PARTIZAN 18: BITTER AIR - COMBUSTION
Transcribed by Rain (@ariskofrain/rain#6887)
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Comrades. I have decided that the mission has changed.
SYLVIA (as Ver’million Blue): Oh, that’s fun! What is it?
[MUSIC: TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.]
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Instead of capturing the Fort Icebreaker emplacement in which we find ourselves, I have decided that we shall capture Fort Icebreaker itself.
SYLVIA (as Ver’million Blue): (laughs)
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): ...Millie?
SYLVIA (as Ver’million Blue): No! It’s-- it’s just, you sound serious about that.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): I am.
SYLVIA (as Ver’million Blue): Okay, shit.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): I don’t know whether or not we would be claiming Icebreaker Prime for the Stel, or for us.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Well, I mean, you definitely need to know that before we do it.
AUSTIN (as A.O. Rooke): No, for us! For us.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Well, no, for us.
AUSTIN (as A.O. Rooke): The Rapid Evening.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Sorry, A.O., you’re absolutely right. For The Rapid Evening.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): For The Rapid Evening, yeah.
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): This sounds like extra work!
AUSTIN (as A.O. Rooke): Naw, it sounds like treason, and I’m kind-of into it.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): It does-- it is treason, yeah.
AUSTIN (as A.O. Rooke): It is treasonous.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): The problem is the, the Stel’s army is already here.
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): It’s, sorry, I do need to say, It is technically-- it’s sedition.
SYLVIA (as Ver’million Blue): I will say, I think at the very least, they’re pitching no more prison cell. Which, that’s working for me right about now.
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): Yeah, but I was about to break out anyway! I don’t give a shit about that!
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): (pauses) You were about to what.
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): What happens to Gur Sevraq?
AUSTIN (as A.O. Rooke): You know he’d come through.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): I’m sure Gur Sevraq would be delighted to realise that we had a gigantic walking fortress.
AUSTIN: The question is whether or not you can still be in control of Juniper when it gets here. Because, passing through the fog, like ghosts, I mean, like, the undead, in a real way, is The Black Century. It’s called The Black Century because it is composed of one hundred soldiers, spread between infantry, armored and support roles. They’re also called that because you serve for one hundred years, and the Divine Motion ensures that you live through that century, no matter what befalls you. If you can stop them, if you can drive them away, if you can figure out a way to halt Motion in place, then, then Fort Icebreaker will be yours.
[MUSIC ends.]
AUSTIN: So. Here’s the situation. There are two clocks on the table that have not been touched yet. One is The Black Century, which is the unit of, of, like, the kind-of vanguard surrounding Motion and Hyacinth in the Pneuma. The Pneuma, (spelling) p-n-e-u-m-a, uh, is the big, is like, the large mech we talked about. That is a 6-step clock, and The Black Century is an 8-step clock. You tell me, uh, where you want to put your two ticks. Where’s this hit? Does this hit Pneuma, does this hit The Black Century, do you split it up?
KEITH: This is… Pneuma Pneuma.
AUSTIN: Great. Great. Sounds good. Uh… So, uh, these shells slam into the side of, of Hyacinth’s mech, which is, which presumably is also where Motion is, uh, if you’re not necessarily a Divine scientist, you’d go like, “oh yeah, that’s probably where Motion is, that’s clearly the leader mech”, um, I’ll lift that up to 2. As those hit, it’s as if, travelling through the dust of the, um, of the Perennial Wave, there’s been a connection made with you.
And you can see the face of the pilot of the, of the Pneuma, the elect of Motion, Hyacinth, in your head. They are in their final years of service, um, they look gaunt and tired. Um, their cheeks are recessed, their eyes are recessed. What was once kind-of wavy, vivid auburn hair is now a kind-of sickly crinkly copper. Their scales, cause they’re Apostolitian, have kind-of grown pale, and even distended a little bit? Their eyes themselves still have a certain glint to them? And when they speak to you, they say...
AUSTIN (as Hyacinth): You move as quickly as she does. She has taken notice of you.
AUSTIN: Um, and so there’s a line of communication here with Hyacinth, which is a separate thing than, than them knowing where you are.
KEITH: Got it.
AUSTIN: Sovereign Immunity, and/or Clem, what are you up to? I’ll note also really quick, the, like, two of the Pneuma’s, like, shields or, like, armor plates kind-of fall off at your, at your-- at being hit, But it does not actually, it does not seem to, like, stumble or fall, this is like, it kind-of no-sells this cannon fire?
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: Though the clocks did tick, obviously.
JACK: Um, I am going to… mark, uh, a rack of missiles or rockets? On my--
AUSTIN: Oooh, okay!
JACK: On the Panther’s load?
AUSTIN: Mmhm?
JACK: And I am going to… like, I don’t have a mobility suite, so I can jump small distances but can’t fly?
AUSTIN: Umm, I think that that’s true, yeah - if you had a quirk that allowed you to do that, we would-- that would be acceptable? You could also mark a mobility suite if you wanted to, but that’s up to you.
JACK: I could, but I wanna save room for some armor, when I get attacked by a Divine later in this scene.
AUSTIN: Mmhm! Fair.
JACK: I think I’m gonna, like, climb messily up the side of a taller building? In the Panther. Just like, uh, y’know-- the Panther’s fingers pulling away brickwork and steel as they climb to the top of one of these high buildings up round here. And I think two missile racks open on the Panther’s shoulders? And I’m just going to try and, like, basically carpet bomb the... three horrible dogs.
AUSTIN: Are-- (laughs) okay. Are the Troops coming up with you?
JACK: Um! No...
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Or are you leaving them behind? Okay.
JACK: I think I’m ordering the troops to take a broader defensive position along the wall, or like--
AUSTIN: Okay. Up on the wall, or…?
JACK: Um… I think getting ready to--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Are they-- are they getting, firing-- okay.
JACK: I think ready to be up on the wall at a moment’s notice, but maybe not poking their heads above the parapet, if that makes sense.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense to me. Um, alright, that, to me-- if you’re doing a direct fire where you can see them, or you’re engaging in close quarters combat, uh, I think that this is, like, if you’re in range with what you’d fire with a gatling gun, for instance, that would be Battle, um. If they were a little further away, especially if they were, like-- I don’t know that you could hit Motion from there with Battle easily, but here I’m gonna say again, this is, this is risky/limited.
JACK sighs.
AUSTIN: Given that this is like, just a rack of missiles, this is not… a big super thing, y’know?
JACK: Do I still lose 1d because I am ill?
AUSTIN: You do. A hundred percent.
JACK: Shit. Okay, so I’m rolling, uh, with--
AUSTIN: 2d6, but--
JACK: ...no notifications, I’m rolling 2d6 and taking the lowest value.
AUSTIN: And taking the lowest value, yeah.
JACK: Okay… But I could also trade position for effect.
AUSTIN: You could! You could be desperate/standard. Uh, or you could trade-- you can trade position for effect, you cannot trade position for extra dice. You could take a collateral die?
KEITH: Mmhm.
JACK: I could, but, trading position for dice is Keith’s special trick.
AUSTIN: True.
KEITH: Well, so’s the collateral die.
JACK: (laughing) That is...
AUSTIN: No, that’s everybody, you just do it the best.
SYLVIA laughs.
JACK: That’s Keith--
KEITH: Most, most for sure.
AUSTIN: Most, for sure.
JACK: Keith’s hallmark.
AUSTIN: Uh, I’ll give you a collateral, which is, they’ll spot Leap, if you want an extra die.
JACK: Oh, no, I don’t wanna take that. Um.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: I’m tryna think about, like, really how, y’know, without trading position for effect or taking collateral, I’m trying to think about, like, what a better move for me to do would me, and I don’t think there is one, right?
AUSTIN: My suggestion is to lean on the fact that you have 2 in Command here, it’s your most powerful move, and you have a set of people who will listen to your commands who are not player characters? But who are powerful enough to, with their number, do standard effect against this stronger for.
JACK: That is true. And maybe, and--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) That is my, like-- that is my, like, coach advice.
JACK: Yeah, and maybe if they, and maybe if that starts falling through, or even if that starts and is proving successful, then Clem can pull in and launch missiles.
AUSTIN: Right, you can be part of that even, right? If you wanted to push yourself, or expend a quirk, let’s say, to be part of that action, you can do that?
JACK: Mmmm.
AUSTIN: Um, ah, but-- but, looking at raw numbers here, between the artillery cannon, and then the two troop units, those people are not ill, those people do not have a level 2 harm that forces them to take a minus 1-- you do, which means your command roll would be a little bit worse for it, but, a 1 is still better than 2d6 take highest--
JACK: (overlapping) Take the--
AUSTIN: Or, take lowest, rather.
JACK: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, alright, uhhm… I’ll unmark missiles for the time being.
AUSTIN: (laughs) Okay.
JACK: I don’t want to rule them out. The missiles slide back into the Panther’s shoulders.
AUSTIN: Yeah, (laughing) yeah.
JACK: Uhm, and yeah, I think this is just, like a very… just like a Roman commander image of, like, the person standing on the battlefield pointing out at the target and the two Troop units behind them?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Um, and so I’m gonna roll, what, 1d6?
AUSTIN: 1d6 because of your-- because of your… you’re ill. Yes, you have a 2 in Command, 1d6. This will be, this will be risky/standard. I would say if you… used-- there’s things you could do here that actually could raise it from standard to great. It would mean declaring extra gear, though. One of them--
JACK: (overlapping) Oh, sure!
AUSTIN: ...is actually free to-- I think you would need both of these. You have “Fine Friend or Foe Tags”, which make a vehicle appears as belonging to a specific person, squad, and/or faction, and obviously that can be used for, like… sneaking into places? But you could also use it here to just be like, “I’m marking targets”, which you could use in set-up actions and other stuff, but here I would-- it would contribute. And the other thing is “Fine Battle Standard”, um, which does cost 1 load, but is a flag or other symbol that your other allies can rally to, and if you declared both of those, I think I would let you, um.
JACK: (overlapping) Would you have me--
AUSTIN: I would raise that.
JACK: Would you have me declare the Friend or Foe Tags, or would that be free?
AUSTIN: You-- you declare it, but it’s free, cause it’s, it’s italicised, which means it’s zero load.
JACK: (overlapping) Okay, yeah, absolutely, I’ll trade my missiles.
AUSTIN: You have to tell me what it looks like. Yeah. Tell me what the battle standard looks like, too!
JACK: We’re a sphynx, right?
AUSTIN: You are a sphynx, I-- and I, there is a thing I’d propose here, but I want to hear what you’d go for, first.
JACK: Hmmm!!
AUSTIN: The thing I’d propose is actually, from the episode that we put out on the Pusher feed, which was when you and I talked about what the Panther could do under Clem and what it couldn’t do because she wasn’t a good pilot.
JACK: (overlapping) ...a good pilot!
AUSTIN: Uh, and aspects that it had but that she didn’t know how to use them as weapons, but maybe could use them in a different way.
JACK: Oh god, was it… what were you-- what was this, I don’t remember this!
AUSTIN: (overlapping) I don’t know if you remember this, I’m trying to walk you back to an idea we had.
JACK: (overlapping) Was it to do with the Panther’s core skill?
AUSTIN: Yeah, it was, it was!
JACK: Is it basically that we deploy Panther segments as… as some kind of floating drone unit that can’t--
AUSTIN: Yeah, a hundred percent.
JACK: ...can’t be controlled?
AUSTIN: Yeah, the Panther has a thing that is like, it can split parts of itself off as kind-of floating drone bits.
JACK: I mean, like, this is part of the thing, right? Like, that is the core ability of the Panther.
AUSTIN: That is the thing the Panther does. And normally what it does is, then it fights with those.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I don’t think, I don’t know that Clementine Kesh…
JACK: (overlapping) Clem doesn’t even… no.
AUSTIN: ...doesn’t even know it could do that, right? But could light a symbol in the air, could, like, do the thing that, like, um, light-up drones do now, where you can program them to make a cool shape, y’know?
JACK: Yeah, and I’m--
AUSTIN: To basically make a constellation, if that makes sense.
KEITH: They can all flip at the same time.
AUSTIN: They can all do a flip at the same time, they have the L.E.-- sharp L.E.D. lights which, which, y’know, are able to be seen through the fog, which is maybe part of this, right? Is that you can actually use them to give commands without, uh, without radio? Which is interesting.
JACK: Yeah, I really like this actually, which is, I think that like-- I think that there’s just, like, a series of like, sharp, loud explosions, almost like firecrackers going off. And then in the fog, and then up in the sky, shining kinda through the fog is the constellation, the sphynx constellation of Kesh, and I like to imagine that, like, further along the line of Icebreaker, Chasmata and Whitestar are just like-- look up, and go like, “...what is happening?”
AUSTIN: “...what the fuck, what is happening there?” Yeah, exactly.
JACK: “Is that our symbol over point Juniper?” or whatever.
AUSTIN: “...over Juniper? Why is this happening?” Yeah, exactly. Alright, so then, give me risky/great.
KEITH: In the middle of them fighting essentially a fake battle where they’re dying.
AUSTIN: Where they’re dying, yes, a hundred percent.
JACK: Yeah, (laughing), they see Kesh’s symbol hundreds of miles away.
AUSTIN: Yes.
JACK: Okay, so this is 1d6.
AUSTIN: Uh, 1d6 cause you have the, because you’ve gotten that reduction. You can spend a quirk on th-- or, you can spend, uh, um, I think this would be, because it’s Command, this would be stress.
JACK: No!
AUSTIN: So you could spend 2 stress on this.
JACK: No, Austin! You see how much stress I’ve got? No thanks.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) No, you only have three left? You’re good? Yeah, you got 6, what’s up.
JACK: I’m gonna roll badly instead! Here we go!
AUSTIN: Does anyone wanna help? I’m gonna let my offer stand.
JACK: Yeah, sounds about right.
KEITH: Uhm, what sort of help? What is the…?
AUSTIN: This is just like, a barrage coming in from artillery, from--
JACK: Two Troop units.
AUSTIN: ...the, the Troop units, and from, and yeah. And, and that’s it.
JACK: I dunno, I rolled the dice, Austin.
AUSTIN: You did -- I did ask, and you did it before-- I’m leaving it open, I’m a fan of the players, I asked, I want people to respond, respond not knowing that Jack rolled a 2.
KEITH: It sounds like…
ART: What does helping look like though? Like, how…?
AUSTIN: I dunno. Uh, being part of the firing squad, y’know, contributing some sort of communication that urges people on, making the, y’know, targeting a little clearer, y’know, calling out where people are, something like that, somehow.
ART: No, I’m behind a wall, I can’t do any of those.
KEITH: (overlapping) Using your thrusters to temporarily blow away the fog.
AUSTIN: Sure!
SYLVIA: I’m not helping. Just making it clear.
AUSTIN laughs.
JACK: Thank you for your honesty, Millie.
KEITH: (overlapping) I’m also not helping.
JACK: (holding back laughter) Thank you for your honesty, Leap.
KEITH: I didn’t think about it! I felt like, in the moment, like, when it first was asked, I felt like I was the closest to saying “yes”, which is…
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: ...bad news.
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: That is bad news! Alright! Um, this rain of fire hits-- well, actually, here’s the thing, it almo-- y’know, you hear the first of the artillery shells fire up, and it’s like, it lands, and there’s a huge explosion, and maybe there’s a second one - there is not a third one. Um, over comms, the two Troops call into you, Clem, and they say,
(as Unnamed Troop Pilot): Our long ranged cannon isn’t working!
Uh, and the Perennial Wave is making long-distance weapons in these much less upgraded units, these units maybe not blessed by a Divine, fail to work. What’s up, Keith?
KEITH: Is this roll wrong? It looks like only a-- one number was rolled instead of two? To take the lowest?
AUSTIN: It is not two take the lowest,
KEITH: Oh, Command is not--
AUSTIN: Jack has two in Command.
KEITH: Right, but, two minus one-- oh, and then it’s just roll 1--
JACK: Is one.
AUSTIN: Yeah, 1d6, that die is, that die is… yep. Yep.
JACK: Oh boy! Okay!
KEITH: I tried-- sorry, I tried to help that way.
AUSTIN: I know, I know. It is what it is.
JACK: (overlapping, laughing) Thank-- thank you.
ART: (overlapping) You could have spent a Spark on it.
AUSTIN: You could spend a Spark on it. Well no, you-- yes! You could! You could spend a Spark!
KEITH: (overlapping) Yeah, you could.
AUSTIN: Here it is, this is the moment!
JACK: (overlapping) Holy shit! Alright, yeah, let’s absolutely--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) That is what-- so that is what’s happening! In this moment, is, you’re getting called in from people who are saying…
JACK: (overlapping) No, no, I love this! This is--
AUSTIN: ...so you tell me what happens.
JACK: Well, this is fantastic! Because this is like, the Divine is… what’s Gur Sevraq’s Divine called?
AUSTIN: Future.
JACK: Future!
AUSTIN: I mean, this is the thing, right? Like, you’re, you’re getting a flash of the future a little bit, you’re seeing possibility, you’re seeing where things can go wrong, a moment in time, so that you can correct it, it’s almost as if you’re resisting an effect before it hit-- it happens, do you know what I mean?
JACK: Yeah, that’s incredible, okay. I like this a lot, so, I think, I think we do get that image of, like, Clem with two Troop units behind her, and the star of Kesh in the sky in the distance, pointing, and then, just like, the mech’s arm changing where it’s pointing?
AUSTIN laughs.
JACK: As like, she-- she receives the information that, like, what she had previously thought was the targeting, wasn’t actually the case.
AUSTIN: What does it look like to receive that information? What’s it feel like to have a Divine whisper in your ear that you’re about to make a big mistake?
JACK: You know when you’re really, really tired? Really tired. And you’re like, right on the edge of hallucination.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Not such that it is a direct physical or visceral hallucination?
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
JACK: Um, but more that it’s almost as though something is -- appears on a film, and I say that like a, like a thin sheet, not like a movie.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Appears on a film between your eyes and the actual world. Where, where… you’re almost just like, oh, I just saw it, but if you told me where I saw it, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you, it was just, it was just like, out there? And I think what Clem sees and hears is that message from the Troop units, which is like, the, “the wave, it’s not working, it’s messing up our--”.
AUSTIN: “It’s throwing our--”, yeah.
JACK: “Throwing our aim off.”
AUSTIN: And so you-- they adjust, and that becomes a success, and you spend your Spark, and you, for the first time, uh-- as this happens, I want there to be this secondary effect, right? Um, and we can talk about this… let’s talk about it now. Every time you use this, that image of the future for Clementine Kesh gets filled in a little bit more. What’s one detail in the throne room that, that Clementine Kesh dreams of that we didn’t talk about before, like, a piece of furniture, or someone there.
JACK: Oh, wow! Um… I think Gucci Garantine is there.
AUSTIN: Okay. Good. Love it. Uh-huh.
JACK: Um, and I think it’s an easy, uh-- Gucci uses she/her pronouns, right?
AUSTIN: Correct, yeah.
JACK: The-- it’s an easy relationship, she and Clementine are chatting, it’s like, there is none of the tension or discomfort that they’ve been feeling.
AUSTIN: Totally. And this is another good element of, like, “aw, I’m really tired, why am I thinking about Gucci? Why is this happening?”
JACK: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Uhm, uh, great! Uh, and so, yeah. Go ahead and that becomes a success, which means, uh, what did we say? We said this was risky… risky/great because of spending stuff, uh, you’re still going to take a consequence here, but first, where do you want to put these… are you putting this on the three Cackle units, right?
JACK: Yeah. Mmhm.
AUSTIN: With the kind-of dogs here? Right?
JACK: Yeah, although I learned this recently, hyenas are a kind of cat.
AUSTIN: That’s true, um. So, now I guess it sounds like, with all the corrections, with all the, with all the, y’know--
JACK: (overlapping) The errata.
