The World Below - The Farthest Gate, Episode 3

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hello, friends, and welcome to another single serving tabletop adventure from Queen's court games. I am Aaron. I use he him pronouns, and tonight I will be your story guide as we burrow, unfortunately for the last time, beneath the apocalypse scoured surface and into the comparative safety of the world below, a brand new story path system game from Onyx Path Publishing. If you're this far into the series, you know it exists. You've probably already gone to the Kickstarter. If you're a good person, you've given them money so you can get a copy of it right when it comes off. Yeah, I'm not above using moral leverage. That's what we're here for. In just a few moments, we will be returning to the farthest gate, where we left our group enjoying, actually a pretty nice camping trip after the pit full of dangerous lichen and the monster that pretend to be the things you like the most. If those were spoilers, shame on you. You should have started at the beginning of the series. You know, we talk about it every single time now. We have a lot of adventure ahead of us, so we can skip straight on to it. Is everybody ready to figure out what actually lies beyond the farthest gate as we'll ever be? [00:01:20] Speaker B: Open that gate. [00:01:22] Speaker A: Then let us continue our story. If I recall, the last thing I mentioned to you was the sound of. Of mandibles. The sound of legs. So many legs. There was a scuttering and a chomping. The two. Two noises I think I was coming in the strongest with on that description interrupting you, not immediately after you'd fallen asleep. The kind of interruption that comes after you've had just like one REM cycle, you're in it. You're gonna be groggy and wake up. It's not gonna feel great. But very important that you do wake up for this occasion, because the sound is soon revealed to be a stampede. Not of wildebeest. They don't exist down here. Not of other humanoids, that would be ridiculous. But millipedes, unfortunately. Large, multi legged, tubular, worm like creatures scurrying down the tunnels on every available surface. Some, yes, on the ground, but the others, their little legs clinging to the side of the cavern walls, spiraling, swirling and swarming around you. First, at the front of this stampede, they are kind enough to not go smashing directly through your camp, but you can judge by the sound, there are more coming. It is dangerous to be on the fungal forest floor when there is such ferocious fauna frolicking through your. Oh, f word. One more. Ah, not gonna get there. That was going to be good, though. Through your campsite. Through your campsite. Which means the call to action has arrived. I assume there's of course, going to be the normal scouring of supplies, getting things together, trinkets and weapons and whatnot, all of that happening. But I also imagine there are expletives and excited utterances. So as this scene unfolds around you, how are my four protagonists reacting? We will start with Lex, Sten. [00:03:58] Speaker C: Oh, Sten's hype. Stan's like, oh, I haven't seen a stampede this big since never. And she's just vibrating with excitement right now. She's immediately looking for that rope that she had. She's gonna try to wrangle one. [00:04:12] Speaker D: Oh, straight too. [00:04:13] Speaker C: I jump on it. [00:04:15] Speaker A: I mean, the safest place, if it's not safe under and you want to go in the exact opposite direction from unsafe, it would be over, right? Certainly not going to run. [00:04:24] Speaker C: They're running from something probably bigger. [00:04:26] Speaker A: Well, that is a good world below impulse to have that. If the locals are not enjoying it, then. [00:04:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:04:38] Speaker A: Tourmaline, what about you? Experience with gigantic millipedes down in skullcrag? [00:04:44] Speaker D: To a minimum, I think there's been a passing glance, one or two, but again, the living are not what we're usually concerned about down there. So tourmaline has been jarred. Awaken is like scrambling for supplies. And they're not panicked, so to speak. Because if they die, they die. They're unbothered. Either way, they know life continues, technically, but it's more of a, oh, oh, this would be a, this wouldn't be a great way to go. This might hurt. I might not actually die. This might be unfortunate. And so they probably actually look to the others to see what the others are doing for people who might have more experience with this sort of thing. [00:05:29] Speaker A: For experience, I believe we would turn to Montgomery. If you need the dissertation on the nature of millipedes, the veins got your back, but Sten looks busy. I feel like Montgomery would be the one who had the real world experience here. Is that true, Montgomery? [00:05:46] Speaker E: So Montgomery is seasoned and experienced but not very experienced when it comes to stampedes. Usually Montgomery is type to forage. So normally when you're forging, you don't really want to get in the way of a large amount of anything. So seeing the stampede, Montgomery immediately, like, pops up and goes into, like, crisis dad mode. Like, okay. Oh, okay. Um. Everyone, get your stuff. Wake up. Uh, uh. Vane. Stan. [00:06:24] Speaker A: Tourmaline. [00:06:25] Speaker E: Get. Get your stuff. Get your stuff. Stan. Where's your stuff? It's just trying to keep cool, but is slowly losing it. [00:06:36] Speaker A: Vivain, when the order to collect your stuff comes in, where are you in the process of reacting? What are the five stages of stampede? There's denial, stuff gathering. Where are you on that list? [00:06:50] Speaker B: The thundering, the. Oh, it's too late. The sudden crunch at the end. Yeah, no, I think she. Vivain generally packs as though there could be some sort. Sort of, like, thing happening at any moment. And so she's relatively already packed. She just has to, you know, use that preparedness and charge ahead. I think she sees Sten, though, like, immediately go for, you know, I'm gonna wrangle this millipede. And she, like, futilely holds out a hand to kind of be like, but, like, Sten's already gone. And then Favain has a sort of realization that actually this could be strategically beneficial. You know, these are creatures that are moving really fast, and we have a long way yet to go. So says the map. So she's like, okay, you know what? We're gonna roll with this. And, like, follows behind. [00:07:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You know what sucks? Walking. You know, it's way more fun than walking. Not having to walk. So we find ourselves in that position. Size wise, I want you to imagine something that is roughly, I think, two horses stacked on top of each other, tall. That would be like, what? 810ft, including the millipede leg parts. So not the easiest thing in the world. Tourmaline has the right idea to get up on top of it. However, we established in the very beginning that this is more of a rolling cavern situation. So it's probably, probably possible that you could run up onto a higher bit of ground and jump. Failing that, the rope. Definitely a good call. Else I would have to take your ideas on how you managed to get out from under this mess. There are fungal stalks around. You could climb or otherwise ascend. But I think the most important question that we all really want to know the answer to is, is ten going to be able to wrangle the millipede? [00:08:53] Speaker C: She's gonna have this thing tied and ready to go and just climb up the wall to try and jump on top of one that's coming from the ground, because she can just climb up walls, so she's just gonna try and get the drop on one. [00:09:05] Speaker A: I wonder if you still call it hog tying when hogs don't exist anymore, does the language survive the transition? Does it become just, like, a vestigial phrase that people don't know the meaning of right whelmed, etcetera. Well, only one way to find out the answer to that question, and I believe in this case, a pilot. Absolutely the right skill for wrangling animals and such. This seems like more of a dexterity question than a might question, so let's go in that direction. [00:09:42] Speaker C: All right, that is six die. Let's see if they're gonna be nice to me. Eight, a nine, a three, six, a ten and a two. [00:09:57] Speaker A: So four hits total, which is excellent on a difficulty three. That gives you one left over. [00:10:06] Speaker C: Tricks for that. Got to pull up that sheet. Ah, there it is. [00:10:14] Speaker A: What tricks? [00:10:15] Speaker B: Hmm? [00:10:19] Speaker C: Wasn't there one that we said that could give us momentums? Cause might need those. [00:10:24] Speaker A: Bolster is the one you're looking for there. It's a one for one exchange hits for momentum. [00:10:30] Speaker C: All right, seems like that would be a smart idea. [00:10:34] Speaker A: I will get some bolstering when in doubt. Right. If you can't think of anything else more interesting to do, then put it in the I don't have to fail bank. Right. [00:10:43] Speaker C: We're at like six now. [00:10:45] Speaker A: Well, you resets the beginning of every session. You will always start with the number equal to the number of players. So there'll be four in this game, perhaps differently than yours. There's five now on account of you getting that hit. But else you could, like, over the course of a game, accumulate hundreds and it would be kind of awkward. [00:11:03] Speaker C: Yeah, valid. [00:11:05] Speaker A: Well, we'll see if we need some of that momentum to save ourselves from what's happening next. Montgomery Tourmaline vane. You see Sten. Well, actually, Sten, what do they see? You've got the rope. We know that at the end of this maneuver, you will end up on top of and generally in charge of this millipede. But that middle part, what does that look like? [00:11:25] Speaker C: So first they see the rope is tied what looks like a. A sizable loop for this, the front of this massive creature. And you see her drop to all fours and immediately just zoom sideways, almost like a crab walk, but way too fast, and just zoom up. And she kind of just waits for right before the head goes under her and just drops on top of him. Just kind of lets go. [00:11:54] Speaker A: Not so much you can. You can point the millipede in a certain direction, right? That much you can control. But we're not at the. The phase of the millipede stand relationship where you can control the speed. We'll get there later, but for now, yes, you can point it in whatever direction you need to go, forming very much like a cell phone game snake, except instead of little dots, you're collecting your buddies, your three adventuring companions. Tourmaline vivain Montgomery. How are we gonna. Well, first of all, if you like to, because there is a. It would be totally rational for you to see this and be like, that is crazy. I'm not doing that. On the other hand, if you so desired to tell me how it happens. [00:12:38] Speaker B: You know, I think vivain already sort of expressed that she has realized this is kind of strategically beneficial. And so, as with many things, I think she's going to rely on her wild chaos to get her up and over these millipedes. So she's going to channel wild chaos. So the effect that she's going for is to be able to kind of use the force of a chaos blast to sort of propel. So if she points it at the ground effectively, right, the laws of physics that she should therefore be lifted up in a kind of jump by the ricochet of the magic and with luck, handily land upon the back of one of these millipedes. So that's the effect she's going for. The area is relatively small. She's targeting just like a small amount of space on the ground that will propel her upwards. And the duration is also pretty quick. She's looking for a short blast here. [00:13:43] Speaker A: That should be. Yeah, that should be fairly simple. Alas, there is no, are they flying part of the chart here. But what you can do, you can acquire advantage on roles and you can acquire enhancements on roles. So I think in terms of mechanics, what this would be, would be giving yourself either an advantage on uppies, probably like strength, or might, or you could add an enhancement to your own leap attempt. Either one of those things is possible. It just comes down to how much help you want in that process. [00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah, well, as we know, Vivain is not the strongest character, so her might dice pool is relatively limited. That's why she relies on magic for things. But I think, interestingly, the potential consequence here, which she knows all too well, I think it has gone poorly for her in the past, is that, you know, the laws of physics may work in your favor, but they don't always, you know, you can't control where you land, right? You're. You're completely in the realm of what is, you know, what, what the gods of physics decide for you. So she's willing to accept sort of, that she could land anywhere on the millipede. She could overshoot the millipede, but she's gonna go for that. I think mechanically speaking, the advantage is probably what I'd like. Rather than sort of the might direction. The advantage on jump is, I think, more of a. Like more of what we're going for here, with the caveat that I think, you know, this could go wrong in a number of ways. [00:15:17] Speaker A: It certainly could. I hope it doesn't for lots, lots of reasons. In that case, you have a decision to make as to whether for one advantage would be one difficulty. To get two advantage is three, and to get three advantage is five. So as you're channeling the chaos, I suppose it takes the effect, narratively where you're. You're charging that up, and you have to make a decision about how much a vertical thrust we're going to achieve. Where are you thinking? [00:15:49] Speaker B: Well, you know, I feel like it's like those video games where you have the little meter that goes up and down, and you have to hit a to stop it in the optimal place. I think the optimal place in this case is probably at the two, so right in the middle. So that's, I think, where we're gonna go here or strategically, that's what we're gonna aim for. [00:16:06] Speaker A: All right, well, that is a three difficulty wild chaos roll, plus the normal one of just doing it. So your target is four. [00:16:14] Speaker B: All right, we'll see how this goes. Luckily, I do have a lot of dice, so that's something. All right, we've got. Just make it five. [00:16:34] Speaker A: Hey, fine's enough sparing you. Well. Oh, God. It always comes to one complication, doesn't it? But you have an extra one, so you can buy off that minor complication. Much easier to deal with. Complications at the highest levels. The lower you go, the more severe those complications get. Where if you're trying to do wild, tethered, mayhap magic down, like by the. Well, it's always a thing. Three major complications to resist. But, you know, up here it's safe. Why not? And in that case, two advantage. Now, advantage is always done in opposition to something else. So, like, a swordsman has advantage because they're especially strong, or a runner has it because they're especially fast. Just because you are not acting against a person doesn't mean we still do that math. You actually have to compare the advantage of a vain jumping to the advantage of, like, the ground being jumped off of or whatever, to do the actual math. Because the way advantage works is when you are making a roll against something, you get plus two enhancement for every level of advantage you have above the thing you are acting on. So the best yeri does not have stats for flat, mossy carpeted rock, but I'm going to probably say it has zero advantage in jump. So that would give you a plus four enhancement on what I'm sure will be a harrowing might and athletics role. [00:18:04] Speaker B: Yeah, this is gonna be one die. Cause that's what I got in those two things combined. [00:18:11] Speaker A: Oh, boy. [00:18:13] Speaker B: So it just needs to be an eight to ten eight. [00:18:21] Speaker A: Land it. Visually, I'm sure. Quite amazing that vivain does what looks like it should lead to a very, very tiny hop, but then actually goes very much. I'm thinking goofy. It's very, very close of the noise as you are rocketing into the air. Not that you would make that noise that is entirely too undignified for your upbringing, but you've. Yeah, a very superman kind of jump, landing yourself onto the back of, I presume, the millipede that sten has controlled. I took that for granted. But you don't want your own, right? [00:18:59] Speaker B: No. And I'd like to say I think this because I just make it. I like, like the idea that Vivain was aiming for, like, you know, the middle of the millipede, or at least, like, kind of close to where Sten is doing the piloting, but, like, just manages, due to, like, the motion and the speed and the calculations you've got to do for that, just manages to land on the, like, very back of that millipede in question. [00:19:21] Speaker A: It's a very bumpy ride. I hope you find a seatbelt in time and manage to secure. Secure that tourmaline. Montgomery, what's next? [00:19:36] Speaker D: I think so. Tourmaline is actually going to first try to figure out, like, the optimal way to get onto this thing himself. And then they're going to be like, why? Why would I do that? And instead, they're going to look into the future to see what the most optimal way to get onto this millipede would be. Because why would they spend time making these calculations themselves? It just seems like a waste of time. So they're going to use Colby Hourglass just to see what outcomes trying to get onto this movie in different ways has. Now, for anyone using farsight and future vision at home, you may not want to look into your own future, as it can have consequences, not necessarily in this game, but don't look at your own death. [00:20:32] Speaker A: No, I had a. After our last recording, I was like, this is not an idea that I have had. This has come from somewhere. And I realized it's an episode of Rick and Morty that had put that idea in my head and I was like, oh, why do I know that? God, as I recall, comb the hourglass is a sorcery, correct? Yep. [00:20:51] Speaker D: And it is empathy and cunning. