Part 6: Phoenix Ascendant | Starter Kit: Phoenix Dawn Command

Last time on Starter Kit. You finally enter a vast chamber. Get ready. There is a figure floating in the air. She is an elemental phoenix. Give me the mask. And she turns to look at you. Welcome back to your Starter Kit. I'm Keith Baker, the creator of Phoenix Dawn Command. Success in a mission is measured in many ways. Defeating the enemy, saving those in your care, even just escaping intact. How will our phoenixes measure up as they complete their first mission against the dread? So the elemental phoenix turns to face you. Again, as I said, she's surrounded by the Shroud of Energy. pass that around. Everyone can take a look. Can we read the back sign? Nope. Oh! I didn't feel like what it was. I just wanted everyone to get a chance today. Oh, that is really cool. Scary looking. She's not cute. She's our enemy. She turns towards you and immediately the temperature drops even more sharply than before. Whoa, that's a lot of help. You just feel as her As her attention focuses on you, cold happens. She raises her hands, but as she's doing this, you notice that, again, it's like the person in there isn't really focusing on you. Her eyes aren't fixed on you. It's as if the shape around her is just moving her like a puppet. And then out towards all of you, a wave of cold comes. This is an attack with a value of eight. However, Hele, you again, this is your magic. So you are able to sort of catch that. You can protect yourself. You can protect Tiven because he's shielded with you. You can pick one other person to be shielded from this attack. Yeah. Okay. So the two of you attack with a value of eight. This is what's called an all or nothing attack. Either you hit eight and avoid it completely, otherwise it's going to do whatever it's going to do. Many attacks you want to hit close. This is just give me an eight or don't bother. You draw a card again because every time you're attacked, you get to draw a card. Okay. What distinguishes those attacks? Without you as the GM telling us that it's this kind of attack, is there a significant sign on the card? Absolutely. It's on the card, so it tells the Game Master what it means. is it something where it's just a binary. Often it would be something like a spell effect, where either this freezes you solid or it does nothing at all. As opposed to if someone's trying to stab you with a sword, you get that, oh, I avoided most of it, but it still got me a little. So this is just a flat. It works or it doesn't. Draw your card, and we'll start with you. You get to play two grace cards. Can you show me eight points? Not with the grace cards, but... I can help. Can I spend some sparks? No, you can't spend sparks on defense, only on attacker skills. So right now you're short. Does someone else have a way to help? Could I use my noble card to give you three extra cards to the spread? Absolutely. I will do that. So you get three cards. I have to discard this. Do I draw them or just use what I have? No, she just gives you three points. Oh, three points. So it puts you to ten. So you're fine. Set those aside. Is there something you do to help? Yes, I'm noble. So I, that's the skill set I'm using. So I look at you, and for the first time, you can see that I'm not afraid of you, and you're shielding me as well with your fire. And so I join your elements together, and we kind of create a shield. And I feel the warmth. All right, so again, that warmth protects you. It's a bit of your old flame sort of comes back just to keep you warm. Now, can you show me eight points? Can my skill specialties count towards this? Your skill specialties do not. They only count towards non-combat actions, but you do have a plus one defense coming from Adria. Okay, then yes, I can. Let's see it. I'm going to do my four grace card, and then I also have a three grace card, but then Adria is giving me a plus one to my defense as well. Because she believes in you. Yeah, she does. And so again, this wave of cold, you feel like it was going to sort of chill you and slow you, but you're able to fight it off. you're just sheer determination, and somehow that determination helps Adria as well. So discard those cards you do not draw back, because we are in combat now. Well, I actually, I get a card every time I make a defense spread. That is correct. Okay. Nice job. But you don't draw back again. At this point you only draw at the end of your turns. And that is the question, who would like to go first? I mean, don't you have one million cards? I want to, well, actually, I used a lot of firmware defense, but I want to hit her with everything I got. You're stronger, too. All right. I want to hit her with everything I got. So here we have the torch. Let me tell you about this room. We have a few things in here. There's a broken pillar. I told you there were various spires sort of set around the room. Like a broken pillar like that? Yep. Go grab it. Jason, throw it at me. Snap down. So that is something that's lying on the ground that could be picked up. there are chunks of ice from where the whole thing has been shaking and you have just big chunks of ice you have the cold itself if you can somehow think of how that could be used in a positive way you have the spire the core that is there and you have that mysterious mask yeah uh and who has that mysterious mask right now i have it yeah so you have it so again that is theoretically in play. I didn't put it on yet. I have it in my hand. Oh, you're ready to put it on. All right. So starting with you, you see this floating elemental figure, again, just radiating, pure