialist?
Austin: No, it’d still be imperialist, but it would be an imperial…
Jack: [chuckles]
Austin: It would be an imperialist power that would be happy to… that would — in some cases — be happy to see one of its rivals inside of its body lose territory, for instance. Right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: It would be a body that would not think that the death of Kesh would be the death of It. And so that is where they get to the point where they say: “listen, we could dissolve Kesh…” And… And you're probably right that the way that real power functions is there'll be a point at which the… You know, the NATO powers are gonna defend each other, you know.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But they are not the same nation… At the same time. They represent ideologically the same thing and enforce it with power…
Keith: Right. [overlapping] The United States.
Austin: [overlapping] And they operate alongside other things like the International Monetary Fund and bla-bla-bla-blah. You know what I mean. We know how this fucking works.
Keith: [overlapping] We know.
Austin: [overlapping] But it is not a lot… We know. But it is not a lie to say that The Pact's goal is to overthrow The Principality status quo and replace it with a League of Nations, you know, or something. You know, not a single …
Keith: Uhum.
Austin: … not a single body run by a single person. But… but a group of five states who have a great deal more autonomy to determine what they are internally.
Jack: Also, they… They kinda like to kill god, right?
Austin: They would love to kill god. Well, we guess. I don't know. We'll find out what they want to do in time.
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah.
Jack: [overlapping] Well, yeah. We’re not sure. Something… [chuckles] You know, the two prongs…
Austin: [chuckles]
Jack: Two pronged tactic to make us sort of a five nation state.
Austin: Yes.
Jack: Step One. [overlapping] Step Two…
Austin: [overlapping] Step Two: attack and dethrone god.
Jack: [wheeze-laughs]
Austin: Yeah. [pause] They were not…
Jack: [overlapping, sighs] Ehhh…
Austin: [overlapping] You know, they definitely saw Millenium Break as a potential puppet, but they… It's only because they saw Millennium Break as being vaguely aligned with certain things inside of them. You know?
Keith: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] Inside of their own goals.
Keith: [sighs animatedly] Ehhh…
Austin: We can cut away as you think about this stuff really quick and go back to the spaceship, if you want to.
Jack: I fucking hate The Pact. [half-chuckling] They're real bad news.
Austin: [overlapping] They’re real bad news!
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah.
Jack: I mean, The Curtain are a real bad news. [overlapping] But The Pact are also… [laughs]
Austin: [overlapping] They’re all real bad news!
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah, they’re all bad news…
Austin: [overlapping] Just let The Curtain lick their wounds for a little bit. They'll be back. They'll be back and better than ever. You know?
Jack: Also, we can terraform small areas of planets…? By making the air differently breathable…?
Austin: Yeah, but remember, they got that from something else. It is an important note.
Jack: [chuckles] Oh, sure. Yes.
Austin: So. You know, they've been working on some shit. What… What do you…
Austin: What are you up to… Citrine folks?
[pause]
Dre: So, we're in a spaceship.
Austin: Uh-huh?
[pause]
Austin: What he tried to find in the speech. Maybe that's where we can… we can kind of instrumentalize your your task.
Dre: Yeah. Uhm… The thing that comes to me first is, like, figuring out how many people are in here.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] Good call.
Jack: Is this some sort of…
Austin: Like a computer or a man…? [overlapping] Yeah.
Jack: [overlapping] Like a wall console that shows a manifest or something?
Austin: You can… Yeah, there's a… You know, I think you find… you know, you kind of, like, peeking around and being careful — I’m just generally assuming you're being a stealthy as possible here —
Jack: [overlapping] Oh, yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] … and you… you find a a wall console that has, like, a… It's like one of those, like, really big, heavy metal computer monitors that has, like… you know, orange text on. Orange, you know… Everything on the screen, it is, like, black and orange and that is it. Monochrome…?
Jack: Yes.
Austin: With a fold-out keyboard that all… Like, every click is that, like, heavy mechanical spring. It almost clanks as you type into it. This would probably be… This would be a Study or… Probably a Study to interface with this thing. Not an Interface, because, again, Interface is more Perennial and Divine shit. And this is not a Divine. [pause] So I’ll say Study, maybe Engineer, you know?
Jack: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] It's not as direct, but… I don’t know if either of you have Study…?
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah. Uhm…
Dre: [overlapping] I do.
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah, OK. Give me a Study…?
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah. Sure.
Austin: [overlapping] Is it still… This is still Risky. Anytime you're interfacing with a… [chuckles] spaceship you don't know and you're not supposed to be on is goin’ to be tricky. So 2d6 by default. Any… Any help?
[pause]
Jack: [overlapping] Nnnno.
Dre: [overlapping] I don't think I’m gonna Push Myself here, just in case I've got to Resist something. OK.
Jack: I am also worried about my Stress.
Austin: [overlapping] Yep.
Jack: [overlapping] So I think I'm going to hold off helping.
Austin: Well, 2d6! Hey, that's a 6!
Dre: Hey!
Austin: So what are you looking for here? How many people are here is your first question, right?
Dre: Uhum.
Austin: There are… This ship is going to hold five hundred troops, plus another couple dozen officers and other, like, high level support staff. Those troops include also, like, maintenance staff and stuff like that. Because they're all enlisted in The Pact. Currently, there are 200 of them on board.
Dre: [displeased] Mmm!
Jack: [overlapping] Oh, yikes!
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah.
Dre: Are they like… There's not… Is there, like, a weird suspended animation [overlapping] cryosleep thing going on here?
Austin: [overlapping] No, no, no. They're run up and down below you. Uh-huh.
Jack: [overlapping] They’re walkin’ around…
Dre: Cool! Cool-cool-cool-cool.
Austin: What else? With the 6, you give me some follow ups.
Jack: Where is this going?
Austin: That information is classified. On this ship.
Jack: [displeased] Ahhh!
Austin: On this console.
Jack: [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] You’d have to be a higher level of… of whatever. You have to, like, go to a com… or a navigation computer to find that out. [pauses] You know it’s leaving, though. Uhm… I have to get the… I have to the exact date right. Let me think for a second. When this is taking place. I think it's leaving in about two weeks from now…?
Dre: [overlapping] OK. So it’s not like immediate.
