Tabletop Squadron Transcript, Season 1 Episode 40:
Dust in the Wind

Transcript by Tyler (Twitter: @Tyler_MoonSage)

## Intro

NICK: Hi everyone, and welcome to Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars: Edge of the Empire actual play podcast. I’m Nick, your game master. Every other Thursday our story follows a thief, a bounty hunter, and a slicer as they explore the galaxy helping a mysterious benefactor and each other.

Okay squad mates, I have quite a few announcements this week, but they’re super awesome and even involve a giveaway so stick with me.

First of all, we have a new iTunes review. Thank you **CurseOfStew for your thorough and truly heartwarming review. The light side is strong with you, and I hope those sweet Force powers kick in soon.

Second up, we have a new Patron! Thank you to **Berek50Cal for your support. May your power armor never rust, your one-liners always be punchy, and your arch nemesis be just cool enough to make you look even cooler. Thank you so much for supporting Tabletop Squadron.

Next up, I’m excited to announce that we’re doing a Twitter giveaway! We’re giving away some dice bags hand-crafted by our very own Laura. Trust me, you want to get in on this. Laura is basically a magical artificer and everything she makes is at least a +2 modifier. These dice bags are super freaking cool. All you have to do to enter is be following the official @Tabletop_Squad account on Twitter and comment on our pinned tweet from noon CST on 8/29, that’s the day this episode releases, through September 9 with your favorite Tabletop Squadron moment. We’ll pick three winners on the 10^th. Each winner will receive two dice bags hand sewn by Laura. Again, trust me, you want to get in on this one.

Okay, last but equally important thing: This episode features a very special intro produced and acted by Aaron Catano-Saez. Aaron is an amazing friend to the show and creates fantastic content weekly on All My Fantasy Children where they take a listener prompt to create a character and use that to build their own fantasy world. It’s one of my personal favorite podcasts, and you should really give it a listen if you’re interested in world building, character creation, or RPGs. You can find Aaron on Twitter at @AaronCatanoSaez and All My Fantasy Children at @AMFC_podcast, or on their website at AllMyFantasyChildren.com. Check it out. It was an absolute gift to work with Aaron on this. If you like how it turned out you’ll love his other projects.

Music this week is Kelli’s Number and Not on the Bus by US Army Blues. Now after all, all, all of that, let’s get into the episode.

##

[power-up noise]

AARON: It’s been four hours since the bombardment started. They’ve been threatening for months to uphold the rule of Imperial Law, but I don’t think anyone expected this. **Alise, I’m so glad you are off planet. It’s going to get ugly in **Sart. The militia has mobilized as much as possible, but the Imps know what they’re doing. Communications are gone, the main base is gone, I was able to rally with this squad and one of the city’s security consultants, but we haven’t been able to reach anyone else long enough to meet up. I don’t know when I’ll be able to send this to you, but know that we’re going to fight back. Looks like it’s time to  move. [movement/rustling]

[power-up noise]

It’s been three days since the bombardment started. The Force knows you can get used to anything over time, even watching the city slowly blown to dust, but things keep changing. After the Imps started strafing us we got desperate. I managed to get a couple of the platoons together and make a run for the city shield facility. Our security consultant came up with an idea. He’s… not what I’m used to, but he bailed us out time and again. Seems like he’s fought stormtroopers before. He can guess their tactics most of the time. We boosted the shields, but something went wrong. The power source took a hit at the wrong time or something, but our engineer got fried. The shield is up, it’s way more powerful than it should be, stretches all the way out to the jungle now. Ground troops can’t land and they can’t bombard us from orbit anymore, but we can’t get out either. We’ve walled off the city. It’s just us and the Imps unlucky enough to be stuck inside. **Alise, we’re going to make them pay. I miss you.

[power-up noise]

[explosions]

It’s been, what, two months? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. I don’t even know why I dug this back out. Maybe someone will hear it someday. There’s only two of us left from the original group I met with, just me and the Rodian. Oh, that’s the security consultant. He’s something else, but it doesn’t matter how good a shot you are, you can’t stop people from being blown up. The resistance forces are scattered around the city to make sure we don’t lose too many people at one time, but that’s what’s happening. We’re losing. The Rodian said we can bleed them out over time. He kept saying things about Imperial beam counters, hating to spend too much on a backwater world, but they haven’t left yet. They brought artillery, just landed these big cannons in the bay. They’re using some kind of disrupter technology to bust drop pods through the city’s defense shields. They drop in stormtroopers to take us out, and we fight hard, but they just bring more. The artillery sits on the far side of the city and they move up a little every day. If they make it to the shield facility it’s all over. We don’t have civilians anymore. Everyone’s either picked up a weapon or is long dead. I think I’m fighting out of habit more than anything else at this point.

[gunfire and explosions]

Listen, whoever finds this, tell **Alise—Kriff! Rodian, we gotta move. They dropped in behind us—[burst]

[static]

[silence]

##

NICK: Hello! Welcome to Tabletop Squadron, Episode number 40, onto the greener pastures of the next story arc. Isn’t that exciting? I’m your host and game master, Nick. Let’s go around the table. Everybody introduce yourselves and who you’re playing this fine day, starting with Hudson.

HUDSON: Hi, I’m Hudson, and I’m playing Tink, a Gigoran slicer.

NICK: Ooh. Next up we’ve got Laura.

LAURA: Hello. I’m Laura, and I am playing Xianna’fan, a Twi’lek smuggler.

NICK: Last but not least, we’ve got Cameron.

CAMERON: Hello. I am Cameron, and I am playing Karma Nailo, a Nautolan bounty hunter.

NICK: Great. We’ve got everybody assembled then. Before we do anything else, let’s do the Destiny Roll.

CAMERON: One light side.

LAURA: Two light side.

HUDSON: One dark side.

CAMERON: Agh. Hudson.

NICK: Cool. When we last left off the crew got more of a mission briefing from Tiny and Carn Horn. They were brought to the planet Fygo and the city of **Sart, and they were able to use their drop pods and get past the Imperial blockade, and then immediately exploded in mid-air and were scattered to the far sides of the city. So, yeah… Everything’s going super good.

CAMERON: I’m sure it’ll be fine.

NICK: I am sure it will be fine… So, I guess we’ll have to split this up a little bit. We’ll start with Xianna and we’ll just kinda work our way through everybody. Xianna, you regain consciousness in your drop pod. You are upside-down and you can feel the steady drip of blood coming out of the side of your head and running down one of your lekku. Take 2 wounds please. Your pod is filling with smoke, you can feel heat, and you are stuck upside-down in this drop pod. You can’t see anything. All the screens are off. What do you do?

