The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Steeplechase - Episode 11

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

The gang returns to Ustaben to square up, but are confronted by the consequences of their actions. Beef gets tender, Montrose seeks a thrill, Emerich buries his grief.Opening monologue performed by Autumn Seavey Hicks: https://www.instagram.com/autumnseaveyhicks/?hl=enAdditional music in this episode: “Bac”k in the 80s” and “Coins” by Holizna: https://holiznaroyaltyfree.bandcamp.com/; “Voyageur” by Monkey Warhol: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monkey_Warhol/; “Dialogue” and “Sunny Day” by Kirk Osamayao: kirkosamayo.com; and “Happy Harmonies” by Nicolai Heidlas: https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas-music. 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

Hey friends, Crystal with the K here welcoming you to another Steepy Watch. And what an explosive surprise as Dantanac unveiled a new Gutter City Nighttime Spectacular that they are calling the 11th Avenue Massacre. This show, which features lots of exploding cars and pyrotechnics, has been toned down since the surprise premiere last week, but still we are obsessed. This show replaces the last show, a great show. Golden Night at the Gutter City Follies, which had frankly gotten a little stale. So if you were hoping to spend part of your gutter city trip watching a 23-person kickline,

or Sugarboy, the seal that burps the alphabet, I hope you never know when to stop dreaming. Oh, Lagerty, it is an incredible pity, my dear Shook. You have lost your eighth game of side chess to me in a row, my poor friend. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Adventure Zone. Does something happen? What are mistakes? Does he lose his soul at eight games?

What about poor Shookles? Well, I mean, it's just like he's just clowning on Shookles, I think. That was my interpretation of it. I think he's just clowning on Shookles for being bad at Sychess. That's my interpretation of the thing that I just heard with you guys for the first time. Welcome to the Adventure Zone. Steeplechase, we're calling this one. at the end of the last episode

you all had just made your escape from onto the to the byrail and you are in the sled underneath the byrail with Gravel who has just informed you that the barristers are after you and I would like to pick up the moment

that gravel has pulled you pull mantras up onto the sled Ow Okay, so you're saying that we are Murderer Well, technically, okay, hold on

Let's compartmentalize this immediately You're saying that Emmerich is a murderer Man, I think it's manslaughter If they die after the thing Manslaughter, well that's nothing It's the distinction ain't going to matter to the barristers And that's like police

You don't know the, of course I keep I keep forgetting how green you are I've only seen them once or twice but here's what I know they're free of them

they're cast off some of the last animatronics that Denton used in the park from the wonder of the American judicial system they were sort of the villains but

when they shut that down those just kind of were left or all A guy real dumb named Hancock He tried to fix him up Because they found him in scrap But like I said He was not too smart

He rigged him so if anybody Came after him They'd come after them twice to talk Well somehow He got all mixed up Now anybody who kills anybody In the buttercream He's gonna have the barrister chance of four

They only care about murdering. You, um... You rob, cheat, steal, all that. It's fine by you. But you kill, the barristers will come. And these are... Not hard, like, not easy to wave away.

These are proper robots. And they are coming for you, Emmerich. Because of what I did to... Hard Doug? No. Because when you shock trash bag... He died. And these rotted animatronics are like

Badass? Is that what the kind of takeaway is? Well, you can't stop them. They, you heard them, they'll pick up more scrap. They keep getting smarter. I keep losing this voice. It's, you know, it's gravel. She's British. So I'm just trying to just imagine, like, if it doesn't sound British,

if it sounds like, it's hard to talk. for long periods of time. Yeah, sure, sure. Especially British, I've learned. Especially British. It starts getting away from you. Anyway, so to save you the exposition from gravel, that's what she knows about the Barristers.

These are three unkillable. The one thing I can say for you is slow. You have to keep moving. You can go back to Yustabin if you need. But you can't stay in Yustabin if you need. They catch up to you. Cage? All right.

If they catch up to you, you're done. You have to keep moving. Okay. I don't want to seem touchy or short, but that is definitely a problem. But there seems we have more immediate problems where I'm starting to lose feeling in my right arm. and both Montrose and Emrick had their clock cleaned pretty good. And we need some down time to recover. We need to hold up somewhere for a little bit and get ourselves back in sorts, as it were.

He does not speak for me. I am having the time of my life right now. I'm very sorry about the murder that did take place, even though I had very little to do with it. And in fact, I did try to warn trash bag, if you do recall. So I washed my hands of the whole thing. We do, we are actually gravel. This is embarrassing. We do need to wrap up a score.

We have sort of launched our own enterprise. Oh, congratulations. Well, thank you very much, one professional tool. Always nice to have another, you know, criminal running out? I find that hard to believe that you will celebrate that. Yes. So we are heading to Eustabin for a payoff and then we can figure out where to squirrel away,

Mr. Dredway, until these robots, I don't know, lose interest. No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, dear. No, that. Robots don't lose interest, right? It's in the programming. But I do know that they came through used to been already looking for him. Well, then we're fine.

There's probably one step behind and probably digging through gutter city. So you've got a little time and you spend if you need it. Well, then let's go cash out because no matter what, we are going to need some assets, if we are going to start a new life for Emmerick, and then we'll take it from there. Perfect. Okay, so we're going to head back to Eustabin, where you can get paid. do you want to do that with Mr. Sticky Fingers Paul Pantry in person? Yes. I don't know any other way to do it. Yes.

