The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Steeplechase - Episode 7

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

Sidequest adequately completed, the arcade employees take some much-needed downtime before the big heist. Beef acquires an asset, Emerich makes a trade, Montrose visits the family.Opening monologue performed by Autumn Seavey Hicks: https://www.instagram.com/autumnseaveyhicks/?hl=enAddition music in this episode:  "Cool Vibes" and "Semi-Funk" by Kevin MacLeod: https://incompetech.com/; “Voyageur” by Monkey Warhol: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monkey_Warhol/;  "A Mysterious Place" and "Welcome Home"by Kirk Osamayao: kirkosamayo.com; and "Standard Jazz Bars" by Jason Shaw: https://audionautix.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

Hey friends, it's Crystal with the K here with another steepy watch. A little bit of bad news for you dreamers with your heads in the gutter. Yep, that's right, gutter city, that is. Sineuendo East has indefinitely suspended one of their most popular experiences. Chad Touch's Pleasure Palace presented by Prudential Life Insurance. Now, we hear that the Pleasure Palace is getting a sweet new visual refresh that was definitely planned for a very long time and in no way prompted by recent fires that may or may not have occurred.

If you're currently holding a reservation for Chad Touch's Pleasure Palace presented by Prudential Life Insurance, all is not lost, as those will be honored at Vinnie Strokes Tickle Tavern presented by Mutual of Omaha. It's a great reminder that even when things don't work out your way, you should never know when to stop dreaming. Shukles your master calls. Yes, the scum canteen. Fetch it from the Shoof. Shookles fetch the scum canteen. My thirst is unslakeable and I must weave.

Hello everybody and welcome to the Adventures on Steeplechase. Shooker. Shookers? Shookers. Shookles. That's the name of his cat. I've started to treat it that we can't hear this part of the story. Oh, no, I must hear this part. I look forward to it.

Did you say Shoof instead of Shelf? Yeah, that's, I don't know why. It's a fantasy world, Travis. Yeah, there's lots of things. that are different and weird. Hello, welcome to the adventure and steeplechase. My name is Justin McRoy.

If you are just now joining us, that's weird. You should listen to the other ones. But with your heist successfully carried out, we are now in downtime. Just a chill time for friends to hang out and do whatever, except by specific rules as laid out by the creator of place in the dark John Harper.

But other than that, just a chill hang. All options are open to you. The first thing we are going to head over to is payoff. You head back to Darla Davis's office with your heads hanging, like, not high or low. They're not even really hanging. They're just regular heads. That went straight forward. That went, okay.

It could have gone worse. It could have gone better. That one was just fine. We are excellent in our mediocrity. Consistent in our mediocrity, one might say. Did we discuss the terms of your pay? it before you took the job? That shall help us.

That was more or less it. I don't think assets were discussed. Can we pick up in the office? I have a question. I mean, your methods are unorthodox, but I guess you got there. Well, that is curious, because you did hire us to go in there and yoink some porno. And then you came in and you did some judo. It kind of seems like maybe you didn't need our hair. help so much and that this was just some sort of, I don't know, maybe this is your perversion is

getting people to do jobs for you that you are very equipped and inclined to handle yourself. Yes, that's true. I could have pulled it off just fine, but, you know, I don't just rip right into a seven-layer bar. I read the ingredients first. I like to know what something's made of. and now I know what you three are made of. And that's very helpful for me. I don't like to help people. I don't know what they're made up. You could have asked, I contain no guacamole.

That's true. Like I'll find seven lay-bos. You contain no guacamole. Now, I should say I am produced in a factory that also handles tree nuts. He legally has to say that we've gotten in some trouble in the past. I appreciate the full disclosure and the honesty. And we stopped at Chipotle on the way. here, so I do contain guacamole.

Chipotle, what is that? It's Spanish. Mmm, mm, mm, mm, beautiful country. I'll tell you what, I feel a little guilty about not being up front with you from the beginning. So let me slide two coin your way,

just as a way of saying thank you. Each or just, you want us to split two, three ways. Well, the crew earns coin based on the nature of the operation and or loot they seized. Okay. So you weren't expecting to get any. I'll take two, yeah. Okay. I thought you'd approve.

So the whole aspect of Chad's coworkers compensating us for our lost money and stuff, that pretty much dissolved. That pretty much dissolved when we messed that. up, right? I can pinpoint the exact second that fell apart. And it's when beef punched all those guys in the face. Now, hold on. I would argue that it got bad before that. And that was what needed to happen in response to things going south. It was not going great before that. I guess I have to ask you who you're arguing with because I don't see anybody around. Okay. Thank you. Now, You are also going to take rep for this job. Ooh.

Oh, yeah, I know. The underworld is, the sort of underworld of Gutter City. I need a name for it. What would you call the faction? Give me something. Our faction? No. No.

Like the criminal element of Gutter City. The Dregs? The dregs. Oh, I love that, Travis. The dregs are one tier higher than you will. So you're going to take two default rep. Okay. I will fill that in.

Did we add the coin to our cruise sheet as well? We have two coin in our cruise sheet. So I don't know if somebody did. I did not. Okay. Yeah. I will add that and I will add the rep as well. That's great.

We're going to have to focus at some point soon on this like cruise sheet, probably after the gutter city jobs to figure out, like to zoom out in this little bit. I don't have been marking rep and we've been doing all the things they're supposed to do. But you're now full of coin. We're going to have to figure that out. There's a lot to worry about here. And we're not quite hawkers, are we? Not exactly somewhere in the middle.

