Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
H-Town Heroes Session 3
11 Plays22 days ago
Join our heroes as we discover the exciting conclusion of what happens at the Musique concert. Will they stop the holograms? Will Siphon save the damsel in distress? Find out now!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Superhero Game
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome, citizens, to another episode of Integrated Dice Management Presents. This superhero game, which we still don't have a name for. ah I am your storyteller, Rob Bjork, and with me tonight is a limited crew. We've got Frank.
00:00:38
Speaker
I was thinking, like, a name-wise would be an interesting to be, like, a combination of Houston and Galveston, like we were talking about earlier. so like, Halveston or Goosten.
00:00:50
Speaker
I don't like Goosten. Yeah, and I don't That's bad idea. yeah I'll be playing Calyx. It's going to be a little more fast-paced today.
00:01:02
Speaker
Maybe. We've also got with us Hayden. Hey? Hey? I'm excited to play Syphon slash Max Jr. It's going be interesting with just the two
Missing Team Members: Construction and Work Troubles
00:01:13
Speaker
of us. I assume Ron will help by playing the other two PC characters, but we shall find out. No, they were both killed by Jon Snow. It's fine.
00:01:21
Speaker
Gah! ah and john So Bill is not going to be joining us tonight due to construction workers destroying his town.
00:01:33
Speaker
um He's dealing with his own supervillain in real life right now. And Jaden is working with an even worse supervillain, the corporation of whatever company he works for. Hopefully he'll be home soon.
00:01:47
Speaker
I don't think we should say that. but if What if his corporation listens to this? I didn't say the name of the corporation. We didn't even say his last name. That is true. His last name is Kevin. um Every corporation is going to look through every employee looking for a Jaden. And also, we've got freedom of speech, okay?
00:02:07
Speaker
and This is still America. America! Just because there's freedom of speech doesn't mean that there's not retaliation. Wow. I'm going to retaliate on these nuts. Because this is America.
Recap of School Drama and Concert Chaos
00:02:20
Speaker
Um, so last episode, uh, just to refresh everybody's memory, um, we, uh, we started as we often do in, uh, in school.
00:02:31
Speaker
Um, there was, you know, some, a little bit of drama between, ah Max and Reese. Uh, they kind of, um, came to blows and Max discovered Reese's secret identity.
00:02:44
Speaker
Um, And Calix and Kevin, you know, they they stayed out of trouble and got jobs as security guards for the concert. that They all ended up going to Reese, you know, went with a date. Max thought he was going to have a date.
00:03:03
Speaker
Well, I don't know he actually told that. really think he going to have a date? Yeah. Yeah. yeah And then Kalyx and Kevin are working security. The concert was going fine until, weirdly, the illusions started having a mind of their own and the band seemed to be being possibly mind-controlled or something.
00:03:23
Speaker
um And were continuing to play music even though they seemed to be horrified by what they were doing. And their illusions started attacking everyone. um Beginning with Elsa freezing some people. And then, thanks to Bill suggesting the Pokemon theme song, um Pokemon terrorizing the fans as well.
00:03:45
Speaker
And we ended with... Calyx had just... um freed the band members from whatever was controlling them. um And one of the band members said, oh, no, there must be something wrong with music.
00:04:01
Speaker
Meanwhile, Max was trying to get Veronica out of danger.
Identity Conversation: Max and Veronica
00:04:10
Speaker
ah Victoria out of danger. And her name is Victoria, but I accidentally called her Veronica. Yeah.
00:04:17
Speaker
So I call her Veronica even though her name is Victoria, but she's chill. Yeah. um Her middle name might be Veronica. I don't know if that was a joke or not, but that might be it. It can be. Let's do it. Veronica Victoria. Victoria Veronica. Yeah. And she sometimes goes by Vivi.
00:04:39
Speaker
That's what her mom calls her, but she hates it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Her mom also hates her because she named her of Veronica Victoria. Yeah. Anyway, um Victoria was grabbed by Jester's Kiss um and transported to the top of Tower Isengard, which appeared at some point during the concert when the musicians started playing the Lord of the Rings theme song.
Concert Chaos: Victoria's Capture
00:05:06
Speaker
Surrounding Isengard is a horde of... of What are the orcs from Lord of the Rings called? The special ones. um or Are they Uroks or something like that? Or...
00:05:33
Speaker
Oh no, it's Uruk-Kai. oh no it's uru kai okay Yeah, those were the those were the special ones that are like that Saruman or whatever made what the dyslexic try to read out of mud or something.
00:05:51
Speaker
It might be like half-elf or something weird. I don't remember the whole thing, but they were created by Saruman. but There's a horde of those surrounding the tower.
00:06:03
Speaker
And... and And that's where we ended it as Max, now dressed as Siphon, was somehow across the battlefield making eye contact with JK as she holds ah Victoria at the edge of the tower.
00:06:26
Speaker
And we jump back into the action. Max, you were the last person to do something, so Kalix, what are you doing now?
00:06:35
Speaker
Um... Looking at inappropriate pictures online. Oh, God. Well, stop that. I didn't ask what Frank was doing.
00:06:46
Speaker
Frank Art? I don't even know if Kalyx can operate a a smartphone.
00:06:53
Speaker
It's very dark, like, weird game-like jokes. It's like, Game Master, I'm trying to kill you, but I want you to survive.
00:07:02
Speaker
Anyways, sorry. Yeah, so last we left off, I was in front of the stage.
00:07:09
Speaker
Just kind of... Well, no, i was on top of the stage, wasn't I? Because I just put the cages over the people's heads and one dude said, oh no, something must be wrong with Mystic. Yeah. so I thought Mystic was the band.
00:07:21
Speaker
The band is Mystic. Okay. musici but yeah Well, whatever the frick behind this. So, Mystic...
00:07:32
Speaker
I would... How would i make words to see what I think Ezek is? um so you've got a couple of rolls you could possibly do. You could assess the situation or you could try to pierce that guy's mask rolling pierce the mask.
00:07:49
Speaker
So mundane or superior? Yeah, so assess the situation is more on the situation as a whole whereas pierce the mask is trying to um directly incite that guy.
00:08:01
Speaker
Sort of. um I guess directly inside that guy, you said was what? Mundane. Yeah. Mundane. I am not very mundane. I am negative one mundane. Well, it's what I would try to do, so.
00:08:14
Speaker
You could still potentially get an 11, you know. With a negative one? Oh dear. ah Does it say what happens on a miss? It does not say what happens on a miss. So I think paul probably Calix did not pick up on that.
00:08:32
Speaker
It does say oh dear. Yeah, Calix must not have heard that. it is It is quite loud. The audience is screaming in terror.
00:08:43
Speaker
um While they stopped playing music, the hologram or the illusions that were already there are still um still running wild and attacking people.
00:08:53
Speaker
Up in the sky, there's an epic battle between some flight-capable superheroes and the the em Imperial fleet of TIE fighters up in the sky.
Uncovering the Alien Technology
00:09:04
Speaker
um Question. yeah Oh, there's other superheroes here? Oh yeah, you're I mean, it's a big concert. you know Some other supers showed up, and there's probably some others helping out in the fight too. and okay so So question.
00:09:16
Speaker
um yeah You said i I probably didn't hear, so I didn't hear what he said? or I'll leave it up to you, but you probably... trying to figure out what he means by that.
00:09:27
Speaker
um Like, he means the band he's part of. Yeah. yeah It's just the way you worded it. My brain didn't tickle right.
00:09:39
Speaker
Basically, yeah, you don't know. i guess you don't know what he meant. um Really, that's that's what it means. You just don't know um what he meant. So you didn't see...
00:09:51
Speaker
You could still assess the situation, like look around and and try and and use that one as well.
00:09:58
Speaker
Okay, um I do that. Okay, so that one is superior.
00:10:06
Speaker
Okay, on a full hit, you can ask how many questions? mark a marker potential for that one, right? Yes, mark a potential for the one. um And then ask two of the questions under assess the situation, which you should be able to see on the map.
00:10:26
Speaker
It's a very small print. You can so zoom in. yeah Yes, I'm looking for a assess the situation before I zoom in. It's on the top right. Top right. Ah, yes, yes, I see you.
00:10:37
Speaker
When I zoom in, it just makes it more blurry. Oh. Then you assess situation, roll plus superior on 10 plus. Ask two. What here can I use to what here is the biggest threat? What here is the greatest danger?
00:10:52
Speaker
who here is most vulnerable to me? How can we best in this quickly? I guess how could we best in this quickly would be one of them. Okay. What's what would the other one be? Um,
00:11:04
Speaker
what here can I use to best in this quickly?
00:11:12
Speaker
sure I'll give it to you. Okay. So I think how could we best in this quickly um would probably be get,
00:11:22
Speaker
Get one of the band members to um show you how to end this quickly. So get one of the band members to to do it for you, I think.
00:11:33
Speaker
um Would probably, at this current situation, I think that might be your best thing since you don't know what the actual problem is. What tier can I use to blank? The band member, you can use him. You can use the band member who said, oh, there must be something wrong with music.
00:11:50
Speaker
um Which that band member will say is the, we'll say that was the lead singer who said that her name is,
00:12:02
Speaker
where is it? Yeah, that's why I was confused. Aria Frost. Aria Frost.
00:12:10
Speaker
I thought, yeah, I thought, I was confused because i thought Muzeek was the band, but why would she refer to there must be something wrong with Muzeek? Um, so... It's like talking to third person, bro. Do I still have my... tendrils ah wrapped around them, or do I disconnect them from myself?
00:12:32
Speaker
Uh, that's up to you. Um... let's just say that they're still attached. I detach all but the ones around a Frozen Lady.
00:12:44
Speaker
and Okay. And i pull her towards me and I'm like, how do I stop this? And and she ah she seems she seems afraid of you um and starts screaming, please don't hurt me. Please don't hurt me. I swear it's not us. We're not doing this.
00:13:02
Speaker
i get Let me go, you monster. And she is, of course, attempting to shift your labels. um what What does that roll? I hate that it's yellow. I can't read it.
00:13:15
Speaker
You rolled beat a monster. What does that do again? I don't know. it just that She's like, monster. was like, be the monster! um When you're frightened to intimidate or count others with your monstrous form, roll plus freak. On a hit, they are thrown off and make themselves vulnerable to your... Oh, okay.
00:13:34
Speaker
So they actually... That was a miss. So mark potential. You failed... Okay, scratch everything I said. You failed to frighten her. Um...
00:13:47
Speaker
And so she, instead of screaming in fear on a mist, they react with violence, hatred, and paranoia and you suffer the brunt of it. Uh, Okay, change your words. She says, let me down, you freak.
00:14:02
Speaker
i don't Don't touch me. get these Get these gross... What are these? Tentacles? Vines? Get these off me, you monster. and And she's still trying to shift your labels. She's trying to raise up your freak and lower your savior.
00:14:14
Speaker
Do you want to accept her words? That she thinks you're more of a monster? Or do you want to reject those words? Fuck it, yeah, let's do it. You want to reject them? No, no, accept them.
00:14:26
Speaker
Accept them? Okay, so... Raise... Yeah, so your freak goes up and save her down, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna slam her face into the ground. Oh my god. Okay, you're proving her right.
00:14:43
Speaker
What do I gotta roll for that?
00:14:47
Speaker
You actually don't have to roll for that. You can just do it. She's a mundane? Uh... She doesn't have doesn't appear to resist you doing that. so um i'm just Let me see about reject someone's influence. Where the hell is that?
00:15:07
Speaker
um I just want to make sure there's nothing else you have to do for accepting it. Hold on, let look that up real quick.
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah, so you don't have to do anything. You just, yeah, you more or less are agreeing with what they said at the moment. And then you slam her into the ground. Yeah. um you how How hard are you slamming her into the ground?