cold. You can see behind her, on the core, there's sort of letters continuing to be traced. And also, as she did that attack against you, one of the things is you realize there's a new voice. but you don't understand what it's saying. It's going, It doesn't sound friendly. It doesn't sound friendly. It's radiating from the figure, but the human mouth is not speaking. It is just coming from it and flooding the room. You're not particularly good with languages, but someone could try and figure out what this is. So the first thing I do is throw the mask on. All right. so you put the mask on and you feel immediately this presence it's sort of curious when I say curious I mean literally like inquisitive like trying it's puzzled by you and is trying to sort of reach out and connect to you, do you allow that? do you sort of embrace that or are you like no, I don't like that idea you know what, yeah I'll let it embrace me that's going to take a little time to have an effect but you feel this sort of presence just sort of moving into you. Okay. And that's happening. And go ahead and draw a card. You are using the frozen map. Okay, great. Also, I feel like she's putting graffiti on the clouds by her, by the way. That does actually appear to be what she's doing. Kids these days have no sense of respect for old things. Looking at this, I would just quickly point out she has an eight defense, which is quite high. It's very hard to hurt her. And then she has counters with a value of four and a couple counters with a value of six. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to burn a wound. So you're basically pouring your power into Grimclaw. So take a wound. That means you draw a card. So you got all the, you know, you are filled with energy. You're bursting with power. And, of course, any attack spread you make right now is going to be at a plus seven. Yowza. Yeah. So for my core cards, I'm going to put out a four and a three. All right. Then I've got my terrifying card. So I yell out a blood-curdling, ice-melting scream. This will hopefully stun her. But right now I'm at plus... You're at plus seven. Plus seven, plus... And then does this one... Yeah, 15. So I'm at 15. All right, so let's take a look at that. Here's the thing. 15. Again, once you're adding things to the 8, that's 14 right there. So you can take off one of the 6s. That's great. Or if you burned a spark to push it up to 16, you could take off two of the 4s. Burning that spark. All right. So you charge in. Again, Grimclaw is burning bright, strikes in, and the flames sort of interact with the purple, crackle against the purple of the shroud. so you're not actually hitting her. You're just striking against the shroud. If you want to burn a spark, you can be terrifying about it. I'm absolutely burning that spark because it's going to hopefully stun her. And it is, whether it's the terrifying nature of you or just the sheer, the fact that you're striking her with a burning weapon against her cold, again, you feel it seems disjointed. For a moment, it's almost like a figure drops a little, as if the shroud has sort of lost a bit of its grip on her. One thing else that does happen, though, is especially as you strike her, the cold again washes over you. Even with Pele's shield, you lose a spark, which is sort of, again, it's sapping your energy. And discard those cards. Discard these guys. So I can attack again, right? You continue until you're out of cards or until you decide you're done. Now, I know if I attack again, am I getting plus three with that again? You're getting plus three, and you're getting plus four. You have a plus seven to any attack you make, so you can definitely make another effective attack. The best I can do is another five. So that's 12, I think, which is exactly enough. Another four. Okay. So you are battering her, but then... Are you done? Yes. Okay, draw up. Even as you're battering against the figure and you can see it's struggling to hold its shape, You see the elemental inside. You see her just sort of almost shrivel slightly. And it strengthens. And what you realize, you realize, is again, this is what elementals do. You can burn your life energy to generate power. You think whatever this is, it's using her life force. That was the end of your turn. So you have to pass the torch to one of these three. I actually going to pass it to our fellow elemental All right So the mask has been used The others are available And again you still have the mask It will still be relevant It's just it is no longer something that can be used to gain a card. Right. But there may... It feels like something's going to happen. Something's going on. I'm still heating up everyone since the cold is so intense still at this point. Yes? That is definitely true. Okay. Basically, if she does that wave attack again, it would still be your shielding people. and again, you are still, if you were to turn off your shield completely, everyone would be in a lot of trouble. Yeah, and I don't want to do that. So don't die if you can avoid that. Yeah, I'm going to try. Hey, guess what? I'm adding a detail for you guys, which is these are the two remaining health levels of the Elemental Phoenix. Okay. So that's just a random note. I want to see if there's a way to use the Chunk of Ice, since it won't completely have to take away, because I was thinking about using the chilling cold, but I feel like that might affect everybody, and I might not have enough heat to do that. One possibility for you specifically, no one else could try this, but you could say you want to use the chilling cold in that what you want to do