The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Steeplechase - Episode 10

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

With the Gutter City police in hot pursuit, the gang scramble to get the right truck and make a clean getaway. Beef gets ahead, Emerich cools things off, Montrose teams up.Opening monologue performed by Autumn Seavey Hicks: https://www.instagram.com/autumnseaveyhicks/?hl=enAdditional music in this episode: "#44108 (Transistor)” by Techtheist: https://techtheist.ru/; “Six" by Lex Villena: shorturl.at/hkQRZ; “Voyageur” by Monkey Warhol: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monkey_Warhol/; and “Web Crawler Bass” by deadrobotmusic: https://deadrobotmusic.com/.  Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

Steepies, I'm here with a breaking news alert, and this is a serious one. The wedding of Kenshal Denton and Lizabeth Owens at the Dusk Hotel has been crashed by some gutter city low-lifes trying to nab the Steelswell Diamond. One of our reporters was at the nearby sinewendo to go, having her cigarettes seductively lit by a handsome stranger when she saw the whole thing go down. Is this robbery utterly predictable? Of course. But does it make it any less heartbreaking for us Kenbeth stands?

No, peeps, no, it does not. But fear not, steepies, somehow, some way, will still dry our tears and never know when to stop dreaming. My nigger girl, I'll sweep you through the ashwaste as we make our way through the... You hear me, travelers? When? I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I left the horn on. Are you speak? Are you talking to me?

Fairly will Wait Wait We just started talking to you Hello everybody And welcome To the Adventure Zone Steeplechase

Is that guy my real dad You wish Legally you have to tell Legally you have to tell Travis if The Muck Dweller is his real dad No not the Mug Dweller The Nanofather

The Nano Father My son Oh it's right there in the name I should have seen it a mile away It's so obvious now our friend and employee Jupiter is kind enough to help pull together recaps of this dumb stuff,

but Jupiter, is showing a lot of wisdom here, does not track the story of the nanofather. So that is really... I think they realize that it's been so clear cut at this point that any child could remember all of the nanofather slash muckdwell or war.

I think owned. I think only. Yeah. Only that a child could keep track of falling. You need a child. You need a child's heart and face. Sweet, innocent eyes of a child's eyes. Welcome.

Okay. If you, I'm going to stop saying if you haven't been listening because, again, it's just unthinkable. Just listen to it. Just listen to it. And it's very accusatory. It is. The, the boys are in the midst of trying to steal a van, a laundry truck called the clean for sticky Fingers Paul Pantry, they did it through stealing the steels well diamond.

Wait a minute. I get it now. Now, Justin, not to argue your nomenclature. I would say we have stolen the clean. We've just not finished stealing it. That's true. That's true. Legally, it's mine right now.

Possession being nine-tenths of the law. Right. We really struggled with numbering in a way that was not very fun in the end of the last episode. So there are three cars. there are three trucks, I should say. There's the clean. Inside the clean is Montrose.

And Vogel and Tonio, they were the two other thieves that were working with you, Montrose. In Car 2 is Sticky Fingers, Paul Pantry's, like a hard light avatar, if you will. Right. Just short done. And Emrick. And then, yeah, technically, yeah, is in the guys of the short. Doug. And in the third car is Jacques, who seems to be driving very erratically and maybe wants to get caught. And beef, Trava. Trave was definitely went into car four with Jacques, which is now car three. Oh, God.

So, the clean is one. Two is two. Let's go ABC. Please go. Now, can we say, can we say the clean? Right. Yeah. Uh, short Doug. And Jacques. Yeah. Okay, sure. The clean, short dog, and Jacques. Got it. That is the situation that you find yourself in. You are also being hunted by, I believe, 20 Gutter City Police Department officers.

I don't know why I felt the need to do this, but I did find a picture of what these look like. Oh, yeah. In case, you're curious. I love a visual. That's what the cars look like. Oh, yeah. Um, there's a Studebaker?

It kind of looks like Doc Hudson from the cars. It's a Ford super deluxe, uh, 1947. All right, Dad. And, Dad wants to kiss that car. Dad,

go kiss that car. Go kiss a picture of that car. You've never seen one of these before. Oh, baby. It's black, got chrome bumpers. It has,

uh, it's a real sexy automobile. Yeah, it's cool. It's cool looking. There's white wall tires and it's got pontoon. Fenders. Yeah, that's cool.

Anyway, it's got Stratacasters all over. I'm not a car guy, but I wanted it, so I want to get a picture with these cars. Surprise. Got big weiner. Here's what's going on. Hanging off the back of it. You guys are going through Gutter City.

Did you guys hear it? Sorry, it's my mic working. Sorry, Gryphibbunuts. Got big truck nuts and a big weener hanging off of a bag of it. Just flapping in the wind. I'm also going to send you this. It is a

map of Gutter City downtown. I love a map. We're not going to be directly tracking your position here. This is more of a, you know, get your mind working a little bit. You can see there that you're currently at the

corner of 11th in Wyandotte at the Dusk Hotel, having just pulled out. I put a couple other landmarks on here. There's Senuendo and Darla's offices. Again, don't know, don't care if they are involved in this situation, but I did want to just give you

kind of an idea what we're looking at, just as like a visual reference. Is Kansas City? Wow, good eye, Griffin, yeah, it's Kansas City. They had a nice grid layout, so I stole their city. I'd tell you what's messed up. In American cities, there's so many like similar names of streets and layouts and stuff. For a second, I thought it was Cincinnati. The city in which I live, this is so similar.

If you're paying attention to all the clues, the choice of Kansas City might be more than meets the eye. It was all there. be more than just happenstance. Well, if you've been following the class. Oh, they've been laid out in the muck dweller part. I missed it again. It's all in the meta. Okay.

There is also the last like gameplay thing. I have this is, guys, this is so invigorating to have absolutely no idea what's about to happen. The only thing that I have, the only little gameplay thing I want to show you here is you can see that clock on the table. Do you see a big clock?

Yeah. It says cornered. Okay. That is a sort of meter of the extent to which you are able you have mobility right this isn't like you're arrested this isn't like whatever this this clock represents you being cornered by the police that are trying to catch you and that is the situation that you find yourselves in as the three of you rocket down i don't know it's called 11th street why not and uh are just flooring it mantros you're pulling ahead. Sticking figure, Paul Pantry is doing some, like, cool drifts, and Jacques is just going wild,

tearing up the streets as the GCPD is in pursuit. Who would act first? Where would this even begin? What would happen? I mean, probably me, if I'm in the lead car. Yeah. I think, can we do a... I'm going to start off with a...

flashback. Cool. Okay, good. I love it. It's just the three of us, right before we go our separate ways to go into the desk hotel. And we're just kind of standing at a street corner. And I say, okay, here's what I'm thinking.

Bunch of crazy stuff's going to happen in there. And we're all going to end up in three separate cars. Does this seem convoluted already? Yes. But trust me. I've weighed all the possibilities. This is the only way that makes sense. So once we're out on the street,

now all of a sudden we got ourselves a shell game. Y'all, did y'all study the sort of like book of like beginner heist, sort of maneuvers that are available? A show game's like gambling, right? Yes, I suppose. It bums me out in such a major way That that is the only thing you took away from it No, I'm just trying to reference

Don't worry about it It's not important We got ourselves It's also known as a chipmunk gambit A chipmunk gambut Oh someone read the You absolute dweeb And also it's called a one two three

Cuduzi No it's not Oh which one of my thinking of I think you have I think it's pronounced Shadoosie I don't think it is. We'll get out there. We'll have some fuzz on our tail.