Well, I mean, you don't have to play out payoffs. I think in this case, I would like to. I think narratively it's important. You all head up to, he's not going to come back down and Sully himself. So you all head up to Prize Pantry, up to the main offices. They have, it is, of course, spotless again. All of your terrible mess has been cleaned up. you enter into the doorway of Sticky Fingers Paul Pantry.

His knob is a candy cane. It's so cute. Welcome, boys. Wait, why are you talking about sticky finger, Paul Pantry, his knob? What? Oh, you're doing kind of a South Park joke. Okay, good. Yeah.

Welcome, boys, welcome. How did it go? Tell me everything. This job went great, I will say. We may have suffered a few scrapes and bruises here and there. We have received, I would say, some unfortunate news about prior jobs that we may or may not have undertaken. But this one? This one was great.

I mean, I guess... Let's see it. Let's see it. Okay. It's great in that we finished it and did the thing. Hmm. You know, I guess the bumps and bruises are part of the trip as well. So, yeah, I'm not.

The journey is more important than they give me the prism. All right. Emmerick? What? Can you give Mr. Paul Pantry the prism, please? Certainly. And for the first time he looks up because he's been staring holes in the ground the whole time and makes eye contact with sticky fingers.

but he doesn't see sticky fingers. He sees Hard Doug, and he especially sees the look that was in Hard Doug's eyes when he died. Emric just extends the prism towards Paul Pantry and just breaks down in tears, just sobbing. Oh, my God. I am so, so sorry. Yes, the emotions tend to run pretty high after a job like this. This is normal stuff. So he does this all the time.

Stick of Fingers Paul Pantry takes the prism, and you see him like shake it, and then he kind of like looks at it. This is it. I can't believe it. Your boys did it. You're fantastic. Now let me talk to you.

And Crouches, down and he puts his hand on Emrick's shoulder. Hey, you want a butterscotch? No, thank you. Don't be rude. The man offered you a butter... Fresh. You want a fresh butter scotch? I don't know what your problem is, but I got to...

Here, and he pulls out a foil-wrapped butterscotch candy. And he, he holds it in front of you. Thank you. Is it a worthers? I would not sully my head. You know my stepmother, I hate my stepmother, I wouldn't give my stepmother a word this original. Heartbreaking! No, that is a sticky finger pulp pantry, extra chewy, extra sweet butterscotchorama. The new. Thank you. Thank you very much. I will treasure it.

We'll eat it. You know, tharm museum to candy. I think I'd save it. Yeah, sure. Pull it out of the narrative appropriate moment. Six sweets. That's what I owe you, boys. Hang on one second. And he transfers that amount of money to you.

Yeah. I collect the orbs. The spheres. The glowing, multicolored spheres that he hands me. Sweets are so you don't know. It's an abstract measurement. coin in the in in blades is like it's an abstract measurement of money he gives you six monies and you

have them but it's not like i don't know it's maybe it stacks of cash you know um it's unimportant but he gives you your six sweets now before you go there's the second part of the deal for me to keep my mouth shut about your actions in my place of business i need you boys to hold the clean for me i want to be able to drive it around, you know. What I was hoping was, maybe you could rig up something so I could get behind the wheel again at your arcade, whatever I wanted to. Just take it out for a spin, you know. So you want to use our arcade as your own little virtual race track, is what you're saying?

I mean, if other people wanted to use it too, that's fine. As long as I know I can get to it, they can keep a secret. What I am opening up here is, and I want to walk into it if you guys feel good about this, we've kind of talked obliquely about it, but I wanted to put it to you like this. I want you, I think that this could be the first part of a new arcade experience, where the things that you've reclaimed can be, part of your why you're bringing things back,

I guess is what I'm saying. Yeah, that's cool. And like I said, we've talked sort of about that, but like I think that if you, we don't have turf in this game in the way that Blades normally would. So I think the idea of expanding your offerings at your din of illicit entertainment,

I think could be a good parallel for that idea. And so that is what Paul Pantry is asking you. And it's not something you have to say yes to, but I do want to explain what you are dealing with here, is the idea that you can steal these things and put them up at your place of business. And that opens you up to some danger, but it could also open you up some possibilities.

Who knows? Okay. Yeah. You know what, Paul? It seems like a win-win. I mean, it seems like it opens us up to a not insignificant amount of danger. Having you come to our place of business whenever you choose to enjoy our stolen wares. It seems like you're maybe not so much releasing us from your blackmail hold,

as much as you may be suggested before we took this job. Here's what I can do. You make this a place where me and some of my more discreet friends can go tool around in the clean, whatever we want, and you can run Eusterman. This will be your place. No crime here unless it goes through you. Nobody's really running it anyway. You know, it's all very disorganized. I do believe that Poppy will have some strong feelings about this arrangement.

You know what, Montrose? I think we're kind of past the point of worrying about A, danger, and B, other people's feelings. Yeah, no, for me it was more of a logistical concern than a personal one, but I, sure, I do hold Poppy very near and dear to my heart, and I would hate to trample on his, no, I don't give a shit about Poppy, I just don't want him to catch wise to our plan. I have, if you're worried about that, I have ways of dealing with Poppy. I am intrigued. You don't mean murder, though, do you? Because apparently some people in this organization have pretty strong feelings about that. No, not murder.