I think we talked about going smugglers. Anyway, that is all very well and good. We're hogglars. Hogglars. Hugglers is interesting. Now, let's talk about heat. I was impressed by something, a quick thinking, but honestly, that could have gone a lot quieter. I managed to smooth things over with the rest of the dregs and Chad.

Well, that wasn't so much as smoothen over as a glare warning him about running his mouth when we have evidence on him. But people took notice. They noticed. And she kind of looks around. And you know what she means. She doesn't want to break fiction, but she's talking about Denton. These layers operate pretty much of their own accord. typically, but if things go significantly outside parameters, Denton begins to take notice.

And that's sort of what I wanted to talk with you guys about in this frank and honest discussion about how much heat do you deserve? It's a new show I just came up with, and I don't want to assign it to you. I want to hear how much heat you think you deserve. Real quick, here's the chart. Zero is smooth and quiet, low exposure. I wasted my breath on that. I think we can all agree.

Even reading that line. Two, heat is contained standard exposure. Four heat, loud and chaotic high exposure. Six heat, wild, devastating exposure. So like three? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. I know that it didn't go well, but when it comes to the secret nature of what we did. Yeah.

Yeah. I would say, so I will tick this off in my mind. And I'm an exploding fire extinguisher, a burning case, like fist fight in the office. Those feel hard. Well, especially the burning briefcase and the exploding fire extinguisher are things sure to be noticed by patrons of sinewendo. Yes. I would argue, though, that given the nature of sinewendo's business and the fact that. that Chad Touch was sort of doing his own little extortion scheme on the side that he didn't

want sort of to get out there. I don't think that this was loud and chaotic high exposure. You don't think it was loud. It was loud and chaotic. So would you say that was contained? That was a contained. You're saying that when you said the banana foster used a newspaper on fire, that was a controlled burn, basically. Did it burn the building down? No. I'm saying. the case up? If it was for heat, loud and chaotic high exposure, I think people would start sniffing around in sinuendo. And I don't think they want that. So I don't think that they are going to go necessarily, they're not going to run this too far up the flagpole.

And I think we can, as I was saying, I think we can deflect the blame, a lot of the blame, The waiter, you know, the waiter hard light. Okay. Tripping and the fact that we maintained our cover. Okay. So three, do we all feel free about that? I mean, three wasn't one of the options, but if we want to, if we want to split the diff between bad and very bad, I think three is good. Great.

And now we're going to add one heat for a high profile or well-connected target. So that's four heat that you've taken on. Great. And that's fine. That's fine. Yeah, yeah. It just, that is building up to your wanted level, which is how badly you are, you know, wanted by Denton. I'm glad that we circled back on heat because I didn't realize that if you kill anyone, it automatically adds to heat.

So feeling pretty good about our choices. Yeah. Next up is, so she explains that, well, and as much as she can without breaking. the, uh, the immersion. Um, next up, we're going to, uh, pass by entanglements to talk about our downtime activities. Um, so let's, uh, let's, let's, let's talk first before we do that. Well, you all have what it takes, uh, I think. You can, you can pull this job off, uh, stealing the steals, the steel's well, diamond, steel. You never noticed that. Steelswell, Diamond, steel. You never noticed that. Uh, no, uh, uh, we can

talk about the diamond. We've got a little bit of a hiccup that we're going to have to solve for. See, the building has just been renovated. It's beautiful, really, but they say it's 100% theft proof. I have a basic idea of what this building's going to look like and what the job will look like, but there's some specifics that I'm not too sure on. So I'm going to need a little time to work some leads. And if you all have any ways you can suss things out, that would be extremely, extremely helpful. So that is, we can drill down into it more, but I wanted to give you that bit of information

so that you can decide how to spend your downtime activities accordingly. So let's start with, anybody have a good, strong concept they want to start with. Well, I had one question that might tie into this. So I have gotten a playbook advantage. level. And so I can choose a new special ability to add. There's a spot here. It says ability name, ability description.

So it looks like to fill in. Is this the time to first? Is this the time for that advancement? Yeah, mid job seems like the perfect time. Oh, I thought this is down. Sorry, mid. I meant like mid in the intermission. In the intermission.

Yes. Okay, great. Are we staying here for our downtown? I don't know what kind of time window we have. Do we have time to sneak down to the buttercream or? Sure, yeah. Okay. If you would like to do that. Yeah, I am about as stressed as I can possibly get before it begins to have a long-term impact on my constitution.

I would love to enjoy a little bit of me time down in the butter cream. and that does not mean jerking it. I must say, actually, my time in sinewendo has instilled in me a powerful unhorniness that is impossible for me to explain. So I'm heading down to the buttercream. Anybody else want to jump underneath a train with me? I actually am going to see what I can.

can do as far as acquiring an asset to perhaps see if I could find some extra muscle for us. You do that. Okay, Griff, so you're going to head down to the buttercream. All by myself. I fucking jump underneath the train, just, like, sobbing. Yeah. Just, like, just eating a hole. As you're zooming away, you hear Darla yell, there's a manhole.

And then you're going to jump onto the train. Too late. Too late. I do I did envision you guys coming into Gutter City up out of a manhole But we skip that part through the power of narrative Through storytelling, yeah

Yeah, but it looked a lot like the huge introals All right Griffin you head down to the buttercream Yeah The layer between Gutter City and Eustabin This is where the under The sort of between world The creamy world of shady operators and criminals

works. What are you doing down here? I'm going to do... Sorry, that's what the guy... The first guy at Zizi's out. Oh, uh... What are you doing down here? It's, uh... I thought that this was like a place

where people didn't ask that question too much. Just making conversation. See you. And then they won't. All right. I'll catch on the flip. I don't know why I said that. That sounded so stupid.

