Perpetua 27: In Too Deep 03
Transcriber: robotchangeling
Recap        1
Conflict        2
Round One (Continued)        2
Round Two [0:12:31]        12
Round Three [0:34:29]        36
Round Four [0:43:39]        46
Round Five [0:52:50]        55
Round Six [1:05:01]        68
Round Seven [1:09:00]        74
Loot [1:18:33]        84
Vault [1:27:20]        92
Recap
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I’m just saying, you get a bunch of the most experienced and, like, well resourced magicians—or magic users—of the Elevana League, they’re gonna figure out how to do teleportation eventually. Who’s to say they haven’t done it and set it up down here?
Keith (as Antistrophe): I agree. 
Sylvi (as Caoimhe): Hell yeah, man. Thank you. 
Keith (as Antistrophe): You’re welcome.
Sylvi (as Caoimhe): You know how refreshing it is to hear that from somebody? [contented sigh]
Keith (as Antistrophe): No. 
[“Perpetua” by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
Austin: On top of, like, oh yeah, you’re picking up on magical directions and types and stuff down here, it’s also just like, you’re going through an underground tunnel system you don’t have a map for, that you’ve never gone through before. Trying to, like, triangulate your way back to a building that you— you have your intuitive sense of where it might be, but it’s not— they're not, like, one-to-one with the streets above. 
Austin: Is this like a you’re attendant nurses to Caoimhe’s [Janine: Uhh.] magical surgeon situation? Where you’re like— Caoimhe’s like, “All right, now give me the next reagent to draw with.”
Keith: That’s a great role for me, because I can’t do any of the magic stuff, so…I know what all the stuff is. 
Janine: Is there something I can stir to, like, keep it from settling or something? [laughs quietly] I don’t really know from magic, unfortunately. I’m more of a dirt eater, so. 
Austin: An electrified dagger lands at your foot, Antistrophe, sticking into the ground, and when you trace up where it was thrown from, you see two Hexcloaks. You in fact see, I believe, the two Hexcloaks you saw before: the really wide woman who was guarding the door and then the electric one who was behind the desk.
[song plays out]
Conflict 
Round One (Continued)
Austin: All right. So it is 9 plus 12 is 21 damage, as you pull Mercurion’s legs out from under them, and they go tumbling down the stairs past Maxi, their buddy.
Keith: New shields are working.
Austin: New shields are working.
Sylvia: Hell yeah, man.
Austin: I almost edited your sheet just now. Whoops. Where did I put Mercurion? 
Keith: Let me change that +11 to +12.
Austin: Yeah, sounds good. Okay. All right. Back to them. As Mercurion tumbles down the stairs, I think Maxi, the big earth elf behind them, leaps down like a comic book character, wielding this giant stone maul, which is like, you know, a big heavy physical hammer.
Janine: Oh, Maxi.
Austin: Maxi. Yeah, big, exactly. And is going to either target…I’m going to do the dice roll thing. I'm going to see who they target. Either 1 is Brontë, 2 is Antistrophe, and 3 is Caoimhe. I'm going through the order that we are listed at the bottom of the page.
Janine: You're going to make me regret not elbowing in a turn before. 
Austin: That is Brontë.
Janine: Yeah. Shit.
Austin: I am going to make you regret that. Uh huh. What is your Defense?
Janine: My regular degular Defense? That is 11.
Austin: Take 25 physical damage.
Sylvia: Holy fuck.
Keith: Oh my god.
Janine: Oh my god. Fuck.
Austin: As Maxi brings the fucking hammer down.
Janine: No. Uh, no. [Sylvia, Austin, and Keith laugh] Yeah, no. What are my options? Other than, I have Efta and Zolfta to halve damage, but there's no, like…this isn't a “and then I do a fancy dodge” type of game, right?
Austin: It is not, no.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: The fancy dodge is your 11 Defense. It’s already built in, you know?
Janine: Okay. Then, yeah, I'm going to use…yeah. “When you suffer damage, you may halve it.”
Keith: You may have it? [Austin chuckles]
Janine: “Whenever you make use of these benefits, your bodyguards suffer 1d6 Fatigue. As long as they have 10 or more Fatigue, you may not rely on them. Fatigue is shared between bodyguards; it is not tracked individually. At the end of each session—approximately four hours of play—your bodyguards recover 1d6 of Fatigue.” Oh, they have some Fatigue that I haven't recovered.
Austin: You've never used this.
Janine: No, I have. I have.
Austin: Do they?
Janine: They have some Fatigue on them, but I've forgotten to be rolling to clear it.
Austin: I see.
Janine: They have 3 Fatigue right now, which is not…you know.
Austin: Well, let’s…but you rested recently, right?
Janine: We've rested a couple times, I think, since…
Austin: Let’s roll…roll 3d6, I think, because I think you've rested at least— hmm. Maybe 2d6.
Janine: Yeah, I was going to say 2d6. I don't know about three.
Austin: Yeah, I was thinking about the way the story worked. Yeah, I remembered where they got it before. So yeah, give me a 2d6. We'll reduce that.
Janine: Yeah, that’s fine.
Austin: There you go. They're back to 0.
Janine: They're healthy.
Austin: Now give me another 1d6 to add some more to them. [Keith chuckles]
Janine: Where am I fucking tracking the stress? Not there.
Austin: Is it under Journal, maybe?
Janine: I thought it was under Journal. Am I keeping it as Inventory? Is it— yeah, okay.
Austin: [chuckles] That’s very funny!
Keith: That’s really funny.
Janine: Efta Zolfta, 3/31 Fatigue.
Austin: Yeah, there it is.
Janine: Yeah, okay, okay.
Keith: It’s in Inventory because it’s on a little notepad. You write down how you think they're feeling. [Janine laughs]
Austin: Yeah. 
Janine: At the end of each week, they give me a little report. [Austin laughs] Okay. I'll just do 1d6. That’s a 3.
Austin: All right. That’s a 3.
Janine: Okay, so I don't need to change it, 'cause it’s already— okay.
Austin: You don't need to change it. They ended up at 3 Fatigue again. [laughs] 
Janine: All of that for fucking nothing. [Sylvia laughs]
Austin: That’s RPGs, baby. All right, so you take half of the 25. It would drop down to 12.
Janine: I want to say— I also want to narrativize this, as…
Austin: Tell me what it looks like. Yeah, please.
Janine: Normally I frame this kind of thing as, like, oh, one of them, you know, pushes me out of the way or whatever. I think, in this case, because they're both there and they're so close, I think each one of them grabs one of my shoulders and, like, just flings me backwards. [Austin and Janine chuckle] I think that’s funny.
Austin: That is funny.
Janine: So I do still land on my ass, but.
Austin: You do, but from them throwing you instead of the big hammer hitting you in the head? Yeah. 
Janine: Yeah, yeah. So how much damage am I taking?
Austin: You're taking 12, which is half of 25 rounded down.
Janine: Cool. 
Austin: And then it’s your turn. You're the only one left this turn.
Janine: Hmm. Right. I want to do my Hydra Dance.
Austin: Ooh.
Janine: Where after I suffer damage, I can choose one option: recover 5 Hit Points or recover 5 Mind Points.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: The thing I should have done before Keith’s move.
Austin: I see.
Keith: Mm.
Janine: It’s until the start of your next turn. It costs me 10 MP to do that. I get to do it for free before or after another move, so I'm just mentioning that right now.
Austin: Yep.
Janine: And that, I think, in this case, is sort of a… I don't know if Brontë was wearing a cloak. I don't think so, but at the same time, like, I want the…I feel like this dance should evoke, like, taking a cloak or garment off your shoulder and tossing it to the side and being like, “All right, we're…” You know.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Like a sort of flourishing, you know, like Tuxedo Mask entering the scene kind of, like, fwoosh type.
Sylvia: Oh my god. Yeah.
Janine: You know? [Austin laughs quietly]
Sylvia: That is perfect for him.
Janine: That’s the energy I want. [laughs quietly] 
Austin: Yeah. I love it.
Janine: I guess that’s the thing with Brontë’s dances is I don't think of them as dances or spells so much as I do, like, things someone has maybe rehearsed in a mirror too often, you know?
Austin: Oh, okay. Yeah.
Janine: That’s kind of the vibe. Sometimes it’s a dance, but sometimes…
Austin: You're kind of hitting a pose. You're kind of, like…yeah.
Janine: Yeah. It’s like finishing school shit.
Austin: Right.
Janine: You know how to hit the pose confidently, and everyone’s like, [Austin: Yeah.] “Oh my god, he actually did that? Like, in real life? [Austin laughs] And kind of pulled it off? Weird.” 
Austin: All right, so there's your dance. Then what’s your action?
Janine: My action is…
Austin: This is a reminder to people, like you just said—you said it quickly, though—you do dances before or after your actions, once per turn.
Janine: Yes. Yeah.
Austin: You get to then do another action, an actual action.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: The dances are almost like stances you take in other games maybe, you know?
Janine: Yes. Yeah, very much. Okay. I…want to shoot them with an arrow.
Austin: Okay. [Janine laughs quietly] Good, good. Which one are you shooting? Maxi or Mercurion?
Janine: Uh…
Austin: Mercurion is the one who got shield tripped by Antistrophe.
Keith: The rude one.
Austin: The rude one.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Deserved it. [Sylvia laughs quietly] 
Janine: Ooh, I want to aim for Mercurion.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Despite the fact that Maxi is right fucking there.
Austin: Yeah, no, makes sense. Mercurion was the one who zapped you. I guess Maxi was the one who almost hit you with a hammer, but, you know.
Janine: Yeah, yeah. 
Austin: All right.
Janine: You know, priorities, though.
Austin: Yeah, totally. Give me an attack. Defense 11. Trying to beat an 11. Boom! 14. 20 damage.
Janine: Well, so, here’s the thing.
Austin: Oh, okay. Not 20 damage. 
Janine: Well, actually, maybe I should just take the 20 damage.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: I was going to swap it for 20 Mind Point sucking out thing.
Austin: Ooh, interesting. Huh.
Janine: But 20 damage is good.
Austin: It is.
Sylvia: 20 damage is really good.
Austin: Yeah. Both of those are good in different ways.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: And this is on Mercurion?
Austin: This is on Mercurion. Yeah.
Janine: Yeah. Hmm, yeah, I, oof. Yeah, because I was thinking about evoking High Speed, which is— or not High Speed. Sorry. Where the fuck is it? Warning Shot: “When you hit someone with a ranged attack that would deal damage, you may have the attack deal no damage. If you do, choose one option: inflict shaken, inflict slow, or take away SL times 10 Mind Points,” and that’s an SL 2 thing.
Austin: Mm. 
Janine: I've invested in that.
Austin: Right. Right.
Keith: Mercurion seems to hit pretty fucking hard with the bolt thing.
Sylvia: They both seem to hit pretty hard is the thing.
Austin: They're Hexcloaks.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, but if you're taking away Mercurion’s ability to cast that powerful spell, then it’ll be way easier to focus on Maxi.
Janine: Not taking it away, but.
Sylvia: The thing is: we will have resistance against that spell for the rest of this encounter, unless they do something to dispel it. Meanwhile, Maxi, [Keith: Sure.] I would have to cast a separate spell…
Janine: Oh, that’s true.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: …to give us resistance to, presumably, earth damage. 
Keith: It could just be physical.
Sylvia: It could just be physical, in which case I can't do anything about it.
Keith: Oh yeah, it says right here, 25 physical.
Sylvia: Okay, yeah. I can't do anything about that. Meanwhile, with the spells, I can at least give us some Defense.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: And I've got enough mana to heal two of us.
Keith: But this shot is against Mercurion either way.
Janine: Well, yeah, it’s already against Mercurion.
Sylvia: Yeah, but I'm saying if we're trying to take one out.
Austin: Right, right, right.
Sylvia: If we're trying to…I’m just saying. Worth noting for the rest of this encounter.
Janine: Yeah, let’s go with pain. Let’s go with hurting. Let’s go with physical pain.
Keith: Let’s go with pain. We're going pain today.
Sylvia: We tried social pain, with the shit talking.
Janine: Yeah, just eat that 20. Yeah.
Austin: Okay. That 20 brings Mercurion into Crisis.
Janine: Hell yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah. That’s what I thought.
Austin: So I think immediately stumbles back. Look on their face of deep, you know, disdain. You know, [as hurt Mercurion] can't believe you've done this.
Sylvia: [quoting Vine] Ah fuck, I can't believe you've done this. [laughter] 
Austin: That’s right. All right, let’s take…
Round Two [0:12:31]
Austin: All right, round two. 
Sylvia: All right.
Austin: Back up to y'all.
Sylvia: Did you have something you wanted to do, Antistrophe, or should I go this time?
Keith: Let me see. What are my abilities to…how can I hinder someone’s Might? Which one is that?
Austin: Uh, great question. That is…
Sylvia: There’s poisoned. Uh…
Austin: It might just be—
Sylvia: Weak is also one.
Austin: Weak, weak. Yeah, weak.
Keith: Oh, weak.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: You could get someone weak.
Keith: Okay. Wow, Might and Willpower is poisoned.
Sylvia: Poisoned’s strong.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, poisoned’s really strong.
Keith: But I can't reliable poison, is the problem.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Unfortunate.
Austin: You'd be really strong if you could reliably poison.
Keith: Yeah. Let’s see. I can…I know that with the Tinkerer stuff there’s things that you can take. I think it’s just, like, damage. It’s not like a special thing. So I have to, like, roll really well to make it poison.
Austin: I see what you're saying.
Keith: So maybe that’s a thing to look into.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Maybe I will try to Hinder Maxi, who seems to be a hard hitter and a big problem and not yet in Crisis.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: And whose Might is 12! [laughs] 
Austin: Yeah, you saw that? You looked at the roll there and saw that I was rolling d12s?
Keith: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, d12s.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: So I'm going to spend a turn doing that and making Maxi…
Austin: All right, give me the— how are you doing it, and what are you rolling to do it?
Keith: [sighs] I think that this is, like…I think this is, like, a grapple to try to pull off— what’s Maxi’s armor like?
Austin: You have not tried to attack it yet, but it is high. It is 13.
Keith: I mean, like, visually, stylistically.
Austin: They are not wearing anything that looks like armor. They're wearing, like, the normal Hexcloak uniform, but they are a…
Keith: Ah shit.
Austin: You know, a Hexcloak. They are an earthen Hexcloak.
Keith: Okay. I was going to try to pull off some armor to make them not as sure of themself when they're swinging.
Austin: You could try to bash off the stonelike, you know, skin that they have.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah, okay. That’s like a good alternative. I'm going to target. Instead of targeting for damage, I'm going to target for, like, chipping off bits of this armor.
Austin: Yeah. Of her armor, yeah.
