Legends of Avantris - Stardust Rhapsody: Anthem | Ep. 5 | Wrathchild: Part 2

Episode Date: November 29, 2025

The Rhapsody crew and their new friend, Ko, pursue a lead...   You do NOT need to listen to Overture to enjoy Anthem! If you have the appetite to listen to both, we recommend starting with Anthem, then going back to listen to Overture!   Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/LdmZ17y11MY?si=h-HWL737dDx6HcGO

Welcome to Legends of Aventress. I'm Co. Tetsatara, and you're listening to Stardust Rhapsody Anthem. Here's what happened last time. Big Thunder. Okay, all right. Wait, you're saying it's the Helion. Come on, we got to get in there. Let's go.

And I would immediately try to us to us into the Helium. I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. I don't know if you knew this, but this is a really rough joint. Well, gentlemen, there she is. Co. Mikey, can you please join the table? There it is. Welcome to the table.

You would see beat up already, blood running down her lip and her nose, a 6-6 foot-tall rhizzo, blue skin, short horns going up through a white shock of hair. very muscular and she is holding a huge metal bat. It's glowing with this shocking, sparking energy. Mrs. Zuma, we're friends of Co. Let us in. Come on. Oh, come in, come in. Oh, we'll get a straightened away. Oh, come in. She got in a fight and we're worried that she's been poisoned. She'll need a little bit of time, but hopefully that should do the trick. It depends on what she was afflicted with.

If we got there quick enough, I think over time, through the night. this should help bring her back. How do I feel? How are my senses? Am I kind of coming to? I was basically unconscious at the end there. Oh yeah. You were like effectively as you were coming up through the apartment. You were completely gone to the world. You weren't really gathering where you were or what was going on. You're now you're starting to blink. Your eyes are dry. Your mouth tastes almost like metallic. washed down. It's a little bit better with the drink you've been provided. But everything about you feels extremely dry, almost like you don't even have blood in your veins.

It's dust. As you start to kind of fuel yourself to come back to the land of the living. And I would say mechanically, at this point, we'll say you have two levels of exhaustion. That makes sense. That makes sense. I have two levels. Damn. The ADB offense. Exhaustion in 2024 is so much better.

It's nasty. Actual madness. It's nasty, but it's also Wazey. More gradual, right? Yeah, yeah. Where am I? Am I on the couch? Am I?

Yeah, well, the group was able to pull you in, put you on this kind of like worn in couch as you as you're kind of like hulking form lands onto it, you hear this kind of like squeaking as you bounce just a little bit as you as you settle in. I'll diminish the gurney and it'll you're one boot off the couch,

one boot on, your foot's up on one armrest, your heads on the other, you're taking up the full spread. Is she going to be all right? She'll need a little bit of time. But hopefully that should do the trick. It depends on what she was afflicted with, but if we got there quick enough, I think over time, through the night, this should help bring her back. Thanks for your help. My name is Ziggy. Oh, Ziggy, I'm Mrs. Ume. It's a pleasure to meet you.

And then you as well, you're friends of Coe, you said. Yeah, names Pike. Pike. And I'm, Brett, Captain of the Rhapsody. We're bounty hunters. Bounty hunters? Pike is good friends with Coe. And we got a tip that, you know,

she might have some info on somebody we're looking for. So that's why we're here. We happen to run into her, and here we are. I've never hosted bounty hunters. But if you're friends of Co, then you're welcome in my home. Thank you. Can I get anyone anything? Oh, yes.

What is your wireless password? Oh, well, that, I just, whatever came on the box, you just look right over at it. It's just written on the bottom, I think. You just go, I mean, I think I have a photo of it. Or maybe written down somewhere on the fridge, perhaps. Uh-huh. No, it's on the side of the router.

Oh, yes, right there. You found it. I found it. I mean, you've already done plenty. I hate to intrude like this, but if you have any kind of beverages, I don't know, Pike, what do you think? I don't know.

All of this is an absolute mess. I don't feel like much of a beverage here. Please, let me fix you something. It seems like everyone's had a day, It looks like everyone needs to just take a moment, collect themselves. I'm happy to get you something to drink. It will, unfortunately, here, we do have to take a minute with the water. So let me brew something up for you and I'll have it ready in just a couple minutes.

But please, make yourselves at home. Thank you. There's an armchair right there. There's a couple seats throughout this area with the couch. Really, there's an armchair that has this kind of like drape set over. set over it in a similar kind of like pink color drape with this brown kind of like speckled chair. It's surprisingly comfortable as you sit in it. Not like lush or lavish, but extremely pleasant.

There's another table, a little stool, and you can spread throughout the room as Mrs. Ume will go back into the kitchen and gather some water and start a similar kind of. like purification process as she goes to fix you all something. I'll drop my tech in the corner and I like find an armchair and I'll just sort of of good gods. I would find a place to kind of stand and just lean against a wall and I wouldn't smoke in this house. I would want to be respectful of Mrs. Ume in her quarters and Just kind of like looking around and like taking it all in,

but mostly just looking at Coe and like keeping an eye on her and, you know, and reflecting on everything that's happened today. Is Coe conscious? That's what I'm wondering. I think at this point having the, sorry, absolutely. Having the poison kind of starting to get clear from whatever the drink she made you was, I think you're definitely kind of coming back consciousness, if I didn't articulate that.

You just kind of feel definitely like a little sapped. You feel very dry, but you are awake, you're conscious. You're feeling a little bit of your life come back to you, but you know that you'll need the rest of the night.

But you're definitely there. You're functional. Do you guys have any of that pizza left? No. Fuck. It wasn't very good. It was chili pizza. I'm sorry. You ain't that old, Ziggy?

I was, it was a long drive. Oh, fuck. You know, when those red belts, before you guys got there, they were threatening me with the poison blade. I should have saw it coming. I can make you some food. I can summon you some food from the hypergrid.

Like me? No, it's mostly like chips and soda and pokey. Surprise me. Alright. What were you getting into back there? I was smashing some fucking skulls, Pike. How long have you been out for? I mean, I've been out for a month.

I've been here two weeks after you. I'll sit back up. As I, they let me out early. I don't know why. That fucking Waxley guy, he was asking me about you. He cut me a deal. I got out early too. I didn't tell him shit. I did two years in the can, not a peep. Not a peep. This waxlet guy. Did he say anything? Was it? I don't know. Did he let me let loose here?

He was just... He wanted to know about what Pike could do when we got in the scraps. he's up to something and I don't know what he just might be some fucking stooge looking for a fucking promotion I mean he let pack off his parole relatively easily restored our

gate codes like it was fucking nothing and so either this guy's fucking generous wait wait wait wait are you rat oh yeah we should probably mean officially I'm red

I've heard so much about you. I've heard a good bit about you too, and it's a pleasure to meet you. Code Tetsutero stands for knockout. Stans for knockout. That's right. Don't let anybody tell you anything fucking different. Brett Indigo, and it don't stand for nothing. And I'll look, I heard a lot about you and I'll look at Ziggy. But what's his deal? Yeah, Waxley. And it's how we found this one. To be fair, while it was relatively easy, we did almost die.

He's a kid we picked up. He's, uh... I'm 24. He's the son of... We shouldn't be fucking having this conversation here. This is a safe space. I've known Mrs. Umey my entire life. Back home, she had a shop down the street from my pops. Well, anyway, he's the son of some important people,

and we got mixed up in a bounty that ended up being a hit. It's a lot to explain. We can go down that path later if you're... But anyway, he's a member of the crew. Show him your badge. Oh, it says Ziggy Moog, but my last name is actually Wook. Need a license to take down bad guys? You need a license in order to be rewarded

for taking down bad guys in the Galactic bounty, some whatever, whatever it is. Galactic Bounty Guild, GBG. Yeah, let's get one thing right here. It's not about doing good. It's about the notes. And I got you your snacks. I got you some cheese crackers.

I got you an uncrustable, and some nutty nibbles. Is this fucking sick? Thank you. You pulled that out of the internet? Yeah, I did. I downloaded them. I used bite torrent. Am I going to get some disease for eating this?

Is this edible? I don't think so. You're going to find it's not very filling. It'll hold you over, though. Yeah, yeah. And it might help. It's got hyper-grin energy. It's not like real food.

That's why I can't make meat. Well, I'm still very hungry. You want me to order more pizza? We got the notes, right? We have enough notes for pizza. Go ahead and order some pizza. I'm not ordering from that place again. Who puts chili on fucking pizza?

Baccaraz is pretty good. They have good pizza. They're not far. They're quick, too. All right, use the company car. We can expense this. Okay. So I was just, I've been here fucking smashing skulls for a month.

You know, I knew that Mrs. Zume was here. I mean, I know a lot of people from back home that spread out across the galaxy. And, you know, you were asking about the fucking red belts. You know, when we were in the can, and I just thought it was strange coincidence. So it's after all the skull crushing that you've found this Big Thunder. Well, I mean, when I had to break a few bones, a few skulls, a few teeth. But they, all of them said Big Thunder. I dropped a guy down a fucking elevator shaft. Damn. Because he wouldn't tell me shit. And when I went down there, I mean, he was alive, but he couldn't really talk to him.

Oh, sorry for the wait. Sorry for the wait. Here I have, I have drinks for everybody. Here, here you go. Thank you. Here you go. Thank you, Mrs. Ume. May. I appreciate it. What is this? Here you are. It's just a hot beverage made with the same floral arrangements I have. It helps to purify the water that we get. Unfortunately, some time ago, when the work began, the river turned brown.

And so now we have to purify all the water before we drink it. But it's good. It's good like that now. That's fucking Keogian. Yeah, so what's the deal? I mean, this is the first time I've been to Macquaro City. They don't give a fuck about the people that are down here. It's the fucking Keogen Energy Company.

They found another fucking world where they can put their fucking pipes into the ground and pull up whatever the fuck it is that they're pumping up to these fucking assholes up there. Mrs. Zumae starts to walk over towards Co. I'm sorry, Mrs. Zuma. I understand your frustration. These freaking guys, I don't like them very much. They've had an impact for sure. But how are you feeling?

My goodness, I'm so glad to see you back up. And she walks over to you and she kind of puts, runs a hand kind of through and kind of tussles your hair. I wasn't sure on that. And how many times have I told you to not go out and cause trouble? Look at the state you've come back in. What are you thinking? As she starts just hitting you on the shore,

and as you're in extremely poor condition, and you'll see if you're, if this was, uh, you just above, plus zero damage, zero damage, zero damage, uh, as you're going out. I'm flinching it doesn't hurt at all. No, not even a little bit. No. It's an emotional damage. Yeah, exactly.

I'm flimbing emotionally. Exactly. What were you thinking? I, I, I mean, you know these fucking guys, they're fucking tearing apart this, this neighborhood. They're a bunch of fucking bullies. What the fuck am I supposed to do? Those assholes out there with the badges and the fucking mecks aren't doing anything.

That's true That's a good fucking point And I can If they make it back To wherever their fucking hideout is It's not fucking walking straight Or walking at all Half a minute up the fucking hospital

I don't think I put any in the morgue yet But they fucking deserve it Well explains why they want to be Fucking dead Sorry freaking dead I understand your frustration Coe But what good is a couple thugs in the hospital

gonna do if you end up dead You have to be more careful out there. I've been fine so far. I've been here for a month. You know how many fucking red belts? I've a freaking red belt. Look, she's right. She's got

a point. All it takes is one fucking time. One freaking time. I'm sorry. It's a bunch of trash talkers in here. A bunch of lily mouths. Well. It's okay. It's okay. I'm fine. I can take care of

myself. I know. This is what I do. I know what I do. I know what'll settle you. I'm going to pop a couple of chocolate chip cookies in the oven. And they'll be right out. I know somebody over here looks like they'd enjoy a couple chocolate chip cookies.

I definitely would. That sounds delicious. Like for the tea. You're welcome. And she'll turn around and go back into the kitchen and start shuffling around. And you'll hear the oven. The place will almost warm up, like, noticeably a degree as you hear her start to prep and continue on in the kitchen. So now what?

We got a lead. We got to lead, but I mean, what the fuck's a deal with this gate pass thing? And getting to the upper, the top, what are the top crust? Shit. I forgot about that. And the fucking lower crust, bottom. So we're... Good fucking lot.

She's gone. Good fucking. I can love getting a gate pass. No, as soon as you're down here, unless you know people up top, you're stuck down here. They don't want the refrapped like us going up there. You fucking kidding me? Wow.

So they... Y'all are trapped down here. Yeah, well, you know, it's a lot of jobs down here. Kyojin has dozens of plans. You know, Mrs. Ume runs a grocer, and, you know, down the street. Oh yeah? I didn't know that Didn't come up when I looked up a record

What's your deal again? Where are you from? You're a bounty hunter? Yeah, yeah, I'm a bounty hunter. I hunt bounty hunter. Do one push-up. I'm sorry, I didn't know push-ups were required for bounty hunters. I don't know what the fuck was required for a bounty hunter.