I'll just cut him in, you know. He'll learn what side his bread is apple butter on. Well, then, it seems we have an arrangement. How does this work? Do we sign something or? No, you just... Don't screw me over because I have video of you doing crimes. Okay.

Easy. You don't screw me over and I won't screw you over because you know that I'm driving around my incredible stolen truck. Emmerich, do you think that you are going to be able to snap out of whatever fugue state you currently find yourself in to provide this virtual racetrack experience? for our friend. I will take your sort of comatose silence as a yes, an enthusiastic yes. I can, adapting the prism into that use would be very doable as opposed to copying it.

I think if I had the prism as a foundation, I would be able to construct something that would accomplish what you. Well, there you go. Perfect. Get out of here. Okay, so you guys have six suites. I think we already have 10 in our crew pockets. You have 10? Well, I'm sorry, we have four.

You have four, and this would make 10. Yes. Right. Your layer has secure vault increasing your storage capacity for coin to 8. A second upgrade increases your capacity of 16. A separate party of your vault can be used as a holding cell. So this is a crew upgrade. Yeah.

You can each hold four. Yes. You can put four in the layer. Yes. So we should be okay. What's your all's personal stash right now? I have zero as well. You spent yours.

Last. Dad, did you spend your? I don't. You got a suite for the last job. Okay. So you could take this six and divvied up however you like. Put some into the vault if you want. Like I said, your vault is currently full.

Yeah. Although, you know what? I don't... Okay, so we had... You got two coins for... There's two suites for the David Red job, right? Yes, two total. Two total.

And then the first one is four total. So we have four in the vault. You spent two. That all tracks. I definitely spent some in the last downtime, though. Yeah, yeah. So to Travis. Okay.

So this is what I'm saying. There are four coins between all of you and the vault. There are four coins. Four suites. Dang it. It's hard of habit to break. So you just got six. You can each take two and leave those four in the stash.

I think that makes the most sense, so we don't have to burn an upgrade right now. Yeah, let's do that. And then if we decide to upgrade to a vault, we can. Okay. So that is your coin distribution. That is great. We are now going to talk about heat. Uh-oh.

Yeah. It's not as bad. I think that for assigning heat to that, what just happened? I don't think it's too bad. Heat is representative of Denton and their attitude towards you all and how big of a threat you are and how, you know, the extent to which you need to be dealt with. Most of what happened in the last thing was according to plan, Denton, you know, the Chase, all that stuff, that's part of the show. So I don't think it would be too terrible, honestly. I think that you all, let's see, too heat is contained

standard exposure. Ah, but the wedding. What happened at the wedding? I got them distracted by an old slouchy man. Uh-huh. Played loud music on accident.

Yeah. And then I ran away. And then you did get caught. You did knock three guys. Oh, that's right. And they did recognize me, didn't they? They did. Well, they said they did.

He said looks like beef punchly, but you were covered in anything. Yeah. You were covered in chocolate. The, man, if the wedding hadn't been part of the Denton family, uh, I don't think it would. Oh, fuck. would have been as hard. You guys don't listen to the

intros do you? Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and give you you know what? I'm going to say three. We'll split the difference. John Harper doesn't say I can do that, but he's got my email if he wants like he's got a problem with me. You know where to find me,

John. You're not wanted yet. So that's good. You're also going to get some reputation. You went up in that against the underworld of Gutter City, a faction that is a tier two. And since that

means they're two above you, you're going to take one, two, three, four reputation. Fuck yeah. Yeah. We're almost seven, eight, nine. Three more you can upgrade

your tier for if you have some money. The last thing we want to do in terms of the crew and faction stuff. You did, let's see your faction with the gutter city criminals

dropped to a negative one you did some crime but you were weird about it they didn't like that because normally they do the crimes so you're negative one with the people of gutter city who are criminals but the in the

crew sheet you can see this sort of map for upgrades right you can claim turf in either direction as part of the and then above and below you those other claims Some are turf, some are like bonuses that you can have, whatever. Stiginger's Paul Pantry has granted you carte blanche and used to been in as much as it's in his ability to do so. So looking at this map, I just need you guys to choose the left or right turf, depending on sort of which way you want to go.

Can we not go up or down? Well, you know, those are those aren't turf. you've got turf. So I'm going to give you one of these turfs. I think, T-U-R-F, by the way. People know we're not in this game. Yeah.

I think we should move towards side business because that seems like the direction we're headed with the arcade. But I think Vistan could also possibly work for that, but I don't think it's as accurate. Yeah, I agree. I say we're moving to the left turf because that also gives us access to inform,

I don't know if we're ever going to go into the deathlands. Yeah, I don't even know what that means. That won't be a safe passage into the deathlands. As cool as that sounds. There's not a layer in steeplechase that is the deathlands. So, Trabb, do you think side business as opposed to cover operation? Yeah, because we don't want people to know about our illicit video games. Okay.

And so a cover operation would be something we're hiding behind versus something we are hiding. Yeah, I think then move to the left and work on site. I mean, Griff, what do you think? Yeah, I think it's fine. These are also all malleable. Like, we can change any of these. It's just give us an idea. So I have given you the claim on Eustabin.

That is now represented in this map. So that is handled. normally you need to take a claim but I feel like in these areas where there isn't a criminal element it could be something that's just sort of like you know you grabbed yourself

you're not what about crew advancement what about crew advancement so crew advancement you need 12 reputation to do that right now you actually because you claim that turf you only need 11 to make that happen

now because you have well we need to mark some crew advancement points right? Because we haven't been doing that at all. Yes. We have not tangled with the crew side of this game. Right.

