The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Steeplechase - Episode 17

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

The heist payout for the arcade employees is interrupted by someone with an offer they cannot refuse. Emerich goes into a stupor. Beef puts some rings on it. Montrose goes dark.Opening monologue performed by Autumn Seavey Hicks: https://www.instagram.com/autumnseaveyhicks/?hl=en Additional music in this episode: “Voyageur” by Monkey Warhol: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monkey_Warhol/; "Entangled Quanta" by Ihsan & The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/ihsan-the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari/; “Coins” by Holizna: https://holiznaroyaltyfree.bandcamp.com/; and "A Mysterious Place" and "A Chilling Tale" by Kirk Osamayao: kirkosamayo.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

As eight unworthy suitors try to win her love. So look out for which of you dickbags will try and fail to tame Shlebetany coming later this fall. Lastly, another big reveal for the 150 years of dreaming festivities, and this time, get this, actual investment into ephemera. A gigantic 150 crest was hung this morning on the front of Galspire Castle. And, okay, you steepies know I love Dentonic, but I've got to be honest, it looks. looks absolutely. Beautiful. The creation years

have done it again, and we couldn't be more blown away. So, never know when to stop dreaming. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the adventure show. I did. I do it. Steeplechase.

A confection. Ooh. My own design. A Justin Delight, you might say. Yeah, as much as anybody is running. this, I guess I am. An everlasting juice stopper. Yeah, so if you will remember from our last episode, I don't.

Okay. Well, you all escaped, mission accomplished. You accomplished your mission. You got your hard light AI, Scott Boldflex, and you got Sympatco, and you escape down a tunnel. And no one was the wiser. No, no one saw. No one saw anything.

And I punched Dad's childhood bully, I think. But don't remember that. There was Hank. I punched Hank in the face real good. Oh, yeah, you did flatten Hank. Pretty good. I critical punched him. And that is weighed heavy on my conscience ever since.

I'm worried about what I might have done structurally. Killed him. Well, I'm dead. Yeah. You've just made it back into the buttercream. I wanted to do payoff last because it's going to be. move us into the next thing, but you do know you have eight sweets

coming to you. In fact, if you have something you want to do with them, we can just say you can use them on credit. We'll get your eight suites at the end, because as you know, in this game, we don't, you don't kid around with the payoff. Everybody gets their doll. Yep. So,

with that, said, we'll talk about heat. Where do you all feel like? You know what? Well, where do you you feel that your heat belongs for your last adventure? How much attention do you think you brought? Now, it's not as though the whole thing was televised.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, if we get two more heat, we will go up a wanted level. So I'm going to say less than two. Wow, Griffin, I wish I could say that. I wish I had your gumption. That leaves us with one or zero. I feel like zero, but I'll be willing to split the difference. difference to one.

Isn't there like a little fucking worksheet? I'm looking at it. I'm deciding. I'm thinking about loud and chaotic high exposure is four. Contained standard exposure is two. I mean, three is feeling right to me because you all did play roles, you know? To me, like, a four or a six would get to like, you guys just show up as yourself and push everyone into a truck.

Yeah. leave with the whole layer in a big truck. Like that. We were in aliases, right? Yeah, this is what I'm saying. Yeah. I don't know if we weren't necessarily disguised. This is what I'm saying.

This is why I'm saying three, if you all grant it to me. I know it's going to bump your one level up, but tell us what three is. It's between two and four. Thank you. So I'm not being rude. It's just what it says in the sheet is two is contained standard. four is loud and chaotic high exposure. So we could also say it was two heat plus one

for a high profile or well-connected target. I don't know if Hank- Oh, I like that actually. Let's do that, yeah. So it's three heat. Three heat. Travis, I trust you probably the most to mess around with sheets. Yeah.

I want you to raise your wanted level to one at level one. And then give us one heat toward the next. One extra heat. Um. Boom. Does anything immediately trigger? when our wanted level goes up? No, but it does contribute to the severity of entanglements that you face after a score,

and if you are arrested, it will increase your prison sentence. Okay, cool, great. Which will lower your wanted level should you ever need to do that. Great. So, we got that marked. Downtime activities, this is really the heart and soul of it. You all are in the buttercream, and... And you have, let's go ahead and say that you have used the,

uh, bi-rail sled or one of Griffin's. Beautiful tunnels. Dude, his secret tunnels to, uh. Have you finished your secret tunnel? I didn't, I'm not, I'm not, I don't have spoons. I don't have a fucking rock hammer that I'm burrowing, like, I know, I know where they are. Yes. I don't make them.

I'm not. And that was your long-term project, right? That was my long-term project. Okay. Groovy. Okay, so we are back in the, in your, in your buttercream, the one that you were first exposed to. I don't see much use in distinguishing between these, these butter creams.

Sure. So you're in the butter cream. Are we going to roll entanglement now or later? We've never rolled entanglement. Now that we have a wanted level. Yeah. We could roll it. It says bring the entanglement in a play immediately or hold off until an appropriate moment.

Yeah. Griff, go ahead and, you brought it up. Go ahead and roll for entanglement. So we have one as our wanted level, which means we roll one dice on the heat zero to three table. So let's see what this D6 gets us. Oh, fuck. That's a one. A one.