Austin: [overlapping] Don't hold me to that. There's a chance based on timing with the other game that has to, like, shift. But it's… a few weeks from now, basically.
[pause]
Jack: But it's not like… they're going to say “15, 14, [chuckles] 13…”?
Austin: No.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Correct.
Jack: Uhm. OK. Uhm…
[pause]
Austin: You can give me one more follow-up.
Dre: Hmmm…
Austin: I guess the thing I'll give you from that previous thing is offworld but in system.
Dre: OK.
[pause]
Austin: And that, you know, just cause, like, it doesn't… Like, flight path just takes you off world, it doesn't take you… It takes you somewhere else in the Partizan system…
Jack: [overlapping] Not through a gate or…
Austin: [overlapping] But not… Right. There’s no gate clearance… noted. You know, it doesn't…
Jack: OK.
Austin: You know, it would say… You know: “Passengers…” you know, “all require…” you know, “access to the… bla-bla-bla-bla-blah.” You know, “clearance to bla-bla-blah.”
[someone exhales strenuously]
Dre: I assume we can't do… like, any sort of, like, starting a launch sequence or anything like that from this computer.
Austin: [overlapping] Not from here, no.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: No. Not without further rolls…
Jack: [overlapping] Is there a…
Austin: [overlapping] … and, like, hacking. You know what I mean?
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah. Yea-Yea-Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] ‘Cause this is a Study check. This was not the deeper… thing.
Jack: Is there a map of the ship?
Austin: Sure! Yeah. I'll give you that. And… I think that's the last thing: you take a plus one forward on your next, like, sneaking based on that or something. [overlapping] Or… you could do something…
Jack: [overlapping] And we know where stuff is, right?
Austin: Basically. Uhm. You know, there's lots of stuff that it doesn't show you. Does not show you where people are right now. And also it's a big, big ship. Which means, like… There's not a mess hall. There's a number of mess halls. There's a number of repair stations. There's a number of onboard… you know, [overlapping] arms cabinets or whatever.
Jack: [overlapping] Jesus.
Austin: It's not quite a colony ship, but it's like… You know, people are supposed to go on this thing and then be in it for… months. Maybe even years as they go to the front.
Jack: Yeah. What's this ship's name?
Austin: This ship is called… I am glad you… I'm glad you asked, because I was just looking into this.
[Dre & Jack chuckle]
Austin: This ship is called the — where'd it go? [mumbles] Pu-pu-puh… The Bitten Bullet.
Jack: [pause] Oh, wow! Great name! Uhm… [pause]
Kalar: OK. Figure, I'm sort of getting, like, the germ of an idea here.
Figure in Bismuth: OK.
Kalar: Can we evacuate this ship? You know, they just all got an order to lock down here for safety. But if this ship… if word got through that there was some danger on board the ship… that the mission was compromised… could we maybe get everybody off it?
Austin: It's a big swing!
Figure in Bismuth: [tentatively] Yes… Then where do we go?
Kalar: We stay on the ship and, like, prep it for launch or something. I… Like…
Figure in Bismuth: [overlapping] Ohhh…
Kalar: [overlapping] I assume this is a… I assume this is our exit. We can get SI and… and Phrygian out here. We don’t try and go out the way we came. If we can somehow lock the doors to this thing with people outside, but I don't want to launch this thing with 200 Pact soldiers on board. [chuckles] Because they'll kill us.
Figure in Bismuth: Yeah, that seems suboptimal. OK. How do we… get everyone out of the ship?
Jack: What was the gist of the message that locked… it was going to lock people onto [overlapping] the ship, Austin?
Austin: [overlapping] So it was, basically that there’s combat outside. And so that means it's time to lock this place down. Everyone on board stays on board. Basically, because if this combat is too bad, we have to launch the ship.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah. Yea-Yea-Yeah.
Dre: [overlapping] Hmm…
Austin: [overlapping] And get everyone that we can out. You know what I mean?
Jack: It's the don't leave your rooms, lock your doors and don't leave your rooms… situation.
Austin: It's not only that, because it's also… stay on patrol. [chuckles] Look for any intruders.
Jack: [chuckles]
Austin: Make sure you don't… we don't have anyone on board. And this way, no one can get on board. Because we've locked down.
Jack: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] What they don't know is: you've already gotten on board. [chuckles]
Jack: [sighs] Yeah. It would need to be something that would be, like, a mass evacuation.
Austin: Uhum.
Jack: Or an evacuation large enough that would…
Dre: Or… Or… it has to be: “Oh, everything's safe now. It's OK for you to leave the rocketship alone.”
Jack: [overlapping] Aust… Yeah. I just want everybody off.
Austin: [overlapping] You… you would guess that many of the hundreds of people on board are just stationed on board.
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah, fair enough. OK.
Austin: [overlapping] In a way that’s not just… They didn’t, like, flee here. You know what I mean?
Dre: Right. This isn't their safe room.
Austin: Correct. Correct. This is where they're stationed.
[pause]
Dre: Hm…
Jack: And I would say something like we just grab someone who looks fairly high-ranking and hold them up to the intercom and say: ‘get everybody off the ship.’
Austin: [chuckles]
Dre: [overlapping] OK. Yeah. Uh-huh.
Jack: [overlapping] But I feel like these Pact… No, I just I feel like The Pact would would have some sort of fucking code… They fucking love this shit. They'd have some sort of code phrase or some code word that's like I'm in distress. Like… You know, they're gonna be one step ahead of us there. [pause] And no one listens to anything I say. [chuckles]
Dre: What if we cause… a gas leak?
Jack: I was thinking a fire or something. But if we want to send this into space…
[Austin & Jack chuckle]
Jack: [overlapping] …I don’t want it to be on fire.
Dre: [overlapping] Right. We have to break it just enough that everyone leaves.
Jack: Just enough that everyone leaves. In a ship that has, like, four different mass halls.
Dre: Hm…
Jack: Poison or gas? I was thinking it would be good. And, like, faking poison or gas would be… Well… [chuckles]
Keith: [cheerily] Poison or gas. That would be good!
[Dre & Jack laugh]
Jack: I mean… If we were dealing with, like, a squad of supersoldiers, there's a version of this where we just shout. [laughs] “Fire!”
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: [laughing] We just…
Austin: And again. And a military spaceship… [overlapping] prepped for attacks and… locking down… Right. That’s exactly right, yeah.