AUSTIN: ...aiming directions. Yeah, uh huh? With the, yeah, with the errata, the Future errata, everyone’s aim is on point, the Troops and then also A.O. Rooke’s artillery unit, uh, kind-of completely, uh, dial in their shots where they should be here. Um, and we get these kind-of three hyena units, the Cackles, like-- sprinting back and forth, and, and I think it ends up being, what ends up happening here, the Troop units almost, like, drive them into where an artillery shell is going to be, right? So they’re like, being chased with fire from the Troop cannons, which they’re able to outrun, but then what they can’t outrun is, oh, wait, now I’ve run into the place where the artillery cannon’s about to strike. Um, and it slams into the backs of these robo-- of these giant robotic cat, cat-slash-dogs, as you said, hyenas are cats, but we also think of them as dog-like sometimes, and they, uh, collapse down this kind-of low hill. Um, nice, nice effort here.
However, that is a mixed success, which means there is still a consequence to you. And in this case, that consequence is… (Austin hums) ...the, uh, the two Troop units here, which are kind-of a… a de-facto third cohort for you? Um, the, the-- one of them just gets lifted up, this right one here? Gets lifted up by one of these Wakes, these giant vulture-like mechs, uh-- just like, attaches both of its, in fact, I’m going to say it takes two of them to do this, cause they’re-- troops are pretty big. Two of these kind-of bird mechs, um, which again, I wanted to shout out a specific piece, um, that I love, but… these are by, there’s a specific drawing I have in mind, or a specific piece by Emerson Tung, that I think if you just search “Emerson Tung jet mech”, you’ll find it. Tung, (spelling) T-u-n-g. It’s very, very, very cool looking. And those kind-of fly over one of the Troop units, launch these, like, talons, these like, wired talons down to the Troop unit, which crunch into the Troop’s shoulders, and lift it up, and then drop it to the ground. This give, this gives this kind-of impromptu cohort that you have a level 2, uhh… actually what I’m gonna do is, I’m gonna roll them into the, uh, bigger cohort you have, the ground-based cohort, and just give that cohort a second type, which is like, “mech” instead of just being “infantry”, just being “toughs”, they’re also “toughs” and “rovers”, which I think is the pilot one? Uh, and I’m giving them a level 1 harm, which means that they now have reduced effect when you use them, because one of these Troop units has been destroyed. You could resist this if you want to.
JACK: No, thank you! (pause) I’m Clementine Kesh.
KEITH laughs.
AUSTIN: Ah, you’re Clemen-- okay, so, “no, I’m not resisting this”.
KEITH: That explains it.
AUSTIN: Uh huh. Um, alright! Uh… Sovereign Immunity, after you’ve barricaded this thing, after the fighting begins, what are you-- what are you getting up to, what’s your play here?
ART: Um, I don’t have a lot of distance stuff, um…
AUSTIN: That’s true. I’m not gonna stop you from trying to get in someone’s face, though.
ART: What’s that?
AUSTIN: I’m not gonna stop you from getting into someone’s face.
ART: That seems like a bad idea.
AUSTIN: Listen, you’ve already taken out three of the close range mechs.
ART: Alright! Um. I think, like…
AUSTIN: Are you playing Sovereign Immunity the way you think Sovereign Immunity should be played?
ART: Uhm, do you think they’re gonna respect my immunity? D’you think they’re going to decline to attack me?
AUSTIN: We’ll see!
JACK: (laughing) Listen… I’d like, I’d like to parley.
ART: Um, I guess I’m going for it! I guess I’m gonna scale the wall, which I think would look really cool, with a mech with no legs, like, climbing up the side of the wall, like--
AUSTIN: A big hover mech, just…
ART: But like, it doesn’t fly, so it has to like, crawl, kind-of. But probably crawls quickly cause there’s no legs.
AUSTIN: Yeah, just--
KEITH: You hover off of the wall as you--
AUSTIN: ...as you climb up it, sure.
ART: Sort of like-- I guess sort-of just like, pushing up, like…
KEITH: Clamber? Is that a word? Are you clambering?
AUSTIN: Yeah, clamber’s a word!
ART: Maybe! I’m sort-of seeing it as, like… like, scooting? Like, two arms at once, pushing, and then, like, re-grabbing and pushing.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I got you.
KEITH: Yeah. “An awkward or laborious climb, move, to get in or out of something.”
AUSTIN: Clamber. So you climb up the wall, and then, and everyone sees Sovereign Immunity’s mech up, up against the-- up, up against the kind-of horizon.
ART: Uh huh.
AUSTIN: This agricultural construction mech.
ART: Yeah, uhm. And I’m… going to… leap. I guess I’m -- how can you leap, you can’t leap with no legs, huh?
AUSTIN: You could, like, do a running-- I mean, you could probably, like, increase your impulse hover, or whatever, right?
ART: Sure, but it’s sort-of just, like, falling.
AUSTIN: Sure, yeah, falling forward.
ART: Falling forward, yeah. And, goes to engage, maybe this one?
AUSTIN: Sure, one of the two Kosmoses, the left-- the left on our screen Kosmos, the big...
ART: (overlapping) Yeah, their left, my right.
AUSTIN: Yes. Uh, and what’s that look like when you-- are you charging in on these hover legs, or this hover base with a big scythe out?
ART: (overlapping) Yeah, I’m charging in on the hover base with a big scythe out--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Like, what’s the…?
ART: And with a little, like-- with the little, like, barrier up.
AUSTIN: Sure.
ART: And then, like, at the last minute you move the barrier, you swing the big scythe, and you, you try to disable a mech, y’know?
AUSTIN: Yeah, okay! Um, I’m going to say that this is--
ART: This is Battle.
AUSTIN: This is Battle, and I think that this is, uh, you’ve “great” because you’ve “Robot Fighter”, “Robot Fighter” is “you know the weak points of inanimate--”, uh, “of the inanimate, and you gain increased effect in combat versus machines”, which--
ART: Mmhm.
AUSTIN: But, but! You’re also now in close-quarters combat with, uh, multiple mechs that have, uh, that are, that are part of a Divine, and so I do think that this is a classic Leap-type roll, this is a desperate/great.
ART: Great, umm...
AUSTIN: Is anyone helping? Before Art rolls the one Battle that he has.
SYLVIA: I’ll help!
AUSTIN: What’s that look like?
SYLVIA: Um, I think it’s, like, I’m coming down after and still firing?
AUSTIN: Okay, cool.
SYLVIA: Um, so its sort-of, like, cover fire situation?
AUSTIN: Cool. Which quirk are you using-- sorry, which, what’s your--
SYLVIA: I think it’s two with S.I.?
AUSTIN: You’ve two with, uh, with…
SYLVIA: Oh, no, I have one with Sovereign Immunity right now.
AUSTIN: With Sovereign Immunity, so then yeah, spend one stress to give increased position, uh, better effect which you can’t do here, because he already has great effect, so, are you giving-- or, one die, so one die or increased position.
SYLVIA: I figure, I figure Art’s looking for the die right now.
ART: That’s probably right, yeah.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
KEITH: Um.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: I was thinking that this could potentially be a setup action?
AUSTIN: It could! It’s up to Art-- I, you know, I wanna see Art fight, because we’ve never seen this mech fight, I wanna see if Art, with Robot Fighter, if Sovereign Immunity can fight a robot. It totally could be another set-up action, if that’s what the crew wants, but I do want to call attention to the fact that we’ve never seen Sovereign Immunity get to hurt something in a big mech.
KEITH: (overlapping) Oh yeah, that’s true, we’ve not seen this mech actually do the… mech…
AUSTIN: Do the thing, yeah.
ART: And I took Robot Fighter so I could fight robots without being in a robot, but that doesn’t seem appropriate right now.
AUSTIN: Not right this moment, no, no.
ART: Sometimes, you gotta fight robots in a robot.
KEITH: Yeah…
AUSTIN: Sometimes.
ART: Like a boring person.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) We’ll see in the future. Like a, like a boring person, it’s true. One day, we may wrap back around, we will see. Maybe even today, we’ll see how it goes.
ART: And I think I cannot push myself because I’m already at 5 stress.
AUSTIN: No, this would be a quirk. You could expend a quirk to do this.
ART: Ohhh! I’ll expend… “Redundant Systems”?
AUSTIN: Sure. What’s that look like, is that about, like… do you have an idea for that?
ART: I think it’s about, like, blowing the failsafes?
AUSTIN: Yeah, sure.
ART: It’s like, this is designed to do these things, and it’s like, y’know, it’s within these parameters, and it’s just like, I’m ripping out the wires that tell it it can’t swing the arm harder, y’know?
AUSTIN: (laughing) Okay, yeah, totally! Uh, fuck it, man, let’s go! Alright, so then, are you giving yourself another +1 or are you changing position with this?
ART: I’m giving myself-- if I fail this roll with 3d6, I deserve whatever happens.
JACK: Oooh, don’t say that…!
ART: Or I deserve…
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Uh, yeah, 3d6 desperate/great.
ART: ...to send my spark to (laughing) turn it into a success.
AUSTIN: (laughing) ...to turn it into a success! Yeah! This is the thing, right? Alright! Um, 3d6, give me the roll! (pause) Hey, that’s a 6!
SYLVIA: Wow!
JACK: Incredible.
AUSTIN: What’s this look like?
ART: Um, what does this do? What’s...
AUSTIN: Well, you have great success, so that means 3, 3 ticks on The Black Century clock, raising it to 6 out of 8, which to me means you might take out both of these fuckin’ Kosmoses, you tell me what it looks like.
ART: Alright, if I’m taking out two Kosmos, I think it looks like, the, the scythe just, like, rends it, y’know?
AUSTIN: Yeah
ART: Like it was one piece, and now it’s two pieces. And then with the redundant systems rendered inoperable, uh, takes one of the halves and throws it into the other one.
AUSTIN: Love it. (AUSTIN makes a chef’s kiss noise.) Mwah! That’s what you wanna to hear. That’s what you wanna see happen.
ART: (overlapping) And most thing, when, when something that’s half their size hits them, they’re hurt.
AUSTIN: They’re hurt real bad.
ART: That’s not, not a good time.
AUSTIN: Both of them-- yeah, the other one crumples to the ground again, and, and here, with you being, again, this close, you get Hyacinth’s voice in your head, um, and they say, um…
(as Hyacinth) She sees in you endurance. Someone who would last the century without her aid.
ART: Huh. Sovereign Immunity’s already old.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s. Uh huh. Um, alright, so Millie, you are also down on the ground.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Now, Leap, we’re back around to you, Leap. Um, and Millie you can come back around on this too, but you just did this help, so, we’ll, we’ll kinda… Leap, what do you do?
KEITH: So I had this idea before my allies were themselves in the field.
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
KEITH: But--
ART: Great start.
KEITH: Do you remember what Art said about “it’s not the time to fight outside of a mech”?
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: I disagree!
AUSTIN: Uh huh.
KEITH: Umm, and so I think, what I was thinking of doing, and, and I was gonna try and do it to this main body here, but I do see that there’s a couple birds that have split off.
AUSTIN: There are a couple birds in the sky right now, one of them just dropped and dest--
KEITH: Oh, they’re in the sky.
AUSTIN: They’re birds. Yeah.
KEITH: Well, then, maybe I’ll do this to Pneuma…!
AUSTIN: Okay!
KEITH: Um, I-- so I have the rockets. And, and--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Yes.
KEITH: I have, I have an alternative if this is unacceptable. I have my Rack of Missiles or Rockets, and I think I just-- I wanna take them and use them, sort of as like mines.
AUSTIN: You wanna, like, plant them?
KEITH: I wanna plant them.
AUSTIN: So that you-- how do, what’s that look like? Does that mean, like, putting a really big delay on them and then firing them into the ground?
KEITH: No, it means, like, carrying them--
AUSTIN: Oh, they’re really heavy. I don’t think Leap could carry a thing that a 45 foot mech--
KEITH: (overlapping) Okay, then I also-- I can also take Placed Explosives?
AUSTIN: Yes, that I think is more appropriate, yeah.
KEITH: Okay. Um.
AUSTIN: Uh, that-- we’ve seen that happen before, for sure.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That’s-- you have heavy load which means that takes up the-- you only have one other thing declared which is the Night Vision Goggles, so you still have 4 load left.
KEITH: Um, and…
AUSTIN: I will-- before you get out the mech, the last thing I do wanna emphasise is: Future’s Hallowed will not effect you outside of the mech, so you will lose the ability to spend Spark to change a failure into a success, just being clear up front.
KEITH: Unless you have… uh, a-- a Spark move already that does a very similar thing. Which is--
AUSTIN: You could do the other Spark move, that Spark move is yours, a hundred percent.
KEITH: Yeah, which is--
AUSTIN: But that other Spark move will let you resist a consequence, it will not turn a failure into a success.
KEITH: Right, yeah.
AUSTIN: Just emphasising.
KEITH: Um, but I have pretty good Prowl.
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally!
KEITH: And this Prowl, this is gonna be Prowl.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) I think this is a Prowl, a hundred percent, this is a Prowl.
KEITH: I’m gonna-- I’m gonna, I’m gonna… (pause) I’m going to blow up Motion’s, or at least the Pneuma’s, like, legs. With the bomb.
AUSTIN: I think-- so I think this is a, this has to be a two-part thing for me.
KEITH: Yeah?
AUSTIN: Because you’re so far away.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Um, like, you’re-- you’re, you’re basically the length of the, of the base away from Motion right now.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Which means you, you need to approach somehow? And to me that approach is, is, either a roll right now that is, like, a Maneuver roll inside the mech? Or, uh-- this a clock, this is, like, a Prowl clock that you’re starting to try to sabotage Pneuma.
KEITH: Prowl clock…
AUSTIN: In which case it takes multiple-- but like, it’s far, do you know what I mean?
KEITH: Yeah, it is far.
AUSTIN: I think this is, like, um, you’re as far away from it as it is from the centre of the base, and in a mech that’s one thing. Um, but, but…
KEITH: What was the first option beside a Prowl clock?
AUSTIN: I think you make a Maneuver roll to get close, it’s almost like making a Defy Danger in Powered by the Apocalypse games?
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Where it’s like, oh, I need you to get into position first-- it’s almost like a set-up action for yourself.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: And maybe that’s how we treat it, it’s almost like you’re doing a set-up for yourself that will increase the degree of effect-- or maybe it would increase, you would tell me, it could increase either position or effect, I think by default, let’s say, you could do the Prowl roll to do this, but it would be desperate/limited, and you could increase that either in terms of effectiveness or in terms of position, based on the set-up roll, if that makes sense.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Your Maneuver is 1. So...
KEITH: Yeah, well, so in-- in that sense I, I like the Prowl clock better, I think?
AUSTIN: Okay. Um, then, uh, I’ll start a 4-step clock.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: And that is about, like, getting there, and also, like, setting these bombs, basically.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uhh… I’ll pop it down here and then make it so that you can see it, which is important, um. So what’s it-- what’s it look like as you’re racing across this battlefield through the fog?
KEITH: Uh, w-- y’know, weirdly, I think it, I think it involves a lot of staying really close to the feet, or even like, hitching on legs.
AUSTIN: Sure.
KEITH: Because it’s, it’s much-- there’s much less visual clutter than, like, if I’m just, like, running straight through. I keep imagining this is sand, but I don’t think it actually is sand.
AUSTIN: No, it’s like, it’s like, it’s like… it’s a tundra, basically, right? So it’s lots of dirt, and, uh, lots of stones and low grass, yknow?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Mossy… kinda, layer?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, especially this part which is very hill-y, kind-of, lots of, like, old sediment that’s, that’s stopped-- and its also cold, so there’s lots of frost, which makes this a little bit dangerous.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, but I think that this part then, is a risky/standard, because it’s this, this Prowl roll part of, like, approaching.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: This is a risky/standard Prowl.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Cause this could go bad, you could get seen, right?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: It’s not desperate, because you’re small, which makes it harder for them to see an individual person running, for sure.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: But it’s still risky.
KEITH: I am going to push myself on this one.
AUSTIN: Okay, take 2 stress. What are you giving yourself?
KEITH: (quietly) Um, also… (regular) Okay, sk-- I’m sorry, I’ve totally fucked up. I forgot to say--
AUSTIN: Uh huh?
KEITH: I do have another move called The Devil’s Footsteps.
AUSTIN: Mmhm?
KEITH: “When you push yourself, in addition to normal benefits, choose one of the following: Perform a feat of athletics that verges on the superhuman, or maneuver to confuse your enemies so they mistakenly attack each other.”
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Both of those are good.
KEITH: May I please perform a feat of athletics that verges on superhuman to fill this clock faster?
AUSTIN: Yes you can, and in fact, I’ll delete the clock. And now, you can just roll to do this, because doing the Devil’s Foot-- getting there in a single turn is a feat that verges on the superhuman.
KEITH: Thank you.
AUSTIN: You’re a robot!
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I d-- you know? Your, your Equiaxed - you’re part robot, you’re part organic, your legs are not my legs.
KEITH: (overlapping) And my-- my, y’know, you’ve, we, the-- I was built to be legs.
AUSTIN: Yes, yes, yes, a hundred percent.
SYLVIA laughs.
KEITH: (overlapping) When I was born, I was a pair of legs. Um...
AUSTIN: You merely adopted the legs!
KEITH laughs.
AUSTIN: Um.
KEITH: (overlapping) Um. Okay, so I’m going--
AUSTIN: So yeah, so you’re still risky/standard, but now there’s no clock.
KEITH: (overlapping) I’ve got my 3d6, um...
AUSTIN: Yep.
KEITH: And… let’s see...
AUSTIN: You could drop to desperate to get risk-- to get desperate/great!
KEITH: Yeah! Yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright, so the thing that I’m telling you that makes this desperate is, as you begin this run, you, like, explode off the starting line, so to speak?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And one of the, one of the Wakes that’s back towards the Pneuma catches-- like, catches you in its sights, and begins to kind-of, like, maneuver towards you, like a hawk tracing its pray. So now you’re at 3d6, but then--
KEITH: (overlapping) So I, I’m caught? If I fail, like, I’m caught? Or…?
AUSTIN: Oh, I’m just saying, you-- you’ve been seen. This is the thing that makes it desperate.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Is that, you’re within, you’re within the eyes of this thing, for sure.
KEITH: Okay, but if this is a Prowl roll, and I succeed, shouldn’t I not--
AUSTIN: You’ve lost-- then, it’s lost sight of you.
KEITH: Got it, alright.
AUSTIN: Or, then it hasn’t-- it hasn’t been able to dial in an attack on you.
KEITH: Right, okay.
AUSTIN: But this is what makes it desperate.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: As a reminder for people listening, in Forged in the Dark games, you can’t just say something is desperate, the situation has to change in order for it to become desperate, and to me what makes it desperate is, you’ve gained the attention of someone.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, so right now, 3d6 except now you get a plus-- you could use Daredevil to get a 4d6 but also take a -1 to resistance as we talk about, blah blah blah.
KEITH: Right. 4d6…!
AUSTIN: Very crunchy character.
KEITH: No, I’m, I’m already 4d6. I could take-- use Daredevil to get a 5d6.
AUSTIN: No, your Prowl plus you pushed yourself is 3…
KEITH: Plus, uh, Devil’s Footsteps-- oh, no, no...
AUSTIN: (overlapping) No, that just, that’s not… no.
KEITH: That doesn’t give me another-- yeah, so… why did I write 4d6? Was I gon- was I about to say that I was going to do something else?
AUSTIN: Probably the Da-- the Daredevil thing you do the most…?
KEITH: (overlapping) Yeah, I’ll take-- yeah, Daredevil, fuck it.
AUSTIN: Okay! (laughs) This is a very Daredevil-y thing! 4d6…
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: ...desperate/great,
KEITH: Uhm, oh, right, I had already changed it cause of Daredevil, okay! Let’s do it!
AUSTIN: Mixed successes! A 4 and a 5. Um. This is-- this is a dangerous situation, Leap.
KEITH: Okay!
AUSTIN: And we’ll get to consequences, but let’s-- tell me about what the great success looks like.
KEITH: Umm, okay, so because I got a great success, instead of planting them as mines, I’m going to put them directly on Pneuma’s legs.
AUSTIN: You’re, like, climbing up the sides of this, this massive machine’s, this thing is like--
KEITH: (overlapping) I am, yeah. I am on Pneuma.
AUSTIN: ...65, 70 feet tall, right?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: This is like, five stories tall.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You are, again, you are clambering up the side of this thing?
