Hey. It's a podcast, everybody. Come on in. Shut the door behind you. Sit down.
Isaac Allen Burns:Keep your hands and feet in the vehicle at all times because this is gonna be a roller coaster gang. Uh-oh. Welcome in. It's me, your GM, your host, your good friend, your buddy, your storyteller, Isaac Allen Burns. And joined with me today on my right is one, Rowan Collins playing Pistachio.
Rowan Collins:What's up, fam?
Isaac Allen Burns:And to Rowan's right, we have one, Joe playing Kapi.
Joe Diametti:Yo. Yo. Yo. Yo. And then to
Isaac Allen Burns:Joe's right, we have the one and only Annie Hawthorne playing crank.
Annie Hawthorne:Hey, yo.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, and it's me, Isaac Allen Burns. Nice to meet you. He him. So Gang, I wanna start somewhere a little different today, guys. Before we begin, I'm gonna start with a little bit of rules.
Isaac Allen Burns:That's right. We're gonna talk rules right up front. There's gonna be a lot happening in this episode, which we'll explain in a second. But for starters, let's talk about countdowns. Now we've met countdowns before in previous episodes.
Isaac Allen Burns:I wanna go over them one more time because they're gonna be used a little differently in this episode, in this session. As you know, countdowns are a way to track looming threats or events or to track the progress of certain player goals. In this case, there will be a dice called the countdown die that will track the progress of something that we'll discover soon. When certain actions are taken by y'all or even by NPCs, this dice will decrease. When it reaches zero, a certain event is gonna be triggered.
Isaac Allen Burns:Now there are also dynamic countdowns in which certain actions may or may not impact the countdown. There are two kinds of dynamic countdowns. The first is a progress countdown where you are working toward a desired outcome. The other is a consequence countdown where you are trying to avoid a dreaded outcome. We are going to be playing today's session with a combination of those two, and I will get into that soon.
Isaac Allen Burns:However, another rule that I cannot wait to introduce, and speaking personally, I think this is my one of my favorite parts of Daggerheart actually, is environments. That's right. An environment has a stat block and represents everything in a scene that is not either the PCs or the adversaries. Adversaries. This is from the physical elements of the scene to background characters to just simply forces of nature.
Isaac Allen Burns:Maybe for those who are more familiar with literary circles, you ever heard New York City as a character? Mhmm. It's basically that. It's it's basically that. We're gonna be having an event environment that I created called Bracken Road Burning.
Isaac Allen Burns:And while I won't get into the specifics quite yet, we'll discover what this does as we go. Are you all ready?
Rowan Collins:Not ready for my
Isaac Allen Burns:For starters, the best place to start is in the beginning. And let's take a look back on what happened last time. Because last time on DodoBorne , our three adventures, our three heroes enjoyed a nice day at a festival after many preparations were made for the defense of this from unknown and looming threats. Three of you got to enjoy a little bit of this fun festival. You played some different games.
Isaac Allen Burns:You threw apples. You jacked apples. However, at the end
Isaac Allen Burns:of the day,
Isaac Allen Burns:as the Viscount Balthazar himself was at giving a speech is when terror struck. The town hall building that you all had once been inside erupted in a column of fire. As the sounds of conflict and gunfire and screams erupted in the distance, You saw Viscount drop dead as an unknown assailant dressed in the garb of Jess Thane had stabbed and killed him on stage in front of everybody and yelled, to Jess Thane down with the Voltani dogs. That's all of you. And before the three of you do anything, let's explain right now what's happening.
Isaac Allen Burns:So first and foremost, the three of you are standing there. And in all of the chaos, in all of that is going on here, three things rise up to all of you to see. First of all, you notice certain threats around that need to immediately be taken care of. And the other thing that you know is that you are not going to have time to get to all of them. Firstly, Kapi, you notice that someone in the front line of defense fighting the soldiers is Nefany.
Isaac Allen Burns:You can tell that Nefany is only holding her own for so long and will not last out. Additionally, Crank, you look over almost instinctually and down the road, you see that
Isaac Allen Burns:the
Isaac Allen Burns:library, the Bracken Rowe library Mhmm. Is currently on fire. Finally, there's a building, a nondescript building that is currently falling apart. Fire has sort of caved it in. Someone had tried to get out of this building.
Isaac Allen Burns:They were clearly hiding in there for safety, but a heavy beam has fallen on top of them. It is currently burning. You see your mom trapped under a burning beam. Your dad kind of trying his best to pull her out and lift up the beam. But with his sort of weakened state and broken arm, he seems unable to do so.
Isaac Allen Burns:These three events, I am now gonna roll these d fours. And all three of those represent basically how many successful actions of whatever you choose need to happen in order for these to be.
Joe Diametti:It's the sparkling your eye that's scaring me.
Isaac Allen Burns:I'm just so happy.
Rowan Collins:It gets lit every time.
Joe Diametti:It's awful. Look at him.
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. So I had each of y'all give me one of these d fours, and I wanna decide which of these seem closest to your hearts for which ones they are. So this dice that I'm holding right now, Kapi Uh-huh. I'm gonna say this represents Nefany. Okay.
