Latest / Story Games / Episode 19: Between Clouds Game Session

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Episode 19: Between Clouds Game Session · Story Games

• Maggie Studio: Friends, and welcome back to Story Games, a podcast all about your favorite narrative-driven games. My name is Momo, and I will be your host. Today I've got something so exciting. We are doing a game session of a game called Between Clouds by Andy Licht. And the cool thing is that we actually have Andy herself here to run the game for us. So the creator of the game is actually the one GMing the game, and I just think that's really cool and fun. We had an absolute blast playing between clouds, and I hope you'll enjoy listening to it. Without further ado, here is Between Clouds. Hello everyone and welcome back to Heart of the Dear Nicorn. Today I'm very excited because I've got some friends with us in the film studio, including Andy Licht, and we are gonna play Andy's game. And I'm so excited she's gonna run ⁓ Between Clouds, specifically Cats, Paw, Couriers, which is very difficult for me to say. I wrote it that way, yeah. Thank you for that. I'm also here with our friends Avery, and I'm here with our friend Carla. And we're just gonna play a game together, so thank you for joining us. Great. Andy, do wanna take it away? Yeah, I'll take it away. Okay, so the game we're gonna play is called Between Clouds. It's ⁓ colorful biopunk adventure of found family and a group of mutants known as symbiotes and their beloved flying beast known as a Kirin. It's really like ⁓ Avatar, the last airbender. Vibes like we're riding around on OPA, our magical sky bison. And ⁓ yeah, ⁓ we're probably going to tell a l a lighthearted story to PG thirteen is my thought. Okay. We can talk about that too. Okay. but yeah, other references for this would be like Treasure Planet, Kipo and the Age of Wonder Beasts. ⁓ ⁓ any yeah anything anything with animals and a little a little weirdness and a lot of color. Yay. Cool. And also we can make the world our own. Great. Yay. and before we get into it as well as a person running a table, I will outline a few things about the session in general. ⁓ which is one, you're welcome to get up and leave whenever. Okay. ⁓ you have you have that agency. That's the first safety tool. You can just go. two, ⁓ we'll have an X card that we'll put in the center of the table. It might even be somewhere in this play kit. ⁓ we'll have an X card, and the X card is a thing that we can touch at any point to say, I didn't like that. ⁓ and when we touch the X card, we stop the game and we can talk about it. ⁓ and we can reverse anything in the fiction, we can undo anything in the fiction. ⁓ so that's gonna be our safety tool. ⁓ aside from that, a few general notes about story games, ⁓ because I consider Between Clouds a story game, although I'm the facilitator. a few general notes about story games are that there's no wrong answers. So if you're like, ⁓ is this the right thing to say here? Sure. Yeah, that's great. ⁓ what is obvious to you might not be obvious to other people. So if you think it's a very simple answer that you have, ⁓ You can do that. You should shoot for that anyways. And ⁓ I wouldn't plan too far ahead. You don't need to be the architect of some great scheme. You can just do something small and simple and other people can ⁓ play off of that. Awesome. Yeah. Cool. ⁓ does anyone have any questions before we begin? Check in. How's everyone feeling? I'm feeling hot. Are we doing like character creation? We're gonna do character creation. That's gonna be that's gonna be part of it. I've been thinking about my. ⁓ yeah, I have not told Avery already. ⁓ I got to hear a little bit of the practice. ⁓ yeah. So excited. Pre-planning. Cool. Okay, great. ⁓ well, before we begin, ⁓ we will ⁓ read about the game that we're playing. I've prepared this lovely little sheet here. ⁓ and I could be very cruel and I could make a popcorn read. I kind of like that, but I also don't need to. You can raise your hand if you want to popcorn read. Anyone? No? I'm okay with you. Momo will popcorn read. Okay. Okay, we'll take turns. But too much pressure, too much pressure. Cool. Alright. So this is between clouds, the game. and one more note too. We're playing between clouds, but also there is a supplement for between clouds that you mentioned Momo called Cat's Paw Couriers. ⁓ and it's designed to let the game play better as a single session game. Which is what we're doing right now. ⁓ and you'll see when we start playing, but ⁓ Cat's Paw Couriers inverts the like normal arc of the game. Normally you start traveling and you wind up somewhere. With this, we start somewhere and then we're going to go travel. And our objective, ⁓ much like a Balto in the north, that famous sled dog, much like Kiki's delivery service, our objective is we're going to take goods, maybe strange goods, to ⁓ The disparate and needy people of Imperia. That's like the sky world that we occupy. So we're doing a little renegade delivery service. Thanks. I love the Balto reference. Yeah, Balto fans. Rise up. Let's go. ⁓ cool. Between Clouds is a game about a family of mutants and their beloved flying beast working to preserve fragile ecosystems among the sky. They will travel from one location to the next, rescuing precious wildlife. Sabotaging industrialists and finding acceptance in each other's company. The world is post-collapse, set in a time when humans have fled into the skies and away from the poisonous surface below. Now old world technology lies in disrepair, requiring constant maintenance to be used. This is no grim apocalypse, however. Green natural life grows wherever it can find purchase. The world is also a biopunk, and through biology, all things are possible. Mutated animals, Titanic trees, and flying sea life are all commonplace. In this world, our players will encounter sweeping vistas, campfire dinners, squash buckling sword fights, storms, villains, jailbreaks, schemes, and supernatural abilities. And here's some artwork for you all. Who made the artwork, Andy? I made the artwork. I illustrated it. Yeah. And if you want to read the bottom left paragraph, the pr Yeah, that one. Yeah. Won't keep showing off artwork. The storyteller. One player must facilitate the game by assuming the role of the storyteller, typically the person who brought this game to the group. They will guide the player's journey across Imperia, presenting them with new scenes and challenges along the way. They take on the role of the Kirin itself. That's me. That's you. Okay. Do you want to keep going? ⁓ you can read the second one too and then pass it back to me. Kirin. Between clouds is centered around an immense flying mammals known as Kirin. They're creatures of mytholog mythical I can read. They are creatures of mythical proportions and masters of the natural world, feared by humans and hunted for their resources. The storyteller must create their own Kirin, consulting the group as they do. And we're gonna like we're gonna make it together. Yeah, okay. symbiotes. Players assume the role of symbiotes, colorful outcasts who have forged symbiotic links with a Kirin. They are shunned by society, often labeled as miscreants and anarchists. Through their Kirin, the players gain access to biological abilities that will give them an edge against poachers and industrialists. Okay, that's kind of interesting. And finally, the family. The symbiotes and their Kirin together create a found family, simply referred to as the family throughout. They share a biological connection as well as a spiritual bond. In a world that fears the symbiotes and Kirin, they are each other's home. And that's kind of nice. That's really nice. Okay, so the first thing we're gonna do, and we're gonna we're gonna do it together, because I'd like us all to have some say in this, is we're gonna we're gonna create our Kieran. Does that sound good? Yes, yes. Cool. Okay. Yes. Alright, this is the page I'm on. If you're following along at home, page 30. Here we go. would somebody roll? Everybody grab some dice from here. Two eight. And we'll just everybody grab two. Two dice. We got two dice. We'll go around the circle. Carla, do you wanna roll? ⁓ also Also, what are everyone's pronouns? We didn't do pr hello. I use she they pronouns, by the way. That's good to know. She her. Marvel She her. They them. Perfect. Thank you everyone. Okay. Carla, roll two dice. We're gonna find out the breed for our hearings. ⁓ god, a lot of pressure. You got this. Eight. actually give me both numbers. ⁓ The first number and the second number. Okay? And two. Six, two. Okay, so our Kirin can either be canine. Okay. Like a dog. A wolf. You've heard of them. You know them. You love them. Balto. Or bal Balto. Or ⁓ Porcine, which is like a pig. A pig could also be like a warthog. I fuck with a pig. I fuck with pigs. Yeah, yeah. Well, I also F-word with a pig. what kind of ⁓ what what kind of pig are we thinking? We can kind of flesh this out as we go, but boar, warthog, hippopotamus, ⁓ a common barn pig. you know, one with a curly tail. I kinda like the curly tail of barn pig. I was literally thinking, yeah, like a really big, adorable pig. Like Wilbur from Charlotte's webpigs. Yes. Okay. Farm pig. Keep that percolating. Farn pig. Do we have a place for carriage? We do. Yeah, there's a sheet for it, and we should grab that. Actually that'd be useful if you want to fill that out as we go. And filling out stuff. And then I can just And do the other thing. Yeah. That's our map, yeah. Should we lay this out? We won't lay it out yet. Okay. Because it's gonna be a big reveal when we do lay it out. Okay. We're gonna say, whoa, look at how wide this world is. Fun detail about the map is it doesn't get much use in the original version of the game, but it's there. But it gets a lot of use in the delivery service version of the game. Let's go. Pretty cool. ⁓ do you wanna roll two dice? ⁓ yes, of course. Yeah. I got four and five. Four and five. Okay. So okay. This is interesting. And we can scared and we can Right, right. And I and I'll let us r I'll let I'll give us one re-roll. ⁓ I always give us one re-roll. ⁓ but ⁓ our options are either, this is so funny. ⁓ we either have twin pigs, so there's two of which is really cute. Or this is the weird option is ⁓ this is for its build, sorry, that's what we're determining right now. It's like the physical attributes of it kind of. ⁓ the other option is serpentine so it's like kind of long and slender. And I don't really like Yeah. It's like animals call human beings. They're kinda like long pigs. That's what animals call human beings. Is that what you say? Yes, that's a cannibal phone. No, you're right. I have long pig as well. The long pig, ooh, that's That scares me. I kinda like it. Okay, and then here's some sylla and this is an idea to give you long, but you could picture long pig maybe. There's long, there's twin. Like Jake from Adventure Time. He's kind of he's kind of round and he can get really long. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But but but but then I would want him to be short, stout pig, and then be able to stretch out to long pig if if that's not what it is. But that's fine. I need the short stoutness of the pig. In that case we could also go twin pigs. I am twin pigs. I am for twin pigs. 'Cause also Long Pig is freaking me Cannibals Wait, let's do twin pigs. Okay. Avery, I like that you were you you knew in your heart that long pig could not be flexible. You said that's not what it is. Long pig's gonna be one kinda way. It's gonna be one This is real and it's reality, we should get even being more invested. Figure it the fuck out. Yeah, don't flip out. H have a little have a little respect. ⁓ Too like much like a dream. I appreciate that. Yeah, dreaming too most of the time. What's the deal? And I do I do all also as a rule for Between Clouds and when we play, this is the rule as well. You know, I really welcome a lot of input. I think this game I played it a lot. I think it really shines when people start pitching weird ideas and also collaborate, you know. I'm not like ⁓ a monarch or the final authority on whatever whatever happens here. ⁓ I mean I am the I guess I am the final authority, but I really wanna work with it. Would you roll the die savory? Yes. This is for ⁓ actually roll one more die too. You can leave those two, but just roll one more. Hmm. One, five, and six. Okay, this is for our pigs No, both of our pigs personalities. They have the same personalities. They well they actually for the twin for the twin animal, how it works out is ⁓ we pick two personalities and each of the twins gets one. Okay. ⁓ so they're both one-note characters, but together they create a two-dimensional character. ⁓ there we go. Yeah, and that's kind of fun. That is. Okay, you said one, five, and six. The personality traits are aggressive, active, or calm. I love the idea of an aggressive and a calm. Me too. That's very fun. I think that's it. Okay. That's what I Angry pig, chill pig. Yeah. One pig always tells the truth and one pig always tells lies. Yes. One pig star trying to start the fight, one pig is trying to keep everybody calm. Peacekeeper. Or just like taking a nap. Hard to say. Yeah. beautiful. Okay. ⁓ Carla, would you roll two dice one more time? And this is five and five. ⁓ roll one of them again. One. ⁓ so this is for the final option. This is like the freakiest, but maybe the most fun option. Okay. ⁓ this is for our Kieran's genotype, is what it's called. Well, what does that word mean? It's like a biological word. for us, the the the genotype is just the like ecological niche. That the Kirin fills. Ooh. I've done some artwork. I love artwork. Okay, very cool. Very beautiful. ⁓ and one is ⁓ nightshade Kirin. This is an elusive nocturnal Kirin that moves like shadow and makes little noise. Okay. Assassin pigs. Okay. Okay, so that's very fun. They live in like ⁓ they live in like the jungle, the desert fungal areas. Assassin pigs, wild. And the other option is a storm eater curin, which is an elemental curin that controls the elements and energy with ease. That's It smells of ozone, petrachore, and burning metal. ⁓ I love that you put petrichor in the game. I love Yeah, that's That's my favorite word. I think it's a real word. It is a real word. Okay, people were debating that for a minute. They can eat rocks. And they can go eat rocks. Much like the Kieran probably does. Language is developed through use. So it's a real word. Yes. I like elemental pics. Yeah. I think that's pretty cool. And like the aggressive one can like maybe like do like earthquakes and like lightning. And then the other one can do like gentle breezes and like soft rain. And maybe they do like different things. I like that. That's nice. That calls. I also just want to say I was imagining like Two large pigs like trying to be stealthy and sneaky in the But they don't But they're large and loud and they kinda like bumping into things They're trying their best comedic effect Elemental's good Elemental's good Elemental's good should we do that Okay cool Alright Alright Our Our scary energy pigs Well one of them's not scary I suppose Or maybe he is scary, but he's calm. We know that he's which is almost scarier, I know. Like, why is he calm? Okay. Marvelous. ⁓ well, with that, we should think a little about how our pigs look. We can kind of flesh that out as we go. there's one more detail that I think we should actually decide right now. That way it doesn't catch catch us off guard