And it's going to be up to us to give them the old slip. One of us goes one way. One of us goes the other way. And then a third one goes a third way. We split up the force into neat thirds. And then you just do some silly driving and you get us out of there. You think Vogel has wondered why your voice has changed? This is a flashback.

so Oh, right. No. And it will all be perfect as long as Emrick ends up in the clean so he can copy, you know, the code, the hard light code, then we'll be able to get out of there with

little to no issue. Yes. I think that that will definitely be something we do not forget. And then flashback to the present. Wait, wait, the flashback's not ever yet. Hey, let's see. So with you guys again. Find yourself in the market for another tune, huh?

Ah, Saxman Mean Dug's my name Mean Dug's my name And Sacks is my game Oh God He's getting better Oh man Yeah he is

That's wonderful chase music Do you know Claire Loon? That'll be one sweet Oh, I'm fresh out If only you'd ended the flashback Before you wouldn't have voted him with You know I mean Doug you say

Yeah Yeah mean duck How long would it take you to assemble a like-minded crew of brass buskers? Well, you want brass, you want woodwinds. All the instruments you got that you can carry around and march with. The readier, the better. You want timpity guys? I need timpany guys.

All right. He can't finish without timpity guys. Well, here's what I'd say. What I'd say is that would be an elaborate action that involves special opportunities and consistencies. I mean, that's my back of the napkin math on it. It would be stressful to a degree of two. That's what I would think on that. What if I could.

Wait, it's very, it's quite rude in the middle of a commerce. Okay. What is it? No. What if I could cut you in on some action? You put together. I'm an opportunity to play saxophone. I'm not a criminal. I'm just a sax guy. All it is is an opportunity to play saxophone with you and a group of like-minded brass balskas. How long do I have?

About an hour. Yep. You got it. Okay, Griffin, take two stress. I don't know if I can't hold on Okay as long as I don't reach the trauma track I can touch the trauma track Just not get up into it right Is it would this bring you to full stress

It would Man you're really You're really putting the proverbial cart Before the horse on this one griff I hope you have a good implementation I do When the PC marks their last distress box they suffer a level of trauma

tell you what I'll split you somewhere in the middle of Griffin he'll get together a group of guys okay for one stress he's not gonna have a band for one stress and I will pay them handsomely I want to make that clear that was my argument for why it shouldn't be too stress okay I'm gonna cut them in in a major way well okay okay got it uh okay we I guess as I approach sort of the first major

are we back from the flashback yeah we were back in in oh oh Oh, why did you? Oh, damn it. Oh, shit, Paul. Okay. Well, it's right. I'm supposed to be in the other vehicle.

We'll figure it out as we go. Uh, all right. Here it is. Split up. Ready? I'm going straight. Call it. Going right.

Uh, we'll go left. Yep, that's the only other direction. But backwards is cops. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You want me to go. Okay, you got, Trav, you got to stop to talk to Jacques. You got to sell him on this. We'll say you're pulling up towards the intersection, but you've got to sell him.

All right, Jack. We're going right here. You got it? Yes. Okay, because you want to get caught, right? That seems like what's going on here. No, I want to live free. Free of the shackles of the jails and their comforting restraint.

Well, let's have the most exciting chase we can have then and then work on totally escaping. But let's focus on the excitement. All right, splitting up. Perfect. We will be the ones that go left. We go right. Oh, I think. Fine.

All right. You go right. You go right. The cops. Let's see. This is, all right, this is a group maneuver. I'm going to call it finesse, your ability to time this out. There's a lot going on, but I'm going to call this one, this first one, finesse, to see how well you pull this particular gambit off.

I very prudently, I would add, I leveled up my prowess track at the end of the last episode and took a third point in finesse. Wow. Okay, so Griffin, you're leading this group action. I want you to roll for each character who participates in the group action. The single best role counts as the action result,

which applies to every character they're rolled. Oh, but you take stress if we don't make it. Okay, read me that one more time. So there's four different ways you can do teamwork. You can set someone else up, you can assist them, you can protect them, or you can lead a group action. I think this is a group action. For sure. Roll for each character who participates in the group action.

The single best role counts as the action result, which applies to every character that rolled. Okay. Position? I mean, you're not going to have any trouble. You're not going to have any trouble from the cops on like, uh, this. This is going to work, right? You're not going to crash, but the extent to which they are sort of... Divided up?

Yes, exactly. Yes, for sure. Okay. It should be noted, though, because of where you're at stress level-wise. Yeah. The character leading the group action takes one stress for each PC that rolled one to three as their best result. Okay, but I roll your guys' roles for you, right? No, we each roll.

It's just whoever gets the highest, that counts as the score for the group action. I will lead this group action. Okay. Okay. I'm in the lead car. I said I would lead it, and so I'm going to lead it. I would ask that nobody get too stressed out, or I will be traumatized by it. All right.

Here's what I will say, though. We need to establish that there are stakes for this. For this move, right, for this thing that you're doing, what is the goal of this? What are we trying to do? Because right now it seems like the three of you are going in three different directions. What is the goal? What are you trying to achieve? I want there to be as few.

cops on the clean as is possible before we get out of gutter city. Okay. You all need to think a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot about what that means to get out of gutter city. I've thought about it. Okay, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good. Okay. So you all are trying to basically peel off in three different directions and try to split up the cops. That's the goal to have fewer cops. Okay, Griffin, go. All right, I'm going to gun it straight through this main intersection while my cohorts turn off to the left and right. And I say over the earpiece, don't remember, you do not have to use your turn signals. Please relay that to your drivers. It's a comma, it's a rookie getaway mistake. Don't use turn signal shock.

Paul turn signals are a no no Okay, I'm worried about the stress Griffin and I don't think that Now that I'm thinking on it as a way to avoid this Possibility of you getting knocked out I don't think it needs to be a group action I think it could be you doing a finesse move To peel away and leave them following the other two

Okay I like that Can I assist Yeah I mean that would that makes sense Yes, yes. Assisting would make sense. Okay. We're all in laundry trucks, right? Yeah.

You're, well, you're in trucks. What's in the back with me? I don't know, bud. You haven't looked. Okay, I'm going to look around. What's in the back with me? That's going to be a whole other action. You don't know.

You can't do a survey in the middle of Assistant Griffin. Okay, then. Jacques's in there with you. Throw him out. Bold. Bold. Okay, well, I'll hold off on my action then. I'll hold off on it.

Okay. Yeah, it's just Griffin. Risky standard? Yep. Amric's going to assist. Okay. No, I mean, by swerving back and forth and back and forth to kind of, as an impediment. You are not in control of this car.

You're in the car that sticky figures Paul Pantry. A hard light AI construct is driving. If you want to take over driving for your hard light construct, then you can do that. But it's the best driver in Gutter City. best driving in Gertie City. I think you, I think, but like with him in your control, I think that it does make sense that he would do like, you just say like, do something cool and he would do something cool. You can, he's important that way. Just tell Paul what to do.