LAURA: Look. This is not the first time Xianna has woken up, upside-down, strapped into something.

CAMERON: [snickers]

[laughter]

LAURA: She knows to look to see how high up from the ground she is and then, while holding on with one hand to a strap, release the harness so that way when she falls you roll over so your feet land because you’re holding on up at the top.

NICK: Yeah. You’re able to do that pretty easily. The straps are designed for quick release. You realize that the problem is, so there’s the hatch for the drop pod which is now buried in the duracrete of the street so that transparesteel window is shattered in and you can see that the front of the drop pod is designed to split open after you land, but it is jammed and you’re not able to get it open. How are you gonna try to do that?

LAURA: Does it look like there’s any sort of venting or anything that could be a secondary way out, or does it look like the only way is to somehow unjam the door?

NICK: It’s pretty much just that. You’re basically in a phone booth right now. [laughs]

LAURA: Yeah. Yeah.

NICK: There’s not a lot of helpful situations. You’re still just trying to get out of the way that you got to the planet in the first place. So, how are you gonna try to get this door open?

LAURA: Oh boy. I mean, is there anything to shoot at?

NICK: I mean, there’s a control panel. It already looks kind of damaged, but in Star Wars, sometimes when you shoot things they open. That is a fair point.

CAMERON: [laughs]

LAURA: Would it be maybe a Skulduggery thing to check if that’s something I could do?

NICK: Sure. To try and wire the panel to open it up?

LAURA: Yeah.

NICK: Yeah. I think that could be a Skulduggery. You’re good at opening doors. That will be hard with a black die, because the panel is kind of blowed up.

LAURA: Okay! Would you count this as a security device or a locked door?

NICK: I would count it as a locked door.

LAURA: Okay, so then I can remove a black die.

NICK: Nice.

LAURA: Two successes, two threats.

NICK: Cool. The door snaps open pretty easily, surprisingly so really, because it didn’t look like it had power, but you were able to route power through it, and you are able to skip out. You get a good look around you. You are in the middle of what looks like a housing district but it’s all just on fire. The whole thing is on fire. It looks like somebody either firebombed this area or hit a main gas line or something, but while the roads are reasonably clear, there’s smoke everywhere, you can only see the sky in patches, and most of the buildings are either hollowed out skeletons of what they once were or are actively becoming so due to all the fire. As you look around you see a stormtrooper on a scout bike who is approaching you, and the trooper sees you, and you see them hold a hand up to their ear and then start to whip the scout bike around and start to take off out of the district. What do you do?

LAURA: Oh, that seems concerning. Xianna’s gonna put her scanner goggles on to help see through the smoke, and opens up one of the coat pockets and takes out a little baggie and does some impact, because oh boy is this a weird situation. Some coping is gonna have to happen. Then, she starts heading in the direction that the trooper went in the idea that that’s maybe the best way to get out of the fire.

NICK: Okay. You walk for about a minute. You are in a town square area. It’s pretty lucky, because if you had been about ten meters in any direction you probably would have landed in the middle of a burning building, so good that didn’t happen. Then you hear some rapid blaster fire and a small explosion. Do you head towards it?

LAURA: “Ooh. A small explosion. That is probably someone I know.” [laughter] I will head that way.

NICK: You come around the corner and you see the twisted wreck of a speeder bike that is crashed up into a light post, and you see HK standing over the scout trooper who is looking dazedly at the sky. “Primary Objective: Disable radio communication.” HK just unloads into the head of this stormtrooper, and the stormtrooper stops, and the speeder bike explodes again. HK looks up and puts their rifle pointed towards the sky. “Greetings. It looks like you have not been turned into a pile of organic paste. Congratulations.”

LAURA: “Thank you. So um, do you happen to know the way out of this burning mass of buildings? Because I do not.”

NICK: “Supposition: Any direction is better than this direction. Why don’t we go that way?” HK points down an alleyway, and then a building collapses into it and more fire shoots up into the air, and HK just keeps moving their arm to point down the main street.

LAURA: “Yeah. That way seems nicer. Yes, let’s go that way. Have you heard from any of the others?”

NICK: “Negative.”

LAURA: “No? Okay. This is going to be very fun. Okay, Hank. Question. Can I ride you like a backpack?”

NICK: “I am not particularly strong. That is not part of my design.”

LAURA: “Okay, then never mind. I just did not know.”

NICK: “I think that you would prefer for my gun to be free in case we run into more opposition.”

LAURA: “That is a decent point. I am sorry I asked. I just, you know, I thought that maybe… I don’t know. I didn’t want to assume anything, Hank.”

NICK: HK straps their rifle to their back. You see, as he takes off, he stops doing his normal protocol kind of shuffling droid walk and takes on a really organic gate. “We’re all kriffed anyway. I don’t even know where we’re going to go. Who has those stratopacks? Whose drop pod were they in? Do you know?”

LAURA: “Um, one, are you okay? You seem a little weird.”

NICK: “Why do you say that?”

LAURA: “You just do not seem like your usual self. You seem too, how you say, casual. Also, I have no idea who has the stratopack things. Probably Karma, I would assume.”

NICK: HK scratches at the back of his head with a rusty kind of grating noise. “I don’t really see a reason for formality when the world is literally on fire.”

LAURA: “Excuse me, Hank. Did you just scratch yourself?”

NICK: “Oh. Um…”

LAURA: “You know you don’t have nerve endings to feel itchy.”

NICK: “Supposition: There must have been some damage to my chassis.” And he heads off.

LAURA: “I’m sure it is fine.”

[chuckling]

NICK: We’re gonna cut away from Xianna and over to Karma. Karma, you’re underwater.

CAMERON: Oh!

NICK: You regain consciousness in pretty much total darkness, and you can smell shorted out electronics, and you’re underwater. You’re breathing water. It seems fine. You can smell underwater. That’s a thing Nautolans can do, I’ve decided.

CAMERON: Mm-hmm!

NICK: You appear to have sunk to the bottom of something pretty deep.

CAMERON: Oh great.

NICK: What do you do? You’re still strapped into your drop pod.

CAMERON: I unbuckle my seatbelt. The pod’s not open yet or anything?

NICK: Nope.

CAMERON: Okay. I press the release next to the doors.

NICK: It shorts out, and the doors open slightly but are otherwise stuck.

CAMERON: I kick the door.

NICK: Alright. Make me an Athletics chick, check to—

CAMERON: An Athletics chick?

NICK: An Athletics check to bust down the door and get out.

CAMERON: What’s the difficulty of this athletic chick?

NICK: Hard.

CAMERON: Hard athletic chick. One success!