KEITH: Yeah, I’m clambering up the greebles?
AUSTIN: Okay, yeah, uh-huh? Good, clambering in the greebles, a great phrase - planting these mines, um, and getting ready to-- to, presumably leap off and hit the trigger, right?
KEITH: Yeah. I am going to leap.
AUSTIN: Ahhh. I see. Leap. Now I see. Uhm. Uh, as you leap away, and you set these bombs off, like, they go off the-- the armored plating of the Pneuma falls off, revealing on the inside, a sort-of pulsing co-- like that tentacle arm of coils runs through its whole body, like, it has that left arm that’s just a bunch of coiled electrical cables? And that is like a-- an interior layer that continues into the armor instead of, like, a skeleton, it is just like a tangle-- a humanoid tangle of cabling that writhes as the explosion goes off, and you can see this as you leap away. And as you leap away, a talon, uh, reaches around you from the Wake that was following you in the sky, and grips you extremely tightly? And then throws you to the ground. You get the level 3 harm “Broken”.
KEITH: I’m going to resist the consequence of-- what is it?
AUSTIN: I would fuckin’ hope!
SYLVIA laughs.
KEITH: So I get a plus 1-- or, I get a minus 1 to resistance because of Daredevil…
AUSTIN: (overlapping) You get another die.
KEITH: (overlapping) ...but I get a plus 1 because of Never Tell Me The Odds.
AUSTIN: You get another-- oh, no, you’re right, yes, that’s what it is, that’s what it is, that’s--
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You get another die because of Never Tell Me The Odds still.
KEITH: Yes.
AUSTIN: So those cancel out.
KEITH: Those cancel out.
AUSTIN: This is definitely a Prowess roll because-- to, um, to resist this for sure, so this is 2 dice.
KEITH: 2 dice, okay.
AUSTIN: 6 minus the highest die you roll here. I’m looking to see if there’s anything else you can do here. Uh, I don’t think if anybody-- nobody else has, like, a “help someone resist”, right? Oh! You get another one from Forged In The Fire, this is absolutely in combat, so you get 3d6 to resist.
KEITH: (overlapping) Oh, finally! Yeah, I forgot that those stack because it’s been so long since it’s come up.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA laughs.
AUSTIN: This is absolutely a third, a third resistance.
KEITH: Alright, so I get 3d6.
AUSTIN: Yes. (pause)
KEITH: 5.
AUSTIN: So that means you take one stress!
KEITH: One stress.
AUSTIN: Which leaves you at 8, which is… or, 7. 7! 7 out of 9.
KEITH: (overlapping) 7.
AUSTIN: So you’re pretty stressed, and what what does is-- I have to be clear here too, that does not clear out this damage, this reduces the damage. You tell me how you drop this level 3 harm to a level 2 harm, um, as this, this talon kind-of squeezes you and is going to throw you to the ground, making you break. I-- my suggestion-- or my thought here is like, you slip out of, out of the, the actual talon? So it doesn’t get the wind-up - you still fall a great distance, but maybe you don’t, like, get slammed, you don’t get yeeted against the floor, so much as you fall from a great height. What’s a word for just, like, your legs aren’t as good as they were a moment ago?
ART: Sprained?
AUSTIN: More than sprained.
ART: Really sprained.
AUSTIN laughs.
KEITH: My legs are robotic, so…
AUSTIN: Yeah, so they wouldn’t be sprained, right? They’d be…
KEITH: Frayed?
ART: (overlapping) I think it’s obvious I don’t know what sprained means, and I don’t know why we’re lingering on it.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yeah, I guess, you know what, I don’t know what a sprain is either.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Hobbled maybe?
KEITH: A sprain is just a break that tends not to go all the way through the bone.
AUSTIN: Great. Good. Uhm. Actually, let’s go with-- well then, Fractured isn’t right either, right?
KEITH: Busted?
ART: Cracked?
AUSTIN: Busted. Busted is fun. Let’s go with Busted. Take the level 2 harm, Busted. (laughs) Sylvi in the chat says “damn, Leap is busted”.
SYLVIA: Leap is busted.
AUSTIN: Millie, as this happens, what do you do?
SYLVIA: I…
AUSTIN: The-- I wanna be clear, those explosions are wild and, again, you-- the interior of the Pneuma is revealed, and, and is kind-of terrifying to look at.
SYLVIA: So I think at this point I am, like, definitely in the sort-of range where I should not be using my cannon as primary, like, my primary combat… method… any more?
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
SYLVIA: And I think the sort-of… seeing Leap get dropped out of the sky, has sort-of made this feel a lot realer all of a sudden, cause we were doing well up until now.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Uhm, so I’m going to use my new move.
AUSTIN: Which is…
SYLVIA: More Than Meets The Eye, which I will read now. Your custom vehicle has the ability to transform into a secondary form. Detail that second form, select two load of vehicle gear and three points of action ratings that your vehicle lacks; it has this gear and those action ratings while in the secondary form. Select two load worth of vehicle gear and three points of action ratings that your vehicle has, uh, it lacks this gear and action ratings while in its secondary form. I don’t know if I read that right, but you-- basically, it, it’s a secondary form…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: ...where I swap three skill points and two points of my inventory.
AUSTIN: So what are the skills you have now, and what are you swapping them to?
SYLVIA: So the skills I have now are-- I have a 2 in Bombard and 1 in Battle, and what I’ve decided to do with this is, is it changes from 2-- from that to 2 in Battle and 1 in Maneuver.
AUSTIN: Okay, so it’s like a closer range mode?
SYLVIA: Yeah, pretty much, um…
AUSTIN: Okay. And then what is the gear switch? Cause right now you have Fine Heavy Cannon, Special Ammunition, 2 Armor and that is, that is what the, uh, the-- the Stray Dog has equipped.
SYLVIA: So the equipment that it’s losing is the Armor…
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Okay.
SYLVIA: ...and I’ll talk about how that is happening in a second. Uhm, because of its, uh, I’m thinking, like, mobility, right? You lose the armor.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: And then the new inventory stuff, I actually needed to, um, check with you about one really quick?
AUSTIN: Sure!
SYLVIA: Cause I was trying to decide between a melee weapon or a directed energy weapon?
AUSTIN: Sure.
SYLVIA: Just, i can-- without giving it away, uh, what I’m thinking -- what would you classify the Zaku Heat Hawk as? Because I’m thinking of something like that, where it heats up a lot.
AUSTIN: I would give you that as just a… melee weapon or two.
SYLVIA: Okay, cool.
AUSTIN: I mean, it depends, I guess! I think a directed energy weapon is meant to be a ranged weapon?
SYLVIA: Oh, it is, isn’t it?
AUSTIN: I th- I think so, because…
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Yeah.
AUSTIN: ...the word directed to me is not the same as just, like, y’know. You know what I’m saying.
SYLVIA: Yeah. Okay, cool, and then the other one is Anti-Infantry Defences.
AUSTIN: Oh, interesting. Which is, what do those look like? Or, what, I guess we’ll see if those come up, but.
SYLVIA: Uhm, that-- I mean, I can just read what it says on the sheet?
AUSTIN: Yes, totally.
SYLVIA: And we’ll see when it comes up. But, a shrapnel launcher that shreds flesh and light materials, but does little to sturdy objects.
AUSTIN: Ooof, okay. And so you’re not flipping that last point of gear over, you’re keeping the heavy cannon and special ammunition as your other… things?
SYLVIA: Yeah, well…
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Or, okay.
SYLVIA: ...I think I only get 2 points of vehicle load.
AUSTIN: Oh, 2 load of vehicle gear, you’re totally right, yes, sorry.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Yeah yeah yeah, and then it’s 2 action points.
AUSTIN: Apologies, yes yes yes, that makes perfect sense. Yeah, so what’s it look like?
SYLVIA: So, this is-- what happens first is that it kind-of just looks like Millie’s mech has shut off in the middle of battle? It, like, completely stops moving, the light goes off, uh, and basi-- and the, when it comes back on, I’ve sort-of been picturing it, this whole time, as the Stray Dog having a very standard, like, red light sort-of looking night vision goggles sort of thing? It comes on and it’s blue, and--
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: ...we talked about it in downtime.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Same…? Okay, that’s what I was gonna ask, yep!
SYLVIA: Yeah, it is the same blue that the color of this sort-of leaking oil-like liquid that was coming from its eye was in our last downtime session? And, uh, sort-of as there’s-- as this sort-of starts pouring out of the head of the mech and the light comes on, this sort-of, like, what I can only describe as, like, digital sobbing kind-of starts to come from its, like, speakers, and its communications? My sort-of touchstones are sort-of the noise from the, Ju-On: The Grudge, if anyone’s seen that? And then like--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Okay, oh, good, I love that for what a mech does!
JACK: (overlapping) God, wow.
SYLVIA: Yeah! And then also just, like, noise distortion when trying to make, like, electronic music, right, like, in chiptunes and stuff?
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yes, yeah, you think… you think that’s a horror mech? This is a horror mech!
SYLVIA: Get a load of this!
AUSTIN: Uh huh!
SYLVIA: Um, so, what the-- the effect of sort-of these tears, and I, the name for this is, what Millie’s done is she’s activated something called the Lacrimosa Drive.
AUSTIN:: Sorry, real quick--
SYLVIA: Yeah?
AUSTIN: I’m gonna step over the name of the new thing, cause all I can think of is, uh, uhh, (laughing throughout) “hey Gendo, it’s your cous-- it’s your cousin, Fendo?”
KEITH and JACK laugh.
AUSTIN: “Fendo Akari? You know that new mech…”
SYLVIA: God!
AUSTIN: “...mech you’ve been looking for? Well, get a load of this!” Uh, anyway, what is the name of this thing?
SYLVIA: So, what Milie’s activated is called the Lacrimosa Drive, it is sort-of a last resort type thing for the Stray Dog, um--
AUSTIN: Lacrimosa spelt l-a-c-r-i-m-o-s-a?
SYLVIA: Yeah! Um, it is the Latin word for weeping!
JACK: Excellent!
AUSTIN: Excellent, excellent, excellent! There’s a Mozard piece--
ART: The weeping drive. It has the weeping drive.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) It does, yes.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Yeah, yeah yeah. Um.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Keith in the chat says...
KEITH: (overlapping) It’s waterproof!
AUSTIN: ...of Gendo Ikari, “your kids are gonna love it!” (laughing) Great.
SYLVIA: Uh, but, so what this does is, this liquid has melted the armor off. Basically.
AUSTIN: Mmm.
SYLVIA: That is how this armor has sort-of, like, disappeared and, uh… I guess though I should describe the actual transformation here, because I’ve described sort-of the Stray Dog as being this, it’s got elements of, like, a stealth bomber, like a jet plane is kind of how we described some of the sort-of plating and aesthetics.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: And then also I’ve talked about how it’s like a bit of a weapons platform thing?
AUSTIN: Mmhm
SYLVIA: And with this, the- with this happening, all of this sort-of asymmetrical stuff that turns it into a weapons platform, the extra, like, armoring and bracing for the cannon has basically gone…
AUSTIN: Yeah
SYLVIA: ...so it has more of a symmetrical design. It, um...
AUSTIN: Is it still, what is the… is it like a carapace now? Does this stuff harder? Does it reveal something underneath? Like….
SYLVIA: Yeah! So it’s kind-of like, um, I’ve been-- I’ve been trying to sort-of find a good touchstone for this, and I think the best I’m gonna do is, like, I’ve invoked it before, but like, The Guyver?
AUSTIN: Sure, yeah.
SYLVIA: That sort-of like, almost beetle-y armor that it has? And, and, like, this is sort-of, this is a much lighter armor now, and…
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: ...while this is happening, it is still like “crying”, quote-unquote. This doesn’t stop while this is active.
AUSTIN: I just see that as, like, a neon blue that, like, almost as if it, like, comes out of your eyes as you’re running? Do you know what I-- not just comes out of your eyes, but is almost a continous line, like a continuous jagged line behind you, coming from your, your eyes. Which is powerful.
SYLVIA: Well, let me add to it, because when it’s running, it runs on all fours now.
AUSTIN: Sick!
SYLVIA: Um, and the sort-of-- the stuff that was part of the cannon in the arm has like-- in my notes I’ve described it as “snapped back into place along the spine”, um.
AUSTIN: Good. Good.
SYLVIA: So yeah, it’s just full monster mech now, and it’s charging at the Pneuma.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) It’s a full mons-- it’s charging at the Pneuma. Give me, this is a Battle, you have 2d6 here. Um.
KEITH: (to the tune of Monster Mash) It was the mech!
AUSTIN and ART simultaneously: (in a spooky voice) It was the monster mech!
SYLVIA: Yeah!
AUSTIN: (singing) The monster mech!
SYLVIA: (overlapping) The monster mech doing the Numa Numa dance.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) See, any episode...
KEITH: (overlapping) (singing) It was a midnight mech!
AUSTIN: (laughing) Any episode can be a musical-- an impromptu musical episode!
SYLVIA laughs.
AUSTIN: Uhm, are you spending any quirks to push yourself here? Is anyone helping?
SYLVIA: I am spending my Double-Jointed Limbs quirk here?
AUSTIN: Oh yeah, that sounds good!
SYLVIA: Yeah, so this thing fights with claws, those are the melee weapons.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Ohhh, interesting. Love it.
SYLVIA: When I described it, it’s heated claws, this sort-of like-- have extended out from, like, the first knuckle even more, and become like little blades on each finger.
AUSTIN: Hey. hey everyone, Millie’s mech turned into this.
SYLVIA: Hey! What’s up!
AUSTIN: Anyone…
SYLVIA: (overlapping) So I’m going to do 3 dice.
AUSTIN: Yeah, we-- real quick, is anyone helping? (pause) Sounds like no, sounds like everyone is stunned.
SYLVIA: That’s fine!
JACK: How much would--
KEITH: (overlapping) I can’t help.
JACK: It would cost me 2 to help, right, Millie? Or…?
AUSTIN: It would cost you two or…
SYLVIA: (overlapping) I believe so.
AUSTIN: ...one of your tactical genius points.
JACK: ...my tactical genius points?
AUSTIN: You should look at the first move you have, Jack.
JACK: Oh, damn, yeah, okay! Absolutely! Yeah! Two times per mission you can assist a team--
KEITH: (overlapping) Very Clem to not know the moves.
AUSTIN and SYLVIA laugh.
JACK: Sorry, we’ve been talking about spark and we’ve been talking about armor, and when you said tactical genius points, I thought there was some sort of additional, like, e-shop currency that I--
AUSTIN laughs.
KEITH: There is-- There kind of is! It just doesn’t have its own block.
JACK: (overlapping) I missed out on it. And it’s my moves.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it doesn’t have its own-- yeah, if you could add, under armor, Tactical Genius as a fourth type of currency you could spend…
KEITH: It is very Clem to forget that she is a tactical genius.
SYLVIA, JACK, and AUSTIN laugh.
KEITH: “God, I would have been using that all along!”
JACK: Damn!
AUSTIN: It is the opposite of the-- there’s a popular Gundam meme set, uh, from a character named Klim Nick, uh…
SYLVIA laughs in the distance.
AUSTIN: ...which is, one, a fantasti-- fantastic… hm?
KEITH: (overlapping) Spell that?
AUSTIN: Spell that? K-l-i-m.
JACK: (overlapping) Klim! Right, exactly!
AUSTIN: (overlapping) N-i-c, yeah, Klim…
JACK: (overlapping) My... (laughs) my villainous cousin.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) It’s actually short, do you want to know what it’s-- do you want to know what it’s short for?
JACK: What’s it short for?
AUSTIN: Klimton Nicchini.
KEITH, SYLVIA and JACK laugh.
JACK: Excellent.
AUSTIN: Gundam is undefeated.
KEITH: (overlapping) That sounds like two different old drinks.
AUSTIN: (laughing) It’s incredible. Klimton is, is this boy. Uh…
JACK: (overlapping, moaning, distant) Nicchini!
KEITH: I was--
AUSTIN: It’s, it’s incredible.
SYLVIA: Oh, wow!
AUSTIN: Uh, and then, and then… G Recco-- G Recco is undefeated also, and there are two - there’s a very popular, uhm, meme from him, which is, two images that I’m trying to find the second one of, the first one is, actually I’ll just link you to the video.
KEITH: Klim could have had a B at the end.
JACK & SYLVIA laugh.
SYLVIA: Oh, I’ve seen this!
AUSTIN: It’s “I’m a genius” and then a beat, and then “oh no!!!” (laughing) And…
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: ...this is Clem in reverse, like, “Oh no… I’m a genius!”
KEITH laughs.
JACK: God, okay, so like… I don’t want to-- I don’t wanna rob Millie of the horror of this thing happening? Like, the move says “tell us how you prepared for this”, so I don’t want to say, like, oh, Clem knew about this, because I think--
AUSTIN: Sure, did not, yeah.
JACK: I think this is just, I think Clem is just absolutely like, bowled over by it. Uhm, I’m trying to think of like, what does, what does preparation to assist…?
AUSTIN: But w-w-w-wait! We have an extra, we have an extra tool at play here, which is the Divine Future. Being Future’s Hallowed means, you may not have prepared for it yet, and then you prepare for it before it happens, because you see it happening.
JACK: Oh yeah, uh-huh. Absolutely. Um, god…
AUSTIN: Is it just about commanding covering fire, or about, like, getting ready to help with… uhm, or calling out something that Millie can dodge, or something like that?
JACK: Yeah, I wonder if it’s just like, I wonder if it’s just this, this… I think Clem is always someone who understands the power and horror of a symbol?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: And I think that the-- the beat from Future here is Clem seeing the Lacrimosa drive, and going, “oh my goodness, this is extraordinary”, Um, and so, kind-of leaping to, um, launching trails of fire, and, like, deflection stuff.
AUSTIN: Okay! Cool, go ahead - so, are you giving, or, I guess, Millie are you taking an extra-- are you taking better position, or are you taking an extra die, or?
SYLVIA: What is my position right now for this? Risky, I’m assuming?
AUSTIN: Uh, y-- this is… this is desperate/standard, right now.
SYLVIA: I think I’m gonna do…
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Engaging in close quarters combat with this heavy mech that’s a tier high-- two tiers higher than you, and a Divine, is… It’s-- embedded with a Divine, is desperate and standard, you’re not getting higher than that by call.
SYLVIA: I think I’m going to go with another dice, cause that’ll bump me up to 4, and I really wanna, y’know, get this thing?
AUSTIN: I get you!
JACK: You wanna crush in the first appearance?
SYLVIA: Also it -- yeah, I mean, yes.
AUSTIN: Mmhm! Mmhm.
SYLVIA: But also it’s only got one tick left on the dice, not to be a power gamer, but, y’know.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) That’s true! No, no, this is-- this is… go ahead and give me….
JACK: (overlapping, laughing) Always be a power gamer.
AUSTIN: Always be a power gamer.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Okay, so that’s a 6. And a 3, 4 and a 3.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) That is a success! Uh huh.
JACK: (overlapping) Hell yeah!
SYLVIA: The 6 matters!
AUSTIN: You-- the 6 matters, because there’s not a desperate consequence, which is huge, right?
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uhm, this is the thing, a mixed success on a desperate is still rough. So tell me what happens, Millie.
SYLVIA: I think that… there is sort-of this, like, moment where it’s, like-- I think what happens is it, like, it just doesn’t react in time, quick enough? Like it tries to do the, um, its like, wire-arm that it has?
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
SYLVIA: And when that happens, Millie’s mech just, like, tumbles out of the way. I think part of it is using the, like, weird doubled-jointed limbs, like it’s able to sort-of like, almost flip itself over.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Without, like, even really having to think about it.
AUSTIN: Ughh… god…
SYLVIA: And then it just, like, dives on it, and, like…
AUSTIN: And just goes to town with the claws?
SYLVIA: Yeah! Like, I have this very specific image of it sort-of, like, grabbing the head of this mech between the, like, two-- the two hands, and trying to pull… (laughs)
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Um, and we can… pull the veil there.
AUSTIN: Well, like, again, the thing you begin to pull apart is the, kind-of tentacle cabling that is in the middle of it, that is the body in a sense.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You reach in far enough and there’s a frame in there beneath the cabling too, and you begin to go to work on that. You’ve ticked this up all the way, this is now--
SYLVIA: Yeah!