Yeah, Paul, drive like a maniac like you've been doing. I'm the best there is what I do. Oh, I know, I know. You just sit there and you watch a master at work. I'm very proud of you. Good job. Okay, so is that you assisting me? Yes. Believe it or not.

Roll at E6. Oh, yeah, roll dad's additional. Yes, because right now you got two, four, four. I got two. Two. Okay, so four, mix success. Mix success. That's actually so nice with this clump of cars.

Mix success, we're going to call there are eight cars in pursuit of the, the clean still, and there's six each pursuing the others. Okay. That makes sense. Again, I'm not going to keep track of these specific numbers, but just to give you an idea, you pulled off about eight. Eight are following you, six are following each of the other two. That's still a lot of cops, huh?

A lot of cops. I would like to survey what's around me in the back. Okay. Now, this is an interesting question. Does what's in the back now determine Okay, yeah, go ahead, Trabb. Is this controlled? Yeah, I think it's controlled, and it's standard.

I think we did establish that there were workers loading, like, bags of stuff. Yeah, there's stuff in here. I got a two. Oh, Trav, well, you're, you are in luck, actually, with a two. Huh, yeah, you are, it's wild. You are in possession of an entire truck's work, as near as you can tell,

of rich, satisfying Boladere, two for a quarter cigars. These things are, you can feel the satisfaction coming up from them, and they are just loose in piles. Just loose piles of cigars in here. So you're, I'm going to start calling your truck,

Smokey. Okay. Just to help me remember. So Smokey is, you've got like loads of cigars. and they just gained on you a little bit in that time. Okay. Assume they're gaining on you, they have an advanced knowledge of gutter city. So unless you're doing something specifically to unseat them,

or to slow them down or to distance yourself, just assume they're gaining. Okay, then. So I'm going to use one of my items. and I can get a little creative with these, right? Because it's a lantern, but that's not what I would have, right? Right. So I pull out my Zippo. Okay.

And start lighting cigars and throwing them back into the pile. Okay? You're trying to end the pile of cigars. Yes. Okay. Got it. Hell yeah, man. You're hot boxing.

Yep. You might die. Jacques, okay, God, what would that even be? What, what, would that even be a role? I mean, yeah, I guess it would, finesse, I guess to keep you from, like, lighting your own fingers on fire, I guess. Okay. What's your goal? Let me ask you this, what's your goal?

Well, next I'm going to open the back of the truck and make a smoke screen. Okay, cool. That seems like more like the action, right? Now we got an action. Okay, great. Yeah, I think it's still finesse, eh? Like, yeah. Okay.

Risky? Because I'm opening the door? Um. Not really. I mean, it's, yeah, I mean, it's controlled. Like, this is a, this is a, well, no, it is risky because you're lying shit on fire. Okay, yeah, risky. Okay.

Standard, yeah. I like the image of him throwing smoking cigar boxes out the back of a moving car and being like, I am completely in control. Make success. Make success. Okay, cool. You start lighting these cigars on fire and just chucking him in there. And Jacques starts going, oh, it's, oh, so rich. And yet so sense

Are those two for a quarter Bollonaire cigars? You know it. I appreciate the gesture, but this does not seem like Z-time for a smoke break. You have, there's a cup,

you've slowed the coughs down a little bit, Trave, but Jacques is having even more trouble keeping his keeping it together, and he has begun smashing into other stuff. There's another

clock here. I'm going to drop on you. This is the condition of Smoky. Of Smokey, right? You have now set Smokey on fire. Jacques is running into different objects. So we're going to say... Trash cans. Trash cans. News.

You know, objects. So we're going to call this Smoky and he's going to take some damage. What with all the fire? and what have you. Six-sided clock. We got two filled in. Let me expand the size.

Isn't that a beautiful clock? Oh, my God. It's lovely, Justin. Yeah, we got some really lovely tokens in here in Roll 20. Okay. Roll 20 is so beautiful. Okay. This time of year.

They didn't gain on you in that one. Trave, good job. That's my thing. Okay. Before we go any further, I need to know from you guys, I guess, or maybe from Montrose, because it's really Montrose's call. What's your plan? I want to get to the train station with zero cop cars following me.

The train station being the rail, the rail connecting the layers, yes. Okay. I want to get there. Scott Free is the dream. Okay. Just so you know, because you would have knowledge of this, the tram, the underbelly of the tram of the byrail is not like of a size where you could put a laundry truck on it. Are we, is that what you were hoping to be able to do? The entirety of the clean will not fit into the sled hiding underneath the byrail.

Yeah, no, I figured that that wouldn't. Perfect. Okay. It would go. Then I'm going to start yet a third clock. God, this is thrilling. I want to start another clock. No, it's okay.

This will be a little, you know, we'll get it. We'll get it going. Don't worry about it. I'm going to start another clock, which is, we'll call this one station. So these two clocks can move independent of each other. This is, I'm going to go ahead and, you know what, now that we know this plane. land Montrose, I'm going to give you a wedge for the splitting up maneuver. Okay.

You know what, too? You used a flashback on it and everything. That was a good move. Okay. There's an eight section clock. An eight section clock, you fill two sections of it. That is you getting to the station. Okay.

Do you want to do something, Emmerich? I feel like you have a chance to get a hand on the ball. We have not split off yet, right? So at this point, Montrose, oh, in the clean is ahead of us. Correct. And then we are in like a triangle-esque shape with Jacques kind of slowing down a little bit

because of the coughing. Yeah. But you're basically on a road by yourself being followed by six cops with Sticky Figures, Paul Paine, or Short Doug, if you like. I do. Hard short, Doug.

Did I go to the letter? Hard Doug. Hard Doug. There it is. Okay, good. Did I go off to the left or the right? Oh, God. I'm trying to figure it.

It doesn't matter. I'm looking at the map. Don't look at the map. Just don't look at the map. Maps just for fun. Give you an idea of the lay of the land. If you're a place in there, you want to try to get to or to go to, invent it in your mind. The map is just to give you some sort of scope.

Okay. I am going to use my special ability, Tempest, and create a snowstorm behind me. Shit. All right. Yeah. Between. You mean like a hard light snowstorm. You're not like storm of the X-Men, right? I guess, yeah, I guess in fitting into our story, it should be a hard light snowstorm.

But my goal is to ice up the road, cause slippery conditions for the pursuing cop cars, hoping that they wreck. Okay. Yeah, I think that that's, I think that that is, that's great, dad. Let's, let's see. How would there be slippery hard, hard line? Oh, man, that is a good one, man. That's a real thinker. I don't know.

I guess. Magic. Magic, Griffin. Oh, sure, sure, sure. My mistake. Yep. I mean, don't punish me because I'm trying to fit into the store. Yeah, right, Griffin.

Come on. Why are you bullying our dad? I didn't know, I mean, I could do a lightning storm, but I thought this might be more real. And it's more seasonally appropriate to when we're recording. Yeah, that's true. Now, do I have to do? roll anything to use a special ability? I don't, do I? What is the skill say? It says you can push yourself to do one of the following. So I guess push. Yeah, so you take two stress. Two stress.

