Autumn in Hieron 09: I’m Not Happy With This Decision At All

Transcribers: CharlieHorse, Max (pine#6681) 84m

[MUSIC - "Autumn Not Winter" by Jack de Quidt starts]

AUSTIN (as Gregalos): Do any of you know the way to Rosemerrow?

AUSTIN: He says.

AUSTIN (as Gregalos): There's—  There's something I'm interested in.

[ALI giggling]

KEITH (as Fero): Calhoun, boat party! Whoo!

AUSTIN (as Calhoun): Boat party!

KEITH (as Fero): Boat party!

AUSTIN: Does a little spin of his finger, and you realize quickly that like the way he says, "Boat party," communicates more than you thought. [JACK laughs] Like this time when he says that some people swing into action. You could try to straighten it out and regain control, but that will put you right into line of Brandish's boat.

ALI: Have I killed this guy, I should know that, right?  

AUSTIN:  Yeah. I don't know. Have you?

ALI: Sh-sure. I think that he's dead.

AUSTIN: Okay. You think that he's dead. Sure.

KEITH: [under his breath] He's dead. He's an undead pirate.

ALI: Sh— [laughs]

AUSTIN: I think I like about this game is when I wrote these notes, he was a living pirate king, but now he's definitely an undead pirate king.

ALI: [laughs] Thanks, Keith.

KEITH: Yeah. Yup.

AUSTIN: At this point— At this point, I think Calhoun puts the call out. Do you know what I mean? He goes— He like, [slap] slams his fist into his hand. He goes,

AUSTIN (as Calhoun): [clap] Boat party!

AUSTIN: And everyone knows —

KEITH (as Fero): Yeahhh, what's up?

[ALI laughs]

AUSTIN: — what that means. At the helm is a man in a long brownish red jacket with blood stained, khaki pants. His neck bears the scars of a failed decapitation. [JACK laughs] It is open a bit and you can hear him singing through the wound.

[MUSIC - "Autumn Not Winter" ends]

AUSTIN: Uhh, Lem. What are you doing now that the ships have been locked up?

JACK: Um, hmm. Um, let me just check my character sheet. I kind of feel like I should probably join the fray. Um…

AUSTIN: That seems— That seems fair.

JACK: Uh, I'm not on board the other ship, right?

AUSTIN: Not yet.

JACK: Um, so I'm just gonna sort of… sort of try and board, uh, board via one of the board things. I'm not going to try and do any fancy swinging or anything cause uh, (AUSTIN: Okay.) I'm not a pirate.

AUSTIN: You— No.

JACK: I'm just gonna… I don't really know how engagements like this begin. I think I'm probably just gonna pick a skeleton with its back to me and th— and and go ham. Um.

AUSTIN: Go ahead. What are you, how are you, like… I guess it's, that's kind of tough because… I guess I kind of like this actually. I do like the image of like you're last, across the boarding and everyone else's kind of engaged in little melees here and there.

JACK: Yeah, just sort of opportunistic.

AUSTIN: And you're like, "Ah, ah ah, augh." So yeah, go ahead and make your— Go ahead and make your—

JACK: This is Hack and Slash, I think.

AUSTIN: Yup, yup. It definitely is.

JACK: So that's just 2d6 +Strength?

AUSTIN: Mh-hmm.

KEITH: Yeah.

JACK: Please be a good roll. Please be a— Oh yes! [laughs]

KEITH: Nice.

AUSTIN: That's an outstanding— outstanding 11 you rolled.

JACK: I rolled an 11. Um…

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: Uh, so I also— I also have…

KEITH: [cool guy voice] Welcome to the 11s club.

[ALI and JACK laugh]

JACK: So I've got a kind of— My weapon— We talked about it as classed as a machete but I don't think it's— it's sort of just like a long wide sword. Um…

AUSTIN: Okay. I—

JACK: Wider at its top than its base.

AUSTIN: Right. Yeah, I have that in my mind, I think. Um, I—

JACK: Um, so it's not like a little short weapon.

AUSTIN: Yeah, I know what you mean. Um, one of the things that I added, I don't know if you caught this was, you know, the Bard traditionally starts with a— like a dueling um, rapier which is a +1 damage and uh, Precise or something like that.

JACK: Mmm.

AUSTIN: Um, and instead of Precise, I didn't think that that— We decided last week that that didn't really make much sense. But I— I decided Messy makes a lot of sense for that weapon. Um, Messy doesn't really do anything extra for damage or like armor penetration or anything, or like uses Dex the way Precise did, but what it does do, is when you describe your attack like, and it hits, it's a messy hit. It means that like, oh you can dislodge limbs. You can sever hands, [cross] you know, like? Your hits…

JACK: [cross] Okay, so it's mechanical bonus is that it's Messy.

AUSTIN: Right, is that it's a messy hit. And like, that's mechanical. You know, fiction and the mechanics here blend really well.

JACK: Okay, so I'm gonna…

AUSTIN: So go ahead and do your— do your damage.

JACK: Uh… Uh, I don't have any bonus for my machete, right?

AUSTIN: No, it's just your—

KEITH: No.

AUSTIN: Just your straight damage roll.

JACK: 1. [laughs]

KEITH: Yeesh.

JACK: I'm back.

KEITH: Been there buddy. [cool guy voice] Welcome to the 1s club.

JACK: I—

[AUSTIN and KEITH laugh]

AUSTIN: Right.

JACK: I don't mark XP for this, right?

AUSTIN: No, (KEITH: No, no, no.) you don't mark XP for a low damage rolls. You just have done low damage, sadly.

JACK: Okay. Also uh, um, I've got Duelist's Parry here. When I Hack and Slash, I take 1 Armor forward.

AUSTIN: Ooh, that's useful.

JACK: Um…

AUSTIN: Make note of that, for yourself.

JACK: So I've just boosted my Armor to 2 here, temporarily. So um, he— Oh, I guess you narrate what happens also might how—

AUSTIN: Uh, no, I'm actually curious, because of that— because of that parry. Like what's that— what's that look like it terms of your fighting style? Because of what it's saying to me is like the way you fight is kind of defensive… thing, right?

JACK: Yeah, I…

AUSTIN: Like when you get into a melee, so what's that look like for you? How does Lem fight?

JACK: Um, I'm trying to think. Um… It's— It's— It's quite scuttley but it's a sort of— it's a sort of panicked maneuver rather than a calculated one.

AUSTIN: Mhm.

JACK: Um, I'm kinda thinking about in Bioshock 1, when you meet Leadhead Splicers. Not Leadhead Splicers, I'm sorry. Your standard Splicers. They do this move where they drag their weapon along the floor as they're running towards you.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

JACK: And this is kind of a little like that except rather designed to be menacing, it's just sort of out of necessity and panic and movements. So Lem probably ducks underneath attacks (AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.) and his machete drags along the floor or almost becomes tangled in scenery nearby or something. Um, it's kind of vaguely sloppy. (AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.) But at the same time it's— it gets the job done, so I guess I get 1 Armor going forwards.

AUSTIN: Right. Yeah, yeah, that sounds right. Uh, well you have— you have ticked off more than anything, Emmanuel, the… I think this guy's probably the— one of the pirates who was manning their— [cross] um, their cannons.

JACK: [cross] Oh, Emmanuel used to be a pastry chef.

[ALI giggles]

AUSTIN: Well now he's a— now he's a pirate cannoneer um, and…

KEITH: Well hold on, he was a pastry chef but then he's a pirate.

ALI: Yeah.

JACK: Yes.

KEITH: It wasn't like he went from pastry chef to un— Yeah.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

ALI: He's been a pirate from awhile.

AUSTIN: Maybe he was actually— Yeah, maybe he wasn't a— But like, you know, he manned the cannons.

KEITH: Maybe he was the quartermaster.

AUSTIN: Right, he was, yeah. He was the quartermaster. He made them delicious pastries. Uh… and then—

KEITH: And they never fucking appreciated it.

AUSTIN: They hated them. And that like, anger, ah, he was already angry.

KEITH: They just didn't— they just didn't get it, you know?

AUSTIN: Right. They, yeah, they didn't—

KEITH: They didn't— Like, oh my— Nobody was like, "You have to try Emmanuel's pastries. They are to die for."

[ALI laughs]

AUSTIN: And also to be fair, his location was just not good. (ALI: Yeah.) Like you know no one wants to go to the pirate ship for the best pastries, you just want to go to town, you know, like that's not—

ALI: Right.

KEITH: Mm-hmm.

AUSTIN: So, uh, you slice across his back and— and cut into his flesh. But it's kind of hard to tell if you're doing damage to these things because like [cross] they already have wounds.

JACK: [cross] [laughs] And also I rolled 1 damage as well.

AUSTIN: Right, so it's just hard to know. But you do know you have his— he has your attention now. Fero, what's up with you?

[TIMESTAMP: 0:07:39]

KEITH: Um, where— So I'm imagining…

AUSTIN: You're surrounded— I think at this point you're at the front of the…

KEITH: That's exactly where I was picturing myself, definitely at the front.

AUSTIN: Yeah, um… Yeah, let's— Let's toss uh… This is— Let's toss this— Let's give you a real thing. I was gonna give you this sleepy halfling, but let's give you this regular sized halfling, uh, up at the front of this deck.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: Uh, ignore the size of this thing. You're smaller than that.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: This isn't to scale, again, but you're up here, for sure.

JACK: Alright, what the hell is going on in this image?

KEITH: Oh, I thought— When you— 'Cause I was looking at the map. When you said— I was going to give you this sleepy halfling, I thought that you were talking about enemies that you were going to throw at me? (AUSTIN: [laughing] Oh, no, sorry.) I was like, no, I was going to give you the sleepy halfling, but…

AUSTIN: No, you're surrounded by uh, you know, I think four five, maybe six, of— of Brandish's better men. Like this is like his first mate is up there with him, um his— not his quartermaster, what's the— there's a better name for like a— for someone who's like in charge of ordering a bunch of people around on a ship and I don't remember what it is. Like…

KEITH: Uh, uh… first mate?

AUSTIN: No, first mate is definitely up there. I already set that one up.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: Whatever. But there's a bunch of his like officers up there.

KEITH: Ooh, second mate.

AUSTIN: Great. The second mate is up there, uh, and they all of swords at the ready. Ready to— to close in on you. They're— They're— So the thing that was weird here is like, when you landed and turned back into your form, they were taken aback for a second. Uh, but were like, ready to capture you, (JACK: Hm.) because they outnumbered you so well.

KEITH: Right.

AUSTIN: And then, Hella lead this boarding action and then suddenly you can see it, as they like— they go from like a, "Heheheh," like, "We got you now," to a, almost, not scared but like um… They need to make an action immediately. (KEITH: Yeah, okay.) They need to— They need to go, and they have to kill you, so…

KEITH: Here's what I'm gonna do. Here's what I'm gonna do.

AUSTIN: Uh-huh.

KEITH: I'm gonna turn around.

AUSTIN: Uh-huh.

KEITH: Jump off of the ship, in midair, turn into the eagle, fly up into a huge, like spread my wings and caw at them.

AUSTIN: Okay.

KEITH: That's what I'm gonna do.

AUSTIN: First, that's a Defy Danger, let's say.

KEITH: Is it?

AUSTIN: How are you getting— Yeah, 'cause they've surrounded you, like to—

KEITH: Oh— Oh, I was just thinking— I'm at the very edge of the boat, is what it looks like to me.

AUSTIN: Oh, no 'cause that's like— there's like boat back there, do you know what I mean? There's not like, um— You would have to like climb onto a thing and that would also be Defy Danger, do you know what I— Like, so…

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: You can do that. You can back up to the mast, if that's what you're saying. You wanna like dive off the mast of the ship?

KEITH: Well if it's gonna be Defy Danger, then I don't need to be showboaty. Like…

[ALI laughs]

AUSTIN: I mean, the other way to think about that is, if it's gonna be a Defy Danger, you may as well be show boaty.

KEITH: Well is it gonna be a Defy Danger if I just turn into a bird right now, anyway?

AUSTIN: Yes, yeah. Yeah.

KEITH: Okay, well then yeah, sure. I'll jump off the fucking boat then.

AUSTIN: Yeah, okay, so you wanna back up, slowly to the mast and then like…

KEITH: I wanna do like a fucking… like a smirk and then a running dive.