AUSTIN: You got two ticks, it’s a 6-step clock, it goes up to 6, and then it goes up to 1. Let me tell you what happens with Motion. I guess, one thing happens after another, and, the second one will depend on what you do. At a certain point, you reveal the cockpit, and inside is Hyacinth, who I’ve already described has, still has these sort-of bright eyes of command and expertise, but whose figure is shriveled away where you can really see their service on them. And they say to you, speaking on behalf of Motion,
AUSTIN (as Hyacinth): She sees in you someone who is too afraid to flee, but who dreams of open plains. Would you take her from me?
SYLVIA: (pause) This is like… this is tough to answer because I have this in my head right now, where this thing being activated is, like, kind-of the perspective bleed situation between Millie and her mech.
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
SYLVIA: Um, so it’s not all her answering this? And I think it says yes.
AUSTIN: Okay. So. The second thing that happens, um, is that these, some of these tentacles reach out to you, and begin to kind-of cover up bits of-- you know what I think this is? If you think about the Guyver, there’s the beetle-plate armor, but then there’s also parts of it that are, like, the fleshy Guyver underneath: Gu-y-v-e-r, for people who don’t know what The Guyver is, it was kind-of a sci-fi… movie? Slash series?
SYLVIA: Yeah, there’s like an anime and a manga as well I believe, yeah.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) And a manga too, right? Yeah. Uh, and, uh, I think--
KEITH: (overlapping) Ohhhhhh.
AUSTIN: Yeah. What did you think? You thought we said Mc-- McGyver.
ART: McGuyver.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: McGyver is different.
ART: Which I was like, “I don’t think these things have.... but I don’t wanna say, I mean, I could be wrong, I don’t wanna like, I don’t wanna be the idiot here!”
KEITH: I was thinking McGruber.
AUSTIN: Mc-- yeah, different thing. Um, so here’s the, so the, the cables start to come up the legs of, of the Stray Dog, and like, fill in the gaps of where the armor plating, or like, the carapace, not the armor plating, the armor is gone, but the underlying, like, insectoid carapace is, um, and begin to, like, fill in those gaps. And then we get something that we haven’t gotten from you, Millie, as you’re-- the, the Stray Dog begins to glow gold with the power of the Divine Future, who has blesses, who has blessed it and blessed you. We’ve gotten the vision, or the attempt of a vision from Clem, Sovereign Immunity and Leap, of where, what the future holds for you, or what you dream the future would hold for you, the clarity that, in our daily lives, is not offered to us. What is the image that Millie has of a good life? What is the dream-- the dreamt future that Millie has?
SYLVIA: So I think, like, the -- I think this is like, one of those things that’s very, like, blurry, even with the influence of Future happening?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Because Millie has never had the ability to consider this?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: I think it’s more of a feeling, it is that feeling, of like, there is no tension between her shoulders, she doesn’t feel like she has to have a gun within reach?
AUSTIN: Sure.
SYLVIA: I think that there-- I think that, like, the most concrete image we see is like, of her, like, just living like a normal person on Partizan, and her mech is in the background, rusted away.
AUSTIN: Yeahhh, love it.
SYLVIA: Um…
AUSTIN: Is it like, an agricultural scene, a pastoral scene…?
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Yeah.
AUSTIN: Let Millie retire to a farm, y’know?
SYLVIA: Yeah, look, I’m not gonna pretend that I haven’t thought about doin’ the, fuckin… lesbian cottage retirement thing, so I’ll just go with that, it’s fine.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) That’s a good plan. Love it.
SYLVIA: I’m not gonna pretend any more.
AUSTIN: Um, and you hear, you-- you get the sense, I don’t think it’s Gur Sevraq speaking to you by any means, but maybe you interalise it in their voice, in that way? You get the sense that, like, you get a different vision. You get that vision, and then you get a vision of, you’re still at the cottage, you’re still kind-of in this beautiful pastoral landscape, but in the background, the Stray Dog is not rusted, it is in fact completely covered with these, these kind-of writhing electrical cables, these, like, corrugated coils. Um, that have covered it up, and it pulses and it’s still-- it’s still doing the Lacrimosa Drive, it’s like, crying blue in the background, and the blue is lighting up all through the, like, cabling, and it’s a picture of you in your older age, being lifted up, and being put back into the machine. And it’s like--
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Oh god…
AUSTIN: Yeah! Uh-huh! Yeah, you could win! You could get the cottage, but you will be part of The Black Century, you will be indebted to Motion for the rest of your hundred years. Um, and you have a moment here. And I-- I’m leaving it up to you here, because I think there are many ways that we-- we have not had a Divine pilot be a primary character for, like, the bulk of a season, but this is… this is being offered to you by Motion, who sees you as a-- who maybe does not-- who has not spoken to you yet, right? Who has only spoken to you via an intermediary. Um, but…
SYLVIA: (overlapping) The, like… this is terrifying to her, like, the only thing she wants to be able to do in her life is stop fighting?
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: And this is the opposite. So I think, like, the mech is going to start just clawing at these cables to get them off.
AUSTIN: Okay, so you do that, and you pull away, and as you do, the cables retract from you, and you hear, again, Hyacinth, they speak to you, and they say,
AUSTIN (as Hyacinth): She is disappointed. She liked you better than me.
Um, and the cables retract into the body of the Pneuma, which begins to heal itself. And its clock gets reduced down to 1.
SYLVIA: Millie’s mech screams again.
AUSTIN: Yeah. This is Motion. Motion does not stop. What do you do?
ART: Who are you asking?
AUSTIN: The table. Sovereign Immunity, it sounds like you, you might-- you have a very close up, you and Leap have-- oh! Pause really quick, cause Leap, you noticed something, let’s take care of this right now.
KEITH: Right,
AUSTIN: Leap.
KEITH: I forgot about, for a second, even though I just did it, I forgot about-- I could have armor.
AUSTIN: Yes, you can have armor, you have plenty of gear slots open, declare yourself some fuckin’ armor!
KEITH: I declare, I’m declaring armor, I no longer have Busted.
AUSTIN: Drop that down to sprained.
KEITH: Sprained… I’m gonna--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Level 1.
KEITH: ...think of a better, more machine word.
ART: (overlapping) Mecha-sprained.
AUSTIN: Mecha-sprained. Yeah, uh-huh.
ART laughs.
AUSTIN: Yeah, what is-- like, Wires Crossed? Like, uh, Disconnected…?
KEITH: (overlapping) Shorted?
AUSTIN: ...Shorted! Yeah. Love it.
ART: Pneumatic Ouchie.
AUSTIN: Pneumatic Ouchie is something that would come from a bad name generator.
KEITH: Pneumatic Ouchie makes me think of leaking, which might work.
AUSTIN: Might work, yeah. Exeter Leak.
SYLVIA moans, ART laughs.
SYLVIA: I don’t like any of this! I don’t like any of this.
AUSTIN: Uh huh, yeah? I think, like-- Sovereign Immunity or Clem, what are y’all up to here? Clem, we just saw you help with this, but, so S.I. maybe.
ART: Yeah, I’m just gonna-- I’m gonna try to, to keep-- get Motion down, which if you want to show that we can’t do this, that’s useful, and if you want to move on to doing it better, we can do that to.
AUSTIN: Yeah, go head, this is going to be desperate/standard, as it was for Millie inside of the machine.
ART: Alright, and I think this looks-- there’s no, there’s no grace or horror in, uh, Sovereign Immunity, um…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: ...doing this, and it’s just like, coming over and like, uh, I think the scythe is put away, and it’s like, it’s like punching it while launching the, like, rivets?
AUSTIN: Oh, I forgot about these rivets, it has the steel, DC characters Steel rivet-gun.
ART: Yeah, wrist mounted rivet gun, so it’s like...
AUSTIN: Love it.
ART: It’s like, “bang, chnk, bang, chnk”, to try and, like, to hurt-- to hurt it and also pin it, like.
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally.
ART: Less motion.
AUSTIN: Please, less motion. Yeah, give me a, uh-- that sounds like a Battle to me.
ART: That does sound like a Battle.
AUSTIN: Again, that would be 1d6, but then you can push yourself by expending a quirk, you have increased effect, so that actually raises you to desperate/great, uh, and if someone wants to help, they can help.
SYLVIA: I mean, I’m right there, I’m happy to help, and, yeah.
AUSTIN: (overlapping)Yeah, it feels like you’re already kinda in the mix in that way, do you want to spend a stress to help?
SYLVIA: Yeah, I’m fine doing that, I only get 1 with S.I., so.
AUSTIN: Yep. Yep. So go ahead and spend that, you’re up to-- you’re up to 7, but 7 out of 10, not 7 out of 9...
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: ...because you have a move or something, right? Yes.
SYLVIA: Yeah, I have Survivor.
AUSTIN: Survivor, yeah.
ART: 2d6, plus the ability to have Spark, sounds like enough.
AUSTIN: So you’re going to raise your position from desperate to standard-- or risky?
ART: No, no, I’m gonna take-- it’s, with the die, with that help it’s 2d6, and I think that’s enough.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Oh, so then, you’re not going to expend a quirk.
ART: Right. Instead I’m gonna keep my Spark to spend.
AUSTIN: Got you. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Alright, so then… alright! That’s a 6!
ART: That’s also a 6.
AUSTIN: Look at you! Um, so, that then is… we said desperate/standa-- no, desperate/great because of Robot Fighter, right?
ART: Yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, so, yeah, what’s this look like?
ART: Um, I think it just starts to like, it wants to keep moving, but it’s being pinned down, I think it’s like…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: It’s trying-- but it’s a Divine, right? So I don’t know, like, how far this goes, but like--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) It’s a Divine, and it, and it--
ART: It has to start, like, it has to start, like, crawling around its own chunks, or leaving it behind, but like, I’m just trying to like, I’m trying to run it out of itself.
AUSTIN: Yeah. It’s doing that thing where it’s like, “oh, it’s head is up top-- oh, no, its head is at the bottom, it’s moved its head.”
KEITH: I’ve got a question about the physical body?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: So its damage clock has been reset, but is there any lasting physical damage that’s happened due to the explosions?
AUSTIN: (overlapping) The armor-- that armor that you blew off is completely gone, right? And there are bits of it that are left behind, and are wriggling on the ground. There’s like a-- imagine if the T-1000 was, instead of being a liquid metal, was just metal-metal? But it still put itself back together, these cables reattach themselves, they resolder to themselves, to each other. It’s happening all around you, you can see it happening as you, kind of limp back up to your feet, Leap, these, like, giant cables the size of cars are inching towards each other like worms, and the smaller cables inside of them are reattaching to each other, as if they’re, like, stitching themselves together. But yes, the damage is lasting in the sense that, it is, it is now pinned to the ground, the armor is off of it, even though the armor is even kind-of, like, vibrating on the ground, and trying to get back into position. Y’know, and at this point, by the way, I just want to note, uh, you know, I think what we see in the background a little bit here, artillery fire still going off, it’s been kind-of, um, I’m gonna say that A.O. Rooke, because he rules, has started loading the wrong type of rounds in there, which is damaging, long-term, the gun? But is making it so that it can fire, like, flak cannons up at the Wakes, which, all 4 of the Wakes are still up. Um, which is bad. But that’s keeping them off you enough to do this damage.
JACK: (overlapping) He’s eager!
AUSTIN: He’s eager, he is eager, exactly. And then, and then the other half of this is, um, to note is… I forget what the other thing-- oh, the Troop is also firing up at the birds, at the Wakes to, uh, keep them from, from interfering.
KEITH: (overlapping) If I could start making my way back towards my mech...
AUSTIN: Oh, sure, yeah! (laughs) Yes, that makes a lot of sense to me.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you can just start doing that, that can be the shot that we see you do here. Uhm, Clem, what are you up to? And Leap, your mech was like--
JACK: God.
AUSTIN: Woops, that’s the wrong thing, I moved the wrong thing. Leap, your mech was like, up here, right? Clem, what’s up?
JACK: Um, I think that, um, Millie and S.I. have, uh, Pneuma kind-of in hand to a certain extent? By which I mean, I don’t think they’re winning, but I don’t think that me joining in would help? So instead, I’m gonna try and focus on some of these. So we’ve taken out the two, are they called… cos-Cosmo?
AUSTIN: Kosmos. Yeah, you’ve taken out the two Kosmos.
JACK: Kosmos, and the three horrible dogs.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) And then the three Cackles, yes.
JACK: So there are 4 of the bird mechs remaining.
AUSTIN: 4 of the bird mechs, yeah.
JACK: Oh, wow! One of them just zoo-- (laughs) just zoomed over there!
AUSTIN: (overlapping) I’m gonna keep it in the middle there, I just wanted to make sure we could see it here in the mix, y’know.
JACK: Mmhm? Okay, um… and I have one Troop unit remaining.
AUSTIN: Yep! And, uh, an artillery cannon that has been retrofitted to be able to fire either, uh-- or I guess the ammo has been retrofitted to either be a kind-o-- airburst explosions, or regular ground artillery fire.
JACK: Sure, okay. Um. Is there some kind of group action I could perform with Leap here? Because it seems like Leap is heading to set up to attack these, uh, birds.
KEITH: Yes, I am doing that.
AUSTIN: Yeah, what do you wanna, what do you wanna set up, or?
KEITH: (overlapping) I can tell you what I had in mind, if you, if you wanna wait-- if you weren’t sure exactly what angle to take.
JACK: Well it’s about, it’s about the ways in which I could command the Troop and the, um, A.O.’s cannon, to best serve the maneuver that you’re trying to do, given that we know that A.O. can kind-of fire situationally?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Oh! That’s a-- is that a situation here where you can, using your Fine Friend or Foe tags, do a setup that increases the effectiveness of the Destroy roll that Leap wanted to make before, by effectively-- Destroy doesn’t do targeting, but if you did the targeting for Leap, that would allow him to--
JACK: Oh damn! Yeah.
AUSTIN: ...do you know what I mean? So that would increase it.
KEITH: (overlapping) I was about to roll a new Destroy.
AUSTIN: Yeah, a new, as in-- as in Destroy again, or a new type of action with Destroy?
KEITH: New type of action with Destroy.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: And I was going to try and do a-- I was going to try and argue for better effect because of what I was gonna do.
AUSTIN: What are you gonna do? You pitch it.
KEITH: (overlapping) Well, so I have the thing in-- I have, um, geez, what is it called? Explosive Speed?
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
KEITH: And normally the way that I use that in combat is by launching myself, uh, into an enemy horizontally? Uh.
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: Oh my god…!
KEITH: But I was going to this to the birds vertically, essentially…
JACK: (overlapping) From the ground…!
KEITH: ...giving me two shots, on the way up, and then on the way down.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) On the way… on the way down?
KEITH: If I did happen to miss on the way up.
JACK: (overlapping) You’re going to goose ‘em?
KEITH: I’m gonna, I’m gonna get gooser.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) You’re gonna goose ‘em, you’re gonna get gooser.
KEITH: Uhhh, and so I was thinking that that might be a--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Oldheads only, no-one knows what the fuck we’re talking about.
KEITH cackles.
KEITH: Sorry, it’s more Titanfall!
JACK: Uh, sorry, “goosing” is what you call it when you fight a bird!
AUSTIN: (laughing) You’re right, of course! That’s what we mean! Um.
KEITH: Um.
AUSTIN: I still don’t think that’s Destroy-- uhhh! You know, it’s a--
KEITH: (overlapping) It is. It is Destroy.
AUSTIN: It says, you know what? It does say you may smash a-- ah, it-- I still think it’s more difficult, because it is specifically still about attacking a specific unit that can move, destroying a building is what Destroy is for, it is not for targeting a thing that moves and can counter-attack, and etcetera, I’m gonna let you do it--
KEITH: (overlapping) Well, it says you employ overwhelming destruction through your-- through your vehicle!
AUSTIN: (overlapping) I know, I’ve talked to the person who made this game!
KEITH: (overlapping) I gues that-- I guess, this, this means that--
AUSTIN: (overlapping, laughing) We’ve had this conversation like six times!!
KEITH: (overlapping) I think, here’s what it is.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Destroy is explicitly about, things that, that are… that are unable to respond to you attacking. It’s about destroying a base by just trying to level it, it’s not about, like, trying to do something very difficult, which is, launch your fast moving mech at a different flying fast moving mech.
KEITH: Yeah. So I think--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) I’m gonna let you roll it-- but I’m not, but again, it’s going to be reduced, it’s going to be reduced effect because it’s very difficult to do! Otherwise - I just want to be clear - otherwise, another play who has put points into Battle instead, which is the move for it, would be getting, would be being penalised, because I would not be awarding them the better positioning and effect that they deserve for having put their points there, so they can do those things, like--
KEITH: (overlapping) Okay, so this is--
AUSTIN: ...I have to be, I have to be fair about this thing. As much as I’m a fan of you!
KEITH: This is-- well, this, so this is what hap-- I build my mech’s moves narratively around what I think that it did before Leap had it, and while he had it?
AUSTIN: Totally.
KEITH: And I think that you and I-- I’m just under, I just, when I did that, understood Destroy and Battle in the complete opposite way of what it’s supposed to be?
AUSTIN: Well the difference for me is, when you say that you do this a big ship in space, that is Destroy, because you’re flying into a giant, like, wall, that is absolutely Destroy. But that’s a different thing than trying to, like, launch yourself into a flying vehicle, that is built to be maneuverable, that, to me is Battle, fundamentally. If you want to retroactively move that point out of Destroy into Battle permanently, so you can do stuff like this?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Or out of Destroy into Bombard, I’ll let you do that, I don’t even know if that’s possible given… your thing?
KEITH: (overlapping) Well I keep trying to set up moves with Destroy and you keep saying “no, that’s Battle”, so obviously, I mean-- I meant to put it into Battle, then.
AUSTIN: Yes, if you’re, if you’re trying to fight other mechs, that is Battle. That is fundamentally Battle.
KEITH: (overlapping) I’ll, I’ll wait until this one is over, at least--
AUSTIN: No, do it now! You can have it.
KEITH: Do it now?
AUSTIN: Like, I-- if this is, I’m happy to have you, I want you to be enabled to do the types of things you do.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: What I can’t do, is pretend the move is not the move it is. Uh, and the move is fundamentally about attacking things--
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: …that can not attack back.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Y’know? Um, it does, it specifically says “you could attack using a bus as a weapon, but Battle might be better”. This is that exact instance of Battle as being-- it’s better.
KEITH: The, the-- the language that I was going on was, uh, the wrecking ball… thing? And I was like “oh, that’s what I’m doing, I’m doing Be A Wrecking Ball”.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Yes, it is! But a wrecking ball is used against a building, and not against a mech that can dodge the wrecking ball.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That is exactly the thing, right? You are being a wrecking ball, but it-- you gotta, it has to be-- a wrecking ball is against buildings, it’s against things that don’t actually move.
KEITH: Okay, I’m Battling.
AUSTIN: Give me your Battle, so that’s 2d6! Are you help--
JACK: (overlapping) W-wait… hang on…
AUSTIN: So then, like, Clem, you’re helping.
JACK: Yeah. Uh, what am I rolling to help? Or is this--
AUSTIN: You can--
KEITH: (overlapping) You’re setting up, so I think you’re doing your own full move, first.
AUSTIN: Yes, you’re right, you’re doing your own full move first, it sounded like, right? Not just doing a help?
JACK: Yeah, I think so!
AUSTIN: Okay, so, what are you doing? You’re also Battling... or, are you Commanding, what is, what is the thing you’re--
JACK: I’m targeting. I’m using my Fine Friend or Foe tags to target.
AUSTIN: Okay, that to me sounds like Scan?
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: Which is, which is…
JACK: I’ll roll 2d6 and, um, take the lowest value.
AUSTIN: No, you have a-- you have Scan!
JACK: But I’m ill.
AUSTIN: Oh, but you’re ill, this is true, yes.
JACK: Don’t get ill!!
AUSTIN: 2d6, lowest-- you could spend a quirk for this.
JACK: Yeah, because it’s, because it’s a mech skill.
AUSTIN: Mmhm!
