EXPLORERS WANTED Getting Wired Transcript provided by Ria Couoh 1:32 AUDIO: NINTH WORLD BY DAVID STERLING PLAYS THEN FADES. DANIEL Welcome to Explorers Wanted. We are a weekly Numenera actual play podcast. I will be your humble GM, Daniel Andrlik. With me today is Stace Babcock. STACE Hey! I didn’t expect to go first! DANIEL Sampson Davis. SAMPSON It just hit me like a few seconds ago that I’m both missing Dune premiere and Critical Role Campaign 3 premiere right now. I’m missing that right now. STACE Time doesn’t exist in this asynchronous world. SAMPSON (sigh) And I love recording, but I’m very acutely aware that I’m missing nerd culture. Right now. DANIEL Maybe this will be the nerd culture, Sampson. Some day. STACE (indistinguishable) SAMPSON (chuckles) Just very anxious. I need to be everywhere. DANIEL You’re making sacrifices for your art. SAMPSON I need to be consuming all the content right now. Not enjoying it, just consuming. STACE Just consuming. SAMPSON Just consuming! (sigh) DANIEL Alex Finn! ALEX What is your garlic safe word? I would like to know. SAMPSON (laughs) ALEX It’s important. DANIEL That’s true! Hey, before we get started, this episode is sponsored by… Die Hard Dice. Yes! That’s right, we’re like one of the big kids. We’ve got a sponsor and everything! Do you like the math rocks that go clicky-clack? Of course, you do! Do you need more of them? What kind of question is that? Of course, you do! Die Hard Dice makes a wide variety of excellent metal and polymer dice sets. They are running a sale right now from November 5th through December 20th, and during that time, if you use our offer code EXPLORE!, you’ll get 15% off your order. We’ll get a little bit of that as well, but the important thing is we’ll save you some money for your holiday shopping. Get yourself a nice gift! Get a gift for your friends who are also math rock gremlins. Make somebody smile with a metal dice set. We are very excited to be accepted as Dicefiliates with Die Hard Dice and, yeah, go check them out! dieharddice.com, use offer code EXPLORE!, get 15% off your order! Thanks to Die Hard Dice for supporting Explorers Wanted! DANIEL So! How are your characters feeling right now? SAMPSON Little anxious, little nervous. Same old, same old. STACE Nix is pretty confident. DANIEL Mhmm. Okay. STACE Same- (laughs) Same old, same old. (chuckles) SAMPSON Yeah, that’s pretty standard for us, I think. DANIEL Yeah. Speaking of which, uhm, what did happen last time? Sampson? SAMPSON The last time, uh, the fucking Terminator showed up. And by Terminator, I mean G-ma. G-ma showed up, and then we hid… Well, we hid first, and then G-ma showed up, and then she looked around, and she said something that implied, basically said that she was waiting for Nix. Probably at the Proving Grounds. So, then G-ma left, and then fucking Cha-Cha did her thing, and then the terminator came back. But then, after waiting very tensely, tense silence, she left. But then Cha-Cha, with her shenanigans, mutated Prentiss and fucked up her face badly. So, after that, we made camp in the cave, Stannis arrives. Said Selah –question mark in my notes, I don’t know what that was about… Do we know who Se… DANIEL (cross-talking) … lah? SAMPSON Selah? Which one is Selah? DANIEL Yeah, he was the… contact that you guys had when you first got to Shallamas. He had the antiquities shop. SAMPSON Ooh. (mumbled) Right, right, right. Right. DANIEL So he was the… the Guardian that you guys were sent to talk to there. SAMPSON Got it. DANIEL You know that he is sort of… vaguely in charge of Stannis. SAMPSON Gotcha. Alright. Well, then Stannis arrived, and we made a quick little plan to scout around the Proving Grounds. So, we traveled and did that. Prentiss went on her own way, so it is just us three and… Stannis. Looking around, we see that there are guards at the Proving Grounds, but they’re beefier than normal. One is apparently called a Crusher? That’s cool. We also see, well, at least Nix is able to see, that Hey You is there, but there’s also some… They’re like Naverene guards? That tried to get in? STACE Yeah. SAMPSON But then got turned away. DANIEL Mhmm. SAMPSON So, that all looks very interesting. Other than that, Proving Grounds is totally normal. They’re as keen to fights as normal. Just… walking to the bathroom, get into a fight. Proving Grounds! And then Dili and Nix started talking about like what they were going to do, and that it probably wasn’t a good idea for Dili to go in because he’d get his assed kicked, and Nix is totally going to be fine by herself. But while they’re talking, Bastian shows up, and Cha-Cha went to talk to Bastian, and got fucking kidnapped! But we don’t know about that, so… you will hear Alex talk about how that goes for her. DANIEL (giggles) SAMPSON Cha-Cha at least hears that… it’s now time to repay the favor. And that’s where we ended! DANIEL So, that’s what Cha-Cha’s just heard. Nix and Dili, you are in the scouting position. Just you guys and Stannis right now. SAMPSON And to be clear we heard nothing about what happened to Cha-Cha? Just… No. Nothing. Got it. Nope. DANIEL Not really. You sort of like… barely heard her voice in the distance over there but then… there hasn’t been any sound for a while. SAMPSON Okay. (as Dili) “So… I’ve asked this again and again, I just… I just need it one more time. What’s your goal? Like how long are you going to be in there? What are you… what are you going to do? In there?” STACE (as Nix) “That is really hard to say, Dili, honestly. One, if I go in and it’s like… turns out they have all turned against me? Probably what I would try to do is… AUDIO: NEOPHYTE BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS. STACE (continued) “I would try to get Hey You to do things for me…? Maybe try to find my mentor or something like that? You know, or run for my life? Whichever. And then if they are friendly… I mean, I’m just going to hang out! Going to go to the library. I’m going to read some books… you know.” SAMPSON “Okay, so… This will either take five minutes or… What? Like a day? Two days? Or… what are you thinking?” STACE “I’m a slow reader, Dili, so…” SAMPSON “Okay, so five minutes or a week. Got it.” (mumbles) “Got it, got it. Got it.” STACE “Yeah. I would say like at least a few days. Because I’m at least going to wait until, uh… Until, like, it’s dark, you know? Before I try to sneak into the infirmary. So, while I’m waiting, I might just go, like, see what’s up with those guards? See where they’re hanging out, how they’re spending their time.” SAMPSON “Okay. Should we come with you with that? On that one?” STACE “Oh, yeah. That’d be great.” SAMPSON “Stannis, is that… cool with you? Or is that… a little too close for comfort?” DANIEL (as Stannis) “This is as close as I can get. I can… meet you either here or somewhere else in the area.” STACE “Yeah… The Naverene guards, I mean. Like… wherever they are.” DANIEL “I’m not getting any closer to the Proving Guards.” SAMPSON “Okay, but if the guards are… farther away from the Proving Grounds, do you want to hang out with us?” DANIEL “I can wait for you guys here until you find out if they’re… going. I… I can’t risk getting closer right now.” SAMPSON “Oh—” STACE (overlapping) “Oh, they turned away from the Main Gates, so I assumed that our group is not really near the Main Gate… So, I thought that the—" DANIEL “No.” STACE (continued) “—Naverene guards were farther away from the Proving Ground than us.” DANIEL “They… they are, but it’s… you have to kind of, like, go around. Like, how far around are you going to go to follow them? Hm?” STACE “Yeah, fairly deep into the tree line.” DANIEL Yeah, so basically what Stannis will say is: “It’s going to be better if… this is a good scouting position. I can’t go in the Proving Grounds, but maybe I could keep an eye out and, if I see Amaranth, I could let you know somehow.” STACE “Oh yeah. That would be great, yeah. Honestly, I’m… I’m good. Dili, like, don’t feel like you have to stay. Like, if you want to go train… Yeah, train, man! Training is great!” SAMPSON (chuckles) “Yeah, it looks great.” And Dili looks at the Proving Grounds where… I guess, can he see that another fight is breaking out, probably? DANIEL Oh, yeah. Yeah. There’s like organized sparring happening at the practice circles, but then there’s also just like random matches starting here and there. SAMPSON “Wow. I think those two were making out before they started fighting. Insane.” STACE And Nix twists her neck to look. (laughs) DANIEL (laughs) STACE “Those two? Alright, yeah. Yeah.” SAMPSON (laughs, then sobers up) “I’m… I’ll at least help out with the Naverene guards because that shouldn’t take too long, I don’t think. Definitely before nightfall and before we check if you can even get inside the Proving Grounds without them… trying to punch you. In the non-Proving Grounds way! In the non-cool way!” STACE “I mean… that’s like… not the only way into the Proving Grounds, Dili, you know?” SAMPSON “I don’t.” STACE “Oh, right. You wouldn’t know.” (SAMPSON laughs.) STACE “But like… if you want to get in and out, you can usually get in and out, yeah.” DANIEL Okay. AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES AWAY. DANIEL So, you guys heading to where you saw the Naverene guards? STACE Yeah! DANIEL Okay! So… I assume you guys are going to attempt a stealthy approach. SAMPSON Yeah! And before we go, he’s like: “Yeah, also I guess maybe Stannis you should stay in case Cha-Cha… Someone should come… Someone should make sure Cha-Cha comes back, right? Should we check on Cha-Cha? Cha-Cha’s fine!” DANIEL “I’ll wait here. If I’m compromised, I’ll try to… leave a sign for you somehow.” SAMPSON “Oh! Right! Dope. Dope, dope, dope!” DANIEL “Good luck.” SAMPSON “You too!” DANIEL And she pulls out like… a small, like, concentration fidget toy and starts fiddling with it in her hands. SAMPSON (chuckles) DANIEL And you guys head down the way. I’m going to need you guys to give me Stealth rolls of… SAMPSON Dili just… does his usual Shadowy Illusion thing just to help with Stealth rolls. DANIEL Okay, so you both have an Asset. Dili is trained in Stealth, so… your Stealth roll target is starting off at a 12. So, for Dili it is a 6, for Nix is a 9 before Effort. STACE Nix will spend a level of Effort. SFX: DICE ROLLS. SAMPSON Uh oh. STACE Whoa… Uh oh. SAMPSON Dili is going to spend an XP, I think. STACE Yeah, I’m going to spend an XP also. DANIEL (laughs) SAMPSON Three steps away from Stannis we both fall flat on our face. STACE (laughs) So fast! DANIEL And just slowly roll down the hill just shouting at each other. STACE Alright, this time I got an 11, which is a success cause I spent every… SAMPSON I rolled a two and then I rolled a four, so… DANIEL (slowly) Wow… STACE I rolled a 2 the first time, which would have been an Intrusion… DANIEL Got any XP to spend? SAMPSON I do but… Alright, fuck it. I’m just going to get rid of the XP because… it’s going to get in the way later. I think. AUDIO: BACKGROUND NOISE OF AIR AND SOME BIRDS IN THE DISTANCE. SFX: DICE ROLLS. SAMPSON Eighteen! There we go! STACE Damn! DANIEL Okay. You guys both covertly approach this group of guards… SFX: STEPS OVER A GRASSY SURFACE. DANIEL (continued) They’ve got one official there. They are not far from the Proving Grounds. They are literally just enough in the tree line so that it’s not easy to spot them from outside the tree line. STACE How many? DANIEL There are about… ten soldiers and two officials, and as you approach, you can hear the officials talking. One of them says… He’s a sort of like middle aged dude with like a… bowl cut, blond hair, and sort of… a really excessively pale skin. Like almost unnaturally pale. And then the other figure is a shorter man and he’s got red hair and dark skin. The taller one is definitely the one that approached the Gates earlier. The entrance earlier? AUDIO: DEDUCTION, CONSPIRACY BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS. DANIEL “They said they haven’t seen her yet, and that we’re supposed to stay in the woods. It’s ridiculous, I hate this waiting game!” And the other one says: (sigh) “We have it on good authority, she’ll show. I still think this is the best lead.” And the other one says: “I don’t trust those cultists.” STACE (long, indignant gasp) Nix is silent but affronted. DANIEL “We need to be ready to move, and we need our own eyes on what’s going on in there!” And the shorter one says: “They won’t let us in. They don’t want to… be seen with the Queen’s guards here. We offered to disguise the men, but they just laughed.” SAMPSON Got their ass kicked, yeah. STACE (laughing) Tell me more! DANIEL The other one just says: “This is the right approach. I’m sure of it. We get Nix, and from her we find out where her parents are… and the Queen’s boon is ours.” Reminder, Nix’s bounty… If you dig the hatchet and brought all three Sladeks into the Queen, in addition to all the bounties, you would get a boon. Anything she could grant to you. STACE Yes. SAMPSON Quick question, the pale one is in charge? Is that…? DANIEL It’s not clear if one of them is in charge of the other. SAMPSON Okay. DANIEL These two appear to be equals. SAMPSON The pale one and the tall one? That’s all I have in my notes. DANIEL The pale one is the tall one. SAMPSON Oh, the pale one is the tall one. Ooh. (mumbled) Pale one and short one. DANIEL Mhmm. In fact, there’s sort of a little bit of… Even though they’re being perfectly civil, the way they look at each other and the way that they move, there’s clearly a little bit of subtle competition between them. Like, they’re working together, but if you’re thinking of it in terms of a royal court, these two are in the same level so… neither one really wants to let the other one kind of… fall into a dominant role. SAMPSON Rivals to lovers, I get it. Yeah. (laughs) So, from what they’re talking about, it seems like… they’re definitely Naverene guards, right? At least as far as Dili can tell, they look like official guards? DANIEL They look like Queen’s Guards now that you’re up close. SAMPSON And is that weird that the Queen’s guards have kind of seemingly gone off on their own? DANIEL It’s weird to have… Right. So, these guys don’t look necessarily like guards. These guys look like two other, like, effectively members of the Court. They are not civil servants like Nix’s family was, these are people that have sort of inherited a title, and they are with what appears to be a small detachment from the Queen’s guards. SAMPSON Oh. DANIEL It is super weird. Dili, you didn’t think the Queen’s guards really ever left Charmonde, because like the whole part of the propaganda is that they protect the Queen, the fact that they’re in Charmonde is part of what, in addition to the secret technologies of the warfare that they have imbedded in the city – supposedly. Those things are what help keep Charmonde safe from any sort of outside invasion or anything like that. SAMPSON And even at her most paranoid in the past, like, the Queen’s guards have never gone outside of the city. They’ve always been close, right? DANIEL As far as I think Dili would know, because Dili was kind of just living his life as a shopkeeper before that. SAMPSON Yeah. DANIEL So, I don’t think… If they left, that would be something that would be a bigger matter of, like, intrigue that I don’t think Dili was operating on. STACE Nix is specialized in Intrigue. SAMPSON Just a nat20, that roll. Let’s do it. DANIEL Yeah. Okay. So, you’re specialized, so that will be a 6 for Nix. I’m giving you an extra Asset for that, which is why it’s down to 6 because… STACE Okay. DANIEL (continued) You come from the Sladek family and even if they weren’t part of the ruling Court, they at least knew how part of the government works. SFX: DICE ROLLS. STACE Eighteen! DANIEL Okay! So, the Queen’s guards are definitely like Charmonde’s… elite. Whether or not they are the elite of the whole of Naverene is another question, but they are definitely like… These soldiers, they are definitely supposed to be protecting the Queen. To your knowledge, the fact that a group of them were sent away from Charmonde with these nobles on a mission suggest that the Queen sees whatever their mission is as important enough as something that she considers a personal threat. STACE Oh! Aw… Nix wants to reassure her! I really want to take them out. I’m trying to decide if Nix would do that. SAMPSON On a scale of one to Sardukaur, how elite are they? STACE I believe… DANIEL From Dili’s perspective? I don’t think Dili would have any clue. SAMPSON But from my perspective, are they dangerous? Is Nix an Atreides? Are these guys Harkonnen? I’m missing Dune right now. I’m sorry. (laughs) DANIEL Oh, Dili… give me… I’m going to walk you through my thinking here. It would be a 9 for somebody like Nix to start with but, Dili, first of all, you’re not like… you’re not super… Like, you’ve gotten better and better, but you don’t necessarily have an understanding of the technique of combat, per se? So, you’re hindered on that, it’s a 12. You have a (unintelligible) on brain, so it’s a 15. Fifteen… some sort of Intellectual. You can propose a skill that might apply that would help you or not. SAMPSON I have remembering and memorizing, but I haven’t… that’s… DANIEL Yeah, this is… this is more like whether or not you can draw a conclusion. SAMPSON Yeah, other than that I just have the Intellect, so that would be a 9 with the edge. SFX: DICE ROLLS. DANIEL Mhmm. SAMPSON Oh my god! An 18! DANIEL Okay. They’re… from everything that you know and just from sighting the… the actual guards. The nobles, like, you’re not particularly worried about them. They might have weaponry but, you don’t… nothing seems odd there. These guards, like, they are supposed to be the elite. They definitely look tough. They do not look lazy, they look to be on alert. Because sort of what we’re doing here is that you’re sizing them up and they don’t scare you like G-ma does? SAMPSON Mhmm. SAMPSON Or Salianna does, but they definitely come off like… Your instincts tell you that these guys are dangerous. They’re… they’re professionals. That’s not to say that any one of them is necessarily more dangerous than your friend Nix, but there are like 10 of them. STACE Oh, there are ten of them! Okay! (SAMPSON and STACE both laugh.) STACE I thought there were like three! SAMPSON I think Dili picks up on the movement. Like… he’s not privy to like combat as you said, but I think he still like looks at them and then starts like… almost taking notes in his head, as if he were going to like emulate these movements in an automaton. Noting like the efficiency and, like, the… grace, there’s no waste in movement, everything is perfectly balanced, and then from that he’s like: “Oh. These guys… bad. These guys…” (through clenched teeth) “Nix, we should back off!” STACE “Poor to middling, Dili.” So, yes. Ah, so using Nix’s intrigue, what I think I would like her to do is… she’s going to pull out a sheet of paper from her journal. Using, hopefully, if it fits you think, Daniel, her Intrigue skill, she’s going to like… her best approximation of G-ma’s handwriting. It’s not… She’s not trying to make it a perfect forgery or anything. And she writes “Nix is mine. Amaranth Stone.” DANIEL (softly) Ooh. STACE And she wraps it around, like, ties it to a rock. Her general plan is to… give Dili time to get away. She’s going to throw it to midst of their camp and then use Fleet of Foot, take that action and move a long distance away. DANIEL So, you’re going to juice it up with extra too? STACE Yeah. DANIEL Okay! So, I love this idea so I’m going to give you two assets for it, off the bat. STACE Alright! DANIEL That brings it down to a nine… You are specialized, so that’s a 3 for Nix. STACE Okay… Six! DANIEL Okay! Yeah, so you toss it in the midst— SFX: A DULL THUD. DANIEL (continued) You’re running away. Since you’re moving so fast, I mean, you hear them react when the rock first comes in. Out of the corner of your eye as you’re darting away, Nix, you can see that one of the guards, almost as fast as you, shoots an arrow— SFX: A QUICK WHOOSHING SOUND AS AN ARROW IS RELEASED, FOLLOWED BY A CRACK OF WOOD AND UNDULATING, SOFT WOODEN TREMORS OF THE ARROW’S SHAFT AFTER HITTING THE TARGET. DANIEL (continued) And it strikes a tree, which is where you would have been after you threw the rock if you hadn’t moved. STACE (blows air) Alright, maybe middling to superior. DANIEL And he… Yeah, you know for a fact that he wouldn’t have been able to see you, like… that was a guess based off where the rock came and that he fired of in. But yeah, you get away after that and… what do you guys want to do now? STACE On the walk back, Nix is just going to say: “Yeah, so, Dili, I’m thinking like… maybe the Society is not on my side, based on that conversation so… probably going to do a lot of sneaking. Probably going to take me a little bit of time, I’m thinking.” SAMPSON “Okay… Uhm.. Okay, uhm, what are… What’s… How… What cyphers do you have? I know you have that… bulk of giant growth. That’s not what it is, but that’s how I remember it as.” STACE “Oh, yeah. My growth harness?” SAMPSON “That’s the one.” STACE Nix is like wearing it on the outside of her clothes, for like ready activation. SAMPSON Mhmm. STACE And then… “I got this electric glove? Yeah, it does a… an additional damage…” Wait, no. They’re telling… (laughs) Nix wouldn’t talk like that! Uhm… But for Sampson, uh, it does +1 Damage and +3 Electric Damage upon activation. So like +1 Damage passively. SAMPSON Was that glove a cypher or an artifact? STACE It’s an Artifact… DANIEL Artifact! STACE Oh, so she only has… She has two artifacts and one cypher. SAMPSON Okay. “So, I have a projector that will like… at least put up an image for an hour that might help you? I also have war mites that will… distract somebody if you need to run. Like… what…?” Cause your cypher limit is like… two, right? STACE Nope! Up to three… SAMPSON Up to three? Okay. “Do you want both of these? ‘Cause I feel like you’re going to need them.” STACE “Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would love them, Dili, honestly.” SAMPSON “Okay!” Once we’re at a… safe distance and all that, we’ll hand over the Projector, which… I don’t know the level, but it projects an image… DANIEL Mhmm. SAMPSON (continued) That fits within 25 square feet for one hour. And war mites which… (sing-song) What do those do? DANIEL Those are level four. They attack whatever they’re shot against for one damage for four rounds. SAMPSON Yes. DANIEL And it hinders them while they’re doing that. SAMPSON Yeah! Medium range, single target. STACE “Alright! Thanks, Dili. It’s going to be weird but, uh, so… Are you going to try and meet back here when you’re done with Stannis or are you going to like go straight to Willem’s Foe…? What are you thinking?” SAMPSON “Uhm… I guess I’m… I’ll be going ahead towards Willem’s Foe? Just because… No judgement on you, but I feel like, once you’re done here, this will be a not safe place to be for a little bit.” STACE “Oh, yeah. For sure. Probably! Yeah.” SAMPSON “Yeah, so… Willem’s Foe is probably the better place to meet up.” STACE “Alright! Well, uh, don’t neglect your cardio, Dili.” SAMPSON “I promise I won’t.” Dan, I’m lying. DANIEL (laughs) STACE Nix may or may not know, but either way she doesn’t care. (laughs) DANIEL Yeah, okay. STACE Alright! DANIEL So, Dili is going back to meet up with Stannis and Nix is going to make her way to the Proving Ground? STACE No, Nix is going to wait until nightfall, and she’s going to watch some of the older, uh, recruits to see how they sneak in and out of the compound at night. DANIEL Ooh, I like that. STACE So, she’ll probably go back to the scouting place with Dili and then wait until nightfall. DANIEL Okay, so you go back to the scouting place. Stannis is still there fidgeting, but she’s clearly been watching everything closely and says: “No sign of anything right now.” SAMPSON “Has Cha-Cha come back?” DANIEL “No, I haven’t seen Cha-Cha.” SAMPSON How long were we gone, roughly? DANIEL Maybe an hour? SAMPSON “Is that weird? Should we…? I’m just going to go take a look where Cha-Cha was. I’m just going to go take a quick look.” AUDIO: ANTICIPATION (AMBIENCE) BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. DANIEL So, you go over there, and you see some really odd stains in the ground. SAMPSON “Uh oh.” DANIEL But you do not see any signs of Cha-Cha. SAMPSON Would that be like a Nature check or something to figure out what those… DANIEL Yeah, it could be Nature. SAMPSON (continued) … stains— Oh, okay. DANIEL It’s something Intellect based. Probably a 9. SAMPSON That’s a twelve… a nine, six… So, six… SFX: DICE ROLLS. SAMPSON That’s cocked… SFX: DICE ROLLS AGAIN. SAMPSON That’s 14! DANIEL It is definitely not… Cha-Cha’s blood. (amused) You’ve seen Cha-Cha’s blood before. And you’ve seen all of your friends’ blood at this point. SAMPSON Mhmm. DANIEL And whatever this is, it’s the remnants of something that’s… It’s blood-like, but whatever it is, it’s not from a human. SAMPSON “Oh. Okay.” Dili just stands up from crouching over it, looks around to see anything, then heads back to Nix and Stannis and he comes up: “Uh… something happened, and I don’t know what but… Cha-Cha’s not here, I don’t think.” STACE “Yeah, I kind of figured she was going somewhere, Dili, considering how she, like, set a rendezvous and all that before she left?” SAMPSON (sigh) “I… Yeah, but…” (groans in frustration) “It was fine when we were in Charmonde and she did that, but now it’s… it’s… I don’t know, it feels weird out here in the wild so close to the Proving Grounds.” STACE “If I can, Dili, I will check back here before I leave and see if Cha-Cha’s back.” SAMPSON “Okay. Alright.” Then I… I guess we wait until nightfall? STACE Oh, if Dili and Stannis want to. SAMPSON I think Dili would at least wait and see that Nix gets… gets in just fine. DANIEL Mhmm. SAMPSON Like, at least wait like an hour after Nix leaves and then if there’s no alarms going off then… assume that means Nix is fine. DANIEL Okay, so you go ahead and wait until nightfall. Not much other activity that you guys see. Nix, it’s now nightfall. You’ve seen some of these students come and go. STACE How are they getting in and out? DANIEL So, most of them seem to be doing some… It’s kind of cute, definitely something… the kind of thing you’d assume an Aerial probably thought of first. STACE Ah. DANIEL They’re literally like… They’re usually, like, in groups of three and one will like jump into the other’s shoulder, and then the third person will run up the two of them and then get a boost off the top of something? And then they kind of… But it’s also clearly like… not necessary to do it this way. STACE (laughs) DANIEL Because one of them could have climbed it, because clearly the last person still gets out. All they would have to do… bounce off a post to do it. STACE Well, then. I think what Nix would do is wait for the coast to be clear. