Legends of Avantris - Waltz for Eternity | Ep. 4 | Army Dreamers

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Episode 4 of our NEW Gundam-inspired mecha campaign, Waltz for Eternity! This brand-new cast of characters are members of a program of mech pilots within the Cavalon Empire! Neon Odyssey, our 1,400+ page Space Opera trilogy for D&D 5.5E, is coming to Kickstarter this May. Become a VIP to unlock free Neon Nights Dice and other exclusive rewards at https://avantr.is/neon-rpg-yt   🎃Terrify your friends in D&D with *The Crooked Moon,* our 632-page Folk Horror tome for 5E: https://thecrookedmoon.com   🌎Join our *Patreon* to get thousands of hours of content including Avantris & Chill, unedited campaigns, a weekly game stream, 4 exclusive campaigns, monthly movie nights, and much more: https://avantris.com/patreon 👕 Get awesome, beautiful, or hilarious *merch* of your favorite characters including Chuckles, Bitsy, Torbek, and more at the Avantris shop: https://avantris.com/shop 👾Join the Avantris community on *Discord* to chat about your favorite campaigns: https://avantris.com/discord 🔴Watch us play D&D LIVE every week on *Twitch:* https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris 🔗 *All other links:* https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/xDwJaAQ0l6U?si=YtDAy7dMZhvK_ye4

We are legends of Aventris. Pilots to your stations. Sink your cores. Fire up the engines and prepare for launch. This is Walt for eternity. Helm Squadron flies through space in formation, leaving the wreckage of the destroyed Saurak fighters behind them. Ahead is the toxic green eye of a planet that awaits you all.

Aboard the huge transport you surround, Captain Crockett radios in to your cockpits. Making final approach, engineering, make final checks on the world piercer, Elm Squadron, attach for final repairs and shield recharge. This is our last chance to prepare for the assault on Morzeeb. The engineering crew aboard the transport emerged from the ship in environment-sealed suits as they assess the damage of your rooks following the battle. Once you confirm with the chief engineer the needs for each mech, you close off your comms,

So it's a loop just between the four of you. Do we know roughly how long or how far we have to go, like, for the remainder of this portion of our mission? I would say that you know that you are beyond the defenses of the planet itself. You would have been briefed and are aware that there are orbital defenses. but you've made it... Intense pause. Yeah. You've made it through that initial skirmishing squadron

that attacked you, certainly. But with them destroyed, you're sort of floating in, not deep space, but far enough away from the planet that it'll take you a little bit to get to the planet, but far enough away that you've not been detected. I'm just trying to get an idea of spatially where we're at, the course of this mission, that was all.

Absolutely. And I would say that in your relay with Captain Crockett back and forth before, as they assessed the damage, this is a little intense, this is a little intense. This is a little outrageous. You just got out of a battle. Yeah, yeah, you did, but all right, let's see, let's see where we've got. He would have said that their jamming field that they are able to put out was responsible for making sure that the Saurians weren't able

to get in touch with the planet or any of their allies and that that's still active. He, that they didn't get the word out. So right now, as you are waiting for their technicians to go through and use their repair parts to get your shields back up, get your hull back, if you actually took any physical damage, repairing those and sealing those wounds, of the rooks themselves, that you're ghosts right now.

So we know, oh. No, no, you're good. Oh, we know for sure then that the pilots we just fought, if they were attempting to make distress signals, they couldn't do it because there's a jamming signal. So they couldn't have called to the planet surface of Morsi. They didn't seem to be aware, but there were a few on the shared channels of combat,

where they were communicating with you broadcasting their threats or their screams. You recall that there were a few times where they voiced confusion, that they weren't able to relay any communication back to the planet of Mourzeb or to any Saurian forces that might have been able to back them up or something like that.

Captain Crockett would have made clear that this is because it's one of the many features of the Starobuton, the ship transporter, that is here with you, not just for... That's cool. You said a star of Ufa? Yeah, yeah, that's the name of the ship.

Shit! Damn. It's not just transporting the... Cold boy I should say. Nobody likes to show off. It's not just here to transport the weapon that they've brought aboard. The tool that they will use to allow you entry into Mourzeeb, but also that the jamming the signal was another important function of the ship.

And we only faced representatives or ships from the source. Sorok Dynasty. Exactly right. We have not seen fighters or mecks or anything from Morsibe itself. And whatever government may be done there. Morizibians' defenses may be very different. If we are ready to RP, I just want to cut anybody off

our question. No, it's to level set. And I think just our mission, right, is that we, and so we know that the other two squadrons are also doing their missions. We haven't gotten any updates on that. At the very tail end, at the very tail end, You did get an update regarding Ash Squadron and Oak Squadron.

They had their own fights, fighting even larger contingents of the Saurak Dynasty. Twice the amount of combat. They got more dangerous missions than we do. And they've been given more serious priorities. They've been asked to destroy Harmonite stores to to That's bullshit. That's bullshit.

To take care of more dangerous mission objectives. You've been asked to scan for the plans of whatever it is that they think, they can build using these tremendous morzebian factories that exist well below the earth's surface. And just since I hear a lot of questions, your mission is to get below the surface. That's only going to be possible with this world piercing technology that the transport itself is equipped with, the Star of Utham. in order to do that, I'm just going to lay it all out. The captain, the captain, Crockett would relay,

you have to clear these orbital defenses so that the ship can stop and even deploy the tool in the first place. So you know that you're gonna have to reach the low orbit of the planet, destroy these armaments, these anti-air, anti-ether lasers, for like a better word. And then once a, once the planet surface has been breached, go down and find the data that you need to scan.

Also, I'm seeing a lot of comments and questions in chat, and I think it's just important to address some of them because we're using a new system and we're using a new, you know, new stab blocks and things that people don't recognize. The heat mechanic, you don't really, there's really no danger in going up to five heat. You don't really start, you don't take the exhaustions. You go over five heat. And that's important. Also, whatever your heat max is.

Whatever your heat maxes, right? It varies. Mine is low. It depends on three. But also, minus five. I took no whole point damage. All of my damage last time was shields. Did anybody actually take much hole point damage?

I know it's getting repaired. I did when you tried to blow my ass up. I thought you dodged. What actually happened? Because I thought you... I don't know. My brain is cooked. Who knows?

No, it's important to the story. You took my brain. It's important to the story. What, you rolled a dex check and you passed? It took half damage. I've never... I never lost all my shield points. Yeah, I had only lost my shield points.

I didn't take a single whole point damage. You took... some halt point damage. Yes, I absolutely did. But presumably I got Captain Crockett's engineers and stuff are working on our rooks. That's happening actively as we speak. This conversation, the pressure that you would have needed, and at any point, if you need to go back to that conversation and ask me some meta question about the mission or something, please do, because this is the moment that you would have had to have the equivalent of a short or long rest for your rook. But in the reality of the universe, you are all sort of paused floating in space as a small,

suited humans of the Cavalanta Empire would jet out to your rook and actually go onto the surface of the arm and repair the shields there or repair the hull damage or make sure that the venting steam that you took when you were pushing the red line didn't cause any damage, checking parts, all of this thing. Very similar to the way a squire might tend to his night. It's like, or like when an airplane refuel

and other airplane, like, mid-flight. Yes. So we're probably, like, tethered to the star of Uthin, like Prontale-Merry style, right? Where we have, like, probably this loose tether, but we're still floating. Yeah, you would have docked. Oh, man.

You would have docked, not docked, but essentially attached yourself. And then when you turn off comms, you know that the star of Uthens crew have this minute or two to get to work. You, while listening to badass guitar solo after badass guitar solo, are given a moment.

of respite and an ability to sort of regroup as a team and check-in. As they're finishing, I'm gonna say, thanks for taking such good care of Valer Wing! To the engineers, as I'm gonna be thinking about- You would be able to broadcast that easily, and you'd see a few arms wave in this moment as they signal their- I know they can't see me, but I'm waving,

I can see them, so I'm waving out. That's great. Once the comms are closed-loop. And then I'll close, then close the con. We can have a conversation. station. The first thing that I do is radio over and I say, uh, Elm Squad, this is Elm leader here. Everyone sound off. What are our call signs?

Your Elm 2. Just Elm. Elm 2. Just Elm 2. 2. 2, sounding off. Elm 3. Standing by.

Elm 4, standing by. I'm all good. Thanks to the engineers. I took a bit of a beating, but Valerling's going to be okay. Everyone did well out there. I'm proud of everybody. That was our first true skirmish, and we came out unscathed. Well done. Did you see what the might of House Maycor was able to accomplish by detonating those mines? It was incredible.

You were incredible. That was quick thinking. That was tactical brilliance. Donvarris. It was not me, Elm Leader. That was the might of Ironwall. I did not know if I would survive. But Ironwall kept me safe. Ironwall was my shield,

as he and I are the shield for the Cavalon Empire. Wren, you all right? How'd Bitterfang hold up? Sorry about the little bit of friendly fire there. Oh, it's okay. I actually think that was expert piloting disregarding the safety of your squadron so you could swap flies with a flamethrower.

I'm gonna take that as a yes. Bitterfang will be fine. Yeah, well, I mean, and going forward, we really shouldn't be putting, we shouldn't be the ones firing on our comrades. All due respect. Heard, Milo. Heard. I had to make a decision. A quick decision. He had to make a decision.

the moment. No pun intended. Elm leader, you are our leader, and it was the right decision. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. And if an attack needs to be done, if a weapon needs to be fired that will bring an end to any of us. If it means the safety and security of the empire, none of us should hesitate. I just don't want Wren to get hurt. For what it's worth, Wren is incredibly skilled.

I knew he'd be fine. And situation role reversed, I'd expect them to do the same thing to me. All right. Roger that. Yes, Elm 2 would have died a glorious death if that attack would have brought an end to his life. It wasn't needed. Those Sorok pilots knew they were going to die. They were already dead men.

Wren? Yes. You know I believe in your skill, right? I think you hold my skill in high regard, Jason. Yes. I think you also used an untested weapon against an untested weapon. In a moment, we could have cut them down easily. I think your excitement to be the best pilot out in the stars drove that attack, as you so colorfully called out your finishing move.

What was it in the end? If the star of Ruthen had fallen, the mission would have been over before it began. Well, it's a good thing that didn't happen. But going forward, we'll be able to execute our mission without having to turn our weapons on each other. Okay? I have no problem with that. Milo, I don't want you hesitating.

I'm sorry for hesitating, Elm leader. But I was not needed to execute any killing blows. The two of you had it well under control. The time may come, Milo. And if I'm standing in the way, I expect you to do the job. Go through you, you mean. Yes, Milo. Whatever it takes.

I'll do as I'm ordered. I'm leaner. I would be sort of sitting still kind of almost in awe of like the power that I felt. And I will... Can I calm and primers and... privately? You were able to have one-on-one conversations with anyone on your, you know that even in battle you're able to send broadcasts to opposing ships. And so if you needed to have a one-on-one with any of your squadron or if you wanted to talk to the captain or even convey information to someone doing one of the repairs on your hull, that would all be possible. So my though, Jason's lost his mobbles.

I don't know about that. And what I will say is... That was pretty good. This is something to think about as the adrenaline is coming down. You've jetted away from the wreckage of the fight where you left those ships in... Nothing but polymer and metal. Barely anything remained after you destroyed those Saurian ships.

The adrenaline took longer time to process. You've trained. You've been in life-threatening situations, but there is a very big difference between that and the mantle of the Kavanaugh Empire weighing on each of your shoulders. And so what you're thinking about focusing on in this moment is that the planet that sits just in front of you, just what feels like almost an arms reach away, is it the ship, is it your crewmates' health, is it your own performance in that battle? and going over through the motions of every little twist and turn and what it felt like to heave one of the controls forward. All of those thoughts are running through your mind and what your character might prioritize in this moment.

It could look like for you, Iron Wall's tremendous defensive abilities. There's a reason why it's named Iron Wall. Every step, every swing of the mace that you have at your side feels like an expression of your home in a weird way. And that flows through you as you consider perhaps sending a private communique. I'll hit a button and open one-on-one comms. Ellen four.

Jason's lost his mind. You coffee. I hear you, Veris. Do you lack faith in your commanding officer? Oh, shit. There's one thing I don't lack, Veris, it's faith in my God and in my friends. Chase is just a little hot-headed. It was his first time using Bright Roar.

I don't think it'll happen again. Your concern for the enemy is disturbing. I understand that you do not wish to end lives, but it is our honored duty. duty to return our enemies to the oneness of the harmony, is it not? It's our honored duty to protect the innocent. That's why we're fighting, Varis. Yes, to protect every citizen of the Empire, and to do so will require killing. We will all be faceless in the end, but for some, they will be faceless sooner than others because they wish to bring harm to the innocent.

Fowlerwing is suited to support those who are more skilled to killing than I am. I'm grateful that Jace and Wren are so good at. I won't let you down, Veris, I promise. I don't believe you will. I just wanted to remind you that Elm leader is our commanding officer. When he makes a call, we must support him.

Those are orders. Do you copy? I copy. Elm three. Elm three over and out. I would basically wait for the repairs. I start applauded. I would basically wait for the repairs to be over.

And like, you know, maybe we're having questions or I'm fielding questions from the Elm squad where we're talking to each other. But basically the, the, the, The summation of all of this stuff is we're getting ready for the next leg of this, I would basically just radio to the rest of the squad and say over the intercoms. Alan Squad, again, good job. I'm proud of you all, but this has only just begun. Let's stay focused. Let's move forward. Do not falter.

And we'll be victorious. And when we get back, first round of My pal heavies are on me. Look at that, Elm Leader. It's another question that hangs in front of us before we continue. It seemed like they knew to target the transport. And it felt like they were here to meet us. Before I would think that ground-based detection would have seen us coming. Elm 2, I agree.

I think there's going to have to be a full debrief, post-fact. something to keep in mind, but nothing we can do about right now. And I won't even, I feel like I'm picking up what Wren's putting down. I'm not even going to utter the word mole or like at all. Like I don't, but I'm in, through my speech, I'm trying to insinuate that I understand what Wren's saying and I'm also concerned that there's potential information league. But I would, I would never utter those words over any kind of line of communication, especially like in the field like that.