JACK: Um, yeah! Okay. Wow. I really like the idea (laughing)... Highly Sensitive Safety Suite is really interesting, applied to a tactical, uh, sorry-- to a targeting lens?
AUSTIN: Yeah! What’s that look like?
JACK: I think that the Panther is, and again, the Panther, y’know, in the capable hands of its original pilot, wouldn’t be doing any of this bullshit, this is all Crysanth and her engineers?
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
JACK: I think the Panther is targeting recklessly-- or, not recklessly, over-judiciously. It’s going--
AUSTIN: So, it’s like, literally moving its body around rapidly?
JACK: No, I think it’s, I think it’s targeting systems are saying, “that combination of, uh…”
AUSTIN: I see.
JACK: “That jagget corner of a building”-- you know, like, when you were a kid, and you’re like, “the clothes over the back of the chair are definitely a monster”?
AUSTIN: Uh huh.
JACK: Um, but I think that what this is doing, and it’s been doing it, y’know, since Clem got into it, is it is forcing Clem to more actively be able to identify what is and what isn’t a viable target?
AUSTIN: Okay. This is--
JACK: (overlapping) And I think that that, in combination with the Friend and Foe Tags-- am I talking myself into a problem here, Austin?
AUSTIN: No, no no, I’m, I’m curious if that’s Sensitive-- Safety Suite or Low Latency Operating System. Um. You’re saying it’s--
JACK: (overlapping) The sense--
AUSTIN: You go ahead.
JACK: The sensitivity is that, is that the computer is doing more targeting than it would do otherwise.
AUSTIN: I see, it’s like, it’s like, “calm down Clem, you don’t-- listen, you do more than this, you’re going to get a headache, let us do the targeting for you.”
JACK: Right, exactly
AUSTIN: Got you, yeah, okay.
JACK: Um, and I think that, combined with the tags...
AUSTIN: Right. Alright! Give me a…
JACK: (overlapping) So I’m gonna roll… 1d6?
AUSTIN: Yeah, 1, 1d6 is what it sounds like you’re doing, which is not great. This is risky/standard, and um, I’m gonna say the-- the, um, the consequence will follow after the roll that Leap does, building off of this?
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: Um, so, you’re kind of setting-- you’re kind-of opening yourself up in that way, if that makes sense here. Give me that 1d6. (pause) That’s a 6!
ART: Oh my god.
SYLVIA: Wow.
AUSTIN: Leap, the-- it is clear as day, and in fact, lemme--
JACK: Illuminated by the star of Stel Kesh.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uhm, yeah, do the drones, do the bits of the-- I imagine they’re, like, the wing components of the Panther that have launched off of you, is what makes sense to me? But you tell me, um… Jack.
JACK: Yeah, definitely, I mean, I think that the-- I think that the Panther has the capability to split into so many pieces, so many modules, that it’s like…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: It might not necessarily be clear what the Panther has launched, um.
AUSTIN: That’s a good idea, I like that a lot, yeah, um, it’s just like, it’s a little more asymmetrical than it was moments ago.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Lit-- y’know, lit by these drones, I almost like the idea here, Leap, of, we can, instead of retconning it, this is the moment where Leap is like, “I-- this thing is actually a little tougher, a little stronger if I use Battle instead of Destroy”?
KEITH and JACK laugh.
AUSTIN: “Um, let me slide that point over real quick”.
JACK: God, and like, it’s the-- there’s the fog of the Perennial Wave as well, right? So like--
AUSTIN: Totally, a hundred percent. That’s--
JACK: This-- these lights from these drones, like, cutting through the fog.
AUSTIN: And that’s the thing, right? Is like, they work because they’re simple. They’re flying machines that light up really bright, in some ways these are better than Friend and Foe tags, because they’re just, they’re just a thing that exists in the world that you can see with your eyes.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Not through your static-y display screens, or your targeting computer, right?
JACK: Also doesn’t hurt that it’s one of the greatest mechs ever built.
AUSTIN: It doesn’t help-- or, doesn’t hurt-- it doesn’t help that then it’s being…
AUSTIN & JACK simultaneously, laughing: ...piloted by Clementine Kesh!
AUSTIN: Um, alright! Leap, what are you taking, are you taking a plus 1 to this, are you taking a better position, I think this is risky/standard by default.
KEITH: This is risky/standard.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Ummm… and uh… and does, does my argument that I get a second shot on the way down help my positioning at all, or my effect?
AUSTIN: I think it’s-- I think that’s, I think that’s why it’s standard, and not-- I mean, I think it’s a cool idea, and we’ll see it in thing, in play.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: But it’s standard right now.
KEITH: Well, I guess I’ll take that die.
AUSTIN: Alright, so that raises you from 2 to 3?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: 3d6, okay. Yeah, standard will tick this up to, up to a full clock, right? If you get a success, cause it’s currently 6 out of 8, The Black Century. Um, uh, so.
KEITH: Doooooooo… what about a collateral die?
AUSTIN: Sure.
SYLVIA laughs.
AUSTIN: I like a collateral die. Um, a collateral die.
JACK: A motif. Musical motif for Keith selecting a collateral die comes in.
AUSTIN: The rumble, there is a loud rumble, uh, if you accept this, as Fort Icebreaker begins to near in the underground tunnel.
JACK: (overlapping) Ohh, Jesus fucking Christ.
AUSTIN: I will introduce a new clock that will click down, that will be, you have to have won this fight before that happens, or else Fort Icebreaker will be here by then. It’ll be a…
JACK chuckles.
AUSTIN: It’ll be a, uh, 6 step clock. I will not tick it, I am just introducing that clock.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: So yes??
ART: You should not take that die, especially if you still have your Spark.
JACK: (overlapping) Do not take this.
KEITH: Sorry, are you both telling me not to take this?
AUSTIN cackles.
KEITH: Is that what happened? I wanted to make sure.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) I think they both did say that, they did both say don’t take it.
KEITH: Okay, alright. Mmmm… (a long pause)
ART: How do you get the full thing where… (1:21:40)
KEITH: (overlapping) I feel like it makes a lotta sense to take it!
AUSTIN and JACK laugh.
JACK: Only the greatest…!
KEITH: (overlapping) We knew Fort Icebreaker was coming!
JACK: Yeah but we (laughing) …the masterpiece of Apostolos’ military engineering is on its way as we fight one of its divines!
AUSTIN: One of its other-- one of the other masterpieces of Apostolitian engineering, yeah!
JACK laughs.
KEITH: I feel like this fight’s going really well, and we could use a little bit of time pressure here.
AUSTIN: Y’know! I-- uh, it’s on Leap, Leap can take this or leave it.
KEITH: Umm… yeah! I’m gonna take it.
AUSTIN: Okay!
JACK: (whispering) Jesus Christ.
KEITH: I’m gonna take it.
AUSTIN: Okay. (typing) “Icebreaker Prime arrives”, a 6-step clock.
KEITH: We’re so-- we've got this well in hand I feel.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: You just hear, like, a distant siren under the ground as it passes some checkpoint.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Yeah, a hundred percent. Uh, I think, like parts inside of the base, do you know these three big buildings on the west side of the base? These, like, giant structures? One of them begins to, like, fold inwards to reveal, like, a huge cavity where a-- the towers of Icebreaker Prime will emerge through, as if-- it’s like a dome opening, do you know what I-- (laughing) do you know what I mean?
JACK: (overlapping) Spinning red warning lights…
AUSTIN: Like, or a missile-- yes, a hundred percent. (mimicking a siren) Mwaaahm, mwaaahm, mwaaahm. Y’know? (as if synthesised voice) Icebreaker Prime approaching. Y’know, or--
JACK: Awful! This fucking sucks!
AUSTIN: (as if synthesised voice) Arrival imminent: 30 minutes. Or whatever, whatever time it ends up actually being cause who knows how quick this clock ticks, um.
ART: Well, you don’t know that the-- the timer’s, the-- the voice could be wrong.
(overlapping Art)
[KEITH: Alright, let’s see.
AUSTIN: Uh, so, wait, what are you rolling?
KEITH: I’m rolling 4d6.]
AUSTIN: The voice-- yeah, you’re right, the voice could be wrong, thank you.
JACK: (overlapping) Oh, (laughing) that’s true!
ART: (overlapping) It’s a-- it’s an estimate, I mean, anything could happen in 30 minutes, I mean, what is…?
AUSTIN: (overlapping) It’s an estima-- yes. Wait, what do-- 30 seconds, I meant. It’s here! Um, so I like a 6 step clock, you could not do so bad that I tick this clock instantly, it has to take at least 2 really bad failures. Uh, so wait, what are you rolling here? Battle is 2, plus one from. um.
KEITH: ...the die, plus one from Clem.
AUSTIN: Wait, from die, what’s the die-- oh, from the collateral die, plus 1 from Clem.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So you’re keeping risky/standard.
KEITH: Risky/standard.
AUSTIN: And you’re not pushing yourself, you’re not spending a quirk, anything like that.
KEITH: No. Ummm! No.
AUSTIN: You got 4 quirks. Okay.
KEITH: Yeah, I do have 4 quirks.
AUSTIN: Alright, uh, so then, that is… uh, 4d6! Uh, risky/standard. Let’s see it happen! (pause) That is a mixed success! Standard success, though, which is going to tick this clock all the way up. And I am going to click the, uhm, the “Icebreaker Prime arrives” clock by 2, um, as this happens.
JACK: (overlapping) Fuck!
AUSTIN: Uh, as your consequence. You could resist this consequence, if you want to. Um, and the way you would do-- phew, how would you resist that consequence. This is always-- this is literally always the thing that I have trouble with, is, how do I know how many quirks you need to spend to reduce-- to resist.
KEITH: I just kind-of was assuming it was 1 per.
AUSTIN: It’s not. Um, it is… (Austin hums) ... here we go. Um, it is 4 quirks minus the attribute rating being used to reduce it. So, for instance, if you were reducing with Acuity, it would be 4-- it would be 3 quirks because of the move, because of the co-- because of the move, but otherwise would be 3 quirks, but in this case it’s Expertise, which would be 1 because you have 3 in Expertise. So yeah, it would cost you 1 quirk.
KEITH: (overlapping) Okay. And, because I have Forged in the Fire and the other one that’s the same thing on mine--
AUSTIN: But for you, yes.
KEITH: Never Tell Me The Odds, it would be 1, even if it was 3.
AUSTIN: Even if it was 3, it would be 1, yes. Which is bad podcasting that we just said those words that don’t mean anything to anyone listening.
KEITH laughs.
AUSTIN: But yes, it would be 1 quirk in this case.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Which is just about doing this quickly, right? Doing this in one-- what would you expend to resist this? Or are you resisting it?
KEITH: I am resisting it with quirks.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: And, uh, and-- well, so because we, because we’ve ticked up The Black Century clock, am I getting these two that are right here? Do I get both of them?
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah! Yeah yeah yeah. And we’ll talk about what this looks like in a second.
KEITH: Okay. Um…
AUSTIN: Yeah, you’re definitely getting them both. Um, I think that the consequence here is not about getting them, the consequence is, did you get them quick enough?
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: Uh, and the-- and the response is no, because Icebreaker Prime is arriving now, a little more quickly, but you could resist that.
KEITH: Right, so.
ART: Am I the only one who remembers Austin being like, “no matter what, the result of this roll can’t make the Icebreaker clock tick” when you gave the collateral situation?
AUSTIN: No, that’s not what I said, I said “I’m not click-- I’m not ticking it by giving you, I’m just putting it on the table.”
KEITH: Right.
ART: Mmm.
AUSTIN: I didn’t say it couldn’t click! (laughing)
KEITH: Um. So… I-- I think, yeah, so on the way up, I grab one of these birds. Which you’d think would slow me down, but I think that it, I think I’m able to use my momentum and the wings of the bird to get higher still.
AUSTIN: Love it.
KEITH: And then, the added--
AUSTIN: Like a bullet being shot into the air and then it grabs onto a jet, a jet engine and goes faster.
KEITH: Yeah, yeah. Um, a little Just Cause.
AUSTIN: Yes. Yes! Yes.
KEITH: And then, and then I guess I just-- pilot the bird that I’m holding and tilt down and slam into the second one on the way down.
AUSTIN: Love it, you knock both of these out. Um, uh, so… uh, are you, and you are then resisting Icebreaker Prime, is this, you’re expending…?
KEITH: (overlapping) I am, I’m going to expend a quirk, I’m going to expend, um…
AUSTIN: Is this, like, Explosive Speed? You just do this--
KEITH: (overlapping) Cartilage Tissue, Synovial Fluid.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Oooh, okay. Okay, what’s-- how does that resist, how does that make this go faster so that you only have to do one, one attack instead of, kind-of a multiple attempt.
KEITH: Well, because I, because I did the up and the down thing, instead of like, doing it, landing, and attacking again, that’s what saves the speed, but because I went up so high…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: The Cartilage Tissue and Synovial Fluid is like, organic pneumatics.
AUSTIN: Right, and so it does it, like--
KEITH: (overlapping) I have, like, busted the, uh, the--
AUSTIN: Love it.
KEITH: ...the bio-pneumatics that are in the system-- or, in the mech when I land so hard.
AUSTIN: Right, that makes perfect sense to me. So, as you slam those to the ground, uh, there is a kind-of, um-- in fact, here’s what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna take one more of these Wakes out, tell me how you get this last Wake out, or this-- the third Wake out.
KEITH: Um… oh, uh… At the last moment, I’m able to throw one of the mechs at the other mech.
AUSTIN: Another last time. Love it.
KEITH: Or maybe it’s just like a quick shot.
AUSTIN: Or do you just, like, dive-bomb the third one, basically?
KEITH: Well I dive-bombed the second one, but then I’ve got two.
AUSTIN: Right, so then you throw both of them.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Or you throw one of them, love it.
KEITH: Or I just, I pull up, now I’ve got four wings, I’m incredibly mobile in the air.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: And I pull up, and then, then do another upward shot.
AUSTIN: Yeah, great, love it. Um, okay, so, here’s the-- you do this, three of them are out, um and as they hit the ground, we get this great shot of just, like, uh, one of the-- one of the Wakes is like, crumpling into pieces and that’s in the foreground, and then the perspective shifts, the, the focus like slips backwards, and in the background it’s revealed, that the-- one of the two Kosmoses, the one that was, uh, kind of cut in twain by Sovereign Immunity, and the Old Glory, your mech, has begun-- has completed the process of stitching itself back together. Um, it’s taller than it was before? The armor plating is gone, but that same sort-of, like, tentacle-y, like, um, muscular cabling has reattached it, so it’s almost as if has, like, a serpentine midsection, like a torso that can kind-of move back and forth, where that has like, connected top and bottom? And it picks the glaive up and then you hear two howls, as two of the other cackles come up to its side, and then one of the Wakes kind-of lands, not on its shoulder, because that wo-- even if that would be sick, uh, kind of behind it. And I’ve clicked down The Black Century back to 5 instead of up at 8, and now I will tell you how this mechanic works.
Um, when The Black Century completes, it subtracts, currently, it subtracts 1-- 1 tick plus an additional tick for each unticked box of the Pneuma. Um, and you don’t know how the Pneuma side of that works, but that is why that just happened. Which means to kill The Black Century, you need to, or to stop them in this moment, you need to have the Pneuma at zero. Or, filled in all the way. Um, there’s a timing element here, for sure.
ART: So both have to be zero at the same time?
AUSTIN: Yeah, there has to be kind-of a joint moment here.
JACK: (overlapping) Oh, Jee-sus...
AUSTIN: And I think what you-- I think that you see this happen in terms of, like, visuals, which is like, a single cable retracts from the Kosmos that gets up, like, across the, like, a hundred yards, two hundred yards, or meters or whatever, of hill and stone, and it goes back into the Pneuma, and it’s as if it had, like, reached out to power and recharge and rebuild the Kosmos. Um, and so, yeah. Now there are two Cackles, a Kosmos, a Wake and the Pneuma, still up-- again, their armoring is off, that makes them a little bit easier to deal with here. It’s part of why the-- you’ve been getting standard instead of limited, but, but they are climbing back up, and over a long enough time line, the rest of them will revive also.
JACK: Jesus.
KEITH: This seems like, this seems like a group action.
AUSTIN: This is a lot, yeah. I’ll note, y’know, there’s--
JACK: Is this our first fucking puzzle boss, Austin? In 5 years of doing this show?
AUSTIN: (overlapping) I’ve done-- I’ve done it! Uh huh! We’ve done one! And it’s undead super mechs-- it’s undead Greek mechs!
JACK: Oh my god, okay.
AUSTIN: Um, that are promising to-- to bring you to whatever your dreams are as a different divine does the same.
JACK: Mmm. Mmhm. Mmhm.
AUSTIN: Oh, Keith, I’m giving you something!
KEITH: Oh, thank you!
AUSTIN: Have you-- wait, did you already spend your Spark?
KEITH: I have not spent any Spark.
AUSTIN: You didn’t spend your Spark yet, okay, well then, I’m not giving you anything, unfortunately.
KEITH: Okay.
JACK: I did!
AUSTIN: I was gonna-- yeah, but you don’t-- you didn’t just make this roll. Unfortunately.
JACK: Just opportunistically, you know? Um, it’s work a try!
KEITH: What does the-- what does the Spark do? Again?
AUSTIN: It would-- if you had failed that roll, you could have increased it to a partial success.
KEITH: That’s the only thing I can do Spark… do with Spark right now.
AUSTIN: That, or Shadow, which is if you can-- avoid detection or security measures, which we talked about.
KEITH: Right, yeah.
AUSTIN: Or to push yourself, or to push yourself for a feat of athletics or stealth. You could push yourself with Spark to disappear right now, if you wanted to, right? Or like, to like, y’know-- go away into the fog, I think that would be, that would be a thing you could do on another, different roll. We’ll come back around, you just did your thing...
KEITH: (overlapping) You know what? Here’s a good one!
AUSTIN: Uh huh?
KEITH: I bet I could, I bet I could use that Spark to push myself to get that last… bird out.
AUSTIN: Uh. That would be a different roll.
KEITH: That would be a different roll?
AUSTIN: Yes, yes yes yes.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: That-- that, you already got great success on that last one, you pushed yourself for it, but you would have to make a new roll here at this point, um, but also we should pass the, the camera around a little bit, here.
KEITH: Okay.
JACK: (laughing) This is horrible!
AUSTIN: Uh huh?
JACK: I’m just looking at these clocks - Icebreaker Prime is also on its way!
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh huh! 2 out of 6!
KEITH: Uh, it actually, it’s not 2, we-- I resisted those.
AUSTIN: Oh, you resisted it, you resisted it.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You resisted it. Good call. And so it’s not, it’s not-- it’s…
KEITH: I will use that Spark to disappear, I think that might be useful.
AUSTIN: Let’s save it for your next roll, because it’s for pushing yourself, which means you’ll also get a bonus to your roll, and we don’t want to forget that part of it.
KEITH: Right, got it.
AUSTIN: So when we come back around-- and also, who knows what the field looks like in a moment. Uhm, Millie! How you doin’?
SYLVIA: Yeah! I’m, frustrated. And…
AUSTIN: I bet!
SYLVIA: Um… so I’m trying to figure out how we can do this. Um. Cause we gotta take them all out at the same time.
AUSTIN: There’s a, there’s a-- I’m basically going to give you a turn a round, you know what I mean? It’s like, from the moment you-- and, and that’s… there are other ways that this could go based on the way the dice work, if you know what I mean.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: Uhm, but, but-- that is basically it. I mean, there’s a world in which maybe you get the Pneuma down, and you get The Black Century almost down, but it doesn’t shake out exactly right, but the gist of it is, you need the Pneuma to be… out of action, when The Black Century fills.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: Uh, and just to paint the picture for people at home, you’ve kind-of-- are still basically on top of the Pneuma, which has been running these-- or, like, very close to it at least, which has been running these, these cables all through the battlefield, but also, um, now behind you, are the kind-of risen Black Century, the Kosmos, the two Cackles and the Wake, so it’s kind-of like, north-to-south, the Pneuma, then the Stray Dog, then the Black Century units, then Sovereign Immunity, and you’re all just to the east of this river. Then, to the-- further east are the defeated Kosmos and Cackle, the three defeated Wakes, the wall, Leap in the, uh, what is the name of your mech again, Leap? The Heads-Up?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, Clem, up on, up on the, um, the wall with a Panther, a Troop up on the, the wall with the Panther, and I may have missed Sovereign Immunity, Sovereign Immunity is to the north of the collected Black Century. And then way to the north, A.O. Rooke in an artillery cannon. So, Millie.