is try and break it or something like that. Oh, okay, I see. So this is the sort of choice, again, of you could make a straight-up attack against her, or you could make a fire-related skill spread to say, I'm going to try and stop this chilling cold. I was thinking about that because I feel like as an elemental it would be easier that way, but I also feel like I don't want to use too much because I'm also thinking of everybody else in the room. So I'd rather try to use more of my physical attributes and my magical and keep it to one thing, if possible. Sure. I want to see and use my resourceful. Okay. So what is the power of your resourceful card? Go ahead and read the card. One intellect. When you use this card in a spread, draw two cards. place one of those cards back on the top of your deck. So go ahead and do that just so you see what you have available. So choose one of those and the other one goes back on top of the deck. Okay, so the two cards I got is Warlock and Call Lightning, which we tried that last time. Both good. But it was a little bit of a different situation. So I will tell you one thing right away off of Warlock, which is that if you were to try and interact with the mask or the core itself, Warlock would definitely be worth five points and let you do more. So that would be a skill spread. That's what I'm saying is that is a very powerful card for interacting with these systems if you choose to do that. Yeah, and I think that's a better idea than using the call lightning because that could be literally hit or miss. That is true. You have a plan for what you want to do with it. Because if you don't, that would be where you could put it back on top of your deck and wait and have it for next turn. I don't want to wait too long. That's fine. So what do you want to do with it? What are you trying to do? Can I use the core still? Even though I'm using... You can try, yeah. Yeah? Okay. Again, normally no one could because they don't know what to do with it. Right. You can definitely sense that the spirit, the puppeteer, is basically trying to activate what amounts to a self-destruct system. That graffiti she's put on it is trying to destabilize it. So if you want, I would let you use Warlock to try and counter what that is. Because that's going on right now and it's just getting worse. So if you want to try and break that inscription, I would let you do that as a skill spread. Definitely in the arcane specialty. Sure. So again, that means you can use any cards. Okay. We also, you should draw one more card anyway. Okay, which was the... Because you did use the chunk of ice. Yeah. So currently, here's what we're sitting on. You have resourceful. Okay. That's just worth one, but it gave you a bunch of other cards. Right. You have warlock. That's five points towards doing this because it is absolutely, it's what's letting you do this. Sure. So up to six. This is an arcane specialty, up to 11. and you have your assistant. Yeah, which is plus three. So that's 14. So you have 14 points. You can play up to three more cards. Okay, so I'm going to do plus three grace. 17. Let's do plus two intellect. Okay, that's 19. Yes, I need... You've still got one more card you can play. Yeah, so I can do another plus two grace on top of that. So that is 21. Does anyone have anything else they want to play? Just checking. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not-so-dark, not-so-stormy, hard-boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the Intrepid Chaotix Detective Agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high-flying, action-packed adventure will take them across the world, fighting for every clue they can find. It's one heck of a tale. Which is good, because this story might be the only thing that can save their lives. Well, if that's all, I can just dispose of you. Wait, what? All will be revealed in... Sonic the Hedgehog presents The Chaotix Case Files. 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It would have a much more dramatic effect. Certainly what you're doing right now is going to slow the thing down. If you get to 25, which means spending four sparks, you would break the enchantment and you'd get two right here if you wanted. Yeah, because I was going to say, I could do two and then I still have six here. Fair enough. Can she use both of those or just one? Yeah. Well, no, only one. Oh, okay. So you get two from there. You have to spend two of your own, so make yourself some change. You do manage to interface with it in part because of the traces of the elemental who was already working on it. You're sort of able to connect and counter what was being done there. So the rest of you see the flames licking around your hands and the sort of words twisting around the core just burn away. That at least means that it's not going to collapse while this is all going on. This doesn't mean all our troubles are over. But at least you don't have to worry about the ceiling collapsing on top of you while all this is going on. Well, we all wanted to die. So unfortunate. I want our humans to die. Like that said, even you do have to spend one more spark just because of what's going on. So, all right. What's that put you to? I'm at two left. Oh, you're so close to death. All right. What? What? You're the only person who gets what's going on. Please do not die. That's like the first thing he said. Now, as a point, with the puppeteer, normally it goes every two actions that you take. So this is when it would normally act, but because you stunned it, you got one more round. So pass that torch to one of them. He told us the name of the