Really at all, so we're trying to rectify that. Play catch up on that. Yeah, we're supposed to mark experience at the same time that we do our own personal experience at the end of each session. We get experience for executing successful smuggling or acquire new targets, new clients or contraband sources, contend with challenges above our current situation bolster your crew's reputation. or develop a new one or express the goals, drives inner conflict or essential nature of the crew. So I would argue where we're at with that is we successfully smuggled the pin in your tummy. Yeah. We then connected with Paul Pantry as a client.

Yeah. And then Darla as a client. Okay. Marked it. We successfully smuggled the clean. Yes. We smuggled the nude, not. Non-nude photos of David Rad.

The challenges above our current station, you said that they were a higher tier than us. In both cases, bolstered your crew's reputation. Let's just call it one level. Let's just call it one level. Yeah. Well, we won't get too precious about this.

Okay, so yeah, you went up. Yes, a new special ability, guys. What are you thinking? We have switched over to the smuggler, crew sheet from the hawkers, it seems more accurate to what you are. Yes. What you are doing. Well, I think Renegades looked pretty good for us since we always seem to be making a lot of finesse prowl and skirmish roles.

Yeah, I was kind of looking at that too. It's not as exciting as some of the other ones. I like all hands during downtime. One of your cohorts may perform a downtime activity for the crew to acquire an asset, reduce heat, or work on a long-term project. Yeah. That's kind of a neat idea. I don't know who our cohort would be in this scenario. Poppy.

I don't know. Paul pantry is going to do fucking work for us. What about the thug you hired? Benson. My intern. Benson is a beloved character for me to voice. So you want to bring on Benson full time as a cohort. Yeah.

Okay. So what do we think? All hands are renegades. I think All Hands has more creative opportunities. I think renegades we would use. Okay, here's the only thing that I would say, well, I guess it doesn't really. What is more narratively interesting in like the making? I worry all hands is passive, is more passive would be my only worry, but I don't know.

It's up to you all. It might lend itself to better stories. You think all hands might? Renegades would lend itself to gameplay for us. But that doesn't necessarily make it a better story. story. Yeah, I think having Benson working in the arcade while we're out and about presents narrative opportunity. We could also make that poppy if you want. I mean, if you want to bring in poppy. I don't want anything to do with that old freak. Okay. Okay, I'm going to give you all hands

then. During downtime, one of your cohorts may perform a downtime activity for your crew. And we'll need to add, uh, we'll need to add Benson as a, as a cohort here. Um, Did we just leave his ass behind in Gutter City? He'll find his way down, I'm sure. He's like the pets from the Homer Bound. He's going to find me. He's got my scent now. The one thing, J-Man in faction.

I also have a plus one with like gamblers. I don't know if that would count towards a faction. Yeah, we'll put them in the underworld. Okay, great. If you encounter in a, let's see, gamblers, how many are there? I think that we're going to call these two. Yeah. This is like a loose affiliation.

Yeah. I'm going to call it too. I know this isn't exactly. That's more representative of the number of people, but anyway, you got a stronghold, and I'm going to say your status with gamblers. You really only have faction with, like, per crew, right? Like, you can all have individual rep.

Right. But I am going to give you a one with gamblers. Perfect. To represent that connection that you, forged. Okay. Great. Great. So that's our stuff. Let's talk about your own personal

downtime escapades. Right. Well, I don't have any stress. Yeah, we all, I think we all are starting pretty clean. I think Gamerick may have taken some on toward the end there, but. Yeah, so you don't, yeah, you don't do vice when you take on trauma. So you don't have to, you know, remove your stress. Oh, we need to pick our traumas. Can we have a scene at Poppy's Place before we like hop into our own individual stuff?

I think that's great. Like you guys just make it back after your meeting. Maybe Emrick is, you think you started to tinker with this thing or Emrick or is he not in a place for that right now? I don't think he's quite there yet. But I do think that when you head back to Poppy's Place, I think he just, I think he says, whatever you fellows decide is is fine with me and he goes straight back to his lab. I look at me if I say,

we are going to need to do something about that. Yeah, I don't know what, but he is shaken. Yes. Well, accidentally snuffing out alive will do that to you. I don't think that's it. He was like that before we found out.

You were unconscious. Oh. Yeah. before we even got to the sled, he was a little messed up. I tend not to sort of dabble in the personal affairs of my coworkers, but we'll think of something. Maybe we can get him a, I don't know, a pastry basket. Yeah, that might help.

I mean, a lot of problems can be solved with eating, I get hunger. So listen. I think that we are on the brink of something. You know what? If I'm going to give an inspirational sales pitch, I should do it with all parties sort of in attendance. Okay. I fucking sneak into Emmericks.

I knock the door to Emmerich's Lab with a little pastry basket. Hey. Hey, buddy. What? What is it? Uh, we got some scones. And, uh, Also, we need to talk business if you can manage to pour yourself together for just a moment.

Fine, fine. I wouldn't press the issue. It's just that robots are chasing us and it seems like our time may be brief. I know. I know. That's why I am trying to get done. Why I am trying to get done. Listen, Montrose, I am very.

serious. I will do whatever you and Lyndon decide to do. I just need to accomplish one thing. I need to get this done and whatever you two decide will be fine. All right? All right, if you're sure.

