Crank, what about you? What's your view been up to these last few weeks?
I think the first thing he would have done when he got to this town was find a machinist. You know? I think he's just sitting on the machinist tool bench with, like, the back of his head open while the machinist is, like, poking around.
Yep. Tell me about this machinist. What are they like?
I think it's a dwarven man, so he has to, like, get on a ladder to get up there. And he's, like, he's kinda stout for a dwarven man. He's really wide and, like, broad and, like, short even for dwarf standards. But I I think he has to get on, like, a a step ladder behind Crank and, like, put on his little magnifying glasses and, you know, and Crank, you know, Crank is there, and he's he's just sitting there. And I think he's like, yeah, I feel like I lost my purpose.
Oh, yeah. Your purpose.
Yeah. Is there's anything loose in there? Can you tell? Like
Oh, there's there's quite a bit loose in here. Thankfully, the my grandfather had a manual for U Mark two, so I was able to look through here
and Good. Yeah. I lost my manual.
You lost your purpose. You know, it's tough it's tough when hard things happen. You know, prank, it's tough when hard things happen. You hear something like ding ding ding ding go away.
Oh, what was that?
Nothing that I gotta worry about. You know, things are hard when, you know, when things when they go and get stuff, but you got good bones. You got good bones in here. You got you hear something shut, you kinda feel like a little jolt. And he says, well, I got I got good news. I got your audio receptor working.
Oh.
Just some loose wires on in there. Good. Now, I will warn you, things are gonna be a little louder than you're used to. Okay? So I set it up so that there's a little switch inside the receptacle where the ear is that you can turn it up, turn it down, get comfortable. Right? The big old dent that you had in your chest there, I was able to get that all popped out and no more problems here.
Thank you.
Bad news is you're gonna have to come and visit me again at some point so that I can do a tune up.
Oh, well, that's that's fine. I that that doesn't sound like bad news to me. Same time next week?
Absolutely. Same time next week. And, yeah, next time you come, I'm gonna I'm gonna prepare myself. We're gonna get in there. We're gonna check that memory chip, see if we can figure out what happened in those ten years, Frank. I promise you. Alright? You're walking through, headed to the guild office. The place that is probably the most likely for y'all to go to perhaps get a lay of the land, find some employment, get more information.
You walk up and see this stately stone building that overlooks a lively plaza near the middle of the city. This thing here has three stories. And as you step into it, you see a large lobby. There are multiple mission boards set up around this room, some with active quests, others with completed quests. You see the walls are adorned with maps and commendations and pictures of adventurers past, almost like a wall of honor, recognizing them for great achievements.
There's a grand front desk made of this dark oak up at the very front that sort of anchors the whole room the first thing you see. There are three individuals currently in this space. The first one, the most noticeable one, dwarfing the sides of everyone else there is this giant woman. She is bald with rippling muscles. She has three eyes.
The one in the middle of her head is closed. She simply regards the three of you. And she is standing next to a goblin woman. She has big ears, even bigger emerald eyes, probably about in her forties looking, kinda middle aged and tired. But on the other side of the desk, Kapi, can you describe a person that Kapi never thought he would ever see again?
Let's make her an Inferni. Okay. Maybe around Kapi's age or maybe just a little bit older. An Inferni woman.
What color?
She's a magenta.
Oh. You see a magenta Inferni?
Fuchsia.
Fuchsia.
What's the difference? Go ahead.
You see a fuchsia Iverny, turn around. Her horns are accessorized. She's wearing like kind of the equivalent of what you would imagine a sorceress to wear. She doesn't wear really armor or have any weapons, but she's got sort of this loose fitting clothing, easy to move around in.
How many horns does she have?
We're gonna say three horns. We're gonna say two on either side of her head and one in the middle. The one in the middle is longer than the other two.
Okay. Hair color? Black. Shoulder length. Okay. I decided just now.
Just out. Very good. Black shoulder length. She turns around and looks at the three of you. Everyone really turns around and looks at the three of you. And you see that immediately what hits her face is a smirk. And she says, well, if it is an old captain. Never thought I'd see the day when you would leave Old Bracken Road.