SYLVIA: I mean, my, like, gut instinct is to just go for the Pneuma again, but I don’t think that’s gonna, like, help us right now, when we’re sort-of…
AUSTIN: Listen, you gotta, you gotta tick all the clocks, there’s not a--
SYLVIA: Yeah…
AUSTIN: Except for the Icebreaker Prime one. So I’m not-- go with the gut of what is happening in Millie’s head right now,
SYLVIA: Okay, then I’m going to keep--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) We can, like, let’s play the character, yeah.
SYLVIA: Yeah, okay then, then I’m just gonna keep going for the Pneuma here, if you guys wanna deal with the other stuff, that’s fine, but, uhm…
AUSTIN: Do you say that, or is there a, is there a way to communi--
SYLVIA: No, Millie’s not talking right now, Millie’s not able to really. It’s just that weird noise coming from all of her communications, yeah.
JACK: (overlapping) Just crying.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Just crying, yeah. Great.
JACK: (overlapping) Great.
AUSTIN: Love it.
SYLVIA: Y’know! As you do!
AUSTIN: Uh, Millie, it sounds like you’re doing another Battle.
SYLVIA: Yeah, I think it is just, like, this sort-of close combat between the Stray Dog and the Pneuma, of like, Millie--
AUSTIN: God, it’s like, sweeping this-- its heat glaive around, you’re dodging under it, that sort of stuff?
SYLVIA: Yeah, and there’s these, like, wires all over the place. Like--
AUSTIN: Totally. It’s trying to grab you with them, y’know? It’s, like, doing the thing of, like, reaching up to try and grab you and hold you in place long enough that it can shoot a rocket at you, you’re slipping away, I just want to paint that, like, all that’s happening around these rolls, it’s not just like, individual volleys back and forth, there’s like an extended fight happening. So 2d6 for Battle. Are you pushing yourself? This is desperate/standard.
SYLVIA: Uh, I am going to push myself. I am going to use my Hidden Firing Brace here, and you may be wondering how!
AUSTIN: Yeah!
SYLVIA: Well, th-- are you familiar with the Judas Effect?
AUSTIN: Shut the fuck up, Silvi.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Which is a back elbow.
AUSTIN: Shut the fuck up.
KEITH: (overlapping) No, I am not familiar with the Judas Effect.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) So, if you were to swing your elbow backwards and hit someone with it, it would hurt a lot, right?
KEITH: Yeah, it’d be devastating.
ART: (overlapping) I would, yeah, it-- who could…
JACK: Yeah.
ART: Who could kick out of that?
SYLVIA: (overlapping) W-w-w… imagine if a giant metal spike also flew out of that.
ART: I. I would be on the ground for at least 3 seconds after that.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) That, and...
JACK: (overlapping) Ohhhhh.
SYLVIA: At least!
JACK: Yeah, who could kick out of that?
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Long enough for someone to pin you, is what you’re suggesting.
SYLVIA: Possibly, so I’m trying to get the 3-count on the Pneuma with this.
AUSTIN: So you are-- just, okay, to be one hundred-percent clear, you’re doing, like, a spinning back elbow but then when your elbow comes out, a-- a spike is emerging from your elbow to, like, really send the--
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Right into the solar plexus!
KEITH: It’s like the opposite of a stage knife, where instead of a knife that goes back into its thing…
AUSTIN laughs.
KEITH: When you stab this empty sheath, a real knife pops out.
AUSTIN: Yes.
SYLVIA: Pretty much. Yeah, And--
AUSTIN: It’s an Assassin’s Creed hidden dagger.
KEITH: Oh, yeah, there, there we go, there’s one.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Oh, exactly.
ART: Just a- just a quick clarifying question here, just for the, I think for the audience at home, um.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: What-- what would you say is happening in your mind... while this is happening?
SYLVIA: (overlapping) I think I’m, I’m becoming Judas in my mind.
KEITH: Woah! Okay.
SYLVIA: Just to, sort-of, really put it out there.
AUSTIN: Judas in, Judas in your mind?
SYLVIA: I’m become, I’m become, I’m becoming. Um, this is going so off the rails.
AUSTIN: I love it, it has to.
ART: (overlapping) Everyone listening definitely knows this (laughing) tune.
AUSTIN: Big wrestling fans, everyone.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Wrestling is so popular!
AUSTIN: Yeah. Um, alright, so that’s Battle. 3--
KEITH: (overlapping) You’re saying this sarcastically, but I feel like wrestling is… 1500% more popular now than it was ten years ago?
AUSTIN: That’s correct.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) That’s totally right, but whatever.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh huh? Alright, so 3d6 for Battle-- unless, are you using this to change your position or your effect?
SYLVIA: (overlapping) No, I’m, I’m doing… yeah.
AUSTIN: 2d6, risky/stand-- or, or desperate/standard. Is anyone helping? Would you like me to tick--
ART: Yeah, I’ll help, I’m right there.
AUSTIN: Okay, how are you helping?
ART: Um, I think with like, spacing?
AUSTIN: Okay!
ART: I think just like, by not, like, I’m trying not to give it room to get away.
AUSTIN: Okay. So are you like, looping-- are you pushing through this group that’s between the two of you?
ART: I’m not sure that group got in-between the two of us!
AUSTIN: It did. Cause you were killing the Kosmos -- oh wait, cause you went--
ART: (overlapping) No, I was, I-- I went on the Pneuma, yeah.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) ...you went in on the Pneuma! Yeah, you’re right! You’re right!
ART: So I think it’s more like…
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Yeah, you’re totally right, sorry.
ART: ...there’s nowhere to dodge.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I love it. That is going to be 2 stress for you, because you have 2 with Millie, but it also means you get to give 2 benefits to Millie for this roll.
SYLVIA: Oooh.
ART: Uh, what’ll it be?
SYLVIA: Well I definitely want to take improved position here.
AUSTIN: So it becomes risky/standard instead of desperate/standard.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Yeah, and I think I’m, I think-- so I’m already going to get 3 dice with this.
AUSTIN: Or is this, this is-- yeah, that’s true, yeah.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That means that you could then also increase effect if you wanted to, you could be risky/great.
SYLVIA: I might do that! Just, y’know.
AUSTIN: Alright!
SYLVIA: Why not?
AUSTIN: So, that is now 3d6, risky/great.
SYLVIA: That is a 4, a 1 and a 3.
AUSTIN: A 4 is a success! It’s just also a risky success, which means you’re gonna take some damage here. Tell me what the, what the Judas Effect looks like, as it slams into the Pneuma.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) I think-- I think it is less of a planned thing than I’m making it seem, where it’s more just, like…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: ...they are in this close combat and, like, when the Stray Dog is trying to get out of its grip, it just, like, on instinct, this thing just, like, shoots out.
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: And like, jabs into the Pneuma.
AUSTIN: Um, so, uh, you are going to take, and you can resist this if you want to, but, the level 2 harm Stalling, or damage, not harm-- not you, but the…
SYLVIA: Stray Dog.
AUSTIN: The Stray Dog is taking a level 2 damage, uh, Stalling, as you slam your-- the spike into the chest of the Pneuma, the Pneuma shudders. Again, you hear the voice of Hyacinth, uh, in your, in your ear, um, and they say,
AUSTIN (as Hyacinth): If you will not run with her, then you will not move at all.
And the coils wrap around your legs again, and a bolt of electricity runs through the entirety of the Stray Dog? Um, and it has like a power failure.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: You’re able to reboot it, but it’s-- you can’t shake this, it’s like, it’s… this is the Divine of Motion, it’s taking Motion from you.
SYLVIA: And would I have to use both my quirks to resist this?
AUSTIN: What is your Expertise? It’s three? So no, you would only have to use one. Cause it’s expertise.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) Okay, I am going to resist this using the Overwhelming Sensors/Another Mind, uh, quirk?
AUSTIN: Oooh, what’s that look like?
SYLVIA: Well, so, what I think this is, is like, it-- it does sort-of shock the systems, but there’s, because there is this link going on right now…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: ...between Millie and her mech, like, it… like, almost negates it to an extent?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: It doesn’t get rid of it completely, there is still mechanical failure happening here or there, but like, the-- there is no, like-- it’s, it’s less debilitating than it could be because there is something more than just a digital link going on.
AUSTIN: Right. Um, because you got a great effect here, and you only had two steps left in the Pneuma, I’m giving you a little bit of an extra beat to take down The Black Century. The, the spike, y’know, has impaled this thing, it falls to the ground, Hyacinth begins to breathe deeply, which I think both Sovereign Immunity and Millie can hear, communicated through the, the Partizan-- or, the Perennial Wave, uh, connection that’s happening here, the strange connection, the fog that both, y’know, obscures and also connects. Um, uh, and basically, like, Hyacinth is dying. Uh, and is, is-- we’ll come back to Hyacinth, I think, depending on how the rest of this shakes out. Uh, Leap and Clem, uh, what’s up with y’all. Let’s go to Clem who has not done anything but help people in a minute. (laughing) For the first time in her life.
ART: Does that sound right? Can we check the tape?
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: Naw, that’s not, yeah-- I think that she’s helped before.
KEITH: There must be some other reason why.
JACK: Well, I was gonna say, a strategic, like (laughing)... it makes sense! Um. (clicks tongue) Okay, I’m going to--
AUSTIN: There’s-- yeah, go ahead.
JACK: Oh, damn, are you looking at this? You wanna…?
AUSTIN: I was, I was looking at that.
JACK: You wanna…
AUSTIN: But that’s… (makes non-committal noises)
JACK: You want us to talk to the…?
AUSTIN: (more non-committal noises) ...you do whatever the fuck you wanna do!
SYLVIA laughs.
KEITH: Mmm, I missed something.
AUSTIN: It’s fine.
JACK: Mmm, interesting. Interesting, Austin! (laughs) We can talk to the boss.
AUSTIN: Always, listen, what if you could-- what if you could talk to the monsters?
JACK: Um, I still, y’know, I’m gun-shy from when Thackeray just attacked me! Um…
AUSTIN: That’s fair. (Austin makes an elongated “fff” sound) I’m - so, for people at home who don’t know what I did.
JACK: No, sure.
AUSTIN: I was just, I was just ticking through all the different moves that Clementine has, just, like, clicking on things, and my mouse came to rest on Heart To Heart, which you might remember from the first Rapid Evening game, “When you make the weight of an arrangement clear to your opposite and both agree to terms (surrender/ceasefire/prisoner exchange/etc) you are all emotionally invested in the deal. If either party or their squad breaks the agreement, the negotiator takes level 3 harm Despondent” which, I only, I only thought of because you’ve pushed Hyacinth and Motion to the edge here?
JACK: Into a vulnerable posit--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Into a vulnerable position. Yeah, mmhm.
JACK: ...like, a deeply vulnerable position. And specifically because they are… entities that thrive on going.
AUSTIN: Yes.
JACK: I always forget - is inertia going or stopping?
AUSTIN: Inertia is going.
ART: It’s both.
KEITH: Inertia’s the inability to stop.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) It’s both, it’s both, right.
ART: It’s, if you’re, if you’re at rest, inertia keeps you resting, if you’re going, inertia keeps you going.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Oh, damn, wow, that’s… Okay. Basically they hate cessation of action.
AUSTIN: That is right, yeah.
JACK: And it seems like we might be pushing them closer and closer to that.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: So I wonder if we could talk them into a surrender, or if not a surrender... what do we want here? Okay, we want them to leave us alone.
ART: What’s more moving than retreat? That’s a lot of moving.
JACK laughs.
ART: Move all the way back to where you started!
JACK: ...where you started, and don’t come back! I’m trying to work this out, um, “when you make the weight of an arrangement clear” so, like, we’re talking about a specific--
AUSTIN: Yes, this would be...
JACK: ...we need to ask for something specific.
AUSTIN: Yes, you could say…
JACK: ...and we want it to be politically and strategically advantageous to us.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: This is the opportunity to make a big ask.
AUSTIN: Yes.
JACK: But both sides are invested in the deal.
AUSTIN: Yeah. That does not mean it needs to be a fair deal. Do you know what I mean?
ART: Right.
AUSTIN: What it does is, put um--
JACK: Oh, true! It doesn’t have to be equitable, does it?
AUSTIN: No! No no no, but-- it has to be agreed to, which means there will probably be a roll involved here, um. Uh, but, you know. Maybe there wouldn’t be! We’ll see what the deal is, that you make the offer. I know a lot about what Hyacinth and Motion want. Um, but, I also-- this is not a walk, uh, this is not necessarily like…
JACK: Sure, no no no...
AUSTIN: ...anything you say, I’m like, “yeah, good!”
JACK: Here we go! You’ve fixed it! I’m just trying to work out, like, we want them to-- we want them to go. And we want them-- we want to make it clear that if they tangle with us again, we will… we will do this again, and we won’t give them a second chance.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Um. Is this-- I think this is a combination, I think this is three things. I think it is; one, leave this place. Two, if you… come to us in hostility again, you will be-- you will not be granted this, this offer. And then the third thing is, do we do a run-and-tell Apostolos thing that Kesh is coming.
AUSTIN: Do we have-- do you have them do it, you’re saying? Do you have Motion and, um, Hyacinth--
JACK: Carry the message of this, frontline unit.
AUSTIN: ...of the Whitestar attack, you mean?
JACK: Oh, damn! No, I meant, like…
SYLVIA laughs.
AUSTIN: What do you mean?
JACK: Do we put the fear of God into Apostolos?
AUSTIN: Ohhh, do you say like, “and we’re coming for you”, right? Let them know.
JACK: Is it like, they’re-- what does it look like if you leave one thing standing, except the thing you leave standing is a Divine? You choose to give that thing mercy.
AUSTIN: Right, yes, right.
JACK: It’s also very Clementine to just be like, “I killed all of your regular human troops. But this Divine, this-- this is considered more important to me, so.”
AUSTIN: Mmhm. I-- I think you-- I think, that sounds like, it sounds like a thing you could try!
JACK: Uh, I can’t ask Sovereign Immunity for advice, but if I could, hypothetically…
AUSTIN: Wait, why can’t you-- oh, mm, yeah, you’re pretty far away, but--
JACK: (overlapping) I mean, he’s fighting! It’s also…
AUSTIN: Yeah, fair.
ART: Uh, but I have plans on how to help!
AUSTIN: How do you wanna help?
ART: By, like, just, like, saying “it’s a good deal, you should take it”, cause I’m right here.
JACK: (laughing) Oh, that’s so good!
AUSTIN: (overlapping) I think we should just-- I think we should do this, I think that there’s, like, a beat, right? And, um, and Hyacinth is, like, deeply breathing inside of the Pneuma, and Clem, how do you make it clear that you want to approach to parley?
JACK: Uh, I get out of my mech.
ART: (very distantly) Oh my goodness!!
AUSTIN: Okay. You’re sure?!
ART: (close) Did that come through? I was standing so far away, I didn’t think that it would happen.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Yeah, you, uh-huh? I wanna reiterate, by getting out of your mech, you lose Future’s Hallowed. An ability that can turn a failure into a success. Maybe…
JACK: I get back into my mech.
SYLVIA cackles. AUSTIN and JACK laugh.
JACK: I don’t know! I’m trying to think, um.
ART: Wait, but you don’t have that any more anyway, you used that, you don’t-- you don’t get your Spark back.
AUSTIN: Oh, you’re right. You’re right! You don’t-- yeah yeah, you don’t have your Spark back.
JACK: (overlapping) Oh, I could only use it negatively, yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you only-- only recharge your Spark. Yeah, good call.
JACK: Yeah, okay, so I think--
AUSTIN: Fuck it, you get out of your mech.
KEITH: Get back out! (cackles)
JACK: I think, I think the front of the Panther opens.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: And I think Clem gets out and is standing on the wall above the, um, the battlefield, the kind-of the weird carnage, uh…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: Hey, quick question, just-- just for color?
JACK: Art. Mm.
ART: Does the Divine recognise the Panther?
AUSTIN: This one… there’s a lot happening in the Divine’s mind right now. I don’t think this Divine knows the Panther.
ART: Okay.
AUSTIN: Good…. good question.
JACK: Damn, that is a good question. Is it conceivably old enough to know the Panther?
AUSTIN: That is why I think, no. This is a Divine that was built by contempo-- by Stel Apostolos...
JACK: Oh, damn, wow!
AUSTIN: ...not by historical Apostolos.
JACK: This is post-Twilight Mirage!
AUSTIN: This is, this is, yeah. This is in the eras of Partizan, it’s a fairly new one. Um, y’know, Past would have recognised the Panther.
JACK: Good, for multiple hundreds years.
AUSTIN: Yeah, exact-- I could pull up a, uh, timeline, we don’t need to get into that right now. But you know what I’m saying.
JACK: Yeah. And I think--
ART: Just--
JACK: Aw man. I think that the helmet that Clem wears--
AUSTIN: I checked! It’s within the last 500 years, Stel Apostolos was formed in 980 Perfect Millenium, it is currently 1423 Perfect Millenium, so within the last 440 years or something. Anyway, continue.
JACK: In any other timeline other than ours, that would be a really long time but in the Divine Trilogy that’s just, like, nothing.
AUSTIN: It’s kind of a baby Divine! Yeah, totally!
JACK: Yeah! Um, I think that the helmet that Clem wears that obscures her face sometimes, is like, lighting up behind her head, like a crown, or like a, like a golden light?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: And I think she raises her hands in a way that is very clearly not surrender? But is more like, uh, “I am not going to attack you right now, my guy with a massive scythe who just tore one of your people in half, might continue to?”
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: “But I am not going to”.
AUSTIN: Um, can we give this-- can I give this a little more color, and have the--
JACK: Yeah, absolutely!
AUSTIN: ...the Panther’s battle standard also give you a halo effect here, like, give you the, like--
JACK: Yeah, one hundred percent! And I think that this is, like--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Yeah, like it’s around you, giving you this, this aura, like the fog of the Perennial Wave lights kind-of gold, uh, behind you.
JACK: The constellation is in the background.
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally.
JACK: There’s the Kesh constellation, like, this-- there’s like, this is very much like a weird sort-of, like, illuminated manuscript vibe?
AUSTIN: Yes. Um. I think also, to do this well, you should probably declare High Priority Comm Decoder, which lets you--
JACK: Ab-so-lute-ly!!!
AUSTIN: ...do this? Um. Which is “this device gives you the back channel for reaching anyone’s personal communicator, that doesn’t mean that they know or care who you are” - in this case, they clearly know who you are, cause you’re in front of them. Or maybe they don’t know who you are, but they know what you’re doing here and they understand that you’re communicating with them.
JACK: Okay, I think Clem is going to say,
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): My name is Clementine Kesh.
AUSTIN: Uh huh.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): If you value your life, you will leave this place, and you will not return. If you meet us again on the battlefield, I will not grant you this offer. Bring word of our great achievements back to Stel Apostolos, and let them know we are to be feared.
AUSTIN: Um, this to me sounds like a Command.
JACK: Yeah, I’m not saying “please do this”.
AUSTIN: No, this is not a Sway, this is a Command, you are saying-- you are forcing immediate obedience.
KEITH: (whiny) Pleeeeease surrender, pleeeeease!
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Please, could you pleeease?
JACK: (overlapping) Pleeeease? Ah, the Democrats.
KEITH and AUSTIN laugh.
AUSTIN: Um, alright, Sovereign Immunity, you suggested that you wanted to help.
ART: Yeah, it’s, uh… it’s just, like, it’s an exposed cockpit, so it’s just like peeking out the window.
AUSTIN: Sovereign Immunity, if you help, you will get a scar. You have 7 stress.
JACK: (laughing) Oh, hoh, hoh, boy howdy.
ART: Ummm…
AUSTIN: Oh, do you still have your Spark?
ART: Yes!