Sure. Regardless of what we do. when we get back. It may mean that the welcoming when we touch down is going to be a lot heavier than we thought. Agreed. Be ready for anything. We'll be ready for anything. And I'll have a chocolate milk, please. What? You don't want to, you don't want to have a, you don't want a beer? I'll have a chocolate milk, please. Now's not the time to argue that, I suppose. Let's focus on the mission. That's right. Valor Wing, are you okay? And I'm gonna kind of like run my diagnostics,

make sure that Valer Wing, you know, I'll see the whole damage that was done, probably get like sanded down and repaired and finished by the engineers as they're going back to the Star Ruthen. As, you hear each of you, as the captain attempts to, he doesn't jump up.

into comms with you. This is a respectful tap of the shoulder, letting you know that he's waiting to communicate with you. I think the moment that I see this message come in and we're wrapping up, I would patch him in, or at least accept the signal. When Elm Leader does, the same face of the captain appears on all of your communication displays,

and you see him at the helm of the star of Utham. And he turns, sir, repairs. Repairs are complete. We're moving. Jamming Field is active. We're ready when you are. Yes, yes, Captain. Elm Squadron is ready. The first step of the mission is successful. I hope you are pleased. He salutes back and you know that you'll need to boost forward and take care of the, at least a section of, the low orbit of Morzeeb's defenses in order to make it possible for him to approach with the and deploy the weapon, the world piercer, that he has been equipped. There's also been some communication. We don't need to RP this, but you know that all of the

stars are communicating with each other talking to their own squads and you're getting some information that the other Oak and Ash squadrons are completing their own repairs and that this is intended to be a coordinated strike. Their lights are green. It's time to go. Yeah, I mean, if we are ready and the rest of Elm Squad doesn't have anything else for me or the captain,

then I would basically be like, you know, in the affirmative, we're ready to proceed. And mechanically, you enjoy. Your HP comes back to max. Any of your refreshing abilities would come back. Obviously, your shields would turn back on. Your heat is reduced to zero.

That would have been expressed in, immediately, staircasing down coming right out of the fight. We get a rook rest. But you get a rook rest. I love that. That's fucking fantastic. You castle would be another perhaps way of... Oh, we've been to the castle. That's funny. That's funny.

And you start to boost forward towards the planet of Morsib, unless there's anything else that you wish to accomplish. Nothing for me. We will sunder their defenses, sir. You jet away, and the four of you assume a attack formation. Jace, you take the lead and behind you, almost spinning in a, like a corkscrew, the three other Elm Squadron pilots fly behind you, waiting to see how far away you have to get in order

for the perimeter to arrive. And you don't see them at first, but you do see the blasts as all of a sudden, Lasers start to fly from these orbital defenses. These are anti-I-I don't have a word for it. Anti-air is the only thing that I can really think about. Anti-AIRial. But anti-Ether. These are designed to prevent the exact kind of assault

that you are all performing, and you can see those lasers are getting closer and closer. They've spotted you. It's now or never, and I need everyone to roll for an issue. Oh, let's go. Damn. I didn't expect that. Oh, it was almost a 20.

I will open the radio as we're soaring through and I'll say, Elm leader, request to enter shield formation. And then, you've read my mind, bro. I don't even know how you get out of my brain. I'm sorry, I was a trick. No, no, no, no, it's perfect. I'm just like, I don't understand how you get in there. You got me so rad, I can't even RP.

You become a well-oiled machine Where you understand exactly what needs to be done And the response back to you is Without even a hesitation is formation stalwart shield And you know what that means and we basically form whatever formation it is that allows you to do what you need to do Roger I and then I was I would basically boost to the lead and I think we would have practiced approaches like this I? I think we would have practiced approaches like this

where I am going to basically like shield rush from World of Warcraft and hold my shield up and rush behind it. I think we would be single file behind me. I will take that into account for this first round, but what I will say is that these defenses are hundreds of feet apart. And so at a certain point, you know that once you take this initial volley, you will have to break in order for each of you to reach the destination, and then it'll be up to you.

whether or not you want to try to dash to get close to them in order to use melee or if you're going to use range. But first, I need to get everyone's 20 to 30 initiative account. Not me, not this guy. 15 to 20. 18. Oh. Oh.

10 to 15. I got a 10. I got a 7. Oh. With a natural one. Very good. Oh. I was a little out of that right now.

The only action that I would say make sense for this first round for any of you would be to dash. So I'm going to go through the entire initiative order and I'm going to attack each of you with the laser battery as the defenses unload. That's gonna be a natural one. That's going to be a 17 to hit you, Varus. Veris?

Misses. Does the whole loss you have dice in still? That's gonna be a 19 to hit you, Jace. A 19? Yes. No, that's definitely, that's when I'm still, that's when I'm sitting still. So my AC's 22.

22. Oh, and you're using your total cover thing, right? Yes, I am using my, hold on, shield wall. Until the start of my next turn, the mech has resistance to all damage, and it provides total cover for its allies instead of half cover. Okay, so theoretically, they can't be targeted.

I'm the only one that can be targeted, and if I do get to be targeted, If I do get hit, then I am resistant. So the only one that I think matters would have been at 19. Would that have hit? No. Okay, wow. So I would say that it's not that they miss,

it's that you are doing a very good job. 100% of a sudden. You see these beams hitting this shield and you are all watching a dazzling display of light in front of Varys as he continues to press forward. Another round goes by. I'm gonna do that one more time before you get in the range. That's going to be.

a 20 to hit. Misses. 22. Misses. 27. Hits. And then one more. Nope. So the 27 hits. That's going to be... Oh, 23.

16 points. I'm sorry. 21 points of radiant damage as these blasts smash into your shield. I may act. After that happened. Oh, yeah, yeah. Each of these turns are happening. I'm, I'm, presuming I'm directly behind Varus.

I will say, uh, initiating shield replenishment. Because I'm going to use. Oh, yeah. My damage control. I'm going to use my action and, uh, heal 15 of those shield points. Oh, it's like we're playing Team Fortress 2, and I'm the medic and you're the heavy weapons guy. Easy. I am with my, the wings of valor wing, I am channeling.

I am channeling the shield regenerating mist that then surrounds and replenishes 15 of those shield points. With Jace and Ran at either side, your wings actually almost spread out, and it's like this shield, as you, it's like a battering ram, you are all flying forward. It's at this point that you know that you need to break in order to reach these floating, you can now see them.

You're close enough, having dodged as best you can, having absorbed as many strikes that you can, you have the option of moving and making an attack or trying to dash and then knowing that they'll get another attack on you, get within melee range at this tremendous velocity as you all fly in. So at the top of the round, Ren, you spy one of the orbital defenses floating in low orbit above the green toxic surface of Morsib, and you're able to jet off towards it breaking from this initiative.

formation knowing that it needs to be destroyed or the star Ruthen will never be able to deploy. Time to take these things down. I will dash. You said I can't get there though. You can either move and get halfway to it or you can use your dash in order to get it, but obviously that'll take your action. So whatever bonus action or whatever you might have. So you basically have a choice of getting halfway there and using a ranged attack or trying to get within range. I will dash and get right towards it. And as I'm, I draw my twin blades

and as I'm pulling up in front of it, the rook, I start to almost like spin and twirls. I'm moving as definitely as possible, so it's having a hard time watching my incoming approach. This is like as you get closer, you see this orb with this centralized ring around it. And with a few boosts, this eye almost turns, and you can see that this is the targeting reticle that's shooting from.

And as it's trying to lock onto me, the blades drawn, a gleaming of light as my rook core powers into it, and I'll disappear from V. Bad ass! You vanish. Let's fucking go. For a brief moment, the stars have a reflection, and then they return back, and you can see this eye start to boost as it's trying to figure out your position

but seemingly you are. There's almost like a weird shimmer in the stars. Invisible. As a movement that would be impossible to detect. That is your turn. Veris, you have the same choice Wren has as you spy another one of these orbital defense lasers floating in low or in another direction. As I use my

bonus action snowblind, the MEC gains the invisible condition until the start of its next turn. Great name for a Hell yeah. I would like to use my movement. I would just really wait for the command, presumably what Elm leader says to break formation and spread out. Yep. Right? So I now know that my role is not to be the shield wall and that I just need to get to basically pick one and we're all spreading out and destroy it. Yep. So I will use my movement to get halfway there. Okay. And as I'm rushing forward, I'll lower my shields.

and I will flip like a little cap on one of my joysticks and the big red button. And- Let's go, baby. I will say, I'm leader, initiating, what should I call this? Renz over here, naked under J-ster's finishing.

Unblinning shield breaker! And I hit the button. and all sort of like jet and boost back a little bit and like get upright. And the missile pods on my shoulders will all sort of open up. And it will be a swarm of these small little missiles that kind of shoot from my shoulders

and they all kind of travel together and they're sort of all swarming around. And they will move an additional, I believe nine hexes. So it's as if I'm dashing, but they're moving the rest of the way. Okay. And it looks like It's no Circus, Kula. Oh, hell yeah, hell yeah.

Oh, absolutely. Affirmative L3, nice shot! Notice how his was in Big E, Hammer Mountain Smasher. Spray of missiles, knowing that now that you have all been detected, time is of the essence. And the missiles reach the laser battery. Go ahead and roll how that works. I will make it a different.

attack roll. It's technically a missile. I'm just flavoring it as it's because of, you know, how the missiles work. Oh, hell. My interpretation of that is a swarm plus 12. Oh my God. 22 to hit. That hits. These are breaker missile pods. So they are designed to basically break down shields. God damn. To then try to punch through the hole with the secondary explosion. So that's, I'm flavoring that as some missiles are hitting first and wearing down the shield as the slower, bigger missiles than hit it in later. Okay. To attempt to break the hole of whatever this is. Like a two-stage fireway. I just want to say I'm honored to have you guys on my squadron.

You guys are all so cool. Two, three, four. So first, the shield points are going to be reduced by 4010, 10, 15. fucking go. 25, um, 32 points of damage. Okay. As you let these missiles fly. And that's just shield points that are reduced.

Uh, it, you realize that there are, these are numerous. There's an array of these orbital defenses all across the, uh, the planet. As tight in as you've been able to, to reach this point, you're able to destroy this one particular laser battery and start to open up the hole that's gonna be necessary for the...

Oh, it's just that? Yeah, yeah, you just, you absolutely just knock it out of the sky. Are you rolling for more damage? It still takes all this more damage, but it's... Oh my God! I totally obliterate it, and you'll mark one of my missiles as expended. Damn!

You absolutely annihilate this thing. The missiles do their work very quick. That's my turn? And in this moment, the three remaining that are in range of you all take a crack at you each. I'm going to go with that absolutely misses. Oh, I can't. Yeah, you're right. Let's just do 19 to hit you.

I'd be in range. As long as I'm moving, I'm a 22 AC. Man, your A-C are out of control. Lasers are flying in all direction. But at the moment that you gave your command to break, They all started shooting in different directions trying to track multiple target. No longer able to concentrate power, all of the shots go wide. And Milo, you're up.

Well, Jason needs to go. Jason. I skipped you and I went right to Monster. Oh my gosh. You're about to take away one of those attacks. I know where you parked. Not only do you miss this turn, but you also will miss it. Oh, the prior words, closed.

No, to be fair, I don't even think I can, you said I have to dash to get to him. You can use half of your move, you can just normal move, and you'll be half of your move. way to it and you can make a ranged attack or you can dash and try to get into his face. You think his shoulder hands is functional? Those are your choices. Oh, I dash. And I would even say that if I have to use one or two power dice to use extra movement to get there, I am more than happy to do that shit and crank up a couple heat. Oh yeah, and yeah, absolutely. I'm sure that I can get there by dashing. I expend two power dice to get extra movement to start generating heat in bright work. You get behind it. Yeah, and basically do like some cool things. ass fucking side jet like

also real quick as a side I know this is not a one-to-one comparison but I imagine you shooting the rockets it's very much like the Liger Panzer that's like so heavy that it can't be 100% and it's just heavy weapons out of the ass and then at the end of the fight all the armor falls off and the steam fucking shoots out of the Liger that's so cool I throw all the fucking blaze sword as I fucking dash around this thing and I try to get behind it and get ready to attack and that's my whole turn

okay myelin now you're up I'm up to 2 eat um I will hit the radio and I'll say, I promise, I won't let any of you down ever again. As I, as Valor Wing takes its feathery wings and flaps them as jets rocket out of them. And I use my boost as a bonus action. So I have 24 hexas as my bonus action. Oh my God.

The formation is flat out. And I am almost like spinning at this point, as I take my lance as the jets on the lance also erupt out of it. So it was not just the jets on my boots and from my wings, but also my lance as a huge laser spear. It's not a laser spear.

It's like a cyclone. It almost like turns my spear into a lance. Hell yeah. As I rocket forward to make this attack against the one that is closest to me. If we were animating this, this would be the scene where they stretch the perspective and it like long-aids

if you get stretched back into the seat as you go at an insane speed for a meck. And these are like Morzebian build, right? So it's kind of like the heavy green metals. Yeah, this has a color of metal that represents the Morzebian world itself. It has kinds of bronzish and greenish colors to it. It looks kind of like a ball bearing in

aside from the fact that it has this very bright neon green eye that is able to target and shoot directly from that. That's cool. I'm going to get a 23 to hit. Oh yeah. And because we're at the bottom of the round, I'm just going to tell you the AC's 15. Okay. Oh, good luck. Yeah, good luck's not hitting it.

Does damage matter? Who engineered these pieces of quick? The HP does matter, yes. Okay, okay. You could roll low enough. I just... That's defense. I have a blaze sword.

It's just that Varus over here decided to use missile. I did. That was awesome. I think half the fun of this campaign is just describing what we do. 100%. That's the fun of every campaign.

That's all the campaigns. It's just really fun to use language units. Oh, yeah. I forgot. I forgot piggy-cheting. Oh, hell yeah. There we go. There it is.

Now it's fucking go. And that will be true. as long as you remain in your mex. Yes, 100%. 27, 27. For our audio about book listeners, we just changed the overlay to our work mode. 34, 40, 45.

45 points, oh no, sorry. 49 points of lightning. Sorry, it's lightning and force damage. Okay. Oh, sorry, piercing in force, piercing in force, sorry. You push the spear into the eye and you hear a disgusting crack,

crack as you watch as arcs of lightning and electricity bolt out in all direction. You're able to pierce all the way through it. Hell yeah. And it splits apart like a coconut as it shatters into space. It doesn't even explode, but you do hit whatever was the battery or reactor or energy source of this thing. It explodes into a cloud of that same neon light and you fly through it at rocket speed. My quadrant's clear. Right. I will just try and lay into this thing. Mm-hmm.

With a natural 20. Oh, well. God. That's, damn, bro. Holy shit. And I think it's be, you're invisible. So your first attack allows you to strike with almost casual precision.

Gary's popping off. I can't wait to miss. Use them all in now. I have 250 extra attacks waiting for me. I'm right. Right. Five. Five.

Can you get up to Alex Chen for designing and illustrating these incredible makeup? Can we just give it up to Alex Chen, lead artists over at Avengers Entertainment? 43. Yeah, they're just so good. They're just so good. It was an honor to be able to use them in the intro, to be honest. And these head images, he's just like, oh, I thought it would be cool a full of I did it, so I did.

Yeah. Yeah. He's like, I just wanted to, so I did. We were just casually chatting, and I was like, well, the intro's cool, and like, I'm really inspired by this thing, and we watched a few things. And then hours later, he was like, how do you feel about this? And I was like, yeah. Yeah.

Yes, please. Uh, 56 points of damage on the first slash. Absolutely foul. On the first slash. On the first slash. I mean, you don't need to make a second slash. If you want to roll it. 50-6.

No. It does. It does. It does. Let's go, let's go. It slices apart like a sword going through a tennis ball as it shh. And then the two halves float off into both. Does it explode?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I turned my back to it as it. No, no, no. I slashed through it with its card. My cloak flies around me. There's that. And then the blast explodes.