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE She’s going to pick a likely looking, you know, spot near the infirmary if possible, and she’s going to use, potentially for the first time this campaign, Obstacle Running. SAMPSON (laughs) O-ho-ho. DANIEL Mhmm. Okay! But you’re also doing it stealthy, right? AUDIO: ORC ENCLAVE BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. STACE Yeah, she will try to be, you know, quiet. Wait for nobody to be looking, in a shadow, like, whatever. DANIEL Okay. Let’s do this. Let’s do the Obstacle Running part first, and then depending on how well you do that will kind of affect where you are stealth-wise. So, for the Obstacle Running part, I think, especially with your background and skill, like… I mean, it’s been a while since you’ve been here, so you’re just kind of going off what you’ve seen but let’s say it’s a … nine. So, you’ve got Obstacle Running so you’re down to a six. STACE Mhmm. DANIEL And you can either use Might or Speed. STACE I mean, Might because I have that free level of Might. DANIEL Okay. It’s down… down to a 3. STACE Four. DANIEL Okay. You’re able to navigate these obstacles without any problem, so now give me a Stealth roll of 12. STACE I think Nix is going to be confident in her stealthiness. DANIEL Yeah, and because you have been watching in advance you could have known where the current guards are, so I’ll make that a nine. STACE Okay, so a six with her Confidence… I’ll do a one Speed effort… Twelve! DANIEL Okay! Dili, from a distance you can see Nix kind of like do this, like… Once again, one of her little parkour moves and she flips over this, like, little wall barrier and just lands utterly, clearly silently inside of there. STACE And then she turns, and she gives Dili a thumbs up. (SAMPSON and STACE laugh.) STACE Oh, yeah! Because Dili can see in the dark! (laughing) So, he would… actually be able… to see… SAMPSON Mm. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE (embarrassed) Oh. SAMPSON Dili’s just probably like… “Why is she doing that? She’s going to give away her position. What?” STACE (laughs) DANIEL “What are you talking about? I can’t see.” SAMPSON “But… Ah, it’s nothing… It’s nothing.” (laughs) STACE Yeah, and Nix will, uh, take a… you know, as circuitous as it needs to be, route to the infirmary. DANIEL Okay, so you go into the infirmary… (mutters) It’s probably going to have to be another Stealth roll. STACE Okay. DANIEL It’s nine… You’re trained, so that’s a… 6. Well, not trained, but Confident right now. STACE Nine! DANIEL Okay! You make your way to the infirmary. It’s surprisingly empty in here, normally there are more people, you know, especially this time of year when there to be more students incoming. But really, you just see one traveler on the far side who’s just asleep and snoring. They’ve got like a cast on their arm. And then there’s Hey You, who seems to be sort of lounging against this wall, with this… his right leg is in a splint, and he is just writing in a journal. STACE Yeah. DANIEL The whole room smells of medicinal herbs, so it’s a little… a little pungent. STACE Thank you. So, yeah, she will approach Hey You quietly, squat down next to him and say: “Hey, Hey You. Sh.” DANIEL He looks at you and his mouth starts opening wide, and then he catches himself. And he looks over at the sleeping dude and looks back at you like: (as Hey You) “Nix, uhm… you’re here.” STACE “Yeah, man. I, uhm… I’ve been investigating some shit and… I don’t… I think that they have turned against me.” AUDIO: MOURNFUL BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. STACE And Nix will like lay out what she heard from the Guards, she’ll lay out the whole, like, what she found out about the Plates… She’s going to fill Hey You in completely. DANIEL He just kind of sits there nodding and is like: “Yeah, that’s uh… that’s rough. Sorry to hear that, Nix.” He keeps twisting his fingers like in his hand, sort of like… like little practice wrist stretches and things like that. STACE Yeah, she wants the Insight. DANIEL Okay, so… this will be a twelve, and I believe you’re specialized in anything social, so it’s a 6. STACE Eleven. DANIEL He definitely… knows all this information about like… or at least the situation about, like, as far as the Order actually being on the lookout for you, and those guards out there. He’s apparently aware of it. He doesn’t look happy about it, and you can tell that, like, right now what is going on in his head is he is… struggling to decide because he knows, kind of like you would feel in this situation a little bit, like, he knows he should be raising an alarm right now. But he doesn’t want to, but he knows he really should. STACE (laughing) All of the tenets! SAMPSON Yeah, dude. (unintelligible) STACE (lowly) Yeah, we’ll… We’ll get there if we need to. Yeah, we’ll get there if we need to. So, Nix will say. “Yeah, I can kind of tell that, uh, you knew… You knew that they were looking for me already, dude, and uh…” DANIEL “Yeah, they…” (whispered) “They said it when I got here.” STACE “You’re going to turn me in?” DANIEL He kind of looks at you and he says: “I… honestly don’t know, Nix.” STACE “You know, you got to… you’ve got to answer to your own conscious… conscience, uh, Hey You, but uh… All I’m going to ask from you is… is a little bit of time.” DANIEL He kind of looks wearily over at the sleeping figure there and looks back at you and says: “How much do you need?” STACE “I’ve got to get into the library. I’ve got to figure out how to save my mom. I don’t even know where to start looking in there, and I thought maybe…” DANIEL (soft sight) STACE (continued) “Josah might still be on my side.” DANIEL He frowns and is like: “Maybe. The only Pathfinder I’ve talked to about it is Pathfinder Geralt. I asked him about it when I got here like I said I was going to, but I haven’t… I haven’t seen her.” STACE “What did he say? Like… have you ever heard of them turning a Traveler over to the Queen? Like…” DANIEL “No, I haven’t, but… he said something about… he has to think about the Travelers as a whole, not just… individuals.” STACE (sadly) “We’re supposed to be a family, man, and, uh, family doesn’t turn each other in. So, uh, yeah, that’s disappointing. Yeah, that’s real disappointing.” DANIEL “Hey, like… Like I said, I don’t… I don’t know if Josah Kinn is the same, I just know what Geralt said. And I did my best to play it off as just having seen you in passing, I didn’t really go into much detail either, I just said I bumped into you in the Riage.” STACE “Yeah, man. I mean, like I said, do… do what you’ve got to do. Uhm… You’re my friend, you know. Maybe we can meet later in… friendly environments?” DANIEL “You should honestly try to talk to Josah if you can.” STACE “Where, uh… Where are her rooms now?” DANIEL “Ah… As far as I know, the same place as always. I… I never spent much time over there myself, but everyone else seems to be where I left them last time I was here.” STACE “Alright, and uh…” DANIEL “Nix, just… do me a favor.” STACE “What?” DANIEL He kind of lifts his chin up to you and kind of… shows you the side of his face and says: “Make it look good.” STACE Nix puts on her Electric Glove. DANIEL Are you activating it? STACE She doesn’t activate it. No. DANIEL Okay, okay. STACE Uh, but I assume it will still leave like some sort of… burn, because it’s got the one passive damage that it does. DANIEL Mhmm. Yeah, and it’s unstable. Yeah. So, Hey You is not offering any resistance, so this is like… STACE Yeah. DANIEL A six for an average person, and for you it’s … You’ve trained in arms so it’s three. And you’ve got a free level in Might effort, so it’s a gimme. So… STACE But she’ll look down at Hey You and be like: (softly) “If I don’t, uh… If I don’t make it out of this, make sure… Make sure you find my journal.” And she just… Yeah, hits him right in the, you know… SFX: A STRONG, HEAVY THUD. STACE (continued) Corner of the jaw and knocks him out. DANIEL Okay. Yeah. He’s out. The bruise is already blossoming on his face. AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES OUT. STACE Alright. AUDIO: LONG NOTE THREE BY KEVIN MACLEOD PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. DANIEL So, Cha-Cha. You have had that moment of vertigo after you squeeze Bastian’s toy and got poked with a… little blade. After that vertigo settled, you found yourself in this synth room with these two doors. They’ve both got sort of wide, red grids painted on them, and you’ve heard Buddy-Cop say: (as Buddy-Cop) “Cha-Cha! It’s time to return that favor.” ALEX (as Cha-Cha) “I mean, wasn’t that something you can just tell me about and not say “oh hey, give this, like, toy to Cha-Cha but don’t tell her about, like, all of the no-no zones”, and then she touches the no-no zones and wakes up… not in the forest. DANIEL “It was convenient to bring you here.” ALEX “Is this an actual place or is this like a… feeling?” DANIEL “Oh, this is… an actual place, Cha-Cha.” ALEX “So, uhm, what is the favor?” DANIEL “Well, we’ll get to that. Why don’t you follow me?” And he begins drifting towards one of those doors, and it opens as he approaches. Then, Buddy-Cop is this tall spectral figure of just… ebbing and flame in his eyes and mouth, and his mouth is like… got those little, it’s like… He’s essentially got a predator mouth! And he starts floating down, there’s a hallway on the other side. The hallway is not synth and appears to be rough stone. ALEX “Seems like a pretty, uhm, established place.” DANIEL “It’s very old, yes.” ALEX (dubious) “Did you just recently get it or has this been yours for a while? Because, you know, when you get on the market for these places, you really got to snap them up. You want character.” DANIEL (amused) “The answer to that question, Cha-Cha, is… very complicated. I’m very familiar with this space but no, I haven’t been here long.” ALEX “So, is this like a reincarnation thing where like… you died and you came back, and then you came back to your old house?” DANIEL “No, Cha-Cha. I’m just leading you to the door.” ALEX “Okay, but if like… down the road, you’re like “jk, I was always here, this is not even my final form”, I’m going to remind you that you’re… This is now a lie.” DANIEL “I have never and will never lie to you, Cha-Cha.” ALEX “Aw. That’s actually really reassuring.” SFX: STEPS CRUNCHING OVER THE GROUND, AS IF ON GRAVEL. ALEX Yeah, I think Cha-Cha’s just going to keep following then. DANIEL So, he leads you down this long corridor… SFX: THE FOLLOWING WORDS ARE INTERSPERSED BY THREE DISTANT, WORDLESS SCREAMS. DANIEL For the most part he doesn’t say anything until he reaches another door, and this door is very odd. It’s flat, like synth, but the coloring’s wrong, like it might be more ceramic. It’s sort of yellowish-white. ALEX Like old ceramic or like “we wanted this to look, you know, special”? DANIEL The coloration does not appear to be by design. At least, there’s a lot of randomness to it, and you notice that there are spots on it that seem somewhat porous. ALEX Mmkay. DANIEL In fact, as you look closer, in some ways it looks a bit like petrified bone. ALEX You know, there’s like a weird myth that in ancient times, if you put your blood in someone’s, like, your ancestor’s bone and it didn’t absorb, you weren’t, like, their child? But like… bone is porous, so like… how would it not absorb? DANIEL I did not know that. That’s interesting. ALEX Because rubbing things on your bones, that makes it… non-porous. DANIEL Mhmm. ALEX But you can only do it with old bones. DANIEL Mm! ALEX (laughs) DANIEL Okay! (chuckles) ALEX I guess, Cha-Cha’s going to feel up the old bone door. DANIEL Yeah, it feels like… bone, but it’s been clearly like… There’s a little bit of slickness to it, like so… so something has sealed it. As if somebody’s treated it in order to keep it from degrading any further. ALEX They did that suede treatment on the door, so it’s not absorb— Yeah, I got that. DANIEL Exactly. And Buddy-Cop motions with a hand, and the door opens inwardly, and on the other side, standing at about just a little shorter than you, Bastian with his purple smoky eyes says: (as Buddy-Cop) “Okay, I’ve got… I’ve got everything on lock heading up. We’re alone.” ALEX “Uh, what? We… We’re going?” DANIEL “There were some… Well, we’re alone now. I took care of the others.” ALEX (wary) “Ok—O—Okay.” I guess Cha-Cha’s going to follow them very like “what is happening”. What… What is…? DANIEL So, Buddy-Cop starts going up this set of stairs, and Bastian kind of falls next to you along the way and says: “Sorry about not telling you about the toy, but… he said I wasn’t supposed to.” ALEX “I get it, like… Sometimes what people claim is for your own good, but really it’s just like… No. No. But like… you can’t go against them.” DANIEL “Yeah! Yeah, that’s kind of what I think and… I’m excited, Cha-Cha! I like you and… I think we’re going to get to play forever!” ALEX “That will be fun! But like forever literally or forever figuratively? Because we’ll both die.” DANIEL “Oh, I don’t… I’m not sure I can die anymore. Maybe I can. I’m not sure.” ALEX “A fair… thing to say, yeah.” DANIEL “I haven’t really wanted to put it to the test.” AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES OUT. ALEX “I mean, it’s not something that most people want to test because like… it’s kind of permanent.” DANIEL “Right, right. You were hard to find, Cha-Cha! We spent so much time looking for you before I caught up to you.” ALEX (39:08) “Yeah, I mean it’s one of those things were like… being transient in Nature, it’s very hard, too. Like, whole time in a dress?” AUDIO: FOG BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. DANIEL “Oh, yeah, I know that. That… That makes total sense.” You guys reach the top of the stairs and Buddy-Cop motions at another door and Bastian goes over and dutifully opens it. This one is just a plain wooden door, and it leads into a room and there are dead bodies on the floor. Maybe five. Three men. Two women. They look like their throats have been slashed. ALEX “That is…” DANIEL Bastian says: “Sorry, I didn’t have time to clean up.” ALEX “I mean, as long as… Well, actually, I don’t think things can lead back to you, so it’s not a big deal.” DANIEL “Yeah, well, I mean, these guys might be able to figure it out.” And makes a little kicking motion at one of the bodies, kind of indicating a sleeve. There is a strange insignia there of an eye floating above an unfolded tesseract amidst flames. ALEX “Mm! Who are they?” DANIEL “Ah, these annoying people. Call themselves Guardians.” ALEX Oh! They have tattoos now? DANIEL Well, I mean… they’re more like patches on their coats. ALEX Oh, okay, I was just like… (whispered) Wait, what? “So, like… Guardians as in… what Dili and Nix joined? Or just like this is another kind of Guardians? Kind of like… there’s all of these branches of people who are supposed to put out fires, but some are like… not good at it and they just want to do it for, like, the patches.” DANIEL “I don’t know, Cha-Cha. I can’t keep track of this stuff anymore.” ALEX I think Cha-Cha is going to like… try and make a mental note about this insignia? In case she meets up with Nix and Dili and be like: “Heeey.” DANIEL Mhmm. ALEX (sheepish) “Uhm, what do you think of this symbol?” DANIEL Mhmm. So, Bastian and Buddy-Cop continue walking until they reach a huge synth door. It’s so thick, it looks like a vault door.” ALEX Mm. DANIEL And Bastian goes over and walks directly through it, and then there’s a huge clanking sound of locks sliding open. The door opens, and there looks to be… You can see Numenera arrayed here, and it’s almost like these… there are these glowing synth pillars. They have like… veins of purple and red light running through them, and they seem to be sort of book ending this blank darkness. Dark upon dark. It’s as if the darkness wasn’t just a lack of light, it was something that is something tangible in and on itself. Even though it makes absolutely no sense that you should be able to see anything in this darkness, you think you can make out the faint outline of a six-foot-tall rectangle in the center of this blackness that’s the same color as the surrounding blackness. And Buddy-Cop says: “That, Cha-Cha, that’s the Door.” AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES AWAY. DANIEL Dili! So, Stannis is over there with you and you guys see Nix get in, and Stannis looks over to you and says: “So, Dili?” SAMPSON “Uh… We should wait a little bit! Just like an hour, I think. Half hour, maybe? I don’t know! Just like enough… Just in case, like, shit goes down immediately, we’re here to help? But, I mean, after that we should probably… move on to wherever… you’re going to… you’re going to take me for this training thing.” AUDIO: SOLO PIANO BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. DANIEL “Okay, we can wait.” SAMPSON So, we do that. DANIEL While you’re sitting there, Stannis is like: “So, uh, how’s Atalia?” SAMPSON “Uhm, Atalia is… off on her own. I… hope she’s good.” DANIEL “Mm.” SAMPSON “But I… I don’t know. Yeah, a couple days after, uh… I think it was a couple days after we last parted ways, Talia kind of… literally disappeared, like in front of our eyes. She… did something with her grandmother and then just… Poof! So, yeah.” DANIEL “Sorry to hear that.” SAMPSON “Oh, yeah. Nope! Totally fine! I mean, it’s her life. I just… it was very sudden and… we never really got an explanation for it. At least, I didn’t! At least… But, you know, trying to respect… her path, her… journey, I guess.” And Dili will make a weird, derisive face at the Proving Grounds. DANIEL (chuckles) SAMPSON “But yeah. How are you?” DANIEL “Well, I’m… I’m good. From what Vlad told me, it sounds like you’re coming along well.” SAMPSON “I’m alive! Haven’t been eaten yet!” DANIEL “That’s a good start!” SAMPSON “Thanks!” DANIEL “He did say you had some… family troubles?” SAMPSON “Family troubles? What are you…?” (with dawning realization) “Oh, right. Yeah. Did I tell you that I built an automaton for the Knyxos?” DANIEL “Uhm… I don’t remember that coming up amidst everything else we were discussing, no.” SAMPSON “Okay! It’s just… It’s just hard to keep track. Yeah, I didn’t know it at the time, who they were or what it was for, but… I built an automaton based on kind of a variance, a Relentless Reaper part? A Relentless Reaper metal mind they found?” DANIEL She purses her lips as if she would whistle in response to that, but then she catches herself since you guys are, you know, officially hiding. SAMPSON Oh, wait, I haven’t even— (unintelligible) “So, I tried to lock it down, I tried to forget who I was working for, and then I ran. And then, at some points in the process while I was working on it, a connection was established between me and… the intelligence within. I started having visions of… the automaton’s actions.” DANIEL “Oh, yeah, I remember this part! Cha-Cha got really upset!” SAMPSON “Yeah! Right! So… We… When we got back to Charmonde, I think, possibly the day of or the day after… I think maybe the day after we, uh, split paths and we went our separate ways, the automaton found us. Nix kicked its ass, but only its body died and now its persona is inside me. His name is Astor, he uses he/him pronouns.” DANIEL “Wow.” SAMPSON “Yeah.” DANIEL “You have been busy!” SAMPSON “It’s… yeah! Always something. Always… doing something. Yeah.” DANIEL Dili, in your head, you hear Astor say: (as Astor) “I suppose, if that’s the way you want to tell the story.” SAMPSON (chuckles) Dili will suddenly… Again, because Dili now has to speak aloud to answer Astor: “I… I definitely skipped over some details, but I didn’t say anything like… wrong.” DANIEL Stannis is like: “I didn’t say you said anything wrong.” SAMPSON “No, I… I’m sorry. Like… I’m talking to Astor.” (wheezes) DANIEL (as Stannis) “Oh wow. Does this happen a lot?” SAMPSON “Uh… occasionally.” DANIEL (as Astor) “More than I’d like.” SAMPSON (laughs) I think Stannis just sees, like, a grimace like… wash over Dili’s face. Just… (grumbles unhappily) “Anyway, we’re… talking.” DANIEL (as Stannis) (uncertain) “Okay. Cool… Cool, cool, cool.” SAMPSON “Yeah. Does this ever come up in the Guardians?” DANIEL (as Stannis) “Automatons taking… Like… hiding in people’s bodies?” SAMPSON “Yeah. Is this weird?” DANIEL (as Stannis) “Uhm… I mean… Anything can happen in the Eleventh World.” SAMPSON “Yeah, I guess, but… alright. So, yeah. That’s, uhm… what… what I’m dealing with right now.” DANIEL “Wow, that sounds… Uhm… That sounds pretty intense!” SAMPSON “It’s… I don’t really have precedent for it, so… yeah. Not a lot of experience to draw from on this one.” DANIEL “Alright. Well, fair enough.” SAMPSON “Can you give me a preview on the kind of training that we’re going to be doing?” DANIEL “Oh, just the usual stuff. I mean, it’s going to be mostly basic principles and… and things like that. Perhaps some extra combat training, get you… matched up with a partner for that. I mean, honestly, Prentiss told you. I mean, this is mostly an out, right?” SAMPSON “I…” DANIEL “It’s stuff you need to learn, but… Stuff that would help you but…” SAMPSON “I want to be clear: I’m not using this as an out. I don’t want to run away from the dangers that my friends are running into willingly, but I do want to be more of use to them instead of just… throwing up bubbles, which has been effective!” AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES OUT. AUDIO: IN THE AFTERMATH BY MICHAEL ROTHERY PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. DANIEL: Stannis kind of looks at you and raises an eyebrow looks at you and says: “Then why are you going?” SAMPSON “Why am I… going?” DANIEL “I mean, I saw you run into your friends’ help on that ship. I mean I saw you take a Guardian stance, like… Dili, you can’t just go somewhere, train a week and become a warrior.” SAMPSON “Why not?” DANIEL “It takes years of practice and training, Dili. It’s not anything you learn overnight. You… Like… This isn’t like cramming for a test! I mean, if you want to learn how to be more effective in combat situations, if you want to learn more about the different things that the Guardians do or different roles that you might even take on in the future? That’s totally fine! But if you’re looking to be better at combat, if that’s your worry, being able to help your friends when they’re in danger like this? That’s not something… That’s not a short-term goal, Dili.” SAMPSON I think, after a second, Dili kind of looks down and then looks out at the Proving Grounds, then winces as he sees someone get like a tooth knocked out. DANIEL Mhmm. SAMPSON “Well, then… what do I do?” DANIEL “I can’t tell you what to do, Dili.” SAMPSON “Oh.” DANIEL “That’s… That’s your choice. I’m just saying… it’s the things that we do to protect humankind. The mission is enormous, there’s huge responsibility there, but when it comes to this? Just… Prentiss and the Proctors are right, what Nix is doing is dangerous. If she’s captured, if they find out any information about the Guardians’ existence through that process, it’s very dangerous for us. It’s only going to be exacerbated, you know, the more of those that are there.” “I’m not immune to… torture, Dili, and I know even more information than you and Nix do about how we operate. I mean, Dili… I mean this just objectively, no offense, you don’t know any more than Nix does.” SAMPSON (chuckles) Dili kind of chuckles at that. DANIEL (as Astor) “Maybe even less.” SAMPSON “Okay, you be quiet for a little bit… Sorry! Not you, Stannis! Sorry!” (ALEX and STACE laugh in the background.) SAMPSON “Okay… I just… I just wish that I felt like I was in control of what I was doing for once.” DANIEL Stannis actually like exhales and rolls her eyes at you. SAMPSON “Oh, I’m sorry! Was that too cheesy? Is that not… Is that not an honest human emotion to have? Control their fucking life?” DANIEL “I’m just saying, Dili, you’re always in control of what you’re doing. That’s your choice! It’s literally the only thing that’s under your control.” SAMPSON (grumbles) “Feels like I’ve been mostly just… pushed around for the past however many months. Three? Is it three?” DANIEL “Well, not making a choice and just going with the flow is a choice too.” SAMPSON (groans) “Oh, fuck.” DANIEL “Dili, don’t get me wrong! I think you’re… I think you have a lot of potential. In you I see… someone who will be a great Guardian, but… I mean, you’ve got to make choices, man, and… and own them! If you want to go get training? Fine! Let’s go get trained. We’ll get you started on that. You want to go down and help Nix? Make a choice! But don’t try to pin that choice on what the Guardians are telling you what to do, what I’m telling you to do, or that Nix wants you to do. Make your own choices, Dili! You’re doing them anyway, one way or the other. You just need to own them when you do.” AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES OUT. SAMPSON Dili, I think… Stannis probably can’t see it, but Dili is furrowing his brow, just kind of thinking about what she’s saying, watching another fight break out at the Proving Grounds. DANIEL Mhmm. SAMPSON And then, I imagine only like twenty, twenty-five minutes have passed since Nix snuck in. DANIEL Mhmm. SAMPSON And then he says: “Alright, let’s go train. Right now. Let’s just go. Nix will be fine, and if she isn’t, well, we probably… couldn’t help her anyway like this, so let’s just go.” DANIEL “Alright.” And Stannis kind of motions off in the direction for you guys to start walking in. SAMPSON Alright. Dili wraps both of them in Shadowy Illusions and… I guess we head off. DANIEL Okay, cool. Nix, what are you doing down there? AUDIO: PARANOIA BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. STACE Yeah, she’s, uh… She’s going to head straight to, well, you know, stealthily head to Josah’s room. Rooms. DANIEL Mhmm. Okay, so that will be a Stealth roll of twelve. STACE And I think that the… her rooms, if she’s still the primary trainer for the Traditional school would be probably in that dormitory, don’t you think? DANIEL Mhmm. Yeah. STACE Okay. What was the Stealth roll? DANIEL Twelver. STACE Nineteen! DANIEL What do you propose as a minor effect? STACE I would like, I don’t know if this is minor, but with Nix’s different hair now and… clothing and all that stuff, I would like any little students running around not to… immediately peg her as Nix as she’s heading into the dormitory area and get spotted. DANIEL Okay, cool. So, yeah, you reach Josah Kinn’s room. Unseen by anyone else, unnoticed. What do you do? STACE Listen at the door initially. DANIEL Give me a Perception roll of 9. STACE Mm, six. DANIEL Yeah, I mean… You can… You can tell somebody’s in there, you get occasional creaks, but you can’t make out clearly like… what anybody is doing or anything like that. STACE Alright, so Nix has her glove on and her like… She’s going to use the gloved hand to open the door and she has he finger –other finger— hovering over the activation for her Growth Harness. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE And she’s going to try the knob. DANIEL Okay! So, you try the knob, it is unlocked. You hear a familiar voice from inside. (as Josah Kinn: in a soft spoken but firm tone, speaking quickly) “Who’s there? If you need help with something, just come in. Please stop cowering outside my door.” STACE (laughing) Nix stops cowering outside the door. SFX: A DOOR OPENS. STACE (continued) She slides in, and immediately closes the door behind her. SFX: A DOOR SHUTS HEAVILY. DANIEL What does Josah Kinn look like? STACE I want to say that she is… Like in… In build, very similar to Nix. They have a lot of the same musculature. I mean, that makes sense, right? Like, they’ve been… They do the same exercises, they practice the same moves. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE But she is… She’s a little older. She might be in like her… early fifties? She’s got very dark hair. She’s got, you know, crow’s feet and then just almost strangely warm and patient brown eyes. You wouldn’t expect considering her, you know, ripped and scarred exterior. DANIEL Mhmm. Yeah. Alright. So, she looks over at you, and you can see there’s like a moment of… confusion on her face… AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES AWAY. AUDIO: PRE-BATTLE AMBIANCE BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. DANIEL And then something you can see that’s sort of like… lightbulb flick on when she recognizes you. “Nix, you’ve… You’ve come home.” STACE “Have I come home?” DANIEL “You’re here.” STACE “I’m here and, uh, Queen’s guards are right outside?” DANIEL “Yeah, that’s… That’s unfortunate. It’s an unfortunate situation you’ve put us in, Nix.” STACE “I’m… I…? Josah, I put us in this unfortunate situation? What? Because of the heist? Because of my friends? Do you know why I was doing side jobs?” DANIEL “I heard your…” And she kind of like… twists her mouth a little bit. “Your… mother was sick.” STACE “And do you know, uh, do you know the nature of her… her illness, Josah?” And Nix is just watching her very carefully for any sign of betrayal or she’s about to yell or like… whatever. DANIEL So, Josah doesn’t seem to be calling. In fact, Josah’s posture in. her chair seems very relaxed. STACE Okay. DANIEL She doesn’t seem tense or anything like that. STACE Hm, how deceptive! (laughs) So, yeah, Nix poses the question: what she knew about her mom’s disease. DANIEL “Jenenemy said it was a blessing.” STACE “Jenenemy is full of shit, Josah! And, uh, I hate to say it but… I don’t know how much you know, and I hope it’s not a whole lot, but the Society is up to something. Because my aunt was a Traveler, we thought she died, and like… the Society sent my mom this very nice plate… which has been giving her teleportation attacks! You know? I’m a corrupted energy source and, uh, my aunt is half a capacitor and, uh… So, what the hell is going on?” DANIEL She just nods slowly, and you realize that none of this information you’re telling her is surprising to her, and she says: “Alright, so that happened. What do you want me to say, Nix?” STACE “First, I want to know what’s going on, why the Society is doing this in the first place. I want to know what happened to my aunt. I want to save my mother. And, you know what? Honestly, Josah, when I came here, I thought I could save the Society, but I guess family means something to me and it means something different to you.” DANIEL “This is the problem when we make special cases, Nix. Nix, we want to be able to Travel. We want to be able to do as my ancestor, our Founder, intended, but our reach is limited. And there was once an idea that became a dream: having an ability to go anywhere we needed. Complete freedom of movement. At one point, Pathfinders figured out a way to work… And, honestly, I… I have to tell you, I was starting to become convinced that it would never work, but the…” And she kind of lowers her eyes for a moment there and brings them back up you again. Very compassionate brown eyes. “But the costs were… too great. Then, Jenenemy sent word about your mother and… it was a joyous day for those of us among the Pathfinders. Suddenly, everything that had been going on, all this pain, all this hardship… It was suddenly… It was worth it because it had worked! We had a successful host! And you’re part of that. You’re part of that… success. Your aunt? She’s part of it too.” STACE “Where is she?” DANIEL “I think she spends most of her time in Charmonde these days. Most of them do.” STACE Oh, shit. (laughs) SAMPSON (whispered) What? ALEX The fucking (unintelligible), dude! SAMPSON Fuck! STACE (whispered) Fuck! (warningly) “Josah, I said…” DANIEL “Did you expect me to lie to you, Nix? Did you expect me to… try to deceive a Traveler?” STACE “No. No! Of course not, Josah! You see, I, uh… I expected you to live by, and the Society to live by, the tenets that you taught us! But, uh… But look at number one, Josah. Number freaking one: “All who wander the Ninth World are our friends until proof… until they prove otherwise. We are here to ease and extend their Journey, and to eliminate those who would seek to disrupt it for their own gain.” What do you think you’re doing? What do you think the Pathfinders are doing? I have seen my mother suffer immeasurably, and you call that success? I call it a betrayal.” DANIEL “I’m sorry to hear that, Nix. I didn’t expect you to understand. You always were slow for anything that wasn’t killing with your fists.” STACE “Yeah, well, I’ve learned a lot, Josah.” DANIEL “Oh yeah? Show me.” STACE Yes! (laughs) Nix fucking hits that Growth Harness! AUDIO: BATTLE AMBIANCE BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. SAMPSON (with feeling) Fuck! DANIEL Okay! You’ve… (unintelligible). STACE She has twelve additional Might points and… +2 Damage on attacks. SAMPSON For an hour. DANIEL Yeah, for an hour you’re like this. STACE Oh, thank you. DANIEL So, you Hulk out. Josah is still sitting in her chair, calmly watching. STACE Fuck! (SAMPSON giggles.) DANIEL And, yeah, she’s waiting for you. STACE Okay, she’s waiting for Nix? DANIEL Mhmm. STACE Well, Nix… Nix is going to take her freaking time! She’s going to wait! She’s going to activate her glove now! DANIEL Okay. SFX: A LOUD, ELECTRIC WHOOSH. DANIEL Josah has just raised her right eyebrow now. STACE And, uh… Let’s see. What else can Nix do? SAMPSON Move like Water? Can’t she just… start adding it? STACE Oh, yeah! Activates Moving like Water! This is great! This is like… everyone, do your buffs. SAMPSON Yeah. Go nova. STACE Alright! Buff up! DANIEL (cheerful) Yeah, okay! STACE Oh, God. Daniel. (chuckles) SAMPSON I mean, you’re either going to kill her or she’s just like… going to completely negate everything, right? Like, either or? STACE Yeah, either or! Who knows! Yeah! Nix is going to go for the Grapple and the Bite! DANIEL Okay. So, you’re going to try to Grapple first? Or are you just trying to Bite? STACE Oh, yeah. Because the… Moving like Water and the Bite hindrance would cancel, kind of, yeah. DANIEL Unless you want to try and Grapple first? STACE No! (laughs) I don’t think so! DANIEL Okay! So that’s a 24! STACE God! What f— What? (chokes) Alright! Free level of my Effort, so twenty-one. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE (whispers) God. (with realization) Oh! But I have so much Might! So, yeah! So… three, and it’s just two for every one after, right? DANIEL Yeah. STACE So, she’ll do a total of Four levels of Effort. DANIEL So, that’s down to a nine. STACE Oh, nice! Nix is trained in unarmed! SAMPSON Yeah. DANIEL Didn’t you already say Trained earlier and that brought it down to a twenty-one? STACE Oh, maybe I did. No! My free level of my Effort I think I said first, and that brought it down to a 21, and I spent three additional levels. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE Which is fifteen. Then she’s… Wait, that’s bad math. No, that’s good math! SAMPSON It’s twelve… It’s twelve with the Effort and then nine with the Training. So, nine is right. STACE Okay. DANIEL Yeah. So, it’s a 9. STACE Yeah, yeah. Alright, well. Here we go. (small giggle) SFX: DICE ROLLS. STACE Eleven! DANIEL Okay! So, you hit her for… it’s eight plus… three, so… STACE Oh, wha— DANIEL For ele… STACE Oh, yeah. Eight plus three for the Glove is eleven. Plus two. SAMPSON Jesus Christ! STACE It’s thirteen because of the Growth Harness. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE And she’s hindered. DANIEL Why is she hindered? STACE Because it’s bite! DANIEL You haven’t been… Well, yeah, you’re trying to Bite. (beat) If you’re trying to Bite, you’re not going to be able to hit with your Glove. STACE Oh, fuck! Yeah. Fuck—Fuck the Bite, then! Yeah, she’s… She’s punching with her Glove! Yeah! DANIEL Okay, so you hit her 13. Your fist hits her across the face— SFX: A LOUD THUD AS THE GLOVE IMPACTS ON SKIN. DANIEL (continued) As she’s kind of getting up and following your move. It was quite a hit, and she kind of moves and kind of slides up into a standing position, and, like, she kind of turns her head back and massages her jaw a little bit. Then, she reaches up, puts one finger against her left nostril and then blows blood out of the right, and says: “Not bad, Nix. My turn!” AUDIO: SHAOLIN ASSASSINS BY OTIS GALLOWAY PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. STACE Oh my god. (laughs) DANIEL Nix, make a twenty-four Speed defense. STACE Sure… Nix is… So that’s a… (clicks her tongue) Eighteen. Nix is Moving like Water, so that’s a 15. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE Alright. (whispers) Fuck it. Fuck! SFX: DICE ROLLS. STACE Five. SAMPSON (in agony) Oh, ho, ho—Oh no! Oh my… Fuck. STACE (prolonged, pained laughter) DANIEL So, Josah Kinn… She looks at you, says, “My turn.” And she comes in with her left hand. You… You’ve always known from practicing with her that… left hand, right hand, you never know what to expect with her. She doesn’t have a particular hand that she favors or anything like that, and it’s just very fluid. But she’s coming in like that, and you see that. You start moving with it, and then you feel just this hint of motion out of your peripheral vision as the flat of her right hand hits you in the chest… SFX: LOUD IMPACT AS THE HIT LANDS. DANIEL (continued) … sending you backwards. You take 10 Might damage. STACE Armor…? (laughs nervously) DANIEL Yes, armor will help. STACE Okay, alright. So, she hit Nix in the middle of the chest? DANIEL Yep, knocking you back across the room. STACE (laughing) I wanted Nix to blow blood out of her nostril… (SAMPSON and DANIEL laugh.) DANIEL And she says: “Come on, Nix! You’re faster than that.” STACE Nix isn’t, that was as fast as… Oh, I guess she could have succeeded, huh? Alright! I think this time… going for the Bite. (whispered) And then… God, so many… (aloud) What… what were you able to bring it down to? With like full Effort and everything last time? SAMPSON A nine. STACE A nine? (chuckling) So, this will be a twelve because I can’t spend that much effort. DANIEL Wow. STACE I mean, I could! It seems foolish. 15! DANIEL Okay, cool. So, you bite her, so that’s eight damage. STACE Nine. DANIEL Yeah, so that’s 9 damage! SAMPSON That’s with the Growth Harness? STACE Yeah! DANIEL And then the venom goes in, and she, like, looks at you: (dubious) “That’s… new.” STACE (laughs) Nix tries to take some flesh away as, uh, she extricates herself. DANIEL Okay. Nix, make a 24 Speed defense. STACE (inhaling) This is going to hurt. Twenty-four Speed defense… eighteen. Moving like Water, fifteen. One le… (dubious noise) Yeah, one level. Seventeen! DANIEL Okay! You manage to dodge away just moments before her hand would have knotted in your hair and start… You can see her hand, it kind of goes out and closes. What it’s going to do, you can almost see the wrist turn like she was going to, like, grab you by the hair and flip you bodily while pulling you by the hair, but she misses, and she’s like: “That’s… better.” You actually did better for that, because I have forgot to hinder her now that she’s… Hindered. STACE Yeah, I realized that, but… it didn’t… DANIEL “You’ve gotten better, Nix. You’ve been learning.” STACE (smug) “Yeah.” DANIEL “Show me what else you’ve got!” STACE Okay! So… Nix takes her literally and she fucking hits the release on her fucking cannon! SAMPSON (laughs) Yes! DANIEL Mhmm. STACE (laughs) DANIEL Okay! So, that is a twenty-one hit. STACE Okay. Nix is trained in heavy ranged. DANIEL Okay. STACE Eighteen… It’s Speed only for ranged, right? DANIEL Mhm. STACE So, I’ll do one level of Effort. DANIEL Fifteen. STACE (hisses) I’ll do two levels, whatever. SAMPSON (chuckles) DANIEL That’s twelve. STACE (mumbles unintelligibly) (aloud) Nix has Speed! Ten? DANIEL Okay. STACE Damn! DANIEL So, the cannon goes off… SFX: A LOUD BANG AS THE CANNON GOES OFF. DANIEL (continued) And that, of course, will bring sounds of alarm for elsewhere in the dormitory. STACE (giggles) DANIEL She’s kind of dodged out of the way after… When you fired that, and you saw it hit the wall behind her. She looks at you and she just kind of shakes her head and like… clucks her tongue. (STACE and DANIEL both click their tongues.) DANIEL You can see her body tensing up to do something… And at that point, we cut over to Dili and Stannis walking in the dark. AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES AWAY. AUDIO: BACKGROUND SOUNDS OF THE BREEZE. SFX: STEPS CRUNCHING AS IF OVER GRAVEL. DANIEL (continued) And Stannis is kind of walking you along this path. You guys have been walking now for twenty minutes or so, and Stannis has been very quietly. Not because she’s… hiding anything. You get the feeling she’s giving you time alone with your thoughts. SAMPSON Yeah. I think, occasionally though, she does hear like: “Shut up, Astor!” “No, Astor, I’m not talking to you right now.” “Shut up!” DANIEL Mhmm. Finally, after a while, she mutters: “It is going to take me a while to get used to that.” SAMPSON “Used to what? Oh, right. Me. Hi. Well, yeah. Sorry. I’ll try to be clear who I’m talking to. No, not you, Astor.” DANIEL “Okay. Well, we’ve got a two-day journey ahead of us to get to the safehouse.” SAMPSON “To the… Where is the safehouse? Is that in a village or just like… middle of nowhere or…?” DANIEL “No, it’s actually… a fortress that we’ve built up overtime over here at the Northern Foot Isles.” SAMPSON “Ooh!” DANIEL “We’re not quite across the border, but we’re… close to it. We try to keep any of our, like, safehouses as best as we can, especially if it’s somewhere where we’re going to be doing training, like a good distance from any organizations or major cities. Just not practical, you don’t want people spying.” SAMPSON “Right, yeah. So, border. So, we’re heading towards the Northern border of Naverene?” DANIEL “Yeah.” SAMPSON “Okay.” Is it common knowledge what’s north of Naverene? Er, what’s immediately north of Naverene? DANIEL I’d say, Dili give me… some sort of… Intellect based roll, maybe a Lore based roll of some sort of nine. SAMPSON That’d be twelve… nine, six… SFX: DICE ROLLS. SAMPSON Eight? DANIEL You know that north of Naverene is a place that is called the Crystal Fall Sky Fields? SAMPSON Mhmm. DANIEL As far as you know, it is some sort of like… desert-like territory where supposedly there’s crystals that fall from the sky. Some of them are extremely valuable. Some of them are actually charged with energy and can be used, but they fall unpredictably, and they are… It’s not safe to just wander through there because… these crystals are large, and if they land on you, it’s bad. SAMPSON Mhm. “So, we’re heading North, so… How, how… How close… How close are we to those crystals? Some of those crystals I could… could use those on some cyphers!” DANIEL “We might be able to arrange a field trip, Dili.” SAMPSON (quietly) “Yes!” (aloud) “I mean, that… Thank you. That would be lovely. If we have time, of course.” DANIEL “Yeah, it’s not a short trip, but it’s not too much farther than what we’re walking from here to the safehouse. Another two days north. We just have to avoid the border guards.” SAMPSON “Okay. Sky Fields are just like a… desert though. What… what do border guards really need to guard against?” DANIEL “Oh, that’s… That’s Amber Pope crap.” SAMPSON “Oh.” DANIEL “He’s constantly paranoid that… Beyond the Steadfast to the north, Dili, is the Crystal Fall Sky Fields, and beyond that is… another nation. The nation itself is almost as large as half the Steadfast, but the Amber Pope is convinced that they are… a threat to the Steadfast’s way of life. No idea why. As far as I know, they’ve never taken any reaction against it, but they certainly do not… recognize the Amber Papacy or the Order of Truth. Far as I know, they don’t even… they don’t even speak the language up there.” SAMPSON “Oh.” DANIEL “Obviously, with the Sky Fields, we don’t… There’s not a lot of travel in between the two places.” SAMPSON “Are… The Sky Fields are that dangerous?” DANIEL “They’re pretty hazardous. I… I wouldn’t spend an extended period of time in them.” SAMPSON “Hm.” DANIEL “That field trip I talked about, that will be like… going across the border just trying to spot the nearest one and… harvest what you can and get out.” SAMPSON “Yeah, just… holding a net over the border and hoping someone falls in? Yeah. Yeah, I can…” DANIEL “They’re too big for that, Dili. We’re talking about… crystals the size of buildings.” AUDIO: BACKGROUND NOISE FADES AWAY. SAMPSON (frustrated) “I… I was joking. I was making a joke! Alright.” DANIEL “Oh. Sorry.” SAMPSON “Heh. Yeah. Uh, no, it’s fine. Uhm… cool. Cool, cool, cool.” DANIEL (as Astor) “This is boring, father.” SAMPSON (chuckles) “Why is this boring, Astor? We walk all the time.” DANIEL (as Astor) “You walk all the time.” SAMPSON “Yeah. What do you do to entertain yourself?” DANIEL (as Astor) (mournfully) “Hard to come by these days.” SAMPSON “Mm.” DANIEL “I was making optimizations, but… I’ve been told that’s not… okay to do.” SAMPSON “Because you don’t ask for permission when you do those, Astor! Sorry, not talking to you, Stannis. It’s… Hah, kids, huh?” DANIEL (as Stannis) “I’m just going to assume you’re not talking to me until you just call me by name at this point. I’m just going to pretend that I’m not disturbed by the content of your conversation, just to make it easier for both of us.” SAMPSON “I can be quieter if it’s… unsettling. I’m sorry.” DANIEL “I… don’t know if that helps.” SAMPSON (chuckles) DANIEL And at that point, Dili, you hear a deep voice behind you that says: “It doesn’t.” it’s Vlad’s voice. SAMPSON (shocked) “Ah! Vlad?” DANIEL (as Vlad) “Hey, Dili.” SAMPSON “Well, hi. Why… Why. Have you been following me?” DANIEL (as Vlad) “I wasn’t just going to leave you guys there. I went to pick some things up and came back, but… I honestly was surprised, you know, seeing you guys leave here. I mean, it made it easier for me to catch up to you but…” SAMPSON Dili turns to Stannis. DANIEL (as Vlad) “Hey, Stannis.” (as Stannis) “Vlad! You’re not supposed to be here! But, uh… you kind of do your own thing, don’t you?” Vlad just kind of ignores Stannis and then stops for a second, turns back to her. (as Vlad) “That makes two of us.” Holds up a fist, and they fist bump each other. (STACE and SAMPSON laugh.) AUDIO: SAFE HOUSE BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. SAMPSON Does it feel like there’s a lot of history? Or are they just like work friends? DANIEL They seem like genuinely fond of each other. SAMPSON Okay, like… not necessarily romantic but just like… Does it seem like they were in an adventuring party for a while at some point? DANIEL Yeah, maybe! I think what it is, is, it’s… It’s more like… you get the impression that because they’re field agents, essentially, they sort of handle their affairs, to a certain degree, with some autonomy. They think of themselves as… The metaphor is incorrect, but they’re the ones fighting the “real war” for humanoid survival and so they’re out there doing their own thing, so… They have their own approach to things that Dili is now current to, possibly for the first time, that Vlad and Stannis may not do exactly as the Proctors ask them to do. They are not necessarily… super rigid in the way they operate. SAMPSON Okay. Dili just kind of keeps that to himself for a little bit. Question about Stannis: what’s… what’s her flavor? What’s her thing? DANIEL You never figured that out. SAMPSON Okay. Because I… I think Dili, all of the sudden at this interaction, notices that Vlad is very much a… higher level version of Dili, in a certain… sense, Prentiss is a higher version of Cha-Cha, and then… He’s looking at Stannis and is just like… Is this high-level Nix? Or is this high level Atalia? What is this? DANIEL Hm. SAMPSON There’s weird patterns that Dili starts noticing all of the sudden and Dili’s just like: “Hmm. Hm!” DANIEL (innocently) I don’t know what you’re talking about! SAMPSON (laughs) I see you, God! I see you! DANIEL (laughs) SAMPSON “So, Vlad… are you… coming with us to… whatever safehouse we’re going to?” DANIEL (as Vlad) “I didn’t expect you to go to the safehouse, Dili. I just thought this was part of your plan with Nix.” SAMPSON (laughs) “Sorry, you thought we had a plan?” (STACE and DANIEL laugh.) DANIEL (as Vlad) “Correction! I thought this was part of whatever notion of a scheme masquerading as some sort of plan you guys would have.” SAMPSON (chuckles) “That’s still very complimentary, but…” DANIEL He kind of looks at Stannis like a little confused and she just looks at Dili and