I would presume one push-up. I ordered pizza. Pisa's on its way. I don't know what this delivery driver is doing. They've been waiting at the... restaurant for like 20 minutes. What are they doing there? Is the pizza ready? Are they just sitting with the pizza? What's happening with the pizza? Look at this. Look, you get skills, right? You may not be able to do a single fucking push-up, but he's sharp

hell. Okay. You know, variety of skills. I've never found any kind of tech that takes down these people like this. Well, I can- I'm having to prove it wrong. You're getting pizza? I will take that as a peace offering. Not only that, but the kid's been, I don't know, keeping a lookout for possible leads. He's checking things. He's monitoring things for us,

and he's been able to find some stuff. I can look into the corporations. I can look into the people that we find out about behind things. There's all kinds of information out there if you just know where to look. Transactions and the like. All right. But here's the thing.

Redline, they're keeping real fucking underwraps. I mean, there's not a whole lot on it. Not this guy. I mean, Big Thunder, he's sending it up to the fucking top slice. These rich assholes and corpos and fucking financial types, they're all getting hooked on the shit, too. So what's his deal? He just doesn't know how to keep a low profile?

I guess fucking not. I mean, I hear people tell him that, you know, I haven't been looking around for him, but apparently he drives some giant, loud-ass-ass-brightly-painted car. So then why asses himself? Why hasn't the syndicate whacked this guy? I don't know. I mean, I'm on the street level. You know that.

I smash heads. I break limbs. I take people out when I need to. I mean, that's a good point. We should fucking get to this guy before he pisses off the top brass of the syndicate dead. If this guy's just some thug distributors. I guess. I don't know. It's been hard. It's only been people screaming as I fucking break their finger bones.

And they're not saying much else. They're afraid of this guy. They're more afraid of him than them of me. I mean, so, I mean, how do we get to him? I mean, I guess that's the question, right? We should probably, unless you've gotten anything, we have the truck, we all have our own skills, we can, as soon as you're feeling well,

maybe while you recover, we can hit the streets and start doing some recon. They've taken over this entire neighborhood, everything in the undercar. I mean half of the city is fucking decaying from this fucking red line. You know, it ups you up for a little bit and then every you just crash and wallow as your fucking fain's turn. It's just this like like a glowing glow stick. Yeah, like a bright red.

All these junkies and good people are getting on this stuff. Unfortunately, we've seen some of the fallout. And it's been quick. I mean, they haven't been in operation for that long. I mean, it's been a couple of years. And I mean, it's, the pollution was always bad once Keogian moved into this place. And once they moved in, it's like the fucking air is greasy. Yeah, I noticed that. Yeah.

It's not just the pizza. It's like... Yeah, right? Yeah. Yeah, it's like... You know what I mean, Pike? I do. You know what I mean?

Look, at the end of the day, the guild's going to pay good money for any of these jackasses we can bring in. I don't really care about the guild. or licenses. You get a little license with your pretty face on that bike? You know I do. Oh, cool. Let me see it. And I pull it out, and it's actually a very photogenic picture. If your hair short.

No, no, it's a really good picture. Oh, fuck you, and I throw it back at you. I stick it in my jacket pocket. You had, like, the prettiest mug shot in this entire fucking prison. And meanwhile, I'm there, like, man's got to make a living. Yeah, well, frankly, I'm... I'm not sure how you survived. If you weren't so good at kicking ass,

you would have been, you would not have survived. Oh yeah, your mug shots hilarious. What? You fucking delete that, dude. Delete that off of that thing right now. Permanently or off of my local? What? Get it down! I don't know it, I don't know it.

I don't know what fucking works. Get the fucking down. Well, I mean, we need to figure out some way to get this guy. Yeah, man. I mean, you know, these guys are, they're tough, but like, they're no more tough than the hammerheads that we fucking kick the shit out of in the camp. No, it's not about how tough they are. What worries me is the organization.

Yeah. I mean, you know, I haven't really been, I've just been, you know, knocking skulls and asking questions. But, you know, I'm not a detective, right? I just beat up bad people. He hasn't come out yet. He hasn't fought me yet. Interesting. So you haven't been able to lure him out at all.

No, usually that works. I don't know why, you know, they're fucking stupid drug dealers. What the fuck else are they gonna do? Well, if he's a loudmouth, he shouldn't be that art to fine, right? Yeah, I know. It's weird. Why hasn't the, uh, all the, uh, officers? Why haven't they fucking taken care of this?

I don't fucking know. They're useless. I mean, you saw there was a fucking walker 20 feet from that bar. Think of a shit? I knocked that bug face right off the fucking window. Right? And they don't care. They look the other way unless they're fucking involved in all this.

I mean, the good news is they haven't scooped me out. I mean, I've smashed faces in 10 feet from them. And they just look and they just keep walking. Well, talking to people's what we do. We got to do some investigating, I guess. Yeah, this is going to take some time, but I think we can do what we're good at. Well, we got the van for a week. We plan to be here for a bit, and you need to rest.

I can still get around. A little bit of poison, venom? Look, don't push yourself too hard. We're happy to have you tag along. But what I'm saying is let's not try to pick any fucking five. some of you can help. Try to keep a low profile, all right? Because I worry that, you know, the second this big thunder guy gets word to you, and you

got a fucking team behind you, then maybe they'll fucking take his attention. Isn't that what we won? Do we want to make a big fucking splash? I've never... I don't know, do we? And you fucking gunned down by a hundred fucking goons? You almost got killed by what? Six of them?

I took out five before you got there. All right. 11 of them, co-and-ass kick and go hand in hand. And I walk up to you and I give you a hearty handshake. Because it's been a long time. I'm going to try to like really do that thing of where I'm going to try to grip harder than you do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm going to try to pull you and test you.

But we, but like since I've only seen you right in the bar, I hadn't had a chance to really like embrace you in any way. And as you kind of like pull on me, I'll give you a slap on the shoulder and I'll just say. Coe, I'm glad you fucking made it. I'm glad you're here, Pike. And I'm glad to meet all your friends. You've been working out since he got out? I lost a lot of weight. Yeah, I know.

You're actually getting your protein in there. I don't get that. I'll, like, put my hand on the gauntlet, and, like, it's starting to fit better again, right? It's not as loose as it was even, you know, six weeks ago. And I just kind of shake my head at the thought of the time I spent in jail. All right. All right.

Well. And it's nice to meet you guys. It's really nice to meet you. It's Pike, you know, he kept his eye out for me. We watched each other's back and, you know, we both survived in there. It's an imperial prison, you know, it's, you know, mid-level, nothing too bad. Oh, am I good to leave the truck park out front there? Is that that fine?

Yeah, I mean, it's all right? I think your biggest risk is just someone trying to, you know, steal the wheels off of that fucking thing. Oh, shit. What? Pizza guy canceled. So we're cold by the time someone else comes up and picks it up. I'm, you know what? I'm gonna fucking...

All right. Well, that reminds me. I'll take the keys out and I'll go hit the button. Ooh! Alright, that's about the best we can do that. Ding! You hear the sound of the oven going off, and a quick plating, and a delicious.

And a delicious smell begins to permeate the apartment. As Mrs. Umey walks back in, Oh, cookies, cookies are ready. Nice. Thank you, Silica. One of the cookies immediately lifts up and spins over. Oh, hot. Hot.

Thank you, Mrs. Ume. Oh, you've made some interesting friends. You too? Cookies. Thank you. One and a half friends. right now, we're still, we're still feeling it out. I'm still feeling it out, Mrs. Zoumet. We're still feeling it out. How about an extra one for you? You look like a hungry boy.

You know, I won't say no, thank you. I am a little bit hungry. That's me of that pizza and I couldn't even have one one slice. Thanks for your hospitality. Of course. Cole, boots off the couch. Oh, sorry, Mrs. Hume. Um, okay, I'll just start taking off my boots. Get comfortable. she'll move over and she'll and plop up on the couch and sit right next to you. And it's funny to see the two of you sitting next to each other. You are like gargantuan in scope as you sit there.

And Mrs. Ume's feet don't even touch the ground anymore. She's like sitting on the couch. As soon as she makes a motion to sit on the couch, I'd immediately get up and sit on the floor and I cross my legs and like... Or she wouldn't direct you to the floor. No, no, I would just do it anyway. I would just do it as soon as she would just do it. As soon as she looks like she was gonna sit down,

like I would immediately get off and sit down and cross my legs and just sit there while she sits down. I'm gonna find the bathroom. I'll be right back. So what's everybody talking about? Do you really wanna know? We're gonna take care of these bad guys, Mrs. Sumer,

like I've been trying to do this whole time. We're gonna try to clear out some of the red belts in this neighborhood. They're gonna help me out. We've got a plan. And we're gonna do what we do best. Well, your friends seem capable, and I like that they're licensed bounty hunters.

Together, maybe you stand a shot of doing something. Who knows to what effect, but at least I can think you're not out there alone and you'll be safer this way. I mean, yeah, how many of the kids that you've hired to help you out at the shop have gotten on the red line and disappeared? It's just like back home.

Too many. You left back home to trade one gang for another. At your age, you've lived this long, you've worked this hard for this, they're fucking bullies. They don't give a shit what happens to us. You're right. They deserve what's fucking coming. We're going to do what we can, and we're a license to do this, so, you know,

hopefully it helps in some small way. I left, uh, I left Connoble, and just traded them for the Scarlet High. That's fucking right. But I'm trying to bring a little brightness back to this area. I have the grocer. That's why you call it the pink pedal. There's nothing. There's no petals.

There's no pink down here. I couldn't find it. It's not on the maps. Pink pedal, grocery? We haven't, we haven't, I've been trying to submit to the map services, but it's very complicated. Why does it need to be on the computer? The NAM system is down here.

No, no, it's important that way that's... She's got flyers across the... But anyone looking at the map would know that the grocery is there. Oh, have you see. What do you think of the flyers? Have we seen them? Yeah, you've seen the flies. They're lovely.

Thank you. So what's it like to be a brochure? I want to hear all about it. Basically, I want to be able to ask her questions about what she does and how she does and kind of relate almost as like a business owner and a business owner. Yeah, and you can all kind of go back and forth and you can go back and forth for an hour and just kind of like

chat and talk and get to know her a little bit deeper. And we eat pizza and cookies and drink tea and you really just kind of start to make yourselves kind of at home and she's very welcoming. She's happy to have you there. And the more you talk, the more she kind of gets to know about you all as well

and is appreciative for your presence. Where are you staying while you're down here? To be quite honest with you, we didn't know we were going to be stuck here. Yeah, we were planning on sleeping on the ship. As it stands right now, we don't even have enough fuel to get off this world. You know where. You just have your truck outside. That's it. Truck and a ship that we can't get to.

We're hoping if these bounties will pay for something, or we could float some place and find a place to stay, but that's about it. Well, I won't hear of it. You'll stay here. With Co, I have plenty of room. We couldn't do that to you. No, I just stop right there. No, of course you'll stay here. There's nowhere else around here.

I mean, I feel safer here than trying to... Like back in the can. Yeah, we can all fit. Find some, you know, run-down motel and probably, you know, half full of you. No, you know, you don't want to stay at the room. You don't. You don't. I mean, that's what we were going to do. No, no, no, no.

I mean, you don't want to stay. There's real sick fucks around here. Sick freaks. Sorry, I'm sorry, Mrs. Omeyell sickos. Oh, yeah, you should read these reviews. Oh, my goodness. All right, well, in that case, I guess we'll stay here. We can all fit.

Like, you know, it's very small. It's very small. This is very small. It's really, and you don't need much. Yeah. You would definitely, this is Spartan living here while you're here for sure. But you will feel it, even though it's limited, it has that allure of a hominess to you. The cookies were fantastic, better than a lot of stuff you've had to eat in quite a while,

almost like a real home-cooked treat, especially in this, in this. dirty, dilapidated undercity where there's almost this like oily mouth feel, almost like humidity as you walk through, this grime that kind of hangs in the air. It's disrupted by what she's able to offer you. I have a thought, and I immediately perk up. Wait a minute. You told me, Reds like a master mechanic. Yeah, he's really good. Can you fix a bike? Well, I wouldn't say I'm a master or anything. You want to see it? I think you can fix a bike.

Yeah, let's go. I mean, but I can't. I can't believe that we're finally. Yeah, we're both out. I promise you. I know you've been wanting to see. I know you've been really into, I know you've been waiting.

I mean, it's like a, like a bike. Like a motorcycle. Yeah, of course. It's not just any bike, though. It's my bike. I'll see what I can do. And I'll go to my large pack and I'll pull off like,

just like a box of the tools that are sort of that I keep in the bottom of it. I mean, either way. Okay. Oh, hold on. I gotta see this. Come on. Yeah, you kind of love it.

Mrs. Zume, we'll be right back. I got to show him in the control. He might be able to fix it. I'll be here. I'll get, I'll get, uh, banks for everybody set up. And you make your way out of the building. You leave the apartment.

You head down the familiar hallway. You go down the stairs. and instead of coming back down the hallway to go out the front, you instead find a door that leads out into the back, which is kind of this like alley between two buildings. The moment we get out into the alley, I'll take out a cigarette, I'll light it, and I'll offer the pack to Coe, and I'll say, cigarette? Nah, I don't want it.

