Stace Babcock [GM]: Welcome to Explorers Wanted. We are a weekly Numenera Actual Play podcast. Except for this week, we are a Claim the Sky podcast. I am your most excellent and holy, GM Stace Babcock, and with me today is Samson Davis. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I finished my coffee. Now I need to drink water. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Boo. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Boo. Stace Babcock [GM]: I moved on to energy drink number two. I am not a role model. Alex Finn. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: So do dogs have dark vision like cats? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Mm-mm (negative). Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh, good thing I leave the light on in the hallway then, when I'm streaming or else his little ass might fall down the stairs. Fuck. Stace Babcock [GM]: And Daniel Andrlik. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I'm trapped on this ship, this living ship with strange alien life forms. Stace Babcock [GM]: Word. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: We are your co-hosts, Dan. Stop calling us that. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Get back in the editing closet, Dan. Stace Babcock [GM]: Daniel, what dice are you using today? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, I am using some fancy, beautiful, metal dice from Die Hard Dice. They are red and orange. They look like flames with shiny gold letter. They are beautiful. Stace Babcock [GM]: If someone else was interested in purchasing those dice perhaps at a discount, Sampson, what could they do? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Well, they could go to Die Hard Dice, who makes those aforementioned flaming dice, and they could use our dice affiliate code, explore with an exclamation mark at the end, and they get 10% off their order. A whole-ass 10%. So do that, please. Please, God do that. Stace Babcock [GM]: Awesome. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: And when you guys are listening to this, it'll probably be January. We're not 100% sure if our code will change in January, but if it is, we'll put it on our socials, but it should be the same. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: It'll also be in the show notes if you can't get to social. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: And the Discord? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: And the Discord. Yeah, explorerswanted.fm/discord. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Bah-damn. Stace Babcock [GM]: Cool. Well, thank you Sampson. And of course this is episode two of our Claim the Sky one shot. So what happened last time? I am going to ask not to be repetitive. Daniel, I just want to hear you, your specific recap. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. It was a combat episode. Stace Babcock [GM]: All right. The end. So now, post-combat. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So, we were in a toy store initially getting beat upon. Prince Roogy, Sampson's character got threw out a window. Professor Perilous got shot up real bad, real bad. Alex's character, Even Steven, despite really not wanting to be there and doing their best to try to sneak away, got all the hostages free. There was much battle. Professor Perilous killed a fair number of people. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: The fair? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Some goons scared away the Shrike, the super-speed villain, and most likely killed Minder, the super villain that seemed to be leading it. He used his dark energy to do a lot of damage and make sure that she didn't escape. Roogy found a bomb downstairs while everything else was going on. Roogy dug through the Earth, came up like a mole, but didn't come at the right spot, which makes sense, because moles don't see very well. And then Steven ran down to help Roogy as Roogy was moving the bomb around using his amazing strength. And then Steven actually flew into the bomb, deep down center as a tiny little wasp to diffuse the bomb. And diffused the bomb, and then we had a flashback where we got to our sort of shitty to middling introductory base as part of a newest hero franchise. Very importantly, our number is 69420. And we were introduced to a minivan and told that we would be going to the toy store to talk about being a line of action figures. We were told that there'd be more stuff to discuss when we got back. We were told nothing could go wrong. And we were told that we would definitely be discussing the 401k plans when we got back. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. Yep. And we ended on a real cliffhanger, retirement planning. What happens next? Okay, so the flashback ended, and we go to the next phase in our comic book. We turn the page, and we're in a shitty basement storage room. There's a giant hole in the wall, not the one Prince Roogy made, but one made by a gigantic drill, which right now Prince Roogy is fiddling with. Even Steven is somewhere in the vicinity of the bomb that he just frantically diffused. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: And vomited in. Stace Babcock [GM]: Vomited in. And Professor Perilous, kind of leaning against the wall and taking a breather. So what do you guys do next? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I just thought of a name for our base. Just popped in my head, the Swole-hole. How does that sound? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: This is Alex, the person making this noise. Oh. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: No? Don't like the Swole-hole? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I think that could work. I mean, it's a very nice and clean phrase, Swole-hole. I think there's nothing wrong with it. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: It should discourage unwelcome visitors. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Because we're so swole, right? Swole in our hole, yes. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. You got it. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Is that, is there still that smell? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Of vomit? Yes. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: That was mentioned last episode. Not the vomit, the kind of smelly, smokey thing. Stace Babcock [GM]: It's fading, but it is strongest where the drill penetrated the wall. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh, that was a drill. Okay. And the child mannequins, are they still there? Stace Babcock [GM]: They are. And in fact, now as you're looking around, you notice other limited franchise runs of action figures featuring such heroes as Doug the Bug, Crass, and the Albatross. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I feel like my nephew really wanted Doug the Bug last year. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: So what happens now on the surface? Do we just go home? Do we put the privatized security force? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Did we actually ever get our meeting about the action figures? Or did we just walk in on this? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: No. We walked in on this, I think. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, well, maybe we should find the store manager and have our meeting. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Should have that meeting, because that's how we get paid, right? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I think so. I think it's all about merchandising these days. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. And we can tell them about the Swole-hole and how you can buy our three action figures together and get your own Swole-hole to put them in. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's a good tie-in, that's a good plan. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Wait, are we telling people about our secret base? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: We don't have to tell them the exact details. They just have to have a Swole-hole big enough to fit all three of us. Stace Babcock [GM]: That's going to take some time. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: That might be difficult with Prince Roogy. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Because you're going to what? I'm going for a stretch now. It'll be fine. *laugh noises* Stace Babcock [GM]: Since I am a kind generous, beneficent person, I'm going to say that this might be a good time to rest. Take a little break? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I think we were rolling recovery rolls as well. Stace Babcock [GM]: 10 minutes? So he can... Just thinking about things. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah, just do my 10 minutes. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Are we only going to have 10 minutes, Stace, or is an hour in the offering? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. An hour can be in the offering. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay, cool. Shit. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All those ones and twos. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah, exactly. I ended up, so that was two recovery rolls of which I got a whopping six, no, five back. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I got eight back for, I barely recovered that might, some damage. Damaging. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: And that was just me putting it into intellect. My mind is still dog shit right now. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Prince Roogy is fine. So I think Prince Roogy is going to go wander around. Stace Babcock [GM]: Upstairs? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Yeah. See what's up. Stace Babcock [GM]: I mean, if you guys are just wandering around the toy store, you guys can be doing that for the hour, or for part of the hour, but yeah, Prince Roogy can go up first. And as you emerge back into the store, you see that Aegis Security has moved back in, into the store. There are dozens of officers moving around. There's forensics teams in. They have everything secured. There are guns everywhere. And as you emerge, you see the person who is apparently in charge. She's a tall, blonde woman wearing a gray Polo tucked into navy blue tactical pants with a little badge on her belt. And she seems to be the one giving direction. You do see Mr. Mendoza over in the corner, wrapped in a blanket, talking to a plains-clothes, you assume investigator of some kind. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Roogy will go over to the blonde lady. The Aegis Captain official? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. Captain. So she looks you up and down and she says, "Ah, you're one of the new ones." Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: No, I've been here for a few weeks. Hey, we found a bomb. Do you want us to just take care of that? Or do you want us to just throw it in a river or something? What do you want done with the bomb? Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, we will send in our specialist to disarm the bomb. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh, too late. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Okay. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Too late. Stace Babcock [GM]: Or to disassemble the bomb. Oh, hello? Who are you? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I'm Steven. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, Even Steven. Yes, I saw your dossier. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: There just might be a little bit of vomit in that bomb. So, bring gloves. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Are you sure you want to disassemble it? Because we could just take it. I'm sure we can find something to do with it. Disassemble safely. Stace Babcock [GM]: Professor Perilous, no, we will be taking possession of the bomb. Of course we have secure storage. We'll take possession of it. We'll store it in our secure vault. We'll dispose of it. Maybe a controlled detonation, whatever needs to happen. Yeah. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Sure. Sounds like a good plan. Where's that again? Stace Babcock [GM]: I think I'm not going to tell you where our secure vault is. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Well, why? Aren't we supposed to be here are protecting the town. Won't you need our help at some point? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah, yeah. You're here protecting the town. Of course you are. We take care of the day-to-day security. Honestly, there's nothing that really rises to the level of superhero intervention. We could have handled this here today. We appreciate the assistance, but going forward, just wait for a call from us before you get involved. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. Stace Babcock [GM]: I don't know why the Society of Seven keeps sending franchises here. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: For toys. Stace Babcock [GM]: Toy sales are... Yes. Yes. We're we're looking into a line as well. They are profitable. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I mean, yeah. That's- Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: It's going to be difficult because you guys all look the same. You're all wearing the same uniform. You get what? Maybe two figures banks out of that? Stace Babcock [GM]: Well, I mean, of course you have your special response team, security officers. You've got your standard security officers. We have cars. Those are cool. I don't know why I'm talking to you about this. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. But unless you start putting little labels on them, how are you going to tell who's who? Stace Babcock [GM]: It's not a superhero line. It's just a first responder line. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Are you sure? Oh, wait a second. And Professor Perilous says, "I guess you could try to make your own mini-based combat game, I guess, with all of them. You could sell those to people. You could sell it them, undecorated, have them paint it themselves." Alex Finn [Even Steven]: What you really need is the base that clicks the numbers. I think people enjoy that motion of clicking. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. It's a good business plan. I mean, you guys should look into that. Stace Babcock [GM]: Thank you for your business advice. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Otherwise, you're just going to end up just like a bunch of little plastic Army men in a bin. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. If you need a model, I can shrink down real small and do some poses. Stace Babcock [GM]: I'm going to make a mental note of this, but I'm going to be honest. Unless you guys can survive more than a month, I won't be taking business advice from you. Franchises, they come and go all the time here. That's why Aegis Security is here to see to the continued safety and security of beautiful Venture City. Now I am going to have to ask you to leave my crime scene. We will reach out to you when it is time for you to be interviewed by one of our investigators. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: All right. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Why would we need to be investigated? We were here by your invitation. I'm just going to say it. Stace Babcock [GM]: I didn't invite you. What are you talking about? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: For this meeting. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, the store invited us. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: Well, your meeting's been postponed. I would come back. I would reach out to your point-of-contact and try to come back tomorrow or the next day. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Hey, what's your name? Stace Babcock [GM]: Captain Samantha Slaughter. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Awesome. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Nice to meet you, Karen. Does somebody remember where we parked? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh, I think it was underneath Prince Roogy's fall. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: No, that was one of their cars, and Roogy points at Captain Slaughter. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh, thank God, because I don't have insurance. Stace Babcock [GM]: We will be sending you a bill for that. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Don't you have insurance? That's an act of God. I'm sorry. It's an act of God. We can't help you. That's what we're supposed to say, right? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah, getting thrown. I mean he was thrown by somebody else. So if there's a liability case, it's really against Minder. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Stace Babcock [GM]: All right. Well, our lawyers will talk to your lawyers, and let me walk you to your vehicle. Let me just make sure you safely arrive at your minivan. Well, she doesn't know you have a minivan. At your super-car. And she walks out Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. Just give me a minute. I need to use the bathroom first. Stace Babcock [GM]: Sure. Go ahead. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: As Professor leaves the room to do whatever he is doing, he just hears, "Hey whose boots are these?" At the various boots that are just lying on the ground still. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I mean, if there's nobody's boots, I guess they're our boots now, and we can just use them in the Swole-hole. Stace Babcock [GM]: Those boots are evidence. Thank you. All right. Professor Perilous? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Professor Perilous comes back a few minutes later. Stace Babcock [GM]: Interesting. All right. So, Captain Slaughter escorts you guys out to the parking lot, obviously if you guys want to go. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yes. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Wait, does the Odyssey have a remote, a key remote to lock it? Stace Babcock [GM]: Sure. That seems normal. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Okay, because then Steven is going to be pushing the lock button constantly to see if it'll do the little beep-beep. Stace Babcock [GM]: My after-work ritual. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Can there just be three cars left in this lot? And Steven is still... Stace Babcock [GM]: So as the Odyssey beep-beeps, you can see across the small parking lot, a few blocks away, the Aegis headquarters. And just as you approach your vehicle, you see a massive explosion balloon out at approximately the 18th floor. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: That wasn't me. Stace Babcock [GM]: And Captain Slaughter's radio immediately just starts going off. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Professor Perilous leans in close to Prince Roogy and kind of under his breath says, "Now, that is poetic." Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: What? Way too loud. What poetry? Stace Babcock [GM]: You hear over the radio, "We have an incursion at headquarters, all units report to headquarters. The vault has been breached." And- Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Told you. Told you need to share at some point. Stace Babcock [GM]: Captain Slaughter swears and looks at you guys and says, "I am...," oh God, what is it called? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Pissed? Stace Babcock [GM]: What is it called when someone takes over your car? Not carjacking. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Commandeering. Stace Babcock [GM]: I'm commandeering your mini van. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I think this is actually a carjacking. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: We could just drive you there if you want. Stace Babcock [GM]: Fine. Let's go. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I guess, yes. Steven's going to drive. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. You guys start leaving immediately, so the streets aren't too crowded yet. But as you progress towards this skyscraper, you do see more and more Aegis Security cars on the road, sirens blaring, whatever. But you manage to pull up in front of the front doors. How does Steven pull in? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Very cautiously. Stace Babcock [GM]: You- Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Like a full parallel park, but with multiple tries. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah, 12 tries. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: It's like a 12-point turn. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: And in the back, Professor Perilous is like, "Are you sure you just don't want to get out and spot you?" Alex Finn [Even Steven]: No, no, I got this. I got this. So many times. You're just distracting me. Stace Babcock [GM]: Captain Slaughter's pulling on the back door, but the child locks are on. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yep. Stace Babcock [GM]: All right. You finally get it parked. It is a foot and a half off the curb. When you finally get out, and she kind of looked at you guys. She goes, "Might as well come with me. There might be more supers." Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Okay. Stace Babcock [GM]: If this is related. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Just to be clear, we are being hired for this one? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yes. We haven't worked out the details of the contract with your particular franchise. But if you're willing to allow it to fall under the previously approved contract with the Society of Seven for your franchise, you will be paid for your time and expenses. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, excellent. Is that something we could have a memorandum of understanding on or anything like that? I have some templates here somewhere. Stace Babcock [GM]: Sure. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Prince Roogy's already walked into the building. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Letting the adults talk. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: So, Captain Slaughter looks over your MOU, your memorandum of understanding, and makes sure that it's only covering this particular incident, and doesn't read very closely and just sort of signs. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. Stace Babcock [GM]: For this incident. I want to make that clear. So it's not an ongoing, but all right. And she goes, "Follow me," and races inside. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. I assume we're all following. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah, I assume so. Correct me if I'm wrong. So as you guys run inside the building, you are of course fighting the flow of your average office worker leaving, as people hurriedly evacuate the building. And when you get to the elevators, they are all called down to the first floor, as does happen in an emergency. And Captain Slaughter pulls a little key off of her belt and puts it in manual. And if you guys are with her, she says, "You guys, we're going to go straight to the 18th floor." Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Shouldn't we take the stairs then? Wouldn't it be safer? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: You're not supposed to use the elevator in an emergency. We learned that in orientation. Stace Babcock [GM]: We are responders. We use the elevators in an emergency. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Will the elevator still work if the 18th floor is blown up? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yes. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Okay. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I'm going to meet you guys up there. I'm just going to do some jumps through the stair system, because I've got that far-step thing. So I will definitely get up there faster than an elevator would. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Have fun. If you see us about to die, please stop us. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Will do. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Thank you. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Bye-bye. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So, Stace, just for you. That means that I'm essentially moving a long distance every six seconds of these stairs. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. And as you go into the stairs, it's probably a good thing that you are, because they are absolutely crowded by everybody attempting to evacuate the building. So Captain Slaughter lets you go. She turns the key. She sets it to go to the 17th floor, just in-casie's. Some elevator music starts. It's entirely inappropriate to the situation. It's a little bit too soothing. And as you arrive at the 17th floor, the doors open onto kind of your average corporate office, little half-wall cubicles, a lot of blue and gray and just shields and Aegis Security painted on the wall, and keeping you safe, their slogan also adorning various items. And is Professor Perilous heading straight to the 18th floor, I assume? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yes. Stace Babcock [GM]: So then Captain Slaughter will just quickly lead the other two up the stairs to the 18th floor. And when she opens the stairwell door to get back onto the floor, it's absolute chaos. There are flames, smoke. It's kind of choking. She pulls just a small device out of her pocket and pushes a button, and it forms this sort of mask that she puts over her own face. And where's Professor Perilous? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Well, like I said, a long-distance leap every six seconds is probably way faster than an elevator. Stace Babcock [GM]: So is Professor Perilous just standing there, looking at his nails? What is he? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: No, I think Professor Perilous is probably continuing passed. I mean, if anything, Professor Perilous, once he gets and sees where the flames and stuff are, probably the only thing that he would do before he kind of leaps up to where every opening he can see that's to the 18th floor, is activate his resonance field. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So you guys arrive on the 18th floor. You can kind of see exactly where the explosion occurred. All that's really on this floor, there really aren't any cubicles. There's one security station. And in the middle of this floor, there's just one giant room with kind of walkway around it. And it's clearly a vault. And the vault door is just completely blown off of its hinges. There was a massive explosion, so the glass windows, which are floor-to-ceiling are all also burned out in that vicinity, right out from where the vault door was. And flames are starting to creep into the vault at this time. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Are there any injured personnel? Any bodies around? Stace Babcock [GM]: There is one Aegis Security officer who had been sitting at the desk. They are head down on the desk at this time. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Prince Roogy is going to go pull them out of the situation, get them to the stairwell. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. You get them into the stairwell. Captain Slaughter heads right into the vault. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I think Professor Perilous is following. He's very curious about what's in there. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Yeah. So she bursts into the vault. The walls are lined with different safes and bins and things like that. But in the middle of this room, there's a pedestal. And the pedestal is empty. And she says, "They've taken the ChOAD." Alex Finn [Even Steven]: They've taken the what? Stace Babcock [GM]: The ChOAD, the chest of ancient design. And now Professor Perilous, being of a magical nature, immediately knew what a ChOAD was. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. Very familiar with the ChOAD. Stace Babcock [GM]: Over her radio, you hear, "They're heading to the roof. We have two black helicopters in the area. All units respond to the roof." And she sort of just turns around and glares at you guys. And she says, "Follow me." And she takes off. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Okay. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I feel like I have to ask, I'm not going to spend much time on this, but is there anything worthwhile in this vault that Professor Perilous would see? Worth grabbing in the short term? Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, I don't know. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I'm not trying to steal it yet. I just want to know if I see anything there that he would immediately recognize. Stace Babcock [GM]: So, you don't see anything, but because you have, I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head, but the ability that kind of lets you sense the weird, you do sense something that's kind of weird, kind of dark, kind of magical in safe number 22. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: And that's a closed safe right now, right? Stace Babcock [GM]: Most of the safes are damaged. Right? Or at least the doors from the explosion. But this one does appear to be intact. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Look heavy? Stace Babcock [GM]: The safe? It's like a safe deposit box. So it's in the wall. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, okay. Stace Babcock [GM]: So it takes a key. It's not a... Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. I don't have super-strength. So that's enough for Professor Perilous. He's not going to investigate any further. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. All right. Anybody else want to look around? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Roogy is following Captain Slaughter. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So, I will say that you do also see this burnt-out pair of Mech-Suit pants. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Just pants anyone can wear? Stace Babcock [GM]: They're just sort of sitting out, yeah. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Steven's going to kind of try on the pants. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I'm imagining the trousers from Wallace and Gromit... Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Same. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: In The Wrong Trousers. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Actually, same. Stace Babcock [GM]: Do they fit? Alex for your awareness, they ease jumping tasks. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh. Stace Babcock [GM]: They are burnt out, so in whichever encounter you choose to use them, they will break at the end. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Fair. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Cool. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Just going to say it right now. Steven is still wearing his own pants inside of these pants. Stace Babcock [GM]: Naturally. Sweet. And then what? You guys all heading up to the roof? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yep. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: Hey, I like this. I like this, guys. I like this focus. All right. So you guys follow Captain Slaughter at this point. The stairs are pretty much clear, up here, up this high. And you get up to the roof, which is the 24th, or I guess it's the 25th floor, right? It says 24-story building. And when you emerge, you see just chaos. They're all are Aegis Security officers in their armor. They're fighting these black-clad, spec-ops types, like the same type of guys that were in the toy store. You see two black helicopters, and you see one of the spec-ops guys holding the ChOAD. And the ChOAD is a small chest. It is silver with gold filigree on it. It is hand-sized. You can carry it with two hands. And at this moment, I would like to offer Professor Perilous an XP. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I'll take it. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Hell, yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: Who are you giving the other one? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Steven. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. Steven in his magic pants. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So just like you could sense something inside of that safe deposit box, you could also sense something within this ChOAD. And as you sense it, the mini-wormholes, the microscopic wormhole in your blood which open tiny portals to the abyss, which provides you with your powers, begin freaking out, and they begin opening and closing at an accelerated rate. And you begin experiencing a high rate of power buildup, and it starts to feel like it has to go somewhere, but above all, you feel as though, and your connection to the abyss feels as though you must have this item. It feels very similar, but different to your own power. And as this power builds up, Daniel, how does it manifest? Now, it's got to manifest in a destructive way. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, I think given that he's going to fire it all out at the figure holding the ChOAD. Stace Babcock [GM]: All right. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: He's going to see if he can just wipe that guy out, get his hands off the ChOAD so that Professor Perilous can maybe get, reach out and touch the ChOAD himself with a far step afterwards. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh, jeejus. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: And the very sight of the ChOAD made you want bust. Is that what you're saying? That was- Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Well, yeah. It's kind of like that. It's definitely explosive in nature. It's a release. You did this, Stace. Don't make that look. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, I'm not making a look. What are you talking about? I'm just going to make it worse. Okay. So, this power, yeah. You direct it. You direct some of it at this guy holding the ChOAD. And we can say this guy is nothing but boots now as the ChOAD clatters to the ground. But also, you underestimated your ability to control his power. And it explodes from you in every direction and knocks everybody prone, including everybody but Professor Perilous. So including Captain Slaughter, Prince Roogy and Even Steven. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: What? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Do we take damage at all? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Can I use the magic pants for jumping out of the way? Stace Babcock [GM]: You can use the magic pants for jumping out of the way. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yes. Stace Babcock [GM]: So, to jump out of the way, because it is, you have to jump super-high. So this is going to be essentially an amazing leap. So we are going to go ahead and set this leap because you have to jump so high. You probably have to jump 35 feet. That is an impossible task. I'm going to set that to a 30. But you do have your jumping ease down to a 27. You do have your strength, power-shift, which drops it down to a 24. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: No, because we already agreed. He can't fly, so we're in the 20s. Stace Babcock [GM]: No, he can fly. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: No, no. He can't fly as a big person. Stace Babcock [GM]: Why not? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Because the wings aren't as effective as when he's a big person. Stace Babcock [GM]: If you want to play it like that, it's fine, Alex. But I viewed you have two power shifts into flight, and I don't want to limit when you're able to use that. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I guess fine. But then we've got to, he's going to damage his dress shirt. He's going to have to go back to Ross. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Feels like a psychological thing. Technically he can fly, but he's, yeah. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh, it's yeah. Oh. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Not human-size though. It's just, just bad. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: It's discerning. I guess he's going to try though, because this seems like it's going to hurt a lot. So we'll do that. Stace Babcock [GM]: If you are going to fly... Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: Then you can just fly long distance straight up, and it'll be fine. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh. Okay. Well then. Stace Babcock [GM]: Flying character took the jumpy pants. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Well, they wouldn't have fit Roogy. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Roogy does have very short legs, in the style of moles. Stace Babcock [GM]: Right. And these are- Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Skinny jeans? Stace Babcock [GM]: A 30, 32, 34 or something like that. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: And it's adorable watching him eat. Stace Babcock [GM]: So you're able to fly a long distance up. And I will say that using the pants, what that does is allows you to get that initial burst out of the way. But yeah, Prince Roogy's knocked on his ass along with everyone else. No damage. Just prone. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. Stace Babcock [GM]: Except for Professor Perilous. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I'm going to far step over to the ChOAD and pick it up. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. You have attained the ChOAD, and at this point, different soldiers and security officers and Captain Slaughter, all standing back up. The helicopters, which were circling, were tossed a distance up in the air. They're kind of in the vicinity of Even Steven at this time. And Captain Slaughter looks over at Professor Perilous and says, "Bring that here." Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Professor Perilous looks down at it for a second. Can I... So I have training in magic. And you said I knew what the ChOAD was. Stace Babcock [GM]: You know that it is sort of, that it is emanating an energy, which your blood likes. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. Can I roll something with magic to try to figure out what it is? Stace Babcock [GM]: Sure. To try and figure out what it is, just based on how it feels and without any other closer examination is going to be a 30. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. I can't get that down far enough. Okay, so yeah. I don't know. So first of all, what are the other bad guys and commandos? What are they doing? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. So, I'm glad you asked because all the other bad guys and commandos immediately train their weapons on you and start heading in your direction. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. So I smile at Samantha Slaughter and I say, "Catch," and I toss the ChOAD at her, underhand. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, she grabs it and immediately moves toward the stairwell. And at this time, let's just go ahead and roll initiative. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I got a four. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: 11. Stace Babcock [GM]: And Sampson, you got what? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Dexterity power shifts, that gives me a bonus to initiative, right? So that's just adding plus three for each power shift, right? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yes. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Cool. Oh, 19. So 25. Stace Babcock [GM]: And then Alex has that too. And Alex has an ability that boosts her, so seven, 11, Alex for you. And then, Daniel, you also had 11? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yes. I had 11. Stace Babcock [GM]: So out of the two of you who wants to go first? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Daniel. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. All right. So the barrels of these weapons just follow the ChOAD over to Captain Slaughter. And as she moves towards the stairwell, and they are going to attack her. So as these black-clad, spec-ops guys open fire at Captain Slaughter, she hands the box to one of her underlings and turns back, and you see both of her arms transform into essentially Gatling guns. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh, fuck yes. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Nice. Stace Babcock [GM]: And she returns fire on black-clad, spec-ops soldiers, and two of them fall to the ground. What does Prince Roogy do? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: So how many bad guys in this situation are still up? Stace Babcock [GM]: 23. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Are we using air quotes at bad guys or actual bad guys? Stace Babcock [GM]: You guys are talking about the black-clad, spec-ops, right? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Yes. Stace Babcock [GM]: The special ones? Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Okay. So what is Roogy going to do. So we're on a roof. Is there kind of... I don't know what you'd call it, a little shack? It's not just a flat roof and then falls off. There's objects? Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh yeah, there are objects there. There are communications towers. There's of course the little, I guess a shack thing where the door, the stairwell goes upright, and you open the door, get onto the roof. There's another smaller helipad that has an Aegis traffic helicopter parked on it. So there's roof stuff, yeah. What do you want to be on the roof? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Something for Roogy to run into. What Roogy's going to try to do is spread his arms out and then charge through the densest part of these spec-up guys. And then just try to crush as many as he can into any solid enough object. Just to incapacitate them. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So right now the Aegis Security officers are heading toward, with the ChOAD, are heading towards the stairwell... shack. I'm sure there's a name for these things, but the elevator is available. So are you heading them in that direction? Or are you going to try to push them through the Aegis Security officers that are heading towards the stairwell? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: So Prince Roogy doesn't really care about the ChOAD, just because in his mind, all the Aegis people, they're on the good guys' side. So he's just trying to take out the, quote, bad guys. So he's not trying to get in the way of what the Aegis people are doing at the moment. He's just trying to take out the black-ops guys. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Spec-ops guys. Stace Babcock [GM]: So to push, how many are you, half a dozen, do we want to say? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Yes, let's go with that. Stace Babcock [GM]: All right. You're going to push half a dozen of these- Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Into a wall to incapacitate them. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, just into the wall. You're not trying to push them into the door and stuff them in. You're just- Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: No, yeah. He's just basically doing the classic strong man thing where he just gets a bunch of them and then just crushes them against the wall. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So, to push six people a short distance against the wall, I'm going to go ahead and call that a 27 to start. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: 27 to start. Dang. I'm going to bring back to 21. Can muscles of iron apply to this? Stace Babcock [GM]: Absolutely. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. I'm going to do that and apply a level of effort to bring it to a 15. Stace Babcock [GM]: Sweet. And I think it's dope. So take an asset. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh. Wow. That's five. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: So... Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I will spend the next piece, so that you can roll that, Sampson. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Thank you. That's a seven. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: So, thanks, but sorry. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: It's okay. Stace Babcock [GM]: So you barrel into these spec-ops soldiers, and they have surprisingly grippy boots. They're clearly wearing non-slip soles, and just didn't anticipate that. So you didn't get quite the running start that you needed. And so about three feet from the wall, they manage to brace themselves and stop you. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. You guys are pretty good. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Next up, Roogy. All of a sudden, everything around you turns dark. You can see nothing but darkness. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: But he has dark vision. Stace Babcock [GM]: It does not. It does not penetrate. Okay, so that happened. All right, Professor Perilous, you have tossed the ChOAD. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Jesus Christ. Stace Babcock [GM]: The chest of ancient design, guys. Get your minds out of the gutter. To Aegis, Captain Slaughter, handed it over to some other guy as she is doing her best to eradicate these people. And that group of individuals is heading down towards or heading towards the stairwell outcropping. I don't know what the fuck they're called, on the roof. You have two helicopters. They've sort of reoriented themselves, and they're heading back down. You can see these spec-ops guys hanging off the sides. What do you do? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Wait, the bad guys are in the helicopters? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. The bad guys were in the helicopters. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, I misunderstood. I thought those were security forces. Well, seeing that Roogy is over with the others, I am going to onslaught a helicopter. Stace Babcock [GM]: Dope. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Yes. Stace Babcock [GM]: Are you onslaughting the pilot, or are you just trying to damage? What are you trying to do? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, I'm aiming for the cockpit, but I'm trying to do maximum damage. So I'm not just trying to hurt the pilot. I'm also trying to hurt anything in the cockpit region. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay, so this sounds a little bit like a power stunt? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Stace Babcock [GM]: So, what does it cost to do onslaught intellect? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: One. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So I would say this would be, you can spend three additional intellect points to make it an AOE attack in the cockpit. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. Stace Babcock [GM]: And then you can apply edge to that, of course. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. Sounds good. What is my target? Stace Babcock [GM]: Your target, 18. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. So I'm eased by two steps. So that is a four. Stace Babcock [GM]: It goes wide, and the helicopters continue to descend. Now, Even Steven, you're up there by the helicopters. What you doing? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I guess... Steven's going to take his dual-weild light ray guns and shoot a helicopter in the propellor. Stace Babcock [GM]: Nice. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Is it a propellor? Stace Babcock [GM]: Sure. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: And it's whirly bird? Stace Babcock [GM]: I know what you mean. I think they're rotors. Okay, so to hit the rotor with your weapons, it is difficult. You're flying. They're flying. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Everyone's flying. Stace Babcock [GM]: Everyone's flying, but it's not crazy, so I would say a 15 here to hit. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Let's go, let's go, let's go. Nat 20. It explodes. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. All right. You miss the rotor, and you hit the fuel tank, and it just explodes. It's like a firework, right? You see the ball of flames. You feel the shock wave. And in fact, the shock wave sort of pushes you back, and you tumble a little ways away from the action, but not only does this helicopter explode, but it starts to, the fragments start to fly everywhere and hits the other helicopter, which begins to plummet towards the roof and the people standing there. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Sick. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh my. Stace Babcock [GM]: I will give the table an XP. I know it wasn't a combo, but I think it's fucking dope. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: That we exploded, yes. Stace Babcock [GM]: That it exploded, so that's one XP that anybody can spend on the table. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Sweet. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh. Who wants to keep track of that? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I've got it written down. So it's fine. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Cool. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Now you see Captain Slaughter. Of course, her hands have turned into these Gatling gun things, but she also, you see her sort of start to transform, and she reaches out and she grabs her side arm, and she sort of absorbs it into her body and then transforms completely into this double-barreled turret, which just starts firing across the roof. And all of the black-ops guys put their heads down. Right? Of course. Well, the ones who were fast enough, but 12 weren't. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh, shit. Was Roogy in the line of fire of this? Stace Babcock [GM]: Nah, she ain't trying to hit friendlies. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: You never know. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: With a name like Slaughter, I just had to check. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. I've got to figure out how many guys are left. Okay, so there are five guys who are freely able to move five spec-ops guys, not including the ones rapidly descending on the crashing helicopter. And then there are six of course, with Prince Roogy. The other Aegis Security officers managed to get into the stairwell with the ChOAD, and you assume that they are descending. And we're back at the top. Prince Roogy, you can't see shit. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oop. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Yeah. That's kind of weird, but not entirely unfamiliar to Prince Roogy. I guess for the moment, not really worrying about the source. Prince Roogy is going to try to attack what I assume is going to be considered swarm, the swarm of spec-ops dudes in front of him? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right, Prince Roogy's going to attack those guys in darkness, and he's just throwing punches. Stace Babcock [GM]: So you're going to be hindered because you can't see, unless Prince Roogy has something to negate that. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I am trained in listening. And also, I tried to push them against the wall, so they're right there, right? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yes. They're all right there. Okay, so that can ease the task, because they're all right in front of you, right? You've kind of smushed them three feet from the wall. You didn't quite hit the wall. So that evens out as a 12 before you apply anything else. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Don't think I have anything to it, for attacking. Nope. So I think it's just 12. Stace Babcock [GM]: It is melee. So it is might, so you can spend might effort. Or it's might or speed, actually. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Might or speed. I'll add some speed effort. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Not doing anything else with speed. Stace Babcock [GM]: That's fine. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. That's a 19. That's what that is. Stace Babcock [GM]: Well, so what's your base damage? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh, man. I'm attacking with the medium weapon. So that's four, and then I have two strengths. So that's a 10. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Damage. Muscles of iron do not apply. Stace Babcock [GM]: So do you want extra damage or minor effect? Would you like me to describe two options to you? What would happen? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Sure. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So if you don't apply for damage and you choose a minor effect, what's going to happen is their heads are going to all hit together. You are going to take care of four of them, and two will remain standing. You could use your minor effect to cause those two to be dazed for a round and unable to act. Or if you did extra damage, then you would, one more guy would go down, and it would cease being as you would only have. So it's, you would only have one guy left. So those are your choices. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. I'm going to go with extra damage, take down five and leave one open. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So there is one left. For now. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Right. Stace Babcock [GM]: And in fact, that is important to note because at this moment, the helicopter is descending rapidly toward the ground. And it's at this moment that out of the shadows steps a black-suited villain, not spec-op suit, but wearing, you can't even make it out. It's so shadowy. Carrying two blades, and actually Prince Roogy can't see this because Prince Roogy's still in darkness unless they've moved. But Professor Perilous and Even Steven, you can see that not only are they carrying these two blades, but also you see this blob of darkness surrounding Prince Roogy that you cannot see through at all. It looks just like a complete shadow, although there's nothing to cast it. And let me see what, what kind of defense role old Roogy needs to make. Okay. So go ahead and make me a 18-speed defense. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Excellent. Stace Babcock [GM]: You're of course hindered because you can't see Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Right. Stace Babcock [GM]: 21. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Dexterity, that applies to speed defense, right? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yes. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. Two in dexterity. So that's 15, 12, and then I am trained without armor, so that brings me to a nine. Go for that nine, 11. Stace Babcock [GM]: Nice. How does Prince Roogy evade these attacks that he can't even see coming? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Well, Roogy is kind of a clumsy guy, so does any noise happen when this shadow guy appears? Stace Babcock [GM]: No. Wow. You can't hear any footsteps. You might hear the whistle of a blade. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Well, I think then what happens is that Roogy's taken out these five guys. He can hear the footsteps of the last guy standing. So Roogy tries to step forward, steps on someone's leg and then kind of stumbles and rolls. And then as Roogy is kind of stumbling forward, blades just swish above and around him, completely missing him. And Roogy kind of stumbles into the wall. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. And as you stumble to the wall, suddenly you can see again, and as you look behind you where it had once been standing, you do see this rapidly expanding ball of darkness. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oop. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. Stace Babcock [GM]: I like how Roogy's just so casual and chill. All right. Professor Perilous- Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: It's like staring right into the Swole-hole. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Gosh, jeez. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Stare not into the Swole-hole, lest the Swole-hole stares back at you. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: But you just... We need to just... Stace Babcock [GM]: so there's a helicopter about to crash into the ground or into the roof. That seems like a problem. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Just maybe. Stace Babcock [GM]: There's some sort of super-villain using shadow and stealth to attack. Professor Perilous, what do you do? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Ribbons of dark matter where that super villain is. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh. So you're going to be hindered in terms of aiming and placement, because you simply cannot- Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Even though it bursts out in immediate range? Stace Babcock [GM]: Around you? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: No. Around anywhere I can see within a short distance. Stace Babcock [GM]: The problem is that you cannot see. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So I'm guessing a bit, okay. Stace Babcock [GM]: This villain. You did see them emerge from shadow. And you saw that they themselves appeared to be a shadow for the brief moment that you could see them. But now, you cannot see them at all. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Can I just center it in that darkness? Stace Babcock [GM]: Sure can. And you just do it, right? You just do it. It just happens. Okay. So there are tendrils of dark magic. Please help me remember that, Daniel, next time. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Stace Babcock [GM]: Cool. So this turret continues its sweep, and our Captain Slaughter continues to sweep and takes out, not Prince Roogy's last guy, but the other spec-op guys. But now the helicopter crashes into the roof. It explodes. There's a massive shock wave. I'm going to need everyone to make a 24. I would accept speed or might defense if you can narratively justify it. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Trained in my defense. Stace Babcock [GM]: Cool. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Roogy's going to do speed. You said 21 or 24? Stace Babcock [GM]: Four. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Four, okay. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Is my resonance field still up? Stace Babcock [GM]: I think so, unless there's a reason it wouldn't be. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So then it would be intellect defense for me instead, so that's 21. And I'll spend, with effort, just short. 17. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: So with my power ships, my training, applying a level of speed effort brings it to a 12 for Prince Roogy. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: God damn, this dice and sevens. Stace Babcock [GM]: All right, got a seven? Even Steven, you're in the air. So I'm going to go ahead and say that this task is eased one step for you. So that'll be 21, and you have a power shift in dexterity, so that'll be an 18. You can use either it or speed or might. Now- Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I think I'm just going to use a level of might, and then roll it. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So what, 15 now? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. Got a Nat 20 on this die. I love my ouija die. Stace Babcock [GM]: All right. So of course you evade easily the shock wave, the flames, the debris. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Hell yeah. Looking super cool, but not, everything except his face looks super cool. His face is just like, "Oh." Stace Babcock [GM]: The building shutters and sways as a helicopter hits it and explodes. Your friends are unable to evade the fallout. What would you like for your major effect? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Free level of effort for dodging for a little bit? Stace Babcock [GM]: No, we can do better than that. Don't you think? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Okay. Can we? Stace Babcock [GM]: This is a major narrative effect. So you've got two problems. One, your friends are going to take six might damage each. Two, the building is shuttering and swaying and was not built to withstand helicopters crashing into the roof necessarily, not to mention there was already an explosion on the 18th floor. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I'm thinking a superhero universe, they would plan for stuff like that. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah, but this is Venture City. Super villains never come here. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: But most buildings in California need that built-in sway motion for earthquakes. Wouldn't you think that would be mandatory for buildings in a superhero universe? That mandatory explosion wiggle? Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, but this is the second explosion. It withstood the first one. Stace Babcock [GM]: It was up to coach at that point. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: It was the second explosion. Stace Babcock [GM]: It was doing okay. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: And then it happened again, oh no. Okay. I guess maybe add a little cushion to that, to that six damage for everyone else? Maybe take it down a notch? Stace Babcock [GM]: Take it down a notch? Sure. 3 might damage for your friends. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yay. That's better. Right? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: That is better. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Let's do that. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: That is much better. Does armor apply? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: But Prince Roogy has the power shift in resilience. So it's only two for him. Stace Babcock [GM]: But you do feel the roof lurch alarmingly as one side drops downward, but it stops. So it's like this. It's slanted now. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh, shit. Stace Babcock [GM]: Let me get a speed defense from everybody to see how well you do to not fall off this roof. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh, but I'm flying. Stace Babcock [GM]: You're fine then. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: A-ha. Stace Babcock [GM]: Everybody's standing on the roof. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Loophole. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: What is the target? Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, yeah. I guess that's probably, I mean, for you, 12. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Roogy rolled a 10. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I got a 17. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So Professor Perilous manages to hang on, but Prince Roogy, you begin sliding down towards the edge of the roof. And as you reach the edge, you're a superhero, so of course you're going to try to take some sort of action. So I will give you a 12 difficulty task to remain on the roof. Now, which pool that comes from is going to be decided by how you try to not fall over the lip of this roof. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I think given Roogy's clumsy nature, he starts rolling. And then at the last possible minute, puts a power-gloved hand into the roof and grabs on, or at least tries to grab on right at the ledge of the roof. So I guess might. Stace Babcock [GM]: 12. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Well, with the mitt and the power shifts, that's six? No three. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: 10, so. Stace Babcock [GM]: How does Roogy latch on? Describe that. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: He just puts almost his entire forearm into the roof, grabs on, and then the rest of his body kind of like flies off the edge of the roof for a second. And then he comes back to the, I guess, outside of the building and then pulls himself up. Oh, holy shit. Whew. Stace Babcock [GM]: So- Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Got a work out in today. Stace Babcock [GM]: We are going to go ahead and end initiative now, whatever shadowy figure was involved here, you cannot see them, and the darkness that they introduced, generated is, has now dissipated. And it is you guys a bunch of dead spec-ops soldiers, damaged communications towers and helicopters on top of this alarmingly slanted roof. What do you do? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: You okay, Roogy? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I'm fine. Just a little sore, but I'll be all right. And Roogy's going to start getting, if there's any living people, whether they're good or bad guys, he's going to start getting them out of the way. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: If they're still living. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Roogy's going to try to rescue everyone to get them out the building. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So you can do that. I'm going to go ahead and say, most of the people are already out of the building. You do see a couple of Aegis Security officers who appear to be unconscious but alive near the stairwell. They took some shots, and it is completely within your abilities. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Steven's air supporting, pointing them out, "There's one. there's one. Yeah, yeah." Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Come on, Professor. This is part of the hero work. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I know, I know. I'm coming. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Do we call the city to deal with the building almost collapsing? Would this be a point where we would call one of the big seven and see if they can secure the building from falling over? Are we told at some point that we could call the seven? Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh yeah, you definitely can. As a franchise of the Society of Seven, but they are in New York City, and it is going to take them a little bit of time to send somebody. But at the moment, the building seems somewhat stable. It is not in the active process of collapsing at this moment. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. It was just the roof. That was slanting. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yes. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Okay. So we're not a precarious Jenga tower moment, definitely. Stace Babcock [GM]: I mean, it's not safe, but it's not actively, yeah. So I would say there are five injured and unconscious Aegis Security officers on top of the roof still. They've slid, and they've gotten caught in various places. One's wrapped around the base of a cell tower. One managed to get caught up on the lip of the roof and has almost rolled off. One of their arms is dangling. The others are in various similar poses. You guys are definitely going to be able to rescue them, but I would like to hear how you guys do that. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Prince Roogy's doing the Mr. Incredible thing and just has a stack of six guys, just on his shoulder. And he's just easily carrying them up and down the stairs. Well, down the stairs. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. Professor Perilous will sort of leap around and will help Roogy kind of get them situated onto his shoulder appropriately. Stace Babcock [GM]: What about Even Steven? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Kind of pushing people with a broom. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. So as you guys step into the stairwell, and you're about to close the door behind you, you see flying up around the edges of the building Aegis Security officers in exosuits. I mean, it's like Ironman, but different. And they seem to be doing work to try to hold up and stabilize the building. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Were there any spec-ops guys that were still alive? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. Yep. There was one slightly unconscious guy remaining. The one that you did not kill. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: All right. Roogy is going to grab him and then kind of hold him up probably by his leg, to Professor Perilous, hey, maybe this guy knows some stuff about what the fuck that all was. Can you ask him some questions, Professor? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Sure. I suppose we'll reach over and sort of slap his face until he wakes up. We're doing this in the lobby by the way, ground floor where it's safe. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. You've gotten down. Okay, so let me describe just one thing then before you guys get out. So you guys get down with no real problem. You scoop up a few additional people on the way, make sure people are leaving. And you get down into the lobby and you see the further down the building you go, the more and more Aegis Security officers are swarming the place. And there are 100s. There are far more than you would expect for a city as quote-unquote safe as Venture City. They're all there, and they're armed and they're moving through the building, clearly just making sure there are no additional bad guys in the vicinity. And as you get down into the lobby, you see that at some point, you didn't quite notice when, but Captain Slaughter is now back into her normal human form and seems to be sort of coordinating the activities. And she looks over and she sees you guys. And she says, "Oh good. The ChOAD is being taken to a secure location along with several other of our high-value items in that vault. Oh, I see you have one of them. We can take custody. We can take custody of, is he alive?" Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I think so. And then Roogy just kind of shakes him a little bit until he hears a moan or something. Stace Babcock [GM]: You hear a moan and a cough, choke. It spits out one of his teeth. It clatters to the floor. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Yeah, he's alive. We're going to ask him some questions first. Professor? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So Professor kind of winks over at Samantha Slaughter and then leans down and looks at the face and forces his pupils to do that weird thing again, where they slide around his eyes, and says, "Who sent you to steal the ChOAD?" Stace Babcock [GM]: He spits. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: That was a bad, bad idea. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: And so Professor Perilous stands up and says, "If I could just have another minute," and he takes out a piece of chalk and starts carefully drawing a circle around this guy. Stace Babcock [GM]: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Professor Perilous, I appreciate what you're doing here. And Captain Slaughter kind of looks around. It's not exactly regulation what you're doing, so I have to deal with a lot of stuff. If you want to question him, take it to the back. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, okay. Okay. So he deliberately runs his foot through the circle he just made to chalk, says like, "Come on Roogy, let's take him over to the back." Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Okay. Roogy brings him to the back. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. So now you guys are in a private location. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Okay. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So I, once again, slowly draw the circle around him and start also adding a bunch of mystic symbols and what not. Just hold him still, Roogy. Just yeah, your hand will be fine, as long as he's mostly in the circle. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Prince Roogy, again, holding this guy by his leg, is stock-still is this guy's probably squirming around trying to get out. Stace Babcock [GM]: Even Steven just tagging along? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yep. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Cool. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Is Captain Slaughter with us? Stace Babcock [GM]: No, she didn't have time to deal with your- Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Fair enough. Stace Babcock [GM]: There is a collapsing building or a building in danger of collapse. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So clearly you saw what we did to your friends, and that's troublesome. Sometimes to get information though, slower ways of achieving the same results are better, and just continues to draw more symbols. Stace Babcock [GM]: You don't scare me. You have no idea who we work for, and if you did, you would run far, far away from Venture City. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I'm sure it's very scary. Can I do an insight role to see if he's scared? If he's lying about not being scared? Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, sure. Six, intellect. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: That is a Nat 20. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, he is not cool. He is freaked out. He has just seen a lot of shit. What would you like for your major effect? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I would like two assets or more if you're feeling generous on this bit of intimidation I'm about to do. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh yeah. Just describe it. You are able to, you will succeed at intimidating this. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: The trick to this ritual is that you have to make sure that you do it right so that the person stays alive. But the best part is that the energy, and I'm pulsing some dark energy, so for you guys to know what I'm doing is bullshit. This would not work magically. He has no power to do this, but he knows magic enough to make it convincing. And he says, "This is an effective circle. One of its favorite things to do is the entity it's tied to, you wouldn't be able to understand its name if I said it, it likes to work by slowly removing the skin to start with." Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Can Prince Roogy make an insight check? Because I don't think we've worked long enough together for Prince Roogy to know that this is a ruse, and Prince Roogy's not that bright. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: He even just looks sick. Stace Babcock [GM]: So these will be opposing roles, unless- Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh, and I'm trained. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Could I give them an asset by winking at Roogy? Stace Babcock [GM]: Sure. So- Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: And Roogy is trained in seeing through deception, which I forgot. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, Roogy will get a plus-three to their intellect roll. And Daniel, you go ahead and you roll as well. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: What am I rolling for? I'm not trying to hide it from them. I'm just trying to hide it from this dude. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, I don't know how to resolve an insight check between two PCs without it being opposed. I don't know what I would set for your difficulty. You know what I'm saying? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: So I guess we'll just see if Roogy is smart enough to interpret the wink. So yeah, so we'll just say with the wink, it's a nine for Roogy to understand the situation. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay. I rolled a six and I can train and see through deception, so that's a nine on the dot. Stace Babcock [GM]: Awesome. Okay. You might not know what exactly is bullshit and what is real, but you understand that Professor Perilous is engaging in intimidation. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Professor Perilous sees Roogy about to say something, and then you see the gears start to turn, and Roogy's just like, "Uh-huh (affirmative) yeah, listen to this guy." Stace Babcock [GM]: Is Even Steven helping at all with the intimidation? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: No, well, Even Steven looking violently ill by this idea, help and intimidation. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, Even Steven looks just so concerned about what's, yeah. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: For sure. For sure. All right. After the mention of slow removal of skin, he's already trying to hold back tears, and this guy just starts absolutely crying. His whole body's shaking. And he says, "Either way I'm dead, I guess. I don't know who it is. They call themselves the Circle. They have a-" Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Circle? Stace Babcock [GM]: "Yeah. All I know is I only engaged with a couple of their security folks who hired us out. We're contractors. We're with MERC. You've probably heard of us, MERC. And all I know is that they're they have this logo. It's like a drawn circle. It's like this it's this orangeish-yellow color. I don't know who they work for. I don't know what they want with this. We were just supposed to get the box and get out." Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Do any of these terms mean anything to us? The Circle? MERC? Stace Babcock [GM]: You would've heard of MERC. MERC is a- Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Goons for hire? Stace Babcock [GM]: Goons for hire. They also engage in some organized crime. They're present in multiple cities. So you would've heard of MERC, and you wouldn't necessarily be surprised to encounter them here. For the Circle, you have never heard of the Circle nor have you seen a logo that looks like that as described. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I'd be more worried about the circle that I'm drawing here. Stace Babcock [GM]: I don't know anything else. Please, please just let me go. It was just a job. It was just supposed to be a quick grab, a smash-and-grab. And we were supposed to get out of here and wasn't supposed to be a problem. Everyone was supposed to respond to the toy store. No one was supposed to be here. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Well, it's too bad we killed all the friends over there. Stace Babcock [GM]: Even Bobby? Bobby's dead? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I don't know what did Bobby's boots look like? I didn't leave anything else. Stace Babcock [GM]: And he just starts absolutely bawling and sobbing tears. He's upside down, so dripping off of his forehead onto the ground. And he is just insensate. You're not getting anymore out of this guy. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Well, I guess that's it. I guess we hand him over to security? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Roogy pulls this guy right side up and just gives him a big hug as we leave the room. Just like, "There, there. It's okay. Maybe get a different job, and you won't lose your friends." Stace Babcock [GM]: He just collapses to the ground straight on his ass. He's hugging his knees. He's... As you leave the room, you see several Aegis Security officers that you can direct to this guy if you so desire. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Captain Slaughter around? Stace Babcock [GM]: Yep. Captain Slaughter. She's got half dozen people surrounding her. She's got a clipboard. She's got a radio. She's on her cell phone. She's very busy, but she is there. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Excuse me, Captain Slaughter, Megatron, whatever, apparently they were sent by the Circle. If that means anything to you? Stace Babcock [GM]: It doesn't. Listen. I've got a lot to do here. Hospitals are overwhelmed. The building might be collapsing. I can't remember what I did for her voice. So listen, write a full report of your interrogation. Send it over. Once we receive that in your report of the incident, we will send it over with the bill, and we'll go from there. Have Brittany reach out to me. She knows how to get ahold of me. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: All right. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. And she immediately turns away. She's got 15 people calling her name, the mayor on the phone. And so on. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I guess we head out to our Honda Odyssey? Stace Babcock [GM]: Which is still there and surrounded now at this point by varieties of cop cars. But you can get out. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Roogy at one point just lifts up the Honda and walks it through some of the denser cop cars and puts it down on the other side. Stace Babcock [GM]: Awesome. Absolutely. So at this point, you guys, we're closing out, so you'll head back to the secret base. You'll do your final scenes. So narratively, however you want this to play out, just go ahead and describe it Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: As we're driving back to the base, Roogy and Even Steven hear a little tinny toy, "Rah," and Professor Perilous is playing with one of those chaos Elmo toys that you saw at the store from earlier. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Full circle. Stace Babcock [GM]: I just had a mental image of Even Steven being like, "Stop that, or I'll turn I'll this car around." Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I'll turn the car around. It's not funny anymore. I'll tell Brittany. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: But look it. Look at the guy. He's so cute. He knows how to get information out of people, doesn't he? And he pulls a little string and he goes, "Rah," raises up its arms with a flame again. Stace Babcock [GM]: What else? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I think, yeah, Even Steven is just like, "Stop it. I'm trying to concentrate. You don't know how hard it is to drive this thing. I have to go to Ross. I ruined my shirt. Wait, should we go to Ross now? Do they have anything? Are they having a sale?" Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Can we get food wherever we go? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. Yeah. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I'm kind of hungry. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. There's a food coordinator there. Yeah. Yeah, let's just go now. Let's go now. Let's go now. Fine. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I could do a soft pretzel. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Actually, yeah. Salted pretzel will be really nice. Oh, and then they have those hot dog ones. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Oh, yeah. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: For Roogy's final scene, he just orders an absurd amount of food. And then when asks for money, Roogy just kind of tilts his head and then rummages through his sack and then just pulls out this raw, huge diamond, just like, "Is this money?" And then just puts that on the counter and then takes the food and then just goes and pigs out somewhere in the food court. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. The employee reaches out and picks up the diamond, looks left. Looks right. Puts it in her pocket. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Hell yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: All right. So essentially at this point, you're at the food court, or you can be back at the base, right? Brittany has collected your report and so on. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't think any of us would've written that report. Stace Babcock [GM]: Your verbal report. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh, sure. Right. Stace Babcock [GM]: Like a debriefing? So all these things have happened. So, Even Steven? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yes? Stace Babcock [GM]: What is your final scene? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I think he's in the Ross just going through, I feel like I've never actually been to a Ross. I've only been to Marshall's, TJ Maxx. Stace Babcock [GM]: I honestly don't even know what you're talking about. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: It's a discount clothing store that's similar, like Overstock, but I feel like he's digging through the clearance, dress shirts, as a bin. And eventually he's just crying, because he'd only find weird-colored dress shirts for work. And he's just, he's not having a good day, because he killed somebody, killed several somebodys, and then he feels like Roogy's going to eat all the soft pretzels. He probably did. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Oh, yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. I dig it. And then what about for Professor Perilous? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So Professor Perilous per is in the base, and he's got his notebook out and is just jotting things down. He's got the note about the Circle. He's got a note about the ChOAD, and at least his initial observations of the ChOAD. He's marked down the safe number, 22, from the secure vault at Aegis Security. And he is jotting down a few notes that are a lot of this isn't even in English. It's in whatever mystical text that he's worked with before. And as he's looking at it, he pulls out the MOU that he had Samantha Slaughter sign, and he holds it up, and he starts slowly blowing against it until some ink shows up near the end of the agreement offering as a bonus for completing that the franchise will get to select one item from the secure vault at that location. Stace Babcock [GM]: Okay. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: As a piece of equipment in good faith. Stace Babcock [GM]: Awesome. Cool. So you guys faced off with Minder and Shrike and the Circle's goons. You disarmed a bomb. You saved a toy store. You recovered a dangerous object and secured it with the authorities. So I don't know if we will do another one shot of this like we did with Stars Are Fire. But if we do, each of you has two XP. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Dope. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Okay, cool. Stace Babcock [GM]: And yeah, this is where we'll end the episode. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Woo-hoo. Hell, yeah. Stace Babcock [GM]: Sampson! Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Nap afternoon, guys, I'd say. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Listen, this is my first time trying not to kill everyone. Stace Babcock [GM]: I was so proud of you, Alex. I'm going to be honest. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I was low chaos. Go, go, go. We're playing this. Stace Babcock [GM]: I guess, because this is the end of our first time playing Claim The Sky, I think I want to be able to hear from everybody. So just real quick, Sampson, what was something that you did, dug? Dugged? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I'm a big fan of the power shifts, because they really do add a lot, and it really did feel good to like make some of these high-difficulty roles with these, until my dice betrayed me. And then, well, oh well. Stace Babcock [GM]: Your guys' dice did give me some concern with the final encounter, but I will say that you guys were very creative, and I loved it. And you negated a lot of maybe danger that you didn't even know it was there, just through your, I thought you guys were very clever, personally. Cool. Alex? Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I enjoy the idea of superheroes being normal and how it's just kind of a casual thing for people to be like, "Yep. Just a giant mole-man. It's fine. Don't worry about it." And just kind of playing with that idea of like, what do you do when superpowers are normal and people are just doing what they're doing? Stace Babcock [GM]: And I thought that you played Even Steven really well as someone who's like, "Oh, shit, I have these surprise powers." And I feel like reacts much more like maybe I would react or a normal person reaction in real life. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Yeah. We all want to be like that, "Oh, I suddenly got powers. I'm going to go save everybody and do the right thing." But I was just like, "You know I probably wouldn't. I'd probably be vomiting in the corner." Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. Fair enough. All right. Daniel? What do you like about Claim the Sky? What did you enjoy? Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Like Sampson said, I really like the power shifts, especially for superheroes. You just want everything to feel more epic. So you want things to be incredibly difficult. And it's interesting too. I feel like you would get that sense, whenever, but especially as very apparent, coming from other Cypher system games where you're not used to having those, and then having them available, it definitely is. It feels very cool to do that. I like that quite a bit. Offline, some of us have played the horror version where you, the Stay Alive, where the vampires have power shifts and things like that. But for whatever reason, the power shifts for vampires, I don't think necessarily at least clicked for me, but the power shifts on the superheroes, even though the rules are basically the same for whatever reason, it just there's that little bit that made it much more clear what it was meant to be. So, you can tell that they've been refining that and they're thinking about how to do it in the rules. Stace Babcock [GM]: Yeah. And I feel like those were definitely the difference, because you guys are tier one. Your pools aren't that big. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: No, they are not. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: I was down to one might point at the end. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, holy shit. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Nice. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: So just to be clear at the end of this adventure, I had one might point, nine speed points and eight intellect left. And that's after three recovery roles. Stace Babcock [GM]: Cool. Well, I enjoyed running it. It was super-fun. So thank you guys for doing this one shot. And now we will go ahead and move to our player intrusion, which is a segment we do each week where one of us recommends something that is cool as fuck. Sampson, what you got? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: I got this little comic called ODY-C by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward. ODY-C spelled- Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: That's very good. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: ... O-D-Y dash C. This is a beautifully illustrated, beautifully written, gender-flipped version of the Odyssey, which is the first volume. But then it kind of goes into the- Alex Finn [Even Steven]: The Iliad? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: A little bit. It references some of the events of the Iliad, but basically this is happening after Troy has been sacked or whatever. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Okay. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Later volumes also include the Oresteia or versions of the Oresteia, a little bit of Arabian Nights. And this is such a cool fucking comic. Listeners won't be able to see this, but this is the kind of art that you get. Stace Babcock [GM]: Oh, holy shit. [crosstalk 01:14:50]. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: So that's the picture of Prometheus being bound to what is a planet. And it's just this sci-fi retelling. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Yeah. That's an important thing. It's all in space. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I really like the first volume in particular, because the first volume is written in Iambic pentameter. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Oh. Stace Babcock [GM]: Nice. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Yeah. It's such a cool fucking comic. You follow Odyssia in this world as she tries to get back home. And it's in this universe where all men, in quotes, "All men have been wiped out completely," because Zeus decided no men for reasons I can't quite remember. And then you just see Odyssia just go through all the classic Odyssey episodes. She deals with the Cyclops, a version of Circe. What else? Island of the lotus eaters is in here. I highly recommend this comic, especially the first volume. I think you can also get the whole story in one kind of big- Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Omnibus? Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Omnibus. That's the word. Thank you. And yeah, this is a beautiful comic. I wish they had continued it, but I guess they can only do so much cool shit for so long. Burn bright, don't burn long. So yeah, ODY-C. O-D-Y dash C, highly recommend it. So fucking cool. If you guys want to talk to us about some of this cool comic shit, we have a website, explorerswanted.fm. From there, you can find all our socials to talk to us. On Twitter we are @explorerswanted. On Instagram and Facebook we are @explorerswantedpodcast. If you want to talk to us directly, we have a Discord. That's pretty cool. Explorers wanted.fm/discord. We'll get you there. But if you want to do more than talk to us, if you want to support us financially, we have Patreon, patreon.com/explorerswanted. Go there, support us. You'll get some cool stuff probably. Or if you just want to get a discount off dice, we have a dice affiliated code, Explore! With exclamation mark at the end, get you 10% off your order at Die Hard Dice. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Absolutely. And if you can't financially support us, we totally understand. The best thing that you could do for us is to tell a friend and tell them why you like the show and why they should listen to it. The second best thing is to leave as a five-star rating and review on a podcast directory like Apple Podcasts or Podchaser, Stitcher. Especially if you're really specific about what you like about it, those kinds of reviews have the biggest influence and does attracting listeners. If you didn't like the podcast, or if you just thought it was meh, well, when you feel that throb in your temples, and can feel something like your pulse pounding in your ears, understand that this is not your blood. It is not your heart. It is the staticky whisper of long, etheric fingers being run oddly against the folds of your brain. So stay still. They are attracted to movement, and you don't want them to squeeze. If you want to reach out to us individually on social media, you can. You can find me on Twitter @Andrlik, A-N-D-R-L-I-K. Stace Babcock [GM]: You can find me on Twitter @StaceWindu. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Talk to me about ODY-C, @SlamPotato. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: I kind of want a brain massage right now, just saying. I'm @RealTeaUnicorn on Twitter and TeawithaUnicorn on Twitch. Just get in there, work those folds. Stace Babcock [GM]: All right. Thank you to everyone for listening. Have a good night, day, weekend, or whenever you're listening to this, and bye. Alex Finn [Even Steven]: Bye. Sampson Davis [Prince Roogy]: Bye. Daniel Andrlik [Professor Perilous]: Bye.