Jack: [overlapping] Sure! Like, they just close bulkheads, yeah, and sprinklers would come on.
Austin: There’re… If you can dream up a thing that would feel like that big reactor meltdown or something but would not actually be a reactor meltdown — you know, maybe!
Dre: Hmm.
[pause]
Austin: Again, I think the thing to always remember is, like, put yourself in their position to some degree. Let's say there is this thing… you're right that maybe some of them get off. Also, they send some people down to check it out. You know what I mean?
Dre: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] So… So there's a… But hey, maybe you win that fight and then du-du-du-du-du-duh. We see where it develops. Uhm… It’s all about…
Keith: [overlapping] Space bugs. They gotta…
Austin: [overlapping] They got some space… They’ve gotta get gas for space bugs. Gotta get these… [inaudible]
Keith: [overlapping] They have the gas for space bugs. No one come check it out. We've got…
Austin: They’re real gross! [overlapping] Don't come look at ‘em.
Keith: [overlapping] They’re gross. No one needs to check on that. They just need to… They just need the exterminators to come.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: There's a… There's potential where we, like, exploit their fear of the Branched…?
Keith: [chuckles]
Jack: [overlapping] But we don't actually know about the Branched soldier.
Austin: [overlapping] You don’t… Yeah.
Keith: [laughing] I thought you were gonna say: “exploit their fear of the bugs.”
[others laughs]
Austin: They are very scared of bugs.
Jack: [laughing] The space bugs are just awful! Uhm…
Dre: What if we… Is the artillery, like, still going on outside?
Austin: Uh… That's up to you. I don't… [overlapping] How…? How’s…?
Dre: [overlapping] I mean…
Austin: The answer there for me is, at this point, if it's still going on, they've probably been zeroed in on and attacked.
Dre: [overlapping] Right. Yeah. OK.
Austin: [overlapping] Right? Maybe that was part of the deal, and you're like: “listen, you're gonna have to roll some dice…” We would roll some dice now to see how that went.
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] Or it could have stopped by now. Uh… But it’s up to y’all.
Dre: The reason I ask that is my… The only other idea that comes up for me is like, do we basically call in, like, an artillery strike here to start a cave in?
Jack: [overlapping] Fuck!
Dre: [overlapping] And then we clear it to leave?
Jack: [with baffled laughter] Ahhh…! That’s a…
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah. I know. Yeah.
Jack: [overlapping] I don't know if we've have the time to reclear a cave-in when it's time to go. Uhm…
[pause]
Austin: And I should also add: listen, they were definitely shooting this general area and it didn't seem to breach the bulkhead.
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah. Fair.
Jack: [overlapping] Yep.
Austin: [overlapping] The Armored bulkheads above.
Dre: Fair.
Jack: OK…! Maybe we explore and an opportunity will present itself. Uhm…
Austin: I don't have…! I want to be clear! You're not like…
Jack: [overlapping] Oh! No. [chuckles]
Austin: [overlapping] I'm not sitting here, like: why don’t they just understand the super easy, whatever…
Dre: Right.
Austin: You put yourself in a spot, I definitely didn't prep for. Uhm… But… [overlapping] But that I'm willing to roll with!
Jack: [overlapping] Wait, Austin! You gave us a rocket ship with open doors?!? And didn’t expect us to…?!? [laughs]
Austin: [overlapping] You asked for open doors! I said, yeah, OK. I guess there are.
Jack: [overlapping, laughing] That’s true!
Austin: I… Yeah. Uh-Huh. [pause] I gave… I don’t know. I again, I built the situation and played it as… I'm playing it as honestly as I can. Which means…
Jack: [chuckles, overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] …You are now stuck in a spaceship with 200 people.
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah. No, fair.
Austin: [overlapping] 200 soldiers. 200 Pact soldiers.
[pause]
Austin: Prepping for a maneuver that you don't know. Or… or an action… a campaign that you don't know yet.
Dre: [laughs]
Jack: Hang on a second!
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Does this ship have escape pods?
Austin: Yeah, totally.
[pause]
Jack: And it's huge.
Austin: Oh, yeah. It will be holding 500 — it can probably hold more than that, all said. Right?
[pause]
Jack: Maybe we… Maybe we just stowe away!
Austin: [overlapping] That’s fun.
Jack: [overlapping] If we want to try and launch on this thing, maybe we just… A ship this big — right — it must be quite tricky to import its launch past a certain point. Right?
Austin: [overlapping] Hmmm…
Dre: But, for like two weeks?
Keith: Didn't you… Also, didn't you say that what you didn't want was to be stuck on that ship with 500 people [chuckles] that want to kill you?
Jack: Ehh… It's a… it's a bigger ship than I'm imagining.
Austin: A bigger ship than… What I just said — to put my own feet to the fire — as I said, it could hold more than 500 people. Which means there's gotta be space that’s just not being used. Whole decks that are, like, crew quarters that aren't being slept in right now.
Jack: And I'm not saying it would be easy — at all.
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: But if we need a ride out of here, why don't we just have them take us out? Uhm…
Keith: What if we accidentally went to space?
Jack: [overlapping] Well…
Austin: [overlapping] I think this is very funny for reasons you don't know yet.
Jack: I think…
Dre: [laughs] Also, it's a great idea!
Austin: I think it's a great idea, but that's me.
Jack: Part of what I… what I don't like is the whole two extra weeks… thing…?
Dre: yeah, that part’s tricky.
Austin: Ah— That number could change!
Keith: Oh, wow, you really like this idea! [laughs]
Austin: It's a fun idea!
Jack: Yeah. OK! Alright. Yes. OK. A ship this big, probably… Once it starts launching, it's probably quite difficult to stop it, right?
Austin: Uhum.
Jack: And if we could make it… If we could… I'm like… [overlapping] Kalar, inverted…
Austin: [overlapping] I mean, there are ways! You could definitely try to, like… reactor meltdown… Again, once it's up in the air, that's… Yeah. Totally.
Jack: Oh, no. I wanted to launch when we say. [overlapping] Rather than what they say.
Austin: [overlapping] I see what you’re saying. Yes.
Jack: So, you know, if we entered, like, inverted commas in the air with wingtips… like, if you know… If it starts an accidental launch… And we stop the people who could turn that launch off — this whole ship's going up, right?