The captain?
Hi, Kelly. Well, hey there captain. Long time no see. Who are these two
I I put my arms like out to the side to push Crank and Pistachio. Don't get too close.
Is she a threat? And I like step in front of Kapi.
Okay. Stand down. Stash, you stand
I don't know captain. Am I
a threat? I'm not captain. You know that's not my name.
Oh, okay. So she's being beat to you. You're being beat to
him. Stash, she's not being she's just this is what Don't No. You're hurting your feelings. Stop. You know, Crank,
it's fine. Stash, it's
fine. Callie, what are you doing here? I work here. You're still an adventurer?
Yeah. I'm not a junior adventurer anymore. Though I assume you being here means that you're also
Yeah. Can I talk to who's in charge?
Of course. You see she steps to the side, you see the goblin behind the desk says, hi. You three are you three are the Bracken Road adventurers. Right?
Yep. I pull out the recommendation. I think you'll find everything you need right there. So, you know, if you could just make sure our room rooms are real cozy.
Well, you know, we do have some rooms that you can stay if you wanna stay here. Yeah. Sorry. It's just, I figured y'all weren't gonna come. I thought
Why wouldn't we come?
Well, it's been, you know, a couple weeks. So I just figured you weren't coming.
Adventure guild business. You know how it is. Are you?
Are you sure? I mean, it's You don't have to come back so soon if you need some time.
I don't. What is everybody I We're we are adventurous. This is what we're supposed to be doing.
Okay. Okay. Well, we do kinda need all hands on deck. And you see that Callie, just still smirking, grabs onto the arm of the enormous woman next to her and says, come on, Iggy. Let's get out of here and do some real work. And you see the two of them leave.
I guess, you know, can do some real work.
Just watching after the giant woman with a forlorn if if, you know, if he could make his expressions, just forlornly. Forlornly. He's just watching after.
You see that?
And he just goes, I bet she could have protected you.
Kathy, really quickly, before we continue this interaction, did you and her and Pistachio like puts their little fingers together like Pistachio I'm just asking. You have a lot of lovers.
Okay?
I
don't.
You have like
Oh, a lot of people want to be lovers.
Right. But like, was she a suitor of some sort?
What's on the advantage?
I'm also actually hi. My name is Michelle. I'm the
Hi, Michelle.
Administrator of this one. I'm also curious what your relationship with Callie is. What what was all that?
Callie and I worked together for a little bit.
Oh, so she was us. Or you were
us.
Or you were us.
I
Or was she more like neffity?
You you weren't you were at the Bracken Road establishment when she was. Right?
Correct.
Okay. Oh.
Okay. She doesn't really talk about that time, so I have no idea of what happened. But listen, I'm just gonna level with you. I'm just gonna level with you. Things are real tense right now because got a lot going on. Honestly, you came at the right time. I fully understand if you need more time because
We don't. What do you got going on?
Okay. Right into it. Right, Crank?
Sure. I've got you.
Of course. Right on.
Crackers.
Most
of the time, we're able to handle the influx of jobs that come through here. But right now, with the refugees coming in and, you know, some creatures from outside of the city sort of coming in and causing chaos. We've been at we've had all hands on deck. I got two adventures that went to Brihalle. I have one that went to Hirthridge. Really, it's just Ingeborg and Callie that are holding it down here. So you three coming in to help is a real is a real help. Of course.
Well, yeah, we've we've been really great adventurers at Bracken Road. I would give you our recommendations from other people, but they might all be at your refugee camp. But whatever you got, we can help you keep them keep keep it down.
Hey, listen. You just handed me your recommendations and those came from Cyrus. So I know that that's legit.
Yeah. He hasn't been through here, has he?
I was gonna ask you the same thing if you knew where he went. Called me a couple days before the whole thing. He figured something was going down. I think he was hoping that it wouldn't get to the point that it would involve all of you, but I think the old man still doesn't quite know his limits. But have you heard from him at all? Or have you seen him? Or No. No.