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Alrighty, well, you know what to do from here. Godspeed and good luck to you. [00:21:12] Speaker D: I think I had even less experience with millipedes than I originally thought because apparently tourmaline cannot look into futures that involve millipedes because out of eight die, the highest I rolled was a six. [00:21:30] Speaker A: Not great. I suppose it's because there are just too many flashing by. Like, there's so many millipedes, so many legs. Like, literally any one of those thousands of feet could crush you. So, like, yeah, those are flashing by real quick. Difficult to pick out the correct one. You have some options. If you just want to drop it. You can drop it. That's fair and fine. Or you can spend two points of momentum to turn that into a success with your momentum power. [00:22:02] Speaker D: I would like to not fail the getting onto the millipede with everyone else part. So I do want to check with my party real quick. Is it okay if I spend some of that momentum from our pool to not fail this? [00:22:14] Speaker A: How dare you want to live for perfect clarity. The comb. The hourglass gives you an advantage on a future role, so you can also just make the jump. The might roll at your leisure, raw. But. [00:22:35] Speaker D: I cannot express how bad of an idea that is for myself. [00:22:39] Speaker A: Fair enough. You know your limits. And so party comes along. That takes our five momentum down to three. But it allows you to comb the hourglass great grand advantage on that next. Because, yes, as all these infinite permutations are flying by, there does come the moment where you can see the one that has the. It's a very fast paced spot the difference game because you imagine all these slides coming by like, yeah, millipede. Millipede, millipede, millipede, millipede with stand on it. That one. And that is how you can get yourself closer to where you need to be. That said, still going to require some amount of physical exertion on your part. It would be just might and athletics. If you wanted to jump or do, like, a bit of fungal parkour. There's an argument made for dexterity. If there's some more dice in that department, you could try to be speedy. [00:23:35] Speaker D: I think Tourmaline's definitely going for speed over force here. Definitely trying to angle their bodies so they move in a way that's just right rather than kind of brute forcing it up there. [00:23:54] Speaker A: Then let us do dexterity and athletics. Unless you can think of an argument for something else. [00:24:01] Speaker D: I cannot. [00:24:03] Speaker A: Very well. And you get plus two enhancement to that role on account of having advantage. [00:24:13] Speaker D: So I thankfully rolled much better on the two die that I have and on the eight die that I had, because I rolled an eight and a. [00:24:22] Speaker A: Nine up to four, which gives you the three that you need and then one little extra one hanging out there being like, tourmaline, how do you want to spend me? You have an extra hit. [00:24:33] Speaker D: I'm gonna put that back into our momentum to try to pay back part. [00:24:38] Speaker A: Of what I tell Tourmaline giveth and tourmaline taketh away, bringing us back to four total. Then narratively described to me, this adventure you go on as you are flipping through the hourglass, finding the right grain of sand to pluck, and then somehow arriving on the back of this creature. [00:25:01] Speaker D: I think this is the most panicked anyone's seen tourmaline thus far. Far. Because as torbaline takes a second to comb the hourglass, their eyes kind of glaze over and have this, like, glow to them. And they almost do, like, the t pose position. And you just hear them, so many likes. Too many likes. That's a lot of legs. Why are there so many likes? I. Where are you? And they're looking at things that are definitely not there. And then they finally seem to latch on to something that's, like, right there. And they beeline it for a spot in this cave that they've never been to before, but they know. They know it's the right one. It's gonna get them to where they need to be. And it's on this, like, incline. It's on this higher part. And so they managed to beat out Stan and this millipede to the incline. And it's just a matter of angling them so that they essentially fall from this incline onto the millipede. [00:26:00] Speaker A: Absolutely. Like, the least effort expended possible in a way that is graceful because it helps when you can see the future. Well, dad, the kids are safe. [00:26:13] Speaker E: Good. Cause didn't know what I was gonna do if they weren't. So Montgomery is grabbing all the stuff. Probably sees the instead. May have left one or two things in her haste to ride this thing. Grab that. See, everyone is making moves and not really sure what to do. Just start booking it in the opposite direction. Here's my argument to make. I am hoping that I can run and search for. Cause I believe I remember you saying that in this area, there was, like, some bigger stalks of mushrooms and other fungus, and whatnot. So my hope is that running, I can find either one or maybe even a couple mushroom stalks to basically, Mario jump this from the stocks to on top of the millipede. And I'm hoping I can use Dex and maybe survival for looking for the right mushroom stock that will allow me to actually jump and not, like, sink. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Oh, that's very clever. Survival to identify the spongiest of the mushrooms. Yes. I would say when it comes to running, this is just kind of broad advice. People play like, dexterity is quick burst of speed. If you're looking for, like, distance or making a sustained effort, that is stamina. So I will take stamina over the decks. [00:27:50] Speaker E: I would just take both over might. [00:27:52] Speaker A: Stamina to make that big, big, big run over to the. The correct mushroom. And then we. We pray to the. Well, that it is the correct mushroom. Okay. Yeah. [00:28:12] Speaker E: My highest roll was a five. [00:28:15] Speaker A: It's not going to be enough hits to get you to three as you need, but you don't have to push the momentum button quite yet, because the other thing about the world below is that is an incredibly fail forward kind of game. We're not supposed to punish you and leave you behind. This is. It's OSR, like curtains, but on a very actually modern built house. So we can say that you go to. To make this jump and spring, but you have not correctly, like, what you need is some vain calculus. Would have helped here, because the trajectory is wrong. Now, we can say that Montgomery's either going to fall too short or go too far on the plan to land here. My question to the three of you is, how are you going to fix that? [00:29:01] Speaker E: I also think it's funny if I overshot it. [00:29:05] Speaker D: So Stan is a little busy, I'd imagine, you know, wrangling the thing we're all trying to stay on top of. So tourmaline will try to act as quickly as possible. Look to Vivain, hold on to my tail. [00:29:28] Speaker B: Okay. [00:29:29] Speaker D: And she does it, uh, hoping, I guess, all hope that somehow Vayne is, uh, weight is going to be enough, along with their own kind of, uh, off balance weight, to steady them. They're going to try to, um, acquire Garrett, um, in that way, like catching a football that's gone a little too far. [00:29:49] Speaker A: I don't know that Vivain is going to appreciate that you've said that. Uh, yeah, no, like, you weigh enough to be a good counterbalance from what I'm about to do. [00:29:56] Speaker D: Uh, the van's the only way that is true. [00:30:02] Speaker A: Any port in a storm, as they say, so leaning off the edge, thankfully. I don't know this is true, but I'm going to say it's probably true. Like, millipedes are the hairy ones, right. [00:30:14] Speaker C: They're long roly polis. [00:30:16] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:30:17] Speaker A: They don't have. [00:30:18] Speaker E: I didn't know any of them had hair. Thank you for unlocking that nightmare for me. [00:30:22] Speaker C: The centipedal ones are the ones that look like hair. [00:30:26] Speaker D: There are some millipedes that have hair. [00:30:28] Speaker A: Okay, well, it's important. I need to see this narratively that it has hair because that's going to be friction that will stop you from sliding around. What we've actually affected now is, like, a velcro situation where the hair of the millipede is coarse, and then you are wearing, like, your leathery gear. So you can kind of slide, but you don't have to worry about just, like, rolling right off of this thing. Right. [00:30:50] Speaker B: I would also pitch that millipedes generally have, like, grooves because of their different, like, segments, which has, like, a little divot, almost like a saddle. Right. Like, it's not like a full, nice millipede saddle, but you can sort of situate yourself in the groove and be like, I'm gonna use that to hold on. So you could have that. Plus friction probably works. [00:31:08] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Well, let us break this down into a series of very small tasks because that makes it more interesting in terms of the roles that we can do. We can actually make it a staged task because we know that tourmaline is going to try to dexterously predict. You have to put your body physically in the right place, exactly the right moment. It will involve athletics because it plainly does. And I cannot think of a way to give you more dice by saying, yeah, use leadership to yell and encouragement. Uh, but dexterity, uh, and athletics, position yourself correctly. The first part of it, that is tourmaline, putting the hand out, then, for Montgomery, um, might would be pulling yourself up. I know that is not your strong suit. Um, but based on what Marissa has said, uh, it was also a little bit of survival about knowing that you can grab this. That's fine. I also just like the idea of a really novel role, like might to grab strong and survival to know where to grab. [00:32:20] Speaker E: Okie Dokie. [00:32:22] Speaker A: For those of you who played a world in darkness, a story path or storyteller system game, one of the most fun things you can do as a GM is look for the zany combinations of attributes and skills you can put together and get some really wacky roles. [00:32:35] Speaker B: Out of it is the vein making a role here as well. [00:32:38] Speaker A: I think the vein is holding on for dear life. [00:32:41] Speaker B: Okay. Is that like a stamina situation? [00:32:44] Speaker A: I suppose if you wanted it to be like, yeah, we can over. We can complicate this. Go for it. Yeah. Give myself homework off the hook. Stamina. Stamina would be the most appropriate to. I got one hit, one hit, three hits. [00:33:07] Speaker D: Because I got a nine out of ten. [00:33:08] Speaker A: Nine out of ten is good. [00:33:12] Speaker B: I'm so glad I did that because I kid you not, that is 3838 is good. [00:33:18] Speaker A: And I am also glad you did because that means that more than half of you have succeeded, the difficulty being right at three, because this is fairly challenging. So then we have a situation where Montgomery, your climbing plan did not work out quite as well. But. Sorry, not Dex. I went to Vex, but your name is Tourmaline. Tourmaline, you are in exactly the right place. And Pavane, knowledge of leverage and physics coming in actually more handy than we thought it would. How do the two of you together rectify the situation? We can. Yes. And our way through this. Cause I know that there's not something interesting like, well, I just sat there and held the tail correctly, but the two of you together can create this mental picture for us as you manage to save dad. [00:34:02] Speaker B: I feel like, yeah, this is an instance of vivain sort of doing the calculation in her head. And I think this is a rare instance where she and tourmaline are working together. Right. She's calling out to them, like, this is when you grab. She's kind of doing the. As well as just, like, the raw hanging on part and the stabilizing part. She's also, like, helping to direct you in terms of, like, what she can see and what Montgomery's progress in the arc is. And, like, yeah. Trying to give you those eyes on what's actually happening. [00:34:38] Speaker D: I think tourmaline is taking that information in stride and absolutely using it to its fullest, taking what they've been, Bane says down to the letter, not putting any of their own thoughts into it. Don't worry, they're not muddying it with that. In order to make sure they're in the right space, they're grabbing the right places to make sure they're not going to lose their grip. And as they come into contact with dad, it's this thing of instead of trying to use their full body weight to hoist him up, they instead tense their. The muscles of their body to almost roll up, to use a coil rather than just a sit up. [00:35:23] Speaker A: What is the point of having a segmented musculature if not to roll up. Right, like you were built for this. You haven't done anything with those skills. But they are. They come in the package. Excellent for dad. [00:35:38] Speaker D: I'll be strong. It's fine. [00:35:40] Speaker A: Oh, that. Putting that on the tower, that's gonna be one that's gonna trailer for this, this blue version of this. And strong. You are hauling Montgomery up, back onto the back of the millipede. Stan, you're gonna be eyes forward because you have to know where you're driving. Do not text and drive. Do not. Yeah, whatever the equivalent in the world of world below would be, because this thing is moving. When you've got a thousand legs, you can get some serious speed. However, the other three of you, once you are done patting each other in the back and making sure everything has come together, we'll see what the millipedes are running from. Because there are things. There are predators in the world below, there are prey in the world below, and it's all kind of fluid. Size plays a big part in it. But in this case, let your mind wonder. Imagine for a moment what would be big enough to terrify dozens and dozens of big millipedes. [00:36:43] Speaker C: Kind of mole, but huge. [00:36:46] Speaker A: Ooh, I like that idea. But the one that I had. So we're gonna go with that. Yes. You were in a tunnel situation, so it's not like what could possibly be here. It has to be something that digs. And then the rumble that you thought was the feet is not just the feet, because with those, I'm gonna say that they're kind of like Echinaida because they have really gnarly feet come smashing through the tunnel. And now, oh, my, what a sight it is. The creature that is chasing you is bigger than the tunnel, but it can burrow faster and does not care. So you get, like, a little sight of the maw coming through, the whiskers brushing against it as the tunnel behind you is being ripped and exploding every now and again. Like gigantic claw coming through, grabbing a whole chunk of earth and flying along. So now we're in a pickle because we can steer the millipede, but we cannot communicate with it and we cannot tell it to go well. It's going as bad as fast as it can, right? Nature being what it is, point being, it's going to go in the direction that it wants to and stem your control as a matter of degrees. But based on the speed of our echinata mole creature, oh, boy, it might not be the best. So we did end up in a chase scene. Shit. How about that? For those of you familiar with trail of Cthulhu rules, they talk about chases in terms of there's a track, right? And you have to accumulate ten points of chase to win the scene. You can do things to make yourself go up the track. You can do things to make the other thing go slower on the track. It will do the same. So in the most general terms, you have to think of ways to slow down, stop, confuse, bedazzle. Not bedazzle. It's the drool. Just regular dazzle. The echinative feature. Or to make life easier for your millipede friend, the very first thing. Oh, and also because I am me and it wouldn't be fun to just let you succeed all the time. There are environmental hazards you will also have to deal with, right? It's the world below. It's not going to be like a big old, like, highway scene, right? So let us start there. That first things first. We are cruising down this road. It opens up once more into a broader cavern area. But now we are in the way of stalactites and stalagmites. So you are essentially trying to drive the echinata, or not the echinata, to drive the millipede through caltrops. Right. It has its own ideas that are really not conducive to you. It is tall, but, like, it can clear that bridge. Right. The rest of you are extra height that it neither knows nor cares about. So steering the beast correctly is going to be critically important lest we end up in a situation where Vayne has to do a matrix dodge out of the way of one of nature's many subterranean splendors. So given the totality of circumstances, the skills at your disposal. What thoughts? This is a dangerous question. What thoughts, inter Sten's head, about how best to proceed through this cavern. Thought, singular is probably a more fair way to a single one. [00:40:18] Speaker C: A single one. [00:40:21] Speaker A: Fractional thought. [00:40:22] Speaker C: Den's gonna turn around and see what the commotion is and see something much more interesting behind her. I'd say throw him the rope to start distracting and attacking the mole as well as she could to try and distract him. Or at least throw something. [00:40:45] Speaker A: Who'd you give the reins to? [00:40:47] Speaker C: Montgomery. [00:40:48] Speaker A: Montgomery. Okay. [00:40:49] Speaker C: Montgomery's dad. Take the wheel. [00:40:55] Speaker E: I've never driven stick before. I don't know what to do. [00:40:59] Speaker A: More than happy to let you. What's. What I'm looking for. Abandon, is not it. We'll go with that. Abandon your driving privileges. But it still falls upon you to contribute to the chase somehow. So what is the action that you are going to take? [00:41:14] Speaker C: What I would like to do on my sheet for my. Let's see, I do have. It's called boom. It's my thesis. I can use chaos rocks as range or close weapons with an explosive. And I would like to throw one at his face. [00:41:31] Speaker A: Hurling a chaos rock. Very, very well. Dexterity and ranged combat is your go to for hurling devices or using ranged weaponry. [00:41:48] Speaker C: Three, four, five. [00:41:54] Speaker D: Ooh. [00:41:54] Speaker C: Okay, got a nine, a nine, a seven, eight, and an eight. [00:41:59] Speaker A: Then tie that up for me. [00:42:03] Speaker C: Nine and 9788. That's four. [00:42:06] Speaker A: Four is excellent. One left over. Four tricks based on the difficulty. Not an easy thing to pitch a softball from the back of a bounding millipede while someone who does not know how to drive is driving. [00:42:18] Speaker C: Let's see, for my tricks, would it be smart to just put it towards the momentum again? All the ones that would be kind of useful. I need at least two. [00:42:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Lacking any other options, it's always a nice place to go. It puts you back where you started. We've successfully recovered from Tourmaline's looking into the future adventure. [00:42:40] Speaker C: All right, we'll put it towards momentum. [00:42:43] Speaker A: Very well, then. One success falling into your column. We'll set the target as six as to give us enough time to have fun, but not a properly long chase. Right. So one of six accomplished. Who goes next? That is a question for Stan. Remember, the initiative system works that you have to pick. [00:43:06] Speaker C: Right. Probably look back at. Probably vivate and be like, hey, you want to throw something, too? [00:43:16] Speaker B: I think she, like, she fixes you with a stare. Going. Throwing. Not so much my specialty, but magic. Well, chaos is. And I think you said this is a very moist place. Right? Like, there's. [00:43:28] Speaker A: It's. [00:43:28] Speaker B: There's a lot of moisture, wetness on the ground. [00:43:33] Speaker A: I mean, it's. It's more towards sodden than bone dry. Yeah, you're in. You're in a fairly soggy part of the world below. [00:43:40] Speaker B: Okay. I think she'd like to tether wild chaos, but the goal is to freeze an area such that the mole barreling at speed might slip and therefore encounter something of an obstacle and have to recover itself. [00:43:57] Speaker A: This is an area where I believe the rule book has something to say about it, because one of the things for wild chaos is that you can't use it to duplicate another sorcery because they don't want you to be like, well, I don't have access to this, but I'll just make it up. I'm fairly certain there's one about altering the environment in such a way. [00:44:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess in that case, why don't we go for illusion instead? Like, she'd like to use wild chaos to, like, create the image of something that moles are generally afraid of. [00:44:52] Speaker A: What are moles generally afraid of? [00:44:55] Speaker B: Great question. I mean, they are prey, sort of massive snakes. Snakes. [00:45:01] Speaker C: No offense. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Birds, I think. But why would you have a bird down here? [00:45:06] Speaker A: That would be alarming. If I were a mole. Yeah. If I were a mole and I saw a bird down here, that would. That would be a thing. [00:45:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like since snakes are others domain expertise, why don't we go with, like, big hawk? That has absolutely no reason to be down here, but definitely pretty startling. [00:45:27] Speaker A: Very well. Well, then we're back to the math of effect and so on. [00:45:34] Speaker B: So I think it has to be big enough of an image, right, that it's going to scare a mole of that size. So I imagine the projection itself is probably pretty big. So that's going to increase the difficulty. The duration doesn't have to be super long, just enough to scare the mole. So on that one, I would pitch that it's not super important that it be lasting. And then the effect is. Yeah. Like image of a big, flapping giant hawk creature, which actually, in the world below is probably a long forgotten ancient beast. Like, is something that is in books, but maybe no one has ever seen, is just sort of like a mythic creature. [00:46:16] Speaker A: It's going to be interesting because, I don't know, Vayne has seen one either. [00:46:19] Speaker B: Which means in a book is what I imagine. Like, maybe there's, like a picture of one. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Oh, I wasn't. I wasn't going that route. I was saying, you've never seen one fly, so it's gonna be really interesting for you to be like, this is what it looks like when they fly, but you, like you. Have you seen the taxidermy that has been put together when someone did not know what the animal actually looks like? [00:46:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:39] Speaker A: Yeah. For those of you who haven't, there's a Google, like, taxidermy tiger Denmark. And there is a famously awful tiger that was made and presented as a gift to the king of one of the scandinavian nations. And the person who did the tanks for me had. Had never seen before in his life. And it is. It is delightful for those of you at home. Also, you got an Instagram account. You can go look at it. It's amazing. Well, we are back in the realm of the actual effect part. So you can give an enhancement to a role you want to make. You can create enhancement for something yourself or advantage for yourself. You can create a complication for that person. [00:47:23] Speaker B: So maybe that's how to go here. Like with a complication for the mole creature in terms of its progression, although it's not like trying to attack us, it's more about trying to complicate its ability to continue you at the speed it's going. [00:47:39] Speaker A: Fair enough. In that case, the math would play out, I believe, as follows. Range is going to be an important factor here, because it is not obviously close enough to you for the. I think we're all grateful, actually, that it's not that close to you. [00:47:54] Speaker B: Right, yeah, reasonable. [00:47:57] Speaker A: So two difficulty out of range, and then the size of the complication is going to be what determines the rest of it. Whether it be just a minor inconvenience or something serious enough to kind of. That decision is yours there. [00:48:12] Speaker B: I'm wondering if, like, manipul like, it does. Does manipulation as a skill here work? Because basically I'm trying to manipulate, like, the mole's perception. [00:48:22] Speaker A: All tethering, wild chaos is going to be your intellect in esoterica. [00:48:27] Speaker B: Okay, so that's the solid. Yeah, I think in terms of definitely range and then. [00:48:37] Speaker A: Lines of effect. That's what we got. [00:48:38] Speaker B: Size of effect. Yeah, I think big. Like, I'm okay with having it a little bit more challenging here because this is a large creature. I think in order to actually skip, like, a tiny little thing is maybe not gonna. It's an annoyance. Right. It's got to be big enough for. [00:48:52] Speaker A: Sure, to throw this off course. Well, it starts difficulty at one, the range adds two, and to create a major complication, also adds two. That would put your target at five. I don't expect you will avail yourself of the option, but for folks at home, if your story guide tells you, like, at least five, you're like, you can abandon it, but it costs you one momentum to back out after having made the suggestion. Ah. [00:49:23] Speaker B: Right. 245689 and two tens. [00:49:37] Speaker A: Then describe what has been to describe to vivain as an actual bird looks like. [00:49:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, this is fun. So wings are one of the things that I think has made it down through, like, this centuries in the texts. Like, we know the sky was a big place, we know that it was like, full of, like, all of this space that you couldn't occupy without, like, these specific kinds of instruments that were attached to your body. But I think there is somewhere along in the centuries, there was a mission like, calculation. And it's believed that birds were, like, a people that, like, created a technology to create wings and that they, like, walked around with these, like, wings. They could take on and off depending on, like, when they were flying. That wings were not, like, an evolutionary development. It was a technological innovation. So I think it's almost more like airplane. Like, the bird itself almost has, like, airplanes plain wings, except they are, like, reticulated and have articulated and have, like, the ability to flap, which is a little surreal, but, like, seem kind of mechanical. I think, like, almost have, like, this sort of techie vibe. I think what's also survived is that, like, birds are fast and, like, I think maybe there's more of a, like, not quite snakishness about them, but something reptilian, because there were scientists that sort of discovered this tie between birds and reptiles. And so I think only going off of bones and lore and history, the bird that Vivein creates looks more like a dinosaur than it does a bird. [00:51:28] Speaker A: The old reverse Jurassic park. [00:51:31] Speaker B: You don't get to see that very often. [00:51:33] Speaker A: No. Right. I might be one of the first people in the universe to put those words together in that order, which is weird. Ah, well, then, yes. Whether or not the bird. Sorry. Whether or not the millipede understands the concept or the. Sorry. The millipede, looking forward. The echinaida creature that we just described understands what the bird is, is a bit irrelevant, I think, because it was spectacular from your perspective. But at a certain point, anything large and screechy and in your way will create trouble. We cannot see into its. Well, Tourmaline can, but Tourmaline's busy, cannot see into the creature's mind. But nevertheless, you succeeded in your role. And so the major complication arises, and we will add that difficulty, special word, will add that extra burden to the next roll that it makes falls upon you to decide who goes next. [00:52:30] Speaker B: I think since dad has been handed the reins and is probably pretty busy trying to steer us in the correct direction, I'm gonna hand the reins to Tourmaline. [00:52:41] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Tourmaline knows two things just based on the current situation. One, they are not good at combat, and two, Montgomery does not know how to drive. And so they are actually going to put their skills to use up by Montgomery. They are going to abandon the distraction part to sten and Vivain, and they are going to attempt to look into the future again, but this time, in order to help Montgomery by calling out bad places, places that Montgomery should not go by way of looking into this future. So a weird, like, their map, if they were a navigator, is just the next 10 seconds, the next 20 seconds ahead of you. I just clicked on every single tab outside of the one I'm rolling dice on. So we have two eights, a nine and a ten. [00:54:03] Speaker A: Succeeding on the roll will give you an advantage on your next roll. [00:54:09] Speaker D: So what I can do is castrate one vantage to any die roll of their choice. It can be one of their own roles or a role made by a bond mate. So they are specifically going to be targeting this to Montgomery rather than themself. And each additional hit spent gains benefit of this power to one bond mate per additional hit. So they are going to. Because that was five total, one hit. For that, they're going to spend an additional hit to give this over to Montgomery as well. So while they're calling out things to make it easier for Montgomery to understand, because they know that not everyone is used to seeing, uh, futures that can, uh, happen. So they want to make sure it's a little bit clearer for them. Um, but they do give that to Montgomery. Um, and they're also going to give it to Sten in case they see something that is going wrong enough that Sten might have to take the reins, um, and then get back where you belong. Yeah. Um, just. Just in case. [00:55:32] Speaker A: Do remember to buy off the complication that comes with using chaos sorceries. [00:55:37] Speaker D: Sure. [00:55:39] Speaker A: It's gonna cost you a point to do that. So as you're doing the math in your head, if you. [00:55:43] Speaker D: Yeah, that's the one last. And then the last one's just gonna go to bolster very well. I've done everything I need to do. [00:55:53] Speaker A: Then it falls to Montgomery. The last. Sorry, drop the dice. Last person to go in our little bit here. Yeah. [00:56:04] Speaker E: So Montgomery overshooting his mount, being helped up, and then I kind of feel like almost immediately just thrown the reins, be like, okay, you take over. I'm like, what? So I'm trying my best to steer. Um, I, uh, I feel like I have to get steering under control before I can do anything else legitimately. So I'll focus on that. First. Can I steer? How am I doing? [00:56:40] Speaker A: Unfortunately, cannot let you roll anything that is not pilot because you are doing the thing that is literally defined in the book under the pilot skill. [00:56:51] Speaker E: Is it like Pilot and something? So maybe it's not zero. [00:56:54] Speaker A: Well, there's always two things together. The only time in the entire book you will only ever roll one. Stat is stamina for defense. And you will always have at least one die. Because even if I'm like, roll might end, pilot. You always have at least one might, right? So it's not possible in this game to roll zero dice on anything. [00:57:13] Speaker E: Okay, good. [00:57:14] Speaker A: That said, the. What goes with Pilot is the interesting part, because this could be a situation where you are being mighty and wrenching it. I mean, not you. I know you're not picked that one. And just wrenching it in the correct direction, it can be at a feat of dexterity that you are masterfully using the ropes or, however, I don't know how one drives a millipede or the case of cunning that you are becoming attuned. Kind of the way it works. You're figuring out, like, oh, it likes it when I do this, if I do that on this side. Right. All these different options that you have available to you that kind of come down to, well, in what way is Montgomery piloting? [00:57:59] Speaker E: I think there's a lot of. I'm gonna see if I can make this work for this scale. I think there's a lot of. Okay, okay, please, please go left. Please go left. Just a little bit. Just a tiny. Please, please just go. [00:58:16] Speaker A: Okay, now right. [00:58:17] Speaker E: Now go right. Go right. I'm smacking everything around me, so I'm wondering if I could try to. It wouldn't really be present still. That probably be manipulation. [00:58:31] Speaker A: Huh? [00:58:32] Speaker C: Also, tell Sten they made a bad play and just bring her back. [00:58:37] Speaker A: Manipulation is tied more specifically to lying, analyzing social cues, seduction. But that doesn't apply here. Whereas presence is your ability to give orders, but also specifically train people or animals. So it would be presence for these purposes. [00:58:56] Speaker E: Okay, good. That's actually better. I just didn't think I explained it well enough to be present. 5781 hits. Is this an instance where I could use. What's it called? [00:59:20] Speaker A: Momentum? Yes, but you don't have to because, as we established, tourmaline gave you advantage, which comes with plus two enhancement on your role, because the millipede does not have any social advantage, as it turns out, in the monster manual bit, which gets you right to the number you need to succeed. [00:59:40] Speaker E: So that'd be three hits total and a good difficulty. [00:59:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:46] Speaker E: Awesome. [00:59:47] Speaker A: But the trepidation, disbelief in your voice, I think, should be also apparent in the scene. So when you're. It's not confused and it's not dad voice because you're not ordering. But there is. There's an adjective that describes the way you are speaking now to this millipede. As that is occurring, what does the reaction look like when you realize it's, it's actually working. [01:00:13] Speaker E: It would be just like, oh, oh, my God. I got this. I totally got this. I totally got this. I totally got this. [01:00:25] Speaker A: Come on. [01:00:26] Speaker E: Just excitement and then back to like, okay, calm down. We're still doing this. [01:00:34] Speaker A: You'll, uh, you'll come into it. There's gonna be the. The, uh, like the. Yeah, yeah, eventually. We're not there yet. [01:00:40] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:00:42] Speaker A: Well, now it falls to our Echinaida friend to do what they will do next. The first bit is going to be actually an attack on one of the millipedes behind you. It does have the major complication that it will have to buy off. We'll see what happens. Not looking great for the millipede behind you so far. Just actually enough to succeed on its biting. And to buy off the complication, it would have been three to hit or, sorry, one, because the millipede, everything has one defense, remember? So then four successes on top of that is enough to bite that creature. And then to buy off the major complication, it's getting closer. It's getting approximately one devoured millipede closer, but not so much that it is able to catch up with you because as we've said so far, when you are accruing successes, we're moving closer to that target. And so far there have been three, which is good news all around. Halfway there to the end of it and oh, my God, what is the scene like? Now you find out why this cavern looks the way it is in order for stalactites to form. This is a question for the whole audience. What needs to be present. [01:02:08] Speaker C: Wait, what? [01:02:09] Speaker A: Water. Right, water, exactly. Cause they have to drip and carry those minerals down. Right. So based on that information and the look on my face, what is it you expect that you will soon find? Water. Yes, falling water. A water fall specifically because this cavern, the scale of it is important to convey because you are going quite fast. So it's not like you've gone 8ft and now there's a waterfall. It's that you're swinging your way through all of these things. There's a giant creature snapping behind you. Several minutes passing by as these things happen and a bird appears out of nowhere. And then the waterfall. Waterfall is pouring, uh, water above you that is making this cavern fill up. And then another larger amount of it that forms into a waterfall as a deep, deep, deep gorge. Now, I don't know if millipedes can jump in real life, but if you thought we were going to make it through this without a gigantic millipede jumping a gigantic trench. You are provably wrong because that is the next thing that's going to happen. But this creates a complication for all of you, because if you thought it was hard to stay on this thing now, it's gonna be a lot harder when segment by segment by segment, it goes to do this gigantic, arcing, sprawling motion as we get into the next phase of things that are happening. And it's actually a pretty serious complication because with exception of Stan, who has seen these but never ridden one, this is a motion. There's no seatbelts, no one bring their echinace out or their. Sorry, their millipede saddle. Didn't think so. [01:03:52] Speaker E: Left it at home. [01:03:53] Speaker A: Yeah. You never think you're gonna need it, then you need it. And it's like, I should have packed. So moving forward on this part, any action that you take will have that two point complication that you'll need to buy off with your successes or with your hits, rather. That said, we do still need to. I suppose I