Keith: [overlapping] Well… Yeah… What if you could… What if…
Austin: [overlapping] That is difficult. It… It would be difficult to con… It would be difficult to… I think there's a lot of blood between you and launching the ship, on your own terms.
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: OK. Sure.
Austin: [overlapping] If that makes sense. It’s not “not doable,” but you’ll have to kill…
Keith: [overlapping] What if… What if… What if you’re able…
Austin: You have to fight your way to the launch controls.
Keith: OK.
Jack: And then they will know that there are stowaways on board [overlapping, chuckling] that somehow managed to kill a bunch of people.
Austin: [overlapping] I guess you could… You could do the Hitman shit in your life…
Dre: [laughs]
Austin: … but boy, is that a tough one.
Keith: OK. Is this an avenue: could you convince them that there is a scheduled… I guess you'd still have to get to the launch controls.
Austin: [overlapping] Oh, you could… Yeah. Go ahead!
Keith: [overlapping] I'll say it anyway, just in case. Pretend… Convince them that there's a scheduled, like… test launch where they do everything except then launch it. So they get everything ready themselves. And then all we have to do is: get actually— get it launched.
Austin: I think that the thing that you're hitting at here… Or, sorry, the thing that I think is… If you want them to launch it, remember, they're in a position where if they feel like they're under enough threat, they will launch it.
Jack: Oh, yeah. We actually have a sort of… We actually have a sort of jury-rigged launch-button.
Austin: Right. Which is: somehow communicate to them that there is enough threat that they gotta get the fuck out of here.
Dre: Hmmm…
Austin: But that's…
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: But that's a different… I don't know what that looks like. I think it's… I think it's really hard to beat people who cannot… If you had somehow already… if you were, like, in Pact outfits and had desgui… had not just disguises to get into the front door, but now were, like, undercover here and, like, slowly built… you know, relationship and then sent a word saying “we got to do a test launch or something,” then maybe. But that's… That's a big ask on what I think for multiple people here is 3 or 4 Stress.
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah. Yep.
Keith: [overlapping] Uhum.
Austin: [overlapping] I'm not saying it's impossible. Good rolls are good rolls. But… You know.
Jack: No, I think the… I think the closest thing to triggering a launch is actually sort of doing it from an angle.
Austin: Right.
Jack: Uhm… [overlapping] OK.
Austin: [overlapping] Right! The word to send to them somehow is an outside word saying [with mock-shouting] “we're under real attack! Like, get out of here!” You know what I mean? Like “call Operation Du-du-du-du-du-duh!”
Jack: [overlapping] Or something…
Austin: It's hard because, like you said, because The Pact doesn't have… You don't know The Pact secret codes. But…
Jack: [overlapping] No.
Austin: [overlapping] But you roll some dice!
Jack: OK!
Dre: [overlapping] Hmm…
Austin: [overlapping] So keep that in your pocket. Do you want to come back up to the Point Diamond really quick — I know we're hitting… we're coming towards the hard out again.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: But let's… Let's talk about… Corrasion and the cell that you're in.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You hear… At this point, Sovereign Immunity, you also hear the sound of a water coming down from above. Melting the stairs up. What are the two you do?
Keith: Uhm…
Phrygian: That is…
Keith: What's his name again?
Austin: Corrasion. I'll put it on the screen.
Keith: Corrasion.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: What’s Corrasion’s pronouns?
Austin: They/them.
Keith: Are they still… They're not done talking. Or are they… [overlapping] Or are they done talking?
Austin: [overlapping] Hm. They’re done talking. They're coming for you.
Jack: They made a clear point, [overlapping] which is I love to dissolve people.
Austin: [overlapping] I… Yeah. I mean, I think that… I think that what would stop them would be… Hm! I don't know what would stop ‘em.
Keith: Ehhh… Alright. [overlapping] I mean, I guess they wanna fight…!
Austin: [overlapping] But I don’t know. But if you want to talk… I mean, if you want to talk more, you can talk more. The two you? Sure. Uh…
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But I… you know, they've they've kind of said… you know: “Hey.”
Keith: I don't know. It feels fa… It feels… [pause] If they're gonna attack… If they're gonna attack me that fast… I mean, it feels like they're really not… them, anymore.
Austin: I think that they’re them, they just are different than who they were before.
Keith: [overlapping] Well, from the them that I knew.
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah. But I… I…
Keith: Because, like, we came here on the same team. So they're saying…
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: … like… If they're saying, like: “no, I'm just… this is just how I do, like… the mission. I'm helping The Pact because I think they're going to weaken…”
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: “... The Divine Principality.” I think that they're wrong. But also, like… it's hard to fault them for doing what they think is our mission. [overlapping] But… Right. Right. Right.
Austin: [overlapping] And what I think is also them, that's the other half of it, that maybe more creepy, right? Yeah.
Keith: Like, because… Because, like, they're… they're not like: “OK. Well, we have two different ideas of what this mission is.” They're like: “No, my identity is now doing Pact shit.”
Austin: Uhum. I… I think that if… Maybe they say openly, like… you know:
Corrasion: Phrygian, there are so mu… There are so… There are so many other ways to be. The Pact showed me some of them. And this is one that is in line with what we came here to do: learn and derail The Principality.
Phrygian: But I'm… I'm doing my own Principality-derailing! You shouldn't try and attack me!
Corrasion: I'm only attacking you because you're on grounds we control!
Phrygian: Who's we? [overlapping] We’re we!
Corrasion: [overlapping] The Pact. The Pact. Who I work for.
Phrygian: [overlapping] You're not really supposed to be doing Pact shit!
Corrasion: I'm supposed to be being the best me that I can be, Phrygian. You're not supposed to be doing Millennium Break shit.
Phrygian: [overlapping] But they’re…
Corrasion: [overlapping] Neither of us were sent here with these affiliations. We've found new ones for ourselves. Affiliations are beautiful!
Phrygian: [overlapping] The difference is… If I found you… If I found you doing… your mission… on Millennium Break ground… I would have been like: “OK, stop!” not “Time to… Time to die!”
Corrasion: You're free to go, Phrygian. But you'll have to leave.
[pause]
Phrygian: Why? We're not hurting anyone!