What's the job?
Well, we got two right now. I told Ingeborg that she and Callie can take the one that you don't pick, so it's really up to you. One thing that we have here that you might not have in Bracken Road is sewers. And we have had reports of some creatures in the sewers causing problems.
What's a sewer?
You know, non assembled people, you know, non clanks. We, you know, expel waste and that has to go somewhere, and the sewers is where it goes.
Oh, okay.
So yeah. It's a pretty stinky job.
Well, don't have a nose.
Might work out for y'all then.
Is Callie an earshot?
You look behind Callie and Ingleborg are kinda standing outside talking to each other, but not in earshot. The other option is the graveyard. The some of the graveskeepers that are out there have started reporting some sightings of things. Things coming back that shouldn't be.
Like weeds?
More like skeletons and zombies.
Oh, a different type of recycling. Okay.
Yeah. So we got an undead problem over in the graveyard, and then we got some kind of creature problem down the sewers. Listen.
I I like look behind me out the window at Callie and
Callie looks back at you?
He turns around really quick. Which one's gonna make us look really good around here?
Well, neither of them are very glamorous, honestly, which sorry about. But
I guess we could take the graveyard shift.
Oh, nice. Nice one, boss. Pistachio's a little like waiting for you to give them a highlighter.
He doesn't even look over.
Okay. Yeah, duh. Crank?
Whatever.
I'm really sensing some harsh vibes from you all. What are you?
The psychiatrist here? We're ready. What's
Psychiatrist here? A therapist?
I don't think we invented therapy. No. Didn't we agree?
You can talk to my machinist. He's really nice. Oh, a machinist does
Yeah. Like how bartenders do therapy. Well, she's
like bartender.
Like how
There are
some bartenders I How can
What's his name always did therapy? Miles.
Oh, okay. Well, was just wondering if anybody owned a Theremin.
So anyways, get this job done, come back, and I might have an exciting opportunity for you three that I think only you three would be able to do for me.
But why can't we do that? Why can't why do we have to do this first?
Mostly because I need someone to do it and also because I don't know. If we had come in with like a with like, you know, pep in our step and not looking so sad all the time, I probably would've given it to you. But I think y'all need like a win, I think. So I'm gonna let y'all go and get a quick dub, and then we'll come back and we'll see. That sound good? Sound good to you?
Should we raise the stakes? Sure. Is it who completes the adventure first?
I'll tell you this much. I'll double your pay if you can beat Ingelborg at killing things. If you get here before they do, I will double.
Get five give up now guys. There's no way.
No. Oh my gosh, Crate. No. My parents live in a literal two bedroom apartment with my two siblings and so do I. We are getting that freaking win so I can get them out of there.
Not only that, but the doctors those those scam artists clearly stole all my money in my jacket. So I need some I need some handfuls, Crank.
I would like to stop spelling my father's feet.
Okay. Wow. Alright. Well, you know, thank you so much. Job's on the board. Just take it.
That's right. Hands in. I put my hand I I reach out for What's her name? Michelle. I reach out for Michelle, like, to put her hand on top
of Nice. Your Pistachio?
Pistachio puts their hand on top.
We all raise our hands up slightly. Crank, you wanna slide underneath there, buddy?
Good boy, Crank.
Crank Yeah.
Puts his hand in. Alright. Let's get we're gonna go
to the graveyard and get our groove back and get back here before Callie and what's Callie and Ingeborg. Callie and Ingeborg on three.
One, two, three. We're gonna go
to the grandstand. Get back here before here Ingleborg and Cali. Woo.
Okay. Well, that was fun. Alright. Yeah. So again, if you get here before those two do, I'll double your pay, you get five handfuls.
Okay. Five handfuls. That's plenty.
What time is it?
Wow. It's actually noon. Oh. Middle of the day.
We have plenty of
We have so much time.
Alright. Let's go. Then I turn around and I'd walk out right past Callie and Ingeborg.