need to steer it at this point. It's kind of jumping. That's fine. But your echinata friend, hot, hot on your heels. How are we going to solve this problem? [01:04:29] Speaker C: Would it be more strategic to have sten back at the wheel so Montgomery and Tourmaline can do more to our guy? [01:04:36] Speaker D: I can't do anything. Love you. [01:04:42] Speaker C: Love you, appreciate it. But no. [01:04:48] Speaker D: Is probably going to be focused on giving future visions and potentially holding people down, like holding on to the rope themselves and then using their snake body to coil around someone so that less people have to hold on two snake. [01:05:04] Speaker C: Bodies, two coils. [01:05:07] Speaker A: All farewell. I just didn't know what the. What the action is going to be. Are you wrapping around just the person? Are you wrapping around the millipede and the person? [01:05:17] Speaker D: So the rain. We don't have to use the reins right now. Right. It's there just. It's chasm. [01:05:24] Speaker A: Reins is a very loose term for what is a rope that. Yeah, you essentially have a lasso, but there's not even, like a. The end of it is just, you know what? No, it makes more sense to me that, like, you've roped around it and you have a rope in each hand. It's not even tied off. Right. That seems appropriate for what's going on. [01:05:44] Speaker D: Perfect, actually, because tourmaline's plan would be to essentially make sure their chest is, like, secured onto this millipede and then wrap their tail around someone else. [01:06:01] Speaker A: Okay. Holding on will be might and holding on to bouncing will be athletics. [01:06:09] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:06:11] Speaker A: This could go very poorly. [01:06:13] Speaker D: It could if it. I am open to anyone who has any, literally any better ideas. Someone please have a better idea. [01:06:27] Speaker E: As you were saying, it was like, oh, okay. Yeah, Montgomery could get on board with that. And then the skills popped up like, ah, we're both not mighty snakes. [01:06:37] Speaker D: We're both not mighty. [01:06:41] Speaker A: The advice for all games, and this came from Kenneth Haidt. And Kenneth Haidt's quite a smart man, is that if you are ever at a loss for what to do in any game ever that you're playing, look at your character sheet, find the highest number, and say, how do I do that? In some cases, like, empathy will be a stretch in this case, but the idea of, like, let's see, how can I? And I need to have a fun little creative puzzle about, like, shit, how do I make this about presence and medicine in this moment? [01:07:16] Speaker D: Okay, thanks. [01:07:17] Speaker C: Stan would just try to grab everybody as much as possible, and, like, she would turn around, go and grab into the ropes and grab. Just try to be dexterous and mighty with this. [01:07:27] Speaker A: I will also say that, like, we were taking narratively for granted that you are on the creature. Like, we're still in the chase, so you don't have to devote an action to staying on it. It is presumed you will unless you fail to buy off the complication. So in that case, the best move would be be like, well, what is the thing that I'm good at that I'm gonna get a shitload of extra hits that I can buy off the complication with and go that direction? Complications are always a part of the action you take. They are not the action you take. [01:08:01] Speaker D: So one of the abilities of the farsighter is they can detect and influence the emotions of the creatures around it. Could I attempt to strike the fear of some fucking God into this mole? [01:08:26] Speaker A: Is there a specific thesis or synthesis that is tied to that, that you have access to? [01:08:34] Speaker D: 2 seconds. Someone else do something. Give me 2 seconds. [01:08:39] Speaker B: So I have a question. Tell me a little bit more about. So the waterfall, is there any, can we perceive whether or not there's, like, is it possible to go through the waterfall? [01:08:49] Speaker A: Like, oh, you're going through the waterfall. Cinematically, it is entirely too cool for you to, like. Right. You have to. [01:08:57] Speaker B: Is the opening behind the waterfall big enough for the mole creature? [01:09:02] Speaker A: No, but it hasn't stopped it so far. Right. [01:09:07] Speaker B: Right. I'm thinking if there's a way we can go faster, right. If there's a way we can kind of go top speed. It's really a gambit between, can we make it through the waterfall before the mole creature catches up with us? Because then that's a barrier, right? We go through and it can't follow. Does that track with the environment as rendered? [01:09:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [01:09:31] Speaker B: So I think, like, I'm trying to think, like, what would, what would be the way to, like, you know, whip the reins on the, on the centipedes and go cha, like, how to make them, I guess not necessarily, like, respond to us in some way. Right? We can't communicate with them. We can't tell them to go faster, but we can put some sort of sensory pressure on them that would incentivize them to go at least whatever. [01:09:56] Speaker C: Top speed for a militias den lights his butt on fire. [01:10:01] Speaker A: I mean, not. [01:10:03] Speaker E: It is running from a predator. I don't feel like it's. [01:10:06] Speaker B: I mean, it is already going probably top speed. [01:10:09] Speaker A: What are some options if you wanted to communicate with the animal? I don't know that it speaks antisyan or whatever. Legally distinct from English we're using in a fantasy universe. There's still something to be said for empathy, that you can tell when creatures are upset, you can tell when a dog is sad, you can pet the dog and make it happier. And unlike most people, Tourmaline has had access to just literally hundreds of animals, alive and dead, and has a natural intuition for these kind of things from where they are. There's also survival is literally all about navigating these places and understanding how animals work and how to get the most out of them or least out of them. Right. So there's options there. If you were looking at, I mean, pilot is the thing, but less piloting happening right now because we kind of navigated to that part of it. And then there's always things to be done with the echinated creature. Right? Ranged combat, natural. But if you were able to think of the way to use some skill there, like the objective scene wise, is to accumulate enough successes doing things you are good at and then letting the narrative fill out from there. Taking a step away from like, the D and D sense of, well, here are the three things I'm allowed to do. It's like, well, no, here's the general sense. What we need to accomplish. What narrative flavor would you put in the world to accomplish that? So if there is. Sorry, I'm filling up with all the possible things it could be is not super helpful for me. But does that help narrow your thought processes down. [01:11:46] Speaker E: Little bit? [01:11:48] Speaker D: I will also say I was not able to find any fear or emotional, manipulative theses or synthesis for my search. [01:11:59] Speaker A: Yes. Then that sounds like the kind of thing that wasn't intended to be used in that way. [01:12:07] Speaker B: I guess. I mean, the vein. Strength is magic, right? It's chaos. That's her two top poles. That's what she can use. That's what she can do. And really, that kind of puts her in a boat where her solutions are naturally first instinct magical. So it's, I suppose there is, I think, a structured thesis or synthesis about going faster or about, like, going superhumanly fast. Am I correct about that? [01:12:36] Speaker A: I have not made it through all, like, 400 of them, but I'm willing to take your word for it. If you say that there is. [01:12:41] Speaker B: Well, I think there's one. There's a thesis or synthesis, but not a sorcery. And I don't know if that matters. Does that matter? [01:12:49] Speaker A: It would, in the sense of, like, if it is a sorcery, then obviously we can't duplicate it. Right, yeah, that's fine, but the. I won't, but that. Because there's something to talk about. Quite yet. What's your thought? [01:13:02] Speaker B: So the thought is, effectively, to use wild chaos to give these millipedes more speed than they would naturally be able to have access to without that magical enhancement. And that, I think, mechanically, would make sense as an enhancement for their actions, if that makes sense. Being able to speed them up out of the way of the mole creature. [01:13:29] Speaker A: I mean, I don't have a reason to disbelieve that that would work. Infusing a creature with chaos is kind of how the world below works. Right? [01:13:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:40] Speaker A: So then we're just back at the scale of the effect. [01:13:44] Speaker B: Yes, scale of the effect. I think just to keep things probably manageable in terms of success. I don't know that we can get all of the millipedes, but crucially, we need to speed up the millipede we're on. And so that's. I think Vivain's gonna focus on that, at least that millipede and all of the ones in front of it, so that, you know, we don't get stuck being able to go faster behind millipedes that can't. [01:14:12] Speaker A: That is increasing the number of targets quite dramatically, based on how we've described the scene. So what would that be? If you're talking and we've said a little bit of speed is sufficient for you, you're not trying to burn the engine down. So a plus one enhancement would one difficulty, which puts us at two it is not a complication. It's not an armor. The range is important because you are at medium range for these things. That would get to four, right. Ah. Conveying one enhancement adds no difficulty to the caster's action. It costs two if you want to go to two, but one is for free. That is a very generous thing on behalf of onyx path. So two for range. And then the effect wise would be, like, probably three because of how many there are, which puts you to five. Plus the one default is six. [01:15:10] Speaker B: Okay. [01:15:11] Speaker A: And then, because this is something we've been doing a lot, you are really riling up the wild chaos in this area. Like, you've been picking at that scab quite a bit. So we'll see. The complication is a level two. It's a moderate one at this point. [01:15:26] Speaker B: Okay. Reasonable. That is four, five, six, and that's it. [01:15:41] Speaker A: So enough to accomplish the effect, but not sufficient to buy off the complication because you got successes, you can use momentum to buy additional hits after the fact. That is distinct from buying a success or a failure into a success. The game's intention is that if you roll no hits and you don't get your enhancements, that's when you spend two to kind of get the thing going. But if you just need a little bit of extra edge to buy off a complication, that is what that is for. In this case, it would cost you two, but you have five. So what do we think? [01:16:18] Speaker B: Rest of the table? Is this a good use of our momentum spend? [01:16:23] Speaker C: Yes. [01:16:24] Speaker E: I go for it. [01:16:24] Speaker C: Den was just gonna try and collapse the cave again behind them. [01:16:28] Speaker A: The size and scale of the cave would make that an impressive endeavor. [01:16:33] Speaker B: All right, if that's cool with everyone, then let's proceed that direction. We'll buy off the complication with two moments. [01:16:43] Speaker A: From your mouth to the well's ears. And so it goes, creating an interesting effect where now we're a bit of a foot race. It's like watching the Kentucky Derby, and some of them are starting to pull ahead. Were there an excited announcer, they would be jumping up out of their chair as distance opens up between the front of the pack and what's a peloton of its bikes. I don't know what you call it for millipedes, but that's the word I'm going to use here. That is a successful endeavor, which takes the team to four in terms of the number of things we're looking for. Have other folks figured out their contributions yet? [01:17:17] Speaker D: So I think what, uh, Torlene's gonna do is Torleen's. Once again, the only thing Torleen has going for them is they can see into the future. So they're just. [01:17:26] Speaker A: That's. [01:17:27] Speaker D: That's what they're doing. Um, and this time, they're probably going to attempt to see into Sten, um, Sten's future with, um, the echinaida behind them to try to let Sten know what the most effective way to impede the second would be. Give them that advantage. That's four hits total. [01:18:03] Speaker A: So it is that you would need one to accomplish the effect, and you would need two to not be thrown off the millipede, which leaves you with one left to do with as you desire. [01:18:13] Speaker D: That last one, I'm just gonna use it to share that vision with Sten. So that Sten, it's a direct line. [01:18:20] Speaker A: You've targeted Sten already with the action. As far as I understand it, you can't. [01:18:24] Speaker D: You cannot target someone else with the action. You have to spend an additional hit to give it to that person. [01:18:30] Speaker A: Very well. That will give Stan advantage on whatever Stan eventually decides to do. [01:18:38] Speaker C: It's the barbarian struggle of, I'm only good at hitting things. [01:18:41] Speaker A: What do you mean? [01:18:42] Speaker C: I have to solve problems. [01:18:46] Speaker A: It's bizarre because hitting this would solve the problem. [01:18:49] Speaker C: Like, yeah, she's definitely thought about just jumping off of this millipede and kind of going down the millipedes to stab this thing in the head. If it's gonna be going forward anyway, if she starts riding this thing instead, maybe she could, like, veer it away. That was her first thought process. [01:19:09] Speaker A: Consequences for failure are very severe, but doing it from range, probably less likely to get you trampled or eaten. [01:19:19] Speaker C: I can throw more chaos rocks at it. I do not have a ranged weapon, but I can throw more chaos at it. [01:19:25] Speaker A: Absolutely nothing wrong with that, which in this case would be dexterity plus ranged combat. [01:19:31] Speaker C: Do a big old throw, just gonna aim for his eyes. That is five dice. All right, we got a ten, a two, a seven, an eight, and a one. [01:19:49] Speaker A: Three successes is enough to accomplish the effect, but not enough to buy off the complication. [01:20:00] Speaker D: Was that including the advantage? [01:20:03] Speaker C: I did not have an advantage, no. [01:20:05] Speaker A: Oh, that would, you know, you know. So you get two more at that, which then is enough to keep you safely on the back, which means we have arrived at a situation where mid air. Well, not. You are not. You are midair, but you are not because you are still firmly on the back of this millipede, which is arcing through the over, across the. The gouge in the earth, and it's got to be in slow motion. Right then. Tourmaline clinging to the rope as best they can, shouting apocalyptic visions of a thousand different futures. Sten processing that as best they can. Right. I imagine that the face that tourmaline making of urgency and intent and clarity is not at all matched with the face that Sten is making of excitement and panic and danger. So you are right at the top of this arc, and you can see the Echinaida creature kind of. They run like, do they do the four legs bounding? I don't know. I think it's more sinister if it's like. Like leaping forward like this. [01:21:09] Speaker E: Right? [01:21:10] Speaker A: Like, right. Coming mace to the end, springs down, and then launches itself into the. The air. And then this is like a scene from an anime that we're describing right now because Sten is in the middle backish part. Having clambered down, the millipede takes a chaos rock and then just chucks it hitting. I don't want to suck directly in the face. That's like a called shot kind of thing. But all the rest of you see it's still kind of dark. So the actual rock is not the part you're going to witness. There's just this explosion of chaotic energy that happens. Meeting the Echinaida creature in midair, that is enough to get you to the. To the six you need to win the chase, which is also very cinematically appropriate. I'm glad that math worked out that way, because that means it. Your millipede lands, scrambling forward because it's not as mathematician interesting if the back is not hanging off the edge. Right. So it is scrambling forward up to make it into a secure place. The echinata, as you look behind yourself, that extra little bit of physics is what will prevent it from being able to chase, and it actually plummets behind you down into this God knows how deep scar in the earth. I'm sure it'll be fine. However, you are still on the back of a creature that does not exactly know that it is safe. But we are coming up on to our break, so we can assume that at some point it will calm down or you will decide you don't want to go where it is going and extricate yourself from that situation. Right. We can. People who watch television will understand when the. The chase scene budget hit the end of the money, so they kind of wrap it up in a real hurry and then just go to the next scene. Right. That's what happens in the world. Below. Not a lot of money down here. Can't afford those kind of special effects. But that means we will return in just a moment to see your reactions as you have dismounted and arrived at yet another massive bronze structure. But unlike the ones you have experienced so far, there is something critically different about this one. And that is, it is not yet open. We are going to take a quick ten minute break on our part. Maybe a long ten minute break. A leisurely ten minute break. Long. Just ten minutes. I don't care what adjective comes before it. You at home should do the same. Don't go anywhere. If you do come back, I personally will miss you. I can't speak for other people, but, like, look at those faces. They really want you to see how this ends. Back in a bit. Well, over the last few sessions, they have solved a breakout rat problem. They have broken into a tunnel. Now it is time to break through a gate and into the last of our adventure. Also, we're back from a break. How about that? Fresh off your millipede roller coaster ride, we now arrive at the farthest gate. Title drop. Roll credits. This is the citadel of legend, and whatever you were led to believe would be here, it somehow manages to defy even those expectations. Buildings made from hewn stone, obviously not of the local area, stretching taller than you have seen any structure in the world that you and yours have created. Mudtown was at best, two or three