Yes. Montres, can I talk to Amherk for just a second? Sure, sure. Alone? No, it doesn't matter. Okay. Hey, Merck, I'm going to give you some bad advice, but I think it's advice that you need right now. I've been through some shit in my life, and I've had things go very wrong, and I, you know, have lost my career and friends and a lot of stuff over some things. And I'm not 100% sure exactly what you're going through, but with the danger that we face and the jobs we keep getting.

asked to do, I think you need to work on compartmentalizing a little bit. That's what I'm saying. Okay, Montrose. And whatever it is you're going through right now, there will be a time for you to go through it. And there will be a time to just let yourself feel whatever it is you're feeling right now. But you need to just pack that away for a little bit and focus on the job at hand and operate at your highest capacity and just,

bottle that right up. Beef, my friend, I, I appreciate that more than you realize. But let me, let me say this. This is all my fault. Those creatures are coming after us because I, I murdered someone. Man-slaughter. And I'm, I killed harddug. not realizing what I had done.

I have much to atone for. Your fates are in my hands, and I want to make it all right. I know what you're saying, and this is how I am going to deal with the danger. If you would please just trust me. I can make this all right, and I just know.

need that trust. I just need you to trust me. Just as I trust you and Montrose to make whatever plans you want to make, I have to do this.

I have to do it. Okay. Yeah, but you do whatever you need to do. We'll be handling the blue sky and... And do eat something, though, because that will help. Do eat some of these scones, though. I'll eat the butterscotch. I'll eat the butterscotch.

No, you need something that's going to fill your belly. I mean, I'm butterscotch is going to give you an immediate sugar burst. Fine, fine, look, look. Oh, God. I'm eating the scone. I mean, eat it normal. Jesus, right. Now, please, let me come back on him.

All right. Is that apricot? All right. We'll leave you to it. He's going to be okay. Is that what you took away from that? Yes. So next job.

What are we thinking? Stealing a spaceship? Maybe... A next job? There's a knock of the door. Yes. Who is it? We're compartmentalizing in here.

Can you give us 15? Hey, boys, it's good to see you. Get out of here, you old pervert. Get your ass out of here. Lemonade anybody? You old freak! You speak when spoken to, Poppy. No, no, you're right.

right. I'll be outside for your boys, see me. Nasty old freak. You're right as always. I'm a nasty freak. I'll get back to work. That did my heart good, my joke. That cheered everybody up. My fellow graduates for 500 episodes,

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Security. Listen to the JV club with Janet Barney. Thursdays on Maximum Fun! Class of forever! Hey, I'm Ben. And I'm Adam. We host a show called Greatest Trek on Maximum Fun that covers all the new Star Trek shows, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds,

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Sure. I do, before we do that, though, there is this unsettled issue of trauma that you two have taken on. Emmerx is obviously, I mean, you can see where trauma is kind of folded into Blades in the Dark to make it something that colors your character. It's not necessarily a help or a hindrance because it's a narrative-based game. and you can see the effect of being haunted as having on Emric. You boys also took trauma. Yeah.

And I want to know what that looks like for you. I'm trying to play that out right now. I am eager to get another gig. Okay. I am eager to collect as many of these experiences as we. we can possibly get our hands on. One, because I do believe it's a lucrative business proposition for us. But two, I think during that car chase, something awakened inside of Montrose.

And it was the most fun he's maybe ever had in his entire life. Great. So now Montrose has the trauma reckless. Horny for crime. Horny for I don't even know if the crime is like what's exciting to him as much as the Okay Blowing up a car that he is riding inside of Like the the adrenaline of it

Yeah I love that It's very good for him That's fun beef do you want to play yours out in a scene? Yeah, I know what it is, but I'll show here And you can do it in downtime if that would make sense for it? How are you want to whatever You do. B-flips at Montrose. It's just like, the next job, we barely made it through that one.

And I'm going to say at this point, definitely all of Emrich didn't make it through there. My arm is fucked up. And I don't know. The next one, we might not make it back at all. At this point, we should be focusing on laying low, keep moving, and figure out a way to stop the barrister stuff. and then get out. And those are all great points that we should have considered before we agreed to become the fucking kingpins of Eustabin. So it seems like keeping the business up and running and profitable and growing and keeping our cachet as experienced smugglers developing.

Because I disagree with you. I think we have a knack for this. Yeah, a knack for chaos, blowing up. God knows, God, hope the people driving the police cars were a hard light, or else we didn't just murder like one or two people. That was, we blew up a lot of cars, a lot of cars right. I think that counts, that's manslaughter. Jesus Christ, it's all so much. I mean, it's getting wilder and wilder each time we go out.

I don't know if I can handle it. for you see beef has gone soft we got soft beef you don't want to be reckless with me no boys sounds like you got some real dramatically interesting conflicts in there copy I swear to God

a nice narrative broo I'll get going okay you you take whatever time you need beef but we are all in the same boat right now and it seems to me that our best plan of attack here is to fortify our position. That does not mean to hunker down

and batten down the hatches. It means to grow and become untouchable. That's the dream, isn't it? The dream right now is to figure out a way to get Emrick off whatever these robots' radar are and not get, you know, murdered by this. them and then I guess we'll see.