NICK: Nice. It takes a little bit. You’re able to kick the door open, and you actually feel, you have to switch legs because you feel that one of them is pretty banged up. You are going to take 2 wounds, ignoring soak, and you realize that in the landing and the tumbling and the sinking something must have gotten kind of messed up in there.

CAMERON: Ow.

NICK: But you’re able to break free. Do you swim towards the surface?

CAMERON: Yup. Was there anything else in my pod with me?

NICK: No.

CAMERON: [laughs] Then yes, I leave the pod and swim up. Not necessarily to the surface, I don’t pop above the surface, but I swim up to where enough light is coming through the water that I can kind of see where I’m at.

NICK: Yeah. You swim up to where you can kind of see where you are. You figure from how big this is and the temperature of the water and various currents and things, you must be in the bay. You’re not in a well. You can see the underbellies of those five landing crafts, and occasionally the water shutters with an extremely powerful shot, and the ship sinks about a meter into the water and then floats back up. You are directly underneath the Imperial bombardment right now.

CAMERON: Cool. I do draw out my sword in case there’s anything else living down here, and I’m gonna swim away from the Imperials towards the shore.

NICK: Okay. It’s a large curving bay. The landing crafts are kind of to the edge of the bay where it dumps out into the ocean, so there are some options here. Do you just swim directly away from them or do you poke your head up and kind of see where you’re at?

CAMERON: Eh, I’ll poke my head up, I’m green.

NICK: You poke your head up. You don’t really see much.

CAMERON: It’s just a turtle. It’s fine.

NICK: With a bunch of head tentacles.

CAMERON: It’s fine. [chuckles]

NICK: You can see… You’re floating and treading water, and you are faced away from the ships, and you can see to your right an area that’s extremely on fire…

CAMERON: Nope!

NICK: …with a big haze of smoke rising up. Directly in front of you it looks like a docking area where there’s a lot of transportation pods and things like that. It looks like docks. To your left, past a thin strip of docks, you can see what looks like fluted columns and museums and art galleries in the fancy part of town. Parts of it are bombed out, it doesn’t look like what it used to, but those are kind of your options. Ooh. I should also point out that far in the distance to your left, past the arts district, you do see a thin column of smoke that looks very different from the normal explosion smoke, like maybe some sort of jet rocket exploded.

CAMERON: So, I’m swimming towards the docks and then I look to my left like, wait, and I turn and I swim towards that.

NICK: Yeah. You figure that must be where one of the drop pods went down. You’re able to get to shore without too many issues, and you just head toward the column then?

CAMERON: Yep, kind of keeping to the shadows, trying not to be too out in the open.

NICK: That sounds like a Stealth check, doesn’t it?

CAMERON: It does?! What~?

NICK: Mm-hmm.

CAMERON: What would the difficulty of my Stealth check be?

NICK: Hard.

CAMERON: I get two blue dice, because I’m a Stalker.

NICK: Cool.

CAMERON: Oh my gosh. Okay… Oh no. Wait, no, it’s okay. never mind. Three successes, two threats.

NICK: Okay. You get through the docks with  no problem. you get through about half of this arts district with no problem. Then, [jazzy danger music starts] you are shot at by a scout trooper that’s on a roof with a blaster rifle, and you are forced down to cover as it is shooting at you. You can see them, but it’s a long shot, and you’re kind of pinned down where you are. Somebody saw you as you went.

CAMERON: How rude. I’m going to shoot them back.

NICK: Alright. Make me a check. It’s at long range, so that’s gonna be a hard shot.

CAMERON: I’m going to aim.

NICK: Makes sense.

[music volume pulses]

CAMERON: A triumph, six successes, and one threat.

NICK: [laughs in disbelief]

HUDSON: Wow.

NICK: Yeah. You just plug this trooper through the face mask and they slump to the ground.

CAMERON: I have an idea for my triumph.

NICK: Okay.

CAMERON: Actually, can I not shoot them in the face and get them in the chest instead? I want their helmet to be recoverable so I can take the coms unit out so that I can hear troop movement to avoid them going forward.

NICK: Sure. You shoot them in the chest. They slump over. Their helmet falls off and lands at your feet, because it’s a triumph…

CAMERON: Ha-ha~!

[trouble music ends]

NICK: …and you’re able to scrape the coms out, which you notice your coms have been pretty quiet so far, but you slot that in your other… Nautolans have ears?

CAMERON: Yeah! Just stick it up underneath the head tentacles and I can hear stuff.

NICK: Yeah. You’ve got troop movements. It’s a lot of automated information just detailing patrols, not a lot of chatter, but you have that if you need it. You continue on towards the column of smoke. We’re going to cut away to Tink. Tink, you are in your chair from your drop pod. You are upright. Your ears are ringing and your head hurts pretty bad. Go ahead and take 2 wounds for me.

HUDSON: “[groans] Oh, my head.”

NICK: The top half of your drop pod is gone. You’re, like, sitting in basically half of a cracked open egg.

HUDSON: Humpty Dumpty, where did it go?

[laughter]

NICK: There is a lot of smoke and things. It looks like you crashed outside of some sort of research facility. It’s built kind of like a bunker. It looks pretty deserted. You can see a column of smoke coming up basically around you making it pretty hard to breathe. What do you do?

HUDSON: I take off my seatbelt and jump out as fast as I can, maybe a little clumsily, actually.

NICK: Yeah. [laughs] You’re able to get out. You get out of the column of smoke. Your eyes start to clear. You see kind of sticking out of the wreckage of your drop pod, that big footlocker with the stratopacks on it, yours was the one that had those attached so you may want to grab that.

HUDSON: I go and I grab that, put that with my other stuff.

NICK: Cool. Yeah. It’s basically like a backpacking backpack. It will be kind of heavy, but you’re strong enough that it won’t mechanically affect you in any way. You also see that it looks like in that rattling landing it took some damage, and as you’re starting to wonder what that might mean in the future…

[danger music starts]

…you hear “Stop! Hands up!” and you see five stormtroopers gathered at the edge of the road all pointing their blasters at you.

HUDSON: “Hey y’all. Uh… Listen. Let me get my bearings. I just, uh, I just arrived.”

NICK: “Get down on your knees and put your hands in the air. Put everything on the ground. You’re under, uh, arrest I guess. I don’t know.”

CAMERON: ‘You are being detained!’

NICK: Yeah. [laughs]

HUDSON: “I’m being detained?”

NICK: “Eh, kriff it. Blast him!” [laughing] And they start shooting at you.

HUDSON: I dive.

NICK: Okay. Go ahead and roll me a Vigilance check, please. Could you roll me two yellows please, Cameron?

CAMERON: Three successes and one advantage on the yellows.

HUDSON: Just Vigilance, straight up?

NICK: Yep, just Vigilance, straight up.