You actually walk outside where Callie and Ingeborg are standing and Callie turns around to look at you three and says, hey, so which job did you take? We agreed we take the other one so I'm just curious which one you took.
The one that we're gonna be better at.
You know, we really actually do need to know which one you took because if we go to the same one that would be really
You're getting the sewers. So I hope you're bringing some boots.
Easy pistachio.
What? Hey. I had a thought. Mhmm. Why don't we raise the stakes? Let's say Let's see who can do it first. What do you
say, Cap? Yeah. Don't look her in the eyes, kids. She'll suck your soul out.
I don't think I have a soul.
And what do we get if we win?
If we win, you have to give us your winnings. And if you win, we'll give you our winnings. Gonna regret that?
He sticks out his hand to shake.
Ingeborg steps forward and holds out her hand. Wow. And grabs your hand.
Wow. This is cool. You can't even shake you can't even shake. You have your henchmen shake hands. That's cool.
I'll shake your hand, Ingeborg. And Pistachio sticks out their little hand.
Ingleborg? She turns over to you, Pistachio, and shakes your hand.
I give her a good firm handshake, which is surprising considering the differences in her size of hands.
She stands up and looks over at you, Crank, and looks you up and down and nods respectfully.
I don't know why she's nodding respectfully at me. That's definitely no respect earned over here.
Callie looks over at you, Pistachio, and says, I just have to say, I think you are, and I mean this, adorable.
Oh, thank you. I know.
What are you doing hanging out with those with with that guy over there? Alright. You should totally join us. This is
They're my best friends.
Oh, I see. Well
There's also a duck.
There is also
And the duck is pistachios, very best friend in the world. And I walk away.
Oh my gosh.
Walk away. Is
that duck okay, actually?
Yes.
I'm sorry. The duck's neck is a little weird. Is it is the duck okay?
The duck is fine. The duck can eat and he can drink and he can carry on a conversation. Isn't that right, Quackers? See? He's totally fine.
It's like making Isaac quack on command.
You see that Callie sort of leans closer to you and says, just a word of advice. Watch out for him. You may not like all the places he takes you. And she stands up and walks away and follows Ingeborg towards a manhole, where you see that she, whisps her hand in a magical manner and the manhole moves to the side. And you see that both of them pull out some paste and put it on their upper lip just below their nose. And Callie winks over the three of you one more time before leaping into the sewer.
Come on, Pistachio. Let's go.
One moment please, Kapi. Quackers, my shit list.
Thank you. Quackers pulls up a list.
Put her on it.
Quackers looks back at the manhole and then looks at you and then kind of cocks its neck a little further to the side. I just have to say, which one?
Oh, Callie. The the Ingeborg's really cool. Callie, however, shit list.
Quackers nods incredibly relieved and, writes down Callie with with Bill. Huntsville.
Quipers is doing really good. I get to what it's like I have an intern.
The stachio. They're just they already jumped in the sewer. We're wasting time.
Oh, right. Let's go.
Well, think Engelborg is still working on it. She's very large. Yeah.
You see Ingeborg is to currently ripping stones out of the ground to make more room for her to fit into the manor.
I was let's go.
We're running after Crank.
They eventually catch up to you, Crank. You're walking away.
I'm just walking incredibly slowly but I have really long legs so I'm just like, it's a pretty fast walk but I'm very dejectedly like just walking.
Crank, this is gonna be your chance. We're gonna go, we're gonna see whatever the sightings are, we might beat some stuff up. You're gonna get your mojo back.
Yeah.
Beat some stuff I
don't know. I don't know.
I feel like there's like a little rain cloud above.
Yeah. It's really overcast but it's only raining on top of that
right now.
Listen buddy. I'm worried about you. I'm gonna be honest. What I would maybe offer, right, is if you just take whatever you're feeling and you bury it down deep enough.
Bury it down deep enough where? Like, like, all the way under the book and and
Yeah. The book and then what you wanna do, right, is you wanna put a bunch of quippy remarks and humor on top of it. Mhmm. And then anytime someone tries to get in there and, you know, offer a hand or, you know, a listening ear, you deject them and you push them away. Because it ultimately, it's going to protect you.