Ooh, that's going to take me right up to the full meter. All right. Wait, it'll fill you up. Yep. Okay. I'm already injured. Could I just have my injury be worse? Uh, I mean, if this is going to fill, okay, if this is going to fill you up, dad, I don't think it's a good idea. You will cause trauma with this. If you want to do it, you can do it. But I, I mean, it's your call, but you will, it'll, like, knock you out or something. Like, you won't, it's going to take, it's going to knock you out of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of action here. But it's an effect, it's a good idea. It's a good idea. I mean, it's just, I don't, I want to make sure we're all on the same page. Okay. It'll take me out of action, but Paul can keep driving. Yes.

Correct? Our dog will keep driving. Yes. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Perfect. All right, Dad, there's six cop cars zooming after you. And you, what does this look like?

How do you pull it off? He has a thing called a lightning hook, a fine lightning hook. Uh-huh. It's just like a staff kind of thing with a hook at the end. And I think he opens the back doors of the truck and holds it up skyward in a very Thor, Odinson way, and calls down a snowstorm that appears behind, just the area just behind. How much room would you say is between the truck and the cops? They're 100 miles.

I'd like it to be a whole bunch. Yeah, a whole bunch. Wow. So a whole bunch of snow, a whole bunch of snow and icy conditions. You know what? Let's make it sleet and hail because that's always slipperier. Fine. Wonderful.

Okay, dad, so there's sleet and hail in a stream behind you. This comes out of nowhere for these cats. They are in no way ready for this. And I think the lead car immediately starts skidding out of control. The one behind him crashes into him and flips over. and these cars, this is going to sound wild, but it looks like they were meant to do this. This looks like, oh, wow, these things are really like,

when the one that flips over blows up, the driver is like blown free of it and kind of skids to the sidewalk. Like these cars are primed for this. I think that you've cut the pack following you. You managed to take out, four of them. There's still two in pursuit of you, but that was, uh, that was great. But the stress of creating this hard light, um, uh, uh, storm is, is a lot for you. And it sort of knocks the

wind out of you and you are laying prone on the floor of, uh, hard Doug's truck. Okay. I can't wait to see which of these gnarly adjectives. This is going to imbue our, our friend Emmerick with. Yeah. Okay. I got eight cops following me still, right? I'm going to... I'm going to give you... Here's what I think I'm going to do

to keep this moving forward. I'm going to give Emmerich. I'm going to give Montrose another wedge towards station for what Dad just did. Because that, to me, is continuing to keep people off. Mm-hmm. Yes. For some reason, I can't do...

I don't have the three, weirdly, for this club. But there is three. There is three. It looks like four, but there's three. I'm going to look at Vogel and say, would you be a deer and start tossing some of those sacks of garments at our pursuers? Yeah, I guess you want me to chuck the laundry at them. Yeah, but just about as quick as you possibly can. I would say whole bags, no one's going to steer around a pair of trousers.

I guess it's worth a shot Yeah, I'll just start tucking bags Okay, is he doing that? Yeah, I think he would just do that Okay While he's doing that, I want to look at Tonio and say, just so you know, he was trying to cut you out

How would you feel about Turning the tables on our friend Vogel? He lifts his five, fingers to his mouth and blows into a thumbs up. Cool. God, he's cool. That was about the coolest way you could have done that. Okay, well, then one swift kick in the rear ought to do it, don't you think?

You better sway him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If it goes bad enough, he's going to turn on you. That's the danger. Your goal is to give him to kick Vogel out of the moving car. Cool.

The backstabbers. This sounds desperate to me. Effect standard. Standard. It is a standard effect. Yeah. Please be good, dice. We are just having no luck tonight.

That's a three and a one. Man, that's tough. We've gone from feast to famine in one episode. Boy, that's tough. That stinks a lot. Okay. So what happens next to you? That was desperate, you're saying.

I also liked how when Griffin said GM, it sounded like someone saying Jim with a really heavy Southern accent. What happens next, Jim? Come on, Jim. You're truly outrageous, Jim. I just looked down. I got that bracelet. Ah, damn it. Right?

Nothing. They both said, I have that bracelet. Do you remember when people used to ask what Jesus would do in certain situations? What Jim would do? he'd probably look at the camera and like roll his eyes or something uh okay griffin yeah Tonyo looks at you it's Christmas Justin

Tonyo looks at you and looks at Vogel and in one move Tonyo scoops his arm under your leg and flips you out of the driver's seat what the fuck And you fall onto the floor of it and tumble into Vogel. The two of you are lying on a pile on the ground.

And Tonyo is now in control of this truck. That's unacceptable. I look at fucking Vogel. They're going to get a wedge for that. Yeah, for sure. I look at Vogel and I say, well, I believe Tonyo was trying to cut us out of the deal. I think we should do something about it.

that, don't you? Somebody's doing some cutting for sure. Uh, this was always... What the hell, Tonyo? What are you throwing us around for? Antonio, uh, just looks straight ahead. It's just holding, holding the, the car, uh, and, uh, is flooring it.

I look at Vigo, I say, this was always the plan. Vogel, don't get soft now. Get it, we're going to cut Tonyo out, right? Yeah, ride out the driver's side door with your foot. Do you want me to keep throwing these bags of laundry? No, I'll take over bag, duty. You take over Tonyo, duty. Would you like that to have done anything, Gryffin the bags of laundry?

Did he make it that far? I will make your roll for it if you want to have him do that, but if he was like he was about to start chucking them, we can just move forward if that was a ruse. Yeah, how about he was just about to start chucking them. That was a pretty swift thing that just happened there. Yeah. Okay.

but I am trying to convince him now to get Tonyo. I think that maybe the size, since that was a three, you know, it's like on the higher end of failure, I think that you're, I think that it may have reinforced, uh, Vogel's distrust of Tonyo or, or, or, okay. Again, I did try to establish that last episode that me and Vogel were going to run away. Exactly. So what I'm saying is circling back on that, him flipping you out kind of reinforces that deal. Okay.

Beef is going to try something. Desperate. Great. Yes. Good. Okay. All right. Shock. I need you to get as close to the back of Hard Doug's truck as you can. And then when I give you the signal, slam on the brakes. I love this. This is so stupid. This is fantastic. Okay, Greg. And Beef climbs out the driver's side door onto the hood of the truck. Go, Bing. That when he slams on the brake, Beef is going to jump. jump into the truck in front of them. Into, you want to jump into Hart Doug's truck? Yes. Okay.

Because the speed of the truck, slamming on the brakes, would throw me forward, plus jumping, and I'm going to push myself to do my superhuman action. Okay. Physics are cool. This is cool. Physics are cool. You use science. We're going to push yourself.

We're going to do a superhuman action. What, what, uh, what, I guess, go. Go for it, bud. I am ready. Do this stupid thing. Okay. Um, now, I would like to try to convince you that this is a skirmish role.

Okay, I'd love to hear it. Finesse is like stealing things and sleight of hand. Or like steering a vehicle. Okay. But skirmis is like a use of strength and, uh, like, wrestling and brawling the use of legs and pushing. So I feel like this jump is about strength. I'm willing to like crash into the back of the truck.