during character creation. ⁓ and that is that ⁓ our Kieran. Our ⁓ that's so good. I'm just gonna We just have some high level pig art happening over here. ⁓ Yeah And you won't believe it, that's the calm one. That's the calm one. You can see it in his eyes. Wait till you see the angry one. Sorry. we have ⁓ one more one more element of our Kirin and also ourselves, which is a core mutation. This is a some sort of physical attribute that Is possessed by both of the Kirin and then also our symbiotes. So it's a thing we all share that's like an identifying marker for our found family. Cool. there's some options written here that I can read off. Okay. We can also spitball. ⁓ a few options would be energized horns. ⁓ Interesting. Maybe our pig has like little lightning horns. And we would have you would also have that. And they might look a little different. You might have pointy lightning horns and you might have curly lightning horns. We're thinking about. thunderous wings. Okay. So then we could fly. Pigs could also fly. But then would we fly if we have them? You could also fly. ⁓ they're so attractive. It's not just for shows. No, no. Unless you kind of want that to be your character and you're like, ⁓ I'm like The front of the litter, you know. I never heard to fly. Yeah, right. Everyone else can fly. I'm a pig that can't fly. ⁓ illuminated bestial eyes. So maybe our eyes are glowing with a brilliant sapphire blue. That seems pretty cool. As are our pigs. It's pretty cool. Or finally a static charge that produces a faint hum and occasional sparks. So maybe our body and also our Kieran's bodies just radiate a certain kind of energy. Could other things too. Our own white noise machines. Yeah, kinda just going all the time. You never have to have a fan going when we go to bed. Yeah. You fall asleep going. Yeah. Could be huge. what do we think about those options? I think wings are fun just because flying pigs is a really fun concept. Yeah. I also like the horns. Those are mine too. Those are the ones where I was like. I like the last one. But I don't Hums. Right right there under the more initiations. Yeah, that one sounds cool. Okay, like Idea sound cool. Also, I always love the trope of like glowing tattoos. Ooh. And I think that could always also be fun. Not to throw more in there to deliberate. No, that's a fun trope. I like like and like like we could each like different colors and maybe like Power Rangers that way. Yes, no. Could be big. Seems pretty cool. And then the Kieran could have like rainbows. And then we all like colors of that rainbow. And everybody gets one. Yeah, there's gonna be three of y'all and then two pigs that Pig to person ratio is a little bit. You're not in it. You're the pigs. Yeah. Whose names are Twittledy and Twiddled. Twiddled and twiddle. They don't have to be. That's just what you did in my brain first. Yeah, I'm always for like, you know, I like naming them based off of ⁓ naming them based off of the genotype always feels easy to me in a way. Mm-hmm. Where I'm like, ⁓ their names are something like Nimbus and Cirus or their names are something like that's cute. ⁓ f ⁓ fire and ash or pick your elemental buzzwords here. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I like Nimbus and Cirrus. Nimbus is cool. Especially if we do end up picking wings, that would be very cute. I agree. Those are those are elegant and refined names, Nimbus and Cirus. ⁓ Okay. We can call them NIMBY and Siri to be clean. Wouldn't that be nice? Okay. I wasn't even thinking that. We're gonna have a lot of physical. Nimbi and Siri are not either both of those things. Nimbi Nimbi. The not in my backyard people. And the Siri, I don't know. People are gonna love this. What a couple of unfortunate ignorance. The refined ones are good. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Other other names could be electrically based. You could have like ⁓ Volt and Static. Static. Ooh. Thank you for helping me out here. Okay. Appreciate it. Do what I can. Static and Shock would be fun too. Static and shock. I like Volt though. Volt's kind of like a cool big Yeah. I'm a cool pig. Volt is the aggressive one. Yes. And static is a comb one. That's cute. Here for it. Okay. I like it. ⁓ we need to settle on a on a core mutation. ⁓ right. So I'm hearing like wings. It seems like wings or maybe like wings are good. Or maybe the tattoos. It seems like we kind of have like three ideas floating around there. I vote wings. I also vote wings. I say wings. Okay. Okay, perfect. And everybody's wings can look different. Okay, that's great. Are they bat wings? Insect wings? Feathered wings? Just think about it. Don't answer yet. Okay. ⁓ boom. Okay, sorry. Okay, ⁓ and with that, ⁓ Volt and Static the Kierin are pretty much complete. now that we know what our found family is built around. Or who? These these two ⁓ these twin Kieran. ⁓ now we can create our symbiotes. Yay. Yay. This is my favorite part of that. Of any game ever. Hand me hand me the book, Carla. I'm stealing your book. Okay, here's how we do it. ⁓ the symbiotes are broken into ⁓ roles. ⁓ these are playbooks like you might see in many other games. And there are nine of them. And they're pretty flexible. So for example, there is a ⁓ Fisher role. ⁓ your Fisher could be a, you know, hardened sea captain. Or it could be like a ⁓ sweet elderly woman with a wide-brimmed sun hat and a nice fishing pole. So think think wide with them. Wide. Yeah, cool. great. Okay, I'll go through them. ⁓ so the first role we have is the apothecary, who is a master of ⁓ the natural world and ⁓ combining ingredients to create new things. Concoctions, poultices, salves, etc. that's pretty cool. And ⁓ all the rules have a unique skill. So the apothecary can forage for things and then make new things out of them that are poisonous or spicy or flammable. ⁓ next up we have a brawler who is a ⁓ guardian and defender of the Kirin and of the weak. ⁓ somebody who uses their strength to protect others. ⁓ that's pretty neat. ⁓ and their special skill is protect, so they can stand in and take take harm in the place of someone else. next up we have the captain, who's a silver-tongued negotiator. ⁓ someone who leads with intuition, wit, and charisma. Their skill is that they can parlay, so they can kind of they can strike a bargain with people, they can make a deal to get out of sticky situations. Like, you know, I might lead you to an even bigger score if you let me go now. ⁓ next up is the duelist, ⁓ a fighter who is bound by a sense of duty, ⁓ principle and honor. ⁓ their skill is that they can improvise and do some swashbuckling, you know like rolling barrels Down a hill, kind of slapstick comedy style. Pirates of the Caribbean. Great. ⁓ then we have the Fisher, ⁓ who hunts, captures, and collects the marine ⁓ the the marine sky life of Imperia. to give you an idea of a better idea of the world that we're in, the world of Imperia, this land above the clouds, as featured here on the cover. ⁓ There is a layer of cloud down below on the surface called the cloud sea. And it's poisonous, so we don't go into it. But floating above the cloud sea ⁓ is all kinds of flying, floating marine life, like whales and fish in the story. And so the fisher uses harpoons and nets and whatever else they can to collect that marine life in the sky. ⁓ then we have the jester who is a ⁓ performer An entertainer, an artist, and a conduit for for whimsy and understanding the world. ⁓ they can perform. That's their unique skill. Okay, great. We have a mechanic who maintains old-world technology, keeps things running. ⁓ their special skill is invent. They can make new things on the fly. We have a scoundrel who is a a a No good ne'er do well. I'm like painting a port image of the scoundrel. They're fine, you know. They may be really good actually, they might be chill. ⁓ and their special skill is swindle, so they can kind of perform a little gamble, a little bet, and swindle people out of things. And we have a wayfinder who's been to every corner of Imperia and back. And they can ⁓ they have a guide skill where they can kind of identify and invent new places on the So those are the nine alls. Yepie. Cool. Can I call dibs on one? You you may. You might have to fist fight your ⁓ fist fight your fellow symbiotes for it. I want to be a jester so bad. Be the jester. All you. Cool. ⁓ you want. I think I want to be the scoundrel. I think it fits the best with my my character that I've already created. ⁓ I haven't created a character. I think I want to be the apothecary though. Okay. Perfect. Six sick. Apothecary's gonna be my second choice. Good combination. Yeah. I Jester and Scoundrel were up there for me. Wow. We're captainless. We are just we're we're going where we need a captain. You don't need a captain. No, in fact, the jester, scoundrel, apothecary. What if the crew crew is kind of surviving with it? Seems kind of undisciplined and debaucherous, but you all will be the judge of that. Yeah, I mean undisciplined and debaucherous sounds great. Yeah. ⁓ Is this what I look like in here? You can draw your picture in there. I left that spot. Pigs have ears. Pigs do have ears. Okay, thank you. I think they I don't know Are we pigs? No. Your people. Okay. I see. I saw that there's a place you could draw the cards. Thank you. I'm sorry, I thought that was I get it. I was like, I don't think we're all ⁓ wait and then ⁓ I'll leave the wings for when we decide what kind of wings we have. You're human people who have chosen to leave your regular lives behind to join with a Kieran and ⁓ live a life as an outcast, an outsider, a symbiote, one of these people here. Yeah. Hell yeah. so that's worth thinking about as you're making your character too, like, you know. Why did I leave my life behind? ⁓ what wasn't working for me? Why would I ⁓ choose to ride around on the back of theoretically maybe stinky pig? not casting aspersions on Volt or Static, but maybe they're stinky. I don't know. So, ⁓ how to create a character. ⁓ I've designed the playbooks in a way where you can kind of read through them and they should give you a good idea of what to do, but I'll go through them with you. So, what you should do is you should start right here for the people at home. ⁓ start here where it says play to find out. And it has some good questions about your playbook. Like, ⁓ playing to find out, where does my honor stem from as a duelist? Is violence a necessary evil? Am I any different from my enemies? Okay, that's not cool, that's worth thinking about. And essentially, to complete your character, you will go down the list. ⁓ on each of these bolded headings and you will circle one option. ⁓ there are some parts where like choose a look. You can circle more than one option there if you want. But for the most part you will circ circle one option for all of the choose a blank. So you'll choose an amorphous gender. You'll choose a trinket you'll choose a look for your character. You'll choose a past, although you can write in your own if you want. And you'll choose a dream for your character. And when you get to attributes, I can kinda talk about that a little. Quick note, the printer that we printed this on was a little funky. So it might smudge a little, so be careful. Sorry. We're dealing with the smudgiest. For the people at home, we're dealing with the smudgiest paper right now. You have no idea. And while you're doing that, ⁓ I'm gonna be over here scheming and actually rolling up some some jobs. for for y'all to take on. Hell yeah. As couriers. Yeah. That's what I'm gonna do. And ⁓ as you make your characters as well, feel free to talk about what options you're picking, why you're picking those options. Okay. ⁓ also of course ask questions if you want. ⁓ about like, can I do this? Okay. What are your thoughts on that? What does this mean? I think I am creating a basis for my character. Okay. She was in she was born and raised in a circus. Slay. And it was like a very traditional circus. And it's like, this is what we do as a circus. We are a family of circus people. We do not deviate from the circus life. Damn. And I think her circusry was a bit too weird for them. She was like, I wanna I wanna do my own circus thing. I wanna I wanna deviate from the norm. Spice it up. And they were like, nope. No. You must do the traditional circus acts that are accustomed to our family. I really wonder what sort of new age esoteric circus acts. So do I. I also wonder. Yeah, we're gonna find out. We're gonna find out. Were you shunned and kicked out of circumstances? I wasn't kicked out, I chose to left. I chose to leave I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna make it on my own. I chose yourself. I chose myself. They didn't understand They wouldn't understand, they couldn't. Also, my gender is sparkle, which I think is very fun. That's really good. That's really good. Carla, you seem like you had a question. Okay, so my character. Yes. I know we're doing pirates, but he's a cowboy pirate. That's nice. Yes, yeah last name ha. Okay. And this is the character that you were seeing. This is like because I can do a country accent. We'll see if I can do it under pressure, but I can do it. Beautiful. I want to have. A lasso, would that count as a trinket or a part of my look? Are you kidding me? That can so be your trinket. Okay, cool. Yes. That can so totally be your trinket. ⁓ one complication I see. Okay. Or although this I'd actually maybe character. No. Okay. ⁓ although I'd actually call this a less of a complication and maybe more of a opportunity for exploration, like a feature. Okay. Is that your unique skill is to swindle people and you kind of like make a rigged bet of some kind or even a regular bet and it uses your trinket, I think. ⁓ because a lot of the trinkets like, you know, like a deck of cards or a die, this or that. So maybe think about how you could use your lasso for some sort of betting game. Okay. Like maybe you have ridic something ridiculous where you're like, ⁓ I bet I can knock these you know, that I I bet I could I bet I could get a fly on a wall at you know, fifteen yards with this whip. And people are like, You couldn't hit a fly on a wall at fifteen yards with the head of a whip. That makes no sense. Okay. And you say, I'll bet ya I'll I'll bet ya your last schmeckle. You know? Schmeckle. And ⁓ Is that the currency? The currency? well thankfully, ⁓ because this is a utopian game well it's not a y it's a post apocalypse, but it's a hopeful one. ⁓ We're on the barter system. Okay. Thank God. Got it. Right. But I think fish are a really common form of currency. You can feed them to your Kirin to like restore your Kirin's health. So fish are really good. They're good to have. Yeah. We live in a currency less world. Sorry, I am like focusing on sketching my character and then I will be more prison. No, lock in. I mean I'm generating these jobs and I'm getting some really really devious stuff for all of you, I swear. Hell yeah. That's actually kind of a joke. One of the jobs I generated is like really easy. Like I rolled the easiest one possible, but you're not gonna know which one it is. You're not gonna know which one it is. Could I have it be like so like you know how cowboys do like cool little lasso tricks? I do. Like if I do a cool little lasso trick, could it be like a a brief hypnotism of some sort that that like my ability to like win or deceive or or is that too like overpowered? I have an idea. Okay. You could use your lasso as like a distraction while maybe you have like a little pet. Because I