Keith: In a way that, like…yeah.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: That make, like, just less sure and more having to, you know, you have to cover yourself a bit so you can't swing with as reckless of abandon.
Austin: Yeah. Totally.
Keith: And is that just the same roll as the…? What’s that roll?
Austin: It depends on what you're doing.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: So, in this case, it sounds like you're making a physical attack ish thing.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So make your normal roll for an attack, [Keith: Yeah.] except not the damage part, you know?
Keith: Right.
Austin: Yeah, you are doing the…
Keith: Might plus Might, Effort.
Austin: Might plus Might. Yeah, it’s called Effort. That makes sense. You're doing not Objective but Hinder, right, to make weak.
Keith: That’s a 16.
Austin: That is a 16. That would totally, totally hit. In fact, it does. It totally hits. Unfortunately, Maxi has this passive ability.
Keith: Aghh! [laughs defeatedly]
Austin: Status Immunity: immune to dazed and weak.
Sylvia: Oh, that sucks.
Keith: I hate you.
Austin: The earthen armor just grows back on, and she gives you a little grin. And then…what were you going to ask?
Sylvia: I was going to ask if that’s because of the armor or if that’s just an inherent skill that she has.
Austin: That is an inherent skill.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: Maxi is not wearing special armor. Maxi is special armor.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Good to know.
Keith: All right.
Austin: Yeah. And as she grins, you see little fingers of kind of purplish mist begin to spread through the basement, as the third Hexcloak—the one you didn't see, the one that was upstairs before—has entered the fray. This is Hortensius. I need everyone’s Magic Defense.
Sylvia: 11.
Keith: 12.
Austin: Hey, there's a 13. You're all poisoned.
Sylvia: I hate you.
Keith: I'm actually not poisoned. I have a Palm Leaf Cape which makes me immune to poison.
Austin: Look at that! Look at that.
Keith: Two can play at that.
Austin: Two can play at that game. 
Keith: I give them all a smile, the same smile that was given to me.
Austin: Is that the…
Sylvia: Wait.
Austin: Uh huh?
Sylvia: I have an Oasis Fig.
Austin: Mm-hmm?
Sylvia: It’s 0 IP cost. Cures poisoned, shaken, weak, or slow.
Austin: You could spend your turn that way. [Sylvia sighs] You're wearing the cape, presumably, Keith?
Keith: I am wearing it, yeah. 
Austin: Okay.
Keith: It’s already in my sheet as on.
Austin: Yeah. Gotcha.
Keith: We got this at the magic oasis where the fig is from.
Austin: Yeah, this was your accessory. Yep, totally. All right, so that means, right now…
Janine: I also have a fig.
Austin: Yeah, so, unfortunately, it takes a turn to eat a fig, I think.
Janine: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: I think that’s true.
Janine: I mean, it’s an Inventory item.
Sylvia: I just realized I don't use my Willpower for most of my rolls, so.
Austin: Yeah, that’s true. [Sylvia laughs] Maybe it’s not a big deal, actually. All right, so that is Hortensius, who now has appeared at the top of the stairs. Hortensius is the Hexcloak you had not seen before. He is laughing as this happens. He is a poison elf, like Kley is, and has a kind of purplush Hexcloak on. Has, you know, plants. I think that his hair is little vines with flowers, poisonous flowers blooming, tied back in a braid. And he’s holding a whip dripping with poison. And it’s back to y'all.
Sylvia: I was thinking of just attacking Maxi with my turn.
Austin: Sounds good. Thank you for clicking Palm Leaf Cape.
Sylvia: Shoutout to Palm Leaf Cape.
Austin: Yeah. You can't give people special things unless you then give then an opportunity to use the special things, you know?
Sylvia: I don't think Breach would be— yeah, she’s not wearing armor, so Breach would not be useful here. I'll just do a normal attack.
Austin: Well, wait, what’s it do? Tell me what it does.
Sylvia: Well, so, what Breach does is: “You may use an action and spend 5 Mind Points to perform a free attack with a melee weapon you have equipped.”
Austin: I see.
Sylvia: “This attack must target a single creature. If the attack is successful, it deals no damage, and you choose one option: you destroy one shield equipped by the target, you destroy the target’s [Austin: Right.] equipped armor,” which was what I was thinking of doing.
Austin: I see. Yeah.
Sylvia: “Or whenever the target suffers damage from a source before your next turn, the source deals SL times 2 extra damage to them,” but that’s only a 2 right now, so it’s not hugely worth putting on.
Austin: Yeah. You know, I think that you— we are treating the armor as— she has armor, in the gameplay terms sense. 
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: Do you know what I mean? What she’s immune to is weak, you know?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Maybe there's something you can do. Especially because this is a spell you're doing. Is that what it is? It’s called Breach? Or is it an attack?
Sylvia: No, it’s a skill with my…it’s a Weaponmaster skill.
Austin: What if there's something that you know that is tied to your training, your Hexcloak training, that’s like about knowing how she’s able to rebuild her rock armor, her rock plate?
Sylvia: I dig that a lot. I was going to suggest that it has something to do with the new sword I have, which has, like, dispelling abilities.
Austin: Oh, interesting. Yeah, that’s fun too.
Sylvia: But it could be a combination. Why not?
Austin: Yeah, you could go for it.
Sylvia: I'm going to roll the attack first and see if it hits, and then we'll…
Austin: Yeah, this is something you can decide after? Is that how Breach works?
Sylvia: No, I would be spending my action doing this, but if I don't hit, I don't hit.
Austin: Okay, so you're just going to do a regular attack is what you're saying. You're not doing…?
Sylvia: I think so. I…
Austin: Okay.
Sylvia: [sighs] I don't know.
Austin: Oh, it’s a free attack, so you're saying you would do…
Sylvia: Oh, I wasn't sure on this, because it says, “You may use an action and spend 5 Mind Points to perform a free attack.”
Austin: Oh, I see. I see, I see.
Sylvia: It’s a little confusing in the wording.
Austin: It is not, yeah, because you're spending your action. This is, like, worded this way because the way the game’s rules are [Sylvia: Yeah.] require this to be clear that it is an action that then allows you to do a free attack, but you can't just—
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I see, I see. So yeah, it is not a free, it is not. It would be your turn, yes. I think that you're right.
Sylvia: Okay, wait. Actually, I need to check my…I’m checking my spells really quick, because this also costs 5 MP, and I might need that.
Austin: Yes.
Sylvia: You know what, nope. I can spend this and still have enough to either heal or do a damaging spell afterwards.
Austin: Cool.
Sylvia: So I think I am going to try and do Breach on Maxi here with my new Spell Sever.
Austin: All right, so you're targeting Maxi, and it’s just a regular attack, basically.
Sylvia: It is a regular attack, yeah.
Austin: Okay.
Sylvia: It’s a free attack is what it counts as, but what I'm trying to do is to, I believe, destroy armor would be the affect I'm going for here.
Austin: Yep, I gotcha.
Sylvia: So, let me pop that. That's a 17. 
Austin: Oof.
Sylvia: Does that hit?
Austin: 17 is a fucking hit.
Keith: Nice. Very nice.
Sylvia: Cool.
Austin: Yes. All right.
Sylvia: That doesn't deal any damage, but it does…
Austin: But the rock plate falls off of Maxi’s body, falling to the ground, reducing her Defense quite a bit.
Sylvia: You know how armor plates will have, like, the gaps between them? I think it’s like a thing of managing to just, like…I’m picturing the Spell Sever as sort of like a rapier and getting in there with just the thin point of a blade and dispelling it.
Austin: Totally. So, she still has…let me make sure I understand what her damage is or her Defense is now. One second.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Give me two seconds just to make sure.
Sylvia: I think this is the first time I've done this move, so.
Austin: It is. Yeah. Okay. She has this…this should now be 0, and then that should be…uh…why is this still? I'm just going to delete the Rock Plate Armor and see if that fixes it. All right, we're going to treat it as a 10, is what we're going to treat her Defense as.
Sylvia: Okay, cool.
Austin: Basically. Okay.
Keith: It took all that time to decide how weak she is now?
Sylvia: There were some Roll20 fun things.
Austin: It’s the Roll20 of it all is what it is, you know?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Okay. Cool. Also, now it seems to have just worked. Okay. [Sylvia laughs] So now it’s back over to them, and yeah, you know, I think as you do that Caoimhe— what’s that look like? 
Sylvia: It’s sort of— I think it’s this— I like the idea of them kind of getting into a standoff for a second, and then it’s like a swift feint to the side while Caoimhe, [Austin: Yeah.] instead of actually attacking to wound, she is attacking to get under the armor and use the Spell Sever to dispel the sort of earthen plate.
Austin: Mm-hmm. That makes lots of sense. Okay. The very wounded, in Crisis, Mercurion is going to use the rest of their MP here to try to blast you all one more time. I know you're all resistant to it, but nevertheless. One more time, your Magic Defenses.
Sylvia: 11.
Austin: Mm-hmm. 
Keith: 12.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: 9.
Austin: 9. That is a 15!
Keith: Ooh.
Austin: Everyone take 30 bolt damage. It’s reduced to 15, because you all have your lightning cloak on.
Sylvia: I am in Crisis. I am 5 points under my Crisis threshold.
Austin: Okay. What’s that look like?
Sylvia: [sighs] I'm hurting.
Austin: You're hurting.
Sylvia: I've switched my animation loop. I'm holding my arm now.
Austin: There we go. Yeah. [Keith laughs]
Sylvia: And my sword’s sort of dangling to the side a little. [Austin chuckles]
Keith: Something somewhere went beep beep beep! [Austin chuckles]
Sylvia: Yeah. My health bar has turned orange.
Austin: Where's everybody else at? Yeah, as these streaks hit you, where is everybody else at, HP-wise?
Keith: I'm at 60 out of 75. 
Sylvia: Ha!
Austin: Okay. Yeah. [Keith laughs]
Sylvia: Motherfucker!
Austin: And Brontë?
Janine: Yeah. No, I have a question that…so, I have this thing called Frenetic Footwork.
Austin: Yep.
Janine: “After you perform a dance with a duration of until the start of your next turn, you gain a bonus equal to SL times 2 to all Opposed Checks that rely on acrobatics, coordination, or speed.”
Austin: Yeah, this is not an Opposed Check.
Janine: Okay. Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I'm just checking.
Austin: I gotcha. However.
Janine: I'd like to use Efta and Zolfta. [Sylvia laughs]
Austin: Yeah. And you also have the other thing, right?
Janine: What?
Austin: That you set up last time. You have Hydra Dance on, so you can heal right away.
Janine: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Austin: If that’s what you want to do with it.
Janine: I'm also going to Efta and Zolfta, though.
Austin: Okay. All right. Give me their Fatigue roll.
Janine: That’s a 5.
Austin: That’s a 5, so they're up to 8.
Janine: They're going to need a nap soon.
Austin: They're going to need a nap.
Keith: They're at 8 out of what?
Austin: 10.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Janine: Okay, so I'm subtracting 7 and then adding 5, so ultimately subtracting 2.
Austin: Huh?
Janine: Because of the—
Keith: Subtracting 7, then adding 5, so ultimately subtracting 2.
Janine: So, half of 15 because of Efta and Zolfta.
Austin: Oh, I see. Half of 15 is 7 in this game. Yes, yes.
Janine: And then I'm adding 5 from Hydra Dance.
Austin: Yes, I see. Adding 5 HP back to yourself, yes.
Janine: So I'm just barely still out of Crisis.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Hey, out of Crisis is out of Crisis.
Austin: Out of Crisis, out of Crisis.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Not all of us can be so lucky. [laughs quietly] 
Sylvia: You picking on me, man? What the hell?
Austin: It is your turns.
Janine: My turn? Whose turn?
Austin: I guess Antistrophe and Brontë haven't gone; is that right? I believe so.
Keith: Okay.
Sylvia: Yeah, I think I'm the only one.
Austin: So either one of you.
Keith: Hey, you know, we've got an enemy in Crisis. That enemy is hitting hard.
Janine: You've already made him pratfall.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Right. And already, I guess, though, is out of MP, so maybe wouldn't be the best use of my time.
Janine: But they might have a juice or something.
Sylvia: Yeah. I think take ‘em out. [Austin chuckles] I don't know, man. It’s up to you, but like, it’d be helpful to have one of these guys down.
Keith: Austin’s laughing, which makes me think—
Austin: Sorry, no. [laughs quietly] I'm laughing at something else entirely.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: I'm laughing about the Deadlock podcast where they heard the Ultimate Warriors intro and it sounded like he said, “Take the dog to hell.” [laughs] 
Sylvia: Take the dog to hell! 
Austin: “Take the dog to hell.”
Sylvia: I'll find the clip.
Austin: It was, “Take the target out,” is what it was, but it sounded like, “Take the dog to hell.”
Keith: Wait, what game is this where it says this?
Sylvia: Sorry, the Deadlock podcast.
Austin: WCW wrestling circa 1999.
Keith: Oh, okay.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: It was a real “threat neutralized” Mario DS moment is what it was, so. Real ones know. Don't worry about it. [sighs] Yeah, so are you going to take the target out?
Keith: Yeah, I'll take the target out. 
Austin: Okay.
Sylvia: [laughs quietly] I'm going to take the dog to hell.
Keith: I mean, I'll try.
Austin: I'll take the dog to hell. [laughter] 
Keith: It’s a really funny thing to think you heard.
Austin: [laughing] It’s so funny.
Sylvia: [laughing] It’s really good.
Keith: It’s really funny to think you heard that.
Austin: It is.
Keith: “Did they say take the dog to hell?”
Austin: [laughing] “Did they say take the dog to hell?”
Sylvia: You can hear it too.
Austin: You can hear it!
Keith: I heard all dogs go to heaven, is what I heard.
Austin: That’s what I heard.
Sylvia: Take the dog to hell, man.
Keith: I guess, weirdly, they do take the dog to hell in All Dogs Go to Heaven.
Austin: Yeah. [Sylvia sighs]
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: I'll link this to y'all later.
Keith: Critical fumble!
Austin: Oh my god!
Sylvia: They took my dog to hell.
Austin: They took the dog!
Keith: They took the dog to hell.
Austin: No!
Keith: Oh, they took the dog to hell.
Sylvia: That sucks.
Austin: Well, first and foremost, give yourself a Fabula Point.
Keith: Give myself a Fabula Point. Yeah.
Austin: [chuckles] Give yourself a Fabula Point. That’s right.
Keith: Yeah, mm-hmm. I heard about that.
Austin: Oh no!
Sylvia: That sucks.
Austin: Oh, this could be going better than it’s going.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: I mean, I'm literally fine.
Janine: I have had the thought, “Could I bribe them?” so it’s going pretty bad.
Keith: I have essentially full health.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: This is totally fine.
