Stories RPG Crossover: Gigacity Guardians 4 Tusk Tower Tension
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Hello! Welcome to Stories Podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Weldon. Today's story is a crossover episode from Stories RPG, our play-at-home, listen-and-learn game that helps people of all ages tell amazing stories together. Tune in for a regular episode of Stories Podcast later this week!

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Hello and welcome back to Stories RPG, the podcast where we tell stories better together. And because this is Giga City Guardians, I am joined by the most misfit crew of pro superheroes anybody's ever assembled. Let's find out how everybody's doing today. Dan, tell them who you are.

Oh, I'm Dan, the writer of Stories Podcast. And I am Ape Canaveral, the miraculous space ape who survived an explosion in an experimental spacecraft. All apes are great, but he's the greatest. He was a test pilot for Tusco. Things went bad. He got some powers. And now here he is trying to make the world a better place for monkeys and men.

Hello! Yes, I am Scriv the Bard, but here in Giga City, I am Animus, one of the newer Giga City Guardians office worker, now turned Guardian.

And I am very, very excited to learn more about these powers, which have been a little bit of a surprise as we go along and see how this new super suit feels. It's a lot of leather. I'm not going to lie. But you know what? I was promised pockets. So here we go. And last but definitely not least, the leader of the Giga City Guardians, Firefly, played by the Voice of Stories podcast, Amanda Weldon. Why don't you say hi? Hello.

Hello, this is Amanda Weldon. I am the voice of Stories Podcast, and today I am Jillian Jays, also known as Firefly, also known as the leader of the Giga City Guardians. Champions of the city, defenders of the peace, heroes for justice.

The Giga City Guardians!

Welcome back to Giga City Heroes. So let me take a second and just recap exactly how dramatic things got before the end of last session. Werebear and Firefly, after their fight with the Megapedes, have both been injected with a mutagenic substance that has since been identified as the spores created by the Scarlet King, Firefly's old arch nemesis, and incidentally, also her grandmother. Drama, right?

Um, while they are in the hyperbaric chambers back at the lighthouse, uh, without the ability to go superheroing about, uh,

Ape and Animus have decided on their own to take a little field trip across the city in the middle of the night to check out Tusk Corporation, Animus' former employer and also the corporation responsible for Ape's experimental powers. And you've made it there. You're on the top of the buildings. And as you get close to the gleaming golden towers, alarms begin to sound. Oh, God.

Well, these alarms sound terrifyingly similar to the alarms that were going off when I first fled the scene.

And I'm starting to possibly regret a little bit coming over here. I'm hoping no one recognizes me in the new clothes. I think there's like a hood that I probably got a hood for my face as much as possible. But of course we are using the badge that I ran away with that has my identity. And Dan, are you feeling the same thing or does ape want to go in stealthy? Cause I was thinking Scriv can, you know, sorry, animus can wear the mask, but, uh, it's a little identifiable. Yeah.

You got a furry pal who occasionally walks on his knuckles. There's not many of those running around in the city. Yeah. Well, for a minute I was thinking that maybe we'd get some like illusion magic or maybe a disguise. I'm sure there's some kind of hero who handles that kind of stuff. But if we're getting close and there's alarms going off, I think...

I think posing, you know, we're the heroes here. We saw the explosion and now we're, if anybody catches us, that's our story. I think. Oh, that's what Abe said. Hey, if anybody catches us, we were just going in to help. Yes. It's part of my on the job training. We got to go. Um, okay. What do we see when we get up in there?

Alright, as you near the compound, you can hear these alarms going off and you're hidden up on the rooftops. Down below you hear some movement and you peer over the edge of the building to catch a glimpse of a group of people moving through the alleyway.

They're carrying something, something bundled. It could be bodies. It could be equipment. You have no idea. And one of them, and this is what's weird, it's too dark. Nobody should be able to see you up there. But one of them turns and looks up and pinpoints your position and snarls. And you catch a glimpse in the dusk of a reddish colored face. That same familiar reddish color of a brick.

And now I'm gonna introduce something called a drama clock. Oh boy. So...

Drama clocks are a way in the game to represent those incredibly intense moments in stories where you're right at the end of a big dramatic arc and all the characters have to lay it on the line to try to make sure that things turn out for the better. What it means in the game is you're going to have a limited number of moves per player to score a certain number of triumphs.

You can think of this kind of like a branch in the story. If you succeed and you get the number of triumphs you need, then things are going to go your way. If you fail to successfully roll the number of triumphs necessary to beat the drama clock, then things are going to go, well, let's just say they're going to go dramatic. This is one of those moments for your characters. If you do nothing...

Whoever's down there in that alley is going to get away and something bad is probably going to happen to those bundled objects. It won't be good.

You also run the risk of discovery. You are not doing something heroic necessarily right now. And you know already that Giga City Gold is pretty good at bending public attention and public opinion their way. Amanda, you may not think you're in this scene because you and Werebear are back at the lighthouse and Animus and Ape are out there on the buildings. But this is the other cool part.

Drama clocks are just like scenes in a movie. You may be in a different location, but that doesn't mean you're not involved. We can cut between scenes. You can be on the radio persuading people. You may even decide to ditch your hyperbaric chamber and come rescue them if things get really intense. So the bottom line is there are three of you, three players. I'm going to give each of you two moves. And in that total six moves, two for each, you're going to have to make a decision.

You're going to have to score seven triumphs. Okay. That doesn't make sense. Ah, so here's the trick. You ready? You can get two triumphs, but you have to roll double sixes. That's going to be hard for me. So the chances of this happening are very slim, correct? Yes.

Unless you use your power, have you checked your powers boost lately? No. Ah, so each of you has a power. And remember, your power can add a die when you're using it. So for example, when Firefly's using her armor, she can get a boost to use those jets to do something amazing in flight once per game. What that means is she gets to move up the result of her roll.

by one category. So a complete failure, a one to three instead gets moved up to a four to five. Now it counts as triumph with a trouble. A four to five can get moved up to a full success. A full success can get moved up to a double success. So, but that's once. So now look at each other. One of you has got to score a six and move it up with your special.