My cloak furles forward. There's that pregnant anime pause as you fly forward and then behind you. There's an eruption of sound. And I'll say as it explodes, when the fox hunts, no one sees it coming. And then I'll actually resheave my blades and make my way back towards Ironwall.

You were still on comms with Captain Crockett, and you hear, damn. And then you fly back as you, they're listening in. Off the line hot. Jase, you have an opportunity to, Varis, it is technically your time. turn. You're out of distance unless you want to make a, like, ranged attack at

disadvantage against the one that Jace is up. But as you're scanning around, you realize... Are there only four that we need to worry about destroying? As you're looking at your scans, you're realizing that the orbital defenses that you've immediately destroyed in this vicinity has, with the exception of JASIS, just about cleared the path for the transport ship to reach its, to even be able to approach. Yes, to answer your question. Seeing that it's in the reality of the six second to six second round, that basically Bright War

is about to just demolish this thing. I think what I would do is I would use my action to take the search action. If I could use my scanners to basically like scan out to see, do I see any more ships coming? I'm being mindful of the next step. Our goal right now is to protect the Starboothen. and so I just want to kind of basically look through my scanners and just detect

do we think that we've blown enough of a hole through their defenses once this one goes down or is there something else that feels like a check yeah absolutely but I think that using your scan like scanning is something that we actually have rules for in ship in ship combat so let me just say I have a whizmod I have is it just as simple as that yeah so my int or my computers my The whiz would be my scanners and my charisma would be my comps. Let me confirm that very quickly. Int is computers.

Comp. Whiz is scanner? Scanners. Scan. I'm gonna confirm it for two reasons. One, because I'm curious and I don't have every little word in every little ruling and all of that stored in my brain. And two, because no GM should ever be a feared to look things up for a hot second to make sure

that they're doing the thing right. I was gonna say, because I left my binder, I don't have the second set of mech rules for the paradise, but I have almost all memorized. Let's pull that up here. I almost have them all memorized. What is that? Int is computers, whizz is scanners, and charisma is comms. Communications.

Okay. Strength is the mech pugilist stat. That's right. Go ahead and make your work check. I'm not finding it. I just want to make sure. I think a perception check is probably just sort of, you know, what I'm looking to do.

I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't like a used scanner. Natural 20 plus 4. Oh! Okay. You're like set up the next phase of the mission. Yeah. You're ready. What you sense is that your location has been, as you pull up a hologram display, a shock wave of light goes out indicating where you are able to receive signals from.

And you can see that there's now a hole. and the display of this hologram indicates that the hole is nearly closed. You can see that if Jace does that, that there will be a wide enough perimeter for the Star of Uthin to lower down and get close enough to deploy its world piercer. However, you can also see that beyond that perimeter, there is a much larger contingent of these orbital lasers and that they are actually slowly closing in.

These are not built for speed, but they are aware of your presence, and they are starting to push in. Only a matter of perhaps 10, 15, 20 minutes, they would be able to get within firing range. Helm leader, there are

more defenses closing in. Finish the last one and we can let Captain Crockett know. Affirmative, Helm 3. James. James. James. I don't know. You have to. What else doesn't work?

Ooh, I got a 17. 18? Oh, 15. Oh, that was good. This makes me like, I'm not rolling well. Yeah. I'm just using my blaze sword, which is 6010 plus four fire damage. Damn.

Nice. Oh, shit. I rolled pretty good. That's 20, 27. 27 plus 8 is 35. That's one more. Five. 44 points of fire damage.

I rolled really well. Like with the others. How do you want to do that? Basically, just after I did this sick, you know, like maneuver around this thing, I would basically do this upper cut slash slicing it in two. And then the moment that everything kind of has a second to just settle for a minute, I would radio over to the commander and say, Commander, this is element leader.

The star of Uthin is clear for advancement. You are to go. Over. The way looks clear. We're on our way. You, and it pauses for a moment, and then there's a moment where you hear the captain come back on to Combs. Sir. And then you feel, you don't even have to look at your controls.

You know that they are just behind you starting to rocket into this vulnerability, this hole that you poked into the defenses of Morsi. Bell's squadron, well done. Keep your heads up and let's move forward. Roger that. Elm leader. You push away knowing that the star of Uthin needs to

lower down. And sure enough, looking up, you watch as this transport flies in between the circular perimeter. As you all look around, making sure that nothing can attack it, there are no laser blasts. A blaring horn erupts from the star

of Uthin as its cargo doors open and an enormous wonder of technology emerges. The world piercer. It looks like a cross between a cavallon, eight-pointed star, a lance, and an orbital cannon. Damn. Propeled by its jets, built into its construction,

the world pacer takes position in orbit. Its lance cannon pointed precisely at the coordinates dictated by the mission brief. From your altitude, your zoomed-in displays, see what looks like an unpopulated wasteland covered in radioactive haze. I don't think that I would radio over it during while this is happening, but I think that seeing this thing for the first time would actually give me pause,

and I would be, like, in awe of it. And I would... I don't think I radio over to anybody. I would just be, like, focused on the mission, but, like, unable to, like, not take this in. You know what I mean? You just have to. All you can do in this moment,

other than glancing behind your mex shoulders in order to make sure that there aren't any Income coming assaults or anything like that. And you've got a clear path. Looking at your scans again and again and again, you've accomplished what was needed. The lane is endeared clear. You can hear Captain Crockett yelling commands

back and forth with the crew. Drill telemurdy coming in. You hear him as he speaks into the comp. Is there anything else that you would do in this moment? No, I'm just on guard. I get back into formation in whatever my quadrant is to protect the, protect the, the, I think we'd just be in positions around the World Piercer

as it goes online, just watching to ensure nothing's approaching it. All clear. His voice crackles in. Clear on my side. His voice crackles in through your cockpits as you hear the Crocket. World Piercer three ready to deploy. Dr. Crescent sends his regards.

Firing in five, four, three, two, One. Firing! Then all around you, silence. Suddenly as a flash of blinding golden light consumes your vision, you hear a whirring, a crackle, and a cacophonous burst as an enormous beam rockets towards the surface of Morsib like an enormous lance of colossal scale.

It crashes into the planet, sending cracks along the irradiated Earth and boring into the world. All you can hear is the imposterous. a possibly loud weapon as it pushes deeper and deeper into the world, disintegrating crust, metal, stone, concrete, as it breaks into the Oculaq civilization below. It feels like the world pacer is firing for hours, but it can only have been minutes

when the beam finally shrinks, slows, and ends. Immediately the weapons jets propel it back to the transport and rockets off. Captain Crockett radios you one last time as the starship disappears. Good luck, Elm Squadron. For the Empress.

Thank you, Commander. For the Empress. For the Empress. For the Empress. Elm Squadron, advance. You all start to boost forward and down, getting into formation, as you enter atmosphere

and lower dropping down into Morsib. That's where we'll take a quick break. Holy hell. Any of us ever seen something like that before? Fuck no. Or is that, that's pretty fucking crazy. That's fucking insane, right? A more interesting question is,

has anyone ever seen anything like this before? This is. No, there's no way. I mean, up until like a month ago, the Rook was the most impressive piece of technology that Jace would have ever witnessed in his entire life. And this is like something on another level. Yeah.

Well, and even like Dr. Crescent sends his regards to like, This is other, this is even other, like, super tech from Crescent. Yeah. Oh, my God. Bro. Hey, everyone. Andy Flynn here, and I have huge news. Our next Kickstarter campaign is coming, and it's called Neon Odyssey.

It's a 1400-plus-page space opera trilogy for Dungeons and Dragons 5.5E. It has tons of options for players and GMs alike, including an entire galaxy to explore, 30-plus species, 40-plus subclasses, a brand-new space combat system, and so much more. It's taken us three whole books to fit it all in. You can become a VIP at neonrpg.com to unlock a free set of neon knights, sharp-edge resin dites, and more.

It's only a dollar. Become a VIP now at neon-rpg.com. Thank you. All four of your rooks get in formation and you initiate full power on your thrusters. You thrust forward turning the sky to green fire as you enter the atmosphere of Morsib. Huge.

Looms of toxic haze fill your viewport as you rocket downward to the enormous hole that has been pierced into the world. The hole gets larger in your sights as you see the now enormous forms of mutated creatures shambling on the surface, falling in with screams as a waterfall of irradiated waste, ooze and gasp pour into the subterranean civilization below you. You close the distance towards this gash in the world and pass the layers of the planet's crusts until you finally enter a city below. It is extremely Spartan and industrial, with efficiently designed dormitories built along

cavern walls and streets and rails throughout. The coordinates flash on your screens is where you need to head. You're close, but you have entered in a relatively undefended residential district. However, you see that the world piercer shot far deeper than to enter just this chamber. The huge hole now goes deeper into the world and you see huge pools of bubbling acid and shapes moving within underneath you.

There's not time to dwell on that. It's time to complete your mission. You all lowered down, bursting into this open space. You can see the cavernous walls all around you, a mishmash of technology that's clearly been burrowed deep within the crust of Morsib. What are you all doing? Based on what you said, we have coordinates. We know where we're supposed to go.

You can pull it up very easily, and now that you're in here, you almost get a map display that makes a very clear indication. It's not like it shows you which road and which left and right to take. You have a general heading. I make a mental note of what you said about residential and, you know, dormitories and it being relatively empty. Yes. But I don't delay. I don't dwell on it. I don't let it halt me at all. And what I would like to do, and I don't know if, I don't know, I would tell everybody, I would basically like to use my scanners to while we're proceeding towards this point, these coordinates that we have, to scan for potential threats and even any kind of.

of life that we might need to get through. Computers or perception? Well, oh. They're both plus four probably. Are they not? No, I have plus two on my computers and plus your on my scan. I was hoping to use my scanners.

My int is 14, my wisdom is 16. Then you should use. Wisdom. Whizdom. Yeah, I want you use my scanners to see if I can scan for life or threats. Use the scanner. And I think I would tell the rest of Elm Squadron

to do the same. We would have a procedure for this, right? Yeah. As soon as you enter through the ceiling of this subterranean city, I will say that you all start scanning, so I'm gonna ask you to do it at advantage. Oh, sick. Nice, we're all helping you with our scanners.

Okay, I got a 15, which isn't terrible. 15, it is not terrible. You are able to look at, all of you are taking in this information. There's a big difference between being shown it in a holographic display during a mission briefing and actually being there, sitting in your cockpit, looking out at the world, looking down and up and seeing this massive new shaft

that has been a perfectly precision borne down into the world around you. And you are able to pick up a blip, finding the nearby engineering lab where the data centers through your reconnaissance that you've been given by the cat the Cavalon Empire would indicate you have a very clear direct line, but it will require you flying over and through this residential district in order to get to that research area

where the Oculecs do their research and development. Yeah, I mean, I don't hesitate and I continue to move forward. The scan is just to make sure that there are any threats in the way as we're making our way in the lab. To be on high alert. I see. You don't need a scan. The heading gives you a very clear and direct path.

It will require you to navigate. There are massive columns that lead from the ground to the ceiling. There are lights in all directions. But below you, there are rounded buildings. Again, you can feel that this is a very residential area. You've not broken into some sort of a military complex. Even though everything feels relatively industrial around you, this is not the factory district or something along.

those lines. At the same time, it doesn't require computers or anything like that in order for you to suddenly feel the as something slams into the back of you. There are still some amount of defenses within even this area as a smaller grade weapons are shooting at you. Some are many bullets are just bouncing off of the thick hull or the shields that surround your rooks, but you can tell that as quickly as they can, the forces that do exist even within this district are starting to amass. I mean, I think that depending on the caliber of weaponry that's being fired at us, if most of it is harmlessly plinking off of our shield generators, then I probably wouldn't do much about it,

but if I saw something that looked like it was bigger or could potentially pierce the shields, I'd probably just like shoulder cannon, run and gun and just like shoot as we're going. Yeah, does this look like, are these like, kind of like laser defenses, other Macs? Are these like, are we seeing like... Pousinel probably.

Are we seeing like people on the ground with like anti-Arial, like shoulder-mounted missiles? All that and more. It's not just one turret or something along. those lines. Some of these buildings, there are clearly people that are on top of the building using what arms they have to try to fire up at you in defense of this city. At the same time, you also see that there are movement in the narrow streets of this area. Turrets are being turned towards you. You imagine that it's very obvious that you are coming in, breaking in

through the ceiling. Anyone with eyes looking, would know that you're a threat and either be taking cover or looking to the local police force for assistance, whatever they can amass. I stick with what I'm doing. I'm not. I'll look down, I'll say. The rope piercer went too deep. I don't know if we hit the right target.

This is a neighborhood. Elm Four, steal yourself. We have to keep moving. We have the coordinates of the lab. All right. We aren't in charge of how deep the world. Pierce has bored. We have to keep moving. I'll follow you, El Leader. It's not something we can control right now.

We must stay focused on the mission. Destroy what defenses we can. So we can escape as needed. And basically, like, my goal would be, if we're like passing like a turd or something, I want to like smash it and like break it. Yeah, I'm just like running, gunning. Yeah, exactly right. Right now, I would say that you're perhaps a few hundred feet up. still using your boosters to stay above the city line, the top of these buildings. It's the moment that one of you suddenly feels this, and there's this plasma cannon that actually hits the side of one of your shield,

doing significant damage, you realize that in order to progress through the city, perhaps the safest thing is, indeed, to get down, stop flying, and actually run through the streets themselves. And that is what you are forced to. to do as more and more fire starts to centralize on your position. You were forced down and down and down. It's not going to be but a few minutes of on foot rook travel in order for you to get to where you need to go. But Jase, with you and the lead as Elm Squadron leader, I needed a D12 for me. D12? Yes, exactly right. Be careful of collateral damage.

Yikesoo. Milo, they built this facility next to a residential district. What happens next isn't on you. It's on them. I got a six. A six. You land down and you start to race forward. Whatever is in the building adjacent to you, it must have been severely damaged by some of the

falling debris from the hole above because you're only still just starting to penetrate the city itself. And there's this massive explosion. I need to make a Constitution saving throw. And this is very specific. Not the MEC making a

Constitution Saving throw. If I can ask you to make a constitutional saving through. Interesting. Actually, I go to 16. 16 is enough. You are not going to have the poison condition as the radiation from this explosion ignites adjacent to your man. You run through it and you only take five points of necrotic damage and all of the clicking. To me as a person? Exactly right. As the radiation actually affects you. You. You can feel this sickening sensation of nausea in your stomach as the irradiation is that serious, but you try to shake it off and continue to run forward

with knowing that the other three rooks, your allies are right behind you. I radio in. Elm squadron, be aware. Radiation, watch out for explosions. Try, like Milo said, avoid collateral damage. Roger that, helm leader. Switching to range weapons.

This is beginning to feel. like not the training exercises in space or the training exercises even in your rooks but the training exercises that you had as a squad on foot where you were needed to run up against buildings or take defenses in defensive postures in trees of the jungle very very literally you are now using the buildings themselves to run from through alleys down streets across bridges through narrow walkways in order to try to reach your destination, following this constant heading towards the engineering lab. Who's next behind Jace as you are all sprinting forward? Probably me.