Okay. So you're going full for full bore for. You know what? I'll grant it to you. Fuck it. Yes. Go. Now I'd say this is desperate, Justin.

What do you think? Yeah, bud. Not going to get a lot of shots of this one. God, I hope this works. Okay. And how many bonus die are going to give me out of the kindness If you're hurt, that's going to be a nun. Okay, just checking.

Double sixes! Double sixes! That's a fucking critical success, baby! That is wild, Travis. Wow. Double sixes. It was worth all the threes and ones. Okay, babe, here's what happens.

Travis, you're standing on the hood of the car. You're pulling up behind Hard Doug's truck and Vogel shouts of you. you're standing on the hood of the car and Jacques shouts you my friend do you want to answer the dialogue my friend

yeah yeah if I do not meet you in prison make sure you try to be for Ronnie and then he slams on the brakes and in doing so him slamming on the brakes all six of the cars that were following immediately

smash into the back it is a massive explosion There's fire everywhere. The smoky clock is obviously 100% full of this car is destroyed. Just utterly destroyed. The six cop cars also explode in like a pretty wild. Cars go kind of flying across the street into the buildings and just crashing everywhere. It's absolute destruction.

And you, Emrick, through your haze, you see. a blinding ball of fire and then in front of it leading almost as streaking through the fire is a man you've been told is no longer in his prime but you couldn't be convinced of that in this exact second as this phoenix flies into the back of your truck and lands somehow on his feet and beef says All right, Emmerich, let's get us onto the onto the clean and get out of here

and he reaches down a hand for Emmerich to help him up. Is himrick's ass still unconscious though? He's like, he's out of it. He's not down, but he's out of it. Okay. So he can't respond.

I mean, you can talk. I'm just not going to let you do any adventures right now. That's why I'm here to help you. One of my two. Okay, so Emmerich says, You are a good friend, beef, and I've never noticed how attractive you are. Your eyes are... This is going to take the crystal pools of water.

I mean, you're not wrong, but we can probably figure out whatever is going on here later. But right now, we're still in the... middle of the job, right? And we need to get you onto the clean so you can copy the code and we can get out. Uh, okay. Paul, do whatever beef tells you to do. Uh, beef, what, what is your first action once you're, I'm going to keep this with you just for one more beat? What is the first thing you do when you get to this truck? Uh, all right. Hard Doug, you got to get us closer to the clean. Listen, umbra, you don't tell me my business and I won't tell you how to make sense. Sandwiches at the sandwich floor.

Besides, this name is short dog. What? No. We're calling him hard dog. We're calling him hard dog because he's the one made a hard light. Got dial in, dad. You got to focus up. Got you.

Got it. I said, get closer. And that's a command. All right. Let's see. Yeah, we'll see. How are you on a tune? Not great, but I'm not programming him.

I'm commanding him. Yeah. It's treated just like an artificial intelligence if it's not you dad. Um, no. Control? Because the worst, it's control because the worst thing's going to say is no. Okay. Hander, bonus dice.

Uh, make success. Four. Yeah. Um. It was a four and a one in case anyone was curious. All right. Listen, because Papa said, I am going to take your, your instructions, but I'm going to do it my way. Um, so he starts sort of generally.

getting in the direction of Montrose, but he is not immediately on him. Montres, what are you doing? You're being pursued by eight cops. Is Vogel making moves toward- No. No, not yet. Is Vogel making moves toward Tonio? Yeah.

I mean, you have set that in action, but I think he is waiting on you for like the sign, right? Like he will do what you ask him to do because you laid the groundwork for that. in the last episode, but he needs to know, like, for whatever it is you guys are going to do, you're going to need to figure that out. If you'd like to do it in a flashback, that might be a more organic way of doing it, if you want to figure out a plan with him that way, or you could just do something in the moment. It's up to you.

No, I don't think we'll need to establish it in a flashback. Okay. I'm going to go toward the rear doors of the car. while he takes position behind Tonyo. And he is going to look at me and I'm going to draw that big long pistol. And I'm going to nod and kick open the back doors of the car and just start firing. At the cops. Well, toward their tires, ideally. But I do realize this is a game with a sort of stochastic element when it comes to the results of your plans.

So your goal is to open. in the back door and shoot at the at their pursuers yes while vogel tries to incapacitate or kick tonyo's ass out of the car okay yeah is it okay good yeah um so there's this is i i would say this is either hunt or finesse attack with precision shooting from a distance you know we haven't had a hunt roll in a while and you've been got a lot of finesse let's do it hunt hunt hunt hunt terrifyingly I have one die in hunt. Hey, what's my position? Missionary.

It's... It's... It's... I mean, it's risky. It's not desperate. Here goes nothing. Five. We'll take a five.

Not bad. Success. Excellent. So you, there's a... See, you have eight pursuers. They're getting close to you and they see the... your face, what does your face look like right now? Out of curiosity, on your mask?

It's, I think it looks like Wario. I think big dollar signs for eyes and like a big devilish sort of mustache. All right, they see you and you pull out this extra long pistol and you train it on the wheel of one of the front cars. you fire you however do not hit the wheel you hit the grill of the car and as soon as the big bullet

slams into the grill of it the car flips end over in and explodes in midair from the power of your incredible gun and it that car is incapacitated but since it explodes midair that's the only one that it takes out but you do

blow up an entire car with a single shot okay we'll take Meanwhile, I don't know how you, you know what, I'm going to do a fortune roll. Okay. Because I don't know how to settle a conflict between two characters that are not you guys. Do you want me to roll it or you? Why don't you roll a D6 for me?

Three. Three. Bad. Bad. Okay. You see Vogel make his way towards Tonio to try to rest the steering wheel. out of his hands and the two of them seemed pretty equally matched because he got the upper hand on him. Tonya didn't have any of his, you know, cool tricks like he pulled on you. It's just the two of

them struggling for control. And as they are struggling, you are slowing down. His foot is taken off the pedal. And they are, the cops are gaining. Are they still relatively in the driver's seat? Is he like trying to hold him out of the driver? They're both have their hands on the wheel. it is a dangerous situation. They both have their hands of the wheel. They're both vying for control of it. Tonyo is in the moment, I think, caught off guard for sure. But that is the situation in found themselves in.

Is it the nature of hard light? Because this is a hard light truck, right? This whole truck is hard light. Yeah. Okay. Is it the nature of hard light constructs that the prism is tangible within the construct itself? Yes.

do I see it? No, you wouldn't see it, but like, it's here somewhere. It's within it, but it's in the makeup of the thing. Yeah, it has to be integrated into the light. Into the light, yeah. Okay. Can I survey to see if I can, no, that wouldn't make sense. Okay.

Why don't we jump away from me then? Because I just did a lot of stuff. Let me tell you one other thing. Okay. One other thing that happened. When you shot that car and it went raining end over end, a piece of debris from that fell onto your car. It slammed into, let's say, the roof right above you on the clean. And rather than see the traditional damage that you might think of seeing, think of it more.

It seems to have opened up a glitch. it's opened up a blinking hole, a wireframe, a blinking green wireframe hole that looks like a green grid, maybe around 18 inches in diameter. But there is a part of this truck that is now has glitched out,

is flickering. Oh, God. Oh, I need a turn. I got to get you, over there, big guy. I know. I know. All right, Trave, let's go to you.