stories of rickety fungal and wood flats stacked on top of one another. The crystal city may have at one point been this glorious, but the violence that has befallen it has rendered it much less so. No part of skullcrag or Gosby has ever looked like this. So splendid, splendid. So well crafted, so staggering in scope, you can tell from your position outside the gate. It would take you days and weeks and months to fully comb the totality of this complex. It's not just the one building ahead of you. There are smaller pieces all on the sides of it. Anthropologists could spend an equally large amount of time trying to define the function of each. Be careful with the vayne, because she might try to. But all of that said is dominated by three main structures or features. Laid out front of the gate is a grand promenade or plaza of some kind, immaculately laid mosaic stones stretching out for about two or 300 yards off into the distance. A wide, wide, wide area where, depending on your particular outlook on the world, you could muster an army and have them ready for review. It could be a sports field of some kind. Imagine the kind of animal carcass you could drag. How big it would have to be to use this to be the place where you start to dissemble it. All the various things your mind is filling up with as to what this place was used for. Regardless of its purpose it is obvious that it was in service of the zealot in the distance. That despite being so far in such a dark cavern is still visible on account of its size. A subterranean Tyrell building stretching from the floor of the cavern all the way to its very roof. On either side the plaza is flanked with smaller buildings. One story, two story of various purposes. And then even in the walls of the cavern there are yet more little structures jutting out making it obvious that there's a network of tunnels running through this cave and beyond. The gate is securely closed. It is also pristine in a way that you would not expect. If no other reason then nothing in the world below is pristine. And yet the metal of its pillars on each side remains free from dirt or grime. Not even the little oily. When you've seen a statue that people have been touching and you can see it starts to wear down the edges. Even that is absent. This is immaculate as if it were cast only a few days before. And likewise the gate itself sparkling in its own way. Not a single piece bent out of place. Not a single hinge left ungreased. Truly none of you have seen anything like this. You may have seen other splendors. No doubt you have. But this is something unique all in its own. What then leaps to your minds and your lips? You have arrived at your destination. But man look at that thing. [01:28:19] Speaker D: I'm gonna open it. [01:28:22] Speaker A: Presume. Yes. [01:28:28] Speaker B: The vein is having a. They do move in herds moment with this entire place. [01:28:37] Speaker A: Jurassic park references keep piling up. Did not expect that but here we are. [01:28:41] Speaker E: I think Montgomery is a little hunched over kind of twisting himself. He threw his back out throughout that whole thing so he's just trying to make himself a little comfortable. He's in awe but his back really hurts. [01:28:58] Speaker C: Den's jaw is probably just on the floor. Just like I've never seen something this clean in my life. [01:29:06] Speaker A: No and I mean of all the things like big buildings. Sure. A giant plaza, whatever. Not dirty. That. That is weird. [01:29:17] Speaker B: It almost seems too clean doesn't it? [01:29:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:29:23] Speaker B: I would like to use vivain synthesis. Chaos sense. It only applies to chaos imbued items. So it is dependent on whether or not this gate is in fact imbued with chaos or not. So that's the first check. Is it imbued with chaos. [01:29:40] Speaker A: It is indeed lovely. [01:29:42] Speaker B: You may instantly recognize a chaos imbued item without needing to roll, but can make a reflexive esoterica action to learn more information about the object and how it can be used. Multiple hits allows you to ask the story guide multiple questions. Failure leads to a false but convincing narrative or misidentification. [01:30:02] Speaker A: You won't have to role on account of there not being that many things to learn about it. And I would not want to have to make up six or seven new things or seven lies on the spot. The gate is warded. They're using the power of chaos not for this world, but the world beyond, different from the world below. Tourmaline can tell you a lot about ghosts. Among the things they can tell you about ghosts is they don't care at all where they go. They don't follow your rules. They don't care about stop signs or traffic lights. If such things existed, they are free to go wherever they want. The chaos baked in to this gate is a war against that, that whatever side the ghosts are on, and that is unclear. They would not be able to cross this barrier. [01:31:00] Speaker D: If Tourmaline knew that, like, Tourmaline's face would just fall. My hopes of potential ghosts. They're still there. But no. [01:31:12] Speaker A: We haven't answered the directionality question. Is it a gate that keeps thing is, or is it a gate that keeps things out? [01:31:17] Speaker D: Exactly. That's why it's still. Hold on a little bit. [01:31:24] Speaker B: Am I able to tell anything about how it can be used? I mean, so how it can be used is part of the synthesis. I don't know if the mechanics of which way the gate swings or whether it's meant to keep out or in is part of that or not. [01:31:38] Speaker A: I'm interpreting it as the use of the chaos is to block the passage of the undead and things that exist just on the other side of dead. The gate is literally a gate. You know how the gate works. You don't need my help or the chaos to tell you that, but the purpose of the, of the enchantment here is to form a barrier for those things that are incorporeal. [01:32:04] Speaker B: So I think Vivain will relay this information to the group. It is a gate. We could try to open it. It doesn't seem warded against anything but the dead and perhaps the undead. [01:32:20] Speaker C: Sorry, just looks at tourmaline. I'm. [01:32:24] Speaker D: That's okay. There was a chance. [01:32:29] Speaker E: If we, um, walk up to it. Can't. Not if can we walk up to it and kind of inspect it a little closer, kind of try to see if we can discern before actually touching it, uh, which way the doors might open. [01:32:45] Speaker C: We know send gets there, she's just gonna bust it open. [01:32:47] Speaker A: So, uh, first, which direction the hinges go. [01:32:53] Speaker E: Yeah. Because we know it's. It's a ward to keep the undead on a certain side of this gate. So if it opens towards us, you know, that I'd imagine which side of the gate might be a little clear, depending on which way the door opens. [01:33:16] Speaker A: It is designed to open outward. Going back to the first episode, our lesson on castles, that the doors generally open in the direction of the thing you want to keep out. [01:33:32] Speaker E: So they don't want undead going in. That's strange. [01:33:40] Speaker D: I'm about to mildly ruin that for them. [01:33:44] Speaker B: I was going to say tourmaly. Are you. You are fully alive, aren't you? [01:33:53] Speaker D: I've been plutonic for while. We're starting to blur that line a little bit. Give me another year and I don't think I'll count as alive anymore. [01:34:12] Speaker E: Okay, well, let's figure it out within the year. See if you can get in or not. And by that, I mean let's figure it out right now. [01:34:21] Speaker D: Yeah. Sam, you have. You have the strength of all of us. Do you mind trying to open the very large gate and then some? [01:34:34] Speaker E: Wait, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait. Do we want to try to see if we can open it without destroying stuff about it first? I mean, that's a good plan. I feel like it's a good backup plan. [01:34:50] Speaker C: Just gonna try to peel it open like a, like an aluminum can. So it's just gonna go up to it and just kind of like, start grabbing at it. [01:34:57] Speaker A: I wouldn't ask you to roll, but the result would be irrelevant because huff and puff and blow as much as you want. This is the house made of bricks. You can all the might. You possess it, like, not even molecules of movement. You may as well just be pushing against solid stone. [01:35:19] Speaker C: It's not budging. I can dig under it. We can mold this before you destroy anything. [01:35:31] Speaker B: I do have the ability to create portals that might help us. If I could make the other portal come out the other side. The only war does seem to be against the undead, not magic. [01:35:46] Speaker C: I mean, I see no complaints about that. Normally you can get through. [01:35:51] Speaker E: Where's the shot? [01:35:52] Speaker B: Okay, um. The Vayne is going to use her gatekeeper synthesis. You're in tune with the weave of chaos and can channel it through control over chaos gates. When you create portals by tethering, wild chaos, you may extend the area factor of your result by a range band equal to the rating of the synthesis, which in this particular case is one. So effect, I think. I guess in terms of traversing portals it would be how efficaciously we can do that. [01:36:22] Speaker A: Number of targets is what we're looking at. [01:36:24] Speaker B: Number of targets. Okay, so in that case, I want all four of us to be able to get through the portal successfully before the other portal closes. That's an impact on duration as well. Correct. That needs to be open long enough for all of us to exit through the other side and then area big enough for all of us and our sizes to get through. [01:36:50] Speaker A: Default of one to get the extra one range band puts you at two. I don't think the size of the person is a piece of it that matters. However, the number of people you choose to affect is important because you can go up to three, which adds five difficulty. So we're at seven and only three of you would be able to go through. [01:37:20] Speaker B: I think in that case, the vein looks at everyone else. Brittles are notoriously finicky. This might be a solution for some of us, but realistically not all. [01:37:35] Speaker A: Is there anything backing out as a reminder does cost a momentum? [01:37:41] Speaker B: Yes. I think she still wants to continue this action. I think she's just like there is, I assume, an ability to, as she's doing this, talk to the rest of the party and talk about before two people leave two more behind or what have you. [01:37:54] Speaker E: Right, well, there might be a switch, a lever, something on the other side that might allow us to open the door to let the rest through. [01:38:06] Speaker B: It does seem like it does open out, which. That's a decent working theory. In that case. I mean, the easiest is for just me to jump across, but just to play our bet safe. Does someone want to come with me? [01:38:26] Speaker E: I think you should at least take the muscle. Don't know what's on the other side. Are any of you able to or do you have a light source? I would imagine that there's probably not a light source on the other side, at least nothing active but. [01:38:44] Speaker C: Looks like glow. [01:38:46] Speaker E: Okay. [01:38:49] Speaker B: I think yeah, Sten looks or Vivain looks to Sten. You could hop in through a portal. [01:38:57] Speaker C: I am always down to do something I've never done before. [01:39:01] Speaker B: Okay, so in that case, I think we will be trying to take two of us. [01:39:06] Speaker A: Okay, so three for the area of effect, one for the default cost. We're at four, the range adds one, the area effect, add one's four, six we are still on the chaos complication chart, so eight would be required to buy it off, or eight total, rather. [01:39:26] Speaker B: And we still have three momentum. Is that correct? Okay. All right. Actually, this was remarkably well rolled. Holy cow. All right, 1 second. I gotta do math. That is a total of 123459 successes. Two tens, one nine and four eights, then. [01:40:00] Speaker A: So two of you will arrive on the other side of the gate. [01:40:04] Speaker B: The other two, just out of interest, were ones so. [01:40:09] Speaker A: Nice, which is good news for two of you, but not the two of you that you think it is, because those of you who are not on the gate will be able to see what happens almost immediately upon Vivain and Sten, just to make sure. [01:40:24] Speaker B: Oh, no. Did I kill us? [01:40:26] Speaker A: That remains unclear. But you were the two who went through. [01:40:30] Speaker B: Yes, correct. [01:40:32] Speaker A: Almost immediately, as those four pairs of. No. Yeah, no. Rat person has feet. Snake person doesn't have feet. Those four pairs of feet land on the ground. There's a. Not a rumble. It's actually entirely silent as individual mosaic stones here begin to rattle up from the ground. Not all at once. At first it's just like a one popcorn seed going off at the beginning when the microwave's cooking, and then more and more and more, and then you wouldn't be able to see it from your vantage point. At a higher level, a pattern would begin to emerge. Eventually, you see it start to lift up in the center, the very center of this plaza. A small segment of them stop popping up individually and give way to a plinth or a column. What's in my head is the Trajan column in Rome, as it begins to push up out. And this is redwood thick, enormous around, and raising easily 50 or 60ft into the air. Hard for you to tell immediately what the very large, swirling, purpley ball at the top is for. You do not get the impression that that is good. Every single one of you will, though, feel that. Have you ever. It's a, it's a very uniquely midwest thing, I think, where when a storm is coming through, you get that electric feeling across your skin as like just something, a little bit of energy in the air. [01:42:21] Speaker C: Let me get that up here, too. [01:42:23] Speaker A: And that is the situation you find yourself in. I think, actually what I'm thinking more is when it's cold, because the dry air plus the static or whatever, there's an effect that I'm not talking about. Regardless, we've managed to communicate what is going on. This process takes probably 30 or 40 seconds, so it's rather speedy with the. This thing creates itself. It doesn't look pleasant. It's not a welcome light. This is not a disco ball that has arrived to celebrate your arrival. And you do not need to be the vain to get that impression from what is going on on. [01:43:10] Speaker C: Is that going to target us? [01:43:13] Speaker B: It might. Look at the gate. Let's see if we can open this before it does. [01:43:18] Speaker A: Okay, so for just the general sense of things that you have entered the place, whatever this thing is does take time to power up, and then it will do what it does. That gives three actions worth of time before the first of its things occurs. It's not an initiative question, so it's not really important to me which three or who three or in what order, but that is the three things. [01:43:54] Speaker B: Right? So it seems like we've got a countdown clock. Clock of three actions, and then it's gonna do something real bad to us. [01:44:01] Speaker A: It's gonna do something. I don't know if it was good or bad. It's gonna do something. [01:44:05] Speaker B: We did get a tingly, electric feeling, though, which is usually not a harbinger of good. So, yeah, I think. Do we wanna, like, is there, as Montgomery suggested, there might be a way to open this gate from the inside? [01:44:20] Speaker A: There's not appear to be any mechanism. There's no lever or button or wire wheel or anything like that. The pillars are engraved with murals or sigils and such. The gate itself is solid. And then it's got the hinges. [01:44:37] Speaker B: Okay. Can I use, like, make a culture or artistry check on this mural sort of situation to see if that reveals anything informational about, a, what may be about to happen, or b, how to open this gate? [01:44:54] Speaker A: That would be appropriate. A hindsight version of vervain would probably want to have that idea before entering the room. Because the instructions are on the outside. [01:45:11] Speaker B: No, I figured just economical speed. Like, let's give in there. Cool. [01:45:17] Speaker A: The people inside know how it works, and the people outside are the ones who need the instructions. And I know this sounds incredibly sinister, but this is just literally what I've written down, that, like, if you read the outside, it tells you how to open the gates. And I did not anticipate what has happened here. So we find ourselves in a situation where it falls to montgomery or tourmaline to make that roll. But there's something that vane, you have this idea, we'll say, like, narratively, you are screaming at them too. What does it say on your side? Unfortunately, culture would require you to have experienced this culture. Right. It reflects specifically to the working knowledge of a subgroup including the ability to analyze others or to blend in. I can say with great certainty you have no. Never blended in or had to work with the subgroup we're dealing with here. So I would actually take intellect and artistry, or. Sorry, cunning and artistry to decipher the mural. [01:46:22] Speaker E: What's the difference between cunning and intellect? [01:46:25] Speaker A: Intellect is factory call and raw mental power. Like, if I gave you a math problem to solve. Cunning is the ability to, like in the IQ test, when they're like, which of these is the next shape in line? You have to kind of rapidly piece the things together. [01:46:41] Speaker E: Okay, tourmaline, what's your artistry and cunning looking like? [01:46:51] Speaker D: My cunning's really good. And, yes, we've never interacted with anyone from this culture before. Does that mean we can't? [01:47:00] Speaker A: If you are looking for dead people in the citadel, specifically built to repel and block dead people, there's going to be a struggle, but they are outside. [01:47:10] Speaker B: That is true. Like, they are outside the barrier reign that propelled. [01:47:15] Speaker D: I'm also curious. Has everyone from the citadel died on one side of the gate or the other? [01:47:22] Speaker A: The people here have been dead for a long time. The answer to this question is inside the citadel. [01:47:27] Speaker D: I figured as much. [01:47:28] Speaker A: You're going to have to take my word for it that I have designed a scenario that exists with its own internal logic. And I am not just fucking with you. [01:47:35] Speaker D: I know. I know. My cutting's really good. My artistry is. I have done nothing artistic ever in my life. Let's put