That's what's going to help you with this drama clock. All right. So to remind you, here's the dramatic consequence. Something or someone is being taken from Tusk Corp. They are currently being chased through the streets. You see a flash of red below and a face looks up at you and snarls. It's cat-like and its eyes are huge and yellow and they narrow and then it dashes off.

You need to choose what you're going to do. You hear the hum of drones and a fleet of these tiny little golden drones, very similar to the ones that you saw near the mega-teat attack, come zipping through the streets. Again? Are they recording this again? I wonder if this is another staged thing.

Because those drones were used before to record that whole encounter. There's another trick I like to use when people don't take action and a drama clock has started. If you don't like it, remember, everyone, you can X card at any time. But if you start to wonder too much or wander too much, I will do a countdown. I'll say five.

four, three. And if you do nothing, something else will happen and the drama will get more intense. That's how we keep the drama clock going. So who would like to do something? Hey, um, so I'm going to look at animus and just be like, all right, you want to go in tech of a distraction? Yeah, but I'm kind of worried about what's happening over there. You saw those gold drones. Is this something that they're staging? Are they about to pull something?

I saw a little animal and, you know, I don't think I like them experimenting on animals because, you know, they almost killed me. Of course I can't be killed, but they tried and, you know, other animals might not be so lucky. So maybe I'll jump down there after that, uh, that cat man do. Then you take this opportunity to slip in the building. What do you think?

Yeah. Okay. Um, you got your radio on you, right? Just in case. Yeah. Um, okay. So here's the thing. Abe, are you jumping down to the alley? Yeah. I'm going to jump down on top of one of those drones and try to ride it down to the street. Here's the thing. Those drones are no bigger than a softball. You jump and the drones literally like scream out of the way. And as he jumps, something cruises overhead, uh, animus and dives down into the alley behind him. Um, and,

Ape, you can see down this alleyway, whoever this is, they're running towards the docks, towards the port. And they're struggling because there's something heavy. There's a massive figure down there who looks like it has... You can't see in the darkness, but you swear it looks way bigger than a person. And there's a couple of smaller figures. And when you hit the ground...

that you hear like a muttered talking and then like they run faster. The drones all are hovering and swooping down and something big goes down over your head. It's those two guys, the ones you saw flying next to the mega peds. They're giving chase. Uh, yeah, well I'm giving chase to I'm

I'm pounding right after them. Are you going to make a move here? Yeah, I'm going to make a move. Is this your get physical move? Do you want to like catch up? Do you want to like outstrip, you know, these two giant figures? This is two ton and gyro riding on top who just showed up, um, chasing after these, these figures.

Um, do you want to try to like cut them off? Do you want to like, what, what's the move here? What exactly are you looking to do? Oh, my pride is still bristling from earlier. So I'm definitely going to try to outpace them. Okay. Um, just as a little side thing, I'm going to get on the, uh, get on the radio, like, uh, uh, Firefly, if you're done in the nurse's office, we could use you out here. Yeah.

You hear specs on the radio go, don't bother her with that stuff. Just take care of it. She's got that stuff in her. Jillian, don't do anything. Okay, I'm not going to do anything right now, but like keep me posted so that I know what's going on, please.

Okay, while this is going on, you're saying this, I need you to make the role. I need to know, are you like brachiating? Are you like fire escape? Like, are you using the tops of the buildings? Are you jumping on dumpsters? And tell me what parts of your character are going to let you do this fast enough to outstrip this guy who apparently is able to control his own personal gravity.

Yeah. So I'm just moving. I mean, this is the urban jungle and I am the king. I am swinging. I am, it's fire escapes, it's telephone wires, it's cable, like Comcast cables that I am tearing out of brooms to swing on. It's, it is fast and it is sort of careless, but it is...

fast. Did we just get a sponsor placement? Did you just drop Comcast? Did we just get money from Comcast? Well, no, they just go out a lot. So I imagine this is one of the reasons why. Tell me what tags you have that are going to help you do this. You've got your drive, your dream, your dialogue. What do you got? Well, I definitely have, they call us the great apes, but I'm the greatest that there is. That's my dialogue. And I think that fits.

And then I could think I will use my, my deed, which is the unbreakable ape, the ape canaveral. I suppose that could speed you up. I can see how like, maybe you could move faster if you just didn't have to worry about hurting yourself. Like you can kind of fling yourself and like land really hard and it won't hurt you. So it allows you to just keep moving. Yeah. I'm like grabbing power wires. There's sparks and stuff. It's, it's aggressive. Yeah.

I can imagine you like slamming into like the pavement and then just rolling and like bounding up to grab something else. Yeah. And then my downfall is kind of rash and cocky. So I don't, I think that would apply here too. If I'm heedlessly chasing. Okay. All right. Let me hear them bones. Let's go. All right. Rolling. That is a six, a three and a six. You got two sixes straight out the gate. Yeah. Take that clock. No.

Dang. Okay. All right. So currently you only have five triumphs left to go and five moves. So as long as you don't blow any of these moves, Ape's speed is going to make up for a lot. Wow. All right. So Ape, let me tell you what happens. You actually cut through a back alley and you're going so fast, you cut them off. You've figured out where they're going and you land at the port.

Right underneath the bridge that you know they're gonna have to come through if they're trying to stay off the main streets. And what happens is you're standing there when this huddle of figures bursts through out of the shadows and screeches to a halt right in front of you. The one in the front is that cat-like creature you saw earlier.

They hiss really powerfully and a whole bunch of gleaming claws go out. Behind her, there's this massive reddish figure, huge, hulking, with unbelievably shiny hair. Like even in the dim lights, it's just like it gets tossed back and it's there are sparkles, chiseled musculature and the bottom half of a Clydesdale.