I'll tuck it into my jacket pocket. Quit that a long time ago. And continue to follow her. And Co, you lead everyone just down this section between these, buildings. Just down the side, there's this almost like chain steel gate that runs the side of the, of Mrs. Hume's building that leads into kind of like a slightly off-section space. And when you open it, there are a couple of like tarps, almost like piled up like cans. It just looks like place people would put junk. But in one side,

there's a tarp that hangs over a larger object. And I will walk up to it, like with a big grin on my face. I'll grab the tarp and I'll whip it out. And you'll see this very clearly a motorcycle with two wheels, and it looks scuffed up, but the, it's really the machinery that is fucked up. I've very clearly gotten to a wreck at some point. The paint is checked.

but it is painted this shocking electric blue highlights of orange with black, and it is similarly striped with accents similarly looking like a tiger. There's the elements of almost like a tiger's head built into it with things coming down around the wheels. The wheels are thick. This isn't, it's like a full crotch rocket,

but it's not like a Harley, it's like somewhere in between as the huge exhaust ports. And it looks banged a shit. banged a shit. It is beat up, but I am still standing there beaming proudly. And like, there she is. Just like I talked about, Pike. That is quite the bike. Fuck me, what'd you do to this thing? He'd drive this thing off a cliff? Oh, you know, I mean, it's been dilapidated. I got into a wreck before they picked me up after I beat the shit out of that finance bro. And then, you know, they're little scamps that have kind of

pilfered most of the parts from it from, but you know, she's still, there? She's still standing? I just haven't, you know, and I dabble, I can make repairs, but nothing this major. This has been this has been beyond me. Well, if anybody can fix it, it's red. This is awesome!

It looks like writing something right at a recoil delta. Oh, you know recoil delta? Oh, of course I know recoiled delta. Because the lines are. Oh, yeah, the lines. Oh! You have no idea how much this cost me.

Everything that I had my entire last thing. It was worth it. Yeah, right, that's what I was saying. So cool. I was telling Mrs. Hume and she said, I put on if I don't start saving, I'm not gonna have a future. But if I don't have a bike,

I'm not gonna have a future. Oh, it's so cool. I'll see what I can do. Yeah. I'm gonna help. Hell yeah. Zing, you're all right, you're all right, I'll sort of walk around the bike

and just sort of see, you know, just sort of like look at it. Do I feel like I could fix this? Roll a, oh. What was it? Roll on engineering's check? What is it? Engineering check or... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Use your engineering tools.

Rett? 14. With a 14. You give this a little bit of a circle as you go around this bike. Vehicles, ships, all manner of things. That's your bag. Things that go, boom, is what you excel at. As you start to walk around this,

you almost kind of can begin to see it in its full glory as you start to kind of imagine what it would look like to fix it and what it actually achieves as a final product. And you almost begin to get an appreciation for what you know you could get it to. However, you do think it would probably... There's a fucking horn on it. This is sick as hell, right?

It's so good. You think it would take you probably at least, depending on, like, tools, parts, components, probably at least a week to get it fixed up. I mean, it'll take some time, but I should be able to fix her up. Yeah, I think I can get her in a rodible condition. She may, you know, I'll do my best to make her look sweet.

You mean it? I'll see what I can do. You're right, you are even smarter than Pike said. And just as good of a man. I'm not that smart. I'm just savvy on a couple things that I've picked up along the way. I will do anything. Just don't mention it.

Just, you know. Don't let him. I'll do it for money. You need money? No, I don't need your money. Don't let him pull you. Don't let him pull you. He's being modest.

He's going to have this thing fixed up like it's brand new. You hear me, Ziggy. You hear Ziggy say, yeah, I'm going to help too. And you see, I'm going through your toolbox. And I'm slowly pulling all of the tools out. What are you? No, stop. Put that down.

The first of 11 tools he takes out would never be used to work on a bite. You have no idea what you're doing. Put that back there. No, that goes in the other drawer. No, I need those parts. Stop it. What do you get out? It's about proficient.

It's about efficiency. The hypergrid can help. I type a few commands in, and I'm going to enhance your tools. I make sure that they are perfect in every single way. The spec. So even if I pick the wrong tool, I'm still going to give you 1d4 plus bonus. Nice.

A tool check. That's amazing. Basically guidance. This is not guidance. It is part of my subclass. I'm using a bonus action to enjoy a gridrunner benefit. You turn them into smart tools. Yeah, they're Wi-Fi.

Yeah, they all have the letter. A little eye all over. An eye wrench, an eye spanner. Those he grabbed tools at first that would not be used to work on a bike. He ensured that he went through every tool you had in your toolbox. It turns out the eye. Plus 1D4 benefit.

Why does it wrench need a touch screen? Why wouldn't it? I'll like gesture over to like a this, like a bucket. It's a bucket near the if you need any of my tools, you know, you can take a look. You look like you've got it covered. And it is like, it is a terrible set of mechanics tools that I've been using for probably

many years. I appreciate the offer. I think I'm all set. Okay, I'll let you know. I'll let you know. Okay. Is the sparrow here? On World? Well, I mean, in the most technical sense, yes.

Can I see it? Not unless we can get topside. Fuck. Yeah, it's nowhere else. When all this is done and we can find, figure out how to get a gate pass. I want to look at it before you guys leave. Listen, I don't know what's going to happen,

but just know, as long as we're both out of prison, you've always got friends in us, all right? No matter where you end up, no matter where we are. I'm sure Redd'll give you a spot on the Rhapsody. Anytime you need it. I don't think I really do well in space. I'm more of a bright lights, big city kind of gal. But, you know, I mean, you guys can...

I'm always zipping around all across the galaxy from one megacity to the next. Regardless, I'll... We'll get you in the sparrow. There's always assholes that need to get a fucking less... A real hard fucking lesson. Well, no, the offer does stand. I got a couple extra crewcores that are currently empty,

and I haven't taken the time to clean it out. One's sort of covered in suspicious palm scum, and the other one's covered in, you know that brown shit that's all over mushrooms? What's that? And don't ask. Anyway, the point is there's plenty of room. The Rhapsody, she's a good girl, and she's plenty of big for, you know, for a crew.

Well, I appreciate that. I mean, I think that once we can kind of, you know, take down these assholes and, you know, maybe clean up this place a bit, I was planning on helping Mrs. Ume at the grocer. Yeah, look, no pressure, all right. Oh, I mean. Coe likes to march to the beat of her own drum, if you know what I mean. No, I was going to see that. And, you know, I respect it.

I appreciate it. A bit of the lone tiger, you know. the same. Here's the thing. Maybe us clearing out the red belts is just the first step in clearing up and maybe improving the undercrest. Well, I've never had a license. I've never had a badge. I've never had authority of any legitimate variety sanctioned by any organization, government company. But I'm glad that it's working out for you guys. I mean, that's like it. Pace? Out of good pace. And it's...

Not to know us living, so to speak. Okay. It's not like millions of notes. It's not even hundreds of thousands of notes. It's not even tens of thousands of notes. But it's not no notes. Well, we're working on it. We're working on it.

And if you ask me... As you all are having this conversation that slightly off in the distance, but it sounds like it's approaching, you hear... Well, I say, Cohen-Ret, you'd probably recognize this even pretty far off. you hear the roar of a monstrous engine. And it sounds like it's getting closer. What are you going to say? I hear this.

I stop. I stop mid-sentence. I'm, I just put the cigarette back in my mouth and I look to where I hear this sound coming from. You're kind of behind this tenement building that Mrs. Hume is living in. It sounds like it's coming down the street in front of the building, or it sounds more accurately as though it will be blazing past the front of this building.

Oh. Interesting. You fucking hear that? Yeah, what the fuck is that? What is that? All sort of walk out to the front of the building and be, I'm curious. I'm like, oh, you know, it's like what Santa Claus? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I don't go long out too. At 8 p.m. on a Wednesday when my kid is sleeping. I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you. You all start to move out. You leave the bike for just a moment. And go, maybe you'll cover it. I'll catch up.

I'll catch up. You make sure that it's taken here. I would help recover the bike. I'll be right back. Co, kind of just behind everyone else. As Rhett, you're the first to kind of make it to the street and you hear this monstrous roar of power as you don't quite see it yet and you're waiting and you're waiting what is this where is this coming from and then suddenly at the far end of

the street you hear a as burning around this corner you see a cherry red like supercarve as it streaks around this corner, and it starts blasting towards you, blaring up the road as it's driving forward. It's exploding with power. You can almost hear the proficiency of this engine, how nice it is, how powerful it is. The kind of thing that would not be in a car

that's accustomed to casually being down here. And it's as you're kind of like starting to figure out what's in front of you and what's kind of coming, what's on its way, that it just races past in a red blur. You see as you're looking at it, as your head almost whips as it as it zooms past, blacked out windows with this deeper red, almost like blood red, almost like blood red, streaks on the side. Out of the one at the far edge of the car the back window, you see this kind of like this

person. It's moving so fast, but they're like, they're whooom, as the car is tearing up. And flipping in the wind as it's blasting past, you see trailing a red sash. Right as the car blazes past you, one, two. three, four, five, six.

Lines of speed bikes trail right behind them. Damn. As they just are sailing past you, and you get the sense that they're heading towards, heading towards the ramp to go to the top slice. Slow down, you fucking jackassers! Children live here. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

God, that fucking pieces me off. Do I recognize, does the car look similar to what the goons that I perhaps beaten up and torture does it sound similar to Big Thunder's car? The rumblings that I've heard. I would say

absolutely and I would say you would be getting there towards the end of this car like blasting past. You might not have even fully exited the alleyway as you're walking up but you see it as this red streak of almost

thunderous fury charges up the road past you, you see it, and you would think in that moment that that absolutely looks like what you would expect Big Thunder's car to look like from what you've come to understand. Those red belts look like shit!

You're all gonna get it! And I'm just gonna yell as they're going by. Like, we're coming! You're standing now like on the side of the road, like in front of the building, blazing past, the smuter bikes. Your voice is kind of getting lost in the cacophony. of these roaring engines, but not for lack of trying.

You are in a sound war as you are booming out. Like, fuck you. Fuck you. You guys are going to get it. And people are like on the street. There are other people kind of walking around. They're watching this little bit go back and forth as you shout that out. Are any of the Macquaro Public Security badges or walkers around that, like,

Are they just standing there, are they, like, patrolling the streets nearby? I would, like, look to see if, like, they're going to the streets. Or an investigation check. Or a perception check. Your choice. Perception, I like that. Ooh, that's not terrible. I don't know. I'm probably not proficient in that. I don't know if I'm that perceptive. E, e, e, e, e, perception. Will that be a 13?

I feel like you should have more proficiency. I don't think so. Oh, maybe. Oh, maybe. Across the street, you do see, you do see a couple of, you do see two MPS agents and, Walker kind of standing on the other side of the road as these cars go past. Just kind of drinking out of a cup looks like maybe a hot liquid. You gonna do anything about that assholes?

They're just flaunting it. Look at it. They're wearing red bells. They're wearing signs that say we're criminals. Stop us. You're sitting there fucking sipping on coffee? Are you fucking kidding me? And looks to the right.

They're right there. Looks to the left. And clearly, like, looks in time to see the car kind of like, Blaze out of view. I don't see anything. Cyber badges. Oh, that you took. I'll spit on the ground. Look at this.

Look at the, what the fuck we have to deal? The moment the sound like dies down and Coe is done yelling at these agents, I'll flick the butt of my cigarette into the dirt and tamp it out with my foot and I'll look at it and I'll say, uh, acting casual isn't really your thing, is it? Give a right smile. Oh, look at that. Look at these assholes. Look at it. They're lean. Look at it.

leaning. Oh, I'm glad that you're getting paid with our tax dollars. No, no. So you can lean and eat your fucking donuts. I'm gonna put my hand on her shoulder and just say, come on, take a deep breath, it's gonna be all right. Why the fuck be an enforcer? Don't worry, don't worry. I got a video. I got a video of the... Oh, they didn't have any license plates. That makes sense. Yeah. That makes sense. No, I try. I'll like give you a pat. It'll be way too hard.

As, uh... I throw up. It's all a mix of cookies and tea. Look, look, we should all just calm down. All right, I know that it pisses us all off. We need to get some rest. We gotta fucking start hunting. Oh, yeah, a little winded, actually.

Yeah, you need to... Let's get you upstairs. Let's get you upstairs. Come on. We're not bad for getting stabbed by a poison blade today. I'm just going to say. I'm just going to say. Okay.

You're definitely feeling the exhaustion of the moment, though. You've spent a large portion of the energy you had left to shout after the Scarlet Eye Syndicate and then antagonize the local police force. So you're definitely, you're winded. Even getting back up the stairs, you might need to slug your arm over somebody. If it's the evening, I think we would go up and we would settle in and probably try to get some rest. Yeah. And it's almost a little hard to tell the time of day down here because there's the you really can't quite see the sky.

