Episode 5: Technical Issues

Podcast - 1 Hour, 50 minutes and 45 Seconds

**"Technical Issues"** is the fifth episode of the One Piece D&D Streams by Rustage, in this episode the crew kill a Commander of the Steam Pipe Pirates, visit Atoms sister, meet a man named Steve and discover some black tentacles around the ship!

This episode was first streamed on Rustages Twitch, the VOD can be found here! It was later uploaded to Rustages Second Youtube Channel once edited, which can be found here! As well as being posted as a Podcast, which can be found here!

The Summary for this episode can be **found here**! This consists of a summary of the episode, a TL:DR for the episode, the story impact of the episode, characters in the episode and quotes of the episode.

*Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.*

#### TL:DR

In this episode we get a flashback of the crew when they were heading to the cave on Krendor, Ragnar explains his past, about how his Wife and Son were taken from him because of the Steam Pipe Pirates and that is why he is hunting them down and is so angry at them. The flashback ends and watch as the crew fight a Commander of the Steam Pipe Pirates named Volt (The Characters did not find this out, as Rustage revealed it outside the game) and some random Steam Pipe Pirates, eventually Volt and the other pirates, except one, are killed and the crew gather info on the Steam Pipe Pirates from one of them the crew had left alive, heading to the Tarako Kingdom. The crew then head out of this cave and eat salads made by Gravy and discuss their own goals in Tarako Kingdom. They then head back to the main town on Krendor and Atom, William and Duros go to the only hospital on Krendor and visit Atom's Sister before the Crew head to Atom's House, which turns out to be a small shack and rest for the night. They wake up the next day and get some buns from the bun shop and proceed to get out on the Yogi Pooh to the Tarako Kingdom. Pearl and Duros begin to make a map of the Tarako Kingdom from what they remember as they also do other things like fishing. William tests his devil fruit during this time and he gets the ability to talk with animals and turn solids into liquids. Soon Verona spots two ships sinking, one being a pirate ship and the other a marine ship, William, Verona and Atom board the Marine ship finding various wanted posters and Duros and Ragnar find two people tied up, they untie and talk to them. Finding out they are slaves, they took them onto their crew they talk to them and while talking Not Steve turns to them and tells them to not do anything funny or else people would die as black tentacles begin appearing over the ship and crew.

## Summary

This episode starts off with a flashback to the previous episode when the group was walking through the desert of Krendor in search of the Cave where the Steam Pipe Pirates were said to be operating out of. It starts with Pearl questioning why Ragnar seems more mad than he usually does Ragnar talks about how when the Steam Pipe Pirates raided his village, that they most likely killed his Wife and Son. Ragnar talks about how he wants confirmation on whether or not they're dead because when he returned all he found was ashes, as well as finding out the reason for them raiding his village, which was very poor. Verona, Duros and Pearl support Ragnar and say they will do their best to help him find out the truth and take town the Steam Pipe Pirates, Atom even comments about how he knows how it feels to lose family and that he can relate. Ragnar thanks them all before Duros pulls them all into a hug. Pearl asks the name of his family, finding out his wife was named Hertha and his son named Magnus, Gravy comforts Ragnar about this and the flashback ends.

Back where Episode 4 left off, Ragnar had just turned into a Bear in front of a Commander of the Steam Pipe Pirates, the man with the mechanical arm charging with electricity, Ragnar tries to intimidate him, but fails. The man with the mechanical arm is in front with two pirates to his left and two pirates to his right, Ragnar is next to this man, behind Ragnar is William and Duros behind that is Verona, Pearl and Atom. William thinks about how there wouldn't be a better time to test his devil fruit so he spins the roulette wheel and he shouts about how its really weird, noticing 410 different places on the roulette wheel, eventually landing on the 311th slot, gaining the Reverse Reverse ability, making him a Reverse Human temporarily, giving him the ability to heal people by doing what would hurt them previously.

Upon realizing this William shouts out "Crew, we don't have this! Retreat!" due to being a Reverse Human this makes the crew want to stay and not retreat. He then pulls out his gun and aims it at Ragnar ready for when he gets hurt, then Pearl runs up to the pirates on the right hand side and opens her mouth, she breaths fire out and one dodges out of the way while the other takes full brunt of flames, questioning how someone can breath fire. Ragnar in bear form looks down on this commander and grabs his two handed axe that he has only used with one hand previously and grips it with two bear paws, and slams down on the commander in front of him, cutting a huge gash in his chest, blood flying everywhere as he screams out. The two pirates from the left go in to attack Ragnar upon seeing him attack their commander, one fails to hit Ragnar and the other one run up to him but as this pirate does so Duros jumps into protect Ragnar, blocking the cutlass as it scraps across his shield.