Isaac Allen Burns:You rolled a one. Uh-oh. Which means one successful action needs to be happened to resolve it
Rowan Collins:Oh, I run
Isaac Allen Burns:before things go bad. This dice right here is the one that you gave me, Crank, and this one has a three. This represents the library. Finally, it was represented by this dice that Rowan gave me. Too.
Isaac Allen Burns:And finally, before we get too deep in the role play, there were many smart decisions made for preparation in previous sessions.
Rowan Collins:Let's go capy.
Isaac Allen Burns:So I'm going to let y'all have a d eight. This is what I will roll to determine basically how many actions total can be taken before the worst happens. So starting with the first one. Let's see. That is a six.
Isaac Allen Burns:Y'all have six actions that y'all can take. A success and a success with hope will both decrease whichever encounter you want to attempt to resolve. Once this d eight goes down to zero, though, the worst will occur for each of those if they have not been resolved. I will remind all of you, before you think about going off on your own and each solving these individually, I will remind you, Each of you may spend a hope to give another player the help action, basically, which in that case, it adds a d six advantage dice. The person has to be at that encounter for it to work.
Isaac Allen Burns:So that was a lot of rules. It was a lot of stuff, but now that we know what's happening, I will once again just bring us back into the role play and just restate reset the scene. Currently, chaos has erupted around the three of you. You see that the the citizens of Bracken Road that were in all of the chairs have in in various states of getting up and trying to run away from the scene as fast as possible. Fire the smell of fire is lifted up in the air as smoke assaults your nostrils.
Isaac Allen Burns:Viscount, Balthazar is dead on the stage, and it seems like the various Jastheni soldiers that you see around are making some offensive moves. Additionally, you hear yells and screams in the distance as more of this grows. Three of you are standing. We're standing sort of in the back with eyes on everything. The town hall that is kind of in the distance a little bit has erupted in flame, and you're hearing a fight go on in the distance.
Isaac Allen Burns:However, directly in front of you, you see Nefany fighting off a couple soldiers on her own at a clear disadvantage, and you see the library is currently aflame. So you three, what do you do?
Rowan Collins:Mom! Oh, no.
Rowan Collins:Pistachio, like, goes to run forward and then looks back at Kapi as if asking for permission.
Annie Hawthorne:The library's on fire.
Joe Diametti:Yes. Crank, the library's on fire. And Kapi is, like, rubbing Crank's arm. It's gonna be fine. It's all gonna be fine.
Rowan Collins:What are
Annie Hawthorne:you doing? This is no time for this.
Joe Diametti:Yes. It's all gonna listen.
Annie Hawthorne:The library is on fire.
Joe Diametti:It's Do
Annie Hawthorne:I know if Roseanne is in the library?
Isaac Allen Burns:You don't think Roseanne is in the library because you remember Roseanne was in the group that was out fighting. But all those books are in the library.
Annie Hawthorne:And I run. Just run to the library. I'm going to the library.
Isaac Allen Burns:Greg, because I'm
Isaac Allen Burns:the library.
Joe Diametti:A bigger force that just told us not to do that, Pistachio.
Annie Hawthorne:I'll be right back.
Joe Diametti:We got it. We got we have
Isaac Allen Burns:alright. Let's go. Oh, Pistachio, you and Kapi run over. You see your father looks at you and says,
Isaac Allen Burns:Pistachio, help me. I can't. I'm not I can't lift it up. I'm not strong enough.
Joe Diametti:Oh, god. I was really hoping the giant robot
Isaac Allen Burns:was And
Rowan Collins:they will jump into beast form. They're gonna go into the dodo, the stalking and arachnid that we heard from the torture scene. Eldritch dodo of spider dodo.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, no. Okay. Yeah. You turned into that.
Isaac Allen Burns:Yes.
Rowan Collins:So they have a thing called web slinger, which means I'm able to create a strong web material that can be useful in both adventuring and battle. It's resilient enough to support a single creature. So what I would like to do with this is essentially create a web and then wrap it around so that we can use that in the soft of rope to pull the actual beam off as we pull my mom out.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, using pulleys, using mechanics. Very nice.
Joe Diametti:I was going to try to use the Halbert to get leverage underneath the post to try to lift it up far enough.
Isaac Allen Burns:What an exciting use of simple machines. This is incredible.
Rowan Collins:Look, neither of us are engineers,
Isaac Allen Burns:but I took physics.
Isaac Allen Burns:Who wants to roll?
Joe Diametti:I feel like you had a lot more going on there. Okay. Alright. But you roll it out. I'll use the halberd if I
Isaac Allen Burns:I think this is gonna be a strength check-in this case.
Rowan Collins:Okay. I
Isaac Allen Burns:don't want You can definitely just sling the sling your rope around. But
Annie Hawthorne:sling your rope around.
Rowan Collins:It says finesse, but I'll take strength.
Isaac Allen Burns:Well, it's easy to you could you finesse the rope on there. You finesse the web on there. But now it's the act of, like, lifting.
Rowan Collins:I'm gonna yeah. Okay. So this is a 13 with hope.
Isaac Allen Burns:K.
Rowan Collins:And wait, because you were helping, right?
Joe Diametti:Yeah. I can help. The hope? Yeah. Alright.