enemy. I did. You're next. Oh, thank you. Discard over here. What do we got? So you did the chunk of ice. I'm going to say you didn't really use the chunk of ice. I think you used the core. Yeah. So we'll leave the chunk of ice on hand because I don't remember the chunk of ice playing a significant role in that last action. But the elemental is now released from the? No. It's just weak. All she did was she countered the sort of malevolent enchantment that she had put on the core. She's still there, strong as ever, doing her stuff. I just feel like we're gonna kill her and she's not the one who needs to die. That is a minimally the problem. Right now, you're not sure what to do physically other than hit her. Oh, but she'll come back. She's a phoenix. Oh my god! You're welcome, girl! Unless she's on her last life. Oh, okay, wait! She asked her? She'll be fine. She seems to be unconscious. You're not sure she's conscious, you know, she's sort of in a coma. I mean, the chances of her being on her last life is like... I'm just wondering if there's a way to disconnect the puppeteer's strings from her without continuing to attack the aura that's directly around her. It certainly seems like there is a way. Whether it is a way that you, as an expert in all things war, can do on your own is a good question. But it should seem like if it can attach to her, it can probably be disattached. She's got a lot of health. Hitta. Yeah, I just... Just try to be considerate, you know? I appreciate that. But hey, one in seven chance that she's not on your last life. She's not being very considerate. But that energy is coming from somewhere. You know what I mean? Can I just take my action to look around the rest of the space to try and find the entity that is controlling this energy? Certainly. Now, here's the thing. You are not a specialist in magic. Does one of your skill specialties or your traits sort of, do you feel, I mean, you can always try, but I'm saying, do you have a trait or a specialty that you're like, this is about war? What skill are you bringing to bear on trying to locate this? I mean, I do think it's tactical. I think war would come into play because it's like when you're trying to be tactical in war, you're not just like, no, just go fight, fight, fight. Like you want to weigh your options and look at like cutting the head off the snake rather than plowing through like an entire army if you could just kill the leader. I'm going to just give this to you. That is sound. I'm saying rather than making you do a spread, you know, this is something where that is a basic logical thing. You do sort of study the environment. You're studying the battlefield. You do feel it is the reverse. It is that this is the source of the energy. The next question you wonder is if it would be possible to somehow literally physically pull her out of it or disconnect her from it. Yeah That wouldn be easy but strength is a thing that you do Yeah Can I I want to use my and I want to try what you talking about I want to try and use my misspent youth card and the situation being pulling somebody out of a dangerous situation So tell me about a time, you went through all this crazy stuff in your misspent youth, tell me about a time where something like this happened. My father didn't just treat me like that. He treated all my siblings the way he treated me. I couldn't take it, but any chance I could, even though I was weak, I tried to get in the way or pull them out of the situation of his wrath or his blindness to what he was doing to his own children. And furthermore, we did say he trained you to be fighting supernatural threats and things like that as well. So I think the two of these go together. It is both, you've literally tried to do something like this. And second, you have had some, you know, he tried to teach you how to fight demons or something like that. So I will give you five points for Misspent Youth, and you can also go ahead and benefit from its special ability. So that's the draw card. Yeah, so draw two cards from my deck here, and then I'm going to keep Vengeful here in my hand and put this Grace II card back at the top of my deck. I'm going to go ahead and say that this is somewhere between athletics and war. It's either the sort of pure physical aspect of it, or again, a calculated trying to sever. One of those is going to fit in here, so we'll give you the five points for having a specialty. So you're up to ten. Did you find something on the torch that you feel somehow applies to this? I could use, instead of trying to physically pull her out, I could forcefully push her out with one of the pillars. Sure. Just so that I'm not making direct contact with the energy. That actually is a very good idea. Okay. It's going to hurt her, but she is a phoenix. You can tell she's got at least, you know, so what I'm saying is you're probably not being gentle about it, but you can't be gentle. Yeah, I was saying more of like a battering ram more than a batter. So go ahead and draw another card for that. Okay. And now... And what, that adds five points to the spread? That doesn't add anything extra. It just gets you the card, but we're up to ten. It also means you won't get hurt. If you did do it physically, it was going to hurt you to be jumping through this. Right now, you have ten points, and you can play up to three cards and any other traits that you feel apply to this. Okay. Well, I'm going to throw all my strength at it here. Let's see it. So there's a three strength card. 13. A two strength card and an additional two strength card. 17. I need to see at least 20. My Vengeful is for