Is it catch you the flip? Yeah, don't worry about it. I didn't say that. It was the wind. Okay. What's your name? What's that? Hey, fellow, what's your name?

Oh, my name? Yeah. It's Daryl. Hey, Daryl. No, no, no, Beryl. You definitely said Daryl. I can't misspeak. It's the buttercream.

I can't try to keep a little bit of something to myself. I was trying to go for a new identity, but no, it's Beryl. That's my name. All right, cool. I did not need any of this. I don't know why I. pursued you. Hey, you're the one I know I fucked up.

Jumped in through the through the window and just started chatting me up. I'm just trying to go about my day. Okay. I got a lot of trash to you. All right. Good luck with that. Thank you for your service. Yeah. This has been great. Yeah, I jumped back out the window. That was one of my

downtime activities. What did that do for you? It gave me a hundred hit point experience. No, I'm going to do a few like laps just to make sure I'm not being followed and then I'm going to make my way over to the junkyard, uh, just to visit my, you know, my, my, my family, you know, that puts some facetime in with the fam over at the future as you.

Mammam, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, mantros. So good to see you, son. Oh, son. Oh, I do, I do. I actually like that. It's great to see you all too. I, I, I made your favorite. waffles. Rilu waffles? Eat, eat up, eat up growing bite.

Yes, that's... Eat eat, eat, eat your waffles. And some sparks shoot out of your dad's ear. Oh, God. Do you need some sort of assistance, Paul? Do you need me to call... I look out for you, Montrose. Yes, and I appreciate that,

but you do not seem well. Well, we haven't had a well since the government invented plumbing. What an incredible time we live in. No argument here, Paul. Oh, Stephanie, how did your soccer game go? Well, I loved it. My boyfriend did a great job. I just wish they would let girls play soccer.

Yeah, that... They do. It's illegal, moratross. It's not illegal, and the government didn't invent plumbing. I, uh, you all always sort of take my mind off my problems with your, with your outrageous stories. I can't not take your mind. No, it's, and it's a good thing because a human mind inside of,

never mind, I don't want to follow that route of things. I'm trying to enjoy. Enjoy my best time. I'm sorry, Gramps. Do you need any of the special salts? Dump it in the top. Is there any water in... What, describe this?

He doesn't even have legs. Why would he have legs? It's just the top half of him sticking out of a tub from the adjacent room next to your living room. Okay. I'd pretend dump some pretend salt in it. Perfect. Now get out of here. Salty good.

Oh, Gramps, you're such a character. Thanks for your service. in the wall. Well, better be on my way. We've already cut away from you. Oh, okay. But you got your downtime there.

What does that do for you, Gryphon? What do that do for you? Indulging in that particular vice? Well, it's weird. It's a weird, it's a weird vice that I have. But I think it connects me to a history that I don't necessarily understand,

And nor do I wish to elucidate at this exact moment. But it does, it calms me down. Okay, so Griffin, I want your roll dice equal to your lowest attribute rating. Yes. So, one. In prowess, I'm assuming. In prowess, I only have points in finesse. I have points in nothing else.

So I'm rolling one prowess dice. Yes. Okay, I hope it's a good roll because my stress is maxed out, no bonus dice. Four. Four. Okay, I'll take a four. I'll take a four?

That's a four. Take a four all day. So you're going to clear four stress. Okay, great. Still pretty stressed out before a big shot. That is okay. Trave? Yeah, I went ahead to the gutter city gym.

The punching stuff. And yeah, I'm looking for some other fighters to engage. It's good to see you, man. How's it going? Hello, it's I. That's right. Beef Punchley. Yeah, man.

Scott Voss. What an honor. This gives you a high five. Listen, I'm looking for who are someone like your good tough boys? Oh. And there was a comma in there. I don't want like bad tough boys. Right, you want the, the, the, you want a little muscle, a little extra, a little extra muscle.

Yeah, but like heart of gold musly guys, you know what I mean? Aren't you already that? Yeah, but I'm looking to form of club. Does that seem like narratively the most interesting thing? Yeah, sorry, I don't know why Scott just. Yeah, um. Judgy. Yeah, Scott's a little judgy, I'm sorry.

Tell you what, how about you point out your best fighters and I'll be the judge of, of which ones to invite to join my club of guys. Okay. Or a club of people. Let me be clear. Well, let's see. There's, uh, Thwack.

Mm-hmm. Jensen. Okay. Now he's mean. Oh, that's one name. Yeah, Thwack Jensen. He's mean. Okay.

And, uh, he's nice sometimes, but he's also mean. I don't know. He's a real, uh, mercurial fella. That's the whack. Uh-huh. Over there is Senceberg. Amanda Senceberg, and she is kind of like really strong and kind of quiet, though. She's like, doesn't talk a lot.

Got it. And those are different ones that I have right now. Okay. That are looking for a fight. Cool. Okay, so I'm going to roll now to see the quality of the people I get. Okay, so we are, your crew, whoever they are, they're tier zero, which means that you're going to roll two and take the lowest result. What could go wrong?

Nothing. Five and three. Five and three. So it's a three. So it's a three. With a three, it's a tier negative one. Oh boy. Hey! Yeah?