AUSTIN: Okay, so…

KEITH: I wanna smirk at them. They have to see the smirk.

AUSTIN: They— They'll see the smirk.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: They'll see the smirk, Fero. Uh…

JACK: Uh, these third to seventh mates will all see the smirk.

[KEITH laughs]

AUSTIN: Are you— So what's your— Is your plan just to sprint? Is this a Dexterity thing? This is probably a Dex thing if you're just going to turn and sprint um, to do this.

KEITH: Um, if I was climbing over stuff, would it also— Would it be Strength? I thought you said it was climbing— I have to climb over—

AUSTIN: Yeah, you'd be like climbing on top of this, that could be Strength. Um… To like quickly do it, yeah.

KEITH: Yeah. Okay. Oh, it only rolled one thing.

AUSTIN: No.

KEITH: It only rolled 1d6.

AUSTIN: No it didn't.

KEITH: Oh, there is it. Okay. I saw— I saw another roll happen for whatever reason.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

KEITH: Uh, I got— That's a 7.

AUSTIN: That is a 7. Uh, you can— Hm… Yeah, okay. You make it up to the, the mast. Like you give them a little smirk [JACK laughs] and, most of them— most of them are kinda like, "Huh?" like what— What's up with that?

JACK: He shouldn't be smirking in a combat situation. Also he's an eagle now.

AUSTIN: He should not be. But one of them, probably the first mate, charges at you. Drops his sword, like, he gets this, and goes to tackle you. Um, uh and draws a little dagger.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: And gets one little good hit in, but you're able to make your transition. But he's— he's still going to be on you.

KEITH: Okay. Well I wanna— What I want to do, I want to dive and get out of their view, before they— before I transform, and then…

AUSTIN: Okay, but he's— he's hold— (KEITH: Okay.) In other words he's like, he's grabbed you. You're with him— He's with you as you dive off this ship.

KEITH: Oh, okay. Sure.

AUSTIN: And you take— you take one quick dagger shot in the side, um. 3 damage.

KEITH: Okay. And I'll do my transformation roll.

AUSTIN: Yup. What are your HPs at? Can you guys mark that in your character sheets on the thing.

ALI: Yeah.

KEITH: [fart noise] 6. Hold 1.

AUSTIN: Woof.

KEITH: Yeah, it's hold 1, plus quote (AUSTIN: Okay.) "something the GM says."

AUSTIN: Is that what it says? Let me see.

KEITH: Yeah, I'll see—

AUSTIN: "On a miss, hold 1 in addition to whatever the GM says." Okay, um, what are you changing into? The eagle again?

KEITH: Yeah, the huge eagle.

AUSTIN: Okay, uh, the…

KEITH: Oh, I'm at— I'm at 13 for health, by the way.

AUSTIN: Okay, um, I'm gonna mark that in your sheet. Can everybody do that, actually? I got yours already, 'cause I had your sheet open, Keith.

JACK: Mark…

ALI: Yeah, I'm…

AUSTIN: Your current HP in your character sheets so I can see that stuff.

JACK: Oh, I did that.

ALI: I did mine, yeah.

JACK: I'm keeping mine up to date.

AUSTIN: Alright, good. Good, good, good. I was just—

KEITH: Ope, my pen just exploded on my fingers.

AUSTIN: That's not good.

KEITH: No.

AUSTIN: Also not good is (KEITH: Aww.) that in the middle of this fight. So you make this big triumphant like, caw. Um, and it startles the men on the boat for sure. They like, "Augh," stumble backwards. But, like, climbing up your back, like Shadow of the Colossus style, is this first mate. The first mate by the way is named… Ginny.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: So, get Ginny in your mind here.

KEITH: Alright, I heard the char— the character name generator click.

AUSTIN: Uh, that one wasn't. That one wasn't, believe it or not.

KEITH: Okay, okay.

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. Ginny— I've three here that aren't and then a couple that are. Logan was, uh, Emmanuel was, but Ginny is not. Um… and with her dagger, put it up against your bird throat and she yells,

AUSTIN (as Ginny): I have your boy!

[JACK sighs]

AUSTIN: What do you do? And this you is more… This you is more towards Hella and— and Lem, than Fero, who if he moves could get hurt really badly. [JACK laughs] And a reminder, he failed that roll. Just, like, to be clear, I'm not fucking with him, but failing rolls is bad.

[TIMESTAMP: 0:14:18]

JACK: Um… [hesitantly] Hella?

ALI: [laughs] Well, uh…

JACK: I-I'm—

ALI: I'm—

JACK: I'm comparatively good at Parley and— and Speaking Frankly with people. But we need some sort of leverage here, [laughing] um…

AUSTIN: They have a lot of leverage on you right now.

JACK: That's the problem. I was wondering if…

KEITH: I do not think that Parley is gonna work here.

ALI: Yeah.

JACK: Well, we have to have leverage. Um…

AUSTIN: You do.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Leverage is a lot of different types of things. I mean, maybe you can have something that they want. Maybe you could offer them that.

JACK: Um…

ALI: Is it too late to try to Aid Keith?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: And also, there's no way—

KEITH: Oh yeah, to be fair, if you guys had Aided me, that would've been a 7.

[ALI laughs]

AUSTIN: You can't. You can't— How are you— There's no way you could Aid him to become a—

KEITH: Hey, Jack's got a magic fiddle and we have a Bond.

AUSTIN: Yeah…

ALI: Right, I have a Bond with him too and can like…

AUSTIN: That's close.

KEITH: Um…

[ALI sighs]

AUSTIN: I— There's no way you could make him turn into an eagle better, Hella. I love you but like, I don't—

KEITH: No but I could've— I could've— Oh yeah, that wouldn't have worked.

AUSTIN: That's the thing— That's the thing that you failed, you know. [cross] That's the thing that you failed.

KEITH: [cross] Yeah, yeah, that wouldn't've helped.

AUSTIN: If it had been the— Yeah.

JACK: Um… This—

AUSTIN: Also there's just you weren't near him. [cross] Like, there's all sorts of reasons why it's not. [laughs]

ALI: [cross] Right, right. Fair, fair. Um…

JACK: So to me, this almost feels like a brewing hostage situation. They like, should've been— She's could've killed Keith but instead she's choosing to address us.

AUSTIN: Yes. Yes.

JACK: Um, oh sorry, she's gonna kill Fero.

KEITH: Where is…

JACK: Um, so if she's choosing to address us, it sort of seems like we should be moving into a place where we can enter into an, inverted-commas, "negotiations," here a little more, effectively than we are currently. Unfortunately I'm a… Bard, not a Fighter, and I don't know (AUSTIN: That's true.) what I can do to— I feel like I'm the step two here rather than the step one.

AUSTIN: Remember that leverage is not just threats, right? Like, so far in this game we've only played leverage, in Parley, as like, "I'll kill you if you don't do what I want." But like, you could also (KEITH: Oh shit.) offer them a real thing.

KEITH: Like the fucking book, and if you roll good enough, we don't even need to give them the book first that we don't have.

JACK: Right, but we don't have the book.

KEITH: Yeah, exactly, that's what I'm saying.

AUSTIN: But that's not— that's not— You don't need the book to Parley. So okay.

KEITH: You can just say, we're getting this book, it's a dangerous book.

AUSTIN: I'm not saying this is what you should do.

ALI:Yeah.

AUSTIN: There are lots of things that I have in mind that you could do, that you could parley with. While, when you— when you have leverage on a GM character, and manipulate them, roll +CHA [kah], +CHA [cha]. Leverage something they need or want. On a hit, they ask you for something and they— they ask you for something and do it, if you make them a promise first. Um…

JACK: Um, this is a promise we can—

AUSTIN: Sorry— Yeah, yeah, that's right.

JACK: This is a promise we can absolutely renege on, right?

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Yeah, but— and then— and then what happens? [cross] You know, like that's the…

ALI: [cross] But like, we don't know…

KEITH: Yeah, and then they come at us later. We're not worried about that.

AUSTIN: I— You could offer them— [cross] There's lots things you could offer them. I'm not saying…

ALI: [cross] Yeah, I don't think…

KEITH: We just won't take a boat again, like we shouldn't have, this time guys.

ALI: 'Cause I don't think the boat is…

JACK: I kind of don't want to offer them Calhoun 'cause…

ALI: Well, no…

JACK: 'Cause that's a thing we could do, but I don't know if that's probably…

ALI: Well, I guess we could.

JACK: We could…

KEITH: We could— I don't want to [cross] 'cause he's our boat party bro.

ALI: [cross] No, no, no, 'cause that's the thing is I'd rather offer him— offer them Calhoun and then go back on it, then offer them the book which probably has no value at all to them. We don't have like the minutes here to be like, [cross] "Oh we're gonna get this book. It's probably really cool."

KEITH: [cross] They're undead pirates. I'm sure they would love a dangerous book.

ALI: No, no, no. They're not— They've been undead for like a week.

KEITH: They've what?

ALI: They've been undead for like a week.

AUSTIN: Yeah, they're very new undead.

ALI: Yeah, and they also like— They're all—

KEITH: Yeah, but, but, but I'm saying pirates. It's not the undead part, it's the pirates part.

ALI: Mmm.

KEITH: They want to fucking— They've got magicians, they want a book that can do…

AUSTIN: They don't have any— They don't have magicians.

ALI: [laughing] No, they don't have any magicians.

KEITH: You said they were magicians. (AUSTIN: No I—) You told me that they did.

AUSTIN: No, I said they had musicians.

KEITH: And then I said, "I thought you said magicians," and then you said, "They're both."

AUSTIN: No.

ALI: That didn't happen.

KEITH: Yeah, you absolutely did.

AUSTIN: No I said— What I said was…

KEITH: I'm gonna— Here we go, I'm gonna edit out that part and I'm gonna drop it in here.

AUSTIN: Mmm.

[ALI and JACK laugh]

KEITH: Edit point here. Boop.

AUSTIN: The warlike beats, you realize, are not yours to drum. Your drumming becomes uh, quiet in the face of the rhythm of the Kingdom Come which has its own musicians at work. They're probably not, you know, pattern magicians like you are, but theirs is a— is a more simple…

KEITH: Oh, you said magicians (AUSTIN: Right.) not musicians.

AUSTIN: Both. Both, uh…

KEITH: Right.

AUSTIN: Those— Theirs is a much more simple magic.

KEITH: Boop.

AUSTIN: Here's what— No, here's what I said. I said that they have a very simple— I said that they have a… I'm trying to remember exactly what they said. I said that, like you, they had musicians on their ship, but theirs was a more simple magic. I wasn't saying that they were casting real magic. Their magic is just they were playing angry music to make their people more angry.

KEITH: I'm— I'm gonna edit in a second time, here.

AUSTIN: They're— Okay. [ALI laughs] You're gonna and you're gonna see what I said.

KEITH: Boop.

AUSTIN: Theirs is a— is a more simple…

KEITH: Oh, you said magicians (AUSTIN: Right.) not musicians.

AUSTIN: Both. Both, uh…

KEITH: Boop.

JACK: Um…

AUSTIN: They don't have any… Mmm. Jack is the only person in the world who can do magic via— via music.

JACK: Are they— Are they about to hit me with a sword? How much time do I have? Do I have enough time to conceivably roll Discern Realities?

AUSTIN: At this point the— No.

JACK: Okay.

AUSTIN: Discern Realities is fairly specific that it's— you're taking, when you closely study a situation or person, like, you would…

JACK: Yeah, I— I don't have…

AUSTIN: I don't— I don't think— Not like if they were now— If active negotiations— If you were at a table, (JACK: Mmm.) You could do that, you know what I mean?

JACK: Yes.

AUSTIN: Um…

JACK: Fero. [cross] You're an eagle right now.

AUSTIN: At this point everyone has kind of stopped.

ALI: Well I—

AUSTIN: He is.

JACK: You have a ring.

AUSTIN: Yeah, but he isn't— He's not wearing it, you know what I—

ALI: Yeah.

KEITH: I mean, I've got it in my pocket.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

ALI: You have eagle pockets?

KEITH: No, [cross] but all of the stuff that I have, stays with me.

AUSTIN: [cross] He has like, yeah…

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

ALI: But you can't like pull it out as an eagle.