Corrasion: We'll see? This is what I'm saying. [chuckles] You would ask me to go, and if I said that, what would you do?
Phrygian: If you said that you weren't hurting anyone?
Corrasion: And was remaining and going to continue doing my mission? Yeah.
Phrygian: Would it have been true? That you weren't hurting anyone?
Corrasion: I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to… make sure you leave.
Phrygian: Well, no. I have stuff to do here.
Corrasion: Well, we've come to an impasse.
Art: Oh, my God. [laughs] Uhm…
Corrasion: And I'm built to destroy those. So… And I've built myself to destroy those. So.
Sovereign Immunity: We want to take the prisoners.
Corrasion: You want to take the prisoners? Well. I see no problem with that.
Phrygian: [overlapping] Uh, we wanna—
Corrasion: [overlapping] They’re not our prisoners, anyway. Most of them. The Curtain has kept most of them for years.
Phrygian: [whispering] Is there anything else that we wanted down here?
Sovereign Immunity: I mean, what's in the other three big cells?
Phrygian: Yeah. What's in the other three big cells?
Austin: At this point, I think… the water forms a body, sort of like yours.
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] You know. A passing resemblance to a human face of dirty rushing water. Where, like the… It is, like, the white water rushing rapids is what forms the features like eye sockets and a mouth and fingernails. But it's never stable. And they say:
[“UMBRAL. BREAKNECK. PRIORITY.” by Jack de Quidt starts playing]
Corrasion: Would you like to see? It's remarkable what The Curtain was doing here.
Phrygian: Then, yes, I do want to see.
Art: Oh, I hate this. I hate this!
Austin: And they slide, you know, away from this door and just walk through the next one. Leaving a hole. [pauses] Do you follow?
Keith: Yeah.
Corrasion: Watch your feet.
Austin: They say, as, like… even stepping in the water that they leave behind is, like, sizzling at the bottom of your boots. To the left in ST1, what you find — and you find this in all three of them — is an incredibly elaborate soundstage. There is, like, an enclosed observation room looking down. There is, throughout this place, a bunch of props off to the side, and then a place that, if it was functioning, it would be extremely well lit from a number of very advanced lighting rigs. And the Stage 1 is made up to look like a barren desert. Incredibly well done set design! You would… [overlapping] if you faced it… Hm?
Keith: [overlapping] [whispering] They’re making movies! They’re making movies!
Austin: [overlapping] There's no cameras is an important note. No cameras here. And the… There are ways in which you… I think that they say like:
Corrasion: And if you… You can see above…
Austin: And above is, you know, another weird rigging… Another wall. As if it would close in the set.
Corrasion: And here we are in the desert. The Prophet’s Path, something like that. Stage 2 is the sea and the islands, Stage 3… I don't know today… I believe when we… when we arrived, it was set up to look like… the Nidean peaks. But my understanding is also the taiga… Memoria Teardrop; parts of Orion territory… The sea is, actually, we got on Stage 2, you can see it! It is… It's a… It's a pool, dug deep! And they have wave generators! Really convincing.
Phrygian: But what is it for?
Corrasion: Oh, to convince the prisoner. That they were in a different world or a different time or that their gifts were needed.
Phrygian: What prisoner?
[pause]
Corrasion: You… You came all this way, you didn't know why? [pauses, then in a teasing tone] Phrygian…!
[“UMBRAL. BREAKNECK. PRIORITY.” ends]
Phrygian: Yeah. No one… No one that… I didn't know anyone that knew. They said no one else knew.
Corrasion: You're a man of the cloth, right?
Austin: Looking to you, Sovereign Immunity.
Sovereign Immunity: It's… yeah. But it's probably not like you think.
Keith: [laughs]
Corrasion: Well… [pauses] Perhaps there's less significance to you than you, then. Uhm… You know, before Gur Sevraq… Phrygian, there was another one. A different prophet.
Phrygian: Yeah.
Corrasion: [overlapping] Well…
Phrygian: [overlapping] I read! I st… I looked at all this stuff.
Corrasion: Logos Kantel, of course! [overlapping] They had them chained down here.
Art: [overlapping] Oh my… god!
Corrasion: For centuries.
Phrygian: The… The really old… The really old dead one?
Corrasion: Oh, not so dead. My understanding is…
Phrygian: But so old!
Corrasion: Incredibly. And still blessed by… whatever it is they believe is their god. [overlapping] Then lead onto these sets…
Phrygian: [overlapping] I mean, it's real. Their stuff is real, you know.
Corrasion: [chuckles] I… I know extremely well. The problem with… The Curtain is they thought that if they simply led Kantel through these fake deserts, they could convince them of… that their gifts were needed again. But you can't do that with someone you have chained to the wall half the time!
Phrygian: Hm.
Corrasion: They were old, and kept alive only by the weekly touch of their god. But… they knew enough to know they were a prisoner most of the time. Sure…
Phrygian: [overlapping] Were?
Corrasion: [overlapping] … their mind was broken. You know. Yes. We freed them, of course. Are…
Phrygian: And where are they?
Corrasion: We have them. [pauses] Safe.
Phrygian: Have them where? Safe where?
Corrasion: Not here.
Phrygian: Well, no shit not here.
Corrasion: Well, perhaps they were. Why would you assume that?
Corrasion: Why wouldn't you assume we just moved them to another facility here? [chuckles] There's lots of potentials. [overlapping] They’re not here.
Phrygian: [overlapping] Well, they're not here… Here, here.
Corrasion: They're closer to their God. Let's… let's leave it at that.
Sovereign Immunity: That sounds like dead. [overlapping] You should know that that sounds like dead.
Phrygian: [overlapping] That sounds like dead. To them.
Corrasion: [overlapping] That's only dead if their God is dead. And let me be clear: we have no intentions of killing their god. That would be a waste. In any case, it sounds to me like… you've seen what you need to see. I'm happy to hand over your prisoners. If you give me a moment, I can call off the patrols and negotiate an egress for you.
Phrygian: What do you want with… Logos?
Corrasion: Oh, that's not your business.
Phrygian: It's it's extr… You know, that it's literally my business!
Corrasion: Not anymore! You're now a revolutionary, my understanding is.
[pause]
Phrygian: It's this…
Corrasion: You're not going to convince me of this, Phrygian. We've drawn ourselves into different lines. We are paralleled now.