Joe Diametti:Yeah. So I roll my d six.
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. As you yeah. Roll a d six. Do you have? That
Joe Diametti:was a one.
Rowan Collins:Can I
Isaac Allen Burns:And that was with hope?
Rowan Collins:Yes. Can I spend my fam can we think that this is, like, similar to, like, a family of farmers using my experience to add to?
Isaac Allen Burns:I think this is absolutely your family, And I would say yes. I think this would track. So you can spend a hope to use that experience to help you.
Rowan Collins:Okay. That then turns it to what was that? 13?
Isaac Allen Burns:There's a total of a 16.
Rowan Collins:16. Yes. With hope.
Isaac Allen Burns:With hope, which is success.
Joe Diametti:How much hope do you have?
Isaac Allen Burns:I have six hope. Six?
Rowan Collins:Almost. I There
Isaac Allen Burns:was a lot of talk about
Annie Hawthorne:very helpful.
Isaac Allen Burns:There's a lot of talk about your GM getting lots of fear, but I provided y'all plenty of hope because I'm nice.
Rowan Collins:Oh, I keep forgetting to use
Isaac Allen Burns:it. So
Isaac Allen Burns:But that is enough. You are able to lift this beam off of your parents. And though you see your mom it's definitely been burned. Like, she like, you can tell, like, from her back, the back of her legs are burned really bad, but she's not gonna die today. As she comes up out of it, she immediately, like, embraces you in a hug.
Isaac Allen Burns:Me? Actually, yeah. Because you're a spider, so she embraces Kapi in a hug. Oh. Oh, man.
Rowan Collins:Pistachio, like
Isaac Allen Burns:Kapi, you saved me.
Rowan Collins:Yes. Pistachio pops out
Rowan Collins:of dodo
Rowan Collins:form and goes, mom.
Rowan Collins:Oh, my baby. Hugs onto her the bottom of her legs.
Joe Diametti:The burning legs?
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. She screams in pain a little bit, but then reaches down and, like, grabs you and holds you close and says, oh my dear. Oh. Oh my god. You were so terrifying.
Isaac Allen Burns:That was you. I don't know. I didn't think I would make it.
Rowan Collins:I'm sorry, Bob. We are you okay now? We got we got we got go, but, like
Isaac Allen Burns:Okay. We're trying to get to safety.
Joe Diametti:Okay. Get to
Isaac Allen Burns:safe stay safe, Pistachio.
Rowan Collins:Okay. I think dad, get home. Get out of here.
Isaac Allen Burns:You're you see that your dad grabs, like, your mom's arm and looks at you with a solemn nod in that way that shows trust in your ability to handle this situation. And without question, he grabs your mom and looks question, he grabs your mom and looks at the two of you and takes off running.
Joe Diametti:Alright, kid?
Rowan Collins:I I think my dad is proud of me. I'm having too many emotions, Gappy. I need you to take over.
Joe Diametti:Okay. Let's let's go. Let's you're doing great, kid. Also, your mom all the heat really looks great. It's shiny.
Joe Diametti:Okay. You're right.
Isaac Allen Burns:Let's go.
Joe Diametti:Let's go. Okay. Is is Nefany still fighting things off?
Isaac Allen Burns:Nefany is still fighting.
Joe Diametti:Okay. I only need one action to go well to save Nefany. Right? Pretty much. Yeah.
Joe Diametti:Alright. He's going to take his Halbert and he's gonna say he's gonna yell over at Nefany, hey Nefany. And wait hang on. Duck. Okay.
Joe Diametti:And then hoping she ducks because he's gonna go in for a big swing to kinda like at least either make contact or push back the other.
Isaac Allen Burns:Okay. Roll? This is an attack roll.
Joe Diametti:Hang on. I have to figure out what that means.
Isaac Allen Burns:We are now at a four. This is gonna be with strength, by the way.
Joe Diametti:A nine with fear.
Rowan Collins:Oh, no. Oh, no.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, no. Fear.
Annie Hawthorne:I think Nefany's
Rowan Collins:a lost cause. I don't think Nefany
Isaac Allen Burns:heard that.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, no.
Isaac Allen Burns:So that is a failure with fear.
Rowan Collins:Oh, no.
Isaac Allen Burns:That's a real shame. So
Rowan Collins:Oh, no. I guess you don't have to break up with her if she's dead.
Joe Diametti:Isaac's face right now stressing me out.
Isaac Allen Burns:So I am I will say in the rules, it does not specify that fear can't go the other way with it and make things worse. But I'm going to say, I need this to feel tense. I need this to feel like a bad situation. I'm gonna say a failure with fear does jump it up by one. Yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns:So we're now at two successful actions that are needed. As you yell duck, Nefany does the last thing you wanted, which is to just turn around Ugh. For a second to see what just yelled. And so here, Alfred comes in and just sorta runs into the both of them to one of the soldiers that she was fighting and Nefany herself, and they're both kinda thrown to the side.
Rowan Collins:Shabby, that's the opposite of what you wanted to do.
Isaac Allen Burns:Stephanie yells in pain.
Joe Diametti:Oh. Okay. Well, I can fix this. I can fix this. Crank.