was thinking the fly. Like a little creature that maybe comes in just pickpockets. Or my lasso is is conscious and it it can do a little trick on like I start doing the trick and then it just kind of fun like you're like doing some real gravity l or like some ⁓ physics defining tricks and people are like ⁓ no way a lasso can do that. Right. Right. And then while the lasso You have like a trick lasso somehow. Yeah. It's ⁓ I use 'cause we're like what, we have that like storm thing. I use the wind in the air to like continue my lasso movements. the po like channel the power energy from the Kirin you could maybe use your wings to help with that but you're gonna you're all gonna get a special power too so so think about that too far ahead no you can go on far in actually no you can actually pick whatever power you want and the ability to manipulate wind is one of those so you could you could have that there's some listed on your sheet that I thought were a good fit for that role okay but I do say that you can you can have whatever you want okay I just don't want to overwhelm people with options So, where are we doing? It looks like we're kind of to the attribute section, roughly. ⁓ great. Okay, so let me let me talk about the numbers. Are y'all ready to hit the numbers? This is where between clouds becomes a crunchy, tactical role-playing game. I'm gonna get up the the hex grid, the battle mat, real soon. I'm not, that's not what we're doing. Okay. so there are four stats in between clouds. There is might, which is your I don't need to explain these. I think you have a good idea. Might strong, durable. ⁓ poise, which is ⁓ your ability to move with grace, ⁓ grace, agility, and elegance. There's style, which is your character's social prowess and charisma, and then there is focus, which is your character's wit and intellect. one of these is already filled in for you based on your playbook. So the duelist is always going to be strong. ⁓ the scoundrel will always be stylish, as will the jester. And the apothecary will always be smart. that being said, you have these other numbers listed right down here two, three, and four, and you gotta put those wherever you want. Higher number better, lower number worse. When you ⁓ take an action according to one of these, you roll that amount of dice. So if I say, ⁓ this seems like you'd need to be strong to do it. Roll your mic, you would roll If I were the duelist, five dice. So you can put those numbers pop pop bop however you want. Give it a think. Wait, save them again. No wrong answers. ⁓ they're listed down here. It's the number two, three, and four. Okay. So when you're done, you should have the numbers two, three, four, five. Okay. Yep. You got it. And for those who have worked ahead, the next thing is skills. Actually, I'll wait for y'all to fill that in. So I don't get too ahead of myself. And I'm gonna keep ominously rolling dice over here. Think of a name too. ⁓ can I give you can I give you a tip? This is my favorite between clouds tip of all time, which is if you don't know, if you don't know what to name your character ⁓ a really convenient name that usually works pretty well is to just use the gender that you picked as your name. ⁓ for a lot of characters, like the duelist, ⁓ having your name be grenade would be so sick. That would go so hard. Or bullseye, bullseye's a cool name. I'm gonna pick one of the genders, not the one that I picked, but I'm gonna pick a different one. You could do that too. Hell yeah. I'm gonna be moth. Banjo? Banjo the jester. Really good. And that's just nice. That's just really good. That's perfect. Okay, so the second number thing, and then we're actually all done with the number things, is ⁓ this isn't even really a number thing, but ⁓ we o you also have skills in the game. There are 12 skills, and there are three associated with each of these attributes. So if you want to move. ⁓ like move your body, do gymnastics. If you want to aim, like point the gun or throw a rock, or if you want to sneak, like sneak past guards, if you want to do any of those things, ⁓ those that's all going to be based on the poise stat. So those three are listed under poise. ⁓ at the start of the game, it says here mark one level and three different skills. Add an extra die for each level when you use the ⁓ no. Add an extra die for each level when you use the skill. Nope, that's right. So each level and skill. Anyways, there are three little dots here, and anywhere you see three little dots, you can fill one in, and that means you get an extra die. So if I filled this in, I would get an extra die to duel. At the start of the game, you do that. That's not a skill that your playbook can upgrade. Mm-hmm. And me, I could have made a different design choice there, but that's how it works in year zero, which is the engine that this game is based off of. Shout out Free League, shout out Tales from the Loop, etc. etc. So your decisions have been simplified for you in part. Beautiful. What are these extra little things down here? ⁓ yes, and then your special skill is listed down at the bottom as well. You can put an extra, you can put a level in that too if you want. Okay. So like the duelist can improvise, do the swashbuckling. If I want to be really good at doing that swashbuckling, I'd probably want to put one one of my dots in there to start. Okay. ⁓ yeah. And don't put more than one dot into one skill. Got it. Yeah. Only one at a time, right at the start. Otherwise, you might have a really good skill and that's gonna like break the game. It's gonna make it really complicated. Exciting. when you're done with all of that, I'll point you. I'll point you to some things. Then you're gonna like these things, and then we'll be done with our characters. after you've assigned your skills, there are two more things that you need. And these are the fun parts. These are kind of the sauce. your character, each of your characters is going to need a mutation and a power. Which are here in the book, in the powers and mutations section, page eighty two. And they're also all the mutations are listed on your sheet, so you can just read But if you want to read more about them, they're right here. Do they have mechanic Like mechanical benefits? ⁓ they have the mechanical benefit of you getting to argue to me why your mutation would help you in that situation. Okay. And me really trying to not be permissive and say, I don't think that would work. And that's what we're gonna do. Okay. so yes, they do have a mechanical benefit. If a mu if a mutation would help you to do something, you will get an extra die for it. Okay. Yes. ⁓ but but not more than one mutation can help at a help at a time. So Sure. but some common mutations. And these are along with your core mutations. So y'all have your wings. E all three of you have wings. But in addition to that, maybe you have antenna. Maybe you have a beak. Maybe you have horns or fangs or a tail or talons or tendrils. And this is where the game gets a little furry, you know. It's kind of exciting. I mean look at this jester. They have a beak. I That's really cute. That's kinda nice. Yeah. The Fisher has scales. This captain's kind of fun. They have like a third eye and a pointy devil tail. How'd they get that? You know? ⁓ and past the mutation you will choose a power for your character. I've written some recommended powers on everybody's sheet based on what the role is. but there's also a full list in the book. ⁓ and the powers are loosely defined and up to your interpretation. So, for example, I have a power listed here called magnetism for the dualist. what what does that mean for me? Am I is that like a magnetic ability to control my weapon and ⁓ fling it around the battlefield? Or is that some sort of like internal sense of magnetism like migratory birds have that I'm using? to like sense my surroundings and life forms in my area. probably not both, but maybe one of those. So kind of think about how that looks for you. Once you're done with that, your character's pretty much done. Carla's raising her hand. Telepathy and telekinesis, they're different, right? But they usually go hand in hand. Could I swap I have telepathy on here. Could I do telekinesis? And that's how I like get my lasso to do it. ⁓ totally. Tricks. Yes. Cool. Absolutely. Cool. Yes. Hell yeah. And there's a mechanical thing, we'll get to it when we get there. But if you want to do a little telekinesis, I'm like okay with that. But if you want to really use your power to effect, ⁓ you'll spend what's called a unity point. Okay. Which is ⁓ reflection of our family's ⁓ unity. How united we are. Cute! Yeah Here, if you want to find a clean yeah, maybe we consolidate these since they're kinda inky. They're really inky. Great. Nice. Okie dokie. I know, I'm checking my hands too, I'm like, ⁓ it seems like the ink for the most part has like set. But ⁓ I didn't know that it was inky and then I smudged some smudge. There's some smudge. Okay, good to know. Well but I really I really rubbed it. You were beware. Ink ink possible. Okay. Marvelous. Put the pencil down. Wow. ⁓ I like your art. All I have is a cowboy hat and I think that's as far as I'm going. It's beautiful. I'm leaving the rest up to imagination. Your character is an amorphous cowboy. Yeah. Avery you have an arm which is nice. ⁓ that's perfect. That's so cool. And I can also pollinate them. ⁓ so if there's no bees, we're fine. ⁓ You're good. We're good. ⁓ you can you can be the one. You are gonna be the one. And this is a fun little lore moment that the Kieran actually and the symbiotes actually exist because all of the ecosystems of Imperia are separated by the cloud sea. And so the Kieran were made I won't get into it, but they were produced ⁓ as genetic pollinators to visit one island and the next and carry plants and critters between them to keep ecosystems alive. That's so fun. It's a little lore drop for the people at home. Thanks, Carla. There's lot of good stuff going on up there. Yeah, it came from my brain. this is a weird time to introduce this, but I asked for the tokens, so here we are now. ⁓ I've laid this sheet out. This is our how-to-play sheet. Has a lot of useful stuff on it, including a typo. And the only tokens that are on it right now are these equipment points. And what do they say? ⁓ spend an equipment point to produce any common item that would be found in your saddle or pockets and gain an extra die from it. So rather than tracking inventory in this game, because that can get quite tedious, especially when you live in a saddle, one of one of these things, right? Who knows what we have in here? ⁓ you may at any time during play say, ⁓ I'm gonna grab a flashlight, right? What do you have a flashlight? And you're like, Yes, I do have a flashlight, in fact. And I'm going to get an extra die to my inspect role because of this, or my navigating in the dark. And I would say that's very fair. so you have three of those. And you can get more if you do and do the right thing. And these are kind of shared? They're shared. Yeah. Everything on here is shared. Yeah. Yeah, this game is all about sharing. I think really good at it. It's my woke, woke, queer socialist agenda game. Sharing is caring. Sharing's caring. Found family. Great. ⁓ does everybody ⁓ want to introduce their characters? And what basically what I want to hear about with your character is maybe just like ⁓ it can be it can be brief. Just a couple of sentences. I don't need to know your stats. Those aren't important to me. ⁓ but just like what do they look like? What's their general demeanor? any other deets you wanna share? Share. Share ⁓ Any other details you want to show Okay, okay with me. Anything you want to share, princess. ⁓ who would like to begin? I could begin. Momo, take it away. Okay, so I am Banjo the Jester. Hello, Banjo. ⁓ I have got purple hair. Okay. And I I painstakingly like wrap it around, I imagine like wires. Kind of like, so that kind of looks like I have two little like Donuts. Cool. I'm very imagining ⁓ everything everywhere all at once. Yes. Kind of that scene where her hair was like really cool like that. Yes. ⁓ so I do that and it takes a long time every morning, but it's very important that I do that for my self esteem. Wonderful. like I kinda mentioned before, I come from a circus family, but a very traditional circus family who takes ⁓ circusry very, very seriously. ⁓ and I don't. I think that circusry should be fun and should be exciting and new and ⁓ the circus didn't really like that. So I said, you know what, I'm gonna go kick rocks on my own. And I set out to discover what art means to me and how I can make art that is meaningful to me in the way that I wanna make it. ⁓ I imagine I'm very goofy, very silly, very hee hee ha ha ⁓ with periodic moments of existential dread. That's very important to my development. Marvelous. ⁓ I have a very like cheerful outward demeanor, ⁓ but sometimes I can get sad and sometimes I can think of like, ⁓ what's the point of making art in the first place? ⁓ so it's kind of like her internal struggle is like what does it mean to make art? Okay. Yeah. Banjo banjo contains Multitudes. Banjo is multifaceted. Highs and lows. Highs and lows. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, banjo. Thank you. Okay. Can I ask a question? Please, yes. What is bright lung? Bright lung. What is a cure? I need a cure for it. Totally. What is that? Bright lung. That's a part of my story. Yeah, that's probably good to know. Yeah. And ⁓ well, we could make it whatever we want in this universe, but ⁓ as it's written in the book, bright lung is what People get when they spend too long down in the below, ⁓ underneath the cloud sea. ⁓ like sailors and divers can become poisoned with bright lung. ⁓ it's kind of like a coal miner black lung situation. Behold the below. Buncha, you know, weird undersea type stuff. I mean, this is not underwater, this is just like The poisonous surface of the earth. Yeah. And the cloud sea is up top. So that's like not where you want to go, you know? Got it. Yeah. Thank you. That's where Prince was. You're trying to find like trying to help. I don't know if that's where I was. But I'm moth. And I my gender is willow. Ooh. And I have ⁓ well, I changed my mind about this. I wear a cloak of leaves and over magnifying glasses. My body is made of floor I I can grow things on the surface of my body. So that's fun. And I have wings just like you all have wings. I worked in a lab until I saw something horrible. And now I need to cure this disease that I learned about and this lab and it's not what you think it is. ⁓ shit, so that's not what you think it is. Okay. Intrigue, intrigue, intrigue. So yeah. That's what I have. I love it. Awesome. Okay. That's my bad. What was your what was your dream, by the way? ⁓ Banjo? To prove the haters wrong. Okay, perfect. The haters being my circus family. Yes. That is the usual the usual life ⁓ dream, huh? And I should ask both of you, ban banjo, are you okay with your backstory showing up as we play, or would you prefer that it doesn't? No, yeah, totally. Circus family can come around. Circus family can come. Cool. Punch ⁓ in the face. moth, are you okay with any of your lab past showing up or would you prefer it doesn't? It can show up. Yeah. Cool. All right. ⁓ I will pre approve before I introduce my pre approve. Okay. Cool. I always like to ask 'cause sometimes people are like, I don't know, I like a traumatic backstory, but we don't talk about it. And I say, Okay, so fair. I don't want to bring that here