[pause]
Phrygian: It's the same… It's supposed to be the same line! You're the one drawing lines! [pause] I don't I don't work for Millennium Break instead of doing my job!
Corrasion: That's not true.
Phrygian: [overlapping] Of course it’s true!
Corrasion: [overlapping] There are many ways you could’ve pursued your job that had nothing to do with taking revolutionary action on behalf of a foreign government. [pause] We both… drew ourselves into closer orbit with those that seemed aligned to us. Who would… Who would enable us to do our jobs better. To be ourselves more. I hold no ill will towards you.
Now, I will free those prisoners above. Again, they were not even ours. And you can be about your way. If you would like instead to see Logos Kantel, then you could be our guests. It will be a couple of weeks, but… You… You can come along. I'm sure that [sighs] The Pact’s leadership would be interested in conversations with you all.
Phrygian: My understanding is that they were interested already. [overlapping] Previously.
Corrasion: [overlapping] I believe so. And the offer is still here.
[pause]
Sovereign Immunity: [overlapping] Uhm…
Corrasion: [overlapping] Or I could leave now. You could go upstairs and try to strong-arm your way out of a facility filled with hundreds of soldiers eager to kill anyone who moves.
Phrygian: What do you think?
Sovereign Immunity: Uhm. You want to split it?
[pause]
Phrygian: [whispering] What do you mean by split it?
Dre: [chuckles]
Sovereign Immunity: One of us can go, one of us can… One of us can go and one of us can get the prisoners out.
Phrygian: Oh, I thought this was code for, like… punch them in the face and start a fight.
[someone chuckles very softly]
Sovereign Immunity: No, you don't talk in code, you just start the fight. Usually [chuckles] when someone else sees a fight, they just jump in. Would you… If I had… If I had started a fight, you wouldn't have fought with me? [chuckles]
Phrygian: No, but I thought that we… I thought that you say, you know… people go, like, you’ll… like you'll know the cue when I do it. Like, you’ll know the signal. You know? And then you… Like, there's a signal, but you'll… You'll know the signal, and then they do it. But…
Sovereign Immunity: Now, when you're working with me, the signal is always starting a fight.
Austin: [chuckles]
Phrygian: OK.
[pause]
Phrygian: This would be a great time then to just start the fight right there, rally, we're talking about it.
Sovereign Immunity: I don’t… Could… I mean. Y’all… Y'all seem kind of… kind of tough.
Phrygian: Yeah, but it's one… It's Bran… It's Branched and then Branched plus… You're big!
Sovereign Immunity: Yeah but…! Is it… I believe this individual’s made of acid!
Phrygian: No, we…
Jack: [chuckles]
Phrygian: They’re made of time water!
Austin: Just rushing water. Yeah. Uh-huh.
Phrygian: Yeah.
[pause]
Sovereign Immunity: It seems like it… it's a lot like acid.
Phrygian: It does seem a lot like acid.
Austin: [overlapping] It does.
Phrygian: [overlapping] It's more like a distinction without a difference.
Sovereign Immunity: I mean… Same thing. If you start… The signal goes both ways.
Phrygian: Right.
[pause]
Keith: I assume that… I assume that… [pause] We would have to go through someone else to get to Logos Kantel? Like… We wouldn't just be able to be like… Like: “OK. You win the fight. Here's where… here's where they are”?
Austin: This… They will not give up where Logos Kantel… They don't… You don't even know that they know where Logos Kantel is.
Keith: Right. But I mean… I mean, even if… Even if they did, it wouldn't be like, [overlapping] “OK, there. Here’s the address…”
Austin: [overlapping] “Good right hook,” yeah. Uh-huh.
Keith: “Here… Here's the address! There is no one stopping you. It's just: go to this place.”
Austin: Yeah. [pauses] Correct.
Keith: [overlapping] “Oh, would he be on the sh…”
Austin: [overlapping] That information is just not here.
Phrygian: Would he [sic] be on the ship? Is it the ship? Is that where we’d go?
Corrasion: The ship will take you there.
Phrygian: Right. So if we all left, we go to the ship…
[pause]
Corrasion: Again, you'd be our guests.
Phrygian: Guest on a ship.
Corrasion: You could meet some of the fine folks who work for us. I think… You would take a great liking to Xiphion.
Phrygian: What's… Who's… Who's that?
Corrasion: The Elect of Valor.
Phrygian: Oh, right! I think I heard that. [pause]
Keith: This is… I can't decide if this is a fight or not! [pause] Let's see. I got 3 Stress, I got no Harm. [pause] OK. Wow! I don't know… I don't know when the last time I've been this stuck on something was. Whether this is a fight or not. Maybe I should ask… Kalar and Figure… [pause] on the throat mic.
Austin: Like, stealthily? [chuckles]
Keith: [overlapping] Hey… No. Hey…
Austin: [overlapping] Or is that, like… OK.
Jack: [overlapping] Should I fight this person? [chuckles]
Phrygian: We've got an old… We've found one of my old… co-workers from the Branched when we were sent over… They’re bad now.
Figure in Bismuth: [deflated] Oh.
Phrygian: They are… gonna let us go…
Figure in Bismuth: [pleasantly surprised] Oh!
Phrygian: Uhm. But they… suck. And so I'm thinking about fighting them, but not a hundred percent. So, do you remember the big ship?
[long pause]
Figure in Bismuth: [overlapping] Yes? Yes?
Phrygian: [overlapping] You do? Yeah? That's… That is potentially going to where Logos Kantel is still alive with The Pact. Also, that's true. Should I fight my old friend? I can't tell if that's a good thing for…
Austin: [chuckles]
Phrygian: I don't know if that fits.
Austin: Corrasion is just giving Sovereign Immunity a look. Like: “are they always like this?” look.
Dre: [laughs]
Kalar: [overlapping] What the fuck is going on? Are you joking?
Dre: [overlapping, laughing] Branched “Jim Halpert” face.
Art: [overlapping] A shrug, like, I don’t know.
Phrygian: [overlapping] Am I joking about…? I haven't joked about any of it. But which part sounds like a joke? Because if it's the part where I'm thinking about fighting, then I would take that as a: “no, I shouldn't do the fight.”
Kalar: Logos Kantel is alive?