HUDSON: Three advantages. [chuckles]

NICK: Yeah, okay. You go to dive and they get the drop on you. Roll me an average check, two greens and a yellow, please.

CAMERON: Two successes, three threats.

NICK: Ooh boy. So, as you dive to cover you get shot and with two successes you take 6 damage.

HUDSON: Oof.

NICK: Yeah.

CAMERON: That’s not a very good gun.

NICK: No.

HUDSON: “Ow!”

NICK: Heh. You dive behind cover. They’re using these stripped down E-11 blasters. They look like they’re designed for clearing buildings and to be light and easy for, say, if you were dropping into a planet, something like that, so it’s a modified weapon. Yeah. You’re shot, and you are pinned down. It’s your turn. What do you want to do?

[music stops]

HUDSON: Hmm. Do I have my vibro-axe?

NICK: Yeah. You got all your stuff.

HUDSON: Do I have a pistol?

NICK: I don’t know. Do you have a pistol?

CAMERON: Yes? You should have a pistol.

HUDSON: Yeah, I have a pistol on me generally.

NICK: Okay, then yeah.

HUDSON: Ooh. Alright. I stay behind my cover, but I shakily raise my hand with my gun, with my pistol, over the side and without looking shoot three times toward their direction.

[laughter]

NICK: Okay. Pew-pew-pew! Are you hoping to hit them or just to make them… Eh, just roll. Let’s see how this goes.

HUDSON: Roll, what was it?

NICK: Your light weapon skill at average difficulty.

CAMERON: Ranged: Light.

HUDSON: Ranged: Light has 0.

NICK: So just your Agility then.

HUDSON: One advantage.

NICK: One advantage. We’ll say that they kind of duck back out of this square for a minute. Your advantage can be that they have a black die on their next time trying to shoot you. At this point, they duck back behind cover, and you see a stormtrooper looking around the corner, and you begin to hear this high-pitched whine. It’s not the tinnitus. It’s a different one that seems to be coming from a rooftop nearby. You hear it go (charging up whoosh), and the stormtrooper looks around, and there is a flash of orange light, and the stormtrooper just turns into dust and floats away.

[jazz music starts sharp and turns calm]

It kind of looks like that scene from The Avengers.

LAURA: He’s been snapped!

NICK: But yeah, that stormtrooper is vaporized, and then there’s another high-pitched whining noise, [charging up whoosh] and then another one, there’s a flash of orange light and it turns into dust. One of the remaining stormtroopers goes “Sniper! Sniper, retreat!” They start to just run. A third one is shot and vanishes before the two manage to get behind a building and run away.

HUDSON: “Am I safe?!” I yell.

[giggling]

NICK: You hear a light chuckling from a building nearby. “Hold on there, chum. Let me get down there and see what’s going on.” And we’re going to cut away. So, Xianna, you managed to exit the fires and you find yourself kind of on the border between an industrial area and the docks. You’re pretty near to the bay. Occasionally you hear a really low but powerful boom as one of the ships in the bay arcs a plasma bolt up over the city and it comes down at various points seemingly at random. Every time that happens the whole ground shakes. Really the only thing you can see is one column of smoke far in the distance kind of ahead of you through several districts that looks like it may have come from some sort of rocket propulsion explosion. Actually, having been in a drop pod before that crash landed, it sure looks like what happens when a drop pod lands in a populated area. [laughs]

LAURA: “Okay. Okay hank. I think that is one of the other drop pods. Let’s go that way. And, uh, can you stop being weird, please? It is really freaking me out.”

NICK: “Advice: Showing that much stress this early on in the mission is a sign of weakness.”

LAURA: “Okay. One, it is not stress, it is drugs. Two, I did not actually have a point two. I figured I would figure one out on the way and I did not, so uh, yes.”

NICK: “Acknowledged. I will follow the secondary user.”

LAURA: “Okay. Thank you. Again, let’s just go that way. Like 98% sure that is where another drop pod landed, so it would be most likely Karma or Tink unless someone else is also in a drop pod doing the same thing…”

NICK: Hey, flip me a dark side point, would you? As you say that, you hear a high-pitch shriek and smashing into the building next to you is a very large looking metal cube and it crushes through the front of this warehouse and there’s a hissing noise as the front pops open, and four stormtroopers in mat black armor with red night vision scopes over their eyes, or they’re probably infrared scopes, pour out and they just lock eyes with you. “Drop squad initiated. Attack!” Roll for Vigilance.

LAURA: [smiling] Okay. I put a point in Vigilance.

NICK: Ooh, smart.

CAMERON: What does Hank need to roll?

NICK: Two yellows and a green.

CAMERON: Dang.

NICK: I made him very good at certain things.

LAURA: Alright. One success, three advantages.

CAMERON: HK got a triumph, three successes, and two advantages.

NICK: Oh… Could you roll me two yellows, please?

CAMERON: Two successes, one advantage.

NICK: Cool. Anything you want to spend the triumph on as far as making this fight easier, Xianna?

LAURA: Can there be something for Xianna to roll and duck behind?

NICK: Absolutely. There’s cover all over the place. This is a shattered, war-torn city. I’ll give you two options. There is a blown out crater that you can jump into foxhole style, and then there’s a knocked over front of a building with a waist-high wall that you can crouch behind.

LAURA: Wall.

NICK: Okay. With that many advantages and stuff you can start in cover.

LAURA: Xianna, while rolling over the wall, will be like, “Hank, shoot them!”

NICK: What did the troopers get?

CAMERON: Two successes, one advantage.

NICK: Hank says, “Order acknowledged. Preparatory Statement: Suppressing fire! Suppressing fire!” The gun starts to spin up and he just starts to spray in a steady arc towards the troopers and they scatter and run for cover. Roll me a… what is it here, heavy weapons, he’s very good at this… two yellows and two greens, and it’s gonna be a hard for this skill that he’s doing. For the listeners,  I changed the way Hank’s gun works because I didn’t like the way it was working, which was that it just murdered everything.

CAMERON: [goofily] It was too powerful.

NICK: Well, that and, it was too powerful but not in the way I wanted it to be, so now his repeater thing has a special ability called Suppressing Fire that lets him assign black dice to things, so let’s see how he does.

CAMERON: Two successes, and an advantage.

NICK: Two successes and an advantage. So, we’re going to say that is going to give two black dice to the stormtroopers next round, because they’re pinned down by this massive firing. Also, Hank’s just standing in the middle of the street, just (repetitive blast noises). He’s gonna do that all day. He’s in his comfort zone. It is the troopers’ turn. They’re going to shoot at Hank, because he’s real scary. That’s gonna be two yellows and average difficulty, but they have two black dice because they are suppressed.