it that way. [01:47:47] Speaker E: I feel like even with that, your cunning, by itself will outweigh both my cunning and artistry. [01:47:53] Speaker D: I will try to read. I will give reading a shot. [01:48:00] Speaker E: Is your cutting more than two? [01:48:02] Speaker D: Yes. [01:48:03] Speaker E: Okay, you win. [01:48:09] Speaker D: Cool. [01:48:09] Speaker A: Cool. [01:48:10] Speaker D: I have two eights difficulties. [01:48:14] Speaker A: Three. You can get there with momentum if you want it. [01:48:17] Speaker D: I'm going to use that momentum. I don't think anyone's gonna have a problem with that at this point. [01:48:23] Speaker B: No. [01:48:24] Speaker A: It is actually a poem. It is written in lyric meter. That it's a ballad told. Not a ballad is a song, but is a ballad told in a poetic form. I suppose a homeric epic would be the right way to come across it. That tells the story of someone returning from a successful voyage into the lowest lows, and that speaking that story is how you open the door. It doesn't say that at the end of it, but this is the purpose that I'm communicating to you. Thing is, it's a lyric poem. So in the same way that you should not go to Paris, and then just randomly be speaking French. You, if you mispronounce the words, it's not going to recognize what you're saying. So with that, it becomes a performance role. [01:49:19] Speaker D: Yes. Finally. [01:49:24] Speaker A: Attached to, oh, what goes with presence is to sing. Yes, that would be presence and performance to correctly recite the ballad. But time being what it is, I'm not sure how long it takes you in terms of, like, seconds to translate this document or this text, but it does seem to me that the actions makes less sense as a measure of time, when actions can take either a few seconds or a few minutes. We will solve this problem by putting a complication on the roll. That is just a question of timing. A medium complication. So two hits to buy off, and all that determines is whether or not you manage to open the gate before the device devices or whether you open it after the device devices. [01:50:17] Speaker D: I am not seeing performance on skills. [01:50:21] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. No. Artistry falls under performance, I believe. [01:50:26] Speaker D: Okay, I thought so. I was like. I thought this is where we're going. But I. [01:50:32] Speaker A: Cool. You can probably persuade the gate, but that's not. That's not the same. [01:50:40] Speaker D: I can. I can chat up this gate. [01:50:46] Speaker A: Hey, I heard you swing both ways. [01:50:53] Speaker C: Thanks. [01:50:53] Speaker A: I'm here all week. [01:50:55] Speaker D: I got three tens, a nine, and an eight. [01:51:00] Speaker A: Well, that is excellent news for Vevain and Thorsten, because you speak the word. Well, word's plural, and the gate does spill open a lot is going to make sense very quickly. You crack the gate open and there's a rush, like wind, like backdrafts to a fire. It's enough to, like, rustle hair and clothing as this dust blows in from behind you into the location. It's not a natural wind. You can tell that based on the. The way the temperature plummets almost immediately, giving you, like, the goosebumps across the flesh. If you were wearing glasses, they would fog up. Are not wearing glasses. I don't think there are glasses in the world below, but also only you are wearing glasses. But anyway. And as that breeze, it's difficult to come with this journey. But as that breeze crosses this threshold, it begins to materialize. And you might not grasp this immediately, but in the totality of time, this wind was the thing the gate was keeping out, because it materializes into the form of long, spindly, skeletal figures, bony and black with legs, knees bent the wrong way, and too many arms holding too many weapons. You realize these figures are in the shape of the servants of the lady of rot. They are a powerful, awful, unthinking evil, all consuming tide of void that infests the lowest levels of the world below. These are not their corporeal physical forms. And when that first one comes through vivain, you become. I think you are most attuned to the chaos. So you are a closest and most attuned, and you realize exactly what that particular sensation was for. As an arc of chaos, like a jump rope being waved, forming like a sine wave, starts to ribbon out towards some of these nearest creatures. As it connects, it snaps tight, like someone grabbing both ends of a fishing line. And then the creature dissolves into air, becoming discorporeal or discorporated, I don't know. There's a word in the book that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but rendered unto its constituent parts, essentially broken down into its essential salts, the number of creatures in the dozens. This device is meant to stop the thing that you have done, or rather, to stop what happens if someone were to do the thing that you have done. The question is, is it going to run out of things before you figure out what to do about it? The second question is, you are also in the middle of these things, and they don't really appreciate the living in a way that you would find conducive to further survival. So that is where we begin, you know, two problems to solve. One, surviving this onslaught of dead, voidborn creatures, and two, not finding yourself boiled down into the elements that construct your body. [01:55:11] Speaker D: So are these void bone creatures intelligent at all? [01:55:16] Speaker A: Yes. But I will also tell you they are lethal and hate you because you are alive. [01:55:26] Speaker D: It's debatable. Cool. It would be better if they weren't intelligent. For me, that's fine. [01:55:33] Speaker A: You were angry. Ghosts of evil creatures. [01:55:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I think Devane is looking at tourmaline like the dead. That's your thing, right? What do we do about that? Meanwhile, she has her eyes trained on this chaos sphere at the top of the pillar, going, her mind quickly turning and working. How do we disable that? [01:56:04] Speaker D: Kind of gives bane this look of, like, these ones hate everyone. [01:56:11] Speaker A: There's a curious lack of urgency, considering the creatures that are bearing down on you, attempting to kill you as we speak. It's a very, very calm conversation. [01:56:23] Speaker E: It's all like a quick. It's not even conversation, just gestures at each other. [01:56:28] Speaker B: Like, right. [01:56:31] Speaker C: We just try to close the gate and get out since it started because we were in the city. [01:56:38] Speaker B: Definitely we can try to close the gate, I think. [01:56:41] Speaker E: Yeah, I think we gotta stay, though. Cause this is kind of what we were assigned to do. [01:56:47] Speaker C: Wait, Sten's just, like, pushing you say that, you know, it's probably not working. [01:56:53] Speaker A: You actually just could fuck off. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, like, the way that they've written this is, like, they didn't say. They said, go find out what's there. Come back and tell us. And if you said, moon's haunted, like, you would have technically completed your goal. And if I make this into a real, real scenario, I'll have to fix that. But. Sorry, that was. That was a small aside from maybe, like, no, wait. [01:57:12] Speaker D: Actually, we've done our job. I don't think any of us actually want to leave for various reasons. I need to find the people who've died here. I don't know where they're hiding, but, yeah, probably closing the gate. And there has to be some way to shut off the disco ball of death. [01:57:34] Speaker C: Purple Sauron. [01:57:38] Speaker D: So, first, with the gate, when we opened the gate, did it kind of, like, crack open on its own, or did it, like, how did that look like? When. After the thing was red and it. [01:57:51] Speaker A: Opened, I was, like, kicking a door down, like, you said the words, and. And then imagine, I guess the visual would be, like, you've seen, like, a magnetic door unlock. [01:58:01] Speaker D: Yes. [01:58:01] Speaker A: So it just has that kind of, like, okay, I'm loose and open now. And then the wind hit and just blew that thing open. [01:58:07] Speaker D: Okay. And second question. Are there any, like, handholds on the inside of the doors at all? [01:58:18] Speaker A: The gate. [01:58:19] Speaker D: The gate, yeah. [01:58:20] Speaker A: No. [01:58:20] Speaker D: Okay. So that probably implies we have to say something rather than trying to just physically close it. Can I try to just speak this poem again? [01:58:38] Speaker A: The poem? You can. You will realize quickly that it is the opening poem, and before we get there, there's no clue. Closing poem on the other side. [01:58:48] Speaker D: That is annoying. Okay. They've made an annoying door. Okay, I'm gonna start running the fuck around looking for culture clues while I'm assuming vivain does. [01:59:00] Speaker B: Yes. I've got enigmas and intellect or enigmas and cunning, whichever applies, I think probably cunning because it's under pressure. So I can make a role there in terms of, I guess, problem one is getting the door closed. So let's see if I can find out anything that will do that. Solve the enigma puzzle. [01:59:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Enigma wise, is this the puzzle? Sure. We can go there. You are trying to essentially deduce how this fortress is constructed. [01:59:35] Speaker E: Right. [01:59:35] Speaker A: There's a little bit of architecture, a little bit of history. There has to be a way to close the gate. Duh. But do you put the way to operate the gate next to the gate? No, you put it somewhere else. What, around here? Looks like that would be the case. In that case, yes, it will be difficult, because this is as alien a place as can be in a world that is already alien, but it is within the realm, within the capacity of your gray matter to do so. [02:00:03] Speaker B: Perfect eye. That will give me a pool of seven dye. And just while we're describing the environment, right, we've got the. The purple orb at the top of a giant column. Does it look like there is any clear way to get up to that column based on environmental stuff? [02:00:22] Speaker A: You could shimmy it, like, if you wanted to just raw grab, like you're climbing a tree by holding onto the sides of it. But there's no ladder, no stairs, no. [02:00:30] Speaker B: No handles from various thing to various thing. Okay, good to know. You want to try? [02:00:40] Speaker C: If it seems like a good idea and Vivain tells her she'll climb anything. [02:00:44] Speaker B: It'S probably not great. No, I think getting up that far is it will target you and you'll die. So that's probably a no go. [02:00:52] Speaker A: Vivain would tell you that, like, touching the raw ball of seething energy that powers our planet is probably not a good idea. [02:01:00] Speaker B: Correct. Defensive stuff. Probably very useful here, though, because if this thing goes off, you don't want it to completely incinerate you. Right? We'd rather incinerate some of the undead and not us, if that's controllable. But for the moment, I think I'm going to try to solve this puzzle. So six die. That is three successes. [02:01:32] Speaker A: Sorry? I said three is not gonna do it. Four is the target you're looking for. There's still momentum in the pool to spend that. But I will also tell you that failing this roll does not mean anything, but that it takes more time. You can come at it from a different angle or let someone else give a chance. Like that is to you. [02:01:50] Speaker B: All right, what do we think? Does anyone else have ideas of what to do next? Because I'm happy to defer and not take momentum. If we want to pivot in another direction. [02:02:04] Speaker C: Ben's just gonna keep smacking these things to try and keep them away from you guys. [02:02:10] Speaker E: It seems like. I think Vivain is on to something. I think that's the best course of action ever. The moment. [02:02:17] Speaker D: Yeah, you can absolutely go down that route. [02:02:20] Speaker B: In which case, yeah, I will take the momentum. [02:02:27] Speaker A: You'll spend it? [02:02:28] Speaker B: Yes. [02:02:29] Speaker A: Okay. In that case, then you arrive at the following. There is the plaza. Yes. And it is lined with maybe their shops, maybe they're barracks. Who knows along that, though at first, and from a distance it would look like crenellation, just like. Or something decorative, but it looks honestly a little bit like an aqueduct. And you realize maybe catching it from a new angle, you're running to the left, you're running to the right that they are not trinillations. And that is a solid thing that blocks. They are actually u shaped gouges. And it's not unreasonable that one could follow those paths to fairly blocky towers on the other side. Now, towers is exaggerating the height. Fairly blocky structures about halfway between the ziggurat and the tower. If you've ever seen a gatehouse and you understand what, like a chain locker looks like, this will make sense to you immediately. I'm assuming Vivain has, or at least has read about it. Whatever, whatever mechanism fuels, controls these things, it is based in those two towers. Problem is, there's two of them, so there's gotta be two for a reason, right? [02:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:02] Speaker A: If it only took one tower, they'd only have one tower. [02:04:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think she relays this information to the rest of the party. We've got to get to these two blocky structures and we gotta split up to do it. That is the conclusion she draws. And we have to use the aqueduct, sort of crenelated structures, to get there. [02:04:22] Speaker A: But we are in combat. So you get to decide who goes next. And I will tell you that there is an infinite number of these creatures, so no matter how many you kill, there will be more. But we will say there are only three that are capable of acting against any of you at a given time. But that means if all four of you go, then there will be three actions on my side. [02:04:42] Speaker B: I think probably best just checking in with others. Do we want to give the enemy opposing undead a go? All right, cool, cool, let's do that. [02:04:54] Speaker A: Ah, well, then Vivain has the benefit of being the one who is in motion first, according to our initiative order. Again, I'm. I cannot decide which three of you this happens to. I just don't have it in me. I am too soft a person. But that is bad dad news. Montgomery being the last one through, there are a constant hoard of them appearing right at the barrier. Right. If you are the first thing that's on the other side of that barrier, by virtue of being the last one through the gate, you are the first thing that it sees. So sees you. It does. Because this is combat. You, of course, get to roll. Your stamina. [02:05:39] Speaker E: Stamina. One. One hit. [02:05:51] Speaker A: All right, so you have defense tricks. [02:05:55] Speaker E: I do. See what we got. I'll take the dodge. [02:06:08] Speaker A: Raising your defense to two. [02:06:09] Speaker E: Yes. [02:06:10] Speaker A: Write that down. You are allowed to roll stamina. Every time something attacks you, the defense resets. But whenever it happens, you can either keep the number you have or you can roll and try to get a new one. So if you're being attacked three times in a round and your first defense is, like, really good, you can just keep that and let it roll. If it's bad, you can continue. Roll. It's a little clunky, but I think it's there to keep the players from, like, you roll bad the first time and then just get dogpiled. Right. [02:06:45] Speaker E: Right. [02:06:46] Speaker A: In either case. No. They connect with two. Eight dice, two hits, which is better than it could have been. That inflicts one injury on Montgomery. Unless you have armor, in which case your armor would take the hit. [02:07:06] Speaker E: I do. [02:07:08] Speaker A: I have added armor. Oh, so you can take two? Yeah. So one of those armor boxes gets filled up as this thing swings at you. What you notice is that that incorporeal piece of it, where it's half in and half out, means that there's part of that blade that actually swings through your arm all ghastly, and then there's another part that becomes corporeal actually inside the meat. The injury is internal, or a bit of it cuts the top of the skin, but then there is a complete, like, okay, the rest of that skin is fine, and then the next bit cuts open under it. These things are coming in and out of existence, like. Like flickering like a strobe light, is what the experience of your wound will tell you. For the second one, I'm going to give it to one of the other skeletal creatures who are going to be very interested in Sten, which is only appropriate. So Sten, you can roll stamina. [02:08:12] Speaker C: Be lucky for me. Will you like me? [02:08:14] Speaker A: Ooh. Oh. [02:08:15] Speaker C: Okay, so I have 30 stamina, but I had a ten, a one, and a five, so I got two. I probably will also stick with Dodge. [02:08:29] Speaker A: For all of them. [02:08:30] Speaker C: I will dodge, and then I don't want to dive to cover. I don't want to move too far away from them either. The whole point is that I'm trying to keep them away from you guys. So if I move away, I might. Well, no, I couldn't move away in a different direction. Okay, yeah, I'll roll away. Move away. I mean, to increase the difficulty on them. But in the opposite direction of where everyone is trying to get their shit together. [02:08:59] Speaker A: Well, we only know where one person is going so far, the vein is either going left or right. Nobody else has moved. [02:09:07] Speaker C: Okay, so I'll kind of, like, go back a bit. So if they're moving out now, in a way, I'll move, like, straight ahead on their part. [02:09:13] Speaker A: And that is the end of the second creature's turn. So we'll go to Tourmaline. I choose you. [02:09:19] Speaker D: Oh, joy. I'm a Pokemon. I'm like a darkrai. Tourmaline will notes what Vayne has learned, what Vayne has said, and is immediately going to just take the left. Not. Not gonna stumble. Not gonna. They're going. [02:09:43] Speaker A: Rush action. Pole lord is athletics and might. [02:09:49] Speaker D: Okay. [02:09:52] Speaker A: The difficulty of a rush action is always one. Unless you have purchased a trick at a different part. [02:10:06] Speaker D: I've made that one. [02:10:09] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah. I was looking to make sure that nothing else had happened, and that is correct. So, yes, you don't really wouldn't be fair to say you book it because that involves a lot of body motion when you're just more slithering in want for another more