Episode 43 - Need A Hand?

## Intro

**Matt**: Hello and welcome to Celestial Expanse, a real play D&D podcast set in the Celestial Expanse universe, my name is Matthew, I'll be your DM for the day, playing with me today is Ben as Rell...
**Ben**: Uh, hello.
**Matt**: Jason as Theran...
**Jason**: Murder hornets.
**Rebecca**: Ugh.
**Jason**: Do we really need murder hornets? That's it. That's all I got.
**Mitch**: What about that Arizona wasp? That thing's bigger than the murder hornets.
**Jason**: Oh dear god.
**Matt**: It gives me ideas, that's for sure.
**Jason**: Yeah.
**Ben**: Stop doing that Jason.
**Matt**: Rebecca as Martle...
**Rebecca**: Rabbit paws don't have paw pads.
**Natalia**: Really.
**Rebecca**: Yup.
**Natalia**: Huh.
**Matt**: Natalia as Z...
**Natalia**: Guess where I store my dad jokes?
**Matt**: Where?
**Natalia**: In the dadabase.
**Rebecca**: That's very good.
**Natalia**: Ewo!
**Matt**: I'm gonna boot you now Z. Bye.
**Rebecca**: No, the only one who can boot her is me. I am the only one allowed to boot Z.
**Natalia**: Awww.
**Rebecca**: And by that I mean kicking her square across the room.
**Natalia**: Yeet! Matt will eventually give you something called the Z cannon.
**Matt**: Turns out it's actually something on the ship that turns Z into a torpedo.
**Natalia**: Perfect. Team wipe!
**Matt**: And Mitch as Z. As Zarial.
**Mitch**: Yah. I didn't know my - oh, I didn't know I was a little gnome now.
**Jason**: Yup.
**Matt**: As Zarial. So, how's everybody doing today?
**Natalia**: Good.
\*inaudible\*
**Matt**: Yeah I'm just plotting everybody's character deaths right now. Like, maybe do a TPK or two.
**Rebecca**: What, no! I didn't make a dad joke, I made a neat rabbit, um, fact. I don't know why I stumbled over that word.
**Natalia**: Hey, hey now. That was quality, okay. Quality.
**Rebecca**: And it was quality, yes.
**Natalia**: And not found on Facebook about five minutes ago.

## Summary

### Episode Description

The crew finally make it to the command center, full of undead. Will the crew fare well or will someone lose their head?

### Summary

The episode opens with the party facing a Mombie and some other spombies in the command center of the Agma satellite. In the fight, Z somehow charms the mombie with Graceful Slash, but a baby zombie, called a Crawler, bites off Z's left arm, and she starts bleeding heavily from another attack. Zarial takes down the mombie, but Z loses her right leg and sustains a concussion, and Martle gets stunned by a crushing chest blow.

The tide of the battle turns and Martle kills a baby zombie, which explodes on her and Z, but they dodge. She moves onto a non-exploding zombie and kills it, and Rell kills the last two regular zombies. The party moves onto killing crawlers, with Z dodging the explosions. Martle kills the last crawler and heals Z, who is sobbing hysterically that she killed all the zombies. Rell binds her wounds and Martle lies down to recover, telling the boys to look at the computers, some of which are still working.

Zarial checks out the computer and looks up the Inquisition. Theran ignores the computers and loots the zombie corpses. He gets a wedding ring from the mombie. Zarial finds a file on the Inquisition that seems to have everything they're looking for, and downloads it to the medical tablet he got earlier, then sends it to Martle. They debate how to transport Z, who is now missing two limbs and a lot of blood. Martle picks her up to carry her, and Rell takes the severed limbs. Z flirts shamelessly until Martle threatens to put her down, then passes out from the pain. The episode ends as the party makes their way back to their ship.

### New Information

It is implied that Mombies are created from pregnant people.

## Memorable Quotes

**Matt**: I like to think that the reason the spombie is now mesmerized to Z is because she's covered in her own blood and missing an arm.
**Natalia**: Oh yeah. She's just going to adopt me as one of her children now. She doesn't know the difference. See she's not going to attack me anymore, this is all part of my master plan. I am the Trojan Horse.

**Rell**: Hey Martle you might wanna give Z a hand.
**Natalia**: A left one specifically?
**Rebecca**: Nice.
**Jason**: She's unarmed.

**Natalia**: You know, if I lose both my legs, my replacement legs could be longer.

**Rell**: Theran, that's - that's not a computer.
**Theran**: I don't know how to use computers, I know how to check bodies.

## Trivia

* Matt's first crit against Z resulted in 1d4 bleeding damage per round and a lost limb. The alternate effect was being stunned, but since Natalia chose that option last time, she had to lose a limb this time; a 1 on a d4 roll specified her left arm. His next crit was heavy bleeding, so she went up to 2d4 per round. The third crit was a headshot, but there was confusion over whether it was a ranged-only effect, so he drew another card: another lost limb. Matt gave Natalia the choice between another lost limb and 3d4 bleeding damage total, and she chose to lose a leg. His fourth crit was a concussion.
* Z used Graceful Slash to charm several zombies during this fight, which Matt allowed for this episode but said after this wouldn't work, since charming dead things doesn't make sense.

## Stats

(DM)
(Rell)
(Theran)
(Martle)
(Z)
 **Nat 20s** | 6
 **Nat 1s** | 0