Austin: Yeah. This is true.
Sylvia: I have a spell that can heal both of us, Janine and I, 40 points.
Austin: I love that.
Janine: Oh, that would rule.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, and so do I.
Sylvia: We're okay. I'm probably going to do that next turn to get us back to full.
Austin: All right. “A fumbled check is always a failure, not due to the character’s incompetence, because of some unfortunately twist. When you roll a fumble, whoever controls your opposition in the scene gets an Opportunity.” That’s me. I get an Opportunity. Let me look at the Opportunities. Let me go over them out loud.
Keith: Faux Pas.
Austin: Advantage: The next Check performed gives you a +4 bonus. Affliction: A creature suffers dazed, shaken, slow, or weak. Bonding: You create a Bond. Faux Pas, Favor, Information, Lost Item, Progress, Plot Twist, Scan, or Unmask.
Sylvia: Faux Pas?
Austin: Oh yeah, you wish.
Sylvia: I do. 
Austin: They already don't like you.
Sylvia: Oh no, you slipped on the stairs!
Austin: Yeah, you slip down the stairs, and you look like a doof! I want to make sure you don't get anything. There's nothing special with your Ruinous Fate with a fumble or anything, right?
Keith: No.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: No, the way that connects to Fabula Points is that I actually can always [Austin: Oh, right.] spend one of those to use a Fabula Point if I don't have Fabula Points.
Austin: That’s right.
Keith: Or if I just want to.
Austin: Yeah, I see. I think you— you were swinging at Mercurion, right?
Keith: I was swinging at Mercurion, yeah.
Austin: Yeah. I think the next Check performed by Mercurion or an ally is going to receive a +4 bonus, and I'm just going to see if I can make you pay. I think you've just overswung here, you know?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Again, you know— mm, maybe it’s actually not that you— again, it’s a twist of fate, so I don't want to make you seem ineffective here. I think you— actually, you know, I think this is a matter of them knowing the space better than you. We haven't really been describing it, [Keith: Right.] but remember, there's all these, like, big, you know, chests and trunks, and there are, you know, bookcases and strange, you know, symbols on the floor and stuff. And I think there's a point at which you—
Keith: Oh, this is like a full basement. Like, there's stuff in here.
Austin: Exactly. There's stuff everywhere here.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: I think you, like, jumped over one of these trunks to try to close the distance, and there was a pillar or a bookcase that gave you a blind spot that you didn't see.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Which, how could you know? And from that blind spot, Maxi swings hard at you and is going to get a +4 on this roll.
Keith: You know what the salve is, though? Sure, I might have critically fumbled, but Austin just described a basement full of awesome loot for after this fight is over.
Austin: There is some awesome loot down here. There is.
Sylvia: Oh, that’s so true. We gotta kill these guys.
Austin: Assuming you win. What’s your Defense?
Keith: My Defense is 15.
Austin: Okay. Remember, this roll gets a +4. That is already a 19 before the +4.
Keith: Wow. Oh my god.
Austin: Take 25 physical damage from Maxi’s stone maul.
Keith: All right.
Austin: As she just— she actually just, like, shoulder checks you with the whole thing into a different basement pillar. Actually maybe, like, into a big pile of crates and trunks and chests that open up and there's documents flying everywhere and old clothes and various pieces of evidence, you know, that have been secured here. Everything’s dusty down here now.
Keith: I am in Crisis.
Austin: You're in Crisis!
Janine: Oho!
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Oho!
Janine: How the mighty have fallen.
Keith: I don't think for the first time. I think for the second time.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I think in the fight with M’Shalia’s ghost.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I think I was in Crisis then.
Austin: Okay. That is their turn, and it turns out that that critical fumble was not even— it didn't really add up to anything, because Maxi rolled a fucking 19, so that was going to hit anyway, but.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Back to y'all. So I think now, Brontë, it is back to your turn. Your dance comes to a close.
Janine: [sighs] Yeah. To be honest, I think I want to…I think I want to re-up my Hydra Dance but also eat a fig.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: Which I'm allowed to— you know, that’s my dance and my action, but I think narratively—
Keith: [defensively] I'm allowed to eat a fig!
Sylvia: I know he ate a fig. [Austin chuckles] 
Janine: Narratively, they combine into, like, eating the fig in a really, like, show-offy way. [laughs quietly] 
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Austin: Oh, okay. Wow. 
Janine: [laughs] You know, like—
Sylvia: The bishounen sparkles are going crazy. [Austin chuckles] 
Janine: Yeah, it’s just like eating—
Sylvia: That’s what the shroud looks like. [Austin laughs]
Janine: Yeah.
Sylvia: It’s lightning on everybody else, but it’s sparkles on Brontë. [Janine and Austin laugh]
Janine: This is like eating a fig like an Herbal Essences commercial on mute. Kind of like… [Sylvia chuckles]
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Damn, he’s eating that fig. You know?
Austin: [chuckles] Mm-hmm. I do know. Okay. Which clears your poison.
Janine: Is this aura farming? I'm very unclear about what aura farming is, but is…?
Austin: You are aura farming. A little bit.
Janine: I get the impression that Brontë’s very aura farmy.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I would say it’s a little more motiony, a little more active than what most people think of as aura farming.
Janine: Oh, yes. Okay.
Austin: But I think that fundamentally the result is the same.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: You know?
Janine: That makes sense.
Austin: And if you're eating it— if you're holding it, that’s aura farming, you know?
Janine: Ah, okay.
Sylvia: Inspecting it.
Austin: Mm-hmm, exactly.
Sylvia: Pondering the fig.
Janine: Do I have to click Oasis Fig, or what…?
Austin: No, you can just delete it from your thing. I mean, you can if you want to.
Janine: What happens if I click it?
Austin: It’ll pop it in the chat. It should. Let’s see.
Janine: It didn't. It’s a toggle? That’s weird.
Austin: Oh, that is weird.
Sylvia: That’s really weird.
Janine: And now I clicked it, and now it’s just, like, shaded in, and it’s just like, “Yeah, you're figging.”
Austin: Huh. Weird.
Sylvia: Oh yeah, mine did that too. Oh, I shouldn't have done that. 
Janine: [laughs quietly] It’s weird.
Austin: Hmm.
Janine: I'm just going to delete it.
Austin: Just delete it. Yeah.
Janine: I'm eating it. I'm deleting it. I have to cure my poison, right. That’s the whole fucking point.
Austin: You have to cure your poison. Yes. But it’s back around to y'all, because it’s the beginning of a new turn. [typing] That was the end of turn two, as I've typed in the chat.
Round Three [0:34:29]
Sylvia: I have a question. Keith, how much IP do you have? Are you able to heal yourself?
Keith: I have 5 IP.
Sylvia: Okay. Then I might— if other people have actions to go first, but I think this turn, what I'm going to do is heal Brontë and I.
Keith: Yeah, and I'm in Crisis, but I have 35 out of 37, [Sylvia: Yeah.] which I think is what you two have almost at full health.
Sylvia: Yes. You have twice my current HP right now.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And you just got hit, Keith, for 25, and it looks like the only thing higher than that would have been 26, so you know you can survive another full hit from Maxi, you know?
Keith: Yeah. 
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: Maxi rolled an 11 and a 7, which, you know, if the 11 had been a 12, that would have been 26 damage, so.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Should I open with heal, then? Should that be the first thing we do, this side?
Janine: I wouldn't complain.
Sylvia: Cool. I'll do that. 
Austin: [chuckles] How’s it work?
Sylvia: So, this is targeting— I'm just clicking. There's no roll attached to it.
Austin: Yeah. 
Sylvia: Recover 40 HP, Brontë.
Austin: Got it.
Janine: Yay.
Austin: What’s it look like?
Sylvia: I mean, you know, I'm picturing pretty standard. Like, Cure in Final Fantasy, you know what I mean? Like, it is…
Austin: Are you, like, lifting up your hands? Are you saying some words? What’s the…?
Sylvia: I think I'm still, because of my background with doing Spellblade stuff, [Austin: Mm.] I like the idea of the magic coming from my sword still.
Austin: Right. Sure.
Sylvia: But I'm using it more like a wand would be used by someone, like, who’s a healer.
Austin: Cool. I love that.
Sylvia: You know. It’s that lovely, like, white and green boop boop boop boop! looking particle effects.
Austin: Yeah. I love it.
Sylvia: Yeah. I'm back to full HP.
Austin: Okay, their turn. Let’s see here. Yeah. Let’s do this. Let me look at my stats. Is that right? Yeah, that’s lower than it should be. Okay. 
Sylvia: Can I just say, playing a support in this game has been really fun. [laughs quietly] 
Janine: Yeah.
Sylvia: That’s all I've done this combat.
Janine: Support actions are fun.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: And I have to check…where’d Maxi go? Y'all haven't hit Maxi at all, huh?
Sylvia: Uh…
Janine: Armor. The armor.
Keith: Uh, no.
Sylvia: We tried.
Austin: You broke the—
Keith: I tried to hit her for weak, and it was immune. And then…
Austin: Right. Sylvi broke her armor.
Keith: Sylvi broke her armor.
Austin: Yes. Okay. Cool, cool, cool.
Sylvia: But we haven't done anything since, yeah.
Keith: I'm going to hit her next turn, though. Don't worry.
Austin: No, I gotcha. Hortensius raises up his sword in a way you just, like, literally the same exact type of motion that you just saw Caoimhe do, and heals Mercurion for 40.
Sylvia: [quietly] Fuck.
Keith: 40 Hit Points, though.
Austin: 40 Hit Points. Not 40 MP. Correct.
Keith: Ehh. [laughs] Is my turn?
Austin: Is your turn.
Sylvia: Is your turn.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Or is your side’s turn, yeah.
Keith: Yeah. Well, last time we played, I slept soundly, which gave me a bonus turn for anything involving my Inventory Points.
Austin: Mm.
Sylvia: Ooh.
Keith: So I'm going to spend 3 Inventory Points to freely heal 50, which is full HP to me.
Austin: Love it.
Keith: 50, right? It’s 50?
Austin: It’s whatever the thing says.
Keith: I think it says 50.
Austin: Yeah, 50.
Sylvia: Yeah, 50.
Keith: 50 Hit Points.
Sylvia: For Remedy, yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: All right. So I'm back up to full health for free, and I'm going to swing at Maxi.
Austin: Okay. 10 difficulty.
Sylvia: Heavyweight fight.
Austin: It is a heavyweight fight. It really is.
Keith: 10…oh, right, because of the Defense.
Austin: 10 Defense because of the, yeah, Defense of 10, exactly.
Keith: Yeah. Okay.
Austin: That is a 6! 3 and a 3.
Keith: Oh my god. I'm rerolling. I'm rerolling.
Austin: Spending your Fabula Point?
Keith: I'm spending a Fabula Point, which brings us up to 3 Fabula Points spent.
Austin: That does. 3 Fabula Points spent. I'm typing it. [typing] What are you calling on?
Keith: Uh, you know, this is my second or third really bad roll.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: The first time I tried to hit Mercurion, the critical fumble, and now this. So this is doubt.
Austin: Oof.
Keith: Doubt is setting in.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And I'm just going to reroll the whole thing, because there were two 3s.
Austin: Okay.
Sylvia: Yeah! Hell yeah.
Keith: 11.
Austin: Yeah, there's an 11. 
Janine: There we go.
Austin: That’s a hit. That’s 18 damage. You love to see it.
Keith: 18 damage.
Austin: Okay. Take that to Maxi. Take it to the house. Boom. Okay. Not yet in Crisis. And now Mercurion is going to go, and I think is going to continue to attack from ranged though is now out of MP and pulls out a pistol, a Hexcloak pistol, which is just a regular-ass pistol.
Keith: Pretty cool, though.
Austin: It’s, you know. It’s using magical energy, but it’s just doing physical damage, unlike the electrified dagger.
Janine: The bullets are hexagonal.
Austin: Right. [laughs] That’s exactly right.
Sylvia: Wow. [Keith laughs]
Austin: I'm going to roll 1d3 to once again determine who gets targeted. It’s either going to be Brontë on 1, Antistrophe on a 2, or Caoimhe on a 3. It is going to be Antistrophe. Okay.
Keith: Great. Best case scenario.
Sylvia: Honestly.
Austin: Yeah, kind of best case scenario, yeah. All right. Mercurion is going to roll that Hex Pistol hit. That is a 10. That’s going to miss your damage, right?
Keith: Not even close.
Sylvia: [imitating bullet bouncing off] Bing!
Austin: Or your Defense, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Okay. Yeah. All right, it dinks off of your cool armor, or your cool shields probably, right?
Janine: Dinks off?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, it goes, dink!.
Keith: Cool armor, too. My armor gives me a ton of effects.
Austin: Yeah. It does.
Keith: 11 of my 15 comes from the armor.
Austin: There you go. There you go. All right, back to y'all. Or is that the whole round? That’s the whole round. Is that the whole round? No. 
Janine: No. No?
Keith: Uh…
Janine: Yes? Wait.
Sylvia: No, I think Janine’s supposed to go.
Austin: Brontë hasn't gone.
Janine: I ate that fig sexy, but that…
Austin: You ate the fig.
Sylvia: That was last turn.
Janine: That was the last turn though, yeah.
Austin: Okay. So then, this round, Caoimhe’s gone, then Hortensius went, then Antistrophe went, then Mercurion went. Okay, so Maxi hasn't gone yet this round. Okay. I was trying to figure out why— yeah. Okay, so you go next, Brontë, and then Maxi, and then the round will be over.
Janine: [sighs] Okie dokie. I gotta keep reupping the— well, I guess I don't need to reup the dance right now.
Keith: Is it free to reup?
Janine: No, it’s 5.
Keith: Oh, sorry, I mean free turn-wise.
Janine: Yes.
Keith: It’s a free action.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: I can also do it before or after my, like, action actions, so I might do something and then decide I want to do a thing anyway. We'll see. Okay. I would like to shoot with my bow, and I would like it to be a multi attack. I'm going to spend 10 Mind Points to give it two targets.
Austin: Ooh. Love it. Who are you targeting? Again, it’s Maxi, Mercurion, and Hortensius. Hortensius is the poison one, Mercurion’s the bolt one, and Maxi is the earth one, the terra one.
Janine: Um…
Keith: And Hortensius is healing.
Austin: Hortensius does have healing. This is true. Healing and poison.
Janine: Yeah. I think, for me, it’s going to be Hortenius and Mercurion.
Austin: Sounds good. That is a 14, and that hits both of them for 20 physical damage.
Sylvia: Whoa!
Keith: Sick.
Austin: Goddamn. And that’s the bow that, just for the record, ignores resistances.
Janine: Yes, yeah.