Joe Diametti:Running to the library.
Annie Hawthorne:Yes.
Isaac Allen Burns:What are you gonna do? You kick the door
Isaac Allen Burns:You kick the door in. Very good. You see that the fire is wide. You look over, you see that a torch is sitting in the corner, kind of almost like it was thrown in here. That corner of books is a lost cause.
Isaac Allen Burns:But you see that because these are dry books, very flammable, by the way, the whole back wall has caught a flame right now. What do you do?
Annie Hawthorne:I'm just gonna open up my little locker, and I'm gonna start shoving books in. As many as I can get. Okay.
Isaac Allen Burns:Well, you know? What so, Annie, what do you think that role should be? What do you think this role should be? Agility for speed. Actually, that's what I'm gonna say.
Isaac Allen Burns:It's agility role for how many books you can grab in. 20
Annie Hawthorne:with fear? Oh my god. Oh my gosh. With fear though? With fear.
Isaac Allen Burns:So that is a success. In this case, the fear effect is simply that it will go down by one instead of going down by two for a success with hope. So there are now two actions that need to be had, which in this case, of course, the countdown is for the worst possible outcome, which in this case would be everything is lost. So that represents you have grabbed a bunch of books, and now less books will be missing, and we are now at three. So everyone is taking a turn to open it up again.
Isaac Allen Burns:I think, honestly, Kapi, I think, is in the most dire straits at this point since you just whacked your girlfriend, basically. So, Kapi, what do you do?
Joe Diametti:K. Nathany, are you okay?
Isaac Allen Burns:You hear,
Isaac Allen Burns:fuck. Ow. Was And for the soul and for the enemies.
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. Nathany.
Joe Diametti:Yeah. Okay. Would you say really quick, would being angrier help you fight? What are you talking I just I'm gonna help you but I just I think that maybe we should break up.
Isaac Allen Burns:As
Joe Diametti:he says that, he's going to take out his daggers and throw them at the Justine bad guys.
Isaac Allen Burns:That's incredible. I'm gonna ask for
Joe Diametti:a presence check on this one. Good. Presence is plus one.
Isaac Allen Burns:Here we go.
Joe Diametti:Hell yeah. That is a I forgot how to do math. Hang on.
Isaac Allen Burns:You can do it. One number plus another. No.
Joe Diametti:I know. It's twelve plus ten. 20 two. 20 two.
Isaac Allen Burns:It's so hard.
Joe Diametti:I'm sorry. 22 hope too. I wanna be clear.
Annie Hawthorne:Get that hope.
Rowan Collins:Did you add your one?
Joe Diametti:Oh, no. I didn't. It's 20 hope. Thank you. So Rowan?
Isaac Allen Burns:That is a success with hope, and that will there was only two left on that countdown, and thus, in whatever way we are about to find out, that is resolved. You see that she hears that, and she looks at you, and she says, are you breaking up with me?
Joe Diametti:I just think that maybe you deserve better.
Isaac Allen Burns:We had all these plans, Kapi. No. No. No. We were gonna run to your town together.
Joe Diametti:Yes. And you You're just gonna abandon me now? Just think the Give a little fight? Town's not big enough for the two of us but it's definitely big enough for you and your dreams and I I would love to support you from like a good distance away.
Isaac Allen Burns:She is heartbroken. Oh my god. You see that her face is just one that just drops. Her heart is clearly in the floor. She Oh.
Isaac Allen Burns:Kinda shakes her head. Your daggers that you fly out go on either side of her and land in the soldier that was behind her, and he drops dead immediately. She just says, I thought you were different. See, I was wrong. And then she just grabs her weapon and turns and takes off towards the town hall, clearly angry Yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns:But also incredibly hurt. Oh. The fact you broke up with her in the middle of a fight. Jesus.
Joe Diametti:Oh. I wish she would just be mad, but sad hurts. Okay.
Rowan Collins:We gotta get to Craig.
Isaac Allen Burns:Craig. If you would like, make a Okay. In this case, make a strength check for me.
Joe Diametti:And assuming this goes well, we'll hand
Annie Hawthorne:it Hey. Stop saying that. You can't say that right
Rowan Collins:now. Say that
Isaac Allen Burns:right now.
Annie Hawthorne:Jinx it. Don't jinx it.
Joe Diametti:Hate that face.
Rowan Collins:I don't like that face either.
Annie Hawthorne:It's a nine, ten, 11 with fear.
Isaac Allen Burns:Uh-oh. So I'm do something even more fun.
Isaac Allen Burns:No.
Isaac Allen Burns:Annie, Crank is grabbing as many books as they can, but the I'll say this, the structural integrity of this building is already starting to give. But at the same time, of you are hearing noises behind you to suggest that something else terrible has happened.
Annie Hawthorne:Well, I feel like I've stuffed myself as full of books as I can.
Isaac Allen Burns:So
Isaac Allen Burns:You pretty much have. Yeah.
Annie Hawthorne:I'll, like, give one last look at the library. Just forlornly in the doorway. It's like a beam falls. And I'll turn and I'll step out into the road, and I'll face whatever's coming.
Isaac Allen Burns:What was the first memory that Crank had in this library? What's the one memory that plays through in Craig's mind before Crank turns from this library and it falls to Park forever?
