episode 046 | friendly neighbourhood super hero 04

this transcript was generously provided by ilias with minor formatting changes from me

INTRO

SATAH: Welcome to Folio, an actual play podcast about solo and epistolary TTRPGs. I’m your host, Satah, and I’m showcasing multiple possible experiences of self-paced games by inviting guests to play them alongside me so I can compile our stories together. You can support the show financially at patreon.com/foliopod or with a one-off donation at ko-fi.com/foliopod.

This is episode four of our games of Friendly Neighborhood Superhero, a solo rpg about protecting, befriending, and improving a community by Catscratcher Studio. The other two helpful parish paragons joining me today are Gwen Frankenstein and Jeff Stormer.

GAME: DAY THREE

GWEN: Alright.

SATAH: Alright!

JEFF: Alright! Here we go! Day three!

GWEN: It is still not Thursday and I am gonna think of all days as still-not-Thursday unless we happened to reach Thursday before I finish recording.

SATAH: It has been a few days irl, maybe even a couple weeks. I’m not sure. Time is not real. [Laughs] After seeing how long my days were going, I reached out to the players- the other players of the game to say “Hey I’ve decided that we should probably go to seven points instead of ten.” It would be much harder to have an achievement victory on this timeline. [Laughs] Ten points kind of- you know you have more time to- you can use xp to buy off some of the drawback points, you have more time to buy the achievement points, but they are much harder to do and so it’s likely going to be a drawback ending? Victory?

That’s the thing is I don’t feel too bad about it because it’s good either way. That’s one of the beautiful things about this game. It knows what it’s doing. It knows the story it wants to help you tell. Okay. Let’s- let’s see what’s going on day three.

JEFF: Starting off strong; starting our day.

SATAH: I was… on my day job! [Laughs] Ahh, workin’ a lot at the cafe.

JEFF: That as a one. Kelvin is enjoying his hobby when something happens. What do I think Kelvin’s hobby is? I said sports. I think- I mention this briefly but I’m gonna lean in and say that like Kelvin is very aggressively into pinball. I think like he is a pinball nut who lives above a pinball arcade and like when he doesn’t have anything to do, when he’s just kind of hanging around, when he’s not sort of like surfing for odd jobs or chatting with people or you know walking around, I think that you will find him in this pinball arcade getting increasingly angry. Just unhinged to levels of anger at this particular pinball machine and then something happens. Let’s find out what that something is.

GWEN: Roll a die; that’s a four. That means we’re gonna solve a crime this morning.

JEFF: Five, this is a neighbor in need.

SATAH: I was on my day job when suddenly… a neighbor needs help.

JEFF: Let’s roll three twenty and we’ll find out what- who our neighbor in need is.

SATAH: Rolled an eighteen, which is caring.

JEFF: Eighteen is caring community leader preparing for an important presentation.

SATAH: Scientist. This makes sense; live in a weird science town. I guess I’ll roll for their age will be pretty funny if they are a child. I mean I guess they could be classic- like a baby- baby genius but let’s see. We’re rolling… a teenager yeah so they’re either a baby genius or lake an intern. Or just big in to the science fair and we’re sort of- occupation is a little bit more general. And what- what is- what what do they need my help with. Rolling a d20 for their trouble… finding their way home. Oh no.

GWEN: I rolled a three, a five, and a nine which means we’ve got the mob trying to poison the river again this time with an elemental entity. This makes sense either we we go Pokemon rules and poison is an element or they’ve contacted a fire elemental and said “Hey, help us eradicate your nemesis, the spirit of the river.” I kind of like that. We’re getting a little esoteric here. Mystical, metaphysical, yeah.

JEFF: This is- this is a- this is a social media personality. This is uh Tyrese Kolovsky. Tyrese is like a young activist and has like mobilized a pretty considerable social media following to… what do I think is like a- a big- a big time small town issue?

It is like reinvesting- actually it is arts preservation. Tyrese is a mural artist, Tyrese is a street artist, and Tyrese is like organizing a grassroots effort to like a get city funds for a mural initiative. Basically they want to like preserve a lot of the street art that is on walls. You know in their mind like “I work fuckin’ hard on this stuff and I want it to live for a while longer.” So they are organizing this and I think like they are I’m gonna say filming a video about this cause in the pinball arcade. And I think Kelvin overhears this because I know how Kelvin is going to immediately sort of pitch this. I do have to get a six. I’m seeing I don’t think I could necessarily ah use my temperature control abilities, so it’s going to be a two d6 roll and hope for a six.

Didn’t get a six. I don’t have a super point. I’m just going to mark a miscalculation here.

SATAH: This- this- this kid- this teen comes in and they’re forlorn. They- they were doing a science- this is a- this is a science experiment that they were doing for the science fair. They were doing a teleportation thing. It’s not that they’re actually lost, it’s that they lost their house. They have teleported it somewhere. They know it isn’t far but they don’t know exactly where it is and they need to find it so that they can return it. They’re- they’re- they’re pretty confident they can put it back if they can get to it, but they’re- they’re talking to me while- where I’m in- I’m in- I’m in civvy form, you know?

I give them their decaf latte and the- and I’m like “Hey you okay kid?”

They’re like “Yeah, um… You seen a house?”

And I’m sort of like “I’ve seen houses, yeah.”

And they say “Oh I meant a specific house kinda you know appearing where it shouldn’t. Never mind.”

And I coax the story out of them and I’m like “Okay. Look ah I heard that our friendly neighborhood superhero Orbit has been doing rounds more often so how ‘bout I give her a call and see if she knows anything.

And the kid like lights up a little bit and is like “Oh that would be so great, thank you!” And coincidentally Orbit is gonna show up right as I end my shift. Wow. It’s too bad we missed each other, you know. [Laughs]

JEFF: What I think the plan was here was for Kelvin to like subtly announce that you know he has experience meeting with councilwoman Joella. And what Tyrese has picked up on is in fact that Kelvin is going to like organize a meeting with city council which is vastly out of Kelvin’s skill set but now Kelvin is kind of immediately in too deep.

SATAH: The first thing I’m going to do is you know I show up in costume and I’m like… This- this kid’s- let’s let’s name this teen Sammy. Sammy Neilum. Sammy is like very morose and is not like able to be super helpful because whenever I try to get more details they just end up going like “I shouldn’t have done that… I shouldn’t have tried to… so stupid that I…” blah blah blah.

And I’m gonna like put my hand on their shoulder and be like “Hey this happens. Let’s just focus on the fact that you made something really cool and it worked well enough to have weird consequences. We just need to deal with those consequences and then you can get back to making it work even better.” And I’m trying to just calm them down or get them confident enough that they can sort of be helpful and not just like really sad. And I do that by rolling…

Okay I have two points in heart, so this is gonna be two d6 and one of them needs to be a five or six. I rolled a six and a one. Doesn’t matter. Rolled a six. I will gain a progress. They- they- they do- they brighten up you know. They’re like “Yeah. Yeah no you’re right. This is just sort of one of the things that happens in in science, right?” And what are they reference? They reference something that like happened with the telescope like- like- “Like when they were trying to make the the telescope more powerful and they accidentally lit all those satellites on fire?”