Austin: Hortenius, at 20 damage, is in Crisis. And now Maxi goes, and I'm going to do the roll.
Janine: How’s Mercurion?
Austin: Not yet in Crisis.
Janine: Oh, right, yeah, fully, okay.
Sylvia: Got healed.
Austin: Because of getting healed to full last turn by Hortensius, yeah. All right. That’s going to target Caoimhe.
Sylvia: Okay.
Keith: Good luck.
Austin: Maxi is swinging at you. [chuckles] Yeah, good luck. 
Sylvia: Thank you.
Austin: That’s very funny. You have 13, correct? Defense.
Sylvia: Yep.
Austin: That is 23 physical damage, [Keith: Oof.] as she rolls 9 plus 5 plus 1 is 15. 23.
Sylvia: I'm in Crisis again. 
Austin: I bet.
Sylvia: I'm exactly in Crisis again.
Austin: Uh huh. And I think this is just a huge, you know, side by side swing at you. Or I actually think that Maxi, like, does a whole full spin and then comes back around this whole second—
Sylvia: Ohh. Right in the ribcage.
Austin: You know, like a Zangief style, yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And then, boom, right into the ribcage, knocks you into another pillar. There's dust everywhere. It’s hard to see. Maxi begins laughing. She’s like: 
(as Maxi): [raucous laugh] I love it!
Sylvia: Oh. Okay, Nappa.
Austin: Yeah, there's a real— yeah, she has Nappa energy.
Sylvia: Yeah. And I'm not going to be Krillin. [Austin laughs quietly]
Keith: Or Yamcha!
Sylvia: Not even on my mind. So far from a possibility that he’s not even on my mind. [Austin laughs quietly]
Keith: Chiaotzu.
Sylvia: If this goes wrong, nobody clip that.
Austin: That’s the end of the turn. That’s the end of the round. [typing] End of round…three? No, end of round— yeah, end of round three. End of round three.
Sylvia: I believe so.
Round Four [0:43:39]
Keith: Okay. So, here’s what I think. I think that we have— our major obstacles are: is Maxi doing a ton of damage, and…
Sylvia: Hortensius healing?
Keith: Hortensius healing us. 
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: Or healing them, not us. That would be great if Hortensius switched sides, starts healing us. [Austin laughs quietly]
Sylvia: Please.
Keith: Undercover agent.
Sylvia: See the error of your ways.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: So, I was thinking that we could maybe either all focus on one or the other, or I focus on Maxi and you two focus on Hortensius and then switch over.
Janine: Hortensius is in Crisis as well.
Sylvia: Keith, I think you could kill Hortensius. I think you could take the dog to hell right now.
Keith: Okay, I'll take the dog to hell. I'll do it.
Sylvia: I really think you could knock her out. Or him out?
Keith: Okay.
Sylvia: What’s Hortensius’ pronouns?
Austin: Hortensius is him. Hortensius, he/him.
Keith: Hortensius is he/him.
Sylvia: Okay. Yeah.
Austin: Hortensius, he/him. Yeah.
Keith: Maxi’s she/her, and then…
Austin: Maxi’s she/her, and Mercurion they/them.
Keith: Mercurion’s they/them.
Sylvia: Yeah, okay.
Austin: The classic trio. You know.
Sylvia: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: The Hexcloak trio. 
Sylvia: [laughs quietly] They have to…
Austin: Very weird gender ideology we haven't gotten into with the Hexcloaks.
Sylvia: Yeah. [Keith laughs]
Austin: It’s very equal, but it’s very balanced in a way that’s strange, so.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Janine: Party composition but gender.
Keith: They have a one-in-one-out policy.
Austin: [laughs] That’s right, a one-in-one-out. That’s right. [Keith laughs]
Sylvia: God.
Austin: They're calling it “post woke.” [Keith, Janine, and Sylvia laugh]
Keith: Should I hit right now? Should I run up to Hortensius and shield slam?
Sylvia: I'm not opposed to it.
Keith: All right. I'm going to do it.
Sylvia: Yeah. Go for it, man.
Janine: Yeah, live your truth.
Keith: [dismayed sound]
Austin: That is a 7.
Keith: Ugh.
Austin: That…misses? I'll double check. I have so many things open right now.
Keith: Oh. It’s a question?
Austin: It’s a question. That misses. 
Keith: Okay.
Austin: You're looking for an 8. You're looking for an 8.
Sylvia: Wow.
Keith: Oh my god. Can I get something here?
Austin: Don't you have a— didn't you just get a Fabula Point? Did you already spend it?
Keith: I think I got it and spent it.
Austin: You got it and spent it. You did. You got it and spent it.
Keith: Got it and spent it.
Austin: Yeah, you got it and spent it. You got a 7; you need an 8. Hortensius is not physically defensive very much, so. Oh, you're close.
Sylvia: [quietly] Oh, that’s so annoying.
Keith: I can't get a help on an attack roll?
Austin: I believe that would be the round. I believe that that would then take the…
Keith: Right.
Austin: Let me make sure of something, actually. Let me make sure of something with the Bond, because I always forget this. Let me make sure. Can somebody else? You can't spend a Fabula Point for somebody else, right?
Sylvia: I was going to ask.
Keith: To help.
Sylvia: I have a Subversion Point, which works the same way and I completely spaced about until this combat started.
Austin: [sighs] Damn. All right, I've looked as best as I can, and what it seems like is using Bonds during someone else’s roll seems like it’s a special Orator ability and not a thing. There's no specific example in the book, and also, I've checked the Discord and the Reddit and stuff, and I'm not seeing anything very clearly saying, [Keith: Mm-hmm.] “Yes, you can spend Fabula Points on someone else’s turn.” 
Keith: On someone else’s turn.
Austin: Yeah. That’s what it looks like. 
Keith: Okay.
Austin: It’s killing me, because some part of me is like, “I thought it worked the other way,” but I'm not seeing anything that tells me that, and I might just be getting it confused with a little game called Realis, which allows you to use Bonds during someone else’s Conflict, but you know, who could say? So, unfortunately, no.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: However, while I was looking that up, Keith, you did notice that you can always spend Fabula Points.
Keith: I can always spend a Fabula Point.
Austin: How’s that work?
Keith: [sarcastic] And nothing bad will happen.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: According to Ruinbringer… [Austin scoffs]
Sylvia: Great sentence.
Keith: “When a rule or ability requires you to spend Hit Points, Mind Points, or Fabula Points, you may instead let your Ruin advance to completely ignore the cost. You describe what dark omens manifest, and the GM receives an Opportunity that can be used to add complication after the current scene has ended.” 
Austin: Oh, okay. Cool. 
Keith: [sarcastic] So pretty much a net good.
Austin: Yeah. Pretty much a net good. I like it.
Sylvia: Yeah, definitely.
Keith: I think that doing damage to an almost dead almost rando is maybe not the best time.
Austin: Almost rando? Damn. 
Keith: Sorry to the Hexcloaks.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Sorry to the basement Hexcloaks. Hexcloaks basement squad. [Janine and Keith laugh]
Austin: Hortensius was the one not in the basement, to be fair.
Keith: That’s fair. The left behind Hexcloaks in the empty city, the only three not invited to whatever party they're having.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: But I'm going to not use that. I'm going to save it for a better time.
Austin: Okay. So you're just going to miss here.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: All right. That is…where are we at? That was the beginning of round— that was your first— that was the beginning of round three. Okay.
Sylvia: Mm-hmm.
Keith: The beginning of, yeah.
Austin: Gotcha. Okay. Well, then. Let’s— I mean, the obvious thing to do here is to punish that by instantly healing himself back up by 40 HP.
Keith: That sucks.
Austin: And so, yeah, you know, dodges away from your shields and, like, does another twirl with the— I said a sword before, but is actually holding out a whip. I think we've mentioned Hortensius has a toxic whip.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: And, you know, casts Heal on himself. Some extra flowers bloom in his hair as he does it. Only costs 10 MP. Heal is very strong in this game.
Sylvia: Heal is very strong in this game.
Austin: Now, what it really has done is just like, you know, didn't attack this turn, so, you know, at the end of the day, still has not done damage to y'all yet, so maybe Hortensius is…
Keith: Yeah, but as a net thing, [Austin: Yep.] healing 40 is stronger than damaging for 20 or whatever.
Austin: Sure. Back to y'all.
Sylvia: I'm down to attack, if Brontë, you don't have anything pressing to do right now.
Janine: Let me actually…since I didn't dance last turn, I don't have to go last this time, so let me actually see if there's something advantageous I can do. [Austin chuckles] Okay, how about…okay. How about I— hmm. Okay. Yeah, I want to shoot arrow.
Austin: You want to shoot arrow.
Janine: I want to shoot arrow hard. Yeah.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: I think I want to do what I did last time, actually, which is barrage. Actually, do I want to do that? Do I actually want to do that? Yes, I actually want to do that. Yeah. I'm going to bow and spend my 10 points to Barrage and aim once again at Hortensius and Mercurion.
Austin: Okay. And Barrage, again, does…oh, 17. That’s going to hit. 17 hits them both.
Janine: Yeah, Barrage is the thing that lets me shoot two people instead of just one.
Austin: I see. I gotcha, I gotcha. Okay. 
Janine: Or if I had a multi attack thing, would let me add, would make it more multi. Multi up.
Austin: I see. Multi up. Multiball. I gotcha. all right, that does 17, or it does 22 physical damage to both of them. That’s a lot.
Keith: That’s a lot.
Austin: Mercurion is back into Crisis, and I believe, so is—
Keith: Tug of war with these guys.
Austin: It is a tug of war with these guys. And I believe—
Janine: Actually, wait.
Austin: Yeah?
Janine: Can I…hmm. Oh, okay, it’s each target. I was like, “Can I split it? Can I do hurt to one and Mind Points to the other?” but I don't think I can.
Austin: Oh, when you hit one or more targets with a ranged…hmm.
Janine: Or each target hit by the attack loses…
Austin: When you hit one— you're talking about Warning Shot? Is that what you're talking about?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: “When you hit one or more targets with a ranged attack that would deal damage, you may have the attack deal no damage.”
Janine: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: I think that means it’s both. It’s, yeah.
Janine: I'll stick with the Hits Points, then.
Austin: Well, they're both in Crisis, so you're doing the damn thing. And then they go. Let’s see. Hortensius just went. Maxi has gone, so now we're back around to Mercurion, who I think is just it’s dagger time. Is charging in with the electrified dagger to attack…I think that that is…sorry, I have so many things on my screen. It’s Brontë. So, yeah. As you shoot in the shoulder Mercurion…I’m shuffling through a thousand things. As you shoot Mercurion in the shoulder, they charge forward with this electrified dagger, swinging at your head or your chest and hitting you for 12 bolt damage, which of course is only 6.
Keith: Minus 6.
Austin: Minus 6, exactly.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: But is trying to close the distance with you to keep you from being able to shoot with the bow, even though that’s not how this game works. That’s still, you know, what they have in mind.
Keith: That’s still how people think.
Janine: Yeah. That’s what a person might do.
Austin: Yeah, exactly.
Keith: And if you critically fumbled, that’s what we would say happened.
Austin: [laughs quietly] That’s right, yeah. And that is the round, I think, right? Yes. Rare that Mercurion goes last, but that’s what happened. All right. Round four over. Not going to get those bonus XP, the rate that this is going.
Keith: No.
Sylvia: Listen.
Round Five [0:52:50]
Austin: You've kind of fallen to a stalemate, at this point. I think, in fact, at this point, Mercurion, you know, electrified dagger having cut you, says:
(as Mercurion): Just drop your weapons and come with us. You're not winning today.
Keith: Does somebody have something—
Sylvia: What if I hit Mercurion right after they say that?
Austin: [chuckles] What if?
Keith: Sorry, what’d you say, Sylvi?
Sylvia: I said, what if I hit Mercurion right after they say that? [laughs quietly] 
Keith: Oh, yeah.
Sylvia: Okay. If we're good with that being the start of round five.
Keith: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Janine: I think it’s funny.
Sylvia: It’s an 11. Does that hit?
Austin: And it’s how much damage?
Sylvia: 10.
Austin: 10 damage is enough.
Sylvia: 10 dark damage.
Austin: What’s it look like as you knock Mercurion out?
Sylvia: [laughs] There's a real, like, I don't know if this is true to the weapon I'm wielding, but there's a part of me that wants to just clonk ‘em on the back of the head.
Austin: [chuckles] Uh huh.
Sylvia: With, like, the hilt of it.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Right after they say that.
Austin: Yeah, because you have this new sword. I think it’s still clonkable.
Sylvia: Yeah. I mean, yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: You can clonk with anything that has a hilt, I imagine.
Keith: You can clonk with anything.
Austin: Yeah. It’s got a hilt. Bop.
Keith: These days?
Sylvia: These days.
Austin: And Mercurion crumbles to the ground. I think Maxi does not like this and is— I'm going to evoke GM fiat and is turning her attention on you, Caoimhe.
Sylvia: Fair enough.
Austin: You know, sometimes you just make a character who is big and strong and has a big hammer and does 22 damage to Caoimhe.
Sylvia: Wow! I'm unconscious. [Austin and Janine laugh]
Austin: Bonk, BONK!
Sylvia: That’s exactly the amount of damage I needed to take to be unconscious, so we got a clonk daisy chain.
Austin (as Maxi): Looks like we're all evened up!
Austin: She says.
Janine: Oh my god.
Sylvia: Oh no!
Austin: And, like, plants the— you know, it’s one of those super tall hammers with, like, the long haft like a spear. [Sylvia laughs] And, like, plants it into your gut like a banner, like placing a banner down, after you've been knocked out.
Janine: Ugh.
Austin: Not into you, but you know, hits you there and holds it there in your stomach.
Keith: God. There's not something that we can do to not have that?
Austin: Caoimhe could have had more armor.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: Right.
Austin: You've hit 0 HP. We haven't had this happen in a minute, so let’s see what happens. First of all, I think— actually, not first of all, because you've hit 0 HP. We haven't seen this happen, like I said, in a minute.
Keith: Has that happened on this side?
Austin: I guess it maybe hasn't. Has this not happened?
Sylvia: No, I think this is…
Keith: I don't think anyone…
Sylvia: No, yes, it has happened because of the time I grabbed the necklace and it did, like, a hundred damage to me.
Austin: That did happen that time.
Janine: Oh.
Keith: Oh, that doesn't even count. 
Austin: Okay. All right.
Sylvia: I'm just saying, I Yamcha’d twice, guys.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: You at least— your KDA is even, though, because you did get a— you knocked out Mercurion before this happened to you. Okay. When reduced to 0 HP, you have some choices. You can either sacrifice yourself or surrender. I'm guessing you're not giving your life in order to accomplish a seemingly impossible deed?
Sylvia: No.
