Perpetua 48: Escape from the Rumbling Castle! 08
Transcriber: robotchangeling
Recap        1
Conflict Continues        3
Round Two        3
Round Three [0:36:50]        41
Round Four [1:11:03]        79
On the Airship [1:36:50]        108
Vignettes and Ruinbringer [2:04:28]        141
Parting [2:12:54]        151
Recap
Jack: I think we were thinking about, after the horror with the gem, I think we were thinking about reconvening with our comrades.
[“The Castle Eschatonica” by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
Jack: So that might look like pushing out of this kind of launch pad, this sort of ramshackle launch pad, [Sylvia: Yeah.] through the door to our west.
Austin: Sure. That door opens up. That’s not a problem. There's nothing kind of stopping you from doing that. It connects to a long hallway. A fight happened here. You see members of both of the previously described kind of churches from the world of Armidirge—The Creed of Oracles and the Windborne Church—dead on the ground. Someone came through here and fought a bunch of people and crushed them, and you suspect it was the being who just destroyed that gem and flew away. 
Jack (as Elena): Oh my god. That’s our way out.
Janine (as Brontë): I'm glad they didn't get blown up.
Jack (as Elena): Do you think they can hear us?
Janine (as Brontë): No.
Jack (as Elena): Jonathan!
Austin: Jonathan, you hear, just very very very distantly, a sort of familiar voice.
Darcy (as Jonathan): Y'all hear that?
Art (as Nicky): Hmm?
Keith (as Antistrophe): Huh? What?
Ali (as Veile): [distantly] Hey! We're over here!
Art (as Nicky): Oh, yeah.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Oh. Yeah, I heard a ghostly cry. Is this a haunted ship?
Darcy (as Jonathan): Oh no. 
Austin: As this is happening, as you're calling back and forth to each other, the group of Oracle folks who I mentioned last time begin to approach. They are still a little bit aways, but they are coming closer and closer. Sarithe, the Shieldmaiden who seems to be the leader of this group, is at the forefront, and they are marching closer.
(as Sarithe): Stand down and turn this vehicle over to us.
Art (as Nicky): No.
Darcy (as Jonathan): Aw, I was gonna invite you for lunch and then say no, polite-like. But you want lunch?
Austin: The chef goes,
(as Fares): She already ate.
Darcy (as Jonathan): Oh, did you burn that too?
Austin (as Fares): [angrily] Oooh. [Keith chuckles] 
Austin: People on the eastern side, you can see that this group of soldiers is boarding the airship.
Jack (as Elena): Wow, it looks like they're really in it. Could you shoot them, Brontë? I mean, how far can you shoot?
Janine (as Brontë): I'm pretty good at shooting.
Austin: With the arrow having slammed into the side of Sarithe, Shieldmaiden, I think she says something that for Jonathan and Nicky actually means something, which is,
(as Sarithe): I see you don't want to fight honorably.
Conflict Continues
Round Two
Austin: And the ship has begun to move over towards your friends. I think it’s close enough now that, if they wanted to, they could spend their actions this round jumping aboard the ship.
Art: Oh, I hope they do.
Austin: Me too.
Keith: I also hope that, yeah. I mean, I guess Brontë doesn't need to.
Austin: True.
Art: Yeah, maybe Brontë should move further away. [someone chuckles] 
Jack: No, it’s easier. Uh…no, it would be easier still for Brontë to shoot people on the ship, right, Janine?
Austin: Yes.
Art: I'm not an expert in this. I was just…
Keith: I thought it was the same attack roll either way.
Janine: Yeah, it would be easier for me to shoot in circumstances where I don't have to spend one of my and then one of someone else’s Fabula Points, yes. [Austin, Ali, and Jack laugh]
Keith: Oh, yeah, yeah, fair. Sure, fair.
Ali: I think what’s important is we have moves. Look at us having moves in this combat.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: I know. It’s very exciting.
Austin: It’s a lot more even now. They are still going first. We are going to keep the previously established Initiative, unfortunately, and we're going to just get a little follow-up from our Hovering Pyroclastic here, who is going to target… Let’s roll 2d3. Again, 1 is Nicky; 2 is Antistrophe; 3 is Jonathan. [chuckles] That was Antistrophe twice, so let’s just roll one more. There we go. It is going to be Antistrophe and Jonathan. Being very kind to Nicky, hanging on the side of the ship. [Jack chuckles]
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And this time, fire damage is going to come out. That is a 14. Does that hit?
Keith: Actually, it doesn't matter.
Austin: Ooh. Why’s that?
Keith: Because I have the move Protect.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: “When another creature is threatened by an attack, spell, or other danger, you may take their place. Any checks that are part of the danger will be performed against you. You may declare the use of this skill before or after the checks have been made.”
Austin: Love it.
Keith: “If the danger already affected you, it affects you twice. Resolve both instances separately. You cannot protect multiple creatures from the same danger. If you use this skill during a Conflict, you cannot use it again until the start of your next turn.” Which means that this 14, which would have hit Jonathan, [Austin: Yes.] would not hit me at 15.
Austin: I love it.
Keith: So it does no damage to either of us. 
Austin: Is this now your action for the turn?
Keith: I believe that it is a thing that I can do, and the next— I don't know. 
Darcy: I think it’s a reaction thing.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: I thought it was a reaction and that I will still get my turn the next turn. I think.
Austin: That’s great.
Darcy: That is my understanding as well.
Austin: Yeah.
Darcy: But you can't use it more than once per turn, so that’s how it…
Austin: That’s right. Yes, okay.
Keith: Right. So, yeah, yeah. So then once it gets back around to me, I will take my turn as normal, and then I can use Protect again, I believe.
Austin: Yeah, I don't see anything here that says it— It doesn't say “use an action” or anything like that, so, yeah.
Keith: Right. Exactly.
Austin: All right. It is your turn then. Yeah, great move.
Keith: Awesome. Yep. That was my new trick up my sleeve that I was very excited about.
Austin: That’s a pretty good trick. Yeah.
Keith: It’s a pretty good trick as the guy who can't get hit [Austin: Mm-hmm.] to take someone else’s place.
Austin: But yeah, so anyway, sorry, what’s this look like as the fire comes roaring down from Ignition?
Keith: Oh. I think that it looks awesome.
Austin: Oh. Okay. [Art and Darcy laugh]
Sylvia: Hell yeah, man.
Keith: I think that there's a speed to it that is unusual for Antistrophe, like I've read where this fire is going and have been able to just put myself in front of it, both shields together like a massive wall, [Austin: Yeah.] and just all of the fire just, you know, kind of smashes into and billows up around, completely shielding both of us, maybe jutting off to the sides.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: But both of us taking, you know, no damage from it.
Austin: I love it. Your turns.
Keith: Does anybody have something specific?
Austin: I'll note that the new people have to spend their turn getting on the ship, [Ali: Oh.] and they have to spend their turn, and then they get on the ship, which means they become a target once they're on the ship.
Keith: So they should go after most of the attacking has been done.
Sylvia: I assumed as much, yeah, that you guys would go.
Keith: Yeah, for sure.
Sylvia: The people already on the ship would go first, and then we can go after.
Jack: We'll join.
Art: I sort of think I should also go toward the end, because I'm sort of doing the same thing.
Darcy: I mean, I can go next, because I can try to knock the flying guy out of the sky.
Keith: That would be great.
Art: That would be great, yeah.
Keith: If you can knock the flying guy out of the sky, that would be great.
Darcy: Sure.
Austin: How are you doing that?
Darcy: I'm going to use one of my Magispheres to cast the Ventus spell.
Austin: Ooh. Which it does that on an Opportunity, right?
Darcy: Uh, no, I don't think so. Hold on. “You summon the power of the winds against your enemy. Each target hit by this spell suffers HR plus 15 air damage.” Oh, Opportunity.
Austin: Yeah.
Darcy: “Each flying target hit by this spell is forced to land immediately. Mana is 10 times target.”
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: So it only makes them land on a crit?
Austin: On a crit. That’s correct, yeah.
Darcy: Ohhh.
Austin: Or, again, if you knock them into…
Keith: I just learned this, Darcy,[1] last turn, about what Opportunity means, [Darcy: Mm.] because one of my Agonies had an Opportunity, and I thought it was an “any time I want” kind of opportunity.
Austin: Nope. Opportunities are from crits, yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Darcy: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: And then, as a reminder, you could also ground them by getting them to Crisis, to Crisis in HP.
Darcy: Sure. Well, then maybe I'll just shoot ‘em, then.
Austin: I'll remind you that they do all have the elemental resistances in place, so. And you know that, [Keith: Yeah.] so I'm happy to say it again.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Keith: It was air, fire, wind, and earth. Right?
Austin: Air, earth, fire, and ice.
Keith: And ice. Okay.
Darcy: So either I think I can shoot this guy, or if anyone wants to do double turn, I can cast Acceleration on them.
Keith: So, because it’s harder for us to all hit Jos, maybe we should do Art’s initial thing of focusing on Sarithe, and so either you could attack Sarithe or cast it on me and I could double attack.
Darcy: Mm. Then, I think in that case, then I would attack her, because [Keith: Okay, yeah.] then we could see if new weapon types do anything to her.
Keith: Oh, yeah. Great idea. Perfect.
Darcy: Let’s see. So, I could either attack with my firearm [cross] or my hammer, which I think is heavy. 
Keith: [cross] Oh, don't you—
Darcy: Sorry, go ahead?
Keith: Oh, it’s heavy. Oh, okay, great. Yeah, heavy was the other one beside maul, flail, that I thought might have done something. You should definitely do the hammer.
Darcy: Mm. Okay.
Keith: What was the other type?
Darcy: Ooh. The hammer does do bolt damage though, so that could be tricky.
Keith: What was the other weapon type?
Darcy: It’s a firearm.
Keith: Firearm versus armor.
Austin: Which do you have equipped right now?
Darcy: Um, let’s see. That is a…
Keith: It’s, I guess, whatever you used in—
Austin: Don't you have your switchedge? Or switchsledge, right?
Darcy: Mm-hmm. It does say, during a Conflict scene, you can equip the other form whenever you want.
Austin: Oh, right. That’s like the special thing with the transforming weapons, right?
Darcy: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Okay. Gotcha.
Darcy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I had to double check, [Austin: Yeah.] because I was like, “wait.” [laughs] I haven't thought about that in a long time. I'm going to try using my firearm, because that’s just physical, and it gets a +2 bonus to accuracy.
Austin: All right. Difficulty is 8 to shoot. It’s not targeting Magic Defense; it’s targeting regular Defense, right?
Darcy: Physical Defense, yeah.
Austin: Yep. Difficulty is 8.
Keith: Holy shit.
Austin: Well, that’s a 21.
Keith: 21! [Darcy chuckles]
Austin: That’s a 21.
Keith: It hits, for sure.
Austin: Read me anything else special it does?
Darcy: Uh, no.
Austin: No, you won't read it to me?
Darcy: Nothing else special.
Austin: It just gives you—
Darcy: No, it doesn't do anything else special.
Austin: It doesn't give you better Defense or something, because it’s that mode, right?
Darcy: Right, because one of the traits is it has a shield attached to it.
Austin: Right.
Darcy: So I get treated as having a shield and it gives me +2.
Janine: It’s like the rifle that that puppet lady has in Warframe.
Austin: It is like that. Yes.
Darcy: Oh, it is like that.
Austin: Yeah, 21’s going to hit. I'll just put that one out there. I don't think that that’s too surprising. What might be more surprising is that you have now learned what’s up with her and her special Armidirgey way of fighting. She has what's called a Pressure Gauge. Let me just read from her Pressure Gauge.
Darcy: [sighs] She’s going to Limit Burst me, bro.
Austin: It’s actually not that. She has the Sekiro stamina system. She has a Pressure Clock. When she isn't staggered and loses Hit Points due to damage of a type she is vulnerable to—which means, yes, heavy weapon is one of those. Or, sorry, firearm is one of those. That’s what this is, right? Firearm.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Austin: She does not lose twice the amount of Hit Points as normal. Instead, the Pressure Clock fills by one section, or by two sections if the Hit Point loss they suffer is equal or higher than 10 plus half their level. You did 15 damage. She is level 10, so it is 15. That is what you needed to do, so in fact, this clock ticks twice. If you can fill this clock, she gets Staggered and suffers a bunch of penalties that we will discuss if you can stagger her.
Keith: Sick.
Ali: Mm.
Austin: You do normal damage otherwise.
Keith: And so did that tick up earlier too, because Brontë did 20, and then I did 24 or whatever?
Austin: No, because you didn't hit her with anything she was weak to.
Keith: Oh, okay. It doesn't tick at all with regular stuff.
Austin: That’s right. That’s correct. 
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Yep. What’s this look like, Jonathan?
Darcy: Hooo… I think it’s right as Antistrophe’s shields break apart, it’s Jonathan swinging the gun down, like, really heavily and thunking it onto the ground and just unloading.
Austin: Yeah.
Darcy: Yeah. Just started blasting.
Austin: Just started blasting. Love it. You know, she is blocking the bullets, the rounds that are coming in, with her shield, but they are driving her back further and further. And now it’s their turn, and the evil chef— I actually don't think he’s evil. Let me look at his actual stats. Let me look at his actual Traits. Eh, yeah. I don't think he’s— These aren't— Evil is not one of them.
Darcy: Mm.
Austin: But Adaptable is. And is going to run over to where Nicky is hanging on by a thread and is going to just try to, like, drop you into the abyss. I think he’s doing a contested check against you, a thing we don't do that much of either. This is a— I guess it’s an Objective roll? Because, again, their Objective is to take the ship back, and he sees a way of doing that. Let’s read from the contested check thing, because again, we somehow don't do that that often here. 
Opposed Checks: “This special kind of Attribute Check is the fastest way to determine the outcome of a competition between characters, such as a race, a chase or a debate. The character taking part in the Opposed Check performs the same Attribute Check, with no Difficulty Level: whoever gets the higher result is the winner. In the case of a draw, the characters that rolled the same result simply repeat the Check until one of them emerges victorious. During Opposed Checks, fumbles are the lowest possible result and critical successes are the highest possible result. They generate opportunities as normal; if two or more characters roll a fumble or a critical success, these count as a draw and the Checks should be repeated.” I think this is a Might + Might check. This motherfucker is just trying to toss you off the ship all the way.
Janine: This is the real Iron Chef.
Keith: Yikes.
Austin: That’s right. So yeah, this is Might + Might. Plug it in. [typing] Tossing Nicky off board. Tell me when you're ready to roll.
Art: Okay.
Austin: Three, two, one, roll. Oh no. Fares, Devout Chef, got a 12. Uncle Nicky got an 8.
Art: I can't even… I can't do anything about it, because I'm weak. I'm 6 6, so I can't…
Austin: I mean, you could crit, but yeah, I see. Or you could get up to a 12 and then Bond it higher.
Art: So that would be 2 Fabula Points?
Austin: You know? It’s—
Art: That’s 2 Fabula Points and a 1 in, like…it’s not…
Austin: It’s not a good, yeah.
Art: A 1 in 36?
Austin: Yeah, it’s a pretty hard one. You know, I think one question here is can people help you here.
Keith: Is there a way to use a Fabula Point to alter the story?
Austin: Yes, but not in the middle. I don't believe, like— I mean, yeah. The answer is yes, but we should resolve this. That will not change the results of a die roll, but it could change something else.
Keith: It could resolve the level of danger that you're currently in.
Austin: That is correct. Yes.
Keith: For falling into an abyss, a neverending abyss, to something less bad.
Austin: Yeah. It would do that.
Ali: I could Trust In You? I have the Fabula Point for that.
Keith: What does that do?
Ali: “After another Player Character who is able to hear you performs a Check, you may spend 1 Fabula Point and invoke their Trait.” And it’s triggered by Art’s—
Keith: So that’s like you spend the Fabula Points for someone else.
Ali: Right, and it’s triggered by Art’s Check.
Art: I have the Fabula Points. It’s just a bad use of Fabula Points.
Ali: Oh.
Keith: Oh, okay.
Art: I have 3 Fabula Points, because I just got one for fumbling.
Keith: I think you should use them, and…
Austin: Yeah, Art, your position is it’s really unlikely that you get a crit and then you'd have to also— well, a crit would win. A crit would just win, because a crit beats— a crit wins outright, as we just read, right?
Art: Sure.
Keith: Okay. I have another thing. I mean, Art, if you used all 3 of your Fabula Points, is it a sure thing?
Art: Of course not. No.
Keith: Okay. So it’s still not a sure thing.
Art: Because you can only do one Bond per Check.
Keith: Yeah.
Art: And again, the— I guess I only need to reroll to 10 or 11, so it’s a 1 in 12.
Keith: But on 2d6, which is tough.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: I do want to make sure that we also remember— I do think, Keith, you had a really great pitch around using a Fabula Point to introduce something new to the story to reduce the consequences here.
Keith: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Austin: Which I don't want us to blow past without us discussing as a possibility.
Keith: Yeah.
Art: Like a tether.
Keith: There's another thing that we could do, but I don't have the Fabula Points to save myself if it doesn't work. I can use Protect to be the one who gets thrown off.
Darcy: Oh. I could also use Protect in that way, I suppose. I guess I wasn't thinking of Protect being able to be used here, but.
Keith: It is threatened by an attack, spell, or other danger.
Austin: This is definitely danger, and I guess what that would be, to me, it sounds like what you would do is you would make a Might Check, right? To see if you could counter it.
Darcy: Yeah.
Austin: That’s now how it’s written. It’s just kind of weird. But it does kind of map to how we played it last time, which is that Antistrophe got to use his Defense in this scenario, right?
Keith: Yeah. Well, it would be—
Art: Yeah, and it’s sort of…
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: You would take their place of the Check.
Austin: That’s right. That’s exactly it. Yes.
Art: Yeah.
Keith: Because it says, “When another creature is threatened by other danger, any Checks that are part of the danger will be performed against you. You may declare the use of this skill before or after the Checks have been made.”
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And so you’d just, yeah, it would be that Jonathan rolls Might + Might, which hopefully, Jonathan—you're Weak like we all are now. Hopefully your Might die is more than 6.
Darcy: Mm. Yeah. [Austin laughs] I can't just, like, pop a quick potion, can I?
Austin: No. You're in the middle of a roll.
Darcy: Yeah. Okay.
Austin: How many Fabula Points do you have, Jonathan?
Darcy: Uno.
Austin: Okay.
Art: We'll get you there, right?
Darcy: Yeah, it’ll be fine.
Austin: So you're doing this. Oh, that’s a 5. That’s worse.