Hey. You didn't even mention me. I Okay, Benson I'd rather Yeah, I'm ready to get out there Give them the old what for Okay, listen

I'm sorry Amanda and Thack just got hired out By other Yeah, other crews And you're Yeah, you're gonna have to take Benson with you Okay, well the more the merrier, I suppose Well, great, what kind of punch job

are we working on? Well, we'll let you know. Hey, I'm ready. Let's go. Is it a big fight? I'm glad to be great in a fight. Long as it's nothing sneaky, I'll be ready and perfect to go. Nothing sneaky. Don't you worry about that, friend?

Excellent. Well, where do we have first, boss? Well, before we go, Thwack, you said, I'd like to challenge him to some arm wrestling. It's been a while. I want to try that out? Maybe put a little coin on it. Sure. Yeah, I'll fight you for money.

No, is this Thwack I'm talking to now? No, that's Benson you're talking to. Thwap just got hired. But you want to arm wrestle with Thwart? Yeah. Okay. Let me go get him. Somebody want to take a ride with the Thwaxicutioner?

What about, oh my God, are you beef punchly? I am. Oh, man. in your prime, I had your poster on my wall, huge inspiration. The inspo's off the charts, man. Thank you so much for everything you've done. That means so much to me. Thank you.

What did you, what happened? What? To the poster. Well, I took it down when you started fading in popularity, man. Ah, cool, cool, cool. I was just wondering if we could engage and perhaps, you know, just get my arm wrestling chops back up there. Maybe it may get interesting.

One sweet each. You know, winner. It would be gutter bucks. Sure. Some gutter bucks. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good.

Let's do this. You have like a regulation table? Yeah, it's right here. He grabs this stool and he just chucks it into the middle of the boxing ring they got. And he kneels down on it. This is how we do it at the gutter city gym. Is this cool by you? Sure.

Works for me. He feels great. Okay. So you both get on your knees and you put your arms on the stool. I don't think it matters. Because you're gambling. Yep. But let's just do a straight up and down fate roll.

Just leave it to chance. One to three, you lose. Four to six you win. Okay. One to three. I lose four to six. Four. Ooh.

Uh, I can't believe it. I just got beat by Beef Punchley. This is amazing. What an inspiration you are, man. I don't even feel bad about the loss. That was fantastic. How's your arm? Because it looked like you were straining in a way that I don't remember you straining much during your prime.

How are you feeling? Oh, I'm feeling great. You know, I just wanted to make it seem, you know, like a contest. So I was definitely faking it. Oh, man. Classic beef. Classic beef. You might have to bend your ear about something a little bit?

Okay. Hey, don't take Benson with you, okay? He's the, he's really the worst. And some people will be like, he just deserves a shot. And we all kind of thought that at first. But he is ruinous, man. Just the worst dude. Not nice.

Not good at his job. And a real hindrance. I see. I see. If you don't absolutely have to take Benson with you, I would not. Because he, I don't, I mean, I wouldn't use the word curse. I'm like a church guy. so that's not really, but he's a cursed person.

Okay. I'm right here. I can hear you, you know. You see what I'm talking about? Like, it's the worst. I, you know what I'm going to do then? So after the role, you may spend coin to improve the result level. I'm going to offer thwack the coin I have to move up to just like tier basic.

If we don't take Benson on this job, I don't know of quit the fucking podcast. I, everything is telling me not to. So you should. No. What? We want to,

okay, guys, I know it's been, uh, maybe not our track record up to this point, but I'm pretty sure when you play games like this, you're trying to do good. Yeah. Maybe spend the coin to send Benson to

punching school. Fuck, did that say fuck college? Thug! Thank you. Yeah, maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll spend the coin. We'll take Benson, but I'm spending the coin.

Hey, listen, I just had a thought, man. You're really dedicated to taking Benson with you. You shouldn't be because he's a total, total dink. Let me work with him a little bit, okay? Is that fair? You give me one sweet and we'll figure it out. You're a real stand-up guy. I'm glad I met you, frankly.

man, the honor's all on this and partner, thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, yeah, I'm going to do that to increase Benson to just a basic competency. I also need to reduce my stress from gambling. As you're leaving, Trave,

the door is closing and you see Thouac put his arm on Benson's shoulder. And just as the door closes, you hear Benson yell out from behind you. I'm going to let you down. No, you won't, buddy. I believe in you. Hey, I'm Dan McCoy.

I'm Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliot Kalen. Listen, you like podcasts, right? Sure you do. Don't try and lie to me. You're listening to one right now. So why not try a different one called R1, the flop house? Uh-huh.

And on the flop house, we watch a movie and talk about it. And then sometimes we also do other stuff. It's all meant to be funny and fun, and we think you'll have a good time. And just to be clear, the name of the podcast is not. Hour one, The Flop House. It's just called The Flop House. I do a lot of correcting Dan. The Flop House. A lot of correcting Dan. Hey, it's John Moe, inviting you to listen to Depresh Mode with John Moe, where I talk about mental health and the lives we live with all kinds of people. Famous writers. David Sedaris, welcome to Depresh Mode.

Thanks so much for having me. Movie stars. Jamie Lee Curtis, welcome to Depression. I am happy to be here. Musicians. I am in St. Paul, Minnesota. I'm talking to Amy Mann. Great to talk to you. And song Exploters. Rishi Case Hereway, welcome to Depression Mode. Thanks so much for having me. Everyone's opening up on Depression Mode on Maximum Fun. Emric, how are things going for you?