Austin: Such as beating three people up in a basement? [Janine laughs]
Sylvia: No.
Austin: [chuckles] Okay. Surrender.
Sylvia: I'm not dying in a basement.
Austin: Okay. So then this is page 89. Surrendering: “Characters who surrender fall unconscious and become unable to act for the remainder of the scene, even if their Hit Points are restored above 0. The Game Master cannot kill a character who surrenders but may impose a narrative consequence chosen from the list below or a consequence that makes sense within the scene. If multiple characters surrender—or worst of all, if the entire group gets wiped out!—the Game Master may impose separate consequences or a single major consequence. They may also decide to bring the consequences of your surrender into play later on. Example: As the last hero bites the dust, Commander Kelta grins. ‘I'd love to get rid of you once and for all, but I have a busy day. You’ll never make it to the village in time! The Skyglass will shortly be in the Empress’s hands.’” I guess, in that version, Commander Kelta has stolen the Skyglass.
Sylvia: That’s so fucked up.
Austin: “While surrendering will never kill your character, the Game Master can still impose heavy consequences. Given the general mood of Fabula Ultima, however, permanent or crippling injuries should be avoided. When a Player Character chooses to Surrender, they immediately gain 2 Fabula Points.” Congrats.
Sylvia: Thank you.
Austin: “At the start of the next scene where they appear, the Player Character regains consciousness and recovers an amount of Hit Points equal to their Crisis score.” So, there are some sample consequences here. One, Darkness: You must change your Theme to one of the following: Anger, Doubt, Guilt, or Vengeance—your choice. Your Theme is really important to your special thing, right? But. 
Sylvia: Yeah, but I think the two that I can use can use can be Doubt or Guilt, so I could change it to Guilt.
Austin: You could change from Doubt to Guilt. Yeah. Interesting. Despair: The enemy gets to make a decisive move, or the heroes lose faith and approval of an important person or group. Loss: Something incredibly precious, such as a magical artifact, a loved person, or an ancient and important heirloom, is taken from you.
Keith: Mm.
Austin: Resentment: You are forced to erase one of your Bonds and replace it with a Bond towards a character chosen by the Game Master. This new Bond must be of hatred, inferiority, or mistrust—your choice. Separated: You are no longer with your allies. You might be captured, dragged away, lost, or stranded in some unknown location. I think at this point it’s Loss. I think that she picks up your little doohickey.
Sylvia: Yeah, I knew it.
Austin: I think she takes away your…
Sylvia: Reagent?
Austin: Magical Reagent. Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: Not the doohickey.
Austin: The one that lets you seek out magical energy.
Sylvia: [quietly] Ah, that sucks.
Austin: And is like:
(as Maxi): You aren't supposed to have this anyway.
Austin: And pockets it. You know, flips it up to herself with the haft of the maul, you know, and grabs it in the air.
Keith: Regrettably sick.
Austin: Regrettably fucking sick. Write down, like, that you don't have it now, you know? Because I want to make sure we remember what it is, long term, you know?
Sylvia: Okay.
Keith: Yeah. Write down that that was sick.
Austin: Can you write down, “That was sick when I got owned like that”?
Keith: Put in the newspaper that it was sick.
Sylvia: No. No! 
Austin: [laughs] I'm making my own note too, so if you want to just delete it.
Keith: It’s all right. We'll get it back.
Austin: Yeah, just try to get it back.
Sylvia: It’s on my sheet as stolen from me.
Austin: Perfect.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: All right. That is Caoimhe and Maxi. Back to y'all. Antistrophe or Brontë. 2v2.
Keith: 2v2. Should I hit the big one, Janine, or do you have something?
Janine: Uh, okay, so, wait. Which one…?
Austin: Hortensius and Maxi are left.
Janine: Okay.
Sylvia: It’s the healer and the heavy hitter.
Austin: That’s right. And the healer is in Crisis, and the heavy hitter is not.
Keith: Oh. I think that makes it clear.
Janine: Yeah, it does. It kind of does, doesn't it? Yeah, what if I just try to fucking shoot Hortensius? [Sylvia chuckles]
Keith: Yeah, just do the most damage you can to the one that’s almost dead who also can heal the buff one.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Janine: Yeah. I think that’s…I don't need to gild the lily on that one. I think I'm just…
Austin: Uh huh. Yeah, sometimes you just gotta do the damn thing. 
Janine: Like, based on how big and heavy duty we said this bow was, [laughs quietly] it’s really fucked up to be firing it indoors at people.
Austin: Indoors? Yeah. 
Janine: We haven't addressed that, but like, oh my god. 
Austin: You're right. It’s called the Siegebreaker, right? Or was called that originally?
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Janine: It’s called the Heartbreaker now, but it was called the Siegebreaker.
Austin: Right. Yeah.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: I think it’s like, when you let go of a shot, the whole room goes, like, [exhales].
Keith: You can feel the wind move.
Austin: You can feel it. Yeah.
Janine: Yeah, I think that string is, like, twangin’.
Austin: Yeah. [Austin and Sylvia laugh] That string is twangin’!
Sylvia: That string is twangin’. [Janine laughs]
Austin: God damn! Golly! [Sylvia laughs]
Janine: 15, 20.
Austin: 15, 20. What’s this look like, as you knock Hortensius out with a big arrow?
Janine: I think this is…ooh. I think this is Brontë looking, like, grimly determined in a way he very rarely does.
Austin: Oh. Wow.
Janine: I think in his heart, this arrow is meant for Maxi.
Austin: Oh, interesting.
Janine: But his royal tactical educated brain, [laughs] which I can say with a straight face, I swear.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Janine: Is saying, like, you have to get Hortensius out of the picture. Like, obviously. Hortensius is a healer.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Janine: Hortensius is doing bullshit. Like, you know, Antistrophe can probably handle Maxi, at least to a degree, for the moment.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: But we need, you know.
Keith: I'm at full health.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Yes. So this is like he really wants to get revenge for Caoimhe.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: He really wants to, like, really spite— but, you know, he’s doing the smart thing.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Like, gritting his teeth and doing the smart thing.
Austin: That makes lots of sense to me.
Sylvia: Aww. Thanks, dirt boy.
Janine: Which is firing a harpoon through someone.
Austin: Yeah. Cool. Well, that harpoon has hit its mark, and we don't have to zoom in on it. That’s not the season we're doing.
Keith: Heartbreaker.
Austin: The Heartbreaker truly did hit its mark, and Hortensius goes down. I also did just realize something that’s very annoying, which is I didn't tell you something about the damage you did to Maxi, which is that Maxi does resist physical damage. So, Antistrophe, when you hit Maxi, you did not do 18. You did 9, importantly.
Keith: Shit.
Austin: That doesn't change anything about what just happened, but it does maybe underscore something useful for Brontë, who has a weapon that ignores resistances.
Janine: Yeah, that I should be shooting Maxi a lot.
Austin: Yeah. 
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I mean, I still think that you made the right call here, [Keith: Yeah.] and I think it would have, you know, been way worse for y'all if you had not, so. And that is now Antistrophe’s turn, because they only have, yeah, that’s it.
Keith: Great. That’s it.
Austin: We're going Maxi, Brontë, Antistrophe this turn.
Keith: Yeah. Now, now I'm thinking. Hey, do we already know what Maxi’s Magic Defense is? Especially—
Austin: It’s a 9.
Keith: It’s a 9?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Okay. I was thinking maybe we could have Riant be attacking.
Austin: Interesting.
Sylvia: I mean, isn't Maxi’s Defense just 10 now?
Austin: That’s their Physical Defense.
Sylvia: Yeah. 
Keith: Physical Defense, but they’re…
Sylvia: It’s only a 1 point difference, I guess is my point.
Keith: Yeah, but she resists physical.
Sylvia: Oh, true. Yeah, sorry.
Austin: She does resist physical. That is true.
Keith: Right. And so Riant is obviously attacking with magic, right? Or…
Austin: Yeah, what is the ability that Riant has, again?
Keith: Riant has Flicker Shot, which attacks two targets.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: It’s HR plus 5 fire damage.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: DEX plus Willpower, which is, you know, d10 plus d8.
Austin: Okay, so good chance of hitting and maybe an okay chance of doing some solid fire damage.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I think maybe that’s a good chance—
Keith: Unfortunately, we don't have two targets anymore.
Austin: You don't. No. But, you know. You want to try it?
Keith: 15.
Austin: 15. 
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Wait. 14.
Keith: Oh, wait, no. 16.
Austin: 16 hits, but 14 damage.
Keith: Sorry, yeah. I saw the 15 from Brontë, and I read that.
Austin: I see. 16 hits. 7 plus 9 is 16.
Keith: 16 to hit, which hits, so 14 fire damage.
Austin: 14 fire damage, which, tell me what this looks like. Are you—? Because this is your turn, effectively.
Keith: This is my turn. Yeah. So, you know, Riant’s been following us around.
Austin: Yeah. Since…
Keith: You know, bobbing around.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Making whooshing noises.
Austin: Oh, right. Going whoosh, whoosh!
Keith: And has just sort of been kind of…I don't know, I guess like a little buddy.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And it hasn't really come up in combat that I've been like, “I need to do fire damage,” but I think as I'm gearing up to hit Maxi, [Austin: Yeah.] I'm just like, “This is stupid. What am I doing? I have more tools than just the shield.”
Austin: You do.
Keith: And so I think I kind of just look at Riant and do, like, a head jerk, like, towards Maxi, to be like, “Why don't you try?”
Austin: Yeah. Oh, and you do, and that fire hits. Doing 14 damage.
Keith: Great.
Austin: And I think Riant is like, whoosh, whoosh! Like, happy.
Keith: Whoosh.
Austin: Like, I'm useful, you know?
Janine: Aw.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Aww.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Me too, man.
Austin: Yeah. All right. Is that the round, then? Back around to y'all.
Round Six [1:05:01]
Keith: Riant could hit another shot.
Sylvia: Whoa.
Austin: Riant on the offense. Riant combo. [Janine laughs]
Keith: Yeah, Riant combo. Two in a row, Riant combo.
Austin: All right. Let’s see it.
Janine: Riant uses Double Slap.
Austin: [chuckles] That’s right. That’s where we're at.
Keith: Ooh, 7.
Austin: That 7 doesn't hit, unfortunately. 
Keith: No.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. 
Janine: Not happening that time.
Austin: Also, wait, we should note: Riant’s thing is not a spell. Riant’s thing is just a physical attack.
Keith: It is a physical attack, but it does fire damage.
Austin: Totally. I just wanted to make sure. You were asking about the Magic Defense on Maxi before, but it’s…you see?
Keith: Oh, right.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: So it still has to be 10. I understand.
Austin: Supposed to be 10. Yeah. But hey, it does not get reduced. 
Keith: Right.
Austin: Unfortunately, this does not hit it. And doubly unfortunately—I'm again doing GM fiat—Maxi does not like this little lantern motherfucker.
Sylvia: No!
Keith: Okay.
Austin: And does 24 damage to it. [someone gasps]
Keith: Okay. It’s dead, but. [another gasp] It’s dead, but.
Austin: Oh, okay. Ah, there we go.
Keith: When reduced to 0 HP, Kalsi’s Lantern explodes in a wave of fire and rage. When this happens, the creature that killed it takes 10 fire damage and the enraged status.
Austin: That’s really useful, because it reduces Maxi’s Defense even further. Maxi’s Defense is now 8.
Keith: And Insight.
Janine: Is Riant gone forever now?
Austin: No.
Janine: Oh, okay.
Keith: No. Riant dies in the same way that I die, that Caoimhe dies.
Janine: Phew, okay. Okay, I was worried.
Austin: Yeah. If your Companion falls to 0 HP, they flee, rejoin you at the start of the next scene in which you are present with HP equal to their Crisis score.
Keith: Good work, buddy!
Austin: So, yeah. This is like Riant— I think Maxi hits the lantern with the hammer, and it burns up in a way that, like, I don't think she expected. You know, she did not expect it to do, like, a fwoosh!
Janine: “Oh, fuck, my eyebrows!”
Austin: [laughs quietly] Exactly.
Keith: Yeah. [laughs] 
Austin: And she’s not yet—
Keith: Hair blown back.
Austin: That’s right, yeah. Uh huh. She’s not yet in Crisis, but she is more singed than she thought she would be. And unfortunately, you no longer have a source of fire damage. Brontë.
Janine: Wait, isn't it Maxi’s turn?
Austin: No, 'cause that’s what Maxi just—
Janine: Oh, wait, no. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Maxi just, yeah.
Janine: Yeah, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: Oh, hold on.
Janine: Uh huh?
Austin: Uh huh?
Keith: Oh, wait. Nevermind. It’s the opposite. So, I'm looking at Riant’s vulnerabilities and resistances.
Austin: Yeah?
Keith: Is vulnerable to physical attacks.
Austin: Oh, so actually took 48 damage. 
Janine: Oh my god.
Sylvia: Fucking christ. [Austin laughs]
Keith: The sword is vulnerable to physical, right? The rock is earth affinity, right?
Austin: Is earth. Yeah, that’s correct.
Keith: Okay. So, physical affinity vulnerable.
Austin: Yeah. That’s a shame, Riant. Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, you can see the like— it says “vu.” Yeah. It should.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Okay. Brontë.
Janine: Yeah. Um, [pronouncing strangely] arrow. Arrow.
[all imitating]
Austin: Arrow?
Sylvia: Arrow!
Keith: Arrow. Arrow.
Janine: I don't know why I said it that…
Austin: Arrow. Arrow. [Janine and Keith laugh]
Keith: That’s what the bow sounds like. [laughter] When the wood creaks, you can hear it. 
Austin: Yeah. “Aarrow.”
Keith: It sounds like, “Aaarrow.”
Austin: “Fwah!” That’s great.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: All right. Regular-ass attack?
Janine: For now.
Austin: No dance? Oh, ooh, okay.
Janine: For now.
Austin: Okay, I see, I see.
Janine: For now!
Austin: Okay. Let’s see the roll.
Keith: For now.
Austin: That hits! 10 hits. 18 damage as it rolled.
Janine: And also…
Austin: Mm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Janine: When I hit a creature with an attack, if the attack only targeted that creature and they are suffering from one or more status effects, [Austin: They are.] I may have it deal extra damage equal to SL plus the number of status effects on the creature, so I think that would be 2, because it’s SL 1.
Austin: Another 2, so 20 damage. She’s in Crisis, and she is pissed about it, you know? I think I didn't play this up enough, but she was enraged when Riant blew up and burned her, singed her.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Now she’s furious.
(as Maxi): Aaagh!
Austin: She says. And she’s in Crisis. All right, you gotta bring it home, because I believe this is now back to y'all again.
Keith: Is it not Maxi’s turn?