Um, riding on top of a pile of swaddled bodies is what looks like a little kid in a puffy coat, but you can see two little antennas sticking out and a pair of mandibles underneath. And he looks like he's got more than two arms too. Um, the one in front goes, uh, the big one goes, hello, friend, and starts trotting forward.

I'm going to cut to you, Animus. What are you going to do? Hold on. I just need to mentally recap that. There was a cat, a sparkly centaur type of being, and a bug child. Yeah, uh-huh. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. Yeah, you can ask their names and you guys can swap proppers and socials later. Oh my goodness. Okay. So it seems like Ape traveled pretty far for that, right? So just for some clarification so I understand what I am seeing right now.

I am probably, am I even close enough to see that? No, he took off. I didn't think so. And you saw, you saw two ton and gyro tracking him. And that's the thing is you saw them go off down through the alleyways and then they popped back up above and they look like they're running surveillance. They're definitely going to find him if he finds whoever's running.

Back from Tusk Corp, you can hear the alarms going off and you can hear sirens in the city. Are you headed to Tusk Corp or are you headed to the scene of the pulse? Oh, this is a tough decision because on one hand, Ape said, go to Tusk Corp. And I feel like I'm learning. But on the other hand, I really don't like the look of that. And you know what? Three, two, make the call!

okay. I'm going to Tusk Corp. That's the right. Okay. You take off towards Tusk Corp. As fast as I can. I am sprinting and trying to keep to the shadows. Cause I know my new super suit is dark. And while I am running, I want to keep my power activated. So I think this is a great moment to point out when, as a storyteller, you want to push a role. And when you don't, there's nothing exciting about making, uh,

Animas role to get to Tusk Corp? Because right now in the story, we just want to see what's happening at Tusk Corp. Yes. So I could, of course, torture Animas, who's an office worker and has been like, you know, living out of pizza boxes for the last couple of weeks. You're not really fully equipped to run across, you know, Midnight City. Hey, now landscape stress is good for cardio, right?

This is true. You do have some cortisol. But this is something that I don't think would be fun for us as a story. Now, if you as a player decided this is where I want to make my stand, this is my dramatic move, that would be totally cool. And if anyone decides like, I know what I want to do here, here's my move, always jump in and tell me.

But I'm asking you as a storyteller, as a fellow storyteller, do you want to just get to Tusk Corp? Because I kind of want to get you there. I do want to just get to Tusk Corp. Okay. And while we're there, I do want to, because my power is to sense the emotions of people around me, I am not, I want to use that passively as I go and as I'm entering Tusk Corp. Because even though I don't have any other like super senses in terms of visual acuity, I want to try to feel things.

When people are near enough to me to be in range and what they are feeling. Ooh, that's good. More as a way of being able to like navigate through them. This is when superpowers get cool, y'all. Like you're already thinking about creative ways to use that ability, right? Like I like that ape's invulnerability, it sounds kind of one note, but then when you think about it, he can throw himself really fast and just have no regard for his superpowers.

physical. You can sense emotions and manipulate them, but boy, sensing emotions becomes this crazy spidey sense. It's great. So yeah, you arrive on the scene and this is the thing is you were pretty close to Tusk Corp. You were around the front. All you had to do was make your way to the back of the building. There's an area where Tusk Corp has a loading dock for semis and they have helipads up top and there are supposed to be some really fancy suites, but there are supposed to be

massive research structures that go down into the underground and it's there that the alarm has gone off. You can see security, um, all over. Um, they appear armed with tasers and people are yelling things into, and you can see, um, these drones are sort of moving in like flocks. They're sort of like in little swarms around the building, clearly trying to find things. Um, and,

There's a high level of alert. This is not going to be wave my card and go in. What do you want to do? Okay. Okay. So there are people there with tasers, and that's the only way that I can see to go in? You could try to like...

go through a sewer tunnel and come up inside, you know, see if you can find where it connects. You could try like sneaking through one of the trucks. You could try just, you know, waltzing past these guys going, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we got to do that thing and make them feel really nervous, but comforted by you. You could go with, you know, use your power to be like, this person knows what they're doing. They're going to go find out how to fix things.

If you pulled it off, of course. Of course, of course. Okay, so I am going to... Because if there are trucks going through, it does look like people are dropping things off. Like their supply is being accepted. Because if the...

The ramps are open. The trucks are stopped. Oh, the trucks are stopped. Yeah, this is like, it looks like they were probably, you know, doing some of their normal business and something happened and everything's being shut down. So there's a fair amount of chaos. Yeah. It's very alert chaos, but everybody's running different places. Well, I think we need to keep moving. That's the problem. So I'm trying to paint this picture in my mind. All right. So the trucks are there. People aren't really going to pay too much attention to me if I perhaps...

as I'm walking along, um,

Open up one of the backs of the trucks. That would be hard to do. People would spot you, but you would need to make them feel like it was okay for you to be there. You don't think you're getting in there. You know, if you were better at hiding and sneaking, I mean, you could probably pull it off, but you've never really had cause for ninja skill. No, I haven't. My idea is if these are supplies that are supposed to be in there, I'll just, you know, hold, carry something with me.

Yeah. As I'm walking up and finding another way in. Yeah.

Okay. I will tell you, you feel a lot of things. You sort of grab a box from the trash, near the trash, and you're like, and you just start walking up wearing a cowl and a mask and leather pants. Oh, heck. No, yeah. No, no, no. I like this. Roll with me. I'm doing it now. Okay. All right. So you're rolling up and you've got the box and you can feel a whole lot of nervousness. There's a lot of people who you feel like they're just kind of like,

What the heck? There's a lot of confusion. Like what's going on? You can feel a lot of that. One weird piece you feel is somebody's really sad.