What are you up to? Well, let me ask a question, first of all, because this is the only thing I've been reading up a little bit. How many of these six things can we do in downtime? Do two of them. I also have confirmed you can do this. the same thing twice. Okay. I won't do that, but you can. Now, is Playbook Advancement one of those? Because I qualify for a Playbook Advancement. I think we should not count Playbook Advantage. I mean, you shouldn't have to use, I mean, it's just advances, right? You can train as an

activity to increase your experience in a stat or in downtime advancement, but you don't have to actually level up as an action. Okay. I think what I would like to do would be to take on a new special ability like Traab did because there's a thing in the whispers that I think would be really beneficial to Emmerick. And it's called ghost mind where you're always aware of supernatural entities in your presence, which we would amend to hard like constructs. Okay. And then you take one plus one D when you gather info about the supernatural. Okay. Um, be all right. Yeah, that, that seems like a really natural fit for you. So that's, that's, you have a, You have leveled up, I'm assuming.

Right. And you're advancing your playbook. Okay, cool. Yeah. Oh, I'm going to take bodyguard along those same lines. That allows me to protect teammates. And when I do, I do the resistance role plus one die. Oh, cool.

And it also, when I'm gathering info to anticipate possible threats in the current situation, I get plus one to the effect. Cool. Cool. All right, then to my two actions, first I want to get rid of stress by indulging my vice. Right? That's how you reduce stress. Was indulging your vice?

Yeah, for sure. So the trade deadline is coming up for a fantasy bootfall for his fantasy bootfall league. And he is trying to work out a trade with one of the people in his league, Stanton, one of the guys in the league. And he's trying to pull off this trade. And that is how he is going to indulge his vice and reduce his stress. I mean, are you trading with another fantasy bootfall person? Yeah, yeah. Who else is in this league with you, Dad?

Like, I mean, it doesn't have to be specific people, but the types of people. Types of people. I mean, it's all types. Most of them, I don't know any of them. Of course. I mean, you met saxophone last time. Saxophone plays. And I, well, let's, we can say he's in our, in my league.

and this guy Stanton is in the league and he's a former thief so he has a lot of knowledge and that's who I'm trying to make the trade with. Sax, we know saxophone is. Who are you trading? Stant, who am I trading? Yeah, here you trading away.

Slippery Ligree. Now, why are you trading away Slippery or Ligree after he's had several really good matches? I know he's had some serious good matches, but he pulled a hammy on his last B&E. So how are you going to... And I'm trying to unload him. Yeah, I understand you unload him,

but like you're going to have to offer something else, right? Because somebody wants to pick up somebody with a... Well, I'm hoping Stanton doesn't know. Okay. That he hasn't been checking in with Graft Kings, the people who oversee the fantasy... Fuck, that's good, Dad. It's extremely good.

I'm really proud of you. Yeah. Okay. So you get a message back from Stanton, and this couldn't matter less, but go ahead and roll. So I hit indulge vice? Well, first off, I'm going to see if the trade pulled off or not.

Okay. We got a contogent narrative here. Okay. One to three, it fails. Four to six and succeeds. Go. D6. All right.

So there it is. There's a D6. It's a four. You get a message back. It says, okay. It says, okay. Now you can click indulge vice. Dundge vice.

All right. So do I use bonus. What do you mean to use bonus dice? No. I clicked indulge vice and asked me if I had bonus dice. No, you don't. I will tell you if you have bonus dice. Do not sweat.

A one. A one. Hey. You clear one stress. Clear one stress. That's great, Dad. You can also spend a coin to roll and de-stress again if you want to spend your coin in that way. Spin a sweet.

A sweet. Sorry, I apologize. And I have two sweets, right? Yeah. Well, I don't know how many you have. It's on your sheet. I am going to live with four stress. I'm living with five stress.

And I am going to work on my long-term project. Oh, okay, great. Let's work on that long-term project. Now, remind people, I've got a clock for it here, but remind people what that is. your long-term project. Did I state what it was? Yes, you did. Here's my question.

I stated something, but I've been using it. So I think I want to start a new long-term project. Okay, wait. Okay, yeah, because it was the wristband thing. Yes. But I've been using the wristband thing. I don't understand how I would. Well, the way I understood it was that the wristband thing.

would allow you to reprogram hard light projections while you were out. Like it would be a faster process that you could do on the fly rather than having to... Right. Yes. So what it says in the notes is that the long-term project is to tinker with your band to be able to create hard light objects and items on the fly. So not just hack ones that already exist. Or you just ones that already there, but create on the fly. All right.

Then I will finish that project before I start a new one. Is that fair? Yes, that makes sense to me. Okay. So should I have not clicked one portion of this clock? Because I know I worked on this special project last time, right? Yeah, that's one remaining. So the light green of the beans, there's one segment remaining.

So by working on it at all, you are going to finish it up, I believe. Let me make sure there's not a way to... Okay, no matter what you roll, I'm not going to make you roll for it, because no matter what you rolled, you would get the one-tick. So this mobile lab is completed. Do you have, even if you don't right now,

I won't force you to, but some sort of name for this device that lets you create hard light projections on the fly provided you are in possession of a prism. Yes, I call it the... Give a ghost projector. The give a ghost. Okay, perfect.

Go ahead and if you'll add that to your inventory of items, I think the weight will just call it like one. I don't think it would be a particularly heavy thing, but I do want you to have to choose that you have it, and it is part of your load out when you use it. Let's see. I think beef and mantros, do you have other things you'd like to do? I already did both mine.

indulge vice and get an asset. Perfect. Okay. Montres. I want to retcon first, spend a coin to spend just a little bit more time with my adopted family because I do not want to go into what I assume will be a pretty big job with more than half my stressometer fully maxed out. Okay. So you're going to spend a suite to sort of double the effect of that.

to hopefully double the effect of it. Okay. Let's go, let's do another roll then. I won't do the scene again because we remember what happened, but go ahead and roll that again. That's fucking one. Great. Huh.