Right now, frankly, my arm is throbbing and I can't focus beyond the immediate future. Okay. Well, I think you've learned a little all and all. And in my downtime activity, I want to get my arm fixed. Okay, tell me what that looks like. What is like medicine like in? Steeplechase. Well, in the buttercream, we have a surgeon slash tailor.

I don't know if this is a surgical procedure. I mean, here's what I would say, Traff. If you, man, it's nice when it works out. If you present these, you could, as an employee of Dentonic, you could get these wounds fixed by the Denton, the Denton, the denton on-staff medics, you know, injuries do happen frequently here. That won't be a, that's no issue. But you are going to need to answer some questions.

I mean, there would be a trade-off there, right? If you're going to Dentonic to get fixed up, you can absolutely do that. But that will come with some level of risk. Okay. I think instead Beef is going to attempt to do like a splint and a sling for himself for his wrist

and maybe just be a little less effective for a little while that recovers because beef is not great at answering questions that is not necessarily Beef's strong suit So I will maintain the harm of the sprained wrist with the minus 1D, but try to like stabilize it and rest it as best I can with my recovery. Okay. So I don't know if that's like a clock to see when that's recovered or what that deal is,

but that's what I would like to do. Well, we sort of hacked that in the last downtime, didn't it? Yeah. What did we arrive at? So in episode three, when I went to Spoker for my pin-based injury, we used this hack for recovery where you roll according to your healers' like level, their quality, I guess, for an MPC, which was, I believe, three dice for Spoker. and then you will, depending on the result, clear a certain number of harm levels or not clear them, but bump them down one level. And if you bump lesser harm down one, it just disappears.

So that's how you clear that. Okay. So if that's what you're doing, if you're going to Spoker, you would, we would need to do that same thing. Okay. So 3D6? Yes, that is what you had me roll last time. All right. Okay.

So I will go to Spoker. The midnight toker. Why are they called Spoker? I don't know, man. You pick the name. Spokes on a wheel? And I rolled two, a five and a five. Five.

So the five, you clear lesser harm and move moderate harm down one. Okay. So now my sprained wrist is recovering in less effect. Can you only do that once? I mean, I guess if you want to take another action. But I will take the sprained wrist. brain wrist in recovering because that makes sense to me.

And then I'm going to train and I'm going to train by let's see. I'm going to read how to win friends and influence people to train and sway.

Okay. And it's let me look up Training stuff? I think training, you just mark one XP there, unless our crew is experienced in training that one particular thing. Well, Trave, there's no reason for you to read it when you can experience it. Oh, in a virtual game?

Yes. Head on over to the How to Win Friends and Influence People, Interactive Experience. I would call it persons instead of people. just to avoid copyright infringement. Okay, I love that, dad. I'm very sure that dude's dead as disco, but... Yeah, but he's got an army of lawyers. Every dead dude does.

Oh, and he's got concert halls. I'll tell you, the worst part about Dale Carnegie's lawyers, they love him. He really won him over. He's really endeared himself to them, sure. Well, you see a man in a three-piece brown suit, half sitting on a table in front of a fireplace. That's... He's old, but he looks impeccable.

Well, hello, nice to see you again. Beef Punchley. And welcome to How to Win Pals and Influence People. Persons. Welcome to How to Win Pals and Influence Persons. I suppose you're here to pick up a few tips. Is that right? That's right, Jake Carnegie.

Jake. Jake. Jake Carnegie, that's right. probably could have changed his last name. Yeah, that would have been where I would go with that. Well, what do you want to learn a little bit more about today? Beef, punchly. I'd love to learn how to convince people to do what I want them to do.

Here's a quote from my great, great relative, Dale Carnegie. But a different one for legal purposes. Arouse in the other person an eager want. He who can do this has the whole world with him. What does that mean to you, beef, punch late? Just the last name. I have to make them want to do the thing I want them to do. Ask questions instead of giving orders.

Okay. Success in dealing with people depends on a sympathetic grasp of the other person's viewpoint. Okay. Got it. Criticisms are like homing pigeons. They always return home. Okay, I don't, I kind of see where that one applies. Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him. Okay, uh, I think I'm following. Please insert three coins for more platitudes. I think I'm all set. Okay, Travis, so you can take Can we can we

Can you just knock at the door and I come in and I say Oh Jake are you? Oh, beef? What are you doing here? Are you taking lessons as well? Yeah, I'm trying to get better at talking to people So I don't have to always be you know punching or wrestling or throwing or jumping Oh, that's adorable.

Kind of stepping into my Couples cost more Oh, this is not sorry Sorry, I thought I was in at 1015, but I appeared to be a little bit early. My session's done if you, I warmed up the seat for you. Did he do the Everyman's Superio? Yeah. Something to learn from me.

Yeah, that one's weird, huh? Okay, who else wants to? Just kind of pick and choose from the lessons I've found as the best route. I also would love to train. We are experienced in resolve training, so we take two. So I'm going to get this sweet deal, because that's going to level me up. We both are? Huh?

We both are? The crew is experienced in resolve training. Oh, great. So whenever you do resolve training, which sway is, you mark two experience. Okay. So I mark two experience and resolve. Do I also bump up sway, or is it just filling out my experience? You mark it, you mark one XP on the XP track for an attribute or playbook advancement.

If you have the resolve, not sway. Okay, yes. So I pick up two in resolve. I'm halfway to leveling up resolve. Got it. Okay. I would like to spend one of my downtime actions doing the same thing. Okay, great.