Phrygian: Oh, that's not a joke either.
[pause]
Kalar: Ahh… [overlapping] OK.
Phrygian: [overlapping] But my old friend’s been melting people. And… is doing Pact stuff and is being… extremely obstinate about it.
Kalar: We're not here to assassinate Pact members.
Phrygian: No, it'd be like a pun… It would be like a fight. Not like an assassination. They're right here.
Kalar: This is not… This is not what we've been sent here to do. This doesn't help anybody. We need to get the prisoners… [overlapping] I don’t even know why I’m talking to you!
Phrygian: [overlapping] To be fair, what you're doing was not what we were sent here to do either.
Kalar: I'm not gonna have a conversation with you about our tactics on a live microphone…
Austin: [chuckles]
Kalar: in front of your adversary.
Phrygian: Well…
Kalar: That's not going to happen.
Corrasion: Is everything all right over there?
Phrygian: Do you want me to… Yeah, it's fine.
Kalar: [overlapping] Fuck off!
Phrygian: [overlapping] Do you want to go in the other room?
Jack: [chuckles]
[pause]
Kalar: Why did you…?!?
Jack: [laughs] Kalar just, like looking… at The Figure, just, like,
Austin: [laughs]
Jack: [laughing] What a fucking thing…?
Dre: Yeah, I think whatever look that… You know, this person is giving SI is also… [laughs]
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: [overlapping] Alright.
Dre: [overlapping, laughing] … what’s Figure is giving Kalar.
Keith: Well.
Dre: “Is this how this always is?” [laughs]
Austin: [laughs] Yeah.
Keith: OK. Well…
Kalar: Complete the mission! Do your mission parameters! We know what they are.
Austin: Yeah! I should restate them. Do you want to restate them just for the record?
Jack: [overlapping] Yeah, absolutely!
Austin: [overlapping] “Objective: identify and then destroy or recover what was called Lodestone. Secondary Objective: capture the… enemy commander if that is possible.” This is not the enemy commander. The enemy commander is Xiphion up in Valor. Uhm…
Jack: Oh!
Austin: That is not a thing at this point. Uh… But yeah! “Identify and then destroy or recover Lodestone.” Destroying or recovering that project at this point seems impossible, because it's bigger than that. But you have identified it. I would count that as a success.
Phrygian: OK! Well, then… No one's helped me on this, so I guess we're not going to do a fight! If this ends up biting us in the ass later, it's not my fault! So I guess we'll take the prisoners and we will not fight you. Now.
Austin: Also, is this the first time you all have heard about Prisoners, Kalar and…? [chuckles]
Dre: Yes.
Austin: [overlapping] And… OK. .
Dre: [overlapping] Hm?
Keith: [overlapping] No, we've mentioned them, we mentioned…
Austin: OK. I wasn’t sure when they… when they came up.
Corrasion: And you'll be coming with us as guests, or… should I prepare an escort out the facility?
Phrygian: No. Right? I don't… I don't want to do that.
Corrasion: And your friends, who I now know exist, will they be coming with you? Or would they be attending to us as guests?
Phrygian: I can't tell you where their… they are, what they're doing.
Corrasion: But you still want the prisoners…?
Phrygian: Yeah.
Corrasion: This is a full deal. You want the prisoners… we can give you the prisoners, but we'll need you all to leave. Or to come with us!
Phrygian: Yeah, sure. We’ll all leave.
Corrasion: Are you lying to me, Phrygian? [half-chuckles]
Phrygian: No.
Corrasion: OK. Well, then…
Phrygian: If I was lying, I'd call them about it… to ask.
Corrasion: This is true. Where are they? Let's come upstairs. I will get you the prisoners. We'll start there. A show of good faith. I'm not lying to you about this.
[pause]
Austin: And they, like, gesture for you to go up.
Corrasion: Watch your step on the stairs.
[pause]
Keith: I do. I do watch my step.
Austin: OK. No one falls through the stairs. I'm not making anyone roll for this. [half-chuckling] We’re not that… We're not playing Call of Cthulhu in college.
Dre: [chuckles]
Austin: Alright.
Keith: [aggrandizingly] “These stairs are making me lose my mind!”
Austin: [laughs] God!
Jack: [laughs, overlapping] Stupid fucking game!
Austin: [overlapping] You’re led back upstairs and… yeah. They begin to dissolve the locks on these… on these cells. The mere presence of them in front of these people is terrifying.
Seeing them work their power like this is very scary for them — for the prisoners. But freedom is good.
Keith: Right.
Austin: And I think… I think… Anyway, at some point they are also calling in guards. Like, guards are coming with guns but are not aiming at you. They just are holding them… in the facility. Uhm. And like the moment of… should we… you know. That they have backup here, now. It's not just them. That moment of like we've got them alone in a room is clo… has ended.
Keith: Got it.
Austin: Do you… What do you do with Kalar and… The Figure?
Keith: Uh… Nothing.
Austin: So you do leave them there.
[pause]
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I… So, at this point… you know, Corrasion is like:
Corrasion: I've freed… Began freeing these prisoners — now we will need to have you on your end of the deal and leave the premises as a group. Including any other agents you have here, like the ones you were speaking to moments ago.
[pause]
Phrygian: They're already gone.
Corrasion: When would you have given that order to them? I've been with you the whole time.
Austin: You can give me a Sway here, but that's a lie. I guess more importantly, do we… Are we… continue… What is the… Actually, let’s put it this way: what's most interesting for the players here at the table? Is it that two people stay on board the ship and two leave?
[pause]
Jack: [overlapping] Bearing in mind that we have a…
Austin: [overlapping] Because I don't want to go into rolls this late in the night. Yeah.
Jack: [overlapping] We have a really hard out… Uhm…
Austin: [overlapping] Yes, right now. That's why I'm trying to decide. Actually, let's not roll about the lie. If it's more interesting that Kalar and… The Figure…
Jack: I think it is more interesting [overlapping] that we’re st… Like…
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] Stay onboard. Totally. OK.
Dre: [overlapping] I agree.
Jack: It is more interesting than us just all [overlapping] walking out, I think.
Austin: [overlapping] Totally. So then, yeah. The two of them stay. And then SI and… and Phrygian are escorted away with fifty-odd prisoners.