Roll a D12 for me. Four. Hmm. Four. I need you to make a vehicle dexterity saving throw. Oh, fuck. Decks, you say. Oh, no. Oh. 23. Oh, let's go! 23. You are rocketing forward and the weight of your iron wall is so great that again, you are still just at the perimeter and you know that there's a sea of acid below this subterranean city.

And it's as you are stepping on one of the low bridges, trying to cross almost like a canal, that there's this eruption of acid that bursts out from the, the collateral damage that's still domino affecting the city. You're able to jump off of this geyser in time, but you know that you could have been consumed in acid and perhaps taken a considerable amount of damage as you continue to race through these streets. Don't forget there are some heat uses that we have for things like Dex checks and the like.

Oh, right. Right, right. Who's behind Verith? I'm probably lingering. Oh, okay. I'm like standing over the whole, like just surveying everything that's happening. I'm sure it's like, ooh, e,

I'm sure it's absolute bedlam, just from the result of the cannon firing in. It's, oh, no, it is, it is, I will say that it's not just your own alarms that are going off, it's also the sounds of your allies, the rest of Elm Squadron, screaming over comms, communicating, go left, go right, go left, go right. But even through that, you hear muffled,

through the, through the sound of your cockpit, the sound of the alarms of the city. as they are in absolute bedlam panicking. And more and more defenses are showing up. Literal tanks are beginning to roll down the streets as you race by. Some of them are too slow to catch up, but you know that the entire city is very aware of your presence. I will radio end.

Elm Squadron, the acid pools below are erupting. Watch your feet. Understood, Elm three. Elm four. Elm four, do you copy? Elm four. I can see that he's. not with us. I mean, we have all these sensors and shit.

We have our Star Fox 64 multiplayer little like, uh, color-coded. What are you doing? As I, I guess after Ren takes off, I'm going to snap out of it. And I am going to try to, with Valer Wings grace, try to go fly above the streets, even if it puts me at risk of like any kind of upper level threats, I'm going to try to basically fly over it without, with doing as little collateral damage and trying to minimize as much as possible. You jump up and you boost forward to catch up with your companions and we'll resolve

that in a moment because you will be successful in catching up, but I have a potential risk for you as we go. I need you to roll a D12, but what are you doing? I would say I'd just be following in suit, moving, following towards these coordinates. And with the callout from Jace and now various as well, with all of the environmental, like, acidic issues around us. Unless something is, like, directly within melee, I think we'd be keeping kind of a tight formation, and I'd be leveraging my cryo beam to try and take out enemies from a distance without approaching.

And I'd also be attempting to use extreme precision. Every... But I'll roll a D12 for you. No, no. Before you roll the D12, I'm going to ask you to make a attack roll to get a sense of how well you're doing. Crush it, bro. 20. I will say that the tanks that are rolling in, you are able to target and hit only those tanks.

You see one or two rolling up or you see some of their defense system. And you're staying low and close to the ground like Veris and J. but you are, when you spot down a long highway, a number of these defenses, other vehicles having gotten out of the way to clear a path for the folks who are trying to put a stop to your assault, you're able to target them blasting out the wheels or the movement and putting them into a stop before they're even in range.

Now roll a D-12-4. Five. Is that what you roll? I rolled the four. Oh, five. A five. Very interesting. We will resolve that shortly.

I mean he says very interesting when we saw that shortly. Oh, no. Milo, I need you to roll two D12s for me. All right? Oh, no. All right, that's fine. That's fine, Game Master.

I'm going to use two of these dice. One of which is my Rhett and Hank die. 10 and 2. 10 and 2. I'm going to take the lower. 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock. I'm going to take the lower of the two values. And as you are racing forward, one of Wren's precision shots hits a tank that's actually very close to you. You might have been able to dodge it if you were in the on the ground, but because of the nature of your flight,

the plume of flames actually catches you for a moment. I needed you to make a dexterity saving throw. Vehicle dexterity saving throw. Don't forget, you got PowerDice. 22? 22. You do not get knocked on prone. You would have been pushed by the concussive force of this explosion onto your back,

but you're able to do a barrel roll and just rocket forward well enough. In this same moment, there's a deployment of weapons. All of you see from the ceiling, almost like bombs being dropped by a bomber plane. Shee. Number of mines, that's the two that you, sorry, not the two, that was the five that you roll.

As mine start to drop in, I need all of you to make a, Dex hope. Oh. My lord, you okay. Thank you, Valerwin. I spin it and it looks really fucking cool. I'm just like gracefully.

You actually, what you need to do is decide, are you going to slow down and maybe roll again on this complication table, or are you going to race forward as these minds start to gravitate towards you? They're easy enough to dodge. They're not moving very quickly. I'm racing forward.

If I feel, I would make a split-second decision based on where Milo is. If I feel like Milo is with us, I would make the call for Elm Squadron to push ahead. I've caught up. There are bullets and lasers and ordinance flying in all directions. And if he hadn't been knocked prone,

he'd be far behind you. But he was able to barrel roll out of the way and he is now just behind you alongside Verison. I make these split-second decision to say, Elm Squadron, push forward. And whether they choose to listen or not, so be it.

But I want us to, I try to give the command to rush forward. We're with you, Elm leader. In line. Elm four, are you with us? Elm four is here. I'm going to... Tyler, we'll get to... I'm gonna take the rear now.

Okay. And my goal, if we have actions, I'm gonna be using shield wall to basically cover our back, like basically our rear flank. Obviously we can be shot from all sides, but at least from one angle down whatever street we're going. I wanna be like blocking if people are like coming out of the streets and shooting us or there are tanks following us.

I wanna be able to cover that flank with my shield. Thank you. Do we get the sense that the more Zibian government is also dropping minds onto us from this perception? Make a... Jeez. Make an intelligence check. Load a seat.

I roll the National Three, so I don't think. You are shocked by the events that are occurring. You are aware of the importance of your mission, of the importance of the threat that the Saurak dynasty occurred here. But what's being presented to all around you is shaking you as you continue to now just are running through and trying to stay up, stay aware and stay with your allies. Okay.

It's a good question. You race forward. I need each of you to roll a D10. Oh, boy. 10? Oh my God. Seven. 10.

Eight. Seven. You all take that much thunder damage. J. Ignoring your damage threshold. Oh my God. To shields or to hole points? To the hull.

As these mines are clearly designed for some other purpose. These aren't designed for mechs. They drop down and crash into each of you as you take this much damage as the concussion. Boom, boom, boom, boom. You are trying to race through, but by your command, Jace, you're not slowing down. you were not able to navigate around them

and you barrel through. To be clear, our shield points remain at full. It just directly damages the hull. Is that how that works? Exactly correct. Okay, got it, got that. Okay. Ouch. And, Jase, you are still following this.

You've made good progress. The shaft that was made by the borehole, for lack of a better term, made by the Star of Uth and by the World Piercer, is well behind you now. And it's not that it's getting quieter. You can still feel that there's a lot of heat on your heels when it comes to the defenses,

but you are starting to leave the residential area that you are immediately confronted with as you see enormous metal scaffolding in front of you. Giant crane arms on tracks that are moving around, passing crates and boxes in all directions. I need you to make one more D-12 roll for me as you start to cross the threshold,

indicating that just around the corner the engineering lab can be found. Exactly right. 10. I don't know if high or low is good. I'm fucking terrified. High is good, no complication. The ground troops.

Oh, wow. Seven through 12 was all golden, baby. You guys just rolled like shit. Wow. Jeez. You are able to run away from that initial wave of defenses, and with the mines deployed, with all of that fire being so heavily concentrated

with your initial assault, you were able to race away and get to a slightly quieter area as you turn down one of these enormous corridors, clearly some sort of a shipping tunnel or something along those lines, big enough for a rook to fit in. I am trying to maintain this level of cool-headedness so that I can think tactically

and be directing the squadron to the best of my ability. but inside, I'm trying to feel like someone's like, not quite right. This is like, this isn't quite sitting right with me. But as we around this corner and we get to this tunnel or this archway, is this a straight shot now to the lab based on our coordinates, or does it look like there's still kind of some twist in terms?

It's a straight shot down the corridor, and there doesn't appear to be any left or right. You have to make a split-second decision based on what you're reading on your map. Do you try to go around up or down, or do you try to go through here and hope that perhaps there's a way in? Because wherever you're headed,

there appears to be the engineering lab where you'll be able to do this data scan that you've been tasked to do, your duty to the Cavalon Empire. It's unclear if there will be an entrance there. You can't tell from here whether or not you're going down a dead end and it'll have to backtrack

or if you're going around a long track, or if you will literally be able to just find a doorway there. You're not familiar with this, and it's not like you have Google Maps right in front of you. You have a heading. I would make the decision to try to take the path ahead of us that seems like it's the quietest because I'm worried about Milo,

and I want to avoid as much confrontation as possible with like civilians? Make a perception check. And so I'm trying to, and I want to keep us out of danger and get there without as much complication as possible. And if that eases the burden on Milo and his brain and his feelings, then that's what I would do.

What am I making? Perception. That uses wisdom. That means I got a 12. 12 is good enough. I would say it's just good enough. You recognize as soon as you pass into this tunnel that it might be a gamble

because you'd have to face what is on the other side if this is not the right path. But with the pressure of Milo's mental state being what it is, you see a switch for the door. There's a switch just to your side that you'd be able to smash or perhaps interface with using your computer, that you'd be able to close the massive blast shield behind you

and seal off this tunnel for a moment once your companions have made their way in. This is an anti question. I'm sure that Jason will the answer this. Who amongst our crew do I think is our like tech person? That's a good question. Because it's definitely not me. I'd be the closest probably. It's either it's either Ren or Milo and I'm you would know especially given his I have augmentations. I I you have absolutely seen me engage with computers and general states of technology through months of training. L2 the interface. See what you can do there. And I would I would mark it through the

the computer, like it would like piloting your screen. I see it. It's like middle clicking in Fortnite. All you have to do is look at it and all of a sudden you see a little reticle and a pinpoint show up on the scanner. And I'll, and I'll try and interface with it to shut the blast doors behind us once I see that everybody's through. As soon as the rest of you are able to pour through a hail of bullets in all directions,

make a computer's check for me. Load easy. Elm three, make sure you cover L2. Yes, sir. 16. 16. Well enough. You don't have to smash it or destroy it in order for this door to drop.

You are able to engage with it. Not even having to plug in or anything like that. Your rook systems take care of the rest, and with a few keystrokes, you're able to bypass their defense, the security defenses there, and you all watch as a few lights emerge and circle in all directions

and the door comes down very steadily. Elmford with me. Until the door is close. Before, there are no vehicles that fly in under Indiana Jones style at the last second. You're given a moment's respite from the sound of the city that was burning behind you and the sound of the ground troops and defenses. You're in this quiet corridor for just a moment, able to catch your breath. I would say that as the door goes down, I'm on the other side of the door,

and Valor Wing is turned looking at the destruction that we've experienced. experienced and it's still going down. And you might have to like yell at me like a couple of times. Elm four with me. Oh, you're outside. Oh, my gosh. Milo! Milo, move through the door.

Nap out of it with me, I said, with me! And right before it gets too low for a huge rook, I will immediately turn around and the huge wings of Valor Wing will beat and all of my thrusters will engage and I'll get low and just slide in. There's a spray of sparks as the, as a few parts of his shield and his hull itself scrape against the metal tunnel floor and the door slams down. You even could see that there was a tremendous amount of

just gunfire that was spraying against the shield. That all comes to a silent halt as Milo is able to join the rest of you in this large container tunnel. I'm going to radio over to the whole swan. Milo, listen to me. I understand that this is difficult. I need you to hear me. We have a moment, just a moment.

Wren was able to seal the door they're outside. We're going to avoid collateral damage. Are you with me? Those weapons weren't even built for... war, they were for anti-personnel and anti-mutant. Milo, listen to what I'm saying. I hear you. I do. There will be time to discuss this, but now is not the time.

I'm behind you. I won't let you all down, no matter what happens. I just think they fire at the wrong location. We just need to get to where we need to be, and everything will be okay. We are in arm's reach of accomplishing our mission, Elm 4. It lies ahead. I hope World Piercer 1 and World Piercer 2 fired at the right location. We have, I imagine, screens where we can see each other's faces. Yes, there's a very clear heads-up display where you can see each other.

If you are in a name-ling. I look up directly into the camera, and I say again, Milo, look at me. I hear you. Trust me. I trust you, Jace. I trust you with my life. And the hearth mother will look after all of these

Morsibians. We just need to be victorious for now. Trust me. I do. I trust you. I trust all of you. We're going to move forward. We're going to scan what they have and we're going to find out what they're up to. And it's all going to

You areth it. Elm's squadron with me. I snapped to it. I, the labs ahead. I will follow Elm leader. I think we move with haste, but not a reckless haste. I'm trying to, with the help of Wren, especially, you know, him being our computer's guy with the help of the rest of the squad for scanning and trying to find a direct route that will cause the least amount. of collateral damage and just not get us into complications

and try to get to the lab as quickly and smoothly as possible. I'm at your left hand, Elm Leader. And I would be wanting to like flank Bright Roars left shoulder basically. And just if there is any sense of we turn a corner like saving Private Ryan style, like a tank there, right? Oh, oh, oh, God. And like, like, to jump in front of it and like, yeah, take the rock into the room.

Absolutely. Absolutely. You never know. Or is a sniper on a bell tower. I have no idea. Pulling the bell tower? The tunnel feels a little claustrophobic. Even though you know that this is a massive delivery channel for whatever mech needs or factorial needs or industrial needs might need to flow through this space.

But with the door closed and you having a moment to breathe through Jace's rally and cry, you're able to stop forward. Jace, you're thrilled to find that you made the right choice. As the corridors, it's a bit maze-like, but you're able to continue on your way towards the heading. You finally arrive at the engineering lab. And you finally see the garrison defense in this relatively remote chamber of the city.

Four Morzebian hulks, each larger than your rooks. stand before you. They are made of sturdy green brindium, and you can see in their gas mask-looking helmets a singular large camera that evokes an eye. They wield brutal laser morning stars, and as soon as you approach, their huge foot thrusters blast them towards you.

I need everyone to roll for initiative. And if you don't mind, I want to know what everybody gets on initiative. Natural 20. Plus four, 24. Nice. Oh, man. I do 11.

19. 17. Gosh, I could use all that information in order to set up your initiative card. It's the exact same. Oh, sorry. Saw it. Veris. Sorry.