KEITH: No, I can transform back into a thing, though. I don't have—

ALI: Do you want to just do that and fall in the ocean with this person?

AUSTIN: That could work.

[JACK and ALI laugh]

KEITH: Yeah, I'll do that. Do that.

JACK: Cool going.

KEITH: I'll fucking go in the ocean for this.

JACK: Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.

AUSTIN: Actually— Everyone.

JACK: I might— Can I— I might roll an Aid here, um, which probably…

AUSTIN: To do what? No one's making a roll.

KEITH: I don't need to roll to transform back into a human, I can just do it.

JACK: Oh. Oh cool. Okay.

AUSTIN: He's just gonna— He's a human.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Um…

ALI: I mean, 'cause it's either— Okay, yeah, that's fine.

AUSTIN: Okay so, for a brief moment, everyone has stopped to see this happen. Like, "Huh, okay." Like the whole combat, everything stops and like looks up and then Fero turns back into a halfling man [JACK laughs] and falls with Ginny back into the— into the sea. The waves lapping up against the boat.

KEITH: Mm-hmm.

AUSTIN: Um… And they're gone for— And then like, "Oh, okay." Everyone starts fighting again. Hella, what's up?

[TIMESTAMP: 0:21:13]

ALI: [laughs] I mean, I'm— Am I still surrounded or…

AUSTIN: You— There are still other pirates. Yeah, in fact, how 'bout for a brief moment—

KEITH: Great idea Ali, by the way.

[ALI laughs]

AUSTIN: That was a great idea. You have a brief moment now where um, you can— you can probably just like hit a couple of them.

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Like, they're distracted in this moment, so go ahead and— and attack. I'll even say like, you get one free damage roll because of all this nonsense. Like you're gonna be the first— you're the Fighter. You're the first one to take this hit. Like, to get to start the melee back up. So go ahead and just roll damage. And then you get to also roll a second Hack and Slash.

ALI: Oh, I'm just— I'm rolling damage and then for Hack and Slash, or…

KEITH: Yeah. Free damage roll and then…

AUSTIN: Free damage roll and then we'll do another attack to kinda represent that. You got one free hit in.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: 'Cause everyone was like looking at this (KEITH: Yeah.) weird situation.

KEITH: Mm-hmm. Which that happens— that happens any time that you've surprised someone not ready for combat, right? You just take a free damage roll?

AUSTIN: Yeah, you just take— take the damage.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: You take the damage as [cross] as it's been set up basically.

ALI: [cross] I do not do great damage.

JACK: [laughs] You know, that's not bad.

AUSTIN: That's okay. Uh, you know, that's, you know.

KEITH: Yeah, 3's fine.

ALI: Um…

KEITH: You could've done 70% better.

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Right. Um…

ALI: And then I do my…

AUSTIN: Carlene is not— is not pleased. So yeah, go ahead and do your damage or your—

KEITH: Nice.

AUSTIN: That's a good hit.

KEITH: That is a good hit.

AUSTIN: And then do damage on that.

JACK: Oh dang.

ALI: Oh my god.

KEITH: That's a bad one. That's a bad hit.

AUSTIN: Well this is— So one of the things that's happening here is like each attack roll isn't a specific single swing of the sword.

JACK: Yeah.

KEITH: No, this is…

AUSTIN: This is like— So you slam your blade into Carlene and really thought like that was a good hit. But then like as you wriggle it around, it's all bones in there. So it's like, you hit something but ehh, but then you pull back and then like doing like a sword fight across this— this deck of this ship. And she's parrying a lot of your blows but you're getting in a good hit now and then. Uh, Lem…

JACK: I kind of…

AUSTIN: Meanwhile, faced off with this pastry chef.

JACK: Yeah. Um… I'm kind of— If we want to take this boat, (AUSTIN: Uh-huh.) is our strategy just going to be kill everybody in it? Is that all we can do? Is there any chance we can— There's no way we can get the boat without killing everybody on it, right?

AUSTIN: I don't know, it's up to you.

JACK: [cross] I was asking everyone. Well, I was asking Hella I guess.

KEITH: [cross] Yeah, they'd probably surrender. At some point— At some point there's not going to be enough of them to fight back and they'd surrender right then.

JACK: Alright, well…

ALI: I mean, so if we're doing that, you're going to be the one who gonna be able to convince them. [cross] Like Hella is on this ship and she's like, "I'll kill as many people as I can but if you want to talk to some folks, it's fine.

JACK: [cross] Yeah, I'm trying to work out like what…

AUSTIN: [cross] There are— What I will say at this point— Right.

JACK: Um…

AUSTIN: There are still a lot of folks at this point is what I'll say, like…

JACK: Yeah, I think we should probably thin them out some. [laughs]

KEITH: How are Calhoun's men doing?

AUSTIN: Eh. They're about evenly matched.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: Um, you know, half of these people are undead and [cross] the other ones fell over so…

KEITH: [cross] With the undead pirates, that's pretty good.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: So um…

ALI: Keith, Keith, they're fine. Keith.

KEITH: What?

AUSTIN: They're recently undead.

KEITH: So they're learning.

AUSTIN: Right.

ALI: Yeah.

KEITH: They're still learning how to be undead?

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: So I think I'm still—

AUSTIN: There's definitely a couple of times when it's like, "Oh no!" Like, "I'm dead— Oh, no, I'm okay. I'm—"

KEITH: "Ah, I just tried to eat soup! What was I thinking?"

AUSTIN: Or like, I'm just saying like when they take damage now, they are getting hit in ways that would normally be like, disastrous and now they're, "Oh. No this is— I'm alright. Like this is okay."

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: "I forgot that I'm a skeleton now."

JACK: So they're fully like sentient, right? They're not like…

AUSTIN: Yeah, they're not lost to their undead status yet.

KEITH: Yeah, they're still Logan and Emmanuel and Ginny.

JACK: Okay, so I still have—

ALI: So Emmanuel still loves pastries?

AUSTIN: And Carlene.

JACK: Oh, he loves pastries.

ALI: Aww.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: Anybody got any pastries we can use as leverage? I think—

KEITH: I have a honeybun?

JACK: What?

AUSTIN: Aww.

ALI: You're in the ocean.

KEITH: It's a wet honeybun.

AUSTIN: Ahh.

[KEITH laughs]

JACK: I'm gonna roll— I'm gonna roll Strength. I'm fighting Emmanuel still.

AUSTIN: Hack and Slash, okay.

JACK: Okay so um… I rolled a 7.

AUSTIN: A 7, on a 7 you get to do damage and also uh, take…

JACK: Oh.

AUSTIN: Open yourself up to attack. Yeah, so go ahead and do your damage.

JACK: Hmm. Did it— It didn't go through.

AUSTIN: Yeah it did.

JACK: Really?

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

JACK: Oh yes, okay. Just took a second.

AUSTIN: It just takes a second sometimes. Um…

JACK: So uh, I basically just go in at him with a machete. Um… or the orc sword, um…

AUSTIN: Yeah, we need to get a better name for it. We need to get like a good name. We'll look— We'll research swords this week.

KEITH: I— Listen, when we were talking about it before, I Google Image Searched scimitars and that's exactly what Jack was describing.

AUSTIN: No it isn't 'cause it doesn't have a curve.

KEITH: Not all the scimitars that I saw had curves.

AUSTIN: They're all curved.

JACK: I'm gonna google "straight scimitar."

AUSTIN: "Scimitar is a curv— Is a back sword or saber with a curved blade." Like that's the fourth thing in the— they all have curves.

ALI: Anyway, I have a sword blog. We'll figure it out.

AUSTIN: Okay good, I'm glad.

[ALI laughs]

JACK: Um, okay so uh… I deal 4 damage.

AUSTIN: So you slash into Emmanuel, um pretty well and Emmanuel drops for a brief second like down to one knee and I think you probably— you probably hesitate for a brief second. Um, not that you know he likes— Woah. And he's like almost at his last leg but like,

AUSTIN (as Emmanuel): Ergh!

AUSTIN: Thrusts up with his blade and catches you fairly strong, uh, across the chest.

JACK: Uh, so um… That's jeez right, so uh…

ALI: Can…

JACK: That comes out as 4…

AUSTIN: Those have curved blades.

ALI: Jack how—

KEITH: It's curved but it's mostly straight.

AUSTIN: Sorry, continue.

ALI: Jack, how bad is a 4 for you right now.

JACK: Um…

ALI: Is this your first hit of the day?

JACK: Well I've got +1 Armor forward. No this is my second but a 4 would take me down to 5 health, I'm— Out of 15, I can probably weather that.

AUSTIN: No, but you took a 6, you didn't take a 4.

JACK: No I took a 6 and then I took 2— 2 armor.

AUSTIN: Oh, right yes.

KEITH: Oh! I just remembered that when I was stabbed I was still a person so that's 3 -2 for my Armor.

AUSTIN: There you go, good.

JACK: So I get—

KEITH: So I'm at 15.

JACK: Hella, I can go down to 5, it's fine.

ALI: Okay, 'cause I can reroll that for you if you need it.

JACK: Uh, no it's cool. Save it.

AUSTIN: I'm glad you remembered that this time.

ALI: Shh, Austin. [laughs]

[AUSTIN laughs]

JACK: Um, and now I lose my extra armor thing, it's gone now. That's the parry that's gone.

AUSTIN: What the— Oh, right, right, right, that's where you got that parry from. Right, yes, yes. 'Cause it was 1 Forward.

JACK: Yup.

[TIMESTAMP: 0:27:28]

AUSTIN: Um, cool. Fero you're in the water at this point.

KEITH: I'm in the water, yeah. Um…

AUSTIN: I think slammed up against this like, the side of this boat. Like, there are things hanging down— Like if you wanted to climb back up you could start to do that but Ginny is also down there with you, dagger in her teeth, swimming towards you.

KEITH: Oh, well here's what I want to do.

AUSTIN: Uh-huh.

KEITH: Um… I want to transform into a— to an osprey.

AUSTIN: Okay. Go ahead and— and start doing that.

JACK: Keith, why didn't you transform into a gigantic tentacle octopus?

AUSTIN: I— He doesn't have that stuff.

KEITH: I can't do that, I can't do that.

JACK: You can't do octopi.

AUSTIN: He has moun— (KEITH: 12.) He has mountain stuff.

ALI: Ohh.

JACK: Ohh.

AUSTIN: Alright.

JACK: Have you not heard of mountain octopuses?

ALI: Yeah. Buddy.

KEITH: Yeah, I mean I've heard of them, I just don't think that they lived on the mountains that I lived on.

JACK: Oh, okay.

AUSTIN: Oh, different mountains.

KEITH: Different mountains.

ALI: [laughs] That was… too reasonable of a response.

AUSTIN: So you are now an osprey and are— and have taken off into the sky again.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: And Ginny has began climbing back onto the ship.

KEITH: Mm-hmm. Um, while she's climbing, I want to be scratching at her with my osprey claws and talons.

AUSTIN: Alright, go ahead and make a— make that attack.

KEITH: I did not do that. I did not.

AUSTIN: You super did not.

KEITH: I super didn't do it at all.

AUSTIN: Um…

KEITH: I probably can't get Aided right, can I maybe from somebody with a—

AUSTIN: Not on the side of this boat.

KEITH: Someone's got a magic—

AUSTIN: No one sees you.

KEITH: Has a magic—

AUSTIN: No one sees you, dude.

ALI: Yeah.

JACK: I am in a swordfight.

KEITH: Oh yeah.

AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah, also.

KEITH: Oh, I thought that Jack had stepped back from the sword fight.

AUSTIN: No, he got stabbed.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Is the last thing that happened to Jack is he got stabbed. Um…

KEITH: You can get stabbed when you're not in a sword fight.

AUSTIN: Hm. Speaking of getting stabbed.

[JACK laughs]

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Uh… Uh, Keith, you were— you were— Lem is— Fero is trying to claw at Ginny but she is very good at this. Um, there's a reason why she's the first mate. Like, you can quickly tell that uh, Brandish might be the kind of brains of the operation but the reason that Ginny is his first mate is because of her martial prowess. She is like, there's a point at which you want to claw at her and she like grabs your claw with her undead hand. Like the skeleton of her hand (KEITH: Mm-hmm.) and stabs at your foot with her dagger. And like, goes deep. It hurts, into your kind of like clawed foot and then tosses you back, up into the air.