Darcy: That’s a 5. That’s worse.
Austin: Ohh, what’s this look like? Fares is trying to shove you off.
Art: Well, you should reroll this.
Austin: Yeah. And then Jonathan comes over to help, and Fares is going to flip Jonathan over instead?
Keith: Yeah.
Darcy: Oh, I think he just moves out of the way.
Austin: Oh no. You got hit by the oldest trick in the book.
Darcy: Yeah. I would like to use a Fabula Point to reroll.
Austin: You should.
Keith: I bet, yeah. Do you want to use it to reroll, or do you want to use it to change the story?
Darcy: Probably, because I rolled a— 
Art: I'll use it to change the story, if the reroll doesn't work.
Keith: Okay.
Art: And what I'll do is I'll catch Jonathan, and then I'll have one hand on the ship and one hand on Jonathan. [Ali laughs quietly]
Darcy: Or you could use it to bond me up.
Keith: Oh, wait, but, okay. So we're not going to use this as an opportunity to, like, Jonathan tried to pull Nicky up and then got thrown off, and so at least we have Nicky up?
Art: I think the real question is: can I Protect—? No, I guess I can't.
Austin: No. [Austin and Keith laugh] I love—
Darcy: “No, I'll take the danger!” “No, I’ll take the danger!”
Austin: I love the hustle, though.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Austin: All right, give me the roll. Might + Might again. Try to get a crit. That’s an 8. That’s where we started with Nicky.
Darcy: That’s an 8. Mm-hmm. [Jack chuckles]
Austin: Does anybody have a better—?
Art: All right, yeah, but—
Austin: Yeah.
Art: But this makes sense. I'll use a Fabula Point to catch Jonathan.
Austin: Oh, okay. Yeah. I love that. That’s fun. 
Art: [cross] And like I said, now it’s one hand on the ship and one hand holding Jonathan.
Austin: [cross] Oh, he’s so heavy, I think. I don't know how heavy terrapine are.
Darcy: Well, I'm a terrapine wearing full platemail, so probably heavy.
Austin: Oh, you're very…
Keith: You're very heavy.
Austin: Very heavy.
Janine: Jesus christ.
Austin: All right. So, Fabula Points are now at 5. We're going to hit the 7 we need here today, I think.
Art: I think we're going to get to 7 just getting everyone back on the ship right now. [Ali and Darcy laugh]
Austin: So, yes. You've now spent your Fabula Point to catch Jonathan. And it is your turn, because that’s all been the chef’s turn.
Art: All right. Let’s get back up.
Austin: Oh. Yeah, just climb up.
Sylvia: Oh, why didn't you think of that? [Ali laughs quietly]
Darcy: Easy.
Keith: I like that, contrary to what is typical for Friends at the Table, we're doing so much work to get on the boat. [Art and Darcy laugh] 
Art: Can I pop a quick tonic, first?
Austin: That is an action. 
Keith: Inventory action.
Austin: That is the Inventory action, in fact. Unless you have a thing that says you can do an Inventory action for free.
Jack: [quietly] God.
Art: I don't remember. 
Darcy: I don't think you do.
Art: A lot of my stuff does use stuff like this, but…
Austin: I will say the difficulty to climb back on board is a 10.
Art: Well, I got 2 Fabula Points, so this is not even a problem.
Austin: Can you climb on while holding Jonathan with one of your hands?
Art: Yeah. It’s called a one arm pull-up, and we do them in crime all the time. [Jack and Keith laugh]
Keith: It’s one of the classic moves of crime.
Austin: Okay. I'll let you do it, but you don't get… Jonathan doesn't get up with you.
Darcy: Yeah, no, that’s fair.
Art: You do it— you practice with a big bag of loot.
Austin: Oh. I guess that—
Jack: Mm.
Austin: You know what? You've sold me. You've sold me that that makes sense. [Ali laughs quietly]
Art: A bag with a dollar sign in one arm, and you're coming out the window. That’s…
Janine: You can't pass the president of crimes fitness test unless you can do five, so. [Austin laughs]
Art: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah. And he’s serious about it.
Austin: That’s from your Redeemed Scoundrel Chef identity. Yeah, I'll allow it. Give me your roll.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: Might + Might.
Art: You're sure there's not, like, a little finesse involved in this?
Austin: [chuckles] I don't think so. [Jack chuckles]
Jack: Oh my god.
Austin: Well, that’s a 6.
Art: Okay, but we're going to spend a Fabula. We're going to reroll that.
Austin: We're going to roll just the 1, presumably.
Jack: With using what?
Austin: You're going to keep the 5?
Art: We're going to keep the 5.
Austin: Oh, this is a hard roll.
Darcy: This is a hard roll.
Austin: All right. Well.
Art: It’s okay.
Austin: Fabula 6. This is payback from that time you threw all those pirates off the side of a boat.
Darcy: We did that?
Austin: Yeah.
Art: I'm going to throw so many more people off the side of a boat before we're done here.
Austin: The clay pirates. Yeah.
Darcy: Mm.
Austin: Hey! Look at that.
Keith: 6.
Austin: That’s a— In fact, is that a—? No, it’s not a crit. It’s not a crit.
Darcy: No. It’s a 6 and a 5.
Austin: That’s a success. Nicky has come—
Art: Yeah, because I passed the president of crimes fitness test. [Austin and Darcy laugh]
Austin: Nicky crawls back aboard the vessel. Everyone who’s still in the destroyed room that’s adjacent sees this happening, sees Nicky, sees that whole experience of guy runs over to try to push Nicky off, Jonathan comes to help, Jonathan falls over, Nicky catches Jonathan, Nicky one arm loot pull-ups his way back onto the boat, [Jack chuckles] and now Jonathan is hanging on.
Jack: It’s like a crowd watching a particularly tense tennis volley, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Of just, like, the look on our faces.
Austin: And I think, at this point, the Infantry guy is just going to go after Antistrophe.
Keith: Sure. Try it.
Austin: I think is like, I think the chef has this, you know, dealt with here. What’s your Magical Defense?
Keith: 10, right now.
Austin: Yeah. Take 17 light damage.
Keith: Ooh.
Austin: Plus 5. You're wearing martial armor, I'm imagining, right?
Keith: Yes, I think so.
Austin: Oh, and actually, it’s actually way more than that, because this is one of those ones where it doesn't do the plus. Oh, yes it does. It does HR plus 10, okay, so that’s fine. HR plus 10 is 17 plus another 5 is 23 light damage. As Arno, Oracle Infantry, opens up with you with—
Keith: 22.
Austin: Sorry, 22. 22.
Keith: Minus 4 because of my…
Austin: Mm.
Keith: So actually does 18.
Austin: 18. I've also noticed—and I'm just going to let it slide—that this guy didn't go last round, but I'm going to be nice and not give him a second round right now. [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith: I am in Crisis.
Austin: Wow!
Darcy: Whoa!
Sylvia: Whoa!
Jack: Oh, we're all fucked.
Keith: My Crisis is 37. I am at 37 right now.
Austin: Phew. Scary.
Darcy: They said it would never happen.
Austin: All right, it’s back to y'all.
Keith: I believe this is the second time I've been in Crisis ever.
Jack: Ha! Okay, so who has gone for us so far?
Austin: The only person who has not gone, on the ship, is Jonathan.
Jack: Okay.
Austin: On your side. And then everybody off the ship.
Jack: Yeah.
Keith: I think I still actually have a turn this go, because I used Protect but have not had my turn.
Jack: Oh, so we should let these guys go first before boarding.
Austin: So only Nicky has gone. Is that right? Yeah, I guess…
Keith: Yeah.
Darcy: No, I went. I went.
Austin: Oh, Jonathan went. Right, right, right.
Keith: Oh, so it’s only me. It’s only me.
Austin: Pyroclastic, Jonathan, Nicky, them. Yes, it’s just you on board. Yes, sorry, yes.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: I forgot that you opened by firing, Jonathan, on Sarithe, yeah, the Shieldmaiden.
Keith: Okay. You know, I know that she failed to use her Face Me move on me.
Austin: Yes. She did.
Keith: But I was already attacking Sarithe anyway, [Austin: You were.] so I am going to keep doing that. And, you know, I take my now slightly orange glowing hot shields apart and just run back to where she is for an old-fashioned clobber.
Austin: Cool. Cool. Difficulty is still 8.
Keith: 10.
Austin: That’s a hit.
Keith: Oh. I just rolled Might + Might.
Austin: You just rolled Might + Might. Give me another roll. We'll just— actually, no, we can just do this math. We can just do the math, because—
Keith: 10. No, it’s just 10.
Austin: Oh. Okay, yeah, you just did it.
Keith: Still 10.
Austin: You flipped them. You did a 3 and a 7, and then you did a 7 and a 3. So yeah, you do 19 physical damage. That just hits. There's no…
Keith: That’s actually +4, so 23.
Austin: Oh. Look at that. Love it. She is not yet in Crisis.
Keith: Tough.
Austin: Yeah.
Art: That’s okay. We're going to figure this out. [Austin chuckles] We're going to stop falling off ships.
Austin: I believe in you.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Art: And we're going to turn this around.
Keith: How did you even fall of the ship, again? Oh, because you critically fumbled.
Austin: That’s right.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That is correct. I think she is going to go now and is simply going to throw the javelin. You know, you've charged in. You've knocked her back, and she lifts up the javelin and tosses it at you yet again and misses yet again. Her attack rolls are not very good, as you can see.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah, that misses.
Austin: She’s just kind of tough and does some good buffs for her people.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: But now it’s back to your side, which means it’s time for people to start getting on board, presumably.
Sylvia: Can I ask a question?
Austin: Yes.
Sylvia: I have a spell orb I have yet to use.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Could I use that instead of jumping on?
Austin: Yeah, I said you can do ranged attacks, spells included, instead of jumping on, absolutely.
Sylvia: Cool. And we are focusing down this fire lady, correct? Or am I misremembering?
Keith: We actually switched to Sarithe, the shield lady, [Sylvia: Okay.] because it was harder to hit. Only Jonathan could hit the fire, uh, Jos?
Darcy: Because he flying.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: All right. Do y'all mind if I try this?
Jack: No, go for it.
Sylvia: Because I have this Flare spell orb, and that ignores resistances.
Keith: Oh, awesome. Yeah, I would definitely do that.
Sylvia: Okay, I'm just going to— For some reason, when I click on it, it doesn't want to go through.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: So I'll just post the stuff I got from when I rolled it a couple sessions ago.
Austin: Yes.
Sylvia: To hit is 11.
Austin: Whew.
Sylvia: 26 damage. Ignores resistances. 
Keith: 36 damage.
Austin: And what is the spell, again?
Sylvia: 36 damage, yeah. This is Flare.
Austin: Flare, so a fire spell, but it ignores resistances.
Sylvia: It ignores resistances, yes. 
Austin: And who is this against? Sorry. 
Keith: Sarithe.
Sylvia: Sarithe? Sarithe.
Austin: Okay. What’s using this Flare orb look like?
Sylvia: Uh, fastball, right down the middle. [Jack chuckles]
Austin: Yeah, that’s fun.
Sylvia: Genuinely, I do think it is kind of like throwing that, like she straight up pitching this spell orb, and then when it hits, it just engulfs the target in flame when it shatters.
Austin: I love it. Yeah, it shatters, [Sylvia: Okay.] and then there's a huge fireball? Is it like a twist of fire?
Sylvia: I have always pictured it as like a jet of flame.
Austin: Ooh, yeah. And I think it completely blasts Sarithe back. You know, down to one knee. It takes her a second to get up. She is in Crisis.
Jack: Sick.
Keith: Sick.
Austin: And fire is not one of her weaknesses, so she doesn't advance the Stagger Clock, but you might not need the Stagger Clock against her.
Sylvia: I mean, you know.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: All right. That’s me.
Austin: She gets to go her, and I think now turns to look at all of you down below, having gained her ire, and let’s see. Let’s do a count off for the people who are just aside. We have Elena, Veile, Brontë, and Caoimhe, in that order, 1d4. [typing] That is Veile. 
Ali: Damn.
Austin: I think spots you, Veile. And, you know, I think there's actually part of has been working against people who have been aligned with Caliginia. There's an almost magical thing that draws her to you here. What is your Defense?
Ali: My Defense is 7.
Austin: Oh, that hits, with a 7.
Ali: Yep.
Austin: Take 15 damage as she throws this magical javelin at you, and—
Janine: No. [Ali gasps]
Austin: Ooh. Say more.
Janine: “After a creature you can see performs a ranged attack, you may spend an amount of Mind Points equal to the total result of their Accuracy Check in order to have the attack fail automatically against all targets.”
Austin: So you shoot it? What’s this look like, as the javelin comes in?
Janine: This is fully like, you know, I've got my bow up. I've been waiting for the ship to get close enough and to kind of find an opening, and then I notice, like, oh, you know, we've got their attention now. That’s not great. Javelin’s getting thrown, and I am sniping it out of the air. Just not having it.
Austin: Yeah, it flips through the air, and then, like, returns to Sarithe’s hand, and she looks frustrated by this. Back to your turns.
Ali (as Veile): Thank you.
Austin: Yeah, what’s the…? Yeah. Sorry, didn't mean to step on that moment. [Ali laughs quietly]
Ali (as Veile): That was incredible.
Janine: I think Brontë’s, like, weirdly locked in right now, [Ali laughs quietly] despite all the flute goofiness earlier. Yeah, this… I don't know. This is like a very high stakes and also alien moment, and I think it’s…
Keith: When—
Janine: What?
Ali: I love it.
Keith: When you hit your Barrage, you went Kaio-ken, so. [Ali laughs]
Janine: Yeah. That’s true.
Austin: Of course.
Darcy: Mm.
Janine: That’s true. [Janine and Austin chuckle]
Ali: I mean, with this opening, I don't mind doing the hop, just keeping the camera on Veile, I guess.
Austin: Yeah, that’s fun. Yeah. You just hop on board. Yeah.
Ali: I assume that I have to roll a DEX, or am I just going to do the hop?
Austin: No, you can just get on board. That’s your turn is getting on board. I think that’s fine.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: This is not— I think FLEGbot’s done a good job, has parked it nicely here, at least for this round. [Ali chuckles]
Ali: All right. That’s my turn.
Keith (as FLEGbot): [using same robotic voice filter as Austin] I did it, I did it, I did it. I parked it. I did it.
Austin: Hey! Hey! [Keith laughs] Illicit FLEGbot.
Janine: Whoa. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Illicit FLEGbot! [Jack laughs]
Sylvia: Whoa. Shit.
Jack: Oh, wow! I didn't know what was going on there.
Janine: Bootflegg.
Austin: Me neither.
Jack: I was like, “Is the audio looping in some way?”
Keith: [robotic] It’s always been me. I can do it whenever I want.
Austin: It’s not true! [Ali laughs]
Keith: [robotic] It’s me. It’s me. It’s actually me.
Sylvia: Gimmick infringement. 
Jack: [laughs quietly] Now, this is a real Flegg situation, Austin.
Austin: It is. It is.
Jack: In that your creation, you have lost control of your creation.
Austin: I've lost control. Veile, you seem to have pressed a button. Is this just to read what this said?
Ali: Yeah, I just wanted to see what this said, and this is the only way for me to see what it says. [laughs] 
Austin: Gotcha. Yes. Yes.
Ali: So. But I…
Austin: All right, so you've hopped on board, and I think Sarithe takes her third turn? She’s only gone twice before, right? Or this is— Intercepting Javelin, Intercepting Javelin. Yeah, okay. She gets to keep going, which is pretty wild. I think hearing the sound of the Flegg makes her realize that what she needs to do is take control of this vessel.
Ali: Oh man.
Austin: And I think she catches the javelin and turns her attention to, like, the lower decks. And, I mean, she still has two turns here, right? Maybe she does something else good for people before she goes to try to deal with this. Uh…
Keith: She is Courageous.
Austin: She is Courageous. You know what, maybe she’s too courageous to do this. Maybe that's true. Yeah. She has this thought: “I could probably go take control of this vessel, but that’s not courageous. I need to stay and fight.” You know, she’s not going to drop to one knee.
Keith: Damn. 5 Mind Points worth it.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Well spent.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. And yeah. So, in fact, I think maybe that’s it, right? She turns and faces you, Antistrophe.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: She, like, starts to walk towards the cockpit or the lower deck, wherever the bridge is—we'll have to talk more about what the layout of this place is, after this—but then stops in her tracks and turns and, you know, repositions herself into a combat stance and, once again, looking at you, says, 
(as Sarithe): Face me.
Austin: And misses. [Keith and Jack laugh]
Keith: I already was!
Austin: Yeah. [Ali and Keith laugh] I was facing you!
Keith: I've had two attack rolls. They've both been against you.
Austin: Yeah. It’s back to y'all. Whose—? I think Elena hasn't gone yet.
Jack: Yeah. I'm going to try and board the airship.
Austin: All right. Easy. You just hop right on.
Keith: Done.
Austin: And then I guess actually, yeah, maybe this. I think seeing that the attack misses on you—this kind of shield attack on you, Antistrophe, misses—she uses her last action this turn doing a little Guard and gets resistance to all damage types.
Jack: Oh fuck! [Ali chuckles]
Keith: Fair. 
Janine: No, that’s fine.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: You know, fair. 
Austin: Yeah, well.
Keith: Yeah, some of us can ignore those things.
Austin: Speaking of, Brontë, you still have a turn, right? Or did you— That thing wasn't your action in the same way.
Janine: I haven't done anything other than an intercept, which isn't an action.
Austin: Yeah. That’s what I was asking.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: So yeah, it’s back to you.
Janine: All right. So, let’s see. I just have to [laughs quietly] very quickly just review…
Austin: I'm going to move everybody vaguely up there, and you can position yourself as you would like to be positioned.
Ali: [quietly] God.
Janine: Okay. I have some options, but I'm going to sit on them for now. I'm going to shoot her with my bow. She turned her back? We were having, like, you know. I intercepted her, and then she turns her back to fight some other guy? 
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I think Battle Brontë is not super into that.
Austin: Wow. Yeah.
Janine: I mean, it’s probably for the best, honestly, but still. I'm going to shoot her in the back.
Austin: All right. Difficulty is 8.
Jack: “Face me!” [Austin and Keith chuckle]
Austin: Yeah. “No, you face me!” Yeah, that’s going to hit.
Keith: This is an in-fiction Face Me.
Austin: That’s going to hit.
Janine: That’s a 17 and a 22, so.