Austin: Maxi went in between Riant and Brontë.
Keith: Oh, okay.
Austin: Yeah. When you only have three people in the fight, it’s real quick, you know?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Sylvia: Yeah, I died to help sort of speed up the process, actually.
Austin: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just to, you know, keep things flowing.
Round Seven [1:09:00]
Keith: I'm reduced. I'm reduced to using this shield attack. I have no other [Austin: Wow.] means, but that’s fine.
Austin: You could spend IP on…oh, do you not have enough IP for it?
Keith: I have 2 IP, which might be enough.
Austin: Is that enough for an Elemental Shard?
Keith: It is enough for an Elemental Shard.
Austin: You know, up to you.
Keith: What does that…?
Sylvia: It’s 10 damage.
Keith: But they suffer 10 damage of my choice.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: So it’s not like I can use the Elemental Shard on my weapon, which would be nice.
Austin: No. No.
Sylvia: No.
Keith: That is a thing that Caoimhe can do, right?
Sylvia: Yeah. If I had known about this sooner, I would've used one of my…
Keith: You know what, I'm making a vow. Here’s my vow.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: I'm going to use my extremely good studying abilities to study a creature.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And then, Caoimhe, you can use your special “give me the right kind of weapon” ability to give me the weapon that deals double damage.
Sylvia: I would love to do this, man.
Austin: That’s a great plan going forward.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But for now, are you just going to use your shields to try to hit?
Keith: I'm just going to use my shields to try to hit her.
Austin: Okay, yeah. Yeah, because your shield, even on a…yeah, that’s a hit. That’s 19.
Keith: It’s an 11.
Austin: Yep.
Keith: 19, so 9 damage.
Austin: 19 damage, so 9 damage. 1 less than it would have been if you’d just done [quietly] an Elemental Shard. I just want to say that out loud. Okay. [Sylvia laughs quietly] Still in Crisis. Not dead yet.
Keith: Hey. I might need those 2.
Austin: You might need those 2. You might need those 2. I'm going to roll the dice. 1 is Brontë; 2 is Antistrophe. [typing] It is Brontë that Maxi, fresh from being hit with a shield, turns and spins and swings at you and does 22 physical damage.
Sylvia: Wow.
Janine: Owee.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Bringing you presumably into Crisis.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: How much into Crisis?
Janine: What if I Efta Zolfta? [laughs] 
Austin: Wow. [Sylvia laughs]
Janine: I'm not— this would be the last time I can use them, unless I roll really…unless I roll, like, a 1.
Austin: Unless you roll a 1. Yeah.
Janine: Which is fair.
Keith: And the thing about them is they just regain their— they reduce their stress once you rest and recover, right?
Janine: I have to roll 1d6 at the end of a session, basically, each time to chill them out.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Oh, so you might max them out and then roll a 2, and then they're still fucked.
Janine: Well, I can only not use them when they're over 10. So if I get them under 10, I can still use them, I just can't use them a lot.
Keith: Right.
Janine: Let me actually just double check that…where the fuck? [quickly and quietly] “Whenever you make use of these benefits, your bodyguards suffer 1d6 Fatigue. As long as they have 10 or more Fatigue, you cannot rely on them.” Which is an interesting way to phrase that: you cannot rely on them. “Fatigue is shared between bodyguards; it is not tracked individually. At the end of each session—approximately four hours of play—your bodyguards recover 1d6 of Fatigue to a minimum of 0.”
Austin: So, importantly, that happens even if you haven't rested.
Janine: Yeah. It’s not attached to rest. It is attached to the end of a session.
Austin: Interesting.
Janine: It’s whenever we're doing experience, we should also be [Austin: Yep.] giving the girls a rest.
Austin: That’s right.
Janine: And also, I think narratively it makes sense that, like, they are also trapped in this basement.
Austin: They are.
Janine: We got kind of cornered into that.
Austin: They're in the fight.
Janine: They don't get to keep their usual distance.
Keith: They're trapped in here with us.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: They are in this fight, so the fact that [Austin: Yeah.] I'm relying on them heavily and they're getting exhausted makes a lot of sense.
Austin: Yeah. In situations like this, are they…? They're not combatants. They're not trying to swing hits in on Maxi, obviously. Is Maxi just, like, swinging wide, and they're— or are they just pulling you in and out of the way such that they're trying to protect you?
Janine: I think it is probably their policy [Austin: Mm-hmm.] or maybe their mandate that, like, you know, it’s one thing if I pick a fight with someone.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I'm an individual. I have an individual, you know. They're government employees, functionally. Like, they…
Austin: [chuckles] Sure. Fair.
Janine: You know, they have a…they need to kind of limit their own…not liability, but like, their priority is: if this goes really really bad, [Austin: Yeah.] they both need to be up and able to get me out.
Austin: That makes perfect sense.
Janine: So they're probably focused on, like, dodging and kind of, like…also, I think a lot of people probably wouldn't see them as, like, primary targets, because they're not engaging in that way, right?
Austin: Yeah. They're not, like, wielding weapons and trying to do hits. Like, they're not, yeah.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: And they're not, like, casting Heal, and they're not, et cetera, right? So. 
Janine: Mm-hmm. And they're not, like, super armored or, like, their weapons are pretty subtle. Like, they're not obvious targets in that way. They're just kind of weird.
Austin: That makes sense. Yeah.
Janine: Anyway, I'm going to make them sleepier or whatever.
Austin: Take the hit for you and reduce damage by— yeah, that makes sense.
Janine: Yeah. 3. So, they are at 11. 
Austin: Okay.
Janine: They are done with my shit for today.
Austin: Mm-hmm. [chuckles] 
Sylvia: They're clocking out.
Janine: And that’s fair.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: What was the thing, again? It’s 11 would be half of…? Right?
Austin: It’s 11. Wait, what, damage? Yeah, 11 would be halved.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yep. So you are, in fact, not in Crisis.
Janine: I am not.
Austin: Look at that.
Janine: That’s the play.
Austin: Yeah. Really showing the way that Brontë is kind of, because of Efta and Zolfta, tanky in a way that is hard to understand just by looking at [Keith: Mm-hmm.] the raw numbers, which is interesting.
Janine: We call that privilege. [Sylvia and Keith laugh]
Austin: Oh, right, privilege. It’s privilege. Right, right, right, right, right.
Janine: It’s class, you know, it’s when you have money.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, I gotcha. Yeah.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: All right. 
Janine: My turn?
Austin: Your turn.
Janine: [sarcastic] Well, I think we probably have an idea of what I'm going to do, which is I'm going to whip out the fishing spear…I’m going to use the bow.
Austin: Now, wait a second. Yeah. You do have that fishing spear.
Janine: 9.
Austin: 9 and 17 damage that ignore’s Maxi’s Defense or resistance.
Keith: Sick.
Janine: Is 9 enough?
Austin: Yeah, because of being furious or enraged.
Janine: Oh, right.
Austin: Reduced the DEX. Yeah, 100%. 
Janine: And also, the thing happens again.
Austin: Which thing? 
Janine: The Cheap Shot.
Austin: The Cheap Shot, which…
Janine: When I hit a creature with an attack, if the attack [Austin: Yeah.] only targeted that creature and they are suffering from one or more status effects, you may have it deal extra damage equal to SL plus the number of status effects on the creature. And that doesn't cost me anything; it just happens.
Austin: What’s this—
Keith: That’s 19?
Austin: So it is, in fact, 19. What does the Cheap Shot, like, actually mean? What’s it look like when you do a Cheap Shot?
Janine: I think it is a thing of, like, specifically targeting to take advantage of it. Like, if someone is slow or whatever, [Austin: I see.] you kind of aim, like, for a leg or whatever. Like, you're trying to sort of antagonize whatever’s going on. So, for enraged, I think he’s maybe taking shots that are kind of fucking annoying.
Austin: Right. That makes sense.
Janine: Like, as much as he’s also trying to be deadly, he’s also just trying to be a pain in the ass. And like, having a dude, like, a few feet from you shooting you with arrows is already inherently kind of, like, shitty. [laughs quietly] 
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Janine: But I think the cheapness is fully just, like, not being above kicking someone when they're down a little bit, in whatever way they are down.
Austin: Yeah. And I think maybe, in this case, there is quite literally drops to one knee, and then you take the opportunity. You know, I think, like, as Efta and Zolfta are taking these attacks for you and distracting Maxi and stuff, there's a moment where she, like, drops to a knee and then gets to stand back up to try to, like, retake the stance. And it’s while she is down on the knee for a split second that you're able to do the last bit of damage, knocking her out. You did it.
Sylvia: Yay!
Austin: Phew!
Keith: Nice.
Austin: All right. Maxi is out. The whole crew is out. That means you can wake up.
Sylvia: Steal my shit back.
Austin: You can steal your shit back. You can. You can take your shit back.
Janine: Oh.
Austin: You would have lost it if you had lost this fight, but you've successfully recovered it. Good job. I really was starting to plan for what happens when you lose here. I really truly was.
Janine: So was I.
Keith: I still have full health.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah, I was just waiting for…when things started going bad for Antistrophe was when I was going to start preparing for us to lose.
Austin: Yeah. You never know, you know?
Sylvia: No, listen.
Keith: Yeah, one big hit and one bad roll, you know? The lowest I ever got was 2 below critical.
Austin: Sure.
Sylvia: Should I keep my HP at 0 or at 1, or what? How do we do this?
Janine: I was going to say. Do we, like, wake Caoimhe up, or…?
Austin: Yeah, Caoimhe comes to. Caoimhe comes to at half, at Crisis.
Sylvia: At Crisis.
Austin: Sorry, and what were you just asking, Caoimhe?
Sylvia: That’s what I was asking.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Was how much HP do I start at.
Austin: You come back in the next scene at Crisis, correct.
Janine: I want to say that, like, narratively, I think Brontë would go to Caoimhe, and I think Efta and Zolfta, who are tired— I think maybe Zolfta is, like, fixing her dress or something, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] and Efta is going through Maxi’s pockets. [Austin laughs quietly] To get Caoimhe’s thing back, yeah.
Austin: Producing, yeah, Caoimhe’s Reagent, yes.
Sylvia: Thank you so much.
Keith: Speaking of going through pockets.
Austin: Yeah. All three of them are knocked out. You're down here in this basement. Riant kind of puh, puh, phooh! And puffs itself back up.
Sylvia: Aww!
Janine: I thought you were having Riant spit on them. [laughter] 
Sylvia: Does that after.
Austin: Yeah. Spits little sparks on them.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You know, relights itself, so that he’s, you know, glowing again so you can see down here.
[music]
Loot [1:18:33]
Austin: And yeah, it is what I kind of described before, right? It is a packed—
Keith: Chests and bookshelves and…
Austin: Chests and bookshelves, I would say most of which is stuff that is not necessarily useful to you. It’s a lot of, like, you know, evidence, like I said. Books and stuff, which are maybe interesting if you had time to dig through them all, but some of them— your quick glance at the books is like, well, most of these are just, like, books that have been confiscated that aren't necessarily useful. Or records, lots of records.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Lots of, like, activities in this year or that year that are, like, very general and not, like, “Our Plan to Do Bad Things.”
Keith: Right.
Austin: Importantly, this is not their headquarters in the world. It’s just their headquarters in town, and they weren't even using it, right? But there are some things here for you. There are, in fact, a bunch of things here for you, as you pick over this place. One: there is an alchemist’s bag. I'll put these in our Discord. How’s that sound? Might be the easiest way to do this.
Sylvia: Yeah, that would be really handy. 
Austin: Oh, yeah, huge, yes. Janine, you've posted various lanternlike Pokémon. I agree.
Keith: Riant’s very Pokémon-like. I think we— I can't even remember. The thing that Chandelure starts as, the little candle guy there.
Janine: Litwick?
Keith: Litwick, yeah.
Sylvia: Litwick.
Keith: Riant’s very Litwicky. I think that we might have even said that before.
Austin: That makes sense. There are three accessories that you find. The Alchemist’s Bag, which says when you create a potion with the gadget’s alchemy skill, you may roll an additional d20. So you have, like, another option for what it is. You might remember how that works, Keith. It’s been a minute, but, you know.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: A Chrome Hexcloak. When you declare an offensive attack, spell, or skill but before you roll to hit, you may choose to change…this is supposed to say an attack’s elemental type.
Sylvia: Oh, okay. That might be good for you, Keith.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, either of those first two.
Austin: If you're willing to wear the hexcloak, it is. Yeah. And then an Archer’s Bracebelt, which is also an accessory. +4 Initiative when wielding only ranged weapons.
Keith: You know, I would be willing to take the Hexcloak one, if I could, you know, do a project to make it not look like a Hexcloak cloak.
Austin: [sighs] It would be tough. The way it works is by being the hexcloak.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: What does a project to make a cowboy hat not look like a cowboy hat do?
Sylvia: Take off the brim.
Janine: What would that project be? Take off the brim, ew. [Sylvia laughs quietly]
Austin: But that’s a great example, because then—
Keith: Take off the brim. Yeah.
Austin: But then, if the cowboy hat was giving you…
Janine: But then it’s not as good of a thing.
Austin: That’s exactly right. If I made a cowboy hat in this game, it would give you, like, plus shade.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: You would get bonuses when you're looking when it’s sunny out, and if you got rid of the brim, it wouldn't do that anymore.
Janine: Like, cow respect.
Sylvia: Oh. If you had plus shade, that insult would have worked better. 
Austin: [laughs] Ooh! Ayy!
Sylvia: Ayy.
Keith: I'll take the Alchemist’s Bag, and I'll keep my eye out for something that lets me…
Austin: Adjust the…yes.
Keith: Have a second element for when things resist physical.
Austin: And you don't have— you know, you could always sell these things.
Sylvia: That’s the thing.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Like, I'm going to take it, but I don't know if I'm going to use it, because it’s kind of redundant for me, but.
Austin: The Alchemist’s Bag you can sell for 500. The Chrome Hexcloak you can sell for 1000, and the Archer’s Bracebelt you can sell for 250.
Sylvia: Sick.
Austin: And then you also find three little gems. You probably find a number of other things that are like…let’s just say you probably find a flat…let me make sure I'm doing this number right. [typing] Oop. Oop. You find a flat 500 asta here, between a bunch of…you have to, like, tear up evidence bags to get this stuff, but you get it. And maybe you, you know, run their own pockets. You get another 500 asta that you can split between you.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: And you get three gems, and each gem is worth 500. There is a red gem, a green gem, and a blue gem.
Keith: I'll take the red gem.
Sylvia: [thoughtfully] I'll take the blue gem.
Janine: Eh, it’s just a— I'll just take a gem. Green, whatever.
Austin: Yeah, take the green gem. Write it down, please.
Janine: Gems are normal to me.