Annie Hawthorne:I think meeting Roseanne the first time I walked in.
Isaac Allen Burns:And what was that like?
Annie Hawthorne:Warm, kind. I think she was the first person who ever really showed real kindness to Crank in this town. So he just remembers that warmth
Isaac Allen Burns:I think so too.
Annie Hawthorne:Smile on her face.
Isaac Allen Burns:How often did Crank come to the library to read those books because Crank wanted to read those books again or because Crank wanted to feel the warmth of Roseanne?
Annie Hawthorne:Yeah. I think that that was one of the main reasons he spent so much time here.
Isaac Allen Burns:Crank, you feel that warmth as you turn, and you hear the snapping of that beam falling, and the rock and roll library turns to ash. I'd as you look over and see the really bad thing that's happening, which is a soldier is currently stomping on a bunch of rats who are coming towards y'all
Isaac Allen Burns:No.
Isaac Allen Burns:Clearly with a message. Woah. What's So, Frank, you are the one who broke off first. You run over. What do you do with this soldier?
Annie Hawthorne:I guess, just grab him by the throat. Pick him up.
Isaac Allen Burns:You pick him up.
Joe Diametti:He's a Just Dane soldier?
Isaac Allen Burns:Yes.
Annie Hawthorne:And I'm just gonna say, what do you want? What are you doing here?
Isaac Allen Burns:Alright.
Annie Hawthorne:I'll I'll drop him. I'll just drop him from, like, five feet in the air.
Isaac Allen Burns:You drop him. He hits the ground hard.
Annie Hawthorne:And I just put my foot in the middle of his back, and
Isaac Allen Burns:I just
Annie Hawthorne:stepped down just enough.
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. You hear ribs snap, and he has time to scream out in pain before rats descend on him and just consume him. Oh.
Rowan Collins:Oh my god.
Isaac Allen Burns:The rats look up at you and go, They start pointing wildly.
Rowan Collins:The way we got it?
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. They all form a hand in the direction over to the west.
Annie Hawthorne:Alright. I run west.
Isaac Allen Burns:You run west, you realize what they were pointing at, and what they were pointing at is the adventurer's guild.
Rowan Collins:Uh-oh.
Isaac Allen Burns:Okay. You two see Crank you two see Crank running in that way. Crank, you look over in the direction of the adventuring guild. And in the distance, couple blocks over, you see a scuffle going on. Some of the young soldiers that y'all had sort of brought together to help defend, you see three of them fending off a group of soldiers.
Isaac Allen Burns:You see that they are protecting a group of civilians. You don't see a lot of faces in those civilians. There's maybe, like, I would say, eight. You don't recognize most of them. However, you do recognize two of them as you see Toulouse shielding a young Alana from the onslaught.
Rowan Collins:There you go.
Isaac Allen Burns:Pistachio, you are looking towards Crank. And further in that direction, you see further up the street, a plume of smoke in the air that you know where that is coming from. That is coming from your family farm. As you look up in the distance, you see flames kind of coming from the whole field, coming from the building. In the distance, you can see it.
Isaac Allen Burns:And as you do so, let's roll these three dice again. Oh.
Rowan Collins:Oh, no. You thought this was over?
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. Saw this. Was over?
Joe Diametti:I did. I was feeling really good about how well we handled that. I was like, man, we probably ruined the whole GM's day.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, trust me. Kathy.
Rowan Collins:Not yet.
Isaac Allen Burns:The Adventuring Guild will be represented by your dice. In this case, I rolled a 4. Oh. Pistachio. This is on your dice is on a 3.
Isaac Allen Burns:And for you, Crank, your dice is on a 2. I have rolled a 6. So who's going first?
Annie Hawthorne:I'm sprinting.
Isaac Allen Burns:Crank sprints. Crank takes initiative. Crank, you run over towards those soldiers. You see the young you see that some of the young people, one of them you know, one of you recognizes Hazel. She's, like, kinda backing up the civilians.
Isaac Allen Burns:She's got, like, what looks like a rifle in her hands, and she's, like, firing at the soldiers who are firing back. What do you do?
Annie Hawthorne:I am gonna grab Timothy and Alana, and I'm gonna scoop them behind me as far away from the action as I can get them. And I'm gonna drop into unstoppable mode. Oh.
Rowan Collins:Oh, no. Oh, no.
Isaac Allen Burns:Very good. You do so. Go ahead. We're gonna say make a strength check. Strength is not only for your muscles and how strong you are, but also your force of body, your force of constitution, one could say.
Annie Hawthorne:Can I use my you've got a friend in me experience since they're my friends?
Isaac Allen Burns:I'm gonna say yes. I'm gonna say absolutely. They will not there's basically, they're gonna help you as much as they can in this.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, no.
Isaac Allen Burns:What did you roll?
Annie Hawthorne:I rolled a two and a three.
Joe Diametti:Oh. Uh-oh.
Isaac Allen Burns:With hope or fear?
Annie Hawthorne:With fear, then that's gonna be a five plus four is nine with fear.