00:15:29
Speaker
I want to do it enough so that she hurts, but not enough that I kill her. Okay, yeah, you do that. I want to get my point across that I need that information. Yeah, ah so I think now what you can roll is provoke someone.
00:15:46
Speaker
Um, and, uh, you'll get a plus one on the roll because you're still trying to use this person to solve the situation. Cause you get a plus one while acting on the answers to the assess this situation. So roll provokes someone, which is a superior plus one.
00:16:03
Speaker
Ah, gosh. Damn it, dude. Um,
00:16:10
Speaker
So on a miss... That's two more potential, right? I'm going to level up this fucking game. right um When you provoke someone susceptible to your words, say what you're trying to get them to do and roll superior. For NPCs, on a 10+, they rise to the bait and do what you want. On a 7-9, and on a miss, they just don't do it. ah I guess you hit too hard and she falls unconscious and she can't be provoked.
00:16:36
Speaker
fuck. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, well I guess we go over to Hayden now. Yep, we switch over to Max. What's Max doing? i So I see this tomfoolery happen over there on the stage. Do you? Because you are... I mean, I can see i can see halfway across the field. That's stage. You can see the stage, actually, because you're on the near the outside of the place, and the stage like... This thing is sort of a pit that you're in.
00:17:06
Speaker
ah pit the size of a field, but so the stage is like... So it's like the opposite of the Houston Theater instead of on a hill. It's... Yes. Yeah. Okay. So it's like you're, it's a bowl rather. A very shallow bowl, but you know, the further out you go, the higher up you are so that you can see over the people's heads down into the middle.
00:17:24
Speaker
How high up is this tower? Like the tower eyes and guard based on the movie, I'd say it's pretty, I mean, I couldn't tell you how high, but it's pretty darn high, you know?
00:17:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:39
Speaker
A few stories at least, you know,
00:17:43
Speaker
Okay. I'm going mark one of my doom signs and do dark vision. Okay. What are you trying to vision about? um So seeing all this happen and me not understanding anything that's going on, trying to take care of the main issue at hand, even though Siphon might want to choose to act otherwise.
00:18:08
Speaker
um He wants to understand... So you love this vision you want this vision to be about the um the stuff going on with Muzique, not with Tasha or with Jester.
00:18:23
Speaker
yeah um The Tower of Orthanc, which is the one in Isagar, is like 500 feet tall. Okay. All right, so the vision, mark a doom sign.
00:18:38
Speaker
um All right, so you have this this vision um of another world. You see another world. um There is an alien race.
00:18:50
Speaker
um You know, I didn't think of what these were. Actually, did I? I might have written it down. I just forgotten. Hold on. I'm
00:19:01
Speaker
pretty sure I did, actually. ah All right. So um you ah see a another world. um The world itself is, ah you know, looking at it from space, and we'll say that your vision starts looking down from space um of this other world looks similar to Earth in that it's a... ah you know, a blue planet, mostly water with land masses, you don't recognize the continents below you, which clues you in that this is not Earth.
00:19:34
Speaker
The continents are shaped differently. um You see ah spaceships um flying around the planet, ah you know, orbiting the planet, and you your vision um you step away from the window you were looking out of, um, and turn to your, uh, to your crew. Um, your crew are this race of, uh,
00:20:04
Speaker
In your vision, they're not aliens, they're just your people. um This race, but your people, ah look, they're they're pretty tall and slender with elongated limbs, and they have four four fingers on their hands and and four toes rather than five like a human might have.
00:20:22
Speaker
They look like gray Martians. They glow with bioluminescent ah markings on their skin, but they do have large Martian-like eyes, no hair. Their ears are pointed sort of like an Elf's ears.
00:20:35
Speaker
um And their skin's a little bit translucent. um So they're sort of like glowing Elf Martians. You... ah you ah you the The vision sort of fast forwards, you've completed your trip and you're now orbiting a young planet, which you know to be ah planet Earth. And you've got several pods going down to the planet, um scattering a variety of technologies across technologies across the planet, which you know the humans will eventually discover.
00:21:09
Speaker
and incorporate into their society. um You don't know exactly what the plan is. that's That's above your head. But you know the plan is for the humans to use this technology, incorporate it into their societies so that that gives your people a back door into their society when you finally arrive.
00:21:31
Speaker
The vision ends, you're back in your body, and you get to ask one question of the GM. All right. um I get to ask one question about that whole vision.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, it should be, it doesn't have to be about the vision. The vision is what happened, but your original purpose of starting the vision was to figure out what's going on right now. So you can ask a question about what's going on right now.
00:21:56
Speaker
And I have to ask answer honestly, where is that technology that's doing all this? Uh, The technology is in a room um beneath the stage.
00:22:13
Speaker
Got
00:22:17
Speaker
it. look Kallix.
00:22:25
Speaker
Wait, can he hear me? Probably not. You guys probably have at least phones. You're a team, so you might have you've got you should have some way of communicating with each other.
00:22:36
Speaker
i I doubt I have a phone on me, but I probably have like a my walkie-talkie thing. if he If you have that. I mean i don't see a reason why we don't have like earpieces, right? Yeah, I assume we have a communicator of some kind. Probably invented and or created by Jaden's character.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah, that would make sense. Alright, um, with that information, i so, I think a good, like, a comic book thing that when I do my doom sign, or when I do the dark vision, kind of like what it looks like, is my eyes turn, like, completely black, and then it looks like a, um, what's it called?
00:23:19
Speaker
marionette, right? With all the, like, a marionette plays above my head, giving me all that information. Okay. Um,
00:23:29
Speaker
And so I look at So I tap the earpiece and go, Calix, there's something in a room. you It's a futuristic tech that's doing all this.
00:23:41
Speaker
Go find it. It's underneath the stage.
00:23:46
Speaker
And then with that... um
00:23:51
Speaker
How likely do I think it is that I can telekinesis throw myself into that tower or on top of that tower? You could unleash your powers and find out. All right.
00:24:05
Speaker
I mean, would I be in the process of this? Of what? Of throwing myself? I mean, you can roll and start to throw yourself, yeah. okay um Go ahead and roll, we'll see what you get, and then we'll switch back to Frank.
00:24:24
Speaker
Damn it! And I don't see any way that you guys can use team right now, because you're on the outskirts of the place, and Kalyx is in the center, so... I guess that gets me closer. I mean, I into the crowd.
00:24:38
Speaker
guess that gets me closer i mean i throw myself into the crowd um So you toss yourself into the air a little bit ah and you see from your trajectory, you're not going um you're not going to reach the tower in a single bound.
00:24:53
Speaker
And at that moment is the moment when JK shoves Victoria and she begins to fall through, begins to fall. Now we switch back to Kalix. You just got this communication.
00:25:07
Speaker
Oh, it's my turn? Yeah. Yes. Sorry, I forgot my name was Calix for half second. Because I keep calling you. Yeah. ah Yeah, so i the and so we're originally, or last scene we were looking at
00:25:25
Speaker
Psyche. Yes. Psyche. Psyche. Siphon. Siphon. Sorry. ah So previously was siphon, trying to hurt little, and then it switches over to me.
00:25:36
Speaker
um Coming back to me, and I'm... i Because she called me a freak, I was kind of pissed, so I slammed her head maybe one more time into the ground. um And I received that communique, and i looked down, because I'm on the stage at this point, and I pick her up, look at her she's She's unconscious.
00:25:55
Speaker
And I use her to activate my skill Unstoppable.
00:26:03
Speaker
Okay. What do you mean by use her? i I use her as a my bludgeon to get down.
00:26:17
Speaker
My god, dude. Okay. You do that. go ahead and roll. Let me read this real quick. on When you smash away through scenery, through or away from something, roll plus danger. On a hit, the world breaks before you.
00:26:29
Speaker
If you get what you want on a set of knives, choose one. Marking condition, leave something behind or take something with you. On a miss, you smash through but leave devastation in your wake. Ooh, this could be bad. Okay.
00:26:41
Speaker
Let's do it. Let's roll. Fuck! Oh my god! Uh... Shit. Yeah, even if you... And for both of you on these past two rolls, even if you had spent team um selfishly, it it wouldn't bump you up enough, so um it'd still be a miss.
00:27:00
Speaker
My potential's full now. Okay, so... you are able to you'll need to see your actual um playbook so let me grab the link for that um you can start looking like at that once we uh once we're once we resolve this because you can take a level up immediately basically um uh choose one mark actually Or take something with you.
00:27:25
Speaker
On a miss, you smash through, but leave devastation in your wake or wind up somewhere worse. So you... That's GM's choice. Yeah. Yeah. um Give me just a second. I'm pulling up the thing for you real quick. Yeah. No worries.
00:27:38
Speaker
So like, I, I, I like look at her, look down and I just like Hulk smash. Like, yeah, you do that. Yeah.
00:27:51
Speaker
Masks. Okay, found... Okay, I had to find the stupid playbook folder. um You are the transformed. Okay. um And then let me grab you the link so you can...
00:28:06
Speaker
Where? Oh, share. Copy link. Should that not be in the like list of things? It probably is, but here it is now. um In the game chat. Okay.
00:28:21
Speaker
So I can either take in a new ability or... So basically you can... um So under Advancement, um you can ah take another move from your playbook.
00:28:34
Speaker
ah and Basically, you have all these checkboxes. um So some of them are take a move from your playbook. Some of them are take move from a different playbook. You can take a Doom.
00:28:46
Speaker
Interesting. Interesting. And become a doomed person. ah You can... Someone can permanently lose influence over you and you can add plus one to one of your labels. That's a permanent plus one.
00:29:00
Speaker
You can rearrange your labels as you choose and add a permanent plus one. Unlock your moment of truth or mutate further and reveal another two abilities from any playbook. Ooh.
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:15
Speaker
Uh... So that doesn' that doesn't have to happen immediately. We can resolve what's going on while you look through stuff. um Here, I'll just link you the whole folder if you want to look at all playbooks.
00:29:26
Speaker
yeah um Well, so you tell me what happens. Like, what is the ah devastation or wind up somewhere worse? And then I will decide because I have an idea.
00:29:39
Speaker
Okay. um The devastation... ah will and and there's also this which has the moves but i didn't know that one of them gave you all the abilities um so abilities you'd have to look at the actual playbooks um but anyway uh abilities are the things like telekinesis and stuff like that not the moves um the devastation so you smash your way through the floor down into this room using aria as a bludgeon
00:30:11
Speaker
um The devastation is she is
00:30:19
Speaker
brutally beaten, bloodied, and probably going to die. Wait, what? He used her as a bludgeon
00:30:33
Speaker
yeah to get through. So she's not dead yet. But she's most likely but she most likely will if she doesn't receive... medical attention very quickly. So I'm thinking the doomed. Uh-huh.
00:30:47
Speaker
Um...
00:30:51
Speaker
Is there a specific doom on here? Or is it just... No. You choose, like, what you want to be doomed as. Um... Like what you want your doomed to be. Uh, your doomed does give you powers. Being doomed gives you powers.
00:31:06
Speaker
Um... the same kind of powers that that Hayden gets. Not the telekinesis and stuff, but the doom signs, rather. um
00:31:16
Speaker
So you'd have to come up with a reason why you would gain those abilities. Like, what is your what would your doom be? um And remember, the doomed means if you don't manage to survive your doom, you die. Yeah.
00:31:32
Speaker
yeah um I was thinking like Doom I may have misunderstood what I was saying. um i was thinking like Doomed as in I just committed an act that was probably broadcast live across, you know, ah large area.
00:31:47
Speaker
Possibly. And so, you know, i was you i was seen committing a pretty heinous act of violence against this person. Yeah, if you don't want it to be the actual doomed as what Hayden has, um I mean, that part is probably going to happen, what you did, what you just said. yeah um If you want it to be linked into magic somehow,
00:32:12
Speaker
that's that's different. um Now, it could be that you're giving into this this ah destruction of yourself has unlocked more in you, um unlocked a a darkness in you that you know is is trying to break free.