You're almost covered by a solid dome above you. But it does peer through and you are starting to get this kind of like darkened area and really what was the neon lights of this space are really the only thing that casts any kind of illuminants at this point. So it is definitely moving into evening time. And you make your way back upstairs into the building. You make it to Mrs. Ume's apartment. And she has, you walk in and she has basically what equates to a series of like cots all set up in the living room. And there, it looks to be, she's put kind of like whatever pillows she had out on the ground. She's got a couple of sheets laid out.

I've tried to make it as comfortable as I could for you, but I'm happy to have everybody here. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Hume. I thank you so much for your hospitality. You don't have to do any of this. I hope that I can make it up to you by getting this place cleaned up. No, it's no trouble. You have nothing to make up to me.

Just be here. Be safe. Have some fun. If we turn it down, can we play? Third Affair Combatant 2. Yes. Keep it quiet. Yes.

Have you guys ever played Thorough Fair Compatant 2? I'm aware of it. Thore Affirmarcombatant, too? Yeah. Is he going to be okay? Let's play. Thank you, Mrs. Zume.

My game stick is in the ship. You have a second controller? Enjoy your night, kids. I'm going to bed. Good night, Mrs. Zume. Good night. I'll say, I don't have my, I lost my old one, so I only have the controllers.

So I mean, it'll have to make do. I will make do with my grid boys. Let's go. Okay. Let's go. Let's go. Oh, hold on, hold on. That's important.

They don't warn against that. They say you should do that. Okay. See, this is from when I was a kid. I used to play it at her shop. She had this thing. I mean, this was in their shopping. Hundreds of people play.

I can't believe it's still fucking work. Let me take a little bit. Yeah, hold on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. One of your zeros was a one. Oh, I'm just gonna watch. You all have fun though. Same. I'm sure there's something we can be doing.

I mean, you can use half of my Grib Boy if you want to play. I'm good. It's a little awkward. The the R's or just a little, the L&R. I promise, I'm all right. All right. Okay, well, I'm playing Lieutenant Wiles.

Sonic boom! Sonic boom! Sonic boom! Sonic boom! We can... We can... Hey, hey, stop! You're a little young for that.

You gotta, you know... You're a big move over and over. Roll a decks contest. Oh! No Johns, Ziggy, no Johns! You can roll straight decks. Ziggy, you can roll an in... An int...

What am I thinking? An int... Dex contest. Like an in slide of hand or something? Sorry, not Dex. Oh, gosh. Is it a technology check? Technology.

Yeah. A technology check. Roll a technology check, but Coe, you can roll a Dex technology check. And Ziggi, you can roll an Int technology check. Okay. Presumably that you would be very... I'm not proficient technology, so I'll just add my int, and I will get a 19. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon.

Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Aventrists and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, shroud over salt marsh. You can also go to the crooked moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror toome for Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition. And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies like dice, minatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. So I am proficient in technology. So I get... And you can use what modifier you think you would be using in this moment.

18 plus 3. Is it... So 15 plus 3 is an 18 plus 2. You beat me by... It's a 20. Wow! Sonic boom! No, wait!

No, no, no, no. I got this combo. It's really funny. Boom! Sonic Boo! No John, Ziggy! Why is this working? This is a Sonic food.

Oh, it got me. Shit, good game, Ziggy. Yeah, good game. Well, you're a little young for a- While this is happening back in the train. Well, it's good. The company of this is much louder than they probably intended.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't turn of all. Red has fallen asleep in a chair nearby watching. I will have, trying to like prepare for the day a week ahead of us. I will just stand near a window and try to survey the, if there is one, survey the neighborhood from this third floor. To see what I can just see and watch while they're having fun and ret is resting,

I'm just trying to like take it all in and just kind of get a feel for what this place is like. She has a street-facing apartment. So as you can move to the window and you hear this, You hear the sonic boom of Col of Lieutenant Wiles You hear Ziggy is shouting Mrs. Zuma has to come out Every like every probably

20 to 45 minutes Depend on how the match They're going to say what did I tell you Keep it down! Sorry, Mrs. Zumee, sorry Ms. Zuma You want to play? Mostly directed at Ziggy. No, I have these old These old balls couldn't possibly Oh maybe just one

Oh wow Yeah she's really good She's really good Go, go ahead. Oh, did I tell you about the time I won the 100 men, mainland? Oh, yeah. She was a legend in her day.

God, I was strong, man. This is Hume, I love that. That's to you, Sakurai. And so you go to the window and you can look out, and you see kind of this undercity spread. I'm trying to take in the people and, like, what, you know, action there might be. And, like, what is this place like?

Yeah. And it is kind of lively for how downtrodden it is, right? And as you look out over the week, many nights as you spend like this, Rhett will devote time to kind of fixing up the bike. The sounds of uproarous gaming will happen back and forth. As at some point, I'll ask you all what you've done to kind of pass this time, where you'll be able to spend moments to kind of look out, get a sense of the town,

and you'll see a lot of the frustrations that Coe has been kind of venting this entire time, right? You'll see movements of these badges, the MPS. You'll see the Scarlet Goons, even right outside of this building, you know, pedaling what looks like, the pipeline, taking money. I would be trying to make no to faces even,

and like just try to remember the things that I'm, people that I'm seeing, especially if I see them more than once. Yeah. Roll a, roll a perception check. See how good you are at, or investigation, either one. Perception for sure. Okay. Ooh, natural 20.

So that's gonna be a total of a 24. Oh, you were very good. You were very good at tracking down. I see my first rode here. You're starting to get a really good sense of like a lot of these different goons, a lot of the common players in this area you're hanging out in. Some of the movements even, like where they're going, you're starting to track certain patterns, where most of them are the direction they head in most commonly.

And as the game is being played in the background behind you, as you'll see, even like sometimes you'll see deals directly with these red belts in front of what looks like MPS. Damn. And they'll just, you know, kind of like turn, brief, to the side that something happens, like clearly turning a blind eye. And yes, everyone else, as well as, you know, anything else you'd like to do throughout this time, a week will come to pass in the time that Coe is recovering from this poison, is healing up. Coe, you may also, at this juncture, clear your exhaustion and everyone can benefit from a full rest.

Let's go! Oh, yeah. Just in addition to watching people from the window, I would spend my evenings, you know, maybe Brett would join me at one point, maybe not anybody, maybe Coe would join me at one point. I would spend my evenings like going to different pool halls, maybe, places where they might shoot pool, dive bars, grab a drink,

like listening to people eavesdropping, trying to talk to people, trying to see what I can do to gather information in a nonchalant way as a patron of these different places. and maybe try to like shoot pool with somebody who I think might be a user or even a dealer. Maybe I try to do some impersonation of somebody who's looking to score and just try to see if I can talk to people who might potentially be, you know, dealers and gather as much information as I can over the course of the week for sure. Roll either deception or performance check. Deception for sure.

That's going to be not as good. I'm going to get a 14. I'd say combined with your knowledge of the players that you rolled from your perception check. You have, what you've been able to do is you've been able to kind of almost ingratiate yourself with this community. You understand who these people are. You've spent some time, you've been able to kind of shoot pool with a couple of goons. At this point, probably not taking co with you at this stage. and you are able to glean the location

of something they refer to as a red den. Oh, shit. Somewhere that you've come to know is kind of like a more secure location that they will invite people in and actually almost like serve you red line as you go. What I'll say is, you know, Pike is definitely

like, he's laid back and like he's cool, but he's definitely not somebody that gives off an air of like high class or anything like that. Like he's definitely a, he can be like a grungy, C dude when he needs to be. You mix in. Yeah.

He's used to drinking with these types, like, from his past. You're clearly about a narc. Right. Yeah. Exactly. And, but heating, that's warning and knowing what I just went through, the only reason I even feel safe doing this is I've seen the way that the NPS acts. And I have a feeling that I'm not going to get picked up for being involved in these activities.

And so that's why I'm willing to take this risk. Yep. and, you know, pretend like I'm willing to buy. Yeah. You, so you and whomever may be with you at this point, everybody or yourself, however, you think you'd like to approach this, you had ingratiated yourself with this scarlet eye member

who had revealed this location of a red den to you, and you go to check it out. You make your way, and it's kind of this like very nondescript building, steel door. You wouldn't think anything of it. There's no signage. You barely even know to give it a second look unless somebody had told you that it was a place of importance. And you go.

You open the door. You walk in. And in front of you, you see this. like neon red glow that extends over a room, cushions laid out on the floor, a bar where people can get a drink. And roll one more perception check for it. I got another natural 20.

Oh my God! This dye is hot. Let's go. You see several members walking around with kind of trays, drinks, whatever it is. several of the trays have what look like an injector on it. And you'll see that this injector has a plunger and at the other end has two like syringe points. And as you give a quick scan of the room,

you also notice that you see someone off to the side. And you'll take quick stock of, this person is wearing a uniform, and you'll actually see that that same logo that you saw from the top slice, you'll see a Kyosian energy employee laid out one of these cushions, takes the injector,

plunges it into the neck, and as you see the plunger go in, you see this pulsing, and then just these like red, bright lines will shoot throughout the course of the body. As he'll go, woo-hoo! Yeah!

As he's feeling pumped and he shoots this. The name makes sense. Yeah, I would, ugh, God, that's, I would definitely, like, take all this in and try to be as, like, nonchalant and inconspicuous as possible. Definitely order a drink from the bar, so that way I look like I'm doing something, right? Yeah, you're not just kind of like walking through,

you definitely kind of making yourself a little bit at home by staying out of the way. Definitely be drinking a little bit, and I might not really actually be consuming, right? I'd be trying to stay sharp as best I can. And I would do my best to try to talk to some of the people who look like they're partaking in this and maybe are like off to the side and not a part of the action, right? I would try to talk to some of these people as nonchalantly as possible.

And just try to question them about like, I don't know, maybe where they're getting it or what's going on. Like, I just talk to them. Try to like talk to them as nonchalantly as possible. I'd say that you're able to find, I think that, same Keogian energy company employee, off to the side, you can approach and engage as you'd like.

Oh, shit. Okay. All right. I would wait for him to maybe, like, calm down a little bit. You know what I mean? So he's not like... Not just, like, still amped up and going crazy. Yeah, he definitely has this kind of air

of almost like, you know, pumped energy, but there's definitely a moment where it kind of starts to settle. And you can tell that he's, He's leveled out a little bit. But he's still up. He's still feeling good. He looks energetic, but he's not, you know, like crazy. And you think he'd be able to talk to him.

I would just kind of casually, like, you know, walk over and just say, look like you're having a good time. Oh, baby. Oh, I'm having a great time. You want to hit? Yeah, maybe in a bit. Right now I'm just getting warmed up. and I'll lift the glass up and almost like cheers him in the air as I take a sip from my my whiskey

Oh yeah friend here yeah Oh first one of the night nothing's like it Ooh who come here often Every chance I get every time I can afford the next ejection This is my first time in this den Oh yeah well this is one of the best spots They do great work they take good care of you here best looking servers just, you know, passing through this portion of the under crust.

Hmm. Well, welcome. Listen, you want to take a hit? Your first one's on me. A little hospitality. That's a pretty generous offer. Can I buy you a drink? Sure.

I don't see why not. We'll wash it, wash down a little bit of this red line with a little drink. And you flag somebody down and they walk a row, yes. This roommate doesn't show up. What are you doing here? She works two jobs. Life is hard, okay? The grocer doesn't cover the bills.

What can I get you? I would order another whiskey. Ask him what his poison is and, you know, just get him whatever. My boy's red line. But I'll take a whiskey. Two whiskeys, please. And they show up and you start drinking. So you, this is quite the party down here.

I wasn't sure what to expect. Every den seems to be different these days. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, that big thunder, he really gets the red line around. So these places are popping up. Any corner you want to hit? You can fly right in somewhere and grab a little, little touch. I've heard of this guy.

Sounds like he's doing the gods work. Something like that. Party drug, eh? I'm having fun, aren't you? Never better. Listen, you ever meet this guy, this Big Thunder? I hear lots of stories, but nobody's ever seen the guy. No, no, nobody meets Big Thunder?

He just runs everything, or so I'm told, so I hear. But, you know, you see him get around, kind of flashy. But, you know, you don't deal with Big Thunder. Not unless you're one of those, he'll go deliver personal. Party for a little bit. But down here, we just enjoy the ride. Plus, if the stories are true, I'm not so sure I want to meet the guy.

Isn't that the case? Cheers. Listen, man, this has been good. Am I going to see you here later in the week? Oh, probably. I mean, if it's a day that ends in the equivalent of why, Absolutely. That's fucking funny.

Thank you. All right, man. Like I said, uh, next one's on me, all right? All right. I just got to make sure Coral's not riding my ass,

but, yeah, if I can sneak away, you just, next time I see you, I'll hold you to that. All right. Cheers. Cheers.

And I'll kind of meander around and, you know, maybe talk to a few more people to make it not look suspicious. Sure. And try to slip out when I can. and just unnoticed and go on my way. Yeah, I'd say you're able to do so.