Okay, so that's gang trouble or the usual suspects. Love that flick. So good. That twist. So funny. Oh, okay. Got it. Perfect.

Yes, good. You've seen gang trouble, remember? Oh, I love it. It was the sequel to Baby's Day Out. Yeah. Dunstan checks in. In that vein. Thank you, Griffin.

Sure. Beef has gained both a level in resolve and a playbook advancement. So can I go ahead and knock those out? Sure, yeah, I love that. He has been training in sway, and there was a lot of that here. So I think that's just a natural choice

to level that point up. So I'm going to take one in sway. Okay. Now for special abilities, I would like to dip into veteran to choose a special ability from another source

that ties directly into Beef and Emmerich's relationship. So beef goes to Emmerich and says... Do it as a scene. Lights up? Yep. Emmerich,

so we've been facing off against more and more hard light stuff. True. Very, very true. And now with the, you know, with the arbiters, is that it? The judges? The barristers?

The barristers, breathing down our neck. I feel like I'm going to be punching more than just, you know, human meat. Oh, good, yes, yes. Can you make me, I don't know, like some, like bracelets or rings or something that when I am fighting technology like hard light, it's effective in the same way? Oh.

Oh, that's, hmm. That's a very, very, very fascinating idea. You know, beef, I was, I think that I have a project that would translate very nicely into this. as you know, I've been considering converting the Scott Bowflex hardlight into a fighting game. I wonder if I could take that same technology and fashion sort of like a brass knuckle type device for your fists that would also disrupt hard light. Is that what you had in mind, something to fight hard light? Fuck, yes. That would be perfect.

Oh, that's a great. I will incorporate that. I had planned on doing a long-term project. So I, how about if I incorporate that into my long-term project and provide you with these knuckles? Oh, this is a delightful idea. I love this.

Yeah, Emmy, I owe you one. I love that. Oh, no, no, no. you have done so much for me. I mean, you've instilled me with confidence and you're very complimentary. And no, no. And lights out, this bores me.

Where's the conflict? Where's the drama? So that is going to give me arcane fighter, which I gained potency in combat versus the supernatural. Cool. In this circumstance. Your homework is to give me cool names for these hard light killing brass knuckles before next week.

Don't just give me your first thought like you always do, guys. Give me something good, all right? Okay, yeah. I also leveled up my playbook advancement. We don't have to do a whole scene about it. But now I took a veteran power also that was, I feel like good for my reckless trauma, which is called Daredevil. And it's when I roll a desperate action, I can take plus 1D to the role if I also take

minus 1D to any resistance rolls against consequences for your action. Oh, that's very good. Yeah, that should be pretty goofy. Well, you're going to do the scene now. You're walking by yourself through the buttercream, deciding how to spend your days. Whistling? Hold on, hold on.

I'm creating something from Whole Cloth. I need 10 seconds. Okay. Griffin, you're walking through the buttercream, trying to decide how to spend your free time. Maybe a little bit of your newly found wealth. And you find yourself in what appears to be an alley. And you, as you're walking down the alley, all of a sudden you're grabbed by your lapels and slammed up against a wall.

And you see someone wearing a, he's wearing both a ski mask and a fedora. And he's got a long black duster and black gloves and black patent leather boots. And there's a shiny silver emblem on his chest. You can't quite make it out because you are suddenly grabbed up against the wall. I've been watching you. All right. Cool. Sorry, I've never been held up before in an alleyway.

This is my first time. give you my wallet or how does this usually work? I don't want anything from you. I've been watching you. It's Batman. Oh shit. Get out of there. Um, okay. Well, then can you set me down? This is, this hurts. Honestly, it hurts my shoulders a little bit. My name is Deep Dark.

I patrol. I patrol. Oh, shit. My name's Deep Dark. I patrol the buttercream. and keep the streets safe for criminals like you. But luckily I've noticed. Sorry, wait, sorry, did you say four criminals or from criminals? Yes.

Have you ever heard of Batman? Yes. I'm a reverse Batman. Okay. But I've been noticing you taking a lot of chances. And it's really got me scared for you. Oh, no, I'm, you know, I'm in full control of my, faculties in my situation, pretty much at all times.

Very, very skilled sort of gentleman thief. So I appreciate your concern, but it is entirely unnecessary. Listen, listen, we're all really worried, because you've been taking a lot of unnecessary risks. Now, hold on, is there like a whole super team that exists in the shadows? That's sort of... Wouldn't you like to know? But listen, if you insist on doing this, I guess I could take you in as my ward.

What? How does that benefit me? I'm an adult. I will train you in the way of the deep dark streets and help to give you one fighting chance so that you don't end up like my cousin. What? Okay, what, what are you going to tell me? My cousin was a criminal. He took too many chances. And he was hurt really bad in this alley that you're in right here.

Oh, wow. And that's what I convinced me to put on these gloves and these shoes and this mask and this hat and coat and become deep dark, the scourge of people who aren't criminals. I am an adult man. I'm an adult enough for both of us. And I'm going to take you in. That's my ward. Enough for both of us. Um, I mean, do I, do I have to take on an alias?

Or is there a costume element? Because I'm not a tired. You look great already. Never let anybody change you. Okay. You can be a daredevil about a lot of stuff, but not about your self-worth. Okay. Well, I suppose I, I mean, can I have a pseudonym?