a defense spread. My Valiant is for an attack spread. Valiant, however, can apply to attack, but also I would just legitimately say this is a Valiant action. So I will certainly give you three points for Valiant, which will put you to 20. And then I'll go ahead and use my spark to make sure that the entity comes after me. That is an excellent idea. So that is the thing. You're drawing its attention, and that's critical, because that does mean you literally shove her away and is entirely focused on you. That works. Go ahead and discard all those and draw back up to your five. You just force it in like a battering ram, knock her body away from it, and the elemental falls to the ground. She is at the moment unconscious, but she's definitely alive and may recover, and that does mean that right now the puppeteer cannot heal. So because you knocked her away. And I'm going to take a step beyond that and say I think the cold is dropping now that it has pushed her out. It's not gone completely. I thought you meant it was getting colder. I was like, oh, it's getting warmer. I'm saying it was using her. Right. You did this for years. It was using her, and so again, it's not quite as focused on that. So that's the good news. Now, since you've drawn up, are you done? Because technically we should have had you confirm you were dumb before we drew me. Yeah, then let me not cheat and pass the torch. All right. Thank you. Now, before that happens, though, the puppeteer was stunned, but now it is back and its attention is focused on you. It envelops you. Oh, no. Now, that's not me. Now, the good news is... Don't be mad at me. The good news is that it can't fully connect to you the way it did for her. It's not that simple. But it is trying to. I ain't got no magic. But it is now. Pass me your card. Oh, sorry. Your direct card right up there. Oh. I haven't actually laid this all out because there's just one person. You're all around there. But right now, it's surrounding you. And it is going to be an all or nothing attack with a value of 12. This is it trying to connect to you. So first off, draw a card. You're being attacked. now you can play any two cards in defense obviously without some traits working here you're not going to hit 12 but let's start and see what you can get and don't forget that adria gives you a plus one oh yeah plus one to defense okay now if you don't have cards that you like i will point out the other thing you can do with the last bit of energy in the devoted bond is to draw two more cards. Would you like to do that? This is a pretty serious thing to avoid if you can. So shuffle your deck and draw new cards. And since she's being attacked by our entity or the smoke, the companion is not affected by that? That is correct. Okay. Misfit Youth is back. That's good. Excuse me. Excuse me, life points. Pardon me. And Valiant is back. What the heck? Both of those are pretty solid. All right. I like it. So starting off, what do you have that aren't traits? What are your two base cards that you can put into this? So I'm going to start with my four strength here. Or, yeah, my four strength. And then I'm going to do my three grace here. So that's going to be seven. All right. Now hold there for a moment. I'm just going to ask. This is crucial. We've deprived it of its host. It's trying to connect to her. And if it can, you're going to have a whole new set of problems. does anyone else happen to have a trait on hand that would help her? It doesn't look like, it looks like to a certain degree. Well, what do you have over there? The trait card I have is Call Lightning right now. Can you think of a way that Calling Lightning would help her not get possessed? I mean, the only thing I could think of was electrocuting her, but I don't think that, you think that will work? I would throw it out there. I would say it would cause her damage, but I do think that it would actually, the shock of it. Sorry. So what I say. We know I have more lives. That's true. I have health left. We don't know where she was standing. So I feel more comfortable you doing that to me than doing it to somebody we don't know where they stand. And it doesn't affect her companion either? You have to try. Well, I'm kind of enclosed in the energy. Well, I know. So go ahead and take a wound. It's happening. Yes, it's happening. I called it. But I will add that value. I'll add a card. Yes. Yeah. Which, if it's a trait, could be important. Do I draw a card because I can attack? No. No, it's just an automatic. So you're at eight. Adria gives you a plus one, making it a nine. Do you have three traits that you feel apply to trying to resist horrible alien possession? The Call of Lightning only gave me a one? It was just a little boost, but it also made other things possible. So there's secondary effects. But look at your traits. Thank you. Do you have three that you feel... I mean, I just used these, so I feel like they still apply. There's nothing wrong with using them again, absolutely. Like the same exact situation is still going on. I think my misspent youth is still irrelevant because it's, again, I'm trying to put myself in a position of pain so that somebody else doesn't have to be. Yep. And valiance. Still very valiant. For the same reasons. And then vengeful because it seems honorable, but I'm doing it at a place of proving myself and showing my father that I can be stronger than he thought I could be, and I could be stronger than him. And do you have absolute conviction there as well? I do, but that's for other people. Oh, it doesn't matter. I mean, it still applies as a trade. It is still something you