Akashi got that right? Okay.
I'll I'll I'll try that. That does sound like a good idea.
Perfect.
Yes. I can attest that that has been working for me as of late.
So yeah. So can y'all give me an agility check? Actually, choose one person whoever is leading the charge to give me an agility check as you make your way to
I think I'm in the front.
Oh. Yeah. You are, Crank. Go ahead. Give me agility check. Really, I think your two friends are really concerned about you, so they're just kind of following you. And this is gonna be a check to see if you
We're like whispering behind you, but again, you can hear everything.
I don't know. I don't know
how much more we can
Yeah. I don't know how to fix it.
No. I mean, you know, he's he's moping around. Right. It's just not really the answer to anything.
Well, think
Why don't you tell him? You're his best friend.
I am. I mean, I know that, but I was trying look. I've been trying
to find By the way, you really
I just turned down the the audio receptor all the way.
I gotta forget about his annoyance. I mean, Quack knows that he's better than Quack. I like that look at Quackers. I like close Quackers all ears. He knows that he's better than Quackers. Right?
Did you really think it was a good idea to bring the duck on an adventure?
Well, look. My he's my new he's my pet. Okay? Like, I I had to save him from Grandpa Mac's farm because Grandpa Mac's not gonna have there anymore. Have a like, I'm an adult that can take care of my cape, which is not my time for this.
I
rolled an 18 with hope. Oh my god. I was really hoping I'd roll badly.
Annie, I think Crank has an innate sense of the city. I think in the three weeks that was here, maybe you were like wandering the streets trying to find a mechanic. And so you kinda actually know the place pretty well. There's a Apple Maps ass view in your vision that tells you where to go. And eventually you find yourself in the graveyard.
It is daytime. The sun is still kinda high up in the air. It only took like maybe an hour to walk here after your conversation with everybody. And you see that there is an old man that's sort of tending to some of the graves, kinda dressed in like the equivalent of a polo and khakis as if to suggest that he works there. And you see a couple of other families every so often that are just coming to pay respects to some of the graves that are there. But you have made it to the graveyard.
Okay. My notes say that we are supposed to figure out what is causing the resuscitation and rejuvenation of undead life forms and cease that from happening.
Okay.
I assume that old man looks like somebody that might know what's going on. So would you like me to initiate a conversation or would you like to take lead, Kapi?
You got it.
Okay. I I boss. Pistachio strides up with crackers in right behind them. Hello. I am Pistachio Droop, a part of the Adventuring Guild, and I am here to help you with your recycling problem.
You say my bicycling problem?
No. Sorry. Let me use a I
haven't ridden the bicycle in so long.
I I bet your
I remember when I was just a young boy. I get on my back all
the time.
I have made a terrible mistake.
Scallops had problem. Steaks?
Oh, no.
I do love a good steak.
Oh, god. We are here to destroy your skeletons.
Oh, why didn't you say so, Sprout? Oh. Here. Let me stand up. This old man is actually a giant. He towers over you. Oh. His back is hunched so
you won't
be able to tell. Hello. The hell shall we? Well, thank goodness you're here. You're a little early most of the time they'd be coming out at the nighttime show. You got some time if you wanna shed. Try to try to catch them in the act. I could take you to where they'd be coming out most of the time.
Yeah. If you could take us there and perhaps let
us Joe, you're you're I don't recognize you. I figured the venture is gonna send someone out here that gonna that I would recognize. I figured the big woman with the big sword would come in and do this. Well, anyways Oh gosh. I'm gonna go now. You have fun. I'm gonna go ahead and leave here now. I'm gonna go keep tending the graves.
Oh, okay.
I'm pretty sure that's what I'm supposed to do. I don't think he asked me for anything. He turns around and starts.
Oh, where's y'all supposed to tell us where the like skeletons come up?