What was the name of your veteran move? Griffin, what was the specific? I mean, it's Daredevil. It is specifically. it is called Daredevil. Go with Dark Devil. That's pretty cool. But it can't be cooler than his name.

Deep Devil. Pigeon? No, we've already done that. Pigeon. Yeah, we already had a pigeon. I'm, my name. I am. Listen, there's only so many,

there's only so many superhero names to go around. And you have to use the ones that are available. Is there a list? Because that would be helpful. There's only one free right now. You are fucking kidding. Yeah, no, I'm serious. I'm serious.

And the bad news is it's bazooka maniac. He was, he retired. And he left his, he left it all behind. So you can be bazooka maniac or nothing. I guess I'll be bazook. I don't own a bazooka, nor do I. Well, it's time to stock up. Because if people hear that you're the bazookomaniac,

they're going to be, you to be backing. Heavy artillery. Yeah, Justin, if I may, it actually I think is a maniac move to not have a bazooka when your name is bazoo. Because if you were well prepared, then that's not very maniacal. Then you're just well-prepared bazooka person. It could also mean that I'm a big fan of bazookas. Oh, that's true. I don't have one, but I'm like a bazooka maniac, dude.

I love these things. So we mean the weapon, not the chewing gum. Yeah, correct. It's either way. What is the, what is Daredevil do you do, Griff? If I take a desperate action, I can gain plus one dice to my roll if I take minus one dice to any resistance rolls against consequences from that action. Okay, it's time for your first training. And he pulls out like an expanding rod from his waist belt and like snaps his wrist.

And the baton extends. You see it crackling with electricity. He says, it's time for your first training. Are you ready? Should I get a bazooka before? No. If this is going to be, boots on the ground. We both know you're not ready for that. We both know you're not ready for that. All right. Here's your first. I'm going to try and finesse it away from him.

What? I'm going to try and just fucking grab it out of his head, just really fast finesse, grab it out of his fucking hand. Okay, go for it. I'm guessing this is a desperate action. If this is on-the-job training? Yeah. Okay. Effect standard, I'm guessing, and I'll take my one. bonus dice.

4162. You guessed at standard. And you get, but like, either way, you, you, with the six, you snatch it cleanly out of his hand. All right, now you, now you, now you,

no, no, he talks first. Okay. See, you're already getting it. You, you held an object out in your hand. And you took it. But what is? Did you do?

You took the chance when you saw the opportunity. That's your first lesson from Deep Dark. I think I might know more than you. Can I have that back? No. Come on. No, this would actually be very helpful for me. Come on, I need it.

A stun baton that I can use at any time. This would be a huge asset for me. It's not a stunt. Listen. When you look at it a little closer But you see it is indeed a laser pointer at the end of a lot. Just like what looks to be a car antenna that someone is not a stumbaton. That's how dangerous I am.

I'm willing to go into uncharted territory with a fake stumbaton, but I do need a back. You know, if I had a nickel for every time one of the Macquarie brothers DM the game and took a stun baton opportunity away from another brother, I know. Turn the tables. I'm going to take the laser pointer off the end of it and give him the baton back. This is mine now. So you already knew about the second lesson.

How to negotiate. That's good. We'll skip. We'll skip that. And we'll do something different next time. I'm adding a laser pointer to my head. I look. I look. He disappears.

Yeah, I know. I kind of knew that's what he was. That was more for his benefit. And you hear from far away, hey, thank you. Very, very chill. Okay. I love you, DART. I love you, too.

I think he's my dad now. Justin, I'm going to call the Brass Knuckles ringers. I think you can do better than that, actually. I told you not to tell me today. What about shocking all? Shocking y'all? Maybe. Okay, we'll see.

No, listen. So we could workshop this all day, but, but, you know, adventure, a hoi. Um, who else got down time stuff they need to do, want to do? So far we've taken zero actual downtime activity action, so I think everyone. All right. Uh, I need to find a healer. Mm. Because both of my less effects are full.

Healer. I'm assuming that's going to do that. Emmerich's going to do that too, since he's, like, pretty fucked up right now. Is it? No. Was it doctor's name? The doctor's name is Stitch. Spoker.

Spoker. Yeah, I'm gonna go to Spoker because I got punched in the neck and I want to make sure my wrist is all healed up. Okay, let's do this as a scene. Hi, I'm Spoker. Spoker has a sort of a drawl if memory serves. Well, Griffin, you've done it again. You forced me to fire up. the Voice of Tron 3,000. I was trying to just move on with our lives, but we're going to hear what, well, okay, this says

Stoker. It could be Spoker or Stoker. It's Spoker. It's a Stoker. He's a Spoker. I already did that joke. Do a different to a new joke. He's a smoker.

Hey, good to see you all again. What did you bring me this time? It's me, Stoker Spoker. Hello. it's us again and well You swallow She tickles your belly mantras

I didn't swallow it I came off this one unscathed internally And externally No I got punched in the neck pretty good And Golly Yeah yeah

Yeah And also if you would Take a look at my wrist It's feeling pretty good So I think I can Probably just call that one done But I wanted to You know

Talk to an expert first Let me check him Whoa, look at these brass knuckles. What do you call these things? There, TBA. We're workshopping that. Got to get the boys in R&D down. Oh, sure, R&D.