Austin: It is. It is. Are you doing anything special with that damage? Are you doing anything tricky with your skills?
Janine: You know, I think this is maybe going to be another double arrow situation.
Austin: Fair enough. 17’s going to hit, you know?
Janine: Where it is again this person that I have decided I'm just going to pick on and the flying [Austin: Yes.] dork who’s annoying, because I just know, you know, that’s…
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: When you're ranged, you gotta fight the flying guys. This is day one of fight school.
Keith: And if we can get the flying dork into Crisis, then we can all just get them.
Austin: And, in fact, he is now in Crisis. He comes crashing down to the deck of the Adventure Beckons and is no longer flying, so everyone can melee attack Hosi, Hovering Pyroclastic now. No longer hovering, as you blast them both.
Ali: Yippee. We go back around?
Round Three [0:36:50]
Austin: We go back around. This is now turn three. And, as the turn begins, the ship moves away, as the FLEGbot continues to pilot it.
Janine: Hmm.
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: So Caoimhe and Brontë, Maebela, and Caoimhe are back, unable to jump on board the ship this turn.
Sylvia: I'm stuck twice?
Austin: You could have gotten on last round. [Sylvia chuckles]
Jack: Where’s he going?
Austin (as FLEGbot): Around.
Jack: Okay. Okay. Fine. [Jack and Keith laugh]
Ali: They get a turn?
Sylvia: Does Miss Super Adventurer got any solutions here, or no?
Austin: She’s all hurt. You know, she’s in, you know in a video game where the NPC is like, “Ough…” You know? [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Damn.
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Yeah, we've all been there.
Keith: Yeah.
Darcy: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah, I do.
Austin: Yeah. You all fucking know.
Keith: That stock line that they all use.
Austin: “Ugh.”
Keith: “Ugh.”
Darcy: “Ughh!”
Janine: What was that gigantic thing that just flew by?
Austin: What? The ship.
Janine: Ohhh, okay. 
Austin: You can see it, right?
Janine: I didn't realize you were, like, acting it out. Okay, I see. [laughs quietly]
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm moving it away, so you can't just jump on board.
Janine: Okay.
Ali: They act first, then?
Austin: Sorry, say again?
Jack: Do they act first?
Austin: Yeah, they do. They do.
Ali: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: I do think Maebela is like, 
(as Maebela): Jonathan!
Austin: Seeing you hang from the side of the ship, though, as you go by. So. She’s worried.
Keith: Yeah, Maebela’s a hero. She would try to make the jump.
Austin: [sighs] She would try to make the jump.
Sylvia: No, didn't you hear? She went, “Ough…”
Austin: No, she went, “Ugh…” 
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: She went, 
(as Maebela): Ooh, I'm not feeling too good. I gotta sit this one out. [Darcy laughs quietly] 
Ali: [spitefully] Yeah, if only she… [Austin laughs] Don't worry about it.
Austin: I love how much Veile hates this. I love it. [Ali laughs quietly] It’s just Ali.
Ali: It’s not Veile. It’s me.
Austin: It’s just you. Yeah.
Keith: Well, look how hard Jonathan is having to work to get his…
Sylvia: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put some respect.
Keith: Look at how hard Jonathan is having to work to get his ship, [Austin: Yeah.] and Maebela didn't have to do jack shit to become the hero.
Janine: Uh…
Austin: Okay, now, wait a second. Again, he did not do that. He also took the beckoning wish. He did not work hard to get the ship.
Sylvia: Yeah, but we like him. [Ali laughs]
Keith: No, I agree, I agree, but Maebela’s beckoning just made her the hero. Jonathan’s beckoning wish to get the ship still made us have to fight to get the ship.
Janine: Maebela did almost get killed by a dragon elf.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: That’s kind of a similar situation.
Art: That was after.
Austin: They were both hanging by their fingers from the thing they wanted. 
Darcy: Oh, that’s true.
Austin: It’s just that he wanted the ship, and she wanted, like, heroism.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: That is true.
Janine: It’s a direct parallel. [Ali laughs]
Keith: There's a certain way that the thing… She already had the heroism, because it changed the history.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: We all had to pretend that we thought she was impressive.
Janine: Jonathan already had the hypothetical keys to an airship. It’s just, you know? [Austin chuckles]
Austin: We're going to start this one pretty basic. I think Arno, the Infantryman who’s feeling himself after having shot…
Keith: Me.
Austin: Yeah, Antistrophe into Crisis. Ooh, there's a real choice to make. I thought I knew what I was going to do. I thought I was just going to follow up with another shot.
Keith: Feeling too good, he can't even decide what amazing things he gets to do next.
Austin: He was going to do his thing where he gets to give himself physical resistance, but I think he’s feeling himself too much. He’s like, “I got this in the bag. I'm just going to pull the trigger again.”
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: What’s your Magical Defense, again?
Keith: 10 right now.
Austin: That’s a 10. Take 19 light damage, as another barrage of light beams leave this rifle and slam into you.
Keith: I actually take 15.
Austin: Yep.
Keith: I'm at 22.
Austin: Phew!
Ali: I want to go first.
Austin: Go for it, Veile. [Ali laughs]
Ali: I guess, is there anyone on the people who have a bunch of weaknesses who are being really screwed by the dice?
Keith: Me.
Ali: Okay.
Darcy: Yeah, Antistrophe, for sure.
Keith: Well, I should say that, dice-wise, yes, it’s hurting my Magical Defense. Like, if my Magical Defense was where it normally is, that would not have hit.
Ali: Mm.
Keith: And then also my Might die from being weak. So…
Janine: So, yes.
Keith: But you need to take out two resistances. I would need to stop being Dazed and stop being Enraged in order to get my Magical Defense back up.
Ali: Okay. 
Keith: But Weak would increase my die size for my…
Ali: Okay. I have a move that, like, can increase one person’s die size until my next turn, potentially getting [Keith: Okay.] somebody two turns worth of that benefit.
Keith: Okay.
Ali: And I don't know if that’s better for you?
Keith: If you wanted to un-weaken me, that would help, or if you just had raw healing, that also would help, I think.
Ali: Well, you… [chuckles] The creature recovers SL times 5, so it would be 5 Hit Points, and choose Dexterity, Insight, Might, or Willpower. They treat the chosen attribute as one die size higher.
Keith: Okay. That would be great.
Austin: Which are you choosing?
Keith: I'm going to choose Might.
Austin: Great. I love it. The non-hovering Pyroclastic has the same thought, turning to his champion, Sarithe, and giving her that same buff that we saw over on the other side, you know, a couple of sessions ago. Bracing Ash gives Sarithe a boost in Might, raising it from a d8 to a d10, in this case, until the end of the scene.
Keith: Mm.
Austin: And she gains resistance to light damage. I don't think that’s a thing that many of you would be doing, but it is simply true. [Jack sighs]
Darcy: Mm.
Austin: And it’s back to you, and then it’s Hosi’s turn.
Jack: God.
Keith: Anyone—?
Austin: She’s now covered in this, like, volcanic ash that’s seeping into her armor and megacharging it.
Jack: I was just about to do a spell that would deal light damage. [Austin and Ali laugh sympathetically]
Austin: Wow, the timing.
Janine: Aww.
Jack: I was confidently feeling okay about that spell, because my other spells are all about ice damage, which they are also strong to.
Keith: Are they? Because we did the damage—
Austin: Oh, that’s true.
Keith: I thought that resistance only lasted until they took the special kind of damage that they're weak to, and we did do that damage.
Austin: You did do that. Yes. I believe that that’s true.
Keith: So, ice damage. They are no longer resisting ice.
Austin: Wait, wait, wait. Let me just double check it. I want to make sure that it doesn't say you need to be in… I'm pretty sure you're right, though. Uh, Elemental Shield. Resistance to air, earth, fire, and ice, until the end of the scene or until she loses Hit Points due to damage of a type she is vulnerable to. She is not vulnerable to the physical types. Those types advance her Pressure Gauge. Those are Pressure Point weapons for her.
Darcy: Mm.
Jack: Oh my god. Is she vulnerable to any attack types?
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: She is. It’s not—
Austin: I'm looking at multiple right now.
Jack: Okay. It’s not that the vulnerability is replaced by…
Keith: Yeah, we just haven't even investigated it, [Austin: That’s correct.] because I conflated those. I thought that— Because when I asked for a resistance thing, you were like, “By the way, you can also ask for a weapon type.”
Austin: Yes. The Pressure Points, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: Yeah. 
Austin: I should have been clearer about that.
Keith: And I thought that— yeah.
Austin: But no, those don't do extra damage to her. They advance the pressure point. This is a new thing, by the way, from the Bestiary, which is really really fun. It’s called Pressure Points. This is, like, not an Austin original. I just said, “Ooh, this is sick. We gotta use these for this,” because it makes sense.
Keith: I'll say this, though, Jack, because we talked about this earlier: the ice, air, earth, and wind, not necessarily things that Sarithe is resistant to, so you could still use a spell. Which church are these guys in?
Austin: They are in the Creed of Oracles.
Keith: And that’s the Lucena one.
Austin: Lucena has been the one who has been parlaying with them in whatever ways, correct. We've seen them do light.
Keith: I'd try ice. I wouldn't try that light shit. [Sylvia laughs]
Jack: I'd throw some ice at Sarithe.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: And see what happens. Okay. I mean, I will say… It’s tough. I have the MP right now to cast one spell, and then I am in interesting trouble.
Austin: What are the options that you have, and we can maybe, as a group, you can all talk through them.
Jack: Yeah. I mean, so, I can— oh, no! Hang on! I have one more action after this, because I have a prepared Glacies orb that targets one person.
Austin: You do. Yeah.
Jack: So I have my Glaices orb, which is essentially free to me.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: It costs a turn. I have a Barrier, via an orb, that I can attach to two people. And then I have 18 MP, which is very annoying, because my cost threshold for singing, a low cost spell costs 10, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] so I can only cast one. [laughs quietly] 
Austin: Oh, that’s brutal.
Art: I can give you 40 MP.
Jack: Oh, well then I'm in business. We'll be fine. [Austin laughs] Okay. Then I will just begin a Verse. I would like to sing a Verse. I'm going to spend 10 MP, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] bringing me down to a princely 8, and I am going to sing with a frantic tone. 
Austin: Ooh.
Jack: Each target—there's one target, and I am targeting, uh, how do you say their name?
Austin: Sarithe?
Jack: Sarithe.
Austin: Shieldmaiden, yeah.
Jack: Will suffer ice damage equal to twice your current Willpower die size. So they're going to suffer 20 ice damage. I don't roll to hit. It just hits.
Austin: It just happens.
Jack: And then, additionally, because I am targeting a single person, I get to make a free…
Austin: Ooh.
Jack: Uh, let me find it. I get to do a couple of cool things.
Austin: Is this new? I haven't seen you do this before.
Jack: I don't generally target individuals, [Austin: Oh.] and it is weak enough that it often makes more sense for me to target groups. This is a kind of thing that kicks in when I have low MP, [Austin: Right.] in the sense that, with my low MP, I'm targeting individuals. So, after you sing a verse with low or medium volume, you may perform a free attack with a weapon you have equipped. Treat your high roll as 0 when calculating damage dealt by this attack. My weapon is my Encyclopedia.
Austin: [amused] Okay. So you're singing and charging ahead to hit with the Encyclopedia, like a…
Jack: Yes, this is not going to do a lot of damage, because the Encyclopedia generally does high roll plus 6, but here, I treat the high roll as 0.
Austin: Sure.
Jack: So it’ll be, if it hits, I'll do 6.
Austin: Is the singing—? What’s the visual effect of the ice attack?
Jack: I think that this looks like, you know, rhime forming on Sarithe.
Austin: Oh, cool.
Jack: Frosting up around her face, around her shields.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: And you get a sense that there is a sort of, there's a violence to this rhime as well.
Austin: Yeah. 
Jack: It’s not just that the frost is creeping onto you like it creeps onto grass overnight, but it’s almost as though it’s biting as it is creeping on.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: And then I am just going to launch myself forward and kind of swing the book.
Austin: Give me a roll.
Jack: That’s Insight plus…
Sylvia: I want to point out how cool it sounds when you talk about starting a verse and then violent rhime.
Austin: Violent rhyme, yeah.
Jack: Hell yeah.
Austin: Hey, that’s a pretty good hit.
Jack: It’s a 14.
Austin: It’s a 14. You do 14 physical damage.
Jack: No, I don't. 
Austin: Oh.
Jack: I do 6 damage. [laughs quietly] 
Austin: You do 6 damage. You do 6 damage, right, because you don't get the high roll. Right, of course.
Jack: But then there is one more thing I would like to do.
Austin: Yep. I will tell you right now, as you're charging in with the Encyclopedia, you do note that it seems like she does not take a lot of damage from the rhime, from the ice. She resists ice damage.
Jack: Fuck. Okay, but the Encyclopedia just seems to be physical damage.
Austin: Yeah. I mean, you still did 10 damage. That’s not nothing, you know?
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Just from the ice and then another 6 with the physical, [laughs quietly] hitting her in the head? With an encyclopedia? [Keith laughs]
Jack: Yeah, I don't think of Elena’s Encyclopedia as like a melee weapon. I mean, it’s an arcane weapon in the book.
Austin: Yeah. 
Jack: This is a real sort of “make use of the tools you have at hand” type situation.
Austin: Yes.
Jack: But the final thing I'm going to do is my skill Resonance: “After you affect one or more enemies with a Verse, if you have an arcane weapon equipped,” which I just hit her with…
Austin: You did.
Jack: “You may choose one option: until the start of your next turn, your allies deal skill level extra damage to those enemies—so that’s 2—or until the start of your next turn, you recover skill level Mind Points every time one of those enemies suffers damage.”
Austin: Ooh. Interesting. What are you picking?
Jack: Well, here’s the thing. I know that Nicky is going to be able to give me more mana, and I think, in this case, if we're trying to burn down these enemies, the extra 2 damage on every attack might make more sense.
Austin: Yeah. I want to confirm: you hit her with an arcane weapon. That is not a Pressure Point.
Jack: [chuckles] Okay. Okay, fine.
Austin: I'm paying attention. Make sure that everybody knows.
Jack: So until Elena goes again, every damage that we do to Sarithe will do 2 extra damage.
Austin: Love it.
Keith: That’s great. It’s gotta be heavy. It’s like the only other thing that we— I mean, we know gun, but I bet it’s heavy.
Austin: I'll tell you the number that there are. How’s that sound?
Keith: Sure.
Austin: You know gun. Firearm, rather. There are one, two, three more. There are three more.
Keith: Oh, whoa.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Okay, so it’s not brawling. [Jack chuckles] It’s not… I guess, has no one hit Sarithe with a sword?
Austin: No one has hit Sarithe with a sword.
Keith: Does anybody use a sword? Does anybody do swords?
Jack: Caoimhe has a sword, right?
Austin: Caoimhe does have a sword. Who’s aboard—? [Janine, Jack, Keith, and Austin laugh]
Sylvia: I can throw it from far away.
Austin: Who’s aboard the ship again, right now?
Jack: It’s Veile and me and Waylon.
Austin: Okay. Yeah.
Keith: And Brontë?
Janine: No.
Austin: No, Brontë is not on the ship.
Jack: Nope.
Keith: Oh. Oh, okay. I thought Brontë got on board.
Janine: No, I've been shooting.
Austin: No. No. 
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Been shooting from far.
Janine: Which I would like to continue doing.
Austin: Yeah, that makes sense. Let me do the next action for them, and then we can wrap back around. Arno has gone, and Hosi has gone. I think we're going to get the chef again. The two new boarders, who are the spellcasters, right? Elena and Veile. I think Fares sees you and instantly is like, “Oh, you're trouble,” and tosses a different type of vial at your feet. What are your Physical Defenses? Your regular Defenses?
Jack: My Roll20 just crashed.
Austin: Oh no. I'll just check it for you. I'll wait.
Jack: It’s not good. I just tend to think of it as “low” or “whatever Veile has”. 
Austin: [chuckles] So your Defenses are 7. Fares is using Poison Vial, smashing it at your feet in an attempt to do damage—poison damage—and also poison you. But misses, with a 5!
Jack: Yes!
Austin: Huge miss here.
Keith: Huge miss.
Austin: Yeah. I think just goes to throw it, and as, was about to toss it at your feet, the FLEGbot does a wild turn of the yaw, [Jack chuckles] and the ship spins weird.
Keith (as FLEGbot): Wheeeee. [Jack laughs]
Austin: And it goes flying. Back to y'all.
Jack: Completely accidental move from the FLEGbot, as far as we know.
Austin: Yes. [Janine chuckles] Yeah, as far as you know. Is kind of just trying to do donuts in the air with an airship.
Janine: Huh.
Darcy: Hell yeah, brother.
Sylvia: Oh, okay. That’s how I play No Man’s Sky.
Austin: [laughs] Yeah. All right. Back to y'all.
Janine: I would like to shoot with arrow.
Austin: Yeah. At this point, it is close enough for both Caoimhe and Brontë to do ranged attacks or spells without, like, a negative.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: But you can't do melee attacks, and you can't board safely.
Janine: Yeah. That’s fair. All right.
Austin: Who you shooting?
Janine: I'm shooting the Shieldmaiden.
Austin: Yep. Sounds good. Again, difficulty here is 8.
Janine: All right. Okay, well, you can't win ‘em all.
Austin: 4 is not going to do it. [chuckles] That’s true. That’s true. Fabula Point? [Darcy chuckles] 
Janine: I don't have any.
Austin: You're out. Okay.
Janine: I only had 1.
Austin: Where are we at on Fabula Points? We're at 6? We need one more to get a XP, just for the record. All right. The shot goes wide? What happens here?
Janine: Yeah, I mean, you know, FLEGbot’s doing donuts. 
Austin: [laughs] That’s right!
Janine: Like, I'm a good archer, but like, that’s a weird target.
Austin (as FLEGbot): I botched it.
Janine: Nice. [Jack and Darcy laugh]
Sylvia: Sorry, was that legit FLEGbot, or was that Keith again?
Austin: That was legit. That was legit. Yeah.
Sylvia: Okay.
Keith: They're all legit! They're all legit!
Austin: [doubtful] Hmm…
Jack: They're both legit.
Janine: [doubtful] Hmm…
Keith: Nobody controls FLEGbot.
Sylvia: I don't know about that one, Keith.