and that. You know. Lions and veils. ⁓ Carla Yes. thank you moth. Thank you. Carla, who are you playing? The name is Ye. Ye ha. Ha Yee Ha. Right. Right. ⁓ I am a sexy cowboy. Hell and I am Epic. A sexy man a sexy man cowboy. Okay, that's good to know. Okay. I'm very cocky. ⁓ and be kind of douchey sometimes. Okay. My gender is arson. Yes. And I have a lasso that does cool tricks that I move around with my telekinesis. Wow. I have a shiny golden tooth and a wide brimmed hat. Yes. And cowboy boots of course. Okay. So excited. ⁓ I was mischievous but everyone else was pure evil. Meaning I lived in an environment where everyone else was bad and I had to be bad as well in order to protect myself and the people that I loved. Yes. But unfortunately, I got a little bit too big for my riches. And the people that I cared for got killed. Yes. And I blame myself. And so my journey is about Stop I'm gonna need to stop running and face my problems. Mm yes. My dreams. Okay. That's heavy stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Get it right. Tragic backstory for opening up so much. I know. And his his defense mechanism is being cocky and like douchey. Right. But really he's got a lot of pain. Like a wounded down under frat boy. A wounded ex con with a heart of gold. ⁓ my god, I can fix him. Yeah. That's what everyone that's what everyone thinks. ⁓ okay. But only he can fix himself. ⁓ say that again. Wow. Okay. You don't need to say it again, but you know. Wow. Alright, ⁓ so that's please. I forgot, I have quills. But they're like they're like retractable so like you can't see them but like they pop out when I do your clothes have a bunch of holes in them? No, like real question. You know, I'm just thinking like character design. It's so interesting. But do you just wear mesh only? I think I have to I think I'm interested in mesh. Yeah. Yeah. I'm here with a leather mesh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Going with the sexy cow page. Leather, leather daddy. Wow. Daddy. Wow. With quills. Yeah. The leather mesh is unbelievable. Yeah. And to accommodate. And it makes scars on my back. So I have That's tough. I have scars. Yeah, that's a classic from Mike Wills. Bad bad exiting my body. I love ye. I love ye so much. Yes. Okay, that's exciting. Thank you. Incredible. ⁓ now we will do one more thing before we kind of begin begin our play. ⁓ which is that we're going to talk about our saddle that we're in. And ⁓ the saddle is part of what ⁓ I'm totally blanking right now. Part of what ⁓ Avery Alder calls the idle dreaming period. ⁓ in Dream Askew, Dream Apart. That's a little game reference. ⁓ and the idle dreaming period. Is a time when we are both like creating something, but we're also kind of we're also kind of playing in the world a little bit too. Okay. So we're kind of like, you know, thinking about our characters in space and time. Okay. So this is a way to kind of dip our toes in the water without going right in. And I think I think that's pretty smart. so here's a sheet. Great. so what we're gonna do is we're gonna answer some questions and if some brave soul wants to ⁓ draw a map of the saddle that can also be useful. And you might be thinking I got this. You might be thinking, how could I possibly draw a map? Well, ⁓ I'll show you my map and you'll say, I could do that. I swear it's not in three dimensions. ⁓ ba-da-bada ba-ba-ba-ba-da. So We're gonna choose some things to design our saddle. Okay. Okay. and I'm gonna choose them too. I'm gonna participate in this actually. Thank you. ⁓ so each saddle, are you ready for it? Mm-hmm. And this is listed on that sheet two. So if you wanna look there, you can look there or you can look over here. each saddle has three upgrades and two flaws. we're we're Going to work together to pick three upgrades and two flaws for our saddle. Okay. ⁓ so you can kinda look over the list. There's no wrong answers here, but this is just gonna give us an idea of what it's like to live here. So Carla, if you wanna check your inky fingertips as not to mark this stark white book that I chose to make stark white. maybe you wanna go first. Okay. Look here, you can either choose an upgrade or a flaw. There's no wrong answers. It's like are you feeling So we each get to pick one essentially. You each get to pick one. Okay. Yeah. Although I if you if you two both chose a flaw then moth you would sadly be prevented from picking a flaw. Question. That's the cookie crum how the cookie crumbles. Yes, please. Sorry, that was totally me interrupting. We have since we have two Kieran. Mmm, you're asking the big questions. So is it like chariot style? Like there's like the big saddle on both of them and they both kind of in tandem. Or is it like a sleigh and they kind of pull us behind them? ⁓ wow. Okay. Well it can wow. Well it can be any of those. And every time I play a session with twin Kieran, this question comes up. Where is the saddle? What's it like? And every time we find a new solution. ⁓ that's fun. ⁓ you can have it on just one. You could have it on just static or just volt. You could have two ⁓ smaller saddles on each of them. ⁓ maybe they serve different purposes. ⁓ or you could I would allow your chariot style situation of that's kinda two pigs in the front and then ⁓ some kind of like float or barge or small boat that's being towed behind it. I've never had that suggested before. ⁓ okay, cool. I think we played a game play where we had twin Kieran and we did one saddle on each. Yeah. With Taunt Flo. I think so. Yes. I'm also thinking like Balto. I'm thinking like Yeah. Back to Balto. Always comes back to the It Balto back to Balto. ⁓ so that would be my vote. I think that'd be kind of fun. I think that's sick. Yeah. I'm here for it. Cool. Cool. Here's my saddle artwork for the people at home. So I have little these are little pig butts. Yeah. And I kind of just like into like a ⁓ day like a balance. Nice. Yeah, so give us an upgrade or a flaw, Carla. No wrong answers. Or I should say ye. Ye. Ye. Ye. Ooh. Two. I'm I'm in between underbelly hammock for upgrade or haunted aura. I was gonna say haunted aura. You know, we can also just do this ⁓ I wanna make sure one of us will get an extra turn, which is kind of funny. But that's okay. Okay, so yes, take your pick, Carly. Okay. I think I'm picking underbelly hammock. Okay. I am. A big fan of hammocks. Interesting. Well, how how do you see that working with this chariot style situation that we've developed? Well, they can have a hammock that attaches to both of them that you're ⁓ the goes Okay, so you can hang out up there. Yeah. Okay, that's nice. In case you want to spend some quality time with our twin piggies. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So it's not under the actual sun. Under the bellies. It's suspended between them. That's And it's all toasty under the l there because pig bellies are warm. Yeah. And it keeps you warm in case you want to take a nice nap. ⁓ it keeps you warm. wow. The people at home, if you could only see the diagram we're constructing, imagine pig, pig, hammock, boat. Hammock. Are you there yet? It's like a pod racer from Star Wars. It's the program. It's already getting spatially complex. It's not to scale. Would you like to pick one? Not to scale. Not to scale. I'm going with haunted aura. Okay. This thing is haunted. Maybe we like. got the materials to make the saddle part from like some kind of cursed situation. Mm like we did not go above board with this. maybe it's from a place that was haunted. Like we took the boards from like a literal haunted house. Whoa. Okay I mean, by all means. ⁓ some threats that are out there too, some things to think about. ⁓ there are people who poach Kirin. In fact, it's a very popular thing to do. There are Kirin poachers, which is part of your work is to protect and save the Kieran as symbiotes. Absolutely not. So that's pretty haunted energy as well. ⁓ worth worth thinking about. ⁓ but certainly there would be ⁓ suspicious and haunted places across Imperia. I like that. I have a question about haunted aura aura. Yeah. How how far does this haunt go? Do we get to see or we hear spooky stuff at night? Spooky stuff. It's okay. Yeah. Items moved around. Totally. Not where we left them. Maybe shadow we figures at night. Like we think it's like one of our friends in the saddle and we look over there and they're gone. Are we scared of it? Or is it just like, ⁓ my god, there it is. It's just Fred again. Like we name them. They're like, that's just that's where Where did you put my goddamn keys? Yeah, exactly. It's like more of a good news like a test here or something. Okay, it's a chill thing. Okay. What color are static and vault? Did we even No we didn't pick it? I imagine them pink in my head. I I saw pink, but I also saw purple. Pink and purple. Pink and purple. Pink and purple. Pink and purple, pink. Pink and purple. And is there energy more of like a okay, pink and purple? I feel like they're pink or and purple. Mm-hmm. But they're kind of dirty, so they have a lot of they kind of are like grey and brown. Like they kind of have a lot of stuff on them. They're muted. They're going through the c they're going through all the stuff and the clouds and they're getting all So they have to get washed off. So when they get washed off they all look great. They're pink beautiful. They have to land in the dirt, they're walking in the forest, in the mountains. Okay. Or wash me on their butt. Yeah, yeah. They're probably and w did we decide what kind of wings they have? No, we didn't. I if I may Please. Because I always will incorporate this into any character I play ever. Yeah. Can we give them like fairy wings? ⁓ Something very like like maybe cicado wings. That works for me. Yeah. I was thinking like dragonfly wings. Yes, yes. I like that because it kind of subverts the if we went with feathered wings, I feel like we're really leaning into the flying pigs trope. Yeah. And I'm like, how can we create a little distance from Yeah. And I like I like the way this suggests like that they're actually really lightweight almost. It's like they're like full of gas. Yeah, like bird bones. Yeah, they don't have these like massive like wings. They just have these like little tiny little parallelings. I like that. And Kieran can fly without wings. ⁓ They don't need wings. They don't even need them really. They're just for aesthetics. Maybe the wings are just like, yeah, like you are maybe not gonna fall down. If you need it, just like 'cause they get tired. Maybe they are heavy because they're pigs. I don't know. Right. Maybe they're gliding with pigs. They're not as pigs are not very agile. These probably help. I've seen too many people try to catch a pig. ⁓ You know, this is for now. The four H Fair. And no one's gonna try and catch your pigs in Nobody would have to be gigantic. Nobody getting our pigs. Mm-hmm. And this is not foreshadowing, dude. ⁓ my god. ⁓ perfect. ⁓ no. Foreshadowing. Great. Okay, how about moth? Would you pick a pick an item from the list? ⁓ yeah. Something something haunted. Or not haunted. Something flawed, something or pick a flaw or an upgrade. That's what I mean to say. Good job. Thank you. You got the words, words. Do we have the underbelly hammock? Sware. And dark history would be a lot. Just the setting setting oneself up for evil. Highly flammable would not be good with you around. Arson, my gender. No. ⁓ okay. Time to get serious. I think that. Says who? I don't know. We just maybe need something else. You know what? I will say we have a full kitchen. ⁓ F-E. F-E. F-Free children watching. Where is our kitchen located? Maybe we have like a stove off the back. Hmm. Yeah. Like chimney and like a back. And it's like a stove. Trying to draw this upside down, which is really hard. Nice. And then we have like an ice box, which looks like a normal fridge, but it's not. And then we have like that's an oven. And then we we have like a stove. And then we have like a little dining room table. Nice. Like play settings. Yeah. Heck yeah. Kitchen to it. Beautiful. Perfect. Gorgeous. Yay. Gorgeous. Okay. what have we selected thus far? Sorry I was in Design Land. That's my bed. Full kitchen? Beautiful. Edge your belly hammock. Okay. And a haunted aura. Wonderful. I'm gonna pick, would you circle for me? Let me have a look here, Carla. Hmm. Sweater is kind of funny. I always like to dress. There's like little dress up options and it's like why would I not dress them up kind of, you know? Like a pig with a collar, a pig with a little bandana around its neck. That's kind of compelling in a way. That would be cute. What if we gave them two bandanas and the bandanas are different colors too, so we can help to tell ⁓ apart. Yeah. Would that be big? No, they're different colors. They're different colors already. Yeah. I didn't realize. yeah, I'm gonna give them bandanas. Okay. And the angry one's gonna have a dark bandana. Okay. I don't know what color. Okay. Is that for us to decide? Or is it just up to the I think it's just like a dark color. Okay. Maybe the angry one is the pink one and has a purple bandana, and then the calm one is purple and has a pink bandana. ⁓ little color that's really cool. That's cute. Okay. I think that yes. And I don't know if I'll keep track of that in my head, but I think we know there's a fun color swap happening. fun. Okay, do y'all want to work together to pick one more? We need a flaw. ⁓ people are always so giddy to pick the flaws. Yeah. Okay. Well Carla. Carla, this is technically your pick, but an anybody call anybody call one out. Hideous color is kind of funny. Like it's just like a really ugly hideous color. Ugly color like pea soup green. I of the saddle. Yeah. Okay. That could be funny. Just like it's ugly. Like it clashes with the pigs. Okay. Yeah. Or slippery would be funny. Slippery could be very slapstick. Yeah. That could be very fun. Slippery could be fun. Where would the barnacles come from? The sky see the sky. The sky see just how Bronicles get on everything. It's really And scary. Especially with a kitchen. Yeah. yeah. Maybe we're that smart. I like slippery for the slapstick aspect of it. Let's go for it. Yeah. Maybe. And slip We're slipping around and there's ghosts and we're just all pissed. The ghosts are slipping like it's a mess. And slippery with what is the question really. But from the ectoplasm from the ghosts. We don't know we don't need to know just w just yet. And it can be multiple things, but it's just worth thinking about, you know? wonderful. Okay. So we've established our saddle. Now we're going to. Ask one question to the left. So what you'll do is you'll mm-hmm. No, you're locking in. so we're gonna look at all these questions. There are like ten options. And you, ye, will ask one question to ⁓ banjo. Okay. about ⁓ about life in the saddle. Okay. This is fun. And ⁓ Banjo, you're allowed to refuse the question and say, Pick another if you want. ⁓ okay. Yes. Noted. Only 'cause some of the questions are like, What bad thing did you do? Or like where do we wh where do where do we cuddle? or you know, things like that. So you're allowed to refuse if you like. What did you break last week? Ooh, what did I break last week? What did Banjo break? What did Banjo break? Banjo was juggling plates. And slipped. ⁓ And because it's slippery. On the ectoplasm. So Banjo was doing her juggling plate routine. You all know it, you all love it. ⁓ slipped on the ectoplasm, broke like four plates. Like it was it was bad. It was we don't have any plates anymore, we don't have any, like they're all gone now. Those were the only plates. So it's a bowls only situation. We have one extra plate just in case. And I broke all of them. And you broke all of them. Okay. So you're eating like like pancakes out of bowls or whatever. Like this is Or with our hands. K-pan style. Hand rip and hand pancake and sticky. The old rip and dip pancake method. Yeah, totally, totally, totally. Rip and dip. Okay, so y'all need plates. We need plates. We need plates. That's the first mission. First mission. Yeah. Get plates. Notable. Are you writing that down? No, maybe. Who could say I might be writing it down. Banjo, would you like to ask? Where do you keep your hidden stash of belongings? And my co my coat of waves. In your where? In my cloak of leaves. In your cloak of leaves? Okay. So they're always on your person. Yeah. Yeah. But I also have a bottomless satchel. So it kind of works either way. If I if I put something in my cloak of leaves, I can get it out of the satchel. ⁓ and it's the same item. That's sick. And vice versa. That's like very animal crossing logic. I love it. Do you do you moth like leave anything out in the saddle or do you not trust it because of the slip? I don't trust it because juggling broken plate of Well, I don't trust it because of the ectoplasm, but I also feel like if I can't if I don't leave it out then it can't be juggled and then it's safer, which I feel like is a better It's better for our relationship. I'm just saying if I see it, I will juggle it. And you are correct. And I respect that. And then part I'm doing this for you in some ways. You know what? That's so big of you. Thank you. Thank you for saving me from myself. We got a bunch of jokes to ⁓ my goodness. ⁓ my goodness. It's good to know it's better to just not even allow possibility to not even invite trouble. This is correct. It would be my fault. For if you juggled something and it broke, how would I blame you? It would be your fault. You know this about me, yeah. Especially with the bottomless stuff. It's a challenge. Grounds for being juggled. Free juggle territory. Yep. ⁓ moth, would you like to ask a question to Ye? Is it one of these questions ⁓ here, one of these questions. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah I'll ask you a question I ⁓ Why do you why aren't you allowed in the kitchen anymore? Well here we go. As my gender arson detail, I am a fan of fire. And I just have been burning gosh darn near everything I've been cooking. So you're horrible, horrible cooking. Yeah, and that's just you know, we need to eat. And we need to have nutrients and I just take them away with the fire and it's not good. It's not good. And it doesn't taste good. Thank you for knowing your limits. Thank you for knowing your limits. I'll stay away. Yeah. We can go in the hammock. dish cleaning duty. Yeah. Well w we don't have any plates so We've got other stuff. And I also juggle. Knives. Yee, do you like do you are you burning the things on purpose? Do you wanna be ⁓ like is this fulfilling some arsonistic tendency that you have? Or you like ⁓ genuinely burning them when you're trying to cook, you know? I think that I think it's an accident. Okay. But I think cooking When ye cooks, when I cook, I'm so in the zone, I'm in my head, and I'm thinking of my past, it gets me fired up inside and that channels into the cooking and therefore you get it burns. You get fiery about it. I get fiery about it. In a very real sense. In a in a spiritual and physical sense. Okay. Alright, so we are ready to begin our adventure. As Cats Paw Couriers. ⁓ we've just cut up some little slips of paper from the play kit that I want to talk about real quick. ⁓ these little tents, these little cards, are assigned to your ⁓ they're assigned to your roles. And so I'm holding the ⁓ little tent for the jester roll here for you, Bander the Jester. and the reason that we have them is because ⁓ there's a there's a valuable mechanic in this game called unity points. And you can use them to do all kinds of things. There's a full list right here, but you can use them to ⁓ ask for the help of your Kirin if you fail a roll. You can use them to console your family members to restore their condition, so if they're angry you can calm them down. And you can use them to activate one of your powers as well, like your quills or your help me out here, moth. What is your power? ⁓ my power is ⁓ pollination. Is pollination. So you could use one to activate that ⁓ to get like an advantage on a die roll. so the unity points are important. One of the ways you can get them, it says right here, gain a unity point when the Kirin bonds with their symbiotes. So if you and the Kirin hang out, you get a bam. Put a unity point there. And also gain a unity point when the symbiotes rely on each other for support. So that's what these little tents are for. That's fun. So you, Banjo, it says gain a unity point when and this is for this is for ye and moth, so you two will read this. Gain a unity point when you come to this family member. That's you, banjo, ⁓ to have them liven up the space or to understand your bottled up emotions. ⁓ So if at any point during the fiction either of you go to banjo for either of those things, which you can do at any time, then you get a unity point. ⁓ help. And the same goes for the same goes for you, Yi. If you come to Yi for ⁓ for a job or task that you aren't necessarily proud of. Okay. Being that Yi is a scoundrel. Or to confess your evil deeds or guilty conscience. If you need to unload that on the scoundrel. ⁓ We're hitting close to home. Art imitates life. And you can come to Moth ⁓ for their potions, poultices, and remedies, or for their knowledge concerning the natural world. And that's what those little tents are useful for. And we have our X card here in the center. I'll put it just like here. ⁓ we can touch that at any time and we can stop our stop our story and adjust it. Great. So ⁓ we are sorry, that was right into the microphone. ⁓ ⁓ let's let's get playing. And we're gonna be learning on the fly. Okay. So you're gonna say, what is this? What's that? And we're gonna ask questions, and that's gonna be okay. Like we're teaching the game as we're playing it. So there's a lot on our plate, but ⁓ we're gonna take our time and mostly just have fun with it. Yay, yay. Cool. Yippee. Alright, here is this is the reveal I was talking about earlier. Here is the map of Imperia. Dun dun dun dun. Really cool, awesome. Beautiful. And I'll keep the tokens over here by me, I guess. so Imperia is a land above the clouds, above the poisonous cloud sea in specific. And ⁓ there's a few location types that I'll breeze through, and then we're gonna decide where we're starting, and we'll take it from there. So, and have some artwork too. ⁓ if if you like that kind of thing. ⁓ and you can maybe identify these on the map as we go. But in Imperia there are ⁓ settlements built upon floating glaciers. Very interesting. These glaciers float because they contain organic life, bacteria, maybe some other unknown source. Who can say? But there they are. There are settlements built among the megaflora, ⁓ these gigantic trees large enough to house cities and rise up above the cloud sea. Pretty cool, very nice. There are islands, which are mountains that rise above the cloud sea. ⁓ perhaps the simplest type of settlement and what a privilege it is to have solid ground in this world. There are towers. These are superscrapers from an age long past. So really big skyscrapers that people now occupy. And there are cradles, which are floating cities. Flying cities. Pretty cool. And those are all of the settlement types to think about. ⁓ so you might wind up on any one of those, and I might just choose one for you. But I'll let you choose, I'll let you choose your biome. ⁓ there are nine biome types: deserts, grasslands, ⁓ tropical areas, alpine areas, forests, tundras, fungal zones, jungles, and volcanic areas. And you can see I have little pictures here for all of these too. Alpine zones are mountainous, deserts. There are forests of super trees. there are grasslands with flying grasses. There are forests of massive fungi. There are substantial jungles, there are places where the reef where the cloud sea parts and reef life flourishes. ⁓ there are volcanic regions and glacial regions, and that's what we have. Okay, that was a lot. But hopefully that gives you a taste of the world we're thinking about here. so take a look at this map and maybe for me, ⁓ just d ⁓ talk about what kind of biome you might want to start in. Mm-hmm. and pick pick a zone. The big fungal areas are really exciting for me. I like I like a giant mushroom. Yeah. Very fun. That's pretty sick. Yeah. ⁓ It's true. Mm-hmm. Okay. interesting. I really like the areas where you can be in the like the tropical areas where it there's a break in the in the cloud scene. It kind of opens up and is nice. That's cool. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ well also wherever you start is not where you're gonna stay because you have parcels to move. Right. So think about that. Okay. Okay. Okay. So maybe this one here ⁓ to the south of Stygia, this large glacial city, or maybe this fungal area, or maybe that fungal area. Maybe this one could be good. That one could be good because we could start there and then make our way here. Question mark? Well it depends on where the package needs to go. ⁓ I see, I see, I see. Yeah, you might you might have a few options and maybe maybe somebody needs you to take something down that way. Been decided already for us, or is that based on what No, you're gonna have choices. Okay. Actually, we're gonna figure that out right now. So let's be right here in this fungal zone. I think that sounds awesome. And I'm going to say that you are in a in a tower in this fungal zone. So there's kind of these low-lying ⁓ massive mushrooms, maybe. ⁓ maybe many different types like lion's manes and not not just caps, you know, but fungal growths of all kinds. ⁓ and they kind of rise up to the sides of this tower that you were in, this massive super scraper, but ⁓ the tower itself extends even higher. It stands like an obelisk among all these mushrooms that come up here. And this place, which you've been hanging out at for two weeks now. sadly does n well first off, there's actually no dishware here. culturally, customarily, the people of what do you think this place should be called? Hmm, I'm taking names. I'm taking names for a tower in the fungus. ⁓ We're we're gonna call Yeah Yes, exactly. ⁓ we're just gonna call this place vantage. That's it. Beautiful. Just vantage. Because it is a good vantage from which to survey the fungi nearby. Beautiful. ⁓ yeah, it is not customary to use plates here. Okay. Yes. Damn it. Most of the most of the fungi that they eat are served on like skewers, kind of kebab style. Freaking catch up all those. Yeah. W ⁓ yeah. No. I think that should be like a running joke, is like we never can find place. They always are broken before we can get to them or the place doesn't have them. They use like leaves as plates. It's like, I don't know what to do with this. So I think maybe it's an early morning, and you can kind of see some pale pinkish light ⁓ pouring over the field of these massive mushrooms that are in front of you, and the group of you, your found family, you three in Static and Volt, are on one of these balconies, on one of these outcroppings on the tower. ⁓ the people here. feel neutral about symbiotes. They tolerate your presence, but they've given you this balcony because they kind of want you to keep static and volt out of the out of the main area. Yeah, sad. Mm-hmm. I wrote wash me on him. Come on. And I think Volt is maybe there's like a closed kind of ⁓ hangar door. That leads into the tower, and Volt is sniffing all around it. ⁓ my god, they're looking for truffles. Trying to get inside. ⁓ they might be truffle pigs. Truffle pigs. They kind of are truffle pigs. Okay, and so now I have a cat's paw. So we've established our scene. We're here at the Tower of Vantage. I have a cat's paw courier question for the group of you, which is you've kind of you've joined this ⁓ rennet. Renegade ragtag informal anarchist courier service known as the Cat's Pa. And they have a cool little symbol here, just a painted paw, okay? and people normally go to the Cat's Paw to have goods delivered that they might not send through conventional means. ⁓ maybe they don't have the money to pay for transportation and they are looking for your goodwill in doing that. or maybe ⁓ maybe the goods are unconventional, illicit, need to go to a strange place, but nonetheless, ⁓ they come to you far and wide. So my question is, how is it that the ⁓ that the group of you, that your found family, identifies yourself as part of the cat's paw? Is it this sigil here, which you've painted on things? Is it ⁓ an old folk song that you play or sing to bring people in? ⁓ is it cat smort or cat nip, which can be burned ⁓ to create a a scent that goes far and wide that people know to belong to the couriers? Or have you found some other method? Great question. A gesture in me wants to do the performance of singing a little ditty. Performance. The folk song is the folk song I'm into. Maybe even like trying to like put some of the verses in like casual conversation. Yeah. ⁓ Just like hiding it kind of. Just like that could be fun. I can't think of like a verse, but like something something up the mountain is what it says here. Yes. Yeah. You ever travel up the mountain? Here it's nice this time of year. ⁓ okay, so maybe so here's what I think ⁓ happened is maybe banjo last night there was an open mic here at Vantage. A ragtag open mic, and you you sang the song as you've done at locations before. And now here we are in the morning with this ⁓ pink, ⁓ pink dawn kind of. breaking over the horizon, over these mushrooms and the cloud sea further on. And while Volt is kind of ⁓ sniffing away at these hangar doors, you ⁓ hear a knocking. Hello from the other side. I'm tired. Someone else got it. I don't look gonna I got it. Thank you, yeah. Okay. Yep. Yeah Yup. Why the hell are they not so good? No time. ye you go over to the hangar door and and you open it? Sure. Sure yeah? Yeah. Alright, great. ⁓ you kinda give it a heave. Well, you know, in a pi in a cowboy way. Yeah, you give it a good cowboy heave and the rusted steel door slides open. And a person kind of spills through ⁓ like almost spills through the doorway like they were standing there leaning on it. And there are two other people standing behind this individual. So there are three folks here in total. Okay. Okay. What's your business here? And the ⁓ the first one who spills and says, ⁓ I'm I'm so terribly sorry. ⁓ to to wake you. Is it too early? I can I can leave and return. Too early. ⁓ I'm sorry, then I'll leave and return. Of course that's no issue. You're already here. Okay as well. I'm sorry, I'll state my business then. I'm terribly sorry about all that. You ain't gotta be so sorry about everything. And what you see is ⁓ this person's a sheepish and well-green Roomed young man. He has like a a pompadour kind of a swoof of hair, ⁓ very clean, ⁓ very very clean skin. And he ⁓ has a a timid timid look about his his eyes and his demeanor. ⁓ a bookish, sheepish type. and ⁓ Well I I'll say he has all of these features and yet you notice his hands ⁓ his hands bear calluses as if he's as if he's been working man. He's been working. Right. Mm-hmm. i well right. Well then, I'm so sorry. you were playing a song last night, a particular song, and you must be ⁓ couriers then, yes? You could you you could make a delivery for me? We can make a delivery. What kind of delivery are we talking about? well, I was wondering and th then one of the second person behind him kind of steps forward and says, Outta my way, you're wasting my time. Kind of pushes him to the side and you see a much more gruff individual with a bandana wrapped over one eye and they're wearing a hat. And this is the spitting image of an Imperia pirate. Ooh. ⁓ Listen, I got a real job for you, okay? Something important. You wanna make some scratch? You know, look at this saddle you're riding in. Don't even have ⁓ wait, does your saddle have r ⁓ rails on it? It does. It does have rails. Okay. It does. We treat that one. Okay. Well the deck looks awful s awful slick, you know what? You need our you need a brand new deck for that. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Ectoplasm resistant deck. Our deck is our don't slander in our deck just the way it is. Thank you very much. Sir. Hmm. Perfect, just the way it is. And ye ain't never dropped nothing on that deck. Not one single plate. We drop things and we're okay with it. What we drop is none of your business, okay? Well Now look what you did. Well You upset ⁓ bando. No Well go no I'm well or Arg, I'm sorry. I ever You know I didn't mean to make you cry. I just have I have a s ⁓ I've never been terribly good at this I don't state your business. Right, Arg, I'm sorry. Okay. If the ship what is it? It's a saddle. The saddle isn't good enough for your transportation needs, you can determine that. Well it's a simple deal, and actually I'd like to get you a better saddle is what it is. See, all all I need is for you to take take a few crates, just one one skip along the what do you think they'd call the ⁓ what are those called? The like air currents, you know, the The riptides. The drifts, yeah, the riptide. Sky riptides. The sky riptides. The sky tides. Just the sky tides. Yes. Just one lick along the sky tides. Just the next town over. Just these three crates. Simple stuff is what it is, and I just need you to take it to my business associate and they'll hook you up with a brand new brand new deck for your saddle. No more slippin'. So you'll do it then. ⁓ actually I also had something I'd like to Well, let me go get the crates for you then. Okay, well Well well. I I I also have something that I'd that I'd like delivered, but it's ⁓ well ⁓ it's it's to the north it it's it's well it's to the northwest. It's you'd you'd have to travel up to the mountains. Wait, we're here. Yeah. ⁓ okay. You'd have to travel over to the plains and you probably wouldn't want that anyway, so actually never mind. It's it's fine then. What do you mean? Well it seems like you already have a job from this fellow here, so it's okay. I'll Timid child, timid child. You could I'm like I'm a hold your hand when I say this. Okay. Yes, okay. You're holding ⁓ w w what? You can express your needs. You're in the safe place. Okay. Just tell us what you want. Well, ⁓ you see I just have this ⁓ I I I just have this ⁓ this sack of letters is what it is. P poetry and some personal effects. That's sissy shit. Well well it's you could say that. The arts are important, yeah. Sorry to tell what you've been telling me, Mandel. I hear you. Maybe read through your poetry on the journey. But I prefer if I truly prefer if you didn't. Well it's not like you'd know if we did it anyway. Well well well you could give me your word. Our word means a lot. It's very ironclad. You can trust us. I'm getting mixed signals here. Well, do you want your poems delivered or not? We'll respect them. ⁓ If you do deliver them, and you see I am myself but ⁓ but a humble grub farmer. The grub do well on the lowest levels of the tower in this climate, as you must know. And and ⁓ well my My farming associate, my agrarian associate to the ⁓ to to the northwest could hook you up with critters that might be of use to you. I think you ⁓ your ⁓ symbiote selves, if that is what I should call you, ⁓ would have would have much use for some of the critters on his farm. What are they? Critters. and what are they? That's a good question. ⁓ I'm looking here. ⁓ cru critters. Wow, there's a lot of good ones. Okay. Well, his collection is certainly much larger than mine, but he ⁓ I believe he has a hypnotist's peacock. Option number one. I'm in. Okay. ⁓ a a grappling beetle. ⁓ or he even ⁓ has apiaries of lightning flies. I want that peacock. The peacock. ⁓ the the the the pirate ⁓ butts in and says, Well wait, hold on now. You can't you can't go two directions, are you? Are you taking them letters or do you want to do you want do you want a real job with I mean, you know, more than just a peacock on the line? More than just a peac my friend Have you ever had the opportunity to acquire a hypnotist peacock? Well, I ⁓ I'm sorry, I don't actually our guy don't even know what that is. Exactly. So you come in here insulting our saddle. Well, I'm trying to give you a good deal, you see. Well, I'm a fan of what we got going on here. I don't know that a new saddle is gonna change the ectoplasm situation. This is true, the ectoplasm is a the saddle has a velcro and a nice grip tape on it. if they just made that slippery. Yeah, well, as Actoplasm gets all over that. ⁓ well, I they could get you another upgrade too. Certainly you'd like ⁓ Upgrades for lots. Well well, just one upgrade is what it is. Mm-mm. But anything for your saddle, anything. I could get you ⁓ you look like the type that would enjoy a a garden. Why can't we just do both? Well, I suppose you could. We're definitely capable. The the tides are taking you two directions, though. And Can we take down your contact information? He says I well I suppose you may. But these things they've they've got to move quick. It's of of of grave importance, you see. The lives are on the line and well, you know, I haven't always made an honest living, but we're trying to now, and what we've got delivered, they they might save some people. ⁓ dammit, now I have a moral conjury. I want that pea fowl. We'll huddle, we'll huddle, we'll huddle. I want that peacock. I trust the pirate guys. You need something bad. ⁓ I trust them implicitly, but I trust everyone implicitly. I want to read the poetry. Yeah, be poetry. We'll we'll tell the pirate we'll take out his contact information. If we have time, we'll do his job, but we're gonna get the peacock. We're gonna get the peacock. We'll get you that peacock. We'll get you those poems. Thank you. Okay. Break. Okay. ⁓ Cece boy, ⁓ we'll take We'll take your job with your poems and the peacock. Do you mean it? Should the Yep. Mr. Pirate Man. ⁓ sorry. Yes. Come with me, I'll take down your contact information. Contact information. Well, seems I'm really moving up in the world. I'm a fella with contact information. That you are, buddy. He's kinda like, I guess, a cowboy and also pirate. You know, he's kind of oscillating between accents. It's really interesting. He doesn't know who he is. He's a pirate with an identity crisis. Yeah. He's just got a few of them. He says, Arg, well, I'm still finding myself when I'm brand new to the profession. He pulls out ⁓ yes, he pulls out a piece of scrap paper and scrawls something on it with a piece of charcoal. And ⁓ the frail and twinkish individual ⁓ brings along this satchel. So they call me high school. F frail and twinkish individual brings along this satchel of letters. And this should actually be a a relatively easy job. It seems. ⁓ it's just a short distance. Some jobs can extend one, two, three spaces. That's a lot to handle. ⁓ this is just a this is just a hop and a skip over. So you've taken you've taken the pirates info and truly you actually you know what? I'm looking at it, and actually you could do both. I'm I'm and you would know this. You would know this as couriers. I'm gonna kinda I'm gonna kinda lay it out in the directions you need to go. ⁓ so we're looking at the map here. You're in this fungal area. The the the shy and bookish one, the humble grub farmer, wants you to take the letters over here to the grasslands. The pirate wants you to take ⁓ these crates. Hasn't even told you what's in them, but you could ask. ⁓ take these two or three crates down here to this tropical zone. Okay. So maybe we just go here and And the the letters can kind of take a beating. The crates as you're eyeballing them right now, they look kind of fragile. Truth be told. Yeah, we just got more time to read the poems. Exact this is true. I don't like being dishonest. Well we did say we would read it. We did say did mention it. We did think we did sell him. I mean I think he he kind of maybe a little bit knows what he's signing up for. Yeah. So does he want him delivered? I don't want you to read them. I don't want to don't read my poems, they're so bad. Everybody who ever says that is wants to. ⁓ my god, don't read my poems. Yeah, nobody's Don't read my poems, please don't read my poems. Please don't do it. I like the idea of doing both if we have time. But I do want to know what the what is in the crates. I mean the nice we can hit we can hit one and if we're and if it doesn't take long at all, we could try and hit another. Let's do that. ⁓ I would like to ask what's in the crates. Okay. You ask him. Mr. Pirate Man. Mm-hmm. I mean our You say these crates could save lives. Explain. Indeed they could. Well, I don't know how long you've been sailing the cloud sea, but For a fella like myself, you've seen many a horrid thing, and bright lung is the worst of them. A foul condition takes sailors' lives and grips them by the chest, drags their bodies and their souls down to the below. You see the life leaving their eyes. Damn, damn. And these crates here, well, it's ⁓ a bit of a homeopathic solution, you could say, but My pirate and enterprise, we're trying to turn our turn our heads towards the North Star. Turn our heads towards good and and do well. So so these goods are going to a business just to the south of ya, that's ⁓ trying to produce a cure for bright lung. Or at least something to tide people over. Give ⁓ a little longer. That's very noble of you. Very noble for a pirate. We drop off these crates. Would the people that we're dropping them off to be willing to share their information on the cure they're developing? Mmm. Well, typically typically with their resources, they're likened to give out ⁓ repairs, boat upgrades for people traveling travelling across Imperia, and for yourselves that would be an upgrade to your saddle, but they might be willing to divulge with some information as well. Or maybe be open to collaboration, but that's all above my pay grade. This is only my second week pirating and I just picked up the accent. You're doing great, buddy. I appreciate it. What were you doing before you started pirating? Sometimes I some sometimes I get imposter syndrome. Yeah. What was your job before this? I was a milkman. Okay. Were you good at it? Similar. Quite. Best milkman in the whole tower. But my milk and days are behind. Darn. A different life. That ain't that ain't right. Everybody needs milk. Aye, the competition was too stiff. Too stiff. Their milk too hardy, too whole. And my lowly skim couldn't compare. What do you got to milk here? Grub. Obviously. Tower tower moths. ⁓ my god. Tower goats. The like. Anything that does well in the dark. I see. Mr Pirate Man, we will take your job. Mr Twink Man, we will also take your job. Right then? Well, I'll get you the cargo, but it better get there. Just know that what's in here can can spoil and expire. Can go bad if you take too long. And well I'd hate for couriers like yourselves to hurt your reputations. Threat? Let's get there. No, no. I'm just referencing the referencing the reputations and the reputation mechanic. That is related to the Cat Spa Courier zine. Thank you. This is a bit of meta commentary. So that's also at stake. Thank you, Mr. Piroman, for the clarification. That was a strange and delusional thing for me to say. so you'll take both of their jobs. Yeah, yes. Okay, all right. so yeah, this ⁓ young twinkish grub farmer and this milkman turned pirate. As one does. As one does. Natural ⁓ They load their goods aboard your saddle. And I'm going to introduce a mechanic right now. I'm gonna do it live. This is a ⁓ classic between clouds. mechanic and I'm doing it on this funny little printer sheet. so to track progress in between clouds there is something called a project project project plant There's plants. Progress plant? Progress plant. There's something called a progress plant in this game. And there's its evil twin known as a pressure plant. Okay. ⁓ this is borrowed from for the people at home. This is borrowed from like the clocks mechanic in Blades in the Dark. ⁓ but essentially it's just a way to track our successes and failures. ⁓ so these are two pressure plants, and the fewer leaves that a plant a pressure plant has, the fewer mistakes you can make. Okay. So this one only has five leaves. Beneath it I'm going to write pirate cargo. With a question mark behind it. Because you haven't really quite looked at it yet. Don't believe he's being honest. Homeopathic homeopathic here for Bright Long? We'll see. I also don't care that much. ⁓ and then between beneath this one, I'm gonna write poems and letters. These things aren't going to expire with time, and they can kind of take a beating, they'll probably be fine. Okay. Just a big satchel of paper. Got it. So, whenever something goes awry, I'm going to fill in a bubble on one of these. ⁓ And if I fill in every bubble, your cargo has been destroyed. Mm-hmm. It's true. It's true. And if I fill in more than half, so there's the threshold. If I fill in more than half, they're partially destroyed. ⁓ so if I do three out of the five or four out of the seven, ⁓ they're partially destroyed. And That means you don't get any positive reputation for the job. But you also don't get any negative reputation for the job. But because this is a one shot, you don't need to worry about that. You can play fast and loose. No future consequences. Unless we get back to I level them up. so it begs the question, which ⁓ which direction do you want to go first? We should go south because the stuff expires. Yes, I agree. Okay. Marvelous. That sounds, that sounds great. how very interesting. Scared. Scared? Excited. ⁓ so without further ado, yeah, let's get on the road and let's set off towards this tropical destination. Okay. What we will do is while we're traveling, ⁓ you will each pick a travel ⁓ task. From the list. So this is just something your character's kind of doing in the meantime while we're going from here to there. Happens in the interim. ⁓ it's gonna be on page 140. It's also written on this thing right here, but that's kind of covered up. But actually that's okay. Okay, so Carla, you can see this. ⁓ and I will also pass around the book for other people. So your travel tasks. I'm gonna list them off rapid fire. You can cook lunch. You can bond with the Kieran. You can practice a skill, work the radio, you can scavenge, so dig around the saddle, you can go fishing, you can c try and construct a new upgrade, you can repair an existing upgrade, but none of yours are broken, or you can chart course for the new destination that can make your trip go a little smoother. Okay. Those are your options. Here's the book. Watch your inky fingers. And we we each get to pick one. And you each get to pick one. And I'm gonna drink a little water because