I know how it goes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let me take a shot here. I'll fix you up right quick. And we do this by I roll a number of D6 according to the healer's quality. And based on the result, bump harvils down one level. So, what is Spokers quality?

One. Okay. And that means I roll one dice, a six. Wow. Hey, good news. It went real good. So what does that mean for me, just in mechanical terms? Is that both my things?

Fucking hell. You're the one looking at the sheet. Who I am? Well, so it says based on the outcome. Yeah, you were just reading a bunch of stuff like, here you go. Here's I'm reading it. That is the rule hack that we have said is based on the result, bump harm levels down one level. I have two first level injuries.

You have two first level injuries. Yeah, two less effect injuries. And I rolled a six. So with a six, I think you can, let's say this. What's the rule that we came up with? I'm loading it up right now. On a six. Clear all lesser harm.

Move moderate and severe harm down one. Okay, great. Yeah. So one to three is clear, lesser harm. Four to five is clear lesser harm, move moderate harm down one. Six is clear all lesser harm, move moderate and severe harm down one.

That's probably either or, right? It can't be all those. That would be O.P., I think, a little bit. So one or the other. So, great. So we'll clear your lesser harms. Okay, great. that's fair oh okay and what about you oh you look terrible what happened to your arm

looking at you uh amric oh yeah um it's a trifle it's a it's an arm it's uh yes i know no he also made a trifle and brought that as the jester of good well it's a blueberry trifle i hope you enjoy it uh i was going to make a cordial but i don't know how um no i'm actually um i'm actually fine with my broken elbow. It doesn't really hamper my work. It causes pain. And to segue into this, Emmerich has made a very important choice that his work is far more important than his health. I mean, he's got to make these knuckle dusters for beef. He's got to, he's got to, he's got to convert Scott into this game. And so I think that instead of healing, fantasy bootfall season is over.

So he's going to indulge in a new vice. Okay. Because his stress is very high. Okay. And he's going to go for stupor, thereby treating the pain of his broken elbow without having to get medical treatment. Okay. What do you mean go for stupor?

Well, stupor is his vice. So if he indulges his vice. Oh, okay. Can you change your vice like that? Yeah. Yeah, and this one you can. We've been using vice narratively. So if something narratively we're, you know, we want to move on from, like,

I think that's fine, especially if it's something that's not exactly core to his being, right? It's like, right, you know. So, Dad, you're going to roll dice equal to your lowest attribute rating? Um, my lowest attribute rating, which would be who are I have the fewest amount of dots? Uh, yes, that's, that's right. Okay. That would be two in prowess. And that's on, so if you see the line dad after the first dots, right?

It's the number of dots behind that line. Right. So I have two. Two in prowess. Yeah. I have one in prowl and one in, yeah. I have one in prowl and one in, yeah. I have one in.

in skirmish. I'm about to level up prowess. I have one shit left. Yeah, he's pretty, like, he's, he's pretty spread out. I mean, he's got a little bit in everything, but yeah, two in prowess. Um, so dad, you'll roll to die. And this is to reduce stress, correct? So that's four is your, is, is, is going to be, you're going to clear four stress. Dad, what does this look like for you? What is the, is it, is it, is it just losing your in your work? Is that what the stup the stupor is? I'd envisioned him using whatever for pain management. So that he continues to work. Yeah, but like what is the whatever?

So dad, let's let's call it stupor. Right. It's you getting lost in your in your work. Okay. Something I as a podcast you'm all too familiar with because there are so many different works, work things that I'm always getting lost in my work because I work all the time. And it makes sense for Emory. I'm kind of a hard. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. What's wrong? Okay. What, Trow? No, I just thought of a name for my knuckle things. Hey, if you're saying the name today, we're done professionally. But it's really good. Well, say, if it's really good, it'll still be good next time we record.

I just want to say it now. Oh, I bet you do, bud. I bet you do. The thing about what a grand reveal will be. Text it to me. Text it to me. Text it to me. Text it to me.

Text it to me. Texted to me. anything. That is subjectively untrue. Okay, so I take off for stress, correct? Yes, sir. For stress. Oh, that's a little more manageable. Down to three. Okay. And that if you want to do, I mean,

uh, these sort of like hard light conversions like you're talking about for the darkade, your, your secret little collection. of Hardlelight goodies that you're collecting. Right. If you want to do that conversion you've been talking about, I think you could do that as a project, but I don't know what you got going.

I don't have any project clocks operating for you right now. I've cleared them all. I've cleared the project clocks. I do that. Emrick's going to start a new long-term project, which will be the construction of the fighting game with Scott. And as part of that, the,

uh, to create these, uh, brass knuckle. The brass knuckles are done. That was Travis's action. So the brass knuckles are done. Uh,

you, you don't have to do a project for that because. I realize that, but I mean, it's based off the same technology. Yeah, yeah, so I'm just saying.

Okay. So I'm going to say that that is a, uh, four segment clock. Um, on that, on the bold flex, arcade game,

fighting game. Um, okay, fighting game and it's four. Do you want me to make it? No, or do you jury make it? I'm working on it right now. You just need to do your first roll on it. Three, five and two. Three, five and two.

A five. Great. Uh, well, that will get you, uh, uh, two segments on this clock. Oh, good. Which is very, very exciting. For some reason, I can't get the name to show up, but this, we know what this one is. So. Here it is.