possess, and because this is the big thing, I'm just going to use it here. So here's what happens. All of that works. So hold that absolute conviction for just a moment. So I'm going to add the absolute conviction, too. So again, you feel it trying to connect you, trying to struggle with you, using both, again, her shock sort of jolts you. At the same time, you are just determined. You've resisted this before. You won't let it happen again. You have put everything into this to protect the others. And here's what I would say is this is up to you. You've resisted it. But with your absolute conviction, you could do the reverse. you could actually connect to it and if you're willing to burn your last two health levels you could pull it down into the crucible with you and just basically would mean you would die but you would consume the puppeteer in the process oh please not that music that music gives me nightmares from my childhood could we get something a little bit lighter some lighter music here are you a fan of true crime tv shows and what about unsolved mysteries the show that jump-started all of our love of true crime. I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm Joey Taranto. And we host I Think Not, a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries. Baby, you will laugh, you will cry, you'll think about true crime in a whole new way, and you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics? New episodes of I Think Not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon. And every Monday, you can listen to our True Crime Rundown, where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week. So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hi, I'm Brian Lucci, a former Chicago cop. Now I'm a producer on Chicago PD. And I'd like to introduce you to the official One Chicago podcast, the first ever behind the scenes look at the iconic TV shows. We're talking Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med. Join me each week for an exclusive conversation with the writers, the crew members, and the stars. Void's doing the right thing for Void. Check out the One Chicago Podcast from Wolf Entertainment and USG Audio. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm going to do it. All right. So, flip your two health levels. You see it surrounding her. You see the tendrils trying to connect. You shock her, which again just resolves you. And then what is your last sort of action? I think as I'm trying to fight it myself, I'm kind of closed in like this and trying to do it. But then when I get the help from Pele, I think it opens me up and I just start screaming. And my muscles are bulging and my veins are popping out And I just like you coming with me And as she doing that again her body literally starts to burn and dissolve but it just implodes and pulls it in and they're both done the cold immediately just starts fading you know the temperature starts rising the elemental is she's unconscious you she's pretty shaken but she is alive and she's at least hundreds maybe thousands of years old so she's gonna be that's gonna be very interesting but pass me your skill card so we didn't do this with pyre because it happened quickly but I do just want to say you have the shrouded bond which means you feel her knowledge flowing into her and in addition one you can pick one of the other players because you still have some sparks who would you connect to? I'm sorry. Kayla? All right. She was with me in my final hours. So you feel that connection and she's still there sort of with her. You feel her knowledge flowing into her. You feel her spirit being with you. It seems like everything is good. The tremors have stopped. And then Pyre speaks, but he says words that the two of you don't understand. It's just coming from him because he's still wearing the mask. I knew it. But you understand. I'm not going to be last. Exactly like that. Totally. And the thing is, you don't understand the words, but you hear it in your mind the way you've always heard these voices. And you realize it is the spirit of this place. and it says, What do you wish of me? What do you wish of me? Scary all over. Terrifying. Can I do a lore check because I feel like this is really important. I don't want to mess up. Absolutely. So this is a lore check. That gives you a base of five and again, because it is a specialty of yours, you guys have been pretty good about just using your specialties. That means you can use any three cards. Seeing that most present danger is gone, I will burn through three intellect for grace and because it's a skill I'm allowed to use another one of my grace so that puts me up to five plus seven that's 12 and then I'm gonna do 15 and hope that helps more than 15 would help more if you could hit but 20 is the next tier you would have to burn a lot of sparks to get that I just start sparking like a glitter cannon of fireworks so this is about again you You have this talent within you. This is a thing that helps you speak to spirits. So you pour that energy in, and it's a little like your psychometry. You just have a sort of moment of connection, and you realize, you sort of sense the purpose of this place, that this is a place that was used to create fallen spirits, that it would basically draw the spirits out of the dusk and create soldiers or servants, and that whatever those other people were, they were trying to shut this down because it essentially was being used by their enemies. So you feel there is a chance, if you were to bargain with this spirit, that it might produce fallen spirits for you. On the other hand, dealing with