snake appropriate verb. Tourmaline does, as the Zoomers would say, a heckin scuttle away in the other direction. [02:10:36] Speaker D: They, like, their body gets much lower, and it's just all efficiency. [02:10:41] Speaker A: Yeah. As snake like as you've ever been hurtling forward across the ground, which is interesting cause then we see you going, and then the different little stones, like, popping up around you and stuff. It's got back to the anime. Did not intend for that to be the case, but it definitely is, like, camera loads the ground. Tourmaline sidewindering. There we go. While individual stones pop up around them. Well, initiative one, it's your chance to choose. [02:11:09] Speaker D: I am then going to pop it over to dad. I want to know what dad does. [02:11:20] Speaker E: Before I start making my way. I am going to use shield the gathering, I think only. Well, actually, how close am I to anybody at this point? [02:11:36] Speaker A: We know for a fact that vivain and tourmaline are pretty far away. [02:11:39] Speaker E: Okay, how close or far away is stand for me? [02:11:45] Speaker A: Sten hasn't moved and you haven't moved. So I would say that you are within. You're not long range. It would be close or short one of the two. [02:11:51] Speaker E: Okay, then this will just apply to us. To shield the gathering, cast provides energy towards their companions, ensuring their safety. Upon activation of the sorcery, the caster emits a burst of sparkling golden light within a short range of caster. This allows the caster to bestow one armor to all bodies mates within the affected area. [02:12:13] Speaker A: Awesome. [02:12:14] Speaker E: So myself instead will get an extra armor or plus one armor, I'm sure. Make sure that Sten stays up. [02:12:25] Speaker A: That'll come in handy as you hold the door. Using a thesis, resistance combat counts as the full action. But this does not require a roll because your synthesis and your theses don't unless it says you do. And this one. There you go. Well then on your character sheet, be sure to put the armor box down in there. Denote somehow that it is temporary but that lasts through the scene. Right? So it shouldn't matter. Yeah. In that case, it's your turn to choose who goes next. There's a stan and a Skelly. [02:13:05] Speaker E: Oh, no. The same way, right? [02:13:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:13:07] Speaker E: Okay. [02:13:07] Speaker A: Stead. [02:13:08] Speaker E: No. Do I want to give it to. Do I want the scalies to go last? [02:13:15] Speaker A: Uh, fuck it. [02:13:18] Speaker E: Stand stead. Stand bit. [02:13:22] Speaker C: Well, this is perfect opportunity for her to just bonk things. [02:13:27] Speaker A: Uh. [02:13:30] Speaker C: Things she's good at. So she's going to try and use. [02:13:34] Speaker A: Her weapon to bonk might and close combat. [02:13:39] Speaker C: Let's see, that is nine dice. [02:13:46] Speaker B: 56789. [02:13:50] Speaker C: Like all my dice here, we got nine. That's not zero, that's ten. A one, an eight, a five, six, an eight and a nine. Okay, so 123-4567. [02:14:15] Speaker A: That is five over their defense. So you'll inflict damage with enough room for three more. Would I be able to use it. [02:14:23] Speaker C: To just keep hitting more or would I just save some of those for momentum? [02:14:27] Speaker B: Let's see. [02:14:32] Speaker C: I have two. Would I be able to use attention to make sure that they keep attacking me and ignore everybody else? [02:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:14:43] Speaker C: Nice. She's just slamming her drill wrap. Say, hey, I'm over here, ugly. I'm personally offended. [02:14:54] Speaker A: If nothing else, by virtue of being the closest thing and making yourself the closest, closest thing, you'll put yourself in a good position. Only one person to go left. But you have used your taunt ability, so it has to attack you. And so it shall. You have the option to roll stamina or you can keep your old defense number. [02:15:14] Speaker C: Keep my roll defense? What? [02:15:17] Speaker A: You can either roll stamina again to set a new defense or you can keep your old number. [02:15:23] Speaker C: I'll keep the old one. [02:15:24] Speaker A: Very well. That is four on its part. Not the worst thing in the world. Not enough to do a critical, but it will use one to engage in a grapple. So you are grappled. Now the only way out of that grapple is to have someone help you out of it or not. Amusingly, you are both spiky, so each of you will take an injury from having grappled the other. So you take one injury from being struck and then another injury from being pulled into the bone, because it turns out the weapons aren't the only thing that are slicey and incorporeal. So you are essentially wrapped into a half in this universe, half in a different universe. Razor wire, bear hug. From there, that's the end of that round. So everyone refreshes again. I will take the action and give it to one of the skeletons who, at this point, has seen the vein and tourmaline running off. And it really wouldn't be interesting unless everyone was getting chased right between the two of you. That falls to the vein. They're going to do a mixed action, trying to both catch up with you and strike you. This is better news for you than it sounds, because they have to use the lowest pool, which in. In this case, is only six die, and then split that between the two tasks. So while I do that, you can roll. [02:17:04] Speaker B: Stamina will do. That's something I'm decent at. Not great, but decent. [02:17:15] Speaker A: Between you and me, not super gonna matter in a good way for you. [02:17:20] Speaker B: Okay. I was like, I have one success. [02:17:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So you can buy a dodge with that or do something else. I think the open up distance. No, the roll away costs one, the runaway costs two. [02:17:34] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. I'm good for rolling away. I think that's what I got, so that's what I'll do. [02:17:43] Speaker A: This is actually kind of great because it only rolled one, which is enough to pass the rush check, but have no more dice to accomplish the other things. So you've both gone quite a distance, and then you still yet managed to have opened up some more, which is good news for you. From there, I will pass it to Montgomery. [02:18:04] Speaker E: How many currently are attacking Sten? [02:18:10] Speaker A: So, narratively, they never stop coming until you solve this problem. Right. Because Sten has used their ability, then the two that are within range of that will attack them in perpetuity. [02:18:25] Speaker E: Okay. Yeah, that's what I want to check on. I'm gonna throw a flash her way to make the area overstimulating area and to cause a daze effect on those skelly bones, if that even applies. Do they have eyes? I don't know. [02:18:48] Speaker A: They have eye sockets. Does that count? [02:18:51] Speaker E: It doesn't actually say that, like, they need eyes to be affected. It just says it creates the overstimulating area effect, and a day status effect. [02:19:01] Speaker A: I was just making a funny. Yeah, throw it. [02:19:09] Speaker E: Right at her. Well, I'm not sure she's my. She's my bond mate, so she does not get affected. [02:19:14] Speaker A: Right. I'm not sure what you were expecting, but I think the outcome is actually probably not going to be on that list, because the brightness of the light bears a striking resemblance to the effect from the chaos sphere. And you have generated a sufficiently bright explosion of energy in the visible spectrum that the two who are immediately closest to sten likewise disappear. Now that's good temporary news. There will be more. But you have unlocked one of the keys to solving this puzzle. With that action, you can pass that knowledge and the turn to somebody else. [02:19:57] Speaker E: So I do that, and my assumption was just gonna be the things like are annoyed by it, but I see them disappear. I go, oh, shit. Hey, guys. Bright lights work tourmaline. Bright lights. They work. [02:20:20] Speaker D: Tourmaline is once again going to use all. All of their nests to get to where they need to go. But upon being, like, addressed as they're going, they kind of shout back. That is literally mostly the antithesis of me. And is going. [02:20:44] Speaker E: I know you can't see it, but Monka Marie gives a thumbs up. [02:20:47] Speaker A: I don't know. I like to believe you're tall enough and that there's just one flash thumbs up sticking up above the hoard of. [02:20:53] Speaker E: Or just that. I figure Tormund is so focused on running, they don't turn around. [02:20:57] Speaker D: Oh, surely seeing a future where Montgomery gave a thumbs up, it's fine. [02:21:05] Speaker A: Distance bands are a strange thing. In the world below. It doesn't do the five foot step stuff like we talked about, but it talks about more in range bands. So I, at the beginning of this encounter, said that the towers were at long range, so you need to do a certain number of actions to get there. After your first rush action, you're halfway. It would take one more rush action to get you to the bottom of the tower, and then from there, we're kind of back in narrative time. Vivain. You would need to do a rush action and then something else, because on the first one you were just scampering, which is good, because I don't know that your rush action would go super well. [02:21:41] Speaker D: I got another eight. [02:21:44] Speaker A: As in a number or as in the number of hits? [02:21:47] Speaker D: Just in the number. [02:21:48] Speaker A: Okay. [02:21:50] Speaker D: Yes. [02:21:51] Speaker A: I don't know what you've done, but that does not seem plausible. [02:21:54] Speaker C: But I would have done. [02:21:56] Speaker D: I suddenly got real swole. [02:21:59] Speaker A: You've made it as far as you need to make it. Now, the inside of this tower, when you open it up, is stringy is the word that I would use. That whatever. It's stringy. And it's vaguely biological, perhaps not in actual context, but it gives you that sense of, like, if you're saying, like, dough and like, stretched it out really, really far and it starts to the little pockets forming in it. So it's like that and kind of a coil would call to mind simultaneously, of course, rope, the obvious metaphor, but then also the bread or muscle tissue actually is kind of what you get at. And it has that same purpley here, but not texture to it. [02:22:46] Speaker D: Cool. Great. All I got from Vivain was that we needed to be in these towers. [02:22:52] Speaker B: Yes, well, I think she probably also like, insofar as you can communicate, as you're shouting and running at this same time, two per tower towers are the key to shutting door, turning off orb. That's the extent of what you got. [02:23:07] Speaker D: Great. [02:23:09] Speaker A: Half those things are true. The orb turned on before you open the gate. [02:23:15] Speaker D: That is true. [02:23:15] Speaker B: That's true. Well, let's close the gate first and. [02:23:18] Speaker A: Then we'll figure out that's a problem for future vivain. Yes, well, suffice it to say, this does not resemble anything you've ever seen before. And the skill for determining those kinds of things is technology. This is a relic. [02:23:35] Speaker D: Cool. [02:23:37] Speaker A: Technology and what hunting is probably the most accurate. [02:23:43] Speaker D: Okay, okay. [02:23:47] Speaker A: I mean, I would love to hear an argument for cunning and composure or like, cunning and dexterity. Dexterity, I would take, or, sorry, dexterity and technology to operate it. Cunning would be okay. [02:23:58] Speaker D: Cunning's good. I'm sticking with cunning. Hunting is good. Cunning is just fine. Two nines and an eight. So three total hits. [02:24:10] Speaker A: Three right on the nose to get the option. So those of you who are closer to the front gate see wobbling into existence from somewhere else, a pulsing thread of light. It's pulsing at about, say, half of it, lit up at any given time in a way that further drives home. Had you not figured it out by now what the other tower is for tourmaline. Who would you like to pass it to? [02:24:40] Speaker D: In the interest of getting this gate closed as soon as possible, I'm going to pass sensitivity. [02:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah, so a couple of things. Can I get a countdown clock check on the orb? Is it feeling extra electric y or. [02:24:56] Speaker A: Are we after you? [02:24:59] Speaker B: Okay, I guess I kind of. I just want to make sure it's not going to, like, go off and destroy all of us in a swell of what have you while I'm running I've also got this skeletal creature now right next to me. [02:25:16] Speaker A: Right. [02:25:16] Speaker B: We're both sort of keeping pace with. [02:25:17] Speaker A: No, you used your roll away, right? Yeah, I'm ahead of it. It caught up to you, and then you opened up more distance. [02:25:27] Speaker B: Cool. So in that case, I want to get to that other tower as absolutely quickly as possible. So I want to put as much of this action into that as I can. [02:25:35] Speaker A: Aka rush, might and athletics is the name of the game there. Although I was amused for what? You might have used your dodge action to roll backwards into them. That would have been. I mean, possible. Sorry, athletics and might or athletics and dexterity. I apologize. But having checked in between, you can use either of those. [02:25:55] Speaker B: Fabulous. That is much better. That gives me three at least. [02:26:00] Speaker A: I would feel worse about getting it wrong had anyone failed, but so far, no one failed their rush check, so it's a mistake of no consequence. [02:26:07] Speaker B: Cool. Yeah, we'll do dexterity. What kind of success level am I looking for here? [02:26:13] Speaker A: Oh, just one. [02:26:14] Speaker B: Just one. Wow. Threshold is met with flying colors. I get 310, a nine and a one. [02:26:22] Speaker A: Three is nice. Cannot use a roll away action when you are not in common. But suffice it to say, you will arrive at the. At the base of your tower, you see something quite similar. [02:26:35] Speaker B: Cool. I will use. Well, I can't use the action now, can I? [02:26:40] Speaker A: Because I exhausted my action. [02:26:42] Speaker B: All right, while I'm here, for the next time you're able to pull the lever. I will pull the lever. Can I sink the extra successes into bolster to give us some more momentum? Yeah, that's what I'll do. [02:26:53] Speaker A: So we have created a very interesting situation mathematically, because now that we've gotten here, I am again incapable of deciding if at random, one of you gets struck. [02:27:04] Speaker E: Right. [02:27:04] Speaker A: The machine doesn't care. You're all not supposed to be here. But also, it would be criminally rude of me to be like, oh, weirdly, it only hits the four of you. We know these things for certain. Can't hit tourmaline, can't hit verbain, you're inside. So we have five possible targets, three sets that we'll say just six. Right? We'll put the odds in your favor. It could get Sten or Montgomery, but there are also four of the things that it can hit. So I can say that on a D six, that sten is one and Montgomery is six if it happens in the middle, so that the best possible luck and the worst possible luck. Right. Praise be, you are both fine. I think vivain will say sentiment, like the narrative piece of it. Like you're looking over your shoulder toward the thing and you can hear it scraping across. And then like, as it comes across the threshold, boom. And then just like this little fluttering set of particles goes past the door and you can turn your attention to the other bits. Montgomery, having experienced the, the armor cut through, the second one charging at you again evaporates, disintegrates into nothingness in front of you. Likewise, Sten. I'm guessing, uh, with a tool in one hand and fist in the other, heading back and forth when you're ready to go like macho man Randy savage, you're actually in a grapple as well, being piled on and then electric poof. And no, you're no longer grapple. You're coated in a weird dusty substance that's kind of sticky. We're not going to talk about that, but you are now safe. The tower is not an object that gets initiative. So, Vayne, you can pick who goes next. [02:28:45] Speaker B: Amazing. Cool. So remind me, who do we got? We've got Sten, we've got skelly. [02:28:53] Speaker A: There are three skeletons, a sten and a Montgomery. [02:28:57] Speaker B: All right, I think we need to give it to one of the skeletons so we don't risk piling up a ton of action. So I'm gonna throw it there. [02:29:03] Speaker A: We're still actually in the turn where things have to attack sten until something else happens, which is good news for Sten and bad news for Sten five, which is a thing. So you of course, take one injury, I think, to your armor because it hasn't been struck yet. You also have a bonus armor from Montgomery, which is good because both of those things are going to go away. It's going to use the, you get one injury from successful hit. It's going to use the three bonus extra hits that it has to buy the critical trick and do an extra injury damage to you, which is enough to break the armor. It doesn't break literally, but like, it is no longer useful to you for the course of this, this game, I'm going to pass it then to a second skeleton because this game is not fun unless there's, there is some sense of tension and you need to feel the buckling of Sten, who is strong but also can't stand forever. And will you be able to see? Right. We need that stakes. I need you all to feel dangerous. The dice rollers. I'm not doing my job as a DM. And in that case, oh, shit. Starting out really bad, I'm so sorry. I regret having talked it up so much because that's seven. We're not going to grapple you again. That is a bit on the nose, but I can do something that is a similar level of evil without being so on the nose. So you take another injury at this point, and you need to keep track, because when your first wound tear fills up, you do start getting bonus slice. So keep track of that first one. So, yeah, so your defense is two. It rolls seven. It has five left. The first attack thing it's going to do is give a point of enhancement to its next ally. So that's one. With the other two, it's going to use shovel, and it's going to. Mechanically, you move two range bands, which conveniently, is enough to get you outside of the gate. Narratively, it is the tide of bodies and your movement that is doing this. Because the thing shoving you incorporeally into more incorporeal things does not make the exact amount of sense. So Sten is now further away as that long range from Montgomery. From there, I