Austin: Uh, I don't know. All right. Back to them. The Chef has gone. The Pyroclastic has gone. The Infantry has gone. That, of course, leaves us only with our Shieldmaiden, who, what is she even going to do in this moment? I think roll some dice and see who she wants to target. We now have a lot of people aboard. We have Elena and Veile. She has a ranged attack, so she could actually hit anybody. You know what, yeah. She’s going to roll just a— She’s going to roll a 1d6. I think she is not paying attention to Jonathan, who’s hanging off the side of the ship still. She’s Courageous. She’s not, you know. She doesn't have any Traits; I'm looking at them. I'm going to roll 1d6. That’s going to be—let’s see—not Elena, not Veile, not Brontë, not Nicky. It’s going to be Caoimhe. It’s going to be Caoimhe, not Antistrophe. It’s going to be Caoimhe.
Sylvia: Wow.
Austin: Is going to toss this javelin towards you. What is your Physical Defense?
Sylvia: 13.
Austin: Pretty good. That is a 14. 
Sylvia: Fuck you.
Austin: Her newly increased Might really comes into— Oh, actually, this is a DEX + DEX. Oh, it is DEX + Might. It’s DEX + Might. The second one’s a 10. Does in fact come in handy here, and she does 17 physical damage with this flying javelin [Darcy: Whew!] that then leaps back to her hand.
Sylvia: I'm okay.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Are you okay? 
Sylvia: I mean, I'm sore, but I'm okay. I'm above Crisis.
Janine: [doubtful] Okay.
Sylvia: I mean, listen, if you want to do your little “shoot it out of the sky” thing, I'm not going to say no.
Janine: I'm getting a little low on points, but not, like, low low.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Janine: Like, I could shoot it out. Could and…
Sylvia: Up to you. I could tank this one if you want to hang onto it.
Austin: This is all happening as it’s on its way.
Janine: Could and would, but also we're hitting the territory where it’s a little bit like gilding the lily, you know?
Austin: Mm-hmm. I think we, unless you're— You make a decision right now, one way or the other, and then we'll stick with it. [Sylvia sighs]
Janine: 17 is a bit much. I think Brontë, yeah, I think Brontë would shoot this. I think it would be weird if he shot a javelin out of the air for Veile and then not for Caoimhe. That would be weird. 
Austin: [laughs] He doesn't want to send the wrong message.
Sylvia: You know what, you're right.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: All right, spend your— So it’s a 14. It’s 14 MP to do this, right?
Janine: Yep, it’s 14.
Austin: Phew. I love that it does adjust based on the accuracy. That’s really fun.
Janine: Yeah. And it is, you know, it’s another classic just, like, he’s got the bow up. He’s, like, ready to go. It’s not a big deal to fire a little bit sooner and shoot the thing out of the air versus waiting for the fucking boat to swing around so he can shoot the person again. 
Austin: [chuckles] Yeah. Fair enough. All right. Spend the 14 MP. And Caoimhe, you do not get damaged, as the javelin is, once again, shot out of the sky and returns to Sarithe’s hands. Back to y'all.
Sylvia: Thank you.
Austin: Yeah.
Art: Just to make sure I have all my timing correct. Jack, do you want the magic points now?
Jack: Um, I would like my magic points by my next turn, although, because of my ability that means that we do 2 extra damage to anybody, we should probably do some damage to enemies before we rotate back around to me.
Austin: Oh. Oh, no one has hit her yet, huh?
Jack: No, no.
Art: Yeah, and I can help. I can also increase someone’s Might, if that would… Is there anyone who hasn't gone who has a Might-based attack?
Darcy: I mean, I don't have a Might-based attack, but I'm going to have to pull myself up off of this ship, so. [laughs quietly] 
Austin: That is true.
Jack: Mm.
Art: Sure.
Keith: Oh, yeah, and you're at 6 Might right now.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Art: Oh, but if I do…if I do the MP next turn, it doesn't…
Keith: The good thing about Sarithe is that her Defense is really, really low.
Darcy: Yeah.
Art: Yeah.
Keith: And so even Might-based attacks are not having a hard time hitting her, despite her other stuff that she can do, and so maybe the best use of it is to help Jonathan pull himself up.
Art: I'm just making sure…
Darcy: You could also come pull me up.
Austin: You could just continue to pull up Jonathan, right?
Art: Oh, sure.
Jack: Which we know you can do.
Austin: Right. [chuckles] Yeah, because you passed the President of Crimes test. And you can even help. Like, the two of you can do that together as an action, if you felt— you know what I mean? 
Art: Sure. So it would be, I would be doing it, and Jonathan would be helping? Is that—?
Austin: I guess you would roll first, but we could allow Jonathan to help as his action if we wanted to, though maybe, I don't know. Maybe it won't come to that.
Jack: I will also say that… Yeah. I mean, you know. The amount of bonus damage that I am giving is not huge, but it is in our interests to deal some damage to them before I act again. 
Austin: This is true.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Jack: Otherwise I'll have wasted that. Well, not wasted it, but you know.
Art: Then maybe Jonathan should go with Nicky in reserve? So then if it doesn't happen, I can use the attack before the extra damage wears off, and I can give you more magic points next round?
Jack: Yeah, because I still have my Glacies for the next turn, possibly, you know?
Art: Okay. 
Ali: And that seems…
Art: Does anyone else have an attack who should go first?
Jack: I don't think so. What were you going to say, Ali?
Ali: Well, I was just going to say it make sense to have Jonathan try to pull himself up and then have Nicky be able to help if that fails, right?
Art: Yeah. 
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Yeah, that does work. Yes, that makes sense.
Art: Yeah, I agree. That’s what I, yeah.
Austin: So then, do we go with Jonathan? Is Jonathan going next, then?
Art: I think Jonathan is up, then.
Darcy: Sure.
Austin: All right. Might + Might to pull yourself up.
Darcy: Aw….
Austin: It’s an 8. You could Fabula it.
Jack: Getting us our Fabula.
Darcy: I could, if I had Fabula Points.
Jack: Oh, fuck!
Austin: Well, can Veile do the thing?
Ali: I do have a My Trust In You, yeah. I do have that…
Austin: Because I think, presumably, you have some Bond that’s a +2, at this point, right, Jonathan?
Ali: I do.
Darcy: I have a +2 Bond with Veile.
Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Well, there you go. What is that Bond?
Ali: My side of it…
Darcy: It is— Oh, go ahead.
Ali: Is Admiration and Loyalty.
Darcy: And mine is Loyalty and Affection.
Austin: It seems perfectly fine that you would use that skill in this moment, but I'd love to know what it looks like.
Ali: I think Veile is kind of realizing that she doesn't have a lot of… Like, whatever the physical manifestation of “I have low MP, and this seems like a big deal” is.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: She knows that that’s happening to her.
Austin: Mm.
Ali: So I think that she’s focusing on, like, you know, efficiency in that way, but I think that she also understands that, like, sometimes when she speaks, it’s like magic. So I think that’s why she kind of hopped onto the ship and was like, you know, “Antistrophe, steel yourself!” and Antistrophe’s Might went up and now this sort of, like, 
(as Veile): Oh my gosh, Jonathan! 
Ali: The sort of, like, 
(as Veile): We need you with us!
Ali: Is kind of enough to, like, whatever the metaphysical payoff for that is. [laughs] 
Austin: Right, right. Whatever this actually is, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Yeah. Veile focusing on Jonathan in that moment to say, like, “We need you here. I don't want you to die,” is…
Keith: You just need to make people ready to receive it.
Austin: Yeah. I want to say really quick, because we haven't really talked about, like, we haven't tried to make these diegetic very much, right? But we've had a couple of uses of them here that raise the question a little bit: are they real? Are they in the world, or is it us as storytellers using them? I want to say here, in the Dragon Path, where everything’s a little more metaphysically charged, where you're in this realm that exists between the cycles and beyond the cycles, it is. You can feel, whether that is—you know, Veile specifically, you're talking about this in this moment, so you're really conscious of it—you can feel that you're tapping into something when you spend a Fabula Point, something real, something that’s part of the mesh of reality. You can feel it, Nicky, when you used a Fabula Point to change the story and catch Jonathan as he went tumbling over the side of the ship. Even you—who, you know, you don't do magic, generally speaking—you can feel that there's something otherworldly and transcendent happening when you spend a Fabula Point. The thing that I feels sort of like, Veile, is a little bit like when you use your luck thing to switch out a die.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Whatever that feeling is is similar. It’s not the same. They're like cousins of each other in some way.
Ali: Hmm.
Austin: But there is something happening there, when you take that authorship and spend those points. There's something magical or metaphysical or transcendent happening. You get your 1 XP here, because you spent 7 Fabula Points, and Jonathan, you have the +2 that you need, and you're able to climb aboard. And then it goes back to them. Sarithe still has three more actions this turn!
Jack: Jesus christ. [Darcy laugh quietly]
Austin: She’s a Champion 4 here.
Jack: We gotta kill this woman. [Austin chuckles]
Austin: Oh, you speak like that, you're going to get some attention here, Jack. [Ali and Jack laugh] In fact, I think she’s going to target you here. She sees the magical energy you have at your disposal and takes that as a sign of danger to her troops. Even though she has cast the Elemental Shield, she knows that it might not be up forever, and she charges at you with her shield and tries to draw you in to her. Face Me works finally with an 11.
Ali: Wow.
Keith: Wow.
Austin: 5 plus HR physical damage, so that’s 11 physical damage, and until the end of their next turn, the target must include the Shieldmaiden among the targets of their attacks and offensive spells. In fact, this is a bad use of this, now that I think about it, huh? Because her next turn is immediately.
Keith: Sorry, and who is this?
Austin: Elena. Elena.
Keith: Elena.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I could just, I could protect here, though.
Austin: You could. You could protect here. Yeah.
Keith: Elena, would you like to be protected from this?
Jack: Yes!
Keith: Yes. I Protect.
Austin: All right.
Keith: Actually, once again, Face Me fails.
Austin: Face Me fails again. What’s this look like?
Keith: For the fourth time in a row.
Sylvia: [quietly] More like Fail Me.
Austin: She’s charging forward and is going to hit Elena. What do you do?
Keith: I think that I just step into the path like it’s nothing. It’s not like the first time I used Protect where I had to dash to get in front of a fireball. I think this is just like, you know, Sarithe is so wanting to get Face Me to work that isn't even seeing that just off the direct path from me and Elena is Antistrophe.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Or, sorry, between herself and Elena is Antistrophe, who just sort of steps in front of the charge.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: And I think Elena says,
(as Elena): [awed] Two shields. [Keith and Austin laugh]
Jack: Wonderously.
Austin: All right, back over to y'all. Who has not gone yet this turn?
Art: I think it’s just me.
Keith: I also haven't gone yet this turn.
Sylvia: I haven't gone either.
Austin: And Caoimhe hasn't either. Yeah. So who’s up?
Keith: I'm right in front of Sarithe; I could go. Or Art, if you had something in mind specifically, then…
Art: I was just going to try to not roll three 1s in a row and try that same thing again, but you're right, [Jack chuckles] timing-wise, it does make the most sense for you to go.
Keith: Okay, yeah. I will get my turn out of the way quickly by being right in front of Sarithe.
Austin: Yeah. That makes sense.
Keith: And, like, trying to, I think as part of this Protect, I am going to put— this is a shove, a shield shove, like get back out of here. Go back to where we were fighting. This whole thing has been actually Antistrophe doing a Face Me to Sarithe. That’s what this is.
Austin: Yeah. In effect, right? Yeah. 
Keith: Yeah. And here is my button.
Austin: Hey, a 14’s going to hit.
Keith: That’s a 14, and that does 26 damage.
Austin: Because of the extra damage from the Defensive Mastery. 
Keith: Defensive Mastery.
Austin: Yeah, okay. I think we're just going to have a little slug fest here right now. You're slamming with the shields, presumably.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You're doing shield combos. 
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: She’s trying to block and counterattack with her shield. We're just going to keep it rolling.
Jack: She takes 2 more damage.
Austin: Huh?
Jack: She takes 2 extra damage.
Austin: Oh, she takes the 2 extra damage. Yes.
Keith: Oh, so 28. Yeah.
Austin: 28. I'll do another 2. Boom. And she tries to counter. That 13 is not going to do it. You can see here she is trying to draw on a power that she does not have. Whatever power Lucena was giving her has left her. She’s, like, reaching for it and isn't finding it. That 13 is going to miss you, and it is back around to Caoimhe or Nicky.
Sylvia: Nicky, you can go first, because you're on the boat. [Austin and Keith chuckle]
Art: All right. I'm going to try the same thing. I rolled a 1 again.
Austin: Oh my god.
Keith: [laughing] Oh my god! [Ali gasps]
Sylvia: Wow. [Jack chuckles]
Austin: What is happening? Okay, but a 12 is going to hit.
Art: Yeah, plus 4 plus 2, so that’s 31, and it’s dark damage.
Keith: Oh, I mean, that’s insane. That’s huge.
Austin: And, in fact, she is weak to dark damage. [Ali gasps] But again, she doesn't get double damage here; it’s just that this advances her Pressure Gauge. When she loses hit points by an attack that would be a Pressure Point weapon or a vulnerable, she loses the normal amount but increases the Pressure Clock by one section, or two if the Hit Points are equal or higher than 10 plus half the enemy’s level. What did you say? 30 something?
Art: 31.
Austin: 31.
Keith: Is that including Jack’s +2?
Art: Yes.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: That’s including Jack’s.
Art: 4 plus 2 is 6. 6 plus 25 is 31.
Austin: All right.
Keith: Great.
Austin: She is weak. What’s this look like as you—?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Oh, and wait. What are you attacking with?
Art: It’s still a very little amount of the dark flame I was describing.
Austin: What are you attacking with, though?
Art: The fork.
Austin: The fork is a spear. She is— okay, actually, apparently the two effects are not cumulative; it’s one or the other, but I will tell you a spear is a pressure point for her.
Keith: Whoa.
Austin: So even if you hadn't made this dark damage, it would still have lowered or increased her Pressure Gauge to 4 out of 6. But truly, I don't think she’s going to make it to 6. I think you have her dead to rights here.
Art: That’s great, because then I'm going to kill that chef. [Keith and Jack laugh]
Ali: Oh.
Keith: Fork-on-chef violence.
Austin: Wow. Yeah.
Keith: The tables have turned.
Austin: The tables have turned.
Sylvia: That chef was trying to fork on me. [Austin laughs]
Austin: It’s her again, and I think is kind of losing it a little bit here. No, I think she’s going to— She sees. She sees the hate in your heart for the chef, and she uses her last action this turn to, once again, guard the chef.
Keith: Wow, courageous.
Austin: Courageous. And that’s Caoimhe now.
Sylvia: All right. So I got 10 MP to use here.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Oh, and at this point, sorry, at this point, the Elemental Shields fall on everybody else, because you did hit her with an element she was vulnerable to.
Jack: Oh, yeah.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: So all of the vulnerabilities are reset to where they were originally.
Sylvia: Okay. Good to know.
Art: I could also— Oh, I can't.
Keith: And we— Did we fight Jos in the Pokémon thing?
Austin: Jos. Who’s Jos?
Keith: The fire.
Austin: Hosi. Hosi.
Keith: Oh, Hosi.
Austin: No, but you fought a different one of those guys. Yeah, you fought Jonea, who’s another one of these. 
Keith: Jonea.
Austin: That’s where you're getting “Jo” from. Yes, you fought Jonea before.
Art: Sylvi, I can also give you MP.
Sylvia: You can also give me MP?
Art: Yeah, I can share food with anyone I can see.
Austin: That’s true.
Art: And we have determined that that’s just pure line of sight.
Keith: It’s very easy to see someone in this game. [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Throw me a snack, brother!
Art: Well, you gotta wait ‘til next round, but.
Sylvia: Okay. So, wait. Could we get, like…? One, who should I be targeting now, just as a group. Should I keep focusing on Sarithe?
Keith: She’s about to die. You definitely should get her.
Sylvia: Okay. I'm probably going to just cast… Oh, I'm trying to remember resistance stuff. Wind? Is wind anything?
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: On her.
Sylvia: I'll do that. On her, yeah.
Austin: I don't remember if we've seen— Yeah, we have. We have seen it. Haven't we seen it? Didn't someone try to wind her once?
Sylvia: I'd love to know.
Austin: I am scrolling up to double check.
Sylvia: Me too.
Austin: Didn't you Ventus her? Or did you decide not to Ventus her, at some point?
Keith: We decided not to Ventus.
Austin: Okay, so we never…
Keith: Because Ventus only lands on an Opportunity.
Austin: Right, so we have no idea. Yes, okay.
Sylvia: Okay. But now I'm like, maybe I shouldn't. [Jack chuckles] The thing is, my other spell that I can cast is a Light spell, which…
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Which you know she has—
Sylvia: Not going to work.
Austin: That remains, because that has not cleared. That’s a different thing.
Sylvia: Yeah. So I'm going to try Ventus here then against her. Single target, because that’s all I can afford. I'm just going to roll this and see what happens. I rolled an 18, so that’s going to do 31 damage, unless she’s got a resistance.
Austin: 18. She does have a resistance, I am sorry to say.
Sylvia: All right.
Art: Is it enough?
Sylvia: 15?
Austin: 15.
Keith: You add the +2?
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: 17 is not enough. 
Sylvia: Damn.
Austin: She is down on one knee and struggling, but she stands back up, and she says to everybody,
(as Sarithe): Abandon ship.
Ali: To us?
Round Four [1:11:03]
Austin: And in the first round of the next thing, the next turn, without giving her a second look, Fares, Devout Chef, jumps off the side and activates his wings to fly away.
Art: No. No. [Ali laughs] What—
Jack: You gotta go talk to the captain of the ship, Art.
Art: How do I—? What’s the spell thing? 
Sylvia: [quietly] Speak to the manager?
Art: What do I throw at him to—? An Elemental Shard?
Jack: You could throw an Elemental Shard at him.
Austin: You could throw an Elemental Shard. Yeah. 
Ali: Wait, where are we in turn order?
Austin: We started fresh. New turn.
Sylvia: Yeah, we just started a new turn.
Ali: Okay, so that’s the first move.
Austin: So they go first, and the first thing that happens is he’s fleeing.
Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay.
Austin: He is not Courageous.
Keith: Art, are you chasing XP bonuses? Is that why you're—? Or are you just mad?
Art: No, this is personal. [Ali laughs] This guy has been… With the time it’s taken us to record this, this person has been bothering me for weeks. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Ali: Yeah. This is roleplay.
Austin: It is.
Art: Yeah, I feel like 10 points of air damage might be enough to blow him into the abyss.
Austin: Give it a shot. Do you spend the IP on it?