Art: I can, like, produce… Like, I can take a Load for, like palm computer with useful programs like I gave a signal.
Austin: Yes!
Art: They're gone, y’know.
Austin: Yea-Yea-Yeah. Wait, gave a signal to… Wai-wai-wait. To who?
Art: To our… That's how they're gone. That's how the other two people aren’t here. That's… That's the… [overlapping] That's the lie that I’m asking… to cover. But yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] I see what you're saying. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, totally.
Austin: The lie holds. Uhm… They produce… trucks to drive to a drop off point with these prisoners… Which is a huge win.
Austin: It's a huge win! For… Millennium Break. And for these people who you have freed. Uhm. And… You know. The security is redoubled. Also, you've done what's never been done. You did break into a facility that was never been broken into!
Jack: [overlapping, chuckling] And then walked clean out!
Austin: [overlapping] And then walked clean out! Negotiated your way out. Uhm, but, you know, because, of course, these are…
Keith: We walked clean in pretty much, too!
Austin: Totally! What you… What you come to understand, I think, during this process, as you start to meet people — I think at some point you meet Xiphion… You know. He comes down and you… like, shake hands, and, you know, introduces himself. He introduces himself as Zig’ell. Zig’ell Barbos, not as Xiphion. Uh… He is extremely polite to you both. Uh… And you… You get the impression of as you're wrapping all this up is just like: “oh, he convinced The Curtain people who remained here after the fight to throw down their weapons and sign up with The Pact.”
Jack: [overlapping] Jesus!
Austin: [overlapping] There is just… He has it! He has it. You know?
Keith: [overlapping] He has…
Austin: [overlapping] He has it like a player character has it.
Keith: He has a… [skeptically] He has a magic robot that has it.
Austin: No! No.
Keith: [overlapping] He has it.
Austin: [overlapping] Because he was this before he was… Before he was the… He's the Elect because he has it.
Keith: Right.
Austin: He was Cas’alear’s lieutenant… before.
Keith: [overlapping] But then… has a magic robot that has it, too!
Austin: [overlapping] Then now, he has magic robot that who has it, too. But he does just have that, like… that thing… And he… And I would say — you don't get this conversation with him, it's a passing thing — you get the impression he's the sort of person who could make the argument for The Pact of Necessary Venture as destabilizing force much better than the person who likes dissolving people.
Keith: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] He doesn't like doing it!
[someone chuckles]
Austin: You know what I mean? He made the conscious choice not to go fly out and find those artillery people and destroy them with with his big bird mech. Right?
Keith: [overlapping] Right.
Austin: [overlapping] Focussed on defense. Uhm… He's a poster child. You know? We're not… We're not tracking…
Keith: He’s the… He is… the idea of a just war?
Austin: Totally. A hundred percent! Right? Uhm… And and so, yeah. That is like the… If we were still doing that part of Beam Saber, this would be The Pact trying to… show that they have… that they have heroes on their side. They're trying to Win Hearts And Minds. You know? A little bit, with someone like this. Also, it's just a powerful mech that is here defending a important place. And he’s… And he's impressed that you past him. So, Zig is… You know. You've made a… Not a technical Rival, but… you know. Anyway.
Austin: So, yeah. You plus the fifty-odd sol… or fifty-odd prisoners escape, get handed off. They get food, blankets, warmth.
Keith: They're in rough shape, but I wouldn't call them odd!
Austin: [chuckles tiredly] Right. [sighs] Good.
Keith: [laughs]
Austin: And meanwhile, things on board The Bitten Bullet begin to go back to norm. Uhm… The two of you hide out on an unused deck, and steal food, [chuckles] and managed to like hang out for the next few weeks.
And at some point, a call comes in from A.O. Rooke — I mean, this is weird and there's all sorts of debate about what they're supposed to do about you there — but at a certain point A.O. Rooke comes in and tells Phrygian and SI and Agon and, you know, the rest of that crew… that he received a message from the Blue Channel, Broun's ship.
And what they have said is: the Gate, the Partizan Gate at the edge of the system has been shut down. It was abandoned. And that they have information about what The Pact of Necessary Venture is doing. That they’re about to launch a ship — that already launched one — that will bring two things into… into configuration. The long and short of it is… they're inviting god in. Through a second Gate. A gate that sits at the heart of the gas giant Girandole. Hidden in the clouds of chemicals and smoke. And that when Autonomy Itself comes in — and you know this — invited by the voice of their prophet… They will be captured.
[“TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.” by Jack de Quidt starts playing.]
Austin: The Pact of Necessary Venture does not want to kill god. Why aim so small? They only want to monopolize their power. And for Kalar and The Figure in Bismuth, you will have a firsthand perspective as they do it. [pause] Or try to.
[“TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.” by Jack de Quidt ends]
Austin: [overlapping] Well…
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah, I mean, sounds like… Sounds like… I mean, it see… They could… They might be able to do it. I don't know. But it sounds like a classic “bit off more than I can chew” scenario.
Austin: [overlapping] Well… we’ll see.
Jack: Yeah, it doesn't sound good to me. [overlapping] I really don’t…
Austin: [overlapping] I think it sounds like a classic, you know: “if the party does nothing, [chuckles] Austin gets to decide what happens.”
Jack: [overlapping] Uh-huh.
Dre: Uhum.
Austin: I think it sounds like a classic “do you remember when Gur Sevraq said [overlapping] if we don't stop The Pact of Necessary Venture…?”
Jack: [overlapping, laughing] “Find the pieces of The Exemplar…!”
Austin: Yes! Oh, by the way, this is always the thing. This is always a thing. Logos Kantel was always buried here. And was always a sixth part of The Exemplar. Because if The Exemplar is a mech — Jack…
Jack: [overlapping] Oh, fuck! This is…
Austin: [overlapping] “What is the weakest part of a mech? [pause] It’s the fucking pilot!”
Jack: [overlapping] It’s… It’s the fucking pilot.
Austin: And here they were. [overlapping] This is the sixth part. They got it all.
Jack: [overlapping] This is the sixth part! They got it all!
Austin: Well, they got enough of it. And they… But why are they going to build a mech?!? They don’t even need to build build a fucking mech! Dumbass! Why would they build a mech?!? [chuckles]
Jack: [chuckles]
Austin: They're gonna build shackles!