Oh, that's right. That's right. I'm so sorry. I forgot. He kinda comes over to you and says, well, you three, here's you just just follow me. I'll take you right to where the skeletons are. And he shuffles to one grave over and points. He says, right here is loft and where the skeletons be popping up at the ground.
I know what I wanna do.
What do you wanna do?
I picture that there's like a really nice beautiful tree. Grass is like really perfect. Just the right amount of length and then there's like the graves, the stones. Like it doesn't look creepy right now, at least. It's just really beautiful. Almost idyllic. Yeah. Yeah. And can you can Crank, could you sit down? Just near this tree.
Sure. And I'll just sit down. Okay. Just cross applesauce.
Pistachio, could you and Quackers sit down?
Sure.
Quackers. Okay.
It's like we Alright. Butt. Pistachio, like, down, crisscross applesauce, like, straightens their back and goes, okay, Kapi.
Quacko Quackers, like, does the little waddle thing, like, down, like, hides his feet.
Like shimmies and His then like
neck still all cranked to the side.
Yep. Not
cut. Anyways, Kapi walks back and forth for a minute. He, you know, like pinches his nose and looks up to this guy. Okay. Alright. And he like shakes out his hands. Alright. And he sits down and we're kinda like forming I picture that me and Crank are across from each other and Pistachio and quackers are like to the side of us. Mhmm. Or like in between us, but to the side. Alright, crank. You're gonna do magic right now.
I I don't know how to do magic.
Pistachio?
Yes.
I don't really know how this is gonna work, but you can do magic.
Yes. I can't do magic, but I do have two soft super rope, so I could create a medium of rope and we could have a seance and maybe the ghost would come. Okay.
Great. Sorry. Didn't wanna bring back the medium.
Okay. Great.
Oh, wait. I only actually have one soft of rope. Can't do I've a soft
of rope.
Oh, we could combine our soft of rope
To make a medium.
Great. Let's do that. Here's basically what alright. I'm gonna I'm gonna sit there. Okay. And the rope's tied. I don't know how seance works.
I think we have to like fold the rope into a pentagram and then sit inside of it.
Oh my god. Yes. We have to here, Wally was super into like, they call it tarot or something. Oh my god. But Wally was really into it. It got a lot of people. Anyway okay. So we do a circle and then a pentagram this way so it looks like a fawn head. And then we put we put, like, little sigils right here for each of the nine, and then we all hold hands. Mhmm.
And Alright. Fine. Hold hands.
We'll all hold hands and we put our intentions towards the circle in a welcome ing way.
Alright. Crank, we're gonna do this and you're gonna do focus and you're gonna do magic.
I don't think those counts as magic. I think it's just spirits.
Well, it's gonna be magic. If
something talks to you that didn't wasn't supposed to talk to you, that counts as magic.
Oh, okay. Alright. Well, nothing's talked to me that
Because we're we need to stop talking and we need to focus.
Yeah. We do need to shut up.
And I I think we sit there for a while, like hours go by. Yeah. Don't I know what you're gonna make happen whenever it does, think it should be like sunset.
Oh. So here's what I am gonna say. So you Here's what we'll start with. Pistachio, give me a knowledge roll first.
Since this was something that Wally was into it, can I use my family of farmers knowledge?
I'll say this comes from your family, so sure. I will allow this. Yes.
That is a nine 10 with hope.
10 with hope. Okay. You create the nine pointed star of the Ennead. You put in those sigils. They're okay. You sit there. And I wanna know right now, exactly as one of you said, you have to put your intentions into the circle. Mhmm. So starting with we'll say, Kapi. What intention are you putting into this quasi sigil in between all of you?
I think Kapi is just really gambling here.
Okay.
That something's gonna happen. So I think he's putting the intention basically into Crank. He's really trying to focus on thinking about whatever it is that's gonna help crank it through this.
Pistachio, what are you what intention are you putting into this circle?
Pistachio's intentions right now are twofold and perhaps that being mixed is a little bad. One, they wanna act as almost like a channel of as if their magic can kind of, like, go through themselves and basically be used by Crank since they, like, know that they have internalized man magic. And the second one is to stop it from affecting Kapi who they think might get hurt from that.