Art: Yeah.
Austin: It does 10 air damage. It, in fact, does 20 air damage, because he’s Weak! [Ali gasps] He’s Weak!
Jack: Whoa!
Keith: He’s Weak.
Austin: It sends him into Crisis. He starts spinning out in his wings, but he’s not dead yet.
Keith: But he has to land.
Austin: Oh, because he’s in Crisis!
Keith: He’s flying, and he’s in Crisis. He has to land.
Austin: Yes. He has to land, yes! He spins back around. I think he’s going to land at the edge of this, because I was moving him away from the ship, he lands at the edge, like the teetering edge of the remains of that room that was taken apart, where Caoimhe, Maebela, Brontë, Efta, and Zolfta are. So he’s landed.
Art: Get him.
Austin: And he’s like, “Shit.”
Art: Get him. He tried to push me off the boat when I was hanging there. He was a jerk with the money burning.
Keith: We saved his life, and he was a jerk.
Art: Yeah.
Darcy: He sucks.
Art: Get that chef. [Austin chuckles]
Keith: He wanted a flare. Unbelievable.
Austin: It is them again now, I guess. I'm going to look at their traits and see if anybody else is actually giving up on this.
Art: Oh, sorry that I didn't get to give anyone MP, because instead I had to do my revenge against the chef. [Ali and Jack laugh]
Keith: [laughing] Throw an Elemental Shard.
Sylvia: All right, man.
Austin: That’s roleplaying. It really is. That really is roleplaying, IMO.
Art: I can't abide this man to live.
Austin: Yeah. We're going to get a little vignette here of each of the soldiers, kind of who they are. And Arno, Oracle Infantry, having been the only one who’s ever been effective against Antistrophe, who is Grim and Gritty, is like, “No. I am not abandoning ship,” and cocks the, you know, does like the lever action [Keith: Mm-hmm.] on the rifle and fires one more time at you, Antistrophe. 13.
Keith: And that is…magic?
Austin: Magic; against Magic Defense.
Keith: And that hits.
Austin: That hits and does 18 plus 5 light damage, minus 4.
Keith: Minus 4. 19.
Austin: So 19.
Keith: 19.
Austin: Where are you at?
Keith: 8.
Austin: Phew!
Ali: God. [laughs quietly] 
Austin: And Arno was like, [imitates rapidly cocking and firing three times] Like, walking you down with this thing.
Keith: This guy Arno has done more damage to me than anyone else besides, like, a “take a Fabula Point” enemy.
Austin: Or like a, yeah, like a Villian, a dragon.
Keith: That’s what I mean. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. 
Art: Yeah.
Keith: No, the Draconic Mole didn't do this much damage to me.
Austin: Damn! Arno…
Sylvia: That’s fucked up!
Keith: It was in Burzin.
Austin: Oh, right, of course.
Keith: When we got a big blast or something.
Austin: Yeah, that makes sense.
Keith: And that did, like, 50 damage to me or something.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: That’s the only time.
Sylvia: Do not give this guy a shovel. He will destabilize the entire region. [Austin and Ali laugh]
Keith: [laughing] Again, if anybody can do some kind of healing.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Some IP, I would take it.
Ali: So it’s our turn?
Austin: Oh, I just realized something. I just realized something. I just realized something. You can't have used the thing on Fares, because Sarithe’s last action last time was to defend him, remember?
Jack: [chuckles] Oh no.
Austin: So in fact, you would have—
Keith: Wait, but—
Austin: Oh, no. No, no, no, sorry. That only protects him from melee attacks. It still works. You're good.
Keith: It still works. And then also, he left.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: So he couldn't have been being guarded.
Austin: Well, she could have jumped in front of the bullet, you know? If it had said, “melee, ranged, or spell attacks,” you know?
Keith: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: But it didn't, so.
Keith: Right.
Austin: He, in fact, left the safety of being behind her [Keith: Yeah.] and got shot in the back for it, which, good.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Ali: So it’s our turn now?
Austin: It’s your turn.
Keith: We hate deserters on Friends at the Table. [Austin, Ali, and Keith laugh]
Austin: I think there's, like, a history between these two that we're getting into, like, the very wide edges of, where she’s really fond of him, and he kind of is just using her power to, like, get him into a cushy position where he just has to cook for people. I don't know. I don't know.
Keith: I don't know.
Darcy: Girl, you could do better.
Austin: She could do better. 
Darcy: Girl… [Ali laughs]
Austin: I actually don't know that she could. She’s getting…
Keith: I actually don't know.
Austin: She’s getting washed.
Darcy: Get away from her. Get a job.
Ali: I want to keep fighting. [laughs] 
Keith: Has she landed an attack today? I don't know if she can do better.
Austin: Yeah, she hit Veile a couple rounds ago with the javelin.
Keith: Okay, yeah. Hit Veile, sure.
Austin: But that’s not who she is. She’s a Shieldmaiden. She’s not a, you know, a javelin maiden.
Keith: But she also can't defend against an attack.
Austin: Yeah, I know. I know.
Art: And everyone hits Veile with attacks. That’s not, like…
Austin: [quietly] Oh my god.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: I have never been knocked out.
Keith: You can hit Veile with an attack by mistake.
Austin: Veile’s never been knocked out?
Ali: I've never been knocked out.
Austin: But Elena has the same stats as you.
Keith: Well, people work very hard to protect you.
Sylvia: Wow.
Jack: Yeah, this came up, I think, the last time I got knocked— Oh, this is what precipitated the push-up contest, the sit-up contest.
Austin: Ah, right, yeah.
Jack: Where Elena was like, “I don't understand why it keeps happening to me.”
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: “I have the same stats as her, and it never happens to her.” [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Okay. So, it’s our turn.
Austin: It is your turn.
Ali: I want to go early in the round, because I have another, like, support thing. But Antistrophe should go before me, before your Might thing expires.
Austin: Oh, smart. Smart. 
Keith: Oh, that’s true. Yeah, before my Might thing expires, I'm going to do a last attack—I hope—against Sarithe and hope that I can be protected from another attack by Arno, either by being healed by about 20 or more or the Protect move.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Here it goes. Wait, no. Here it goes.
Austin: Oh my god, you missed.
Keith: Oh my god. 
Austin: You rolled a 3. You rolled a 3.
Keith: Oh my god. Oh my god.
Austin: You almost critical fumbled. You rolled a 2 and a 1.
Keith: I rolled a 2 and a 1. [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: Oh. What’s this look like?
Keith: I just, I'm hurt for the first time.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: That’s what it looks like. It looks like a guy who’s trying to swing, I don't know, 250 pounds worth of shields [Austin laughs] after being shot twice and being more hurt than he’s ever been in his life. You know. Antistrophe, I think, comes across like a big strong guy, because he’s wearing big armor, but he’s not that big of a guy, and he’s wearing the armor because he doesn't do this. Like, I don't use a sword, [Austin: Yeah.] because he doesn't really know how to use a sword.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I have big armor, because I'm trying to protect myself. I use two shields, because I'm trying to protect myself. So being at 8 HP, it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me since losing magic. [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: Yeah. Wow. You swing down. She, like, hits both of the shields away, and she’s going to try it, right?
Ali: Oh no.
Austin: What’s she going to do, not try it? 
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: 14. Does that hit?
Keith: Misses. No.
Austin: It misses. You're a 15.
Keith: 15.
Austin: Oh, she misses by 1! [groans]
Keith: Yeah. Can't do it. She can't hit me.
Austin: And if she did, you'd be knocked out. If this was a 15, you would be knocked out.
Keith: Yeah. [Austin groans] I'd be knocked out.
Art: Well, no, right? 
Austin: Because you would have Protected.
Art: Either Jonathan or Nicky would have Protected.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she’s going to try. You know, but in her heart, she’s like, “If only.” [Ali laughs]
Keith: Right. She knows, if it hit me, it would have knocked me out.
Austin: That’s right. All right, back to y'all.
Ali: Okay. This is kind of a— well, okay. [laughs] I regret not doing this two turns ago, for Antistrophe’s sake, but I, with 10 out of 13 MP, am going to cast Divination: “You briefly glimpse into the future. Until this spell ends, after a creature you can see performs a check—this is allies and enemies—if it was not a fumble or a critical success, you may force that creature to reroll both dice.”
Austin: Phew.
Keith: Whoa.
Ali: I have two rerolls this way.
Austin: Yes.
Ali: So if anybody fucks up but doesn't get a critical and is like, “I want to reroll this,” you have a free reroll. 
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: If anybody gets hit by something and it’s like, “Oh shit. That’s about to knock me out and put me into Crisis,” we can force a reroll out of that.
Austin: I love it.
Keith: Great.
Ali: And I think this is Veile, like I was saying, she was locked in on, like, “How am I able to best help the situation?” and I think that, like, especially after the gem crush thing and [Austin: Mm-hmm.] seeing Antistrophe sort of slow down and seeing that, you know, [laughs quietly] there was like a stand down moment that this Conflict could have been ended, and now it’s even more, like, everybody is even more mad than that somehow. I think she’s like, I need to protect everybody at once, and I don't know how to do that, [Austin: Yeah.] and I just need to magically look into every possible future in this moment and be like, I'm not letting the people around me get hurt.
Austin: Yeah. Love it. All right. Hosi, Hovering Pyroclastic, who is in Crisis and landed, as you might remember, has Devoted and is going to stay with Sarithe to the end and is going to target Antistrophe and Nicky here with Ignition and is going to miss with a 6. [Ali laughs] Flames coming out of the flamethrower. Just, they don't reach you. You know? Misjudges. Like, tries to aim at the ground to kind of catch you as a group and just doesn't, they don't reach. They heat you up, but they don't hit you.
Art: Should have tried the Remix to Ignition.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Art: Oh, wait.
Sylvia: No. No, we shouldn't have. No.
Art: I'm sorry. I forgot whose song that was.
Austin: Yeah. You got there. You got there!
Sylvia: Yeah… [Darcy laughs]
Jack: Like a full journey.
Art: Yeah. The fact that I get, yeah, that I sometimes get him confused with Usher has become really bad for Usher. [Austin laughs]
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Back to y'all.
Darcy: So who still needs to go? It’s me. It’s Elena.
Janine: I haven't gone this time.
Austin: It’s Caoimhe. It’s Brontë.
Janine: Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah, a lot of people.
Jack: I mean, I might just cast my Glacies, although…
Austin: You know the Elemental Shield is gone on the remaining people, right?
Jack: The Elemental Shield is gone. Yep. And this is a Glacies that was set up with the spell shards, so… Did we say, Austin, that with these, it is a guaranteed hit?
Austin: No. It’s whatever the roll was at the time.
Jack: Oh, motherfucker. [chuckles] 
Austin: Yes? [Jack groans] Did you not—? You didn't write it down.
Jack: No, I wrote it down. It’s just not good.
Austin: What is it?
Jack: It’s 10.
Austin: Well, you know that she has an 8.
Jack: Oh! Okay. Okay, good.
Austin: I don't remember if you know anybody else’s, so I'm not saying.
Jack: No. Well, I am aiming at her.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Jack: And it was a high roll plus 15, so it’s going to deal 22 damage.
Austin: And that’s a single target, or is that a multi target?
Jack: I didn't write down multi target, and I think I remember thinking it’s a single target.
Austin: Okay.
Jack: I think I would have written down “Glacies on two” or something, because above it I've written “Barrier for two.”
Austin: Sure. What’s this look like?
Jack: I've described Glacies appearing kind of differently in the past. I think in this case it is like… God, I think it’s like a series of sharp ice shards form in the air around her and position themselves such that as she turns or moves she can't help but kind of blunder into them. It’s sort of like, it’s almost like ice barbed wire or something.
Austin: Oof. Yeah. And I think she’s doing exactly that; turning to try to get some slightly safer perspective. She, you know, looks out and sees that Arno and Hosi are still here, sees Fares flying away. Who, by the way, I realized she had an ability to try to counterattack against Nicky when Nicky hit Fares there, and I just forgot to hit it. Oh well. Which, by the way, another good reason you focused her down is any time you were going to hit one of her allies, she could have counterattacked on their behalf. That’s part of what she does. But she didn't get a chance to do that, because you focused on her so thoroughly. And yeah, she can't find a way past these encroaching icicles, and they close in on her, and she falls. The javelin, you know, and the shield falling to the ground. Frozen, knocked out.
Jack: Excellent. I think Elena’s like, 
(as Elena): Yes! 
Austin: [chuckles] Ahh.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Nice hit.
Austin: Yeah, nice hit.
Jack (as Elena): Thank you!
Austin: And that, I think, is the end of their round then, because that’s her, and the other members of their crew have gone. It’s just Hosi and— I guess Fares. No, Fares took his action to leave, to try to leave, so yeah. It is the rest of y'all. What do you do? You know, I think that they are— I would say that Hosi is distraught at seeing Sarithe go down but has not dropped weapons yet. Arno is singlemindedly focused on killing Antistrophe, and Fares is looking for— is like getting up the strength to jump and fly away again.
Keith: Well, we know Art needs to get the chef for his own sake.
Janine: Yeah.
Art: Someone can get the chef on my behalf. It’s not that personal.
Janine: Well, no, then it takes your glory away, and you were very angry, so I feel like it would be rude, actually.
Art: Well, but I'm on the boat, and he’s not on the boat.
Keith: Yeah. I meant that Art needs us to get the chef, is really more what I… So someone needs to get the chef for morale’s sake.
Janine: I do think, in this moment, Arno would maybe take priority, what with Antistrophe being more hurt than anyone has ever seen him ever. Ever, ever.
Keith: Yeah, how many turns do we have before Arno gets to go again?
Austin: Whoever’s left on your side.
Art: Who hasn't gone this round?
Keith: Have I gone? Was my miss part of this round?
Art: Yes.
Keith: Okay.
Art: I went first this round.
Austin: I think it is Caoimhe and Brontë.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: And I think that’s it. Maybe Jonathan. Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan.
Art: And Elena.
Darcy: Jonathan. Jonathan hasn't gone yet.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Art: And Elena, right?
Jack: No, I just went.
Austin: Elena just went.
Janine: That was the whole, yeah.
Keith: Elena finished off Sarithe.
Art: Oh, you just didn't roll a die.
Keith: Yeah, just didn't roll.
Jack: I rolled a dice two sessions ago.
Austin: That’s right. [Keith laughs] Past dice.
Jack: I took the fitness exam [Austin laughs] of the prince of rolling dice. 
Sylvia: Oh, I was thinking more Ozymandias from Watchmen.
Keith: Jonathan, you're up up, right?
Jack: Oh, yes, I did it two hours ago.
Sylvia: “I rolled it two sessions ago.” [Darcy laughs]
Jack: What’s that, Jonathan?
Keith: I asked if Jonathan was up up.
Darcy: Yeah, yeah.
Keith: Have you gotten to do anything since falling?
Darcy: Not yet.
Keith: I think Jonathan should go.
Austin: I want to float: if you can declare victory this round, you get a bonus XP. This is the last round in which you'll get a bonus XP.
Keith: Yes.
Austin: This is the fourth round.
Keith: I would like it.
Darcy: Gotcha. Okay. Then it is… Who’s the person that’s left on the ship?
Austin: It’s Arno and Hosi, and that’s it.
Keith: Yeah.
Darcy: Okay.
Austin: And remember, your goal is to take over the ship, not necessarily to kill everybody. You know?
Darcy: Right, yeah. And which is the one that is…? Is it Hosi the one that is, like, devoted?
Austin: Arno. Arno is the one who is just dumping light bullets into Antistrophe.
Keith: Arno, yeah.
Darcy: Okay. [sighs] Can we just get him to go? Just like, go get your lady and leave the boat?
Ali: Sounds like an objection roll. 
Janine: [chuckles] Yeah.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Yeah. I'd let you do it. I'll let you try it.
Darcy: Yeah, sure. What is this, Persuade?
Austin: Yeah. I think this is a difficulty… Again, I've kind of revealed is Gritty and Grim, so it’s actually difficulty 13 for him, and it’s difficulty 10 for Hosi. I think you just roll once for both of them here, though.
Darcy: Okay.
Austin: Oof. 8. Close.
Ali: Oh!
Austin: Can you Fabula it?
Darcy: No. I’m…
Ali: You can reroll for free! [laughs] 
Austin: You can reroll for free!
Darcy: Oh, that’s true. I can reroll for free.
Keith: That’s true.
Darcy: That's true. You did the whole fucking thing, huh?
Austin: So what do you see? What goes wrong here? What’s the wrong strategy that Jonathan, or that you divine for Jonathan?
Ali: Yeah, Jonathan, is your heart just not in it? Are you still angry?
Darcy: I think Jonathan’s being too nice.
Ali: Oh, being too nice, not too…
Austin: Oh, that’s good.
Ali: Okay, yeah.
Keith: Do you have to reroll both, or can you choose to only reroll that one?
Austin: It says both. It says both.
Keith: Both? Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Darcy: Ah, that’s a bummer.
Austin: Yeah. It says, “You may force that creature to reroll both dice.”
Keith: Yeah. Your best possible roll is an 18, and you need a 13, which is, like, not the worst odds in the world.
Austin: Yeah. Let’s get the reroll. I love the idea of you being too nice and kind of Veile realizing you have to, like, they're soldiers. They care so much about their, you know, rules of engagement and their honor and all of that, but that includes being a little hostile, you know? You're an enemy combatant.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Austin: You're demanding their surrender, basically. Ah, it’s a 12! [Darcy groans, Ali laughs sadly] Can anyone help or Bond here?
Jack: You know, I have a Bond with Jonathan, I think. 
Austin: Who hasn't gone yet this turn?
Janine: Me and Caoimhe, right?
Austin: This is the end of that.
Sylvia: I haven't gone yet.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I've been sitting here like, “Is my turn just—?” and I didn't say anything, because it seemed like we had stuff figured in a different direction, but is Brontë’s move here just to see Jonathan trying, just stands up, and pointing his next arrow directly at Fares, as a like…?
Austin: Yeah. I think that makes perfect sense.
Janine: As a buff to that threat, [Austin: Yep.] but I don't know if that’s the way to go actually, versus…
Austin: I think that would work fine.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. I think this makes more sense and would let us wrap this, you know? If it succeeds, which we'll see.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Insight plus Willpower. [Darcy chuckles]
Janine: Insight + Willpower. Big money.
Austin: You're looking for a 10.
Janine: That’s a 7.
Austin: That’s a 7. Okay, well. [Jack chuckles sadly]
Keith: Oh. Oh my god.
Ali: Reroll it. [laughs] 
Darcy: Do you have any Fabula Points?