KEITH: Dang.

AUSTIN: Um, and she keeps climbing. In fact, gets up to the top and flips over, into the— into the deck where she picks her sword back up. Uh, Hella, you're— you're still in combat with Carlene at this point.

[TIMESTAMP: 0:30:18]

ALI: Is she just one of the like skeleton people?

AUSTIN: Yeah, she's just a skeleton person.

ALI: Yeah, I'm— This has taken enough time.

AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh.

ALI: Like, I definitely want to move towards Ginny 'cause I— I assume that I remember (AUSTIN: Okay.) from last time.

AUSTIN: You do. You probably— You probably thought you dispatched her too, or maybe Calhoun did, and you uh…

JACK: Hella what's your—

AUSTIN: Yeah, go ahead, what were you going to say?

JACK: What's your um… What's your history with these pirates other than fighting them before?

ALI: Um. You know what, we've probably had run ins.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

ALI: That's probably…

JACK: But it's not like they killed family members or anything.

ALI: No. No, no, no. I'm sure like, because what Hella does a lot is travel people from Ordenna to Hieron.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

ALI: So like, she knows of them, pretty well.

JACK: Right. Okay.

ALI: Yeah. Like she knows that Ginny is his first mate. And she—

AUSTIN: Um, so yeah. I— How about—

ALI: Well—

AUSTIN: Go ahead, sorry.

ALI: I was just going to say that she might be able to identify like a few other people.

AUSTIN: Um…

JACK: I'm still probably looking to Parley, eventually. But…

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

JACK: We're gonna need some… We're not any— When I say leverage there, I mean, we're gonna need a suitable lull in the combat.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: Right, right.

JACK: So, um, I don't know. I guess I try and communicate to Hella that maybe just either straight kill her or um, take her hostage like she did Keith.

ALI: Okay.

JACK: Oh, did Fero, I'm sorry.

AUSTIN: Calhoun— Calhoun gives Hella a nod and like, when he sees that you're looking over to Ginny, um, and like kind of steps in your place to take on the remaining four skeletons that you had— that you had engaged with. So you can go run to-towards Ginny.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: Uh, as you're also moving there, you see uh, a strange thing out of the corner of your eye which is that big black bird of prey that had previously been on—

JACK: Oh god.

ALI: We should've just had a bird fight. Keith, why?

AUSTIN: On— On Brandish's shoulder.

JACK: There's always time.

AUSTIN: And you see it like cross across— [cross] It like flies across the setting sun and as it passes the other side, seems to split into a number of smaller birds.

KEITH: [cross] Do you— Wait, hold on—

ALI: Aww.

AUSTIN: All black, all with— with kind of sharp features. And it swings around to the front of the ship where the osprey, Fero, is currently hovering.

JACK: Is this the helicopter?

AUSTIN: Yeah, sorry. I put an osprey down, but I guess it was a V-22 Osprey token, which is some sort of helicopter. [ALI and KEITH laugh] Sadly— Sadly Fero is not a gunship and is in fact just the bird, the osprey. Uh, Hella, while that's happening, you kind of get into combat with Ginny. Go ahead and make your Hack and Slash.

ALI: Um… So I got an 8.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

ALI: And then… 5 damage.

AUSTIN: Okay, um… You— As you— You get there just as Ginny pops up with her sword and you exchange a few quick blows and uh, unlike Brandish, she does have her whole neck and throat, um but uh… I think it's probably— probably missing some— some well placed skin in places so you can see her, like parts of her jaw sticking through. I want to be clear, this is all very like cartoonish in my head, we're not doing like Shadow of Mordor, like "Grr," like grimdark, you know, blood and guts. Like this is all very like, rad anime in my head 'cause that's who I am.

[ALI laughs]

JACK: Or like kind of like Coraline or Corpse Bride or something.

AUSTIN: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly like that, yeah totally. And she says uh,

AUSTIN (as Ginny): Thought you'd seen the last of us, huh?

AUSTIN: And you get a good— she gets a good— Uh, you get a good hit in on her um, cutting through kind of her— Unlike the rest of the people, she has on like leather armor, and you make a good cut through it. Deliver a fair slash to her. But she is able to give you a good counter attack back. And you take 7, as her— She has an actual scimitar and cuts down into your— the kind of, meat of your shoulder.

ALI: So that's 5.

AUSTIN: Yeah, if you take your— your—

ALI: Ope, one second.

[TIMESTAMP: 0:35:03]

AUSTIN: So there's a bunch of birds coming for you, Fero. Like a bunch of them.

KEITH: I got a bunch of birds coming for me?

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: You got a round number on how many birds are coming for Fero?

AUSTIN: Dozens? [laughs]

KEITH: Um, do I— So what's— So I'm here at the front of the ship still?

AUSTIN: Yeah.

KEITH: And then I'm uh— I'm picturing Jack and— Lem and Hella kind of near the center of their ship. Like sort of nearer to the bridges?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. Well, I think at this point— as this point Hella's towards the front of the ship.

ALI: Yeah. Where you were before.

AUSTIN: Because… Right, because that's where Ginny was. She kinda sprinted across from the bridges, to the front of the ship, to engage with Ginny before she could do anything else.

KEITH: And how— how far off are these birds?

AUSTIN: Uh, I'm gonna plop some down for you. Um, but they're coming straight for you and are probably twenty feet away, something like that.

KEITH: Twenty feet? Okay. Um…

AUSTIN: Yeah.

KEITH: Um… I'm going to… [laughs]

ALI: Are you alright?

AUSTIN: I just put down some birds. [JACK laughs] I put down [laughing] a collection of birds. [ALI laughs] None of which were really what I had in mind.

KEITH: I— Thank you. All of a sudden I feel so fine about this. I drink some tea.

AUSTIN: [laughs] Uh, for the listeners, I plopped down, uh like—

JACK: A single square.

AUSTIN: A single square of (KEITH: Of doves it looks like.) nine doves. That's what I got from this token.

JACK: [laughing] They're chickens. They're chickens.

AUSTIN: Those are not chickens. There is— Okay, there's two chickens in there. There are two chickens in this.

KEITH: There's definitely some doves.

AUSTIN: There.

KEITH: Yeah, that one— There's a lot of chickens actually. These are all chickens.

AUSTIN: [laughing] Yeah, these are— These are all chickens.

KEITH: These are all chickens.

AUSTIN: Okay.

KEITH: I take it back, a lot of them look like doves.

AUSTIN: They do.

KEITH: But no, they're chickens for sure.

JACK: Oh is this image going to be available somewhere, please?

AUSTIN: Uh, yeah, I will— Here's— I'm gonna paste this into our…

JACK: 'Cause no— We will not be able to do this image justice.

AUSTIN: This is a pretty good image. I'm gonna paste this into our Skype chat there. It's from a website uh, (JACK: Oh god.) that says, "I went to a farm this weekend so I'd figured I'd get some pictures of chickens and turkeys. I wanted to get some overheads of larger animals but climbing a tree to do it would've pushed my wife over the edge. Here's the thumbnail." To be clear, this is from a website for fans of tabletop game mapping so this person just took some pictures of their chickens so that people could print them out and use them as like things on a map. This is the cool world we live in.

ALI: Good job.

KEITH: Yeah, this was—

AUSTIN: Anyway.

KEITH: These were definitely like, magic wand-ed out of some backgrounds in photoshop (AUSTIN: Yes!) and put on a white background. Yeah.

AUSTIN: Now if you can imagine—

KEITH: Not even a transparent background, a white background.

AUSTIN: No— Now you have to imagine that they are a flock of evil black birds.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: Flying for you. (KEITH: Um…) They're all— each of them is smaller than you but there's— But they, as a group, make up a flock that is quite— quite bigger than you.

KEITH: But the way that— the way that Dungeon World works is that if I were to attack them, I'm not going to be Defying Danger per bird.

AUSTIN: No, no…

KEITH: It would just be like a matched group, like it's not— (AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.) mechanically it would not be different than one bird.

AUSTIN: Right, I'm treating this as one big thing.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: As a horde of— A single horde.

KEITH: I'm going to spend—

JACK: These chickens are bloody enormous. These chickens are about the size of Calhoun's boat.

[AUSTIN and ALI laugh]

KEITH: I'm going to spend uh— I'm going to make sure I have time for this (AUSTIN: Yeah.) 'cause we've never— We haven't discussed how fast this takes.

AUSTIN: No, we haven't.

KEITH: Uh, using Balance.

AUSTIN: Yeah, I think you can go ahead and spend the Balance and then, if you want to Defy Danger to— Are you also attacking? Is that what your plan is here?

KEITH: I was going to attack, yeah.

AUSTIN: I think let's— let's go ahead and let you spend the Balance. What's that look like?

KEITH: I might— You know what? I don't even have time for that. I have to spend the Balance and then turn back into a person on the boat.

AUSTIN: Oh, you're right. Good call.

KEITH: 'Cause I'm not gonna have. I-I— have 2 moves left, that's 3 moves total.

AUSTIN: It is, it is.

KEITH: So I'm gonna spend a Balance and turn back into a…

AUSTIN: You could also— You could also try to attack them and just take damage. You know I mean, instead of doing the Defy Danger. Do you know what I mean? Like, you're a bird, they're a bird. You know, I don't know that you need to Defy Danger to attack them. Like you don't have to Defy Danger every time you close to attack.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Defy Danger and attacking is normally like, they have a ranged weapon and you have a melee weapon, you know?

KEITH: Yeah, I guess part of— part of built into the attack roll is seeing if I get attacked or not.

AUSTIN: Right, exactly, exactly. So just—

KEITH: Right, so I'll spend a Balance, um… heal—

AUSTIN: Are you specifically engaging them over the top of this boat instead of out in the sea?

KEITH: Yes.

AUSTIN: So that when you— Okay.

KEITH: Yeah. So I can roll… When I spend a Balance I can touch an ally or anybody (AUSTIN: Yeah, that's it.) or use it on myself to heal for 1d4 per Balance spent.

AUSTIN: Yup.

KEITH: And I gain Balance, every time I make a successful attack roll.

AUSTIN: Yes. So go ahead and roll your heal. Wait, I thought you were doing— So you're only doing one of them?

KEITH: I'm only spending 1, yeah.

AUSTIN: Okay, okay. So heal 1, what's that look like or feel like?

KEITH: Um, so, I-I— I imagine that, at any point I make a successful attack roll, any time I connect on a hit, I feel some of that energy that leaves the person.

AUSTIN: Sure.

KEITH: And then uh, it kind of— I'm kind of able to carry it with me (AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.) until I deliberately choose to use a portion of that energy.

AUSTIN: Right.

KEITH: And it kind of like swells up in me and I feel— I feel wounds physically mending.

AUSTIN: Okay.

KEITH: So I'm back— I'm at 13 health now.

AUSTIN: So go ahead and— And you just like going to like— How are you going to deal with this big flock of birds?

KEITH: I'm gonna fucking— When they— When they come at me in my human form, I'm gonna— I'm gonna swipe at them with my sword.

AUSTIN: Okay.

KEITH: And like kind of use my— I also have a shield so I imagine I'm also like, trying to fend off pecks and scratches with that. Um…

AUSTIN: Okay.

KEITH: Yeesh.

AUSTIN: Okay. You do not fend off the pecks and scratches but you do manage to slash through a few of them. Um, go ahead and roll your damage.

KEITH: 5.

AUSTIN: Okay! You take a good chunk out of them. Um, I said there were dozens before. By the time you're done with them, that number has— has dropped significantly. A number of them though, do like manage to— to slash through you quickly.

KEITH: Mm-hmm.

AUSTIN: Their beaks hurt a lot.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: And you feel something uh, kind of toxic about them. Like something— When you're hit by them it's not like being hit by a bird. Uh, it's like being hit by um, a cold. You feel a little woozy.

KEITH: Okay.

AUSTIN: Uh, nothing quite yet, but go ahead and— You're landed back on the ship and back to being a regular old halfling.

KEITH: Yeah. Um and then I— 2 from that 4 because of uh, my armor.

AUSTIN: What's the— Where are you getting 2 Armor from? Is that—

KEITH: I have a Shield and Leather Armor. And each one is 1 Armor.

AUSTIN: Okay. Does your shield carry into your bird form?