And I like “Yup. That was a rough one.” Which was almost certainly another issue of this comic before you know. Where I had to go up into space and put out all these space fires. Don’t worry about why there’s fires in space where there is no atmosphere. It was science fire and that has different rules. Okay. So what do we do next?

GWEN: So they’ve got a fire demon the fire demon Asbestos- come on you know that’s cool. That’s a cool name for a demon. Now I believe because the mob and water poisoning are things we’ve dealt with before, that means we get an extra to die in the pool for this.

Which is probably going to be helpful ‘cause what the heck do I, a person who can communicate with dogs, know about elemental spirits. Not much, I say.

JEFF: So Kelvin’s gotta think of a way to like make this meeting happen. Kelvin you know reluctantly kind of agrees to this, right? We’re gonna by the way take an experience point for failing that roll. And I think I know how Kelvin is going to solve this and it’s going to involve me picking up five dice and it’s going to involve using the established not-great reputation of Thermal within the city to cause some a calamitous trouble and potentially like draw out city council and draw out the authorities so that Tyrese can kind of sneak their way in. I think that’s gonna be the play and I’m very very excited about that. I’m going to give this a roll. I’ve got five dice here because I do think this is going to be a use of my power. This is temperature control. I think this is power not skill so I am going to be rolling three dice. I am going for a six because it is resisted and that’s a six and two twos! Great. Okay. I’m gonna mark success on that. I’m going to get a progress on that. Ah also I get experience point because that was a resisted roll.

SATAH: I think the next thing is going to be asking the kid to show me what they built? Like presumably they have part of it with them and part of it was at their house or something. Maybe they were trying to teleport to their house and it didn’t- they thought it just didn’t work and then they got home and they were like “My house is gone. But it didn’t just teleport to me, so it’s not like it just reversed. Well now I don’t know. And so I’m just gonna sit down with them and look at their weird little device and go through the calculations with them to try and like see if I can glean something from that. And I think that this is probably a mind roll isn’t it? Oops. Well. [Laughs]

Yeah for sure- analyzing, calculating. That’s okay. I have one in mind. [Laughs] So I’m gonna roll one d6 and this is resisted because of the kid being impressed by heart. So I’m gonna roll one d6 and it has to be a six. Can I use my signature ability in this somehow. [Mournfully] No. That’s alright.

It was a one, very much not a six. So I’m going to mark the point of miscalculation and I think what that looks like is ah I accidentally trigger the device again. Like we’re looking through the code and I am like trying to scroll to look at some numbers and accidentally hit execute, you know? And it zaps and the kid’s like “Don’t” and it has teleported again. And Sammy just takes the device back from me and is like “Yeah um okay. I mean it probably didn’t get worse right? Hopefully? I mean maybe it- maybe it’s just back where it should be. Let’s go look I guess?”

And I’m like “[Groans awkwardly] Yup. Okay.”

JEFF: What’s up I’m just going to lay it out like it is. Kelvin has lied to Tyrese and told them that they are going to be able to like have a meeting with city council at this time and then Thermal like caused the problem and like caused a minor explosion. Like lit a fireball ah and you know did some- some ill-planned stunt work and like has distracted security around city hall. But the problem is that now- [Laughs] the very logistical problem is that now Thermal has to evade city hall security. I’m gonna roll five dice on this because I do think it’s skill. And I think I’m gonna be able to roll with my power because I’m rocking- you know I could probably- I can envision some ice slicks and an entire kind of stunt sequence where like Thermal is goading people on and then they’re slipping on ice or like freezing water to create walls for people. So I a, rolling five dice. If I don’t get a six here I’m going to lose my shit. [Rolls]

I’m gonna lose my shit.

SATAH: I think what I’m going to do is tell them to head towards their house. They’re gonna hop on their little bike that is probably like- it’s an e-bike in that like they invented a little motor to go on it that is like solar powered because they’re cool as hell. And I’m going to tell them to like head back to see if it did- if their house is now where it’s supposed to be and I am going to- I wanna- I wanna get up on a tall building and like take a look around you know. Which is difficult because it’s very tall and therefore I have to very carefully use my abilities. And then once I’m up there I’ll figure out what I’m doing but I’m like “Okay I’m gonna get up on this tall building and then we’ll see what we’re doing from there. So I have three points in skill and I’m using my ability so that’s four d6 and it is resisted so one of them has to be a six.

Three, two, three, two. Nope. Okay, so…

JEFF: Okay so that is an experience point ah that’s an experience point. I’m cornered by like Bell City Police, security guards. I think the complic- I think that’s the complication, right? Like that’s a pretty straightforward complication and it’s one that frankly ah I know how Thermal is going to get out of. And it’s not going to be great but you know what? Like this hero is developing an identity and I’m really okay with that.

I’m gonna roll three dice here: one for power, two for my signature ability. Big fire, explosion, sneak out the back. Duck, weave, evade. That is an additional experience point for rolling a contested roll and a second point of progress and I think I could probably go for a third dice. I mean with how I’ve been rolling at these neighbor challenges? I’m going to need all the dice that I can get.

GWEN Using my real world brain if I had to try to fight something I didn’t know anything about I would try to do research. But considering how poorly research has gone for me in this game… Although I suppose I would be rolling four dice… Fuck it, I’m doing some research. I’m- I’m going to Ye Olde Occult Bookshop, seeing what I can learn about fire demons and river spirits. One of those was a success so I’m taking that.

SATAH: I can’t get up on the building. Why is that? Maybe after all of the destruction that I’ve been causing recently, people are um adding hostile architecture but but for superheroes? Just like things that make it really difficult for me to like get around, and I will figure out how to get around them but I don’t know how to yet and so I can’t get up on the building that would be best to like have a wide view of the area.

JEFF: I think in this moment I need to come up with a plan. Like I’ve got the security on the run so like it Tyrese can roll up without a problem. But like councilwoman Joella’s still not going to meet with them and I need to figure out a way for her to come out to meet with them. And I think so that’s going to have to be mind to like think of a plan and execute on the plan to get councilwoman Joella out of her office so she crosses paths with Tyrese at the exact moment that they’re showing up for this meeting. That is- I’m gonna throw my temperature control into the ring here because I think that that’s effectively pulling the fire alarm to get her out of her office. That’s four dice. I need to get a six here.

Oh and that’s two sixes. That’s what we needed. I- listen I have not been rolling great at these neighbor challenges and so every success but I get truly feels a special to me. Phew. Okay. Great.

SATAH: I think the next thing I’m going to do is I’m like “Okay if I can’t get up there to see I’m going to tap into a local private radio line where people like report these problems to each other. Kind of like listening to a police radar except I- I think that I’ve already said there aren’t police. But there are people who have like a private channel and I’m going to try and hack into it.

Not hack exactly. Here’s the way that I’m gonna justify having this be a skill roll that uses my signature ability. I have learned that I can pull signals. I can- I can- I can go near a satellite or a phone line or whatever, something that is transmitting some of this data, and I can use my gravity manipulation to pull it in a way that like- I have to also like awkwardly hold my phone up to it but I can sort of- I can pull the signal into my phone in a way that means it gets translated and I can hear it with my bluetooth earbuds.