00:32:31
Speaker
Maybe there's more to your mutation than you realized.
00:32:37
Speaker
because i i will The Doom doesn't have to be like Hayden's, where it's a happy jacket. It can be just like something weird. yeah Because I'm thinking that the doomed is I mean, it was live broadcast probably to large quantities of people.
00:32:54
Speaker
And I'm thinking the doomed makes sense um somehow, someway. And I do have some ideas on how we can make it work that direction. So we'll figure that out later. So besides that, um when your character this...
00:33:11
Speaker
does this um
00:33:15
Speaker
I feel like you need to take a powerful blow and see how you react to what you have just done. um So you would take a powerful blow is the one where um ah you you roll over on the right, it says conditions, and you roll that.
00:33:38
Speaker
There's a two next to that. Does that factor in somehow? Yeah. rolled another one. Are we sure the game is not fucked? cause You rolled a three plus one.
00:33:50
Speaker
No, it's it's rolling actual numbers. We're just rolling bad. why Why is there a three plus one plus two yet? So it seems to be functioning properly. It's just rolling low.
00:34:01
Speaker
OK, so on take a powerful blow. um that doesn't So what that does, actually, what you get? um A six? That's good. On a miss, you stand strong. Mark potential as normal.
00:34:15
Speaker
So go ahead and just market ah clear out your boxes and then mark again. And say how you weather the blow. In this case, it is an emotional blow to your psyche, you know like you just possibly killed someone.
00:34:28
Speaker
How does Calix weather that? like how does So I need to mark a condition along with that? Nope. You stood strong. Okay. so yes yeah Kind of a backwards.
00:34:40
Speaker
You would think if I passed No. the The reason is because you add your conditions to this, the higher you get. um that That plus two is because you already had two conditions.
00:34:51
Speaker
So basically the more hurt you are the easier it is to get hurt more by this. um So you want to roll low on this one. Got it. Yeah. And so you weather the blow.
00:35:03
Speaker
um You don't mark any new conditions. That doesn't mean that later down the line you might be, ah you know, emotionally affected. It's just not enough to cause you emotional damage, you know, in the moment. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:20
Speaker
Um, well, yeah. Uh, so how do I weather that? Um, so I slam her down, breaking through to the lower basement area underneath this thing, uh, viciously hurting her.
00:35:35
Speaker
Um, unintentionally, of course. Um, I was, I, my freak kind of let loose a little too much, um, causing that to happen.
Calix's Remorse and Redemption
00:35:45
Speaker
Yeah. Um,
00:35:47
Speaker
And in so doing, I probably look at her and I'm like, I can't worry about this right now. I have to i have to save the people that are still out there.
00:35:59
Speaker
ahha And just drop her and walk away. All right. So you you start walking and you're approaching a large... You found yourself in a hallway that leads to a large um metal door.
00:36:14
Speaker
ah You hear, you see, like, coming around the edges of the door, because it's a concert, so it's probably at nighttime. You see, like, ah ah a glowing light around the edges of the door. And Max, Victoria is falling.
00:36:30
Speaker
How far away am I from this falling Probably about halfway there. Halfway there. You have to require size order roll. Yeah. um
00:36:44
Speaker
She probably won't last several um
00:36:51
Speaker
but it rounds. um You could roll Defend someone. Yeah, I'm going to roll Savior, yeah trying to catch her with my Telekinesis.
00:37:03
Speaker
Nope, that's Superior. Get out. Cancel. Why do you have an X if you're not going to let me use it?
00:37:12
Speaker
Any bonuses or penalties? No. No.
00:37:17
Speaker
God! Oh my god. God, what the hell, dude? You know, just do a few more rolls. I just want to see if it, you know, just see what happens. But, wow.
00:37:29
Speaker
Bro, I'm telling you, there's something wrong. This happened once before, too. little better. Uh, hold on. Well, let me, I don't have any specials. There's a hit.
00:37:39
Speaker
Finally got a hit, but it was completely maxed out. Let me, i don't know if there's something on this one I can reset. The reason it was happening in vampires is because I was running a special extra script.
00:37:52
Speaker
Um, and I don't have any of that going on here. Like mod scripts. Let's just restart it anyway. I don't know if this will kick us out. Uh,
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah, there are no scripts running. so Yeah, well...
00:38:17
Speaker
That first one, though, it was a miss. I think we're just having bad luck tonight. This is what happens when the team is split. ah You know, Reese gets beheaded by Jon Snow.
00:38:31
Speaker
ah Victoria. ah So I don't have to make this all doom and gloom. um What ends up happening is um ah a another heroic figure um swoops down out of the sky seeing her and he catches her just before she hits the ground.
00:38:56
Speaker
um You don't recognize this man. He ah is um not not a hero you've seen before, but he he looks around to be about your age. um And let me just come up with ah a name, a superheroic name for him.
00:39:26
Speaker
How much of the Doom i like do I encompass? What you mean? Like, it says take a Doom, Doom Track, and Doom Sign from the Doom Playbook. But i don't get one of the I don't get any abilities. No, you get the Doom Signs.
00:39:41
Speaker
um And every time you fill up your Doom Track, you mark another Doom Sign. um the doom signs can be pretty powerful. Do I but take just one doom sign, or do I use any of them?
00:39:58
Speaker
you You start with just one. And every time you fill your doom track, you gain another one.
00:40:06
Speaker
And you'll want you'd want to, um up at the top of where it says doom, ah you'll want to choose the two things that... um progress you towards your doom, which I feel like probably injuring Innocence would definitely be one for you.
00:40:22
Speaker
um But because that's what triggered it in the first place. Yeah. Okay, so yeah, ah this masked hero, he's got a cape, he's got um he's wearing a blue and white costume with like a ah um a ah lightning bolt um splitting a cloud ah emblazoned on his chest.
00:40:47
Speaker
um And he catches her midair and lands and and lets her down and you know kind of strikes a pose. And you you're too far away to hear what he's saying. Um, I actually, you know, you're probably close up because you rolled to defend. So you launched yourself in her direction to try and catch her.
00:41:03
Speaker
Um, and, uh, he's saying, have no fear. Skybreaker will save you. Uh, and, uh, and then he, um, turns, um, looks at you and like, uh, does that like hero smile where his tooth like, um, you know, does that and shines. And then he rockets up towards the top of the tower and punches, uh, JK in the face.
00:41:28
Speaker
And she goes like flying, you know, back off the back end of the tower. um And you don't see if she hits the ground or not. course, you know she can teleport, but, you know, he... And then he goes back to fighting TIE fighters.
00:41:44
Speaker
So you just just got, um you know, not only were you cucked by Tasha's boyfriend, now you are our superhero cucked as well.
00:41:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:59
Speaker
I guess with that... um not near her, right? you are You probably landed not far away from the tower. You just didn't weren't quick enough to get to her because you're close enough to have heard him say that. Okay.
00:42:19
Speaker
And i think with that, I'm going to take your influence over her away and give it to him. um she He now has influence over her.
00:42:30
Speaker
So...
00:42:38
Speaker
And yeah, so what do you do?
00:42:43
Speaker
With that, I give her like ah like a thumbs up um And I head off to the the place where I know the where the technology is. Okay.
00:42:56
Speaker
um So, Kalyx, there is a big metal door in front of you. You see glowing light on the other side of it.
00:43:04
Speaker
Is it pulsating? sure yeah definitely and that's what i imagine yeah um all right so why is everything about you pulsating i would like to i guess unleash my power to like rip the door off its hinges okay hold on sorry i'm trying to get back to
00:43:27
Speaker
unleash power unleash power
00:43:32
Speaker
Fuck, which one is it? It's Freak. Is Freak? Yeah. Yes. ah Fuck! um Leveling up like a sliver, bitch. Well, actually, I'm thinking, i don't think you need to roll to um to do that.
00:43:48
Speaker
Because this door is, you are strong, you can break down the door without um needing to roll. i was You're already rolling, so but I don't think you need to roll to do that. Okay, I break down the door.
00:44:01
Speaker
Yeah, you bust down the door and inside you see a big, you know, huge computer console looking station and there's a holographic image floating in the center um with a...
00:44:17
Speaker
the um a ah alien face, bald-headed, um it has pointy ears, um big eyes, um and it ah it rotates in the air to face you and says, hello, Calix.
00:44:33
Speaker
And then, um
00:44:37
Speaker
let me try and think. um the who Let's see. the theme song to the Jungle Book starts playing on some speakers around you.
00:44:48
Speaker
And um the ah i Baloo the bear and monkey king guy both appear um and and start approaching you menacingly.
00:45:02
Speaker
um Yeah. So a big bear and a big monkey up appear, a big ape thing. Like, directly in between me and the face? Yeah, yeah. um Can I roll Unstoppable again to try to charge through them to the console?
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah. Alright, I do that.
00:45:24
Speaker
Hey! All right. on finally So, yeah, you you barrel through these things and they they um shatter in as as the other illusions did. When you hit them with enough force, they kind of just shatter into sparkling light and disperse.
00:45:45
Speaker
i'm I'm also going through the console. You go through the console. um ah Outside, ah all of the um the illusions suddenly vanish and all go silent.
00:45:58
Speaker
um the The crowd outside, you know they they start to realize that that the the danger appears to be over. um And and you know Max, you hear the crashing sound of something you know crashing through something down below.
00:46:16
Speaker
And, yeah, Calix, you crash through the console. um The illusion go goes blank. um And you're standing in the rubble of this this this strange computer thing.
00:46:32
Speaker
um I want to turn around, run to the body of What's Her Nuts, the frozen lady, um and try to get her to medical attention. So...
00:46:43
Speaker
um Hang on, I'm double checking something.
00:46:53
Speaker
Your...
00:46:57
Speaker
Where is it? Darn it.
00:47:01
Speaker
Actually, no. that Okay, yeah. um So you run and grab her. Go ahead and roll um defend. um So plus, roll savior. Negative one.
00:47:13
Speaker
um I will say that at this point, Max comes downstairs, he can see what's going on, he could assist you, and you could spend team... um You can both spend team.
00:47:25
Speaker
ah Basically, he'll have to do some way to help you, but then you'll also have to spend team selfishly to get this up to a success. um ah You can do both of those.
00:47:41
Speaker
I think the way it would work out is he starts helping you, but then you um you know kind of take over in some way. Let me find the the rules on um doing that real quick. So many rules.
00:47:52
Speaker
Yeah, I know. I mean, there's not that many rules in this this game. It's just we don't know them. um D&D has a lot of rules, too. All right, where's team?
00:48:07
Speaker
Spending team. Spending team.
00:48:11
Speaker
I need to add that to...
00:48:17
Speaker
Yeah, because I know you can spin team selfishly. And normally you wouldn't do these together, but I don't see why you couldn't. He's there, so he can definitely like help clear the way for you or something.
00:48:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah. um Basic moves. Nope, where's team? Well, doesn't... I keep wanting to call you psych. Siphon.
00:48:41
Speaker
siphon doesn't siphon have like a vitality drain can you reverse that uh it's not yeah don't think he can reverse that what i can do is wipe her memory of you but beating the fuck out of her but i'm not gonna do that
00:49:02
Speaker
yeah maybe that's something if you decide to do that um you could do it okay here it is um team
00:49:10
Speaker
So anyone working can spin team to help you. That's up to Hayden though, if he wants to help you and you can also spin team to act selfishly, um say how your actions ignore or insult your teammates and then remove one team from the pool and shift your labels.
00:49:27
Speaker
So ah you'd want to shift your savior up one to um give you a plus one and then something else would go down one. But, I could see this working if he starts helping you um because you ah maybe he tries to say something and you're just like rudely tell him to help you or something like that.
00:49:49
Speaker
um And I would let that that slide. Or you can just have this be a miss. um Would that end in her death? Hold on. Hold on here. yeah Is your savior really negative three?