Okay. All right, I'm down to four twice. Okay. I leave the future as you and feeling slightly less stressed out. And walking around the butter cream, I get to thinking about Gravel and her crew. I would like to train my slide sort of job, not any particular skill,

but my being a subtle manipulator and spy, just to kind of stretch those muscles out and see if I can find gravel and her crew, which I'm assuming is headquartered. in the buttercream. Is that okay? Yeah, that's cool. So there's nothing I have to roll

to do the, to get the experience. But if you wanted to do like a, you know, narrative thing. You know what, let's say, let's again do one of these like, just because narratively, I think it's interesting. Let's do like just a coin flip. There are skills, I mean, I guess I could hunt.

That's a hunted target. Yeah, but you don't really use those skills in downtime. I mean, it's not, you know. That's designed. you don't really have to. Okay. I don't think, at least. No, that's a three.

Oh, you're close, though. You definitely run into other people in the buttercream that know of gravel, that have, like, seen her around, but you, and you feel like you're getting close a couple of times. Like, you may have seen the back of her head, but you're not quite there yet. But you do notice, like, it gets easier. By the end of, like, this time you spend trying to track her down, it is, a little bit easier. So I think that that will definitely advance your XP there.

Well, that fills up my playbook advancement. I'm going to take a skill I'm very excited about. Because I think it's going to make things quite complicated for you, Justin. Great. The skill is called like looking into a mirror. Okay. And what it does is very simple. You can always tell when someone is lying to you.

That's a skill? It's a skill. Oh. You can always tell when someone is lying to you. Always? I can always tell when someone is lying to me. Huh. Are you lying to me right now?

Because I would be able to tell with this new great skill that I've picked up. Man, that seems O.P. John, get out of me, bud. John, if you want to walk that one back a little bit, that's tricky. It's very easy, Justin. Absolute truth from you from now. No deception. No lies.

Man, that one's, that's rough, man. You can still lie to me. And it does say here, it is very powerful, but also a bit of a curse. You see through every lie, even the kind ones. Wow. So every time someone's like, Montrose, they're really like your coat. And he's like, you don't. Here, let's, let's, can we, let me ask you this favor.

Okay, sure. That this can be, because I think it would be tough for the kind of show we do, for this to always be on all the time. So how about this? If you ask, I will always tell you. Okay. You have to check, like, you have to think about it. Like, you have to ask.

But if you ask, I will be 100%. I just don't want to have to remember. Yeah, sure. That you have that. But like, anytime you ask, I will tell you 100% yes or no. I mean, I won't give you any context, but I will say that. Okay. Is that fair?

That's totally fair. Two Montrose? Yeah, someone is lying to you. I mean, I don't know. If someone says a lie to one of the two of you and I am, there. Yeah, I mean, you wouldn't, we don't want to have to roleplay like, now say that to me. Yeah, right.

Say that again to me, right. Cool. And I have one here, Justin's called like punching into a mirror. And it's any time I punch someone, it automatically works. Wow. Yeah. It's wild. It sounds a lot like.

Where are you finding these skills? I don't even see skills. We spent extra money for the digital collector's edition of plates in the dark. Oh. Yeah. He's got all the cheating skills in it. It comes with 15 chroma cubes, which you can spend on all these different aesthetic upgrades. My guy's got wings now, too.

Yeah. My hym doll has a shiny logo. Yeah, it's pretty great. Ooh, frame break. How to lie without really lying. Mm-hmm. A Wiki-How article. He's reading the plot of liar-lier-lier to see if there's answers in there.

Keep, okay, step one, keep your grades up, okay? Okay, we can do that. Let me ask you a question, Griffin, with your new skill, that is in character, right? So Justin. Now, Mac? Justin can lie to us, right? Justin, the man. If you're asking me, if you're asking me, if my actions in the tabletop role-playing game,

Blades in the dark, have given me, Griffin's, and Macaroy, the supernatural ability to tell when someone is telling a fib, I think you know the answer to that already. Jim Carrey had it. Well, no doubt. If you remember, Jim Carrey was not granted the magical ability to know when someone was lying. His character in Liar Liar was given the curse of not being able to lie. So on both counts, unless Jim Carrey is so method that he learned how to always to telling someone's lying.

So that he, it gets confusing. All right. So you all head back to the office of Darla Davis. And when you arrive, you see her going over plans that are unfurled on her desk. And she looks up and she says, well, it's not great. I haven't been able to get new diagrams. I've talked to people. I got word of mouth.

I'll tell you what I know. The Steelswell Diamond is at the Dusk Hotel. There are two levels. One is the public one. The lower levels are for sort of the underbelly of the hotel. There's a mailroom, laundry, staff lounge, and security. On the upper level is Mark's fine jewelers, the Hall of Mirrors, it's a meeting room, and Hathaway's Diner.

The Steelswell Diamond is currently on a sort of tour at March. fine jewelers and that's where I know the least because that is a major part of the renovations that have just taken place. But I know the basic layout. That's still the same. I just don't know the specifics of the job anymore. It used to be so mechanical, but I don't know, crime. It's always always evolving.