And you can make it back to the apartment, having had that experience. What's everybody else doing? I'm hungry. I'm hungry all the time. I'm going to be honest. And so I am very frequently making trips to the Pink Petal grocery and trying to figure out how much I can

get Mrs. Zuma to give me when she's working. When I'm not doing that, I'm playing Thoroughfare Combatant, too. When I'm not doing that, I'm, you know, I've realized that I didn't bring my VR helmet charger. I left it on the Rhapsody. I can't do so many games. You have to check in daily in order to do that. A whole week is going by. I'm losing so many

platinum points. So in order to pay for the various goods that Ume has gifted me in the first few days of going to the Pink pedal grocery, I'm going to go to a security terminal and I'm going to see if I can produce some notes from that terminal. But just before I endeavor to steal, and I don't end up doing this. Instead, I'm reminded of our mission here. The thing that we're investigating. and I'm going to instead do a search through this terminal and see if I can find information about the Macoro

public security and get a sense of their relationship. If I can find anything about them or Big Thunder or the Red Belt's or literally anything, this is this place where I'd be able to get through the back wall, I think. And so I'm going to pull out my grid spiking kit And I'm gonna hook up to it. Roll stealth check for me.

As you look around. Oh shit. You're attempting to do this. And probably maybe even led there by one of your comrades. Ooh. Or however you'd like to say. We have no. How are we doing a twist?

We have ten, I think. Nobody's wrong against it. You can only add so many. You can add five. Right. So I could burn half of them for five. No, we're, we're, let's play some d-ending. I'm gonna roll first off.

Overhead's at. That looks good from here. Four. Yikes. I can't, clearly can't read the die. I've got that headphones already. So you have navigated to the MPS. And you are just like, you're bumping.

You're maybe even shouting nothing to see here. I'm just walking in the car. I'm not doing anything sketch. The heck is happening. I'm hacking into the security terminal. Forget the drugs. We have a common criminal hacking. What happens touching that?

What happened because of that? Oh, God. Okay, well, so you make your way past, you make your way towards an MPS protection facility. Thinking back to when you were on the Rhapsie and you first heard the name Big Thunder, and you did your check, and similarly,

you just could not find anything on the Scarlet Eye crew, but you thought if I can get planets out, if I can jack into a secure server, maybe behind, like, local firewalls. If anyone knows, it's going to be the MPS. You might be able to get it there. and you walk straight up to an MPS facility

and in front of you you see two guards with those same kind of like bronzed helmets, the blue outfit, and you're walking straight up to the facility. I'm wearing a buddy, officers? Yeah. What are you doing here? Nothing.

I'm here to wink a withdrawal from this security terminal. Roll deception check. 16. Hmm. We haven't seen you around here before. And it's because I am not from here. Hmm.

Okay. You may do so. Be quick about it. No loitering around the MPS. I wouldn't consider it. I'm just here to withdraw a few notes. I am not going to do anything else. Listen.

I believe you. Thank you. Officer. Child. I'm 24. You are? Why does everyone keep thinking of money? The air you give off is like 14 at best. Officer.

I will go over to the terminal. And as I am accessing this point, I may have blown my cover. They've seen me. You're loudly clacking. They've seen me. But, but. Can I maybe roll a second stealth check as I... Don't ask for it.

Put it tape. Put a tape. Use your grid spiking. Just... I'm putting my guy, I'm spiking. I'm gritting. So you can roll a grid spiking check using your grid spiking tool. Oh, okay.

On the terminal in front of you, in front of this big MPS building. Still has that same kind of like general sense of dereliction, but this is definitely a little bit more up capped. This is a cleaner building. Still of that same kind of like rusted metal, though, just in terms of materials that are available down here. But you may begin to grid spike. Pretty good.

That's going to be a 15. With a 15, you start to look through. You're punching in. You're quickly as you possibly can. You're looking down every avenue in the hypergrid as you connect to their behind their firewalls. You punch past their security system. And you finally find a file on Big Thunder. Oh, yeah.

No, I have less money in my account that I thought I did. Oh, no. And you're being, you're being. You're being as quick as you can, as they've already kind of been alerted to you. But what you're able to gleam very quickly is that Big Thunder is the code name for Redline main distributor. And there's a flag. There's a flag that has been input by the MPS that says, do not engage. Do these fuck.

Dix. Fucking pigs. I knew it. I, yo. Checking savings. Zigg is too cool. He's just too cool, man. He's too cool.

He's too cool. This is his second rodeo. I download everything I can from the file. Or it's thought of everything. You do so. But I have to withdraw very quickly because I start to feel the heat and the pressure of those.

They start to kind of look back and check to see what you're doing, why it's taking so long and you disconnect and you start to shuffle away. Three notes to withdraw? Why do I have to spend money to get my own money? This is ridiculous. I'm going to another terminal that doesn't have such an interest. Goodbye.

Oh, God. Three notes. That's great. All right, you make it back to the apartment. That's what poor people feel, right? I was gonna say, he's never made. I think he's never made. I think it's life.

I'll share what I learn about the Big Thunder code name and specifically that the MPS has a strict requirement not to engage the rest of the gang at some point. I'll probably mention it like mid-thurrofare combat two and win a particular round. What? And that'll be how I spend my week, aside from literally doing the laziest job ever. I'm hacking, I'm hacking.

You got your info. What are you guys doing? What are you guys doing? I would be getting up very... Do you want to go first? I can go first. If you want to. Yeah.

I will have planned out the week, and I decide to, like, limit the number of shows that I would try to go to every night. every week, every night. And so like, just to keep it to Serpent Psalm, witch rock, Phantom Charger and Blood Voltage, and trying to make sure I bring whoever I can drag to a variety of shows across the undercrust of all of the metal shows. And that was sacrificing a lot of ones

that I already wanted to go to. And so I look at the middle, look at the poster, isn't that so cool? Like, we have to miss it, fine. And so what I would do across the thing is that I know that Rhett is fixing up my bike, but I realize my lack of wheels is killing me. So the goons that perhaps Ziggi had killed

terribly accidentally, they may have had bikes out in front of the helium. Oh, absolutely. And so I would have tried to see if they were still there, if I could steal them. And then I would then want to, my intention is to try to steal a bike and then wait at the gate towards the top slice.

and wait for Big Thunder to come for that fucking car and then just try to tail him to wherever the fuck this assholes hideout, where it is. Because I don't know where it is. I've been here for a month and I don't think I've, I don't know where it is, right? Nope, you've not been able to glean at this point where the actual hideout, like where his main base of operations is.

If I've even seen any goons going too fast, I'm fucking granted, I'm not gonna take the bus. Yeah. I'm like, well, the bus is the secret hideout, right? And so now I'm like, I need some fucking wheels. And if they have like a hover bike, I'm like, yeah, I just like, what the fucking sense? But I will, if it's a hover bike, I will still take it.

If, and so that's my attempt, that is my overall goal, besides taking the metal shows, besides playing Thurr of Air Combatant II, besides getting, catching up with Pike, getting to know Rhett and Ziggy better, and also, I'll also be working like doing, staying up late, effectively not sleeping, or as sleeping as little as possible, so I can also help Mrs. Umey at the grocer, at the Pink Petal Grocer.

So, that's my plan. You're able to accomplish all those things. You go to the shows that you'd like taking whomever you can drag along with you. There are moments where you do find yourself at the grocer helping Mrs. You may. You make your way back to the Helion, and you know exactly what it looks like

when a bike is gone unused for a couple days. Directly in front of the, the bar, you see two bikes that look like they have not seen the road for a couple days. They're not hover bikes, but they're definitely more of that, like, crotch rocket, like, super cool,

like, edgy style than you enjoy. But look almost, like, untouched as if no one would have thought to kind of mess with a bike from a scarlet eye goon before this moment right now. Man.

You see you kill those people. guys in cold blood. That was awesome. I will say that to myself as I will then go and try to hotwire, or try to basically steal the, and I'm not trying to like hack into it. I'm trying to mechanically do it with my limited understanding of my technology and with my mechanics

tools, if that's possible. Yeah. Roll a technology check for me as you go up. Come on. Okay, it's not bad, it's not bad. That is technology, eh? 16. 16. With 16. It's all got. You've not had to hot wire your bike before, but you have a very

top level understanding of how these things work. And you go up to this bike and as the bike roars to life and you can hop on, step back a little bit and as you speed out towards the gate. Yeah. And I'll wait, basically. If it takes a couple days, that's kind of my thing. Once I get the bike, I'm doing everything that I said, I'm going to, I want to see where

this asshole's going. Staking it out for hours a day. Yeah. Until you find them. And, uh. And I'll have the helmet up. Like, that's way more incognito. But given what Rhett and Pike and Ziggy have been talking about, mostly Rhett and Pike, like,

I am trying to improve and get better about that, even though all I want to do is just be like, you know, screaming about it. Bombastic. Yeah. You make your way to the ramps, the side coming down and the one going up. And you're able to kind of find a spot that's just out of the site of the MPS that's looking at that gate. You're there for probably two days before you hear familiar roar of an engine. as it approaches.

The terrible charge of this thundering red car pulls up and comes to a scratching stop right before it reaches the gate. You'll see, you're on the other side, though, you're on the passenger side looking at this car. You'll hear as a window goes down and you'll see this muscular red arm reach out as it produces what looks like a pass.

You'll see. the people at the gate will do a quick scan. The gates will open wide and the car will tear up the ramp followed by four additional speeders. All went together. Several hours later, so this is now deep into the night. You know that he's gone up. He has to return. So you've decided to wait just a little bit longer. Eventually, you hear once again before you see him, that familiar tear as he comes back down the ramp to rejoin the undercrust. And you'll see that stupid fucking red car

as he pulls out of the ramp and he starts tearing down the roadway. It's not getting any bigger, pal. And you follow. Roll. Some more of this. I'm really as tight up on this thing. Roll a dexterity contest with me.

Oh, shit. The straight dick. I can handle that. I can handle that. That's a bad. That's pretty good. That's not bad at all. It's pretty good.

Not bad. Level three, not bad. You are tearing down the road. You are maintaining the distance you'd like to set behind Big Thunder, who you come to now understand is driving this car. though you've yet to see actually him. You follow him as best you can to kind of remain, keep distance, remain stealth. As you go through, you're driving for probably an hour

as you tail him. He's making these kind of like just snake-like turns through the city as he almost seems to be kind of driving without purpose or without aim, but he's fast, he's tearing up, drifting around the roads, people are jumping out of the way. You see badges here and there. Anytime he comes up the road, they just kind of turn away, they don't see anything. Damn. You also pass as you're going, one, two, these large steel, like iron, almost the color of gun metal,

kind of these large giant reactors. You'll know them as the Keogian energy reactors. that have been drawing power out of the ground. And that's what they're really here and what they're accomplishing. And you'll pass two or three of them as you go. And you'll even see kind of like off to the side as you go up. Every now and again, you'll pass one of these reactors

and you might see a couple of employees out front of one with a scarlet eye. And you'll see them kind of talking. You'll see things kind of like quickly change hands as you blaze past. you're following him for about an hour before eventually his car starts to slow and he moves you you match speed

you start to slow down maybe even come into a stop as he starts to slowly pull towards the river's edge and you see this large kind of like what looks like at a point it may have had the faded outline of like a cannery as you see him pull the car around the back and then the engine cuts out. Oh, God, it smells like low tide down here.

Fuck. I am going to, so it looks like maybe they're going into this cannery. Looks like, I mean, from what you can tell, from what you can hear, from what you can see, it looks like he's going into the cannery. Are we like by the wharf? Yes.

You're kind of like on the ridge, River's Edge, kind of like a wharf section. God damn. There's a lot of... Like a stanky version of the DC War. Exactly. Yeah, exactly right. I am going to be trying to think of the mantra of where like I feel the serendipity of being saved

and there's a lot of conflicting feelings that I have in this past week. But with Retton Pike trying to convince me, I'm trying to listen to them, but I want to get a sense of what is this place? This is it all fucking cannery? like what, how heavily guarded, how armored, how many goons. I mean, I've only seen go around town, but everywhere I go, they're everywhere.

So I'm thinking of, like, can I try to get a sense of how many people are there and how heavily fortified? Roll investigation check. Can I use some twists? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, let's use five of them. No, let's just two, right?

Let's use three. Three? Okay. Yeah. Oh, thank God. I don't think. I am definitely proficient in this, actually. We're using three plus two plus zero.

That is 22. 22. 22. 22. Even in this chase, your blood has kind of been boiling. You're trying to keep the mantra of Pike and Rhett in your head, but you can't help grapple with this fact that someone who's leading up the people you have been chasing for so long is right in front of you.

But you can see, as you look out, you can see that this what looks like just a kind of like dock warehouse as you pay a little bit closer attention and you wait for just a couple minutes. You start to see a couple people shifting within and you make note on the outside what look like dormant laser turrets

have been attached to the out front teeth. So something that is, what you would come to understand is heavily guarded and enforced. Anybody who goes in the front door is met by someone. A lot of guards doesn't seem to be any sneaking in. But it's not initially obvious. It's not, you have to give it a couple minutes to kind of watch some coming and going. It's definitely not immediately obvious. This doesn't look like a buzzing hive of a villainous criminal dead.