00:50:04
Speaker
My savior is negative one.
00:50:08
Speaker
Savior. It does show plus minus three. Did you roll the correct thing?
00:50:18
Speaker
ah Maybe. Savior. I don't know why where this minus three would come from. ah did it again. ah Okay, something is wrong.
00:50:29
Speaker
Well, but it's not doing that on any of the other ones. That's weird. Hold on. I just made it zero.
00:50:39
Speaker
Minus two. Something is wrong with your savior. Huh. Okay. Just do that manually. two d six plus one. So that was Freak, which is a plus three.
00:50:53
Speaker
Something's wrong. Oh, no, I see what's wrong. um You have ah Insecure, minus two to defend. Okay. All right, so nothing's wrong. So yeah, you if you spin those if you each spend a team, um you could do um make that into a success from Vive.
00:51:16
Speaker
um So I run back, pick her up, look up, and I can't get up there. um I assume ah Siphon probably runs up to the hole and looks down.
00:51:31
Speaker
Siphon? What's up? um You do what to me? I assume you're like, you you once everything kind of calmed down up there or whatever, you come over to the hole that I crashed through the ceiling of the underground. Yeah, so I guess when you finally defeat the thing and i I'm standing there next to her body, I think I would have jumped down from the hole.
00:51:56
Speaker
Well, i I used her to break my way through. She's down there with me. Oh, okay, yeah. So I would have jumped down then. Okay, um I wanted to go back up. That's why I wanted you up there.
00:52:08
Speaker
Okay, well, I'm up there then. Well, no, i mean you already said you jumped down with me, so it's fine. I will be where you are. we can wreck wreck on it if needed, but... ah Well, I wanted to, like, run over, like, pick up her body, look up at you, and be like... I don't think... I think I would have heard the crash, and if you would have come up and out, and been like and everything stopped, him be like, okay, well, it's obviously done.
00:52:29
Speaker
yeah so And I just kept running. I run over, pick up her body, look up, and I'm like... Help me! um And I like lift her towards you.
00:52:40
Speaker
Yeah, I help. So, spin team, I guess. Yeah. I don't know how do i how I spin team selfishly, but I do that.
00:52:52
Speaker
I think I'm just gonna... I think you've been being kind of crazy this whole time, so I'll just kind of ah allow it to slide this time. Yeah. ah Plus we're down, we're you know, we're down most of the team. So like, um yeah, we'll make it work.
00:53:11
Speaker
We're still new to this. um To be fair, like i I feel like my character feels like I've done most of the shit yeah in this and this battle.
00:53:22
Speaker
So that those two teams bump you up to a 7. um It still costs you. So on a 7 to 9, it exposes yourself to danger or escalates the situation. Ooh, exposed to danger.
00:53:39
Speaker
To choose one? Like that thing behind me might be malfunctioning now because I just read um So you did get a hit now. So you get to add a team back to the pool, take influence over someone you protect, or clear a condition.
00:53:55
Speaker
So one of those three things. My connection to the server has been interrupted. Maybe.
00:54:03
Speaker
Is it Ron here? Did Ron leave? Uh... Ron's yellow. Uh-oh. He's offline not connected to Zencaster. Awesome. Well, that was a good game. ah Thank you all for listening. This has been Houston After Dark.
00:54:20
Speaker
Houston After Dark. That's the vampire game. I don't know if he can like hop back in or not. and don't think so.
00:54:38
Speaker
This has been for the most dog water rolls that we've received. why we Why are we all having Bill's rolls, bro? Because Bill's not here. He pawned it off on us.
00:54:49
Speaker
No, like the first two games we played together, I did not roll bad at all. I passed every single roll.
00:54:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:01
Speaker
Ron just said something's going on with his internet. Yeah, saw that. and don't I don't want to like end it and leave ah just because we've been recording for an hour, so i don't know if that would affect anything at all.
00:55:15
Speaker
Can y'all hear me? Yes. Welcome back. All right. Interesting. That was strange. Not sure happened. ah And the recording stayed going, so that's good.
00:55:27
Speaker
Sweet. All right. What was last thing y'all heard? um I was like, my you said the the downsides, because it's not a you know perfect pass, was either exposed to danger or something make the situation worse.
00:55:47
Speaker
Yeah. fuck a um And I said, exposed to danger. That sounds like fun. Maybe the thing behind me is malfunctioning. Uh, yeah. And then also with a successful defend, um, even a partial success, you get to choose one of the three items from the list, add team back to the pool, um, take influence over the person you protect. I don't think that would work because she, I don't think you could gain influence over her considering you're the one who hurt her in the first place or clear a condition.
00:56:15
Speaker
Um, you can I would like to clear a condition. okay um i would like to clear insecure. All right. So you clear insecure and then expose.
00:56:29
Speaker
So it exposes you to danger. So um Max is you know lifting with his powers this this the side barely alive woman. And i assume, Max, you're going to try and like get her to care, get her to help.
00:56:45
Speaker
Like, yeah okay, so Max runs off to to get her to, um you know, but hopefully an ambulance is on the way. um Actually, it's pretty quick. Once this situation has died down, What am saying?
00:57:02
Speaker
That... um
00:57:05
Speaker
what am i saying um that the Halcyon City or whatever we end up calling this town, their cleanup crew, their cleanup crew, you know, starts moving in and that would include ambulances and stuff because, you know, this city is used to dealing with supervillain attacks.
00:57:24
Speaker
um So you can definitely get her to an ambulance. um Meanwhile, ah
00:57:31
Speaker
Cole, the... So your... Calix. ah
00:57:40
Speaker
Well, it doesn't help but... Hi, I'm Cole. This does say Cole. Yeah. What? Where? the wall. Oh, it does. It does. Okay. let me So, you're over the speakers in your headpiece.
00:57:56
Speaker
You start hearing the the Imperial March. um If you're familiar with what that song is, it is... fair um um yeah um And ah behind and you behind you, you hear the... Breathing of Darth Vader um and the hum of a lightsaber comes to life as an illusion of Darth Vader appears behind you.
00:58:26
Speaker
And you... so yeah Can i kind I interject? Yes. um I destroyed the thing, right? You destroyed the thing, as far as you know. i would assume that would not generate a new thing, but but be more like, oh, okay, well, conastrop you know catastrophic damage to an extraterrestrial device would more likely cause it to malfunction in the way of like exploding, not generating...
00:58:57
Speaker
Darth Vader. You assume that you destroyed it. Okay.
Dealing with Malfunctioning Tech and Illusions
00:59:05
Speaker
um But there is now music playing over your earpiece and Darth Vader is approaching you. Yeah.
00:59:14
Speaker
Yeah. ah
00:59:19
Speaker
ah Okay. um So is it still my turn? or is it guess but Yeah, it's your turn. Yeah. Okay. um Yeah. So I turn around and I'm like, oh, shit. ah I would like to charge past him again.
00:59:36
Speaker
Okay. Unstoppable. Go for it. It's not rolling very well. Let's see happens. Hey, that's a nine. You got a nine. Yeah, what does it say on the partials?
00:59:48
Speaker
um ah On a seven to nine, choose one. Mark a condition. Leave something behind or take something with you. Okay. ah I'm to say I'm taking Darth Vader with me. All right, so you charge and you grab Darth Vader um and you you're...
01:00:03
Speaker
maybe his illusion is more durable than usual. You're not sure, but he doesn't shatter like the other ones have been. And so you are taking him with you as you crash into back through where the console is again and into the wall back there.
01:00:17
Speaker
Um, I'm trying to hit it in a slightly different place to maybe cause more destruction. Okay. Um, I think, uh,
01:00:29
Speaker
So I think what you need to do, so, okay, actually I'm going to make a GM move. i'm going to use one of the abilities here. Um, so as you, uh, do all of this, um, now, uh, the, uh,
01:00:43
Speaker
ah Darth Vader kind of starts to, as you are smashing him through what's left of this computer, um Darth Vader and the music in your ear starts to get more glitchy sounding.
01:00:56
Speaker
um And, and he starts to to come apart around you, but um blinding light is pouring out of him. And, uh, uh, the music is getting like super loud and high pitched and, uh,
01:01:14
Speaker
um you're and basically okay i'll give you your explosion now um because it basically had one more health take a powerful blow because you are down there still um so before that okay um do i realize it's about to explode Yeah, ah you think that might be what's about to happen.
01:01:38
Speaker
I would like to expand myself all over the console using my my vines and stuff to try to like keep the explosion from not hurting too many people other than myself.
01:01:51
Speaker
So go ahead for that, roll defend. Well, I was trying to clear a ah ah condition. Guilty. Make a sacrifice to absolve your guilt. Okay, yeah, but still you've got to roll defend to see how effective this is. Alright, uh, it's still a negative one. Great.
01:02:08
Speaker
Defend. Uh, fucking fail. Oh shit. Oh wow. those got ten So, on a hit, um, you keep them safe and them being the ah place and then you can clear a condition if you want. i Add team to the pool.
01:02:24
Speaker
I still don't think take influence applies because no one knows you've done this. Yeah. All anybody saw was me use her as a bludgeon to break through the ground. Unfortunately, yes.
01:02:37
Speaker
Yep. So it's it's not looking good for me, but yeah. So I'm a clear um a guilty. So you do clear that, but now the explosion happens, and now you need to roll take a powerful blow. The good news is you don't have any conditions at the moment, so you have no bonuses to take a powerful blow, and this is one you want to fail.
01:02:55
Speaker
But you didn't fail. You rolled a nine. Oh, yes. um So on a 7 to 9, when you take a powerful blow on a 10+, on a 7 to 9, choose one. You lash out verbally, provoke a teammate to foolhardy action, or take advantage of your influence. That doesn't really apply. You give ground. Your opposition gets an opportunity.
01:03:14
Speaker
I think the only one that you could take is you struggle past the pain and mark two conditions. Motherfucker. I just cleared two of them. Because you just destroyed the enemy, so the other two, none of the others really...
01:03:27
Speaker
apply uh fuck um hopeless and what else would make sense maybe afraid yeah um And you are, ah with these conditions obviously come some physical damage that, you know, has no impact on the game mechanics. But, um you know, you were just in an explosion. I'm a tree person. I'm on fire. Yeah, you're a pretty durable tree guy, but fire's not great.
01:03:56
Speaker
um And, yeah, so you're, you know, you do eventually put yourself out. um But, yeah, you are charred, burned, and broken. Yeah. um as you climb out of this hole.
01:04:08
Speaker
I would like to think that I'm still on fire and I'm just running away. Okay. Yeah. So people see me burst from the hole on fire after hearing the explosion and i I'm just going to book it.
01:04:20
Speaker
Yeah. So you're running and um you know heading probably I don't know if you're heading back towards your treehouse because you might not want to burn down the forest but maybe towards ah that towards the bay. You know, the water.
01:04:34
Speaker
I assume there's probably ah some sort of water feature nearby i can get myself into. Yeah, you wouldn't it wouldn't take long for you to find ah some something. um so I do that.
01:04:45
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:48
Speaker
So yeah, I make my way... People, soon as soon as they see a ah flaming tree person running through the crowd, they probably make my way somewhere. so yeah, for sure. I mean what make my way out of the main entrance.
01:05:01
Speaker
I'm imagining there being some sort of like...
01:05:05
Speaker
water fountain nearby maybe not in the parking lot or near this but if we're talking about the astrodome in houston um maybe one of the neighboring houses be a similar area to that yeah um yeah there there are i mean this is a big city there are definitely decorative crap like that all over the place so I could also probably just knock over a fire hydrant and hit myself with that.
01:05:29
Speaker
um I like that. I find a fire hydrant and I just break off the top part. Okay. And just just shoot myself with the water.
01:05:38
Speaker
Max, meanwhile, you are running with the unconscious and battered form of Aria. um Aria Frost, I believe was her name.