KEITH: Um, we haven't talked about this really.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

KEITH: Everything that I— Everything that I'm carrying on my person (AUSTIN: Becomes…) part becomes that.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

KEITH: So in my head, I— it does. But so far I have not taken away from it.

AUSTIN: I mean yeah, for now let's— let's roll with it for the rest of this game but let's think about that over the break.

KEITH: Up to this point, I have been taking full damage when I'm an animal.

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. Let's think about it. I mean, 'cause that's—

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: That's— I could see it going either way. Anyway.

KEITH: Yeah, me too. Which is why I haven't really brought it up because I feel like maybe… (AUSTIN: Right.) it's a thing we could talk about before we start enacting it.

AUSTIN: That's true. Uh…

KEITH: But I'll take that— I'll take that -2 to damage, uh…

AUSTIN: For now at least.

KEITH: For now.

[TIMESTAMP: 0:42:52]

AUSTIN: Lem, um, you've been— You and Emmanuel have— have been fighting this whole battle. [JACK laughs] This poor pastry chef and— and you this— this archivist bard are— are kind of. There's something about this that feels like play fighting for both of you. Not that you're not— your hearts aren't in it but like, there is something about other people dying all around you, or dying for the second time in some cases, that it's a very surreal experience to just be stuck around open combat this big and like, having fought with this person for, at this point, probably a couple of minutes. Um, and I think you can sense in him, an brief moment of resignation. What do you do?

JACK: Um, what's Hella doing?

AUSTIN: She is fighting Ginny at the front.

ALI: Yeah, I'm very distracted.

JACK: How's it going?

AUSTIN: They're just in melee. They're just— It's going, you know?

JACK: What's the rest of the— What's the rest of the skeleton pirates versus Calhoun at this position?

AUSTIN: At this point, Calhoun— they're still fairly evenly matched. Both are taking severe losses.

JACK: Or— How big is the Kingdom Come?

AUSTIN: Uh, it's about two to three times the size of Calhoun's ship. Again this thing we are looking at is not to scale.

JACK: Okay so it's— it's significantly bigger than it looks on our map, right now.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm. On your current map, yeah.

JACK: Okay, right. So, I'm gonna sheath my weapon and I'm gonna take a couple of running steps up towards the—What's it called, where you step—the helm.

AUSTIN: The helm, sure. Yeah.

JACK: Um, would you like me to roll Defy Danger 'cause I imagine Emmanuel is probably gonna react to this.

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.

JACK: Like just running away from a fight.

AUSTIN: Uh, go ahead and— go ahead and yeah and roll Defy Danger.

JACK: Okay, Defy— Defy— I think this is probably— Just check Basic Moves.

AUSTIN: It's probably Dex, if you're dodging attacks.

JACK: Yeah, I can see that. Getting out of the way or out of here fast.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

JACK: Yes.

AUSTIN: If instead you're like taking those blows head on, that would probably be Constitution…

JACK: Mm-hmm.

AUSTIN: Um, and like if you're just trying to get there regardless of the cost but, yeah…

JACK: No, I think I'm trying to get away, uh so that…

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: Oh god. Right. Please let this be good. Please, please, please. Aw yes!

[ALI laughs]

AUSTIN: That's a very good roll.

KEITH: Good roll.

AUSTIN: Um, Emmanuel doesn't actually attack at you but some of the other pirates on the ship do, and you kind of deftly duck and dive out of the way. Uh, I fucked up my mouse cursor, one second, have to refresh this page. Um, and you make it up there safely, um to where Ginny and Hella are— are kind of slashing back and forth at each other. What do you do?

JACK: Okay, so I'm gonna uh, um… I don't really know how ships are made. (AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.) But I think I'm probably gonna climb on the rail on the front of the helm looking— looking out onto the body of the ship. But kind of—

AUSTIN: Okay, upfront is— is that mast, you might recall. Um, so there's like um, there's like a mast going straight out into the— into the sea there. Uh…

JACK: Oh, so am I on the bow rather than the helm?

AUSTIN: Oh yeah, I guess I've been doing that backwards, huh.

JACK: [cross] So I'm thinking of standing essentially where the wheel is.

AUSTIN: [cross] I have been. No you're right.

JACK: On the rail where the wheel is.

AUSTIN: Yeah, the wheel would be at the very back of the ship, right?

JACK: Yeah, on the…

AUSTIN: I forget that's how— that's how boats work.

JACK: It's the stern, right? Is the back of the ship.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Um, that is, that is. Yeah, that's right. I have to relaunch this thing, one second sorry.

JACK: That's okay.

AUSTIN: Not able to interact with anything right now. Uh…

JACK: This is Austin's gonna get back and there's just gonna be chickens everywhere.

[ALI and KEITH laugh]

AUSTIN: Okay, I think I can— Can I interact with things now? Yeah, okay. So, yeah you're right I have been thinking about this, the backwards way. There wouldn't be a mast there. [cross] There would just be a kind of flat back of the… There'd be a mast…

JACK: [cross] There would be a mast… There'd be a mast some distance ahead of me, right? [cross] Like, on the deck of the ship.

AUSTIN: [cross] Well ahead of you. On the opposite side of the ship, yeah, yeah. Or not a mast, I'm sorry, a um…

JACK: Like a bowsprit.

AUSTIN: What was a um, masthead, a— Yeah sure.

JACK: Okay.

AUSTIN: So yeah, you're back there with them. There's the thing you can look out over.

JACK: Right, so the move I'm gonna do here is Parley. Uh… And I— I don't know how I roll Charming and Open into Parley but I think I'll probably just Parley first, um…

AUSTIN: No, you— So what are you doing? Just tell me what you're doing, don't tell me what you're…

JACK: What I'm doing is I'm shouting very loudly and I'm saying,

AUSTIN: Okay.

JACK (as Lem): Okay, right. This has gone on far too long. This stops now. Um.

AUSTIN: Uh-huh.

JACK (as Lem): We need to stop fighting. We have killed your captain. We will continue to kill your crew. This is not going to go well.

JACK: Um, I'm sort of making an appeal to the resignation that I saw in Emmanuel.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

JACK: And also the fact that uh, um. Hella is a built human fighter (AUSTIN: Yeah.) who is going against an undead soldier, um… And uh, so essentially, I'm just sort of saying like, "Alright, like, let's stop." My leverage here is, I guess a combination of, "You don't want to fight anymore and we've killed a lot of your sailors already."

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm. Go ahead and…

JACK: Roll Charisma?

AUSTIN: Ahead and make your Charisma roll, yeah.

JACK: I'm uh— I'm appealing to the good nature of undead pirates.

[ALI and KEITH laugh]

AUSTIN: You are.

ALI: Good luck with that.

JACK: 6.

AUSTIN: Yeah.

JACK: It's a fail.

AUSTIN: Uh, it is, uh, and you've made that kind of claim. You've made that pitch and then from behind you, [JACK chuckles] you hear two loud steps and a loud voice that's kind of uh… You look over your shoulder at this and you see it's a man holding his throat closed so that his voice can be heard.

JACK: [laughing] Oh God.

ALI: Yes…

AUSTIN (as Brandish): I ain't dead, ya ninny.

ALI: Yes…

JACK: Yeah…

AUSTIN: And he lets his— pulls his hand off and draws his blade, wet from the— wet from the ocean.

KEITH: Am I going to have to throw this motherfucker back in the water?

AUSTIN: Uh, and… Trying to decide if that's if—

JACK: [cross] Why do I get the—

AUSTIN: [cross] Yeah, I think that's it—

KEITH: [cross] Did he take any—

JACK: Why do I get—

KEITH: Did he take any damage from the fall or being tossed around by waves so long?

AUSTIN: Yeah, sure. [cross] I'll give— I'll give— Go ahead and…

JACK: [cross] How come I get good rolls for running away from people and not for actually communication which is…

ALI: There's no way for anyone to aid in that, right?

AUSTIN: Roll— Roll your damage once, Keith.

KEITH: Okay. 4!

AUSTIN: Oh yeah, okay. That's significant. That's like meaningful damage. So yeah.

KEITH: Plus that whole 1 that I did earlier.

AUSTIN: Yeah that was really good. That was a really good roll you did.

ALI: [laughs] There's— There's no way before this happens for us to have Aided Jack on that?

AUSTIN: Uh, yeah you could try to aid him, but… Yeah, so go ahead and make your Aid. We should've done before, I narrated.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Next time, like as soon as someone fails, if you want to Aid, you have to tell me right away before I say that. But go ahead and we'll keep my thing but maybe just switch up how this negotiation happens.

JACK: It's not a very good negotiation so far.

AUSTIN: It's bad.

KEITH: It's so far it's pretty bad.

AUSTIN: And explain— Actually explain to me how you're helping before you roll.

ALI: Well… I mean [laughs] Fero do you want to try to Aid either? You have a bond with him, but… Okay.

AUSTIN: Fero is off the ship.

KEITH: I'm off.

ALI: Oh, right, right, right.

AUSTIN: As off— As a bird.

KEITH: No, no, I'm not— I'm not.

AUSTIN: Oh, oh, you're back on. You're back on.

ALI: Yeah, you're back on.

AUSTIN: Right, right, right.

KEITH: Yeah, I'm like right near where Jack is, actually. Where Lem is. Um…

AUSTIN: Then sure. Then sure. Either of you could help.

KEITH: Okay, I got—

AUSTIN: But Hella— Actually no, it was Hella's instinct to Aid here. She should be the one to who does it.

KEITH: Yeah.

ALI: Well, I mean he's Parleying and saying like, "You should stop fighting us because we've already like, (AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.) taken a bunch of your people down." Does it even need to be like an action with Hella or is it just like, the rest of these—

AUSTIN: It could be an action or a thing you say. It could— You have to do a thing.

KEITH: You could start like beating your shield with your sword? Do you have a shield?

AUSTIN: She doesn't have a shield.

ALI: Right, yeah, like, the rest of these pirate people can see that I'm doing like, a pretty good job with Ginny. Right?

JACK: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Well no, you and Ginny have been evenly matched so far. (ALI: Yeah.) The last thing that you did was both did a bunch of damage to each other.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: So you have to make an action or make a claim, a verbal claim. You have to do something to back him up. You can't just reference what you've just done.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: So like, what are you— What are you doing to aid here? To help sell his point?

ALI: Um… [laughs]

KEITH: Start screaming. [ALI laughs] Screaming really loud.

AUSTIN: That's… acceptable. That— Any of those— Yeah.

ALI: Yeah, I mean, I— I could just yell. That works. And like attack her, harder.

AUSTIN: Yeah, and slam your— And maybe in like a very visible way.

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Where like, in a way that's— that's maybe not the most— You're not going for hits at this point (ALI: Right, no.) you're going for like—

KEITH: You're showboating?

AUSTIN: Yeah, you're showboating a little bit.

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: So yeah, go ahead and roll a plus—

KEITH: You're diving off the boat.

AUSTIN: +Bond. How many bonds do you have again? Just the one?

ALI: Just the one, yeah.

AUSTIN: Yeah, so plus— 2d6 +1.

[beat]

ALI: So that's a 7.

AUSTIN: Okay. So that means he gets his +1, um, but also you're now exposed to danger, retribution or cost. Um…

JACK: Thank you Hella!

AUSTIN: On a— On a 7— Which means, yeah. So on a 7-9, for Parley, they're gonna need some concrete assurance of your promise. Which…

KEITH: What was our promise? That we're not going to kill them anymore?

JACK: It was sort of a…

AUSTIN: I guess that was your promise.

KEITH: Or was our promise—

AUSTIN: I should've made you more clear. I think his probably—

JACK: Oh God, okay so…

AUSTIN: It sounded like your promise was you were going to kill them more if they didn't stop.

JACK: It was kinda— The promise was—

KEITH: Oh okay, yeah.

JACK: The promise, it was sort of twofold. It was, um, nobody wants to be fighting anymore. And/or, we will kill you all.

ALI: I think my Aid (KEITH: So…) with that adjusts our promise pretty… pretty well.

KEITH: Uh…

AUSTIN: Yeah, your Aid makes it pretty clear that that's— Yeah.

KEITH: So— So you're saying to— to— (JACK: I could also…) to show that we mean business, should I take out one of my throwing knives and throw it at someone?