You know, this, you do have to give it a bit. And it almost to the untrained eye would look like the normal comings and goings. But this is a lot of people here and heavy artillery. I will then go back, report all this, say, hey, there's like a fucking army that they have. We got to figure out something because effectively this isn't going to be something where we can just cut off the head of the snakeies. Damn, that is what I'll report back. Well done. Come.

We know where he fucking is. You do? You know where he is. Let's go. We'll get somewhere. And, Rhett, you've been working on the bike throughout this whole week. When I can, I'll be like,

okay, sorry. Any moment, Coe is not exploring vengeance or watching rock shows, heavy metal shows. She's over your shoulder watching your movement on the bike. And with your proficiency,

over the time that you've been able to give it, you've been able to find materials here, things there, your tools enhanced. You have done a pretty excellent job getting this back into kind of a working order, and you're really just in the point where you'd be

putting any kind of finishing touches on it. Perfect. Would I have time to do anything else during that week? Yeah, you can definitely, I think, you can definitely kind of be doing that by day. You'd still have these moments with the, you'd be down, you'd maybe You go to shows, you'd have longer time

to accomplish what you'd want to do. I don't think that Rhett sleeps a ton, certainly not in the situation. He's probably sleeping like four or five hours a night. And so he late at night and early in the morning, he would be behind this building working on the bike. And, you know. Most people would wake to the sounds of you,

kind of like crunching gears, turning bolts. Yeah, so basically he would be going to various mechanic shops to find the parts that he thinks he needs, trying to like work together parts that he can't find sort of on his own. But I think in the downtime, as part of the bounty hunting that he's doing, is I think he would try to get a sense of the Keogyn Energy Company and sort of figuring out what they're doing here.

And I have to imagine that maybe there's some etheron that they have employed as well. And so my hopes is that learning about the company, just like the old days. Once, and especially once, co-reports to me that she sees, like, employees and red belts like, I would have told you about the QOG guy that I met in the den 100%. I just didn't know we were doing that yet. We're working together, folks. I definitely would have told you that.

Throughout the week, right? This is sort of, obviously, like, downtime rules were just fucking awesome. But, like, what I would be doing is for this week, if I could try to start to sort of snoop around the power plants and the various, you know, whatever kind of facilities that they would have. Processing facility. And if I can find some drunk or, cold ether on, like, uh, dude that would like maybe go to a dive bar and get changed and leave

his uniform in a locker. Oh, shit. Yoinck the uniform and like throw that on. Let's go. Just like, I wouldn't want to do anything too risky. Like, Red's on the kind of guy's going to walk into the fucking plant, but at least get on the grounds past like, like, sort of look like I know I'm supposed to be there. Yeah. And at least at a surface level, do whatever and kind of investigation that I can to get a better sense of what this company's doing here and how they're involved in the gang. Roll a investigation check.

24, 19, 21. Oh, hell yeah. With a 21, your week goes a little like exactly as you've described. Sweet. You are able to kind of, you've now all kind of come accustomed with these reactors a bit. Coz maybe describes some of how it works,

somehow they set up. you're able to kind of like track down the closest one to the building you're staying in you spend a little bit of time you eventually end up finding this this old etheron that was working at the plant who just gets hammered one night

at the bar passes out at the table can't be a fun job a common occurrence right a common occurrence and it has also classic like really easy to acquire just overalls.

Like almost like a mechanics overall as you can find most anywhere. Exactly. Exactly. But did have a badge that said a security consultant. And so what this will allow you to do

is though this will allow you to basically get onto a reactor plant and start to kind of investigate things from the outside. And as you said, maybe you're not looking to get like all the way in or, you know, if you want to feel that out, you definitely can. But what you're going to start to do, what I'll tell you you're going to discover at this point, you're going to, you're looking at this reactor. And you get, this is a gargantuan structure. It does not pierce the highways above. It stays kind of like in the under, crust so it doesn't

upset the kind of like nicer nicer experience of the above but you start to look around you start to figure out the workings here and you understand that this thing feels like it's drilling deep into the ground. Oh shit!

And you don't know exactly how far down it's going but it's pulling up a form of power out of the ground through talking with people figuring things out you're going to come to find that they are basically, they're drolling out of the ground to Lucium. Tolusium.

And as they do it, has a negative impact on the environment around them. Classic. But it is a condensed form of power that allows them to do, to power an absolute immense amount of things around. One day, when you're at one of the plants, you're investigating, you're checking things out on the outside, you experience everything for a moment goes black in the entire area. All the lights cut out. Everything goes dark. And you look around, you're seeing way off in the distance in the distance in the...

in the under trust, you see some lights still kind of lit up from a neon area. But it looks like this whole neighborhood section. The power's out. The power has gone out. Do we experience that too when we're around? I would say yes, absolutely. Even if you're in the apartment, at this point, you're in the closest reactor to the apartment. Mid-game.

Mid-game. Zing is finally about to win. Zing is finally about to win when suddenly all everything goes black. Technically, that's a draw. That's very funny. He's going to have a breakdown. See you're up. And you'll see, you'll, like, it'll be fucking black.

Off to the side, just kind of off to the side of the reactor, you'd seen a couple of, you'd seen a couple of other Keogian employees look like maybe engineers talking with what you at this point is easily discernible to you was a scarlet eye game. Oh shit. That classic exchanging of the hands. this is middle of the day presumably they're supposed to be inside working and they're outside

maybe shoot up or maybe just getting something for the evening but their attentions have certainly been drawn and that has resulted in a rolling blackout in the area and you'll hear call out across the across almost this open field

chain fence what the fuck are you doing out there as this guy will walk out bald-headed same kind of overalls but he'll walk out and if you can catch a glimpse you'll see not a tag but

like almost sewn into his overall his overalls his former and he's making his way B-line furious towards the Keogian employees that is talking to the Scarlet Moon and you'll hear him say you all know

need to get the fuck back to work right now. What do you think we're paying you for so rolling blackouts can run through the fucking down? Get inside. It just like stop working and like the power just cuts out. Well it's like

presumably like the fact that you've seen these KioG employees in red dens you don't know how many people across how many spaces have been pulled away from work at what time. And the result of them, you're starting to kind of draw the dots. The result of them getting in, like, deeper and deeper

involved in this red line is work, the works not being focused on at these power plants. And the result of that is, occurred these rolling blackouts, which this is the first one you'll experience, but you will experience more throughout the week as you go through. If I could get either a glimpse of the name tag or find out if that guy had the same name as the guy that Pike mentioned. Oh, yeah. Coral or Corral or whatever. I would say you do see the name Foreman Correll.

Correll. On his jumper. Because Puster, I've been here a month. Do I know anything about the rolling blackouts? Do I know if it's just the undercrust, or do I know if it's affecting the top slice as well? Yes, I would say that... Would I be pissed off about this as well.

You would be pissed off about this as well. You may not necessarily understand why, but you would know that these rolling blackouts are reserved specifically to the under crust. Damn. Almost as if it's something that would just be impacting power, but they're diverting all reserve energy

to ensure that the top slice is never impacted. And that's almost causing more frequent rolling blackouts. These guys sucked. This is a fucked up situation. But it sounds like this Correll guy is like a no-nonsense, like... So you'll hear the goon.

Listen, old man, you don't want to fuck with us. You know how dangerous the scarlet eye is? You know who you're dealing with? Let's try to get the T. Listen, fucking kid. Peddle your shit somewhere else. Oh shit. You want this whole fucking place covered in darkness?

Get the fuck out of here. Leave my guys alone. And you three get the fuck back inside and get the goddamn lights on. Common enemy. This won't be the last you hear from me. Fucking Corel. You want to fuck with us?

You know what we can do? You want to fuck with Kyojin? You know what we can do? I'll fucking bury you. Get the fuck out of here. Oh, this is bad. This is so bad. We are weighing over our heads.

And they'll, uh, he will shuffle his guys back inside as the Scarlet Goon will shuffle off elsewhere. It's you. And I'll say at that point, you may get back to the apartment. I relay all of that. Hey, ran everything good? You okay?

Oh, oh, oh. I will share this and I will let people know that I think this, sort of based on everything, I mean, I guess at that point, we've collected all the information. Yeah. We're back. Where you're closing it on the end of the week. You've collected all this information together.

Coe has never dropped a game to Ziggy. I'm kidding. Sure, it's gone back. It's gone back and forth. You have the, you have a full, you have a full picture of information in front of you now. This is deeper than I thought. All these guys are scum fucks,

but I guess they're scum fucks that ain't each other. A whole energy corporation, though, we're not just dealing with drug dealers here. God damn fucking fortress. I got a feeling that this Correll guy, he might be a good contact to make. I tried to stay the fuck away from him

while I was snooping around, but if y'all want me to somehow sneak in and let me drop him a line and we can meet with him, maybe having this fucking common enemy, we might be able to get some help. It's not a bad idea. Whatever this, whatever this shit, shit is. It's not even the normal

stuff. Those guys that I talk to in the den, this is another level. People are dying. But it seems like they're testing it out on the undercrust before they ship it up to the top slice. So there's just, we'll fucking test subjects down here. And

I mean, if this corral guy is trustworthy, I mean, the Kyojin assholes have enforcer goons. The red, the scarlet I have fucking enforcer goons. and the NPS, and none of them are on the same fucking side. They're all just fucking coexisting because everyone's making money, hand over fist.

Is there somewhere we can meet down here that would be safe and inconspicuous for this Correll guy? Safe and inconspicuous. You're going to ask fucking me. I mean, you know this place. And maybe it's been a week, and maybe I would have an idea. But, you know, we've got to figure out where, if we can meet with this guy, it's got to be somewhere safe. What about a pink petal grocery? Why? No. We're not going to lure him back here to Ms. Zume? No, he doesn't even know. He has to pick up groceries. It seems like the perfect spot. I don't know. We got to be careful. Even if this guy has similar interests as we do, we got to be careful messing with Keogian.

These guys are serious players. What if we do it at a show? We invite him to a show. It's too loud. No one can fucking over here. I think that's fucking brilliant. That's a great idea. Yeah. All right. Hey, do you have one in mind? Just give me the info and I'll try to slip it to him if I can.

Well, I mean, tonight or... God, do we do it tonight? We can do it tonight. I can get back over there. Do I know which plant he would be at or like... Yeah, generally. I would say he seems like the kind of guy that just like... burns both ends, is you've seen him at that plant, you know that he would, especially in the

events of like rolling blackouts, he's pulling double duty to try and ensure that this kind of stuff is not happening. And he's generally like pissed that his people are off getting hooked on this stuff. And he's definitely like, you know, he, there's no, there's a ton of ill will there. And yes, you got a sense of like what kind of, what kind of rocky being to and what kind of I think the Widows whale show. Widows whale. That's the one. Widows whale. Wittows whale.

All right. Absolutely. And the show's tonight. It's tonight. All right. We'll meet him there, a little bit after doors, so we're not looking conspicuous, and then, well, we can linger at the back. You're old.

You know, I mean, well, it'll be believable that, you know, that you'll need to kind of be far away from the pit. I mean, look, this isn't my fucking arena, all right? Arena, all right. So I'm gonna get the guy there. We can all watch the show and we can talk to them screaming our fucking lungs out on the back of the club. Yeah. All right. Widows whale tonight. Widows whale tonight. I would immediately get back. I would maybe like I would even get, I would wait to get changed somewhere in conspicuous, get close to the plant. And I would, I would, walk on property with a uniform on and try to I think I would try to intercept him directly

if I could. Yeah, I think you'd be able to do that. Okay. I'm gonna, you, I think you're picking up what I'm putting down, but I want to basically Mike Erman crowd him when he walks in the fulfillment center and basically like, no nonsense him and basically come clean and be like, look, this is who I am and et cetera. So if you want to role play that we can, but that's sort of my plan. I think you are extremely able to do that. You get there.

You're both no-nonsense guys. You're both no-nonsense guys. I think that he would get it and he would be on board. I think that you're absolutely correct. You're able to navigate back to the plant. You find Foreman Corral. You engage with him. You explain that you're this bounty hunting party.

You'd like to meet to talk about a shared issue you all have. maybe even apologizing for some of the pomp and circumstance and the misdirection, but this was the best way to get his attention. And I think he would hesitantly, but be interested to hear what you have to say and want to meet with you. And I think you're able to accomplish all that. I take him aside and say, look, I'm wearing a fucking uniform. Clearly your security's lacking, and I have a sense that you're in a bad fucking way

because of this fucking syndicate and these drugs. And I hope that you're on the same fucking page as I am. And I'll show him my guild's certification of like, hey, the name's Red Indigo. I'm a bounty hunter. And we want to fucking clean up this place and take in the distributor that's been fucking ruining this city in this fucking neighborhood. Are we on the same page? I've seen you all moving around.

We're on the same page. Bounty hunters. Bounty hunters. And this big thunder fuck that's getting these drugs into all your employees, we want to take them out.

I can't say too much, but if you meet us at the fucking show tonight, widows wail, I think they're called. We can talk about it there. This fucking redline poisoned has been destroying us down here. These rolling blackouts a mess. People are getting hurt. People are dying. I don't want that. My people don't want that. I don't want to see them suffer.