I’m- this is not a stretch, this is super heroes. I’m gonna roll four d6 and one of them has to be a six. Six, five, three, one. Well it worked. Because it’s a good plan; it’s a normal plan; it’s a plan that would work in real life: using your gravity to pull- distort a signal so that it can go into your phone and your phone can translate that into your off-brand air pods. That would work in real life, you can try it.

JEFF: So we’ve got three progress. Do I go for a roll here? I think I’m gonna go for uh- I think I’m gonna go for heart. And I think I’m gonna roll three dice here. I’m gonna invoke my signature ability. I’m going to try and like quickly extinguish the fire. And I think I’m gonna try and like make- like make a connection with councilwoman Joella. Like she clearly probably doesn’t have the highest picture of me on account of the whole thing that happened last time but I think if I like reveal my identity to her she might be on board with this. That’s three dice; I need a five or a six… And that is one six. That’s all I need. That is a success. I don’t gain an experience point for this but I do gain a fourth point of progress. I- Thermal like drops down, takes off the mask as she’s like leaving, quickly like snaps his fingers, puts out the fire is like “Hey. Listen. I need to talk to you okay? I need to talk to you. There’s a kid. They’re putting together something special. It’s a program. I think it’s got a lot of potential-” And I think she stops dead in her tracks and is just like “Are you telling me that you cause- that you caused public destruction, started a fire in city hall and drove me out of my office, cornered me after what I believed to be in attempted kidnapping-”

“You know full well that that was not an attempted kidnapping, okay. You know full well that that was some kind- you saw whatever monster that was at the portal. Yeah?”

“You’re right. There was clearly a monster and a portal. We saw a beacon rise up in the air, yeah.” But I do also know the official story that you told authorities and the news. And so forgive me if my messaging is a little backwards.”

“Okay. just hear me out. You meet with the kid, let them know that you’re hearin’ and listenin’. And if you feel good about the pitch, bring it bring it to city council and I’ll back off. And I’ll leave you alone.

SATAH: And so yes I- I listen- I’m able to listen and have they spotted anything? Yeah oh yeah. Okay I know what it is. It’s like I hear somebody talking about an anomalous reading that they’ve just seen like wondering if it’s- they- they report like a small earthquake or something but say that they’re not in the area. They’re asking somebody to go check it out. And I recognize the voice. And I think what I’m going to do is I’m going to directly contact that person and ask what the reading what because I’m pretty sure it was [Laughing] a house landing in a field.

So this is gonna be a heart roll. You know what I’m gonna say that I’m using my signature ability because I’m not calling them directly, I am hopping on to this frequency, this like private channel and so I have to keep the signal distorted into my phone. And so I am using my signature ability. And I think this is a heart thing because I’m trying to like be like “Hey it’s Orbit by the way. Can you- can you tell me where it is or can can we at least meet so that you can tell me where it is? I think I might know what’s happening and I think we have- I think it would really help out this- this kid that I ran into.” And I’m try- this is me trying to like convince them that I’m trustworthy even though I just popped onto their secret radio channel and I’m gonna roll three d6 and one of them has to be a five or a six. Five, one, two. I did it. Going up to three progress.

And I think part of what this is that they’re surprised to hear me but they’re like “Oh, Orbit! We didn’t know that you had access to this channel.”

And I think I’ve not the best liar which is funny for someone with a secret identity and I’m like “Oh… You know… Yeah, I wasn’t technically invited, sorry.”

And they are like “No that’s totally fine. I love that you’re paying attention to this; that’s- that’s okay. Yeah look we don’t want to transmit it over the radio especially because turns out [Snorts] maybe some people can hear this. But yeah come- come meet me and we’ll- we’ll go out there together.”

Mm. Yeah and then what this is- the way I’ll set myself up for my next roll is that we go to where this odd tiny earthquake-type thing seems to have happened and it is the house. And it is very precarious. It has landed- is it on a cliff? Or is it on top of another house or like between two houses? We’re in a valley. We’re in a valley next to this mountain with the telescope on it. This is also an area that was being monitored. I think that means that it’s- it’s like it’s in this big- it’s not even on the cliff; it’s in the middle of this big field. Maybe- I’m so sorry; this is who I am. The first thing I thought it was like a body farm where corpses are put to decay naturally or in slightly different circumstances to study what the process of decay looks like. I don’t think it’s that but it’s like something that- this big field where experiments are happening.

Mm. It’s a bunch of like metal poles that are meant to attract lightning. And it’s in part to pull it away from the telescope as much as possible that but they’re also measuring- there are different ones because they’re measuring the effectiveness of like “Can we gather electricity from this? Can we turn this into something? Which one is most effective? Which one stores the most energy and disperses the least? And so it’s just a big weird field with a bunch of metal poles in it and the house has landed in there.

GWEN: So I find a book in ye olde occult bookstore. I’m- I’m imagining a particular bookstore we have in Toronto that’s like in the basement and used to be a head shop before pot was legal and is now just kind of a weird trippy bookstore. So I’m going there. Seekers Books on Bloor if any Toronto-based listeners happened to want to check it out. Very not wheelchair accessible.

Anyway, goin’ there; findin’ a book. Oh I know. I know, the book says that “The demon Asbestos smells of sulfur.” Hell yes, something smell based! That’s good cause we got dog! We got bloodhound! And it says if you smell the sulfur, that means you’re close to the demons summoning circle and all you have to do to make the demon-pop-disappear is to-it’s a fire demon-so put out the candles. Obviously. That’s pretty easy.

SATAH: I need to get to the house without getting electrocuted. ‘Cause really they should sort of very carefully turn everything off and drain whatever reserves before a person goes in there, but you know there’s a big storm coming and so it’s like “oh it would disrupt this whole thing, so we don’t wanna turn it off.”

And I’m like “You know what? I think I can get there. And I am going to be using my hyper-localized gravity manipulation to try and carefully like avoid touching the ground as much as possible which could make me a conductor and just get through there as fast as possible to get to the house. So. Skill, right? That’s precision. So I’m going to be rolling three; I’m using my ability so four d6. It is resisted so four d6; one has to be a six. Three. Two. Six! And a one, okay. Did it.

GWEN: I’m gonna say “Hey, hey, Vampire? Hey, hey, buddy? Can you smell any sulfur? Let’s track some sulfur buddy!” And I’m rolling one. Nope and I’m gonna go super so I can roll with another- wait no I roll with an extra dice for everything right now. Haha!

Yes, and that’s a five! A point of security and two points of progress? That was- that was the easiest crime we’ve ever solved. “Good job, puppy! Who’s a good boy, Vampire? Who’s the bestest pup in the whole wide world?”

JEFF: Now I’m torn a little bit here, because I have three points of control in mind and I could try to like chase that if I could think of a way to like engineer this as mind, but I don’t think I can do that. I think I really have to like roll- I’m rolling four dice either way, but I’m trying to decide if I could justify calling this mind? I don’t think I can. I think I have to call this heart. Tyrese’s like preferred approach is heart, so like heart feels right. Also it means that I can get a five or a six which I think is going to be incredibly helpful. [Screaming angrily] And somehow is still a failure! [Resigned] Alright. I’m gonna wipe my progress. I’m gonna go back to zero and I’m gonna start over.