And you can feel that sadness right down in the center. And it's powerful enough. The emanation is powerful enough that you catch this whiff of it. And you're like, what? It feels very strange. It's like, imagine you're eating a salad and you find a piece of cake in it. It's very much not what you expect. And it's a very powerful feeling of

like grief mourning um you're walking up the stairs to the back ramp where the trucks are and a couple guys are like hey hey you one of them comes up hey hey who are you hold up we we got an issue here uh this is not regular delivery wait a minute you got a mask on and like he's like everybody you hear a bunch of like clicks and and shifting and you can see there's a whole bunch of guys with tasers yeah

So I'm going to try that trick of, you know what? No, no, no, no, no. I'm here to help. Just calm down. And I'm going to do that again. Cue the theme song. Because it seemed to work the first time. And I'm going to say, no, no, no, it's okay. It's okay. I'm here to help. Okay. Calm down. Give me the tags. Let's go.

Okay. So I once worked for evil. I went to undo the wrongs test court committed. So within that, I did work for test court. So I, I'm familiar with the vicinity. I'm not going to walk up looking lost. I look like I know what I'm doing. And some of these people, I may or may not know.

So I might be able to use that to fuel my power a little bit more. It's like, no, I know you, you can calm down. It's okay. Who's the head of security here? I want to know that. What's the name of this, this person? Josh Phillips. Okay. Josh Phillips. I think names with two first names are funny. Okay. So Josh Phillips is there. He doesn't recognize you, but you recognize him. What's the secret about the way he feels about like the way he acts that you're going to use against him?

Josh Phillips is scared. He doesn't know what's going on. He has a give. He sometimes laughs nervously when something unexpected happens. And I could see that. Okay. So he is laughing at the utter ridiculousness of you walking up and he, he steps in. He goes, I probably do look ridiculous. Okay. Okay. Everybody tasers on. That's one die. What else you got? Your powers too. Yeah. I, yeah, my power is another one.

I don't know. You can persuade me if you want, but I kind of like the idea of you have to roll two dice here because let's be dramatic about it, you know? You're not always going to get the three. Okay, yeah.

Oh, heck. All right. Just so I know, the boost can be chosen after the roll. Yes. Well, it's your power, correct? You're using your power. Yes. And your power, your boost is that you can amplify a roll used to modify emotions with your abilities. Yes. So yes, you can use your boost. Okay, cool. All right. Let's see. Let's see what happens. Only two. Only two. Okay.

I got a five and a two. Excellent. So you have a triumph with a trouble. Do you want to move it up or do you want to accept the trouble? I'll accept the trouble. Okay, wonderful. Because I did something a little bit reckless here. So here's what happens. Josh is laughing. You say, you look at him and you say his name. Do you say Mr. Phillips or do you say Josh? Josh. Okay, you're like, Josh. What do you say to him? Also, I think we call him J-Lips, right? Wasn't that his nickname? Ha! Ha!

J lips. Phillips. Phillips. Yeah. Come on. What's the line? He's looking at you. All these tasers are waving at you. You're holding this flimsy cardboard box and you feel the tug of that sadness. So I'm going to say, Josh, you can trust me. It'll be okay. And I'm recalling a memory where Josh and I probably ran into each other at like the coffee bar and

And I probably we've we've talked about things before. We've probably shared some ideas of what we think is going on here or not. And I've probably used that line like, Josh, you can trust me. And I want to tap into that.

So I'm going to say, all right, then I know what your trouble is. I could have cost you a heart on this one, but the trouble is Josh knows it's you. Yeah. His eyes widen a little bit, but he feels that emotion waving out. And so does everyone else. And he looks and he goes, Oh, it's all right, guys. Um, it's good. It's fine. They're, uh, they're with us. And he just kind of waves you by and he goes, Oh,

Don't make it any worse. I gotta keep this job. And he kind of says that under his breath as you walk by. And then he says, I'm just gonna... I'm just gonna go back down and make sure everything's good. He's going with you. Okay. He's not letting you go alone. He just lets you in, but he's coming along with. That's okay. I will accept that. Okay. And to show that camaraderie, I'll give him a...

shoulder grab. Okay. You have to drop the box. You dropped the box. That's okay. I dropped the box. Okay, man. The, the, the, your ruse is completely gone. All right. You guys head in. Josh is like, he starts muttering under his breath. He's telling you what's happened. He says, perfect. I don't know what you're doing here. And I, I'm not going to ask. And if anybody asks, uh, I don't know that this happened, but, and he takes you right up to the door and he says, listen, I,

I've heard things downstairs. There were these things they broke in from underneath. They got some of the people who were in the Megapede attack. I don't know where they're taking them. And I saw something like they're keeping people down there, not just the people from the Megapede, like other people. Look, I don't know what's going on, but just be safe. And then he kind of pushes you through the door. All right. You now have four triumphs to go and four moves to go.

Back at the lighthouse and we can flip however you want. If one of you wants to get involved and you're like, I want to take my second move. That's cool. But if you take it out of turn and everybody's cool with it, it just means that it'll change the balance of play. Yeah. So usually we'll go one at a time, but if we ever decide that for story reasons, you want to double down. Totally cool. I think that I just as a scene transition, I think we see firefly in her pod and she can hear ape over the radio and

Firefly, we got a situation out here. I'm trying to... Spex is the one who replies and he goes, I told you to handle it! And then he stops for a second and he goes, Oh...

Come on. And the screen next to specs flickers and Firefly, you can see this through the hyperbaric chamber. He's got eyes on what's happening. And you see two ton and gyro on his shoulders floating down out of the sky towards the port. And you see multiple, uh, multiple feeds up. Clearly it's being filmed and live streamed. Wait,

The part that's being filmed and live streamed is the part with Ape Canaveral? Not yet. They don't have eyes on Ape.

They have their following two ton and gyro ape outran them and they weren't focused on ape. Ape is now right in front of the people they're chasing. And if he does nothing, those, those little drones are going to catch up and they're going to catch ape on tape in front of these guys. Now you have to decide right now what you guys want to tell him about what's about to happen. And you also have to decide whether you want to do anything about it.