In what skill? Resolve as well. With Jake Carnegie. Oh, okay. Does he know about resolve? Yeah, that's what he was just teaching me out. That's command and sword sway. Oh, that's under resolve.

Perfect. Okay. Well, we don't need to do that scene. Perfect. But you can go ahead. Take that. Who else? That's going to bump me up to three sway.

Great. You want a medal? Okay. Can I take my other downtime action? Yeah. Okay. On my walk back home from Jake Carnegie's place, I am approaching Poppy's place and I look up and I remember that cool time that gravel fell through the ceiling of the world. and I realize that I despise taking the train sled as the only means of conveyance between layers.

I would like to start a long-term project to develop the ability to move between layers without having to use the train. I imagine this is a combination of like figuring out how all that is routed. I think it's probably some like climbing, developing my climbing skills a bit with the climbing gear that we've got. I don't know exactly what it looks like right now, but it seems like a good use of my time to, if we are going to be smuggling shit, to have more means of egress from any particular layer we may find ourselves on. Okay. Yeah, we can work on that. I think that that is a cool idea. I have some thoughts, so we can start working on that. How big of a clock? I mean, if, I don't know. What are my options here? They're even numbers, right? No, no, no, I can do bigger ones. It's pretty ambitious.

We're going to call it an eight segment clock. Okay. So we're going to give you Mr. Tough Guy. I don't know why it got so hostile. I don't either. I know a lot of long-term projects are like Tinker and a tune. I figure this is mostly climbing-based, so I was hoping I could roll finesse for it.

If that's the kind of mechanism that you want to do, then that makes sense. Okay. What skills are under finesse? Or is finesse is an action? Fence is an action. action. Okay. All right. So I want to start creating this clock while I'm doing that. Why don't you go ahead and do your, do your role. Okay. You said it's an eight segment clock? Yep. It was a big clock. Okay. Do you want to do six? Uh, I mean, let's do six. This isn't that big a video. Okay. Let's do six. We'll do six. All right. So I'm rolling finesse. And yeah, it does have to be an even number because it's a clock. I'm sorry, John. You're right. It has to be an even number.

Okay. So that is a one, a one and a four. So we'll take that four. It's a mixed success and mark two segments. All right. I made a little clock free up there called Layernav. You should see that. And we will add two segments to that.

Cool. Thanks. Yeah, man. Well, thank yourself. You did it. That's it for my downtime actions. All right. it's so much easier when you aren't grievously injured and stressed to the fucking max

yeah like you can do more stuff yeah yeah yeah absolutely absolutely a lot of people will forget that but it's important to remember the less beat up you are the easier things are um emrick let's talk to you emrick um first of all has a playbook advancement um Because he filled up the XP thing again. And I think wants to train in Tinker, wants to advance his Tinker. Okay. So is that just a matter of checking one spot in Tinker? So you can't just mark up Tinker.

Wait, sorry. You filled up the experience bar in, what, Insight? Playbook Advancement. So in Playbook Advancement, if you got it at the bottom, then you pick a new special skill. But that's not. I guess you can train that. That's personal training? If you want to train, if that's what you're talking about, then you mark an XP in the attribute of insight, prowess, or resolve.

And when you fill up those bars, you can add a dot to one of. of the skills under that attribute. Yeah. You can also, as a downtime action, do personal training, which would give you a mark of experience in your playbook advancement tracker. But he just finished the playbook advancement tracker. So what? So he gets to pick a new special ability.

So you pick a new special ability. That's not an action. That's just, you just get to do it. You just do it. Second. I thought you already took one. I thought how many special abilities do you have? I have two, but I filled it back up.

Unless I should have been filling up insight. How do you fill up insight? So if you roll a desperate action, you mark XP in that action's attribute. I've been marking it in Playbook. No, Playbook Advancement is only when you address a challenge with whatever your thing is. Express your beliefs, drives heritage, your background, or you struggle with issues from your vice or trauma during the session. Then I have filled up my insight. Okay.

Okay, great. then you can add another point in any of those four skills. I'm going to take it in Tinker. Okay. Now, let me tell you my intent and you guys tell me what's the best way to do it. Is that okay? Sure. I really want to finish this long-term project, which I started last time, last down time,

but I'm not seeing any wedges marked. Well, is there any way to fill that? I thought your long-term project was the give-a-goes projector. Yeah, you finished that. Okay, so you would need a new long-term project and a new clock. I thought I started it last time. Started what? He's not saying right now.

I'm not saying right now. Okay. Is there any way to finish this long-term project in one downtime? Is there anything I can roll that would finish? All four. I mean, you could use both of your downtime activities on it. I would like to do that. Okay.

It really is imperative. You really wants to finish this. Okay. So. So you got to get four segments is what you're going for. You can. So basically roll tinker twice, right? Yes.

Yes, that's right. And I can push? No. Can't push. Ooh, boy. Woff, a doofa. A three. It's a two, a two, a two and a three.

That'll net you one segment. Okay. All right, I'm going to try it again. Five is the highest one. Okay, so that'll be two segments. So you have one segment left. You could spend a coin to take another action. That's true.

That's a great point, Griffin. Thank you very much. You can also spend a coin to raise a result level. Does that work on long-term projects? Well, I mean, instead of being a mixed success, pushing into a full success. Yeah, I mean, you can do that. Either way, Dad, you give me a coin. This project's done.