Crank, what intention are you putting into the circle?
Crank is having a really hard time having any kind of intention at all. So I think that he tries to just be like, raise the dead, raise the dead. The dead need to come talk to us so we can finish our job so that we can get the money so that Kapi can beat Kelly and everyone can be happy. And then also being, like, simultaneously, like, this is, like, gonna work. Like, I'm never gonna be able to do magic again.
Like, this is pointless. Why are we sitting here? And I think that that's what what's happening in Crank's head right now.
Because of the intentions y'all are putting into this. I'm gonna call for a fate role. Hey. It's me, your GM, Isaac Allen Burns. We haven't talked in a while. Hey. Welcome to season two. Isn't this exciting? We have the new roles now. So everything I say has to be correct or else it then I'll be embarrassed.
That would be crazy. No. So a fate role is an instance when a moment outside of the PC's influence is going to occur and you, the GM, want to leave it somewhat up to chance. You're probably familiar with this in other games, just sort of randomly rolling a dice to see what happens, but in this case, I get to ask one of the players to roll either their hope or their fear dice to decide the results of this. The choice of the die really won't affect the outcome nor does the roll itself grant hope or fear.
It simply is more for the flavored intention of what you think is to come. In this case, you want to roll high. So I will let the three of you look at each other and decide which of you is gonna take your fear dice and roll it.
I think I should.
I think so too.
Yeah. Well, we're make so too, Annie.
Because this is the moment you're gonna roll low and everyone is gonna smile so big.
You're talking the fear dice. Okay. Specifically, you're current calling out the feeler.
I am. Here we go. Big moment. Three.
Oh, no. No. Wait. Is there anything we can do? Hold on.
Isaac striking a victory pose, hands up in the pose. Flexing muscles.
The feeling starts with Kapi. Your hands holding your friends and your legs that are somewhat abutting the circle of this begin to tingle in a similar sensation and in a similar way that you felt three weeks ago when you felt pure energy pulsing into you. Not the exact not the exact same kind of energy, but the feeling of suddenly experiencing and holding something so far beyond your powers and abilities that you feel dwarfed by it. Pistachio, acting as the conduit of this and acting as a breaker to keep Kapi from taking any of the blowback, almost as though trying to give back what he had given you three weeks ago. You feel a similar kind of tingling but your chest begins to beat harder and faster as you can feel like a wooden door holding back 10 foot high floodwaters.
I think with that feeling creeping back in, Kapi starts having a panic attack very silently but very real. And yeah, like it's almost like Pistachio can feel that like behind the wall almost. I
think so too. I think so too. Crank. You feel falling. The sensation of gravity taking you with nothing holding you back.
Darkness envelops you but this isn't the darkness of nighttime but this is the darkness of being covered within something. There is a presence all around you here. A presence that threatens to crush you. Something older, more powerful, and more malevolent than you could imagine as you continue to fall in this grand abyss. There are small pinpricks of light above you like willowisps swaying back and forth and they grow smaller and smaller as you continue to fall.
It almost feels appropriate. The pit of despair that you feel yourself in, it almost seems correct. Though you weren't able to really stop these creatures that wanna rise up and terrorize people, it would just continue. Right?
I think I just call out into the darkness. Hello? What
face appears out of the darkness?
Adrian's face.
Adrian comes out, his hat as crushed as you saw it before.
I think he looks absolutely destroyed because he died in explosion. So I think he's just charred and bloody and he's like missing pieces of himself.
Yeah. He's almost floating there with you falling at the same rate, Just sort of looking at you. In his eyes is not anger or disappointment, it's curiosity. It's a look of excitement almost to see you. And I think for a moment, you flash back to that day standing over Adrian. His hand is reaching out to you weakly. What did Crank do in that moment?
I think he just fell to his knees and held Adrian's hand and just said, I'm sorry. I failed.