fallen, as Pele can tell you, is a dangerous thing. do you want to try to employ mysterious Fondland spirits to fight the dread? Okay. I kind of like, because I'm already on the ground, and take a knee and I look up to it, just breathing heavily after being exhausted from this. And then I say, I want you to protect this location with any force you can, but never leave. What does he say? I'm going to let you make that decision. Is that acceptable to you, spirit? That is acceptable to me, the spirit. I shall stay here and protect this place. I keep my head low because you're horrifying me right now with your body and your hammer. With that, the mask falls from your face. You catch it before it hits the ground. But again, that humming that happens increases and vibrates, and behind you, the core of the Cloud Spire glows with brilliant red energy that flows forward into the mask, and it just floats forward from your hand as this shape takes shape. It sort of looks like a humanoid figure just made of red mist and energy flowing there. It bows to you and says, I will honor our agreement. I will hold this place and keep it safe. Should you wish to return, we will discuss what happens then. Now I have much that must be done. It raises its hand, and as the ice is melting, you see from those I said there were basins with liquid, the mist flows up from them, and you see other spirits taking shape. There are other masks that are coming together, and now there's a dozen of these masked spirits moving around, clearing the ice away. Some of them are moving up the tunnels and starting to employ sort of crimson energy, melting away and clearing a path. So can I take Adria and the other companion and kind of keep them protected away from the spirits? Because this is a pretty intense scene. Yes. Kevin is sort of in shock in a good way. He's just, this is amazing. It's a miracle. I can't wait. I can't wait to tell Florence about this. That's exactly what I thought was going to happen. Adria is still sort of stunned but amazed by what you have accomplished. The spirits, as soon as they are clearing a path, the lead spirit turns to you again and says, I will honor our agreement. Now go. Okay. I'll be back. Now, again, And then, as you see this coming together, and when you do finally emerge, you can see the cracks in the spire. This red energy is flowing through and solidifying. The power is starting to settle now. It's still flowing through it, but the voices have quieted. You feel that beyond this, what you have accomplished here, it was perhaps a good decision not to unleash. You still don't know what these things are. Taking a little more time to figure it out and decide what you want to do... Smartest person in the room, you guys, I just pulled it, so... ...is definitely wise. At the same time, this place is now here. You can certainly return if in the future you do have an idea what you want to do with it. And beyond that, you have definitely learned just a tremendous amount about the old kingdoms and the fallen. And Tibin is, again, going to spend the next few months writing a whole thesis at the library, which, you know, might even change the decimal system. It might take a comeback because they're so in debt to you. Don't get me too excited, Tibin. I grab some of the ash from our fallen phoenix, sweep it up. Why do you have a decimal? And as we walk out, I start to sprinkle it behind me just kind of as an honor to her death in the cave. Now, it is the case again, looking to the aftermath, that because you saved Adria and Tibbin, they're going to return to the Empire singing your praises. So that's going to be a very positive thing for Dawn Command. Now, coming back to Cronus, one of the questions I also have is, you died, you're going to return. What kind of death do you think that was? Did you die for others? Did you die for duty? Yeah, I definitely think it was very, very different from my first death, which was kind of, for her, a big way shameful. but this seemed much more purposeful and intentional and valiant and selfless. I would agree with that. I think it's probably devoted or elemental, but that's something that you could think about as you went forward, and you'd, of course, be choosing the power for your talent. So that's all what the future would hold, but you will come back stronger to reunite with the wing and fight the dread once more. So congratulations, everyone. Thank you so much. That's the end of our mission. I hope you've enjoyed watching and learning with us. I'm Keith Baker. Thanks for watching Starter Kit, Phoenix Dawn Command. The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the glass cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. Oh, the Regency era. You might know it as the time when Bridgerton takes place, or the time when Jane Austen wrote her books. But the Regency era was also an explosive time of social change, sex scandals, and maybe the worst king in British history. And on the Vulgar History podcast, we're going to be looking at the balls, the gowns, and all the scandal of the Regency era. Vulgar History is a women's history podcast, and our Regency Era series will be focusing on the most rebellious women of this time. That includes Jane Austen herself, who is maybe more radical than you might have thought. We'll also be talking about queer icons like Anne Lister, scientists like Mary Anning and Ada Lovelace, as well as other scandalous actresses, royal mistresses, rebellious princesses, and other lesser known figures who made history happen in England in the Regency Era. 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