Ran, let me actually roll for these one moment. Oh, hilarious. Okay. Jace Milo. That makes sense. Jace, Milo was yours? I just wanted to. know what the order was to call on formation,

and it was not the order I was hoping for. Yeah. There are a lot of permutations. There are. There are. You race into this engineering lab. We're gonna have to create a map real quick. So we're gonna get, we're actually gonna do this as true and proper battle combat. However, you race into this large, open,

engineering lab is the correct term for us. term for it, that's what it is, but what feels like a massive data center. This is very obviously the archives of all of the R&D that is being done by the Oculek, the Morsibians, the inhabitants here. If there is the information that you need in here, it's in one of these massive towers that exist on all sides of the space. You can tell that these are an array of information. It's extremely valid to remind everyone now that we're looking at the map and you can see the Massive laboratory all around you this data center of all the research that goes into building machines like the ones you're about to face

that these mecks are 20 30 40 feet tall depending on the Mac and So are the ones that are that you're facing these are actually even bigger than all of you much taller let's say 50 30 40 feet tall depending on the Mac and so are the ones that are facing these are actually even bigger than all of you much taller let's say 50 50 feet. They're as tall as a building, right? You are nearly that tall, but these are absolute hulks. And so for the purposes of simulation, as you're looking at these maps, these are not five feet per square. Each one of these squares represents 20 feet of movement. And so as they race forward and move from space to space, bear in mind that all around them, the ceilings go up hundreds of feet. The walls themselves are covered in technology. They blast their foot thrusters forward and land here in the center.

Their eyes scanning and all of a sudden there's a massive blast as these cannons races forward and spreads against the four of you. to start combat, and I'm going to switch over to combat playlist here. Why don't I just do that? I know that Veris is going first, but I have a brief moment where these things land. And I, under my breath, I say, oh, hell. And then over the intercom, I say, Formation, shining lance.

You say this. Hell yeah. And then you all hear those words in your cockpit as, the sound of bullets start to pelt you. This rotary cannon spins up and lays down suppressing fire. I need you all. Oh, yeah, I need you all to make a strength saving throw. Oh, strength saving throw.

Yoy. 21. Nice. Oh, 17? 18. 12. 12. you are able to push against this attack, except for Wren?

Shit. Class. Is there anything that we have to boost him? I don't think I want to save. Yeah, well, I know there's one for Dex, but I don't know if it's generic saves. I don't just want to check. That's the only I don't have memorized. Power dice. It would be 39 piercing damage. Oh, what was saving throw?

But I wasn't sure if it was specifically a Dex saving throw. Isolate signal. Reaction when you add, just an ability of saving for spend paradise to add to the total. I would isolate signal. Watch that run! So you just have to generate heat. As I am going to take a heat.

That's a reaction. I'll add three to that. Makes it a 15. 15. Just enough. Oh! Good shit, bro. Just enough. So you each take half of 39 damage.

This one's for the heart mother. And you do not, oh man, you would have been pushed back. a hex and your speed would have been halved until the end of your next turn. That's crazy. That's crazy. Get me in there. So the suppressing fire lays down, but as soon as the gun has clicked to a stop, and you are confronting these mecs, you can tell that there's a tremendous amount of communication happening between these mecs, but they're not engaging you except in silence. As Veris, you are able to take the initiative and do whatever it is that you want to do

now that you have been able to shield yourself and you know that the information in these terminals are of tremendous value to the Cavalon Empire. You know that this is for the good of the people saving lives

if you can get this information back for analysis. So I'm not the computers guy, right? My job is to defend And I have 80 feet of movement, which is only four squares. And so I'm not very fast.

What kind of weaponry do these hulks have? You can see that they have a rotary cannon, which they used these large, it looks like the, what's his name? Wow, I'm really a terrible nerd. sometimes. I just never keep... Vulcan Raven. It looks like one of the massive mini guns on Vulcan Raven, that Vulcan Raven has it in the original Metal Gear Solid. It's a very, very long, multi-barreled spinning rotary can. Very cool. And that's on one shoulder. And in their hands, there's some form of a mace.

It looks very similar to yours, except instead of being attached by a laser chain like your weapon is. This is a hard mallet and from all sides of the actual business end of this weapon, there is fusion geysering and spouting out as

those, there's some sort of energy core right inside. Some sort of like nuclear morning. The term that I have in front of me for the attack itself is fusion mace. God, that's fucking cool. Also, I know you said you're not the computer's guy, so I imagine you being like, Surin, the printer is out of toner.

Is that different than me? And yes, like a Gatlin gun would be another way of saying it. Do we take damage with that spray? Yes, all of you would have taken half of 39. Which is 19. 19 or shield points. Uh-oh. 19 or shield?

Was that? Shit. Piercing. At the beginning of the round? Yes. Yeah. Okay, that's 19 points. If you had a reaction or something that you wanted to do,

I jumped in there, but only because we got such a good high train. 31 shield points. I also presume I'm back to zero heat because there's been enough times. Is 17 damage? The moment that you took coming out of going into the tunnel would have allowed you to express that heat. Okay, cool. I will, and knowing that Wren is our computers guy,

And he's a war. I would want to make sure that I protect him. So I'm going to move 20, 50, 80. And that's as far as I can go. And then I will be scanning. Do they all look the same? There's differences only, not in the design, but there's differences in the, for lack of a,

a better word of a vertigree of the metal. This brinsium has such a color shift to it. It reminds you somewhat of the orbital defenses that you saw in space, but clearly this is much more masterfully engineered. So there's a color variation that makes them almost look different the way that one tiger might look different from another tiger, but they're still tigers. They're all the same class of mech.

Yes. Okay. So all stomp forward and try to cover the right flank here. You all say. Firing shield breaker, Iron Rain! And I'm going to hit a button, and the missile pod will open up. And again, a burst of these small missiles with a volley of faster missiles coming into hit,

followed by... God damn, I need a cigarette. Followed by chunkier, slower missiles. I'm going to make an attack roll at number two as I turn to face and just breaks myself against number four. I see. It's just trying to kind of control and beat the tank in the situation. Okay.

I'm gonna rule that to one. Let me see if there's anything I can do to re-roll that. And for anyone asking, because we're doing ground mech combat, power dice, and all of the space combat, Akutra Ma, come with the mech package. So we're still running all of those rules, but it's in a square grid instead of a hex grid. And facing is not as significant and important as it is when you're... flying through space with momentum being what it is. Gravity now being back in action, I'm not forcing them to worry terribly much about facing.

Reaction when you... So I believe a natural one, no matter what, misses, even if I try boost a hell out of it. So basically, it'll miss. I don't know if it will continue going and they'll spin around. If they're functioned like missiles, then they should. They should keep going.

How much movement of the missiles have? I believe it is, I believe it is nine hexes. Okay. Which is a crazy distance. Which is a crazy distance. So my thought was, I don't know if they would just like smash into the walls in this scenario, or would they spin around and they just start to be coming back no matter what, they can't make another attack this turn.

Okay. So regardless, that's my whole turn. I will say that they fly around, but they are boosting forward. two and they're just fast enough before the missiles are able to make contact. They spin up and around, trying their best with what limited intelligence those heat-seeking chips on the actual missiles have. They try to avoid their own destruction unless they're hitting the target. And they fly up and start to spin back around. You will be able to make another attack with them at the

beginning of your next turn. Excellent. This is a big area. This is a big zone. This is a big zone. and Wren, unless there's anything else, Vera, you're up. That's it. Which of my turns? Sorry. So at the beginning of my turn, my shields, you see they take a pretty big hit, but they almost fill back up as the my shield generator on Ironwall is particularly, I have a bastion shield generator.

Hell yeah. So I reading 15. Remember there's a couple steps at the beginning of turn. You roll to expel heat and you also regenerate your shields if that's part of your meck. and then before you do anything else. I need a rule of those couple of pre-demeanor's buddy. Pre-turn action. I don't have any heat, so I have nothing to worry about there.

And that is it. I also have not quite as good as yours, but I also have a shield cycler, so I will regain five shield points at the start of my turn. I will first, before moving, I will privately calm Milo. Milo, is it still your wish to help us see our dreams realized? I'll do whatever it takes, Rand, for your dreams, Ferris's dreams, and Jason's dreams.

There's a haze on the battlefield that begs your attention, that claws at it from all sides. You have to quiet everything, focus on what's in front of you. Down here, they will die or we will. We're not gonna die here You have my word, Ren. I'll make sure of it That's enough. I'll go invisible That's sick. It's a badass shit. I will I Q, my speed, oh wait, oh my yes my speed is

Is uh can I run faster with paradise? Yeah, oh I can expend up to three to get like extra three hexes or something I can say. I can go one, two, three, four, five. You might not need it, but. Well, oh, because it's two each. Oh, it's two each to go one? Right? You were counting 20, 50, I believe it is. Yes, so he can move five squares.

Yeah. So, so you can get you there. Two power dice will get you there. Two power dice, you get there. Or, yeah, one more power die hit him. Right? So the idea is that- Just one power die. Yeah, exactly.

Or two. I'm stupid. One's enough. Yeah. Okay. One's enough. Is it, do I not want to be standing in front? Can you do something like if I'm within five feet?

You're within five feet in me, so that I should work. Oh, okay. As far as I can tell. Hell, yeah. Yep, yep, yep, yep. I can get my shield in there now that you're next to me. That's what I'm talking about. I will dash forward, expending, pushing my neck just a little bit further,

pushing the rook as I will blaze forward. or I'll lunge forward, with ripping out of invisibility with twin strikes of my blades as I start attacking. Oh. Oh. And I am

also, as we now all know, I'm the computers guy. Ah. So you have, Andy is me here. I'm the computers guy. Andy's drawn these beautiful computer interactibles around the room. Do we know what to do with?

this? Do I understand, is this? You're gonna have to repeat your question. I was just doing a little bit of admin work on my side. No, no problem, no problem. The computer interactables in these three stations around the room, because Wren thinks to look, you check your computer readout and you realize that the signal of the data that you can scan is getting closer as you get closer to this particular interface of technology, this huge terminal on this side. Even though it is a huge tower of racks of information, you know that similar to how you scanned the door panel and was able to bypass its security and lock it, that your mech is equipped with the interface it needs, but only if you're in range.

And so by merit of getting closer, you look down and you can see that there are a couple bars of signal, but that you would need to get in and stay in range of that particular wall or any of the other walls that are in this space that have the technology that Andy is so kindly drawn for me in order to start the data scale. Doesn't look as good on the map can. Got it. And you imagine that it is anywhere within... four squares of the wall would be enough to get you there. Do I have to use an action to scan?

It doesn't require an action or a bonus action. The download will start immediately, presuming there's no interference. I'll use one more power die. If that's fair to say it, and just move there. One, two, three, four. Too heat. Okay.

But I'm ice cold, baby. You take two heat, but you're ice cold, and you immediately see, you immediately see your, The rook, the rook knows, or rather the people who designed the rook, knew that you'd be perhaps piloting this in the heat of battle. Without you even needing to do more than a keystroke

and verifying that it happens, the computer is already doing the handshake necessary in order to start the scan, and it's Sikin. Whatever it is the Kavana Empire is here for, it is here to put those puzzle pieces together, and you start to see a download bar click up. Yes. 18 to hit, my first hit.

That hits. Oh, boy. Okay. All right. There's no way this thing is going to go down in a single hit. So I'll tell you what's going to happen. I'll roll the damage and I'll tell you about my die moves. Oh, that's not right.

27 points of damage. 27 points of damage to number... Seven of it is cold damage. Oh, to number four. Cold damage, if that's relevant. You slash forward with your first strike and you're used to the strange sensation of hitting a shield.

If I may. When you're hit with this, your damage threshold and mishap threshold, if any, are 10 lower against my attacks. It would matter if I had to worry about damage threshold, but you've not pierced its shields yet. Oh, let's hit them again. Okay, so I cut through with this. the first blade and I swing my second around and I'll try for a second hit.

Second hit doesn't land. Second hit doesn't land. You don't know. It's natural one so I'm pretty confident. Yeah, I feel confident about that too. Come on guys. Warm it up in here. Yeah, it's getting cold. He's nice cold. It's getting nice calls. Yes. Okay, and I went stealth through the start of the turn. So that is just me, but I'll call out. The terminals around the room. Move close. We'll download what we need. Knowing that the rooks will know what to do if you get in range, Jace, you're up.

Over the Yermakom, I message the squadron and I say, Elm 3 is with Elm 2. Elm 4, you're with me. And I move 369 because I have 90 movement, so I'm just to move in a diagonal. I believe that's correct. And then I'm going to fucking hit the Jets and just fucking keep this bitch up as I move two more squares to get within four and to attempt to attack number three. That's going to be a 16 plus eight is a bunch.

24. Yep, that hits. As I am blasting the jets, the actual blaze sword is dragging across the ground as I am getting ready to use rockboard slashes. The booster jets from my feet are going, and I make this slashing movement up. My shields,

I also have a shield cycler to heal five. so I go up to 36 shield points. That is going to be 60, 10 plus 4 fire damage to this. I am not bloodied nor at max heat, so I don't do the extra damage. Not great. Not a great role this time. 8, 9, 10, plus that's going to be 10, 16, oh, plus another 8 is 24. 28 points of fire damage.

To number three. To number three. And I am in range of the data center. Again, you slash in and you feel the resistance of a shield, not the hull, as you crack forward. You aren't quite able to break through it with this first strike. That's my whole turn. Real quick, Derek, four would have taken just four more points of damage. I just didn't add my plus damage.

So 27 plus four? Yeah, it would have been 31. So just... Well, that's extremely important information. One moment. If it does something real bad, and I miss it, I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. It does something real good as you slashed through

and you feel that resistance break, Ren. And you cut through the shields as it shattered. And you finally, with your second hit, are able to make a very light contact with the Brincium armor. And it's at this first moment. You don't connect through the shield with 28. I would like garbage.

But with a 30 shield point technology, you break through and that one extra point hits. And it sounds like in every classic Western, when you hear a gun ricochet, there's this immediate sound as your weapon makes contact with the hall doing just a smit, but not enough to truly damage it

as you are able to cut in. You know that these are made of the very finest material of Morsib, and that's... That becomes clear when that sound rings true and reverberates and echoes through the space. Mila, you're out. I'm gonna take a little, thank you. Do I get the scent that basically,

if there are three of us downloading at the same time, we'll be able to finish of our mission faster? Yes. I will say, only Valer Wing is fast enough to get to the back. I've got it by myself, and I just leap forward, boost exactly 10 squares. You know what they say, my insubordination.

Unbelievable. as I get within the four squares of that. You leave the floor for a moment and you boost forward as you fly and you're able to get within range. Your rook makes the handshake. You can see that the download has begun.

Making an attack on number two, that is a... Hold on. 22 to hit. I could have generated more heat. And so that's going to be. 6010. Just piercing versus four, I guess, does piercing matter? No, you can have those both up. Okay. Yeah, just give me the full total. One, two, three, four. Four, uh, information. It doesn't cost a bonus action to use the

power dice to move more and I could have used my bonus action to raise shields. Oh. I did not realize that. No, it's just free. You just burn the dice. So that's on me. Sorry. I should have. No, no, if I've been listening. No, look, it's the first time I forgot my folder. I've been so good and I left my folder at home. I think I have a I have a spirit. It's all me. Hold on one sec. But also I would have gained five field points at the end of that at the beginning of the turn and then also need to roll how do I I, what do I roll a D6? And I got a power. Did I get any heat? Do I? No. No. You get rid of the heat on a five or six. Except for 19. Yeah, he's got. 29, 29. And I just choose to keep the heat.