will give it to Sten. Fuck. [02:32:01] Speaker C: That was Sten, not me. [02:32:04] Speaker A: I mean, both make sense. True. [02:32:08] Speaker C: All right, so first thing she's probably gonna want to do is probably get back in. Being outside the gate does not seem helpful or definitely, she doesn't have any. Enough culture or cunning or anything to try and figure out anything else on the outside of the gate, if there's any more help on that end. So she'd probably just try and rush back in. [02:32:32] Speaker A: Got six. [02:32:33] Speaker C: So let's see, let's see. I got 1918, a seven, a one, an eight, and an eight. [02:32:43] Speaker B: Okay, so I got four. [02:32:46] Speaker A: Enough to solve your problem and have one left over. [02:32:50] Speaker B: Nice. [02:32:52] Speaker C: We just do something. We can do a knockdown, like me. [02:32:59] Speaker A: Very well. And then who do you want to pass the turn to? [02:33:04] Speaker C: Um, who was before me? The skellies. [02:33:08] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [02:33:10] Speaker B: Okay. [02:33:11] Speaker C: Um. Then I'll pass it to the vein. [02:33:18] Speaker B: Okay, so I'm gonna close the gate. I've got two in technology, and cunning was what we, from a skill perspective, said. [02:33:25] Speaker A: Cunning works for me. [02:33:26] Speaker B: Works for me too. Let's do that. We've got 2456 successes, which is three. [02:33:40] Speaker A: More than you need. So for those of you outside, we'll come back to your hits in a moment for your tricks, but for standing for Montgomery, you see both of these things lighting up in their channels now, very much resembling chains. The chains don't actually move. It just forms into, like, a solid visual effect, I guess. And the speed with which those gates slam shut. You blink and you miss it. But you wouldn't actually miss it because they cleave through the creatures around you that the magic inside of this gate, it not only slices and dices, it also makes Julienne black, evil skeleton creatures made of hate. So bisecting quadra secting, depending on, you know, where they are physically, these things, as they smash shut, there are, of course, a few left in here with you. Don't worry, the machine's going to take care of that in just a little bit. But you. The wind stops. The stillness is immediate as you have managed to reseal the barrier that was causing this problem. So then, yeah, if you want to take care of your hits, yes. [02:35:08] Speaker B: All right, so I had plus three left over to apply to tricks. [02:35:14] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [02:35:15] Speaker B: Okay, so let's. Hmm. I'm not actively in combat with anyone at the moment. So how far is this orb from me? [02:35:34] Speaker A: Roughly 150 yards. [02:35:36] Speaker B: Okay. I don't think this applies. There is a ranged combat trick called destroy object, but I don't think, I imagine that would be like way op to say that has any bearing on the orbital. [02:35:50] Speaker A: Oh, it's literally what I'm waiting for. For someone to throw, like a chaos rock or to shoot a magic missile at it. [02:35:56] Speaker B: I mean, you know. Well, so wait, so just to clarify, shutting down my part of the door tower wall was my action. Yeah. So this is just about applying. All I can do is apply my tricks. Yeah. [02:36:12] Speaker A: Else you're looking at a mixed action. Right. Which we had to do that before the rules happen. [02:36:17] Speaker D: Correct. [02:36:18] Speaker B: And it's more important that that happen in full than not. So, yeah. Destroy object costs two. I mean, that's fundamentally what I want to happen to the orbit. So, yeah, I think I'm gonna do that and see what it does. [02:36:37] Speaker A: There's some of those cases where I do not know if this is the correct call, but I am certainly not going to look it up. And I also think it is pretty interesting to have it happen. Right. So two points for destroy object then. I think visually what I need from you is how do you destroy the object? [02:36:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So Vivain is all about chaos. Right? She's a kayabaka. It's in her body, it's in her blood. She has this weird connection to it that makes her feel or. And makes a lot of people think she's cursed to the point that raw chaos lights up her body every time she uses magic. And as a result of that, I think, like, her way of trying to destroy this thing is very much linked to chaos. And I think it's like she's trying to weaken it, to weaken the chaos within the thing, rather than destroy, fracture the object itself. Does that make sense and work mechanically? [02:37:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, destruction comes in lots and lots of forms. And there's one thing we know about structure chaos is that it's got to keep it structured for a reason. If you unstructure it at all, it gets weird. And that thing looks pretty structured, right? Let's unstructure that motherfucker, huh? We all agree that's what she wants? Excellent. Then that action resolves as follows. The shell is structured chaos, of course, inside is wild chaos. The shell manages to direct that energy where it needs to go. This is not information you have available to you as characters, but for players, you understand now how it works. And Vivain reaches out with the power of the chaos that flows through her in brilliant purple, in unmistakable. Someone's doing magic. And you can see just like, it's not a crack, it's not a splinter, it's just a shift in color. If you're taking plastic and bent it in, you can see like, how it kind of gets a little milky where you've managed to move it around. That's what starts to happen around the edge of this. And at that point, Vivain, you'll realize just how precisely engineered and how incredibly fragile this device was. Because when you just, like, flick it a little bit, the whole thing starts to come unglued. Very much calling to mind. Now, every single movie involving an ocean where someone's like, little helmet gets a crack in it, and then the audience goes, and then it just bursts in the ocean. Ocean's not coming in. Ocean's coming out. Also, it's not water. It is the raw power of chaos. Whatever was contained in this thing now exploding outward. And the shockwave is such more than enough force to knock people tumbling backwards, snakes rolling sideways, rats knocked onto the their back with a little rat paws in the air, the small wayfish elves carried up like. Like by wires in a John Woo movie. You're making really good distance, right? Everybody knocked onto their backs or their fronts or their sides, the dust, the loud noise, all of it. And then we're at a movie, we'd be wondering, was anyone close enough? Is anyone in danger? Is Keanu Reeves going to make make it? As the dust begins to clear? And I think the final scene that we end on, and I apologize for being presumptuous, but there's no part of me that believes this is not the case that when the noise is settled and Montgomery realizes that he has not died, the very first thing you do is like, okay, everyone sound off, right? [02:40:23] Speaker E: Yes, very first thing. Guys, sound off. Okay, that's one. I'm only hearing one. Where are the other two? [02:40:40] Speaker D: Pauline, like, peeking out from inside of the building that they were in good. [02:40:49] Speaker B: Vein looks over the destruction she has wrought. I'd say that was well done also. I'm alive. [02:40:59] Speaker E: Okay, that's. Dude. Thank God. [02:41:01] Speaker D: See, now you're the one destroying things. It can go both ways. [02:41:07] Speaker B: Totally. [02:41:08] Speaker D: From inside this building. [02:41:13] Speaker A: Well, we've solved some of the problems, of course. The remit of your mission going much further than that. There are going to be many, many questions waiting for you back in Mudtown. Questions that I'm sure the vein intends to have the answers to. There are mysteries here that I'm sure Tourmaline wants the answers to. If nothing else, Montgomery and Stan are going to want to have a snack break. Right? It's been a while since the last one, so there are so many more things that this coterie of adventurers will find themselves getting up to. Unfortunately, not here with us. If you would like to hear the rest of this story, or dare say, make your own, the correct way to do that is to go to Kickstarter. Back the world below, the newest game on the storypath system from Onyx Path Publishing. Honestly, what I would love is if someone out there took this and used the characters. Or don't. I mean, it's kind of weird if you do from my mind because, like, these are real people and we didn't just write them in. Okay, nevermind. I'm. Fuck me, I'm wrong. Take em, go do it. Then come to our discord. Or come on Twitter and tell us what happened with Tourmaline and Bavain and Montgomery and stencil your campaign as they explore what lies beyond the farthest gate. In the meantime, I'm happy to brag about them all night long, but I've already talked more than most people in this episode, so I'm going to pass it on to the rest of you. And for the last time, we will use the assignment die and the initiative system with a two tourmaline as we exit. Favorite moment from you from this campaign. Mini campaign. [02:42:47] Speaker D: Favorite moment. Oh, no. Um, so I don't think it's so much as a favorite moment or as. As much as it's a favorite series of moments every single time. Uh, Montgomery has gotten to dad out over the past three sessions have been the absolute highlights for me. So it's not one, but it is. [02:43:15] Speaker A: Well, kudos to Montgomery for the dashing, daring dad do vex. If people want to see more of you being your incredibly talented self, where can they go to that? [02:43:28] Speaker D: So you can find me everywhere at Vexomniari, my name is weird enough that no one's taken it as a username anywhere. Um, all of my information is on my link tree. Everywhere you can find me streaming because I stream in a vampire. The masquerade game on sun, uh, Saturdays. Um, I'm over at dinner in a game playing monster of the week on Tuesdays, and you're actually going to be able to find me on dinner in a game, um, two more days a week coming up. Um, but yeah, so just head on. [02:43:50] Speaker A: Over to my link tree, and then it falls to you. There are no, um, story path characters in our outro, so you can pick any of the players that you want and not have to worry about enemies getting to stack actions. [02:44:02] Speaker D: I don't have to, like, call out the one skeleton that's hiding its dust. That's fine, I guess this is Jerry erasure, but I'm gonna pass it over to Vivain, to Marissa. [02:44:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I gotta say, I mean, every moment. I mean, I really enjoyed our sort of day downtime in the cave of the copper and the dripping water and, like, getting to just like, have those sorts of. Have a. Have a space for those bonds to sort of crystallize, no pun intended, between characters. And, yeah, I think, you know, on the whole, too, I have loved Tourmaline and Vivain's rivalry all the way through. I love its softer moments. I love its harsher moments. I love how we've, you know, gone on a little bit of a up and down ride here, but that has been a delight. As for me, I am Marissa. I will continue to be Marissa, probably, although all this exposure to wild chaos, who knows? I am the most critical of kittens. I go by critical kitten most places on the Internet. I'm an editor of books, ctrpgs and video games. So if you have one of those things and you need an expert editorial eye, come find me in my work at my website, www.marisapoures.com. I can also frequently be found on the Manapot studios Twitch channel. I am the vancian librarian Kiri von Hollingsworth on our show the whole in the world, an invisible sun actual play that's currently on hiatus, but we will be back in the new year every other Sunday at 04:00. P.m.. Eastern. You can also check me out on our flights of Fandom show, which is regularly every Tuesday at 08:00 p.m. It's a show where we do improvised fan fiction using our favorite tabletop role playing games. What's not to love? Come be a nerd about your favorite ip. But only some ip for now, because with the strikes on going, we are only focusing on books, comics and games to avoid anything that is struck. But that's just had to make us more creative. So come see that creativity in action and check us out. [02:46:13] Speaker A: And who gets the next responsibility? [02:46:17] Speaker B: I'm gonna throw it to our absolutely intrepid barbarian sten small bird Lex. [02:46:24] Speaker C: Like, how did I still become a barbarian while not even playing d and d? [02:46:29] Speaker B: Hello. [02:46:29] Speaker C: Hello. I am small bird Lex. You can find me at small bird Lex and small bird art. I do art. I do tpt rpg stuff. I do a lot of things. Come check it out. One things I do is you can see me play an actual barbarian in level 20 campaign. It's absurd. It's amazing. It's ridiculous. I grappled a dragon. It's awesome. Please go watch it. Spoiler alert. It's on a surfactor's channel on Saturdays at 08:00 p.m. Eastern standard time. On Wednesdays, I play a very sus wizard who might not be dead. Just saying. I don't know. We don't know that yet. But you can check that out on Phoenix Awaki at 10:00 p.m. Eastern standard time for favorite moments. I'm still. I'm still marinating because so many of the moments were so good. It's genuinely really hard to pick, but if I have to settle on one, I really liked when we were fighting with the mockery. I liked the teamwork and everything. The whole entirety of it together was just really nice. Everyone coming together and doing so well and it was just really cool. And then having that as the big moment before we just and relax. It just. It meshed so well in so many different ways and it gave my heart the brrr feeling, so. And I'll send it to Montgomery. [02:47:42] Speaker A: I do think it's important when you're running a game to let those things happen because it can't, like, just be encounter after encounter after encounter because, like, oh, it just gets like a grind. So if you don't give people a little moment, then it's all for naught. But yes, Montgomery Garrett, take it away. [02:48:01] Speaker E: Yes. Proud dad looking over his kids just basking in the glory of. They're good kids. They did good. Me being not a dad at all. That's why it's fantasy. My favorite moment is kind of going back and forth between one sten, getting to one lasso the giant millipede to pilot it, and then immediately passing off that responsibility to go fight to someone fully not prepared or knowing how to drive. I loved it. It's like, here, granddad, drive my car while I jump out real quick. Like, what took my license away? I don't know. [02:48:46] Speaker A: What? [02:48:46] Speaker E: Okay. Yeah, I think that was my favorite moment. Also, I like the ending. I imagine it's kind of us, like at the end of the Avatar beach episode, the one in the Fire nation where they burn down the house and Zuko and them are all smiling. I think that's us. We just blew up this ancient thing, but we don't care. We had fun. [02:49:11] Speaker A: Also, obvious sequel bait, right? [02:49:13] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, definitely. Definitely. Gotta tune in next time. When will next time be knows? As for me, you can find me. I write for the online publication black nerd problems. See my articles there. Come visit me on YouTube at my channel, Gearbear Stare, where we're looking at older cartoons, animation, video games, things like that. We might start looking at things more recent once the strikes are over, but until then, we're just gonna have fun looking at older animation. You can also find me at the podcast wherever you find podcasts. The vintage anime podcast where we talk about old anime, anime related things. Sometimes we'll dive into newer things, but we tend to look back at the older stuff and do a dive into those. And wherever you find me, say hi, because I had a lot of fun and I would love to meet you guys online. [02:50:10] Speaker A: Those actually some of my favorite moments as well. The only one that I would add would be the scene at the gate of the city when you were leaving and getting a sense to see how people prepare for an adventure. I believe, like most games, when you have this kind of fantasy vibe, you are at a tavern, people are drinking, someone's flirting, and you don't really get a sense of the before an adventure. I thought that was pretty interesting from my perspective. If you want my perspective on more things, first of all, what is wrong with you? Have better taste. Second, you can find them at aroninwords on Twitter or Bluesky, or many, many other places on the Internet. Minus Instagram, I am not attractive enough. And minus Facebook, I am old, but not that old. Likely you will be more interested in what's happening. Queenscore RPG on Twitter where we do announcements like, hey, we're about to play the world below. Or something else called when you lost playing beam sabers soon. That's going to be great. More vampire the Masquerade or Queen's court games literally everywhere else that allows us to have a longer username. This series has been brought to you by onyx path Publishing. Thank you so much for letting us have early access to the material, letting us muck around it. Let us get some things wrong probably, but you're not going to be mad about it. We had so much fun. Reward them for their generosity and patience with them us by going to the Kickstarter, checking it out, finding a copy for yourself. It's the I'm sure we have communicated to you, but the idea, like, you get all that crunch and grind of being in the underdark in a very like OSR way, but you don't have to deal with any of those mechanics. No one's having to count torches or literally feet of rope. It's very much we're all contributing to the narrative, playing around and creating story together. So old school vibes, modern sensibility. It's actually pretty great. Game was also brought to you by our patrons, so thank you very much to Mark and Callie and Hannah and Legacy and Ben. You are our highest tier patrons, so you get your name said out loud. The others, you mean. You know, it could be there. I'm not going to emotionally bully you into money. I'm sorry. We appreciate you so, so much. That's what lets us keep these games on. We will be back, not this crew, but a different one one week from now, but 3 hours ago. So come back. We're going to exchange the world below for the skies above with our all southeast asian space opera, Mekong. You will have seen it on twitter by now. I don't need to tell you what it is, but you're not going to want to miss it. Until then, thanks for being here and bye for now.