Austin: Gems are normal, these gems most of all.
Janine: [suspiciously] Hmm. I don't like that.
Sylvia: Oh, uh huh.
Janine: Why would you say that?
Keith: Huh. Can I study my gem? [Janine laughs quietly] 
Austin: Yeah, you can study your gem.
Keith: Okay. I'm going to study this gem.
Austin: Okay. Give me a Study Check.
Keith: I believe this is +3. I'm going to do that, and then I'm going to run and check. Ahh!
Austin: What’d you roll?
Keith: [pained] I rolled a 5 plus 1 plus 3 for 9.
Austin: Okay. There is…maybe, in the fullness of time, you will be able to sit down and— you know, this is an open-ended check. Oh, this is an open-ended check! This is an open-ended check. Don't you get a bonus on Study?
Keith: It’s already in there. 3. 
Austin: Oh, you're just assuming that it was 3. I see. I see, yeah. With that +3, yeah. At a 9, though, I think there is…so, you don't have magic anymore, but I think there is a— you hear a distant— you hear the sound of distant wind as you look into this gem and, like, hold it.
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: And for a moment, it sounds like you're looking at, like…it’s as if there's an image in there. There's almost like a magic eye thing happening that you're not able to line up your brain with, you know?
Sylvia: Would I be able to help with the Reagent, because this is a type of magic termination, or no?
Austin: No, because what the Reagent does is— I mean, what you— the Reagent is reacting in a way that is similar [Sylvia: Okay.] to how it reacted when you were at the weird— I don't know if you remember this. You went to this, like, strange oasis in the desert.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: In that this is magic from— this isn't Perpetua. This isn't the magic that you have ever trained in. Something is from a different era of Perpetua, a different cycle of Perpetua.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: It is celestial in some way, in the way that the Celestial Echoes are.
Keith: Could I ask that this be a Group Check and that they help me by letting me look at all of them together, maybe like lining them up to see if something happens when they're, you know…
Austin: You can do this as a Group Check by all of you investigating these gems together. But as far as you can tell, there's nothing. The green gem and the blue gem, there's nothing. Those are just fucking, those are just gems.
Keith: Those are just gems?
Austin: As far as you're concerned.
Sylvia: Damn, okay.
Austin: As far as, uh, you know. But if they're studying it…but you’d have to convince them to do that, you know?
Sylvia: I'm happy to study mine.
Austin: But I want to hear Keith say it.
Keith: Yeah.
(as Antistrophe): You two should take a look at these gems.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Okay.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Is something weird about your gems?
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I don't know. Let me find out.
Janine (as Brontë): Well, it’s not very vitreous, compared to most green gems.
Sylvia: [quietly] Oh my god.
Janine (as Brontë): It might be a low quality green topaz.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): It’s not very vitreous compared to most gems.
Austin: [laughs] You rolled a 4.
Sylvia: I rolled a 4. [Janine and Keith laugh]
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: What did I say?
Keith: Damn.
Austin: Yep.
Sylvia: I have—
Keith: Yours is really low vitreous.
Austin: And Brontë?
Janine: 7.
Austin: Yeah. 7. No bonuses from this. You are— at this moment, there is nothing happening with these gems that you can tell. Caoimhe and Brontë, with those rolls adding on. At this moment, as far as you can tell, those gems—
Sylvia: They're pretty.
Austin: Maybe they— they're very pretty. They are, you know, Caoimhe, your Reagent is saying they are magical. There's something happening with them, but there doesn't seem to be the spark of connection, whatever thing Keith is feeling here, whatever the thing that Antistrophe is feeling here. But Antistrophe, yeah, it’s not responding to you, and you have to wonder: is this because of how you've had magic scoured from your being? But who knows?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Because it’s because it’s a weird situation. You're tired. You were just in a fight. There is definitely something in there. Again, the sound of the wind. Was that the moon you saw? Hard to say.
Keith: All right, well, check back in with me the next time we make camp.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that’s what you get from down here. And there is the matter of the vault at the end of the…
Keith: V-A-L-T-E?
Austin: V-A-U-L-T. Not Valte like our fictional faction, our villainous faction.
Janine: Seagull war state.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Right, exactly. Please, they are unfortunately not seagulls. Our seagulls are somewhere else. They are birds. They are bats and doves is what they are.
Janine: Oh, right, right.
Austin: Yeah. The seagulls were mercenaries.
Janine: Bats are the seagulls of caves.
Austin: Bats are the seagulls of caves. Quotes.com.
Sylvia: Wow. Bats are the seagulls of caves.
Vault [1:27:20]
Austin: So, yeah, there is this vault at the far end of the room.
Keith: I gotta open a vault. I gotta open a vault.
Austin: Gotta open a vault.
Sylvia: Man, I'm not gonna stop you. I am gonna stand back, though.
Keith: How are we splitting up that 500? Are we going even steven?
Sylvia: We each get 500.
Austin: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Keith: Oh, we each get—? No, no, no. It was 500 total.
Austin: 500 between you.
Sylvia: It’s 500 total.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: OH! Hold on.
Keith: Which doesn't quite divide into three.
Janine: You two can just cut it in half. I don't need it. 
Keith: Wow, that’s very generous of you.
Austin: And you'll eat it! Yum, yum, yum. [Janine and Keith laugh]
Sylvia: You're very magnanimous. 
Austin: So yeah, there is this locked vault at the far end of the thing. I think it’s about— I'm describing it as small, but it’s, like, person-sized in height, the door is. It’s just not, like, a big wall. It’s not a tiny wall vault in the, like, “I'm keeping my jewelry in the wall vault behind the painting.”
Keith: Right, behind a painting? Yeah.
Austin: But nor is it the bank safe giant vault. It is like a door-sized vault door. You know, like a regular door that is locked.
Keith: Sure. Like a vault.
Austin: Like a vault.
Keith: Is there any obvious mechanism to open it?
Austin: There is a big spinny handle, and there is a code, like, wheel.
Keith: Code wheel?
Austin: With numbers, you know. There's, you know, a number wheel that you can put in a set of numbers.
Keith: Okay. Like at a lock.
Janine: Like locks have.
Austin: Like that type of lock has, yeah.
Janine: [laughing] It’s a vault like a vault with vault stuff on it. 
Austin: Yeah. [Sylvia laughs] Yeah, it has vault stuff on it.
Keith: Well, I heard code, so I was thinking like a number pad.
Austin: No number pad.
Keith: But no. It’s like a locker at school.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: If everyone remembers school.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember this. I remember that. 
Sylvia: I'm vaguely familiar with their work.
Austin: Yeah, like the spinner. It has like a spinner. That’s what those are called. Yes.
Keith: Mm-hmm. Well, I don't have a code, so.
Janine (as Brontë): You don't know how to break into vaults? You don't have, like, ear, you listen and stuff?
Keith (as Antistrophe): Ear. I have ear and listen and stuff. [Janine laughs] 
Janine (as Brontë): You've never broken into a vault before? That’s surprising to me for some reason.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Are you— I'm a teacher. [Austin and Janine laugh] Have you broken into a vault?
Janine (as Brontë): Uh, I mean, not like a big one.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Well, this one’s not that big.
Janine (as Brontë): Well, you never, like, went to your sister’s room and then, you know, wanted to just check out her jewelry or whatever, and it was in the, you know, behind the painting, and…you never did that as a kid? I mean, kids do weird things, but.
Keith (as Antistrophe): I don't…no. I don't think there was a lot of jewelry at play when I was a kid.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Yeah, not really a common thing either.
Janine (as Brontë): Well, I could give it a shot.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Yeah. Go for it.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Please.
Sylvia: I'm leaning against a shelf. [laughs quietly] 
Janine (as Brontë): It’s been a while. I'm probably a little rusty. I wouldn't…but, you know, I'll give it a shot. [Austin chuckles]
Keith: Rolling sleeves up. Cracking knuckles.
Austin: Yeah, what’s this? Are you just going to try to do it?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I guess.
Janine: Is this like a Tinker? Is this like a DEX + Insight?
Austin: I think this is a DEX + Insight, yeah. It’s hard. This is a 16 to just do it, you know?
Janine: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not doing it because I think I'll succeed.
Austin: Yeah, I get you. Is anyone helping?
Janine: I'm just doing it because I think it’s funny if he tries.
Sylvia: I'd be down to help.
Austin: All right.
Janine: This is not Adaire. This is… [laughs quietly] 
Austin: Wait, Adaire is here?
Janine: No, I said this is not Adaire.
Austin: I see, I see, I see.
Keith: What I'm doing instead is looking for a code is what I'm doing.
Austin: Interesting. So you're not helping.
Keith: I'll help. Fine. 
Sylvia: Yeah, I’m…
Keith: I don't even know what that means. How can I help? Tell me how I can help.
Janine: Maybe, I mean, if the vault is, like, big or of a size…well, no, the thing you would be listening to would be close to where the dial is.
Keith: It’s always of a size.
Janine: Maybe I'm asking, like, okay, can you, like, listen over at this side, because there might be a thunk, and I want to know if there's a thunk.
Keith: Or a click. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, I'll listen for thunks.
Sylvia: Are we each taking a side? Is that how we're helping?
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: Why not?
Austin: Yeah, sure. Yeah, okay. So, give me your support rolls first.
Sylvia: Is this also DEX + Insight?
Austin: It is DEX and Insight. Yeah, it is. I believe what we've learned is that in teamwork rolls, you should match the—
Sylvia: 5.
Austin: Okay, well, that doesn't get you there.
Sylvia: Doesn't matter.
Keith: 10.
Austin: All right, +1.
Janine: You also just woke up from being unconscious, so like, you're a little…
Austin: That is true.
Sylvia: Yeah. Oh, I get 2 Fabula Points because of that, right?
Austin: You do. Yeah, make sure you take those.
Sylvia: Okay, cool. I've written that down now.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: So am I doing DEX + Insight + 1 or something?
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Or, wait, is it plus 1 or is it plus the bond that I have with—? Or is that the different one?
Keith: Oh, yeah.
Austin: It’s +1 and the bond. It’s +1 and the bond that you have.
Janine: Oh, so it’s +3?
Keith: So 3. 
Austin: +3.
Keith: That’s amazing.
Janine: Whoa.
Austin: That’s pretty good. That makes a 16 way more doable.
Janine: Probably still not going to happen, but who knows? It’s a 13. Okay, well.
Austin: So it’s not— you don't have the— but now you could— but you're out of Fabula Points. 
Janine: Hang on, what’s the—?
Austin: You don't have Fabula Points, huh?
Janine: Wait, am I? I thought I had one left.
Keith: You shouldn't be, because you haven't done one today and we started the session.
Austin: Oh, then yeah. Then yeah, then you do have one left. What did you actually roll here? You rolled a 6 and a 4.
Sylvia: A 6 and a 4.
Keith: 6 and a 4. One of those should be a d10.
Austin: It is.
Sylvia: The 6 is, though.
Austin: The 6 is of a d10.
Janine: Yeah…
Austin: So it’s a little risky.
Janine: I'm not sure the Fabula Point would really get us anywhere here.
Austin: Yeah. It’s so close, but it’s not quite there.
Keith: You could Fabula Point both.
Janine: How many Fabula Points do we need before we get the thing where you get a lot of Fabula or you get whatever? You know, when you spend a bunch?
Keith: We got one level already today.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, you've already spent three between the three of you, which is enough to get one more XP.
Janine: Okay. But if I spend it now and we stop, I would get one back anyway.
Austin: That’s correct.
Keith: Right. It’s free.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Janine: So it would be free.
Austin: It’s free real estate. Yeah.
Janine: Functionally.
Austin: Functionally.
Janine: All right, fuck it. I'm going to reroll the d8.
Austin: All right. Roll a d8.
Janine: And what am I—?
Keith: You could reroll both if you want.
Janine: That’s risky. Although I guess 6 out of 10 is, like, kind of…
Keith: I think weirdly it’s the same amount of risk, basically.
Janine: Yeah, fuck it. I'm going to do the whole thing over. It’s free anyway.
Austin: It’s free anyway. Fuck it.
Keith: It’s free anyway.
Sylvia: Free anyway.
Janine: I'm literally losing nothing.
Austin: You're losing nothing.
Keith: Yeah, fuck it.
Sylvia: Damn, life’s so short.
Janine: What am I relying on here?
Austin: Great question.
Janine: I'm going to say this is relying on my Identity as a dissipated scion, literally.
Austin: I would say no, except you told a literal story [laughing] about breaking into your sister’s jewelry stuff, so. 
Janine: Yeah, I was literally talking about, like, breaking into my sister’s wall vault as my experience for this, so.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: Listen.
Keith: This is normal courtly intrigue stuff.
Austin: Apparently.
Janine: If I wasn't a dissipated scion, it would be a different matter.
Austin: That’s exactly right. Yeah, but you don't have your own jewelry vault.
Janine: Yeah. [cross] Well, I do, but it’s probably not as good.
Austin: [cross] Well, maybe you have a smaller one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: Yeah. You know, it’s sibling stuff.
Keith: Only the top fives get nice vaults for their jewelry.
Janine: Uh, I have to declare this.
Keith: [laughs] Upper crust theft.
Austin: Upper crust theft.
Janine: All right. Tinker.
Sylvia: Great classic punk album. [Austin chuckles]
Janine: +3. Let’s go. 9. I did worse. [laughs] 
Austin: That’s a 9. That’s worse. [Keith laughs] 
Sylvia: Well.
Austin: That’s a little worse, unfortunately. Oh, that’s a shame.
Keith: Yeah. 
Austin: Yeah, you—
Keith: The 6 became a 1, and the 4 only became a 5, so.
Austin: That’s right, yeah. Not great. Yeah, it’s going to be hard to just earball this.
Janine: Yeah, it is a Hexcloak vault.
Austin: That’s right.
Janine: Not a vault for wusses. 
Austin: [laughs] That’s right.
Keith: Look, I spent a lot of time in a magic university. They have secret rooms.
Austin: They do.
Keith: They have vaults. They have traps. They have wards. And I know where people like to keep that stuff, so I would like to roll to look in the kinds of places that people keep codes [Austin: Yeah.] or little notes that say, [Austin: Yeah.] “Hey, don't leave the code to the safe out!”
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: “We all know that it’s 76-14-12. Don't leave that stuff lying around.”
Sylvia: Yeah. 
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: That’s what I'm looking for.
Austin: Give me a roll.
Keith: What do we think that is? Is that Study? Is that…?
Austin: That’s Study. That’s Study.
Sylvia: You're looking for something.
Austin: Yeah, you're looking around.
Janine: Or Recall, but that’s the same roll.
Austin: Hey, look at that, 14. I was going to say it’s a 13 difficulty to find this.
Sylvia: Let’s go!