SATAH: So yeah I managed to sort of half levitate half run over to the house. And what- what- what do I need here? I need to get in so one potential challenge is like getting into the house. [Laughs] The door is locked. Oooh, so as I’m walking up I stop moving suddenly and I’m like “Oh no there is a problem.” Kind of like how you have to be careful after like a big storm- like a big ice storm, power lines are down and that kind of thing? A big wind storm? Let’s say you wanna get into your car but there’s a power line fell on it and now the car is just charged and you will get electrocuted if you touch the car? One of the lightning rods-lightning rods, that’s- that’s the concept I was trying to think of-has tipped over and is like touching the door. Or touching the house in a way that’s like I can’t just go up and like open the door regular-style cause I will get zapped hard.

And I think what I’m gonna do here is I want to try to pull the door open without touching it. Which like my gravity fields are really localized so not touching it is difficult, right? But I- so I think that I’m- I’m going to make this a power roll and it’s about like I am putting my hands as close to the door as I can get it without actually touching and I am trying to use just the gravity field to like unlatch it and open it, hoping that like I can just fix it from inside you know? And so I think this is a power roll. I am using my signature ability. I’ve got two in power plus one from my ability, and this is resisted so three d6 and one has to be a six. Six four and another six. I did it! Up to five progress!

JEFF: I think she pauses for a moment and just goes “No.”

“What the fuck do you mean, no?”

“Why would you think this would work? This- you know how many laws you have just broken? Why would- this can’t be how this works! You know that right?”

So starting back at zero, I’m gonna shift tactics. I’m gonna roll mind and I’m gonna evoke my powers and I’m going to make Councilwoman Joella a very specific offer. I am also up to- uh, taking the extra experience putting me up to eight. That is a six. Okay great. If I didn’t get a six here, I probably would have cried on mic. I’m- it’s- it’s been a long recording.

SATAH: Yeah I manage to pull the door open and I get inside. Do I want to try and solve the problem now or do I want to do one more thing? I think- [Laughs] I think what this is gonna be is I’m gonna try one more and I will either get- if I succeed or get a six progress, if I fail I will use the extra die for the like solving a problem roll. So I’ll be rolling six d6 regardless. What this is is I call Sammy and they’re like “Okay I’m going to see if I can talk you through setting the device up on a generator. And then because the power supply is different from the generator vs when it’s hooked into the grid, I’m going to try and talk you through redoing some of the calculations so that you can trigger it on your end to send it back.”

This is gonna be a mind roll. I’m going [Laughs] to evoke my ability here by, um, you know this is a homemade science experiment teleporter. And they’re like “it works better if- like the cable has to be held at a specific angle.” Kind of like when it when a charger gets old, you know? And you have to hold it a very specific angle to keep it in the port? Or when your phone gets too old?

And um usually that’s not so hard to do because of how the connector to- like when it’s plugged in, that cable is long enough to sort of loop it over something. The connector to the generator, the backup battery or whatever is much harder because it’s shorter and so I’m using my hyper-localized gravel-ity manipulation-ooh, words-to hold the generator up at the correct angle. [Laughs]

Don’t worry about it. And that makes this a one in mind plus my ability is two d6. It has resistance so two d6; one has to be a six. [Gasps] A six! And a five. Wow okay! They are able to talk me through it! I do think that in part this is Sammy succeeding on a mind roll, not so much me. They’re going to be a great teacher one day. [Laughs]

JEFF: I think Kelvin steps back, pulls down the mask. “Okay, okay hear me out; hear me out. What if I gave you a cause?”

“Cause what do you me-”

“What if campaigning against the terror that is the vigilante Thermal was your cause? You got it on tv; you use that on the pulpit. People already are afraid of me ‘cause of the press. That’s a juicy opportunity for you!”

She kinda cocks an eyebrow. “You’re comfortable doing that?”

And I’m gonna roll four dice here for mind plus ability because I think the goal is not to ah cause damage, it is not to like evoke powers in a skillful way, it is to like signal that this plan could work.

And that’s a six! Okay great! Additional experience for a resisted roll and ah one more progress bringing us up to progress two. She kinda pauses for second, “Prove it.”

“Okay. Okay.” And I’m gonna roll three dice here. I need a six.

That’s two sixes and a five! Okay great! That’s a third point of progress; that’s another experience for a resisted roll; that’s three progress.

SATAH: We get it all set up and here’s the thing: I want the problem solving roll to be a heart roll. Not because I have the most points that- I’m using my progress points. But because it won’t be resisted and because I have the most achievement points in inspiration which is the heart success ending. I’m- I’m frickin’ gaming right now, everybody. I’m- I’m- I’m literally gaming.

And here’s the thing. I know exactly why it can be a heart roll which is that we have everything set up and then Sammy’s like “Wait, no. Ugh, this is such a bad idea. How can I trust it? Like I already sent my house to the middle of nowhere. I don’t even know where it was before it landed in the middle of this field of lightning rods! What if I broke something? I could have really hurt somebody! Oh my god, oh my god, what if I hurt someone? You know that movie? That really old movie- have you heard of this? The Wizard of Oz?” Do teens- teens know what the Wizard of Oz- like I knew what the Wizard of Oz was when I was a teen. It’s not like it was a movie that came out in my lifetime. I dunno. I dunno. Teens! Um, they’re like “what if I dropped a house- what if I dropped my house on somebody? Oh my god, I’m the fucking wicked witch!”

Oh, they don’t need to know what Wizard of Oz is; they know what Wicked is. ‘Cause that movie came out. And they’re spiraling. They’re spiraling. And so this is going to be me saying- and they even like- they turn off their transmitter, right? And they don’t believe in themself and I am going to make them believe in themself.

I am talking to them like “Hey, no you’re brilliant. The way you were able to just walk me through how it worked shows me that you understand this. You know the rubber ducky test? Where like programmers explain what they’re doing out loud to a rubber duck on their desk? If you can explain it, you know it. You understand it. You just did that! I don’t know anything.”

And they like laugh somewhat hysterically at that, like in a nervous like “Uh huh, yeah?”

And I’m like “Yeah. I mean look at me. I- I spend all my time just bouncing around places and you were able to walk me through setting up a teleporter- that you made by the way, and it works! You did teleport your whole house twice. You’re about to do it for a third time. You can do this. We can do this. Just start the countdown.” And I’m going to roll.

GWEN: So we’re at this gross-smelling corporate office, because we’ve done the warehouse before. We’re in this office building. “Ruff, ruff,” dog tells me. We gotta go to-of course-the hidden thirteenth floor between the elevators. So I’m gonna punch in floor fourteen and emergency stop at the same time. I don’t know how I knew that but let’s pretend I’ve fought these particular criminals before and I know that that’s the code.

Pshew. Elevator goin’ up. And it dings and it stops but instead of opening on the side that usually opens, the other side of the elevator that didn’t look like door opens up. And there’s that tell-tale smell of sulfur, there’s some guys in hooded robes, there’s some drippy candles.