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Go do a little rolling of the bones with the gamblers to do a little relaxing. We're going to roll a little high-low. Um, and so to indulge vice, just had I pulled up. I got four. So I clear four from that there stress meter. Oh, good job, Traff. That's some good gambling. Thank you, buddy.

Takes me down to two stress, which feels pretty good. I'm very relaxed, but not too relaxed, mind you. And that's my downtime. I'm ready for up time. I would like to also indulge my vice over at The Future is You with my beloved family. Oh, me in the game. Okay. Yeah.

Oh, right, right. Gotcha. So I just, I want to walk in and just like throw my backpack down in a huff and just sit down at the dinner table. What? I just be like, I had a really tough day. today, Paul. Tell me all about it, son. Well, one of my co-workers

punched an incredibly powerful figure here at the steeplechase and I'm awfully worried about the blowback that's going to come down on us and I'm really struggling with it, Paul. Also, a Batman-like superhero accosted me in an alleyway

and I'm still a bit shaken up about it, Paul. Well, if there's one thing I've always said, it's the early bird gets the worm. That is not applicable or helpful at all right now, Paul. You don't got anything better than that. How, Monty, don't you go assessing your bar? Sorry, Ma. Here, eat your riddles.

And she puts down an empty plate in front of you. Oh, yummy, yummy. I pretend to eat it, I guess. I don't know if the robot cares about that. She's not, she's watching you and nodding slowly as you're pretending to eat like good. Yeah. Yummy, yummy in my tummy. I'm going to roll.

I have one in prowess, which is my lowest score, strangely. That's one. It's one fucking strange. It's fucking single stress. I'm gonna spend a coin to do it again. Okay, wow. Make sure to mark that. I will.

That's an unacceptable result. Seconds, please, Ma. It's so yummy. Well, you love my glasses. Three more. Okay. But not that much. No, I like it.

An average amount, Maul. I'll tell you what, Ma'am. I might go back for the... third zies if that's allowed. Can I do that? Yeah, I guess I can do it again. Do I really want to spend another sweet on that, though? Jesus.

I mean, I'm still for stress. That's still pretty stressed out. Nah, I'm going to hang on to my cash. All right. So for my other activity, I am still, I am a daredevil. You know me. pretty reckless, but I do realize. A bazooka maniac. I'm a bazooka maniac, but we are in not a considerable amount of danger. I want to propose to you, Justin, a long-term project.

I want us to have another hideout, another safe haven, and I want to have it here in the buttercream. I want to go through whatever channels I need to go through to acquire the future. is you as a new territory for us. So this could be, you know, trying to track down deeds. I don't know how that works in the buttercream since it's all pretty ad hoc. It could be an actual sort of rebuilding effort. I mean, what's hard is that feels more like a gang advancement where you would claim a territory, which we could do. but I mean it requires that I mean

No we don't you know we don't have to I don't think it's beneficial enough that it would count as like a full thing So here's here's here's what it is griff the the The futures you has been abandoned The way it works in the butter cream is it's all based on sweat equity You put the time and energy into fixing something up It's yours And so if you

you want to put the time into repairing and tweaking and everything the future is you, then you can do that and it'll become your all's personal thing. Okay, what stat do you think

that would be? Mopping is not a stat. I don't know, what do you think? I know you want it to be something you're good at. I do. You sway the dirt to get off. Go away, dirt. So Tinker comes to mind, but Tinker is mostly mechanisms and shit like that, right?

Yeah. It's reverse wreck. Yeah, how do you, opposite of wreck? That's the problem with your, at Game John, there's not enough actions for rebuilding and healing. You know what I mean? What if we don't want to tear down? Could it be finesse? Yeah.

Very carefully rebuilding. Okay. How many segments is this clock do you think? This is going to be a... You guys are going to be hanging out here? I mean, I would like it to be a safe haven if we need it. Yes. Okay.

It'll be a six. Okay. Six segment clock. Then I'm going to roll. Six three two. Wow, excellent. With a six, you will get... Three segments.

Fantastic. It's great. I'm glad I do. I would also maybe like to get on the horn and call up Benson to ask for his help in this project. Just get him to do some of the heavy lifting here to work on the long-term project as part of his, our crew ability, all hands. Okay. So Benson's currently in captivity. if you'll remember.

What? Yeah, remember Benson was the last we saw of Benson, he was taken in by the cops, and he told them that you thought you died. No, he wasn't taken in. He voluntarily went in to say, I think he died. I don't think he was arrested, though.

Oh, no, he was, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that was the last we saw of Benson. Yeah, because if he was in lockup, the next mission would not matter. We would have to go save him. He's that important. important, huh? I didn't realize you'd gotten so close to Benson. Why did I make him sound like this? Okay.

Okay. Okay. Griffin, you're, you're toiling on the future as you. And you see Benson, and I don't know where it just kind of shoved into the room. Hey, what's the big idea? I found this guy wandering around looking lost. He says he knows you.

Is that true? It is. It's a little nosy of you, honestly, to sort of hunt down my cohorts like this. I found him. I was worried that he'd be taken advantage of. You are extremely preoccupied with the well-being of every grown-ass adult in this. Can you stand up real quick? Me?