Austin: Oh, but you can use the second Divination here if you wanted.
Keith: Yes, you can use the second Divination.
Sylvia: Oh.
Janine: Oh.
Austin: Which would be a lower difficulty.
Jack: Veile, on the ship…
Austin: Yeah. [Ali laughs]
Jack: Veile on the ship is like, “I see a better future.” [Ali laughs]
Keith: Don't we love time?
Austin: “Be meaner.”
Janine: Her back turned to Brontë as he holds this dude at gunpoint. [Janine and Austin laugh] Okay. Am I rolling this again?
Austin: Let’s do this one more time. You are. 
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: You're looking for a 10.
Janine: It’s a full reroll, right?
Ali: Yep.
Austin: It’s a full reroll.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: Yep.
Janine: 11!
Austin: Hey! 11! [Ali laughs]
Darcy: Woo!
Keith: Nice. [Janine sighs in relief]
Austin: You ever miss the simplicity of 2d6 plus stat? [Ali laughs]
Janine: Yeah.
Darcy: Ugh, sure do.
Keith: All the time. Literally all the time. 
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. All right. With that, Jonathan, you get another +1, which brings your Persuade up to a 13. You're just mean enough. What do you say to them in this moment?
Darcy: Um, what does Jonathan say? What does it look like for Jonathan to be successfully mean?
Austin: Or just, you know, severe.
Darcy: Yeah. Yeah. I think it looks like tapping into… Like, I was thinking about this earlier when Veile helped Jonathan out earlier, of like shouting at him to get him to pull himself up, and I think there's very much a real piece of, like, this moment is everything that Jonathan, like, gave up his home for, and I think there's probably just a part of him that is so devoted to this mission that he was willing to sacrifice his home for [Austin: Yeah.] that he will do anything.
Austin: Damn.
Darcy: And so I think it looks like Jonathan, like, in a fit of discomfort but anger, grabbing the Shieldmaiden and dragging her to the side of the ship. 
Austin: [sighs] Yeah. I think the Pyroclastic stops first. Arno keeps the gun held on Antistrophe and, like, is looking for guidance, basically, from Hosi. What do you say?
Darcy (as Jonathan): We can all go home. But it’s your choice.
Austin: The two of them look at each other.
Darcy (as Jonathan): I'll sleep easy if you make it.
Austin: The two of them look at each other and nod.
Janine: Do they have homes?
Austin: They live here, sort of. [Janine makes ambivalent noise] They have barracks. We've seen their barracks. And, you know, through the sort of gas mask, you know, fixture, says,
(as Hosi): All right. Truce.
Austin: Lower their weapons and walk over to the Shieldmaiden and, you know, kneel down to make sure she’s okay, and the two of them lift her up with all their strength and look at you and say, you know,
(as Hosi): We accept this defeat. Will you drop us at the edge of the castle?
Darcy (as Jonathan): [sighs] Yeah. Let me go take the lead.
Austin (as FLEGbot): Whoa!
Darcy: [chuckles] Was that just a “wow”?
Austin: It was a “woo”. 
Darcy: Oh, okay.
Austin: It was a “woo,” but it really cuts the “oo” off in the Large Robot effect here.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: I did, “Wooo!” and it came through like that, which is very weird.
Darcy: Mm.
Austin: Yeah. You're able to take…
Keith: Yeah, that’s a very pitch sensitive expression to the thing that removes all pitch.
Austin: Yeah, that makes sense.
Janine: I thought for a second that you said, “No.” [Austin and Ali laugh] And I was like, “Oh fuck.” [Darcy laughs]
Sylvia: Yeah, I also did, actually.
Austin (as FLEGbot): No!
Darcy: “No, I get to drive.”
Austin (as FLEGbot): I get to drive.
Austin: Like that, yeah. 
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Yeah. Able to take control. The FLEGbot has—I'm just going to say the thing that came to my mind—sunglasses on.
Ali: Mm.
Darcy: Oh, hell yeah.
Austin: And I guess slides over to the, like, copilot chair of this vessel [Darcy: Mm-hmm.] and lets you drive it back over to the ad hoc dock of this side now, which is just the broken remains of this part of the ship or the castle. By the time you get there, Fares, Devout Chef, has once again floated away on the wings and is trying to get away. I think you might have to let this one go, Nicky.
Art: What, you don't think I should spend all my Inventory Points on this? You don't think…?
Jack: Can you declare a Bond of Hate? [Darcy laughs]
Art: No.
Austin: I mean, you could, right?
Darcy: You could, yeah.
Art: No, I have— Oh, I can only declare a Bond of Hate if specific things happen.
Austin: I see. 
Ali: Mm.
Jack: Really? Fuck.
Austin: Or if you're, like, at a campfire you can do it, but that seems like the…
Art: Yeah.
Jack: I thought there was a point where you were, like, declaring Bonds of Hate against trees you didn't like.
Ali: It’s when you hit Crisis, right?
Art: I have to get into Crisis, [Ali: Yeah.] and we used to be getting in Crisis a lot.
Jack: Oh, I see.
Darcy: Mm.
Art: Because other people in the party were getting knocked out. [Keith laughs]
Austin: Yeah. [Jack chuckles] Something very interesting has happened, and your approaching something else very interesting, which is you have been fighting level 10 people for, like, this whole dungeon. There was a big rule change in the Bestiary, where it used to be every five levels you'd fight new people, but now it’s 5, then 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, et cetera.
Darcy: Oh.
Austin: And so, right now, like, Sarithe was a level 10 character. Now, she was a Champion, a rank 4 Champion, so she got four attacks per round, but she’s still level 10, so I'm very curious what’s going to happen when you hit level 20, because it’s going to be a new type of enemy for y'all to face off against.
Jack: It’s going to be like one of those areas where you go into a different leveled zone in an MMO [Austin: Yes.] and suddenly things just start knocking your heads off.
Austin: That seems to be the case, yes. So, we will see how it goes. Yeah. They leave. They walk carefully past Efta and Zolfta and Caoimhe and Maebela and Brontë and head south into what is enemy territory for them, notably. This is where Eaja was. This is where the Windborne Church is. They're going to have to find a way through enemy territory back over to their side of the castle, though hopefully they will find, for their own sakes, that there's a broader truce coming into play, as the Ennead, your Ennead, has stopped in, you know, trying to manipulate them. But otherwise, you're all here. You're all aboard the Adventure Beckons.
[combat end music]
On the Airship [1:36:50]
Austin: So, you are all aboard the Adventure Beckons, Jonathan’s brand new airship. What’s the vibe on here? And Jonathan, can we get a greater picture of what this ship is, so we can all imagine more than just the open-air deck of, like, a boat?
Darcy: Yeah. It’s definitely open air deck. Everything’s made of wood. Lots of big sails. I think, again, I said very classic, like, old school Final Fantasy airship. It looks like a boat that can fly. It has, I think most of the rooms are inside the…what do you call that part of the ship? Like, the hull?
Austin: The hull, yeah. The lower decks, yeah.
Darcy: Like, you go down. You go down into it, into the lower decks, yeah. I know for sure there is a, like, special workshop space set up. I think there's also like, there's probably a room for everyone.
Jack: Wow.
Austin: “Everyone” here meaning…
Darcy: That is, like, claimed as their own.
Austin: “Everyone” as in the Little Snail crew. 
Darcy: No.
Austin: Or is there also rooms for the eastern party, for Caoimhe and—?
Darcy: Yes.
Austin: Oh, interesting.
Sylvia: Oh.
Keith: Ooh. AirBnB. In-the-air BnB.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Janine: Have you ever seen the floorplan of the Hindenburg?
Jack: [chuckles] Ominous. No.
Art: No, of course not.
Darcy: No.
Keith: I've seen the ground plan. [Darcy and Art laugh]
Janine: Ayoo. Yeah, that was not the plan.
Art: That wasn't the plan.
Darcy: The on-fire plan? Oh, this is cool.
Janine: Yeah, it’s cool.
Jack: [typing] Hindenburg.
Darcy: Yeah, that’s what this is, for sure.
Austin: Little cabins, big area, like a group area.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Janine: They have a reading and writing room.
Austin: A promenade. [Jack chuckles]
Sylvia: Ooh.
Art: Finally, a Hindenburg that won't catch on fire.
Austin: Now, wait a second. We haven't made any promises.
Keith: That’s a great slogan.
Austin: What’s this thing made of?
Darcy: Uh, like magic wood.
Austin: Okay, so here’s actually an important question: is it flying via magic or is it flying—? I know that this is a shaky line for us. 
Darcy: Sure.
Austin: Are there big propellers on the bottom or something, or is it—?
Darcy: Yes.
Austin: Okay. So there is, at least…
Darcy: I believe earlier I talked about it having, like, it’s like a three, like the body is in the middle of two other turbine things.
Austin: That’s right. Yes, I remember this now.
Keith: What was the word? Janine, what was the word that you taught me?
Janine: Nacelle.
Darcy: Oh yeah. What was the word, Janine?
Austin: The nacelles.
Keith: Yeah, the nacelle that I knew about.
Austin: Okay.
Darcy: We all knew about it.
Keith: We all knew about that.
Austin: [chuckles] Love it. And so then, yeah, there's rooms on the interior. We know there's enough. There's some sort of garage that’s empty right now but could contain the Little Snail. Right?
Darcy: Mm-hmm. It’s not already there, is it?
Austin: Oh. Yeah, it’d be really convenient if it were, right? [Ali and Jack laugh quietly] Where’d you—? You left it at the dock in…
Darcy: We left it in town.
Austin: In town. Yeah. It might actually be—
Keith: Doesn't the magic wish bring the Little Snail here?
Austin: I think it—
Keith: If this were Jonathan’s?
Austin: If I was in the game design for this, if this was a video game, I would say you just have to put it in the ship, because there's actually not a way to drive it from the docks of town [Darcy: Mm.] up through the mountains out to where you could land the ship safely, and so I think, yeah, I think you have to.
Janine: You could winch it up.
Austin: Yeah. You could winch it up. You could winch it up.
Keith: I could also imagine, like, a comedy scene.
Austin: This is true.
Keith: Where we're like, “Well, you guys already have a ship, and we found this ship together, so why don't we take the ship, [Darcy chuckles] and you can have your car?”
Ali: What?
Keith: Why do you get both? Why does your crew get two vehicles?
Jack: Because we're the crew of the Little Snail. It’s our ship. [laughs quietly] 
Darcy: Yeah.
Ali (as Veile): We're on a divine mission.
Darcy: “How come you have a car that you bought, and I don't?”
Keith (as Antistrophe): Yeah, you're the crew of the Little Snail; then why— Hold on. We found this ship together. Why do you get the car that you already have and this ship?
Darcy: Do you want the real answer, Keith? It’s because Jonathan gave up his entire home.
Keith: No, no. I agree. This is… [Darcy laughs quietly] 
Austin: It’s roleplay.
Keith: But then we find the Little Snail in the hull, [Austin: I see.] and I go, “Wait.” This is not me trying to steal your ship. This is Antistrophe being like, 
(as Antistrophe): Why would you take the ship when you already have your own ship?
Ali (as Veile): Well, because we need—
Keith (as Antistrophe): When we found this ship together.
Art (as Nicky): That’s our job.
Darcy: I have another in character reason for that, actually.
Ali (as Veile): We need to travel by sea.
Darcy (as Jonathan): Yeah. We've gotta fly to the White Lectern.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Where…?
Art (as Nicky): And when we get there, we have to sell lunches.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Sorry, you don't own the concept of it would be convenient to fly.
Ali (as Veile): Well, yes, but…
Sylvia: Why are you doing this?
Keith: Because the solution is already here. It’s how their car is magically already inside of it.
Austin: Antistrophe is looking— Keith is looking for a punchline that is like, oh, it says at the bottom—
Keith: Yeah, everyone is thinking I'm arguing, [Austin: Yeah.] even though I feel like I set it up exactly…
Sylvia: I know.
Darcy: “I'm just arguing. Why does everybody think I'm arguing when I'm telling them they're wrong and what they're doing is unfair?”
Janine: I don't drive, so.
Keith: It would be crazy. It would be crazy if two crews came together and one of them already had a big special car, and they found a ship together, and the crew with the car said, “And we get the ship; no discussions.” That would be crazy.
Sylvia: Oh, we should get the car is what you're saying.
Keith: No. I'm just saying the crew with the car shouldn't by default get the ship.
Janine: I don't think we want either of them.
Keith: As a bit, because—
Janine: If we want a vehicle, I could buy us a nice little wagon.
Sylvia: Yeah, I know. That’s why I said that as a bit.
Janine: [cross] Or, like, a pony. Like, a couple really cute little horses?
Keith: [cross] I don't want a vehicle.
Ali: Then, what? Why are we doing this? [laughs quietly] 
Austin: [laughs quietly] I don't know. Get me out of here, Ali. Send me a rope. Pull me up.
Sylvia: Treat me like a bag of wheat. [Austin, Jack, and Darcy laugh] 
Austin: You're aboard the Adventure Beckons. You all have little rooms. Presumably you're flying away from the castle, I guess, question mark? What’s everyone doing aboard?
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Is there, like, an engine room for this thing? Because I feel like that’s the thing that would interest me the most, [Darcy: Yeah.] is being like, “How the fuck does this actually keep afloat?”
Austin: Yeah.
Darcy: Lots of intricate gears all interlocked amongst each other.
Sylvia: Hell yeah.
Art: Kicking the tires in the kitchen.
Sylvia: Why you got tires in the kitchen?
Austin: And lighting the fires. You're doing both, presumably.
Darcy: Mm.
Art: Yeah.
Janine: I just want to double check: we didn't forget anyone, right?
Austin: I don't believe so.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Maebela’s here.
Darcy: No.
Janine: Okay.
Darcy: Waylon’s here.
Austin: Waylon’s here. Efta and Zolfta are here.
Janine: Yeah. I just, yeah.
Austin: Gnova is hanging out and watching as you fly away from the observatory.
Janine: Okay.
Ali: Can I wave?
Austin: Yeah, sure. I mean, I don't know if they— yeah. I think maybe they're looking through the telescope at you or something, but you know, you know they're in there.
Ali: I think Veile is looking wistfully over the edge of the ship.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Antistrophe is sleeping and injured.
Austin: Yeah. Place you could safely rest, here.
Keith: Yeah.
Darcy: Mm.
Jack: I think I am also looking wistfully over the other side of the airship. You know, like classic leaning on the rail with my head cupped in my hands, and you know, the feeling of, like, “I've upgraded to the airship. Now this is real adventuring business.” [Ali chuckles] And also we can put the dungeon behind us, you know? Which was extremely stressful.
Janine: I think Brontë has found a deck chair somewhere and has, like, kicked back. [Austin and Sylvia laugh] 
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Janine: Like one of those antique Victorian ones? I have to find a good picture, because some of these are wild looking I mean, this isn't like a luxury ship, so I'll pick one that’s a little more, like, rough. [Sylvia laughs]
Jack: “This isn't like a luxury ship.” But I know what you mean.
Austin: Yeah, I see it. That’s a cool chair.
Jack: Whoa, look at that!
Darcy: Wow.
Janine: It’s all, like, woven. Yeah, it’s not like polished wood. It’s like little…
Darcy: Yeah, that’d be complicated.
Jack: This looks like the sort of chair you recline in in your greenhouse when your estranged uncle comes to you to tell you that you're inheriting a large amount of money.
Janine: Yeah.
Darcy: Mm.
Jack: And it’s, like, 1814.
Janine: And also you have tuberculosis. 
Keith: Waylon needs to sit in one of these.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: This is the fancier one. I think that’s too fancy.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: It’s still pretty cool, though, I'll tell you.
Janine: Yeah, they're cool.
Keith: Yeah. 
Jack: Yeah, still very cool.
Austin: Who is not accounted for here?
Jack: I think that might be everybody, right?
Austin: I think so. Maybe that is it.
Jack: Maebela?
Austin: I think getting the tour from Jonathan? If he’s up for that, if he’s up to, you know.
Darcy: Yeah. Uh, hmm. Is Jonathan up for that? Because as you explained it to me, Austin, it is not— Jonathan not being able to go home is not a thing where, like with Maebela, it’s like history was rewritten, and Jonathan has never been able to go home. And, you know, has forgotten everything that happened in the last however many days.
Austin: Yeah, you've not— Yeah, you've made a trade, very actively. And so did she.
Darcy: Sure.
Austin: And, you know, I don't know what the experience in her own mind is here. I'm curious if she knows. I think she probably also knows that she made the trade, but she did it, you know what I mean?
Darcy: Mm.
Austin: In the way that you remember making this trade, I think she probably, in her own internal life, knows, to some degree at least, right?
Darcy: Gosh. So in, like, a really interesting way, Maebela is now maybe being the older sibling, as Jonathan talks about these very complicated feelings of like, 
Austin: Mm.
Darcy (as Jonathan): I can't go home. I've made that choice. I don't even know what would happen if I tried.
Austin: I mean, that’s a great question. I think she says— I think she has maybe become pretty hard-nosed about it, which is like, 
(as Maebela): We're better out here anyway. This is the world for us. Places like this: this ship, the Dragon Path. You know. We should never have left— We were never supposed to be there anyway. The only foothills we belong to are the foothills of adventure.
Darcy (as Jonathan): [sighs] It’s just, it’s hard when you love somewhere and it never felt like it loved you back. I don't regret the choice, but it’s hard knowing that it’ll never change, that the way it was left is just how it’s going to be.
Austin (as Maebela): You know, there was a time I wasn't an adventurer like this. We don't talk about that time very much, I know that.
Darcy (as Jonathan): That seems like forever ago.
Austin (as Maebela): A lifetime. And I can't begin to understand the decision you made, not exactly, but the way I see it is: you made that decision. I made my decisions. We gotta make the most of the decisions we made, otherwise it ain't worth it. 
Darcy (as Jonathan): [sighs] Yeah.
Austin (as Maebela): So take this damn thing to the White Lectern and do whatever it is you and that priestess and your chef friend and that other magic one, [Ali snorts] what y'all set out to do.
Darcy (as Jonathan): [sighs] Yeah. I suppose I can write Momma all sorts of sad letters after we save the world.
Austin (as Maebela): She’d appreciate that, probably. I haven't— I haven't done much of that.
Darcy (as Jonathan): Well. Maybe we'll both write her.
Austin (as Maebela): Maybe. You got a kitchen in here, or…?
Darcy (as Jonathan): Oh yeah. Just follow the sound of Nicky cursing. You'll find it.