01:05:48
Speaker
Or at least that is her band persona name, you know. Yeah. And yeah, you're running with her to the nearest medical tent or ambulance or whatever.
01:06:00
Speaker
We'll say they've set up medical tents already. um And yeah, dude, I assume we just like deliver her off. One of the people's like, oh my God, it's Arya Frost. What happened to her?
01:06:16
Speaker
as they you know As they immediately... like They're asking you this, but also they're immediately in triage mode. yeah Yeah. um Yeah, so i There's nothing I can really do there, so I do head off. um
01:06:37
Speaker
What do i I guess that would have to be assess the situation if I see anything off, but...
01:06:47
Speaker
Um, no, I guess I'll just go make sure Veronica's still alive. yeah Victoria, Veronica. Um, you do eventually find her, uh, it appears that, um, Tasha and, uh, well, Tasha has found her and she's like, um, helping her. Not that Veronica's actually hurt, but she's like, you know, Veronica's kind of playing it up and, and, uh,
01:07:14
Speaker
as you do when you've been, you know, when you are an attention seeking teenager who has just been through something that, um, you know, she's definitely like, Oh, you know, like acting like she's, you know, been so crazy and, and Tasha's all ah like fawning over her, making sure she's okay and stuff. And, Oh my God, i thought you were going to die. You know, it's, it's, and, and she, uh,
01:07:40
Speaker
I don't think that Max would notice this, but it zooms in, you know, the TV show that we're in zooms in on her face as she, like, her eyes shift and see Max coming her way.
01:07:51
Speaker
And she's like, you're so lucky that Skybreaker was there to save you. And I say, honestly... Oh, Max, are you still Max? Or, I mean, are you still Siphon? No, I'm still in Siphon mode. Okay, well, she still says that.
01:08:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I say, yeah, it was a good thing that us supers help each other out.
01:08:18
Speaker
And then I look at Victoria and I go you're okay though? And Victoria, um she's like, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. um And ah she says, I saw you trying to get to me. um ah that Thanks. Thank you for trying.
01:08:38
Speaker
And I say, do you want me to make you forget all this?
01:08:44
Speaker
She pauses for a moment. She's like, no, please don't. i No. And I say, good. And I walk away.
01:08:56
Speaker
And um Tasha watches you as you walk away um ah until Victoria like gets her attention back. and then And then she returns to the ah um what we all, what we the audience know as the act of being a ah loving friend.
01:09:18
Speaker
and And yeah, so... um
01:09:22
Speaker
After all this is said and done, where do you think you guys would go? Would you meet up with each other or go your separate ways for now?
01:09:35
Speaker
Like, where would you go after all this? don't really have a base. I'm really fucked up. yeah um I would assume with Afraid and Hopeless, I probably wouldn't want to see the guys. i would probably just go back to my treehouse.
01:09:49
Speaker
Does anyone know where your treehouse is? Uh, yeah. Um, they, I probably have at some point in time shown, ah Kevin, um, Siphon. Well, yeah, we might've had like a team meeting there at one point.
01:10:07
Speaker
Yeah. No, no, I don't, I don't think other than Kevin, I don't think anybody else really knows. Well, Max, would you attempt to seek out Calix?
01:10:17
Speaker
um I imagine I would have seen him walking away. yeah i would have asked if he's good. Okay. Depending on that answer, I would have followed him. Yeah, you do that. You ask him.
01:10:30
Speaker
Hey, Calix, are you doing fine? or
01:10:37
Speaker
Sorry, I got distracted. I was reading something. um i I let the monster get the better of me again. I'm... I'm alive. was like, yeah, nice I saw that, dude. What the hell was that about?
01:10:51
Speaker
She fucking called me a freak. Everyone always calls me a freak. Like, I... Talix, we're all freaks.
01:11:03
Speaker
You don't understand. You can take... No, you don't understand. I'm the doomed one.
01:11:09
Speaker
You can take off your mask and walk away. i am stuck like this. And I will eventually die to my shit! But here you stand, alive and healthy.
01:11:22
Speaker
So I don't want to hear you bitching, so how about we both live up to our destinies and just take a chill pill. I'm trying to decide. If you are comforting and supporting each other.
01:11:39
Speaker
I mean, in our own weird fucked up way, kind of. So in that, I think let's try Max roll mundane to see if anything comes of this.
01:11:59
Speaker
So yeah, um on a hit. Now, but the thing about comfort and support is um so on a hit, they hear you, they mark potential, clear condition, or shift labels if they open up to you. So do you hear him and open up?
01:12:21
Speaker
ah Like, do you accept these words? um Otherwise it doesn't work, you know?
01:12:29
Speaker
i
01:12:33
Speaker
That's a good question. and it in Like I said, in a weird fucked up way, it is us consoling each other. yes like Because we we're both fucked. Right. right yeah and so It makes sense.
01:12:47
Speaker
I would probably turn around and be like, you you can still have a life. Live somewhat like normally, even if you are doomed.
01:13:00
Speaker
But i I cannot be anything but what I am.
01:13:05
Speaker
Yeah. How long does my life go on?
01:13:10
Speaker
look down and I look back at him and I put my really crispy vine hand on his shoulder. And I crunch one of those really dry, crunchy leaves on him. yeah And I'm like, as as long as long as we can make it.
01:13:25
Speaker
So I think you roll Mundane back at him, you know, because that sounds like you're now comforting him. And that's also a hit. So both of you can do one of the options either mark if, okay, well actually, if, um you know, max also opens up back, which I feel like you already have.
01:13:45
Speaker
um So you can both either mark potential clear condition or shift your labels. um That being said, ah Well, you can shift any labels you want. This is your choice. So just know you can't go above three or under negative two.
01:14:02
Speaker
I'm going mark potential. That way level up. Okay, nice. um I've already leveled once. um So you can change your labels. You can shift them, yeah.
01:14:13
Speaker
or Or clear condition or mark potential. So shifting your labels, you move one up and one down, basically.
01:14:22
Speaker
I'm torn between...
01:14:26
Speaker
Taking care of hopeless. Cause I feel like that's a good like condition to remove because of it. Yeah. Or if I need to shift my labels, take freak down and but mundane up.
01:14:42
Speaker
Okay. I'm um'm a, I'm a, I'm a shift labels. Okay. Freak down one mundane up to zero. and Okay. um Now, I think an additional thing is happening right now. Let me read your team of moves on both of you.
01:14:57
Speaker
um So, Calix, when you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, one um ask them if they think you're losing or gaining humanity.
01:15:10
Speaker
If they say losing, mark a condition and mark potential. If they say gaining, clear condition, shift mundane up and any other label down. So what I've heard them do in the podcast, they don't always do this in character because sometimes it's a weird thing.
01:15:26
Speaker
you can either do it in character or you can do it out of character kind of, and just say like the vibe that he's giving you. Um, but basically Calix asks Max, um,
01:15:39
Speaker
I think I'd rather do this in characters. makes sense. Especially in the... And then let's let's let's read Max's one as well just to see which one makes more sense to do first.
01:15:52
Speaker
So Max, when you share a vulnerability or a weakness, which you're talking about your Doom, you give them influence over you and ask if they honestly think there's hope for you. If they say yes, you get to mark potential and stuff. If they say no, other stuff happens. So for Calix, you ask, am I gaining humanity? And for Max, you say, do you think there's hope for me?
01:16:17
Speaker
and You two may have also already answered these questions. So yeah but we in the conversation yeah in the conversation we just had, my
01:16:28
Speaker
Me comforting him was the last thing that occurred. Yes. So he would probably be the one to respond next. And I probably respond after that. I think in the, in the theme of, you know, in character conversation.
01:16:42
Speaker
Okay. So you don't directly ask me, but I'm just going to tie it in. I guess, while we're walking off, I say...
01:16:55
Speaker
you been Do we do we want to like continue on directly from there or like be talking as we walk off and then this pops up? Whichever one works for you.
01:17:06
Speaker
ah feel it would probably be more natural it came up just in the conversation at the end of it. um Like, you know, we say a couple more things to each other and then bring up that last bit as we're walking into the sunset type thing.
01:17:24
Speaker
Because, you know, we opened up vulnerable, we stepped back, so we, you know, wouldn't, we weren't as vulnerable, but then we, you know, turned to each other at the end. you want to ask me the question then?
01:17:36
Speaker
Well, like, maybe not that question, but like, you say something, then I'll say something, then you say something, then I'll say something, or you say something, say something, and then you ask the question, then I'll ask question. Yeah, exactly.
01:17:49
Speaker
Okay. Um...
01:17:56
Speaker
So we turn, we start walking away. um I'm probably walking towards my treehouse. I don't know if you have a place to go. um But you're more than welcome going to come back with me.
01:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, the the only other place I would go is home. So... don't particularly want to go home right now. Because... That's where all the voices come back.
01:18:23
Speaker
And I laugh. Well, um I will say it it does get pretty quiet in the forest. Just ignore the chittering. The squirrels can be a little annoying.
Exploring the Forest and Treehouse
01:18:34
Speaker
Bro, how do you not have squirrels looming your chest right now? And like looking in your looking in your vines and stuff? At a character, i really kind of want it to be happening, but also... ah that's That's what I was trying to get into. I remember that conversation. Yeah.
01:18:47
Speaker
Like me me and Ron talked about earlier, and like as much as I think that would be funny, um I just don't think we can work it in and make it still a pretty, like, legitimate thing. If you can you work it into a move you get at some point, you know.
01:19:03
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, there's one where I can do minions, so I might do that when yeah well i get that but I get that power. um You know, at at some point I might start taking them with me, but I have had some luck in... Oh god, what's the word?
01:19:21
Speaker
Grafting. I've had some luck in grafting some wisteria, some of my own wisteria to some injured and or dying squirrels. So you'll you'll you'll get to meet Bucky and Tooth.
01:19:36
Speaker
Bucky and Tooth, you named them both after teeth. That was that was the plan.
01:19:46
Speaker
It's just... You gotta... whenever you live alone and there's there's no one left, you you make some interesting companions.
01:20:00
Speaker
Does your room smell...
01:20:04
Speaker
Does your room smell? ah Do I need to walk in with a black light?
01:20:12
Speaker
It's kind of earthy, um but that's just because it's a tree. um Right. I mean,
01:20:22
Speaker
to be honest, I don't know how we're getting into this natural conversation. Well, I thought like two, two back and forths ago would have been a good spot, but like whatever you, wherever you find that you can slip it into the conversation. If you just feel like you can slip it in first, slip it in first, you know, go for it. And it's a good thing. It's a good thing. We're talking about a conversation here and not something else.
01:20:45
Speaker
Of course, anybody listening to Ron in real life is like, I don't want to know what's going on. Yeah.
01:20:54
Speaker
So when you share vulnerability weakness with someone, ask them if they think you're losing your game humanity.
01:21:00
Speaker
I talked about the squirrels. ah The room smell smells pretty earthy, to to be honest, but that's more of a it's a tree than anything else.
01:21:13
Speaker
I just I don't know what I don't know what happened back there. She she just got up to me and I just I just snapped. I feel like I don't know. I feel like I'm losing my humanity.
01:21:30
Speaker
I mean, we all have our ups and downs and whatnot, but the last two missions that we were on, you're solid. I mean, you act on the complete opposite. there's There's going to be times. I mean, granted, I don't know what it's like being a giant tree walking tree believe it not this is this is wisteria vine funny story I'll tell you about it later well not so funny my dad beat the shit out of me and dropped a plant on me and things happen so
01:22:10
Speaker
but I'm sorry about that but yeah I think you I think you're pretty solid. mean, we're all gonna have our ups and downs, but this just was a down, but you had two ups, so you're in... At least you have one up more left.
01:22:28
Speaker
Well, I appreciate it. Net gain so far. And so, that sounds like he said you are not losing, so yeah um clear one condition and shift mundane up and any other label down.