AUSTIN: You could spend your Spark for Heart of Gold, Fists of Steel?
ART: Yeah, to assist a team-mate, or...
AUSTIN: There you go!
ART: Yeah! Alright, so I’m spending my Spark to use…
AUSTIN: Yes. Um, and I think you do glow with the light of, of Future here too. Does Sovereign Immunity say something here, or is it just an emotion, is this a…?
ART: Um.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): The mercy of Kesh is rare and valuable. You should take it when offered.
AUSTIN: I’m going to give you an extra die because of something that hasn’t happened yet, but is about to.
ART: It’s the Back To The Future die.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Actually it’s not-- it’s the Back To The Future-- uh-huh.
KEITH: (overlapping) Unaffiliated to the helping.
AUSTIN: So yes, uh-huh, so that is what, now, 4d6 on Command minus one from ill. So 3d6.
JACK: Does anybody else want to help?
AUSTIN: You cannot get multiple help, otherwise it’s a, it’s a-- you could, but this is not a case, I think this is you doing this thing.
ART: I don’t think anyone else can help and not get a scar.
AUSTIN: And not turn it into a group action, yeah, I guess, yeah-- as everyone else, like, very close to… is getting there.
KEITH: I’m two away.
ART: (overlapping) Uh-huh, yeah we really need to get out of here. This needs to-- this needs to stop.
AUSTIN laughs.
KEITH: Yeah, I--
AUSTIN: Now.
KEITH: I contend, I think that we were just about to win outright.
AUSTIN: It’s possible!
JACK: Yeah, but I want to win and I want them to be afraid of us.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Alright, give me, give me-- so, it’s 3d6. Um, risky, risky/standard. Is there anything else? You could, you could also, uh, I could give you a new-- a different type of Collateral-- oh, yeah, that’s right, 3d6 is right. I could give you another, a different Collateral Die. Um, and that Collateral Die is that, um, you’ve already given your name.
JACK: It’s Clem’s favourite thing to do.
AUSTIN: Um! Motion and Hyacinth will know that you are blessed by-- mm. I kind-of want that to happen no matter what.
JACK: Yeah, I was gonna say I’m not worried about that. (laughs)
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s not enough for a-- for a Collateral, right? I think that it is-- (Austin vocalises) Oh, uh, you will get a minus one straight-up with Apostolos, like a full-on, not just with, not just with, uh, more than a minus one, you will lose, I’ll say 3 points of trust with Apostolos outright, before we calculate the mission stuff. You’re currently at neg--
ART: As a squad, you mean.
AUSTIN: As a squad, the squad will lose 3 reputation points or whatever-- 3 trust with Apostolos.
JACK: How do you feel about that, Millie?
SYLVIA: Ugh… Y’know. Not great.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Millie, big fan of Apostolos.
SYLVIA: Not a big fan at all! Like… I dunno, I think, like, big level, like, Millie’s not happy about any of the negotiation happening here? So like, whatever. Um. Her whole point of view is “we should kill this Divine, we should kill this right now, if we can.”
AUSTIN: Well, we’ll see what happens!
SYLVIA: Yeah, so, y’know! That’s what Millie feels like!
KEITH: (overlapping) If this fails, if this were to fail…
AUSTIN: Mmhm?
KEITH: How many… more rounds until this thing starts regenerating?
AUSTIN: Uh, I think there’ll still be… like, Leap, you haven’t gone yet. Right? Uh, and I said before--
ART: I haven’t gone either since the--
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think Leap and Sovereign Immunity would both still get an action, and then there’d be one more action after that because of how well, uhm, Millie pinned the Pneuma to the ground in the last round.
ART: And no-one says we can’t fire on a surrendering group.
AUSTIN: Well what would happen here is, if that happened, is that Clementine Kesh would get a level 3 harm. Because of Heart to Heart.
KEITH: Despondent.
AUSTIN: Because of Despondent.
JACK: Yes.
ART: I mean, we-- this seems to happen all the time. We work through it.
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s true.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: We do, we all come together, we figure it out. Go ahead then, 3d6.
JACK: Wait, is that inclu-- that’s not including the Collateral.
AUSTIN: Oh right, plus the Collateral, 4d6. Wait, what was the Collateral? Did I give you a Collateral? Oh, yeah yeah yeah.
JACK: The minus 3 to Apostolos!
AUSTIN: The trust, yeah yeah yeah, of course.
JACK: Umm. Command! Uh, risky?
AUSTIN: Risky/great. 4d6. Or, risky/standard, it doesn’t matter. This is just, this is just what’s happening.
KEITH: Are you taking the collateral?
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: They did take the collateral, I already deleted the 3… oop, I did it from the wrong thing, that’s okay. That is a 6. That is a 6, 4, 5, 5. Hey! Do you want to get you-- oh, you can’t! You can get a mixed success and get your Spark back…
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: ...but that probably is not what you wanna do here.
JACK: No.
AUSTIN: Okay. Um, I think, uh, as I am want to say, a couple of things happen at once.
First, uh, Hyacinth looks to you, and says, um.
AUSTIN (as Hyacinth): You speak with the authority of the Future. Are you with the Pact? Or with the Thief?
JACK: Um, confusion.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Confusion clouds Clem’s face.
AUSTIN: Um, and before you can answer, the world answers for you. As blaring from, um, the kind-of loudspeakers... y’know, we had those loudspeakers and sirens where it was saying “Icebreaker Prime arrives”. Through those, using that voice, through anyone else’s internal computer speakers that, like, maybe use a different type of voice. All of the different, um, especially with you-- anyone who is in a Hallowed which is at this point everyone, uh, inside of the voice, you can hear the voice of the Divine speaking to you, and it feels like the voice is, the voice of the Divine is speaking to you-- it’s being compelled to speak these words. It echoes across the base, it echoes into the hills, it appears on any sort-of displays that you have, like, if you’re looking down at your, like, targeting computer, or your map, or, like, incoming messages, stuff, any of that shit. Suddenly, across all of those displays, across all of the speakers, a voice echoes out, a voice appears, words, um, that are im-- that have the power of God in them. Speak, and they say.
AUSTIN (as God): Your profane state has transgressed yet again. You traded an honorable oath for an avaricious pact. You have earned my attention.
AUSTIN: And this is-- it repeats, and it’s, like, it shakes the world, like, literally, this is happening all across the planet in this moment. Um, and Hyacinth, like-- Motion begins to rise, um, the Pneuma begins to rise, all of these machines begin to rise, and, and Hyacinth says… Hyacinth begins to fade, is actually what happens here. This is the moment that Hyacinth, Hyacinth has reached their final moments, and instead of Hyacinth’s voice, you hear this kind-of haughty tone, and this is coming from, from Motion, she says.
AUSTIN (as Motion): To oppose the Pact is to oppose Necessity itself. We will come for you.
AUSTIN: Millie, give me a-- give me a 1d6. Just a fortune, just a luck die, really quick.
SYLVIA: Okay! That’s a 6.
AUSTIN: That’s a 6. Hearing the words “pact” and “necessary” in close proximity like that, like, gives you a flash, to your glory days. Not, not particularly positive days for you.
SYLVIA: Eh! Y’know.
AUSTIN: You were going to be deployed along with a unit to, as an exchange to something, called the Pact of Necessary Venture. Um, you were going to, um, you didn’t know-- you didn’t know the specifics of this, right? Um, but there’s, there was something in the way in which Motion spoke just now that makes you understand that you would have been deployed to work with Motion.
SYLVIA: Uh-huh.
AUSTIN: And, and that the Pact of Necessary Venture was something, a secretive as Glory is, this was something much, much, much more secretive. You understood it to be almost... almost, um, sort-of, like… not schismatic, but, like, a sect inside of Apostol-- like a, not even inside of Apostolos, but like, something-- it wasn’t just like you’re being sent to the front lines, or like you’re being sent to an elite unit or something, like, you’re being sent to something that has been partitioned, that has been put aside for specific use that is not to be talked about, right?
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: And that is where you were gonna go. Not necessarily because you were such an elite unit, in some ways it was like, yeah, you’re good enough to be, to be a frontline fighter on this thing, that maybe needs a lot of frontline fighters to, to, y’know-- do something big, but not necessarily to be part of an elite public unit, y’know? And so, yeah, there is something there that is like, “what the fuck is that?”.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: But I wanted to just give you some connection to this thing, cause it’s-- as someone from Apostolos, as someone who specifically is being-- was cloned and trained inside of this, like, elite black-ops unit, there is absolutely an overlap here with the Pact of Necessary Venture.
SYLVIA: Okay!
AUSTIN: Which also, it seems is what that voice over the loudspeaker was, the word “pact” has come up a lot in quick succession here, y’know?
SYLVIA: But yeah, no, this whole experience has basically just been, like, bad memories being brought up for Millie, and she is trying to destroy them, so. Y’know.
AUSTIN: Mmhm! The, the units that have been destroyed, um, lay destroyed on the ground. Um, and a few of the pilots get out and they begin to kind-of stumble away. Some of them lay inside of the machine, not moving. Many of those parts that were vibrating and moving towards each other to reconnect before, stop in their place, um, and the rest, um, begin to, to follow the Pneuma back up the hills into the fog. Um, including that Kosmos, the 2 Cackles and the Wake. And I think, I think, like, at a certain point, Hyacinth literally falls from the cockpit, um, and is breathing even more deeply and has been kind-of discarded by, by Motion. Um, and there’s this moment where they have, a little bit more life in them, because they’re detached from The Black Century, because they’re detached from Motion, they’re able to, like, move at their own pace. Y’know, it’s not enough-- it’s not so much that, like, color comes back to their skin or their hair or anything, but the breathing is not as rhythmic, and in a way that’s freeing, because the rhythmic breathing was forced, it was not natural, it was not their natural, um, breath, or their-- natural is too strong a word, um, but their, y’know. They were literally being forced to be on beat for a hundred years. Um, and now they can take longer breaths or shorter breaths, um, and… if there’s any follow-up questions for Hyacinth before they die, or if there’s an attempt made to save this person, now is the time for that.
SYLVIA: Alright, well, I think I… so Hyacinth is dying inside of this, like, busted mech, right?
AUSTIN: I think just-- has actually been discarded, like on the rocks, on the side of this cold hill. Motion is done with them.
SYLVIA: Yeah, I’m… I’m-- I’m gonna try and help.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: Even if it’s just, bringing them back to the, like, to a place that isn’t a cold hill to die on.
AUSTIN: Sure. You, you drag them to some other place, um, where is it?
SYLVIA: I think, yeah, I think it’s like, in contrast to what my mech has been doing, it’s, like, a very gentle, like…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Like, picked them up in one of these claws, and just sort-of, like, slowly, sort-of… marches its way back towards, like, where the blockade was, almost, I imagine that’s, like, coming down the hill.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Oh sure, like, the river side, yeah, yeah, totally. Um. Uh, and you rest them down on something.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I think that they look up to you, and like, it’s clear they’re trying to say thank you, with as much of the energy that they have. Um. I think they actually do manage to say.
AUSTIN (as Hyacinth, weakly): Thank you, young soldier.
SYLVIA: Yeah, I don’t know if there’s, like, any... sig-- there’s, like, a-- I’m trying to think if there’s a signal here, or if it’s just, like, a flicker of the eye of the mech.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Like, that sort-of shows that this was acknowledged.
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
SYLVIA: I’m not, like, picturing the Stray Dog doing a salute or anything right now.
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: Oh, absolutely not, yeah, no no no no no.
SYLVIA: (overlapping) So I think that’s about it. But there’s definitely a connection there, for a second.
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
SYLVIA: And I think at this point it’s probably a good idea to declare something? Um, just with the way things with Motion and Hyacinth have gone, I think it makes sense for Millie to declare Motion as her rival? If we can do that?
AUSTIN: And you think that’s-- you think that’s a good id-- you said this is a good idea?
JACK: Woah!
SYLVIA: I said it makes sense for her character?
AUSTIN: It makes sense, I guess that does-- that’s a hundred percent, it a hundred percent makes sense for her character.
SYLVIA: It’s a good idea for me!
AUSTIN: I love it! Listen, I love it. Um, you declared a Divine...
KEITH: (overlapping) We still thinkin’ of, shaking up groups? I might, uhhh…
AUSTIN cackles, JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: ...declared a Divine your rival. Um, and I think in this moment, there is, like, this lingering-- through the fog of the Perennial Wave, you hear her voice in your head, and-- and, uh, it is, it is terrible? And, um, demeaning, and I think she just says,
AUSTIN (as Motion): Oh, child.
AUSTIN: And there’s this sense of, uhm, an assumption of intimacy that comes from the sort-of knowledge that someone like Motion would have. And is lauding that over you in a really shitty way. And I think maybe has, has-- maybe become a little inspired, the idea of an ex-Glory soldier, um, maybe gives Motion some ideas about what to do next. So we’ll see how that develops.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: Okay. Um, and if there-- if no-one is doing anything then, yeah, Hyacinth breathes their last breath. Alright. Now what?
KEITH: We got 30 minutes to kill before Fort’s here.
AUSTIN: Anyone wanna play poker?
JACK: “Icebreaker Prime: arriving 15 seconds”
AUSTIN: I mean, this is the thing, right? We don’t need to be moment-to-moment here, right? Or out of that--
KEITH: No, let’s play this one out in real time.
AUSTIN: Real time! Yep. Icebreaker Prime is gonna get here, it is going to, you know. Having fought the, the, um… the forces of House Chasmata, to a standstill, um, having stopped them but taking some losses, it is going to rush here, to begin to try to help people and to redeploy their medics, and y’know, get some ammunition back into place, and try to repair the lost guns, and-- uh oh! Wait! Before it can happen, what do they see when they realise they’ve lost Fort Icebreaker? What is the image? Y’know, the commander of Fort Icebreaker opens this, y’know, opens the hatch to see what?
JACK: God.
KEITH: Is it, um, is it the squad of toughs? Like, guns pointed, like, the whole squad?
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Yeah, uh-huh. It has this very big, like, delinquent energy? You know what I mean? Just very big--
KEITH: Yeah.
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: ...militia, militia energy? Like, mixed uniforms, guns they’ve stolen from the grounds here, like, smirks, um, the sort-of, like, playful righteousness of being someone who suddenly has taken a bit of power for the first times in their life? And is deploying it against some people who, they know in their fuckin’ hearts, suck?
KEITH: And you get a fl-- you get a cut back to this group of whoever was coming in, like, slowly putting their hands up, I guess?
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah. Um.
JACK: And then, like, what does, what does Fort Icebreaker look like as, as we kind-of descend down into…
AUSTIN: Well, so, we’ll talk about the internals, I think, over the next whatever, I-- to some degree, wanna let you illustrate it now that y’all have taken it over, which is wild. I mean, I think that there is some degree of resistance, right, as you move through, but it becomes very quick, it becomes clear very quick, that like, hey, you know what didn’t happen in that whole fight? Is, none of Motion breached the walls. Which means, all of your toughs are in good shape, all the toughs did that whole battle was fire an artillery cannon, they were well rested for this specific moment.
JACK laughs.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: To clear out another Fort, and so, they go from-- I’m gonna note what it looks like, now that it’s up here a little bit. One of the things that I compare it to a lot, and um, I actually sent you this, Jack, is… um… scroll-scroll-scroll, oop, there it is. There is a, um, do you know the Strandbeests? Do y’all know the Strandbeests?
KEITH: Yeah, the, the… the revolving monsters? The beach…?
JACK: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Yeah, the kinetic, the kinetic-- the kinetic sculptures, and I think this is just general Partizan, um, this is called the Rhinoceros Transport, a Strandbeest, b-e-e-s-t, kinetic sculpture by Theo Jansen. Um, and it’s like, there’s a spider-y quality to it, but it’s, it’s not-- it’s not spindly like a spider, it’s like, big, bulky, almost knuckle-like, um, shapes, that almost look like they’re made out of, like, flat metal that’s been painted a beige, or almost like cardboard in some instances, it’s sort of like this, except gigantic. Except it’s the size of an aircraft carrier upright, and then another aircraft carrier longwise and then fill in that volume, y’know? It’s gigantic, it’s a city that moves.
KEITH: Ohh, this one is so big.
AUSTIN: It’s so big! And imagine this one, but bigger! Imagine this one--
KEITH: I mean, the ones that I’ve seen are huge, but this one is like, thick.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: Like, the-- I’ve seen the ones that are, like, they look like they’re made out of rules, like a thousand rulers.
AUSTIN: Yes, there are a bunch that, that look very-- again, spindly, and almost like wicker. Wicker-y in some ways. This one is big. It’s called, again, it’s called the Rhinoceros Transport, and it’s by Theo Jansen. Uhm, if you just search for “Rhinoceros Transport” on YouTube, that is-- that has, I have pulled it up here, I don’t know if that search will work for you, but it’s very cool. I think that’s how it moves above ground. And then it also clearly has some, like, rail lines, and maybe even like, a hover thing? You know, like a hover kart, a hover base?
Um, and inside it’s already been, like, bad-- it’s been wounded from this long, extended fight against Chasmata who stayed engaged with it for longer and did more damage than even they thought they could do. And yeah, you are basically taken to its bridge, so to speak, um, the toughs have rounded people up, have locked them-- once you’re in the bridge, you’re able to lock down different sections, and so you straight-up lock down different, y’know, parts of the base, and, and basically go from place to place arresting the people inside, um, it is a complete rout, like, you’ve, you’ve done it, you’ve taken Fort-- you’ve taken not only Fort Icebreaker, but Fort Icebreaker Prime, this was thought to be impossible. Um, and you have it, and the four of you, along with some of your toughs, including A.O. Rooke, um, are on the bridge.
And I wanna say, also, just-- there’s another thing here. Which is that, people are shook because they received that strange message too. Which at first maybe, you thought was like a localised thing? But once you start talking to them, or maybe some of your toughs-- like A.O. comes up to you, and is like,
AUSTIN (as A.O. Rooke): Th-those people heard that same message. They saw it, it was on their screens, they heard it deep underground. You’re not supposed to hear anything deep underground. There’s no connection down there. Like, I dunno what that was, but it was creepy.
AUSTIN: Um, and so, and so, yeah! I think that actually helped you in a real way, because people were like…
JACK: Already thrown off?
AUSTIN: Very thrown off. By, this voice of… someone, something like a voice of God, judging you for something you didn’t know you did. So, you have your Mother Base. What are you doing with it? And you can tell me, again, what it’s like inside, I-- I kind of imagined it as, like, the XCOM 2 base. Lots of, lots of rooms that are, like, some of which have been damaged, so a lot like the XCOM 2 base! Where you have to dig through wreckage to get it back up to snuff a little bit? But, um, what do you do with the damn thing? We’re back at this question.
ART: Can we just do what we did with Gur Sevraq and, like, take it home and hide it?
AUSTIN: It’s very big. I’m not saying you can’t hide it. But it’s… very big.
ART: Put a tarp over it.
AUSTIN: Let me tell you-- uh, so, the thing about tarps, that a lot of people don’t know…
KEITH: (overlapping) Oh, the price of that tarp would be unbelievable.
JACK: Mmmmm… hm hm hm.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) ...tarps are very expensive. The tarp for this would be, very expensive. Yeah. God.
ART: Well, we could sell some of the stuff in it.
AUSTIN: Right, for tarp money.
ART: For tarp money.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s true.
ART: Roll this place up to Tom Nook, shake it out.
KEITH: (overlapping) We’ll have a swear jar for--
AUSTIN laughs.
JACK: Mmm, mmhm? Okay, let’s narrow down our options.
AUSTIN: I’m gonna move us back to the world map, just to get, get us in that mode.
JACK: Cause we’re unfortunately-- we have moved to this scale.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh huh!
JACK: Um, as far as Clem sees it, the options are: we make a break for it, with Fort Icebreaker. Option B, we bring Fort Icebreaker back to Cruciat, and say, “look what we did”. And we hand it over to them, in exchange for some benefit. Option C, we bring it back to Cruciat, say we’re gonna hand it over to them in exchange for some benefit, and then once we have gotten ourselves stable and are prepared to make our move, we steal it. Again.
AUSTIN: That-- that time it would have to be-- there would be rolls involved.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: A hundred-- I wanna be clear, that would not be an easy thing to do.