You hear a small cough. You feel a little bit of wet on your face as some blood came out of his mouth. He says, oh, Greg, you didn't fail me? This is just the beginning. You hear some footsteps behind you. You hear a woman's voice somewhat familiar to you. What a fool. All this, a hand comes onto your shoulder. This woman kinda holds onto you and kinda lightly pulls you back and says, Frank, was it? We have a lot to talk about.
You might just be the most important piece of his legacy. As you flash back to this darkness, you see Adrien's hand is once again out reaching out to you. He's getting closer and closer. His hand not out as if to hold it as he's struggling weakly, but more almost like a handshake.
I'll take his hand.
There is a pulse that goes through you. Crank, I need you to make a presence check for me.
Is this having anything to do with magic
at all? This is.
Can I use I've got the magic, baby?
Yes, you can. Yes, you can.
You're not gonna believe this. Help my If you
tell me
It's 2.
She's back.
There we go. We needed a nanny crit. Get crank back in.
Crank, there's a pulse that runs through you like a dagger through the very inside of your brain. Pain explodes in you And yet all at once, you feel the sensation of flying upwards. You can feel Adrian's hand holding on to you as as if he is carrying you out of this. You see he looks at you with a smile, and he leans close and whispers in your ear, it's working. It's going to work. Don't be afraid, Frank.
I'm not afraid.
And here's what I would like you to do, Annie. You may select one domain card of level one from either Arcana or Codex. In return, however, take a stress and mark out one of your stress. It is permanently lost. Okay. You may add whichever domain card you choose to your loadout and you can use it as though it was in your loadout like a normal card. As you come to Crank, what do the two of them notice about you that is different?
I think Crank's eyes have been dull, like duller than usual for the past three weeks. And I think that they're back to maybe just a little bit brighter than they used to be.
I like that. The two of you, both of you take one HP of damage and take one stress. But as almost as quickly as that sensation began, it is over like a brain freeze that suddenly goes away. As you look at Crank, Crank's eyes are brighter.
Did it work?
I I don't know, but something happened. I saw Adrian.
You saw Adrian? That's He told me that I was important. Well, you are important. That's very important. I I'm really glad to hear that. Your eyes seem a lot brighter. Did did they tell you anything? Do you feel different?
I do feel different. I feel like I feel like I'm humming a little bit. I don't I don't know why. Look at my gauntlets.
Look at your gauntlets. They're shimmering a little bit. Just Do
you see this?
That's magic. That's magic. They don't interact with us. There's magic. Crick.
Ever so slightly, you see color in the seams and grooves of these gauntlets. When you saw them before being wielded by other wizards, they glowed incredibly bright as magic course through them. But your gauntlets have never glowed until now, a little bit of life has entered into them.
I think
I did magic.
I think you did magic. Crank, I think And Pistachio's eye clock Kapi and feel the tension off of Kapi and instead of like bringing tension to it, Pistachio just kinda like sidles up next to Kapi and like squeezes him just to let him know that they're there and goes, isn't that Crank, Kapi? Crank's gonna do magic because of you.
When we when Crank came back, is it still like the same amount of time or is it like nighttime now?
Your eyes pop open and you see that the sun is long gone. It is dark outside.
Yeah. Kapi. had his hands covering his eyes and like in his hair, like gripping it tight. And he looks up and because of the nighttime, yeah, like his eyes are brighter, even more bright. And then like the shimmer from his gauntlets is even more apparent. See? Told you, Crank.
You were right, Kapi.
We needed you this entire time, Kapi.
And I get up and I turn around.
An arrow flies past your head and thunks into the tree behind you. And as you look out at the graves, sure enough, you see something or some things shambling towards you. And as the euphoria of this moment gives way to a battle, that is where we will end this session of DodoBorne . Hey. Once again, thank you so much Darrington Press for this awesome game.
We love it so much. Thank you to all our listeners. We've been getting so much love on socials. We love all the fan art. We love everybody talking to us. Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh. Y'all are great. And as me, your best friend and the editor Don't say it.
Is fuck. The not soul editor.
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