shrugs. SAMPSON (laughs) Dili shrugs back and says: “I don’t… what is this? What? Uh, but yeah. We’re going to get some training in while Nix does house cleaning. So… yeah.” DANIEL (as Vlad) “Wow. Okay.” He looks at Stannis like: “Okay, maybe I had him pegged wrong!” SAMPSON “Don’t peg me.” STACE It’s a… hm. It’s a good boundary to set! SAMPSON (laughs) DANIEL Mhmm. (as Vlad) “Can’t tell if I’m pleased or confused, but… Yeah, happy to get you some training in, and I did pick you up something, Dili.” SAMPSON “Oh, yeah? What did you get?” DANIEL He, uh, reaches into a pocket and he pulls out a small thing that… it doesn’t really look like synth. It looks like it’s more ceramic, and… it is shaped like… If you think about like what we would think of as an old key, except it’s like… these ceramics are like multiple ceramics that are woven together in a twisting shape. The key teeth extend out in multiple directions, so it’s almost like a bristling of key teeth at the end of it. And, as soon as he pulls it out, Astor-vision clocks it. SAMPSON Mhmm. DANIEL And puts a threat percentage of sixty-two percent, and you hear Stannis behind you kind of whistle. She’s like: “Is that…?” And Vlad says: “It’s a key to the Foundry, Dili.” SAMPSON (laughs) Oh. (incredulous laugh) “I’m sorry, the what?” DANIEL (as Vlad) “The Valenk Foundry.” SAMPSON “Valenk… Foundry.” DANIEL (as Vlad) “Each key can only be used once, then they stop working.” SAMPSON “What is the Valenk Foundry?” DANIEL (as Vlad) “It’s a Prior World installation. I have no idea where it is, Dili, I’m going to be honest with you, but I have it on good authority that this is one of the keys. Like I said, each key can only be used once, but the Valenk Foundry, according to what I’ve read? Any Numenera you can conceive a plan for can be built there. It on itself is a store house for untold amounts of plans, but all the doors are locked, all the entrances are held off, but there are keys to those entrances. It’s just, once the key is used, it’s able to change the locks, shall we say.” SAMPSON “Interesting. And w… Wait. You’re giving me this key? Is this…? Or is this… something else?” DANIEL “Yeah, Dili.” SAMPSON “Oh, fun.” DANIEL “I’m giving it to you. I… I have no idea where this thing is, but if you find it you’d be able to make more use of it than I would.” SAMPSON (astonished) “W- Wow. Okay. Okay.” Dili will gingerly take it if it’s… being held out for him. DANIEL It’s very light, and you hear Astor’s voice in the back of your head. (as Astor) “This is… This shouldn’t be here.” SAMPSON “And why is that? Oh! Sorry. Sorry for… Why is that, Astor?” DANIEL (as Astor) “The Foundry is forbidden.” SAMPSON “And why would that be, Astor?” DANIEL (as Astor) “Dangerous threats are made there.” AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES AWAY. AUDIO: STRATEGIC INVASION BY LIAM BACK VIA AUDIIO FADES IN. DANIEL (as Astor) “Things that impact our protectorate.” SAMPSON “You know, if we found an entrance to this, we could probably build you a body there.” DANIEL (as Astor) “The thought… has occurred to me.” SAMPSON “Mhmm. And what… What’s this protectorate? I mean, you’re not even in a Relentless Reaper body anymore, like… Aren’t you kind of… off the grid? Aren’t you excommuni…? Aren’t you kind of…” What’s the word? What’s the word? Extralegal? What’s the word when you’re kind of do something outside the law without breaking it? It’s not illegal. Extralegal? Ultralegal? DANIEL I think it’s extralegal. SAMPSON Okay. DANIEL (as Astor) “The area where we have authority and responsibility is wide reach, father. We’ve been away from the source for too long.” And, even though you can’t see him, there’s something about the intensity of the Astor-vision around the key. It’s almost like… like that threat percentage is still there. SFX: TWO DIGITAL, HIGH-PITCHED BLEEPS, AS THOUGH BLINKING. DANIEL (continued) But there’s almost like… There’s something about the way… And it doesn’t make sense because it’s not a visual thing. It’s your instinctual feeling from what you know about Astor, that there’s something about the way the reticules are zeroing on this key that is almost… Hungry. AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES AWAY. DANIEL Cha-Cha… AUDIO: GROWING WHISPERS BY MONUMENT STUDIOS PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. DANIEL (continued) Bastian is just sort of like… beaming at you. He’s like: “Here it is! Man, it’s been forever since I’ve looked at this thing!” ALEX “Did you open the door once?” DANIEL “No, I didn’t open the door. That’s how I ended up like this!” Buddy-Cop says: “Bastian… declined to repay the favor as promised, and so he agreed to… a debt of equal value.” ALEX “So, it’s… open the door and potentially end the world or… basically work for you forever?” DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) “We’re going to change the world, Cha-Cha. I didn’t say we would end it. Why do you think it would end the world?” ALEX “It’s probably going to start the next phase of the world, so it’s more like… speeding up Mother Nature, and being like: “hey, Mother Nature, here’s some drugs!”.” DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) “I’m not sure I follow that metaphor, but… we’re going to change the world. We need an appropriate catalyst, and all of that is on the other side of the door.” ALEX “But is this going to be like we’re bringing back an extinct animal and we’re like: “don’t worry, we put in safe measures, there’s not going to be any problem”, and then Nature finds a way, and suddenly there’s just… We’re just overrun with this extinct animal and they’re killing everyone?” DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) “I’m not proposing any safety measures, Cha-Cha.” ALEX “Yeah… Yeah. That seems about right. Can I like phone a friend?” DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) “I don’t know how you would do such a thing.” ALEX “Like, just to say like… Hey. Something might be coming. Don’t worry about it, just maybe… get to a safe spot and hunker down… maybe don’t invest in new real estate right now…” DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) “I don’t know that would make a difference, Cha-Cha. You’re about to free an entire species from… bondage, and you’re going to open this world up to so many wonderful things that it has been isolated away from for oh so long.” ALEX Oh, god, this is a tough call, because I’m like… Oh, man, is this where I, like, need to roll a new character? And be like… No, she’s going to do a Bastian, and… Then… Is that where you hand over your character sheet to the GM and be like… Okay, I’ll start fresh. (high-pitched and nasal) This is really hard! (pained noise) DANIEL I will say this. I mean, obviously, there are things you could do that could be dangerous to Cha-Cha but, so, of the two choices that have been described to you thus far, neither one of them kills Cha-Cha when we put it that way. ALEX (whispers) I know! Just like… (aloud) It doesn’t help that it’s like… two or three days away from spoopy times, and I’m just like… aaah…. DANIEL Mhmm. ALEX I want to embrace the spoopy but at the same time, I’m just like… (groans) DANIEL (as Bastian) “Cha-Cha, if you open the door, I think I get to be… solid again! And we can play together! Or if you don’t open the door, you become like me, and we can play together forever! Everything’s coming up Bastian!” ALEX (snorts, then laughs) I mean, true. Either way, Alex will be happy, because Cha-Cha gets her friend! Question is: what would Cha-Cha want? DANIEL Mhmm. ALEX So, if Cha-Cha goes insubstantial, then she can’t hug Nix and Dili anymore, but we were kind of on the fence about touching because of the mutations. DANIEL Mhmm. Buddy-Cop is standing there, waiting for your answer. (as Buddy-Cop) “The debt must be paid, Cha-Cha.“ DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) “Will you do this simple favor for me? Will you be my key? Or do we need to negotiate an alternative just as valuable?” ALEX “Okay, let’s do this.” DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) “Oh, wow. Excellent. I just need you to take my hand and be my key.” ALEX Cha-Cha’s going to take off her glove and like… I think, you know, Cha-Cha is a little cranky because like… Not at Bastian. Bastian… Bastian’s fine in Cha-Cha’s book, but Buddy-Cop is kind of like... She’s now kind of realizing he might have taken advantage of Bastian, and he’s probably taking advantage of a lot of people, and maybe, like, Not-Buddy-Cop was right, and Buddy-Cop is not the greatest person to be happy with. And we’re just going to be like what the fuck, you know?” DANIEL Ooh. ALEX And I think she’s going to use that rage to try and mutate Buddy-Cop. DANIEL Oh wow. Okay. ALEX I’m going to take that hand and see what happens. DANIEL Okay. I had a hunch you might think of this. ALEX (laughing) I’m just like… I mean, why not? DANIEL (laughs) ALEX We’re going to do this anyway! Why not? DANIEL Okay, so you are taking his hand and… roll me… So, I’ve actually got a custom mutation chart. ALEX (surprised gasp) (laughter) DANIEL Roll me one d100. ALEX Okay. SFX: DICE BEING ROLLED AROUND. ALEX This is how predictable my level of chaos has gotten, huh? DANIEL (laughs) ALEX So… I’m using the… Oh. Oh, nope! That… answers that question. I got a two. DANIEL Okay! Cool. ALEX (giggles) I can roll out of a hundred things, and you got a fucking two. DANIEL Buddy-Cop, and this is honestly the first time that you’ve encountered Buddy-Cop when you’ve actually touched Buddy-Cop, where you felt him physically, and, at first, it’s sort of a light touch, like almost like he’s not completely there. AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC INCREASES IN VOLUME. DANIEL (continued) But as you touch him, you can feel this tingle in your body. He’s trying to make you the key. You can see the smoke kind of… wafting up from your eyes, in an increased volume. And then you feel another quiver in your chest from the remnants of Nature, and Buddy-Cop’s hand becomes very solid to you. You hear Buddy-Cop say: “Cha— What are you doing?” And then, this being becomes more and more solid, and you realize he is not a Horror anymore. He is completely in phase, and he’s growing larger. SFX: THE CRACKLING OF GROWING BONES. DANIEL His body begins bristling with spines. STACE Oh my. DANIEL He opens his mouth to scream, and there’s just that flame in his mouth, and he twists, and he says: “Stop! Stop!” You can see him growing bigger, and you can see him reach out a hand as if to grab the floor and try to pull himself away from your hand. He digs his claws into the stone ground. SFX: A SHARP, SHRILL SOUND AS CLAWS DRAG AGAINST STONE. DANIEL (continued) And you can see it actually tearing through stone a little bit. Finally, when that’s not working, he lifts it up and swings it at the Numenera pillars, and one of them goes crashing down. For a moment, that void flickers in the blankness, and there is a shaking quiver. It’s strange in this moment, Cha-Cha. Maybe it’s the adrenaline of the moment, maybe it’s because you’re upset. You’re taking in details in turn and the order in which you’re focusing on them doesn’t make sense to you, but you’re noticing all these small details, all things that Buddy-Cop is doing, this weird flickering in the void, and the fact that, despite not being corporeal and despite, as far as you know, being very different from what you could consider to be, you know, living with the exception of that you know that he eats, you can see that Bastian has peed himself. ALEX (cackles) DANIEL His face is terrified. Buddy-Cop’s hands claw against the outside of this door. SFX: THE SHARPER SOUND OF CLAWS SCRAPING AGAINST METAL, AS IF SHARPENING A KNIFE. DANIEL (continued) And the door does not open. ALEX (relieved sigh) DANIEL But you hear its claws break down and cutting into it just a bit. When he pulls his hand back, it’s almost like the darkness is stuck to his fingers, like he’s pulling himself away from some sort of taffy. ALEX Ooh, bad. That is epic… (laughs) DANIEL And the structure that you’re in begins to shudder. SFX: A DEEP, DISTANT RUMBLING THAT GROWS LOUDER. ALEX “Bastian, we need to leave. We need to leave right now.” DANIEL (as Bastian) “I… I…” ALEX “Take the gloved hand. He’ll come after us, it will be fine.” DANIEL (as Bastian) “I… I owe him though!” ALEX “I mean, what are we going to do? Drag him out?” DANIEL Buddy-Cop looks at you, Cha-Cha, and says: “You still owe me a debt.” ALEX “Yeah, but like… the building is coming down.” DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) “Trust