I think we have to tell him that he's about to be filmed just so that he's aware. And then I would, it looks like they're filming this again. And I think they're about to catch up to you and you're going to be on camera. Dude, you're the gadget expert. Can't you out gadget them? That was what I was going to say next, because I would, I would like to do that. How are you going to out gadget them? Let's go.

I wonder if there is a way that we can hijack the drones or something or hack the drones and send them somewhere else, just in a different direction altogether.

All right. Let's see what you got Firefly. That's going to help you hack these drones. Okay. So I'm looking at the bottom parts, right? The quirk downfall, dream deed, bond and dialogue. So I think that the number one, you can look at drive to drive always helps. Okay. I think that the bond is one of the ones that I think would be really good because specs is specs is my wingman and my best friend. And he's someone I'm going to ask for help here. Um,

I defeated the Scarlet King and saved Giga City. So I've been good at things before. And then I'm going to be good at it again. So that makes you good at hacking? I don't know if I buy this. I don't know. What do you think? Do you really think you can bend it that far? Well, maybe it's that same thing with the cockiness or kind of thing that Abe Canaveral's got going on where he just like thinks he's going to like, I can figure it out. I did this. I like I defeated somebody important before. Like we can figure this out now.

Okay. I wanted to remind you of the bond you formed with Jorge. You could totally bend like- Can I have two? I can use two bonds? Yes.

You can use as many bonds as you have. Remember, we added one to your sheet because we decided you were rivals with Jorge and boy, you could bend that. Yeah. Cause okay. So Jorge is my academic rival, which means, and I, and I've studied extra hard in that class because I needed to beat him. Uh, it was very important to me and my pride. So nice. Yeah. So I, I have a lot of ability in this area. Uh,

So I think that is another one that I can use. Fantastic. So you have your super science training and your rivalry with Jorge that has made you a much better coder than you were before. You've sort of specialized in judo and like flying the suit and you know a lot of super science, but you've gotten good at coding because of Jorge.

And then you've got specs who's there and can back you up. I wish you had a piece of gear. This is why lines become important. And if you're playing the game at home, this is why if you write a whole bunch and you get a whole bunch of like ideas and put them into your character, it gives you a lot of flexibility for doing different kinds of things. All right. So you got two dice. Do you have anything else you can add? I think it's two. Yeah.

Don't I have a power? You do. Are you flying in your suit right now to hack the drones? No, but my suit was something that. I mean, she built the suit, right? That's a gadget proficiency. I did. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's a sneaky way to get that extra die. I'm impressed. I'll give it to you. Come on. Come on. Yes. I'll take it. I'll take it.

All right. So you've got three whole dice by a series of impressive verbal and story creative acrobatics, which is exactly what you should be able to do. That's exactly the point is, you know, think about how your character would use their abilities. So perfect. All right. Three dice. What do you say to Specs? Specs, let me out for now. I'll get right back in after.

something like that. Okay. Specs looks at you and he goes, you're just going to bang on the glass if I don't say yes. And he hits the button. Yeah, you're right. He hits the button and it slides open and he goes,

You're so annoying. And he pulls over one of the chairs and he points at the thing and he goes, listen, I'm already working on this. This guy's crazy. He's typing away. He's like, he's got unbelievable levels of encryption and I can't even tell what kind of programs he's using. I could actually use your help on this one. Give me the roll and I'll tell you what happens.

I got a one, a six, and a five. All right. So a full success. I don't think you can move up on this one because you're not flying in your suit, even though you were able to bend your suit to give you extra hacking ability. Precisely what do you want to do? Do you want to control these things? I would like to control them. I'd also, I mean, Specs just said this guy is crazy, like the encryption on this. Who is this guy? Like, do we know who specifically did this? Like, I would also be interested in the potentially like...

I would like to get all the way in them so we can also know where they came from. Oh, you're going to trace the source? Yeah. And look at the whole history of all of them. Oh, that's cool. Okay. You can trace this signal. Okay. So the first thing you know about these things is they are moving. They've got a really impressive suspension field tech. They don't seem to have engines. They don't have those little hover things. They're literally just moving.

hovering in midair. And it's a type of technology that is shockingly close to the one that's used on your suit. The second thing is they're mostly visual. And you realize really quickly you can shut off the video feeds. The third thing is all of the sources trace back to a really high spire in Tusk Corp. There's a signal emanating. You guys get in control of these things. You cut them off.

And for a moment, a bunch of them drop. Do you want them to like completely fall out the sky or do you want them to just like fritz a little? I would like to control them and fly them back. I just, I want to cut the video feed. Like, I think you said that. And then I want to fly them back to where they came from. And I want to ask maybe Animus who I think is there to like find them. You're going to send them. You want to send them to Animus's location.

Well, isn't Animus at Tusk Corp? She doesn't need to get the drones, though. I love this idea. I like the idea of a flood of like golden drones suddenly diving into the basement of Tusk Corp. So am I hearing the conversation with this? Are you like telling us like, hey, the signal is coming from somewhere in because we've all got our little communicator thing, right? Yeah. So it's coming from somewhere in. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. So maybe crazy idea, right? If you could somehow send them to me, we can expose whatever is in this lab to everyone. Because I'm about to try to break into this lab. And we could show it and plaster it everywhere. Yeah, I want that. If that's somehow possible. Yes.

Oh my gosh. That's a hoist on their own petard. Okay. So I'll say, wait, wait, wait. Don't send them back. Send them to me. I'm about to uncover something big. I'm in. Okay. Yes. Then we're going to send them back to you.

Specs is like, oh boy, this is actually kind of cool. He's like, he's typing. How fast can they get here? How much time do I have? He leans back a little. He goes, uh, five minutes or less. They're fast. And then he says, I just, I just out hacked ellipsis. He goes, we, we out hacked ellipsis. And he gives you a high five. He goes up for one. Do you take it? I do it back. Yes. High five back. Yes. Okay. It's the power of friendship.

Well, it's a nice moment after he kind of like got upset with how down on him he did. You're going to have like an elaborate secret handshake at this point.

