Episode 17 - Dumpster Fire

Intro
Matt: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Celestial Expanse podcast, a real play D&D podcast set in the Celestial Expanse universe, my name is Matthew, I'll be your DM for the night, playing with me today is Ben, who is Rell... Ben: Hello. Matt: Jason as Theran... Jason: How you like me now. Matt: Rebecca as Martle... Rebecca: An astronaut stepped in gum and got stuck in orbit. Matt: Oh my god. Lauren, you're a terrible influence if you're listening. Rebecca: Oh I liked puns way before Lauren. Matt: And Natalia as Z. Boston: Excuse me. Natalia: You skipped Boston. Matt: My bad. Boston as Juniper... Boston: Who do you think you are, running around leaving scars? Matt: That's kinda morbid. Natalia as Z... Natalia: Collecting your jar of hearts. Tearing love apart. Rebecca: You're gonna catch a cold. From the ice inside your soul. Matt: I feel like I'm getting punked here, is this from a song? Rebecca, Ben, and Natalia: Yes. Natalia: You haven't heard the Jar of Hearts song? Matt: No. Natalia: Oh. Rebecca: Really? Boston: Me and Nat were singing that together last night. Natalia: Boston and I were singing it last night. Boston: We were dueting. Natalia: Yes. Matt: Oh my god. Natalia: We were taking turns online. Boston: Playing league, getting wrecked by Jinx and Pyke. Natalia: We lost so hard. Boston: We were just like, "please get us out of this game." Natalia: The surrender button went up like 20 times, kid you not. Boston: We were "please get us out of this game!" Matt: So, were you saying you needed Xin Zhao as a jungler that time? Natalia: Yes. But somebody had to go to bed. Matt: No it wasn't that, I had to work on stuff for the podcast, thank you. Natalia: Okay, somebody had to go be a responsible adult. Boston: Gross. Natalia: Responsible DM. Yes. We could have used a good jungle, but I could have also used a good support. Ooooooh no I'm just kidding. I love you Boston. Boston: *high pitched noise* Rebecca: So Jason, while all this gobbledegook's been going on, how have you been? Matt: Yeah how's everybody doing today? Has anybody - Jason: Sorry, I was just zoned out there for a few minutes. I just - Matt: Yeah that's probably for the best.

Episode Description
While Martle and Captain Eric enjoy their date, we observe the goings-on of the rest of the Crew and what trouble they cause on the Parliament Asteroid.

Summary
Theran, observing Martle's date, sees a masked person jump onto the roof of the building next to the restaurant. He recognizes a patch with the symbol of the Buccaneers of the Maelstrom, the crew that attacked the moon his clan lived on, wiping out the tieflings who lived there. She also appears to be looking for someone, and she sees Theran and runs. Theran gives chase and briefly wrestles her in a dumpster, but she gets away.

Juniper and Rell are on their way back from Juniper's shopping trip when Juniper's purse gets cut. They chase the thief into a sketchy alleyway, where they lose them. Rell sees a recently disturbed manhole cover and starts to lift it, and is warned by a homeless man that there are strange creatures down there. Ignoring the warning, Juniper lifts the cover and they descend. Rell tracks the thief to an alcove, where a small human child, about 6 years old, is digging through the purse, obviously disappointed by the contents. A teenage girl who looks like his older sister, with long curly black hair and brown eyes, consoles him and starts signing to him. Rell understands enough to tell that she's telling him it'll be okay, they'll get food somehow. The boy speaks back verbally, saying he had hoped to buy her some clothes or maybe get enough for the operation. The girl spots Rell and Juniper, and the boy apologizes and tries to explain their situation. His sister is Deaf and considered unadoptable, so the orphanage tried to separate them. They ran away and have been hiding here, but they struggle to get enough money for food, and haven't eaten in days. Juniper gives the girl her old clothes, and she and Rell propose that the children stay the night at their suite, where there's food. After Juniper pinkie promises not to take them back to the orphanage, the boy agrees, and helps his sister start walking to the apartment; she also seems to have trouble walking.

On his way back to watching Martle, Theran finds a note with a PED frequency number. He calls, and gets an answer, though the person is hiding their face. She says it's been awhile since someone was able to keep up with her like that, and she's curious why Theran was chasing her. Theran asks what she was looking for, and she doesn't answer. He asks why she ran, and she says he was pointing a rifle at her (he was using his rifle's scope as binoculars). Theran brings up the slaughter on his moon, and she says her crew had nothing to do with that. They agree to meet in an hour to talk things over. Theran cleans up and goes to the location, which turns out to be a Spooters. He scouts it for awhile, but doesn't see her come in. At the appointed time, he goes in and orders a drink. A voice from behind Theran says, "I'll have what he's having." He turns and sees an old flame from his hometown, a tiefling. The episode ends with her asking Theran how he's been.

New Information

 * The handheld computers everyone has are called PEDs, personal electronic devices. A PED frequency number is basically the equivalent of a phone number in CE.
 * Theran's PED is very old.
 * Theran is from the moon Set.

Memorable Quotes
Jason: Why is this person rolling so well, crap! Matt: I don't know, it's just - Jason: Matt never rolls this well!

Boston: Am small bean! Ben: Hrrrrrrgh! Boston: With power! 5!

Matt: This is a child. Like, 6 or 7 years old. Boston: Aw. Natalia: So sad. Boston: Aw! Ben: Okay I shoot him. Rebecca: Where a javelin?

Trivia

 * Theran has a 19 passive perception.
 * Theran's shadow teleporting ability, "Into the Abyss," was nerfed so he can only do it once a day (# equal to CHA) up to 30 ft.
 * This is the first episode with Lelia. Here she is described as having deep purple skin, short curly brown hair, and blue eyes in this episode, but is later described as looking like Martle when she's not in disguise.