The two pirates Pearl attacked previously both turn to her and go to attack her and both stab their cutlasses into her side at the same time, causing Pearl to cough up a little bit of blood. Verona sees this happen and goes to attack the uninjured pirate attacking her, but misses, hitting Pearl in the back. She falls onto one knee and is nearly unconscious. The blonde spiky haired commander of the Steam Pipe Pirates then turns to Ragnar, grabbing him with his electric arm and says that he will regret what he just did, before sending a wave of electricity through Ragnar's bear body, who manages to resist it temporarily. Atom then looks over to Pearl and talks about how he knows what happens when she gets beaten up, referring to when she became a dragon after he attacked her, quickly holding up his jacket sleeve, aiming it at one of the pirates and a small sticky grenade flies out of his sleeve. It just flies past these pirates, blowing up the wall behind the pirate and then he apologizes to Pearl.

Duros calls out to Pearl, rallying her, strengthening her will by an order of magnitude. He then runs forwards while shouting about how much he wants to protect Pearl, attacking the pirate Pearl injured previously, slamming his war-hammer into pirates face. Blood flies out of the sides of his face as Duros sends him flying into the hole in the wall Atom previously made. William with the effects of his fruit, runs up to Pearl and tells her that she needs to trust him because he is her captain now and he punches her in the face doing no damage. In fact her wounds actually heal because of his Devil Fruit. Pearl seeing the man who just hurt her in front of her, she pulls out her claws and stabs her claws into his eyes, pulling out two eyeballs on her claws and the pirate drops to the ground dead. Ragnar still in his rage roars, drops his axe and swings both his claws down on the commander, one is slightly off target and missed but the other scrapes across his face, scarring his face now. despite bleeding he still looks healthy.

The remaining two pirates run back up to Ragnar, attempting to cut into his bear side, failing to do so. After his previous shot, Verona is still worried about hitting his allies, reassuring himself he places a special bullet into his gun and sees Ragnar who has three people on top of him, so he turns and shoots this special bullet at the pirate on his left, the bullet fires out, hitting the bullet and piercing through him, and his corpse disappears from the battle field. The commander talks about how the other pirates were weak and he is strong before turning a knob on his arm, the arm charging with even more electricity than before and he grabs onto Ragnar, pumping into Ragnar to the point where he passes out. Smoke comes off his body but the electricity also damages the commander, shocking him as well. Atom just lights a regular bomb, throwing it over towards the commander and he just dodges out of the way, while pieces of shrapnel only dealing minor damage to him. William calls out to Atom about how this is the last time they enter a cave with him, talking about how bad stuff happens every time they're in caves together, Atom in the heat of the moment apologizes and calls William his captain.

Duros then rushes towards the commander with his hammer, in a rage about Ragnar overwhelming him as the commander ducts below the hammer while electricity charging in his arm. William then turns and runs towards Ragnar, pulling out his flintlock pistol and fires it towards Ragnar's head as it places itself in his skull, Ragnar wakes back up immediately back to consciousness. Pearl notices Duros missing Volt and runs up to him, sliding under Duros and the commanders legs, slashing at the commanders crotch region, now showing signs of damage. Ragnar now having awakened from unconsciousness, still a little bit out of it, runs on all four legs in his bear form towards the commander, jumping over Duros and onto the commander, he slashes with two bear claws down onto the commander, the claws piercing his chest as Ragnar rips the commander of the Steam Pipe Pirates in half.

Ragnar then slowly turns back into his human form, the last remaining pirate sees this and throws his cutlass to the ground in fear, begging for them to not rip him apart, William suggest to him that he should just run away and never look back, the pirate takes this as meaning they are letting him go. Duros gets in his way and tells him that he's staying with them. The pirate begs again for them to not kill him, then Ragnar walks up and tells him that they all deserve to die for what they did to his home town Atlas, lying to him that if he gives him info he may leave him alive. Ragnar questions about him where his captain is, the pirate tells them that they are on an exhibition going to attack a large city, William asks if this is the Tarako Kingdom, which he says it is. Then Ragnar asks why they raided his village, and the pirate tells him that human life literally has value and William tells him that he clearly wants to say. The pirate tells them they can make a lot of money off selling human slaves. As he says this Ragnar gets more angry and raises a hand axe and slams it over the guys head, slicing him in between falling to the ground, Ragnar says that he doesn't want to listen to scum anymore.