Isaac Allen Burns:I'm gonna keep the numbers the same, but I am gonna escalate instead of with numbers. I'm gonna escalate with an action from the Bracken Road burning environment. That's right. As an action, I can use attack soldiers. A group of soldiers will convene upon the event's location.
Isaac Allen Burns:There are now two soldiers here to cause chaos. They have their weapons drawn. You see that they are these, like, broadswords almost, but they're shaped almost more like the bayonet on the end of a musket. They have these sort of long rifles with a long sword at the end of it. One of them is pointing at it like a rifle, and the other is holding it like a sword.
Isaac Allen Burns:It's one of these really cool weapons that can be used in two different ways. It's a fantasy world. Let us live our fantasy. And as you try and get in the way, in the chaos of it, you're not quite able to get them back. But I think on a positive note, you do shield them from some gunfire, some attacks that go through, which means I'm gonna roll dice because you have been hit.
Isaac Allen Burns:That's four damage.
Annie Hawthorne:K. I have resistance to damage in my current state.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh my god. You do protect what could have been something fatal towards those two. However, the countdown does not decrease. The assault continues.
Annie Hawthorne:Just gonna look at them.
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. And he points his rifle at you.
Annie Hawthorne:I run at him.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, okay. You run at them. What do you do?
Annie Hawthorne:I'm gonna try to grab him.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, okay. Roll an attack roll, Bullseye.
Isaac Allen Burns:12
Annie Hawthorne:with hope.
Isaac Allen Burns:In this case, this is an attack roll against an enemy. And so which in that case, I will say that this does hit them. Go ahead and roll damage.
Annie Hawthorne:Five.
Isaac Allen Burns:Five. You grab one, you hurl him, and you hear a loud snap as he hits his neck on the way out and dies. Use our minions, by the way. And I'm gonna say in that case, we're gonna cut to you two as you're running towards the Adventures Guild.
Rowan Collins:Isaac, question for you.
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. That's
Rowan Collins:good. Did did Wally come to the festival?
Isaac Allen Burns:Wally did not come to the festival.
Joe Diametti:Fuck. Wasn't Wally the guy this is just Joe. Wasn't Wally the guy hitting on that he he did things with Scarlet sometimes?
Isaac Allen Burns:Mhmm.
Joe Diametti:Yeah. Well, okay.
Isaac Allen Burns:So Wow. Wow.
Rowan Collins:That is my brother.
Joe Diametti:Well, I really
Isaac Allen Burns:Especially your mind goes to the fact that Wally did not come to the festival because Wally is recuperating at home. While while that doesn't necessarily mean that Wally is a burning husk right now, Pistachio, I don't think, is fully sure what the status of Wally is.
Rowan Collins:I think Pistachio runs through that thought in their brain of, both their farm and Wally being there and turns their back to their farm and goes to help the group in front of them right now. So what they're gonna do is they are going to use their vicious entangled spell again on the people that are close to the group that is fighting with Hazel.
Isaac Allen Burns:Do it up.
Rowan Collins:So Is it an 18 with hope? Well, there's a
Isaac Allen Burns:success. It's
Isaac Allen Burns:really good. So that does solve this, basically.
Rowan Collins:Okay.
Isaac Allen Burns:This was it too. You run up, you do the entangled spell.
Rowan Collins:What I'm gonna do as well is I can because I've succeeded, I'm going to spend one of my hopes, the hope that I just got, to temporarily restrain any enemies that are very close to them as well. So that if they're very close to each other, it should restrain both of them. Then they turn to Hazel and go, Wally's still at home. And then they point to the farm that is on fire.
Isaac Allen Burns:One of the soldiers fully dies, the one that you had wrapped in. You see them collapse. The soldiers around are immediately cut down by the barrage. You know what? Go ahead.
Isaac Allen Burns:Give me, in this case, do a presence roll for me. Presence roll for me.
Rowan Collins:That is a crit.
Annie Hawthorne:Oh, nice.
Joe Diametti:You got four. Crits?
Rowan Collins:I know.
Annie Hawthorne:I'm glad some of
Rowan Collins:us are.
Rowan Collins:Let's go fours.
Isaac Allen Burns:See, I made this too easy for you guys. You say that, and I made that presidential for the Pistachios Farm burning. You see Hazel's eyes go wide, and she says she turns to soldiers and says, with me. Farms are on fire. She turns back to you and says, we heard major Balthazar going to the orchard because he drew some of the soldiers with him saying that the orchards were being attacked.
Isaac Allen Burns:They might be out there still. We'll run over to the farms and try and take care of those.
Rowan Collins:Okay. They look straight at their sister and go, you got this, Hazel. I believe in you. Keep Wall E alive.
Isaac Allen Burns:She nods at you and says, stay alive too. And she, like, grabs your shoulder and gives it one good squeeze.
Rowan Collins:They do the same, and they, like, do their little, like, twin headbutt, and then they disappear off.
Isaac Allen Burns:You butt heads, and then sure enough, they take off towards the forms. Those two successes will go towards that one. So that one is at a one.
Rowan Collins:Pistachio is just, like, next to Kathy, just, like, kind of freaking out because everything is kind of on fire. Their dad's proud of them. They killed a man. Like, the fire thing is on fire.