Thank you. All right. I give you the coin. Thank you. I'll put it in my pocket. It's a sweet. Fuck. Okay.

Dad's project is done. We'll deal with that when the time comes. It's not like a secret. It's just, it's a secret. I mean, he's keeping a secret from you. That's the, that's the squad. But you know what it is. I do.

And the character, Emmerk, is keeping a secret from you too. Okay. Um, yes. Uh, and then Benson takes the downtime activity. Oh, yes. I'm going to give Benson a coin to go make a bribe. A sweet. A sweet.

Thank you. Give Benson a sweet to bribe. somebody in whatever the dentonic police force is to lower our heat. Okay. He seems like he should be able to handle that. Well, I was looking for in all hands because we can't lower our heat unless we're incarcerated. So I couldn't find a like way to do it spelled out. So I figured I'd come up with a narrative way to do it.

Reduce heat is a downtime action. Yeah. You just do that. Okay, without having to spend the suite, maybe I just give him some monies. Well, you use your downtime action, right? But Benson gets to use the downtime action. Because of our new crew upgrade. Okay, so Benson, I don't know how...

You describe what Benson does, Justin. Okay. Though the question is how good it's going to work. He's a level one asset. So since he's doing this for you, I'm going to roll two die. No, one die. Yes. That's fine.

We're going to roll one die and see how he does. You can't fuck up this roll too bad. You're not going to roll a zero. Oh, five. That's five hot shit Benson. Got the hot hand. All right. He's going to, let's see.

He'll take off two of your heat. Can you describe what he does? What does? Aaron. So Benson. Benson. Okay. Okay.

Benson wanders over to the, to his employees, his bosses in the Dentonic Corporation. He goes in the break room. Hey, I need some help. My name's Benson. I need some help. I was working for a guy and he disappeared. And I think he died. I'm pretty sure the guy died and I was working for.

And I don't know what to do. And, uh, anyway, I'm feeling kind of freaked out. Because I was, I was working here. Then I, I think the guy died. And the, the security guards, or the, the Denton people in the break room were just kind of nodding at him. And, uh, the, the, Was this the explosion stuff, all that catastrophe? Yeah, I think he, I heard who was in it, and I think he died.

Are you sure? No. Okay. I just keep looking for him, I guess. Yeah, I was going to keep looking for him. I just didn't know if I should tell somebody, I think he died. Yeah, just keep poking around, a figure. Okay.

and Benson goes to Benson your asset Benson has not been in contact with you and he is not there and he is still in that layer This is a purely innocent act Or he has There's some suspicion that you died And so that is going to lower your heat tracker

By two Notteroonies Nice Great job Benson Yeah, Benson. Good old Benson. Benson, that was a, that was, you know, classic fortune roll. Benson just happened to stumble into helping you all out. Did somebody already take the heat off? Yes, I did. Okay. Good. I prefer that I do that from now on, just so we don't have a bunch of people clicking on all my great sheets. Thank you very much. And from now on, can we call Benson Falgai? That's his last name, actually, Benson Falgis. Is everybody done with their downtime actions? Correct. so. Okay. Perfect. You are in Poppy's

place and your radio is crackling and you hear gravel. Hey, this is still work. Hello? You got beef? Yeah, you got us. Right. So, I know

you all want to keep moving. So, I think I've got a job for you. Can you come to the buttercream? Is that safe? is anything what is anything whoa

nice so we'll see you in a few yeah yes that was the radio cutting out yeah bye do you all want to go to I mean I don't want to force your hand here

but if you say no boy I'm just gonna hit stop yeah I'm gonna head on up with yeah let's all help yeah we go I am restored by I'm my scones and I'm ready to face whatever comes. As we walk to the train...

No matter how horrible and terrifying it is. As we walk to the train, I point up to the ceiling of the lair and I say, I'm working on some big ideas. Pretty soon this train is going to be a thing of the past. We're going to soar through the sky like angels. So we'll transition from train flight, from train travel to flight travel. Yeah, so far more.

Flight, I don't know. You know, I'm still working. on the logistics. It may be like a big spring. Okay. That we all stand on and then, boy, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo.

Well, that would be an exciting adventure. Wonderful. Wonderful. That's the idea. All right, you hit your stop. You guys roll out. You're getting good at it. It's not,

it's not that hard to get into this layer at this point. Um, you've, you've done it a couple times. Roy. Hey, Roy. So, the one thing you've got to promise me is,

you don't want to stare when you meet him you don't want to stare just like normal like you look at anybody else you can look at him just don't stare right

you are going to have to give us more than that he's the guy he's the one you go to and you need something you need something you can't find out how to get it

he's the one we all know him in the better cream we all rely on him a lot And if he gets mad, it's bad for all of us. So you've got to promise not to stare. But if this goes well, it'll be good for all of us. Rising tide, right? Okay, okay.

Yeah, certainly. Is he hideously ugly? Just don't stare. As you're walking, there's a shower curtain hanging from a pipe that is sort of a makeshift doorway. and she pulls it aside and you see shelves of what seemed to be garbage, but it's all very well-organized garbage. And you see in the corner a seven-foot-tall mascot costume, which suddenly starts moving towards you.

You realize, unless you miss your guess, It's a giant red cat. And he looks at you. You hope he's looking at you. And he says, Hello, my name is Stimson. And you are going to fix this for me. Maximumfund.org.

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