And I’m gonna take out a dog toy thing, some kind of fetch toy like a kong or a fris- yes a frisbee. I- a legally distinct frisbee-type object. A flying disc, if you will. And I’m gonna throw it. “Fetch, boy!” I’m gonna throw it and knock over a candle with it. And I’m gonna roll skill for this.

Yes! We did it! We knocked over the candle and the demon Asbestos turns to look at me and yells “Shephaaaaaaaaaaaard” as he turns into a puff of smoke. Then I open a window and the smoke dissipates.

SATAH: Three d6, just need a five or a six. Sorry I’m gonna roll six d6. Three. Three. Three. One. Three. Five. Holy shit. Holy shit thank- okay. Great. Good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. We’re good. That felt targeted, right? Like I accidentally said three and then I rolled four threes? Come on.

JEFF: As much as I would like to get a fourth progress because I’ve been rolling so badly. At this moment, like I think that this is the moment where I gotta like see if it works.

I think this is heart to see if like he was able to make enough of a connection to where it holds true. And that is two fives. That is a point of inspiration and the plan goes off. Tyrese is there just as Councilwoman Joella like steps out of her office and waves them down to come inside and have this talk. And then sure enough on the news later like there’s a big speech about like “There’s a vigilante that waged an attack on City Hall. We cannot abide this kind of lawless behavior.” Click.

“[Laughs] I can’t believe she went through with it. Oh that’s really funny. That’s funny.”

SATAH: They set up their little transmitter where they are at the empty lot where their house should be. We count down together, press buttons and zoop the house goes back to where it should be. And they’re right in front of it.

GWEN: A job very well done. Amazing, everybody.

SATAH: They are- they come back in (00:40:53) and they’re like “Yay! Any chance you can help me get the utilities hooked back up before my parents come back?

And I’m like “Um, yeah I can give you a hand.” And while I’m doing that a crime is gonna happen

GWEN: We’re going to stop for lunch. We’re going to go home, gonna get a pup cup for my trusty canine companion, and then I’m gonna see what other things we have to solve today.

JEFF: Click over to the news to see the next thing that has happened which I’m gonna roll three dice on.

SATAH: Oh, did I succeed on any resisted rolls in that time? I might have. That should have gotten me an extra xp but I’m not sure. Okay I’m going to listen back to this afterwards and fix my xp.

Wow. Okay thank goodness I realized that and went back because I succeeded on five resisted rolls. So that is five experience. Oh my goodness. That would have been very unfortunate to leave behind. Okay I’ve made a spreadsheet about it; we’re good to go. So I’m helping this kid reconnect the utilities at their house, mostly doing like labour while they tell me what to do. And we’re on the line with people from a city to make it’s happening correctly. [Laughs] Don’t worry about it.

GWEN: On our way home from our adventure we discover that the local, worried en- I don’t want to help an entrepreneur. Whatever- worried entrepreneur is having trouble cooking a very important meal. So I’m guessing this person probably owns a restaurant of some kind.

JEFF: That’s a nine one and four, so that gives us a human weapon-hmm-robbing a science facility-hmm hmm hmm-and a four is an army of alien juggernauts. Okay. I gotta think about this.

SATAH: So there’s a smart animal. [Meow from the background] Input from a very stupid animal, my buddy. I often line or veil animal violence but I guess that’s in my control and I assume that this is a sapient animal which does make it different. So I guess I’m- I will go with a smart animal. Which is resistant to mind which is great because I’m bad at it. And their goal- they are trying to move the neighborhood through time.

So the problem here immediately is that most animals I can think of should be allowed to do this. If an animal wants to revert the neighborhood to several hundred years ago when it was a little bit more like their natural environment, I don’t blame them. But I’ll find- I’ll find a more nefarious thing for them to be- a more nefarious reason. And how are they doing this, what’s their method?

Booby trapping hostages. Lot of that going around. I am gonna roll on the personality trait to see what this animals vibe is. Ambitious.

JEFF: I think I got it. I think what it is is we click over, we see the news report, and Cronenberg Foundation Building has been taken hostage by what appears to be monsters from another world. Like, extra dimensional terrors. Ah Kelvin immediately looks over to this like gauntlet that he’s been fiddling with and all these notes on demons and like something doesn’t look quite right. But he knows that this is an opportunity for Thermal to make an appearance, make a big splash and maybe also like you know be scary but like clearly indicate that Thermal is like fighting the good fight.

SATAH: The mental image that I got and cannot get rid of is a capybara in an astronaut suit. So that’s what this is. wait first I have to look up capybara house- habitat, habitat what do capybaras live in? They kinda just vibe, huh?

So I think it’s not a capybara. Apologies for doing #CanCon but what it is actually is a beaver in a little astronaut suit. Because beavers have sort of iconic habitats you know and I think that’s gonna- that’s gonna play into this. I am- I’m rotating it.

JEFF: Power is the opposed stat. So like I can’t roll power here or- or else and especially because powers like not necessarily my strong suit. I think that I’m going to have to try and think of a way to like use skill and really kick this off like effectively. Actually I’m gonna roll mind here because I think it’s strategically shutting down air conditioners, freezing cameras, making the building go dark for reasons that I will reveal if this roll goes well. Also I’m thinking this through. I’m going to add an additional dice here to represent the fact that I’m specifically trying to like tie into this gauntlet, because like I think even though these appear to be aliens I believe there is some trickery here. I think like all of this- the timing of everything feels too intentional for this not to be tied to this technology and these gauntlets and these things. So I’m adding an extra dice here. And I’m rolling for fives or sixes.

That’s one five and four ones! When I tell you my dice rolls in this are stressing me out to a legitimate physical degree, I cannot emphasize that enough. But that’s point of progress.

SATAH: We are in the house getting all the utilities hooked up and um some light bulbs go out. And we have like “Oh shit, was there a power surge? Did we do something wrong?” and then realize that all the other bulbs start to go out. And it’s not dramatic; it’s that they are just burning out like they’re really old even though they aren’t. And this is how it becomes obvious to me that we are traveling forward through time possibly. Or least I think that’s probably what’s happening.

And I at first I’m like “Hey, Sammy, is there any chance that your teleporter…”

And they’re like “I don’t think so? I don’t know?”

And I’m like, “Okay, I’m going to go see if this is also happening elsewhere. ‘Cause if it is, it’s probably not your teleporter.”

So I think I step outside and all of the trees are rapidly- like they’re they’re turning orange and the leaves are falling off and everything’s just going through the seasons very quickly. We are moving forward through time. And I’ve been trying to think of like how booby trapping hostages could play into it. I think it’s something just like a little insane. I don’t want it to be a bunch of kids because I’m thinking of like time travel, like stealing time from people which which would make sense with like kids with a whole lives ahead of them, blah blah blah. I don’t want it to be kids. And I think there’s actually- like they’ve- this beavers taken over a retirement home and has- Like all of the residents of the retirement home like have a weird thing on their bed that is like- they’re not dead; they’re- they’re doing okay. They’re just asleep and they cannot wake up and like it’s about the life the they’ve lived That’s what it is. It’s not about potential life ahead of them, it’s that this super intelligent beaver is- has- has attached to devices to- [Laughing] to a bunch of old people and is like “Ha ha! Yeah I am- I’m harnessing the energy of having lived this much life to transport the neighborhood forward in time.