Yeah. Are you going to? Okay. I stand up. Okay. And he grabs your lapels and puts your stools and puts you against the wall. Listen, if there's one thing I've earned, it's connection that'll get you killed. if this guy's close to you

you gotta cut him off or keep better taps on him oh no we are treating Benson very much as a sort of future scapegoat you have the wrong you are misunderstood he is not someone I will die for he is someone who we will place

in the line of fire to protect our own hides so I appreciate you have misread the situation entirely deep dark he sets you down do you know how you sound exactly like right now, but psychomaniac. Yes. Fantastic.

It's uncanny. Yes. You, I, how are you suspending your sort of disbelief so far as to pretend like you don't know I am the hero that you just ordained? Wait a minute. Is this a future as you? Yes. Show me what you're working on here. Okay.

I show him what I'm working on here. Okay, as soon as you turn towards it. He does it. This dude's the worst. So we roll his... Fucking word. Yeah. So, how can I help?

Just pick up that beam and then attach it to the other beam with some sort of fastening. This whole thing has a sort of hodge-podge roundhouse vibe to it that I'm really actually enjoying. So just kind of make that stick to that so that it holds that up. There's the problem. some of this stock. I'm going to take it to my planer and smooth it out. That is not necessary. It does not. We are not so concerned about aesthetics. Your funeral. Uh, so what's his tier? Zero. Yep. Okay. So we're gonna rule sui. No, no, no, no. Didn't we make him? No, no, no. Somebody made him better. Uh, didn't Travis? Didn't you? Yes, John said, you trained him. Just I'm pretty sure he was negative one to begin with and I trained him to zero. Okay. Now, he.

If I remember correctly. It's zero dicing. All right. So we'll roll two dice and take the lowest result on this. That's a crit. Are you fucking kidding me? What do you do on a crit? I guess it's just one.

It's not a crit. But that's a six and a six. For on what? On his, uh, his assistance on the long-term project. Are you just using him as an asset? Like, I'm using the all-hands power. Mm-hmm. During downtime, one of your cohorts may perform a downtime activity for the crew to acquire.

Fire an asset, reduce heat, or work on a long-term project. Perfect. Okay. So you leave, you leave the area after giving Benz and some basic instructions. And you come back like a half hour later, and it looks like you remember it looking when you were a kid. It looks pristine. And he's like wiping grease off his hands. Wow, I think I got it all fixed up.

How on God's green earth did you do that, Benson? I kind of blacked out in the booth. I don't exactly remember. Benson, this is a level of competence that I am. I'm tired now. And he lays it out on the floor. Just curls up on a little mat like a puppy. All right, fucking great.

So that checks off the last three marks. That blows it out, man. God dang. What a crazy role. Yeah, right when you needed it the most. I know we can all agree. Okay, cool. Okay.

So we're not counting this as territory on like our little chart, right? Right. This is just now we have a headquarters in buttercream if we need it. Great. Cool. And I also wanted to, you know, these robots mean a lot to me. I wanted to protect them if possible. Oh, historic preservation of attractions like this is a big deal.

Okay. Well, that's my two activities plus the all-hands. Okay. Anybody else? I'm going to take my playbook advancement. I'm going to do the veteran move where you can take an ability from another source. And I'm going to take foresight. Two times per score, you can assist a teammate without paying strength.

Nice. Okay. Cool. That'll be actually helpful. Tell us how you prepared for this. So each time I have to come up with something. Cool. Explains how you prepare. Oh, I like that idea. That's a fun one, that. Yeah. Well, he, you know, Emric thinks he's really good at assisting, even though he's probably not. But he would do this. Does anybody have any downtime actions left? I think we're ready. Did mine. Move on. Cool. So I think at this point, you guys, if everybody's cool with it, we can head over to C. Stimson.

I love it. Now, according to the sheet, you guys are about to level up. Is that right? For rep? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Okay. Let's do that first, actually.

So I'm going to call it, you get two rep by default, but the target of the score is a higher tier than you. I think that's pretty safe considering that you all are zero. And we're going to go ahead and give you all three rep for that. So we're going to do one, two, I'm doing it. And then, yes. So what that does is it allows us to spend coin or suites to increase our tier if we want to.

It's not an automatic upgrade. We have to actually pay money. and it's it would be eight times the tier that we're going for, which is one. So it would cost us eight. Okay. So if possible, I would like to maybe bring this up with Stimson. Okay.

So you all walk in and you see Stimson, you can't tell what he's on a stool it looks like, but he's sitting motionless. there's all these little knick-knacks lining the shelf. If you remember, you have to push aside, I think it's a shower curtain, separating his little den from the rest of the buttercream. But you see him, you know, eyes bulging, red fur matted, and he's just kind of slumped in a stool.

Wakey, waky, eggs and bakey. Fucking hell. Sorry. This thing is actually, it's super uncomfortable. It's actually really cozy, if that makes sense. how to go I would say mixed bag yeah

successful mission but there were some costs accrued along the way vis-a-vis elbow bones oh do you want coffee yes

yeah I was going to make a pod you see him walk over to the coffee maker and he reaches into a big cardboard box that is sold with like single server filtering filter pods and he

rips the plastic off of one and then puts the pod in the coffee maker and starts it up we got we got the the fake Scott and no shit no shit

yeah and Sympatico so like oh you got Simpatico too damn! Yeah so like you're good Like, you seem, I don't know, tired, a little bit bummed. No, I'm just waking up. I just grabbing a nap.