But that's what I know. You could probably get some more somehow, but that's what I'm able to bring. bring to you all as just sort of a bigger picture. And of course, if there's anything you can think of that I could do to assist you, just say the word. And I'll do what I can. If we'll all remember, we are not going to be solely responsible for breaking into this joint and stealing the aforementioned mineral.

We must simply ensure the success of one such group of pay. That's right. You can help them. I wouldn't do it all for them. You know, people come here to, well, who knows what people come to get a city for, but a lot of people looking to get their big break. And I think if you stole too much of the thunder, you know, it wouldn't be quite the same for them. That is not my style. But perhaps you could assist me in infiltrating one such group of patrons under the guise of myself being a patron. a visitor to go to city so that I may have a sort of boots on the ground perspective. You're going to pretend to be new in town. I do not even have to pretend. I have been here for about 12 hours, and I have spent time in this building. You would know, Griffin, by the way, that this parlance is used in several layers.

It's a way of discreetly talking about people who have paid to be there. Oh, I see, I see. Oh, okay, I got you. I got you. Yes, I believe I am capable of such sort of fuse. So what do you need for me? I mean, I need to get into one of these groups. I don't know, is it as simple as I walk in and write my name down on a sign-in sheet? I can tell you the time when they show up. I can tell you the time that they meet.

You know, it's all pretty loosey-goosey down here. It's not like to give you a brochure. but I think people know the basic sketch of the plan, right? Yeah, I could let you know where they're going to be, but again, I don't even know who's leading the operation anymore. Well, if I may ask a question, a leading question, it might seem, but with these renovations and they're upping security around the diamond, it seems to me like they would need to hire some technicians,

for the, you know, upgrades to security and maybe some more security guards to kind of fill out the new detail. Maybe that's the way Hemrick and I might be able to gather some more information. Hmm. Yeah, it's worth a shot. I mean, especially if you try to keep it cool.

Oh, God. It would be worth a chance if you want to try it. What do you know about the getaway process? once we have secured, said diamond, because I would hate to screw the proverbial pooch in the 11th hour. Well, in my day, as you know, after the diamond was retrieved from Marst's fine jewelers,

they would head on down to the laundry area. There's several trucks waiting to take the clean laundry out to the laundromat. And that's when my friend, trucks. Oh, the trucks. Oh, the hard light trucks. A truck guy. Kind of a truck nut.

That's when Short Doug would get behind the wheel and make his getaway. He was always on one of the crews, right? So he was a regular around here, and he would work that job pretty frequently. You guys remember Short Doug was the getaway driver that what is also Sticky Fingers Ball That's the role that he had when he was up here on this layer. And yeah. Did he, did he, did he look difference in appearance when he was short, Doug? No, he just looked like sticky fingers pall pantry.

I mean, except presumably younger. Okay. And then didn't he have to go through extensive cosmetic surgery to become sticky fingers, Paul pantry? Or was that an idea that I had when I was trying to fall asleep one night and I never told you guys. It doesn't matter. Well, tell us about it now because it's all under thing. Did they just sticky his hands up?

Yeah, but I don't know. I don't know if this is the sort of place. He's in makeup, for sure, to look similar to the last sticky finger small pantry. Important follow-up question. Was short Doug replaced? Which is to say, if I become a plant in this heist, will there be someone else here pretending to be new in town who will be the getaway driver this time? Um, well, we're using a lot of cockamamie language.

Well, whose fault is that? I don't understand the question. So, Griff, what are you trying to, what are you trying to ask? Okay, ask me directly. If sticky finger paw pantry, aka a short dog, was the, like, built-in getaway driver for these heists when they happened back in the day, it would suggest to me the fact that this idea I'm having of, I'm going to pretend to be a guest here so that I can participate in the heist is not a necessary. Novel one that there are actors You oh let me okay let me tell you the game then You won't know great you won't know great both the guests and the staff are going would be amongst this crowd you have no idea cool beans

This is gonna be a tight rope walk I believe Emmer beef how do you guys feel about do you want to do like a little tiny tiny? I mean? I'm gonna do you want to do like a little tiny? scene to go gather information here and if so like how would you do it you're going to dress up like like you're on security there I am not going to dress up I'm going to go in

and ask for a job you're going to try to get hired as beef punchly hmm not when you put it like that when you literally say the idea well I'm going to put a disguise on and then I'm going to go ask for a job. Okay. And I think Emberg's going to go with him and is just going to rely on his expertise to convince them that he is worthy of a job in their tech department. I would

suggest that it makes no sense for one of you to be in disguise. And the other one's not being in disguise. He's much less well known though. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Emmer. Okay. So, What I'm going to ask you, Trav, and with the assistance from our friend, our friend Emmerich, is to do a persuade role, and then we'll figure out what you're able to learn from it. Is the consort or sway? Not consort, because he's trying to trick them, right? So I was thinking sway. We have a bonus from Emmerich? Yep.

What's the position? Position is Well It is Risky And standard Standard effect Can we set the scene a little bit

Of what we're trying to do I mean are we at that location This is like a one-off Like five set Like this should be a very quick thing So we can get pat like it's just So a flash forward Exactly

Sort of yes Yes that's exactly it dead Oh, yeah. That's a six, baby. Six on this way. Let me get this straight, Mac. Your name is... This can't be right.

Pork stuffins? That's right. And I hate crime. And you're just going to, like, look around here and protect us? I mean, what are you doing? Well, I was a bodyguard for a while, and I learned to really, analyze danger and see where the holes in security are. But I've been without a job for a while.