Crucially I think the people are not aging. This time is only happening to the neighborhood, inanimate objects. And the villain his monologing, you know?

JEFF: The building goes dark and I get a chance like watch these things. And I am going to follow that up with a mind roll plus power. Because I think the thing that I’m learning, I think these are animatronic. I don’t think these are actual aliens; I think somebody has built these machines to make it- to provide a cover for robbing this building blind. And I’m going to try shut these down with a blast with cold to their machine parts. It does not work. That is a point of miscalculation. Um, that is going to be an extra dice on my next roll because god damn it. I think that like they start like activating thermal technology it a way that like indicates they are like aware of this and are capable of- are adapting. These are technology beyond even my wildest comprehension which is gonna be a problem. Which means that I’m gonna bounce back to three- back to four dice here (Because I’m taking an extra dice here for the next action. Experience is great but it- my frustration is greater.) to just try and straight up like blow one of these things up in a wave of fire.

Well that’s a point of destruction. So that’s great. This is going so so well.

SATAH: I step outside. I see all of the trees shedding their lives and everything. And um the person from before, the person who I heard on the radio who like brought me up to the electric farm? I contact them directly- no they contact me. I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on and they’re like “Hey just letting you know some weird stuff is going on and broadcasting on all the airwaves out of this retirement home.”

And so I’m gonna try and run over there and I’m in in the meantime like putting my earbuds in. And they are in fact villain monologing on all of the airwaves including just the public radio station as the radio station is fighting to take control back.

Here’s why it’s a beaver. This is the image that I had immediately. In the future if we do not intervene this valley that were in is going to flood. It’s pretty far in the future we have a lot of time to figure out that the flood is coming and circumvent it, but it will take active work. I’m sort of- I’m doing like the gm move of “Hey if your party doesn’t do something, here’s what’s going to happen. Just so you know.” And the the beaver wants the valley to flood so that they can build the fucking coolest mega-dam ever.

And they’re like “I know that if I actually let it play out slowly you will figure out how to stop this flood and so I’m not giving you the chance. I’m gonna just move the landscape forward- I dunno, a hundred years, a thousand years in the space of an hour and you can’t stop me ha ha ha ha ha. But I’m not trying to hurt anybody. You can just evacuate now. You still have time- a little bit of time.

JEFF: Ha ha ha ha. Cool cool cool cool . Ah, the building is getting demolished and I think crucially Kelvin also like being demolished. Clearly like outgunned, out-muscled here Kelvin’s going to have to do something a little risky and try to like out-think whoever this is. and I think that that’s going to just straight up be like trying to I guess like wear these things down. I’m gonna roll mind plus power plus extra dice because oh my god.

Finally I got some sixes. Great. So that’s a second point of progress. Like I’m just like- I’m trying- I’m outlasting. I am ducking. I’m outlasting;I’m lighting fires; I’m freezing things. And it’s just about like evasion for now. It’s just about like outlasting for now. Because what I want to do (and I think this is going to be skill plus power) is try and you know spot their- and I think what the successful mind roll kinda represents is like spotting the patterns a little bit and now the skill roll is going to represent like exploiting those patterns.

Oh that’s a five and a six. Okay, great. That’s a third point of progress. None of these have been opposed rolls.

SATAH: I’m going to run run run run to this retirement home and I think I’m going to do a power roll to- to get there fast. And I am using my hyper-localized gravity manipulation so this is going to be three d6 and one just has be a five or a six. Two, four, five thank goodness.

JEFF: So I understand like the patterns of these animatronics. I understand how to exploit them. I am like strategically burning wires and things and I think what I need to do now- I’m gonna call this mind and take four dice here. Because what I think I’m trying to do, I’m gonna use my power to like get two of them to hit each other and like outmaneuver them or like out think them in such a way that they strike each other now that their like wires are frayed to like cause them to explode. I’ll be honest I really wish that I had rolled skill to just get that one more dice even if it had been resisted at least that would have presented the possibility of success. It does not work, gets like completely battered and I think like knocked unconscious, wakes up tied to a chair, and I think has like one last really good shot to like outwit these aliens. Which is this say like I’m going to roll mind here. Fives and sixes. Progress roll. Here we go.

SATAH: So seven progress. What do I want to tackle first? Do I want to tackle the villain or the hostages? I’m gonna- I’m gonna- I’m gonna burst into the retirement home and tell the nurses like- ooh no I’m- I’m asking the nurses like “Hey it is any of this equipment new?” Like no, okay. They’ve figured it out. There is new equipment and they’ve been hearing this villain monologue about you know harnessing the energy of these seniors and they’re like “Yeah we got these monitors, these heart rate or vital monitors, from a new company and they were working totally fine. But we’re pretty sure that that is how he is doing this.”

And I think- I think what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna try and do this like solve roll by convincing them to- to disconnect everybody from the monitors?

Like they’re like “No, this is scary and like also all of this equipment is really expensive and so like maybe we should wait and figure out how it works.”

And I’m like “I think we need to do it now” and I’m- I’m giving them a rousing little speech about courage. Ooh, what am I- I need to play on memory. Oh I know it, it is as the villain is talking about how or has revealed that it is literally their memories that are powering this time travel and so they’re being spent. He is literally this evil beaver in an astronaut suit spending these memories and so they are losing them. And I’m like- I give- I give a little speech about memory. I, you know, turn to one of the people who works there and I’m like “Why did you come into this business? Why- why did you decide to to work here? And they talk about how important it was when they were young that they saw their grandmother be really well taken care of and able to like maintain autonomy while being supported. And I asked them some of their- of their good memories with their grandma. And other people share stuff, and I’m like “Who would you be if you didn’t know that those things happened, if you forgot? Maybe you’d still be who you are but maybe you wouldn’t. Doesn’t that keep you going some days when it’s hard? Don’t you think of that and it gives you strength? It lets you be the best version of yourself when you’re being tempted to be the worst? Doesn’t it help?”

And they’re all like “Yes. It does.”

And I’m like “So we can’t let these memories be taken before their time. It’s already hard enough. We have to disconnect them now.” And I’m just trying to rally the frickin’ troops. So I’m gonna roll my seven progress points. Seven d6 and I just need any of them to be a five or a six.

JEFF: That’s a success. Okay, that’s a point of control. That’s great. Okay, good, finally. I really really needed this.

SATAH: Six right away. I’m gonna get an inspiration point. I win them over. They’re all so moved by the power of memory and they all scatter throughout the building to disconnect everybody from the machines that are stealing their memories to travel- to to power a time travel device. Of course, classic.