after only two months of being a pirate. My voice is not quite adapted to it. Right. I think I'll be bonning with Kieran, rubbing their pig belly with my hands. ⁓ both at wolf at once. That's beautiful. At same time. That's beautiful. Because there's two of ⁓ Because there's two of them to be loved equally. There's two of them. They get jealous. Yeah. And you don't want to see them jealous. I think Volt is the kind of aggressive and jealous one a little bit. Actually you'd be surprised. ⁓ real static that gets killed. ⁓ okay. Okay. So you kind of have like a seventy thirty ratio going on that way static. They're full of surprise. Crash. They're full of surprise. Yep, I'm bonding with the Kein. I think I'm gonna cook lunch. Okay. Would you ⁓ Ye? Ye. Yeah the scoundrel, you wanna grab one of those ⁓ tokens and you can put it right here. ⁓ the family gets a unity point for bonding with the Kearin. ⁓ you wanna cook lunch? I'll cook lunch. I think that also gives the family a unity point. Wonderful. I'm specifically making those ⁓ pancakes from IHOP that look like clowns. That we gotta rip up because we gotta no plates. That we gotta rip because we have no plates. Alright. They are covered in whipped cream. The cloak. Okay. And you're Of course. Do you like roll them up kinda to eat ⁓ or are you just kinda? You could. Okay. You could like a crepe kind of. You could make it like a crepe. Okay. Banjo does not. I still can. It's an option that some of you might do, but banjo would not do. Banjo would not ruin the sanctity of the clown pancake by doing that. I use my telekinesis to To ⁓ to enjoy without making a mess. Without touching. Without Good job, E. It's a little sticky. Yeah. Yeah, I'm covered in book creep. ⁓ I also wanna ⁓ paint the scene a little. I forgot to do this, we just like set off, but ⁓ yes, the group of you, you know, had climbed aboard static and volt and kind of took off from vantage from this tower just as the sun is breaking over the horizon. And I think the air quality is kind of low today. There's a lot of like spores around, and so there's kind of a yellowish greenish haze as you travel. ⁓ but you can see in the distance where you're heading, it looks like the clouds let up and there's some nice like dappled sunlight coming through as you're going towards this tropical area. You can see an azure blue expanse that lies beyond. That's where you're heading towards. and also you ⁓ you, why not? no well, all of you are perhaps reflecting on as you left, ⁓ the twinkish bookish farmer saying, ⁓ make make sure the letters get there safe, please. They're very important to me. It's my life's work. Marvelous. Amazing. Mm ⁓ moth, what was the task that you picked? ⁓ I changed my mind. I want to chart the course. ⁓ hell yeah. Okay. Well this will be our first roll. ⁓ We're gonna roll dice. Does that sound good to Yes. Let's do it. Okay. So that ⁓ charting the course uses the navigate skill. so what does that mean? That means you're gonna roll a number of dice equal to your focus stat, because that's what the navigate skill falls under. And if you have any if you have the skill marked you get an extra die ⁓ it looks like you do not and you could also get an extra die if you're wondering what I'm doing here if you want to check my work I'm following this stating an objective where okay we're trying to chart a course choosing a skill it's already chosen for us it's navigate setting the stakes this is low stakes We're gonna count penalties and bonuses. You have no penalties. You're fresh. You're rested. You're just coming from vantage. But things that can help are equipment. So you could spend an equipment point to get an extra die if you want better odds. You could also see if one of your mutations helps you. That could give you an extra die. Or if your trinket helps, that would also give you one. but you don't need any extra die. Five is still a great roll for you. ⁓ and whenever you're ready, you can roll your dice. When you do that, You are looking for the result of a six. Each six counts as a success. So, for example, this role has one success, which means I did the thing. Assuming it's like moderate difficulty. Sometimes if you're like, I wanna jump off this boat and shooting shooting both of my harpoon guns at the same time, like John Wick while doing the somersault, I'm gonna be like, you need like three successes for that. It's quite difficult, you know? Can I have some of those? Yes, of course. There's also an even bigger die box around here somewhere that I'll find. ⁓ I have five. So you have five. Yep, so you're looking for a six. And if you don't get a six, you fit. And that will mark against something here. I think I've got six. Yep! Okay. Good job. One six. So what that means is typically you'd only have one option to travel from here to here, but I've you've unlocked A second pathway that I'm gonna tell you about. So you have a little choice in how you get that. I like options. Okay, so we're heading towards ⁓ let's find out the name of this little tropical spot. Do we think it's like an island? Do we think it's a do we think it's built on top of the coral itself? Yeah. That's cool. That could be cool. Do we think it's a floating? You know what? I'm never playing with the cradles. I'm gonna make it a cradle. The cradles are cities of evil. I'm so sorry. They're powered. Well, not inherently, but they're powered by the beating hearts of poached Kirin. So that makes them pretty evil. It's true. That's a real fact. That's a real that's a real fact, you know? I know! But it's a re But it's a reality of the world, you know? And they might be kind of chill. Maybe they could be chill. I never put the cradles in the you know, I just never play with them and now's the time. Let's do it. Okay. And we're just making a pit stop. We're getting in and out, in and out, we're just delivering these dubious crates. Yeah, and this is sadly where the rich business medical development people might be, truth be told. ⁓ so you are heading to the in this tropical zone, the cradle of Kraken's Ma. Ooh. That's scary. Yeah. Kinda scary. Scary. Couldn't couldn't be too bad. I hope. So how about we roll some dice to see what lies between you in these locations? why don't two of you grab two dice each? And much like with the Kirin, I just need one number and then the second number. Five and three. Okay. One and three. One and three. Okay. Interesting. Five and three and one and three. Very curious. Very curious. sometimes I worry about playing a session of this with no adversity. And that's nice. ⁓ But anyways. Is that luminous at all? Okay. so how do you do your charting of the course, moth? Like are you just squinting with your eyes? Are you sniffing with your nose? Do you like fly up a little to get a decent view? I'm just my eyesight isn't very good, so I don't use my eyes, but I'm just feeling the energies of the yeah. I'm sensing the vibes. And I use my little wings to kind of go around and look at things, see what's going on, see what's in the air. Yeah. See what's coming my way. Okay, perfect. Okay, so as you do this you kinda flutter up a little b a little to get a better vantage and you see ⁓ to the left an area that looks like a a heavy monsoon is rolling in and the place is drenched with rain. ⁓ it is coming down heavy to the left side. And to the right, if you wanted to go around the monsoon, ⁓ it appears to be clear. However, if you if you listen real close You can hear music? Hmm. Faint song? Hmm. Something of this sort. Since we are like what is it? Our like Kieran's What is it called? The thing that makes them like ⁓ they're like storm storm Kirin, yeah. So does that make them have special like attributes in storms? Yeah, if you went the storm route, I would give them a wild point. Okay. And the wild point just lets me, as the Kirin, do something big and crazy. Like I could like shoot shoot lightning later on if it came to that. So I'd give you one of those. That sounds fun, but the quickest way. Excited about this. You don't know. ⁓ sh is there a way to find out. Like to in and ⁓ I'm gonna say no, actually. I'm gonna say based off the information I gave you, you'd have to y make a choice. You could if you wanted, ⁓ roll like an inspect roll I would allow for to look a little deeper, but it would come at the risk of ⁓ taking extra time and maybe damaging your cargo or giving you a condition as well. You might you might get angry or disheartened in the process. I say we follow the music. You say so. I say we follow the music. I like a music. I would say that. I would say that. I always say that. I'm a big fan of that wild point right there. Storm. That is also true. Volt and static at this juncture both ⁓ volt goes and static goes and they ⁓ kind of veer in opposite directions from each other. Which doesn't make your decision any easier. Fantastic. Not in twain. Goodness. They would. Mothia the tiebreaker. I think we're going Let's go! I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but I have to go with my gut and a bunch of whips. They're getting disturbed. They're starting to get upset. We need to know a storm. We can't go to a storm. We can handle it. I know we can handle it, but we don't have to. You're always in the hammock. Enjoy your hammock timing. A safe ⁓ place. so. ⁓ no. Wha What is this now? Well Look what y'all done. God damn it. Look what y'all done. And I'm not saying listen, it's just the roll of the dice, okay? So the travel in between clouds is randomized because as the storyteller, I don't want to be responsible for that. You know, it's weather. I don't control the weather. What am I, the government? So So, you veer to the right. And as you get closer and closer to the sound of this music, you can finally make it out as kind of a haunting siren song. ⁓ shit. Like a Freaking knew it. I knew it. Then you should afford it this matter. I said what I wanted. If you want more, am I supposed to say it was two against one? I'm a fair person. It's really pretty though. It's beautiful. I think maybe this maybe. Maybe they're good. Maybe they're good. And you notice static in volt starting to slow down. ⁓ shit. Starting to slow down. We could have got a wild point. Starting to slow down and starting to sink a little bit even. ⁓ you realize that the siren song is coming from the below. And you have heard tale, ⁓ all all symbiotes know of this. ⁓ you have heard tale of ⁓ a particular type of Kierin that does not live above the cloud sea but lives beneath it, known as a kelp bee. The Kirin's evil twin. my god. ⁓ a shape-shifting entity that seeks to drag people down. And you don't see such a thing yet, and you don't even know if this is that, but you've heard rumors of it. And your Kirin are slowly being brought down by this song. So what I need now is for you all to look at your skills, look at your mutations, look at your options, and decide to me. How you are going to get out of this debacle. And actually, because we're here now, I'm gonna just because this is taking a little a little time. And this one's time sensing. I'm gonna ⁓ did I put those lines in the right way? No, that's okay. ⁓ I'm gonna I'm gonna say that already the the trip is taking a bit longer than expected. You went around the monsoon, so I'm marking a leaf on this on this pirate's cargo plant. Uh-oh. That's why the lines. So what are you gonna do? I have an idea. I think you should play a counter song. I was g I'm gonna play a counter song. I'm gonna play so loud and cacophonous that it drowns out the siren song of the Kelpie. Perfect. Wonderful. Okay. Beautiful. ⁓ so that would be your probably your perform skill. Yeah. Okay, I need six dice. Go for it. And do any of your mutations help or your trinket evolve? I have a tail and wings. I have a dance hoop. That's my power. You could so you can activate your power if you want. A counter hypnosis would be very interesting. Let me do that. If you wanted to activate your power, it would take a unity point. Is that okay with you guys? Yes. But you would ⁓ hit a success on five or six. Yes. So it almost effectively doubles your odds. Let's do that. Okay, great. Gonna do that. There it goes. Hi, so I did it. It's good. So big. ⁓ do you want to be the one to mark in these things over here? Yeah. I always like to let people do their own plant marking. It's kind of a a kinetic pleasure. ⁓ so describe Do I do three of them? Yeah, you gotta do three. Yeah. This has made huge, huge progress in avoiding catastrophe. It's loud. It's very loud. It's very, very loud. D describe what what does your performance look like? You're singing. Where does your hypnosis come from? My hypnosis comes from my ⁓ dancing. I I dance I dance and my body move I d move in such a way that and I like float in front of the of our pigs. You use your wings. I use my wings. So I can bring myself out in front and then I do my little my little hypnosis dance. Yeah. ⁓ And I sing and I also play the what's like a cool ⁓ I play that ⁓ my god, what is it? It's like a music box that like you like crank it and then like little things dance in front of it. ⁓ yeah, like a little d ⁓ yeah, like a little Jackie Bob music box. Like that thing. Yes. So that's that's that's what I do. Okay. Wonderful. I feel like yeah, you're like this lure kind of drawing a volt and static towards you in a way. Like they're sink, they're losing altitude. And then they finally they're starting to snap out of it and they start swooping up again. Yes. to keep to keep the pressure on as they're swooping up. No, do we lose some? I'm gonna say some I'm gonna say some letters fall out. ⁓ no! ⁓ my gosh. Very cruelly. No, that's not never wrong with you. Talk about this for the rest of our lives. You're gonna be bringing this up at work. But you're bringing the altitude. You're bringing the altitude up. ⁓ who okay. Who else would like to do something? I mean it should do something. I can't see these guys. I can't really do anything. I can sneak us. I don't know how many. Do you have a concoction that can make us immune to you could maybe apothecary some earplugs. Yeah. Could be big. Temporary deafening potion. Yeah. ⁓ maybe a flare of like some kind of lure, some kind of bright flare that you could throw ahead. ⁓ yeah. A magic light that is working with your sort of Like create more find you with it glowing. Yeah. Okay, nice. Like a spotlight. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Do you wanna roll to ⁓ I do. What do I roll? ⁓ it's forage is the skill. So you're gonna actually like forage in the saddle. You're gonna look around and grab everything to make this concoction. So that's three. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And if you have any mutations that help you or equipment, you can use that at this point. I just have my floral body. Before you can get your ⁓ you can forage from your body. ⁓ that could be great. Yeah, do that. What should I do? What should I forage? Really fun. Just whatever. Anything that like anything maybe like something that like chemically reacts with something. Glowing moss to like glowing moss, an oily plant. Yeah, totally. Mm-hmm. Some very combustible plant, maybe. Ooh, yes. ⁓ Yes, you would, yeah. I like foraging from your floral body, I think that's my floral body. Does it sound fun to say? It's fun to say. Foraging from my floral body. I like that. ⁓ no. Alas, okay. ⁓ I To do. You're gonna mark a condition moth. you're gonna mark a condition on your character sheet down below. ⁓ I think it says exhausted, injured, worried, or heated. So yeah, what you you try and make this concoction, what happens in the process? I've injured myself. Yeah. I think so yeah, maybe. You try and make this like bright combustible thing. Minus so now we can't we have to roll one less for the rest of You you will roll one less die, but one of your family members can use a unity point to heal your injuries. Okay. If they will be so forgiving. If they will be so forgiving. Hope it gets necessary. Alright, well together. I mean Okay. Is there any way for us to see this creature over in us down below? ⁓ sure. Yeah, you could I'm gonna say, also I'll say when you do this, ⁓ there you kinda it sets off in your hands, right? This thing you're making. ⁓ no. And I and I and I think you see a spark of it fly into the ⁓ the letter bag, and there's one letter that there's one letter that starts on fire. ⁓ my god. And it's just burning very slowly. Does it need to be put out? ⁓ I think you can stamp it out real quick. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't last long. Okay. It doesn't last long. ⁓ ye you look over the side of the saddle, this boat that you're being towed on, and you see. You're quite close to the tropical zone now. There's these like massive growths of coral beneath you and you feel ⁓ a chill run down your scarred back. as you see a ⁓ the look of ⁓ a massive kind of serpentine scaled body and two piercing teal eyes looking up at you from down below. ⁓ it's quite a ways down. ⁓ it's just the outline of the thing, but even still the look of this kelpie kind of hiding behind this piece of coral, you know, strikes fear into your heart. ⁓ my goodness gracious. Okay, well. Can I can I use my telekinesis to break off pieces of coral and throw it at the I would allow that. You could even at this point try and drop stuff over the side of your saddle if you want. If you have any loose cargo. Okay. Yeah, but I would totally ⁓ y breaking off a piece of car coral might be sharp. Maybe there's some loose stuff. Yeah, I'd allow for that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, give it a just to throw it in its direction. Yeah, you can use the broken plates. One more unity point, yeah. Okay. Yeah. In the plates. Anything that I can find. Okay. Y you wanna use your unity point? Give it a I think it's the last one. I think you should give it a go. Okay. You should give it a go. Yeah. Yeah, go for it. Okay. So then. So what you're gonna do is you're going to this'll be your aim skill, probably. Okay. So only three dice. Okay. But if you have any mutations that help you, I'll allow that. ⁓ you could use an equipment point if you want to say I'm actually gonna find a box of knives in our kitchen and I'm gonna throw that. You could do that. Can I shoot my quills at it? ⁓ you could do that too. That's a good idea. Yes. I would like to do that. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely do that. And use my telekinesis to guide them. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ that's f Okay. Yeah, do that. Yeah, throw your tongue. Yeah, throw your tongue. Okay. Produce your quills and go qu that's epic. Yeah, Hell yeah. Yeah. Cool. So you're gonna yeah, pull some quills out of your body as they're detachable and s send them sailing down at this Kelpie. Okay. So four then if I'm using these Yes, four and you succeed on fives and sixes. And I think I think that's it. Okay. That sounds great. Five or six. Five or six one. ⁓ my god. That was such a cool idea too. ⁓ my goodness. We should have just gone through the store. This is a mistake. ⁓ this one's on me, guys. This one's on me. ⁓ this one's on me. We're losing on our way. They're not even making a thing. At best our reputation will be unaffected. Wow. Okay, so mark a con mark a condition. Mark Mark a condition. Heated, I'm heated. Yeah. Okay. I'm heated. Yeah, I think what happens is you throw these quills and the kelpie kind of like ducks, and then you see it actually come racing up like a serpent come racing up towards the group of you, and it body slams ⁓ your ⁓ your boat on the underside. ⁓ my god. And you there's like a massive thud and one of the crates kinda jumps up and when it lands it splinters, and you see some milk of all things rolling out. Yeah, the milk. The skim milk. Okay, I have another idea. Okay, what's your idea? What's your idea? Can I try to charm the Kelpie into not being mean to us? Into being nice? Yeah. Like as a fellow strange and mutated creature. Like as a fellow weirdo. Like we don't want to hurt you, we come in peace. Everything's fine. Everything's good. Everything's good. We want to let also go. You could also go to each other now for help too if you wanted more unity points in this situation. let's see to liven up the space. Potion. One of you could ask Moth to make something for this. Well, I guess you kind of did actually. Yeah. In part. We did do that. Have Moth make something. We did do that. We failed. Yeah. But we did ask you, and that does warrant a unity point. You think so? I do. Okay, let's do it. Alright. Give me a unity point. Put it in there. Okay. Alright. So think about that. If you want to use one your powers, get rid of one of your conditions. Or you can also use this to have the Kieran help you. If you're doing something and you fail your roll, you could use this and the Kieran can come to your aid. ⁓ and you can re-roll. Okay. I would like to try to charm the Kelpie. Give it a go. I would like to try to do that, because I could get six dice for that. Yes. Okay. One, two, three, four, five, six. Okay. And Part of me wants to use the unit the the unity point again for the five or sixes? Because that worked really well. Can it be an after the fact? Like if we ask for the curin's help? You can ask for the curin's help after the fact. You can't use a power after the fact. Okay. Okay. I could, okay. I could roll. Mm-hmm. And then if it if I don't pass, I'll ask the Kirin. Yep. Okay. Come on. ⁓ Five? ⁓ I got a six. Are doing the the fives don't count this time? The fives don't count, but you can keep that and use this and re-roll the rest of the dice. Keep that? Yes. Okay. Okay, I want to do that because I really want to pass this. Okay. Shw. Yippee! Let's go. my god. What would that be? Do you that's a one? No. That's a one do. Do you say anything to the Do you say anything to the Kelpie? ⁓ also, here's some Kelpie art, by the way. They're shapeshifters. They're kelp. Who is that? That's also the Kelpie. That's sick. They can be they can be scary dragon creatures or beautiful women. Can you imagine? Yeah. ⁓ literally femininity. Yeah. In a book, right there. In a nutshell, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, this is my gender. Yeah. Kelpie is my gender. Yeah. I tell the Kelpie, Hi Bestie. ⁓ you don't wanna hurt us because we're super cool and chill and nice and we're actually not here to hurt you and you should save your appetite for some really bad people, so And the Kelpie says, the Kelpie speaks. ⁓ I see. And also, you hear a haunting human voice come out of this creature. it is like ⁓ yeah, it is like a ⁓ a mimic of sounds, you know. It lives beneath and it absorbs all things, including the screams of lost sailors. And ⁓ it hisses, ⁓ it hisses at you, it opens its jaws as it considers your request, and just as it's about to advance, Volt, the more aggressive of the two. turns its head and kind of stares the thing down. And the three of you witness these two creatures, similar but different, having a moment of ⁓ mutual understanding. You know? ⁓ from one such beast to another in two different worlds. One beneath the club cloud sea, one above it. And the Kelpie kind of slinks down a little and like like an eel retreats back down into the coral. Let's go. Or let's go. Thank you. We move on. So you all take a deep breath. Take stock of your damaged cargo, which has been knocked around. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. But still good enough. It's still it's still good. No, it's still good. It's still good. A little bit of milk, it's fine. It's still good. And milk and nectoplasm on the floor, it's fine. It's literally fine. It's literally fine. And because we're running low on time. We're gonna we're gonna wrap it up real quick. Are you ready? Speed round? Okay. Speed round. You see ahead of you ⁓ the cradle of Kraken's Maw. as ⁓ the two Kieran that you're with Volta and Static pull back up ⁓ and regain altitude. I think you kind of like crest over this large piece of coral and ⁓ there is Kraken's Maw, kind of backlit, illuminated by the sun. and we ⁓ I think we cut to kind of like a scene in a hangar. Okay. Like where where you'd land a plane or a boat of some kind. And we see Volt and Static r come ⁓ kind of rounding the corner, w s sailing into the hangar, and the group of you kind of doing almost like a rough landing, whew, sweating. everyone a little tense from the encounter you just had. And ⁓ you ⁓ one of the dock workers there calls out and says, Oi, what do you got there? Milk. Maybe milk spilt milk. We've got ⁓ a package for ⁓ from do we get the pirate's name? ⁓ my god. I got a bunch of information. I got a five information. Yeah, you have you have contact info. Yes. Yes. His name is Scruff the Duck. Scruff the Duck. You know him. You love him. His homeopathic milk here to deliver. Right. To cure Bright Lung. Right. Right then, of course, to cure Bright Lung. Bright Lung. Let me see. Give me one moment. This is only my second month as a doc worker. I'm feeling some imposter syndrome. Get you sorted in a minute. And we're gonna we're gonna pan away there as we're running short on time. But there's one thing I wanna do ⁓ as we as we wrap up. Okay. ⁓ so what we will do here in Also, you know, I kinda wanna I kinda wanna play this out actually. Somebody roll two dice for me as well. I have this your cargo is thing in the back of Cat's paw and I always forget to use it. And I'm curious what the like milk in tea that you just delivered is like. It's slimy milk and tea. But that makes sense. It could be big. It could I mean maybe the slime is what helps it work well. The slime is what cures bright lungs. Right, right. It's like penicillin. It's like penicillin. We're delivering penicillin. We're Angels. Balto. We're both. We're both. It's come full circle, folks. It's come full circle. It's actually what a beautiful. I'm your foreshadowing. So ⁓ so what we're gonna do is we're gonna play this out. This is at the end of ⁓ Cat's Paw Couriers. Typically between clouds between clouds ends with a dinner scene. So we could imagine ⁓ the family, our Kieran and our symbiotes gathered somewhere here on this cradle, maybe tucked away somewhere that they won't be bothered, having dinner together, whatever that looks like. ⁓ however, Catspaw Couriers adds another element, which is that we can also, during this ⁓ debrief epilogue period, we can reflect on what happens in the community as well. Kind of how like Balto, our ⁓ our delivery has changed the ⁓ lives of the people that we have delivered it to. Nice. Positive. So you hopefully it's positive. So you have two options. There's you can either do a character scene here or a community scene. They say reflect on the delivery ⁓ and pick one of these prompts or reflect on the delivery and describe one of these prompts here. so I ⁓ Wow, so so many choices here. So many choices here. ⁓ Yeah, I'll just keep it simple. As the storyteller, I'm gonna pick how the community perseveres without aid or how the community blossoms with aid. And I'm going to say that we, you know, the camera kind of focuses on this ⁓ sailor who has bright lung and she just has a solemn look on her face. She's in a white clinical setting and we see ⁓ ⁓ we see a doctor come in and knock and say something to her and we just see her get a ⁓ a sad but hopeful smile that runs across her face. Aww. ⁓ lovely. Beautiful. We're so good. Wait, when we're just the slimy milk and she goes, ⁓ You can ⁓ right. ⁓ so you can either choose one of these character scenes for yourself to kind of reflect on ye and the found family, or you can pick one of these community scenes. Okay. Yep. ⁓ and I wish I had a second copy of that so I could pass it around, but Momo if you want you can maybe cozy up and see if you can take a look. Yeah. I think I wanna do someone creating wanted doors. ⁓ I was gonna do that one too. Sorry. So I mean since we are in this area where they use Kieran Hearts to power and we made a pretty rude and brash entrance. You made a big entrance. Big entrance. We got some Love it. Yes. Posters of two pigs. Two pigs. And three and a purple pig. Yes. I'm gonna take that and run with it in a little different direction. ⁓ love it. So we have wanted pictures for the Kirin. Yeah. I think we also have wanted pictures for us specifically. Because I'm gonna bring big pharma into it. Okay. They don't like our homeopathic slimy milk. ⁓ they have expensive remedies for bright lungs. Here on the cradle. Here on the cradle. That people can't charging so much money. But now that we came and we disrupted the economy a little bit, now they want our heads. I like that. I like that a lot, Banja. Thank you. And they can eat rocks. They can drink our slimy milk. The people on the cradle can eat rocks. The people who want the people the the big pharma can eat rocks. Yeah, yeah, they can yeah, they can eat rocks for sure. Slime you know, I had milk and tea written, but I like that it's just become slimy milk. Just slimy milk. Yeah. It's penicillin. It's penicillin. I hate to be the bearer of this news, but the milk, it was not a homeopathic remedy. goodness. Our our pirate friend, he used us to deliver to deliver a poison. Poison milk? Yeah. So now these people are going to die. Now they're gonna die. They are gonna die. What prompts? Only the ones that well, so this is where he's from actually and he was banished from this place because when he started the Kieran Hart trade sort of Okay. He was he was cut out. Of the market. Yeah. He started this whole thing and he was building his empire. ⁓ my god. And then yeah, I don't I don't know the details. He has imposter syndrome, he's not a real pie. And he doesn't want to be. He wants to be back there slaying Kirans and inserting their hearts into the underneath of the city. He's the big bad. We met the big bad. And we're the brothers of the big bad and we need to do helped him. And so we need to think about it. Okay, wow. And so maybe there's wanted posters. Of ⁓ y'all's faces up for a different reason, too. We have three different wanted posters for three different creatures. Three different things, yeah. None of them are good. They're like, stop hurting people, stop saving people. Why'd you bring Kieran here? Yeah. We're we're we're boned. Wow. Damn. Big bad evil ⁓ scruff the duck. Wow. Scruff the duck. Scruff the duck is the biggest Yeah, damn. Damn, don't tell you work. I am okay well tune in next time I guess. Yeah, tune in next time for whatever the hell happens next time. thank you all very much for playing between clouds. That's fantastic. Thank you so much for facilitating. ⁓ I'm so happy I got to play. Yeah, me too. ⁓ you are an angel and a gem and it was such a pleasure to play with you. Thank you. I feel the same. Yay. Well, thank you very much for watching. ⁓ If you would like to get a copy of Between Clouds or Cat's Paw Quarriers, you can do so through our website, heartofthedirnacorn.com. I will have everything listed down below. Go send some love to Andy Licht. I will have all of her information down below as well. And we will see you next time. Bye. Bye. ⁓