CAMERON: One failure and one threat.

NICK: Okay. They are very suppressed. They try to shoot, but it’s kind of like how when Tink was shooting at the stormtroopers a minute ago. They’re holding their guns up and shooting, and I think with the threat one of the guns gets grazed and—

CAMERON: We get the cool side-by-side shot, because this is all happening at the same time, of them all just shooting.

NICK: Yeah. Everybody is shooting. Everybody is fighting. It’s going great. It was supposed to be a stealth mission… [sad laugh]

CAMERON: I feel like that wasn’t included in our briefing notes.

NICK: Eh, that’s fair. So, the troopers don’t hit jack. Xianna, it’s your turn.

LAURA: Xianna’s gonna poke up over the wall a little bit, find the closest distance stormtrooper, aim, and shoot.

NICK: Are you back to using your pistol or do you still have…?

LAURA: I’m back to using my regular pistol, yeah.

NICK: So, it’s medium range. You could try and move up, but then they’ll also be at close range to you, so they might be more likely to hit you.

LAURA: I don’t want that.

NICK: Okay.

LAURA: Two successes and one threat.

NICK: How much damage does your pistol do?

LAURA: So, that damage… It will be 9, because I get a success and a threat at the first shot of each encounter, so I actually have three successes, two threats.

NICK: Nice. You’re able to pretty quickly, from where you dove to cover, it’s at an angle from the cover they’re trying to take against Hank so they don’t really have cover against you, and you’re able to hit one of them and he just drops. You know that high-pitch noise the scout troopers make when they get thrown into trees on Endor? That’s the noise it makes, and the guy just drops. You’re able to wing another one. He doesn’t go down, but he turns and says “There’s multiple combatants. Flank! Flank!” They start to dive to different cover to try to get away from you. It is back to Hank’s turn. I think Hank’s gonna throw a grenade. That will be Light: Ranged, which he’s not very good at. It will be three green versus two purple and a black die, because they have cover. Oh wait, four green, sorry. His Agility is four.

CAMERON: I was confused why the number of dice changed. Is he aiming his grenade?

NICK: [smiling] You can’t aim grenades.

CAMERON: [laughs] Worth a try. Just one success.

NICK: One success. He blows up the one that you winged, so now we’re down to two stormtroopers, because one success isn’t enough to kill multiple because it doesn’t have blast activated because he doesn’t have advantages. Yeah, he chucks one and then he starts to move up, so he’ll use his maneuver to get closer for next time. It is the troopers’ turn. They are going to radio for assistance. So, across the city, Karma, you hear on the stormtrooper one, the standard troop movement one, which you had heard there was a countdown going and you weren’t sure what that was and then you saw the boom of something going in, but as you’re moving across you hear, “We found enemy combatants. Assistance needed! Assistance needed!” And then you can hear blaster fire and stuff in the background as you’re making your way towards Tink, and they’re going to shoot at Hank because he threw a grenade at them and he’s still kind of just standing in the open. That will be a yellow and a green. They lost one of their upgrades because they’re at half strength. Versus two purple.

CAMERON: Nothing.

NICK: Nothing! We get a really cool shot of an explosion and Hank standing there with his big rifle and blaster bullets going all around him, and not hitting him, and him looking completely unphased and frankly kind of bored because that’s how his face looks. It is Xianna’s turn.

CAMERON: He has resting bored face.

NICK: [smiling] Yeah.

LAURA: What range is the closest stormtrooper at this point?

NICK: They are still medium, and they are under cover against you, but you could move up to short range if you wanted to.

LAURA: I’m not going to.

NICK: Okay.

LAURA: But I am gonna aim.

NICK: You do have a black die, because they’re in cover now. Now that you’ve shot one of them they moved so that there are rocks in the way.

LAURA: Would scanner goggles do anything against that?

NICK: Not against rocks, so much…

LAURA: rocks, yeah.

CAMERON: [laughs]

LAURA: I had to try.

NICK: No, that’s fair. If it was because of the occlusion from the smoke in that fire area, yes, but that didn’t happen.

LAURA: Okay. Two successes and an advantage, so 8 damage.

NICK: That’s enough to kill one. You down to one, and that one you managed to graze. You’re just systematically picking them off at this point. The one trooper is left, and it’s Hank’s turn, isn’t it?

CAMERON: Mm-hmm.

LAURA: Yup.

NICK: Hank’s just gonna shoot him. Heh. The trooper stands up and looks like he’s going for a satchel charge at his belt to try to throw it, and Hank’s gonna move up, so it’s just gonna be an easy shot. He’s gonna aim, so he’ll take a strain to do that. Hank basically runs up to right next to this guy and unloads.

CAMERON: He’s finally getting to shoot organics.

NICK: Yeah, he’s pretty happy. They kind of look like robots though.

CAMERON: Three successes, one advantage.

NICK: Oh boy. That’s 12 damage. Yeah, so Hank just unloads into this stormtrooper’s chest. They are thrown backwards by the force of the gunfire into a far wall, and Hank says, “Tactical Assessment: The threat is eliminated.” The gun starts to spin down. So, you have managed to clear the stormtroopers. Hank says, “Question: Secondary user, what is our next objective?”

LAURA: “Okay… Um, oh boy. Should we try the coms? Have we tried that yet?”

NICK: “Ooh. I am very good at making com calls.”

LAURA: “Okay. You call either Karma or Hank. No, you’re Hank. I’m very tired now. You call Karma or Tink, or maybe do like a conference call and get both.”

NICK: “Dialing the crew of the Afternoon Delight.” Everyone’s coms start to ring including Xianna’s.

LAURA: “Ello~”

NICK: “Hello. This is HK-67.”

LAURA: “Yes, I know, Hank—“

CAMERON: “Hello?”

LAURA: “—I told you to call! Heh.”

NICK: “Hello, primary user Karma.”

CAMERON: “Oh hey, HK. How are you?”

NICK: “This is HK-67 calling for a tactical update.”

HUDSON: “Hi. Uh, new com, who this?”

LAURA: “Tink! You know who this is!”

HUDSON: “I know.”

CAMERON: [laughs]

NICK: “Greetings, Boss Man. This is HK-67 calling for a tactical assessment. I have killed two stormtroopers so far. More organics are incoming.”

LAURA: “Yes. Hank and I ran into some stormtroopers, but they are dead now so it’s okay.”

NICK: “Scratch that, three stormtroopers, I also killed the one on the speeder bike.”

CAMERON: “Alright. If we’re keeping a tally, I’ve killed one. I don’t know why this is an important update, but I’ll go with it.”

LAURA: “Did I get two or three, Hank?”

NICK: “Admonishment: You got two, but winged two more.”