I mean, there's no night or day down here, which is getting, I'm trying to acclimate to, but my fucking circadian rhythms are all over the place, honestly. It's, it's, yes, that can be complicated. I was wondering if I could propose something to you, Stimson. You seem like a well-connected individual here in the buttercream. I'm working on it, yeah. And we are enterprising, ne'er-do-wills,

and we are looking to move up in the world, mostly to defend ourselves from, well, will almost certainly be an onslaught of retaliation from forces that are... Oh, what the fuck happened? Um, you know, some people got punched, there were a lot of cameras, you know this.

Yeah. just general messy maybe who was there I mean it's just the regular was it

was it Greg was Greg like Greg was there Greg was Greg was cool I was Greg I fuck with Greg All things considered

Yeah fine He's all right Oh tell me Did you meet a sound guy Who was cool Did you meet Manzetti Yeah I call him

Manzetti Yes he was great. He did take a little bit more credit for Heroic Act than I think he was entitled to. That's him. Oh, Mantras met with Kendrell Denton, which is wild. Yes, and then

we did, there was one of the three of us, and I won't say which one did punch Hank Hart right in the face and made him be asleep. It was me. Because of the forceful strike. I did that. And it is for that reason that I have a proposal in lieu of payment. Wait, that

Perhaps you got, were you about to say something? Wait, you seem, there was a look of surprise on your face. There was no look on my face. No, it's a suit. There is no way. There was a body posture of surprise. Yes, it was. But when we mentioned Kenshal Denton, there was a definite reaction from you.

Yeah, I was just surprised. Yeah, but it went okay with him. As far as we know, I did make a sort of personal social connection with him that I believe we could leverage for work in the future. Another great reason why I have come to you with this proposal. In lieu of payment, you will help us raise our profile as scoundrels here in the buttercream and in Steeplechase at large. I believe you are just the cat to do so for us. You are well connected here. You have many resources at your disposal.

And then you can keep your money. Oh, I don't have the money. He does. And he points to the back. And out from the back behind the counter of this little shop out walks. Kenchledon. He says, finally. Finally, can we talk?

Yeah. Mr. Denton, I apologize for running out before circling back with you, but the job did take us away from Passions Cove. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hope you'll understand. Yeah, I saw. I saw. It was a little sloppy, I will say, which I mean, I can't imagine. That's the first time you guys were that. We like, we are sloppy boys.

Should we change our reputation from subtle to sloppy? Is that an option? No, we're sloppy, but in a very subtle way. Yeah. Subtly soft, poppy. So, yeah, I asked Jerry here to, to ask you all for this favor. I mean, he does, he did want it. He wasn't lying.

is something really important. Who's Jerry? Jerry Simpson. Jerry is Simpson. Yeah, Jerry Fisher is his real name. Scott Bowlflex is the character. Right. I don't know why I did it either. Yeah, I agreed to help Jerry. He was, you know,

the way it went for him wasn't great, but also you know, where is he going to get eight sweets? He's a cartoon game. Oh, yeah, that's a good point. I also had my concerns about that. Well, I, I, I, I, I must say I am disappointed in the Suddafuge. We traditionally do not act on credit.

Mr. Denton, are you saying that you will be able to pay off this invoice, so to speak? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's no problem at all. And he tosses eight, you know, of the chits that we say represent sweets, and he tosses them to you. Yeah, that's no issue. Oh, okay, I appreciate that. I suppose we'll have to take these somewhere else to maybe try and raise up our profile. It seems like it would be well below your station.

Mr. Denton to help us. You know, you would think so. And you're, you know, in a sense, you're right. Kenchell's pacing now. He's wearing like an extremely well-tailored gray, suit. He has a black turtleneck and just a shock of platinum blonde hair that's swept over to one side. And he starts, not pacing, but just sort of standing and finding his footing. As you can tell, he's kind of gearing up to speak. Normally, this would be beneath me. You all would be beneath me.

but your timing is actually, let me back up. Three minutes and 34 seconds. That's the time differential between my dad and his sister. Three minutes and 34 seconds. It's not even a cool number. you know, 3-33, that would be something. But no, three minutes, 34 seconds between the birth of Evelyn Denton and my dad, Eggard. If he had been born, if he had muscled his way up there, I'd be running the company right now,

but instead, Carmine's stupid monarchy passes from firstborn to first born to first. born. So now next in line after Evelyn is, is her shit hit son, Devin. And I, you guys know Devin, probably heard of. I mean, you wouldn't meet him, but he's a dip shit. But he's next in line. And my dad, uh, died 10 years ago, uh, ish. Uh, very, so. My condolences. Oh, thank you. Uh, yeah. I'd be running the company. right now. You know? And that three minutes

and 34 seconds that separated Evelyn and Eggard is keeping me from it. So I'm you know finding another way or else steeple chase and all the entoment gets running into the ground. I think

I see where this is... Literally impossible. You want us to create some kind of time travel device. Okay. So you are actually further offline. Now wait a minute. And aid the baby in being born first. Switch the order of the babies around inside.