01:22:43
Speaker
I'm clearing Hopeless. Mundane's going up one. I'm taking...
01:22:53
Speaker
I'm taking Superior down. Okay. And i I turned to you. like, I appreciate that. yeah I know we probably don't get much time to talk like this on most of our missions, so it's good to talk with somebody that shares similar...
01:23:12
Speaker
Maybe not necessarily fate, but a similar situation as I am.
01:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, and speaking of fate, I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do about this whole thing. All I know is that when that gesture woman pops up, she always pops up at the most inopportune times and messes with the whole situation what's going on.
01:23:37
Speaker
Why did she do it? I don't know. But Yeah. like ah Today, i get there i couldn't I couldn't get to her. I couldn't save the stupid girl that wouldn't run away in the first place. She was too busy staying in the middle of the action when she knew she was just a stupid mundane.
01:24:00
Speaker
It falls down to like when you are trained to react as we have been trained up to this point. like we We know how to handle stressful and difficult situations, and sometimes people don't so't know how to do that.
01:24:21
Speaker
It's not your fault that the way things went went the way they went. you know You did your best. I did mine. i feel like we as long as we keep trying our best, we we can survive this.
01:24:43
Speaker
ah So that sounds like he does think there's hope for you. So if they say yes, mark potential or clear one box on your Doom track.
01:24:54
Speaker
Mark a potential. Well, I've already leveled up, so I guess I'll just take another potential for an extra round. Can you send me my level up thing?
01:25:05
Speaker
Yeah, it should be the same link that I sent Frank earlier. or Okay. One of them. Oh, that's way up there. um Yeah. I'll just... have I got it. Okay. No, you're not kidding. That's way the fuck up there.
01:25:19
Speaker
Yeah.
01:25:22
Speaker
There it is.
01:25:26
Speaker
um See, I liked how we we did our best to incorporate that into the conversation versus just... Yeah. Oh, no, I agree. I mean, it was hard. Like, it's the first time we've tried to do it that way.
01:25:40
Speaker
um Or the first time we've actually tried it at all. But I feel like that's a good way, like, kind of lead the conversation as necessary. But it worked out really well. And so I think what will probably what happens next, um you guys probably go to his treehouse and, you know, you guys just hang out for a while.
01:26:00
Speaker
And I'm thinking ah for the moment, we can... do your leveling up stuff and figure that out. And I know, you know, maybe we can do a little bit of world building like you were suggesting, Frank, yeah um since we've kind of solved this part of the mission, unless there's like any specific scenes y'all can think of that you want to do, um you know, before, you know, before we're done.
01:26:23
Speaker
um I would like to like the approaching the tree house thing. Okay. Yeah. So I'm going to take over the the lens, the camera here for a second. So as we walked off into the sunset, it kind of cuts over to us making our way through the forest. It's probably nighttime.
01:26:41
Speaker
um
01:26:44
Speaker
Hopefully one of us has some way to illuminate our path, but I basically know the way back to the street. You've cell phones. Yeah. Well, I probably don't. I've got the communicator and that might also, yeah, I'm so i'm sure the communicator probably has a flashlight function.
01:26:58
Speaker
Don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. anyway Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. All right. So, you know, walking through the forest, we come across, as we move deeper and deeper into the forest area, the the sounds of the bugs and things kind of stop.
01:27:14
Speaker
um maybe ah an owl hoots and then you start hearing some chittering from the trees. If you glance up you see some distorted, it still looks like a squirrel, but it looks like a squirrel made of vines.
01:27:29
Speaker
I'm like, that's Bucky right there. um And then if you don't say anything we just keep walking past that over to, you know, maybe another couple hundred feet we make it to the treehouse.
01:27:41
Speaker
um And from the outside, you see a tree that's clearly been grown to have a space inside of it. um There's like glass windows.
01:27:53
Speaker
um I call it my greenhouse or my tree house. Both work um because I'm a plant person. But if you look closely, there's like a broke down...
01:28:07
Speaker
pickup truck in the grass next to it. There's no road, there's just a broke down pickup truck. A lot of the like wind chimes and other decorations look like they're made from like bits and bobs reclaimed from rubbish pits and things.
01:28:21
Speaker
um And as we lead up to the door, you can clearly tell the door is just a piece of bark that I've carved with a ah happy home, happy life, like slogan type thing.
01:28:34
Speaker
I open it. You walk inside. i have some sort of like lighting system rigged up using some solar panels. um And as the lights come on, it's ah it's a pretty run down, pretty shitty, shoddy looking place.
01:28:51
Speaker
OK.
01:28:53
Speaker
So, you know, we get to that point and like, well, welcome. it's It's not a lot, but it's mine and it's yours if you want it.
Character Growth Reflection: Questioning Influence
01:29:06
Speaker
That's a weird way to say that. It's yours as long as you would like to stay.
01:29:15
Speaker
And then, you know, if you don't want to say anything, then that can be like seen.
01:29:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean... I guess I would just be chillin' with buck and tooth. Yeah. um So...
01:29:35
Speaker
So while we're at the treehouse, we're sitting there talking, um and i I just begin fashioning you know a sword and or shield from a log i had found in the forest.
01:29:50
Speaker
And Max is just watching you do this. Oh, yeah. I just watch you, like, morphing 50 times like a Skyrim character in front of me.
01:30:00
Speaker
Spins around circles really fast, just T-posing. Yeah, I'm just like, ah, you're awake.
01:30:10
Speaker
You're trying to cross the border. Oh.
01:30:16
Speaker
oh
01:30:19
Speaker
How'd they catch you in a bunch of trees? Couldn't you just blend in?
01:30:25
Speaker
You're not what I expected.
01:30:30
Speaker
But yeah, so... Impenetrable armor and signature weapon. I think it sounds good. Alright, well... We can either go ahead and call it a night or discuss world building stuff or, you know, whatever.
01:30:46
Speaker
I'm definitely down for some world building if y'all want to do that. I mean, don't we have to ask questions like, did we grow or? Oh yeah, we can go ahead and do that. um So the end of session questions.
01:31:00
Speaker
ah So end of session. Um,
01:31:05
Speaker
you did So, Calix, did you grow closer to the team, grow into your own image of yourself, or grow away from the team? In this case, the team is Max.
01:31:18
Speaker
I would say grow closer to the team. yeah like Even though the battle itself was definitely, it definitely felt like personally, like i was by myself, I realized after the fact that I'm not alone.
01:31:31
Speaker
Yeah. So, um give influence to that character and clear condition or mark potential. So I'll add that for you. Max is the influence. did not currently have influence or He did not currently have influence over you.
01:31:48
Speaker
Siphon is the influence. Oh, yeah, Siphon, because you don't know his identity. But i you know what I think is funny? Our little shouting match that we had was probably seen by a lot of different people.
01:32:00
Speaker
Especially some supers. yeah Yeah, you're probably right. They're like, what the fuck are they doing? Walking down the Green Street yelling at each other. After session building, dumbass.
01:32:12
Speaker
You're super, don't you know this? Yeah. And then the same, and then, yeah, you can either mark potential or clear condition. um because i don't I don't think that made me less afraid. Well, less afraid to be alone, maybe, but I feel like mark potential is...
01:32:28
Speaker
ah
01:32:32
Speaker
I think it's going mark the afraid because like I thought I was alone and now I'm not. So I'm going to do that instead of marking a potential. And then Max, same three, grow closer, grow into your own image or grow away.
01:32:46
Speaker
Oh I
01:32:50
Speaker
don't know. It's either growing closer or growing into my own image. Which one do you think makes more sense? ah So I feel like your image of yourself was somewhat um over these past two sessions, probably shaken. bacon So I don't think it was that because you were shown up.
01:33:15
Speaker
a few times. you You accidentally hurt Rhys, you know, Tasha did her usual to you, and then you were you failed to save someone.
01:33:26
Speaker
So I don't think you... Well, never... It's not that i I'm not good at saving people, I'm just good at engaging the enemy. True. You tried to save someone, but you also failed at it. So i don't know that that means you grew into into that image.
01:33:45
Speaker
um Whereas gro is closer grow closer to the team is an easy one for this because you both grew closer to each other.
Max's Surreal Encounter with the Clown
01:33:52
Speaker
Yeah, I'll take growing closer to the team. I mean, you can argue that shaking his foundation would have also helped kind of push him towards understanding himself more, though.
01:34:02
Speaker
Possibly, yeah. Yeah. yeah So do I mark potential or what do I? So that one is, if you grow closer, it's um you give influence to that person and then you can either clear a condition or mark content potential, which you. Okay, I'll mark potential and I guess I already.
01:34:21
Speaker
So, so I mean, I need to do add for Kalix.
01:34:29
Speaker
Now, question. With his his basic identity being shooken, like you mentioned, would he not be growing more insecure about himself? I mean, sure, but that's not ah something that is forced by these moves.
01:34:44
Speaker
um These end-of-session moves. All right. Will do. And then, also, ah you now, at the end of every session, answer the question, did you make progress on defeating your nemesis?
01:35:01
Speaker
Uh, that's I think. Did i I don't think you did. um no Yeah, someone else punched her out, so you mark your doom track.
01:35:12
Speaker
Alright. Um, you guys are sitting there chatting with each other, and, um you're working on making this sword and this shield, and then all of a sudden, um, Mac, or Siphon, uh,
01:35:29
Speaker
explodes as if he were um you know those those cans the can with the snakes the the ex like exploding snakes oh yeah po of um things so that he explodes and those things fall fly all over them the the room of your tree house or wherever you guys are sitting and in his place is just one of those um jack in the boxes and the little lever is slowly turning playing the
01:35:58
Speaker
the you know, um slowly doing that. ah Meanwhile, Max, matt you know, without your mask on, you find yourself in a...
01:36:14
Speaker
ah Initially, it is a a dark, a void of darkness, which slowly solidifies into a ah green...
01:36:25
Speaker
field, we'll call it, um sort of a green field that seems familiar to you. um You hear the sound of of children um laughing in the distance, and off in the distance you see like kids running and playing in this field.
01:36:41
Speaker
um Nearby you see a cottage, an inviting-looking cottage, there's smoke coming out of the chi out of the chimney, um and you see a figure inside.
01:36:56
Speaker
I walk to the cottage. Inside, you see a clown. um He is ah
01:37:07
Speaker
very creepy looking. And he's making he's he's ah standing in the kitchen. um He's kind of facing the door. He has his back face to you. And you see his like hand is kind of rotating and he's holding metal...
01:37:21
Speaker
a a metal um large metal bowl. um And he turns and you can kind of, because of the angle, you can see in the bowl that he's like making, mixing cookie dough.
01:37:34
Speaker
um It's like, Max, Max, welcome. Welcome back. Please have a seat. I know it's been a while. um It's so good to see you again, my boy.
01:37:46
Speaker
And, you know, he motions for you to sit down. And I sit down like, are you the Prince of Houston? No, and then and and i I say, welcome back.
01:37:59
Speaker
I don't... What do you mean? Who are you? Where am i And he makes like face and he's like, I'm wounded. i can't believe you don't remember me. oh Do I remember this? And and so you...
01:38:12
Speaker
you remember the strange recurring dreams you have, which start off pleasant and then turn into a nightmare that you have on a regular basis ever since your childhood, since around, you know, maybe 10 years old or so.
01:38:29
Speaker
And I, I guess i i go, I go, wait, this has to do with the nightmares that I have. he ah He smiles and says, um shame you see them as nightmares. That was the night that you and I were bound together.
01:38:51
Speaker
Bound together? What do you mean? Well, where do you think your powers come from, boy? you didn't you didn't You didn't think you were just born that way, did you?