LAURA: “Okay!”

NICK: “I finished them off. I get the credit.”

LAURA: “I get two assists. That’s how that works.”

NICK: “We can count assists in loser town.”

LAURA: “Well no, assists are just a separate stat in addition to points.”

NICK: “If that makes you feel like you are contributing, that is fine.”

LAURA: “And then you also have a stat for attempted point.”

CAMERON: ‘Okay. I feel like we’re losing track of this tactical conversation. Where are y’all at? Where did y’all land? Is everybody okay? How’s everybody feeling?”

LAURA: “We’re in a different spot than where we landed. Where we landed was literally on fire.”

CAMERON: “Oh, I saw that place! [laughs] I went away from there.”

LAURA: “Yeah, we did too.”

CAMERON: “If you were in the fire place, then Tink, I think I’m headed towards where your drop pot hid.”

HUDSON: “Oh yeah—“

CAMERON: “Drop pod hid? Drop pot hit. What? Wait, no.”

NICK: Drop. Pod. Hit.

CAMERON: “Sorry, I think the smoke is doing weird things to my vocal cords. I’m not even gonna try to say it again.”

LAURA: “Hank, where are we currently?”

NICK: “Hell if I know.”

HUDSON: [chuckles]

LAURA: “Okay. We don’t know where we are.”

CAMERON: “Are you moving away from the fire? Not in the water.”

NICK: “We are moving towards the column of jet smoke in the far corner of the city.”

CAMERON: “Okay cool. I think that’s Tink. I am also headed there.”

NICK: “These look like docks, I guess.”

CAMERON: “Oh cool! Yeah, I saw that too. Alright. I’m to the left of y’all.”

NICK: As this conversation is going on, Tink, you feel a hand touch the side of your head and hang up your com. “Sorry friend, I’m going to need your undivided attention.” We’re going to just cut out of the split screen phone call thing to standing next to you. That must have scared the bejesus out of you, because this guy just showed up and was silent.

HUDSON: I got a lot of questions.

NICK: So, standing in front of you, you see Neato the Rodian mercenary. He’s wearing scuffed up old style body armor, it looks like Clone Wars era armor, and is wearing an eyepatch and has a disrupter rifle, which kind of looks like a handheld vacuum cleaner with some piping stuck into it and is pretty much the most illegal gun in the Star Wars universe.

[soft jazz music starts]

HUDSON: It’s also really expensive, right?

NICK: It’s very expensive. It’s very illegal. No one makes them. you’re not supposed to have them. just knowing where they are can get you sent to jail. They’re very bad. But you’ve seen what they do, which is turn people into dust, so they’re very good for sniping and things, and his has a big scope on it. Neato holds out his hand. “Well, I guess I should introduce myself. My name’s Neato, chum. Looks like you’ve found yourself in a bit of a hootenanny. Mind if I step in for a song? Takes two Geonosians to tango, after all.”

HUDSON: [quietly] “What’s a hootenanny…?”

[giggling]

NICK: “It’s a whiz bang, a fist fight, fisticuffs. A mix-up. A slam down!”

HUDSON: “So… You’re Neato.”

NICK: “Right. Now you’re getting the song I’m singing.”

HUDSON: “[groans]”

NICK: [laughs]

HUDSON: “Why do you talk like that?”

NICK: “This is how I talk. You got a problem with the way I am, chum?”

HUDSON: “… Nope.”

NICK: [laughs]

HUDSON: “Not at all, Neato. You are what we came here for, uh, it seems.”

NICK: “That’s a bit foreboding. What brings you here? I’m trying to free this fair city from old Palpy’s Imperial troops.”

HUDSON: “Well, looks like some fire has happened.”

[music stops]

NICK: “I wasn’t saying that it was going swimmingly.”

HUDSON: “So, what stage are you at in that plan?”

NICK: “You know that stage right before losing where the few ragtag people can band together and fight back against impossible odds? We’re at that stage.”

HUDSON: “Ahh. Yes. I see.”

NICK: “That’s what I said earlier, a hootenanny.”

HUDSON: “Still don’t know what that means.” [laughter] “I think you should meet the rest of my team. They’re a bunch of great folks.”

NICK: “Well whiz bang. I thought you were using the Imperial we. Glad to hear you’ve got some chums yourself, chum.”

HUDSON: “Yes…”

NICK: At this point I think karma jogs into the square looking at the rooves. “Is that one with you, friend, or is there more of a firefight to conflagrate?” He aims the rifle at Karma.

HUDSON: “Oh, no-no-no, put that down. We know—That’s Karma.”

NICK: “Karma! Friend or foe?”

CAMERON: “Friend. This is slightly off from the pose. Tink, could you kind of like drape yourself along this little run and grab his leg for me, please?”

NICK: “Oh! You’re a fan of the holo-talkies.”

CAMERON: “I just need to confirm that you are the correct orange Rodian I’m looking for.”

NICK: Neato throws a leg up on a pile of rubble and puts the gun on his shoulder. “Now chum, you need to be down here on the right side. It balances the tableau.”

HUDSON: “Oh… Right. Yes.” I do that.

NICK: [laughs] Okay.

CAMERON: [laughing] Karma takes out her camera and takes a picture and puts it back in her mom bag, because there’s a camera in her mom bag. Just how mom bags work.

NICK & LAURA: [laughs]

NICK: Holo-camera.

CAMERON: Yeah. I’ll get that printed at Eckerd’s later.

[laughter]

LAURA: Gonna frame it and put it on the wall of the ship.

HUDSON: If I knew tonight we’d have an Eckerd’s reference, I’d have looked forward to it more.

[laughter]

NICK: “Well, it’s good to see that we have more chums. I seem to have run out of the old ones.” Neato looks actually sad for a second and looks down. You can see, it looks like a young soldier who has been partially crushed by rubble. They are very dead, and there’s a holo-recorder smashed up next to them. Neato just kind of shakes his head and makes a hand sign of respect. “But you know, war is a fickle mistress. At least now we’ve got some new compatriots. What’s the plan?”

CAMERON: “Well, I’m kind of coming into this conversation half way. I don’t know what y’all have talked about so far.”

HUDSON: “So uh, this chum, right here…”

CAMERON: “Uh-huh?”

NICK: “Yes, I’m a chum!”

HUDSON: “…is trying to liberate the people of this area.”

NICK: “It’s a real hootenanny.”

CAMERON: “Oh yeah. Okay. Right, got it.”

HUDSON: “Oh—Well.”

CAMERON: “We’re in the stage where all of the ragtag group are gonna have to get together and fight back against oppression, right?”

HUDSON: “Yeah…”

NICK: [laughs]

HUDSON: “Yes.”