Okay, so since they slowed down with Vogel and Antonio wrestling control, we've gotten closer, yeah? Yeah. Okay, Paul, short, hard dug.

Yeah. I need you to execute a J-turn. A J-turn? I've been doing those since grammar school. Okay, and get us lined up to the back of that truck. You got it. I think I'm just going to call this command again, Trav.

I don't know how to navigate it with you, not behind the wheel. I mean, you very smartly put him. All you've got to do is convince him to do it, right? So this is a pretty easy command because he's the best driver in the city. So what is your goal? What are you trying to achieve? I'm trying to line it up. So we're end to end with the two open ends of the trucks.

You're trying to reverse into him? So a J-turn, a J-turn is a 180-degree turn at speed. Okay. Yeah, I love this. This is sick. Just roll. Just roll. Just roll a command. Make success a four. Fine. Yes. He's convinced. All right, but I'm not going to do it the coolest way I know how. Okay. I know a cooler way of doing it. Oh, look at the roll. I know a cooler way of doing that. I'm not going to do it like that.

All right? Okay. All right. And sticky fingerball pantry just grabs the wheel and jerks it and spins the car. The cops are not ready for this. The ones that are pursuing Hard Doug, right? Because you've destroyed the ones that are, you're in Hard Doug's truck. So the ones that are pursuing this car, Hard Doug's car, are not ready for this action as he performs a J-turn. Now, here's what's happened, though.

You have not, you have pulled this off. Right? So you're now gunning it in reverse with Montrose flying ahead in the faster car. But he is swerving back and forth. You have also recombined the cop forces. To an extent where I'm going to give you another wedge in cornered. We're going to go up to five. Yeah.

That's a lot. That's a lot. And we're still not moving towards the station with any expediency because, they're fighting over the wheel. What happens next? We'll find out right after this. Hi everyone, I'm Anna McLeod. And I'm Alexis B. Preston.

And we host a show called Comfort Creatures, the show for every animal lover, be it a creature of scales, six legs, fur, feathers, or fiction. Comfort creatures is a show for people who prefer their friends to have paws instead of hands. Unless they are a raccoon hands, that is okay. is absolutely okay, yeah. Yes.

Every Thursday, we will be talking to guests about their pets, learning about pets in history, art, and even fiction. Plus, we'll discover differences between pet ownership across the pond. It's going to be a hoot on Maximum Fund. Hi, everybody. My name is Justin McRoy. And I'm Sidney McRoy. That is true. It's important in this context because we host a medical history podcast called Sawbones.

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Okay, so what happens next? Okay, my heart is racing Heart dog, as soon as we're clear Just do what you do best at the cop cars Avoid them No, just take them out I don't really, I'm not really supposed to take them out Go wild, buddy

Go wild, I mean drive fast somewhere You can do it son you can do it I can do it so I just crash into him huh? Yeah take him out have fun kid and with so with Emrick's arm

over his shoulders I'm gonna attempt to make the jump onto the next car okay they're jumping to my car correct yep and I'm pushing myself one more time

surely you can assist him some way you can Montrose There's lots of... No, I can't. I'm stressed out. Oh, well, Montrose is there. You can help catch. If I help out at all, I will be traumatized by the assistance.

By the helping. Okay. Here we go. I'd say this is desperate. It would look so cool. Okay, a mixed success with a five. Now, what I love, the main goal with this mix success, let's pitch this. the most important thing is to get Emrick onto the truck.

Okay. Okay. That was your main goal is to get Emmerich on the truck. Okay. And Emric does have that lightning hook that could assist. Yeah, I mean, Emric, you right now are not doing anything. You can't assist anybody for sure. But I'm back in after this, right?

That's two things I've missed. I mean, you have to. If you are going to be back in, it's got to happen narratively. Okay? If that, something will need to, someone else will need to act upon you to bring you back into the ability to act. Oh, okay. This is, I'm making this up as I go along, but you're, I love it. This is what, this is what's happening.

Somebody's going to need to help you, I guess, to snap out of this. mixed success you sort of almost it's close enough and it's wild enough but you get a lucky shot beef and you manage to

chuck Emmerich onto the the other truck onto the clean but as you're doing it you lose your footing and you're about to fall onto the road until one of the laundry bags that

Vogel was about to toss gets caught on the edge of the clean on the back bumper. And you managed to grab onto it at the last second. So now, you are now being dragged on a bag of laundry behind the clean. Montrose, you're on the clean. The two of them are fight, Vogel and Tonio are fighting for control of the wheel. Beef, you are being dragged by the laundry.

Okay, Emrick, you're out of commission currently. And what happens next? Help me. So Emric landed inside the truck. Yeah. Okay. I look up at the holographic wound in the ceiling. I'm also going to give you enough time has passed.

I'm going to give you, it's happening at a slower pace, but I'm going to say you're still making it towards the station. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to try and roll out of eight. Slap him silly. Slap, uh, slap him normal. Slap him normal. I'm going to grab Emrick by the,

his shoulders and kind of shake him. And be like, this is, this is your part, man. You need to, snap out of it, okay? Does he have to roll for that?

No, you don't. But you are going to have to take trauma. Dad, here's what happens. Your eyes are fuzzy.

And you, you're starting to come to and you look back out of the car, your, your compatriots are in the truck with you, and you see Hard Doug in the other car. And in the moment, and it may just be the strain or the having hurt yourself doing the storm, but you look into Hard Doug's eyes. and right before the cop cars smash into him, you see in his eyes hurt. He knows what you did.

And this changes something in you. You are now haunted. For you in this moment, when you look into his eyes, you realize that you had created something that, whether it's sentient or not, for you destroying that life was not that easy

and it will not be that easy again. That is your trauma. Is that for you, AI hard-like constructs cannot just be destroyed without it taking a toll on you. Oh, I love it. That's fucking great.

Yeah. Okay. Good, good, good. That is so Emric. But Emric, having seen that. I got a chill. You got a chill, but having seen that, you're instantly alive to this situation.

You have lost not a beat. You're back. You see the staticky hole above you that has been caused by damage to the clean. And, yeah, that's where we're at. Okay, so let me ask this. By taking a trauma there, does that clear my stress? It does. Yeah.

Kick ass! I mean, you killed Hart Dog. Hard Doug's, Ted, because... Okay, I know, but I'm immediately energized about... I feel like me and Travis are the only ones that are bearing the psychic way of your terrible deeds. It's just that you created your son, Hart Dog. Okay. I didn't know, Dad, you would be so cavalier about killing one of your sons.

Yeah, that is weird. Well, you should have... Then I will tell you, my next plane was going to be having him sacrifice himself. by jumping out of the truck in front of the cop cars. So this plays right into my plane. Okay. We are, right now you are five out of eight on the cornered clock. You didn't gain any there because Hard Doug did his maneuvers station.