me, that is the least of your problems.” ALEX “I mean, this… you asked me to hold your hand, you asked me to do this.” DANIEL (as Buddy-Cop) (coldly) “Well, at least we can agree on one thing Cha-Cha: we’re going to change the world.” AUDIO: BACKGROUND MUSIC FADES AWAY. DANIEL Nix. STACE So, Nix just… AUDIO: SHAOLIN ASSASSINS BY OTIS GALLOWAY PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND. DANIEL Fired the cannon and missed. STACE Fired the cannon and missed. DANIEL So, Josah Kinn is now coming at you. STACE Yeah… DANIEL So, she’s hindered because she’s got your venom in her, so that would be a twenty-one. STACE So, that will be a fifteen and then Move Like Water… twelve… Alright. See what happens. SFX: DICE ROLL. STACE Fifteen! DANIEL Okay! So, you dodge. Again, it’s so close. You can hear the swish of her fist as she comes close. She seems to already dance away, like she’s clearly keeping a sensible distance between you in battle. Not just as part of the standard, you know, fighting style. She’s also… because now she’s aware the fangs are involved here. STACE Yeah. I just want to say, too, that like Nix’s synth leg being a little bit longer than her other leg and her adapting to that… She probably moves just a little bit slightly differently than Josah remembers? DANIEL Mhm, STACE To help explain Nix’s… Okay! So, Nix is going to go in with the Glove! DANIEL So, that’s a twenty-one. STACE And then Nix is trained in unarmed, that’s an eighteen. Move like Water, fifteen. One free level of Might is twelve. I’ll spend one more level of Might… SFX: DICE ROLLED. STACE Three. DANIEL Okay. So, she dodges out of the way, and at this point I will offer you one XP. STACE Yeah! DANIEL Who will you give the other one to? STACE I think to you, Daniel… No, I’m just kidding. Uhm… SAMPSON (laughs) STACE What would you do with it? To… Sampson. SAMPSON What if Dan could get XP and force us to reroll nat20s? How fucked would that be? STACE We could… We could do table XP. I choose Sampson. DANIEL Josah Kinn dodges out of the way and says: “You’ve learned so much, Nix, but you still learned most of it from me, even… your flaws.” And she sends a hand darting in, and it strikes you right in the throat. STACE Aw. DANIEL It cuts off your air for a moment… STACE (choking noise) DANIEL And then Josah Kin swings around behind you and puts you in a choker hold, and she says: “Time to go to sleep, Nix.” STACE (softly) Aw. DANIEL (chuckles) “No more running. No more fighting.” And that’s where we’ll earn this season. STACE Oh, shit! (laughs) ALEX Whoo! SAMPSON Oh my god… (laughs) STACE No more running, no more fighting… what does that mean? ALEX You know, I can’t— SAMPSON That’s all that we’re good at! STACE I can’t wait for… (laughs) I can’t wait for next season! DANIEL (pleased sigh) I’m going to ask… each of you for something from that episode because… I’m curious. SAMPSON Mhmm. STACE I mean, I love a student-master rematch. DANIEL Mhmm. STACE And, Daniel, I thought you played her extremely well. DANIEL Thank you. STACE It was just awesome! And manage to like… with the… like, with the Growth Harness, having that and the 12 extra Might points? DANIEL Oh, it made it so much more epic! That is awesome! STACE It made it so much more epic because Nix could spend more Effort and really put her in the fight. Because, otherwise, like a twenty-four, I mean that’s crazy! DANIEL Yeah. STACE And then ending it with the XP, I appreciated that because, you know, Nix didn’t… Like, Nix lost the fight, right? Narratively speaking? DANIEL Mhmm. STACE But, uh, I liked being rewarded for it and I, you know, I’m always interested to see where these intrusions go, so… Even if I have to wait a whole off-season. DANIEL (chuckles) Yeah. Yeah, because it’s no fun to have like a… STACE Nix didn’t get her ass kicked! DANIEL Yeah! Yeah, it wasn’t like… She’s a tough NPC, and while… there was absolutely, it’s not like a… There was absolutely a way that you could have, if the dice were in your favor, defeated her here, and… STACE Yeah! DANIEL But I also didn’t want it to turn into like a powerful NPC like beat down on a single player character. STACE Yeah… DANIEL So, it was more fun to come up with a rewarding way to get you… STACE Yeah! DANIEL (continued) … to a conclusion there. ALEX I’m super excited and I love how like every time we do this, like, separate recording, I do something banana fosters bonkers, like… This is going to be fun for them to hear and discover! DANIEL Mhmm. ALEX And I’m not telling them. DANIEL Oh, yeah, for sure! And I was so excited because, like, I knew that Buddy-Cop and Bastian were going to talk about the two sides of opening the door, not opening the door, and either one would have fun consequences. ALEX Yeah. DANIEL I didn’t think about the mutation thing honestly until earlier today, and I was like: you know what I bet Alex would probably think about doing? What would she do? Would she try to mutate Buddy-Cop? Would she try to mutate Bastian? Like, okay, I need a mutation table to figure out exactly what happens there. ALEX I mean, it’s one of those things where I’m just like… I feel like Cha-Cha’s seen it go bad enough times she wouldn’t do it to Bastian. Because if she did it to Bastian, he might die, and then… DANIEL Mhmm. ALEX She would have that on her conscience. If it happens to Buddy-Cop. (disregarding noises) Especially after he establishes that he’s not that great of a person! DANIEL How about you, Sampson? SAMPSON Well, two things. Dili has taken a step in his… growth. Small step that may have cost Nix her life, because now Dili can’t help with whatever… is going to happen to her now. And now, also… Dili has a key to a fucking… El Dorado for wrights? Hell yeah! DANIEL Mhmm. SAMPSON Hell yeah! (laughs) That’s it. That’s all I’ve got! DANIEL Awesome. SAMPSON It’s great! I’m into it! DANIEL Excellent. Yeah, so we’ll find out next season what happens. As always, we’ll do some… Well, as we’ve done it once before, but… STACE (laughs) DANIEL During the season break, we’ll do some one shots of some other games before we come back ready to go. So, we have a segment that we do each week called Player Intrusions. That’s where we offer you, listener, XP to check out something that we think you would really dig. This week it is my turn, and it’s one I cannot believe I have never mentioned before, and it’s probably because it’s one of those things that is… such a staple and sort of pillar of… audio fiction podcasts that… It’s such an institution that I forget that not everybody in the world has heard about it. That is, I would like to recommend the podcast Pseudopod. Pseudopod is one of the granddaddies in the podcasting space. They have been around since 2006. They are a horror audio fiction podcast, so they are a recognized published on their own right. The Science Fiction writers of America consider them a professional market. They do audio renditions of both stories that they purchased initially, so an original from them, and they also do some reprints from previously published horror stories as well. It’s a combination of short stories, they also have occasional flash fiction collections where they’ll combine three stories into one. They always have great narrators! It is a true horror podcast. These are stories that will frighten and disturb you. There are some stories from that show that still, like… I listened to them years ago, and they still intrude on my thoughts with like haunting memories from them. They’re so effective. The stories really run the gamut in their style, I mean… You’ve got slow burns like “20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism” or “The Coven of Dead Girls”, which begins with sort of like a creeping dread and then kind of gets to a crescendo of rage and terror at the end. It’s just amazing audio fiction! Brilliant writing and, you know, it’s a different story every week, and… Like I said, they’ve been around since 2006, it’s intimidating backlog, but they actually have… If you to their website, Pseudopod.org, they actually have a page that’s for new listeners and that’s from their first ten years of releasing. They had listeners kind of vote on which stories made them, like, were the most memorable, so you’ve got that… the list of ten. Then, they later added the next list of like ten from the next ten years of their operation or not ten. SAMPSON Mhmm. DANIEL But, you know, however many years in between. So, it’s great work and I would be seriously remiss if I talked about Pseudopod and I didn’t also highlight the contributions of Alasdair Stuart. He’s the co-owner of Escape Artists, the podcast company that produces it, as well as a sci-fi show and a fantasy show. He is also the primary host for Pseudopod, and his intros and outros are so insightful, well-written and performed. They’re… they’re a delight in themselves as they bookend the stories. If you’re not familiar with him outside of Pseudopod, he is… He himself is an institution in specular fiction, both as an enthusiast and a publisher. He is well-worth a follow on social networks. He also has a weekly newsletter, The Full Lid, which is an outstanding tour through, like, just wonderful things being produced in horror, science fiction and fantasy, so highly recommend! I’ll include some links to some stories that I think are really good and powerful, just things that pop into my memory from time to time, in the show notes, but… highly recommend Pseudopod. It is guaranteed to give you the creepies, which is good. If people wanted to reach out to us to tell us what they think about Pseudopod, the sound of horror, or our podcast, how would they do this, Sampson? SAMPSON Oh, well, thank God we have a website for them to go to and find all our socials. That website is explorerswanted.fm . Our main socials are: Twitter, where we are at explorerswanted; on Instagram and Facebook, we are at explorerswantedpodcast. And then it’s not, it’s not a social in the same way the others are, but we have a Discord where we are pretty active, you can find that at explorerswanted.fm/discord. We’re pretty active there, share stuff, make dumb jokes. Dan has a little, uh, cat thing with the, uh, little Discord bot. Learn cat facts with Dan. Come to our Discord, learn cat facts! You can also come to our Patreon and give us money if it’s within your means. It’s at patreon.com/explorerswanted . Give us… Give us your money… if you can. DANIEL (chuckles) And if you can, definitely do. If you can’t support us financially, that’s totally okay. Honestly, the best thing you can do for us is to tell your friends why you like the show, why you should listen. Word amount is huge for podcasts. The second-best thing, which kind of factors into word of mouth, is leaving those five-star reviews on podcast directories like Apple Podcasts and Podchaser. It really does make a big difference. I know I say it every week, and so it’s probably all starting to blur into the same thing at this point, but I cannot emphasize it enough. It makes a huge, huge difference, and we love seeing that feedback. If you didn't like the show, or if you just felt it was meh, remember that in the right light – a candlelit dark or outdoors in the moonlight on a chill November night – you can just see the black water slowly dripping from the lips of your reflection in the mirror. It’s thick, almost muddy, and it stains your chin and cheeks in a way that shows off the scale pattern of your skin. But still it drips, slowly, like bloodied honey, and while you can’t feel it on your own face, you can still taste its brackish flavor on your tongue. It’s at times like this where your reflection smiles widely, showing off teeth that are far too wide, too thin, and, most of all, too long. Of course, this isn’t even the worst part. That only comes when you make the mistake of looking away. If you want to reach out to us individually on social media, you can! You can find me on Twitter @andrlik, a-n-d-r-l-i-k. STACE You can find me on Twitter @StaceWindu. SAMPSON Look deep into my eyes @SlamPotato. ALEX You can hear about my just… banana fosters shenanigans like garlic safe words, @teawithaunicorn on Twitch and @realteaunicorn on Twitter! DANIEL Okay, that’s it for us! Like I said, we’re going to be on a season break, so we’ll have some one shots coming up for you next! AUDIO: NINTH WORLD BY DAVE STERLING PLAYS. DANIEL But we will be back next week, just like every week in the foreseeable future. Have a good night, day, weekend or whenever you listening to this, and… ALL TOGETHER Bye! AUDIO: NINTH WORLD FADES AWAY.