CAMERON: “Yeah, that’s just common word usage.”

HUDSON: “I didn’t know that.”

NICK: “Now we’re dancing to the same song.”

HUDSON: [groans] … I don’t know if that was me or Tink.

[laughter]

CAMERON: Y’all can’t see Hudson grimacing, but it’s great.

HUDSON: “Well, I guess we’re missing our last two members of the squad here. Do you know where they are?”

CAMERON: “They were over in the docks when we were on the phone. You kind of left. They said they were gonna keep heading here though, and then we all just kind of hung up.”

HUDSON: “Alright. Snack break?”

CAMERON: “Okay! Do y’all want granola bars?” [laughs]

NICK: “If they’re down by the docks they may have some real problems. Maybe we should run to them.”

CAMERON: “Okay!”

NICK: “Can’t let Palpy get a leg up on us.”

CAMERON: “Alright. Do y’all want the granola bars as we run?”

HUDSON: “Yes.”

CAMERON: “Okay. Here you go.”

HUDSON: “Oh, yes! Chocolate chip!”

CAMERON: [chuckles]

NICK: So I guess they jog off, and we get back to Hank and Xianna. I think Hank is in the middle of saying, “Diagnostic Statement: Left servo at 67%, right servo at 83%, ocular vision 48% occluded by smoke,” and he’s just listing a bunch of numbers.

LAURA: “Okay Hank, what if I give you my scanner goggles? Would that make your vision better than 40-something percent? Do you not have that built in? Can we just…”

NICK: “Admonishment: I actually do not know how that works.” He holds out his hand for the scanner goggles.

LAURA: Xianna takes her goggles off and walks past his hand and puts them on his head.

NICK: As you put them on his head you hear microphone feedback and a static noise. “Panicked Statement: Ouch! Ouch! Take it off! Take it off!”

LAURA: Okay! I take it off! I take it off!

CAMERON: [laughs]

LAURA: “Okay. That is not working.”

NICK: “Evaluation: Those goggles interfere with my ocular sensors, 48% is still roughly 50 times better than most organics.”

LAURA: “Oh, okay… Well, um, you know, if you get worried about any of your percentages, you know, let us know. I don’t know what we can do for you, but let us know.”

NICK: “It is okay. My empathy for organics is still default to 0%. We will be fine.”

LAURA: “Okay!”

NICK: You all walk off. I think you make it through the docks towards the edge of the art district and you all are able to kind of triangulate. You don’t run into more stormtroopers or anything. You do occasionally hear the loud, rumbling boom of another artillery strike and the occasional shrieking whistle of an Imperial drop pod coming down, but none of them are close to you. It really gives you just a general vibe for this war of attrition going on. You all meet up in the bombed out lobby of an art museum. Xianna and Hank walk in as Karma and Tink are eating granola bars, sitting on the reception counter, and Neato has his leg up on a tipped over statue and is dramatically shielding his eye and looking out, surveying the scene. As you pull up he says, “Well, it looks like the gang’s all here, chums.”

LAURA: “Ello.”

HUDSON: “This is Neato.”

LAURA: “Yes, I know that.”

CAMERON: “Neato, this is Xianna, and that’s HK.”

NICK: “Oh. You’ve got yourselves one of those fizz bang assassin droids, I see.”

CAMERON: “Sure do~”

LAURA: “His name is Hank.”

NICK: “They may be quick on the trigger, but they’re nothing for an experienced blaster on the hip.”

LAURA: “I don’t know. You have not seen hank shoot people yet.”

NICK: “Well hopefully we’ll see that happen. Gotta put the fight to old Palpy.”

CAMERON: “Yup.”

LAURA: “Yes.”

HUDSON: “So, Xianna has an accent, so it’s not Ank, it’s Hank.”

LAURA: “’Zat’ is what I said. ‘Ank.’”

HUDSON: “Mm.”

NICK: “Thanks for the clarification, chum.”

HUDSON: “You’re quite welcome.”

NICK: “Looks like the old jumpsuit’s got some breathing room, so let’s talk strategy. You’re trying to hire me, right?”

CAMERON: “Indeed we are. Did Tink give you any information before we met up?”

NICK: “He just said I’m the one he’s looking for.”

CAMERON: “Well, that is true.”

NICK: “It is flattering, and I do feel some romantic tension there, but we should really be focused on the fighting.”

HUDSON: “Oh…”

CAMERON: “I’ll give you a copy of the picture once I have it developed.”

NICK: “Well thanks, it can go on the wall of glory~”

CAMERON: “Great. So anyway. Yes. You are the one we are looking for. We’ve been sent by our, employer? I guess.”

LAURA: “yes! Sentinel.”

NICK: “You said that strangely questioningly. Is there a question about if your employer in question is actually your employer?”

CAMERON: “Yeah. I don’t- I don’t…”

HUDSON: “You know how like some people are contractors and some people are employees and some people are day laborers?”

CAMERON: “Yeah, it’s kind of one of those situations.”

LAURA: “Yes.”

CAMERON: “I’m not sure if we—I don’t think we ever signed a contract, so I don’t think we’re employees. I think we are contracting.”

LAURA: “I think we are more on the day labor, because even a contractor is called that because they sign a contract.”

CAMERON: “Oh, well that’s a very valid point.”

NICK: “I’m freelance.”

LAURA: “I think maybe we are more freelance.”

CAMERON: “Alright. Maybe we’re freelance. Yeah.”

HUDSON: “Yeah. I think we’re all freelance.”

LAURA: “But he is employing us for this mission.”

CAMERON: We’re consultants…?

[laughter]

LAURA: “Also, we don’t have confirmation that he is directly the one paying us, or funding us I guess. It could be someone else who is providing the funding.”

CAMERON: “We’ve been sent by, our buddy, to come and see if you would be willing to join a high-ranking cool team of, I don’t know, really talented people.”

NICK: “Well, if they’re not real biscuit boxers yet, give them a month with me and I’ll make them some.”

LAURA: “Oh no, the one can punch so good.”

CAMERON: “That’s true. We have met one of the team members.”

LAURA: “She did beat Tink in a fight.”

HUDSON: “Whoa. I think that was more of a—“

LAURA: “She punched you so hard.”

HUDSON: “—friendly scuffle.”

LAURA: “I mean, it was, but it was also a fight and she definitely won.”

CAMERON: “She beat you so hard in that friendly scuffle.”

HUDSON: “I think there’s a philosophical question of if anyone wins when there’s fighting going on.”

LAURA: “No. I won money off of it, so yes, she did win.”

HUDSON: “Alright…”

NICK: “Now this is very interesting for the group dynamic, but more importantly…”

LAURA: “Yes. As far as I know, Tink is single.”