Oh yeah. It can't just be a high five. I feel like they'd probably be past that. No, I think it's, we just are, we're really good at a high five now. Like it's not, it's, we don't need anything special. We don't need bells and whistles. We just like, we know how to do, we don't even have to look at each other and it smacks right in the middle. It like reverberates and resonates and stings just a little after it's exactly perfect. It's not just a high five. The no eye contact high five is, is a flex. That's a flex. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We're good at it.

All right. All of a sudden, this stream of golden orbs goes streaking backwards through the city. You hear this like commotion behind you. You're already at the elevator. The elevator doors are just closing. And this flood of golden drones comes like burning into the elevator with you. And you have to like kind of grab the doors and hold it. And they all pile into the elevator with you. And then the door closes.

Josh gave you his pass card. You're going to be able to swipe it and go to the lowest level. Josh is the best. I have to do something very nice for him later. J lips. Ape. Meantime, you see something rustles in the back. The big guy comes forward and he goes out of the way. Little ape. We don't have time.

He is, by the way, inarguably the best looking person you've ever seen in your life.

He looks, is he a mirror or, uh, yeah, no, I said best looking. Let me say best looking naked ape. At least the top half of him is naked ape. The bottom half of him is Clydesdale. Yeah. He's incredibly good looking, like just model gorgeous, but at a huge scale, he's massive and he looks like he was cut out of snow like a horse though. Uh, ape hasn't gotten close enough to sample the musk. Uh,

He might. He might. The mask. I'm not sure. The cat has claws out and she whips them sideways and these gleaming darts go flying in and hit the pavement right in front of you. And she goes, you heard him out of the way. Behind them, you see the forms of Tutan and Jairo under in the flickering streetlights coming straight towards the port as though they're falling towards you, which in fact they are.

I say, hey, are you with these guys or what's going on?

Um, the big guy just starts to run. The giant centaur is barreling towards you. And, uh, he doesn't look like he's going to move. He looks like he's waiting for you to get out of the way. And as he does, the little bug dude on top looks down and goes, sorry, dude. And gives you like little peace signs with like four arms. And the, the cat like hisses again, grabs the side and whips herself up onto this giant pile. And you actually see a hand fall out. Um,

of one of the sheets and it's slightly pinkish and that's when two-ton and gyro come screaming down out of the sky and land like a meteor with an impact what would you like to do

Wait, just what are the, what are the piles? Were they moving the piles? There's a pile of cloaked bodies on the back of the centaur. The little bug dude is standing on top of them. This guy is about the size of a truck. He's huge. He's really enormous. And he's clearly very fast too. Once he got started running, he's pounding the pavement and his, his, his hooves are a blur. Yeah. Um, this might not work, but it's, it's, it's what it would do. He's going to,

Stand his ground. He looks like, it's like I gave a chicken, right? This guy's, you know, barreling at him. Ate nonchalantly, just fast enough, as slow as he can though. Reaches in the coat, pulls out the banana, squeezes it. Banana, one bite. And then just at the last minute, he's going to step to the side and throw down the banana peel.

Oh, no. Please let this work. Please let this work. I almost don't want this to be a move. It's just too perfect. Do you want this to be a move or do we just want this to be a beat? Because we can make that decision. Let's have this be a beat because I think, yeah, the move is what's going to happen when all these guys come together, I think. Yeah, okay. Oh, that's amazing. You do the like one, two, three, um, flip.

very casually toss it over your shoulder. And, uh, and this giant Clydesdale hoof comes down, pounds into the pavement and then slips skitters. And this entire giant pile of bodies on top of his back goes flying. Uh,

The cat immediately flips and tries to catch a few of them and is like snarling. The kid too is like looking panicked. And really quickly, you are surrounded by sheets. Effectively, these look like hospital sheets, people in what look like hospital gowns who are in various, various shades of pink and red.

And, and, uh, this thing has clobbered you and you are now covered in centaur. Um, cause it went sliding and flying and you got clobbered and that's when two ton and gyro hit immediately. Uh, two ton sort of jumps, floats through the air and then slams down onto the centaur slamming into you as well. Um, and begins crushing you both under his weight. You feel like you've just had, well, two tons dropped on you. Ooh,

And I'm not, I'm not, you know, not super strong. I'm stronger than the average human, but that's about it. I'm going to turn to the big guy kind of next to me. He's on top of you. He's all over you. Every chiseled ab is being, is being cut into your face right now. Oh, this is horrible. You're getting real familiar. How's the musk now? Actually, he smells like, like cotton candy. He smells amazing. I can't stand this guy, Oliver.

He's actually really nice. So much judgment. Jeez. Uh, yeah, he charged at me. I didn't do anything to him. Um, that wasn't very nice. It wasn't very nice. I don't know what's going on exactly. There you go. That's the key element. You don't have context y'all. Yeah. So I'm going to, um, Hey, I can't be hurt. I don't think they know the extent of it. I'm going to cut the scriv. I'm going to let you squirm under there for a second. Is that okay?

I kind of feel like you're figuring things out. Animus. I'm in the elevator. Yeah. You, you wave it and it's one of those, it's a, it's an elevator with a pure white panel. There are no buttons. You just wave your, your card and then it takes you to the floor you're supposed to go to. This is part of the Tusk security setup. You wave your card and you see all the normal little white numbers. And then all of a sudden it goes yellow.