AUSTIN: It has to be Hella. Hella was the one who—

KEITH: Oh, it has to be Hella? Okay.

AUSTIN: Yeah, she rolled it.

JACK: Hella has to make concrete assurance?

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: No, no, no. I'm saying it could be either of you but it can't be Keith. Keith can't do it from…

JACK: I wonder if…

AUSTIN: He wasn't the one who… Yeah, anyway.

JACK: Um… Do you think, [laughs] I can't do Charming and Open as part of this assurance, right, can I? Could I? I think I could get Emmanuel to willfully disarm himself. That might count as assurance.

AUSTIN: Tell me how that works again?

JACK: When I speak frankly with someone (AUSTIN: You roll…) I can ask them a question from the list. They must answer truthfully, then now ask you a question from the list. You must answer truthfully too.

AUSTIN: Okay.

JACK: I think I could probably use the Bardic way (AUSTIN: No, no, no.) Oh, whom do you serve? (AUSTIN: Questions.) What do you wish I would do. How can I get you to— What are you really feeling right now? What do you most desire? I think that I—

AUSTIN: Yeah, but none of those are— none of those are like (JACK: Could I not… Yeah.) Stop doing the thing you're doing.

JACK: I could, "How could I get you to stop doing what you're doing," I suppose, but that doesn't actually result in an action, does it?

AUSTIN: Um, the thing is that he did stop doing what he was doing. Um, it feels like you maybe overestimating how much the rest of this crew is ready to stop the way he is.

JACK: I don't know if I'm overestimating it, I think I'm hopeful that we could get them to that stage.

AUSTIN: You are hopeful.

JACK: Um…

AUSTIN: You are hopeful, yeah.

JACK: So um, Hella what have you got? We could just kill Emmanuel but that feels really bad.

KEITH: Kill Emmanuel.

AUSTIN: He's far from you now though, at this point, you know what I mean?

ALI: I mean, I would kill Emmanuel but I can't right now, is the thing.

AUSTIN: She's still locked in combat with Ginny. Um… Again, I am still just super not clear if the promise— I guess that the promise at this point is that you're willing to kill someone. Um, so I think it has to be an attack if you're trying to communicate your willingness to hurt people, right?

JACK: Uh. Hella, how free up would you be to attack Brandish? Or are you— are you really in— in business with Ginny?

AUSTIN: She's in combat. She really is.

ALI: I mean, I specifically heated up my combat even moreso.

JACK: Well then, I—

ALI: To help you out, so I don't know if I can…

JACK: Yeah, I guess…

KEITH: I— I think (JACK: I could may—) Could he do a grab on one of them and try to like, take them as a fucking a, "We'll fucking kill this idiot."

AUSTIN: Sure.

ALI: Could I—

KEITH: "See, we're serious."

ALI: I mean, could I roll to see if I can um, you know, put a knife to Ginny's neck?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, go for it.

ALI: Would that be…

AUSTIN: That would probably be… That might be Defy Danger Strength.

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Right, because you're not—

JACK: Problem as well is the captain is now onboard.

AUSTIN: He is. He is. But maybe— Yeah.

KEITH: Yeah. Mutiny.

AUSTIN: But maybe she could be— She could be—

KEITH: Pirates love mutiny.

AUSTIN: Ehh.

ALI: Yeah, but I would just be like, "We're definitely going to kill her."

AUSTIN: Right. So go ahead, that'd be Defy Danger Strength, probably.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: Your power— You're trying to overpower her.

ALI: Yeah.

JACK: Defy Danger is so versatile.

AUSTIN: It is, it is.

ALI: So that's just 2d6 plus…

AUSTIN: Yeah, +Strength.

ALI: So I roll a 7 on that.

AUSTIN: Hoo, man.

KEITH: Man, lots of partial successes here.

AUSTIN: Lots of— Which is interesting. Which is good but like… Um…

KEITH: Which is making it really difficult to figure out what's happening.

[ALI laughs]

[TIMESTAMP: 0:56:37]

AUSTIN: Alright yeah, so let's paint this picture again. I wanna— I wanna like take a step back and paint what's happened in the last few seconds. Fero was fighting birds. Lands on the deck, near uh, where Hella is engaged with Ginny in one-on-one combat. Lem, uh, stops fighting Emmanuel when he sees that Emmanuel has resigned uh, to death or you know, just to stop this combat and sprints up to kind of say, "Hey, hey, no, no. No more, we're done." At that moment, Brandish climbs back on board and sees as Hella takes Ginny hostage, um, putting that— I'm guessing you're putting that throwing knife that you took that one time from that tower up against her throat or are you just putting your sword against her throat?

ALI: Um, my sword probably— Or I guess that knife. No, I wouldn't—

AUSTIN: Okay.

ALI: I wouldn't have to put my—

KEITH: Actually I think Ali's wasn't even the throwing knife. I mean it was just—

ALI: No, no, no.

KEITH: Right?

AUSTIN: It was the big knife, yeah, yeah, yeah.

ALI: Ali was the knife, mine were the throwing knives.

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Um… So you have her—

ALI: I mean, I plan to throw it one day but I don't think I'd be able to put my sword away and then grab that knife so it's probably just my sword.

AUSTIN: Okay, good call. So you have— You have the sword to her throat. Uh, and I think I can— I think I can work with this, because one of the things is, the GM will offer you a worse outcome, hard bargain or ugly choice.

KEITH: Hm.

AUSTIN: Uh and he says… Again, he has to hold his throat together to talk to you. He's like putting his hand over his throat, which is interesting because it's almost like he's… It looks almost like someone stroking his beard, do you know what I mean? [ALI laughs] Like he doesn't have one anymore, he's like clean shaved, but that's like the motion that he does as he talks, like massages the works out.

JACK: I love the fact— I love the fact that this guy has shaved his beard to make his neck wound more menacing. It's like (AUSTIN: Uh-huh.) [bells ring three times] the creepy equivalent of Blackbeard setting his beard on fire.

AUSTIN: Right, yes. I'm gonna wait for this to stop.

JACK: It's done now.

AUSTIN: He looks around his ship.

AUSTIN (as Brandish): We ain't gonna have much a hard time getting more soldiers. Ya left us the bodies for that. But leave us Calhoun, and you're free to go.

AUSTIN: He— He gives a little smirk to Calhoun.

ALI: Oh. Are they gonna kill Calhoun?

KEITH: Yeah, they're gonna kill— I'm not fucking leaving Calhoun.

ALI: I'm not leaving Calhoun.

JACK: I'm not leaving Calhoun.

KEITH: [laughing] To be fair, I will— I will remind Ali that Ali is an evil fighter.

AUSTIN: You— Ali is an evil fighter.

ALI: Yeah, but like… [sighs]

AUSTIN: If you're not— Like, what this sounds like to me, again like, if you say no to this, you might not be evil. It might be time to rethink who Hella is. Which is fine. Like we can do that, the— You know…

KEITH: Maybe Hella is…

ALI: I mean if—

AUSTIN: Alignments are meant to be changed, but…

ALI: If it was anyone else it would be fine, but Calhoun has value to me.

AUSTIN: Why?

ALI: She can get a favor out of Calhoun more easily. She knows how to—

AUSTIN: She got a favor out of Calhoun.

ALI: Yeah, and she can continue to do that. She knows how to work him.

KEITH: Well we just let him get drunk by himself.

AUSTIN: Right. I— I'm— I really want you to think hard about whether or not Hella is actually evil (ALI: Okay.) because this is like— This is like Evil 101. Like yeah, I'll make that fucking trade.

ALI: I mean, if that's it, yeah.

AUSTIN: You know what I mean? Like… But— You know what I mean? Like that's— The trade is being offered to you here and I'm not saying you have to take it. You don't have to take it, but if the answer is no here, then this is one of those illustrative moments where it's clear that whatever history Hella had had as someone who is evil, before this adventure started, that might not be the case anymore, do you know what I mean?

JACK: Um…

AUSTIN: She's made some bonds, she does have friends, and is shifting towards something else. But this is going to be one of those moments where we can kinda figure that out.

ALI: Okay. I mean as a—

AUSTIN: And I think at this point Brandish is definitely addressing you more than anyone else.

ALI: That's fair.

AUSTIN: As the person who's beaten him in combat. So…

ALI: I mean—

AUSTIN: What's Hella doing?

ALI: As like a player, I really don't want to give up Calhoun. And if there's like the possibility that we can go back and save him, then I'll take that. But as far as like, this bribe that's being put up, if she can take that, that's fine.

AUSTIN: So she does want to leave Calhoun.

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: I guess, I guess that's the one thing to say here is, this will probably not be the last you see of Calhoun. I don't know what state he'll be in next time.

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: Um…

KEITH: That means he'll be undead.

AUSTIN: I don't know.

KEITH: Undead Calhoun.

AUSTIN: I don't know! May— Who knows. I really don't know. I haven't thought about it. Like that's the— that's the easy answer. Right? Like, oh yeah, next time they have to fight Calhoun the undead pirate, but maybe that's not the most interesting answer. Would be a— You know, I will think about what happens to Calhoun and what Brandish wants and what Brandish needs and all of that, you know? And what Calhoun, once he's sobered up, wants and needs, right? Like, who knows? I don't know what type of man Calhoun is, really? You know, I know he likes drinking, I know he likes adventure. Maybe he doesn't mind being on this pirate ship so much. Like, we'll— I'll think about that and we'll figure it out. Um…

KEITH: Oh yeah, 24/7 Boat Party.

AUSTIN: Right, 24/7 Boat Party. [ALI and JACK laugh] Uh, Calhoun— So what do you do? How do you communicate that that's a fair trade?

ALI: Um… I guess I put my sword down and I nod.

AUSTIN: Okay. Like just— Like not on the ground you just lower your blade.

ALI: Yeah, no, I lower it and put it back over my shoulder.

JACK: I'm not happy with this decision at all but um…

AUSTIN: Ginny walks away, holding her side where she's been cut a few times and smirks. Uh, Brandish nods and— and sheaths his sword and does a similar hand motion to the one that— that Calhoun would do when he shouted "Boat Party." But he does not shout, "Boat Party," though, he says,

AUSTIN (as Brandish): Let them go. Leave the bodies, they're ours.

KEITH: [whispering] Aw man, this is a bad dream.

JACK: This is a bad— Yeah, Lem is super not about this decision. But I can't do anything about it because I am a Bard.

AUSTIN: And you board back onto your ships.

ALI: I mean—

AUSTIN: And…

KEITH: Without Calhoun?

ALI: This is sort of our only choice here. We can't like…

AUSTIN: Without Calhoun.

[TIMESTAMP: 1:02:56]

KEITH: We could've probably beat them.

AUSTIN: I don't know.

JACK: Well, the option— There is another option here, which is uh… that we…

ALI: Because in my mind, she can say yes because she would say yes, but we can like, go back on that. That's the point of Parleying, that it's a false promise.

KEITH: Yeah, but the— the false promise in this case because you didn't roll a 10 involved giving them Calhoun now and leaving.

JACK: Unless, we… So this is kind of illformed but I'm kind of— There's nothing saying that we need to go uh, the book mark—The bookmark— There's nothing saying we need to go to the book mark immediately. We could (AUSTIN: Right.) regroup our strength. Hope for better rolls looking at charts and the movements in the waters, god I wish we had a wizard.

[ALI laughs]

AUSTIN: Uh-huh.

JACK: And go back to the boat. Try and see if we can board the boat in the cover of darkness. Make a raid to try to rescue the people. You know, there's nothing saying that we can't refocus our mission goals.

KEITH: You guys want to do a fucking raid, I'll do a fucking raid. I'm all about raids.

ALI: Yeah, I'm into that.

AUSTIN: We can do that. I'm fine with that. We can leave off here tonight and do that next time. Uh, but what I will say is, you know, this world continues as you do.

JACK: Oh, yeah.

AUSTIN: And I'm not saying not to do that, but like…

JACK: Dude, my problem is that he's gonna be a zombie. That's the—

AUSTIN: No, no, I know. I know, I know. But in other words, there are other interests in that mark on the map. So when you make that decision know— Make it knowing that I'm going to move that, also. That that clock ticks. Do you know what I mean?

JACK: Yeah.