And I'm trying to make good here, of course, with a dusk hotel to prove my worth to you. So I'm willing to do this gratis and see if I can find flaws in your security to let you guys know what you need to beef up. Beef up. Okay, pork. I get it. It's a meat joke. Fantastic. Don't worry.

Those are rare. This guy I'm loving You know what No more questions from me We'd love to have you around I Who are you?

Oh This is a security expert I'm Tickolus Nessla Sorry One more time Tickalus Tickalus Where are you help

How do you help him With a dude ads You gotta come to do that guy He's great with machines And security systems And stuff so I always consult with him. We're roommates.

Wow, that's way more context than I needed it for this. Well, I mean, it's not, yeah, there's nothing wrong with it. I don't think, I mean, you know, times of the type, right? There's a lot of judgy people down here. Yeah, it's not me, not on this impel. I love this guy over here. Did you hear what he said rare? Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. Yeah, Tickles sometimes gets nervous during this proposal of work. That's why he normally lets me handle it. People rehearse poorly, but they perform really well. I'm like that. You're kind of losing the thread a little bit. So let me go ahead and wrap up. Fine, fine, fine.

Okay. Yeah, Trav, that's good. That's a six. That's extremely good. Let me tell. I'm trying to think about, okay, let me ask you guys, does it make more sense for me to lay out for you more information now, or does it make more sense for

Beef to have a bet There's not really anything you can do actionable No yeah I think Does it make more sense to just beef have more context When he enters Yeah Like you just have more knowledge of the scene I think it's more knowledge of the scene

And the potential for like flashbacks About locations and such Perfect, that's great We've got it's kind of blending in It helps us blend in I love that Okay Are you guys

Ready Yes, yes Are all three of you going to show up at the meeting location? I mean, why would they come to the guest meeting location? Well, I've already got an inn. Yeah, it sounds like both of them do. It sounds like we've all got different ins, but I don't know that my end is the same. Okay, now hold on a second.

I do need to quibble with you here. You can't just be, that that role was for them finding out more information. Okay, then I will say, Sorry, my in then is like I have an idea of like the staff entrances and the processes and that kind of thing that I think would assist me in infiltrating. That's fine. Yeah, that's the route you two are going to go. You're showing up. You've already done this other thing.

So generally speaking, I'm going to be in the group and you two are going to be handling everything in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in, in the, in, in the, in, in, in, in, in the, in, in, in, in, in, in. periphery outside the watchful eyes. It's a smart way of doing it. Yeah, exactly. It's a smart way of doing it. So we're just kind of getting the lay of the land. That's done. The land is laid.

You and I are going to be there as behind the scenes assistance. Right. To, you know, act as interference if something's happening or a scout ahead or whatever, while Montrose is handling the face-to-face trying to figure out who the person is and how to facilitate a successful jewel heist on their end. Right. Okay. I'm going to say that this one is deception. Yes. Or trespass. I mean, you're... Absolutely. Let there be no, no, no, uh, mincing of words here.

Okay. Load. Tell me your load. I got to go light. I think if I roll up as a guest to the park with a bunch of fucking armor. It's going to set off some alarms. Yeah, I think same for beef. Trying to go unnoticed as much of, as possible if I'm rolling around. Yeah. Even with a normal load. Is that,

is that okay by you, Emir? I think Emmer, well, Emmerich would, I mean, if he's in the tech crew, I think he would,

would be able to haul around. You can, but with load the way it's set up in the game, it really has to look like crime stuff. Like, there's really, you can't story away having a bigger load. It will look like you're there to do crime.

Now, that doesn't necessarily mean, you're arrested on site, right? But it may be a little bit more suspicion of you as like, I've never seen a, you know, repair guy that had that many knives kind of deal. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. I've got my, of course, I'm going to wear the new wristband with the give a ghost projector and my tinkering tools and my prisms and that's still. You don't have to name everything you have. It's just you're going to go in light. Yeah. Okay. Griffin, give me engage, Earl.

Engagement. Yes. Fortune roll, starting with 1D for sheer luck. Any other boosters? Is it particularly bold or daring? Take 1D? Yes, I would say that's pretty daring. I mean, I think it's fairly bold what you all are trying to pull off.

Does it expose a vulnerability of the target or hit them where they're weakest? I don't necessarily think that's accurate. In fact, I would say that you're going to take negative 1D for the fact that this is recently remodeled, so it's, it is going to be a little bit more challenging. But you do have friends and contacts that provide aider insight. That's Darla. So she's adding 1D. So 1D for sure luck, 1D for the, uh, Darla's help.

What about for the, uh, the reconnaissance that the two have done in there? Yeah, that's kind of the, yeah, I was trying to account with that with bold and daring, but yeah, that's probably true. Let's call it, um, 3D. Well, minus the 1D would be 2 plus 2. Oh yeah, 3D total. Okay, gotcha. Okay, I'm just going to roll 3D6. That is a 4, 5 and 5.

So a 5. Yeah. Okay, perfect. Montrose, you look up and you see their three silhouettes. This is at the top of the fire escape. just on the southwest corner of the Dusk Hotel and you've climbed up the fire escape and you're edging along the ledge and you finally pull yourself up onto the flat surface and you see them there's one person kind of hanging their head in their hand as they affix their mask

there's someone who's straightening their cap the second person and then there is one man standing and he's curling his fingers in a leather glove. He's in a long brown trench coat and he's wearing dark sunglasses that he pulls off. And he looks down at you and says, Hello, my name is a Jacques Rouge. And if you listen to me, you may just live through the night. Maximumfund.org. Comedy and culture. Artist-owned. Audience-supported.