As the crew discuss, Verona walks up to Pearl and apologies for shooting her during that battle, she says that she hurt him earlier, referring to the fight in Episode 3, so she deserves it. As they talk Atom walks up to William and apologies for not doing anything during that fight, William is just sick of Atom at this point and walks away, saying he doesn't want to talk to him. Atom sighs and then lights up a cigarette. The crew begins to search the cave and find about 20,000 berries, dividing it between them all. Verona is also holding onto Ragnar's money and across the room are various top hats and as they are looting the corpse that Verona banished before hand falls back into existence and as they search they also find blank pirate flags/pieces of cloth used to make pirate flags.

The Crew then begin to discuss what they have just found out, realizing that Ragnar's wife and son could still be alive as the Steam Pipe Pirates had been selling humans as slaves. Pearl comforts Ragnar about his wife and son being alive and Ragnar proceeds to hug her with a tear falling from his eye before Duros hugs both Pearl and Ragnar. Pearl then turns to William and tells him she has a selfish request, saying that they were just going to break her brother out of prison but could they also find a way to keep the innocent people of Tarako Kingdom safe, which William agrees to.

Atom then turns to the crew, telling them that they needed his help to take out the prison and wants to strike some kind of deal. Saying that he's heard Tarako Kingdom is very rich and that he will take the amount he needs to help his sister. Atom then apologizes for their first introduce and that they seem like good people. William then asks Ragnar what its like to be shot in the head, which Ragnar says that he doesn't know what he's is talking about as a squished bullet falls from the back of Ragnar's head onto the ground. William walks over to the commander and throws Ragnar his metallic arm.

The Crew then exit the cave and find Gravy outside with his table and 6 bowls of salad for everyone, William tells Gravy that he shot Ragnar in the face and punched Pearl and Gravy says that it better had been for a good reason, which William tells him it heals him and then he finishes explaining what they did. William gives Gravy an approving smile and tells him he is promoted to an almost crew member, which Gravy says is fine as long as they don't kill him. The Crew plus Atom then sit down in a circle and begin to eat the salads Gravy made for them, Ragnar begins singing Bink's Sake and they all join along in singing it as they eat.

After finishing Duros tells the Crew that the Tarako Kingdom is his homeland and that he used to guard Pearls brother and failed at his job, saying he had been living with this failure for years and years until William found him and gave him a spark of hope and a reason to go on. Now he believes he can actually free him. The Crew all say how they support Duros and will be there to help him with this. They all do a Salad Toast and as Pearl puts her bowl down she turns to Duros and thanks him for protecting her brother, saying that it was because of Duros that she was able to escape and that it was Duros working with her brother that day that she was able to escape the castle. Pearl then tells the Crew her brothers name is Jasper before going back to eating her salad.

William calls out to the Crew telling them this will be the hardest thing they have ever done and asks Duros for info. Duros and Pearl both tell William that the prison is the little outcrop connected by a thin land bridge. William then does a motivational speech, explaining to them that tonight they will get a good night sleep, access everything and tomorrow Verona will navigate them to the kingdom, they will save Jasper and some slaves, get money for Atom's sister and anything else he might be forgetting at this current moment, as well as overthrowing Pearls father. Verona says that it seems all of their journeys will come together here at this kingdom. Duros says he could not have asked for a more genuine group of friends and William begins to cry up at this, saying that we have this and talks about how he has a Devil Fruit that gives him everything, so best case scenario he gets a power that allows him to like strike lightning.

Verona says that their strength is his strength and William says he might need to work on his marksmanship due to hitting so many teammates. Atom then offers the crew to stay at his place, a little place on the island, William agrees and then Atom requests if he can see his sister before they leave. The Crew walk back to Krendor and William follows Atom who leads him inside of the small hospital on Krendor inside is a couple of rooms and one tired looking nurse, inside one of the rooms is Atoms sister, lying in a bed on the floor clearly unconscious, she has makeshift tubes coming from her body, clearly done to keep her alive.

Atom walks up and kneels next to his sister, he tells her that he is gonna go away for a while but he will come back with the money, Atom promises this time now that he has found some really good folks who will be able to help him, he'll get the money and then they'll be able to play again. William just pats Atom on the back as Atom tells his sister to hang in there before Duros bursts into the room, telling Atom to smile and Atom turns to his sister, trying to smile as tears begin to fall down his face, saying it will be alright as he covers his face with his hat. They all turn and begin to walk out, William asking how long she has been sick, Atom tells him it's been a couple of years and that he's lost count. Atom says he's been using all his money to help her in the hospital. Then he apologies to them for making them see him like this.