01:39:06
Speaker
i mean, I try not to think about it, but they come from you? Yes, of course they come from me. And he's he's still trying to be somewhat friendly sounding, and he he he turns and um grabs a ah ah baking sheet and sets it on the table and starts like plopping cookies onto the, you know, like putting the dough onto the sheet ah and stuff like that. and um He's like, of course, you're you
01:39:38
Speaker
your so your soul is destined to to return to me one day.
01:39:45
Speaker
My soul? what you mean? Why do you have control of my soul? Randy Smith is in the background just stirring some he um bad. He pauses for a moment and says, because, Max, a deal was made and you are mine.
01:40:09
Speaker
So you get my soul, then what happens? You'll live here for forever as one of my children.
01:40:17
Speaker
Sorry, I already have a mom and dad. I don't think I can have a second dad. i don't want that. his eyes grow dark, and um and the the the light around you, you know, the the building around you, like...
01:40:30
Speaker
hurt like Turning black would be like the wood seems to glow black and um and i and he says, you don't understand, Max.
Confronting the Truth: Max and His Father
01:40:41
Speaker
You've got no choice. You belong to me. Your time on the earth is limited. get I your father made a deal. The deal cannot be broken. My father.
01:40:54
Speaker
And he he he starts to laugh and you start to like spin in the air in this weird spiral thing. And then back in the real world... um I think when that would have happened, i think I would tried to have it lashed out.
01:41:09
Speaker
Okay. um
01:41:12
Speaker
Go ahead and directly engage a threat then. Roll danger.
01:41:20
Speaker
Wow. Oh, fuck yeah! Yeah, so he doesn't expect that. you um You lash out. What you do find is your powers don't seem to work, but you can still physically lash out at him.
01:41:34
Speaker
um Oh yeah, UFC fucking yeah kick him in the kneecap. I think he's going to unmark his doomfrak for that one. That's a net. well ah Well, I mean, it's going to be cleared out anyway. um i you You kick him in in the knee and he goes down for a second.
01:41:54
Speaker
and and then And then he just starts maniacally laughing, grabs you by the throat, um and then tosses you through the wall. um You go flying ah and you fly into the blackness of the void.
01:42:09
Speaker
And then... pop goes the weasel, the jack-in-the-box opens, and you you like you pop out of it, and and and you know the the the box itself kind of disappears as this is happening, but you pop out of the box and and I guess land on top of it, but it's no longer there, and you now mark your next doom sign.
01:42:29
Speaker
Okay.
01:42:33
Speaker
So I have just one doom now? No, no, no. clear the doom track and then mark your next doom sign. Sweet. um What does being able to use an adult move, like what does that mean? um So the adult moves, if you look on the map there, um the adult powers are they're basically more powerful versions of your regular powers, of the regular moves.
01:42:58
Speaker
I don't see the adult abilities on my character sheet. They're not on the character sheet. It's on the ah on the map. yeah So you've got all those basic moves. Yeah. um And so du news the Doom, does it give you only access to one? Or can you just use that? I think it gives you access to one.
01:43:20
Speaker
um
01:43:24
Speaker
Where is that?
01:43:27
Speaker
Mark your Doom track to appear in a scene. Oh, mark your Doom. Oh, OK. Well, you could use any of the adult moves. um You just have to mark your Doom track any time you do it.
01:43:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:43:43
Speaker
So basically they are just more powerful versions of the existing basic moves.
01:43:55
Speaker
I think using the appear in any scene with anyone you want. That one sounds fun to play around with. Yeah.
01:44:07
Speaker
Yeah, i'll I'll mark that. So the um portal one. Backstory, backflash.
01:44:13
Speaker
Yeah. And then when I pop up, I guess I immediately use that, and I'm like, I gotta go. And then you see me vanish again, guess. And then I'm standing in front my dad.
01:44:24
Speaker
Okay. um So Maxwell Cox Sr. is... ah is walking out the door to your house and then you appear in front of him and he stops, appears startled for a moment, and then and then ah quickly recovers himself and he says, I see you you've discovered the truth, my son.
01:44:54
Speaker
You know, I was planning on taking this very chill and just map it up to I had a psychotic break in that last fight, but now you just fucking admit it? What the hell is going on? um You sold my fucking soul!
01:45:07
Speaker
ah So he is going to... um
01:45:14
Speaker
How do I want... I think he's going to... Well, first, he's going to smack you upside the face. ah Take a powerful blow. um Go ahead and roll that.
01:45:26
Speaker
um That's the conditions one.
01:45:30
Speaker
Where is that? It's on the top right. Just roll conditions, basically. Oh, there it is. yeah Take powerful blow. That's good. um Mark potential, and um on a miss, you stand strong. Mark potential and say how you weather the blow.
01:45:45
Speaker
Okay.
01:45:51
Speaker
So I guess I do get conked. Yeah. And like, it's like a solid hit. Oh yeah, he's got vampire strength. Yeah, but I let like to just stare him in the eyes and I say, I've been hit harder by girls.
01:46:04
Speaker
In the bedroom. I'm trying to think if that's if that's a ah move. um It's only provoke if you want him to do something in response to that.
01:46:22
Speaker
Um, no, I think that's just part of how weather it. And he ah kind of smirks a little bit and then says, um he says, you, ah he says, you were always ah disappointment to me.
01:46:41
Speaker
Born, born with nothing, just another mundane. I made you strong.
01:46:50
Speaker
Thanks to me. you married mom who was a mundane smart move, dumb ass. Um, he glances back over his shoulder towards, you know, the inside to where your mom would be. And she says, she, she was simply, i married. What you had your day card for a mundane? What would I say? uh, she, she,
01:47:19
Speaker
is a part of my past, but the future is more important.
01:47:26
Speaker
And um you've never, like, you don't know your dad's a super. Yeah, that's why I'm trying. um Yeah, that's why I'm not, like. Yeah. And he says, she is a part of the past.
01:47:37
Speaker
i The future is what matters. I, ah yes, I sold your soul and I gave you the strength. ah My hope is that you'll stop being a child and you'll overcome it.
01:47:52
Speaker
ah For now, though, You to do really well in in bringing me up to this. You know, you just let me run around for a long time without teaching me all these powers that I supposedly got.
01:48:03
Speaker
You know, the future, you left just like a fucking cat in the house. Just let it roam free. Looks like the future really isn't too important you. And so starts to laugh and says, you've got it all wrong, Max. You're not the future I care about.
01:48:18
Speaker
I sold your soul. for something far more important. You are nothing. You are just a child who's playing at being a hero. um And, and he is currently trying to shift your labels by raising your men mundane and lowering your savior.
01:48:34
Speaker
um You can accept or reject his words.
01:48:39
Speaker
I reject. dan So roll, roll reject.
01:48:45
Speaker
Okay. That's yeah. ah All right. Good, good. You, you reject. And I think, when When that happens, I think I just like walk inside okay and I find mom. um So hold on. Let me ah see what happens when you reject.
01:49:01
Speaker
When you reject, on a 10 plus, choose two. um Clear a condition or mark potential by immediately acting to prove them wrong. Shift one label up and one table lump one label down of your choice or cancel their influence and take plus one forward against them.
01:49:19
Speaker
We'll say all that one more time. I took a potential. So you did the potential one. ah So you'll have to immediately act by proving him wrong if you want to do that. um Which I think the walking inside and ignoring him count.
01:49:34
Speaker
um Because he's like, oh you're you're nothing. I'm like, all right. And I just walk off. And then your other um options are... I'm not letting him do his Mojo Jojo speak. Yeah, basically your other options are you can shift your labels. So one goes up, one goes down. Or you can cancel their influence and take plus one forward against them. So that's a plus one ah for your next roll against them whenever that may come.
01:50:00
Speaker
No, I'll take the potential for now. No, you get to choose two. Oh, yeah um yeah, I will take the remove influence and plus one next time. So I'm going to add under your I am influenced by and say max not influenced, max senior plus one forward, just so we remember that.
01:50:27
Speaker
um
01:50:31
Speaker
Yeah. And so, yeah. um And he watches you. yeah You know, he turns and watches you walk in. um If you look back, he won't be there.
01:50:41
Speaker
um Obviously, he leaves whether you look back or not. But if you look back, he's not there.
Family Dynamics: Planning an Escape
01:50:49
Speaker
And I'm like, Mom, did you did you know of any of this? I know you heard it. We were shouting like baboons out. She is looking at you with confusion um and says, what what was all what was all that about?
01:51:09
Speaker
What do you mean? and and she looks past you and sees that he's gone and she's like, and then looks back at you and like, what why were you two fighting? I don't understand.
01:51:23
Speaker
i was going to give the benefit that they, the benefit of the doubt thinking i had a psychotic break during the last fight i pop up in a another dimension with a clown he tells me dad sold my soul to him i pop up confront dad dad admits to it without me even saying a goddamn word out of character and now here i am out of character i forget did we pre-decide if your mom knew about this or not I don't think we ever really discussed that.
01:51:56
Speaker
Okay, yeah. Okay. So we will decide right now with how you react on this. Yep. She's like, Soldier Soul, what are you talking about?
01:52:07
Speaker
and like had apparently sold my soul to a clown from another dimension.
01:52:15
Speaker
She looks very confused. Um...
01:52:21
Speaker
I think you could pierce her mask if you want to, you know, insight that. Yeah, I'll try that. Any bonuses or anything? No.
01:52:32
Speaker
Damn it. Miss. Okay. Yeah. So you don't get to ask any of the extra questions, but yeah, she seems, um you know, very confused by all all this. She's like, I don't wait.
01:52:45
Speaker
you Okay. You're saying your father sold your soul and you were in a fight. Yeah.
01:52:52
Speaker
Yeah, we just came back from a fight from... What was it called? The...
01:53:00
Speaker
The music concert. Yeah, the music concert. Sorry. um I was trying to figure out how pronounce music again. I don't understand. Why were you fighting?
01:53:14
Speaker
Dead soul my soul. I now have powers who come apparently from The... that thingy, the giant evil clown.
01:53:27
Speaker
that She starts mumbling and says, oh god. I have powers, and I can do things like this, and I just shatter a vase that's on the wall with my telekinesic power. Yeah, that frightens her for sure.
01:53:39
Speaker
um And she like shies away, and and um um and she's like, oh like oh no oh no we
01:53:52
Speaker
we i don't I don't really understand why your father would do something like this, but but if if what you're saying is true, then then we need to get out of here.
01:54:03
Speaker
um let You should pack your bags. We need to get out of here. we'll we'll go to I look at her and I say, Mom, I'm sorry that I scared you. You can go.
01:54:15
Speaker
Go back up to Vegas. Visit family. I need to stay here. No matter where I go, I will put you in danger. And I'm I'm not leaving you, son.
01:54:27
Speaker
I'm not leaving you, Max. Mom. Look, I understand. I'll call. And I know I'm trying to be the adult. But the thing is, Dad now knows I just came in here.
01:54:44
Speaker
So either you stick with Dad, who sold my soul. And how did he disappear so quick? His car is still here. By the way. like, I don't know. you're Your dad.
01:55:00
Speaker
Seems always seemed normal. Maybe a little distant, but normal. Like distant these past few years.
01:55:12
Speaker
And. and Maybe I can talk to the Superviewer Agency. Look, I. let me call your uncle. um And she she pulls out her cell phone and she's like, you know, he works you know he works for Aegis. we can We can call him. Maybe he can can get us some resources. um but yeah mean so So her brother... um What do you want to say? have a name for her, but let me log into different Roll20 because will have it there. And her brother, um he's just he just works for Aegis. He's not like a field agent or anything like that, um but he works for them.
01:55:51
Speaker
like That's a common job in the world. He probably works in unlike the customer support department or something. Yeah.
01:56:02
Speaker
He works in HR. Brenda Cox. Here we go. andda Brenda, Brenda. She has
01:56:13
Speaker
Jared, who is three years older, and Charlotte, who is one year younger. Jared, let me call your uncle Jared. He works for Egypt. hes I'm sure he can get us in touch with someone who can help.