31, 31, 38, 48, 40, sorry, 38. 41 plus 4. 45 points of piercing and forced damage as I lance into number two. Despite being so hesitant perhaps in battle, man, you really do a fuckload of damage, Milo. You crack through the shield with your spear instantly and you all hear that as the shield,

your spear actually makes contact with that Brincium armor once again. Not enough to cross its damage threshold, certainly, but enough to break through. Shields down over here! I'm downloading! And you watch as you are all connected in a network of source. And with Jace on one side, with you on this side, with Milo on the other, Wren, you are all adjacent to the three data points that are needs. needed to coalesce, you realize that the data is downloading that much faster. Clearly this data had been separated in order like a puzzle.

And as soon as you watch that, all of a sudden, the download bar starts to rocket forward in a way that it had been stalled before. That said. Uh-oh. That said, the more Z-Js, and you already used my reactions. I just got to build heat. I just got to build as fast as I can't. You got to build heat? Are you a target or are you invisible, right?

I'm not invisible. to start my turn because it was cool as fuck. Yeah, it is cool as fuck. But unfortunately, this Hulk stares down at you with a singular lens-like eye, and it reaches down, and it's going to make two fusion Mace attacks, which is appropriate. Two of them? Given your name. Two of them? A mace myself?

Little me. The first is going to be a 17 to hit? No way. Not even close. 24. That'll do it. Okay. What's your AC? Well, actually, are we unable to maneuver

while we're on the ground? You can use all of the usual space combat pieces as a mech because we're doing mechicom. Yeah, you're not like incapacitated. You're not capacitated. Then 23. I'm one off. I mean, I'll jam if nobody else wants to jam.

I... Keep track of your reactions as we go into this. Yeah. No, I have my reaction. So I mean, you're close to you. And if you think that would be more, like, this is the, so that was one of the things I wanted to ask about is this is the only time I think that we should like. Well, we might also. And like, quote-unquote, meta-game and talk about how we're using our reactions.

I guess sensors are crazy. I would guess that if you were willing to do that, there may be other hits that are really bad that I might want to save my reaction for. Right. So, and I, but the thing is, there may be ones that, you know what, I'm going to do this. Okay. I'm going to do this. That's fine. Careful M2!

I'm going to jump ahead. I'll use my reaction to shield pairing. If you're within one hex or 20 feet, if you're hit by an attack roll, I can use my reaction to add five to its AC against the attack. Huge. Oh, you just add five. Oh, wow.

That's 28. So you're at 28, and I'm at 24 to hit. That's correct. And it's actually, as you know, it's meat or beat, so. These Moresbians are... Furious. I don't blame them. I'm going to use a reaction for number four to target lock itself.

And it doesn't make it. So it's unfortunately unable to crack down. However, the way that this looks is you are absolutely going to get cooked by this fusion mates as it comes flying down. And Veras, you jump in at the last moment. I jump in at the last moment and I raise my shield and it, I think he was almost jet back as I jump ahead and I throw my shield out. I dug down almost.

It would clash against my shield as I fall backward into my position as I don't have to move to do this. That is the first of these hulks. The one standing next to Milo is going to slam down. The lowest is going to be an 18. This misses. The highest is the 28. It absolutely is going to smash into you.

Unless there's anything else anyone wants to do. I don't think about it. Yeah. What's your AC? 23. With the six. Or five. I'll take it.

Okay. Number two? Yeah. You take 26 points of force damage. It's okay. Let me know when I start getting into hull. Okay, I'm not at hole yet. Your shields.

Okay, that's fine. That's a reaction. Got it. As a reaction. Got it. Love it. As he smashes it to me, I'll stumble back. And I'll look and say,

we're all going to achieve our dreams. We're going to get in and we're going to get out. This is the price of war. As I will take my lance and just do a counter-attack. Oh, that's right. As I love that you have this option. As I will lunge forward. As I will stab forward.

And that's gotta be, no, that's a 20, 20 another 21 hit. Based and mentally unstable, Bill. Because we're past midnight, after midnight, After midnight, AC's always on the table. We're looking at AC7. Team boys. What's going on?

We're past midnight. What the fuck? Yeah, what the hell? We started at 1145. I know, but I don't know. I'm like, look, some happens. I'm pretty aimed up right now. Time is dilated.

No, it's weird. Fucking fly. It's crazy. Oh, Mikey's counting though. Mikey's counting. Let's go some peace. We know how that goes. 26.

Smoke. It's 26. 31. 30, 36. 36. 35, 35 points of piercing damage. That's fucking massive. Bro.

No, Milo cooks. You do a lot of damage, man. That's number two? Yep. Okay, I'm going to need to do a quick thing here. Just give me 30 seconds because you've done a significant amount of damage to... That was just normal damage, correct? To number two.

It's piercing, piercing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me do this. And that's my reaction. Let me pull this up. I just have to... A couple extra D10s. For those of you playing along at home,

I'm pulling up the playtest document because I want to access the same information that you might have if you were simulating something along this line. And I'm dropping all the way down to page 18. I would normally roll the Starship mistsaps if this were combat in space, however. Okay, you bust something essential. A tube goes, you managed to find just a sloth

liver of vulnerability and you can see coolant of some kind leaking out and it's clearly struggling to have as much turn or flexibility as it was. Mechanically, you imagine that it probably would fail dexterity checks if it needed to make those kinds of vehicle checks. And do you do anything else? No, it's still my turn. Oh my goodness. I'm doing so many. You are really a danger, Milo, and so number one is going to turn to you with this Gatling. gun. Oh, he's going to move in. He's not going to move in.

He's just going to fire from far. Flashings from Milo to get back to base. And he's going to get a 27 to hit. Metal hit. And he's going to do... You've already used your reaction. I have to attempt to jam this. I have to try. Five or six?

Yeah, I'm going to use jam targeting. Okay. To spend a power die to subtract from the attack roll. So it's going to put me a three heat. And I'm going to roll like a giga chat here. You're going to do it. I believe in you. I believe you.

Five. Yes! And I don't even see this guy. I don't even notice what he's doing. Don't fuck with him. Don't fuck with my team. That's fucking crazy. I enjoy it.

Enjoy it while it last. The, um... You put in a few key commands, and in the last second, your rook is able to engage with its targeting ability. Just enough for the Gatling's, the gatling gun to beat of the side and you watch as the bullets rip up the side of the wall creating a terrible pattern of destruction, but not destruction on the front, uh, the armor of

your friend Milo. And now I'm about taking my ass beat. You protect. And now, uh, two. Yeah. Here comes the natural. Two fusion mayfers come flying down, uh, attacks, come flying down in your direction. It's worth. I got to protect Milo. Uh, 21? Miss. 23. Hit. I have 23. I mean, I had 36. Sorry. That's going to be... 16. What was it? It was 23 to hit. I'm going to have a 22 AC.

I've got to roll it, too. Don't roll it, too. Don't roll one, maze. Don't do it. Just enough. He can power it back, well, is he gonna do it? Yeah, I guess he could. Fuck. No, he can't do that. That's crazy. These are...

These are... Mechanically, I have the ability. This is narrative. This is narrative. But it's way too sexy that you guys are all helping each other out. I'm gonna say that the fusion mace slams down. You are too busy to deal with this, but Renn, you key a few commands,

and your boosters go off, shocking you for a moment, pushing you forward, and it's the handle of the fusion mace that hits against your shoulder before coming away. You would have been hit by that energy absorbing, mass at the end of the focus on your battle you bad head uh ran is able to make you dodge out of the way in this last final

moment and uh they continue to thank you continue their assault you're not hearing the sounds of voices come through the uh the comms or screams or anything like that uh there's you imagine that there's a tremendous amount of chatter on their end in the same way that you're

communicating with each other in these moments this is just a silent battle to the death anyone watching this will just be watching machines wrestle and wallop each other as we get to the top of the round, Veris. At the beginning of the round, first you will see Iron Wall's shield just totally like all totally repair and kind of disappear from you. It's like, it's like Masonry Shield points. As the panels of energy fly and live up. I have no heat. Perfect. The Master Chief Shield. I'm looking pretty, pretty healthy besides the whole points that we took from the radiation mines.

Oh, that was a power die to do that, right? What does? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. To the GM targets. Yes. The next thing you would notice is the missiles, the shield breaker missiles. Oh my God.

Turn around and they're now flying back here. Number two! Number four. Who shields are down? Who shields are down. Just armor crushers. Oh. Our boy's about to pick up a pretty hefty kill count.

I got to feel it. I roll the two this time, which is better because they can react. to make it better. Do we know what their AC is? 17, you said. It's 14. Oh, I mean, that's pretty good.

It's about to be on like Donston Town. Three? Three and up? The question is, do I want to save my... Screw it. I'm going to... I, you know, this is almost going to happen automatically as these things really want to hit. I'm going to expend heat since I have 5 max heat,

and I'm going to use my reaction to try to make this hit. Roll five. Six. Oh, bro. So that is a 12, 13, 14, 20 to hit. That hits. They all collide in and the smaller, faster missiles will explode, but they almost completely glance off of its hole

because they only do shield damage. But the larger, more explosive missiles coming behind. I know, I thought we were doomed. The first few missiles, hit him like someone getting pelted with an airplane. It's laughable. There are these small little sparks of explosions. A paper airplane.

I'm sorry, paper airplane. Yes. I meant to paper airplanes. As they crush and almost disintegrate, their purpose no longer needed. With the shields removed, these massive missiles come in and collide, boom, like fireworks going off, echoing and reverbering through that engineering lab.

Turn is going to be devastating. This guy's getting vapor. This whole route is going to be devastating. 28. It will take 48 force damage to its whole. Or just period. Number two. Yeah, I've hit him twice.

And this is a big little chunky hit. You were all right. You were doing big damage. Oh, yeah? Okay. Does that mean? You destroy. I don't know what I was to say this.

Let's go. It's obliterate. It would have been hanging on by a thread, and we would have continued to simulate this Morzebians-Hulks battle, but I rolled a natural 20 on the ground vehicle mishaps because you crossed its mishap, and the natural 20, the vehicle rolls over.

And so it would have been crushed and fallen to the ground, and the fact that it would have gotten pushed by the concussive force of this blast would have had it roll, taking additional bludgeoning damage that easily would have pushed it over the head. So when it gets hit,

Milo, you are watching as you were stabbing into this thing continuing to attack, and it's almost like this thing gets hit by a truck's sideline, and it just crushes and disappears flying into the center of this chamber in disintegrating into nothingness. Gone. Seeing that Milo's been feeling all these ways, being hesitant and then rushing in recklessly,

I don't really know how Milo's feeling right now. This is very concerning to Veras. Yeah. And I see that both of these guys, I think that they, Varis feels like they are more ready mentally for this mission.

And so I am going to privately come in to Milo. Helm two. I mean, Elm four, don't forget your vows. In the name of the faceless, be measured! And I'm going to jet forward.

Just the greatest campaign we ever put that. Six. I was saying. What do you want for me? Nine. It's not a lot to say. Twelve.

Greatest pieces of cinema on a planet. Yeah, no. It's nothing better than this. And I'm going to basically rock it in here, and I'm going to spend two heat to cover this distance. As I use, that is not a reaction, I believe. No, it's not. You're good.

No. You just spend up the three. That's all. So, I start ston. I start ston. and running and activate my boosters and interpose myself between this mini gun that's gatling down Milo and raise my shields.

Let me add two more heat here. Oh, my turn started. You already took your shield. You got your shields. Then you said you didn't have any heat. Oh, so I got this heat just on your turn. Right, right, on my turn. Okay, perfect.

And so with my action, I will, will, as part of this engine boost, I'm gonna bring my blast flail in and down and we'll see if I hit this guy. Yeah. Back to the missile is passive after you fire it. If your friends and family aren't watching Waltz for a turn, you fucking get them right. Okay? And tell them to go to neonrpg.com. Tell them to go to neonrpg.com. To watch Waltz fraternity right fucking now. You too. You too can do this. I roll a 16. Ah. That's enough. So I, is it? 15? Uh, I was Sorry, it's 17. It's 17.

Do we have any... I don't have my reaction back yet. My reaction's gone. Oh. And I think... They close back on your turn, right? Oh, no, I use... Wait, you don't have to resume.

It's all right. It's just started his turn. You didn't use your reaction. I did? Yeah, he did. Did I? No, you now have a new reaction. You signal the reaction.

Because I did. Oh, I missed that. Okay. Thanks for giving everybody honest. So I barely miss as I come down and this thing just barely dodges. It just takes one step back, and I'm barely...

My, my... My engines barely get me here and it takes one little step back on us. These are huge Morgeean hulks and so they're not dodging. These are not nimble things. You smash into it and you're horrified when this Brinzium armor absorbs the attack and it drops down. That's my turn? I'm going to respond. Oh.

And I'm going to say, oh. But isn't it their fault why all those civilians are suffering? Because their government's plotting against the empire? Um... Good gymnastics, Smilow. Uh... If I have a moment to respond... I'm pleased. Please.

Yeah, you've earned it. You've earned it. They are enemies of the Empire. You'll return them to the harmony. But do not be reckless. It is not your day to die. Oh, man. This is like a fucking Terminator over here. Wren.

I rolled a six on my... Yeah. Heat yeah so I'm gonna get one back I'm now no longer so my heat is only three So I currently sit at maximum heat I now no longer sit at maximum heat which is very good because at maximum heat all my stuff turns off Oh shit You got you have to stay cool you literally have to stay cool Go for your shield points. shield points as well you also recover shield also That's really sexy I like that a lot what do you need to hit to recover heat? Do you have a wider heat recovery range? I do

Two, it's super wide. I just rolled six, but I have the cryocor heat sink. So when I roll event heat at the start of my turn, I succeed on a three, four, five, or six. That's insane. It's almost impossible not to succeed. So yeah, we recover on a five up. This is a three up.

Yeah, that's sick. Because of the cryo core. So I will see Varis move over, take position with Milo, understanding that the flow of battle is changing in our favor. and knowing that the shield is down on the target right in front of me, I'm just going to keep laying into it. Guys, we are so well-oiled.

Look at this. We are unbeatable. We're a beatable team, okay? There's nothing that Derek can throw at us. We're the unbeatable squad. Okay? Derek couldn't possible. I'm throwing down the gauntlet, Derek.

Damn, we're going to talk. 28 to hit. 28 to hit. 28? 28? Yeah, the rule right here says, except for 28. You mind you this attack Your damage threshold and mishap threshold are treated as ten lower against this attack

You are just savaging this guy Oh shit oh that's a big roll That's a big one. Oh that's a big one pretty huge all Oh bro this guy Get his ass He's dead I don't know how else to say this You're about to get fucked up Dead dead dead dead

28 26 33 plus 41 plus 4, 45 points of damage on my first attack. Yeah, yeah, okay. Let me just do a little one of these, and we'll just look over here real quick. And my 10 lower, 10 lower. Yeah, 10 lower. 10 lower on all counts. Okay.