And then it goes red and it's way down below. You've ever seen these lights light up. You didn't know there were lights down there. They're lighting up behind this smooth surface. And you're like, well, what? Finally, when it opens, you see in front of you, um, a long white corridor with doors, um,

and little observation ports. Um, everything is bathed in reddish lights. There's some signs of scuffle. There are some overturned hospital beds in the corridor. Um, and some like, like, uh, what are they called? The, the drip bags, IV bags on rollers that have been tossed around. Um, and you can hear, you can feel that sadness now, absolutely pouring from the end of the corridor. Um,

Oh, from the end of the corridor. Okay. So I'm going to, as I step out of the elevator and I guess I'm still accompanied by all the drones, right? Yep. They're hovering around you. Firefly, you're seeing this. You and Specs have this on your visual. Perfect. Okay. I'm just going to confirm that in my earpiece. All right. It looks like this is a place. You catching all of this? Yes, we're catching all of it. Specs goes, wait a minute, wait a minute. No, no, no, no, no, no. And then he's like,

We're losing the feeds. Wait, why? He's like, I can't, I got the drones, but the feeds are gone. You hear a voice come over your radio. That's awfully impolite. Taking other people's things. No, this, the villain is British. Maybe, maybe he's just doing a bit. That's the only question we have. He's a Brit. Oi.

By the way, as you hear this voice, you see three dots appear on all of the lighthouse's screen. And they do like a little loading, like dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. Oh, because earlier Speck said ellipsis. Is this the ellipsis? The ellipsis. No. You didn't think the rest of Giga City Gold wasn't going to be involved, did you? Allow me to remind you.

You currently have. So Dan has taken one move. Scriv has taken one move. Amanda, you've taken one move. So Firefly, Ape, and Animus have each used a move. So you have three moves left, one each. And you have currently scored...

A total of four triumphs, which means you need three triumphs before the drama clock runs out. Originally, you had seven triumphs you needed, but you only had six moves to make it. But Ape managed to nail that double six and completely blow away the opposite. I never thought he was going to catch up. I thought he was going to come up behind, but he headed him off at the pass. So you have three moves left. Each of you has a move, and each of you must triumph.

If you wish this drama clock to go well, but don't worry if it goes badly, you know, there will be consequences and the story will change. It'll be great. So I imagine that you're going to try to get the feedback. Yeah.

Yeah, I guess that's kind of what what are our like options right now? I think we have to we have to get the feedback. Talk to this guy. You could try to get the feedback. You could try to out hack him again. You're imagining part of the problem is you sent them back to Tusk Corp. He's sort of there as close to the source of the signal as they could be. And you don't know what kind of tech he's using.

Yeah, and we don't know where he physically is, correct? Correct. You only know where the signal was coming from. Which also means he probably knows where I am. Oh, for sure. Ding, ding. So we probably don't have a lot of time. Okay, how about this? No. I probably have my phone on me. Mm-hmm. And my phone has a video camera. Oh, yeah. You could use that. Maybe we do that instead. It's like, okay. Okay. Fine, jerk. Take out my phone.

Just access my phone. I'm going to start recording now and I'm going to go. When you say, when you say fine jerk, he goes harsh language. We've only barely met. Um, you, you flip. That's more than enough for me. And you start recording and you start running down the hallway. Um, and I'm trying to capture every observation bay. Um, he goes phones, please. That's awfully basic. Don't you think? And then you, you're basic. Yeah.

Your phone goes dot, dot, dot. You're holding it up and it goes blank and you get the three dots, the loading thing. No. You run down the hall. You can feel the grief down the hall. Okay. At this point, I'm just going to stick my tongue out at the phone and I'm going to keep going because that feeling of the grief is probably going to start becoming overwhelming. Yeah. It's pulling at you. So time is of the essence. I need to go.

So as I'm going, I'm trying to catch glimpses, though, of these observation rooms, since you said there are like bays there, just kind of looking as I'm going. So if you recall, they had reported on the news that the survivors of the Megapete attack had been taken to Tusk Corp for some help with a vaccine that was going to immunize them to whatever this stuff was. Unfortunately, what you see is evidence of empty beds.

Um, and at the very end of the hall, there's a guarded door and the guards are both in full tactical gear. Um, they are looking incredibly alert and incredibly fierce. And there's a few extra of them. There's kind of a crowd. Um, and they immediately see you and all of them take up defensive positions. Um, one of them yells, I don't care. I'm going to use my power again. Run at them. Come on, flex some emotion here.

In this point, I am angry, pissed off, and really, really focused on whatever is behind that door. You're going to scare them? And I'm going to, yes, I want to scare them. I want to go back to that bond when I had that mental link with a werebear, and I'm going to try to channel werebear again. Ooh!

Ooh, okay, that's the bond. Because I've had some time to let it process and marinate, and I want to scare the pants off them. All right, you've got the power. Yep. You've got your bond with Werebear. Do you have a third thing, or are you going to stick with two? I am going to also tap into that bond, Starstruck by Firefly. I like this. We are working together directly in this. I'm working with one of my heroes here.

And I think it's so cool that they were even able to send the drones this way. And I'm like, you know what? I might be technically, physically in this hallway alone, but I feel like part of the Guardians and I feel like they're behind me in this. You're not going to let them down. You can't let her down. No.

All right. So do you roar? Are you just charging at them? Do you want like the specter of a bear to kind of somehow like- I want the specter of werebear in the angriest possible form I can imagine. I want these emotions to come rolling off. Give me the roll. Focused on those people. Okay.

channeling everything that I could feel from where there I'm going to let out the fiercest roar as I can with that. Hopefully that spectral kind of presence behind me, possibly even enveloping me as like a shroud as I'm running towards them as fast as I can. I got a five, a five and a one. Okay. Success with a trouble. Can I boost it? Would you like to?

I would like to boost it. You didn't boost your last roll? Because I feel like this is a... I didn't boost my last roll. Well, then this is a perfect time. Because I took that trouble. Okay. So you feel it and you just... Heck yeah. So when you boost, what these poor guys see is this massive, thundering, spectral, bear-like creature just charging down the hall at them. There's a few wild bullets and they're rubber bullets. These guys are... Everything's non-lethal. They collapse backwards...

You hear screams. You hear a couple people crying for various parents. There's definitely the smell like a few of them have probably, you know, there's been some pants. You are terrifying. You terrified them. You are absolutely just up and you charge up and the door is it looks like it's been bashed open. So that's why they were the guard was so heavy. There's no lock on this door anymore.