NICK: “I’m not one to put pleasure before business. What are you paying me?”

LAURA: “To date Tink?!”

NICK: “No, for the job.”

LAURA: “Oh! I have no idea. Heh.”

CAMERON: “So, the payout, TBD on when it would actually get paid out, I’m not sure exactly…”

NICK: “I’m pretty used to that.”

CAMERON: “Yeah, you get it. I’m a bounty hunter, I also get it. It would be 15,000 Credits.”

NICK: “Fifteen grand? That’s a lot of scratch.”

CAMERON: “Yes. We were talking earlier about how you’re in the hootenanny stage of this mission.”

NICK: “Yep. Can’t abandon a hootenanny.”

CAMERON: “Exactly.”

LAURA: “Is this a hootenanny or a shindig?”

NICK: “No, a shindig is like two stages before, you’re starting to lose but the teams are still fairly balanced, right now we’re full hootenanny. This is almost a lost cause, but with you all here we may have a shot.”

HUDSON: ‘How…”

LAURA: “Wait. No. I thought a shindig is at more like step one or two, where you gather everyone for the first time and start the rebellion…?”

CAMERON: “No, that’s a hoedown.”

LAURA: “Oh, that’s a hoedown! Okay.”

CAMERON: “It also has to take place in a barn.”

LAURA: “Okay. Okay. Yes. Yes.”

NICK: “Don’t forget that any of these can be overwritten by just yelling ‘it’s party time’ while shooting the enemy.”

LAURA: “Okay, no-no, yes. So a hootenanny is towards the end where you have to gather hope and really push for it.”

NICK: “Yes. We all know what a hootenanny is.”

LAURA: “Yes. Ryloth has been on the hootenanny stage for like two decades now.”

NICK: “Ooh. That’s a long hootenanny.”

HUDSON: “We all know it now. I don’t know how you all knew it earlier.”

[laughter]

LAURA: “You had never heard of these?”

HUDSON: “No!”

CAMERON: “So you don’t have as much experience in combat stuff.”

HUDSON: “I don’t talk like—“

CAMERON: “This is common lingo.”

HUDSON: “I don’t talk like a weirdo.”

LAURA: “Yeah, a hootenanny, a shindig, a hoedown, you know.”

HUDSON: “Egh. I thought they were all synonymous.”

CAMERON: “Mm. Slight differences, and they make a big difference.”

HUDSON: [laughs] “Alright. We’ll go with that, sure.”

NICK: “Well chums, if you want me to join your little soiree, first we’re gonna have to sidle up to something heroic. These civvies here have a lot of heart but no durasteel, if you know what I mean. We’re gonna need to help them out, because I’m not leaving until this hootenanny is no longer a hootenanny one way or another.”

LAURA: “Well, I mean, half the city is on fire.”

NICK: “Always a good start. We can probably use that.”

LAURA: “Okay. Yeah. If you think so.”

NICK: “So, I should clarify, I am not the only combatant in this city right now.”

CAMERON: “Okay. I was getting concerned. You were the only one we’d seen.”

NICK: “**Sart has a militia, not much of one left anymore, but they’re real scrapers, real scrappers. They’re out by the shield facility.” [smiling] The camera turns, and something that we haven’t described so far, as far from the bay as you can get before the jungle starts there’s this giant domed looking factory with a huge blueish-green laser shooting out of it, and that’s the source of the space shield. That’s been there the whole time. “Yeah, so they’re all hold up at that shield facility over there. We should probably meet up with the general of the militia, see if we can get them for one final push, because if they continue this attrition situation this hootenanny is gonna turn into a disaster real quick.”

LAURA: “Okay!”

HUDSON: “Sounds good to me.”

CAMERON: “Sounds like a plan. I do have an Imperial com if that would be beneficial.”

NICK: “That’s helpful. Yeah, that should be pretty good. We’ll sock it to old Palpy, get out of here somehow, and then—“

CAMERON: “Oh, we got a plan for that part, too.”

NICK: “Oh. Awesome. Does it have something to do with that big old backpack on your friend, the white Wookie?”

CAMERON: “Why it just might.”

HUDSON: “I… Yeah, no, I… just have a lot of… nah, I’ve tried to make… It’s been a long day.”

[laughter]

LAURA: “No, the stratopack thingy.”

HUDSON: “Yeah, I got them. I got them in there.”

NICK: “You all really look like you took a couple of hits to the thinkers there. Rough entry?”

LAURA: “I woke up upside-down bleeding, and the outside was all on fire, so yes.”

HUDSON: “I was in a cracked egg.”

CAMERON: “I was underwater.”

NICK: “Sounds like my standard Tuesday night!”

CAMERON: “I’m very glad I was the one who ended up underwater and not one of y’all.”

LAURA: “Tink, you were in an egg?!”

HUDSON: “No. My ship cracked like an egg.”

LAURA: “Ohh! Okay.”

CAMERON: “[sweetly] You’re like a baby bird, all fluffy.”

LAURA: “I was a little confused by that.”

NICK: As you’re walking through the art district headed towards this shield facility you actually find the top half of Tink’s drop pod several kilometers away including part of his chair that was still attached to it.

LAURA: “Oh kriff!”

CAMERON: “Oh. Here’s your headrest.”

HUDSON: “Yeah, that was a close’n.”

NICK: “Well, let’s get to it and sock one to old Palpy.” You all head off towards the shield facility, and that’s gonna be the end of the episode.

ALL: Ba-naaa~!

## Outro

CAMERON: Thanks for listening to Tabletop Squadron. If you’ve enjoyed our show please consider logging into iTunes and giving us a five-star review. Five-star reviews will help new listeners to find the show and will make the squad giggle like school children when we read them. If you’re so inclined, you can also help support the show through our Patreon which can be found in the show notes, on our website, and basically anywhere we post things. We have all sorts of Patreon levels including some of my favorites: Bantha Buddy, Tarkin’s Underwear Drawer, and Build-A-Beru which all have fabulous rewards and super great names.

Xianna’fan is played by Laura Penrod. She can be found on Twitter at @cheerio_buffet.

Tink is played by Hudson Jameson. He can be found on Twitter at @hudsonjameson.

Karma Nailo is played by me, Cameron Robertson. You can find me on Twitter at @midnightmusic13.

Our game master is Nick Robertson, and you can find him on Twitter at @alias58.

Our intro song is Space Jam by Pablo Ribot.

Additional music by James Gunter.

Follow the podcast on Twitter and Instagram at @Tabletop_Squad, and join our Discord and share all of your food and cute pet photos with us. We also sometimes talk about Star Wars. You can find the link to join our Discord on our website and in our pinned tweet. See you next time.