Joe Diametti:I stop really quick. I'm like,
Isaac Allen Burns:Pistachio. Uh-huh. Look at me. Uh-huh.
Joe Diametti:Are you okay?
Rowan Collins:No. But we can deal with that later.
Joe Diametti:Sure. Can I tell you something? Uh-huh. You know what? We'll talk about it later.
Joe Diametti:And then I I I I grab them as I take off to to the Adventures Guild.
Isaac Allen Burns:You run into the Adventures Guild, and as you step in, you can immediately tell something is wrong. As you step in, a fight has occurred here. You see the front desk broken, cabinets on the ground, papers everywhere, phone in the corner destroyed. Uh-oh. You see blood on the ground as well.
Joe Diametti:Double o.
Isaac Allen Burns:There's a big bloodstain that is running out of the building. There's another one that goes deeper in. You swear you're allowed ticking deeper into the Adventures Guild.
Joe Diametti:Triple o.
Rowan Collins:Oh.
Isaac Allen Burns:What do you two do?
Joe Diametti:Okay. So there's a bloodstain going into the building where there's also ticking? Yes.
Rowan Collins:That sounds like a bob and not the good kind. Do you know how to dismantle a bob?
Joe Diametti:No. It could also just be not a bomb.
Isaac Allen Burns:It could be A mysterious a grandfather
Joe Diametti:clock. We have one of those.
Rowan Collins:Oh, yeah.
Joe Diametti:The grandfather clock. Uh-huh. It might just be broken in the fight. I think that we should go in and
Isaac Allen Burns:check it out.
Rowan Collins:Yes. Yes.
Joe Diametti:Do we go in?
Isaac Allen Burns:You look you find the bloodstain ends at the end of the hall inside a room. And inside that room, it's a storage closet. Inside the storage closet, you see a Justinian soldier, heavy dents in his armor, like something hit him hard. He is laying there wheezing as next to him is some kind of glowing object. This is oblong cylindrical object.
Isaac Allen Burns:The very center of it, you see what looks like almost a clock of sorts. The very center of that clock, you see what looks like this gemstone that you recognize from things you've seen before on certain newer technologies. This is a NovaSite core, and you also see that the timer is ticking. It's like a stop timer, like an egg timer almost, getting closer and closer to zero. It is glowing in a way you haven't seen before, but that is what you see.
Isaac Allen Burns:You immediately get the sense just in the back of your minds that if that thing hit zero, it'd be really bad. Those you two stand there. What do you do?
Rowan Collins:Have you ever seen technology like this before?
Joe Diametti:No. I think maybe we oh, shit. Okay.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh,
Joe Diametti:gosh. Hey, buddy. How do you turn off the thing? Okay.
Annie Hawthorne:Red Flash is still the kids still got it.
Joe Diametti:What? What? What'd you say?
Annie Hawthorne:Too late for you, kids. Oh. Okay.
Rowan Collins:I look over to the cylindrical thing. I assume on our farm because we are a mass farm producer that we have some sorts of mechanical stuff that we have been using, some tractors or something like that, like a smaller form of some sort of my key in a cold something. Can I see if I can figure out how this thing works, like, just by looking at it? Or
Isaac Allen Burns:I'm say make a knowledge roll. And I think that you can use your experience of family of farmers for it.
Rowan Collins:Fantastic. Alright. That is a 15 with hope.
Isaac Allen Burns:Kathy, do you wanna give the help action?
Joe Diametti:You're saying that like I should?
Isaac Allen Burns:Who's asking a question? Who's asking question?
Joe Diametti:No. Yes. Yes. Alright. I'm down to one hope.
Joe Diametti:Yeah. Alright. Fine.
Rowan Collins:I gotta start helping you out. I got way more.
Joe Diametti:I got a four.
Isaac Allen Burns:Very good. That will succeed with hope dropping this countdown down to two. You look at this. You know a little bit about technology because sure enough, certain NovaSite technology has come through for farming equipment. Algenabaya, the province that you are all in, is kind of the breadbasket of Voldane anyways.
Isaac Allen Burns:So you know of some farming. You're not, like, up to date fully, but you've got a tractor. You've got certain technology. The glowing go is taking you off guard because it does not look like a glow from a light source. It looks like it's coming from the NovaSite itself.
Isaac Allen Burns:But as you're looking at it, you do think that if you were to break into this and get a little closer, you could probably do something to disarm this so that it would not go off.
Rowan Collins:Kathy, could you break into this for me? I think I can I this looks similar enough into the thing that I might be able to guide you to what we can use to turn it off?
Joe Diametti:Okay. Are we gonna blow up?
Rowan Collins:Not if you do exactly as they say.
Joe Diametti:Alright. Let's do it.
Rowan Collins:Alright. I will give help the help action for Kapi.
Joe Diametti:Well, hang on. Wait a minute. I got plus two finesse.
Rowan Collins:Yes.
Joe Diametti:We're not even gonna need it.
Rowan Collins:Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Isaac Allen Burns:You get to do finesse roll.
Rowan Collins:Uh-huh. You
Annie Hawthorne:gotta stop saying shit like that,
Isaac Allen Burns:man. There you go.
Joe Diametti:Yeah. I do. That's a 14 with fear.