And you burst into the room and there's a small figure, looks like on a seated with a group of people huddled around him. And he looks up and you see, it looks almost like giant hat, really broad. And you realize it's not a hat. It's some kind of like a mushroom. This person looks like they're a mushroom of some kind, like a fungus. They're brick red and they look up and they go,

Can you get us out of here? And that's where we're going to end. Okay. Ape is still stuck under a centaur. Yes, you are. Just wait until you learn his name. I was dying to tell you his name. All of them have names. They haven't had a chance to introduce themselves. No socials have been, you know, exchanged, but yeah, I'll save that. I'll save that for next episode. Maybe after he's done like feeding Ape an ab sandwich. Yeah. Get those McRibs. All right.

so

Here at the end of the episode, now you see why these lines of your story become so important, right? These touchstones for who you are, what you've done, and what helps you in a moment of danger or, you know, high drama.

So what do you all think, if anything, we should do some shout outs and then talk about what lines you might want to add to your story to reflect your growth. If you think you've learned anything or grown or had a significant moment. I'll start with shout outs. I'll give it to, I got to give a shout out to Scriv aka Animus for the Werebear channel. Pretty cool way to bring that power back. I like that.

Definitely imagine like a, an aware bear of like raw emotion behind you like that. It's very, it's evocative. I like that. The spectral roar. It felt powerful. I wanted to give a shout out to, to Firefly for, for bending the suit.

Like, no, I can hack. And then I liked the moment. Yeah. Thank you. I liked that you did the no eyes high five. Felt really satisfying after all the drama between you and Specs. I love that. I would like to recognize Ape Canaveral for the banana. That was amazing. I liked the banana a lot. It was very funny. So classic.

I mean, that was so perfectly timed too. He was going to run you over. I was not sure how you were going to deal with that. That was a great moment. Is the banana going to become a shtick? I don't want to lean too hard on the banana. But it was a moment out of anything that should have been captured on camera. That should have been it. Iconic. Yeah. He's going to be mad later when he finds out you pulled his coverage.

The audience is gone. Did you see that? Not a drone to be seen. So Scriv, what's your line? I want to know. I kind of want to add another bond. Is it J-Lips? Okay, maybe two bonds. Oh no, okay, please. Okay, so yes. So Josh, I

I appreciated that moment. And from a storytelling perspective, I appreciated the, you know, the difficulty or the challenge there. And okay, well, now my cover is blown. But I liked taking that risk. And I really like how that played out. So thank you, Michael. That was very, very cool. And I'll add that as a bond as, you know, a colleague, but I feel like we still have each other's backs. And I still want to do right by that friendship. Yeah.

Another one that I was thinking, though, I appreciate that Ape pushed me and encouraged me to still go to the tower. Ape trusted you. Because there was definitely a moment of inner conflict there, seeing everything going down, thinking, no, no, no, I have to go. That's not good. I should go with Ape. But-

He probably knows what he's talking about. Okay. Let's hope this plays out. He doesn't know, but he believes himself. Yeah, but you say it with confidence. And Animas is still trying to figure out how much is like, oh, no, he really knows his stuff. And how much of it is just bravado. We have met. I've known all of you for maybe like, what, 24 hours? Maybe? Intense 24 hours. This has been a heck of a first date. I still don't know these things. Yeah.

You've been, you've been on the ultimate interview. Like this is definitely trial by fire. Um, all right. Do you want the bond with J lips or do you want the bond with, with ape? Cause I think one or the other. One or the other. I think, I think the one with J lips, if that's the name we're going to use now is probably more significant at this time. Okay. That's that's absolutely put it on your sheet. All right. Amanda, Dan, what are you thinking? Do you have anything that's, that's glowing for you as a line? Um,

I think I got to be honest on this one. I don't think, I don't think, I don't think I'm going to take a line on this one. It didn't do, didn't do a lot of growth in this one kind of played to his strengths. I think, I think I'm going to get a line next episode when I sort this whole mess out. I like how you're like, I'm going to sort this whole mess out. Hold on. Let me disentangle all the, all these bricks and bodies. I got this. Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda, did you have anything that stood out to you? Well, I guess not necessarily like from what we have just done, but I was just thinking about the dream one, which

and thinking about how so much of Firefly is legacy. And I feel like a big part of what is important to Jillian is making her grandpa proud, Grandpa Jack proud, and also her dad. And I don't know if that's, I mean, I don't think that that's specifically related to anything we talked about today, but that's something that I felt like

I would maybe include or that I kind of think about for her. - That would be a wonderful one if we were like playing offline, I would say, boy, that's a good one to write a story about in between.

uh sessions so that we could share that story and build that that legacy of like what does it mean to her like what does she find does she you know she finds an old piece of grandpa something grandpa jack used to always have and remembers him and feels that connection um does she have dreams about him sometimes you know there's a lot you could do there to build that and i totally think that's it that's one we could work with i was wondering if you didn't want a rivalry

I kind of feel like ellipsis really got all up into your guys. Oh man. Yeah. After I did such a good job, um, demonstrating my really, really good coding abilities and hacking abilities. And then he was all on my screen. Um,

And I just think that's really rude. And also, I did not like his tone of voice. I thought he was too calm and like a little quippy, which is the thing that I don't I don't respond to quippiness. Well, I don't I don't ever have a good comeback in the moment. It makes me feel very upset. So I'm not a fan. He's definitely smarmy. This is a guy who you remember. Quippy smarm bag. Yeah, that's right. OK, so if you want, you can have that. I can add that. Like frustrated by or like can't stand that.

wants to get back at, you know, you can do any of those, whatever works for you. All right. So we'll wrap it there. You have two moves to go and two triumphs to score. And who knows where this will end? Uh, I hope to see everybody next time. Please check us out wherever you get your podcasts and check out patrion.com backslash stories, RPG. So you can get ad free episodes, downloadable game books. So you can play along at home or

right alongside these heroes and hope to see you next time. Everybody say bye. Bye everyone. Don't forget your bananas.

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