We're still at four out of eight on progress to the station. Do your thing. I feel like you have had a plan, Emmerich. for a while. I have two plans. One is to access. I really, really want to access the prism and start to copy it. And I also want to slow down pursuing cops, but I think you guys would be better suited to do that. So why don't I get on the prism? I think Emmerick would immediately, he wants this prism so bad. for personal reasons,

I think he would start to, to, he'd have to, does he have to find it, juice, or is the, you will have to find the prism for sure. Don't you have a special ability that lets you, like, sense hard light and stuff? I mean, it's going off, yeah, it's going off really hard right now because he's in a hard light truck. But that is what he, I mean, he, had he not already guessed, he would know that this truck is definitely made a hard light. Got it. Okay. Right, but, but would that allow me to sense the prism, specifically within the, truck. You're always aware of hard light entities in your presence. You are going to need to, we'll call it a survey or no, tinker. You're going to need to tinker to find it to find where the

prism is. I'm going to tinker and I'm going to push myself now that I have a clear stress bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Love it. Okay. Build that stress right back up. Okay. Do I take two stress to push or one? Two. Anybody want to help? I cannot. Because I I only have one stress left. Nobody has stress. It's not desperate, Dad. It's, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's controlled, actually. Okay, controlled.

Controlled. Controlled standard. Standard. And how many bonus die? None. One, since I won, yeah. Come on, I want one of those good rolls. There you go.

I got it. There. Six one and one. You, oh, okay. Dad, when, uh, um, you, are kind of you're awoken and you clear your mind you look around the car you note the hole and you probably have you think this is a sense that you have or do you feel like you feel like this is something that's like earned or do you think your tools are indicating it for you?

I think that that I would say with a six. No, no, no. I'm asking narratively. Is this something that you just like know or is that like where the prison would be? Is this something you figure out on your own? Are there, like, tools that are helping you? I think that, well, he does have tools. He has tinkering tools.

I think that would allow him to find the prism and start copying it. I think he'd prop himself up on his lightning hook, like a crutch. Okay. So nobody has to assist him, so they're all free. And reaches up into that exposed. area. All I'm asking you, it's just, I'm asking you if you know where the prism is. I would think so.

Yes. I'm asking if you know where the prism is just by knowing or do you have to use tools to figure it out? That's all I'm asking. Well, the way I'm envisioning it is, he flips open the wrist pod and there's something on the wrist pod. Okay, that's all I needed it. Maybe attuned to the give a ghost projector or next to it. That would indicate where it was. So you flip up the device on your wrist and you immediately get a ping.

boom, and you see the, it's in the gear shift, that you know it as well as you know your own name. You look at the gear shift, and that is, if you had been building this thing, that's exactly where you would have put it in the gear shift.

Unfortunately, that gear shift is currently being fought over, along with the wheel, by Vogel Antonio. And that is, but you now know that the prism that you need to interact with in some way is in the gear shift.

Montrose, you haven't done anything a bit. What's up, ma'am? Yeah. I'm, I'm, has he copied it or did he just find it? Just found it. Okay. I'm going to help beef into the car. But I haven't quite worked out how I'm going to do that.

He's much larger than me. I mean, if it helps at all, like, because I can't help you help me without suffering trauma. but I can try to hold myself in or if you have any tools or anything you can set up for me to set up a bonus dice or something. I don't have any more. I'm loaded down.

I'm going to wait until the cop cars. Much to beef's delight, I'm sure. I lean down to shape. I love beef delight. Have you guys ever hound it? It's my favorite. favorite. You gotta admit it's a cool visual with the bags, climbing back and forth.

I kneel down at the back of the truck and I say, all according to plan, right? Yes. Hey, I don't know if... They hit a big pothole. I look at Emmerich and I say, real quick, if the van explodes, does that destroy the prism, too, or... Well, if the explosion, by explosion, I don't really know because it is hard light. I don't know if there's anything combustible in it to make it explode.

My instinct would say no. But I'm haunted, so I don't know if my judgments are clear. I'm going to grab Emmerick then and pull. him back toward the big piles of laundry and me and beef at the back of the truck. And then I'm going to wait until I hear the sounds of the marching band as we prepare to drive by them. Okay. As we drive by the marching band, I chuck the Steelswell diamond off the back of the truck. Thus, the debt is paid.

You're chucking it to the band? Yeah. Okay. Oh. And then I'm going to sort of position myself as carefully as I can holding Emric. And then I'm going to aim my pistol forward and shoot it through the front of our own car. To what end? To destroy it out of sight of the police.

Destroy your own car? But not the prism. We don't need the car. Okay You're going pretty fast Yeah, yeah, yeah But that's what the bags of laundry are for Then we don't have to get beef into the car

The car will Come to beef or something like that Something like that You wanted bold choices Okay, Griffin Yes You were able to throw the diamond out no problem That part was easy

Yeah, yeah, yeah And I think that actually, did you make it clear that you were doing it? Not to fucking Vogel and Tonyo. But to the police. I don't think he's worried about it. I'm asking you. Did you make it clear to the police that you were throwing the diamond? Yeah, for sure.

Okay. That, I'm going to lower your cornered and I'm going to advance as a sort of payoff for your, for that move that you did. I'm going to lower corner to three out of eight because you have now, I think some of them probably peeled off to try to retrieve the diamond. And then I'm going to say that you are six out of eight on progress to the station for that combination of moves. Will you paint that picture again, guys?

Just the action to describe the diamond and the showing it to the cops and throwing it to the band and the band playing. Describe it again? Well, no, I just thought maybe be a cool little scene to paint. Okay, you, um, let me, yeah, that's actually a good, a good point, Dad. Let me, now that we know that it, that it works altogether. Griffith, Montrose chucks, um, the diamond out, and I think you kind of hold it up, so the cop see, and then you chuck it into the band, they all start clamoring for it,

uh, and fighting over it. You see, um, mean, Doug, though, is the one that ends up carrying it, uh, and it gives you a thumbs up. That's cool. The majority of the police peel off to try to retrieve that, the diamond, but there's still a few following you. Okay. What about the other dumb thing I wanted? The other dumb thing, yeah, that is a great, that's a great point. I'm going to need a finesse roll from you. for a shot to just like car I mean I know where

I shot the other car and made it explode Okay yeah Yeah you can extrapolate that data Yeah I'm just gonna start blowing holes in the car In an attempt to try to Literally blow it to a point where it falls apart Okay

No hold on No no no son Well no I want to go back to just trying to shoot where I shot. I want to tie back into the fact that I shot and blew up a car and so I have an idea of Okay, just give me a finesse roll

and this finesse roll is not to shoot a specific point. It's an easy one to make sure that you don't shoot other people. Okay. My position is desperate. Desperate. No, it's not really desperate because you're just shooting in the car. It's risky. Yeah, that's not desperate at all.

It's not desperate. Okay, risky, standard. boom. 651. Okay. Okay. You fire. How many times you fire?

I empty the gun. You empty the gun all throughout the car? Yeah. Okay. You blast the gun. I think you're not even looking, right? You're just operating by instinct. I'm way more concerned about keeping a bag of laundry between me and terra firmer.

And with a six, and again, the goal was to what? Destroy the truck. But not the crystal, not the prism. That's, okay, beautiful, baby. You fire the gun and a big chunk of it doesn't blow off. It just isn't. Yeah. And then another chunk to the side.