01:56:26
Speaker
like Mom, i don't know I don't like what's going on with that You should probably disappear with Uncle Jared. and I have somewhere I can disappear to. She says, Max, look, listen to me. youre You may have these these powers now, but but you're my son, and it's my job to take care of you.
01:56:48
Speaker
um And she is now trying to shift your labels and raise your mundane and lower your... I think it would not be danger. I think it would still be freak.
01:57:00
Speaker
um So, no, she doesn't want you to do something dangerous. So she's trying to raise your mundane and lower your danger. um Do you reject her influence or accept? I will try to reject.
01:57:16
Speaker
Alright, so on a miss... on a miss...
01:57:24
Speaker
If you accept, okay... When someone over influence tells you, okay, when you reject on a hit, you hold yourself on a miss, their words hit you hard, uh, mark a condition and their GM will adjust your label. So that doesn't mean your mundane is going to go up. You rejected her, her words hit you hard, but because you rejected her, it's not going to shift in the way it would. You have to mark a condition.
01:57:49
Speaker
um and I think your freak will go up. because she was trying to bump that sort of thing down, ah your freak's going to go up, and your mundane's going to go down.
01:58:01
Speaker
So, yeah. I think I'm going to take angry, because I'm yeah trying to talk to an adult. The adult is just not listening.
01:58:17
Speaker
And then, yeah.
01:58:24
Speaker
I'll bump your freak and mundane real quick. Unless you already did. No, I did not. It's bumped. um And... ah Yeah, so what do you... How do you respond to that?
01:58:39
Speaker
I guess... The words do hit you hard. Because she's like, I'm your mother, it's my job to take care of you. And you're rejecting that, so... I guess I take it hard. As in the way of, like...
01:58:54
Speaker
I realize how much
01:58:58
Speaker
how much like emotionally this is and just like turn into a little boy who hugs
Max's Emotional Realization
01:59:05
Speaker
his mom. Okay. Yeah. Are you sure you'd be angry then and not like guilty or something because you felt bad about rejecting your- Yeah. Now that I act that way, I will take guilty.
01:59:18
Speaker
And you don't agree with her words, which is why your mundane didn't go up and all that. But um you still love your mom, you know. Yeah. yeah And she says, we'll figure this out, Max. just Just don't do anything rash.
01:59:31
Speaker
i I'll call your uncle and get his advice. And, um you know, and then she... ah I think that's a good place to end that scene. Okay.
01:59:42
Speaker
okay At least with your mom. Now, if you want to...
01:59:47
Speaker
Really added like an hour onto this whole pitch. Hey, that's fine. i mean um Frank's just been sitting there chilling with the Skrulls this whole time. He's like, damn. And then, meanwhile, back at Calix. Calix, what did you do when... ah Or do you want to talk about what you did or do you want to end it? Like, whenever Max vanished again. ah So, I probably...
Calyx Ponders Max's Strange Behavior
02:00:10
Speaker
You know, I assume the...
02:00:13
Speaker
entire interaction he had with the extra dimensional demon person was just the do to- do to do that whole that was that popped he came out I assume yes so I would like i kind of sat there for a second looked at it and I was like the fuck and for you for you it only lasted as long as the little song you know Right.
02:00:38
Speaker
Yeah. I was thinking I probably would have, like, took that outside just to be safe, but since he popped out of it, I'm not going retcon that and say that. I just left it there and was, like, kind of speechless for a second. I might have tried to contact ah the other two with the communicator and be like, hey, me and... Syphon just turned into a... Jack in the Box. and Syphon chilling and... Jack in the Box. Jack in Box and...
02:01:03
Speaker
not not the Not the fast food place, but like a legit jack. At that point, you like probably popped out from the jack in the box. You're like, i have to go and disappear again. i'm like, yeah, the the facial expressions you would see me wear is, well, considering I wear a mask, you don't fucking know.
02:01:18
Speaker
But the voice I had was anger and surprise.
02:01:27
Speaker
So that's yeah if if you could have picked that up without rolling, that's what you would get. Yeah. well At that point, when you returned and said, oh shit, I gotta go. And he just appeared, I'm like, uh... He came back, and he's gone again.
02:01:43
Speaker
false This time he vanished again, but no box. No box of stuff. yeah I'm probably like, okay, and so I just kept whittling away at my story. You're just like, why does he get the teleportability? What the fuck is up with this? I'm in three, and he gets to move around. um Which, by the way, you portaled, so you have to mark your doom track.
02:02:04
Speaker
Yeah. yeah ah for I thought I kept one up there, but I forgot i guess I didn't.
02:02:12
Speaker
Yeah, either that or just for some reason didn't take.
02:02:17
Speaker
But yeah. and mark Marking this portal is going be fun, bro. Just like, vanish. I love the way that it words. It's not that you can just teleport places. You appear in a scene with anyone you want.
02:02:31
Speaker
So you're always teleporting to somebody, you know. Oh, do you know what's going funny as shit? What? i it's just like all of a sudden actually look like that you're now Deadpool you break that fourth wall and appear in whatever scene you want to be yeah no I appear in Tasha's room at like 2am like you fucking bitch yeah um
02:02:59
Speaker
yeah um
02:03:03
Speaker
she she's like talking to a group of friends or somewhere and I just pop up in the middle of their conversation, literally in between them. Like, I need to talk to you.
02:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, you could just do something like that. Of course, we will save that for another episode. episode Yeah. I probably finished with Ling my... my somewhat magical somehow sword and shield out of the magic piece of what I found.
02:03:29
Speaker
um And that's, yeah, i probably probably make some food, um feed the squirrels. Do the squirrels now have to eat um crushed eggs and and stuff like that too?
02:03:43
Speaker
Dude, did you know squirrels eat a lot baby birds? Like, that's a thing they do. I'm not surprised by this. they're They're omnivorous. Like, apparently a lot of animals, like deer, eat baby birds all the time. Like, a lot of Herbivores just eat baby birds. Fuck the baby birds. Dude, it's wild.
02:04:05
Speaker
But yeah, they probably still function mostly as as like the squirrels do. So they still forage and shit. But like, I probably do make a make a mixture of high nutrient like paste.
02:04:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And if I have some like basic connection with them, so i'm like, dinner time. yeah And I put that out the window for them, and I close it, and I put my little bathrobe on, and I grab my cup of steaming water.
02:04:42
Speaker
You know that's true. You could have just chosen the minions thing um as your level up. I could have. a Maybe next time. yeah but yeah so i I have a pink bathrobe that goes like halfway down my body. It's kind of tattered. I put that on get my cup of water, and I'm sipping on it while reading a newspaper I found that's kind of <unk> missing some pages.
02:05:04
Speaker
if If you drink tea, isn't that you know on some level cannibalistic? I said it's hot water. like three times if you If you were to dose your own... Plants are cannibals.
02:05:18
Speaker
Plants are cannibals. They'll eat anything. The the soil is you know biodegraded. and but as like as As a sentient tree, how do you process? How do you cope with that?
02:05:30
Speaker
I'm still human at my core, so it's probably not that big of a deal. We discussed that he possibly has a fleshy heart and maybe a fleshy dick. the dick part was a joke wow that was a joke but um but he's at least got a a heart core you know like yeah a core of humanity is still inside me so yeah it might be a heart there might be a spleen or maybe it's tooth but i have some some humanoids bits still inside of me you know it's great um
02:06:05
Speaker
I have one more potential to go before I level up again. Yeah, sometimes you level up a lot. I thought was going to hit two levels up in that one fucking fight because it was going poorly.
02:06:15
Speaker
yeah So the reason that it didn't explode the first time was it still had one one condition left to mark. But it made sense that you would have destroyed the computer. So I wasn't like, well, but um I was planning on it coming through your phone the whole time. So after that.
02:06:34
Speaker
I gotcha. But yeah, so then they just, you know, I finished my night and I probably lay down in, in silence. I mean, you probably get a text from me later when Uncle Jared mom and I are hanging out. I text you. i'm like, or I send a communication off to you. and I was probably already asleep by that point, honestly, because it was, you know, probably pretty late because it was after the concert.
02:06:56
Speaker
Well, if if you hear a whispering from, from wherever you keep the communicator, I'm like, I'm like, Calix. Calix? Wake up, you tree bitch.
02:07:09
Speaker
ah Calix! Do trees even sleep? I roll over. thought you just photosynthesized. i'm I'm still human at my core.
02:07:20
Speaker
I roll over and grab it. Yeah, with your fleshy dick, answer the communicator. I roll over and grab it, and I'm like... Siphon, it's one in the morning. Three in the morning, I can count. Three, whatever time it is. i'm not I don't have an alarm clock.
02:07:37
Speaker
I just rise with the sun. I usually set with the sun, too. So, what you need?
02:07:43
Speaker
Sorry about that. There was just a lot that happened. just want to you know that ah everything's not great, but talk to you later. And then I just need laying up. Okay, well, I'm you know here for you talk. I play Mikasa as Tsukasa.
02:08:01
Speaker
You say that as you... yeah life and And that just like trails off. but That's the end of the episode. Yeah. Beautiful. We have had like two endings of this episode. It's weird. All right. Well, in that case, um the official. Thank you everybody for listening.
02:08:17
Speaker
Did we want to do world building? i think we're good. um Yeah. Because I've got a meeting in the morning too. so Oh shit. That's right. It's almost 10 o'clock for you.
02:08:28
Speaker
so It's almost nine o'clock for me, but I need a shower and stuff. Oh no Poor Juan. Poor little Juan. Dude, I haven't showered in like a week, so I need a shower. You haven't showered in a week? What the? how What? I don't sweat. I don't sweat here.
02:08:44
Speaker
I wear PPE. Yeah, but you're spraying Termidor. but I don't care. um i've I've got to build up my voice. I'm not going to judge If you're not stinky, if your wife still wants to love on you while you're unwashed, I'll let you do whatever that dirty foreskin wants you to do. Showering is actually good for you. so um I can say that this sounds a lot like a Caveman.
02:09:12
Speaker
What?
02:09:15
Speaker
it's It probably hasn't been a week, but... um During wintertime, I've i've probably gone a couple days without a shower. yeah I will say. It's been a few days, though. All right, we should probably... Yeah. Let me not stop wearing our dirty laundry. I'm just going to put all that... Yeah, Ron, stop wearing your dirty laundry. just going to put all that in the bloopers anyway, so it's good.
02:09:37
Speaker
Yeah, so um thank you everybody for listening to this. um I feel like it was pretty good episode with just the two of y'all. um I was your storyteller, Ron Bjork, and you can email me at idmroleplay at gmail.com.
02:09:56
Speaker
We also had Frank. Hi, was Frank. I played Calyx. ah I am Frank. i was Calix.
02:10:07
Speaker
um i I had fun tonight. I hope you all enjoyed the listen and excuse our rather late end of day
02:10:20
Speaker
Hi, Jinx. You can find us, or you can find me if you look hard enough on social media. I am out there on a couple different platforms. Good luck.
02:10:32
Speaker
I do stream on the IDM roleplay
02:10:37
Speaker
Twitch.tv, the ID and Roleplay at Twitch.tv Twitch dot tv t whichitch thing occasionally on Sunday mornings. That's Sunday in Houston, Texas time.
02:10:51
Speaker
ah Starting sometime around 8 to 10-ish for a couple hours a day. Or that day. So if you if you feel like watching me do poorly at whatever I'm playing, then please come and join me.
02:11:05
Speaker
And Hayden. Hey, it was a good game in the last half when we actually succeeded in our roles.
02:11:18
Speaker
But yeah, I knew was a good game. I really enjoyed it.
02:12:19
Speaker
Thanks everyone for listening. The intro and outro songs you heard today was Fox Soul Revolution, created by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 license, Creative Commons.com, licenses by 4.0.
02:12:34
Speaker
The night is over, and have a great day, everyone.