Look, maybe we can help each other out, all right? Listen, we've never been able. We can't get in a fucking all-out street war with these goddamn scarlet eyes. I bark at them enough. Sometimes they move away, but I don't know how much you know about these guys at these point. These are hard fucking killers. just, these aren't pick pockets and drug peddlers. They know what they're doing, but we had our eye on this one chick for a while who was messing with them. But, uh, she's with, she's with me now. So, part of the crew.

Look, I don't know who's fucking listening. I don't know who's watching. It's not safe to do it here. Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'll see you tonight. Yes, you will. and I would get the fuck out just to that I don't want to say too much

I just want to basically in and out. It just turns his back to you and goes back to working on a little like just writing something as you make your way. And I will walk off premises and meet him at the show.

You set this whole plan in motion now in the under city having met Keogian finally finding the head distributor of the scarlet eye big thunder finding a potential ally to help you burst in and potentially finally grasp your prey. You are making your way back to the apartment to gather the team to make your way to this big show.

And you get there. You walk inside and you see everybody waiting for your return. All right, good fucking news. What's that? So we gotta make sure we protect this guy's safety, all right? Well, I mean, he's meeting us at a show, and as much as I don't trust the fucking Keogyn Goon, I guess the devil, you know, right? Hmm. I mean, look, this guy seemed super fucking reasonable, and I think my read on him was 100% correct. You know, yeah, he's a company man, but he, you know, he doesn't like what's what red lines do into this.

neighborhood as much as you don't like it. A fresh batch of cookies. Yeah. And then you've been doing this all throughout the week. So at this point, kind of having this level of conversation around Mrs. Ume has become a little more traditional, a little more old hat as you've gone out and done certain things. You've come back and you've reported things to the whole team.

Oh, for you? Oh, thank you. For you? What's everybody planning? What are you doing? Thanks. Did I hear, did I hear Kyogen? We're gonna do it.

Rhett found perhaps maybe someone who can help us finally smash the face of these fucking red bell goons. I'm sorry, freaking. We might actually have a plan that's gonna be able to clean up the neighborhood. Do you think so?

Yeah. This might actually work. I mean, it's almost a fucking miracle. How well-oiled of a team we are. I mean, everybody, pulling their part, we're all working like real, real bounty hunters. Oh. Not licensed. Not licensed, no badge.

No authority. You've been an amazing help and a good friend. And, uh... I've been listening to what you said and helped me find their fortress. But at least we're starting to have a plan. I usually don't have plans, so this is new for me. I'm so proud of you all and what you've been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time.

You've really, you've been able to gather a lot and well, I'm just so happy that Co has friends like you, watching out for each other's backs, and it seems like it's been a heck of a week, but I just hope you'll be careful out there. It seems like you're only, you're only angling to get into more danger, not less. And I know you want to clean things up. I know you want to change things, and I appreciate that. I want them to change too. But I just want you all to come home safe.

We wouldn't be good at what we do if we weren't a little reckless. See? They have licenses and stuff. People think that they're good at what they do. And they're reckless. Just a little. We only survived prison together because we were reckless. And we wouldn't, you know, we just weren't scary and we crazy and unpredictable.

People didn't fuck with us. Right, Pike? That's right. There we go. That's right. It sounds like you have a clear plan. We're going to go to the show right now? Ready?

Well, I mean, I think we got a little bit of time. Before we go, I want to make sure, how many groceries have you comp Ziggi this week? I want to make sure that I cover you for that. Oh, I've lost county. He came in, I think, every single day, asking for triple batches of cookies. Jesus.

Every day? Not always cookies. Sometimes multiple times a day. I know, I mean, if you make, come on. Snack cakes, too? I didn't tell them about the barbecue chips. See, she didn't, I mean, what? Well, can I please, can I please repay you?

No. And I take out my water cash. Please put it away. I wouldn't hear it. I insist. I'll pay, I'll pay her back when we, when we, when we, get our next up bounty. I can wear the fun.

Are you sure? If you are going to clean this place up, or if you are going to get red line off the streets, if you are going to finally get the Scarlet Eye out of here and change this place, Rhett, you can have as many cookies, as many barbecue chips, as many fluffy pillows as you could possibly want. But even if you weren't, I would be so happy to have you all stay here first. all stay here for as long as you'd like. It is great to have the company

and the enjoyment of an appreciation of our cooked food. Well, I'm going to reimburse you for us staying here, too. I mean, you've been too fucking generous. Sorry, I'm sorry. You've been far too generous. The fact that we've been able to sleep here and, you know, the tea and the

cookies and everything. Redd your gentleman. Somebody did right by you. They're all right. The stories were true. I believe that. But the show's probably coming up pretty soon here, so how ticked up are people at these shows? Would it be okay if I bring my stuff just in case? Yeah, of course.

All right. It's a fucking metal show. Everyone's got all sorts of shit. Yeah. All, uh, and down here, people are, they're strapped. They got all sorts of weapons on them. There's no fucking weapon checker metal detector.

And you would have seen that walking throughout the week, I mean, a lot of it is really, the badges seem to turn a blind eye to almost everything, except the movement at the tunnels, the movement between the top slice and the under crust. Really, anything else is more or less free game, unless you kind of draw their ire directly or you make any direct threats or aggressions towards them, which moments, Cozman on the line. But you would think you can move throughout down here. Unimpeded.

All right. So I'll get fully strapped, so to speak. That's right. Just in case this goes south. And I will, is the bike done? Or does it still need a few more finishing touches? Oh, I would say the bike is done at this point. Unless there's anything you want to like specific.

have, you know, like, signed off on. I'd say at this stage, you've been able to accomplish, you've been able to accomplish the full repair of the bike. Thank you, Mrs. Ume. You have a lovely knot. Before we go, I want to show you something. What? Let's go. Okay. You're going to be all right? You need anything? Well, if you all are heading out,

I'm excited. We're going to a big meeting and important meeting with this. Well, I'm excited for you to have fun. I know how much you love your shows. I think this would be very good. But Coffey would hang back for just one second. I'll put the finishing touches up. I'll catch up, yeah.

I'm gonna go with Rhett. I'll stay. Yeah, we'll catch up, we'll catch up. Yeah, so I'm gonna go back around to where the bike is. She'll wait until, she'll wait until Ziggy also leaves. Ziggy, no, no, Ziggy very quickly, is like, look, I know I took a bunch of stuff from the store, and I wanted to, you know, like in trade, we'll reimburse you. But I made you a grid site, a pinkpedalclub.com.

You finally got me on the NAS? That's right. You're on the navigation, and you've got your menu right here and all of your goods, and it's got inventory, and you can accept payments. People can even pick stuff up. It's really something special. Is that why people keep showing up saying they've done something online? Yeah, yeah.

I just kept sending them. I had no idea what they were talking about. Well, now you're on the grid. Oh. Thank you, Ziggy. My pleasure. It's been my pleasure having you here. Take another two cookies for the road.

You're a growing boy. Thank you. I run down the stairs with one cookie in my mouth, anime style, as I follow up with Rhett and Pike. Cookies instead of toast. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. What's up?

Co, come here. Sit down, next to me on the couch. Oh, okay. Somebody in you. Cole sitting down on the couch, on the couch, like, whee, and music. Springs are kind of good. You take it in there.

Sorry. Listen. I know I probably worried too much about you, but I've known you since you were very small, and I just hate to see harm come to you. And I just I want to give you something, okay?

And I need you to take it because I believe that this is going to bring you good luck. And I think it's going to keep you safe from harm. And I think it's going to help you find hopefully the peace that I think you're really seeking. And she'll produce to you this plump, round cricket. It's painted red, yellow, and black.

It has these kind of swingy act antennas that play back and forth, and they play almost this like xylophone kind of chime when they're connected. And you recognize this. Yeah. It immediately takes you back to your childhood when you saw her shop.

And you used to see this, this plump cricket sitting in the window as you would walk past. This was in the window of your shop back home. My whole childhood. Where did you find this thing? You brought it with you across the galaxy? Oh, well, I knew that you always had an affinity for it. I saw you keep your eye on it, and I just thought,

someday, someday you're going to need this. And so I kept it. Wow. God, it's been so long. God, remember when I used to come in with pop and I always like to listen to the, does it still make the noise? Give it a try. I'll grab it, I'll clap like the antennas together.

Yeah, and it makes that that familiar sound that once again just rockets you back to the past. I hear like the xylophone music, and I'm like, things were sure were different back then, huh? I suppose it depends on perspective I'm gonna cherish this no matter where I go I'm gonna stay here for a while long time help you out at the Crozier but no matter where I am I'm gonna bring this with me and This is something that I think that my whole family life

Just be careful out there kid up I will I'm gonna just gonna go and give her a hug Thanks for you to do so much for me. I'm sorry sorry Thanks for doing so much for me and for my friends and all that. And even if I don't come back, I'm going to come back. But even if I don't, that mother guy is going to die. And we're going to get the red belts out of here. And they're going to be so afraid of what's coming for them if they come back, that they're going to leave this city alone.

They're going to learn that McCorough is not for the city again. No more syndicates ruining neighborhoods. Never again. She'll reach up to either side of your face and put her hands on your cheeks and just say, oh, go. And bring you into also a big hunt. She's like hanging from your neck

as she gives you a big, as big as she can must her hug. And you feel the weakness of old age kind of in her arms as she tries to really summon all her might. Go get him. I will. I'm not going to.

gonna let you down, I promise. And I'll look at the cricket again, and then I'll take it, I'll put it in one of my pockets, my many pockets that my vest has. And I'm gonna run down the stairs quickly. I'll give her one last hug, and then I'll close the door with a loud slam and then make my way. You do so, you loud slam, you race down the hallway.

The cricket now resting comfortably in your vest pocket as you go down the flight of stairs, down the flight of stairs, and burst out to the back where the rest of the party is gathered, around your bike. I think she's ready. And I'll be putting the final, like it's nice and wax and I would have a rag in my hand, and I'm sort of finishing the final polish.

Maneuvers. I'll fire her up. Miracle worker, man. I do what I can, eh? You know, it's not much, but. What do I owe you? I'm not a thing. For the services you provided at this point,

you've paid for it and more. Don't mention it. I'm gonna like slowly with reference approach it. As you move up and the light starts to catch the sheen, not only has it been repaired, but it's been cared for. I mean, Rett has done an impeccable job bringing this back to an immaculate condition. And as you walk up and it catches the light, a shriek just shines and then glints at the end. I'm gonna... No. I should wait.

We're going to walk to the show. It's up to you. I don't want to rev her up and then not give her a ride immediately. That would be cruel. All right. I'll cover her back up. And let's not be so hasty on the no payment thing.

We can worry about that. We bag all those notes. I don't know how to thank you. Thank you, guys. I'll grab the tarp that's been covering it when I'm not working on. I'll put it gently lay back over. You do.

You do it with care and it very neatly frames the shape of your now pristine bike underneath. Just one more, look, and I'll get like to take it. Pike, things that make you say, hell yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. We're gonna walk? Smash gunned Smash gunned at the costume 100%.

He's all sweaty. Inpeccable. We're in the back of the clock. Holy shit. Oh my God. It's the opener. We're waiting for all and Coral to show.

You make your way and it's this kind of like warehouse kind of heavy metal ring. There's music just raging in the background. you're hanging back against a section kind of keeping your eyes out

looking for the foreman waiting for him to come in and joining the show for a little bit until finally you see the familiar figure that you've come to know, Brett, as the foreman. He walks in these big

like up, scale up doors that are just like open now as this concert's at full raging form as he comes in kind of like a trench coat on as he walks in and he kind of gives a quick glance around until his eyes fall on being red and he makes his way over. Did I ever get his first name? No, I don't believe he did. Once I see that you might be talking to him, I'd walk over three beers in one hand and two and the other, and pass them out. So it looks like we're there.

We belong. We each have a beer. We're enjoying the music. And to just try to look like we're there to party. Two minutes! I'm screaming. Yeah! I'm screaming.

I'm going. Up the yards. People were just shout out on the crowd. I'm going to hate ship. I'm going to hate ship. Hell yeah! The performance is incredible. Jumping, giant.

That's back the beer. giant speakers, the lead singers just standing on top of one and then leaps off of it and does a flip until he lands. And it's just like things are going crazy. Flames are flying up. This is a great show. And finally, Foreman makes his way over to the group of you collected. I wouldn't have peg you for this taste of music, Rhett. I'll just continue you're enjoying it.

I've been in one of the beers that Pike gave me. And, uh... Thank you. Remember, we're enjoying the show. And I would want everybody to be at least participating in some way, right? So that we're all sort of on the same page. Yeah, right. As we talk.

Right. I'm listening, and I'm just standing here. Once I finish my beer, I'll do that kind of thing where I'm just, like, folding my arms. Yep. And, like, just looking, but I'm listening. Yep. Yep. As letting right do the talking, but I'm going to contribute as well.

Yep. Got it. All right. So, uh, what can you tell us about Big Thunder? And why the fuck, haven't y'all done anything about it? Good fucking question. It's not as simple as you think. Yeah.