Art (as Nicky): Why would you put the sink over here? What idiot designed this piece of crap? [Austin and Sylvia laugh]
Jack: The classic kicking the tires of a kitchen is complaining about the orientation of the kitchen.
Darcy: Oh, sure. The counter is two inches too short for Nicky. 
Austin: Ugh. Ugh.
Darcy: You gotta bend over just that much. Ugh.
Austin: Annoying.
Janine: The work triangle or whatever’s all fucked up. [Austin chuckles]
Jack: [chuckles] The work line.
Janine: I forget what it’s called.
Jack: Work…
Austin: I know what you mean, yeah.
Darcy: Like working the line? What?
Janine: No, the triangle of, like, sink, fridge, stove or whatever.
Jack: No, I think it is the triangle.
Darcy: Oh!
Art: Hmm.
Darcy: Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: You gotta be able to reach. You gotta be able to move between them.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Austin: What’s the plan? Actually, maybe who’s Waylon going to talk to here? [Darcy laughs] Because Waylon wants to know what the plan is. God, who’s the—? Who would Waylon turn to? I don't want to just center Jonathan here again. You know what I mean?
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Austin: I think maybe Waylon starts ringing a bell. Waylon finds a bell and starts ringing it, out on the deck.
Ali (as Veile): Are you okay, sir?
Austin (as Waylon): Sir? You don't need to— Don't hit me with that “sir” stuff. I don't need all that.
Ali (as Veile): Oh, well…
Austin: Ding ding ding ding ding. Waiting for more people.
Ali (as Veile): Uh, can I help you?
Jack (as Elena): You okay, Waylon?
Austin (as Waylon): I mean, look around, am I okay. Is this okay, where we are?
Ali (as Veile): Uh…
Jack (as Elena): Can you stop ringing that?
Austin (as Waylon): Once everyone’s out here. I'm trying to have a house meeting.
Jack (as Elena): I don't think you're going to get—
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Is there a fire? What’s going on? Oh god.
Jack (as Elena): No, it’s all good. Waylon’s just ringing the bell.
Austin (as Waylon): One, two, three, four. I'm seeing four, but there's like 30 people on this ship.
Darcy (as Jonathan): [shouting distantly] Hey, I'm trying to drive in here! Who’s ringing that bell?
Ali (as Veile): [calling back] We're handling it, I think.
Austin (as Waylon): Now, wait, I gotta talk to Jonathan too. Can't he put that little, uh, robot on there?
Ali (as Veile): Well, you saw how that went.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Not…
Austin (as Waylon): [Austin chuckling] It went fine. We got out. [Ali laughs quietly]
Darcy (as Jonathan): Okay, all right. Can you stop ringing the bell?
Austin (as Waylon): Is this everybody? Everyone who has an opinion, at least.
Keith: Antistrophe sort of slowly gets out onto the deck.
Jack (as Elena): Where’s Brontë?
Austin (as Waylon): Big man.
Ali (as Veile): These people need rest.
Janine: [laughing] Sorry, I had the… [Darcy laughs]
Austin (as Waylon): Big man, yeah, we can make rest, you know.
Janine: I had the shittiest idea, which is that Brontë makes absolutely no move to, like, get up or move, but eventually the bell gets annoying enough that Efta and Zolfta pick up his chair and just, like, turn it to face Waylon down the thing. [Ali, Austin, Jack, and Darcy laugh]
Austin: Oh, it’s good. 
(as Waylon): All right, we're all gathered. I'm happy about that. Where are we going, and how do I get home from here?
Keith (as Antistrophe): Good question.
Jack (as Elena): Jonathan, is it clear how to leave the Dragon Path when you have an airship? Do we just point ourselves…? I mean, we fell downwards into here, so do we just point ourselves back up?
Darcy: [hushed] Hey, Austin. Do I know how to fly an airship out of here? [laughs] 
Keith: Wasn't there a hole in the sky?
Austin: So, yeah. What I would say is one of you knows— not one of you. Half of you know vaguely the direction you were going to try to get to Lucena’s city, because here in the Dragon Path, you can kind of see the bright white sun that floats over the Gleaming Fortress, Lumai—it kind of exists both in the Dragon Path and here—and so you know that there must be the path you were safely traveling on that would take you to—
Keith: Right. We were on the Path on purpose.
Austin: You can probably find where that is simply by looking at where both Lumai’s sun is—where Lucena’s is—and where Castine’s big moon, big, you know, metal moon thing is, because those two things are both kind of the same for each of the gods, each of the Ennead members. So you can kind of be like, oh, I think that’s the line we were walking. you can kind of see, you know. Do you have telescopes aboard or anything? Yeah.
Darcy: Yeah. 
Austin: So given those two things, you'd be like, “I think that’s the general direction. I bet we could find the line over there somewhere.” And then the rest of you, I think probably, you know, you kind of fell more directly south—or not south, but down from where you were. You can kind of work out some direction back to the big gap that brought you in here. Again, there was almost like a wound in the world that led into the Dragon Path that was unclosed. It had been closed forever. Remember, there’d been some sort of closed passageway into the mountains, and the dragon fight opened it up and ripped it open, and that’s when you fell inside. And so you could kind of find your way back there. I think maybe that is probably your best hope to fly out of here that you can intuit. Theoretically, maybe you could do some sort of ritual to just do it, but that’s hard. Like, that is a big difficult thing. Not that you don't have powerful mages aboard and you could rest and get your magic back and all of that, but this is not like a dimension-hopping ship. You know, there's not like a button you can hit to open a gate to go between the Dragon Path and the regular Perpetua very easily. I think you'd probably have to go to a place of power or something and do something in that place, and that’s doable, but your intuitive sense is like, I bet we could kind of find this once place that did connect the two places and push our way through, you know?
Jack: We could fly to where Lumai is, try and push through there, drop the other party off, because we're going to— Little Snail crew is going to need to be doing a lot of flying anyway, you know, if we're aiming for White Lectern in the south.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Jack: So we could, like, we could drop people off on our way.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack (as Elena): But I mean, more to the point, Waylon, we can… I mean, Jonathan won't be able to, but we can take you back to— 
Jack: What’s his town called?
Austin: Spillaway Peaks.
Jack (as Elena): Yeah, we can take you back to Spillaway Peaks. You've got that photo to take.
Keith: He does not remember about that.
Austin: I don't know if— I'm trying to remember. I'm actually trying to remember his—
Keith: He will not know what you're talking about, because he didn't have the camera anymore.
Austin: Does he not have the camera? He must have the camera still. We explicitly took his camera?
Keith: I believe this came up immediately. He does not remember the camera.
Austin: That’s brutal. A whole life of photography, ruined. [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith: Yep. To be young.
Ali: Veile feels so bad about this.
Jack: About abandoning Spillaway Peaks?
Keith: There's something wrong with the turtles. I don't know what to tell you.
Ali: About putting Waylon in the position that this happened. [laughs quietly] I think that she… [Darcy laughs] What a horrible thing to have happened.
Austin: Yeah. Well, you know. He’s having a good time. He likes it.
Keith: It was his choice.
Austin (as Waylon): I mean, I could— I just want to know what we're doing. I don't have to go back to Spillaway Peaks. I'm young! I could see the world. I know how a boat works.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Why did you say “I'm young” like that?
Austin (as Waylon): I have a lot of my life ahead of me.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Yeah, okay, yeah.
Jack: Elena glances at Veile.
Austin (as Waylon): Lot of people tryin’ to tell me I gotta settle down, I gotta pick a career, I gotta get married and whatnot.
Jack (as Elena): Veile, can I talk to you for a moment?
Ali (as Veile): Yeah.
Jack (as Elena): Waylon’s coming with us? [Janine laughs]
Ali (as Veile): I don't think that’s a good idea.
Keith (as Antistrophe): He’s nice. [hushed] He is nice now.
Ali (as Veile): Well, no, but…
Janine: He’s not that nice. Are we forgetting the bell thing?
Austin: Talking to Caoimhe. He’s like,
(as Waylon): You're telling me I can't pull? I can pull.
Ali (as Veile): I…
Janine: Huh?
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Hey, man. I didn't mean anything by it. I just was like, you know, it does take more than one person.
Austin (as Waylon): I don't know. I’ll find a person if I have to.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I mean, you would have to, if you want to get—
Austin (as Waylon): Get wedded.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Just go to the ocean.
Austin (as Waylon): Wedded, not wetted. 
Ali: [quietly] God.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Oh. [Keith laughs]
Sylvia: We're doing our fucking Abbott and Costello bit over there while they're discussing, like, “Oh my god, I can't believe we gotta keep this turtle with us.”
Darcy: Wait, who’s Waylon trying to marry?
Austin: No one. 
Keith: Anyone.
Austin: In fact, is saying, “I don't want to get married.”
Darcy: Oh.
Sylvia: No one.
Keith: Right.
Austin: …but is saying, “I could.”
Janine: Yeah, he could if he wanted to.
Sylvia: I just made a sarcastic little comment about how you'd have to find someone who’d do it first if he wanted to get married.
Keith: And he took offense.
Austin: That’s right.
Sylvia: And he took offense, which, you know, understandable.
Darcy: Fair.
Keith: I don't know where he’s going to put the fence. 
Ali: [quietly] Jesus christ. [Janine groans]
Keith: Sorry, I'm still doing Abbott and Costello.
Darcy: [cross] Probably by the ocean where he gets wetted.
Sylvia: [cross] It’s going to be damp after he gets wetted. Yeah. [Keith laughs quietly] 
Ali (as Veile): The nature of things, it’s not a good idea to bring the others.
Jack (as Elena): Maebela and Waylon?
Ali (as Veile): [disdainfully] Well, I mean, I'm sure Maebela has her own—
Ali: I have to not have that tone of voice in character. [Janine laughs]
Ali (as Veile): [cheerily] I'm sure Maebela has her own adventures to go on. [Sylvia laughs] As much as I… I don't feel as though we need that help.
Jack (as Elena): Well, that’s a comfort, I suppose, but I don't know how to say to him, “No, we don't need your…” I mean, he had a whole plan. He’d taken that photo for, like, 70 years or something. I don't know. No, way longer than that. Terrapine live for ages.
Ali (as Veile): We were writing that—
Jack (as Elena): Who’s going to take that photo now?
Ali (as Veile): That whole story was about to be about, you know, passing the torch.
Jack (as Elena): Oh, fuck! The newspaper!
Ali (as Veile): And we…
Jack (as Elena): We can't— We have to finish the newspaper.
Ali (as Veile): We should at least get the gem, even though… [sighs] 
Jack (as Elena): We can moor outside, I suppose, and you and I and Nicky can ride into town, and…I don't want to say “drop Waylon off.” That sounds awful.
Ali (as Veile): We should buy the gem, and we should let him make his own choices.
Jack (as Elena): Maybe you could… Remember when you were trying to connect with him about film?
Ali (as Veile): Uh huh?
Jack (as Elena): And you said that like a, I don't know, you said something about how being a priest is sort of like being a photographer. Maybe you could, like, put him back on the path of photography.
Ali (as Veile): Oh. Well, I suppose. I don't know.
Jack (as Elena): I mean, if you think that’s a good idea.
Ali (as Veile): Well, I don't know the nature of his heart now. He took some sort of bargain.
Jack (as Elena): Yeah. Well. I suppose things aren't all looking bad. We know where White Lectern is.
Ali (as Veile): Well, yes, but I've never felt as though I don't know where things stand with the Ennead, and now it’s all just so strange.
Jack (as Elena): Let’s start with something we can control: teaching that old man about a camera and sending him back home to take a picture. [Sylvia and Ali laugh]
Keith: Can you control that? I'm not so sure. [Ali and Janine laugh]
Sylvia: Please, he’s a young old man.
Art (as Nicky): Why would he have rewritten reality and have the same job at the newspaper? [Ali sighs]
Jack: I don't know. This is, uh…
Sylvia: A love of print media.
Jack: Guilty girls hour on the deck of the airship. [Darcy chuckles]
Keith: Hey, this is what he chose.
Ali (as Veile): He’ll find his passions, and we'll, you know, help him on his path, but I think we've taken something from that town, [cross] and they'll live with it.
Jack (as Elena): [cross] And we need to make it right.
Ali (as Veile): Oh. [Ali, Keith, Janine, and Austin laugh]
Jack (as Elena): Oh. Yes. They'll live with it.
Austin: Oh. [Austin and Janine sigh]
Sylvia: Great. Perfect. No notes.
Austin (as Waylon): Can you fish from up here, or nah?
Ali: You can in Final Fantasy.
Keith (as Antistrophe): [getting irritated] Waylon, we all just got here. I don't know.
Austin (as Waylon): Is there a fishing deck or not?
Keith (as Antistrophe): We all just got here! I don't know!
Austin (as Waylon): Well, let’s find out. Let’s look around.
Art: Waylon’s turning old. [Ali laughs]
Austin (as Waylon): I'm just trying to kick it.
Darcy: Hey, any deck is a fishing deck if it’s close enough or you have a long enough cord or a long enough string.
Austin (as Waylon): That’s what I'm saying.
Keith: It’s not that he’s old. He’s just still young from a time where old people were young. [Austin laughs]
Janine: Maybe his personality was always bad.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Jack (as Elena): [clears throat] Listen up, everybody.
Jack: Ring, ring, ring. Ringing the bell. Elena now ringing the bell.
Austin (as Waylon): Whoa! That bell’s loud as hell.
Janine (as Brontë): [judgmental groan]
Jack (as Elena): [professionally] Hello, my name is Elena Milefiori. I'm the navigator of the…of the Beckoning to Adventure?
Jack: Looking at Jonathan.
Janine: Is that true?
Keith (as Antistrophe): Are you?
Janine: Elena’s a navigator?
Art (as Nicky): The navigator?
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Navigator? That’s an important job.
Jack (as Elena): I'm here to announce that we are going to try and travel north and drop off our new friends at— what was that place you were going to? The Gleaming City? And then we'll go our separate ways.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Yeah, sure. That’s great. Thank you. 
Jack (as Elena): Everybody ready for a journey north? Take your seats. Snacks will be served. I'm joking. We all just got here.
Austin (as Waylon): So no snacks?
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): [quietly] So no snacks?
Janine (as Brontë): Are you sure you're the navigator and not the cruise director?
Jack (as Elena): Just got here.
Janine (as Brontë): It feels a little more cruise directory.
Jack (as Elena): I suppose more cruise director, Brontë. [quietly] God.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Do you have pamphlets?
Jack (as Elena): No! We just got here.
Janine (as Brontë): Are there any excursions planned? [Austin chuckles]
Keith (as Antistrophe): I need a program to know… [Keith laughs]
Austin (as Waylon): This is what I'm saying. If there was a program, I'd know where the fishing deck was. [Janine laughs]
Keith (as Antistrophe): [laughing] I'm with Waylon now! Give me a program, please.
Art: Waylon is Benjamin Buttoning. [laughter] 
Keith (as Antistrophe): Where do I find an itinerary?
Jack: Waylon is Benjamin Buttoning the entire crew. [Keith laughs]
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Austin: An aura of Benjamin Button, yeah.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): They got, uh, shuffleboard?
Jack (as Elena): Jonathan, take us north.
Darcy (as Jonathan): All right, well. Since you have volunteered, Elena, to be in charge of everything else, [Elena: Fuck!] I will happily retire to the cabin and take us north. [Austin chuckles]
Janine: [sarcastic] That’s what navigating is, also. It’s just saying, “Go north!” [Austin sighs]
Jack (as Elena): [disheartened] I'm a cruise director.
Ali (as Veile): I've never been on a cruise.
Jack (as Elena): It’s pretty good.
Janine (as Brontë): It depends on the cruise.
Jack (as Elena): I mean, I wouldn't know. I've read about it.
Art: [laughing] When have you been on a cruise?
Janine: [laughs] Dungeon cruise is sort of a different thing. Different vibe. [Keith laughs] That’s sort of a room with a puddle around it, with crocodiles maybe, I don't know. [Jack laughs]
Darcy: No, it’s like Disney waterpark.
Austin: Sure.
Janine: Oh, Pirates of the Caribbean, yeah, yeah.
Austin: That makes sense. That makes sense.
Darcy: Mm-hmm.
Jack: [laughing] And someone tries to kill you halfway through. [Janine laughs] Okay. Can we peer over the side at that burning on our way, Austin?
Austin: Yeah. It’s far, remember? And it’s not big. I mean, it’s big in the cosmic sense, but it’s…
Jack (as Elena): Jonathan, do you have a telescope?
Darcy (as Jonathan): [distantly] Yep!
Austin: Yes. It is not as good as the one you already looked at it through in the big observatory with the giant…
Jack: In Gnova, yeah.
Austin: But you can see it, and it’s burning away, very slowly.
Jack: Hmm.
Janine (as Brontë): We're not gonna fix that, right? We can just go? We don't have to worry about that? The thing you're looking at?
Jack (as Elena): Not right now, I don't think. [Sylvia laughs]
Janine (as Brontë): Okay. Yeah.
Sylvia: That’s not our problem.
Jack (as Elena): Too far away.
Janine (as Brontë): It is, yeah. Okay. I was just checking.
Ali (as Veile): Wait, isn't that your divine mission?
Janine (as Brontë): Huh? [Ali laughs]
Jack (as Elena): Isn't that your divine mission, to figure out the rot at the heart of the world?
Janine (as Brontë): I mean, I guess. We're doing a— we're going—
Keith (as Antistrophe): We just, the word “divine” is kind of…
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I mean, divine…? That’s a little, mm…
Janine (as Brontë): We're not going there, though, right? We're going to a different place that’s not on fire?
Jack: To Veile, aside:
(as Elena): [quietly] They're not very clear about their divine mission. [Austin and Ali laugh]
Keith (as Antistrophe): We're clear on the mission.
Sylvia: Man, fuck these kids. [Janine and Ali laugh]
Keith (as Antistrophe): There's nothing divine about it. If anything, it’s municipal.
Ali (as Veile): Mm.
Janine (as Brontë): Yeah. Or romantic. For me it’s like a romantic mission.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Regional.
Ali (as Veile): Oh.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Oh.
Jack (as Elena): Oh.
Keith (as Antistrophe): And slightly personal.
Jack (as Elena): Oh. 
Jack: How do we get out of this place? What does this roll look like? What does this…?
Austin: I don't think there's a roll.
Jack: Pushing through the…
Darcy: Yeah, we go north.
Keith: I think we just fly the ship.