Both William and Duros comment on how Atom is feeling, William turns to Atom and stares at him for a solid amount of time before saying that he'll have to talk the rest of the Crew after they are done with all this, but that he wouldn't mind him joining. Atom tells him that he appreciates the offer and the fact that Duros calls him his friend, that he hasn't had a lot of friends in a long time. Before Atom can finish Duros welcomes him to the Crew but Atom turns straight to William, telling him that if he gets his sister back he is done with this life and he'd want to live with his sister, William tells him he understands and Atom tells them he will show them to his shack.

This Group exit the hospital and follow back to his small shack, a one room shack with one door, tiny place with a bed, a kitchen and a table, it is very run down and it has a hole in the roof. William points Ragnar to this hole and Ragnar says he understands before sitting in the corner and passing out. Atom offers William and Duros his bed but they decline, he then says Pearl can have it as an apology. As he says this William in guilt turns to Atom and tells him he pissed in his bed, he quickly tries to frantically explain why he did it and then William quickly pretends to go to sleep, saying it was to clear the air. Verona tells Atom that he is gonna sleep outside and Duros turns to Atom, hands him all his money as an apology to Atom for his Captain's actions before Verona says he also pissed on Atoms bed, much to Duros' chagrin. Atom is visibly shaken and doesn't know what to do. William gets up from his fake sleep and walks up to Atom, saying this can be the start of an alliance and goes to shake his hand, Atom agrees and shakes his hand.

The Crew then fall to sleep and wake up in the morning, they pass by the bun shop and after buying some buns before heading back to The Yogi Pooh. Atom compliments their ship and that he likes the bear figure head while William grabs a bun and gives another bun to Atom. Then they begin to head out, discussing what they need to do and training during this time, Pearl and Duros create a map of the Tarako Kingdom over the course of the weeks journey to the Tarako Kingdom. During this time Atom goes up to William and opens his coat, showing him to be a very skinny, but buff man who has hundreds of explosives wrapped around his body. He tells them he's gonna need them to cover him while he plants the more delicate bombs, Duros is also fishing during this time, Ragnar is drinking and doing sit-ups, while Pearl trains by doing backflips, Verona also trains by shooting passing by seagulls and such during this time William also uses his fruit during this time, seeing what he gets.

Rolling his Devil Fruit, he gets the Devil Fruit ability that allows him to communicate with animals and as Verona shoots one of the seagulls, William hears its cries of pain as it falls into the ocean. William exclaims about how horrible it sounds, saying he dislikes it and William can hear all the various animals, such as a fish that Duros fishes up. The next day, William rolls his Devil Fruit again, gaining the ability to turn solid things into liquids, so William picks up one of the various boots they have and touches it, the boot begins to act like a liquid, like a jelly boot so to speak, it turns back into a solid soon. He also touches a door and is able to walk right through it was if it was a liquid.

As they sail, Verona spots two sinking ships, looking closer he realizes it was a battle between a pirate ship and a Marine ship. On the deck there are a bunch of dead bodies and there is a man who appears to be tied up. So the crew sail closer and as they get closer they notice the tattered flags of the Steam Pipe Pirates. William, Verona and Atom jump onto the Marine ship as Duros and Ragnar jump onto the pirate ship. On the Marine Ship, they slowly head below deck, not too far due to the ships still sinking but they find that most of the crew has been killed with steam based weapons and all the supplies are mostly gone. They do find a bunch of wanted posters, which William and Verona take, William can see his 10 million bounty poster and they also see Eustass Valve's wanted poster for 40 million, seeing his face for the first time, he has large green goggles on his forehead, erratic hair, sideburns and this large sinister grin. There are also various other small time pirates wanted posters in the pile.

On the Pirate Ship, Ragnar and Duros see two pirates tied up on the deck, one is fully tied up and the other is only tied up in the middle with his arms and legs free. He asks if they have come to help and Duros tells him that they have and asks what the issue was. The man exclaims that they were taken and were going to be sold as slaves by some pirates but then a Marine ship came and they thought they were saved but then it became nothing bloodbath. He says they were just hiding and waiting for someone to come along and Duros says that him and his friend here, referring to Ragnar, are gonna help them. The man says that his village was destroyed by pirates and they were taken to be sold as salves, Ragnar says he is sorry and asks if he knows anyone named Hertha or Magnus. The man says no and that his village was destroyed but a week ago, exclaiming about how scared he was as Ragnar chops the rope binding them together. Ragnar then questions if there was any other pirates, and the man explains that there were more pirate ships to begin with, a couple big ones and a small ones, saying that it was only the small one left when they came up from below deck. Duros welcomes them onto the Yogi Pooh and the man calls out to his friend, calling him Steve, who has messy black hair that covers his eyes and seems quite frail. The slave and his friend Steve follow Duros on board. Ragnar quickly looks around the ship before leaving, finding about 2000 belly in total in the pockets of the various dead pirates and Ragnar also notices none of the men had any weapons to do the damage to the people on the marines ship.