You smash into it, and for a moment there's almost a second where... A slice. It has to catch its balance. It almost looks like it's gonna go down on one knee and it catches itself and starts to swing in against you, regaining its balance, but you've done a significant amount of damage. You still hear that same sound as you make connected. It's like slashing into a bell or an instrument

as you smash into it. 15 to hit, but I'm gonna try and target lock for my second hit. Just don't roll a one. Don't roll the one maze. We'll go ultra. I'm hot with the twos, baby. The two's no.

Two is scary. The two is scary. The two's scary. And they're not going to use their heat. My boys efficient, okay? He's efficient. Yeah, I don't want, like, you know. You're not even breaking a sweat on a style.

I'm not green. Sure. There's no kill, like overkill, I always say. But, you know, that's a different reason. And 36 points. points of damage on the second attack. Huge. One moment. Okay.

Got it. That's really fun. Flip a coin for me. Roll a D2, essentially. What the fuck? Evens. Tails. Okay.

You slash in, and whatever the joint is on the minigun on its shoulder is not made of the thick Brincium hide of this Hulk. And you, with your next attack, like a precision swordsman, you flip it and you're able to cut it off. The entire gun goes flipping and you have completely destroyed this Halt's ability to use its rotary cannon for the rest of time as it crashes into the wall and slams into the floor.

That's great. He's still barely hanging on, but. Wow. But you are able to have, you've disabled him significantly. And when I say significantly, I mean, be really glad that you did that. All right. In this swirl of blades,

I'm moving around him. Slash with the first. I now feel as though I understand the machinations of this armor, and I find an opening where I cut in and I slice off its blade, and as I start to move around it, I once more go invisible.

Oh, you're going invisible? Fuck off. It's badass. All right. Jace are up. The boosters are still just, absolutely cooking and they do not stop. So I spend another two power dye to go up to maximum of five heat to thruster around this guy and put myself in a better position of the data center and

this guy. That's so gross. The warnings are just going. I got to heal my five shields. So I get back up to 41. And because of part of my push the red line, this Met can choose to not roll to vent heat the start of his turn so I don't. With this with this extra movement, which is Bruce Engines, I'm now at maximum heat. The warnings are going in the in the bright world at this point it's music to your ears um but i've i did an upward slash before i made this move so as i move around him uh the blazed sword now does an extra 1d10 fire damage because the meck is bloodied or at max heat which i am and i unlock my bonus action blazing strikes where as a bonus action i can make one extra sword attack but i will also generate one

additional heat so i am going to attempt to make two attacks on number three okay let's And so the first thing I'll do is make the attacks. The four is probably not good enough. I got an 18 for one of them. And for four is a 12. If you target lock, there's a chance of a fiber effects. Are you kidding? Yeah, I'm going to target lock.

But I've used some things in a certain amount of order. So the first thing that's going to happen is because I use the bonus strikes attack, I'm going to generate a heat and potentially go to six, which will trigger push the red line. When the Met gains heat while a max heat, I have to make a DC-10 vehicle constitution saving throw. On a success, I ignore the heat, and then that DC goes up by five. Okay.

Damn. So I have to see if I can, with my plus five to Khan, I just have the beat 10. I do not. So I'm going to go to six heat. Oh. Then I am going to target lock and try to generate another heat. But let's first see if the target lock hits. Okay.

So I need a five or six on the target lock. And I will attempt to hold the red line again. but the DC did not go up because I did not pass. Do you have, do you instantly get eye on exhaustion when you go to 16? Presumably. Well, now I have it, but it wasn't, I didn't have it on that attack.

On the first attack, because doing the bonus action gave him that. Right, you just rolled it first. He rolled it too early. I was thinking, I guess would you know, oh, it'd be better to try to just pass this and not have the exhaustion and then not target lock instead? You know what I mean?

Either way, I don't think it matters because I missed. But I just, it would, if you would still miss, but then also have not exhaustion. I just wanted to see, like, would you have that information to be like, I guess, but now you know that you would have missed. No, I mean. I think it's fine. I think it's fine.

I think it's fine. That's a pass. So I don't get the seventh. I don't get the seventh heat, but I have a six heat. And I will still deal. Now I use 7D10 plus four on that first attack. Okay. Not bad. Not great. Oh, boy.

That's gonna be 13, 15, 25, 32, 36, 45, 45 points of fire damage. God. To number three. You and Wren doing 45 points of damage. It's very funny. There's a lot of D-10s. So now I have minus two on my D20 tests and rolls. Correct.

But anyway, 45 points of fire damage. You slash into this thing, and again, there's this almost melodic sound as you crash into it. Slicing with your sword, you watch as its armor is rended. It takes a significant amount of damage, and it's slower for having taken the wound, but it's still standing. And now my DC on Push the Red Line is 15. And that's my whole turn. Milo. All radio into...

Man, I missed. To Varus. And very quickly, I will say each of your turns, as you started in proximity to the terminals, your rooks are downloading data. And the fact that it's all four of you, it's rocketing forward. You feel that the points that you would normally be accumulating very slowly are multiplied by the fact that you're all downloading this. simultaneously. In network, your computers are able to thread this information together,

creating a very complete file much faster than you would have. So we've all spent, after Milo's turn, we'll all have all spent two full turns in distance. And I'm taking that into account, Milo. Elm 3, is Iron Roll downloading? Yeah, I believe it is. Helm 4. I'm with Elm Leader, and I... I blast out over and I see the, as my wings will flat forward, my thrusters will engage.

I will go wide, avoiding hopefully an opportunity attack because Varus has given me this blockage. Oh, you can definitely go wide, for sure. And as I go directly next to Jace, I will wrap my wings around him as the mist and the clouds kind of cover his, almost like a coolant, a cool breezy cloud, is I'm going to use damage control as you are going to regain 15 chill points.

Beautiful. And you are going to end one ion exhaustion level. All you haters out there. See, I got my boy right here. When you come to a stop with a flap of your wings, you go in to envelop the heat that is pouring off of Bright Roar. And just by merit of landing, are a air able to cool off a tremendous amount of his heat. Specifically, based on the wording of the thing,

I'm still at six heat. I just don't have the ion exhaustion. You don't have the ion exhaustion. Correct. So I can still, on my turn, choose to try to clear that six to get back to five, and I'm basically good to go. Yes, yes. But I don't have the ion exhaustion either one.

Correct. Thank you. Correct. So you lost the ion exhaustion. I am within range of this still. I just switched to this zone. Yeah. Instead, and I'm gonna radio into Chase and say, you're gonna change. your dream of being the greatest knight in the empire and the greatest for a pilot chase I promise and that's my turn

that's your whole turn my man turn amazing all right all right on reaction trying to attack an invisible mecca is very interesting I believe I just do it at disadvantage you can swing wildly I think yeah I'm also still right now one number four is gonna swing while so you and I don't have reactions and they do correct I don't have mine oh you use a target I use the target boost. Got it on 13. Okay, so just you have your reaction.

This, uh, Hulk swings wildly, but you're able to dodge out of the way without issue. No, no problem. And yes, you chucked to do yourself very, very, very, wrenningly. I hit him with the Trefoor Belmont against death. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Numbers, um, one and three, uh, three's looking bloody. bloody. One is

uninjured, has not been hit at all in eating its shields. Both of them, you see them sort of turn to each other and they there's a moment of understanding as they realize how effective you all are. In what feels like

only seconds, you have all immediately dismantled this defense line that they had intended to put up to defend their valuable data stores and you are tearing them apart as easily as cutting a a piece of cake. And they lower their Gatling guns,

and they both unleash the suppressing fire that you remember they opened with in this moment. Number three is going to be able to hit both Milo and Jase. I need you both to make a strength saving throw. Uh-oh. And after that, number one is going to be able to hit you. 20, 20. 20. 23.

Ain't nothing stronger than the hearth, Mother's Love. Exactly right. That's that. Holy! Woo! You take 15 points of damage to your shield to your shields as they absorb the rapid, but small bullets coming from this mini gun. It's the shots from fire forward. How much? 15. 15. That was already half. So it was 30, dropped down to 15. Got it. My, you see it pierced through my shields. And Valer Wing starts to take bullets. You're at you. you the hole. You actually see the bullets emerge in the surface of the metal of Valor Wing. So now I'm minus 10 hole points. I yell into the mic. Elm 4, get behind me!

This same cone of attack is of suppressing fire unleashes at you, Veras. I needed to make a strength-saving throw. I'm proficient. 16. That's enough. Okay. You're going to take, and I'm going to roll it again, half of 38, as this attack unleashes against you pelting mostly your shields. They're all looking weak, and you are still managing to survive as a team

to work together, constantly boosting each other, alley-ooping each other, Verris. What do you do? And I will say that in this moment, you hear a ping. You look down, and the download is complete

in a very anime-like fashion. There was one of those cubes of like five cubes rotating and twisting like so and and data inserting and slotting into information as the pipes connect and they, this, all of a sudden you look down and you see that the data file is complete. It slots into position and you realize that all of your mecks now possess the data that the Cavalon Empire was looking for. Your goal

of coming here and scanning for this to be analyzed, data has been completed. I will open comms. Elm Squadron, downloads are complete. Elm leader, can we retreat? Elm three, I read you. My readings are showing that the download is complete as well. Yep.

We need to clean them up and then go home. Yes, sir. Knowing that I'm the slowest, I don't want to be the one lagging behind. We've completed our mission. We don't have to kill these guys. We just need to get out. So I'm going to use four squares of movement to stomp away.

I restore 15 shield points. So I am down two damage on that. Let's see if I restore a heat. I do not. I will then turn and lay down this suppressing fire is I use another shield breaker, Iron Rain. I hit the button, and the missiles will come out and they'll all shoot towards number one.

I know he has shields, and I want to break them down. I would say, too, that we would have some sort of code word or some sort of understanding that we would all know that my call would be it's safe to tactfully retreat when we have number advantage. That's fair. And we have number advantage now, so like you're starting to fall back,

be fine, but like, I'm not going to run away when this guy can, like, cut me down. You know what I mean? Of course. That's my call. And basically, I want to be ready to kind of reconvene in a formation and plan our escape. And he can take an opportunity attack if he cares to. I will say, to clarify, the number of advantage that we feel safe for treating at is an advantage of two to one. That's fair. I'm going to have to roll for that natural 20. Please do. Oh. Uh-oh. This is the opportunity. It's okay.

I don't know. This is why I play. You take 42 points of force damage as you start to run forward and you aren't the fastest mech. But this fusion mace, though it connects, it doesn't destroy you outright, presumably. You've got a lot of bazillion shield points. As I turn, I'm leaving my sense.

I'm leaving my side open to basically try to reconvene, and it'll slam into me. You'll see it, like, hit the shield and flicker this kind of, like, pink red light. And it feels like it's almost about to shatter, but it just barely holds on as I still have six shield points left. Wow. And the best point is you only need one for the keep regenerating.

Exactly, right. Only one, baby. And then I'm going to turn, and like I said, use the shields, brace myself as they fire out. and we'll make an attack roll here. This dude, it's so over. Give it right back! It's so over.

He is getting vaporized. Well, no. The Iron Rave. He said they got to hell. One moment. One moment he says. One moment in hell. That sound, the Brinsium plating being what it is,

a critical hit against the Morzebian Hulk becomes a normal hit. Oh shit. Damn, that's cool. That is cool. I roll a D10. Okay. They got that, can't get enough of you.

On a one, this trait does not function again until it's repaired. I don't roll a one. The more Zibian, Brynzeum hulking armor holds true. And though you do a significant amount of damage, you do hit, you do not enjoy a critical. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Damn.

One, two, three. Okay, Derek, nice. We'll play. We're a little bit. We'll play. We'll play or whatever. I was seeing up that sound just to see if a natural 20 was coming. You guys could have not rolled a natural 20s.

That felt really good. So the small missiles will hit and do 24 points of force damage just to the shields. The number one. To number one. Thank you. And then. That's a D12.

What are you doing in there? Pretty good. They're pretty good. Oh, God. And then the heavier missiles will deal. 13. I'll fucking love this move. It feels really good to roll these dice too.

Yeah, yeah. I like rolling dice. 46 points of force damage to whatever he has less. Jesus, that was without the crit? What the ass. Imagine if it was a grip. What the ass. You still manage to best what is a high damage threshold,

sorry, mishap threshold, and you reduce that damage threshold. It's almost like a crit. You still do a significant amount of damage as the, you buckle the frame of this thing and it collapses a little bit and you can see it almost hobbling as you manage to connect with this attack. That's my turn? Ryan, you're up. I already healed my shields. Okay, okay.

He's as cold as ice. We're back. We're back. I will, out of stealth, once more, striping my blighting my blest. blades and smoke them. 23. Yep, that hits. I think it's mathematically possible for you not to kill this guy, but extremely unlikely. Yeah, uh, that checks out. 39 points of damage. Now it's to number four? Number four on the first hit. The first hit, uh, you're able to get behind this uh, mech and slide your blade in and just

with an additional hit of your mecca hand, punch into, you've gotten almost an eerie sense of where these weak points are. And without having to worry about brindium armor, things almost slow down, and you're able to push in destroying the Mecca as it collapses to its knees and falls apart. I imagine you come out of stealth and it's like real quiet, and you slide the blade and you're like, quiet now. And he just fucking dies. Right into where the cockpit is? My imagining is that I boost up just a little bit and take both blades and like fangs, pierced air.

That's badass, too. Like through the neck joints, straight in through the top. I wouldn't call out. Like the bite of a fox. You still have another attack and I think you still have your movement. So you can remove that token and you can do what you like. I'm not sure I can get anywhere meaningful that matters to even help. When I see this happen, I'll say,

L'N2 on my position. You don't have to listen. You don't have to listen. Okay, Dad. Okay, Dad. You don't have to listen. Jace, you're on deck. Oh, yeah, I know what I'm doing.

I can't imagine. I'm going to ham. Do a little waltz. Are we really leaving these alive? Is that to me? It's your call squad leader. All the comms light up. Yeah, uh, I'm just thinking.

Look, Jason's quick thinking, Andy is not. It's, I am 8,000 milligrams of caffeine portion into my veins right now. Sure, sure. I would call back to Wren. Elm 2, you know the protocol. Once we're up, 2, 1, we're out. Elm 4, I will deal with this one.

We leave the lasting dead out. Damn. And you run up, choosing not to engage number one, but instead to turn and join Verris at his side. At the start of my turn, I am going to heal five shield points. Go back to 40. Then I am going to roll to attempt to get rid of my sixth heat. That's a six, baby. I'm back to five.

Whoa! And with that, I will make two attacks using blazing strikes. So I'm gonna roll for the attacks. This is one, this is two. I will generate another heats. Uh-huh. The first one is going to hit. The second one is going to miss.

There's nothing I can do to boost it. It's not even really close. So I will attempt to push the red line on that second attack. I need a DC 15 or better. I need a 15 or better to not generate a 60. Easy, I get an 18. Now the DC goes up to 20. And I will.