AUSTIN: You're now choosing— This is the hard decision. This is the— This is the partial success. You have your lives and now we're extending that partial success to say, yeah, you can go after Calhoun tonight or tomorrow, once you've regathered your strength and once you have a real plan, um and scouted it out and all that. But you know, Greggy expects you in two to three weeks and… and whatever is known, whatever you know about this stuff, other forces also might know. Other forces are also in motion. Um, not to mention, of course, the uh, the archivists, who by now, certainly have started to wonder where Captain Calhoun went without getting proper clearance. [JACK takes a deep breath] All sorts of things are in motion. We can make that decision off— off camera, so to speak. We can think about this. Let me know in the next couple of days so I know what to play a little bit, going forward. [ALI and JACK laugh] Like… Um… It would be…

JACK: Oh, because I guess to an extent your planning is also going to have an effect on— on the other team's world.

AUSTIN: Yes, absolutely. Um…

KEITH: I like Calhoun.

AUSTIN: Me too.

ALI: I do too.

AUSTIN: I like him a bunch. He's really cool. He's fun.

KEITH: He is really fun.

JACK: Yeah, so what you said about the world moving is interesting to me because, sure there are the interests of the map and the Archivists are moving and stuff and we don't quite know what that entails.

AUSTIN: Right.

JACK: But just from a very practical perspective, the book, one would assume, either— unless the book gets destroyed, which is a possibility, the book is going to continue to exist somewhere within the world, no matter what the outcome is.

AUSTIN: Sure. Right.

JACK: Captain Calhoun is possibly going to exist in the world, but there is a very, very good chance he's going to exist within the world in a changed form.

AUSTIN: Yup.

JACK: And so from my perspective, if we're talking about the world changing, the change that leads to us maybe having to find something out a bit differently later or a man being transformed into a terrifying living dead creature.

AUSTIN: Uh, so here's what I'll— Here's what I'll say, because I know what you're basically saying is like, "Okay well, if the bad guys get the book— if somebody gets a book, we can just go after them and get the book." But I want, just to illustrate, this is a, kind of a behind the curtain moment. Um…

[JACK gasps]

AUSTIN: Which is, the way Dungeon World works, with regards to prep is you don't prep out like— You don't design big long adventures um, in great detail because that kind of railroads the characters into doing one thing, right? Like, even here I wanted to— I gave you guys a couple different options and I knew what was in these areas in the world. Um, but there is another version of this game tonight where you don't even see Brandish, right? Like, you succeed on all those rolls, you do really well and you get through and we hit a different thing. Like I know what some of it—

KEITH: Or we didn't even take the water.

AUSTIN: Right, or you didn't even take the water. Right, exactly. Um, so— so the way all that works, one of the way that works is that you design things called Fronts. There's Campaign Fronts and there are Adventure Fronts. Fronts are a collection— Is kind of like a— It's a thing in the world, it's a— it's a stake. It's something that people want. And inside of a Front, you have dangers, and dangers are things like organizations or really bad characters or giant monsters or whatever. And part of designing a danger is setting up impend— an impending doom um, and a set of kind of, uh— What's the word I'm looking for. There's a specific word for this. Um, uh, Grim Portents. Things that will happen because they haven't been stopped.

JACK: Mmm.

AUSTIN: Um… Brandish's people are one of the— Are a danger on a Front. So they have Grim Portents that they will work towards. Um, but there are other dangers on Fronts that will advance their agendas also, if not stopped or checked. So I— Again, I just want to sell that this isn't a false choice. The answer of going after Calhoun, the alternative isn't, "And then we'll have to go ten feet further to get the book." It's that, whatever's happening down there will happen and the clock will tick one hour further, closer to midnight, right? Closer to the nukes launching, if that makes sense.

JACK: Mmm.

AUSTIN: So, again I'm not saying that this is— That you shouldn't go after Calhoun, because again, Brandish's pirates are one of the clocks on the table. They're also up for something, you know? Like, but I want it to be clear that it's not a false choice where the good outcome— This isn't a sidequest in Dragon Age where, you know, nothing bad will happen if you do the side quest. The clock will keep— Or in Mass Effect, right? Like, the— the Reapers are coming and— and you should be quick about it. Or, not being quick about it will have a reaction.

JACK: Yeah, yeah.

AUSTIN: I just wasn't sure if that was clear. I hope I don't sound like I'm railroading further, or something, you know?

KEITH: No. Well, because— because— Even if we bail, 'cause like, the idea of missing something swings both ways where if we did one thing, we miss another thing to do with it.

AUSTIN: Right, yup, absolutely. Absolutely.

KEITH: So it's not like— It's not like, "You gotta do this because you'll miss it otherwise," it's, "Just remember that no matter what you do, there's something else happening that you're missing."

AUSTIN: Yes, yes. Exactly, exactly. And to take that into account with when you decide— with what you're deciding what to do.

KEITH: Right, yeah.

AUSTIN: Um, which could mean, this is a moment where Lem and Fero and Hella can say, "No people are more important to me than some old book." Right?

KEITH: [cross] Yeah. Um, and then— and then—

AUSTIN: [cross] But you also know that like, this book— You also know what was at that tower, do you know what I mean?

KEITH: Yeah. Right, yeah. But it's like— 'Cause— And then to throw some— some more metagame on top of this, it's not like we're going to get to the tower and the book's not gonna be there and then we're gonna be like, "Oh, I guess our adventure's over." [ALI laughs] (AUSTIN: Right.) Like there's still gonna be stuff to do.

AUSTIN: There's still gonna be stuff to do, yes absolutely.

KEITH: Yeah, there's still going to be more interesting story (JACK: No, we blew it.) because that's what— Yeah.

AUSTIN: Yes, absolutely.

KEITH: We can't—

AUSTIN: That's the other way to think about this is like, hey what story are we interested in pursuing right now? Like from the— from the meta level.

KEITH: Right, yeah.

AUSTIN: Both of those are fine. Like, I— I, in a lot of ways, like this group a lot because it's less driven by, like the desire of power, than the Hadrian-Fantasmo group, you know?

JACK: Yeah.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: And so, I totally support either way you're going here, I just wanted to make sure all the chips were on the table in terms of what the stakes were.

KEITH: Or that—

AUSTIN: Or in fact, that there are stakes, you know?

KEITH: That does remind me, I haven't— Dre wrote a big thing about Throndir that I haven't read yet. (AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.) Because I was at work when I saw it and uh, I have to go back and read that. Because I don't know anything about his character right now. (AUSTIN: It's—) Other than that he has a mastiff.

AUSTIN: He does have a mastiff. Spoilers for next week's episode. So yeah, we can decide that off the table or we can decide that now.

KEITH: Probably, I can bleep that.

AUSTIN: Nah, it's not— (KEITH: Okay.) They're allowed to know that he's gonna have a cool dog. Dogs are cool.

KEITH: Okay. He's gonna have a fucking big mastiff.

AUSTIN: So you wanted to decide this— Do you guys want to decide this over the week? Or do you want to decide it now?

KEITH: Um… Nah, cliffhanger this.

AUSTIN: Okay, so that's what I'm saying. We'll cliffhanger this.

ALI: Yeah, let's talk this out.

AUSTIN: Uh, the— The ship, the um, the fuck is the name of his ship again? Oh it was a really good name.

KEITH: The Kingdom Come. The Kingdom Come.

AUSTIN: Thank you.

KEITH: That is a good name.

AUSTIN: The Kingdom Come drifts away in the night as the sun sets and you return to Party Boat, without Calhoun. And without many of the men and women who piloted it. And it's a somber night, and people still drink but uh, not— not too much partying really. More of a, whether or not you think you're gonna go save him, it reads emotionally like a funeral. We should do uh, end of session stuff.

KEITH: I like Calhoun.

AUSTIN: I like Calhoun too.

KEITH: Yeah. Yup.

[TIMESTAMP: 1:12:29]

AUSTIN: So, end of session. Did we learn something new and important about the world?

JACK: I think we did.

KEITH: Yeah!

JACK: Undead pirates exist.

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Sure.

KEITH: There's a fucking pirate king out there with a crew of undead that's going around collecting bodies to increase their thing— the size of their army.

AUSTIN: That's true, so that's 1. Take 1.

JACK: So that's 1, mark XP.

AUSTIN: Mark XP. Did you overcome a notable monster or enemy?

ALI: Mmm, no.

AUSTIN: No.

JACK: Well, uh, we survived. Does that count as overcome?

AUSTIN: Yeah, but I don't—

ALI: No.

AUSTIN: Debatable. I don't think so, no. Overcoming means like, if it was a— Yeah or like, let's say he was blockading you from going forward and you broke his blockage. You didn't kill him but you broke— you overcame. (KEITH: Yeah, yeah.) Or you didn't overcome.

JACK: Uh-huh.

AUSTIN: Did you loot any memorable treasure?

KEITH: I got that dope ring.

JACK: Oh. Uh…

AUSTIN: Uhh.

ALI: That's not looting.

AUSTIN: That's not looting. He gave you—

KEITH: That's a ring that gives me favors wherever I go.

ALI: That's not—

AUSTIN: He gave you—

KEITH: He did give me— It has to be specifically looting?

JACK: Oh, wait hang on. When we took that overcome, we evaded the archivists.

AUSTIN: You did, but I don't— I don't—

JACK: Oh, okay.

AUSTIN: Hmm, I don't know, I think that that's a lot.

JACK: Austin, they would probably have killed me.

AUSTIN: Hm. It is a notable enemy.

JACK: Yeah, he's named.

KEITH: Yeah, that guy has like a name and a— and a thing and…

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, okay. You can take the…

KEITH: He's— Like that guy's gonna show up over and over. Sure.

AUSTIN: Take the 1, from— from evading Morbash.

KEITH: More like Less-bash, you know what I— You know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm talking about?

AUSTIN: Morbash, Morbash [mor-BASH, mor-BASH], my bad. Or, I think Morbash [mor-bah-sh] is right but it's spelled B-A-S-H.

JACK: There's a— We actually have a political cartoon like that in the Archives. [KEITH laughs] [AUSTIN sighs] That exact joke.

AUSTIN: Yeah, um, okay, so now, the rest of this is…

KEITH: I might be gaining a level right now.

AUSTIN: That's— It's feasible.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: You guys did a lot. Uh, so people with Bonds, does anyone want to resolve any Bonds? What are your Bonds?

KEITH: I would really like to resolve a Bond (AUSTIN: Uh-huh.) with Hella. Let me get my Bonds so I can see exactly the thing. So right now I have, "Hella can be relied upon in combat, she's a fierce fighter."

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

KEITH: And I want to take that down and I want to— and I want to replace it with uh, uh, that, "The decisions Hella makes in battle do not align with what I would do."

AUSTIN: You wanna like make that tighter. You wanna tighten that up a little bit?

KEITH: Yeah, yeah, okay. Let's see. The decision… uh…

AUSTIN: You can be more specific or less specific than you would like than that. You don't have to be broad.

KEITH: Okay, yeah, yeah, um… Uh, "Hella's ethics are not lining up with what I believe in."

AUSTIN: Okay. [keys tapping] Okay, make sure you update that on your side. Um…

KEITH: Yup.

AUSTIN: Hella, what about you?

ALI: Um… It's tough. I have a Bond with… Lem that is, "I worry about the ability of Jack to sur— to survive in the dungeon."

AUSTIN: Mmm.

ALI: And I think, we're two adventures deep and he seems okay.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

JACK: Oh, cheers.

AUSTIN: And you saw him fight a lot on that ship. Like, yeah, totally.

ALI: Yeah. I just— I'm not sure what to replace it with.

AUSTIN: It can be about anybody. It can be about Fero, it could be about… you know what I mean?

ALI: Okay.

AUSTIN: Um, or—

KEITH: It also— It doesn't need to be replaced, right?

AUSTIN: Right, it can just hang for now. You could have another—

KEITH: Like this— But, this is the only time that we resolve Bonds but if you have less Bonds than you think than you want with people, you can just add Bonds, right?

AUSTIN: You can't— Well, not— Only to a limit, right? Like, because Bonds are basically XP investment, right?

KEITH: Right, I mean, unless you have too many.

AUSTIN: Right, exactly, yes, yes.

KEITH: Like if you had only two bonds and (AUSTIN: And you want—) then you're like, "Well I have two legitimate bonds to add…"

AUSTIN: Yeah, um I—

ALI: Can I take some time during the break to like think about that or do I have to make it now? Okay.