JEFF: I think what happens here is he’s playing possum, right? These- these- these aliens juggernauts are- they’re machines. He’s waiting for the person in control to come step out. And the person in control… his name is Animatronic. Animatronic, another one of these mutants from throughout Bell City, activated his powers, and I think Animatronic has Forge-style invent-anything-and-build-super-technology powers which is how he built like a bundle of like robotic alien juggernauts. I think that’s the vibe; that’s the character. [He] like emerges and I think is markedly paranoid. I think that this break in- actually I’m gonna go ahead and roll here to see how much of this information like Kelvin is able to get. I’m getting a very clear idea of like this guy’s motivations but I want to roll on it first. I think this is just going to be a straight two d6 mind roll. And lookin’ at the rules, it looks like he is resistant to skill which I don’t love because that is my strongest ability but we’ll see how it goes. I’m gonna roll two d6 for mind. I want a five or a six. That’s a five and a six! Great! Um, I think that I’m able to like discern this.

SATAH: I’m going to do another roll-just like a regular one not a problem solving one-because I would like to solve the problem with another heart roll because that’s going to get me to six inspiration points which means that I could theoretically win on heart achievement which would be fun and great. And so I don’t want it to be resisted to make it more likely. And so what- what do I- what I would I need to do? I need to find the villain, talk to the villain…

Someone comes up to me because I’m like “Okay, shit I need to find the beaver, Captain Tail? I dunno, Bucky. I know that’s already ago a superhero one. There’s already one in this genre named Bucky, but you know. Captain Buck? Captain Teeth?

And I’m like gearing up to lake try and figure out how to track him down using like the signal and somebody who works here comes up to me and is like “Hey, we think you should see something” and they bring me to just like a closet that has been barricaded by a bunch of- it’s like an open- it should just be an open door frame but a big- a bunch of wood has just been stacked in there. They’re- they’re just blocked it with a little mini dam basically.

We’re like “Okay, they’re in there.” And the thing that I’m going to do is just dismantle the dam? And I guess it would be power if if I’m focusing on that it’s like physically difficult I think- really just trying to rip it apart. It’d be skill if- ooh, yeah it’d be skill because I’m- I’m- I have to dismantle it without like- I’m trying to be careful as I pull it apart because I don’t want to damage the building. I think that makes sense. So I’m using skill to try and take this little mini dam blocker apart. I am using my gravity ability so that’s- oh good and I’m better at skill even anyway. So four d6. They just have to be- and one of those has be a five or a six. Four, five! Took me a second to check ‘cause it rolled under my keyboard. That was a five; we’re good and a three and a six. We’re good good good. And that puts me up to eight progress. Pretty sick.

JEFF: Animatronic has been hunted much like thermal has by the Cronenberg Foundation. They have like I think been grabbing people and like strapping them to like alien beacon technology and sending them through portals to have their energy harvested to power whatever engine is gonna drag Nevlerefu into this- into this space. And like he’s clearly thinking that Thermal is part of this- is part of the Cronenberg Foundation and has been come to like take him down. He’s trying to grab things to like get himself off the record.

I’m gonna roll three d6 here because I think I can add war I can add two points of success. I think I can add the the wrist gauntlet and like the demon prince on the other side of that portal. I can add all of my experiences to try and forge a connection with this guy.

That’s two fives. That’s a success. That’s what we needed. I think I can like make a connection with Animatronic and say like “Ey, I’m on the same side that you are! We’re working on this together. You know this is- you are not the only one being hunted by whatever the fuck is going on here.” Animatronic like takes a step back; he’s very struck by this; he’s very kind of like nervous about this whole thing. But he- you know there is an immediate sense of trust and so like I think there is also this question of like so what do we do then? Is there a way to stop all of this? And you know Kelvin’s kinda like “I don’t know! I have a clean answer here but I do know you’re not the only one dealing with this. But if you wanted your identity wiped, if you wanted to go off the grid, maybe we smash some things up? We find you an outlet to plug into and whatever magical identity wiping thing you’ve probably cooked up- am I right that you’ve got something cooked up?

“Well I- [Laughs] You wouldn’t be wrong. It’s just a little something I made in my bedr-”

“Don’t be facetious here. There’s not time for it. Here’s what’s gonna happen.” And now I’m gonna roll skill. That’s five dice; I’m adding my power. It is going to be resisted because I’m like- I think we’re going to transfer the skill here to like Cronenberg Foundation security, but we’re still gonna follow the rules here. I’m gonna roll five d6… and I’m somehow going to fail.

Oh I think Thermal’s too high profile of a target and I think security is like on sight now. So that’s a point of discredit. Animatronic is markedly unimpressed by this, especially because I’ve brought you know, pun intended, heat down upon this moment.

SATAH: This beaver, specifically I said they were- I rolled ambitious, and so I think their angle is really just that they wanted this valley to flood so that they could build the biggest best coolest damn. And I- I- I burst into this room [Laughs] and I’m like “You’re already beaten. We’re disconnecting everybody now. Just come with me. Like this doesn’t have to be a fight.”

And they’re like “No! I’m gonna- I’m- I’ll- I’ll figure it out! You’ll- you’ll never stop this river I’m going to build the coolest biggest damn and everyone’s gonna marvel at my engineering prowess!”

And I’m like “Didn’t you- didn’t you flood the rec center last year?”

And they’re like “Oh you recognize me! Yeah, I did.

And I’m like “We had to tear it down. Like you- you diverted water in a way that nobody saw coming and dismantled a huge building. Obviously you’re really good at this.”

And they’re like “Yeah? So? Nobody rec- nobody recognizes it. Like nobody knows.”

And I’m like “Do you think maybe that people don’t want to encourage you by recognizing that you’re really good at it cause you keep doing it in ways that kind of cause untold destruction?”

And they’re like “Well- well why wouldn’t they just say like ‘well you shouldn’t maybe have done it like that but it was really good.’”

And I’m like “I think people don’t- would just prefer to not do that man, honestly. Hey have you considered I don’t know getting into-” I need to look up…

JEFF: The goal here was to work with Animatronic to like quietly remove this and I markedly failed. But so now like security trucks are rolling up; people are coming up with guns. And I’m going to have to deal with this the way that I deal with a lot of things which is explode some shit with fireballs. That’s going to be three d6. That’s a five; that’s what we needed; that’s a point of progress. We’re up to three progress which is good.

Thermal is catching people off guard. Big giant explosions. I think that to maybe sell this a little bit (We’re going to go back to skill plus power; we’re gonna roll five dice here)- to sell what Thermal needs out of the experience, I am gonna like try and light up and torch some of these alien juggernauts.

I can’t believe that that failed a second time. That’s a second point of discredit. I think what happens here-beyond, uh, Jeff starts to pull out his hair and takes an extra dice on his next roll-is now enough eyes are on this and like him publicly lighting things up doing fireballs and ice attacks.

Like now people are noticing it. We’re seeing a lot of eyes on screens even if he’s behind a mask, people are starting to be like “Who is this guy?” People in positions of power that are going to come down like a hammer in ways to come.

SATAH: Yeah, that’s the word I was thinking of. “Have you considered getting into like hydroelectricity? This town needs a lot of water- or sorry this town draws a lot of power. I was just out at the lightning farm earlier? We’re doing all sorts of wild stuff to try and make sure that we can keep the lights on here in ways that aren’t just destroying the earth more. What if you got into that and then everybody would be super impressed with you because they literally- when they turned the lights on in their house would be like ‘Damn-’ ooh, sorry. They’d be like ‘Shit. This is all because of Captain Buck.’”