Austin: You go over the whole basement. You look over everybody. You check Maxi’s pockets: nothing. You check Hortensius’s pockets: nothing. You check Mercurion’s pockets: nothing. But then, just looking at Mercurion, you're consumed briefly with a moment of—I don't know if it’s disgust or rage, or. You remember how shitty they were to you behind the desk upstairs, the reception desk.
Keith: Mm-hmm. And I had the sense that they were in charge here too.
Austin: You do, 100%. You go up to the reception desk, and there it is, in the third drawer. It’s a locked drawer, but it’s like, cheap. It’s just, it’s a reception desk drawer.
Janine: Hit it, yeah.
Keith: Right.
Austin: You just fucking break that shit open. 
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And there, you know, carefully hidden under a bunch of receipts and other paperwork, is a tiny note, is a tiny piece of paper that just has 72-16-12 written on it. You're pretty sure that's what a safe— you know that. You head down there.
Keith: Yeah. Remember school?
Austin: Remember school?
Sylvia: This guy remembers school. He was a teacher.
Austin: That’s right. I keep hearing that. [Keith chuckles] And you open up the vault.
[“The Painting Of Lumai” by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
Austin: Which is empty but for one thing on the wall.
Keith: A painting?
Austin: A painting.
Keith: Fuck yeah!
Austin: A painting of Lumai, the Gleaming Fortress. A massive city-sized tiered pyramid or ziggurat bathed in a single broad beam of light from above. Each step of that kind of five tier pyramid has whole city blocks built on it, and the light feels like it is— you know, there is no light source in this room; there is just this painting, and it is bringing light to the whole vault. As you open the door, that light bathes out or kind of spreads out into the basement, lighting it like a spotlight coming out of the vault. This is—you know instantly—a magical painting that can bring you onto what we've called the Dragon’s Path or the Dragon’s Way, the Dragon’s Route, the Ether Zone. We have a bunch of names on it.
Sylvia: We fought Nappa, and now we have to run on Snake Way.
Austin: You have to run on Snake Way, exactly. Uh huh. There it is. This is the way in and out that they have taken.
Keith: Damn. 
(as Antistrophe): Have you two done the paintings before?
[song ends]
Janine (as Brontë): I've sat for one.
Sylvia: That’s a good question, actually.
Austin: Great question. 
Sylvia: Would that be a standard Hexcloak thing, or would it be only reserved—
Austin: No.
Sylvia: Yeah, I don't think I have.
Austin: I am not certain that this system of travel is well known on the eastern continent. We discovered it on the western continent in our worldbuilding game, in our Cartograph game.
Sylvia: You're right.
Keith: Mm.
Austin: And it was not a thing that our characters knew intimately, despite being, like, magically inclined. And so I think it’s fairly new to the eastern continent, and I think, Keith, you are a teacher. 
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You know this stuff. You recognize what this is instantly.
Keith: And hey, one of the heroes of the Hundred Burroughs [Austin: That’s right.] came back and told everyone about it.
Austin: That’s right. So I think you're able to recognize it, especially with the magical Reagent reacting such as it is, being like, “That’s a magical painting.”
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And I think, again, it’s one of— and likewise, Brontë, you're from there, so you probably know what this is.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: But I don't know that you have ever done it, because you're rich.
Janine: No, I don't imagine I've ever done it, 'cause I…yeah, I think it’s a thing where, like, I'm aware of it. I joked that, like, I sat for one, but I wonder if that’s [Austin: Right.] true of, like, someone painted— like, I've seen it done in terms of someone painting somewhere in Grande Sonnerie [Austin: Right.] that was relevant to the family or whatever. Like, maybe that’s the royal family secret, like, “oh, we're getting overthrown, time to…” you know?
Austin: Yes. [chuckles] Time to run through the painting? Yeah.
Janine: There's like a painting, and when the kids are old enough to be walking around on their own, you know, mom takes them downstairs and is like, “Okay, if anyone ever knocks on the door with spears, you come down here.” 
Austin: [laughs] That’s right. And you walk through the painting.
Janine: “You go in the painting.” [laughs quietly] Yeah.
Austin: “And remember, whatever you do…” Oh, what’s the…?
Keith: Ignore the beckonings.
Austin: Ignore the beckonings. That’s right, Keith.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yes. Ignore the beckonings. So, yeah. Here it is.
Janine: They're saying that all the time to the kids anyway, though. Painting or no painting.
Austin: [laughs quietly] That’s right. That’s part of being a good noble.
Janine: You've gotta ignore the beckonings.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. Nevertheless, you've become scintillating and pleasure-bound, Brontë, so.
Janine: Mm-hmm. [Keith laughs]
Austin: The beckonings, they do be beckoning.
Janine: The beckonings are coming from within.
Austin: [laughs] The beckonings are coming from within.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. So, there it is. What do you do?
Keith: Damn. You know what’s funny about now we're in mole town?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: That “ignore the beckonings” episode is the one where we talked about what if an armadillo was a dragon.
Austin: We did. That’s correct, yeah.
Sylvia: Whoa.
Keith: Damn.
Austin: It’s true. And I wrote down, “dragon mole.”
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: [quietly] Wow.
Austin: Do you step into the painting?
Keith: I make sure that we're all clear about the beckonings.
Austin: Explain this.
Keith: This is serious.
Austin: ‘Cause they don't know about the beckonings. 
Keith: That’s what I'm saying.
Austin: I mean, sorry, Brontë does, but.
Keith: Right.
Janine: Yeah. Brontë is rolling his eyes at the emphasis.
Austin: What is your explanation?
Keith (as Antistrophe): They are going to tell you. It’s going to be, like, the coolest shit you've ever seen. They're going to say, you know, “It’s this way. It’s this way. Look at this stuff. Come here. Check it out.” Do not listen to them! It’s not that they're lying. It’s that they're probably lying. Sometimes you go down the path, and it’s the best thing you've ever seen. You know what I mean? But then the next time, you say, “Well, it wasn't that bad,” and then you're fucked. Forever, you're fucked. You're in a void. You're done. Ignore the beckonings.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Okay. Listen, man. I'm professionally trained. I can ignore some beckonings.
Janine (as Brontë): [sighs] You sound like my aunt.
Keith (as Antistrophe): There's been a lot of professionally trained people that did not ignore the beckonings, because they said, “I'm professionally trained. I can ignore the beckonings.”
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Okay, well, I'll do my best? Listen, if you see me being beckoned, tackle me. I give you permission.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Okay. All right.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): But I'm not going to heed any beckonings. Don't you worry.
Janine: Suddenly Brontë is paying a little bit more attention. Not a lot more, but. [Sylvia laughs]
Austin: God.
Sylvia: Great. Good.
Austin: There's a real, uh…
Sylvia: I'm not getting beckoned, no matter what, now.
Austin: How do I not have this on deck immediately? There's a real machine elves, you know, thing with the “ignore the beckonings,” isn't there?
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Keith: Oh, “do not give into astonishment”?
Austin: “Do not give into astonishment,” of course. Yeah. Of course, literally.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That’s where it’s from, yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: [chuckles] All right.
Keith: What’s that guy’s name?
Austin: Terrance McKenna. Terrance McKenna. Yeah.
Keith: Terrance McKenna, yeah, McKenna.
Austin: Yeah. People should— if you have not heard me recite the Terrance McKenna machine elves thing, go ahead and do a search for “Austin Walker machine elves.”
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: All right.
Keith: That’s great. My friends in high school we're very Terrance McKenna guys.
Austin: I can see that. [Sylvia laughs quietly]
Keith: And so hearing that pop up on Waypoint was very funny.
Austin: Good times. Real unhinged energy. I think it was a Thanksgiving episode. Thanksgiving episodes of podcasts are always very fun, because everyone is just, like, itchy, you know? to, like, leave.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And so everything’s just a little unhinged in a good way. In any case, are you heading into the painting and out of Cenn, City of Iron Chains?
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I feel like it’s time, right, guys? I'm down to. As long as we're clear. I feel like I'm pretty clear on the beckonings issue.
Keith (as Antistrophe): I'm ready to go.
Janine (as Brontë): Do we want to, like, tie those other people up, or are we just…?
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Oh, that’s a good idea. [Austin laughs]
Keith (as Antistrophe): What are they going to do?
Janine (as Brontë): Follow us?
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I don't know, but…
Janine (as Brontë): Follow us.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Yep.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Well, yeah, well then they'll untie themselves and then follow us.
Janine (as Brontë): Okay, but you see how there's an extra step there.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Okay. It’s fine. I agree.
Sylvia: I'm tying. I'm already— I'm going for this already.
Janine: Can we tie them up and then maybe, like, put them…is there, like, a nice bolt we could put beside them [Austin: Oh.] in case Castine figures something out and wants to—? I don't know. I mean, he’s busy, but.
Austin: That’s very funny.
Sylvia: Ohh.
Janine: But it’s, you know, just leaving the door open.
Sylvia: That’s not a bad idea, though.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Looking for, like, the purest metal in the building.
Austin: The purest metal you can find.
Keith: Yeah, I lug over some cast iron. 
Austin: There's something, like, you found something inside of a trunk, you know? Carefully put away so that, you know, he couldn't just jump into it inside of the trunk and see everything. Yeah.
Janine: Did they, like, put something on it? Like…I was going to say butter. [Janine and Sylvia laugh]
Austin: This is my buttered up cast iron rod. Yeah, I got it.
Janine: Like, I don't know, maybe rust it up or something.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. Sure. You clean it off. You put it in place.
Sylvia: Butter it up. [Janine laughs]
Austin: You butter it up. Butter it up. Shout it out.
Janine: [gasps] That's what they were getting all the ice cream for!
Austin: [laughs] That’s what they were getting all the ice cream for. Oh lord. [Keith laughs]
Janine: You put the ice cream on the metal, and it dries and gets all sticky on there.
Austin: It gets all sticky. Castine can't come look.
Sylvia: Okay, would signalling to the…the white hat guys?
Austin: The White Hat Boys? Yeah, uh huh.
Sylvia: That’s their name? Okay, 'cause I almost just called them the white boys. [Austin and Janine laugh]
Austin: Here come the white boys!
Sylvia: The white boys have arrived.
Austin: The white boys have arrived. [Sylvia and Keith laugh]
Sylvia: Would we be able to signal to them, so they know the deal?
Austin: I gotta tell you, I don't think anyone is following y'all down here.
Sylvia: No, I know that, but like…
Austin: You're saying can you send word out to the… [laughing] to the white boys. To the White Hats.
Keith: Do we have our dog? Is the dog friend waiting in the tunnel?
Austin: The dog friend is not with you, no.
Sylvia: No. I meant, like…
Keith: No, not with us, but outside.
Sylvia: We would have to go outside to do this.
Austin: You would have to go, which is fine if you want to go do that.
Sylvia: That is what I'm saying.
Austin: You could send word to the White Hats. What are you sending? And, like, back to the Dessert Boys. What are you saying?
Sylvia: I think the main thing I want them to do is let the Castine people know about…
Austin: Yes, the remaining…
Sylvia: The remaining Hexcloaks and also the fact that Castine would be able to go there at will.
Austin: Okay. Yes. Yes. Assuming the dome was down and Castine would have the focus in time.
Sylvia: Would have the time.
Austin: Yeah, gotcha. Okay. Word is sent. They know. Are you prepared to step through the painting?
Keith: Yes.
Sylvia: I mean, yeah.
Austin: One foot after another, you head in.
Keith: Ooh! What is the painting of? Did we say?
Austin: Yeah, we did. Lumai.
Keith: Lumai, right. Okay, got it.
Austin: It is of the City of Light, yeah. With the big…
Janine: Hit me with those beckonings.
Austin: Yeah, and I guess I should say specifically. Lumai is built into this pyramid in a way that looks a lot like the player or watcher would know the Hanging Gardens of Rillspur where Jack’s character, Elena, is from. 
Janine: Oh.
Austin: And even if you take a look over on the world map, you'll see that there is in fact a similar kind of tiered pyramid icon over Lumai, Milsource, Duriel the Splintered Colosseum where the Holy Protectorate on the western continent is, and then the Hanging Garden of Rillspur, and then in the middle of the unnamed continent to the south. So, there is some overlap between these things architecturally.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And so, yeah, there it is.
Keith: Milsource is where Sourcerot starts, right?
Austin: That’s is where it—
Keith: All right.
Austin: That’s why it’s caused Sourcerot.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: The theory is that’s where it started. But also that it, like, it started there forever ago, eons ago.
Keith: Right.
Austin: And so, like, is it really that, or is this something else? Who could say.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Time will tell. Step into the painting. You are met by bright purple pink light, and we wrap for today. Everybody take 1 XP immediately for spending Fabula Points.
Keith: Level up.
Austin: Which levels up, and then another 5. We should do your roll, Keith.
Keith: Yes, we should do my roll. Although I guess that means that I have to level up.
Austin: Yeah. You level up immediately. Yeah.
Keith: I'll level up immediately, because I need that level for rolling.
Austin: This roll is under an 11 now.
Keith: Is it 2d20? What is it?
Austin: I don't know. It’s your thing. [Sylvia laughs quietly]
Keith: Roll 2d20.
Austin: Yeah. Okay.
Keith: Nope, I'm typing “/roll” into Discord. That’s wrong. [Austin laughs]
Sylvia: Wow.
Janine: For now.
Austin: For now, yeah.
Keith: For now. OHH! [laughs]
Austin: That’s a 7! 
Keith: Two in a row!
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: As you step into the painting, another crack is added to your shield. Ugh, you're on a roll now, buddy.
Keith: Ugh. [Sylvia sighs] Ugh.
Austin: So that’s 2 of 10? 2 of…
Keith: 2 of 9.
Austin: 2 of 9! Okay. Great.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Is that good?
Keith: Pretty sure.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I think it’s neutral. I think it’s totally neutral.
Sylvia: All right. 
Keith: Let’s see. “When your Ruin advances for the ninth time—” okay, so I guess it’s— yeah, it starts at zero.
Austin: It starts at zero. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: “You lose this Quirk and your Ruin comes true.”
Janine: I also have to do a little roll.
Austin: Oh, yeah? Oh, you do!
Janine: I have to do the girls roll.
Austin: The girls, yeah. [someone snorts, Janine laughs quietly] That doesn't bring them under 10, does it?
Janine: No, it doesn't.
Austin: Damn.
Keith: No.
Janine: Which is fair. I like it.
Keith: That’s rough.
Austin: That is fun, yeah. They are exhausted.
Janine: It’s a rare case where, yeah, the cost, the restriction is fun narratively.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Janine: Because it’s two girls who are stuck with him, [laughs quietly] and that’s funny.
Austin: [laughs quietly] That’s right. It is funny.
[“Perpetua” by Jack de Quidt plays]