As William re-boards the Yogi Pooh, he notices the two men Duros is bringing on board and questions them, Duros explains the situation and then William asks their names, the man turns and says that is his friend Steve and then says his name is Fredrikson. William then introduces his pirate crew to the men, William then turns to Ragnar and shows him Eustass Valve's wanted poster. Ragnar takes it and thanks him. Ragnar then tells Verona to see if he can spot any pirate ships that they mentioned before and Verona goes to look, seeing out far in the distance what appears to be a spec heading towards the Tarako Kingdom. Both of these two men are fed by Gravy and then Ragnar calls out to Steve, asking him whether or not he can draw. Steve turns towards Ragnar and licks his lips before Fredrikson turns to Ragnar and says that Steve has always been a special child and that neither of them know how to draw. Fredrikson then asks what they are doing out sailing, William tells him its just normal pirate stuff and he questions if that means they are going to sell him as a slave or not. William assures him they're not going to and that he doesn't do slavery on his crew then tells him that after they finish their fish he has a couple questions to ask them.

Soon Fredrikson finishes his fish, saying he will answer anything and that he is very grateful, William asks Duros if he wants to help with their interrogation, taking Fredrikson and Steve inside of the ship into the dining room of the ship. William tells Duros that they are gonna do a good Marine bad Marine deal, Duros questions if he should be the bad Marine, which William agrees to. William leads and sits them down on the dining room table while Duros stands near the door menacingly, William then places his gun on the table telling Fredrikson and Steve that he trusts them but Duros does not and that he's curious of how they actually got into that situation, asking them to tell the truth as he leans back in a chair.

Fredrikson says it was the real story and that they are from Lima Island, that they captured them, and that they were on the ship while the Marines attacked, causing the pirates to use them as hostages so him and Steve managed to hide from the pirates. William says that it was just luck then and Fredrikson agrees with this and that after they were gone they went up onto the deck where they were found by Duros and Ragnar, William turns and asks Duros what he thought about it. Duros trying to look as menacing as possible questions how they hid while tied up, Fredrikson says that his arms and legs weren't as tied and he managed to help push Steve with his feet, saying they weren't tied to anything and then William asks what they want from them. Fredrikson then says that he just wants them to drop them off somewhere, asking where they are going.

William says they are going to Tarako Kingdom, saying they could drop them off there and then Fredrikson asks why they are going to Tarako and William tells him that he doesn't need to know that before Fredrikson gulps. His eyes glance at Steve as Steve's head turns and these small black tentacles wrap around Fredrikson, William, and Duros before Steve turns his head and says that if they tell them why they are going to Tarako Kingdom, then they could strike some sort of deal. He tells them they shouldn't try anything funny or that lovely girl, referring to Pearl, or their lovely old chef, referring to Gravy, might to be snapped to pieces.

## Story Impact

* In this episode we find out the names of Ragnar's Wife, Hertha and Son, Magnus, as well as his home town being named Atlas.
* In this episode we also find out Duros is from the Tarako Kingdom, and protected Pearls Brother at one point in his life.

## Featured Characters

### The Crew

* William
* Verona
* Duros
* Ragnar
* Pearl
* Gravy

### New Characters

#### Met

* Three Unnamed Steam Pipe Pirates
* Unnamed Pirate
* Fredrikson
* Tako

#### Mentioned

* Hertha
* Magnus
* Jasper

### Returning Characters

#### Met

* Volt
* Molly

## Quotes

* "Sometimes life can be cruel and harsh, but you know, you've gotta take what comes and turn that into strength, if you look inside yourself and find your weakness and clad yourself in the armor that is your weakness, no one can use that as a bullet against you Ragnar." - Gravy.
* "Well he didn't see that coming" - Duros.
* "Why are you so sad this is your beloved sister! Talk to her like you mean it! You love her don't you? Give her a reason to come back! Give her a smile, don't look at her like you're sad! Give her a big whopping smile because you are coming back!" - Duros.