AUSTIN: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, but make sure you do and get back to me on it so that you don't forget about it.

ALI: Yeah, no.

AUSTIN: I'm gonna in fact make a note that says, "+1 Bonds, she hasn't done it yet."

ALI: [laughs] 'Cause that brings me down to two so I definitely need one more.

JACK: Um, only she gets XP for that, not me, right? Or do we both get XP?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yup. No, just her. Just her.

JACK: Um, I have two bonds with Fantasmo. Um, out of three bonds. Do— Should I just leave them because I can have extra bonds with…

AUSTIN: I would leave them. Yeah, yeah, I would let you— I would leave one. Or leave them, because— And also they didn't— They certainly didn't resolve, you know what I mean?

JACK: No. Are bonds with party members or with anybody?

AUSTIN: They're with— I think they're with anybody. Um, I'm pretty sure that that's how that works. I'll double check it. Um, let's see. Like notable you have one with Hella's sword that still hasn't come up (JACK: Yes.) though perhaps will… though perhaps will or should have today. Um…

ALI: Well he hasn't heard it yet, so…

AUSTIN: Yeah, but I'm trying to see if they would've said anything, today. But I don't think so. I don't think they would've spoken about this. They would've been fairly quiet believe it or not. Um… Uh, bonds, here we go. Uh… Yeah, just says character, as long as you have… Yeah, I think you can go outside. I think you can.

JACK: Okay, um. I'm gonna make a bond and— I think I'm gonna try and make a bond with Emmanuel.

AUSTIN: Okay.

JACK: Um, which is um…

AUSTIN: Hm.

JACK: Emmanuel and uh— Emmanuel and I shared a moment of um… Essentially I want us to both feel uncomfortable with the things that we found ourselves doing. (AUSTIN: Well.) Emmanuel and I— No go on.

AUSTIN: You're only writing for you. Like, you can't write the bond—

JACK: [cross] Oh, right, yes, okay.

AUSTIN: [cross] Your bond does not reflect his position. Um…

JACK: Yeah, sure, sure. Um… "I felt uh…" Well 'cause I could be like super wrong here and I want to account for that in the bond. Um…

AUSTIN: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

JACK: Um…

AUSTIN: I'm also still double checking to be 100% sure that that bonds can go to… Here we go, here we go. Each— No, it has to be with— It has to be with the player character.

JACK: Has to be with the player.

AUSTIN: Uh, yeah, 'cause it says that each bond is a simple statement that relates your character to another player character.

JACK: That kind of make sense. I can see that work.

AUSTIN: It does, it does.

JACK: Um… So um… No I don't think I want to do one.

AUSTIN: Okay. And you don't have any that— no, I guess none of those resolve. That's fine. Alright, uh… Alignment is the only other thing. Uh, what were your alignments? Let's see. Fero, destroy a symbol of the old civilization.

[TIMESTAMP: 1:19:30]

KEITH: No.

AUSTIN: Lem, avoid a conflict or defuse a tense situation.

JACK: [singing] I tried…

AUSTIN: Yeah, you did. You avoided— You avoided a conflict at the beginning. That's totally avoiding a conflict.

JACK: Oh yeah, huh.

AUSTIN: So take 1 for that.

JACK: Oh man, I'm so close. Dammit.

AUSTIN: Right. And then Hella, kill a defenseless or surrendered enemy. That would've been where like, if you had slit her throat, right? Um, but no I don't think you— you didn't so…

ALI: [laughs] That's what I should've done instead of letting Calhoun go.

KEITH: Yeah, that is.

ALI: Oh boy, whoops.

AUSTIN: Well…

KEITH: Well we probably also would've died maybe.

AUSTIN: Yeah. Probably maybe. It would've been tough. It would've been a fight. (ALI: Yeah.) Like we would've kept fighting. Um…

KEITH: I mean after— after Ginny died, Ginny? Um, then it would've— it would've mostly been a fight about Brandish, right? And that guy's not a big deal.

[AUSTIN sighs, ALI laughs]

KEITH: What?

AUSTIN: There's a lot of— There— Mmm. It would've been tough. It would've been a tough fight. Like you guys did well, for what that fight was, is what I'll say, right? Like (KEITH: Yeah.) it wasn't um… It wasn't meant to be an easy fight to take them head on, you know? And did well, given that. And got a bunch of XP, so.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Is anybody leveling up?

KEITH: I'm leveling up, yeah.

AUSTIN: Okay.

KEITH: Mostly not because of this fight, but because I missed so many last time.

AUSTIN: Right. You were already ahead of the game, basically.

KEITH: Yeah, I already had like 6 XP going into this.

AUSTIN: Okay, so where are you at now?

KEITH: Uh, right now I'm at 9.

AUSTIN: Okay, which is exactly a level, right?

KEITH: Yeah, yeah.

AUSTIN: So you spend 9, and go down to level 3 and down to 0 XP. Okay. Anybody else levelling?

JACK: Uh, no I'm on 8.

ALI: Yeah, no. I'm uh—

AUSTIN: So you're very close. Okay.

ALI: I'm lower than Lem.

AUSTIN: Alright, uh. I don't think we'll record next week because I'll be doing the other game for everybody else but then after that, if I have time to do twice a week, I will do twice a week, you know? It's just a matter of seeing if that's a thing I can actually do.

KEITH: Yeah, it's— I'll say this, uh. Our sessions are so goddamn long (AUSTIN: Right, exactly.) that if you record twice a week we'll be backed up six months.

[ALI and JACK laugh]

AUSTIN: That is— That is the thing. That is part of my thought process.

KEITH: Yeah, we already have two months of stuff that hasn't gone out yet.

AUSTIN: Jesus.

JACK: When's tonight's episode going out?

KEITH: Is the thing. Not two months, one-and-a-half months, I think.

AUSTIN: I— Once I finish this upload that I'm already doing.

KEITH: Alright.

AUSTIN: It stalled at some point during the first— I was uploading it earlier and then it stalled so, but now it's up so I can— I can do it.

JACK: Oh, cool.

AUSTIN: Which reminds me, if you're listening, uh and you should be listening, still.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: You should go…

KEITH: Audience retention.

AUSTIN: Audience retention. You should go to iTunes, which is a music store and a place people get podcasts and stuff, and do a search for us there. Maybe you already did that. Maybe you're listening through your iTunes music player. And give us a rating of some sort. Like a five star rating would be pretty cool.

ALI: Yeah.

KEITH: Maybe even a review.

AUSTIN: Ideally a review would be yeah, would be pretty rad.

ALI: Yeah, write some— write some words.

KEITH: It doesn't even— There's not even a character limit. Like you don't even have to like, [funny voice] "Heh, do twenty words." [normally] Like no, you could just say, like "Yeah, hey, great job."

ALI: Just write—

AUSTIN: "P good."

KEITH: Yeah, "P good."

ALI: Here's what you do. Give us five and then the review, write, "thumbs up." [laughs]

AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah, thanks.

KEITH: Or, link to a picture. Link to an image of someone giving a thumbs up.

ALI: Or an image of a chicken so you get in-jokes.

AUSTIN: Can you do links?

KEITH: Yeah, sure. Yeah.

AUSTIN: Look at that.

KEITH: Bonus points if you put a chicken there.

AUSTIN: Bonus points for the chicken.

ALI: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Uh, you can find me @austin—

JACK: If you put bonus points in the… [laughs]

AUSTIN: Go ahead. Go ahead.

JACK: I was gonna say, for the bonus points for the chicken, each episode will uh, recede— will reveal one number from Keith's credit card. You know?

[AUSTIN and ALI laugh]

KEITH: I— [laughs] A game that I've already started.

AUSTIN: Yup.

[JACK laughs]

KEITH: Uh I will— We forgot to mention uh, Austin that that thread with the guy who took the pictures of the chicken, four pages long. That's it.

AUSTIN: That's a lot of thread. People were really into that thread.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: Chicken thread. I'm Austin Walker, you can find me @austin_walker on twitter, theCalcutec on twitch, ClockworkWorlds.com for my writing about games and other stuff. You can also find our live video game streaming stuff at twitch.tv/StreamFriends and our archives of that at StreamFriends.tv. There are also— These episodes go up at StreamFriends.tv so you can go talk there in the comments if you're upset about a thing we did or if you want to tell somebody else that they're wrong because that's what you do in comment threads. Uh…

KEITH: Or you could just be like super nice and say super nice stuff.

AUSTIN: That's not the internet, Keith. Like that's not…

KEITH: I don't know. I don't know. I mean, when I link you guys RunButton comments, it's always the bad ones but there's a lot of nice ones.

AUSTIN: Yeah. Sometimes.

KEITH: Not on Silent Hill videos but you know (AUSTIN: No.) on the rest of them.

AUSTIN: You should check out Run Button Silent Hill let's play which is on RunButton.net. It's old now, but uh…

KEITH: It's super old, yeah.

AUSTIN: Still pretty good.

KEITH: Yeah.

AUSTIN: You guys have grown a lot, let's say, since then.

KEITH: Yeah, no. Yeah we have, for sure.

AUSTIN: There are definitely words you use in that— in that— Not you really but Kyle. That Kyle uses in that Let's Play that he wouldn't use now. That's what I'll say. That's what I'll say. (KEITH: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.) Where else can people find you, Keith?

[MUSIC - "Autumn not Winter" starts]

KEITH: Uh, besides RunButton.net AKA youtube.com/RunButton, you can also find me @SomethingDumb on twitter and on twitch, twitch.tv/RunButton, a place where I uh, stream video games uh pretty frequently.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

KEITH: Not recently frequently, it's been, I've been busy, but…

AUSTIN: Jack, what about you. Where can people find you?

JACK: My name is Jack de Quidt. You can find me on twitch and twitter @NotQuiteReal. Uh, and at my game studio's website, theToolTreesGames.co.uk. And next time you hear me, I will be in a different part of the country.

AUSTIN: Ooh.

JACK: Uh, embarking on a university course, which is exciting.

AUSTIN: Great. That is exciting.

JACK: So uh, I will probably sound slightly less audio quality.

AUSTIN: Mm-hmm.

JACK: Oh no it should be recording fine through— through Audacity.

AUSTIN: We'll see I guess.

JACK: So no noticeable differences and no clock.

ALI: Oh no.

KEITH: Aww.

ALI: That's a noticeable difference.

AUSTIN: That would be sad.

KEITH: That last quiet clock.

AUSTIN: Aww. Uh, and Ali, what about you?

ALI: Um, yeah, you can find me at uh, @ali_west on twitter and then you can find all of us on StreamFriends.tv.

AUSTIN: Great. Thanks for joining us everybody. Have a good week.

JACK: Bye, bye.

ALI: Bye.

KEITH: Alright.

AUSTIN: Alright, one more clap.

[MUSIC - "Autumn not Winter" fades out]

KEITH: Yup, alright. You want to do time.is or "Three, two, one."

AUSTIN: Man, we should just do three, two, one. We're better at it.

JACK: Alright.

KEITH: Alright, "Three, two, one," alright got it.

AUSTIN: Yup.

KEITH: Three, two, one.

[clap, clap-clap-clap]

[AUSTIN and ALI laugh]

KEITH: Okay. Okay.

ALI: We've—

KEITH: Here's how we're gonna do it from now on. Here's what's gonna happen. When I say "Three, two, one," on each number, I want you guys to do like a fake— [AUSTIN yell laughs, JACK laughs] like a half clap so you get into the rhythm. I want you to get into the rhythm. And we're going to start from five so you have a longer time to get into that rhythm. Alright, we're gonna go.

AUSTIN: Okay.

ALI: [laughs] That was everyone else, not me, right?

AUSTIN: Mmm.

KEITH: We're gonna— It's— I know that I was perfect. That's all that I know. Five, four— Like a conductor with your hands.

AUSTIN: Yeah, I got it.

KEITH: Four, three, two, one.

[solid clap, one lone clap]

AUSTIN: Fuck.

KEITH: Little better.

AUSTIN: One more.

KEITH: Alright, one more.

AUSTIN: Whoo, shake it out, shake it out.

[ALI laughs]

KEITH: This is gonna be faster. We're gonna do a faster, let's see if we can do an up tempo—

AUSTIN: Sure. Alright.

JACK: This is like a fever dream.