And then you do notice that it started to decompensate. That is the problem right now, that you're facing. it is decompensating around you. You have a wire frame that starts to feel fuck, it's squishy? The floor underneath you is getting loose. You don't know how else to describe it. And the two cats in front of you,

immediately Vogel's terrified. Vogel is trying to cling to anything soft and then he is immediately tossed out of the car. And then Antonio looks at you and says, excuse me, sir, this is highly irregular. What you're doing is extremely, and then he falls out as well. And now it's just you. And you have maybe one more moment before you slam into, oh shit, it's the wall of gutter

city. Yeah, I'm just getting in the pile. Hop in the pile. In the pile of laundry. Yeah. Soft, pillowy. fucking laundry with really forgiving sort of ballistic properties. Okay.

You are careening towards the edge. I need, um, let's call it a... I'll lead this group roll. Yeah, lead this group roll. What do you call this one, Griff? I'm going to call this one, uh, a group finesse roll. A group finesse roll. Okay.

Uh, everybody roll finesse. And this is controlled, I assume. Uh, yeah, right. No, it's risky, my friend. Can I push my own? Can I push my finesse roll? Are we trying to have a safe landing on laundry? Is that what's going on?

I still have to copy the prism. Yeah, that'll happen after this. We hope. We'll find the prism and then... Okay, let me just say this. I have zero in finessed. Does it make sense for me to push? You don't need, but it takes the highest roll.

It takes the highest roll, so don't push. Risky or desperate? We're going to call this desperate. Effect, Tandy. I got a six. Oh my God. I'm so glad you got a six, Travis. I got a two and a one and a one.

All right, dad. Six and a four. Hey! Okay, not bad. Because we take the lowest. Yes. But Montrose, you have to take stress, right? I do have to take stress for myself.

Which is going to... It is going to traumatize me. Okay. So, here's what happened. the truck is basically disintegrating all around you. But with a six as your role, you manage to Montrose and beef. I think beef, you're already sort of in a pretty good spot. You, I think Montrose are able to sort of heft Emric and yourself onto your own bags of laundry.

and you just sort of gloop out the bottom. But as soon as you hit the ground, you are skidding along, you're rolling, but it slowed your progress down enough that you are on the ground. And now here safely on the ground, the truck has disappeared. And what you see is a prism

rolling towards a gutter. Shit. You have one second. I'm gonna grab it. Wait, who's the most finesseful? Uh, I mean me. But you're down. You're out.

I'm out, yeah, I can't. Yeah, you were not unconscious by your incredible actions. Okay, I'm gonna grab it. Attempt to. You know what? Maybe I should push myself into trauma too. How about if I assist by giving you my lightning hook? Great.

Okay. Roll it. Are you pushing yourself? Are you taking the trauma? Come on, it'll be fun. It'll be fun. We'll all have our own traumas. Yeah.

So I take an extra dice. So I get two diced. Trauma tea. Trauma. So I gave you a dollar. Holy shit. Five, four, five, five. Um,

okay, you see the prism rolling towards the gutter. You reach out, um, to, uh, to grab it. And you manage to just a second before it rolls away. you manage to hook it with the lightning hook, but in doing so, you sprain your wrist. My arm wrestling wrist? Mixed success. My arm wrestling wrist. Guys, you are now in possession of the fastest car in Gutter City.

Congratulations. You did it. I'm proud of you. And with no heat. Oh, no. No, no, no, no. I may have killed an officer of the law. Yeah, there's a couple of them, maybe.

Maybe even to... It is the exact second that beef hooks the prison. How close are we to the train station? Very close. Okay. I am unconscious. Beef is... Beef is, can, can beef carry both of us?

Emmer's fine. Yeah, I guess that's fair. Give me the, the, the, the, prism. Let me, let me, let me copy it while we run. And let's head for the train station. Can you help him? Uh, yeah. Ah.

Uh, uh, uh, uh, yeah, I'm gonna heft up. You are beef punch day. No, I know. I didn't get a. concussion. I know. Let's go. And I pick up Montrose on my good arm, I guess. And I grabbed the prism and am I, do I still have a sprained ankle? I mean, you've got your character sheet, man. I don't know. I don't track your stuff. Yeah, I do. Okay. I do. Great. Yes, then yes. So he takes off running care and him. I get my lightning hook back. I'm hobbling along on it like a crutch

and copying the prism as we run. Okay. You had dished a lot of the police presence, and I think they were so caught off guard by your actions. They're not close, but you don't have much time before you get to the next station. Let's do, give me a tinker roll, Mac. Okay. Do we need a copy?

Emmerich wants a copy. But you can, okay. let's be clear about this if it was that easy to copy it people would just copy it right like you the copying of it would take quite that's not something you're going to be able to do on the run

I in my head it doesn't make we haven't really talked about this but in my head it doesn't make sense that it would be easy to make copies of hard light because then that destroys the value of having a hard light anything right like it can't be infinitely reproducible

yeah I would argue that it doesn't especially since the complexity of the clean, that it's not just like copying a trash can. It's more like, I think it's like if you copied it onto another prism, it would erase the original. I don't think you can just like create a clean copy like that. You can maybe. How about if he studies it?

If you want to do that later, you can. Right now you need to get out. We have to get out of Gutter City before we're arrested. Okay. That's got to be the priority. Okay, that's cool. So run. Then I suggest we exit stage left.

Okay, you all are close enough to the station and you see it coming up behind you, or in front of you rather, the bi-rail that is in circle steeplechase. And the bi-rail you know that has the sled underneath it. And it is pulling up. I guess this wouldn't be going, well, what do you think used to? spins below or above? Yes. It's probably below. Yeah. So it's headed down. So this is your ride.

You have three people. One beef is recently traumatized. It's basically out of action, but we're not leaving him for dead. Emrick is back to full capacity, but he's haunted.

And Montrose, you've recently been traumatized too, eh? Yeah. Okay. You all are in really bad shape. What's your plan for getting out of here? Hopping on the sled? Are we going to be able to make it in time? How close to the police? You have

a move, right? Like, the chase is over. They are about to close on you. You have the amount of time it's going to take for the byrail to pass you by. Their arrival upon you and the arrival of the by rail will happen at the same, uh, the same time.

So, uh, beef hafs up Montrose, uh, in a, I mean, not quite a fireman's carry, but a lot of dead weight there, uh, and starts hoofing it for the, uh, the sled station. And Emrick side by side with him starts pounding the turf right by his side. And there's a lot of limba. This is like, uh, I would say, uh, John McLean, post cut up feet. You know, post all that stuff.

All three traumatized in their own special way, leaving maybe some blood behind as they go. Yeah. And we make a big leap towards a sled. And I think in keeping with your metaphor, we yell, Yippikai. Three buddies. Yeah.

We all yell three different things. And then we're back at home in time for tea. Oh, shit. Thanks for us into the Adventure Zone, everybody. You jump. You jump and beef, you're able to dig deep within you and just sort of tumble onto the sled. Emrick, you make the jump no problem. But it's mantros.

You jump and you miss your footing. And then a hand reaches down and grabs you at the last second. And you're looking up into the eyes of gravel. She pulls you up. Bad news, boys. Trash bag is dead. And that means the barristers are coming for you. Fucking thing you can do about it.

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