ART: Could we leave ourselves a back door?
AUSTIN: Sure. I-- it would still be--
ART: (overlapping) Either a literal back door, or a figurative back door.
AUSTIN: The difference between this gimme and what it would be once Kesh has it? Is very big.
JACK: (overlapping) To try, to try and take it from Crysanth and--
AUSTIN: But, but-- yeah from Crysanth Kesh specifically, who would… yeah, I just wanna, I’m just making sure that that’s a clear stake here in which that becomes a much more-- and also, and also! Just as another clarity, point of clarity, if you failed to do it. Uh oh! Then you are-- then someone’s mad at you and that person has Fort Icebreaker!
JACK: (laughing) Yeah.
AUSTIN: You would-- you would be basically giving someone who is theoretically your enemy a weapon. Your choice! I’m here for it, if you wanna do that mission, um, but I do-- but I do just wanna, I wanna make sure that no-one thinks that it would be a cakewalk.
ART: What if we had a shrink ray?
AUSTIN: Unfortunately, I think everyone left those at home, those are, uh, 7 load, and I don’t think anyone has 7 load.
ART: What about a flashback to give me a shrink ray?
AUSTIN: That would be 13 stress.
KEITH: And it would be-- and it would still be 7 load.
AUSTIN: It’d still be 7 load, yeah, you’d have to do two flashbacks, the first one would be somehow making it (laughing) so that you can carry 7 loads of things, more than what you’ve already declared.
JACK: Real Talk. They say Gur Sevraq does miracles.
SYLVIA: Oh my god.
JACK: And I’m not saying we get Gur Sevraq to shrink Fort Icebreaker, that’s silly. I’m saying we get Gur Sevraq to hide Fort Icebreaker.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I can hide it.
JACK: I-- are they here?! (laughs)
AUSTIN: I dunno, we could get there, right?
KEITH: I already had planned that--
AUSTIN: You had, for a minute!
KEITH: Yeah, this is-- I, I think in our group chat, I was like “yeah, I was planning on revealing that I had smuggled Gur Sevraq here”.
ART: Did you do it by using a shrink ray?
AUSTIN and JACK laugh.
KEITH: No! No!
ART: (overlapping) Cause you wouldn’t need to bring it, but now, you might need to unshrink…
KEITH: (overlapping) They were just in, they were in one of the crates that we came in on, they’ve just been waiting in a crate.
AUSTIN: Spend a stress, and, and they can be here.
ART: Can you-- can you zhuzh this up with a little bit of shrinking?
KEITH and AUSTIN laugh.
KEITH: Um, I don’t think I have the load for it! Uh, this is-- this is a stress, this isn’t a zero stress flashback? Because it’s uncomplicated?
AUSTIN: (overlapping) No, this is a stress a flashback, this is-- it’s still complicated to have snuck Gur Sevraq, the person who this war is over, into (laughing) the war without…
JACK: Jesus.
AUSTIN: ...someone being like-- “wait a sec-- wait a second! Isn’t that the person we’re dying to save?”
JACK: (overlapping) I mean, this is technically-- this is pretty advantageous to us, though, right? Having Gur Sevraq on board Fort Icebreaker during this moment?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Okay, well. I’ve got the fl-- I have the, I do the flashback, so I get the flashback scene, right?
AUSTIN: What is the scene?
KEITH: Me talking to Gur Sevraq, asking if, uh--
AUSTIN: Oh, I thought you were just saying, that you wanted Gur Sevraq here at this moment, having been in the crate the whole time!
KEITH: Right, but you do do the flashback scene?
AUSTIN: You don’t have to do that. In the same way that you could be like, hey-- I mean, if you want to have a scene with Gur Sevraq, you can just have a scene with Gur Sevraq. I’m fine with that.
KEITH: Okay, okay.
AUSTIN: But I’m not gonna make you convince Gur Sevraq for this.
KEITH: No, no, I just wanted to talk, I just wanted to talk with them privately.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Privately, sure, yeah, sure, okay, let’s do that.
KEITH: While asking, “hey, you want-- do you need-- do you…”
AUSTIN: (overlapping) So this is the-- this is, back in Cruciat, this is, like, in the tunnels or something.
KEITH: Right, yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: Um, and I-- I, I really want to tell, you’re a…
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): You’re into the Future thing, right?
AUSTIN: (as Gur Sevraq) That is one way to talk about it. Sure.
KEITH: (as Exeter Leap) I’m slightly worried about… the prison, thing. It’s getting old.
AUSTIN: (as Gur Sevraq) It will…
AUSTIN: I think that they say, um…
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): If you would prefer to be… free, but under-- free but hunted, I suspect that Future is available to you. If what you have in mind instead is the destruction of prison itself, this is a... a longer project. Though not, though not impossible.
KEITH: (as Exeter Leap) Is it-- is it a project you would help with?
AUSTIN: (as Gur Sevraq) It is a project that has already been mine for most of my life. Freedom is my vocation.
KEITH: (as Exeter Leap) Okay. Would you come… on this trip? We’re taking a trip.
AUSTIN: (as Gur Sevraq) To Motion, yes. (sighs) This is a risk, and yet, I find that I wish to see you all working. I wish to know the extent to which Clementine Kesh’s reach and grasp are appropriate for what I need.
KEITH: (as Exeter Leap) Well, let’s just hope they’re not appropriate for what I need. Which is to not be within them.
AUSTIN: Um, I think across this, like, spider-like face, Gur Sevraq smiles, and says, um,
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Petty tyrants like Clementine Kesh think they rule with an iron fist. You simply need to make it your hand in the gauntlet.
KEITH: (as Exeter Leap) I guess that makes sense, why you put up with her.
AUSTIN: He nods, and then they say, um,
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I do not-- I am not blind to the suffering that you or the others in the prison are… are living with. This is not ideal, by any means, and… it is, it is indicative of how the Principality-- of what the Principality believes. It is in the very structure of the Principality, that those with possibility are put in cells. Their potential is hindered or criminalised or otherwise reduced. This would happen here in Cruciat as it would in Westhaven, would happen here on Partizan, as it would in Leraphon V. Across the Principality, prisons are built, and around them, larger prisons are constructed. If we are to make the best of this situation, it is to turn the prison into a barracks for justice. To turn those who know firsthand the consequences of imprisonment, of immobility, to turn them from prisoners into… into those who would seek freedom not only for themselves, but for its own end. It is a long project. It is my vocation, I will come with you to Icebreaker.
KEITH: (as Exeter Leap) You think you could fit in this box?
KEITH slaps an empty metal object. SYLVIA laughs.
AUSTIN: (as Gur Sevraq) That seems like the right size, yes.
KEITH: Alright.
ART: This baby can fit so many…
AUSTIN cackles.
AUSTIN: So yeah, they’re there! They’re here now, Um, I think that they just, like, march onto the bridge after you’ve, like, done the takeover, right? And Gur Sevraq is here, and says, like
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I suspect I could hide it. The window is limited. We have to act quickly.
KEITH: I spend my Spark to do a really big flip.
AUSTIN: Great.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Incredible flip, Leap.
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): Thank youuu.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): What a cool move.
KEITH and ART laugh.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Sick maneuver, bro.
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): Thanks. It’s hard to do a flip in a mech.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Oh, I thought you were outside, I thought you were on the bridge with us.
KEITH: (overlapping) Nope, it’s in the mech! And I’m, I get my glow.
AUSTIN: Uh huh.
KEITH: And now we all did it, now we all get the glow.
AUSTIN: We all get the glow.
JACK: I’m tryna work out, like…
AUSTIN: This is a surprise to you, Clem, by the way. That, that, in the middle of this discussion of whether or not Gur Servaq could hide it, Gur Sevraq shows up to say “I could hide it”.
JACK: Yes.
KEITH: And then Leap did an amazing double back flip, in a mech!
AUSTIN: (overlapping) And then Leap does an amazing double mech flip, yeah, uh huh. It’s punctuation.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Gur Sevraq. Your… presence, while surprising, is welcome at this time of great celebration. Welcome to Fort Icebreaker.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I appreciate the effort that you and the rest of the Rapid Evening put on to achieve this victory. You should ensure that this victory remains one.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): I plan to. Fort Icebreaker will serve as a staging ground and--
What is…?
AUSTIN: A forward operating base? A…
JACK laughs.
AUSTIN: That’s what they’re called in this game! That is not just a Metal Gear Solid joke that I’m making.
JACK: Right, I’m trying to be, like, um, I think, I think she actually just says.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): The Palace at Cruciat was getting a little small.
KEITH: I roll my eyes.
JACK: With a glow.
AUSTIN: With a glow, glow-y roll, yeah.
KEITH: I open the cockpit and roll my eyes, and then close it.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): You have--
ART: Lot of work.
KEITH and AUSTIN laugh.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): You have done well with the gifts of Future. I… I can temporarily hide this beast of ingenuity. And you can take it somewhere where its presence will be unseen. There is-- I will do this in exchange. This base will be crewed by those who will. Those who desire to operate with the scale of power appropriate to those serving alongside Clementine Kesh. Those in the prison will take roles here. They will be free to leave. You will encourage them to stay through means that are not coercive. This is what the queen of Kesh would do. And I have to see proof. If they flee, then, they may fall under your mother’s vision, they may be caught in the wise gaze of the sphynx of Kesh. But they will have the option. The world we will make, will be one of freedom. That means taking on risk, Clementine. Do you accept my terms?
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Leap is going to flee.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Leap was going to flee. Leap is a prisoner. Prisoners desire to be free. Leap was a prisoner because he hurt your enemies, and yet, Stel Kesh locks him in a cage because he is useful to you. Prisoners demand freedom with their being. Those attached to this unit do not even have a date of parole. They are not prisoners, they are slaves to your whim.
JACK: It’s hard, right? Because, like, I don’t know if this is necessarily compelling to Clementine.
AUSTIN: A hundred percent. This is why there’s an offer along with it, right? This is not--
KEITH: Is the offer to hide it, that’s the deal?
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
KEITH: “I’ll do the hiding, but you have to not suck?”
AUSTIN: (overlapping) “I will do the hiding, you have to--” It’s not even not suck! It’s, you have to-- cause it still sucks. There is still a power dynamic here, Clementine Kesh being like, “you all get to be free! And in exchange, you have to have to work for me (laughing) on my, my super vessel!”
JACK: (overlapping) Also, if you go, people more capable than me will hunt you and kill you.
AUSTIN: Will hunt you down and kill you.
KEITH: Oh, is that still true, even with this?
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah! The-- Clementine Kesh does not have the authority to, to pardon anyone.
KEITH: I thought maybe they wouldn’t know that we were gone.
AUSTIN: The prison will be empty.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: All of this is Curtain shit, right? The Curtain is all the way through this whole project, they know. Um, they don’t know that what’s happening right now on this bridge is happening, you’ve gotten one over on one of the most powerful, like, secret societies/intelligence agencies in the galaxy.
JACK: (overlapping) Twice now, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah! Once with Gur Sevraq, and now again with Fort Icebreaker, you’re about to do it. Um, so, yeah, I don’t think, and again, you’re not-- Gur Sevraq is not the only person who can speak here, I wanna make sure I don’t dominate this conversation. Um, but I do wanna underscore that is the term, and that Gur Sevraq is not appealing to-- is not appealing to Clementine’s morality, which I don’t think that they think she has much of, um, they are appealing to her sense of, um, simple logic. Of course the prisoners want to be free, they’re prisoners, right? That’s why we call them prisoners, in Danny DeVito voice. That’s the, that’s the thing. And then more importantly is holding this as an exchange. I will let-- I will make-- I will do a miracle for you. There will be a cost. I don’t do miracles for free, and certainly not for, for royals. I’m curious if Sovereign Immunity wants to weigh in here, or Millie. I don’t, I know you’ve got some--
KEITH: I think you should do it.
AUSTIN: Can you say that in character?
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Clementine. This is the best offer you’re going to get… that isn’t from Crysanth. Crysanth can offer you medals and a parade. And subjugation. But if you wanna pick medals and a parade, that’s fine too, I mean, we could do that. I-- I have a lot of stress that I need to blow off in the downtime, and, I can fuck up a parade. I’ll bring my mech.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): We need to act quickly. There are pieces on the board that no-one has seen.
JACK: I need to make a good decision, and express it clearly and well. I think what it comes down to is that Clementine doesn’t care about these people.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Um, I think that saying-- I that the only way that this could be made to be compelling to Clemenine is if she considers it as a pros and cons list as invented by Benjamin Franklin.
AUSTIN laughs.
ART: Aw, Benny Frank’s Pros and Cons List?
AUSTIN: Pros and cons list, yeah, classic Benny.
KEITH: Remind me again, is a pros and cons list the series of, um, harmonic glassware? Is that what a pros and cons list is?
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Yeah, that’s...
JACK: (overlapping) Mmm, or a bowl that doesn’t spill soup. Um…
AUSTIN laughs.
JACK: I-- but I, I mean...
AUSTIN: (overlapping) People should really listen to the clapcasts, they’re great.
JACK: I think that, y’know, Gur Sevraq saying “these people are not prisoners, they are slaves, of course they want to be free”, I think what Clementine thinks is, “So…?” Um. “I have use for them.” And I don’t--
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Does she say that?
JACK: I think what she says is,
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): These people’s freedom is not optional. It is not something you can give them.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): It isn’t, which is why I am offering you this deal. If it was within my power to offer freedom to all who suffer under the Principality, I would have done it by now.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): I’m sure you would.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Instead… Instead I will do it tomorrow, or the day after. The Future is mine. You can be part of it. I believe in the integrity of the vision you see for yourself. It is not my vision, but, it is apparent in the flows of the world, that a magnanimous ruler of Kesh paves the way for progression. But God has spoken today… and Their attention nears. I do not expect you to have my... perspective on the world. But understand that, however many greater forces get brought to bear in the conflict to come, however many secret societies and private armies do battle, alongside the states you’ve constructed around you as monuments to the egos of the great men of history, that the Future has no interest in anything but progression. And that in this moment, God is on the Future’s side.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Improve the deal.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): No. Here, I will. I will retract the gift that I have given you. Your machines will turn as to dust. Your victory will slip through your fingers as so many failed monarchs before you.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Hey, Clementine, what are you doing?
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): I feel like I’m ceding something.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): You are.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): You’re making a trade. And you’re getting Fort Icebreaker.
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): They’re getting Fort Icebreaker.
SYLVIA: Oh my god.
KEITH: Oh my GOD.
AUSTIN laughs.
SYLVIA: Sorry-- am we there-- am I there for this as well?
KEITH: (overlapping) I’m going to walk around…
AUSTIN: Millie first, really quick?
SYLVIA: Am I there? Can I say something?
AUSTIN: Yeah!
JACK: Yeah yeah yeah!
AUSTIN: This is on the bridge, anyone can be on this bridge, y’all took this thing. This is your base in this moment.
SYLVIA (as Ver'million Blue): Look, Clem, if you wanna prove your mother wrong, that you’re not just a spoiled child, I’d suggest taking the deal.
JACK laughs.
SYLVIA: And then Millie leaves.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh huh.
ART: Great, that was great. That was great work.
SYLVIA: She’s mad!
ART: Some of us have to stay here and claw through this!!
AUSTIN laughs!
SYLVIA: Yeah, well, you’re the talk-y guy, I’m the shoot-y lady, okay?
KEITH: (overlapping) Y’know…
ART: (overlapping) I’m glad that you…
AUSTIN: (overlapping) You can drop the mic and leave.
KEITH: Only one of us here decided to-- that they wanted to work with Clem.
AUSTIN: Two. Gur Sevraq is here too.
KEITH: While-- while this is happening, well. They’re working with Clem in a different way.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh.
KEITH: Uh, while-- while this is happening-- are the toughs around?
AUSTIN: Yeah, they’ve taken-- they helped take over this base.
KEITH: I think I wanna, like--
AUSTIN: They’ve, like, locked up people, they have the guns, right?
KEITH: I wanna go, I wanna go around to, like, different little groups of toughs who are, like, watching and listening.
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
KEITH: And being like,
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): Wow, she can’t even let us out of here, even if she gets this whole place.
AUSTIN: Mmhm.
KEITH: And just like-- doing that, like, in, to different groups, talking shit and being like,
KEITH (as Exeter Leap): Wow, I can’t believe, even after all this, she-- she wants to lock you back up.
AUSTIN: Give me a fortune roll that is a-- Sway. Or a Consort, a Consort, this isn’t Sway, this is Consort, give me 1d6.
KEITH: 6.
AUSTIN: Uh, I’m going--
KEITH: No, wait, that wasn’t my 6. It’s frozen, rolling dice.
AUSTIN: It’s frozen, rolling dice.
KEITH: 4.
AUSTIN: Alright, I’m gonna advance your “case the prison” clock.
KEITH: Great.
AUSTIN: As you continue to gain, um, positive relationships with people who will give you information about the way you could escape from that prison, or-- we’ll transfer this to a new clock, depending on how things go.
KEITH: Alright, yeah.
AUSTIN: But yeah, this is-- this is, and, yeah, there’s a degree of, like.
AUSTIN (as Unknown Troop): Yeah, yeah, don’t expect much.
KEITH: (overlapping) This is almost full. This is 1-- this needs 1 more.
AUSTIN: You’re 1 out, yeah, uh huh. Yeah.
JACK: I think Clem stares daggers down at Millie’s retreating back, down the, like, narrow corridor steps away from the bridge, and then just like, turns towards the… control panels. And just like points at one of the toughs and says,
JACK (as Clementine Kesh): Start the engines. I don’t care, whatever you want.
...to Gur Sevraq.
AUSTIN: And then they, like, step to your, to your side, um, as if taking command from you. And say,
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Direct it east. East-Southeast. Avoid point Pine and move us to the sea.
AUSTIN: And he climbs up to the top of the Fort, standing on the very edge of the highest flight deck on this behemoth, and he begins to pray, as it moves through the fog and through the lingering Perennial Wave, um, and as these prayers leave his lips, I think the signs of battle just echo in the sky in every direction, you know, to the northwest, the smoke that had covered House Chasmata’s tactical retreat still kind-of wafts through the air, and in the southeast, there’s this shot at night of these Whitestar rockets streaking in parabolic arcs towards that Apostolitian defensive line, while soldiers at point Pine fire bolts of counter fire up, as an attempt to kind-of, dissuade those missiles from landing so loudly.
And then, far to the south, a careful eye would notice three signals, launching up beyond the curved horizon, and up into orbit. Above where Lion’s Rest, the Apostolitian capital on Partizan lies. The first one is just, like, a simple, blinking flare. White-white-yellow. And you know, Clem, that this is the full retreat signal for the Kesh naval forces there. The second is a single green dot that slowly expands into a bright fan of color in the heavens. And that is a message for all Apostolitians to evacuate the city immediately. The third is a golden firebird, charging through the sea into the tiered, terraced city of Lion’s Rest. And it tells anyone who can see it from this distance what the Palace will confirm in just a day. The Apostolitian capital of Lion’s Rest has been taken by a third entrant to the civil war. Stel Nideo is determined to bring peace to the Principality, and they will start here, with the rescue of Gur Sevraq from the rogue agents of Apostolos who took him - that is the language that they use, ever diplomatic.
And while the events of this day have lead to a great deal of confusion, including about your whereabouts, partially because of the ploys you put to work, partially because of the high tide, the Perennial Wave, partially because you still control, at least thus far, that group of documentarians who was sent with you, we’ll talk about them next time, I’m sure. One thing that you and only you know for sure, is that Gur Sevraq is not in Apostolos, not in The Barranca, is not nearing Nidean custody. Gur Sevraq is standing on a fortress, that is rumbling through canyon walls, whispering prayers to himself, his numerous eyes closed. And just as Icebreaker Prime reaches the beach, just as the sea starts to lap at its low knuckle-like joints and treads, Gur Sevraq opens all of those eyes at once.
[MUSIC: TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.]
And they are bright red, with a splash of white, the same texture and color of a Portcullis Gate opening. And you see those colors in your head - those waves, that splash of color in an empty space. And then there’s the sound of gulls on an empty shoreline, as his miracle completes, and this leviathan fortress slides, invisible, into the sea.