We'll have to take it back even further because we're going to have to go to some kind of like obstetrics schooling to figure that out. I mean, so we'll have to go back. What if this device could be on the belt of? You notice that Kenshal is like on his phone, like swiping. Oh, sorry. You're done. Okay. Yeah, we like to go off on these little tangents sometimes.

Yeah, it's fine. I'm sure a lot of people find it really cute. So, here's the deal. And it's kind of a one-time only thing. I and some other motivated investors are planning, you know, I hate the term hostile takeover because it seems so. Hostile? thank you. But it is applicable.

But right now the company's, you know, soaring and nobody wants to take them on. I mean, how many politicians and, you know, world leading entertainers, any but managers, agents. So anybody with juice comes to steeplechie. So nobody wants to pick a fight. So I'm trying to bring them down to a little bit more. manageable level. You get it. Disruption.

Disruption. Thank you. See, that is actually the first smart thing I've heard any of you say. Disruption. That's what I am. I'm a disruptor. And I am wanting to disrupt this company until it's at a point where I can disrupt its ownership. and take it over. And you would like to request our assistance in this project?

Wow, that is the softest possible way you could have phrased it. Yeah, okay. Request your assistance. I want you guys to do what you do, but do it for me. And will we have your assurance that once we do accomplish this goal for you, that you will not discard us in the most violent and efficient way possible. Here is the best I can do. If I become the CEO of Dentonic, I can 100% guarantee you.

I will forget you exist. Is he lying? Nope. I look at, I look at Emmerich and Beef. It would be nice to have, somebody that high up, that owed us one. I'm sorry, I have excellent hearing. I would not owe you one.

We would be, God, collaborating puts us on a similar level, but I can't think of a better word right now. Oh, okay, wait, then follow-up question, if I may. Yeah. If we are operating as disruptors or disruptor tools at your behest, Yeah. Is there any protection from authorities you would be able to provide as we get you to that place? You know, within reason, if it becomes too messy, I'll just pretend again.

I'll skip straight ahead to forgetting you exist. There may be some things that I can do. The thing is, even this, all the subterfuge, the cartoon cat, all of it. There's a lot of risk for me. There's a lot of exposure. We're not even supposed to know that this exists, right? So it's a lot of exposure for me. If I can finesse things, I mean, I'm already keeping secrets for you. I can keep it up. And he holds up a screen that has a little button on it and he pushes it and the screen jumps to life and you see the footage of you guys robbing Paul Pantry's prize pantry.

Oh, cool. How many people have this fucking footage? Well, you know what? It's fun. Paul did, he did write by you all. He did keep this file safe. He kept this file safe on a dentonic computer that is, of course, connected to the tentonic intranet.

Oh, of course I saw it. You know, you guys have been operating by my grace. And I even clean things up a little bit. at Paradise Cove. I said that I'd, you know, get, I'll get right on this. And what did I tell her, um, you were smart to bring this to me? These people, they come and they show up. They have their fun.

They spend their money. They leave. But the things that are here, the things that Carmine and a few others helped to build, um, it's all untapped potential. This could be more than an amusement park. This could be, well, I'm trying to slow my brain down enough so that I can communicate directly with you guys

and it keeps speeding up so I'm going to try to okay, Kenchell. Listen, guys, I have a dry humping that I need to get to for the shoot that we're doing, so I do need to start wrapping this up. May I ask one quick question, Mr. Denton? If we agree to this collaboration, would you be able to provide us with

dentonic research and information and technical. No. No. I'm not going to provide you with anything. I can provide you with a little cover if it's beneficial to me. But you will be working largely on your own at my direction. And hey, who knows? I may not always have something for you, in which case that you're free to do whatever strikes you're fancy. I don't know how you here kind of fill the hour.

I'm assuming there's some sort of folk dancing or a story hour or something that you used to pass the time. So, you know, however you want to spend it. This does not seem like a thing we can say no to. Now, that is the second smartest thing I've heard you all say. All right. Now, I will say, Gryph, this is Justin.

You can. I don't want you to feel fenced in but this is the situation. I mean, we're being blackmailed by an incredibly powerful person. Because, yeah, I could just kill him. I mean, that's not me saying that in character. I would say that in character, but like, we cannot,

the work we do, there will be certain expenses incurred. We cannot operate on credit or go into a deficit for these things. So I hope you do understand that. That is not us trying to leverage anything that is just the basics of crime. If we do work, we get paid. Yes.

Yeah. I, um, not a big concern for me. I actually have a few bucks lying around. All right then. I think we have ourselves an agreement. I need to hear it from all of you. Yeah. Deal.

Um, so not. the time travel, but instead this, yes, okay, if, I'm still going to maybe consider the time travel on the side. Yeah, it's all right. You're on to something big, I'ma, Rick.

It's plan B for sure. Okay, plan B. I say the yay. Okay, great. I'd say thank you, but, you know. Do we shake on it, or... I'd rather not. Okay. I do have...

Pinky sweat. I do have a direction to point you in, though. If we're going to do this and time is a factor, I mean, it's always, especially now, I want to go big. I want to hit them where it'll really, really, really, really hurt the testicles. You got to just let those slide off the bat when he says stuff like that. You just kind of got a barrel on through. I want you to go after Carmine's first layer. I want you to hit ephemera.

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