Austin: You know, I think we're going to do some Travel rolls when we get back to the other side of the world, to our Perpetua, we leave the Dragon Path, but I think we've worked very hard to get through this dungeon, and if we roll a random encounter here…
Keith: I would die and also leave the call.
Darcy: We're all gonna shit. Yeah.
Austin: We're all gonna shit.
Jack: So instead it’s just sort of a strange transition.
Keith: Yeah.
Vignettes and Ruinbringer [2:04:28]
Austin: I think what it really is in my mind is I think we've hit the midseason finale of the anime [Darcy: Mm.] and we get, like, the long version of the main theme plays, and we get little vignette images of everybody aboard [Sylvia: Oh.] while this journey across the Dragon Path happens.
Darcy: You know what it is? We gotta go to disc two.
Sylvia: The Hunter × Hunter guy is going “wahoooo” underneath everything. 
Austin: That’s right. [laughs] 
Jack: He is. [laughs] It’s disc two. Yeah.
Austin: It’s disc two.
Darcy: We gotta switch over from disc one to disc two.
Austin: That is exactly right, I think. Yeah.
Janine: Oh, that’s cute.
Austin: And yeah, what are our little vignettes as, you know, part one, you know, comes to an end? What’s one thing everyone’s doing? Pick a character on your— actually, we should just do a downtime. Not a real downtime, but everyone should, first of all, rest and heal, because we should start with that.
Keith: Okay. So this is after resting and healing, so I don't have to go, “I went to a study to try to read and instead fell asleep, because I'm about to die.”
Austin: That’s pretty funny, though. Really what I want is I really want scenes with people, so we don't literally have to do all our downtime stuff right now. I know it’s late and we've been playing for—
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: It’s actually not that late, but we've been running for a long time.
Keith: Yeah, like five hours.
Austin: Over five hours now. So. But what I would love is an image of and someone you have a Bond with or something, here on the boat.
Jack: I think Elena is excited to see Nicky again, [Austin: Yeah.] because we didn't really spend any time with each other in that dungeon, so I think we get…
Art: Yeah, I was going to say that too.
Jack: Yeah. Are we cooking together? We're just, you know, complaining about the new kitchen and finding things we're excited about and cooking in the new kitchen?
Art: Well, if we're going to use both of our things, can we do that and then sort of just fade into, like, you on the deck with the telescope and Nicky holding a compass and trying to, like, figure out navigating for you? [Darcy chuckles]
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We can wrap those two together.
Keith: She really has to focus on cruise directing right now.
Art: But yeah, I think there's a little bit of the kitchen stuff is just like, maybe unpacking some supplies and putting on a big soup for people to eat.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Art: Feels like after a big dungeon you’d want to eat soup. [Ali laughs quietly]
Sylvia: I thought you were going to say a big suit.
Austin: I agree.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: That sounds great.
Jack: Restful soup. Energizing soup and restful soup [Darcy: Mm.] combined into one soup that is very confusing physically.
Darcy: One soup to rule them all.
Jack: Yes, exactly.
Art: Some sort of citrus stew.
Janine: Ew.
Austin: Hmm.
Darcy: Okay. Okay!
Janine: Ehh… [Sylvia laughs]
Art: We'll figure it out. Don't worry.
Darcy: I'm skeptical, but I'm interested.
Austin: I'm curious, but I'm skeptical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s where I'm at. Anybody else who has one?
Janine: I was going to suggest that [clears throat] Brontë would offer to teach Caoimhe the fantasy equivalent of shuffleboard. [Ali laughs]
Austin: That’s very funny.
Darcy: Hmm.
Janine: Some sort of, like, cruise deck game.
Sylvia: I love this.
Austin: That's really funny.
Keith: Cruise boules.
Janine: That’s, like, a thing that normal people haven't heard of or have but only in the context of a joke. And he’s like,
(as Brontë): Well, actually, it’s a pretty sophisticated ruleset.
Jack: Keith hearing the possibility to introduce boules to another set of Friends at the Table. [Janine laughs]
Darcy: Mm.
Austin: This motherfucker.
Jack: With the kind of look in his eyes like a dog seeing a string of sausages and just going like, “Oho!” [Keith laughs]
Keith: I mean, I think it fits.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I agree.
Jack: I do agree. Cruise boules.
Keith: It’s the perfect game for all situations.
Janine: I mean, for boats, it’s…because the physics of the balls is a problem when you're, like, turning and stuff.
Keith: Well, it’s a magic airship.
Janine: Okay, sure.
Keith: Shuffleboard has, I think, the same issues.
Janine: Well, it’s not balls in shuffleboard. It’s like discs.
Keith: No, but it’s discs that have to slide very precisely.
Sylvia: This argument’s happening in character now. [Janine and Jack laugh quietly]
Keith: Fundamentally, they're two of the same kind of game. There's two kinds of games. There's games that you can and games that you can't play with a glass of wine in one hand, and shuffleboard and boules are both of a piece.
Janine: You can't play pool with a glass of wine in your hand. You need two hands to—
Keith: Boules. Boules.
Janine: Oh! Okay. Yes, yeah.
Keith: Boules.
Janine: Uh huh. I forgot you called it that. Okay. 
Keith: Yeah. And also it’s sand, so it doesn't have— so, you know, they sit. They set in the sand.
Janine: It’s sand? Where's sand?
Keith: In the boules!
Janine: Oh! Okay. Sure.
Art: What is Keith talking about? [Janine and Ali laugh]
Jack: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Sylvia: It’s fine. Let him cook.
Ali: I think if the camera’s going from the kitchen to the deck, the ship to this argument that is happening in character, to I think Veile is kind of dejected? I think if people see on her face, she’s not super enthusiastic, but she’s trying her best to reintegrate with the party, so I think that she’s, like, serving drinks to people.
Janine: [quietly] Oh my god.
Jack: Fun.
Darcy: Ooh.
Ali: It’s her, like, moving from the kitchen and then the kitchen door opens, and it’s Veile with like a little tray of drinks, and I think that she serves Efta and Zolfta first [Janine: Aww.] and then moves to Brontë and Antistrophe [Ali and Austin laugh] and is like,
(as Veile): Here you go, everybody. Rest up.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Thank you so much.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Thanks.
Jack (as Elena): Thank you, Veile.
Austin: Anyone else?
Ali: We need Jonathan and…
Darcy: Yeah. I don't know if this is with Veile or separate from Veile. Probably with Veile. Jonathan wants Veile to teach him about the Ennead.
Ali: Whoa!
Austin: Aww. [Ali laughs] That’s good.
Keith: Her?
Darcy: I'll be changing my Theme from Doubt to something else when I level up.
Ali: All right!
Austin: Cool. That’s interesting to me. We have Jonathan— Sorry, we have Nicky cooking. Is that Nicky’s thing?
Jack: No, helping Elena navigate and cooking, yeah.
Austin: Oh, that’s right, that’s right, that’s right.
Art: Putting the soup on and then going up to the deck to figure out how compasses work. [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: That’s right. I recall this now, right.
Keith: Ooh, can I do something mechanical?
Austin: Sure.
Keith: I already went, but I have my Creed of Oracle Prayer Deck: reusable magic deck of cards.
Austin: Oh, you do.
Keith: And I just want to examine it so that they go from unknown to being known. If I can use it, then I want to use it.
Austin: Totally. Can you— Spend 10 MP.
Keith: Ooh, it costs MP? Can I?
Austin: Spend 10 MP.
Keith: Does the magic come from the cards? Okay.
Austin: Magic comes from the cards. And what did you just say? You wanted to figure out how to use it?
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: Well, so you can spend 10 MP and consult the deck to ask a question and get some guidance, so that’s what you've learned from spending 10 MP [Jack chuckles] and consulting the deck to get some guidance.
Keith: Okay. Okay.
Austin: It tells you. You draw a tarot-style spread of cards that kind of reveals to you that you can draw a tarot-style spread of cards [Keith laughs] that will reveal information. The images on the—
Keith: Okay. Great. I now know [Austin: Yeah.] that I can use this deck of cards to use this deck of cards.
Austin: Well, you can use it maybe for other things. It can give you guidance. I'll just paste this in here. Creed of Oracles Prayer Deck: Spend 10 MP and consult the deck to ask a question and get some guidance. Deck is—
Keith: And it works even though we're out of the zone.
Austin: It sure does. It does. Yeah.
Keith: Great.
Austin: It sells for 500 asta, in case you wanted to flip it, and the images are of the saintlike figures that are at the center of the Creed of Oracles.
Keith: Nice.
Austin: Yeah. Antistrophe, like, doing…
Keith: There's one other roll that I'll have to do as well.
Austin: Yeah. Do you want to do that now, and then we'll wrap up? People are getting dropped off.
Keith: Sure, yeah.
Austin: Do we want to roll this before…? Let’s drop everybody off nice and safe, first and foremost.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Right?
Keith: No, we don't have to—? We don't have a potential Ruinbringer moment with everybody on board?
Austin: Maybe we do. 
Keith: I think that—
Austin: But I'll make sure it’s not a boring fight, you know? So let’s do the roll. 
Keith: Okay.
Austin: What do you have to roll under? Or above.
Keith: I have to roll under my current level.
Austin: You want to roll above your level.
Keith: Above. So I can roll a 15 or below right now.
Austin: Okay. Safely.
Keith: Yes.
Austin: Or, no, that’s not safe. 15 or below is bad. Yeah, okay.
Keith: Is bad. 15 or below is bad. Okay. Sorry, I was pasting that in to that thing. Okay. and it’s 2d20. [typing] Roll 2d20. 35.
Austin: Safe.
Keith: We're safe.
Parting [2:12:54]
Austin: The ship comes to a floating position next to one of the little floating islands that makes up the Dragon Path. Maybe, like, you know, just a little bit aways from what seems like an exit into Lumai. There's not any sort of portal here that you could fly the ship through. It’s much, much, much smaller than that. Do you say your goodbyes? Is there any final…? You know, my belief is we're not switching parties up at all here, right? But we have not talked about that in any way.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: That seems to be still true, correct?
Keith: That seems to be still true.
Austin: Okay.
Jack: Yeah, I think so.
Sylvia: I believe so.
Jack (as Elena): Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, and I wish you all the best.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Yeah, you too.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Yeah. Be careful with all that god stuff.
Austin (as Waylon): Yeah, we'll be careful,
Austin: Says Waylon. [Janine scoffs]
Keith: I look at Waylon like…
Sylvia: Thumbs up to Waylon.
(as Caoimhe): Hey, man, I hope you find somebody to settle down with. [laughs] 
Austin: Maebela’s really considering leaving with you.
Keith: With us?
Sylvia: With us?
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Wow.
Keith: [sarcastic] The famous Maebela who we all like?
Sylvia: Does she have to be?
Austin (as Maebela): I never seen this side of the world before. I'm curious.
Sylvia: I think Caoimhe says this and doesn't realize how rude it is.
(as Caoimhe): I mean, yeah, we could drop you off in Lumai.
Austin: I think she’s fine with that, actually. That’s not, that’s completely fine for her.
Sylvia: Okay, cool. Caoimhe’s thought process is less “I didn't like how she ran off to solo that one fight versus…”
Keith: To not solo that one fight.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: To not solo. To fail to solo.
Austin: Well, she soloed successfully. Then… 
Janine: She didn't get killed, which any of us would have.
Austin: Yeah, a third party. Yeah.
Keith: Okay. But she was out of position, so.
Austin: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: My point being that what Caoimhe’s actually concerned about is like, if we have a famous adventurer [Janine: Yeah.] with us, that will draw more attention to us.
Austin: Yeah. I'm not sure how famous she is over here. I guess, you know, she’s a famous adventurer, but is she…
Sylvia: I mean, hrmm. We heard of her though, right?
Austin: I guess you did. That’s true.
Keith: Yeah, we’d all heard of her.
Sylvia: Yeah, that’s kind of what I…
Janine: Well, I'm from over there anyway, so that’s different.
Austin: And you're a Hexcloak, and Antistrophe’s like a scholar, so who knows. Anyway. 
Sylvia: Yeah, but they're not sending me over to the fake town. [Austin chuckles] They don't trust me with that.
Janine: I'm going to say Brontë will try—but not force the issue if people aren't interested—kiss Veile and, um…why is my head suddenly empty? Elena. I was going to say Evina? [laughs quietly] 
Sylvia: Elena?
Austin: Elena. [laughter] 
Sylvia: Oh, Evina.
Keith: I think that’s a soap.
Janine: Veile and Elena’s hands, but, you know, in like a gentlemanly fancy way.
Ali (as Veile): Oh. [Janine laughs]
Jack: No kiss for Evina, please. [Sylvia, Janine, and Ali laugh]
Sylvia: Great sound.
Ali: I think Veile sort of squeezes his hand and says,
(as Veile): Well, it was nice traveling with you too, sir.
Janine (as Brontë): Do be careful.
Ali (as Veile): Yes. Perhaps we'll see each other again one day. All of us, I mean.
Austin (as Maebela): You gonna be all right, brother?
Darcy (as Jonathan): Yeah. No, I got purpose.
Austin (as Maebela): Phew. I haven't had purpose in a long minute.
Darcy (as Jonathan): Well, you're welcome to hang around and maybe see what it feels like, but I know you ain't one for staying still for very long.
Austin (as Maebela): Yeah, I got new hills to climb. You need me, I'll be over here, making a ruckus like I do.
Darcy (as Jonathan): Like you do.
Austin: Big backpack, big sword. Gives you a big hug and then walks off the deck onto the pathway.
Ali: I wish we had a way to communicate. I wish I could be like, “Hey, write me a letter,” to…
Janine: I write letters. [Ali laughs quietly]
Jack: Oh, do you say that in character?
Ali: Like, how does the mail work? [laughs quietly] 
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: [cross] Yeah, I've written letters.
Jack: [cross] Brontë writes letters, right? Brontë has been writing in the past, yeah.
Janine: I think it’s come up a couple, not recently, but early on, it was a thing that happened. It’s definitely been established that Brontë writes letters to the ice lady and to his sister back home and sends them presents sometimes. I had absolutely thought, like, I wonder if, in the future, he would write, like, Veile a letter to be like, “Hey, I saw this hat, and it reminded me of you,” or whatever, you know?
Ali: Does the— It’s the Holy Proctorate?
Austin: Protectorate, yeah, the Protectorate.
Ali: Protectorate, Protectorate, okay. Yeah. Well, 'cause they run, like, a guild service. Do they run, like, [laughs quietly] a mail forwarding for adventurers?
Austin: I think that you could pay a member of their kind of guild, their adventuring guild to do in-the-world delivery in that way, for sure.
Ali: And I get, like, a discount because I’m a… I have a bag… [laughs] 
Austin: You know, you definitely have specialists. Sam Porter Bridges does this, you know? Like, get out there, you make your delivery. And so, yeah, I bet you could register the ship with them and then have them deliver you letters.
Ali: Mm-hmm. And then I get the employee discount.
Austin: That seems— You get the employee discount. [Ali and Jack laugh] You use the company card, you know? [Ali laughs]
Ali (as Veile): Well, yes. I hope to hear about your mission, at the very least. I'd like to know about your adventures and share our success once again someday maybe. I suppose you'll know if I succeed, or your children will.
Janine (as Brontë): Will we?
Sylvia: [quietly] There’s a murder. [laughter] 
Janine: I don't know that they ever were, like, fully… 
Sylvia: I'm not a deadbeat.
Janine: Did they ever fully discuss, like, “here is the thing that we are working on”?
Ali: Not really.
Austin: A little bit. Right?
Janine: It was, like, a little bit. It was like, we're going here.
Sylvia: Like, a little, but not really.
Ali: I think Elena, like, really told Caoimhe about it.
Janine: Hmm.
Jack: Yeah. Elena said, “I can't tell you about my holy mission,” and then got asked one further question and said everything she knew. [Ali and Janine laugh]
Janine: Okay, okay.
Sylvia: When she says, like, “You'll know if I succeed, or your kids will know,” I think Caoimhe does a little, like, 
(as Caoimhe): Eh, I'm sure you will. You've got a good crew here. 
Sylvia: I don't know if Caoimhe actually is, like, fully sold on that, [Ali laughs] but she’s going to say it, because like, this is a good crew.
Janine: Eh, they made it this far.
Sylvia: Yeah, exactly. They were very capable, for the most part, while we were here. Which could be said about us as well.
Art: Yeah, we had a good run through the first half of west half.
Ali: I think Veile legitimately smiles at that and nods and says,
(as Veile): Thank you. Good luck to you on yours.
Jack (as Elena): And safe travels.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Oh, of course. Yeah, we'll try that letter thing you were talking about.
Janine: Saying that as if letters are a new invention?
Darcy: Mmm… [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: No, I know.
Janine: Brontë realizing no one has written to Caoimhe before and getting a little bit sad.
Ali: Aww.
Austin: Aww.
Janine: Like, oh, that’s tragic.
Sylvia: No, that’s not true. That’s not true. My boss will write me some cheese-related code word messages.
Austin: That’s right. Yeah.
Janine: Ah. Uh huh.
Ali: Oh.
Sylvia: Yeah. Don't worry about that.
Keith: Antistrophe’s doing the thing where everyone’s saying bye but they keep saying bye, so I keep turning to go, but then people keep saying bye more, so I like turn back around to not… [Ali, Janine, and Jack laugh]
Austin: Ahh. All right. You set off, and the crew of the Adventure Beckons turns the other way and begins to head back towards Calstega Bay. Not Calstega Bay; Spillaway Peaks. They're neighbors, so, you know, same general direction. And we see the rest of you head, you know, through the sort of portal back into Lumai, and we'll catch up with you when we do, and for the crew of the ship, I think we see it fly back through, and it takes a little while. It takes some navigation. Again, we're kind of just in montage mode here. There's telescopes and turning the ship, and the FLEGbot is climbing up one of the masts and calling sometimes down and ringing the bell, and Waylon’s drinking a beer.
Sylvia: Hell yeah, brother.
Austin: But you find your way through, and you wind up flying above Spillaway Peaks, and I think the thing that we'll end on here is an arrival. You called for someone before you fell into the world. You remember this?
Jack: [laughing quietly] Oh my god. Yep, sure do.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Chelik, the Dragon Watcher, is flying towards you across blue skies. Kind of a look of kind of surprise, an impressed face on her head as she comes to land on your airship. And, you know, is here to pay the favor that she promised to pay you once.
Darcy: Hmm.
Austin: Whatever that looks like now, who could say.
[“The Castle Eschatonica” by Jack de Quidt plays]
________________
[1] The name in the audio recording is no longer in use, hence the audio/transcript discrepancy.