You're mad, man. Yeah, I know. And the absolute casino machine that you created. That's gonna be 10. 12, 22, 29. Only 33 points of damage on this one. A fire damage to number three. I'm just rolling poorly.

33? Yeah. All these D-10s, high variants. A lot of high variance. 33 points of fire damage to, uh... Yeah. I've missed every extra tag. You can do six points of damage, you know? Yeah.

You can do 60. Big swing. Yeah. Okay. Um... Oh, I shit, but I roll in the three. Oh, okay. So I, there's no way I can boost it enough. And I actually think I want to save my reaction.

It's clearly hurting, but it's hanging on by a thread. And Milo, you're right there. What I am going to do, though, is just shift and keep dancing around this guy and try to draw his attention away from Milo. Okay. It's swinging around now. It's got this mace,

and it's lobbing it in all directions, trying to attack. Occasionally, if Gatling Gun goes off, but swings wide. It's these, this and all of these other methods, are trying to protect this place. They want to hit you, not flail around and create destruction in all directions.

And so you can feel that there's a bit of restraint happening when they can't land with their maze or when they take damage. Milo, you're up. I'll hold my spear after healing, Jason, I see this. And I'll say, orders, I'm leader. You would know that the order is to just, dispatch this guy and get out. That's, that was the last.

So dispatch him? Yes. We're not, because I'm not going to risk your life running away from somebody that you're engaged with. So the goal is to clean up number three and get out. And you would have heard me tell Ren that as well. We do have numbers advantage. We are two to one. We are two to one. Right, but I, orders Elm leader. But I don't want you to take an opportunity attack and get fucking smoked. Orders Elm leader. Dispatch this one and get to safety. We're all going to live our dream.

And I'm going to make an attack. I'm not gonna have you risk your life. You can choose to not listen. Oh, God. But you would know that I would not be comfort with you, like, exposing your flank. Yeah, that's a 20, it's a 20 fucking four or five, 25 to hit. 15, 22, 22, 20, 23, 20, 25, 30 points of piercing damage. 29, 29 points of piercing damage.

You slice in with your spear and you connect. And you don't feel the resistance of a shield. You feel the unusual sensation of hitting the brinsium ardemeermer, but you're able to pierce through. And by the time you pull it, you realize that you've ended this technology's life. The machine that is in front of you can no longer function enough to stand, then it crumples before you. I'm imagining it,

if you were filming this, would be like, Orders, Elm Leader, orders on Leather, and you say, dispatch this one, and the camera would be Jases with Bright Warf facing the Moressibian, and without hesitation, it would basically pierce through, splintering, probably carving the fucking Oculec pilot or whatever pilot is through in his thing,

in the Osses. You hit very near the pilot, yeah, cockpit. And the spear rips out, collapsing it. As soon as I see this, this mech drop, I would radio over again to everybody and say, Elm 4, nice job. Now use Valorin's superior speed and get out of here.

I'll leave the way. And then I will just use my bonus action to dash. And I've, my speed is 200. So what is that? 10 squares. It's 10, 10 squares. What if I go diagonally? It's three.

It's three per. Two, three. You're able to effectively make it to the entrance. It won't blow far. Yeah. I'm going to just basically blast forward. But here. I miscounted then.

I was doing something earlier. Here is where we're going to drop initiative. I would ask you to hide the map view for me because we're entering the, the narrative, theater of the mind play of a role-playing game that we all enjoyed, Dungeons and Dragons. Instead of pursuit or more suppressing fire or a battle to the death,

the remaining Morzebian Hulk drops, not because it has been felled by your lasers or your swords or your beams or your missiles. No, it puts itself into such a position that its cockpit can get to the ground as quickly as possible. And as you all race out on following Jace, the leader of Elm Squadron, and you start to turn back down into that industrial corridor, leading back to the subterranean city underneath the crust of the Morsibian planet,

you watch as the cockpit opens. And in a suit, one of the Oculaq pilots races out. sprinting towards the flaming wreckage of one of the other mecks, clearly concerned for the fate of whatever pilot happened to be in that cockpit. It's the last thing that you see is you turn, bend, and you begin to make your way back towards the sealed door. Which you reach moments later, knowing your path is the only way to escape is to get back to that shaft, that vertical ascent that you're going to have to boost up.

You know that behind these blast doors, which are still closed, behind the blast doors of this entrance, there might be an army waiting for you, defenses, perhaps more of these hulking mecks covered in the impossible Brinsian plating that you are now extremely familiar with. Yeah, it's pretty good. What do you do is you reach this terminal point

just before you break through? Elm 2 on the interface. Elm 3 and 4 with me. Be prepared for anything. On it. Weapon sat. Opening in, three, two, one. You blast through and into the subterranean city.

The scans having completed and the encrypted information being decoded by the highly advanced programs within your rooks. With how long you spent on your mission, you expect a brutal fight against reinforcements blocking your escape. But your escape is clear. You hear a horrific, guttural, shrieking roar, followed by rumbling explosions. Off in the distance, you see a colossal mutated kaiju stomping through the city, belching sprays of dissolving acid from its overly elongated maw. Its green scales repelling much of the weaponry of the defense force

now solely focused on it. Your thrusters are engaged as you blasts, upwards past the pillar of radiation spilling into the underground until you breach the surface, rocketing you through the atmosphere and finally off world. As you arrive in space, Morzeeb is left behind you and you are not pursued. Your mission has been a success. You rocket out of the toxic atmosphere of the irradiated surface of Morze. Zeeb as you blast off into space using your thrusters at full strength in order to reach a formation to burst through and out of low orbit. There are the additional coalesced arrays of defense orbital lasers that are there for the sake of trying to prevent the intrusion that you are all accomplishing.

But moments later, a few attacks, a few defense parries, you are able to blast through that defense array, and you are able to follow your guidance systems towards the Star of Uthad. Returning back in the direction the transport fled after deploying the World Piercer. And you find yourself moments later free from any attack. There's no additional squadrons or starships in the immediate vicinity, doing a quick scan.

You realize that data in tow, the four of you, perhaps a bit worse for the wear, your mechs being one thing, but your experiences being another. You have jet off into ether, into the space. and you are minutes away from rejoining your, the transport that is the star of Uthin, and you have a few moments to talk before rejoining and before making your way back. I think the only thing that I would do if I'm able to

is the captain is the one that we have been answering to, right? Crocket. Captain Crockett? Yes. I would just do a quick check-in to head off any like incoming communications because I know that we've just been through a lot and I don't want the Elm Squadron to get bombarded by questions

and I would read you of the captain and I would say Captain this is Elm Reader do you read Elm leader do you read me You're a little faint you're a little faint but we read you We'll reunite with the rest of the squadrons momentarily I just wanted to report that our mission was success Elm Squadron suffered no casualties. Over. Sir, it's good to...

It's good to hear your voice. We're here. We're standing by. We will see you in... What did you say, like 20 minutes? Yeah. We'll see you in about 20 minutes. Over. That monster. It was the world piercer that unleashed that under the city.

And all the radiation from the surface. I mean, who knows if that whole city, that whole district is going to be habitable ever again. Milo, do you hear me? I hear you. Are you all right? We survived. The hearth mother protected us from the horrors of the night. We are in her warm embrace and we're together.

That's more than can be said than for a lot of people down there. Milo, I want you to know earlier when I said that I heard you, I meant it. You're right. Star of Uth in it. It went too far. Whatever that thing was, that, that monster? It's a direct result of the world piercer going too far. Don't think I didn't notice. I hear you. Elm leader. Elm four.

We've just completed a successful mission in the name of the Empress. In the Empress's glory, we were able to exhibit the immense technological prowess of the Kvalon Empire. It was not our decision that the Mosebian government was assisting the dynasty, our enemies. They mean to end our way of life. in the name of the Hoffmother we can be merciful but in the name of the architect

we must be disciplined and do what it takes the best we forget Elm 3 is right we live to see another day and it's our first real success we'll get back safely and we can celebrate

have the other squads checked in Elm 2 I haven't heard anything yet I'm sure we'll be updated as we get closer. Elm leader is right. This is calls for celebration. Allow me to be the first to say congratulations, Elm Squadron. Echoed. Congratulations. Well done, everyone. I'm proud of you. We operated better than I ever could have imagined. Everything that we've done, everything we've worked for. It paid off. Yes.

You're all amazing. Well done. All of you fought well. For the Empress. For the Empress. For the Empress. We're all gonna survive. We're gonna complete Operation Waltz, and we're gonna defend our community, the hearth mother's community, no matter what. We still have to get this information back,

and that's just the beginning. All we've done is maybe understand their plan. You don't think Zorro and Raina squadron ran into any problems, do you? their mission seemed a lot more dangerous than ours, and we barely made it out. I'm sure they encountered their own set of issues. This was no cakewalk.

You said it yourself. It feels like we got the easy end of the deal here. All we can do is wait to hear back from the other squadrons. They are skilled knights, Elm Four, and their rooks are from great houses. I have faith that they're... succeeded as we have. Do I have the ability to try to radio Raina? You know that with a few key commands that you could try to communicate with either Oak or Ash. Range is, you

know, potentially an issue. You know that you were ten minutes ago flying and barely able to talk to your star of Uthin, but if you wanted to give it a shot. I'm gonna try. I don't know if you need to make a console. To communicate with Ash? Yeah. Okay. I'll try to open up the channel and I'll try to say,

Ash Leader, this is, this is Elm 4. Our mission was a success. Checking in on Ash Squadron. You open up your channels and you attempt to communicate and you don't hear Raina or Ash Squadron. You instead hear on the other side, you for the Empress! And you hear the sound of Zaro's voice chime in.

And the moment that you're able to get into range, the sound of Oak Squadron cheering immediately floods all communications. All of you, not just you, Milo, because you opened up the channel, have invited them into chat. And you can hear, those more Zibian punks didn't stand a chance. Those Breeddezum stores are history. Gone, gone, gone, and you hear them cheering each other.

You're able to listen in. You know that you could chime in if you wanted to, but you continue to scam. Congratulations, Oak Squadron. You filled the transports with Brinsium? Oh, hell yeah. You all right, you get that, Dita? Oak Squadron, this is Elm Leader.

We did. Congratulations on your success. Yes, congratulations for the Empress. Well, that's two out of three. Oak Leader, any word from Ash Squadron? We ain't heard nothing yet. Ash Leader, this is Eln 4.

Status report? All of you hold your breath for a moment, and you listen. Ash Leader? Raina. Rayna! You continue to radio, and you continue to push.

Raina! Two minutes go by. three minutes four minutes you're listening oak is a Zarro the rest of the gang they're all they're all communicating you can hear cross-chatter now every after a minute goes by after a full minute more you can still hear them talking to their star and and and figuring out rendezvous points you radio into Ash Squadron one last time Raina and you don't hear anything back there is no response. Esch leader? You try to separate channels. You make multiple attempts. You hear garbled

static seemingly blocked by interference from the surface of Morsib, and then as you fly away from Morsib, still that toxic eye floating out in the middle of space, you look back and you see a massive explosion on the surface. A huge plume of dust and radiation crushes into the sky. And finally, you get a response as Raina's strained voice comes through the comms. Mission success. Raina! Ash 3 has been eliminated. Durgen.

He got overwhelmed and initiated self-destruct to destroy the remaining harmonite. He gave us an opening to escape. Quick question. Do we know that Raina is Ash leader? You do. Okay. The Flambago leader. Dürgen clearly didn't make it from what you're able to make out from the garbled communication.

Ash Leader, this is Elm Leader. Do you read? We're coming in. We read. Do not let Ash Three's sacrifice be in vain. Get to safety. Know that we honor his sacrifice for the Empress. We will. We will. As I let go of the comms, I say, back on my seat and I say.

Damn it. Glad you made it, Ash leader. Durgat. Ash three was a true knight. He will be remembered amongst the heroes of Cavalon. You hear for a moment a click and static. It tells you that the channel is open, but you don't hear a voice in response. And then a second click tells you that the channel has been closed.

Raina couldn't find the words. Or perhaps it's just interference. Ash 3 is faceless now. He returns to the harmony with great glory and his sacrifice has made us all safer. All three missions successful now. Remember on the squadron. That could have been one of us.

Be grateful that we have each other. Harth Mother, take him into your embrace and show Durgan Grace. And I'm gonna fly back in silence. You take formation and you jet forward. Not a moment later, you see the Star of Uthin and the rendezvous point. What is needed to assemble

in order to reach your next destination back, to travel back through towards home, back towards the Cavalon Empire, back towards Castle Ascalon. You hear the sound of the captain. Shhhm in. So you have it then. You have the data?

Clearly chiming in to speak directly with squadron leader, you, Jase. Yes, sir, this is Elm Leader. The mission was the success and we have the data. What did you find? The other missions were a success, but we don't know anything about what you were able to collect. One moment, sir.

And I'm going to look just kind of at my paneling. Do I feel like I have the tech to start taking a look at what I have? Do I, like, would it be unreasonable for me to, like, he's asked me this question. Do I have a way to start to take a look at the data, or do I understand the mission to be to deliver and not ask questions? What would I know? You know that you could unpack this data right now if you wanted to. You could double-click in, and because it had been assembled at such speed, you didn't have a moment while you were on the surface of Morsipe.

But now that the adrenaline of the mission has fallen to the wayside, now that you know that the other squadrons are there, Now that you're here at the rendezvous point, you feel free to take a look. Captain, requesting permission to begin analyzing the data. As quickly as you can. We must know what it contains, please. Understood, over. And I will begin the process of whatever that would be,

maybe asking Wren to help initiate the process, letting my teammates know that the captain has made this request and that, you know, I'm going to report back to what I can't. You access the file. And by merit of your close proximity to the Star of Uthin, you can see that this information is being shared. And you start to work with your Rook. You start to work together to see what these files contain, this R&D, this tremendous data store of R&D. The advanced computer terminal in your Rook analyzes the information that you scanned.

Decrypting a simplified report that's presented to you as leader of Elmsquhart. Your assault on Morsibe was certainly a resounding success and shutting down future Mecca development, but you're presented with dire news. The Morsibian engineers and Mekrites developed a supermec for the Saurak dynasty, several times the size of a rook, shaped like colossal mechanical dinosaurs, powered by Harmonite, and fitted with fortified armor that would make them immune to all laser attacks. They are outfitted with an arsenal of weaponry, including a pulse that can immobilize mecca, even rooks.

And worse, a cannon within the jaws of the beast with the potential to destroy a space station in a single blast. And you see that one such mecca has been completed and was already sent to Kratah, the capital of the Saurak dynasty. It is fully operational. and ready to be deployed. Then you see more information, notes left by the weapons engineers,

that reveal a horrible truth. The purpose for which its primary weapon was built. You discover its primary target, Castle Ascalon. And that is where we'll end tonight's session. Boys, we might be cooked. We might be cooked. Gotta give it up. Wow.

I don't give it up. Thanks for on the session. Thanks for playing. Unbelievable. No way. What did we do? That was a good one. We're literally just out there.