Good job. Good job, guys. Yeah. Yeah. Do either this or this. This is more classic, but even still do it. Okay, all right. Scarlet Eye is bigger than just this world.

Here you just got big thunder Pedaling Down here to the undercity That's all he was supposed to be doing at least But he started making trips topside The top slice Some have said he's flying higher than his station But you gotta understand

These are fucking cold-blooded murderers We haven't moved on them Because we're a fucking power company We can't be seen just rolling straight into the scarlet eyes made base just start gunning people down could we give them a fight sure probably but then what's gonna fucking happen all the cameras

the goons that get away they're gonna say fucking keogyn just storm the base and then where are we at and the fucking scarlent enforcers all over the system are gonna land here and it's gonna be war in the streets That's not what we want. Yeah, we want the Red Line to stop. I don't want my guys fucking hooked.

But I can't just take them to a bloody street fight. Well, lucky for you and your fucking company. We're here to do your goddamn dirty work. They have a fucking army. How many of your skull-cracking thugs can you devote to this? Well, it depends on what your talents are. if I can send in a couple of people under cover

I mean you're licensed bounty hunters We need a lot fucking more than a couple We know you haven't We can put up enough But we need you all to go in first We can't just walk straight through the fucking doors You'd have to get somewhere You'd have to be able to

Turn off the cameras, disabled their security The second they see us coming They're gonna start fucking shooting All right, kid That's where you're best That's where I come in I can disable all of that All right

This kid Yeah, he's legit Is that barbecue chip dust on his fingers? No He can Get it done But how are we gonna get even Fucking 20 feet away from that place?

That's what I'm saying We need to fucking get inside first They're not gonna want to try Sit down and fucking chat. They got laser turrets and a fucking army, so oh, by the way, she's presumably the one you were

talking about earlier. Uh, yeah, we've heard about you. It's Co. You heard about me? Yeah, there's a bit of a bounty on your head, colloquially. That's not good. Oh. It's not so much a bounty as it is a fucking

beat down and a dragon. I'm making a... They're... Up on me? Big Thunder's looking for you. Good, he should be that piece of shit. It's about fucking time. It's been a month.

Well, that means that you have to keep a low profile. We might even need you in disguise. No. He fucking, that's easy. You're telling me, Big Thunder's looking for her. Oh, Big Thunder knows that somebody's been going around fucking tearing up his goons, tearing up his operation. Hell yeah.

And if there's one thing you can count on that a, that a, fucking drug distributor doesn't like, well, it's when somebody's fucking cutting the hands off from under him. So yeah, we hear that he wants her... Making a dead!

Alive. Live. Where it is, he wants to fucking crash your skull himself. So is there a chance... I'll let him fucking try. He put out some kind of bounty, official or

unofficial. Is this word out that he's looking for? It's on the That's what I hear from my guys. Can I check the interwebs and see if there's an official bounty? If I could quickly pull up my grid boy and double check to see. Yeah, you can run a computer check and see if this is something that seems like an official bounty. Now that you're a fully licensed bounty on it.

Oh, check the system. You can run against the, you can run a computer check against the GBG. I run a few queries and I get an 18. Oh, with an 18. You try and look into this relatively quickly. You race through, you once again search for Big Thunder, you search for Co, you search your description, anything like that they would kind of flag some official...

That's the Tor. It's you. It's a you there's a, oh, there's a you? No, not in my last name. Oh, oh, oh, oh. They have that, okay, yeah. We're trying to use our forms to, like, block out what's happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'd say you're able to kind of navigate

to a slightly more secluded, like, corner. There's maybe even like a, you know, like a table lining the back edges of the room that you can find yourselves to. And you're being relatively inconspicuous, but especially with you blocking the, any onlookers that might be taking a look. You would not be able to find any official, a better way to describe it is you would know that there is no official bounty for GEO. I feel confident that there isn't anything. Ford Co. If there's a contract or a bounty on Co's head, it's not official.

It's all street stuff, just like Carl Seine. That's fucking easy. Yeah. He's fucking, he's serving himself up on a fucking silver platter. As long as he hasn't gotten wind of what we're looking to do, maybe he fucking turn you in. Well, I've been a big blue beacon in the fucking sky. They're not going to pay attention to you guys. You have the license

You're from the guild We have the license And they fucking fall for that And we're just bounty hunters That fucking Clap you in chains And brought you in We collect the bounty

And then we can get your guys in I think something like that Just might work If you You'd have to be ice cold You'd have to play it Cool Just like the end of

Skybreak exile. I haven't seen that. You're not doing anything to instill confidence here, Sinky. Come on, man. Keep it together. It's easy. He's going to let us walk through the front fucking door. If this kid can do what you say he can do,

and you think he can disable the systems, you walk in with her. They're going to let you in. They're going to take you to Big Thunder. And if he could split off, even for a couple moments, kill the cameras, whatever the hell else you can do.

I'll bring my fucking hottest hitters. All right. And your company's fine if they send fucking goons out and get into gang warfare at this fucking canary? The company doesn't say fucking, hey,

send some guys and shoot a place up. They say keep the fucking lights on. We don't want to know how you do it. Maybe fucking, I don't know. Go incognito, too. Don't fucking wear the company's goddamn logo on your man. Oh, we'll be, we'll be incognito, will be dressed up, disguised helmets.

That's a good idea. Whatever it is. They're not going to know it's us. Nobody who sees us there is going to think that's Keogian storming the place. Well, and if we can even remotely match their firepower, all we got to do is be in the same room as this big thunder, and he's done.

I don't need a fucking weapon. I got these. We're gonna need you though. Once we're in there, the only way we're getting out alive is if you all fucking hold up your end of the bargain, you understand? Listen, I gain nothing from sending you,

you guys in there just to get fucking slaughtered. All right? I want them out as much as, I want red line off the streets as much as you fucking want to see this happen. Okay, I'm invested. Could I discern if I, Rat and Richie are both pretty convinced

that he's risking his life and that he wants this as bad as we do. But can I potentially mechanically Roll an insight, John. Confirm that information. Confirm that. Pretty good. I think that's an 18.

Oh, hell yeah. With an 18, you get the sense that a former Kurel is almost like a kindred spirit to you in a sort of way. You're both kind of no nonsense straight to the point. You definitely get the sense that what he's saying to you is the truth. Not necessarily that he's some like good, benevolent guy. looking to help you out of the kindness of his heart. Red line is cutting into the bottom line of Keogyn, and it's his job to keep the fucking lights on,

and it's his job to kind of keep things going, and he genuinely seems to have this care for his guys who are getting hooked on this drug, and he wants it out. All right, we got a plan. The question is where? It's better than, how fast can you get your guys together? Tomorrow.

Tomorrow night? Tomorrow night? Sooner the better. The longer that these fucking assholes are... The sooner they're fucking dead, the longer they're off the street. And we don't even want to give them a chance to catch a whiff of what we're cooking up. Yeah, I gotta make a couple calls, but... If you can commit to that tomorrow or not, we'd do just fine.

Well, we can move as soon as you'd like. All right. You fucking double-cross us company, man. All of us are saying fuck no to the harmony, we're haunting you for the rest of your fucking life. And pieces of dead. You understand? Well, hopefully it doesn't fucking come to that.

Fucking hopefully. I'll stead out a bunch of fucking guys outside. We got to see those cameras die before we move a fucking inch. He's got it. Once we see the tech powered down outside, well, we'll fucking come in. We'll come and knock it. It's all right. Sounds like we've got a deal.

I don't think we need to say anything. anymore presently. I'll get their next round. And I'm gonna basically go to the bar and get everybody around and enjoy the rest of the show so that it feels like we actually be here to watch the show. You're kind of doing your thing.

Yeah. And- I like grab Ziggy. My arm is around his neck. I'm leaning down. I'm into it. I'm not head-banging as much as you are, but like I don't dislike this music.

I'm into it. I'm just also an awkward person, so I'm just like, yeah. You know, this is a little heavier than the stuff I normally listen to, but I kind of dig it. Cheers, big guy. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers to see in another day. And he'll continue to party with you. He'll continue to party with you as well at the show. You'll see a couple moments as he just kind of steps off to the side. It looks like he makes a call here and there, so he'll do so. Kind of throughout the night.

Um, as he's, he's, you get the sense that he's, he's already, uh, like making the moves

to get a couple hard hitters, uh, in play. Um, I never got your first name. We'll be later in the evening. I just want to ask you something.

Whoa! That's very funny. Uh, I don't know. I'm gonna go down some of here. Oh, I'm excited. I'm your

Corral. Torrell. Torrey. Well, the name's Hyder. I thought it was going to be sweet. Hider Correll. Hider Correll. It's been a pleasure, and I'll see you tomorrow night.

What I said. Yeah, okay. Ghosts are otherwise, fucking. You just don't fucking, you don't fucking let loose, okay? I've heard about half the fucking shit you've done. That's why I'm fucking famous, company man. Your goddamn blue beacon. That's why you're working in a fucking factory, and I'm wanted.

Look. Yeah. Just like, jail. How about you just play it cool for the 10 fucking minutes. It's going to take you to get in front of Big Thunder. That's all I fucking do. I'll make sure. It's all going to run cool.

All right. I've had a lot of beer, so I'm, like, feeling it. I think I'm buzzing, too. Yeah, I'm buzzing. I'm not drunk, but I'm buzzing. Yeah. Everyone's starting to feel, I mean, like, really, like a clear picture is starting to come into place. what seemed like a pretty insurmountable

task to be able to handle. Now you have what you've come to understand a relatively trustworthy ally in terms of maybe not a true friend but certainly an enemy of an enemy. And with that, you feel like things are starting to look up. Like you're really about to kind of take the fight

to the scarlet eye and come out on top. And for you two, the three of you, you'll know that that'll mean like a relatively solid payday out of this tier distributor for the scarlet eye syndicate. You're feeling pretty good, as you continue to party throughout the night.

So, yeah, I think we'll, once the show's over, you know, I think we'll, with the buzz on, close, right? It's feeling pretty good. Yeah, we'll walk here. And we'll walk back and get a good. and get a good night's sleep. By the time you,

Ziggi has just stopped sweating. As you turn to lead. That's way really. That's very real. That's very real. I'll just like to switch a red hole and so. Ziggy has finally reached neutrality in his cord. Just stopped sweating when everyone's like,

okay, let's head on back. and you make your way you kind of this pep in your step the promise of tomorrow the promise of tomorrow night what's to come and you're laughing you're talking about the concert

any other conversation you might want to have before you make it back to the apartment you tuck in for the thing anything that you want we can just keep oh um you know it doesn't have to be yeah I think we would be

Just, I would want to basically go to Co and be like, I don't got to be fucking respectful and understand that it's not just going to be our lives in danger. It's going to be a whole lot of guys who have families and fucking, you know, lives here. I get it, right? I mean, if I fuck this up, then we all fucking die. And these assholes get to take over the city even more. And we are going to find out who his distributor is. And we're going to find out when he,

And then you guys can go and fucking, with that, you can go fucking put that ass on, you're in the fucking grave. At the end of the day, there's only four people here that I care about. And it's us four. Let the fucking Keogians energy company and, you know, let the syndicate, let them duke it out. We're here for one thing. It's to get that guy, figure out who his supplier is just like Coe said. We're going to get out of here alive. Now, look, I'm with you, right?

You did fucking six months in the can because of all this shit, right? You guys get paid if he fucking dies? You guys get paid. Is it dead or alive? Do I know? Is there I'm lying? I think generally for these tiers, it is significantly more favorable

to bring in alive for questioning to continue to find this. They want info just like we do. We need this guy alive. They'll probably take his fucking corpse. but they're not going to pay us even half as much. Yeah, you would think that you're looking at like a tenth of a payout if you bring him in debt. It's 10 to 1. I looked it up.

It's significantly like it. All right, so what I'm asking you is... We'll see what he fucking does when they time. Just fucking cool it, hot head. All right? That's all I'm asking. I'm trying. All right.

Try it. Okay, I need to get to bed. Anyway. As this point, you've been walking the apartment going to... starts to come into sight. It's pretty late at night. You see the light still on in Mrs. Ume's place. She's moving around. You can actually see her through the window as you as you start to approach. She turns, she even sees you waving Zee. She sees all of you waving. She goes and actually opens the window and shouts down to you. Oh, you're back. I was waiting up for you.

Let me go ahead. I'll just pop another, a last round of cookies into the oven. Nice. We'll get started. How was everything? And then you hear, ding. I didn't start the. Glass shatters in all directions as the whole third floor of the apartment building is blasted and torched in a fiery blaze of inferno. you instantly lose sight of Mrs. Mennel.

And that's where we're going to say. Oh, I see Mace. Now I see why you wanted us to keep playing. I see this. That's not how you start with that, dude. It's like the beginning of a casino. Oh, my God. The beginning of the casino, you saw an explosion,

and then you rewind it. You're probably wondering. Shit, Mace. Yeah. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventris podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to, become a member of our Patreon at the Pearl Dolphin Tier or Higher

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