Isaac Allen Burns:14 with fear. So I'm gonna give the help, actually.
Joe Diametti:Actually, Pistachio, I yeah. Just some help, please.
Isaac Allen Burns:Alright. That
Rowan Collins:is a three.
Isaac Allen Burns:That is with fear and does succeed. So it is now down to one. You start to work on it. You pull off a side panel, and you look at there's a bunch of wires on this. And you start fiddling with some of the wires, and you feel like you're getting somewhere.
Isaac Allen Burns:But you have a moment where you look and you see that the timer is getting so dangerously close. And so as you think there's a little more you need to do to disarm it because we have one more action left. So do you take the time to attempt to disarm this, or do you get out? That's what it's gonna come down to to you too.
Joe Diametti:So my fear just to walk you through the process. My fear is that it's going to blow up a lot more than just the Adventures Guild.
Isaac Allen Burns:Okay.
Joe Diametti:Like, I am not so worried about the building. I would just run away from it. But I'm worried I don't know what this kind of damage could do. Did we figure out anything about that through looking at it?
Isaac Allen Burns:From what Pistachio could tell, this thing would explode, probably damage a couple billion. It does not seem big enough to destroy the entire town. Uh-huh. It's definitely big enough that it will level the Adventures Guild and everything inside it, including anything anyone owns that is still in the Adventures Guild. K.
Isaac Allen Burns:Now As well as nearby buildings.
Joe Diametti:Does our action so we only have one action left. Right?
Isaac Allen Burns:In this case, yes. There is one more action to be taken before this thing goes off.
Joe Diametti:Okay. What do you think, kid? Not a lot of time though. I don't it's not that you can't think about it. But
Rowan Collins:I think Pistachio's thinking
Joe Diametti:You have another hope. Right?
Rowan Collins:I have for hope. Well, we're we're good.
Rowan Collins:Okay. Alright.
Joe Diametti:Alright. Let's disarm this thing.
Rowan Collins:Pistachio looks at you and goes,
Rowan Collins:there's only one thing we can do, Kapi. We gotta disarm it.
Joe Diametti:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns:Yeah. Yeah. I I shake
Joe Diametti:I I put out my hand to shake your your fond
Rowan Collins:hand. Pistachio, what
Joe Diametti:kind working with you, Adventure. And then I
Rowan Collins:Be happy.
Rowan Collins:You're my best friend too.
Joe Diametti:Oh. Okay. Let's
Isaac Allen Burns:Here we go.
Joe Diametti:What is it? A finesse still?
Isaac Allen Burns:This is another finesse check.
Isaac Allen Burns:Please. No. What do we have?
Joe Diametti:It's an 11.
Annie Hawthorne:We have some help.
Isaac Allen Burns:Would you like to roll help? Yes. Go ahead and roll those dice.
Joe Diametti:I would also
Isaac Allen Burns:A six. A six?
Rowan Collins:A six.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh god. That is a 17.
Isaac Allen Burns:Oh, with hope.
Rowan Collins:Get your hope back. Get your hope.
Isaac Allen Burns:That is success. Okay. You get in there. You're working. It goes between two wires.
Isaac Allen Burns:You have a blue wire and a red wire. You have to clip one of them to finally disarm it. And with shaking hands
Joe Diametti:Kapi's color blind. He doesn't know that he's blue. No.
Isaac Allen Burns:The lip right there. Kapi, it's the one that looks like your skin. Kapi. I don't know which one looks like my skin. On the right.
Isaac Allen Burns:I I don't see color. My god.
Rowan Collins:A lot, but,
Isaac Allen Burns:like, Kathy,
Rowan Collins:it's the one on your eyes.
Joe Diametti:Okay. No.
Isaac Allen Burns:A final snip.
Isaac Allen Burns:The chicken stops. You
Isaac Allen Burns:hear us you see our light chuckle. Enjoy it while you can. And then the guy dies. At that, you hear a resounding voice echoing through the streets, the burning town of Bracken Road, angry voice in distance.
Isaac Allen Burns:Where is it? Who has it? It's not where it's supposed to be, so I guess we'll have to find it the hard way.
Isaac Allen Burns:To hear Ashe's voice echoing loudly. The smell of smoke is heavy in the air. The three of you have just heard this loud voice. Pistachio as you and Kapi run out into the streets. Kapi, you hear a shriek ringing through the air.
Isaac Allen Burns:Sounds like Scarlett.
Joe Diametti:You bastard.
Isaac Allen Burns:Hey. It's a podcast.
Rowan Collins:It's I feel tense.
Rowan Collins:I'm tense. The evil laughter is killing me.
Isaac Allen Burns:Y'all doing okay? We're doing okay? We're all doing good.
Rowan Collins:We're good. We're good.
Rowan Collins:Yeah. Totally fine. I'm having a great time.
Annie Hawthorne:Well, we saved your parents.
Rowan Collins:Yeah. We saved my parents. My dad is proud of me.
Rowan Collins:Aw. Never killed anybody, and I have officially to death somebody.
Annie Hawthorne:How are you feeling about that?
Rowan Collins:Pistachio doesn't have time to think about
Isaac Allen Burns:this
Rowan Collins:right now.