GWEN: “Please. Please, Shepherd. The special on our menu tonight is on something cooked in black truffle oil and I only have white truffles on hand! Please please help us!” Oh my god, two smell related problems in a row? Heck yes.

JEFF: I’m gonna roll power again. I think that like I’m just gonna- as much as I was trying to like outmaneuver these things, I just think going to have like one of them on fire. That’s a single five. That’s all we needed. That’s a single five; that puts us up to four progress. I ignite one of these animatronics, giving an excuse for the others to bail. I have scattered security teams. I’m now going to roll mind with four progress. It is not opposed.

GWEN: “Vampire, I know traditionally this is a pig’s job but you know you really liked that movie we watched where the pig did the dog’s job, so it’s kind of like that but backwards. Can you may be go sniff out some truffles for us? I’ll see if he could make you a special dog-friendly truffle pasta type dish if you want?”

SATAH: And I’m gonna do a solve the problem roll and this is a heart roll. I’m trying to convince them to use their powers for good. I’m gonna roll eight d6. I need a single five or six.

JEFF: That’s what we needed. That’s- that’s a success. This is- this was finally a success which would be a fifth point of control. Ugh, oh my god. Oh my god.

SATAH: One six three six five three one four. Did it. All good. Mark an inspiration.

GWEN: That is a successful roll of power.

JEFF: It works. Animatronic is able to like plug into a machine and you know wipe a lot of records, but a lot of eyes are on Thermal right now. A lot of eyes are on Kelvin right now. And he is not happy about that fact.

SATAH: This- this brilliant beaver scientist is like “Wow, yeah, if I do something that helps people, ha ha they’ll never forget my name.” Evil laugh, evil laugh.

And I’m like “Yeah? Yeah… Yeah good point. So uh, will you help us make sure that everybody gets their memories back and turn the time back a little?”

And they’re still chortling evilly and they’re like “Yes. This will be step one of my plan of being so helpful that no one ever forgets my name. To repair some of the damage that I’ve caused. Oh, no one would ever see it coming.

And I’m still like “Yeah… you do seem unpredictable.”

JEFF: Animatronic disappears and we wrap our day.

SATAH: That’s it. I’m gonna call it for the day.

JEFF: I think that the thing that we see: Kelvin in his civilian clothes standing and watching like a mural be painted and thinking like he doesn’t know if the funding is gonna come through but like at least there’s this moment of like something good came out of end of a tremendously frustrating day.

GWEN: I’m like worried about how easily that day went.

SATAH: Choose between solving permanently the goal or the trouble. Yeah what were those? That was time travel and finding their way home. I think I’m gonna choose to permanently solve the moving the neighborhood through time goal. Because Captain Buck is now on our side and clearly evidently knows a lot about time travel and is in a confusingly villainous voice monologing gang about how he is going to use the technology that he developed and was using to anchor the neighborhood in time so that it will be harder to do this in the future. And people are looking at each other in confusion at his tone, but they are applauding [Laughs], sort of a smattering of applause and he grins his big beaver toothy grin and winks at me and I give an awkward thumbs up and I had home for the night.

I actually finished my shift all the way through for once this time and so I am able to just go home.

JEFF: And I am going to choose a crime goal or a neighbor trouble to solve permanently. I am going to like from up the relationship here and I’m gonna write down in quotation marks “enemy” of Councilwoman Joella. Because I think that the relationship being here is going to allow us to like use that dynamic between us to both get things that we want and get things that we need. I think there’s growth there that I think is a very fun and compelling dynamic.

GWEN: …to solve a problem forever. Oh that’s easy. We just show the chef where the truffles grow and maybe the chef also has a dog and Vampire can teach that dog how to do the truffle pig thing. A little brown teacup poodle that now knows how to find truffles cause my buddy told him how.

JEFF: I’ve also got ten experience to spend and god dammit I am increasing one of my abilities. I think it after today I am increasing power. I know I’ve said that I was gonna do that. I’m increasing power which brings me to zero experience but is actually going to make my life just a little bit better as we go.

GWEN: I still don’t have enough experience to level up.

SATAH: I have eight experience points. Ideally I’d get to ten so I can do one of the bigger cooler things, but most likely this next day will be my final day in this game, so I should spend it. I think what I’m going to do is increase my signature ability level by one point and and I’m going to try to remember to use a super point at one point which is something where you can spend a point to add extra dice to a roll by super powering your abilities. Which I haven’t even done once. You can add as many dice as you have levels in that ability. So I’m gonna make that level two. And how do I wanna- I wanna show that? How do I want to show myself getting better at that? I think it’s something that I felt the potential of when I was opening that door, the electrified door of the house in the lightning rod field and noticed that like I could be a little further away than I expected. And so I think I get home and I’m just trying to flex and discovering that my hyper-local as gravity manipulation now is both a little stronger-I can pull harder-and the field as a little bigger. Obviously it’s still weaker further away from me but I can pull books off the shelf that I hadn’t been able to before. I- I- it’s a mess, right? Like I pull all the books off the shelf and I can’t be super precise with that but I wasn’t able to do that a little while ago. And so I’m just like training that.

And I think that leaves me with three experience points and there is a three experience point thing which is choose an attribute to recover one drawback point from. And I think I’m going to take destruction down to four instead of five, which is the power drawback. That’s probably like- I broke a bunch of shit, especially on day one, and this is me like showing up on the construction sites and I’m using my powers to like- you know I’m lifting materials and all that kind of stuff. And just helping to sort of fix the city that I keep throwing spaceships at etc. And that put me down at zero experience points and I think that’s okay cause I believe tomorrow I will wrap it up.

GWEN: Good night Golden Pastures. I got all my work done early and Blue Shepherd is takin’ a break. Merle Brady is reading a cool book that they found at the bookstore earlier. All’s well that ends well for now.

SATAH: What would your plan be? Come here; let me grab you. [Meow] Okay there you go. Oh, big boy. [Cat purring; Satah laughing.] Can you hear that?

OUTRO

SATAH: This has been Folio, an actual play podcast about solo and otherwise self-paced TTRPGs. To find where you can find the show, check out foliopod.carrd.co.

You can find Gwen @gwenfrankenstein on Bluesky.

You can find Jeff at partyofonepodcast.com and jeffstormer.com.

You can find Satah– that’s me– at gaygothvibes.online and follow me on Bluesky at posatahchips.gaygothvibes.online.

Next week, Gwen and Jeff and I will continue our games of Friendly Neighborhood Superhero by Catscratcher Studio, found at catscratcher.itch.io. Everything I mentioned here is linked in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening, and take care out there!

POST-CREDITS

SATAH: [Laughs] I have to find a d20. Tabletop is a really big part of my life. I’ve considered getting a tattoo that has dice in it, but it would be a little disingenuous to get it a d20 tattoo, you know? Like, the games that I play very rarely actually use d20s at this point. But if I got d6s it would look like a gambling tattoo, not a TTRPG tattoo? I could do d10s maybe.